What can you do with a Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Stampin' Up! stamps and some design paper? How about a handmade greeting card with pink butterflies and blossoms?

You know what I miss? Making my own cards using my Cricut. So when I was asked to make invitations for my nephew's first birthday, I couldn't resist. My sister-in-law chose the dalmatian cut from the Create a Critter cartridge, which was perfect because the hat has a number 1 on it. Aren't they just adorable? Head on over to my craft blog dianasdesigns.ca to find out how I made them: Cricut Create a Critter Dalmatian Invitations.

Sharing an old Thinking of You Butterfly Card I made a few years ago. A lot has happened over the past week and I've been thinking about those who have been directly affected. Makes me realize how life is short and all those other clichés. But really, life is too short. Especially when you dwell too much on the negative instead of focusing on the positive. For me, my craft space where I make my own greeting cards is my happy place. I think I need to spend more time there and try my hand at another one of these shape cards. The butterfly cut is from the Cricut Indie Art cartridge and the circle shape card is from the Cricut Wild Card cartridge. I embossed the circle using the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and added a couple of little extras.

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Sharing an oldie but a goodie. These cupcake cards were a cinch to make using a Cricut cupcake cut, designer paper and the Stampin' Up! Spring Surprise bundle. The Round Array Stamp Set with the coordination Scallop Circle 7/8" Punch are among my favourite craft items. Looking forward to spending some time over the March break to reconnect with my craft room. Golly, I've missed her so.

On occasion, I'm pressed for time and won't be able to make a card using my Cricut. Luckily, I have a stash of floral embellishments and designer paper which are perfect for creating simple handmade greeting cards. For this birthday card, I recycled some ribbon and used some of my favourite brads to attach the flowers to designer paper, which I matted onto white card stock. The sentiment is a stamp I found at Michaels and adhered using a strip of adhesive foam. Et, voilà!

'Tis the season to be crafty! I made these Christmas cards a couple of years ago but only now shared them on my craft blog. You can read more detail about these cards here: Cricut Paper Pups Christmas Card with Holly. They're the kind of cards that inspire me to dust off my Cricut and make some new designs. Now if I can only find some spare time...

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Rummaging through some old photos, I came across an old personalized birthday card I made a few years ago. It was similar to the safari themed birthday card (based on Handmade by Odette's original) I had made earlier in 2012. I had fun putting it together and using foam dots to add dimension. I also lightly inked the edges and slightly curved the palm tree leaves for added depth. The monkey is one of my favourite cuts on the Cricut Create-a-Critter cartridge. I even used it in my son's fifth birthday card and turned it into a magnet!

Pssst! If you're a crafter like me and need quality lighting, or even if you just want to beat the winter blues, I have a Verilux HapplyLight Natural Spectrum Energy Lamp up for grabs. Open to US and Canada!

Whenever possible, I try to make my own handmade greeting cards and personalize them as well. This is a card I made last year. I played around with the different sizes of font from the Cricut Storybook cartridge and used the ladybug from the Cricut Doodlecharms cartridge. It didn't have any antennae so I added some from a different cut. I also layered the wings to give it dimension. Isn't she cute?

This week, I share a simple handmade Get Well Soon card I made several months ago. I chose a olive green and chocolate brown colour theme. (I must have had cravings at the time.) This was the first time I used my Stampin' Up! floral stamp and I really like how it turned out. Speaking of Stampin' Up!, I am giving away a Project Life Scrapbooking Kit valued at $100 to one of my Canadian readers. It's jammed packed with all sorts of goodies! 

Last month, my goddaughter turned ten years old. Yes, she's a whole decade old. And do you want to know why that's a pretty big deal in my books? It's not just because she was born exactly a week before I got married. It's because, of all the birthdays I remember as a kid, turning ten stood out the most to me. It just so happened to be my champagne birthday and consequently, since that day, the number 10 has become my 'lucky' number. But it isn't just that. Turning ten felt like a turning point in my life. The point when I would no longer feel like a little girl. Double-digits meant I was this much closer to being a teenager.

