Homemade Earrings and Valentine’s Card

Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays and I thought it would be fun to combine jewelry making and card making. This is my first attempt at making jewelry and fortunately for me, the earrings were so easy to make! Whew….

The exciting thing about this project is that it is a card and gift in one. Who wouldn’t want to receive three pairs of earrings for Valentine’s Day attached to a cute card? There are so many different beads and stones that would work for this project. It looks like I may have found a new hobby! If you did not want to make the earrings you could attach purchased earrings. Easy peasy! Scroll down to see the video.

I used Photoshop for the sentiment.

Recipe:

Cricut “American Alphabet” Cartridge

Assorted paper from stash

Swarovski Elements in clear 7 mm size

Premium Rhinestones in pink and red 7 mm size

Earring flat pad posts and backs 6 mm or you can use 7 mm size

E6000 adhesive

Thanks for visiting and I hope you are having a terrific week!

Valentine’s Gift Tower and Happy New Year!

Can you believe it is really 2012? I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s Day and that 2012 is your best year ever!

I love getting gift towers filled with cookies or candy and thought it would be fun to make a gift tower for a Valentine’s Day gift for a friend. My homemade tower will be filled with chocolate, cookies and cocoa packets.

To make the gift tower I used my new Sweet Tooth Boxes cartridge. Did I mention this is my new favorite cartridge? This cart contains lots of amazing boxes and inserts that you can size to meet any of your needs. The square box and lid are on page 60. I used the lid with the scalloped edges and circle window and lined the lid with acetate. Unfortunately the cut out circle doesn’t show up in my photos but it is super cute! The first tower and lid is cut at 11 inches, the second at 10, and the smallest at 9 inches. I used double sided paper so the inside looked as nice as the outside.

All that is left is to line the boxes with tissue paper, fill and wrap like a package. These are an easy yet elegant gift that can be custom sized. Next time, I am going to try making a smaller jewelry tower.

Thanks for visiting and stay tuned for a fun new video combining jewelry making with card making!

Fab Five Friday! Happy New Year!

Welcome to Fab Five Friday! For those of you that are new to this blog, every Friday I showcase five blogs, websites or posts that I think you will enjoy. This is the last Fab Five of 2011. Can you believe there are only two days until 2012? 

While searching for New Year craft ideas, I ran across this post from Martha Stewart. Both of these ideas would be perfect for last minute New Year’s Eve decorating. I love the circle New Year’s streamers and using the Cricut would make these so quick and easy. I also think it would be fun to make heart streamers for Valentine’s Day. These are oldies but goodies.

Speaking of Valentine’s Day, Disney Family Blog is packed with lots of fun ideas for children of all ages. My favorite is the Valentine Butterfly made with a stick of gum. Also be sure to click here for free printables.

I fell in love with this adorable 2012 calendar from Cathy Fong, and think you will too. Cathy is a talented stamper and her blog, Fong Crafty Place will inspire you!

Be sure to check out Moxie Fab World for their latest countdowns. My favorite countdowns are the Top 10 trendiest projects and the Top 10 trendiest stamp sets of 2011. Wow!!

Thanks to the Moxie Fab blog, I discovered Dougnat Diaries. Natalie is a talented designer and currently designs for Unity stamps. I love her cards!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a fun filled Fab Friday and all the best in 2012!

Happy New Year!

Linda

An Oldie but a Goodie

I will be back with  an all new post on Friday, but in the meantime I thought you might enjoy one of my favorite videos. I love making rosettes and decided to make one out of duct tape!



I love how the duct tape looks like metallic paper and it is so easy to make. Hope you enjoy the video.



You might also enjoy my video on how to make paper rosettes.



Thanks for visiting and please stop back for an all new Fab Five Friday!
Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the holiday season. My husband and I are in Missoula with family and friends and will be back on Wednesday. In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy seeing my all-time favorite Valentine’s Day card.

I saw this cute card featured on The Martha Stewart Show and fell in love with it. In fact, I made this card for my husband last year. The sentiment was perfect!

It is called a heartstring card because you pull on the string to reveal a hidden message. It is similar to the cobweb type card, but a little different. Here is the link in case you want to make one.



I love the look of the card closed. It just looks like a simple valentine, but .....



...pull the string to open it...



…then a valentine’s message is revealed!

Happy Holidays!

Linda and Bill

Fab Five Friday!

Welcome to Fab Five Friday! For those of you that are new to this blog, every Friday I showcase five blogs, websites or posts that I think you will enjoy. This is the last Fab Five before Christmas! Can you believe there are only two days until Christmas? Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season!!

While searching for candy making ideas, I ran across this post from the Delicious, Delicious, Delicious blog. This post was from last year, but perfect for your upcoming New Year’s, Valentine’s or Easter parties. The spoons are adorable and so simple to make. Click here for detailed directions. Also be sure to check out Mr P’s fun blog for tons of amazing recipes and wonderful photos! I think I need to have a spoon decorating party!

If there was an award for the most creative use of the Cricut, it would go to Nadia from With Glittering Eyes. She created the most authentic looking medals for an Annie Oakley costume that she made for her daughter. When I saw this post, I thought she borrowed the costume from a museum. Wow!!

Most of you know that I am a huge fan of BasicGrey products and am so excited about their new digital line including the new euphoria collection. If you run out of paper, you can download and print in an instant or use in your digital layouts. Their digital kits are amazing and they have a section for web design too! Yahoo!

I saw Brett Bara on Martha Stewart last week and was so impressed with her sewing and crafting abilities that I had to check out her blog, Manhattan Craft Room. She has some super cute sewing projects and has just written a book, Sewing in a Straight Line. She also has a craft section that looks like fun. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

I love Martha Stewart tools and own a number of them, but I do not own her latest one. I received an email regarding the Martha Stewart Craft Station, her newest tool and thought it looked interesting. If you would like to see a video please click here. I love the blog, Craft Test Dummies and thought you might like to see their review of the Craft Station. If you own this tool, I would love to have you leave a comment on this post. I am still undecided as to whether or not I will buy this one and would so like to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a fun filled Fab Friday and a Happy Holiday Season!

Linda

Meowy Christmas!

I saw a similar card in the latest issue of PaperCrafts Holiday Cards magazine and just had to make one. I needed a couple of last minute cards and this card was perfect. I thought it would be fun to use some non-traditional colors for a change of pace.

The outside of the card measures 5 x 7 inches. The photo measures 4 x 6 inches and was taken by my husband. We have two cats; Jackson is the star of this photo and weighs over 18 pounds. He is a big cat, but oh so loveable. Izzy is our other cat and weighs only 8 pounds. Izzy is convinced she is Jackson’s mother and rules our home, even though Jackson is over twice her size.

The sentiment is .75 x 3.25 inches and was printed using Word.

The bird is from the Imagine Best Friends cartridge, page 13 and cut at 1.8 inches. I love this cartridge and decided the bird would be perfect. Jackson is an indoor cat, so I am not sure what he would do if saw a bird up close, since he usually watches from our window.

Recipe:

Cricut Imagine “Best Friends” Cartridge

Assorted paper from my stash

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season and be sure to stop back for a fun Fab Five Friday.

Linda

Christmas Candy Crafting Break

This weekend, I took a break from crafting and had some friends over for our annual candy making session.  We started early at 11 am and went non-stop until 3 pm. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun and I thought I'd share a few pictures with you.

Here are the tools of the trade. We take different colored chocolates and hand-paint the candy molds for a variety of effects.

Shelby and Grace produced this fine tray of candies. Most their candy was going to their teachers and classmates at school.

Everyone is working hard here. From left to right is Morgan, Betsy, Shelby, Grace and Maranna.

Nevaeh and her mother Morgan with a delicious looking tray of goodies.

This was the scene for about 4 hours with me (in red) directing traffic.  The gentleman in the corner is Danny, who stopped by and decided to try his hand at making some chocolates.

Maranna  and Nevaeh with lots of chocolates.

Maranna's fantastic work.

Close-up of the tray above.

Thanks for looking and hope your holiday preparations are going well for you too. Thanks to my husband, Bill, who helped out big time since I am still run down from the flu. He did all the prep for this party including washing and drying all the molds. Also I want to thank Sam for coming...she somehow managed to leave without having her photo taken. Next year Sam!!

Happy Holidays!

Fab Five Friday!

Welcome to Fab Five Friday! For those of you that are new to this blog, every Friday I showcase five blogs, websites or posts that I think you will enjoy.

I am a huge fan of She’s a Sassy Lady and Gaby Creates and I am thrilled to share both of these great sites. Gaby created this adorable honeycomb ornament and detailed tutorial for Shelia’s blog. I can’t wait to make a honeycomb ornament! Be sure to check out Sheila’s amazing blog while you are there. I love Sheila’s work!!

Gaby is a mega talented crafter and I adore her amazing scrapbook pages and tutorials. To see the cutest Christmas pages, click here. Also be sure to check out her blog for lots of great inspiration!

I discovered the blog, The Letter 4 while watching Martha Stewart and I am so glad I did. Each of the four sisters cover a different topic including crafts. You won’t want to miss their post on how to make super quick and easy Christmas trees. You will fall in love with this trendy blog, I know I did!

This is fun week over at the Lawn Fawn blog. They have partnered with Glue Arts to bring you a fun week of projects. Check them out and also stop over and visit the Glue Arts blog.

I recently discovered Fantastic Ink and love this fun blog. Melyssa is a frequently published artist and has a blog that promises to inspire you. She has an area devoted to her Cricketart and one for tutorials. Grab a cup of coffee or cocoa and browse her blog.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a fun filled Friday and a happy holiday season!

