Bright Birthday

This is totally different from my usual style of card. I usually stay away from putting too many bright colors together, but there was a challenge on the Cricut message board to use blue, orange and red together, so I gave it a whirl. I just bought the Taj Mahal Stack from DCWV and used the blue from that stack for the card base. The orange flourish is glitter cardstock cut with the Cricut from Storybook, and the flower in red and pink was cut from one of the patterned papers in the Taj Mahal stack. I used a Fiskars border punch for the red strip down the left side of the card. Inside I used the same red paper for the background, cut a scal;loped circle in blue and in white with the Cricut, and stamped and doodled the sentiment. I used another smaller flower cut from the Taj Mahal paper too. I like how it came out.
Danielle

Big, Exciting News!

A few evenings agoI took a message off the answering machine for Kristen. It was for her to call someone from a college she had applied to and interviewed with for a place in their graduate school for Physical Therapy. Of course she called them immediately. A few minutes later I saw her crying and I thought she had been rejected. Imagine my surprise when Rachel said, "No, she's been accepted there." She was crying with relief and happiness! She proceeded to phone her dad, who was still at work and then her fiance. She also called my parents, but she was too late...her dad had already been making some calls of his own and had spilled the beans! She is totally thrilled that she has been accepted at this school, even though it is not her first choice. She is still waiting for calls from several other schools she has interviewed with, but isn't agonizing anymore, as she has been the past week or two!

Yeah Rachel!

Our youngest daughter, Rachel received an award at school, so I made her a congratulations card, just for fun. It's small (only about 3.5 inches) because I cut up a piece of packaging to make the acrylic base. The school colors are purple and gold so that was my starting point. The award is called a Star award (Success Through Academic Recognition), so I had my theme, and here's the card. Amy told me Rachel will now believe she's my favorite child. (All of them try to get me to say that they are my favorite or else accussing me of favoring another one. LOL)
Danielle

Birthday card

I bought some new paper and had to use some! The black and white paper is from DCWV La Creme Stack. The bright pink is from K & Co. Smitten stack and the light pink is from another K & Co. stack. The butterfly and the shape that the sentiment is on are cut with the Cricut from Indie Arts and Storybook cartridges. Inside I used the same cut to hand write my sentiment on, just in a larger size. I added some stickles to the antenae of the butterfly and also for it's eyes. I used the Fiskars threading water punch and put the ribbon through in just 2 slots beside the bow to keep it in place. The ribbon is from my stash. I like how this one turned out. I like the contast between the black, white and pink.
Danielle

Happy Valentine's Day

Well, Ron and I were going to go out to dinner tonight for Valentine's Day, but I picked up a virus and I'm not going anywhere! Getting sick sure does put a kink in the plans, but we'll just go another time. I had a few bites of breakfast, a piece of toast for lunch and have been resting and drinking lots of tea. At least I have a beautiful tea pot and a lovely mug for my tea! I haven't made any cards for the last few days, but I have been giving them away! Mother and Daddy had their Anniversary yesterday and Ron took my card and some flowers to them-I already wasn't feeling well, so I didn't go along. My friend Ginny came up for lunch on Thursday (her birthday) and I gave her one of the birthday cards I made and the Valentine's Day card with the chocolates on the front. Now I need to get busy and make some more, but I think it will wait 'til I feel a little better. Maybe I'll knit something this afternoon! Hope you have a great day today!

I bought some clear stamps a few months ago and haven't used all of them yet, so I dug this set out and made this card for a member of the diet group at our church. I used colored pencils and baby oil to blend the color after I stamped with Staz-On black ink. I really have to look into getting more colors of the Staz-On inks. They always come out so nice! The papers are from Miss Elizabeth, and I used pale green decorative accents, aka "skittles". The scalloped circle is cut with the Cricut from Mini Monograms, the green strip I used edging scissors, white circle cut with Cricut also.


Here's the inside-


These are 2 b-day cards I made with the same paper. It's from DCWV, "Sweet" stack. The celebrate cut, it's your day and the cake are from the Cricut Celebrations cartridge. The enjoy, star and ampersand are cut with the "Slice". I borrowed the "slice" for a week and was not terribly impressed. I like the Cricut much better. The "Slice" is very small, lightweight and portable, but it just doesn't have the range of capabilities that the Cricut does. I used Stickles on both of the cards and the Cuttlebug was used to emboss the cake before the Stickle were applied.
Danielle

Musings

I look at cards that other people have made and just love some of the different techniques they use or their designs, but when I look at my own cards I see the flaws, the things I could have done differently, or I second guess my choice of papers, colors, patterns, etc. I'm actually drawn to very simple designs and minimalist looks, but when I try to make a card like that I feel like it's just lacking pizazz. Anyway, I made 2 cards this evening, and although I think I did OK with both of them, I don't think either one of them achieved what I was really hoping for. The first one is a Valentine, papers from my stash, "love" cut with the Cricut from the Opposites Attract cartridge, hearts from both Cricut and the "Slice" a digital cutting machine from Making Memories (TM). The stamp is one I picked up at ACMoore a few years ago in the dollar bin, and it's one of my favorite Valentine stamps.





The second one is a sympathy card. The paper is K & Co. and it's from a stack called "Smitten". It's got some gorgeous papers! The butterfly cut is a Cuttlebug die and is also embossed. I used markers on it too. I used the Martha Stewart lace edge punch, a Cricut cut (the oval), sentiment stamps from Clearly Wordsworth and some swirly stamps from Autumn Leaves.
Danielle

Valentine Chocolates

I got a few new Studio G stamps recently and this sentiment is one of my favorites. The paper and ribbon is from my stash, the chocolates are Sizzix dies. I added glossy accents to the chocolates and used my Fiskars Threading Water punch. I really like how the chocolates came out.
Danielle

Altered drywall heart

When my husband built my craft room last year he cut out a heart from the drywall he cut for the windows. He was just joking around, but I decided to alter it and use it to help decorate my new room. I covered it with paper from my stash, added the word "love", cut with the Cricut, silk and paper flowers, stickles and ribbon.

Altered Clipboard

I only started my blog a month ago and have been posting my recent cards, but I decided I'd like to put a few things on I made a while ago. I altered this clipboard in the summer. Kristen was cleaning out old school supplies and was going to put this in the trash. I dug it out and altered it for Rachel. Then Kristen decided she wanted it back! LOL I told her I'd make her one too, but I haven't done it yet. Maybe that's a project for next week.
Here are the before pictures-





And here are the after pictures. I used papers from K & Co. Sparkly Sweet stack and DCWV Metallic stack. The letters for the name and the crown were cut with the Cricut Alphalicious cartridge. I added some Stickles and some ribbon, too.