Just - a - Swingin'

On Splitcoast, there is a fantastic page of tutorials for cards and other paper crafting projects and/or techniques. Each week, a new technique or project becomes available and is dispersed via the Weekly Inkling (Just sign up for this on the home page of SCS - scroll down and find it in the right-hand column. It comes out ever Wednesday.). I recently looked through this wonderful list, and as I did, I wrote down about 16 projects that I wanted to work on and try. Because I'm a little ... strange ... I didn't want to just start at the top and work down the list. So, I went to random.org, input the list, and had the site randomize it. NOW, I'm working down from the top. :)

The first project on the list was the Swing Card. What a cool card this made!!

This is how it looks from the front.





And when you open it flat ...




Here is the card standing up with the inside part showing.




All paper is SU. The stamp set is SU's Hello Again set. It was very fun to work with. The ribbon is SU's pink taffeta and the flowers are Primas. The colored ink is SU classic and the grass was made using Copics. The black ink is Memento. Little self-adhesive crystals make up the centers of the Prima flowers.



Try a new project or technique this week!!!!

Have a beautiful Monday night and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!!!


~*Shell*~

Spring Snowfall

Many times my northern friends get snow in the spring, but we rarely do. Interestingly enough, last Saturday was a fantastic, 75º day, but Monday, we had snow flurries!! Oh my. Bizarre-O weather!!

To celebrate the spring and the beautiful spring weather, I thought I would post a project to remind of us of where we were not long ago - in the folds of the cold winter (and it's been a COLD one here in Georgia).

This snowflake was SO easy to make.




I combined several images in SCAL (all in the winter section of the supplied shapes in SCAL) and cut them. Two holes were put in to accommodate a piece of string or hanger of some kind.




All of the pieces were put together using pop-up glue dots and a crystal was added in the middle for a little bling. This project turned out soooooo cute and sooooo easy!!! Can't you just imagine what it would look like with a little glitter or a tad more bling? This would be a great thing to adorn Christmas cards - a keepsake from the card. Cut, adhere, bling, and hang. What could possibly be easier??





Have a beautiful Saturday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. Please celebrate Palm Sunday in your place of worship. :)

~*Shell*~

Beautiful Easter Time

Don't you just love spring and Easter??? I love the change in the weather (although, I'm not nuts on it changing ... changing back ... changing again ..... Oh well. I guess that's what I get for living in Georgia) and the flowers coming out. I love seeing all the cute Easter things in the stores, too. Recently, we ate dinner at Cracker Barrel, and they had an adorable sugar egg diorama. Those are SO cute. You know ... like the one here. Super cute. That little egg got me thinking, though. I wanted to make one with my Cricut. Ok, not quite the same, but in card form.



Here is the finished product ...





No, it's not exactly like those precious sugar eggs, but I think it turned out pretty cute.




The majority of it was cut from the Cricut - using SCAL. The egg card, egg layer on top, back egg layer, the scalloped circle around the hole, and bunny were all cut using SCAL. Foam tape was used to set the layers apart and give the depth- 3 layers of foam tape. All paper is SU. The crocheted flowers are done by me, and the flowers that stick up use duct tape (rolled into a 'stick') and Flower Soft. I know ... not exactly the conventional way to use it, but I tend to play by different rules. :) The bunny and crocheted flowers are on pop dots.



The ribbon is not handmade. I have no idea where it came from, but it was perfect for what I was aiming for on this card. The Cuttlebug was used to emboss the top and the bottom of the front layer egg.





Let me know what you think. It's kind of like a shaker card, but a little less technical since there's not 'stuff' to fall out all over. :)

Hope you have a happy Thursday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow! :)


~*Shell*~

Teeny, Tiny Flowers

Yippee!!! I'm getting the hang of those little crocheted flowers. Today, I made several, and then, I made a card with them! :)

Aren't they adorable???





I was going to put a layer behind the image on this card, but I got some of that malware - malicious software (XPDefender ... YUCK!!!!!!!!) - on my computer. My first response to things like that is to #1 - turn off my wireless connection, and #2 - shut down my 'good' programs. So, I couldn't use SCAL to cut the shadow-type layer of the scalloped oval.




The paper is all SU - pretty in pink, chocolate chip, always artichoke. The flowers were made using size 10 crochet thread and a size 7 hook. The flower brads came from .... somewhere. Sorry. I have no idea where I got them.




