The Fanciful Crafter

Organization, it’s probably the most important attribute for a scrapbooker, card maker or general crafter should have. For the most part I think I am pretty organized…..until I can’t find what I am looking for and toss everything around. Oops. So my resolution this year is to figure out better ways to organize. Since I have little space to set up my ultimate crafting area, I have been thinking of creative ways to put things away. an idea is born Sitting here eating some very delicious pretzel rods I kept staring at the package the sticks came in. I wondered what I could possibly use this for. I looked over at my stack of boxes which I loved but found to be completely useless in the displaying of my ribbons. I am a visual person; I need to see things to remember to use them so though the boxes can hold a lot there isn’t a neat way to show me what’s available. So I pondered what I could do and it finally came to me, the container could hold my ribbons! Now I just had to figure out how ...

I guess I have been behind on my plans to post in the new year. It sort of coincides with this post about a holiday card. I made this card as a gift for my BFF. With the economy the way it is I really thought a gift exchange would be too much. I suggested that we each craft each other a card instead. I of course gave her the option to buy one instead just in case she didn't have time to create one. So I began thinking about what kind of card I would like to make. I really enjoyed the snowglobe card I made for my nieces and nephews, so I began to think. I wanted it to be special so I decided to try to make a Tri-fold card. This card was very enticing to me and I was up for the challenge. So I got to work. I decided a bronze or gold cardstock would be my base. I pulled out my Martha Stewart Scoreboard and tried my hand at making the base using some scratch paper. I am glad that I did, because it took me a few tries before I was successful. I used my Cricut Christmas Cheer and Speakin...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I finally wanted to share the last few cards that I had been working on before the holidays. I finished wrapping and baking, finally. I hope you enjoy these new additions that I made. I really had some fun with my Cricut this time around. I used all my holiday cartridges Christmas Cheer, Speaking of Winter & Joy of the Season. I really liked this snow globe idea so I went with that. I used Stickles glitter to give the appearance of snow. My niece and nephews really liked this card because it represented them. On this card I kept it simple. I got an SVG file that someone made with these holiday phrases and it was pretty small for this card so I went back and colored in the individual words so that they would stand out. I think this would probably work better in a slightly larger size. I guess it was a lesson learned.

With the holidays just around the corner there is plenty of card making to be done. This year I will be sending out some extra special cards that I made in the last couple of weeks. I think it really is a great way to show those special friends how much you care and appreciate them this year. The first card I designed incorporated a 'winter wonderland' theme that works well for just about anyone. I liked the use of some craft foam snowflakes that I had tucked away in my embellishment box. They add a nice texture to the card and really pop. I also added some Ranger liquid pearl and glitter to the flakes to give them each a special look. I know I would be excited to receive a card like this. I used some silver wire ribbon so that the bow would stay in place. Using my SCAL software I was able to cut out the lettering and finally I used a gel pen to complete the sentiment. I chose to try a glitter cardstock and a silver metallic to see which I preferred. I actually think that both ...

I can't even begin to think about holiday cards just yet, though I have been working on them like crazy! I have a special birthday card to share with you this post. I consider it a very masterfully created card. Using my trusty Cricut and my SCAL I created this little beauty. It's for a special birthday boy and I can't wait to see what he thinks! I looked around the net for an image that I could use and found this Darth Vader image. Since I know how big a fan this guy is of Star Wars I thought that it would be perfect. So using my SCAL software I took what was an alarm clock image and made it into the correct shape. I reshaped the feet myself but it wasn't too hard using Inkscape. I welded together the wording using the Loki Cola font. I hope you enjoy this one!

Plain blank note cards are easily purchased for use at any occasion but why settle for just that? Sometimes you find them on clearance for less than the cost of a single card. I was pleasantly surprised with this find at my local Target a while back. Of course I think making a card personal is really just a way to show someone that you took the time to do something extra special for them. I had a stack of these very pretty red and gold designed cards and for the first few times I used them I just left them as is, which was great but I just thought they could be even better if I added something to them. So I went back into my trusty card box and decided I could do more with the ones I had left. Here are the designs I came up with. Using my Storybook Cricut Cartridge I made several different bases. I used the “Birthday Girl” phrase as both a positive and negative image. I will admit that the negative was much harder to work with than the positive but it does have some really great result...

Every month it feels like there's another birthday to celebrate. Before, I would just go out and buy a card and call it a day. With the economy being the way it currently is it seemed ridiculous for me to waste money on something I could easily create using items I already had at home. So with that in mind I pulled out all my scrapbook supplies and got down to business. The following cards are just some of the ones I have made recently, I hope you enjoy them! This card was created using my Sizzix balloon shapes. I added the "Birthday Girl" saying from my Cricut Storybook Font cartridge. I had some neon bright paper that I couldn't figure out what to do with so I used my Sizzix with the flower die cut and mixed them into a collage. I added the nameplate with the decorative brads to hold the sentiment.