Friday, December 30, 2011

Scallop ruffle layers card


I have been pinning many pictures of ruffle layers on my Card Ideas board on Pinterest. This one specifically inspired this card. I used the papers I had picked out from a DCWV Christmas stack for these cards and got to work imitating this beautiful card. I need several holiday thank you cards so I kept it simple and put the sentiment on the front.



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Here is a close up so you can see the pretty details. The SU! sentiment and the embossing folder. Pretty ribbon from my stash.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Patchwork thank you card



These holiday thank you cards were inspired by this card design pinned on Pinterest. I pulled out three coordinating papers from an older DCWV Christmas stack, and then I saw three more and then three more that I really liked. What the heck, I always make multiples anyways. So same design just 9 different prints from one Christmas stack. Of course I scoured my ribbon stash for coordinating ribbons, and in no time at all had found three different ones I really liked.



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Here is a close up of one card just so you can see some of the detail. The SU! Fancy label punch and the sentiment are pop dotted up from the cardstock framing paper. The hot pink bow is some waxy twine from my stash.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Cookie plates woven with ribbon



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I thought this was an awesome idea for transporting homemade goodies to friends and neighbors. I used cute snowman paper plates and then following the example I had pinned here but with a paper plate covering the top also. I stapled the plates together and then punched 12 holes around the outer edge. Ran some 3/4 inch sheer green ribbon from my stash through all of the holes and tied a big bow.




I also made some tags on the computer and punched out with the Creative Memories tag punch and decorated with their snowflake punch. Simple but cute.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Homemade hurricane vases



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These faux hurricane vases are made from Dollartree finds. I was inspired by several pins on Pinterest, here, here and this one most of all. Start with three vases and two different candle sticks, glue the candle sticks to the base of two of the vases using E-6000 and they are done. I found the two beautiful red martini type glasses at our local Goodwill store, so I placed candles inside and added them to my table scape.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

More monochromatic snowflake cards



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Look familiar? It should, I used this same design here, a few weeks ago. I told you I had a ton of snowflake stamps. And I really love this design, so I made some more. This time I kept them CAS (clean and simple) single layer and the only embellishments are SU! shimmer spray and some CTMH Glitz in the centers of the snowflakes.




I believe these stamps are Inkadinkado that I picked up at JoAnn's. They are pretty and delicate and stamp up beautifully with the CTMH stamp pads.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Gift boxes with bow and holly topper



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This was made for a centerpiece decoration, it could hold presents but it doesn't. I purchased these beautiful nesting boxes at Dollartree and really wanted to highlight them and really show them off. It was super simple to create this, just some gorgeous perfectly coordinating green ribbon from one of my prior Really Reasonable Ribbon club shipments and some velvet holly leaves and red berries I removed from silk flower stems also purchased at Dollartree.



Each ribbon wrapped around the boxes is just stapled together and the bow with all the greenery hot glued to it is attached with pop dots so that the whole thing can be disassembled for packing and storing and then reused again next year.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Pastel snowflake cards

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These cards were a challenge for me. A BIG step outside my comfort zone. But they were snowflakes and I love snowflakes almost as much as polka dots, so I was inspired. I saw them on this Pinterest pin, and I love Anya's design style always. It's just tough for me to try, much less pull off the shabby chic or vintage feel. It's not really my forte. But this was simple enough, so I gave it a try. Then in true Cathy style, I can't make just one.....I made six.



Three with the right side edge lining up, and rounded corners.




And three with the left side edge lining up, and no rounded corners. Just like the designers original. Although she had hers pop dotted up off of the card base and I actually liked it flat against the base. I used regular ATG tape around the edges and then I took my trusty Zig two way glue pen and touched down on all of the delicate snowflake parts to make sure they did not rip away and ruin the details of the snowflakes. It wasn't as hard as it might sound, I wasn't terrible careful about it just a quick touch around all the delicate tips and slap it on the card front.




These pastel papers came out of a pack I bought at Walmart. All from the same pack. I say this because they did not all react the same to the bleach I spritzed on them. The purple bleached out the prettiest in my opinion. The way I wanted it to, with larger spots to resemble snow. The blue didn't show bleach at all and the pink was more of a fine mist look to it. I than attempted to spritz with a fine mist of walnut stain. This was all done before I had attached the pastel layers to the card base. Then I stamped the sentiment from CTMH A Holiday stamp set in Ranger distress ink in walnut stain.

Not bad for one of my few attempts at shabbiness, chicness or vintage-ness. Yahoo.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

More cupcake stands


I had a very fruitful first trip to the Big Lot's by my house. I kept finding all kinds of adorable plates and matching bowls that I thought would make great tiered serving pieces. Somebody please stop me, I can not control myself. Oy, vey!!



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These all have bowls for tops, this is new for me. I had only done the plates before. But I pinned this beauty on Pinterest, and wanted to make one similar. I am concerned about trying to store these, so I only made it with one plate and a bowl. I think they will be fun for fruit and dip or the white one totally made me think of chips and guacamole.


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These are by far my favorite of all that I have combined so far. See the piece I used for the pedestal? It's a salt and pepper shaker set. Woo Hoo! Too cute.



So there is a full sized dinner plate and cereal bowl.


And a bread plate and little mini bowl. I really hit the jackpot with these too because they were 50% off already so both cupcake stands cost a total of $9.00. And I love them.

