Good Morning Summer!

Yes, I know that officially summer doesn't start until June 21 (or something like that) but we all know that in our hearts, summer started yesterday. :-) 

We had a nice, long weekend. Hubby did some work in the yard. I played in my art room. We cooked lots of yummy foods. Overall, a very nice time BUT we both have today off as well so the fun continues! lol

I have been in hyper card mode this past week. I didn't realized that I was until I pulling all the photos for today's post. My My I was a busy girl.  :-)

I needed a Father's Day card for hubby (from the cats). Hey, don't judge me! ;-)

I used Create a Friend for this little fellow. He normally holds a spatula (great for BBQ invitations) but I switched that out for the cat dish from the Meow cartridge. The background is embossed with one of the folders from Cuttlebug's Retro Kitchen set.  I had the Explore write on the apron because it just looked like it needed something.
It is hubby's job to feed the babies their canned food every morning....and they let him know if he is running late. Boy do they let him know! lol

Next I made this little diaper bag card. All the parts come from Doodlecharms (except the tag). I cannot take credit for this design, I found it on Pinterest. You can see it here http://liveloveandscrap.blogspot.com/2010/08/diaper-bag-shape-card.html She has a wonderful tutorial video and she has all the measurements on her blog.
I love that the bear and bottle are removable from the pocket. So cute!

Last Friday, Joann's was having a sale. Cricut cartridges were $19.99. Now I need more cartridges like I need a hole in my head. But c'mon! $19.99! So I picked up Cindly Loo and Birthday Bash. This adorable Snail is from Birthday Bash. The background layers are from Elegant Edges. The pink layer was embossed with Cuttlebug's Musical Flourish. 
I let the Explore write the Hello on the card. How can you not love a machine that 'hand writes' for you? Especially when your hand writing is as bad as mine?! lol

But we are not done yet folks! lol

Saturday we headed out to one of the local strawberry farms. There is nothing like fresh strawberries! These were so sweet and juicy. I could have eaten the entire box....but I didn't lol
Instead I made this card. How can you not smile when you come face to face with a happy bowl of strawberries? The berries come from Simply Charmed. The tablecloth from Elegant Edges. I embossed it with one of the folders from Cuttlebug's Paper Lace set.

Yesterday, in the Let's Learn Cricut Explore facebook group, someone posted a photo of an oven box they had created. It was so adorable! She tried to share the file (you can share your cutting files with the new Design Space---how cool is that???) but I couldn't get her file to cut. I kept getting errors. (she has since fixed her file and I can cut it - woohoo)  But after all that trying, I was really in the mood to make an oven lol  I decided to make an oven card and see if I could add a 'twist'. The oven door really opens! But it also opens in the back as a card as well so I can add sentiments or a message inside. :-)

The stove image is from Suburbia, the pot and pan come from From My Kitchen, the oven mitt and phrase are from Nifty Fifties, the tab that holds the door closed is from Artbooking but I know I have seen them on I think Tags, Bags Boxes and More or Fabulous Finds and the steam coming out of the pot is from a cup of coffee on the Winter Frolic cart. I also welded the steam and a small circle onto the phrase to create the question mark.

I had so much fun designing this card that now my mind is swirling with more ideas for other similar cards.

I sat down late last night (since I didn't have to work today - yay) and created the following card.

Yep, a toaster where the toast comes out. :-)

The toaster is from From My Kitchen, the bread is from Wild Card 2.
My thought was that you could write your message on the part of the toast that is inside the toaster or on the back. This morning I tweeked the design and turned the toast into an actual card you can open. That is what happens when you create way past your bedtime....better ideas come when you are fully awake lol
But, last night I did add a note to the back of my toast. :-)

That is all I have for you today (I am sure you are very thankful for that lol) But I have already designed a refrigerator that I hope to get cut sometime today ;-)

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

I love my playtime!

I still can't believe we are in the middle of May. I swear Christmas was just a couple weeks ago! But I am very thankful the winter weather is gone. :-)

 

 

I have squeezed in lots of play time over the past couple weeks. It is sometimes a struggle to balance life and play but so worth it in the end when I feel happy and have a stack of lovely things to share. :-)

 

 

I'm going to start with my Cricut projects

 

 

Last weekend we were supposed to go to a citywide yard sale. As I have mentioned many times, I love yard sales and flea markets. I love coming home with lots of treasures and art supplies for very little money! But last weekend it was raining so hard that if you were outside more than 10 seconds you were drenched (and freezing cold). So, after attempting a couple houses, I gave up, came home and put a batch of chili in the crockpot.....and created this...

 

Just a little something to remind myself that even rainy days aren't all bad. She comes from the Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge.

As we were eating our chili (and homemade cornbread) for dinner, we watched Despicable Me. And I just had to make a Minion card. I found a Minion svg file and downloaded it into the Explore. It cut out great!

According to my Google searches on the Minion language, Bello means Hello.....who knows but it looked cute to me lol

Even though I have already mailed out my Father's day card to my dad, hubby still needed one for his dad. The fishing creel is from Everyday Paper Dolls, the pole and fish are from Outdoor Man.

Yes, I know, you can only catch one fish per line but the card just looked so much better with two. Artistic license lol

Hubby's aunt is turning 90 next month and loves all the cards I make for her (to the point that she carries them around to show all her friends - and yes, she is out and about golfing everyday, lunches, works out at the gym.....I hope I am half as active as she is in my later years!!!). I made this card using Freshly Picked for the potted geraniums and Elegant Edges for the 'tablecloth'. The tag is from Picturesque.

My mother-in-law's birthday is in July and since I was in card making mode I went ahead and made up one for her as well.  I used the brand new Anna Griffin Summer Soiree cartridge for the butterfly card base. The layered butterflies are from Paper Lace.

