Creative Card Ideas With The Crop Stop and LYB

I love the beautiful colors and gorgeous details of Simple Stories' Vintage Bliss collection.  In fact, the Couture Creations doily die cuts completely reminded of the roses and lace in this collection, so I thought I would make a card combining the products.
The Crop Stop sent me the gorgeous embossing folders I mentioned last week, but these great die cuts from Couture Creations are just as much fun, just as beautiful and worked so well with my Spellbinders Grand Calibur.

I thought this rose sticker stacker from Simple Stories was the perfect center for the two layered doilies.  I used some of the Candi Fix foam pads to separate them and add depth to the cluster.  Although the sticker stacker already had a sentiment.  I added one more " Loved." sticker to the mix to extend the thought.  Then I tied a little bit of the sheer green polka ribbon that the Crop Stop sent me into the cluster to complete the look.

The Exotic embossing folder from Couture Creations is such a great background and I love how it looks with patterned paper.  I used this newsprint paper from the Simple Stories Vintage Bliss collection and love how the vines pop right out, but allows you to still be able to see the print on the paper.

Sometimes keeping it simple is a great way to incorporate mixed media elements into a project.  I chose one of the Naturals Canvas Stickers and the Faber-Castell Mix & Match Aquarelle Watercolor Pencils as the focal point of my card.  The colors of the pencils were a perfect match for our Poppy collection.

The Naturals Canvas Stickers are very easy to color and there are so many cool designs to choose from.  I used the Whimsy group, but any of the designs in this collection would have looked great with Poppy.

The watercolor pencils were easy to apply to the canvas and filled in with vibrant color as soon as I added water with the paint brush.  I had a little bit of bleeding, but not too much and the effect is actually pretty cool.  I used some of the Tropical Gelatos to color the leaves of the flower and to add some smudging to the corners of the card.  Finished the card off with some Poppy Vellum Tape

LYB Products:

NA-CV20 Canvas Stickers - Whimsy

PY-109 Pretty Plaid/Aqua Parchment

PY-104 Poppy Field Damask/Aqua Script

PY-160 Vellum Tape (15 pieces)

Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Products:

Mix & Match Gelatos in Tropical

Mix & Match Aquarelle Watercolor Pencils

Thank you for stopping by -

Hopping with the Imaginisce i-top

How is the Imaginisce i-top Hop treating you so far? Have you discovered some clever ideas for using an i-top on your cards? If you are just jumping into the hop, there is an opportunity to find some wonderful ideas for using an i-top on cards and a chance to win your very own i-top and accessories just for playing along. Please see the details at the bottom of this post.

I thought it would be fun to make a dimensional birthday card with a party hat as the theme. I also used the Imaginisce Birthday Bash collection to create this and one of the 28mm Brad Daddies was the perfect topper for my hat, because it helped dress up the hat by attaching the curling ribbon perfectly.

I used the 28mm punch to purposely select these candle graphics in the patterned paper. Isn't it fun? Because it is an enormous brad, it poked through the chipboard very easily and then had space to attach the curling ribbon securely.

It only took a few ingredients to make this card. Below is a visual recipe for fun...

First Ingredient - Trusty i-top from Imaginisce. I used this to create the large pom pom on the party hat.

Second Ingredient - 28 mm Brad Daddies from Imaginisce. They are the perfect size for making a graphic on patterned paper show up on your project. I used the punch to select the little candles as part of my design for the card.

Third Ingredient - Birthday Bash collection from Imaginisce. This is one of my very favorite collections as I love to scrap with reds, browns and blues. This is just the perfect palette of birthday happiness.

Fourth Ingredient - Melody Ross Chipboard Banners. I happened to have these lying around my scraproom, but really you could cut your own 5 x 5 chipboard triangle to create the same effect.

Fifth Ingredient - Cricut Birthday Bash Cartridge. This one is so much fun and very different from some of the other Cricut birthday themes. I set the hat brim to 9.5 inches to perfectly match the bottom of the the chipboard banners.

Sixth Ingredient - White Curling Ribbon. Who doesn't have some of this lying around the house? It made a perfectly inexpensive embellishment for my party hat. I used three strips and cut them to different lengths.

Seventh Ingredient - White Gel Pen. I love to doodle stitching on my projects and this time for fun, I added some x's to break up the pattern.

Seven is a lucky number for a recipe of ingredients, so I hope that you get some inspiration for a project of your own. And...I hope you walk away from this hop with your very own i-top.

Next Stop on the Hop -

Imaginisce Blog

Fine Print

Please visit all three of the designer's blogs, leave a comment and then hop back here to the Imaginisce blog and leave a final comment letting us know what you discovered about the projects and the i-top. All of your comments make you eligible to win an awesome i-top and accessories of your own.

Courtney Lee

Kim Holmes

Liz Qualman

You Could Win This...

One more thing - You will also want to haunt the Imaginisce blog all week for more ideas on how to use the super creative and incredibly fun i-top with chances to win your very own i-top each day and a SECRET grand prize opportunity on Friday.

Thank you so much for stopping by -

Some Holiday Spirit

How about a holiday card with a little warmth despite the cold? Something I love about Echo Park's "Wintertime" collection is that you can make holiday projects that aren't specific to a certain holiday or religion. This card is meant to let someone know you are thinking about them or to include with a special gift of food or drink around the holidays.

To add a litle dimension to my card, I backed the journal card with some chipboard. Then I added an Imaginisce Snowflake Glitz to the hot cocoa mug for some extra sparkle on the snowflake. Finally I tied on some red gingham ribbon from Jillibean Soup to dress the card up just a bit. That is real Colorado snow in the photo! No worries, the card is safe and sound - LOL. Talk about super fast photography skills.

Have a wonderful Holiday Season!

A Little Turkey Hop w/ Imaginisce

I thought it would be fun to add these two silhouettes of Mr. and Mrs. Pilgrim to my cards. Aren't they a darling couple? And don't they look swell dressed up in Imaginisce's Apple Cider collection? These were very easy to make with some kraft paper, Apple Cider and my Cricut.

I can't do anything without my i-rock. The little gem accents add just the right amount of interest to frame the silhouette. I also fussy cut some leaves from one of the Apple Cider papers to add a little accent and then inked everything to soften the lines.

Hopefully you have figured out which one of us is not like the others, but I will give you a hint. When you head back to the Imaginisce blog - look at the title of the post and it will give you a big clue as to which one of us did not use the Thanksgiving Cricut cartridge. Good luck with winning that AWESOME Gypsy.

Order of Blogs to Hop:

Melinda Spinks
Aphra Bolyer
Liz Qualman
Imaginisce Blog

Thank you so much for hopping today!

Happy Halloween

Aren't these Boo-tiful papers and embellishments from Nikki Sivils so much fun???  I love the bright colors mixed with the distressing and the ghosts are pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.   Perfect for my spooky little girl.  She loves this holiday as much as I do and still insists on wearing her costumes all year round.

I mixed one of Nikki's cute little Craft Flags in with the ghosts and added the sentiment, "Boo!"  I also inked the edges with some chalk ink to make the white flag stand out more against the spooky white ghost.  Then I tied on a little polka dot bow for some added fun.

Nikki's Burlap Buttons make the perfect finishing touch by adding a little interest and texture to the layout.  The thing I love most about these, is you just stick the little suckers right onto the project.  No sewing necessary and no need to add adhesive.  I also used my Cricut to cut this shape in the striped paper to break up the squareness of the layout and then used the shadow feature to cut the black mat.

Nikki adds so many cute embellishments right into her papers.  I used a 1 1/2 inch circle punch to pull this pumpkin out of one of the papers.  Then I inked the edges and pop-dotted it to make it stand out more.

This card completely cracks me up!  I used one of the chipboard ghosts from Nikki's awesome Ghost Mini album that is currently being featured in this month's Creating Keepsake Magazine (see below).  I am a big fan of Nikki's 6x6 patterned papers and this striped paper is the perfect background for this spooky little guy.  I cut the sign from the embellishment page in Nikki's Boo-tiful papers and added the sentiment with some of her sticker letters from the Tree Love Collection.

