Sweeeeet Birthday!

My boyfriend's sister, Michelle is a fan of Finding Nemo so for her birthday, I wanted to use my Pixar Cricut cartridge to make something for her. There are so many great cuts in this cartridge. I also used letter stamps to create the phrases. I made little squirt because who doesn't love him?

Blue Skies and Sunshine, Guaranteed

For my next Thank You card, I wanted to stick with the same bright and cheerful look. I still had some of that lace from my last card so I decided to use it again in a different way. The patterned paper is from a My Mind's Eye pack that I have and I just partnered it with a matching solid color. I made the center cut from my Elegant Edges cartridge.

Is it spring time yet?

Let's Go Fly A Kite!

I had to make a thank you card for someone and because the weather has been so horrid and also because I had the song from Mary Poppins in my head, I decided to use a bright kite cut. This is from the Baby Shower cartridge, but while the original is cut so that the kite comes out with zig-zag pattern, I decided to just use one main pattern. The clouds were cut from my Mickey and Friends cartridge.

When trying to think of what kind of tail to attach, I started rummaging through my embellishments box. You know the box I'm talking about- the one with a million little embellishments, stickers, jewels and lace that you totally forget you have sometimes. I found some lace and pearls for an extra accent. The thank you stamp is from a Michael's $1 grab bag and they have really been so useful over the years.

Here's hoping for some sunshine real soon. =)

Becoming A Fairy Godmother

So I am pretty excited. Actually, I think excited might not even begin to cover what I am feeling. My boyfriend and I were asked to be Godparents and it was such an honor to be asked! I wrote about my boyfriend's best friend Tony from Australia when he last came to visit. He brought his babies for their christening and I totally fell in love.  Well, they have had another little girl. Her name is Isabella and she is now my goddaughter!

And this girl is beyond adorable.

Those cheeks just kill me. 

The family will be traveling to New York for the christening next year so sadly, I have to wait until then to squeeze this cutie. But I have waited a long time to be a Godmother! I didn't want to screw this up. A care package was in order! Off to the Disney Store I went because of course, every child I meet will learn to love Disney. Along with some classic Winnie the Pooh books, I got her some Little Mermaid merchandise. A plush doll, a sun hat and this adorable onesie that I am sure the entire store heard me exclaim when I saw it.

Aw, come on- isn't it so cute?

Anyway, a gift package needed a proper card! I looked to my Disney Cartridge. I wanted to make a fun Little Mermaid card for Isabella. (I'm still trying to figure out what my nickname for her will be. Izzy? Isa? Anything but Bella. Thanks, Stephanie Meyer for ruining a perfectly good name....)

I decided to cut out a seashell and Ariel's silhouette. I thought it was a bit too plain, so I added a flower for her hair with a single pearl. Instead of using patterned paper, I decided to take out my Distress Inks. For the base of the card, I used Tumbled Glass for a light blue background. As for the seashell, I used a combination of Vintage Photo, Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers and Tumbled Glass. I blended it a lot to get it exactly the way I wanted. I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

I think it was a success! Seriously though, doesn't her face just scream GERBER BABY??

Godparents are a pretty big deal in my family. I'm hoping I can emulate Cinderella's Fairy Godmother- kind, nurturing, and ready to bestow some words of wisdom along with a plethora of kick-ass presents.

But I can assure you that one HUGE difference between the fairy godmother and I will be our wardrobe. Sorry lady, but shapeless, hooded capes aren't exactly my thing....

Mickey & Donald, bffs!

Recently, I was so honored to be asked to create some cards for a friend of mine who just became a Grandma for the first time! Her son had twin boys and she asked me if I would be so kind as to create their Christening cards. Ellie is a Disney fan (hence why we're friends of course) so she wanted them to have a Disney theme. I wanted to create two cards that while each had similar elements, were indeed very different from each other (just as I imagine, her twin grandsons will be!).

I turned to my Mickey and Friends cricut cartridge and started to work on baby Xavier and baby Adrian's card.

I wanted to stick to each character's distinct color palate, but keep the same spacing. For Donald, I chose blues and yellows. Adrian and Xavier were cut from the Cuttin' Up cartridge. I really like the cartoonish font you find on this cartridge! Red and yellow was used for Mickey and I used black ribbon as a divider on both cards.

