Tools of a Croping Queen

Baby Shower Centre Piece

2012-02-29T01:50:00.000-05:00

Hi there my crafty friend, how are you? So glad you are able to drop by today and check out my newest creation. Talk about a "labour of love" LOL! My sister's step son is going to be a daddy in April, the baby shower is this Saturday. All a long the theme has been all about hippo's. My sister asked me to make them an easel card with a hippo theme a few mths back when they went to find out what they were having. Well, It's a boy!!! and Colton will be his name. :)
On the wkend I went to my sisters to work on the wedding album, (they are getting married 6 days after the baby shower :} ) and the cards/gifts for both. Originally the hippo on this centre piece was the card I was going to give them, but when I was looking through my sisters craft supplies I found the hippo card I made a few mths ago, and another baby shower card I made ages ago with a monkey on it. She loves what I make so much she just can't part with it, and always tells me to make two of everything cause she wants to keep one! LMBO Take pictures and look at them, the stuff eventually gets buried under stuff or put in a box or a drawer most of the time anyway and you never see it. She still has all the Christmas presents she orders from me every year, she can't part with them. LOL The highest of compliments I suppose.
Anyway, I thought maybe I would change the plain hippo shaped card into an easel card or something and thought about it for sometime....I kept thinking about the hippo's watering hole and what to do with it, then suddenly I got this idea.... and I LOOOVVVEEEEE IT!!!!!! I started it on Sunday, worked a bit on it on Monday, then today I kicked it into high gear to get it done. I have tons of stuff to get done before Saturday, plus my hubby's 50th is on Thursday and I haven't made him a his special card yet....eeekkkkk!!!
I had the idea to make this a simple but cute centre piece, but it was way to much work to be simple and I didn't want it to be a one day thing so I made it so she can remove the umbrella with the baby announcement on it and use it as an ornament on a shelf or dresser. I think it turned out super cute and hopefully she will love it, I've never met her so I don't know her taste.
Warning PIC heavy :) This shows what I came up with yesterday and sunday, the umbrella ended up to small. The long strip with all the "teeth" is the side wall of the stand. I figured I make these for my "cake in a box" cards, it should work to make this stand which I wish was a box, but it was really hard to get it to stay together as it was, being such an odd shape. I cut out the hippo and the "water" shape with create a critter, I altered the shapes a bit to my liking with my gypsy! :)

I ended up with this :)

The dog, butterflies and bees are all old stickers from my stash ! :)

His name is cut from a $ store foam sheet, and the grass was made with the MS icicle punch! I wanted some shine to it kind of so I added the green ribbon around the top and bottom of the base.

The turtle was cut from create a critter. I made the small bull rushes with green toothpicks, hot glue blobs coated with brown felt then shaped and green paper strips for leaves :)

The frog is from an old recollections stamp set called bouncing baby boy :)

Used an oval punch to make the pad part of the lily pad, then two white primas snipped up the middle, shaped and glued and a ek success yellow flower cut and each petal snipped three times then crumpled all together to make the centre of the flowers :)

I really like this water paper, and I used a piece of acrylic as well to keep the hippo standing, it also gives the water that mirror effect so you can see the reflection of the bull rushes etc. Really like how it looks :) I added some glossy accent "ripples" around the hippo's feet. I cut little rectangles into the acrylic and folded the short sides down then glued the bottoms of the flowers and the hippo's feet in the holes. Having the sides folded down helps to keep the acryllic up off the water paper itself, to give it some depth. :)

the bird is one that comes on a wire, I just pulled the wire out and glued on top of the bull rush, which in this case were made with wood skewers I cut down, coloured green, made the brown part with hot glue and brown felt. I lightly inked the white "base" with a pastel blue to kind of make it look like sky with clouds, I like how it turned out, was simple but effective :)

I glued two pieces of foam between the two hippo body cuts to give him some depth and make it easier to glue him standing up :) I cut out a thin strip in each one to make a pocket for the skewer of the umbrella to slip into, making it removeable, woohoo :)

I glued the tail cuts and ear cut together because I didn't cut the foam in those two areas :) I also pop dotted the mouth/nose area of the face. Used the largest one of my PK wide eyed kids face stamps, coloured in the whites of the eyes and covered in glossy accents :)

Baby name ornament ;)

I used some old sentiment stickers from my stash on the umbrella. I got them yrs ago when I first started scrapbooking from the $ store, you can get some pretty nice stuff at those stores :) Even though I only shopped at the dollar store back then, I managed to build up my supply of bling a lot cheaper than what some places charge for brads and other embellishments. I love the $ store :)

I had different stickers on it but then decided to out the sentiments on here, since it is removeable it wont always look like a baby shower centre piece :)

Challenges

Peachy Keen Challenge #5- 3D Object-Weather

I have been very busy with making things for the wedding and baby shower that I haven't had time to make anything for the Peachy Keen challenge yet, luckily the challenge this week is a 3D project with the theme: weather, so I kept that in mind as I was making this project., so it would fit the criteria :) I have the umbrella for baby "Shower" lol and my theme is summer :) Since baby showers are thrown in any type of weather, and a hippo in the water with turtles, frogs bees and butterflies is definately summer. I added the dog sticker because I always think of dogs when I think of little boys :) So this project will be my entry for the challenge this week. I will have to take a peek and see if there are any other challenges I can enter this in to, would love to win a prize for it after all this work!! :)

Thank you so much for stopping by and checking out my creation, I hope to see you back soon. Leave me some love so I can come visit you and leave you some love back :) Have yourself a scrap happy day, and join us over at the peachy keen challenge, or come play over at The Outlawz, where I am on the "sketch" design team on Wednesdays, but we have a new challenge starting everyday running for one week. It is a very fun site full of awesomely talented, caring, beautiful women that love to craft as much as we do, and they will make you feel right at home. :)

Cindy :)

A get well card tooo

2012-02-29T00:10:00.002-05:00

Hello again my crafty friend : ) This card is for my DT challenge. I am on the Wednesday sketch challenge design team over at The Outlawz. This is a very fun and friendly site with a new challenge every day running for one week each. There is also a digital freebie challenge that runs two - three weeks, the images are supplied to you, all you have to do is make at least one card using one of the images to receive the next set of images for the next challenge. Very fun site, wonderfully friendly atmosphere, you would love it so pop over and check us out, we'd love to have you. There are awesome prizes as well :)
I decided I would make my cards on the wkend and have them ready for the challenges a head of time. I needed several cards for various reasons and I find it is faster to make a card if you already have a sketch, you know where everything goes, just figure out what to put there. LOL
There is a bit of a story behind my thinking on this card. You see, when my aunt got married to my uncle, his sister, my brother and I had a blast hanging out all night, singing, dancing and laughing, just having tons of fun. After the reception she came back to my house and we continued having fun into the wee hrs of the morn. I was joking around with her and saying well now that we are related I guess that kind of makes you our aunt, and your very friendly and sociable so I think I'll call you Auntie Social, LOL. This nick name has been a running joke for almost 27 yrs now, and she always gets a big kick out of it....LOL!
When I decided to make her a card to wish her well I thought about the auntie social pun and thought hmmmmm I should make a card with an ant on it, ohhh and how about it is upside down cause she isn't on her feet very much these days. I was even going to add a cast to one of the ant's legs but just remembered that now, too late, lol my aunt took the card over to her when they were down visiting for the long wkend. Anyway, this is the card I made for her and she got a good laugh over it. They say laugher is the best medicine so I hope she is up and around really soon :)

The sketch

My interpretation :)

I used paper I have had in my stash for about 4 yrs, it came in a big kit with a scrapbooking album, cards, stickers, everything all co ordinating but I didn't keep track of things like that back then so I don't know who made it. I used spellbinders classic ovals to cut the ant's body parts, then used classic circles to change the shape of the ends of two of the ovals. glued them together and pop dotted off the leaf (from the larger of the two sunflower die sets).
I used a piece of coloured wire for the antenae that I put through two holes I made with a poker, and curled the ends around the poker. The bottom leaves are from the spellbinders foliage set. The stamped ants are from a set of See D's stamps called Cute as a Bug. I used a stamp from PK-750 Animal Faces Small for the face but I am looking and can't remember which one I used. I stamped the face a few times till I got the look I wanted and I am pretty sure I used the camel's face, but drew my own mouth line because the mouth looked funny on an upside down ant, LOL.
Thank you so much for coming by and checking out my card, I hope you leave me a comment so I can come by and check out what you have been up to lately :) Have a scrap happy day, see you soon!

Cindy :)

Peachy Keen March release party

2012-02-27T04:39:00.000-05:00

Hi there my crafty friend, sry I didn't get this posted sooner but I was out of town at my sisters for the weekend, to whip up a wedding scrapbook album :), almost done, about 4 more pages to go and the final touches.
Peachy Keen had a release party on Sat, I have never attended one before so I was very excited to see what it would be like :) I am thrilled to say it was lots of fun, I was chatting with so many peachy keen lovers it was awesome, :) !
At the release Lorie Souther asked a few trivia questions and posted a couple challenges for us to do to try to win the grand prize of a 50.00 gift certificate. I could really use one, I am on a spending hiatus indefinately and will be experiencing retail therapy withdrawal shortly. I was rather lucky though and I won the second trivia question prize which is my choice of a 4" face stamp, not to bad there's not that many to choose from, makes it easier on me, and of course they are totally adorable so it really wasn't that easy to decide :)\
This is my entry for the first challenge MARCHRP#1 which was to use at least two different patterned papers. I received the spring die cut collection as a gift from hubby for our 30th anniversary on the 13th of March and I wanted to use them on my cards, :) The background dp has white snowflakes printed on it but they didn't stand out a lot. I was going to put a gem in the middle of each flakes but decided there were quite a few and I prob wouldn't have enough so I used a glue pen and MS glitter to make the flakes more noticeable :) The face and scarf were pop dotted, then I pop dotted the bird and brach as well. It turned out cute I think, I love it :)

My entry for the second challenge is going to be for my sister. I visited her for the weekend to help her make a wedding scrapbooking album for her step son who is getting married on March 9th, they just told us last week, woohoo! This challenge we needed to use Lorie Souther;s favourite things which is ribbon and bling, I can relate :) My sister surprised me on fri night and took me to the movies to see The Vow. Inside it says, thank you for walking beside me and being my friend :) This little chicks are so darn cute too :)I love my PK stamps and dies :)

Thank you for dropping by today and checking out what I made and shared with you, it really mean a lot when you take the time to visit me and comment so I know you were here, your so awesome :) Have a great day and happy scrapping :)

Cindy :)

It's a Peachy Party......WOOOOOOT!!!

2012-02-25T09:44:00.002-05:00

PEACHY PARTY, PEACHY PARTY!!!

Join us TODAY from 10-11 a.m.

Peachy Keen designers and friends are chatting, sharing, and having a grand old time, and we'd love to have you join us!!

We've got trivia games, challenges, and a chance to win prizes for both, PLUS a drawing for a GRAND PRIZE winner from all the challenge participants for the weekend. Challenges will go up during the release party and will remain open until 8 a.m. Monday morning to give you plenty of time to play along.

We're excited, and can't wait to see you there! Click on the picture below and it will take you directly to the party thread!!!

YAY.....this totally sounds like fun, what is better than peachy keen stamps? A new release party!!! :)

Click on the badge in my side bar to come join in. I'm off to check out the new stamps, so exciting! See you there!

Cindy :)

A birthday card

2012-02-23T01:23:00.001-05:00

My aunt's mother in law celebrated her 85th birthday this month. She is a very sweet lady who loves the colour purple and I enjoy making her special cards for special occasions, she seems to really enjoy them. I also had to make a card for my DT challenge over at The Outlawz. I design for the weekly sketch challenge that falls on the Wednesday each week, and figured I'd use the sketch to make this card.

The sketch

We have a new challenge starting every day and lots of great prizes per month. We also have a freebie challenge where you will receive your free digi's and you are required to make at least one card with your fave digi within the two weeks allowed in order to receive the next set of free digi's. Everyone is super friendly, and helpful, you will have a lot of fun and meet so many awesome crafty friends :)
For my card I used some paper from a kit I got about 4 yrs ago but I don't know the name of it, sry. I used a spellbinders lacy oval for my stamped image, coloured it, then added a touch of purple to the oval by running the ink pad over it gently. The image is from Viva Decor....flowers and butterflies. I used a piece of ribbon to attach the oval to the card front, made a bow and added a few dew drops to the card, I also stamped Happy Birthday on the card but didn't retake the picture to reflect that. :) Hope you like my card!

My interpretation :)

I would like to thank you for dropping by and checking out my card today. I hope you leave me a comment so I know you were here, and I can come over and see what you have been up to lately. :) Have a scrap happy kind of day, see you soon!

Cindy :)

A get well card

2012-02-20T00:27:00.000-05:00

Hello my crafty friend, so happy you came by to see what I've been up to cause I have a cute card for you! Earlier I posted a card I made for the Peachy Keen challenge, it actually was created after this card, cause I thought it was so darned cute I should make another one, but different :) The card for the challenge was a friendship themed card. This one is for my cousin who had a heart attack this week and had to have surgery yesterday. He is home from hospital now and I am going to go visit him tomorrow.
Earlier today I made a card for my aunt's sister in law who had surgery on her foot and she is still laid up with in a cast. That's another post but I pretty much got the idea for this card from that one. I was thinking about him being laid up from surgery for a few days and wanted something to brighten his day, maybe give him a bit of a chuckle. I thought about turtles and how if they get flipped over it's not that easy for them to get themselves turned back over.
I thought a shape card would be fun so I created the base on my gypsy, then cut out the actual turtle layers and assembled. This is a very cute, fast and easy card. I used my Peachy Keen PK-450 wide eyed kids face assortment set for his adorable lil face, but I rubbed off the tear drop from his eye before stamping because the tear drop would have been upside down. I also didn't want to make the card look sad, more like thinking how to get though the current situation. I thought to make it fun I would use an action wobble on the shell, these things are so fun, I only bought 2 to try them, now I need a ton, LOL!!!

Hope you liked my card today, and ty so much for stopping by. Your comments mean a lot to me, they let me know you were here so I can visit you back :) I hope your having a scrap happy day, see you soon!

Cindy :)

PK Challenge 5: Friendship theme

2012-02-19T23:52:00.001-05:00

Hello there my crafty friend, I'm so happy you dropped by today. This week over at Peachy Keen we were asked to show our card making skills and create a "friendship" themed card. I used create a critter for my turtle and PK-450 Wide Eyed Kids Face Assortment for her adorable little face. I used my gypsy to create the "shape" card and an action wobble to make the shell jiggle.

When I was looking through my cartridges deciding what to do I saw the little turtle and the saying just popped into my head. I think puns are fun so I went with it :) Then I was thinking about my background, and what to use to create a scene with the turtle then thought heyyyy how about a shape card, I love shape cards! I picked up a couple action wobbles the other day and thought they would be great for the shell. And a card was born, LOL!!

Challenges

Peachy Keen 05: Just Cards Challenge - Friendship

Fantabulous Cricut: Challenge me Monday #98

Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you like my card and get a chance to leave a comment letting me know you were here so I can visit you to and see what you have been up to. Your comments mean so much, ty! I hope you have a scrap happy day.

Cindy :)

My new DT

2012-02-16T00:56:00.000-05:00

Woooohooooo, have you heard? When I got home Monday night from a crafting adventure at my sisters I checked my emails. So excited to say I was asked to be on the Wednesday Sketch Challenge DT over at The Outlawz. This site is sooo awesome, we have a different challenge every day that run for one week at a time and a digital freebie challenge as well that runs for two weeks. Every two weeks you will receive 2 or more free digital images drawn by Sandi Huggett and Anne Fenton. You have the two weeks to create a card to remain in the challenge. You can create a card for each image if you like, but only required to make at least one card, in order to get the next round of free images. This site is very friendly, everyone is super sweet, helpful, encouraging and kind. The prizes are awesome ranging from 50.00 gift cards for Oozak's to free digi's. Come on over and join us, we'd love to have you!!! :) I'll see you there :)
I have been give such a big and very warm welcome by every DT member, even people that design on a different DT, now that is awesome. I'd like to thank Sandi, Trina, Pat and Melanie for asking me to join their team and Colleen for getting me all set up and ready to go, as well as for running such an awesome site. :) You ladies rock!!! I feel so honoured and thrilled to be joining the ranks of designer and look forward to spreading the news about The Outlawz. No we're not a big bad motorcycle gang, LOL but we are know to bring out the big guns on occasion. Hey a crafty girls got to have her tools, even if they are "bugs" LOL LOL Warm up your cutters, ink up your stamps and head on over to The Outlawz to join in the fun :)

Big hugs Cindy :)

Peachy Keen Challenge #4: Photo Inspiration

2012-02-15T19:52:00.001-05:00

Hello my crafty friends, how is your week going? Today I wanted to share my card for the newest Peachy Keen Challenge. It is another photo inspiration challenge this week, and the bright juicy fruit reminds me of fresh fruit salad :) As soon as I saw the pic I immediately had an image come to mind of fresh fruit being taken away by ants and kind of chuckled, so I went with it.
I just received my PK spring collection on Monday and just knew I had to use one of the die cuts on my card. When I was looking at the faces that come with them I seen the look of surprise on the skunks face and thought it was perfect, not to mention cute:)

How I made the blackberries

how I made the strawberries

PK-570 Basic Paper Dolls Face Asst

How I cut the blade for the knife

How I made the melons using the oval punch

Challenges

Peachy Keen Challenge #4: Photo Inspiration

LOL, I think this card is really fun and makes me want a fresh fruit salad, come on summer!!!! :) Thank you for visiting me today and I hope you like what you see. I really enjoy reading your comments and being able to come and see what you've been creating lately so I can leave you some love :) Hope to see you soon!

Cindy :)

Peachy Challenge 03: Paper Roll

2012-02-08T00:40:00.002-05:00

Hi there my crafty friend, nice to see you again. I haven't blogged all week because I just haven't been feeling well for a couple weeks now. I think I am starting to feel better though, finally, YAY! :) I have been busy working on a project for the new Peachy Keen Challenge. We were free to create anything we wanted using a toilet paper roll. I have never used one for crafts but I did use paper towel rolls before, although I can't remember what I made with them LOL that was yrs ago.
My new PK stamps came in the mail last Friday so of course I wanted to use them on my project. I planned out several different projects before I actually decided on one. My original plan was to make a tree but couldn't decide what kind. I finally gave up on the tree idea and decided to make a bird house instead, then I can hang it in a tree, LOL!

I started out with a toilet paper roll, a pretty kleenex and the first two of three spellbinders classic circles :) I opened the kleenex and cut it in half along the centre crease. It was the perfect length to cover the TP roll, but a little long. One of the hearts was in the centre at the front so I cut it out with my Xacto knife and outlined with gems.

The making of the picket fence using a white floral wire cut in half, and small strips of paper with the tips cut. I used two strips per picket, glued to each other on either side of the wire to hold the wire in place.

The circle wasn't wide enough after cutting and gluing it for the roof so I glued two rows of hearts around the edge also used three sizes of scalloped circles on top of them. Floral wire and beads were used for the hanger.

I used my new PK-M11 Winter is for the birds stamp for the three lower birds. I made hats to match their scarves to hide the holly image on it's head. :)

For the upper bird I used my PK-268 Happy Mother's Day set and added a hat as well. I used a piece of acryllic pkging to make the bird look like she is "flying". For the perches I used a skewer, painted white and glued gems to the ends.

The home tweet home sign is glued to the wire with a pink heart glued to either side of the wire, and the white one glued on top, divided by different beads.

Challenges

Peachy Keen Challenge 03: TP Roll

Hope you liked my project today, and if you have a chance you should check out what everyone else made for the challenge to. Amazing what we can do with a tp roll and recycling at the same time, sweet! Thank you so much for stopping by, I really do appreciate you taking the time to visit and comment on my creations, and I love popping back over to see what you've been up to as well. Have a great day and keep on scrappin'!

Cindy :)

Peachy Keen Challenge 02: Photo Inspiration

2012-02-01T15:52:00.002-05:00

Hello my crafty friend, just a quick post today, I haven't been feeling good all week but wanted to get a card made for the challenge. We were to create a project from the photo inspiration provided and were given free reign to interpret it anyway we like.

To me this picture says engagement party in spring time so I made an engagement easle card, one of my favourite card styles.

Challenges

Peachy Keen Challenge 02: Photo Inspiration
Die Cuttin Divas: Challenge #50

I used my PK Happy Bird die cut from Cottage Cutz and PK-267 (happy bird and phrases - the face part) for my PK element. It was a little tricky since I needed my bird to be facing left, rather that right, so I flipped my die cut over, stamped my face on another block then on the face, not an easy trick, ink needs to be wet. Made my own roses with an eksuccess punch, a couple spellbinders "ribbon banners dies", the longer one on the bottom is 1.5 cuts, glued together. 2 different spellbinders edgebilities dies from the classic bracket set and some ribbon. I hope you like my card, but I hope Peachy Keen likes it more! LOL Thank you for stopping by and checking out my card, I hope to see you again soon!

Cindy :)

I won!! I won!!!

2012-01-30T12:44:00.000-05:00

Hello my crafty friend, guess what?!?! I get emails from FaveCrafts all the time, daily at least, sometimes more than once a day from different editors. In one of these emails I was reading I seen that you could enter a project to win a flip pal scanner. I wasn't sure what that was so I checked it out and it is way cool.

I decided hey, why not I have just as good a chance as any one else right? So I entered, then told all my friend on FB, and other places I play regularly, called family members etc. and asked for their support. I even told them if they had something they were proud of and wanted a chance at it to enter, and to let me now so I could vote for them as well. I voted for almost every project that was entered anyway :) Every month on the 15th you can enter one of your projects into their contest, if it meets the criteria, or create a new project for your chance to win a fabulous prize.
You can see the contest posting here the project I entered here which is project entry #5. This is the post where I was declared the winner here, woohoo. Do you think I am a little excited, I never one anything like this before, it's so awesome. I just received the email this morning for my mailing address YAY!!! It will be on it's way shortly, can't wait to play with it. I did have a bit of trouble getting the email, not sure what happened but I couldn't find it in my reg or junk email even though I knew it was sent. I guess it is floating in cyber space some where. LOL!

Hi Cindy,



I sent the email directly to you, not via our blogger list. Perhaps it 
went into spam? Here's what it said: Congratulations! You won our 
January Blog Hop prize! Can you please send me your address so I can 
send the scanner to you? Congrats again, and thanks for participating!

http://www.favecraftsblog.com/january-blog-hop-winner/

Thanks!



Karisa Tell
Editor

a few contact details have been omitted for Karisa's sake :)

I would like to thank everyone that voted for me, you guys are awesome! Don't forget to sign up to Favecrafts, it doesn't matter what type of craft you are into, there is bound to be something on there that appeals to you, or maybe someone you know. Fun site! Ty for popping by and checking out my exciting news today, I wish you a great craft happy day!

Cindy :)

I want to win a CAMEO don't you?

2012-01-29T11:48:00.001-05:00

OMG are you kidding me :) Win a Cameo.....of course I would love to win a Cameo, I want a new cutting machine that I can use to cut anything and I have heard fantastic things about this cutter. If you would like a chance to win to check out all the deets, and get your entries in click

>>>>>ENTER TO WIN A NEW SILHOUETTE CAMEO MACHINE CUTTER.<<<<<<

The Silhouette CAMEO™ is an electronic cutting tool for personal use. Like a home printer, it plugs into your PC or Mac® with a simple USB cable. However, instead of printing it uses a small blade to cut paper, cardstock, vinyl, fabric and more up to 12" wide and 10 feet long. The machine also boasts a quiet motor and the ability to register and cut printed materials.
In the box
Silhouette electronic cutting tool
Silhouette Studio® software for Windows XP/Vista/7 and Mac® OS X 10.5.8 and higher
51 exclusive cuttable designs
Power cable, USB cable
12" cutting mat
Cutting blade
$10 gift card to the Silhouette Online Store
Basic Instruction Guide

Good Luck, Cindy :)

My son's b-day card

2012-01-26T03:14:00.000-05:00

Hi there, just me again LOL. I wanted to share the card I made for my second son's birthday which was yesterday, Jan. 25th. This card didn't start out as his, but I do love how it turned out and I am glad I took the direction I did. One of my favourite stamp sets to collect are Peachy Keen, and I like to join in their challenges. Not only to try to win a prize but also to use the adorable stamps I am spending my hubby's hard earned money on when I can sneak a little from him, LOL! Not being able to work sucks!
The newest challenge is PK Challenge 01: Pockets. We were asked to create a project that has a pocket on it, any kind of pocket we desire. Great challenge, I love being able to freely create anything I want with one simple stipulation. Well except that I have too many ways to interpret it, LOL! So I knew I needed to have a pocket and if I wanted to be eligible for the prize (of course ;} ) I needed to use a PK stamp. No problem, I don't have as many as some but I have more than others to choose from. It also helps that I got my aunt hooked on these bad boys as well and lucky for me she left her stamps in my craft room for me to use whenever my lil ole heart desires, YAY tx aunt Kathy, love ya.
I had the idea to make a card that resembled a pair of jeans, with one of the back pockets on it, I was planning on making a cute little valentine like the one's kids give out in school with one of the PK flower stamps, and I did get it all coloured up and layered and looking cute, but then I couldn't decide whether to put it on the pocket resembling a patch or make it into a little valentine and stuff it in the pocket. I suppose I could have just coloured up another one and did both ideas, LOL to late now.
I did a lot of faux stitching on the waist band, belt loops and pocket to make it look like jeans, on my denim look paper. I wish I had more of that stuff, it's awesome, I love it! It is thin paper though so I cut a piece of white card stock to size and glued them together. I have these templates that go with my black foam pad called In Stitchz by Bassill Basics. I used part of one to make the holes on the pocket and then sewed the pattern on it with my white embroidery floss. I used my eyelet setter on the top two corners of the pocket for the closed eyelets, if that's what they are called. LOL
Suddenly I thought to myself hey I could make a man's wallet for in the pocket, then another thought, heyyyy it's Jay's bday on wed and I need a bday card for Thursdays challenge at The Outlawz, I should do that, yaaaaaa, and so my card was born. I made the wallet and then was wondering how am I going to make it easy to get the wallet out of the pocket with out him ripping it, then I had the vision in my head of some guys that have their wallets with the chains attached to it and then it is hooked to a belt loop, so people can't pick pocket your wallet I suppose. I knew I had some light chain in with some beads and stones I have from some cheapo jewellery I bought for their charms. I took it and found a larger thin key ring type thingy and hooked it to the belt loop and the wallet. I think it turned out pretty sweet don't you? It actually remind me of my father in laws jeans, may he rest in peace, but he always wore light blue jeans.

I made blue $5.00, purple $10.00 and green $20.00 bills out of tissue paper that I just inked in their coordinating colours, and wrote their currency amount on in a coordinating gel pen. I cut different coloured strips of paper and rounded the corners to resemble gift cards and such. He is really into movie's and video games so those are the types of cards I made. I really love the black paper I used for the belt and wallet it has a shiny leather look to it so it was perfect for this project :)
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog to see what I have been up to. I hope you like my sons birthday card, I know he does :) Perhaps I have inspired you to get crafty and make something for someone you love on their special day. I love to read comments from my visitors and would love to hear from you, so if you have a minute could you please let me know you were here. I will pop over to your blog to say heyy and show you some love tooo :) Thanks again, have a blessed day and make it scrappy.

Cindy :)

Blends Join Hands Blog Hop Winner Jan. 22, 2012

2012-01-26T01:36:00.000-05:00

Hi and welcome back, if your new here please have a look around, check out some of my projects and please leave me a comment on what you see so I can come visit your blog and leave you some love too.
I would like to thank Jessica for asking me to be a part of this hop, which was a fantastic experience, it was only my second but my first was wrought with problems and didn't leave me with a taste for being in a hop. It was good though because I was prepared and knew what I was doing this time around, ;) So ty Jessica, I was honoured to be a part of your very special day. HUGS
I would also like to thank every single one of you wonderful hoppers that stopped by, left me a comment and are now a new follower. I so appreciate you, and I am working my way through the list of comments to get to visit your blog, ty for becoming a follower and to follow you back. A few of you don't have a blog but if I haven't already I will get by and ty as well whatever way I have to contact you.
I just wanted to let you all know who is the winner of the candy I offered on my blog during the hop. To refresh your memory I was lucky enough to be given permission to offer you a $25.00 blog candy certificate to Nikki Schlitz Calmes webstore: http://paperpiecingsbynikki.com!The lucky and talented winner is Margaret of Maggie's Cat House, drop by and say hello, I'm sure she'd be happy to have you. Congratulations Margaret, I really hope you enjoy your prize, I will get the information right out to you!
To pick a winner, I did the same as the lovely Jessica did minus the video of course, my 21 yr old son isn't near as cute as her two little helpers, and he was at work when I was doing this, LOL! I wrote all the names from the comments on my post, put them in a container, shook like crazy and hand plucked the winning name. I took pics along the way tooo LOL!!!

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you come back again soon, and I look forward to checking out and following your blog if I haven't already....have a blessed day and make it Scrappy!

Cindy :)

Peachy Keen Challenge 01: Pockets

2012-01-25T22:10:00.002-05:00

Hi, thank you for popping by today, your just in time too! I have a new post for this weeks PK challenge. We were asked to create something with a pocket, "whether it folds tucks or hides a treat, pockets are a fun way to add something extra." And you've just got to see the prize.....I really would love to win this set, isn't that the cutest happiest mouse you ever seen, and those beer mugs, OMG I need those, my aunt and uncle drink their beer in mugs, and my uncle is Irish! I could make them so many cards with this set and those shamrocks!

ADORABLE.......

Well I thought and pondered, pondered and thought...hmmmmmmmmm pockets ehhhhh. I kept thinking about a pair of jeans with a pocket on them and I actually made the card, but then I couldn't decide whether to put the PK flower stamp on the pocket to look like I patched a hole in it, or put it on a tag to stuff inside it. I ended up making a black "buxton" wallet with fake money and gift cards inside, and am giving it to my son for his birthday which is today! I love the card, it turned out awesome, but I couldn't put the flower patch on it now, not masculine enough. LOL

So that left me hrs into a project and nothing for this challenge. Back to the drawing board. Back to thinking and pondering, pondering and thinking, hmmmmmmmmm what should I do! I knew I wanted to make something for Valentine's day, and I wanted it to be really special, then the idea popped into my head, well more like a saying, "you make my heart sing" this kept popping into my head the whole time I was playing around with stuff and thinking of ideas. I finally came up with this project and I love it. So does my hubby, he was totally thrilled how it turned out. He is usually pretty complimentary of everything I make, but this project he kept saying how awesome he thought it was, every once in a while he goes crazy over one of my projects, LOL awwwww tx hubby!:)

Now that I knew what I wanted to make, I had to figure out how to implement it and make it functional. It took me a while but I got it done and it works, LOL!! I was going for the love birds sitting in an apple tree in bloom in spring time, ya I know it's a valentine, but it needed some flowers somewhere and I figured apple blossoms would work, or my attempt at them since I had love birds in a tree....lol!!

Challenges

Peachy Keen Challenge 01: Pockets

This card was another opportunity to use up a couple pieces of acrylic pkging. I save the pkging from my cricut carts and spellbinders sets among other things to use on my cards and other crafts. I covered both red hearts with it and left extra hanging over on the first one to stamp the music notes on, and the second one to glue the love birds to in order to hide the music notes. That's why you see a funny shadow on the second image, it looks like the paper has an odd pattern or something, just a reflection, lol! Not sure if you can make it out in the pic, (unless you click on it) but there are a bunch of pop dots to help create the pocket. And you can see another funny shadow lol, its me taking the pick from above, LOL!

For the doves, I cut out the bird from a card making quickutz limited edition set I bought a few yrs back, which is called lifestyle crafts now, yay! I had a hard time finding quickutz dies and was sad thinking we lost a great company, I love their dies, especially the sentiments, perfect for card making. I didn't want to use just plain white card stock so I used a grey marker and coloured a bit on a piece of the acryllic pkg, picked some colour up with my dove blender pen and made a shadow under the wings, and a few lines on the tail feathers. and the separate wing cuts. I coloured the mouth with an orange pencil crayon and dotted the eye with a black sharpie. Then I coated each piece with VersaMark and white translucent embossing powder and heated. This gave the doves a very soft feel, however there were a lot of unidentified specs in the powder so I have specs all over my birds LOL. I tried and tried to get a good pic of them but it just kept coming out blurry, finally I got one that wasn't to bad, this is the best I could do, sry, but hey it doesn't show all the specs as badly, awesome!

So for my project I used my spellbinders dies for all the cut outs except of course the doves. The branch and leaves are from the "Bugs" retired set, ribbon banners for the sentiment, classic scalloped hearts and classic hearts for the white pocket and red hearts. The flowers are mini prima's from their glass bottle marked May that I inked in a soft pink, added a yellow gem and some glue then pushed up the petals to cup the flower and make it 3D looking till it dried in that shape! The faces are from PK-570 Basic Paper doll Face Assortment, and the sentiment is from PK-267 Happy Bird and phrases. I embossed the pink background piece with a lrg cuttlebug folder from the "Love is in the air" set. Inked it slightly with cranberry Color Box pigment ink.

I hope you liked my project today, and if you have a minute I would love it if you would drop me a line so I can visit you and check out what you've been up to lately :) Thank you so much for stopping by, have a blessed day, and keep it scrappy!

Cindy :)

Blends Join Hands Blog Hop JAN. 22, 2012

2012-01-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hello Friends!!!

YAY IT"S HERE....

“TODAY IS THE DAY”

Please feel free to grab this button and display it on your blog to

encourage your friends to join in on the fun too.

There will be some fun prizes up for grabs along the HOP ! ! !

I am thrilled and honoured to be considered one of Jessica's "Blends". What an awesome way to extend your hand in friendship Jessica, ty so much for inviting me to be part of this fantastic celebration. I know all that join us today will be so glad they did, you've done a fantastic job of putting this all together. The prizes are amazing, I would be so lucky to have this kind of candy for my 1st blogaversary in Oct. WOW!!!

We have a lot of amazing crafters in the line up today folks, personally I can't wait to see what everyone has in store for us. I have kept my project a secret to give Jessica the wonderful feeling of "surprise" on her special day. Congratulations Jessica and best wishes for many more blogaversaries to come :)
As I looked through your entire blog, searching for that one project that inspired me so to make something special I saw how much you have grown artistically in the past year, that's what it's all about my friend. It wasn't an easy task picking something I tell you. I have a hard time if there are to many choices, and I always want to put in 110% to please the person I am doing it for.

After several sessions of stalking your blog I kept coming back to one card you made that I totally loved and finally decided this is the one. I love hearts, angels, butterflies and pink, and this card had it all. It's gorgeous Jessica, the image is fantastic, I love it!

I wanted it to be really special so I spent a lot of time thinking about what I was going to make. I had so many ideas floating around in my head, I just couldn't decide. I went shopping for some valentines related paper for another project and came across a wooden craft heart, and the idea was born. The last one in the store I might add, destiny? :) Then when I was at the check out I saw this awesome pack of kleenex with hearts all over it, and in my fave colour no less :)

I also made a card branching off of Jessica's sentiment on her card. :) If you would like to check out all the deets on my project I will be doing a separate post for them :)

I know it's pretty girly, but I did make it with my hubby in mind, but I knew if I made it all manly he'd like it for a while and never think of it again, I will love it forever :) He will love it I'm sure, because I made it. I wanted to add ribbon but had to draw the line somewhere on the girly stuff LOL I figured, valentine's day is less than a month away and our 30th Anniversary a month later, why not :)

I'm sure everyone is gonna ask where I got the sentiment stamp for the heart, so I took a pick of it before I masked and altered it. I had this saying running through my head for days and I didn't know how to make it like that in different fonts to print it so what else could I do LOL :) Believe me, masking this wasn't easy

NOW ON TO ALL THE FABULOUS PRIZES WE PROMISED YOU!!!

A few days ago a fb friend did a post offering blog candy for our blog hops if we were looking. I told her I was in this hop and asked if I could get her to sponsor me, she happily agreed. So I am so thrilled to be able to offer you a $25.00 blog candy certificate to Nikki Schiltz Calmes webstore: http://paperpiecingsbynikki.com This is fantastic, ty so much Nikki!

Adorable banner toooo, love the lil wagging tail and blinking eyesl...omg!!! LOL

We are also honored to have Stephanie of Whimsical Designs as our Grand Prize Sponsor

One Random Hopper will be selected to win

the entire New Release of Whimsical Designs Stamps

This is a fabulous stamp set with wonderful and unique images and sentiments. You are

sure to find a sentiment to fit every occasion!!!!

I am also honored to have Julie K of A Little Bit of Bling and 3 Girl JAM

as an additional Prize Sponsor

One Random Hopper will be selected to win

the entire Valentine's Day Bundle

This ribbon is so fun to use in projects, the colors are vibrant, and

the prices are OUTSTANDING

* * * * * * * * * *

I am offering not 1, not 2, but . . . 3 Unity Stamp Goody Bags to 3 lucky Hoppers!!!

Each bag is filled with 16 random Unity Stamps

I had so much fun stamping the goody bags, with Unity Stamps of course, and

getting them prepped to go to their new homes!!!

I am also offering 2 Lucky Hoppers

1 set (5 per set) of my Handmade Corsage Pins

for you to use in your own creations

For a final prize to a lovely Hopper

I will offer one

$10 Gift Certificate to be used at

Pink By Design

? ? ? How about THOSE PRIZES ? ? ?

And, there is SURE to be more

awesome CANDY along the way!!!

Here is the WONDERFULLY TALENTED Lineup:

1 . Jessica - Jessica's Craft Shaque http://jessicascraftshaque.blogspot.com

2. Candace - Scrappin' 2 Lil Princesses http://scrappin2littleprincesses.blogspot.com/

3. Luisa - Creative Designs by Luisa http://www.creativedesignsbyluisa.com/

4. Cindy - Tools of a Cropping Queen http://toolsofacropingqueen.blogspot.com/

5. Lisa - A Mermaid's Crafts http://indymermaid.blogspot.com/

6. Beckie - Just B Creative Crazy http://justbcreativecrazy.blogspot.com/

7. Julie - A Little Bit of Bling / 3 Girl JAM http://jk-littlebitofbling.blogspot.com/

8. Carri - Double Click Connections http://doubleclickconnections.blogspot.com/

9. Sonia - Cards, Crafts, and Kids Projects http://cardsandschoolprojects.blogspot.com/

10. Cindy - cre8ivecindy http://cre8ivecindy.blogspot.com/

11. Robin - The Cricut Scrapper http://thecricutscrapper.blogspot.com/

12. Nataliya - Love Crafts Forever http://lovecraftsforever.blogspot.com/

13. Stephanie - Whimsical Designs http://www.whimsical-designs.com/

Now, for the Rules (pretty simple)

1. Hop along to each of the Hop Stops

2. Leave a comment and become a follower at EACH stop, if you aren't already

3. Stop back here and let me know what you thought about the entire Hop

and tell me which Project was your favorite

4. For an extra entry into the drawing for any of the prizes here, join in on the fun!!

Create a project by using one of my past creations as inspiration. Post about it on your blog, explaining which project inspired you, and leave me another comment with the link to your project!

You will have until January 25th at Noon (EST) to finish the Hop and Link Your Projects.

5. For another chance to get some extra entries into the drawing for any of the prizes I am offering,

SPREAD THE NEWS!!!

Just stop back to let me know how you did it...sidebar, blog post, FB share, etc.....(1 extra entry for each time you spread the news)

* * * * *ONLY THOSE FOLLOWING THE RULES WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE RANDOM DRAWINGS FOR THE PRIZES * * * * *

The winners will be chosen by Random and announced after I have gathered all the comments and consulted with all of my Blends!!!

Peachy Keen Linky Party Challenge

2012-01-17T21:31:00.001-05:00

It's a new year and a new challenge. You may well know that Peachy Keen has a brand new design team, and the challenges are more streamlined. A new one every Friday, and the chance at one of two badges you can proudly display on your blog. I would love to have one of each for my blog. :)

To earn top peach you must use a PK stamp somewhere on your project....if you don't have one... no worries, check them out here, you can start your collection for only a few dollars. :) I have plenty face stamp sets for now, I want to start collecting the less expensive individual character stamps, like the snowman looking up at the sky, snowmen sledding down the hill, really cute ghosts and so many more adorable stamps. The more options I have the more projects I can create. Before the first challenge of the new year is revealed PK decided to throw a linky party. We can make what ever we want as long as it has a Peachy Keen Stamp on it somewhere. I do adore my PK stamps but I spent a lot of time pondering what to make.
I also play along with the challenges over at The Outlawz and was looking through the challenges trying to decide what to do for them as well. On Tuesdays they always have a colour challenge. This weeks colours were black, lime green and tangerine and the inspiration pic was that of a parrot, for an added twist we needed to include feathers. Which could be insinuated by the use of an image of a bird. When I looked at the pic Tweety and Sylvester popped into my head and this is what I came up with.

Challenges

Peachy Keen Linky Party

The Outlawz Colour Challenge

I didn't have green feathers so I ran a green ink pad over a white one several times, chopped it up in pieces and randomly glued them on, to resemble the franticness of the bird wanting to escape the eyes of the cat. LOL :) I like when the challenge gives you just enough to go on but your free to use your imagination as well. Creating a scene is one of my favourite things to do, this one was really fun and makes me chuckle every time I look at it. I hope it give you some facial sunshine as well. :)
Thank you for popping by my blog today, I hope you come join the challenges over at http://peachykeenstampschallenge.blogspot.com. !

Cindy :)

Cricut Craft Room's Winter and Snow Blog Hop

2012-01-14T12:37:00.004-05:00

Hey there my crafty friend, so glad you popped by today. I am one of the blogs in a line up for a fun blog hop celebrating winter and snow hosted by Erica over at her Cricut Craft Room Blog. If you have happened upon my blog and want to play along, please start at the beginning: http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com ty!

Welcome to My Cricut Craft Room's Winter & Snow Blog Hop

You should have come from http://mybugandmecreate.blogspot.com

For my project I wanted to use the phrase "warm winter wishes"! 1. because I really like it and 2. it reminds me of old movies and people getting letters from loved ones far away! It has that sentimental feeling of home and family to it for me, and since I love snow people it's perfect for a winter/snow themed project! :) I hope you like my card, deets to follow :)

Mailbox ~~ My Community ~~ at 1.41 x 2.65

Snow woman ~~ Doodlecharms ~~ at 4.56 X 4.15, using hide contour for all the inner cuts

Hat ~~ Paper Doll dress-up ~~ at 2.87 X 4.06

Mittens ~~ Everyday Paper Dolls ~~ at 1.86 X 4.71

Scarf ~~ Snow Friends ~~ at 2.91 X 3.51

Arms ~~ Doodlecharms~~ at 1.59 X 1.19 hide contour interior cuts, after machine cutting, snip off the beak Face ~~ PK-493 Everyday Character Face Parts & More ~~ Peachy Keen stamps

Sentiment is hand written on the smallest Labels Ten Spellbinders Die

I used several cartridges to create my snowwoman. It is one I personally designed about 3 year or 4 years ago in cricut design studio, then redesigned last year on my gypsy. It is one of my favourite cut files to date and I make a lot of cards using this snowman cut, I just change up the hat and scarf on occasion to make different styles for snowmen and snow woman. Also changing the arms to accommodate what ever they may be holding, or have arms in different positions for waving and stuff. I used my Peachy Keen Stamps for the face, of course, love them! And added glossy accents to them for a little added dimension.

My card base is slightly larger than I usually use, I cut it at 5.75 X 6.50. I love the snowflake designer paper by DCWV from The Christmas Stack, I've had it for about 2 yrs maybe 3. I used it for my background, cutting it at 5.25X 5.75 and adhering to the top half of the card base. I took a white card stock rectangle which was about 2" deep by 5.75 wide and used my Kimberley Poloson rotary cuttery to cut it in half in a wavy pattern to give me uneven snowy layers. I then ran them through the xyron and coated with MS fine white glitter.

Whoops, missed a spot, didn't notice that with these $ store glasses, LOL sry! The mail box was assembled and glued directly to the card base first, kind of on an angle, like you sometimes see mail boxes in the winter from the plough pushing the snow towards them. Did a bit of doodling on the pole and the front of the mailbox, note the name on it :)

Now I think I should have used I.C. Snow, LOL. Then I glued the tallest of the two snow strips I made with the xyron on overlapping the mailbox pole. Added a bunch of pop dots to the snow woman, the top snowy strip, the letter and the sentiment and attached. I didn't really want to cover up the snowflakes paper, cause I think they are so pretty but wanted my sentiment on the front of the card. The letter is just hand cut and doodled, although I could have cut it out with the mailbox, I made it before I found the cut for it, and I wanted it bigger to add the "sealed with a kiss" acronym and the lipstick kiss ;) A bit of doodling here and there on her accessories and she's done!

Don't forget to comment on ALL of the blogs in this hop to be entered to win the BRAND NEW set of K. Andrew Designs It's Valentine's Stamp Set , what a fabulous prize, love all those sweet sentiments, awesome!

Next you should go to http://mincedpaper.blogspot.com

In case you get lost along the way, here is the entire line up...

Start- http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com
Jessica -http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com
Teresa - http://scrappintplace.blogspot.com
Carla - http://racincrafts.blogspot.com
Indira - http://craftyhomemade.blogspot.com
Erica- http://ericasprojects.blogspot.com
Cori- http://createdbycori.blogspot.com
Doris - http://mybugandmecreate.blogspot.com
Cindy - http://toolsofacropingqueen.blogspot.com
Laurie - http://mincedpaper.blogspot.com
Lisa - http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com
Blog Candy- http://ericasblogcandy.blogspot.com

Hope your having fun on the hop! I'm sending you warm winter wishes as well, your next stop is

http://mincedpaper.blogspot.com take care and thank you so much for stopping by. Please leave me a comment so I can pop by your blog and leave some love!

Cindy :)

WELCOME TO MY FIRST HOP :)

2012-01-12T11:26:00.002-05:00

Hello and welcome to my first hop. Over the past four years of being on this wonderful journey in the awesome world of crafting I have met some amazing people all thanks be to the internet. If this tool wasn't available we would still be so limited. It has opened up a whole new world for all of us and it is exciting to be a part of it. On this journey I have met and become good friends with a lot of amazingly talented and wonderful individuals, mostly ladies but their are quite a few men out their crafting too! Just as talented and friendly, so I include them tooo! :) I am so glad you have popped by and would ask that you mark your calendars because one of my closest crafty friends will be celebrating her first blogaversary soon and I have been lucky enough to join in the celebration by being a part of my very first hop. I have hopped all over blog land but never had one on my blog, so this is so exciting for me. To join in the fun and have a chance in winning some awesome prizes please keep reading.

Hello BlogLand!

It is with great pleasure and TONS of excitement that I get to announce the upcoming

Blog Hop Celebrating my Blog Turning 1!!!

Yep, one whole year of blogging.

I know I say this a lot, but I truly feel blessed to have met some wonderful people (you) in this journey of blogging. I have gained so much knowledge about art which has always been my passion. And now, I see opportunities that I never would have imagined were possible!

I feel like destiny knocked at my door 5 1/2 years ago (that's when I met my dh), and just keep feeling guided down "the right path" every single day!!!

Thank You for being part of that!!!

Please mark your calendars and join in on the fun

on January 22, 2012!

I have invited my nearest and dearest Blends (Blog + Friends) to join

me in this celebration. Each Blend will take one of my past creations

and let it inspire them to create a new project!

I am so excited to see what they will be making and can't wait to "party"!

Please feel free to grab this button and display it on your blog to

encourage your friends to join in on the fun, too.

There will be some fun prizes up for grabs along the way, and just to give you a sneak peek at

some of the candy you could win, take a look at this . . .

I am offering not 1, not 2, but . . . 3 Unity Stamp Grab Bags to 3 lucky Hoppers!!!

It is with delight that Angela, of Unity Stamp Company

has agreed to let me share some Unity Stamps with my friends!!!

I had so much fun stamping the goody bags, with Unity Stamps of course, and

getting them prepped to go to their new homes!!!

Look forward to seeing you there!!!

Keep Crafting

:O)
Jessica

Wow, that is fabulous Jessica, a big thank you goes out to Angela from Unity Stamp for such great prizes, sweet!!! So hop along and have a blast, fingers crossed your comment wins you one of these fab prizes!

