Fun Father's Day Card

Wow - it's June already. Soon the kids will be out of school and the summer will be in full-swing. I thought in honor of Father's Day, also this month, I would show you a cool technique that you can use to create depth and texture on your paper-crafting projects. It's embossing with your paper trimmer! Actually, you really don't even need the paper trimmer for this to work, but it does make it a bit easier. Let me show you how to make a really nice Father's Day card using this technique.

Step 1: Cut your paper pieces. I used Desert Sand, Indian Corn Blue, Outdoor Denim, and Colonial White cardstock (CS), along with patterned paper from the Pemberley paper pack.

Step 2: Emboss Indian Corn Blue CS strip. To do this, place the CS on your paper trimmer so that the right edge extends 1/4" beyond the blade track (as if you were going to trim 1/4" off of the end of your paper).

Lower the paper guide. Using a dry-embossing stylus, run the stylus along the blade track, going over the CS several times to make sure you leave a good impression (we always want to make a good impression, don't we?!).

Now, move the strip to the right another 1/4" and repeat embossing with the stylus. Continue in this fashion until the entire strip of CS has been embossed with a line every 1/4".

Step 3: Turn CS strip over and lightly sand the surface to reveal the pattern. The sandpaper will expose the white core of the CS when you sand over the raised lines of the embossed pattern - how cool is that?! Now you have a fun, textured piece to add to your card.

Step 4: Stamp your focal image. I used the "Blue Ribbon" stamp set, which I stamped in Bamboo ink on Colonial White CS. I cut the "ribbons" off of the badge because I am going to replace them with real ribbon.

Step 5: Cut your ribbon. I used Outdoor Denim ink to stamp the "No.1" onto the badge. Then I trimmed two pieces of striped grosgrain ribbon from the Designer Ribbon Blue Collection, notched the ends, and adhered them to the back of the stamped badge with Glue Dots.

Step 6: Assemble your card. To add finishing touches to my card, I inked the edges of the award badge with Desert Sand ink, as well as the edges of the Colonial White pieces. I stamped "DAD" in Outdoor Denim ink using the "Pennant Alphabet" and sanded the outside edge of my assembled card. I also cut a 1 1/4" circle from Bamboo CS to place behind the "DAD" sentiment. I stamped the "I'm So Proud of You" stamp on it so that the thin double-line border would show, but the words would get covered by the "DAD" strip. And, lastly, I added two Antiqued Gold Square Durables - one on either side of "DAD" - to add some "manly" bling! I just love how this card came out!

I hope you have fun creating this project! Until next time - Happy Stamping!

Creating with the Cricut!

Welcome again to an exciting new post from Cooking With Crafts! Today your host (me!) will inspire you to break out that Cricut die-cutting machine and get creating with Close To My Heart's "Art Philosophy Collection"! The card-making workshop that I held this past Sunday focused on four cards that could be made using only the Art Philosophy Collection (along with papers, inks, and a few embellishments). The one exception I made was in the last "card", when we used a border stamp set, which I will note in the description. The patterned paper we used was all from this month's National Scrapbooking Month special from Close To My Heart - the "Dotty For You" paper pack. This super-popular paper pack is available While Supplies Last, and is down to it's last 20% of inventory as of this morning. So, if you haven't picked yours up yet - don't wait any longer, or you might miss out! (See my blog posts from April 20 and May 5 for more details on the "Dotty For You" Special!) Now, on to the artwork:

Given all of the time I spent trying to get this card "just right", I think it came out really nice! The one problem with the "Dotty For You" paper pack is that there are SO many patterns to choose from, it's hard to narrow it down! The best part about the paper pack is that there are six different colors of polka dot patterns on the reverse sides, making it really fun to mix & match! The focal piece was cut from the Cricut and stamped with one of the two coordinating stamps that comes in the collection. We then mounted the piece with some 3-D Foam Tape. I thought since it is coming up on the end of the school year, I would make this card for a teacher. I used 3 "Bitty Sparkles" in the upper right, as well as one to mark "Teacher" on the checklist. Much cooler than just checking the box, don't you think? :-)

Oooo, this one is my favorite. The butterfly paper is so colorful, and the Lagoon dots...well, Lagoon is my favorite as well! This time, not only was the focal piece cut from the Cricut, but the butterfly paper as well as the card itself were cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge. For the focal piece, we first stamped the image onto the die-cut in Cocoa ink. We then stamped the image again with Smoothie ink onto a piece of Colonial White cardstock and punched out just the center circle, which we then adhered to the center of the die-cut. The whole piece was then mounted to the card using 3-D Foam Tape. How fun!

Ah, this one is a tasty selection! The chevron patterned paper really gives this card some energy! Perfect for this upbeat birthday card! The two circles, as well as the cupcake were cut from the Cricut. For the cupcake, the shape was cut from Smoothie and Bamboo cardstocks. Then we stamped the cupcake image on both, using Hollyhock & Desert Sand inks respectively. Next, we trimmed off the top of the Bamboo piece, leaving just the "cup", which we then adhered to the bottom of the Smoothie piece. Lastly, the cupcake was adhered to the card using 3-D Foam Tape and embellished using Stardust Glitz Glitter Gel. Yummmm....

Our last "card" wasn't really a card at all - it was a gift box! This adorable box was also cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge, along with the two flowers and the tiny tag on the front. This is the item for which we "broke the rules" and used a stamp set outside of the Art Philosophy Collection. The border stamp used on the front came from the "Eclectic Edges" stamp set, which includes six gorgeous borders. And do you see that adorable button brad in the center of the blue flower? That came from the Honey Mini-Medley Accents Collection - which also included the stitched ribbon with which we tied up the box. Oh, good times, good times.

This workshop was so much fun - and so easy, since most of the cutting is done for you by the Cricut! If anyone is interested in the Cricut Art Philosophy Collection, the "Dotty For You" paper pack, or any Close To My Heart products, please contact me or go directly to my website at http://funforyou.ctmh.com! Enjoy!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

It's offical! It's National Scrapbooking Day! And if you've been following, you know that Close To My Heart is celebrating with the "Dotty For You" Paper pack for just $5 with a $35 purchase! I've posted some cards and a layout I did with the paper pack - now I've got more to share! These designs are courtesy of Kristine Ponte (www.kponte.blogspot.com). I loved them so much that I had to "scraplift". First, here's a card that I made that uses both the patterns and the dots of the paper:

I love how you could use any of the patterns on this card, and it would still look cool. The black really makes the colors pop. The next two pieces I have are layouts:

I saw this layout and loved it! I love the Sunset & Lagoon colors together, the cool use of the patterned papers (especially the Cricut "Art Philosophy" star cut from the yellow dots for the sun), and the clouds cut out of yet another one of the patterned papers in the pack. Beautiful!

OK, how cute is this?! As soon as I saw the paper with the colored circles on it, I knew they'd be perfect for cutting out and using as embellishments - and that's exactly what this page does. How fun!

I hope you have taken advantage of the "Dotty For You" special this month! If not, there's still time! The special runs through the end of May - BUT it's WHILE SUPPLIES LAST, so don't wait! It's only $0.21 a sheet - for double-sided, cardstock-weight paper! You'll love it! Happy National Scrapbook Day, Everyone! Happy Scrapping!