Christmas Cards made

I needed 62 Christmas cards to send out this year.  I decided to make a gate fold card.  The first picture is the 'prototype" of the card.

I used one Christmas paper pack for all of the cards from My Minds Eye.   The medallion in this card is stamped with writing, embossed in clear, and inked Stampin up inks.   The tree is cut from the Christmas noel cartridge and the medallion is cut from French Manor.  The inside of the card

Making the cards this way would be very time consuming so I streamlined it a little bit.   Instead of embossing the front medallion, I ran it through the Cuttlebug using either the Swiss dots or swirls folders.    For the inside, I just stamped the Merry Christmas on the cardstock rather than cutting, inking and gluing or taping the ovals.  I used two colors of stickles in the prototype; but only used red stickles on the rest of the cards. 

 So I started to mass produce this card starting with the card base of 8 1/2 x 5 1/2, scored at 2 1/8" and 6 3/8".   I cut the tag from the Pop Up Neighborhood cartridge at 4".  I was able to cut 8 tags out of a 12 x 12 sheet of paper cutting 6 landscape and 2 on portrait.   I'll be posting a video on how I did this.  I'm all about saving.   I cut the tree in shadow at 3 1/4" tall.  I was able to cut 12 from a 12 x 12 sheet but I used the parts in between as they were nice trees too and saved several sheets of paper.  I'll show this in the video too. 

 Then I cut what I used on the front panels of the gate card.  I first cut a 12 x 12 sheet into 3 4" strips and then cut 2, 5 3/8" pieces out of each strip yielding 6 per 12 x 12 sheet.  I waited to cut the 4" strips in half to mount on each side of the card until I was going to actually adhere it down.  I'll explain a little later.
I used Tim Holz Distress Winter Trio pack that came in the mail, for all the inking on the cards. 

I then stamped "Merry Christmas" on the inside panel with the red ink and folded and used a bone folder on cards.   Next I taped the pieces on the front panel.   I cut each 4" x 5 3/8" piece in half (2" each) and then taped them to the front of the card making sure that the pattern matched when the card was closed.  This is why I cut these one at a time to keep the pieces in order.
Next I ran the tags through the Cuttlebug BEFORE inking with the green or red.  I inked after the Cuttlebug to get the effect of having the ink on top of the embossing but not in between.   I assembled the cards using a combination of ATG tape and glue stick (again to save tape).   Then I put the red stickles on the trees and stood them up on the coffee table to dry (as shown in the picture).
I'm going to write "and have a Happy New Year!" on the inside with a Stampin Up marker and put my "trademark" on the back with the year.
I will show more detail in my YouTube video that I will post here.  Thanks for visiting and have a Merry Christmas!!! Amy

Baby gift for my niece--Tag, framed silhouette Dancer cut from Cricut, emobssed

My niece is having a baby in February and I put this together for her baby shower gift.   I put a gift card inside but I couldn't just do that.  In the first picture, I used a recycled white gift bag and needed to cover some names written on the bag.  I used a medallion cut from the French Manor cartridge, inked with Stampin up inks, a Little Bundle of Joy stamp and a flower I put together with a little green button brad for the center.  I colored the stamp with colored pencils.  This measures approximately 4" tall.

 

I made this tag for the baby whose name starts with a "P".     All the pieces were cut from Cricut cartridges including Country Life, and I'll add the others.  The tag is 6" tall.   I made the rosette from a piece of cardstock 1 1/2" by 12" scored every 1/4" .  I added the white stitching around the tag, pearls, ribbon bow, another button brad and recycled silk flowers.  All of the edges are inked with Stampin Up inks.   I didn't intend for this to be a Christmas onament but when my niece opened it up, she said, "oh, her first Christmas ornament."  Cool.

The back of the tag I ran through the Cuttlebug with this floral folder and I inked the inside of the folder with Tie Dye Distress ink.   Then I added some pink and brown ink around the edges and on top of the embossing.

Inside I put together this framed ballerina I cut from the Shall We Dance cart.  I embossed it with black embossing powder on black cardstock but when I make another one of these silhouettes, I will cover it with Glossy Accents or clear embossing powder.  I used a recycled silver frame, inked the mat with pink and green (the baby's room colors)  and mounted the ballerina on a pink patterned cardstock using sheet Glue Dots (one of my NEW favorite things!!!).

Preview

Thanksgiving banner "THANKFUL"

"THANKFUL" Thanksgiving Banner.

YouTube video at bottom of post.

I used the "Flip" feature on the cricut to create the wheat and turkey to face toward the middle.

I used the Martha Stewart score board to make the rosettes.   They measure 1" by 12" and scored every 1/4".

I used recycled silk flowers, pinecones, gold leaf and pumpkin swirls cut from Cricut Country Life and Thanksgiving.

The banners are held together with square eyelets that I used my hand-held Crop-o-dile to fasten.

This is cut at 4 1/4" and is the largest you can cut on a 12x12 sheet of paper.

  

Winner of the RC BlogHop Giveaway 12 Days of Christmas 2011

The winner of my Blog Hop Candy drawing is "Jenic22"


Thanks to everyone who participated.   I visited everyone's sites and all projects were wonderful.  I had a great time.

Amy

Day 11 of the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop and Giveaway

 I am happy to have been asked to participate in
 La Diva's 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop 2011
Today is Day 11

on 11-11-11.  
First I want to say
 Happy Veterans Day to all you Vets.
Thank you for your service. 

This was cut or drawn from Circuit Stand and Salute
and Alphalicious cartridges.

You can see more details on how these cards were put

together in my YouTube video at the bottom of this posting

CARD ONE

Because my Day is the Eleventh Day of Christmas
 I wanted to do something with 11 pipers piping. 
I stretched it a little bit and made this angel playing a trumpet.  
I used the green vellum for the angel cut from
Cricut Christmas Noel cartridge.  I used Martha Stewart
corner round and snowflake punches.



CARD TWO

This card was made with the same angel but I recycled the silver music wrapping paper for the shadow background for the angel and the music behind the angel.  I used the green vellum again
but went with a black and silver color theme.



inside: Merry Christmas (Stampin Up)





CARD THREE
For this next card I wanted to use the ink over clear embossing
technique and the Cuttlebug.   The deer is cut from the Cricut Christmas Noel cartridge.
The background shape is from the Cricut Around the Neighborhood cartridge.



inside the card is below Stampin Up.

The Santa stamp is a vintage stamp I found at an antique store.

List of supplies used:

Chocolate Chip card stock and ink from Stampin Up

Card Stock from My Mine's Eye Christmas . . .

Green Vellum from. . .

Vintage Photo Distress Ink Tim Holtz

Stampamajig from Stampin up

Christmas Solutions Cartridge

Martha Stewart Corner Round and Snowflake corner punches

Black card stock

Distress edger

Cuttlebug and swiss dot embossing folder

twine, stretch sliver ribbon and knit cording, eyelets

clear embossing powder

Christmas stamps from Stampin up

Recycled Silver Music wrapping paper

Gold Glitter Stickles
Stamp-a-ma-jig

Blog Hop Candy Giveaway

PIGGY TAILS Slide Box album book 7.5x8" eight pages with template

To enter the giveaway,
 leave a comment and answer the following question:
"Does Santa come to your house on
 Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?"

(Psssst. After you leave a comment here to enter,
you can follow my blog or
subscribe to my Runaway Crafting YouTube Channel and
get another entry into the giveaway.)
Winner to be announced November 13th after 6 PM central time.
Thanks for visiting the 11th day of Christmas on the La Diva's 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop.

Here is where you will be going next:

November 12th – Day 12
Erica
http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/

Below is myYouTube Video with more details on how
I put these cards together.

12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop Begins November 1, 2011

*updated 11-4-11

Welcome to La Diva's 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop!  Each day from November 1st until November 12th, the La Diva 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop Team will be sharing holiday ideas using various techniques for their creations. We'll also be announcing at the end of the blog hop who won from each team member.  And here's the good part... a nice gift will be given to the person who commented on every day of the blog hop!  What will the prizes be?  Well, you have to participate in the blog hops to find out. 

So we hope to see you starting November 1st!

Here are the dates:

UPDATED SCHEDULE

November 5th – Day 5
Gloria
http://craftergm.blogspot.com

November 6th – Day 6
LaShawnda (aka La’Diva)
http://lashawndawrice.wordpress.com

November 7th – Day 7
Kagi
http://sweetenedbykagi.blogspot.com/

November 8th – Day 8
Ruth
http://dailyfaithwithmily.blogspot.com

November 9th – Day 9
Tami A.
http://craftytamistamps.blogspot.com

November 10th – Day 10
LaShawnda (aka La’Diva)
http://lashawndawrice.wordpress.com

November 11th – Day 11
Amy Abnet
http://ameramy.blogspot.com/

November 12th – Day 12
Erica
http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

November 13th - Day 13

Announcement of Winners!

Happy Christmas Blog Hopping!!!

Cards for Baby, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Birthday. Cricut Center point, Cri kits gel pens

Give-a-Dog-a-Bone

Here is a project I did with Cricut Nursery Rhymes cartridge, some Distress Inks and Mod Podge decorating a dog milk bone container.   

Handmade Paper making, adding fibers and decoration to your paper.

Saving paper when making "the ultimate bragbook" photo album

I made this photo album with kathyorta on YouTube.  Go to her YouTube channel to get the link to her ustream Paper Phenomenon instruction video.  She is a hoot to craft with.   After I put this first album together, I wanted to be able to save paper.  Even though the album as made by Kathy is awesome, I wanted to mass produce some albums and saving paper was needed. 
Thanks for visiting and watching my videos.  Amy

2011 spring Mississippi River--3 floods in the last 12 months!!!

2011 Spring Flood Mississippi River Pool 6 Crest 16.58 feet

Normally the river level in Pool 6 is usually around 7 to 9 feet.  Flood stage is 13 feet.  Crest on 4-16-11 at 16.58 feet.  As of the date of this post, 4-21-11, the river is at 13.3 feet and should be below 11 feet in a week.  Now if it would only stop snowing!!! It's the end of April already. 

2011 Spring Flood Mississippi River Pool 6

New crafting area, hopefully renewed creativity.

My oldest daughter moved out the first weekend of April.  I'm filling the void with crafting supplies.   Leaving the dark, dank basement is such a relief.   26 years ago, when I moved into this house, I always thought this room would be a great sewing room.   I don't really sew anymore but now that I get the space back, it will be a great crafting room!    It faces east and gets really nice light, especially in the morning.   I have been working on some projects.   I watched Paper Phenomenon's ultimate brag book on Ustream and I've made a couple of books.  I love this book because it holds 4x6 photos and is a perfect gift for the non-scraper.    I'll share those with you in another video.  After I made the first one following Kathy, I made another using less paper.  I've also tried some things with the pencil shavings and I need to get back to making some cards.      Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.  Amy

Recently I altered a frame with some birch bark.  I also decorated the frame a little bit with some pinecones pictured above.

I cut the pinecones apart and was able to make the what looks like a flower.  The larger pinecones are from northern Wisconsin; the smaller round spiky one is from the Keys in Florida.  

In order to get the pinecones to lay flat on the frame, I cut the back of the cone off so it was flat.   Worked really nice.  I also used hot glue to attached everything to the frame.  Below is a video I made with more details about how I put this together. 

Marion Smith's 31 Day Challenge

Pages4theages puts together a video of Marion Smith's 31 Day Challenge

Thanks to Jennifer over at Pages for the Age's for posting this great video of some of the projects created during the Marion Smith's 31 Day Challenge.  I am thrilled that my Day 9 Challenge video of  an altered cigar box made it into the video.   Day 9 of 31 Day Challenge--Altered Cigar Box

I really had a great time participating in the challenge and "met" a lot of great and talented people.  Amy

French Manor Cricut Cartridge

This was one of the first cards I made with the French Manor Cricut Cartridge from the Cricut Circle.    I wasn't sure I would like the cartridge but as it turns out, I do really like it. 

I cut the scroll work and bird from the cartridge.   I used the forest branches and polka dot Cuttlebug embossing folders and Stampin Up Chocolate Chip ink.  I cut the scallop edge with SCAL and digital edge.   

DL.ART: Happy Sunday!! GIVE-A -WAY COMING SOON.........

DL.ART: Happy Sunday!! GIVE-A -WAY COMING SOON.........: "I'm nearing 100 followers. I have decided to do a give-a-way. I know for me when I am thinking, creating and just sorting through colors ei..."

The Pink Stamper Challenge

Here is the card I made based on the challenge from MyPinkStamper.com to make a card with Country Life Cricut Cartridge and with some spring color.  We are all sick of winter. My camera does not do the paper and color justice. It's from DCWV The Blossoms and Butterflies stack---very pretty.