Cindy :)

Wedding Cake in a Box

2011-12-28T23:39:00.006-05:00

I just entered this project into the Fave Crafts Jan. Blog Hop. I get their emails regularly and was intrigued by one of the articles in the email I received this morning so I went to check it out even closer. Welcome to the FaveCrafts Blog Hop, where you get to showcase your work! This month’s theme is Love is In the Air! Show us your coolest Valentine’s Day crafts, handmade anniversary and wedding gifts, and other love themed crafts that you’ve ever made (or make something new and blog about it for the occasion!). We want to see your handmade cards, gifts, decorations, and anything else you’ve made that is crafty and lovey-dovey.
This month we’re giving away a prize to one lucky blog hop participant. Here’s how it works: recently we started using the “like” feature on our blog hops, meaning you can click to “like” someone’s project, much like you would on Facebook. For this month’s hop, the person whose project gets the most “likes” will win a prize! So link up and spread the word so your project gets voted up! The winner will receive a Flip Pal Mobile Scanner. Voting and submissions end January 21st at 11:59 PM CST. The winner will be announced here on the FaveCrafts Blog.
Now this is a way cool prize, I would be so excited to have a scanner that works :) especially a portable one! How fab is that. PLEASE pop over to http://www.favecraftsblog.com/january-blog-hop-love-is-in-the-air-crafts-giveaway and vote for MY project, I am number 5 and all you need to do is "Like" my project. If you want to get in on the fun with one of your fab projects let me know so I can "Like" your project! If you get a chance to vote for me, THANK YOU to the moon and back!! :)

Hello my crafty friend, so glad you popped by today for a visit. I wanted to share the surprise cake in a box card I made for my cousin and his wife's wedding. I tried to make the whole thing with one of my prized possessions....spellbinders dies! I usually make roses for my cakes from scalloped circles, and a quilling tool but they didn't have roses in their wedding, so I used prima's to make the carnation looking flowers on the lid and two EK success punches for the flowers on the cake.
The cake circles are cut with spellbinders circle dies, Lg. #6, sm #5, and Lg. #3. I used the #4 scalloped heart on the inside flaps, and the new Classic Petal edge/decorative insert edgeabilities dies to make the fancy edges on the sides of the lid. I then used Lacy squares and classic squares to make the sentiment piece on top of the lid. I did a tutorial on this cake in a box a few months back, you can go here to check it out if you would like to make one or a few, LOL! I love making surprise cakes in a box for all occasions, they are so versatile. I have to warn you though, there's quite a few pics :) lol

I recut just the edge die in white, ran it through the xyron, stuck in place then glittered it with white MS glitter.

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME :)

I hope you can leave me a comment so I know you were here so I can visit your blog to leave you some love. :) If you make a surprise cake in a box, or anything else you would like to be in it, please let me know so I can come see your creation! Have a scrap happy day, and bust out those spellbinders dies :)

Cindy :)

Happy New Year PK Baby

2011-12-26T22:04:00.001-05:00

Hi there, I hope you had an awesome Christmas and thank you for popping by my blog today to see what I've been up to. I know everyone has been busy with family and shopping and planning etc. so now that Christmas is all over the focus is on ringing in the New Year.

If you have frequented my blog you know how addicted I am to Peachy Keen Stamps and that I am working hard at playing along with their challenges as well. Their challenge on Tuesdays is normally a sketch challenge, and PK stamps aren't required, but for this time around they decided to make it a designer's choice except you HAVE to use your PK stamps. That's fine with me, I generally try to use PK stamps on all my projects for their challenges anyway. So here's my entry for their last challenge of 2011! I hope they love it as much as I do, the face makes the card :) Everyone that I showed it too wants one, especially my sister! LOL

Challenges

Peachy Keen Tuesday Sketch Challenge ~ Designer's Choice http://peachykeenstampschallenge.blogspot.com

I hope you had a fun time with family and friends over the season and all the best to you and yours in 2012. Please leave me a comment so I know you were here and I can visit your blog to see what you've been up to and leave some love :)

Cindy :)

LFIF Challenge and my sons Christmas card

2011-12-17T14:24:00.002-05:00

Hello, so happy you popped by. I created a card for the Let's Face It Friday challenge over at Peachy Keen! The challenge is to use fabric scraps on your project. Can make what ever you want as long at it has fabric on it somewhere. I only have one wintery, Christmasy PK stamp, well it's my aunts and I am borrowing it :) I am going to have to replace it though, it's getting so well used and I adore this little penguin! LOL When I made my card for the last Tuesday sketch challenge I went to PK to get the link to the stamp and realized the ball on the end of her hat was a bobber. I didn't remember that, because she came single, no pkging, so no pic of her coloured up, therefore I forgot that little detail. She's been on my wish list since I first saw her. The whole PK site is on my wish list, LOL!!!
When I saw that bobber I had this idea to make my son a Christmas card with an Ice fishing theme. He is a fishing fanatic, and the first time he went ice fishing with his dad he was five. He loves to fish and goes every chance he can, even his wife goes along with him quite a bit, although I doubt she would be to keen on going ice fishing, LOL! Never know, she likes winter sports, unlike me, who hates the cold and what it brings....YUCK white stuff, uggg! We do not verbalize the name of the white stuff, that is swearing. LMBO!
For his card we will let him think that the penquin is a male, shhhhhhh LOL To create my fabric enhanced penguin I stamped her twice, once on cs and twice on wide white ribbon that comes on a roll to make your own bows. I cut out the ribbon image once and glued it to the cs image, cut it out and coloured it in. Then I cut out the white area of the penguin and glued it on. The hat is cut from a felt ribbon, the scarf is from a piece of cotton and the vest is from a piece of material that was in my grandmothers old sewing basket, I don't know what kind of material it is, like the actual name of it, I don't sew and don't know all the material types, there's way to many to keep track of, LOL I should have just cut it from the piece of denim that was in there, I know it's name, lol.The fur on her hat is Silver Ice stickles! I had some actual fur but it was on a wire and just wouldn't cooperate with me, LOL so I had to resort to stickles.

Challenge

Peachy Keen Stamps LFIF Challenge ~ Add Fabric Scraps

I made the fishing pole by cutting the end off a green tooth pick, glueing on some jewellery wire and a green gem for the reel. I cut the igloo from white foam and drew on the pattern, and the snowy edge is also white foam, I added frosted lace stickles to it and the igloo for the snow, Silver ice stickles to represent the frozen lake, and baby glue stickles for the hole in the ice to catch the fish :) I also made the bucket by cutting one bucket shape, sticking the fish stickers on it popping out the top, added a piece of white foam, then cut another bucket shape and glued it on top pinching the sides down to give it a rounded effect. Pieced a hole on each side and added some green wire for the handle. I used a white gel pen to add some snow to the branches of the trees I stamped in the background, it wasn't working really well, but you can still see some snow on them. Added some Silver ice stickles for falling snowflakes, so they would be shiny.
Hope you like my card, really hoping Peachy Keen loves it, please leave me a comment so I can visit your blog and share some love on your recent projects. Have your self a scrap happy day!

Cindy :)

Two more Christmas Cards

2011-12-14T03:44:00.003-05:00

Hi there, glad your here because today I have a couple more Christmas cards to share with you! I wanted to join in the Tuesday colour challenge over at The Outlawz and came up with these quick and easy cards. Well, one was easy, the other was a little more tedious than I anticipated. The colour challenge was to use Winter Amethyst (pale purple) white and Wondrous Blue (pale blue) LOL but I do love the fancy names for colours. The challenge came with a twist, which was to add sparkle, now that is right up any crafter's ally, if there is one thing we understand it's sparkle!!!! LOL
For my first card I decided I wanted to use my quickutz (now lifestyle crafts) 4X4 snowflake die and my quickutz (Lifestyle crafts) Merry Christmas die, which came in the Jolly limited edition set. There are 3 snowflakes on the die and as a set they look kinda cool. I had some premade blank cards from the $ store that come in a pack of 5 with envelopes and come in all kinds of colours. Each pack is one colour and the cards are really shiny on the outside. Now I don't use these cards the way they are and decorate them, because to me I would be wasting the pretty back half of the card. so I always use them as mats or as die cuts, cause I love how they cut out so nicely and the added shine is awesome.
O.K. so I cut one of these cards in half, then made a slightly larger white card base. I took the blue cs and put it on top of the snowflake die that I positioned in the cuttlebug and ran it through. Then I turned it over and ran it through again with the sentiment die. I ran the white card base through the xyron to make it sticky and glued the blue negative to it. I took all the little bits out of the snowflakes and put them in the negative ones on my card, this was the tedious part. Then I dipped the edges in purple glitter, and poured white glitter over the snowflakes and sentiment giving me my three colours for the challenge, and my sparkle :)
So now I have the positive snowflakes and sentiments left over and decide that I really should make another card with them. I made a small card base and ran it through the xyron, stuck the snowflakes and sentiment on then covered in purple glitter, then added the white pearls to the snowflakes. Another set of easy peasy cards. I have a very close friend that totally loves the colour purple so this card has her name all over it, LOL No her name isn't Merry Christmas, smarty pants, LMBO
I just stumbled across a challenge site where it's Christmas all year round, the absolute perfect place for me to play, because I adore making Christmas cards. Maybe someday I can try out for their design team! WOOT!!

Challenges

Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you like what I shared with you today. And if you like the dies I used check out lifestyle crafts to see all their fun dies :)Please leave me a comment so I can come by your blog and check out what you have been making lately. Have a great day, hope to see you again soon, bye for now!

Cindy :)

CAS Christmas Cards

2011-12-14T03:19:00.001-05:00

I love making Christmas cards, all kinds of Christmas cards. Fancy ones, plain ones, CAS ones, non traditional colour ones, full of stuff ones....LOL well you get the picture, I am Christmas crazy and card crazy so they go hand in hand!! LOL I play along with all the wonderful members over at The Outlawz where they have a different challenge starting everyday and running for a week each. It's a fantastic way to build a hefty stock of all occassion cards. Being that it's December, my focus for the last while has mainly been Christmas cards, unless the challenge asked for a specific holiday or occassion.
This weeks Sunday CAS challenge asked for glitter....a CAS card with glitter. EASY PEASY pudding and pie.....love it, and of course I was up for the challenge. LOL I took a shiny blue card I got at the dollar store and cut it in half. I made a slightly larger white card base and ran it through the xyron. I took my provo craft snow flake (the one that comes with the embossing folder) and a sizzix sentiment die, lined them up and ran them through the cuttlebug. Unfortunately the sentiment didn't cut through properly and I had to cut it off. So I took the other half of the card I cut and cut it again, running it through 4X to make sure it cut through this time, LOL! I cut it down to fit on the bottom half of my white card base that was all sticky. I stuck the two pieces to the white card base, added a rhinestone to the centre of the snowflake, then covered the entire card in white glitter.
Now I had the positive snowflake and sentiment sitting on my table. I remembered I had a small card base left over from another day, so I ran it through the Xyron, added the snowflake and sentiment, added a rhinestone to the centre of the flake and covered the entire card in white glitter. Quick, easy and CAS approved!!! LOL

Challenges

Christmas Cards All Year Round ~ Dec. Anything Goes

Thank you so much for dropping by my blog today to see what I was up to. I hope I have inspired you to make something for yourself or someone you care about. Do you have all your cards made for Christmas yet? I know I don't, I always need another card for somebody at the last minute, so I love to have lots on hand. If you like these cards please leave me a comment so I will know you were here and I can drop by your blog to see what you've been up to lately. I hope you have a wonderful day, and you find some time to get crafty!

Cindy :)

Stained Glass Angel Ornament ~ Tutorial

2011-12-13T22:05:00.003-05:00

Hi there my crafty friend, ty so much for stopping by today. I wanted to share with you a way to use the packaging we recycle from all those cartridges and dies we buy. If you are as addicted as I am you don't want to be filling up the land fill with all that plastic since it isn't biodegradeable. I use the packaging in all different ways but this is my new favourite idea. Make stained glass ornaments and images for cards. I have previously posted quite a few posts using this technique.
Today I am showing you how to do it. :) First decide what you want to make (Card or Ornament?) and what image you want to use. For this post I used my favourite angel stamp I bought a few years ago to make a tree ornament. You may have tried the old stained glass method where you stamp on parchment paper and colour the reverse side than where you stamped. Same thing for this technique.

What I used to make this ornament

Take a piece of the packaging and cut to the desired size depending on what your making. For this ornament I cut one large piece, and stamped the image twice.

Cut in two, then turn over one of the stamped images and colour, then cut out. Take the second stamped image and colour on the same side that you stamped the image on, cut it out.

On one image cover all the areas in with co-ordinating stickles to match your marker choices. Set aside to dry.

When the stickled image is dry, glue the two pieces together, the stickles will be in the centre. Add any embellishments you would like on the front and back of your ornament. Punch a hole in the top and add a string or ornament hanger.

BACK VIEW

FRONT VIEW

Thank you so much, I hope you like my idea and my ornament and you get an opportunity to make some of these. They work great on cards to, like this Christmas easel card I made, and this one. I am working on a table ornament using this technique as well as another tree ornament!! ;) But those are another post :)

Cindy :)

Reindeer games

2011-12-12T16:53:00.001-05:00

Hi there my crafty friend, ty so much for dropping by. I made this card for the tuesday colour challenge over at The Outlawz. The challenge was to use the colours Silver, white and blue with a twist: add glitter or stickles. I love this colour combination for Christmas cards, looks so rich and warm.

Challenges

Christmas All Year Round ` Dec. Anything Goes

I started with a MS blue card base that already had a white mat centred on the mat and thin double sided tape around the edges of it. I took off the top layer and poured on silver glitter to frame hte mat. Made a slightly smaller blue mat and another slightly smaller again white mat. Took the white mat and heat embossed my reindeer and a snow flake flourish in silver. Glued the two mats together and layered a white ribbon that had silver going through it on both sides with blue ribbon that was edged with silver glitter, wrapped around the mats and glued to the card. I also used silver to add the sentiment on either side of the ribbon. Tied a bow with a piece of the blue ribbon and centered.
I hope you have the urge to run and make a card in this colour combo, it is very popular and every card a masterpiece! If you like what you see, please leave me some love so I know you were here and I can pop over to your blog to see what you've been up to and leave you some love. Bye for now, have a craft happy day!

Cindy :)

Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge #66

2011-12-12T16:12:00.005-05:00

Hello my crafty friend, ty so much for stopping by to check out my blog today. I just finished making this Christmas card to add to my stash and I followed this sketch from the latest Tuesday Peachy Keen Challenge #66. I love to combine my PK stamps with my spellbinders dies and other dies I have collected over the last four yrs. This is the sketch we were to follow....we can move things around and add others as long as we keep the main elements and they are apparent in our design.

The prize this week is this Valentine Cupids set that is just so darling. I hope they like my entry and I really hope Mr. Linky picks my number, LOL! Since Valentine's day is the next big card giving holiday I really could use this set, it's soooo cute!!!

Here's my card

(close up pics below)

I used PK-M21 Donna Rae Penguin for my main image, cause she's so so cute. I paper pieced the fur on her hat, her vest, and her arms. The pockets on her vest, the fur on her hat and the sentiment sign are popped up. The strings of lights are from a quickutz 2008 limited edition holiday set. (retired die, now lifestyle crafts) I coloured them and layered 2 rows, the top row is popped up. Her eyes and feet and light bulbs are covered with glossy accents. I used toothpicks for the poles of her sign she's carrying. I cut out a spellbinders Label 10 (love this shape) to layer her on, and I cut the bottom fancy edge off. After cutting it out and running it through to emboss I used a glue pen to go around the embossed edge then poured on silver glitter. The background designer paper is called Snowy Day by Sandylion sticker designs 2003. Really pretty paper and I'm almost out of it, hope I can find some more! The sentiment is stamped and then heat embossed in red. The holly leaves are cut from a quikutz retired die that has the bow, leaves and berries on the same die. I added red seed beads for the berries. I cut the spellbinders ribbon banner twice to make the banner appear longer, then cut the ends and tucked in under the popped up banner. Quickutz are now called lifesytle crafts and you can find their products here!

Challenges

PKS Challenge #66

Christmas All Year Round ~ Dec. Anything Goes

Thank you for dropping by and I hope you found some inspiration to get crafty today! If you liked my card please leave me a comment so I can swing by your blog, say hello and leave you some love. I hope you have a safe and happy holiday season, drop by again soon, I love visitors!!

Cindy :)

My first Guest Designer spot

2011-12-11T12:29:00.001-05:00

Yay....I play over at The Outlawz and really love it there. Different challenge everyday, but that doesn't mean you have to knock yourself out trying to do them all, although I do, lol! Anyway, I was asked to be a guest designer for the Wednesday sketch challenges for the month of Dec. '11. WOW what an honour, I was ecstatic when I got the msg. asking if I would like to, like to? LOVE TOOOO LOL. Thank you so much to Sandi, Melanie, Pat and Trina for asking me to join them in making cards for my all time fave season!
So this is my card for the first week's challenge, Dec. 7th.

The Sketch

My interpretation

My dancers close up...LOL!

Challenges

Christmas Cards All Year Round ~ Dec. Anything Goes

The prize for the challenges this month is two digital images from Michelle Perkett, so I made a card with one of her images for you. This stamp reminds me of a Christmas dance recital, and would be perfect for any little girl that has a recital, but it's also perfect for a daughter or niece card for a little girl that loves to dance or takes dance lessons. This little girl reminds me of the daughter of a girl I work with. I printed it 3X so I could pop up the layers of the skirt to give her some dimension and more interest. Used stickles on her skirt to make it shimmery and used an embossing folder from the Winter woodland set. It was perfect for this sketch as it gave me the wavy edges and framed the main image, awesome! :)

Thank you for stopping by my blog today to see what I have been up to lately. I hope you have been inspired to create something fun, maybe even decided to use the sketch! Cool....would love to see what you've been up to, leave me a comment so I can pop by your blog and check it out.

Cindy :)

Baby's first Christmas

2011-12-03T01:35:00.001-05:00

I am totally going to make a couple more of these, it came out so cute. I want to make some with a bAby boy in blues and maybe some pale yellow and green ones to. Also with soothers in their mouths, that would be to cute.
I was planning on using the PK paper doll stamps but the sizes were all wrong, so I ended up using the eyes from PK-496 but I had to ink up one eye at a time and stamp because I didn't think about the face size, was mainly trying to make the body the right size and just added the head, then I used the mouth/nose stamp from PK-576. Added some blue and white to the eyes and black and gelly roll pink to the mouth, a bit of chalk to the cheeks :)
I cut the baby pj's from the everyday paper dolls cart, I did select just height on my gypsy to make it taller at one point. I was going for babies first christmas in her santa suit jammies. I cut the hat (paper doll dress up cart) out twice, once in each colour, and cut down the white, ran through the xyron then glittered. I used white acrylic paint on the feet, sleeves and neck line of the jammies, then on the feet I added red jelly roll pen dots, to look like the jammie's with the none slip feet grip dots. I glued a rattle in her hand, and used a digi stamp by Sandi Huggett from The Outlawz for the stocking. I printed it in pink and white then paper pieced it. The present is a 3D shaker sticker from wal mart, and I cut out the letters with a font set from quickutz...will have to look it up. The die cut is from Spellbinders, Labels 11 I believe, better look that up to! LOL

Challenges

Christmas Cards All Year Round ~ Dec. Anything Goes

Thank you so much for popping by my blog today to see what's new. I hope you like it and it inspires you to make something fun today. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think, I really appreciate you taking the time. Until next time, have a scrap happy day in the peachiest of ways!

Cindy :)

Peachy News

2011-12-03T01:16:00.000-05:00

OMG.......are you kidding me? ! ? ! Being chosen to be on their DT would be the ultimate dream come true. Unfortunately I don't meet all the criteria :( Maybe next year!!! BUT.... nothing is stopping you from applying, read the post as it is exactly the same as the one on the PK blog or go to their blog. :)

We have a HUGE announcement that is SO bittersweet. As most of you know, our designers ARE our Peachy Family. We have had most of them on the team since our blog inception in 2009, with our Let's Face it Friday designers joining us in 2010. We adore each of them. ADORE. We have formed so many tight-knit relationships with each of these beautiful women, and absolutely nothing could change that for us!

However, with a new year and new products, we thought it would be a great time to offer the opportunity of designing with Peachy Keen to more friends! Our DT isn't going to be too far, though. First, they are friends. True, warm hearted, undeniable FRIENDS. We treat our team the same way we treat our family, and I think they would all agree. :) We will have alumni hops every quarter where you'll see the people you've grown to love and have been inspired by the last (almost) 3 years. We just couldn't let them go that easy!!! Lorie, Kim and Nikki will help with the new team transition and will remain on board as DT leads for next year. Lorie will remain our resident PK Connection Community Manager. She is SO good at keeping that place running!

So....what do you think? Would you LOVE to design with Peachy Keen Stamps?!?! We WOULD LOVE for you to apply!! Please check out the details below and get a move on it!

Term: Jan 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012

Benefits of designing for Peachy Keen Stamps:

• Supply of our high-quality, clear, peach-tinted self-clinging stamps to get started

• 25% off any additional stamps or supplies from our store the length of your term

• Selection of NEW Releases automatically shipped to you

• DT badge to display on your blog

• Custom watermark to use on your Peachy Keen Projects

• Exposure with links on our website, Peachy Keen Blog, and features on ourFacebook page and newsletter

• Participation in Co-Hops & Cross-Promotions (Participation optional, but encouraged.)

What we're looking for:

An active blog that you've maintained for a minimum of 6 months
Positive attitude, team players, people who are willing to share feedback and communication within our Design Team (area designated just for DT members in our PK Connection)
Support fellow teammates by visiting their blogs often & leaving feedback when possible
You must have a camera with good photography skills (light & bright photos)
Ability to meet deadlines

Designers will be asked to:

• Post 1 blog post every 6 wks on our company blog. {You are responsible for adding your watermark to your photos - we will be happy to help you create one or show you how to add one! We want YOU to receive credit for the art you create!}

• Create ONE project for at least 2 of our challenges each month. {we have weekly challenges that fluctuate between our face stamps and sketches.}

• Create ONE-TWO projects for our new release week with each new release (bi-monthly). {We will showcase your project on our company blog and ask that you simultaneously post to your own personal blog.}

THIS IS A TOTAL OF 2-3 PROJECTS PER MONTH (with a possibility of an additional 1-2 projects for a new release week)

• Maintain a current gallery in Splitcoaststampers {for Peachy Keen creations, please use keyword: "peachykeenstamps"}

• Upload your Peachy Keen Stamps' creations to our NING site, thePK Connection.

• From time to time, we will ask for volunteer Designers to create projects for participation in cross-promotion of Peachy Keen Stamps and other papercrafting companies' blog hops and giveaways. This is optional and in addition to any other projects on our blog.

• Encourage fans of Peachy Keen Stamps to participate in our challenges and view our blog by promoting our links on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, and any other outlet you choose. Social Networking plays an important role in our marketing efforts, so we ask that if you have a Facebook account or Twitter account, that you help us spread the word about our stamps.

If this sounds like something you'd love to be a part of, please send an email to:

Angelica{at}PeachyKeenStamps{dot}com with a SUBJECT line of: PKS DESIGN TEAM CALL
and include the following info:

1. Your full name, email address, phone number and a link to your blog {if you do not want to provide your phone number, please supply an alternate contact method.}

2. Your creative resume, if applicable.

3. Photos or links to 3-5 favorite stamped projects you've created. Peachy projects are great, but not required!

4. Any current DT's you are on or have been on. It is absolutely ok if you are on another DT, we just want to be sure everyone can commit to the DT requirements we have set up.

5. Why you think you think you'd be a great fit for PKS! This call is open to ALL paper crafters - we'd love to see what you've created! Please let us know any and all electronic cutting software you are familiar with and have access to (if applicable).

This call will remain open until December 23rd - 11:59 pm CST. It's open to EVERYONE including past design team members, however, each candidate will be weighed equally!

Thanks for reading and please share! We will be adding 8-10 designers. So if you'd love the chance, we'd love for you to apply! Please direct ALL questions regarding the DT to me (Angelica) and I'll answer them as quickly as possible. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

This is so amazing, I am happy for all those that are eligible to apply and very excited to see who wins one of the eight positions. Such fabulous news, I dream about being on their team all the time.

I love snowmen

2011-11-28T23:13:00.000-05:00

Given the Season, the challenges are looking to the holiday season and a lot of challenges are looking for Christmas cards or what ever holiday your looking forward tooo. The Paper a la Mode challenge at The Outlawz called for one this week. I made the snowmen a couple weeks ago which are from a bosscut die set, but I made a template to run through the die so the face won't cut out so I could use my Peachy Keen stamps for the faces. I keep a couple tins with cuts that I don't use when I cut them for one reason or another and in there I found the three trees I cut quite sometime ago with my cricut from one of my Christmas carts, like 2 yrs I think! And the string of lights were also in a baggie so they wouldnt get wrecked while waiting for a permanent home on a card. They are cut from a die that came in my 2008 Quickutz holiday die set. I put dimensional glue on the bulbs and then coloured with gel pens. All I had to do was figure out how to use these items to make a card and decided to make a scene. I found some background paper that kind of looks like a snowy night and cut two strips of white card stock uneven to look like hills and valleys. Added snow write to the trees and the snowy ground. the middle tree and snow people are pop dotted for dimension. I really like making scene cards and how this one turned out. :)

Challenges

The Outlawz Sat PAM~Christmas

Christmas Past meets Christmas Present

2011-11-28T22:12:00.002-05:00

The challenge I made this card for was The Outlawz Wednesday Sketch Challenge. When I saw the sketch I had two cards come to mind so I decided to make them as one. I love the way it turned out and am entering it in a few challenges that are asking for Christmas cards or cards with Christmas trees/or trees! Hope you like my card :) The branches on the tree are the MS branch punch, the gifts are stickers. The curtain valence is punched with the scalloped border with mini hearts (MS I believe)

Challenges

The Outlawz Wed Sketch

Incy Wincy Designs: Trees, Trees and more Trees!!

Our Creative Corner ~ Christmas tree
2Sisters Challenge Blog ~ Holiday

Sleigh Ride

2011-11-28T01:31:00.003-05:00

Hello my crafty friend, ty so much for stopping by to check out what I have been up to. I wanted to enter a challenge over at The Outlawz where the criteria was Shapes and Snowflakes...I had so many ideas flying around in my head I had to sit just sit down and start working on one. The challenge was to make a shaped card and have a snowflakes/flakes somewhere on your card.I finally decided to go with a sleigh from one of the Christmas cricut carts (same name). It has a lovely design and can be left plain or dressed up.
I used my gypsy to design the card base by welding two "blackout" sleigh images together, one of them backwards of course. I also welded on oval into the sleigh so I would have an area to glue in presents and allow more room on the inside for a sentiment and signature. I then cut a single sleigh out twice. One with the oval one without. The one without was used to trace an outline of the opening so I would know where to glue the items going inside. The other one I inked the runners up and heat embossed them in silver. I cut off the sleigh body. I cut the sleigh again in red this time and cut off the runner. I ran the white base without the oval and the red body part through the xyron and glittered. I then put $ store stickers on cs, cut out and glued in place. Then I glued all the pieces together and added snow writer to the white designer cut on the top section of the sleigh. Added the sentiment from my sticker stash.

Challenges

The Outlawz -Twisted Thursday Challenge Nov. 17

Totally Gorjuss ~ Sparkle
The ABC Challenge ~ D is for Dazzle
Papertake weekly Challenge ~ Christmas Crackers
Little Red Wagon ~ Christmas

When I finished this card I was soooo happy with how it turned out that I really want to make more. I think this is by far my favourite Christmas card I ever made, it was my black and white one for like 3 or 4 yrs now, but I believe this one has kicked it to the side. If you like my card please leave me a comment and I will pop by your blog and take a boo around yours tooo :) Thank you so much for visiting me today and I hope your day is scrappy1

Cindy :)

Season's Greetings

2011-11-28T01:04:00.000-05:00

Hello, welcome to my blog, I hope I can inspire you to get those Christmas cards done for all your family and friends. This weeks Wednesday sketch challenge was so pretty I really wanted to get in on this one. My card has a different take on the challenge as to what I would normally do, but since I am building my Christmas card stash I figured as long as it follows the basic sketch I'm good. Let me know what you think of my card so I can drop by your blog and see what you have been up to lately.

Challenges

Outlawz Nov. 16 Sketch Challenge

I hope you have yourself a scrap happy day, and be safe!

Cindy :)

Christmas present - card

2011-11-28T00:51:00.000-05:00

Hi, welcome to my blog, I hope I inspire you to get crafty. Please take a look around and leave me some love so I can come check out yours. Over at The Outlawz I was checking out the challenges for the week, and trying to get ahead of it this time instead of rushing hrs before it's due. The challenge for Monday greeting card was Gift wrapped - birthday/christmas presents. When I read it an actual present popped into my head and I kind of chuckled at my self at the thought of a card that resembled a present. Then I thought, why not? I don't have stamps with a significant sized present on it, they are all small ones from the studio G $ sets. Everyone was making awesome cards with all the great images that had presents you could see without a microscope, LOL! Ok it's not that bad, but any way like I said I figured why not, I grabbed some "gift wrap" looking designer paper because I was too lazy to dig out the actual gift wrap, (lol), measured, cut and added ribbon to it then mounted it to my card base. I cut some strips to make the bow but because of it's small size I was having trouble putting it together so I only made the one layer, rather than two. I cut a tag with a sizzix tag die and stamped a sentiment on the front and to: from: on the back. I had to stand the card up backwards to take the pic so the tag would sit right, so if the background looks a little odd it's not you! LOL Anyway here's my card, kinda cute, and very easy, would make a great CAS card to I think.

Challenges

Greetings Challenge Nov. 21 Outlawz

Have a scrap happy day!

Cindy :)

"New Baby" easel card

2011-11-28T00:14:00.001-05:00

Hi again, thank you so much for popping by. This time I have an easel card for a new baby. My nephew and his girl are expecting a baby boy in April and peachy keen had a sketch challenge that required us to do paper piecing. Now I know we are to paper piece a stamped image, but I have seen some projects entered that have their cricut cut out's paper pieced and I knew exactly what image I wanted to use for their card.
I used a face from the PK-570 Basic Paper Dolls Face Assortment. Using the everyday paper dolls cart, I welded a head to the babies pajamas on my gypsy and cut it out. Used markers and ink pads to colour the hand and face/hair on the cut out, then I cut the pajama's three times so I could cut and layer the pieces to add dimension.

I pop dotted the baby

Challenges

PKS Sketch Challenge 65 with a twist: paper piecing

365 Cards

I hope you have been inspired to get creative with all your scrappy stuff, after all that's what it's for! LOL If you like my card please leave me a comment so I can drop by your blog too and check out what you've been up to. Hope your having a peachy day while scrappin' away.

Cindy :)

Peachy Keen recipe Challenge

2011-11-27T21:56:00.001-05:00

Hi my crafty friend, so happy you dropped by today. I have been very busy working on lots of challenges. This one is a recipe challenge for peachy keen. This recipe has been a tradition for as long as I can remember and there is usually more than one pan made per Christmas season. It was my grandmother's recipe that we all loved. I was raised by my grandparents and when I was a young teen my grandmother showed me how to make it and it later became my tradition. Since she passed I am the only one in the family that still makes it, and I love it. I usually make two large square pans by doubling the recipe, saving one pan for my house and the other gets divided in two. Half is a gift for my brother, the rest a treat to take to my cousins house for our annual family Christmas get together on New Year's Eve.
I am really happy that Peachy Keen had this challenge because I have wanted to do a 2 pg LO of this recipe for a few yrs now, this just motivated me to go ahead and get it done :) My aunt is looking forward to seeing it and she will probably get motivated to do one for herself as well. Which will be great because it's so neat to see how other's perceive a challenge and using the same idea and pictures, how different the LO's will be, I can't wait to see hers. Warning you now, this is a pic heavy post, LOL! But I don't want you to miss any of the little details!
The first pic is of the 2 pg LO, the rest are the pg's individually, full pic's and close up shots. Please check them all out, the recipe is typed within. Who knows, it just may become a traditional recipe at your house tooo!!! That would be awesome.

MUCK ~ N ~ GOO

That's what my grandmother always called it. We don't know where this recipe originated from and didn't really care, we only wanted to be sure it was a part of every Christmas get together.

1 pkg. miniature marshmallows, 1 can sweetened condensed milk, to pkg Mr. Christie Chocolate wafers...crushed or 1/2 a box of Oreo baking crumbs. Desired amount of sweetened flaked coconut.

Grease a 10X13 baking pan, (glass or metal), sprinkle bottom with coconut to thinly coat. Mix remaining ingredients together well. (my hubby had to do this part for me, it's to hard for me to mix now).

Spoon the mixture onto the coconut in large dollups, this isn't real easy to work with and needs to be done kind of quickly, the longer it sits the harder it is to move around, spreading really isn't possible, LOL. Sprinkle the top to lightly coat with more coconut. Let set. For the purpose of this post I cut a piece out of it just to take a pic, once set it will be nice and neat on all sides. But it tasted just as yummy unset, LOL!
ENJOY

Ohhhh YUMMMMMM.....

The original recipe calls for chocolate wafers by Mr. Christie, but they have to be crushed and I am unable to perform said task at this time so I opted for the Oreo Baking Crumbs instead, they were also on sale close to a $ cheaper than the wafers....it's a win win! :)

I used a few different PK-570 Basic Paper Doll Face Asst. stamps on the marshmallows and a variety from PK-493 Everyday Character Faces Parts and MORE on the chocolate wafers!! I printed and cut out pics of the ingredients, mounted on white cs and cut out to frame. I used spellbinders classic circles to cut out the chocolate wafers and classic ovals to cut out the coconuts, then did a bit of hand cutting to reshape. The bowl and apron are cut from Everyday paper dolls. I cut the bowl once ea in red, white and very light brown and the apron once ea in christmas designer paper and white cs. I then cut the lower part of the patteren paper away and glued to the white one to give it a lace trim, then I used a 5/16 whole punch to add the hole for visual effect. The white strips cut with the MS drippy goo punch are to represent the sweetened condensed milk. The recipe card holder is a premade pocket that came in my 2008 quickutz Christmas die cut set to hold the recipe ingredients and instructions.

I stamped the pattern on the bowl with white pigment ink then used the heat tool to set.

Hand shaped coconuts....not bad I guess.

Challenges

PK LFIF "Holiday Recipe Cards" Card of LO

I hope I have inspired you to do layouts of your fave holiday tradition recipes. They will be all beautified for generations to come. What a fabulous recipe book that would be filled with family favourite recipes....I think I am going to start one and this is the first LO for it...YAY! Thank you PK for the idea. Glad you stopped by today, hope your day is scrappy in the peachiest of ways!

Cindy :)

Love Easel Birthday Cards

2011-11-21T16:22:00.000-05:00

This one is for a very good friend of mine for about 20 yrs now! She loves purple and the tues. colour challenge over at The Outlawz was to make a card using lime green, white and azure purple and add flowers. Right away I knew I could use these colours to make my friends card and enter it in this challenge at the same time....WOOT! Then I was looking around at a few other places to play and through an email from a very crafty friend I happened upon a wonderful challenge site called Totally Gorjuss, and they aren't kidding, perfect name. The challenge this week is to go Swirly Wirly, and have swirls, whirls, flourishes etc on your project somewhere, and who doesn't love to add swirls etc to their projects, I know I do. So I added a flourish of gems, and the paper kind of has some swirly effects going on, LOL. So here's my card:

Challenges

The Outlawz ~ Colour Challenge

Totally Gorjuss ~ Swirly Wirly

Make it Monday ~ Anything goes

The background DP is from a book of papers by Paper Pazazz - Hot off the Press, the dp paper with the flowery image on it is by unkown, it was in my scrap drawer and I have had it a long time, was saving this piece for just the right project. I made the rose and glued it to a prima flower, punched and shaped some leaves for around the flower and added the bling.

Thank you for popping by my blog today, I hope you like my card. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think, I love to hear from you. Until next time have a scrap happy day!

Cindy :)

Emma's two!

2011-11-21T03:18:00.000-05:00

Well here's another one of those oh so sweet cards where I get to use the cutest peachy keen face stamps on the animals from the New Arrival cricut cart. A friend saw pics of the cards I made with the monkey and the number one and asked if I could do one for a little girl who was turning two and adored elephants. Of course I can :) LOL LOL

Elephant cut at 3" from New Arrival and the #2 is cut from Plantin Schoolbook at 4.5" shadow and reg. The balloons are from a quickutz thin die and stamped with sentiments. Balloons have embroidery thread for their strings attached to his tail. Birthday hats, cupcake and presents are stickers, and the grass cut with the MS icicle punch. Letters on inside were cut using quickutz alphabet dies.
I'd like to thank you for dropping by my blog today to see what I have been up to. I hope all is well with you and yours and your have yourself a scrap happy day :) If you like what you see here please leave me a comment and let me know, I truly appreciate your feed back. TIA

Hugs
Cindy :)

Another first Birthday card

2011-11-21T02:34:00.000-05:00

One of my grand nephews turned one last month and this is the card I made him to go with his baby name frame (not posted yet). I love making these monkey's because the peachy keen face stamps make them so adorable, and hey don't we call babies little monkey's, I know I do!!! The card recipe is basically the same as the first one I posted just cut slightly different to leave the area across the bottom for a bolder sentiment. The balloons were cut once again with the quickutz balloons thin die and stamped with the studio g stamp set. The letters for his name and number across the bottom were cut using a Sizzix alphabet dies set. The monkey and number one were cut with my cricut and the gypsy. Monkey from the New Arrival cartridge and the number one from the Plantin Schoolbook cart. The diaper is made from a piece of felt and the strings from the balloons are embroidery thread. I didn't give this lil guy a soother because my grand nephew doesn't use one.

In the Peachy Keen Connection Gallery

Thank you so much for visiting me today and seeing what I have been up to lately. I hope you have been inspired to go be creative and have yourself a great day. If you like my card please leave me a comment about it, thanks in advance and take care of yourself.

Cindy :)

Peachy Keen Thanksgiving card

2011-11-21T02:19:00.000-05:00

Peachy Keen Connection asked us to make a "Thankful" card or project. I made two cards, one was a snow woman juggling snow balls that had letters on them spelling out "Snow Many Thanks" for my BFF and this cute little penguin easel card.

PK Connection challenge

My aunt placed a nice size order from PK a few months back and brought them to my house and left them here for me to use...YAY! I got this idea in my head and kind of chuckled about it then thought, why not....it's cute. I used the penguin stamp on a plain white classic oval spellbinders die then mounted it on a lacy oval. Made a 4X4 easel card base, added some dp and assembled. For the penguin I coloured his body, hat and feet with gel pens. Added opague glitter glue to the hat trim and stamped the image again on dp, cut out the vest and glued in place. Made a fancy die cut for the hand written sentiment and pop dotted it off the base. I didn't win the prize but I did get a couple laughs and compliments on this card, what more can I ask for :)
So grateful that you stopped by my blog today to check out what I have been up to. If you like this card please let me know and leave a comment for me, I sooo look forward to your comments, they encourage me to make more fun cards to show you. If I put a smile on your face or a feeling of warmth in your heart then I am happy, because it's better to give than to receive and if it makes you happy for a few moments then I know you weren't sad, and that means a lot to me. Have a scrap happy day and take care.

Cindy :)

First Birthday card

2011-11-21T01:55:00.000-05:00

This card is so much fun to make, I have made several of them, in girl colours, boy colours, and ages one to three with different animals on them. Occasionally I forget to take a pic of the card though when someone thinks to ask me to make one and they need it yesterday, so to speak, LOL!!!

Entered in the PK Gallery

I started with a pink 6X12 card base folded in half, Matted a purple layer, white layer and bday dp layer. wrapped a ribbon around the last three layers and added a bow. Cut the one in white shadow then the pretty dp paper on reg cut with my cricut from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge using my gypsy. The "balloons" are cut from a quickutz thin die, then stamped with $ studio G stamps from M's. I used embroidery thread for the balloon strings and cut out the monkey from the New Arrival cart with my cricut using the gypsy. I make the tuft of hair from a small piece of cs and cut it part way through several times and curling. The face and soother are Peachy keen stamps that were created for the New Arrival cartridge, makes these little animals soooo much cuter than cutting out their faces. I made the diaper from a piece of felt and the flower is cut from Life's a Beach cart and the grass was cut using the MS icicle punch. There is a little candle on top of the one :)
I'm so happy you dropped by my blog today, if you like my card please leave me a comment, I look forward to hearing from you with compliments, suggestions and even invites to visit your blog. I hope you have a scrap happy day, take care.

Cindy :)

Stained Glass Easel card 2

2011-11-21T01:18:00.001-05:00

My stained glass easel card 2 uses another one of the images we were given by Anne Fenton and Sandi Hugget over at The Outlawz site to use for their creative freebie challenges. The first challenge the ladies gave us two each of their hand drawn digital images and let us create with them how ever we liked. For this card I made another easel card but this one is a different style. I used a 5X7 card base turned the long way and scored down the centre to give me a short fold to mount my image to rather than the whole width.
I printed the image on acetate, turned it over and coloured the back side, then filled in the coloured areas with stickles and glitter glue. I let the image dry over night then cut it out. I printed the image on white cs and cut out the paper image to glue to the back of the acetate to give it stability since it would be sitting up above the folded edge when in the easel position. I really like how this card turned out but doubt I will make another one since it was so much work, LOL!

Challenge

The Outlawz CFC
My Craft Spot Challenge #33

Thank you for popping by my blog today, I hope I inspired you to make something perhaps using this stained glass technique, the images come out so bright and sparkly and Christmasy. If you like what I made please leave me a comment letting me know, I love to hear from you. I hope you have yourself a scrap happy day!

Cindy :)

Lest We Forget

2011-11-21T00:54:00.000-05:00

Thank you for stopping by today to see what I have been up to. I made this card for Remembrance day to honour all the men and women that lost their lives and for all the one's that came home. My grandfather was one of those that made it home safely and he was never able to talk about it. He tried to share a story with me once but he got very emotional which made him angry and said he'll never speak of it. The years that had passed since those horrific events didn't make the memories any less raw for him. I love him and miss him dearly, wish everyday that he was still here. We all called him Poppy, how fitting a name which came about when my cousin couldn't say grandpa so the nick name stuck.
I also decided that I would enter this card into the Saturday's Paper a la mode challenge over at the outlaws to create a project to honour a veteran or veterans or the military. I bought the 3 poppies and went to work on my card. Used the stars cuttlebug embossing folder for the background paper, wrapped a grey ribbon around it and stuck the pins in the ribbon before attaching to the card. I drew and cut the cross, used a ribbon tag and hand cut out the little tag which I hooked a heart brad through.

Challenge

Paper a la mode ~ The Outlawz

I hope I have inspired you to be creative today, or just reminded you of a loved one you've lost either during or since the war and their memory brings some joy and gratitude to your heart for their sacrifice and our freedom. Have a great day being scrappy!!!

Cindy :)

My Niece's 25th b-day card keepsake

2011-11-21T00:32:00.001-05:00

Hello my crafty friend, so glad you had time to pop by today and see what I have been up to. One of my many niece's celebrated a milestone birthday on Nov. 9th so of course I had to make her a special card to celebrate. I play over at The Outlawz and there was a challenge asking for raspberry, white and black, plus use either houndstooth or gingham designer paper. I knew I had gingham and thought I had houndstooth paper but not sure what colour I had. As it turned out I didn't have a single sheet of that pattern in any colour what so ever, sooo I created my own!
I knew I had the cuttlebug houndstooth embossing folder by provo craft because I seen it on sale on line for less than $3.00 and just couldn't let the sale pass me buy even though I'm not a fan of this pattern. Glad I had this in my embossing folder drawer for this challenge though, and I rather love the way it turned out. I think Easel cards are so awesome and unique cards and thought it would be perfect for this milestone card I wanted to make.
I cut out the base for the card in white and did all the scoring and set it aside. Cut out the mat for my image in black, traced the inside of the die on gingham and cut it out to make the image background. I found a piece of raspberry coloured cs, cut two rectangles to attach below and above the centre score line on the front of the card base. Ran the rectangles through the cuttlebug in the houndstooth folder and ran my brayer over it with black ink to create houndstooth designer paper. Coloured my image, which is not purple by the way, and the hat and purse are a deeper shade of pink. Made a few of my paper roses and did some shaping of the leaves for the decorating around the bottom of the image mat. Added a few rasp pearls and a butterfly from the $ store. Decorated the inside of the card to create the inside sentiment to match :) The card can be stood up like a regular card of set up in the easel format and it looks great either way. I sent pics of the card to my niece as we couldn't make it to her b-day supper and cake that evening. She replied with her initial reaction that she loved the card, thank you so much, then asked if she would be able to bring it home sometime or if I keep these specialty cards. Of course she can take it home, I can make another one, and I am going to for my other niece that turned 25 this yr.

Challenges

Outlawz Colour Challenge 11/01

My Craft Spot Challenge #34

This card was sooo much fun to make, I can't wait to make the other one for my niece :) Thank you for stopping by my blog today and I hope I inspired you to get creative. I would love to know what you think of my card and if you have made one like this or if you are now planning on making one like it. Have a great day and happy scrapping!

Cindy :)

Stained Glass Easel card

2011-11-20T23:44:00.000-05:00

Hi there my crafty friend, ty for stopping by. I have been saving the outer pkging from spellbinders dies and cricut carts etc. And find all kinds of uses for them on all different kinds of projects. A couple years ago I read about a stained glass technique using parchment paper where you stamp your image on one side and colour it on the other. The colours come through and make a lovely stained glass effect but the colours are soft, not rich and vibrant. When I make Christmas cards I like the colours to be rich and vibrant sometimes and stained glass is a technique that I feel should accompany the season. It reminds me of Sunday morning service and looking at all the stained glass windows that were so beautifully crafted and tell a story.
Now my cards don't necessarily tell a story but they are rich and vibrant! I had the idea to try this technique with a piece of the pkging and I thought it turned out awesome so I set to making several cards in this unique fashion. For this card however I had to print the image onto a sheet of acetate since it was a digital image by Anne Fenton over at The Outlawz. Anne and Sandi Hugget have started a new series of challenges that run for 2 - 3 wks each. They supplied us with the first 4 amazing images and we were asked to make anything we wanted then share with them in the challenge to receive the next set of images. I think everyone that participated entered at least one project for each image, and the beautiful creations just kept coming.
For my first project I decided on an easel card. I printed the image, turned it over to colour it in then filled in those colours with stickles and glitter glue. I let it dry over night then incorporated into my card with the stickles to the back so it is smooth and flawless looking on the front. I think this technique looks really pretty and used it on the next 3 images. Here's my first card....

Challenges

The Outlawz Creative Freebie Challenge

I hope I gave you an idea of a different technique to use on your projects while recycling at the same time. If you like this idea let me know by leaving me a comment, it really makes me happy to read what you think of my idea and I would love to see what you make with this technique, so come back and leave me a link to your blog so I can check it out and follow you to.

Cindy :)

Another CAS Christmas card

2011-11-20T22:51:00.000-05:00

Hello my crafty friend, glad you dropped by to see what I am up to today. I play in the challenges over at a site called The Outlawz. They have a different challenge everyday and it runs for one week. I made this card for a "mission embossible" challenge on Nov, 6, 2011. You could use any kind of embossing you wanted. I love this cuttlebug embossing folder from Provo crafts Winter Wonderland set, when I saw it I knew I had to have it. It is so Christmassy and wintery and flourishy, LOL. It also lends itself to quickly making perfectly CAS cards. You can whip up a dozen in about 30 to 45 minutes which is perfect if you need to make gift sets. I made several like this last yr in different colours, as well as a set of 15 in red and purple for my red hat society ladies.

Challenges

The Outlawz~ CAS0611

I used a pastel blue card base, made a white mat, rounded corners on both. Dry embossed the white mat, stamped the sentiment with ocean MS pigment ink and heat embossed it. Added blue pearls from the dollar store....done!!!

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you like the card I made for the challenge. If so please leave me a comment and I hope to see you over at The Outlawz!!

Cindy :)

Creepy Cute with Peachy Keen

2011-11-10T23:51:00.002-05:00

Hello my crafty friends, so glad you dropped by to see what's new. I haven't posted anything for a few days, cause things have been pretty rough around here lately, and although I was crafting I wasn't in the right mind frame for writing. This post needs to be quick and I will have to update it later with the whole story.
I am entering these paper dolls costumes into Peachy Keens Let's Face it Friday Challenge and am running short on time. If you have seen anything I've posted with their stamps you know how crazy I am about them. The challenge this round is to make something Creepy Cute...I don't know that they qualify as cute but I think I got the creepy part right, LOL!!! I made Hallowe'en costumes for some paper dolls and I have a rather lengthy story to tell about them. You will want to come back for this because it is quite the adventure. I am sooo thrilled to have been a part of it and I will be uploading more pics with the rest of the story in another post.
On to the Dolls.....I used PK-493 Everyday Character Face Parts and More! that fit Cricut Paper Dolls 3" to 4" for the eyes on the Vampiress, the Vampire, and the Mummy. I created the mouth on the witch and the vampire with some masking tecniques and adding more than one stamp together to accomplish the shape I wanted. I added the vampire teeth with a tooth pick and white acrylic paint. The mouth for the Vampiress is from PK-573 Basic Paper Doll Faces (3'' to 4'') with teeth added in the same fashion as the vampire. The mouth for the mummy is from the same set as her eyes but it is turned side ways, coloured in with a black sharpie and the little line at the bottom of this stamp I masked so it wouldn't show. Each of the costumes were created with the cricut with a lot of adjusting and sizing as well as some hand cutting to adjust here and there because the paper doll bodies aren't from the cricut series. It was very time consuming getting the outfits to fit right. The mummy was done by tracing her silhouette then cutting it out larger twice, and gluing together, then I cut and inked up several thin strips of white paper and glued on. Can't really tell in the pic unless you click to enlarge but they all have green faces except the mummy of course.

Challenges

I am entering these Costumes into the LFIF Challenge at Peachy Keen!

I hope you like my costumes and come back for the story behind the paper dolls! I will start a new post though and include a lot more pics of their Hallowe'en adventure as well as their adventures while visiting me.
I really hope I win a PK challenge one of these days, the prize for this one is a 25.00 gift certificate...OH Hhhhh my I could have some fun with that, biggest problem...I would have to make a decision on which set to get next, cause you know I want one of everything they carry. And they have a new line just out, Yeah that's right, I got the email about it the other day...check this out ~~~> PKKO's oh my lord, can you say Love at first sight...H E L L O O O!!! I can't wait for things to change around here so I can buy stuff again...cause I just have to get my hands on ALL of these. I adore die cuts and these stamps so ya it's a no brainer that I would want them all. They have an awesome promo for the release...the whole set of the winter release promo stamps and dies for only $211.89. OMG I would so love to be on this band wagon! Maybe if everybody prays and/or wishes me a lottery win before the 14th of this month I could by them all, well actually I would buy everything they carry but that's beside the point. Anyway...I would do the same for you...all you need to do is ask!!! LOL LOL

Cindy :)

Handmade Holidays Blog Hop 2011

2011-11-05T12:49:00.001-04:00

Handmade holidays blog hop!!

click url above to be taken to the hop

So glad I checked facebook this morning and seen this blog hop, of course I had to go hopping a long like a little bunny, are you kidding me. The talent that's out there and all the different companies that are on this 3 day hop, over 60 I understand. And they are showing off fabulous ideas for handmade gifts for your friends and fa ily member. Even if you don't win a prize your still a winner...there's tons of inspiration for great handmade gift giving. So come on, hop along with me, it will be fun, I am looking forward to making some of these great gifts. Have a great day, good luck and happy hopping!!

Cindy :)

Christmas Easel Card

2011-11-03T17:11:00.002-04:00

I was trying out some new markers I bought with my birthday money and coloured up this image. Then I was thinking well it's coloured what shall I do with it. I love Easel cards and when looking through my Christmas stash I found this pretty striped paper that was already cut 6X6 and decided to make one. I saw a challenge over at The Corrosive Challenge Blog and decided to work a flourish into my design for challenge #136, "with a flourish".

Challenges

The Corrosive Challenge Blog #136 with a flourish

Make it Monday

4 Crafty Chicks

Can you see the Flourishes? LOL They don't stand out to well against this crazy polka dot paper do they, but they are there I promise, LOL!
Thank you for stopping by, I hope you like my easel card, they are so much fun to make and can be quite the show piece. If you like this would you mind leaving me a comment about it? Have yourself a scrap happy day.

Cindy :)

Big Bad Crow Costume

2011-11-03T02:57:00.003-04:00

Hello my crafty friend, glad you stopped in today to check out my latest post. This card was made for the Peachy Keen Sketch Challenge #64. I love everything Peachy Keen and this little bird is just the cutest lil guy. When I saw him/her I had to have the stamp set PK-267 Happy Bird and Phrases, then I saw the Mother's Day set that has the smaller version of the Happy Bird, and then the Die cut by Scrapping Cottage to match the stamp. I am a sucker for sets, LOL! I really need to win some new sets though cause I am forever making cards with this lil guy, all my other stamps are faces, and I use them all the time but mainly for baby cards and baby name frames on paper dolls. The prize for this challenge is the PK Santa Set and since I collect everything related to Christmas I just had to enter. Ohhh I sooo hope I win this set, fingers crossed!!!! My aunt is letting me borrow some sets she bought a few months back and I keep forgetting I even have them, so maybe the next LFIF challenge I'll pull those out.
The new PK challenge was to follow a certain sketch and if you don't have any PK stamps, that's ok, your still eligible as long as you follow the sketch which of course you can flip. Anyway, I usually enter the Let's Face it Friday challenges where I have to use PK stamps but this week I had this card idea come to mind and decided to make it following the sketch. This is my entry for challenge #64, and if you want to enter you have plenty of time, it runs until November 14, 2011 so click on the link under my card and come join us for some super de duper Peachy KeenFun while your there check out their PKS Shop, you won't be disappointed in the selection they have going on for stamps and dies! I actually want one of everything they carry, and one day when I win the lottery I will definately be placing a rather large order, YAY bring on the lottery winning numbers! Woot
I thought it would be cute to have my little bird dressed up for Hallowe'en in his "Big Bad Crow" costume, LMBO, what do you think?

Challenge

Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge #64
Mondays Colour Challenge at The Outlawz

I used the Fiskars Maple Leaf punch for all the leaves, inked them up with some red and green ink and drew in the details. Don't mind my hand writing on the bottle cap, I am not a neat writer by any means and I really did try, it's not easy to write on a small shiny surface. The ghost's are tips of ice cream sticks I kept a few years back and glued black buttons to the backs. I stamped the image on black cs with frost white pigment ink and then heat embossed it with White Pearls Translucent embossing powder. The bird is cut twice and glued to each other just at the body so the wings can be bent up, they are but it doesn't look like it in the pic. The branch is cut from a retired Spellbinders die set called "Bugs". I just cut a little triangular shape out of the orange cs to form the crows beak, and cut off a thin section of the head part of the bird in black cs, to make the crows bushy, hairy head feathers. I snipped it several times across the top and tried to make it look sort of ruffled. These two elements and the black colour make up Happy bird's big bad crow costume, LOL.

Thank you for dropping by my blog today, I hope you like my card and my humour. If so please leave me a comment and let me know if you liked it and thought it was funny. I love to read comments from visitors, it let's me know you appreciate checking out my cards and other projects and I hope that I am successful in giving you the inspiration to create something beautiful today. I hope you have a scrap happy day, until next time, take care and be safe!

Cindy :)

Just Because

2011-11-03T01:10:00.000-04:00

I made this card for a long time friend of mine "just because". We have been friends since before my first child's first birthday and he is 29. so a long time friendship, we have been through a lot together and have been there for each other through thick and thin over these 29 yrs.
A few months back she was over for a visit and we were looking at some stamps I had gotten a few months before that. Four brand new Fairy sets that came out at for an introductory price and since I couldn't decide which set to get I bought all four.They were the new Fairyopolis collection by Crafter's Companion and they had one set for each season. My friend commented that she loves fairies and picked her fav one of the set so of course I had to make her a card. She likes a lot of different colours, not just one as she is a very colourful lady and a lot of fun to hang out with. I know she will love the card when she gets it, she keeps all my cards and looks at them often, she says she just loves them all.

Challenges

Twisted Thursday Challenge

Thank you so much for popping by today, I hope to see you again sometime soon, and that you leave a comment letting me know you were here. I really appreciate your comments and encouragement when you like something I've made. Come back again soon, until then I hope all your days are crafty.

Cindy :)

Tues Colour Challenge

2011-11-03T00:41:00.000-04:00

Well I read the challenge, looked through my paper collection and thought...hmmmm what to do what to do. I actually made two cards for this challenge but didn't care for the first one, although a few other people thought it was great. Thank you ladies! I don't much care for this one either, I think it is the colour combo that is throwing me off. The challenge was to use Navy, Rust and Mustard on your card and add a glittery embellishment. This is what I entered for the challenge. I should take a vote and ask for completely honest opinions about it. I'm not thrilled with it but I love the roses, they come out beautiful in any colour, YAY!

Challenges

Tuesdays Colour Challenge with an Oddball Twist

I hope you enjoyed visiting my blog today and didn't just close it when you seen this card, LOL! Maybe you found the inspiration to get creative and make something beautiful for someone you love. Thank you for visiting and please leave me a comment with your thoughts on this card. :) I hope you have a scrap happy day!

Cindy :)

Another Hallowe'en card

2011-11-03T00:20:00.001-04:00

Oh my goodness, talk about easy cards. This card is seriously 5 minutes, well after you have your embellishment or stamped image ready that is. This card was made for a Tuesdays Colour challenge with an oddball twist over at The Outlawz. They have a new challenge everyday that runs for one week each. At the end of the month if you link up your project after posting it on your blog you have a chance to win a great prize. Since the draws are done with a random.org type selector it's anybodies game. The challenge was to use Green black and orange and add a leaf or leaves.

Challenges

Tuesdays Colour Challenge

For this card I took a white card base and added a black mat. Cut out a smaller green mat, embossed with the "Scroll Work" Cutlebug embossing folder and sanded to reveal the white core. Cut out an oval in the centre with my Spellbinders classic oval dies. The pumpkin was cut quite sometime ago from one of my cricut carts, I didn't use the top of the pumpkin cut, and I had cut the black handle to make it resemble the pumpkin bucket my kids use to carry when trick or treating as little ones. In pop dotted it up off the black are of the mat. added a few leaves and the Got Candy? sentiment and called it done!!

Snow Friends

2011-11-02T23:43:00.005-04:00

Heyyy, the best season of the year is almost upon us and if your like me you need a ton of Christmas cards. I like to make them all year round, cause I love Christmas and anything related to the season. That is really evident if you check out my stamp selection and die cuts, and carts and 3 drawers of Christmas paper alone etc. All other occassions DP are in one drawer all together. LOL
This card was so fast and easy so if your running low on time you can whip up a few dozen of these in no time. The stam
s is one of my all time fav Christmas stamps from Inkadinkadoo, it's just the cutest image ever! I love it and use it every year on a few of my Christmas cards for friends and family.

Challenges

Twisted Thursday over at The Outlawz

I made this card for the twisted Thursday challenge over at The Outlawz a few weeks ago. Card sketches and challenges are an awesome way to get your seasonal cards made, especially if you've lost your mojo or are just out of ideas on card LO's.
This was the challenge info: "Ok are you ready, grab a mixing bowl and a spoon, this week we have a RECIPE!!! First start with plain paper...NO patterns...then add a couple of critters, next add a swirl, and last throw in a bit of testure...and you have instantly and amazing card!!!"

For this card I started with a plain white card base, and cut a plain white mat slightly smaller. Embossed the middle section with my "diving swirl" Cuttlebug embossing folder, using a technique with a red rubber gasket to leave the centre section un-embossed. Then embossed the ends with my "Crafts-Too" snowflakes embossing folder. I actually forgot to add the score lines Intended to add between the different embossed sections, which would have looked a lot better but I was trying to hurry and get the card done and posted in time. I stamped the image and coloured it, adding stickles to the snowflakes and let it dry. I cut out the sentiment with my 2008 Quickutz limited edition holiday gift set, ran through the Xyron and attached. Inked the edges with a co-ordinating blue ink, and added gems to the snowflakes for added texture and that touch of bling that goes with all Christmas cards. TaDa...done!!!
Thank you for stopping by my blog today and I hope you found some inspiration to get crafty. Try out this easy to whip up card using your fav image next time you need a quick card for an unexpected visitor around the holidays. I hope you enjoy the holidays and the merriest of wishes to you and yours!

Cindy :)

My Fav Hallowe'en card

2011-11-02T23:18:00.000-04:00

I made a few of these a couple yrs ago, and I just love this lay out for a Hallowe'en card, it let's you add a lot of detail without looking cluttered. It's fun to create tooo! This time I added a few extra's like I drew the spider webs on, stamped a Crow in the tree, and lined up over lapping pumpkins along the fence. Tri-fold shutter cards are just so much fun!

Challenges

Saturday's Paper a la Mode Challenge over at The Outlawz

I used Paper Doll Dress Up for all the cuts except the pumpkins along the fence, they are stamped and cut out individually by hand, then glued on over lapping. I just loved all their faces so decided to go with all of them, LOL
I hope you liked my card, even though Hallowe'en is over for this year. Thank you for stopping by my blog today and I hope you've looked around and found some inspiration to get creative. If you like my card, please leave me a comment to let me know you were here and have yourself a scrap happy day!

Cindy :)

Starry Night

2011-10-30T02:44:00.001-04:00

Hello my crafty friend, I'm so glad you came by to check out my blog. A couple of weeks ago I entered a card into a challenge that required their be stars on the card or project. The theme for the challenge is a greeting card so I made this quick and easy Christmas card to help me get my cards done for the up coming season.

I took a card base and used my score tool to make a rectangle 1/4" in from the outer edge, then made four more score lines across the middle section of the card leaving a space in between number 2 and number 3 to add my embellishment. I stamped the upper half with my sentiment by Hero Arts and the lower half with a scene of Bethlehem from an Inkadinkadoo set. I traced the embossed lines with a gold gel pen, and used gold ink pad for the sentiment and image. I cut out the swirly embellishment from my Fanciful Holiday Spellbinders die set in shiny gold paper and adhered across the centre.

Challenges

Greetings Challenge for October 10th

I hope you enjoyed my post about my starry night card and it encouraged you to start or continue working on your Christmas card list. If you like it please leave me a comment, I truly appreciate each and every comment, they make me feel happy and encourage me to keep creating things to share with you. I hope you have a blessed day and happy crafting! :)

Cindy

Table setting place cards

2011-10-30T02:20:00.004-04:00

Hello my crafty friend, thank you so much for stopping by my blog to see what I have been up to. I am enjoying entering challenges and one of the sites I play at is called The Outlawz. They have a new challenge starting everyday and running for one week each. Sundays challenge this week was to make a CAS card or project using a leaf or leaves as your focal point. I decided to make a place setting card for Thanksgiving even though it has passed here in Canada. I have a lot of American friends and some family members that live in the states and these are in honour of all of them. :)
I was working on a set of four and having some difficulty cutting out my sentiments on the cricut, most of the sentiments are meant to be cut out for scrapbooking pages rather than cards, the smaller size makes the cuts rather thin and extremely delicate. My first place card has the delicate sentiment on it, and I had a rather pretty leafy image I was going to cut out for the top section but figured that it probably wouldn't cut out very nicely either since the swirly part of it was also very thin. I ended up resorting to my spellbinders dies for some leaves from the sunflowers set, and a couple flourishes from a sizzix die.

After I finished this place card and uploaded it to the challenge I realized it was supposed to be a CAS card. For some reason I was thinking of Saturday's Paper Ala Mode challenge when I was designing this on my gypsy. So I quickly whipped up another one of the place cards and this is the one I tagged to enter in the challenge. I like this one but it's still not as CAS as it would have been on a regular size card. Oh well, this is the only Happy Thanksgiving stamp I had so it will have to do. :) Tomorrow I will make two more of each place card, or I might make them each different as well, everyone is unique why not have a unique place setting card each right? We will see what tomorrow brings I guess.

Challenges

I am entering the second card into The Outlawz CAS challenge
I am entering the set of 4 into the Paper Cutz Challenge : turning over a new leaf
and into the Make It Monday Challenge #61

I hope you like my project and I have inspired you to get creative. If you like my project please leave me a comment and let me know which one is your favourite? Have yourself a blessed day and happy crafting!

Cindy

Gift Tag

2011-10-29T23:26:00.001-04:00

Hello my crafty friend, thank you so much for popping in to see what's new on my blog. I made this tag for a challenge over at The Outlawz. I know most of you very talented crafters make amazing tags and I would love to make one like that someday. I just don't know where to start, there's so many ways to do it, things to add etc I kind of feel intimidated by them. So I made a christmas gift tag, who doesn't need one or a couple dozen of these every year, lol. Hope you like it....

Challenges

The Outlawz Saturday's Paper Ala Mode Challenge: make a tag

I made this tag with the lrg ornament shaped die from my Quickutz limited edition 2008 Holiday gift set. Cut once in the shiny red, and once in white, I put a piece of silver just to cover the hanger part and cut once, and cut a strip of patterned paper and laid across the middle section and cut. The holly leaves and berries are from the same set.

I hope you like it and it gives you an idea for some gift tags you might want to make this year. Hope you drop by again and see what else I've been up to. Have yourself a scrap happy day :)

Cindy

My cricut "punch" roses

2011-10-28T02:19:00.002-04:00

Hello my crafty friend, today I thought I would share the roses I make with you. When I make roses or other flowers I generally like to make extra's and with these being so easy I make 30 roses at a time. I originally made these using a five flower punch. I saw a youtube video on how to one night and can't seem to relocate it. Anyway using a punch to make them at 5 flowers per rose, is not only time consuming but it is painful for me. Soooo I decided heyyyy I have DS and a Cricut, and I know how to use em, design them!!! ;) LOL
I used a circle and 5 tear drop shapes from a cricut cartridge and welded together to design these. I cut these out at 1" but you can cut bigger or smaller. And I used a glue gun to assemble as even my quick dry glue wasn't working for me. You can use any five petal flower on a cartridge, I also seen one that the petals weren't the right shape but I altered it in DS and it is almost the same as these. So anybody can make these, just have to pick which flower to use.

Go to my paper roses tutorial: http://toolsofacropingqueen.blogspot.com/2011/10/paper-roses-tutorial.html

I really love these roses and have made hundreds of them. I make them in solid colours and white with the edges inked. I haven't tried patterned paper yet but I plan on it. I use a punch for the leaves I put with them most of the time but sometimes I cut them out on the cricut or I use one of my leaves dies by spellbinders or sizzix. And lots of times I accompany the roses and leaves with the branch MS punch, its so pretty and multi- funtional.

Here's a card I made with these roses

My cousins b-day card, she loves animal prints and the colour blue ;)
I forgot to glue on the lil birdies legs, he's gonna get tired, lol
You can find the die and the stamp for the bird Peahy Keen here

Thank you for visiting my blog today, I hope you found something you like. If so please leave me a word or two so I know you were here. :) Have a craft happy day!

Challenges I entered

The pretty little ribbon shop: October challenge- Anything Goes!

A "Clean & Simple" card

2011-10-26T02:30:00.001-04:00

Hello my crafty friend, ty for stopping by. Thought I'd share a CAS Wedding card with you that is fast and easy to create.
Start with a white 5X7 card base, cut a white mat slightly smaller than the base. Add a few score lines across the top section to frame your sentiment, mine is this gorgeous Cherish stamp, I basically bought this wedding stamp set because of this word, I love it. Emboss the middle section of the mat and use and edge punch across the bottom. I cut out a scalloped circle with a Spellbinders die and stamped the image. For a shinier effect heat emboss the word and image. Wa La done.....well the outside at least, lol!

Challenges Entered

The Outlawz CAS Challenge Oct. 9: Use your favourite Stamp

I used the "Textile" cuttlebug embossing folder from Provo Craft, the scalloped lace MS border punch and made four score lines on my score pal for the base. Not sure why but to me the scalloped oval looks like it was cut out of the card base when it was actually cut separately, stamped and adhered on top of the embossed mat.
I've made this card several times, although I used different folders and embellishments, I just love the elegance and simplicity of the white on white with a hint of colour.
Thank you for dropping by and I hope I have inspired you to get create something special, have a craft happy day!

Cindy

BCA card set

2011-10-26T00:42:00.003-04:00

Hello my crafty friend, ty for stopping by my blog today, glad to have you. I am a member of a great site called "The Outlawz" and they have a new challenge that starts everyday and each challenge runs for one week. A new challenge was posted for Monday's Greeting card challenge and it is in honour of breast cancer awareness month. Love it.....!!!!
I started one of these cards last week but everything I was doing wasn't working so I set it aside. Today I went to start working on the twisted Thursday challenge and the card caught my eye. BAM...... a set of these popped into my head along with this design. I love it, what do you think?

I used the largest Labels 10 Spellbinders die for the base in white, cut the DP, mounted and added gems to the scallops. I used Spellbinders Ribbon banners and cut mini letters from a quickutz alphabet. The birds are a Peachy Keen Die, love that bird :) sooo cute. I cut ea. bird twice in pink, inked edges and along the detail cuts in the wings and tail feathers to make them stand out. Glued just the bodies together not the wings or tail feathers so they could be gently curled up for a fluttering effect. I thought these would make a great gift set and I plan on making a box for them, not sure if I will buy a $ store box to decorate or make a something with paper. I will edit later with the company name of the DP's, I know they came in a BCA kit last yr but can't remember the name of the company. i hope it's on the paper cause I don't have the pkging.

I hope you've been inspired to create something beautiful with your stash today. Thank you so much for stopping by to see what I made. If you like it please leave me a comment, I appreciate your taking the time to visit and your words of encouragement. Hope your having a scrap happy day! :)

I entered this card in these challenges:
The Outlawz: Mondays Greeting Card Challenge: Pink Awareness
Peachy Keen Stamps: Let's Face It Friday challenge: Windy
Paper Cutz Challenge #114 "In the Pink"
Make It Monday #60
The Corrosive Challenge blog: Flying Things
The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop: Anything Goes
Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog: Something that Flies

Cindy

My sisters birthday card

2011-10-24T23:37:00.004-04:00

Hello my crafty friend, ty for stopping by today. I am sharing the Birthday card I made for my sister. Her birthday was yesterday and unfortunately we live almost an hour away from each other and since I haven't been well this week was unable to visit her and give her this card. Yesterday was the first day I was in my craft room all week, man did I miss it :) I love it in here!!!
Anyway, since I couldn't visit we talked on the phone and I told her I was going to email a pic of it to her inbox at work so she could at least see it before she actually "see's" it. When I got up this morning I went straight to my email. YUP she replied...I knew she would, lol, and she was capital lettering everything, how much she loved it etc. etc. and she said that it brought tears to her eyes. Awwwwww, I didn't intend to make her cry! LOL That touched my heart...I love her so much!
My sister has the strongest love of the combination of black and red. Every time I make something and show it to her she says OMG can you make me one of those....in black and red! LOL LOL And yes I usually oblige. She wants one of everything I make for her to keep and one to give away, LOL. She is my biggest admirer/supporter of my creations. She has a creative mind too but she doesn't have the time or the drive really to spend as much time as I do. This is my passion and I spend as much time as possible playing with all my toys, I have to, I have a huge investment in this room. LOL

Sooo here's her card

Challenges I am entering this card into

The Outlawz: Monday Greeting Cards Everything Goes

Wee Memories Challenge #73 Free For All!

CARD RECIPE:

6X6 white card base. I printed the sentiment off the computer, cut and mounted it to the base. Cut 2 black squares slightly smaller than the base and cut a hole in the centre of both with a Spellbinders Nestabilities die. I glued one to the base and set the second one aside. I glued pop dots all over the black part of the base. I then made and glued the rest to the piece I set aside and lgued it to the pop dots so the over hanging items would create a shadow.

I made all the roses by hand using a 1" 5 petal flower punch by EKSuccess. The red swirls and green leafy branches are cut out from Sizzix dies and the butterflies are cut from the Butterflies Die-namics dies by My Favourite Things. The larger butterfly is actually solid, I used punches for the 2 circles sizes and the hearts.

I cut two of each butterfly, using the die in the red/mustardy paper and once in black cs for the larger butterfly. For the smaller one, I traced the die, cut it out inside the trace line and glued it in between the two red ones. Before gluing the three pieces together for each I put double sided tape over the holes in the wings, glued together then dipped them in black glitter. Added the gems to their bodies and the swirly pearls under them. The larger butterfly is pop dotted up off the card. All the red gems are heart shaped.

I hope you enjoyed my little story and this card has inspired you to get crafty! If you like my card please leave me some love and let me know you dropped by today, and thank you so much for taking the time to look.
Cindy

Son & DIL 1st Ann. card

2011-10-22T19:48:00.000-04:00

This is the card I made for my son and his wife's first anniversary. The couple is cut from the Love Struck 2010 solutions cricut cartridge @ 3.75. I then cut out the shadow cut of this after welding the word "Happy" to the bottom tip of the heart on my gypsy. I haven't managed to find what cart I got the sentiment from. I do know that the 1st is from a different cart than the words. The background paper is like a tissue paper that has fibres between two layers, really pretty paper I have had for quite sometime. I added the brown pearls to the corners and lots of blue gems to the couple die cut.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope I have inspired you to make something fun, and that you are having a scrap happy day. :)
Cindy

Baby Girl Name Frame

2011-10-22T18:41:00.000-04:00

I know, it's another baby name frame sry, LOL! This one was for my sister's great niece's first birthday. Ever since my sister's niece was born her father has called her monkey. Everyone calls her monkey and buys her monkey related stuff and she loves the huge collection she has. When she had a baby last yr it carried over to her, and now she is also known as Monkey. For her frame I decided monkey's was the way to go and thought a jungle looking theme would be kinda cool. I layered and layered different shades of green leaves. I had this green decorative kind of leafy stuff, sry I don't know the name of it but I used it in clear vases. It is stringy and I thought it would work well for vines. I cut all the stems off a few pieces and glued them on before adding more layers. Cut out two monkeys with my cricut and fancied them up a bit. The faces are Peachy Keen faces from the set that was made for the animals on the New Arrival Cart. Made the diapers out of felt, glued bottles in their tails and made the soothers from another stamp set by PKS. I cut a small rectangle piece of brown and made several cuts into it, folded the piece a few times and curled the strips then glued on for the hair adding a flower shaped bling for a hair bow. Used glossy accents on the eyes, then added a tiny dot of white paint. Glued the letters to the "vine" that the monkeys are holding up across the frame. And added some tropical flowers from the "life's a beach" cartridge.

The babies name is Tenley not Jenley, these letters were chosen and we didn't notice the T looks more like a J until I made it.....oh well, Mom didn't mind at all, as she loved the frame.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. I hope I have given you the inspiration to create something fun. I hope your having a scrap happy day! :)
Cindy

"Cake in a box" tutorial

2011-10-22T18:02:00.001-04:00

Hello my crafty friend. How are you today? I hope all is well with you and yours. I decided to do this tutorial because on occasion I receive personal messages from the wonderfully talented ladies over at the cricut msg board wanting to know if I will share my cut file for the cakes in a box. About 4 yrs ago now I saw a cake in a box that someone made and they said they used the sizzix die for the cake. I loved this idea and decided I needed to make cakes in a box as well. However, I couldn't find the die any where. Luckily I had Design Studio and decided I would design my own template to make the cakes. I placed 3 circles on the mat in the bottom 6X6 square. 3" 2.5" and 1.75". In the top half of the mat I placed 3 rectangles 1.25" deep each at 10.25", 8.25" and 7.25". I haven't used this file for quite some time as I just make the strips by hand now and cut out the circles with my spellbinders dies, so I am not sure how much too long these are, but better to long than to short right. I just cut off the excess triangles, tuck in side and glue. Along the top edge of these rectangles I welded tiny triangles. After removing my cuts from the mat, I score the rectangles along the edge where the triangles meet the edge and fold all the triangles down. I then carefully glue these triangles to the very edges of the circles to make the layers for the cake. Then glue them on top of each other and decorate.
For the box: take a 12X12 sheet of desired CS, I score on two sides at 4" and 8", then cut out the four corners. You can leave them attached but the box doesn't fall open to get the surprise effect. Now the lid is basically at your discretion as long as the inner square is 4" or slightly bigger, its up to you how deep you want the sides to come down the box. I usually will take a 6X6 or 7X7 square, and score at either 1" or 1.5" on all sides as well as at the 4" mark. For the 4" mark I line up my paper then move it very slighly to the left before scoring just to give it a little bit of room so it isn't to tight. This depends on the thickness of your choice of CS also. If it is thinner weight you don't really need to do this, but with thinner CS the sides sometimes tend to bulge out.
I have added a couple pics for this tutorial but the circles were made with spellbinders dies and the strips were done by hand but it is the same thing, and the result is the same. I am including them so you have a visual of my description. The yellow scalloped circle goes under the doilie so that some of the chosen colour shows through under the cake itself. This is a preference, and is not necessary.

This pic has the yellow and white quilled roses I made for the cake, but I didn't use them, as the bride isn't having any roses in her wedding so I used other flowers for the cake.

This is the cake I made with these strips and circles....

I need to remember to glue all the glass seed beads on before adding the flowers so they will be straight all the way around. To change it up a bit I had a ribbon that has a pretty scalloped edge on each side and a plain strip down the middle, I cut the edges off and glued to the cake instead of the seed beads. The decorating ideas are endless I think, its like decorating an actual cake for me, as I used to be a cake decorator yrs ago. I like these better, no body cuts a big chunk out and ruins its beauty. LOL LOL This particular cake in a box still isn't finished. The cake topper I make by glueing a double heart charm on a strip of pkging the carts come in. When dry I cut around the charm and make the lower part slighly narrower than the widest width of the charm. Cut this section up the centre, and fold these two strips in opposite directions. I cut another circle for the top of the cake and put a slit in the very centre, put these strips through the slit together and refold them in opposite directions. Then glue this whole piece to the top of the cake. Then add the seed beads to conceal the second layer on the top piece. I hope this makes sense as I didn't take any pics for this step.
I hope you enjoyed and understand this tutorial, if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them. I would love it if you share pics of your creations with my tutorial. You can email them to me at cynpot@gmail.com.
Thank you for stopping by my blog today, I hope your having a scrap happy kind of day :)
Cindy

"Thanks" tickets

2011-10-21T12:47:00.000-04:00

Hello my crafty friend, how are you today? I hope all is well with you and yours! Today I thought I'd share a project that I did for a girl a couple yrs ago now. She was getting married and asked my sister if we could make 500 tickets that say thanks or thank you on them for the guests at the wedding. My sister called me and we set to coming up with something for her. She said they wanted to give each guest two tickets for drinks on them at the reception. We made several different ones and then decided on which one we felt looked the nicest and was easiest to read. My sister figured I could make 500 and pair them up by tying two together with a brown or green ribbon. We tried several different ones tied together and they didn't sit right, they seemed to bulky to me. And not easy to rip off of the ribbon one at a time.

We decided on this style and as I was making them I was thinking oh my lord, this is gonna take forever. After I made about 200 of them I thought heyyyy, why don't I perforate the tickets in half to make one ticket equal two. So that's what I ended up doing. The bride and groom loved the tickets and the idea of the perforation.

When I was done making all 250 tickets, I wanted to present them in a nice way to them, not just hand them a couple stacks of tickets in a shopping bag. I had this dollar store box hanging around and it was the right colour so I put the tickets in and they filled the box perfectly. So I made a fancy cover to glue to the lid, cut out a flower pot on the cricut and the flowers I needed to make the paper roses.

These paper roses I learnt how to make yrs ago by a very talented lady and her blog is Susan Bluerobot, this is the link to the directions to make these roses: http://susanbluerobot.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-make-paper-roses.html

My sister seen a gift bag at the dollar store in the right green so I cut out the stamp in brown and the bride and groom in cream and adhered to the front of the bag, much nicer way to present them to the bride and groom. They totally loved the tickets and appreciated all the work I put into making them. Since my sister was working full time and I was on sick leave from a surgery mishap I took the whole project on to give me something to do.

"Thanks" was cut with the cricut for some

and the rest were done with the cuttlebug with the Ty set that comes with the embossing folder and the die cut template. I have a tin full of left over thanks and thank you's!

The double heart is a punch.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today, I hope I gave you an idea if someone asks you to make drink tickets for their wedding reception or other get together. Have a great day and Happy Scrappin'.

How about another Baby Name Frame...

2011-10-17T14:02:00.001-04:00

Hello my crafty friend, how is your day going? Hope all is well with you and yours. I'm so glad you stopped by, because I wanted to share another frame with you. This one was for a little boy. When I was thinking about what to do on it, what theme to go with, my sister said something about a frog and this idea just popped into my head. So much fun, I love his little Peachy Keen Face, those faces are awesome. If you don't own any PK stamps your missing out my friend. And I have both paper doll carts from provo craft for my cricut die cut machine. But for this little guy I only needed to cut his head, hair and hands. The outfit is a Jolee's sticker I got for $1.00, woot, I found a bunch more another day for 1.00 also and I bought them all. I think I have 7 or 8. when I run out I'll go back to doing things the hard way. LOL LOL but its sooo much fun.
For the sticker I had to remove his arms and turn them around so the pattern would be on the outside, then I just put paper on the inside and coloured the red stripes on. The grass is my MS icicle punch cut twice and pop dotted. The wagon and dog are from the paper doll cart and the mason jars, I printed off the internet a small jar to use as a template to trace them. I used vellum and another vellum sticky paper over it, drew the lines and sticks and leaves. The lady bugs and butterflies and other bugs are from various sticker sets. The kitten in the wagon and the toad under it were chip board pieces I have from an old KC & Company set. The jar on the left side has hand drawn ants. The wagon was cut three times, twice in red once in black. I cut the wheels off the black one, cut everything except the wagon bed itself off one of the red ones and pop dotted it up off the mason jars. I googled Radio Flyer to see what the logo looked like for the wagon brand and used a white gel pen to draw it on. The frame is a shadow box frame from Michaels.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. I hope I have inspired you to create something fun for somebody!!