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.