Bull Card

I am squeezing in a challenge that my friend turned me on to.  It's called Paper & Such, they have an online store & run a blog as well.  The current challenge is to use farm animals. I had to utilize the Cricut with my Old West cartridge, since I lack animal stamps.  This was a good challenge for me, since I wouldn't have gone this route otherwise.

Do you like my saying?  I made it up & stamped the small letters with Close To My Heart's Atomic Caps.  I love being able to make any words with these acrylics & a long narrow block.  The "Horns" was cut using Cricut's Old West as well.  I used a Martha Steward grass edge punch, added googlie eyes and tan horns, then drew on tiny flies with a gel pen.  If you've ever been around cows, you know the flies are always close by.

 

I think this would make a good graduation card, for someone with a sense of humor. 

Altered Project Link

Here is a link to my other blog project at Minnesota Junker.   It is an altered project using a garage sale purchase creatively.  I'll give you just a peek of what it is.............

Does that tempt you?  I hope you'll swing on over to my OTHER crafty blog.

Let It Snow

My dear sweet friend Erin sent me some Unity stamps that she had duplicates of.  I was so excited to expand my very small amount of these quality rubber stamps.  I decided to put one to use on the latest "All Things Unity" challenge called #38 Anything Goes.  So what did I stamp??? Christmas.... in August.  It's silly, since I attended the MN state fair, entered flowers in the nearby city Rutabaga Festival & gobbed on loads of sunblock today.  Here is my off season entry:

I added some glitter for a extra wintry effect.  The swirls were cut on my Cricut using the hot cocoa steam from Graphically Speaking.  The phrase is off the Winter Frolic.  I used Ponderosa CTMH stamping ink.  The background paper is K&Co. 

Thanks for looking, now enjoy the summer heat.

Glitter cards

Glitter can be soooo messy. When it's already on the paper & bought that way, it's a little easier to deal with.  I made a few more baby cards.  The first one includes glitter vellum.

The second card is K&Co paper. 

The creation uses vintage buttons & a acrylic frame.

Baby card are so fun to make, they have such cute elements & soft colors.

PUBLISH ME!

IN MY DREAMS, I WOULD GET PUBLISHED.  SO WHEN MY FRIEND TOLD ME ABOUT THE PRIZE AT COSMO CRICKET, I COULDN'T PASS UP THE CHALLENGE.  BESIDES, I ADORE COSMO CRICKET.  I FOLLOWED THE SKETCH THEY PROVIDED, ONLY CHANGING THE BUTTONS TO GEMS.


FROM THE "DELOVELY" KIT........

CHUNKY RIBBON BOW



 STRIP OF HAND CUT PAPER & GEMS



SEWED EDGE



GEMS & STICKLES

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY MY BLOG TODAY.  I HOPE YOU'VE ENJOYED THE BRIGHT COLORS & WHIMSICAL IMAGE ON MY COSMO CRICKET CARD CREATION!

Rockin' Card

My nephew is 16 today.  He's here, visiting from Oregon.  I tried to make him a cool card, the Teen Angst paper from We R Memory keepers was just what I needed.  It's all grungy and wild.

I did some stamping on yellow cardstock with Close To My Heart acrylic sets.  The "celebrate" is from the Happy Birthday set. The other is from Star Power.

The arm, 16, & music players were cut out of the Teen Angst theme paper.  The silver foil is awesome.

Here is what he's getting for his birthday....

Fitting, right?  How fun is it to match the card to the gift theme?  I love crafting.

YELLOW & GREY

TODAY I WAS EAGER TO FIND A CHALLENGE, I SETTLED ON THE TWO PEAS IN A BUCKET WEEKLY.  SHE GAVE PARTICIPANTS THREE OPTIONS : PAINT, HIDE YOUR WRITING, OR A COLOR SCHEME.  I CHOSE TO TRY MAKING A YELLOW & GREY LAYOUT.  I DIDN'T REALIZE HOW LITTLE GREY I HAD, UNTIL I FLIPPED THROUGH MY PAPER OPTIONS.  THE ONE I CHOSE WAS PRETTY COOL, FROM WE R MEMORY KEEPERS.  I BLENDED IT WITH THE "DELOVELY" KIT FROM COSMO CRICKET. 

