May Your (Independence) Day Be MAGICAL!

Happy Independence Day Weekend all!

I normally don't make cards for this holiday, but I couldn't resist joining in on the current Scrappy Mom's Terrific Tuesday Challenge!

Here is my card:

A friend of mine really gave me some encouragement

this week, so I used this card as a thank you to her.

The challenge was to use the Stand and Salute Cricut cartridge, but I don't have that one, so I used a patriotic cut from A Child's Year. I think this cut of a child on a firework is so so cute! I added some Stickles and Scrappy Mom's bakers twine to the cut and added the Scrappy Mom's "May Your Day Be Magical!" sentiment from their Happily Ever After set. LOVE that stamp set!!

This card fits and will also be added into the following challenges:
Celebrate The Occasion "4th of July (Red White and Blue)"
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge # 66 "Happy 4th" - Use red, white and blue on your project.
My Craft Spot "Seeing Stars!" - Use a star somewhere on your project.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend celebrating the birthday of our nation with your family and friends!

Cards of Fathers Days Past

I know, I know . . . I'm so behind! I'm still talking Dads and Grads while everyone else has moved onto current events like our Nation's birthday! Hopefully I will get better about staying on current holidays and seasons, but before we turn the calendar tomorrow to July, I wanted to post my Father's Day cards from years past. I really like that I did that for Mother's Day and I think I will try to do that for every holiday that I make cards until I'm caught up. It's great to just hop on my blog anywhere and look up what I've done in the past, so really it's a great resource for me.

So, here are my Father's Day cards from years past:

 2005 Cowgirl theme- We made sugar cookies for the Dads!

 2006 Barbecue theme - We gave a local BBQ sauce

with some other BBQ related things!

 2007 Movie Star theme - We gave

microwave popcorn in this gift set!

2010 Wanted theme - I know, similar to 2005,

but I really liked the Stampin' Up Wanted set

and decided to put photos of the Dads instead of

giving photos of my girls! They get enough of my torture.

Unfortunately, however, I am missing 2 years - 2008 and 2009. My PC died in 2009 so I lost some of my crafty projects and shamefully didn't have them backed up. I know 2009 was a coffee theme with coffee beans in a shaker card, but I don't have a decent photo of it. And 2008 I have NO recollection!! I must have had a theme, though - I always do! :)  I'm hoping that in visiting family houses in the near future or by going through some of my saved memorabilia (husband's cards) that I'll find the missing cards and will update this post.

Thanks for bearing with me as I utilize my blog to index past craftiness for myself. I'll be back with a fresh project soon!

For a Berry Sweet Graduate!

Here is my last graduation card for the season (well at least I think it is!):

I came up with the idea during one of my many recent visits to Bath & Body Works' semi-annual sale.  There is a Berry Vanilla collection that came out last year that I just love, and they brought it back for the sale at 75% off - at least at my local stores.

I used my Gypsy and the Simply Charmed Cricut cartridge for the berry, Wrap It Up for the graduate cap, Lasting Impressions red dotted patterned paper, and I outlined everything with Stickles - shocker, huh? :)

I'll attach this berry-shaped card to a bottle of the Berry Vanilla lotion and add either a gift card or cash to the inside of the card. I haven't decided which one yet since this is for a grammar school graduation.

Well that's all I've got for now. I'll be back soon with my card for Scrappy Mom's Terrific Tuesday Challenge - YES!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday!

Lots and Lots of Graduation Owls!

As promised (for a while now- Oops!), here are my graduation cards that were all owl-themed. It was the classic choice since owls are associated with graduations and the fact that owls are so in style now, right?

The first set are traditional graduation cards made tall to fit the checks inside and accented with each graduate's school colors:

I added a strip of cardstock to hold the checks on the inside:

The next set of graduation cards aren't your traditional cards. They are candy wrappers! I purchased my Godson's favorite candy (Kit Kat), and his best friend's favorite candy (Swedish Fish), and created these especially for them:

The opening of the wrapper has the check on one flap and then the conGRADulations message on the other piece. I used a small amount of repositionable adhesive so that the wrappers could be reopened.

The owls from all of the graduation cards/wrappers were cut using the Straight From the Nest Cricut cartridge. The graduation caps were from Everyday Paper Dolls, and the patterned paper was in my stash from many years ago.

I was inspired to make the candy wrapper-style grad cards after seeing Gigi the Cricut Bug's graduation pillow boxes. I really liked that idea, but thought wrappers would better serve my candy than a pillow box. Gigi's were absolutely adorable, though!

Well, I'd say that's it for graduation, but I do have one more card to make that snuck up on me. Since I'm SO DONE with the owls, I had to go with a different theme for this last addition. I will post it soon.

Have a good weekend, fellow crafters!

Irresistibly Sweet!

Apparently Tiffany from Sparkled Memories thinks my blog is irresistibly sweet! How very SWEET of her! Thank you, Tiffany! She bestowed this adorable award on my blog:

And might I add how yummy the photo in the award looks!!

The rules for the award:

1.) Send a thank you to the person who nominated you and include their link.

2.) To accept this award, answer 7 random facts about yourself.

3.) Pass the award to at least 8 other blog buddies.

Random facts about me in no particular order:

• I love Bath & Body Works, particularly their scents that involve some type of vanilla. Right now I really like Apricot Vanilla! And ya gotta love that their semi-annual sale is going on right now!
• Along those same lines, I like Yankee candles, especially their food scents (they also have a sale right now!). I mostly burn tarts because I like to mix scents and be able to change the scents often. Fireside and Vanilla Cupcake make a great s'more at the campfire scent!
•  Speaking of campfires, sitting at them are some of my favorite moments of summer and fall.
• I hope to live in Colorado someday. I just love the mountains and the great odds of seeing sunshine on any given day!
• Diet Coke is continuously pumping through me. No joke.
• I listen to K-Love Christian radio station daily. I like that it helps keep my focus on God on days other than just Sunday in Church.
• I originally purchased my Cricut for scrapbooking, but have done VERY LITTLE scrapbooking with it - for myself anyway. My plan is to get caught up on upcoming card needs and then tackle some scrapbooking. Wish me luck!

Ok, I know I'm taking the easy way out, but I just love ALL the blogs I follow! I get so much inspiration and encouragement from them. Blogging has truly become my Happy Place! My BLOGS I LOVE list is to the right. If you're on it, please take this blog award with pride!