Summer Smiles layout

Hello Happy Saturday it's a lovely hot day here today. I finished a page this afternoon continuing on with our photos of the Dominican Republic. I didn't realise i got some other tools and stuff in my photo oops oh well! This is a lovely photo of us near the beautiful pool at the resort. I started with a light blue cardstock base. I cut a scalloped square out of floral patterned paper and I used my Cricut pens to write the little title down the bottom. I cut the main title from a SVG cut I got from Miss Kates Cuttables I got it for only 50 cents. I cut the little sun on my Cricut Explore and used my Cricut pens to write my journalling. I used a chipboard piece that says "beautiful". I cut the swimsuit borders from the library with the Cricut. I added a couple of brads to finish on the shorts and near the title.

Card swap for a friend for September

Hello it's a nice sunny Thursday here I have been busy out with the dogs today and later it's time to take Ivy to the lake with Greg which will be fun, we all look forward to that, she's a little dynamo but full of love and joy : ).

My friend Conny are doing a fun card swap each month, each month we take it in turns and choose 2 themes, then we both pick a theme from those 2 and make a card (but don't tell which one we chose) and send it. Conny picked this month and her themes were:

Vacation in Italy or the U.S. J

    summer is leaving, fall is coming (using summer and fall colours for example)

So I chose the first one - vacation in Italy or the U.S. We are going to Italy in October and Conny is going to the U.S In October so I chose to do a U.S themed card. I used a navy blue pre-made card then on my Cricut Explore I cut out the American Flag, the person (which is made to look like Conny) and the suitcase. I also cut out the little label and used my Cricut pens to write the greeting. The pens are still probbaly my my favourite part of the Cricut, you can write any greeting you want and don't need as many sentiment stamps which saves storage space and money : ). I added some chalk to the face as I used white cardstock but made it look skin colored and some Pearl Effects on the hair.

I hope she likes her card, I'll send that this week. Thanks for looking.

some felt decorations

Hello another post today, I thought I would show you these cute Christmas decorations I've made, I used my Cricut to cut out the felt hearts and the Christmas tree. I put stuffing in each decoration and blanket stitched around the edges. I added ribbon and a reindeer button to one and then I decorated the tree on the other using some mini ricrac and sequins. Have a lovely day.

Bon Appetit

Hello hope you're having a nice week so far. I made this scrapbook page today, this is the second page I've done on our recent holiday to the Dominican Republic. These photos were taken at the lovely buffet restaurant they had at the resort. I used my Cricut Explore to cut everything and also do my journalling with my pens. I love that little Teddy Chef from Teddy Bear Parade : ). Have a lovely day.

Reindeer in the snow Christmas card

Hello Happy Monday it's very hot and stormy here, but I would rather that than snow! I have another Christmas card, I started this one on the weekend and finished it now. I bought a new set of stamps at Michaels on Saturday these are a Hampton Arts Christmas set, so cute so I was looking forward to trying them out. I started with a pre-made A2 size card in silver and then I used a piece of paper from a little American Crafts Christmas pad I had (6 x 6) it looks like a winter forest. I stamped the tree and reindeer from the set onto this and then again on white and I coloured in the white images with my colored pencils and cut them out and paper pieced them. I added some glitter gel pen to the reindeers antlers and his scarf. I then cut some "snow" out of a scrap of glittery cardstock and used a Verve stamp to stamp my greeting. I think it turned out lovely, thanks for looking, have a nice day.

An anniversary card that has a surprise

Hello Happy Saturday, I started this card during the week but could only finish it today as I had to get a Staz-On Ink pad from Michaels to finish this. Staz-On is an ink pad that will work on acetate. I made an anniversary card for my Aunty and Uncle who we will be visiting in the U.K in October and their anniversary is near ours so I will be taking this with us. I saw a great idea in the latest issue of Papercrafts Inspirations which is a U.K magazine that I subscribe to digitally. It had an idea for a peek-a-boo slider card so I wanted to have a go. My gorgeous hubby helped me with this as it was my first one and it took a bit of working out. I cut a card that was 12 x 4.5 and scored it down the middle. The layer on top was cut on my Cricut, it's a whole card but has a window on the top layer. I then got a separate piece of white card and used my Cricut to write my greeting. I love that the Cricut Explore writes, you can write whatever greeting you want at whatever size you want. I then stamped my image, the flower is from an old Inkadinkado set I got. I colored my flowers in with colored pencils and then used mineral spirits on top. I then used my Staz-On to stamp onto the acetate. The acetate is then stuck to the window part and the white stamped image is stuck to the back.I used a circle punch to cut the half moon shape. A then separate piece of white is cut and I punched a hole and set it with an eyelet and tied some ribbon through it to form a pull tab. So as you can see, at the start it looks like a very plain card but as soon as you pull the tab it reveals a pretty colored flower and greeting. Thanks for looking and Happy Saturday.

Bear Christmas Card

Hello Happy Friday, I hope you've had a nice week. I made this card today, sorry about the lighting but It's getting dark now and I wanted to get the photo on tonight. I got an email from Kadoodle Bug Designs that they were having a sale on their SVG files so I bought a couple. This gorgeous little bear and his bell was only 75 cents and I'm so glad I got him. I made a square 5 x 5 inch card then added a white glitter layer, a spotted layer and a layer cut from Elegant Edges in Green. I used my Cricut to write my greeting. I cut my bear out on my Cricut too, he was a bit fiddly but worth it. Greg helped me work out what to glue first in layers (it's nice to share a craft room/office with Greg!). I added some little red gemstones on the holly. I put him up on 3D squares. I think this one turned out very cute. Thanks for looking, have a nice weekend.

Greg's Anniversary Card

Hello Happy Thursday, only one more day till the weekend, I'm looking forward to going out to do some shopping in the suburbs before we go to the concert.

I made this card for Greg for our anniversary coming up in October, we'll be in Italy so I decided to do a little scene of us sitting in the restaurant along the Amalfi Coast. I made a center step card. I got the SVG file for this from www.loriwhitlock.com and it came with the green layers, the banner (which I cut in a scrap of love script paper) and the white scalloped rectangle layer. I cut the card in red and then I embossed the green layers in my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. I used my Cricut Explore to write my font. I used an American Crafts Slickwriter pen in red to write my sentiment which reads "Felice Anniversario Sweetie" which means Happy Anniversary Sweetie in Italian. I cut the window from the French Manor cartridge and the couple sitting at the table is from the Sweethearts cartridge. I made my own little Italian flag from scraps and added a toothpick to make into a flag. I'm so excited about going to Italy and of course our anniversary there and I know Greg will love his card, thanks for looking.

Pineapple Party

Hello I've got my first scrapbook page from our trip to the Dominican Republic. I started this one on the weekend and finished it today. Sorry if the lighting isn't too good today it's raining and grey so hopefully it will come out ok. I scrapped these photos of the Pineapple Party the resort held we had a good time and got a "mocktail" to drink in the pineapple shell. I started with some glittered yellow card then a sheet of tropical flower paper which I think was from an old DCWV Summer stack. The orange was from the same stack and cut in a sun shape from my Cricut Explore library. The Pineapple part of the font was cut from Everyday fonts and the party was from Simply Charmed. I cut a label from Art Philosophy but used my Cricut markers to write on it with my Explore for my journalling. The brad is from my stash. The pineapple drink is from Life's a Beach. The flowers are wood veneer flowers from a little Recollections set I got on clearance at Michaels. I learned something new from a blog I follow, which is Jennifer McGuire's blog for the red flower. I inked all over it in red pigment ink until there was plenty of red on it, then I got some clear sparkle embossing powder and put that all over the top and heat set it with the heat gun it came out all sparkly, I love the look of it. For the yellow flower I just used a yellow marker and a yellow enamel dot in the middle. I hope to do some pages from this trip soon but next on the agenda is Greg's anniversary card, so look for that next, have a nice day.

