IndigoBlu

I made this card with an IndigoBlue stamp.

It was embossed and then colored with Copics and Distress Inks.  I added Prills to the flower center; glossy accents to the bird and glitter and Nuvo Mousse to the flourish.  The background was stamped in ink with a Glitz stamp and stenciled with Nuvo Mousse.  The flowers were plain white ones I've had in my stash forever.  The top one I painted with Prima gold acrylic paint.  The second layer was foiled with gold flakes.   The leaves were cut with my Cricut and  Nuvo Mousse to accent them.  I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder on the green layer. The ribbon is seam binding that I put into an Alcohol ink and water mix.  The water activates the ink so I didn't have to worry about it running afterwards.

There were lots of firsts on this card for me.

#NuvoMousse, #Explore, #Prima

Little Monster

A cute little Treasure Box Designs Monster I cut out with my Cricut.  He is so sweet! 

The papers were just large scraps I had from other projects and placed them on a Reflections card base.  I didn't put a sentiment on him yet because I was not sure what I was using him for when I made him.

Have a wonderful day!

Deer Valentine

This stamp and the one on the inside of the card are from Santa's Magical Sleigh from Your Next Stamp.  I didn't get a chance to use it for Christmas so I am using it now. It is a Christmas stamp to be sure, but I love these little deer, so I changed the wreaths to make them look like collars.  I like to use what I have and use them in more than one way.    And with those little hearts on their hinys, who would know it wasn't meat to be a Valentine's Deer?

I have a fellow crafter who said that she's, "Done the cutsie thing and is so over it!"  I wanted to show her that cute can be turned into elegant, which is what I believe I have done with this card.

All of the papers and the two large flowers are from Prima.  I love that company.  Not only do they make great products, but the staff are amazing too!  Now, having said that, there is a package of ephemera, which I have not liked at all, but kept it in hopes I would eventually use some of it.  I used a piece of it here - the green border.  I toned it down a bit as it is a bit bright for me.  It worked well with this piece.   I still have to say, this package is not my favorite, but they can always be modified, or hidden just enough to make them work well!  Gesso is a friend with stuff like this! lol! If anyone wants what is left, pictured below, let me know and I'll ship it out to you! The package originally had 24 pieces, and as you can see there are still 22 left! 

The tags, leaves and the white "flowers" were made with my Cricut Explore. I added highlights to everything with my new absolute Favorite consumable product that I just found:  Nuvo Mousse!  Love, love, love it!

Tales from the Error Crypt: At the very end of the coloring of the inside deer, my Copic marker decided to leak all over the back legs.  😢  She was meat to be below the heart, but she is now above, errror hidden under the paper layer it looking like she might just jump off the page!  Tada!  problem resolved!
 
I will use this for my entry to Your Next Stamp's #55 Sketch Challenge found here: YNS Challenge #55. 

Little Bee Nugget

I love finding little nuggets on carts.  Especially those I have forgotten about, or those I think I may not use again.  This is one of those finds!  These cute little guys are from Sesame Street Seasons.

 I like to do the inside of cards as well.  I used to leave them blank, but then I thought it was nicer to put something on the inside.  Store bought cards can stay boring.  I want to spice mine up a bit!  Besides, it uses up items and scraps.  We all have too many of those!

Have a lovely day!

Hello Again!

It has been so long since I have been on this blog!  It seems like life has a way of interfering with what we would like to do by adding those things that we have to do.  I love to craft and have been doing so, but the ability to keep up this blog, simple though it may be, proved to be too much over the past while.  I'm finally at a place where I can begin again.

 I decided to start on with a simple project.  I was wanting to buy a new Explore Air - gold, of course,  since I can not find a pink one (swoon) but realized color is really not a reason to buy a new machine.  My current Explore One works like a charm.  There was really no reason to go and buy a new one.  (Drats!)  So, I decided to create "a new one".  I love the fun of it!  It's really a lot more fun to create something than to buy something.  Well, at least that is what I tell myself when I want to spend money but really can't!  But honestly, I love how it turned out and no-one would be able to claim my original, one-of-a-kind machine!

I love How to Train Your Dragon.  I like that the little guy can still be a leader, and life is not always perfect.  There are hardships in life, but you can overcome them.  What a glorious message to share with kids!  Who can resist this little guy?!  Dr Seuss's fish in a bowl is iconic and he always looks like he's reprimanding someone!  Today, he's talking to Toothless.  He better beware or he may get swat!


The images were from Krafty Nook.  The font was a free download.  I created the speech bubble and circle in Cricut Design Space. All images were cut out with this wonderful "new" machine.

I hope to begin posting regularly again.  This time with all different types of creations.

A Fun Birthday!

I made these for my grand daughter for her birthday.  She wanted something a little funky, with tye-dye.  The telephone is made from an SVGcuts.com file.  The flower is a "freebie of the week" cut from Cricut.  The images on the card are also Cricut.

It's so nice being able to easily combine svgs and carts!

They were fun to make! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Back to School

I made this card for my grand daughter for her back to school card.  The image is from Kadoodlebug Designs - A Raggedy School Year.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thank you horse card - Exploring PCs new machine & svgs

Hello everyone.  A very long time without any word!  I had been so overwhelmed by life that even posting seemed to be too much.  (I still wish we never burned the bras that "allowed" us to go into the work force! haha!  I may love my job, but really, I'd love to stay at home and craft!) 

There is a lot of chatter over Cricut's new Explore... and with good reason!  This new machine has just propelled Cricut back to the top of the market!  It is a very user friendly program, but that is nothing new for Cricut.  They have always tried to keep their programs simple so that everyone can enjoy using them.  It cuts wonderfully.   It also does what I thought the very first Cricut did, but didn't.  It combines the ability to use the Cricut carts and svgs that we can either buy or make ourselves!  THIS is what I have been waiting for!  I love my Cricut carts and I also love svgs.  Now, in one machine I can use them both.  Ahhh, life is good!

Here is the first card that I made combining the two of them. 

I love the fact that I can put the images svg & Cricut on the same mat and cut them out!  No more guessing how big to make them and guess the size they need to be, and  no more turning on two machines to accomplish the same thing that this one machine can do!  The horse is from Kadoodlebug Designs and the fence and grasses are from  Cricut carts.  I love the fact that we can type in a word in the program and search for what we are looking for. 

Now that we can do this all in one swoop, we need to know that there are millions of svgs out there for our taking.  Some of them are free and some need to be purchased.

My absolute favorite place to go and get 3D items is SVGCUTS.com.  It is a husband-wife combo - Mary and Leo.  They are a mighty force together.  The designs are well thought out, very detailed and come with good instructions, and videos if you prefer that method!  They are super friendly and helpful.  They have sales whenever they put out a new kit.  Right now it is $6.99 value that you get free if you purchase two other kits. 

This is one of their projects.  I made it for my mil for her birthday and put a flickering electric candle in it.  Super cute!

Some of the places I get svgs from:

SVGCUTS.com
misskatecuttables.com
sherrykdesigns.com
kadoodlebugdesigns.com
silhouetteonlinestore.com

You can also just type in "free svg" on the search line and it will give you a whole stack of places to go and svgs in the images section!!!

One of the best things about this machine and how it operates is being able to get downloads instantly and begin to cut, whether that is a Cricut cart or a svg!  Instant gratification is so satisfying!

 I also love the fact that with the Explore, you can cut, score or write!  The pens make it simple to download and svg, stamp image, etc. and have it drawn for you!  Super exciting for card makers! You can now have all of your images on your computer and the machine can draw them out for you exactly where you want to put them on your card!  How awesome is that? 

This machine now lets you use TTF (true type fonts) that are already on your computer!  You can pop in a pen to draw them and cut, score or a combination!