Hope Your Day Is Fabulous!

My Pink Stamper just released a WHOLE new slew of stamp sets that are ALL awesome!!! CHECK them out HERE!!! 

I saw this phrase and thought it would be great for a wedding card! When someone asks me how my day is going I usually reply, "fabulous". So I have a feeling this phrase will get used a lot! 

*Designer's note: This whole card was made with one of the Christmas lines from Echo Park Paper! Don't forget to use patterns "out of the box"! You'll be pleasantly surprised at what you have in your stash! This just happened to be the closest collection to my craft table (as I can't get enough of it!) so I decided to be "lazy" and use it! LOVE it! :)*

Recipe:

• Cartridge: Tie the Knot™
• Sentiment: My Pink Stamper: More Fabulous Phrases™
• Patterned Paper:
• Echo Park Paper: Season's Greetings "Borders"™ (blue)
• Echo Park Paper: Season's Greetings "Green/Dark Red"™ (deep red)
• Solid Cardstock:
• Bazzill Basics in Java
• Paper Trey Ink in White and Vellum
• Brown Sharpie
• Ink: Momento in Rich Cocoa

AND something even more special is that the font that "fabulous" is written in -as well as other phrases on the set- was the font that reused for our wedding invitations, menus, programs, etc! SO I naturally LOVE this set!!! 

Apple of My Eye

This card came to me in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep. I woke up, thought about it.... then I woke up in the morning and executed. I know that I have been really "punny" and therefore there should be an apple on here somewhere, but I actually covered up the apple with a heart. I still think that you can say, "You're the apple of my eye" without it having to be punny. :) So I hope you enjoy it! 

Recipe:

Artful Delight September Card Kit (unfortunately the card kit is sold out, but there are still scrapbook kits available!)
Cartridge: Tie the Knot™ (hearts) 

Don't forget to leave a comment on my 6 days of giveaways! I will be drawing the winners VERY soon! There is a seventh giveaway on the Pumpkin Spice Blog Hop that was on September 3rd! 

You're the icing on top!

I hope you all enjoyed National Scrapbook Day!

Just another creation made with the Artful Delight May Kit! There is SO much paper in this kit!!! 

I actually made this card for Jenny's 30th birthday post on Friday but too many of my friends thought it was a wedding cake and not a birthday cake. So I made her the mouse card instead.

I just wanted to show you that a "cute, summery" kit can also be classy! Hope you like it! 

Recipe:
Cartridge: Tie the Knot™
Paper: Echo Park Paper: Summer Days: "Clouds" (stripes), "Blue/Orange) (blue solid) and "Borders" (flowers)™ (Artful Delight May Kit)
Cardstock: Paper Trey Ink (true black), Colorbox white
Sentiment: My Pink Stamper: Sweetest Cupcake™
i-rock by Imaginisce
Hot Rocks Compact in Crystal™
Ink: Colorbox in black
ribbon from my stash

Have a beautiful day! 

Greetings From CHA!!!

I am SO excited to be here in LA and sharing my experiences with all of you! I have already started a video that I'll have to post after there is more on it! :)

I arrived yesterday afternoon came straight to the condo, and am hanging out with some fabulous ladies! Tammy Skinner (Creative Critters Cricut Club and Creative Critters Imaginations) , Myrel, and Angela are all wonderful ladies and we had a wonderful time at the Brazillian steakhouse! Now, if you want a horribly tragic, but drama-filled review of yesterday's um... craziness, then pop on over to Tammy's blog and give her some virtual hugs!  - A new post will be up in a few minutes! :) (Give some virtual hugs to Myrel too even though she doesn't have a blog.) - Robyn and Karlee arrive this morning so we'll have to take a new "group picture" later! :) 

This morning I am on my way to the Cricut Circle meet-up and I am thrilled! I volunteered to help with the make and take - I don't even know what it is - but I am excited to meet a bunch of Circlets! 

There will be no cameras allowed, but I am going to try to take some pictures with ladies there outside of the room so you can see how Cricut-crazy we all are. And if you're coming, I'll be in my Imaginisce apron and will be happy to share any tips or information I have with you about their products! 

Okay, so here's a little project for you that didn't photograph very well. In the Circle we have to make 3x3 old fashioned calling cards to bring to share our information. Of course I designed a shaped 3x3 card! 

