Hoppy Birthday - Take 2

I made this card about a month ago and really liked how it turned out. So when I went into DS to open my file to make another only to find the file wouldn't load because it was corrupted, I took the opportunity to make some improvements. Added some leaves and the hoppy is in cursive 101 instead of Opposites attract. Used George for the square in the back and for the flowers, Accents Essentials for the leaves and Paper Doll dressup for the froggies. It was worth the time to make the improvements, I think!

Finally - managed to make a card!

After a good week last week, I've had absolutely no ideas for cards. Tonight I forced myself to do something, anything to get a card out. It's not much, but at least it's something. All stampin' up! products. The rooster is from the level 1 hostess set from the 2009-2010 catalog.

Stampin' Up! - Manhattan Flower, Dreams du Jour

If you've ever notice, it's rare I do really simple cards; everything seems to be a production. So tonight I did a really simple card - probably took 10 minutes to make. But of course I couldn't keep it exactly simple. I brayered the page with the embossed roses and then had to take my aqua painter to it to shade it a little better. Photo corners are done with a Stampin' Up! punch. Stamp is from Dreams du Jour and is quickly watercolored.

More Stampin' Up! - Wandering words

Been having a blast playing with my new stamps. This one is really cute and I know I wanted to brayer a card with this as soon I as I received it. I'm a little rusty with my brayering, but it's ok. The second one is much easier done with a "spotlight" technique where you stamp the whole design first, then stamp it again with another color on another piece of paper, and cut out the area you want to "spotlight". In this case I wanted to spotlight santa, so punched him out with a small circle punch and pop-dotted him on the black design!

Another Stampin Up Watercolor - Peace Within + 2 other sets

I am enjoying doing these stamps with watercolor. I almost feel like an artist. Been using my new in-colors again tonight. The bird/basket stamp is from Peach Within. The Dreams stamp is from Dreams de Jour and if you look closely I made my own designed paper from a swirl stamp that's in Simple Friendship. The swirls were stamped with versamark - which is very cool because it automatically "matches" the color to the paper because the clear versa mark which darkens the paper! Who knew? BTW, both the Dreams and Bird stamp were heat embossed before coloring.

First all Stampin' Up! Card - Peace Within with watercolor

I have stamps and I have plain paper...I think I need some design paper and some embellishments. I guess that will be the next order. My demo kit brought me all the in-colors in paper and ink - I love them. And this stamp set is so cute. This is my first water color done with the beautiful classic ink pads and an aqua writer. So easy! And it looks like a mini masterpiece :) Ta-da - my first sample card!

Guitar Card

Used Indie Art and George for the Guitar. For nieces' 16th birthday.

"Flower Pot" style Santa

Everyone has been doing flower pot cards, including me. I saw a variation with a cupcake which I loved and it got me to think, what can I do? So being on a Christmas roll, I decided to do Santa. However, everything that could have gone wrong went wrong and this card, which is actually quite simple, took me 2 hours to make! Then I forgot to save the cut file! So I guess this will be a one of a kind unless I decide not to make the beard shaggy (that's what took all the time - I welded on at leat 30 or so little moons with the tips sticking out from the beard).

Santa is from doodlecharms, and there's some george cuts in there too.

Cuttlebugged the beard and hat.

Hope you enjoy the fruit (or in the case the santa) of all my labor tonight!

I've become a Stampin Up Demonstrator!

All I can say is now what? I already have a full time job...but I think it will be fun to do this 2-3 times a quarter just for socializing and supporting my habit (crafting habit). It's also good to try out things in case a plan-B is every needed. I'll be updating my blog soon with a link to my SU site so if you feel the need for some SU stuff, please keep me in mind!

Drippy Goo Holiday Card

I got a Martha Stewart Drippy Goo punch and had to try it out. This was hard to photograph as it's all metallic paper. The "snow" is glittery paper which you can't tell either...

The ornament is made from Joys of the Season and cuttlebugged.

BBTB Accent Essentials #13 and Cuttlebug Spot #42

Love when I can do two challenges at once. The Bitten by the Bug (BBTB) challenge was to use the snowflake from accent essentials, and the Cuttlebug Spot challenge was to use a favorite folder. This didn't come out like I saw it in my mind's eye, but it's cool! It looks tons better in real life as the snowflakes are all stickled with icicle and they look like jewelry.

