More Stamped Cards to Share and The Winner from My Fabulous and 50th Birthday Blog Hop!

First I wanted you to know that I will start sharing my Design Studio and Gypsy files soon! I only have a few now but I am designing more and more and I’d be delighted to share them with you. I’ll keep you updated!

I wanted to share a few more of my stamped cards with you. The first two were stamped with Stampin’ Ups Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set. I think that the sentiment on the left card was made with a hostess stamp set. I love these stamps and use them a lot!

 

In the next set of cards, the one on the left is very special to me – this is the very first card that I made with SU stamps and ink pads! When I saw this stamp set and the background stamp I was hooked – bought both sets on the spot! did you notice that the flower stem is upside down? You didn’t? Then I shoulda kept my mouth shut! lol It wasn’t long afterwards that I became a Demo for SU. The background stamp is En Français and I can’t even remember the name of the other set and since I am still re-doing my scrapbook room – yes, STILL -, most of my stamps are boxed up right now.  The card on the right was one of my demo cards using the Pocket Silhouettes stamp set and the Upsy Daisy set for the sentiment.

 

On the next card (left), I stamped the  flowers from the Petal Pizzazz set, punched them out and adhered them with foam dots. The sentiment is from the Sincere Salutations set – a great set! The card on the right was stamped with Bird on a Branch set.

 

The first card was done for a card swap and there are no SU sets used on it. I used an embossing folder on the background and a watercolor technique on the stamped image. I just love the next card. It was created with only punches! I used circles, ovals, a flower, and a heart to create this Easter Bunny!

 

The card on the right was made using Bird on a Branch again and Birds and Branches strip die cut from Sizzix. One of my all-time favorite stamp sets is the one that I used to create the first card – Baroque Motifs! The technique used on this is a faux 3-D shadow technique. You need the same color of cardstock and ink color (that’s one of the things that I like about SU – everything matches!), a white pigment ink pad and a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig! Stamp the image in the white pigment ink and let it dry. Then using the SAMJ tool, re-stamp the same image again with a dye ink in the same color as the cardstock , just a slight bit off center from the first one. (see the next photo for a close up) It looks very dimensional but without the bulk – great for mailing.

 

The next card (left) was stamped with the Bloomin’ Beautiful stamp set. I stamped the image on watercolor paper with a VersaMark stamping pad, sprinkled it with gold embossing powder, then heat embossed it. Then using my ink pads and an aqua painter (a plastic paint brush filled with water), I water colored the image in. I used the Razzle Dazzle set and a scalloped die cut to make the next card.

 

Ok, last set! I promise! First card – I stamped the image  - Inspired by Nature – with a VersaMark ink pad and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. Second card – used my favorite stamp set again, Baroque Motifs, and the Baroque Border using the Stampin’ Around Wheel. Those two strips on the top left of the card were made with the Word Window punch – a very versatile punch!

Thanks for taking the time to look at my work. I hope that you enjoyed the cards and get some ideas from them!

Now for the winner of my Fabulous & 50 blog candy!!!

 

And the winner of a new Nifty Fifties Cricut cartridge is………..

(drum roll please!)

 

Dakota Bear!

Dakota Bear said...

Happy Birthday!
The box is beautiful. Thank you for the great tutorial. I'm looking forward to seeing how you did the glass.

Dakota Bear, please email your name and address to me so that I can get your cartridge in the mail! Thanks to everyone for the warm and wonderful birthday comments! I appreciate each and every one of them! Until next time, Happy Crafting,

Ummm, Cake Balls!

I just had to share this with you. I am NOT the cooking, baking, let’s hang around the kitchen type. I wish that I was – it looks so homey on those movies and TV shows that I watch. Oh well! So when I made these cake balls,  everyone was surprised! And even  more surprised that they were really good!

Even though this is not Cricut related, I did find this when I was reading different blogs about Cricut and paper crafting! who knew that Cricut would take me back to the kitchen – I thought I was finished with that Cricut Cake machine for good! I wish that I could thank the person that I got this idea from but I’ve searched and can’t find it. So if you know who posted the recipe please comment and let me know! Thanks.

Just looking at the pictures is making me drool – I can’t believe that I said that in front of all of these people! They are so easy to make, too.

Just bake up a regular red velvet  box cake. Follow the directions for the 9x11 sheet cake. After baking, let it cool completely. After it cools, start to crumble it up (you might have to use your hands for this part) and add a 16oz can of Cream Cheese frosting – your hands will be a mess after this but just think of the fun you’ll have licking your fingers when you’re finished! The frosting will help the cake stay together. Now just shape the cake into small balls either with your hands – more licking! – or with a small scoop or spoon. Lay the balls out onto foil (I just covered my cookie sheets with foil). It makes quite a few balls - or else I was rolling my balls too much and made them too small! Once you have them all rolled out – mine looked like I had two cookie sheets of meat balls! – place the sheet in the fridge for several hours. Now the fun part! I purchased some candy sticks at Michaels but you don’t have to use them. I melted some chocolate almond bark in the microwave -  I added about a tablespoon to Crisco to it first. I put the sticks into the cake balls and when the chocolate was ready I dipped the cake into the chocolate (I double-dipped!) and then put them on wax paper to let the chocolate cool and harden. I went an extra step and melted some white chocolate almond bark and drizzled some over the top of the cake balls.

Great snack and nice for a get-together! Maybe at the next crop!

Now don’t go away, tomorrow I’ll be giving you the tutorial on the Glass Block that I made for my Fabulous & 50 Birthday Blog Hop last Saturday!

And I’ll be announcing the winner of the Nifty Fifties Cricut cartridge soon! So until next time, Happy Crafting,

My Fabulous & 50 Birthday Blog Hop

“Happy Birthday To Me!” Good morning and welcome to My Fabulous & 50 Birthday Blog Hop! I am celebrating my 50th birthday (which is actually TODAY!) with 11 of my good friends who have graciously agreed  to design projects for the blog hop. These are a great group of talented ladies and I want to thank them so much for helping me on this special day! Please leave them some blog love (comments) after looking at their projects – don’t we all love to be loved? After my blog, just visit the next person on the list below (Dawn) and just keep hopping! Also, at the end of my post I have some extra special blog candy to give away!

I actually made 3 projects for today’s blog hop. The first is a little box that you could make to put a special birthday gift in.

I created this file on Cricut Design Studio but then made it into a Gypsy file so I could cut it with just my Expression and my Gypsy. I used George and Basic Shapes for the box and the flower, Storybook for the label shape on top of the box, and Paper Lace for the sentiment. The paper is from K&Company.

The box is made up of rectangles and the octagon shape that is just stretched out.

I cut three label shapes – 2 from cardstock and 1 from patterned paper.

After scoring and folding the box, I attached ribbon on three sides – top, back, and bottom.

I cut about an inch from one side of both of the cardstock labels and cut the patterned paper label in half. I attached the cardstock pieces to the top and bottom of the box and the paper piece to the top. Then I used the flower from George and cut it out eight times –at 1’, 1.25”, 1.50”, 1.75”, 2”, 2.25”, 2.50”, and 2.75”. I used the Hide Contour to hide the center circle.

 

I sprayed the white cardstock flowers with Glimmer Mist in Tattered Rose then curled the petals with the end of a paint brush.

The petals were layered with a pop dot between each layer.

I cut the Happy Birthday sentiment and its shadow from the Paper Lace cartridge at 1.50”. I added bling to the flower and the sentiment. And here is the final Box!

But I just couldn’t stop there! I also made a little Birthday Origami Mini Album and a Glass Block to go with it. The design on the glass block was cut from pink vinyl.

I’ll be back later next week to give more details about the mini album and the glass block. Now for the Blog Candy Giveaway! I decided to give something that was appropriate for todays celebration -

That’s right – it’s a Nifty Fifties Cricut Cartridge!

Please just leave a comment and follow my blog to have a chance to win! Thanks so much for sharing a little of my 50th birthday with me!

Now here’s the list to follow the rest of the blog hop! Enjoy!

Angie - http://angiespaperpassion.blogspot.com/ <---Me!
Dawn - http://scrappyrn-scrappyrn.blogspot.com/ 
Janice - http://www.cricutconfessions.com/
Normea - http://mmdezigns.blogspot.com/
Nancy - http://lanancyworkshop.blogspot.com/
Michelle - http://paperaffair.blogspot.com/
Barb - http://craftinginparadise.blogspot.com/
Debbie - http://www.debseclecticthoughts.blogspot.com/
Marcia - http://scrappin-times.blogspot.com/
Veronica - http://www.iteachscraps.blogspot.com/
TinaGale - http://tiggersscrapplace.blogspot.com/
Monique - http://mixonthememories.blogspot.com/

Remember, if you ever get lost on your way, just come back here to get back on track! Thanks again for hopping with us!

Until next time, Happy Crafting,

A Peak at my Winner’s Blog Candy!

I hope she won’t be disappointed, but I wanted to share what the winner from my giveaway last week is getting:
She is the new owner of a Cricut green water bottle with our beloved bug and here name on it! I had seen these on another blog and I just had to create some of my own. Here is the other part of her goodie package:

Enjoy Brenda! I am saving up for more blog candy that I'll give away once I reach 100 followers! Spread the word and share my site with your friends!

I also want to let everyone know what my next new cartridge will be – hopefully soon! Provo Craft will be releasing 2 new cartridges next month. One is Birthday Bash – which I’m sure I’ll want also once I see all the neat projects that other people will create with it, LOL – but the one that I am most excited about is Nifty Fifties!

 

Aren’t these the coolest images? They can be used for so many different kinds of cards and scrapbook layouts. Just change the colors and you change the feel of the image. I am already planning pages, cards, and projects in my head. So stay tuned – I’ll be posting as soon as this cartridge is in my hot, little hands!

While you’re here visiting, please grab my button located in the right-hand column and paste it into your blog.  Thanks for supporting me and my blog! I really appreciate you all and your wonderful comments.

Tomorrow I will have another Halloween project to share. That should be projects! There will be more than one! And there’s Disney on Thursday. Keep watching and, as always, Happy Crafting,