Sunflowers Make Me Happy

Spring is here, and with Spring comes all of the flowers! My Dad loves working in the yard, and planting flowers, and that has rubbed off onto his kids as well! I love flowers and can't wait to plant a few myself. My card today features a flower that always makes me smile. Maybe it's the golden yellow, or the size of the flower, but whatever it is the sunflower is just a cheerful flower! I cut out my sunflower using SCAL, My Cricut Expression and a file I found online. The sentiment is from the Stampin' Up clear mount set "Whimsical Words". I used two different border punches, the scallop punch from SU, and an EK Success punch that I have never used on a card before. It reminds me of swiss cheese, but I LOVE the way it looks on my card! The ribbon is from Hobby Lobby, and the Button by Making Memories. I used my SU chalks to chalk the edges of the sunflower petals. I think it gives the flower definition.

This week is button week here on my blog, and I am giving away a lot of 90 multi colored buttons! You can read about it here: Button Blog Candy Thank you for visiting my blog today!

{Something Different}

You would think that since I have a son I would make cards more often that feature "boy" stuff like frogs, bugs, and trains! Well, I had this card in mind and finally got around to finishing it, and posting it. This Tri-Fold card features the adorable Stampin' Up Set "Choo Choo", and the matching train track wheel "Right on Track". The thing I love most about Choo Choo is that is stamps in a solid color, and no additional coloring is required! I used last years SU In-Colors for the train, and all of the card stock. The cute snow capped mountains in the background, and the lettering were made using SCAL, and my Cricut Expression. Have I mentioned lately how much I love that machine?! Well, I DO! This was a fun card to make, but it took awhile. Now I just need to find someone to send it to! Anyone out there having a boy?

Lazy Saturday Afternoon

I am sitting here with the cool breeze blowing enjoying this beautiful spring day and I hope you are enjoying this day as well! I LOVE this time of year when everything starts to green up, and the spring flowers start blooming, and that is where the inspiration came from for the card I am posting today! I am in the process of un-mounting most of my retired Stampin' Up! stamp sets and have found that I am reaching for them more often now that they are easier to use! That being said I dusted off my retired SU set "Butterfly of Happiness" and inked up for the first time in a lonnnnng time. I used SU More Mustard to stamp the sentiment, and the Butterfly is clear embossed with clear powder, and SU More Mustard Craft ink. The butterfly DP is from KI Memories and the other odds and ends were just embellies that I had on hand. The layered card stock that my sentiment is stamped on was made using my Cricut, and SCAL software. LOVE my SCAL program. =0) The pearls I used on my card today were a gift from Rebecha (Garagesale Diva). Thanks my friend! I hope that all of you have had a great Saturday! Thank you for visiting my blog!

{A Card For a Friend}

I have had a wonderful weekend and I am sad that it is coming to an end. I love it when my hubby is home and we are all together. I hope you have had a great weekend also.
For this card I used some old DP that I have had for awhile. I am really trying to hard to get thru my stash of DP (designer paper) so that I won't feel so bad for continually adding to the stack of DP I already have. I am sure a lot of you know exactly what I am talking about. =0) I used my Cricut Exp. to cut out the butterflies, and then I embossed them with 3 different Cuttlebug folders. I used the new SU border punch that you can get FREE during Stampin' Up!'s Sale-A-Bration sale. This punch will be in the new catalog that comes out in the summer. Sweet right? The pink background is another CB folder that I sanded with my SU sanding blocks to give it a touch of distressing. Finally I finished off the card with 2 chocolate brads that I had on hand. I hope that you had a nice relaxing weekend, and as always thank you for visiting my blog today!

Sweet & Simple

I know there are thousands of beautiful cards out there that each took hours to make, and I am in awe of the detail that goes into them, but lately I have been leaning towards a more simple approach to card making. I have found that by setting out to make CAS (clean and simple) cards, I am able to make more at a time, thus building my stash of cards. For this card I used the Stampin' Up Wheel "Friendly Words". I love this wheel because it is so versatile! The red glitter embossed heart and the Valentine sentiment are from the SU set " A Happy Heart".



This is another CAS card using the retired SU set "Happy Heart Day". The embossed hearts were made using my Fiskars texture plates and Cuttlebug. I love that cute elephant!

And last but not least this card was made using the SU Level 3 Hostess set called "The More the Merrier", and the sentiment is from the SU set "Grateful Greetings". The scalloped heart border was made using my Cricut Expression. I love it when I can find the perfect matching ribbon! Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope that I can inspire you to make CAS cards. Have a wonderful week!

Be careful what you wish for...

