A Pretty Pink Purse!

My sweet, sweet DGD asked for gift cards and / or clothes for her birthday.  Oh no!  I HAD to visit a few of her (my) favorite stores to pick up the cards, including, as per her request, Michael's.  : )

I had pulled up the SVG Cuts Hobo Bag file on Design Space - I cut it for my sister's birthday last year - and saw that I would need at least two sheets of double sided card stock.  I usually 'shop' my stash, but since I was going to M's, I planned to pick up something extra special for Miss S. 

I fell in love with this pretty, dusky pink embossed paper from Recollections and found silk flowers that matched it perfectly.

I made gift card holders from the same SVG Cuts set.

The right paper makes all the difference, doesn't it?  And because in my head they are still 4 and 6 years old and unable to handle a gift to one, without something for the other,  I vinyled a mason jar with a split letter for DGD Gabby!  It took me three tries to get it reasonably straight.  : )  Thanks Narelle for the file!

 Thank you for visiting with me today.  Hope you enjoy spending your gift cards Sophia!   : )   Grandma Christine

"Home Sweet Home" Recipe Box

When I saw this wooden box, marked $2.94, standing next to the new Graphic 45 "Home Sweet Home" collection in my LSS, I knew my search for a new recipe box was over!

My sister is the Queen of decoupage and I knew to prep the box and paint it with acrylics before cutting out all those pretty images and mod podging them on the box.  It took me FOREVER, mod podging and cutting, arranging and mod podging before I was happy with my box.  And if you've ever seen any of my sister's 'stuff' you'll know I was totally channeling her style!  LOL

So now, nothing in my house is safe from vinyling or mod podging.  DH had better not fall asleep in his armchair again!  (Insert evil laugh!)   Thanks for visiting with me today.  I'm off to celebrate with my DGD who reaches double digits today.  How did that happen so fast?    : ) Christine

Hapbee Belated Birthday Card

One of my on-going projects since the arrival of my Explore, has been the recreation of the basic cards I had on my Gypsy.  I had been playing with this bee-lated birthday design for a while before realizing, last week, that I desperately, immediately, positively, needed it right then!

I had added the hexagon overlay from CTMH Artbooking and as you can see, I had welded it to a  square to make a shaped mat for the front of the card.  Well, nope!  That did not work, so back I went into Design Space and started again.  This time I created a 5 inch by 10 inch rectangle and sized the hexagon overlay to fit within the front edge of the rectangle.

Decision Time!  Do I WELD it to the front edge, or use the SLICE tool to cut away the interior hexagons?   I have to say that both cards looked pretty cool.

I chose to weld, but first, I had to use the contour button to remove the four interior pieces along the edge.

Of course, once the two pieces were welded, it was no longer 10 inches long, and as I discovered,  resizing distorted the hexagon shape and the original hexagon overlay would no longer fit nicely.  Thank goodness for the UNDO button!


The card was now 10.41 inches wide, so, I created a .41 inch wide rectangle and positioned it at the left side of the card, I used the SLICE button to restore the card base to 10 inches wide.  (Seems like a lot of extra effort, doesn't it, when I could have removed .41 inches with my trimmer? LOL!  However, this is a card I will make several times, so I wanted it to be properly designed.)

And here is the finished card:-

and the interior: -

Now this card is on Design Space, I can change the way it looks with different papers and embellishments.  Lets hope that I don't have to use it too often!   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny was here!   And this is why you need a stash of every color of HTV - you never know what color you will need when the urge to vinyl something comes along.

 Here's Cocoa 'guarding' the loot!   Poor little puppy is trapped inside until all the eggs have been found in the yard.     Happy Easter everyone!   : )   Christine

Poor Cocoa!

He was so lonely on his first camping trip over Spring Break without his 'brother' Sam!  My sister came to visit with Cocoa's 'cousin' Yahtzee and he just perked up so,  I can see another puppy in our future.  : )

Here we are on the beach, walking the 'cousins.'  

And here is Master J. flying a kite with Grandpa.

 Lovely, lovely week.  Thanks for visiting with me today.  : )  Christine

Easter Treat Baskets

This past week has seen a 'down sizing' event chez nous!  We traded in our Denali RV for a smaller Lance Camper - now named Elsie (LC  yes?)  : )   One of my criteria in selecting Elsie, was that she has a large enough dinette table to craft on and handy electrical sockets to plug in the Explore.  Despite being perfect in this way, storage in Elsie is a little tight and I have had quite the time fitting everything in ready for our first trip next week.

I found time to make the monthly treats for the children at OHM.   This year I used a little egg shaped basket from SVG Cuts enhanced with glitter card stock and tulle ties.

On the back, I added a stitched die tag from Simon Says Stamp, and a print-then-cut bunny from Create a Critter 2.   Cute!   As I laboriously stamped the Happy Easter sentiment on the tags, I dreamed about the day (coming soon!) when this task would be super easy thanks to the Misti! 

 Thanks for visiting with me today and enjoy your Spring Break!   : ) Christine

Iris Fold Cards

I am totally fascinated with the iris folding technique but despite many attempts, I've not been able to do it!  Then, while browsing the SVG Cuts store, I discovered that Mary had found a way to make it easy enough even for me.  : )   So, this is what I've been playing with all week:-

I used text weight paper, rather than cardstock but even so, I found that I needed to insert pop dots when I matted the front.  Here's a closer look at the heart shape card suitable for a wedding, or anniversary.

Then I attempted the flower shape card and this one was trickier because there are 5 different papers to manage.   This works for a birthday, I think.  I made a mistake with this one but didn't notice until it was all put together.  : (

Mary suggests this smaller flower card as a sympathy card, but I think, with a different sentiment and brighter colors it could work for a birthday too.  I like the shape of this card.

Lastly, I worked on the 'Congratulations on Your New House' card.  I love the iris swirl on this one.

There is one more card in the svg set - a baby buggy card - which is very, very cute but not a true iris fold card.  Gonna need that one soon!


This set is well worth the $6.99 and can be found here.  I've seen some very cute variations on the cards on Pinterest including Halloween and Christmas versions of the house card.  Best of all, I did it!  I made an iris fold card and it was FUN!    Thanks for visiting with me today.   I have to run, Master J. wants a walk in the 'forest!'   : )  Christine