These are the invitations I made for HJ’s Bridal Shower! It was fun to do them, although a lot of work. I made 25 of them total!

(Leara - thanks for the little pearl embellishment for the dresses … that box of bridal type goodies is coming in handy!!)  I used the Sweethearts cartridge to cut the dress out of white cardstock, then embossed the skirt part with the Victoria C/Bug embossing folder and my Big shot. The vellum skirt layer was also on the cartridge … and the skirts were embossed with the Swiss Dots folder.

Stampin’ Up’s Top Note die and pink Bazzill (textured) cardstock helped create the panel to attach the dress to. I thought a gate fold would be nicer than a regular folded card, and I used my SCOR PAL to do all the scoring for it. I have contacted them a couple of times for a banner to put on my blog, but they only have an image … nothing linked.

Before attaching the dress panel I embossed each side of the gate fold with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

Here is a group shot showing some of the invites … I hadn’t added the decorated text panel to these ones before taking the picture. That was done digitally, using pink swirls & black text, then a pink bridal flower was attached to the bottom right corner. The text panel was cut slightly smaller than the gray panel inside, so everything layered nicely.

This morning after all three dogs had been outside (on leashes) to do their morning business, I put them back in the cabin and went out with my plastic bag to pick up after them. All of a sudden Brandi starts barking like crazy through the glass door  and once I check to be sure she isn’t barking at something INSIDE, I realize she is barking at something outside. Behind me. !!    Big Coyote. Beautiful, but I only had that thought once I had turned around and he was heading away from me, ha ha.

Every once in a while, something like this happens to remind me WHY I keep them on leashes on the yard out here. Sometimes I think “oh, it will be OK … we’re only out for a minute”, or the neighbor will say something about how sad it is that they are on leashes all the time out here and we never let them just run.  This morning could have turned out very differently if I had had even one of the dogs outside without a leash.

Spending as much time with the dogs as I do, I am pretty good at interpreting their different barks and reacting accordingly.  This was definitely Brandi’s protective, territorial barking. Her urgency set off the other two, but they were just running around in circles in the rec-room, having NO idea why they were barking. But they knew they should be. Man, what a crew.

Thanks for stopping by today - hope your day includes a FUN adventure!

I was SO inspired by Tim Holtz’ “12 Tags of Christmas” that I wanted to play along. Of course I stumbled onto his tags mid-way though, so there wasn’t time (or energy!!) to do them in December. Instead, I decided to make one each month of the year, and send them to Sue for our ‘first of the month’ exchange.

This is is January’s tag:

The tags are large - about 6″ tall! I used a bit of everything on this … my Cricut, Big Shot, Cuttlebug folders, stamping, and embellishing. It was a blast to make.  I just finished the one for March, so will take photos of it to share as well. February’s tag will be posted later next month.  (Can you believe March starts in just a few days??)

For those family members and friends reading this — thank you for making my birthday week such a great one.

Thanks for stopping by today!

I love the images of the SouthWest … and have had this stamp set from Stampin’ Up for a few years …

The Hopi Bear was copper embossed, and the crinkled copper panel is actually metallic tissue paper.

Have a wonderful Friday - thanks for stopping by today!

So this is my third and final attempt at the layout and I am just not a fan. Next time I get to play, I will flip through the magazine (Cards, January 2009) and see how I feel about the next card layout! Maybe it’s the soft colours on this one that don’t appeal to me?

I used bits and pieces from my scrap pile, and the flourish is Cricut-cut. I had cut it awhile ago (don’t know which cartridge though) so sponged some blue and green dye ink on it to add SOMETHING to the card. The original layout didn’t have anything across the bottom. The words are a Stampin’ Up stamp, and I love the font they used for it.

I can now give my dogs injections. THOSE are words I sure didn’t think would ever come out of my mouth. Anne (Vet Tech) showed me how yesterday, and I practiced with Saline solution. I will be administering Cartrophen to the two older dogs.  :-}   I’ve never even HELD a syringe with needle before! I wasn’t nervous at all until she came in and was explaining the procedure. When it came time to actually DO it, I all of a sudden started to panic. However, it went well - having calm dogs is a plus - and I will give them their first ones tonight. I want to wait until someone is home with me — even if it’s just for moral support!

It’s my birthday week, and I get a discount at our local craft store. Brandi has to go see Dr. Brian at the Care Center for a check-up this afternoon, so I am going to swing by and see what’s new and worth buying. 

Hope you all have a wonderful day - thanks for stopping by.

Here is another card made with the same layout as yesterday. The card is in a larger format though - it’s a 7×5″ rather than an A2 (4.25 x 5.5″). Somehow I misplaced the note that had all the details on this card, so I am going to ‘wing’ it with the credits…

I do know that I used my FREE scalloped border panel, as it was one of the first ones I cut out and I was surprised when it cut larger than the A-2 size I had designed the .svg at.  (You can find the files HERE). The phrase should be on the Wild Card cartridge, and the gold swirl is from the “Swirlies” Svg collection at SvgCuts.com. I had used half the cut on a different card, and had this little bit left over.

