Grandkids make life Grand!

Hello my crafty friends, Brenda here and today my challenge for Sweet Sassy Diva was the theme "Grandparents".  For my project I made a layout of our sweet grandkids.  We have 6 in all but don't get to see 2 of them but I was able to get a picture of the other 4 together.  We love having our grankids here but it doesn't happen very often to have them all together because of some living in different states.  But this evening we happened to have everyone at the house at the same time for a few minutes so we all grabbed our camera, put the kids on the sofa and started snapping away.  Those poor kids didn't know what was going on. lol  For my layout I started with a sketch as I really didn't have an mojo on how I was going to scrap this picture.  I use sketches as a jumping point when I really don't have a clue as to what I want to do-they are so great for that!!  Here's my inspiration sketch:

I got out my trusty Gypsy girl and layout it all in in her.  Here is how it looks on my Gypsy:

After designing my layout on my Gypsy, I choose my base paper from DCWV's Natural Stack.  I stayed with a neutral background to go with my picture.

My heart came from George and Basic Shapes and my banners came from Art Philosophy.  My circles I just used punches for.  I am using my Scrap N Easel to place my papers/picture on, it lets me dry fit everything and stand back to look at it.  Then when I have everything tweeked I can glue down. I inked all my die cuts with Tim Holtz Walnut Stain distress ink. Here what my layout looks like starting out:

The tiny heart are from an old punch. And here is my layout all done:

Some close ups:

I hope that you have been inspired to get your craft on and make something today.  Crafty hugs, Brenda

Glittery Challenge!

This is the easiest theme we've had so far!! Who doesn't LOVE to add glitter to a project?

Hi everyone, Mindy here from Grammies Craft Room with a fun fold card. I got the original instructions from SplitcoastStampers.

I started by cutting my flowers from the Art Philosophy cartridge, pages 29 and 57. I stamped them with the corresponding Close To My Heart set Hooray Bouquet ( D1491).

Then I cut my cardstock and patterned paper as shown on the photos.

Glitter was added to the bird, flower and the dots of the I's.

I had fun with this theme and hope you will come back to see the other glittery projects my design team pals have to inspire you!

Sweet Baby!

Hi my crafting friends Brenda here, this week at Sweet Sassy Diva we were issued the challeng of anything goes with the Cricut.  Well I took it one step farther and went with anything goes with the Imagine as well. lol  So  I have two very simple cards for you today. Simple because I had a very busy week and weekend so I needed to keep it simple to be able to just get them done and because I was too tired to get very creative!  I'm sorry ahead of time about that.  lol  I don't have a tutorial for you today as these were very simple to do. I started with a white A2 base, added a black mat and then printed some pink poka dot paper from the Imagine cart "Baby Boutique" by Teresa Collins.  I'm sorry this picture looks so washed out, the card in real life doesn't.  Next I used the print and cut feature of the Imagine and printed and cut out the baby carriage with it's layers.  I popped each layer which was the carriage top and the wheels.  Stamped "sweet baby" on which is a set from My Pink Stamper. Added some bling and called this one done on the front.

For the inside of my card I used the same papers and then used a stamp set that came with Art Philosophy.  I cut out my shape from the Art Philosophy and then stamped it.  Colored in my block with a black marker and added the "precious baby girl".  That's it,so simple!

For my second card I started with a 5x7 card base.  I printed the pink and brown card stock from the Imagine cart Word of Mouth. I added a 6.25 x 4.25 mat from a DCWV mat stack for my last layer.  Then I print and cut the phrase from Word of Mouth and popped it up on my card.  I didn't cut any layers on this phrase, cut a base cut.  Added some bling and called it done.

I hope that you have gotten some inspiration from the DT at Sweet Sassy Diva this week.  If so get out those Cricut machines and go created something no matter how simple it might be.  It's so rewarding to create no matter how detailed or simple.  There are so many great Cricut carts to get you going.   Send someone a hand made card and make their day!!  Happy crafting!

Carnival!

We are right in the heart of summer here in New Jersey and that means it is fair and carnival time. I couldn't come up with any other way to use this theme except a layout. That's right, here is my second one! My daughters are convinced they will turn me into a scrapbooker yet!

As I am writing this post, spell check tells me I have misspelled the title, so I will be going back and fixing that.... duh....

I started by laying out all my pieces on my Gypsy. I put them on three separate layers.

The tent is from Create a Critter and is cut at 2.75 inches. I put the layer on twice and then hide all the cuts but the door so I could have that a different color.

