Handmade Gumball Birthday Card using a Cricut Expression Machine

Today I will be making a very special birthday card for my Godson who is turning 13.  I Can’t believe he is going to be a teenager!  Time sure does go fast, I remember the day he was born… ok, I’m done reminiscing 🙂

Anyway, I wanted this card to be colorful and totally different from the cards that I have done in the past.  My Godson is a total “cookie monster” but I couldn’t really find any fun cookie theme, so I went with the next best thing, Gum, and a gumball machine.

Using my Cricut Expression machine and the Sweethearts Cricut cartridge, I cut out the gumball machine.  Since I wanted so many different color gum balls I decided to use a 1/2″ circle paper punch instead of the cricut cartridge, it was just faster and easier and I got to use scraps of cardstock that I had too.

I assembled the entire card using a Zig 2 Way Glue pen.  Oh before I forget, I also cut a clear piece of plastic to place over the top of the gumball machine so it really looked like the gumballs were in a glass bowl.

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~ Wishing Tyler the Best 13th Birthday ~

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

Sea Shells Make the Perfect Handmade Birthday Card

I am loving living at the beach and having so much fun collecting shells.  My sisters birthday is coming soon so I need to make her a handmade birthday card.  I don’t know what she would do if I bought her a card, but she NEVER has to worry about that since I love making cards.

I will be using a rubber stamp from Peddler’s Pack of a pair of flip flops (beach theme again LOL)  I stamped this image 2 times on plain white cardstock, because I wanted to add some dimension with layers.  The sentiment stamp Live, love, laugh and be happy… is from Stampabilities.

I used one image for the base and colored using Copic sketch markers.  Then with the other image I cut out the wave border and the flip flops.  I used small pop dots on those images so they really looked like they were popping off the card. (of course I took the photo straight on so you really can’t see the dimension, sorry)

But now comes the really fun part.  I glued tiny shells that I found at the beach onto the frame of the card, and since I raised that wave border the shells sit really nicely on the card.

handmade greeting card

~ Happy Birthday Lori ~

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

Handmade Birthday Card Using a Sea Shell & Beach Theme

I needed to get creative and make a birthday card for my nephew. When he came to visit this past summer we had so much fun at the beach, so I decided to make that the theme of his card.

handstamped greeting card

I used some 12 x 12 ivory cardstock for the base of the card that I cut to 9 x 8 the scored in half.

Then cut a piece of chocolate brown cardstock 8 1/2 x 3 1/2 then using a 2″ square paper punch I punched three squares in a row.  Layered it on top of the ivory card and used my ATG gun to put it all together.  I had some funky fiber in my drawer and decided to put a shell that I found on our beach for the perfect accent.

Of course I needed to use my Cricut Expression machine so I found the perfect seagull on the Life is a Beach cricut cartridge and cut it on ivory cardstock and then put Star Dust Stickles all over for a shimmery look.

I still didn’t know what stamp set I was using  and as I was going though all of acrylic stamps I found these three images on one sheet.  I have no idea who made them or where they came from.  All I knew is that they were perfect.  I stamped them with Rich Cocoa Memento Dye Ink and Wa-La my card is complete.

Thanks so much for allowing me to share this fun and easy birthday card with you.

~Happy Birthday Ryan~

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

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.

cricutcartridgejoysoftheseason

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).

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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

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:

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  • 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.

paperstripsforpaperpumpkin

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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

coloringstempaperpumpkin

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.

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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.

completedcpaperpumpkin

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.

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~ Happy Fall Everyone ~

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

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