It's been a busy December

Well, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas just flew by for my family, as I'm sure it did for all of you. In addition to getting ready for Christmas, we also had my granddaughter's birthday celebration. She turned one on 12/16. It was so much fun, and she actually started walking at her party!
This year, my mother in law decided to pay us a visit, and my house is in no shape for company. It seems we always have some project we are trying to finish up around here. So, besides Christmas and birthday I also had to get our guest room put together. She arrived on Christmas Eve and it's been nice. She's enjoying seeing her great grandchildren!
Just after Thanksgiving, I tried to get a picture of my adorable grandkids to send out in our cards. It did not go well :)
We started out like this... Doesn't Carter look thrilled?
And ended up here. Don't worry, Gigi isn't hurt or anything. She just didn't want to be sitting there with her cousin!
Oh well, maybe next year. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
Maria

Happy Birthday Felix!

My son in law celebrated his birthday yesterday. We went out to dinner with them on Saturday to one of his favorite BBQ restaurants. He loves the transformers, but I don't have a stamp or cut for that, so I made this robot card instead. I'm so happy because it actually came out the way I pictured it. That doesn't seem to happen very often! You can't tell in the pic, but the embossed piece is a silver metallic paper. It looks really cool in person.
Technique Tuesday, Rocket Man Stamp Set
Stampendous (I think) sentiment
Cuttlebug embossing folder, Diamond Plate
Clear Tops embossing powder, Opal Silver Lining
Prisma color pencils
Silver Metallic paper from WalMart
Don't know who makes the blue paper, it was a piece left over from another project.
Thanks for stopping by and have a Happy and safe Thanksgiving!
Maria

My first challenge card

So I decided to try this week's challenge for the Cuttlebug Spot. The challenge this week was to use fruit and I immediately thought of this Just Rite Autumn Blessings stamp. The image was stamped twice and the center of one was colored with Prisma colored pencils. This was cut out using a small classic oval Nestability. Then the entire image with the border was cut using the next larger die. A scalloped oval Nestability was used for the brown mat. The red background was embossed with the Cuttlebug Leafy Branch folder and the corners were cut with the lg corner rounder punch from Hobby Lobby. The tiny pearls are from Recollections (don't look too close or you'll see where I moved them around!) The ribbon is from Offray. The apples were covered with Glossy Accents, but I don't think that shows too much in the picture.
Thanks for stopping by,
Maria

New blog title and some cards

First of all, in case you didn't notice, I changed my blog name. I think this one suits me better. Now I'm going to try to convince my son to design a cute header for me. I've hinted to him, but I think I'm just going to have to come out and ask for it!

Anyway here are some cards I made recently:

This one is for my mother in law. The flower stamp is from Unity's Oct. stamp kit of the month. The stamp was colored with Copic markers, which I am still an absolute beginner at, then cut with a classic oval Nestability. The printed paper is from K and Co. and the bottom was punched with the SU Eyelet Border punch. This punch was also used on a piece of white paper, which was placed under the printed paper. The happy birthday stamp is from Fiskars and was stamped with SU chocolate chip ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder. The rhinestones are Studio 18, from the $1 bin at Michael's. The ribbon is from Offray and the corner accents were done with a white Jelly Roll pen.
This next one is my mom's, who turned 84 yesterday!

This is actually the first card I've made using the Gypsy. The background is cut from Gypsy wanderings and the paper is K and Co. The flower pot and flower are from Pooh and Friends. The flower was cut 3 times and layered with foam tape. The pot was embossed using the Cuttlebug Tiny Mosaic Texture folder. The ribbon is actually a piece of white ribbon that was colored with a Copic marker. I don't know who makes the little butterfly, but it too was colored with a Copic marker. Here's a close up of the flower:
That's a lot of info for one post! Hope you enjoy them. Next I'll show you what I've been working on.
Thanks, Maria

Advent Calendar

I got the idea for this after seeing one in a Paper Crafts Magazine that was made using coin holders. I saw it and immediately thought of the SU treat cups. It took me a few days to finish, but I'm happy with the result. The main section with the holes was created in the Cricut Design Studio. I made the holes a little smaller than the treat cups opening and then had to do a little math and finagling to get them all to line up correctly. This was cut in the red card stock and a heavier paper (I used the back of one of my paper pads.) The charm feature on the George and Basic Shapes cart was used to make the doors (also cut out of heavier paper). Several different Christmas papers were cut with the SU 1 3/4" circle punch and used to cover the doors. After decorating them with all kinds of Christmas images including some Cricut cuts, Cuttlebug, various stamps, buttons, brads, and ribbons, they were attached to the calendar with small white brads. The treat cups were attached to the back. An eyelet was place in each of the top corners then wire was looped through these. Various ribbons were tied to the wire.
To make it a little more fun, I added some red circle cuts that were stamped with a variety of cute Peachy Keen faces to the inside of the treat cups.

A couple of the doors open, you can kind of see the PK faces.

The pic below is just a close up of some of the doors.

A side shot showing the Treat Cups

Here's Carter checking out the back. I think he likes it!

This was a lot of fun to create. I've got to make another now, so I can give one to both of my daughters. Don't know what I'll fill them up with either, but that will be fun to figure out too!
Thanks for stopping by,
Maria

Halloween Boxes

I didn't realize how long it's been since I last posted. Here's just one of the things I've been working on. The boxes were created by Joy at Christmas with the Cricut. She shared a cut.file to use with Design Studio. I'm going to fill them with treats and give them to the girls and their hubbies. I've got some more things to share including a bigger project I'm working on using the SU treat cups.
Thanks for stopping by!
Maria

Cricut Design Studio cut.file for box
Cricut Stretch Your Imagination cart
Studio G stamps
Best Design Inc paper
Stickles

Great Aunt June

Two weekends ago Tim and I made a quick (and surprise) trip to SC to help celebrate his Great Aunt June's 90th birthday.It was quite a celebration with her family and some of the small community she lives in joining in. When someone asked her what her secret to living so long is she says you should never stop working. Always have something for your mind and hands to do. I'm going to try to remember this, because if I live to be 90, I want to be just as sharp and able bodied as she is! Here's the card I made for her.

$1 Inkadinkado stamp, Bird Streamer
K and Co., floral paper
Hero Arts, crystals
Offray ribbon
SU classic ink, old olive
Tim Holtz distress ink, tea dye
Moon Glow 2 toned embossing powder, oakleaf olive/gold
Nestibilities, scallop squares

Happy Sunday, Maria

And the winner is...

Poster #10, Kim, you are the lucky winner! I'll contact you to get your address so I can send the punch.
Thank you all for entering and for all the nice comments.
Have a great weekend!
Maria
True Random Number Generator
Min: Max:
Result: 10

HB to me and a Drippy Goo Giveaway

In celebration of my birthday today (Whoo Hoo), I'm giving away a Martha Stewart Drippy Goo punch. That's right, just giving it away. If you'd like a chance to win,simply leave a comment on this post.I'll do a random drawing on Friday, 10/02/09 @ 10 PM CTS and the lucky person will get the punch. Couldn't be much easier than that. Just remember to leave me a way to contact you.
Thanks for stopping by and good luck!
Maria
P.S. You can also sign up to follow me if you'd like!

More treat cup cards

I'm having too much fun finding different ways to use these little SU treat cups. These are more or less shaker cards rather than treat cards. The pictures aren't the best, I'm still figuring out how to use the camera my wonderful son gave me when he got a new one.
I used a little of everything on this one: Cricut Doodle Charms for the snowman and the SU Treat Cup. The background was done with the Cuttlebug Snowflake folder. The sentiment is from the Just Rite Christmas Joy set cut with a classic oval Nestability. I used Waterfall and Stardust stickles to outline the tag and the snowman. The cup is filled with MS Snow Glitter.

This is my favorite, probably because I love gingerbread men! For this I used the Something Sweet Set from Just Rite and the classic and scalloped circle Nestability. That little cookie cutter is part of a set I've had forever, it's from Great for Memory! Ribbon is from Walmart and I don't know who made the paper, it's part of a big stack I had that was separated. The glitter is also MS, Carrera Marble Coarse. Oh and the punch for the circle is an SU 13/t4".
I think that's everything. Hope you enjoy looking as much as I enjoyed creating these. If you'd like to learn another method for making these cards refillable, checkout Snowman Lover's Paperie Blog, she has a great tutorial.
As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a great Friday and weekend!
Maria

Another Sweet Treat Card

Several people have come up with ways to use the treat cups and make the sweets accessible without having to tear up the card. This is what I came up with.
The cups require a hole of 13/4". You can use a punch, but for this card I used the Cricut and the Center Point feature to cut the hole in the card top. (My card tops are the decorative part of the card, made separately, then attached to a base.) The hole was cut at 13/4 real dial size. I used this cut as a template to mark the placement for the treat cup on the card base. I sponged the area where the cup would be placed. This is what it looked like with the cup on the card base. (the colors around the rim are from another paper I had it attached to then changed my mind.)

I flipped this over and from the inside, using an exacto knife, I cut the paper around the inside of the cup, leaving about half an inch uncut. This created a little circle flap.

With the Cricut and the George cart, I cut a 21/2" square with the charm feature. I stamped it with a Studio G stamp then used craft glue on the circle and bottom only of the square and placed the square cut on the circle flap. I used repositional glue on the top of the square. Here's the inside with the square pull tab. I scored the bottom of the square so it would fold down easier.
Here it is with the tab down.

I put the candy in the cup then closed the tab. Using repositional glue allows it to be opened and closed without tearing. Here's the finished card.
The paper is Debi Mumm. The ribbon was white, colored with a Prisma Marker. Jewels are from Oriental Trading Co. and the stamp on the ribbon is another Studio G.
Hope this all makes sense. It seems like a lot of steps, but didn't really take much time. Can't wait to create some more.
Thanks for stopping by.
Maria

SU Sweet Treat Cups

Whew, what a weekend! My daughter's surgery went well and she is making a quick recovery. I'm sure she'll be back to normal in no time. In addition to that we are in the process of re-doing the floors in our house. We started a few years ago replacing the carpet with laminate flooring and got most of the house done. When we were ready to do the rest, we couldn't find the same floor again. We finally did come across some and now they are almost done, Yea!
With everything else going on, I did manage to make a couple of cards using the new SU Sweet Treat Cups. These just came out in the new Holiday Mini Catalogue and I ordered some as soon as I could. Here's my first card and here's what I used:
Studio G Halloween Stamp
MS Drippy Goo Punch
Rain Dots
DCWV paper
Su Sweet Treat Cup and Sweet Centers stamp set
Halloween Microspool ribbon from Walmart
The stamp around the cup is from the Sweet Centers stamp set. I used SU pumpkin Spice to stamp it then embossed it with clear embossing powder. The orange paper on top is a scrap.

Embellishments

Here's a pic of those embellishments I mentioned in my previous post. I also have some that are black/red, brown/pink and yellow/green. I think they were clearance priced at $2 when I got them, not too bad.
Thanks, Maria

Get Well Card

My daughter is going in for gall bladder surgery tomorrow so I made this card for her. I hope it cheers her up. The background paper is from Chatter Box, Happy Day Collection. The yellow paper was cut with a QuickCutz Die and the sentiment is from the Lyrical Letters Cricut cartridge. That sweet little deer is from The Unity Stamp Company. It's from their Nov. 08 Kit Club. The checkered ribbon is some Debi Mumm that I got on clearance from JoAnns. I picked up several packages that had 4 different coordinating ribbons in them. Finally, the flowers are from a set I got on clearance from Michaels. They had several colors and I think I got one set in every color. Each set has the flowers, buttons and some crystal embellishments in it, 30 pieces in all. I'll try to post a picture of one of the sets.
Thanks again for stopping by. A little nervous about my daughter's surgery, but I'm sure all will be well.
Maria

Kevin's Birthday Card

Kevin is turning 25 at the end of the month and I was finally able to finish his card. I got the idea of using the quarter on it since he will be a quarter of a century! Wow, that makes me feel really old now. The quarter was created with the Cricut Design Studio the My World cart and Plantin Schoolbook. I was able to rig a small gel pen and drew the details instead of cutting with the Cricut, then just cut the circular portion.This was attached to a slightly larger dark gray circle.The details on the quarter were heat embossed with Clear Tops embossing powder, Opal Silver Lining.
The striped paper is from the DCWV All About Boys Stack and the bottom is Coordinations Black Magic, Hocus Pocus paper that was sanded with a nail file. The top of this was punched with the Fiskars Threading Water border punch. Happy birthday was cut from the A Child's Year cart. It was finished off with some doodling and some brads from my stash. This card is bigger than I normally make, 6.5 X 5. Gotta get it in the mail so it gets to Kevin on time.
Thanks for stopping by,
Maria

Frog Hello Card

Just a quick card I made this evening. I used an older SCS challenge (#234) for my pattern. The stamp is another from the A Flower for All Seasons set from Stampin Up. The floral background paper is from The Craft Stack from DCWV. I also finally used my new MS Loopy punches. (I think that's the name.) These new punches are so neat because they have a corner and border punch that allow you to punch around a paper, you just have to be sure to have your paper cut to a certain size square. I used a 3" square here. I liked this card right up until I added the embossed hello on the bottom. I didn't get all the embossing powder off the card before I heated it and it ended up looking smudged. Oh well, I guess it will still work.
Thanks for stopping by!
Maria

Blog Banner

I spent a lot of time yesterday creating my banner and figuring out how to size it right. Anyway, after I applied it I had to change my background to one that matched better. I like the background I found, in fact, I think I like it more than my banner! Think I'll work on tweaking it this weekend. Meanwhile, I'm working on a card for Kevin, who's birthday is at the end of the month. I'll post it as soon as I finish.

SCS challenge

I decided to try this weeks challenge at Split Coast Stampers. I've never done one before and thankfully this one wasn't too hard! I was going to do 2 cards, one using stamps and one using a Cricut cut. Well, the Cricut card ended up completely different. That's the way it works out most of the time.
The first card is the challenge card. I used and SU stamp from the "A Flower for All Seasons" set and my SU watercolor crayons to color it. For the Cricut card I used the sunflower cut from the "Stretch Your Imagination" cart. The frame is also from this cart. The dotted background paper was created using an SU "Itty Bitty Background" stamp. Oh, and I used MS glitter markers for just a little bit of bling.
Thanks, Maria

Long Hot Summer

My son Kevin was here for a visit in July and took these pics of Carter cooling down. Why he didn't just get in the pool, I don't know. Of course Dixie, my poodle, had to get in on the action too!
Have a great day, Maria

Reindeer

Split Coast Stampers is one of my favorite places to go to get ideas and learn new techniques. The designers there are awesome and one of my favorites is a lady named Beate Johns. This card was definitely inspired by her design style. I hope you'll go and check out some of her work over at SCS. For this card I used the big, beautiful Medallion background stamp from Stampin Up. The tag was made using the small nesties, classic and oval. The sentiment is a Studio G stamp from series 22. I used an MS Arched Lattice border punch for the piece under the ribbon. The reindeer was cut using the Cricut Christmas Solution cart in both the regular and shadow cuts. I applied him to the card with some foam tape. The ribbon, paper and rhinestones were in my stash. Sorry I don't know all the colors, I've had some stuff so long, I don't even remember getting it! I hope you like this as much as I do.
Thanks, Maria

Slideshow

Whew, it took me a while to get that slide show working! I'm really proud of myself for getting it going and putting it in the right place (through lots of trial and error). That's quite an accomplishment for me because I am really not a computer person. Now maybe I'll be brave enough to share my address so I can get some followers. Baby steps for me!
Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Halloween Card

I'm finding it harder to keep up with this than I imagined. Anyway, here's a card I created and posted over on the Cricut message board. Someone on the board asked everyone to make a Halloween card and share it. This is what I came up with.
I finally got a hold of an MS Drippy Goo punch and used it for the first time on this card. The witch is a cut from the new Cricut cart A Child's Year. I used another MS punch on the upper part, but don't remember its name.

This is the card I made for my hubby's birthday this year. He shares his birthday with the anniversay of the first moon landing, July 20th and he still talks about watching it on TV as a little kid. Wow, that makes us old doesn't it?
I used the Cricut Going Places cart for the earth and Camp Out for the moon. The rocket and little background stars are stamps by Technique Tuesday from the Rocket Man set. The flourish is by Lizzie Anne designs, So Swirly set. The ink I used for the stars and also rubbed on the background paper is called Platinum Planet from Tsukineko, one of the Brilliance collection.
He seemed to get a kick out of it. He still has it displayed in the dining room for all to see!
Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

The Grandkids

I couldn't decide what to post first, so I decided on this picture of our grandkids from this Easter. They were 4 and 15 months old in this pic. They're cousins, by the way. Her mom is our oldest daughter, and he belongs to our youngest. Aren't they adorable?