Honey Bunches Easel Card

I think this is my favorite card, ever!

The beehive originally came from Little Scraps of Heaven Designs

The image and sentiment came from Meljen's Designs

The springy bees came from Critters1DC font by Dingbat Crazy

Everything is colored with Crayola pencils and Zig markers.

The honeycomb embossing is a Fiskars Plate run thru my Big Kick.

The globs of "honey" are hot glue dots

to hold up the easel.

The shiny wings are glitter glue.

I used Inkscape to create an outline of the bees and image

which I cut with my Cricut for a "base" layer.

The springs are from a wire-edged ribbon.

I just pulled out the wire, wrapped it around a paint brush,

then hot-glued it between the bees and the "base" layer

on the springy bees

and between the layers of the card base.

That's it, I think!

When the bees wiggle, it is SO fun!

In real life, this is so super-cute! (-:

I'll be submitting this one to:

Meljen's Challenge #17, an Easel Card

Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Saturdays, Use any Digital Image

Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight Challenge, Easel Card

Digi Doodle Shop's Best: Anything Goes

Your Next Stamp: Easel Card

Papertake Weekly Challenge: Cutie Patootie

Enjoy the Small Things, thank you card

Whew! For some reason, this card took me all week to put together!

The challenge at Crafty Sentiments Digital Designs was to use THREE papers

and for some reason, I had a lot of trouble with this one!

I finally decided on 3 papers from DCWV.

I created the sentiment/wordart in Inkscape.

Thank you to Paulette at Create with TLC for the Inspiration.

She has been posting FREEBIES all week

and gave me enough encouragement to try to make one myself.

I think it turned out OK and fit with this card!

I took the picture outside, so it's SUPER-BRIGHT!

The Sunshine is a Cricut cut from Doodlecharms.

I cut it out of "Peel & Stick Glitter Foam"

that I picked up at Walmart.

The Challenge this week at Bitten by the Bug 2

was to create a card that includes:

fall colors, a Cricut cut and a Stamp.

The ADORABLE image was my "Special" Freebie

from Paula at Tales from Pollycraft.

What a SUPER-GREAT challenge this was!

Use the new, exclusive FREEBIE in a new GREEN card.

Post it.

GET A NEW FREEBIE!

YAY!

And the new image was awesome to work with!

Maybe the reason it took so long to put together

is that I decided to follow a sketch

from Crafty Sentiments

I turned it on its side for this card.

Trying to figure out a layout with THREE papers

with fall colors

and that cute image

and my sentiment

plus a Cricut cut

was quite a challenge.

But that's what CHALLENGES are for, right?

And I think I pulled it off well enough

to submit my entry into those 4 challenges!

INSIDE:

Inside this card is a special SURPRISE!

Last week, at SVG Cuts they were giving away

a pop up cards SVG kit with any purchase.

I loved the look and style,

so created one similar in Inkscape.

Here is the SVG file I created.

Here is the SCUT file I created for Sure Cuts A Lot.

I used a font called "Bobo", which is similar to "Hobo" but it was FREE!

Quick recap:

So, I am entering this card in the following 4 challenges:

Crafty Sentiments, Challenge 27 (sketch)

Tales from Pollycraft (Flash your Freebies, Part 2)

Crafts and Love (3 Papers)

and

Bitten By the Bug 2 (fall related, including a Cricut cut and a stamp)

WISH ME LUCK (-:

What's Cookin', Good Lookin'?

There are a lot who contributed to this card.

The image is from Karen's Doodles.

The sketch design is from Karen's Doodles.

The color scheme came from The Sisterhood of Crafters.

The embossing, pop-dotting, and string are

"touchy feely" for The Creative Cottage.

The sentiment is for

The Order of the Opus Gluei.

The scalloped circle came from Kay's 09 Kutups font.

It is a gatefold card.

Here are pictures of the middle and inside:

Pollycraft Bold and Bright

Pollycraft Designs is having a super-fun challenge this week!

She is calling it "Flash Those Freebies" and

anyone who uses one of her previously posted freebies

will receive a Brand New, Never Released Freebie that is a SECRET!!

She is asking anyone who receives this SPECIAL RELEASE via email

to keep it a secret for a fun project yet to be announced!

My curiousity got the better of me and I HAD to participate!

The theme of the current challenge is BOLD AND BRIGHT!

I'm pretty sure I got that covered!

The image is (obviously) a Pollycraft Design Freebie.

Her name is Flo!

The paper is from a stack called Frutti Fusion from The Angel Company.

The flower stickies are from Colorbok.

I colored her with Zig markers (the brightest, boldest colors I could find).

Of course, I didn't realize the bottom strip of

background paper was crooked

until I took the picture!  {sigh}

Come on over to Pollycraft Designs and join in on the fun!

I can't wait to see what Paula comes up with next!

I have also entered this card at:

The Crafty Pad: Challenge 80: Inspirational Colors from a Photo

FREE SVG: 5 x 7 Envelope with Stars and "Fringe"

This is the envelope I created for the card posted on my SVG's Page

I posted the SVG and SCUT files on Box.net, if anyone would like to use them!

When the SVG is imported into SCAL, the text across the front is not imported!

Basically, what I did was create the card base (the gray part)

with stars cut out of the top flap.

Then I created a small piece (the blue part) to attach to the flap

so the color shows thru the cutout.

You just have to move the blue piece out and to the right

for it to fit on the mat.

Like this:

I used patterned paper that matched my card.

After it's cut out, fold the large base with the white side on the outside.

Flip the little piece so that the color shows thru the starts

and glue it to the top flap.

Pretty simple!

FREE SVG: Dog Bone and Bow

I created this little file for the inside of my "Diggin Dog" Birthday card.

The bow is cut at 1" and looks pretty good, so I'm sure cut larger, it will be great!

It is set up to have little, thin lines cut that I then used a marker to highlight.

The bone and the bow are two separate pieces,

so the bow can be be used for other projects!

With all the Christmas in July Challenges I've seen recently,

this should come in handy!

Enjoy!

Here is the Inkscape SVG

Here is the SCUT for SCAL2

Links moved to my SVG's Page

The TownScrapper is going on Hiatus til Labor Day!

Pop on over to see the talented TownScrapper DT's wonderful creations

and be sure to visit all of the DT's blogs

to find out which ones are offering blog candy

to celebrate their summer hiatus.

They will be spending some quality time with family

and re-energizing their mojo for their return on Friday, September 10.

There's still one more challenge to enter before they go

and it looks like it could be a fun one!

Here is just one of the treats being offered by one of their DT:

Maria's Studio Blog Candy, ends July 23rd

From Maria's Studio:

Here's a pic of the blog candy I'm offering, which includes the Flowers and Explore Cuttlebug Embossing Folders, Prima and Imaginisce flowers, sheer pink ribbon, pink rhinestones, 250 eyelets, 1 brand new 'Clara' stamp by Kraftin Kimmie and 1 brand new 'Sassy Suzi' stamp by the Greeting Farm.  Deadline to enter is Thursday, July 22 at midnight and I will announce a winner on Friday, July 23.

Be sure to check out her latest creation for The TownScrapper!

Diggin' Dog Birthday Card

I love this dog!

He is a creation of Meljen's Designs

This was a super-simple card to make, but it was fun

because my little boy had a "Kids Challenge" to enter so

we spent the morning together creating!

I will post his creation

on the blog he shares with his brother.

The newest challenge at Crafty Sentiments

is a color challenge using

Green, Yellow and Brown

The timing was perfect, since I had already decided I was going to do Something with that image~ (-:

The inside of this card is posted HERE

along with a FREE SVG that includes a Dog Bone and a Bow.

I have also entered this card in a challenge at

The Sisterhood of Crafters: Man Card

Card Positioning Systems: CPS 176

Sentimental Sundays: Challenge #12: For Men

A Card for Bella

From Cheribella's Blog:

Bella Tucker is an 8-year-old girl who attends South School Elementary in Londonderry, New Hampshire.  Bella came down with a near fatal infection on Easter Sunday. Doctors gave little hope for this third graders’ survival, but after five days in a coma she miraculously survived.
Unfortunately, her survival from this infection was not without significant cost.  The infection caused extensive tissue damage, and on April 27, 2010, Bella underwent quadruple amputation surgery and is currently facing an extremely long and hard recovery at Children’s Hospital in Boston with extensive rehabilitation to follow, as she learns to live life without her limbs.
Bella is part of a gymnastics team with the daughter of a fellow stamper.  As  a stamping community everyone is reaching out in any way they can.  You can help support Bella and her family too by visiting http://www.bellatucker.org/

There are, as always, generous hearts out there holding Blog Hops for Bella.  If you would like to make a card for Bella please do and then visit Denise to start the hop for this week and get the address for Bella’s card.  I hope every one of you will find it in your heart to give to this beautiful little girl.

This is the card I made for Bella:



It's late, so the picture quality is a little dark, but I wanted to get this posted in time to enter into a few challenges (-:

I will be entering this card in:

Crafty Sentiments

Doodle Palace

and

Stamp, Scrap and Be Merry

FollowUp:

I got home from work today and took a few pictures during daylight and I touched up the sentiment.

I originally used my Cri-Kit pens for the sentiment and I just didn't like how it turned out.
So I touched it up and filled it in a little and I think it looks better!

Here's the new shots:

Sending Donkey Smiles to Michelle

This one is for Michelle!

Directly quoted

From A Spoon Full of Sugar:

"We would like to share some sad news today, some of you may already know from her blog, our design team member Michelle had an accident about two weeks ago, which has left her with the loss of her right eye and a long road of recovery ahead. In an effort to cheer her up and raise awareness for what happened to Michelle we are holding a card drive in her honor. We have many generous companies and individuals helping us with this special card drive and we hope you will help too!

Two of Whimsy Stamps lovely Artists Melissa Jenkins and Ann Vento have teamed up together to bring us this very special donkey image and matching sentiments, these are all available to download for free from the Whimsy Stamps store page."

Inside of card:

Because she has suffered such an extreme eye injury,

I have made this card complete tactile!

It's full of textures to feel and touch!

The papers are all embossed with Swiss Dots

and Birds and Swirls.

The image is colored (with my trusty Crayola pencils)

then popped up on one of Penny Duncan's Nesties.

The border punch is Swiss Cheese,

just for more texture and depth.

The ribbon is from Offray

(I think I got it at Walmart).

Oh!  The papers:

I found them online and don't remember where...

I had them in a file on my computer for awhile, so I must have saved them before I learned how important it is to keep track of where everything comes from and who I downloaded it from... I know better now! (-:

My little boy, Joey, also wanted to participate in this card drive!

Please take a second to take a look at HIS card here:

http://ajandjoeycrafts.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/donkey-smiles-for-michelle/

It is the very first card he really made ALL BY HIMSELF

and he is so super-proud of it!

Goin' Places

I love this image!

I won it in a Karen's Doodles Challenge!

For this card, I used a sketch provided by Pollycraft Monday.

The challenge this week at Karen's Doodles is "Bling It Up"

Notice her lovely pink saddle bag with all the shiny "bling"?

I also found a GREAT site with all kinds of FREE scrapbook kits for download.

Everyday Mom Ideas

She offers entire kits with a variety of themes.

They are complete with embellishments, papers, etc.

I used her "Road Trip" Mega kit for the map and the pink background paper used in this card!

Technically, I'm sure they're designed for "Digital" Scrapbooking, but I downloaded the kit and opened the papers I wanted in Paint.net. It's a FREE image and photo editing software. Super easy to use and best of all, it's FREE!

I changed the colors of the papers to match my coloring of the image and it was super easy!

