Martha Stewart Scallop Snowflake Punch All Over the Page

Lookie what I just discovered.  Well, actually my hubby first discovered it, cuz he bought it for me, J but I then I discovered what this li’l gem could do.  J

These “Punch All Over the Page” punches aren’t new to me as I already have quite a few.  But this one is DIFFERENT in that you can now align the designs all in a row, w/out breaking a sweat.  J  Before, you were on your own trying to line it up properly so you could have a row of the designs.  No more.  Now the punch does all the work.  All you have to do is align your last punched design w/ the pictures on the base of the punch set.  WhooooHooooo!

Here’s the difference between the older punch sets and the newer ones:-

Here’s a sample I threw together, just to show how it lined up beautifully.

Thank you soooooo much Martha, for adding this feature to your newer stamp sets. I just LOVE it!!!!!   J

Christmas in July

Well, I finally did it! I actually made a Christmas card before Christmas ---- and in July, yet! LOLInside:-

I absolutely fell in love w/ the Cricut Lite Jolly Holidays cart. But, when it first showed its face here, I missed out on getting it. :-( Then, just recently, a gal from the Cricut MB didn't want hers anymore and was willing to sell it to me. So, it was only apropos that I used it for my "first" Christmas card. :-)

Isn't the Santa and the li'l crow just an absolute hoot??!! :-)

Tools/Items:-
Cricut Imagine
Cricut Cartridge – Cricut Lite Jolly Holidays
Martha Stewart Punches – Snowflake corner punch; snowflake single punches
Cuttlebug Folders – Divine Swirls; Snowflakes
Stamps – Stampin’ Up "Alphabet Soup"; Hero Arts – inside sentiment
Glue – regular; ATG; Zig Two Way
Cardstock – white (base); red; blue glittered; white (for the Imagine, snow and sentiment bases)
Stickles – Frosted Lace
Popdots

I was considering Cuttlebugging Santa’s beard w/ the Divine Swirls folder but I thought it might conflict w/ the snow and/or be too much. The sky is Cuttlebugged w/ the Snowflakes folder. Then I punched out individual snowflakes from the MS punches and pop-dotted them. I thought they complemented the Snowflake folder. :-)

Stickled both Santa’s and the li’l crow’s hat.

I’m still in shock that I’ve actually accomplished making a Christmas card in July. LOL That is definitely going to go down in history! :-)

Card for Angel's Momma

Made this card for a friend whose li’l Chihuahua has a broken leg, because it was attacked by two larger dogs. The dogs’ owner didn’t even apologize or help my friend w/ her li’l pooch. The nerve of some people!!
Inside:

Oooops, I stickled "hugs" after I took the picture. :-)

Because I don’t have the “Four Legged Friends” cartridge, I had to improvise. I utilized my Cricut Design Studio, got the design/layers for the li’l Chihuahua; copied/pasted them and then cut out the design/layers with, you ready for it??? ----- scissors. Yeppers! --- the cutter prior to the Cricut. :-) Even tho it wasn’t a REAL troublesome design, I still really missed my Cricut cutting it out for me. And now that cart. is definitely on my “wish list”. :-)

Li’l Angel has a white spot on her forehead that looks just like a heart, so I had to put a heart on the li’l pooch. She also has a pink cast, so that’s why her hind leg is pink. She must love pink because she has this beautiful pink bed to rest her li’l body; hence, the pink pillow.

Tools/Items:

Cricut Imagine
Cricut Imagine Cartridges – see below
Cricut Cartridges – see below
Cricut Design Studio
Martha Stewart Punch –Double Loops
Glue – regular; ATG; Zig Two Way
Cardstock – blue; white (for the Imagine)
Patterned Paper
Stickles - Pink
Popdots

Cricut Imagine Cartridges
Better Together – sun; sending your way
Lori’s Garden – butterflies

Cricut Cartridges
Disney Happily Ever After – pillow
Zooballoo – grass
Beyond Birthdays – hugs
Four Legged Friends – Chihuahua/layers

I sure hope li’l Angel is up and about, real soon. Hugs to her!!!

Wedding Card

Made this wedding card for our niece. Her colours are ivory and mauve, so made the card accordingly, using the Cricut Imagine w/ RGB codes.Inside:-

Tools/Items:-
Cricut Imagine
Cricut Cartridge – Everyday Paper Dolls
Cuttlebug
Cuttlebug folders -- Birds and Swirls; Divine Swirls; Swiss Dots
Martha Stewart Corner Punch – Loops Heart
Glue – regular; ATG; Zig Two Way
Cardstock – glittered paper by Paper Reflections; white (for the Imagine)
Popdots
Prima flowers
Ribbon
Flower
Seed beads
Embellishments

Using the Everyday Paper Dolls cart, created the bride and groom w/ their layers. The bride’s dress/veil are both in ivory, w/ mauve shoes. She’s holding a bouquet of mauve Prima flowers. The veil was Cuttlebugged w/ the Divine Swirls folder, while the dress was Cuttlebugged w/ the Swiss Dots folder. The groom has a mauve tie and his ensemble is in black. Both were pop-dotted.

