Nuts About You

It's been a busy week! I had to sneak on to post this card though! I kept thinking about it, and realized that almost 5 weeks later I still have not posted this card! It's that cute adorable squirrel we all love from Create a Critter. I used a few textured and styled papers. Super fast and easy. Here's the inside:

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter! ( I came straight to my Easter dinner from my bff's house 3.5 hrs away. Thus, a bit of a looong day. But a fantastic- totally worth it- weekend. We managed to make one card and one fabric flower. That's about all our men would let us do. They get jealous easily :] Pictures soon to come! Now, off to bed!)

Arrrgh!

A very special 5 year old had a birthday this past week. His party theme was Pirates, and it was perfect considering the location- at a community recreation center where there was an indoor pool area with a giant pirate ship!! The kids had a blast :) My nephew (the birthday boy) always comes over and asks to make something in my craft room. He loves using the cricut (he gets to push all the buttons) and he is a cuttlebug embossing maniac! I figure I should enjoy this while he's young before he grows out of it. But, because he loves making things with me, I had to think of a very special way to make him a card.

So this is it! I love the final outcome. It's hard to begin when you have so many different things to use. The pirate ship is from PPDU. I used Create a Critter for the water- (well, it was inspiration, I altered it a bit, but it gave me a nice wave outline for the top of the water) and the font is from that as well.

I added some pop dots to give it layers- like it is actually sailing through the water. He loved it! His exact reaction... "Woahhh cool!"  He also got two new leapster games. A starwars reading one, and an xmen geography one. :]

Here's to a short week! Four days to go and then I get to go back and visit my bff Jillian!

Pinwheel- An oldie but Goodie!

Here is a card I made a while back at a Stampin' Up! class. I LOOVE it! It a pinwheel!

So here's the deal: You take some sweet double sided paper, and punch it out with a tag punch, or cut from a cartridge that has a tag, allowing you to make it as big or small as you'd like.

Then, make one diagonal fold on each tag, followed by back folding the corner. (The picture above will hopefully be a good model as to the folding)

Then, arrange them in a circle like pictured, with a brad (or button!) in the center.

The bottom includes a simple dotted stamp, and a hole punch, with a stamped "Thanks So Much" (Stampin' Up!) stamp on the inside- so it's a window. Add some ribbon, and your are good to go! It's been a while since I've done this, and I WILL be making more of them. And feel free to show me some of your pinwheels! I think they are just adorable! And a little out-of-the box :]

Flower Ball!

So, as many of you are already followers of my favoritest friend Jill @Jillianbean Crafts, you may have seen this already. I'm a bit of a procrastinator, and she is WELL aware of this, after living with me for a year in a tiny tiny dorm room.
However, here it is. We made some flower balls! There really is no other way to describe them. A stytrofoam ball covered with paper flowers, held together with some sewing pins! So easy and versitile! They can be hung with string or fishing wire, used as floral decorations, or just some cool book shelf decor! I must say that this is not an orginal idea, I saw someone do this in my early blog- stalking days and can't remember where I first saw this idea. I just loved it, and couldn't wait to actually try it!

The flowers are cut from Create a Critter at 1", 11/2", and  13/4 inch. You can alter the sizes as you wish! Some of the purple background flowers are cuttlebug embossed with swiss dots. It's a simple project, great to do while watching tv or to pass some time!!

Happiness

Card #1

A cricut-less card!! I owe some credit to Stampin' Up for this one- I went to a Stampin' Up card class about 2 years ago where we made a card with this similar layout. Looking through my old stuff, this one sparked some inspiration. I decided to make two of them- they were just that easy!

I took a piece of cardstock- 8x10.5, and cut it in half hotdog style (hehe, can ya tell I teach?) Then I cut the pink strips about 1 3/4 wide, and the blue about 1 1/4 wide.

Stampin' Up sentiment "Happiness" and some clear "Friend" stamp from joann's sale sets. ( I really should keep my packaging, but I get so excited to open them and use them that I throw the wraping out right away!)

Card #2

I didn't have a punch for the tag, so I traced one from a previous card I made. I know some cartridges have tags on them too, I was just lazy and thought this would be quicker for me. The background flowers are all from the clear stamp set as well.

Feeling spring yet?! I know I'm so ready for it! Tomorrow I'm excited to hit up the craft store after work tomorrow for some new fabric- and begin a spring dress!

Monster Love

I couldn't wait to use my Paper Dolls Dress Up cartridge!! My boyfriend requested me to make a monster for him, and I couldn't decide which was cuter, so I cut him one of both! I sent him a picture of them, and then was left with the decision of what to do with them.

And so here is what I came up with! A scrapbook layout with a pop up heart balloon, (Create A Critter) some adorable monster paper and stamped the brown paper background so it wasn't so bland.  I thought this Stampabilities sentiment was perfect for this layout- it says "Life's most beautiful things are not seen with the eyes, but felt with the heart" Then I used a random stamp I found in the bottom of drawer to make the dotted line swirlies. Monster 1 is embossed with Distressed Stripes and Monster 2 is Spots and Dots.

Here's a close up.

Oh yes, I did some more expirementing on the heat embossing around the balloon. It's getting better :]

I can't decide if I'm going to add two square pictures in black and white, or a photo-both strip down the right side.

Now on to more scrapbooking today.....

Happy Tuesday!

Lent starts tomorrow!! It's always tough for me to decide what to give up. Last year I gave up eating after 8pm, and I almost lasted all 40 days- hah. I still haven't figured out what to do this year... good thing I have another night to decide.
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Anyway... I made this card last night for my boyfriend's mom. I miss his family so much! It's so relaxing when we go down to visit them. I could use some quiet time in my life right now!

The background papers are from Hollo's paper crafting store. I love this place! You buy paper by the pound, so it's only $1.25/lb for whatever colors you wish! Such an amazing deal!!! :) It's a huuuge warehouse of supplies from paper crafts, painting supplies, school/ office items, and get this- even a room full of just enevelops. It's a crafters and teacher's heaven.

The orange paper is by MakingMemories, along with the two flower brads. The dog and butterfly (cut at 2 3/4) is from the Cricut Sampler, with some fabric glitter glue on the butterfly. I don't have any stickles, so this did the trick! The sentiment stamped with Whispers Ink is from Stampabilities- a $3.00 find at JoAnns. I'm a bargain shopper when it comes to my crafting.

I just go my 5th and NEWEST cartridge- Paper Dolls Dress up!! Can't wait to show you my new creations :]