Cardz TV Red, White and Blue Blog Hop

Summer Time...and the living is easy! Today the Cardz TV Gallery Design Team Gals are ready to quick off the summer season with a Red, White and Blue blog hop. You should have arrived here from Gloria's blog. If not, you'll probably want to start at the beginning of the hop (at Cardz TV) so you don't miss any of the fun creations the Design Team has for you today.  What could be more fun than a picnic lunch boxed up in a cute decorated gable box. I started with a pre-made box that I got at Hobby Lobby for 99 cents. Next I stamped some red gingham check panels for the background of my little scene using a Lawn Fawn Gingham Background stamp. I used lots of different metal dies to create this-My Creative Time (upper & lower case title lettering), Lawn Fawn (watermelon slice, ants & trail), Impression Obsession (sunshine), My Favorite Things (grass), Buggy Designs (bear). I used two different Cardz TV Stamps sets Fun in the Sun and Summer Fun. I wanted what was in the box to be as fun as the outside, so here is what I packed on the inside.

A simple picnic lunch with Macaroni Salad w/Tuna, Fruit Salad cup, Homemade Patriotic Cupcake and Raspberry Lemonade. Yummy, if I may say so myself! Here's a closer look at the fun decorated straw and flag cupcake wrapper. I used a rosette die along with a scalloped stitched circle die from My Creative Time to fancy up a polka dot straw. The cupcake wrapper was made using a Lawn Fawn die. A little hint for when you'd like to pack up a cupcake without ruining the frosting, drop it into a plastic cup then just cover the cup with plastic wrap.

Your next stop on the hop is the fabulous Miss Sharon. She's got a wonderful project to share with you. Thanks for stopping by. I've added the blog hop list below in case you get lost along the way.  Make sure you leave a comment to be entered into Mary's drawing for Cardz TV stamp sets. 

Cardz TV Gallery Designers “Red, White & Blue” Blog Hop May 30, 2015

1. Mary ~ http://www.cardztv.blogspot.com/

2. Julie ~ http://www.readysetstamp.com/

3. Maria ~ http://maria-linacreativedesigns.blogspot.com/

4. Anita ~ http://scrappyhappymommy.blogspot.ca/

5. Melissa ~ http://www.melissa-moecreations.blogspot.com/

6. Gloria ~ http://www.girliascards.com/

7. Jeri ~ http://www.bugnme.blogspot.com/ YOU ARE HERE

8. Sharon ~ http://www.meemeescreations.blogspot.com/

9. Karen ~ http://www.littlescrappieces.blogspot.com/

10. Janis ~ http://www.pausedreamenjoy.blogspot.com

Online Card Class Mask-erade Day 1

I've been enjoying another Online Card Class (OCC). This time around it's a masking class. I'm constantly trying to find ways to get more out of my supplies and thanks to Jennifer McGuire and her other fabulous designers, I've found so many amazing techniques to do so. This has been a busy week and I haven't been home much so I've only been able to get a card made from Day One of classes. For this card I used a masking film that I purchased at Hobby Lobby in the art department. It is a clear film so to stamp on it I had to use Staz-On ink. After stamping the cow onto the masking film I hand cut it, peeled off the backing and used it to cover the cow I stamped on a piece of watercolor paper. I was then able to stamp the goat on the left and the horse to the right of the cow. When I peeled off the mask it appears as though the goat and horse are standing behind the cow. I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks to color in my animals and to add grass and sky. When the watercolor paper was dry I added a sentiment and mounted the panel to a black cardstock base card. By the way, the stamps and sentiment are from My Favorite Things The Whole Herd stamp set. For a final touch on this card I went over the black stamped lines with a fine point marker to really make them pop.

wPlus9 Get Sketchy Challenge

It seems I never have enough birthday cards, so today I decided to play along with a challenge while creating a card. I found a great sketch challenge at wPlus9. Here is the sketch-

And here is my card-

I used my favorite wPlus9 stamp and die set Unforgettable. I love, love, love this darling little elephant. I use it a lot to make cards for my great granddaughter. Her name is Ella, which always makes me think elephant for some reason. I sat contemplating how I was going to make the tag shape to sit the circle on. Then I realized I had a window die in my collection that was the perfect shape. I simply put it on my paper and traced around it for the shape, then hand cut it. I mounted the darling elephant on a circle and tied a balloon to it's tail. A sentiment and a few enamel dots to finish it off.

Cardz TV Stamps "Good Friends" Pocket Letter

Hello, my crafty Friends! I'm so excited you've stopped by today as I'm sharing my first pocket letter. What is a pocket letter, you ask? I was completely enthralled when I stumbled upon this concept a couple weeks ago. My definition is a "more modern and current pen pal letter for paper crafters". To read about how this new paper crafting technique was invented you'll want to visit the inventor herself, Janette Lane. Her blog is HERE. Not only did she invent the concept, but has made it possible so that all of those who are interested can find others (Pocket Letter Pals) to swap their pocket letters with. (At no charge).

I have a friend and neighbor who recently expressed an interest in starting to paper craft and I thought this would be a great way for her to start. The initial investment won't be too much for her and she'll be borrowing lots of stuff from me until she accumulates her own stash. The only thing I needed to buy to begin were clear 9-pocket storage sheets (think baseball cards). I bought mine at Target, finding them up front by the registers where they sell what passes nowadays for baseball cards. A package of 30 was $4.99.

So the basic concept is decorating inserts for each pocket with pretty patterned paper, stamps, dies and embellishments. The fun part is then adding goodies to the pockets. Anything you can find that will fit in the pocket that your "pals" can then use to make their own pocket letters. I added sequins, colored twine, washi tape, mini clothespins, paper clips, wood embellishments, and a mini white gel pen. Some of the goodies were things I already had in my craft supplies and some I found in the $1 bins at Target (twine, washi, clothespins, gel pens). For the twine and the washi I just cut a small piece of white cardstock that would fit in the pocket and then wound the twine and tape on myself. It left me with plenty of tape and twine to use on other letters or projects. I really like the little gel pens that I found in a package of six assorted colors. I could split them up and add them to letters with papers that color coordinate.

The last and final step is to write a letter and insert it into one of the pockets for your pal to read. When it is done and you're ready to mail it you can fold it in thirds and it will fit in a business size envelope. You will have to add extra postage and if you are worried about your goodies poking through the envelope I would maybe send it in a larger padded envelope.

Next I'm going to make up some pocket letters for my grandkids. Because we're many miles apart I like to send them snail mail often. I just know they're going to love getting these and seeing what goodies are in the pockets. I'm lucky to have granddaughters that love to craft. I will probably add a gift card or two to a pocket or two. I have so many ideas in my head for things to include in their letters. I'm thinking Dairy Queen, McDonald's, and Michael's are all gift cards they would like, along with stickers and other crafting goodies.

I know this was an extra long post today, but I hope I've inspired you and you might want to give this a try. Last, but not least, I used the Cardz TV Stamps Set "Good Friends" for my pocket letter. You can find it in Mary's shop HERE.

The Cutting Cafe Ladybug Treat Cup

Hello Friends! It's time for a new project for The Cutting Cafe Design Team. Today I'm showcasing the Ladybug Treat Cup Card from Regina's 7 Assorted Treat Cup Card Templates and Cutting File. I used the SVG file and cut all the pieces with my Silhouette. This file comes with directions on how to assemble the treat cups. My first treat cup card I made (the pig, see it here) took about 35 minutes to assemble. After making the first one, this one went together much quicker. I added a diecut flower and sentiment label I cut from metal dies. I knew I had this sentiment stamp from a Cardz TV Stamps set and it would be perfect for this card. Regina also designed a box for these cards to go in. Because of the dimension on the treat cup, you wouldn't be able to put it in an envelope. If you make the box to hold it and then placed it into a mailing box, that would then be perfect for shipping. You'll definitely want to head over to The Cutting Cafe Blog for the May 21st post so you can see the rest of the DT projects. Thanks for stopping by.

Cardz TV Gallery Love You to the Moon and Back

Hello Crafty Friends! I have a set of outer space cards to share with you today using several different Cardz TV Stamps-UP AND AWAY (Hope Your Day is Out of This World, THIS 'N THAT (Thinking of You is a Fun Thing To Do, Sending You a High Five), SIMPLY SAID (Wish You Were Here, Have A Great Day, Have a Blast), HUGS 'N KISSES (You Make Me Happy, HEART TO HEART (I Love You to the Moon and Back). For all of my space images I used Cricut cartridges. I made this set of cards to send to my grandson, Kameron, who's Daddy is on deployment. I made a set of themed cards for each month since my son left. I haven't been able to send any for awhile because my daughter-in-law has been traveling around visiting family members. I'm sure it gives her a break and helps her keep her sanity. Being alone with a three year old and an eight month old can't be easy. I give her a lot of credit. She is a wonderful military spouse. Hopefully, God willing, my son will be returning sometime this summer as long as his deployment doesn't get extended.

Thanks for stopping by today. If you would like to order some of your own Cardz TV Stamps you will find all of Mary's fabulous sets HERE.

The Cutting Cafe-Altered DVD case using Beautiful Flowers

So happy you could stop by today! It's time for another Cutting Cafe post from the Design Team. This week Regina asked us to create a project using any of her files that had background papers and to use it on something recycled (that we would have thrown away). Holy cow, this was so hard for me. Because hubby and I live in 500 sq. ft. of space we don't keep anything around that we don't use. There just isn't room for things that aren't necessities. Don't get me wrong, we do recycle our empty containers of paper, plastic and glass. We just do it very quickly, so finding something around here that I could recycle was a huge challenge. I'm not one to wait until the last minute to do my Design Team projects, but this one had me stumped. I had to resort to Pinterest, and searched for upcycled crafts. Thank goodness I found a project to make. This is a project that came from Split Coast Stampers Blog. I started with an empty DVD case, or in my case a container that had some Stampin' Up stamps in it that a friend gave me. All of the paper elements for this project came from The Cutting Cafe's Beautiful Flowers Colored Printable Stamp Set. This is an older set, but it's a grand one that comes with over 70 colored images including several background papers. 

When I first got the set, years ago, I printed a bunch of sheets out. I was going on an extended trip to visit my aunt who loves to craft and I thought we could use them to make something while I visited. As I recall, we did more shopping than crafting and so I came back home with the sheets, stuck them in a file folder and forgot about them. A couple days ago I was cleaning out some of the stuff I hadn't gotten to since we moved into our new place and came across the sheets. I knew they would come in handy for this project. All I needed to do was cut the background sheets to fit the size of the front and back of the DVD container and slip them behind the plastic sheets already on them. Then I fussy cut several of the elements. I used the bold flower on a black background to make a bookmark and added the top note shape to a small pad of lined yellow paper. I place the notepad on the right side of the container and slipped the bookmark into one of the sections on the left.  Then I stuck in a small pen. I decorated the front of the container with another beautiful flower and added some contrasting paper and a printed scallop to the left edge. To complete the little gift I gave it a nice big bow and added a gift tag. I think it came out really cute and would make a nice little gift for Mother's Day or for a special teacher appreciation gift. So glad you could stop by today and I know you'll want to check out The Cutting Cafe Blog on Thursday to see all the other recycled projects from the Design Team.

My Creative Time Challenge

Today I have a card to share that I made for the current challenge at My Creative Time. It's been awhile since I've been able to create for a challenge. This is an inspiration challenge using a photo/sketch or colors.

I took my inspiration from the photo and created a card using the beautiful colors and a flower theme. I used the My Creative Time Stitched Window Dies and Accessories and my sentiment came from the stamp set Window Sentiments and Flower Stamp Set. After stamping and die cutting the flowers for the window box I watercolored them with Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Dusty Concord, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Victorian Velvet, Worn Lipstick and Mowed Lawn. Next I cut the window box and window from white cardstock and assembled the flower box and window on some DCWV textured kraft cardstock. I die cut a label from the Chunky Jar Accessories Dies and stamped the sentiment with Momento Tuxedo Black Ink. I added a few of my homemade (using pony beads) enamel dots for embellishment.