Heat Embossing with the Explore

Oh so excited today - this is my first blog post for Sheila at She's a Sassy Lady!   O.K. Here goes!

Did you see the new Mix and Match embossing plates from Anna Griffin on HSN?  I'm afraid I caved and bought the set AND took the autoship option.  My shipment came in last week and I love how easy it is to customize cards for specific occasions.

It was my DD's birthday last week and I used the Happy Birthday plate to emboss the front of her card.  So pretty, but it needed embellishing to make it really special and I don't have any Anna Griffin type flowers.  Time to turn on the Explore!

I found several flowers in Design Space that have a shadow layer and a fairly intricate top layer.  (e.g. Bits and Pieces, Gypsy Wanderings, Sophie) After placing the flower on the mat, I ungrouped the layers and changed the top one to 'write' and left the shadow layer on 'cut.' The last step is to select and attach.

Using the Amy Chomas adapter, I inserted my VersaMark embossing pen, loaded the mat with vellum and pressed 'go."

Then comes the hardest part of the whole process - getting the vellum flower off the mat without touching the wet embossing ink!  I had fun trying out several different embossing powders and choosing the best alcohol marker to color the back of the flower.

Love this silver one but decided to go with a silvery white opaque powder to compliment the white-on-white look I was going for.  This technique is so easy and I want to try text, a beautiful butterfly, and maybe a poinsettia with a gold edge.   So many ideas!

Here is the finished card.  She was very impressed!  (Sorry!)

Thanks for visiting with me today!  : ) Christine

Jumping on the Lip Balm Bandwagon - Valentine Tags

I found some EOS lip balm at my local drug store! Yesss!  The next step was to design a tag to hold the balm that I could attach to our DGD's Valentine Candy.   Two weeks later, after designing and discarding several things, I finally decided on a simple 'Love' theme rather than the flowers, bears, owls and hearts that I've been seeing all over the Internet.

If you need a video tutorial on making a holder, I suggest you pop over to see the one done by Sheila at She's a Sassy Lady.  I followed her directions and used the slice tool to cut out a 1.45 inch circle in all the ungrouped layers.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

The 'Love' shape comes from Home Accents, and the 'I heart you' from Create - a - Critter.  The tag is from Bits and Pieces.  And look, Circle Sisters, I finally found some Memory Thread to add to the seam binding bow.  (It is so long since this was in vogue over on the Circle Board that it's due for a comeback!  LOL!)

Don't forget to come back tomorrow to see my first ever DT post for She's a Sassy Lady.  So excited!   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Hello Kitty Valentine

Yesterday was my Card and Craft club meeting and the challenge theme was 'Love Letters."  Our supplies included some cute, cute paper from Doodlebug Designs, sheer ribbon, a bling heart and a pink paper clip.

I had several ideas but it wasn't until Master J. told me, mournfully, that his yellow balloon had popped, that the idea of Hello Kitty stuffing heart shaped balloons into a mailbox flashed into my mind.  (As for Master J. well, we drove right over to the grocery store and bought him a mylar balloon, and a car, and some milk to justify going!)

Here's my card.

Of course, the Hello Kitty carts do not have Hello Kitty standing by a mailbox with heart shaped balloons so this image is put together from three other cuts and some creative scissor work.


The sentiment inside comes from the 'Better Together' Imagine cart and I used the 'unflatten' button to separate the layers, then 'hid' the label layers so I could just print then cut the sentiment.  Love it!  (Now I just need to be able to change the colors on the image without obliterating the details.   It's on my wish list for future updates.)

The hardest design element was that pink paper clip and I ended up cutting out one of the envelopes from the background paper and clipping it to the inside.

I am linking my card with the Valentine's Day Challenge # 244 at the Fabulous Cricut Challenge Blog and the Craftin Desert Diva's Red, White and Pink Linky Party.  Pop over for some Valentine's Day inspiration.

And, of course, I had to leave my card in the store for display, so I recreated it last night for my Hello Kitty lovin' DGD, Miss G.  Shhhhh!   Thanks for visiting today!  : ) Christine

DIY Valentine Treat Boxes

Happy Groundhog Day!  It's raining quite steadily, so no-one is going to see a shadow today.  Yeah - an early Spring! 

