Let’s Make a Brad!

I got the new Imaginese I-top brad maker for my birthday a few weeks ago and I must say it is one fine tool (albeit an expensive one $30) but I love it and it is so easy to use. Here I used it  to make the brads on these cards:

Stamp: Sarah Paris, SVG die cuts: Lindsay's stamp Stuff, Collage sheet: Babystar Design All available at http://www.mygrafico.com

I used the Mish Mash dolls stamps from Sarah Paris (OMG she has her entire shop on sale until midnight tonight for 50% off! get the mish mash set for $1.50, check out her other stuff too!) Also I used the Steampunk SVG set from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff to die cut the gears with my Cricut and SCAL software.

To make the brads on both cards I used the 1″ Fun Party Circles from Babystar Design, they are perfect to use with the bradmaker!

Digital papers: Dotted Daisy, collage sheet: Babystar availible from http://www.mygrafico.com

This cheerful paper is from the Fine and Dandy (pink & green) paper pack from Dotted Daisy, she had a fantastic sale going on today too, 30% off her entire shop, the paper pack is only $1.40 on sale and there is a green kit that matches this that I must get my hands on! Hurry the sales at Dotty Daisy and Sarah Paris end at midnight tonight!

I made a video showing how to use the bradmaker, sadly, this was not my first take, not my best video but you can get the idea on how to use the tool…or at least some comic relief

Be sure to check out all of the awesome new products popping up at mygrafico! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Juicy…Watermelon!

Nothing says summer like a juicy slice of ice-cold watermelon, I used my Strawberries and Watermelon digital stamp set from Lindsay’s stamp Stuff to make this card:

Stamps: Lindsay's Stamp Stuff, Cardstock: Neenah (white), Kraft (SU!, The Paper Co), Tab: JoAnns, Markers: Copic

The stamps in the Strawberry and Watermelon set are perfect for coloring, and easy too, large open areas and plenty of detail, you can easily use them for cards, decor or scrapbook pages, these cards too minutes to make (I colored the images previously while watching TV:)

These cards qualify for the following challenges: Bunny Zoe’s Crafts, By the Cute and Girly, Crafty Catz, Crafty Creations, (Summer) and Color Throw Down.

Here is a look at the Strawberries and Watermelon set:

7 highly detailed stamps for $5!

And now here is the freebie (I am still in a vintage kick) Sorry there is not a proper preview (I’m running a bit late today) so just click the image to get the large size and right-click to save.

Now let’s see what the rest of the DT has for us today, please help us bid a fond farewell to Rebekah Doak, she has delighted up with her work the past 6 months, thanks girl, don’t be a stranger

Cheryl Gorka DT Coordinator

Margie Visnick

Lisa Jurecek

Tracey Allen

Melissa Craig

Leanne Garner

Tamara Bennett

Cindi Hooks

Micki Harper

Rebekah Doak

Karin Martin

Jennifer Bliss

Rhonda Walker

Diane Bove

Tracy Vinson

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Hello Friend

Howdy folks! I just got the new Couple of Cuties stamp set from Crafty Secrets and had a play around with them and made these 3 cards using the Simply Shabby Spring paper pack (only $2) from Lettering delights:

Stamps: Crafty Secrets, Pattern Paper: Lettering Delights (digital), Markers: Copic, Prismacolor, Ink: Memento

Aren’t they cute? I love digital paper because 1. I am not afraid to “use it up” because I can print more and 2. I can change the scale of the print to be dainty for my cards or larger for my scrapbook pages. I printed all of the paper I used on the cards on one sheet of cardstock, no scraps, no waste! Just cut and paste!

Cardstock: Neenah (white for stamping) Stapeles (cream for cardbase) I colored this image with my Prismacolor markers.

I have had the fabric sentiment sticker in my stash for YEARS! Glad to finaly use it! I colored this one with Copics.

BTW these cards qualify for the following challenges: Aimee’s Challenges (for a friend), CAS-tastic (pick 3: Stamped, inked edges, paper piercing), Crafty Creations (happy/sweet), Frosted Designs (border punch), Gingersnap Creations (use Markers), Our Daily Bread, Raise the bar, Stamping w/Dragon (distress it), Sweet Stampin Challenge (vintage),

Tip: Stamp your sentiments on the same white cardstock (for me it's Neenah) when you stamp your foacl images then color the cardstock to match, here I colored the "Hello Friend" the same blue as the backgrpund og my image;)

Did you see the new boy scout collection from lettering delights? Wow, I just snagged them all, my son will go to cub camp for the first time and I am so ready to scrap it! Oh, and it is on sale too! the whole bundle (a $76 value) is on sale for $19! Or you can buy the sets by themselves at $2-$4 a pop. Oh and there is a coupon, spend $20, get $10 off your purchase with the code: SpendTen.