The flower/vine arch was also from the Everyday Paper Dolls cart, embellished w/ mauve Prima flowers and seed beads. The grass is also from the Everyday Paper Dolls cart.

The blue glittered cardstock was Cuttlebugged w/ the Birds and Swirls folder.

The sentiment was computer-generated and corner punched w/ the MS Loops Heart.

We wish them years of happiness. :-)

Father's Day Card

Hiya. Well, something else should've been added to the video below ---- forgetting to post my Father's Day cards. LOL

So, here they are. Better late than never, right? LOL LOL

Made this card for my step-FIL. He loves to fish, so it was just apropos to make a li’l fisherman.

Inside

Tools/Items:-

Cricut Imagine
Cricut Cartridge – Everyday Paper Dolls
Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page – Quilted
Glue – regular; ATG; Zig Two Way
Cardstock – patterned; white (for the Imagine)
Corner rounder
Popdots
Baker’s Twine – fishing line, fish basket handle
Stampin’ Up Ink – Creamy Caramel
Brad – for closure on fish basket

Created totally on the Cricut Imagine, floodfilling the layers using RGB codes. Inked all the edges and parts of the layers to allow the cut lines to show thru. Used the border punch on the inside design edge and the corner punch on the sentiment. Sentiments were computer-generated.

Bee-lated Birthday

Made this card for a dear friend’s mother, who is a real sweetheart! :-)

Inside of card:-

Tools/Items:-
Cricut Imagine
Cricut Cartridges – see below
Martha Stewart Corner Punch – Eyelet Lace
Martha Stewart Deep Edge Punch – Flower Bed
Glue – regular; ATG; Zig Two Way
Cardstock – blue; white (for the Cricut Imagine)
Corner rounder – Corner Stone by EK Success
Popdots
Rhinestones – on bee and butterfly

Cricut Cartridges
Disney Pooh & Friends – bee hive
Disney Happily Ever After – tree
Paisley – bee
Wall Décor & More - butterfly

This card was completely created on the Cricut Imagine, flood-filling designs, using the regular Cricut cartridges. I used the “Color Cop” to obtain the RGB codes for the hive via DisneyClipart and mimicked the same colors in the Cricut handbook for the li’l bee. What an awesome way of getting the exact colours. No fumbling thru coloured cardstock to find the right shades --- the Cricut Imagine does it all!

I attached the branch w/ the bee hive to the main tree. By using the same color, via “Color Cop”, for both the branch and the tree, it makes it seem like the branch w/ the bee hive was actually part of the tree. :-)

The inside of the card was created using the Flower Bed punch, punching it on both sides of the paper, to create a double border. Rhinestones were placed on the butterfly, which was glued to the border. The sentiment was computer-generated. Used some cute fonts:-

“LMS Spelling Bee” --- gives the look of a bee buzzing along. You can see a li’l bee attached to the “W”.
“Hunny's Bees” – the first letter has a li’l bee attached to it, w/ the rest of the letters in a “flower”.

The rest of the words were done in “Tinker Toy”.

Hope she enjoys this card, as much as I enjoyed making it for her.

Thanks so much for looking and I hope you have a great day!

"Just Because" Card

Made this card for a dear friend --- just because! There’s a li’l story behind why it is "what it is":-my hubby would refer to my friend and I as “Tweedledee and Tweedledum”. Sometimes, he’d go one step further and call us “Tweedledum and Tweedledumber” and we’d always tease each other as to who was which one. :-)

When I got my Disney Classics cart, I knew exactly which design(s) I was going to use, first.

inside of card:

Tools/Items:-
Cricut Imagine
Cricut Cartridges – see below
Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page – Ribbon Loop
Glue – regular; ATG; Zig Two Way
Cardstock – purple; white (for the Imagine)
Corner rounder – Corner Stone by EK Success
Popdots
Rhinestones

Cricut Cartridges
Disney Classics – Tweedledee, Tweedledum, Cheshire Cat
Lyrical Letters – “You & Me”

This card was completely created on the Cricut Imagine, flood-filling designs, using the regular Cricut cartridges. I used the “Color Cop” to obtain the RGB codes for the Disney characters, via Disney Clipart. What an awesome way of getting the exact colour that the character is supposed to be. No fumbling thru coloured cardstock to find the right shades --- the Cricut Imagine does it all!

