SORRY

So sorry to anyone who tried to read my late post.  I just noticed how bright and unreadable the text was with the colors I chose.  I changed the color so hopefully it's better.  Again Sorry.   I'm working on an everyday card right now using Stampi Ups Watercolor DSP pack.  I'll post the card later.  I  think I'll have our ladies make one at our gathering tomorrow night.  Check back later!

HAPPY CARDING

Easter step cards

HAPPY EASTER
HAPPY SPRING
HAPPY HAPPY
EVERYTHING!

One of my "absolute" favorite little saying!   don't know where I saw it or how long ago I first saw it but it has stuck in my head for a very long time!  
So today I want to share a couple Easter cards I made for my grand nieces and grand nephew.  I made the same one for my grand kids too but didn't want to post all since the only real difference is the color.  The little girl and boy are from the Stampin up Blessings set.  I used Glimmer Bazzill card stock and miscellaneous designer papers from Hobby Lobby.  The Happy Easter stamp was an old stamp I had that doesn't have a name on it.  Sorry.  I think they turned out really cute.

I try to send the kids a different card every year.  I hope all of you and your families have a very nice Easter this Sunday.  I will be hosting Easter dinner again this year.  Can't wait for the kids to have their egg hunt in our back yard.  Its so fun watching them running around.  Before I go here are a few closeups of the cards.

HAPPY CARDING

TIP ALERT!!!!

Being a bit on the thrifty side..I tend to try to get the most out of what I have.  So when my cricut mat got all gunked up, papers sticking, things ripping when I was trying to remove them...I decided it was time to have it re-surfaced.  So first I used some lemon oil that loosened the stickiness after it sat for awhile and scrubbed it off.  Once cleaned I then sprayed it with a stencil adhesive and TADA! A working mat again...unfortunately.. :( it had to be resprayed after each sheet of paper since stencil spray is temporary.  And after 3 resprays it needed to be resurfaced from scratch again!  WHAT A PAIN!!!  So I bought a new mat.  I should be happy right?   Nope!  I realized that after maybe 3 uses the images started ripping and the background paper was not coming off right.  This is ridiculous.  So I sent out a HELP message on Splitcoast Stampers and thanks to SOUTHGIRL I got a very pleasing tip.   Some of our papers are more fibrous than others so little bits of paper fibers stick to the mat,which gets caught on the blade, which causes cuts to rip and papers to not pull off right.  She suggested that periodically you just wash your mat.  Not strip it just wash it.  So I rinsed it with hot (very hot) water, rubbed a little Palmolive dish soap on it and lightly scrubbed it with an old toothbrush.  Then while still soapy I again lightly scrapped a razor blade across entire mat to slide all the fibers off.  Rinse the soap off (again in very hot water) and hung it with a clip in my dishwasher to air dry.   Oh My Goodness....what great results!  I've had this mat now for awhile and I find that at the end of the day when I'm completely finished using my Cricut I do a quick Rinse, Soap, and Scrape and my mat is in great shape the next time I want to use it.  Great way to extend the life of the mat without totally re-surfacing it.   Thanks to SOUTHGIRL .....great advise!

FLOWERS FLOWERS FLOWERS

I've been on a flower kick lately!  I saw a bunch of you tube video's and was super inspired!  Nearly all the flowers were made with the five petal flower punch and the medium five petal punch.  I mostly used all white watercolor paper and watercolored the colors on after they were punched.  Then while they were still wet I did the crunching and scrunching of each petal until I liked how the looked.  Some I air dried and others I was in too much of a hurry so I used the heat gun to fast set them..Layered them willy nilly until I liked how they looked and then glued down using glossy accents.  Some centers I used pearlys or rhinestones, others I just hid by scrunching a small sunburst punch out and glueing it to the middle.  Some I added glitter, others some homemade glimmer mist.  I love them!  Definately taking these to my ladies gathering on friday.  We all plan on making some more flowers but this time maybe with some dies for the Big Shot or Cricut.  I'll post what we make later.  Until then ... hope you enjoy my current bunch of flower embellishments!

Until Later....HAPPY CARDING!

Elegant Birthday

Birthdays, birthdays, birthdays......so many ideas floating around in my head but for now I had to come up with a card for my sister.  This particular sister is very critical of alot of things.  You can work hard frosting a cake and she"ll find the "1" crumb that hit the top of the frosting.  You sand a piece of wood and she"ll find the "1" little tiny dent in the wood.  So when I needed a card I had to make sure it was one that would be easy, with little on it that would get messed up.  So I opted for this white card.

I used a 5x7 card and on the first layer I just used my paper piercer and made a border all around the edges.  The next layer I placed in an embossing folder and rolled it through my big shot.  I then stamped and colored the flowers and leaves and fussy cut them out.  They were arranged on the card and then I used foam squares to layer.  Added a few pearls and the "Just for You" and DONE.  I see nothing she can find wrong (I hope).  Off in the mail it goes before I start second guessing myself.(which I tend to do)  Now to go let my creative juices run a little more at ease.  What shall I make next?  Think I need to stay true to my commitment of at least 1 Christmas card a month and get one done.  I think I missed this month.  Ohhhh...I also said I was going to do more manly cards.  Not following through is why I don't bother with New Years Resolutions!  LOL

Happy Carding!

Card night with the Ladies

Well I've had alot of stress around here lately so last week I really needed my night out with the "Ladies".  Though not all of us showed up it was a very productive evening with lots of laughs and conversation.  I'm really loving these gals!  We made a couple birthday cards and an everyday card.  I really loved the birthday card with the butterfly.  June originally made this card as a wedding card with a heart in the center and doves on the side.  Very pretty, but just as pretty tweaked into a birthday card with butterflies and flowers.

On the blueish card we used a large dragonfly stamp and did background stamping with a Kaleidoscope ink pad,  The effect was totally awesome.  I have got to get one of those pads.  We then fussy cute the dragonfly for the bottom right corner.  The candle birthday card was a cute idea too.  we rolled coordinating DSP into a tube, used the wing from the bird punch from Stampin Up  as the flame and some string for the wick.  Easy Peasy!  The butterfly card is a hanging  easel card.  I had never made one of these so it was and instructional evening as well.  We used 2 different size framelits for the archway.  The flowers hide the fold.  

  Now it's time to work on a Birthday card for my sister.  Wonder what I'll come up with?  Heehee!

Happy Carding!!!

CARD SIZES

So I have spent an entire weekend figuring out card sizes.  These are just basic measurements for basic cards and the size paper needed and size of envelopes needed.  So many numbers!!  I decided to make this because frequently I think of making a card and willy nilly wing my measurements.then I go crazy needing to make an envelope because my card ends up a smidgy too big for ANY envelope I already have.  My next step is to make a sheet of measurements for some of the "Fancy Fold" cards and envelopes.  That is definitely going to take me a while.  In the meantime I'm going to laminate what I have and hand them out to my club ladies the next time we meet.  Since I have never posted a file like this before, I can only hope that you too will be able to print it out for your use. 

Ok so I guess this has transferred ok, but what a pain...I had to change my file over to a picture file.  Which of course I had no idea how to do it.  Did a copy/paste onto a Microsoft "Picture it" thingy (yeah I know... I sound pretty computer illiterate) and then saved it as a picture file.  There has got to be a way to attach a word file to this blog but darned if I know.  Haha.  That's ok at least I got it posted.  Hope you find it useful.

Happy Carding!