The lion is from Create a Critter and is cut at 1.75 inches  I also cut out the word Time on this layer and that is 1.20 inches from Art Philosophy.

 The banner is from Art Philosophy and is cut at 1.25 inches. I placed the letters in the triangles and sized each one separately. They are approximately .75 inches.

For the photo mats I used the ticket punch from Stampin Up and black gel pen stitching.
I inked the edges of all the pieces of the tent and stitched in white gel pen. The lion I left alone. For the border I used the Fiskars Scallop border punch and stitched in white gel pen.

I threaded some thin ribbon through the banner and attached with pop dots.

Please stop in everyday and check out all the creative ideas for our Carnival week!


Cartridges used - Create a Critter and Art Philosophy

_ Melinda

Congrats!

Hi my crafty friends, Brenda here and this week at Sweet Sassy Diva we are celebrating graduations.  Perfect timing as my 5th son (and his girlfriend) graduated from college that Saturday before Mother's Day.  It was a beautiful day for graduation.  I only wish they could shorten the speeches. lol  Anyway for my son I made a card from Wild Card, the graduation hat.  But to mix it up a little I welded the scroll to the hat.  I also add ribbon to the scroll and a twine tassel along with a metal embellishment (been in my stash forever) that has prongs that punch through the paper and then you push the prongs down.  I think it turned out pretty good, DS loved it anyway. lol  For his girlfriend and soon to be fiance, I made a Hello Kitty card using Art Philosophy for the card base, Hello Kitty Greeting for Hello Kitty in her graduation gown and Gypsy Wanderings for the sentiment.  I pop dotted Hello Kitty's pieces of her gown and hat, then popped them up on the card as well. I used white ink to ink around her graduation gown to make it stand out and it give some depth to the gown.  Using glossy accents I made her eyes shine as well as the sentiment.  I am pretty please with this card as well.  My  future DIL loved it as she loves when I make them their cards. I hope that you have gotten lots of inspiration this week here a Sweet Sassy Diva and will give some graduation cards a try too.

Here is my Gypsy showing that I welded my scroll to the hat as well as welding two if the hats together to make it a shaped card.

Here are some of the cuts, for the white die cuts I used my Spectrum Noir markers to give the cuts some depth.

Here is a close up of the tassel, yeah I know not the greatest tassel but it will do. lol  And a close up of the brad and metal embellishment.

Here is my Gypsy with Hello Kitty layout on the card base.  Nothing fancy here, no welding or anything. Simple, easy peasy!

Both cards together

Happy Birthday!

3 or More Cartridges! How fun is that!! I can't believe that I am saying this, but when I went to start this project I had a hard time finding images from 3 different cartridges that I thought I could put together. Sounds hard to believe, right?

 I started with a card base from Wild Card cut at 5.25". This cut includes the spine piece, which I wanted in a second color so I set it up on the Gypsy so I could hide the parts I didn't want. The doily is from CTMH Art Philosophy cut at 3.35" and the butterfly is from Paper Trimmings cut at 2". I put 3 self adhesive rhinestones down the center of the butterfly and 3 in the upper corner. The sentiment - from CTMH - was stamped on white and centered in the opening from the inside. Some where in blog land I saw a great tutorial on how to stamp inside a cut out like this, but of coarse when I actually wanted to do .... couldn't find it.

As little side note... The doily was cut from the textured cardstock that Walmart sells and It cut out great. I adjusted the settings so the blade was at 6 and the pressure was on high. The mat I used was still pretty sticky so I didn't have to worry about the paper sliding around. I think I am going to experiment and see how small I get it to cut and still look good. I will let you know.

I bet that after I finish this post, I will have a revelation of 3 cart combos I could have done... oh well, I'll save them for another time!

Join it here!

Sunshine and Sunflowers!

Happy Mother's Day from the entire Sweet sassydiva Design Team. This week is All About Moms! Tina here from tiggersscrapplace.blogspot.com with a card for my very own special mom.

She raised 6 kids all on her own, went to school to become a teacher and even went back for her masters. She's retired now and enjoying her days quilting. She enjoys sunflowers so I used this months Close to My Heart stamp of the month to stamp a sunflower and color it in with CTMH markers. The paper is all from the Dotty paper pack that you can get for just $5 this month. You can check out the entire pack of paper and more projects on my blog. I used our color ready seam binding to tie a bow on the tag and stamped my sentiment with Tag the Occasion stamp set from CTMH.

Supplies
CTMH cricut Art Philosophy cart
CTMH Dotty paper pack
CTMH Tag the Occasion stamp set
CTMH color ready seam binding
CTMH May stamp of the month
CTMH Cocoa Ink pad
CTMH Honey marker
CTMH Garden green marker

Hugz
Tina Gale

Mother Love!

