Thanksgiving

happy thanksgiving everyone!! I've been getting into the spirit of the holidays today by making Christmas cards! I hit Michaels annual thanksgiving sale for cartridges. I wanted Nifty Fifties and Birthday Bash. Michaels only had Birthday Bash so that's what I picked up. On to the cards: the first is with Doodlecharms. This cute little guy is cut at 3 3/4. I used the Hero Arts Cling Magical Background for the embossing. The silver paper is from Michaels and the stamp is from Hero Arts Holiday Cheer set. I used Archival Ink on the shimmery paper and it stamped beautifully! I outlined frosty with stardust stickles.












This is the second card is made from scraps. I cut the mittens from the Cricut Seasonal Cartridge Gingerbread. I think they are cut at 2 3/4. The stamp is from Hero Arts Holiday Cheer and embossed with white embossing powder. I'm off to play with my new cartridge!! Happy Thanksgiving!

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Potential Christmas Card 1

I used winter frolic for this card. This frosty is cut at 3 3/4 inches and the tag is cut at 2 inches and the top is cut off. I used a hero arts stamp I got on clearance at Michaels. The paper is My Minds Eye (Wonderful Winter I think) I also got it at Michaels. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!


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52 Days Until Christmas!

Its true! There are only 52 days until Christmas! Where did 2010 go? I feel like the Christmas Eve blizzard just left! 2010 has been a super busy year and I was blessed beyond belief and I got to do things that I never even dreamed of doing.
I was inspired by my cousin Arielle who makes gorgeous lingerie to " go big" and I saw her efforts pay off last night when one of her amazing designs made it into the opening scene of Gossip Girl. I could not be more proud. Her website is http://www.aridein.com/ go and shop its amazing! I ordered buisness cards this mornng and will be taking custom orders for cards, mini albums, and scrapbooks for the Christmas season. I'm very excited. I will be posting pictures of a few albums that I have made recently. Love that I can blog from my iphone! So if any of you know someone that needs scrapbooking done or cards made please give them my email address: couturecards20@gmail.com Thank you guys so much!

Halloween Treats

Happy Halloween everyone! Just a quick post with some Halloween treats I made for my co workers. My goal was to make 30 but life got in the way! So here are a couple of pictures of how they turned out. I used an envelope and turned them into treat bags :) so easy!


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Another Post

Even though today was crazy busy at work tonight I was feeling pretty crafty and thought I would whip up another submission for the Scrappy Moms Design Team entry. The cute hedgehog is from Create a Critter and the paper is all basic grey's Green at Heart. the stamp is from Scrappy Moms and the tag is from Once Upon a Princess. I used Enamel Accents on her eyes and nose and got even crazier by using my I-rock for her cute bow. Thanks for looking!

Design Team Entry

Scrappy Mom Stamps has three openings for its amazing design team so I got up the courage to submit a card! There are so many talented ladies on their team already so it was a bit intimidating but I'm really happy how this turned out. I used the Kioshi collection from Basic Grey and a sentiment from a set of my Scrappy Mom Stamps. Work has kept me extremley busy lately but I'm going to work hard to post more projects. I have recently finished a baby book for my cousin's new baby so I will post a few pictures of the layouts before I send it. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Imagine

Well the Cricut Imagine is here!! HSN 24 Hours of crafting was all day yesterday and I streamed it all day from my computer (shhhh! Don't tell Norman!) I did want the Imagine, I didn't want the Imagine, I did want the Imagine.... I saw the FlexPay on the Imagine and was like SERIOUSLY?!? I have to be honest. I want to love this machine and I see the endless potential that it could give someone. BUT my cons outweighed the pros here and I said no... for now... IF the flexpays had been more reasonable.... IF the ink refills were cheaper.... IF they could have given the same information in every presentation.... THEN MAYBE... bless her soul Jinger is a sweet girl and I know that its not entirely her fault.... but I almost felt like she was scolding us for not seeing what an "amazing value" this was. Also her facts changed SO MUCH throughout the day.... I watched in the morning she started out with the machine printing 120 full page pattern papers she "just left the white border to show you that she printed it" uh huh... by last night it was 60 pages. Just sayin...... Neither her nor there I honestly don't think I would use this machine to it's full potential at this point (i'm still trying to figure out my gypsy!) so I passed this time. Maybe the price will be more reasonable during Christmas... Or should I say FlexPay could be more reasonable at Christmas.
I would love to say that I stayed strong and did not order a thing on Craft Day.... I caved! What can I say.... I'm addicted to those so blasted cute 3 Birds!! Seriously!! 3 Birds is adorable.... my #1 cartridge on my wishlist.... 3 Birds on Parade!! Anyway I ordered the Twinkle Trails paper borders. I couldn't help myself. And on another note How PRECIOUS was Martha's Vice President of Crafts Alex Peruzzi!!? Too cute for words! Seriously I almost caved and bought that glitter drawer collection for $109.00!! Please any man that knows what to do with all that glitter is totally scrumptious in my book :) I digress..... I must type my 50 billion dictations for the day. I did get crafty and make a card that I will post later on today. Happy Wednesday ladies!

YIKES!!

My dear friend Annette brought it to my attention last night that I have not posted in over a month!! Yikes! Horrible! I have been extremely busy! Work is getting busier and busier by the day I was told I have 100 more cases than I did last year at this time... plus we had two people leave... plus I had two mini-trips to go on and of course if I even want to take off one day of work I have to work marathon hours to get everything done and keep the boss happy. August is always my favorite time of year because that is when Creating Keepsakes Convention comes to Tulsa. My three friends and I make the trip to Tulsa and have threeish days of scrappy getaway!! We laugh, we shop, we eat, we shop, we take classes, we shop... did I mention we shop a LOT on this trip? We are really out of control when we are together but Hey! Its only a once a year thing! The very next week I had to go to Dallas for a show (Green Day) who were just amazing! They played for three hours and it was incredible. The drive back to OK afterwards was not that fun but I was glad that I got to go.

I also had Cricut Demos every weekend in August so yes that made a 7 day work week. The extra money did come in handy (especially with this being CKC month) but I am definetly glad it is over. I LOVE the Michael's that I demo at! The employees and customers are truly wonderful and I am a lucky girl! On Saturdays in August I demoed at Best Buys who were selling an amazing bundle. $299.99 for a baby bug, gypsy, and four cartridges (George, Gypsy Font, Gypsy Wanderings, and Summer in Paris). I had such high hopes and just knew I would sell out on the first Saturday. Yah that didn't happen. The Best Buy stores were not as welcoming and didn't even want to know about what they were selling (one store didn't even give me electricity). So the decision was made at the begining of the week that we would no longer be demoing at Best Buys.

I have been trying to be crafty when I'm home or when I'm not completely exhausted. I made this card for one of my dear friends at work who always helps me while I'm out of the office. She's amazing. I bought the show special from the PK Glitz booth at convention because it was so beautiful! The butterfly is printed on accetate and you cover the back of the design with 3-D crystal Laquer/Lauquer (sp?) then sprinkle on glitter and let it dry then add it to you card! LOVE this look! Marsha and I bought all kinds of accetate designs to glitter. I will be honest... yes this show speical was a little pricey BUT it was worth it A splurge every now and then is ok. I work hard and deserve it. (that's how I justify it to myself anyway.)

I also made the brads myself with the embossing glitter I bought at ckc. I will post a tutorial soon how to make them. Super simple and beautiful effect. Now that my crazy schedule has calmed down I will have more crafty time which is good because there are two babies on the way for some family members and I have some baby projects for them. Thanks for looking. Stay tuned for more!

Cricut Imagine is here!

Word on the web is that the newest member of the Cricut family will be the Cricut Imagine. It will cut and print your diecuts. I was trying to find a picture of it for here but I can't get one to copy. This was annouced to Cricut Circle members. (i didn't join) but I know where to look on the internet to find what I need. :) The machine will debut on HSN on September 14 (six days before my bday) and because I am a sucker for new gadgets I am excited about it. Most ladies from what I have been reading are not impressed but I think its pretty neat. They really hyped it up during our Chicago training (but then they also hyped up the Red Beast... I mean Cricut Cake). Hopefully I will be demoing the Cricut Imagine and can film a video on it for the blog. go to http://www.pinkcricut.com/ for the official announcement letter and picture.

Shopping Shopping Shopping

One of my dear friends Karen told me that I needed to do a blogpost about where I like to shop online. I'm a sucker for a deal and NEVER EVER pay full price for anything. First let's talk cartridges: There are two cartridges that I have paid full price for or at least close to full price for: 1. Stretch Your Imagination; 2. Wild Card. This was BEFORE I learned about the magical world of ebay and online shopping. When I think back on how much I paid for those cartridges it makes me sad. With a little research (and paitence) you can find amazing deals on cartridges. A go-to place for new cartridges and usually the cheapest place to find new release cartridges is Memory Miser (http://www.memorymiser.com/) They have great deals. I think I will head over and pick up Winter Frolic when I'm done with this post. Another place that has cheap cartridges BUT you have to have incredible patience to wait for them to ship is (http://www.ohmycrafts.com/) Again amazing prices but you will be the last person to receive your cartridge! (when you ask they say that Provo Craft has not given them "permission" to release the cartridge yet) I find this hard to believe that Provo Craft purposely holds off on letting them release cartridges but whatev. Another place to find cartridges at incredibly cheap prices: Ebay (http://www.ebay.com/) I have gotten all of my Disney cartridges for all under $20.00 and free shipping! Now I'm not saying that I am going to cut every single character from these cartridges but most have super cute extras that work for cards and scrapbook pages and SOMEDAY I will make it back to Disney World and I will have an amazing scrapbook!! I digress....
Every morning when I get to work I sit down, eat my breakfast yogurt and check my Scrapbooking Daily Deals websites. You have to check these first thing in the morning to get the great deals because once the item is sold out you can't get it anymore. A couple of the websites will have deals throughout the day so when they sell out they pop up with a new deal. So every morning get up and have some coffee/breakfast/energy drink and go to these websites:

