Just a these little note cards I made for my two favorite teachers in college.  Alabama's non official textile pattern is houndstooth (due to the houndstooth cap that Bear Bryant, legendary football coach, used to wear).  So I made strips of houndstooth paper using my cuttlebug folder, and then inking the raised parts with a brayer inked in black.  I then used my GYPSY to weld the Circles from the Mini Monogram cartridge with letters from the Jasmine cartridge.  I made 3 cards each and just tied them up with a ribbon!

Happy Father's Day!

This is the card I made Topher's dad for fathers day!  I forgot to take a picture of the card I made my own father (DRAT!) but I can at least share this one.

I decided to go unconventional and make a long card with rounded edges (using my trusted corner punch).

I used Sure Cuts A Lot to weld the letter for Dad together and I made a shadow for the Dad in white and used a pen to add details to the word.  (I'm excited!!! I have a Gypsy coming in the mail!!   They were for sale on Customcrops.com for 99 bucks!)  The whales are from Create a Critter. I stickled the water spout.  The background is cuttlebugged with the script folder.  The sentiment is printed and cut out with the mini monograms Cartridge.  I stamped it a bit with Martha Stewart teardrop inkpads to tie it into the card.  I'm not sure what the "to a whale of a dad" sentiment was supposed to mean, but it sounded great at the time!!

Since the card was made of metallic paper, making it difficult to write with, I added a piece of plain cardstock and watermarked it with some Papertrey Ink flourish stamps using my versamark inkpad to mimicthe water.  Hope you guys enjoyed it!

So my good college friend Todd, is now a medstudent at UAB.  It's been a lifelong dream of his to become a doctor, and he's worked so very hard to achieve it.  This card is celebrate his birthday and his acceptance into the UAB med program.

For the little doctor cut, I used Everday Paper Dolls. I stickled the mirror on his forehead to just give it some texture and added buckles to his shoes.

Happy Birthday came from the Beyond Birthdays cartridge and Todd was cut using a font cartridge I don't remember.  The colors black, green and yellow are to mimic the school colors of the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Nice and simple card, but likeall my cards, customized!

So Topher has official given up his professional baseball playing career.  He has now moved on to looking for a job in finance and putting his MBA to good use.

For the time being we are currently in Albany, NY...where Topher is originally from. Recently, he got this mysterious package from Salt Lake City.  To our pleasant surprise, a superfan of the AAA team Topher played for (the Salt Lake Bees) has sent him his jersey when he played with them!

To thank her, I made a card for her with the theme of the baseball team, the Salt Lake Bees.  The team colors are black and yellow, and so I picked the bumblebee from.....of course...Create a Critter cartridge. The hive was also the accessory that came with the bee, and the flower also came from the Create a critter cartridge.  The lustrous white cardstock was cuttlebugged with the Swiss Dots folder.   The border was punched with a Martha Stewart border punch, the ribbon from the dollar bin.  I stickled the antennae and pop-dotted the bee and flower.

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and the adhesive gems came from the Scrapbook Barn in Dallas when we were passing through!

Topher as a Salt Lake Bee

So I've been on a Sure Cuts A Lot kick.  Sure Cuts A Lot is a software program that lets you design on your computer (using the fonts you have), hook it up to your cricut, and cut it out!  We're currently in Washington, PA and living in a hotel for the past couple of weeks.  We sure are sick of it.

We're hoping to get a host family to take us in, and so in preparation of being accepted, I decided to make a card.

Front of the card used the acorns from Create a Critter.  The leaves came from Stretch Your Imagination cartridge.  The words were created using Sure Cuts a lot and welded together (sooo much more convenient!).  I just used my white souffle pen to make the faux stitching to make it more legible.  Sure Cuts A Lot is nice because I don't have a gypsy or many Cricut font cartridges, so this is a cheaper alternative for me (as well as less stuff to lug around (space is a premium for how much we move and pack/unpack in our SUV!).

The Inside of the card was also made with the Create a Critter cartridge and sure cuts a lot.  the Yellow paper border was made using the martha stewart border punch.

 So one of my bosses at Athletes' Performance loved his card so much that he asked me to make a dozen thank you cards for him.  With nothing else to do here in Washington, PA, and no income coming in (due to us moving everywhere) I figured why not. 

Now my boss is a guy, but he told me he trusted my decision and, I tried to keep them from being too frou frou.  I stuck with a simple blue and chocolate color scheme and decided to make half a dozen owl ones and half a dozen hedgehog ones.  Of course the cartridge I grabbed was the Create a Critter cartridge!  I actually used the program Sure Cuts A Lot to make the Thank you Sentiment, and used the label from the Create a Critter cartridge.  I cuttlebugged the background using the Swiss Dots folder and plaid ribbon from the dollar bin.  I added a lighter brown inside with flourished stamped on using a versamark inkpad to give it a watermark affect. 

I think these are the first cards that I really like and can't stop staring at!  Like a proud mama!

Happy Birthday to my Love!  Topher's birthday was actually in April, but for some reason I forgot to post this card. 

I made this card  utilizing the stretch your imagination cartridge, and stamped sentiment by Papertrey ink.  I cuttlebugged the green side with the Argyle folder and borderpunched the blue side with the fiskars border punch.  I love the gentle sheen the metallic paper gave it.  Added interest.  I tried to emboss the stamp with a white embossing powder, but it came out a more translucent pearl quality.  Oh well, guess I need to invest in a better white soon! 

Quick card since I barely had time to make this card before Topher came home!  He loved it anyway.