Dog Gone Good

I'm known as the card maker among friends, as you are too. 

In my sports world of canine agility, I make the cards when someone earns their Master Agility Championship, the highest title you can earn in the sport. I was making cards for my close friends when they finished their Championship, and word spread as groups of friends signed each card. 

Now, when someone earns their Championship, I get an email asking for a card, and I alway oblige. 

Here is my latest card. 

"Dog Gone Good" is a Cricut cut from the Just Because Cards cartridge. (I have had this cartridge for years and hardly use it, but I found this sentiment when I searched in Design Space). 

The robot dog is a Cricut cut from the Robotz cartridge.

And the "congratulations" sentiment I made using the writing function on the Cricut Explore. 

Challenges Entered

Little Red Wagon: Cute

Through the Craft Room Door: AG

Inspiration Destination: AG

Hot Like Wasabi

I horde SVG files. I can't get enough, especially the fun and creative ones.

Pretty Papers, Pretty Ribbons has this great set right now called Silly Sushi, and their sister company Pretty Cute Stamps has a set called Sushi Sentiments. Of course, I had to have these. 

For this card, I used the bowl of rice (it is popped up twice for the different layers), and the cute "wasabi" sentiment. I added photo corners from Cricut's Cartridge, Picturesque. 

I just love the way this turned out, and it was super easy to put together. 

Challenges Entered
Pretty Papers, Pretty Ribbon: Anything Goes
Crimbo Crackers: Make Me Laugh
Cute Card Thursday: Die Cuts

Love Notes

The best part of making cards and other projects, and that is, you can customize and find inspiration for a special person in your life. For me, that is my husband, and I love to sneak cards in his briefcase or in his desk or in his closet to find. This card is sitting right now on his office desk waiting for him to come home. 

I started with the overlays which I downloaded for free from Birds Cards. They have incredible files and examples of projects. I chose blue and black for the overlays. 

Next, I popped the chipboard circle with sentiment into the center. Finally, I tied it with a bow!

Clean and Simple in 10 minutes. 

Challenges Entered
Less is More: Thinking of You
A Creative Need: Love
DL.Art: For a Man

Mad Hatter

It's time for another card challenge with Cardz TV stamps. I'm thrilled that the challenge is to use a shamrock or clover. If you are like me and many other crafters, you have trinkets for every occasion and holiday. I have these super shiny green coins for St. Patrick's Day that I have been eager to use. 

To create the card, I stared with the background paper from Close to My Heart (scraps), next I cut the frames from Elegant Edges in Cricut Explore, and then, I used the KaDoodle Bug cutting file, Irish Kids to cut the hat (and inked it with brown for an aged look). I added that shiny coin, and the sentiment from CardzTV, the Happy Day's set. 

Challenges Entered:

Ruby's Rainbow: Anything Green

Ooh La La Creations: Anything Green

Be-Witching

Project 7 of my Simply Betty Stamps Challenge: Color every image in the Simply Betty Collection. That's over 500 images not including the new releases this year. Want to know the details? Click HERE. Join my blog and cheer me on while I work my way through the Simply Betty Catalog. 

For this project, I was inspired by the monochromatic challenge at Simply Betty Stamps. I chose this beautiful Mrs. Witchy Boo. Having just seen the play Wicked, I knew I had to get some green in there. I used shades of gray to color Witch Boo: C0, C1, C3, C5, C7, C8. For the green, I used G17, G09, YR25, G20, and G21. 

I cut her out using a Spellbinders die cut, and I added the black butterfly and the black and silver gems. To add the sentiment, I cut a small banner on my Cricut and stamped the sentiment from CardzTV More Spooky Sayings. I adhered it with a silver brad. 

Challenges Entered:
Crafty Calendar Challenge: AG
Digi Galore: AG
Suzy Bee: Monochromatic
Left of Center: Use Dies

Faraway Friends

I am so excited to share this project with you. Have you met crafting friends through your blogs and challenges and online communities? I have, and many of my new friends live all over the world. I made this card with specific new friends in mind. Obviously, they live in Australia. I met many of these talented ladies while taking classes through Kit and Clowder. 

To create this card, I started with the map of Australia. It is cut from the Australia bundle in my Cricut Design Space. I inked the edges with a distressed blue so that the white wasn't too sharp. The camera is a stamp from the set Framed by The Alley Way Stamps. I used my Copics to color the camera and picked up the blue from the map. It is also inked around the edge. The sentiment is from the Capture the Good Times stamp set from Craftin' Desert Divas. 

Challenges Entered:
Left of Center: Use your Dies
Sister Act Challenge: AG
Crafting for all Seasons: Dies
Paper Minutes: Journey

My Love

It's time for another card challenge with Cardz TV stamps. I'm thrilled that the theme is using hearts because it is time for Valentine's Day cards.

I knew that I wanted my project to have a vintage feel with lots of pink. I love the combination of pink and black, and used the black as a highlight. The bling and the lace bow gave the card that vintage feel I wanted for this project. The stamp in the heart is from the CardzTV set, Hugs and Kisses.