I made a wish for a big snowfall over the weekend and my wish came true. Three days later we are still unable to get out of our driveway! Our street does not get plowed so we are at the mercy of the melting sun unless we park the car on top of the road which is salted and plowed when the weather is nasty. We need a 4W drive! (dear santa...) lol Anyways, since I have been home I have had PLENTY of time to make Christmas cards, and get several addressed and ready for mailing.

This card was made with an Inkadinkado clear set that I LOVE. Yeah, I love all of my stamps but I reallllly love this one. I used my Cricut, and SCAL to cut out the Nestabilities shapes, and the DP is from the current SU catalog and it is called "Merry Moments". I keep forgetting I have it. lol The stitched ribbon is from the Offray ribbon out-let. You may not be able to tell from the picture but the little brown bird, and the pine branch were clear heat embossed using SU Old Olive craft ink, and Choco Chip craft ink.

{Friendship}

This time of year always brings back memories of my favorite season of the year, Fall! Changing Leaves, football games, Halloween, camp fires and most importantly, friends! I could go on and on but those are some of the things that I think of first when Fall comes around every year. For today's card I used one of my all time favorite Stampin' Up! sets
"Season of Friendship". I stamped the tree trunk in Choco Chip ink, and then stamped the leaves in 3 colors, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, and More Mustard. I then stamped the leaves again on a separate piece of scrap paper and cut them out to give my tree a nice 3-d effect. I wanted to use a variety of coordinating designer paper colors and I am happy that it turned out the way I was envisioning it. The DP is from SU also. Finally I used my Mat Pack to paper pierce the border around the sentiment, and I used dew drops in the other 3 corners. The scallop circle was made with my Cricut. I hope that everyone is enjoying this beautiful start of Fall weekend!

Stampin Up Sale!

As some of you already know I am a Stampin' Up Demo, Hobby Demo that is! For the next 3 days I am offering my 20% demo discount for all orders placed through me. Even if you live in another state you can still order from me and receive the discount! Let me know if you are interested.
Now onto the card I made today! This card features a beautiful die-cut dragonfly that is sparkly but the camera didn't pick up the shimmer. I used my SU scallop punch on the edges, and the sentiment is the new SU Modern Label punch. My poor word window punch is going to be taking a back seat to the Modern Label Punch! I love the extra little sumthin' that it adds to the sentiment. I accented it with MM brads. I used Very Vanilla, Kiwi Kiss, and Pink Pirouette card stock. The embossed image is a Cuttlebug folder, and the stitching was done with my Janome Sew Mini. For some reason I have run out of "thank-you" cards so you may be seeing a lot of them in the next few weeks. I hope all of you are enjoying this beautiful Monday!

A Few Cards!

For this card I used the clear set by Stampendous called "Flutterfly Friends". This set is adorable! I used my Bics to color the butterfly, and the DP is from an old DCWV stack I have had for a few years. For the flower, and the flower center I used my Cricut! I love being able to incorporate both stamping, and die-cuts on my cards. The sentiments are from the SU set "On a Pedestal". This was a fun card to make!

This card features the SU set " On a Pedestal". This is one of my favorite sets out of the new catalog! Again I used DCWV paper (my favorite DP in case you haven't noticed) There layers were made using my SU Top Note Die, and my Cricut. I paper pieced the cake, yeah, it was a lot of cutting but I love how it turned out!

This card was made using the SU set "Manhattan Flower", and the matching Texture Plate. I stamped the main flower in Staz-On and used my Aqua Painters to color it in. I love the soft look of water-coloring. The paper is the new SU In-Color "Bermuda Bay", and SU Kraft. I accented the card with SU Linen Thread, and little rhinestones.

I hope all of you are having a great weekend! Today we drove out to our favorite Apple orchard and Bakery and I had a fresh apple turnover. Yum!!

Spooktacular Creation!

I have been having so much fun with my Cricut, and bought a program called "Sure Cuts Alot" that allows me to take any image, and cut it out! There are a ga-zillion files out there and I have been spending a lot of time uploading them to my hard drive. You would be VERY surprised at the files that are available for download. This card features a spooky owl that I found and cut out with my Cricut! Neato Mosquito! I sponged the background with SU ink to give a "sunset" background, and the bling is from a bag of rhine stones that I bought at a yard sale for .25. I love finding crafty stuff at yard sales. Thank you for visiting my blog, and I hope that you have a great Labor Day Weekend!

{It's a Wild World}

Today has just been one of "those" days, and this card is a perfect example of how I feel! Also, this is the first card I made using my Cricut....I am in love. The lettering, and grass were made with my new toy. It took me awhile to glue the letters to the card stock but well worth it because I love how it turned out! The stamped images are from "Recollections" I hope that each of you are having a good week so far, and I thank you for visiting my blog today!