Life Saver Card & Giveaway

My four month old son has a thing against sleeping. He hates to sleep! The only way we can get him down is to put him in his swing. He now weighs an astounding 22 pounds and has outgrown our swing. A friend of mine had a swing with a much higher weight threshold and has lent it to us (THANK GOODNESS)!

I made her this card as a way of saying thank you. The inside says "you are a life saver."

Recipe

Cartridges: Cricut Lite: Splish Splash, Cricut: Tags, Boxes and More
Paper & Border Punch: Stampin' UP!
Embossing folders:Cuttlebug: Swiss Dots, D'vine Swirl
Ribbon: Basic Grey
Ink: VersaMark
Sentiment: American Crafts Rub Ons and my word processor

How To's

1. The base of the card is the circle tag from Tags, Boxes, and More cut on 5" inches using the mirror function. Because I hate a flat hinge showing on a circle shaped card, I cut the polka dot paper at 5 1/4 inches to cover the entire base of the card and give it a clean look. This circle is also from Tags, Boxes, and more. It was cut using the Blackout function.

2. I cut the blue cardstock circle and a striped patterned paper circle at 5 inches using the functions described above. I then dry embossed the blue circle with Cuttlebug's D'Vine Swirl Embossing folder. The blue circle was then distressed with VersaMark Ink. I cut the striped circle in half and layered it on top of the blue embossed circle.

3. The border punch was punched out twice, once from the yellow check and once from glossy white cardstock. They were slightly offset then adhered together.

4. The life preserver was cut from white cardstock using the Cricut Lite Splish Splash cartridge at 3 inches. It was then embossed with the Cuttlebug Swissdots Embossing Folder.

5. The finishing touch was added by the "ropes" I adhered over the red sections of the life preserver. These were made old school - ala friendship bracelet with dmc floss.

Don't forget to celebrate reaching 200 followers with me!! I am giving away the Thanksgivings Blessings Cricut Cartridge to one lucky winner.


I don't normally require readers to become followers for a prize or challenge, but as this is to say Thank You to my followers to enter you will need to:

1.Be a follower
2. Leave a comment on Friday's post.

You have until Tuesday, February 1st to enter at 8am EST. The contest is open to all followers, but a winner outside of the United States will be responsible for their shipping costs.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Birds of a Feather

My kids LOVE the park (I am sure your's do too!) These are pictures I snapped last spring of the kids having a blast with their dad. I am using the layout for the Sketchy Thursdays challenge this week. The sketch is below.

Recipe:

Cricut Cartridge: Storybook
Paper, Bird embellishments, alphabet: Crate Paper: Lillian Collection
Hot fix crystals: Imaginisce 4mm (pink, clear, black assortment)
Tools: Walnut Hollow: Creative Jewel Tool
Buttons: From my stash

The Hows To:

I had previously cut the bracketed flourish out from the Cricut Storybook cartridge. I thought the negative space left was pretty so I held it until I found a project for it. And today was the day!

I layered the sheet with the negative space on top of the blue pattered paper. I pleated the strip of bird paper and used the dots left over from an old scalloped border for the coral colored circles.

This was the first time I used "i rock" products from Imaginisce and I am addicted. Though I used Walnut Hollows Creative Jewel Tool (because I don't own the i rock tool) I found these rhinestones were very easy to affix - I loved the result and plan on blinging up everything soon.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Love Cafe

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my first "real" project for the My Pink Stamper DT. If you have not yet stopped by Robyn's amazing website (My Pink Stamper) be sure to do so as each of her designers has come up with something fantastic to share with you.

Our challenge was to make something with the Cricut, the My Pink Stamper Stamp Set Love-alicious and the prompts: pink and love. I came up with this "Love Cafe" card with a three dimensional awning.

Recipe:
Stamp Set: My Pink Stamper: Love-alicious

Paper: Making Memories: Je t'Adore Collection

Cricut Cartridges: Bloom (Topiaries), Sweethearts (The couple at the table), My Community (the cafe awning and backdrop)
Embossing Folders: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, Textile Texture

Ink, Punch, Hardware: Stampin' UP!
Buttons, pearls: My stash

The How-To's

The base of the card is made from off white cardstock using the candy store cut on page 56 of the My Community Cart. I cut the candy store at 6" and snipped off the awning. I then embossed the base with the Textile Texture embossing folder. Using the layers function I cut out the awning at 6 1/4 inches. I then scored 1/4 down from the top to create a flap to adhere to the card. I bent one panel on each side of the awning down and attached it to the card with a glue dot.

