Happy Cards-Featuring Resist Coloring and Cricut Explore

Happy Saturday everyone! This week's video shows you how to create the Happy die cut shown on a set of six cards I made as a gift. It's easy to manipulate stock images in Cricut Design space into something entirely different. The image I started with actually looked like this.

These cards are A2 size, 4.25" x 5.5". The background was created by stamping a background with Versamark ink and heat embossing it with clear embossing powder. Momento ink was then applied heavier at one end, gradually lightening to white at the top. The embossing resists the ink and reveals the background stamp while showing off an ombre effect. Easy! Just apply the ink with a sponge and lighten the amount used as you go from the bottom to the top.

The next step is to cut the Happy phrase in Design space (after manipulating the Happy Birthday phrase to the shape shown in the project). I used various words in the rectangle part of the die cut so that they read, Happy Birthday, Happy Thoughts, So Happy Together, Happy Dance, Happy for You and Happy Thoughts.

To finish each card, I applied the die cut, added a cork heart and a red embroidery thread bow. I actually made two of each card and made two sets of 6 cards to give as gifts. 

Thanks for joining me today. I'll see you again on Wednesday when it's my turn to post for CottageCutz. I've got a super cute card with a camping theme for you!

Supplies used for this project:
Hero Arts Stamp & Cuts Set called Happy Stamp & Cut
Various Memento ink pads
White card stock to form the card base and card mat
Background Stamps: 
Rubbernecker Stamps - Victorian Diamond Panel
Stampabilities Wood Stamp - Typewriter Background

Waterfall Card - St. Patrick's Day

Happy Saturday Everyone! We are in March now and St. Patrick's Day is on the 17th this year. I'm not Irish but we still usually make ham hocks and cabbage to celebrate. In fact, I picked up the ham hocks a few weeks ago at Costco and they're waiting in my freezer. Yum! Can't wait.

In anticipation of the holiday, this week I've designed a waterfall card using cardstock and stickers. If you don't know what a waterfall card is, you need to click on my video link below to see how it works and how to create your own mechanism using Cricut Design Space to make a pattern. Additionally, I've included all the dimensions below. Before you leave the video, please subscribe to my channel while you're there. You can also sign up as a subscriber right here on my page by clicking on the subscribe button on the right side of this page. I greatly appreciate your support.

This fun card has a lot of movement and is entertaining. My son is fascinated with it and most people are surprised to see one work for the first time. There's a reward at the bottom of the waterfall that is revealed when you pull the mechanism. Good stuff!

I hope you enjoy this little treasure! If you haven't done so already, please follow me by clicking on one of the options to the right of this post. You can get notifications of new postings through my Facebook page, Google+, Blogger, Feedburner or Bloglovin'.

Also, I need to mention that I was inspired by a similar card pattern that I purchased from Susan Mehlbaum at CraftsUPrint. You can look at and purchase her card here: CraftsUPrint Page

CARD RECIPE:
White A2 Card Base (4.25" x 5.5" folded)
Large Yellow Mat-
Small Square Yellow Mats (4)-Cricut Cartridge#
Green Patterned Mats (4)
White Square Mats (4)-Cricut Cartridge #
Green Waterfall Mechanism-
Green Circle for Waterfall Mechanism Tab-
St. Patrick's Day Stickers-Dollar Tree
Green Button
Green and Gold Thin Ribbon
Mini Brads, White (2)

I've entered this card in the following challenges:
Jo's Scrap Shack #178 Anything Goes
Hiding in My Craftroom #291 spring colors
Craft Creations Challenge #336 Anything Goes
Cardz TV.-Anything Goes

Flocked Bunny - And a Fork Bow

Hello Crafty Friends! I know it's early for Easter but it's spring in a big way here in Charlotte and I can't help myself. This week's project is a cute bunny with flocking. I love using flock as a fun way to add some "fur" to animals in projects. I have great luck using double sided adhesive to get a nice finish with flock. Until I figured that out, I had given up on it because I was never satisfied with the end result. To finish it, the inside of the card is stamped with another cute little bunny and an Easter message. Although the focus of my cards are always the outside, I do try to make the inside nice too.

I suspect you'll see another flocked card for Easter sometime soon as I have a jar of the prettiest sunny yellow flock with glitter mix that I'm anxious to use. I see a cute Easter Chick in my future! I also have some tropical pink flock in my stash. I am betting it would be adorable on a pair of pink flamingos. What do you think? Should I??? Of course I should!

Another feature of this project is that I made the bow that is around the bunny's neck with a fork. Yes, I said a fork! Now maybe this was a rage that most crafters saw when it was a thing a few years ago (most videos on this are are 2-3 years old) but I just discovered it. It's really works to make a pretty double bow. I am going to try it next on a large meat fork so that I can get a larger bow. It makes the double bow super fast and easy. Check it out! Oh, and while you're there, please subscribe to my channel!

Thanks for spending some time with me and until next time, keep crafting!

CARD RECIPE:
A2 White Card Base-4.25" x 5.5"
Gray Mat-3.75" x 5"
Pink Mat-3.5" x 4.75"
Cricut Gray Rabbit-Easter 2010 Cartridge-Bunny-#M470E4-3.46" H
Cricut Easter Blessings Sentiment #M3CF00-1.49" H
Pink Ribbon
Pink Paper Flower
White Glitter Ribbon
Pearl Accent
White Iridescent Sequins
Pink Glitter Paper-DCWV Glitter Brights Stack-#
Gray Flocking Powder
Pebbles Pink Chalk
Easter Stamps - Brand Unknown
Silhouette Double Sided Adhesive Sheet
Silhouette Flocking Powder

I'm excited to share this project in these challenge blogs:
Fantabulous Cricut Blogspot Challenge #295-Sequins
Crafty Creations Challenges #335 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers Challenge Blog.blogspot Challenge #125
Die Cuttin Divas Challenge #305 Animals
Hiding In My Craftroom #290 Any Holiday
Aud Sentiments Challenge-Animals Sentiment
Crafty Gals Corner Challenges #111 Anything Goes
Jo's Scrapshack #177 Always Anything Goes

Creating with Cricut - Congratulations New Citizen Card!

Here's my shameless plug to follow me on whatever media works best for you. In addition to facebook, email, Bloglovin or Google, you can now go to my YouTube Channel and subscribe there as well. I post every Saturday so don't miss a thing!

This Saturday is a quick card I made for someone I work with who is becoming a new US Citizen. You can easily change the colors and the USA tag to make this into a thank you or birthday card.

Click on the video to see how to make this fun and easy card using paper, glue and your Cricut machine! There are no stamps used for this project.

The sizes and supplies can be found in the video's description on YouTube.

I'm excited to participate in these card challenges:
Crafty Gals Corner Challenges #110 Use Your Favorite Things
Jo's Scrap Shack #176-AG

Mass Producing Hand-Stamped and Colored Valentines For Kids

Hello and happy Sunday! It’s going to be a rainy day here in the Charlotte area. Here’s hoping you have mild and sunny weather where ever you are!

So it’s been a super long time since I last posted. Although I have always kept crafting, I gave up blogging a couple of times. I let myself fall into a pity trap after putting in the work to share and getting little response back. After some contemplation, I’ve decided to rededicate myself to it and not worry if anyone subscribes or “likes” my projects. I have to be honest that this is for me. It’s a kind of a online journal and as long as the work helps me relax, let go of stress and release creativity to use in other parts of my life, it’s worth it.

With that in mind, I have taken it a step further and opened a YouTube Channel under SugarShine Designs. This provides another way to share my projects and I’m excited about it! I always felt limited by using a few photographs. My first post is linked below. Yes, it’s WAY too long at 18 minutes. My goal is to stay under 15 and find a balance between enough and too much information. Practice makes perfect.

I’ll be posting projects for the seasons and attempting to provide as much practical how to information I can so if someone watching is inspired to try something similar, they’ll be able to follow along. There’s a part of me that enjoys teaching others and it's my second motivation for doing this.

So without further ado, I officially kick off my channel today! Here goes nothing!  

