Happy 4th of July Everyone!

I just wanted to take the time to wish everyone a happy and safe 4th of July!!  Please stop a moment and remember our brave soldiers who fight and defend our great nation for freedom isn't free for them.  They pay the ultimate sacrifice just so we can have our freedoms and that is a high price my friend.  I'm know this because I have two sons who serve in our military, I have seen what my oldest son has endured, the friendships gone because of roadside bombs...I tell you it isn't a pretty picture and our men and women that serve suffer a lot of lost in many ways.  So please say a prayer for them today as you enjoy your holiday festivites for a lot of soldiers are deployed and not home with their loved ones this year.  Until next time my friends...

A few cards for you today...

Hi my crafting friends, I have a couple of cards for you today.  I went to a friend's house yesterday to make cards.  I really didn't know what I was going to take or do, so I shoved a lot of things in my bags and out the door I went.  Here are the cards that I made.  I finished them up here at home, but had the basics done at my friends house.  I used Nesties, Paper Trey Ink stamps, Spectrum Noir markers and DCWV stacks to make my cards.  I hope you enjoy them and get some inspiration from them.  Have a happy 4th everyone!!!

4th of July Favors

Hi my crafty friends, Brenda here from Friends Craftin' with Friends.  This week on SSD we were given the theme "the big bang!".  So with the 4th this week, I decided to make some favors for the day.  Now I had some problems, problems with my Gypsy, problems with my E2 not cutting right, you name it was happening so by the time I was ready to put my die cuts together, I was so frustrated that I only made two, and didn't go a very good job at these two either.  But it is what it is. lol  I started off with this die from My Creative Time. I cut it out and assembled it.

Then I use this die from Tim Hotz and cut and assembled my rosettes.

Then I made my cuts using Independence Day cart.  I assembled them and glue onto my rosettes and then glued my rosettes onto my favor.  I used some red stickles to accent my die cuts too.  And here are my two little favors.  I would have made more if I hadn't had so many problems cause I think they are cute.  Looks like a call to PC is in my future. Sigh  Anyway I hope you have gotten lots of inspiration from the design team this week and will give a project a try using our theme "the big bang!".  Happy 4th to everyone!!! Now I'm going out to the pool to destress! lol

Life Is Good!

Hello all my crafty friends!  It's Monday and you know what that means, yep it's time for a BBTB2 challenge!  Our talented design team sister and my good friend Suzanne picked our theme for this week and it is the sun.  We can do anything we want to do using any carts we want as long as there is a sun in our project.  Well I have been wanting to do a matchbook mini album that Kathy Orta designed back in Dec. for a while now so that's what I decided to to.  On the front cover of my mini I used Country Life cart and the image on page 72, which is hills and the rising sun.  I used all scraps for my die cuts, put a little Peachy Keen face on the sun and added some chalk and stickles  My title came from Graphically Speaking, I stickled the "is" and then doodled white dots on the rest of the title.

Here is the inside of the mini.  The inside is left unfinished because this was a gift.  I really like making these matchbook minis, they are fast, easy and fun to make.  You can use paper bags or card stock for the pocket pages. I used cardstock to make my pockets on this mini. Watch the video here and try making one youself.  And don't forget to join us at BBTB2 with your sun themed project!!  Until next time my friends...

Sassy!

Hello all my crafty friends!  My girlfriends birthday is coming up and she will be leaving soon to go help out with the new arrival of her 3rd grandchild.  So we got together before she had to leave to celebrate her birthday and one of the things I made her was the cute, sassy shoe off of Princess Party. I got some pink glitter zebra paper at ACMoore.  It was really heavy cardboard paper from the scrap area of the store.  I cut it in my Cricut using a mulitcut of 4 but it still didn't cut quite all the way through, so I finished up with my craft knife.  I scored and folded and glued together with the hot glue gun.  Then I added my trim, flower and pearls.  Simple, easy peasy project.  Then I stamped some address labels with a stamp set from Stampin Up and wrapped around some chocolate nuggets because we all need some chocolate from time to time.  Piled them in the shoe and that was one of her gifts from me.  She love it!!! lol  She is a lady who loves shoes and she has some of the prettiest and coolest shoes and boots I've ever seen so I knew this was perfect for her. I loved that she loved this darn little shoe and is the whole reason I bought this cart.  I hope you enjoy this cute little shoe too, maybe I've inspired you in some little way to go get crafty!

Patriotism is Alive...

and well at BBTB2 !  Since 4th of July is right around the corner our talented DT sister had issued the challenge of making any project with the Patriotic theme using any cart we like.  I kinda knew in my mind what I wanted to do, but didn't have the details worked out until I dozed off one day and this is what came into my mind.  I took 4 stars from George and Basic Shapes cut at 8", 6", and 4" in red, white and blue paper.  I scored my stars and folded them so they were 3D and then stacked them on top of each other with hot glue.  Then I attached my star to a stryoform wreath.  I then wrapped blue ribbon in each section of the wreath, not the hole thing-just in each middle seconds of the star.  After that I cut flowers from the Flower Shoppe in red, white and blue at 3".  I rolled and glued my flowers ontop the open parts of the wreath form leaving the ribbon showing in the middle.  Then on the top of the wreath only I glued flat back pearls onto each flower in the middle.  Added my hanger and now it is ready to hang.  I hope that you will stop in and see what my other design team sisters have in store for you, you won't be sorry.  Then go and make something patriotic and link it up at BBTB2!  Can't wait to see what you make!

Strawberry Basket

Hi my crafty friends, Brenda here from Friends Craftin' with Friends.  This week on Sweet Sassy Diva our projects are to be centered around "strawberry fields", so anything to do with strawberries!!  One of my favorite fruits, ok I love all fruits, but strawberries are right on the top of my fruit list. lol  I just recently and by recently I mean a few weeks back, got the Spring Cottage Cricut cart. OMGosh do I ever love this cart!! lol  And one of the cuts on there is a cute 3D strawberry favor.  Then there is a cute little strawberry basket, OMGosh they are too cute.  So guess what my project is today???  If you said the berry and basket you would be right! lol  I made the little basket and two strawberries for inside the basket for a favor.  Now I just need to make lots more. lol  But they are quick and easy, so let me show you how to make the berries.

First I started picking my sizes in my Gypsy.  Here are all the layers.  I did do some test cuts on the berries to see what size that I wanted them to be.

I picked my papers, I did a plain red berry, a red poka pot paper from the new SU catalog, green leaf caps from a Cricut Earthtones stack and the basket is a light green from Paper Trey Ink.  I can't remember the offical color but it looks like a seafoam green to me. lol  Here is the SU poka dot paper, isn't it so cute?!  And it is double sided! Love double sided paper.

Here are my berries cut out.  Now I'm ready to score and assemble.

I scored on the score line which I am please to say are very tiny. Here's what my berry looks like after scoring it.

Next I used a generous amount of hemp to tie my berry together.

Now it is time to put the leaf cap on the berry.  I ran my twine up through the leaf cap and then threaded a white button (to mimic the blossom on the berry, yes I know they aren't there once there is a berry, but thought it was a cute addition) and tied a bow.

Here is my cute little basket with my cute little berries.  Isn't it just the sweetest?!!  I added a tag to my basket using a die and stamp set from My Creative Time.

As always I hope that me and my design sisters help to inspire you to get crafty!  Happy crafting!