Photo Friday- Moments to Remember

I've had a busy week at school so I haven't been in my craft room much this week.  Even though I didn't get any cards or layouts done I did remember to take a few photos of the everyday around our home.  As my boys have gotten older I realize that I don't take as many pictures of them as I used to.  Life is busy and the things they do I guess I just take for granted.  One of my resolutions this year was to take more photos of those everyday moments.  Even if it only happens once or twice a month at least I have captured a little of their lives at this age.  Whether it's doing homework (I love their facial expressions), re-lacing a pair of tennis shoes, playing a game of Battleship, playing on the Innotab in pjs or watching a movie with their second cousins these little moments are ones I want to remember.  Someday I'll be glad I took these photos and I hope you enjoy looking at them.  Thanks for stopping!

   

Photo Friday- Odds and Ends

I've been doing great with my resolution to create more but not so great at taking more photos.  One step at a time I guess.  I was finally able to upload the photos that were on my camera and get some organizing done on my computer.  I realized that I didn't get a few other Christmas photos up (mom and dad these are mainly for you).  So here are a few photos from Christmas, a birthday, and a band concert.  Thanks for stopping. 

Thanks to our oldest for taking this photo of us.  

Celebrate! Card for Core'dinations Challenge

As I was browsing Pinterest this morning I came across a challenge from Core'dinations to use this sketch and Core'dinations paper.      

 

 Of course I decided to play along.  Here is what I came up with!

I have a ton of Core'dinations cardstock and it seems like I'm always 'saving' it for a special project.  I really need to pull it out more.  It's so fun to use and there are so many things you can do with it.  (Note to self).  I love how this card turned out using it!!  Here is a close up of the sentiment.  I love that I didn't have to use any stamps to put the greeting on this card.  So easy!

I've had this embossing folder set for over 6 months and haven't used it.  I love the candles and think these will be fun to use on other cards and layouts.This card is a 6x6 card which is larger than cards I normally do but it turned out so great I'm sure whoever receives it will love it.  

I'll leave you with a few more closeups.  I used Diamond Stickles on the the stars to add some sparkle. So fun and easy!

A little cluster of enamel dots adds just a little more fun to this already fun card.

 I hope you enjoyed this card as much as I enjoyed making it.  Thanks for stopping!

Supplies:

• cardstock- Core'dinations (Scarlet, Aqueduct, Tulip, Nostalgia), misc
• patterned paper- My Mind's Eye (Boy Crazy)
• embossing folders- Darice (Birthday 3 pack)
• misc- sanding block, dimensional adhesive, Ranger (Stickles-Diamond), My Mind's Eye (Tangerine "Together" Enamel Dots)

Valentine's Day Cards

This could be a record for me.  Three blog posts in one week!  I have been creating a lot so I want to share as much as I can.  Not every week will be this filled with sharing but I do hope to continue to create on a more regular basis. 

Today's post is a little different.  I don't normally make Valentine's Day cards but since it's coming up I wanted to share some fun card ideas.  I also wanted to challenge myself using my Cricut and that's where today's post arose.  Using my Cricut and the Wild Card cartridge I wanted to see how many cards I could make using only these two shapes: a heart cluster and a heart frame.  I actually created 5 cards using only these two diecuts!  Let me show you what I came up with.  

These first two cards are very similar and I had the idea for these when I chose my shapes to cut.  I lightly adhered the heart cluster to my card base and sprayed it lightly with Glimmer Mist.  This gave me a sprayed heart cluster to use on one card and a blank cluster on the card I sprayed on. 

I then grabbed a stamp and heat embossed it using clear embossing powder.  I then sprayed over both sentiments (one lightly and one heavily) to get the different looking effects.  I also cut them differently and dry embossed one of the cards.  I covered the heart cluster on the left card with Glossy Accents to add some dimension.  Two simple cards from one diecut. 

This next card is my personal favorite that I created.  I took all of the heart shapes (there were four sizes in all) and inked each one a different shade of pink/red creating an ombre effect.  I then stitched them to the front of a piece of cardstock and adhered this to my card base.  A cute sentiment in the corner and this card is done. 

For the next card I actually used the piece of paper that I cut the shapes from as a stencil. 

I started by sponging a heart in the center of my paper with my darkest purple ink.  I then moved my 'stencil' and inked a heart on either side of the dark heart with the next lightest color of ink.  I moved the 'stencil' again and inked hearts in the lightest color of ink.  I just love that ombre look.  I added some punched border strips, a sentiment, and some white dots with my gel pen and card  four is complete!

This last card is my husband's favorite.  I stamped and embossed the dancing figures on the right side of a piece of cardstock using a mask to cover my sentiment area.  I also stamped and embossed the sentiment.  I then sponged over the whole piece with Tattered Rose and Aged Mahogany Distress Ink.  After wiping the ink off the stamped image I cut the piece down to fit on a card base and added a piece of spare ribbon.  I also stitched on the heart frame to highlight my sentiment.  I adhered this to the card base and it's finished! 

So there you have it.  Five different cards using only two different shapes from my Cricut!  This was a fun challenge for me.  I love that I only had to cut shapes once and was able to create five cards.  It's always fun to think out of the box.  I hope you'll try this the next time you are in a creative mood.  Thanks for stopping. 

Supplies:

• cardstock- misc
• stamps- Close to My Heart (Seasonal Celebration D1112), Hero Arts (CL582), Uptown Rubber Stamps (Spiral Love), Paper Inspirations (Vertical Romance)
• inks- Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Tattered Rose, Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry, Barn Door, Aged Mahogany, Victorian Velvet, Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord), Memories Dye Inkpad (Black), Versamark (Watermark)
• Cricut cartridge- Wild Card
• embossing powder- Ranger (Holographic, Super Fine Clear)
• tools- We R Memory Keepers (Sew Easy), American Crafts (Knock Outs border punch)
• embossing folder- Cuttlebug (Polka Dots)
• misc- dimensional adhesive, Ranger (Glossy Accents), Tattered Angels (Glimmer Mist-Cranberry Zing), Signo Broad pen (White), ribbon

  

Robot Birthday Card

If you follow me on Facebook then you saw a little peek of this card last week.  Thanks for being a 'fan' of my page.  If you haven't 'liked' my Facebook page you really should.  I share videos and products that I think would be great for scrapbooking.  I also share little peeks of upcoming cards that I am creating and sometimes share cards that don't make it up here on the blog.  You don't want to miss out so click on the Facebook link on the right of this post and 'like' my page.  You'll be glad you did.  Now on to today's card.

My oldest son had a birthday party to go to so I needed to make a card.  We are entering those preteen ages of 10-12 and I wanted to make a card that would be fun yet still appeal to an 11 year old boy.  I think this card did it.  I knew I wanted to use the robot and I also adore this color combination so I pulled out some patterned paper and got to work.  I stamped the robot in Versamark Watermark ink, covered it with silver embossing powder, and heat embossed it.  Then I colored in the areas I wanted colored with some colored pencils (you could also use markers).  He's just so cute!  I also stamped and embossed the bolts on the corners.  

The rest of the card was super easy to put together.  As I mentioned I love this 'primary' color combination that is just a little different.  The turquoise blue and not quite true red go great with the bold yellow.  In fact I love this combination so much that I created my own 'paper kit' of sorts on a shopping trip.  I picked up some patterned papers that had these three colors together in some fun patterns and then went through the store grabbing paper in those same colors only they were one solid color and had smaller patterns.  I also grabbed letter stickers in these colors and keep them all together in a bag so when I want to use this combination I don't have to search for anything!  I love how all of these colors work together even though they are from different paper lines.  I put the robot piece on dimensional adhesive to give him a little more emphasis.  I also added some grey pigment ink around the patterned paper pieces.  I used this same ink to stamp the sentiment and heat embossed it using clear embossing powder. 

That's it!  A super easy and simple card to pull together that I think any boy would love to receive.  I'll leave you with a few more photos of this cute little robot.  I just can't get enough of him.  Thanks for stopping!

 Don't you just love the way he shines?!

 

Supplies:

• cardstock- Wausau Paper (Astrobrights Glisten)
• patterned paper- My Mind's Eye (Boy Crazy), Basic Grey (Hipster)
• stamps- My Mind's Eye (Boy Crazy), Stampin' Up!
• ink- Versamark (Watermark), Studio G
• embossing powder- American Crafts Zing! (Silver Metallic Finish), Ranger (Super Fine Clear)
• misc- dimensional adhesive, EK Success (Memory Pencils)

Paint Splatter Plaid Birthday Card

I have another plaid card for you today.  Have I told you how much I LOVE this stamp set?!  It is so fun to use.  Today's card is a card I made for my dad for his birthday.  I needed a one layer card so that I could easily send it in the mail.  Here is what I came up with. 

Let me share how I made this card.  I knew that I wanted an area to stamp my sentiment amid all of the plaid.  I also wanted to try a new technique so I stamped the paint splatter where I wanted it on my card base with Versamark ink, covered it with clear embossing powder, and heat set it.

Next, I used some masking paper (you could also you post it notes) to section off the piece of the card that I wanted to be plaid.  Using some Tim Holtz Distress Ink I inked the whole area inside the masking paper.  This gives me a color to build my plaid on and will also let the ink splatter show through in the final steps.

I then selected my ink colors and decided which plaid stamps to use.  Since this is going to my dad I wanted masculine colors.  I love the look of red, navy, and grey so these were the colors I chose.  I recently made this ink swatch ring and absolutely love it!!  It makes matching colors so easy.  I'll share soon how I made this and why I have two different types of cards on it.   

Then it was time to start stamping.  I started with the grey and made diagonal stripes all along the card where I wanted them.  You could also do vertical or horizontal stripes but I love the look of the diagonal stripe.

Once those stripes were in place I got out my next colors and stamped them along the top and bottom of the grey stripe.  This created my 'pattern' for the card.   It was so easy to line up the second and third colors because I already had the grey stripes down.  Using clear blocks also make this super easy. 

Once the pattern is complete it's time to turn the paper and do the same steps the opposite way.

Your final image should be a great plaid pattern.

Now comes the fun part.  Using a baby wipe I wiped the ink off of the embossed paint splatter.  I then used my iron to remove the embossing powder to leave my paint splatter just paper.  To do this just take a sheet of plain paper and set it over your embossed image.  Using an iron set on a medium setting go over the paper.  The iron will heat the embossing powder and it will stick to the plain paper making the image that you embossed the original paper again!  What a fun technique.  Because this paint splatter was a little distressed some of the ink went through but that is totally OK.  I love the way it looks. 

Now you can remove your masking paper and see what your card looks like.  This is my favorite part!  I'm always amazed at how awesome it looks.

Then I stamped the sentiment in the blank area (using StazOn ink just in case any embossing powder remained) and my card is done!

 I hope you enjoyed this fun one layer card.  Thanks for stopping!

Supplies:

• ink- Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Antique Linen), Close to My Heart (Outdoor Denim), Momento Dew Drop Ink (Rhubarb Stalk, London Fog), Tsukineko StazOn (Jet Black), Versamark (Watermark)
• stamps- Close to My Heart (Seasonal Celebrations D1112), My Favorite Things (Plaid Background Builder), Hero Arts (Brush Strokes)
• embossing powder- Ranger (Super Fine Clear)
• misc- masking paper