The man and woman at the table were cut from page 40 of the Sweethearts Cart. They are cut at 2 1/2 inches and I added a few details to make them more realistic. The lady was given an extra headband, and I added cuffs to his pants, a sleeve to his shirt and a cuff to his sleeve.

The 1/2 wall and side rail were added to the candy store cut to make it look more "restauranty" and I covered the "Candy Store" wording on the storefront with the swirled Making Memories paper. The topiaries were given a few pearls and I added trim to the pots to make them stand out more. The topiaries were cut from the Bloom Cartridge on at 2 1/2 inches.

I stamped "Love" from the My Pink Stamper "Love-alicious" set and then embossed the sentiment with the Swiss Dots folder.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

"Be Mine" Pleated Heart Card

I have always wanted to try paper pleating around a shape. After spending quite a bit more time than I wanted to getting the paper to pleat around this heart shaped card I think I can check that goal off the bucket list and put it on the "things not to do again" list.

This is just a sweet over sized card to give to my Valentine.

Recipe:

Stamp: Be Mine from My Pink Stamper, "Love-alicious"

Cricut Cartridges: Create a Critter, Tags, Boxes & More
Paper: Stampin' UP!, Bo Bunny

Embossing Folders: Cuttlebug: Floral Fantasy
Punches to make the lilypad flowers: Stampin' UP!
Brads and Bling from my stash
Ink: VersaMark

How I altered the Cricut Cuts:

Two frogs were cut at 3 1/2 inches from Create a Critter. On the second frog I removed the legs. I then made these the hands to hold the "Be Mine" heart.

I cut two of the lily pads (3 1/2 inches) and layered them, but slightly offset the underneath lily pad. Both pads were inked with VersaMark and the top one was embossed with the Floral Fantasy Cuttlebug folder.

The base of the card is the heart tag cut from Boxes, Tags and More on the mirror function.

The pleating was done by cutting 1 x 12 inch strips of paper and scoring at the 1/2 inch mark. I then folded it and adhered it with red line tape.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Love is in the Air

I love this post-Christmas, pre-Valentines Day time of wintery crafts, snowy days and crisp air. I thought I would take the opportunity to make a wintery all purpose card.

I used the following Cricut Cartridges:

Snow Globe from Doodle Charms
Girl from Winter Frolic
Lace Doily (makes the scalloped border) from Cindy Loo

I like to personalize the cuts offered on my Cricut so on the Girl you will notice I added fringed bangs and changed the ornament in her hand to a mini "love" card. The little girl also has eyes made from a heart cut in half with a tiny circle placed on each eye (I thought these were a bit cuter than the original eye cuts). I added a heart to her Peter Pan Collar, an extra row of ruffles around her coat bottom, and cuffs to her gloves and boots. These cuffs were further embellished with dimensional paint from Viva Decor. She also got a cute pair of earrings to style her up.

The snow globe background is dry embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflakes folder and the patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye. The rub-on, eyelets, and buttons were from my stash.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

AMAZING Cricut Deals

Instead of posting a project with you today, I thought I would share two amazing Cricut Deals that I have found in hopes you too can enjoy them.

1. Kroger

Many Kroger grocery stores had the Cricut Personal Cutter and 3 exclusive cartridges for the holiday season. 2 weeks ago I was able to purchase the following cartridges for $11 each:

Christmas Cards
Thanksgiving
Christmas Village

and on Saturday a friend found Thanksgiving in their clearance bin for $1.00!

UPDATE: These cartridges were all available in my Kroger last night (1/19) for $7.00!

Run over to your Kroger and look in their Christmas clearance (we found them in the area where the ornaments and decor were hung up) or their big bins of really marked down clearance stuff.

2. Michaels/Walmart

As many of you know in last week and this weeks' Michaels ad they have been advertising Clearance cartridges for $9.99. My Michaels had been completely picked over so I took my ad to Walmart and they price matched both Cricut Lite Cartridges and regular Cricut Cartridges.

What an AMAZING deal!

What you need to do to get Walmart to price match:

1. Take your Michael's ad with you (you MUST have the ad) for this week. If you don't get a paper go to Michael's and ask for an ad. Be sure to say you don't need the coupon, just the ad. Mine had plenty of ads behind the counter.

2. Print and take with you the Walmart Price matching policy which can be found here.

Here is the text of that policy:

Our goal is always to be the low price leader in every community where we operate. Our customers trust us to have every day low prices ... there's no need for "special sales."

Our unbeatable promise:

Store managers make the final decision in always taking care of our customers, but we do have guidelines for matching our competition.