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Here is my chips and guacamole server. At least that is how I see it being used. Now I just have to start hosting some people to my home.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Gingerbread house ornaments



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These little gingerbread houses are made from my Cricut .cut file that I altered from last years bird house ornaments you can see here. I was inspired by an ornament my friend Tina had available for us to create at one of her SU! card buffet classes. Then I gained more and more decorative inspirations from Pinterest, here, here, and here. I lucked into the perfect piece of patterned paper in a very old DCWV Christmas stack that had candies all over it. So I set down in front of the TV with my wonderful Fiskars scissors and got to fussy cutting all of the little pieces out. Thankfully a few shapes I could punch with a super small circle punch.

I did add some CTMH Glitz in starlight and red liquid pearls for a little bling.




Here is a detail of the roof opening. I used velcro on one side so that I can load the ornament up with Hershey's kisses for giving away. Oh yeah, and see their are windows and decorative window sashes on 3 sides of the house, and a cute front door with raised panels and a wreath too. All part of the .cut file.

If you would like to make your own gingerbread house ornaments I have this .cut file for Cricut Design Studio using George Basic Shapes. Just leave me a comment on this post, and I will send it out to you.  I took pictures of the process of assembling the houses, if I get enough requests for the .cut file I will post the instructions on here too. But there were a lot of pictures and didn't want to waste the space if there was not a need.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Snowflake thank you cards


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I was inspired to make these Christmas thank you cards using card sketch FTL171 found here. I had been hoarding in my stash some sheets of gorgeous card stock weight glitter stickers by TPC Studio. I lucked into a great after Christmas sale last year at Michael's and so I picked up 4 sheets of them. This design was a perfect way to showcase these beauties. Equally lucky is that CTMH Lilac Mist coordinates beautifully.



Here are the four different cards I made all with the same sketch. Add a little shimmer spray (it's a bummer the camera doesn't pick that up because it's beautiful) and some pearls and call these done.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Christmas stocking shaped card and gift tag


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I made this Christmas stocking shaped card and gift tag using CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. The card is 4.25 x 5.5 so that it will fit inside a standard envelope. Both are made with My Minds Eye I Believe paper pack. Embellished with some Cuttlebug embossing, and that's it. Quick and simple, but oh so cute.




Here is a detailed shot of the inside of the card and back side of the tag. The card is stamped with a sentiment from CTMH D1243 Peace on Earth and the tag is stamped with CTMH B1362 Tag the Occasion  both in CTMH Cranberry ink.

The .cut file is simple but I am happy to share if you would like it. Please leave a comment here including your email address and I will send it out to you.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Snowflake wreath card


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This card was inspired by this Pinterest pin. I loved the design and the pastel colors of the snowflakes, but I envisioned it on a more glamorous background. I was so excited to use my new Sizzix Northern Frost die to cut out the snowflakes in 4 different colors of cardstock.



Here is a detail shot to show the layers. Some of the snowflakes are pop dotted up and all of the buttons are as well. The front panel of the card and the snowflakes were all generously spritzed with pearl Glimmer Mist. The beautiful white with silver thread ribbons came from prior Reasonable Ribbon club packets. It is so wonderful to have just what kind of ribbon I envisioned, on hand when I am creating.  I used an American Crafts silver glitter pen for the dash lines around the front panel. The stamp is from CTMH D1243 Peace on Earth set stamped in CTMH Baby pink ink.


Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Scrap cards using CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge



I was inspired to create these cards by strips of paper left on my work space after using the border punches to create the paper strip ornaments posted here. They are such pretty papers cut into perfect strips, I couldn't bear to toss them out. So my friend Tina was over and I was showing some of my current projects and told her about my scraps. She suggested this weaving pattern and the gluing to card stock and running the whole thing through the Cuttlebug in an embossing folder for the embedded embossing technique. Thanks for the inspiration Tina, I love how they turned out. I love turning scraps  into something beautiful and useful.



Most of the strips were shorter than 4.25 inches so I attached them to a 4 inch piece of paper and than mounted it on a larger piece and finally onto a standard card 4.25 inches x 5.5 inches for 3 of the cards the fourth is a 4.25 inch x 4.25 inch square card. The holly leaves are cut from CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge in a variety of sizes. The perfect little sentiment stamp from my stash and some doodle lines and dots, and I call these done.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Paper ornaments from border punched strips


I was inspired by ornaments I saw on Pinterest. The tutorial provided by Fiskars was simple so I got straight to work. I am creating with My Minds Eye I Believe paper pack. It is double sided card stock weight papers in cute Christmas patterns. I have lots of border punches so I grabbed six of my favorite designs and started cutting and punching the strips according to the tutorial.






These 3 ornaments where created with the scraps that were left over from the strips cut according to the tutorial. So these are smaller, shorter ornaments but still quite cute.




I did not care for the raw edges and the staples showing at the tops and bottoms of each ornament so I cut a scrap of coordinating paper, folded it in half and using Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive I covered the top and bottom. For the top the scrap was twice as long, this gave me some room to punch a hole with my Crop a dile and run some silver thread through for hanging.


Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Cookies in a jar gifts


Here are my pretty painted jars filled with cookies for my neighbors. I am loving this upcycled project. Cute. Cute. Cute.

I printed the label on my computer and then punched them out using the Creative Memories tag punch and snowflake punch, then lined it with CTMH Cranberry card stock. The ribbon is from one of my long ago Reasonable Ribbon club packages. I am so glad the perfect project came up to showcase these pretty holiday ribbons.

The cookies are another Pinterest find, I pinned them here and left a comment after trying them. Pinterest has been so great for my cooking and baking adventures, as well as my crafting ones. Yahoo!
Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!