Happy Birthday to Taylor!

I met Taylor VanBruggen in 2010 at the Craft and Hobby Association show in Chicago.  Taylor is the "Taylor" in "Taylored Expressions" and today is her 30th birthday!  Her husband, Jon, sent out a secret email request for birthday cards and wishes to help mark this significant birthday.  Since Taylor is known for her fondness of sweets, he asked for cards that oozed sweetness!

I have enjoyed all of the stamps, dies and other items I have purchased from Taylored Expressions over the last couple of years and I used some of them to make this card.

One of my favorite stamp sets from Taylored Expressions is It's in the Bag - I think I like it so much because it has a companion die set so you can make teeny tiny shopping bags.

 I also like this set of banners and greetings called It's a Banner Day 1 - once again it has a coordinating die to cut the banner image.  (There are two other banner day sets with different styles of banners as well as an additional set of holiday sentiments for all three banners).

I cut out the tiny shopping bag from the green glitter cardstock from the DCWV Cotton Bloom stack that I used for my father-in-law's card (it matched the other colors perfectly - sometimes it is good to be slow to clean up your leftovers!).

The die cuts and scores in one pass so it is easy to crease along all of the marked lines to shape the bag.

I use Scor-Tape to hold the bags together - it is great on the glittered cardstock which can be prone to popping open with a weaker adhesive.

The tiny bags are very cute - they finish at 1 1/2 x 2 inches and are about 1/2 inch deep.

Last year I participated in the kit club that Taylor offers called Key Ingredients.  Each month I received a box with cardstock, patterned papers, ribbons and other embellishments to make cards.  It is wonderful to be able to pick up one of these boxes and have everything already coordinated for you.

I  remembered that the January 2011 kit had lots of sweet papers (from the Little Yellow Bicycle "Cupcake Love") so I pulled out that box and chose my card base (Bazzill Chablis) and the glittery lollipop cardstock for my top card layer (cut at 3 3/4 x 5 inches).  I used the same green glitter DCWV cardstock that I used for the shopping bag for the bottom mat layer (cut at 4 x 5 1/4 inches).

Next, I created the banner for the birthday greeting.   I stamped the dotted design with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink and then placed the clear template on top (if you look carefully you can see that is marked "this side  up" to help you get it placed properly).  I made pencil marks in the two little holes.

Then I placed the die on top of the image and lined up the holes in the die with the pencil marks.

Here is my stamped and cut banner.  I stamped the "Happy Birthday" in the center with Crushed Olive Distress Ink.

I needed some foam dots to raise the sentiment and make it show up a little better in the shadow of the tiny shopping bag.

Here is the finished sentiment on the card.

I stamped the little cupcake from the It's In the Bag stamp set with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink.  Then I colored the leaves and liner with Crushed Olive and Dusty Concord Distress Markers.  I colored the flower on top of the cupcake with a Poppy ProMarker.  Then I added Crystal Stickles to the frosting and a drop of Glossy Accents on the flower.

I left it to dry for a few hours and the Glossy Accents became clear and let the Poppy Promarker and Worn Lipstick ink show through.  I punched out the image with a 3/4 inch circle punch and then placed the circle on a 1 inch hexagon punched from DCWV glitter cardstock (hexagons are all the rage lately!).

I used a couple of pieces of half inch Scor-Tape to secure the bag to the card. 

Here is a shot of the various items I used for the cupcake image (except for the stamp and the Worn Lipstick ink).

I added a small piece of shimmery pink fabric to the bag.  I thought it would stay fluffy and not get crushed like tissue paper when the card is mailed.

I think this is a happy card  - and definitely sweet!

If you have a chance - pop over to the Taylored Expressions Facebook page (or if you are not on Facebook you also leave a Happy Birthday comment on Taylor's Blog.  Say hi from me!

I didn't get my card in the mail on time - I wanted to add something sweet to the package that I haven't had time to make...that's today's project!  The birthday celebration will last a little bit longer this way.  I remember I used to find the cutest belated birthday cards sometimes and then wait to send them so they would be truly belated!

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Cupcake Birthday Card

I dusted off my Imagine this weekend and made a few things.  I have been using my Imagine primarily to print paper since I never have had good luck in getting it calibrated to cut a full sheet of images neatly.  If I print and cut just a few images at the top of the page, I can usually get acceptable cuts. 

My first cuts (the images on the left) looked very odd.  The color was off and I could tell that the black ink was missing.  I remembered having this problem before and tried cleaning the print heads (under "settings").  I did this three times but I could never get the black ink to work so I gave in and replaced the black ink cartridge.  That did the trick, as you can see in the images on the right above.

I usually skip over some of the "cute" images, but this cupcake with a girly face from the Better Together Imagine cartridge appealed to me.  I cut it quite large - at 3 3/4 inches tall.  I cut an extra layer of the frosting to add some dimension to the card.

I cut two mat layers for the A2 card.  The pink layer is 5 1/4 x 4 inches and the blue layer is 5 x 3 3/4 inches.  By cutting the top layer this size, I was able to use a 5 x 7 inch Cuttlebug folder and emboss the front with the pattern running horizontally.