I was going to put a crystal in the center of each one of the brads, but for whatever reason, those little suckers wouldn't stick tonight. So, I resorted to coloring the center of each brad with my trusty Gelly Rollz glitter pen.



The stamp set is the Easter one from SU that came out several years ago. It worked *perfectly* for the stems of my flowers. Ink used - always artichoke and pretty in pink. The ribbon is from SU - chocolate chip satin and pretty in pink taffeta. Pop dots were used for the oval and for the pink layer. The Cuttlebug was used to emboss the brown background layer, and my Zutter Round It All was used to round the corners.



The blue flower actually was made using variegated thread. It has made some of the coolest flowers. I need to find some more colors of that. :) Too much fun.



If you are a member of SCS, please keep in mind that the site will be down tomorrow from 10 AM - 3 PM (eastern) as they migrate over to the new servers. I guess I will work out and create while the site is down .... I might actually get something done without that particular ... distraction. :) :) Love my SCS. Information about the migration can be found here.

I will try to create some more tomorrow and post. Hope you have an awesome Monday night and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.

~*Shell*~

Gentleness

I was hoping to get several layouts finished today. My Fruit of the Spirit scrapbooks has 4 layouts that have very little on them. I started with "gentleness" because it had no title or embellishments. Unfortunately, that's the only set that I finished. Fortunately, though, I really like the pages.



The title was cut using SCAL. The flowers were given to me in a secret sister swap last year. I LOVE these flowers on the page. The corners are adorned with self-adhesive pearl dots.


I created a new flower today, too!! :) This one is NOT quite as ... warped ... as the one from yesterday. It's a lot more even.

What do you think??




I still need to work on the middle, but the petals are even. I'm thrilled with that! :)

I hope you al have a wonderful evening. I'm going out to dinner with my hubby and kids.

OH .... and have a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!!!! :)


~*Shell*~

Whatcha Been Up To??

Ever get a bee in your bonnet to do something totally out of your comfort zone?? Well, I did. A friend at church was teaching a class on crocheting. I thought that I would go and see if I could do a little bit of it. I was hooked .... pardon the pun. :) I've made 6 scarves since that day .... February 27th ..... out of various yarns.

During this time, I received the challenge swap kit for March from Roxie. Inside this kit were some absolutely adorable little crocheted flowers. :) I neeeeeeeeded some more of those!!!!! I didn't want to use them because they are sooooo adorable, but I did use them on the two Easter cards (one is here). Here is the second one (actually done first, though ... :) ).




And a close up of the adorable flower ...




The bunny image was in the kit, as were the designer paper, flowers, and green paper. I embossed the paper with the Cuttlebug, added basic gray taffeta ribbon, a button on the flower, some Prima flowers, and self-adhesive pearls, and put it all together. The bunny image was colored with Copics.

Now ... where am I going with this?? Well, once those precious flowers got in my brain, I had to learn to make them. I've scoured the internet for instructions and such. Since I'm very new to crocheting, all of the terms had to be researched before I could even start the process. I tried the flowers from this site with regular yarn and an H hook. Yep. I made a flower. It's not something I would want to use on a card, but it was great practice. With the help of a great SCS friend (thanks Tam!!!), I purchased the correct hook and thread today at Joann's. This is NOT perfect, but for my first time with it, I think I did ok. Hey .... flowers aren't all perfect in nature, either ..... It has one extra-special petal ..... :) BUT ... I WILL conquer this!!!





That's where my time went tonight. Hopefully, I will have a couple of layouts to show off tomorrow night. We have Family Fun Day on Saturday, so I probably won't post on Saturday or Sunday. Maybe I will get lucky and get to create on Sunday.


I hope ya'll have an awesome night and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow! :)


~*Shell*~

New CDS Font Update and New Cartridges!!

New cartridges are being released by Cricut in the next couple of months. They have already released a font update for the Cricut Design Studio, as well, to show off the fun new things included on those new cartridges. You can get the update here.

The new cartridges coming out are ....

• Birthday Cakes
• Create A Critter
• Elegant Cake
• Holiday Cakes
• Independence Day
• Nursery Rhymes
• Summer Vacation
• Summer In Paris, and
  
• Robotz.

Two cartridges will be "retired," too. Those are ...

• Stamped and
• Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More.

