Simply Sunday "Freedom isn't Free"

Good day all my friends,

+++If you are looking for the Lasting Memories challenge, please scroll down+++

Today is another great  day to be alive.  Here we are again for another Simply Sunday at Getting Cricky.  This week's challenge is featuring our "Freedom isn't Free" stamp set.  I know we just came from a Getting Cricky blog hop, click here if you missed it, featuring this stamp set, but can we ever do too much for out troops?  I currently have 4 friends that are serving overseas and I pray for them every day.  There is still time to make a card and mail it here if you want to join in for the Run for the Fallen.

With all the posts that we've been doing lately for our soldiers, I started to think about my dad a lot more.  He served in the Army as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne division so I thought, since I will be seeing him soon I would make him a card and this is what I came up with.

Again, I used the Stand and Salute cart and Kristal's "Freedom isn't Free" stamp set of course.  I bought this cartridge because I thought I would be able to make some cool 4th of July images for my layouts, but making these cards has been a great delight for me.  I just can't seem to make enough.

Here is a mug I did for him a while back:

These are the paratrooper wings and his name that
I vinyled onto a travel coffee mug for him.
He takes that mug everywhere.

I hope you've enjoyed my card and hope that you will come over to Getting Cricky and add one of your own and maybe honor someone close to you as I am doing for my dad.

Lasting Memories #48 "It's all about the TITLE"

Good morning,

today is another beautiful Sunday with Lasting Memories.  Karen really is making me explore so many different venues.  It's weird how you forget about certain things, or simply stay in a rut doing the same thing over and over.  I know for a while it seemed like all my pages were the same.  Since I've been designing over at Lasting Memories, my pages "pop".  So a big shout out to Karen for not only having the confidence in me to let me join her awesome team, but also for giving me the encouragement to make so many different layouts.  THANK YOU, KAREN!!!

So here goes my TITLE:

I used my E-Craft to cut the title.  The paper has some tiny fibers in it and it's really flimsy.  I wasn't sure if it would cut, but check out the details on the A and the N.  My cricut would have NEVER been able to cut these letters.  Believe me, I tried...

I also cut and printed around the edges of my journal block with the E-craft.  This was so cool.  It's all done with one motion.  The drawback is that the pens only come in black...I then also inked around the edges a bit to give it some pop.  

Sorry about the blurry journaling block. It reads:
August 4, 2007
I have an obsession with elephants and they have
also intrigued Austyn.  This was at the Omaha, NE
zoo.  These are such beautiful animals in my opinion!
I added some bling to my title and some ribbon under the journal block and added a bow.  I love this page.  Oh yeah, and I used pattern paper again.  Boy I am getting good at combining pattern paper finally.  Practice makes perfect, well, pretty good anyway.

I also used my Getting Cricky Positive Thought stamp set for "Life is grand" and "Smile" and the Splashtastic Summer set for "Have a ball"  I love how I can use them in layouts also and not just for cards.

So I hope that I've inspired you to use something cool with your title on your layouts and try something new.  So, go and boldly title your layout and join us over at Lasting Memories...who knows, you might become Top 3.

Operation Owl Thank you blog hop

Welcome to the "Operation Owl Thank You" Blog Hop!!

Today the Getting Cricky design team and some special guests are coming to you for a special blog hop "thanking" Kristal for all she has done for us.  We will each be featuring special "Thank You" card to be mailed to Kristal.

Our Design Team term is coming to an end and we just want to be sure to let Kristal know how much she has meant to us over the last 3 month.  Wow, how time flies when you are having fun.  If you are interested in participating, you can add your card to the link below and mail them to the address here.

I am the first and last stop for the Operation Owl Thank You blog hop, so please read on and get inspired.

We have some Blog Hop CANDY for one lucky WINNER!!!  

Amy Chomas has graciously donated a mini gel pen set and holder as our grand prize and some of the ladies have also added to the pot (surprise package).  

You must go to each blog and leave a comment (following would be nice also) to qualify for the grand prize.  Then come back here and tell me that you did so.  I will be picking one lucky winner on Wednesday, July 27th.  So make sure to come back here and see if you won.

I will also pick one lucky winner for leaving a comment and becoming a follower to win this Amazing You stamp set.

Each of Kristal's stamp sets benefit charity. At least $1 per stamp set goes to benefit the charity noted on the stamp set package. Kristal is donating to the following charities: Cancer Angels, Storefront Shelter for Homeless Children, Intrepid & Fallen Heroes, Doorways Shelter for Women & Children (Domestic Violence), and Autism Research Institute. Kristal will donate $1 for every stamp set sold, retail or wholesale to the charity noted; and over time believes this will add up to some wonderful miracles for these special people. So you can feel good that each time you purchase a K Andrew Designs art stamp set, someone around the country is receiving some good help!