• We do honor "Preferred Shopping Card" advertised prices. Must be like items, be advertised and require a competitor's shopping card, for the discount to apply.
• We do not honor advertisements that require a purchase in order to receive the advertised price or free product.
• We do not honor "Buy One / Get One Free" advertisements.
• We do not honor double or triple coupons or percent off advertisements.
• We do not honor other retailers' "Misprinted" advertised prices.
• We do not honor Internet Pricing.
• We do not honor competitor advertisements from outside of the store's or Club's local trade territory.

It is important to note that store managers make the call on whether to price match or not, but their is no Walmart corporate policy against matching "clearance" items. I went to two Walmarts, one matched and one didn't based on this "clearance" issue. I was just sure to be very polite talk to the overall store manager (the CSM) and to show him/her the corporate policy to be sure he/she know they were making that "clearance" decision and not corporate. One was more than happy to match, the other said it was his personal store policy not to.

3. Get your cartridges first and then head to the register. Ask for a CSM and let the cashier know that due to the significant amount of the difference between the regular price match and the sale price the CSM will need to use their key and their employee number for each cartridge you buy. Each cartridge will have to be rung in separately and the key used, and code entered.

Be sure to come back here and report where you had success and where you didn't so we can all share in the Cricuty goodness!!

I had success in Marietta, GA at the Kroger at Shallowford and Sandy Springs, and the Barrett Parkway Walmart.

Have fun shopping and thanks for stopping by,

CarrieAnne

My Pink Stamper Blog Hop!

Welcome to the first stop on the My Pink Stamper Blog Hop. I am delighted to introduce myself and to get to know you better.

My name is CarrieAnne, and I am a wife, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend. A paper crafting veteran of over 15 years I've stayed up late snipping and gluing in my craft room, edited a magazine, taught tons of classes, and designed CHA booths. An avid scrapbooker and card maker, I also love creating 3D and altered art. From purses to pastries, I love recreating the world around me in paper. My "style" of art is characterized by strong color combinations, crisp clean lines, and lots of paper piecing and piercing. My Cricut helps me meet my eclectic crafting cravings and I am excited to share my projects with you.

For today's blog hop your challenge is to guess what our challenge was as designers. You will get a key word at each stop along the way so be sure to stay with me to the end of this post for your first clue and your next destination.

Birds and bird cages are super trendy right now and I have seen a number of variations on the web. I wanted to make a bird and cage just using my Cricut and I was able to do so with just one cartridge - Cindy Loo!

The Cage:

The base of the cage is made from the cupcake wrapper on page 74. I thought it was perfect because of the bird theme it showcases. In order that the inside and the outside of the cage bottom match, I cut two cupcake liners on "fit to page" on a 12x12 mat. They were then glued to together with Beacon Adhesive's Zip Dry.

The sides of the cage are four 1/4 x 12" strips of patterned paper. If you want the interior and exterior to match you will need to cut double the number of strips and glue them together as I did above. The four strips are held together by a brad at their midpoint. They are attached to the cupcake liner with small pieces of double sided red sticky tape.

The base of the bird cage is a spool of ribbon which I covered in dry embossed brown cardstock. The spool is necessary to stabilize the cage and makes it more durable. Red line tape was used to attach the spool to the cage and I tossed in some pretty pink buttons for fun.

The Bird

The bird is the sparrow from page 65. Two of them were cut out at 2" from white cardstock. I snipped off her wings and the little tuft at the top of her head. Each bird was then dry embossed with the Victorian Cuttlebug embossing folder. A 12" piece of fishing line was then placed between the two birds and they were glued together.

I added wings made from a heart cut in half, pink glitter and the pearl half back for the eye.

Caging the Bird

The fishing line goes through the hold in the bottom of the spool and is secured to the underside with tape. The other end of the line is threaded around the brad securing the strips of the cage's side. I added the glitter to the cage bottom by dipping a thin liner paint brush in white glue and dabbing the cage bottom in the glitter.

This little cage is fairly easy to assemble and would be cute on a wedding table as a decoration or hung up as Valentine's Day decor

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne
KEY WORD: DO
Next blog on the hop: Court's Crafts

The Gargoyles of Notre Dame

When I was in Paris a few years ago I fell in the love with the architecture, the sculpture and the beauty of the city's many classically designed buildings. Notre Dame was no exception. I found the gargoyles of the cathedral especially inspiring as they managed to be stunningly beautiful and almost scarily ugly at the same time. I based this layout on the Sketchy Thursday sketch challenge for this week. I wanted to mimic the "pretty ugly" of the statues so I combined flowers with a strong yellow and black color combination - not one I would normally use. I think it came out pretty neat though.


The patterned paper is a mix of Pink Paislee, Making Memories, and October Afternoon. I made the lollipop flowers using a variety of circle punches from Marvy Uchida and Stampin' UP! The title is done with Thickers from American Crafts and stickers from Making Memories. The bling and pearls are Prima.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Parlez Vous Francais

So, I finally get to share some great news that I have had to keep under my hat for a bit. Robyn over at My Pink Stamper asked me to serve on her 2011 My Pink Designer Team and I am super thrilled about it!

I encourage you to head over to her site and check out her amazing Cricut tutorials, rubber stamps and videos. Whether you are a new or veteran Cricut user you will find lots of inspiration and a friendly community of fellow Cricut addicts for enabling and support!

Also this Friday, My Pink Stamper is hosting a Blog Hop to introduce you to all the great new designers so be sure to stop by and meet this great group of talented crafters.

Today I am sharing with you the second mini Eiffel Tower I made for a trade show.

The tower is about three feet tall and was really fun to make.

The cross hatch pattern is hand embossed with a stylus and Sizzix texture plate. Individual half back pearls were than glued on at every point where the embossed lines intersected.

Pearls use to be my absolute favorite type of jewelery, but 500+ mini pearls later I am somewhat cured of wearing Audrey Hepburn's favorite gem for awhile.

The tower looks a bit off-kelter as it was adhered to a large stabilizing board in the booth that was removed to ship it back to me.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Love to You

I love the look of dry embossing on metallic cardstock. This floral background Cuttlebug embossing folder really pops on the 110lb metallic shimmer cardstock. In truth I love dry embossing on everything these days, and all of the new folders available on the market make it all too easy for me to emboss anything that is not bolted down. It's hard to remember that only a few years ago we were shackled to a stylus and brass template to get similar results.

This is just a quick card, I plan on sending to my grandparents as a note that I am thinking of them. The stamped image is Stampin' UP! colored in with Copics.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Best Friends

I received almost the entire "Whitewash" line from We R Memory Keepers quite some time ago, but hot pink, electric blue, and lime green are colors I rarely reach for in scrapbooking so I had to wait for the right opportunity to use these products. This picture of my 8 year old daughter and her best friend was perfect and I used the sketch from Sketchy Thursdays secret sketch challenge for inspiration. To get in on the Sketchy Thursdays challenge you will need to visit their Facebook page as they are shaking things up a bit this week by not posting the sketch on their blog and asking challenge participants to not post the sketch on our blogs.

I cut tons of the flowers out of patterned paper and layered, creased, and added dimensionals to get the look I wanted. Most of the flowers have centers made from bling, pearls, buttons, glue, or stickers.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Inked up Fingers ...

Though I spent three years as a Medical Officer in the US Army, I am not a huge fan of dirty hands.

Most of my artwork has clean simple lines and you would be hard pressed to find gobs of paint on a layout, and I may not even currently own a bottle of gesso. So for me using watermarking on this card was a step outside my comfort zone. I first stamped the background image (from Stampin' UP!) in Versamark's Clear ink and then I went back over the stamped images with red ink and a sponge. I cut a similarly stamped and inked butterfly out a few times and layered them for dimension. I then distressed the edges of the white cardstock. I used my paper piercer on the green cardstock mat and one of my favorite punches for the flourish. The patterned paper is Jenni Bowlin and the buttons are from my stash.

I plan on sending the card to my brother (hopefully he doesn't read my blog). He is going through a bit of a rough patch and I thought a little love note in the good ole snail mail might cheer him up.

I am off to wash the red ink of off my hands!

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Hats off ...

I went through a bit of a weaving fascination this year. This was a bare hatbox when I found it and I covered the front with quarter inch strips of green cardstock that I wove together. The ends of the strips were adhered to the sides of the purse front and then the entire side was covered with patterned paper. The weaving took HOURS and HOURS, but I love the effect and it's very durable. I handmade the flowers using a scalloped punch and metallic cardstock layered with patterned paper. I simply adhered each scallop layer together with a few glue dots and then began scrunching them all together. I added the gem center for a bit of bling. I also found that adding the gem center first gave you something centered to "scrunch" the layers around. The large solid pink flower was made in the same way, but without the patterned paper layers or bling. This cardstock was 110 lbs (quite heavy) so I wet it first to make it more scrunchable.

The "Paris," Flourishes and Eiffel Tower are Quickutz dies and the black bling swirls are Prima. Because I love poking holes in things I outlined the Eiffel Tower with holes made by my paper piercer for a bit of added interest. Hemp borders both the front and the back of the purse to hide the edges of the patterned paper and give it a more finished look.

As the structure of the purse is an actual hatbox it easily carries a wallet, keys, cellphone and is sturdy if I am cautious of the embellishments. Everything was secured with gobs of Beacon Adhesive so I am confident it is not going anywhere I don't want it to.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne