August OCS and RAKs

Been getting a lot of "happy mail" recently and wanted to share...

I signed up for Teri's OCS (One Card Swap) again this month and was so excited to learn I had been partnered with Joy from A Place To Be Me! Her blog is such a fun place to visit because there's always something new... she has the cutest cards and projects and it's amazing how quickly she puts things together. I just love this Miss Anya card I received from her last week. Such an AWESOME card with a great color combo and embellishments! Joy used the "Out of Frame Technique" on this card to create the look of Miss Anya sitting in the nestie with her legs dangling...neat, huh. You can find the the link to the instructions for this technique on her blog. I'm gonna have to give this a try too. Thank you, Joy!

Next is a "Things I Love" Mini Envelope Book created and sent to me by my friend Patti Lee of Creations by Patti. All I can say is "Wow!" This little book is nothing short of AWESOME! All the stamping, cutting, crimping, gluing involved, all the attention to detail ... just amazing!

Here's the book opened...

The pages inside...

And these tabbed pages that slide out...super cool, huh. Thank you, Patti!

If you love this as much as I do, you can create your own with the tutorial Patti has posted on her blog. Thank you, Patti ... this is really a treasure!

And most recently, I received this lovely card, from my new friend, Kyoko of Cards and Tags Mania. I was lucky enough to meet Kyoko in person last month when she generously offered to share some of her very precious patterned papers with me. She is one of the warmest, sweetest people I have ever met!

Kyoko's card is my very first Magnolia stamped card...love the colors she chose for her and all the pretty layering. Really like how she accented her swiss dots embossed layer with silver ink ... can't wait to try that too.

And as if that weren't enough, Kyoko also sent along a whole bunch of Gorjuss Girls stamped images for me to play with! Thank you, Kyoko...you are the bestest!

It never ceases to amaze me how many wonderful new friends I have made through this blogging network. Everyone is always so thoughtful and so generous in giving and sharing ... heartfelt thanks to all!

His Music Will Live On...

Okay, so this is not a card, but it was something I felt I needed to do for myself, to help me get through the shock and grief. I grew up together with the music of Michael Jackson. Rockin Robin, Dancing Machine, Thriller, Billie Jean... I loved it all. So when I learned of his untimely death in June, suddenly a part of me seemed to crumble away, leaving a feeling of sad emptiness. Adding a few of my favorite Michael Jackson music to my blog playlist helped some, but still the emptiness remained. I felt I needed to create something to help fill the void. I found this silhouette image of Michael and decided to try to replicate it with SCAL and Cricut. I was pleased with the result, and have decided to save it for when I finally get around to scrapbooking Michael's 1997 Aloha Stadium concert in Hawaii.

Happy Birthday, My Friend

This is the card I recently sent out to a new blogging pal, Patti Lee, of Creations By Patti. She is a multi-talented, super creative lady who makes the most beautiful cards and incredible projects ever. She never ceases to amaze me with what she comes up with! If you enjoy 3 dimensional paper crafts and things with an Asian flair, you will find so much to "ooh!" and "aah!" about at her blog.

I knew I wanted to do Patti's card in red (her favorite color) and with an Asian flavor. I found a pretty good source for free Chinese/Japanese characters online at The Japanese Connection, and chose to import the character for "friend" to Inkscape. Then I used SCAL and my Cricut to cut it out of Currency Gold cardstock.

To cut the circular window and frame, I used a circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities. For an added touch, I cut two identical frames, one in gold and one in red. On the red frame, I used a Fiskars hand held punch to punch tiny hearts on each scallop, then layered it over the gold frame so it would show through. I first saw this idea done on some super cute cards at Kreative Korner By Kelly. Such an easy and simple idea, but I love how it really adds a special something! (Thanks, Kelly!)

The two cute little girls peering from above the frame is an image from Whipper Snapper Designs. Colored them with Copics, cut out just their heads and arms, then used foam tape to pop them up over the frame.

Inside the card I layered red foil and gold cardstock cut with the Nestabilities Label Four dies and centered my character for "friend" so it would peek out the front window. Sentiments were cut using the Opposites Attract Font cartridge and then it was done!

Don't you just love it when you're able to use a lot of your tools to create a card? I used at least ten different tools to create this one. Ah, yes... justification for buying all that stuff I "really need"!

Final Exam Jitters

Final exam week starts today for Dd. She always gets so stressed out and depressed during exams, I decided to mail a care package filled with hugs and a card to comfort her and let her know we were all cheering for her to do well.

The card is another covered slider card using cuts from the Locker Talk cartridge for the cover. You can find the template for making this type of card at Chia's Rubber Stamp Art. Had fun making the laptop in dd's favorite color pink, and the message on the screen was printed onto cardstock prior to cutting.

Pulling up on the tab at the top of the card reveals the message, and a cheering Hello Kitty slides up simultaneously from behind the cover. Cheerleader Hello Kitty comes from the Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge, and I used red prismatic mylar sticker paper and prisma glitter to add sparkle to her outfit and pom poms. Flower border is a clear stamp from Inkadinkado.

Dd's box of hugs included some her favorite goodies including Aloha Maid iced tea, Vietnamese coffee, and by special request, a jar of "Exam Time Munchies". I always have so much fun creating these labels!

The cute little studious bear on the label is a clip art image from a Darcie Hunter CD, created into a scut. file using Inkscape & Sure Cuts A Lot. The oval and scalloped oval were created in Design Studio, and I used Quickutz Skinni Mini Rollerskate and Mini Blossom dies for the lettering.

I'm hoping this brought at least a little smile to dd's dreary week of studying. Don't give up, babee...it'll all be over soon and you'll be coming home!

Sweets for the Sweet

This is the card I sent out to a fellow blogging friend, Jodi of Inked Inspirations for her birthday last week. Although I haven't had the chance to meet her personally, Jodi always leaves the sweetest and most encouraging comments on my posts. Since I consider her to be a master at the art of card making, it is quite an honor for me, knowing that she took the time to visit and leave a comment! When you visit her blog at Inked Inspirations and see all of her beautiful creations, you too will be awed and inspired.

For Jodi's card, I decided to give another try at the 3 window trifold card, this time with an accordian fold. I used Design Studio to create window frames with little extensions running from the top to the bottom inside the first & third windows so I could attach the candy die cuts. For the middle panel, I had to add the extension in the left side of the window instead, since the piece of candy for this window was a little smaller than the other two.

Don't these sweets look yummy? All of the cuts on this card came from one of my favorite Sizzlits sets. In fact, I got chocolate cravings so bad while making this card that I had to run out to the candy store and get some! And while I was there I thought it would be kinda cool to add a gift card for real candy for Jodi...Sweets for the sweet!

Running Late Belated Birthday

Last month while shopping at the Hallmark store in my area, I saw the cutest pop-up Father's Day card with Snoopy on it. As you opened the card, Snoopy's ears unfolded and popped up! I immediately thought of my good friend and shopping buddy, Kris, who loves Pochacco, and thought it might be fun to try something similar for her birthday card.

As it turned out, it wasn't as easy as it appeared. Although the pop up mechanism for this card is actually just a pair of arcs cut at the inside folds of the card, it took a bit of experimenting to figure out the right length the arc needed to be to get Pochacco's ears to fold open and pop up correctly. (I kept thinking to myself how I should have paid more attention in geometry class!) I also found that I had to end up lengthening Pochacco's ears to get it all to work right.

I tried to take photos showing the movement of the ears as the card is opened, but it was difficult to capture the full effect with still pictures.

...And this is the card fully opened. Pochacco cuts were created using Inkscape and Sure Cuts A Lot.

When I first saw this card, I got excited with all sorts of ideas I wanted to try; like having a cheerleader raising her pompoms in the air as the card is opened... but after this, I think I've changed my mind. I need a geometry refresher course on arcs and angles before I attempt this again. Guess that's why they call it "paper engineering"!

Happy Birthday, Go Shopping!

A while back, there was a flurry of posts on various blogs I visit of the cutest little bags & purses created and cut using Cricut and Design Studio. Late as usual, I'm only now getting on the bandwagon...but I decided to try my take on it by creating a bag shaped card instead.

This card was made for my sil, who celebrated her birthday last month. She's a "super shopper" and I thought it would be cool to put a gift card in her purse, so I created a little "pop up" holder for it on the inside.

The clasp on the outside of the bag is functional...I cut refrigerator magnets to fit and adhered them on with glue dots to the inside of the clasp. I really liked how it kept the card nicely closed like a real purse. Then I embellished the clasp with a scallop circle cut with a Stampin' Up punch and Happy Birthday circle stamp, also from Stampin' Up. Rhinestone flower bling is from Photocraft Hawaii.

I used grosgrain ribbon for the handles and printed cardstock is from a DCWV stack.

Then for her gift, I finally got to use the very first cutfile I had created using SCAL. I think it's great that these files all fully re-sizeable!