Mittens in July???

Happy Monday!  It is a Bitten by the Bug 2 Monday for the design team - except for me!  I did not get to my project this weekend.  My sweet, sweet Design Team sister Penny chose the mittens cut on the Joys of the Season cartridge, hoping to stir up a bit of Christmas in July fun!

I have had a second yucky stomach thing in as many weeks and I took the weekend to finally get well.  I had designed a fun, layered card, but I never spent any time in my scrap room so the file went uncut.  I am sure I will eventually make the card - probably sometime this fall.  However, in the meantime I do have a mitten project to share.

Every Christmas I give out my fabulous yeast rolls to my neighbors and some special friends, and of course they have to be accompanied by a card.  I made this card earlier this year, preparing for next December's card needs.

I used my nesties to cut the two different sized mittens.  I then used Gina K's great mitten stamps to embellish my mittens.

I made the nexties label using the ovals and scalloped ovals.  And again I used the Gina K stamps to add the sentiment.  The phrase reads:  "Fresh Baked Homemade Goodness".  Trust me, the yeast rolls are indeed homemade goodness!!

Please do go by Bitten by the Bug 2 and look a the fabulous mitten projects the design team is sharing.  I confess that I peeked at them early and they are AMAZING!!!  

Stamps + Nesties = Quick and Cute Easter Cards

Blessed Good Friday to all who celebrate.  I thought I would take a break from my in-home projects I have had going part of this week and share my three final 2011 Easter Cards.  Earlier this winter I purchased this adorable little Easter girl stamp as party of a Stampin' Up set.  I just had to make a few cards with her before the season passed.

I used Stampin' Up Rose ink and stamped the image on smooth white cardstock.  I used classic rectangular nesties and one of the newer label sets to cut out my girl and her mattings.   I whipped up some quick cards using leftover Easter papers and white ribbon and pop dotted the stamped images on to the front of the cards.  I added a pink button with floss to each card.

I also stamped the image using Stampin Up "Almost Amethyst" ink and purple cardstock.  I did not show you the entire purple card because the purple looks horrid against my bright pink background. This pink/purple combination  was visually offensive!

I am excited because my younger son arrives in from Atlanta today.  The Easter bunny had to do a bit of last minute shopping this week.  I also have to finish Aaron's and Crissie's baskets, though I did get Crissie a Zoku frozen pop maker.  I have one and Doug and I love it.  Homemade pudding pops are wonderful.
With my family in town for Easter I probably will not post again until Monday - we have a lot of activities planned for the weekend.  I wish you all fabulous weekend and a very special Easter!! 

Victorian Card with Spellbinders

Happy Thursday!  Let's get to the "good stuff" right up front today - the winner of the Custom Crops sponsored blog candy.  The winner is lucky comment number 49, who is:

~JulieH~  who said...

"Wow Susan what a fabulous design! Love this card and the birds heart 

done in pink looks just gorgeous.Love all the extra details too"

Congratulations Julie!  You will be hearing from CC soon!

Now on to today's card.  This was the card I entered to round two of the Spellbinders design team tryouts.  It is the card that let me down.... :-(

This card was created using Spellbinders label 14 on folded cardstock, with the edge of the die placed just above the fold so as to not cut that end of the card.  I then cut a single layer of label 14, folded it in half and affixed it to the top back of the base card.  This created the top flap and the fold out portion.

To create the layered flap I cut the same die two more times, once in gray print and once in smooth cream cardstock which had been stamped with a GinaK stamp.   Using scissors I cut the two additional cuts in half and layered them under the front flap.

I cut the front message area with circle and scalloped circle nesties.  The closure flourish was cut from a Christmas set of Spellbinder dies. 

I decided that the top flap needed a little more detail so I cut a solid pendant shape and then trimmed it in half, affixing half to the front of the top flap.

And that flower??? That was created during flower surgery.  The netting was formerly the outer petals on the flower, but I did not like it with this card.  I took scissors and cut away the netting, reshaped it into a loose loopy bow and topped it with the flower center.

I finished the card by stamping an additional Thank You sentiment inside the card.  I actually was quite pleased with this little cutie!  And I will use my nesties to create shaped cards in the future!

Winter Wonderland using Spellbinders

I have news to share - I did not make the cut on round two of tryouts for the Spellbinders team.  I was disappointed, but I know that their team is highly competitive.  The good news is that I may now show my projects with you!

My entry for round one was this 12 x 12 inch layout.  I used two colored  sheets of cardstock topped with snowflake printed paper.  The snowflake print made a lovely, low-key background on which to build the layout elements.  The first element I added was a Stampin' Up stamp which reads "Winter Wonderland" stamped on my snowflake print.

I used my Grand Calibur with grand label one to cut the two layer matting and the main photo.  I used nesties label one to cut the mats and the smaller photo.  I also used snowflakes number one and cut red and blue embellishment snowflakes.  The snowflakes were topped with red buttons tied with white embroidery floss.

My page border was created using a Spellbinders lacey border cut four times.  I mitered the corners and topped the corners with snowflakes or tags.  The WINTER tag at the bottom left was created using label 14 and a stamp.  I penned in the date at the bottom of the label. 

I will admit that I was a disappointed at not making the cut, but really it was fun to try out.  And I was able to get this great photo scrapped!!

Remember that I have blog candy up for grabs in the previous post.  A winner will be drawn a Thursday.

Sixty Cent Stamp + Spellbinders = Great Valentines

Today I am going to share a quickie Valentine card ... or two!  But of course there is a bit of a back story with this card.... I know, isn't there always?   A couple of weeks ago the scrappy girlfriends and I spent a lovely weekend at Lake Murray, scrapping, and laughing, and talking weddings...  We always schedule a little break for ourselves on the weekend - we visit Michaels and A.C. Moore craft stores on Saturday afternoons.  We say that while we do not NEED anything, we might find something we should have.  This last trip, four of us purchased new cutters because we all liked Beth's new Fiskar's Deluxe cutter. 
We also looked for great bargains, but usable bargains.  And this is where the card comes in!

My great find on our last Saturday afternoon outing was in the $1.00 stamp bin at Michaels.  All of the $1.00 stamps were 40% off.  I found this cute "here's my heart" contemporary stamp, which only cost me sixty cents!!  And of course I had to use it that evening, just to show "the girls" that I would indeed use that sixty cent stamp!!

I stamped the sixty cent stamp onto smooth cardstock and cut it out with my circle nesties.  I mounted the circle on a Lacey Circle nestie, and mounted that on a double layer matting cut with label 2 (?). 
I used many of my leftover scraps to create two Valentine cards - one for each of the grandmoms. 

So the next time you are digging through those $1.00 bins at Michaels remember that you really can make some cute, cute projects with inexpensive stamps!!

Victorian Fan Card with Spellbinders

Hello, today I am sharing a Victorian Fan card that I created using Spellbinders dies.  This card began as an experiment to see if I could cut a folded card with a single die.  Well of course I could.  And then it grew from there!

The fan feature was created using strips of cardstock glued together, then scored and folded.  I created two sections of fan - the larger upper section and the tiny lower section.  I would highly recommend a scoring board and tool for creating the fans.  I prescored the lines and then folded.

For the center front of the card I cut the same die shape, only smaller, and centered a sweet thank you verse in the middle of a classic circular nestie.

The card was finished with a bit of old fashioned lace tied in a double bow.  To me this card just screams Victorian, especially with the slight Asian look, which I attribute to the fan and the touch of red in the label.

I will be back tomorrow with another new project to share - and as soon as my new power cord comes for my lap top, I will share the 50 cupcake wrappers I created for my sister-in-law.

Home Sweet Home with Label 16 and Lacey Circles

 I must open with an apology - I intended to write this post and publish it at 6:00 am this morning, but .... Last night I fell asleep reading and did not finish everything I had planned to do.  My husband has this bad habit of falling asleep on the sofa.  The way this plays out is about three nights a week he falls asleep on the sofa and I wake him to send him to bed.  He ignores me the first time or two that I wake him.  Occasionally he begins snoring while on the sofa, which is quite irritating.  Usually I just wake him and eventually he will go to bed.

Last night I was reading on the love seat and he fell asleep and began the snoring routine.  I suggested he go to bed and he promptly ignored me.  As his volume increased I decided to find a new reading location and I took my kindle to bed.  At some point I feel asleep and left him on the sofa.  He woke me at 3:00 am as he turned off the lights and came to bed.   So... he was on the sofa far longer than usual and I got nothing done on my blog!!  I am not sure exactly which of us learned a lesson there....

So on to the card.  This is one of the fun Spellbinders cut cards that I created last weekend at the lake.  I used left over paper (that I love) by Three Bugs in a Rug.

 I began by creating this fun focal point of the card - I used Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 16, a GinaK stamp from the lovely labels 2 set, and circle nesties.  I stamped the music frame on smooth white cardstock and cut it out with label 16, using a circle nestie to cut out the center.  I then cut a larger version of label 16 in black cardstock and cut the center out with a smaller circle nestie.  I adhered the two layers together and placed the pink house image in the circular opening.  I adhered the house label to the card using pop dots.

 Next, using Lacey Circle nesties and round nesties I created the tag.  I layered three round circles on top of the lacey circle - stamping the top layer with black ink.

I found pink ribbon in my stash that perfectly coordinated with the background paper and added a the ribbon runner with bow as a finishing touch.

Now all I need is a house warming party to attend or a new neighbor down the street!!

Warm Mittens for a cold day

Have you heard the expression "cold hands - warm heart"?  That is what I thought of while making this adorable card.  With these adorable mittens the warm heart can also have warm hands!  This card is one of several cards that I created while on my scrappy girlfriend boondoggle to Lake Murray!

This card was created with Spellbinders Nested Mittens dies and Gina K Winter Mittens stamp set as well as the Snowflake Pendent die set and Snowflake 1 die set.  In addition to the smooth white cardstock, I also used printed and solid cardstock from my scraps.  I love using up scraps. 

I tried a self adhesive silver metallic paper/cardstock to cut the embellie snowflakes.  I had mixed results with the self adhesive aspect.  In the end I had to add Tomboy glue to a few spots to ensure that the snowflakes stayed on the card.  I will add that the metallic paper cut marvelously with my Spellbinder dies and my Grand Calibur.

I used Stampin' Up ink to stamp my mittens.  I also used Stampin' Up ribbon to create the exquisite bow.   I used a one-eighth inch hole punch on each of the mittens and suspended them on one-eighth inch white ribbon (and pop dots, of course). 

I hope this card makes you feel all warm inside when you see it.  I truly enjoyed using my Gina K stamps.  I have purchased three sets of Gina K stamps which are compatible with my Spellbinders Nestabilities and I am excited to share them with you over the next few weeks.

Love on a half shell?

Happy Monday.  I have a new card, a Valentine, to share with you today.  The challenge cut for the week at the Bitten by the Bug 2 blog was selected by my sweet, sweet design team sister, Krista.  Krista selected the Armadillo from the Birthday Bash cartridge, but then decided to also include a bird option.  I did not have the chosen cartridge so I used George and Basic Shapes and built my Armadillo the old school way - using geometric shapes welded together in George.

I am going to confess that I had no idea what to do with the Armadillo cut - but the idea of the Armadillo was so cute that I had to go with it.  In the end I decided to create a pink Armadillo and put her on a Valentine card.  

I was away for the weekend, on one of our scrappy girl lake adventures.  My friends tried to come up with Valentine puns for my card, but they were mostly lacking..... "I shell always love you", You're a shell of a Valentine", etc.  I think we should all keep our day jobs and NOT go into comedy or pun writing.

So instead of a "punny" tag, I decided to use part of the valentine circle set from the Cutting Cafe.  I layered a 1 inch circle over a 2 inch circle, creating a new center, but using the REMEMBER circle.  I inked the circle edges and matted them on two layers of Spellbinder Nestabilities, a Lacey Circle and a Scalloped Circle.

I did manage to complete quite a few projects last weekend.  I have several cards and layouts to share in the coming days.  In the meantime do go by BBTB2 and check out all of the armadillo and bird projects.  Also, be sure to hope over to the Cutting Cafe and shop the extensive line of printable stamps.

Winter Wedding Card for Holly

Today I am sharing the card I made for a wedding I had planned to attend last Saturday.  The youngest child of my cousins Danny & Martha, Holly, married her beau, Andrew.  I have always loved Holly's name and it was fitting that the few photos I have seen from her wedding included springs of Holly.

Because Holly's wedding was set in the midst of winter I chose to use Spellbinders Snowflake Pendant and Label 16 to create a frosty winter wedding card.  Besides, I can use the practice playing with my Spellbinders.  I just hate that this nasty tummy thing made me miss Holly's wedding.

I used Spellbinders snowflake impressibility and embossed the front of a white card.  I then used the largest of my label 16 dies and cut out the shape from the front of the card. I then used the second larges label 16 die and cut a piece of silver cardstock, followed by using the next smallest die to cut out a red metallic piece of cardstock.  I adhered the layers together and added the center red snowflake and a silver snowflake charm to the card.  I backed the inside left side of the card with a piece of plain white cardstock in an effort to cover the layers.

