My Sheri Crafts Challenge #106: Easter Celebration!

Our challenge to you this week @ My Sheri Crafts is to Celebrate Easter by creating and posting any project that represents Easter to you -- simple, huh?!!! I do hope you'll join us and visit our Guest Designer and my fellow designer's blogs, as well.

I chose this gorgeous Calla Lily die cut created by Bird and available for free here! She makes the most beautiful files that cut exquisitely on my BossKut Gazelle!

Her lily was cut from white shimmer scraps and two shades of green and popped up onto a pre-embossed pale yellow sheet -- all Bazzill CS. The stamen was colored with a Copic marker. My sentiment is from JustRite Papercrafts' Spring Words set die cut with Spellbinders' Labels Seventeen. Pearl beads were hand sewn to a piece of lace from my stash to dress it up with narrow yellow ribbon laced through. Finishing it all off are Want2Scrap's pearl flourishes. Can't wait to see what Easter creations you come up with for our challenge!

My Sheri Crafts Challenge #104: It's Fishin' Time

Yep, it's fishin' time here at My Sheri Crafts, so we want to see your project with a fish on it!
I went back and forth several times with this challenge, trying to decide what I wanted to do and in the end I die cut my fisherman using my Boss Kut Gazelle and a free die cut from Bird's Cards. If you have an electronic die cutting machine and you've never visited Bird's blog, you are missing a special treat.  Her files all cut beautifully and they're free! Go check out all her wonderful creations and leave her some love!
I used paper purchased years ago from Close to my Heart, as the BG makes me think of a big bridge over a body of water.  My little fish stamp is one I've had for many years also. It has no manufacturer or name on it, but I decided I'd use my Twinkling H2O's for his shiny scales, though the photograph doesn't do it justice. My 'Fishing you' sentiment (Our Craft Lounge) is a little play on words -- I'll likely add 'a Happy Birthday' inside for one of our sports-minded male friends.
Can't wait to see your clever ideas for a fishing project -- share it today with us @ My Sheri Crafts!!!

My Sheri Crafts Challenge #101: Favorite Sport

Welcome to a New Year and our new challenge @ My Sheri Crafts is to give some love to the athletes in our lives by creating any project with their favorite sport as your theme.  Simple enough?!!!

For my project I chose to go with golf since I have several male family members and friends who play occasionally. My golf bag is a download purchased from My Vinyl Designer and was quite simple to put together after cutting beautifully on my BossKut Gazelle in my three chosen CS colors.

I decided to keep this fun for a birthday card and used the 'punny' "Who's your caddy?" sentiment I've seen so often -- hope they like this -- Hee! I created it with my JustRite (retired) Times New Roman 25-point alphabet, edged in Memento Danube Blue ink and simply popped it up on foam dots. A 'stick-man golfer' (source unknown) was added to complete my card!

Sure hope you'll join our challenge @ My Sheri Crafts this next two weeks!!!

Boss Kut Gazelle: Vinyl Tile

I finally made my first monogram decor gift using vinyl. While in Lowe's earlier this fall with friends, I saw these 6-inch tiles on a clearance table for 20 cents each -- I grabbed five of them with this very project in mind, knowing at that price I couldn't go wrong.

I was a bit unsure where to find fancy monogram files and actually attempted to design my own, but wasn't terribly successful -- plan to work on that in the future, maybe in the summer when life slows down a bit?!

I recently went online to myvinyldesigner.com/ and purchased this FABULOUS downloadable file. Not surprisingly, my Boss Kut Gazelle easily and beautifully cut this intricate file! If you have a digital cutter, be sure to check out their great selection of files available in all cutter formats.

Admittedly on this smaller tile, the weeding of the unnecessary pieces is a bit tedious, mostly because I just couldn't wait to transfer the finished monogram to my tile to see the finished product!!! Now I'm on the hunt to find some reasonably-priced easels to properly display these!

Masculine Birthday Card: Motorcycle

This detailed motorcycle cut file perfectly fit my needs for a young man's birthday card and cut sooo beautifully on my Boss Kut Gazelle! The amazing file is free and available in several formats for every available digital cutter on Bird's blog here. There are tons of free cutter files -- you won't believe all you'll find there, so go check it out!!!

Be forewarned that this file has many tiny pieces, but I think it was well worth the effort to put it all together and I hope the young man we're sending it to enjoys it!

I kept it very simple by merely attaching my motorcycle to a fabulous piece of wood grain paper from My Mind's Eye's Howdy Doody 6x6 paper pad and layering with orange and black.  My Papertrey Ink sentiment (from Inside and Out: Birthday) is stamped onto a Spellbinders Labels Seven die cut and metal brads were added to accent the card corners. No frills, ribbons or lace needed today!!!

My Sheri Crafts #84: April Showers Bring May Flowers to Mom!

For our challenge this week @ My Sheri Crafts I wanted to play a bit more with my Boss Kut Gazelle. Wanting to do a Word Book for a looong time, I finally cut my little MOM book from chipboard and really LOVE how it turned out.
I cut my TTF Tahoma letters at 4.25" and welded to rectangles in the Fun Time III software, making each succeeding rectangle a bit wider. I covered my pages with various DPs from MME's Lost & Found Market Street 6 x 6 designer paper pad, because I LOVE it still! To finish decorating it, I cut my flower from a coffee filter using Spellbinders' Spiral Blossom One and the photo frames using Floral Ovals. I used Tattered Angels Cherub Pink to give the flower a bit of soft color/sparkle, tied ribbons to my 'M' and book rings and finished off with a sprinkle of pearls & swirls. Just a fun little book for any Mom! Think it would be awesome to give to your Mom with photos of you & her or to your DD or DIL to hold photos of their  children.
Hope you'll find time to create a flowery "Mom" card/project and share it with us for this challenge!!!  Happy Mother's Day!!!  ;~)

"O" page

"M" page

"Back Cover"

My Sheri Crafts #82: MSC Turns TWO!!!

Happy Second Birthday, My Sheri Crafts -- Woo-Hoo!!!  It's a birthday party as we help Sheri celebrate her challenge blog's birthday today and she asked us to create fun birthday projects (cards, invites, favors, party decor) for toddlers or kids under 5. Bright colors, balloons, cupcakes....NO elegant cards...FUN, FUN, FUN!!!
I played with my new BossKut Gazelle die cutting machine and some GORGEOUS files available from Monica here! Her files are very intricate, beautiful and cut perfectly -- she is a very talented lady indeed.

Close-up of papercraft die-cut projects

I used Cupcake Wrapper 13 and Place Cards 13 for my projects today because the flower she used perfectly matches my DP. The cupcake wrapper was cut down by hand to create Molly's crown also. I had fun creating my card for a 2-year-old little girl and really love the sweet little place cards that you can personalize with each guest's name!
A huge thank you to not only Monica for her generosity in sharing these gorgeous files, but also to my sweet friend Marilyn for loaning me her adorable little tea set to use today! I only wish my photo light tent was larger so I could have used more of her treasured pieces! Thanks also to my DD for unknowingly loaning Molly, her American Girls Doll, to complete my party scene today -- it's the 'cost of long-term storage' that allows me to play with her beloved American Girls Collection whenever I wish -- hee-hee -- can you tell, I really don't mind at all?!
So hop on over to My Sheri Crafts and post your very own birthday projects for a child under 5; we can't wait to see what you come up with to help us CELEBRATE!!!

Stamps: JustRite's 50pt. Myriad Pro Font
Ink: VersaFine's Vintage Sepia
Paper: PiggyTales Cinderella line
Tools: Bosskut Gazelle die cutting machine
Embellishments: Clear gems from stash

My Sheri Crafts Challenge #80: Easel Card w/Shamrock

Using Beate's awesome tutorial here, I created my round scalloped easel card with a mixture of greens, including the required shamrock for our challenge this week @ My Sheri Crafts. If you're planning on joining us and we HOPE very much you WILL, you're asked to create an easel card and use a shamrock.
I began by cutting my two shamrocks with my Gazelle, making the 2nd one just a bit larger than the first. Lining the outside of that 2nd shamrock with liquid glue, I then added a dusting of Deep Forest ultra-fine opaque glitter from The Art Institute -- LOVE it!
Following Beate's directions, I cut my card from a combination of Bazzill and Papertrey Ink CS and choose to use my shamrock as the focal point on the front. My sentiment (Inkadinkado) is stamped (PTI's Ripe Avocado ink) onto a Spellbinders' Labels Fourteen die cut, decorated with Want2Scraps' Lime Green gemstones and mounted with foam tape, which allows my easel card to stand open -- so FUN!!! Looking forward to seeing your shamrock easel card soon!

Halloween Wine Charms

My dear friend, best known as 'Sassy', has retired & moved out of state, so she demanded (uhhh, I mean 'sassily requested') I make these Halloween Wine Charms for her. LOL! Nothing like a bit of Fall in Winter (or AZ's Spring), huh? Another dear friend had a surprise going-away party for her, so I decided to get these made for her gift.
These are a combination of Spellbinders' dies and die cuts done with my fabulous new Boss Kut Gazelle machine. {I am such a lucky girl -- explanation here!!!  ;~)} The shapes cut with my Gaz are the ghost, spider, pumpkin and bat. One advantage to cutting these with the Gaz is that you can make them a bit larger as they do shrink to about 1/3 of their original size.
I've added beads to these (and need to do the same with my own Christmas charms) to better help party participants recognize their wine glass and just because I love the splash of color, especially with so much black for these Halloween ones. Besides, I always set my glass down and then can't remember where I put it -- LOL -- not that I really party often. My drink of choice here in the desert is bottled water (sorry landfill!) -- I'm rarely seen without it. Since I'm most often at home crafting, it's safer to close the lid tight & have an unbreakable plastic bottle when I'm rushing around my craft room with my 'weapon of choice': sharp scissors, heat tool, etc. -- you crafty ladies understand, right?!
Hopefully, Sassy will think of me when she uses these little charms this Fall!  Thanks for stopping by today and let me know if you like my little charmers -- they were really FUN to make!!!

Sincere Thanks to BossKut & Scrap-Mart: New 'Pink' Lady Gazelle in the House!

This post is long over-due, as I was the unbelievably lucky winner of a fabulous new BossKut Gazelle 12" die cutting machine right before Christmas, thanks to not only BossKut, but Scrap-Mart who sponsored the Blog Hop/give-away!!! I am so grateful to both companies and I've been re-organizing my craft room, learning to use not only my lovely Gazelle but a Smart Phone and new laptop. Talk about technological overload -- LOL! I'm hoping to soon be posting more projects created with my sweet Pink Lady.
Quite a colorful beauty, isn't she? BUT, don't be fooled by her bright feminine exterior, as there's definitely a powerful machine beneath that exterior -- never underestimate a pretty feminine exterior, right Ladies?! She can cut everything from the thinnest vellum to chipboard, magnetic material, balsa wood, shrink plastic, etc. with 500 g of pressure. I've already cut shrink plastic (see some of the wine charms here)! Go here if you want to see all the specs for yourself. I hope to soon add more of the awesome available tools that will further enhance my creativity with the Gaz and I'm very anxious to cut some vinyl. This post shows one of my first cards wherein I created the lattice BG on my card with my Gaz! The possibilities are literally endless -- I'd wanted this machine for a long time, so I'm now ready to delve into all that she can do and it's a LOT more than mentioned here!

Mat partially loaded & both side storage drawers open.

This photo shows the mat partially loaded and both storage drawers slid open. BossKut thought of everything when building her, as we can all use more storage and these perfectly hold the dongle (flash drive that comes with the machine which allows Gaz's use on more than one computer), spare blades, etc. If you're thinking of a die cutting machine, check out the Gaz!!!

My Sheri Crafts Challenge #77: Something New!

Your 'mission' (aka challenge) should you choose to accept it @ My Sheri Crafts is to create a project of your choosing -- the only requirement is to use at least one 'new' item or new technique you've learned. It can be something you just got, maybe for a Christmas gift, or even items you've had for awhile, but not yet used. We all have those, huh?
And who doesn't love to see new card folds, stamping/inking/embossing techniques or anything new to try out, so bring it on for this wide-open challenge and show us what you've got!!!
My carnation pink lattice 5.5" card was made with Bazzill CS by cutting it on my brand-spanking new Boss Kut Gazelle digital die cutting machine. It was a huge surprise, as I won it right before Christmas -- more on that in a later post. Secondly, I used Spellbinders' Carnation Creations to create my flower and though I've had them awhile, this was my first chance to create with them. My Papertrey Ink sentiment is stamped on a Spellbinders' Ribbon Banner. Since I LOVE die cutting, I couldn't be happier that I now own an awesome machine, as well as many fabulous dies to even further enhance my projects -- I'm truly a lucky girl!
I added a pearl brad to my flower's center, three small pearls to the center's edge and used both Antique Linen and Worn Lipstick inks on my card, flower and banner to antique them a bit!
Won't you PLEASE show us your 'new' crafty goodies by posting a project (or more) at My Sheri Crafts? We'd LOVE to see what items you've gotten and now used for your creative endeavors, so do share!  ;-)