Cricut Couple

Birdy Birthday...

2013-03-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Yall,

I have a simple birthday card to share today. This one was made using some paper from the old stash. I have no idea where or when I got it. Hee! Hee!

I used a Martha Punch set for the label shape. I love this punch! The bird was purchased at Michaels. They came out with a bunch of these gorgeous laser cut shapes this year! I went a little crazy.

For the bird, I just used a sponge with CTMH inks and pounced the colors on it. It's just so pretty. I added a little ribbon and it's all done! I hope you like it!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Western Thanks...

2013-03-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

I have an interesting card to share with you today. I used some western themed papers from CTMH. I had a bit of a plan that went completely different then where I was going with it. I still think it kind of turned out, but am still not totally sure.

I cut one strip from the Artiste Cartridge and folded it for the fan shape on top. I also added a couple of wooden accents that I inked to match.

Overall, I think I like the way it turned out. Hee! Hee! Thanks so much for visiting!

Fabric Birthday Cards...

2013-03-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

I have some bulk cards to share with you today. I made a quilt a while back and had some fabric left over from it. I thought... why not make some cards with it! I cut out squares of the fabric and the used Martha Stewart Border/Corner punches to decorate them. I did a little weaving in the first one you see with pink ribbon. I really like this punch set. I was pretty pleased with the way they turned out. Hope you enjoy them too!

Thanks so much for visiting today!

Quilted Birthday Cards...

2013-03-13T10:03:00.000-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

Well, I have two cards to share today. These were made using a technique I saw in an issue of Card Maker Magazine. They used punches, but I used the Cricut. I will go into detail and then just share pictures.

What you do is cut a bunch of circles at 1.5 inches. Then cut a bunch of squares using double sided decorative papers at 1 inch. Stick a square in the center of each circle. If you want to sew it like I did, you need to just use a dot of wet glue in the center of the square. Do not use a lot and do not use ATG or double sided tape. This will really gum up your sewing machine. Once you have the squares glued, use your folder and fold over the sides of each circle with the edge of the squares. You will end up with a bunch of little squares. Once you are done with that, stick each one to a scrap piece of paper and sew all of them with whatever stitch you want. I used a zig zag stitch. This technique takes a LONG time. I doubt that I will do it again. I couldn't believe how long it took. Hee! Hee!

Well, I hope you like the cards! Thanks so much for spending some time with us today!

Playing with punches... Stash buster...

2013-03-09T08:00:00.000-06:00

Hey Ya'll,

Well, I have lots of pictures with little description today. This was a stash buster project that I did where I wanted to play with punches. I think they all came out pretty good and I was able to get a bulk project done that I really needed to build up some quick mail out cards.

The cards in this are using just plain white pre-made card bases. I used papers and embellishments from HSN's 3-Birds Vintage line. I used some CTMH and Anna Griffin Stamps. The punches are from Martha Stewart. Some are border and corner punches and some are just deep punch border punches.

I hope you like them. Now I have a pretty little box of simple cards that are literally grab and go. Hee! Hee! Thanks for stopping by!

Oh Well... It was worth a try. Hee! Hee!

2013-03-06T08:00:00.000-06:00

Hey Ya'll,

Well, I am not going to waste much time on these. I made these cards using scraps that I had left from the Avondale card making kit from CTMH. I tried mixing with regular papers and it just didn't work. They actually shot pretty well in the pictures, but to look at them with your own eyes, it just isn't going to happen for me. Hee! Hee!

Well, I don't like them, but I thought the layouts weren't too bad. Hope you got a little something out of them. Thanks for visiting today!

65th Birthday...

2013-03-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

Hey Ya'll,

I have a 65th Birthday Card to share with you today that I made for my Aunt. Hope you like it!

The papers are from Anna Griffin. All of the flower cuts are from CTMH Art Philosophy as well as the oval. The Happy Birthday stamp is a really old CTMH one. The ribbon strip is from a Martha Stewart Punch. All of the flower centers are done with Flower Soft.

This one turned out so thick with the roses that I had to make a 1 inch thick box to fit it in. Hee! Hee! Thanks for visiting today!

Wow! Has it really been two months???

2013-02-28T09:42:00.000-06:00

Hey Ya'll,

Wow! I can't believe that it's really been two months since I have had time to post! I hope you are all doing well and getting lots of wonderful crafting in. Needless to say on our end, life has been really busy. Most of it is work related for me, so time to craft has been pretty limited. I have been crafting a lot of fun things, but most of them have been for work and that's not something I can share on a public blog. I wish I could share everything because some of the things have turned out so cool!

Well, today, I just have a simple card to share with you. Jill recently had TONS of dental surgery done and her technician has been so wonderful through the entire process that Jill wanted me to make a special card for her. So... here goes!

