Seasons of a LifeTime

Wow! I finally finished this project -- one that I've been working on for over a week.I put more than 20 hours into the planning, design and production of this piece. And used a LOT of paper. It's the first real wordbook or shapebook that I've done, and I combined the two formats on this project. I'm really satisfied with how it turned out, and enjoyed the time I spent. I'll be looking forward to doing others in the future.  I made this specifically for a swap over on the Circut Gypsy Gallery board. We had about a month to complete our projects, and I had so many other projects that I was working on that I got a late start on this one. The book is my take on a 4 seasons theme, but is designed to be used with the stages or seasons of a person's life rather than seasons in a year's time. I wanted to add more pages to each season, but time would not allow since our projects are due before February 1, and I'm lagging just a bit.

I blocked out each page in the pics to give a clear view of the artwork for each season. Thanks for visiting!

A Bunch of Thanks

Purse Shaped Card and Envelope Sets
I was inspired to make these sets when I saw the awesome creations by Susan Rees (mom) and Monique Griffith (daughter) on the Cricut message board. My boxes are not nearly as elegant as theirs, but I was pleased as to how they turned out. I made them at the eleventh hour to use as gifts for friends-- so last minute that my 19-year-old granddaughter and 2 of my grandsons (12 and 17) volunteered to help. Seven boxes with 5 cards and envelopes each. We had fun making them, and it was good quality time. This was the first time I used the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge, and now I think I’ll be using it often. The envelope is a Wild Card cut. The pictures don’t do them justice, but I hope you will enjoy looking.

Got Snow?

Some of my most pleasant childhood memories are of the winter days in Kentucky when my sisters and I would spend time together making snowmen, while our brothers would have snowball fights -- but not before we skimmed off the top layer of snow from the drifts and carefully scooped clean snow so our mother could make snow cream! Those were the days! Now I live in Georgia, and there’s not really enough snow for the children to make winter memories like I have. So if you’re fortunate enough to be in a climate where snow is plentiful, enjoy, enjoy! But I wonder … is it safe to make snow cream in this day and time?

I used two winter clipart images that I vectorized and combined to use with my Pazzles Inspiration cutter. It's hard to see in the photo, but the snowman, words, and snowflakes are cut from a white glittered paper by doodlebug design. I love their glittered paper, even though I have to remember to change the settings on my cutter and make two passes to get a clean cut.  Each piece is layered, and I used pop dots as well to add depth to the scene. Fun, fun!

A Friend Is . . .

I came across this cute saying about friends somewhere, and I knew at once I just had to use it on a card. At first, I thought of penguins and the movie Happy Feet, but that didn’t really click. Then I remembered Dr. Seuss’ Horton who hatched Mayzie’s egg in a treetop, and I knew I had to have an elephant. A quick search on my Gypsy turned up several, but the one that was just perfect for my scheme was Pooh’s friend Lumpy.

Check it out -- can you see how I made a connection between the two?

Of course, my Lumpy is a cut from the Pooh and Friends cartridge. The tree is from Tinkerbell and Friends, grass is from Everyday Paper Dolls, the egg from Stretch Your Imagination, and the font is Don Juan. The negative cut of the phrase is housed in the shadow feature of the muffin pan on From My Kitchen. I used the corner punch of one of my MS punch around the page sets for the corners on the middle panel. By the way, the phrase on the egg on the last panel reads, “Thanks for having me as your friend!"

I wanted to try a tri-shutter card with this one, but I couldn’t get it to work out because of the way I wanted to position the tree. I finally settled on doing a simple trifold card. It turned out pretty good for me, and I hope it’s okay for you, too. Until next time, be a good friend to someone, and remember, “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant … An elephant’s faithful 100 percent!”

A Wishing Well to Wish You Well!

Gypsy Spot Challenge


The Gypsy Spot challenge this week was to make a shape card. Recognize the wishing well from the Happily Ever After cartridge? I couldn’t resist using this cute little well for my card. The scene sports Tommy Turtle looking to find a cool pool of water somewhere near to paddle in, as Susie Cardinal perches on the rim of the well to watch what he’s up to. The image is welded to be a top folding card, and I welded the title using the Gypsy Font. I used a computer generated sentiment inside the card. This was a fun card to make!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Cuttlebug Challenge

To gobble, or not to gobble – that is the question. And how do you think Mr. Turkey feels about the issue? Since he doesn’t anticipate being a guest at the upcoming feast, he’s getting outta there – joining the other cute turkeys over at the Cuttlebug Spot. Strut on over and take a look. You’ll find a fancy parade of gobbling going on.

