Cecil's Card

Here's something a  little different that I tried, after doing the 3D cards for Dave and Kelsey, I thought I needed to do something special for my oldest Son.  I was kind of simple but he thought it was pretty cool.  Thought I'd add a pic of our Halloween pumpkin carving marathon.  You may want to click on the picture to get a better view if you are interested.

Here's Cecil's card.

Ha, you get to see part of my cluttered workspace.....

This all folds up into a 5" square held with a band.  I added a pocket on the inside to hold his gift card.

If you have any questions on how this was done or what I've used, leave a comment below and I will answer.

Stay Crafty, stay happy.

Mojo422

Been a little under the weather this week, started this card on Monday but didn't finish it until today.  Still pretty puny but I had to get something in this week.

I may still add something in the top strip, just don't know what yet.  I actually started with the inside, had to try out some new stamping cardstock I ordered from Create and Craft.  I don't remember where I got this stamp from, I've had it for years and there's no brand name on it but it's cute.  I stamped it with Distress Ink Embossing and used Ala Mode Detail Embossing powder.  It came out very well, I think I am happy with the paper.  I colored in with Copics, next I will be checking the paper out for how well it does with Copics.  These were such small areas, I can't tell if it will bleed or not!

I've used the traditional red and green CS with Gold Mirrored CS and the patterned paper on the front is from Bo Bunny.  It's a double sided paper so I used both sides.  I used an Anna Griffin\ Cuttlebug embossing folder and the coordinating border strip for the front.  The poinsettia is from a Die from Tattered Lace, it comes with it's own little embossing folder to add the veining to the leaves and petals.

Have a great Week

Thanks for stopping by.

mojo420.2

Here's my second card for Mojo Monday, much more to my liking.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures, but I don't post enough and I don't sell enough to warrant building a light box to take the photos.  Not to mention that I have no place to put it!

Background paper is from the middle of the Tattered Lace Magazine, special Christmas edition,

Blue cardstock is Coordinations, Silver Foil CS is from a stack of paper I ordered from Create and Craft.com  (on sale for 14.99 for a stack of 50!) the bling running down the side is anybody's guess...I got it out of the bins an Michael's......no manufacturer's or company name whatsoever on the pkg., the snowflakes are from 2 punches...the small is a Fiskars and the medium is from Martha Stewart, ribbon is random stuff I have...mostly Offray's from JoAnn's, the sentiment is From Verve..Winter Wonder Remix set.

Have a Great Weekend!

mojo420

I've always wanted to be an artist.  I love the look of horses, I think they are beautiful animals.  When I was young, I would try and try and try to draw them.  I came to the conclusion that I am just not talented enough to draw.  I dabble in trying to do watercolor for some of my backgrounds, but I do what I see them do on TV and in books, but I just can't seem to make it work.  Sometimes I feel the same way about making cards.  I start out with a picture in my mind and I just can't make it work.  I went through my paper stash and found these and just loved the patterns and the colors, then I tried to put them together to make something awesome. The tag paper was just so cute and was going to use it for the strip behind the tag....but if I did, it would have been covered up.  After looking at it for awhile, the pattern king of evolved into a tag shape if I cut it right..so I did...and I loved it so I choose the stripy paper for the strip, it's nice and colorful and coordinates with the tag paper...and the orange CS I used to cut the border on perfectlyl matched the darker orange in both papers...which you could see if they weren't covered up.  If it was someone else who was trained...like Julee or some of the other designers, they would have created something awesome.  I came up with something so so.  I'm posting it anyway.  I've done it before and will do it again.....lol.  Once in awhile things work out awesome, mostly ordinary, sometimes so so, once in awhile I don't even finish it it's so bad.  Here it is .....

All papers are from K&C Co.from various Halloween stacks, the bauble is from Jolee's Boutique and the Happy Halloween is cut from the Happy Hauntings cartridge - Cricut.  Also used EK Punch, and Black Soot distress ink from Ranger.

Trick or Treat!

mojo419

This card was made using my "October 31" cartridge for my Cricut Expression.  This cartridge is one of the less expensive ones, I forget what they call them but they don't have a box, just come in the acetate.  The house is cool, but it cuts out the windows and stuff and it's just see through so I had to do some piecing for yellow windows, same with the Jack O' Lantern and the pumpkins

I started out with some watercolor paper and painted the background.  I got a little carried away when I trimmed it so I could get a sidewalk in, I wanted more bats and more lawn.  As it is I had to squish my pumpkins together and you can't tell here in the picture that there are two of them, one in back of the tree and one in front.  You might see a little more of the details if you click on the picture to get a larger view.  The sidewalk is some grey cardstock I ran through the Tim Holtz bricks embossing folder (Sizzix) and used some Distress Ink (Black Soot) to bring out the detail.  I cut out some white cardstock in the shape of the Jack O' Lantern so I could put some light in it.  I used Distress Inks and started out with Mustard Yellow and then used some Wild Honey about halfway in and then finished with Rusty Hinges so it would have that "glow".  I used some Rusty Hinges on the outside to give a little definition to the shape.

Happy Hauntings!

mojo418

This card is for my Granddaughter Kelsey.  She likes hearts, she likes pink...and butterflies...in that order, so I was told..by her.  I saw this sketch and decided it would be perfect for her, I would use hearts instead of stars and put a butterfly somewhere.  I knew exactly what I was going to do.  Just like every other "sure" thing, it wasn't.  Oh well, after perusing my stash of paper (my significant other is always asking "Why are you buying more paper?  You've got paper in those drawers, and those drawers, and in those drawers and stacked over there and there and there.......)  I can't find what I want.  I just want a simple white background with little pink flowers.  I DON'T HAVE ANY.  So I made my own.  I have D.O.T.S. stamps from way back before they were CTMH.  They had the cutest little whimsical stamps......anyway, I have this set called The Victorian set that has flowers, tea pots, hat boxes, shoes, frames, hats, there are 30 of them and they are all on 1" square wood mounts.  Kelsey and I had them out a couple of weeks ago and she had to stamp each one...twice.  I thought that I could find one of them to make a background paper.  The rose is not as small as I wanted but it worked OK and then I thought I would use butterflies for the background for the 4.  I got the card assembled and didn't like it.  I just plain didn't like it...the butterflies just were not the right style..even though I love the Verve butterflies.  Heavy sigh.  So I disassembled the card and stamped a smaller version of the flower in bundles for the 4.  I like it much better.  The butterflies will go on the inside on some acetate to make it look like they are flying.  I will edit this to show the inside when it is finished.  So......images are DOTS.......plain CS in pink and white, hearts are cut from the George and Simple Shapes cartridge on the Cricut and the 4 is from the Songbird Cart.  Lace and ribbon from JoAnn's.  Also used, Ranger Distress Ink, Vintage Photo.

Ta Ta for now....come back and see the inside!



Here's the inside

Xmas15

Decided to do a little Christmas crafting and wanted to do a little elegant.  I bought a magazine from Tattered Lace, their Christmas Edition, last month and their mags always come with 1 or more dies. This one came with a trio of dies for making poinsettias.  Nothing special about that but these are the first ones that are not huge, it's the reason I bought the magazine....anyway, as soon as it got here I made a poinsettia.  It's been sitting at my work station (laughingly called a work station...it's my little piece of organized chaos where I escape and play) on top of my box of "extra" stuff, being just adorable and pretty.  In between making Dave's card and shopping on Create and Craft, I tried out a stamp I got on sale from the Demon Station ( I call it that because it is sucking up all my extra funds).  It is from a Heartfelt Creations set they came up with back in May I think, I watched it being demoed and it's a beautiful set, but most of their stuff is geared towards making 8 X 8 inch cards, some more so than others.  This was one of those so I gave it a miss until...........they had a sale on individual pieces so I picked up this stamp set "Sparkling Poinsettia Swirl".  It was 50% off, what's a stampaholic supposed to do?  It's been setting in my Heartfelt Creations bin for a little over a month so I grabbed a piece of scrap white CS and tried it out with gold embossing powder.  It was everything I hoped for and as I sat there thinking about how I would use it, I spied the little flower just aching to be used and low and behold...it's the perfect size to fit over the stamped image.  It had to be shelved since I was still working on Dave's card (65 candles all had to be glittered and assembled, then glued down) , then I felt guilty about posting Dave's card on Mojo Monday.....it was a tall and skinny but it wasn't even close to the sketch, so I made another that fit the bill.  Then I was free to play with this.

You can't tell by this picture, but the card is folded so that the front is 3 1/2 X 5 1/2 and the inside is 5 X 5 1/2.  The reason I decided to do it this way is because if I did the standard 4 1/4 X 5 X 1/2 the front panel would take up too much of the front by itself.  The background paper is from BoBunny and is lovely on it's own and needed to have at least some of it showing!  I layered it up with some gold mirrored card stock for that touch of elegance and some jewels by Studio G.

Here's the inside

Both the stamped images were on white CS but the BoBunny paper is kind of a cream background so I took some Distress Ink, Antique Linen, and started from the outside in almost to the center.  Leaving a little white in the center just gives it a little glow and adds some dimension.  I followed this up with some Vintage photo, the inside is blinged up with a little ribbon and a poinsettia sticker from Jolee's.

I tied the little layered bow on the front with the mini Bow Maker from Embellishment Attic

and the piece of border is from K&C Company.

I don't know if anyone will see this since I am not submitting it to any challenge.....unless is fits Mojo Monday's this coming week...so if you do happen to blunder across it, please leave a comment to let me know someone was here!  

Thanks a bunch, stay crafty

mojo417

Here's my Mojo that actually follows the sketch.   I've used all kinds of different things, but mostly I had to play with my new stuff from the Riviera Collection by Heartfelt Creations.  The background CS is from the paper stack(more like a project book) and the panel is stamped with their background stamp with words on it on plain white CS then inked up with first Wild Honey and then Forest Moss (Ranger Distress Inks).  The Grape vine is also part of the set, colored in with copics and then covered in Glossy Accents (Ranger), it was cut out with the corresponding die.  The tag and oval are both from the Austrian Collection by Creative Expressions and the sentiment is from Verve's Accent Notes set.  I added the sweet little bow along with some pearls (Recollections) and a jewelled accent on the bow from the Paper Studio.

Very simple, kind of sweet.

I just love the detail on these stamps.

Thanks for stopping by, stay crafty.

Dave's 65

This is the first type of 3D card I've tried so far, I've made an explosion box or two but I saw this on an ad for a DVD on Create and Craft and just had to try one.  I bought the DVD and there are a lot of  cool folder cards on it that I may or may not try.  Who knows.  I have new dies from Creative Expressions that I will be playing with in the next couple of weeks so.....The base of this card is a lot easier that it looks, but I'll tell you, there are 65 candles on this card and I glittered each flame and glued them on.....whew, then had to arrange and glue each one on individually.  Each one of the cardstocks came with the DVD from a company called "Hot Off the Press".  I know I've heard that name before but I've never had any of their products.  Anyway....this card turned out OK, but it's not exactly how I had invisioned.  He's gonna love it though.

This is what it looks like folded up.  Looks better laying down and surprisingly enough, lays pretty flat, I could mail this!

And here it is opened up

Kind of an overview.  The candles are on strips that go across the inside of the box.  There are supposed to be 2 but I had to improvise and add another one.  The "65" is one acetate so it looks like it is floating.....somwhat.

The front and inside corners are cut with my Cricut (I don't remember which cart!) so were the candles (Wrap it up)  and the "65" (Blackletter).  The Stars are cut from the Starry Skies die from Verve.  The frames on the outside front were cut with Spellbinder's Labels One dies and the words came with the Hot Off the Press Kit.

I guess that's all.  Bless you for stopping by.

Bella

I have a friend, Bella, who, up until recently, owned a Tavern.  She decided to sell and take some time for herself.  Her favorite color is purple ( here goes the purple again!) so this is what I made for her.

I used shimmer cardstock, Creative Expression Dies (for the background) and Heartfelt Creations Stamps and dies, all from the Enchanted Mum set.  I kind of messed up a bit, the top white panel was SUPPOSED to be dry embossed but I got ahead of myself and added the foam tape and then realized what I HADN'T done yet.....nuts (not exactly the word I used).  Then I was going to put a bit of tulle, a couple of roses I had made and some leaves.  Another oops, I had made the roses out of some purple printed paper and had thought it would match the purple of the cardstock..........wrong again.  The Heartfelt Creations Mum set came with dies to make some mums, but the flower is too big for what I wanted so I just made a Mum bud and added the swirls.  This is a great set....I used a couple more of the stamps for the inside and they turned out gorgeous.

  

The inside doesn't quite match the outside but I like it.  The mum is a little darker than I intended but I started out with my BV00 and discovered that it was running out so my next shade up is BV02.  I guess that's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by.

Fall colors

Here goes another Mojo Monday.  The weather cooled down a bit last week, made me thing that fall is here....but not yet I hope!  I still have some tomatoes that need ripened up and my strawberries are still producing, not much but I get a berry or two every other day.  So, I saw this sketch and thought I'd like to do something with some fall colors.  I spied some Heidi Grace scraps that I bought 3 or 4 years ago and I was off.  Thought I would keep it simple since the background paper is so busy, but I just love the colors.  The front sentiment is stamped on the reverse of the band across the middle.  Felt good to use some scraps for a change, although I'm pretty good about using most of what I cut.
The sentiment is from "Verve"....just love this saying and the diecut in the back is from Heartfelt Creations.  I decided to use a little swirl instead of the banner.

The colors are not exactly right in the picture, I think my camera is getting a little old!  

Oh well, have a great week creating!

Purple?

No, my favorite color is NOT purple....but...as happens so often.......stuff happens.  I had this card base set up for the round bird but the purple was not the right shade.   I ended up going more with a lavender on that one so I put this one aside.   Then I colored the flower, intending on putting it on the unused card base, but the background just didn't look right with the picture, so I made a new one for that.  Today I set out to use it no matter what.  I really have respect for people who sit down and make a card.......boom.....an hour and it's done.  It takes me FOREVER to get things the way I think it should be.......finding the right paper, the right shapes, the right stamp.  Sometimes I've seen something I'd like to try but get frustrated and end up doing it three different ways.  It's always a process with me.  Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't.   This one fell together pretty simply, probably because it's fairly simple.   Here it is

Thanks go out to Julee at Verve for leaving a nice comment and showing me that someone looks in once in awhile, and for having great stuff.  The sweet little butterfly is one of her's and it has a coordinating die (yeah) and the little banner tag is also from one of her die sets.  The flower stamp is from The Paper Studio.  Now I have to figure out what I'm going to do for the new Mojo Monday Sketch.  

mojo410-2

It's a twofer!  My second entry for Mojo Monday.  I colored this stamp and just had to make a card for it.....so I used the sketch from Mojo Monday again. I thought I would use more Verve so I used the little butterfly stamp from the Blue Skies set  to stamp a background onto white CS and the round stamp from the Thankful Accents set was stamped in Ranger Distress Ink and then heat embossed with Detail White.  The Flower is a Fiskars' Stamp.

I used 2 bows to make the butterfly....the detail doesn't show up well here but maybe if you click on the picture to get a bigger picture you may see it.  I added a body cut from a hero arts set and added gems from Studio G to bling it up a little.  I may still add a few gems on the upper right hand side, I haven't decided yet!

Thank you for visiting!

mojo410

Another Mojo Monday entry....I got this box full of all sorts of papers and cut outs from Create and Craft, something I found on sale.  I couldn't really see what was in it except some of it looked like lacy stuff (duh, it's called "Lovely in Lace") so I thought I would give it a try since it was so cheap. I opened up the box and lordy it's chock full of some of the prettiest paper you could ever want, of course most of it is geared towards scrapbooking since the prints are big.  There are some cut outs that are sooooo cute, I just had to try one.  This is one of the round ones....I cut the bird out of the middle with a Spellbinders circle die and just offset it from the outer ring.   I used some lighter lilac cardstock for the base and ran some white through a Cuttlebug emb folder by Anna Griffin called Carmen Lace.  It also has a little border strip that has a coordinating die that I used for the lacy strip in the middle.  I inked up the edges with Vintage Photo by Ranger and popped up the circle with some dimensional tape.  I added the organdy bow with a little gemstone I got by Paper Studio.  The "With Love" is another cut out from the Kanban set.  I just layered it up with some leftover cardstock and added it to the corner.  It looks kind of bare to me because there are no flowers!   Anything more and I think it would be overdone.  Thanks for the sketch Julee, it worked perfect for this.

Have a great weekend and happy crafting!

I Like Hearts

My little Granddaughter found one of the Valentine cards I made for my son and brought it out to me and said "I like hearts, I like pink hearts."  She is 3 years old. So I made this card for her.

I decided it needed a butterfly so I added one to the bow

I really need a new camera or better lights!  I hope she likes it.  She probably will.....for about 5 minutes then she'll go about her business, she's only 3 after all.  I just love these papers I got from Heartfelt Creations, well the whole set.  I ordered the Vintage Floret collection and got a set of stamps that are used to assemble roses....the small one here is an example and you get the die that cuts out around the stamps.  The latest collections include stamps that stamp out multiple sizes all in one stamp and then the dies cut them all out out at once, but this one is not that way...darn.  But it's still pretty slick.  I can make roses from the little buds clear up to about 3 inches across.  The paper pad that goes along with it is pretty awesome too.....It has full 12x12 pages of really pretty paper and the colors are all coordinated to work together and then they have pages that are like panels to put on cards or matted for photos.....partial layouts for scrapbooks...it's pretty cool.  Then there are tags, journal spaces, strips for borders.  I usually like to do my own things, but if I was needing a card in a hurry it sure makes it easy to just throw one together and have it turn out beautiful.  The little panel in the center that the heart and flower is on is from the set.  It had a little rose in the corner so I just added the leaves and the sweet little rose on top and it's got the framing already there.   The heart is a stamp from Verve, the "Hugs" is from the same set.  I just love their stuff too.  The Butterfly is from a set I got from Hero Arts.  I just love these coordination dies, saves me from the dreaded fussy cutting!  I punched out the little hearts from some of the scraps I had left, colored some gems to match and stuck them on.  

