A Thank You to my Followers!

OH MY GOODNESS!  I can't believe how the list has grown.  Thank you all so much for choosing to follow my blog.  I'm still  learning this blogging process and would truly appreciate any suggestions to make this little (ha-ha) project better. 

As promised,  a prize for one of you (and a HUGE thank you to the rest!). Wednesday morning, I will use Random.org to choose one follower to receive a $20 gift certificate to MySheriCrafts.  I'll post the winner by 9:00 a.m. pacific, so be sure to check back. Also, I hope you'll drop by Sheri's store and her blog.  She has some great things to offer and some terrific challenges as well.  And, if you go to one of her designer's blogs, you can get an additional coupon to make your prize have an even greater value - how about that!!!

I'll ask the winner to leave a comment following tomorrow's  post which includes an email address and I'll forward the gift certificate  right away. Then, just enjoy deciding what to purchase. Easy-peasy, right?

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

Roly Poly Snowman

My Thanksgiving Cards for Soldiers have been mailed so now I must concentrate on Christmas.  Thanks to the Santa's Slackers Challenge, I at least have my Christmas papers, embellishments, and stamps out where I have to look at them each day.  This card was a quick one I made for Challenge #6.  It's just three circles (2.5, 2.0, and 1.5), hand-cut "snow", MS branch punch, ribbon, chalk ink, two small black brads and a hand-cut nose - That's it!  Easy peasy.

I just need 4 more followers to reach 50!  That's so amazing.  I thank each of you who have joined.  When I reach 50, there will be a special drawing for my followers.  I'll share the details soon, so pass the word.

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

So Blessed, So Thankful

Good morning.  I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  Today I'm sharing three Thanksgiving cards that I will be sending to the Cards for Soldiers project.  I have made multiples of each card, leaving the insides blank so that personal messages can be written.

The sentiment is heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  The Core-dinations paper is dry embossed with the Cuttlebug Pumpkin Harvest folder and then sanded.

This sketch is one of the Raq's Card Challenge sketches for this week.  I thought the bottom was too plain so I stamped it repeatedly with a maple leaf stamp using Momento Dew Drop Dye ink in Tangelo.

I scraplifted this idea from Diane at Capadia Designs using a different flower cut and adding a bow.  I used the Gypsy to size the flower (image, shadow background, and shadow from Home Decor).  A little inking and some Stickles finished the card.  I did add a cream insert since I chose the dark card base.

Wow!  I'm getting close to 50 followers.  I think reaching 50 would be cause for celebration and offering some blog candy.  What do you think?

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

Think Pink #2

     Here's another Breast Cancer Awareness card.  I just pictured the ribbon as the "O" in "HOPE" and went from there.  It's not often that the finished card actually matches the picture in my head, but this one came pretty close - woohoo!! 
     Tomorrow is chemo day for my sister-in-law.  I'm her chemo buddy and we'll be gone most of the day so I don't know if I'll have a new post ready.  I always take my Gypsy with me.  She loves exploring all the cartridges and then, when she gets tired, I start working on my challenge cards.
     This is a standard A2 card.  I used Mini Monograms for the scalloped squares and Lyrical Letters for HOPE, cut twice and then offset.  I also used a Martha Stewart border punch.  Foam squares added the extra dimension to the scalloped squares.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

Think Pink

Here is the first of my Pink October cards. I'll be submitting this one to the My Sheri Crafts challenge.  It's so wonderful that an entire month is dedicated to Breast Cancer awareness, but we must not forget to support those who are fighting the other types of devastating cancers as well.  My sister-in-law is fighting ovarian cancer and her husband has multiple myeloma.  Both of my parents died of cancer, so fighting this awful illness is near and dear to my heart. 

This is the screen shot of my Gypsy.  Sheila (aka She's a Sassy Lady) provides wonderful directions for making window cards and suggests we use a window frame from Fabulous Finds. (You can weld words or images to any frame, but not the inside of a solid shape). I wanted to weld "Hope" to the window and then place another one on top for dimension.  I also welded the window's shadow cut, sized the same as the window, so that the card, when folded, would be an A2.  The welded letters for "Hope" are from Songbird.  The butterfly is from Sentimentals.

Here's what the welded window cut looks like before folded or embellished.

I added paper to the iside as a base for the butterfly which shows through the window frame.  The butterfly trail was made using a 3-D Glaze pen which adds gloss and a little dimension.

I used foam squares to pop the butterfly and added tiny pearls to the antenae.

I adhered "Hope" to the window cut and added an EK Success border trimmed to fit the card width. The ribbon and pearls finished the card.

Check back during this month for more Think Pink ideas.

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

A Potpourri of Cards

I'm back!  We had a wonderful visit with our family, but it was difficult staying away from my scraproom.  I have some challenge cards that are waiting to be cut and assembled. Until I'm caught up, I'll share some cards that were created at the beginning of this wonderful journey. It's Sunday night so I had to take the pictures indoors - sorry about the quality :(.  The first three cards were made before I discovered card sketches and card challenges.

I didn't have too many cartridges when this card was made.  I used Beyond Birthdays and George.

This is my first Tilda card using Prisma pencils and Gamsol.  I've found that I like using Copic markers better than the Prismas, so this card is one of only a few using this technique.   The flower is cut from George and the sentiment is Beyond Birthdays.  I also Cuttlebugged Tilda's background and inked the edges.

This is an anniversary card for my husband.  The Indie Art butterfly and heart are still two of my favorite cuts.  The initials are from Lyrical Letters and the love is from Home Accents.  I added Stickles to inside of the cuts.

This was my first Gypsy challenge card.  For the Gypsy challenges, we don't use sketches, but rather we're given different functions to use in order to better learn all the wonderful things that can be done with the Gypsy.  For this challenge, we were to "flip" an image (birds).  The frames are from Songbird and the birds and branch are from Home Decor, popped on the Cuttlebugged background.  I also added Stickles to the flowers on the branch.

Finally, a card with no Cricut.  The leaves are a Martha Stewart punch.  I added silk flowers with button centers.  Some paper layering, ribbon, and doodling finished the card.

Thanks for continuing to follow me on my journey.  I truly appreciate your comments and those who are willing to become followers.

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

Beware!

Today's card is a two-for-one.  I posted it on the Gyspy Chat challenge and Raq's Card Challenge - both on the NEW Cricut messageboard.  The sketch came from the Raq challenge and the recipe came from the Gypsy challenge.  Here's the recipe:  1. a holiday card  2. at least two images (tag, spider, web)  3. 1 word (Beware) 4. 1 weld (eek)  5. 1 image stretched (Beware)  6. 1 image squeezed (tag)  7. at least three cartridges (Lyrical Letters, Pumpkin Carving, October 31, George).  I also added Stickles to Beware and a little bling here and there.  The web in the corners is the circle web from PC.  I cut off the circle and then cut the web in half.  I tried the web from October 31 and it was just too delicate at that size.

Family's coming in for a visit so I hope to keep up with my posts.  If not, I'll be back this weekend.

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

Another Challenge Card and Some Helpful (?) Ideas.

I'll begin by posting my 4th challenge card for Santa's Slackers.  I used Very Merry Tags and an EK Success border punch.  It's pretty simple, but I  like the idea of the tag in the pocket (my rather far-fetched interpretation of the sketch!) and may explore some different ideas along those lines for more Christmas cards.

I really love to organize things - sometimes I organize more that I create!!  Well - I have 68 Cricut cartridges (it was scary to actually count them) and I can't always remember what's on them, especially those wonderful bonus cuts found on the function keys.  I do take the time to go through my handbooks, just to refresh my memory and find inspiration, but sometimes I just need a frame/mat and I can't remember which cartridge to use. 

So this is what I did:  I went through my handbooks with my Gypsy turned on and the 12x24 virtual mat selected.  When I found  frames/mats I knew I would use often, I selected them and placed them on the virtual mat.  I used a default size of 2.5 so that I could compare across the cartridges I chose.  I didn't include Mini Monograms because I'm very familiar with those shapes.  After I filled up my virtual mats (2 pages) with cuts that I had been looking for, I used my Expression to draw the shapes using my Cricut Pens.  That way, I'd have reference sheets with the cuts all together.  I also added the initials of the cartridge following each set of cuts.  It really didn't take that long and I love being able to look at my sheets to compare shapes and sizes and know which cartridge to use.   Now, you may not want to use 12x24 paper.  You could do the same thing on 12x12 or 8.5x11 and make smaller images.

                                          A Reference for Frames/Mats

I added the note "&frames" after the Storybook images to remind myself of that complete function key.

The other thing I've done to help me with cartridge images is to print the preview pages from the Cricut.com website.  If you go to "information" then "Cricut library" and click on the first column after each cartridge, you'll get a single sheet preview.  You can't see the images created with the function keys, so I'll write what the function keys do and also write any "words" or "phrases" that come with the cartridge directly below the image.  I keep all these pages in plastic sleeves and held together with binder rings.

Well, those are my brainstorms for today.  Hope you find them helpful.  Now, I must stop organizing and get the creative juices flowing!

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

Fall is in the Air

I designed this card for the Jitterbuggin' challenge.  I just received the 3 Birds on Parade cartridge so I was excited to use it.  The bird and all of its layers were cut at 2.5 inches.  I inked all the cut edges and embossed the bird's bacground paper and its body. This cartridge is going to be fun.  I'm thinking an " All Through the Year" album would be really cute.  Hmmmmm, I'll have to give that some thought.

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

Halloween Cards

I'm trying to finish up some projects that have been ignored for awhile so I thought I'd share some pre-blog cards from my files.  I'll start with Halloween cards.  I made a Halloween card when I attended my very first card class - that's where my love for cardmaking began and it just keeps growing!

This was my first challenge card.  The spiders and sentiment are from Lyrical Letters and the Cuttlebug folder is Pumpkin Harvest sanded and inked.  There are jewels on the spider bodies.

This was the first time I welded anything.  At the time, I used Design Studio to copy and weld the spiders, ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, and fence.  All the cuts are from Paper Doll Dress Up and the sentiment is a heat embossed stamp.  I also used the MS Drippy Goo border punch.

These are all stamped images that were heat embossed.  I love using layers of papers!

Another first - the first time I used velum (the bat images are a part of the velum) and the first time I set eyelets.  The sentiment was cut from  patterned paper and then outlined with stickles.

In the next post, I'll share some Autumn cards.  Hope you'll vist again.

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn