Baby Card from Art Philosphy Cartridge

Since I have the Cricut Expression and now the new Cricut Expression 2 machines, I figured I had better start making cards instead of relying on store bought ones. My little neighbor Tara is expecting her first and thought she would enjoy a homemade card instead of a store bought one. Working full-time, takes away from the creativity and you gals who are able to stay home and play while kids are in school, my hat is off to you. Someday I will be able too hopefully! This card was made using the Cricut Art Philsophy Cartridge by Creative Memories. It is a great cartridge and I see many cards in the future being made from this very cartridge. I believe I like the E2 Machine better than the original. I mean afterall it has 17 more buttons to do what you wish, bigger screen and most of all it just seems to operate better than the first edition. I thought about selling my first one, but have decided against it; as I know as I began to make holiday gifts I can have 2 going at the same time. I didn't have any baby DP so I made my own, using stamps from different SU sets and the baby's name was made with thicklet letters, although after I had put everything away, I could of used the alphabet on the cartridge. LOL!!!

Photo Cards

I am so glad the weekend is here. I am also thankful that we are safe and not having to worry about the hurricane. But I will say the east coast is in my prayers and I am waiting to here from my neice who lives in North Carolina. Luckily for us on the west coast they are not that common but we do have the shake, rattle and roll when earthquakes hit. It is a humid 102 degrees here today! I have been working on cards in my room to stay cool. I made these for a special neighbor lady. I hope she likes them as her name is Rose. She takes care of Sugarbaby while we go out for errands, dinner or a show. And then she will take care of her when we go on vacation, so I wanted to give her a thank you gift. All the cards are made with real photographs of roses hubby took back when we had our photography business. I made some a couple of years ago and they are archived on my blog under "Photography" if you would like to see them. I am thinking I will be making some for the OWH to send to the military as I am sure they would enjoy seeing flowers, nature and such to cheer them up instead of always looking at brown and dirt. I found out that my Cricut Card I made "You Make My Heart Flutter" (post before this one) was loved and enjoyed by the receipent who received it. Which makes my heart jump for joy!!!! So I am thinking I will be making some more of those soon for the OWH Group. Its hard to believe that September is just a few days away. Where has time gone? Without further adieu, here are the cards for my sweet friend and neighbor Rose. I'm only showing one with what the inside looks like as I feel the inside needs to be finished to look nice when the receipent receives the hand written note that will be inside. So all the cards shown here are finished on the inside as well. The glare was so bad inside, that I had to take them outside to get a proper picture. Guess I should have used my hubby's professional camera instead of my little Nikon Coolpix. Enjoy!!!!

You Make My Heart Flutter

Hello Ladies! I have just one card to share with you today. I made this using the Cricut Expresson. I think the only way you can see some of the intricate cuts is to make them fit a 5x5 card. I tried a smaller version and it just seemed to be to jumbled together. But am pleased with how this one turned out. Of course I had to use stickles on it and pop the heart to make it stand out. LOL!!! I think this would be a great card to give on Valentines Day and have thought of making about 12 of these for the OWH, but with them being bigger I'm not sure they would fit in the box that they use to ship the cards to our military. Will have to check with Sandy and see what she thinks. I have been busy working on other things in the background and promise to have some items to show to you real soon. I have begun to think about the making of christmas ornaments again like I did last year. I think if I remember correctly I made close to 150 of them and am hoping not so many this year, but we shall see. LOL!!!! Hope you all have a great week!!!!!

Cricuting.....

I have been busy working on cards for OWH and for personal ones as well. I have made myself start using my Cricut Expression. I only have 51 cartridges and two more are on the way from the rewards I submitted. So being that there is a major investment sitting here in my craft room, I figured I better get busy before hubby gets upset. LOL!!! Anyway, I mainly used the following carts for the cards, Sophisticated, Ornamental Iron 2, Straight From The Nest, Home Accents and Fancy Frames. I found if I designed the layout on the Gypsy on how I wanted the card to look, then cut out all the pieces, and then assembled them, it seemed to go faster instead of doing each one by one which would take much longer then having an assembly line going. I really like the new carts they have been coming out with. All the fancy flourishes and frames gives the sentiment a whole different look. Plus I am a girly girl, so the more elegant designs and the curliques they have the happier I am! LOL!!!! It has been an experience though as I have had to learn to set the speed and pressure correctly as not to waste the expensive cardstock. I di find that if I did mutliple cuts on the heavier cardstock, it punched out much easier without tearing the intricate parts of the design of the framing. I have been taking my Gypsy to work so I can play around with designs on my breaks and lunch hour which then saves me time when I get home so I can go right to the Cricut Expression and begin cutting it all out. needless to say I have 4 more baskets full of different designs to be assembled. I am really enjoying using my "E" and hope that the military men and women will like them as well. Next is Christmas Cards as the deadline to OWH is October.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!!

I hope everyone will be having a wonderful day celebrating our freedom. May you have a wonderful and blessed day of family, friends, swimming, bbqing, eating watermelon and games. Take a moment today to stop and say a thankful prayer for our military men and women who are fighting to protect our freedom. Without them we could be like many other countries who are at war and not peace. We as Americans have so much to be thankful for and we at times forget how fortunate we are to live in this wonderful country where we can have the freedom to express our beliefs, the way we dress and who we can befriend. May your day and evening be full of fireworks.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY AMERICA!!!!!!!

Love

Forgot to add these two pictures to last post. Was interrupted and just realized they were not showing up...uhmm because I never loaded them. LOL!!! Thanks for looking.