Halloween: the start of the Holiday Season

For me October is the start of the holiday season, with Halloween being the second best holiday of all (Christmas being the first). For this reason I always love making cards for Halloween. After getting some different frame stamps during the summer I decided to concentrate on cards using these stamps and these are the results.

After stamping the frame I used the masking technique to allow me to stamp the other images inside the frames. Simple but effective.

Masculine Birthday Cards

My father's birthday is this month and so I decided to post some masculine birthday cards I have made over the years. Nothing special just a mini gallery of good wishes.

Cricut Class Samples

I have been giving classes at both of our local A. C. Moore stores on how to use the "Cricut Expression" machine; which is an electronic diecut system. It seems that many people have purchased a "Cricut" machine but aren't sure on how to use it and honestly the instructions that come with the system are not the best and many purchasers are looking for more. I was in the same boat, till I decided to teach myself by playing around with the machine and the cartridges I had. The result was that after a couple of false starts I am now confident enough and knowledgable (?) enough to actually try and help others. Tomorrow I have scheduled my last class for the summer and was asked to create a couple of cards to illustrate the various options available on the cartridges. I decided to use a Christmas theme and using the "Joys of the Season" cartridge I created the following two examples.

The fist card I actually used the "card" option of the cartridge. I wanted to create a simple classy card that could be, if needed, made multiple times in a very small amount of time and with little effort. I started by cutting the card from white paper and backing it with gold paper. As always, for me that was just not enough. So I started by adding a gold frame with a marker to emphasize the central design. Then using "Stampendous" stickers I added the gold text and the gold stars. Similar text and stars are available on the cartridge and could actually have been done using the "Cricut" and gold paper.

For the second card I chose the same design but opted for the multi colored layered look. I started with the "background" option of the design and cut it out of gold paper. Then I cut the image from green paper. Finally I selected the "layer" option which I cut out from red paper. The result when assembled is a three dimensional holiday wreath in festive colors. Again I couldn't leave well enough alone and added a "Hallmark" sticker text. Again the text could have been done using the "Cricut".

A gallery of manly cards.

Finally a month with no set holidays for which I need to create cards. So instead I created cards with manly type backgrounds or themes. With either a specific occasion text, a more general text or even no text at all, these manly cards are pefect for any and all occasions. I decided not to spend time on material listings but wanted to say that the backgrounds are all stamped and embossed, then accentented with stickers or rub-ons.

July 4th - a different look!

This year I wanted to stay away from the standard flag type cards so I decided on using iconic american images for my cards. For the first two I used the statue of Liberty as my image. The first is a card stock sticker from Pebbles Inc. overlaid on a strip star patterned paper from K& Company and edged with blue sliver lines from Mrs. Grossman's.

The second card uses a 3D sticker from Jolee's Boutique/E. K. Success of the statue of Liberty again overlaid on a pice of star patterned paper from K & Company with another card stock sticker from Pebbles Inc. as a secondary background panel with the pledge of allegiange on it.

The final card uses two card stock stickers from Pebbles, Inc as the background: a close up of a pair of jeansd and a detail of a jean pocket with patriotic buttons (okay the flag worked it's way in this one).

Hope that these simple but yet effective cards motivate you to think outside the box and create something unique for the 4th!