So, get those cartridges before they are gone!!!


I can't wait to see the images on the new cartridges. You can go here to see the new cartridges at the Cricut site.


Hopefully, I will have more for you later! Have an awesome day. :)


~*Shell*~

Side Step Tutorial

Ok. This one was a little tricky to figure out. Hopefully, I have all of the steps figured out and that I can effectively communicate them to you. Hang on tight because here we go ....

Start with a piece of paper 8 1/2" x 5 1/2".

Place in ScorPal vertically with the 5 1/2" side at the top edge of the ScorPal. Score straight down at 2".



Rotate paper to horizontal position with the 2" side at the bottom. Score at 1" - scoring ONLY to the original 2" score line, 2" - scoring ONLY to the original 2" score line, 3 1/4" - scoring ONLY to the original 2" score line, 4 1/4" - scoring ALL the way across, and 6 3/8" - scoring ONLY to the original 2" score line.

Rotating..


Scoring ...


It should look like this after scoring ....



Fold paper in half at 4 1/4". Open back up.

With your Xacto knife, begin cutting a line where the 1" score line touches the 2" score line. Continue until you reach where the 2" line meets the 6" line - and stop there.




You should have a slit straight down the card from the 1" line to the 6" line.



Beginning at the 1" score mark (folding to a mountain fold), fold the score marks in an accordion fold.

You should now have this .....







From this point, you're on your own! Decorate, stamp, embellish, flourish, have fun. Make the card beautiful, whimsical, fun, and/or amazing! Please try this and let me know what yours looks like. I wanna see!!




My finished project -




I used SU black, basic gray, and So Saffron paper and patterned paper by DCWV. Flower brads and self-adhesive crystals embellish the front. Pony Party stamp set was used for the adorable pony, and Sweet Shapes was used for the Hello and the butterfly. I'm not sure if I like this particular card - I don't use a lot of yellow normally (not my favorite color....), but I guess in general, I think it's ok.





Let me know if you try this card and if I left out anything. I want to make sure it's an accurate step-by-step tutorial. :)

Have a wonderful day and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!!

~*Shell*~

Thinking of You

Recently, an elderly friend at church moved to an assisted living home about an hour from here. She can, of course, no longer attend our church, and she was SO upset about leaving. She's been there for a very long time. She's a wonderful, wonderful lady full of wisdom and class. I wanted to make sure she knew that we weren't forgetting her and that we were missing her, too.




I used an older set for this card - In Full Bloom. Remember when that one came out and everyone HAD to have it NOW? The beauty of the set hasn't faded, but it's not used as it originally was. Since I'm trying to use all of my sets this year, I pulled that one out instead of Petal Prints - which I used the other day.



I've mentioned before how much I hate cutting things out, but I ended up doing it *twice* on this card. What's up with that? Anyway, one flower and the bee are all cut and pop dotted. The image layer and background for it were cut with SCAL and the Cricut, as were the scalloped circles. All SU paper is used for this card. The teal background was embossed with the Cuttlebug, and the images were colored with ... yep ... Copics. The bee's wings were colored with my Gelly Rollz glitter pen.




It's a pretty 'normal' card considering all of the tent cards and specialty cards I've done lately. I ran out of time tonight, though. :) Perhaps tomorrow.


Let me know what you think! :) Oh ... now, I need to go find the address of that assisted living home.

Have an awesome Monday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.

Happy Anniversary

My dear husband and I will celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary on Friday. I, of course, need a card for him. :) The style/design has been in my mind for a while - or at least, the basic card shape has. The details got worked out as I worked on the card.

One of my goals this year is to use as many of my stamp sets as possible. Since I don't sell or give away any of my retired sets, I have .... a few ... sets (ha ha ha ..... A TON). I pulled out Loads of Love - always a great set to use - for this card. I added SU's new sets - Whimsical Words and Well Scripted. I requested the unmounted version of these sets, and I really like them. The labels for the back of the stamps are a little hard to deal with, but overall, I really like the unmounted option.





The tent card style has just hit me as a lot of fun and very classy at the same time. So, I ran with that on this one, too. I used SCAL to weld a scalloped heart (from an online picture of the Fiskars punch ...) to a rectangle. That's the red base of the card - which is actually mounted on a white pre-cut card from Michael's (LOVE those things ... save me a lot of time). Then, a blue heart and white heart were layered and cut in SCAL. The blue heart was embossed using the Cuttlebug, and the white was stamped with the truck and hearts from Loads of Love. All coloring was done with the Copics, and all paper used is SU.




