Faux Flower - Thank You Card

I take a weekly vacation to Splitcoaststampers website - love their resource link.  The technique I tried this week was Faux Flowers.  I've had some flower embellishments for while now and really wanted to make a card using more than one without it looking gaudy.  This worked perfectly!  Stamp an image with flowers or vines, pick out or punch your favorite flower embellishments, add designer paper, dry emboss all of it together.   I used a Sizzix folder through my machine, then added pearls on the middle of the flower.  Fun and easy :)

For close up look at the embossing detail, click on picture to enlarge it.

Up, Up and away!

Lately I've been cleaning out my stamp "accessories."  Aka -scrap paper.  I have drawer full of it and I can't see parting with a good scrap. I admit it, I hord paper. :) Well SVG Cuts has a adorable hot air balloon file.  My scrap paper drawer came in handy.  To go along with my fabric themes, I cut out the green background of the balloon with fabric on my Cricut.  You really can't tell it's fabric but if you touch it it's just as soft as a real hot air balloon floating by.

Shimmer effect - Pearls Powder, and background is Encaustic.

Stamping On Fabric

 Have you ever been at a store and a sale item was just too good to pass up?  Well, that was me. I bought fabric I didn't need but it was so cheap I thought maybe I could use it down the road.  Then a light bulb went off I had the perfect project in mind. It resembled a pair a jeans, so I inked up my stamps and a cute fabric pocket formed! :)  This card was made with Stampin Up Pocket Fun, flower & enjoy stickers, various background paper, and button brads to complete the look.

Acetate Stamping

Stamping with Acetate.  My translation, fancy way of saying - over head projector sheets. :) Lots of fun and easy to do.

 I dressed up a cute little address book my Stampin Up Demo gave me. Added glitter and rub on decorations.  If you would like to learn more about acetate check out http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ look under resource you'll find the best tutorials and videos around. :)





Note Cards

If you haven't heard of Swap-bot this site has every swap you can think of from fabric - to stamping to? http://www.swap-bot.com/  And it's free!  I have received some beautiful things.  A current swap I was in was to send 2 lotto scratch tickets and you would get 2 in return.  Well off mine went but I couldn't do it without making a little card to carry them safely to their new homes.  So here is what I came up with.  It's another gate fold but used up and down instead of the traditional side to side.  I bought them at Michael's and the stickers from Crop Girls store.  The scallop edge punch is Stampin Up.  I love to mix and match stuff to come up with one happy card in the end.

Safari Baby Shower Invites

A friend of mine asked if I could make baby shower invites for her.  I said yes, then realized this would be a first for me.  I've done invites for birthday parties but never baby showers.  It was to be a safari theme with lions, tigers and bears - oh my!  Wait wrong story lol!  She did want lions, monkeys, and giraffe.  So off I went to Google svg files and found the cutest ones.  I had to make 30 but it fun seeing each little animal come together.  The lion is actually made from punches I borrowed from http://chicnscratch.typepad.com/chic_n_scratch/punch-art/  she has wonderful punch art ideas.  I used a gate fold along with strips of  matching scrapbook paper.  My Cricut Expression really gave me an extra pair of hands.  Without it I'd still be cutting out critters by hand. The vine you see in the inside was actual soft ribbon from a wonderful store I recently discovered called Crop Girls.  If you need inspiration they are the place to go - Card ideas everywhere! http://cropgirls.com/html/gallery.html

Easter Egg Card

I realize it's summer time and not Spring.  But I forgot to upload these cards I made for co-workers.  Supplies used - various pastel paper, Cricut, SCAL, egg svg file, and pearl accents from Michael's.  And I love adding a little treat.  I found the cutest Easter eggs in the shape of chickens!  So I used the svg file from SVG cuts and made sure he had a little patch of grass to rest on.  And don't forget if you use this idea to fill them with candy to share :)  Yummy and cute!




The Cricut makes this fast and easy.  I love using pearl stickers they come in a variety of colors.



http://www.svgcuts.com/blog/2011/04/18/easter-egg-svg-characters/

3D Paper Flowers

I am in love with svg files!  Here is a wonderful blog to check out if you haven't already.  http://www.svgcuts.com/blog/2009/05/12/3d-flowers-svg-kit-video-tutorial/  There I found 3D flowers and not just one but a bouquet of them!  I sized them down for  flower arrangements at our school volunteer luncheon.  There are so many fun things you can do with these, adorn cards, scrapbook pages, or even hair accessories.  My husband made the stems out of green floral wire, bows are Martha Stewart, and the vases are from Target.  They were a big hit at our luncheon. :)

School Appreciation - Fifties Style

One of my favorite times of the year - Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week.  Each year we have a luncheon to say thank you to the staff for all their hard work.  I feel so blessed, they let me have full creative say and every year I HAVE to theme it! lol  This year was a 50's diner with my husband as our personal chef!  In staying with the theme we like to do little gifts as well.  I chose little mason jars from the wedding section at Michael's. Used the Cricut for vinyl letters and glass etching cream to personalize each staff members initials.  Inside they were filled to the rim with Reese's Pieces and topped off with a little record "You Rock" tag made from a free svg file.  Our school colors are brown and orange, the candy worked out perfect!



Glass etching cream takes 5 minutes but looks like it took hours:)



One done, 99 to go!

These were so much fun to make and easy too!

Done!  A Special treat you can reuse :)

Water Bottle Holder Part 1

There are some cute water bottle drink holders out there.  I found Crystal Light single pouches drink mixes fit perfectly.  You just hang one of these on a water bottle with a drink mix pouch and it's guaranteed to make someone smile :)