Valentine’s Day Blog Hop

Happy Saturday morning and welcome to our 2014 Valentine’s Day Blog Hop! You should have reached here from D’s blog at Designs By Dragonfly.  If you are just joining me here, please go to  RockinRenee's blog to start at the beginning so you won’t miss any of the fun.  There are so many great projects and I don't want you to miss a single one!  Today we are highlighting Valentine's Day inspired projects.  I made a “Card in a Box” for Valentine’s Day. I first saw these on Split Coast Stampers site and I couldn’t wait to try it myself.

These are so much fun to make and very easy also. You can change it up to make one for any occasion. A tutorial for making these can be found at Tina Wetter’s blog, SereneStamper.com (since I followed her tutorial, I want to give her credit for this!). It only takes one sheet of cardstock to make the foundation of the ‘box’ and then you can decorate it however you’d like. There are two small pieces of cardstock inside of the box that you use to layer your embellishments.

I used several different images from different cartridges to create my embellishments.

The Cupid is from Artiste, the hearts are from Art Philosophy and Lyrical Letters, the rolled flowers are also from Art Philosophy, and the ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ sentiment (below on the envelope) is cut from Artiste.

In the photo above, I stamped some Tim Holtz stamps on vellum using VersaMark ink and white embossing powder then punched a couple of  butterflies with a Stampin’ Up punch. Then I dressed them up with some pearls. The Valentine tickets are also stamps by Tim Holtz. I used patterned paper by Echo Park.

 

The back panel of the box is left upright so that you can add another cardstock layer to put your greeting and sentiment on. I haven’t put that part on yet since I made this Valentine for my grandson to give to his babysitter and I want him to ‘write’ his name (I guess scribble something would be more accurate since he just turned one, lol)  or put his handprint on it. Whatever he does, I figured it would be better to adhere that part on AFTER he finishes with it!

I used my handy dandy Envelope Punch Board (I LOVE this!) to make an envelope that not only matches my card but it is also the perfect size! Here is the Valentine sentiment that I cut from the Artiste cart. It cut out beautifully at only 2.50”!

All you need to do is fold your box flat to put it in your envelope! I think this is such a neat idea and something different. I loved this card in a box idea so much that I couldn’t stop making them…

as you can see! I haven’t put the embellishments on these yet so maybe you can see the pieces of cardstock inside that you use to adhere your embellishments to. (Sorry I didn’t get a better photo of that).

Well, I hoped that you enjoyed my Valentine’s Day project and are inspired to try a Card in a Box yourself! If you have any questions please leave me a comment below (I love to receive some “blog love”!). I can’t wait for my little Charlie to give this to his babysitter!'

Sorry, I just couldn’t help myself! LOL!

Thank you for joining me today.  Your next stop on the hop is with *Violette* at Whimsical-Treasures.
And here is the entire blog list just in case you get lost on your way:
1. RockinRenee - I came, I saw, I created.
2. HappyScrapper64 - Random Thoughts of a Scrapbooker
3. gonescrappin - Col's Creative Corner
4. Hrvatica  - Croatian Crafter
5. Scootingranny - Scootingranny's World
6. MamaC - Carolyn's Creative Corner
7. Greenie8705 - Gina Beana's Crafts
8. MariaJ - Stamp, Cut, Create!
9. Di&Co - Creating Is Like Breathing
10. Dragonfly50 - Designs by Dragonfly
11. TiffysMom - Angie's Paper Passion <<---YOU ARE HERE! 12. *Violette* - Whimsical Treasures <<---GO HERE NEXT!
13. cricutaddicted - ScrappingForMoreFun
14. LoriSjogren - The Singing Shell
15. scrapalette - Around the Block with Scrapalette

I am so happy to be crafting again! Thanks for sticking with me!

Until next time, Happy Crafting,

Soar Layout–FCCB Challenge #153–Spring is in the Air!

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a happy St. Patty’s Day! Today on the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog our theme was ‘Spring is in the Air’ and the challenge was to create something with a kite or a balloon. So I decided to create a project with a hot air balloon! I liked the idea of soaring and dreaming as high as you can go and made a layout for my new grandson’s photo.

The hot air balloon is from the Everyday Pop-Up Cards cartridge and I cut all the layers out at 6.5”. I think there are 5 layers to this balloon but it was very easy to put together. The clouds are from Art Philosophy and were cut out at 1.5” and 2”. I love the background paper because it reminds me of wind blowing the balloon through the sky.

I ran some of the images through the Cuttlebug to give them some texture. I used the Polka Dots embossing folder for the top layer of the balloon, the Swiss Dots folder for the basket of the balloon, and D’vine Swirls for the clouds. I inked all of the edges and then inked very lightly over the embossing with a sponge to make it stand out a little.

A closer look at the clouds.

As you know, I love dimension so I HAD to use my pop dots to put the balloon layers together and pop up the clouds!

I used the Art Philosophy cart by CTMH to cut out the word “SOAR”. This font doesn’t have a shadow or second layer but I really wanted those little holes in each letter to stand out. So with the Cricut Craft Room, I created a bottom layer for my title. This is just one of the reasons why I love using CCR so much – you can do so many things with your images! First, I placed my title on the virtual mat, sized it, and then tilted it a bit. Then I made a copy of it. On the original title I simply highlighted each letter, one at a time, and hit the “Hide Contour” button that comes up when an image is highlighted. Just move your mouse over your image until the part that you want hidden, or gone, is red in color and click it. Hit “EXIT” and that part of your image has magically disappeared! I hid all of the little circles in each letter so when I cut out my title and layered it together, the circles in the top layer popped a little more with the solid white cardstock underneath.

I don’t know if you can see this next part very well but on each side of the balloon I put a dot of a liquid magic transparent pearl pen from Viva Décor. I’m really trying to use stuff in my stash that I’ve bought, put away, and then quickly forgot about! (Don’t even try to pretend that you don’t what I’m talking about!!! Go take a look in your stash and I’ll bet there’s something in there that you forgot about too! LOL!)

Then I found this poem on the internet about soaring and dreaming and it fit my layout so well that I had to include it. (The author is unknown.)

Well now it’s your turn! Please play along with us at FCCB and create your own project with either a kite or a balloon and link it at FCCB. Don’t forget that your project needs to have a least one Cricut cut. Come visit us and check out the other Design Team members wonderful projects.

Thanks for visiting and playing along with this weeks challenge. These challenges really are a lot of fun and help you get some projects done and also help you to use images and carts that you may not have used yet! I know it’s helped me – this was the first time I’ve used any image from my Everyday Pop-Up Cards cart and I’ve had it for a while now!

Until next time, Happy Crafting,

Paper Bag Album

I have always wanted to make a Kathy Orta album. So when I joined the annual Cricut Circle Secret Santa Swap and one of the items that we had to give our secret sister had to be hand made, I knew that this was the perfect opportunity. Kathy is owner of the Paper Phenomenon blog. I made her Ultimate Paper Bag album and this is how mine turned out!

There is only one detail that I used my Cricut for – the paper flowers on the front cover. I used Close To My Heart’s Art Philosophy cartridge. I am so addicted to making these rolled flowers.

The little frame is from Michaels. I took off the back easel and adhered it to the album on just the bottom and sides so that my secret sister could put a photo of her choosing in it by just sliding it in through the top. The gem swirl is from Want2Scrap, the cardstock is from The Paper Studio, and the patterned paper is from a paper stack called Sweet Nectar by K and Company. 

The leaves are by Prima - (remember the 6 little bottles that came together in the cute little crate from years ago? Yeah, I still have them all and this was the first time that I've ever used the bottle of leaves! See, there is a good side of hoarding scrap supplies! lol) 

The only other items used were chipboard for the front and back covers, Distressing Ink in worn lipstick by Tim Holtz, and the binding. 

Can you guess what the binding is?

Duck Tape!!! Even though it’s everywhere now, this is my first time using it. I’m always a little late jumping on that band wagon but I eventually get on!

It’s hard to believe that this really is made from paper bags! There are just two basic page designs and many, many pockets for many, many tags! I wanted the album theme to be rather neutral so that my secret sister could use it in any way that she wanted to. I just made sure that it had her favorite colors (pink, green and blue) and coordinated with her favorite season (Spring).  One of the page styles has two smaller flaps on either side with large tags inserted into them and both page styles flip up to reveal even more space. Below are more photos that I can show since my secret sister has now received her package and knows what she got and from who (I hope you like all of your goodies, CricutAddicted!).

Thanks for looking! I’ll post what I received from my own secret Sister soon!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!