BOO

I know it's a few days late, but here's a Halloween card I made. I love the idea of the Sweet Treat cups from Stampin Up!, but I don't have any. So when Nilda on the Cricut MB thought of using Wilton candy molds, I knew I had to try it. I found a Halloween set at Michael's that had skulls and spiderwebs, and I used the spiderweb mold on this card. The card base is Bazzill Bling, the patterned papers are American Crafts, chipboard letters are American Crafts, fibers are from my stash, scallop punch (under fibers) is EK Success, black pen is Sakura Gelly Roll, and the mold is filled with M&Ms.


Here's a close-up of my "orange widow" spider:

Close-up of the curled corners of the spider paper:

Close-up of chipboard letter stickers:

February Cuttlebug card class

Yes, you read that right. These are the cards from my February card class "I heart Cuttlebug cards." I'm just a little behind on my blogging...again {sheepish grin}. Anyway, I think these cards came out pretty darn cute, and I think all the ladies in the class enjoyed learning new ways to use the Cuttlebug.

On this first card, I wanted to show the gals to think outside the "you can only emboss paper" box. We embossed acetate (report covers from Office Max), and placed it over a white card base. On this card, we used the Perfectly Paisley embossing folder, as well as a Cuttlebug die. The die is from the Halloween sign cut/emboss combo set. The green polka dot paper is from 3 Bugs in a Rug, and we added a stamp from Hero Arts. We topped it off with some pink grosgrain ribbon, and voila!
Here's a close-up of the Halloween sign die and the stamp (stamped with Staz-On ink):

This card (which I think is too cute!) was inspired by SusieB from the Cricut website (check out her awesome Cuttlebug gallery by clicking her link on my sidebar). On this card, I wanted to show my students how to paper-piece using the Cuttlebug. The "medallion" that the little sheep is stamped on was from a Splitcoaststampers.com tutorial. You can make one yourself with any border/edge punch (this one is Martha Stewart). I took a 3-inch square piece of white cardstock and used the border punch one time on each side of the square. Then I just backed this piece with a 3-inch square piece of green gingham paper by American Crafts. I stamped the little sheep (which is a Studio G stamp) with Staz-On ink in the center of the "medallion", and colored him (or her?) in with Prismacolor markers. Then I stamped him again on a scrap piece of white cardstock, and ran it through the Cuttlebug (using the Tiny Bubbles embossing folder). Out of the embossed piece, I cut out all his "woolly parts" (hee hee) and pieced them on top of the colored-in image on the "medallion". The yellow border is also punched with the same Martha punch, and embossed with one of the Cuttlebug border embossing folders.

Here's a close-up of his fluffy embossed body and tuft of wool on his head. Isn't he the cutest???

On this next card, I wanted to show the ladies how, if you emboss on a white-core paper and use a sanding block, the white core will show through. The patterned paper is American Crafts, and the pink is the back side of the dotted paper. I cut out a pink circle using the Fiskars circle cutter, then embossed the pink side with the ice cream cone folder from the "Birthday Jelly" set. I used the argyle embossing folder on Bazzill cardstock for the background, because it reminded me of a waffle cone. I pleated some white ribbon on either side of the ice cream cone, and stapled over the pleats to give the ribbon a little more visual interest.

Here is a close-up of the argyle embossing and the patterned paper, which I also sanded around the edges to reveal the white core. I used a brown pen to make small dots around the edge of the pink layered piece:

And here's a close-up of the sanded ice cream cone and the pleated/stapled ribbon:

Last, but certainly not least, I wanted to show the ladies that you can emboss chipboard, and also show them how to emboss on paper that is larger than the embossing folder. The frame and it's center are both chipboard, with the outer piece of the frame being covered with patterned paper by 3 Bugs in a Rug. The center of the frame was embossed, and then I went over the raised part with some white ink by Making Memories.

To emboss a piece of paper that is larger than the embossing folder, I used my Scor-Pal to score 2 parallel lines across the middle of my card. Then I aligned the side of the Swiss Dots embossing folder with the top score line, and ran the paper and folder through the Cuttlebug. Then I did the same thing on the bottom half of the card. I finished it off with some ribbon by American Crafts. Here it is:

Here's a close-up of the chipboard frame and embossing:

Attached at the heart

So, I've never really been one to use sketches or pagemaps or anything like that, but I thought I'd give it a try. This was for a sketch challenge over at www.splitcoaststampers.com. Specifically, it was SC211 that was posted on 01/14/09. I left out a couple of elements on the sketch, but I think it turned out cute. I was trying to use up some scraps, and I was able to do that. The patterned paper is American Crafts, stamp is Studio G in Timber Brown Staz-On ink, colored with Prismacolor markers. The border punch is Martha Stewart. I also used my Cuttlebug for embossing, and embroidery floss from my stash. Thanks for looking!

l o v e wordbook (Cricut Expression 201 project)

Okay, as promised to the students in my class...here are the page-by-page pictures of the word book we made in the Cricut Expression 201 classes on January 23 and 25. For those of you who are seeing this for the first time, this is a word book that spells out "love." I really like the look of the premade word books that are out there, but altering them is not always that much fun. So, I designed a word book that incorporates the Cricut Expression. For the base of the book, I used chipboard that was cut with a paper trimmer. The book is 6" tall, and there are five pages. The page widths are 2", 4", 6", 8", and 10". The patterned paper that covers the chipboard was also cut with a paper trimmer in the same sizes. The remainder of the cuts you see were cut using the Cricut Expression machine and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. The patterned papers are American Crafts, and the cardstock and brads are Bazzill. Ribbon is May Arts, "xoxo" stamp is Studio G, and the two corner stamps are Heidi Swapp. All were stamped with black Staz-On. The binder rings are from OfficeMax.

Here is a picture of the back side of the cover and the "L" page.

Here is the back side of the "L" and the "O" page.

Here we have the back side of the "O" and the "V" page, showing one of the corner stamps.

And here is the back of the "V" page, showing the other corner stamp, and the "E" page.

This was a fun little project to design and teach. Please feel free to post any questions about the book or cut sizes. Thanks for looking!

Unforgettable (flip album)

Ack! I'm so behind in my blogging, but I'm hoping to catch up soon! Anyway, here is a cute little flip album that I taught in my Cricut 201 class at my LSS back in May. It was a lot of fun, and the ladies loved it! All cuts were made with the George and Basic Shapes cartridge. "Unforgettable" is a rub-on by Art Warehouse, all patterned paper is American Crafts, cardstock is Bazzill, white journaling pen is American Crafts Ultimate Gel Pen, ribbon is Bo Bunny. I haven't finished adding my pics yet, but I'm using pics from the cruise that my mom, sister and I took together. Here is a pic of the book open. Thanks for looking!