Valentine's Card

Happy Saturday! I hope everyone had a great week. I sat down this morning to make a Valentine card after a friend had posted something similar from Pinterest. I love Pinterest! So many ideas and inspiration! I decided to make my card similar to the pinned card, but added a little twist to mine with some bling. I started with a Kraft card, then added a woodgrain paper layer from the Amy Tangerine Yes, Please! stack. I cut a white doily from Artiste at 4.5" and a Be Mine phrase at 2.5". I trimmed down one side of the doily to line up with the edge of the woodgrain paper. I also cut some banner pieces from Pretty Pennants a 1.5" and strung them on some twine. I cut the small hearts on each pennant from Artiste at 0.5". Finally I placed all my pieces on the card and added some bling to the corners for a little extra sparkle.

Vols Keychain

Today has been a beautiful snow day in East Tennessee so after I took care of the housework I had a few minutes of craft time. I found this keychain at Michael's on clearance for super cheap a while back. I'm a sucker for a bargain! Anyway, I was going to put my initial in the photo holder but I decided to make it a UT Vols theme instead because I had this really cute chevron paper in our team's colors and if you live in East TN then you are a Vol fan - no exceptions! The chevron paper was a 1.5" circle cut from Plantin Schoolbook and the "power T" (as we call it in Vol country) was cut at 1" with a black shadow - also from Plantin Schoolbook. Very simple to make and I love the finished product! GO VOLS!

Christmas Gift Card Holder

The holidays are right around the corner! Everyone has someone on their Christmas list that is hard to shop for and the most common gift for those folks is a gift card (or cash)! After all, those gifts are always the right size/color and no one will want to return them! :-)  So to kick off my Christmas crafting I have made this gift card holder using my new Artiste cartridge along with a couple other favorites, Art Philosophy and Holiday Cakes.  The gift card holder was cut at 5".  Score along the marks that are cut and fold. I used my ATG to tape the gift card pocket together. Next, I used my paper trimmer to make a rectangle (the diagonal lined paper) as a mat for my main images. The flourished rectangles were cut from Art Philosophy at 2.25" (green) and 2" (red dots). Then I cut the Christmas tree from Holiday Cakes at 2.75". I loved the look of this tree because it went so well with my the fun patterned paper (the paper is by Recollections if you're wondering). I added red Stickles to my tree and let it dry. Then I glued the tree to the layered flourish rectangles. I used some foam mounting tape to attach the flourished square to my background paper - it gives nice dimension and a little extra pop! For the inside I used my trimmer to make a white liner, rounder the corners, and stamped Merry Christmas in dark green ink. A gift card fits perfectly in the pocket, or you can also fold cash and put in there if you prefer. This size of gift card holder will fit in note card size envelopes.

Super easy and super cute! I made 7 of these in 1 sitting and they did not take much time at all to create - I think the longest part was waiting for the Stickles to dry. I'm sure I'll be making more of these in the coming weeks and I hope you will try these too!

Friends Card

I made this card for a friend of mine. It took about 15 minutes, start to finish. I used Art Philosophy to cut the tag and layer at 3". I added paper layers to the card base, some organza ribbon, bling, flowers, and a friends metal embellishment to complete the card.

Halloween Treat Bags

My daughter's kindergarten class is having a Halloween party tomorrow afternoon so I needed to make some treat bags that were quick and easy to make. Here's what I came up with. I made 18 treat bags.

I used 4x6 cello bags that I purchased at Michael's to put some goodies in. My daughter is a huge Hello Kitty fan, so when I came across these adorable candy tins at an awesome price, I knew I had to get these for her classmates. I also included a sucker and a mini coloring book in each bag. I cut the bag toppers using Art Philosophy <square4> at 4.25". I scored them in the middle and folded them over the bags. I stapled them on. I then cut a pumpkin from Simply Charmed at 3". I handmade the flags. I printed the sentiment on yellow cardstock and then used a paper trimmer to cut between them. Then I used scissors to cut the points on one end of the banner. I glued the banners on the bag toppers, and finally glued the pumpkins over the un-pointed end of the flag. Super easy to make large quantities of these!

Baby Gender Reveal Banners

I'm so glad I can finally post these! I go to church with a girl who is expecting and found out the sex of her baby yesterday. The family wanted to take photos immediately following the doctor appointment to reveal the gender of her little bundle of joy to other family members via text and on Facebook, so I made a boy and girl banner for the mom to be to hold for the photos depending on which the baby is. And it turns out......its a BOY! I used the Pretty Pennants cartridge for the banner pieces (cut at 4.5") and Plantin Schoolbook for the letters/shadow (cut at 3"). The pattern paper is by Sassafras Lass. I added pop dots to the letters to make them stand out from the background a bit more. I hope you like them as much as I do! I love baby themed papercrafts!

World Card Making Day: Hello! Card

This card was made for my secret pal (I hope she doesn't check my blog! lol). The card is 5x7 size. I used a denim color paper by K&Company for the background. I bought a really cool honeycomb embossing folder by Darice that I'd been wanting to try, so I embossed a yellow piece of cardstock that has a white core with the folder. I cut around some of the honeycomb edges so it would be a shaped piece instead of rectangular. After I got it into the shape I liked, I lightly sanded the paper with a nail file. I cut a cute bee from the Create a Critter cartridge at 3.5" and added some Stickles to his wings & rosy ink on his cheeks. I wrapped blue twine around the honeycomb embossed paper and then adhered it to the card base. I used a pop dot on the bee and attached it to the honeycomb paper. I doodled some on the honeycomb to make it appear that the bee was in flight. Lastly, I stamped the Hello sentiment and added a couple of rhinestones to the corners to finish the card.

World Card Making Day: Birthday Card

This card was part of a challenge in a Facebook group I'm in to make a card using circles, but make it unique. I thought it would be fun to try to make a pinwheel from the circles and this is the outcome. I love how it looks and it was so easy! I cut my circles using the Plantin Schoolbook Cricut cartridge. I cut two circles in the foiled pattern paper at 2.5", a teal cardstock circle at 1.5", and a yellow circle a 2.5". If you don't have a die cutting machine, you can also use paper punches. After I cut all my circles, I cut the patterned paper circles in half and glued the four pieces to the yellow 2.5" circle as shown. Then I took the teal 1.5" circle and glued in the center of the pinwheel piece to cover the patterned paper that was slightly overlapping in the middle. I added a teal rhinestone to the center as a finishing touch. While the glue was drying, I made my card base. I used a coordinating yellow paper for the background to pull out the touches of yellow in my pattern paper. I tied some yellow ribbon around a lollipop stick (found in the baking section of most craft stores) then glued it to my card base. I then added some pop dots to the back of my pinwheel and adhered it to my card, making sure that the top end of the lollipop stick was not showing. Finally, I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment on the card.

World Card Making Day: Happy Thoughts Card

Happy World Card Making Day! In honor of today I thought I would share some cards  have made lately, so check back for more posts throughout the day. I don't always get my blog updated, but I do still craft when I get the chance. Here's a fun CAS card using all circles cut from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge. I folded an 8.5x11 piece of cardstock for the cardbase, then I cut several circles ranging in size from 2.5" down to 1" in different papers and layered them all together. I hand cut a flag and stamped the sentiment in a pretty coordinating ink color. This card was made in approximately 15 minutes, start to finish.  
  

It's getting close to Mother's Day...

Since Mother's Day is coming up soon, I figured I would go ahead and get my mom's card made. That is a huge accomplishment because ususally I'm the world's biggest procrastinator! Here's the finished card:

I had so much fun making this card! Card making is something I love to do, but I often find myself stumped when trying to come up with layout and design ideas. This one came together just the way I had pictured in my mind.

The solid purple border was shaped using a Martha Stewart scalloped lace border punch. I used the Art Philosophy cartridge for the rest of the die cuts. Here's a list of all the AP cuts that I made:
The frame at the top of the card is <shape2> and decorative layer from page 36 cut at 1.5".
The green vine is the font layer of <tab2> on page 58 cut at 3.5".
The large flower is <flower8> from page 50 cut at 1", .75", and .5", layered together and secured with a brad. The two smaller flowers are also <flower8> cut at .5" and a tiny pearl (Martha Stewart) was added to the center of each flower.
The butterfly is <butterfly1> and layer from page 41 cut at 1". I added Cotton Candy Stickles to the pink layer of the butterfly and used tiny pink MS pearls on the butterfly's body. This card is a great one to make to use up some of those scraps! All of the AP cuts were made from scraps.
I used a Happy Mother's Day rub on from 3 Birds on the frame and added a Martha Stewart gingham bow for an accent then attached it to the card with pop dots. Here's a close up:

I'm entering this card in several challenges:
*April card making challenge in Crafty Cricut Swaps Facebook group: Use purple, a Cricut cut, &
  ribbon
*Craft-e Corner's Mother's Day contest to win a Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge
*Hiding In My Craft Room #93 Super Scraps Saturday

I hope you like this project! Have a great crafting day!
~Melissa~

Birthday Card

Here's a quick birthday card I made for my aunt...

I used a A2 notecard base from The Paper Studio, DCWV  "Happy Birthday" patterned paper, white and pink cardstock, ribbon, pop dots, and a birthday cake rub on from 3 Birds.

I trimmed up some pink cardstock to make a mat for the patterned paper then adhered the Happy Birthday paper to the mat, added a sheer pink ribbon to the bottom, and adhered to the A2 card base. I used the Art Philosophy cartridge to cut <square3> in white and the layer in pink at 2.25". I added the birthday cake rub on to the white square and then glued the pink layer on. I attached the finished square to the front of the card using pop dots to give a little extra dimension. That's it! This project took about 15 minutes to complete. Easy peasy!

Have a great crafting day!
~Melissa~

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope all my crafty friends are having a great Valentine's Day! Today I made a quick and easy gift box to put my hubby's gift in. I waited until today to make it...eeekkkk! I'm such a procrastinator-but I got it finished just in time. :-) I love how this turned out. And the best part? This cute little box was made using mostly scraps from my paper stash! Everyone has piles and piles of paper scraps, right? I can't be the only one! lol

Not sure why my photo does not show the entire thing...on my camera, you can see the whole box. Sigh...technical difficulties... The pillow-box was cut from Art Philosophy (page 28, Font Layer + Shift). I used a red sheet of 8.5x11 cardstock and used the fit to page option. I can't remember how large it cut at...I should have written that down! I trimmed up an odd shaped scrap of the True Love printed paper (by Studio G) to fit the front of the box. Then I cut several banners from page 29 of the AP cartridge (<Banner2> in assorted sizes ranging from 1.5" up to 2.5") using scraps I had left from my Valentine's mailbox project (click here to see that project). Finally, I cut  the hearts from Create a Critter 2 on page 30, Accessory (scalloped heart) and Accessory+Shift (hearts) at 3.25". I also cut an additional scalloped heart in dark pink at 3.5" to make a shadow. I assembled the heart, and glued the banners in staggered layers to the front of the box. I used some Doodlebug Designs Valentine twine (say that 3 times fast! lol) to wrap around the box, then used pop dots to adhere the heart to the box. Super easy!

And you may be wondering what was the gift inside...well, my husband plays guitar so I thought it would be a great idea to get him a unique guitar pick. I found a wonderful shop on Etsy called Carrie's Custom Designs that sells hand stamped jewelry and other gifts. She stamps all kinds of cool stuff - including guitar picks. Here's is my custom created guitar pick that Carrie made. It's awesome!

My hubby loved his new guitar pick! If you need a unique gift, go check out Carrie's Etsy shop!

I'm linking my gift box project up on the following blogs:
Hiding In My Craft Room: #84 Super Scraps Saturday
Exploring Cricut: Be My Valentine
Fantabulous Cricut: #148 Be My Valentine

Have a great evening, friends!
~Melissa~

Valentine's Day Mailbox

Here's a Valentine's mailbox I made for my daughter to use at her school Valentine exchange. I used the Lovestruck cartridge for this project.

I used the fit to page option on a 12x12 piece of cardstock. The image cut at 11.5". After assembled, the mailbox is 3" tall and 4.75" long. Just big enough to fit Valentine cards! I used a solid pink piece of cardstock to cut the mailbox and flag, then after I assembled the mailbox, I cut pieces of patterned paper to fit all the sides of the mailbox. I attached the flag with a brad so the flag will raise and lower. Finally, I stamped my daughter's name on a heart shaped die cut and adhered it to the mailbox door.

I'm linking up at Exploring Cricut's Be My Valentine challenge. I hope you have enjoyed this project!

Have a great crafting day!
~Melissa~

Christmas Treat Bags

Tomorrow is my daughter's Christmas party at school, so I thought it would be fun if I sent some treat bags for her classmates. I was in a hurry (because I'm a HUGE procrastinator, and waited until today to make them...lol!) so I didn't embellish them as much as I would have liked, but they still are cute!