Window Flower Box Thanks

Hey everybody and Happy Friday to you! I'm posting on Friday instead of Saturday because it's going to be a busy weekend. This week's card is a 3D thank you card with some interesting features. It's super textured. The red background page is embossed with a brick wall pattern and the window frame is embossed with a wood grain pattern. I wanted to give the impression of sheer curtains so I used pink vellum and used bits of silver card stock as tie backs. The silver and white diamond pattern looks like wallpaper and the curtains allow the background to peek through the way real sheer curtains do.

Card cuts in Cricut Design Space

The window cut is from the Cricut Access subscription. It has a rectangle for the flower box which I sized deeper so it was wide enough to hold my flowers and leaves. This cut doesn't include curtains so I found another cut for a stage and used the curtain part of it after resizing it to fit my window. After the window and curtains were designed, I searched for branch and found the cut I've used for the leaves. There are 5 branch cuts that I randomly put down as a base after the long stem part was trimmed off so that only leaves remained. Then I found a 3D flower and after they were cut, the petals were shaped using a pencil to roll the petals into a more realistic shape. It really helps to give flat flowers a more realistic look when you bend and shape the petals. After gluing the flowers on the box using white Beads in a Bottle in the centers, the box and flowers were popped up on foam tape to give some further depth. The final touches are a stamped Thanks banner and a bow made from brown and cream baker's twine. Just to give it a little more interest I rounded opposing corners of the card leaving two corners pointed.

I hope you enjoyed this one. If you'd like to make one yourself, the cuts and dimensions are below. Thanks and see you next week!

WINDOW AND FLOWER BOX RECIPE:
Card Base - 5.5" x 4.25"
Curtain Cut: Stage #M467A5 from the Twinkle Toes Cartridge - shape to fit window
Window and Box: Window Sill #M3C5E7 from the Creative Cards Cartridge - 2.43" x 3.36" box is 2.04" x .65"
Branch: #M30301 from the Garden Soup Cartridge .62" x .84"
3D Flower: #M4709B from the Flower Shoppe Cartridge - .54" x .49"

It's Time for Ice Cream!

Hey everyone! Before I tell you about this week's project, I want to announce that I'm giving away some blog candy - a $20 Amazon gift card. Just become a follower by clicking one of the choices on the right - Facebook, email, Feedburner, Bloglovin or Google+. Go to my Blog Candy Page and tell me you did. Then on June 1, I'll announce the winner on the blog and on Facebook. 

Today I'm sharing a card with you that is what I call a flap style. That's because instead of the standard square shape, the "flap" or front of the card has been cut to have a scalloped shape and the inside of the card peeps out from the negative space that the card front creates by being partially cut away.

This was a fun project. The base card is formed by combining a scalloped shape and a rectangle together. I found the scallop shape in Cricut Design space, I sized it to 4.25 x 5.5 and created a rectangle with the same dimension. Then I flipped the scallop so the straight edge of it butted against the rectangle (where the top folds over the back of the card) and welded the shapes together to form a single one. A quick fold at the join creates the final base card. A card stock accent scallop was cut out of a pretty glittered card stock of pink and and brown. This is one of my favorite color combinations. My grandma had a blouse she loved in these colors and I always think of her when I see it.

I cut a lacy scalloped circle out of white stock and a circle out of the matching accent card stock to go in the middle. Then I cut an ice cream cone shape and accented it with pink and chocolate glitter glue. I even embossed the cone to be a little more like real cones! Unfortunately you can't see that in this picture but trust me, it looks cool in real life. All the pieces were glued together and placed on the card stock. The final piece is a great example of creating your own embellishment out of parts you might not necessary think go together right away but the end result is very pleasing.

The accent in the left corner is a mauve bow made of ribbon with a brown flower and a pink faceted crystal flower on the top. I thought the white edges on the card were too bare so I added some pink chalk to the edges.

Voila! A yummy spring card to say thank you, hi or just because. Thanks for joining me today and I'll be back again next Saturday!

I am pleased to enter my card into the following challenges this week. Click on the links to go to the challenge sites and see all the beautiful projects that have been entered in each one.