 Recipe:

Cartridge: Tie the Knot™ (present shape)

Paper: Echo Park Paper: Walk in the Park™ and Be Mine™

Imaginisce: i-rock™

Imaginisce: Hot Rock Crystal Compact: Pink, Black, Clear™

 I blemished out (not a word, but I'm making it up!) my Circle number for privacy reasons. 

If you're at CHA, stop by booths 1770 and 1767. The Imaginisce DT girls will be there to show you all of the new tools including the Pogo and the I-top 2.0! You can also see the new lines called Berrylicious, Happy Camper, and Little Cutie. And Imaginisce did not want to leave anyone out of CHA who couldn't go, so all of those new products are up on the Imaginisce website already! Just click on the names of the products and I have provided you with the links. Feel free to stay and look around as there are new fabric roly rosies, glittered glue sticks, lots of new i-rock colors and much more too! 

Okay, if there is anything you are dying to see, let me know and based on if they allow me take pictures/video it, I will be glad to do that for you! :) 

Be Mine

Hello to you all! It is the day after Robyn's birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBYN!!!

Today at My Pink Stamper's website the Design Team has been showing you projects made with either Love-alicious or Happiest Moments AND the color pink! I LOVE the Love-alicious stamp set! I think it's fabulous. For this project, I decided to use the "Be Mine" for a card and treat box. I hope you like it! 

 Recipe:

Sentiment: My Pink Stamper: Love-alicious™

Cartridge: Cake Basics™, Tie the Knot™

Embossing folders: D'vine Swirl™ and Swiss Dots™

Cardstock: Paper Trey Ink™

Paper: Echo Park: Be Mine™

3D flowers: Roly Rosies by Imaginsice™ (LOVE these)

Twine: The Twinery

Ribbon: stash

Black bling: Want2Scrap

i-rock by Imaginisce™

Hot Rocks Crystal Compact by Imaginisce™

white and black embossing powders by A la Mode™

Heat Embossing Gun by EK Success™

Buttons: Paper Trey Ink™
The flowers were put together and adhered to the box using the i-bond™ (LOVE it!)
My d-stress™ was used on the edges of the flowers as well as smoothing out the Cricut cut of the heart.

Crop-a-dile and eyelet™

 I really love this treat box. It just makes me happy on the inside! :)

*****EDIT*****
I have been getting a lot of questions on how I made the treat box and I am SO excited that it inspired a few of you!!! So here are the instructions! :)

The box was cut from Tie the Knot on "fit to page" on a 12x12 mat using Echo Park Paper. 

Next I used my petal roller by Imaginisce to make some roly rosies. I also used the D-stress to smooth and distress the edges.

I adhered those using my glue gun to the side (flatten it out of all of the next parts - but keep putting it together to make sure you are getting things where you want them on the box - and then flatten it again) 

Then I used my i-rock and the template for swirls that comes with the green and pink flowers i-rock kit. But I used the i-rocks from the crystal compact (all links to these things are above under "recipe" except for the green and pink stencil kit which is found here: http://www.imaginisce.com/ProductDetail.aspx?id=1243). 

Lastly, I cut out a heart from the Tie the Knot cartridge (it was the "blackout feature" of the heart that says "thank you") at 1.75 inches. 

I heat embossed that with white embossing powder and of course MPS Love-alicious stamps. I used my crop-a-dile to punch a hole and add a silver eyelet and then put some pink twine through it and tied it around a roly rosie. Clip the end, and you're done! :) 

Let me know if you have any more questions! I am happy to help! :) 

I made the card to match because the Cricut Circle is doing the month long contest where you have to "case" one of the projects on the blog along with using two cuts from the Cricut and two sponsors. My two sponsor were Echo Park Paper and Imaginisce! Here is the card I cased which was by Michele Kovack:

My card ended up a lot "busier" than hers, but all of the elements are still in there! :) 

Thank you SO much for stopping by today and make sure you pop on over to the My Pink Stamper blog to see what the rest of the DT has created! 

Final Be Inspired Wednesday for Passionately Artistic

This post marks the end of my design team term for Passionately Artistic (formerly the Cuttlebug Challenges). I have thoroughly enjoyed myself and am ready to move on to other projects. A huge thanks go Betty Bee who brought me onto the team and Maggie! Both of you taught me so much!

This week at Passionately Artistic we are giving you New Year's Celebration ideas! 

I chose to decorate a champagne bottle and I like the idea of going out with champagne! :) 

There is a lot going on with this Champagne bottle and I am going to write the tutorial... This is your final warning. :)

Recipe:
Card Stock: Cricut Consumables™
Cartridges: Tie the Knot™, Wild Card™
Embossing: Love is in the Air set™, D'vine Swirls™, Swiss Dots™
i-rock and hot rocks from Imaginisce™
Stickles are "Waterfall" from Artful Delight's November Kit (one left!)
Glossy Accents
Ribbon from my Stash
Ink: Studio G™
White Gelly Roll Gel Pen™
Crop-a-dile™
Adhesive: ATG

Instructions: 

Card:

I followed the instructions from Wild Card™ and cut all of the normal layers. *NOTE* The booklet is wrong. When you cut out the card base, it comes out backwards... so you have to flip all of the features to get them to fit properly. *End note*

I embossed the background with D'vine Swirls™ and the "cork" with Swiss Dots™.

I used Glossy Accents on the word "Cheers" as well as the black on the bottle. Unfortunately I had to take the picture when I could so there is still a little bit of "milky blue" that hadn't dried yet. But you still get the point I think. :) I also added the Stickles to the bottle to match the champagne glasses.

I used my Crop-a-dile to punch a hole in the top and tie ribbon through to adhere it to the bottle. Now you have a thank you card attached to the bottle for the host/hostess! :)

Bottle:

I cut a piece of hot pink paper and ran it through the Cuttlebug™ using the Love is in the Air set™.

Next I adhered that to the bottle using my ATG.

I cut out all parts of the champagne glasses (shadow, blackout, base, layers) from the Tie the Knot Cartridge™. 

Next I glued them all together and added the Stickles. While that was drying, I used my i-rock (LOVE IT) to add bling to the bubbles. :) Lastly, I used glossy accents around the edges of the glass to give it some shine and did some white gel pen doodling.

I hope you enjoy this idea for what you can bring to a New Year's party! If you don't drink, remember you can always attach it to a sparkling Martinelli's Apple Cider bottle or Pellegrino! :) 

Now hop on over to the Passionately Artistic blog and see what the other ladies have made to inspire you! 

Day 6 - Christmas Tags!

Courtney Lee

Good Afternoon! I hope you enjoyed this morning's post on tags over at Passionately Artistic! This is day 6 and I am the afternoon Tags post! :) This is my last post for the 12 days of Christmas series, but continue to head on over there for inspiration!  

My goal with this tutorial was to show a variety. A lot of times, I see something that I wanted to create, but I don't have the cartridge or the resources. 

Different Cartridges

Tie the Knot, Winter Woodland, Storybook, Gypsy Wanderings 

Using your Gypsy

I will show you how to make something truly unique with your Gypsy. 

No Cricut, No Cuttlebug, No Gypsy - just Scissors! 

Lastly, I will show you some tags that I did without any Gypsy, Cuttlebug, OR Cricut so that there should be inspiration here for anyone! :) 

Recipe:
Cartridge: Tie the Knot™
Base tag- 3.25"
rest - 2.5"
Stamper's Select White from Paper Trey Ink™ - heat embossed with a la Mode™ white
Martha Stewart Scandinavian Paper Pad ™ and Martha Stewart Winter Wonderland Paper Pad™
i-rock and bling by Imaginisce™
Glossy Accents
Pop Dots
Ribbon: Paper Trey Ink Saddle Stitch in Pure Poppy™

************************

Recipe:
Cartridge: Winter Woodland™ - all images cut at 3.25"
Martha Stewart Scandinavian Paper Pad ™, American Crafts Glitter Card Stock™
Paper Trey Ink Button Twine™
Ribbon from my stash

************************

Gypsy Fun making Tags!

Recipe:
Cartridge: Gypsy Wanderings™
Tag was cut at 3.75"
Snowflake and shadow cut at 2"
Accordion underneath the snowflake was cut at 1.5x12".
Martha Stewart Scandinavian Paper Pad ™, Martha Stewart Winter Wonderland Paper Pad™
Button from Paper Trey Ink Vintage Holiday Mix™
Button Twine from Paper Trey Ink™
Jingle bell from Michaels

*****************

Another tag made with the aid of the Gypsy using Winter Woodland™

Recipe:
Cartridge: Winter Woodland™
Martha Stewart Winter Wonderland Paper Pad™, Martha Stewart Scandinavian Paper Pad ™
Liquid Applique in White
Pop-dots
White Gel Pen™
Saddle Stitch Ribbon in Pure Poppy from Paper Trey Ink™

*****************

This last Cricut tag was two images welded together. I liked the holes it created in the middle. I cut the flourish again to place it on top. I used my i-rock to add bling and I heat embossed the "To" and "From" with gold embossing powder. 

Recipe:
Tag from Tie the Knot™
Flourish from Storybook™
i-rock and bling by Imaginisce™
Martha Stewart Scandinavian Paper Pad ™
Gold embossing powder by Filigree from Paper Trey Ink™
My Mind's Eye: Holly Jolly Perfect Stamps™

No Cricut, No Gypsy, No Cuttlebug - just manufacturer love. :) 

Sometimes we get so caught up in what a tag could look like on our layouts or cards that we just forget to use them as... well... tags.

I LOVE Echo Park Paper™ and the Merry Christmas line is fabulous. I just took these stickers, stuck them to card stock, cut it out, punched a hole on the the top, i-rocked some bling and tied a ribbon. Done. I am going to stamp a "To, From" onto the back. Easy Peasy. 

Recipe:
Echo Park Paper Merry Christmas line Stickers™
i-rock and bling by Imaginisce™
Gold bows were recycled off the top of a smoked almond package! (yay for up-cylcing!)

For this next one, I just took the My Mind's Eye: I Believe Chipboard and popped it out of it's little home. I added some green ribbon and - my favorite part - since it already has an adhesive back, it will stick right onto your gift! Done! AND it already is glittered - love that.

 Recipe: My Mind's Eye: I Believe Chipboard™

Next up we have the EAD Design Stickers. I had a bunch of fun with these. I stuck them to white card stock, cut them out, punched a hole in the top, added Stickles, and tied some twine at the top. 

The best part about EAD Designs is that this sticker set comes with cute little "To: From:" stickers as well. I put these on the back, but forgot to take a picture! So you'll have to go check out their website to see how cute the font is because I love it! 

Recipe: EAD Design Christmas Tags™
Stickles in Waterfall™ - the manufacturer pic looks like it is purple, but trust me, it's blue.
Stickles in Christmas Red™

I hope this inspires you to make your own Christmas tags this year! 

Don't forget to leave me a comment and become a follower if you're inspired! :) 

Thanksgiving Menu!

Courtney Lee

Good Monday morning to you!

I am doing the tutorial this morning for Passionately Artistic and was asked if I could make a Thanksgiving menu to put on the plates before dinner. I was excited to do it!

These are the actual dishes that I made for Thanksgiving two years ago (the food items, not the plates :).

Recipe:

Machines: Gypsy™, Cricut Expression™, Cuttlebug™, i-rock by Imaginise™

Cartridge: Tie the Knot™, Thanksgiving™, Winter Woodland™

Embossing Folders™: Swiss Dots™ and Victoria™

Card stock: Paper Trey Ink: Dark Chocolate™, Ripe Avocado™, Stamper's Select White™, Pure Poppy™, Orange Zest™

Metallic Pearl Glam Rocks™

Ink: ColorBox Olive™, Momento Rich Cocoa™

Buttons: Paper Trey Ink Vintage Holiday Mix™

Twine: Paper Trey Ink Rustic Cream Button Twine™

Adhesive: Glue Glider Pro Perma-Tac™, Glue Arts Extreme Adhesive Squares™

Glossy Accents

Three-dimensional foam

Instructions:

1.  I used my Gypsy to elongate a tag from Tie the Knot Cartridge™ and I hid the hole that is at the top. Then I made one slightly smaller to nest inside of it.

2. I cut these out of white Paper Trey Ink™ cardstock and Dark Chocolate from Paper Trey Ink™respectively. (Ignore the Pilgrim's hat - I decided not to use it when I got to the end.)

3. I inked the outside of the white cardstock with Olive ink from ColorBox™

4. Next I printed out the Menu on my computer in brown ink and used the brown layer as a template to trace and then cut around.

5. Then I burnt the edges of the paper - please be careful that nothing catches on fire and allow for the burning to take in more of the edge than you expect even after you've blown it out. As you can see - I lost my word "gravy" and part of my "M"!

6. I used my i-rock by Imaginisce™ to heat set the Metallic Pearl Glam Rocks™ next to the main titles.

7. Next I cut out leaves from the Thanksgiving Cartridge™ at 1.75" and 3".

8. Then I Cuttlebugged those leaves using the Victoria Embossing Folder™.

9. Next I cut out the leaves from the Winter Woodlands Cartridge™ in various sizes ranging from 1" to 5".

10. I Cuttlebugged those leaves using the Swiss Dots Embossing folder.

11. I then inked around the edges of those leaves with Momento ink in Rich Cocoa™. I also used a paper towel which I had inked up to run over the top of the Swiss Dots embossing.

12. I selected my buttons and tied bows using the Paper Trey Ink Rustic Cream Button Twine™

13. I adhered the leaves and all layers to the different locations using the Glue Glider Pro Perma-Tac™ cartridge. I did pop dot the Dark Chocolate layer to the white card stock layer.

14. I adhered the buttons using Extreme Adhesive Squares™ (those things are amazing! They really mean "extreme adhesive" and I am totally addicted!)

15. Lastly, I used Glossy Accents™ over the green leaves which were inked.

Enjoy your hard work and how impressed your family members look when they read over your menu! :)

I hope this helps you personalize your own Thanksgiving menus! We would LOVE to see them if you decide to link them up to Passionately Artistic! You may get featured and win a prize! :)

Present Shape Card

I couldn't help but play with this kit some more! I love it! Wouldn't this line make the sweetest wall banner for a little girl's room? 

Anyway, I designed this on my Gypsy™ in London while we were on vacation there. I looked up the papers and thought it would make a cute present shape card.

I used the polka dotted flocked transparency, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist™ and Stickles™ - all came with the kit. For the glimmer mist, I simply sprayed it on a paper towel and used it to "ink" the edges of the accordion cut and tag cut.

Recipe:
Artful Delight November Kit
Cartridges: Sweethearts™ and Tie the Knot™ (tag)
Button: Paper Trey Ink™
Twine: Paper Trey Ink™
Adhesive: Glue Arts Extreme Adhesive Squares™ and Martha Stewart Gel Adhesive™
Sentiment: Hero Arts™
Embossing Powder: A la Mode - white™
Heating Tool: Coloriser by EK Success™

Instructions:

1. Weld two short presents together from Sweethearts (there is a tall present version as well).
2. Create another front of present. Cut out of flocked transparency.
3. Use layer of bow and cut out of desired paper.
4. Adhere flocked transparency layer to front of card.
5. Use Stickles where lines of box and bow would be. Let dry.
6. Adhere bow to box.
7. Cut one 1.75" circle tag from Tie the Knot™.
8. Ink edges using Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist™ that has been sprayed on a paper towel. 
9. Cut one 1.25" blank monogram feature from Tie the Knot™ (found on the lips page).
10. Stamp sentiment onto blank monogram feature scalloped circle, and heat emboss with white embossing powder.
11. Cut a .75"x8" strip of paper and score every .25". Bend into accordion shape and put one Extreme Adhesive Square™ at the end of it to hold the two ends of the paper together. (I LOVE those squares!)
12. Use two more Extreme Adhesive Squares to adhere accordion shape to tag. 
13. Use hot glue to adhere sentiment stamped scallop circle to accordion.
14. Tie a bow with the twine through the button after looping it around the tag. 
15. Adhere button and twine to card using hot glue.
16. Put it on the top of a present or attach it to a gift bag and give it to someone special! :)

This picture is just to show you the flocked transparency. Those purple polka dots are flocking on the clear transparency. How cool is that? So my present is actually shiny in real life. 

Enjoy your day today and I hope it is fabulous! :)

This card also qualifies for Jenny at Wee Memories' Birthday Bash Challenge where Artful Delight is a sponsor this week!!! Head on over and play! Happy Blog Birthday Jenny!!!

Be Inspired Wednesday #104 - Breast Cancer Awareness

Good morning. Today at the Cuttlebug Challenge we are making cards for a wonderful cause: Breast Cancer Awareness. 

This card dawned upon be very quickly and I love how it turned out! Joanna did one similar a while ago and while I also had the idea to make it a shape card, I used hers as inspiration for the doodling since she is the doodle queen!

Recipe: 
Gypsy™
Cartridge: Tie the Knot™, Designer's Calendar™
Embossing: A2 Victoria Emboss Folder™
Stamps: My Pink Stamper: Everyday Occasions™
Pixie Stix from Pink Paislee™(black glitter)
Hero Arts Gems
Glossy Accents
Pop Dots

Instructions:

1. Select bodice, bodice blackout, and bodice shadow (twice) on your Gypsy™ from the Tie the Knot Cartridge™.

2. Weld two of the bodice shadows together to make the card base. This is the light pink layer.

3. Select Designer's Calendar™ pink ribbon from the October page twice. In the Gypsy™ you can see both the bodice and the bodice blackout. Lay them perfectly on top of each other on their individual layers.

4. Place one of the ribbons in the middle of the bodice. Place the other one on the layer with the bodice black out and also make sure these are perfectly on top of one another. This method allowed me to the cut ribbon out of both layers where you could see the pink of the card base all the way through.

5. Cut out all layers.

6. Doodle white around the edges of the dark pink layer.

7. Run dark pink layer through the Cuttlebug™ with the A2 Victoria Emboss Folder™. 

8. Adhere to black layer (bodice shadow).

9. Doodle black around the light pink layer.

10. Place pink and black layers over the card base.

11. Take My Pink Stamper: Everyday Occasions ribbon (it's the black ribbon) and stamp it in black in the middle of the cut out ribbon.

12. Use Glossy Accents™ on top of the black ribbon stamp. 

13. Sprinkle Pink Paislee Pixie Stix in black over the top. Tap the card to remove excess.

14. Use pop dots to adhere dark pink and black layers to the light pink base. The black ribbon should be showing through the center cut out ribbon.

15. Add Hero Arts™ adhesive gems to the top in the middle and the points of the cut out ribbon on the bottom (you can barely see mine, but they are hot pink). 

16. Give it to someone who is fighting the pink fight! 

I went to a Crop for the Cure on October 2nd in honor of Monique Griffith. So I gave this card to her! 

Head on over to the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog to see what the rest of the Design Team has created and play along with us! 

Cuttlebug Challenge Be Inspired #97-Book it!

It's the middle of the week and we all may need a bit of inspiration. This week's theme at the Cuttlebug Challenges is Book it! Feel free to play along, link up your projects, and you might win some Cuttlebug Folders!

Before being asked to be a Design Team member, I was one such lucky winner and not only won a Cricut Cake™ a few months ago during their Wedding Week extravaganza, but won during their Christmas Around the Clock (I'm sure you all remember me posting 24 Christmas projects) and the Cuttlebug™ folder just came in the mail this afternoon. You all will know when the Cricut Cake™ arrives. I will be posting some cakes! All I'm sayin' is, you never know what kind of prizes they are going to have!

Anyway, this is actually a card. The goal was to make a card look like a book - and now I think it looks too much like a book and not enough like a card. I covered some cardboard to make the base of the card and then covered it in white card stock. The edges of the pages are drawn with pencil. This project took a long time and a lot of patience.

I thought about doing it as a tutorial and if there is enough interest, I will gladly do it again, but be prepared to spend about 4 hours on it with glue drying time, etc. It took me about 7 with brainstorming, messing up, and trying again - and I STILL stuck my finger in the ink when it was wet! I hate that! Anyway, I think it was worth it in the end. I love the way it turned out. Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing how this was done!



Recipe:
Paper: DCWV, Laura Ashley "Love Song" 'Velvet' paper pack
Embossing: A2 Script Texture Emboss Folder
Cartridges: Tie the Knot™ (you can use any of the cartridges almost and find a scalloped circle)
Ink: Versa Mark (navy blue inking around the edges of the rectangle and scalloped circle), Colorbox (black for sentiment)
Sentiment: Martha Stewart Serif Alphabet