Just Be-claws Beach Scene Card

Happy Friday everyone! And not only is it Friday, it's a Friday before a 3-day weekend-YES!

Before I head into the holiday weekend's festivities, I wanted to jump into a few of the fun challenges going on right now with this "Just Be-claws" card:

Supplies used:

• Cricut Life Is A Beach cartridge (crab and palm tree)
• Cricut Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge (clouds)
• Circle punch (sun)
• Red, white, light blue, teal, brown, light brown (sand-like, torn), green, light green & orange-yellow cardstock
• "Just be-claws" sentiment from Scrappy Moms' Furry Friends Clear Stamp Set
• Scrappy Moms' Caribbean Baker's Twine
• Black Versa-Mark ink, Ranger clear embossing powder, Mary-Uchida embossing gun
• Fiskar's wave edge scissors
• Stampin' Up Dimensionals
• Stampin' Up Crystal Effects (glossy effect on crab)
• Wiggle eyes for crab

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Scrappy Mom's Terrific Tuesday Challenge  - Make a project with the Cricut Life Is A Beach cartridge!
2. Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Me Monday # 61 "Blue Skies" - Make a card or project using the colour blue and at least one cloud.
3. Little Red Wagon's Challenge # 81 - Use a tree on your project.

I hope everyone enjoys the Memorial Day holiday! And thank you to all who serve our country to protect our freedom. God bless! 

Happy Birthday . . . And Many More! Cards

After church and shopping with my girls (including a trip to Michael's to use a few of those great coupons going on right now - Woohoo!), I sat down this afternoon to make some general birthday cards to have on hand. The need seems to arise frequently!

I found the design on Splitcoast Stampers, which led me to Ilina Krouse's My Creations blog. She makes some wonderful creations with Stampin' Up products. Check her out!

Here are the cards I made in my own "stamp-a-stack":

Supplies:

• Blue and orange Recollections cardstock from Michael's and white Georgia Pacific cardstock
• Lasting Impressions red dotted and green checked patterned paper
• Stampin' Up Party Hearty Set for banner (handcut) and "...and many more!" sentiment
• Stampin' Up "Happy Birthday to you!" from Birthday Wish stamp set (did not color in "to you" part, though)
• Stampin' Up original Bold Brights markers to ink up all stamps used
• B Is For Boy Cricut cartridge to make "Happy Birthday" frame and "...and many more!" frame (very handy to use the Cricut Expression when you are making multiples - just set that quantity button, Baby!)
• Stampin' Up Dimensionals to pop up the banner and both frames

Challenges entered:

• FCCB # 60 - "Try This Angle" Make a card or project using a rectangle and a triangle on it.
• Card Creations & More by C's So Saturday Challenge # 10 - Create a project that pops, wobbles or shakes.

Now I have a nice stash of birthday cards on hand. Next I need to get crackin' on the many graduation cards that I need for upcoming parties! I also need to assemble the remaining candles for teacher gifts and put together end-of-year gifts for my daughters' chapel buddies at school. Too bad that thing called WORK gets in the way of my crafting! Can't believe tomorrow is Monday already (insert pout face here) . . .

I hope you all have a fabulously crafty week! Can't wait to visit your blogs and see your creations!

In God's Eyes, You SHINE! Baptismal Bday Cards

Happy almost Friday, my fellow crafters!

I must say I am a much happier camper on Thursday and Friday when the weekend is in sight - especially with how busy work has been. I did manage to create the cards I've had in my head and in my Gypsy last night, though, and I'm so excited that they turned out the way I imagined them:

Supplies:

• Two Forever Young hand mirrors welded together on my Gypsy and cut at 7 inches in height to form card base
• Pewter mirror cardstock from JoAnn's individual cardstock sheet racks
• Purple and bright pink cardstock from Butterfly Wings Recollections pack sold at Michael's
• White Georgia-Pacific cardstock from Walmart
• Darice sticky cross and round gems from JoAnn
•  "You Shine" Sentiment from Scrappy Moms' Sweet Somethings Stamp Set (embossed with black Versamark ink and Ranger clear embossing powder)
• 2 Peas Champagne Font for "In God's eyes," and inside wording
• Scrappy Mom's Lilac and Pink Sorbet Baker's Twine 
• Fiskars scalloped scissors for the tag

I'm pretty happy with how these turned out. My girls and even my husband commented on how great they looked - Wow! I'll be sending these off next week with ice cream gift cards for my Goddaughters' upcoming baptismal birthdays. Yes! Another  couple of cards off my list! :)

I linked this project up to You Had Me At Craft's Made It Myself Monday Linking Party:

Come link up, too, and join the fun!

Have a great weekend all! Hopefully I'll be crafting some more during it.

I am so flippin' EXCITED!!!

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!! I entered FCCB's Challenge Me Monday challenge # 59 and was awarded the Top 5 Award by the FCCB Design TEAM!! I know you can't hear me, but I'm screaming right now!!!!!

And thank you, Amber, at My 3 E Scrapbooking for letting me know by leaving a comment! That was a fun way to find out. If you could imagine my eyes popping out and me racing to get onto the FCC Blog, that pretty much describes the scene. Congrats to you, Amber, on earning the Top 5 award, too! If you haven't seen her adorable teacher project, then visit here.

This has definitely surged a desire to join more challenges for me! I am so glad I started a blog and have been able to join the wonderful family of crafty bloggers out there. Thank you all for your encouragement!!

Think I better get crafting, huh? :)

Cherry Candle for Teacher!

WOW! Two posts from me in one day! Guess that's what happens when I get a free day during a weekend! And let me tell you, I am LOVIN' it!!!!

Well, I was busy doing some copying of designs again. This time I copied myself - LOL! Bath & Body Works had their 4 oz candles on sale again, 2 for $10.00, so I purchased a few as teacher gifts. Then I packaged them up like I did for my friend's gift back in November (see post here):

 This is what the candle looked like before I wrapped it . . .

Of course I had to bling up those cute cherries with Stickles!

Voila! A gift ready to give to a special teacher!

Supplies:

• Cupcake holder cut from Real Red Stampin' Up cardstock using Cricut Sweet Treats cartridge at 7 1/2 inches
• Cherry patterned paper from Stampin' Up Summer Picnic Designers Series paper
• Cherries cut from Cricut Country Life cartridge and blinged with Stickles
• Darice red gingham ribbon
• Scrappy Mom's new Honeydew Baker's Twine
• Tag printed from PC using Scrap Baby font and cut with Fiskars Scallop Paper Edgers

I am entering this teacher gift in Fantabulous Cricut's Challenge Me Monday # 59 "Teacher Feature" Challenge. It says "Make a card or project for that special teacher with the color red on it." Woohoo! I'm cruisin' now with these challenges! :)

Also, I wanted to share what I received from my older daughter/crafting buddy for Mother's Day last weekend:

I got one of those yummy smelling Slatkin & Co. Summer Berries candles from Bath & Body Works (which she knew I liked) with a homemade tag, a hand-drawn horse in a frame, AND a homemade horse card using the Cricut and Gypsy!! She made it while I wasn't home, so I was so impressed that she made it and put all of my supplies neatly away without me even suspecting! Pretty awesome, huh?

My younger daughter gave me a sweet handmade card, some Bath & Body Works lip gloss and travel-sized shower gel that I wanted, and a very thoughtful handmade mini-poster of things about me from her perspective. I wanted to keep those equally special gifts a little more private, though. I sure was spoiled this Mother's Day, wasn't I?

I hope to keep my crafting momentum going and make some more things this week. Go, Jen, go!

Golfer's Birthday Card for my Dad

Next weekend is my Dad's birthday! When thinking of my Dad, my mind almost always goes to golf since he loves the sport so much. He doesn't play that often anymore due to bodily ailments and having to care for my Mom all of the time, but he still watches it on TV and keeps up with all of the pro players!

Here is my simple card for him:

All of the cuts came from the Cricut Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge. I was actually grabbing for my Sports Mania cartridge when I saw the little golf cart on the spine of the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge. I completely forgot that it had golf images on it!

I embossed the golf ball with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder, but flipped it to show the debossing to mimic the dimples of the golf ball. Then I stamped "Happy Happy Birthday" and "father" using My Pink Stamper stamps. I would have preferred Dad, but father is what I had, so I went with it.

I am entering this card in the So Saturdays Challenge #9 at Card Creations and More By C, which I discovered through Gigi the Cricut Bug. Thanks, Gigi! Gosh I love that girl's blog! Her card is way better, but I'm still just trying to dabble in this challenge thing. It definitely pushes me to get crafting more! :)

Ok, off to work on teacher gifts for another challenge. Have a great week, my fellow crafters!!

Happy Anniversary using Once Upon A Princess!

I am SOOOO happy that Blogger is back up! I wanted to post for 2 days now, but no such luck. My computer was pretty cranky, too. Hopefully my PC is ok- fingers crossed!

Here is my entry for the latest Scrappy Mom's Terrific Tuesday Challenge, which is to use the Cricut Once Upon A Princess cartridge:

All of my cuts came from this cartridge, can you believe it??? This is a surprisingly versatile cart, I must say. The card base was welded together on my Gypsy using the Tag creative feature on p55. The tag for the sentiment was made using the shift function of the same Tag feature from p55. The ring was from the Layer creative feature on p56 and a square Basic Grey designer rhinstone was attached. Lastly, the flowers were from p76 using the Font and Gem creative features and blinged up with Stickles. You would think there would be more flower options on this cartridge, but this did the job okay I guess.

I embossed the front of the card with the Argyle Cuttlebug folder to follow the diamond theme I had going, and then heat-embossed the Scrappy Moms' sentiment, "all because Two people fell in Love," which is from their Sweet Sentiments Stamp set. Of course now I want the new Happily Ever After set. LOVE it! :)

Well, that's all for now. I want to craft some more this weekend, so hopefully I'll be posting again soon! Have a great and crafty weekend all!

Mother's Day Card 2011

I have to give credit where credit is due. I have to thank Gigi of The Cricut Bug for helping me along with my Mother's Day card design this year. I already had it in my head that I wanted to use the doily card on the Cricut Wild Card cartridge (pretty much the main reason why I bought that cartridge recently!), and then of course I had to use the color palette from this photo of my girls:

So when I saw Gigi's Mother's Day easel card, I knew how to proceed with my card. Thank you for your creative guidance, Gigi!!!

The funny thing is that I starting flipping through my DCWV paper stacks and found the green pattern paper that I ended up using in the All-Occasion Ultimate Stack. When I went back to my PC to look at Gigi's easel card, I noticed that the paper I picked and the pattern she used were EXACTLY the same!! I really didn't mean to do that! I didn't even know the brand of patterned paper she used. My oldest daughter and I looked at the sheet in my hand, then looked back at the photo on my PC monitor, and boy did our eyes pop out!! Pretty funny, huh?

Here are the cards I made:

Supplies:

• Doily card base from Cricut Wild Card cartridge cut from white cardstock
• DCWV green patterned paper from All-Occasion Ultimate Stack
• Flowers and emblem shapes cut from Cricut Forever Young cartridge from Stampin' Up Marina Mist and white cardstock
• Crystal Stickles for flowers (on all other cards except my Mom's)
• Dew Drops on flowers for my Mom's card
• White ribbon (Stampin' Up for my Mom's, Offray for other cards)
• "Wonderful Mother" sentiment from Well Scripted Stampin' Up stamp set (my Mom's card only) embossed with black Versa Ink
• 2 Peas Blessings Font by Jennifer McGuire  (all other cards except my Mom's) and utilized the Center Point function on my Cricut Expression

So, now my Mother's Day cards are done - YES! I do have A LOT of cards to still make, though - anniversary, graduation, baptismal birthdays, and then of course Father's Day cards for next month - Ugh!! Breathe, Jen, breathe!! Crafting truly is my sanity-saver, though, so although it seems like a lot of crafty projects on my plate, I will enjoy it. :)

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!

Cards of Mother's Day Past

I can't believe I've only been stamping and into serious card-making since 2003! It feels like it's always been a part of my life. My Sister-in-law invited me to my first Stampin' Up gathering in the Fall of 2003 and I've been HOOKED ever since!!

As I was just adding photos of my 2011 card to my Mother's Day folder of crafting projects, I got all nostalgic and looked back on my past cards. So, I thought it would be fun to post my cards from past years!

2004 ~ Newbie Stamper

2005 ~ Could have used the Cricut a lot sooner, huh?

That hand-cutting gets old!!

2006 ~ Awe! My girls were so cute! Can you tell I loved

dressing them in Gymboree outfits???

2007 ~ Yep, more Gymboree outfits . . .

2008 ~ This was the year that all 3 of us had matching

Gymboree dresses! Yep, I 'm one of those!

2009 ~ The oldest outgrew Gymboree this year, so it was onto

Justice outfits. Not as nice to me, but these were ok.

2010 ~ Cricut enters my Mother's Day card-making scene!

(Forever Young cartridge)

3-Card gift set made for my sister/Godmom using

the Cricut Forever Young cartridge in 2010

As you can probably tell, I'm very big into photo cards. Every year I include a photo of my daughters, but some years the photo was not the main part of the design. The colors from their outfits, though, always dictate my color palette. And that goes for all of the other holidays I make cards for, too.

Well, that's it! I hope you enjoyed the walk down my crafty Mother's Day Memory Lane. Now I have to get my 2011 card posted! BRB!!

Bring on the May Flowers!!

Happy May!! I'm so happy it's May - no more April showers, please!! And we're closer to more consistent warmer weather, being outdoors and school getting out - YES! I really enjoy as a Mom when we get to relax on the schedule and take a break from all of the school activities.

Since Mother's Day is less than a week away now, I thought I'd post something I made last month for my Grandmother's 90th Birthday, but could be made and easily given for Mother's Day:

I saw paper flower arrangements on the Cricut Message Board awhile back and was intrigued. And since my Grandma's memory is slipping away a bit, I thought this flower arrangement will help her remember who everyone is in our VERY large family.

Supplies:

• Flower cuts and wooden-looking sign from Cricut Walk In My Garden cartridge
• "Happy 90th Birthday" from the Cricut Alphalicious cartridge with wire attached to them
• Green picks from the floral dept at Michael's (I had 25 family members to add to the arrangement, so I was lucky that 25 green picks came to a package!)
• Moss, styrofoam piece (inside holding the picks), and flower pot (such a cute find!) from local dollar store 
• LD Aloha font from Lettering Delights (Nice and bold for my Lil' Gram to read!)
• Photos printed on photo paper and punched with a 1 inch punch

The project was a snap to put together. Gotta love that! I know I could have done much better on the flower designs, but there were so many family members to make flowers for, so I thought simple was best. It's already pretty crowded and overwhelming in the pot!

I'll be busy making my Mother's Day cards this week. Thank you to you all for the wonderful inspiration you've been providing on your blogs! Have a good week everyone!