Another simple birthday card

Here’s another simple birthday card that I made. This time I only used the circle die, thinking it would help make the card more masculine. When I got it all together I thought it still looked like a card I’d use for a woman, so I added the bling and called it a day!

The card base is black cardstock. I inked the edges to hide the white core. I must confess…I’ve only recently started “inking” anything and I think I’m addicted to it! I’m not sure how other people do it, but I bought these stencil fingertip sponges and I’ve been inking away!

The purple is a piece of scrap. I used My Creative Time’s die for the stitched circle and her Happy Birthday stamp. The “bling” is something I picked up at Wal-Mart. Some bloggers were talking about a line of $0.97 stuff at Wal-Mart so I had to go and check that out and ended up buying a bunch of items. The ribbon is from my stash.

As usual, I did 2 cards at the same time. Each has small differences, but it’s fun to experiment and see what you like the best.

Once again, these two cards aren’t my favorite projects, but they’re OK. I think I used up all of my creative mo-jo on Friday night. I was working on a BIG (well, big for ME) project that I will be posting on FRIDAY! I will give you a small hint here:

Stay tuned on Friday for this fun project! I was seriously “getting my craft on” when I made that one!

Lori

Birthday card ~ Simple

Hello all…sorry that I didn’t get my posts on Monday/Wednesday/Friday last week. I finally broke down today and went to the doctor for the kidney stone. We’ll see if the medication helps.

Today’s card is VERY simple! I had bought some stamps and dies from Emma at My Creative Time and wanted to try them out. You know you’re feeling bad when you get new craft toys and don’t experiment with them for almost a week!

I was trying to make a masculine card, but after I added the sentiment and die cuts I thought it looked a bit too much like a flower, so maybe not great for a man’s birthday card.

This one is very similar, just different doodling on the green part. And, now I see from my picture, that the bottom left corner isn’t adhered very well! Ha ha…..better fix that!

These cards are made with just a paper trimmer and the MCT die and stamp. The “to you!” stamp is one that I have in my stash…something I picked up at Hobby Lobby. No Cricut involved on this project.

This isn’t my favorite project ever, but it was quick and since I wasn’t feeling great it was at least something I could do to start experimenting with my new stuff from My Creative Time. I must admit…this is the first purchase I made from a blog that I follow. I’ve watched a couple of the “bigger” bloggers and their product lines for a while now, but I really loved the banner die/stamp set that Emma was releasing. I added a “few” more items and placed the order. I was really happy with how fast the order was shipped out and so far I am LOVING everything that I’ve had the time to use.

FYI….this is NOT any type of paid endorsement for My Creative Time. I ordered, paid full price, and am now just giving you my honest feedback! If you’re interested in the product line, click HERE and browse around. I really like the die sets. I NEED to get into my craft room this week and play with the banner set, which is what prompted me to order in the first place!

Have a crafty day….

Lori

Birthday Card

Just a quick post with some (poor) photos I took of a few quick card I made the other day. I will hopefully get back to my regular schedule of blogging on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

This card was created with the Imagine. The images are from Art Philosophy and I filled them with “paper” from the Ancestry Imagine cartridge.

I normally make 2 versions of the same card when I use the Imagine if I can fit it all in on one page. It seems like a waste to not print/cut as much as I can get on a page.

I stamped “Happy Birthday” inside of the first card, but thought it looked good outside on the second. The first one I ran the top layer of the butterfly through the Cuttlebug to give it some texture. On the second I used some Stickles to add some detail.

I like how both of them came out. The paper for the base of the card is some paper from my stash…not sure but it might be a Bazzil pack I picked up cheap at Big Lots. The rest of the paper is from Imagine’s Ancestry. No guesswork there…they all go together!

Hope you have a crafty day….I am hoping to get into the craft room this weekend and get several projects done so that I can get my blog posts back on schedule.

Lori

Almost done....

I have to finish a little water and then I'm done.

Did it work?

Honestly, I don't know. I have been straining my urine and I can clearly see granules. Is that the broken up kidney stone....? No clue.

I have sporadic pain in my back...only on the right side now. It's a sharp pain.

Hopefully it worked...I'm just going to finish my gallon of water and then keep peeing and hopefully be done with it.

Lori

Hmmm.....

