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The cat is out of the bag so I can share my picture now. :-) SVGCuts Design Team members asked if we'd like to make a housewarming card for Leo and Mary using SVGCuts files. Here's my take with the house from "Strawberry Lane". I wish I had had more time to put little curtains... ;-) I just used vellum paper that I colored blue. The house is of course on foam tape.

For the sentiment I used My Thoughts Exactly "More mini Thoughts" stamps set. :-)

Happy Bird Day

I made this card for a friend using my favorite tools: dies!! ;-)
The branch is a leftover from another project (SVGCuts file) but the birds and house are by QuicKuts and the leaves are by Spellbinder. The twine is from The Twinery, and this cute patterned paper is from the cupcake pack from Recollection that I used for the cupcake lever card in my previous post... ;-)

Now how's that for bright and cheery!?...

Birthday Cupcakes lever cards

While I was cleaning my photo folders I found those 2 cards that I made last month and forgot to post...
They're lever cards made with SVGCuts files. The photos are crappy but I took them at night plus I had a hard time figuring out what angle would be best... ;-)
The cool cardstocks are from Recollection (Michaels' brand), stamps are PaperTrey Ink, and twine is Trendy Twine.

If you are not familiar with lever cards, this is what it looks like from the top. As you can see the moving element (here the cupcake) appears on the outside and on the inside of the card when you open it. SVGCuts has several files for lever cards, they're really easy to put together and really fun to receive! :-D

Lovebirds trio of boxes

This is my entry for SVG Cuts Valentine's Day challenge. It's been ages since I entered one of their challenges so this time I told myself I would do it no matter what! ;-)

I used the candy box and the heart pennants from "Love Me Do" collection. The little fence is from the "Love Bear Village"collection, and the birds are from "Robin's return" collection.

It's hard to get an idea of the scale on the pic but those are actually quite big, 5 1/2 " in height.

I used coordinating cardstocks so the color theme is the same for all. This is box 1.

This is box 2. I love that plaid with spring colors. <3 :-)

This is box 3.

Not sure what will go in the boxes so I just put some tissue paper in there for now, but in retrospect it might not have been a good idea, it makes it hard to see the details...  Oh well! LOL ;-) As always, click on any pic and you will get a bigger version. Plenty of details that way! :-)

I had initially planned on giving those to my kiddos for Valentine's day, but I think they are too cute and would be crushed too fast... >.<  So I am saving them instead... Bad Mommy!... LOL ;-)

Trendy Twine Tuesday: Baby Carriage

It's Trendy Twine Tuesday and this week it's my turn to share a project with you. :-)
The color we are showcasing this month is Chocolate Truffle, a beautiful mix of dark brown, caramel and white... :-)
For my project I decided to do a gift-card holder for friends who just welcomed their 6th boy!... :-)

It all started because of this cute little bear giftcard I found at Target and I instantly thought about the awesome little baby carriage Mary designed for SVGCuts.com. I was right because it was the perfect size, and they are quite a smashing duo I think... ;-)

I used some Chocolate Truffle Twine to make a little criss-cross pattern on the hood of the carriage, and also added some little bows on the sides.

Then I used some of the Sky Trendy Twine to make a little stitching on the sides too. It's hard to see in my pic but the cardstock is actually ivory colored and the twine is cream and pale blue colored. It has this soft vintage feel that makes it perfect for baby projects. :-)

If I had more time I would have added a line braided twine handle to mimic the carriage handlebar, but unfortunately time was of the essence... :-( This definitely was a fun project though and I love the result! :-)

My Thoughts Exactly Thursday and my 1st step card...

It's My Thoughts Exactly Thursday! Today it's my turn and my evil twin Bee's turn to show you our projects.
So I made a step card! Believe it or not in 4 years of papercrafting I have never made a step card. They are really simple to make and they are a lot of fun. :-)

I used a svg file from SVGCuts.com for my card base, but if you like step cards go visit Alyssa's blog, she has an easy video tutorial on how to make them, plus lots of cool step cards of her own... :-)
The clam, seaweeds, starfishes, and crab, are svgs from Lettering Delights. And my sentiment is from the  Under the Sea stamps set.

I'm sending this card to my niece who's recovering from pneumonia, I'm sure this will cheer her up. :-)

Trendy Twine Tuesday: Thanksgiving Centerpiece

For this Trendy Twine Tuesday I made a Centerpiece for Thanksgiving. :-)

I had to take a TON of pictures, and do it again because they were blurry... I think I am suffering from the mental fog of Halloween Candy hangover... So settle down comfortably because there will be a lot... ;-)
My cat absolutely wanted to be part of the photo shoot and I didn't have time to fight him over this, so he is on all the pics... ;-) He was even nibbling at my project!!... >.<

I started with a little wreath from Michaels, then added some fall leaves that I bought on the side with a hot glue gun. Then I took popsicle sticks that I wrapped in Chocolate Truffle Trendy Twine (after putting some double sided tape on both sides of them for extra hold) to make my little posts, and I also used some Orange Truffle Trendy twine to make little "rings" to attach around my centerpiece...

