Fun Pocket Card!

For some reason, lately I am in love with cards in pockets.  I have no idea why or what caused this, but I just can't get enough.  I saw some on Pinterest and decided to make a template on my Gypsy.  I've come up with several, so I thought I'd share one today.

I created the pocket and card using Gypsy.  It took several tries to get it just right, but now I'm having a lot of fun with it.  The colors did not photograph well.  They are much brighter in person!

For the pocket, I welded together 3 rectangles from Plantin Schoolbook, then added an oval at the top of the cut.  On the card, I used a rounded rectangle and welded the shadow of the flower to the top of the rectangle so it was all one cut.  If you all are interested, I can do a tutorial and/or show how it's set up on the Gypsy.  You could also do this using the Cricut Craft Room if you don't have a Gypsy.  And that's F-R-E-E!!  You can't beat that.

I used a stamp by Studio G from Walmart and just cut it out with the trimmer.  On a side note, I'm really bothered that the yellow on the sentiment doesn't match the yellow on the flower paper.  It's from the same stack and is made to coordinate.  It drives me nuts and I didn't notice until I took the picture.

The flower is from Forever Young.  I added each layer with foam tape so it would really stand out.  I inked all the edges using green and pink ink.

Here's a close up of the top of the card and pocket.  As I said, it took a lot of tweaking, but it was totally worth it.  I made another card using this same design, so I'll share that later.

That's all for today, folks!

Cheryl

Top 5 Cartridges

As I've mentioned many times, I am not a fan of bugs.  A few weeks ago, on a Saturday morning, my hubby and I sat down on the couch to eat our oatmeal before he went to bed (he works nights).  My desk is in my living room and I have this rolling cart beside it that has a bunch of drawers with stainless steel accents.  I looked across the room and saw this hanging under the bar on top of the cart.

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

A praying mantis was perched upside down on the rails.  I start shrieking, like any normal, bug-fearing woman would do.  My husband is like "Zip it and get the camera!".  He thought it was super cool, so he took a ton of pictures before putting him in a cup and letting him go.  Of course, then I got a lesson on how important they are because they eat other bugs and are "so neat and cool".  I still don't like them and their creepy antennae, long legs and beady eyes!  His lesson did not change my mind.  I am still an irrational, bug-fearing gal.

On to more pleasant topics....

Today, I wanted to talk about cartridges.  For a while there, I was buying a new cartridge every month.  I would wait impatiently for Hello Thursday and make my list of what I wanted.  I must admit, I don't feel that way much anymore.  A lot of the new cartridges have been digital or lite and not really things I would use frequently.  I have several older carts that I seem to use on almost every card.  I thought I'd share my favorites with all of you, in case you're in the market for some new carts!  Here goes...

Elegant Edges - Thanks to you all, I bought this cartridge.  I put it off for a long time because I was being cheap, but after all the comments telling me it was good, I went for it.  And I can say, it's probably my favorite cartridge.  If you don't own this one, I would highly recommend it.






Birthday Bash - When I bought this cartridge, I was on the Flaunt it Fridays design team and I needed it for some projects.  I wasn't sure I even wanted it before then, but I figured I could use it eventually.  It's great!  Besides the great cuts for kid's cards, it has good shaped cards and I love the Ice Cream Sundae cut on it!  The font is really nice as well.  It's very versatile and has much more than you'd think at first glance.

Flower Shoppe - Do I even have to explain this one?  My love for flowers is quite obvious if you've been to my blog at all!  I love, love, love the 3D flowers on this cartridge.  This one is tied with Elegant Edges for my most used cart.  Buy it today!!!  You can get a really good deal on it right now at Amazon.  Go HERE to check it out.






Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2 - I {heart} boxes and bags!  The original TBBM was a good cartridge and I used it like crazy.  This one is much more versatile and has some very creative cuts.  I really like the cards and envelopes...although I haven't figured them all out yet!  The scoring blade option is awesome as well, especially when you have to cut 25 bags at a time.




Forever Young - This is just a fun cartridge!  It's girlie, flirty and super cute. The silhouettes  are really nice, but my favorite cuts are the flowers.  They have lots of layers which gives you a great amount of versatility in using them.




These are some of my favorites.  What are yours?  I have a few new ones I want to buy, and Wild Card 2 is on the top of that list.  Have any of you bought/tried that cart?  I'd love to know your feedback.

Have a blessed day!
Cheryl

Flower Happy Birthday Cards

Happy Monday to you all!  It's a lovely, rainy day here.  I {heart} rain so very much so it's my kind of day.  As long as there are no tornadoes coming with it, it makes me very happy.

Fluffy Flower Card

Since Mother’s Day has passed, I thought I’d share the card I made for my mom.  I didn’t want to post before because I hadn’t given it to her yet. 

Now, as I’ve said before, I’m like one of those little animals that’s drawn to shiny things.  So, of course, I used glittery paper.  And, of course, I kept getting terrible glare and reflection and had to keep moving my light and my camera around.  UGH!  But how can a girl not like sparkly things?  It’s in my DNA, I’m convinced.  Someday, I will learn to take better pictures and I hope it’s soon.  My photographer buddy at church said he would help me, and then, I’m sure you’ll all be impressed at my amazing photography skills!  =)  Until then, pretend, ok?

The card base is 5”x5”.  Once I cut my flower it was almost too big, so it didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted, but I worked around it. 

 

I cut the flower from Forever Young.  This cartridge has wonderful flowers for layering.  I’ve made several flowery cards lately and I keep looking at all my carts and end up using this one almost every time.

Since I cut my flower too big, I had to kinda squish my stamp on there.  I inked the edges with brown chalk ink.

I curled the edges of the flower around my Gypsy stylus to give them some “fluff”.  I then adhered them to dimensional glue dots so they’d stand up a little more.

I added a button with some twine to the center and Voila!  I really like this paper.  It’s from The Paper Studio and the stack is called Poteeka Soufflé.  It has some wonderful coordinating pages….lots with butterflies and birdies on them.

Here’s a glimpse at the inside of the card.  I added a couple of strips of colored paper and punched them with a Martha Stewart border punch.

Thanks for looking!

Blessings,
Cheryl

It’s Flaunt it Friday again!

It’s Friday, which means it’s time to flaunt it!  This week, we are flaunting from the Forever Young cartridge.  We were asked to make a project using the Model 1, Emblem (silhouette) cut.  I was totally stumped at what to make for this one.  I’m trying to stretch myself beyond just making cards, so I went with a purse from the same cartridge.  I am pleased with it now that it’s done…who wouldn’t be?  It’s a PURSE!!  And we all love those, right?  Add pink, black and white to it and what could be better?  I think I will fill it with some candy and give to one of the little girls at church. 

Now, be sure to hop on over to Flaunt it Fridays and flaunt along with us.  The other design team members have some great projects to share as well.  Have a fabulous Friday! 

Happy {Belated} Valentine’s Day!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!  I apologize for the delayed post; I was swamped yesterday and forgot to get this posted.  Every year we host a large dinner at our church that I help plan and it was yesterday.  It went really well, but it’s a long day of cooking and decorating and hard work. 

Now…onto the paper crafts!  I made valentines for the kids on my class at church and thought I’d share.  I made boxes based on the tutorial here.  These are super easy and super cute.  It was a ton of work, but my kids really like them, so it was well worth it!  I have tons of pictures, so here we go….

50’s Fab!

Each month, I make favors for our monthly women’s meeting/Bible study at church.  We always decorate with a theme and for February we are doing the fabulous 50’s.  Since I don’t have Nifty Fifties cart yet, I decided to use the glasses from Paisley.  The purses are from Forever Young and the shape is from George and Basic Shapes.  The ribbon is by The Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby.

I cut half from black and half from white.

I added a white highlight to each lens and used a silver gel pen to make the “gems” on the glasses.

I love this color scheme!  I think they turned out super cute and retro-ish.  I ended up making 24 of them while I was home for a snow day from work.  I put 3 Starburst candies in each one with some filler.   

 

I’m really digging this winter weather.  This is my second day home from work and I just found out I will be off again tomorrow!  We don’t always get weather like this in Oklahoma, so I enjoy it when it comes.  It’s certainly given me plenty of time to craft and play with my Cricut.  I guess now I should do what really needs to be done….ugh…laundry.

BIG Sale on Cricut Cartridges!

I just got 2 cartridges for $14.95 each!  If you haven’t already, go check out www.cricutmachine.com for their big 48 hour sale going on.  You can’t beat that bargain!  And…I got 2-3 day shipping so I should have them really soon.  Here’s what I ordered….

OLD WEST

Every year, we do a big dinner at church where ministers from all around the state come for a day conference.  We like to decorate with a  theme and this year we’ll be serving BBQ and decorating with western stuff, so I figured I had to have this.  I will post all my projects in February after our meeting.

 

FOREVER YOUNG

I have wanted this cartridge forever and for some reason never bought it.  I think it’s a must-have with those great purses and silhouette cuts!

Be sure to go check it out before the sale ends.  I’m usually a die hard EBay fan for cartridges (I’m cheap….what can I say??) but I checked these out and couldn’t even get them that cheap on EBay!

Blessings,
Cheryl