A Mermaid's Tale

I picked up the Graphics 45 Beneath the Sea stack intending to use it for my DD's birthday card since she loves to be at the beach.  (And really, who doesn't?)   It included a little graphic "I'm Really a Mermaid." which seemed to be the perfect theme for KJ.

The mermaid is adapted from a Make It Now project in Design Space and I cut her abundant hair from russet pearlized paper since my DD's hair is naturally curly and dark red in color.  I added a frame to hide the many layers and pop dots and blinged her out with pearls.

The card is adapted from the Dreaming Tree cascade card file and I love the little pearl slides that secure the sheer ribbon.

It was such fun collaging the surfaces of the card with images from Graphics 45. 

Happy Birthday KJ!   Thank you for visiting with me today : )  Christine

Celebrating Earth Day!

DH decided that he needs to construct a staircase up to the loft in the barn/shop and our friend S came up to help with the project.  (What a team!)  While the guys were busy in the barn, C and I put together the Earth Day treat for the children at OHM.

This little treat 'tent' is very easy to put together.  It's basically a 3 " by 11" rectangle with two pencil holders attached at 3.5 " and scored at 4", 6" and 8.75".   (The pencil holder file was featured in this She's a Sassy Lady post and generously shared with me by Charlotte C.)   The triangle was sized to contain a Fruit by the Foot treat, but could be changed to accommodate any sized treat.

The earth is a Tim Holtz stamp from the Blueprint series and I water colored them - which is why no two are the same!  They are fussy cut and pop dotted onto the heart shape.

The Happy Earth Day image comes from 'Classroom - April and May' and is part of the DS subscription.  C and I thought they turned out pretty cute!  

We finished our project - but the guys,   not so much!!!  I guess I'll be having another lovely Craft n' Chat morning with C when they finally finish the job!  Thanks for visiting with me today.   Happy Earth Day!  : )  Christine

By the Sea Slider Card

Sheila, of She's A Sassy Lady fame has opened a new group on Facebook, and posts a Monday Motivation video with a challenge to create a similar card.  It's such fun!  and, honestly, some of the other groups I belong to have just gotten too big!  "Design With Sassy" feels like friends crafting together KWIM?

So, here's my version of the slider card that Sheila posted.  This has got to be the easiest slider card recipe ever!

The little starfish rotates as she slides along the beach and when I shared this card at my Card and Craft Club there were "Ooohs!" when it spun along.   :  )

 Here's the inside:

Is your mind buzzing with ideas?   How about a penguin skiing down a hill, or a bowling ball heading down the alley towards some pins?  Or a bee or butterfly flitting from flower to flower?   Come and join the group and see what the other members created.  We'd love to have you!  
Thanks for visiting today.  : )  Christine

Anna Griffin Fantastic Flips Cards

 The bad news is that I succumbed to the lure of the Anna Griffin Fantastic Flips card kit recently offered on HSN.   The good news is that I DIDN'T get the auto ship option!  (DH was not impressed, however.  LOL!)

 So, we were off in our RV last week to the southern Oregon coast for our Spring Break trip and the weather was just gorgeous!  DH went fishing in the bay with a buddy and I unpacked my Anna Griffin kit while Cocoa and Katie lay in the sun and snoozed.
 

 I like this style of card very much because it has plenty of room for embellishment AND for adding a personal message to the recipient.  I don't like that the card will not stay closed and lay flat when not in the envelope but that doesn't seem to bother anyone else!  Anyway, I had fun for a couple of hours making cards for all occasions and then got very bored with embellishing with just flowers and butterflies.  The unfinished cards got packed away until I have access to the variety of embellishments in my craftroom.   I can't wait to try the accompanying dies out for myself.

 Here's a look at three of the cards I made:-

And to my surprise, I found that I really like this unadorned sympathy card: -

A couple of pictures for my anti-Facebook DS.   Katie the water dog:-

And here's what Cocoa has to put up with!   Good job he's a mellow, yellow labradoodle!

Thanks for visiting with me today.  Happy Sunday!  : )  Christine

Happy Easter Bunny!

I hope you are having a lovely, lovely day : )    It's going to be a soggy, wet Easter Egg Hunt this afternoon for Master J, but he won't care!

One of the things I like about my Explore is that I often see something on Pinterest or on a blog that I can redesign in DS.   I've been seeing little treat boxes made from tag dies for a few weeks and I found it super easy to take a tag shape in DS, duplicate it, flip it, add a rectangle, align and weld together to make a very similar tag box.  I added some little flower cut outs for interest and here it is front and back!

Here's a screen shot of the tag.  I was able to get three from a 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock. 

 Inside the tag, I attached a tiny Lindt chocolate bunny.

 Hope all the children enjoy eating these as much as I enjoyed making them.   Have a fun day!   : )  Christine

Easter Wall Decor

I learned, many years ago, that if I needed to buy some special item for a project I should buy two of them rather than just one.   So, when I needed a white shadow box for my St. Patrick's Day project, I bought two of them and sure enough, in taking them out of their packages,  I managed to damage one frame!  So, there it sat on my desk for a week until yesterday, while flipping through the 'Easter' images in Design Space, I came across one of my favorite images from the Easter seasonal cart - this cute little chocolate bunny with his ears nibbled on one side.

Aha!   Inspiration struck and here's the result: -

 The 11 patterned paper bunnies are #M33047 from Theresa Collins' Bunnies and Chicks and I duplicated the chocolate bunny's bow and added one to each of the other bunnies.


I learned how to make the teeny tiny rolled rose from a tutorial on Paulette's blog here.  I used my quilling tool to roll them and glued them onto tiny scraps of paper which were then trimmed close to the base of the rose.

And of course, the damaged frame offered an opportunity to embellish!

I am linking my project with Challenge #272 - Easter over on the FCCB blog


and with the Spring Flings and Easter Things over on the BBTB2 blog.


The Cut It Up challenge # 92 is to include a bunny on your project.  Check!

You will truly be inspired by the variety of cards and projects you find so hustle over and check out the challenges!   Thanks for visiting with me today!   : )  Christine

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Top o' the mornin' to ye!   Just a quick post to share the little pots of gold I constructed for the children at OHM this month. 

The file - from SVG Cuts Feeling Lucky collection was resized so that I could fit 4 of the pots on one sheet of black 12 x 12 card stock and still fit 6/7 pieces of 'gold' (Rolos) inside plus a gold coin.

Cute huh?  Thanks for visiting with me today.   Enjoy your corned beef and cabbage!   : ) Christine