She's here!

My new Cricut Explore, I mean.  She came yesterday via UPS and the driver was quite taken aback when both DH and I went hurtling up the drive to meet him at the gate!  Cocoa was mightily relieved too because I made him sit on the porch, on alert for the delivery, all day! 

This is my first project and it's a 'sampler' since I used every brand of card stock in my stash, paper, DCWV Glitzy Glitter and the writing tool.  I only have a silver pen right now, so the writing is not as visible as I would like.  Didn't she do great??????

I have an idea for a card, so I'm heading back to the craft room.   Thanks for visiting with me today!
           : )  Christine

Shamrock Treat Boxes

    My poor Expression is tired out from overwork and I keep asking my Gypsy girl to do things she is not capable of and then I get frustrated with her limitations.  : (   So sad that they have to make way for the Explore and her new software, Design Space when they have served me faithfully for 5 years or so.  But it is what it is, as my sister says, and now, I'm waiting, waiting, waiting!  My new Cricut has shipped and is wending its way westwards from Tennessee complete with Anna Griffin projects ready to cut at the touch of a button! 

The crafting must go on!  This little shamrock box comes from the Silhouette on-line store and was resized to about 1 1/2 inches square.  Just right for 8 pieces of gold - well, Rolos really!  They are all ready for the reception area at OHM.  I just love making these little treats each month!

Thanks for visiting with me today and don't forget to stock up on Girl Scout Cookies!      : ) Christine

Thinking of you

Master J was here yesterday and we 'crafted' together.  He sat in his high chair and tried to decide which hand to hold the crayon in, dropped his paper on the floor (this is a good game Grandma!),  and discovered that if he put the crayon in his mouth, Grandma gave him a teeny, tiny Teddy Graham!   I sat next to him at the kitchen table and played with my February card kit from Simon Says Stamp.  Here's my "Thinking of you" card -

and here's the rest of the story!

My delightful DGDs were here on Sunday afternoon, (with Mom and Dad!) and S was wearing a beautiful, sparkly sequined shirt in a lovely color between teal and turquoise.  After they left, we found that S had shared her sequins with us upstairs and downstairs and all around the house!  LOL!  It was like following a trail as we picked up as many as we could find and I considered, briefly, doing the same thing with gold sequins for the DGDs on St. Pat's Day.

If you look carefully at the centers of the stamped and fussy cut flowers, you will see SOME of the sequins on their way back to Miss S!    Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's my last card for Valentine's Day.   This one is for the DD who likes bling as much, if not more, than her Mom!

I could NOT wait to try out my first ever Karen B. die.  I love how dimensional this is and see how many surfaces there are to decorate?  The red mat is from Elegant Edges, and the font,  Letter Envy. 

Happy Valentine's Day!  We have Master J with us today and this afternoon we will attend a Literacy Tea at our DGD's school.  What a lovely, lovely day!   Thanks for visiting with me.  : ) Christine

Lame joke...

I know, but I promise you that my DGD thought it funny when I gave her the card and her valentine candy, last night!

S loves pandas and for her last birthday, my DDIL cut bunches of them from Create a Critter and hid them throughout the house.  The party guests had to find them all, count them (without moving any of them) and report the total to my DDIL.  What a fun game!  Lots of running about and squealing!  LOL!

Back to the card.  I searched and searched my stash for a newspaper print that was black and white rather than antiquey looking yellow - nothing!  Instead I had to go for a chalkboard look and I achieved this by inking inside my Cuttlebug Script embossing folder with black ink, adding white textured cardstock and rolling it through the Big Shot.  Very cool!

The panda comes from Animal Antics and the heart from Create a Critter.  The flowers are from Art Philosophy and I added three little red gems to the banner so that I could link my card with the Valentine Challenge at Exploring Cricut.

I am also linking with the FCCB  # 197 "I Heart you!" challenge here!


I'm not quite Valentine'd out, one more card to share later this week.   Thanks for visiting with me today!  Christine  : )

Valentine Mailbox - SVG Cuts

One of the hardest things to explain to a Kindergartner is when it's necessary to 'tell tales' and when it's a situation that can be dealt with by the children themselves.  And, of course, a teacher wants to know everything that's going on in the classroom.  LOL!

