Cupcake Birthday Card

My niece turns one tomorrow, but we celebrated on Sunday.  I made this card for her using some scraps from a recently completed layout (I will be sharing it next week).

I was inspired by this week's challenge at Frosted Designs- use punches.  The smallest stars were punched from Glossy Cardstock that I had used to experiment on.  I also used my scalloped circle punch to make the top of the cupcake.  I simply punched it off the edge of the paper so I would have a flat edge.  I cut the bottom of the cupcake freehand and then used my Score Pal to make the lines.  This week's sketch from Sketch Saturday was my design inspiration: 

Snowflake Birthday Card

I got another card done this afternoon. I'm trying to be a little ahead of the game with birthday cards since I don't know when this baby is going to decide to make his/her entrance into the world. :)

I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch and decided to try a circular card.  I saw this circle card cut on my "Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2" cartridge when I first got it and I have been itching to try it.

I also worked the 7th day of Christmas challenge from Frosted Designs in.  The challenge was to include 7 snowflakes on a project.  I have two that I cut out using my Cricut and the same cartridge I used for my card, 4 that are dry embossed into the white and one more stamped on the inside of the card.  I also had fun with some more glitter- I am LOVING this color!  

January 2013 calendar page

Happy New Year's Eve!  Can you believe it is the end of another year?!  Today I am sharing my January 2013 Project 12/calendar page.  This is the beginning of my second year scrapping in this format. I really enjoyed making these recap pages over the past year, so I look forward to continuing.

I based my layout of Sketch #245 from Nuts About Sketches.  I also plan to continue using Shawn's sketches in the year ahead because her two pagers usually include space for lots of photos which is perfect for my pages!

I also worked a couple of challenges into this layout.  The first is the 12th day of Christmas challenge at Frosted Designs which was to use at least 12 brads.  I ended up using 19!  I used sets of them in the place of the stitching in the sketch.  I liked the whimsical touch it gave.  

I also did the 12/19 scrap(word) challenge at My Scraps and More.  The challenge was to use the word "Everyday" on a layout.  I ended up stamping it as part of an accent in the bottom right as part of the phrase "cherish everyday".  

I received a huge set of American Crafts glitter from my sister-in-law for Christmas, and I had a blast playing with that on this layout.  After I had cut my title with the Cricut, I put glue in strategic places and sprinkled on some white tinsel glitter to look like snow.  I also covered the smaller circle snowflake accent on the right page with the white tinsel glitter.

Materials:

Cardstock- American Crafts, Bazzill

Patterned Paper- Recollections

Brads- Basic Grey, Making Memories, Deja Views

Pens- Sakura, Marvy, Tsukineko

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- Stretch Your Imagination

Software- Sure Cuts A Lot

Font- Backhand Brush

Journal Spots- Recollections, Bo Bunny

Stickers- Cosmo Cricket, EK Success

Glitter- American Crafts

Punch- marvy

Stamps- Fiskars

Ink- ColorBox

Mist- Ranger

Birthday Card

I've been busy scrapping today. I completed a layout and a card, both for the 12 days of Christmas challenges at Frosted Designs. I am sharing the card now and will share the layout tomorrow.

 For this card, I did the 9th day of Christmas challenge which was to use 9 pearls or gems. The gems are from the Michael's "bling on a roll". The gems come clear, but I colored mine with some purple alcohol ink to make them match my card.

I also did the 12/23 card challenge at My Scraps and More, which was to use at least 3 triangles on a card.  I decided to make a banner with my triangles.  The paper I used was white with glitter embossed snowflakes.  I inked the paper with purple and pink Distress Ink to make the snowflake stand out.

To be honest, I am not totally thrilled with how this one turned out, but it was fun to play.  :)

A Couple of Calendar pages

I have two calendar pages to share today, I will be revealing the rest tomorrow! I am posting these two today because I did them for a couple of the 12 days of Christmas challenges at Frosted Designs.