All of the layers are popped up for some more dimension including the patterned paper by American Crafts, the XOXO stack. 

Fintastic Birthday

When it comes to birthday cards, I generally like to have a little fun, but since I have so many cards to make, I try to keep them CAS (clean and simple). For my friend's birthday this week, I decided to play around with puns! I used this fintastic sentiment by Pretty Cute Stamps, Sea Life Sentiments. The patterned paper is by Recollections. I cut the sharks out of shiny, dotted cardstock from Cricut's Life's a Beach cartridge.

March Calendar

It's time for another inspiration using Designs on Cloud 9 svg files. They have a terrific range of files - some complete files, some singular, and of course, a weekly FREE file. I am honored to be part of their Design Team. I love the inspiration I get from all of the different styles. 

My project for this week is for the calendar project I am making for a friend. Last week, I showcased February. Today I am showcasing March. 

On each of the months, I have stamp the calendar. For this month I used the calendar stamp by Waffle Flower.  Each month always includes a photo and die cuts that go with the holidays of the month. For Mach, I used the Designs on Cloud 9, Lucky Bears file for the title, So Lucky. I added the felt circle with the sentiment for the holiday. Finally, I added a shamrock brad to finish it off. 

A Cow and An Octopus Enter a Craft Room

I'm addicted to SVG cutting files. I'm thrilled once again to be a guest designer for Pretty Papers Pretty Ribbons. I am excited because Pretty Papers, Pretty Ribbons have so many different files to choose from. That's why I made two projects. And don't forget there is always the Freebie Fridays! I'm using two different cutting files that I just downloaded.

For my first project, I used this super adorable cow from the Farm Critters cutting files. This file is a must, it has 8 fun farm critters to choose from. I paired it with a sentiment from Cardz TV, More Critter Captions. 

The cow has three "base" layers, so I popped them all up! Here's a better look:

For my second project, I switched to the Sea Life cutting file. Again, this is a great cutting file. There are 7 adorable fish in this file. I decided to go with the Octopus. I wanted to make an ocean scene, and I just thought he would pop off the blue background. I also used the cutting file Borders 5 for the small wave at the top to separate the "water" from the "sunshine." The sentiment is from Cardz TV, More Critter Captions. I also added some details like inking the sand and the octopus, and I added glitter to the seaweed. 

Challenges Entered

Shopping Our Stash: Use something new (both of the svg files)

The Crafter's Challenge: Use something new (both of the svg files)

Aud Sentiments Challenge: Use something new (both of the svg files)

Monkey See, Monkey Do

ScrapbookerPhD

Challenge #19: Birthday (masculine)

It's time for another challenge at ScrapbookerPhD, and I'm very excited to share my project with you. The theme is birthday for a boy. I decided to make a card for my youngest nephew who turns 3 in just a few short months. (Better to be early than later, right!).

I started with the Cricut cartridge B is for Boy, and I cut this super cute monkey. I used two coordinating patterned papers from The Paper Studio. The green pattern is small outlines of the animals on the rest of the pattern. The Monkey See, Monkey Do stamp is from Cardz TV, More Critter Captions, and the Happy Birthday stamp is from CTMH Just to Say set. 

Here is a close up of the green pattern:

Challenges Entered

Bitten By the Bug 2: Your favorite cartridge. *I just found this cartridge, and it is my new favorite since I have 5 nephews ranging in age from 2 to 10. 

Seize the Birthday: Party

Creative Card Crew: For a Child

You're Just My Type

It's time for another inspiration using Designs on Cloud 9 svg files. They have a terrific range of files - some complete files, some singular, and of course, a weekly FREE file. I am honored to be part of their Design Team.

For my project this week, I really wanted to go with a vintage feel. My mom just loves this style, and I thought this would be a cute card for her - a just because card. I used the Feathers cutting file. This file is perfect because there are so many feathers to choose from. I used a patterned paper from the DCWV Timeless Type stack and a sentiment from the Sweet & Sassy Keep in Touch stamp set. 

To add some dimension to this card, I sprayed the feather with Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels. Then I inked the edges with distress ink. 

Pirate Parrot

Are you using SVG files with your die cutting machines, well, don't miss out on Designs on Cloud 9. They have a terrific range of files - some complete files, some singular, and of course, a weekly FREE file. I am honored to be part of their Design Team.

For my project this week, I used the Pirate Parrot file to create this birthday card for a young boy. I love how easy this cutting file was to put together. My inspiration for this card came from this cute pirate patterned paper and sentiment from The Alley Way Stamps (Birds of a Feather set). Luckily, Designs on Cloud 9 have so many cutting files, I can always find the right file for a project. Searching under pirate brought up enough files that I could even create all the decorations for a pirate party if I wanted to. 

Snow Globe

It is December 24th, and, yes, I am still making Christmas cards. This card is one of my favorites and was inspired by this fabulous snow globe svg file from Pretty Papers, Pretty Ribbons and the challenge (photo inspiration) from The Alley Way Stamps. 

