Inspired by Sarah Hamer Designs

In catching up with the blogs last week, I just loved a birthday card I saw on Sarah Hamar's blog.  I decided to give it a try myself.  I started by making a card featuring the star pattern on hers.  I used some DCWV birthday paper I picked up in an open stock sale at Joann's along with some scraps from my scrap bin including some from the Twinkle Twinkle Little Boy line from My Mind's Eye.  I embossed the background with my Sizzix.  I wrote the sentiment in the Silhouette Design Studio and used the print and cut feature to ensure my sentiment was centered.  I used a star pattern in the software to cut stars including the white star layer.  A few pop dots under the stars gave them a little dimension and I finished them off with Irock studs in a blue to tie the blue together.  Super simple and cute!

But I decided to take it another step by trying it with a different pattern.  I kept the layout the same, but his time I used a floral pattern.  I again used the Silhouette Design Studio to write the sentiment and cut it out.  I used the outline feature to cut the paper to mat it on.  Then I found a cute flower in my library.  But it wasn't quite perfect.  It had lines running down the center of each petal.  So I carefully cut out the lines and manipulated the points to clean up the petal cuts.  Then I finished the centers with Irock gems. 

I still think the star card is cuter.  Maybe because I just like the bright colors better... 

Thank You #4

I just love my new Cameo. I can't believe what a great job it does cutting, even little intricut cuts like the one on the lattice work on this card. Not a rip, tear or problem just as long as I set the paper and blade correctly, which is taking a little trial and error since I have some really heavy weight paper. But even better, I love this thank you card that I bought from the Silhouette store. It's adorable and was so easy to make. I whipped out three of them in a short period of time this morning using scraps from my bin, a little ribbon from Michaels and a brad from JoAnn's.

Fun card and crafting haul

I needed a thank you card for a co-worker who took care of straightening out my registration problems at my conference last week. Well, I was sitting in my conference doodling when I found inspiration in the panels on wall behind the speaker. They were very symmetrical and interesting to look at. That doodling inspired this card. I found a couple of images of lilies on the web. I replicated the one several times and then cut them out. I left a little of the white photo paper as a border and then mounted them all on a piece of black card stock, leaving just a little space for a ribbon. The sentiment on the inside says "Thank you to someone who is one of a kind." A very simple card to make, but it was lots of fun. I also want to share with you some pictures of my haul from shopping with my Mom and sister on Sunday. I picked up all these stacks of paper at TJ Maxx where were looking for clear acrylic cups (found two purple ones!)

The next two pictures have a mixture of Jo-Ann's and Michaels items. But I really have to point out that everything on this next picture is sitting on top of my new trimmer. Yes, I had to buy a new trimmer because my beloved Making Memories trimmer finally gave up the ghost after nearly five years. It probably would still be humming along but I managed to bend the blade trying to cut something I never should have been trying to cut in the first place. Needless to say, the replacement blades aren't available (sold out), so I bought a new one. I got a great deal because Michaels hadn't taken down the sale tag from last week so they honored the sale price and let me use my 25% off my purchase coupon too. Whoo-hoo and a big thanks to my mom for asking them if they would honor the tag. By the way, they also honored the tag that showed that the Cricut cartridges were on sale too so I bought my Campin' Critters cartridge too.

No camping, but big fun anyhow

So camping didn't happen after all. Despite leaving early for the weekend, it apparently wasn't early enough and every single camping spot in the 'non-reserved, first-come, first-served" portions of all three parks we went to were full. Well after getting over my disappointment (and unpacking the RV and truck), we "camped" at home. Now we've had wine, frozen lemonade, margaritas, more wine, smores and truckload of camping snacks, ate dinner out with the family on Friday night, watched 8 hours of Real Housewives, two hours of Intervention, four hours of Hell's Kitchen, two hours of Master Chef and three hours of Glee, shopped at Michael's, Craft Warehouse and Jo-Ann's, picked up gorgeous flower baskets at the nursery, saw Cowboys and Aliens, oh, and made a new cork board for my sister (something we couldn't have done camping since the one thing I didn't pack was my Cricut). It turned out so adorable that I just had to post photos even though she's concerned that someone will copy it so it won't be one of kind. Personally, I know it will be one of kind because even if someone else tries to make it, they won't pick the same paper, cut it at exactly the same dimensions or place the houses in exactly the same way. So we found an image on Google image that she liked, traced it in SCAL, then moved the window to a place that she liked better, then cut them out of two colors of glitter card stock, then found a font she liked and welded the words and cut them in SCAL on the Cricut. So then it was just a process of taking out the backing and glass from the frame, inserting the cork board and putting the backing back on the frame, then gluing down the cuts we made. So here's a shot of it all put together (we left the corner protectors on so that it will transport safely back to her house): She bought the paper at Craft Warehouse. She carefully picked out cute glitter paper and found some coordinating card stock for the words. What she didn't know was the card stock she carefully picked out for the bluish gray color on the back was Black Magic card stock by Coordinations. So when she pulled it out today, I explained to her what she had bought and that changed the title all around. Instead of being the solid blueish gray, we ran it through the Sizzix with Script Texture embossing folder then sanded over the raised texture to bring out the blue text. You can see some of that dimension in this close-up:

So I had forgotten to turn off the layer with the house in it when I cut the words and ended up with this extra house. We used it as a test for the texture. The house turned out so cute that I had to use it somewhere, so I made this simple little card using some scraps from my scrap bin of Orbit paper from the Cosmic paper line I got from the Paper Loft. I have no idea what the striped paper is called, but I'm pretty sure it's from the same line at the Paper Loft. I just used some plain paper I bought in a ream at Paper Zone called Nekoosa Linen to make the card base and also to cut with my Sizzix Bigz Top Note die. I used a little bit of Offray gros grain ribbon and some pop dots to finish it off. A simple little card, but it was loads of fun to make.

Anyhow, now I'm going to finish watching this last episode of Glee with her. She had never seen it before and now I have her totally hooked on it with just the first episode. I knew she would love it. I'll make a Gleek out of her yet.

So Happy Together

I had been looking at this Sketch Inspirations layout #220 for days before I even started it and even then it took me two days to finish it. I even missed the deadline for the contest because I couldn't quite figure out how to make it all come together. But, at least I finally got it finished. The white, blue and pink cardstock is from DCWV Pastel Stack. The pink vertical paper is from DCVW Stack 5 and was scored on my score pad. The blue paper was run through my Sizzix with the Swirls folder. The circles and hearts were cut using Sure Cuts A Lot with my Cricut and the flower is from Imaginisce. The Joy photo turn and brads are from Joann's Essentials. The font is Bradley Hand ITC. The thread for the circle is from Prism.