Of course, I made these listening to Disney music so there were definitely moments of pause so I could successfully belt out a few notes ('Let it Go' from Frozen comes to mind here!).

21st Birthday Blog Hop!

Welcome to Day 2 of Ashley's 21st Birthday Blog Hop!

We are so glad you could join us! If you've come from Ashley's blog, you're in the right place! If you have just come across the hop and would like to start at the beginning, please visit Ashley at Made Especially For You.

This weekend we are celebrating Ashley's 21st Birthday with some fun and creative, birthday/alcohol-themed projects! It's not 21 without a drink or two, right?!

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I was SO excited when Ashley asked me to be apart of this blog hop celebration. She was such huge a help with my million Copic questions that I knew I wanted to create a card that showcased what I've learned so far. I tried to incorporate both a birthday and alcoholic theme at first, but it just wasn't working with my stamps. I wanted to use some Penny Black Mimi stamps and she seemed a little too wholesome next to the Jack and Coke. haha I just stuck to Mimi and it will hopefully remind Ashley of a more innocent time of birthday cake and streamers.

The background paper is from The Recollections Neapolitan Collections pack. I am so LOVING this paper! It's so fun! I cut the scallop die from the Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge and stamped my Penny Black Mimi stamp on it. I used some distress ink on the flag and the scallop cut forThe sentiment is from a $1 stamp pile from Michael's and I added the flowers to top off the card. We have 21 fabulous sponsors providing 21 fabulous prizes for those who hop with us, and because there are so many of them, we have included all the prize information in the second stop of the lineup. To be eligible to win, you must... - Leave a comment on EVERY stop of BOTH days of the hop  Winners will be randomly chosen and announced on Friday March 14th at Made Especially For You. Your next stop is Angeline's blog. 
Here's the complete lineup in case you get lost along the way...
Day 2 Ashley Hop Prizes Michelle Angeline Pam Madge Stephanie Erica Georgiana Julie O.  Happy Hopping! :)  

A Valentine for my Valentine!

I try to make my boyfriend JP something special every year and this year was no exception. I found the cutest stamp from Joann's called Kissin' Kiddos and when it arrived, I started practicing! I should have taken a picture of all the attempts I made, trying to perfect the hair and clothing, but what matters is the end result.

You know, I don't say this very often, but I'm super super proud of this one.

I tried making the girl's skin color a little darker than the boy's since I'm Spanish (but seriously, with this winter weather, I'm as pale as he is these days!).

The background paper was from a Martha Stewart Valentine's Day pack I picked up from Michael's last year (always recycle your holiday paper!). I cut out the heart from the Sweethearts cricut cartridge and stamped the image on there. As for colors, I wanted to make this card very traditional so I stuck to the red/pink and blue/green palate.

JP really liked it so that made me even prouder of this card. I feel like I'm making progress on my copics too!

Tee-rific Birthday

My boyfriend's Dad is a big fan of golf. For his birthday this year, I wanted to create something a little extra special since he had gotten me the best Christmas present ever! Thanks to him, I got to see Billy Joel at the Barclays Center on New Years Eve. Billy Joel is my all time favorite musical artist, so I was totally stoked to ring in the new year with him! (and my boyfriend, of course)

The patterned background was taken from a My Mind's Eye paper pack and I went over it with some Vintage Photo distress ink. The golf clubs are from the Wrap it Up Cricut cartridge, which I realized I hadn't used in awhile. For the lettering, I wanted Tee-rific to stand out so I cut the letters out and embossed each of them with my Versamark ink pad before rubbing some gold powder on them. In retrospect, I'm sure there was an easier (and neater!) way of doing this. Now I know for next time.

Stay tuned for some Copic coloring cards that I have been working on! FYI: coloring has never been this difficult for me haha.

Crafty Christmas 2013

As promised, here are the rest of the cards I made for 2013. Again, they were not nearly as many as I had wanted to make, but people were forgiving. I have decided to follow in the footsteps of my friend Amy from Scrap This, Save That. She had an idea for a Christmas Card Catch-Up where she made cards throughout the year and it was a pretty successful venture. I think I'm going to try that and create about 1-2 cards a month and see where I am next December.

This year, I focused on snowflakes. I recently got the Cricut cartridge, Winter Wonderland and there were so many nice die-cuts available.

Before adding this snowflake with 3D zots, I embossed some smaller snowflakes on the card. I ended it with the sentiment, "Let it Snow" which I got from Michael's for a dollar.

For this card, I embossed the writing on the card first and went over it with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo distress ink. The Believe sentiment also came from the Winter Wonderland cartridge along with the snowflake. This had to be my favorite card of the season.

This next card, I embossed a stocking stamp I had with green glitter powder. I used a Martha Stewart paper puncher for the bottom and I added peppermint twine to the top. The sentiment came from this adorable stamp I found at Paper Presentation which is this wicked store in NYC that sells every type of paper you can imagine.

For this card, I wanted to emboss using two different colors so I used a small paint brush to apply the gold on the antlers and red on the body of the reindeer. It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. (Or as messy!)

This last card was made with the Winter Frolic cartridge. The snowman's face was made with a Peachy Keen stamp and I added some peppermint twine to the base of the snow globe.

That's All, Folks. Until next year! (or next month!)

Hip Hip Holiday!

Happy Holidays!! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful time with their family and loved ones! I was scrambling for a week to finish my Christmas cards and sadly, I didn't do a very good job. I had a few days off that were spent with my dentist (4 fillings and one wisdom tooth pulled!) So suffice to say, I wasn't as productive as I hoped to be.

I will be posting the few cards that I did get to finish however. This first one was done for my friend Matthew. I had previously made a birthday card for his girlfriend Katie and now I was making her a Christmas card. His only request was that I incorporated a Hippo. I cut the Hippo from the Create a Critter cartridge as well as the "hip hip" sentiment. Then I went to the Create a Critter 2 cartridge for the Santa hat and the "Holidays" sentiment. I embossed white paper to be snow and used this really neat snow pen I got from Hobby Lobby that creates the snow effect with heat. I then embossed some snowflakes on the top of the card and added some red stickles. Please pardon the picture below. I sent Matthew his card before I realized that I didn't take a better picture of it first. Basically, I'm a bit of a scatterbrain this month. =)

A Tricky Holiday

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Hope everyone has fun tonight and stays safe! This year, I experienced my first work party and it was nuts to say the least. I went as Vanellope Von Schweetz from Disney's Wreck it Ralph and it was great fun.

My coworker Melanie came as the 11th Doctor from Doctor Who. I'm Vanellope from Sugar Rush!

However, I have no idea where the time went this year. I only got to make a few Halloween cards. (And I even realized I didn't mail some out in time so my friends are getting them late!) So here is what I came up with:



For my friend Andrew, I used some fun Halloween buttons that I got on my last trip to Hobby Lobby. I tied them with festive twine. The paper is from a My Mind's Eye Halloween pack and I used a Martha Stewart paper trimmer for something a little extra. I didn't like how blank the bottom looked so I used these costume stamps. This was from a $1 pack I also found at Hobby Lobby. (How I adore thee!)

For my friend Gale, I took out my Copics and went to work on a Steampunk girl stamp I've had for awhile now. It took me a few tries. I feel like I am out of practice! I added buttons on this card as well and used some Distress inks for her background.



For my friend Monique, I cut out a design with my Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge and used a witch stamp I got at Hobby Lobby for the center. With a silver sharpie, I made some indents on the edges to give it that paper sewn look and added some jewels.

My friend Rachael received this card with a Pumpkin head character that reminded me of a character from Return to Oz. I used some orange stickles to outline his circle and added a fun Halloween ribbon I found at Michael's.

My friend Tana received the card with the Dia de Los Muetros inspired characters. I used the elegant edges cartridge to make the cut out juuuust as big as the card which took a few tries. I really suck at measurements even after all the time using the machine. I also wanted another excuse to use this awesome ribbon so I added it on here too.

So I guess now begins the Christmas card making? Here's hoping I have better luck with those.

Wishing you all a Spooktacular Holiday!