The label punch was already in SCAL from a previous card, so I used it for this one as well, but had to size it down a bit. Well Scripted was used for the front sentiment. The white ribbon going across reminds me of a seat belt! LOL! That's kind of appropriate with the truck on there. :)


I used the label file again (sizing it a little larger) for the inside of the card. And the red piece here is also embossed using the Cuttlebug.




The front just wasn't complete until I found these adorable beads in my stash! A piece of red satin ribbon is used to tie these cuties to the white ribbon on the card. A dab of glue was used to keep the knot from coming untied and the end from raveling.





Three self-adhesive pearls added just a little touch on the corner and completed the card for me. I hope he likes it!!! He's an amazing man - and he fully supports my stamping habit. :)


Have an awesome Saturday night!!! US folks - Don't forget to set your clocks *forward*. Yeah, we lose an hour tonight. :(


Oh ... and have a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!!!!

~*Shell*~

Easter Egg-stra

The pieces for my March swap challenge were SO fun to use for creating. When the pieces came, I immediately had to color those spring/Easter images! This was actually my 2nd creation with the kit, but I'm sharing it first.




The egg image, egg paper, sentiment, and ADORABLY cute pink flower came in the kit. The flower behind the pink, crocheted flower is from some that I had on hand. I thought it helped set that flower off.





In order to create a background for the sentiment, I flipped it over, placed it on a black background, and took a picture. I changed it to ,jpg and imported it into SCAL to size it and cut it. Worked wonderfully. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE SCAL?! :)





The eggs were colored with Copics, and all paper used was SU. The ribbon is pink taffeta, and the brads have the cute little crystals inside. I'm not sure if those are SU or another brand. The image is set up on pop dots and the sentiment is up higher on pop dots.



Today, I'm creating 20 Easter cards (which I showed here several weeks ago). I had to get the mojo and umph to get those going. I don't like 'mass producing' very much, so it took a kick in the bum to get that moving. They are almost done now, though, so I can start something else on Saturday. SU order is coming tomorrow, so I should have plenty to play with Saturday.


No post tomorrow - out of the house all day.

Hope you have a wonderful Thursday evening and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!!


~*Shell*~

Poppin' with SCAL

Yep. I had to try making a stand-alone, pop-up card with the assistance of SCAL and my Cricut. Welding a couple of scalloped squares with a regular rectangle gave me the scalloped edge for the base that I had envisioned last night. Then, I cut a daisy silhouette top for the tag. I decided to cut the silhouette from black (genius there, huh?? :) ) and to put blue (like the sky) behind it. Blush blossom is used on top of the black. I needed a white layer, too, or I thought I did, anyway.




All of the paper is SU. The stamps are SU, as well ... Petal Prints, Warmest Regards, and Happy Harmony (I think). Blush blossom ink and certainly celery inks were used. Blue grosgrain ribbon and a black flower (from Hobby Lobby) were used for embellishment. Blush blossom was used for the sentiment layers on top of the white.



The hole for the tag had to be cut a little bigger to accommodate the tied ribbon. I wanted to show that it folds flat (or flat enough to mail, anyway), too.






There are many fun thoughts for this type of card. Can I challenge all of you to try it?? I wanna see what you can come up with. Put a comment on this post with a link to your project. I think you guys can do an amazing job with these cards. Rock it!!!


No post tomorrow, but I'll be back on Thursday.

Have an awesome night and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.

Got Some Pop?

SCS had a great VSN event the weekend of the 26th and 27th. There were so many wonderful challenges. The theme was the Olympics, and all of the challenges had something to do with that theme. One challenge that I couldn't complete during the weekend was the "Winner's Podium." It involved learning how to make a stand-up, pop-up card. While I love learning new cards, I didn't have time for that during the weekend. So, I did it tonight. :) It's not the best card, but I can see wonderful possibilities when paired with SCAL and the Cricut. A little elephant or bear on the pop-up part for a baby card?? A flower for a friend? Yep ... I think that could be fun.

Here, however, is my first attempt.




The challenge has a link to the instructions. It was much easier than I expected it to be. :) Here are a couple of close-up shots of the stamping and embellishments.




