HOW SWEET IT IS!!!

I recently got SU's Tabletop Paper Cutter and LOVE it!!! It is a guillotine-style cutter that is proving to make precision cuts without fraying the card stock. It has a safety blade, which is good news for me since I normally manage to slice myself with most anything bladed! The plastic guide that you see beside the blade is what keeps your fingers out of the way, but it also keeps your card stock or paper from slipping out of alignment. A very neat feature of this cutter is that the measuring arm and the handle (at the end of the blade) can be easily removed and placed in the storage area under the cutter! Because I'm not without limitations, I had some trouble with the distance between the silver measuring guide on the "ledge" above the cutting base and the card stock lying on the base. I'm used to having the measuring guide ON the cutting base and felt that I really needed it there, particularly when making eighths and sixteenths cuts. I read somewhere that it was recommended to sit while using this cutter because it made it easier to line up the card stock with the correct measure, but the little voices in my head tell me to stand and be in charge of that guillotine! My wonderful husband found the neatest measuring tape that reads from right to left AND had an adhesive back, so I just laid it in place and now have the perfect cutter! How sweet it is!!!!!

FLOWER FUSION PIN

What is it, you may ask? It's a pin . . . a piece of jewelry, although it would be a perfect focal point for a greeting card or a neat embellishment for a scrapbook page! To create it, I started with a formica chip (those nifty little freebies found at Lowe's and other home improvement stores). I covered it with designer paper, added a few rub-ons from "A Perfect Day" and "Love & Happiness" (SAB, retired), and then placed the "Flower Fusion" felt flowers with rhinestone brads. These little flowers are TOO FUN to work with! If you don't have any, you should seriously considering ordering them from me! There are LOTS of flowers in the tin, assorted sizes, shapes, and colors.

ONE MORE MOTHER'S DAY CARD

This one is for my grandmother.

FLOWERS FOR MOTHER

I'm ashamed to admit that Mother's Day has caught me unawares this year--how can it already be time for Mother's Day????? For two days, I have carried this card design in my head and could hardly wait to get home today so I could make it! Have I told you lately that I love my Cricut????? OMG! Every single time I use that machine, I find myself chanting, "I love this machine!" The flowers and fence were cut with the Cricut, but it wouldn't be complete without some SU touches, such as the "Afternoon Tea" designer paper, rhinestone brads, and the stamped greeting (from "All Holidays"). In case you're wondering, this is a 6x6 card. I had to have room for those big flowers! ;-) Besides, this is one of those cards that you know is going to require some additional postage, so size didn't really matter in this case. I think my mother will love this card! Shhhh . . . don't tell anyone, but she loves all of my cards.

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH CHIPBOARD?

With SU's chipboard promotion this month, I thought it would be a good idea to show a few things you can do with it. When I sat down to make this card, I didn't know that it would become a great example! Two pieces of chipboard are used on this design . . . the circle shaker with the heart "window" and the little heart at the base of the rattle. The small heart is covered with designer paper, and the circle has been colored with ink. With many of the chipboard pieces that you get, you have the chipboard piece itself, but you also have a negative piece to work with. The circle on this card mimics the negative, although it's actually a "useable" piece of chipboard. After I inked the circle, I used the Coluzzle to cut an acetate circle to close the heart window so the beads wouldn't fall out. I then used the edges of Stampin' Dimensionals all around the window, poured in some Clear Micro Beads, and then put a 1-1/4" circle backing on top of the Dimensionals. This shaker ensemble was adhered to a punched Scallop circle. On the chipboard heart, I covered it with the Anywhere Glue Stick, cut a piece of designer paper to size/shape, and then laid it on top of the heart. SU's sanding block was used to smooth the edges. Other SU products used to create this project include East Coast Prep designer paper, Slit punch, Word Window punch, Wild Wasabi card stock, a More Mustard brad, and 1/4" white grosgrain ribbon.

"TEACHER APPRECIATION DAY"

May 6th is "Teacher Appreciation Day," and I designed and made this set of note cards for one of Chadrick's teachers. Of course, he was adamant that Iwould have to be the one to take this gift to the teacher, so I guess I'll have to make a trip to school. There's very little stamping on this project, but the stamps I used were from "Stem Sayings" and "Boho Backgrounds." Other products used to create this gift set include Whisper White, Sage Shadow, Purely Pomegranate, and Chocolate Chip card stock, Chocolate Chip satin ribbon, three Cuttlebug embossing folders, oval Nestabilities dies, Sticky Strip, Ultimate Box Maker, Boho Blossoms punch, 1-3/8" Circle punch, and the Scallop Circle punch.

BIRTHDAY WALLET

Tomorrow is my nephew, Bryson's, birthday, and I made this wallet for him. I wasn't sure what to get him for his big day, but I've never known a young man (or an old one) who didn't like cash! I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder to give the wallet a leather-look, and the machine-embossing lifted some of the heat-embossed image. I like that look, though, because it gives the wallet a distressed look. The Discover card is fake and is adhered to that interior pocket, and the picture--the one that looks soooooo old--is my sister when she was probably 3 or 4 years old. She's only 11.5 months older than me, and I swear we're not old enough to have childhood pictures that look THAT antique! I don't think any of my childhood photos look that old. Hee! Hee! I wonder if Bryson will even know who the girl in the picture is! After taking pictures of the wallet, I added a stamped layer on top of the left pocket because it looked so bare! I hope Bryson likes his gift! Would it be rude of me to ask if I can have the wallet? I'm (sort of) kidding! I wouldn't come right out and ask . . . but I might be tempted to pick it up if I should find it . . . oh, let's say . . . lying around. ;-)

BOATLOADS OF LOVE

To create the window for this card, I used the 1-1/4" square punch and punched four squares from Post-It notes so I would have a little bit of repositionable adhesive on each square. I then placed the four Post-It squares on a 3" x 3" piece of Night of Navy card
stock. Holding the 1-1/4" square punch upside down, I centered each Post-It square in the window of the punch to create four (relatively) equal panes. The large boat was stamped with black StazOn ink onto SU's watercolor paper and colored with markers.

NEW MUSIC

I don't know how much you enjoy the music on my blog, but I added some new songs from Leona Lewis. If you watch "American Idol," you saw her perform recently on the show. Until I saw her on TV, I had never heard of her but what a talent!!! This girl can sing! Scroll on down to the music list and listen to some of her songs. My favorites are "Yesterday" and "Bleeding Love." ;-)

PLEATED PANELS

I'm in a Yahoo group with the owner of Terryfic Times, and she recently shared some pleated panels with several of the group members. The only requirement upon receipt was that we had to make a card (or other project) using the panels and, of course, share our creations with the group. Beverly sent me three panels, but I kind of made a mess of the first one trying to figure out how to fold it. This turned out to be a not-so-bad learning curve because I discovered that there are at least two ways to fold them. Pictured here are the two cards that I made.