With a cherry on top!

I am always trying to figure out how to make cards that are more gender neutral.  I came up with this card that is suitable for a male or female.  I used a darker blue cardstock and accented it with a distressed printed paper that I ran through an embossing folder.  I mounted the cup cake that I cut out on the From My Kitchen cartridge over a solid white ribbon.  I accented the cherry with some red and green Stickles to make it extra luscious! 

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!

Happy "Moo"thers Day

This is the card I made for my Mother-in-Law for Mother's Day.  She has a collection of cows in her kitchen and I couldn't resist adding to her collection by using the Create A Critter cartridge!  I also cut out a large barn twice and attached the two pieces with a brad at the top.  I love adding googly eyes to my animals to bring them to life.  My cow is very sweet and benefited from a sheer ribbon bow and paper flowers on either side.  I wanted the barn to look aged, so I distressed it with dark red ink and a charcoal ink.  Of course on the inside I wrote, "Happy Moothers Day!"

This cake's for you!

Time to make a birthday card!  I used the From My Kitchen Cricut Cartridge to create this slice of cake.  I wanted it to look like a slice of German chocolate cake, so chose a lighter brown paper and a chocolate brown for the middle.  I used the Sizzix Big Shot to cut out and emboss the white paper in the background that says, "Happy Birthday!" I used a scrap of blue paper with brown little flowers to pick up the chocolate in the cake and the blue in the brightly colored, patterned card stock.  I popped the cake up with foam tape to give it some dimension.  To tie it all together, I used a sheer ribbon at the top. Ta-da a cute little birthday card!

More fun with Create a Critter

This shape card was inspired by a friend who has an alligator collection.  Her birthday was coming up and I knew I wanted to make her a special card.  I used my Cricut Create a Critter Cartridge to cut out all of the layers of the alligator and an additional background layer.  The additional background layer became the card base to write on.  I used foam tape to really make the layers pop! She was amazed at all the layers and just kept looking at the card.  I also distressed as much as possible to try to tone down the bright green coloring and make it a little more alligator like. I ran a few of the layers through my Big Shot to add some texture.  I moved it from a layered alligator to a card by using the additional back layer and brad.  I hid the brad behind one of the ridges on the back. It was a fun little project to put together!

This card is DinoMite!

I have to admit when I think of purple dinosaurs, I think of Barney.  So, I wanted to be really careful with how I designed this loveable dinosaur.  Living in Colorado, everyone knows another purple dinosaur...Digger! In case you don't know, Digger is the mascot for the Colorado Rockies.  Slightly more masculine than Barney, I decided I could get away with a big purple dinosaur. 

Trying to use up some scrap paper, I chose a purple gingham print for the background. I used foam tape to layer my dinosaur that I cut out from Create a Critter on my Cricut cartridge. I ran one of the layers of the dinosaur through my Big Shot and a Cuddle Bug folder. I like that it gave the skin a little texture! I went around the edges with some ink to distress and added purple stickles to dress up the card.  I also used a light green cardstock to mount the dinosaur on, so he didn't just blend in to all the purple paper.  On the light green paper, I ran it through the Big Shot with a nesting set I had.  That created a natural frame.  I think the card turned out really well.  I gave it away for Father's Day and wrote, "I hope you have a dino-mite father's day!"  Lots of fun and it brought a big smile to the face of a special dad.

Hip Hip Hooray

I have been crazy busy with work and only had small amounts of time to make cards in the past year.  I have in those small moments found time to make some fun cards. I also just finished my Master's degree and realized I might have time again in my life to do some of the things I love, like take pictures and make cards!  I even spent some time in my craft room cleaning the other day! Anyway, enough with the chit chat, here is a sweet little card I made.

I used my Cricut and the Create a Critter Cartridge to cut out the Hip Hip Hooray and the Hippo.  Rather than keep a plain old "o" I added a flower with a teal bling in the middle.  I also used foam tape between every single layer of the hippo, which made it really stand out and added some life to this little critter.  What I love about this card is that it has endless possibilities! I gave it to my niece for her first birthday and wrote, "Hip, hip hooray it's your first birthday today!"  Really, you can hip, hip hooray anything.