Lovin' Miss Anya!

Been seeing a lot of cards posted on blogs I enjoy visiting created with Anya stamps from the Greeting Farm. Always thought they were all so cute...but I admit it wasn't until I saw the new set of "Miss Anya" stamps which were released in February that I knew I was really hooked. Just HAD to have them! In my own mind they so reminded me of my own dd... so fashion forward, always shopping and lookin' so deviously cute! lol. So of course, my very first Miss Anya card had to be for her.

Had fun coloring the image in with Copics and Prismacolor pens, using what I call a "palette technique" which I learned from a video tutorial shared by Jenn Muraoka on her blog. I consider her an expert at this, and I think you will agree once you have seen the all the beautiful cards she has created. Jen has an incredible eye for color, and her talent for blending colors is just amazing. She also always posts the pen colors she used to make her card, which makes it easy to learn how to re-create some of the different shades and hues she uses.

Oh, I do have one little "secret" to share about this card...as I was coloring Miss Anya, I realized that I did not own any black Copics or Prismacolors. I really wanted to try shades of black and gray for her long locks, so I ended up using a black Sharpie marker! I used the blender pen and different shades of grey Prismacolors to pull and blend the black. Didn't turn out too bad, huh.

Finished my card with pink Bo Bunny double dot cardstock, Bazzill Bling, printed glittered cardstock from a DCWV stack, and some flower rhinestone blings from Photocraft. Used a Martha Stewart lace edge punch for the lace border, and Nestabilities for the scallop circle. Flower petals are from Heidi Swapp, and the round stamped sentiment is from an Autumn Leaves clear stamp set.

A Revisit To Rubber Stamping

This is a recipe folder I made to send to a favorite aunt when she asked for a few of my dessert recipes after a recent family get together. A very simple gatefold style card with a pocket inside to hold the recipe cards and some room for a short note.

This stamped image is one of my favorites from Penny Black; a stamp I had purchased from J's Knicknacks several months ago and had been itching to use for the longest time! I always feel so guilty buying new stamps...I already have a ridiculously immense collection (circa 1990), and honestly, I need more stamps like I need a hole in my head.

Nowadays, there are so many new companies with so many fresh and cute stamps, it's so hard to resist! Well, happy to say, no regrets about buying this one. I think these mousies are so cute, and I really had fun coloring them in with my old Aquarell pencils and Dove blender. It made me remember why I enjoyed stamping so much in the past!

Used Nestabilities dies to cut the circle and scalloped circle and added some matching ribbon for a simple finishing touch. Used my original stamped and colored image to create matching recipe cards.

Inspired By Hallmark

Here's another card created after seeing a similar one while browsing the Hallmark card aisles. It's a trifold card with die cuts attached to windows that peek through to the inside of the card. This is the same style of card I used to make dd's Girls Day card in my last post. The original Hallmark card I saw was a birthday card and I thought the idea was so clever I had to try one too. "I can do that with Design Studio"! Thanks to a tip from Diane at Capadia Designs, I used one of the window cards from the Beyond Birthdays cartridge to do the window cuts with the butterfly and bee welded inside. This saved a lot of time and made it a whole lot easier than creating the windows myself in George! BTW, if you own Design Studio and ever have any problems or questions, Diane's blog is one you should visit. I consider her as one of the Design Studio experts, and consult her blog often for solutions to problems I encounter.

The butterfly and bee cuts are from Pooh and Friends, and the daisy is from Walk In My Garden. Front of the card was embossed with Cuttlebugs Flowers and Vines folder and I used my new Martha Stewart Arch Lattice Edge Punch for the borders on the inside. Sentiments are from a Hero Arts rubber stamp set.

The design of this window card is pretty simple... two windows overlapping each other, and each with a die welded to different positions on the windows, and a third die on the inside of the card.

All three dies show through on the front of the card and only one die is seen on the inside. After making this card, I later realized that the actual card by Hallmark had an accordian fold, which gave it a little different effect when opened. Think I'll try that next time.

This was the card I sent off to my new blogging friend, Tracy for Teri's "One Card Swap". Hope she liked it!

Kokeshi Dolls, Hello Kitty, & More for Girls Day

Girls Day was on Tuesday (March 3rd) but I just couldn't find the time to post till now. Had some fun playing around with my new Hero Arts Kokeshi Doll stamp set and Hello Kitty Cartridge to make a few goodies to send away to dd and for my niece.

This is the tri fold window card I created with the stamp set to send to dd along with her box of treats. The base card with the two windows was created with the Beyond Birthdays cartridge and Design Studio, then I simply adhered the stamped doll images to the windows. (The original idea for this card actually came from another Hallmark card I saw at the drugstore several weeks ago.) Decorated the card with washi paper from Creations Unlimited and 4 sizes of Carl Crafts' sakura punches. FYI, when using paper punches on washi paper, you should always layer a piece of regular bond paper (or some other easily punched paper) on top of the washi paper and punch them out together to avoid jamming and possibly ruining your punches. I used Bazzill Bling (pinks) and Currency Gold cardstock, and the sentiment is Teen font printed on vellum.

