Top o' the Mornin'!

In my family, Saint Patrick's Day is a fun, peaceful celebration. It's one of my favorite holidays. My family has strong Irish blood on both sides, and it's something I'm very proud of. While some people celebrate only on March 17th, I prefer to take the time leading up to Saint Patrick's Day to reflect on my family's history, and fill my ears with beautiful Irish music, and my well-loved Irish movies. My favorite? Evelyn. I have a mondo crush on Pierce Brosnan, especially in this role.

SO, I have decided to make a few mini cards for the upcoming holiday. I made two identicals of this one, for me mum'n'dad. :)

- These measure approx. 2.5 x 3.25 on a forest green base. I was really at a roadblock as far as color inspiration until I paired the peach and mint. LOVE 'EM!

- The images were cut at 3", I believe (I had to play around to get it right).

- I spritzed the peach with copper pearl mist; yellow stickles on the rays. Copper paint dabber around the edging.

- The peach was pop-dotted onto the mint mat, which is edged with lettuce paint dabber.

- White mat on interior with negative of cricut scraps; sentiment (studio g) is stamped in crushed olive.

Hope this gets you in the springy, Saint Patrick mood. Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Emily

Cinderella, you're as lovely as your name...

So, among the many things that absolutely define me, are my 2 favorite movies of all time. One is Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the other...the other is Cinderella. <3

Several years ago, knowing how much I love the fairy tale, my mom got me a keepsake ornament for Christmas - of Cinderella's glass slipper on a pillow. I worked at Hallmark for a number of years (2004-2009), and my Keepsake ornament collection has grown into something quite special to me. At any rate, I now have my very own purple (favorite color) Cinderella Christmas tree. I'm quite the fan of traditional red-and-green Christmas themes, so this purple business sounds silly until you see it. My room, a light lavender and lace, is the perfect home for my treasured tree for now.

Anyone reading this for crafting purposes might wonder what the heck I'm rambling on about. Well last month in all my Cricut frenzy (still ongoing, might I add...) it dawned upon me that there were a couple of priceless ornament opportunities waiting for my in my Nursery Rhymes cartridge.

These are:

- basic cream and blue cardstocks

- pearl mist

- tim holtz jump rings

- rock candy

- translucent ribbon

- silver embossing

- blended ink

And the tree...

xoxo

A cricut, a cuttlebug, and tim holtz walk into a bar...

So, couple of things...

Made this card for Grandma, for her birthday which was yesterday. I was really excited to use lots of new things. I challenged myself to explore with my Cricut, because I haven't used it much since I purchased it (over 1 1/2 yrs. ago)...to be honest, the machine sort of intimidates me. At least it has up until now. I'm getting more comfortable. :) I cut out some balloons from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge, before inking and stickling them. (Yes, I just made stickling a verb...)

I also was stoked to use the cuttlebug for some texture and my very first cuttlebug die cut. The die cut I did, is one by Tim Holtz. They're called Alterations, and I absolutely love them - however, they are intended for Sizzix machines. Through my repetitive watching of THIS Youtube video, I was convinced to spring for one, as she very efficiently proves that they are in fact compatible with the cuttlebug. So the other night I got the Baroque die cut. I cut one to add to this card, after inking it and embossing it with Swiss Dots.

Distress Inked + stickles

Swiss Dots

So when I first cut a balloon, I had it on the wrong size dial, which resulted in this teeny tiny balloon. Always trying to use it all up, I was excited when I realized I had the perfect use for the little mistake. A touch of red sharpie and voila! :)

So I'm finally getting to explore a little bit with the T.H. Compendium of Curiosities. First up, the Shabby Chic technique:

I was thrilled with how this technique turned out. This is just a plain grunge heart (mixed minis set). The paint dabbers I used were sunset orange and espresso. *TIP: rather than using the actual dabber foam top, i dabbed it on and then used my finger to spread it all around. a much smoother look.*

Next up, 2 techniques layered in one. The background coloring is the Wrinkle Free Distress, and I am actually blanking on the name of the other technique. I do know that it didn't work the best for me. It had to do with Perfect Pearls over a distress stamped image, and then misting water so that the ink would wick out from beneath the powder. Well, my ink ran. But I'm ok with the finished product:

^ prisma glitter over stamped image

Finally, I did some experimenting with my mini misters. I have only made one concoction so far, but as I was warned, I am addicted. I just mixed some bronze p.p. with a full tube of water. I spritzed it over this ornament tag, and also over this imitation grunge flower I made.

^ close-up showing mini mister detail! :)

As a P.S., that imitation flower was made using the cricut (george & basic shapes) on 'shadow blackout' at 2 1/2 inches. I used Scattered Straw distress ink, Golden Rod stickles, and a spritz of my DIY mixture. Gave it to my mom as a Get Well flower - she and I are both peuny!

xoxo