All paper was from SU (Going Gray, Apricot, black, and white), ribbon was SU (black grosgrain and green linen), flowers were Primas, and stamps were from SU (Petal Prints and Warm Words). Ink was black Memento and VersaMark. Flowers were stamped with Watercolor Wonder Crayons used directly on the stamps.





Let me know what you think!! Have a wonderful day and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.



~*Shell*~

Air Force Logo

Recently, a friend's son went to basic training for the US Air Force. Last week, I created a card to encourage him through the tough training.

I searched the internet to find an Air Force logo. I copied it into Paint Shop Pro, changed it to black and white (instead of the traditional blue and white logo colors), and traced it in SCAL. Ahhhh .... Blessed SCAL. :) :)

Originally, I planned to take the pieces of the logo and recreate it on a card. As I worked on doing that, I realized just how frustrated I was going to get trying to get it even and straight. That's when I had a revelation (DUH! Yeah, I'm slow ...). How about using the 'negative' image. Yes, yes ... I've done it before on other cards for other reasons, but that wasn't in the forefront of my mind for this card.





I backed the blue, 'negative' image with basic gray and colored with the Gelly Roll glitter pen in the open areas. I wish that I had done a shadow layer and/or a edge punch/shape on the blue layer, but I didn't. :) The white background is embossed with a stars folder on the Cuttlebug, and white ribbon was embellished with a small piece of silver cording.

I hope that it encouraged Austin in many ways. Unfortunately, I found out yesterday that he will be medically discharged and back home in 2 weeks. He went through so much to get to basic training, and I just hurt for him and his family. I know he is so disappointed in this development. There are great things ahead for him, though.


Have a wonderful Sunday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.


~*Shell*~

SCAL and Stamps

The card I'm sharing today is not anything outrageously extraordinary or anything, but it does have a special significance. "What significance?" you might ask. Well, this card encouraged me to try something that I had pondered for quite a while. First, let me share the card ...





The card is created with a glossy base - colored with the polished stone technique. The scalloped pop up part was created in SCAL. The flower and sentiment are from SU stamps. This is the front. It's a tent card, so the inside holds a little more than normal cards...





If you notice, fhe flower on the inside of the card matches the Doodle This flower on the front of the card. To my knowledge, there is no punch for this flower, but there IS SCAL! :)


I stamped the flower and took a picture of it ....



I took that flower into Paint Shop Pro, colored it in with black, converted it to .jpg, and traced it into SCAL. I, then, sized it the way I wanted it and cut. The flower is a great accent to the stamped image. I can imagine making cut-outs of the stamps I like to have shadows and cut out images all the time! How fun!!!


I hope this helps add some versatility to your Cricut and crafting. I love being able to use my 'stuff' together. This will make me enjoy both the Cricut AND my stamps even more (is that possible?!).


Off to complete some challenges. Have an awesome Friday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. :)

~*Shell*~

Splish Splash!

Such a fun card this was to make!!! I had an idea for a splash card to go with a duck that I have. Ok ... so the duck image ended up being too big for what I wanted on this, but I did have another duck (I AM part of the Quackers, ya know. :) ).

I wanted to make a card to cheer up a friend. I'm not sure this will do it, but hopefully, she will get a smile out of it.



I couldn't find a splash that I liked. But there was one on the Dreams Come True cart (which I own). I imported that image - and it's shadow - into SCAL to add it to a great rounded rectangle to make a standard 4 1/4"x5 1/2" card. I welded the shadow onto the rectangle and cut the image out as a layer to be added in a lighter blue later. In the same file, I made a little flower/sun/circle thing with a shadow. I made that with yellow and a layer of white to stamp on. I also cute a scalloped square with a shadow on which to stamp the duck image. The flower/sun/circle thing is on pop dots, as is the shadow. The little orange flowers are from Prima. I added some self-adhesive crystals to the middle of those. The duck is colored with Copics and all paper is from SU. The You're Neat sentiment is from SU (You're Neat set) - each word stamped separately in order to put them on different lines.

Here is the card partially open so that you can see how it is cut.





Sure hope this cheers up my friend .... even a little.


Have a wonderful Monday evening and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow (I might get snow again!!!!!!! Three times this winter .... IN GEORGIA! Global warming......bwahahahaaaaa!!!!!!!).


~*Shell*~