Bumble bee and lady bug bags

Bag: The bag is 4” H X 3” W X 1” D in size. To make the bag

1. I took a piece of yellow CS 8.5 X 5. Score along the longer side at 3", 4", 7" and 8".
2. Score the short side at 1". This will be the bottom of the box and make a 1" cut at the score marks above so that you can fold the flaps later to make the bottom.

Black stripes: A piece of black CS 3" X 0.5" and 1 piece 3" X 1.5".

Wings: Cut two scalloped hearts at 2" and two plain hearts at 1.75". Mat the plain hearts with the scalloped hearts.

Eyes: I used the smallest nestabilities oval to make the white portion of the eye and the bigger hole in crop-a-dile to make the black portion of the eye.

Antennae: I used a thin strip of black cardstock 1.5” long and a circle punched using crop-a-dile.

Glue all these parts to one of the 3"X4" faces of the yellow CS. Punch a hole each on the 1 X 3” sides of the box. Thread a ribbon through it – I took a ribbon 10” long and tied a knot on each side after threading the ribbon. Now assemble the box. Use double sided tape to glue the sides of the box and then the bottom.

Bag: This bag is 3”H X 2”W X 1”D in size. Take a piece of red CS 7” X 4”. Score the longer side at 2”, 3”, 5”, 6”. Score the shorter side at 1”. Follow the rest of the instructions as above.

Wings: Scalloped heart is cut at 1.75 inches and plain heart at 1.5”.

Eyes: Same as bumble bee.

WMS #31 and Valentine day craft carnival

This card is based on the WMS #31 and will be going to the Craft Critique Valentine day carnival

I really liked the sketch because it was so simple to remember. I could think about it anytime I wanted – I didn’t have to refer the sketch again and again. It was fun playing with it and here’s the card I designed

Cut the butterflies at 3/4 of an inch. The inner heart at 2 inch and the scalloped heart at 2.5 inch. The sentiment is computer generated on crème CS. All the cuts are done using cricut. The scalloped heart is embellished with liquid pearls and the butterflies with adhesive backed pearls.

I love this color combo! And let me tell you that I’d to throw a couple of hearts (paper ones! ) before I got that sentiment right in the middle of the heart! The hearts are from SVG files provided by Penny Duncan Creations and the butterflies are my own SVG files. Once I upload the SVG files online, I’ll share them for the benefit of all.

• Paper: PTI
• Cricut, Adhesive pearls, liquid pearls

Love you!

I was wanting to a make an all out red card for the coming valentine’s day and this is what I came up with. There were lots of configurations for those hearts that were flooding my mind but somehow this one just stuck.

 

Cut the scallop heart at 1.5 inches. Using SCAL I added a letter each to the regular hearts. The Font is calibri and the letter height is 1”. Cut the regular heart at 1.25 inches. Mat the regular heart with the scallop heart. Glue the pointed ends of the hearts L and E to the card and pop up the opposite ends on pop dots. Cut a strip of white CS and stamp sentiment on it. I actually masked a sentiment to stamp just the “you!” part. Glue both ends of the strip and pop the middle on pop dots. Punch the lower corners.

I used the scallop and regular heart SVGs from Penny Duncan Creations. She has an amazing collection of SVGs! I also love to play with my SCAL! It makes everything so easy!

• Stamps: Hero Arts Cuckoo
• Paper: PTI
• Cricut, SCAL, Button

Goals for 2011

Last year I started the tradition of having some crafty goals for myself. You can have a look at them here. Little did I know that setting goals would make so much of a difference! I’m so happy to say that I think I exceeded my expectations!  

1. I did three craft fairs! It was nowhere on my goals but I guess crafting on a regular basis propelled me to do something bigger and hence the craft fairs! So I’m not going to count whether I did 2 cards per week or not because the total number of items I made for the craft fairs far exceeds the goals I’d set.
2. I made a cushion cover without any pattern! I know it was simple but to have that amount of confidence in sewing was an achievement in itself. Then with my mom’s help (or the other way round ) we made a skirt, a dress and a night dress for myself.
3. Sometime early last year I decided not to pursue my goal of publishing because I wasn’t much into card magazines then. I'm bending a little towards them now but still not completely. So I’ll keep this on hold till I become a regular reader of some card/craft magazine.
4. I’ve been uploading my cards regularly to SCS and my gallery there grew from 5 to 8 pages. Thanks to that habit 5 of my cards were selected as CAS favorites!! It really makes my day when I come to know that one of my cards has been selected as a CAS favorite!

Ok too much gloating now let’s move on to the goals for this year. I don’t know how I’m going to top those of last year

1. Make 2 projects/week. I’ll retain this goal as I think by doing this I fire my creativity. Maybe I’ll start something similar to Create Your Own Fridays or re-start that.
2. Sewing projects: Instead of setting a frequency I think I’ll list what all I want to make this year.
• Shopper
• Quilt
• Cushion Covers – 4
• Dress/Skirt
• Zipper pouches – 4
3. Upload all projects to SCS.
4. Maintain Etsy shop – keep around 15 items in it at all times.
5. Participate in 2 challenges per month.

Celebrate the moment

I got the color inspiration for this card from Anthropologie’s cowlneck top.

The color combination was so new to me and there seemed to be something very sophisticated about it. So I decided to make a card that matched that.

Brown is such a universal color. It’s just like gray! Can be paired up with any color! There was a time when my mom wanted our first car to be brown and I thought to myself “Who wants a brown car?!?!”. Secretly I was happy that brown was out of stock . Now, I love brown! Ok maybe not in my wardrobe but certainly in my cards! It’s so easy to work with!

Isn’t that pretty?!?! Just like what I had in mind!

I scored the lines using a bone folder. Accentuated the intersections with liquid pearls. Cut the frame, it’s shadow and the oval using cricut. Stamped the sentiment on the oval. Glued the frame and it’s shadow together. Attached it to the card using pop dots. Added the oval to the frame again using pop dots. Embellished with two adhesive backed pearls. Another quick and easy card! Oh and I was so happy with my creative spark – I used two different sentiments to create that sentiment!

I got the SVG file for the frame from here. It is so pretty!

• Stamps: Hero Arts Cuckoo, Flourishes Flourished Words
• Paper: PTI
• Cricut, Liquid Pearls, Adhesive backed pearls, Palette Hybrid Noir, Pop dots.

Bye bye coordinating dies!

Yes if you have a cricut you can save your money and space and not buy all those coordinating dies! I’ve used a Hero Arts Frames and Messages stamp to show you what cricut can do for you. All the cuts below have been done using cricut – no dies, no scissors! You can use this to create a mat for any of your stamps.

Isn’t it awesome?!?! Okay I agree it may not be perfect but with a little more work you can make it perfect. All you need is a nice crisp image from your stamp, scanner, cricut and SCAL. Here are the steps:

1. Stamp a crisp clear image in black on white cardstock/paper.
2. Scan the image using a scanner and save a jpeg file.
3. Open the image in your SCAL.
4. Use the trace outline feature in SCAL to well trace the outline of your image. You will need to try and test different settings to see which gives the cleanest image. You can preview your image after you change the settings – that helps!
5. Once you have the outline, if it’s a non-outline stamp (something like above or a solid stamp) then delete the other layers and just keep the outermost layer.
6. Make a copy of the image.
7. Now increase the size of the copy (keeping proportions) to give you as big a mat as you want. I generally increase the size by 1/5 inch on width and height. Keeping it a bit larger is more forgiving when you stamp.
8. You can use the original image to see what size works for you.
9. You now have a mat for your stamp!

I agree it’s a lot of work to cut one mat for one stamp but if you’re going to use it often then it’s just one time work.

Tuesday Trigger–Bright Spot

I’m just wowed with every Tuesday Trigger and eagerly wait for Cath’s post every Tuesday. Here’s this week’s Tuesday Trigger

I spent one whole night thinking about this trigger – that’s probably the longest I’ve thought of any card! My find was flooded with banners, flowers, etc. but I finally decided on this

The garland in the picture inspired me to use circles. How I love that card!! It literally took me less than 10 minutes to make this card! Maybe I could submit it to Take Ten

I cut the circles at 1.25 inch in cricut. Stamped the clock from Hero Arts Cuckoo stamp set. Attached the circles to the card using foam dots. Stamped the sentiment.

• Stamps: Hero Arts Cuckoo
• Paper: PTI
• Memento Tuxedo Black, Cricut

Spiral paper flowers

Before finalizing my flowers in this card I did some trial runs and am sharing the photos here.

The leftmost is made with a 2” circle and 1/4 inch width of spiral, the middle with 3” and the rightmost with 4”. For the two on the right I cut the spiral and then cut the outer edge of the spiral with a “wave” decorative scissors. Hence the petals on them.

Gray is the new black challenge

I haven’t used the gray color for a long long time! I love gray; especially gray, pink and lime green – that’s a fab combo! So when I saw the Moxie Fab Gray is the new black challenge I was onboard with it; especially this picture…

Even though the picture was just for inspiration I wanted to re-create it in my card. So I learnt how to make paper flowers. Yes I hadn’t ever made them because they make the cards hard-to-mail and most of my cards are sent by mail; but I was so mesmerized with this photo that I decided to make an exception here.

The ferns were cut using my cricut. The flowers were made from a 2” circle. The sentiment is embossed with white embossing powder.

A close-up

• Stamps: Hero Arts Frames and messages
• Paper: Papertrey Ink
• White embossing powder, Michaels ribbon, Cricut.

Tuesday Trigger–Winter white

Even though this Tuesday trigger is named Winter white, the first color that came to my mind when I looked at it was crème like vanilla crème

and flowers and pearls…

With that on my mind I made this card

I embossed flowers with white embossing powder. The cut out the central flower in two different layers. Attached adhesive pearls to the center of the flowers. Traced the swirls with liquid pearls. Scored a frame and attached a ribbon.

I didn’t have a clear picture in my mind when I started on this card. All I knew was I wanted a card oozing with crème, flowers and pearls; and I think this card fulfills that vision of mine.

• Stamps": LAD Jolies Fleurs
• Paper: PTI
• White embossing powder, liquid pearls, adhesive pearls, ribbon