My new favorite layout!!!

So, a few days ago, one of the gals on the Cricut website posted a link to Tami Potter's site (http://www.tamipotter.com/). She mentioned that she had taken Tami's class at a CKC and enjoyed it. I checked out Tami's site, and she does fantastic things with photo mosaics. Her work was completely different than anything I've ever done, and I found myself inspired by her. Then I looked at her blog, and fell IN LOVE with her "Howl-o-scream" layout. Maybe I'm just a sucker for all things Halloween, but I found myself going back to this layout over and over. Well, my SIL had just emailed some pics of my BIL and their kids, and they were absolutely perfect for this type of layout. I decided to give it a go, even though I didn't have Tami's special gridded paper. ***I am SO proud of this layout!!!*** I just keep looking at it over and over, like I did with Tami's. I thought it turned out so great. I used 3 warm fall colors of Bazzill cardstock, some acetate, acrylic letters, and Stickles. That's all!! Okay, less talky, more showy...here it is:


Here is a close-up of the kids grasshopper hunting:

Here's my BIL and their handsome son in the beautiful aspen trees:

And here's a close-up of their daughter - she's a cutie-pie:

I die-cut these letters out of acetate (transparency sheet/report cover) using the AccuCut. I put Goldenrod Stickles all over the back of each letter, and when they dried, I adhered them to the cardstock with my ATG.

The word splendor was computer generated and printed onto the gold Bazzill. Then I took a couple of self-adhesive acrylic letters I had in my stash, and stuck 'em on. I covered them with Cinnamon Stickles.

Again, acetate letters with Stickles on the back side. This is a much better picture than the one above, it shows a more true color.

"Hoppy holidays" spring card

In my most recent card class, I taught various types of pop-up cards. I knew I wanted to include a "spring" card, the name of which has nothing to do with the season, and everything to do with the fact that when you take these babies out of their envelopes, the top part "springs" upward. I wasn't sure what I wanted to put on my card...until I found this cutie-patootie frog. He's part of a very cute set by Hero Arts, but I immediately knew he was the one for my card. I used Bo Bunny Double Dot papers in red and green, plain white cardstock, Staz-On black ink, Stickles, ribbon, computer-generated text, Rain Dots, and the word window punch from Stampin' Up! I cut the white circle behind the froggy with my Cricut Expression and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. I cut the red scalloped circle using the Mini Monograms cartridge. I also tried my hand at paper piercing. It was my first time doing both paper piecing and paper piercing. I think I like them both...

Here's the card:



Here is a close-up of the adorable little froggy. I love him! I stamped him onto the green double dot and onto the red double dot, then paper-pieced the red scarf onto the green frog. I then used Black Diamond Stickles on his eyes and on the black dots on the scarf:

Close-up of the "hoppy holidays". I printed the computer-generated words onto the red double dot paper, then used the word window punch. I used two little red Rain Dots on each word.

Here's a close-up of my first attempt at paper piercing. Not too shabby... :)

Blue Christmas

Another card that I taught in my pop-up card class was this free-standing pop-up. I am so in love with this style of card, and it is surprisingly easy to make. I used Bo Bunny Double Dot paper and plain white cardstock, which I embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder. I also cut a large snowflake for the base, using a Cuttlebug die. Stamp is by Hero Arts, stamped with black Staz-On ink. I used Frosted Lace Stickles around the stamped image and on the snowflake die. I used some fun blue "eyelashes" on the front of the card. Enjoy!



Another view:

Here is what the card looks like when it's folded and ready for mailing:

Here is a close-up of the snowflake and the eyelashes. To make the snowflake more substantial, I first adhered my white cardstock onto a piece of thin chipboard, then I used the Cuttlebug die. That way I didn't have to worry about cutting out the cardstock and the chipboard separately and trying to match them up and adhere them after they were cut. I put a thin layer of Frosted Lace Stickles over the snowflake. I adhered it to the card so that it would stand up as the base folded down. I used Glossy Accents as my adhesive:

Here is a close-up of the embossing and the stamped image. I used Frosted Lace Stickles around the edge of the blue cardstock:

"Love the Fall" sliding pop-up card

Here is another one of the cards I taught in my pop-up card class. This is a sliding pop-up card. The patterned paper is My Mind's Eye, the cardstock is Bazzill, the tree was cut from the Stretch Your Imagination Cricut cartridge, the "love the fall" stamp is Studio G (and was sent to me by my wonderful Cricut secret sister, sugarbbmom!), and the little leaf stamp is by Autumn Leaves, quite appropriately. Both stamps used Colorbox Cat's Eye chalk ink in dark brown. I outlined the tree and the fall stamp with cinnamon Stickles, and used crystal Stickles on the leaves of the tree. I tied a piece of raffia under the tree trunk. Here's the card lying flat, ready for mailing:

Here's the card with the slider pulled out, "popping up" the tree, and revealing the window where you could write your message:

Here is another look at the tree popped up:

And here is a blurry, but close-up, picture of the lovely stamp. I just love all the detail of this Studio G! You can also see the thin line of cinnamon Stickles surrounding the stamped image: