Wow! Summer has officially arrived! And I am fighting to find time to spend in my art room. What with gardening and playing outside (and work of course). But I have managed to grab some time here and there over the past few weeks and have a few things to share today.
Let's start with Tim Holtz' tags of the month. June is a watercolor technique that was sooooo much fun!!! You can see his instructions and photos on his blog.
I used the Schoolhouse stencil and tried it with a couple different color combinations.
I love the soft, blended look and the green one just screamed summer beach to me. I will probably use the red one for a fall, back-to-school project.
Here is my finished tag.
The girl is from Oxford Impressions, the stamped shell is Inkadinkado, the fish (yes, there is a fish swimming by above her head) is from Tim Holtz. The 'label' was cut and written on the Cricut.
Here is a close up.
Real shells and sea glass are glued at the bottom.
I am entering my tag in the monthly contest on Tim's blog. Wish me luck. :-) (and someone remind me to actually go enter....I tend to forget that part lol)
And of course I made a bunch of cards over the past month as well.
I was still in my mood to have the note card slip down into the shape (instead of just a folded card) so I made this typewriter for my mom. She had a typewriter just like this when I was growing up....she got it as a gift when she was in high school.
The typewriter is from Suburbia. The paper was cut in such a way that it cannot be removed from the typewriter. My mom loved it!
My nephew has a birthday coming up very soon. What on earth do you put on a card for a 17 year old boy? Well, I put a car. lol
The car is from Nate's ABCs, the words are from Close To My Heart Artbooking. The card itself is even brighter than the picture. I call it glow-in-the-dark green. This is one really bright card! lol
And since it is summer now and I am wishing that I had a vacation planned (but I don't) I sent myself to the beach via projects.
Here is a cute card I made to try out Cricut's drawing ability. I have written tons of things with it but never let it draw instead of cut an image.
The drawn sandcastle and the crab are from Miss Kate's Cuttables (how can you not love that crab? lol), the Bear with shovel and bucket is from Little Scraps of Heaven Designs. I was very pleased with how well it drew the intricate castle.
I was also in the mood to do a 3D project. I have several carts that make boxes and such but if I don't NEED one then I don't make one....who has room to store all these things??? But I really wanted to make something so I played with the Summer Soirees cartridge and created this.
It is small and cute (from top to bottom it is only 5 inches tall) and the perfect size for one of my bars of soap...so guess how everyone is getting their gift soaps this year?! lol
And then some days I just like to drive myself nuts I guess. Let me just say this. I love the Disney cartridges, I love Disney so being able to produce my favorite characters is wonderful. BUT they have sooooooooooo many pieces that they can be a real challenge.
The front of the card....easy peasy.
The inside..... cut at 2.5 inches, these stripes and such are a pain in the butt to assemble! lol But isn't he cute?
And lastly, I created a couple hearts for the Heart for Healing project. You can read about it here.
All the parts were cut on the Cricut. The stamps are from Close To My Heart. The bird is from the Fabulous You set #C1533, Believe is from retired set Be Happy #B1298.
I hope you all have a wonderful week. Until next time, happy crafting!!!
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!