How appropriate to have this weeks theme for the Design Team to be All About Mom. It has taken this challenge for me to make my first Mother's Day card since I lost my mom over 6 years ago. I figured it was about time to move past the wall I had put up.

I took the design for this card from the March 2012 issue of Cardmaker magazine. I started with an A2 card base of pink. The white layer is 4" x 5.25" with a piece of CTMH  designer paper - 3.75" x 1" and green cardstock  3.75" x 4" layered on top. I put black stitching lines around the edges and covered the joint of the 2 papers with white ribbon.

The white shape that I stamped on is from CTMH Art Philosophy cut at 3". The stamps are also from CTMH. The edges where inked in pink.
The 2 flowers are from Art Philosophy and are cut at 1", 1.25" and 1.5" I inked the edges of the rolled flowers and held together with hot glue. Next time I would cut a few more of the rolled ones at a larger size, but I really like how the small ones came out and can see I will be using these more often for fillers. They go together very easily. I arranged the flowers over the stamped flowers - which I colored the centers and the leaves and left the rest uncolored. The sentiment is a CTMH stamp. I added a white bow in the corner and stamped a couple of the flowers on the inside.

I know my  mother loved everything I ever made for her and she would have love this one too!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom  xoxo

Mindy

Blooming for you!

Hi crafty friends!  This is Brenda from Friends Craftin' with Friends.  This week on Sweet Sassy Diva we were asked to make something in honor of mothers since Mother's Day is upon us.  Since my MIL loves flowers I decided to do a flower pot card to go with her gift.  But I wanted more of a 3D look to my flowers. 

I made my card base first, which is the pot.  I started out with my base size being 3.50" x 9".  I scored my base at 2" and 5.50".  Fold down the 2" side and then fold the 5.50" score back.

One the 2" score, use a decorative punch and punch the edge of the paper.  Here is my punched edge, at this point you can ink your base if you so wish too.

At this point put on ribbon if so desired around the punched area.  I did not do that and it was harder to get it through once I decided to put twine around.  Now move onto your insert for the base.  I used the same color as I did for my pot.  Cut your cardstock at 2.50" x 4.50".  Cut a white mat at 2.25" x 4.25".  Adhear to your insert base. Go ahead and decorate and stamp your mat.

Now come the slightly tricky part.  Place your card base back into you trimmer.  Place the 2" score line on the cut groove of your paper cutter and the 5.5" score line at the .50" mark and cut.  Do the same for the other side of your card base.  Now your card should look like a flower pot.

 Here you can see that your base is in the shape of a flower pot.  Those little slices of cardstock are what I cut off each side.

Now would be a good time to add your ribbon, twine or anything else around the lip of the pot.  I choose to use twine. And then I pop dotted up the "lip" of the pot. This is optional.  Next you want to open your base card and place your insert on the base, making sure that the bottom lines up with the bottom of your pot.  This fits perfectly.  Now put adhesive on either side of the insert on the base.  Fold card base back up. 

Now is a good time to make sure your base slides in and out without any problems.  Now you are ready to put flowers on the insert!  I chose to use flowers from CTMH Art Philosophy and Flower Shoppe.  I also added some sticker insects to my card among the flowers and on the pot. I also hung a tag on my twine and used My Creative Time stamps and dies.  Here is my finished card!  All my MIL has to do is pull out the flower insert to see her Mother's Day message!!

I hope that you have enjoyed the design teams take on this challenge and I hope that you will take something beautiful for the mother's in your life! 

Diamonds....

are a girls best friend! And a great accent for a card maker. This weeks challenge at SweetSassyDiva is to use our Cricut to put some diamonds on ... whatever we chose.

I honestly had no plan when I sat down at my craft table today. I opened the Cricut booklet that happened to be out on my table - Holiday Cakes - and found this great diamond border  with a top layer. I then went to my Stampin Up Color Coach and picked a random combo... Pink Pirouette, Bravo Burgundy and Sahara Sand.

I cut the diamond border at 1.14 inches, 3 times and the top layer once. I laid the ribbon on the card front then attached the borders over the top and tied a bow. I made the flower from Art Philosophy at 4.5 inches ( next time I would make it smaller). I added some  extra loops and tails of ribbon and then used my hot glue gun to attach the flower. A bit of hot glue in the center to hold the clear rhinestone and some gel gen dots and this simple card is done.

I  hope you will come back tomorrow to see what my fellow DT members have created!