Birthday Cards

Here's a few birthday cards that I made for the local Women's Club. Since they were relatively simple, they were easy to duplicate. I used scrapbook paper that I loved and haven't been able to use on a scrapbook pages. I used retired Stampin' Up! birthday stamped sentiments - great stamps to have in your stash.

Holiday Ornaments

Here's a variety of Christmas, coffee, and beach-themed ornaments using vinyl and the circuit machine. Love the white letters against the green tree. And the black letters look good too, and really pop on a white tree. 

Pets Leave Paw Prints on Our Heart Ornaments

I love this commercial use image "Pets Leave Paw Prints on Our Heart" svg image from DesignBundles.net. It has been a big seller at craft fairs, and I have orders from friends for this too. The above ornament has will a big paw print bow to jazz it up, but others loved it even without the bow. 

Beachy Ornaments

I made some beachy themed ornaments with black and white lettering, sand, and shells. The above saying is a cut from lovesvg.com: https://lovesvg.com/2016/08/let-the-sea-set-you-free/. The one below is from the same website: https://lovesvg.com/2016/08/the-beach-is-calling/. I have the commercial license for both. I didn't transfer all of the graphics that were on the images - some were too tiny to transfer well. What I learned was, depending on the color of the sand, one color font looks better than another. Black lettering on light colors and white on darker sand. And the one below looked amazing on a green tree, as the white tree washed it out a bit.

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Jolly Ol' St. Nick Challenge

For this week's Bitten by the Bug2 cricut challenge, Jolly Ol' St. Nick, I have Santa holding a tree. I love this Santa cut, especially so large, balancing a gift and a small tree. He is about 9 inches high. He is from the classic Joys of the Season cartridge. I matched Santa's coat to the "BELIEVE" under the tree, which is part of the scrapbook paper design, and am using that for the scrapbook page title. All that I need now is a photo from a Christmas past. Thanks for taking a closer look at my project!

Papercrafted Gifts Challenge

I am happy to be hosting this week's Bitten by the Bug2 Papercrafted Gifts challenge. I am a fan of to do lists and for the Holiday Season and created a cute wish list notebook for buying gifts or just keeping track of seasonal tasks. 

I had Staples cut down small legal sized notebooks and using sturdy cardstock, made covers. There are no measurements. I just traced the notebooks onto card stock and wished for the best! I embellished the covers with Stampin' Up! retired patterned papers. I used my cricut for the layered mats and the sentiment. 

The sentiment was one of my user fonts that I uploaded: Back to Black Bold. What's makes it special is that I cut the sentiment on white glittered paper. To speed glueing up and minimize gooey mistakes, I used my Zyron X adhesive. Still was work, but worth it. 

The mat is from Elegant Edges cart and is the Square Scallop Butterfly Label sans the butterfly label. I then sized and layered two squares and cut my mats on cardstock that matched the patterned papers. 

I have been selling these at my holiday craft fairs and have saved a few for gifts. Hope that it helps organize others - and that they love it!

Snowflake Sentiments Card

Finally, I can work on cards for me! With four shows finished and two more to go, I have a bit of a break. I've been dying to use the new Stampin' Up! Snowflake Sentiments Clear-Mount Bundle. It works great on the Big Shot - even the intricate cuts - I didn't even need the Precision Plate. 

Here is the bundle, still available from the Holiday catalog. Photo copyright Stampin' Up!

It's Getting Cold Challenge

I am finally back to blogging! Been very busy with craft fairs and now since they are in full swing, I am ready for the crowds. Do have to replenish some items, but it is not as overwhelming as it has been for me. 

Here is a project made for the Bitten by the Bug2 It's Getting Cold challenge. Love this snowman and the shimmer and glitter papers - and that banner was tedious to glue together, but worth the effort. The Snowman is from the Winter Frolic cartridge and the banner from When I was a Kid. My stamped sentiment fit perfectly inside the banner and I was surprised to have clean stamped lines on the textured paper. And this card - and the dozen others that I made with similar colored patterned papers - have been big sellers this year so far.

Vinyl Snowflake Ornaments

Here's a few Christmas ornaments that I made and sold at my last craft fair. The ornaments above are embellished with vinyl and are filled with mini pinecones that I bought from Amazon.com. The pinecones fit right through the top opening of these large, round, plastic ornaments. The snowflakes are cricut images from When It's Cold Outside cut on vinyl. Cutting them was easy, yet transferring them onto the rounded surface was quite challenging. I smoothed the center of the images from transfer tape, working my way to the points of each "branch" of the snowflake. 

For the blue snowflake ornaments, I used a beautiful metallic vinyl on plastic "flat" shaped ornaments, which I found at Amazon.com too. The snow is "flakes" that you can find at any craft store during the Holiday season -- glad that I had them in my craft stash since it is only September. I used the Joy snowflake image from Holidays Through the Year Iron-On cartridge and added different sized adhesive rhinestones from Stampin' Up! to the snowflake centers. I also made beach-themed ornaments with sand and shells and coffee filled ornaments with cute sayings for Christmas gifts. I will share you photos in another post.

September Craft Fair

Here are some (lol all) of my photo from my September Craft Fair. Will be posting how-tos, but in the meantime, here is my display:

I changed the price on mini memo pads to $2 and they sold.

Here is a how to.

Fairies Mason Jar Tea Lights

I love Bitten by the Bug2 challenges because it forces me to be creative in ways that I ordinarily wouldn't be. This current challenge is to use a fairy in a project - and since I found a bunch of mason jars in my crafting stash, I decided that fairies would look adorable on the jars.

First I mod podged the insides and added Tim Holtz dry stickles glitter to coat. I have seen many tutorials on these mason jar lights and didn't want to use tissue papers or coat the outside with glue, glitter, or paint because I want the jars to shine, not become dull or textured.

I bought the fairies silhouettes SVGs from GlowCave on Etsy. I cut vinyl with my cricut - and the intricate cuts came out crisp and smooth. Very happy with it. In fact, it cut better on vinyl, even at smaller size, than on card stock. Look at the difference below (vinyl on the left, cardstock on right). And weeding the vinyl was easy too (photo shows that it needs some weeding):

I added some paper flower embellishments with hot glue and inserted the battery votives. A few handmade gifts!

Thoughts & Prayers: Last in a Series

Here is my last in a series Sympathy card. I love the copper embossing powder against the browns and vanilla card stock. I added some copper sequins and used the classic: Thoughts & Prayers Clear-Mount Stamp Set.

Thoughts & Prayers: 2 in a Series

Here is my second in a series of Sympathy cards. This one uses a fancy diecut that I couldn't have cut without the Big Shot precision plate. I caught all of the detailed cuts and was so easy to clean up. I think that the muted gold ribbon gives this another elegant touch. I used the classic Thoughts & Prayers Clear-Mount Stamp Set. 

Thoughts & Prayers: 1 in a Series

Here is my first in a series of Sympathy cards. At vending events, I am always asked for Sympathy cards - and as hard as they are to make, I try to make them in soft colors like vanilla and emboss in black, gold, or bronze. It just gives it an elegant look. I used the classic Thoughts & Prayers Clear-Mount Stamp Set. 

This one above is a card that customers have approached me - explaining how beautiful a sympathy card that they bought from a vendor - only for it to have been one of my cards. It is a compliment that they remember the card - and ok that they don't remember me lol.

Celebrate Card

Here is a quick and simple Celebrate card that I made with my cricut machine. I used "Celebrate" from Paper Lace 2. I matted it onto heavy glitter card stock and adhered it to stunning specialty paper. It was quick and easy and now I am ready for a wedding -- and had a card on hand for my 20 year-anniversary with hubby.

Mod Podge Flower Cards

These cards are similar to the Mod Podge Nature cards. I made them afterwards, using the "leftover" flowers and plates from Tim Holtz idea-ology Botanical Layers. To give it a lighter look from the previous cards, I didn't ink the edges - just flicked gold mist over them. I like the simplicity of it.

Mod Podge Nature Cards

For these nature cards, I layered Tim Holtz idea-ology cut outs (Botanical Layers) and adhered them with Mod Podge. I inked the edge and splashed gold mist over everything and sealed with more Mod Podge. It took some time for the drying, but I love the streaky look that the glue gave these cards. I attached the card fronts with Tombow glue because it is a strong enough glue for the heavy card fronts.

Coffee Cards with Scraps

So I am working on some adorable, altered mini coffee cups -- and had a bit of leftover scraps. I put together some coffee themed cards. I used Coffee Break designer series paper and the Coffee Cafe bundle (die cuts and stamps), and stitched circle framelits from Stamping' Up!.

Colorful Cards Using New In Colors

As you may - or may not - know, Stamping' Up! comes out with new In Colors each year. This year's are beautiful, and I couldn't help myself and bought the designer paper pack with each color, matching ink, and other matching embellishments. 

My favorite is the bold Lemon Lime Twist color. I topped off the cards with the hard-to-get Daisy punch. 

The stamp set that I used is Happy Birthday Gorgeous. The stamp set is versatile and includes more than birthday sentiments. I will be teaching how to make these cards at my next card class.

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A Challenge for BBTB2: 3D Projects

This week's Bitten by the Bug2 challenge is to make a 3D item - any theme. 

I chose Cricut Domed Box #M97B36 from Fancy Boxes. It really is a closed off gift box, but I thought it would look gorgeous as a tea light. What an intricate cut - but my cricut handled it well! There were a few spots that skipped, but sharp scissors made the tears smooth.

I decided to turn these into the lights and instead of cutting the inside panels, I hand cut transparency paper. I hand cut them because I had 8.5 by 11, instead of 12x12 sheets. I painted the cardstock with a bronze medium (DecoArt Metallic Lustre wax in Iced Expresso) to give it a bit of a patina look. 

I also finished off the tops to ones - the one that cricut shows the box (right) and my way, a closed off topped (left).

Here is how they look lit up: