Wedding Card

The youngest of my three older brothers got married yesterday, so I needed a card for the bride & groom. The paper used was various scraps from my stash. The card base was from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, and the layered heart and bride and groom were from the Twinkletoes cart. A stamped sentiment, a pearl on her bow and a handwritten note inside made it complete.

Thanks a latté!

Earlier this week I needed a card to go with a thank you gift for a friend. I had bought her a Starbucks mug and a gift card to go inside, so I stuck with the coffee theme for the card.

All paper is from DCWV's Nana's Kitchen mat stack. Super simple, but super cute!

Hair Clip Holder

I've been wanting to make this project for awhile now, and finally took the time to get it done on Labor Day. My daughter desperately needed somewhere visible for us to keep her hair clips. We had them all in a clear plastic box under the bathroom sink, but then they'd get forgotten about and never used. Now they're all hanging up in her room, right next to the dresser and closet. We can pick out and outfit and right away grab some hair clips to coordinate!

Best part of this project? It cost me nothing! Everything I already had on hand, including the white photo frame. I used the Twinkle Toes cart for this, and let my daughter pick out which 2 characters she wanted, along with what colors their clothes/accessories would be. She'd watch me get everything ready on the Cricut, and then I'd let her press "cut" each time. We had a great time together working on this. :)

Both the little girl and the poodle were cut at 4". I mounted them to the purple plaid background paper with glue dots. This part was made easier by taking the glass out of the frame and placing the paper inside, then laying the whole frame down on the table. This way I could stick the characters in from the front and make sure they were lined up within the frame the way I wanted them. Easy! Then just take the paper back out, put the glass back in, and reassemble.

Since the frame also has the components in back to be set on a shelf, I made sure the hearts on the bottom of the frame were attached in a way that the frame could be set down without them getting bent. In the future, if she doesn't want the ribbons to hang her hair clips (they're simply hot glued to the back of the frame), we can take them off and still use the decorated frame.

All embellishments on the front of the frame were attached using glue dots, including the buttons. The glue dots have a strong hold, but can be removed without destroying the frame if I ever want to take the whole thing apart and still have the frame to use for another project.

Card Swap - Guy Birthday

This category was the hardest for me to come up with an idea for. None of my carts had any images on them that screamed "guy"....until I saw the star burst. It made me think comic books and super heroes. I'm still growing my stamp collection so don't yet have a lot to choose from, but I thought the simple "celebrate" stamp would do the trick.

Sticking with the superhero type colors I chose this teal blue card stock. I didn't have enough to make the card base from it x6, so I used white card bases I had on hand, and cut the blue card stock to fit the front. Not overly thrilled with how it turned out, as I don't like the bit of a gap on the top of the card where the fold is. Most people probably wouldn't notice, but I do and it bugs me. :)

Before attaching the card front to the base, I inked the edges with Tim Holtz distress ink in frayed burlap. I next cut the star bursts on the Cricut, using red for the bottom layer and yellow for the top. I stamped the sentiment on the yellow and again used the distress ink on this layer before attaching to the red. I used foam squares to adhere the star burst to the base to give it a little dimension.

For the inside, I re-used 6 pennants (that I decided not to use on the kid cards) that were the same color as the card front. I inked them, and used my tape runner to adhere them to the inside. I decided not to stamp any sentiments inside, because I like to give the option of having a blank card to personalize. (And technically, since "celebrate" is pretty generic, this card could technically be used for something other than a birthday.) I did use the distress ink on the flap of the envelopes to jazz them up a little.

Card Swap - Kid Birthday

Pennants and banners seem to be all the rage lately, so I thought for the kid category I'd do a fun rainbow birthday banner. Let me tell you, this one was a lot of work! None of my Cricut carts had any type of triangle or pennant shaped image on them, so I had to hand cut a template and then hand cut every single one of these puppies. All 36 of them! Thank goodness for a good paper cutter. :)

It's a little hard to tell in the pictures, but each of the letters has a bottom layer of matching plaid paper. I tried mixing the letters up with different colored pennants, but it just didn't look right to me (or to my husband either, so I know I wasn't too crazy for thinking it looked funny!) so I decided to keep the tone on tone look. I found some yarn in my stash that had some rainbow colors on it, but knew I didn't have enough for the full length of the banner x6, so I opted to cut 3" pieces and tied each of the pennants together.

Here's how the card looks coming out of the envelope:

Then once it's unfolded:

And finally the entire banner:



How fun! I could see this hanging up in a kid's room well afte their birthday. You could easily remove the purple "birthday wishes" pennant even and just hang the "happy" part for awhile!

Card Swap - Female Birthday

Next up is the female birthday category. Again, I saw an idea on Pinterest, and decided to adapt it. I had a selection of fun birthday print papers, and found a good 6-petaled flower shape on a Cricut cart to use. I used the cart to cut the cardstock base, the birthday paper overlay, and the smaller flower in the center that I stamped the sentiment on.

The finished product:, all folded up:

Surprise! A double layer flower!

With all 3 colors of the birthday paper:

Yes, they do fit in an envelope, though are a little on the bulky side due to the 2 layers of card stock. I think next time I'd use a thinner paper for the inside flower to help slim it down a little. I also stamped a little sentiment on the flap of the envelopes.

Card Swap - Halloween!

Earlier this summer I was invited by Eva from Eva's Scraps N' Cards to participate in my first ever card swap. Of course I said yes! Who would turn down a reason to *have* to complete some crafting? Not me! :) The August swap categories were Halloween, Male Birthday, Female Birthday, and Kid Birthday.

We'll start off with Halloween! I had a lot of fun with this guy. I originally saw this idea on Pinterest, the originals are here and the one I most closely replicated is here.

There was a lot of trial and error on my part here. I had to look at the example and figure out what shapes I could use off my whopping 4 Cricut carts to get the same look. Then there's the matter of sizing. I did some test cuts with scraps, and when I found the right proportions I jotted them down on a piece of paper, in case I want to make him again in the future. Then it was assembly line time (x6)!

In hindsight, he looks a little sad. Next time I think I'd make him look a little more cheery!

Here's the inside:

And finally, all bundled up with a stamped envelope and some fun Halloween ribbon!

I learned a few lessons along the way with this one, but that's a good thing! It'll only help me improve my projects in the future. :)