I managed to find a little bit of stamping time as well.  I love the CTMH Give a Lift balloon set .
I used ultra fine black embossing powder to make the lines really pop. I then tinted it with watercolor pencils. I used distress inks and water to tint the flowers.

The back is blank so I can use it as a gift tag on some future date.

And finally....yes, I am almost done lol  I loved Tim Holtz May 2014 tag. I like them every month but some months call out to me more than others. This is one of those months.

I wanted my tag to be a reflection of things I love. I have a seashell because I would rather be at the beach than any place else. The dragonfly I tangled onto a game tile years ago then tossed it into a drawer because I couldn't decide what to do with it. I love dragonflies, I love zentangles and I collect hundreds of various game tiles for art projects. The postage stamp is there because I snag stamps wherever I can to use in projects of all types. They are such cool little works of art.  I love and collect vintage buttons (I have at least 10 quart mason jars full lol). The moth is rubber stamped, how could I showcase things I love and collect without having something rubber stamped??? As for the brass flower...well, I liked how it curved around the hole in the tag and I have had that thing sitting in my ephemera drawer for at least 20 years and thought it finally needed a home. :-)

And lastly, the debossed word....this is from Tim Holtz new ShadowPress embossing folders. They are so cool!!!
I embossed it on kraft paper as a test to see how it looked figuring I would use a different paper for the actual project then couldn't decide on what paper to use. I let it sit for the night and woke up with what I thought was a great idea...I would antique it! I love antiques!!! It fit perfectly with my theme! I swiped a few strokes of Ceramcoat Alpine over the paper. Once that was dry I applied a coat of Americana's Weathered Wood crackle medium. You have to wait at least 3 hours (so I hit the yard sales for a while) then I made random swipes with Ceramcoat's Ivory over the top making sure to let some of the green and the kraft paper show through. Lastly, once the paint was dry, I rubbed Distress Ink Walnut Stain all over and then buffed off some of it. I love how it turned out!

I hope you all have a very creative week! We have a 3 day weekend coming up. I am hoping to squeeze in a few hours of art time (between all the BBQs and fun) :-)



So many ideas, so little time

I feel like I have been spinning in circles this week. I have so many things I want to do and just can't find the time!

Plus, we are starting the 'busy season' in my family. My parents like all their holidays smacked up together so we have Mother's Day, then dad's birthday, next is Mom's birthday and then Father's Day. That is a lot of shopping and a lot of cards to cram into a 4 week period! lol  To add to that, since they don't live near me, I ship everything together to try to save a little.  Needless to say, I had to get busy finishing up my cards! (Mother's Day is only a week away ya know!)

In case you missed it, here is the birthday card in a box that I made for my mom a couple months ago. (see I really try to not wait until the last second lol)

I had made her a Mother's Day card around the same time but, although I like it, I decided to make another one...yeah I don't understand it either.

The flower pot with flowers is from Freshly Picked, the tag is from Picturesque, the blue thingy is from Elegant Edges. I let the Cricut Explore do the writing on the tag. I embossed the top of the background with the flowers from Cuttlebug's Plum Blossom set. And those are button brads in the centers of the flowers.

 



Making cards for my Mom is so much easier than making cards for my Dad (or for men in general). Why is that?

Over the past week I had to figure out what to make...

My Dad loves his truck....he has so many bells and whistles on that thing! lol
Here is a picture of it.

I tried to recreate it on a card. The 'background' trees and road as well as the truck are from Outdoor Man. The background shape is most likely from Elegant Edges. I used a shiny silver cardstock that was actually packing material from something. It worked great for all that chrome! lol

And then we have Father's Day. I embossed cattails onto the cardstock using Darice's Nature set. The geese are from Outdoor Man. And of course I let the Explore do the writing. Can I just say that I am so happy that the Explore writes! My handwriting is HORRIBLE so now I have nicely written cards! Yay!

And of course we have a graduation in June. My niece is graduating from high school. Poor thing, her school colors are blue and gold (ugh! I am a buckeye...we do NOT do blue and gold!!!) And her gown is going to be that obnoxious gold. Yuk! Hating yellow/gold as I do, I just couldn't put that horrible of a color on the card....sorry lol  I did my best and toned it down to a light yellow which is still sort of bright but not glaringly so. (it is a little brighter in the picture than in person) ;-)

The grad is from Paper Dolls Teen Scene, the numbers are from Art Deco. I swiped the glasses from one of the boys on the cartridge....he was wearing sunglasses in the shape I wanted. I took his sunglasses, welded the lenses to the frames which turned them into glasses. Now she looks just like my niece. You can't really tell in the photo but the shoes and glasses are purple....that girl loves her purple! lol

But I played this week too....sometimes you need to do stuff just for you!

I experimented with stamps and the Cricut. I love stamping but am not always a fan of cutting out my images lol  I stamped my image then filled it in and went a bit outside the lines. I then scanned this and imported it into Design Space. I let Cricut cut it out and then I stamped on the cut.

This is a stamped I carved of Tucker at least 15 years ago....he was going through his chubby period.

I then did the same thing with one of my favorite stamps, a yowling cat from Mars Tokyo.

I need to work on lining up the stamp on the cut but you get the idea.

And finally, I just got an order from Close To My Heart. I am in love with the Balloon Ride paper pack (X7180B) and the Give a Lift stamp set which has 2 gorgeous balloons as well as some sayings and other goodies (D1581)!  The swirls are from the Skylark Scrapbooking Workshop set (D1591). I also added some 'postage' from the retired set Vintage Post Card.

This week looks like it is going to be another busy one....plus I just found out I am going to be a grandmother (we need to find another, not so old sounding, name for that) so that means another card to make :-)

If you are interesting in the Close To My Heart papers and sets I used please check out my website www.CherylWrede.ctmh.com