Been Caught Stealing!

Ok, not stealing, just scraplifting! This is my version of Cindy Royal's Birthday Pinwheel Set from page 84 of Cricut Magazine's June/July 2011 issue. I knew I would have an opportunity at some point to create my own version of the card so I tagged the page for future use. My Mom announced that she needed a card for a friend's birthday last night, so off I went.
Since I am still finishing up the K&Company Berry Sweet Papers, I used them for this card. I honestly thought the paper would be near the end, but here is what's left.

Oh, and there are smaller scraps left too. I am going to have to do some layouts soon because using the paper just for cards will prevent me from buying any new paper for the next two years! Oh well, enough complaining about my paper ban!  Here is my card:

Materials used:

K&Company Berry Sweet Paper

Martha Stewart cardstock (Green and Pink)

Cricut Expression 2 Machine

Mother's Day 2010 Cartridge

Walk In My Garden

Cuttlebug and Swirled embossing folder

Lollipop stick, Flower Embellies, Buttons

Viva Decor Pearl Pen

Happy Birthday Stamp

I cut my base of the card at 5 inches. The pin wheel from Mother's Day 2010 is 2 inches, the flower from Walk In My Garden is 1 inch and the leaves are .75 inches. The banner from Mother's Day 2010 is 5 inches long, so it fit across the entire bottom of the card. I cut the rectangles with a paper trimmer, I adhered the patterned papers and stamped Happy Birthday with Stampin Up Raspberry ink. Getting the border on the banner and stamping the sentiment were tricky. I tore a couple of borders because they are so fine, and I had a little trouble centering the sentiment. After a couple of tries, I was able to get a nice stamp, but it still wasn't as centered as I hoped it would be, so I added the little flowers.

 Here's a close up of the Pin Wheel

I can't believe it took me so long to discover the pin wheel on this cart! It will be making more appearances on my cards! I cut the flower from Walk In My Garden and ran it through the Cuttlebug

I added some little buttons to the rectangle the flower is on and used my Viva Decor Pearl Pen to add some embellies to the corners. Using my computer I generated a sentiment and added another flower for interest.

I think the Cricut Design Team are incredibly talented crafters and always enjoy the blog and magazine designs they work to create for us! If you haven't seen the ProvoCraft's Cricut Blog, check it out here or by clicking the link on the sidebar. I am now subscribed to Cricut Magazine so that I can get even more inspiration! I have a feeling there might be more scrapping crimes committed soon!

Thanks for stopping by the blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

I got a blogger award!



Thank you Stephanie 

I would love to say a big thank you to my fellow Circlet Stephanie for this wonderful blog award. A long time ago,  when I was first new to blogs another wonderful blogger Girlia sent me an award, but silly me, I couldn't figure out what to do! LOL! So this is my second award, but the first one I actually know how to post!
You have to check out Stephanie's blog, she just makes the cutest pages for her incredibly adorable children. I am always impressed by how great she is with the Imagine and Cricut Expression machines.

One of the provisions of the award is to share 7 random things about myself and pass the award on to 8 blogger friends. Here are some facts about me:

1. I still like to listen to heavy metal music from the 80's, I just don't fit in leather pants anymore!
2. I drink too much coffee.
3. I love to watch Sci-Fi movies and my two favorite shows are Smallville and Supernatural.
4. I watch Zeke & Luther and Phineas & Ferb with my son and actually laugh out loud at them.
5. I still love to play video games.
6. Although I signed up for Online Copic Classes, I never actually took the class! I am still kicking myself for wasting the money.
7. I took up paper crafting to keep busy after quitting smoking.

I would like to pass this blog along to these wonderful crafters, please visit their blogs and see what I mean!

1. Karan at http://scrapbooksandpapercrafts.blogspot.com/
2. Melissa at http://createdbymissie.blogspot.com/
3. Scarlet at http://thescarletsquirrel.blogspot.com/
4.  Belinda at http://queenbeesmusings.blogspot.com/
5.  Diane at http://horsebunny.blogspot.com/
6.  Mel at  http://doxiemeldesigns.blogspot.com/
7. Jodie at    http://jodiesscraplab.blogspot.com/
8. Carolyn at http://cccscraproom.blogspot.com/

These bloggers so some amazing creating! I am so happy to pass this award along to them because while I may not always post comments, I am always inspired by their art!

Thanks for stopping by today! I really hope you get the chance to check out my fellow bloggers!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

 

Bring It On!!!

Hi friends and fellow crafters!
This is an exciting day here in our household. My son is gong to have a whole summer off starting today! I know this is may be a strange announcement to many of you, but those who know my son or have children that are differently abled, you know what I mean. Most of you know my son is Autistic and he has attended Extended School Year programs since I worked with other parents and one amazing teacher in Bayonne to get them started in 1994/1995. Up until this summer, he has always had some type schooling throughout the month of July and half of August. Last year was not a good school year for him, so when the new year rolled out, I was hopeful that he would have a better year. He was doing OK, until his bus driver had to leave her position in February. She drove him for almost 9 and a 1/2 years, so this was a monumental change for him. Sadly, the bus company that provides his transportation is uneducated or inept, to say the least, about providing a stable bus ride for him and the other students on the route, and the school year began to crumble. My DH and I made many attempts to drive him in, but that also was not part of his routine, so some attempts were successful, others,   not  so  much ....
We decided that this year, we would cut our son and our fellow tax payers a break, and give him a full Summer Vacation. My school board was not happy about his absences anyway, so this is my way of saying that I understand that our economy is completely messed up and I don't want to see anymore of our taxpayer money being wasted. So here we are, This may be one of the craziest decisions we have ever made or one of the best. I am not even going to consider what may happen come September and just take one day at a time. Things are sure going to be different here and I hope that I won't end up totally neglecting my crafting, but between my Son and my Mom, I may not be around too much, or who knows, I may be around more! Well life, let's do this! Bring the summer of 2011 on!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen



Cricut Weekly Challenge/ A Father's Day Card

Hi Friends and fellow crafters! Thanks for stopping by the blog today. With the end of school, Father's Day, several graduations and birthdays this month, June is exceptionally busy for me this year.  I have been neglecting my blog terribly. I have also been neglecting my paper challenge, so that K&Company paper collection is STILL not finished. I was in Michael's the other day and was drooling at the sight of the paper, but I still have paper left, so no paper for me!!! :(
I couldn't use it on any Father's Day cards, and the graduates are both young men, so the paper challenge waits as well as any paper that I may have been admiring in Michael's! I decided to participate in the Cricut Circle Challenge this week so here are the details:

Weekly Challenge #34: Father’s Day Card Sketch Challenge!

The Challenge: Get a head start on Father’s Day and create a greeting card using the sketch provided below. Have fun!

Rules and Guidelines: Circle Blog Challenges are open to Cricut Circle Members only. Your project must be newly created for this challenge and include at least 2 Cricut Image Cuts. You must submit a project to be entered into the Challenge Prize Drawing. One entry per person, please.

How to Enter: Submit your entry using the InLinkz tool found at the bottom of this post. Please post your full name along with your entry. Entries are due by 9:00 pm MST on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011.

Prize: This week the winner may choose to have $25 added to their Cricut.com. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery from winner announcement.

Winner: The winner will be selected randomly from qualifying entries using www.random.org and will be announced on the Cricut Circle Blog on Friday, June 24th, 2011.

Here is my entry

The three cartridges I used for the card are Ornamental Iron for the gate background, Elegant Edges for the shape I stamped on, then on the inside I used a Pen Work cut from French Manor to add some interest to the sentiment inside. It's a very simple card because my DH is the clean and simple type!

The stamp sentiment on the front is from Verses Rubber Stamps and it's called Love and Magic. It's a very pretty sentiment and describes how I still feel about my DH after 30 years. It's a little blurry, but here is a close up of the stamped image.

 I used Basic Grey paper for the background color and Tim Holtz Lost and Found Paper for the base and the embellishment papers. I cut the shape from Elegant Edges and then stamped the sentiment on it. I printed For My Husband from my computer and then trimmed it to fit with a paper trimmer. I used American Crafts Metallic cardstock for the fence then slightly distressed it. I used Viva Decor to add the black accents to the saying and sentiment. On the inside of the card, I added the  Pen Works cut from French Manor cut in Black Velvet paper from SEI on the bottom of the sentiment. To give it a finished look, I used more Viva Decor to add the black accents on the corners.

My DH is a wonderful husband and father. He does not have it easy, with a disabled child, and he has his ailing Mother In Law living with him, yet he tells us everyday that he loves us and always is quick to be supportive of my crafty endeavors and everything I do. I try to express my gratitude  about how much I love and appreciate him, but I don't think there will ever be enough words for that. We have been together for 30 years now and I pray every day that we will be blessed with another 30 years to enjoy our life together.

Happy Father's Day to all the Husband's and Dad's out there!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

A Card for Finley

Hi friends and fellow crafters! I have been so busy lately that my crafting time has taken a big hit. I usually keep my blog about my cards or crafts, so I haven't updated it recently. I've finally had the chance to sit down a create something.
I am a member of the Cricut Circle, and sometimes a fellow member requests cards for special reasons.  This is a card for Finley,  a fellow Circlet's neighbor's 3 year old child. The child had an accident that resulted in cutting her thumb off. Surgeons reattached it, and were treating it using leeches. Hopefully Finley is on the road to recovery.
I wanted to make something fun for Finley, so I used my favorite High Hopes Stamp, Dudley the Dragon blowing bubbles. I am still using that never ending supply of K & Company's Berry Sweet Paper! :) I also used DCWV Glitter Cardstock for the base of the card. Using my Cricut, I cut the background from Recollections cardstock that I had sitting on the shelves for at least a year! The smaller mat is that blasted K&Company Paper and I cut some circles to use for bubbles from white cardstock. I found out two days after the card was made that I did have a bubbles cut on a cartridge after all! I am beginning to think I have way too many Cricut Cartridges! For the inside of the card, I used more K & Company Berry Sweet paper and wrote a little poem that I printed on cardstock.

I know, I am not a poet, but lucky for me, Finley is only 3 and should enjoy it simply because it rhymes! I added some Jolee's crystals with my I-rock for some sparkle.

I colored Dudley with pretty much all the YG copic markers I have! He looks much brighter in person. I suppose I need to check the settings on my camera. The mushroom is colored with RV's and I added some stickles. The bubbles are BG0000, B000 and RV000.

I used Diamond Glaze and sprinkled MS Glitter on it before it dried to add lots of sparkle on the front of the card. I popped the "bubbles" with pop dots and added some little flowers I had hanging around on my table for more bright colors and sparkle. I printed out the words on the computer and added them on two small tags I cut on a some scraps of ---you guessed it---K & Company Berry Sweet Paper!
I finished the front with some bright Prima Flowers.
Hopefully this card will brighten a sweet little girl's day. It made me very happy to create it for her!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen