Flowery Heart Card

The cutout is from the Botanicals Lite cartridge, cut out on Core'dinations cardstock (sanded with the Tim Holtz sander). The card base is Simply Chartreuse from Papertrey Ink with a matching Papertrey Ink button.

The cutout is matted on some K&Co paper and black paper. I used a craft knife to make slits in the mat and put ribbon in so it's wrapped through all the layers of the mat. Then I threaded the ribbon through the two holes of the button and tied a bow. The ribbon is also Papertrey Ink (comes on a spool) and is the very essence of gossamer :D.

updated: It just felt incomplete and I finally decided to add some of the clear decorative accents I've been using as eyes, only this time I put a drop of Pearl Ranger Alcohol Ink on them.

Out of This World Party Layout

I started by cutting out the silhouette planet from the Cricut Life's a Party cartridge. Then I cut a new monster like the one I did for TheBugBytes from the B is for Boys Cricut Lite cartridge skewing the image for the shadow.

This time I added a party hat from Straight from the Nest (trimming off the scallops) and I made a rainbow of eye colors. Rather than find paper for each color, I used markers to color white cardstock the color I wanted just big enough for a hole punch.

Then I made the title mat, and photo/journal mats. The rocket is from Paperdolls for Everyday cut twice and layered. I used a red Copic marker to color the rocket rather than gluing on layers. And I also used the marker to color the edges of the red mats.

The banner is hand cut and I used some Cosmos Cricket letters for the "out of this world party". I also put it on some pop-dots to keep it the same height as the rocket. It started out white but I changed it with Antique Linen Distress Ink.

I outlined just about everything with a fine line black pen and used Crystal Stickles to make stars.

WOYWW 98, What?!? Wednesday Again?!

Oh my gosh, now it can't possibly be Wednesday again? But I'm still looking for Tuesday! I'm up to my ears in projects I'm trying to catch up on. As you can see, things are getting back to normal lol. The large Tinkerbell mug is full of Red Rose tea, since I am sadly out of Scottish Blend. The paper in the middle is from Sassafras Bungle Jungle (as opposed to Jethro Tull's Bungle in the Jungle). The stack to the right is all about ideas to try before gravity rears it's ugly head.

A quick recap to the week so far:

Sunday: won an Imagine from Everyday Cricut. An Imagine is basically a Cricut that prints and cuts out. So I can just print out a sheet of pretty patterned paper at 3 am if I need to do so.

Monday: found out I made the Design Team at Club Ruby Designers.

Tuesday: Tried to do some work on another contest, but my lungs and nose decided I had better do more lying down. Hence the reason I'm still looking for Tuesday even though it's Wednesday.

Among the other things on my list to do this week is sit down and do some serious stamping. Honestly it's been weeks since I've done some proper stamping and I'm starting to get the shakes. No one's fault but my own, but still serious pining going on lol.

So if you are wondering what this WOYWW is all about, head over to Julia's Stamping Ground and have a gander. Better yet, snap a picture of your work desk and join in the fun :D

Wow!

Sunday I found out I won an Imagine from Everyday Cricut (if you like Cricuts, this is an awesome source of information and inspiration). Monday I found out I made the Design Team at Club Ruby Designers (An online gathering place for paper crafters with two levels of membership, one free and one for $7/month. There a lot of tutorials and videos from the Design Team and there's a gallery and a forum as well). I'm just pleased as punch and can't wait to get started :D.

WOYW?W 97 - John Henry was a papercutting man

Today my workdesk has a contradiction lol. Like that's a stretch? It's handmade vs. machine, or using a machine to make different handmade or where does machine made differ from hand made lol.

I love my Cricut (this is the Champaign [sic] Expression Cricut. For those of you unfamiliar with it, an electronic Die Cutting Machine. While I usually use the 12 x 12 inch mat, there is a 12 x 24 inch mat available too. It's kinda wonderful :D. I bought it for making titles to scrapbook pages and now I'm doing scrapbook pages, making cards, home decor, boxes, tags... well you get the idea. But I also make projects without it. And I made projects that give me some hand making time supplemented by machine cut things.

Add to that my Gypsy which is sort of a design studio in a handheld device which allows me to weld images, hide cut lines, design in my car, waiting for DD in various after school events, skew images. This is 4 of the same image welded into one new image from my new favorite cartridge Paper Lace.

I've also been having a lot of fun with these two books: Zentangle Basics and the Doodle Formula. Zentangled is a bit too structured for regular usage by me, the Doodle Formula is more my style. But both are very informative.

So I cut the image in the Gypsy on kraft cardstock, but not all the way through. Then I cut off the edge with a craft knife (lots of time for reflecting whilst I did that lol) and opened some of it up. Then I put the kraft cardstock frame on a piece of vintage Anna Griffin paper. And I used some Distress Crackle Paint (need to use Tim Holtz products lol) and lightly brushed it over all the cuts and when the paint dried I glued it to a piece of black cardstock. The kraft cardstock frame was decorated using a Fine Line Sharpie. The black cardstock was decorated using a Signo Uniball Gel Pen. I haven't decided what to do with the papers yet, still mulling over some ideas.

Now if you are wondering, "What's all this WOYWW then?", head over to Julia's Stamping Ground and have a gander. Better yet, take a picture and join in the fun :D.

Simple Thank You Card

Made an A2 sized card base and covered most of the front with patterned paper. The flowers are made with handcut circles distressed on the edges with an open pair of scissors with a button in the center. Viva Decor Glitter Liner substituted for thread on the buttons and was used to highlight points on the patterned paper. Finished off with a sentiment stamped with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink from the Club Ruby Designers stamp set included in the (January?) kit. I used corner chompers to round all the edges.

Embellishment as Journaling Tag

I told you I was having way too much fun with the skew button on the Gypsy :D. I used the Shadow as the upright and the colored pumpkin as the shadow sort of a play on how the world turned upside down when Trick or Treating for the first time. I used the Shadow as a journaling tag and distressed the edges with the blade of an open pair of scissors.  The colored pumpkin was lined twice with an ultra fine line black pen. The cut is from the Mini Monsters cartridge. I used a large house cut (from the Don Juan cartridge) to convey the sense of going door to door since I didn't have a picture of that. I used the Signo Uniball Gel Pen for the journaling.

The house is outlined in Viva Decor's Hematite Glitter Liner applied thick enough that it has some depth to it. It is also applied around the photo mat but flattened out so it is almost transparent. I used more writing to ground the images to the base of the background.  I used the hide contour button to hide the eye cuts since I was using a googly eye and a Custom Eye. This picture existed as a Polaroid, and with the aid of Photoshop Elements I was able to make a larger picture and correct the color loss that was going on with the original.

A side note: I use the clear packaging the letters came in to put the letters on first and hold them against the different papers without risk of them sticking to it. Also gives me a sense of size and a chance to make sure all the letters I need will be there.