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:

Love 2 travel

Here is a mini-book that I taught today in my "I love Cricut Expression 201" class. All cuts from chipboard, patterned paper, and cardstock were made with the Cricut Expression and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. Patterned travel paper is Love, Elsie (by KI Memories), cardstock is Bazzill. I love this paper and the colors, and I think it turned out really well. Here is the front cover:
Here are the inner pages:

I know it's only July...

...but I'm getting so excited for Halloween already. So tonight, my friend and fellow Halloween enthusiast, Stephanie came over to make some Halloween cards. It was so much fun, despite the Stickles "incident". LOL Anyway, here's the first card. Patterned paper and tag are Making Memories, chipboard "h" is Cloud 9. Pin is Heidi Grace. Threading water punch along the bottom. Happy Halloween stamp is Hero Arts, stamped with Staz-On.
Here's the second one. Patterned paper is Making Memories (of course, it's the same paper as on the first card). Black scalloped circle is Bazzill, cut with Cricut Mini-Monograms. This originally had a stamped image on the other side of it, but it fell prey to the Stickles "incident" and had to be cut out. But it worked out well. Stephanie still got to use her stamped image, and I got to salvage the scallop. I like the final result. Letters are fun foam. Happy early Halloween!

I flocked in public...

...and taught others how to do it, too! That's right! Today, I taught "I Heart Fun Flock" at Pages In Progress. I had previously conducted a bunch of trials using various adhesives, and I found that I preferred the look and dimension of Fun Flock on top of Glossy Accents. So today, we made this cute little trifold card and used red Fun Flock to fill in the lady bugs. Stamp is by Stampendous, as is the Fun Flock. Cardstock is Bazzill, and the scalloped circle was cut from the Mini Monograms cartridge. I used the American Crafts Ultimate Gel Pen for the little white dots.

The second project was a simple but very cute card using flocked chipboard letters.

I cut the letters out using AccuCuts dies, and painted them with white acrylic paint. We then flocked the chipboard letters using white Fun Flock over Glossy Accents. Cardstock is Bazzill, scalloped border is the Fiskars Threading Water punch.