I stamped the word Congratulations using a generic wedding stamp set and hand trimmed the phase to fit the spellbinder tag cut.

I used a combination of smooth red and silver metallic papers to cut out the snowflake pieces.  I layered the snowflakes together and attached them to the front of the card.

I finished the card with small snowflake stamps added to the inside of the card and as an accent on the envelop. 

I had several comments on my scraproom disaster area after yesterday's post.  I want to assure you all that I spent quite a while late yesterday afternoon cleaning and organizing my room.  It is almost back to normal.  Now if I could just get the rest of the house in shape.  I had a bad and lingering stomach virus last week so Christmas lingers in every room of my house.  That too is part of my Tuesday plan.

We have had quite a bit of winter this year in South Carolina.  Sunday night/Monday brought the latest round of winter to our area.  We received snow followed by ice.  It was quite pretty, but quite debilitating to the community.  Our area of the state comes to a complete grinding halt when we get bad weather.  But since I know not to venture out (the natives do not know how to drive in this) tomorrow looks like a good day to continue working in my scraproom.

2011 Spellbinders Design Team Contest

I have had a stomach virus for a couple days and yesterday I had to take my son back to college, but I am home and feeling soooo much better today.  And to make me feel even better, I was informed that I passed round one of the tryouts for the 2011 Spellbinders Design Team!!

I am so excited to be moving on to round two with 44 other designers, but a bit nervous too.  I have come to really love my nesties and I adore my Grand Calibur - and being on the official Spellbinders team would be fabulous!  Let's just hope that my design mojo doesn't take a hiatus and that all goes well.

I will keep you all posted on the progress of the DT contest, no matter what happens.  But in the meantime keep your fingers and toes crossed for me for good luck!!

Warm Winter Birthday Wishes

Happy Wednesday everyone.  We are halfway through the first week of 2011.  I bet all of you teachers out there are counting the hours until Friday afternoon after two weeks off.  My son's school district scheduled a teacher work day on Monday to help them transition back to school.  He was thankful for the transition day.

We have two family birthdays in January, my mom and my daughter.  Their birthdays are one week apart - Bethany was late and my mom was annoyed that Bethany refused to be born on her birthday.  I wanted her to come by Christmas so I had not sympathy for mom's annoyance!!

Anyway, this is mom's birthday card.  Inside the card, which I forgot to photograph, reads Warm Winter Birthday Wishes!  I used Bazzill cardstock and Echo Park cardstock; Spellbinder's Snowflake Pendant 2010, Label #14, Lacey Circles, and regular circles dies; JustRite stamps and Popcorn the Bear stamps; Stampin' Up ink and ribbon to create this card.  Oh, and a Spellbinder's embossing plate. 

I wanted a winter themed card that was both feminine and fun and I believe that this card met those goals.  I used Bazzill shimmer cardstock and Spellbinder's Snowflake Pendant  dies to cut the adorable pink snowflakes.  I used a pink ink to stamp the circle and lacey spellbinder dies with JustRite stamps.  Again, going for feminine with all of the pink, yet fun with the embossing and less formal stamps.

I had trouble finding a Happy Birthday stamp for the front of the card.  I am not sure where I stashed all of my birthday stamps.  I finally used a Popcorn the Bear "Happy Birthday" stamp.

I should be back tomorrow with another Spellbinder based project.

Valentine Treat Box with Spellbinders

Yesterday I headed off to my scrap room with every intention of making my mom a birthday card.  However, I spotted my book of nesties sitting out from a previous project and decided to play instead.  I had a template that I picked up last February (!) at the annual Columbia stamp show, that I had never used.  I decided to use the template with my heart shaped nesties to create a Valentine box.

I took a sheet of 18 x18 inch cardstock, trimmed it down to 18 x 12 inches and laid the template over top.  Using small clips to secure the layers I then cut out the template and the box.  With the template still clipped to the cardstock, I used my Scor-Pal to score all of the fold lines on the template (see below).

Next I used my heart shaped Nestabilites and my grand Caliber and cut out the front heart shape on the box.  I used white sparkle cardstock and cut out the frame for the front heart. 

I found the pink box just a bit to plain so I covered it with Valentine paper, again cutting the heart out of the front.  The box was finished by adding ribbon at the top edge, removing the handles as I did not like them, and affixing the white scalloped heart frame around the acetate window.

I created an embellishment using the leftover white heart cut out with two smaller hearts and a Prima flower rose.  The pink heart was stamped with a "Hugs and Kisses" stamp and trimmed in glass bead trim.