When my goddaughter celebrated her tenth birthday, it got me thinking. My daughter will be ten next year but you would think she was ten already. Clichéd thoughts popped into my head: She's so grown up! How time flies! Anyway, I decided to make the pink card above for my goddaughter. I think, subconsciously, I chose cute pink and polka dots as a way to grasp the little girl I've always seen her as. Change is often hard to accept but that difficulty is easily forgotten when I think of how proud I am to see her grow into the young lady she is becoming. Just like my own daughter, who is getting so big, she's almost as tall as my mother. And even though the colour pink is such a stereotypical colour for girls, I don't care. I actually embrace it. Because for me, even though I was in such a hurry to grow up as a child, I'm in no hurry to see my baby girl transform into a young lady.

For details on the materials I used to make this card, head on over to my craft blog dianasdesigns.ca:

Cricut Paper Pups Birthday Card - Pink

While I haven't crafted in a while, I did manage to put a couple of birthday cards together at the request of a colleague at work before the school year was over. For this one, I used my cherished Martha Stewart butterfly punch that I found at Walmart last year. It's a simple design but she loved it. You can find more details over on my craft blog: Diana's Designs.

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These past few days, I've been reminiscing over the past by going through some of my parents' old photo albums. It reminded me that I should make prints of some of the thousands of digital photos on my computer. As I was going through my digital albums, I came across this old handmade birthday card I created using the Cricut Paper Pups cart. It made me smile!

I was browsing through some of my earlier card designs on my craft blog and saw these two personalized Disney-themed cards I made for a co-worker's twins five years. They were fun to make but, boy, they sure took a lot of time. You see Ariel? Each coloured area is a separate piece of paper, including her lips, the blue of her eyes and the white part, too. And McQueen was made using several printouts that I cut by hand and layered with foam dots. Clearly I had more time on my hands back then.

Last week, I mailed out some vouchers to a reader who won a Dempster's THINS giveaway on my blog so I thought I would make a Diana's Designs card to go with them. I used my Cricut to cut out the sentiment and used my brand new Martha Stewart large butterfly punch.

Don't forget I'm giving away a set of SOL REPUBLIC Tracks on-ear headphones. The giveaway is open to both Canada and the US!

This handmade card was made at the request of a co-worker for her grandmother's 75th birthday. The apron is from the Cricut Paper Doll Dressup cartridge and I printed the sentiment using my computer.

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This weekend, the weather was so cold that we had to turn the heat back on. While Mother Nature may have a hard time understanding that it is spring, Stampin' Up! knows full well that it's the perfect time to celebrate the season of May flowers with their Spring Surprise Bundle, coordinating inks and card stock in bright colours. Stampin' Up! sent me a sample of the bundle that features the Round Array stamp set (available in clear-mount only) and the coordinating Scallop Circle 7/8" punch featured above. The stamp set includes five stamps with sentiments and three generic stamps that are perfect for everyday embellishments.

The Stampin' Up! Spring Surprise Bundle is a perfect set for those looking to incorporate stamping into their crafts as it includes all the elements required to complete a project. With these stamps and coordinating punch, you can easily embellish a variety of projects, like cards, notes, jars of homemade goodies, and more!

Since I love to make greeting cards, I chose to use some Stampin' Up! card stock in Primrose Petal and Raspberry Ripple with coordinating water-based dye ink to create a couple of birthday cards which measure at 5.5" by 4.25". I stamped and punched two of the same images and attached them using a dimensional to add some pop.

Here are some invitations I made for a co-worker this week. I wish I had more time to share my handmade greeting cards over on my craft blog Diana's Designs but I just can't seem to find the time. I'm definitely looking forward to the summer break!

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My daughter had her first sleepover last weekend. Her friend celebrated her 8th birthday and, in lieu of gifts, she requested donations towards her Earth Rangers fundraising campaign to protect the Polar Bear and its habitat.

Of course, a handmade greeting card was in order. So I decided to create a shape card using the Cricut Create a Critter panda cut in mostly white to look like a polar bear. But it turned out looking more like a panda anyway!

Whenever I make a handmade greeting card whose intended recipient is a female, I love to use flowers. After making this card, I realized I was running low so I headed out to Michael's. Their Primas were on sale for 40% off as was their Martha Stewart Valentine's Scrapbook pads. I was also tempted to buy some Copic markers but I don't do a lot of stamped images. Maybe next time...

You can visit my craft blog for other handmade greeting cards: Diana's Designs Blog.