OK, so my back has gone through phases of extreme heat/pain to nothing. I did the 6 Diet Cokes in 2 hours. My stomach is all bloated out and I'm uncomfortable, but that's due to all of the liquid. I ate/drank the asparagus. The stuff I saw online called for 6-8 ounces. I had a 15 ounce can, so I consumed the whole thing. It wasn't bad at all, but I like asparagus. It was kinda like asparagus soup...minus all the cream, etc.

Now I'm on to straining my pee and drinking a gallon of water.

Yeah, a gallon.

I'm happy to be able to pee again! I'm straining because I want to KNOW if something is coming out. I am currently experiencing back heat/pain on both sides, which worries me! Did I now f-up my left kidney as well?

Still hyped up on the caffiene. Hopefully I'm going to start seeing/feeling some kidney stones pass. I'm going to be seriously pissed at myself if this doesn't work.

5 Diet Cokes down....1 to go....

If nothing else, this crazy experiement MAY cure me of my diet coke addiction. I'm totally hyped up on caffiene, burping like a fiend, and have to pee like nobody's business.

But, on the plus side (I think....), my back is burning like hell, so MAYBE the soda is doing something. Asparagus is heated up on the stove and I have smashed it up for a "puree" as per directions. My guess for the "puree" is that it makes for less digestion, and faster delivery to the kidney. Or, maybe not, but that's my guess.

I'm ahead of schedule....wonder if I should drink the last Diet Coke and get to the asparagus earlier.

Did I mention I REALLY have to pee?

Kidney Stone

I normally have a crafty blog post on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but this week I don't have anything ready for today.

I have a kidney stone and it's really bothering me. So, today, I am trying some crazy home remedy that a friend's nephew said took care of his.

Now, first please let me state....I am the kind of person that mocks people who do crazy home remedies....so you know I must be desperate to do this. I am about 80% sure it's not going to work, but I'm doing it nonetheless.

I'm going to report my day on here to help me get out my frustrations. If you're offended by "off color" language, I'd suggest you skip the Kidney Stone blog updates, 'cause it's likely to get a bit racey here today.

The treatment:
Drink a coke or diet coke every 20 minutes for 2 hours. That means you're drinking 6 of them. Try to urinate as little as possible.

That's the stage I'm at now. Let me tell ya...I honestly thought this would be the easiest part of the deal, 'cause I'm a diet coke drinker. I am currently 2 DC's in and my back is on FIRE. Holy hell...something is for sure happening.

There is an ingredient in Coke and Diet Coke called Phosphoric Acid and apparently that's going to go to work on the stone. My stomach is bloated out after 2 cans....oh, and I need to pee, but I'm not going to!

After the 2nd hour of Diet Coke pounding you eat a can of asparagus and the liquid from the can.

Yeah....I've lost my mind. More later.

B Challenge–Beyond Birthdays

Here is another card that I have done for the “Use What You Have” challenge. I am going through my cartridges one at a time and trying to use each one. Thank goodness for my Gypsy! It’s making this process much easier.

Today’s project comes from Beyond Birthdays. This is the first time I have used this cartridge. ALL cuts are from this cartridge.

The first thing I did was design the card in the Gypsy. Then I picked out paper from my scrap drawer to use some of the smaller pieces that I had on hand. I did use a new piece for the actual card base. I laid out the paper on the mat, matching up with what my Gypsy showed. I love being able to make all of the cuts for a project on one mat! The sizes (from the Gypsy) are listed by each cut.

I obviously did something wrong, because this card is NOT A2 sized. I think I should’ve used the Real Size button or something, but it’s NOT 8.5 inches long. Oh well, live and learn, right?!?!

Now, you will see a sentiment of “Thanks” and a corresponding shadow also cut. I ended up not liking how that turned out so I changed things a bit for the final outcome!

I didn’t like the cut sentiment so I cut a piece of the yellow and pink and layered those. I stamped the “Hello Friend” sentiment on there. I ran the vase through the Cuttlebug to give it a little something. I adhered the flower vase with dimensional foam stickers so they POP off the page a bit.

Simple card, fast project.

Stay tuned for more “B” cartridge projects! According to my Gypsy, I also have Blackletter, which I have NEVER used. When I was exploring that one on my Gypsy I found some hidden gems! I haven’t CUT the project yet, but hopefully it will work and I’ll have something new and fun to share with you!

Have a great day….spend some time being creative!

Lori

Cheerful Cards

These are some cards I made a while back after I was inspired by an idea book that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. I believe it was called “Card Making With Cricut” or something to that effect. I was not feeling very creative and looking through the pages inspired me to try and recreate cards similar to what I saw on some of the pages, using cartridges that I had on hand.

The butterfly cards are fun and cheerful! I had the ribbon already so I chose the paper to go with the ribbon. What do you think…….?

Cheerful, right? I think so! It looks like the scallop circle came from Celebrations (according to my Gypsy!) and the butterfly is from Indie Art. The rest of the shapes are simple rectangles that I cut with a paper trimmer.

Then I decided to change it up a bit and make a Monogram card. I like how this one came out and it would be really simple to make several of these for a little gift. Hmmm….maybe I should DO that!

You can see that I used the Cuttlebug to emboss the plain background paper. I hope you enjoyed this project. I may create a set of monogram cards soon and a little gift box to present them in. I’ve seen those before but have not done one myself. I think it might make a nice little gift for a teacher!

Have a great day…go do something crafty!

Lori

Posting A Comment

OK...this post has no crafts, but I have to post it.

A few weeks (might've been months) ago I noticed that I could not post a comment on my own blog. So that made me wonder if other people also could not comment.

....I like to get comments....makes me feel like there is a reason to post this stuff, 'cause someone's out there listening....

Anyway, I searched on Blogger's help (and I use that term loosely) section and wasn't having much luck. One day I stumbled across someone else having a similar problem and a potential solution.

The post basically said that if you were posting a comment on a POP UP comment form, you could comment, but if the comment form is EMBEDDED then you can't comment. That is EXACTLY what problem I was having. I changed my own blogs to POP UP comments and the problem was fixed. Unfortunately, a lot of blogs I follow have EMBEDDED comment forms.

BUT....if that's the case for you, all is not lost! You can still comment, but you just have to comment and use "Anonymous" as your profile or whatever it asks for.

I started leaving a lot of bloggers a comment using "anonymous" and tried to explain to them they might want to change to "Pop Up" comments so that more people could comment. I know I wasn't commenting on blogs for a long time because I couldn't and I didn't know the "Anonymous" trick.

Anyway, that's my rant for today....I have no clue what Blogger changed, but I know several people had the same problem. So, if your blog isn't getting comments like it used to, change your comment to POP UP and see if that helps!

Have a great day!

Lori

Box for gift card

This box would be great for many things (like little treats) but I’m using this first one to hold a gift card. I know there are lots of gift card holder projects out there, but I love this cut from Art Philosophy and wanted to make something with it right away.

I cut this using “Fit To Page” to make it as large as I could get it. I used a pretty double-sided paper that I had. Then I cut several combinations of the outer circle and inner circle to find what I liked best. The pattern paper doesn’t really look like it matches well in this photo, but it’s the inside of the box. I used a CTMH stamp from the bundle for the “love” sentiment. The box was secured with silver ribbon.

I am going to put some pretty iridescent confetti inside of the box and rest the gift card on top of that. I think it’s a nice presentation for a gift card.

This box will make a fun way to package little Halloween treats for my children’s class mates. It would also be great for party favors….and SO many other things! I have a feeling this box may turn up again in more projects!

Take some time today to get crafty! Your brain will thank you for it.

Lori

Best Wishes Card

This project was created for a wedding. I wanted to make a larger sized card . The card is from Art Philosophy. I used my Gypsy to weld the two “flourishes” together to make the top of the card. The sentiment is mounted on a Close To My Heart dimensional.

I wasn’t sure about these dimensionals when I initially heard about them, but I have really grown to like them. You choose the dimensional and then find the corresponding cut in the Cricut handbook. You cut the shape the size that is specified on the dimensional sheet. You can then stamp directly on the Cricut cut and then adhere that to the dimensional for a perfect fit! You now have a raised sentiment. The frame and “Best Wishes” are both CTMH stamps that are in the Art Philosophy bundle.

The inside heart was cut and then stamped with another CTMH stamp from the bundle.

You can see from the photo below that the heart is inside, but peeks through the cut-out on the front of the card.

Like I said above, I am really enjoying the CTMH dimensionals. They really give a project a neat look. Here’s a close-up of the sentiment on the dimensional.

Be sure to check back here on Wednesday for another crafty project! I'm trying to post on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Hopefully I can keep this up! Leave me a comment and let me know how you think I'm doing.

Go do something crafty!

Lori

“A” Cartridge Challenge

Earlier this week “dlbwright” posted on the Cricut message board a challenge to use the cartridges that we have. The first week was use any cartridge that you have that starts with the letter “A”. I thought this sounded like a great challenge, as I tend to buy and not use, so maybe this would help me discover some things on cartridges that I picked up and never used yet.

For “A” cartridges all I have is “Art Philosophy” and “Alphalicious”. I pulled out the Gypsy and got to work. “Art Philosophy” is new for me, and I’m sure I’m going to get a lot of use out of it, so I decided to create a card using MOSTLY “Alphalicious”. I have actually used this cartridge before on my daughter’s birthday invitation, but it’s not a cartridge that I use a lot.

The photo below is all of the cuts. The numbers are the dimensions on my Gypsy. The first thing I do when creating a card is open a new file in the Gypsy and create 2 layers. I design the card completely on the first layer and then copy each individual cut to the 2nd layer for cutting. I group “like” colors together so that I can lay out paper on the mat and cut everything with one pass through the machine.

So, the cuts:

Next time I will group those closer together to make it easier to see! (Learn by doing, right?!?)

So, we have the “You’re the Best” sentiment cut at 2.39 x 1.38. The scallop circle with #1 inside of it is cut at 1.66 x 1.38. The sentiment outline or shadow is cut in blue at 2.51 x 1.38. The white scallop circle is cut at 2.30 x 1.91. These cuts are all from Alphalicious. The pennants are cut from Art Philosophy and cut at 0.73 x 1.94.

Now, once I cut that I started to assemble everything and realized I had a white ribbon on a white background. Duh! Oh, well, I decided to ink around the scallop, but I had to make sure I didn’t ink into the area where the #1 would show through. I put the blue #1 scallop circle on the white scallop circle and made a few light pencil marks so that I knew where the boundary was. Then I inked the white scallop circle.

I layered everything up, using a dimensional foam adhesive to adhere the ribbon and a Zig pen to adhere the sentiment. I cut a yellow piece of cardstock at 4.0 x 5.25 because the card seemed to need something else. I ran that yellow paper through the Cuttlebug to give it some pizazz!

Here’s what I ended up with:

……and…….

It was a fun challenge and I’m already thinking of what I will do for the “B” challenge! If you’re interested in participating in the challenge go to THIS THREAD on the Cricut Message Board.

I hope you enjoyed this project! If you have any questions please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer them for you! If you don’t have a Gypsy, don’t worry! You can still do projects like this, you will just have to figure out the sizes for your cuts.

Enjoy your weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday with more projects!

Doorhanger ~ Art Philosophy

I told you I was going to be focused on this cartridge for a while! Lots of fun stuff in this one.

This project is the Doorhanger “box”. I’m not exactly what I’m going to use this for, but I thought I’d make one and get more familiar with the AP cartridge.

I cut the doorhanger with “Fit To Page” to get it as large as possible. I used the stamps that came with the AP bundle. I am not a big stamper, but I have been enjoying using the stamps that came in the bundle. The flowers take some practice. I seem to end up with a blob of hot glue in the center of the flower, so I just squirt some Stickles in there to cover up the dried hot glue and give the flower a nice sparkly center!

I should’ve used the heaviest cardstock that I could find, but instead I opted for a pretty double-sided cardstock that’s not extremely heavy. I think for this “box” to be really functional you’d want it on really heavy weight cardstock.

All cuts on this project are from the Art Philosophy cartridge, and all stamps used are from Close To My Heart (the Art Philosophy bundle). The small flower above the sentiment is 4 layers. I adhered the bottom layer to the next layer, then the next cream layer and then the top layer. I curled up the edges of the cream layer before I attached the top layer.

I curled the edges of this flower around the stylus for my Gypsy, which gives the flower a more opened look. I hope you enjoyed this project! Be sure to check back on Monday for a beautiful card that I created using Art Philosophy and my Gypsy!

Lori

Art Philosophy is in the HOUSE!

I could not resist. I bought it and after being creative with it on Friday, I can say that I’m GLAD I splurged on it. It’s cool…really cool. Please bear with me, because posts for a while will be projects from Art Philosophy.

When I opened this cartridge I thought it might be a good idea to try the “sample” project that all cartridges have in the front of the handbook. I’ve never done one of those before but figured I’d try it on this one.

