Christmas 2012 Cards

Its been awhile since I have written. Life has changed a bit. But still making my cards. The past two years I've made a bunch for holidays and birthdays. I have pictures, but they are all on another hard drive. So for now, I will present you with Christmas Cards for 2012!! These turned out really nice. I was stuck at first because I did not have many embellishments. I'm currently unemployed, so buying stuff was out of the question. I did, however, thanks to my sister-in-law, get to borrow her Cricut!! It was the first time I have used one. It was amazing!! She only has two cartridges, but I have a pile about 4 inches high of shapes I have cut out. The one thing I missed from it was any embossing. I have some paper that is already embossed that I got for an anniversary gift earlier this year, so I have been using a lot of that. With all that said, I got some great cards made this year! This year I am asking for Christmas a Sizzix Big Shot. Cuts and embosses! Already have a bunch of die and embossing folders on my Amazon wish list. Now with the awesome cards, I just have to figure out who gets which one. I usually have someone in mind when I make my cards, but this year I just sat down and created.

I used the Cricut for the trees. The card stock is a embossed in a dot form. I sanded the top to make the white underneath show. The sign is 3D.

Got this idea from my Mom. She brought over a ton of sequins when I was hurt and couldn't walk for art projects. All hand glued. The whit swirl is a acrylic stamp.

The first one of the year I made. I actually from an old card from someone I saved from last year. I just cut it up and remade it. The three pieces are 3D on a red background to give it more definition.

An updated version from last year. I used a scrapbook page that had the poinsettia in the middle and just cut it out by hand. The card stock is a green woven texture. The paper behind the ribbon is glittery circles. I added the gemstones to the middle and petals with tacky glue. The words are 3d and the flower is 3d as well with foam.

Though this looked elegant. The card stock is a diamond embossed paper. The red ribbon is silky and the poinsettia are 3D. Diamonds on the edge to look fancy.

My least favorite.  I was going to classical gold and traditional greeting. But I ended up cutting the wording wrong and had to hide it with the holly. A gold-ish card stock with a rippled embossed cut.

A super favorite of mine. Used with the Cricut. A gray diamond embossed card stock. The swirls are glittery silver and the white tree is shiny pearl white. I like the use of the holiday words in the green star. The tree and green star are both 3D.

My favorite style this year. I made two more like it in different colors. This is blue card stock with a white pearl gloss on top, so the blue shows thru. All elements are basically 3D. The background squares I measured at 2x2. The trees are felt. Each square has a few gems on it to tie it together and git it something extra.I will make one change before I send this one out, the words I will change to Merry Christmas and print it on blue paper.

Pink version.

Green version


And that ends the Christmas Cards 2012! Hopefully everyone will have a great Christmas and have new ideas for next year! Keep Crafting my friends!

More birthdays

It's been a busy month. Fixed up a house, moved into said house about four weeks later. So we have been in the house for officially 2 weeks now!! Its a great house. All new paint on everything. Clean and new. A new life start. It's exciting. During this time, there were two birthdays. My man's grandmother, which I consider mine too. I don't have any grandparents anymore, so she is mine. And his aunt's birthday. I made some nice cards for them. I ended up making Grandmother's card first, and liked it so much, that I made Aunt's card the same idea. Nice summer colors and the flowers on grandmothers card are actually from an old gift bag. So you can really find good pieces of art in everyday objects.

Grandmother's card:

Aunt Shell's card:

Anniversary Card

On May 27th, my man and I celebrated our 2nd year anniversary! It's been a great two years and looking forward to more. This card, like I have mentioned before, is a special card. It took me a day or two to get the idea of what I wanted to do with it, what colors, what I wanted to say. I try to make a red card for him for birthdays and anything else, but in two years, I haven't been able to. I never seem to have the red paper and accessories I want and need. But this works out just as good. I think it's one of my best. Even though I have packed all the decor from the living room away for moving, that's the only thing I kept out. It's that good. Let me know what you think.

(below)The hearts on the inside are 3D. I made this by taking the blue polka paper and folding it so the print is on the inside.
Take scissors or craft blade and cut small slits on folded edge. 2 slits per one pop out. You then are going to push the "block" you just cut to the inside of the card. So there will be a square missing from the paper when you look at it. Flip it back over to see the color side and the pop up square is there for you. Glue whatever design on there to make it pop up when the card opens. Check here for a better description from wikihow.com.

Father's Day cards

Father's Day cards for both my dad and my man dad. Both good men. I waited till last minute to make them. I wasn't sure if I was going to. I got all my packed boxes for moving in my craft room right now, so i eventually found a small space to create. Pretty good cards. I wish the tools weren't so delicate on father-in-law's card so I could have made them 3d. But the other one the boat and the car are 3d. Cute idea if you are not really sure what theme to put.
Make is simple, paper, tape (double sided), some stickers. I used a corner punch on the tool card on the silver part. I think they add a nice flare to the card. Tools were found from Stickopotamus, I believe. I actually got a card that fits perfectly in the envelope. My envelopes usually end up bigger than my cards. But, this time I got it a perfect size.

My Dad:

Father-in-law's card:

Valentine's Day Cards

I know its a long ways past Valentine's Day, but I have some of the pictures of the cards I made. These I was especially proud of. I did work hard on them. I have my own separate craft room, where I turn on a movie I really don't care about and get to work. I have to be in the "zone" to get a really great card, or else I just don't like what I made. I got plenty of already made cards, that I wasn't inspired to make, so I ended up putting them aside and will use them for scrap or re-design them.

The top one was for my man. I made sure out of all the cards I made, that was the most special. All of his are usually the best. All because I love him so much, and a little bit to show off my talent.

These were for other family members, like my mother and sisters.

FoodMob! inspired hamburgers

This was the first time I took a picture of food with intentions of showing it to other people. I started watching a show on Revision3 called, Food Mob!. Irish chief Niall Harbison brings you a new kind of culinary show for a new kind of chef (those looking to learn their way around the kitchen). The show invigorates a robust online community where viewers are sharing, suggesting, and learning from each other's cooking.
So far there are 8 or 9 episodes and he teaches cooking techniques easy enough for a new-found cook to learn, or basics and gives good ideas for those of us that have been cooking for awhile. The team has good humor and works well together. This picture was my hamburger I had made one lazy weekend when I didn't know what else to make. A lot of what I put into it was inspired by Niall. I had placed the pic up on their Facebook site hoping to get my pic posted on an episode, but alas, it was not shown. Oh well. I feel good about sharing.

Mostly the ingredients are simple:
Ground beef
Worcestershire sauce
Shredded cheese mixed into the meat
Small portion of bread crumbs
Salt and pepper

That's it. Easy and taste really great. Cooked indoors in a pan, with a nice sesame seed bun. Next time I would put some lettuce and tomato, but I didn't have any at the time.

Food Mob! has new episodes every Thursday. Also check them out at FoodMob!

New idea for my blog

I keep wanting to do something with this blog. Something that's been done, but is pretty fun and something I do anyway is bake or cook. So, I think I am going to try to remember to keep my fancy camera by the kitchen when I do cook, to get pics and post up recipes, you all know what the format for cooking blogs.
Also I wanted to start putting up my card designs that I have made. Unfortunately I only have a few right now, it wasn't until recent that I been taking pictures of my cards, and hard to remember all the ones that I made to get pictures of. But I will remember to take the pics and put them up. Each is my own design. If i can remember I will put up techniques and tools and whatnot used for them. Well, here's to a new blog start.
~Cheers!