Pretty Scary Mummy Card - Evidence that good taste can be Fickle

Mini Monsters Mummy Card

Today's  Halloween card is evidence that my judgment and "taste level" (to plagiarize Project Runway) is not always on its A Game. I used Provo Craft's Mini Monsters cartridge and from the very beginning I was plagued with problems. My daughters wanted me to make a "girly" card with a Halloween theme. Instead of going for the easy "A" and choosing a witch or other typically female typecast gory girl I choose to add a second "X" chromosome to a mummy card.

My girls absolutely love every detail from the handmade flower to the bakers twine shoe bows, but I think its a bit ugly - without being sure it is in the "pretty ugly" category. Maybe its the mismatched eyeballs or the idea that mummy wrappings would ever come in 80's pink and lime green, whatever is up with this card it has left me a bit unsettled and wondering who I could give it to. Perhaps a frienemy?

I thought I would share the card anyway since its done and my eldest says I should embrace my off days too (which is proof positive of her affinity for fortune cookies).


Mortified after muffing up a mummy,

CarrieAnne

Recipe:
Cricut Cartridge: Mini Monsters
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug: Swiss Dots
Patterned Paper: Basic Grey
Cardstock: Couture Cardstock
Bling: Recollections
Twine: The Twinery
Adhesive: Beacon Adhesives Zip Dry, Stampin' UP!

Ink: VersaMark

Cuts:
"Mummy" from the Mini Monsters cartridge cut at 5.5 inches with the Card function selected.

"Mummy" cut at 5.5 inches with the Layer 1 function selected.

"TrkRTrt2" cut at 1.75 inches with the Phrase function selected.

"TrkRTrt2" cut at 1.75 inches with the Phrase function and shift key selected.

Graduation Cap (Mortarboard) Gift Box

Graduation Cap Gift Box with Happy Hauntings Cartridge

  You probably looked at the heading to this post and wondered whether I was aware that we are full into Fall and not Spring's graduation season. Well, while working on a Halloween project I will be sharing with you later, I came across the 3d cemetery box in the Happy Hauntings cartridge and the shape of it spoke to me.

It said "Don't I look just like a graduation cap box if you remove the tombstones, creepy hand, tree, etc."

And my crafty self replied, "Why yes, yes you do."

I was afraid if I didn't try the idea out right away I would forget about it. This was sooo easy to do and I can't wait till Spring when I can make lots of them. Never one to miss an opportunity to do something different, I choose vintage Crate and October Afternoon papers to add a little personality to this traditional blah piece of celebratory apparel. The mortarboard top is attached to a flap on the box and lifts up to open. I secured it with a glue dot to keep it closed. This would be fun for a gift card or any small gift.

Recipe:

Mortarboard Gift Box Top view

Cricut Cartridge: Happy Hauntings
Brad: Imaginisce I-Top Tool
Patterned Paper: Crate Paper, October Afternoon
Trim: The Girls Paperie
Pearls: Recollections
Floss: DMC (black)
Adhesive: Beacon Adhesives Zip Dry, Glue Dots
Stickers: Karen Foster
Chipboard: Misc.

Cuts:
Box Base
"3DBox" cut from the Happy Hauntings cartridge cut at 11.5 inches from black toile patterned paper.

Thanks for stopping by,

CarrieAnne

Altered Mini Trash Can

Give A Hoot Cartridge Altered Mini Trashcan

I came across this trash can a few weeks ago on a Target clearance end cap. My husband is something of a hamster when it comes to paper bits. He has a hard time parting with them so they make piles around his home computer. I thought I would alter the can and put it next to his monitor so he would be prompted to throw out his used post its and what not right away. The original can had a bizarre color combination and dot pattern so I covered it with Sassafrass Lass Paper and die cut stickers.

To make the cute little balls of wadded up paper I used white cardstock and Stampin' UP!'s three flower punch. Spritzed them with water, scrunched and piled them on the trash can die cut.

Recipe:
Cricut Cartridges: Give A Hoot
Patterned Paper: Sassafrass Lass
Cardstock: Couture Cardstock
Pearls: Recollections
Epoxy: Epiphany Crafts
Punch: Stampin' Up!
Die Cut Stickers: Sassafrass Lass
Ink: VersaMark
Mini Trash Can: Target
Adhesive: Beacon Adhesive Zip Dry, Stampin' Up! (Glue Dots)

Cuts:
"Don't Be Trashy" sentiment from the Give A Hoot Cartridge: "TrshBr-S" cut at 2 inches in orange and at 1.75 inches in red.

Trash Can from the Give A Hoot Cartridge:
"TrshBear" cut with the "Layer" function selected from gray cardstock at 2.25 inches and the "TrshBr-S" cut from gray cardstock at 2.25 inches.

Thanks for stopping by,

CarrieAnne

Cowboy High Chair Banner

Cowboy High Chair Banner

As promised this week I am going to share some of the photos of projects I made for my son's first birthday party we held on Saturday. The theme was a cowboy party so of course I have to share a picture of my favorite little cowboy in his birthday getup. You can bet this photo is going to be scrapped as soon as I can get my hands on October Afternoon's new Sarsaparilla vintage cowboy themed release.

I've never like the idea of having a lit candle near a baby so when I saw a high chair birthday banner in a specialty boutique I thought it was a great alternative to having a number "1" candle on a cake. I knew I could easily make one with my  Cricut for a fraction of what the boutique was charging. I used the Jute as string to tie the pieces together and I thought it enhanced the overall western theme.

Reid's cowboy outfit was a colloboration between my mom (who made the vest, chaps and cowboy belt) and my mother-in-law (who crocheted the cowboy booties with spurs). Of course Reid's natural cuteness was critical in the equation, but I could just be biased.

Recipe:
Cricut Cartridges: A Child's Year, Old West, Country Life, A Mother's Day Bouquet
 Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug: Perfectly Paisley
Patterned Paper: K & Company
Ink: Memento: Rich Cocoa
Adhesive: Beacon Adhesive, Stampin' UP! Dimensionals
Tools: Crop-O-Dile
Jute: Michaels
Pearls: Recollections


Cuts:
Pennant: 
The "Wheat" cut from the Country Life cartridge with the shift key and "Banner" function selected cut at 8 inches

Lassoing Cowboy Silhouette:
The "DressUp" cut from A Child's Year cut at 3 inches

Hobby Horse Cowboy Silhouette
The "StckHrse" cut from A Child's Year cut at 3 inches

The Sherrif's badge in the middle is a combination of several cuts:
The badge is cut at 5.25 inches using the number "7" cut on the Old West cartridge with the Icon function selected.

The star is cut at 4.75 inches using the number "6" cut on the Old West cartridge with the Icon function selected.

The ivory circle is cut at 5.25 inches using the "circle" cut from the A Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge.

The rosette was created by cutting and adhering together two scalloped circles cut at 2.5 inches from the "Flower14" cut from the A Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge.

Thanks for stopping by,

CarrieAnne

Milk Bottle Birthday Treat with Cricut Craft Room

Cricut Craft Room Milk Bottle Birthday Treat

 Have you played with the new Cricut Craft Room yet?  I requested a login to be a Beta Tester and I LOVE IT!!!!

It's great that I can search for an image on any cartridge using a regular search engine function. I popped in "milk" and it gave me anything having to do with milk on every cartridge ever made. You can limit your search to Imagine Cartridges, Cricut Cartridges and other parameters.

The Craft Room welds whenever items touch instinctively (unless you set it not to) and manipulating images is SUPER easy. Every project saves in a file that preserves not only the cut sizes, but your cut settings as well.

Have I mentioned I LOVE this product yet - especially that it is completely FREE!!!

Milk Bottle Treat Side

I made this little milk bottle birthday treat by welding the milk bottle from Create a Critter together and putting a bone in at the bottom between bottles to create a piece to fold. The bottle is made from transparency and then I did chocolate layers, because the treat is one of those straws you place in white milk that turns it into chocolate milk when you suck it.

There is a bit of Epiphany Crafts goodness in the form of a round 14 epoxy and vintage setting as well.

Recipe
Cricut Cartridge: Create a Critter
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug: Swiss Dots
Tools: Epiphany Crafts (Shape Studio Tool Round 14)
Epoxy: Epiphany Crafts (Bubblecap Round 14)
Setting: Epiphany Crafts (Vintage Settings: Tea Room)

Patterned Paper: October Afternoon
Stamp: Craft Secrets
Ink: Stampin' UP!
Pearl: Recollections
Cardstock: Stampin' UP!
Stickers: October Afternoon (pennant), Webster's Pages (alpha)
Ribbon: American Crafts
Border Punch: Stampin' UP!
Adhesive: Beacon Adhesive: ZipDry, Stampin' UP! (glue dots and dimensionals)

Milk Bottle Treat Back

Transparency: Office Max
Floss: DMC (pink)
Straw Treat: Got Milk?
Buttons: Stash.

Cuts

Milk Carton: 4.7 inches 
The "Milk" cut from Create a Critter - cut four times (twice from transparency, twice from brown cardstock)


Dog Bone (hinge between bottles on bottom): 1.7 inches
"Terrier" cut from Create a Critter with shift and Layer 3 selected

June My Pink Stamper Pinkalicious Blog Hop

 Welcome to my stop along the June My Pink Stamper Pinkalicious Blog Hop!

Hopefully you arrived here from Edna's blog. If you just happened upon the hop be sure to head to the My Pink Stamper blog so you can start from the beginning and see all of the team's amazing work. If you have been following along the whole time, Heather, our guest hopper is next!

This month  we were challenged to use any of Robyn's amazing stamps, bright colors and the Summer season as inspiration. One of my favorite things about Summer is all the vintage fun that can be found at garage sales, flea markets and thrift stores. This vintage vibe put me in the mood to make a fifties inspired garden party dress on a dress form whose outfit was long in need of an update.

The My Pink Stamper stamps are versatile and perfect for card making, scrapbooking or home decor projects like this one. The "butterfly" sentiment on this project is from a Christmas set! (Winter Punnies)  Robyn's choice of beautiful fonts and her super smart selection of sentiments means any one of her stamp sets is perfect for a variety of creations and that together they are quite the tool kit for expressing yourself in a wide array of projects.  Window shop the entire My Pink Stamper product line here and be sure to buy a few  here.

The bulk of the dress is made up of over 350 individual tulip cuts from the Bloom Cricut Lite cartridge. They were adhered to a cardstock base I designed myself and then hand embellished with stickles. The "rusched" one sleeve strap is the same tulip cut sprayed with water and then "pinched." Once the paper dries it hardens and maintains its shape. As a chef would say, I served tulip "two ways."

A list of all the Pinkalicious blogs involved is below, as well as my supply list and cut information.

Thanks for stopping by,

CarrieAnne

Recipe:Stamps: My Pink Stamper: "Winter Punnies"
Cricut Cartridge: Cricut Lite: Bloom
Dies: Stampin UP! Butterfly Die
Patterned Paper: Chatterbox, Miss Arts Papercrafting Company: Ruth's Recipe Kit, Webster's Pages
Acrylic Embellishment: Webster's Pages
Ink: Tsukineko: Brown
Punch: Stampin' UP! Scallop Border, Marvy Uchida: Small Butterfly
Glitter Glue: Ranger Stickles: Star Dust
Pearls: Recollections
Pearl Strand, Tulle Pick: Hobby Lobby (Floral Supply)
Adhesive: Beacon Adhesive's:  Zip Dry, Stampin' UP! Stampin' Dimensionals
Dress Form: Hobby Lobby
Misc:.Pearls Beads, Pink Crepe Paper

Cuts:

1. The entire skirt of the dress is made from the "Flower13" cut with the "Layer/Shadow" Function selected.

2. Use the "Auto Fill" function on 12x12 sheets of paper with the size set to 2 inches. This will cut 56 tulips per sheet. You will need roughly need 3 sheets of white and 3 sheets of pink patterned tulips.

Robyn

Shelley

Julie-readysetstamp

Angela's Simple Creations 

Kassidy

 Shauna at Craftee She 

Lori

Courtney--Court's Crafts

 Cristi

Helen

 Raechel

Tracy--Craft Junkie Too

Michelle--Meesh's Pieces

 Andrea

Alex

Pam

 Edna

CarrieAnne

Heather from Bitten By The Bug 2 (Our Special Guest Hopper)

Maria

Happy Boy Layout

After 8 years of hoping for a boy, this past September we had our (not so) little Reid. This layout is of his first trip to church - I can't get enough of him in vests and suits!

The layout features Epiphany Crafts' charms, vintage settings and round 14 Bubble caps. I LOVE the versatility of being able to make my own customizable charms, buttons and epoxy embellishments. If you don't own their amazing set of tools head over to their website HERE to find out all the details on how you can.

The vintage setting I used (above the celebrate) was white and it was easy to alter and distress with standard acrylic paint.

I know my local Archivers is now carrying the entire Epiphany Crafts product line which is great for a quick trip when I need more Bubble Caps or Vintage Settings.

Recipe:
Tools: Epiphany Crafts (Clear Round 14 Bubble Caps, EC Shape Studio Round 14, EC Charm Settings Silver,Clubhouse Vintage Settings)
Chipboard Banner: Maya Road
Patterned Paper: My  Mind's Eye
Pearls and Bling: Recollections
Lace Flower: Prima
Misc.: Bird's nest charm

Ornament Gift Box

 I always laugh when I hear the term "Summer Vacation" because Summer is anything, but a vacation for me. Between traveling, teaching at a summer program for Gifted Kids and CHA, Summer is my busiest season. You may notice fewer posts on the blog, but I'll try to make up for it with really good projects :)

This little Christmas treat box was super easy to make, and I think it came out so cute. A small ornament would fit inside, a gift card or even a cookie or two. I like to make Christmas cards and gifts all year long so the holidays are not so overwhelming.

Recipe:
Cricut Cartidge: Christmas Noel
Patterned Paper: Basic Grey, Graphic45
Cardstock: Gold, Cream

Pearls: Recollections
Glitter: JoAnns
Punch: Stampin' UP! (Small Scallop)
Paint: Apple Barrel (Cream)
Adhesive: Beacon Adhesives Zip Dry
Paper Mache Box: Michaels
Misc.: Ribbon, Vintage Button

Cuts:
Ornament 3 cut at 3 1/4 inches with the shift key and blackout function selected
(You will need to cut this twice - once from gold cardstock for the ball top and once from patterned paper)

April My Pink Stamper Pinkalicious Blog Hop

Happy Spring and welcome to the April My Pink Stamper Pinkalicious Blog Hop!

If you are just happening on the hop please be sure to start at the My Pink Stamper blog to see all of the projects created by Robyn and the MPS team. If you have been following along the whole time you should have just come from Shauna's blog.

After checking out my project and the tutorial below be sure to visit Karlee's blog next!

Our challenge was to create a birthday inspired project with any My Pink Stamper stamp set. I decided to make a vintage inspired birthday hat for my daughter's 6th birthday this Summer. Ironically, she was not home when I took the pictures so my 3 year old is having a blast being the model.

I used the "Birthday" sentiment from the "Happy Birthday Sweetie" stamp on the "Sweetest Cupcakes" stamp set and the "Girl" sentiment from the "Sweet Baby" Stamp set.

The blue rosette was created from the scallop on page 53 of the Sweet Treats Cricut Cartridge and the "6" is from the Carousel Cricut Lite Cartridge. The cone is from a pattern of my own design and I also created the crepe paper fringe. The fringe is easy to make and super cheap too! Visit your local party store to find a wide array of colors at about a $1 a roll.

RECIPE

Stamp Sets: My Pink Stamper: Sweetest Cupcakes and Sweet Baby

Cricut Lite Cartridge: Carousel (the number 6 cut at 2 3/4 inches using the Font Function and Shift Key)

Cricut Cartridge: Sweet Treats (The rosette is created from two flower5's cut at 4 1/2 inches with the Shift Key)

Paper: Madeline's Song Kit: Miss Art's Papercrafting School
Pink Flowers: Prima
Glitter: Stampendous
Pearls: Recollections
Brown Ink: Tsukineko
Misc: Crepe Paper, Pink Tulle, Ribbon


The entire blog hop list of artists and their projects follows:

Robyn
Michelle-Meesh's Pieces
Shelley
Edna
 Julie-readysetstamp
 Lori
Cristi
 Raechel
Bling Queen Wendy
 Agnes--Flowerdisco
Sonia
Tracy--Craft Junkie Too
Andrea
Pam
Helen
 Tammy
Courtney--Court's Crafts
Angela's Simple Creations
Kassidy
 Shauna at Craftee She
 CarrieAnne
Karlee
 Maria

Thanks for stopping by and for those interested in how to make the fringe - read on below.

CarrieAnne

Fringe Tutorial

1. Cut each color of crepe paper to your desired length. 18 inches for the hat shown.

2. Layer the 3 crepe paper lengths one on top of the other and stitch down the middle. You could use the straight stitch on a sewing machine, but I used a loose stitch and a needle and thread.

3. Fold the crepe paper in half and cut just shy of the stitched line down the length of the paper.

4. Open the layers again and "fluff."

5. Use your fringe on all sorts of fun projects!!

Chocolate Easter Bunny Card

With Easter just around the corner I have been having visions of my favorite Spring treat - chocolate Easter Bunnies. The bunny cut is from the Cricut Lite: Celebrate with Flourish cartridge and was cut at 6 inches. By combining dry embossing and all over heat embossing on the bunny I was able to create a "chocolatey" finish. This card is also fun because the bunny itself is the hinged card. I created the ribbon rosette for the tail by running thread through ribbon and pulling the ends of the thread and then tying a knot. This is also the way one creates a yoyo flower if you add a center. Thanks for hopping by, CarrieAnne Cricut Lite Cartridge: Celebrate with Flourish Cuttlebug Folder: Houndstooth Patterned Paper: K and Company, Three Bugs in a Rug Brown Ink: Tsukineko Embossing Ink: Stampendous Embossing Powder: Stampin' UP! Butterflies: Multicraft Imports Halfback Pearl: Recollections Misc.: Ribbon, Buttons