Cuttlebug Christmas

I took some Christmas papers and ran them through the Cuttlebug to make them textured.  I like the way the card turned out.  The ribbons for bows on the packages are from JoAnn Fabrics.  I got a bag of 24 for less than $2 in a sale bin.  I used Swiss dots and Snowflake Cuttlebug folders.

Thanks for stopping by.  Leave a comment if you can.

Sue

S-fold Animal Cards

I've been playing again.  This time I was trying to use up all the critters I created when I purchased the Create-A-Critter Cricut cartridge.  I decided I would make birthday cards for children using the S-fold technique.  So, I got out my scraps of paper, card stock and went to work.  Here are the results.

So many critters, so little time...sigh

I love S-fold cards.  Anything interactive makes the cards just more fun.

I love using the Cuttlebug on the images to add more dimension. 

Thanks for looking, please leave a comment if you can.

Sue

Halloween Treat Bag

I had so much fun making the Christmas Treat Bag, I decided to make one for Halloween.  Scrappy Frogs Challenge was to create a Halloween treat bag so this is my entry.  I am making these for my grandchildren and my cousin's grandchildren.  I don't give candy, instead I give pencils, erasers and popcorn.

A bag full of goodies. 

Even fulled loaded the bag stands on its own.

I reinforced the holes with eyelets.  The cord is cross stitch cording in black with silver highlights.

This is what is inside the bag.  The pencils and the erasers are from the Dollar Store.

This is an easy project with a great potential.  Hope you like it.
Sue

Blanket Stitch

The challenge at Cricut Cardz Challenge this week is "For challenge # 45, make a card for Thanksgiving using any cartridges you'd like and any colors you'd like."  I tried to make something different.  It is inspired by a tree skirt.

I have never done a blanket stitch before, but it wasn't bad once you figure out the mechanics.  I would do it different next time - maybe a square card.

the front

Card opened

Showing easel

I used jute to do the blanket stitching all around the circle.  The circles were cut from George at 5 inches.  I nudged two together to form the card base.  I cut two separate ones for the card topper.  (I needed the extra one to hide the taped thread behind the images.) I looped a small piece of jute under the leaves on the inside of the card.

The Cricut cuts are:
Turkey - Stretch Your Imagination - cut at 1.67" 3 one red, 1 brown, 1 yellow - I trimmed piece parts and glued together for the complete turkey


Pumpkins - Holiday Cakes - 1 at 1" I trimmed the vines from the image

Branches (under flowers on top)- Calligraphy- 3.55"  Cut 2 (be sure to flip 1)

Phrase - Lyrical Letters - 1.67" - Cut the pine cone twice green and Kraft card used parts of each.


Lace Doily - Mother's Day 2010 - Cut at 4.68" fits on inside of card.


Somehow, I've lost the ability to make my pictures zoom when clicking them.  These are as large as my blog will allow.  The flowers are Prima, the buds and copper leaves come from a flower pick I got at the dollar store, the button and gems are from my stash.  The card stock is Bazzill. 


Thanks for stopping by.  Please leave a comment if you can.


Sue

5 for 1

Hi everyone.  I've been trying new things lately wanted to share them.  I don't know if you go to PaperWishes ; I go there to see the videos on new products.  Paulette is always talking about how many cards you can get from one 12" x 12" sheet of scrapbook paper.  So I tried it out.  I got five cards from this first sheet:

The black crow was in the upper right of the sheet of paper.  These are all A2 cards.

 I also got five from this sheet:

This is a nice way to come up with 5 quick cards.    Thanks for taking a peek.

Sue

Doily and Lace Party!

I received my package from June my swap partner.  What a happy, happy lady I am!  June, I'll never be able to thank enough.  Inside the brown envelope were so many pieces of treasure - I was just bubbling over with enjoyment.  Here's a picture of the entire stash:

A lovely hand written note accompanied this collection of  goodies.

I took several picture of the contents so you could see the beautiful pieces of lace and the wonderful handmade gifts June sent.

First the laces:

Over 21 yards of lace!  Thank you June.

Each rolled, pinned and tagged with the cutest little hand stamped and punched tags.  Doesn't that pink lace look like a rose?

I pulled a small section out of each roll so you could see the lace details.  They are gorgeous!

 Now the lovely roses June crocheted for me.

This is a skill my mother tried to teach me, but I failed miserably at crocheting with thread.  June these are wonderful, and I am using the beautiful red one on a layout of my mother's pictures.  Thank you again.

Now the doilies:

OMG, these were a beautiful surprise.   I didn't know they had lace stamps.  These are sprayed with glimmer mist and they are so splendid.  The colors are great.

Now the hand made pins June sent.  I can't even begin to give them justice in words, so I took several pictures.  The were inside this lovely green organza bag, wrapped in a paper doily.  The work June must put into these.  I am so humbled by her talent.  Thanks again June!!!

These are the first half of the pins.  Yes that's right the first HALF...

A closeup of those pins.

Here is the second half.  Aren't they just  beautiful?

I wish I could take better photos.  I tried to get in close to get the details.

 Saying thank you just doesn't seem enough, but thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Thank you June for the lovely items you sent.  Thank you Kirsty for letting me be part of the swap.  Thank you to all the participants.  I love looking at your creations and reading your blog posts.  I feel like I've made new friends and that is the best thank you of all.

Blessings and Hugs
Sue

OWH Birthday Card

Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps is the bloggers circle for the organization Operation Write Home.  They offer tutorials, there is a cute circle card there now, and challenges as well as information about the cards for the men and women in the U S Armed Services.  The current challenge is this sketch:

I chose to make a child's birthday card.  Since glitter is not allowed, I always try to decorate the cards with other fun embellishments.  These are Puff Stickers.  They add dimension and imagery at the same time.    If you don't make cards for a charitable organization but would like to, OWH is a great, great organization.

Thanks for stopping by.  Leave a comment if you have the time.

Sue

Soldiers need birthday cards to send home to their children.

Closeup of Puff Stickers.

Another closeup of the card.

Papers from England

There are three places I like to spend hours browsing.  One is a library, one is a craft store, and the other one is a book store.  I purchased a copy of Papercrafts for the UK.  It came with a small packet of papers for Christmas.  They have a glossy finish and are repetitions of a single small image.  At first I didn't like them, but they grow on you.

To make this Christmas card I selected a sheet that has a candle with holly as the image.  I also got this gold doily as part of the freebies with the magazine.  I thought the brightness of the gold and the size of the doily gave the background paper less of  blurred look.  The scene and the tag are also from this paper pack.

Winter Wonderland asked for a male Christmas Card.  I think this is very appropriate for a male recipient.  Thanks for stopping by.  Leave a comment if you have the time.
Sue

This is the paper package.

The card is a standard A2.

Close up of the scene - it is raised up on foam tape.  The doily has a lot of detail.

A close up of the tag show the detail of the repeated images on the paper

Flower Buttons

A few years ago, my DIL and I made a trunk full of doll clothes for my two granddaughters.  I made the clothing for the 18" dolls and she made the Barbie doll clothing.  I used to go to the fabric store and raid the remnant basket for fancy fabric, ribbons, lace and buttons to use for the doll clothes.  I don't remember where I found this huge bag of assorted plastic buttons, but I use them all the time.  They are gold and have tons of designs on them.  For this card, I used a big gold sunflower to represent the sun, and three black roses.   The golden stem on the roses is part of a Christmas tendril that I flattened.  I made this card for the Paper Playtime Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.  Please leave a comment if you have the time.

Sue

Buttons and Bows and Bling, Oh My!

This pic is angled a bit better to highlight the gleam.

Close up of the black roses

Close up of the sunflower.

Designer Paper

For challenge # 61 at Paper Cutz Challenge we were to make a card, LO or craft project using 3 patterned papers.  I chose my three papers from a K & Company  Floral Dreams.  I didn't use the Cricut for this card.  The small flowers were punched as well as the scalloped borders.  The butterfly started out white.  I inked it with Creamy Brown to soften the contrast with the beige paper.

These were the sheets of DP I used.

I used the swirl as the flower stems.

The inside of the card.

Closeup of punched flowers and butterfly.

This was a fun challenge.  This is a pack of paper I rarely use.  Some of the sheets are beautiful and others are just not my style.    Thanks for stopping.  I appreciate any feedback you have to offer.


Sue

The easiet gift bag I've made yet!

Jenn Diercks at SplitCoaster Stampers has a great tutorial for a Double Pocket Bag here.  It is a great project and only takes one 12x12 sheet of paper and some scraps.  I made this one plus a card to go with it for the Gift Set Challenge at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long.

It only took a few minutes to fold and make the bag.  It took me longer to find the embellishments I wanted to use.  I thought this wouldn't be too frilly to use for a male gift bag and card.  The hounds-tooth print and the ric-rac give it a country feel.  The santas were puchouts I got at Big Lots.  The poinsettias are from Prima.   The paper is from a "BIG ideas" specialty Christmas book.  It's the same book I used to make the village scene card. 

I plan on making a few of these bags for the school bus driver, the teachers at my grandson's elementary school and just to have on hand for unexpected needs.

I have two envelopes of hot cocoa mix and 2 small candy bars in the bag.  There is still room to put more.

The bag alone.  The background paper is foil.  It was a little difficult to crease, but still worked fine.

The card alone.  I haven't finished the inside yet.

Thanks for stopping by.  Please leave a comment if you'd like.  If you haven't left a comment about the mini tutorial, please do so here.

Sue

Question to followers

Hi everyone.  You don't know how much I appreciate you stopping by my blog and signing up to follow me.  I enjoy reading all your comments and learn much from your suggestions and hints.  I can't believe 58 people are following my blog.

Now, I have a question for all of you. Would enjoy seeing how I make a mini album similar to my gift to Mary at Cardz TV?  Here is the one I made for her......http://cardztv.blogspot.com/2010/09/coffee-and-cards-episode-13.html  The new mini won't be that exact one, instead it will be a Holiday Recipe Book. Since I don't have a video camera, nor the skill or inclination to get one, I would be creating several  individual posts with step by step instructions.

Would you be interested in seeing my steps in making the mini?  Again, thank you so very much for following my blog.   Keep smiling and crafting!

Sue

Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge

This is my first time to enter the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge 20 Mindy's Lovely Sketch.  This week was to follow this sketch.  Go check out the fantastic designs their design team and other entrants made.  Wow! They'll blow you away.

Mindy's Fabulous Sketch

I made a birthday card.  You can never have enough especially with two teenage granddaughters that live with you.  They always have friends with birthdays.  I used blues, pinks, and white.  I'd like to thank Diane over at http://capadiadesigns.blogspot.com/  She gave the inspiration for the border design.  It allowed me to perfectly match the background paper and the border. 

Card Front - Prima flowers were used

Closeup of the flowers

Close up of the bottom of the card

The inside of the card

And back to the front...

 Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment if you have a chance.  I'd love to hear from you.
Sue

http:/ Cricut Card Challenge #44

 A Tri-Fold Halloween Card is the challenge at Cricut Card Challenges this week.  A Child's Year has so many wonderful images that it's hard not to find an occasion to use it.  This little witch "trick or treater" is one of my favorites. 

I bought this sheet of black and orange sparkle paper to scrapbook, but found the pattern way to overwhelming to make a page.  Even in small doses it is really busy.  But the spiders are so cute.  I thought the tri-fold card and backing the girl with green and orange toned it down just a bit.  I was hoping the rhinestones would make it appear that she is whistling while she goes from house to house.  

There are some awesome projects for this week by the design team and the entrants.  Please go take a peek  You won't be disappointed.

Hope you like.  Leave a comment if you have time.  I took off the verification word.  Sorry, I didn't even realize it was there.

Sue