Mother's Day Tea Cup 1

Wow! It's been a while since I've posted anything...I've been super busy with work and life, and I'm glad I had the time to create something beautiful to share with you today...

I am entering this card into the following challenges (in no particular order):

Craft Room Challenge - Music
4 Crafty Chicks - Challenge #84 Flowers
Throwback Thursday Challenge - episode 366

With Mother's Day right around the corner, I knew I wanted to create something special for my mom & mom-in-law. I saw this 3-d teacup in my cricut magazine, and loved it. However, I don't have the cartridge, Tags, Bags, Boxes & More 2. What to do...
I decided it couldn't be that hard to create so I set to it.
I deconstructed a paper cup to use as my teacup template, and created a saucer from a circle cut, from the cartridge that came with my Cricut, Plantin Schoolbook! I added a small rectangle from the same cartridge to create a small notch out of it to give it dimension. I then cut a 'handle' from the capital 'C' on the Ashlyn's Alphabet cartidge. Using my gypsy, I copied it, flipped the copy and welded the two together along the spine.
The sweet musical paper and coordinating flower print are printed on my imagine from the 'Imagine More' cartridge.
I added the silk flowers from Recollections and the musical note is from the 'Gypsy Wanderings' e-cartridge.
It really turned out beautiful. Planning on putting some small treats, or hand lotions, or special teas in the cup. Not sure which Mom I will gift this one to, but I loved this one so much I created a second one that I will post when I'm finished.
Enjoy!!!

2nd Post of the day! St. Patrick's Day Card

WOW - 2 posts in one day. I was able to finish another card I've been working on, and found some challenges to enter it into! So let's get started (in no particular order!):

• Scrap Creations - GGSC 104 - St. Paddy's Day  - St. Patrick's Day card
• Party Time Tuesday's - PTT # 58 Riches at the End of the Rainbow - "This week our theme is Riches at the End Of The Rainbow. This could be a leprechaun, glitter, gold , silver, pearls, rhinestones. There are many interpretations, just as long as your card has LOTS OF BLING!"
• Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Green for Go - use green as your MAIN COLOUR
• Bitten By The Bug 2 - Shamrock - Must use a Shamrock cut

So - My card this time is a St. Patrick's Day card, which also happens to be my wedding anniversary. So lots of green, lots of bling, and lots of shamrocks.

I started with a white card blank and cut a window using my Cricut Christmas cartridge. I used my gypsy to only cut the window openings, then I re cut the window in a Core'dintations card stock that is the whitewash over green, so when sanded the green shows through. I also cut a blackout version of the window from vellum. I used my Simply Charmed cartridge and cut out a leprechaun and a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. The background paper is a very soft green (it's really hard to tell in the photo) with lots of tiny Shamrocks on it. Now here's my shamrocks for the BBTB2 challenge - they can tell me if this is acceptable. I used my Flower Shoppe cartridge and cut out the heart flower out of green card stock. I then removed 1 petal for a four leaf clover, or 2 petals for the shamrocks, and glued. I also made some regular heart flowers in a softer green. I wanted dimension and depth.
I put it all together, and added some white frou-frou from my Serenade cartridge and then loaded on the bling. Lots of green rhinestones in two tones, and gold heart rhinestones (it is for my anniversary, after all!) and a little silver shamrock charm. Stamped a March 17th sentiment, popped up with foam dots, the leprechaun is also popped with dots.
I put the pot of gold on the inside of the card, so it shows through the window, and added a sentiment.

Here it is...I love reading your comments so please let me know what you think!

 Close up of the flowers and the Shamrocks.

Close up of the window, showing the rainbow & pot of gold behind.

Here's the inside of the card...

OK - time to get on to other things today. Hope you enjoyed my card.

Thanks to the DTs for the wonderful challenges!

Blessed Be!

Kat

CAS card with sentiment - Christmas

Today I have created a card to enter into 2 challenges - 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, Sketch Challenge # 3 & Craftyhazelnut's Christmas  - Card Challenge #62, Seeing Red.

The sketch at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown was lovely and perfect for me to use up some Christmas ribbon that I have had for some time! The CHNC Seeing Red challenge fit right in with the Christmas ribbon and the paper I found in my stacks.
I also used the Swiss dots cuttlebug folder to emboss the sentiment (to mirror the dots on the paper) after I stamped the sentiment in white.

I really liked the colors and how everything came together.

Here's a closeup of the sentiment. I love the way the embossing mimics the paper.

And here's a closeup of the ribbon and twine.

Thanks to the fabulous design teams for continuing to keep us all inspired with their wonderful challenges!

Blessings!

Kat

Going Buggy: WIN a COMPLETE set of FLEXMARKERS!

Going Buggy: WIN a COMPLETE set of FLEXMARKERS!

Clean and Simple - A Red & Turquoise card

HI all...
I was browsing ideas for my dream craft room (don't laugh, we all have one!!!) and found this really awesome design with turquoise blues and red accents. It is a gorgeous room. I wanted to try and pull that in to my design this week. I have also been dying to use my Forever Young cartridge. In my surfing, I have seen cards with the Mrs. Claus dress and a sentiment - so I came up with my take on this fun, flirty design.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
 Christmas Inspirations - Anything Goes challenge # 41. A big shout out to my new Brazilian Crafting friends!
Through The Craftroom Door - Challenge # 20 - CAS - Include Sentiment. Great challenge! I wasn't sure if the 'ho,ho,ho' counted as a sentiment, so I added the 'Naughty/Nice'. Hope that's OK. :-)

I really love the way the colors go together, and I hope you enjoy this as well...

 As I mentioned, I used my Forever Young Cricut cartridge for the dress. I used a long one, and then cut it down to mini length and shaped the bustier to a sweetheart neckline. I added the belt - I used a gold bead for the 'buckle'.  For the ruffle at the bottom, I used tissues (as in kleenex. Strange I know, but it worked!) layered, then ruffled and fluffed. I cut several black boots, and glued them together to give them some depth. The sentiment is from the 'Opposites Attract' Cricut font cartridge, welded with my Gypsy.
As always, many thanks to the talented DT that put together these great challenges! I appreciate the time and effort and love playing along.

Blessings!
Kat

Color Throwdown Challenge # 178

I love searching the web for new ideas, blogs and challenges. Last week at lunch, I came across the Color Throwdown blog. I immediately loved this week's challenge, Color Throwdown # 178. The rich earthy colors and the lacy, feminine look of the cake in the photo inspiration really appealed to me. I searched through my stacks, and found that I had the required colors, so I decided to play along. I think it turned out very well.

I started with a 'Vanilla' card, and used my Cricut Damask Decor cartridge for the background and the butterfly - I wanted to try and duplicae that flowing, lacy look of the cake. For the background, I used CoreDinations form the Chocolate Box collection, which has an orange 'Cajun Craze' type color when it's distressed. The paper Tag is from the Ashlyn's Alphabet Cartridge, stamped with a basic sentiment - I wanted something clean and simple to offset all the frou-frou. Still loving making my own roses, so created a lovely 'Vanilla' rose and bud, using an 'Early Espresso' type color for the leaves. And of course aded in some frou-frou - 'Summer Sun' Baby's breath and a scrap of ribbon I've had for some time. I decided to forego any extra bling - so no glitter or pearls this time!

Super Big thanks to the DT @ The Color Throwdown for the wonderful challenge...I certainly wouldn't have thought to design with those colors, but am glad I did.

Blessings!

Kat

Blue & White Challenge (x2)

Another week, another challenge. 
I had such a good time following the Winter Wonderland challenge last week, I decided to try another challenge (or 2) this week. I selected Crafting for All Seasons - #19 Color Challenge - Blue & White and Winter Wonderland  also Blue & White.
Be sure check them out here:
Crafting for All Seasons - #19 - Color Challenge, Blue & White
Winter Wonderland - Blue and White Challenge

The idea for both is to create a card using ONLY blue and white.

I was really loving the window cutout I used last week, and am still having fun playing around with creating textured flowers using my Cricut Flower Shoppe cartridge.
So, started with a card with a lovely scalloped edge (Another Michael's $1 bin find!!!).
I cut out the window, using Cricut Christmas cartridge, altered to cut only the window openings using my Gypsy. After cutting the window opening, I ran this through the cuttlebug using a QuickCutz folder, from the 'Whimsy' set. I added blue glitter dots to the embossing on the card.
I then cut the same window out of white cardstock, and then a third blackout version out of vellum.
I cut out a bunch of Poinsettia looking petals form glitter blue and soft blue cardstock. I assembled the flowers similar to the rose tutorial I shared from Selma's blog last week. (Check last week's post for the link)
I cut some Holly leaves from the Cricut Winter Wandering cartridge on white glitter cardstock, and some berry frou-frou from ultra glitter blue cardstock.
Finally, I cuts some small snowflakes from the Cricut Christmas cartridge. And a sentiment from a DCWV winter theme card stack.
I layered everything on the card and added a bit of transparent blue ribbon. I used foam dots on the sentiment, and clear dots on the snowflakes for added dimension.
I felt it was missing something, so I added the cute stamped Santa behind the window, stamped in blue ink. It added a bit of whimsy, don't you think?
Anyway, here it is:

The second picture has this weird blue cast for some reason, but you can see the glitter a bit better.

As always, many thanks to the fabulous DT @ Crafting for All Seasons and Winter Wonderland for continuing to bring us these wonderful challenges.
Blessings!
Kat

Swirls and Pearls Challenge entry

I love to surf the web for inspiration for my cards and I came across this lovely blog: Selma's Stamping Corner http://selmasstampingcorner.blogspot.com/2010/07/bloom-where-you-are-planted-plus.html . There I found a fabulous tutorial on how to make paper roses. I had to try it! It is a bit time consuming, probably because it's still new - but SO worth the effort. I have to share.

I decide to find a challenge where I could use this new technique. I went with Winter Wonderland - Swirls & Pearls challenge. http://christmasblogchallenge.blogspot.com/2012/01/swirls-and-pearls.html . The challenge was to create a card using swirls and pearl embellishments.

This week is not a Christmas Card, so I decided to make a Valentine Card. I felt that would fit perfectly with the roses I created. I was also inspired by Selma's use of white on white with loads of texture and detail, so I thought I would try that also. I think everything came together beautifully.

• I created a 5 x 5 card from my Cricut Wild Card cartridge.
• I then cut out a window from the center of the card using the Cricut Christmas cartridge - altered with my Gypsy to just cut the window openings.
• I then re-cut the shape on white cardstock, unaltered.
• I embossed the top portion of the card with my Quickcutz floral embossing folder - Rose. I felt the roses went well with the paper roses, and the centers have a lovely swirl shape to them.
• I cut some embellishments swirls from the Cricut Home decor cartridge, and some floral Baby's Breath from Cricut Serenade cartridge (both in white cardstock) and added a bunch of pearls.
• I then layered everything, using foam squares to give some height and 'oomph' to my embellishments.
• I have this super cute stamp, I think from the $1 bin at Michael's (can't beat that, right???). I added this to the un-embossed section at the bottom of the card, and heat embossed with a translucent red pearl powder. I love how the X's have little swirls on them, fits right with the theme.

I specifically did not add a sentiment to the inside, as I am not sure who the recipient is going to be yet...

OK, so here you have it. The first picture shows the whole card, and the second is an attempt to show just the the detail of the stamp - a bit blurry though.

As always, many many thanks to the talented desing teams that give me constant inspiration for my cardmaking. And a super big thanks to Selma for posting the wonderful rose tutorial.

Blessings!

Kat

New year - New challenges!

I haven't entered a challenge for some time now, I hve been focusing on the 'Operation Write Home' cards I have been working on...
So, now it's a new year, and I wanted to start it off with entering a challenge, or two (or 4 !).

I made this card for my mother's birthday - I wanted to do something that was both elaborate and unusual for me. I used the following challenges as inspiration...

Patties creations challenge # 35 - Fancy Folds. Create a card using fancy folding techniqes.
I have never done a gate fold card, so I decided to try this technique. I actually really like the way it turned out, and will definitely use this technique again!

Polkadoodle week 2 challenge - Retro/Vintage. Create a card with a vintage or Retro theme.
This was my main inspiration. I received some lovely new paper stacks from K & Company for Christmas, that have a lovely Victorian rose and coordinating patterns. One of the papers had a lovely 'Mom' sentiment, and it incorporated perfectly. Again, really, really pleased with the way it all came together.

Cooking With Cricut - Challenge # 67 - Something New. Use something new, that you just got, and incorporate a Cricut cut.
I used a couple of things that I got for Christmas - My new papers (as mentioned above) as well as my brand new "Flower Shop' cartridge. Love it!!! After a few false starts, I got the hang of making paper flowers. I love the 'Sunflower' cut, and used this for all the flowers on the card. I love the way the end up looking kind of like straw flowers. I will be using the cartridge a lot, I think. :)

Christmas Blog Challenge - Birthday Wishes. This week didn't have to be a Christmas Themed card, just a birthday card.
As I mentioned, this was created for my Mother's birthday. (Sure hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it!) I intentionally left the inside with only the sentiment, as I wanted room to write (My mom is living in another city).

So - that's it. Big thanks to all the challenge sites for continuing to provide the inspiration to try new and interesting projects. sketches and techniques!!

Best Wishes!
Kat