K Andrew Designs stamps are all made and assembled here in the USA, which is very important to Kristal. This ensures all product materials are safe and that jobs are being provided and maintained here in America.

I am featuring the "Amazing You" Stamp Art Set for today's hop.  At least $1 goes to benefit Doorways for Women & Families ( an organization helping those escape and survive domestic violence)

I made this card for Kristal because I really do 

believe she is an amazing person.  Her thoughtful 

blog posts are always so delightful.  I can hardly wait 

to get an email update so that I can run over there and see 

what amazing thoughts she has in store for us that day.

She has been a blessing to me and I could have made 

at least 10 cards using this stamp set because she is

all of those things plus more.

Now head on over to Amy Chomas and check out what she has in store for you and if you get lost along the way, here is your lineup.    Don't forget to stop at each blog and leave a comment for your chance at the grand prize.  Good luck and enjoy!!!

Brenda                 http://createbyburffrau.blogspot.com
Amy Chomas         http://amychomas.blogspot.com/

Jess                     http://myscrapdiary-jess.blogspot.com/

Kathy T                http://scrappingfelkatz.blogspot.com

Lisa                     http://indymermaid.blogspot.com

Becka                  http://www.creationswithbecka.blogspot.com

Kathy P                http://the3esblog.blogspot.com

Ro                       http://rodonner.blogspot.com

Amy                     http://www.lovetocrop.com

Becky                  http://www.squirlygirlcreations.blogspot.com

Charlotte             http://alittlebitofdetail.blogspot.com

Julie                    http://jk-littlebitofbling.blogspot.com

Rebecca               http://craftingmisfit.blogspot.com/

Erika                    http://www.craftysprouts.com/

Brenda                 http://createbyburffrau.blogspot.com

Festive Fridays 7-22

Good morning and welcome to another edition of Festive Fridays. If you are new to us, sit back, grab a cup of coffee, relax and enjoy some wonderful Christmas Cards. Yes, I did say Christmas...Festive Fridays will be every other Friday with samples of Christmas cards. This way, you can be making your cards all year long and you will avoid the mad rush when you could be enjoying the Christmas Season. You should have just come from Amanda. If you stumbled upon this post you can go back to Terri and start at the beginning. There is also a complete list of the Festive Friday hop on the left sidebar under the Festive Fridays blinkie in case you get lost along the way.

This was super simple.  I used my E-Craft to cut the gingerbread man with SCAL3, added some puffy paint to his arms and legs.  I added 3 non-traditional buttons and his face is the Peachy keen Everyday Face assortment.  I love making shape cards, especially for the kids on my  Christmas list.

This week we also have some blog candy.  Robin's Nest has donated a Christmas card kit, so be sure to leave a comment on every blog as you hop through and one winner will be selected by Terri.

I hope you like my Festive Friday card and hope to see you back in two weeks for another christmas card.  Now head on over to Angela and check out what she has for you. 

You will rise above this (Pink ribbon)

Good morning,
I have a quick card I want to share with you.  A friend of mine is battling breast cancer for the 2nd time and I wanted to make her a card letting her know she has beaten this once already and she "will rise above this to be victorious".  I am featuring the "Positive Thoughts" stamp set by Getting Cricky.  This set is so wonderful with all it's different meanings.  Perfect sentiments to inspire, encourage, and uplift! 4x6 sheet of photopolymer stamps made in the USA. $1 from each set benefits Storefront Shelter (Homeless shelter for children and youth).

I inked around all the edges of the ribbon, the tag (just cut with my crazy scissors) and the card base and added lots of bling.  She's gonna love all that bling.  Super easy, peasy but from the heart.

Now remeber there will by a  very special blog hop coming up this Saturday called Operation Owl, the hop has been sponsored by Amy Chomas and she has donated Gel pens and a holder to give away! These pens are awesome! You can use them in your cutting machines! WOOHOO. So make sure you come back on Saturady so you can join in all the fun! There lots of prizes and goodies along the way. I will be giving away another K.Andrew stamp set.

Blog Hop Winner and more

Good morning all
I wanted to quickly give  you the winning selections of my cards.  Remember the six that I featured?  For those of you who voted, thank you.  Here are the results.

#1 with 10 votes

#2 with 8 votes

Tied for #3 with 6 votes

Tied for #3 with 6 votes

#4 with 4 votes

#5 with 2 votes
Now I must say I was a bit shocked by some of the votes.  I really didn't think my wiper card was that great, but you guys did.  My choices were #1, the hearts, #2 the F16 and #3 aircraft carrier.  See what I know...hahaha.  So now onto the winner for the "Freedom isn't Free" stamp set...I had 50 comments and the winner is:

Pam said...

