A "Cool" Graduation Card

Happy Friday everyone! Here is a graduation card I made for my nephew. I was hesitant to make him one at first because I sure didn't want it to be cute in any way. I wanted to go a little edgy on this one because my nephew has his own band and plays the drums, among other things.

 I found this diamond shape on Elegant Edges-itsn't it cool? I matted it on mirror finish silver paper to make it pop. I decided instead of the usual graduation card I would do Alex's monogram instead, and I love the way it looks!. The monogram was cut using light grey card stock and it was shadowed with black. I pop dotted both the blue diamond shape and the monogram.

Inside is pretty simple, more of the diamond shape, this time without the diamond cut outs in the center, and a stamp. I also made another non traditional graduation card at the same time, but I can't show you yet because it is for Susan's daughter....  :)

Hope you all have a blessed weekend!

Vintage-Red- Bling = ME!

Last weekend I participated in National Scrapbook Day challenges over at Scrapbook.com. I had so much fun, but I've got to say, I don't like the pressure to create in a set amount of time. :)  This mini book was a week long challenge we had to create all about ourselves. It had to be at least 5 pages and could be in any size or format we wanted. Of course I knew I had to go with my beloved color RED! I pulled out all my favorite papers and cut away! The hardest part for me was trying to find pictures I wanted to use in my book. I knew I wanted it to be about my happy place, but for the life of me I couldn't find decent pictures to use of my family and friends-I got very frustrated for sure. Finally on Monday evening I decided to go with vintage images I have gathered from the web-that's when it all came together for me.

Red roses, more red roses, ribbon, lace, buttons, and awesome paper-can't get better than this!

 To know me is to know I adore kitties and chocolate and don't think I could face like without either one! All the images I used are from Vintage Resources and The Graphics Fairy. I actually have this kitty print on a tin sign hanging in my home.

I love the ballet, even though I don't talk about it often. My favorite ever is of course the Nutcracker, but not just any one, I love the one The Pacific Northwest Ballet does-it's amazing!  And who would I be if I didn't craft constantly? Kinda hard to find a vintage image of scrapbooking....  The red ribbon around the ballerina is more seam binding I colored and pleated myself.

Roses are my all time fav! As for the beach, I wish I could live there (a warm one mind you) my whole life! Nothing relaxes me more than the sound of the ocean and the feel of sand on my feet!

 Ok, so who doesn't love having lunch and hanging out with their girlfriends-I know I do! Of course I HAD to add lots of bling to this page. Yes, I know I left out the kids, honestly it's because I couldn't find an image that represented them. This red embossed paper is part of a core'dinations pack from Jenni Bowlin Studio-it is so much fun! All the little tags were made on made on my computer, printed out, cut and inked, easy as that!

Finally, the back cover. I decided to go with this beautiful red flocked paper, it needs nothing else!

So there ya have it, a peek into me.....so what makes you happy???

Vintage Inspired Cards

First of all I want tell you that I'm so happy it's Friday!
Here are a couple birthday cards I made recently, I couldn't show them until now because the birthday girls had not received them yet....

 This first one was made around this Lilly of the Valley image from The Graphics Fairy. The birthday girl adores these flowers so of course that's what I had to do! I added some old lace and buttons from my stash, did some stitching, and there you have it! Can you tell what her favorite color is???? Hmmmmmm.... All the pink, lavender and green paper is an old collection of Ann Griffin paper, I picked this stuff up years ago and I was so happy to find a good use for it.

This second card was inspired by this antique sewing machine image once again from The Graphics Fairy-love her! The birthday girl loves sewing and has one of our grandmother's original foot powered Singer sewing machines. This time the colors for the card were more fall-ish which is a lot more challenging for me. The base of this card was made with a piece of pre-embossed Core'dinations paper, this stuff is so much fun! I dyed some of my seam binding green and pleated it to the front of the card. The dark purple flower was cut from natural muslin and dyed by me once again. I just cut out 4 circles and made a box flower with them.

Here you can see the embossed card stock on the inside of the card. I found a nice Irish blessing and printed it off on my printer and there ya go! Of course I had to add one of my "book flowers" and some vintage buttons I picked up at a local antique store.

