Get With It, Granny!

Ask me a question about history, science, geography, literature, and current events and I'll be able to take a shot at an answer that, even though it may not be right, will sound reasonably intelligent. Sports are not my thing nor obviously, is food fashion.

OK, so I've been seeing all of these cupcake cards since I started surfing the stamping blogosphere. I've listened to a young co-worker talk about some cupcake mix that you can purchase via the Internet for $14. It makes a dozen cupcakes. Somewhere, Paris Hilton's name was mentioned in the conversation. Like Paris Hilton bakes or for that matter, would have enough sense to pull the paper off the cake before devouring it.

What really finally piqued my interest about this cupcake craze was Jeanne's cute cupcake card that she posted yesterday. "Kathi, you're missing something," I told myself. So, in the wee hours of the morning, I Google "cupcake." Holy smokes! There are cupcake websites, cupcake blogs, cupcake cafes, and national news stories about the cupcake phenomenon that date back to 2006. Where have I been? I've baked cupcakes a few times in the last couple of years and certainly didn't realize I was doing anything special. No one that ate them acted like they were anything too great either even though they had sprinkles and everything.

My card is this granny's attempt to get with it. The Cricut Doodlecharms cartridge gets the credit for the cupcake, and it was the ribbon that inspired the bolder than usual color choices. My cupcake is frosted with Liquid Applique, and while the picture doesn't show it, my sprinkles are covered with Liquid Glass. Crystal Stickles makes the flame glow. And, yeah, I supposed I'll eventually have to get me a cupcake stamp or two. LOL.

Materials & Tools: White Daisy, Ocean, Clover Meadow, Sunny Yellow, and Holiday Red cardstock; Clover Meadow ink pad; Ocean, Holiday Red, Sunny Yellow, and Orange markers; Happy Birthday stamp set; Cricut w/Doodlecharms cartridge; Cuttlebug w/Numbers Collage embossing folder; Ribbon from reasonableribbon.com; Liquid Applique, Liquid Glass; Crystal Stickles; 1-inch and 1-1/4 inch circle punches; 3M foam mounting tape.

Just for the record, while not in a Hollywood sense, I do pay attention to clothing fashion but reject pants that ride too low, shirts that show your midriff (and more if your pants hang low enough) and the baby doll style that appears rather popular right now. What 54-year-old wants to look like she's pregnant? I suppose, though, if I ate enough cupcakes, I'd appreciate loose-fitting clothing. ENOUGH already! Later!!

Easy Elegance

Here's an easy card that looks like "something more" thanks to the Cuttlebug and a simple crumpled paper flower. There were no "tricks" involved with making this card with the exception that I cut a giant "glue dot" from a CTMH Adhesive Sheet with a 1-inch circle punch to attach my flower.

Materials and Tools: White Daisy cardstock; Black ink pad; Papertrey Ink Mixed Messages stamp set; Cuttlebug w/Textile embossing folder; Cricut w/Walk in My Garden cartridge; Gold cord; Decorative button; Glue Dots; 1-inch circle punch; Adhesive Sheets.

By the way, this card was inspired by a card I saw somewhere, but I can't, for the life of me, find it to give credit. Unless I imagined it, the card I saw featured a rose that was made with circles cut with a paper punch. If anyone who sees this knows how that's done, I'll like to know, too. It was very pretty!

Buggy

How's that for a title? I'm a little buggy, feeling worse today than I felt yesterday and staying home from work again. So much for making up time. I'm just hoping that I feel good enough to go tomorrow. Medicated enough to raise my head from my pillow earlier, I got a couple of cards made, which is what's really behind my title. I don't know why, but I don't have much for baby stamps, so I decided to put my Cuttlebug and Cricut to work.

The first card I made is for a little boy, as that's the one I need right now. The background was created with the Cuttlebug Baby A2 embossing folder, and the giraffe was cut out with the Cricut using the New Arrival cartridge. Choosing cardstock colors can sometimes be challenging when using the Cricut. Because this is a baby card, I wanted to keep my colors soft, and thus chose Buttercup for his body and Brown Bag for his horns, mane, and tail. Also, I cut the Buttercup piece out using the shadow feature because I didn't want his facial features cut. I wanted my giraffe to look like this giraffe. Sophie Harding is a favorite artist, and I particularly love Gerry Giraffe. Anyway, that meant drawing in his face and giving him some spots, which I pulled off with markers. I tied a bow around his neck, made a little charm with punches and a small Circle Window Charm, and mounted "Gerry" to my card front with foam mounting tape.

My second card is proof that I'm not always adept when it comes to selecting the right size for Cricut cutouts. If I wanted a 4-1/2 inch giraffe, I wanted a 4-1/2 inch stork, too. Right? No, I didn't want a stork that large but once I had him, I worked with him, making a 5 by 7-inch card. For what ever reason, I thought the baby would be proportional to the stork. She wasn't. If I'd used my first cut, it would have looked like that poor little stork was trying to deliver a 30-pound kid. I sized the baby down to 2-inches - a 15-pound kid! I used a stamp to give the baby's blanket a little texture. A lot of people chalk around the edges of their Cricut cutouts to give them added dimension. I've found that going around mine with a same-color marker is easier and accomplishes the same thing. With regard to embossing a larger piece of cardstock with the Cuttlebug, check out the No Time to Stamp? blog. Sharon is genius when it comes to doing amazing things with the Cuttlebug. While I like my giraffe card, my husband likes the stork. Actually, I think he likes the super-sized card cuz' it's more like Hallmark. LOL.

That said, I'm going to go take a bath and put some clothes and makeup on. I'm not going anywhere, but I'm thinking if I get out of my pajamas, I might feel better. Orange juice isn't working, so I'll try mind over matter . . .

It's All About LOVE Countdown - Day 13

This card is evidence that the Love thing has exhausted itself in Kathi's Corner. I should have known better. When it comes to stamping, I usually do what I want when I want to do it, so committing myself to a Love-themed card every day for two weeks was a major undertaking. If you have a Cricut and the Stamped cartridge, you can accomplish this card in less than five minutes. I was going to add a little bling but cut my "love" so big, there wasn't anywhere to put it. I'll save the Sparkles for Day 14.

Sweet Trivia: It sounds like the conversation hearts I mentioned on Day 1 have been around a while. In 1866, candy manufacturer NECCO made the first Conversation Hearts — then called "Motto Hearts." According to NECCO, eight billion of these little candies are sold between January 1 and February 14.

Also, more than 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine's Day. Did I post that one already? Oh well, we're talking chocolate, which merits a second mention.

Materials & Tools: White Daisy textured textured cardstock for card base; Cranberry and White Daisy cardstock; Cranberry ink pad; Adorable Backgrounds stamp set; Xyron.

Encore! One More Time for Orchid Bouquet

I've discovered that the issue I had yesterday with Orchid Bouquet was that I wasn't using it for the right application! Seriously, I saw a project using crumpled paper flowers several months ago on Close To My Heart's consultants' website and haven't gotten around to trying them until now. They are so cute, and while I'm usually not putsy, I thought this one was fun to make. Before I post the directions, I'll just let you know that Garden Green is the other cardstock color, and the patterned paper is from the Floral Tapestry Level 2 paper packet. The sentiment, stamped in Olive ink, is from Impression Obsessions' Anytime Sentiment set, a set of 10 nice sayings that I purchased for $7 on IO's clearance sale last month.

The directions for Crumpled Paper Flowers are as follows:

1. Using cardstock, posterboard, or thin chipboard, make three flower templates in three sizes - large, medium, and small. As the flower is crumpled up, your drawings do not have to be great. The sizes of the example I saw were about 1-1/2, 1-7/8, and 2-1/4 inches in diameter.
2. Cut pieces of cardstock slightly larger than the templates. Crumple your paper.
3. Smooth each piece out enough to trace the templates, and if desired, sand the other side to distress it. Cut out your flowers.
4. Stack the three flowers together, securing with glue or a center brad.
5. Starting with your bottom flower, crumple it more by pushing it toward the center. Repeat with each layer until the desired look is achieved. Distress with ink as desired.
6. Follow the same steps to create leaves.

Now, it's time for me to admit I cheated with the templates and performed the other steps a little differently as well. I tend to act first and then read the directions, sometimes with good results and sometimes not so good results. In this case, the way I did it worked. While I'm perfectly capable of drawing a simple flower, I cut three flowers with my Cricut using the Walk In My Garden cartridge. The sizes were 1-1/2, 2, and 2-1/2 inches. Before crumpling my flowers, I sprayed a small amount of water on them using my JudiKins Extra Fine Mist Spritzer, a very handy (and inexpensive) tool. I didn't sand my flowers, as damp, crumpled cardstock kind of sands itself. I distressed a little with ink that matched the cardstock. As I haven't made a flower the "right" way yet, I don't know if manipulating damp cardstock was easier or more difficult than dry cardstock would have been. I'll try one according to directions next time and let you know the results. Regardless or right or wrong, I achieved a look I like, and I can visualize these fun flowers embellishing some type of container or scrapbook page.

With this post, I'm calling it a day, something I could have done hours ago. I had a little insomnia problem again last night and was still staring at the clock at 4 a.m. Thus, I'm operating (and not very well) on three hours of sleep. Of course, it had to be today that the news came out with a story discussing a possible link between shortage of sleep and diabetes risk - something to think about tonight as I'm trying to go to sleep! Tomorrow!!

Quick Cricut Card

The mailman brought me the newly released "Joys of the Season" Cricut cartridge, so naturally I had to play a little bit. I already had the "Christmas Cheer" cartridge, so I'm not certain why I bought this one. Chalk it up to a week moment on ebay, I guess. Both cartridges have designs I like and some I'm not so crazy about, so between the two, I have a nice selection. I need to use them, however. Recently, my Cricut has been used almost solely for cutting out scalloped circles, and I need to get back in the scrapbooking mode to justify my investment. The background paper for my card is from the Everlasting paper packet. The cardstock colors are Cranberry and Ponderosa Pine. The words are stamped with Ponderosa Pine on Bamboo cardstock. The two Bamboo cardstock pieces were cut with a Stampin' Up Word Window punch. I also used a Stampin' Up Ticket punch on the corners of the background paper and Cranberry cardstock. The brads that make up the center of my flower are gold.

I'm not sure if I'm going to stamp anymore today or not. Kathi's Corner is currently a disaster with ink pads, paper, and stamp sets covering almost every square inch of work surface, and the rest of my humble abode to use a little attention, too. I'll see how it goes. Later!

Penguins on my Mind

The predicted high for today for Thief River Falls is 86 degrees, which means that waking up with thoughts of creating a penguin card didn't necessarily make a whole lot of sense. The only stamped image on the card is Merry Christmas from the retiring CTMH Seasonal Celebration set. The penguin was cut with my Cricut using the Christmas Cheer cartridge. As a sidenote, I think the penguin is the cutest character on that cartridge. The embossed background was done with the Cuttlebug. They have a cute snowflake embossing folder that I don't have yet. In the interim, the one I used works. In case you can't see it, there's a little Liquid Applique "snow" on his cap. Now that I've got the penguin out of my system, I'll pick up where I left off last night on the little fall recipe book, I'm making with a CTMH Braggin' Tags mini album. Look for the results in a future post. My thoughts are that it might make a fun workshop project.

More Sunflowers

Here are a few more sunflower cards. The textured background on the bottom left card was created with a Cuttlebug embossing plate. The lower right card is another Cricut creation, again using the Walk in My Garden cartridge.

Sunflowers

With the days getting shorter and the evenings becoming cooler, I'm sensing fall in the air. However, it's not quite fall yet so I decided to make a couple of cards that, for me, are representative of late summer. I love sunflowers. They're bright, cheerful and with characteristics that are almost human, they almost speak to you. The card to the left was stamped with CTMH's Sunflower Garden and Follow Your Dreams sets, using Sunflower, Goldrush, Olive, Brown Bag and Chocolate inks. I made the other card with my Cricut using the Walk in My Garden cartridge for the flower and Mickey Font for the sentiment.