M&M fun...

My sister has two sweet little granddaughters, and she made these super cute cards for them. Aren't they fun?

As you can see, she used some different sizes of circles for the body, feet and eyes and just some narrow strips of cardstock for the arms and legs.

I'm not sure which cartridge she used to cut the hands, but I know there are hands like these on many, if not all, of the Disney cartridges. I have the Mickey & Friends cartridge and I've seen similar hands there.

She hand cut the eyebrows, drew on the smiles and stamped with "m." A little shading and some tiny buttons for embellishment finished them off. So cute, and I bet her granddaughters loved them! I'm really glad she let me share them here on my blog.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Christmas cards in April...

Well, I managed to finish some Christmas cards for the month of April...with a little help from my sister.

I do not have the cartridge, Simple Holiday Cards, but my sister does. I asked if she would cut a few of the "Have a Merry Christmas" trees for me, which she did and sent them to me in the mail. I covered the front of each cut with spray adhesive and then covered them with white glitter. I also cut a pale blue mat, embossed it with the falling snow embossing folder and lightly ran a white ink pad over the raised snow dots.

I then sprayed the back side of my now glittery die cut and adhered it to the blue mat. These layers were adhered to the card front.

For the inside of the card, I used a Flourishes sentiment stamp and added a delicate snowflake cut from a pale blue glitter cardstock.

Here are three of the seven cards I made in this style. They were so quick and simple to put together, even though the glitter was a little messy.

I also made four tags to add to my collection. The bell ornaments were stamped with a Flourishes stamp and Versamark ink. I embossed them with sparkly silver embossing powder and then filled in the tiny open spaces with my white gel pen. The "Joy" was die cut from some scraps of silver glitter paper.

The other two tags were decorated with some Christmas images that were included in one of my holiday paper stacks. I simply added the crochet thread to the candy cane and some die cut holly to the other.  Oh, yes, the tag shapes were cut using the Art Philosophy cartridge. I will write the "to" and "from" on the back with a white gel pen.

That's it for me today. Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Boy's birthday card...

A while ago I made my daughter a few birthday cards to have on hand when her children are invited to birthday parties...and this was one of them.

I think this monster truck image is a great one for young boys. It is from the Father's Day cartridge and only has two layers--but it's easy enough to add additional layers just by cutting it in other colors and piecing it together. You can see in the photo that I've used four colors/layers: blue, black, dark gray and silver.

The sentiment is one of those dollar stamps from Michael's.  I stamped it in Versarmark ink on black paper and then heat embossed it with some sparkly silver embossing powder. I love how it turned out!

The banner flags were made out of washi tape. I hand drew the cord and the tiny bows at either end. I will definitely be using this idea again. It was so fun and quick to make and I think it adds the perfect touch to the card front.

Inside the card I stamped a birthday sentiment and layered it onto some of the same DSP that I used on the front. Simples!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Sweet baby cards by Nadine...

I am so lucky to have a special person in my life who lives in Germany and shares my love of cardmaking. Nadine makes gorgeous cards that are perfectly detailed. Recently she shared with me that she has been suffering from "baby card fever." I was delighted when she sent me some pictures of her beautiful cards (made during the course of her "affliction") and gave me permission to share them on my blog.

  Aren't these cards precious? I love the stork and baby image. She used a Spellbinders Floral Oval die for the card on the right.

Here's another photo of the two cards that were in the first photo plus an additional card with a red mat and a red scalloped oval mat. Really love that one!

 Here are some similar cards in blue.

Nadine made the inside as delicate looking as the outside, using a pretty border punch and a pale-colored mat to match the color on the front.

For these cards, Nadine used a Marianne Creatables baby carriage die. This die is so intricate, even incorporating some embossing on the bottom portion of the baby carriage. The sentiment, herzlichen Glückwunsch, means "congratulations."

Thank you, Nadine, for allowing me to share your cards! They are really wonderful, and I know that the new mothers who receive them will be thrilled.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day. 