Thanks for stopping and looking...stay inspired.

mojo409

Had to play with a new stamp from Heartfelt Creations.  I just love the swirls and poinsettia.  I didn't have the $$$ to buy the whole set so I didn't get any dies to do things the easy way.  Lord I hate fussy cutting but I love the results!  The whole card is a modge-podge of stuff....The sentiment stamp is from Verve....The dies are Sizzix and Spellbinders, the paper is open stock and Paper Pizzaz.  I followed the sketch....almost to the letter!

And I also used Ranger distress inks,  Forest Moss, Fired Brick, and Vintage Photo.

Gotta Run, Happy Day.

Josh

Here is the most recent card.  No fancy dies here!  I decided to do the grunge look and since his birthday falls on the 3rd I usually do the red, white, and blue theme.

This was taken with a flash so the "fancy" would show up.  I used foil for the oval (I guess there is one of those fancy dies in there after all) and then went over it with a darker brown copic to give it a look of brass, the stars are cut out of gold glitter paper and I gave them the same treatment.   The stars are cut with the "A Cut Above" die, starry.  The oval is from the Creative Expressions Austrian Collection - Salzburg.  The forty was cut out of Red glitter paper using my Cricut.  I used a Sixxiz embossing folder from Tim Holtz for the burst background.  It was done on white cardstock and colored in with Distress Inks (Fired Brick and Mustard Seed) then gone over with a little Vintage photo.  I then used some white perfect pearls to give it that shimmer.  Here's a better view...

The bottom strip is white cardstock that is distress with Fired Brick.

Hope you all had a great 4th of July!

Tammy's card

It's been so long since I've accessed my blog that I had to reset my password....Oh dear!  It's been a rough couple of years (yes, years) since I have been on here.  I am still making cards but I just haven't taken any pictures to post.  The last picture I took was of a card for my sister's birthday that I never posted because I wanted here to see it first, which she never got to do ( very long story).  Needless to say, since that time we lost her to a rare form of brain cancer.  I have also lost a beloved uncle and my father.  Up until a couple of weeks ago, I have not taken any pictures of my creations....which kinda sucks because they are like my babies.  I make them with love and send them out that way and I like to go through my photos and take a look from time to time to remember what I did last.  So, I don't know if anyone is still around who used to take a look but here goes anyway.

This card is for my little sis.  I had just got my new Creative Expression dies and had to try them out so here is what I did.

I had taken down my little area where I used to take my pictures so the setting leaves a lot to be desired but here it is anyway.    The dies are from the Austrian Collection (Creative Expressions) Innsbrook and Salzburg.  I used peach and white shimmer cardstock.  The flowers are handmade, I used some Spellbinders sets....pieces and parts from various to make the petals and leaves.  In fact the tiger lily is made out of the leaves from the orchid set.  The butterfly is from a Hero Arts set that has a couple of butterflies with the dies that go with them.  It works pretty good, it has a body that is cut out separate from the wings with the antennae attached, it's just hard to get the dies lined up with the stamped image just right.

This next card is made with the same dies but is for my significant other.  He lost an old friend too.

It's also made with shimmer cardstock, had to make a special trip to JoAnn's to get the black and white.  I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder for the background and it turned out so sweet.  I painted a little watercolor for the inside, not much of an artist but it turned out OK and goes great with the saying I found on the internet.  Both these cards are 6x6 inches.

So that's my new toys.  I have discovered channel 222 runs a new set of......I guess they are infomercials.  That sells all kinds of supplies for papercrafting and sewing.  It's been on for years in the UK but they are branching out to the US market.  Anyway.....that is where I found these dies, I had never heard of the brand before but the owner sure does design some pretty stuff.  They also do a lot of demos with the stuff they sell.  It is Create and Craft and their website is createandcraft.com .  I also found that they have Heartfelt Creations products and if you haven't seen them in a couple of years, they have done some changing up.  They have just had a big sale and almost everything of theirs is sold out.  They come out with a new set that includes stamps, dies and paper that coordinate together every month.....with a great price for the bundle.  The Creative Expressions dies are VERY expensive but worth it.......Even though they are very intricate cuts, they just pop right out.  I did not use one piece of wax paper on any of these!  If you keep up with the website, you can get them on sale from time to time...which is the only way I can get them.  And the only store in this area that sold Heartfelt Creations closed down a couple of years ago.  So much for my shopping addiction.

Stay Happy.