Daring Cardmakers ~ Professionally Speaking

Hi Folks!  I'm so tired, but had a wonderful birthday weekend at a nearby lake camping and enjoying this spring weather!  I got this card for the new Daring Cardmakers challenge finished on Friday before we left, but didn't have a chance to get a pic made or loaded on here, so it had to wait until we got home and everything unpacked.  Here is my card based on their challenge . . .

I have been wanting to use this sweet image for a while now, and thought it would be perfect for a thank you card to a teacher or para-professional.  Here are all the details . . .

The Blueprint:

• Create a card featuring a 'profession'.

The Materials List:

• Base cardstock is kraft from The Paper Studio
• Patterned paper is from the Cosmo Cricket 'Garden Variety and Material Girl ' Double Deck
• Red cardstock is DCWV
• Gems are from Prima eLine
• Scrunched seam binding is from Bluebird Lane etsy shop
• Vintage navy hem binding is from my stash, as is the vintage red polka dotted button
• Vintage image found online, probably on Flickr
• SRM Press Sticker Sentiment

The Tools:

• Cricut Expression:  Card base cut using Walk in My Garden cartridge, card2 set at 5", and patterned paper cut using same cartridge, card1 set at 5"
• Rotary Cutter
• Scissors
• Beacon 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue
• EKSuccess 3D-Dots 1/8"
• Scoring Tool

The Step by Step:

• Cut card base and patterned paper using Cricut Expression
• Score center line of card base
• Glue patterned paper to card base 
• Using Picasa software, size and print image on ink jet printer
• Mat image using scrap cardstock, and adhere to card base
• Tie bow from seam binding and hem tape
• Mat sticker sentiment on cardstock, add foam dots and place over ribbon
• Glue button to bows
• Add gems

I hope you have enjoyed this card, because I really enjoyed making it . . . it came together like magic!  Please check out Daring Cardmakers and their design team's great cards this week!  And come back soon!  Blessings, Becky

Unscripted Sketches # 103 - Birthday Wishes!

Hi Folks!  As you read this, I am relaxing at the lake with my hubby for the weekend!  We are really enjoying camping at this new place we have found only 12 miles from our home!  And since it's my birthday today, I am really going to enjoy being lazy all day, followed by a wonderful dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant.  You get your dinner free on your birthday, so we always try to go there on birthdays.

Okay, back to the task at hand!  I am making some changes to how I organize the details in my posts, so the sketch is below, but here is my take on this week's sketch . . .

And here are the details . . .

The Blueprint:

The Materiels:

• Base cardstock is from The Paper Studio
• Patterned paper is Basic Grey ~ Urban Prairie ~ bountiful
• Ribbon from my stash
• Pearls are from Prima eLine
• Rhinestone is from my stash (Hobby Lobby)
• Stickles 'Stardust'
• Crepe Paper (Hobby Lobby)

The Tools:

• Cricut Expression ~ Walk In My Garden cartridge ~ card base cut using Card2 set at 5"; patterned paper cut using Card1 set at 5"
• Printer and Inkjet printer (sentiment)
• Cuttlebug and Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Squares Small (sentiment)
• Scissors and pinking shears
• Scoring Tool
• Sewing Machine

The Step by Step:

• Cut card pieces using Cricut
• Print sentiment and cut using Cuttlebug and Spellbinders Nestabilities
• Flower:  Cut length of crepe paper streamer about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long.  Stitch on sewing machine using long basting stitch about 1/4" from one edge.  Fold until you get it about 5-6" long and trim outer edge using pinking shears.  Pulling loose thread on one end,  gather paper until it is about 8 inches or so long.  Start 'rolling' flower together using the bottom (sewn) edge, beginning at one end, and gluing as you go along.  When you get it all rolled together, make sure all edges are glued and allow to dry.  Fluff layers of flower.  Add rhinestone to center.  Leaves:  Cut freehand from green crepe paper streamers.  Lightly apply stickles to outer edge of flower and leaves.
• Wrap ribbon around the card and glue in place.
• Glue leaves to card, then glue flower onto card.
• Place 1/16th inch foam dots on back of sentiment and place on corner of card.
• Apply pearls to the sentiment.

