Hot Air Balloon Card

It's Tutorial Tuesday on the Cutters Creek Design Team Blog! Yes, I realize it's Thursday but a mouse invasion in my scraproom put a damper on my mojo (not to mention my DESK). Thankfully, I believe the problem has been resolved! This month we are focusing on Stickles! Stickles are a great way to add a little bling to any project!


I got this really cool sheet of images on a transparency from the Prickly Pear booth at CHA and couldn't wait to play with them! So I grabbed my Stickles and started coloring with them on the back of the image. I used Christmas Red, Silver, Turquoise and Diamond to color my balloon. Just remember, there is a lot of dry time here so I recommend letting it dry overnight.


This is actually the second day. I added the Red, Turquoise and Silver first and let them dry. In the morning I colored in the rest of the balloon with the Diamond Stickles and let it sit all day. Well, last night when I went to finish my project I guess I had made my layer a little too thick and it was still wet! So I moved on and made the background for my card.


I'm including two photos of the background I created because it was really hard to get a good photo. I used my Glimmer Mist and Glimmer Glam to create the sky.


I first sprayed a light turquoise for the background. Then I added the Glam in a few random spots with a paint brush. It acts as a resist when I spray the 2nd color, a little darker turquoise over the top and gives a really cool effect! I'm thinking I'm going to create a water themed page next with this same technique... Then I had cut the clouds from white cardstock and glued them down.


When my image was finally dry I added some foam squares to the back of the transparency under the colored part of my image. I really wanted the balloon to float off the page.


And here's the finished card! I added a little red foil paper from my scrap drawer and stamped the phrase "Ain't Life Swell" from my Pink By Design Country Life stamp set. I also used my Pink ATG to assemble the rest of my card.

Now on with some business... make sure you head on over to the Cutters Creek Design Team Blog and leave a comment on my post over THERE and you might just win some Blog Candy! I appreciate any comments you leave here as well!

Glimmer Mist Flowers

So did last weeks Tutorial Tuesday post on the Cutters Creek Design Team Blog make you hurry over to the Cutters Creek Store and stock up on the Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist? If you did you're going to want to try the ideas in this post! If you didn't I sure hope this post will put you in the shopping mood!

Grab some scrap White Cardstock and a scalloped circle punch or Cricut or Spellbinders die and punch a bunch of circles! The punch I used makes circles that are about 2" but you can actually go a little smaller or larger based on your preference!

I punched about 15 circles here. I figured if I'm going to make my own embellishments I might as well make a couple while I have all of my supplies out...

Next I grabbed one of my favorite script background stamps and my Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut Stain. You can really use whatever image you want but I LOVE the look of the words. You could even grab a single word stamp or use some alphabet stamps to spell a word and stamp it repeatedly. I like to stamp both sides of my punch but you don't have to... in fact you don't really need to stamp at all!

Next I grabbed three bottles of my Glimmer Mist, Walnut Gold, Coffee Shop and Tattered Leather. I really want a lot of depth in this project. As you will see a bit farther down the post you can also do this technique with a single color... Also notice I have my Bazzill Splat Mat covering my desk. This is really important because it will keep you from dying your desk as well as protecting it from the heat of your heat gun.

The first layer is the Walnut Gold. I just did about one or two sprays per flower. Two things to remember, mix your spray WELL before spraying and keep your hand moving while you are spraying.

I repeat the spraying with the Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist trying to sort of hit different areas.

Finally I used the Tattered Leather. Then layer another paper towel over the top and flip it over and repeat on the other side!

Next you're going to want to crumple your circles up into a nice wrinkly ball. You don't have to crush it... you just want some nice wrinkles. Now, grab your heat gun and dry them a little bit.

Next you are going to un-wrinkle them a bit. You want some of the creasing to stay so don't totally flatten them out. Grab that heat gun again and dry them all the rest of the way.

Here's what you will end up with. At this point these should be completely dry. On a side note, you may tear one or two while you are unfolding them (if you look closely you will see I did) and it's NO big deal. It adds to the character of your finished flower. But, if it bugs you... it's a good idea to initially punch and stamp a few extras...

Now, before I put my heat gun and my Glimmer Mist sprays away I decided that I wanted to create a card for this lovely flower to adorn so I grabbed a piece of lace from my stash and spritzed it with Coffee Shop and Vintage Pink.

Then I stacked up 5 of my scalloped circles and stuck my paper piercer through the center. Then I carefully added my brad to the center. This brad is covered in pink corduroy but it looked too "new" to go with my card so I gave it a little spray of the Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist.

Then I stuck a Pop Up Glue Dot to the back of my flower. I used the Pop Up Glue Dot because my flower has so much dimension I really wanted it to stick to the front of my card well.

