Laura, Piggie and Gerald...

It's my niece's birthday next Friday. Laura is turning 6 and she loves to read "Piggie and Gerald" books. Last time she came to visit us in Florida, we went to the book store together... and shortly after, those 2 (see picture below) were taking a plane to Connecticut... ;-)

So, when I made her birthday card, I just had to make a Piggie and a Gerald to go with Laura...

I used the Cricut "Everyday dolls" cartridge to make my Laura, and SVG Cuts files (Cuddly Animals part 1 and 2) for my Piggie and Gerald.

I had lots of fun, although let me tell you, inking the edges of those tiny parts and putting foam tape behind them was quite a job for my big clumsy hands... ;-)

And I realized afterwards that I should have used darker ink on my elephant since it barely shows and that the eyes should have been a tad different (forgot the eyebrows!) to look more like the comic book... but I think she'll know who those 2 are and I think she should get a kick out of it!.... ;-)

Strawberries Harvest

SVG Cuts' challenge for August has been posted and this time the requirement is to use one of their pop-up files. I know most people think Fall when they read Harvest, but I live in Florida and I am not quite ready for Fall just yet!... I decided to celebrate the sunny days of summer, and their strawberries' harvest.

My card is pretty straight forward: a lot of layering with foam tape and glue dots, a little bit of texture with embossing folders, and a tad of coloring or inking here and there...

I don't usually take my pictures in the sun, but today I thought it enhanced the summery feel of my card... ;-)

I used SVG Cuts files, the "Chamomille Friendship Cards" for the picket fence, flower pot, and bees. And the "Strawberry Lane" for the strawberries and leaves.

The inside is a Fall Pop-Up Card. I added the "berry sweet" caption and a strawberry leaf from Strawberry Lane.

        

I'll send this card to my sweet e-friend Bee who lives in California. She's the one who introduced me to the awesome goodness of SVGCuts.com, so I sure owe her one!! :-D

We both are nicknamed "Bee", so the 2 little bees on the card represent us... ;-)

ETA: My card tied for 2nd place in the challenge! :-D

In the spotlight: Mod Paperie

http://modpaperie.blogspot.com/  

If you're a familiar from my blog (are there any of you left? LOL) you might have noticed that my sidebar with all the blogs to visit disappeared. It's because it's too hard to keep up with everyone, and since my baby was born my "blog-surfing-days" are mostly over... :-S
If you were on that list it doesn't mean I don't like what you're doing anymore or anything like that!... ;-) I miss a lot of you fellow papercrafters, but there's only so many hours in a day...


Every now and then though, I run into a blog I really want to share with others, and I will keep highlighting those in my "in the spotlight" section! :-D
Today I want to tell you about Thienly's blog: Mod Paperie. She is my "SVG/S.C.A.L/Cricut Hero"! ;-D She comes up with the most beautiful projects, always using gorgeous coordinating colors and paying special attention to details, shading, depth...
Mary and Leo were right on it and made her the 1st SVG Cuts designer! :-) You can follow her papercrafting adventures on her blog and also on the svgcuts.com blog under "Thienly's spot" in the craft zone. By the way, if you haven't visited SVG Cuts' blog yet, you don't know what you're missing!... ;-)

Birthday Tiger

My niece's birthday is coming up, and I decided to finally try the cute little critters from SVG Cuts. I set my sight on the little tiger, shrunk him down to 50% so that I would still have room on the card... I used giftwrap as the background (love doing that) and for my little balloon. I forgot to run my white cardstock in my Cuttlebug before gluing my tiger together (on foam tape, of course ;-)) and I didn't like that it was flat so I enhanced it with a few polka dots of Stickles! Samantha is 4, so we needed some glitter somewhere, right!?... Especially since I already skipped the classic pink and purple tones... ;-)
I am looking forward to making the whole collection of those little cuties very soon.... ;-)

Happy 70

I made this card for my father-in-law's birthday, using giftwrap as my background, numbers from the SCAL library and a little blue bird from "Robins return" (SVG Cuts) for good luck. Added a little ribbon for visual interest, but as you can see, I am still not in my comfort zone with masculine cards! So it had to be simple! LOL... ;-)

Big bold flowers

I made those 2 cards a little while ago with some leftover cut out flowers and leaves that happened to match some leftover paper I had... ;-)

I am not completely happy with them but cannot figure out why exactly. I think probably the big scale of the flowers... Or maybe it's the prominence of the yellow, the only color I really dislike... ;-)

I embossed some of the flowers with the Cuttlebug and then highlighted some parts with a versamark pen and heat embossed with clear powder (which doesn't show on the pic, but brings a little bit of gloss on the pattern).

Baby brown bear

A simple baby card I made for my cousin who recently welcomed a baby girl.

It took me forever, I am beyond rusty!! The bear's nose and paws are paper pieced, and of course he is mounted on foam tape. Given the time of day I had to take my pic in the sun which obviously isn't perfect, the bear is actually brown, not greenish.... LOL ;-)

Window garland mini tutorial

As I am trying to not buy stamps this year, I have been buying SVG files instead, LOL ;-), and also using my Cricut cartridges, like I did here since my laptop was out of commission and I couldn't access my SVG files. I made a little garland with my daughter, to decorate the vertical window panels next to my front door. It's an easy and fun way to make seasonal decorations! :-)

Supplies:
- cardstock flowers and leaves of different sizes and colors.
- ribbon (gros grain works well)
- buttons
- hot glue gun
(and ink)

Start by inking the edges of all the cut pieces. This takes a little time but gives depth.
Using the hot glue gun, attach the flowers and leaves on the ribbon, then flip your design and do the other side. This way your project will look good from inside and outside.

Finish it off with buttons in the flowers' centers.

Hang in front of the window and enjoy!... :-)
(As always, clicking on the pics will give you a larger version.)

For regular windows, I'd suggest cutting several lenghts of ribbon of different size/length and hanging them vertically in a random fashion.
I'm looking forward to making more of those with different themes like maybe Back to school, Halloween, Holidays, even birthday stuff, seasons...
As they are exposed to the sun they will fade out eventually, but they are so easy and fast to make that there should be another one ready to take its place in no time!... ;-)

[I apologize for the weird/disjointed layout but Blogger gave me a hell of a time and just didn't want to let me place my pics where I wanted... >:-(...]

Citrusy Thanks

I have been gone for so long!... I had some computer problems, my laptop crashed and the hard drive had to be replaced, but luckily we were able to retrieve my svg files and such! Phew!...

In the meantime I wasn't uploading or posting anything!... :-(

I made this card a while ago, for Catherine (http://www.thedancingpear.blogspot.com/) after winning this stamp set on her blog. :-) You might not know this but, a few months ago, I decided I wouldn't buy any stamps till the end of the year. Let's face it, I still have stamps that haven't been inked yet (shame!! but time is an issue...) and well, this little hobby of mine can be rather costly so I'm trying to be reasonnable... So it was a pleasant surprise to win some stamps... ;-)

Now this is a stamps set all about tea (created in collaboration between Catherine Doucette and Lauren Meader for My Time Made Easy), but I live in Florida and I decided to show my love for citrus and the sunshine state by using the little lemon slice and no tea themed stamp instead...

The colors on my pic are a little off, I swear it is less fluorescent in real life... ;-)

Tickets Holder mini tutorial

I have never made a tutorial but I always enjoy seeing them on other blogs, so I thought I would take pics as I was making a little booklet to hold Naomi's tickets.
(We are starting a ticket/points system in our household to help with the concept of shores ;-) and also keep count on TV watching or wii playing.)
I thought the whole thing would be more fun with a cute little holder to keep earned tickets in! :-)

Supplies:

- strip of carstock 9 1/2" X 2 5/8"
- 3 coins envelopes no. 3 (2 1/2" X 4 1/4")
- paper trimmer/scorer
- corner rounder
- 2 magnetic strips
- 1" hole punch
- 3 tabs (I used a die by PTI to cut out mine)
- ink pad
- adhesive tape of any kind
- embellishments (& ribbon + hole punch if you wish)


Start by cutting the envelopes' top off. The 1st one at 2 1/2, the 2nd at 2 7/8 and the 3rd at 3 2/8. Then use the 1" hole punch to make a little indentation on the front of the envelopes (for easier access to the tickets).
(Obviously this can be made to whatever size, I just left a little space between each layer. I skipped that step on the one I made for myself (see further below).)
Next add the little tabs on each pocket/envelope.

Stack the envelope on top of each other and trim the last one, then ink the edges.

That leaves you with this.

Glue the envelopes on top of each other by running 2 stripes of adhesive in the middle line of the back of each envelope and then stacking it on the next one.

Gluing only the middle part of the envelopes enables for some "accordion effect".

Take your cardstock strip and score at 2", 2 1/4", 6", 6 1/4". Then round the 4 corners.
Run your ink pad around the edges of the cardstock and let dry...

Glue your back envelope to the carstock.

Add the little magnetic strips facing each other. Decorate tabs if you wish.

Decorate the outside of your ticket holder.

There you have it. I don't know how to call this but let's just say a little holder for all kinds of little notes, wallet size pics and such...

Below is the one I made for myself to store the tickets I will be giving away! ;-) It's the same model, the only difference is I didn't cut "easy access half moons" and I left all the envelopes the same size... I think it looks better this way but I was looking for practicality with the 1st one... If it's gonna be handled often by a kid, they need to be able to get easily to the contents... ;-) Although the good thing it that those are so easy to make that you can just make a new one when the old one gets torn. And since the coins envelopes come in package of 250 I think I am all set for quite a while!! ;-)

I think I will make more of those to hold other little things like stamps and address labels, or the box tops I clip for the kids' schools, etc...

Well I hope my explanations were as simple as the project is. If not please let me know, I am open to constructive criticism!... ;-)

If you make your own little holders please share a link in the comment section! :-)

Notebooks & gift-card holders

Another end of year gift. For Noah's teachers, I got Amazon giftcards, so I just needed a little packaging... ;-) I decided to make little notebooks to go with it (using PTI pads).

The fun cardstock is from DCWV. Stamps are from PTI. I'm beating myself up a bit for not inking the edges of all the pieces, it would have added some definition. But then again I was in a rush and I forgot! :-(

(Also I don't know what happened to my pics but the colors are really off, I was able to correct them only to some extent. In real life the pink heart is actually more red so it doesn't clash that much with the "notes" embossing. ;-))

End of year teacher's gifts

I made those mini (3X3) Thank You cards sets for Naomi's teachers for the end of the school year. The room Mom was taking care of giftcards for us, but I wanted to do a little something personal on top of it. I used SVG Cuts files (Linus 3D Fall cards if I remember correctly) .

I had changed my blade just before starting that project but I'm not sure the settings on my Cricut were right because I had a little bit of trouble with the stitched design. It's wonderful that the machine does it all for you, but it still takes quite some time to cut little intricate designs like those. And since I made the envelopes too, I limited my projects to 12 cards, 6 of each design, and gave 3 apples and 3 sunflowers to each teacher. I would have loved to do 10 cards for each, but time was (again!) of the essence, and even as is, the whole project took me a few hours (granted, lately I am very slow! ;-))

It's hard to see on the pics but the open design is actually raised from the card which gives it a cool effect. (you can click on pics for a larger view).

This is the little card I made to write a little note to go with my gift (PTI stamps). I simply tied my little sets with a lenght of brown taffeta ribbon.

Then I slipped a little set with the little card, and 2 little Ghirardelli squares (at Naomi's suggestion! ;-)), in each of those little bags and that was it! :-) The little bags are also from a SVG Cuts file. It's amazing how fast and easy they come together. Love it!

I hope the teachers loved it. I had fun working on those, I just wish my brain was connecting as fast as my SCAL is!... ;-)

Birthday pinwheel

This is the card I made for my daughter's 9th birthday. The card was belated (oops!) but she forgave me since it allowed me to get cool new svg files for lever cards... ;-) She was quite impressed with the mechanism... :-D

I went a little overboard with buttons but hey, it's for Naomi, and it didn't have to go in an envelope... ;-)

For NieNie

Today I want to share a card I made for someone truly special, that I don't even know.

I discovered the existence of Stephanie Nielson, and her blog NieNie's Dialogues (http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/ ), shortly after her nearly fatal plane crash in August of 2008, through a prayer call on another papercrafter's blog.

Since then I followed her journey through hell and back, and let me tell you, this woman has been touched by grace. If you have a bad day and are feeling cranky about your little headache, go read about life as a Mom of 4 trying to handle everyday life while copying with constant pain and multiple reconstructive surgeries.

This all put things back into perspective, in a very sad way, but also an uplifting one. Because if she can live that life and still smile and be the woman that she is, so can we all.

Stephanie is a mormon. I am not, but I believe her life will touch you whatever your faith...

My card was inspired by a picture of her from before the accident. The whole family is outside, all dressed up for Sunday, and she is wearing this bright red lipstick that reminds me of cherries... I used (cuttlebugged) vellum cardstock to make a window so you actually see through the front of the card. The polka dots reminded me of her (and her kids') freckles... ;-)

"Empty" Flowers

Any papercrafter will tell you this: we don't like wasting paper! ;-) We love, use, and abuse every little piece of paper leftover... So after I cut those flowers the other day for an explosion box (with the SCAL and my Cricut), I knew I had to use their mirrored image in a way or another... ;-)
So I distressed the edges of the flowers and dots with a file (a little over the cardstock surface too) and propped that piece of cardstock on foamtape to accentuate the "empty" petals effect. For once I used the fact that this cardstock has a white core (which annoys me every time I use it for a box! ;-)) to my advantage by tearing it up. Then I just adhered some buttons, and to bring a little life in my plain design I added some Stickles here and there. This card is for my hubby's Grandma and she deserves some sparkle! :-D

Simple gift boxes...

I feel almost ashamed to show you this project, because it so doesn't give justice to the wonderful template I used! I wish I had time to go the extra mile, use designer paper and embellishments... but time was of the essence so it had to be quick and effective... so I just used this beautiful textured cardstock from DCWV that I just adore. (It's impossible to see in the pic but the cardstock has a linen texture which is gorgeous.)

I used another SVG template for this project. This one is the Flower Box from "Tied Surprise Gift Boxes" from SVG Cuts. With 9 different templates in that file you are sure to find one that suits your needs!! I was totally blown away at how easily those came together! I didn't even have to resize anything, I just connected computer and Cricut and there you have everything that came out, isn't it amazing? Now that's what I call real time savers!...

I made those for my kids' teachers, with some Lindt Truffles inside, for teacher's appreciation week. I was a week late, but we got plagued with stomach flu and there was only so much I could do in time... ;-) I'm sure they'll appreciate the truffles nonetheless... ;-)

If your Cricut is sitting there collecting dust, and you haven't gotten the nerve to try your SCAL yet... I urge you to give this a try! Those templates came together in a cinch and I cannot wait to use them again and jazz them up next time... :-D

SVG Blooms

This card was made using my computer, SCAL and Cricut. The SVG file is for 3D flowers (http://www.svgcuts.com/) but I made my design rather flat because it had to be mailed easily to France. The pot is one of their freebie files. :-) I had fun with it, even if it took me forever since I was playing around with the program... ;-) I really love the result and can't wait to try a much bigger size and real 3D blooms this time, like a real paper bouquet!... :-D

Jungle Birthdays

Still playing with Melanie's furry friends, I made those birthday cards for my twin nephew and niece. She gets the zebra, he gets the giraffe. I used giftwrapping as my background because I thought it looked so cute. The banners and added animals are on foam tape, of course... ;-)

Somebunny's birthday...

It had been too long since I last played with Melanie's little critters... So today I used her bunny to wish my 2 years old niece a happy birthday. I love this springy paper by DCWV, and cut out some of the flowers to place them in the bunny's basket, same with the little butterfly I added on the ear. Bunny is on foam tape for some added dimension.

This card makes me happy. :-D

Flowers & stripes

Simple Thank You card that gives the paper center stage.... I punched little holes in the top scallop to match the bottom one. The cool paper is by DCWV... :-)