Fantabulous Cricut Top 5

Check out who made Top 5 at the Fantabulous Cricut "Love Is In The Air" challenge!  Check the cool blinkie I get too...woohoo!  I LOVE Top 5 honors because it means my item was chosen from the 134 entries as one of the 5 best.  That makes you want to run create more.

Here's the card that won...

Maggie Card Swap

I belong to a sweet little group on Yahoo Groups that likes to exchange kits to make cards and pre-made cards. This month's card swap theme is "Wouldn't It Be Loverly", a Valentine theme I suppose. Here's a photo of the card I made my partner, Beth...

This was a lot of fun! Little did I know when I was using my yummy bag of printed kraft pieces that these were actually scraps from a new line of card stock by Canvas Corp. I'm seeing it around now and at sneak peeks from CHA this week! Also used a number of Cricut cartridges for the hearts and my ever-growing supply of Copics for coloring, then tossed in some red Stickles and slathered things with Ranger Glossy Accents. There was also a generous amount of antiquing going on with various Colorbox stamp pads. Oh, and the most fun item is the little paper piecing I used on Edwin's overalls...that's more from the scrap pack by Canvas Corp I purchased at A.C. Moore. The ivory rose was snipped from trim purchased on eBay long ago. The trinket pin is by Maya Road with a little addition of a red glass crystal I glued in place with a small dab of Glossy Accents (that stuff is amazing and love it's "multipurpose-ness"!) I used Spellbinder's lacy square for the interior. The awesome black & ivory check ribbon is from a spool I won at May Arts...lucky me! Here are a few more close-ups for you to see:

Guess what? It's an easel card!

Mojo Back at Last!!

I have been in a recovery period since Christmas and finally have some mojo back and have been spending time in my studio making Valentine cards.

I LOVED this Valentine card so much last year that I thought I'd see how many I could make to sell in my Etsy.com store. It has been ages since I listed anything there also but am at up for a test to see how the economy is doing for handmade papercrafts. I even sat down and remade my logo to finally match my name.

The buttons are from a huge tin my mother gifted me of many years ago. My sister always got mom's heirloom jewelry, etc. and I got a tin of buttons, tarnished silverplate, and the like. Gotta love those two, they always took such good care of me! Anyway, I have always marveled at how bottomless that tin has been and how metaphoric is was for my life so when I sat down to create my blog it came to mind, hence my blog name..."Musings from the Button Box".

I hope you've enjoyed my little bit of family history and will check out my listings on Esty.com and stop back soon.

I have a number of Magnolia Valentines to post and enter in challenges this week.

My Rare Top Tip Tuesday Challenge Entry

The folks at Top Tips are having a challenge with prizes for the top tip during the current challenge period. My tip is a simple one that involves a bit of recycling. Cricut users are guaranteed to LOVE this one!

I have the Cricut Expression and have found once I am ready to discard my adhesive mats I save them to reuse the top acetate sheet if in good shape but the real secret is I reuse the mats too. I love to do paper piecing and make many of my own patterns for animals and little humans, etc. I found the "spent" mats make great patterns or templates. I trace around my piece (right side up) with a Sharpie and cut out. The adhesive remainder on the pattern you've just created will adhere just enough so the pattern doesn't slide around and the vinyl makes a terrific sturdy pattern. Enjoy!

Mojo Monday #159 Challenge

Just when I thought all my mojo was gone along comes a fun challenge sketch to get the creative energy flowing! I decided this sketch lent itself well to cards I wanted to make for OWH so I went to town and made 6. I think they turned out pretty nice and might make a great Valentine card too.

Here's the cool Mojo Monday sketch:

For my interpretation of the sketch I used my paper stash to make a double-layer diecut label from the Cricut Storybook cartridge. Bo Bunny Double Dot ribbon conceals the "seam" on the 2 patterned papers which are layered with harlequin check on a 5.5" x 4.25" black card base which was lined with white paper (since the troops don't have white pens.) The red diecut "love note" comes from the Wild Card cart. I stamped the back in white with the OWH logo. The flowers are generic mulberry flowers and ones I diecut with the Cricut Wild Card, self-adhesive Button-Ups make fun centers. Best of all...everything used came from my stash so no shopping required!

Hurry over to Mojo Monday's blog...this is a weekly challenge where you can enter more than one card. Entries must be in by Sunday. The prize is a set of Verve stamps. Have fun!

I wish I could find a partner to share a case of A2 size white envelopes because the $10.99 Staples charges for a measly 100 is a budget buster when one can get 1000 for about $29.00 from the OWH source! Email me if anyone nearby would like to share a case.

Cards for Kids

Be sure to visit the Card for Kids campaign. Click the enclosed link to read more about it or visit Jennifer McGuire's blog at http://jennifermcguireink.typepad.com/.