I've been sooooo busy!!!!

I made nine of these sweet treat cards for a friend to give to the kids in her life - I really hope she appreciates all of the work that went into these, lol!  It took me all night to cut, glue, and stick, but I got them done.  Four are for boys, five are for girls.  Most cuts are from the Easter seasonal cart, with the exception of some of the shorter grass, which is from Plantin Schoolbook.  Lots more to do over the next few days for my family now, but at least these are done! 

The insides are just stamped with a "Happy Easter" sentiment at the bottom so she can write in whatever she wants.  The candy corns were actually from Michael's - you know, one of those "impulse buys" right near the register, and they suckered me in, lol.  But I really like the way they came out.  I do love my sweet treat cups from Stampin' Up, and you can get them from Barb here:

http://www.snowmanlover.blogspot.com/

The various papers are from a combination of Michael's and Stampin' Up, and the stamps are from Michael's dollar bin.  Thanks for visiting!

Easter card

My boyfriend and I were out playing tennis yesterday, and the church down the street had it's bells ringing out the tune "The Old Rugged Cross".  As I found myself singing along, this card popped into my head.  The cross is simply the Pooh font cart wood feature used to cut a lowercase "t", and grass cut with Plantin Schoolbook.  The purple ribbon is from Michael's, the background paper is from DCWV Rustic stack, and the "hill" is hand torn.  I bent up and inked the grass blades for some dimension, too.

The outside and inside sentiment were printed, and the sunrise was the toughest part.  It probably doesn't even look like a sunrise, but I made it up myself from the basic shapes in MTC with a circle and rectangles, using the warp feature.  Also, the clouds are from Pooh and Friends.  Thanks for visiting!

Birthday card for my niece

I made this for my niece, whom is turning 22 - yes, 22.  I'm closer in age to being her sister than her Aunt, but it's ok!!  Anyway, she loves Eeyore, so I had to dig out my Pooh and friends cart to make this.  The hat was from beyond birthdays, and the background paper is from DCWV Sweet stack.  You can't see it, but the ribbon I put on matches the style of ribbon that's on the cupcakes on the background paper!  Yeah, I'm weird like that.  The inside was stamped with SU cupcake wheel and birthday set.  Thanks for visiting!

Easter egg bag

Here is an Easter egg bag I made with a free SVG file from SVGcuts.com cut at 11 inches.  The orange and yellow layers are DCWV glitter cardstock, although it's not really visible from this picture.  I put on some green stickles and a bow, and all I have to do is add some Easter basket grass and candy!  Each of my seven nieces and nephews wille ach get one of these for Easter in a couple of weeks.  Thanks for visiting!

Something a little different

Well, I'm not around my craft supplies, including my Expression, this weekend while I am at my boyfriend's, so I decided to try something a little different today.  This is from a file that I bought at http://www.myscrapchick.com/, and it is actually hand cut from a printed PDF.  I will say this, after cutting these pieces out by hand, it REALLY makes me appreciate my Cricut even more!  The PDF contained all of the colored pieces, so i just cut a white cardstock to 10"x5" to make this a 5x5 square card.  A little inking on the beak, head, and cheeks and it was done.  Very simple card today - but I think she is pretty cute!  If you own MTC or SCAL, you really should check out this site for some great cut files.  Thanks for visiting.

Any occasion card

This card was inspired by something I saw on the cover of a card magazine while waiting in line at Michael's - lol.  It think it was PaperCrafts???   Anyway, it was a tree and button theme, so I did this as my take on it.  I intentionally left off a sentiment because I don't know what I am going to use it for just yet, and I want to keep my options open!

The trees were cut with MTC and a file from Myscrapchick.com, the hills were hand cut (roughly, lol),the brown ribbon is SU, and the buttons are SU from the Fresh Favorites and Sherbet collections.  The paper used for the hills is also SU from a designer series pack that was included in Snowmanlover's Spring card kit, and I just drew on the "stitching".  The green swirled paper for the tree tops and the blue dot paper is from a new K & Co pack out right now, and it has some really cute papers in it.  I will post the name of it and a pic when I am around my supplies again this weekend.

The cardstock for the base is also SU, and it's Certainly Celery, which I LOVE.  No matter how many variety packs of cardstock I buy, this green is never replicated, so I think I will be sending in an order, Barb!  I think I covered it all now, so, thanks for visiting today!  Tomorrow will be a fun Easter posting!!

Hello Thursday!!!

OK, so normally I don't go crazy with the new cartridges because of my financial situation (see below, lol) but here is today's newsletter from PC.  If you go to the site and scroll down, you will see the part I am most excited about - Cuttlebug folders will now be made to COORDINATE with the cartridges.  WOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!  So excited....check it out here:

http://www.cricut.com/blast/hellothurs0318.html

Have fun!

Facelift!

     Thanks again to The Cutest Blog on the Block, I have given my blog a spring/Easter facelift.  I'm inspired because it has been unusually warm here this last week or so, after a winter with 85 inches of snow!  Yes, that is a record for Philadelphia and this area, so it was amazing.  It seemed like we got hit one right after the other with these Nor'Easters packed with snow.  We literally had two storms hit us in one week, with almost 20 inches of snow in each.  At one point, I conisdered moving to Alaska - my cousin there had 6 to 8 inches of snow this year.  Hmmm....anyway, I digress. 

     Welcome to all of you who are coming here from the Cricut MB for the first (or maybe not the first) time!!!!  I know my talents are still in their infancy stage, so please leave those comments and let me know what you think and what I can do to improve my work!  I almost feel like I'm starting the blog all over again after posting, and seeing Barb's post, in this thread!!  Thanks for visiting, and I am going to be very busy over the next few weeks, so there will be many, many new posts nd projects to come soon!  I am currently working on animal books, and since there are seven, I will be doing an "animal book week" as soon as I get them all done.  Thanks for visiting, and hope to see you all soon!!

Ice cream card

Here is a shaped card I did for a birthday from the Sweet Treats cartridge card function - love it!!!  I went with traditional strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate ice cream just to test it out.  I used divine swirls CB folder on the ice cream, and used the candy cane folder for the cone.  To get the criss-cross look, I just turned the folder backwards and ran it through the CB again!  The inside is just a smaller shadow cut for the sentiment.  Thanks for visiting!!

Butterfly birthday

A friend requested a black and red card for her Aunt, so this is what ended up coming out of my brain.  The butterfly is from Home Decor, and the stamp is an SU.  Ribbon is from Michael's, as well as the black and white patterned paper (open stock).  I threw on some red stickles in the black areas of the butterfly and a couple of red gems on the sentiment, just to give it a couple of finishing touches.  Thanks for visiting!

Springy birthday card

A friend of mine had a birthday yesterday, and since I am chronically late, which she already knows, I am just getting this out to her today.  I did call her yesterday though, so it's OK.  Lol.  I used SU ribbon and green striped paper (largest daisy), an SU button from the Latte collection, an SU stamp from the birthday collection, and the background paper is from DCWV Sweet stack.  I know I've said this before, but I love this stack, and last week JoAnn's had DCWV for $8.99, regularly $19.99.  I got three more of these stacks!!  But how easy is it to use this paper, cut out a few daisies, throw on a ribbon and a sentiment, and be done??  Very easy, let me tell you.  The daisies were cut with MTC at various sizes for layering.  Thanks for visiting!

Cute card I got!!

My youngest nephew, who is 6, made this for me and gave it to me yesterday.  He loves to watch me make my cards, and recently I made a cute bunny card that he used as a model for this.  Stay tuned for my version soon, but here is what he made me.  I thought it was a great job, using a butterfly-shaped paper and turning it upside down to get the look of a bunny.  He is such a sweetheart, and this just proves it, so I wanted to share!  Love him so much!!!

Barb's blog candy!!

Hi everyone!  If you are looking for some fun, awesome blog candy, head on over to Barb's blog at:

http://www.snowmanlover.blogspot.com/

Here is a little preview of what she has in store, once she gets 400 followers.  For complete details, head on over and visit her!

Good luck everyone!

Blog award!?!?

The question marks are because I'm not really sure I'm deserving of this, but Snowmanlover (Barb) gave me the Sunshine blog award.  I'm thirlled, and I want to thank her for this!!  So much fun.  It is perfect timing, since the sun is FINALLY out, full and beautiful here, and the snow is almost gone!  Thank you again Barb, and I shall try my best to deserve this award you gave.

So very scraplifted!

This is not my original design, but the paper and embellishment choices are.  This was a card posted to the Cricut MB, and Jin was nice enough to share the MTC cut file, so I quickly jumped on it.  The file is available on her blog, here:  http://underacherrytree.blogspot.com/

I used her file, Plantin Schoolbook for the grass, and the ribbons are from Michaels.  Can you tell the ribbon on top says "spring" in all different spring colors?  Yeah, neither can I.  But trust me, it does!  To add some dimension, I bent the grass blades up a little and I think I may add a little white flocking to the lambs, but have not had a chance yet.  Thanks for visiting!

Birthday cupcake

This was an easy card, although there was a lot done to it.  First, the cupcake is from doodlecharms. I used divine swirls on the icing portion, and candy cane stripe on the wrapper portion (you can't really see that).  The plaid background is from DCWV Sweet Stack, and the plain cardstock is from a Recollections pack from Michaels.  The wheel stamp is the cupcakes wheel from SU, I added stickles for the sprinkles, and then a few gems and a gingham bow from a MS pack.  Thanks for visiting!

An Homage to Snowmanlover!

So, every part of this Easter card is from Barb's Stampin' Up site!  She put together all of the papers, cardstock, and ribbon in a Springy Card Kit, and the sweet treat cups I ordered separately.  Barb is so sweet, and I wanted to make an "all-Barb" card, lol, to thank her for her great kits.  You can visit her site here:    http://www.snowmanlover.blogspot.com/

The egg was finished off with some stickles for a little extra, but the cardstock, paper, ribbon and sweet treat cup are all from Stampin' Up.  The sentiment was cut with the new Easter cartridge, the grass was cut with Plantin Schoolbook, and the egg was a leftover cut from an Easter treat bag I cut with MTC (see several posts below).  Thanks for visiting!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Although I'm not Irish, I love decorating and making cards for any holiday - and since green is my fave color, it's kind of a no-brainer with this holiday.  Very simple card here, I just cut the hat and shamrocks from paper Doll Dress Up, inked the edges, inked the beige squares, and pop-dotted the hat.  The sentiment is actually a sticker from Michael's, and it's by Jolee's Boutique.  Thanks for visiting!

S-fold card

After a few months of making cards, I was ready to branch out and start trying out new folds.  So this is my first attempt at an S-fold, and it was so easy, I can't believe I waited this long!  I found a great page on Split Coast Stampers with all of their tutorials on many different card folds, and you can find them by going to the home page (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/) and clicking on "projects". 

For this one, I used cardstock from DCWV Sweet Stack (I highly recommend this pack to everyone), with yellow and pick plain cardstock.  The flower was from an old embellishment set I got from HSN of all places, and the pink gem was from Michael's.  I just inked a little silver along the edge of the pink, added a ribbon, and that was it.  Also, after this was taken, I cut a square of yellow cardstock with a sentiment for the inside, and fit it to hide perfectly behind the pink square.  I am planning on making a stock of these to have on hand, they were that easy.  This was for a friend's sister, so I hope she likes it!  Thanks for visiting today.

Princess birthday card

This card was for a little girl (not sure of the age), requested by a friend of mine.  So once I heard she likes Disney princesses, I decided on the Dreams Come True cartridge, with one of the newer princesses.  Belle is my favorite, so I decided to go with her in a nice, simple pose.  Simple - HA!  These cuts are very detailed and the pieces can be very small - the Disney carts are not easy to deal with!  But I just love the images and results.  Belle was cut at 3.5"x4.5", and the glitter cardstock is from DCWV Sweet Stack, which is one of my favorites.  Ribbons are from Michael's, and the name Brooke was cut with MTC and the Crayola font.  Thanks for visiting!

Baby girl card

Yet another cut file from http://www.myscrapchick.com/!!  I really do love Kristi's work, and it shows!  This is another cut file from her "Animal babies" collection, and I cut her with MTC at 4.5".  The stamped sentiment is from SU, and the papers are random pieces from Michael's.  Thanks for visiting!

First Communion Invitation

A friend of mine asked me to do some invites for her son's first communion, so this is what I came up with.  She requested a gold and red color scheme, so I used the red for the base cover and embossed it with a CB folder from the wedding set, and the cross is a cut from MTC.  I hope she likes them!