This was a super easy project to make, which is good because I needed a lot of them! I started with some 4x6 treat bags that I picked up at Michael's and filled them with 5 Hershey Kisses and 2 mini candy canes (plenty of sugar for a 4 year old!). While I was filling the bags, I had my Cricut cutting the toppers and oval labels. Both cuts are from Art Philosophy. The topper is <Square4> cut at 4 inches. I love the paper I used...it is an 8.5x11" stack from Hobby Lobby called Christmas Basics - such pretty patterns! I could get 4 topper cuts on each sheet, so I used several designs from the stack. I scored each topper in the center to make them easier to fold over and get them straight. The ovals are <Oval1> cut at 1.5 inches. I stamped "Merry Christmas" with a Studio G stamp I found in the dollar bin at Wal-Mart. Then all that was left was the assembly. I folded the tops of the treat bags over (these were the twist tie kind, not the ziplocks) and then folded a topper over that and stapled it on. I used my atg to attach the ovals so it would cover up the staples. Easy peasy!

I hope you liked today's project! I'm linking this up on Exploring Cricut's "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" Challenge.

Happy Crafting!
~Melissa~

Baby, It's Cold Outside Card

Happy Friday! Today I have a super cute card using one of my favorite cartridges...Doodlecharms! Isn't the snowman adorable?!?!

I absolutely *love* how this card turned out! I decided to experiment with some non-traditional Christmas card colors because I bought a 6x6 stack of fun Christmas paper that had this sheet of brown with multi color snowflakes on it. I thought it was cute but I had no idea what I could use it for, so I challenged myself to use it on a card. I started with a blank brown card, then layered a ice blue cardstock and then the brown snowflake paper with a white ribbon wrapped around both layers. I cut the snowman and shadow from the Doodlecharms cartridge at 3.25" and assembled all the layers. I added some blue rhinestone bling for his buttons and put him on an action wobble. I hand cut the 'flag' piece and stamped 'baby it's cold outside' (from Pink by Design Christmas Wishes set) in chocolate brown ink. I also inked the edges then added some faux stitching with a white gel pen on the blue layer and on the flag. The flag piece is attached with pop dots to give some dimension.

I hope you like today's card! I'm linking this up on Exploring Cricut's Christmas Card Challenge. Have a good weekend everybody!
~Melissa~

JOY Christmas Cards

I had a dear friend ask me to make her some simple Christmas cards with snowflakes on them, so here's what I came up with:

These cards give the illusion of a lot of detail work with all those snowflakes in the background (so says my hubby), but they are very easy! I used blue cardstock with white core and embossed it with a snowflake folder in my Cuttlebug. I could have left it like it was, but I decided to raid my hubby's workshop to "borrow" one of his sanding blocks. I like the sanded look so much that he may not get his sanding block back now! Then I tied some pretty silver shimmery ribbon to the front and attached this to a plain white card base (from those jumbo packs at Hobby Lobby...buy them when they have The Paper Studio items half price, and stock up!!!). I cut the J and the Y from the Once Upon a Princess cartridge at 3.5" and the snowflake O is from Create a Critter 2 cut at 3.5". I glued all the letters on and placed a blue jewel in the center of the snowflake for a finishing touch. I stamped the inside with a Pink By Design stamp from the Christmas Wishes set that says, "Wishing you sparkle, Wishing you cheer, For a bright Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year".  My friend liked the sample, so I made her 24 more. :-)

I'm linking this project up on Hiding In My Craft Room's Blue Christmas Challenge and on Exploring Cricut's Christmas Card Challenge.

Another Christmas card project with be posted tomorrow, be sure to stop by and check it out!
~Melissa~

Family Layout

I made this 12x12 "Family" layout for a design contest in a facebook group I'm in. I didn't win the contest, but that's ok! I now have an awesome layout to place a couple of my favorite pics of my family on. My hubby is building me a shadow box for this, so I can add a few more keepsakes in addition to the picturess and hang it on the wall. Here's a photo of the layout:

I'm hoping this picture is clear...my memory card on my digital camera is full so I took this photo with my cell phone. I found some awesome Spare Parts flowers by The Paper Studio on clearance at Hobby Lobby and couldn't pass them up! I loved the color combination, so I looked for some paper to coordinate and found this patterened paper by MME that matched perfectly. I cuta little less than half of the pattern paper and attached it to a solid piece of teal cardstock.  I had a tan scrap of cardstock that I used a Martha Stewart scalloped punch to cut each side to make a border and glued to the cardstock. Then I cut a 3x3 and 4x6 photo mat to put our pics on and arranged the flowers around them. I added some champagne Recollections bling trim to the border piece for a finishing touch. I used the Lacy Labels Lite cartridge to cut the "family" sentiment and label piece. All coordinating layers were cut at 3.5".

