Interlocking gate fold card

I made these cards quite a while ago, but needed to water color the roses and leaves, so they had been sitting off to the side of my work area for way too long. I am currently attempting to finish up a bunch of half completed projects. I am highly motivated in the beginning of projects but get bored fairly quickly. So I have quite the stack of half done items. *face palm*



Aren't these gorgeous? And unique? You know I found the inspiration here on Pinterest, and then changed up a few little items. I did not layer the card onto a colored cardstock base for one thing, and did not wrap the ribbon around to the back side of the card. Instead I used my new Imaginisce ribbon cutter. If you haven't seen one yet, it's pretty cool. It has a hot wire that cuts through and seals the ends of the ribbon at the same time. So you get a clean end that won't ravel.

This view is just to give you an idea of how the pieces are adhered to the front gate folds. I adhered the ribbon down and then with the card flat and both fronts folded flat centered the stamped piece over it with only half covered with tape. Then with little dots of glue on half of the black frame, I centered it over the top of the adhered stamped piece. That's how you get it centered and interlocking. I hope that makes sense.


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Slider box

This is a failed attempt to recreate a craft project I saw here and here. I know it doesn't look like a failure, thank goodness. But it was supposed to be so much more than what it is. There is a very cool video and picture tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers for making a slider box, that when you slide the box out to one side a surprise hidden card slides out to the other side. Well mine worked once, I tested it before I completed the whole box. But when the whole thing was together and the top and bottom pieces where adhered, the first pull and the paper bag mechanism broke and the card couldn't slide out any more.



So I disassembled the few useless pieces and will just use it as a decorated matchbox type slider box. I'm not sure what I did wrong, I didn't even tug on it too strongly, it just broke the bag strip. Bummer. But still pretty and useful so I am thankful for that. I may give this tutorial another try. If I do, you know it will end up here on my blog.

All of the box pieces were cut from a Cricut .cut file I designed using CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge. If you want to give this project a try, and would like to use my .cut file, I am happy to share it. Leave a comment on this post including your email address and I will send it out to you. With my wishes for a better outcome then I had. ;D

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

Scallop circle Christmas trees

I know, I know, more Christmas in July.

It's too soon.

I don't want to think about it already.

I get it. But I am starting to prepare for a Christmas class I am considering participating in again this year. Plus Pinspiration was found here and I couldn't resist. The creators blog post includes a link to her great tutorial for how to make these so I won't be repeating any of that here.

All of the shapes and layers I used to recreate this project were designed to be cut out on the Cricut using Design Studio and CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge. The two trees you see a close up of in the above photo are flower shapes available in the cartridge. I set them up at.5 inch increments on the Design Studio software. One floral was your typical round petals, the other is a sunflower shape, that's the pointy petals. The tree skirts were also cut from the cartridge. I made them a little bigger than the base I planned to use. It's hard to tell but the base are altered from the plastic containers that buttons and brads come in from SU!. I used my Big Bite Crop-o-dile to punch a hole in the center of the lid of the container. The hole was just a touch narrower then the chop sticks that I used for my tree trunks. That actually turned out to be a good thing because they are sturdy and secure when the stick is pushed through the paper tree skirt and the lid. I used some of my ever growing Washi tape collection to decorate the base of the altered container now Christmas tree stand. Aren't they cute? Polka dots and stripes.



This was my favorite tree. This is just standard scallop circles, again sized in .5 inch increments. All four of the papers used came out of an old DCWV Christmas stack. Every tree and its star got some Stickles for added embellishment and that is it. Be sure to click over to the original designers blog post and tutorial for more details.

As always, I am happy to share my .cut files so you can easily recreate these projects if you want to. Leave a comment on this post and include your email address and I will email it to you.

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

Merry banner card

I think I have been bitten by the Christmas in July bug. I saw this adorable card and instantly thought Christmas card. Plus I just got a box of CTMH goodies and this is a sneaky peak at the new Christmas papers. Pretty pretty! Love the colors. Not quite traditional but not so far off, I really love them.

This one is stamped with CTMH Tulip ink and has brown bakers twine bows.

This one is stamped with CTMH Olive ink and as red bakers twine bows. I can't pick a favorite.

The embossed edge uses a new SU! embossing folder and the little tan punched flowers are made with the SU! mini punch. The bling is CTMH sparkles that I colored with a Copic marker.

My banners are made with .75 x 1.5 inch strips of paper, I then punched the ends with SU! heart trio punch.

My friend Tina taught me to put the end of the paper into the top part of the heart to punch a curved end rather than the standard V cut shape. Thanks Tina, I love this little detail.


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

Disney inspired paper bag mini album

I have been working hard on this little mini album. I found this awesome Youtube video and could not wait to recreate it. It is amazingly innovative but easy to follow her instructions and whip this little cutey up.

The cover is made from cereal box chip board. Mine is cut at 5 x 7 inches, because my paper bags are 4.5 inches wide and the tags and bag tops make it 6.75 inches tall.

My bags came from Dollar tree, I lucked into finding them in yellow and red, so that's what started me on the Disney theme. Plus I had a bunch of new papers from Sacramento Rubber Stamping Expo vendor Pinecone Press. Gorgeous double sided Disney themed papers.

