Grateful Memories!

Hi my crafty friends, Brenda here and today at Sweet Sassy Diva we were asked to make a project for something we are grateful for.  I was inspired by Cheri over at DJ's Sundries and Mary over at CardzTV.  Mary inspired me to use the Artiste cart and make the 3D pumpkin but she added more layers. And even though I didn't do it the way she did, she did inspire me to do this.  Now for the rest of my project I lifted from Cheri.  She had an amazing idea and I went with it because I so loved it!  She has an awesome video too for you to watch here, just scroll down a little and it will be there.  Sooo, I started with the Ariste cart and cut out 16 3D pumpkins at 4.5 inches I think.  Sorry I can't remember for sure.  Because they have a slit in each one, I cut both.  So 8 with the slit at the top and 8 with the slit at the bottom.  Had this cart been in my Gypsy I would have hid the slits, but it's not so I didn't. lol  But I did find that I like the slit on the bottom and not the top.  So if you are going to use this pumpkin I would use the bottom slitted one.  You can also use any scallop you like as long as you cut a flat bottom on them.  I just happend to like that shape of the Artiste 3D one.

After cutting them all I folded them in half and dry embossed them.  Also you will want to ink them at this stage too.  Ink on the inside fold.

Next you will start gluing them together by stacking them.

Here's what it will look like after they are all stacked and spread out.  I also wrapped hemp around a paper clip to use to hold a special little surprise.

Want to know what that special little surprise is???  It's a little mini to record what I am thankful for for many years!  It will hold the years 2011 to 2019!  I love that I can write what I am thankful for on each Thanksgiving!  I'm starting with last year because it was a special year in that a son of mine came home for the first time in years and had Thanksgiving dinner with us. I took a tag from Plantin Schoolbook and welded them together.  I put it on my matt diagonally because I wanted an extra tag and that was the only way to fit it on a 12x12 piece of cardstock.

I also cut two more sizes of tags not welded together for my layers. I took some old Creative Memoires Sticker letters and put my years and title on each tag.

Here's what it looks like all done. My leaves on my curly cues are from My Creative Time dies.  I think it will be cute sitting on my table.  I am going to enjoy writing what I'm thankful for each year!!

So what can you make to show how grateful or who you are greatful for?  Happy Craftin my friends!

Turkey Bear!

Hello crafty friends!  I hope you are having a wonderful day so far. Brenda here and today is "turkey" day at Sweet Sassy Diva.  Yes, I know it's not Thanksgiving yet. lol  For this weeks theme I chose for my design team sisters to make anything with a turkey on it.  So hence the turkey day! lol  For my card I chose to do a criss cross easel card and I got this fabulous idea from Lorraine at Card Creations by Lorraine.  She has a great video on her blog which you can find here and I will do a tutorial here for you as well. A very easy card to make and you can also put candy or other little goodies in the criss cross pocket.  So are you ready to get started???  We are going to start with the criss cross part of our card first. Here we go!

My orginal card is a 6x6 card, but the card in my tutorial is a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 card.  So I'm going to give you the size for the 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 card.  Start with 3 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock.  Cut each 5 1/2 x 11.  Score 2 of these at 5 1/2 inches.  Like this:

Now you are going to cut each of these 2 pieces like I have marked on the paper.  You two full squares will be glued together ontop of each other after you cut the first square in have diagonal. And the second piece the same way but the opposite square.  Clear as mud?? Hopefully the pics will make it clearer for you. Click on the pics to see them bigger.

This is what your two 5 1/2 x 11 inch paper should look like now.  Now you are going to glue the two whole squares on top of one another.

This is what it will look like after you do that.  This is where you are going to add your designer paper in the center square.  Cut a 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 inch in the paper of your choice and adhere down.

Now you are going to bring you triangular flap over and glue down.  Yes, I forgot my designer paper and had to tear it back open to put it in there. lol

Now you want to place your designer paper on your triangluar flap.  So cut another 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 square and cut it in half diagonally.  Use one of your triangle pieces to adhere to your triangular flap like this.

Now you are going to do the other side the same way only you have to put adhesive half way up the side too like this:

Glue on your designer paper once again and now your criss cross card is done up to this point.  And you can decorate as you want.

Now you are ready to make your easel base.  You should still have one piece of 5 1/2 x 11 piece of paper left.  You are going to score that at 2 1/2 and 5 1/2.  Fold as shown and then glue your criss cross base on.  Finish off the base with something raised to hold the criss cross open.

And there you have it, easy peasy lemon squeezy!  Now are you ready to see my turkey criss cross easel card?  Here it is:

Here's the specs of this card:

6x12 criss cross base and easel base

Teddy Bear Parade Cart for my little turkey bear, and he is on an homemade wobble so he can wobble as he gobbles, lol

Fall Leaves from My Creative Time as well as the sentiment

Paper from the DCWV Fall and Halloween stack

Sentiment mat from Elegant Edges

I hope you will give this cool card a try, they are fun to make and fun to give!!  Until next time my crafty friends, happy craftin!

EEK!

Hi my crafty friends! I hope who ever is in the path of Sandy will be safe!  We are hunkered down and have the generator ready to go as we are supposed to get 60 - 80 MPH wind and may be without electric for a while.  So I thought I'd better get my post ready!!  Brenda here and this week at Sweet Sassy Diva my design team sister Lori gave us the challenge of party favors or party decorations.  I went with a favor.  Nothing here to do a tutorial on as it is all basic stuff cut, score and decorate. I cut my coffin off the CTMH Artiste cart on fit to page.  I must say it is a pretty big size and holds a ton of candy! lol  I also cute my skelton as well as the spider webs.  I cut two skeltons because I wanted one on the botton of my coffin for when my guest eat the candy they will have a little surprise.  Then I cut it again and cut off the arms and legs to glue to my lid to look like Fred Bones is trying to get out of the coffin. lol  The smaller webs I cut at 1.20" and I like that they had some problems cutting because it looks like the webs have been disturbed, but the big one is good to go because momma spider is make suring no one distrubes that one! My spider came from I cut the eek out of the Artiste cart too and use glossy accents on it as well as my spider. I haven't glue my "eek" down or my spider down yet as the glossy accents is still wet in spots. I inked up my skelton legs and arms with vintage photo and barn red, to mimick dirt and dried blood on the bones.  I filled iwth an assortment of candy and called it done!  I hope you will get crafty for Halloween too.  Looks like our Halloween night won't be happening depending on the hurricane.  But that's ok, we want everyone safe and sound!  Happy crafting!!!

Ornament!

Hello all my crafty friends, Brenda here today.  This week on Sweet Sassy Diva my design team sister Misty gave us the challenge to use any die cutting system to make a project with this week.  Soooo, I decided to go "old" school and use my Cuttlebug to make a very popular project that all Stampin' Up people want to know how to make. You see the fall/winter mini came out and right on the cover of the catalog is this gorgeous ornament.  But my Cricut and Cameo people don't worry you can make this too using two different ornament dies from a Cricut cart or from the Cameo store that you buy your files from. So here we go, I am going to warn you though this is very pic heavy!!

Here is the ornament on the catalog that started it all:

I used the ornament Framelits dies to cut out 20 of each ornament, so you will have 40 in all.  They remind of nesties and work the same way, they just don't emboss. I cut 2 paper strips at 2 1/4" for the small ornament and you can get 10 ornaments out of each strip for a total of 20.  My larger strips are cut at 3" and you can get 5 larger ornament out of each strip, so you will need 4 of those to get 20 ornaments out of. Yes, my Cuttlebug plates are well loved! lol  They are my orginal ones and my son gave me my Cuttlebug several years ago for Christmas.

Here are my shapes all cut out, I have two piles of 20 each.

Now you are going to fold your shapes in half but leaving 5 of each shape unfolded.  You will have 5 piles of each ornament with 4 ornaments in each pile. 3 of them will be folded in half.  If you are using double sided paper like I am, fold one ornament one with the pattern of choice so that it is on the inside and the other ornament fold the opposite way. Clear as mud, right?!

After you have them all folded in half you are going to start gluing.  I used Zip dry because they gave me some time to "wiggle" around to line up well but drys fast enough that I don't have to wait long. You are going to take three of the same ornament and glue them together one like a book, then you will take the three and glue onto a whole ornament.  This is one piece to your ornament, you will continue to do this until you have them all done.

This is what the front of your ornament will look like and then the back.

And here they are all done.

Now we are ready to assemble our ornament!  You will need 1 1/2" inch circle, mine was slightly larger.  You are going to take your 5 largest ornaments and arrange and glue them down to the circle like this:

Now you will need about 5- 4 inches of tule.  You will wrap the tule around your finger and pinch the ends.  I am now switching to hot glue to glue to finish assembling my ornament. Glue the tule in the middle of each ornament.

After you have all your tule glued down, you may have to trim is some.  As you can see mine is too long, so I gave it a trim and now this is what your ornament should look like up to this point.  Don't worry if you are not able to follow along with my directions, I will have a link for you to watch a video. I'm not the best at tutorials. lol

Now you are ready to attach the smaller ornaments to your tule.  Now this ornament will not lay flat against the tule, it will slope like it is "sledding" down a slope.

Now you are ready for your rosette for in the center of your ornament.  I used a Cuttlebug rosette die to cut my rosette.  You can also do it by hand if you don't have a die. Glue your rosette to the center of your ornament and place any embellisments you would like on it.  I put a crystal button with a flat back glass "pearl".

Here are some other ornament I have made stamping them.  You can do them in any holiday you would like.  I made a Halloween one to hang in my window. These are great to put on your presents this Christmas.  All the girls in the family will be getting one of these this year for their tree.  And as promised here is the link for the video on how to make these gorgeous ornaments.

Don't forget to finish off the back side of your ornament too.  You can place a scallop on the back with a stamped sentiment, to and from or you can place another rosette on the back.  This way your ornament will look beautiful if it gets turned around on your tree.  If you have hung in with this this far, you are awesome and deserve a metal! lol  Thank you and I hope that you will give this a try.  You don't have to have the dies I had, any shape ornament from any die cutting machine will work.  I would love to see if you make one, so please leave me a comment and I will come over to your blog to check it out!  Thanks everyone, happy crafting!