Let's play punch buggy!

A very simple (post)card I made using the cool stickers that come in the Country Drive kit from Echo Park! 
My daughter loves to play "punch buggy" with me when we are driving around, and today I saw 6 of them while I was out running errands and it made me think about her so I just had to make her this card! When I saw the car sticker in the paper kit I knew I would use it for her eventually!... ;-) I have to say I am very impressed with those stickers, they are thick and sturdy. :-) I just added a little bit of details with markers and some twine and voila!... :-D

For the back I made it look like a postcard using PTI stamps. Isn't that cute little postage stamp just adorable? I used my favorite little bee from one of my Fluffles stamps on it, the one I use to "sign" my cards on the back... ;-) For the twine I decided to make it fun and just punched 2 holes through the card and tied 2 different colors in the front and in the back.

I think she'll have a kick out of that 5mn card! :-D

Free yourself from cartridges once and for all! :-D



                                                                  
                                                                CHECK IT OUT!


Wow, Lettering Delights did it again! They never stop to amaze me!
This time they are bringing new types of files to LD, and to celebrate that they are offering a crazy bundle!
Let me explain. There are now a lot of different cutting machines on the market. The monopoly of ProvoCrap is over, we have other options! Now the tricky part is that not all of those machines use the same types of files. The most common files are SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and that's what LD was selling up until now. However they are adapting to the market fast and just released a collection of simples shapes (meaning single layer) in other types of files to be used with different types of cutters.

Below is their comparison chart for the different types of files and different cutting machines:



To celebrate Lettering Delights style, they are offering this bundle of shapes for $49 (instead of the retail $150) for the next 2 weeks only! (till Friday July 15th if I got it right, LOL).
Now if you have bought stuff from LD before (they also sell graphics, fonts, clip-arts, doodlebats...), you know that every time they send you your invoice by e-mail there is also a 25% off coupon attached for a future purchase... They even send it to you when you're only getting freebies, just as long as it goes through your cart and the checkout process...
Now I'm sure you are following... that means that this bundle, if you apply your 25% off coupon, only costs $36.75!  That is for 50 collections, 780 files alltogether!! I think you will be impressed by the diversity. I say it's time to lose the cartridges alltogether. :-)

You can check this bundle here.

My Thoughts Exactly sneak peek

My Thoughts Exactly 1st stamps release will be July 1st, but Alyssa gave me the green light to share my very first project with you as a little sneak peek...
When I won Echo Park paper "Country Drive" pad and saw the little birds in there I instantly thought about pairing them with "The birds and the bees" stamps set! :-)
I used tracing paper to make a copy of the bird sticker and made my own cardstock bird, and the birdhouse is an svg from Lettering Delights. (couldn't resist adding little birds at the openings... ;-))

The little window was cut out with a Nestabilities, and the sentiment stamped on the inside of the card.

I'm sending this to my daughter Naomi who left for France today with her grandparents. She is 10 and it's the 1st time she goes on vacation without us! :-S She will be gone for 4 weeks so I plan on sending her a few cards... :-)

(As always click on the pic for a bigger version)

Noah's Father's Day tie

Well it's Father's Day and thank you LD for saving people like me that always wait for the last minute... ;-)  (Oh and before I forget, Lettering Delights is currently having a sale: 50% off everything summer themed! :-D)

Here I used the "Dad is Tops cards and bag kit" and this was a cinch to put together. I asked my autistic son Noah to color some cardstock for me and I cut the tie from this one of a kind pattern. :-D
I used a lot of foam tape between layers but kept everything monochromatic to not take away from the tie.

We also printed the little coupon book (another great limited time freebie!) but I don't know where it is so I couldn't add it to the picture. :-) My cat however was adamant that he was not going to vacate the premises just for a silly picture, so there he is, hesitating to bite the card....

I couldn't resist and took a pic while he was yawning... Look at those teeths!! :-S

I hope you all had a great Father's day with the men in your lives. :-D

My Thoughts Exactly Design Team! :-D

Do you remember the Design Team call I was telling you about last week?
Well I'm happy to announce that I have been selected to be part of the My Thoughts Exactly design team!  :-D I am beyond thrilled and so excited!! :-D *happy dance*
Alyssa is awesome and her stamps are super cute and playful. Believe me when I tell you you'll love them as much as I do! :-D
The icing on the cake is that this team of amazing talented ladies, includes my dear friends Belinda (aka Bee, my evil twin... ;-)) and Thienly! :-D
And just so you can judge for yourself, here is the line up:

* Thienly Azim of Mod Paperie
* Lenae Gem of Sugar Gem
* Jessica Lattimer of Crafty Rocket Science
* Jennifer Rzasa of Our Change Of Art
* Belinda Brown of Bee's Hive O'Drama
* Me!! :-)

I am so looking forward to this! Thank you Alyssa for placing your trust in me! :-)

PS: If my fellow teammates stop by to say Hi, I tried to leave comments on your blogs but Blogger is still having issues and kicking me off as anonymous! >:-(

Nathan's first day of school...

