Your Next Stamp Blog Hop

Hey everybody! Thanks so much for joining us for another super awesome Your Next Stamp Blog Hop! Your Next Stamp has 3 new Fhiona sets (Wedding, Bad Hair Day, and New Year's) plus the Limited Edition Christmas digis that were recently released so the Starlets have whipped up some yummy eye candy for you using the new stamps!

You've reached the last stop on the hop! If you didn't come here from Stephanie's blog, you'll definitely want to go back and start at the beginning of the hop: If you comment at every stop on the hop, you'll be entered to win one of the brand new Fhiona sets (3 winners in all)! Also, Karen is looking for a name for Fhiona's best buddy/hubby, so anyone who posts a name suggestion on Karen's blog will get an extra entry into the Wedding Fhiona giveaway!

Lastly, each blog will be giving away 2 of the new Christmas digis to a random commenter! For your chance here at my blog, please leave a comment letting me know which of the new Fhionas or Christmas digis is your fave! The deadline for commenting for the giveaways is midnight EST, November 16 and all winners will be posted on Karen's blog on November 17. I will also be posting my digi winner here on my blog.

Here's the hop order again in case you missed it:

Karen
Simonne
Kerri
Ryann
Amy
Maylee
Cabio
Cathy
Lana
Stephanie
Maureen (you're here!)

One last thing to mention before I get to my projects: Karen is offering 10% off all week, plus there will be a surprise gift in every order! The coupon code is YNSBH2.

*****And now on to the show!*****

For my first project, I used Bad Hair Day Fhiona as she was meant to be used. I paired her with some really old Rob and Bob paper and used a sketch from Unscripted Sketches.


She was colored with Copics and her brush was cut out and extra bristles popped up for dimension. I did a bunch of sewing and added the sentiment all cut up (I really love the look of this and have done it a bunch with my YNS cards).

For my next project, I decided to do another easel card since I had so much fun with my first one! I used Bad Hair Day Fhiona again, but this time I saw her all bundled up for the winter with a steaming cup of hot cocoa:


This time I watercolored her and flocked the collar and cuffs of her robe. I used a sketch from Sketchy Thursday and some yummy papers from Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses paper pad. This card also qualifies for Lili of the Valley - 3 papers, 2 stamps, 1 type of embellishment, Secret Crafter and Crazy 4 Challenges - both easel cards. Lastly, the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

Here's a close shot so you can see the coloring and flocking:


My final project came from the lastest Splitcoast newsletter. Beate had a great tutorial for a luminaria that I thought would go perfectly with the new Christmas digis!

The opposite sides of the luminaria have the same design. Here's the first design using Stripey Snowman with Happy Holidays:


And here's the second design using Decorated Christmas Tree:


I liked the idea so much that I made it into a .cut file for the Cricut so I can make multiples for gifts! I used all of Beate's dimensions except I cut the height down to 4" so that I could cut 2 out of a 12x12 sheet of patterned paper. [If you'd like the .cut file, please scroll to the bottom of this post.]

Before I go, I want to remind you that there's still time to play in the YNS Challenge #3 - make a Christmas project without the colors red and green!

Whew! That’s all for now! I hope you enjoyed my projects and thanks so much for joining us on the hop!

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You can get the .cut file here and here's Beate's tutorial which tells you where to score.

If you like the .cut file, please leave me a comment and let me know. Also, I'd love to see any projects you make with my file! Thanks very much to Beate for such a fun project!!

Forest Fairy Card

The funny story about this card is that I was preparing for last week's Club Anya Blog Hop and for some reason, I thought the fairies were considered Anyas. I had my card done and photographed and was linking up my post when I finally realized the fairy didn't count as an Anya!! I panicked because it was super late the night before the Hop and I didn't have time to do another project, so I ended up posting the barn card that I had made previously, but hadn't gotten around to posting yet. So today I'm showing you what I originally created for the Hop.


A little while ago, I made this Fairy Chloe with glittered acetate wings and wanted to show her off, so I thought of making another 3-D shadow box card. It actually does fold pretty flat for mailing, but then can be opened up by the recipient and will stand on its own (please click to enlarge):


Little details: Chloe's dress is paper pieced, and I actually added separate sleeves and a skirt for more dimension. I added just a touch of sparkle on her dress with a glitter pen. The deer from Forest Friends is done with fun flock (the same way I did Flopsey in my last post) and then I added an eye stamped on white cardstock so it wouldn't be fuzzy (ewwwww - fuzzy eyeball!):


The squirrels are also from the Forest Friends set, the little birds are from the Wishing Tree set, the big bird is from the Pretty Hat set, and the For You banner is from the Lucky Bunnies set.

