"Friends" Altered Frame

Hello all my crafty friends! Sorry I've been absent from the blogging world for a while - it has been CRAZY busy around here! My daughter turned 4 so I was in party planning mode for a few weeks, we have some remodeling going on at our house, plus all the other hectic stuff that goes on here has kept craft time to a minimum. But I finally got around to making this altered frame, and it took longer than I planned because I had to redo it. I watched a few YouTube videos about making these and thought it would be a piece of cake...not so much! lol It looked easier on the videos than it was (at least for me anyway)! The first one I covered with paper, and I got my fingers stuck on the paper (thank you, Modge Podge!) which made some of the paper rip off so I had to start over. This is a photo of my second attempt, which I think turned out well!

The frame is a $1 unfinished wood frame from Michael's. I painted the edges of the frame and also the center area edges pink. I traced the frame shape onto my plaid paper, then cut it out using a craft knife. Using a sponge brush, I painted a thick layer of matte Modge Podge on the frame, then put my paper on it. If you try this project, make sure you rub your hands on the paper to smooth out any bubbles! The Modge Podge took about 25 minutes to dry, then I applied a coat of Modge Podge to the top of the paper. After it dried, I inked the edges of my frame with hot pink Studio G ink and glued on the "Friends" wooden embellishment (also from Michael's, $0.59). Then I cut the flower borders with my Cricut using the Bloom Lite cartridge. The image is called <Flwr8>. I cut one border and all corresponding layers at 3 inches, and the other was cut at 4.5 inches. I used pop dots to give them a little more dimension so they would stand out from the frame. Here's a side view:

I hope you have enjoyed today's project. Now that I've made this frame, I know there will be more in my future! I'm entering this project in Hiding In My Craft Room's Challenge #46 Do Over! and also linking it up on Melody Lane Designs: Show Me Your Cricut Craft. Have a great day everyone!
~Melissa~

Thinking of You Card

Today I have made a Thinking of You card for a fellow scrapper's sister, who is in the hospital and needs some cheering up. She asked for prayers for her sister first and foremost, and also asked if any of her Cricut crafting friends would like to make a card for her sister and share some words of encouragement to help lift her spirits. The Lord has truly blessed me in so many ways, so I took this opportunity to pay it forward to someone else who needs some joy in their life. :-)

Now on to the card...I picked up a fabulous Melody Ross printed paper stack at Hobby Lobby on clearance a few weeks ago and thought the bright colors were perfect for this project. I combined the MR printed paper with some solid color textured cardstock from The Paper Studio (also from Hobby Lobby). Here's a photo of my finished card:

The colors in the picture aren't exactly what they look like in person...it is more of a teal & yellow, instead of the cobalt/yellow it looks like here. I don't know if you can tell or not, but the teal color of the MR pattern paper is foil! Love that!

I used the Just Because Cards Cricut cartridge for the card (page 26 <Pickle> at 6.75 inches) and the layer (page 26 <Pickle-s>). I cut an envelope (not pictured) from page 66 <Peach> at 6.75 inches. The teal frame was cut from page 52 <Flowr2-s> at 3.5 inches, and another of this same cut at 3.00 inches, then layered them together. I used the Wild Card Cricut cartridge to cut the "thinking of you" phrase from page 54 <Thinking> at 4.5 inches. I used my paper trimmer to cut the yellow strip of paper to fit across the patterned layer and then embossed it with my Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. Here's a close up of the detail (you can see the shine of the foil in this pic):

I hope you enjoyed this project. I think this is my favorite card that I've made so far. :-)

Have a good weekend everyone!

~Melissa~





My Gypsy Accessories are here!

My Gypsy accessories arrived today! Now if my Gypsy would get here, I'd be set! lol Isn't it funny how the things you order from one company ship so much faster than others? I ordered my Cherry Blossom sleeve and car charger 3 days after I ordered my Gypsy, and the accessories arrived before the Gypsy! lol

I hope those of you that don't have a Gypsy got to take advantage of the incredible deal on joann.com over the weekend...they were selling G's for $79.98! Great deal! Unfortunately they are sold out now. I can't wait until mine gets here!

Embellished Treat Box

Today was my first attempt at making both a treat box and dimensional flowers with my Cricut. Overall I think my project turned out well! And an added bonus, on this project I got to combine two things I love: beading and papercrafting! Here's a picture of my finished project (the beaded handle is sooooo cute!):

I started by cutting a party favor box from the Sweet Treats cartridge (page 59 in the booklet) at 2.5" using purple Colorbok cardstock. The box was not as difficult to fold & assemble as I thought it would be! Thank goodness!  Then I cut some flowers from the Flower Shoppe cartridge (page 14 of the booklet...<Heart2> and <Heart4>) starting at 2.5" and for each layer decreasing the size .25" with every cut. I used lots of layers to make the flower look full. I alternated patterns with a lilac cardstock and pink/purple printed paper. I cut 2 leaves (page 22 <Ruffle5>) at 2". After I assembled my box I added the leaves and then assembled my flower. I curved the flower petals slightly, and added a brad in the middle to hold it all together. Then I attached it to the box on top of my leaves.

Next is the treat box handle. When I cut the box out, I didn't realize that it did not have a lid or flaps that would meet together to close the box - it needed a handle. I thought about just using ribbon to tie to the box for a handle, but then I thought why not add some beads to this?!? :-) I love beading and have a lot of seed beads that I knew would work perfectly for this. I used some silver lined purple seed beads and strung them on 26 guage beading wire, and attached it to the box simply by threading the wire through the Cricut cut holes on each side of the box. Here are a few more pictures of the finished product, from different angles:

I am entering this treat box in the following challenges:

Exploring Cricut: It's a Box

Hiding In My Craft Room #43: Homemade Flowers

Thanks for stopping by and checking out today's project! Have a great crafting day!

~Melissa~

RAK Birthday Card

Happy Wednesday! Today I've made a quick birthday card as a Random Act of Kindness for a fellow scrapper's daughter's 11th birthday. It's made entirely from scraps! Here's a picture of the card:

I used a scrap of lime green cardstock to cut the card from the Doodlecharms cartridge. The pink cardstock was hand cut and I used a corner rounding punch to shape the corners. The pink cardstock actually started out white...I wanted to ink the edges in hot pink so I started inking and then wondered what it would look like if I inked the whole paper. I inked heavier around the edges, and lighter in the middle. It turned out really cool looking if I say so myself! I love how the texture of the cardstock shows through! I placed some leftover Jolee's birthday theme stickers across the top and stamped Celebrate across the bottom. The Celebrate stamp came from the $1 section in Walmart's scrapbooking aisle. I love a bargain! :-)

I'm entering this card in Hiding In My Craftroom's #42 Super Scraps Challenge.

Have a great day everyone!

Melissa

Happy Mail!

Today I received happy mail from Kathy at 3 Spoiled Dogs And A Cricut! I won her blog candy for participating in the Little Prince Blog Hop, hosted by Jessica at Homespun Elegance. I won a set of Cuttlebug folders that are companions to the Preserves Cricut cartridge. I was already super excited about winning those, but then Kathy emailed me that she added a few extra goodies to my Cuttlebug winnings! It was like Christmas when I opened my mail today!!! Thank you Kathy for all the wonderful scrapping goodies! Here's a pic of my winnings:

Happy Crafting, y'all....
Melissa

A Quick Spring Card

Happy Thursday! Today I've made a really simple and quick Spring card for card challenge. The challenge is for a group on Facebook I'm a member of called "Love My Cricut". If you are a Cricut lover like me, go check out this group! All the members give each other tips, recommend where to shop for Cricut products, post pics of their finished projects, and have challenges (just for fun!). Here are the rules of this challenge: 1. Make a spring theme card using your Cricut, and 2. The background must be embossed with a Cuttlebug or other embossing machine. This is a picture of my finished card:

 

The card was cut from Doodlecharms cut at 12 inches. The butterfly is from April Showers cut at 3 inches. I hand-cut a scrap of white cardstock for the background and embossed it with the Swiss Dots embossing folder. The butterfly was embossed with the D'vine Swirls embossing folder, and I folded the wings up slightly for a little more dimension. I embellished the card with a light pink ribbon and "SPRING" alphabet stickers. That's it! It took about 20 minutes start to finish. Easy peasy!

Have a great day!

Melissa