My little guy went to school for the 1st time today. He is only 28 months old, and it broke my heart to have to let go of my baby so early. After 3 miscarriages and 3 C-sections my body is done having babies, so every little step is a last one for us, since this is our last baby!... ;-)
But no matter how much I enjoy my little Nathan's company it would be selfish to keep him home, especially since he is all over the place, throwing things in the toilets several times a day, or washing his feet in the cat's water bowl, and so forth... ;-)
Nathan seems to be a bit of a late bloomer and because his brother is autistic he has been especially on our radar. We had him evaluated, which didn't bring a definite answer, and it was highly recommended that we put him in school a little bit so that he could interact and play with kids his age.
That's basically why he is starting school this early, to socialize.
But no matter the reason, it was an emotional day for me... :-( When I came to pick him up he was sitting on the floor next to the door, sucking his thumb and with a big tear on his cheek, watching the door... The minute he saw me he got up and started crying!! And he was only there for 2 hours! LOL ;-)

Anyways, to make the transition easier, and because he seems to be quite visual, I made him a little booklet with pictures I took yesterday at his school. We looked at it yesterday night, and this morning again before going to school so that he would, hopefully, know a little better what to expect...

I used SVGCuts files to decorate the cover and a basic font in SCAL.

Inside I put pictures of the playground, the classroom, his teachers, the bathroom...

The toys, the alphabet on the wall (he is obsessed with letters and numbers!... ;-))... everything that could make this space more familiar for him, (and more loveable! ;-))

And I finished it off with numbers on the back cover (from the same SVGCuts file), just for his pleasure... :-)

I laminated everything (which is why the pictures look so weird ;-)), punched holes with my Crop-a-dile, and attached little rings and ribbons.
I think he likes it so far! (the booklet, not going to school, LOL ;-))

Purple Birthday...

No you are not dreaming, finally a card on my blog!! LOL Well, what can I say, life is crazy! I'm sure most of you can relate... ;-)
This card I made for my friend Bee's birthday is a huge card actually, since it's made of a whole 8.5X11 sheet of ivory cardstock as the base. I really like the DP I used and wanted a big background to really showcase it!  (If you want it big too, just click on the pic... ;-))
I cut-out the wings of some of the butterflies right from the paper to give them a little lift... and added one made with a die cut. I played around with transfer paper a little bit to see if it could stand up for vellum at a fraction of the cost and I have to say, it's not bad! :-)
I used a mail themed stamps set from PTI to decorate my paper further and make a mini stamp for the corner. I used as much purple as possible since it's her favorite color... ;-)

For a little bit of a surprise inside I made those buttons with a die, using one layer of DP and one layer of cardstock (cereal box! ;-)). I glued them together with my mini Xyron, perfect for that kind of project when you want glue on all the surface but don't want to use liquid glue which will make the paper warp... The colors of my pic are horrendous, I swear they're not as ugly in real life (but I cannot take another pic since I mailed them today, LOL)!.. ;-)

School project: sorting worksheets

I know my blog has been very quiet in the creativity department lately.... but it's the end of the school year and I have lots of odds and ends to take care of... >.< I am looking forward to crafting just for pleasure again soon, but right now it's just not happening, especially with a sick toddler in my hair!!... ;-)
One of the things on my to-do list was to finish my volunteer hours for my son's school. I finally got to it and made those sorting worksheets using my Cricut cartridges Everyday dolls and Dress Up Dolls.
I've made those before for a previous classroom and they are fun to make, however they are time consuming since everything has to be laminated then cut again, then velcro added on every piece.
This time to make things a little easier I cut everything out of white cardstock and then colored the pieces with my Prismacolor markers (alcohol based markers).

It's hard to see on the pics for the categories, I did: In the kitchen/in the bathroom, for the beach/when it's raining, musical instruments/transportation, toys/food.