Echo Park Happy Days LO by Laura C

Ok....I gotta say....I think I am in LOVE!! With this new
EP "Happy Days" paper collection!! It's so fun with so
many options!! And just to show you that it doesn't have
to be for "nostalgic" pics (but those look awesome too!)
This LO used the collection pack...the words are all from
the journal and word strip sheets, the record, music notes,
title letters, and black diamond strip are all from the sticker
sheet. A few buttons with twine finish the page off. A super
simple and super cute way to show off a fave pic (like this
one of my son in the "Sundae Relay" at youth theater camp!

Make sure to check out this awesome Echo Park Paper
at Cutters Creek!!

Available at Cutters Creek:
Echo Park "Happy Days" 12x12 collection pack
Glue Glider Adhesive

Graduation Card by Vicki

Spring is here, and that means graduation time!! I have a family member graduating college, from a local regional university, and I know she loves homemade things. I made this card using her school's colors.

I started with a kraft base, half a sheet of 8.5 x 11 inch paper, folded in half with my Scor Pal. Using my Gypsy, I set up and enlarged the mortar board, tassle and sentiment. The black mortar board, and accompanying gold tassle were made using the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge. The sentiment is from Wild Card. I adjusted the sizing of both of these to fit perfectly on the front of my 4.25 x 5.5 inch space.

Next, I cut a piece of golden yellow card stock to perfectly in the embossing folder Cuttlebug Emboss A2 Border Frills.  I ran this through my Cuddlebug using a standard sandwich. I fired up my iRock tool, and selected a combination of colors that would coordinate well with my design, but still stand out. I picked copper and gold, but I could have easily selected colors from the new iRock glitter Hot Rocks Compact.

Following the directions on the iRock, I adhered one jewel per flower center. As a note, be careful when using this tool, as it is very easy to OVER melt the glue at the bottom of the gem, and that makes your gems an ugly mess that can't be undone!

As I dry fit all my items, the yellow gold I had picked for the floral border was too bright for the rest of the items. So, I pulled out my Ranger Distress Ink in Black Soot and lightly swept the inkpad all over the top of the embossing.

I adhered all the larger pieces to the card using my Glue Glider Pro, and the sentiment's thin letters with the Sakura Quickie Glue Pen.

I am awful at signing my work, so I purchased a stamp set by Image Tree called Handmade that I stamp on the back of my cards, to remind me to put my name on my work.

Graduation cards don't have to be complicated to be appreciated.

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