Thank you cards

I made a dozen thank you cards to gift to a co-worker tomorrow at her shower. I used the cricut cartridge Something to Remember to create the wedding couple on the front of the card folder (folder was inspired by a circlet). The card holder/folder directions are on Caroly'ns blog here and I modified it to fit the 12 cards and envelopes. The cards were created using a Thank You stamp and embossing powder from Stampin' Up and Fiskar's XL Seal of Approval squeeze punch. Background texture was created with the Cuttlebug and Perfectly Paisley folder.

Valentine layout

I made an 8 x 8 layout with plans to add picts of myself and hubby. I used my new Martha Stewart Seasonal cake art cart for the lacy heart background. The hot pink heart is from the card I made DH using the Wild Card Cricut cartridge. The sentiment is from the MS Season cake and the red frame from Wild Card. I used a little washi tape to jazz things up with the red polka dots and paperclip flag.

Fiskateer time

The Fiskateer blog hosts an online event during CHA and this past weekend there were lots of challenges to take part in. I was only able to complete two so far and wanted to share them on my blog. One challenge was to make a wedding card. I made a 4x4 inch card using my Fiskar trimmer, bubbles border punch, Jenni Bowlin squeeze punch-flight, and the sentiment is also Fiskars - When's the Big Day stamp set.

The other challenge I was able to finish was to make a project with a flower using a Fiskar tool. I made a simple card using two squeeze punches - XL Oops a Daisiy and L oops a daisy. The sentiment is also a Fiskars stamp from the Oodles of Doodles set. The petal is also from a Fiskars squeeze punch but I don't know the name of it! It really is supposed to be a rain drop but I use it for lots of different things, mostly petals and leaves.

camo cupcakes

My youngest is leaving for Army basic training on Monday so his sister wanted to make a special treat. DD found this idea on pintrest and quickly make some yummy camo cupcakes. The first part was to make the batter, divide in three parts.

Add cocoa powder to one part for the brown, green and a hint of brown coloring for the dark green and leave the third mix part cream colored (we started with yellow cake mix). Em (DD) just globbed the three diff. colors in the cupcake liners instead of piping them in as the original directions stated. Bake per directions on the box of cake mix

Em likes to make her frosting from scratch and lucky for us I had some whipping cream on hand (that's her secret for extra yummy frosting) and then divided the frosting into three parts to color, one stayed white, the second turned green with coloring and a bit of cocoa powder, and the brown frosting had cocoa added. We tried three different sandwich bags inside a frosting bag with one big tip but in the end it just made a big mess because the frosting bag wasn't big enough to accommodate all the little bags. Em finished up the dozen plus 3 cupcakes by carefully putting the three diff color frosting

in the bag. By the end it was quite messy but we had fun in the kitchen and Bill (the soldier) was impressed! And best of all - Yummy treats for everyone!!

Elf donuts

Tomorrow I will introduce Skoob, the shelf elf, to first grade students in the library. Skoob is a character in the book, The Shelf Elf by Jackie Mims Hopkins. In years past when I have read the story, the students enjoyed writing letters to Skoob and they were always on the look-out to find him but I explained that he only came out when it was quiet and dark. Well, to have a bit of fun this year, I made elf donuts to share with the students, I think there will be some library magic when the book and donuts are discovered. Here are the donuts I made with a bit of help from my daughter (and she's the one who found them on the internet and shared the idea with me!)

I made the box for the donuts with my Cricut E2 and the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge. And the donuts...they are really Cheerios with chocolate and sprinkles, powdered sugared Cheerios, and sugar-cinnamon covered Cheerios. Here's a picture with a penny next to a cheerio/donut to show scale, and the final picture is of all the boxes, and each box contains 2 dozen donuts-just enough for each first grade student!

Unity Sketch Challenge

Another Unity stamp project...

Unity Stamps and WCMD

In celebration of World Card Making Day, Unity Stamp Co. has issued challenges to make cards, link the cards and you're entered to win some scrumptious prizes. Of course, I just couldn't pick one or two of the card challenges, I tried all 8 of them...and it was a challenge because you can only use Unity stamps. I have a very limited supply of Unity stamps but would love to increase my stash! Here is a brief challenge recap and my eight cards...




 Challenge 1 - Make a shaped card. There is a little iRock action on the snowflakes. White embossing powder with the stamp "Winter Wonderland"




 



Challenge 2 - Use at least 2 different textures. Three different texture folders, embossed maple leaf stamp, and fuzzy orange yarn give lots of texture to this card! The "strength in adversity" stamped paper went on the inside of the card for the sentiment.








Challenge 3 - Emboss a stamp image. I love the "Winter Wonderland" stamp so it was embossed with silver then framed with various paper and a sparkly red background with a few snowflake punch-outs.





 







Challenge 4 - Use the sketch. I had the blue flower ribbon for a while just waiting for the perfect project and thought it was a great pairing with the stamp "So very very very very very beautiful" and some MME paper. I even plan to send the card to a special niece (well, they all are special so I guess I'll be making more cards!).











Challenge 5 - Make a Fall card. A texture folder for the wood-grain background and a business size base is perfect for three autumn embossed leaf stamp images.







Challenge 6 - make a border with a non-border stamp.
I used two different stamps, one for the "thank you" and the other made the branchy boarder, it's a fun element that I stamped multiple times using Stampin Up Lucky Limeaid ink.












Challenge 7 - Color a stamped image.
 I used colored pencils and gamasol to color the stamped image and background. I used a marker to write "Emily" as I plan to use this card on DD's birthday gift in a few months.











 Challenge 8 - Use the colors Cream, Brown, Olive and Pumpkin
 I used a Unity stamp and various inks to stamp the floral background on the cream paper and layered the stamped sentiment "Blessings brighten when you count them". Add a bit of rustic twine and some stripped paper for a fun fall card.