This week, I'd like to enter this card in two challenges:

Karen's Doodles Challenge

and

Pollycraft Monday Challenges

Lotsa a  links added to this post today! (-:

Guitar Hero Logo SVG and SCUT

I'm a mom of BOYS!

Obviously, Flowers and Birdies and Hearts are not in our repertoire!

We like TRUCKS and ROCKS and TOUGH, GRUNGY stuff.

Those images are few and far between on the usual Craft websites.

Thank Goodness for Inkscape and Google!

We're working on a new project and wanted to see what the Cricut can do with the Guitar Hero Logo.

Of course, it is a copyrighted logo, so I have not altered it in any way.

I have just CONVERTED it from an image to a cut file, for our personal use.

I am going to share this in my box.net account,

but please remember that it is copyrighted and is for personal use ONLY!

SCAL file for Sure Cuts a Lot

SVG file

Links moved to my SVG's Page 

Red White and Blue Spring Card

I would like to enter this

"Spring Up" Card

in the Karen's Doodles Challenge

"Red White and Blue"

Although not technically "Patriotic" for the 4th of July,

I loved this image and couldn't resist the color challenge.

I learned a new trick this week to "Pop" digi stamps!

I printed the butterfly twice, cut him out and pop dotted him!

Thank you to Donna Mundinger for the tip on this "trick"

I made the flowers from a tutorial Penny Duncan posted.

Although the flowers aren't her creation, she posted the link  to the YouTube video tutorial.

I saw this style card (called a "Spring up Card")  on Splitcoast Stampers.

I still do all my coloring in Colored Pencils, but Copics are absolutely on my wishlist...

For the butterfly's wings, I just dabbed a little water on the paper and swirled some blue into it.

I was trying for a "swirly" look, and I think I achieved that...

After going back and looking at this post, I realize that when you click on the picture, it brings up a H-U-G-E picture!

Not sure how to fix that, but I'll try to figure it out!

But, wow, the goofs sure show when it's enlarged from 5 1/2" to 8x10!  (-:

I think it looks WAY better in real life and at actual size...

Fishing Dock SVG and SCUT

I made this one today for a project one of my boys is working on.



I don't like to put together a bunch of little pieces, after cutting a file. So I generally tend to make my files in as few pieces as possible. I use the "Path- Difference" function of Inkscape a lot to make "base" layers that I "subtract" all the little pieces out of. Usually, it just seems easier when paper piecing files after they're cut.

In the case of this file, I COULD have made it with a bunch of little boards that had to be put back together. What a time-consuming pain in the neck! What I did instead was make a base (light brown) then a top layer (dark brown) that is all the "spaces" between the boards. When it's layered together, the base shows thru the top layer and there are only TWO pieces to cut! (yay!)

The only drawback with THIS particular file is that the "lines" between the boards are pretty fine lines so it was pretty delicate taking it off my Cricut mat and attaching it to the base layer... I suppose I could go back in and tweak the file to make those lines a little thicker, but after putting it together, I thought it looked awesome the way it was! I cut it at 4". I don't suppose it would turn out very good cut much smaller than that...

Also, when I cut it, I used regular printer paper, which is very thin! Then I just cut another base out of regular cardstock to reinforce it. I used brown ink on the base and a marker for the top layer, to get the right shades of brown on the white printer paper.

With all the summer and beach images I've seen lately, I haven't seen a boat dock or pier, so I did it myself and am pretty happy with the results.

If you have any questions or problems with any of the files I share, please let me know!
This file has been moved to my SVG's Page (you can click there from the menu bar at the top)
SCUT file for Sure Cuts a Lot


SVG created in Inkscape

Links moved to my SVG's Page 

Great Giveaway

I haven't posted anything new lately.

I guess I should get busy and start uploading more of my files to share

and pictures of the projects I've been working on.

Time just seems to fly so fast with the boys home on Summer Break.

While I was browsing today, I found this great giveaway!

The winner will be announce July 11th, so there's still time to enter!