September Challenge

My local Craft Warehouse store hosts a Craft and Card club every month.  It is such fun and very inspiring to meet other crafters in person.  We get to see new supplies, sometimes before they go on the shelf, participate in a card swap, show 'n tell our latest projects and enter the monthly theme challenge and have our entries displayed in the store.  Of course, there are give-aways and prize drawings.

The September Challenge was 'In my Garden' and we had to incorporate seed packets, twine and a teeny, flat backed mason jar in our design.   It was amazing to see the creativity and variety in all the projects.  It never occurred to me to stamp flowers and place the mason jar over the stems like a vase, or to add real tiny seeds to the jar.  I just glued mine on top of a picture!  LOL!

I made a never - ending card and embellished it with images from 'Garden Soup' and 'A Child's Year.'
Several people hadn't seen this kind of card before and enjoyed its interactivity.

Terri Anderson from Technique Tuesday hosted a Make and Take using the zipper die she helped design.  Of course, I brought one home!

 Check out your local store for crops and clubs.  Crafting people are some of the nicest people I know!   Thanks for visiting with me.  Uh oh!  I hear Master J stirring - time for play dough and splashing in his little pool!  : )  Christine

Here comes Halloween!

The 'building site' was quite still and empty on Sunday and we were able to run to town and do a few errands, including a trip to M's for black Recollections paper.

I had the Bewitched Cabin from SVG Cuts imported into Design Space and ready to go so I slipped up to the craft room to cut out the 20 mats.  Ha!  I really only meant to glue a few things together but...  well, here it is, totally completed.  : )

The chimney was the part that I had the most difficulty with and at that point I had to walk away.  Five minutes later, I had a thought about fussy cutting some of the Fairy Tale characters from the Graphics 45 Eerie Tale and adding them around the cabin.   It doesn't take much to get my enthusiasm back for a project!

Look how cool it looks with orange tea lights inside it!    This was SO much fun!

Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

New Barn...

Want to see the progress on the new barn?   Ignore the Honey Bucket and the crazy people dumping ice water on their heads AND the crazy dog who thinks the ice cubes are for his crunching delight!

I was SO determined to keep that British stiff upper lip!  Ooops!  Thanks for visiting today. : ) Christine

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