Happy birthday TOOL you!

My dad and brother-in-law have birthdays a day apart.  They are both handy guys and I was inspired by a pun I came across on Pinterest.

The wrench is from the Cricut Indie Art cartridge and the hammer is from Everyday Paper Dolls.  It was not a layered image, so I cut out one in black and one in gray, cut the top off the black one and glued it on the gray one.  The oval is from Cricut Font and Basic Shapes.  I ran it through the Cuttlebug Diamonds in the Rough folder.

This card will be entered in sketch challenge #251 at Die Cuttin' Divas.

Congratulations Grad!

I was invited to a graduation party for a friend who used to work as a paraprofessional at my school and has now completed his teaching certificate.  I used Everyday Paper Dolls for the graduation hat and one of the mini folders from the Cuttlebug Congrats 4-piece set.

This card will be entered in the following challenges:
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog--Congratulations Graduate
Friday Sketch Challenge--sketch 43 (I rotated it in order to make the embossing folder work.)
Little Claire's--#33 Open

High School Football

Back to school means high school football time.  I made this card for a young relative who is on the football team.  I modeled the jersey after a picture of him in his football jersey.  I used Everyday Paper Dolls for the jersey, but I didn't use the football jersey.  I used the scientist's shirt from page 64 in the manual.  I used the hide contour feature on the gypsy to hide all of the interior cut lines.  I welded 2 of the shirts together to make a shape card.  I welded a square at the top of the back side of the jersey so it would only have a v-neck on the front.  The font for the numbers and the name on the back of the jersey is Plantin Schoolbook.  It's not a super match to the font on the real jersey, but it was the closest match I had.  The school name on the front was cut with Cursive 101.

Since the card was a darker color, I put this white rectangle inside the card to write the message.

The young man who received this card really seemed to appreciate it and was amazed how it looked just like his jersey.

This card will be entered in the following challenges:
Celebrate the Occasion #25--Back to School
Scrapbookaholic by Abby #11--Back to School
Cards by Jovan--Back to School blog hop

Summer Sunshine

One of my coworkers lost her brother unexpectedly a few weeks ago.  We passed around a calendar signing up to bring a meal to her family.  Tomorrow is my turn.  I knew that in addition to a meal, I wanted to bring some cookies.  So, the blog hop and challenge at Baking up Crafts was perfect timing.  Actually, I had been planning on making chocolate chip cookies, but on the blog hop, I came across a recipe for easy lemon cookies on The Joyful Stamper's blog and decided to try those instead.  Of course, I had to taste test one first to make sure they were good enough to give away :)

Then, I wanted to make a card to cheer her up.  A smiling summer sun came to mind.  I used My Cut Search to search through the carts to find a good one.  (This site seems faster than using the Gypsy search, and I like that you can see the whole handbook page rather than just the keypad overlay.)  I used the sun from Smiley Cards.  His sunglasses are from EDPD.  The tags on the top of the card and the base of the pedestal are form Tags, Bags, Boxes and More.  The turquoise background was run through the D'Vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder and the white square was run through Spots and Dots.     I also used an Action Wobble for the first time.  I had signed up months ago for a free sample on Momo's blog and was saving them for the perfect occasion.  I thought it would add some extra cheer to this card.

This card will be entered in the following challenges:

Whimsical Wednesdays--Fun with color challenge #11--I used the required red and yellow and also pulled the colors turquoise and white from the provided photo.

Baking up Crafts--project involving baking and crafts

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #65--summer sun

Cute Card Thursday #170--sketch challenge

More Thank Favors Wacky Wednesday #32--tags

More Than Favors CCCC #22--Tags, Bags, Boxes and More

Celebrate the Occasion #19--Celebrating Summer (must have a sun)

After posting this, I got an e-mail from the Joyful Stamper suggesting I link up my project to her Inspire Me Friday, so that perhaps I can inspire others to do something similar for someone in need.

Happy Birthday to one Cool Chick!

My little sister's birthday is this week.  She is a fellow Cricut owner and scrapper, so I wanted to be sure to get a card made for her.  I didn't have a specific design in mind, but I was inspired by several challenge blogs.  Please forgive my worse-than-usual photography.  My husband is out of town with the camera and I had to use the camera on my laptop!

Front of the card:

Inside:

The chick is from Create a Critter.  His sunglasses are from Everyday Paper Dolls.  I used my Gypsy to remove the cutting lines for the lenses and to make them the right size for the chick.  The turquoise square behind the chick was run through my Happy Birthday Cuttlebug folder.  The words "to one" inside the card were printed on my printer.  "Cool chick" was cut from the Opposites Attract cartridge.  I like the way this card turned out, particularly the chick!  I may use a similar idea in the future with a sentiment like "Have a Cool Easter!"

This card will be entered in the following challenges:

Peachy Keen sketch challenge #48

You Had me at Craft--Gotta Have Friends Blog Hop and Linking Party

Flaunt it Fridays challenge #17--3 Birds on Parade.  They say if you don't have that cart, you can use a similar one.  I was inspired by their Design Team member C.C., who used Create a Critter.

More Than Favors, Wacky Wednesday #32--Something funny

Cooking With Cricut #23--Funny quote, saying, or pun

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog #53--Looks like spring

Superbowl birthdays--Go Pack Go!

My mom invited my husband and I over for lunch on Sunday to celebrate my dad's and my brother-in-law's birthdays.  Sunday evening, the Packers are in the Super Bowl, so I just had to design some Packer birthday cards!

I designed the Packer G on my Gypsy, welding together a G, C, and l from Opposites Attract.  I also designed the laces on the ball with the C and l from Opposites Attract.  The football is from Everyday Paper Dolls.  I used the tip from Fantabulous Cricut for cutting an additional football to go on top of the shape card.  That way, you don't see the flat edge where the fold is.  (I actually had my football card in mind before seeing the one on their blog!)  I used Cursive 101 to cut out the yellow letters.  I wanted to buy the Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug folder for this project, but my local stores didn't have it and it seemed too expensive to order Cuttlebug folders online, so I settled for Swiss Dots.

This card will be entered in challenge #36 at Paper Playtime--anything goes.

Speedy Recovery

I wanted to make another card for my dad during his recovery from heart surgery (which was today and went well).  I had seen a card by All Scrapped Out during a challenge that was my inspiration.  Her card was very pretty and feminine.  I needed to make mine more manly since it was for my dad.  My intention was to use some of my scraps, but I just wasn't finding any color combos I liked in my scraps today.  This project just took way longer than it should have.  Here's what I ended up with:

The turtle is from Create a Critter.  His shoes are from Everyday Paper Dolls.  I used my Gypsy to make them the right size for the turtle.  The circles for the sentiment are from Graphically Speaking.

In addition to my inspiration from All Scrapped Out, I should thank Split Coast Stampers for giving the dimensions for a horizontal pedestal card.  The one measurement they didn't give is for the little card that gives the design something to rest against so the card doesn't close.  I made mine 2.5 x 5.25 inches.  I would also like to thank Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog for their clever idea on how to print on die cuts rather than using the Center Point feature on the Cricut.  (I've had my Cricut for a year and still haven't used that feature yet!)

This card will be entered in:
Flaunt it Friday challenge #4--using the turtle from Create a Critter
Paper Issues "New" challenge--Create a Critter is a new cart for me, and dad's got a new heart valve

Faulty valve? Well wishes for heart surgery

My dad will be having heart surgery on Dec. 27th.  He has never had any health problems, so he seems a bit nervous about such a big procedure.  One of his Christmas gifts is going to be a pair of comfy pants to wear during his recovery.  I decided to make him this card to give him a smile before surgery and let him know that everything will be alright.  I made it a pedestal card so he can display it in his hospital room if he wants.

Here's the basic info:  The background paper with the cars is from DCWV stack 6.  The circles and bolts are from Graphically Speaking (I have really used that cart a lot more than I ever anticipated when I bought it).  The mechanic and his hair and clothes are all from the race car driver from Everyday Paper Dolls.  His face is from Peachy Keen Stamps PK-570.  The wrench is from Indie Art (Thanks to the free Gypsy download!).  The green, blue, and brown squares were run through the Diamonds in the Rough Cuttlebug folder.

This card will be entered in Cute Card Thursday's sketch challenge #144.  It will also be shared at the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog.  Although there is no challenge there this week due to the holidays, they are inviting people to share what they are making.

You Rock card

My sister-in-law's 16th birthday is coming up and she likes to sing, so I used the sentiment idea from one of Mary's cards and changed up the design.  The background was run through the Cuttlebug Spots and Dots folder.  The star is from Graphically Speaking, page 41, cut at 3 inches.  The microphone is from Everyday Paper Dolls, page 44, cut at 3.75 inches with Real Dial Size on.  I cut it twice, once with glitter paper and once in black and did my own layering.  The brads were an awesome Goodwill find!

Baptism card

This is actually only a corner of the card I created for a baptism recently.  The main part of the card was based on a card from My Pink Stamper's site.  I added this shell and water drops to symbolize the baptism.  The shell is cut from Paper Doll Dress Up (from the mermaid on page 43) and the water drops are from Every Day Paper Dolls (page 42).  I chalked the edges of the shell.  I think I will be using this idea for future baptism cards, but making it bigger, the main focus of the card.

Cub Scouts card

I needed to mail my nephew a check for the popcorn I ordered from him through Cub Scouts, so I thought I'd make him a cute card.  It took quite a while, but I'm really happy with how it turned out and his mom told me he looooved it!
The card is 4.25 x 5.5 inches.  I used Everyday Paper Dolls and Paper Doll Dress Up.  Here are the cuts and sizes I used:

EDPD:
doll 3"
sign from page 40 at 3" with Real Dial Size ON--This was actually an accident.  I didn't realize I had it on from a previous project!
shirt and hair from page 54
shorts from page 71
shoes from page 34
clouds from page 42, run through D'Vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder
fire from page 40.  I cut this out twice, once in gray and once in yellow to create my own layering.  I colored the logs with a brown marker on the yellow one.  I cut out the rocks from the gray and glued on the yellow.  Then I outlined the flames with an orange marker and chalked with orange.
marshmallows from page 40.  I also did some layering on this one.  I cut it out once in white and once in brown, cut out the white marshmallows and glued them on the brown.

PDDU:
scarf from page 36 This is from the Raggedy Andy doll --Don't tell my nephew!  :)

The boy, sign, fire, and marshmallows are mounted on foam tape.  Peachy Keen Stamps (PK-570) for the face.