That’s all for tonight, til next time happy crafting!

Shower time!

My niece is getting married next moth and today was her bridal shower, she picked the most unusual color scheme for her wedding but it is truly stunning: Orange, green with grey and black, it did not scream wedding to me at first until I played around with the colors, here is the card I made her:

Dress card die cut: Creative Cuts & More, Stamps: Autumn Leaves, Inkadinkado, Stampin Up, Paper: Bazzill, American Crafts

I found this Dress Window die cut card from Creative Cuts & More stashed away with my white paper scraps and had to use it, I added some stamping and decorated the inside so there would be something pretty to see though the dress cutout:

I think I like decorating the inside of the card as much as I like making my homemade envelopes!

The envelope for this card is a SVG freebie (to cut with your Cricut and SCAL software) I designed and you can grab it here, it is adjustable in SCAL2 (square or rectangle), in scal 1 you are stuck with it being a square envelope, but you can still make it whatever size square you want.

Now, my niece is a very talented crafter, she was over the other day using my Cricut and she told me that she was going to buy thank you cards for the wedding instead of making them (Hats off to any bride who sends thank you notes, homemade or store-bought!) so I decided to letterpress her a set of 10 thank you notes, here you can see the detail of the debossed letterpress design:

Letterpress plates and paper: Lifestyle Crafts

If you remember a few months ago I showed you how I made a letterpress bed to fit in my Big Shot diecutter, if you want directions to make one for less than $10 check out this post, as you can see it works as well as the $149 kit from Lifestyle crafts and you can use their plates in it. Here are the cards and matching envies:

Envelope paper: K&Co, Tool: Scor-pal

Also I while back I showed you how to make envelopes with your Scor-pal, if you missed it you can see the video and grab my cheat sheet here.

These projects qualify for the following challenges: Annabelles Stamps (embossing), Clearly I Stamp (thank you cards), Cowgirls Sunday Stamping Challenge, DigiDoodles (anything goes), Creative craft Challenge (bride),  I Did It (buttons & bows), Totally Gorjuss (congrats) and Wee Memories (stamping.)

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Get a Load of This!

I’m {or my project rather} on the cover of the October 2010 Pack-o-Fun magazine!!!!

Woohoo!!!

That is all;)

Til next time happy crafting:)

Fight Like a Girl!

Did you know every 13 seconds a woman dies of breast cancer? That is a troubling statistic, but you can help rid the world of this terrible disease. MyGrafico designers Blackleaf Studios, Cheri Wenger, DigiDiva, Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff, ReviDevi, Sanqunetti Design,Tainted Sweets and  Zenware Designs have teamed up with Stitching for Pink to create an exclusive collab kit for you and ALL of the sales will go directly to Stitching for Pink to fund Breast Cancer Research:

For a $5 donation you get this kit! All sales are donated to breast cancer research.

In this kit you will find 12 adorable clip art designs, 4 pattern papers, a printable collage sheet and a printable craft all for a $5 donation to Breast Cancer research.

I designed this post it note holder “reminder” booklet that has a magnet on the back so it can stick on the fridge and be seen every day. All it take is 10 minutes, one sheet of cardstock and some glue and you can make one for your sister, girlfriends and any other women in your life!

This craft with instructions is included in the kit!

Inside is a pad of post-it notes and this sticks to the fridge with a magnet!

You can purchase the Pink Power Collab kit here, and you can join Stitching for pink here, it is a great resource for all embroidery designers and crafters too and your $5 donation gets you lots of embroidery projects, what a deal AND you are helping a great cause.

Thanks for dropping by and til next time happy crafting!

A Very Vintage Freebie!

