Heritage ATC Swap

The April ATC swap theme is ancestors or family heritage. I decided to use the wedding photo of my parents.

I was introduced to a new web site that has digital images for sale. I wanted to see if I could figure out how to use them and for $1 I didn't think I would be out too much if it didn't work. The site is : http://www.twistedpapers.com/home.html This is the image I downloaded.

I'm not too handy working with digital, and finally was able to weld the scanned photo of my parents and the downloaded digital image in the Power Point program. I wish I had been able to figure out inserting the photo and keeping the flowers inside the frame.

After printing the ATC card, I used Prisma pencils and the gamsol technique to add a little peach to the tree flowers and yellow to the flowers around the bottom.

Word book

This weekend Daughter came home from college and wanted to make gifts for her friends that are seniors and will be leaving this spring. I wish I had taken a picture of the "L" she covered for her friend's wall--maybe she will take a picture and send it to me.

But, she also wanted to make a name word book for "L's" sister Jamie. I LOVE designing books in Cricut Designer Studio and this was no hardship to help. I used George for the rectangle base and Stamped for the letters using the smooth edge feature. I did adjust the letters a little to make them fatter.

The book is first cut from chipboard (thank you Joyce). Daughter was looking for a set of papers to use so everything would coordinate. She looked through her supply, then my supply and just didn't see what she wanted. Then I broke down and showed her BasicGrey Kioshi. Well, suffice it to say I need to go shopping for myself again. Daughter had not put pictures or embellishments on yet. I didn't have time to photo every page as she needed to pack to get back to school, so this is the only photo I took:

Project 365 - Week 3

I think I need to work on my journaling. I really do have more that two word thoughts about the pictures.

Cartridges used for journaling - I'll have to get back to you--I don't remember.

Okay--here they are: Amaryllis--part of flower from Tinkerbell, computer and bookstack from Cursive 101, cloud from Going Places, megaphone from Everday Paper Dolls and stairway from A Child's Year.

Project 365 - Week 2

It's taking me a long while to get my scrap pages done. Getting photos printed seems to be what's holding me up. I am having fun finding Cricut cuts for my journaling. This is the second full week of January.

Cartridges used for the journaling spots: the amaryllis is a portion of a flower from Tinkerbell, Hoops from Sports Mania, pot and breakfast are on From My Kitchen, portrait is the inside of the apple of A Child's Year and the dog is from Paper Pups.

Cooper Word Book

A couple of weeks ago when I visited Leslie, I worked on a word book. I love designing, cutting and assembling these books using Cricut Design Studio. This one is for my hairdresser's dog. It started as a picture of the day and then I decided every time I go to hairapy (Pat's lingo) I would take another picture of Cooper, the dog. His first picture was taken when he was 10 weeks old, so I plan to record his first year.

I love the papers. Most of them are from the Playful Pets paper pack from ki Memories and some have foil. I also found some papers to match from The Paper Company Studio. The bone paper is glittery. The letters are from Base Camp as is the rectangle that I used for the base. My pal Leslie put the dots on the letters with direction from Sherrie--really a group project!

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March COM - Mauve with Movement

Sister Leslie and Friends Joyce and Sherrie thought I should do this complicated card for movement. Obviously it was a case of they didn't want to and "Mikey will do it." Well, I did think about it very briefly.


http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/popuptwirl/


However, I went with the flip flop card again. The paper is My Mind's Eye, Bohemia line, Bliss "Darling Daughter" floral/pink. The Medallion stamp is from a $1 clear stamp set. The Thinking of You sentiment is from the Close to My Heart Gracious Greetings set.

Jewel ATC swap

After Christmas, in an effort to spend my Archivers gift card (LOL) I was wandering about the store and found some great jewel flowers in the $1.99 hot spot area. It hit me right away that these would be perfect for my jewel ATC. A little digging and I was able to find 5 different colors: light pink, dark pink, light green, blue and lavender.

