Out of This World Boy Birthday Card

Good Morning!

Today is my turn to share a project for inspiration over at Exploring Cricut.  I always need to have birthday cards on hand for kids, and always seem to be short on cards for boys.  With no one specific in mind, I created this one for my stash:

 

Thank goodness for Cricut's 'Boys Will Be Boys' cartridge!  I love how the cuts on this cartridge have a mat behind them.

I took the liberty to dress up this cut a bit by embossing the black mat, popping the rocket cut out on foam dots, and adding pearls/stickles/glossy accents to the rocket ship to give it some pizzazz! These cuts come together really quickly, and allow for lots of customizing.  It's my go-to cartridge for BOY cards.

I hope everyone has a great day - Thanks for stopping by!

About This Card:
Card Base - Papertrey Ink's "Enchanted Evening" cardstock
Rocket & Black Mat - Cricut's 'Boys will be Boys' cartridge
Star Embossing Folder - Cuttlebug 'skyward' set
Fiskars eyelet border punch
Black Pearls, 3-D Foam Dots, Stickles, Glossy Accents (Rocket Window)
Sentiment - Fiskars
Memento - White "Wedding Dress" Ink

Monday "Recipe" Challenge

Good Morning!

This week over at Exploring Cricut we are hosting what I like to call a "recipe challenge" - you're given the 'ingredients' to use, and you put it together :)  Our recipe for this challenge is "Cricut Choice - Blue, 2 Cuts and Pattern Paper."  Here is what my mind 'cooked up' for that recipe:

 

I wanted to do something other than a card this go-around, so I made a little paper purse for my daughter.  She has so many little pieces to her dolls, My Little Ponies, Littlest Pet Shops, etc. - I told her she could have this if she kept all the little things in it, and she agreed :)  My blue is my bird, my 2 cuts are the purse (from the Forever Young cricut cartridge) and the bird (from the Cherry Limeaide cricut cartridge), and obviously my pattern paper is the whole project :)

So get your mind cooking, and come join our challenge over at Exploring Cricut - We'd love to see how you've been inspired!

 About this card:

Pattern Paper - DCWV Ultimate Stack

Cricut Cuts - Purse (Forever Young) and Bird (Cherry Limeaide)

Rhinestone Flourishes, Pearls, Rhinestones, Stickles

Welcome to Wednesday

Hey There!

Julie here, with another inspiration project for Exploring Cricut.

I don't know about you, but the winter weather always makes me want to create using bright colors.  I grabbed the Recollections 'Citrus' cardstock pack from Michael's, and made this card for an upcoming birthday:

For this card, I used Cricut's "Edge to Edge" cartridge for the lattice mat in lime green.  I was just tickled to find that my spellbinders 'Labels 1' dies fit the center mat JUST PERFECTLY! I used those dies for all of the smaller mats.  At first, I wasn't sure about 'needing' the Edge to Edge cartridge, because I don't make large layouts, but with my gypsy I am able to shrink and alter the sizes of the cuts, and make awesome backgrounds for my cards!  I like to set layers apart by adding different features, and on this card I used my Ice Pearl Pen to 'dot' every other corner.

About this Card:
All paper - Recollections Citrus cardstock pack
Lattice mat - Cricut cut from Edge to Edge cartridge
Cuttlebug Stitched embossing folder
Sentiment - Scrappy Mom's Sweet Somethings
Spellbinders Labels 1 dies
Ice Pearl Pen, Lime Green Glitter Ribbon, 3D pop dots

A Winter Celebration Challenge!

Happy Monday Everyone!

This week our challenge over at Exploring Cricut is "Winter Wonderland" - A celebration of winter and snow.  I happened to have the PERFECT cause for this project:

 

My sister got engaged last week!  During a beautiful, heavy snow, her boyfriend took her to an awesome place around here called Longwood Gardens.  As they were walking around looking at the beautifully decorated Christmas trees, he dropped down on one knee and proposed... How romantic!  I used the Winter Woodland Cricut cartridge for the tree cut.  I added Polar White Flower Soft to all of the white cuts, to give them a "real snow" look.  I'll be sending this card out to them tomorrow :)

Please join our challenge this week by sharing your own creation celebrating winter and snow, and share it with us on our challenge page over at Exploring Cricut - We'd love for you to inspire us as well!  Happy Winter!

About this card:

Card Base - Enchanted Evening cardstock by Papertrey Ink

White Mat - Luxury White cardstock by Gina K

Tree - Cricut cut from Winter Woodland cartridge cut out of Bazzill Bling cardstock

Swiss Dots embossing folder

Congratulations stamp - Fiskars

Pom pom ribbon, stickles, Polar White Flowersoft

Blog Candy Winner!

Ugh - The weekend is over.  Sunday nights are so depressing for me!  Thinking about the long week ahead always brings me down... Hopefully this news will 'brighten' someone else's Sunday night.

We have a winner for the blog candy from my previous post!

I had 5 comments on my last post, and random.org chose the following comment:

Comment #5 was...

Congrats to Donna and Sara - Please email your mailing address to:

jclawser518 at gmail dot com

And I'll get your candy out to you.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and/or left a comment.

Have a great week!

Happy New Year! Blog Candy!

Happy New Year to my fellow crafters and friends!  May 2014 be your best year yet!

Over at Exploring Cricut, we're celebrating the New Year with a fun challenge - please go check it out!

Along with the New Year, comes the new list of resolutions, right? {{sigh...}}

I think we can all relate to the following list of resolutions:
- I will not buy new paper this year - I'll use the huge stash I already have (Mmm Hmm...)
- I will organize my craft space and de-stash unused items (absolutely!)
- I will use all of the Cricut Cartridges I already own, and won't buy new ones (yeah, right...)
- I will use new techniques (if they're not too hard...)
- I will use all of the scraps I've been hoarding (...)

Wait... Those last 2 are resolutions I can actually see myself working on!  And I present to you, today's featured project over on Exploring Cricut, a card made almost completely from scraps, using a new-to-me technique:

  

I have been so anxious to use the 'starburst' technique on a card.  It is embarrassing to look at some of the attempts I've made at this before.  I finally found a bunch of tutorials that made it much easier for me to conquer - Thank you Pinterest!  The only element of this card that was not a scrap is the base - I can live with that!

Now I Need Your Help With Another Resolution!

I'm going to start my 2014 destashing effort by giving the following goodies away to a good, crafty home:

 

 Everything pictured above is brand new, never used and in perfect condition - I just haven't used it and so now it needs to go somewhere where it will be used!  You will also receive the card that I made for my inspiration project this week :)  To enter for the give away, please make sure that you're a follower, and leave me a comment about your New Year's resolutions - Leave me tips on how to conquer mine, or tell me about yours :)  Please leave your email address in your comment (to avoid spam, spell it out like - address at domain dot com) so I can reach you if you are the winner.  (I can only ship to US and Canada - Sorry for any inconvenience)

I will use random.org to draw a winner on Sunday night (1/5/14), so please make sure to comment/follow before then.

Again, Happy New Year everyone!  I'm looking forward to a year full of inspiration from all of you!

About this card:

Base - Summer Sunrise cardstock from Papertrey Ink

Scraps - Echo Park's Playground line of paper

Sun - Cut from Cricut's "Small Talk Frames & Tags" cartridge

Sentiment - Pink by Design

Memento Babmoo Leaves

Stickles, Purple Mat