I found a background of Alice in Wonderland on the Net, using that as the backdrop for the “twins”.

Used the same background, for the inside of the card, only cut it down and used the MS punch around it.

Added rhinestones to the ties; then pop-dotted the “twins. The sentiment was computer-generated.

Tomorrow, I’ll showcase how I was able to “keep track” of all the teeny tiny design pieces.

"Under the Sea" Birthday Card

Made this card for a special friend, who loves the deep sea --- either diving or snorkeling. :-)

I printed/cut this on my Cricut Imagine, flood-filling the designs w/ patterns/colours from the Imagine Blossom cartridge. However, I used the Cricut Design Studio, to size all of the designs. Here’s what it looks like on the mat and the cut file is below, if you wish to use your Expression or Baby Bug.

http://www.mediafire.com/?emuvyb7hvazb7f7

You’ll notice some squiggleys beside the octopus. I inadvertently plunked them on the mat, thinking they were layers for the octopus, but they weren’t. (I was one button off. LOL) The circles are o.k., tho. They’re the octopus’ cheeks. :-)

Ohhh, and I added the turtle after the fact. Oooops, I just noticed that I hadn’t added the layers for the seahorse, either. Sorry.

I wasn’t sure which seahorse I was going to use, so I have two, from different carts. on the mat.

Tools/Items:-
Cricut Imagine
Cricut Imagine Cartridge – Blossom

Cricut Cartridges (see below)

Cricut Design Studio

Martha Stewart punch – Double Loops
Glue – regular, Zig Two-Way

Cardstock – blue

Cardstock – white (for Cricut Imagine)

Pop dots
Wiggly eyes

Cricut Cartridges

Birthday Bash – octopus & layers

Create a Critter – seahorse & layers

Life’s a Beach – fishies & layers; diver & layers; seaweed; turtle & layers

The sentiments are computer-generated. I found the cutest font (RM Fish2) for the li’l fishies.

I wanted to add Philip’s name to his swim trunks. Now, how to do this, w/out having it show “white”?! Soooo, I put on my thinking cap and came up w/ this:-

I went to Cricut.com and in the cartridge section found the Blossom cart. Copy/pasted the “swatch” that I used for his trunks and used MS Word to do “text boxes” for the swatch and his name. Grouped them together and bada bing, bada boom, I was in business. Blended in quite nice and I was very pleased. :-)

Punched the side, google-eyed all the li’l critters and his card was borne. Hope he likes it!!!

Mother's Day Card

This was my very first attempt at making a side-step card. I’ve seen ones that are 4.25” x 5.5” but I wanted it to be a little bit bigger (5.5" x 5.5"), so I had to improvise, BIG time. :-)

Here are the measurements you will need:-

Start w/ a piece of cardstock 5.5” x 11”.
* Place cardstock vertically in your trimmer at 3” and cut a slit from 1” to 8” (7” slit)
* Place cardstock horizontally in your trimmer, w/ the 3” area on top of the slit.
* Score from the top just to the slit at: 3”; 6”; 7.5”; 9” and 10”
* Then score the bottom area from the slit to the bottom at 5.5”.

Fold the card using mountain and valley folds. Here are some top and side photos to give you a better idea of how it was created.








Tools/Items:-
Cricut Imagine
Cricut Imagine Cartridge – Best Friends
Cricut Cartridges – see below
Martha Stewart Deep Edge Punch – Daisy Fan
Glue – regular; Zig 2 Way
Cardstock - white
Flower – hand crocheted
Button
Seed beads – for birdie’s eyes
Fancy fibre
Stickles – Eucalyptus
Chipboard letters – “M”

Cricut Cartridges:
Paper Lace – Frame – Quilt2, Lace 2 and Lace 2 Shadow, p. 34 in handbook
Stretch Your Imagination – Bird House – Brdhse-s, and Layers, p. 63 in handbook
Stretch Your Imagination – Birdie – Bird and Layers, p. 64 in the handbook
Holiday Cakes – sentiment – Happy Mother’s Day, p. 70 in the handbook

I used the Cricut Imagine for the entire card, using the Best Friends Imagine cartridge for the patterns and colours.

* I cut the frame at 2.5” for the base and 2.3” for the layered top.
* The birdhouse was cut at 4.5”; the birdie at 1.5”
* The sentiment was cut at 1.2”

I was really surprised, but ecstatic, that the Imagine printed and cut such detailed work, as in the scroll layer and the sentiment. :-)

The chipboard letters were stickled; and seed beads used for the birdie’s li’l eyes.

