You're Loved

It is almost Valentine's Day!  I have to admit I've always wanted to be one of those "cool" people that went all out decorating for each holiday and transforming their living spaces to magazine worthy wonderlands. I have discovered I am not that person! But I do like to craft and even though I have more than enough loverly cards to choose from I can't help but make more!

Today's card has a base from Die Cuts with a View (DCWV).  I won a challenge over at Hiding in My Craft Room last month and received this totally awesome box of goodies from DCWV!  This card comes from their Baby collection but I knew I could transform it :) I used my Cricut to cut out the grey accent from the Artbooking cartridge from Close to My Heart.  I also cut the heart border out of Close to My Heart paper using the same cartridge.  Switching cartridges to the Close to My Heart Art Philosophy I cut out the cute heart and used a Close to My Heart stamp for the sentiment.  Add a little twine and voila!

The colors are a bit unconventional for a Valentine's card but that is just how I roll!  I was inspired by challenges at Hiding in My Craft Room, Simon Wednesday Challenge and CAS(E) this Sketch!

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Creating!

Its a Scrappy Saturday!

My brother's birthday is coming up soon so I needed to make a card for him.  I decided to use the sketch challenge at the Unity Stamp Company blog along with the color inspiration.  I had stamped the WooHoo owl image as soon as I got my shipment from Unity and he was just floating around my desk unsure of what to be used for.  I was cleaning off a few things to start crafting and found him and thought he was perfect!  I know I've said it before but if you love cute owl stamps you need to go to Unity Stamp Co!

I decided to play with my Spectrum Noir markers some more.  I am still figuring out how to use them and have them look nice.  I am finding that I am woefully lacking the colors I want to use and wish instead of the brights I had gotten another set first.  Hopefully I can add some soon.  After coloring my image I had to use these cute black vinyl flags I picked up in Target's dollar spot.  Love that dollar spot!  I pulled out my Stampin' Up Whisper White craft ink pad and an older Stampin' Up stamp set for the sentiment.  I love this white ink but it takes forever to dry so you have to be really careful not to smudge it!

After digging through my scrap papers and adding a bit of Close to My Heart shimmer trim my card was done!

I really hope my brother likes it.  Even though it was a "boy" card I just couldn't resist the sparkle!  Thanks for visiting today!  If you want to play along with the challenges I used for inspiration follow the links:

Hiding in my Craft Room - Super Scraps Saturday!

Unity Stamp Company Blog - Monthly inspiration challenge

Simon Wednesday Challenge - Something New!

Happy Crafting!

Play time!

I stayed home from work not feeling well today so I thought it was the perfect time to play with my new Spectrum Noir markers!  I purchased the skin tones and the brights a few weeks ago (still waiting on the browns, reds and blues to come!) and I've only played two times so I'm still really new at this! I used the DR2, DR4, BP3, BP4, FL1, FL2, CR7, CR9, LG5, JG1, TN2 and GB6 markers just to name a few!  Pretty much most of the brights :)

My niece's birthday is coming up in January so I got a head start on a card for her.  I found this adorable image on the blog of a lady named Anne from Norway and thought it would be perfect for my sweet little niece.  I played around with a lot of different colors in the brights pack and I'm pleased with how she turned out!

Next I calculated how to cut the image out using my Cricut and the Cricut Craftroom software to give a cute border which I also punched small holes in with my hole punch to give it a little lace effect.  After picking out some paper from my scrap bin (man that thing is overflowing!) I added some ribbon and the sentiment that was in my stash.  The sentiment came in some kit several years ago and I trimmed it down into a tag which I attached with a small safety pin.

I love how this card turned out and I hope she does too!  I'm entering this in the Super Scraps Saturday challenge over at Hiding in My Craft Room.  Its my favorite challenge since I always have a TON of scraps laying around! Thanks for stopping by!

Crafty Goodness!

My life has been challenging lately and I haven't been crafting as much.  When I do make a card or two I haven't had a chance to photograph and upload it - sorry for the long absence!  I am really hoping to get more put up in the future!

Today I made two items to share.  I was inspired by the Unity Stamp Co. and the Mojo Monday sketch challenges.

First up is a card created with itty-bitty Unity Stamps.  These stamps are perfect for cardmaking!  They usually contain an image and a saying (though not always) but are always super cute!  I love owls so I had to snatch this one right up.  Seriously - if you love owls too head right over and check it out - they have SO many cute owl stamps!!  I recently purchased some Spectrum Noir markers to start coloring with and I am having fun with those.  The paper came from my scrap bin so I have no idea what it is!  The flowers are Recollections found at Michaels.  I also broke out my We-R-Memory Keepers Cropodile to set two eyelets for the centers of the flowers.  I have to admit they were a bit dusty! A little sparkle by Stickles and this card was done!

My granddaughter is one year old now and I am woefully behind on her baby book!  There is another little girl due in April so I really need to get with it and get her book as caught up as possible before I have two to do!  There is just something about cute babies that makes me want to scrapbook.  They are just so fun!  With a 12 year old boy left at home I am glad to have some girliness again!

She is just so spunky!  The paper is from Recollections (can you tell I just went to Michaels?) The number background stamp and the typewriter are both Unity Stamp Co.  I had fun with this layout.  The split design in the back was inspired by Mojo Monday and seemed perfect to highlight the two sides of my cute baby girl!

***This week's challenge over at Hiding in my Craft Room is Freestyle so be sure to head there to enter that challenge as well!

Thanks for stopping by!!

New Button New Business!

Hey everyone!  You might have noticed a new button on my sidebar.  I just joined Close to My Heart and can help you with all your papercrafting needs!  Click on the button and you will be taken to my website where you can order paper craft items or even utilize our digital scrapbook program Studio J.  Have you seen our very cool Picture My Life lines?  If you are a fan of the wildly popular Project Life supplies you definitely want to take a peek!  I’m so excited about this new venture!!

Hello again!

To say it has been awhile is an understatement! It has been an incredibly crazy busy year and I just haven’t made enough time to craft!  Yesterday I attended an all day crop for Crops of Luv and that definitely got my mojo flowing.  I finally finished layouts for the group and started one of my own which I finished this morning. So without further ado ....

I used one of the Citrus Twist kits from last year for the paper and letter stickers.  The sketch I used came from Scrapbook Challenges. I wish I could have entered it into their challenge but it is not a very well organized site and when I clicked on the link for what I thought were the current challenges it took me to February’s challenges but didn’t tell me it was Feb. Oh well. I’m going to submit it to Laurie’s Hiding in my Craft Room for the Freestyle challenge. No matter though because just getting scrappin’ again was reward in and of itself.

**During our Friday at home date night we watched Joss Whedon’s version of Much Ado About Nothing. When one of the characters said the line I used in the layout as my quote I knew it would be perfect!

Thanks for dropping by! Hopefully I’ll be able to create more soon!

CAS-ual Fridays

I just found this fun blog - CAS-ual Fridays. They host a challenge every few weeks so I thought I’d play along with the current challenge.  The challenge was to choose a word for the year and I chose the word “thanks”. One of the things I want to do this year is be more thankful and focus on my blessings not my lack. In that vein here is the card I created:

I used Certainly celery ink from Stampin' Up for the line stamp from Unity Stamp Co., Slate ink from Close to My Heart for the sentiment also from Close to My Heart.  I cut the banner out of the Art Philosophy cartridge with my Cricut and added a Heidi Swapp cherry and a bling brad from Making Memories. Super easy and super quick!

Thanks for stoppin’ by today!