I actually used toilet paper rolls as my base for those. I think I might have to make napkin rings now to match my project!! ;-)

Then I added little Fall details on my poles. I am grateful as a papercrafter to have so many options to get cool svgs so I used some of my favorite companies and put them all together in a happy circle!...
The Give Thanks caption was a freebie from SVGCuts.com.

On the other side I used this gratitude caption, also a freebie from SVG Cuts. :-)

The stunning sunflower is part of the 3D flowers collections at SVGCuts also.

The apple is from Lettering Delights.

The Fall caption and leaves are also from Lettering Delights. (I used Nestabilities for my base)

The Acorn is also from Lettering Delights.

And last but not least, my pumpkin is a tag from the Halloween collection at SVGs by Bee. I added a tiny bow of Twisted Lime Trendy Twine.

I cut every shape (but the Thanks/gratitude tag) twice using a mirror effect so that I could glue them on both sides of the sticks and make it look good from every angle. I used glue at the base of my stick to hold to the shape and then pop dots between the front and back of the shape to accommodate for the added bulk of the stick and give a tad of dimension.

I hope you liked my project today and will be inspired to make some Thanksgiving decorations on your own. If you do feel free to link them into the comments section.

For more Trendy Twine inspiration visit the design team members' blogs:
* Kimberly
* Alyssa

(This is my second post of the day, so if you are looking for the My Thoughts Exactly release post, just scroll down. :-))

"My Thoughts Exactly Thursday" (part 1) : Fairy Dust

It's Thursday and this week it is my turn and Bee's turn to post our My Thoughts Exactly Design Team projects. :-)
I made this card for one of my nieces whose birthday is coming up... Every little girl love fairies, right?...

I used a fairy silhouette SVG that was a freebie from SVG Cuts (cut it out twice to have 2 arms and 2 wings), and used a beautiful dark blue shimmery cardstock (from PTI), and added a little bit of stickles for the "fairy dust"... ;-) (with that sentiment there HAD to be sparkle somewhere!... ;-))
The gift is made by simply cutting out a square and tying Trendy Twine around it. :-) (couldn't decide on the yummy colors, so had to use 2! ;-))

For the sentiment I used the Sweet Thoughts set, and wanted to have a little fun with it so I bent my stamps to give them this little curve and then cut my little banner around it by hand...

This is my post #1 for today since I took a lot of pics for my card #2. If you missed it post #2 is just above this one... :-)
Don't forget to visit  Alyssa's and  Bee's blogs today for more projects!... :-D

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 ;-))

Mother's day

I made this card for my Mom using my leftover blooms from the SVGCuts challenge (I had cut extra on purpose ;-)). The background paper is japanese paper, and the flowers match perfectly (both have that cute little indentation I like so much). I like this card but there's something bugging me, I can't quite put my finger on it... I think it is probably the lack of contrast between the blooms and the background paper (although it's not as bad in real life since there is a texture difference between the 2), and maybe the fact that the dark brown branch is the only thing really contrasting? Also I think I could lose the embossed white band at the bottom, but then it would be even more monochromatic... Or maybe it's because I don't like the color combo pink + purple?...
I'm pretty sure however, that my Mom won't mind and that she will be less critical!... ;-)

Carnet de Voyage

Naomi is turning 10 next week... and the lucky girl will go to France this summer as her gift. She will spend almost 4 weeks at her grandparents, in the suburbs of Paris. She'll go visit Paris and other parts of France, maybe even the French Riviera where she was born right before we moved back to the States... She'll get to walk to the bakery for a fresh baked baguette and eat all kind of cheeses, or go to the farmer's market and choose from an array of fresh produces. She'll get to spend time with family, meet her distant cousins... and just have a wonderful time! :-)
I am so jealous! >.<  But because I am a nice mom still, I made her a little "Travel diary" to take with her so she can write things from her trip that she wants to remember, and write her thoughts when she is homesick too... ;-)
It was the 1st time I used my Cinch and let's say I ran into a few problems... I used svg files from the SVGCuts collection "Cherry Blossom" and the freebie branch, and the Eiffel Tower is from their "Amelie's Accessories" collection. I handcut the leaves and the tag is made with a Papertrey die. I kept everything super flat, the opposite of if this was a card, so that hopefully the decorations will stay on the notebook all summer long, even with this being put in and out of a bag. I still have my doubts, but we shall see!... :-s

Gift cards SVGCuts' style...

First let me apologize about the crappy picture but those are on their way to school first thing tomorrow morning so I had to take my pic at dusk which is never really successful for me... ;-)

Next week is teacher's appreciation week and Naomi's room Mom wanted to present the teacher with a different giftcard everyday (ambitious project!), so I made little giftcard holders for her. I have no clue what giftcards she got, except one for a massage so I just used a little bit of everything.... ;-)
All files are from SVGCuts. The ladybug was a freebie (because yes, they're cool like that and give a lot of freebies away... ;-)) and the rest is from the "Give a gift card" collection.

