Up, Up and Away!

Hi friends and fellow crafters! Today, I am sharing the 1st Mother's Day card I gave to my niece. I love that we can cut svgs with the new Explore, so I got to enjoy playing with the box cards from SVG Cuts.  The hot air balloons are eye catching and worked nicely with Design Space. The balloons are attached to the spacers, so there was no need to fiddle with acetate. It makes creating box cards simple! I changed the banner and used my Explore to cut a banner and write the sentiment. I also used it to write the sentiment in the circle that was supplied with the set. It was raining when I took the pictures, so they look a little dark, but the card was very pretty when it was finished. Here are a few more pictures.

All the paper is from my stash.

I can't wait to try the rest of the cards!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Congrats to the winners and a couple of extra projects.

Hi friends and fellow crafters!

I want to congratulate all the winners from the NSD Circleville Celebration! There were some lovely projects linked here and over at the message boards! Thank you to all the participated!

There were 3 winners randomly chosen from a hat by Danny:

Heidi won for her beautiful card for the Lift It Up Challenge. You can see it here on the link up.

Susan won for her gorgeous rosette present for a friend's 5Oth Birthday!  Hopefully she will post it on her blog soon.

There is also a special mention to Queen B! She posted a splendid rosette banner for a graduation. Stop at her blog and visit to see her amazing crafting skills.

Keep an eye on your mail ladies and thanks for joining in on my challenge!

Even though I haven't been posting so much, I have still been creating! Today I am sharing some fun cards that I created a couple of months ago. These were made for a card drive my friend Sherri was having. She does a Card Shower at Arkansas Children's Hospital every year and I am honored to send some cards for such a worthy cause. I have been having so much fun using my Disney Carts since I have gotten my Explore. The design space makes it so easy to create wonderful cuts without the headache of trying to figure out all the colors of the tiny pieces. If I want to, I can change colors as I go along. I used my Explore to write Howdy Partner on all the cards, I LOVE this feature! I inked edges on the Woody cards and added faux stitches to Jessie. It was the 1st time I used the Toy Story Cartridge, but not the last!

 

Next is a recipe card that I created for a swap I participate in. This is my winter recipe, Easy Chicken Marsala. The chicken are from Animal Kingdom, the scarves are from 3 Birds On Parade, the trees are from Winter Woodland, and the mushrooms are from Cindy Loo. The title was the 1 thing I used my Explore to write and cut!

 

 

 

Finally, I have loved the Make It Now Projects in Design Space, and I have used the Anna Griffin Butterfly cards a few times. This is the 1st one I created for my girlfriend's 50th Birthday. I used Anna Griffin's perfect palette cardstock and her black board stamps to make this.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

 

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Circleville NSD Challenge: Popcorn? Hmmmmmm?

 Nadia has challenged us to use an SVG and a Cricut cut on a project together, I used a "Star Fighter" from Scrappy Dew and a popcorn box from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More. I am not sure what I did wrong, but my guy looks more like Shrek to me than that old guy from that movie. LOL! I am not sure about calling him by his name.

I think I have just about run out of time for the challenges. I wish I could done them all!

Thanks for stopping by my blog! May the force be with you!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Circleville NSD Day 2- XO Three in a Row

 

I am back with another challenge for the Circleville NSD Festivities! For this challenge, Maria gave us a tic tac board and we have to choose three in row and use them on our project.

 

I choose to go across from the center and used  my favorite color (pink) a die cut ( the heart and deer are from Cindy Loo) and a button or brad. I used a couple of cute buttons I had from my Noel Mignon Kit. Most of the papers are also from my kit, as are the flowers, buttons, ribbon and adorable wooden balloon.

Naturally, this features my favorite little person! I am so backed up on her monthly layouts. My sweetie is almost 10 months already! It's going by too fast!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

It's Five O'Clock Somewhere, Happy Hour NSD Challenge

Here's To You!

 

Last weekend we were discussing Small Talk Frames And Tags, a cart I HAD to have and yet never used. I broke it out for Linda's Happy Hour Challenge for NSD and I am so glad I did. I love the Polaroid frames on this cart. I took a plain frame and had my Explore write my sentiment for my card. The challenge was to have some kind of drink on your project, so I used one of the drinks from my free trail subscription for Design Space. I added stickles on the pineapple and glossy accents with Martha Stewart's Coarse Glitter on to the glass and drink. Mmmmm, yummy!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Sing, Sing A Song

Finally, after one crazy week, I have a chance to enter a couple of challenges for Circleville's NSD Celebration! First up, Sara's Challenge to design a project using a song as inspiration. I have wanted to make this layout for the longest time. The pictures are from our honeymoon! It's 25 years ago, this month!