Inside each paper bag is a tag with a cute scallop top that I cut on my Cricut using the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge. Each bag and tag has Memory Makers jumbo eyelets for functional decoration. The tags have ribbon and bakers twine pull tabs also.

Here you see the little back pocket created by the paper bag bottom. Covered in paper and taped down the the back side of the paper bag it creates another pocket for a shorter tag.

Here you see the little tag mini I attached together with a loose set eyelet so that the tags will spin on the eyelet. I can add more photos or journaling here.

More gorgeous papers and lots and lots of polka dots and Disney goodness.

All the cardstock used is from SU!, I love the weight of their cardstock for mini albums.

I did have to supplement my Pinecone Press papers with some papers from my stash.

I think but am not certain, that the above two papers were from Imaginese. Thankfully they coordinated beautifully. As did all the beautiful ribbons and bakers twine from my stash.

Here is the back side of the last paper bag. If my calculations are correct I have 72 spaces in this mini for  nearly full sized 4 x 6 photos (or just slightly trimmed down) and the slender pocket spots would be perfect for journaling.

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

File folder mini cookbook

This little file folder mini album was inspired by this cookbook I found on Pinterest. The designer used actual mini file folders, I didn't have any so I created some on my Cricut Design Studio using the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge.

Designing my own mini file folders allowed me to get fancy with the shape of the pockets and the shape and placement of the tabs. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

This picture above shows the back of the first file folder and the front of the second one. Here was a large spot for a recipe on each side.

In each of the pockets is a tag, also cut from the Cricut CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge. The recipes are fitted to the front and back sides of each tag.

There are three different shaped tags on the cartridge, I cut them at 2.75 x 5.75 inches to fit inside the pockets of the file folders. Every recipe was typed on the computer, and after printing and trimming I stamped around the edges with coordinating inks using my CTMH stitches stamp set.

Rather than using tape to close the pockets, I thought that eyelets would last longer. I decided to place two eyelets and then thread some of my pretty new bakers twine through them and tie a pretty bow to sort of camouflage the uglier side of the eyelet. I hand wrote the names of each section on the tabs using a white gel pen and then added doodle dots all around with Daffodil Liquid Pearls.

I got to use a bunch of gorgeous ribbons from several of my recent Really Reasonable Ribbon club selections. I used the bakers twine again for around each ribbon pull tab at the top of each recipe tag.

Each file folder is 4 x 6 inches when folded, and the finished book with the Bind-It-All binding and tabs and ribbon tops is 5 x 7 inches. It's a cute little mini and could have lots of other uses besides recipes. 

I am happy to share my Cricut .cut file with you, if you would like to recreate this project for your own, just leave a comment below including your email address and I will send the Cricut .cut file out to you. 

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

Embossed Rosy Regards OSW card gift set

My second set of cards from my OSW stamped papers. 

I glued the 2 x 5.25 inch strips to a coordinating 4 x 5.25 inch piece of cardstock and then ran the whole thing through the Cuttlebug in an embossing folder.

They all have been spritzed with Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist.

Rounded all the corners.

Tied a pretty piece of organza ribbon in a knot and adhered it to a card base.

And Voila! Another card gift set.

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

Card gift set made using the dryer sheet technique

Be prepared, this post has a lot of photos. I had to give each beautiful card its own moment in the spot light. This set of cards is really pretty, from the CTMH Rosy Regards stamp set, the gorgeous CTMH inks and coordinating papers, the CTMH Prisma Glitter right down to THE funnest way to recycle I have ever done. I found Pinsperation here. I couldn't wait to recreate this design using this fun technique.

This is kind of my version of a OSW = One Sheet Wonder technique, also. I think, I'm not sure if it qualifies for OSW status. But I stamped a sheet of white card stock with the two step stamping roses, leaves, buds and stems in each color combination.

Then I cut each sheet down to 2 x 5.25 inch strips.

I followed the designers you tube video tutorial for gluing the half of a used dryer sheet to the front of the strip, over the top of the stamping, and tape the excess down to the back side.

I then did the glitter process she shows in the video tutorial and then went a step further and sprayed over the stamped, dryer sheet, glittered piece the magic fixative to keep the glitter from rubbing off on my hands. Aerosol hair spray. It works, and it didn't run the ink. So I was happy.

I border punched the edge of one end of CTMH Sweet Leaf cardstock, and using Scotch Quick-Dry glue I attached the dryer sheet decorated piece to the border punched cardstock. I put each glued piece under a heavy book to dry. Just fyi I used the glue because I noticed my ATG tape was not holding the dryer sheet very securely to the back side. The glue is holding very well.

I stamped the cardstock background using CTMH Universal Backgrounds in coordinating ink from the roses. Rounded the bottom corners of the card base and the stamped cardstock background, assembled all the layers and voila! It's a beautiful gift set of cards for me to give to away.

Most of the cards were done stamping with four CTMH colors, but the last card in the set I used all twelve ink colors on one sheet. That's what you see above. That's the 5.25 x 12 inch piece after stamping, before trimming, in all it's Rosy Regards glory. So easy yet so pretty.

In case you care to know these are all of the CTMH color combinations I used for this card gift set. Blush & Hollyhock, Smoothie & Tulip, Buttercup & Honey, Lilac Mist & Dutch Blue, Amethyst & Gypsy for the roses and Sweet Leaf & Topiary are the leaf colors.

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