The first day of Christmas challenge was to use a bird.  I used a scrolly Glimmer Glass bird on my November calendar page.

The 4th day of Christmas challenge was to use 4 different patterned papers.  Three are pretty easy to see, the presents in the bottom left were cut from the 4 sheet.  I will be adding photos to this layout later.  I wanted to include photos from Christmas, and since this is a Christmas gift, this is the best option I have found.  

20 Weeks

This is the first layout I've done (other than calendar pages) in a long time!  I had so much fun playing on this one.  I used some of the images from my 20 week ultrasound, which was 3 1/2 months ago!

I started with sketch #95 from Sketches in Thyme. I worked in the stitched circles from the 12/21/12 scrap(find) challenge at My Scraps and More. Finally, I also was able to work in the 3rd day of Christmas challenge from Frosted Designs: use three inks, mists, or paints.

As you can see, I stuck pretty close to the sketch, except that I used rectangular photos instead of square ones. It was pretty easy to incorporate the scrap(find) challenge since there was a large circle element in the sketch.

The large circle element also allowed me to play with my new Inkadinkadoo Stamping Gear. I used the circles stamp included in the kit and first stamped it in pink, then flipped the paddle and stamped it in black. I am excited to play with this more! The third ink that I used (for the Frosted Designs challenge) was Weathered Wood Distress Ink around the edges of my papers.

For my title letters, I had these chipboard letters that punched out of chipboard squares.  I didn't have an 's' or two 'e's', but I had the squares that they punched out of.  I cut around the letters to leave a border, glued those frames to patterned paper and then cut them out.  I filled in the letters with Glossy Accents and then pressed beads into them.  I know I saw this idea some time ago in a magazine, so I cannot take credit for it, but this is the first chance I've had to use it, and I am happy with the results!

Materials:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned Paper- October Afternoon and Echo Park

Chipboard- Lil Davis Designs

Ink- Ranger, Colorbox, American Crafts

Stamp- EK Success

Rub Ons- American Crafts

Sticker- Hambly

Vellum- K and Company

Beads- Me and My Big Ideas

Journaling card- October Afternoon

Pen- Zig, Provo Craft

Twine- Pink Paislee

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- All Mixed Up

Glitter Glue, Liquid Pearls, Glossy Accents- Ranger

Man Cards

Today I have two masculine cards that I made recently to share. I have two brothers-in-law who celebrate their birthdays this time of year.

This first card I made using scraps from my November calendar pages (which I will be sharing very soon, I have one more to give!)  I did this one for two challenges: the 12/9/12 card challenge at My Scraps and More (use chipboard) and the 2nd day of Christmas challenge at Frosted Designs (use two stamps).  The brown piece is chipboard that I colored with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I let that dry overnight and then I stamped and heat embossed the fox.  The sentiment is also stamped and heat embossed.

The second card used the current sketch at Unscripted Sketches.  I also did it for the 5th day of Christmas challenge at Frosted Designs which was to use 5 gold/yellow items.  I used yellow patterned paper, yellow ink for the leaf, and yellow embossing powder on the three words of the sentiment.  The leaf was stamped with Resist Ink on Glossy Cardstock.  I dried it with a heat gun and then used a brayer and Wild Honey Distress ink over it.  I then fussy cut the leaf.  For the background of my card, I used the Inkadinkadoo Stamping Gear that I received as a Christmas gift.  I got to try this out at Scrapfest and really enjoyed the effect so it went on my Christmas list!

Nuts About Sketches #222

It's Monday again so that means another Nuts About Sketches sketch. I again really enjoyed working with this sketch, it made my layout come together so easily.

 I stuck really close to the sketch because I really liked it just the way it was.  I did split the larger photo into two so I could get another shot on the page.  I used my Cricut to cut out the diamonds which was so fast!  The chipboard elements ( and most of the patterned paper I used) came from a Close to My Heart project pack I picked up a my church's garage sale last month.  The chipboard starts out cream and has the resist images on it.  I inked up the pieces first with light blue ink, then with green.  I didn't like how the blue looked, so I pulled out some light blue Glimmer Mist and a paint brush and painted that over the center of the pieces.

The current challenge at Frosted Designs is to use stamps. After I had the patterned paper laid out, I thought the cream cardstock was a little stark so I decided to pull out some Fancy Pants corner stamps.  I first put light blue ink on the stamp and then went around the edges with the green for a multi-colored effect.  For the journaling block and caption under the center photo I used some journaling stamps on vellum to make them blend in more with the background.

Materials

Cardstock- Close to My Heart

Patterned Paper- Close to My Heart, Basic Grey, Crate Paper

Stamps- Fiskars, Fancy Pants Designs

Ink- Tsukineko, Tattered Angels

Chipboard- Close to My Heart

Stickers- Fiskars, Creative Imaginations, Basic Grey

Rub-ons- unknown

Brads- Close to My Heart

Vellum- The Paper Company

Pen- Sharpie

Cartridge- Cindy Loo, Cricut Classic Font

Frosted Designs- Happy Birthday

As those of you who have been following me for a while may know, there are a lot of birthdays and anniversaries in our family during the months of June and July. This weekend begins that rush. My sister's birthday is Saturday and I made this card today using the current card sketch at Frosted Designs.  

 

For the background, I used a mask and some spray ink to make a subtle pattern down the center.  I pulled out some stamps and embossing powder for the flower and sentiment.  I used some decorative tape (AKA washi tape) across the bottom.  When washi tape first came out as a new trend, I didn't get it, but as I use it more, I totally get it.  It is quick and easy to use, just stick it down and you are done. I also like that the stuff I have is a little transparent, letting any background patterns show through.

Materials:

Patterned Paper: The Robin's Nest, Die Cuts With a View

Spray Ink- Tattered Angels and Studio Calico

Stamps- Stampin' Up

Ink- Tsukeniko

Embossing Powder- JoAnn Crafts

Button- My Minds Eye

Tape- Target

Minnesota's Largest Candy Store

I did this layout for several challenges. The first was challenge #6 at My Scraps and More as part of their "Mother May I Crop" which was to use black, white and yellow. The second is this week's Fabulous Friday Challenge at Frosted Designs which was to do lacing on a project. The last was this month's challenge at Scrap Your Crap: use chipboard.

I don't usually do color challenges because I don't like to be limited in my color choices, but this one worked out well. I think I needed to be limited because the photos are pretty busy and colorful. Having a set color scheme definitely limited my embellishment options, which is where the chipboard came in handy. I sprayed and painted a circle and then put it in a bag to make it look like a giant candy. I also took a chipboard arrow and painted, inked and stamped it to work with my layout.

For the lacing challenge, I had punched all the holes across the black paper and was about to do the lacing when I had a light bulb moment and decided to set an eyelet in each hole! I used up 46 eyelets on this layout- woo hoo!

For my title I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot and played with some different fonts.  I did the shadow blackout feature on everything and cut it out together for the background and then cut the words or in the "normal" mode in different colors for the top layer.  The word "Largest" I attached with foam adhesive to give it a little dimension.

Materials:

Cardstock- American Crafts

Patterned Paper- 7gypsies and Cosmo Cricket

Chipboard- Oriental Trading Company

Eyelets- Making Memories

Gromlet- We R Memory Keepers

Twine- Pink Paislee

Fonts- Fairfax Station, Massive Headache, AC

Die Cuts- K and Company

 Die Cutter- Cricut

Software- Sure Cuts A Lot

Epoxy accents- EK Success, Pink Paislee

Spray Ink- EK Success

Paint- Liquitex

Ink- Clearsnap, Ranger

Pen- Zig

Chalk- Oriental Trading Company

Happy Mother's Day!

I've been busy making cards for the mothers in my life and I am here to share them today, a day early.

For the first card, I used the current card sketch at Frosted Designs. I am also linking up with the current stamp and die cut challenge at Cooking With Cricut, which is to make a Mother's Day card using a stamp or manual die. Since "all" I have for die cutting is a Cricut, I used a stamp. This stamp is from an older Stampin Up set. I stamped it in Archival ink and then colored it with watercolor pencils. I went over the coloring with a water pen to blend the colors.

I used an embossing folder to make the frame on this one and then inked the raised part with a few different colors of ink to make it stand out.

I used my Cricut a lot for this one. The background and sentiment were cut using the "Cindy Loo" cartridge, and the butterfly is from the Sentimentals cartridge. I wanted to add a little something to the tone on tone background so I went over some of the flowers with Moonlight Smooch ink.

There you have it, I have cards for my mom, mother-in-law and two grandmas (I made two of the first design). I hope all the mothers out there have a great day tomorrow!

Happy Birthday- Resist Embossing

I managed to squeeze in one more challenge from Frosted Designs! Today I tried Anita's challenge which was to use resist embossing. I have done this before, but I figured it was time to try it again. My nephew (and godson's) birthday is on Wednesday so I decided to make a card for him.

I initially was thinking of going with a jungle theme and stamping some leaves on my card for the technique. I realized I don't have any "jungle" leaf stamps so I decided to go with a forest animal instead. I found this cute snail on the "Boys Will be Boys" Cricut cartridge and decided to go with that. For the background, I stamped the leaves with VersaMark, heat embossed them with clear embossing powder, and then sprayed the paper with three different colors of mists. The colors didn't end up as vibrant as I had hoped on the green cardstock, but it gave some texture all the same. The "splat" that the sentiment is stamped on is the flower bush from "Live Simply". I took some Stardust Stickles and smeared them behind the snail to make it left like it left a slimy trail.

Welcome to the Bird Show

I did get a layout started yesterday and just finished it!  I chose to do one of the NSD challenges over at Frosted Designs.  Ashley posted a recipe challenge yesterday: use 4 of the following: handmade embellishment, yellow, stripes or polka dots, at least 3 buttons, twine, and a punch.  Well, I managed to use all 6!

Shawn at Nuts About Sketches posted 4 bonus sketches this week and I decided to use this one.
 

I didn't actually use any hexagons as the sketch suggested, but I used those areas for embellishments.  For the bird and nest and "Welcome" I used my Cricut and the "Zooballoo" cartridge.  The papers were all from the My Mind's Eye "On the Bright Side" collection.  For the background, I took the yellow chevron paper and ripped it along one of the white lines.  On the left side of the cardstock, I used some Distress Stain and stamped with some bubble wrap. 

Supplies
Cardstock- Bazzill
Patterned Paper and Tag- My Mind's Eye
Buttons- Fancy Pants Designs and Jesse James and Co.
Punch- Marvy
Die Cutter- Cricut
Cartridge- Zooballoo
Software- Sure Cuts A Lot
Font- Joint by Pizza Dude
Pens- Sakura, Tsukeniko, Creative Memories
Ink- Ranger- Clearsnap
Twine- Pink Paislee
 

Friendship Card: BBTB2 and Frosted Designs Sketch

I didn't make a single card this past week. I had two layouts that needed to be done by today and some major personal stuff going on. So my goal for this week (Holy Week) is a card a day.

For my card today I used the current card sketch at Frosted Designs and the current challenge at Bitten By the Bug 2 which was to used a flourish cut from the "Cindy Loo" cartridge. I received this cartridge for Christmas and there is some adorable stuff on it, so I jumped at the opportunity to use it. I pulled out another stamp from the "Friendship Blooms" Stampin Up set for the image and sentiment. I stamped both with Versamark and used colored embossing powder. I edged everything with Barn Door Distress Ink. The dots on the flourish are Dew Drops colored with red alcohol ink.

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #22

We had another wonderful sketch by Karin to work with this week. I decided to do just one photo as the sketch suggests because I didn't have any sets of multiple photos that worked. This is a photo I took of Ellie when she turned 4 last December. I cut the little tags using my Cricut and Sentimentals cartridge. I wrote words that described Ellie at that time on the tags.


Unfortunately, this is my last week of being on the design team at Frosted Designs as the new team begins with the next sketch. I have had a great time working with all the wonderful people and sketches and wish the new design team the best!

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #21

Another fabulous sketch has been revealed at Frosted Designs! I made a layout for my son's baby book- that makes 6 layouts and he is 13 months old!! Guess I need to get working on that...

I loved the big circle on this one, but wasn't sure what to use to make it. I decided to use the Echo Park "Little Boy" collection. I cut the car paper into the smaller circle. First I used some yellow spray ink and tried to make a masked circle, but that did not show up enough. Then I drew a large circle, but that was a little to stark. I went over the circle with my sewing machine, which helped. Finally I decided to add the buttons to fill in the circle. I am very happy with how it turned out! For the title I used my "Zooballoo" Cricut cartridge. The "welcome" is a cut on the cartridge, however it has some birds and a nest on top of it, so after I cut it out, I just clipped those off the top! For the texture in the corners I used some dry embossing folders. I clamped the folder around the corner of the paper and then rolled over it with my brayer so it left an uneven, light impression. The cardstock I used is Core' dinations so it has a colored core. After I embossed the paper, I sanded it to expose the core.

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #20

Today a new sketch was released at Frosted Designs! This week's sketch is really pretty with some layering, something I have been working on lately (trying to use up my stash!). I used mostly KaiserCraft "Magic Happens" for this one. The embellishments across the top are a hodgepodge of manufacturers.




Thanks for stopping by and check out the Frosted Designs blog to see what the other design team members did with the sketch and to enter your take for a great prize!

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #18

Yesterday a new sketch was posted at Frosted Designs. It was another one with just 1 photo, which I stuck to this time. I turned the sketch 90 degrees since that's how my photo was oriented. I used the photo and cluster of circles to make a pocket to hold my Mothers' Day cards. This is probably the most unique pocket page I have made, and I like how it looks!




Head on over to Frosted Designs and check out what the other design team members did and post your take on the sketch for a chance at the fabulous prize!

Frosted Designs Blog Hop Winner!!!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by and left a comment! Thanks also to those who have become followers! I hope you find inspiration here!

I had 21 comments so I entered that into the random number generator and it gave me 7! The #7 comment was from Elizabeth:

Elizabeth said...

I love white cardstock too! My favorite thing about birthdays is our "Birthday jar" tradition where each year relatives and friends write something they love about the birthday boy or girl. We put them all into a decorated canning jar and throughout the year when that child is down, sad or just in need of encouragement they open their jar and read why they are loved! Your layout is adorable!
July 8, 2011 1:11 PM

Elizabeth, please e-mail me your address at jlshurts(at)gmail(dot)com and I will get your prize out to you!

Frosted Designs Blog Hop!!

Welcome to Our First Birthday Ice Cream on The Beach Blog Hop!
I’m so happy you're still with us, you are almost done!! If you came here from Debbie Bakk’s Blog you are in the right place, if not please stop by Frosted Design where the Hop starts.

Here is my question and answer that you need to know to enter to win the grand prize:

What’s your favorite color of cardstock?
My favorite color of cardstock is white. I like that it is a "blank slate" and I can color it and decorate it any way I want to work with my pages.

Not only is Frosted Designs celebrating a birthday, we are celebrating a birthday in our house this weekend. My son turns 1 on Saturday!! So, in honor of the birthdays, I will be giving away this prize of Birthday stuff!!



To be eligible to win the prize, simply leave me a comment and tell me what your favorite thing about birthdays is.

This week’s challenge at Frosted Design is a Recipe Challenge: Ribbon/trim, charm, rhinestones/pearls and summer celebration (beach, pool, birthday, picnic, etc.). Here is my take on the challenge. I based this off a layout by Jennifer Perks in the February issue of Scrapbooks Etc.






Thank you for stopping by and your next stop is Libbeti.