Here's a close shot of the adorable squirrels:


Lastly, I cut the tree, grass, and the opening in the card with my Cricut. I hope you like it and TFL!

Pop-Up House Card

I have a book called Pop-Up Paper Structures by Heidi Pridemore that has a pop-up house project in it that I've been wanting to try for a while, so I created a version for the Cricut, changing the dimensions and scalloping the roof to get a house shape that I liked better. Hope you enjoy it! And do check out Heidi's book - it's got lots of really cool projects!

You can get the .cut file here, and PLEASE also download my notes file, which has the instructions on how to actually put the card together. FYI - the file does not include the windows or doors, just the plain house base and roof. If you like it, please leave me a comment and let me know. Also, I'd love to see any projects you make with my file!

Last note: I prefer using Plantin for all my files because I love using the endcaps feature to make a lot of my score lines, and some cut lines. Unfortunately, Plantin doesn't have a triangle, and I couldn't figure out an easy way to make one, so I used George just for the triangles. I'm sorry if you don't have both carts, but I've seen both of them for sale so if you really want, you can get the carts, or you can feel free to modify the file as needed.

MFT Idol Challenge #1

Sorry I haven't posted in so long, but it's because I've been feverishly working on the first MFT Idol challenge!! Yes - I made it into the Top 10!! I'm so excited, but also incredibly stressed out - I have to make the most awesome, fantabulous cards I've ever made in my whole life!

Here's the first one that I hope will keep me in the competition a week longer:


This is me celebrating making it into the Top 10. I used An Owl for All Seasons for the owl and the sentiment, and I embellished my little heart out!

But wait - there's more! Here's what the inside looks like:


This is a tribute to everyone who made it into the Top 10! I cut the letters on the top with my Quickutz dies and Doodlebug Sugar Coated cardstock (hope you can see the sparkle). All the owls were paper pieced and their little faces done on white cardstock colored with Copics. Then I fancied them up with Stickles, and some tiny flower rhinestones.

And they're all stuck to this double tiered stage that I created myself for the Cricut! I've been doing a lot of Design Studio work using other people's patterns, so I'm really proud that I actually thought this up and created it all by myself!! I learned the basics of designing pop-ups from The Pop-Up Book by Paul Jackson, and then I worked a LOT of hours to create this. The curtained part is a separate piece that I just hand cut and glued around the stage.

Here's an angled, closer view of the stage:



And this final picture is looking down on the card so you can see the "floor" in front of the stage:


For the sentiment, I used the Congrats from the Digital Girl set, and the exclamation point from Window Shopping. BTW - here's a little tip for masking your clear stamps - I use little pieces of acetate instead of tape - they stick to the clear stamp and you can just wash them off and they're re-usable.

Last note - the card really does fold down - all the pop-up parts really work!

I hope you all will go and vote at the MFT Forum at Splitcoast [voting starts at 10PM EASTERN time on Tuesday, March 17th and continues through Wednesday, March 18th at 10pm EASTERN. My SCS user name is mm9772] and I really hope that I'll be able to stay in the competition for at least one more round! TFL!

Other materials used:
Ink: Graphite Black Brilliance ink - Tsukineko; Raspberry Fizz - Papertrey Ink Cardstock: Bazzill; Doodlebug (White Sugar Coated)
Patterned paper: Basic Grey (Eva 6x6 paper pad)
Embellishments: satin ribbon - MFT; small fern punch - CarlaCraft; flower and star rhinestones - Queen & Co.; white brad - Pink Hedgehog Papercrafts; Marisa Mini dies - Quickutz; Labels Trio dies - Spellbinders; Scallop Border Punch - Stampin' Up!; Stickles Glitter Glue; lace, embroidery floss, and buttons all from my stash.

3-D Cake Card

Ever since I saw the ad for the new cake 3-D Pop-Up die from Sizzix, I've been wanting to try making one, but just couldn't figure out the engineering. Then I noticed that the Sizzix website had an instruction sheet online for it, so I was finally able to duplicate it in Cricut Design Studio and here's my card:


I know it's not decorated very nicely, but I was just so excited that I wanted to share right away!

Here's the top view. I did the words with the All Mixed Up cartridge and all the patterned paper is from Basic Grey.

You can see there's a little tab at the top where you can attach whatever decoration you want - a candle, flowers, tiny bride and groom, etc.

I'm having so much fun opening and closing it - I just have to make more! TFL and hope you like my little project!

Edited AGAIN to add:

I've removed the .cut file upon request from the creator of the die, so please do not ask me for it. Thanks!

Party Like A Rockstar!

