A Beginning

I was on Facebook earlier today uploading one of the three cards I have made in the last two days and I realized that I was going to need a better place to put all my crafty musings. With it currently being the March Break I have had a lot of time to crafty (even though I should probably be doing some cleaning) and I think maybe my FB friends are sick of seeing my cards clog up their news feeds.

While pondering over all this I was browsing Pinterest and I noticed a few pins of layouts used by other blogs that were for inspiration and challenges. Being interested in trying some of these out I knew that my Facebook album was going to fall short in the needs department. So now as I sit here wondering if this blog will go the way of all my previously unused attempts to post things on a regular basis, I am determined to try this time.

Anyhoo, now that I've explained how I have gotten here I feel it is time to show you what I've done so far. I will upload the cards I have been sharing on Facebook for the last couple of months since I started doing this.

This all started when my mom got me my Cricut Expression 2 for my birthday in November. It's the best thing she's ever gotten me and I honestly couldn't be happier with it.

This card was made just using things from various Cricut cartridges. I believe at this point I had only the ones that came with the expression. We were going to a party one Saturday night and we realized we had forgotten to get a card. So I whipped this up.

With my Birthday over it was Christmas. I had bought one of the Cricut Christmas Card Seasonal Cartridge. I made the following three cards with it and I was very pleased with myself.

It's always been super hard for me to figure out what to get my father and his wife for Christmas. Having created myself an awesome crafting room I wanted to spend as much time as possible in there so I decided to give them a set of 10 random cards. For the most part these were all done out of my head. You can see I did my first stamping with this as well, and I enjoyed decorating the envelopes to match the cards.

Anniversary Card

I love the papers in this one.

Of the 10 for my dad this is my favourite. You will see that patterned paper used a lot in the upcoming cards.

With this one I learned the art of not using the cricut to cute really sparkly paper. Just don't do it!!

I think this was the first one I made for dad.

I found the inspiration for this one on Pinterest 

I used a paper pad I have owned for years to do this one. 

If I were to do this one again I would make sure the paper was all attached properly.

This is a variant of one of the Cricut cards from the cartridge I mentioned earlier.

I bought a set of Martha Stweart sparkle glue pens on sale and I went a little crazy with them on this card.

The next card I made for my Grandpa for his birthday. He used to draw bunnies for me all the time. I'm not too fond of this card.

I am quite proud of this next card. I made this for my husband for our 2nd anniversary. I believe I found the inspiration for it from a papercrafting magazine. I used my Cricut to cut all the letters and I can't believe it worked as well as it did. My husband who is very critical thought, at first glance that I had bought the card.

Next is my Valentine's card for my husband. This one is iffy to me. Again I was playing around with the Cricut and cutting different things. I think if I had not used the silver ink all over I would like it more.

The next to pictures are of three cards that were cut from a free use of the new Creative Cards cartridge. I'm tempted to buy this one as it's got a lot of really nice cards and envelopes.

Now this next one I think is GORGEOUS but I can't take any credit for it. I was trying to figure out my mom's Birthday card and I was looking through youtube when I fell upon this video by LuvStampin. I had all the right cartridges and it looked like something my mom would love so I made it.

So one random Sunday in March we took a trip to Michael's and I bought the we are memory keepers Brad Setter and Piercing Tool as well as a whole bunch of brads. Also my mom had bought me a cuttlebug as a combined Valentine's/Anniversary gift. I love that she knows how to use Amazon now. Anyhoo this card was the random result of these events. I originally wanted to use a different sentiment but I lost it while working on this card and didn't find it again until the next day.

My best friend turned 25 in February, and this was also our 10 year anniversary as I met her when she was in grade 9 and was 15 and I was in my sixth (don't ask!!!) year of high school and was 19. She plays the sax so I thought this was appropriate.

My friends' daughter turned 3 in March and I wanted to buy her some Dr. Seuss books, this was also an excuse to make a card. I used the same layout as my mom's card but put a butterfly instead of a hummingbird. I also used that patterned paper I love so much.

This simple card was inspired by another pin on Pinterest. I had just bought my first pack of craft cardstock and I wanted to do something simple. I love the way this turned out.

 I'm not quite sure where I got the idea for this card. I think I was just going with it. I'm not ever sure if I like it.

A couple that my husband and I have known for quite a few years are finally getting married. I made this card for them. I am super happy with this as I feel it gives off the right amount of formality.

Finally, I made this card for my cousin who recently announced her engagement to her long time boyfriend. The inspiration for this card actually came from the ribbon. I took the colours from it and then just sort of went from there. I am super super please with how this one turned out.

Well that's gotten us caught up on all my card making. I am sure there will be more soon as I am waiting on a delivery from SimonSaysStamp which includes some tools for heat embossing as well as some super awesome stamp sets.

I've recently been watching a lot of youtube videos from Kristina Werner and must say I have learned a lot. Check out her blog here. She is the blogger through which I found Simon Says Stamp, and I was happy to learn that their shipping rates to Canada are totally reasonable.

Okay well that is all for now. If there is anyone out there reading this, well thanks. Feel free to comment and ask any questions or whatever. I am not an expert at all, just a girl having fun with paper.

Tootles
JB