THE FLOWERS WERE CUT FROM PRINTED PAPER &  LAYERED ON OTHERS. 

IT WAS FUN TO DIE CUT THE LEAVES OFF MY SISTER'S "PRESERVES" CRICUT CARTRIDGE.  I OUTLINED THEM IN GLITTER GLUE.  IT GAVE THE PAGE THE GLITZ IT NEEDED.

Cut those photos!

Every once in a while, I make it a point to cut a person out of a photograph.  Either the background is distracting or it would make a funny page.  You can put people in scenes.  I've seen people put kid's heads sticking out of sleeping bags.  I put my son driving a die cut jeep one time.  Get creative & cut those kids out!

This photo had a rock in the background, behind my son's head.  It just bugged me!

Cutting him out brings it to life & gives you more dimension, plus it's less distraction.

It's a simple page with lots of star die cuts & multiple colored gems.  I'm still pretty pleased, a simple page is refreshing once in a while.



I love the action sequence of these photos.  It's so fun for a little tike to splash in a rock puddle. 



Thomas the Train

I whipped out this card for a 2 year old's birthday last month.  It was simple, yet fitting. My son adores Thomas the Train, so I had some cute paper to cut up.  The train came to life with the goolie eyes!

Husband & Wife

I made a card for the My Mind's Eye Card Challenge #26.  The sample sketch had two tags with a strip across them.  It also needed a die cut or chipboard element and a sentiment.

The tags were cut on the Cricut Preserves cartridge from Kraft paper.  I masked an oval area and stamped them with a background.  I added the "husband" and "wife" in the area devoid of ink, then circled them with liquid applique & glittered it.  I did some faint sponge inking around the tags for an aged look.

I hope this post will give you some inspiration to try masking an area.  Then, fill the void with a word or image you want to highlight. This can also be done with chalk or Glimmer Mist.

New Technique!

A brainstorm today allowed me to use a corner stamp in a much different fashion. 

Stamp it 4 times, keeping the normally outside pointy tip to the center.  You will end up with some sort of original rosette creation.



The embossing powder took my creation to the next level!  The CTMH brad & metal filigree flower looks so sharp as a center. 

It kind of resembled a flower after I scallop cut it on the Cricut.  I could pass as an Inca inspired medallion of sorts as well!  The background was made by dabbing ink on the stamp for a faint image.

I really like the results, since square background stamps can be easy to screw up with defined edges!



Side-kick

This layout looks pretty frilly & precious.  However, very rarely does my life reflect such things.

It's from the Once Upon A...Sketch.  They did a nice job, but I will have to tweak it.  A LOT.

Today, I bring you a bad ass boy page.  This is not the first time I've used a mean knuckle fist image!

I love the Cricut Indie Arts cartridge.  It has some pretty rad stuff.  I make a lot of teen birthday cards out of it.  But it also suits my boys demeanor very well.

I did some faint stamping on the Clover colored CTMH cardstock background.  I just wad up a Kleenex & dab my acrylic stamp with some ink.  The results are a less than perfect look.  Grungy.

I did some journaling, to record the facts.

I just love these pictures.  They boys made guns out of marble ramps.  Then they used paintball masks, all Darth Vader style. 

Masking & Misting

This week at Two Peas In A Bucket, they are challenging scrappers to Mask & Mist.  I'm still learning about these techniques, so it was a good one to try.  I ended up having a lot of fun & created a clever layout.

I used contact paper that was cut on the Cricut with Stand & Salute(from my sister!).  After misting my title & border, I peeled it off & discarded it.  Then, more cutting on the Cricut with blue cardstock gave it a burst of color.  This also tied it to the photos, which were pretty bold.

Red glitter on the hats tied the reds together.  Here is a close up of that, it's pretty hard to tell in the other pic.

I alternated two tones of blue jewels on the photo area.  I really like recording memories, even if it was hot & there was NO chance of him smiling at that point on the Fourth.

Have you scrapped YOUR Fourth pictures yet?  It is one of my favorite themes, the colors are fun & we are so lucky to live in a great country!