Hunting Dog Birthday Card

My husband's birthday is coming up soon and I wanted to make a card that was a little different from the average birthday card. I really like the Cricut Paper Pups cartridge and use it a lot for my card projects.  Since my husband  likes to watch Duck Dynasty, I thought the hunting dog would make a cute card. I wanted the card to have a rustic feel so I used burlap ribbon for the dog's background. Paper Pups can be purchased for a limited time through Cricut.com.

Directions for Hunting Dog Birthday Card:

Cricut Paper Pups cartridge
White, tan, brown, cream and aqua cardstock
My Minds Eye Indie Chic Nutmeg Paper Stack-aqua glitter dotted card stock
Burlap ribbon or a piece of tan burlap approximately 4 inches wide by 4 inches high
Copper colored small brads
DCWV Mariposa Paper Stack
Small golden self adhesive pearls (3)
Fine point black Sharpie pen
Tim Holtz Distress Ink- Tea Dye
Small craft sponge
Zots- large, medium and 3D
Aqua and white dotted ribbon
Gogglie eyes (small)
Martha Stewart Maple Leaf paper punch

1.  Using a greeting card program print the birthday verse on the inside of the card. Use the half fold option and white card stock. Fold the card in half.

2.  Load the Paper Pups cartridge in the Cricut machine and cut the hunting dog at 3 inches out of brown card stock. Press the Solid and Hunting Dog keys and cut the dog out of cream card stock. Assemble the dog. Glue a small eye on the dogs face. Color the nose, trigger gun barrel and back of the gun with the black Sharpie. Attach the small pearls to the dog's collar. Cut Happy Birthday out of aqua card stock at 1 1/2 inches (press the Solid, Shift and Birthday Dog keys).

3.  Cut a piece of 4 inch wide burlap ribbon approximately 4 inches long. Attach the 3D Zots to the back of the dog. Center the dog on the ribbon and press in place. Attach a small copper brad in each corner of the ribbon.

4.  Cut the aqua glitter dotted card stock approximately 4 3/4 inches high by 4 1/2 inches wide. Place the card stock on an angle so that the upper point is approximately 1 1/4 inches from the top of the card. Attach the large Zots to the back of the card stock and press in place. Trim off the corners that extend past the edges of the card. Glue Happy Birthday at the top of the card over the aqua dotted card stock backed image.

5.  Center the burlap ribbon over the aqua dotted card stock. Attach 3D Zots to the back of the ribbon and press in place.

6.  Using the Martha Stewart Maple Leaf paper punch and the tan and orange glittered card stock punch 5 tan leaves and 6 orange glittered leaves. Attach the medium Zots to the back of the leaves. Alternate orange and tan leaves along the bottom of the burlap ribbon, under the dog's feet. Alternate tan and orange leaves along the left side of the ribbon. Place a tan leaf at the top of the aqua dotted card stock, just under Happy Birthday. Glue a tan and orange leaf to the right of Happy Birthday and an orange leaf to the left.

7.  Cut a piece of aqua and white dotted ribbon the length of the card plus 1/4 inch. Attach small Zots to the back of the ribbon. Position the ribbon 1/2 inch from the bottom of the card and press in place. Tie a small bow from the ribbon and attach to the ribbon border.

8.  Using a small craft sponge and the distress ink, lightly pounce the ink over the white card background.

Rock Princess Birthday Card

I had debated about buying Cricut's Rock Princess since it was released. I really liked the images but didn't think that I would use them enough to justify the price of the cartridge. Cricut recently put a lot of their cartridges on sale, including Rock Princess, so I couldn't resist adding it to my collection. I also should mention that Cricut has brought back the popular (discontinued) Paper Pups cartridge both as a cartridge and a digital download in the Cricut Craft Room. If you have wanted Paper Pups now is your chance to own it. It's uncertain how long Cricut will make it available.

Michelle's birthday is coming up soon so I wanted to use Rock Princess to make a fun card for her. To accent the card I cut individual skulls from some skull border tape that I found at Michaels. I added Washi tape across the top edge of the card. Washi tape is quickly becoming one of my favorite embellishments. While it looks rather unassuming on the roll, it really enhances a card. I have been using it for borders instead of ribbon. Another line of products that I really like is Memory Box dies. I used the DeLacie Border for this card. The best thing about Memory Box dies is that they can be used with any die cut machine that uses individual dies like Sizzix, Cuttlebug, etc.