Gypsy Spot Challenge - Week 2

To Grandmother’s House We Go!
Everybody's going to Grandmother's house!  Come on along, you can go, too!

Designing this project on my Gypsy was really a challenge! Thank goodness for the multi-page feature, because I used 5 pages in one file and 2 in another for this one. Lot of cartridges, too – Sweethearts for the couple, My World for the horse (I also used part of the wagon there for his apparatus, Stretch Your Imagination for the tree, Mickey and Friends for the house, Winter Woodland for the sleigh, ZooBalloo for the rabbit, Animal Kingdom for the squirrel, A Child’s Year for the birds, and the welded letters are Stone Script. The house is also welded to the letter “e” in House. Lots of layers and pop dots for this one. Wow! Did I leave anything out? I hope not, because this was one that took a minute!

This is an oversized card, measuring 6-1/2 by 9-1/2 inches. I didn’t want to scrimp on size, because I needed to be able to put in all the details without having trouble with teeny cuts. It’s okay, I can very easily make a custom sized envelope to fit, and I’ll do that tomorrow. This card is going out to my grandson in Kentucky. He missed his summer visit with me, and he is anxious to spend his winter break here in Georgia. I know he will enjoy this card!

Fruity Cuttlebug Spot Challenge

I Love You to the Core!

Over on the Cuttlebug Spot this week, Nilda challenged everyone to use fruit in some way on a project . My mind was drawing a blank as to what to do, so I had just about given up on any idea to submit. Then as I was sorting through some books to donate to the Goodwill Store, I came across a kindergarten workbook with lots of fantastic clipart I can use with my Pazzles Inspiration cutter. I was flipping through the book when I saw this cute little worm and it hit me – here was my fruity challenge!

I scanned the pic into my computer so I could vectorize and size it how I wanted. Then I cut the layers, and put them together. I cuttled the leaf with Dotted Swiss, the body of the worm and the stem of the apple with Forest Branches, the core with Tiny Mosaic Texture, and the apple with Argyle. I matted my creation on a piece of gray cardstock cuttled with Birds and Swirls. I cut the letters with my Pazzles as well. This was a fun project!

Winter Greetings - Entry for The Gypsy Spot Challenge

The Gypsy Spot blog offered its first challenge this week – to explore the two cartridges that came preloaded on our newest toy from ProvoCraft. While we could use a cut from either of the two cartridges, I used numerous cuts from both cartridges. During an excursion of my favorite blog sites, I came across Deanne’s tutorial for a mini pizza box and gift cards (www.digitaldelightsbyloubyloo.blogspot.com). I tried it, and loved it. Here’s how mine turned out.

This is a 4 inch square box, and I cut the card base at 3½ inches. I used the Wild Card cartridge for the square envelopes.

I used lavender pearlescent paper by Wausau for the box and card bases. The glittered printed card mats are from the Nana’s Kitchen pack I found at Hobby Lobby. For the sentiments and frames on my cards, I used the Gypsy Font. All other embellishments came from Gypsy Wanderings, except for the scalloped circle, which is a punch. I had fun with this project, and I REALLY DID get to know the Gypsy Fonts and Gypsy Wanderings cartridges.

I love designing on my Gypsy!

Wow! I Made an Ampersand Card

Back in August I stumbled upon a very elegant card made by Diana Mancuso http://dianasdesignsblog.blogspot.com , who commented that she had been inspired by Tracy Gough’s May 2008 creation of an Ampersand Card http://camsmum-tg.blogspot.com/2008/05/bbtb-ampersand-contest.html . Needless to say, I am in awe of both these ladies’ work. When I recently received an invitation to a wedding shower for a friend’s son, I thought of the lovely cards I had seen and decided to try my hand at making one. Well, after working on this card for about 26 hours over 5 days, here it is. I have said, “This is it, nothing more.”

