Kraftin' Kimmie's Blog Challenge 62 - Fairytales

I am so happy to be over the flu and back on my feet again! I don't know about you, my fellow crafters, but it has been sooooo cold here that it has given me the perfect excuse to do some crafting! This year, I made quite a few crafting resolutions, including not waiting until the last minute to make cards for Birthdays and other special occasions. I also want to enter some more challenges, so I am entering this Birthday card that I made for a very dear friend of my Mother in the Kraftin' Kimmie Blog Challenge. The theme for this week is Fairytales. I chose to use my Swan Princess for this card. I stamped her with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored her with copics. These are the materials I used

Copics

Dress - BG10, BG11, BG32, BG34

Hair - Y21, E97, E99

Skin - R00, E00, E1, E93, R20

Wings - A combination of the BG's and E40

Stickles

Basic Grey Paper, Wisteria

Basic Grey Opaline Pearls

Prima Flowers and Say It With Pearls Swirl Embellishment

Stick Pins

Cuttlebug Embossing Folder -  Birds and Swirls

Purple and Green Cardstock from my stash

Paper Temptress Heavenly White Premium Ultrasmooth Cardstock for Stamping the Swan Princess

VersaMagic - Purple Hydrangea and Turquoise Gem

Nestabilities Scalloped Oval Dies

I am a huge Kraftin Kimmie fan. I came upon her stamps a couple of years ago when I saw a card made with her Clara stamp. That is my Mom's name, so I had to find out where to order it and when I did, I was hooked! I am most fond of the Moonlight Whispers line by Annie Rodrigue, there is just something about the whimsical nature of her stamps that I adore. They stamp like a dream and are just so much fun to create with. I wanted to keep the papers simple and have fun with the embellishments on this card, so I layered my papers over a 5.5 x 5.5 card. I pulled out my VersaMagic chalks, prayed they would still ink, because they haven't gotten much love since I discovered Distress Inks :-) and edged the cardstock layers. I love the Basic Grey Wisteria Paper I used. I wanted it to look like my Swan Princess was gliding through the wisteria. I used pop dots to adhere her to the card. I used my computer to generate the sentiment for the inside and front of the card, then I cut them with my Nestabilities Ovals. I embellished the card with my Basic Grey Opaline Pearls and the Primas. Added the stick pins for some interest, and a piece of ribbon to anchor the embellies and sentiment. I embossed a piece of purple cardstock and chalked it with the VersaMagic Purple Hydrangea. That completed my card. Here are a few more pictures.

She turned out very pretty, didn't she?  I hope you enjoyed my card, I know I enjoyed creating her!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

I Have A Dream Blog Hop

 

 
 
Once again, KarelJ is hosting a wonderful themed blog hop. We are honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the hop is being held  January 15, 16 and 17.  The theme is simple: I Have a Dream.


“The Grand Prize Blog Candy is the Dreams Come True Cartridge, donated by an anonymous donor!! In order to be eligible to win, you need to leave a comment on each and every stop on the hop, along with a way to contact you. Karelj will choose a winner by random.org on the 18th and announce it on her blog, as well as contacting the winner personally.”

Have you arrived here from the talented Stephanie's blog? Then you are on the right track. Here is the list of blogs in case you just came to my blog and would like to participate in the hop for the grand prize.
1. Karelj at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity http://karelj.blogspot.com/

2. Nicolette at Beyond Scrapping http://www.beyondscrapin.blogspot.com/
3. Christel at Scrappin' Sista http://onescrappinsista.blogspot.com/
4. Celeste at Touched By a Butterfly http://www.touchedbyabutterfly.blogspot.com/
5. Rachel Henahan at Suburban Crafter http://www.rachelstampshappy.blogspot.com/
6. Stephanie at SS Crafter http://sscrafter.blogspot.com/
7. Col at Col's Creative Corner at http://www.scrappycol.blogspot.com/ You are here!
8. Jessica at Overjoyed Scrapper http://www.overjoyedscrapper.blogspot.com/
9. Krista and Kori at 2 Crafty Chicks http://2craftychics.blogspot.com/
10. Gina at Gina Thornton Stamping http://ginathorntonstamping.blogspot.com/
11. Monique at Unique Monique at http://uniquemonique01.blogspot.com/
12. Kathryn at Creations with Kathryn at http://wamfamily.blogspot.com/
13. Jamie at Glitter, Paper, Stamps, Oh My! http://jamieisacraftymomma.blogspot.com/

I chose to make a 2 page layout about my son. As a parent, all of our dreams become dreams for our children. Everyone who knows me understands that my son holds all my biggest dreams. My dreams for him are different than most parent's dreams for their 20 year children. I dream of a day when people will see my son for the person he is, not his Autism. I understand how hard that can be for people we pass in the streets. He is different, his reaction to life's experiences is unlike yours or mine. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, either. He doesn't know about hatred or cruelty. He doesn't care what color your skin is. It doesn't matter to him how much money you make, or what kind of house or car you own. He is not pre-disposed to any opinions, good or bad. When he meets you, most likely if you show him kindness, he will befriend you. Of course I dream of the day when he will speak. I try not to be greedy and want it all, but I can't help but dream of the day when there will be a cure for Autism. I pray it will be in my lifetime.

I have been fighting the flu for the past week now, so I am making an unusually short post, please accept my apology. Hopefully, I will be able to update the post before the weekend is over.

From here you are heading to  Jessica at Overjoyed Scrapper http://www.overjoyedscrapper.blogspot.com/

I know she will have an amazing project to share with you. While you are there, take a look at her blog, it is really wonderful.

 

I hope everyone has a great Holiday weekend!

Colleen

Cricut Blog Challenge

My First Challenge Of The New Year!

Cricut Blog Weekly Challenge

You Rock My World Card

From The Cricut Blog:

Dec 31, 2010 Weekly Challenge #14: Getting In ShapePosted by: Shantaie Fowler

Each week join us for “Challenge Friday” where we will announce a new creative challenge. We want you to feel inspired to use your supplies in new ways. Have fun with it! Check back often to see the beautiful entries from your Circle Friends . . . you are sure to leave with a desire to get cutting!

Weekly Challenge #14: Getting In Shape!

According to polls, “getting in shape” is among the Top Ten Resolutions people make each New Year’s Eve. Let’s do it! Let’s start the New Year off right by getting in shape . . . a shape other than a rectangle. We challenge you to create a project in a shape other than a square or rectangle. Your project must also include a number somewhere and bling of some kind (to go along with this week’s theme of “Blinging in the New Year”!
Project must be newly created for this challenge and must include atleast 2 different cuts from any Cricut cartridge to qualify.

You Rock My World Valentine's Day Card

(For My Hubby)

Materials Used

American Crafts Foil Paper

American Crafts Glitter Cardstock

Making Memories Black Cardstock

Martha Stewart Gold Glitter Paper

Martha Stewart Carrara Marble Glitter

Ranger Alcohol Inks (Stream and Pool)

Cricut Cartridges Used

Quarter Note

Wrap It Up

Cindy Loo
Holiday Cakes
Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art

Created on my Gypsy

I wanted to create a card for my Husband using my new Quarter Note Cartridge. My Husband is a great Guitar player, so naturally, I chose the Bass cut to use! :-)

I seriously have got to get my eyes checked! I was half way through cutting before I realized my folly. After 30 years of our being together, something tells me he won't be too surprised by my minor miscalculation. Someday soon, I will use the guitar cut for him...

Other than it being a bass and not a guitar, I really like the way the card turned out. I used my Gypsy to weld the Bass with the Heart from Cindy Loo, copied and flipped my image. I welded the two images together to create the card. It's a larger card, it stands at 5.65 inches.

Gypsy Screen shot

Cut Image

Cut Image

When I cut and folded the black cardstock, it felt too "light" to handle all the layers that I knew I was going to add, so I cut the base a second time with a thicker craft cardstock. I layered the original black cut on top. I would suggest using a thicker black cardstock (like maybe cardstock from Paper Temptress) for the base if anyone wants to reproduce this card. I am still on my self imposed paper ban, so I worked with what I have, and sadly, I only have a thinner black cardstock.



Then I cut my Cindy Loo Hearts from American Crafts Light Green Cardstock, and used my Ranger Alcohol Inks to transform the color for my Earth Heart.

It looks slightly blotchy in the picture, but it works when you layer the white on it. I wanted more bling, since that was one of the requirements for this challenge, so I used Martha Stewart Carrara Marble Glitter from the Holiday Collection on the top layer. As usual, I ran the top through the Xyron to make adding the glitter easier. Here is a close up of the finished heart from the front of the card.

It's hard to see the white sparkle, but it's there...



The year is inside the card



 I had cut out the bottom layer for the Bass using American Crafts Red Foil Paper, then the top layer on the front of the card using a piece of Martha Stewart Glitter Paper from last year's Holiday Paper Collection, that I had been hoarding. One of my New Year's resolutions is to stop hoarding my Paper! I repeated all the cuts, with the exception of the Gold Glitter Paper, for the inside of the card. I used the You Rock sentiment from Wrap It Up, and hid the bubble gum dispenser, at least that I thought it was, using my Gypsy. I cut My World using Holiday Cakes and 2011 using MS Elegant Cake Art. For the challenge we needed to use a number on the project, so I added the year on the inside of the card. I put it on the Cindy Loo Earth Heart, as shown above.  Here is a shot of the inside of the card.

This was a fun challenge for me. I got to use my Gypsy which was "away in rehab" for far too long. I used only what I had in the scrap room, and I am ahead of the game with my cards for the year. Since I know Pete follows my blog, I guess I'll say Happy Early Valentine's Day to my sweetie.

Thanks for stopping by the blog to take a look at my Cricut Challenge Card.

Happy New Year To All!  Happy Crafting!

Colleen

The Winner is......

Reddy who said:

I love how you did the glitter

December 28, 2010 7:29 PM

Congratulations Reddy! Please contact me within the next week to claim your prize! If I haven't heard from Reddy by January 7, 2011, I will choose another winner.

                                                          Here is my candy for the hop.

Thank You to everyone who joined our hop! Thank You to my fellow hoppers and a special Thank You to our hop leader KarelJ! Karel is one amazing person. I wish I knew how she manages to do so much! I can barely get a blog post a month going, and she crafts, posts, hops, donates time to worthy causes and STILL has a life outside our online crafting world! I suppose some things are just not for me to understand! I hope to get the chance to do more blog hops with you in the coming year. It has been a blast! Here is some cyber applause for you, Karel! Clap, clap clap, clap............

Happy Crafting!

Colleen



2011 Calendar Blog Hop

Welcome to another great Blog Hop sponsored by Karel at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity. If you have arrived from the always fabulous Belinda's blog, then you are on the right track. Here is the list of wonderful crafters just in case you may have missed anything!

1. January and April: Celeste at Touched by a Butterfly at http://touchedbyabutterfly.blogspot.com/
2. January and September: Jessica at Overjoyed Scrapper http://www.overjoyedscrapper.blogspot.com/
3. February: Christel at Scrappin' Sista http://onescrappinsista.blogspot.com/
4. February and March: Karelj at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity  http://karelj.blogspot.com/
5. March and July: Diane at Crafting This Moment http://www.craftingthismoment.blogspot.com/
6. April: Bonnie at A Scrap Above http://ascrapabove.blogspot.com/  
7. May: Michelle at Peanut Butter and Jelly Designs http://peanutbutterandjellydesigns.blogspot.com/
8. May: Natalie at Timeless Legacy Designs http://timelesslegacydesigns.blogspot.com/
9. June: Lisa at Lisa's Paper Butterflies http://lisaspaperbutterflies.blogspot.com/
10. June: Jamie at Glitter, Paper, Stamps, Oh My! http://jamieisacraftymomma.blogspot.com/
11. July: Summer and Jennifer at Cricut Diaries http://cricutdiaries.blogspot.com/
12. August: Denise at Starlight Scrapper http://starlightscrapper.blogspot.com/
13. August: Gina at Gina Thornton Stamping http://ginathorntonstamping.blogspot.com/
14. September: Deb at If It's Groovy http://ifitsgroovy.blogspot.com/
15. October: Rebecca at Creations with Becka http://www.creationswithbecka.blogspot.com/
16 . October: Lora at Notes From The Scrapbook Lady http://scrpbooklady.blogspot.com/
17. November: Belinda at Queen Bee's Musings http://www.queenbeesmusings.blogspot.com/
18. November and December : Col at Col's Creative Corner at http://www.scrappycol.blogspot.com/ you are here!
19. December: Deb at Tidbit's Place http://tidbitsplace.blogspot.com/

Don't forget in order to win the awesome grand prize Cricut Designer Calendar Cartridge that Karel is giving away as a grand prize, you will need to visit and leave a comment at all the stops on the way. Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to visit all the stops, the hop is from today until December 30th! Don't forget to leave a way for Karel to contact you! She will choose a winner by random.org on the 31st and announce it on her blog as well as contacting the winner personally! I can't wait to see all the calendar pages that are going to be shown for this hop. I already have two months down on my calendar!

Here are my pages

I had the pleasure of creating calendar pages for November and December. For both months, I took 12x12 paper and adhered it to chipboard for extra sturdiness. I will break down each month

This was so much fun to create. To make a calendar set like this you will need a Cricut Machine and the Thanksgiving Seasonal Cartridge. Here are the other supplies I used:

12x12 paper

8 1/2 x 11 paper

Martha Stewart Glitter (Fire Opal and Golden Beryl)

Distress Inks (Scattered Straw and Wild Honey)

Adhesive (Zig Pen, Xyron Machine, and Scor Tape)

Stickles

Computer to print the Days of the Week

I-Rock

Cricut Cartridges (Thanksgiving, Blackletter, Gypsy Wanderings and Independence Day)

I have been on a self imposed paper ban, so I dug through my stash and found a piece of paper that I got when my LSS closed, and it's called Acorn Harvest by Kathy Griffiths for Provo Craft. Yep, Provo Craft. I never knew Provocraft produced paper. Then again, I am still new to paper crafting, it's only been about three years since I started. I cut my 8 1/2 x 11 paper to 6 1/2 x 9 1/2. I created the calendar grid and printed out the days of the week. I cut them and inked them with Wild Honey Distress Ink. I adhered them to to a strip of orange paper that I cut to make a header on the calendar.

I then cut 30 leave shadows at 1x1 and inked them with the Distress Ink. I also inked the paper that used for my dates area. I found some number stickers in my sticker stash, so I used those for the dates. For Veteran's Day, I cut a 1 inch I Love the USA from the Independence Day Cart. For Thanksgiving, I cut a 1 inch Turkey from the Thanksgiving Cart. I love black Friday, so I cut a couple of shopping bags off a Lily Of The Valley Stamp that was left over from Christmas cards, and added some twine to look like handles. I colored them with Copics. I marked my son's birthday with a party sticker. One thing to note:
I loved the pumpkin on the paper and didn't want to lose it to the dates grid, so I took a craft knife and carved the top of the pumpkin and slid the calendar grid under it.

I cut my photo mats to 3x5 size. I am crazy about glitter, but I really hate gluing glitter, so I cheat, all the time... I used my Xyron, ran anything I was glittering through it so that the side that would be facing up would have adhesive, and glittered to my hearts content. Here are a couple of shots showing the process.

I did the same thing for the picture mats and the Count You Blessing Phrase. I used an I-Rock to adhere some bling on the picture mats and the Count Your Blessings title. It's so hard to see in pictures, but they look so nice. I cut a Pilgrim Silhouette and a leaf corner from the Thanksgiving Cart. I used SEI Velvet paper for the Pilgrim head and the leaf.

Materials for December Pages:

Cricut Cartridges (Joys Of The Season, Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake Art, Celebrate With A Flourish, and Wrap It Up

12x12 paper

8 1/2 x 11 paper

Martha Stewart Bird Sticker

Distress Ink (Pine Needles and Fired Brick)

Ribbon

Viva Decor Pens (Gold and Silver)

I followed a similar idea for my calendar grid as I used for November, except I made the grid slightly bigger. It is 8 x 10 1/2. I cut 1 inch Christmas ornaments with my Cricut to use as my Day markers. I inked the ornaments and used my Viva Decor Pens to add the gold and silver at the top of the ornaments. I used more of the number stickers to mark the days. The paper for the ornaments is by Anna Griffin.  

Does anyone remember when swapping "inchies" was all the rage on the Circut MB? Well, I finally used a couple from my stash to highlight Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New year's Eve and my Mom's Birthday. Belinda might recognize one of the inchies.....

I just wanted to mention the background paper for this month is by Bo Bunny. I have been hoarding it for the longest time, and it was just perfect for this page. I cut the word December and the year using the Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake Art Cartridge. The mats will hold 4x6 pictures, and the ribbon isn't adhered, so the pictures will slide right under it. The lovely Poinsettias are from the Wrap It Up Cartridge. I cut the reindeer at 2.50 x 2.75. Merry Christmas is from Celebrate With A Flourish.

One last hint. I have a tough time keeping my rulers straight when I am drawing grids. In order to keep the date grid looking nice, I used my paper cutter as my straight edge. I marked where the lines would start, then placed the dot on the out side of my paper cutter and drew my lines.

I hope you enjoyed my calendar pages. I am giving away some blog candy. I am always in need of Cricut blades, so I will be drawing a name using random.org on New Year's Eve to give a pack of blades to. That's not all, I will also be giving a set of stamps to the winner. Just leave me a comment and a way to reach you! I will get a picture up of the blog candy before the hop is over. Thanks for stopping by today! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas or whatever Holiday you celebrate! Happy New Year to all my fellow crafters! I am looking forward to creating some fun new projects this New Year!

From here, you are heading to Deb at Tidbit's Place blog. I know you will be impressed by her creations! She is quite talented!

Happy Crafting!

Col