After adhering the lace this is my completed card! I haven't decided what occasion this card will be for yet. I love that I could literally use this for ANYTHING! Sympathy, Birthday, Thinking of You... it really is what ever you make it!

I also have one more quick idea for you. I used the same technique as above with punching and spraying these flowers. I only used only one color, Purple Pansy, to mist these and I didn't have to stamp them because there was already a pattern on the paper.... any guesses to what this started life out as?

Here is one with out the mist.... give up? It a security envelope that one of our bills came in! Take a look at some of yours next time you are paying the bills. There are some really fun patterns that most of us just toss in the trash or shredder! This paper is a bit thinner than cardstock so you want to be a tiny bit gentler with it when you are crumpling and uncrumpling it!

Poke through your stack with a paper piercer and find a pretty brad for the center....

And you end up with THIS beautiful flower! You never knew garbage could look so amazing did you? Now, Glimmer Mist adds beautiful sparkle on its own but you can add a little more by pulling out your....

Icicle Stickles! Yep, I had to add even MORE bling to this flower! But what should I do with it.... another card.... nah, been there done that.... a layout? I should but I just don't have the TIME! I know....

A hair clip! I just hot glued some green ribbon to a plain clip. Then added a looped piece to make the "leaf" and finally hot glued my flower on top of that!

And here's my daughter modeling it. Yeah, the flash sometimes makes her eyes go funny... but doesn't she look cute?

Want to find out how YOU can win some Glimmer Mist of your own from the Cutters Creek Store? Check out my post one the Cutters Creek Design Team Blog for details!

Sparkly Cat Card

Today I just have a super quick post. This is a new card I created with Glimmer Mist, American Crafts Glitter Paper, my Cricut Create a Critter cartridge and my i-rock.


Want more details? Check out the Cutters Creek Design Team blog for the new Tutorial Tuesday!

Weekly Challenge #3: AUTUMN SPLENDOR! Color Challenge

Normally I don't do back to back blog post but I have two great challenges I'm entering! If you haven't checked out my Imaginisce project scroll down one post and check it out!

This weeks Cricut Circle Challenge is the Autumn Spendor Color challenge. The only requirements were to use the above color palate (gray, orange, tan and burgundy) and at least two cuts. So here's what I created:


I used my Create a Critter Cartridge to cut this adorable squirrel. I embossed the layers with my Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirl and Dotted Swiss folders to add some texture to my cuts. The squirrel is cut at 4" and the little acorn he is holding is cut at 3/4". I had this strip of patterned paper in my scrap bin and I thought it was perfect for this project!


Here is a look at the inside of the card. The phrase "Nuts About U" on the Create a Critter Cartridge too! There are lots of fun phrases on this one! The acorns were cut at 1-1/2" and 1" and I used a circle punch to create the leaves. I added the other half of my paper strip to the inside just to finish it off!


The finished size of my card is 5-1/2" x 5-1/2". I also want to mention that I used some Tattered Leather Glimmer Mist on the front of the card for that little extra sparkle. I think I need to send this one to a certain squirrel loving aunt. Sssssh, don't tell her!

I *heart* Echo Park Paper!

I had so much fun at CHA! Thanks again to Kim from Cutters Creek for inviting your Design Team members to tag along! One of the booths I was looking forward to seeing was the Echo Park Paper booth. They are a new paper company that uses some awesome color combos and patterns in their paper lines. If you act fast you may still be able to snag some of their papers on sale at Scrapbook Chicks HUGE 50% off sale... While visiting the booth I mentioned that I'm a Facebook fan of Echo Park and Madison gave me samples of Sweet Summertime, A Walk in the Park and Life is Good as well as a sheet of stickers from the brand new Happy Halloween line. I am in LOVE with this line, the colors are perfect and the stickers are so high quality! As a challenge for the Echo Park Papers Facebook page I created this 8" x 10" canvas wall hanging with a few of those stickers:



To color the canvas I used some Purple Pansy Glimmer Mist to spray the entire canvas. Next I used a few squirts of the Silver Smooch Spritz to add a kind of starry effect. Then I added the Haunted House and Moon from my Echo Park Papers Happy Halloween sticker sheet. Next I matted my photos with some orange card stock. Then I added the Trick-or-Treat banner sticker and the little stars and bat. Next I pulled out my 1/8" Scor-Tape to adhere my black eyelash yarn all around the border. Since it still didn't feel complete I grabbed my brand new i-rock tool from Imaginisce and added some black and silver rhinestones for a few more stars. After blinging it I was happy and now I can't wait to hang it up for Halloween...