A Touch of Gray: Handmade Cards for Every Occasion: Nursery Rhyme Cricut Cartridge

Hope you all had a great weekend. My weekend was filled with gardening but I did get a chance to work on a few cards. My good friend Beth's daughter (Nadia) is turning one in June. She is so damn adorable. I just love kissing on her cheeks. Her brother (Adian) is also a little looker as well. Beth and her husband Geoff sure make pretty babies.

Anyway...Beth asked me to come up with a design for some b-day invitations for Nadia (which is Aidan's name backwards). This is what I came up with.

Nadia - The Birthday Girl

I wanted to go for some neutral vintage colors but had to add a little color (pink) to the card. I added some Cotton Candy Tim Holtz stickles to the flag and also added pink ribbon and used pink thread for the machine stitching. Only 24 more invitations to go.

Card Challenges Entered
Alphabet Challenge Blog - Clean and Simple
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Anything Goes
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments Designs - Children Cards
Creative Card Crew - Cute & Girly
Diva's By Design - One for the Girls
I Did it Creations Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
If The Shoe fits... Scrap It! - Clean & Simple
Inspire Me Fridays - Anything Goes
Make it Monday - Anything Goes
Night-Shift Stamping - Challenge 67: Monochrom
Really Reasonable Ribbon - Anything Goes
Ribbon Carousel - Clean & Simple
Tuesday Throwdown - Baby/Child
Truly Scrumptious Challenge - Challenge 57: Anything Goes

Recipe
Cream Cardstock
Nursery Rhyme Cricut Cartridge
Studio G Stamps for the "Join Us.." Tag
Tim Holtz Cotton Candy Stickles
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo
Machine Stitching
Pink Ribbon

I finally broke out the Nursery Rhyme Cricut Cartridge (the link for the catridge is for the ProvoCraft website...you can get the cartridge for a lot cheaper over at Amazon or checking out eBay) over the weekend. After purchasing it several months ago and having grand plans to use it for some other holiday cards, I decided it was high time to use it Valentine's Day. The images are perfect for using for a variety of projects. I have been really getting into using silhouettes for my cards. I look forward to creating lots of cards with this cartridge this year (a lot of friends are expecting new additions to their growing families and this cartridge will be the go-to for all those congratulation cards).

My First Crush - Vintage Inspired Valentine's Day Handmade Card

I wanted to make a vintage inspired card to list on my little etsy shop. It is written in the stars that I will more than likely make a few vintage feeling cards for Valentine's Day. I use a variety of different mediums to age my cards and design components to get that aged feel to the card; everything from tea bags, Starbucks coffee, red wine, stamping ink/pad, distressing ink/pad, and fire. For this card, I used Coffee Bean Colored Stamping Ink by Brilliance, Antique Linen Tim Holtz Distressing Ink, Older Paper Tim Holtz Distressing Ink , and a Lipton Black Tea Bag.

First off, I aged the cream colored cardstock (outside and inside of the card) and went through all the shades of brown cardstock that I own to find the perfect color for the card. I picked out the Pinecone Cardstock from Bazzill Basics which I used for the front and back of the card. The inside of the card is layered in Savannah Cardstock from Bazzill Basics.

The card design has three panels (top, middle, and bottom). Let's talk about the top two panels. The base of the panel is a strip I cut out from Savannah Cardstock from Bazzill Basics. I aged the edges using the items listed in the previous paragraph. For the next layer of each panel, I used More Than Words from the BoBunny Crazy Love Collection and machine stitched the panels. I used Martha Stewart's Heart Punch for the hearts adorning each panel and aged them. I mounted the hearts using mounting tape to give them a 3D effect. For the middle panel of the card I used Savannah Cardstock from Bazzill Basics (also aged) for the first layer and topped the strip of cardstock off with a designer sheet from the Sweetness Collection by Pink Paislee. For a little embellishment love I added brown and pink fibers to create a little bow.

The bottom panel layer is also the Savannah Cardstock from Bazzill Basics (again...aged). I used the Nursery Rhyme Cricut Cartridge for the little couple and sponged the edges of the die-cut with Coffee Bean Colored Stamping Ink by Brilliance. I also added a little pink fiber bow to the little girl's dress and finished off the panel with a decorative machine stitched border.