Last night I checked one of my fave Cricut blogs, Capadia Designs, and came across the COOLEST card idea [<--link here]!! Thanks to all of Diane's pictures and super clear explanations, I was able to come up with my own version pretty easily! Here it is:
The first four-letter word that popped into my head was "rock," so my next thought was Rockstar Anya from The Greeting Farm, and she was a perfect fit!

When folded flat, the card is 4 1/2" x 6". I recently got a box of envelopes that were labeled invitation size, but are actually a little larger so that you can fit a 4x6 picture inside. I figured I might as well take advantage of that extra space!

I also used Diane's idea of cutting a separate front part to emboss, but I made it just a little smaller all around to give me a border. I also did a piece for the back and embossed both with the Cuttlebug Allegro embossing folder. Then I distressed both pieces and sewed them on with a zigzag stitch. I'll probably skip that step next time since it was really time consuming going around all those steps!

Here's another angle where you can see the ROCK a little better:


And here's how it looks folded flat for mailing:


The "party like a" was done with the Hello Kitty Font cartridge and the big star was done with the biggest of the star Nestabilities. I went over all the edges of the ROCK with a stardust glitter pen and I edged the star with silver glitter glue. The final touches were some Heidi Swapp ghost stars, a little silver edged organdy ribbon and silver cording. I just love how this came out and will definitely make more!

A huge thanks to Diane at Capadia Designs and to Lacy for suggesting the idea!!

Winner and Purse Favor Box

Ok, I know why you're here - to find out who won the Bella Blog Candy! But first I want to thank everybody for playing in my blog candy giveaway - it was so interesting to read about your fave Stamping Bella images, a lot of which are my faves too!

[This section deleted because I had to pick another winner.]

* * * * *

And now for yet another Cricut project:

Last year during our trip to California, I bought a couple of little purse boxes that were on clearance after Valentine's Day. I thought I could pull it apart, trace it, and make my own versions of it. Well I tried it, but for some reason just couldn't make it work quite right, so I gave up.

The other night I got an idea that I might be able to replicate the purse box in Design Studio so I spent many hours working, testing, re-working, testing, etc., and I did it!!

Here's a pic of the original box:

And here's my Cricut version (I didn't do a very good job of decorating this one, but you get the idea!):
Here's how it looks from the side (you can see it's pretty narrow at the top):
And here's how it looks open:
I thought the design of the original box was very clever being able to open up like that. Because the top is so narrow, it could be difficult getting things in and out of the box. Because of that, I tried to stick to the original design as much as possible.

BTW - the box dimensions are: 2 3/4" wide, 1 1/4" deep at the bottom, 3/8" deep at the top, and 1 3/4" tall.

If you have the Tags, Bags, Boxes & More cartridge, you might have noticed that my box looks very similar to the purse2 design. I noticed this AFTER I had already almost finished doing my box and thought I just wasted a LOT of time!! However, after cutting the purse2 file, I don't care for it as much as this box. As I mentioned above, I really like having the box open up fully for easy access, and this one doesn't. Also, a couple of the side tabs for gluing can be really skinny depending on the size you cut (on this size they are only 3/16" thick) and makes it a little harder to work with. But it's still a really cute box, so it's nice to have the option to make it too! And of course the TBB&M version is sizeable so that's a huge plus!

Anyway, thanks for visiting and I hope you like this little box!

ETA: I've had several requests for the .cut file, so you can find it here, and PLEASE also download the notes file.

If you like it, please leave me a comment and let me know. Also, I'd love to see any projects you make with my file!

Round Top Favor Box

Lauren Meader has been showing samples of her soon-to-be-released My Timeless Template called the Rounded Wrap Up Box, and the more wonderful creations she showed, the more I wanted to make one! Of course I had to do it in Cricut Design Studio (because I am obsessed with making things in it!), and I also wanted to showcase some of the awesome patterned paper I have, specifically from the DCWV Sweet Stack (the 12x12 version).

Here is the box I came up with - front view:

And back view:

My box is 3" wide, 1.5" deep, and about 3.25" tall. I modeled most of the measurements after my treasure chest boxes, and then adjusted whatever looked funny.

After creating and testing the DS cut file, I had some plain white cardstock with the shape of the box cut out of it. Instead of trashing it, I kept it to use as a placement template.

I took this sheet (which is one of my favorites in the whole stack)
and laid my placement template over it, positioning the template so the cupcake would be centered on the front of the box. Then I made marks on my PP where the edges of the template were and cut on the marks on all 4 sides of the PP to get a sheet 8x9.5".

Next, I simply placed my PP face down on my Cricut cutting mat exactly how the white cardstock had been placed and hit cut. I also created a separate page in the same file to make the score lines, so I had to adjust my blade depth and pressure and hit cut again.