I can't wait until my shadowbox is finished! His honey-do list is getting longer these days, but I'll post a photo of the completed box once he makes it. :-)

Fall Bulletin Board

I'm back! Wow it has been a long month or so! Sickness has went through my house, not once but twice! It seems that since my daughter has started school, she catches everything...and then brings it home to share with mommy and daddy! I have made a few projects since my last post so I will be uploading pics of those projects today and tomorrow. Here's a project I completed a while back and never got around to posting.

I get to decorate a bulletin board at my church for our children's ministry. I needed a fall theme, so I thought an owl perched in a tree would be a cute start. The owl/branch and the leaves were cut from one of my favorite carts - Create a Critter! The owl was cut at 4.25". I gave him googly eyes, which I love! He is so cute! The leaves were cut in various colors ranging in size from 2" up to 3" and arranged as though they are falling from the tree. The smaller tree in the background is from the Bloom Lite cart at 6.5". I cut the letters with the Birthday Bash cartridge at 3", and the Bible was made from the book cut on the My Community cartridge at 5.75". I handwrote the Bible verse on the book and glued a satin ribbon down the middle of the book to make it look more like a Bible. I handmade the clouds, because at the time I didn't have a cartridge that had a cloud cut on it. The sun is a little wooden pre-painted cut that I already had on hand.

Stay tuned for more projects!
~Melissa~

Christmas Banner

I was in a Christmasy mood today, so I decided to make a Christmas banner. I am entering this banner in a Facebook group challenge and Hiding In My Craftroom Challenge #65 Freestyle.  I bought an awesome stack of Christmas paper that I've been looking for an excuse to use, and this was it!  The stack is from Hobby Lobby, called Christmas Basics (8.5x11). Here's my banner:

Sorry about the dark picture. I really need a newer camera! Maybe Santa will bring me one for Christmas. ;-) I used Pretty Pennants to cut <Banner3> and <BnrTop3> at 6". I handmade the rosettes. I cut strips of paper 1.5" wide by 11" long and used my Martha Stewart scoreboard to score at every quarter inch, folded, glued the ends together then pressed down in the middle to flatten the paper down to a base piece of paper with some hot glue on it. I cut the JOY letters & shadow using the Mickey Font cartridge at 2".  After I adhered the pieces together, I used a hole puncher to make the holes for the ribbon to run through (because Pretty Pennants does not cut the holes for you...found that out today! lol). I cut a piece of white ribbon approximately 24" long and threaded through the holes. I finished the banner with a red rhinestone jewel in the center of the O. I had to cover up the hot glue in the center of my rosette from where I assembled it! Here's a close up:

Hope you enjoyed this project!
~Melissa~

Thinking of You Card

Here's a simple Thinking of You card that I made for a FB craft group challenge and the Hiding in My Craft Room Challenge #65 Freestyle! And for whatever reason, my photo does not show the whole card (though the actual photo on my computer is fine)...both edges are cut off on this uploaded image! Wierd, huh? My blog is trying to give me a hard time I suppose! lol

I used a white card base and covered it with 2 different patterns of DCWV's paper from The Mini Stack (6x6). I added a strip of white ribbon, then cut 3 flowers from the Flower Shoppe cartridge at 2", 1.5", and 1", inked the edges with dark purple ink and layered my flowers. I added a flatback pearl to the center of the flower and attached it to the card. I placed 3 lavender rhinestones in the corner of the card, and finished with a "Thinking of You" stamped sentiment in green ink. I'm not totally happy with how that turned out...the ink looked a lot darker that it stamped so you really have to look at the card to see the sentiment. I left the inside of the card blank so a personal message could be written.

This card was really simple to put together. It probably only took 20 minutes start to finish!
Have a great crafting day!
~Melissa~