I decorated this gift bag to hold gifts for my niece with the same kokeshi doll stamps, which I colored with copics, scanned, enlarged, then printed onto photo paper. I really like the smooth, glossy texture from the photo paper, plus it made cutting out the images a breeze. I then used the original stamped images left to make matching gift tags.

BTW, though I don't usually make note of the type of ink I use, I think it may be worth mentioning that I was informed when I purchased these stamps that the best stamp ink to use for photopolymer type stamps with large solid stamped areas (like the hair on these) is Tsukineko's VersaCraft. Apparently this pigment ink is very "sticky" and adheres well to the solid areas, giving the best stamped image, which also resists bleeding when coloring with alcohol based inks like copics. (I actually heat embossed my images with embossing powder for these projects so I can't say for sure about the bleeding, but the ink coverage on the solid areas was very good.)

When I saw stationery and trinkets with Hello Kitty dressed in her pretty kimono for Girls Day, I couldn't resist buying them! Then I thought, "Hey, why not giving it a whirl on design studio?" I put together the kimono on Design Studio with the George cartridge and added on HK's head from the Hello Kitty cartridge. Then I picked some cute flowers from the Walk In My Garden cartridge to replace the bow on Kitty's head. Chalked and decorated her kimono using very tiny flower punches cut with a Fiskars hand punch and a white gel pen. "Orizuru" or paper crane is another Carl paper punch. Used the George cartridge again to create a little flat box (just the size to fit a powder compact from the new MAC Hello Kitty line) and finished it off with with a sliding band made of currency gold cardstock and more pretty washi paper.

This paper kimono is actually a little treat box. The side view shows the box which is adhered to inside the kimono. Dd saw these displayed at Creations Unlimited when she was home for Christmas and pointed them out to me, "Look mom, this is what I want you to make for me for Girls Day!" These were quick and easy. The girls at Creations used their big Ellison machine to do the cuts for these at no extra charge in just a few minutes while I shopped. All it took was some quick folding and gluing to assemble, some embellishing with more sakura punches, and cardstock & ribbon for an obi. Added some sweet senbei crackers to the boxes and it was done. Wrapped these in cellophane bags tied with ribbon and tags and sent them off to dd to share with her friends.

One Card Swap

Here's a card I received in the mail last week, created by my new friend, Tracy, with whom I was randomly paired with for a "One Card Swap". Isn't it the cutest? I was so impressed with Tracy's coloring and shading, and with her neat and precise card making. I also loved the way the colors she chose coordinated so well. Thank you, Tracy, receiving your card really made my day special! You can visit Tracy at her blog, "Tracy's Happy Place" where she shares more of her talent and creativity. She has a fun monthly rak, the Aloha Rak which you can join to share almost anything you've created plus other goodies with crafters from all over. And if you are a procrastinator (like me!) you might enjoy Tracy's Christmas Card Challenge, which might be just the solution to getting those Christmas cards done on time this year!

The "One Card Swap" that Tracy and I participated in is the brainstorm of our fellow blogging friend, Teri at "Big Ideas from A Little Girl". This is a brand new card monthly card swap if you are interested in exchanging just one card. It's a fun, low-keyed swap and great way to make new friends and meet other cardmakers. I will be posting the card I sent to Tracy later after I hear that she's received it. I had to scramble to finish and mail her card to her by the deadline after the Valentines Day projects were done...yup, last minute as usual. (Sorry, Tracy!)

Created with Love

This year, my Valentines Day cards for dh and dd were inspired by a birthday card I ran across while browsing the Hallmark card aisle at the drug store.

In fact, I was so amazed with this card, I had to buy it just so I could take it home to figure out how it was put together and make one too. The concept of the design on this card is actually the same as a simple pop-up card, with the pop-up element cut at different lengths resulting in a tiered card. Very ingenious, Hallmark!

For my cards, I used the Mickey Font cart and welded the letters in Design Studio to the tops of the layers for the Happy Valentines Day greeting. The photo below of the side view of the card shows how the pop-up element separates the tiers when the card is open.

On the card for dd and her bf, I used cuts from Aladdin on the Dreams Come True cartridge. In order to get the "head shots" large enough, I had to do a 12 inch cut of Aladdin and Jasmine and cut away their legs. Choosing to do a larger cut also made piecing together the face details much easier to do. The filigree heart is from the Wedding cart.

