Spread the Love

Happy Valentine's Day!!  Here are a few more Valentine's I made this year. I had LOTS of fun with them, but now I am ready to move on the the next holiday!

Rock Princess Cartridge

For my son (Cubby) - It says You Rock!

Create a Critter and Pagoda cartridges

For my friend/co-teacher - It says Friends make life bearable!

Create a Critter and Pagoda cartridges

For my friend

Wind Beneath My Butterfly Wings

When I saw the Cookingwithcricut.com Love Song Blog Hop theme, the song "The Wind Beneath my Wings", by Bette Midler, immediately came to mind. I am obsessed with the Rock Princess cartridge, so I used the butterfly from it and some pretty lace, ribbon and DCWV  Bella Armoire stack paper to create this layered card. I placed circle and scallop with the LOVE sentiment just beneath the butterfly wing to hint at the song title.  I have been creating so many cards for Valentine's day that I am not including the exact recipe here, BUT if you would like the details, let me know and I would be happy to send them to you!

I hope you'll also check out my teacher Valentines and the little poem I wrote for the night before Valentine's day...HERE!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Cooking with Cricut - Love Song Blog Hop Challenge 
Throwback Thursday Challenge Episode 312 - Bugs Theme

The Night Before Valentine's

'Twas the night before Valentine's and all through the house,

Not a creature is stirring, well me, but no mouse,

The cards were set out on the mantle with care,

With the hope that the Stickles would dry via air.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of Valentine's danced in their heads,

And Momma with her Cricut while Daddy was asleep,

Changed the speed and set the blade depth, careful not to cut too deep.

When out of the Cricut arose such a clatter,

As she used the Create a Critter cartridge with paper on the mat(ter),

Two Valentine's for teachers and many more for friends,

Embellished with lace and ribbon and white Galaxy gel pens.

Since it's late and I am tired and this poem's end is in sight, 

Happy crafting to all and to all a good night!

Here are the the cards I made for Bunny and Cubby's teachers. I went with these adorable apples from Create a Critter because they are just too darn cute!!

Love Bites

I have two guilty pleasure in life. These are things that make me ALMOST as happy as spending time with my family (since nothing can top that!). The first is crafting, especially with my Cricut. Between my cricut, my paper trimmer, my new Cuttlebug and my Gypsy, I have truly turned crafting obsessed.

My second guilty pleasure is silly paranormal romance novels, the cheesier the better! As an English teacher, I encourage my students to read on a daily basis. I teach them fantastic classics, such as Romeo and Juliet, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird and more. When I get home, however, I just want to unwind. Sometimes that means reading as mindless a novel as I can get my hands on. In the classic tradition of cheesy paranormal romances, I can very much appreciate a good vampire, were creature or fairy story with the best of them.

With this in mind, I decided to make a Valentine's Day card for a good friend of mine. She is also an English teacher and we often bond over the latest novel in the next best vampire series. I thought I would take Valentine's day in a totally different direction and I think this card pays proper homage to vampires everywhere.

Recipe

Card base

1. DCWV La Creme Stack - cut a piece of 12" x 12" card stock down to 12" x 6" and scored at 6" to make the card. I used my bone folder to get a nice crease.

2. Cut a piece of Recollections pink card stock to 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" - Then, I ran it through my Cuttlebug with the swiss dots folder. The folder wasn't big enough so I did half and then lined it up and ran the other half through.

3. Added a piece of black card stock cut to 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" - before adhering it with monoadhesive, I added a piece of stretch lace ribbon and folded it around the back. I secured it with scotch tape in the back since you can't see it under the layer.

4. I topped off the card with a top layer cut to 4" x 4" from the DCWV Mariposa Matstack

Embellishments

The pink and red heart are from a new Recollections 1 Lb Assorted diecut bag I picked up on clearance for only $4.99 last weekend. I used a white Galaxy gel pen to add the stitching. These were adhered with one layer of pop dots.

The flying vampire heart is from the Cricut Rock Princess cartridge...love this one!!

The image is <Heart2> on p. 44 and was cut at 2". The shadow is black, the base cut is white, The shift is the dark pink,  layer 1 is red and layer 1 shift cut is light pink. I added my own hybrid sentiment by using a studio G stamp for the word LOVE on one wing and then using a stamping marker to write the word "Bites" in script on the other wing.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

The Cuttlebug Spot - Sweetheart Challenge 
Scrappy Moms Stamps - Terrific Tuesday Challenge: Hearts Galore! 
4 Crafty Chicks Challenge: Love is in the Air

Paper Playtime Challenge #67: Cricut creations using hearts or a love theme
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #97 - Love is in the Air: Use a heart

A Joyful Gift of Love(bug)

Happy Saturday! I am having a wonderful day. This morning, my son's rec basketball team had a game. The other team was VERY aggressive. After being hit in the head with the basketball, my son was very frustrated. We had a talk about the fact that his team plays fairly and I told him that the best way to pay the other team back for bad behavior would be to win. 30 minutes later, his team won 22-16!

After we got home, my husband took the children to the Home Depot workshop to make heart boxes for Valentine's Day and I was able to get my lesson plans done.  My son and I worked on some fun crafty Valentine's for a while and then, my sister and brother-in-law and new baby niece came over and we got to spend some time together.  All in all, it was a great day!

