"Toad - ally awesome" Valentine Card

A quick post with one last Valentine card.  This one was inspired by the cute background paper from Doodlebugs, and is a penny slider card from Lori Whitlock's shop.  The 'toad' somersaults from one lily pad to the other - and to my great surprise, it really works!   : )

The toad/frog and lily pads come from Create a Critter and the sentiment stamps are from My Pink Stamper.   Thanks for visiting with me today.   : )   Christine

Mailbox Card in a Box for Valentine's Day

My family will tell you that I never sing the right words to a song.  Never ever!  In my head, however, I'm just being creative.  : )  When I pick up Master J. for example, I always sing "We're going to Grandma's house" to the tune of "Here we go round the mulberry bush."  There are many verses to this song naming the people, animals and things he will see at Grandma's house and lately he's been singing along and inventing verses just as his Mama did when she was a littlie! 

So, when I saw the mailbox box card from SVG Cuts, I wanted to construct real envelopes containing greetings from everyone at Grandma's house but, had to settle for the trusty Explore writing names on the teeny envelopes instead.  Kinda cute though, don't ya think?

Of course, I know that Master J. will be much more interested in the heart shaped box of candy and the Chuggington book that comes with the card.  LOL!  I'll share the rest of the Love Day stuff next week after it's been delivered.  Happy Valentine's Day!  : ) Christine

Hello Kitty Valentine

Yesterday was my Card and Craft club meeting and the challenge theme was 'Love Letters."  Our supplies included some cute, cute paper from Doodlebug Designs, sheer ribbon, a bling heart and a pink paper clip.

I had several ideas but it wasn't until Master J. told me, mournfully, that his yellow balloon had popped, that the idea of Hello Kitty stuffing heart shaped balloons into a mailbox flashed into my mind.  (As for Master J. well, we drove right over to the grocery store and bought him a mylar balloon, and a car, and some milk to justify going!)

Here's my card.

Of course, the Hello Kitty carts do not have Hello Kitty standing by a mailbox with heart shaped balloons so this image is put together from three other cuts and some creative scissor work.


The sentiment inside comes from the 'Better Together' Imagine cart and I used the 'unflatten' button to separate the layers, then 'hid' the label layers so I could just print then cut the sentiment.  Love it!  (Now I just need to be able to change the colors on the image without obliterating the details.   It's on my wish list for future updates.)

The hardest design element was that pink paper clip and I ended up cutting out one of the envelopes from the background paper and clipping it to the inside.

I am linking my card with the Valentine's Day Challenge # 244 at the Fabulous Cricut Challenge Blog and the Craftin Desert Diva's Red, White and Pink Linky Party.  Pop over for some Valentine's Day inspiration.

And, of course, I had to leave my card in the store for display, so I recreated it last night for my Hello Kitty lovin' DGD, Miss G.  Shhhhh!   Thanks for visiting 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

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