Can you see it in the Number 1 spot???  We are all very excited about being featured, especially since we know how much fun Nikki's Chipboard Mini Albums are.  Make sure you check out the others HERE.

I'll close it out with one more card.  I can't seem to get enough of these frightening little ghosts, so I had to add them to the bottom of this card along with a big "Boo" sentiment which I cut with my Cricut using more of the 6x6 Boo-tiful patterned papers.  Hope you all have as much fun creating this month as I am...and don't forget to grab some of Nikki's Boo-tiful collection before it is all gone :)

Thank you so much for stopping by -

Spooky Imaginisce Card Challenge

Pop over to the Imaginisce blog to check out our Spooky Halloween Card Challenge hosted by Aphra Bolyer, Melinda Spinks and myself.  You could be the winner of some seriously fantastic prizes, but you have to play along to win!  This is my version of a spooky card using some of my Imaginisce Stash and my Cricut Celebrate Flourish cartridge.  Can you believe how awesome To Love and Cherish works as a Halloween palette?  For this card, I cut the adorable Jack O' Lantern with my cartridge,  then added a little bling with my irock to dress it up a tad.  Pumpkins are one of my favorite parts of Halloween.  The orange patterned paper for this little guy is from the Splash Dance collection and the green patterned paper is from the Live Loud collection.  Isn't it fun how you can use everyday papers and materials to create a Halloween project?


Hope to see one of your creations at the Imaginisce Blog!  Thanks again for stopping by -

Little Yellow Bicycle Contest - Please Vote

Hey all - just wanted to let you know that both of my Boo-ville projects have been chosen as semifinalists in the Little Yellow Bicycle Contest and that you can visit either their blog or their Facebook page to vote for your favorite project.  I am really excited because I just adore this collection.  All of the projects are wonderful.  Please go check them out.

 Thank you so much for stopping by -

Making Cards with Adornit

Recently, I had the pleasure of working with some of Adornit's newest collections.  Honestly, Adornit is one of the best kept secrets in the industry, because they make so many wonderful products and their papers are delightful and such high quality.  You can actually purchase from the directly at their site or order many of their products through scrapbook.com.  Below are some of my cards... Pink Hoot is really fun, Misty is beautiful and sentimental, and Vintage Groove is gorgeous and decadent. Each of my cards reflect those feelings, and although I love them all, I would have to say that the Misty Collection is my favorite in this release and that is saying a lot, considering that Bee Happy was my favorite from the previous release.  Please visit Adornit's blog for a challenge every month and to see what they are cooking up next. 

 Pink Hoot Collection

 

 Misty Collection

 Vintage Groove

Thank you so much for stopping by - 

Card Making Continued

Friday is the BIG day for Cardmakers! I whipped up this little friendship card to celebrate this National holiday. Can you not get enough of these gorgeous Sassafras papers and cardstock stickers in the September Kit at The Paper Poppy Kit Co.??? OMWord - I am so inspired by this kit!!! Please pop to the STORE to pick one up if you haven't already...

I just picked up the new Christmas Card cartridge for my Cricut and used it to cut the textured borders on my cardstock and the corresponding patterned paper. Then I found this Bo Bunny rub-on in my stash and added it to the Sassafras journal card in the kit and was super excited at how well they lined up. It was like they were made to go together. The numbered border is meant to show the "distance" in the quote on the card.

Thank you so much for stopping by -

National Card Making Week...

The leaves are starting to fall off the Trees where I live, even though we are experiencing a bit of a heat wave with temperatures in the high 80's. You should see the gorgeous Aspen Groves with their bright yellow leaves. I know...I should get off my butt and take a photo, so you can really see it... maybe this weekend. To celebrate this time of year I created these cards with the Imaginisce Apple Cider Collection which is the perfect fall palette of colors and icons. For the card above, I used my Christmas Cards Cricut Cartridge to cut the shape in various sizes to stack on one another.

This card is featured in the Fall issue of Scrapbooking and Cards Today. Click here to download the magazine online.

Thank you so much for stopping by -