One of the crafts we worked on was this adorable lovebug gift card holder. I used the recipe for a Joy Fold card and, instead of keeping the bottom flap open, I used adhesive on the right and left side to create a pouch for a gift card!

Gift card pouch on the inside

Recipe

Joy Fold Gift Card Holder

Base – 4 ¼ X 6 ¼

Score – 4 ¼

Smaller card – 3 X 6

Score - 3

The pink and white base card is from the My Mind's Eye Love Nest Stack by Carina Gardner and the red card on front is from the Mariposa Matstack by DCWV. I used a piece of pink Recollections cardstock for the layer on the inside and ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder.

Flying Heart, Ladybug & Lovebug sentiment

Both are cut at 2" from the Cricut Create a Critter cartridge on p. 66

<Ladybug1> standard cut and <heart> shift cut - I cut the regular cut, layer 1 and layer 2 for both

I used Recollections cardstock for the ladybug and the winged heart shadow. The wings match the My Mind's Eye Love Nest paper.


I am entering this card into the following challenges:
Cooking with Cricut - Challenge #71: Child's Valentine - Must use Pink, Red and White
card makin' mamas - Challenge #38: Valentine 
My Sheri Crafts Challenge #78: Love is in the Air 
Die Cuttin' Divas - Challenge #50: Anything Goes 

I am also linking to:
Sundays are Lovely #6 at Jaihart

You Rock - Tiny Valentine

Today's post is super quick.  As happy as I am, sometimes cyberlife is a nice escape from the craziness that is real life.  I have been trying to get in as many Valentines as I can to make sure the kids have cards to give to everyone special in their lives. My daughter is a total diva (even at 6 years old), and I love to make super cute things for her. So, I saw a couple of challenges this week that inspired me to create this teeny tiny Valentine. Also, I just got my new Rock Princess cartridge and HAD to use it right away...I hope you like it!!

Side view to show the wing dimension

Recipe

All layers are Recollections cardstock

Card Base

I used the Gypsy with Cricut Just Because Cards - I took the second card on the cartridge and changed the dimensions to 6" width and 3" height to come up with a 3" X 3" card

I used the square on the Cricut Classic Font cartridge for the yellow layer and changed the dimensions to 2.25" X 2.25"

Sentiment

The "You" is cut from the Cricut Rock Princess Cartridge at .75" - It is the heart font on the cartridge

I welded it to create one solid word piece

Winged Heart

Cricut Rock Princess Cartridge - Regular cut, shift cut, layer 1, layer 1 shift and layer 2 all at 1.5"

I bent up the top layer of the wings to give it a more 3D look

Attached it to the card using dimensionals and then added Stickles to the wings and a few other areas for some extra shimmer

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Scrappy Moms Stamps - Terrific Tuesday Challenge - Rock Princess!
Fantabulous Cricut - Challenge #96 - Valentiny Cards

G'Day Mate - Happy Australia Day

G'day Mate! Happy Australia day. If you just stumbled upon us here at Glitter Panda, you are so lucky! Today we have the second card in our new Year of Holiday Cards EXTRAVAGANZA!! Since I had never heard of Australia Day, you might be interested to know that it is the official national day of Australia.

To celebrate Australia Day, my friend bought Vegemite. In case you aren't a Vegemite expert, I did some research for you. According to the Kraft website, "VEGEMITE spread is a nutritious and versatile food. Proudly made in Australia, it’s one of the world’s richest known sources of Vitamin B." It is a concentrated yeast extract that Australians use on toast because "It’s far more tooth and gum friendly than jams or choc nut spreads, without compromising on taste." Who knew?!

Today, while my friend was eating Vegemite with her family, I was assembling this super cute Koala card in honor of the holiday. I actually cut ALL of the components out yesterday. They were so much easier to cut because I designed everything on my BRAND NEW GYPSY!!! I added the side view of the card because it is hard to see the dimension from the front. I used dimensionals to attach the black circle and then more to add the Koala. Her flower in her hair is also dimensional!! My daughter LOVED this card so I think she will give it to her teacher for Valentine's Day (although she did say she wanted to keep it for herself!).

Recipe

Koala

Koala - Cricut Create a Critter cartridge p.49 - cut at 2 1/2" ("Koala,"layer 1, layer 2)

Flower - "Koala" Accessory & Accessory shift - I added a little jewel in the middle for some bling

You can't see it from the picture, but the Koala's top layer is a shimmery white Recollections paper from their Precious Metals collection

Beary Sweet Sentiment

Beary - Gypsy font - I used my NEW Gypsy to weld the letters together

Sweet - Create a Critter cartridge p.61  - "Skunk" on Phrase feature

I added another jewel after the sentiment for an extra pop

Card Base

Cricut Just Because Cards cartridge - "Truck" cut at 5 1/2" using DCWV Bella Armoire
Red square and black circle were scraps I had from previous projects!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

My Creative Time - Throwback Thursday - Valentine's Day Challenge
My Sheri Crafts - Challenge #77 - New Things (used my NEW Gypsy to weld letters and to design the card)