I previously had created some medallions using the MS deep edge punch. I just cut them in half and arranged them on the bottom of the card; then tied some fancy fiber around the top step.

I just recently learned how to double-crochet, so added a crocheted flower, w/ a button, for the “O” in mOm.

Hope my mother likes it.

Hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!! :-)

Thank You Card

Tools/Items:-

Cricut Imagine
Cricut Imagine Cartridge – (see below)
Cricut Cartridges – (see below)
Martha Stewart punch around the page – Monarch butterfly
Martha Stewart punch – Monarch butterfly
Glue – regular; ATG; Zig 2 Way Cardstock
Corner rounder – Corner Stone by EK Success
Flower – hand-crocheted
Button
Cord – Color Infusions by DMC
Rhinestones
Popdots

Cartridges:
Cricut Imagine Cartridge – Lori’s Garden
thank you – p. 21 (used layers)

Cricut Cartridges
Cindy Loo – flower, p.57
Wall Décor – butterfly, p. 29

Base card is 8 ½” x 11”, folded. Used corner rounder on bottom corners. Used the Cricut Imagine to print/cut out the flower and butterfly from the Classic Cricut carts. Attached a crocheted flower (which I finally was able to master (will share more about that in a later post); and a button w/ the latest craze, Color Infusions. LOVE that stuff. A li’l pricey here ($5.00 for one skein) but I plan on getting some when I go to the States in the summer. Yeah!

Used the MS butterfly punch, twice, to create the layered blue butterfly. Pop-dotted the “thank you” sentiment, layering each cut.

Inside:- butterfly, from Wall Décor, printed/cut w/ the Imagine and then “rhinestoned” --- if that’s even a word :-)

The inset to write a sentiment is 3.25” x 3.25” punched w/ the MS butterfly corner and border punch.

Note:- I'm entering this card in the "Blog Hop -- a New Season, a New Skill" at:- Crafting Misfit

My new skill is creating my very first crocheted flower.

Birthday Card

I made the following card for a dear friend. . . . inside:- Tools/Items:-

Cricut Imagine
Cricut Imagine Cartridge – Yummy
Martha Stewart deep edge punch – Daisy Fan
Martha Stewart border punch - presents


Clear Stamp
Glue – regular; ATG
Cardstock
Patterned Paper
Corner rounder – Corner Stone by EK Success

Flowers
Brads
Popdots
Cut-out - cake
Pearls
Stickles

I decided to try something different this time and, instead of using white paper to print my Imagine image, I used blue striped paper. It’s been mentioned that we don’t always need to use white paper --- that we can use solid coloured paper, to get different effects. Well, using patterned coloured paper gets one a WHOLE different effect. :-) Check it out. Here’s a sample of the paper I used. Now see how neat the girl and the sentiment: “You Take the Cake” looks. Cool, eh? I think I’ll continue to experiment w/ different patterned paper in the Imagine. It’s gonna open up a whole new world. The possibilities are endless.

Anyway, let me get back to how I created this card. I used the “girl” on p. 21. I wasn’t too keen on the cake that she was holding, so replaced it w/ a cake cut-out that I already had. To achieve this, I just used the first layer for the girl. LOVE those layer features!!! The “You Take the Cake” sentiment is from p. 27. I actually tried out a couple of "insides". The "Make a Wish" is also on p. 27.

Then along came Mary. Ooops. I kinda got carried away w/ a song in my head. LOL I’m meaning Martha! Not Mary!! Martha Stewart and her fabulous punch sets. I used the Daisy fan deep edge punch for one side of the background layer. Then. . . . . . you ready for this??? I doubled-up on that punch and created a medallion border. I’m going to showcase all of my deep-edge punches in another post, later on. Here, you can sorta see what I mean:-

You punch the border once. Then, turn it around and punch again. You end up w/ this gorgeous medallion border. (see my card) How cool is that, eh? Well, to be perfectly honest, I didn’t come up w/ this on my own. I actually saw Martha, or her assistant, demo this on a YouTube video, w/ her latest punch sets that are only available on HSN right now. Soooo, if you’re in the USA, you can take advantage of this wonderful offer that’s only available for a short time. Us, Canucks, are very nicely discriminated against, to partake of any HSN goodies. :-(

Now that I’m done crying/whining, I’ll carry on w/ how I finished off my card. Used Stickles on the cake, pearls on the border punch and flowers/brads on the medallions.

Hope you all have a wonderful week-end!! :-)

Entered into:

K. Andrew's Simply Sunday Challenge at Getting Cricky