Time to get the February treats done for the children at OHM and this month, I thought that I would make a heart shaped treat box.  This one comes from SVG Cuts and I sized it so that 4 would fit on a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock.   To speed up the process of putting the boxes together, I used narrow double sided tape rather than glue. 

The hard part for me was my decision to include a variety of stickers with the boxes and let the kids decorate their hearts for themselves,  Aggghhh!  Bling withdrawl!  

You can see that I could NOT leave them entirely plain, and added a punched border, and a conversation heart saying written by the Explore on a banner.

Now I need to run to Michael's for more clear bags. ( I don't think for one moment that that's all I'll get, though.  LOL!)    Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Sympathy Card

The new barn is almost completed!  DH is sorting and labeling 40+ years of 'stuff' and storing it in the cabinets we rescued from our kitchen remodel.  I was inspired to reorganize my craft supplies starting with my paper collection.  As my little sanctuary became messier and messier, I really doubted the wisdom of trying to reorganize and downsize.  However, now that it's done, I am SO happy with my room.  Yeah!

I was totally, totally, amazed at how much purple paper I have accumulated!  But I loved sorting it out and admiring all the shades and hues.  So, when I sat down to make a sympathy card for this week's BBTB2 challenge, I was very happy to dip into my purple stash.

 Most of the sympathy cards that I make, are mailed, so I try to keep them as flat as possible.  I like to add a mat, and embossing for texture and interest  I love these little flowers from the Sophie cart and the Explore cut them perfectly.  That's a quarter sitting besides the top layer of the flower.  Amazing!

The leaves are from Stretch Your Imagination, and the mat comes from Artbooking.  I chose the sentiment from the Phrases cart, but went back later into my DS file and replaced it with the "With Sympathy" sentiment from the Jasmine font cart when I saw it used on the cards by Maureen and Sharon.  So pretty.

For the inside, I used my new stamps from Robin, My PinkStamper.

I have to have a selection of Sympathy Cards in my stash since they are so hard for me to make.  If you are like me, I suggest you pop over to BBTB and scraplift a few of the DT cards.  It's on my ToDo list!   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Valentine Lollipop Holder

Sometimes the Laws of Physics just get in the way!  I had the idea to take Mary's (SVG Cuts) little house candy cane holder and turn it into a lollipop holder for the DGDs for Valentine's Day.  Since they love puppies, I decided to use the dogs from Paper Pups to decorate the house.

It went together very easily, and I had such fun decorating it with lace, and puffy stickers, and punched out hearts.  The problem occurred when I tried to load up the lollipops.   I hadn't thought about them being top-heavy and, of course, the minute I stuck them through the holes in the roof they fell out!  Hmmm!

Three days later, I managed to get them to kinda, sorta stick in there.  LOL!   I also have accumulated lots of assorted lollipops as I tried to find the brand that was the least top heavy.  DH, being the person who understands Physics in this family, has an idea for the next one.  Right!


Master J. is not here today, but Cocoa was very interested in the photography process.  Thanks for visiting with me today,   : )  Christine

More snowflakes!

When I bought my first Cricut in 2009, I noticed how I 'Cricut-ised' so many of my paper crafts and projects.  I made banners, posters, signs, thematic wall decor, flash cards and game pieces for my Kindergarten classroom to name just a few of my Cricut-ised projects.

Nowadays, with the Explore able to cut such a variety of materials, it is automatic for me to use my Cricut for even more diverse projects.  

Master J. was visiting on Friday, and I thought we would make bird feeders with paper tubes smeared with peanut butter and rolled in bird seed and placed in the bushes around the house.  But then my Cricut-ising brain kicked in and I thought that it would be MUCH nicer to have bird seed snowflakes hanging in the branches.  I cut the snowflakes from heavy card stock and reinforced the holes punched in the ends with eyelets.  I used snowflakes from Accent Essentials, Winter Lace and Classroom, December and January.

Master J. had such a lovely, sticky time spreading peanut butter on his snowflake and smooshing down the bird seed!   He was very proud of his efforts and wanted to take one home to show his Mama.

Here they are in the garden brightening up the currant bush.

The current BBTB2 challenge is to use a Cricut snowflake in a project.  Run over and take a look at the wonderful variety of snowflakes that the DT and the participants have used!  Thanks for visiting with me today.  Stay warm!   : ) Christine