Here's a shot of the paper on the mat after cutting and removing the excess paper (please excuse the weird glare off the mat):
You can see that I also put a couple little slots on the cut file to tie ribbon through.

And then after taking the paper off the mat:

Then I just folded on all the score lines, glued it together, and added a little ribbon. I love how the pattern on the paper is perfectly placed on the box, and makes it look like I actually took the time to decorate it!

I hope you like my little box, and don't forget to check out Lauren's blog and all of her My Timeless Templates at Papertrey Ink! Thank you so much to Lauren for all of her creativity and inspiration!!

ETA: After a few requests, I have uploaded the .cut file for this box. If you like it, please let me know by leaving a comment. Also, if you make anything with the file, I'd love to see it!

Treasure Chests

After I saw this super cute treasure chest project, I knew I had to try and recreate it for the Cricut. I used Plantin Schoolbook for all of them.

First, I tried to copy the original project dimensions exactly (with just one small modification that I'll talk about below) and ended up with this:

After I assembled the pieces (there is a base piece and another piece which forms the lid), I decided to add handles, so I punched 2 holes on each side and added 2 bits of ribbon. I also embellished with a couple of Prima flowers and a Doodlebug rhinestone.

Next I decided I wanted to play with the sizing to make the box a little shorter, and also see if I could do the whole thing in one piece. Here's the result:
I left this box undecorated so you could see the modification I was talking about earlier - I added a half circle slot so that the lid can just be tucked in to hold the chest shut instead of adding velcro. The original chest was 3" tall, and this chest is 2.5" tall.

Next I decided to make the chest even shorter: 2.25" and I simply rounded the corners of the lid, instead of adding the scallop border:
As you can see, I hid the half circle closure with Primas and added handles again. By using patterned paper for the chest, I think it barely needs decorating at all!

Hope you like them and a big thanks to Katie Rentz for the original project!

ETA: After several requests, I've made the .cut file available for download. If you download the .cut file for this project, please also download my notes file!! I've only included the .cut file for the 2.5 inch chest (the middle one) because that's my favorite size and shape! Here are the links to the .cut file and the notes file.

If you like the project, please let me know by leaving a comment. Also, if you make anything with the file, I'd love to see it!

More Hello Kitty & Blog Candy

I'm still loving the Hello Kitty cartridges so I have a few more projects to share today. The first two aren't actually HK images, but they are on the cartridges and I liked the look of them too!

The strawberry is from the HK Greetings cartridge, the frame is from Fabulous Finds, and the font is Plantin Schoolbook.

This cupcake is also from the Greetings cartridge. It was super easy because the cartridge already has the card design built in so I didn't even have to design it myself. I embellished it a bit by crimping the liner, adding some glossy glue to the cherry, and some chunky glitter to the frosting. I also added a white liner so I could write in it with a regular pen.

This HK is from the Font cartridge and because it doesn't have a card function, I had to design it with the Design Studio software.

I did the fold at the top of her head so a little of the bow got cut off, but once I added the patterned paper, I barely noticed it. I added some Stickles to her wings and did a bunch of tracing of the designs on the PP with a Stardust glitter pen for a more subtle sparkle.

The patterned paper is from the K&Co. Berry Sweet paper pad.

And now for the blog candy part of the post: the DoodleFactory has a bunch of brand new stamps just in time for Valentine's Day cards and they're giving away a whole set. Check it out here. Aren't they adorable!?!

Birthday Present Pop-Up Card

Yesterday was my mom's birthday so I made her a card using the Cricut and the Design Studio software:

I used the Celebrations cartridge for the present, bow, and tag, and then the "mom" was done with Plantin Schoolbook.

The patterned paper is from the DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies paper pad.

When you open it up, it looks like this:

If I use this pop-up file again, I'll definitely use a lighter weight cardstock. I used Stampin' Up! for this one and it was way too thick. It was hard to score and fold without tearing and then it squashed up funny and had a lot of creases. But I still like the way it came out and hope my mom likes it too!

I got a Cricut Expression!

Woohoo! I'm having SO much fun playing with it! Of course I went totally overboard and got a ton of cartridges and a jukebox and the Design Studio software.

The first thing I had to play with were the two Hello Kitty cartridges. LOVE them - too cute!!

And then I had to create a template in Design Studio. You weave 2 pieces together to make this cute heart.

It's done with Plantin SchoolBook and I copied a Hot Off the Press template called Scandinavian Hearts. It was actually easier than I thought and a lot of fun to figure it out! I will definitely be looking around for other things to design!

Hope you don't mind a bunch of non-stamping projects, because I'll be posting a lot more Cricut projects in the future! TFL!