For the challenge, I wanted to create a winter scene in the snow globe. I embossed the snow hill with a snowflake embossing folder, and used a very soft blue at the base. I used three stamps sets from TAWS: "Celebrate" comes from the More Than Words set, the snowflakes comes from the Winter Butterflies set, and the winter bird and sentiment "peace on earth" comes from the All Wrapped Up set. 

I added white liquid pearls to help create the feeling of snow falling inside the snow globe. 

Challenges Entered

TAWS - Be Inspired: Photo Inspiration
PPPR: Christmas

Sassy Girl Birthday

Are you using SVG files with your die cutting machines, well, don't miss out on Designs on Cloud 9. They have a terrific range of files - some complete files, some singular, and of course, a weekly FREE file. I am honored to be part of their Design Team.

For my project this week, I used one of the tags in the Sassy Girl Tags cutting file to create a birthday card for a friend. The tag comes in two layers, but I separated the layers in my Cricut Explore to add a third layer. It was super simple to do and gave me the opportunity to use some sassy colors. 

I used this particular file because my friend does have a dog (a few of them). I added the sentiment from Tiddly Inks (and the hat) and some Skittles for dimension. I hope she likes it. 

Challenges Entered

Color Throwdown: Colors

Everybody Art Challenge: Frame

Robot Hanukkah

It is several nights into Hanukkah, and I still have a couple of cards to make before our big family Hanukkah party on Saturday. This is for one of my nephews. He loves robots, and I found this adorable robot on the Robotz cartridge from Cricut. It was easy to layer this robot with blues (Hanukkah colors are blue, white, and silver), and I love adding googlly eyes. I just know he will love it. One more to go before Saturday. 

Challenges Entered

Get Creative Challenges: Colors 

Just Inspirational Challenges: Colors

Crafty Creations: Die cuts

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Greetings

Two of my nephews love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - especially Leo, and they tell me that Leo wears blue. I was so thrilled to find the PPbN Designs has cutting files for Leo. I decided to use Leo to create Hanukkah cards for the boys. 

I used chalk to add dimension to the green card stock or base of Leo. 

I think the patterned paper worked perfectly, and it was from a stash of "generic" paper styles. 

I will find out how they like it on Saturday at our Hanukkah party. Two more cards to go!

Challenges Entered
My Creative Moments: Christmas or Winter
The Crafter's Cafe: Animal Friends
Animal Friends Challenge: Anything Goes
Mema's Crafts: Winter Holidays

Sleigh Ride

It's time for another card challenge with Cardz TV. The theme for this challenge is to use snowflakes or a snowman, and isn't that fitting since the weather has already brought winter snow to many parts of the country. 

My inspiration for this card was to create a winter scene and make it feel cold! I started with this great Cricut base from the cartridge Winter Wonderland. To keep with the challenge, I embossed the blue with a snowflake folder, and then chose a silver layer for the spirit of winter holidays. 

Next, I used the CardzTV Stamp set, Snow Day, for the sentiment, and stamped it right on the Sleigh itself. I added a few trees and inked them with white so that they looked snowy and finally added some dimensional, glittery snowflakes. I have had these snowflakes for a few years - I bought them in bulk from Oriental Trading Company. 

Challenges Entered
Cuttlebug Mania: Snowflake
Just inspirational Challenges: Snowflakes
Try it on Tuesday: Christmas is Coming
Tuesday Throwdown: Bling it On
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog: Beyond Red or Green
Love to Create: Shaped Card

Kind Heart

Not too long ago, I had no idea what an SVG was, and now, SVG files are my inspiration for any project. It's official. I'm addicted to SVG cutting files. I'm thrilled once again to be a guest designer for Pretty Papers Pretty Ribbons. I was thrilled and excited because Pretty Papers, Pretty Ribbons have so many different files to choose from. That's why my guest designer project uses three different cutting files. And don't forget there is always the Freebie Fridays!

I started by using a cutting file for the base of the card. It is called A2 Card Bases. The shape of the card was so interesting to me that I wanted to find a flourish that could nestle in the grooves. I found this flourish in the cutting file Flourishes 1. Next, I used the Heart Lock cutting files for the accent and stamped my sentiment on coordinating paper. The sentiment is from the Cardz TV stamp set, Many Thanks. 

Challenges Entered

Love to Create: Shaped Card

Open-Minded Crafting Fun: Grateful

Scrapbooking-Cardmaking: Shaped Card

Loves Rubber Stamps: Anything Goes

Cake!

Today is the day! Another great challenge at DoubleClick Skittles. The inspiration for this week is Birthdays! Come join us in our challenge.

For my card, I wanted to make a birthday card for a teenage girl. I decided to use The Uptown Flair paper stack by The paper studio for my inspiration. The sentiment is cut from the Cricut cartridge, Once Upon a Princess. I love the combination of hot pink, black, and bright green, so I used a glittered green paper for the accents on the sentiment. I added some green skittles, but they look more pink here, and then this wonderful pom pom ribbon at the bottom. 

Challenges Entered:
Card Mania - Color Combination
Eureka Stamps - Celebrations
My Craft Spot - Sentiment as Focal Point
Scrappy Hands - Birthday
Craft for the Craic - Birthday