Sea Monster!

Being a fan of pop up cards, I've been waiting for an opportunity to make the sea monster card from the Simple Pop Up Cards cart and here it is! 

Every year I challenge myself to make a card with a turtle in the design for my DSIL's birthday and this little guy from Stretch Your Imagination is one of my favorite images. I layered him to the corner of the 'Just Keep Swimming' sentiment from Animal Antics and added some light green gems hoping they would look like bubbles.  Since the sea monster's tentacles extend beyond the card, I placed the turtle slightly beyond the edge too.  I love the monochromatic look of this card with its pops of color.  : )

Here's the pop up sea monster in the middle of the card.  I cut the inner sentiment in the inside layer instead of writing it.  Still can't decide if that was a good choice or not!

I remember being scared silly as a child after reading John Wyndham's "The Kraken Wakes."  My dad was an avid sci-fi reader and I used to read his library books when he'd finished them - and sometimes, to his annoyance, while he was in the middle of reading one!   (I kept moving or losing his bookmarks, and couldn't resist telling him what was going to happen.)  

Thanks for visiting with me today. : )  Christine

April Showers, Baby Groot and Paper Spinners -

Time surely flies by when you are having fun!  Let me tell you that I am MUCH happier with my new home now I have flowers, shrubs and vegetables busily growing in the garden.  The birds scold us if we let the feeder sit empty for too long, there's a beautiful white kitty in the neighborhood that loves to have it's ears scratched, and we have discovered a source for fresh eggs that are almost, almost as good as my girls used to lay!

Today I want to share the OHM treats that I have created in the past few months.  Here's the little baskets of Rolo flowers I made for the children in May.

The basket comes from the Art Philosophy cart and is sized at 5 inches high so that I could get two on a page.   I embossed the basket with the Gingham cuttlebug embossing folder.  The flowers come from a variety of carts, (Forever Young, Paper Lace 2, Artistry, and Sweet Treats) and all have a center large enough to fit the Rolos.  You can't see from the pics, but I bought the pastel foiled Rolos that are available at Easter time for this project. The label comes from Tie the Knot.

Having made something pretty and traditional for the May treats, I opted to go for cute and up-to-the-minute for the June treats -  Baby Groot!

He comes from the Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy image set and I made him detachable so that the children could play with him.  Oh so cute!  The label comes from Spring Fling and the font I used is Cricut Sans.  I love how solidly this font prints.

Baby Groot is attached to the MCT Stitched Favor Box die (here) cut from Tim Holtz Kraft Core paper and embossed, by turning it crossways, with the Retro Kitchen Wallpaper 5 x 7 folder so that the craft side shows through.  I tied plenty of knots in the twine when I attached the label to the box and I accepted the fact that I might be the only one amused by this.  LOL!

Of course, I had to make an extra one for Master J who carried it around all day.  : )   : )  : )

Lastly, here's July's treats including a simple fidget spinner made from paper. I used the bit left over when a pop dot is removed to add height behind the brad and attached the brad VERY loosely so that it would spin freely.

After I had figured THAT out, these were very easy and quick to make.

Did you make it through this loooong catch up post?  It may not make complete sense since I am watching Anna Griffin on HSN at the same time and blogging is my method of resisting temptation.   : )    Thanks for visiting today.  : )  Christine

Edited to add - Hmm.  The movie doesn't work.  Still figuring things out!  Sorry!  : ( 

Son-tastic!

I hate to admit this, but I cannot re - find the card that inspired this birthday card for my son.  I think it was on Etsy, and it was super cute!  Ughh!  I wanted to make a masculine version of my shaped Happy Birthday card (here) and was looking for a sentiment when I came across the 'word' son-tastic on the front of a card.  Perfect!  

Of course, it didn't turn out to be a shaped card because I loved the arrow font from Boys Will Be Boys and didn't want to lose any of the definition by welding in the filler bits that enable the card to stand up.  (Clear as mud, right?)  Here's the innies:-

 

And another view of the outside.  Please ask if you'd like the file.  I'm not posting the DS access number because I used the candle from the To You From Me cart which is not included in the subscription and it will have to be removed before you can cut the file.  : )

Hope you had a fan-tastic birthday, Rob!   And thank you for visiting with me today.  : )

Tea Cup and Succulents Mother's Day Card

I hope that everyone had a lovely Mother's Day.  I very much enjoyed visits from my children and grandchildren, lots of flowers and cards, and a delicious brunch at DH's golf club.  Perfect!

Here's the card I made for my DDIL and you might notice that I added an extra insert.  This cute, cute tea cup file comes from Mary at SVG Cuts and is part of the Garden Party Box Card set.  However, since I was giving a succulent planter to my DDIL, I wanted to add succulents to the front of my card instead of flowers.

When I had cut the images (from CTMH Flower Market) and arranged them on the front of the cup, it looked flat, flat, flat.  Mary had shaped her flowers to add dimension but I could not do that with the succulent images I had chosen.  Hmmm.  I needed an insert inside the teacup and woo hoo! the patterned trim piece was the right shape and size to do the job although I did cut the side pieces down a quarter of an inch so that it could be glued in the center of the inside of the cup.

I also found that the center of the saucer patterned trim piece would cover the oval hole in the center of the saucer base piece which gave it a finished look. 

So what do you think?   I liked the tea cup card very much.  Mary always designs interesting cards and this one was quick and easy to make - unless you start messing with the flowers!  

 Thanks for visiting with me today.  : )  Christine

Mother's Day Zig Zag Card

Mother's Day is just around the corner and when we visited the Home and Garden Fair last Friday, I found exactly the right plant gifts for my DD and DDIL.  Woo Hoo!  Master J accompanied us and I begged him not to tell his Mama about her present but... he is only 4 nearly 5!

I wanted to try and make a zig zag card with a shaped top edge and by welding all kinds of triangles and squares together, I managed to make a straight edged template in DS.  Then I added the bases of the flowers I chose from the Bits and Pieces, Serenade and Hello Kitty carts and welded them in a pleasing arrangement along the top edge.  Easy peasy!

I inked the flowers, and added them to the card remembering to glue them on the opposite side of the middle fold.  (Note to self - add them to the back of this section too!  It looks so unfinished.) 

Then I had a great time adding bees and butterflies, ladybugs and caterpillars to each of the 5 sections of the card.  Pearls, glitter, vellum and Wink of Stella - embellishment heaven!

Such a fun card to make and I already have another zig zag card with a shaped top ready to cut in DS3.  : )

I am linking my card with the Mother's Day Challenges at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog # 300
and the Bitten by the Bug 2 Happy Mother's Day challenge.  Pop over and have a look at the lovely projects.   I have tons of ideas for next year!    Thanks for visiting with me today.  : )  Christine

Graduation Card 2017

Here comes the graduation season and I needed a new quick and easy card to add to my files.  I was inspired by a card in the Cardmaker magazine (preview here) and was pleased to find a similar image on the Simple Everyday Cards cart.  With some creative slicing, I was able to use the negative image to make my card.  Love it when it works out like that!  The sentiment comes from Photo Fun - Celebrations and cuts beautifully in one piece.  (Note to self - remember this image # M6B9607)   Here's the front:-

and a side view:- 

Easy peasy!   Here's the link to the DS3 file

 https://design.cricut.com/#/design/57848425

Thanks for visiting with me today!  : )  Christine

Super Kitty Floating Pop Up Card

Birthdays, Anniversaries, Tax Day, Earth Day and often, Easter - April is a busy month in my family!  Here is the card I made for my DGD's birthday using the CDD Caped Crusader stamp set and the pop up card instructions from this website.  So fun and easy!

The cityscape cut comes from the 'Plantin' SchoolBook' Cricut cart and the Happy Birthday cut comes from the "Paper Pups' cart.

The font is a favorite from my teaching days, ABCBulletin.

Happy birthday, Sophia!  And thank you for visiting today.  : ) Christine

Carrots for the Easter Bunny

Hopping in to say "Happy Easter" and to share a basket full of carrot treat boxes made for the OHM bunnies!  The carrot comes from the 'Hopping Down the Bunny Trail' image set.  This set has several three dimensional projects including some very pretty eggs.   Check it out! 

 

Master J. visited to see what the Easter Bunny left at our house and I couldn't help remembering the fun we'd had in previous years with five acres to search for eggs!   However, we had a lovely dinner with our family and enjoyed a game of "Oregon Trail."  We still haven't made it all the way to the Willamette Valley before dying of dysentery but we got very close this time!  Thanks for visiting with me today.  : )  Christine

St. Patrick's Day Purses

Well, it's done - signed, sealed and delivered - and our home of twenty years now officially belongs to a new family.  SO many memories, sigh!   On the up side, we now longer have to pop up every day to feed the chickens, light the wood stove and clean the wood floors.   More time for crafting, right?


This little purse has been around on Pinterest for some time and I did track one version to my friend, Scrapalette's blog here.  I used a label from Winter Woodland, and sliced the smaller inset label to form the embellishment on the flap and the body of the purse.  I did not add a handle as I wanted to make it look like a coin purse suitable for both boys and girls.

I welded four shamrocks together to form the border and cut it in glitter paper.  I added a button tied with twine as the closure.   The 3 inch treat bag holds 3 chocolate coins and one lucky 'gold' coin.  (I was so worried that the children might try to eat the plastic coin, that I used my alcohol marker to color the clover green so it looked a little different.  Crazy, I know!)

Here's the stamped sentiment on the back:-

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Time to think about Easter.   : )  Christine

Yappy St. Patrick's Day!

Last July, the paper crafting world lost a mentor, a friend and a lovely, talented, creative and generous lady, Sheila McShea AKA She's a Sassy Lady.  I had the honor to contribute to her blog and every now and then I still have an idea and think, "Yes!  Sheila will like that so I'll use it as my Sassy post this month!" I call them my 'Sassy' moments.  

So my latest 'Sassy' moment started when I found a really, really cute chihuahua cut from the Four Legged Friends cart and used it on my DGD's Valentine card.   It's soooo cute and when I'd finished the project, I had the idea to adapt the card for St. Patrick's Day, Easter, birthdays, Christmas etc, etc by changing out the heart in his mouth and adding a hat and appropriate images.   DS makes this easy with the "Save As" option.  It's kinda like the Cricut version of the Tim Holtz crazy dogs.  I think Miss G will enjoy receiving each installment of the collection.  : )

Here are the cards I've made so far.  Don't you just love the little St. Paddy's Day hat? 

"Yappy Birthday" with cuts from Doodlecharms,  To You From Me, and Charmed.

Here's the Valentine's card that started the process.  Cute, cute, cute!

 I am linking my St. Patrick's Day chihuahua with the Cute Animal challenge at BBTB2 here.   (How serendipitous is that?)  Thanks for visiting with me today.   Miss you, Sheila!     Christine

Red and White Easel Gift Box

I came across some very cute monogram necklaces (at a great price!) while shopping at Macy's for something entirely different.  I could not resist picking one up for one of my DGDs.  I needed a fun gift box for it, and since the challenge this week at BBTB2 was to use the colors red and white, all I had to do was find the right box.


This very versatile easel box, from Lori Whitlock's To You From Me cart, was easy to personalize with an 'S'  from Monogram Motifs.  I had major problems, however, with scoring the heavy, white cardstock that I chose for the box base.  It took me three tries to get the score lines in the correct place using my score board and I eventually resorted to drawing them in with a pencil clamped in the Explore instead of the score tool.  (I did write the measurements down in my recipe book so that I can replicate this size box should I need to in the future.)  I am SO hoping the new DS solves the scoring problem and fixes the alignment problems that sometimes occur.

This was such an interesting challenge and I love the simplicity of the two color box, even though I had to add a tad of pink to the top! 

Have a look at the variety of entries at BBTB2.  Wow!   Thank you for visiting with me on a rainy Sunday afternoon.  : )   Christine

You Octopi My Heart!

I could not resist this stamp set by Lawn Fawn, but the accompanying octopus is sooo teeny and does not have a lot of character IMHO.   Cricut to the rescue with this oh so cute octopus from the Birthday Bash cart. 

Since this card is for my science - minded DGD, I quickly realized that I would have to create some extra legs for my octopus and so I sliced and welded in Design Space only to find that because I wanted the extra legs a darker color, it was just much easier to duplicate the octopus and trim away two legs.   Lesson learned!   I eliminated the birthday packages that the octopus was carrying by closing the eye in DS and then I substituted a layered heart from Doodlecharms.

I distress inked the background using my Groove, added some dew drop bubbles and heat embossed the sentiment.   Such a fun card to make!

I am linking my card with the Valentine challenge at BBTB2 here.

and the Valentine Challenge # 294 at the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog here.

If you are 'last minute - ing it' like me, there's tons of inspiration on both sites.  Thanks for visiting with me today.  : )   Christine

Mickey and friends Valentine Treats

This is my favorite kind of project!   I downloaded the svg for the free Tootsie Roll holder from the amazing Dreaming Tree company,  redesigned it to feature the new Mickey and Friends 'Love at First Sight' images in DS, stamped the heart using my Misti, used up some remnants from my Valentine Really Reasonable ribbon stash and added confetti made with a Martha Stewart punch.  Plus, I am so pleased to have found a use for a little of the purple Glitzy Glitter paper that has accumulated in my Glitter Paper drawer.  Yahoo!

