Countdown to CHA

I am so excited, I am leaving for CHA in Los Angeles on Friday!!!!!! I can't wait to be surrounded by crafting items and see all the new stuff coming out. I will also be meeting some of my best online friends and fellow design team members while I'm out there. We will be working a make and take in the Notions booth on Saturay and the Spellbinders booth on Sunday. We will also be in the Stamping Scrapping Designs booth with a fun make and take as well. If you are going to be out there, please stop by and say Hello! I love meeting other people that are as obsessed with crafting and craft supplies as I am. I will be taking pictures and video and posting about all the fun things I see while I'm out there.

WHOOO HOOOOO

Happy B-day Cupcake

Scrappy Frogs is having a cupcake challenge.  I love cupcakes, but since I’m on a diet I can’t eat any.  All I can do is make cupcake cards and imagine how yummy they taste in real life.  I decided to use this cute little pirate cupcake from Rock Princess. 

I used some glittery houndstooth paper for the background and the I added some stickles to the frosting.  I cut the word balloon and the sentiment from Smiley Cards.  This cartridge is full of trendy text language sentiments and a lot of cute images as well.  To finish off the card, I added some black lace and chandelier garland.  I was going to give this card to one of my daughter’s friends, but my daughter loved it so much she wants me to save it for her birthday.

Grand Nestie Easel Card Tutorial

Easel cards are very popular and you see them everywhere.  Using the Grand Nestabilities, you can make a  really good size easel card.  For this card I used the Labels 1 Grand Nestabilitie.  I cut a piece of cardstock to 6 x 12 and folded it in half, then I laid it on the mat of my Grand Calibur.  I made sure that part of the die was above the fold of the card so it would stay in one piece after I cut it.  I held my paper down with a couple pieces of eclipse tape so that it would stay put and not move around.  This tape is made for masking and it will not damage your paper when you remove it.  I ran the paper through the Grand Calibur.  It cut 2 layers of thick Bazzil cardstock with no problem.  Next I put the top part of the card on my scor pal and scored it so that it would fold in half.

It was easy to do with this die since the point is right in the middle.  The next step is to fold the top half of the card in half and put some adhesive on it.  Then you need to cut another labels 1 die out of the same cardstock.  Line the piece up with the top of the folded part and stick them together.  Now your easel card is complete!  It’s time to decorate it.  I used the 2nd smallest die for the card base, so I used the smallest one for my decorative paper.  Then I colored an adorable Boho Gilli stamp and cut it out with a labels 8 nestie.

Here is a picture of the easel card opened up.  You need something to  stop it and hold the top up when it’s open.  I cut a fancy spellbinders tag and popped it up with some pop dots.  I stamped a couple of heart swirls and a sentiment from Stamping Scrapping Designs on the tag.  I filled the centers of the flowers with some I-rock gems.  I also used I-rock gems on Gilli’s earrings.  I finished the card off with a nice big flower and a brad I made with the I-top brad maker.    Here is a picture of the card when it is flat- perfect for being mailed. 

I hope I have inspired you to use your Grand Calibur and nestabilities to make your own easel card. 

Sentiment Challenge

Magnolia Stamp Lovers is hosting a sentiment challenge.  Sentiments can sometimes be a forgotten part of card making because the images are the fun part, however, they do play an important role.   I have used Japanese Tilda for my sentiment project.  I have stamped Tilda  on some Cryogen card stock and then colored her with my copic markers to match the colors in the background paper which is Kioshi from Basic Grey.  It is so hard to see the shimmer of the cryogen paper in the photo, but is really beautiful in real life.  I did something a little different with the sentiment on this card.  I used the Pagoda cricut cartridge and cut the kanji tag for the word Prosperity.  I think it adds a little bit of zen to the card.  I put a giant flower up in the corner that I airbrushed with my copics to match the flowers Tilda is holding. I went a little crazy with this flower and it would have to be removed to mail the card, but I love how the crumpled look of it matches the flowers in her hair. 

True Blue

This is one of my favorite Tildas. I love the flower on her hat. I have colored her in different shades of blue for the Magnolia Stamp Lover Challenge.

I used B95, B93, and B21 for her jeans, scarf and hat.Tilda is matted on a beaded oval nestabilite. I wanted the floral embellishments to match perfectly, so I airbrushed some white roses with my B93 marker, then I added some pearl springs under the flowers. The layout for this card is from Friday Sketchers. I added a sentiment up in the corner from the Stamping Scrapping Designs Beaded Circles set.

Fun with the Cricut Cake

I finally had a chance to play with the cricut cake mini I had to have so badly that I got up before dawn on Black Friday and stood out in the cold in front of Joanns.  While I was waiting to use it, I did a lot of research and watched a lot of videos.  I think that helped a lot.  I felt like I knew what I was doing by the time I was ready to try it out.  We went the easy route this time.  I bought some sugar cookies and some icing- no baking involved.  Then I got some Wilton fondant.  I put it on my cricut mat (which I brushed with crisco) and then rolled it out.  I rolled it out thin- really thin.  You can see the lines on the mat through the fondant.  Then I put the mat with the fondant on it in the freezer for about 15 minutes.  Then I put it in the cricut cake and cut my first shape.  It worked great!!!!  Since I am not an expert at rolling fondant (this was my first time), I cut the pigs one at a time so that I could be sure they would cut where there was enough fondant.  Ignore their faces.  I couldn’t get the gypsy to work because I hadn’t updated the cricut yet, so I had to try and make faces with black icing and the tip was too thick.  After all the shapes were cut, I put the mat back in the freezer for a little less than 10 minutes, then I carefully lifted them off the mat with the spatula that comes in the cricut cake tool kit.  Since it worked so well, I wanted to try it again with some yellow fondant.  This time I cut the peace sign from rock angel and I used the gypsy so that I could make sure they were all in the middle of the mat where the most fondant was.  All in all I have to say this was everything I hoped it would be.  I can’t wait to play with it again.  This is not good news for my diet, however, the fondant tastes pretty good.  Our finished product.  You can see how yummy there were since that poor little pig cookie is bitten in half. 

Get Sentimental

Scrappy Frogs is having a sentiment challenge- making a card where the focus is on the sentiment. This is definitely a challenge for me. I never used to put sentiments on my cards. A lot of times I just make a card to make a card, I don't have a purpose in mind for it when I make it. When Cindy designed her new stamps to coordinate with the nestabilities, it forced me to start making cards that included sentiments. At first I started adding sentiment to cards with my favorite stamped images, then I graduated to making cards where the sentiment was the focus of the card. That is what I have done with this card.All the papers on this card were made with my cricut Imagine. I used the Elyse pattern cartridge. I love this one it reminds me of Basic Grey. The stamps I used are from the Beaded Ovals set. I had added some roses that I sprayed with my copic air brush to match the colors in the papers and a little bit of Magnolia chandelier garland.