I have really been enjoying making the crepe paper flowers, and I actually made a little gift box to go with this card . . . 

I cut the box out using my Cricut and the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge.  I made the handle by braiding three lengths of organza ribbon.  I made the flower the same as above.  Here is a straight on picture of the flowers . . . 

As you can see I made one open flower, three buds and twisted some of the green crepe paper for a bit of 'vine' look.  I think these would be beautiful for Mother's Day corsages!

I hope you have enjoyed this week's project!  Please remember to check out the Unscripted Sketches blog and visit the other Design Team members blogs to see their projects for this week.

Wishing you a blessed Easter!  Becky

Two Challenges . . . Papercraft Star and Sunday Postcard Art

Back again with a double challenge project.  I love it when I can work that out!  First I found this week's challenge for Sunday Postcard Art, and this is my first time participating in this challenge ~ I have been stalking them for a while, and finally am taking part.  Their challenge this week is Song Title, and as always their requirement is that your project be the size of a postcard, or 4"x6".  And then I found this week's challenge for Papercraft Star, and their challenge (#42) is to use an Earth Day theme, using recycled elements on your project.

I started looking for an image that would work for both challenges, and I have to say I love this image and had been wanting to use it again, so I knew my theme would be something to do with gardening.  So then I got to thinking that the picture has such a vintage look to it, and during WWII having gardens, or 'victory gardens' was a huge deal, so I started looking for songs about gardening from that era.  Here is the song that I found, called 'Dig, Dig, Dig' . . .


Get out and dig dig dig in the sunshine 
You can make one garden grow 
Every seed you buy will gladly multiply 
Til we've overcome our foe. 
Get out and work work work for the nation 
We can keep our country free 
Help the rain above feed the ones we love 
Dig our way to victory. 
Planting corn – every day. 
Planting beans – come what may 
Turn the sod – trust in God 
And the earth will show the way. 


Get out and dig dig in the sunshine 
Every heart will feel a glow – 
As we turn the tide we'll be glad we tried 
To make ten million gardens grow.

Apparently this was a jingle from a gardening radio show in the early 1940's.  Here is my project based on both challenges . . . 

I must say that as I worked on this project, it really took on a life of it's own!  And as a crafter that makes me very happy, because it makes me feel like a real artist when I allow the project to tell me what it wants to be as this one did.  Here are all the details . . . 

The Blueprints:

• Papercraft Star ~ make a project with an Earth Day theme, using recycled elements
• Sunday Postcard Art ~ make a project based on a song title

The Materials:

• Base cardstock is 'kraft' from The Paper Studio
• Patterned paper is 'Blue Gingham' from The Paper Studio
• Image was found online, saved to my computer as a jpeg file, text was added using Picasa and printed on my ink jet printer
• Ribbons, beads, bell, lace, twine and wire are all from my stash
• Glue Arts 'U-Cut-It' Foam Adhesive Blanks (cut yourself foam squares)
• Beacon '3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue'

Recycled Elements:

• all cardstock and patterned papers were scraps, no new sheet of paper was harmed!
• corrugated cardboardfor matting of image
• green frame is packaging from Prima clear stamps
• red twine came from a large bag of dog food
• blue beads and bell were re-used from a previous project
• button is very old, and I chose not to clean it because I loved the dirty, used look

The Tools:

• computer
• ink jet printer
• rotary cutter
• scissors
• jump ring pliers
• wire cutting pliers

Step by Step:

• Edit image using Picasa, then print to size
• Make base by cutting three pieces of paper ~ two cardstock, one patterned paper ~ and 'laminating' them into one piece, then trimming to size of 4" x 6"
• Adhere Prima card to bottom right corner of postcard
• Adhere image to blue cardstock
• Adhere image to corrugated cardboard
• Wrap red twine around bottom of corrugated cardboard, leaving 3 inches or so of tails on each end
• Adhere foam squares or dots to the back of the corrugated cardboard, and adhere to postcard
• Tie button and bell onto the red twine and trim twine to desired length
• Twist and turn wire to shape desired using jump ring pliers and glue to postcard
• Glue beads on top of wire
• Cut length of vintage lace and ravel edges.  Tie in center using red twine, then tie or glue on the button. Glue to the postcard

And there you have my project.  And I love it ~ truly!  I think you can get a sense of the recycled, earthy or organic elements, and it actually tells a good story.  Planting gardens, whether they be flowers, vegetables, shrubs or trees, helps our earth and helps us!  If all you can do is have a couple of house plants, those house plants help to purify the air in your home.  Save our earth . . . Plant a garden!

Blessings friends, Becky

Side Note:  Remember I said this project took on a life of it's own?  Well, I did not plan on having a red, white and blue project at all!  It just worked out that way.  A testament to letting go and let a project tell you what it wants to be!  B.

Blog Challenge Garden - Tag Tuesday Challenge

Don't you just love it when you have an idea, and start a project using that idea, and it actually comes out prettier than you imagined!?!  That is just what happened on this latest tag that I made for the Tag Tuesday Challenge over at Rebecca's Blog Challeng Garden.  The theme this week is Easter or spring, and I've had this very sweet image for a while that I had been wanting to use, and decided today was the day!  Here is my tag for this week's challenge . . .

And here are all of the details . . .

The Blueprint:

• Create a tag using a spring or Easter theme.

The Materials:

• DCWV Cardstock
• Brenda Walton for K&Company "Dorset Florals Printed Paper"
• Stickles 'Platinum' and 'Diamond'
• seam binding ribbon from Bluebird Lane Etsy Shop
• Beacon 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue
• EK Success 3D-Dots 1/8"
• Tombow Glue Pen

The Tools:

• Cricut Expression:  A Child's Year cartridge, 'Toys1-s' using card feature set at 5 1/2"
• Cricut Expression: Simply Sweet Cartridge, J-O-Y using shadow feature for dark green, and without for light green, set at 1"
• scissors
• x-acto knife

The Step-by-Step:

1. cut base and letters using Cricut Expression
2. trim picture of chicks and flowers from image using scissors and x-acto knife
3. trim flowers from patterned paper using scissors and x-acto knife
4. glue flowers to card base
5. put foam dots on back of picture and adhere to tag
6. glue letters together using Tombow pen and adhere to tag
7. tie small bow of seam binding and glue to tag

And that is it!  I am really in love with this sweet tag!  If you worked assembly line style, it would be easy to make multiples of this tag to use as Easter cards.  Thank you for visiting today, be sure to visit Rebecca at the Blog Challenge Garden by clicking on the link above where you can find many more gorgeous tags!

Easter Blessings, Friends!  Becky

Daring Cardmakers and Cardabilities Sketch 29

It has really been a while since I've been able to do two challenges in one project, but when I started my card for this week's Daring Cardmakers challenge (make a spring or Easter themed card) I needed a little sketch inspiration, and found this great sketch from Cardabilities.  Here is their sketch . . .

And here is my spring/Easter themed card based on the sketch . . .

And here are the details . . .

The Supplies:

• Base cardstock is Bazzill pastels
• Patterned papers are from Making Memories 'english garden' stack
• Flowers are from Prima
• Gems are from Prima
• Image is vintage clipart found online

The Tools:

• Cricut Expression and Walk In My Garden cartridge ~ cut card base using 'card2' set at 5" and floral paper using 'card1' set at 5"
• Green patterned paper cut using Fiskars 'apron lace' border punch
• Other tools:  scissors, rotary cutter, scoring tool

The Construction:

• Cut base elements as shown above.
• Glued patterned paper to card base.
• Glued scalloped paper to card base.
• Trimmed image, matted with scrap of cardstock, put on foam dots for dimension.
• Cut leaves freehand, scored with scoring tool for veins, glued to card base.
• Glued flowers to card base and added gems for centers.

And that was it!  And I know exactly who will be getting this card, but I'm not telling!  I hope you have enjoyed this project.  Please check out Cardabilities and Daring Cardmakers by following their links above!  Blessings, Becky