Can you tell I've been busy today? :)
It was a great day to craft!  Nice and cool here in Montreal with the rain, so I had the doors open and my headphones blasting!  Music always keeps me moving.
For this card I dove into the challenges!  I wrote all of them down that I could find and then starting thinking about what I wanted to do and how many of the challenges I could fulfill.  It was a lot of fun!  And I love the card!  It's quite thick, so it won't be one I mail out to anyone :)  But I still love it!

Several challenges I came across were for buttons, which is something that I rarely use on my cards.  Mostly because I don't really have any!  But I searched through all of my embellishments and I found a few!  I don't remember why I bought these sunflower buttons, but they seemed to be perfect for the card I wanted to make. 
The wheelbarrow is from the Cricut Walk in My Garden cartridge.  The sunflowers I made myself from a few of my punches.  I love making my own flowers.  It's like a challenge all on it's own to try and replicate a favorite flower with just spare parts around my craft area!
I was a little worried about the wide green ribbon when I first picked it out, but I didn't have any other style ribbon that I liked, or thought would look good on this card, so I gave it a shot.  I think it worked out perfectly!  Anything thinner wouldn't have helped pull out the main image from the card.
As I said, this card is quite thick!  I had to triple layer my scotch mounting tape to make up for the "button" holes on the back...

The challenges I have entered this card in are:
    Fantabulous Cricut #79-Leaves are Falling
    Bitten by the Bug 2-Wheelbarrow Challenge
    Paper Cutz Challenge #110-Button Up for Fall
    Party Time Tuesdays #35-Anything Goes
    Tuesday Throwdown #68-Thinking of You  (I had planned on doing the extra challenge of sending my card to Operation Write Home, but it's too thick to try and mail...I will be looking into creating some other cards to send there though.  Here is the link if you are interested:  Operation Write Home)
    Dream Valley Challenge #16-Buttons
    Critter Sketch Challenge #84-Anything Goes
    Digi Design Make Your Own Flowers Challenge

Happy Scrapping!
Emily

I had this really cute idea for a friendship card of a hot cocoa mug with a teddy bear sticking out of it, and chocolate drizzling down the mug and cinnamon sticks...so I started working on it.  I cut out a bear from the Cricut cartridge Create-a-Critter, and a mug from the Cheerful Seasons cartridge.  I found a drippy font at www.dafont.com and put a couple of letters together that formed the right kind of dripping at the bottom that I wanted.  I inked everything up and added some minor details and then put it all together!...and this is what I got...

It turned out SO BORING!!  I tried moving everything around...I consulted my husband to see what he though (not much help there :) ), I tried to think of what I could add...nothing seemed to help liven up this card!  It bummed me out so much that I just shelved it for the night...
Fortunately, I had cut out a second set of materials (in case I loved the card so much I wanted to make a second one!).  So I picked it back up today and tried again.  I am so glad I did because the second time around turned out MUCH Better!

Putting something behind the mug (instead of just a straight ribbon) really helped the placement of the elements.  Again, I still need to work on my sentiment stamp collection, but I'm working with what I have (my own handwriting) to make the sentiments look good.
There are glitter swirls above the mug that are suppose to represent steam, but they can't really be seen in the picture.  Glitter is sometimes really hard to photograph, and I'm still working on the best way for me to take pictures of my cards (without getting my arm shadow in the picture or major glare)...

Thanks for stopping by!
Emily

I just finished putting together a scrapbook page from the first Seattle Sounders game my husband and I even attended and figured I would make some Thank You cards with the leftovers.

These cards turned out great!  I learned something new to do with my embossed papers from Fantabulous Cricut where you cut out some of the shapes and then put colored paper behind the cutouts, so I figured I would give it a try on these cards.  I'll need to play around with it a little bit more, but for the first time, I think they turned out pretty good. 
You can see a little bit of the cut outs on the circle (Spots and Dots) and square (Traffic Jam) embossed cards (the top 2).  The bottom 2 cards I embossed with my Swiss Dots folder and then dabbed green and black ink pads on top.
The images are all cut out with the Cricut Soccer Solutions cartridge.

Happy 1 Week to my blog!  Can't believe it has been a week already...I know, that's not very long, but it's exciting for me :)  I really love my blog and I hope everyone else does as well!
Another fall card to show today!  I absolutely love this card and the way it turned out. 

This card was so much fun to make!  I never really have a plan set in place when I sit down to make a card.  Sometimes I do, but most of the time it seems I just take a desired image I want to use and build elements around it.  That's sort of what I did for this card.  The pumpkins are from the Cricut Holiday Cakes cartridge.  That was one of my favorite images when I purchased the cartridge, but I have never used it for a card!  So I wanted that to be my focus today.  I started searching blogs for challenges (since I'm new to all the blogging stuff, I'm still trying to explore and find new challenges) and I found a sketch challenge at Party Time Tuesdays.  I really enjoy working with sketches because even though I don't plan my cards, I like to have an idea of where my elements are going to go, so a sketch is perfect!
So I drew out my sketch and then started deciding what I was going to use.  A couple of challenges I discovered were for multiple layers, fun borders, and leaves.  So I figured, why not put them all together?
I used my Martha Stewart Double Arches punch to make a backdrop border, glued that to a leaf patterned paper, and attached them both to my card front.

Then I cut out a scalloped border, the pumpkins and a frame with my cricut.  I inked the pumpkins slightly so they had some detail since I didn't like just the plain paper.  I attached a brown ribbon and bow and mounted that onto the card.

The leaves are just a blackout image on the Holiday Cakes cartridge.  I didn't want to cut out the details as I thought it would pull away from the pumpkins.  So I did the blackout and just drew in some minor details with a brown gel pen.  I cut out a small sentiment tag with a pair of scallop scissors and wrote in the sentiment with the same brown gel pen.
I am realizing more and more that I am in desperate need of sentiment stamps...while my handwriting is okay, stamps are just so much nicer!  Something else for me to work on :)
This card has been entered into the following challenges:

    Party Time Tuesday Challenge #34-Sketch and/or Monochromatic
    Critter Sketch Challenge #83-Recipe Challenge
    The Kraft Journal: Welcome Fall Challenge
    Kaboodle Doodles Challenge #85-Lots of Layers
    Raise the Bar Challenge #75-"Leave" Summer

I'm so excited!  This is the first card I have entered into multiple challenges!  And it fits all of them!  So proud of myself :)
Enjoy and Happy Scrapping!
Emily

Hello Everyone!  Happy Tuesday and thanks for stopping by my blog!
Today's card is for Halloween!  Though I don't get into all the major festivities of Halloween, it is one of my favorite holidays.  Ghosts and cobwebs, creepy candles and decorative lights...I love it all and that includes making cards for this frightful holiday.

I love this card because it is simple, but still allows for lots of details to be added.  I cut everything out using my Sure Cuts A Lot program, and my Cricut.  The spiderweb and ghost images I pulled off the internet and modified them a little bit so that they would cut out better.
Once the webs were cut, I used a white gel pen (love using this!) and marked the webbing.  Then used glitter glue on top of the pen so the webs would sparkle.

Once the webs dried I attached them to white card stock so they had a border.
I cut out the ghosts and used 3D black paint on the wings, and then covered that with a clear glitter so that, again, they would sparkle. 
Can you tell I like glitter?  I use it on almost every card!
The picture doesn't really show the sparkle on the wings...it's hard to capture that in a photo.

Then I put everything together!  The letters for BOO are cut using the Mars Attacks font.  I felt it fit in with the Halloween theme.  I again used my trusty white gel pen (seriously, if you craft and don't have one, I highly recommend making the purchase :) ) and I drew in some additional spiderwebs and spiders, and put some stitching around the sentiment frame.
This card has been entered into Paper Cutz Challenge #109: Caution-Ghost Crossing!
Enjoy!!
Emily

Happy Saturday!
Today I am showing you a card I am entering into My Craft Spots: Monday Challenge #25: Happy Harvest.  I was introduced to this blog by looking at a new followers blog (Cindy P.) and seeing all the wonderful creations she has made and entered into challenges.  Welcome to my blog Cindy and thank you for your comments!

I was super excited about creating this card after I read the challenge information because I love fall!  The cooler weather, the crispness in the air, all the spicy scents from baking apples!  That was the inspiration for my card, since my house still smells like the applesauce I made yesterday!

I started with a plain red card stock base and then added a patterned red/yellow paper on top.  I realized I don't seem to have many fall papers in my collection...I'll have to work on that!  Next I took a creamish colored card stock and inked around the edges with a chestnut colored ink pad, and then added that on top of the patterned paper.

What I was originally thinking of doing was 3 bushels of apples on the front of the card, so I was searching through my Cricut cartridges to see what other apple images I had, and I came across a cartridge I had purchased quite awhile ago and only used once...Speaking of Fall.  I remember being really excited about this cartridge because it was based around my favorite season!  As I was searching through it once again, I came across the image for E and it was a pie rack!  Definitely the image I was going to use, but I didn't want it to look like an E.
So I cut out both the regular and shadow images twice, and then I started cutting and gluing it all back together to make it look more like a wall rack.

I traced and cut out the pie tins in silver and then inked them in black to give them a "burnt" look, and I inked the pie tops with straw mat and barn brown ink pads to give them that baked golden look.  I think they turned out fabulous!

I put together the basket using the same ink pads as I had used on the pies and tins.  The apples I had cut out in a pale green and then inked with a cranberry color so that they still had a little green to them (the way they are when picked at the orchard).  I arranged the apples in the basket so that it had an overflowing look to it.

Then I put everything together!  The rack came out a little bigger than I had planned, so I had to rearrange the layout a little bit.  But it all worked out in the end.  I added a few 3D paint dots at the top and covered them in red glitter, and then wrote "Happy Harvest" in brown at the bottom.  Fabulous!  I love the way this card turned out!

Thanks for stopping by!
Emily

Hello!
Today I want to show you my first challenge creation!  This card is for the Birthday Sundaes Criss-Cross Birthday Card Challenge #26.
I wasn't entirely sure on what to make for this challenge.  I knew I wanted to use the blue card stock and the blue metallic patterned paper but as for the details...that took me a little while to figure out.  So I put together the criss-cross portion of the card (following these instructions), and then it sat on my desk for 2 days while I stewed over what elements to add.

Finally, I picked it up and just started trying things, and I really love how it turned out!  I used a Martha Stewart border punch for the green border, and I cut the cute little dog and balloon from the Cricut cartridge Paper Pups (one of my favorites!).  It's not super elaborate, but I think it is still adorable!

I will definitely be participating in the Birthday Sundaes challenges again.  They are super fun and I am always in need of birthday cards!

I hope you enjoy!
Love,
Emily

Wow!  I can't believe that I am actually blogging!  I hope that this is the start of something great for me and the crafts that I love to make!  Many thanks to my husband for helping me get this going.  I hope everything I do here will live up to both of our expectations!

I started this blog to help keep myself accountable, to share with everyone my creations, to challenge myself and to show everyone how passionate I am about crafting.  It is one of those hobbies that can just take all my stress away and I absolutely love it!

Since I am new at blogging, I ask everyone to please bear with me as I learn all the ropes of how to do it :)  I hope to make frequent posts of the creations I have made, and I hope that the information I provide will be inspiring and informative to everyone.  I want to encourage anyone viewing my posts to please leave feedback of your thoughts!  I love feedback.  A person can't get better without feedback and hearing other people's opinions!

Again, thank you for visiting!  Keep checking back for new posts!
Much Love,
Emily