Educators have come up with lots of innovative ideas to solve this problem, and the one I 'teacher -lifted' had many positive results, especially towards the end of the year.   I bought a Melissa and Doug wooden mail box and provided fun notepads and gel pens.  The Kindergartners wrote, using phonetic spelling, about problems they were having in the classroom and mailed the notes in the box.  Often, they enlisted a 'writing expert' to help them compose the letter.  Lots of learning opportunities there!  (It sounds dreadful, but their letters were sometimes most amusing and very few required more than my keeping an extra eye on the complainer and complainee!)

The mail box came home with me when I retired and has since been a source of fun for my DGDs and DGS.  J in particular likes to post cards through the slot and open the door to discover them - surprise! - inside.

I HAD to make him a mailbox for Valentine's Day and found the perfect one at SVG Cuts.  I did enjoy decorating it and making little valentines to go inside.  Hope he likes it!  Thanks for coming with me down memory lane today!  : )   Christine

Valentine Treat Boxes

One of my favorite things about Martha Stewart stacks is that you get 3 pieces of each design.   That gives me one piece of card stock to mess up on and two to do the project.  However, there are always a couple of designs that I have NO idea how to use and I usually cut a sample project from this kind of paper.   To my surprise, this busy, busy pattern worked very well with this simple little box cut from the Artiste cart!  Ha! 

The label and decorative flourish were cut from matching foil and also come from the Artiste cart. 

The sentiment, "Happy Valentine's Day" is from the Silhouette store and I used the Offset button to create the shadow.  My machines play so nicely together.  Wonder if they'd like another playmate - one that has its world launch this week?  I think so!!!!! 

I am linking my treat boxes in the Cardz TV 3-D Valentine challenge.  Have a look at the DT's creations here.    Lots of inspiration!

Thanks for visiting with me today!  : ) Christine

Birthday Card in a Box!

XX years ago today, I received an early Valentine - my DD!  Since she shares my interest in pop -up books, I resolved to make her a Card in a Box which lays flat for mailing, but pops up when taken out of the envelope.  You can see a video on the process here.

I love the idea that both of my DDs have metamorphasized into beautiful young women, both inside and out and therefore, both of them have butterflies on their cards this year!  The background papers come from the Mariposa stack and the flower and butterfly cuts are from Botanicals.

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!  LYM.

Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Hopping by with Lots of Love!

Although Ms. Kangaroo and her joey are meant as a birthday card, I think it will work as a Valentine's Day card.  I stamped 'Happy Valentine's Day' on the back just to reinforce the intention!

All the cuts are from the Cricut cart, Birthday Bash.  This, along with Create A Critter are my go-to carts when I want cute images.  Now I have to confess that I am tired of 'cute' and ready for something more sophisticated!  Hmmm.

There are so many challenges out there this week!  I am linking this card with the 'Heart' challenge over at Bitten by the Bug 2

and the 'Seeing Red' Challenge # 196 at FCCB

Both DTs have done a terrific job and I'm totally intrigued by a couple of the projects.  I feel a 'sophisticated' scraplift coming on!    Thanks for visiting with me today.   : )  Christine

Happy Valentine's Day from the DGD!

Our wonderful DGDs came for a visit this weekend.  Such fun!  I dug out our ancient collection of Fisher Price Precious Places houses and they happily assembled the prettiest little village ever.  We taught them a card game we used to play with our DS many years ago and read the silliest story EVER about Arnie the Doughnut.
In the morning, after 'helping' Grandpa with the wood supply for the week, they came inside to make valentine cards.  I cut hearts and embellies with the Cameo and supplied the card bases and mats.   Then they cut and glued and wrote messages for two hours.  (I could not resist joining in. LOL!)   They made a little card for Cocoa that I am going to have to scraplift because it is so pretty!
I told them that I would post some of their cards on my blog - and here they are:-

Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine