Time To Shine! BlogHop

Welcome from Kimberly Crawford's!! I bet you enjoyed your time there didn't you!?

You are on the Time to Shine Blog Hop sponsored by CardMaker Magazine. Remember, there's a great crop with tons of cool challenges {and prizes} going on over at CardMaker Forum. Check us out!!!

In sticking with the theme of times in which people shine, I wanted to show you a graduation card I made for our niece, Anna. She's graduating from high school this coming weekend. Even though it's been several years ago, I remember being super excited to graduate from high school, to experience the adventures set out for me. I knew I wanted to go to college but I had no idea back then, three or four majors later, where I would be today. Whew!! Our Anna wants to go to school to be a dentist. We are super proud of her!!!

Here's my sample:

I got the idea from Chrissy Kelly. You can see her original work right here.

Supplies:
Cricut with George and Basics Cartridge (for all the circles)
K & Company paper called Love Birds
Tim Holtz distress ink in Worn Lipstick and Antique Linen
Decorative Label Punch (from Stampin UP!)

I thought I would show you another angle since it looks like some of my circles are rumpled in the above picture. They don't look like that in person...

From here, I hope you will check out Tammy's blog. She's sure to have something delightful for you! Click {here}.

This post is brought to you by the letter E.

Thank you so, so much for stopping by my blog. I hope that you will come back soon!

The list of hoppers, in case you got lost.
Brooke Smith -CardMaker blog
Jeanette
Ashley
Anya Schrier
Golda
Ivanka
Ana
Michelle Woerner
Judy L
Lisa
Trudy Sjolander
Jane
Angelina
Kimberly Crawford
Laura <<-----You are here
Tammy
Carolyn King
Marlene
Susan
Colleen Schaan
Meredith
Lora

Happy Easter!!

I made this card a couple of months ago for a challenge I was hosting.

I wanted to share it here, today, on Easter Sunday. I wanted to share the warmth and promise that is Easter. As a Christian, Easter really is our saving grace, quite literally. It's what solidifies God's promise to us and shows us that we can trust his Word.

Happy Easter. Happy Promise.

The Nicest Things

I made this card for my friend, Lora for her birthday. I hope she loves it!!



The paper designer paper is from My Mind's Eye, and I love it!!!

Embrace Your Inner Picasso!

I'm the hostess this week for the "Anything Goes" challenge at CardMaker Magazine's CardSwaps Board.

This is my challenge sample.

The challenge is to create your own designer or printed paper. I created the butterfly background paper using a stamp from SU's Branch Out Set.

I got the idea for the Tu-tu from Diane over at Rubber n' Rafters. She did a great job on her card and I knew I had to make one of my very own!!!


I didn't have the best of luck attaching the skirt...I ended up sewing it to the paper. It worked fine but I was hoping for a faster fix! I tried a Zig pen which never really dried properly and Tacky Tape (you know that stuff that looks red on the roll). The lace wouldn't stick to the Tape but that may have been because of the Zig pen.

I must say, I really like this card!! I have the Forever Young Cricut cartridge that will cut out the dress form which would make this card faster...I just need to figure out a better/faster way for attaching the skirt!

What would you do to efficiently attach the lace?

Cooper's Third Birthday

Today would have been Cooper's third birthday; this is his second birthday in Heaven.

While our hearts are still broken, what a joy it is to know that there is a God in Heaven and he knows and loves each one of us if we will let him. In honor of Cooper, I made his Momma, my BFF Leslie, this card.



I punched out the head and added some 3-D dots for height.

I also frayed the end of the twill tape...sort of had to because I forgot to add it before I secured the front and I could only get one side lose enough to get the tape down...Improvise!!

CardMaker "Beat the Blues" Crop

Here are projects I completed for CardMaker Magazine's "Beat the Blues Crop". I had a blast completing these projects! Special thanks for CardMaker and Lora for a great event!!

Sketch Challenge called Follow My Lead:


Use song lyrics challenge called Song of Joy:

*This is the song JJ and I danced to our our wedding day. Can I get an "ahhh"!?

Use a specified recipe challenge called A Master Plan:

*I really like this card. I have to admit, it's not my usual color scheme but I really like it!

**The crop is still going on! Check it out!! I have some more projects done but that shall be another post!

Gift Card Holder

How can you take something boring like this:

And come up with this?

Well, I learned from the TP Queen herself, Terrie. I am always amazed at her creations. I thought I would try my hand. Terrie, you are right: It's easy and I must add Stinking Cute!! I used distress ink on the edges and pretty much all over! Love that stuff!!! The gorg. tinsel came from my silly sister. Here is one of Terries creations; click here.

The card just tucks into the end like so:

I entered in the following challenges:

Card maker: Make a card with red, green, white. Use a punch and a stamp.

Catch the Bug: Anything but a card. You can only win the big pot if you use a Bugaboo stamp but since I am on my new computer... and haven't transfered everything from my old one...this is the best I can do.

Crafty Makers: Spotlight on Containers and Fancy Envelopes

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge: A time for giving

A Spoon Full of Sugar: Anything goes

Stinking Cute Gift Card Holder

Seems like everyone's Christmas list this year contains gift cards. I guess that's ok. They are certainly easy enough to locate... and you get to choose from all the cute styles. But, I really like to wrap presents. I like the way they look under our tree; I like to see the look on the recipient's face as they discover their gift hiding inside.

Where am I going with this?

Well, I wanted to find a cool/cute/neat/creative way to give our gift cards besides just sticking them inside a regular card. So, short of wrapping up big boxes that contain only a tiny gift card... I made these! And I was spurred into action by a swap (now closed) on CardMaker.

Somewhere on the internet, I saw this idea... I think it was a little different but I lost the paper so I really don't know, nor can I give credit. (If this is your idea, thank you and let me know so I can give you all the credit.)

So anyway, I busted out my Deck the Halls paper and my new Top Note die and got to work!

This is where I started. Cute. But not Stinking Cute! Although, those tiny pearls are nearly Stinking Cute all by their sweet little selves!

So, I added this sentiment. Of course the "Naughty deserve something nice". After all, there are different levels of naughty. We are only talking about the ornery people, here. Not the really bad ones... they still get coal!

I used all the snazzy twill tape I had so I busted out this crochet lace that I got in the fabric section at Wal-Mart. I big-fat-squishy {heart} it! Anyway, after I got this one complete, I just thought it eeked my Mom. Looks like it walked right out of a Flapper Party circa 1922. Not that my Mom looks like she was around in 1922 but we both love that era! (We aren't suppose to get Mom Christmas presents; we are suppose to spend it at the beach instead. But, I may just have to get her a gift card so she can have this holder!)

This last one is just to show you that it opens/closes with a brad at the top. Easy peasy and stinkin cute!

Happy Birthday to you, and you, and you and...

Here are some birthday cards that I made this past week. I case'd them from my good friend, Lora. (Sorry it's not a direct link to her card but she's super talented so you shouldn't mind to hang out with her for a bit.)
I ran the "candles" through my BigKick using the Candy Cane Stripes embossing folder. The "flame" is from the wing of Stampin UP's Two-step Bird Extra-Large punch. Then I ran them through my paper crimper. Finally, I used 3-d dots to elevate some of the flames and the sentiment.

And... I have plenty more to make some more birthday cards very soon!! They seriously went together so fast, I think Grandma will get some of these for her bazaar too!!

Oh and! I almost forgot to tell you... It's crop time again at CardMaker. Click here to see all the excitement!! The theme is "Birthday Party!!"

Let Me Make You Something Marvelous!

This is for a challenge over on CardMaker The challenge was to make a card using purple and lace.

I thought to myself: "This should be easy. I like purple and I love lace." The only problem was that I couldn't find any lace in my stash! What?? I know!!

But, after a shopping trip with my friend, Heather for her birthday, I had the ribbon/lace you see on the card.

I guess it's not technically lace but it's pretty to me. :)

PS- The pictures look all hazy like I got a new lens or something. Ha! It's just mega humid here and when I walked outside my camera fogged up!

"G" is for Glamour... and GLITTER!!!!!!

It's Crop time at CardMakerMagazine.com! Please join us for "Make it Marvelous in May" crop. Find all the challenges here. You have until Midnight on May 25th to submit your creation. Winner's are chosen at random.

Anyway... my challenge begins this morning. My topic...

"'G' is for glamour and GLITTER!!!". All you have to do is create a card with some sort of sparkles and submit!

I don't think you can tell very well from the pictures here (had to use the flash...) but I spayed the background and the butterflies with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Marshmallow.
You can see the sparkles here a bit.

Supplies:

Sizzix Butterfly #3

Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels #4 (the red part)

Scallop Trim Border Punch (SU)

Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Real Red and Melon Mambo (used in conjunction with Michael's $1 stamp to make the background DSP).

** I chose to leave off the sentiment as I created this card as part of a group of cards for a swap over at CardMaker.

Why of course it's Rich Razzleberry!

Last week I was the Sketh Hostess at CardMaker. Here's my sketch: I had a moderately crappy week so it was hand drawn (I prefer to label it as an original pencil sketch) and it looks like I didn't rotate it correctly either...

Here's my example. I used Rich Razzleberry ink and some coordinating Designer paper from SU. I made the flower using the George cartidge on my Cricut. The bottom flower layer is plain Very Vanilla cardstock, next layer is VV again with a random pattern from a new $1 stamp. Then, the top is Designer Paper.

I took this side angle shot so you could see that I scrunched (ok, I really just wadded) up the flower layers and set the sentiment so that I had some extra dimension to my card... pretty cute if you ask me. See that darling scallopped border?? You know it's a new border punch! I am simply addicted to those things!!

Cupcakes O' Plenty!

I made a pack of cupcake "Happy Birthday" cards for a swap I joined at CardMakerMagazine.com. The challenge was to make 6 birthday cards; they had to have a cupcake of some kind.

I love these colors together... pretty "loud" but birthdays should be LOUD, don't you think?

Supplies:

Paper: from my stash

Stamp: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Punches: Modern Label, Lattice Border Punch

Other: Prima flowers, brands (from my stash)

Happy Easter Inchies!!

For Easter, I gave my Grandma the charm pictured below; it holds 1"x1" pieces of paper or things or... whatever you want to add.

(NOTE: I didn't take this picture, I borrowed it from the SU website. I hope I don't get arrested!)

So, these are the inchies I made for her. (Sorry I forgot to flip this one.)

This is my Buuterflies and Birds stamp set again with that lovely Rich Razzleberry ink... Did you hear?? Rich Razzleberry made it into the "normal" color line of SU inks! *swoon* I also colored the back inchie with my new glitter pen from my friend Barbara... thanks BB!
Now, I made the top one... pretty basic but I love it because I got to glitter it with my new glitter pen. The bottom one was made by Jane; I got it from an inchie swap I did over at CardMaker. I gave it to my Grandma because I thougth she would love it... she did!! Thanks Jane!!



Now these... Grandma and I both LOVE LOVE Christmas and of course, glitter!! So I knew she would love these! I used my Delightful Decorations set for the first two, and an old Creative Memories punch for the third one. The last one is just my writting. I also sprayed those last two with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Marshmellow... I love that stuff!!



*Sorry these photos are so horrible. I didn't realize until now and the inchies have been gifted.*
This is hands down, my favorite set!! They are really pretty purples with a Chocolate Chip, embossed "U". This was left over paper from my bucket reformation; love it!!
I just love this little owl from my Butterflies and Birds set (do I sound like a broken record??). This paper is super gorge too! It's 'That's Amore' from Close to my Heart. The word is just my handwritting (I have to say that I am not super impressed with my penmanship but others seem to enjoy it on occasion so...). Oh, and if you look close, there's more glitter pen on the owl!


Grandma loved them!! She also had this really cool, vintage necklace that had tons of layers of silver strands. It was perfect!! I am ashamed to say that I didn't snap a picture of her on Easter morning... I don't even take my camera--- Eek!! I will snag a picture soon. With this many inchies, I am sure she will sport it often AND-- I will make her some more as the ideas come to me.