Avenue 613 Challenge-#171-Entry 144-Anything Goes-Ends 4/16

Tuesday Throwdown #289-Entry111-Use Your Die Cuts-Ends 4/18

Fresh Brewed Designs-Flowers-Entry 22-Ends 4/19

Crafty Gals Corner Challenges-67-Die Cuts or Punches-Entry 82-Ends 4/19

Cute Card Thursday-#421-Handmade Embellishments-Entry 17-Ends 4/20

Hiding In My Craft Room-#247-Entry 3-Ends 4/23

Craft Rocket Challenges-#13 Favourite Colour Combo-Entry 16-Ends 4/26

Jades Sparkling Butterflies-Anything Goes Button Bows-Entry 18-Ends 4/27

Cut It Up Challenges-#94-Spring Flowers-Entry 16-Ends 4/27

Panda Time!

One of my favorite animals are pandas. Today I have a pair of panda goodness for you! I've used the same image from The Paper Shelter in two different ways and I like the results. The image is called Teamwork and it features one panda giving another panda a help up.

First up is a thank you card with our cute little image. The green card base is surrounded by a polka dot frame popped up on foam tape to give it dimension. The frame is inked in brown just to make it stand out a little bit more.

The frame and banner was cut on the Cricut Explore and the tag was also drawn with the Explore. The green holographic sequins finish it off.

Next up is a slightly different twist using the same image and with the same frame. This was a smaller image and I put it on a tag cut with the Explore. The tag opens like card and is connected at the top. The tag base is metallic gray and is matted with some cute patterned paper that I had in my scrap file. The dimensions of this tag is 3.5" x 5.5" Brown and cream baker's twine and a stamped banner make this simple little tag so sweet. This will be perfect attached to a gift or just to say thanks or hi.

I am pleased to enter my project into several challenges this week. 

Fresh Brewed Designs-Ribbon or Twine-Ends 4/12

Tuesday Throwdown 288 Robyns Fetish-Ends 4/11

2 Crafty Girls Challenges-Jade's Sparkling Butterflies #16-Ends 4/13

Cute Card Thursday Challenge #420-Something Shiny-Ends 4/13

Suzy Pants Smarty April Challenge #125-Closes 4/15

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #31-Ends 4/16

Avenue 613 #170-Whiter Shade of Pale-Ends 4/11

So Many Candles Birthday Card

Hello crafty friends! I'm finally back after a super long absence. It's been too long since my last post and I sincerely apologize for it. I ran into a spot of time where I had trouble finding the energy to post projects I completed. Truthfully, I allowed myself to get discouraged. Well, no more! I am back and will be posting on a regular basis going forward.

This evening's post is a fun little birthday card poking fun at getting older. I thought it would be fun to rib one of my friends a little about his advancing age. :) One of the advantages of making your own card is that you can personalize it exactly to say what you want and in the way you want. My card is a good example of that and I had a lot of fun designing and making it because of it. 

This is an A2 sized card. I started with a plain navy blue card base which is simply a 5 1/2" high by 8 1/2" wide card stock scored and folded in half. On top of the base, I placed three sheets of paper to create a frame for the cupcake. I cut all the pieces for the cupcake, candles and flag on the Cricut Explore. The cupcake was attached with foam tape and 16 candles were glued behind. A few of the candles are attached with foam tape for a 3-D effect. Then I added the flag (also attached with foam tape) and brown holographic sequins.

All the pieces for the cupcake, flag and the flames were shaded with Tea Dye ink using a finger dauber prior to putting the card together. The sentiments were done using Freestyle Script Font and the pen feature of the Explore.The interior of the card was created with four mats. The top layer was a cream card stock.

Below is a screen shot showing the designs used for the card in Cricut Design Space. The cut details are as follows:

CUPCAKE: Close to My Heart-Art Philosophy <cupcake>, Handbook Page 70: 2.54" x 2.98"  

CANDLE (16 ea.): Wrap It Up <candle>, Handbook Page 31: .4" x 2.44"

FLAG: Close to My Heart-Artiste <Accent3>, Handbook Page 58: 3.12" x .82"

FONT: Freestyle Script, Size 30

When I design, I usually set a rectangle as the canvas that is the same size of my card front. That way, I can be assured that the pieces will look right when they are placed on the card base.

I was pretty happy with how this card came out and my friend fortunately enjoyed the joke! Next time you have a special occasion, customize it for your recipient. They will appreciate it as much as you enjoy making it! See you soon!!