Howdy! Yesterday my wedding anniversary {9 years!} and with my hubby in mind I made this card:

Stamps: Lindsay's stamp stuff, Paper: Basic Grey, Markers: Copic, Sketch: TMS #19

I used the Steampunk Style digital stamp set from Lindsay’s stamp Stuff, I love the old-fashioned vintage images in this set. I normally have a hard time making cards for men but with this set it is a snap (yes, I did use the color pink and a flower on a “guy” card and you can too!) Also I used the Imaginessence brad maker (a b-day gift from my Mom, thanks Mom!) and loads of my Hoarded Basic Grey paper (seriously, time to use it up Lindsay

The layout of the card came from Melissa (#19) at Tuesday Morning Sketches. Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff is sponsoring them as part of their 1-year anniversary celebration, if you play along at TMS you can win a LSS stamp set of your choice and you can choose to use any of the sketches from the past year and there are some beauties there! If you won you could choose the new Steampunk Style stamp set:

wow! 17 cool vintage stamps!

Keeping in the vintage theme here is your freebie, a cool old car:

Click the pic to download

Oops, I almost forgot, this card qualifies for the following challenges: Tuesday Morning Sketches, Crafty Angles Online (shabby Chic), A Crafty Little Place (classic vintage), Donna’s Den (card for a man), Paper Playtime (flower Power), Practical Scrappers (old stash) and  Paper crafts Connection (vintage typewriter.)

Now let’s see what the LSS DT has been up to this week:

Cheryl Gorka DT Coordinator

Shannon Neparko

Margie Visnick

Lisa Jurecek

Tracey Allen

Melissa Craig

Leanne Garner

Tamara Bennett

Cindi Hooks

Micki Harper

Rebekah Doak

Karin Martin

Jennifer Bliss

Rhonda Walker

Diane Bove

Tracy Vinson

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Christmas in July!

OK, so this year I am not going to wait til the last-minute to make my Christmas cards, last year I waited too long and had to send a digitally designed photo card. Not that there is anything wrong with that but I love making my own Christmas cards by hand so this year I am doing them early in batches of 12:

Stamps: About Art Accents/Art Neko, Sentiment: Lettering Delights, EB folder: Tim Holtz

This card was simple, I used the sketch from 2sketches4you, Christmas stamps from About Art Accents (and they are on sale too!) and scrap Christmas paper left over from Christmas’ past. The Sentiment is from the Peppermint Holiday Expressions set From Lettering Delights (also on sale! And you can save $10 when you spend $20 with coupon: SpendTen) This year instead of making 70 identical cards I decided I would do 7 batches of 10-12 cards to keep the mojo flowing. Dont’cha hate Christmas card burnout?

Don't foget to make the envelopes! I used muy scorpal and old x-mas paper to make them. Tip: Keep the pattern on the inside of the envie for a lined look! It is easier to adress too

This card qualifies for the following challenges: 2sketches4you,  Cute Card Thursday , The Cuttlebug spot, Flourishes, Magical crafts, Ooh La La creations (Christmas), Digi doodle Shop (use up scraps), Pixie Dust (forest green & cranberry)and  Practical Scrappers (old stash)

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

French Flair!

I love that the French inspired art is all the rage these days, in fact I couldn’t resist picking up the summer in Paris Cricut cart last month! I must say I am not a fussy intricate die cut design type of girl (I like my die cutting fast and easy) but seeing the Eiffel tower on the cart I knew it would be great to cut from acetate and use as a mask as I did on the tag on this card.

Stamps: Hero Arts, Inkadinkado, Stampin up, Paper: DCWV, Tag: Lindsay's stamp Stuff (freebie)

I’ll warn you cutting transparency film will toast a sharp blade so I keep my oldies around for this purpose, best of all I can keep it and use again and again! This card is for my sister who saves my cards and scrapbooks with them and since she visited Europe 2 years ago and is still working on  her album this is perfect.

This card qualifies for the following challenges: Rosie D’s (burgundy, pink, cream), Clearly I stamp (thankyou), Stamp & Create (stitching) and Stamping w/dragon (3 buttons and transparency: I used transparency as an ink mask)

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

$30 in freebies from Lettering Delights!

Holy Moley! I just got this email today, sign up for an account at Lettering delights then click on “MyLibrary” and all of these goodies will be waiting for you to download, cool!

That’s not all, Here is a coupon for $10 off when you spend more than $20 at Lettering Delights: SpendTen spend $10 get $10, wow, what a deal!

So what are you waiting for, go get those freebies! Till next time happy crafting!