Cheryl

Happy Easter with a Cadbury egg holder...

No Easter card in this post, but a quick little Cadbury egg holder. At the last minute, I decided to make these for my grandkids who will be spending part of Easter Sunday with us.

They are super easy and quick to make. Here are the instructions:

1. Cut a 2" X 11" piece of cardstock and score at 4 1/2" and 6 1/2". Use a punch or a die to create a decorative end at each end of the 11" piece. I used one of my label dies to create this look and then punched a hole through which I could thread a short piece of ribbon and tie a single knot.  Use a 1 1/2" circle die or punch to create a hole about 1" up from one of the score lines. This is the hole through which you will be able to see the Cadbury egg.

2. Cut a 3.5" X 3.5" piece of cardstock and score at 3/4" on all sides. Die cut or punch a 1 1/4" circle in the center of the square. This is the circle in which the egg will sit. Cut the short score lines on two opposite sides to create tabs so that you can form the square into what looks like the lid for a box. You should end up with a "lid" that is 2" X 2" X 3/4" and has a hole in the center. This "lid" will be adhered open-side-down to create a little platform for the egg.

3. Put double-sided tapes on two opposite 3/4" sides of the lid. Set the lid (open side down) on the 11" piece of cardstock so that it is centered between the two score lines and the adhesive ends are to the inside. Lift up the front piece of the 11" strip and adhere it to the front of the lid. Do the same with the back piece.

4. Tie the two ends together with a short piece of ribbon. Add a glue dot or dimensional to the bottom of the egg to help it stay in place when you place it in the hole. You can certainly add other embellishments to make these much cuter. Since I did this as a last minute thing, mine are kind of plain. At least the cardstock is brightly patterned! Next time I'll set aside some time to do a better job.

You could change these up a bit by using scalloped punches or dies, or even using an oval punch for the front hole, rather than a circle one. Some little bunnies, chicks or die-cut Easter eggs would look cute on the outside.  Maybe next year...

I hope you have a wonderful Easter holiday. Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Happy Easter...

Here's another Easter card with some flowery DSP and butterflies. The vine underneath the butterflies was made with the Martha Stewart Vine Trim punch. I inked the edges of the leaves to give it a little more dimension and to help it stand out against the DSP. The sentiment is a circle stamp from one of the dollar bins at Michael's. I stamped it with Versamark and then embossed it with purple embossing powder and layered it on a doily die-cut.

I used some liquid pearls for the butterflies' bodies, and I also dotted some of it around the vine. The butterflies were cut twice with a Martha Stewart punch and layered. The top layer is actually punched out of pink vellum. It's hard to see that it's vellum in the photos, but I thought it looked quite nice IRL.

There was so much happening on the front of the card, that I decided to keep the inside simple. Just a purple mat and a butterfly stamp. I stamped the butterfly on scratch paper first and then stamped it above my sentiment without re-inking.

Once again, I used a sentiment from Hannelie at Desert Diva. You'll find her Easter sentiments here.

Well, I did make a few more Easter cards, but I think I'll spare you from looking at more of them.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Sometimes pretty paper is almost all you need...

I've had this pretty patterned paper for quite a long time. Not even sure where or when I got it. When I looked at the fairly large flower design, I thought it looked like it could just stand alone, with one of the flowers framing my sentiment. To add just a bit more interest, I added some white ribbon and pierced a border around the edge of the card.

Here's a look at the inside of the card. I used a Spellbinders Labels 8 to cut the rectangle for the sentiment. I didn't want to add another black mat, but I did want the edges to be defined, so I ran a black Sharpie marker around them. I like the way that turned out. I also cut out one of the tulips on a scrap piece of the paper and added it as an embellishment.

I tried a little trick with my ribbon. I added a narrow band of Fray-Check to the ribbon at an angle where I wanted to cut it. I let that dry and then cut the ribbon through the Fray-Checked area. If you check closely, you'll see that the cuts look very clean. No fraying at all!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl