Happy Valentine's Day!

We are in the midst of a deluge here in our corner of the PNW!   It's the perfect day to stay indoors by the fire and work on some long overdue cards while DH ties some flies to use when fishing the Yellowstone on our summer trip.

But first, I want to share the treats I made from Mary's Lollipop Garden file at SVG Cuts.  This is an older file, but easy peasy to construct and to add extra touches to make it your own.

I cut the lollipop covers from patterned paper and then realized I would have to discard half of them because on the file, the cuts are upside down and packed closely together to save paper.  There was just no way to 'slice' them apart!   My solution was to use double sided paper that was patterned on one side and unpatterned pink or red on the other.  See how it pays to have a large stash of paper?  LOL!

I also found that I could not secure the cover to the lollipop with ribbon as Mary suggests, but adding a little strip of washi tape helped keep the tabs in place so that I could make that little knot.

How cute are these lollipop gardens?  Have a lovely Valentine's Day and thanks for visiting with me today. : ) Christine

A Jar Full Of Pixie Dust

This past month, DSIL has been working away from home, and so our DD and Master J have occupied our guest bedroom one night a week so that we could be entertained by Master J for two days a week instead of one.

They introduced me to the Tinkerbell and Friends movies and I have no idea how, with two DGDs and oodles of Kindergartners, I missed out on the fun!  Searching for Tink on DS, I discovered that I do have one image - from Disney Classics, and so was able to resist the urge to buy the Tinkerbell and Friends cart!

I wanted to make a pixie dust night light jar for Master J and so I 'had' to make a trip to Craft Warehouse to buy a green tinted mason jar.  I used Art Glitter glue and painted it around the inside of the jar.  The glue dries clear and so the uneven paint work - rotating the wrist will take some time to recover apparently - did not matter too much.   Next I swirled fine gold glitter around inside the jar and on the lid and allowed it to dry while I cut Tink's shadow layer in black vinyl for the outside of the jar.

I have underwater tea lights (from Amazon) which light up by turning the casing rather than from a hidden switch and was able, therefore, to mount the tea light under the jar lid. ( O.K. Please forgive the rotten, out of focus photo.  The new Nikon is on its way!)

To hide the light, I tied ribbons on an elastic hair band and added it beneath the lid.  The effect is magical when the jar of Pixie Dust is alight and Master J just wanted to hold it, and then he wanted to unscrew it to get out the dust.  I hurried to provide him with a pinch of dust (glitter) which promptly went onto Mama who obligingly pretended that she was about to float away!  Truly, that was a magical moment. : )

Thank you for visiting with me today. Watch out for Pixie Dust!   : )  Christine

Treats in Heart Shaped Tins for Valentine's Day

Aren't these the cutest things?  I was looking for something I could create for the children at OHM and found these at Michael's in the Wedding section. (I used a coupon, of course!)

I lined the inside with a heart shape cut on my Explore, and affixed the ribbon, from my RRR February club offering, with double sided tape.  A stamped tag and glittery sticker finished it off.   Easy peasy, indeed!

The tin holds three chocolate hearts plus more glittery stickers and hopefully, can be used for small treasures after Valentine's Day. 

 Off to visit the Fracture Clinic.  Fingers crossed - well, I would if I could! - that this is the last time.   : )   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Nativity Dimensional Scenes

 In the first part of December,  we had a lovely visit to some friends in Kennewick.  Naturally, I planned an outing to Hobby Lobby on our way and picked up, among other things, (lol!) a Tombow Stamp Runner.  This thing saved my sanity!  While I cannot use my beloved ATG gun yet, I am now able use the stamp runner and since layering is tricky, being able to remove and re-position layers is wonderful.

As a thank you for their hospitality, I planned to take the Nativity Dimensional Scenes available as a the Design Space Make It Now project, and convert it into a tri-fold card.  Five weeks later (!!!!) here it is:-

I used American Crafts cardstock for all the layers (except the star) and was delighted with the perfection of the cuts.  I did not use pop dots between the layers because I was thinking to make it look like inlaid wood.

To make the pieces into a card, I cut the blue backing shown above, three more times in black cardstock and added hinge pieces, scored twice to accommodate the depth of the pieces, between the backing and the bottom blue layers of the scenes.

I also inked the outside edges of the layered pieces when they were completed, to give a finished look. 

This project is much easier than it looks and the hardest part was finding all the different shades of brown cardstock!  Give it a try!   Thank you for visiting with me today.   :  )  Christine

Valentines for 2016

Are you a fan of Kim's Card Kits?  I have to admit that up to this point, I subscribed to Kim's site for inspiration but when I saw this month's Valentine Kit, I hit the 'buy' button.  For $17.00 I received 7 card bases and envelopes, matching ribbons, bling, 2 sheets of cute stickers from Pebbles, and cardstock pieces cut to size for each card.  The instructions and pictures were easy to follow and everything was good quality.

I really had fun putting these cards together!   I wasn't, however, able to make them look as good as Kim's pictures so after the second card I used her designs as a starting point and did my own thing.  : )

This one is my favorite for it illustrates perfectly the crafter's mantra that there's no such thing as a mistake, just an opportunity to embellish:-

My wrist continues to heal and I find that I can do more and more with my right hand.  Woo hoo!  I start physical therapy on Friday - not looking forward to that!   : (

Thanks for visiting with me today and take a look at Kim's Card Kits.  I'm thinking that the DGDs might like a kit each to practice their card making skills.   : )  Christine

"Do You Want To Build A Snowman?"

Thanks to the Explore's Print Then Cut capabilities, this one handed crafter was able to put together a cute little January treat for the children at the OHM.

The hardest part was wrapping the covers around the Hershey nuggets and pulling the tape from the dispenser!

I hope they will enjoy building Olaf (with his arms either raised or lowered) before they snack on the chocolate.   :  )    Thanks for visiting with me today.   : )  Christine

Inspired by Pinterest

It was the 'other' Grandpa's birthday a few weeks ago and we celebrated by watching the Christmas Ships and then warming up with a delicious meal at Gustav's.

I took advantage of a recent cart sale at Cricut.com to add the Lyrical Letters 2 font cart to my collection and I am loving the different looks of the fonts.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a text bug in DS and I was unable to change the color of the numbers in my sentiment by the normal method of isolating them in 'edit.'   So, I duplicated the text and changed it all to red.  Then, being very careful to maintain the spacing, I deleted all the letters except the 21 and 40.  Going back to my original text box, I deleted the 21 and 40 making sure to add spaces in their place.  Then it was easy peasy to attach the two text boxes on the mat.

Here's the inner sentiment:-

A simple guy card, but easy to personalize by changing the numbers.  I'll be using this file again!

Update:  Since I did not regain strength or feeling in the fingers of my right hand, it was decided to insert a plate and screws.  I had the surgery on Christmas Eve and had my best present EVER in warm fingers that not only move independently but can also can feel Cocoa's soft, curly coat!  Soooo looking forward to getting back in my Craft Room.   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine