today.

Well it's not often that I make a card that I don't want to give away. Today's card is one of those. I am in absolute LOVE with this card and almost can't bear to part with it! Haha!

The patterned papers are all very cute and coordinated. There is simple sewing on the edges. I scalloped some pieces and rounded other corners. Then of course a vintage book print embellishment-- awesome! :) The circle was cut out with my Cricut and the faded image was stamped with Versamark and the sentiment on top of that. That font is just perfect!

Hope you've all enjoyed this card as much as I have. I'll be getting in the mail asap and off to a new special home!

Thanks for stopping by!

AE

picture fest.

It's been a little while but I sure do have enough pictures to make up for it!

They all use the same layout; I just changed up the colors a little bit. And trust me... there are even more but I didn't want to bore you with a bunch of pictures of the same thing! (Five is enough as it is!) :)

Pretty simple instuctions: cut cardstock, score cardstock, cut circles, adhere circles, stitch circles, stamp sentiment, emboss.

The last one and the first one are my favorites. Hope you're week is going well!

Thanks for stopping by!

AE

man made.

Does this card scream 'masculine' or what? My husband made this card for his dad's 45th birthday. All I did was make the card base and give him a Cricut lesson.

He added just about every cool little shape that he could find! And I love it. I don't think that I could have made anything this manly and I'm sure this card will be much-loved by my father-in-law!

There is even a special signature that he used to sign his work! :) It was so much fun to sit and watch Branden create something in my craft room.

Thanks for stopping by!

AE

embrace happiness.

This is a simple, happy little card that I made recently. The flower is one that I stamped, colored and cut out for the focal point.

The sentiment is from Mega Mixed Messages and stamped onto a Cricut shape. I'm pretty sure it's the Lyrical Letters cartridge. I change them out so often I forget which one is in there! :)

These two little chocolate leaves are the very last scraps from the baby shower invites. I'm so glad that I could use it all up!

Reminds me of that old saying: "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without."

I just wanted to share two books that I recently read and LOVED.

The first one is These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner. I found the first 20 or so pages hard to get into but man, I'm glad I stayed with it! I was head over heals when I found out that this was the first in a series!

The second book that I really enjoyed was A Woman's Place by Lynn Austin. It's a fast-moving Christian Fiction book that takes place during WWII.

Thanks for stopping by!

AE

miss you...

Here's another top folded card using berry sorbet cardstock. It's pretty simple: Cricut flowers, twine, heat embossed sentiment, add a button and that's about it.

Thanks for stopping by!

AE

sweet baby invites.

I am so happy to share these baby shower invitations with you! And I am finally all finished with all 40 invites!

It was definitely the hand-cutting every single card base that took the longest. I also added glitter strips, Versamark backgrounds, Cricut shapes, threaded buttons, and all the trimmings!

If you have any questions about these, let me know.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

AE

sneak peek.

Here's a little sneakie peek at something I'm working on for a friend.

Hope to finish with them by the end of the week (or as soon as my PTI order arrives!) :)

Can't wait to show you the final product!

AE

Bee Mine

Here are two more Valentine's Day cards that I made recently. In three hours in my craft room, I whipped out six cards! That is awesome for me because usually it takes me an entire sitting to get one card done.

Anyway, this card has a shape that I don't normally work with. It happened by accident; I scored the kraft cardstock in the wrong spot and one side was shortened by an inch. But I didn't want to waste lovely kraft since I am down to just a couple sheets. (I need to get some more before I run out completely! That would be bad. Very bad!)

So I just added some Bitty Dot patterned paper on the inside and some heart paper on the outside. The heart was cut using my Cricut and hangs over the edge of the front but is even with the backside.

The sentiment was stamped in Staz-On onto PTI Stamper's Select White cardstock. Then I colored them in using a blender pen and SU chalks. With the glittered bee wings, I love how this little image turned out! :)

This next card uses the same technique on the image. I used a punch to round the corners of the polka dot paper and just put a strip of glitter behind the image to make it pop. There's also dimensionals behind it so it stands up.

I think this simple little 3x3 is my favorite of the two. But I like them both a lot! On both cards, all the edges of the kraft were inked in Fresh snow.
Thanks for stopping by!
AE

Grow With Love

Hey there! I'm back with another fabulous color combination. I played along with the Loonie Stampers this week since I'm on vacation and trying to cram in as much crafting as possible before going back to work! :) You can see Charlene's blog here or Regan's here.

All the cardstock is PTI and the patterned paper is Recollections from Michael's. I bought this a little while ago and just been waiting for the perfect card to put it on. On the banner I stamped a teeny, tiny flower in Versamark to tie it in with the flowers blooming theme.
Again, I used my Cricut. I'm warning you... I'll probably be using it on every single card until I wear the thing out! I also used dimensionals to pop up the flower and sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!
AE

Notecard Set

Yay! Better pictures! I guess I will be taking all my card pictures outside from now on. :)

Here is a set of four notecards I made. I think they would make a great gift for pretty much any occasion.

Again, I used my Cricut! The heart and flower images were cut using the basic shapes cartridge. The patterned paper is my very favorite one from Papertrey's Turning a New Leaf set. Love, love, love this paper. I plan on using the heck out of it in the near future so stay tuned for more!
This card set just makes me smile. It has brown (my favorite), pink (another favorite), simple kraft (another favorite!), and awesome patterned paper.

Thanks for stopping by!
AE

Joyful Flower

Here is another pretty simple card using the same sort of flower as in my previous post. It uses my Cricut basic shapes and font cartridge and I really like how this turned out. Just by changing the colors it has a fresh new look for more cards.

These colors are dark chocolate, raspberry fizz, vintage cream, and spring moss. They just look so great and fun together. I cut the banner free-hand and stamped it with an Everyday Button Bits sentiment (again!). The background is stamped with the same flourish as the previous card but this time in Versamark. I love the subtle look it gives.
Sorry for the shadow in the corner of these pictures. At least they aren't nasty yellow like before. Perfecting these pictures through baby steps, I suppose.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!
AE

Another Raspberry Suite Challenge Card

I made another card using Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #21 combo. I just love the look of these light and breezy colors together: dark chocolate, aqua mist, lemon tart, and vintage cream.

Again, I apologize for the poor pictures. The lighting in my new craft room is not good at all and I don't own a light tent. I guess I will have to start taking the cards outside for better pictures!
I'm in love with this focal flower. They were cut using my brand-new Cricut with the basic letters and shapes cartridge. That tag shape was also cut from the basic shapes cartridge and then I cut the top off of it to go behind the flower without showing. The crochet flower is one I've been hoarding in my stash for way too long now. It fits perfectly on this card front.
I stamped flourishes in Aqua Mist on the background. I asked my husband's opinion on a couple different colors for it and he chose that one. It's kind of fun to get him in on the craftiness sometimes! :)
The sentiment is from Everyday Button Bits (of course!) and the yellow flower isn't glued down; I just sort of curled the petals with my fingers.
I don't normal do cards in this size but maybe I should in the future because it was a fun base to work with.

Thanks for stopping by!
AE