I thought I had the perfect stamp with stems and leaves at home but it wasn't even close to what I needed. So, I dug through the one or two (ha) stamps that I have and decided flourishes could be stems. For an unknown reason, I have lots of different colors of green ink pads, so I experimented with the colors and the stamps to create a garden.

I love the jewels because they are sparkly and they are not glitter.

February COM - Seafoam with String

My designers choice, January, COM, was Jade with Jute. Ummm, sounds very like this month's theme so it was a little challenging not to just make the same card.

As a shipper for the Cards for Soldiers project, I get to see everyone creations. They are all so wonderful. One gal used cricut markers on her Animal Kingdom cuts, and I really liked the way they defined those decorative/defining cuts you can't see. You know what I mean? So, I purchased one set from Scrappersmusthaves.com which had the best price I found on the internet. I gave them a try with dinosauers from Paper Dolls.

The blue dino just seems to be looking at something above his head--maybe some birthday balloons? So, he was the inspiration for my card. AND I used all supplies I had on hand (well, after I purchased the cricut markers). The numbered paper is Basic Grey, Brigham, from the Oh Baby! Boy line. Dino and his darker spots underneath are Bazzill dotted swiss papers.

The balloons were cut from a Making Memories cardstock pad of basic colors. I used good ole George for the yellow and orange balloons and Stretch Your Imagination for the purple. Close to my Heart white daisy stamp was used to ink the edges. I stamped "happy birthday" with the set of stamps "Seasonal Thoughts" from Close to My Heart. The string is DMC Perle Cotton. Okay--TMI??

If you stare hard and squint your eyes just a little, you can imagine that the green is seafoam.

Dustin Pike Girlie Dragon Challenge - Take 2

I didn't really like the first card I made for this challenge, so I tried again. My inspiration is the amazing work done by Cindy and shown on her blog: http://royalthings.blogspot.com/ Again, it was fun using supplies I had, especially the water drops that I knew I needed but didn't know why. Hope you like this one better also.

Dustin Pike Girlie Dragon Challenge

I rarely do challenges but thought this one could be fun. I used some supplies I had never used before so that was certainly worth it! I used the birthday and the diamond plate cuttlebug embossing folders. The punch is a Fiskars. Used my Making Memories alphabet stamps and 6 of my thousands of flowers!!

Coffee?

I had the "From My Kitchen" cart out and decided to make the coffee pot that was the deciding factor in me purchasing the cart. Well, sort of. So, I made two pots, put them on ready-made cards, inserting a little money and off they will go to college students for a little treat. I've been meaning to do that for a couple of months...

The First Robins of Spring

This is obviously not something I have created, but I love those first Robins of Spring. These are perched in the neighbor's tulip tree, which I see has buds! Spring just has to be around the corner.

Project 365 - first full week of January

I finished my first two page photo layout. I was having trouble finding paper in my stash that would go behind all 7 photos without clashing. Leslie decided that she was going to use a neutral background paper in her 365 book and I decided that was the best idea yet. So, I'm scraplifting from Leslie and I am going to use Kraft paper (which I actually already had). Some of the paper has subtle designs which I like.

I have enjoyed trying to come up with my journaling cards using Cricut cartridge designs. It's a great way for me to meet the cartridge challenge. I love that car--it is from Graphically Speaking. The flower is from Tinkerbell, the snowman from Christmas Cheer (I was a little worried how I would use that cartridge) and the basketball is from Sports Mania. The other exciting item I used was the sequin snowflakes. They could probably be considered antiques, they have been around so long.

I will work on photographing the layouts. Definitely needs help.

Sewing - February ATC Swap

Here is another one of those projects where I started with one idea and ended up somewhere else. I used to quilt before papercrafts took over my room. So, I decided for the sewing-themed ATC I would like to incorporate some quilting project. I had purchased a Seminole Patchwork book (quite a few years ago) and thought that would be good for an ATC.

Well, I think I am a little out of practice in the sewing area. Geez.

Then back to the drawing board. I was able to locate "paint" on my computer without my kids' help and drew a tulip quilt block. I colored it in, printed it and then practiced sewing on paper.

Finally--finished card. It's okay, but maybe I need to get that sewing machine working a little more often!

