Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah!

One of our favorite evenings of the holiday season is celebrating the lighting of the menorah with our DSIL.  He cooks a delicious traditional meal and serves it elegantly in the dining room.  We always have to grab the latkes before Master J devours them all!

Way back in Spring, I bought some beautiful blue holographic foil with the idea of incorporating it in this year's Hanukkah card. When I pulled it out, I realized that the circles and dots would present a challenge in the design of the card.  In the end, I kept it very simple and used a card from Artfully Sent.

The innies:-

Not too many details today as I broke my wrist and typing left handedly is excruciatingly slow!  Boy, do I have rotten timing or what?  Thanks for visiting today.  : )  Christine

80 + Santa's Sleigh Treat Boxes - Check!

Fifty or so report cards due to be carried home in little Kindergarten backpacks midway through December meant that I never had time to craft any of the cute treat holders that land in my Pinterest feed.  How I longed to make the Peppermint Patty snowmen or the Santas with candy filled dangling legs for all my Kinders!

When I retired, I began a new tradition - The Great Pre-Christmas Craftathon and this is my third season of treat making for friends, co-workers and the OHM children.   : )  : )  : )  This year I really, really wanted to make a sleigh containing chocolates and candy and here it is!

And here are my Notes To Self on mass production treat crafting with the Explore!

*  Keep the container simple.  There are some beautiful sleigh svgs available with wonderfully ornate runners.  Choose a relatively simple design like the one I used this year from Lori Whitlock.  The runners are glued on the side of the sleigh body rather than supporting it from underneath.  Much easier to mass produce!

*   Choose a design that does not waste paper even though there may be extra construction steps.  Since the sleigh side pieces are separate from the body, I could get 3 small sleighs from one sheet of 12x12 card stock.  Gluing the pieces together was easy and worth the paper I saved.

*  Choose a design that 'ungroups'  in order to save yourself from the work of eliminating pieces by using the 'hide contour' button.  I liked using different patterned paper for the body of the sleigh and this was very easy to do by changing the color on the Design Space canvas.


*  Do not try to cut ALL the pieces at once.  My browser/router/DS/computer configuration does not like me to make more than 9 project copies so I go back and re-cut a mat as many times as needed by clicking on its icon and making 9 at a time.

*  Add embellishments punched from scraps of paper and don't forget the MISTI for stamping the sentiment.

*  When selecting the candy for the treats, include DH's favorite kinds so he'll volunteer to pack the treats for you.  LOL!

Thanks for visiting with me today.  Happy Holiday Crafting everyone!  : )  Christine

First Batch Done!

Just popping in to share the first (overseas!) batch of cards. 



This design comes from Mary at SVG Cuts and was a lot of fun to put together.  



Thanks for visiting today.  : )   Christine

Turkey Tails!

Two of my favorite Cricut carts are Create a Critter and Create a Critter 2.  Besides being cute, the images are very, very easy to piece together by building upwards from the shadow base layer.  (Not all systems work this way!)   I used the shadow layer from the Thanksgiving turkey image in CAC 2 to create a little pocket on the November treats for the OHM children.

After much experimentation and a new appreciation for my tendency to collect adhesives, I used a combination of glue dots and Scor tape to keep the candy in place. 

The treats are so, so cute but... since my estimation skills are non existent despite having taught this skill in Kindergarten, I now have a giant bag of left-over Jolly Ranchers!  Any ideas?   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : )  Christine

Thank You Veterans

Like most Brits of certain age (!!!) both my parents served in WW2.  I grew up appreciating how different my life would have been had it not been for the service of those who fought.  I grew up witnessing the terrible physical and psychological effects of that service.

In many countries around the world, we will honor Veterans for their valor, their patriotism and the sacrifices they have made for all of us.   In Britain and other Commonwealth countries, the poppy symbolizes the service of our Veterans and people will proudly wear poppies on their coats and hang poppy wreaths on their doors.

So, today I am sharing a home decor piece which uses the poppy from the Cricut 3D Floral Home Decor cart on a simple frame from the Simply Sweet cart.

This particular flower has very few components and is easily put together.

 I am a firm believer in softening the fibers of the card stock petals with the ball roller on an old mouse mat.  I do this on the underside of the petals because I think it makes a more natural, softer flower.   I like to ink the edges and gently darken the center edge.  A nice 'blob' of liquid adhesive holds the rolled center in place and I have a plastic clamp that holds the pieces together until they are set.  Then I roll the petals around the barrel of the ball roller to add more dimension.

I embossed the cream card stock with one of my favorite embossing folders - the Anna Griffin Poppy folder.   I cut the frame twice and sandwiched the embossed card stock between the two frames for added strength.  The sentiment was written with the Explore using Soiree Lettering, Grace Script font.

This was such a lovely project to work on and I appreciate the opportunity to share with you. Remember to thank a Vet!  : )  Christine

Sweet Treats for the DGDs

Like many crafters out there, I have svg files sitting on my computer that I just HAD to have.  A couple of weeks ago, I actually unzipped the SVG Cuts Toil and Trouble file from its resting place and made the witch shoes.  Here they are: -

The lovely, glittery, sturdy cardstock from Recollections at Michaels whispered my name as I was wandering the aisles looking for crackle texture paste and I popped it in my cart totally forgetting that I had discovered no easy way of gluing it together.  

Eight million glue dots later, I was semi satisfied although, as you can see, after I took the photos, I had to go back in with my markers and fill in white spots on the edges!  I have to say that the shoes are very easy to put together and while I think about it, I do have some white faux leather cardstock that would make great bridal shoes for wedding favors.  Hmmm!

Thanks for visiting with me today. I'd better go see what damage the first frost has wrought on my plants.  : )  Christine

I am linking my shoes with the Sweet and Yummy challenge at Craftin' Desert Divas.  Lots of inspiration here for next year's Halloween treat holders.  : ) 

Thanksgiving Table Place Name Holders

Several years ago, I made place name holders from the newly released Thanksgiving cart.  They were much admired and a couple even disappeared!   It's way past time for an update to my Thanksgiving table and so I went looking for ideas on Pinterest.   I found some very cute teepee holders and was reminded of the teepee cards I made last year.  Aha!  I had seen an easy peasy teepee card on Collette's Digi-re-doo-dah blog that I was sure I could create in Design Space and here it is: -

It's basically a 6 inches wide by 3 inches deep rectangle with a 1 inch triangle welded on the bottom edge.  There are score lines from the center of the top edge of the rectangle to the triangle point, to one of the bottom angles of the triangle and to both bottom corners of the rectangle.  The panels are triangles welded together and you need two large and two small panels.  I glued the 2 small panels and one of the large ones in between the score lines as shown.

The next step is to apply glue to the top edges and fold into a pyramid shape. The second large panel was adhered on the glued side to conceal the join.

After pushing in the score line between the two small panels, the teepee will fold flat (well, flatish!) for mailing or storage.   Easy peasy!


 

Now the fun part - embellishing!  The "Give Thanks" sentiment comes from Artbooking, and the wheat and feather cuts come from the Thanksgiving cart.  I left the tips of the feathers unglued so that I could insert the place card.  The leaves are cut with dies from Sunny Studios because I just love the added definition to the edge that you get from a little steel die.

Here's just two of the place card holders.  I'm eschewing matchy-matchy this year and making them with different designer papers for the panels.  (I learned the hard way not to use a paper with an obvious one way pattern!!!!)  And, if one or two disappear again, I won't be scrambling to find a piece of paper to match the rest! 

  It was simple to make a larger card sized version of the teepee place name holder and I'm glad to have this easy peasy template in my DS files.  Thank you for visiting with me today.  : )  Christine