Happy 4th Firecracker Card

Happy Summer Everyone! With summer official and the weather being hot, it is a good time for me to spend the hours away inside my Craftroom! I hope you are having a great summer so far!

I have many wonderful summer memories.  We moved almost one year ago and our last house had a pool. All our family and friends would come over to BBQ, swim, and celebrate holidays like Memorial Day & July 4th.  Independence Day was huge for us and we would spend $300-$400 easily on fireworks (Safe and Sane) to light off on our block.  My hubby is a huge pyromaniac and the kids loved it!  Our new house is in the hills. We don't have a pool and fireworks are not allowed. We haven't had any BBQ's and I'm not sure what we will do to celebrate the 4th this year.  Don't get me wrong, I do love my new house. There just isn't as much for guests to do here.  I figured I would make some 4th of July cards to send out since I probably won't be seeing friends and family this holiday. 

   I decided to make a Firecracker shaped 4th of July card. I wasn't sure what size to make it because it is so long and skinny. I ended up making 3.  This shaped card is from the Cricut Something to Celebrate cartridge. I love this cartridge. There are so many neat cuts and when I saw this one I knew it would make an adorable card.

I made the cuts at 6 inches, 7.75 inches, and 8 inches. The 7.75 inch card is perfect for a long narrow envelope that I have plenty of.  The 8 inch fits a little tight because of the many layers.  

I used Coordinations cardstock for all my layers. I ran the white layer through my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder to give it some texture.  I double cut the stripes layer in both red and blue to give it an extra color.  The face is from Peachy Keen's Everyday Character Assortment.  I cut out extra layers to give the flame more colors and layers. I finished off with some red glitter at the center of the flame base.  

The star sentiment bubble is from the Artiste cartridge and I cut 2 layers. I used my K. Andrews Designs Stamps for the sentiments.  The striped firecracker base and the 3 layer flame is popped up with 1 layer of foam tape.  The head layer is popped up from the striped layer, and finally I popped up the white layer of the sentiment. 

I inked everything. I wanted to add some bling so I found some Red, White, and Blue rhinestones and added them to each sentiment. This little one will make a great tag on a gift or maybe a small card for my son.

I added a white layer and stamped the inside with another sentiment from the same set. I hope you liked my cards. They sure were fun to make!

I will participate in the following challenges:

Cuttin and Stampin- Week 25 4th of July

PDE Linky Party #13- Many Layers

My Craft Spot Monday Challenge #141- Shaped Cards

Craftin Desert Diva's Link It Up #34- Red, White, Blue

Die Cuttin Divas Challenge #171-I VowTo Thee My Country

Little Scrap Pieces- Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #138- Anything Goes

DL Art Thankful Thursday #135- Patriotic

Hope you have a blessed and crafty day!

You Did It! 6th Grade promotion card

Hello! I hope this day is a happy one for you so far! Today I have a card I made for my son's 6th Grade Promotion. I can't believe he is going to go to Junior High. Good Bye Elementary!! This is sad for me. He is my baby and is growing up too fast! That is sort of the theme of this card. There are no caps and gowns for a 6th grade ceremony and what came to mind was how the time raced by all too quickly and how he made it past the finish line of grade school. So this is what I put together ...

The race car and driver is a cut from the Beep Beep Cartridge.  It is so cute! I cut him out at 3.0 inches.  I used DCWV blue glitter paper scraps for the car and metallic red paper scraps for the racers outfit and helmet.  I started out with an A2 dark blue, textured, card base 4.25" x 5.5". I bought this cute DCWV mat stack at Joann's for $4 called Dots, Stripes and Plaids. I used paper from this for the layers.  It's hard to see but the colorful paper has texture and glitter. I also inked around with blue ink. 

I added some glossy accents to the front rim and the steering wheel. I doodled with my white pen on the wheels. I added silver Stickles on the stripes of the helmet. I handcut the banner and stamped it with Pink By Design "Our Kids" stamp set. The star brad is from my stash and the clear stars are Miss Elizabeth's crystal gems. I popped up the car and the banner sentiment.

I decorated the inside and stamped with more sentiments from the same set.  I tried not to be too "blingy" or frilly which is hard to do sometimes.  I kept all the lines straight and simple. My son liked it a lot and it made him happy! Here he is with his fake diploma (Lol! They gave everyone a rolled up piece of paper with a ribbon at the ceremony and we picked up his actual diploma in the office afterwards). This little boy has been such a blessing and he fills my heart every day with joy from his kindness and good nature. I'm so very thankful for him!

I hope you enjoyed my card! I will participate in the following challenges: 

Little Scrap Pieces- Show It Off Saturday

DL Art Thankful Challenge #134- Masculine

Simon Says Stamps- Anything goes

Bitten By The Bug 2- Graduation

Word Art Wednesday- Anything Goes

Hiding In My Craftroom- Super Scraps Saturday

Thank you so much for stopping by! Have a blessed day!

Junior High Graduation card

Hello there crafty friends! Today I have a card I made for my daughter who just graduated Junior High. Unfortunately there wasn't a "real" graduation ceremony because of budget cuts but there was an award ceremony. We feel very blessed and I'm so proud that my daughter received the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence. It is an award given to students for having a 4.0 gpa for both 7th & 8th grade. It even has the US President's signature on it! So, there was no "cap and gown" ceremony :(  Oh well, High School is just around the corner so I won't fret....she'll get there soon enough!!

So for her card I chose this adorable zebra from the Cricut Paisley cartridge. It is so whimsical! She looks like she is on her way and I just love it! I think the black & white is perfect because it shows that she is focused and keeping up to task, But then I added the glittery pastel rainbow paper because there are fun adventures for her to experience along the way. Her favorite color is the same as mine "purple" so I used that for the convertible and the embellishments.

I cut the zebra and all the layers at 3.5 inches. The sentiment is printed from my computer. I also printed the inside of the card as well. The glitter striped, glitter purple and glitter light blue cardstock is all DCWV.

I used stickles for the center of the flower and some enamel buttons from Recollections. The purple bow I initially wanted for the zebra but I couldn't get it small enough and so I used it for the sentiment bubble. It is a very simple card but I'm happy with how it turned out. I hope she likes it!

I am going to participate in the following challenges:

Scrappy Moms Stamps -Amusing Animals

Little Scrap Pieces- Saturday Linky Party

Word Art Wednesday # 136- Anything goes

D.L. Art- June Linky Challenge

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful and crafty day!

Beautiful Bird Birthday Card

Hello my crafty friends!  Hope you are enjoying the mad rush of activities that seem to coincide with this time of year! I am finishing up my semester after having 3 recitals this past week. I just finished my grades and now I'm working on burning DVD's of the shows for my students. That is a looooong process but it is so worth it to give them their performances as memories they can revisit and learn from.  My daughter is graduating from Jr. High this Friday and my son from Elementary School in 2 weeks.  I am looking forward to summer activities and really focusing my time on scrapbooking!

Today I have another card I made with my Imagine and Lori's Garden Cartridge. I love this beautiful bird and wanted to make something using her.  I really need to try to get some Birthday cards made so when Fall hits I have cards in my stash ready to give away.  

The card is an A2 size (4.25" x 5.5") and I used white cardstock for the base.  The diecuts and the paper is all printed from Lori's Garden. I cut the bird at 3 inches and all her layers. The branch is part of that cut. I used most of the layers but left 1 or 2 out.  The Butterfly is a layer from one of the cuts that I used on the inside of the card and it is also cut at 3 inches.

The Happy Birthday label was cut at 1.3 inches. The middle strip of pink paper was cut at 1.25"' x 5.5". I popped up the different layers for dimension.  I added some bronze Stickles to the center of the flowers. I inked around most of the layers and paper with Tim Holtz Tea Dye Distress Ink.  

I wanted to give it a decorative trim so I used an EK Success border punch along the front bottom of the card.  I then added a layer of the pink paper inside and used the butterfly cut as well.  I'm getting better with decorating the insides of my cards. I usually forget about it but now I try to plan extra cuts just to add that special touch.  

This is how it looks closed and laying flat.  I love it! Of course it needed something more so I added the brown pearl for the eye, the white pearls for the butterfly wings, the tiny white pearls for the label, and the pink pearls across the bottom, giving it that final touch.

I really love the softness of the colors and hope whomever I end up giving it to will enjoy it!  I feel so blessed to spend time crafting in my room. I hope to make more cards for my stash but I really need to get to work on something for my kids promotion ceremonies. 

I will participate in the following challenges:

Fantabulous Cricut- Card Stash

Hiding In My Craftroom- Freestyle

Bitten By The Bug 2- Alter a Cricut cut

Little Scrap Pieces

Thanks so much for hopping by! I hope you have a blessed day :)