Sweet Butterfly Birthday

Today marks the start of another challenge over at Die Cuttin' Divas.

This week the challenge is:

Recipe : Pearls, Pins and / or punches

I cut this scalloped card base. The base measures 4 1/4" and is welded on my Gypsy to form the card base. The scalloped circle I used is from Winter Woodland, but you can use any scalloped circle you like.  I always cut an extra card front to cover the folded edge of the card base. The circles measure as follows:

brown : 3 1/2" - also from  Winter Woodland

pink polka-dots : 3 1/4" - also from  Winter Woodland

This is the butterfly from Everyday Pop-up Cards. It's cut at 2".  I just had to accent the body with some self stick flat back pearls. Only the body is adhered to the card base.

I embossed the "Happy Birthday" from Scrappy Moms Stamps using white embossing powder. Adding some white gel pen stitches really brings the card all together. I added more pearls to each scallop on the card base. 

The adorable branch is from Cindy Loo cut at 3 1/2" (the leaves are double punched from a 1 1/2" circle punch). I inked the edges of the leaves and attached them with pop dots.

The dimension on this card is wonderful, with the leaves up on pop dots and the butterfly's wings popping off the card.  Because I sized the circle card to 4 1/4" it will still fit into an A2 sized envelope.... no extra postage required. 

We'd love for you to stop by Die Cuttin' Divas and enter the challenge!

Recipe : Pearls, Pins and / or punches

The sponsor this week is The Crop Stop

Whoooo loves you?

Today marks another Die Cuttin' Divas challenge. This week it's:

Sketch Time

Here is the sketch for this week.

And here is my take on the sketch. As I have said before, sketches are by far the most challenging for me. I have such a hard time embellishing them! I hope you like my little owl card. All the paper is from DCWV's "The Green Stack" and kraft cardstock for the base and accents.

The scalloped circle and circle are from Winter Woodland (cut at 3 3/4") and the adorable owl is from Create a Critter (cut at 2 1/2"). I added the little hearts (1/2") from Create a Critter to make the owl's love garland. I couldn't resist placing the little wings over the garland (these are leaves from Plantin Schoolbook). Inking the owl and adding goodly eyes sure gives this little owl some wonderful personality! 

I love My Pink Stamper's Punny-licious set. This is the perfect sentiment for this card! :)

I added this little bow using my Bow-Easy and some satin white ribbon. Lastly, I added some white gel pen stitches and I called this card done.

Now please take some time this week to create and link up on the Die Cuttin' Divas blog.

The theme is Sketch Time

Kitty Scalloped Circle card

Saturday is my son's teacher's birthday. This is the card my son and I designed together. She loves cats so Bryce wanted to be sure it had a cat on it. :)

The adorable card shape is from Winter Woodland. While a lot of cartridges have scalloped circles on them, I really love this one! :) We created the card base on my Gypsy and sized it to 5". The circle layers are from Plantin Schoolbook measuring 4" and 3 3/4".

This adorable little kitty is an oldie but a goodie... from Doodlecharms. We sized it to 2 1/2". We placed a 1/2" heart (also from Doodlecharms) for the nose and added a little scrap under the nose. We also added the little triangles for the ears. Bryce placed the kitty on an Action Wobble. So cute! :)

The adorable red and white polka dot paper is from Echo Park's Dots and Stripes pad. I placed the small polka dots above the scalloped border trim and large polka dots beneath it.

I added the sentiment stamp from Hero Arts' Big Hugs set. I curved the sentiment on my blog to mimic the curve on the card front. I couldn't help but add some doodled stitch lines using my Gelly Roll pen.

A second stamp from the Hero Arts : Big Hugs set finished off the inside. My son loves this card and says he is sure his teacher will too. :)

Challenges:

Paper Playtime : Anything Goes

Tuesday Throwdown : hearts

Craftspot: Anything Goes

Dog Lover Birthday

Thanks for joining us for 

DD's Crafts Fabulous 50 Birthday Blog Hop!!

If you just came from Julie the  Cricut Chick's blog (cricutchick.com) you are in the right place... if not, please head over to Debbie's blog at craftydeb-ddscrafts.blogspot.com to start at the beginning.

Today my card is a birthday card for a dog lover! :)

This is a typical A2 card. I pulled lots of blue and browns from my scrap bin... the blue is Bazzill cardstock, and the polka-dot background paper is an old print by DCWV. The blue layer measures 4" x 5 1/4" and the patterned paper is 3 3/4" x 5". I also added a strip of blue paper (punched with a Fiskars scalloped border punch), a white satin ribbon and a brown strip across the card base.

I created this sentiment layer using "Shelley Print" and placed it in a 2 1/2" circle. After printing it onto photo paper, I placed it on a 2 3/4" brown circle and a 3" blue scallop (both cut from Winter Woodland).

My little puppy is from Create a Critter (where else??) and is cut a 2 1/2". His adorable face is using Wide Eyed and Bushy Tailed Peachy Keen face stamps. I added the white details with my Gelly Roll white gel pen. A little adhesive backed rhinestone finishes off his little collar.

The inside of the card features a sentiment stamp from Hero Art's Big Hugs set.

For a bonus freebie, I've included my doggy themed sentiment for you to download if you'd like.  Simply click onto the image to open it and right click on it and choose "Save image" to save it to your computer.

Before you jump to the next stop, please leave a comment (and don't forget your contact info) to be entered in my drawing for some blog candy...

a $20.00 gift card to either

Michael's or Joanns -- winner's choice!!!

Drawing will take place on Monday, Jan 16th, 2012.

Please remember to win the grand prizes over at Debbie's blog (DD's Crafts) you must leave a comment on each blog each day of the blog hop.

Your next stop is

Lisa over at Crafty Lam

Gift Card Tags

Today the new challenge over at Die Cuttin' Divas is to make some tags!

I'll be showing you how I make these Gift Card Tags. They are wonderful if you give gift cards out at Christmas time (or anytime really) but I love that they use recycled supplies too.

First step is RECYCLE!! I always love a project where you can recycle and craft! Save a toilet paper roll or two (or paper towel roll if you prefer).

I find that the best way to flatten out a TP roll is to run it through your Cuttlebug. It works great! Next,  staple it shut on only one end and the sides of the open end (see the pictures).

Don't worry about the staples, the paper will cover them up, they sure make

assembly fast... no waiting for glue to dry.

Next cut paper to fit the flat roll. My paper was cut to 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" and is from the DCWV's Christmas stack from last year... if you use mini stack there is no trimming required.... that would be even easier.

Then cut a tag that will slip into the tube. You can hand cut a tag that measures 2" x 4 3/4" or use the Schoolbook Cricut Cartridge and cut a tag using 2". You'll need two tags for each tube. I sandwich the two tags together for strength.

Punch a hole in the tag, set and eyelet and thread on some ribbon. I used my 3/16" hole and eyelets setter on my Crop-a-Dile. I used two lengths of ribbon, each measuring about 9". I couldn't resist adding some jingle bells to my tag's ribbon too. :)

I added a tag shape cut from Winter Woodland, I used my Gypsy to size it to 3 1/4" x 2" and a matching shape for the shadow sized to 3 1/2" x 2 1/4". I mounted the colored digi image from Whimise Doodles.com.

Check out this page on my blog for three easy ways to color a digi.

Here is a picture of each of my three different tags

The stamps are all Studio G $1 bin stamps.

 I inked all the tags and sleeves with ink and a finger dauber.

And I simply couldn't resist a "Jingle all the way" stamp on the tag.

I added a "to:" and "from:" stamp to each set too.

See how great the gift card fits the tube! And you can feel great about recycling

(and you gotta love free supplies)! As easy as these are to make, kids could easily help out. Let them color the digital stamps, even covering the tp tubes is an easy job. How about this as a holiday break activity?

