Valentine’s Day Decor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     So Valentine’s Day is coming up soon and I wanted to make some fun décor.  I made this with my Cricut and several cartridges.  I used the new and fabulous Victorian Romance, Fancy Frames, Martha Stewart Everyday Cakes, and CTMH Art Philosophy cartridges.  I cut all the base pieces of the frame with a light weight chipboard.  I covered the frame part with a piece of K&Co. patterned paper.  I used the same (double sided) paper to make the flowers from the CTMH AP cartridge and added a pearl in the middle.   I also added some gold smooch ink to the edges of the flowers.   I wrapped the frame with some gold twine and inked the edges with red rose Cat’s eye ink. 

     I wrapped the frame holder with gold twine.  I sponged it with ink and sprayed it with glimmer mist.  I designed the frame holder on my Gypsy and decided to leave out all the tiny pieces on this design to make it easier to cut.  I added some ribbon and another flower to the front.  The “Be Mine”  is from the Martha Stewart cart.  I added gems to all the corners.

The adorable little clown is from the new Victorian Romance cart.  I cut it at 2 inches and it cut great!  I added craft plastic to the frame to make it more real.  I also added a back layer and put pop dots between the front and back layer for dimension.  Thanks for looking!

Thank You Flower Tri-Fold

People were so very generous to us this Christmas.  I wanted to make some thank you notes to send out for the gifts our family received.  I made six notes like this one.

Card formula:

Base-A six pack of cards/envelopes from Michaels.  They are a beautiful tri-fold card with an eyelet flower cut into them.

Patterned Paper-DCWV and K and Co.

Cardstock-Core’dinations

Flower-homemade from an EK Success punch and a medium scallop punch. I added a brad to the middle.  Then I added a glitter shape to the top.

"Thank You”-cut using my Cricut and Cindy Loo cartridge.

Thanks for looking!

My Perfect Imperfection

Warning!  This is not a “crafting” post.  Just some personal observations about life.

I have been reading some blogs lately about how we women are realizing it is “okay” to be imperfect.  I came across this post On Upstairs Friends which I got through a crafting blog I read regularly (Just What I {Squeeze} In).  It was so great to read!  This particular article was about letting friends see that we are not necessarily the perfect housekeepers.  It reminded me so much of my own life.  The home we live in is not perfect, but I am very grateful to have a roof over my head.  I keep it as clean as I can.  I am often limited by my health (one way or another).  I am trying to raise my family, work 2 part time jobs, fulfill Church callings, etc .  Thankfully I am able to work both my jobs from home and they are both great jobs!  And I know that my life is like so many other woman.  We all work so hard!  And some days I try to get everything stuffed in the closets, under the beds, behind the couches, and every other hiding place I can find just to make it look okay for friends. 

So yesterday one of my good friends is over.  And let’s just say my youngest son doesn’t like to flush the toilet or watch where he is aiming when he pee’s.   And all my kids think that the mirror is a place to do toothpaste art.  I didn’t have time to check out the bathroom before she came over. wa wa wa…..So, she goes in the bathroom and I am thinking, oh crap.  But I just told myself that it was ok.  She is not going to dis-own me because of a non-flushed toilet or a mirror full of toothpaste.  She is not going to care if I am not a perfect housekeeper.  So, when she came out of the bathroom I just said “sorry if there was any pee in the toilet”.  She just smiled and we just went on talking about crafty stuff.  She is a great friend.  It reminded me that a friend will always love you for the person you are and doesn’t care about silly things like how perfect a housekeeper you are 

Pop Up Ornament

Hi All! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and is looking forward to Christmas! I know I am! This adorable pop-up ornament is a die-line made by my good friend Cathy Martin over at Snip Tuck Design. She is a fabulous up and coming electronic die cut designer. Currently she sells through her own blog and Etsy. You can buy this and some other fabulous die cuts there.

The pop-up ornament is cut using my Pazzles Inspiration. I cut it out of a medium weight chipboard and then I cut it again on a piece of patterned paper. I cut the patterned paper so that each part of the ornament would cut as a separate piece to make it easier for decorating.

The “Merry Christmas” is from the Cricut cartridge Wild Card. I put it through my Xyron 250 upside down. Then I generously sprinkled it with Martha Stewart fine glitter. Then back through the Xyron an the back side of the die cut to stick it to the ornament.

I added misc. embellishments: snowflake buttons, ribbon, tulle, bells, glitter pen, Cat’s Eye blue chalk ink to spice it up.

Thanks for looking…and don’t forget to check out Cathy at Snip Tuck Design.

Fall Tree and Flowers

    
Hi All!  This is a card I made for fall.  The card base was made on my Pazzles inspiration.  So were the flowers and the leaves.  The flowers were a free file from http://www.pazzles.net/wordpress/2011/09/02/twirled-flowers.  For the card base I just created an oval, copied it and welded it to another.                                                             
     All the paper is from DCWV.  They always have these really great sheets of paper in their stacks that you can cut apart to make tags or cards or things like that.  Well, the trees came from one of those sheets of paper from this years Autumn Stack.  The buttons are from my stash.  The twine is from Reallyreasonableribbonclub.com.  To get the effect I did with this card, first I punched holes with my 1/8th inch hand punch, then I sewed up one side of the card and then back through those same holes on the opposite side of the card. Thanks for looking!