First thank you so much for your service and that of your family. I liked every one of your cards. Each one spoke volumes. If I were to choose 3 they would be: The red,white,& blue hearts, The boots, and the God Bless the USA. Hugs, Pam at http://craftycards4u2.blogspot.com/

July 16, 2011 12:01 AM 

Pam, you have one week to email me your address at buffrau @ aol dot com with the Freedom isn't Free in the subject line.  Thank you all for commenting and thank you to those who became new followers.  I am trying to get to each and everyone of you.

Also I wanted to let you all know about a ver special blog hop coming up this Saturday called Operation Owl, the hop has been sponsored by Amy Chomas and she has donated Gel pens to give away! These pens are awesome! You can use them in your cutting machines! WOOHOO. So make sure you come back on Saturady so you can join in all the fun! There lots of prizes and goodies along the way. I will be giving away another K.Andrew stamp set.

Berry Sweet

Good day


Here is a quick card I made for as a "thank you".  Remember, you can say "thank you" in so many different ways.

I used the Food for Thought stamp set from Getting Cricky. 

Perfect little set to tuck in lunchboxes! 4x6 sheet of photopolymer stamps made in the USA. $1 from each set goes to Storefront Shelter for Homeless Children.

The cut was a free SVG file, but I can't remember where I got it from, so if it's yours, please drop me a line and I will link to you.  
I added a few dots with my white gel pen.
The background paper is from my stash and so is the ribbon.
The face is the Peachykeen Dolly Dumplings Assortment


Just a quicky, but oh so fun

Stinking cute blog award and E-craft

Good morning

I just love it when people come and read my blog and leave me a comment.  It makes blogging worth it so much more.  Don't get me wrong, even if you didn't comment, I will still be leaving my two cents worth, bbwwwaaa.  Then there are those who receive blog awards and want to pass them onto me.  So I want to thank you all for thinking of me!!!  Now Janice from Cricutology passed this one onto me also and I just love her blog.  She has some of the cutest things going on over there and her videos are so informative.  But what I love about her blog the best is that she has a daily blessing on her sidebar.  I love going over there to read what inspiration there is for the day.  I usually start my morning reading her blessing!!!  Go over and check it out...you might find a new way to start your morning.  Now my problem is finding someone who has not received that particular blog award, so if you have already received the award, I am sorry for the duplication.  In no particular order here goes:
Kim at http://me-makimsplace.blogspot.com/
Sharon at http://sharonbscraps.blogspot.com/
Sue at http://thescrappingsofsue.blogspot.com/
Karen at http://creationsbykw.blogspot.com/
Denise at http://thruthelookingglass-glassgraffitix2.blogspot.com/
Thank you all again for making blogging worth it so much more for me.  You are all an inspiration to me!!!


ok, now to something else.  I have had my E-craft for about 3 months now and really haven't played with it until recently.  I am test cutting for someone's new files and since I am the only one in the group that has the E-Craft I am designated to using it.  I really am glad to have a reason to use it.  I want to show you some detailed cuts I did using the cart that came with the E-craft.  Now I will be able to use my SCAL with it, I am just waiting to get my SCAL 3 upgrade and then I will be fully function able.  The E-craft does come with it's own software, but I don't care too much for it.  I would rather use my SCAL, but that is partially because I am so used to it.  So here is my E-Craft

Yup, it's purple.  Love it.
Now I just have to think of a cute logo
in vinyl for on the lid

All these cuts are 3 inches.
Now my cricut could do these also, but it couldn't do it with this paper.  In order for me to use this paper with my cricut, I would use spray tac and glue it to another piece of cardstock, wait until it was completely dry and then it would cut with my cricut.  This paper is just a teensy tiny bit heavier than your regular computer paper and in my cricut, no matter what I did to change the blade depth, pressure, speed, etc., I could never get a clean cut. It would tear my paper and make me very frustrated, because I have a lot of this paper.  My son bought it for me for Christmas last year from Sam's club and I love most of it and would like to use it.  If I get a chance this week I will do a short video, but until then, these pictures will have to do.  Please leave me a comment or email me if you have any questions on the E-Craft and I will try to dedicate a day once a week to give an E-craft tutorial.  So far I must say I am very happy with the cutting ability.

Simply Sunday "Food for Thought"

Good afternoon my friends,

***If you are looking for my Lasting Memories post, please scroll down***

Today is another beautiful Sunday in the neighborhood although it's hotter than the dickens.  We had a nice, brief rain shower this morning, but now the humidity has picked up again.  Doesn't do much for the hair, so baseball cap it is today.  I am so excited about today's project.  When I joined Kristal over at Getting Cricky to be on her design team I never imagined I'd be having this much fun!!!  She is truly a remarkable woman.  She is strong, funny, generous and most of all, she is very inspiring.  As you all know she came out with her own stamp line and I have every stamp set so far.  The best part of owning her stamps is that I know that every time I purchase a stamp set from her $1 will go to benefit a well deserved charity.  Also, all her stamp sets are made right here in the good old USA...gotta love that.  This ensures all product materials are safe and that jobs are being provided and maintained here in America.


Today all the girls will be featuring the "Food for Thought" stamp set.  Now, I must confess that when I got her "Food for Thought" stamp set, I wasn't quite sure about it.  You see, the thought behind them where for lunchbox notes.  Now, my youngest will be starting middle school and doesn't take his lunch to school.  He thinks his mom is corny enough and sending a lunchbox note with him would just give me the *eye roll* and a "REALLY, mom???"  So I was a bit concerned, but alas, my brain went into overdrive and this is what I made.  Now, remember how I said in a previous post that "thank you" is somewhat over used...how about saying "Hot Dog, you are awesome"  Combining the Food for Thought and the Amazing You stamp sets.

The background paper is from Diane's Daughter

(it kinda reminded me of picnic paper or good for a manly card)

The rest of the cuts are scrap paper

and all the edges were inked

The hot dog and bun is by CuttingUpDesigns

I used green stickles for "relish"

and yes, it's a wobble

but it look so much better in person.  Maybe I will do a video ...

do you want one?

Now I hope you hop over to Getting Cricky and check out what the design team has put together and then challenge yourself to make something with Food...hahaha, just don't burn down the kitchen.

Remember, there is still time to comment on the Getting Cricky Blog hop "Run for the Fallen" for a chance to win the "Freedom isn't Free" stamp set here

Oh and before I forget, I have a winner for the "Being Featured on Getting Cricky".  If you missed the post you can go back here to see what I had made.  The winner is:

CathyinMN said...

Your card is so cute! The wobble just adds that extra touch. Thanks so much for the video showing how to make wobbles; it's very helpful and I feel I'm equipped to try wobbles now. Thanks also for the chance to win such a fun stamp set.

July 12, 2011 7:54 PM 

Congratulations Cathy, please email me (burffrau @ aol dot com) your address and I will get this in the mail to you as soon as possible.  You will have 1 week to get this information to me or else I will have to pick another winner.

Lasting Memories #47 "Add Distressing"

Good morning fellow scrapbookers and friends
Wow, what a crazy week I've had.  Nothing out of the ordinary I suppose, just very busy with all kinds of craft projects.  It may not seem like I showed a lot of different posts, just a lot all at once.


Today I am showing you a layout I did for my Lasting Memories Design Team challenge.  Have I told you lately how much I love being over there?  You know how you can get into a rut doing the same thing over and over again?  Sure, you may add an extra brad, or ink up a photo mat this time, but do you really dig into all the creative ways you can alter your pages?  Well this week's challenge was distressing.  Sure, I do some almost on every layout, but not as much as I was challenging myself.  Here is my take on the challenge:

I inked around all the mats and the edges

of the background paper

I also sanded the pictures a bit around the edges

 and inked them to really highlight the subject 

in each photo.  I love making the subject pop and by 

distressing the outsides it gives the subject 

more of a highlighted affect.

I used my edging scissors to cut the banners

and then inked them to give them more more pop

I also used my Getting Cricky Summer Splashtastic

stamp set on the banner for added depth. 

I love how I can add her stamps to even my

layouts...they aren't just for cards.

Then I used the same edging scissors to cut apart a 

title block, inked them, added some eyelets 

and used a blue glitter gel pen to write on them.

(I hate my handwriting)

The sketch above is for my Paper Secrets challenge so

I also added this layout for that.

Each week we are given an assignment for a layout. I really don't care if I win the contest, it's just helping me to do more layouts that I should have done a long time ago (or some new ones in this case). If you participate and follow the guidelines you advance to the next week. We started with 27 and 12 moved onto this week.  I will keep updating you as I go along. Who knows, I might not be able to participate one week and then I am out, but until then, I am scrapping my butt off, (they used a different word, but my blog is family friendly...hehehe

This is what I needed to use for the challenge and what is in red is is what I used.

hand or machine stitching

vellum

3+ brads/eyelets (tags)

bling

3+ photo corners

border punch

                                               staples (around the photo mats)

altered or raw chipboard (banners)

stamped image(s) (Getting Cricky Splashtastic Summer)

twine (faux homemade baker's twine)

So I hope that I've inspired you to use some distressing in your layouts and try something new.  You might surprise yourself of how many things there are to change what you've been doing.  Here's some video's to give you some ideas:

• Distressing Techniques
• Distress Tips
• Tim Holtz - Perfect Pearl

So, go and distress your layout and join us over at Lasting Memories...
who knows, you might become Top 3.