http://www.craftysteals.com/
http://www.cropchocolate.com/
these two websites have deals throughout the day so refresh often
http://www.flowerstoflourishes.com/ (this is possibly my favorite)
http://www.scrapbooksteals.com/
http://www.peachycheap.com/

I have gotten so many great deals on these websites so definetly check them out. I'll leave you with another couple of websites that I enjoy looking at because they have tons of product. (I rarely buy from these sites unless it is something exclusive to that website. but great shopping on these websites:
http://www.customcrops.com/
http://www.hallmarkscrapbooks.com/
http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/
(be sure to check out 2 peas message boards because you can learn so much!)

Happy Crafting!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Hello everyone! Good Morning! I know I have been away for a while I had a big week last week and did not do much crafting. Two Lady Gaga shows in a week was a plateful. :) But both shows were amazing and the show is a must see. I love that she uses her platform as a superstar to spread the word of God and of his love. EPIC! Today is one of my friend's birthday so I made her a set of monogram cards. I thought they turned out adorable. It is my "go to gift". This is the box I made out of a 12x12 piece of cardstock. The tutorial said it would only hold eight cards and envelopes but my set contained 10 and everything fit perfectly. There used to be a blog called Sheetload of Cards and once a month it would give you a diagram on how to cut one sheet of patterned paper to get 12 cards. I'm sad it is no longer available but if you are interested let me know and I will email you the diagram that I have. It also tells you how to cut your cardstock etc. Its great. Here is an example of one of the cards. And of course what birthday would be complete without a birthday card. I used Create a Critter to cut the cute Skunk at 3 inches..... the stump however is a horse of another color. I thought all the accessories were proportionate to the animal you cut. Not true. I had to cut the stump a couple of times but finally decided on 2 inches. The flower is cut at 3. and the cloud is cut at 1 3/4 inches. The sentiment is from Scrappy Mom's stamps which are my new obsession. Love them! On the back of the card I added one of my Stamps of Life stamps which are just adorable! Side note: She loved everything and is having a wonderful day! Woot woot!

Hoot and Holler

I LOVE the Hoot and Holler Cricut Lite Cartridge. Its the cutest. I made this super girly card last night. The owl is cut at 3 1/4 inches and the black heart is cut at 1 3/4 and the pink heart is cut at 1 1/2 inches. I used the new Polka Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder for the background and used Spun Sugar Distress Ink to color it. Happy Friday!

Hey Chickie

So I will admit it. I totally scraplifted this card from one of the amazing blogs that I follow. The original was done using adorable black and white paper and a tulle (sp?) ribbon. I used DCWV Flower Shower Spring Stack ( I'm obsessed with that stack). I used Create a Critter for the birdie and the word bubble. I thought she turned out pretty cute. Happy Thursday!!

Hoot and Holler

Hoot and Holler is one of my new favorite Cricut Cartridges. The little owls and owl sayings are too too cute! (even if they have the same owl on it twice) You can't help but fall in love with these adorable little punkins! I cut the owls on both of these cards at 3 inches. On the purple owl I used a clear rhinestone for the heart on his belly. Thanks for looking and following my blog!

Finally

The top card was made using Just Because Cards. I didn't cut a card base from the cartridge because I wanted to use some scraps from the scrapbook layout I had made. I cut the glass of lemonade at 3 inches and the phrase is cut at 2 1/4 (i think). I forgot to write it down. I don't think its my favorite card I made this weekend but it turned out ok.

The second card I made yesterday used Create a Critter. The bowl and all the goodies in the bowl are cut at 3 inches. The cute little fish is cut at 1.5 inches. I used stardust stickles on the fishy and the bowl is outlined in waterfall stickles. The background paper is from K & Co. Citronella Stack.

I realized that I have not blogged for a while but I really am going to throw myself into blogging and showcasing my creations. I have been very intimidated by all of the gorgeous creations and blogs that other ladies have. I have no idea how to decorate my blog or use badges or anything but I will figure it all out eventually. Happy Monday!