Don't you just love those Mickey print then cut images?  Sooo cute!  Here's a look at the back of the project:-

Take a look at the fabulous Valentine projects over on the BBTB2 page here.  Don't you just love Maureen's frame?   I feel a scraplift coming on.  LOL!    Thanks for visiting with me today.   : )  Christine

Snowflake Treat Boxes

Just a quick post to share a couple of the snowflake treat boxes I made for the children.  The box comes from  Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2 and I 'tweaked' the top by adding a little tab to keep the box closed as I wanted to glue the second, glittery snowflake down flat.  The box is 3.5 long and 1.5 wide and fits 3 or 4 candy treats inside. 

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on either side of the box using Hero Arts Unicorn pigment ink and Ranger white embossing powder.  I am totally in love with this look right now!  I have to give a shout out to Sunny Studios for the lovely little snowflake stamps from the Snow Kissed set.  They stamped perfectly!

Thanks for visiting with me today.  : )  Christine

Wooden Heart Valentine

Do you remember "G.I. Blues?"   After seeing that movie, just as I was entering my teens, I became totally enamored with Mr. Presley.  I even went so far as to write poetry to him!!!  I always remember his birthday, since it is so close to my own, and even though I moved on to Beatlemania, and eventually, DH, Mr. P remained in a corner of my heart.  So, when the BBTB2 team challenged us to an Elvis Presley Birthday project, I HAD to join in the fun.

And then, the snow, ice, frigid temperatures, and  freezing wind imprisoned me in the house and it wasn't until today that DH could drive me to Michael's to pick up some birch wood to complete the project that had been simmering in my brain all week.

DH's favorite Elvis song is "Wooden Heart" and he is very proud of the fact that he knows every word including the bits in German.  Naturally, my project is a wooden heart valentine for DH.  Here it is!

I started with the skull card from Wild Card 2 and sized the card layer to 9 inches in height.  I stretched the scalloped heart from Victorian Romance to fit and then added score lines to the heart layer and changed them all to 'cut.'   This I duplicated several times and cut each out of a different valentine paper and my birch wood sheet.  I had such fun arranging the pieces together (and now have 3 extra hearts to add to my valentine stash) like a puzzle.  : )  

I folded the card base to make an easel card and added the banner to hold the card in place.  (E.P.  sings "It was always you from the start" in the song.)   It was very difficult to get the phrase on the banner and I'm not very happy with it, but oh well! 

Please run over to the BBTB2 blog and see all the fun projects the DT put together.   Love those blue suede shoes!   Thanks for visiting with me today.  Rock on!   Christine  : )

Winter Castle

Phew!  I finally finished a Christmas project that I've been struggling with for three weeks and it is packed away for NEXT Christmas.  I celebrated by taking on the BBTB2 " New" challenge here.

I needed a card to put in Master J's castle mailbox this week and as I remembered how pretty it looked in the snow, strung with colorful lights, I thought about the Winter Castle shadow box file from Lori Whitlock just waiting to be cut on my Explore.

 A new project deserves a new cutting blade and a new mat, don't you think?  Even so, I had to move the dial to Fabric + to get a clean cut with this heavyweight textured paper.  I added the 'Happy New Year' sentiment from the Phrases cart, and the banner comes from 'Bits and Pieces.'  I discovered that since Fabric+ cuts twice, it also writes twice and my 2017 text came out very clearly.  (Note to self - remember this!)

Here's a side shot to show the dimension.  I used clear Wink of Stella to add sparkle to the castle, hills and snowflakes and is ALMOST as pretty as the real thing in Master J's back yard!

Hurry over to BBTB2 and see all the entries!   Thanks for visiting with me today.   : )  Christine

Happy New Year!

Well, we are (mostly) in our new home although we had to rent a  storage unit and obviously need to downsize a little more than we did!  I lost my craft room and now occupy a corner and one wall of our bonus room.  DH complained that he had been squeezed out of his half of the room, but as I told him, "You snooze, you lose."   I worked hard every evening unpacking boxes, arranging my supplies and filling all the available space! LOL.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas.  All the family visited at one time or another and we thoroughly enjoyed showing off our house.  The First Night of Hanukkah fell on Christmas Eve, so we waited until yesterday, New Year's Eve AND the Last Night of Hanukkah to visit Master J and his parents for a delicious dinner of latkes, apple and pear chutney, brisket and vegetables.  Yum!

 I adapted a swing card from the Artfully Sent cart this year and was quite pleased with how it came out.  I could not find my card holder so please forgive the binder clip!

The sentiment comes from the Phrases cart.  You can't tell, but I used my Wink of Stella pen to add a sparkle to both sides of the Star of David in the swing window.  I am linking my card to the BBTB2 Nativity and Menorah challenge here.
Thank you for visiting with me today.  Time to get back to packing up the ornaments from the tree.  (Not my favorite thing to do!)   : )  Christine