Sketch Saturday #62

Halloween card using some cute paper I got at Joann's today. (on sale - 40% off)

Only 1 shopping day til....

I saw this saying on a Tshirt on one of those shopping channels today and thought it would make a great card. So actually did something really simple with George and a couple of stamps.

Snowman

This one came out so cute, I may make some more, and I rarely make the same card twice. He was done with the Christmas cheer cartridge and design studio. The snowflakes and stars are a from a cuttle bug die.

Gift card holder

This is a copy of a gift card holder that a gift card my husband got for Christmas last year came in. I pulled it apart and re-created it with design studio for the cricut. I used Plantin School book and George for the holder. I need to play a little more as this prototype came out small but a Target gift card fit in it! The snowflake was done with Joys of the Season but there are many possibilities for decorating. It's sealed closed with re-positionable glue so that it can be opened and closed.

Halloween

Wow, I've been having ideas lately. I want to submit some cards to the AZ State Fair in October, so been starting to figure out what to do. This card was done with the cricut and design studio with George, Paper Dolls Dress Up and Hello Kitty. I'm having fun with making the layers, etc.

Last year's cards part 2

Some of last year's Christmas cards

These are from before I had a blog, so wanted to publish. :)

House Mouse & Friends #47 - White on White

Easiest card ever, but who would think this would be a challenge? Well it was to me because I have no white embellishments! No flowers, no ribbon, no nothing! So nothing fancy, but it's still cute because it's House Mouse!

Christmas

My cards are not simple lately. Here's another one I tried with lots of layers. Used Plantin schoolbook, George and Christmas solutions cricut cartridges for this one.

Practice, practice, practice

I love the look of cards made with Design Studio, especially ones with lots of welding and layers. I find these very difficult to do, so lately I've been trying to work on some. This is practice card - I always send my brother something with frogs for his birthday but this one is kind of girly. Need to figure out something other than flowers. But I like the way it came out and it was serendipity the way the background paper worked.

Used many cartridges for this one: Paper Dolls Dress Up, George, Wild Card and opposites attract. I put on a couple of buggy stickers I had and some googly eyes.

Winter Wonderland #8 - Santa

I'm trying to pay attention to the Christmas blogs to get me started on my cards. This week's was to include a santa stamp. The ornament is done with Cricut Christmas solutions and the season's greetings is an inkadinkado clear stamp. The paper is from last year's DCWV Christmas stack.

Sketch Saturday #60 and MCPT July Challenge

Love being able to do two challenges at one time.

And here's the quote of the day from my almost 16 year old son after looking at all my scrapping stuff: "Mom, why does it take so much crap to scrap?". He was the only one who thought that was a funny comment.

Sympathy Cards

So many have left us recently in the celebrity world, but all of a sudden it seems like friends of mine are losing loved ones also. I had two within two days both lose fathers. Both lived long, productive lives thankfully, but it must still be difficult anyway. I've been thinking about how to do sympathy cards; I find them very hard to to. I think this one came out ok. The tree stamp is from Stampin Up, the sentiment is from that great $1 bin at Michaels.

Finally able to craft!

This is why my blog is called the frustrated crafter - because either I have no ideas, no time or when I have time, I get sick. Frustrated I don't craft enough. Well, I don't get sick that often, but I was knocked off my feet this week by one heck of a sinus infection. Today's the first day out of bed and I'm taking the opportunity to stay off my feet and get some cards done. This one is for my sister's birthday. My sister is younger than me and I love when she catches up on the milestones. She also just graduated from cosmetology school so definitely wanted to pun up her 45th birthday with the gray hair thing. I thought this stamp was perfect!

Updates

Wow, I've been gone a while! We went to Las Vegas for the 4th of July weekend. It was tons of fun. We got to stay at the MGM Signature which is a non-gambling hotel. We were on the 38th floor and on 4th of July night we could see at least 2 dozen fireworks shows going on at any given time across the west and north Las Vegas valley.

But I came home and on Monday didn't feel well. Turns out I have an acute sinus infection with an underlying secondary viral infections. I feel horrible! Hopefully my antibiotic and anti-viral will kick in by tomorrow and I can get back to crafting and getting up to date on everyone's blogs. Back to bed for now before my head splits in two (major headache going on).

Hugs...