Christmas In July Blog Hop Winner and Alien Card

Happy Tuesday everyone! First of all I have the winner of the Exploring Cricut and more blog hop. I meant to get that posted Sunday night but Hubby and I made it home so late from our Anniversary weekend in Las Vegas that I forgot! More on that in just a bit. Yesterday I was exhausted and spent the day catching up on household duties. Now I feel like I need a vacation to recover from my vacation, lol! 

Anyway, the winner of the CM stash is:

Blue6366

Barbara, I will send you an email this morning and a message 

on your blog as well. Thank you for participating and 

being a follower of my blog!

And now here is my project:

I made this for the little brother of one of my Girl Scouts. 

He is such a sweet boy.

This cute little card is from my Life's A Party cartridge. I cut the card out at 5.0". I layered it with the main image that had more detail, however it did not line up perfectly so I had to give it a little trim. I used DCWV glitter cardstock and CM silver metallic cardstock. I added the little Happy Birthday banner on the bottom and stamped it with Joy's Life Stamps.

The inside sentiment is cut at 1.5". This is a fast and adorable cut and I love this cartridge. It is full of cute shaped cards and so easy to make. 

So I hope you don't mind if I share a few pics from hubby and my 16th Anniversary weekend in Las Vegas! We had to take a selfie on our way out to the concert to send to the kids! We felt so silly doing this, lol! We're not gamblers but we love music so we like to see shows and hang out. 

Our first night we saw the Steve Miller Band and Journey. We had decent seats and it was fun! Maybe I'm getting old but Journey was so loud! There were people leaving saying they were going deaf! Lucky for me I had my earplugs. I know better after being a musician for many years.  Even hubby wore them and he usually doesn't believe in them!

Here is a pic of their finale with the confetti blowing everywhere!

I really enjoyed the Steve Miller Band. He still sounded amazing after so many years!

Originally hubby bought tix to see Celine Dion! But she cancelled last minute so we got tix to see Aerosmith and kept the weekend rockin! We were blown away with how close we were to the stage!

I was literally 10 feet away from Steven Tyler!!!

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you all are enjoying your summer. Next week the kids go back to school and I go back to teaching. I have really enjoyed crafting this summer and hope to keep it up while getting my craft room together!

I will participate in the following challenges:

My Sheri Crafts- #139 Shaped Cards

PDE Linky Party- Kids theme

Little Scrap Pieces- Anything goes

Have a wonderful day!

Happy Reindeer Card- Christmas in July

Hello all my crafty friends! Can you believe we are almost at the end of July?! Where in the world has the time gone? My kids go back to school in less than 3 weeks, yikes! Which means I go back to teaching at the college in less than 4 weeks! I have been fortunate enough to find time to make a few cards but have yet to tackle my scrapbooking goal. I have been mostly working on organizing my craft room and will soon take some pics or who knows maybe even start making videos. I recently joined the Close To My Heart family and have been on the fence whether to stick it out and promote my business or let it go. I am very new to CTMH and after receiving my starter kit I was impressed from the get go! I really love their stuff! However, I just moved this past year and don't know anyone in my area so it has been a struggle for me to begin. After much time spent researching and learning about the product I have finally decided I want to give this a try and if you are interested in CTMH products feel free to click on my "Shop With Me" button to the right and it will take you to my website. Take a look at the wonderful papers and stamp supplies and I hope you will love them like I do!

And now for my project....

Today I have a Christmas card! I know....but it is "Christmas in July" right?  My card is 7.25" x 4.75". This is the size of a store bought greeting card. My Mom has a friend that worked at a Card store in the mall, I believe it was Carlton Cards. Well, sadly it went out of business and she gave my mom boxes and I mean BOXES of envelopes, and so now I have hundreds!!!  And since I personally don't like to have anything go to waste (No, I am not a hoarder....well maybe a bit of a paper hoarder, hee hee, but what scrap addict doesn't have hoards of paper right?)... so I am determined to use these envelopes AND it saves me the task of making my own :)  

I used both my Create a Critter and Create a Critter 2 Cartridges for the reindeer and cut them at 3.0". I used a Christmas paper pack from Recollections for all the coordinating papers. I used a metallic shimmer paper for the reindeer's noses and bows.  The sentiment stamp is from Joy's Life and the bling is also from Recollections. 

