Another altered frame...

I have really enjoyed learning to make these frames. They are so inexpensive to make and the options to customize them really are endless. They make great gifts, and with Christmas around the corner, I think I need to be making some more of these for family and friends! Here's my most recent frame project:

The picture really does not do this paper justice - bad lighting+camera on phone=not great picture! The colors are so vibrant in person. The paper is from a Melody Ross stack that I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby - I love a bargain! I painted the edges & back of the frame a bright yellow to bring out that pop of yellow in the paper. I Mod Podged the paper to the frame and added some paper flowers (that I found in the dollar bin at Michael's) to the bottom corner to add a finishing touch.

Birthday Card!

I made this quick birthday card for my daughter's friend's birthday. I realized the morning of the party I forgot a card so I had to make one pretty fast. To be so rushed, I think it turned out well! Here's the finished card:

I used a brown card base, and all the rest of the papers were scraps! I love it when I am able to find uses for all those little pieces of paper! I cut the cupcake and its layers using the Birthday Bash cartridge - page 58 <Cupcake> at 3.5 inches. I cut the happy birthday sentiment also on the Birthday Bash cartridge - Page 69 <phrase-s> at 2.25 inches. I used my Cuttlebug to emboss a strip of pink paper with the swiss dots folder and added ribbon for a little extra something. After I attached the striped paper and the embossed strip, I attached the cupcake with some pop dots so it really stands out from the card! I also made a mat for the sentiment and attached that with pop dots. I used stickles to add sparkle to the sprinkles and the sentiment.

I think the birthday girl really liked her handmade card! I hope you all like it too!
~Melissa~

VBS Follow Up Cards

After another long break from blogging, I'm back! I've still been crafting, but have not had time to post any of the projects I've made until now. Busy, busy, busy!

Our church had Vacation Bible School over the summer and our theme was Amazing Wonders Aviation. We had 6 fun filled nights learning about God's amazing power. All the kids had a blast! There were lots of kids that participated in our VBS that did not regularly attend church, so I was asked to make 80 follow up cards that went with our theme to invite the children and their families back to our church. I kept it pretty simple since I had to make so many. Here's what I came up with:

I used the Cricut Lite cartridge B is For Boy to cut the airplane. Each plane was cut at 3.25 inches, in assorted colors (all with a blue base though), and the coordinating layers were added.  I purchased two boxes of assorted color card bases with envelopes from Hobby Lobby for this project....that saved a ton of time since I didn't have to cut cards/envelopes with the Cricut! I used my paper trimmer to cut 12x12 pieces of cloud paper into fourths and applied to my card base. Attached the plane on top of that and sketched some doodle lines to make the plane look like it is flying. I used my printer to print out the 80 "Thanks for coming to VBS!" sentiments, and attached one in the bottom corner of each card. The inside of the card had our church meeting times and a space for each VBS teacher to write a note to their student.

Have a great day!

"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~