The sample project is a birthday card. I followed all instructions from the handbook, but I made 2 cards instead of one. I figured as long as I was cutting it I might as well cut two. I only used one rose per card, though. I thought that 2 roses per card was a bit busy.

I will say that creating the flowers takes some practice. I have noticed that I’m getting better with them with each one I do. I have been referencing the blog Courtney Lane Designs by Melanie for lots of amazing tutorials and tips on the Art Philosophy cartridge.

I hope you enjoyed this project. I have been having trouble not being able to comment so I’ve switched my comment box to a pop-up. Hopefully that will eliminate the problem. Thanks to all followers and those of you nice enough to leave a comment. Remember that if you have a specific question just post a comment and I’ll try to help out!

Check back on Friday for another fun Art Philosophy project! Thanks for following my blog and leaving comments. I'd love to hear from you.

Lori

Scraps….

We all create cards and then end up with bits of paper that are just too big to throw away, and yet what do we actually do with them? Well, I recently came across several scraps and thought I’d challenge myself to do something with those scraps.

Let me clarify here…the butterflies were left over from another project. Each piece of paper, except the card bases, was already cut. I had used a portion of the original sheet and then didn’t throw away the rest. The ribbons were cut from the roll, but I never keep scraps of ribbon.

So, without further ado….three cards that I made from my “scrap stash”!

The first one is a 3x3 card that I made. I thought it would make a cute note to stash in a lunch box or even a gift bag.

I used a Creative Memories circle punch to make the circles that the butterfly sits on. The butterfly on each card is actually 2 layers…the blackout layer and then the detailed layer. I only adhered the middle section of the detailed layer so that the wings can be bent up for a dimensional look. This butterfly is from Indie Art, which is on my Gypsy.

Next I have an A2 card. The base for this is white cardstock from Staples.

For this one I used the yellow and black scraps, butting them against one another and taping them on the back. I then taped the silver ribbon to the black portion and tied another section of ribbon to the front for the “bow look”. The printed paper was punched with a Creative Memories punch and the butterfly was adhered to the scallop circle. The circle is pop-dotted to give it some dimension.

Finally, my favorite of the three. I love how this card turned out!

This one also starts with a Staples white cardstock base. Then I cut a piece of the yellow. I then cut the black and the printed square, but it just wasn’t quite right. I then ran the black through the Cuttlebug and that was just what it needed…texture! I used the black ribbon to frame it all up. I seriously love this card!

Let me add…these photos are from my cell phone and they just don’t do the cards justice. I think I’m going to have to start using a better camera! The colors all coordinate perfectly. The yellow and print papers are from a paper pack I purchased at Joanns.

I love the butterfly cards so much that I’m planning on making a few sets of them to give as gifts. They’re beautiful and would make a great spring card. The inside is blank so you can write in there or stamp a sentiment.

But, the main point of this post is….use what you HAVE! I am constantly seeing something on a blog and then running out for supplies to make that project. The fact is, my craft room is overflowing with supplies! I think we all have a stash of paper scraps. Pull out some and see what you can create! You might end up liking that project better than any other project you’ve made in a while!

Have fun creating!

Lori

Celebrate!

I put this card together for a friend’s birthday card. We have been known on occasion to knock back a few martinis …. or wine …. or whatever …. so I thought this card would be kinda fun!

The card base is standard A-2 size, cut from green cardstock. I then cut a top layer from black cardstock slightly smaller to frame it up.

The “Celebrate” sentiment is cut from a green glittery paper. It is from the “Wild Card” cartridge. The martini glass it cut from lime green paper and silver “mirror” paper. The image comes from the “Jubilee” cartridge.

Both images were cut with my Gypsy, so I'm not sure of the sizes…sorry! I like to lay out the card on the Gypsy and see what will fit and how it will look. Then I separate the elements and try to get it all cut on one mat.

I used a white gel pen to doodle a bit and then stamped the “Happy Birthday” sentiment in black ink on the inside. I also put the lighter lime green paper that I used in the martini glass as a layer on the inside of the card.

I like how this one turned out. I actually wish I would’ve laid things out on the Gypsy so that I could’ve cut two of each image so that I ended up with 2 cards instead of one card and wasted paper! Oh well…live and learn, right!

Once again, I hope you enjoyed my project today. It feels good to be getting my craft on again!

Lori