Mother's Day and My Cricut; FCCB

Happy Monday and welcome to another Monday challenge at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog!

Challenge #325-Mother's Day
Make a project about Mother's Day.

This Weeks Sponsor

Create a project inspired by Mother's Day

To qualify for the prize, be sure to use at least 1 Cricut cut on your project and if it's not obvious, let us know what cartridge you used. If you use a Cricut Explore machine, at least one cut must be from the Cricut catalog of images.

If it isn't a card, you will get two entries into the drawing!

Here is my project-

I don't know why, but I had a hard time starting this year's Mother's Day card. I pulled out the Create-A-Critter II cartridge and started cutting out the Mother's Day bear. Oh my, she's so cute! I know, I know, that seems to be my fall back cartridge, but it has everything and is so stinkin' cute!

So, I cut the bear and the #1 mom sentiment...now what? I seriously was in a creative funk. I started pulling patterned papers, different color cardstock and eventually one thing led to another and I came up with this. And I LOVE it! I mean how cute is this polaroid?

I added some bling but otherwise kept it pretty simple.

I also created the "polaroid" using my cricut machine. In Design Space, I pulled up two squares and adjusted them into rectangles. I put the smaller rectangle in the larger one and sliced it out. I made about 10 of them just to have on hand. The base size of the larger rectangle is 3 3/4 x 5. I hope you love it as much as I do!

Now it's your turn... make a card or any project for Mother's Day and link it on the FCCB blog.

TGIF; Thankful Friday #40

I can't believe it's Friday already! Since I've been on vacation, days didn't really matter. I flew out of Tucson Wednesday morning and I was so happy to come home! I've never been away from my family for so long.

This week I'm thankful to my sister and brother-in-law. They made my week fabulous! We went everywhere and I didn't have to do much of anything. I still need to go through my photos but I took some amazing shots. We visited a couple of art shops and I purchased some handmade cards that I plan to frame and place in the Command Center. I love supporting local artists - isn't that what we're all about?

It was weird not creating anything for an entire week so I did spend a few moments in the craft room last night just to poke around. I do plan on spending more time in there this weekend.

Happy Friday!

Card Inspiration with Quick Quotes

I'm getting vintage with the Secret Garden collection. Gosh, this is another beautiful paper collection to work with! It's so pretty. Awhile ago, I purchased four sets of vintage ephemera that I love to look at but hardly ever use. The colors of this sets match the Secret Garden collection so perfectly that I just had to use them for these cards!

The first thing I did was cut the Secret Garden GN104 sheet into 3 3/4 x 5" panels. After cutting the panels, I inked each one a different color with Powder Puff Chalking Ink (Deep Sea, Vanilla Cream, Cactus and Lipstick).

Then I went through the ephemera packs and started pulling items and layering them until I was happy with the way they looked. Before adhering, I inked the ephemera pieces with the same color Powder Puff Chalk Ink that was used on the patterned paper panels.

I inked the butterfly with Vanilla Cream and Lipstick  Powder Puff Chalk Inks.

Don't you love those cork butterflies?!

Each card has at least five layers, a butterfly, enamel dots or pearls, and a stamped sentiment. By combining these products, I created an updated vintage look. I know, it sounds like an oxymoron, but I really think it's a thing!

Quick Quotes Products Used:
Secret Garden GN104 Paper
Powder Puff Chalk Inks: Deep Sea, Cactus, Vanilla Cream and Lipstick

Other Products Used:
Vintage Ephemera Packs by Jill Brown
Enamels Dots/Pearls by Queen and Company
Various Sentiment Stamps from my collection

You Are My Happy!

I'm still in Tucson, but I wanted to share a card that I made before I left. My friend Katie sent me a video of Jennifer McGuire (is that her name - I forget) sharing her inspiration for a wreath builder template using the MISTI. Katie also shared templates that she created herself. I printed them on regular copier paper and placed them down on the mat in my MISTI.

Super cool!

I don't have the link to Jennifer's YouTube video, but I'm sure you could search it for instructions. You can see the mistake I made with the leaf (dang it!), but it's still super pretty. I definitely need to make more.

And...since she's my happy, here a photo of me and my granddaughter as twinsies! Her words not mine. LOL

Flower Stamps:  CTMH
Sentiment: CTMH
Color Silks: FSJ (if you are interested in purchasing either splashes or color silks, they are on sale now on the Fun Stampers Journey website. 20% off! If you don't have a coach already, please enter my name before you submit your order)

TGIF; Thankful Friday #39

As I mentioned before, I am on vacation in Tucson with my sister, brother-in-law and my mom.

This week I'm thankful for accrued vacation time. I may have been thankful for this once before, but let me tell ya, being able to leave work and still get paid is a pretty awesome thing!

I'll have my own photos soon, but this is what I'm hoping to see lots of while I'm in Arizona.

Have a blessed weekend!Be sure to let me know what you are thankful for this Friday.

QQ and San Antonio Day One

Happy mid-week everyone! I'm here to share the process video I made using the new Secret Garden paper collection from Quick Quotes with photos from my trip to San Antonio.

This paper is so pretty with vibrant, colorful flowers and prints. I knew they were going to be perfect for my San Antonio trip photos. Even though I pulled out Deep Sea, Lipstick, Light Moss and Bermuda PowderPuff Chalk Inks to use with this collection, I ended up only using Deep Sea and Lipstick to ink the edges of all the papers and embellishments used for these layouts.

I didn't show this in the video, but I added this title onto the small pocket page layout.

In case you didn't understand my instructions on making your own fishtail banners, here's a recap:
Cut your paper the size you want your banner. On the side that will be the bottom (fishtail), measure or eyeball the center of the width of the paper, and then snip up until you reach the size you want for your fishtail. Then trim off the triangle portion from the bottom left corner up to the top of the snip and repeat on the other side from the bottom right corner up to the top of the snip. Hopefully this photo will help:

The nice thing about the shape of the PowderPuff Chalk Ink pads is that they are perfect for these tight areas that need inking.

Thanks for watching and be sure to watch out for the Secret Garden paper collection coming out soon.

Quick Quotes Products Used:
Secret Garden Paper Collection
PowderPuff Chalk Inks: Deep Sea, Lipstick

CWS Mid Month Inspiration

Hello there! It's already April 15th and time for a mid-month inspiration with Creative With Stamps.

My first post was with a large bubblegum machine image from our sponsor, Pattie's Creations. This card was made by reducing the size of the digi stamp and creating a customized background. I dropped a large splash of watercolor paint on each machine and then blotted it; one color at a time. I used a bright color cardbase since the "patterned paper" was pretty soft. I then embossed the sentiment in black. Still CAS but so different from the first card.

There's still time to play - create a card that fits the current challenge (CAS + Sentiment) and link it at the Creative With Stamps website.

Good luck!