Purse box

Since we have yet another snow day here in Philadelphia, I am taking the day to work with my Cricut.  So far, I made this purse with MTC and a file from http://www.myscrapchick.com/.  This is from the "30 boxes and more" collection, and I love this little purse!  I cut it as large as I could on the 12x24 mat, and it's the perfect size for a gift card, jewelry gift, or anything small!  Didn't do much to it, other than add a ribbon for the handle and a flower on the front.  Thanks for visiting!

Easter treat bag

I couldn't wait to try out this treat bag, which is a file from MTC.  I made it a little bigger than I would normally, but this was a test run, so I need to play around with it a bit.  I also put white cardstock behind the chicks to make them stand out a bit more.  If you look closely, you will see the chicks from the Easter card below are the leftover cuts from this treat bag!

Prayer request

Normally I wouldn't post something like this, but I have an issue that is really bothering me and I was hoping to just get some thoughts and prayers.  Since I finished my Master's degree in August of 2008, I have had no luck finding a full-time job, and therefore, all of my massive student loans have been deferred since. 

I just a phone call today from the governement that I am no longer being allowed to defer, and must begin repaying now, even though I can't make it paycheck to paycheck in my part-time job I did manage to find.  The woman made it very clear that she does not care, that I can just default and ruin my life, it doesn't matter to her.  (Yes, she actually said that).  In these times of extreme economic circumstances, are you kidding me?  This is what I get for trying to "better" my life??  Really??

So, I need a miracle at this point.  Any thoughts or prayers you can offer would be greatly appreciated, because at this point it seems I have no choice but bankruptcy.  This is all really depressing considering the reason I am in this situation (trying to "better" my life), and the fact that I am facing a future of financial ruin - no wedding, no house, no kids - nothing.  I have been crying for about 5 hours straight now, so thank you for your time, if anyone is out there and reading!

Kim

Spring card Kit card

Thanks to Barb, aka Snowmanlover, for putting together these Springy card kits.  I love the papers, and this is the first card I made from the kit.  It's pretty plain and simple, but I was so excited to throw something together to see the color combos!  The chicks are leftover cuts from an Easter treat bag cut from MTC (yeah, leftover!), the scallops are from MTC, and the grass is from Plantin Schoolbook.  Finally, the stamp is from the $1.00 bin at Michael's!  The chicks and the scallop are all pop dotted for some dimension also.  Thanks for visiting!

This is ONLY a test....

This box was made with MTC and a file from My Scrap Chick (link below).  I actually found 12x24 paper at Michael's from K & Company - finally!!  Some of the prints are so-so, and for me, this is one of them.  However, I wanted to try out this paper using it to make boxes and/or bags from files I bought recently, and the paper ended up being perfect for it! It's shiny on the white side, and just heavy enough to make a solid box, without the hassle of cutting chipboard and switching to a deep cut blade. 

Since this is just a dry run, I obviously need to play with proper dimensions for the heart overlay, but I am pretty excited about how the test run turned out for now.  I'm really hoping K & Company comes out with more packs of 12x24 paper (Spring/Christmas/Winter????), because I really think people will scoop it up for boxes and bags, whether you have the Cricut cartridge or use SVG's to cut.

This file is called "Spring Gift Box", and for those of you with MTC (like me) or SCAL, you can purchase it for only one dollar here:

http://www.myscrapchick.com/

Thanks for visiting!

I've been busy!

This is the first time I have done cards en masse, so any comments are welcome!  A friend of mine asked for eight cards so she could refill her stash, so this is what I came up with.  I wanted to make some feminine, some more masculine, so I hope that was accomplished.  I am only including one picture of the insides, because I did all of them same for simplicity's sake!  Ok, here are the specs:

***The cupcakes are from Sweet Treats, cut with DS at 3" x 3.5" 

***The frames are from MTC cut at 3.5x4" and 3x3.5"

***The brackets on the inside of the cards are from Plantin Schoolbook cut at 1" x 2.5"

All stamps are from SU birthday set, the cupcakes are embellished with Stickles, and the swiss dotted paper is Bazzill  Basics.  The other patterned papers are just loose sheets from Michael's.  Thanks for visiting!

V-Day loot!

My sweet boyfriend got me all of this for Valentine's day, along with a nice big box of chocolates!  Love these Edible Arrangements, for anyone who hasn't seen them before.  Hope everyone else had a wonderful day!!