Birthday card

Hello again I've got another card that I put together today. I got some of the Cricut markers when I got my Cricut but then I saw on YouTube that some other people had found cheaper alternatives that also will draw with the Cricut. I bought some American Crafts Chalk markers for a bargain the other day at Tuesday Morning and I tried them and they are great. I used my Explore to write the greetings both in gold and white chalk markers on some black card, I really love the look of the writing on cards. I matted the black layer onto a red dotted DCWV card. For the balloons I used a freebie I got ages ago from Miss Kates Cuttables and stamped Peachy Keen faces on them. I'm using my PK stamps a lot lately I love the cute faces. I added some twine and a bow and also some star gemstones. Thanks for looking, have a nice weekend.

I love my Cricut..look what I made with leather

Hello happy Friday, I am really happy with this latest project I made. Last weekend I got an email from Cricut with a project on how to make earrings from leather I was really eager to try this as they will make lovely gifts, I've made these for my mum but now I know it works I will play around with other designs. To do this you need the Cricut Explore Deep Cut blade and housing, some leather (I got a sheet of 1.5mm thickness leather from Michaels), some jump rings, earring wires, a heavy duty hole punch as well as the Strong grip Cricut mat and the black Cricut Marker. Don't they look pretty? I'm amazed at what the Cricut Explore can do and my hubby is the best for getting it for me for my birthday : ) Have a lovely weekend.

2 cards...a Hello card and a Christmas card

Hello I have 2 cards today that I have made this week. The first one is a Christmas card again using my Peachy Keen stamp set I got in July, I love these stamps. This card took a while to make so it will go to someone I know will love it and appreciate the time it took to make it. I started with a brown kraft 5.5" square card and then I added a white glitter card layer then a red layer. I did everything on the Cricut Explore and cut my garland and speech bubbles from the image library. I saw some cute speech bubbles stamps on Ebay the other day but then I thought I could do the same thing with my Cricut pens. So I just cut the speech bubble and wrote the sentiments with my Cricut pens. I made it look like the Elves were singing a Christmas Carol. I cut the SVG files for the 2 elves on my Cricut (they came with the stamp set) and then stamped on those and coloured with colored pencils and mineral spirits. I stamped the music notes as well. I used a sentiment from the set to stamp on the inside. I added some glitter glue to the pom poms on the Elves hats and Crystal effects to make the red holly berries shine.

For the second card I made a card for my friend Christina, we swap a card each month and this month the theme was to either use a bird on a card or some patterned paper so I chose the patterned paper. Mary at CardzTV made a great card the other day you can see it here so I decided to do that and made a pink card and some scraps of dotted paper. I cut a label on my Explore (I think it was from Elegant Edges) and a cute flower that I got as a freebie from Miss Kate's Cuttables. I wrote my own sentiment using the Explore on a banner from Art Philosophy and stamped a Peachy Keen face. I think it turned out really cute and nice.

Thanks for looking and sorry for the light on the photos hope you can still see it ok.

my first Christmas card

Hello I am back after a while. I went on a lovely holiday with Greg to the Dominican Republic and we had a great time, I will scrapbook the photos soon but I've been pretty sick the past week and this was the first thing I've made since coming back. I joined the Peachy Keen Stamp of the month club and I was really pleased with the July set it was a Christmas in July theme so I decided to make a card using them. It's also August now so it's a good chance to get started on Christmas cards. I love the Peachy Keen faces they are so cute and make everything cuter. The club also gives you a free SVG file along with the stamps so I cut them out my Explore and then stamped them and colored them in. I've been practicing using colored pencils and a blending stump dipped in mineral spirits and I like it : ). I found a sheet of bling at Joann's and cut them into strips. I also used a Fiskars border punch on the bottom and a Verve Stamp. I put the baubles and garland on 3D dots. Thanks for looking.