Tea Time Card In A Box

It is so hot and muggy here!  I don't do hot and humid very well which is why we live at 1100 feet in the PNW!  I retreated to the craft room with the fan on high to work on this card for my sister's birthday.  It's a BIG one but I'm kindly ignoring that and reminding her of the birthday teas we had in the UK as children.

The Tea Time box comes from SVG Cuts - of course, and, of course, I could not leave well enough alone and took off the cake stand and replaced it with a tiered birthday cake from the Anna Griffin 'Soiree Lettering' cart.   Love those tiny circles!

The Explore wrote the sentiment, and I used the Cuttlebug folder 'Kaleidoscope' to emboss the outside panels.  The paper comes from Graphic 45 'Botanical Tea.'

Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

And Beautiful Birds!

The Explore has had a workout today and yesterday cutting and printing Hello Kitty pictures for our DGDs to color!  They needed the handbook to refer to as they colored so I was very glad that Design Space imports EVERYTHING on to the canvas rather than the hunt and find method I used with my dear old Gypsy girl.

They always leave us refreshed in spirit and yes, I will admit it, exhausted when they go home but they also re-open our eyes to our surroundings.  So, the footings for the new shop building are in and the builder sprayed the corners with orange paint, and I mean it was the orangiest orange you have ever seen!  Naturally some of the paint landed on the ground around the corners and coated some pieces of gravel.  Well, you would have thought the DGDs had found gold pieces when they spotted those orange rocks!  They carefully collected every piece and arranged them and re-arranged them on the deck in a pretty (and extraordinarily vibrant!) pattern.  Oh to recognize the treasure of painted rocks.

I completed my Art Nouveau decor pieces this evening and they look very pretty on the wall.

I love the swan - so peaceful.

And the heron that was the inspiration for the pieces.

Although I can't put up summer wallpaper as Loius XIV did at Versailles, at least I have some summer decor to enjoy between July 5th and the Fall apple and leaves 'stuff!'
Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

The Haunted Piano!

Have you seen the latest release by Mary and Leo at SVG Cuts?  I had to buy it as soon as it was released because, of course, it will take me until Halloween to put it together!

As I was putting the file in my SVG Cuts folder, I noticed the piano box card file that I had made for my DD's anniversary and it occurred to me that it might be fun to make a haunted piano!  It WAS fun and here it is:-

Most of the cuts come from "A Frightful Affair" but the ghost is from "Happy Hauntings" and the sentiment from "Holiday Cakes."   I sprayed a lot of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and almost used up my Wink of Stella pen! The bat is a sticker from Carta Bella. 

It was very humid yesterday and we don't have AC so my paper was not cutting properly but I think a few tattered edges on a spider web are OK! 

Thanks for visiting with me today.  I'm off to pick MORE blueberries and freeze them for muffins and pancakes in the cold winter months.   : ) Christine

Beautiful Bugs

Last year I used the Cricut cart "Art Nouveau" to create a summer time canvas wall decor piece.  (Love, love, love this cart!)  Browsing the blogs that I follow, I came across a post by Paula at Craft with Bee in which she created a gorgeous piece of wall art for her bathroom featuring the heron from "Art Nouveau."  This inspired me to make smaller pieces to complement the canvas I made last year.

I planned to make a series of birds from the cart, including the heron and the humming bird and a series of bugs including my favorite Cricut bee.  Since the challenge at BBTB2 this week is to include a bee on a project, I started with the bugs! 

Since I only had ONE piece of weathered barn cardstock, I pulled out my Imagine and printed this grey birch looking pattern from the "Snapshot: Nature" cart.   I used the base shadow box cut that came with the alphabet cuts from 3D Cuts and lined it with grey paper from the DCWV Shimmer stack.

I mounted my bugs on a doily cut from Artiste inked with TH Antique Linen.  I also used some TH rub ons in an attempt to make the pieces look more like specimens rather than art nouveau.  Hmmm.  Not sure that worked!

Here are the pieces:-

And mounted on the wall:-

Here's a close up of the moth:-

Thanks for visiting with me today.  Time to get some yard work done before it gets too hot.  : ) Christine

Hoo's Having a Birthday?

The summer prior to my last year of teaching, I decided that I would do something that I'd always wanted to do - give my classroom a theme!   I chose 'owls' and had a ball decorating, labeling and embellishing.  Since I had 40+ Kinders, I used every Cricut owl image I could find.  What I didn't anticipate was all the cute little owl themed gifts the parents found for Teacher Appreciation Day and the holidays!   Fun!!!!

The challenge over at Bitten By The Bug 2, this week, is to use an owl on your project.  Using 'All Images' on Design Space, I searched for an owl that I hadn't ever used and I found one on the CTMH Artiste cart.  He is such a  colorful party animal that I needed to put him on a birthday card.

The trifold card comes from Wild Card and is cut at a height of 5 inches.   The owl on the front comes from Live Simply, and the sentiment, from Hoot n Holler.  I had to leave the outside clean and simple because I wanted to use my Explore to write on the inner part of the card. 

The inner liner paper actually has a couple of owls on it but unfortunately, they got covered up!  And, the paper is so busy that the party confetti I cut  disappeared into the background.  A scattering of sequins saved the day.

 This was such a fun challenge.  Pop over to BBTB2 and admire the variety of owls that the DT utilized. : )    Thanks for visiting with me today.   Christine  : )

 

If Music be the Food of Love...

... play on.   My DD and DSIL are very active in the theatre and both love the Bard.  So when I saw the piano card - in - a - box from Mary at SVGCuts, I knew I had to make it for their Wedding Anniversary this week.

The candelabra and bouquet cuts come from Divine Wedding and 'Happy Anniversary' comes from the Phrases cart.  The hardest part of the card was layering the flowers!

Mary always adds an optional cut to write a personal message and I added this to the back of the card.
I wanted to add "You two make beautiful music together." but DH thought it too corny!

Thanks for visiting with me today!  : ) Christine

More Cars!

Phew!  Finally finished the treats!   Here are a few more of my favorites.   : ) Christine