Covered box

I wanted to give some hand made cards to a friend's mother but wanted something prettier than a zip bag to put them in. As a shipper for the Cards for Soldiers project, I get a lot of packages. One gal, Joan, makes her own boxes for shipping. I'm a saver--aren't we all. So, I used one of her boxes and covered it.

This was the first I time I had covered a box and what I discovered was putting paper on the in and out of the sides for both the top and bottom makes the fit snug. So, I used the crop-o-dile to add a piece of ribbon with an eyelet to the bottom to help in opening the box. The "T" is from the Storybook Cricut cartridge. I just love the bird that is cut from Indie Art. On the final version, which I did not take a picture of, I put a dull yellow as the top layer of the bird. Just thought it needed a little more color.

This is some of my favorite paper. The flower print is from Anna Griffin. The lavender is from K&Company. I purchased quite a few sheets and have used it to alter several different items including this notebook that I write swap info in and a few other things I don't want to forget.

January, 2010 COM

The Card of the Month swap starts off the year with designers choice. Mine is Jade with Jute.

I'm pretty excited about the card. I used my brand new cuttlebug embossing folder entitled Journaling and also used two stamps from my "collection" that I had never used. The flower image with colored with Prisma pencils. I wasn't wild about the white around the edges, but I had a limited supply of the color paper I needed. The paper was a giveaway at an Archivers swap by Bazzill Basics. The line is Fourz and these sheets are from the Mossy Green collection.

Project 365 - Introduction

I'm off and running with my Project 365. The thing that is slowing me down is waiting for photos. I would prefer to print my own but I need a little more practice so I'm not wasting ink and paper. In the meantime, I'm "sending" them off to Shutterfly on a free 50 photo Archiver's deal. This is my title page. I needed Leslie and daughter to help with (well, really to do) the flowers.

Page 2 is a calendar that shows the whole year. I'm excited that I used the fancy cut paper and some Grungeboard that I HAD to have and have now finally used.

My first page shows Friday and Saturday photos. I'm going to begin my weeks starting on Sundays and ending on Saturdays. This page got me ready to start a full week with a 2 page layout. Right now, I'm having fun making my journaling cards match the subject. I'm finding all kinds of images to cut with my cricut. Who knew everything I could possibly want is on the cartridges I already own!

Crackle ATC swap

The January ATC swap theme was crackle. I wanted to try the heavy embossing powder method. I did locate some Melt Art brand Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel at Michael's. I looked at Archivers and Joann's first and didn't see anything similar there although I may just have missed it.

I was thinking of the brown ware pottery when I started the project. Here is an example of what I mean by brown ware. I believe there are many interpretations on what it is.

I used the Inkadinkadoo Mindscape hummingbird stamp with Color Box Brown ink. I believe it is the first ink pad I owned and Leslie gave it to me. (See what she started...) I inked the edges and lightly on the front. The card on the left in the picture is before I started adding the UTEE. I put 3 coats of UTEE on the cards. It was fun to watch, sort of like melting puddles of water. I may have held the heat gun on the card a little long and that is why it is darker, however, it accidently made the card look exactly like I wanted. I put the card in the freezer for a few minutes and then crackled them. I ran the ink pad over the crackles to make them more noticable and rubbed off the excess ink, which also darkened the card.

Tangerine with Tears COM

December's Card of the Month theme was Tangerine with Tears. I had seen some Basic Grey paper in the Ambrosia line that I thought would work perfectly and I loved the orange and grey papers. First I had to locate some because it is an older product and I didn't have any. Finally found some on the internet and had to order 3 - 6 x 6 stacks just to make sure I had enough. (insert sheepish look here) The orientation of this card is supposed to be portrait.

My daughter didn't think anyone would know what it was, so changed the card to open in landscape form. I was pleased with the finished card.

Gift cards

Just wanted to post the last three flip flop cards I make to send Archivers gift cards to Leslie and friends. Used some Basic Grey that I had and the middle one is from the latest Christmas Basic Grey line-Eskimo Kisses.