Giraffe Grad Card

Tonight I'm heading to a 6th grade graduation for the son of a friend, so I needed a little card for him. There were a bunch of challenges I used for inspiration, so be sure to check those out below. I posted two versions of the card. The first one has a plain white background, and I was going to go with that one, but the Amazon delivery truck pulled up to the house with a package of stencils I had ordered, and one of the stencils reminded me of the giraffe's spots, so I added that to two of the corners. Which version do you like best? On the inside of the card, I stamped the sentiment "You're moving up!" because I thought it worked well with the giraffe and the promotion to middle school!

Recipe:
Elemental stamp set
At the Zoo papers (Doodlebug Designs)
Clover Meadow, Toffee, Sunflower & Chocolate cardstock
Clover Meadow, Toffee, Brown Bag & Chocolate ink
Chocolate baker's twime
Animal Spots stencil (Boqon)
Cuttlebug Wicker Weave embossing folder
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: giraffe
Cricut Artiste cartridge: banner
Pattern: Hand Stamped Sentiments #464

Challenges: Can You Handle The Pressure? - Anything Goes with an embossing folder + twist of zoo/jungle animal; Stencil Fun -  Anything Goes with a stencil; Inkspirational #342

Tic Tac Toe Challenges #271 - I used the middle column with Die cuts + Ribbon or Twine + Embossing folder.

End of School Year Cards

My son is graduating from eighth grade tonight, so I whipped up a fun card for him. I thought the sunglasses were a perfect fit for his teenage attitude!

Recipe:
Elemental & Universal Backgrounds stamp sets
Stargazer papers
Canary & White Daisy cardstock
Poppy, Pacifica, Canary & Grey Wool ink
Cricut Artistry cartridge: balloon
Cricut You Are Here cartridge: graduation cap, sunglasses
Pattern: Sketch-n-Scrap card sketch 143
Challenges: BBTB graduation theme

And for another teacher thank you card, I made this ice cream card for his English teacher. I thought she would like the play on words!

Recipe:
Take Note stamp set
Free to Be Me papers
Mint, Kraft & White Daisy cardstock
Juniper, Goldrush, Desert Sand & Tulip ink
Cricut Artistry cartridge: ice cream & cone
Pattern: Sketch-n-Scrap card sketch 140

Valentine Banquet Layout

I'm jumping around a bit chronologically in my scrapping, so here's a layout with pictures from last Valentine's Day. I chose to use the retired CTMH Flirty paper pack, and it was a challenge because I didn't have any inks to match it, so I pulled in black as my extra color. I challenged myself to use some stickers (the xoxo and the quote), and I think they add a nice touch to the layout.

Recipe:
Elemental, Whooo's Your Valentine & A Typeface stamp sets
Flirty Level 2 papers
Flirty Raspberry, Flirty Yellow & Black cardstock
Black & Hollyhock ink
Black marker
Colonial White grosgrain ribbon
Black brads
Great Lengths stickers (CM)
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: tag, hearts
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: Valentine title
EK Success flower punch
Pattern: EMS Sketch 26
Challenges: Splitcoast Stampers Inspiration & Motivation challenge (I used a quote about love that was on a clear sticker)

K First Day Layout

My younger son is just finishing third grade, so I'm trying to get to work scrapping some of his school pictures! Here are some from his first day in kindergarten. It was quite a saga to get him enrolled in school, so I printed my lengthy journaling on a strip of cardstock and cut a slit in my layout for the cardstock to slide out so the journaling is visible. It's anchored on the bottom with a piece of cardstock that's longer than the slit, and of course, the pull tab tells you what to do!

Recipe:
A Typeface & Elemental stamp sets
Pet Shop papers (KI Memories)
Goldrush, Sky, Chocolate & White Daisy cardstock
Chocolate, Sky & Slate ink
Embossed Metal Badge Buttons
Milepost Shapes corrugated stars
Pewter arrow photo clip & brad
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: rings, pull tab, K
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: First Day title
Pattern: Paper Secrets 6/1/14 sketch
Challenges: Paper Secrets 6/1/14 sketch with a twist - use products starting with the letters in dance (D = die-cuts, A = arrow photo clip, N = number stamps, C = corrugated stars, E = Embossed Metal Badge Buttons); Splitcoast Stampers A Picture is Worth 1000 Words challenge - be inspired by the word scrap (I used only scrap pieces of patterned paper on my layout)

Elemental Card Class

I was recently asked to created a card workshop using the papers from the Elemental paper pack. Although I was initially hesitant because this was not one of my favorite packs, I started working with it and ended up enjoying the creative process. I love the cards I dreamed up. My CMTH upline loaned me her Cricut machine so I could try out the new Art Philosophy cartridge from CTMH, and I couldn't stop cutting! Every card features one or more (in some cases several) die-cuts from the cartridge. Here are my cards, which also meet the weekly challenge from the Heart2Heart challenge blog: show off artwork featuring die-cuts.

The whole set:

A detail from my favorite card.I cut out a dragonfly in a frame first, then an empty frame. Using the empty frame, we masked the frame part of the frame/dragonfly combo and sponged the dragonfly's wings with Sorbet ink. We then sponged a second dragonfly of the same size, and colored the body black using a marker. We glued the second dragonfly over the first, leaving the wings free, and applied Liquid Glass to the body to make it shiny. Love that look!

For this one, we masked the bottom of the cupcake and stamped the frosting portion first, and then adhered the cupcake liner to the image.We then sponged Pacifica ink onto the frosting, and added Liquid Glass to the swirls. We also dry embossed a line around the Cranberry rectangle, flipped it over, and sanded the cardstock to reveal the white core along the embossed line.