Taylored Expressions: 3rd Birthday Bash

Happy Birthday to Taylored Expressions! Jump over by clicking here: Taylored Expressions: Taylored Expressions September Sneaks - Day 1. They are having a virtual party this week and announcing some new arrivals! Tons of fun!

Bee Mine

I made Valentine's Day cards using my beloved Create A Critter cartridge.  What's not to love about the adorable, happy, little critters on this cartridge?  I used a heart print paper to back my card.  Then I cut out a heart frame in red and base heart in white.  I ran them through an embossing folder to add even more hearts before using foam adhesive to bump it up!  Finally, I topped it all off with my sweet bumble bee and some bedazzled antennae. 

The Birthday Tri-fold-a

Okay, hope you love seeing birthday cards! This week the challenge at Fantabulous Cricut is Birthday Bash...make a birthday card.  I was also checking around and found the challenge at CAS-ual Fridays promoting embossing! Fortunately, I needed to make a birthday card for my dear Father-in-law who has a birthday in 8 days! One of my on-going issues with cards is to make more cards that are masculine. I am great at ribbons, glitter, bows, and all things feminine.  I had also been itching to make a tri-fold card.  When I looked in my paper stash, I immediately saw lots of black and white.  I decided to accent with red.  The paper I used is all from my scrap bucket or DCWV.  The buttons are from a random assortment I keep on hand sorted by color. I used the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Folder to emboss my white card stock.  I used my Cricut to cut out the red panels.  The cartridge I chose was Just Because Cards.  I used stamps from Stampin' Up! Birthday Whimsy on the red panels. Finally, I used yellow Stickles on my candle and some rhinestones on my birthday gift...all birthday wrap has some short of shine, doesn't it? I have a picture pre-fold and post-fold for you viewing pleasure. :-)

Cake please, with a cherry on top!

Fantabulous Cricut's weekly challenge asked for a cupcake or other sweet treat.  This works out perfectly since we have lots of August birthdays in our family.  I knew my Stretch Your Imagination cartridge had a cake card, I played around with that for a little bit before scratching the project and starting over.  I decided I just wanted to make a cake and not do a window card.  I started rifling through my cartridges and came across one I haven't used very much at all.  I decided to give Just Because Cards a shot.  I found a cute little cake, fun card shape, fun border, and went to work cutting.  I had some more recently purchased paper from Artsy that I hadn't been just waiting for the perfect card to make.  I decided this was my chance.  When I got all done cutting out my cake, cherry, card, border, I didn't want to just put my cake on the card.  It needed a pedestal! Fortunately, the From My Kitchen cartridge had a cake on a pedestal.  I measured the size of my cake and cut out a cake on pedestal from the cartridge.  Then, I just snipped off the cake on the pedestal and replaced it with the cake I created.  I wanted some dimension on the card, so popped the border up with foam tape and popped up the cake pedestal and stand.  I still needed a little "oomph" for my card.  I used one of the giant sized jewels from Jolee's (also purchased at Artsy) to bedazzle my pedestal.  Then I used red Stickles on my cherry to give it a roundness that popped off the paper.  Finally, I added a thin grossgrain ribbon to the side.  The bow sort of reminded me of opening a fragile birthday gift with something fancy inside! Anyway, with just hours to spare, this is my card for this week's challenge!

Flutterby, Flutterby, Flutterby

I love butterflies!  They are my favorite animal...which a lot of people debate, but let it be known that I love these critters.  They also happen to be my mom's favorite!  I made her this card and she loved it! I embossed the white card stock, cut out my butterflies from Create A Critter in various sizes and bedazzled the butterflies with some gems!  I kept it very simple so the colors would really pop! 

With a cherry on top!

I am always trying to figure out how to make cards that are more gender neutral.  I came up with this card that is suitable for a male or female.  I used a darker blue cardstock and accented it with a distressed printed paper that I ran through an embossing folder.  I mounted the cup cake that I cut out on the From My Kitchen cartridge over a solid white ribbon.  I accented the cherry with some red and green Stickles to make it extra luscious! 

New papers and a "Buggy" Challenge

It's been almost a year since I last competed in a challenge.  I was super excited when I got online and checked out the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog to find a challenge I was definitely up for!  The challenge was to use my Cricut and "get buggy"! Of course when someone tells me to get "buggy" I have to use butterflies!  I pitter pattered up stairs to my craft room to look through my heart cartridges.  I found some beautiful butterflies on a cartridge I have never used before! The Cricut Solutions Serenade cartridge contains birdhouse, butterflies, and lots of fun.  I had also been itching to use some new papers I bought at Artsy!  While there I also purchased some gears and sprockets that I believe are from Tim Holtz.  Oh, and I found adorable little tickets with words.
Anyway, with the challenge and my new purchases in mind, I came up with these three cards:

The paper I got at Artsy is by Crate and so is the border I used. My blue cardstock and light blue accent paper are from DCWV paper stacks that I had purchased almost two years ago.  I used a big gem from Jolee's on each butterfly to add a little sparkle.  I stapled my words on to add just a little finishing touch.  I think these turned out pretty well and I'm so happy to be blogging cards again!

Happy "Moo"thers Day

This is the card I made for my Mother-in-Law for Mother's Day.  She has a collection of cows in her kitchen and I couldn't resist adding to her collection by using the Create A Critter cartridge!  I also cut out a large barn twice and attached the two pieces with a brad at the top.  I love adding googly eyes to my animals to bring them to life.  My cow is very sweet and benefited from a sheer ribbon bow and paper flowers on either side.  I wanted the barn to look aged, so I distressed it with dark red ink and a charcoal ink.  Of course on the inside I wrote, "Happy Moothers Day!"