Crafty Calendar Challenge

The current challenge is to have a winter themed project with the addition of a snowflake. This is a trifold card that I made using a snowflake cut out using Wausau White Gold Metallic Cardstock. The background papers came from DCWV Christmas Cardstack purchased last year. Embellishments include a white snowflake brad along with Michael's store ribbon that was on clearance.

I just love the festive colors and it is a nice break from the traditional colors associated with Christmas. The card came together in 10 minutes so it was easy and quick to make in multiples! Isn't if fun when something comes together so quickly? I hope I've inspired someone to have fun in their cardmaking and crafting.

Have a wonderful day!

Debbie

Surgery

There will be a slight intermission in my life for a few weeks. I had to have emergency gallbladder surgery this past week, so now I'm unable to craft for a bit. Sunday was my birthday, what a way to spend the day, recovering from surgery. Ugh. Hopefully I'll be back to things very soon and feeling better.

Life has been busy

It seems that life has been very busy for hubby and myself this summer. That alone has kept me from blogging. I just had to take some time off and re-charge my batteries. We kept very busy over the summer building gardens around our decks and a little experimentation in growing watermelons, snow peas and cucumbers in a small garden. Needless to say with the heat from the summer, it basically took quite some time for things to grow. The only thing that didn't grow decently were our cucumbers. This is the first time we ever had them grow so deformed and basically they were not edible. The watermelons grew and ended up looking like bowling balls and oh my goodness, they were as sweet and juicy as could be. I was so surprised with them. Our snow peas really threw us for a loop. I have never had them grow for more than a month before the stems died out. Where we live now, because there is a lot of sand under the dirt, we had snow peas growing all summer long. Talk about a shocker, but we were so pleased at how delicious they were and that we were able to pick them all summer long. Our tomato plants grew quite large, to the point that some of them had to have double cages just to hold them up. Talk about super sweet and yummy. We did can a few batches of sauce which will last us through the winter.

So now that I am back to crafting, I will start posting cards that I have made recently.

Debbie

Card Swap and Sad News

I recently participated in a card swap for Cricutscraplifters. I just love making cards and I surprised myself at how nice these turned out.

The first card is my summertime beach card. I did the background using SU inks and a SU seashell border stamp. The umbrella and chair were cut out using Life is a Beach Cricut cartridge. The pink cardstock on the umbrella was outlined using Cri-Kit Metallic pen made for the Cricut machine. It looks much nicer than what you can see in the photo.



This next card is for the 4th of July. I used SU cardstock and inks. The star paper is from some paper I purchased years ago but I can't remember where. All the cut items are from the Stand and Salute Cricut cartridge and some things were pop dotted. The inside of the card was drawn on the Cricut using the Cri-Kit pens. I just love the way this card turned out.



On a sad note, my best friend, Mary Powell has closed her store. She made such beautiful designs for cutting machines. I know her store and designs will be missed but maybe later in life she will start designing and selling again. Right now, she is taking a break and being very creative making cards and posting on her blog. Head on over to http://mamawslegacy.wordpress.com/ to see her beautiful cards. She just inspires me in so many ways. I can only hope that one day I can make such beautiful cards like she does.

It's another rainy day here so I will be working on cards and catch up on scrapbooking vacation photos from over a year ago. Better late than never, right?

Have a wonderful day!

It's Been A While

I can't believe I haven't updated the blog for the past two months. I must admit it has been busy around here. Since we has such early summer weather starting in the last week of May, there have been some very busy bees here.

Hubby and I have built 3 veggie and flower gardens which are blooming just beautifully now. We love fresh vegetables, so we put in tomato plants, pepper plants, radishes, bib lettuce, cucumbers, snow peas and watermelon. I've noticed that one tomato plant is not doing well at all so it may be a dud. I picked a few radishes the past two days. Wow, the radishes have a real bite to them. Whoo, it sneaks up on you. Talk about eating good and healthy. Sad to say, out of all the lettuce seeds I put down, only one set has come up. Hmmm. I guess I'll try replanting them. I have a feeling that when someone was weeding the garden (me), I may have pulled them when they were just tiny sprouts in the ground, thinking they were mini weeds. I like to weed as soon as possible. Guess I'll just have to replant lettuce and more radishes. Nothing like eating fresh homegrown vegetables!

The dogs are doing beautifully here. Jett is growing like a weed and soon will be almost the same size as Storm. They have been busy swimming at the lake, splashing in their plastic pool in the backyard and having fun with the water sprinkler out back. It's a good thing we don't live on a lake because we would have a hard time keeping them out of the water.

Next posting will show some cards I made for a swap. Hope you had a wonderful and safe 4th of July holiday.

New Ideas for Cards and more

If you are looking for some new ideas for cards, head on over to http://mamawslegacy.wordpress.com/ for see her latest creations. Once you see what she has come up with, head on over to her store at http://shop.mamawslegacy.com/zencart/to purchase her files. Oh my goodness, what a fabulous way to make cards super fast using a cutting machine. Just beautiful ! Mary really puts in a lot of time and talent in making her designs. Yes I am biased, she's my best friend !!

Something new for the Cricut machine are gel pens and swirl gel pens available at http://www.cri-kits.com/index.html. They have a magnetic pen holder and gel pens that fit in the blade housing. Just swap the blade out and put the magnetic pen holder in and let the Cricut draw the design. I purchased all 4 sets of the gel pens and they work amazingly well. Today I received the swirl gel pens and as the pen puts out ink, the color of the ink changes as it flows. Super neat idea. I just love the pens. Now they are coming out with an embosser that will fit right into the magnetic pen holder. Does it get any better than this? Wow...I guarantee you will get hooked on their pens.

I will be posting some new cards that I used with Mary's new designs and using the Cri-Kits gel pens. I can't wait to start creating. Oh the ideas that are just flowing in my head!

Til next time, Happy Crafting!

Debbie

Vellum Butterfly for Card Swap

Let's see if blogger will let me post the second card now. I tried on the previous post, but it must have been running some kind of glitch. (It looks better if you click on the photo, because on here it looks too blurry).

For this card I cut the border and butterfly from the Gypsy Wanderings that is already pre-loaded on the Gypsy. I colored the vellum with SU Regal Rose, same color as the border paper with the circles. I stamped a flourish on the paper before I cut it out to give it some depth, in Whisper White. Put a little dab of Stickles in the center of the circles and done! I stamped the back of the envelope with a butterfly and used the same stamp to also stamp it very lightly inside the card. That's it, quick and easy!

Happy crafting!

Debbie