The cloud on the front of the card is from the Paper Pups cart. The sentiment was printed on vellum, attached to the cloud outline and attached with foam mounting tape. The floral embossing on the front was done with a Cuttlebug strip embossing folder and the lacy corners were punched with a corner punch from All Night Media.

My card for dh uses the same base card as for the first card; I just changed the colors and theme. The knight, princess, castle and dragon cuts are all from the Paper Dolls cartridge. The filigree heart on this card is a Sizzix Bigz die.

Making little Valentine treats is always so much fun. The cutfile for these cute gable boxes was created and shared on the Cricut Messageboard by member Robin Savage.

Thank you, Robin! You can contact her via the Cricut Messageboard to request a copy of her cutfile. I added heart cut outs to the fronts of the boxes so the yummy Dove chocolates could peek out. Finally had the chance to use my new Hello Kitty and Sesame Street cartridges! Glittered, printed cardstock for these boxes are from DCWV.

Also had the chance to make these designer or boxy bags that I've been wanting to make forever. Cambria Turnbow has a very good tutorial for them on her blog, "Stamp A Little Love, Baby". Found these bags to be really quick and simple. But didn't realize till I actually made one, how small these are. The bottom of this is 2-1/2 inches square. I needed it to be bigger to hold bags of puffed rice candy I had bought, and changing the sizes on these was very easy. I increased the size of the box on the bottom to be 3 x 4-1/2 inches. The only problem with the larger sized bags is that it takes more than 12 inches of paper to go around the bag. I ended up having to add an additional 4 inches of paper . Next time I think I'll consider using a heavy weight wrapping paper if I need a larger sized bag.

Decorated the small bags with Hello Kitty cuts and the larger bags with the Sizzix filigree heart cuts. Scalloped border on the bottom and the tab punch (since I don't own this SU punch...) for the bag closure were created with the George cart in Design Studio.

Here's a photo of the re-sized, larger designer bag and more decorated cable boxes. The height of these larger bags is 8-1/2 inches.

These are few of the tags I made....

Nestabilities for the scalloped rectangle and circle, Sizzlits die cuts for the red tag and Hello Kitty cartridge for the round tag.

This one's from the doggie...

Nestablilites for the scalloped square and Quickutz for the doggy. (Love how this die cut looks so much like our own little Latte!) Sentiment is from a dollar set of clear stamps by g studio.

One more gift card for dd, with another Cricut Hello Kitty cut. Stamped sentiment in the heart is from Dandelion Designs and embossed scalloped edge was done with a Cuttlebug embossing strip. Stamped circle sentiment on the envelope is from Autumn Leaves.

And I even had time (barely!) to bake up some lemon custard filled cupcakes, topped with lemon buttercream (thanks, Heather!)

Lastly, I sent out cards created on Hallmark.com from our fur baby with this photo. Poor thing...she doesn't look too happy, does she?

Not sure which she hated more...the ribbons on her ears or being stuffed into that little bucket...probably the latter!

Asian Love

Being that it's the week before Valentines Day, I figured this might be an appropriate card to share, since it has the Chinese character for "Love" on it. This is actually a wedding card made for a good friend and his bride. I knew I wanted to do an Asian flavored card when we received their absolutely gorgeous wedding invitation...it was made of pearlized copper paper, tied with sheer copper ribbon, with the Chinese character for "double happiness" embossed on the front of it. Very Chinese-y (lol!), but really elegant. I decided to continue the Asian theme and wanted my card to have a diecut of the Chinese character for "love" on it...but not surprisingly, I couldn't find a cutfile anywhere. I even tried doing a call out for one on my favorite Design Studio forum on the Cricut Message Board...and got zero responses. Obviously, I was the only person in the world who wanted such a cutfile! So I was left with having to create the cutfile myself...it took me a while to do, but I guess it was worth it. Worth it because, although creating original cut files always takes a lot of time and patience, I find I always learn something new every time. Interestingly. the image of the Chinese character I used as my guide for this cut came from a tatoo website. After the "Love" character was created (using the George cart), everything else was pretty easy. I used mirrored red cardstock to cut out the character and currency gold cardstock for its frame. The frame is Mulan's frame from the Happily Ever After cart. Base of the card is Bazzill Luster embossed with the Birds & Flowers Cuttlebug folder. The gold metal dragonfly charms were purchased from Creations Unlimited.

This might be a good a time as any to mention that after being undecided for a very long time, I finally recently agreed to do a class on the Design Studio at Photocraft Hawaii. I've been playing around with this program for about a year now, but I don't, by any means, come anywhere near to being an expert. But I am willing to share tips and techniques that I have learned so you can have as much fun as I do, creating with Cricut and the Design Studio. The class is scheduled to be on the first Sunday in March, and there will be laptops at the class so everyone can have hands on fun. If interested, please give Brian a call at Photocraft Hawaii.