Linda

Using Photoshop to Add Sentiments to Your Cards

Several months ago, I made a video on how to add sentiments to Cricut Images using Word. Since then I have received numerous emails asking me to do a similar video on how to use Photoshop to add sentiments

I try to match the shape as closely as possible to one of the marquee tool shapes in Photoshop. If it is an unusual shape, I pick one that is approximately the same shape. Please watch the video for complete details!



Thanks for visiting and stay tuned for a fun Fab Five Friday! And thanks again for all the get well wishes!

Linda

Welcome Angi!

I am so excited to have Angi from Angi & Cokie Designs as my guest designer. Her project is adorable and I am so excited to share it with all of you! Thanks again Angi! -Linda

Hi everyone it's Angi from Angi & Cokie Designs. You can find me in blog-land at: http://cokiepopaper.blogspot.com/

I am so super excited to share my creations with you all here at The Paper Boutique. Christmas time is the perfect time to decorate your boxes and packages with yummy scrapbook paper and embellies. I love to add a little pizazz to my packages with non-traditional Christmas colors.

I started out with an Avon lip gloss box. I then dressed it up with My Mind's Eye Christmas paper, a small piece of kraft paper, a metal key, a Martha Stewart die cut circle, and some glitter ric rac.

I also altered some glassine gift bags to go with the box. I used coordinating MME paper along with ribbon and a small button.

These projects are quick and easy to make and are sooo fun & festive for gift giving.

Thank you Linda for letting me share my designs with you today. Be sure to drop by my blog at Angi & Cokie Designs to say hello.

Fab Five Friday!

Welcome to Fab Five Friday! For those of you that are new to this blog, every Friday I showcase five blogs, websites or posts that I think you will enjoy. Thanks again for all your get well wishes! I am finally starting to feel better!

Oh my, it looks like Winter CHA 2012 is going to be amazing! This cabinet is part of a sneak peek from Graphic 45 using their Island Jewel collection. It is truly stunning. Be sure to check out their site for more sneak peeks! This would make a perfect Christmas gift!

Tim Holtz is at it again. Every year since 2007, Tim has done the 12 tags of Christmas posts. I think this year is his best ever! Click here to see his latest tags. There are amazing and he has included detailed instructions! Ho Ho Ho!!

I love Martha Stewart and just had to share this post with all of you. Her glittered ornaments are so amazing. Be sure to watch the video to get lots of new ideas!

Now for a couple of non-crafting sites that I think you will enjoy! Last year I was in search of the perfect chocolate truffle recipe and found it on Cooking for Engineers. This is a fun site complete with excellent recipes and the best detailed instructions!

Martha Stewart is known for her beautifully decorated cookies and has an entire section on her blog dedicated to iced, decorated and shaped cookie recipes complete with photos. In fact she has over 34 different recipes. I love her gingerbread snowflakes and her amazing sugar cookies!

For the cutest Sweet Treats Bag, be sure to visit Kate’s blog, Small Bits of Paper. Her gift bag is mega adorable and perfect for that special Christmas gift! I think it would be great for jewelry!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a fun filled Friday! Be sure to stop back on Monday for a special guest artist post! Her project is super adorable!
Linda

And the winner is….

Thanks again for all the get well wishes and emails. Thanks to all the wonderful care from my husband, I am getting better! On Tuesday, I developed an allergic reaction to my medicine and had a relapse, but I am now on the mend! Next year, I am so getting a flu shot.

Thanks everyone for all the amazing Cricut and stamping tips! You are a talented and creative group!

And the winner is…..

MizMaryAnn said...
After my mat has lost it's stickiness I wash it with soap and water then I use my wide two way glue pen and go over the whole thing to re-sticky it. I leave it alone overnight and then I can reuse my mat over and over again. I've only used three mats in three years this way.

Congrats MizMaryAnn! Please email your address to lkaisermt@gmail.com and I will get your cartridge in the mail. Remember you have two weeks to claim your prize.

I am taking it easy for the next couple of days and will be back Friday with a new Fab Five Friday! Also on Monday, I have another talented guest artist so please stay tuned!

Under the Weather

Thanks everyone for all your get well wishes! They mean so much to me. I am getting better, but still not up to crafting. Wow this flu is not fun!!

In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy this card I made last Christmas!

The base card measures 3 ¾ x 5 ½ inches. The inside liner was cut at 3 ½ x 5 ¼ inches. The girl is cut at 4 ¼ inches. For the top of the card, I cut the marquee # 1 from the Storybook cartridge at 4 ½ inches. I then trimmed the marquee and used a stamp for the sentiment. Lastly, I add glitter and attached a Wobble. You can never have too much bling or movement!

Please click here to enter the Cricut and Stamping tip contest.

Fab Five Friday

Usually, you would be seeing Linda's favorite web sites for this week. Unfortunately, Linda is still recovering from the flu and and a very bad sinus infection. She'll be back next week with another Fab Five, but in the mean time, scroll down and enter the drawing for a Cricut cartridge below. Thanks for stopping by!

Bill Kaiser DH