I used Anna Griffin papers for this card and some stamps and goodies from CTMH. The stamp set is the Smitten Stamp of the Month for December. I really love the detail in this set. The You Make Me Smile is from the stamps that come with the Artiste Cartridge collection. That is stamped on a Chipboard Shape that also comes with the collection. The buttons on the card were something I got from Sweet Miss Audrey in a Christmas Goodies package from our Secret Santa. The doily behind the roses is a spellbinders die. I haven't worked with these very much, but I am in love. I am trying to avoid hoarding them, but we'll see how it goes. Hee! Hee!

For the roses, I used momento ink to stamp the image and then used watercolor pencils to color it in. When that was done, I used a matte pearl type of glitter glue from Martha Stewart over the blooms. When this dried, it was actually too matte and took away from the coloring on the roses. So I used liquid glass over that and let it dry and the roses really came out pretty.

On the inside, I used more stamps from Smitten and a thank you stamp from something else CTMH. Don't remember which set. I think it was also from the artiste collection. The doily here is another spellbinders die. I also used a rounded corner punch on everything, as well as a MS border punch on the sentiment mat.

Well, Jill was so pleased with the card and really excited to share it. Her technician was thrilled to receive it too. Thanks so much for visiting today!

A Very Sassy Gift...

2012-12-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

Hey Ya'll,

Well, some of you have probably heard now that the Sassy Design Team and Bug Bytes Design Team members had a Secret Santa. Well, I was so excited to find out that I was Secret Santa for Miss Sassy Herself! I sent a couple of goodies that were store bought, but I had so much fun making her special gift. This entire project was made using my Singer Futura SEQS-6700. I am in LOVE with this machine! Here is the finished project!

To start, I wanted to do something very personal. Well, Sheila has this adorable character on her blog! I sort of asked for permission without asking for permission and asked if she would send me the picture file from her blog. This is what she sent.

I opened up the picture file with Adobe CS5 and the used the pen tool to cut out everything from the background so that I just had the character left. I put it on a bright green background so that it would work better with the embroidery software. The SEQS-6700 comes with Auto Punch software that lets you create a stitch file from just about anything. Here is the screen from the machine software once it stitches the graphic. Obviously the colors are all off, but I did that intentionally so that it would be easier to see the differences when I had to switch out the threads. I just took a piece of black fabric and hooped it and started it off.

Here you can see a close up of Miss Sassy in Stitches! Hee! Hee! I then found this fun font on the computer and used Hyper Font that also comes with the machine and stitched it out in the same colors. I then went thought and did a bunch of free motion stippling for the quilting.

I brought this in close so you could see the differences in stitch colors with the quilting.

I put it all together into a personalized tote bag! Look Mom! No Pattern! I have made several tote bags in the past, but since this started with the embroidery piece, I kind of had to go it on my own to put everything else together. In our fabric stash, we had this beautiful paisley fabric that has the same colors as the Sassy Blog colors. I mixed it with a little red and some more black to put it all together.

I used a pre-quilted black fabric for the inside. I also made some inside pockets on the lining to help with organizing everything. I know that Sheila works very long days and sometimes gets little craft breaks here and there, so I thought it would be very useful.

This is the front of the finished bag! It's all complete and ready to go to Alabama! My favorite thing about this is that if it gets dirty, just throw it in the washing machine! I hope that it lasts for years and years!

Well, the minute Sheila received it, she had to call me and tell me about it. I was so thrilled with her reaction as she really does love it! I think the picture with Sheila's beautiful smile here pretty much says it all!

So... Merry Christmas my friend Miss Sassy Lady! I am so glad you love it and thank you for being such a great friend!

Today is my last regular design team day as Sassy Dude. I'm not really going anywhere, but with life twisting and turning lately and missing my November commitment, I asked Sheila if I could take some time off from the regular schedule. She graciously agreed. I will still be Sassy Dude and Still popping in from time to time as a guest designer, but I just feel terrible when I miss my commitment dates. So... we will just leave you in suspense on when you see a Sassy Dude design. Hee! Hee! I want to thank everyone on the Sassy Design Team and especially Sheila for everything! I hope to get things to calm down a bit around here and to get back to a regular schedule soon.

Merry Christmas!

2012-12-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

Hey Ya'll,

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!"

We hope you all have the most wonderful season ever! We are enjoying time with family and friends and hope that you are doing the exact same thing! I thought I would share one of Jill's Christmas presents with you! This is a quilted throw that I made for her. It's so much fun! Like before, I laid everything out on the bed and started assembling. I used a bunch of iridescent thread on this and I tried to take good pictures, but it's really not showing up.

If you blow the below picture up, you may be able to see all of the quilting on the snowman. I was terrified about doing this because it required precision... which I am still learning how to do these things, but it just came out perfect! I did tiny little swirls and covered the entire snowman with them. It's really glittery and fun!

I also used scraps and made a Crazy Quilt pillow to go with it. Isn't this fun?

I used a bunch of different stitches that are built into the Singer Futura SEQS-6700 machine to decorate between all the crazy quilt pieces. I also used the ruffler foot for the ruffle and the blind hem foot for the edging. What a gem of a machine!

I used iridescent and different variegated threads for the stitching. I was so proud of how these turned out and Jill really loves them! Thank you so much for visiting today! Merry Christmas to you all!

Work in progress...

2012-12-24T08:00:00.000-06:00

Hey Ya'll,

Merry Christmas Eve! I hope you all are having a wonderful time with friends and family today! I thought I would share with you some things I have been playing with... but that aren't yet done.

The first thing is a quilted throw that I am making for myself. Hee! Hee! this will also be fleece backed. I picked up these adorable panels at Quilts and Quilts. So far, I just have it assembled and the fill in quilting done. I have a lot of detail I am going to do on each village house, but with so much going on, I haven't had the time to do it. I have made next November my goal. Hee! Hee!

I used a beautiful variegated thread for the quilting that changes from gold to silver. It doesn't do much for me in the picture, but to really see it, it's perfect!

Another thing I am giving a try... but not getting very far on... is Crazy Quilting. This is a project that I started on and am still working on. I found this victorian lady picture online and printed it off onto ink jet iron on transfer paper. I then crazy quilted all around it with scraps from a quilt I made for Jill for Christmas. I then used the embroidery machine and added this beautiful lace frame that I got on Secrets of Embroidery. It took a little work to center everything in the hoop, but I put a water soluble stabilizer over the top and a tear away on the back and fired it up with this beautiful variegated thread.

Here is a little closer look. I have more machine embroidery to do on this one and will keep you posted.

The next one was a bit of a problem. The machine still has a couple of issues with the calibration. But... I am still trying to work thought it.

You can see here how the centering was really off even though it was perfectly centered in the hoop. In order to overcome this and save the piece, I am just going to embellish the fire out of this one! Hee! Hee! I dug out the old stash of silk ribbon and started to ribbon embroider this one. I think that by the time I get all of the flowers filled in, you won't even notice that the frame was not centered. Jill is also going to do some beautiful bead embroidery work on both of these, so I will share pictures when they are all done.

Well, can you see now why it's been so long since I posted? Hee! Hee! Projects... projects... everywhere!!! Hee! Hee! Thanks so much for visiting today on Christmas Eve! We would love to hear your comments and hope that you all have a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!!!

Gone with the Wind Quilted Throw...

2012-12-22T08:00:00.000-06:00

Hey Ya'll,

This is a quilt I made for my Aunt. Her whole house is very victorian and she is a huge fan of anything Gone with the Wind. During a shopping day with Mom at "Quilts and Quilts", we found this amazing panel set for the movie. Mom asked me to do a 50's quilt for my other Aunt and then picked this up for me to do another quilt. Fortunately, I was up for the challenge. Hee! Hee!

I did the same as before and laid out everything on the bed, measured and assembled. I struggled a little bit with this one as I wanted to use metallic gold thread. Turns out that machines don't like 8 year old spools of metallic thread. I went back out and picked up a spool of gold and never had another problem. Thanks to the ladies at Quilts and Quilts, I found that metallic thread has an expiration date. Hee! Hee!

Here are a couple of shots of the free motion quilting. I did this one while I was waiting on machines to make their way across the country, so I used my Singer Heavy Duty 4423 machine with the darning and embroidery foot for this one. If you need a good machine for just sewing and crafting, this one is super strong and really wonderful!

Well, I hope you like this one too! I am very proud of the way it turned out! Thanks for visiting today!

Sister's Tea Quilt

2012-12-20T08:00:00.000-06:00

Hey Ya'll,

I have another quilt to share with you today. This is also a quilted throw. My sister's birthday was back in November. She has had probably the worst year of her life and it's all boys in her house except for her tiny little Jack Russell Terrier named Peppermint. So... I thought she could use something really girly and elegant.

We have a local quilt store called "Quilts and Quilts" here in the Branson, MO area. Their store was completely blown away back in the winter tornado that really did a lot of damage in our little town. As a matter of fact, the mall that their original store was in is now completely gone. They moved across town and opened bigger and better with the most beautiful quilt store you have EVER SEEN!!! That is where I found this gorgeous fabric! If you ever make it to Branson, you have to check out this amazing store!

I purchased a section of panels, a yard of the white fabric with black printing, a 1/2 yard of the tea cups in squares fabric and a couple of fat quarters for colors. I did like I did with the others and laid everything out on the bed. I used black fleece for the back. You probably can't see in the picture, but I bound it with a black fabric and then used a couching foot and used black eyelash yarn on the binding for a fun fuzzy look. used the machine to free motion quilt all of the panels.

There is a beautiful little stitching print on the table cloth in this picture. I matched up the color and actually went over all of this stitching and it really looks amazing!

You can see in both of these pictures how I stitched around all of the beautiful roses in the pictures too.

When it's all said and done, I am so proud of this quilt and I know that my sister is going to love it for years and years. She was thrilled to receive it! Thanks so much for visiting today! I would love to hear what you think about these quilts!

Wow! It's been a while!!!

2012-12-18T10:43:00.000-06:00

Hey Ya'll,

Well... It's been a LONG time. We aren't dead... just really busy. Hee! Hee! There are a lot of things to catch up on. I hope you don't mind, but today's post is going to be kind of long winded. I just wanted to catch up a bit.

There have been a lot of changes in schedules in our lives lately and a lot of crazy things happening at work. With the position I have, talking about anything work related on line is a big no-no, so I will spare you the details about that... I will just say it's been a LONG season. Hee! Hee!

So... I announced a long time ago that I got a dream of mine... an embroidery machine. We even had a guess giveaway about it. Well, I will keep this as short as possible, but there have been lots of issues. The first machine had serious problems. It was the Singer Futura CE-250. So, I sent it back and ordered a Singer Futura Quartet. I LOVED that machine, but after a couple of small projects, it totally seized up. Back it went. Then, in the time it took for HSN to receive it back, they sold out. So... I ordered a CE-150. In the process of machine problems, we continued to invest in things like threads, fabrics, etc... etc... The CE-150 was messed up too. I assumed it had to be the shipper because the boxes look like they had been dropped out of an airplane. Hee! Hee! So... I sent it back and ordered a heavy duty regular sewing machine and I love it! I was able to get started on some projects, but didn't have the embroidery... just some basic stitches. Well, I registered for Darlene Cahill's website (host of sewing shows on HSN) and got an e-mail that Singer had something brand new coming out. I waited and ordered it as a Today's Special and since the boxes were so bad previously, I paid $80 for next day shipping.... thinking that might help. Well, I got the machine and it sewed like a DREAM! The only problem was that it wouldn't work with the computer and the embroidery hoops wouldn't go in the machine. REALLY??? SERIOUSLY??? I was really ticked! Well... HSN has the most wonderful service and they took good care to get me a good replacement. Come to find out they had changed the hoops with this newest model and they are crap, so they are sending replacements that are good quality. The replacement machine is perfection and I am in LOVE!!!

This is a picture of it without the embroidery attachment on it. It's FANTASTIC!!! There are a ton of stitches built in to it, all kinds of adjustments, automatic thread cutter (Holy Crap!), top and bottom tension controls, speed control, spool pin on the back... you name it... this machine has it! Plus, it's all the heavy duty construction as well. It came with so many feet too! Anyway... if you are looking for a dream machine, I can finally endorse this one with total confidence. Ok... so enough about the machine. Wanna see why we haven't posted in a long time?

First of all, I haven't made a paper project in a LONG time. Just no time. Besides that, I have become totally obsessed with quilting. There is a place online called Missouri Star Quilt Company that has wonderful youtube videos on quilting and an embroidery site called Secrets of Embroidery that has amazing tips and tricks! I have never quilted before, but now, I can't stop. Really loving it!!!

This is my first ever quilt! There is a local store here in town called the Fabric and Decor Shoppe. They have these amazing little kits for $39.00 where you make a quilt that is fleece backed. No sandwich... you just quilt the top, press it really well, put fleece on the back, quilt and bind. It took me about 3 hours start to finish! I had no idea that it was so easy to do!

I know it's extremely basic and if you are an avid quilter, I probably gave you a good chuckle, but I am really proud of how it turned out. I also used scraps and made matching pillows. In the center of the pillows, I used an embroidery stitch file from Secrets of Embroidery and embroidered it with the machine.

Well... This started a complete and total obsession! My parents took a vacation recently and hit a bunch of fabric stores along their travels. Mom came home with this really fun 50's print in panels. They have a 50's themed room in their house. So... she asked me if I could come up with something. Here is what happened!

This took a while to plan, but this is also a fleece backed quilt. I laid out all of the panel pieces on top of the fleece piece on the bed and then used a ruler to measure between the pieces and wrote down everything. Then I did a paper layout of the quilt and wrote everything in. I was surprised that everything actually came out really accurately. If not, I would have probably really struggled with getting into the craft. Once the top was assembled, I put a layer of batting under it and then a layer of muslin. I did a stay stitch around the edge of the entire quilt and then started free motion quilting. I had NEVER done this before, but it's really quite easy! Once the quilting was done, I put the fleece on the back and the used the walking foot to stitch in the ditch around the prints to secure it. Then I made strips with the checkered fabric and did the binding. Keep in mind, I learned all of this on tutorials online. How cool has youtube become?!? Hee! Hee! Well, my Mom loved hers so much and we had extra fabric, so she asked me to make one for my Aunt who also has a 50's room.

Her basement looks like the diner in this picture. It's really cute! She has a media space next to the 50's room with black leather sofas and then the 50's furniture is all red, so we used red to make hers. Cool huh?
The other thing I can't get over is easy it is to free motion quilt. If you blow up the picture before, you can see the white stitching used to machine quilt the center pieces.

Well, I was just thrilled with the way they turned out. I know it's WAY off from paper crafting, but I hope you will still enjoy seeing the projects! Thank so much for visiting!

Baker's Dozen from one paper stack!

2012-10-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

It's Sassy Dude Day here at Cricut Couple. This will also be featured over at She's a Sassy Lady. I am calling this the "Baker's Dozen". All of these cards were made simply with one basic pattern and one paper stack. Sometimes, you get so bogged down with decisions on where to find this and where do I have that and get lost during the process and then when you get to the end of the day, you didn't accomplish anything, right? Well, hopefully, this will help a little bit with that.

The paper stack that I used for this was from Michaels by Recollections called "Today, Tomorrow and Forever". It's not really my taste, but I thought it would be a fun challenge and I know these are all very popular colors, so I just had to try. Besides that, I needed a bunch of cards in a hurry. I got all 13 of these done in one afternoon! YES! One afternoon!

So... I started with cutting for the cards. I used 13 pieces of 8 1/2" x 11" kraft card stock and folded it in the middle. I then pulled decorative papers from the stack, two coordinating patterns at a time. I cut two mats 8 1/4" x 5 1/4" inch from one patterned paper and then two mats 7 1/2" x 4 1/2" from the other patterned paper. I then cut white mats for sentiments from white card stock 3" x 6". Everything was inked with Chocolate Ink. There is a page in this stack with fun little tags, so I fussy cut all of them out and then there is another sheet that is stripes of lace borders that I cut with a craft knife. Those were also inked. I then pulled from the stamp stash... some from Anna Griffin, some from CTMH and some from My Craft Spot and did some sentiments. I then got out the Gypsy and came up with some images that wouldn't take very long to cut and started laying them out.

On layer one, you can see a birdhouse layer that I cut from scraps remaining from cutting my mats.

I then used other scraps to cut the roof layer and some birds.

I used a dark gray card stock to cut the background layer for the birdhouses.

I then used some colonial white cardstock from CTMH to stamp on and pulled some random images from the Art Philosophy and Artiste cartridges.

Once I had matted cards and piles of fun accessories, I then just started assembling them. For this card, I used a bird, bird house and left the sentiment as it was on the decorative paper. I added a bitty gem for the eye of the bird. You can see how the chocolate ink goes perfectly with everything and really adds a great finish to the shabby chic look.

For this one, I used a CTMH stamp on the provided lable shape and punched a couple of flowers from scraps with a martha punch. I also used a piece of the lace across the center.

For this one, I used a My Craft Spot stamp and an Anna Griffin stamp, some lace flowers and some cute buttons from CTMH.

This one was just a bit different. I used scrap strips and cut them 8 1/4" long to mat the card. The Cherish is also a provided label shape from the paper set. The butterfly strip is from a full card stock sheet.

I used a CTMH thanks stamp on a label shape for this one, three birds, a border strip and a lace strip.

I added a simple bow and a strip of scrap for the center of this card. I really like this one.

This one had a great graffiti look with the wood grain paper. The lable shape on the right is stamped with a CTMH stamp, but is one of the provided shapes. The Happy Birthday to you is a straight clear stamp sentiment from My Craft Spot. I cut the banner shape from Artiste and then put my clear stamp block over the shape... then I curved the clear stamp on the block to fit in the swirled shape of the banner.

This one is more of the same, just different papers. The stamps used are Anna Griffin sentiments.

This one is super easy. The label was from the provided shapes and I just added a lace strip and a bird.

This one is like the others. I added a lace strip and then another scrap piece from leftovers.

I love this woodgrain paper. It's so fun and goes great with the coordinates!

This one also used a label shape provided, but I stamped it with a CTMH stamp.

I think this one is probably my favorite. I love how the birds stand out against the wooded wall. This paper was printed with lace and painted flowers already, so it didn't need much. The banner shape also came from the paper set and was stamped with a CTMH stamp set. I also added some glitter here and there to finish it off.

So... this turned out to be a really fun experiment and I will be doing this again since I am SOOOOO far behind on my cards. This was a paper stack with a cost of $11.99. So far, 13 cards and I haven't even used half of the stack yet. I really tried this to see how far I could get with one stack. With having a simple group of goodies to work with, I was able to complete these 13 cards, start to finish, in about 4 hours. I have never knocked out cards that fast, even with a kit. Hee! Hee!

Well, I hope you like today's project! I will be sharing pictures of these individually over the next week, so I would love to hear your comments. Thanks so much for visiting today!

Future Smells a little Fishy...

2012-10-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

Well, hope everyone is doing well. I do have a card to share with you today, but if you don't mind, would like to catch up a little bit.

I am getting tired of saying that life has been crazy lately, so I am not going to.

We just celebrated our anniversary and a brief vacation in the last couple of weeks. Didn't really go anywhere, but we did have some fun at Silver Dollar City and hitting quilt and craft stores! We also enjoyed some much needed down time at home. Got to see the 2016 movie and all I can say about that is GO SEE THE MOVIE and QUICKLY! Everyone must see this movie before they vote!

As you may know, I got an embroidery machine. Well, I decided to get a new laptop and then found that the machine wasn't compatable with the new laptop, so it went back. So... I ordered another one that was compatable with everything, received it and then it was all messed up. In the mean time, they sold out of this particular machine, so they couldn't exchange it. So... it's on it's way back and a different machine is on it's way. In the mean time, I have been collecting fabric, threads, stabilizers, etc. So... I kinda have to have the machine since I have spent about the same amount on everything else. Hee! Hee! Crazy, huh? So... much of my crafting time has gone to problems with technology and I don't have problems with technology usually.

On top of all of this... I have just been given a promotion at work, which is really going to take time away from crafting, so I will be cutting back quite a bit in some ways and sharing more with others. I will have lots more cards to make with this promotion, but I have really been struggling lately with blogging. I can make a card in half the time that it takes to shoot pictures, write descriptions and share it on the blog. So... I am shooting pictures, but have decided to post when it's done and not stress over it the way I have been for a long time. I know that all of our wonderful online friends will just be happy to see a post when it's available, but with both of us full time and learning some new things, something has just got to give a bit. Thanks to everyone for understanding.

So... life is changing in so many positive ways and I hope the same is going for all of you! Something I have started playing with (when I have had a working machine) is quilting. I don't have anything complete yet, but will be sharing some fun starter projects soon that I have been trying out. I also have a fun post to share as Sassy Dude this month and I hope you will stop by and see that.

Today, I just have a simple card to share. This was for someone who is changing jobs. They are going to work for a company that is all about bass fishing. I got on the computer and found a bass fish picture and then did a little text work and this is what I came up with.

This is a half card. I used a rounded corner punch on the top left and bottom right of everything. I don't think that the colors look so great in the pictures, but they really turned out pretty.

I just thought that the inside was really fun and I think that the sentiment was really fun!

Well, thanks so much for visiting today! Hope to see you again on Sassy Dude Day!

Sassy Birthday Card...

2012-10-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

Well, this is really late getting posted, and unfortunately was late getting to Miss Sassy herself, but this is the card that I made Sheila over at She's a Sassy Lady for her birthday. I know she likes bright colors, so I thought I would have some fun and play with everything bright!

I used a bunch of chip board shapes from CTMH with the resist patterns on them and inked them up to coordinate with the papers. The colors were sunny yellow, petal, smoothie and pear.

I also added some pretty lace flowers and buttons to finish off the design.

I added some additional mat layers on the inside with a white sentiment mat.

I really had a blast putting this card together and I hope that Sassy Sheila enjoyed it... even though it was really late. So... Happy Birthday Miss Sassy! Love Bobby & Jill

Thank You...

2012-10-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

I have a card to share today that was a lot of fun to create! Recently, we were doing some shopping and came across a vision center that carries Nikkon eyewear. Jill and I both got Nikkon eyewear a couple of years back. The type that we have are the frameless. They were REALLY expensive. Well... about 6 months after we got them, Jill had one of the pins that holds the side piece on her pair break. Who would have thought that would happen with Titanium, but whatever, right? Anyway... we took them into this place which was not where we originally purchased them and inquired about being able to fix them. Well, the manager of the facility went to the back and came out with the exact side piece that was broken on Jill's pair. She took a really long time being careful not to break the lens and worked really hard to remove the broken pin along with the little piece that holds the side pieces on. Once she had that removed, she put all new pieces in her glasses and a new side piece, fitted Jill all over again and made sure that everything was perfect. When finished, we picked up a bottle of cleaner, some new microfiber cloths, a case and something else I don't remember and walked to the register with Bonnie... the manager. She rang everything up and told us what the total was, which was less than $12.00. Jill said... what about the repairs? She said... just consider it a blessing! Can you believe that? Who does that anymore? What a sweetheart!!! So... while we were visiting with her and she was struggling to remove that pin, we got to talking. Come to find out, she is not a regular Cricut user, but she does have a cake machine and is a cake decorator as a hobbiest. So... after what she did, we grabbed a Cricut Cake chef's hat and wrapped it all up and of course, I had to make a card. So... hope you enjoyed the story... let's get into the card.

I used white card stock for the base and punched the corners with a Martha Stewart Corner Punch. I used twilight card stock for the base mat. On the inside, I used the rounded corner punch, but on the front, I cut the corners out. I used Vanilla Cream paper and stamped it with several lace medallion stamps. I used grey wool, chocolate, smokey plum, pear and twilight. I just did each stamp shape with its own color. I then cut a piece of chocolate card stock and then stamped it with a flourish/leaf type of stamp from the Avondale card workshop stamp set. I used a piece of grey paper and stamped it with a script stamp and cut out the Thank You shadow layer. I used smokey plum for cutting out Thank You. Thank You comes from the Sophisticated cartridge.

I added a couple of pieces of ribbon on the left and then added some design elements left over from the Avondale card workshop set on the front.

I matted the inside the same way and used a sentiment from the Avondale Card Workshop stamps. I also used the corner punch on the sentiment mat. Everything in this card was inked using Grey Wool ink.

It's been a while since I made a card that I was really happy with and I really liked the way this one turned out. I really hope that Bonnie likes it and knows how much we appreciate her. What a blessing she was that day and Jill is so grateful!

I would love to hear your comments. Thanks so much for visiting today!

Out of sight... Out of mind...

2012-10-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

I have another organizing project to share with you today. This is something I have been wanting to do since I remodeled the craft room and never had time to complete it.

I had drawers and drawers full of punches and wooden stamps. Again, we are very blessed to have so much, but I tend to be one of those types who is out of sight, out of mind when it comes to such things. I wanted to get all of these beautiful stamps and punches out and up to where I can see them, so this is the result!

My Dad helped me with the project. This is actually 14 inches tall by 110 inches long. We went to get MDF board. Well, they only had one piece. It's 1/4" thick. So... we got one MDF sheet and three sheets of heavy board that is 3/16" thick instead. The sheets that we purchased were 2' x 4'. We used the MDF for the border and ripped them down to 3" strips. 1 1/2" strips out of the heavy board. I then used Guerilla Glue to put the whole thing together. There is quite a bit of measuring that needs to be done, but if you have a table saw and a chop saw, it goes really fast. Start to finish, this took about 2 1/2 hours to complete.

Now, everything is up and visable, so hopefully you will see some of these things in future projects. Hee! Hee! Now that I can see what I actually have. Hee! Hee!

Thanks so much for visiting today! I would love to hear your comments!

Just Playin' Around...

2012-09-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

Well, I don't have a lot of details to share today, just a lot of pictures. I had to make up some quick autumn cards and I recently got all of the "Flirty" collection from CTMH. These are all standard half cards. I used the Artiste cartridge for many of the accessory cuts and the Embellishments that coordinate with the paper.

Well, It's picture heavy, but I hope you enjoyed all of today's cards! I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you so much for visiting today!!!

Fall Favorites Card...

2012-09-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

Sassy Dude here today with a fun card project for you. I am sorry, but even with a brand new laptop, I can not get my Gypsy files transfered so that I can share them, but I wanted to share the card with you today, just the same.

I used the "Fall Favorites" stamp of the month for this design. It's still available for a couple more days. It's my favorite fall stamp set to date and lots of fun to color. If I could figure out how to use markers, I would probably love it even more. Hee! Hee!

For the scarecrow, I cut a label shape from CTMH Artiste cartridge. It's just a basic shape. I also used a label shape from the same cartridge for the pumpkin stamping on the inside and that's it with the cricut. Everything else is cut with a straight cutter and punch.

I stamped the image with chocolate ink and then used my colored pencils to color all the details. I stamped the word "fall" twice. Once with Olive and once with Autumn Terra Cotta. I cut out the "a" from the terra cotta one and then popped it in the center of the word. I used a straight cutter and cut out a rectangle and then used a rounded corner punch for the corners. The border on the bottom is also stamped repeatedly with chocolate and then colored in the same way as the scarecrow. I also used a border punch on chocolate card stock to make the lacy border on the bottom. For the piece behind the scarecrow, I simply stuck the scarecrow on the paper and then used the straight cutter to cut a 1/4" border around the edge. Then used the rounded corner punch on it as well.

I added a couple of just regular silk autumn leaves behind the word fall. The rest of the papers are from a recollections paper stack that I got a Michael's last year.

For the inside, I just added another label shape with pumpkins stamped and colored the same way as above. The entire card and all layers are edge inked with Autumn Terra Cotta as well.

Well, I hope you enjoyed today's project. I was hoping to have something a little more advanced than this, but time has just not been something I can get my hands around lately. Hee! Hee! Thanks so much to Sheila for letting play again today. Check out what the rest of the Sassy DT has been up to over at She's a Sassy Lady!

Some love from Rhonda...

2012-09-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

I am SO excited to share this with you today! Rhonda from Scrap Happens with Rhonda had this little fun Mini Album share where a bunch of us made little halloween pages and sent them to her. Then Rhonda sent us back these amazing albums with some of the shared pages and a bunch of others that she did herself! How fun! Rhonda is so sweet! You really need to hop over to her blog and see some of her other works. She has some of the most clever things I have ever seen! But... before you go, look at this adorable mini album!!!

Isn't that the cutest thing you have every seen?!? Thank you so much Rhonda for this adorable album! We will have to take extra special halloween pictures this year to fill it up. So... everyone head on over the Scrap Happens with Rhonda and see all of her other adorable mini albums and other wonderful creations!

Card Workshops...

2012-09-25T12:31:00.001-05:00

Hey Ya'll

Well, I have something very simple to share with you today. Below are pictures of two card workshops on the go available from CTMH. These workshops come with everything you need to make 5 each of the cards in the kit. The instructions are very simple and they are great to add to the stash if you need something at the last minute, which is how my life has been lately. Hee! Hee!

I don't have a ton of details to share today. Just thought I would share with you how they turned out.

Thanks so much for visiting today!

Advent Calendar...

2012-09-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

Well, I have something very simple to share today.

This is the Advent Calendar Workshop on the Go. This is a new Home Decor project by Close to my Heart! The minute I saw this in the new idea book, I had to have it. It comes with everything you see here and is really simple to put together! There is only one thing that I did different. When you get the kit, it comes with paper in the Juniper color. Since all of our Christmas decorations include purple in some way or another, I used Petal card stock to make five of the boxes instead of the Juniper and now I have some extra Juniper for other projects! YAY!

There isn't much more to say about it as it is a complete kit with instructions and everything! It comes with the foundation piece with 25 cubbies, the chipboard cutout frames, an exclusive stamp set with the numbers and borders and all of the cardstock. You use the Artiste cartridge to make the individual boxes, so you can just play and come up with any color scheme you want! If you are interested, you can read all about it on my website with this link. Advent Calendar Link.

I hope you enjoyed the project today and I would love to hear your comments!

Helping Mom...

2012-09-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

I have some fun goodies to share with you today. My Mom is helping out some other family members with an up coming baby shower. She wanted some things for gift cards and help putting together a couple of game prizes, so here is what we came up with.

Before she came over, I fired up the imagine machine and the Baby Boutique cartridge to print out some papers and cut out a few things. I printed lots of blue paper and the printed and cut the bows with fit to page using the Artiste cartridge. All of these envelopes are from the Artiste cartridge and cut at 5.00.

These cards are from Artiste as well. They are really clever and the center holds a gift card. We printed a little script on the computer that says "A Gift for You From Baby Jones".

Mom also wanted some little treat boxes. They haven't been filled yet, but the top will be tied closed with baker's twine. These are so easy to make. They were cut using the fit to page feature. We also cut a label shape with coordinating paper and added these adorable paper bows. One of my favorite cuts from the Artiste Cartridge!

You can't really see in the picture, but these are little trifle bowls. We used a Martha Punch that is lace hearts and punched the edges of paper to look like a cupcake wrapper. Then they are filled with chocolates and goodies, basket wrapped with curling ribbon and a paper bow like what was used on the envelopes and boxes.

The last thing are a couple of other gift goodies. These are glass coffee mugs filled with coffees and chocolates and then basket wrapped. We added a label to the front with extras from the other goodies. They also include the cutest mocha and latte towels that we found at Wal-Mart of all places. Hee! Hee! I would rather take a beating then to shop at Wal-Mart, but we found some really cut things to add to our little gifts.

In case you didn't notice already, It's a Boy! Hee! Hee! We had nothing in our craft rooms for baby, so the Imagine machine really bailed us out on this one. We had the most wonderful couple of days shopping and putting these special little things together. I know Mom is going to be the bell of the ball with all of these cute little gifts.

I really hope you enjoyed your visit today and we would love to hear your comments. Since Mom has an iPhone now, I know she will be watching out for comments, so please let her know what you think! Thanks so much for visiting!