Papercraft Star, Challenge #11-- Back 2 School

Over at Papercraft Star, we are in the midst of a Back to School themed challenge. The goal was to use a die cut system of some sort. I used my Cricut Expressions & Stretch Your Imagination Cartridge for the adorable, yet whimsical little bus.

Supplies:

Cricut Machine

Stretch Your Imagination Cartridge

Blue Metallic Cardstock (I used TPC Studios Royal Blue Shimmer, since once side is darker (base) and one is lighter (embossed layer)

Kraft Cardstock

Sakura White Gelly Roll Pen

Hemp Twine

Black Pen

Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Circles

Directions:

1. Cut your metallic dark blue cardstock to 8.5X 5.5. Fold in half, hamburger style.

2. Cut a yellow mat at 4X5.25. Stick down.

3. Cut a lighter blue metallic layer at 3.75X5 and emboss using the 'circles 'Cuttlebug Folder. on one side, wrap a few times with natural twine (I used hemp twine), and double knot to hold. Then adhere onto yellow mat.

4. Using the Stretch Your Imagine Cricut cartridge, cut each layer of the schoolbus, in the colors you choose. I usedmy Gypsy and hid all the contours of the shadow cut, and cut in Kraft Cardstock.

5. Glue layers together, and using pop dots, adhere to the card front.

6. Cut the tag @ 2". Add a white square- and scribble your note on.

7. String the tag through one of sides of cording, and tie it on loosely.

Embellish as you wish. You could easily add some glitter, I added white dots with a gelly pen, as well as colored where the hubcabs on the bus would be silver. I hope you can come over and play along! Entries can be linked until Friday @ Midnight EST.

And voting starts bright and early Saturday Morning, and goes through Monday.

Winners will be announced Tuesday.

Enjoy!

Dawn

Fireflies in a Jar Card Tutorial Video using the Stretch Your Imagination Cartridge and I need your vote!

**Before I start---I also need your help to win over at the Papercraft Stars New Challenge Blog- I've got my application in to be a potential designer, and also entered a bunch of projects into their system for voting. The winner will get some goodies, but I think it's more for testing. Vote for any of my projects, show some love, I only have until tomorrow! :-) thank you!**

ONTO THE SHOW!

That's right ladies and gents (ha, like there are ANY men watching?! I'm laughing because I even bothered to type that!) -- it's another video. I'm still not 100% on the video thing, and since I forgot to charge it, and being as naive as I am, I wanted to try to shoot it on the low battery because I *thought* it would be quick!

It is a short video, at only about 6 minutes for both little clippies, but I guess thats just too much work for my little old camera.

Being that I was born and raised in Washington State, we don't have fireflies. Even in most of my travels, I'd never been anywhere to see them. I hadn't ever seen them in real life, heard about them much (other than my mom's stories about growing up in the midwest) or really cared about them until I was a teenager and had the chance to go to Lincoln, NE. For those of you who don't know- that is where the Huskers (the football team) are at, and basically I was shocked at the amount of open, flat space, cornfields and the deliciousness of the steaks. I also was amazed one evening during a bar-b-que that fireflies are REAL. The little kids, probably 6-8 year olds (true nebraskins (sp?!) that they were, caught them and were smearing them on their skin to make their skin glow. Gross, I know but pretty cool when the only way I knew how to do that would be with a highlighter and a blacklight. We can say, that from then on I've always thought they were some of the coolest bugs, and hope I get to travel around and see more of them. Adam is pretty familiar with them, apparently the also reside in Swartz Creek, MI where he grew up. My story is so silly to him, and the fact that I am mesmerized by even the thought of something living and glowing floating around.



I'm not sure if I mentioned it in the video, but everything was made at a 6" cut. I will also post the recipe at the bottom, under the stills of the card. I really enjoyed making the video, and I feel like I need to be a little more upbeat, or happy because I'm just thinking so hard to try and not mess up since I can't edit yet!

I mentioned the fireflies as flies, bugs and buggies (thats what Zoe calls anything smaller than a thumbnail, alive or not). So, there is no confusion- they are all the same thing!

