Fun playing with paper....

Hey everyone...I hope you are enjoying your Sunday....I did get to start playing with paper!! Yippie for me!!! I needed to make a birthday card for an online friend's mother...she will be 90 in a couple of weeks......How cool is that!!! I am honored to get to send this person a birthday card to help celebrate such a special day!!!!

I'm really happy with how this turned out....I used one of my sweet sweet friends and AMAZING ARTist, Paulo decorative border and I created the flower based from the digital image I used in the creation of this card!!! I printed the digital image out on watercolor paper and colored with watercolor pencils....sharpies, bics and Tim Holtz distress inks........I used my polka dot embossing sleeve with the cuttlebug on the image once I had colored it then layerd over a tan cardstock.....I cut the words Happy Birthday as well with my cricut.....the flowers I cut I cut onto watercolor paper then colored them also with my watercolor pencils....for the center of all the flowers I used Rangers Sepia Accents and then took some brown yard and cut into itty bitty pieces to use as "flocking" to give the center of the flowers the fuzzy feel..........I used 3 different ribbons on the card.....

I also created a matching envelope and inside lining of the card.....Purple is my favorie color so I LOVE the warmth of this card......



7/9/2009 - Added Note: (I had someone ask what type of watercolor paper I ran through my printer to print this image onto.....I used Strathmore 90lb Watercolor paper) Keep in mind I do have a Laser Color Printer CP1215 that allows me to use thick paper....another wonderful reason I love my laser printer so much......I hope that answered your question....

So if anyone is interested in the digital image, or the flowers I created please click the image or designated area below.........

Download: HERE

Download: HERE

As always, THANK YOU for stopping by to visit with me!!! I hope you all have a very blessed Monday!!! Please come by again....until next time.....

Another Card......

I needed to create for a swap I'm involved in with Handmade Cards with Care...a Yahoo group.....I hate being late for anything and I equally feel bad I'm late on getting this swap completed but am glad I finally have it ready to be mailed......

I created the top layer design with Inkscape and then of course cut with SCAL on my cricut.....I layered behind the hearts a bit of lace to give it more of a delicate look.....After I cut my design I then taped with painters tape to a piece of printer paper and ran through my printer to print the image on the decorative frame.......The cardstock I tattered the edges then coated with some Tim Holtz's Distress Ink.........I really am quite happy with the way this turned out.....what took the longest time was cutting the design....I will say it did take a bit of time but well worth it I think......I can definately see myself using it again....

As always I'm attaching the file for anyone who might be interested in it....either click the image or the designated area below to download file........I hope you all enjoy it!!!!

Download: here

Now I'm able to start on the scrapbook pages I need to work on...Wish me luck...as I complete each page I'll share with you all....I am excited of the thoughts of using my cricut as much as I can on the pages...we'll see how that goes!!!! I want to THANK YOU for coming by and visiting...please come again.....Until next time....

The Birthday Card.....

is now offically done!!! Whew what a week......I had to get it done tonight to leave for her tomorrow......I'm relieved to have it finished.......It's a bit of a different birthday card I know....just wasn't feeling the whole birthday theme for this card......It's for the same girl I did the Chi Omega birthday card for last week......This card is from her mother and I did a beautiful poem on then inside from a mother to a daughter........so I thought the syle to of this card would go well.....

You already know I had to incorporate my cricut SOMEHOW!!! LOL....I decided I wanted to use a library card holder somehow into the card...but I didn't have one so I decided to create one in Inkscape.....I used some BEAUTIFUL flourishes I downloaded earlier in the week from this wonderful site.... http://mycricutscrapbooking.com/ This person makes some AMAZING cut files.......so I wanted to incorporate them in my design ......so you can see what I did....the library card holder and the scallop at the top is my design.........

I'm attaching the cut file if any of you are interested!!! You know the drill.......

Download: here

As always I want to THANK YOU for coming by to visit with me!!! It tickles me when you stop by....I hope you all have a WONDERFUL Friday!!! Please come again...until then....

A Birthday Card....

For the owner of our company is the task that I had been given on Thursday before I left work......WOW......talk about pressure!!!! He's celebrating his 80th Birthday and I had not a clue...and didn't have much to go with..........I had a fuzzy black and white image that I cut him out of in Corel PSP X2 then removed the background and changed him to a Sephia tone........then the ideas started going from there.......


I of course designed the card in Inkscape.......I created a svg of his body to and I created an svg of the balloons.....I'm attaching the ballon file I created but didn't think any of you would be much interested in his silohuette...LOL.......I designed the card background in Corel PSP X2 as well as the acetate......the words I typed is the Happy Birthday song to Mr. Cici........I was trying to make the card as masculine as I could......Anyway you can see what I came up with......

I am happy with how it turned out and I made the envelope with the same design as the card so they of course match....something which I'm very picky about!!! I hope you like the card......

Now if you would like to have the balloon you know the deal!!! Click on the image or the designated download area and it will take you directly to download the file.....

Download: here

I want to again Thank You for stopping by to visit with me.....I hope you have all had a Wonderful Easter and please come by again soon......Until then...

Hey Everyone....

I hope you all have been enjoying your weekend!!! Mine has been very nice as I was actually off yesterday so I've had an extra day to have fun!!! I needed to create a birthday card for my hubby's cousin...as we are celebrating her birthday this afternoon.....she's I believe 7 years old and LOVES Hannah Montana.....so I knew I wanted to do something to incorporate her into the card.....

So I decided to make a name book for her!!! HOPE.......but one that can be used so many times over........huh!!!! So here's what I made.....I found some Hannah Montanna graphics online......saved and removed the background so I just had the image of her and her name.....I took the name and created a paper background along with Happy Birthday Hope all over the paper....printed it onto some purple scrapbook paper and some yellow scrapbook paper......I just gotta say it turned out SUPER cute!!!! I used this paper to cut the fronts of the book pages......

I then used just the Happy Birthday Hope and created another background and printed it out on green and also purple scrapbook paper and used these to cut the backside of the Hope book pages I also created a cut file to do a shadow cut out of her and her name then measured the size of the cut out and then printed her image the size of the cut cut worked perfectly!!....note...when I layed my paper on my cricut mat to cut the backside of the pages I flipped my designed paper face down so when it cut it would be right side up when I glued to may chipboard........Oh yeah....for the chip board I used cardboard from pizza pocket boxes....WORKS SUPER!!! AND I'm recycling!!!!

I created some frames with Hopes name in them as well as a Fancy swirly frame with Happy Birthday cut out.......used LOTS of fabric flowers ribbon, confetti and glitter!!! I am TOTALLY thrilled with how this book turned out.....hence the reason I'm showing so many views because I want to be sure you can see the whole book!!!!!

I can't wait to give her the book today and I'm hoping it's something she will want to display in her room but we shall see......

I thought maybe some of you might be interested in the scut and svg files I created to make the book.........below are screenshots of the files and the download links are below the images......Some of them there are 2 different files to download....I explain what is in each file.....

Download Swirly Frame: here

Downlaod Swirly Frame w/ Happy Birthday: here

Download Hope Right: here

Download Hope Left: here

Download Book: here

I sure hope you liked what I created and might be able to find some use for the files!!!! If you have any questions about the files, please let me know...I will tell you on the Hope book file above.....I have it spread out on a 12x24 matt so I could get all the layers out at one time to work on...BUT before I actually do my cutting (because I only have a 12x12 matt) I change my matt size to be 12x12....the other files are still there....BUT they won't cut because you've set your cutting matt size to be 12x12...does that make sense???? What I did was put the items I wanted to cut at that time in the view of the 12x12 matt.....and kept the other files on the part of the matt that won't be seen when the matt is changed to 12 x 12....made my cuts then moved the other ones into the cutting area and the ones I had just cut over to the side that won't show when matt is set to 12x12.....

I hope I've made that clearer then mudd....LOL...If not and you have ANY questions, please feel free to email me at pennyduncan@att.net I would be happy to clairfy the best I can!!!!

I want to THANK YOU for stopping by to visit with me.....I had so much fun creating this book and I thank you for taking your time to come by!!!! Please come again...until then....I pray you all have a WONDERFUL Easter!!!!

Whew.....Lonnnngggggg Night...

I had a challenge to create a birthday card for a co-workers daughter who is in a sorority.....hummmmmmmmmmmm....I definately wanted to make it unique but what to do....Well they told me the name of her sorority "Chi Omega" and her favorite color is pink.....soooooo....I went from there......

I researched and found the symbols representing the sorority and found the sign and symbol and had a blast.....I found the image of the owl and converted it to an svg cutting file and cut it with my cricut as well as a shadow image.....then I used Character Map to create the symbols pasted them into my PSP saved as a jpeg and then created an svg cut file in Inkscape...also did a shadow of it as well.......the Happy Birthday and Ana were easy peasy of course created cut and cut shadow of them as well.....

Then for the paper....hummmmmmmmmm, what did I want to do there....well I decided to take the images I created and found and made them into brushes in PSP and then used the brushes to create the symbols on the paper I created.......I'm tickled that created everything from scratch and quite proud of it I might add!!! :)

I decided to run the symbol through my sizzix machine and used my Happy Birthday embossing folder then hit the raised spots with a Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad....I also distressed the edges of the background layer and the symbol with a distress tool and then touched the edges with the same ink pad......

I then decided I wanted ribbon on the card so I wrapped around the 2 top layers and then used a ribbon punch to make the slots to string the ribbon through....brought up through the opening of the symbol.....On the Owl layer I wadded the shadow layer up crumpled several times then hit with the same distress ink pad and then spritzed with some of my pearl ex spritzer and ironed flat....has a nice effect with the background of the owl!!!


For the inside of the card I used the same paper pattern I designed and lighted the opacity of the design and printed on to a pink paper as well as added a new brush of each of the symbols....I think it gives the card the finishing touch don't you!!!

I thought perhaps some of you may be interested in the symbols I created svg files for so I'm sharing them with you....as usual you can either click on the image to download or the indicated area below....

Download: here

Download: here

Ok.......guess I better get myself ready to leave for work....Just was so excited about this I wanted to be sure to share with you....I hope you like it as much as I do....I want to THANK YOU for stopping by to visit with me and do hope you come by again!!!! I hope you all have a very blessed day!!! Until then.....

Oh what fun I've been having.....

Why do I always do it to myself....I always seem to wait til the last minute to create swaps I've commited myself to....You'd think I would learn my lesson but I think I've realized I just enjoy the pressure I put on myself....NOT..... :) Anyway, I was determined to get 6 pieces of ART created today that I had commited to doing and just wanted to share with you what I came up with.......

This first one is for the ATC Swap with CraftyCardCreators @ Yahoo Groups.......It's a choose your own theme swap.....so I decided to personalize the ATC for the recipient.....I did design my layout in Inkscape and cut with my Cricut Expression.......as well as rubberstamped, stippled and layered......I think it is a very cheery ATC!!!!

This next swap is entitled "Butterfly Crossing" doesn't that sound like such a pretty pretty theme!!! Well I again designed my layout in Inkscape and cut with my Cricut Expression....this card had ALOT of cutting in it and I am totally thrilled with the outcome..It is a shaker card which is my new favorite card to make!!! The possibilities are so out there with this type design!!! I love EVERYTHING about this card!!!

Ok......now the next one....the theme for this card was "Country Days".......I wanted to do something that shouted Country.....I do believe I achieved that!!! Can you believe I didn't use my Cricut on this card...LOL.....boy was it tough to hold myself back!!! hehehe.....but I do still indeed like the outcome of this card!!!! It has a nice warmth to it and I love the addition of the buttons to it!!!!

Now the next theme was "Happy Birthday".....I tried to think a little outside the box on this one...perhaps I didn't achieve that goal but I do like what I came up with!!!! I again used my Cricut for parts on this card....embossing sleeve and I cleverly (at least to me anyway) cut a circle with my Cricut (NO that's not the clever part!!!) :) but then I placed it perfectly on my paper and ran through my printer and printed happy birthday in different fonts on the circle....I really like this technique and know I will use it more in the future!!!!

Ok....This next one is the "Sketch Swap".......I wanted something extremely cheerful and I think I achieved that!!!! I love the colors yellow and green together.......I used my Cricut Expression on the words but the rest was the good old fashion way of cutting!!!!

And then finally....there's the "Image Swap".......I don't like just making a card each month with the different images which are chosen to use so I always try to create something different....This time I came up with the idea of a Pin........I used the Cricut Expression to cut several Ovals that I then layered together....I then ran one of the ovals through my printer and printed the image I prepared.......rubbed the edges and sides with some green distress ink....punched some holes at the bottom then put several layers of modge podge over the piece to seal and coat.....once dried I placed the beads to the pin then glued the pin back to the back.......I really like the vintagy look of this and to think....it's made with cardstock.......

I felt I was on a roll today and certainly had fun......however I wish I would handle my creative time better......It's not like I don't have alot of me time!!! :) Thank you SO much for stopping by to visit with me and allowing me to share my ART with you!!! I hope you enjoyed what I've created and perhaps gain a few ideas!!! Please come by again....until then....

It's another day to celebrate!!!

Someone else's birthday is coming up and I had another request for some Birthday Cards!!!! They are both for the same person......I'm hoping the first one is enough of a masculine look....I think so, so I'm going with it...I love the way this turned out....I sorta made my own nestabilities type scallop circles.......I used a RS for the birthday image on the top layer of scallops.....I embossed with black embossing powder then used some of my Distress Ink Pads and then spritzed with water..the colors blend so pretty!!! The very top embellishment is just a round piece of cardboard that I covered with Distress Ink pad and then covered with clear embossing ink and clear embossing powder and embossed......the perfect shade to blend in with the card.....I cut SEVERAL of the "E" monogram from regular cardstock and then glued together to give the effect of chipboard letters....the top layer I cut with some of the wallpaper the background layer is........


The background layer of wallpaper I actually sliced in half and then embossed each half with different embossing sleeves then taped back together and that's where my ribbon is placed to help cover the seam.......I used some of my sizzix dies for the corner pieces that I cut from one of the coordinating wallpapers I'ved used on the scallops.....lined a piece of burgandy cardstock behind the background then mounted to a kelly green cardbase.......


The envelope...I modified a premade one and then embellished with wallpaper and ribbon that matches the card....I really like the way this card set turned out!!! Of course having the opportunity to use my cricut makes it all the more better!!! :)


This next card is from the gentleman's daughters.....he loves the Chicago Cubs and I was asked to incorporate Wrigley Field somehow in the card.......So here's my version........where the displayboard is supposed to be I cut that area out.....used my cricut to cut some metallic black cardstock with the phrase "Happy Birthday Dad".......backed a sticky sheet of cardstock behind the cutouto and then the layer of the phrase in the middle of the opening...I carefully covered the perimeter with black glitter then covered the words with antique gold glitter...doesn't it look like a live billboard!!! :)

Here's a shot of what I did for the inside....I took an image of the field with a crowd and cut it out to match the front of the card.....I did put the phrase in...I thought it fit perfectly for the nature of the card!!!

I really am looking forward to hearing what he thinks of this card.....I believe it will probably be one of his favorites!!!! He's a real cool guy and he has an amazing relationship with his two awesome daughters!!!!

So now I believe I'm completed with everyone's requests for cards for a bit and now I get to begin working on several swaps I'm signed up for!!!! I can at least relax a bit!!! I, as always....want to THANK YOU for stopping by to visit with me.....and taking time to share my ART with me!!! I do hope you will stop by again soon!!!! I hope you all have a very blessed day....until next time...

It's Already Sunday.....

I hope you've all had a good Saturday....mine was rather yucky with an upset tummy most of they day.....I started feeling better around 8:00 p.m. after sleeping most of the day away..... :( Now that I'm feeling better I started getting my creative muse back......Now here I set at 1:00 a.m. wide awake...LOL

I have 2 cards I have an order for and several swaps I need to work on......So I decided to get one of the sold orders designed and made.....here's what I came up with....

As you can see I did alot of polymer clay work on this creation......I'm still trying to teach myself everything....I know as I progress this will become better and better but I'm quite happy with what I've done so far.......





I as always am thrilled that you stopped by to visit with me and my latest creations...I do hope you will come by again.....it means so much and I am so appreciative to be able to share them with you.....Please come again....until then...