I used both Design Studio and my Gypsy to make this card. For the things that I wanted to tweak, of course, Gypsy was the only way to go. And for things that I didn’t want to be particular about sizing, I used DS. Cartridges used are Wedding, Alphalicious, George and Basic Shapes, and Sweethearts. The words on the inside of the card are computer generated. Some of these words are from a list by SusieB http://www.heartprints.net/gallery/, and other are just some I chose to use.

Many thanks to those who inspired me to take on this challenge. I learned a lot while making this card, and see where I can make some changes in my adaptation to make it better and easier in the future. Now that I think I’ve got this one under my belt, I think it will be fun to make another Ampersand card with a different theme sometime soon.

Get Well Wishes

This card was made by request to be sent to a young college student who was gravely ill, and to keep the mood light, I thought Minnie might bring a smile. This was only my second time using the Disney Mickey and Friends Cricut cartridge, and I used my Gypsy on this project. I chose to use fall colors on the card, and was quite pleased about how it turned out.

Shades of Brown

I used Mr. Owl on a project about a year ago; but this time I really had to put a little effort in the way I dressed him to meet the requirements of this week’s Cuttlebug Spot challenge #52 with a monochromatic theme. I chose to use shades of brown rather than the color of gray that first came to mind, and when I went through my paper stash I was surprised to find I have 15 or 16 different shades of the earth toned color. I used six shades.

I love my Cuttlebug! I used the Diamonds in the Rough folder to cuttle the mat for this card, and the Forest Branches folder on the tree branch. Today Mr. Owl sports a suit especially tailored for him with the Herringbone folder. By the way, Mr. Owl is a piece of clip art I found some time ago that I vectorized to use with my Pazzles Inspiration cutter. He is layered to stand quite proudly as he mans his post on a dark October night. So here he is, in all his glory and I hope you find him pleasing to look at as he hoots into the nighttime realm, “Owl be seeing ya!”

Sending Love

This card is for the Cuttlebug Spot Challenge #51. It's pink! I really like the mailbox on Cricut cartridge Doodlecharms, and I used it as a focus on this card. The background mat is cuttled with the Floral Screen embossing folder. I used the Diamond Plate folder on the mailbox, and the "Sending Love" sentiment was my first try at welding with my Gypsy. I used American Crafts Specialty silver foil paper for both the sentiment and the mailbox.The small butterfly on the mailbox flag is a Creative Memories punch.

The inside of the card is embellished with one of the Cuttlebug butterflies, and leaves room for a handwritten note.

Although this card did not photograph well, it looks very nice in person, and I am pleased with it. I liked it so much that I created a fall version, which I will post later.

Autumn Greetings

My first Gypsy creation! Nothing fancy, just a simple card. After playing with my Gypsy for several days, I took the plunge and made a card. I used Don Juan for the words, Plantin Schoolbook for the apples, and DoodleCharms for the basket. The raccoon is from Animal Kingdom and the grass is from ZooBalloo. I cut the tree (barely seen in the left corner) freehand, and the leaves are MS leftovers from a previous project.

Valentine's Day in the Fall

I used my MS Leaf punch around the page set on muted orange patterned paper for the frame on this 5 inch square card, and for the falling leaves as well. The cream colored background mat is cuttled with the Forest Branches Cuttlebug folder. I used my Cuttlebug Typewriter alphabet set for the letters, and the pumpkin is from Happily Ever After cricut cartridge. The inside of the card is below.

Card for Week of July 20 2009 - Hello

This is a 4 inch square card. I used Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder on the background, and notched the corners with a punch. I used a Fiskars border punch on the patterned paper. The flowers were a great find from a clearance rack at Michael's. I put brads in the centers. I used a Cuttlebug die for the "hello." I made the envelope from a template I found on the internet, and lined it with the pattern paper used on the card front. Check out the notches on the envelope and its lining.

Cricut Rookie Challenges

Paper Pups is one of my favorite cartridges. I like to make cards with animal images, and I especially love puppies. The puppy on this card resembles my neighbor’s little brown Chessie, and I cut her at 3 ¼ inches instead of 3 inches. I used orange flower patterned paper (not dark orange) for my background. I did not use the ribbon and brad, but substituted the done bone cut at ½ inch from the cartridge. I also used google eyes. My card base is ivory.