I love how well the Explore cuts my underused Disney Carts! My favorite Princess, Ariel has finally come out to play!

Who doesn't love this song?

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Mom's out there!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Circleville National Scrapbooking Day, Day 2! Everything's Coming Up Rosettes!

 

Good afternoon and welcome to the second day of the Circleville's National Scrapbooking Day Weekend Celebration!

 

Today I am sharing another tutorial and challenge! This is much shorter than yesterday's post. :-)

I am talking about creating rosettes! I have never met a rosette I haven't loved! There is something cheerful about those strips of papers folded into flowery happiness! So for my first project, I am going to share a small rosette that was made without a machine. This is simple and fun to do. You will need paper, washi tape, hot glue, an edge and a small punch. the small punch can be any shape, I used a circle, and a non-stick mat. If you don't have a non-stick crafting mat, you can use a piece of wax paper, but be careful to watch that the wax doesn't melt.

 

For this tutorial, I cut my strips at 2 inches x 12 inches and punched the edges.

 Don't bother measuring to score, just score between the scallops. I do this by scoring from the scallop and score upwards. For funa nd color, I added a piece of Washi Tape to the center of the strip.

 

 

Below is how they will look scored.

 

 Use a really strong holding piece of tape to close your rosette ends. I use red tape.

It will look like this:

 

Next you will gather the rosette. I usually gently pinch the middle six pleats on the rosette and push them towards each other. The top pleats will follow, but you may need to help them out a little.

Ok, so now comes the tricky part. Get out your glue gun and get ready to, as my Dad used to say, "burn your hooks", LOL!  Take a glue dot and use it as a temporary hold for the back of your rosette.

 

 

Flip your rosette so the front is facing you and pour that glue in!

 

 Keep holding your rosette together for a couple of minutes until the glue sets.

 

 

 Once it is set, I use my little punched circle to add some strength to both sides of my rosette.

Now you are ready to decorate your rosette anyway you like. I used a little tulle bow and a button from October Afternoon's Travel Girl Collection.

 

Here is a idea for using your rosettes!

 This is a prototype of my Great Niece's 1st Birthday Party centerpieces. I will probably add some more decorations later.

To make rosettes using your Cricut, is even easier! I love my Ribbons and Rosettes Cartridge and now that the Cricut Explore will even score your rosettes, it doesn't get any easier!  I used the loop rosette from the cartridge in bright festive colors. I follow all the same step as above. I have a hint for making the rosettes come together easily. The last piece should tuck under the largest fold on the piece you attaching it to, but it doesn't always work that way. I have no idea why, and after going crazy the first few times I tried putting my rosettes together, I realized that for every other end, I would just need to tape them flush to each other. It may be hard to see in the picture below, but the orange and yellow are  pieces I taped flush. I hope that makes sense. LOL!

 

 Here are the rosettes assembled. They are for my Great Niece's I am One banner for her High Chair.

I am currently awaiting my nieces final say on the font for the banner. Here are the two choices that we have narrowed it down to. LOL!

 And here is choice 2.

 

Once again, I have a challenge for you! Make anything you'd like and include a rosette on it! You have until 11:59PM on May 11 to enter. You can add a link here, or post a project at the Circle Message Board. If you add a project here, you have an extra chance to win. I am giving the winner a 20.00 gift card to Michael's! 

 

If you want to see some amazing papercrafting and maybe even try a challenge or win a few pprizes, why not visit the blogs listed below. They are some of my crafty friends who are very talented!

 

A Day in the Life of Horsebunny - http://www.horsebunny.blogspot.com/

 

All Scrapped Out - http://allscrappedout.com/

 

Croation Crafter - http://www.croatiancrafter.blogspot.com/

 

Multi Crafter Amy - http://multicrafter-amy.blogspot.com/

 

Paper, Craft, & Scissors - http://papercraftscissors.com/

 

Sara Andrews - http://sarawandrews.com/

Di&Co - http://creatingislikebreathing.blogspot.ca/

Scrapping for More Fun - http://scrappingformorefun.blogspot.com/

 

With Glittering Eyes - http://www.withglitteringeyes.blogspot.com/

 

http://cowgirl1hh.wordpress.com

 

The Singing Shell - www.singingshell.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!
Colleen

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Lift It Up!

Welcome To Our 2nd Annual Circleville National Scrapbooking Day Celebration!

Are you having fun! It has been a very exciting and inspiring day! Tonight, I am sharing a tutorial on giving your stamps dimension. I love stamping and I am always looking for new ways to make my images pop. I also love paper piecing, so what can be more fun than popping up your paper pieces? Today, I am sharing two different ways to add dimension to your stamps.

For the first technique, you can choose different areas on your stamp that you would like to pop up. I learned this technique from Splitcoast Stampers. First you need to choose your image and stamp or print about 5 copies. I printed out 6 on my computer of Washi Tape Kind Of Girl by Saturated Canary. I am a definitely a washi tape kind of girl!

I cut each image down and went to work deciding where I wanted to add some height. I chose her hair, shoes, patch on her pants, tee shirt, the heart on her tee, and one washi tape roll from the floor. I also cut the washi tape for her fingers out, but I didn't pop those up. I did use a thick dab of Glossy accents to attach them to her fingers.

You can see in the picture below, that I have started choosing areas to black out. They are where I will be adding the height. As you start working on your base, it will look similar to this.

Be careful with the black if you are using copics as it can run into your colors. Once I had my base colored, I colored and cut out my pieces that I wanted to lift, as the picture below shows.

 

 

To add even more dimension, I took the tip of my black or dark grey copic marker and very lightly, added a border to my pieces. You can see in the picture below why I said very lightly. LOL! My DH was taking the picture and I held the tip a little too long to the shirt. Yuck... That is why she is wearing a purple shirt in the finished product! LOL!

 

 

Take a soft surface or an embossing mat and start rubbing around the edges of your pieces. You will see them start to curl. Work from the edges to the center of your pieces. They will look like this.

 

 

Next choose how you would like to lift your pieces. There are a few different ways to do this. You can buy a 3D Glue like the one Helmar makes at Wal-Mart, Zots work well, or you can use Pop Dots, like I did. Since I was using the blackout technique, I also dabbed some black on the edges of my dots. Once again, be careful with that black copic! It can bleed through the dot, so I always try to keep the adhesive backing on them when I color the edges. You can easily do this by holding down the sheet of dots and using tweezers or even a pin to pop them out.

 

 

Finally add the pieces on to your base and you are finished!

 

Since I used Washi Girl, I made a background for her using Washi Tape. When I had it set the way I liked it, I ran it through my Cuttlebug. It looks so cool embossed.

 

 

Once again. here is my finished card.

 

 

And a view from the side.

 

 

Here are the copic colors I used:

Hair, YR0000, E27, E15, YR31. Pants, Booo, B32, B12. Shoes, Woo, W1, W3, E40. Shirt, V1, V3, V6 and I think V8. I forgot to write down all the colors. Heart, BG06. Eyes, BG000, BG01. Skin, E0000, E000, E00, E93, E20 for cheeks.

 

The second way to bring some dimension to your stamps is a technique that I love to use. This is a little more involved since it requires coloring your entire base. For this project, I used my Belles N' Whistles stamp, Lemonade Anyone? Even though Belles N' Whistles is no longer in business, *sniff, sniff* Simons Says Stamps might still carry her.

 

 

You start out the same way, with several images stamped. Don't worry if a couple don't stamp perfectly.

 

 

So here is the difference. You are going to stagger your pieces that you will raise up. I love this technique for side view stamps.

 

 

You can see in the picture above how I colored each piece. Once again, I used my embossing mat to curl the pieces up and layered each piece. I used pop dots on this piece as well. No black edges needed!

 

Above is a not so good picture of the layers. LOL!

 

 

Here they are next to each other.

 

 

Here is the finished card.

 

 

I used my Explore to add some little extras to the card. I have been obsessed with cutting butterflies recently. The butterflies on my card are from Kate's ABC's. I love how tiny that one butterfly is! The grass and flowers are from Straight From the Nest.

 

Copic colors: Skin, same as above. Hair, E40, E42, E43, YR30, YR0000. Lemons, Y11, Y13. Lemonade, R0000, RV000. Pants, B60, BV000, BV02. Apron, R01, YR01, R12, YR20. Oops, I forgot to jot down the shirt color. I think I used E51 on it.

 

 

 For those of you who have stuck with the ultra long post, I have a fun giveaway today. I would love to see your projects using this technique. If you add a project here or over at the message board, I will choose a name for a 20.00 Gift card to Michael's. Contest will end May 12th at 12:01am. BUT WAIT! There is still one more activity for today! Don't forget to check out Renee's thread and blog at 9:00PM to see what she has created! Don't forget that we will be continuing our celebration tomorrow starting at 7:30. It will be another fun filled day with prizes and inspiration for all!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up