My little guy has croup right now so time was of the essence and I kept them rather simple (of course I forgot to run my ladybug in the Cuttlebug before assembly...) but they can obviously be spruced up.
As usual Mary paid attention to the little details, and these are a cinch to put together! :-)

Smell the roses...

Here is my project for the "Cherry Blossom Challenge" on SVGCuts.com's forum.

I LOVE everything cherry blossom, I have fond memories of the huge cherry tree that was in my garden when I was a child... So when the challenge got posted my creative wheel started turning right away... the problem is, my mind was going in all kind of (very) different directions at the same time, and I couldn't decide on one option!...

It quickly became clear I wanted something a little different, so I thought this paper would work well with big colorful blooms. Now if you know me, you know that black & white isn't really a combo I use a lot in papercrafting. I find it too cold and strict. I tried to soften it up here by using a lot of patterns that ressemble old french wallpaper.

I made a little sheet music with stamps, and used the page of an old novel because I like text background a lot... (It cracked me up that the title was "Late Bloomer" so I just had to use it! ;-))

I tried using novel pages in my cricut to cut SVG's but it didn't go well at all! The paper got torn, even on a lower speed... :-(

I made my 3D blooms using the Sakura flower from the cherry blossom collection. I am so glad Mary included this simple flower in the collection as I really really love the little indentation on the end of the petal... It's my favorite one. :-)  They remind me of peonies this way, and peonies are my favorite flowers (with lilac blooms and cherry blossoms... ;-)) It's hard to see in the picture but I also cut the foliage twice and added leaves on pop-dots here and there to give it more dimension.

I finished it off with a little tag with a sentiment, and little pearls on the opposite corner, and hung it on the wall next to my crafting desk. Initially it was going to be a card, but as I was adding things on it it got bigger (it's 6X6), and the blooms are so full that they would be an issue to mail, so I glued it on a cereal box chipboard and made a little hanging sign instead... :-)

I love the end result and I had fun playing out of my "color comfort zone"... ;-)

ETA: My entry was 3rd in the challenge! :-D

Strawberry waterfall

Since I'm on waterfall mode, I made this card for my niece, using again SVGCuts' files.
Instead of the flowers cut-out from the original file, I used a strawberry (from Strawberry Lane) to match my paper.

For the following panels I stamped my sentiments and little strawberries...

I'm sorry about the color of my last pics, they came out really weird and my editor just wouldn't let me fix them the right way! >:-( (It might be time to invest in Photoshop elements...)

Birthday Dino

I made this Dino waterfall card for my nephew, using Mary's cool files (Waterfall Cards from SVGCuts. com). These files are a breeze to work with!... :-)

This is the inside of the mouth, where I stamped my birthday wishes... :-)
I hope at 7 he isn't too old for dinosaurs!... ;-)

(speaking of which, you can barely see in the pic but a big lizard was sunbathing on my window ledge when I was taking the pic, I thought it was funny so I included him... It's the tiny little black thing at the bottom right corner. LOL)

Birthday Party Favors

I made those little party favors for my son's class, to bring tomorrow along with some brownies, since his birthday will be Saturday.

I kept my design ultra simple since those are 7 or 8 years old autistic kids we are talking about, and this will likely be ripped open before you can say "happy birthday Noah"!... ;-)

I used the "Treat boxes" file from Lettering Delights, and combined it with a little present cut-out on the sides from "3-D Birthday Cards" file from SVGCuts... (What can I say, I love combining LD and SVGCuts together... :-))

I filled those with stickers, a bouncy ball, a gross stretchy lizard and candy... :-)

Birthday Polar Bear

I made this card for my son's 8th birthday (coming up next Saturday), using SVGCuts files. I know it looks more like a card for a 4 years old kid, but my son is autistic so I need to adapt...  :-S He loves polar bears and we are going to Seaworld this week-end to celebrate, so I thought this would be appropriate... I have made cards in the past that he barely looked at, so I am trying to grab his attention with this one... ;-)

I can't believe he'll be 8 already, it is so hard for me to grasp because his bevahior is so not the behavior of a 8 years old, but he is so tall that he looks almost like a 10 years old and his handicap is only getting more noticeable as he gets older... :-( When he was diagnosed (the day after his 2nd birthday) I thought things would get better over time... Some things have gotten better, and I still have high hopes for the future, but at the time I didn't realized (or refused to see) that new challenges would arise as he got older. This past year has been difficult. He managed to escape the house, without us noticing it, to go play by the lake behind our house... He has absolutely no notion of danger and is a constant worry for us. He is also a beautiful and sweet little 8 years old boy that I love to pieces. I wish I could tell you that he is happy and that it's all that counts, unfortunately life is full of frustrations for him and it is heartbreaking to watch him struggle for everything. :-(
I'm sure he will have a good time this week-end with the dolphins, killer whales and polar bears and penguins, and in the hotel pool (I swear he must have been a dolphin in a previous life!! :-)) and in the meantime I hope he enjoys my happy little polar bear card... :-)