Sam and Joe

In September 2001, we came home with two of the most wonderful border collie pups ever!  We named them Sam and Joe because traditionally, in Yorkshire, working dogs are given short names.  They quickly settled into their new home and into our hearts.

Sadly, we lost Joe five years ago and last week, we had to say goodbye to Sam.  Cocoa is as devastated as we are and won't let us move without coming along!

Joey and Sammy were excellent travelers and whenever the SUV slowed down their heads would pop up over the back seat to see if there was a walk in the offing.   Here's how I remember them.

They loved running and playing 'fetch' on the beach and were spectacular frisbee players.

Their job was to patrol the yard and this they did with passion even in the snow.

Run and play boys!  We love you and miss you.   Christine

Happy 40th Birthday!

My nephew turns 40 in October and since we will be in the UK at the time and hopefully, able to celebrate / commiserate with him, I browsed through Design Space looking for a suitable card to make. 

I found this one in 'Simple Cards' and cut it in black for an 'over the hill' feel.  It reminds me of a wrought iron graveyard gate.   LOL!  Just to emphasize his great age, I used this wonderful paper that resembles newsprint from the '50s, as a liner.

I added the '40' and the inside sentiments (from 'Life's a Party' and 'Smiley Cards') in bright orange.   O.K!  I'll admit that I had way too much fun making this card!  Hope he likes it.  : )

This week, the BBTB2 challenge is "Celebrating Cricut" and this week we Explore owners have a lot to celebrate with the announcement of the Print Then Cut feature going live on September 22nd.  And, since I have a registered Imagine machine, all the images from the I carts will be available for PTC.   Woo Hoo!  Thank you Provo Craft.

Thanks for visiting with me today.  Christine : )

This One's for the DGDs!

I just LOVE the weekends when the construction site in our yard is quiettttt!  DH took some time off to play golf and I, after freezing the day's quota of carrots, headed to the Craft Room to make a second SVG Cuts Bewitched Cabin for the DGDs.

When we went to pick the girls up on Thursday to take them to dinner and a quick trip to the hardware store (again!!!!!), we found a sign outside their house warning all the spiders in the neighborhood to STAY AWAY!   So what's a crafty grandma to do but make a haunted house full of spiders?

The paper comes from Graphics 45 'An Eerie Tale' and the vellum was part of an old Martha Stewart Halloween stack.  Very cool!

The battery tea lights kept sliding around inside the completed cabin, and I wanted to add candy, so I decided to make a little holder to glue inside.  I spent an hour trying to construct a holder and then realized that it did not need to be round!!!!   Ten minutes later they were made.  LOL!

Thanks for visiting with me today.  I'm off to deliver the spiders to their new home.   (Insert monster laugh!)    : )  Christine

   

Happy Fall Y'All

Since I've been making treats for the children at OHM, I find that I peruse the candy shelves at Safeway from a different perspective.  When I saw the beautiful bronze wrappings on the Hershey caramel kisses, I just had to buy them for the September treats.

I found my stash of 3 inch treat bags  and determined how big I needed to make the topper.  Searching for 'leaf' on Design Space, I came across this leaf label from Paper Trimmings and to save time, changed it from the 'cut' icon to the 'draw' icon.  I attached a rectangle to form the topper base and found some gorgeous Colorbok copper foil paper for the leaf layer.    Everything went on just two mats! 

Here they are:-

I was kinda glad to get away from cutesy for this month's treats.  Hope the children enjoy eating them as much as I enjoyed making them.   Thanks for visiting with me today!  : )  Christine

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