Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Seize the Cake

One of my favorite things to eat is the cake my husband gets me each year for my birthday. Since I have made cakes and decorated them for years it's a real treat to get a bakery cake for my birthday with that yummy filling inside.


This CottageCutz Celebration Cake die is great for all those fun ocassions we get together with family and friends. I have said it many times before and I'll say it again...these dies are so versatile!


Here is my birthday cake card:





My daughter got married last October and her colors were aqua & orange with black and white accents. These colors are tough to find together but with this cake die I recreated the wedding cake for a future layout I'll do on her wedding cake.

All this cake is making me hungry! Too bad I'm on a sugar free diet right now :(
Have a good one!
Kay

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

MOM my funny flower

 For all the Mom's out there, this week I made a Mother's Day Card with the Cottage Cutz Funny Flower Die. The die comes with the large flower, three styles of leaves. . and Clear Stamps to make the funny faces on the flower. In addition there are four mini clear bug stamps.
 The three leaves help you add personality to the flower. I sewed the vine with heavy thread and added the little blossoms and leaves  (1/4" hole punch cut in half). The leaves were all cut from a pale green card stock and colored with three shades of green Copic markers, The flower was a med pink card stock highlighted in three shades of pink Copic markers. The Mom was shaded from the center out with the same three shades of pink Copic markers.  Shading from the middle out adds a new look to the letters, rather than top to bottom/dark to light.
 I added the fence to break up the pink, and also to show you how to create a wood plank look on your card stock (most embossing folders are too large a print for a fence). I think Bazzil Bling gives you the best texture because of the finish on the paper, but you can do the same with less of a texture on basic Bazzil. Start (look at sample piece) with your knot hole and work stripes down and around the knot hole, be sure to be uneven widths and also stop here and there. . restart and go to the next line. Never start a knot hole in the same place and never put more than one knot hole per plank.  I know the tool that I use has several names, . . Ball Burnisher, Scoring tool. . They are double ended and come in several sizes. Martha Stewarts comes maybe 2MM on one end and 3MM on the other. They are really hard to find. (they come with wood handles in the clay dept.,  Martha Stewart's is a cream handle,  McGill is lime green/yellow and fiskars are royal blue).
This little guy I did in yellow with the eyes closed smiley face stamp and added one of the bug stamps from the set buzzzz-ing around his head. Swirled a few wires for vines. . . .Yes it's a southern Suu-ny Dayz . . .

Thank You and Happy Mothers Day to all. . . . .  Barry


Monday, May 02, 2011

Banana Split Anyone?


Good morning friends!  Today's card features the new Mouse With Banana Split die by Cottage Cutz from 
The Scrapping Cottage.  I love this die!  You could use it to make Summer Fun cards or Birthday cards.  You could put just the Split on the card or you could have the mouse running toward the ice cream excitedly.  I applied Crystal Effects to the bowl to make it look like glass.  I used bright, bold, festive colors to make this celebratory card.  Have a fantastic day!
Hugs and smiles,
Janice

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Easter Puppy Card

I had a friend ask me to create a card for her 9 year old nephew who loves dogs. Of course I went right to my Cottage Cutz dies! I didn't have the puppy die, but I did have the Cottage Impressions Dog with Santa Hat stamp. Obviously I didn't need the Santa hat so I only inked the parts of the stamp I needed. After I stamped the image, I filled in the top with my Copic fine pen. Then, I colored him in with my colored Copics.
Thanks for stopping by today! Please keep Alabama in your thoughts and prayers. The damage and loss of 100's of lives as a result of the massive tornados that ravaged our state has been disasterous. I have lived here all of my life and the devastating events of this past week are truly the most horrific I have ever seen.



Friday, April 29, 2011

Celebrating Royal Love

Good morning and welcome to The Scrapping Cottage Blog!!  There's a royal celebration going on today, and my card was made just for this special occasion.  To celebrate the marriage of Prince William to his beautiful Princess Kate, I created this card using the Cottage Cutz Frame 1 die that was released for Valentine's Day.  The stamped sentiment is a Cottage Impressions stamp from the same release.  I stamped the "Love" with Versamark, and heat embossed it using black embossing powder.
Lots of background bling, and bling everywhere for that matter gave this card a crown of royal jewels.  An organza bow with stick pins which reminded me of the Queen's scepter finished this one off .   I used this card as part of a blog hop celebrating the Royal Wedding, and I'm giving away some blog candy to one lucky commenter on my blog, so if you have a chance, please stop by MY BLOG and hop along with us.  You'll find some amazing and inspiring creations and several chances to win some candy.  

So happy you could stop by today.  Make it a beautiful day and do some happy stamping!




Thursday, April 28, 2011

XoXo

Good morning! Happy Thursday! :) For today's project, I used the adorable Cottage Cutz giraffe to make an I miss you card.


Isn't he, excuse me, she, sweet! Her friend, bluebird, is from the bunny with umbrella die, from the spring/Easter release. The little birdie is the perfect companion to any of the Cottage Cutz animals. I have a confession...the scalloped circle behind the giraffe is actually the piece I was planning to throw away. I was going to use the inside circle instead, but this looks so cute I changed my mind and used it instead! LOL


For my message, I used the label and XOXO stamp from the Love release.



Thanks for visiting the blog today. Come back again soon for upcoming projects featuring new releases!


Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Floral Tea

 Floral Tea. . .just a hint of floral added to Starbucks Awake tea. This weeks card is made with the Cottage Cutz Teacup Mouse die. I used a wide border punch to create a lattice and added a few flowers from the teacup die. I used pink card stock for the teacup because it showed the flowers off the best. The flowers were done in pale blues, teals and shades of pink.
 The mouse looks so cute hanging over the edge of the teacup. I added a little teabag dangling in his hand. Most of the coloring is done in ink pads with a sponge, but the teabag looked better in three shades of Copic markers. They seemed to give a better tea stained effect.
 To show you a little of how I colored the card stock. . the three leaves above are in stages (it may be hard to see). I lightly color the side of the first leaf in Copic Leaf Green, than sponge (highlight) the bottom part of the leaf in Memento Bamboo Ink. This gives you several shades of color tones, depending on where and what colors overlapped. Lastly on the third leaf I added the gold shimmer from a Sakura Pen in a few random area's. Each leaf looks slightly different. The other note here is that I colored the leaves while they were not punched out. If you pick the paper off the die machine gently after cutting, the design pieces will stay in tact. This allows me to work the color to where I want it.  . . because the large part of the paper is holding my leaves. I do not have to worry about holding that tiny leaf (in my case with fat fingers) or over coloring the leaves after they have been glued down. I have greater control over where the color is and also the direction of the color.
 I also did a matching teabag tie on. The base paper is 2" x 5 3/4", with score lines at 2 1/2", 3" and 5 1/2". Cut a 1 3/8" square window on one side and clip the top two corners. The Cottage Cutz Mouse die head fits perfect on the corner of the window. . . .with his little hand hanging over. Make a mini hole protector with a 1/8" and 1/4" hole punch. Add a string to the top of the teabag (I used the heavy twisted thread that comes like embroidery floss, but teenagers use it to make friendship bracelets. It comes in a mixed bag of colors, has a nice rope texture). Slip a starbucks teabag into the pouch. They come in really nice silk net bags.
Tie your creation to the side of each teacup at your next event. Add one to a breakfast tray next time you are helping someone under the weather. Make a few and throw in a basket next to the pot at the office.    Go on . . .make someone feel special today!

Sorry for the delay. Had a bit of electronic mishap this morning. I think my pictures may have posted to a inter office memo at the White House. Opps.

Thanks Barry






Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Engagement Roses

I was excited to finally use my Rose stem die back from the Valentine's Day release. When my daughter got engaged last August she got a dozen red roses that night and I knew this die would go perfectly on a layout. I cut the rose out twice and assembled the first one just like it was shown and the second one I wanted a rosebud so I trimmed of the leaves on one side and didn't make the rose as full. I also used a little ink around the edges of my pieces for a little depth.



The Design Team is anxiously waiting for our next shipment of dies so stay tuned for some fun birthday projects coming your way as well as some Peachy Keen projects.

See ya next week, Kay



Monday, April 25, 2011

Spring Has Sprung

The weather was gorgeous yesterday, Easter Sunday!  I do believe Spring has finally arrived, although today is grey and misty.  The weather sure has been up and down all over.  Today's card features the Garden Pot Bunny, by Cottage Cutz.  I hope you will check out the store and make a wish list, cause when you see what's new and coming, if you are like me, you're going to want them all!  Thanks for having a look!  Have a wonderful day!



Hugs and smiles,
Janice

I apologize.  I didn't check Nikki's post yesterday, until now.  We used the same die, and her card is so much cuter than mine.  Lesson learned, always remember to check the blog.  I will try to make a different card and get it posted as soon as possible.


Here is another card.  I used Bird's Nest and Cat dies,  Hope you like.  Enjoy the rest of your day!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

If friends were flowers...

Hello and Happy Easter! For my card today I used the Garden Pot Bunny. I cut it only one time from white cardstock and used my ink blending tools and distress inks to color it. Super easy!
The patterned paper is from the Hello Luscious collection from Basic Grey. Ok, that's it! Have a wonderful Easter!

♥ Nikki ♥



Saturday, April 23, 2011

Easter Kitty Card

Just because it is Easter, doesn't mean you can't pull out some of your stash and find a new way to use some of your shapes. For my project today, I created an Easter card for a little 9 year old girl who loves kittens. Instead of having the kitten holding the Valentine's heart, I cut out one of the bunnies from the patterned paper and voila - Easter Kitten!
Thanks for coming by today! I hope you are having a great Saturday! See you next week!


Thursday, April 21, 2011

Happy spring

Today's project is a simple card using the ornate wreath from the Easter release.

Can you see the bunnies and tulips in the design? So clever and cute! I simply adhered the wreath to the front of a scalloped circle card and added a sentiment sticker and lots of bling and doodles. Tie a ribbon or twine around the fold, and you have a lovely spring or Easter greeting!





Thanks for looking!