"Die Cuttin Diva's" Guest Designer

Today I'm the guest designer over at the Die Cuttin Diva's weekly challenge blog. Every week they have an amazing challenge where you create a card/project according to the guidelines and use a die cutting tool/cartridge/cut. So easy and so fun! And there are prizes to win too!

This week's challenge is "use white and pick either: pink, red, or purple".

If you know anything about me or my designs, you know I always gravitate towards things that are pink. Hehe. My wedding was pink pink pink, my blog is pink pink pink, and my daughters favorite color is pink pink pink. So I got to work right away gathering together some beautiful pink paper and getting inspired. I wanted to make a love card because it's so close to Valentine's Day. This is what I created.

 The card originally measured 6.5x5. But I trimmed half an inch off the height and width because I wanted my die cut embellishments to hang over the edges. 

 

 This cut is from "Lacy Labels". I cut it at 3.25.

It has lots of layers which I popped up with dimensional tape.

I thought the sentiment was perfect for this card.

I love making these layer butterfly elements. 

I cut 3 different butterflies from the Cricut cartridges "Florals Embellished", "Tie the Knot" and "Paper Lace" in a variety of sizes.

Then I layered them together and fastened them with a brad.

Bending the wings forward gives such wonderful dimension.

Thanks so much to the Die Cuttin Diva's for having me as a guest designer. Your blog is so fun and full of amazing inspiration.

I hope you are inspired to create your own card/project for this challenge. 

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day everyone!

 

Fairy and Butterfly Wind Chime

My craft room is decked out with fairy statues and fairytale items I've been collecting since my childhood. It's my happy space and these things make me happy! It reminds me of my youth and of whimsy and delight. Keeps me creating whimsical and delightful creations!

I came up with this wind chime idea while napping on the couch with my daughter. She was very into Disney TV and I was spacing out. (One can only see those shows so many times before the brain melt starts!)

I started with a cut from the new Flower Shoppe Cricut cartridge. I cut "Fun4" at fit to page. I taped the flower together to give it it's 3D shape. Then I cut an image from the Paper Lace cart both in chipboard and white cardstock. I hot glued my new Paper Lace "bracket" inside the flower.

This is what the top of my wind chime looks like upside down.

I cut two different fairies from A Child's Year cart and butterflies from Paper Lace in varying sizes. I attached them to 24 inches of green and turquoise ribbon with glue and hot glue. At the bottom of the ribbons I attached varying sizes of flowers from the Mother's Day Bouquet cart. In between the flowers I hot glued a penny for weight. Lastly, I attached rhinestones along the ribbon for some sparkle.

For the top of the wind chime I glued a variety of Mother's Day Bouquet flowers in varying sizes and colors.

I took these pictures outside on my deck. My neighbors beautiful garden is the perfect backdrop for these photos.

Recipe

Cricut Cartridges : A Child's Year, Flower Shoppe, Paper Lace, Mother's Day Bouquet

Paper : Basic Grey "Urban Prairie" and My Mind's Eye "Where the Heart Is"

Ribbon : $1 bin at Michael's

Rhinestones : The Paper Studio Gemstones from Hobby Lobby

I am entering this project at My Pink Stamper for her design team. The challenge was to make anything Cricut with the colors orange, turquoise, green and brown.

I had a lot of fun making this fairy and butterfly wind chime. This morning my son said "I really like your hanger mom, can I have it." To impress a 4 year old boy is compliments enough.

Round Paper Lace Thank You Card

This round cut from the Paper Lace Cricut cartridge was so cute I knew I needed to make it into a shaped card. I used my Gypsy to weld the shadow feature into a card. Then I cut the base lace twice on coordinating My Mind's Eye paper. I pieced the turquoise paper over the green paper, shaping and bending the leaves forward for a more dimensional look.

I used a Papertrey Ink die and stamp to make the tiny "Thanks" tag. Added some rhinestone bling and done!

For the inside of the card, I used the negative cut of the bird and made a "stencil" with ink daubers. Then I stamped some more "Thanks" and added some more bling.

I'm showcasing this card at the Cricut 360 Challenge blog. Challenge : circle thank you card. This card was a bit putsy to make, but I think it turned out super cute!

Wedding Card with Bells

I made this card for my cousin who's getting married in two weeks. Her main color is pink, so I made this card with a lot of bling and a lot of pink just for her.

I started by making a 5x7 rectangle on my Gypsy. Then I layered the lacy circles until I liked the way it looked. I love that you can do a card layout right on the Gypsy. You can add more images and adjust sizes and edit without cutting anything wrong.

My mom owns the Sweetheart cartridge and I knew I wanted the bell image. So I pulled up the image on my Gypsy, adjusted the size the 2.25 (something I knew I could cut with the cartridge in my Expression) and sized the other pieces around the bells. When I borrowed the cart from my mom I cut the bells out really quick cause I already knew the size.

I used Glossy Accents over the layered part of the bell and covered it with Martha Stewart's glitter. Then I popped it up using dimensionals. The butterflies are glued down and popped up with dimensionals - I love doing both so they looks like they're flying. Bling around the lacy circles finished the card.

The inside sentiments are from Papertrey Ink and Stampin' Up. I hope my cousin likes her card. I know she will have a beautiful wedding.



Flower Girl Totes

My cousin getting married in July asked me to create a cute tote for her flower girls. Something she could give to them as a thank you gift. She bought three pink (did I mention her main wedding color is pink!) fabric totes and told me to go to town and do whatever I wanted. I just love that kind of freedom!!

Here is the tote before I go all crazy.

I started by making some crochet flowers in different shade of pink. Then I die cut some felt flowers using my Cuttlebug and Papertrey Ink felt and dies. For further info please see the previous two posts!

I wanted to put the girls' names on the bag, but I didn't want some lame iron-on lettering. Using my Gypsy and the font feature of the Paper Lace Cricut cartridge I welded the names together. I laid them out on my 12x12 mat leaving lots of space between the words. Then I cut the names out using vinyl.

I stuck the vinyl stencil onto the fabric tote making sure I put the insides of the letters in. Using my brayer, I made sure the vinyl was stuck well. Then using a fabric paint I painted the names. Easy peasy!

I waited for the paint to dry and carefully removed the vinyl. It worked awesome. The lines came out really clean.

Afterwards, I hot glued the crocheted and felt flowers around the names. A couple bedazzled rhinestone bling and fabric paint dots and I was done.

I hope my cousin likes the totes. But more importantly I hope her three little flower girls do too!!



Dino Mite Birthday Card

For my nephew's 2nd birthday I made him this quick dino card.

I had a scrap cut from the Paper Lace Cricut cartridge that I layered first. Then I cut out the dino cut from Create A Critter at 4 1/4 inch. I used all four layers. I just love how the Create a Critter images cut. Layering is so easy and no small pieces to mess with!!

Inside I cut out two frames in different sizes and cardstock and layered them. Then I cut out the words "Dino Mite" using the phrase feature.

I stamped the word "Birthday" in black ink to finish it off. I love cards that take about 5 minutes to make. Easy peasy!



MOM Grungeboard Book

I made this MOM grungeboard book for my mom this past Mother's Day. Have I mentioned my mom is my biggest and craftiest supporter. She illustrates for children's material. Check out her blog. She owns the Cricut Personal Cutting Machine and a gypsy. She has made some beautiful paper crafting projects and cards. She's awesome!!

I started by welding the letters MOM from the Zoo Day cricut cartridges to a rectangle on my gypsy. I adjusted the rectangle to the exact size I wanted by unlinking (clicking off the chain link) the size proportion. I cut out the welded pieces in Tim Holtz grungeboard. It was my first time using this material and I liked it. It cut very well using my Cricut Expression machine and deep cut blade and housing. The edges also inked really well. I then cut out the rectangles and letters in patterned paper and assembled the book.

I punched holes on the left side using my Crop-a-dile Big Bite and bound the edges with ribbon.

Each page has different images from my Cricut. They are just waiting for some pics to be added.

My favorite page is the back page. It's simple but pretty. It has a Thank You sentiment stamped on a postage stamp image covered with Stickles. Just love that Stickles sparkle!!

I was really inspired doing the project. This was my first welded word album and it turned out pretty simple. I have some great ideas for my next one!!

Thank You Card with Paper Lace

I made two cards for my son's teachers for the last day of school. I found a "Thank You" sentiment in the Paper Lace cartridge I thought was cute. Found on page 61, it has a base shadow feature (love when there's a shadow).

I cut it out several times to find the size I needed. A trick I learned from Obsessed with Scrapbooking is to buy some cheap white cardstock (I get mine at Walmart) and practice cutting out your images with that. Then you can figure out the exact size you need without wasting your good paper.

I cut out the "Thank You" at 1 1/4 inches. It fit perfect on a vertical A2 size card. I cut out 3 sentiments cause they fit across the 12x12 Core'dination cardstock.

I try to fill up the space and cut out extra if it fits. Then I put the extra "Thank You" in my scrap stash for later. Need a card in a pinch - no problem- just grab some ready made images.

I find it easy to leave the base shadow on the mat and glue the layers on top. Then there's not too much movement with the little pieces. Gotta love Tweezer Bees and Zig 2-way glue pens. 

I used this beautiful Basic Grey Urban Prairie paper for the background. Added some ribbon trim from my stash at the top. Little yellow flower on the inside with a black stamped bee finished the card.

                            

I had enough paper so I made a third card to keep. For this card I added two rhinestone blings over the ribbon. I also hand cut out the bee at the bottom and popped it up with a pop-dot.