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

ATCs and Contests

Ok, let me start with.....Rain, Rain Go Away!!!!!!!!!

It is pouring even as I type. I know spring is just around the corner, my ornamental plum is beginning to bloom. But these downpours could stand to lighten up a bit...in my opinion. :-)

Here is the current view from my art room window.

 

 

Enough whining, on to the art!

I am entering a contest....I have not entered a contest in years and YEARS! And never one for Cricut. But, since I have fallen back in love with my machine and am totally obsessed with it I figured why not?!

This weeks challenge on the Fabulous Cricut Challenge Blog is "Pick a Holiday". I chose Christmas. Is there a better holiday???

I love this card! It is simple yet elegant (in my opinion lol)
I used the Joys of the Season cartridge and added highlights and shading with Prismacolor pencils. The background was embossed with Tim Holtz Sheet Music texture fades folder.

I think this might be the design I use for this year's Christmas cards!

Of course I could have used the following card for the challenge as well! I made a birthday card in a box for my Mom (her birthday isn't until June but I am obsessed and making ALL my cards early lol)

I love the concept of these cards! You can find instructions in lots of places online and tons of video instructions.....just search for "card in a box". The cool thing is that it folds up flat and fits into a standard envelope for mailing!

I used several Cricut cartridges for this:
Birthday fairy ~ Teddy Bear Parade
Packages ~ Celebrations
Cupcakes ~ Celebrations and Simply Charmed
Text - Create a Critter

The background paper on the box flaps was embossed with Cuttlebug's cupcake background folder.

Here is another view. Notice the embossing is reversed on the front flap....on purpose...so that the text would adhere better.  :-)

And finally, the ATCs.

I belong to a few online art groups but I think those things are falling by the wayside. None of them are very active any more. You very rarely see anyone post anything. Possibly because Yahoo has made such a mess of the groups pages that it is next to impossible to figure them out or use them (but that is a whole other issue)

Anyway, the Bad Babies started talking the other day...complaining about the weather but at least they were talking. And we are going to have a SWAP! The first one in ages!!!  We are having an ATC color swap. I take this to mean the ATCs have to be colorful since we are so sick of gray! lol

We have to create 3 ATCs. I completed 2 of them yesterday and have an idea for the third.

ATC #1

The background paper is from DCWV Garden Party stack. The butterfly is from StampIt and the text stamp is from Tim Holtz.
The butterfly is colored with Prismacolor pencils. The text was stamped with ColorBox chalk ink and then highlighted with a Sakura pigma micron pen.

I think this one definitely fulfills the 'color' criteria.  :-)

 



ATC #2

My second card goes back to my love of French images.
I again used the Garden Party stack for my background paper. The white flowers and swirls are a glitter embossing already on the paper (which created a wonderful resist when I added the distress ink to the edges). The trees stamp is from Inkadinkado stamped in black StazOn and the foliage added with acrylic paints. The word Paris is from Impression Obsession and the Eiffel Tower comes from the French Manor Cricut cartridge.

Until next time.....Stay dry, keep warm and keep making art!  :-)