Friday, October 20, 2017

A Year of Card Techniques - (October Hop - Waterfall Cards)

Welcome to the

Welcome to A Year of Card Techniques Blog Hop where each month we feature a different card technique. We’ve assembled a team of card makers who range from new to advanced, so you’ll see a great variety of cards and ideas.
There’s just something about interactive cards!  And Waterfall Cards are among the best interactive card techniques.  They look intricate, though, so we’ll let you in on any hints we uncover along the way.   Hopefully, we’ll inspire you to try one for yourself.
If you would like to check out our past technique hops, you can do that here:
This month our amazing sponsor is none other than  Bugaboo Stamps
Please take a moment to check out their store here, their blog here and their Facebook page here.
And the awesome prize this month is $12.00 gift code to the store (about four digi images).
We really appreciate feedback, so please leave a comment on each of the blogs in the hop today.  The winner will be announced on Sunday, October 29, 2017, on A Piece of (my) Heart’s blog, so be sure to check her blog on Sunday.  If you would prefer to be notified if you win, please leave your email address in the comments and someone will contact you.  The winner will have until November 16, 2017, to claim their prize.
You should have arrived here from Jearise. If you're visiting here first, you might want to start at the beginning so you don't miss a thing and increase your chances of winning by commenting on each blog.
Omgosh! Can we say... It's been a loooooonnnnngggg time! You know how life gets in the way... between that and computer issues, I've been out a time. But, HELLO! I'm back... and not so better than before!
Um. Waterfall cards. Whelp... they took a long time for me to get or not so get. Let's just say... use a FANTASTIC adhesive, k?
These were my starting materials:

Great colors, right???? Yup! That's what I thought/think, too!!! Of course I think. I'm alive. I'm breathing. I'm awake. Therefore I think, right???? Uh... too many past English professors in my head. Bother.

All the measuring and scoring and flipping and folding... Don't do this late at night... otherwise you'll get as frustrated as I do!!!! Eventually... it turned out ok.

Then the gluing down (with the pulley... 'cause that's what I'm gonna call that little flap!) And making sure it all works just "so." Because you know it eventually does, right?

All in all. I think (and there I go again) believe it ended up ok. A little heavier card than I like (there's lots of layers!!!), but ok in the end.
***NOTE!*** If you're going to mail one of these suckers, lay down the extra postage! AND place a tissue layer or thin paper layer over the top before sliding in the envelope. The PO is NOT friendly with these. It got to my friend and was banged up! So! Wish I had a picture!!!
Now you’re off to visit with Jodie. Hope you had fun and thanks for stopping by. See you next month with another technique!
Here’s the full line-up in case you get lost:

Friday, July 7, 2017

All American Blog Hop

Welcome to the 
All American
Blog Hop

This hop is all about America and the things that make us great. Our projects hope to inspire you with our stars and stripes. I love the USA!

You should have arrived from Sue's blog.
If you need to start at the beginning please start at Connie Can Crop

This is a one day blog hop, but you have until Sunday to finish hopping and leaving your love for all of these talented crafters.


We have an awesome sponsor for this month!

One lucky winner will win a $21 gift certificate to Bugaboo Stamps.

Be sure to check out her shop online HERE
Visit her on facebook HERE

What do you need to do to win? Easy... become  a follower of each of the fabulous blogs in this hop and leave each of them a comment letting them know what you like best about their projects.


You will have until 10 pm Sunday to finish the hop and leave your comments.
Winners will be announced on Wednesday 7/19/17
Be sure to follow everyone and leave a comment along the way!

Now let's salute this great country!

My original project began with this incredible garland. (check!)

... Formed it to a wire frame. (check!) Hot-Glue-Gunned "everything"... (check!) 

Eek! I know it's supposed to be Star-Spangled and hot and all... But not a melted mess. Threw f-ed up project out. (check!)

Next up... um... Using my stash because I already wasted the expensive garland...


So I got this FANTASTIC stencil at Tuesday Morning. (Love that place!!!)

Gee... Those two on the left look exactly alike... because the ARE! And I didn't want to use a glitter/glimmer mist on a flag stencil. So... I went with a Red Wagon Mist (for the red... duh...).

But I'm not too fond of how the blue (Spectrum Noir) turned out... and certainly didn't think it would bleed through the THICK watercolor paper (used that because I totally love the texture!) but I stuck with it, because I knew it wouldn't bleed into the white stars later...
Totally know so you don't need to tell me that I really should use tape to tape down a stencil instead of scrap cardstock and my fingers or to block off areas... 
Looking around my stash room that's code for what should be my craftroom/mess room because EVERYONE piles EVERYTHING in there, and I can't ever find what I'm looking for!, I can't find white paint. or pens. or ink. or... or... And then I spotted it! A WHITE CHALK MARKER!!!! (Make sure you fill in all the points... not half-**sed like I did.)
The chalk marker tends to bleed a little bit...But it'll do. My paper has crisp flags!
I trimmed the flag (be sure your inks/paints are all dry before trimming! otherwise, they get all over your blade... YES... I have a massive mess to clean up! I adhered the flag (offset and skewed) onto my patriotic paper and added a vertical year. Now... I just have to get around to printing up this year's pics (we went to Knott's Berry Farm for the 4th) and scattering them around the page.

Now kindly hop on over to... um... (I'm the last hopper!) Connie (if you wanna start at the beginning again...) You can never get enough of a good thing! 

Here's our amazing line up in case you get lost:

Friday, June 16, 2017

A Year of Card Techniques - (June - Basic Card Folds Using Double SidedPaper)

Welcome to A Year of Card Techniques Blog Hop where each month we feature a different card technique.  We’ve assembled a team of card makers who range from new to advanced, so you’ll see a great variety of cards and ideas.
June‘s hop is devoted to basic card folds; featuring drapery/curtain fold, peek-a-boo fold or double-z gate-fold.  And we’re adding a twist of using double-sided paper.   We hope this gives you lots of ideas and will inspire you to try these card folds yourself...and pull out that double-sided paper as well!    If you would like to check out our past technique hops, you can do that here:
We have an amazing sponsor this month, Candy Spiegel.
Please take a moment to check out all the crafty goodness on her blog, Candy Scraps.
And the awesome prize this month is:
We  really appreciate feedback, so please leave a comment on each of the blogs in the hop today.  While you are encouraged to comment at any time, only comments received by  Friday, June 23, 2017 at 8:00pm (EST) will be eligible to win.   The winner will be announced on Sunday,  June 25, 2017 on A Piece of (my) Heart’s blog, so be sure to check her blog on Sunday.
And speaking of winners, the lucky hopper from last month is SUSAN ELIOT; picked by Random Name Picker.  Congratulations, Susan!  Please get in touch with last month’s sponsor, Jodie Park, to claim your prize.
You should  have arrived here from A Card A Day Challenge Blog. If you're visiting  here first, you might want to start at the beginning so you don't miss a thing and increase your chances of winning by commenting on  each blog.

I absolutely l-o-v-e folding paper! I mean... who doesn't just keep folding that little gum wrapping into various things including the smallest square possible? But today, I went with the simplest of folds... partially because I l-o-v-e the name (peek-a-boo) and partially since it's for my husband and he doesn't exactly appreciate homemade cards (like we all do) because I needed to.


And so I started with a cute, manly, double-sided paper, cut it to size, cut a slit in the middle (but only part way down), scored it from corner to slit, and folded it.
My only trouble? Choosing which side to have "peek"-a-boo!

I went with the lighter side sticking out...
Next? Add stamping... via MISTI!!!! In case you haven't discovered this great tool... 
YOU SHOULD!!

And VOILA! There you have it... ready for Sunday (Father's Day... in case you forgot!)

Now  you’re off to visit with Sandy! Hope you had fun and thanks for stopping by.  See you next month with another technique!
Here’s the full line-up in case you get lost:

Friday, June 9, 2017

A Pirate's Life for Me Blog Hop

Yo Ho Yo Ho
A Pirate's Life for Me
Blog Hop

Ahoy there me Matey!!
If ye scallywags want to see some treasures created by these cool landlubbers than ye have come to the right place! Cause we are about to Shiver yer timbers and Batten down the hatches!!

Ye should have arrived from me trusty pirate, Miranda! I hope she gave you a good bit of rum on your visit!
If ye just happened upon this gem of a hop, our mighty sea dog is Captain Connie Can Crop and she is the first stop in this hop. 

This is a one day blog hop, but ye have until Sunday to finish hopping and leaving your comments for all of these talented scallywags.


We have an awesome sponsor for this month! With amazing pirate booty!

One lucky winner will win a digital image from Sasayaki Glitter Digital Stamps.

Be sure to check out her shop online HERE
Visit her on facebook HERE

What do you need to do to win? Easy... become  a follower of each of the fabulous blogs in this hop and leave each of them a comment letting them know what you like best about their projects.

You will have until 10 pm Sunday to finish the hop and leave your comments.
Winners will be announced on Wednesday 6/21/17
at Connie Can Crop.
Be sure to follow everyone and leave a comment along the way!

All hands on deck! Thar she blows!!

It's the school year's end... and with all the chaos of kids trying to get their grades up (not mine... no way!) and working on the Kindergarten covers (I voluntarily cut, arrange and glue covers for 4 classes worth of memory books), CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) Swimming Championships, and my regular life in general... I'm just as busy as ya'll... don't get your panties inna bunch. Not tryin' to out-do anybody, just tellin' it like it is.. GET OVER IT. I started with THIS:
then I saw Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Men Tell No Tales 
(I posted the smallest clip I could find for you!)
and changed my mind AGAIN... you should be used to it by now, folks...!

One of my SpEd students was graduating, and I remembered he happened to love pirates, but hated "Captain Jack Sparrow." And so... I looked for something a little more to his liking. I ended up with THIS:
The student happens to love emojis and anime. Um... I'll take the emojis over the anime... only because I know I can do it without failing. Anime is an art all in itself, which I have not mastered (and probably won't ever...). Cricut is nice enough to have a pirate emoji cut. Yeeha!!!! Simple...
Using scraps 'cause that's what I do best..., some of the background cuts were a little short. And that's ok, because they were going to get covered up anyway! The second photo shows the layering cuts a little offset. My suggestion? Don't necessarily glue it down in order. I ended up attaching the red pirate bandana onto the face, then setting it on the background. otherwise it was just going to stay wonky. And I know I'm trying really REALLY hard to not be so OCD and trying to be perfect, but hey... that just was. not. going. to. cut. it.
See? He looks pretty fly for a yellow white (no... that's not racist... just lyrics from a 90's song) guy... Insert music for the Offspring here... and since I really don't know how to insert music... you can see the video HERE! (Just make sure you come back to hop and comment...)

I cut a simple blue card (my student's fave color), and popped up me pirate with some of my fave... clear silicone caulking. Hey boys at Home Depot... I'm almost out and coming to visit you soon...  And please forgive my shadow-y images... I haven't really worked on that yet, either. But no worries. It's still on my list... Totally hoping you love it in it's pirate-y simplicity! Let me push you off the plank to the next blog... 

Argggh! Shiver me timbers! I'm the last one walkin' the plank!
Hope your journey was "arrgh"-cellent!

Here's our amazing line up in case you get lost: