Create Your Heart Out

Todays challenge is a song inspired challenge. Basically you have to make a card that is inspired by the lyrics to the song What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. To see the lyrics, head on over to http://365cards.blogspot.com/

Here’s my card.

To make this card, I used the following products:

• Cardstock-Bazzill KraftColor Box in Chestnut Roan
• Patterned Paper- mixture of Basic Grey solids
• Ribbon-May Arts
• Stamps- Beautiful Day (only comes with new consultant kit)
• Enjoy the Day
• Pebbles Chalks
• VersaMark Stamp Pad

As you can see, I used a lot of different products to make this card, and quite a few were from Close To My Heart, including the stamps used for the images which are only available to Close to My Heart consultants.

I recently became a CTMH consultant and can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner. It’s fun, I have met some great people and I get to make money doing what I love: stamping and scrapping!

If you have ever thought about becoming a CTMH consultant, here are just a few reasons why you should do it today instead of waiting:

• It’s tons of fun.
• I have used a lot of different crafting products and I can honestly say CTMH makes some of the best quality for your money out there. Those of you who know me know I don’t recommend products I don’t fully believe in.
• You can make as much or as little money as you like. You set your schedule.
• Discounts and free product.
• Special consultant only products and deals, such as the stamp set I used to make the card above.

As an added bonus, if you become a consultant by the end of this month, you’ll get a free Stamp of the month set, valued at almost $100.

For more information on becoming a consultant, click here, or contact me and I will gladly answer any questions you may have.

If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

Today’s 365cards.blogspot.com/ challenge really challenged me, hence the late post.

The challenge was to create a card with an “Outer Space” theme with words will inspire that theme.

I tried several different things and eventually started over from scratch, but I’m pretty pleased with my final product.

The following is an example from the site.
Below that is my card.

I used the following products:

• American Kraft card stock
• patterned paper “You Rock” by CTMH
• Chocolate ink by CTMH
• Stamp from TLC by CTMH
• Martha Stewart crystal fine glitter
• white Signo pen by Sakura
• buttons by creative cafe
• Black Zig 05 pen for stitching

I used Design Studio with the following cartridges to create this card: Everyday Paperdolls, From My Kitchen and A Garden of Words. If you would like the file, I will gladly share, just email me and I’ll get it right out.

Hope you enjoy, and remember if you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

On Sunday at http://365cards.blogspot.com/ she posts a sketch as the challenge. Here is today’s sketch.

And here is my card:

To make my card, I used:

• George and Basic Shapes Cricut Cartridge
• Patterned paper-CTMH Veranda
• Stamps- For Every Occasions, Felicities
• Inks-CTMH Juniper
• Color Box in Gold
• DMC Thread
• Sakura Jelly Roll Pens

What do you think?

Here is today’s http://365cards.blogspot.com/ challenge.

Today’s challenge was to create a card using a stamped image with more than one color of ink.

Did I meet the challenge?

To make this card, I used:

• Stamps and Inks by Close to My Heart
• EK Success Border Punch
• Origins by Basic Grey Patterned Paper
• Cardstock by Bazzill
• May Art Ribbon

More challenges to come! If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

Here’s today’s challenge from http://365cards.blogspot.com/.

This is the card I made for that challenge.

To make my card I used:

• From Close to My Heart: Chocolate Ink, Stamps: Fringed Phrases, Beautiful Day
• Sakura Jelly Roll Pens
• Doodlebug Rhinestones
• Cardstock by Bazzill

Check back for more challenges!
If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

So browsing the web for crafting stuff as usual, I found this neat little site called http://365cards.blogspot.com/. It’s run by Pam, and it’s a really fun site!

Each day Pam puts up a new challenge, and to enter you have to create a card based on whatever the challenge is. It could be a sketch, a color scheme, or a technique, it’s new every day. What’s amazing is how everyone can look at the same challenge and come up with something totally different from everyone else.

I’ve decided to try it and share my results here with you. I can’t promise I’ll do it everyday, but I’ll definitely try. And I encourage you to check out her blog and if you feel up to it, you should try it yourself.

You can read more about it here.

These are the cards I’ve made for the last few days since she started the year on March 1. If you go to the blog, you can see the last few challenges.

Check back often to see more challenges, and remember if you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

So for Friday’s ATC exchange at Mojo’s Scrapbooks, the theme is “friends”. Here are the cards I made and I can’t wait to see what everyone else came up with.

Just so you know, you don’t have to have taken the class to do the exchange, but you should make at least 15 cards for trade. There will be refreshments available and you’ll get 10% off any purchases for participating.

The techniques I used for these include quilling, masking, micro beading, faux painting, and using rub ons with achol inks, but you can do whatever you want, just be creative. Hope to see you all there!

If you can think it… You can Cri-cut!

If you’ve never made or traded ATC’s, you’re missing out on a lot of fun! This is a bit different from my Cricut classes.

What are those, you ask?

ARTIST TRADING CARDS are miniature works of art created on 2 ½ X 3 ½ inch or 64 X 89 mm card stock.

They are originals, small editions and, most importantly, self-produced. Anybody can produce them.
The idea is that you trade them with other people who produce cards, either at trading sessions or wherever you meet another ATC trader in person.

It is important that you meet other people in person to trade – i.e. it is ok to trade by mail or to participate in editions but the main purpose of this performance is the trading session and the personal meeting.

It’s not about money: participants in trading sessions and editions should not be charged any money: the point of the project is the exchange of cards as well as personal experience.

I use all different things to make my cards, including various supplies, as well as the cardstock.

Every month I do an ATC class with a different theme. This month’s theme was snow. This Friday at Mojo’s we’re doing a swap. The swap is free and you even get 10% off your purchase. So come have some cookies and coffee and tea and let the fun begin!

If you can think it… You can Cri-cut!

For those of you that have been asking what the paper is that I used for this card it is made by Imaginisce and is called Fairest of Them All/Enchanted Garden. As several people commented, the paper does make the card!

More cards! I have been experimenting with my Gypsy so I’ve been making lots of cards. I made this extra sweet cupcake card for a friend of mine, and can’t believe how cute it is!

For this project you’ll need:

• Your Wild Card cartridge.
• A Scor Pal.
• Adhesive such as an ATG gun, or Glue glider pro.
• Sugar Coating Glitter Lily White
• A small piece of acetate.

Watch the video, and then you can download the file and make this sweet little card for someone you love!

To download the file, click here.

Enjoy, and remember, if you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

It’s that time again. Another episode of This Bug’s For You. This time I’ll show you how to make a really cute and easy monogram card with acetate.

I used my Gypsy to design this card, so until Provo Craft makes it compatible with the Design Studio software, I can’t share my files with you, but you can still use this technique with a variety of designs.

For this project I used:

• Acetate Hint: If it can fit my current project, sometimes I’ll use the acetate from Cricut cartridges or other packages that usually just gets thrown away. You save money and the environment all in one project!
• Rub ons There are lots of ‘em out there. Just whichever brand and design you choose.
• My Scor Pal of course.

Have fun everyone and remember, if you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

I keep telling myself I’m not going to get involved in these swaps because I already feel strapped for time, but they are just so much fun that I can’t help myself.

The three above are the paper dolls I did. The photos below are from other participants.

In addition to the Paper Doll Dress Up cart, for my dolls, I used the following materials:

• Glossy Accents for the feathers on the Indians.
• Actual feathers for the pot with the girl Indian. You can use whatever kind you want.
• Sizzix Little Sizzles Hombre Texture Pad

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This time the theme was Fall. I just LOVE my Everyday Paper Dolls cart, as well as the Paper Doll Dress Up cart. I don’t know which one I like better.

Which one do you like best?

If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

So after the wait, I got my Gypsy. I ordered from HSN and although I’ve never ordered from them before, I have to say it was a pleasure to deal with them. I ordered over the phone and got right through, I was treated pleasantly and received my Gypsy when I expected.

The problem? I connected my Gypsy to my computer, designed a few things and couldn’t wait to cut them out. Except I couldn’t get my Gypsy connected to my Cricut. After repeatedly trying to fit a square peg in a circular shaped hole, I realize that I didn’t have the correct cord. It was missing. Okay. Mistakes happen. No big deal. Except that after talking to a friend of mine who also ordered a Gypsy, I realized she had the same problem only a the cord that was missing from her Gypsy was the cord to connect to the computer. What are the odds?

After going to the message boards at cricut.com, I found out this happened to a lot of people, in addition to software issues, and a lot of people who are sorry they already loaded cartridges on it. Also, quite a few people posting messages to the admins but getting no responses at least as far as I can tell.

First thing I did was call HSN, figuring they probably couldn’t do anything, and I was right, although I spoke to a very nice girl named Amber who seemed very concerned that I couldn’t use my Gypsy without the necessary cord. I’m also pretty sure Amber didn’t know what a Cricut or a Gypsy was but she was concerned nonetheless, which made me feel a little better. She gave me the number to Provo Craft. This was another story. After waiting on hold for an hour and a half, I got someone who while nice, didn’t really seem to understand what I was saying. She said they would send me the correct cord, so in 5-7 days we’ll see, and I got it pretty quickly so that’s a plus! In fact I made this card using the Gypsy Font and Gypsy Wanderings Cart. I got the idea from a video at capadiadesigns.blogspot.com. To make the window which is holding the Happy Birthday, I used the acetate from the package of my Cricut cartridges.

My overall impression of the Gypsy has been okay. I’m not sure it could have lived up to the hype, although I guess I’ll know more once I am actually able to use it a lot. I’ll give you a quick rundown.

Pros:

• The best thing in my opinion is the fact that you can carry all your carts and design on the go. I am a gadget person, and also someone who likes small things so this is a plus for me.
• The fact that it is lightweight, although honestly I didn’t know whether that was a pro or con, as it kind of feels lightweight in a cheap, not made well kinda way. Maybe this is a con?

Cons:

• The price, and the fact that for that price I can’t use it right away. $300 is a lot to ask someone to spend on a product that still has issues.
• It seems like not a lot of thought was put into this, although a lot of effort was used to push the product for a long time before the launch. There is no user guide, except a downloadable one that from I have heard is giving errors when attempting to download.
• The whole cartridge issue is a big one for me, especially since I had loaded a couple carts on mine when I realized I didn’t have all the parts. I know, I should have checked everything when I opened the box, but it worries me a little that when I talked to Amber at HSN, her solution was to send the whole thing back and get a new one. Would I have not been able to download those same carts on the new one? What if I return it, or it breaks? I just don’t like the fact that to really get use from this thing, I have to deflate the value of my cartridges.
• I’m not sure how user friendly it is. It’s very small, which is great for portability, but when you’re used to using Design Studio on a big computer screen, it’s an adjustment. This will come with time.

Overall, for me it works out great. Since I teach a variety of things, and am always lugging around lots of stuff, any way to reduce stuff is great, and this definitely does that. I’m just not sure if the average user is going to feel the same. I will say that they seem to be doing a lot of updates so it can only get better if that’s the case. As always with first generation electronic equipment, I’m sure the price will go down and the product will get better. I might have waited if I didn’t need it to teach.

I’ll definitely be making more with it and telling everyone about it, so keep checking back.

In the meantime, if you can think it… you can Cricut!

I promised the cut files from the teapot gatefold card I did in my video yesterday, so here it is.

This one uses the A Child’s Year cartridge.

If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

If you remember my Paper Doll exchange, you’ll be glad to know I finally got my paper dolls in the mail. Boy, was I excited for a reason. As you’ll be able to see these are the cutest things ever!!

I can’t pick my favorite, I like them all. This was my first swap, and I hope to be able to join another and who knows, maybe I’ll even host one!

Check out the pictures. To see the bigger versions, just click on them and you can see them all. Which one is your favorite?

Thanks to stampin-annie for hosting such a fun and exciting swap!

If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!!

I had the pleasure of teaching a class in Warren, Ohio last week, and we had so much fun!

We started with a Cricut Basics but then moved on to a class designed around the Wild Card cart.

The girls all got a kit with the pieces to make three cards that I created using the cartridge. We had so much fun assembling each one.

All in all, it was a fun day with a group of great ladies I hope to see again!