Snowglobe deer

In keeping with the current theme of our lives here in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, I am posting this deer snowglobe shape card I made for Christmas.  I used the Divine Swirls CB folder for the base and the deer, generic glitter for the globe itself, and JOTS for the deer and globe cuts.  I used DS to weld the tops of the two snowglobe cuts together, and you will definitely need your 12x24 mat for this one.  The card ended up being 5x7.5, so make each globe that size, and then weld just slightly at the top.  This will allow it to open bottom to top.  A little bit of gold Stickles along the base, and it was done! Thanks for visiting!

Blizzard cabin fever!!!

Ok, so once again we are in the midst of a blizzard - for anyone who is counting. that's the second in four days.  So I took the opportunity to make a card with the limited scrap supplies I have at my boyfriend's place.  Piglet was from a file by Stacy, and you can find her amazing stuff at http://www.stackyscraps.com/.  The sweet treat cups, of course, are from Stampin' Up, and the paper and ribbon are from Michael's.  This is pretty simple and plain, but like I said, I don't have access to my full array of supplies right now, so this will have to do.  Thanks for visiting!

Ornaments for the cause

I know, I know, Christmas is long gone.  But I have been working tonight on a couple of ornaments that I am going to be doing as part of a fundraiser in November for a cancer event.  The one on the bottom doesn't look pink (it looks red, I know), but it is a dark pink representing breast cancer, and the purple for ovarian cancer.  This was a great technique for glittering the ornaments that I learned from the Holidays with the Cricut ladies (formerly Christmas with the Cricut), and you can find a link to them to the right or below.  The ribbons were cut using white vinyl and stained with the coordinating ink colors.

http://www.cricutchristmas.blogspot.com/

Birthday card

This was a birthday card for a toddler that someone requested, and they told me that he loves trucks.  The Mickey and Friends cart had this perfect truck and border feature, so I went with that.  I did pop dot a lot of the elements, even though it does not show up well here.  This was when I was first starting out, so it's a little plain and boring, but it was all a learning process.  Thanks for visiting!

SNOW DAY!!

Well, for anyone who lives East of the Mississippi, we are in the midst of a huge storm right now.  For where I am, it's a classic Nor'Easter, and Philadelphia is buried in snow right now.  Unfortunately, I am snowed in at my boyfriend's with no access to my Cricut ---   : (    -----, so I guess we will just go shovel or something.  Anyway, in keeping with the theme, this is the Christmas card I made for my bf for Christmas, so I figured it would be an appropriate post for today.  The penguins and snowglobe came from the JOTS cartridge, and I used my Cuttlebug on the background.  Thanks for visiting, and stay warm and safe if you are getting this storm!

Baby card

This is a card I literally threw together in 3 minutes, so it's not really that good, or ready to give, but I HAD to share the paper piecing for the duck.  I used MTC to cut the duck, but the pattern came from a website with absolutely amazing designs for very reasonable prices.  If you have MTC or SCAL, you MUST check out this site, which I will list here, and also add the button for her blog onto my sidebar.  Kristi and her design team do great work, and they also send a freebie each Friday, if you subscribe to the newsletter.  I will definitely be using these files a lot now.  She has many different themes and styles, so check it out:

http://www.myscrapchick.com/index.htm

The adorable blue paper is part of an Anna Griffin Stack - I love her papers - and the paper ribbon is from Michael's.  The "small wonder" stamp is from SU!, and it's the Whimsical Words set.  Thanks for visiting!

Birthday card

I made this one for my brother, who is a total outdoorsman.  If he could live in the mountains in a log cabin, he would, so I decided to make that the theme of his card.  This is a simple window card, actually the first one I ever attempted, so I made the log cabin show through the window.  All of the cuts are from Camp Out, and I used a little inking for the deer and the "grass".  Threw in a couple of clear stickers, and voila! Thanks for visting today!

HAPPY Monday.....

OK, so this is not a project, I know, but I just had to post this today.  I went to the Philly Car Show last night with my boyfriend, and he could not get me away from this Corvette Stingray.  I just stood there staring and drooling for at least 20 minutes, after which he finally dragged me away.  But I wanted to dress up my blog with my dream car for today.  Enjoy!!!!

PS - I took these pictures will my CELL phone!!  That's right, my cell phone.  Not bad for a little LG phone, huh?    : )