These cards were such fun to make and to challenge myself to get out of my usual rut. The hardest part of all this was just picking out paper....it took me days!

Hope you have a fun and restful weekend!

Glittery Gift Card Purse

I made this sparkly purse to go with the wedding shower card I made a week or so ago. Because the Bride just loves glitter I just had to make the purse out of my Core'dinations glitter card stock. I used the Tags, Bags, Boxes and more cart. I cut the flower embelishment from my favoirte white shimmer paper again and glittered it as well.  This cut was from Elegant Edges. This little purse was so fun to make and took no time at all.

Becky's going to get some silk rose petals and put them in the purse with her gift card...what a great idea!

I had so much fun making this set, I can't wait to hear what the Bride thought of them!

I also want to say Happy Birthday to my dear friend Missy!!!

Have a Blessed Day!!!

Layout on Fabric!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

page 1...I love how this turned out-it is so ME

A while ago I picked up some fat quarters of  fabric I adore at my local quilting store and I've been trying to figure out what to do with them ever since. I figured why not make a layout ON fabric! I used fusible webbing and fused the fabric to a simple sheet of white cardstock, then I ziz-zagged around the outside edges just to finish it off. Instead of pictures, I put some hand made cards on my layout, and a graphic I just adore from the Graphics Fairy. I made a couple of fabric box flowers which I added fabric covered brads to the centers. I also used my cricut to cut several different flower shapes from an old book. I colored the paper flowers with my different ink pads and alcohol inks and they are finished off with buttons from my stash. And finally I HAD to add ribbon, so I decided to gather it add to the edge of the graphic I printed off

page 2-this fabric is just so perfect!

 Thanks for looking and have a very blessed day!

I'm linking this up to the Graphics Fairy "Brag Monday." and the Circut Circle's Monthly Challenge for Tic-Tac-Toe. I used multiple flower cuts on my Cricut (Paisley and Kate's ABC's), gathered ribbon, and buttons in the center of my flowers.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all you wonderful mommies are having a delightful day! I wanted to share the Mother's Day card I made for my sweet mom... She loves purple, flowers and anything pretty. The fern on this cut brings me back to being a kid, she always had them.

 The base of the card and the eyelet layer were cut with Elegant Edges. The wagon, flowers and other images are from Kate's ABC. Once again I HAD to cut the flowers, and butterfly from an old book-just love how that turns out! The flower pots and fern were cut with that wonderful penalized paper from Hobby Lobby. Even after you color it (I used my alcohol inks) the shimmer is still there, it's so pretty! The wagon is topped off with some vintage seam binding I dyed as well.

Here's the inside of the card,once again more hand dyed book flowers and seam binding. I love how cute and ruffly the seam binding is when it's gathered.


Have a very very blessed and restful Mother's Day!

My Paper Lace (not the cartridge)

Becky asked me to make a wedding shower card for a friend. Apparently the bride LOVES glitter, shoes and dark blue. I got it in my head to make a lace dress with paper.  I really wanted to make the dress out of fabric lace but I know I can't cut that with my Cricut, so my mind started racing. ( I don't have any of the paper lace cartridges either.)  I took the dress from Nifty Fifties and laid it on top of the "Lace Doily" cut from Cindy Loo (pg. 70,) using my Gypsy of course. I didn't weld anything, just moved the dress cut around on the doily cut until it looked right to me. I cut the "lace" with some beautiful shimmery paper I pick up by the truckload at Hobby Lobby. It's just 8 1/2 x 11 paper they carry with their solid cardstock, this stuff cuts like a dream for me! The solid layer of the dress is also this same paper, just a slightly different shade, and glittered by me. Of course I had to add rhinestones and pearls to the dress. The base of this card is heavy weight shimmery cardstock from Couture Cardstock, the shape is from Elegant Edges, I just welded two of the identical shapes together to make the card. The white frame is my Hobby Lobby paper, glittered again. I've got to say I'm very pleased at how the lace dress turned out, I'll be doing this again!

I hope you all have a very blessed week!