Tuesday, July 26, 2011

I've been a crafting fool!


Hi friends and fellow crafters!
With the horrible heat wave we had recently, I spent my time in the house crafting. Over at the Circut Circle boards, there was a fun online swarm for Christmas in July. There were 6 challenges, and I was able to complete 4 of them! Not too shabby considering I can barely get a card done in a day! LOL!
I may do a post with my projects later, but for today, I want to share a card I made for my oldest nephew. He has made the big transition into his full independence by moving in his 1st apartment, and he bought a new car! I am so proud of the young man he has become. My brother's four son's have always been the other part of my heart. I can hardly believe that they are all young men now. Life truly goes by in a New York minute. I couldn't let the occasion pass without sending him a card. We are a silly bunch, so nothing serious, just a fun card with some cash for him to get what he wants.
It's a simple card, and easy to make. I have been feeling my way around my Cricut Imagine, so I used that to create the papers and letters on the inside of the card.
Here's what I used:
Cricut Imagine Carts: Country Carnival, Kate's Kitchen, Nursery Tails and Hopscotch
Cricut Cartridges: Groovy Times, MS Seasonal Cakes, and April Showers
Floral Wire (26 gage)
Glue Gun
Viva Decor Pearl Pen (Anthracite)
Diamond Glaze
DYMO Letra Tag Maker
Core'dinations Cardstock
American Crafts Silver Metallic Cardstock

I used April Showers for the house and cut it at 2.35x3.95 with my Gypsy, I used MS Seasonal Cake for the Grass, and broke an image into layers from Kate's Kitchen for the sun. I did the same thing with the tree from Nursery Tails. I like being able to choose certain elements from an image and cutting only what I have chosen with the Imagine. I used Hopscotch to create the cloud paper. I used Country Carnival to print the paper I used inside the card, and the sentiment. The New Car and New Place on the front of the card are made with the DYMO. I'm not sure if I like it, I am more of a stamper or computer generated sentiment person. Maybe the next time I'll cut the lettersThen and see how that looks. Once that was done, I had some fun with the car.
I cut The car from Groovy Times at 4 inches. I used a scrap from We R Memory Keeper's Teen Angst Stack. I cut the window, bumpers and windshield with the American Crafts cardstock. I used diamond glaze to make it look more like glass on the window and windshield, and outlined it with my Viva Decor Pearl Pen.  Once it was assembled, I decided I want it to wobble. I have seem so many wonderful creations using wobblers these days. You can get more information at Action Wobble Inc on these fun products. Or.....you can do what I did and just make your own. The spending ban is still in effect, so I decided to make my own wobblers. There are a wealth of videos on you tube showing how to make your own. The first one I came across was here by  Ellen at Card Monkey who makes a really nice card. Her wobblers are fantastic, but sadly I didn't have a punch or foam mounting squares, so I was on my own. Here's my poor Richard's version. I found some floral wire that I had from my floral wreath creating days, got out the glue gun and went to work. The little peppermint candy looking embellie was to pop it up, but I decided against that when it was finished. I found a scrap of metallic cardstock and cut it into 4 pieces. I poked a hole through two of them for the wire.

                     I took some wire and wrapped it around a paintbrush to make the spring.
Then I pushed the wire through and glued it to the cardstock. On the first side I just haphazardly glued it. On the second side, I curled it so it looked a little better.

                                       This is what it looked like after finishing the first side.


After that I hot glued the other square on the top and it was finished. This is how it looked. It's not as pretty as the one in the video or the real ones, but it was economical and it works! LOL!
                                                                  Here it is in action!
I finished the inside of the card with the letters I cut from Country Carnival. When I went to add the Viva Decor, I had a harsh reality check, the sentiment was off center! Luckily, I think my nephew will notice the cash and not the letters!

I now have a bunch of ideas for these bouncing (get it?) around in my head! I think they will make another appearance here!
Thanks for stopping by my blog today!
Happy Crafting!
Colleen

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Winner of the bug candy!

Thanks for the responses to my test blog! The winner of the blog candy chosen by random.org is Denni who said:
I love crazy looking caterpillars because it seems that they always turn into gorgeous butterflies! I found out your little friend is called a Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar and turns into a, you guessed it! GORGEOUS Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly! You can check it out here: http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com/spicebush-swallowtail-butterfly.php
So did you scoop him up and make a little habitat?? ;)

So what was the blog candy?  Here it is
There is a package of all occasion stamps from K and Company, Heidi Swapp ghost shapes, much like the caterpillar was a disguise for the butterfly, some butterfly charms and a cute Studio G stamp.
Thanks for the information on the little creepy crawly too! I did not make him a habitat, but I have been on the lookout for the butterfly!
Drop me a line with your info, so I can send this out to you!
Happy Crafting!
Colleen

Friday, July 22, 2011

Make It Colourful Challenge #26


SO LET’S GET COLOURING!!
Grab your favourite colouring medium, whether it be markers, pencils,
water colours, finger paints or even digital colouring and see how you go
colouring WILD COLOURED HAIR!!
Please note:
You don’t have to use a Make it Crafty images, but if you do you could win yourself
TWO Make it Crafty digi stamps!

This challenge is open to Anyone who LOVES to colour.
————-
Challenge Rules
Your project must be a NEW creation
Note: You can just submit a coloured image
(This is a colouring challenge after all!!)
Cards, Scrapbook Pages, ATC, Altered Art & More
The colouring must be YOUR colouring
You MUST colour your digi or rubber stamps with your chosen colouring medium.
You MUST link to Make it Colourful



I needed a Birthday card for a close friend. She is a colorful person, so I went with Zoe Celebrates from Make It Crafty . I used my Cricut Expression 2 to cut the swirls and then used the extra pieces from the inside of the cuts as confetti on the card. I made the matching flower using the new Flower Shoppe Cartridge that I just received. I think I am going to like this cartridge very much! I love making flowers and this is perfect!
I used the spare pieces from the cuts to decorate the inside of the card. It's a very bright and colorful card! I plan on tucking a nice gift card to the local Michael's in it for her as she loves to do wood burning and stenciling projects.
 
 
I colored Zoe with a ton of copics. For her hair, I went with lighter pinks. It's my first time trying a hair color that is out of the "ordinary" range of hair colors, and I am now hooked! I will be doing more like this in the future.
Thanks for stopping by the blog today!
Happy Crafting!
Colleen


Sunday, July 17, 2011

Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge Card


From The Krafty Girl Challenge Blog
Our hostess today is the rather witty Carole Burrage!! She has presented us with a challenge.....should you choose to accept this challenge, you will be asked to FINISH the inside of your card!! Personally, this is a HUGE challenge! I almost never finish the insides of my cards and I always marvel at the gorgeousness that others create. I love it when the inside looks as beautiful as the outside....I just never have enough time to do it!! haha!

We hope you'll join us for this week's challenge and if you use a
KKStamp on your design, you could be the random winner of the stamp used on Carole's gorgeous card!!! Which just happens to be.....JEANNIE, one of our NEW stamps!!

I was really excited to see this challenge because I have been concentrating on how I finish the inside of  my cards. I have been trying to add some beauty to the backs of my cards as well. I am entering one of the cards I created for my DH for our 21st wedding anniversary into the challenge. I used Raychel by artist Annie Rodrigue available at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps for my card. I colored her with Copics and used my Cricut Expression to cut the embellishments for the front. I created the sentiments using my computer. The papers are from K&Company  with an appearance on the hearts from the You're Berry Sweet Paper that I am still trying to finish! The music paper is from DCWV.
At least I have stayed true to my self imposed paper ban! It has been a long spring and summer seeing all those great new paper stacks available in Michael's! LOL! By the time I finally finish using up the papers in the blasted Berry Sweet collection, all the papers I was drooling over will be on clearance!
This is the inside of my card

I blanked out the personal information to preserve my Hubby's reputation! LOL! The border is Anna Griffin Paper Ribbon. It's been sitting on my craft table since well before Christmas and it made for a great addition to the card. I added skittles to the corner of the sentiment to dress it up a little.

It's been so long since I've entered a challenge and this was the perfect one to join in on because of my love of all things Kraftin' Kimmie!

Thanks for stopping by the blog today!
Happy Crafting!
Colleen

Monday, July 11, 2011

E Gads! I am such a city girl!

 I was assisting my Mom to a friend's car the other day when I looked down and saw a bug I had never seen before.  Ok, I will admit that after I took the pictures and looked more closely,  I probably should have realized that it was just a caterpillar, LOL! It really had me going there for a few minutes though! I still  have no idea what it will become after metamorphosis, because where I come from, caterpillars have little fuzzy fur on them! This one looked like it wearing a disguise!




See that black mark? I thought that was an eye!   Silly, right? So why is this here on my crafting blog? Comcast upgraded to Xfinity, and when I would try to upload pics to my blog or message boards, the internet would shut down. This is a test, but you can still leave a comment if you choose, there just might be some candy in it!

Happy Bug Hunting!
Colleen