{ Congrat-Shoe-lations }

I was inspired by LauraCrumpacker on the Cricut MB (my new obsession) to make this fabulous shoe and gift bag! The shoe is created using a template from Carlos N. Molina. His website is pretty interesting and he provides both a template and a video for his little shoe. Its surprisingly easy to make!! He also does a purse, but I chose to make mine using the Plantin Schoolbook cart.



The PP for both the shoe and the bag are Kimberly Poloson...and they are truly beautiful. I cut my bag from Bazzill CS on my Cricut and then measured and cut pieces of the PP to cover it. I also cut the tag from the PSB cart. The ribbon for the shoe is actually from Wal-Mart...I bought it separately, for another project!! I hand-cut the butterfly from the PP, backed it with CS, rolled up the wings and added a dew drop.

I know I will be making more shoe/bag combos in the future! TFL!

{ Its all about STYLE! }

This is my most recent and favorite 'Talk of the Town' card and coordinating envelope! The PP is 'Trenchcoat' from Heidi Swapp's Runway series...it doesn't get any better than black/white & hawt peenk! The purses, again, are Minnie's and Daisy's from the Mickey & Friends Cart...and they are velvet (Beetle black crushed velvet from Doodlebug Design)!



One of the features of this series is a scalloped edge, which I use my Cutterpede to accomplish. This pic shows that edge more effectively:



The sentiment for this card is: 'Who cares about Age, its all about STYLE!'

{ Talk of the Town }

In January of this year, I started a series of cards that speak to the Diva in all of us! I call them 'Talk of the Town'. I was inspired by a creation in a Paper Crafts publication entitled 'You Go Girl' (I don't know if its still available, but I've gotten SO many ideas from it!). The idea is simple...create 2 women out of triangles and ovals (stay with me, here, lol), draw arms and legs, add handbags and, lastly, have them say something witty and Diva-esque! The only thing I really changed was the size of the triangles...'my' Girls have a little more junk in the trunk!! lol

Here is the first one:



The ovals and triangles are from George and the handbags are from Mickey and Friends, believe it or not! You could definitely accomplish these things without a Cricut, though. The coordinating envelope is behind the card and makes it a little hard to see that the back flap of the card consists of a strip of the PP, which I scalloped on my Cutterpede (adhere a ~1" strip of the PP to the back flap, then scallop the whole thing at once...that way it will be even!...once you have done that, you can trim down the front flap of the card to expose the scalloped edge as much as you want).

My sentiment is: 'Best Friends: You fight, I fight. You hurt, I hurt. You cry, I cry. You jump off a bridge, I rent a paddle boat and save your crazy butt!!' lol

Stay tuned for the rest of the Series!

{ And we're back... }

OK, I didn't say how often I would blog! LOL (I've been trying to improve my picture-taking skills!)

I did this darling Transparency Card for my March card-making class. I used PP from Heidi Grace's 'Sweetest Bug' Line...which I adore! I did use my Cricut to cut my Sassy Lady Bug; but, you wouldn't have to...She's just half circles!

The trick to this 'nested' Transparency Card is adhesive placement. Since the pieces of PP nest, you only want to use adhesive where it will be covered up by the piece in front of it.

This style of Card consists of 4 pieces of PP, in this order, largest to smallest: back side of back flap, inside of back flap, back side of front flap and front of card. (I always get so caught up with the PP that I forget that you need a place for inside sentiment, so I generally have to add a piece of CS to the inside of the back flap, on top of the PP). This is a view of the inside of the Card (with said piece of CS for sentiment, lol):



Sorry about the glare, but it actually helps you to see the Card base better! In this case, you would only want to put adhesive on the back piece, which is flowers, where it will be covered by the blue lady bug paper. Here is the back of the Card:



If you use something with words, be sure you face them upwards!

I purchase archival quality transparency sheets in the Drafting/Art department of my local hobby store. Some people use transparencies purchased at an office supply store, but they are not archival quality. I feel that if you spend a lot of time creating a special card for a special person, you will want it to last! (maybe that's just me!!) I cut the transparency down to the card size I want...just like I would a piece of CS.

If you find that you have adhered a rectangle piece crooked on the transparency, I suggest that you continue to adhere your rectangles so they line up; its likely no one will notice they are not centered on the transparency, which you could always trim after the card is complete.

Also, you can use a black permanent marker to made little black dots or ‘faux’ stitching along some of the edges of the transparency (an alcohol-based hand sanitizer will remove any mistakes). If you use regular ink, it will not dry on the transparency.

Have fun and thanks for looking!!

~M