FCCB Back to School Challenge

It's been a while since I joined in the FCCB weekly challenge so when I saw the theme "Back To School" I had the idea to enlarge the school house treat bags I made for OHM and fill them with goodies for the DGDs. 

I liked the grade level banners on K-12 image set and wanted to incorporate them into the design.  I cannot believe that S and G are going into 2nd and 4th grade!

 I also added a couple of sentiment cuts from one of the very first carts that I ever bought 'Locker Talk.'

Check out  the DTs inspiring projects at FCCB.  Wow!

It still feels like we are living on a building site as the new barn sloooowly rises on the site of the old barn.  We haven't ever had so much traffic up here as wood, doors, windows, siding and roofing arrives.  The concrete truck is due again on Friday, and the Honey Bucket maintenance guy (thankfully) visits regularly!  On the bright side, the noise and bustle seems to be discouraging the critters and it looks like we'll have a bumper crop of corn this year.  Thanks for visiting with me today.  : )  Christine

Back to School Treats

We had a lovely week up in British Columbia camping at the Brae Island resort.  It was only marred by the knowledge that this will probably be the last trip for our grand old border collie, Sam.  : (  Much as he loves all the extra attention he gets from the other campers, he was glad to be home, off the leash, and sleeping on his own soft bed.

As anyone with a garden knows, the veggies don't stop growing just because you are on vacation and we came home to zucchinis, green beans and peas demanding to be picked and packed away in the freezer!

In between loads of laundry, I started work on the Back to School treats for the shelter children at OHM.   My DGDs are cramming the last weeks of 'freedom' full of activities and I am so glad NOT to have the stress of getting my classroom ready, although I still miss teaching Kindy every day.

This simple little school house box comes from SVG Cuts and I added an apple brad to the center of the stamp from MCT for added interest.  (And, truthfully, I've had them forever and not ever used them!)

Thanks for visiting with me today.   
                                                        : ) Christine

100th Post!

We are up in beautiful British Columbia to celebrate my sister's BIG birthday.  (The one that I am kindly not noticing or emphasizing! LOL!) 

Last year I made her a banner with one of my favorite CTMH sets, Laughing Lola.  This year I made her one of the 3DCuts letter boxes from the lovely Graphics 45 Botanical Tea stack.  The Explore wrote her name  and I was able to cut the tea pot and cups from the SVG Cuts Tea Time file that I used for her card.   How coordinated is that!  

We are planning to browse around some of the delightful little stores in Fort Langley today.  Fun!   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

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