I hope you'll hop over to Die Cuttin' Diva's and enter the Tag challenge. This time the challenge will be running for two weeks, so you have time to fit this challenge in. :)

3-D Christmas Tree Card

I think I may be addicted to these 3-D elements. I cut three of these trees from the Christmas cart (cut at 3 1/2"). If you'd like to make these 3-D style shapes, any symmetrical shape will do, if you chose to use a shape like this tree that is not symmetrical, be sure to flip one (using your Cricut or Gypsy) so you can piece them together correctly. 

For these trees I used the new Echo Park, Holy Jolly Holiday pack. The window frame came from Christmas too (I sized it to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and welded it to create the card base). The window shape is a tag from Preserves. I cut it in blue and in a snowflake vellum too.

The "joy" is from Winter Woodland. I ripped some white glitter paper into snow drifts and curled and inked the edges to give them some defination. I also inked the red frame, the blue window and the tree (using ink colors to match the layers and a finger dauber).

I used some red Studio G glitter glue to add the little accents on the tree.

Here is one last look at the adorable Christmas tree. I just LOVE the way it stands up, but can be folded down for mailing. :)

Challenges:BBTB2 : "joy" from Winter Woodland

3-D Turkey Decoration

Hi everyone. I am very happy to be a guest designer over at My Sheri Crafts today. Her challenge is to create a Thanksgiving or Thank You project. Here is my take on her challenge.

 Here is my very first video. I just had to make a video for this cute turkey decoration... I just knew that you couldn't appreciate it from still pictures on my blog.

Here is a close up of the face of the turkey. I used a self-adhesive flat back black pearl for the eyes.

I just love how fluffy the tail is. Hard to believe the turkey folds down pretty flat for storage or mailing.

Here you can see part of the wings. So cute. :)

The little feet fold out like the wings do.

This is a top view of my little turkey.

And here a link over to You Tube to see my video over there.

At this point, I haven't written a tutorial, as much as I'd like to, I'm not sure if I could make a video (I don't have a tripod). If I get enough interest, I'd be happy to create a tutorial for this adorable turkey.

Please leave me a comment if you'd like to see how to make this little guy.

Until then here are the parts you'll need for one turkey:

2 yellow scalloped circles - 5"

2 orange scalloped circles - 5"

2 red scalloped circles - 5"

8 brown ovals - 4" x 4 1/2"

2 yellow leaves from Create a Critter - 1 1/2"

1 yellow triangle beak - 1 1/2" x 3/4"

2 red waddles from Create a Critter - 1 1/4"

1 scalloped square - 3 1/2" (cut in half diagonally)

oval welded to a circle (or just pieced together)

brown oval - 3/4" x 3" circle - 2 1/2"

Head on over to My Sheri Crafts to enter the

Thanksgiving or Thank You Challenge.


Challenges:
Scrappy Mom's : 3-D Project
Whimsical Wednesday : Turkey

Circle Cupcake Card

Today marks the start of another Die Cuttin' Divas Challenge. This week the theme is 

"Desserts" 

in honor of National Dessert Day on October 14th.

Here is my card: I used the scalloped circle from Winter Woodland and my Gypsy to make this 5" card base. I love using this scalloped circle for the deep scallops. I also added a 3 3/4" and 3 1/2" circle. The yellow polka dot paper is from an Echo Park paper pad called "dots and stripes".

This sweet little cupcake is from Sweet Treats, cut at 3". I cut the top of the cupcake using DCWV glitter paper and embossed it with the D'vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder. Some sweet yellow and white baker's twine finishes off the cupcake wrapper. I couldn't help but add some buttons too. :)

The sentiment is a combination of two Scrappy Mom's Stamps. The tag is a McGill punch.

This picture looks a little washed out, so you can't get the whole feel of this card. :(

I added a strip of white 3/4" paper punched with a Fiskars Scalloped border punch and a strip of the polka dot paper to the center of the circle. I think it's a nice alternative since I didn't have any matching ribbon.

Hop on over to Die Cuttin' Divas to see the designer's inspiration projects... and enter your own dessert project too.