As for the paper flower? I’m sure I must have cut it with SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot) but I cannot ind the file. I’m not impressed, as I would like to make more of them. If it turns up, or I find out that the flower was on a cartridge, I will edit the post to let you know. I do know I cut it at 2″, 1-3/4″, 1-1/2″ and 1″, then rolled each of the petals around a paint brush handle before attaching them together with a gold brad.  Here is a detail shot…

Patterned paper is from (who else?) K&CO!  Thanks for stopping by today - have a good one.

This is a card I made, inspired by a layout in the January 2009 Cards magazine. I did a couple of cards with this layout, trying to see if I liked it a lot or just a little. I think it falls into the ‘just a little’ category, so likely won’t be tagging this one as a favourite sketch.

I am also doing good at using up some of the older papers I have in my stash. No point in hanging onto them … they are already ‘out of style’ and they aren’t going to get any newer. I sized a scalloped border to fit across an A-2 card, in Cricut Design Studio, then copied and pasted it several times.

I was able to cut a whole sheet of scalloped borders, and now I am using them on more cards than if I had to cut them individually. That is the only Cricut-cut on this card though - the pretty butterflies are from a Martha Stewart punch. The pearls are self-adhesive, and from Michaels … the word stamp is by Stampin’ Up. Oh, and the green polka dotted strip? It is actually the cardboard backing from a package of stickers … it was just too sweet to toss into recycling. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

**EDITED to add that the scallop border is on the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, which shipped with my Cricut. I sized it to fit across an A-2 card (5.5″), then copied it and pasted it to fill up the virtual mat in Design Studio.

I can’t remember for sure the exact challenge … I did this when the challenge came out, but didn’t post it right away as I was busy with Valentines. I believe it was to use a piece of DP (Decorative Paper) on your Clean And Simple card.

This was a strip of scrap paper that I hadn’t put into the recycle bin yet … so I used the colours from it to complete the card. The card base itself is really sturdy - it’s the Gina K 110# cardstock which is wonderful to work with. The swirls were stamped on with a custom made blue ink pad and I like the effect!

Thanks for stopping by today.

This is the card I made for the (Clean and Simple) CAS53 challenge at Splitcoast. We were supposed to take our inspiration from some candy photos at a specific site, but I used ‘artistic license’ with the challenge. I wanted to use this stamp and softer colours than the bright candy labels.

The stamps are all from Club Scrap, and the scalloped card base was Cricut-cut. I used Cricut Design Studio to weld two scalloped rectangles (Storybook cartridge) together to form an ‘almost’ A-2 sized folded card.

The “BOW EASY” helped with the brown bow. 

Let me say that I was NOT impressed this morning to wake up and find our furnace wasn’t working again. Especially after an almost $700 repair bill on Friday! Our company was a little chilly, but thankfully we have a gas fireplace in the great room and we enjoyed our morning coffee by the fireplace while it tried to warm up the rest of the main level. The repair guys came by and replaced the transformer, so we should be good to go now. So for the 2nd time this weekend, I’m saying “aaaaaah, heat”.

They have all headed off to hike to Grassi Lake and am going to do a few chores then relax until they return. Hopefully with some wonderful pictures!

Enjoy your day - thanks for stopping by.

This dog card was just too darned cute not to recycle it. Our DD received it on her September birthday, and was able to part with it in the New Year. I knew immediately who I would give it to!

There are just so many cute details on this card … and the bobbly head (attached with a spring) is fun fun fun.

I’m late posting today, as we have company from Ontario. We had a busy morning visiting, then I took Linda into town to do some shopping. She wanted to bring something back for the lady looking after their dog, and also pick something out for their kids. Hey - I’m always up for tootling around the shops in town!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Remember I joined the 2010 Christmas Card challenge at Split Coast, where you create 10 Christmas cards a month. These are my February cards:

I used my Cricut to cut the deer from the Christmas Cheer cartridge, and I’m thinking the slotted circles must have been on the same cartridge. (If you really want to know about those, leave me a comment and I will look them up and add an edit. ) You could also cut the (teeny tiny) hooves and antlers separately, but I decided to use markers instead. I coloured his antlers with a metallic gold marker, and his hooves with brown and collar with red Crayola markers. I’m equal opportunity … anything goes in my studio!!

The Cricut cut lines for the faces, but they didn’t really show up after chalking the edges … so I just went along the lines with a black fine point pen. The shadow was cut out of green. I love the shadow feature on the Cricut! The bottom of the green panel was run through my Big Shot with the D’Vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder and then it was all assembled.

Cool!  20 Christmas cards all done for Christmas 2010!!

We are having company this weekend, visitors from Ontario whom we haven’t seen in many years. It’s going to be fun fun fun!  Hope you have a great weekend too … thanks for stopping by today.