Directions for Rock Princess Birthday Card:

Dark pink, light pink, black, grey, light tan, brown, and leopard print card stock
DCWV Tres Chic mat stack- grey striped card stock
Recollections Black and white print Washi tape
Recollections pink mesh trim
Recollections pink crystal self adhesive hearts
Recollections glittered skull tape
Pink self adhesive pearls
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist- Diamond Dust and Pink Cherry
#4 flat paintbrush
Zots
Memory Box DeLacie Border die
Cricut Rock Princess cartridge

1.  Using the Rock Princess cartridge cut Ashley out of black card stock at 3 inches. Press shift and Ashley keys to cut the face, hand and knee out of light tan card stock. Press the Layer 1 and Ashley keys to cut the hair out of brown card stock. Cut the belt out of light pink card stock by pressing Ashley, Layer 1 and Shift. Next cut the scooter out of dark pink card stock (Press Ashley and Layer 2). Press Ashley, Layer 2 and Shift to cut the wheels and skirt out of grey card stock. Repeat to cut the skirt out of leopard print card stock.  Assemble the image, using the grey for the wheel covers and the leopard print skirt.

2.  Embellish Ashley's scooter. Cut one skull from the glitter skull tape and attach to the front of the scooter. Add dark pink heart shaped crystals to the center of the scooter's wheel covers. Add a small light pink heart crystal to the front of the scooter for a headlight. Highlight the wheel spokes with a grey colored pencil.

3.  Embellish Ashley. Use a dark pink colored pencil to draw in her mouth and add blush to her cheeks. Attach a small faux pearl to the front of her belt and two small faux pearls to her wrist for a bracelet. Shake Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Diamond Dust and remove the spray cap from the bottle. Dip the #4 flat paint brush into the bottle, blot the excess Glimmer Mist on a piece of scrap paper, then lightly brush over the lens of the sunglasses and boot. Rinse the brush and dip into the Cherry Glimmer Mist. Brush the Pink Cherry Glimmer Mist over the scooter. Set aside to dry.

4.  Cut two DeLacie borders out of light pink card stock.using Sizzix or other die cut machine. If you have trouble removing the card stock from the die use the tip of an awl to lift the card stock from the die.

5.  Create a Birthday card using a greeting card program and the half-fold option. Score the card and fold in half.

6.  Glue one DeLacie border approximately 1/4 inch from the bottom of the card. I ran the border through the Xyron machine to create a sticker instead of applying glue to the border.

7.  Cut a background from the Tres Chic grey striped paper approximately 3 1/4 inches high by 4 1/4 inches wide. Round the corners with a corner rounder paper punch. Cut a piece of Recollections pink mesh trim the width of the background. Press into place approximately 1/8 inch above the bottom of the background. Attach foam dots to the back of the Ashley image. Place Ashley so that the tires of the scooter sit between the pink mesh rows (to simulate the lanes of a road). Cut 2 skulls from the Glittered Skull tape and place one skull in the upper right and upper left corners of the background. Attach Zots to the reverse side of the background. Place the background approximately 1/4 inch above the highest point of the border and 3/4 inches from the left edge of the card.  Press the background in place.

8.  Glue the second DeLacie border approximately 1/4 inch above the top of the background.

9.  Cut a piece of black and white print Washi tape the width of the card. Apply the tape approximately 1/4 inch from the top of the card. Embellish with 10 medium self adhesive pearls, evenly space across the length of the Washi tape.

Flapper Birthday Card

It's been quite a while since I have done a Cricut card. I saw the Art Deco cartridge this summer but wasn't sure if it contained enough useful images to justify buying the cartridge. The back of the  box only showed a sample of images from the cartridge and based on that sample there just wasn't enough to entice me to purchase the cartridge. I don't know why Cricut decided to show only a sample of images rather than showing all of the images available on the cartridge but I don't think it's a good marketing practice. In my case they almost lost a sale. Since I really liked the flapper, decorative elements and the Empire State Building, I decided to try to find the cartridge on line to see if I could view all of the images on the cartridge. After viewing all of the images I found quite a few that I really liked ( the Greyhound, bird, other buildings and people).

The past several weeks everything has taken precedence over my art projects. Since I'm in the process of reorganizing my Atelier, it is in a state of disarray and not very inviting. Last night I cleared off the drafting table so that I would have a place to work. Even though I don't like the ambiance I really needed to make a birthday card and the Art Deco cartridge was lying on my drafting table begging to be used. The Flapper is one of my favorite images on this cartridge and I thought that she would make a cute birthday card.

Here's the finished card. I added small stick on pearls to the strand around the Flapper's neck. After all, Is she really a Flapper without her her pearls? It was tedious to stick on each pearl but the result was worth it. When applying the pearls leave a small space between each one to mimic the way real pearls are strung.



Flapper Card Directions:

White, red, black beige and light grey card stock
Me and My Big Ideas Mambi Sheets Animal Print paper- black and white leopard print
Recollections Roses- light and dark grey
Recollections Self Adhesive pearls- small pearls
Peach and dark rose colored pencils
Artist Loft color pencil blender
Fine point black felt tip pen
Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist
Zots and Foam Dots


1.  Print a card greeting on the front and the inside of the card. Fold the card in half and crease.

2.  Using the Cricut Art Deco cartridge cut the flapper at 5 inches out of beige card stock. Press the Shift and Flapper keys and cut the clothes at 5 inches out of red card stock. Press the Layer and Flapper keys and cut the stockings and pearls out of white card stock. Next press the Layer, Shift and Flapper keys to cut the shoes and belt out of black card stock. Assemble the Flapper.

3.  Apply the self adhesive pearls to the necklace around the Flapper's neck.

4.  Color the Flapper's face and arms with the peach colored pencil. Use the color pencil blender to blend the skin tone. Apply a little dark rose colored pencil to the Flapper's cheek and lips. Use the black felt tip marker to draw her eye.

5.  Lightly spray the image with Pearl Glimmer Mist and let it dry.

6.  Cut a piece of light grey card stock approximately 5 1/4 inches high by 4 inches wide.  Center Flapper on the card stock and attach with small foam dots.

7.  Cut a piece of black and white leopard card stock approximately 6 inches high by 4 3/4 inches wide. Attach Zots to the back of the card stock. Center the card stock on the front of the card below the greeting and press in place. Attach Zots to the back of the grey card stock. Center the card stock on the leopard card stock and press in place.

8.  Glue a dark grey rose to the upper left corner of the leopard card stock and a light grey rose to the bottom right corner of the leopard card stock.

Paper Hydrangea's

Paper flowers are so easy to make yet they can be rather expensive to buy. I recently found a package of 6 flowers for $5 at a local scrapbook store. Instead of buying the pre-made flowers I decided to buy some paper punches to make my own flowers. I bought the Martha Stewart hydrangea and rose leaf paper punches for a total cost of $20. I wanted the hydrangeas to mimic the colors of the hydrangeas in my garden so I chose purple and pink card stock. The flowers were easy to make and assemble.

I punched 18 hydrangeas out of pink card stock, 12 out of light purple, 6 out of blue violet and 10 out of dark purple card stock. Next I used pink chalk to highlight the centers of the pink flowers and purple to highlight the centers of the light and dark purple flowers. Starting at the center of the flower apply the chalk in a circular motion extending it toward each petal.


Using a stylus and a foam mat or the back of a mouse pad press the stylus into the center of the flower and move the stylus in a circular motion until the flower begins to have a cupped shape. Don't press too hard to avoid poking a hole in the center of the flower.



Next take a stylus or an awl and slightly curve the end of each petal backward.


Once the petals are curved add a small adhesive pearl to the center of each flower.




Punch the leaves out of parrot green Bazzill card stock. Place the leaf on the foam mat and press the stylus from the top of the leaf to the bottom to form a vein. Add smaller veins to the right and left of the center vein. Highlight the leaf with dark green chalk. Glue two or three leaves under the petals of each flower and set aside to dry.

After I had made all of the flowers I wanted to use them to make a card.






Directions for Hydrangea Card:

Parchment card stock
Paper hydrangeas
Recollections Adhesive Faux Pearls
Purple ribbon
Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist
Spellbinders Nestabilities Rectangles
K & Company Ariana card stock
Foam Dots

1. Fold a piece of parchment card stock in half lengthwise and crease.

2. Cut the second largest rectangle from the Spellbinders die set out of parchment card stock.

3. Place a foam dot on the back of each of the flowers and position the flowers on the parchment rectangle as shown in the picture.

4. Cut a piece of blue and white print card stock from the Ariana collection 4 7/8 inches wide by 7 1/2 inches long. Glue the card stock to the front of the folded parchment card stock, leaving a border around the edges of the card.

5. Center the parchment rectangle on the blue and white card stock and attach with foam dots.

6. Cut a piece of purple ribbon approximately 5 1/4 inches and tuck under the edges of the blue and white patterned card stock. Position the ribbon at the bottom edge of the card stock, just under the parchment rectangle. Glue in place. Using the purple ribbon tie a small bow and attach to the center of the purple ribbon.

7. Place the faux pearls in the upper right and lower left corners of the blue and white patterned card stock. The pearls on the left side of the card should be slightly above the ribbon. Press the pearls in place.

8. Lightly spray the flowers with the pearl Glimmer Mist and let them dry.