FYI to my fellow Cricut users: I recently placed an order at Cricut.com and purchased the new blade. I don't own the Explore (yet) but I have 3 Cricut machines. I am very happy with this new blade. My Expression and Imagine sadly never cut to the precision of my baby Cricut. My baby Cricut has more "metal parts" where my bigger Cricuts have more "plastic parts" and my baby always cuts better. My Expression has never cut textured cardstock well. Sometimes even shredding it no matter what speed settings or pressure I used. My Expression with this new blade cuts through the textured cardstock just fine! I've had to reduce both the pressure and the blade depth with this new blade because it cuts differently. This is my personal experience and as a Cricut crafter I highly recommend it to those of you who don't have the Explore (yet)!

Hope you will join us here tomorrow for our Christmas in July projects, challenge, and Blog Hop!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you liked my card and will come back and visit again soon! Have a blessed day :)

I will participate in the following challenges:

Hiding In My Craftroom- Christmas in July

Craftin Desert Diva's- Christmas in July Linky party #36

My Sheri Crafts- Christmas In July Challenge #138

Die Cuttin Diva's- Christmas In July Challenge #175

DL Art- Christmas In July Challenge #137

Happy Birthday to my Drummer Boy!

Hey there my crafty friends! Hope you all enjoyed the long holiday weekend. It was my son's birthday and he just turned 12 years old! YIKES, I'm a mom to a teen and now a tween! My how the time flies. It just reminds me how behind I am on all my scrapbooking. Hopefully I will do more of that this summer. But for now I have this card I want to share. I made this for my son who plays drums. I originally planned to do a box card but I needed something bigger to use a full drum set. So this is what I came up with.

It is a 5.5" x 7.5" Easel Card.  I wanted it to be big so it would feel more special.  I used my baby Cricut for this one. I must admit I was quite frustrated with this card. I love my 3 Cricut machines but my original baby bug cuts so much better than my bigger machines. This frustrates me because I know how well the "other" machine cuts but I have almost two hundred cartridges that I love. I am not taking the dive into the Explore because quite frankly my internet stinks! And we pay top price for the bestest, highest speed gigabytesywhatchamacallits! I'm terrible with the lingo, lol! I cannot depend on the internet for my crafting and it makes me so mad that Provo Craft went that direction and bailed on the stand alone machines. This is why I'm frustrated:

These drum sets are cut at 2.5 inches. The top was cut with my Expression and the bottom cut with my original baby Cricut. I have never been able to get the fine cuts on the Expression machine like I do with my baby. Can you see how the top cut is uneven on the bottom and the swirl cuts are so thin that they look like shreds.  I bought my baby from the original HSN launch in 2006. It cuts perfectly to this day but it is small and not as flexible with the sizes. My Imagine cannot cut like it at all but does wonderful print and cuts. My Expression cuts better than my Imagine but cannot handle the fine cuts like the baby. I know eventually I will upgrade I just haven't wanted to just yet. Anyway, back to my card.

I cut the Drumset from the Quarter Note Cartridge. I used red metallic and black cardstock.  The boy is from the Playtime cartridge. I cut him out at 3".  I used the Peachy Keen Boy Mates stamp set for his face. I chalked his cheeks, added his freckles, and also filled in the eye with a white gel pen  I stamped his shirt with the skull and crossbones to look like the rocker that he is.  The star paper is from the DCWV Rockstar Stack and the Silver is from the DCWV Metallic Stack.  I also added a layer of the red shimmer paper.  The music note brads I've had forever and I handcut the banners. 

The inside layer cutouts are from Elegant Edges, my regular "go to" Cartridge.  I used Pink By Design and Joys life Stamps for the sentiments.  I also added the Elizabeth Crafts black glitter dots on both sides. The boy is actually sitting on a stool but you can't see it. I popped up the drumset and the sentiments. The card is really heavy and really shimmers and glimmers but in a "Rockstar" non-girly way. I know the pics don't really show that.

I love the little boy.  He is so cute! Just like my Timothy. I hope you liked my card! I'm going to participate in the following challenges:

Hiding In My Craftroom- Let's Hear It For The Boy

 Die Cuttin Divas- For the Boys

Die Cut Diva's- Embellishment

Just B Creative Crazy- May Linky

Card A Day Blog- Birthday

D.L. Art- May Linky

Thanks so much for hopping in and I wish you a happy day!

Card A Day- Birthday

Cricut Panda Graduation

Hello crafty friends! I have several projects finished and many in the works but haven't had much time to get things posted. The end of the semester is swiftly approaching and there is much to do. I have 2 dress rehearsals this week and 3 recitals the week after. My students are in high gear preparing for finals. My daughter is finishing up her 8th grade year and my son his 6th grade year. Both have ceremonies and we just received a letter that my daughter will be receiving an award, yippee! And to top it off it is my son's birthday on Friday, ugh!! I just want to stop time and keep my kids little but the clock ticks on!

 Now to tell you about this card I made. I made this one for my nieces High School graduation. She loves pandas and her class colors were black and turquoise.

I used the adorable panda from Cricut's Create A Critter cartridge and the graduation cap is from the Teddy Bear Parade. I used DCWV glitter paper for the tassel, the Martha Stewart border punch, and added a black brad to the cap.  The sentiments are from My Creative Time "Many Greetings" and Joys Life "Mother & Daughter set. I finished it off and popped everything up with some foam tape. Cute, quick, and simple. 

I will participate in the following challenges:

Die Cut Diva's Challenge Blog- Use embellishments

Just B Creative Crazy- Anything Goes

D.L. Art - May Linky Challenge Anything goes

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

Quilted Kitty Card

Hello my bloggy friends! Here is a second quilted pattern card I made using the same K&Co. paper scraps (I can't remember the name of the stack) from my Easter card. These scraps are leftover from a Girl Scout project we did a couple years ago. I am just amazed how far scraps can go using punches.  I hate to throw away craft supplies so I save any decent size scraps in my scrapbox.  I am working on a few others that I hope to get posted tomorrow. This paper is so bright and cheerful and perfect for Spring. I just finished this card so let me tell you what I did while it's fresh on my mind. I'm trying to get better about documenting everything I use, sizes, etc...it's so easy to forget!

My card is 4.25" x 5.5". First I punched out 1 1/4" squares using my Creative Memories square punch.  This time I glued the squares at a diagonal across a piece of scrap paper that was 5" x 3.75. I trimmed around the edges forming a quilt pattern. I then ran it through my Cuttlebug using one of the folders from the Oriental Weave set. Next I cut out the blue layer at 5.25" x 4".  I cut the kitties from the Cricut Kate's ABCs cartridge. I cut two at 1.5" and the other at 2". I used Tim Holtz (tea dye) Distress Ink and a Q-tip to shade in the kitties. I used some tiny brown enamel dots from Recollections for the eyes and doodled the nose and cheeks and lashes. The top note shape is from the Cricut Elegant Edges. I cut it out at 3 inches in the light blue cardstock and cut the shadow out in white. I inked everything with the Tea Dye distress ink to add dimension. 

I used 3 different stamp sets to form my sentiments. I handcut the banner and stamped the "wishing you " with Joy's Life- Everyday Occasions. I then used a fabulous set from Craftin Desert Divas called Summer Lovin' for "A day for play". This set has a ton of water themed sentiments that I hope to use soon. The Pawsitively Purrfect Birthday is from Joy's Life- Lots of Puns. The little cat paws are from a container of a dozen or so different animal footprint stamps I've had for years by Hero Arts and I finally just opened it up. I actually remembered to take a pic of the inside this time :)

I finished it up with some more of those pastel buttons that I just adore and some simple white ribbon. I just love how it turned out! I think I know exactly who to give this darling little kitty card to and she has a birthday coming up in July. Wow, a card done more than a month in advance, lol! 

I will be participating in the following challenge:

Pause Dream Enjoy- Anything Goes Linky party

DL Art- April Linky Challenge Anything Goes

Little Scrap Pieces- Show it off Linky Party

Cut It Up- Birthday Challenge

Just B Creative Crazy- April Just Because Linky Party

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my card!

Tina H.
The Scrappin Rabbit