Recipe:

Gray, Blue, Black & Yellow Cardstock

Metallic Pen (if you want a shiny lid)

1 brad of your choice

Cricut Machine

Stretch Your Imagination Cartridge

Computer & Printer (or you can just handwrite!)

I got the font I printed from Fonts for Peas- and they are totally free, you download them, unzip the file, install the new font and you go! I love being able to type up notes that look like they are handwritten, especially setiments that I don't have a stamp for!

I also need your help to win over at the Papercraft Stars New Challenge Blog- I've got my application in to be a potential designer, and also entered a bunch of projects into their system for voting.

http://papercraftstar.blogspot.com/2010/05/help-us-test-our-voting-system-for.html

vote for any of my projects, show some love, I only have until tomorrow! :-) thank you!

My Pink Stamper, NSD Challenge #12

This challenge is CRITTER-LICIOUS and I don't have create a critter yet, so I had to use what I had, and with photos of Zoe, when she was crawling in dire need of being scrapbooked, I decided to use the little bugger.

My Pink Stamper, NSD Challenge #10 'May Day'

This was my version of Challenge #10- May Day. I didn't want to make another card, and I'm not feeling all that scrappy at the moment, so I think this turned out cute and will look good in a shadow box on the wall! Maybe in Zoe's room.....

a reminder that summer is coming!

I was crafting away tonight and still feel like I'm working on the My Pink Stamper challenge, since I made a layout instead of a card like I normally would, but sticking with the pink, black and green scheme... creating this little gem. You can click to make it bigger.

I can't wait for summertime- and not just because I'm getting married in June (which is beyond RAD) but also because I can't wait for strawberries & watermelon to be a normal thing to eat daily.

As you can see in <------------ that photo, the paper is actually sort of sparkly. It is open stock paper, from Joanne's called Pink Pomegranate Metallic. The same paper is used for the main watermelon cut.

I would normally make cards that are A2 sized, but this one was 6"X4.25" to make it a little taller than normal.

The watermelon is cut from the Stretch Your Imagination Cartridge @ 4". I made a blackout cut of the watermelon in black, to color the seeds and a shadow cut in white. The 'rind' section is actually spotted green paper from the Flower Shower Spring Stack by DCWV. The white embossed paper is open stock from Lila's Scrapbooking, but you could use your cuttlebug & swiss dots folder. Of course, the white paper is inked with pink, green and black pigment inks. I stamped the phrase in white, the phrase is actually from the $1 bin @ Joanne's. Flowers are Making Memories Jar Collections blossoms in lemonade, with the bottom flower,it was ivory- i just rubbed it all over with the same green ink pad. Ribbon is also from the $1 section @ Joannes.

I think I'm going to send it to a friend just to say hi. I never remember to mail them anymore... I love making them though!

Tomorrow, I have a big goal of getting the house clean, and taking back my library books. I've got like 10 checked out right now, about photography, portrait photography, Canon EOS cameras and all sorts of random paper craft books. They all seem to have the same information and variations of the same projects so I'm not loving any of them enough to buy them!

Easter Cards and Barn Layout

Today we have an awesome party to go to tonight! It's over at a friends house and she is just taking the cake for a party! The kids get to do crafts, and a torchlight easter egg hunt. Adults of course will be hanging out and then after the easter egg hunt and crafts, they are showing Ice Age on the big screen! What a brilliant idea! I am thrilled and think it will just be a blast! I wanted to make her a card, of course related to Easter. This is what I came up with today. I used PTI cardstock, Core'dinations cardstock, and the Stretch Your Imagination Cart. I used the $1 ribbon from Joannes also.

My next project was a layout I decided to do. I bought this paper as open stock @ Lila's http://www.lilasscrapbooking.blogspot.com/ and I think it's more for a 4-H thing than just being at the barn, but since we spend at least one day a week at Horse Head Quarters, I take a lot of photos of Zoe and the horses. I love the attitude she was throwing this day as she tromped out through a pasture to get to me while I was doing some shots of the horses.

This is a closeup of the cuts I made using my Cricut Expressions, and the Old West Cartridge.

I will post some photos of the horses soon, I'm sure. I've got some great ones of the 'babies' (Peyton & Rowdy) in front of the HHQ sign on the end of the barn. :-)

Have a Happy Easter!