It’s Time For Our 2011 Handmade Christmas Cards using Joys of the Season Cricut Cartridge

Time has been flying since we moved.  Getting adjusted to the new town and even the new time zone for us has been exciting.  But with all of the great distractions, it is time to get started and make time for getting creative and to make our handmade Christmas Cards.

This year I need to incorporate our new address along with a Christmas theme.  So I decided to make a Christmas ornament using the Joys of the Season Cricut Cartridge, and a We’ve Moved rubber stamp from PSX. (I just wish this stamp had two cats in the window to represent my two boys).

Now deciding what color to make the ornament and back panel.  I choose………. Christmas green and red (how appropriate – LOL)

I used the Cricut Expression Machine to cut the ornaments.  Then I used a Cutter Bee paper trimmer to cut the red back panel.

Some other supplies that I will use is Copic Sketch markers, Elmer’s permanent dot runner, pop dots, natural polished hemp rope, Memento tuxedo black dye ink, and some sea shells from our beach (if you don’t have a beach near by, then you can always purchase shell online or in a craft store).

I printed our address on blue cardstock and used an oval paper punch from punch bunch to cut them out.  The reason why I had to do that was the space that the stamp provided was way to small for our address and if I did write that tiny, no one would have been able to read it.  So when I stamped the image on white cardstock I just masked that part of the image so it wouldn’t stamp.   Then to add some dimension I used a pop dot to raise the address from the card.  The finishing touch was attaching the sea shell with the hemp rope along with our inside message.

Wishing All Of Your Dreams Come True This Holiday Season

Merry Christmas Everyone

Tags: Copic sketch markers, cricut cartridge, cricut cartridge joys of the season, cricut expression, cricut expression machine, elmer's permanent dot runner, handmade christmas cards, Handmade Greeting Cards, joys of the season cricut cartrige, memento dye ink, rubber stamps, tuxedo black memento dye ink

How to Make Paper Pumpkins

I just love this time of year ~ And the first thing that I think of when fall comes around are Halloween pumpkins.  I have so many Halloween crafts to share with you but today I started making paper pumpkins and I want to share them with you.

These are the supplies that I used to make these great paper pumpkins:

• 12 strips of paper that is 1 inch x 6 inches (I think this project would be perfect if you have alot of scrap paper that you can cut  1 inch x 6 inches strips)
• 2 brads
• paper leaves
• brown paper cut into really thin strips
• adhesive
• dye ink pad

I am so excited, so let me show you How To  Make Paper Pumpkins!

What I did first was cut the paper strips using my Purple Cows paper trimmer.  As you can see I used a solid and pattern paper.

Then with my Crop-A-Dile II from We R Memory Keepers, I punched holes on both ends of the paper strips.  The reason I used the Crop-A-Dile is that it was able to cut all of the cardstock with one punch so that they were all even.

Now put one brad through all the paper strips and fasten – just do this on one side

Next you need to fan out the paper this makes the next step easier

Put the brad into one piece of paper and now go around and add each strip to the brad ~ You may have to push down and wiggle the paper to fit onto the brad but don’t worry they all will go on.

For the leaves I used my Cricut Expression machine.  Looking through all of the cartridges I ended up using the leaf from the Cricut Lite Cupcake Wrapper cartridge.  I cut the same leaf out in all different sizes.

Then using Memento Dye Ink I brushed (well not really brushed I just turned the ink pad upside down and rubbed it onto the paper) color onto the cut leaf to give it a “real look” of all different shades of green.  Remember this time of year leaves can be yellow, red, orange… so pick the colors that you want.

Now the brown for the stem.  I used Memento Rich Cocoa dye ink.  You can use as much or as little ink as you like. If you don’t have brown ink you can use dark green or even a burgundy red.

The next step is to put the leaves together with some type of adhesive. I used Elmer’s Dot Runner and also small clear adhesive Dots from Zots (Therm O Web).  I also cut a very thin piece of brown paper wrapped it around a stylus and ran it under water to get the paper wet.  When it dried it gave me curly paper that I also added to the top of the pumpkin with the leaves.  You can also use raffia if you like.  I wanted to keep this project all paper.

Next step is to put the leaves onto your paper pumpkin and what did was bend the leaves in the center to give them more of a real leaf look.  You can do crumple them up to before you glue them together.  Always remember that this is your handmade project so add your personal touch.  With that being said after I made my first paper pumpkin it just looked like something was missing and I finally figured it out.  The stem of the pumpkin.  I have bought pumpkins that didn’t have a stem or one that looked really bad, but I wanted to see what it would look like with a stem.  I just took a small piece of the brown cardstock and rolled it up, and left a flat end on the bottom so that I would be able to use the glue dot to put onto the pumpkin.  It worked and looks good.

Now your Handmade Paper Pumpkins are ready for your Holiday centerpiece or anyplace to decorate for the Fall Season.  There are so many different Halloween Crafts and I just thought this one could be used for the entire Autumn Season.  Thanks for letting me share this fun project with you.

~ Happy Fall Everyone ~

Make it a Great Day and don’t forget to leave time to Craft!

Tags: cardstock, craft accessories, cricut cartridge, cricut expression machine, crop-a-dile, cupcake wrappers cricut cartridge, elmers tape runner, memento dye ink, purple cows paper cutter, we r memory keepers, zots

Using Clear Rubber Stamps To Make A Handmade Birthday Card For The Coffee Lover

Making cards is so much fun! Here is a quick post of  a card that I made for my brother-in-law for his birthday.

The colors brown and light blue look so good together.

For the card base I used Kraft cardstock ~ Then using my Creative Memories circle cutter I just cut half a circle on the fold  of the card so that when it opened you would be able to see the image inside too!

The light blue cardstock from Stampin Up was used for the panel and the circle ~ Ribbon from Michael’s called dashes, dots & checks ~ Clear stamps from TPC called Coffee Cafe with an acrylic block, some memento ink and you have the perfect masculine card for a coffee lover.

Wishing Harry the Best Birthday!

Make it a Great Day and don’t forget to leave time to Craft!

Tags: clear rubber stamps, handmade birthday card, handmade greeting card, memento dye ink

Making a Handmade Birthday Card Using Rubber Stamps & Cricut Expression Cutting Machine

I went to the local rubber stamp show a few weeks ago and I could not believe how much rubber was in one place LOL ~ Anyway, I got so many great ideas for card making that I just have to share a birthday card that I made.

I used my Cricut Expression with the Mini Monograms Cartridge for the scalloped circle on the top.  I then stamped the cupcake with a rubber stamp from Stampendous on white cardstock using Memento tuxedo black dye ink, colored with Copic Sketch markers and then cut it out and used pop dots to adhere onto the scalloped circle.

For the happy birthday I stamped this Hero Arts stamp on white cardstock, again Memento tuxedo black ink and coloring the images Copic Sketch markers.  I went to put it onto the card and it looked “boring” so decided to layer it also.  Instead of using my Cricut Expression to cut the scalloped edge, I used Fiskars Paper Edgers scissors and got the same look. (it was also alot quicker).

Oh, I forgot to tell you.  The purple cardstock was cut using the Creative Memories Circle Cutter.  Since I only needed a half of circle cut to make this look, I couldn’t use a paper punch or my Cricut Expression, so this worked out perfect. (Yeah Creative Memories!) Then I scored the cardstock using the Martha Stewart scoring board.

When I finished this card it looked great but I wanted it to be even more special, so I took out my Cricut Gypsy and used the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge with the roly poly feature and typed the birthday girls name, welded it together, cut it out with the Cricut Expression machine and “wala” a really special personalized card.

Make it a Great Day and don’t forget to leave time to Craft!

Tags: Copic sketch markers, fiscars paper edgers, hero arts birthday candles rubber stamp, memento dye ink, mini monograms cricut cartridge, stampendous cupcake rubber stamp

Cricut Card Idea For A Birthday Card That Will Make You Smile

My Godson’s birthday is this week and I need to make a handmade birthday card for him.  I wanted to use my Cricut Expression machine for this card.

After looking though all of my Cricut Cartridges, I decided to use my Gypsy and the download cartridge called Smiley Cards.  There is an image of a present that has the cutest smiley face, and I know that it will make Tyler smile when he opens up this card.

What I did to put some “bling” on this card was used some Stickles (cotton candy color) on the cheeks and mouth to give this smile a little shimmer.  I also used two rubber stamps.  One is from Inkadinkado with Tyler’s name and the other is the Happy Birthday rubber stamp from Hero Arts.  The ink that I used is Memento and the color is Paris Dusk (dark blue).

I just think that this cricut card idea turned out fantastic.  Making handmade greeting cards is the way to go!  Wishing Tyler a Very Happy Birthday.

Make it a Great Day and don’t forget to leave time to Craft!

Tags: Cricut card idea, cricut expression machine, cricut gypsy, download cartridge smiley cards, hero arts rubber stamps, inkadinkado rubber stamps, memento dye ink, rubber stamps, smiley cards cricut cartridge, stickles