Last night

Last night after Mom's Birthday BBQ I brought out my cuttlebug machine to show people how I made the Birthday card. My niece Alexis and my nephew John wanted to make cards for their friends. So we picked out paper and what embossing plates to use. Alexis made a birthday card for her friend Emily. We embossed her card out of green paper with the circle embossing folder. John used the same embossing folder that I used for my mom's birthday card, but he used pink paper. We stuck white paper on the inside so they could write little messages to their friends. Then they each decided that they wanted to emboss their envelopes. We used my Fiskars embossing plates for those. John chose little animal footprints and Alexis chose one called 'rug'. Their friends will enjoy them. I wish I had pictures of their cards. I love doing crafts, especially with others. That was fun for me to see them have fun. :-)

Mom's Birthday

Mom's birthday was Friday. We are having a BBQ at my house tonight for her. Last night I made her a card to go with her present. This is what I came up with. It turned out quite pretty if I do say so myself. The flower embossing came from one of the cuttlebug embossing plates we found last week on clearance. I love it! Can't believe it was clearanced.

Ready for Christmas?

Here is another sample of a card I saw on splitcoast website. I think I need to add little black buttons down the front of the card to add a little more pizzazz. I glued white paper down the center of a piece of red paper. Then I ran it through my cuttlebug machine to emboss it. I then glued it to a black card with black ribbon and a metal buckle I purchased years ago. What do you think?

Just making samples

I'd like to make my own christmas cards this year. My aunt and I are going to get together and make them. We each need to have 2 ideas and this is one I came up with last night. Do you like? I think it is pretty and it was simple and quick. I ran the light blue paper through my Cuttlebug with my snowflake Fiskars plate and the white snowflakes are cut from a die cute on my Cuttlebug also. I sprayed them with spray glitter. The ribbon is white with silver snowflakes. I bought some silver metal dots to put in the center of each white snowflake.

I played around last night trying to figure out how to make the little nugget purses into back packs. This is what I came up with. I ran some yellow paper through my printer and printed the ISU and IOWA STATE UNIVERSTY onto it with red ink. I tried two different ways to run the ribbon through the back to make it look like a back pack. One has a strap on each side. The other has the straps meeting in the center at the top. I think that is what a backpack looks like. That also allowed me to just have to tie two knots. I'm trying to come up with ideas for my son's graduation open house. I think this might be a cute party favor with BHS and Class of 2009 printed on them. We'll see.

UPDATE: I've been told these don't look like backpacks--so back to the drawing board or just give up on the backpack idea and go with something else. I still think they are cute. :-)

HAVING SO MUCH FUN!!

Ok, I learned of this embossing/die cutting machine called "CUTTLEBUG". After I found out all the fun things I could do with it--I wanted one. I was trying to justify spending the money on a toy for me. I had bid on several on Ebay, but was outbid every time. I went into Hobby Lobby with their 40% off coupon on Monday and they told me I couldn't use it. Well the machines were 30% off this week anyway. I finally decided on Friday that I'd just bite the bullet and get myself something. That way I could stop thinking about it too! lol I went in and had decided that I'd get the Cuttlebug for 30% off and use my 40% coupon on a set of alphabet stamps. My checker said--You can use that 40% coupon on your Cuttlebug. I said, I can--and the rest is history. I brought it home last night but only played with it for a few minutes before heading off to bed. Today I ran back to HL and purchased some rubber embossing mats so I could use my Fiskars texture plates in the Cuttlebug. My aunt Lori was also at HL and had found me 3-4 cuttlebug embossing folders on clearance. I purchased two of those. ANYWAY, here is a picture of the card I made tonight using my Cuttlebug machine. Oh, and by the way, I also purchased the alphabet stamps. I used those on this card too.

more little purses....

These are so much fun to make. Here are more I made last night.

nugget purses

The directions to make these little nugget purses came from the same website as the spiral notebook cover. These were so fun to make. I think they turned out REALLY CUTE!! I'm going to hand them out to the ladies at work today.......just because. :-)

Covered Notebook

Here is a notebook that I covered as a gift. I want to make more of these. Emily shared a website with me that shows how to make these. She has a lot of awesome ideas.

Game Day card

Today while my team, Iowa State Cyclones, were getting beaten by the Iowa Hawkeyes I made this card. I got the idea from a purchased "thank you" card that I received that was designed to look homemade. Here is what I came up with. The top and bottom both flip open to reveal the message on the inside of the card. I used my new alphabet stickers to spell out Hello.

Card marathon

It seemed like the card juices were flowing in my head last night. I can't believe I made 4 cards in about 2 hours. That is a record for me. I used the scalloped edging technique that Emily uses. I like how the Birthday card turned out. I embossed the edge of my flower from the punch I just purchased on Sunday and used a brad for the center. I also sprayed the flower with spray craft glitter and then put photo mount things underneath to raise it off the card.

The Thinking of You card is for a friend who is having surgery today. She will be off work for 2 weeks and said she'd enjoy cards and visits. I think I'll send her this one. I used my Fiskars texture plates and tool to emboss raindrops on the main body of the card. I think I'm getting the hang of that thing. Think I'd still rather have a Cuttlebug machine! They are just too expensive.

The last two cards are Sympathy cards for my friend's family who just lost her sister. I think they turned out very pretty. I had never made a sympathy card before. I got the "With Sympathy" stamp at a consignment shop about 3 weeks ago. I am glad I bought it now. It worked out perfect. I used brushy markers to color the stamp before stamping. I wasn't sure they'd work because the markers are very old. I'm glad they did because I didn't have a brown stamp pad.

Thanks for looking.

Just for fun.....

Just thought I'd share some pictures of my boys. Logan is 14 and Brandon is 17.

Card, punches and stamps

Here is a picture of all the punches and stamps I own.

Here is a card I made this weekend. I got the idea off of splitcoast website. I like how it turned out except that I would like for it to be a taller card. I would change the dimensions if I make one like it again. Otherwise, I'm pleased with it. I gave it away yesterday.

New and Improved Baby Onsie Card

I embossed some moons on the onsie after I made the card. Live and learn!! Emboss before embellishing. It is much cuter in person than it appears in my picture. I finally have the right punches and the right glue to make this card. The rick-rack on the first card was so stiff it didn't want to stay put when I glued it and I can see glue here and there. That bothered me. Here is how my latest one turned out.

I chose the star punch to match the fleece that I made the blanket out of. It is light blue with little yellow stars.

I bought some new round metal stickers to use for the snaps on the onsie. I think that worked better than what I used for my first card. Can't wait to give my homemade blankie and card to the new mommy tomorrow.

One more post for tonight

These are three of my card creations from last month. I hope to improve as I make more and more cards. I just purchased some new accessories to play with. I have some card ideas flying through my head right now. I might create tomorrow. If I do and they turn out cute--I'll post a pic or two. The first card is one I made for my friend Sonja's birthday, the next card is one I made as a joke from my dog to my Co-worker's new dog they adopted and the last one is a Mickey card I made for my friend Bernice who is leaving for Disney World tomorrow morning.

Baby Blanket with Matching Card

This is the blanket I made by crocheting edging around a fleece piece of fabric. It is a gift for a baby shower this weekend. I also made the matching card. I got the idea from viewing Emily's blog. Thanks for the card idea!!

I'm Back

I'm back! I am going to give this blogging thing another try. I hope to post my creations here, whether it be from yarn or paper--this is most likely where you will find these projects. I've been bit by the card making bug again. They are so much fun to make. I'm not familiar with all the gizmos and gadgets that are out there to help make beautiful cards, but I'm learning. And I am learning with the help of a gal named Emily. Her mother is a dear friend of mine from work and she hooked Emily and I up since we both enjoy this hobby.

Much of my crochet projects lately have been on the mission side. I've made a lot of prayer shawls for my church and a few for some friends lately who have needed comforting. I've also crocheted some edgings on blankets for some gifts. These are fun and easy project to make. I think they turned out really cute too. I'll be learning about this blog spot and hope to have some pictures of my latest projects posted soon. Stay tuned..........