Sample of a January CLUB Project

Here are some pics of the paper purse and matching card I made for my son's girlfriend's birthday. The smaller and last picture shows the inside of the card made with the Labels 3 Nesties. My husband's assistant gave them to me recently because an online site mixed up her order and sent her an extra Labels 3 set to make up for an error on their part...so I was the lucky recipient of the FREEBIE! Thank you, Tiffany!!!! The paper purse was made with my January Card & Craft Club template. If you'd like to make some of these purses, write to me and I'll send purchase details for the instructions and template. The Happy Birthday saying  and background oval were cut on my Cricut (using the STORYBOOK cartridge --- one of my favorite cartridges). The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch --- oh, it's so hard to resist her punches!...and I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder (WITH LOVE) for the line of raised dots along with my Scor-Pal to make the raised straight lines on the front of the card. The little silver adhesive balls (purchased at Michael's) on the butterflies and hearts added a nice touch of bling to the final look of the card.

Paper Crafters' Christmas Poem

Here's my last Christmas Cricut card that I made with the Winter Woodland cartridge...I haven't had this much fun with a new crafting toy since I got my Cuttlebug!

My good friend and fellow paper crafter, Michele, just sent me the poem below. It gave me an extra big smile, and I hope it does the same for you ;-)

Twas the night before Christmas, I’m glued to the tree.
I’m wondering what Santa will bring just for me.
Could it be cardstock or inkpads or lace?
Or stamp sets, I said, with a smile on my face.
And that’s when I heard him...Hi Santa, I said.
To which he replied, You should be in bed!
Oh, dear! I said, I’ve just been caught...
But I was excited to see what you brought.
Well, let’s take a look in this room where you work.
Then he shook his head quickly, and left with a jerk.
And I heard him exclaim, as he put it in gear,
You’ve got enough crap, I’ll see you next year!

Now I ask you...can one ever have too many paper crafting supplies?!

Happy holidays and here's wishing you a plethora of creativity in 2010!

The Cricut Addiction Continues!

Oh, I am having the time of my life with my new Cricut Expressions machine! I finally made some Christmas cards with it - complete with a red gem on Rudolph's nose (using the Winter Wonderland cartridge), then I made more cards with the new Pagoda cartridge --- and refined my previous attempts to make a panda card. Using coordinating Cricut images, I can customize the inside of the cards as well. Those bamboo stalks were the perfect thing for the inside of my panda cards! I keep telling myself that I'm building all sorts of new brain cells because I'm learning something new every day when I use my Cricut - oh, dear!...Aren't rationalizations a sure sign of an addiction - hehe!

BTW - I made the reindeer cards using a brayer loaded with blue ink (SU Ballet Blue) over a circle and a hill I cut out of cardstock and temporarily adhered them to white photo paper. Once you brayer over those two pieces of cardstock, simply remove them revealing the white photo paper underneath. The white glossy photo paper lets you brayer back and forth very quickly with a lot of pressure to blur all ink lines initially created by the brayer. It's a nice technique when using multiple colors of ink on the brayer as well. Give it a try!

Santa Claus has ARRIVED!

My dear husband surprised me last night by giving me a Cricut for our anniversary, and here are my first attempts using the new Pagoda cartridge. I have to tell you that I am OVER THE MOON with happiness because of my new toy (and being married to my Bear for 29 years, too)!!!!...the only trouble is that I can already see that this Cricut will send me down the path of no return! Last night, my sister gave me a set of Asian stamps from Inkadinkado called Asian Influences, and it had the bamboo stamp as part of that set --- what are the odds that it would go together so nicely with this new cartridge?!....and my in-laws game me some "mad" money to treat myself to some shopping...and I think you might be able to guess where I was this morning at the crack of dawn?....YEP - at Michael's buying more Cricut cartridges at 60% off. Oh, please....help me now! I can thank my friend Rachel for that suggestion -- she wrote me late last night that she would be out shopping on Black Friday starting at 5:30 am. I had never done any shopping on Black Friday before....but that 60% off Cricut sale at Michael's with a 25% off of everything else coupon just lured me right out of bed and through the drizzle at 7 am this morning to get more cartridges!!! BTW - the picture below shows my first rendition of the panda card --- something was missing --- he needed a bow and some black added to the bamboo with a .005 micron pen to add that little bit of extra pizazz!