 I was careful to line up the paper so the top row of cupcakes was complete.

This embossing folder is from the Once Upon a Princess Cuttlebug Companion set - this set of four is one of my favorites of the "Companion" sets.  I find that often there are two folders I like and two that I don't care for in the sets but I like all four of the options in this set.

 
The images on the Better Together cartridge are shaded to give an "inked" effect.  I wanted to add some more sparkle, so I used my Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust glitter pen to emphasize all of the lines of the stars and the black contour lines.

The glitter from the pen makes the frosting look much more festive!

Some foam adhesive circles lift the top layer above the base and hold it tight.  I adhered the base layer of the cupcake directly to the embossed front.

Lifting the frosting from the base cupcake brings the image to life.  I also added an outline to the mouth with the Sakura pen and used two tiny gem stickers for the eyes.

I printed and cut the "Hey cupcake" phrase from the Better Together cartridge.  It also needed a bit of sparkle so I outlined the words with the sparkly gel pen.

If you look carefully, you can see the added definition given by the glitter pen.  I completed the sentiment with a stamp and colored the tiny crown with Promarkers with metallic gold on the circles and more glitter pen outlining to finish the image.

Here is the inside of the card before it was signed.

I placed the cupcake at a slight angle, making sure that the embossed cupcakes were covered neatly.

Don't you love those long eyelashes on the cupcake face!  I guess if you are going to do cute you need to "go big or go home" (as my Grandma used to say!).

If you don't have an Imagine, you can make a very similar card with one of the many, many cupcake images to be found on Cricut cartridges.  You can stamp or draw the face in the same style.

Once I got the Imagine printing sorted out this was a pretty simple card to put together.  I think I may take another stab at the advanced calibration.  If I could only get the entire sheet to print and cut correctly I would probably use this machine more.

Be sure to check out the information about the Spring Training 2012 course that Ella Publishing is offering from April 23 to May 4th.  Check the post HERE to get more details and to leave a comment for a chance to win a free spot.  Only the comments left on the original post will be included in the random drawing.  There are five great instructors and access to the videos will never expire.  

I'll be drawing a winner late tonight and will post the name on Tuesday.  If the random number generator doesn't pick your number, I think the course will be well worth the price - so go ahead and sign up and join in the fun!

We have a holiday today - it is "Patriot's Day" in Massachusetts so there will be a parade in our historic town.  The Boston Marathon is also today and I am worried about the runners since the temperatures are predicted to be in the high 80s!

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Pillow Boxes for Gift Cards and Cash

There are just a few more days until Christmas and Hanukkah begins tonight.  Everyone is trying to finish their list of things that must be done before the holiday.  I did a lot of wrapping yesterday and now I am just waiting for a few more packages to arrive.  This year most of our gifts are things that come in boxes but there are a few gifts cards too.  These usually come with some sort of folder but I think they deserve to be wrapped in style. 

A couple of years ago, I showed these little boxes that I made to hold some gift cards and cash.  There are pillow boxes on several cartridges - these happen to be from the Wedding cartridge.  You can see more details about them at THIS POST (there is also a yummy recipe for roasted vegetables in that post!)

I cut the same pillow box shape that I used for the blue boxes, however, I hid all of the lines except the curved lines at the ends that help to form the pillow box shape.  I don't like the cuts, but it is tricky to score smooth curves for folding, especially with this heavy glittered cardstock. 

I assembled the box with 1/4 inch  Scor-Tape.  This is a very aggressive adhesive and it works well even with the glittered cardstock.  When you fold in the ends of a pillow box, be sure to fold down the ends with the thumbnail cut first.  This makes it easier to open the second flap and also allows the solid flap to show when the box is closed.  You can see the white edges that are exposed by the curved cuts - you could ink these if they are too distracting.

I put together a few poinsettias from Prima and added a pearl brad from Creative Charms.  I colored the brad and pearl red with a ProMarker.  These pearl brads come in the Vintage Velvet Poppies and I often change them and add a different center brad so I have lots of extras sitting around.
 

The flowers have slits cut to insert the brad but I had to add my own slits to the leaves.

There were also some little embossed ornaments in the Prima tin so I added one of them to the flower cluster.  I tied a gold ribbon around the entire box and attached the flowers with a large glue dot.

I thought I'd like the ends of the ribbon to stay loose, however, in the end I decided to tuck them under for a rounder shape.

If you have a lot of "small, flat and folding" (as in cash) gifts to share, you could put all of the boxes on a tree and let the recipients search for the box that was personalized for them.  I put this one on the front hall Santa tree to take photos.

The traditional colors blend in nicely with the tree.  If you like the way the boxes look on a tree, you could even create a group of them to use as ornaments each year.

I had another gift box to share with you but, unfortunately, I dropped my camera while I was taking these photos and I am having trouble getting it to work properly.  The lens came off when the camera fell and now it is not consistently recognizing that the lens is on the camera.  This camera has been my constant companion for over four years and I hope I can get it sorted out to work as it normally does.

Hanukkah begins at sunset today so I want to say Happy Hanukkah to all of you who will be celebrating for the next eight days.

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Upcycle a Bottle Top with Creative Charms

Upcycling combines crafting and recycling to create new, interesting and useful things from ordinary objects that might otherwise be thrown away.  Today is my day to post on the Creative Charms blog and I shared these tea light holders made from a very ordinary object.

Our family likes Tropicana orange juice.  It used to come in cartons, but just recently it started to appear in these bottles.

The only identifying mark on the lid is on the top.  This will not be seen since the top becomes the bottom for this project.

As soon as I saw these new lids an idea popped into my head - the pointed pattern on the outsidemade me think of Halloween...

...and the center circle was just the right size to hold a battery operated tealight!  There is a slight gap between the inner screw top and the outer lid - perfect to hold a piece of vellum upright.

I measured carefully and determined that a piece of vellum cut at six inches and overlapped by about 1/4 inch to form a tube would fit neatly in the gap.  For the first light, I cut the vellum at 6 inches by 4 inches.

I punched a spiderweb strip with the Martha Stewart Deep Edger Spiderweb punch.  I used some Creative Memories Precision Point Adhesive along the center line to adhere the strip to the vellum.

I placed the trim on the vellum at about an inch from the top and 1/4 inch from the side edge.  Then I used my adhesive tape gun to place adhesive along the short edge.

I rolled the vellum into a cylinder and stuck the edges together.  Then I trimmed off the excess spiderweb border.

I added some large gradient gem stickers to the triangle sections of the lid.

Then I added some tiny gem stickers to the tips of the triangles. 

I used the punched trim to keep this project very simple.

 

You could easily design a shade similar to the one I did several years ago with various Halloween images (you can read more about this lantern HERE).

For the second light, I used a piece of vellum six by three inches and punched the top with a Martha Stewart border punch of spiders.  I added little black gem stickers to the spider bodies.

For the third light, I cut the vellum at two by six inches and added some leaf shaped gems and sequins from the  Fall Medley.  I attached these to the vellum with glue dots and left a short gap for the 1/4 inch seam.

I added an extra sequin leaf over the seam so the pattern would be consistent.

You could make these without the orange juice lids but they add color and a firm base to each tea light.  If you wanted to make these for another holiday, you could spray paint the lids to make the bases in your chosen color.  I think they would look nice in gold for Christmas.

I used different colors and varied the placement and sizes of the gems on each holder.

The battery operated tea lights stay cool and there is little danger of the light touching the vellum since it sits in a separate channel.

The other project I posted for Creative Charms is this Autumn card.  I have always liked the word art on this Cuttlebug folder.

I started with some ordinary kraft cardstock cut at 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches and folded in half for an A2 card.  I placed the front of the card in the Cuttlebug folder and embossed the design.

Next I colored the words "Autumn" and "Blessings" with my ProMarkers so they would stand out on the card front.

I used Cinnamon for "Autumn" and Walnut for "Blessings." It is fairly easy to stay on the embossed area and slight wobbles won't matter in the end.

The next step was to spray the entire card front with Glimmer Mist.  I used my favorite color, "Sun Sisters," which gives a lovely sparkle and glow.

I used my embossing heat gun to speed up the drying of the glimmer mist.

The inside of the card is not very attractive after coloring and the spraying warped the cardstock just a bit so I added a liner to the card.

I cut a piece of ivory cardstock at 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches and folded it in half.  I added adhesive all over the top and centered the liner in the card.  Then I closed the embossed card top over the adhesive and fixed the liner in position.

The back part of the liner stays free and allows space for an extra message.  Since it is not attached to the back the card will open and close easily.

It is very hard to capture the sparkle of the Glimmer Mist in a photo but the effect is very pretty and it totally changes the look of the raw kraft cardstock.

The  Knitter's Garden - Orange Flowers looked too much like Spring for this card so I added  Amber Vintage Brads and an Amber Vintage Marble Brad to the centers.

The flowers take on a more elegant look with the brads added.

I filled in with some leaf sequins from the Fall Medley .  Everything is attached with glue dots - first the gold leaves and then the flowers.

Creative Charms Mini-Giveaway winner...

The winner from the comments on my last Creative Charms posts chosen by random.org was Yelowflower

Could you please contact me with your mailing information as soon as possible?  I'll be sending you...

...an assortment of leaf gems and sequins to use for your own cards.

Please stop over to the Creative Charms blog HERE to see all of the Design Team projects.  Be sure to leave a comment on my post with these projects. Once again, I'll  have little giveaway for someone who comments here or on the Creative Charms blog (leave a comment in both places to double your chances).

You do not have to be a blog follower to win, however, if you like my blog and want to show your support for my work, please do follow or subscribe.  I also have a Capadia Designs Facebook page HERE and if you "like" that page you will see my daily posts in your news feed.

I wonder how many of you will start looking through your fridge for bottle caps to alter - do you like orange juice?  If you do some upcycling be sure to let me know and send a photo if you can.

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