Personalized Graduation Card

I'm baaaaaaack!!!!!!!!

I know it's been waaaaaaay too long!! I finally got motivated to get back into my crafting last night and made a card for a graduation party I am going to today. Nothing like waiting until almost the last minute, right?

This is the 3rd daughter graduating within 2 years from this family, so I wanted to make a card similar to the ones I made for her older sisters, but yet be a little different.

Here it is:

School colors=navy blue and orange

The photo was sent with the grad invite,

so I scanned it and cropped it into a star.

 

Below are the older twin girls' cards I made

2 years ago (prior to having my blog).

I used Gypsy Wanderings for the "Congrats" on those,

but everything else is pretty much the same.

 

Supplies:

• Cricut Life's A Party cartridge for "Congrats!" phrase
• Orange, navy blue and white cardstock
• Cuttlebug stars embossing folder
• Stampin' Up ticket corner punch
• Harrington PC font
• Foam Dots to give dimension to "Congrats! "phrase

The triangles that hold the check were just squares I cut in half. Then I carefully applied my ATG adhesive to the edge of the triangles where the check would be furthest from. The nice thing about ATG is that you can sort of roll it with your fingers to get it to be in the place you want it. That's what I did here.

Part of the reason why I've been away from crafting so long is that I got a puppy! Her name is Bella, and she got to meet Cricut tonight! This is how it went . . .

Isn't she the sweetest?? The photo below was the day we adopted Bella 1 month ago at the tender age of 6 months old! She is an American Bulldog mix. In my experience, mutts are the BEST! And the high school mascot where we now live is Bulldog, so now we have our Bella the Bulldog!

Most would say I rescued her from her shelter, but I'd say I feel rescued, too. :)

Enjoy this beautiful Summer day wherever you are!

Valentines for my Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!! Well, not for long, but the spirit of love should live on throughout the year, right? :)

I made a couple of valentines for my sweet valentines, my girls, last night. I know - Eleventh hour, right? Story of my LIFE lately!!!

Anyway, I wanted to jump into My Pink Stamper's 10,000 Hits/Pinkalicious Blog Hop challenge, so I made the cards to fit the challenge - make a project using red, a circle, pink ribbon, two My Pink Stamper stamps, and a diecut.

This is what I came up with:

Front

Side

Inside

Back

Supplies:

• Cricut Birthday Bash cartridge for scalloped circle card base cut at 4 " and mat circle cut at 3.75"
• Cricut Gypsy Wanderings for heart cut at 2"
• Colorbok textured 12x12 paper purchased at Walmart
• Stampin' Up Pretty In Pink cardstock
• Stampin' Up Real Red cardstock
• Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirls embossing folder to emboss pink mat circle
• Stampin' Up Pretty In Pink 7/8"organza ribbon (purchased several years ago)
• "Love Always" and "Handmade with love by" sentiment stamps by My Pink Stamper 
• Stampin' Up Real Red dye ink

Simple, right? I left a lot of room on the inside of the cards to write a special message to each girl. The cards matched well with the gift bags full of girly goodness I gave them tonight. My valentines were spoiled with lip glosses, lotions, mini purse mirrors, cozy Aeropostale slipper socks, Aeropostale necklaces plus LOTS of yummy chocolates.

The My Pink Stamper set I used on the card is extra special because I won it at Robyn's class at CHA in July 2010!!

Emma of My Creative Time took this pic - so cool!!

What a craft geek I am here - My Scrap Queen tee

from Michael's (pink of course!) and wearing my

Cricut Imagine bug sunglasses on my head-LOL!

It was so much fun to meet these crafty celebs in person. They were all so fun!

Well, I gotta hit the mattress ball as my awesome "Nawlins" friend would say. Have a good remainder to your week all!



S'more Birthday Gift Ensemble

WARNING: Pic heavy!!

Here's me 2 years ago with my birthday "cake"

while camping in my real life happy place, Colorado.

And yes, that is a stick lit as my candle!

This week I've been busy making a fun gift for my daughter to bring to a friend's birthday party. I know I went way above and beyond for a kid friend birthday gift, but I was inspired by my new Scrappy Moms Happy Camper stamp set and some of the recent challenges going on. But most importantly I had fun making it (isn't that what it's all about??) and it makes for a fun blog post! :)


Here is the ensemble:

The card/anti-bac holder  - The tutorial

I used can be found HERE. Thank you, Jan!

What anti-bac scent? S'mores of course!

Key Ingredient # 1

I was tempted to get the generic, but these are

America's Favorite after all. It says so on the package.

Must be true.

Key ingredient # 2 - Love that they make

the squares now. Of course the box says Limited Edition,

 but they'd be crazy to discontinue it!

 Key Ingredient # 3 - But let's face it-

If you didn't have 1 or 2, you could live on this one.

 This sweatshirt is the main gift that got my idea engine

going. My pre-teens are obsessed with Aeropostale!

 This was a Wal-Mart find. I figured it

could come in handy for this sporty friend.

Supplies:

• Cricut Campin' Critters cartridge (campfire on bag, s'more on card/anti-bac holder)
• Cricut Gypsy Wanderings cartridge preloaded on Gypsy (water bottle vinyl)
• Cricut A Child's Year cartridge for candle on s'more 
• Cricut Cuttin' Up font cartridge on the gift bag
• Cricut white vinyl
• Stampin Up Kraft and Night of Navy cardstock; orange and brown Recollections cardstock, & tan and white cardstock from my scraps
• Scrappy Moms Happy Camper, Simple Sentiments and Sweet Somethings stamp sets
• Black Versa Color ink, Ranger clear embossing powder and Marvy Uchida heat gun
• Stampin Up Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip ink with sponge for card/anti-bac holder edges
• Fiskars deckle edge scissors and Fiskars ribbon punch for all of the tags
• Rafia
• Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder for "graham crackers"
• Hobby Condensed font for tag and card wording that is not stamped
• Velcro dots to close card/anti-bac holder
• Orange Peel Stickles for candle flame

I am entering this ensemble into the following challenges:

1. Cricut Cartridge Chaos Challenge #26: Campin' Critters
2. Celebrate The Occasion # 24: Kid's Birthday!!!
3. Whimsical Wednesday # 16: Fun With Folds! 

Remember that I have my 100 follower challenge going on! I'm just 10 away from mailing out a Christmas stamp set! :)

Enjoy your weekend!

Colorado Bound!!

Our Spring Break plans are made! We're heading to our family's "Happy Place" - Colorado! In honor of this exciting prospect, I updated my scrapbook frame in my home office last night:

I got a Gypsy for my birthday last June, but haven't used it too much. I think I've been a little intimidated! But lately I've needed to weld letters and such, and have found that it's not too difficult to use! I love that I can use it anywhere, create a bunch of layers, use several cartridges on the same project, have the ability to weld, and save the project until I'm ready to put my Cricut machine to work. My inspiring decoration above was made completely on the Gypsy and was pretty easy!

Supplies used on my frame:

• Cricut Camp Out Solutions Cartridge (mountains, bears, mountain lion)
• Gypsy Wanderings Cartridge preloaded on Gypsy (sun)
• Cricut Old West Cartridge ('Colorado Bound' letters)
• DCWV sky paper
• Bazzill cardstock

Usually the ribbon across the frame with the mini clothes pins is toward the bottom, but I wanted Colorado Bound to be in the sky, so I flipped it. I'm happy it's versatile like that. BTW, my husband made the frame for me. I wanted the Creative Memories white frame when it came out, but my husband said he could make one for much less. So, that's what he did!

Well, that's it for now. I'll try not to be such a stranger and post more often. The truth is I've been busy visiting all of your wonderful blogs!! Keep your creativity coming!! I LOVE IT!!!