Breast Cancer Awareness Month with Kim B

October is breast cancer awareness month and as a breast cancer survivor myself, I try and do anything I can to promote this cause. If I had been diagnosed twenty, or even ten years ago, who knows where I would be now or if I would even still be here with my family and also my friends. So much has changed due to research and funding through so many foundations and organizations. It is hard to believe that there was a time when a woman would have her breast(s) removed and if she wanted to “replace” them, she would have to spend thousands of dollars for plastic surgery. Thank goodness those days have passed and treatments have gotten better by leaps and bounds. I know, because I am a breast cancer survivor of six years now. So don’t be one of those people that just don’t want to know. Early detection is the key! The earlier breast cancer is detected and treated, the more your chances go up for survival. So all you ladies out there, go have your female health checked regularly and don’t be one of those people who think it can never happen to you. I was one of those people. I have no breast cancer history in my family, however it has to start somewhere and for my family, it has started with me. So on with my project for breast cancer awareness month!

For my project, I decided to make a card for someone who has be recently diagnosed with breast cancer:

For my card I used both stamp sets from the Ink Pink Collection by A Jillian Vance Design. One of the great things about these two sets is that there are a lot included (each set includes a 4” by 8” sheet of stamps in your choice of round or rectangle, a pink acrylic block, 5 pewter charms, 5 pear pins, a sample of wrinkle ribbon, and a free Vera Bradley Zip ID case) and part of the proceeds will be donated to breast cancer research. Also, something of note: this is a Limited Edition set, so please grab one or both if you really love these!  There are a lot of images that can be used all year around and for any cause (just stamp your ribbons in the appropriate color). I stamped my black frame using black ink and then used the “Hope” sentiment to stamp in the center of the frame and then also stamped the “Think Pink” sentiment. I got out my Cuttlebug and Spellbinder dies and cut them out and then went a bit further and cut some additional decorative elements with my Spellbinder dies to mount these too. I then decided I wanted some bling, so I decided my card base would be POW! glitter paper in charcoal and added some Kaisercraft rhinestones to the pretty black frame that I stamped. As you can see, Spellbinder dies work wonderfully with this set. After all my pieces were assembled, I wanted something else and that is when I spied the border stamp on the rectangular set! I used a border punch to have a fancy border and them stamped the ribbon/pray for a cure border twice across. They matched end to end perfectly! I glued everything down and I have just a beautiful card! I hope you enjoyed my project and please feel free to leave me a comment regarding the card or the subject.

The following products used for this card can be purchased at Cutters Creek:

Ink Pink Stamp Collections by A Jillian Vance Design
American Crafts POW! glitter paper
Kaisercraft rhinestones
Memento Ink
Bazzill Simply Smooth cardstock

Father's Day & Ecstasy Crafts with Kim B

This month the Design Team is doing projects using some of their favorite things!  So my project features one of my store favorites, Ecstasy Crafts.  If you have not discovered Ecstasy Crafts products, you are missing out on so much fun!  I often put these decoupage images together while watching tv, and then when I get a chance to get into my craft room, I love making these into cards or using them on scrapbook pages.  These items always make you look like you have spent hours on your craft and are so easy to assemble.  Each package has any where from 2-9 images and are numbered to let you know how to adhere each piece.  They are also very affordable and range from $2.99 to $5.99.  The metallics are the most expensive.  These three images were done from one package and are metallics.  It was a bit difficult to get the photos done due to the blinding shine they give off, however I hope you can see how bling they are.  All I added was a bit of card stock and ribbon from my stash and all three cards were created in under 30 minutes.  Father's Day is right around the corner, so don't forget to make those Dads out there a great card!  Cutters Creek does cater to those who need to craft for men, so please check us out!

Products used:

Ecstasy Crafts-Explorer & Fishing

Joy! Foam Pads

Cardstock

Ribbon

Kaisercraft Rhinestones





Vicki's Dive Team Poster

My daughter is on the Varsity Dive Team at her high school, and our Sectional competition is on the very near horizon! As an encouragement to the girls, each of the parents is asked to make a poster for their daughter, to be placed in the hallway going into the pool. This is what I created for my daughter. (Her name is Carleen, but we call her "Charlie"...and the dive team calls her "Chuck"...which is where we got "Good Luck Chuck"!)


On the bottom, I used my Cricut Expression Machine and the Everyday Paper Dolls (EPD) cartridge to create the 'swimmer girl', selecting cardstock to match her school colors for her swim suit. She is blonde, so I used my Copic markers to 'highlight' her blonde hair with accents of browns and golds. I placed a tiny piece of blue for her eyes behind the eye cutouts, and then used a black marker and white gel pen to give the eyes a realistic look. I used chalks to put pink in her cheeks. The diving board on this cartridge is a high board, so I simply cut off the legs of the board to create the shorter one-meter board. I actually cut the board three times, in different colors. I used the aqua as the base, and cut out only those sections in cream and metallic silver (AC Metallic) that I needed for the details. The water in the pool for diving really isn't wavy, but I still wanted to get a watery effect. I cut several 12 inch sections of the waves from the EPD cartridge, and used white chalking ink to highlight the 'wave' portions. The pool walls are typical blocks, so using a black marker, and my Tim Holtz ruler, I designed the large 'subway tile' look for the background.



The judges score cards with '10' on them are from Graphically Speaking. Using my Gypsy, I used the 'Tag' base, and placed the '10' inside the tag. I cut the base of the tag without the numbers, in red cardstock, and then cut the whole tag, with the numbers cut out of it, in black, and glued them together.


The "CPHS" letters on the wall are done with Base Camp, and the top letters are from "Hannah Montana". I used a similar technique with each of them, just with different colors. I used my Gypsy to create the Shadow layers first, and welded those together. Then, once I got the sizing exactly how I wanted, I created the regular letters on a separate layer of my project to fit inside the shadow layer. This is really easy to do with the Gypsy!! The shadow layer is a simple cut, however, I had to pull out my 12x24 mats since the lettering is so large. The top layer was 'drawn' first, using the Cricut markers, and then, without unloading the mat, cut - swapping out the marker for the regular blade. Then, I used my Sakura Quickie Glue Pen to adhere the letters together.

Cutters Creek Items used:
Cricut Expression Machine
American Crafts Metallic Foil Card Stock - Silver
Tim Holtz Design Ruler
Sakura Quickie Glue Pen
Glue Glider Pro

Cricut Cartridges Used:
*Note* Kim can special order any of the Cricut Cartridges you might want!
Base Camp
Graphically Speaking
Hannah Montana
Everyday Paper Dolls

Homecoming With Vicki & Her Special Daughter

My daughter is one of my favorite subject to scrapbook, because she is very photogenic. I thought it would be nice to highlight her great homecoming outfit...and all the girly 'trimmings' that go along with it!!

I started with some paper from my stash. This paper already has a lot going on with it - so I knew I didn't need a lot of embellishments. However, the black and white design would really serve as a great background for her bright red dress. Since this was an opportunity for the kids to really dress up, what better way to highlight the occaision, than to use some of that great American Crafts foil paper!

The title was cut using the Cricut Locker Talk cartridge, using the "Homecoming" title out of basic black Bazzill cardstock, set on top of the title shadow, cut on the silver foil paper. On the second page, the year was cut out of the same black cardstock from the Gypsy Font from my brand new Gypsy! It turned out that there was a border on the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge that matched the floral pattern perfectly. I cut it at 11.5 inches, which isn't quite a full border, but it worked with the background paper. (If I really wanted a 12 inch border, I could have used my 12x24 mat on my Expression.)

I set my photos before adding my embellishments, as I wanted to layer some of the fun Petaloo Color Me Crazy flowers on top of the pictures. I colored my two flowers with my Copic markers, using R24 (Prawn) for the base, and R29 (Lipstick Red) for some highlight lines and edges. Using Copics on these flowers is really easy - the blending occurs naturally because the paper is so porous. (HINT - always color on a mat or scrap paper because the color WILL bleed through these flowers!) The flowers were placed with a drop of Glossy Accents, and then a simple Twinkle Jewel was added to the centers of each flower. It still needed a little BLING - so I accented the inside edges of the "2010" using a simple silver metallic Sharpie. I also added dots around each of the Petaloo flowers to make them stand out. Finally, I used some Liquid Pearls in Pewter to add centers to several of the floral shapes on the background paper, just to make them stand out a little bit more.

So get out there and step outside the 'boxy' look of layouts. Place your pictures at fun angles, overlap embellishments, and don't be afraid to draw a little bit!

Cutters Creek Items Used:
Locker Talk Cartridge
Cricut Gypsy
Cricut Expression
Petalloo Color Me Crazy Flowers
Copic markers - R24, R29
American Crafts Foil Paper
Liquid Pearls - Pewter
Twinkle Jewels - Clear
Glossy Accents

Ecstasy Crafts Free Style Wreaths with Kim B

This was one easy and fast card! I used the Ecstasy Craft Free Style Wreaths and American Crafts Foil card stock on my card blank. You should be able to see the dimension of the wreath on this card. All the pieces were popped out of the sheet and layered with foam squares (also from Ecstasy Crafts). Then I cut a piece of American Crafts foil card stock and put that on my card blank. I popped out one of the borders on the Free Style Wreath sheet and gave it a little trim to fit along the edge of my card. I then attached the wreath. Then upon scoping out what else was available on the sheet, I punched out the pine cones with leaves and attached that. And for my final item. I picked a little festive background and sentiment and attached the sentiment with foam squares and then put that on top of my pine cones. Trust me, it took me longer to type up what I did, than make the actual card. Is is so sparkly and shimmery and I hope someone will love getting this holiday card!

Items required: Foam Squares, American Crafts foil card stock, Ecstasy Crafts Free Style Wreaths, and your personal touch!