Happy Birthday Box Card

I am having fun trying different card styles. I really like the looks of this one!
This is called a box card and I used the great tutorial at Splitcoaststampers. It starts with a 8 1/2" x 11" piece of patterned paper. With scoring and folding, it becomes a box. It is perfect for a gift card or cash! The finished card will measure 4 1/4" square. My papers are K&Company Watercolor Bouquet. This is a very pretty pack of double-sided paper and I love the colors and designs!

The following photo shows the box, belly band, and the inside panel.

I used the Cricut Lite Lacy Labels cartridge for the scallop-edge labels. This image is the last one on the second line of the keypad--Joy label. I did not cut the shift layer for Joy. I used a Just Rite Happy Birthday stamp for the sentiment. I have not worked with these stamps before, but I do like the finished look. I stamped the image using Martha Stewart Forget Me Not blue ink and then used the center point function on the Expression to cut the scallop label. The flower is cut using Martha Stewart Layering Daisy. Pop dots are used in between the layers and pearls from my stash finish the flower. For the belly band I cut 1 1/2" x 10" strip of patterned paper, wrapped it around the card keeping it loose and glued the ends. You want this so it will slide off and on the card. The inside panel is cut 4" x 4", inked edges and corners are rounded.

Martha Stewart Flower Shower Punch is used on the strips on the box edges.

Hope you enjoy this card! If you try one, let me know so I can visit!

Challenges:

Birthday Sundaes - Ch.21 - Birthday (Hope a Box Card works!)

Anything Goes - Happy Birthday/ Celebration

Joyful Stamper Inspire Me Fridays link up party

Cooking With Cricut Guest Designer

I am very excited to be guest designer for Cooking With Cricut today! I was very surprised to receive the invitation and of course, loving the challenge blog, I am happy to be here with you! Cooking With Cricut is one of the first challenge blogs that I began participating in after I started my blog. I always look forward to the weekly challenge and participate as I can. If you have not visited the blog, you are missing out on a lot of fun! The Chefs are always cooking up beautiful and inspiring projects! I want to thank everyone at Cooking With Cricut for the honor of being a guest designer today!

My fun with the Cricut began in 2009 whenever I purchased the Expression. As most of you know I am a member of the Red Hat Society. I started scrapbooking our fun meetings and travels. That soon led to cards and blogging!! What fun! I am always buying red and purple paper. I enjoy finding a cartridge that has great cuts for my Red Hat friends. I was so happy to find Forever Young - hats, dresses, gloves, shoes, purses---perfect! Today, I am sharing a Tri-Shutter Card featuring some of the pretty cuts from Forever Young!

The card starts with a 5 1/2" x 12" piece of red cardstock. There is a great tutorial on SplitCoastStampers for making a Tri Fold Shutter Card. This card style is perfect for using your beautiful designer papers. I am using purple cardstock and the designer paper is K&Company Red Hat Society which I have been hoarding for some time. I find it very hard to find reds and purples. I have used several Cuttlebug embossing folders to add a bit of dimension. Swiss dots is used on the purple background papers. Do you notice the little purple flower on the hat? It is embossed with Bloom Dots and the hat (page 63 cut 1.50") is embossed with Swiss Dots. The purple gingham mat is embossed with Divine Swirls. The mat cut is actually the flower 3 on page 66 using the shift key and cut at 4.25" The flowers are on page 69, cut 1.25" and layers are pop-dotted.

With the card opened, you can see more of my selected cuts. The Cricut has really been chirping this week! I have used ten different images on this card plus the layer and shadow features! The shoes tag is found on page 54 and cut 1". I thought it was so cute and I just had to make room for it. DMC Memory Thread is used for the hanger and the tag is pop-dotted on the mat. Ooh la la cut .75"-page 57 and glasses cut .50"-page 47.

I used Model 14 on page 37 cut 3 1/2", cutting first in ivory and again in red. I trimmed the red hat and red shoes off and glued on the model. Dress is embossed with the Cuttlebug Textile folder. Shoes cut 1.75"- page 54, purse cut 1.75"-page 56, gloves cut 1.50-page 45. Of course, Red Hatters love bling-must have rhinestones! Lots of inking, ribbon and rhinestones from my stash!

This is an easy card to make but it does take time cutting out the mats and layers. Above photo is the card laying flat. Hope you enjoy! Again, many thanks to Cooking With Cricut for the great opportunity!

To see more projects using cuts from Forever Young, you can view Cricut Forever Young under Labels -left side bar of my blog!

Paper Playtime Ch.52 - Cool Off With Water



Thanks for visiting today! It is time for another fun challenge at Paper Playtime. Challenge # 52 is Cool Off With Water. As most of the country has been having very high temperatures, it is refreshing to find a way to cool off! I do not have a sailboat but when I saw this cute cut, I wanted to use it for my card. Wanting to have a colorful card, I chose red, white, and blue papers from my stash. I used the Cricut cartridge Just a Note which is preloaded on the Cricut Expression 2. The cuts are on page 50. Using the card feature, the card is cut 5.50" from a navy blue cardstock. Let's Sail Away cut at 5.50" using red cardstock is the shift key on the card feature. I cut the sailboat first from silver cardstock at 5.50" using the card layer feature and again from the red and blue papers using the card layer shift function. I had trouble getting the correct size for the layering of the letters. If I used the same size for the layering, the individual letters would have been very large. It seems that all sizes would be the same for the complete card, but it did work that way. I do not use Design Studio nor Gypsy so I had to keep making adjustments. I think it was 3 inches that I finally used to cut the letters.

To add more dimension, I used the Cuttlebug Houndstooth on the sails and Divine Swirls on the blues for the water.

Above is a photo of the card opened. The solid blue is actually the backside of the card. The two side panels fold in toward the front of the card. Hope you enjoy my card!

Now it is your turn to play along with us! We would love to see your paper projects showing any type of way to cool off with water. We are happy to have My Pink Stamper as our sponsor for this challenge. The prize is a clear stamp set "Music Speaks". To see the design team's great projects, visit Paper Playtime. Be sure to hop over to their blogs and leave some love!

I am sharing this card at Cooking With Cricut  Challenge #45- Sailboat.

Sharing My Exciting News - Guest Designer and More

Hello blogging friends! Hope you have had a great weekend! Sorry I have not made a post in several days although I have been busy with the Cricut. You will soon see what I have been doing!

I am excited that I have been asked to be guest designer at Cooking With Cricut on Tuesday!
Cooking With Cricut was one of the first challenge blogs that I began participating in when I first started my blog. The Chefs are so talented and inspiring! I always check in to see what they have cooked up with the new challenges and join in when I can. Tuesday, I will spotlight one of my favorite Cricut cartridges. I will not tell you now which cartridge, but I will say there will be several cuts from the cartridge. I want to say thanks to everyone at Cooking With Cricut for this honor! Please visit the CWC blog on Tuesday to see what I have stirred up for you! If you have not entered their challenges before, you are missing out on the fun! Oh, don't forget to visit my blog! I love reading your comments!

I found out yesterday that my Christmas card Brrr won the Christmas in July-Mittens challenge at Bitten By The Bug2. I was so surprised! Thanks Penny for recognizing my card! I so enjoy blinkies for my blog!! This is the second challenge that the card received recognition. It was recognized at Cooking With Cricut as Top 3 Chefs in Challenge #42 Pen or Marker or a Sun. I used Cricut Markers. Many thanks to the Chefs!

More great news, I have reached 300 + followers! Thanks to each of you for your support and comments! I appreciate that you enjoy my work and chose to become a follower! When I first started the blog, of course, I knew nothing about blogging. I have learned a little about posting but I have learned other important things!
We love crafting and we enjoy seeing other bloggers' projects. We enjoy making new friends! I thank you for your friendship!
My one year Blogaversary is coming up in September. I will be working on something special for the occasion!

Just a reminder, tomorrow starts a new challenge at Paper Playtime. Be sure to check out the design team's awesome projects for the theme and visit my blog to see my project! We look forward to seeing your projects!