Happy Holidays

Here are two of my holiday cards I created!  I am teaching a class on these tomorrow evening at Artsy.  I love the tri-fold shutter card, because it folds up cute and displays so nicely.  I also like that you can add a photo in on a panel, designer paper, buttons, twine, etc.  The options are endless!

Card Classes in Colorado!

Guess what...you can see a sneak peek of my card class I am teaching this Saturday from 2-4pm at Artsy! Click here to see one of two butterfly cards we will be creating together, then call to reserve your seat!

Cake please, with a cherry on top!

Fantabulous Cricut's weekly challenge asked for a cupcake or other sweet treat.  This works out perfectly since we have lots of August birthdays in our family.  I knew my Stretch Your Imagination cartridge had a cake card, I played around with that for a little bit before scratching the project and starting over.  I decided I just wanted to make a cake and not do a window card.  I started rifling through my cartridges and came across one I haven't used very much at all.  I decided to give Just Because Cards a shot.  I found a cute little cake, fun card shape, fun border, and went to work cutting.  I had some more recently purchased paper from Artsy that I hadn't been just waiting for the perfect card to make.  I decided this was my chance.  When I got all done cutting out my cake, cherry, card, border, I didn't want to just put my cake on the card.  It needed a pedestal! Fortunately, the From My Kitchen cartridge had a cake on a pedestal.  I measured the size of my cake and cut out a cake on pedestal from the cartridge.  Then, I just snipped off the cake on the pedestal and replaced it with the cake I created.  I wanted some dimension on the card, so popped the border up with foam tape and popped up the cake pedestal and stand.  I still needed a little "oomph" for my card.  I used one of the giant sized jewels from Jolee's (also purchased at Artsy) to bedazzle my pedestal.  Then I used red Stickles on my cherry to give it a roundness that popped off the paper.  Finally, I added a thin grossgrain ribbon to the side.  The bow sort of reminded me of opening a fragile birthday gift with something fancy inside! Anyway, with just hours to spare, this is my card for this week's challenge!

New papers and a "Buggy" Challenge

It's been almost a year since I last competed in a challenge.  I was super excited when I got online and checked out the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog to find a challenge I was definitely up for!  The challenge was to use my Cricut and "get buggy"! Of course when someone tells me to get "buggy" I have to use butterflies!  I pitter pattered up stairs to my craft room to look through my heart cartridges.  I found some beautiful butterflies on a cartridge I have never used before! The Cricut Solutions Serenade cartridge contains birdhouse, butterflies, and lots of fun.  I had also been itching to use some new papers I bought at Artsy!  While there I also purchased some gears and sprockets that I believe are from Tim Holtz.  Oh, and I found adorable little tickets with words.
Anyway, with the challenge and my new purchases in mind, I came up with these three cards:

The paper I got at Artsy is by Crate and so is the border I used. My blue cardstock and light blue accent paper are from DCWV paper stacks that I had purchased almost two years ago.  I used a big gem from Jolee's on each butterfly to add a little sparkle.  I stapled my words on to add just a little finishing touch.  I think these turned out pretty well and I'm so happy to be blogging cards again!