Thomas Cascade Card

I have two celebrations today!   Master J, my DGS, turns into a terrible two year old!  How can that be?   We had a lovely party for him yesterday in a nearby park.   The weather was perfect and the children ran around playing with bubbles and balls and J's new water / sand table.  There was a Dora, Dora the Explorer pinata and the children rushed to pick up the goodies and stuff them in the little treat bags that I made.  : ) : )

One of Master J's gifts from DH and me was a Thomas the Tank Engine tricycle and so the card that I made for him had to have Thomas and Friends on it too.   I found some chipboard Thomas characters at Michaels and used them to embellish a cascade card.  He loved the characters but could not understand why the card would not open like a regular card!   This was the easiest card that I have ever made!

 

Today also happens to be my first blogoversary!  Yeah!  I have enjoyed sharing my crafty endeavors with you and enjoy and appreciate your comments.  Thank you so much for visiting with me over the past year.  Please continue to pop in!   : )   Christine

 

Treat Bags for the Birthday Boy!

I was so pleased to be asked by my DD to make the treat bags for Master J's birthday party.  The theme is "Explore."  (Can you guess his favorite TV show? Well, this week anyway!)  I really, really wanted to make the 3D backpacks from Campin Critters but... I am so busy this week that I had to go for something a little less time consuming. 

I found these 5" by 5" canvas bags at Michaels and used Cricut iron on vinyl to add names, the theme, and a backpack.  I added four little charms made from the Charmed cart and laminated for durability.

Hope the children like them!  I'll share Master J's card later.  We are off fishing this weekend and I have an RV to pack!  Thanks for visiting with me : ) Christine

Father's Day Card for DH

A quick post to show you the Father's Day card for DH.  This is version 3!!!!!  I used the Explore and Cricut pens to draw the fish images and I was surprised how easy it was to change the pens when prompted.  I wish the pens had a finer point, though.  The sentiment comes from a Make It Now project but I thought the rest of the project too cartoonish for my purpose.  KWIM?  So, a card base and various fish have been added to my reject drawer for the DGDs to use.

Our family got together yesterday morning and we got to watch Master J devouring bagels and fruit salad.  He asked for more watermelon - well, that's what his mom said he wanted! The rest of us were laughing so hard at the incredible way he mispronounced it!  Hard to believe that he is 2 next week.

The DGDs played with the old F-P castle with Auntie K and practiced their persuasive skills as they assigned the Knights between the three of them.  (LOL!)   We are so blessed.  

Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Happy Father's Day!

Several of the recently added 'Make It Now' projects on Design Space feature a background of repeated images drawn by the Explore.  My mind filled with possibilities.  Listening, for once (LOL!) to the inner voice that sounds remarkably like my long - time friend Maggie B, I settled on something quite simple.

 I found this image of a baseball bat and ball on 'A Child's Year' and imported it onto a card canvas in Design Space.  Using the x and y axis measurements, I arranged the duplicated images in a pleasing pattern.  Choosing a copper metallic marker, I sent the mat through the Explore.  Cool!

I added a sentiment from the 'Father's Day Set' and cut it in copper metallic paper from my stash.  My card needed a splash of color and I found this vintage baseball postcard in the Graphic45 Good Ol' Sports stack and added 3 nail heads. (They are copper colored - honestly!  I have no idea why they didn't photograph that way.)

The challenge on the FCCB this week is to Celebrate Dad.  The DT did a great job! 

The challenge at BBTB2 is also a Father's Day theme.  Inspiring! 

AND Mary at CardzTV is also featuring a challenge for Father's Day.  Pop over and take a look here!

Thanks for visiting with me today.  I'm off to buy more plants for the garden.  : ) Christine

  

At the Lake

We're back, rather reluctantly, from a week at the lake.  We had good weather, good fishing, good company and we found ALL of the geocaches on our list!  Here's Sam. our geriatric border collie, waiting for the go ahead to get in the water.  He loves to retrieve sticks from the lake!  Cocoa, on the other hand, thinks that water is just for drinking.

The internet is not the greatest up there and so I took along my Sizzix Big Shot and worked on some MCT lollipop holders for the July treats for the children at OHM. 

It was odd not being able to get projects ready to cut using Design Space, since it is internet based. And, of course, my Gypsy girl has been packed away since February.   I had to resort to the old standby, paper and pencil and I kinda liked it!    Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Retirement Card - in - a - Box

A very good friend and ex- colleague retires from the teaching profession next month and today is her retirement party.  The card was inspired by a regular side fold card on Pinterest, but since I have the Graphic 45 By the Sea stack just waiting to be opened, I used SVGCuts Plain Box Cards file to make one more card - in - a - box.

Hope she likes it!  Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Summer Treats

Have you ever made sour cream containers?  They really are quick and easy and require no die cutting at all.  I needed something fast but cute for next month's treats for the children at OHM and I was able to put together 24 of them in one afternoon.   The fun part of this treat is that being sour cream containers, they contain Trolli sour gummy treats! (I know, I need to get a life.  LOL!)                                Thanks for visiting with me today.  : )   Christine

Ice Princess

Look what I've been doing... crafting for my DGD's birthday at the end of the month.  Can you guess the name of her favorite movie? LOL!  I've just got the drink wrappers to finish and plan on getting the girls to help me out when they stay over on Saturday.

The card-in-a-box file comes from SVGCuts and is super simple to construct.  There's a video available on the SVGCuts website.  

The Ice Princesses and Happy Snowman come from Miss Kate's Cuttables here.

The gift bag features the castle from Once Upon A Princess, the snowflakes are from A Child's Year and my favorite tag shape is from Art Philosophy.  Everything was cut on my Explore and the only problems I encountered came from the new, over-sticky mats that I used!

I am linking my gift bag to swell the entries at the Gift Wrapping Challenge over at BBTB2!  The DT's creations are truly inspiring. Check it out!

Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Hanging Herbs!

Just a quick post to share with you the hanging herb gardens I made for DD and DDIL for Mother's Day.  I bought the chicken wire message centers from Craft Warehouse, removed the clothes pins and string - which as far as I was concerned was attached to the wrong side of the wire to start with!  DH and I added a stronger wire to hold the 3 inch pots in place.  (I WISH I could have found nicer pots to replace the original plastic ones!)

The top is covered in chalkboard vinyl and 'Herbs' is also cut from vinyl.  The font comes from Nursery Rhymes and is one of my favorite fonts.  It always cuts beautifully and is ornate but readable!

We are having beautiful weather this week so I have been able to get out in the garden to tend my own herbs. : ) Thanks for visiting with me today!   Christine

 

Another Never -Ending Card!

While the rest of the card-making world is totally engrossed in making wonderful Cards - in - a - Box,  I am fixated on the Never - Ending card!  Ah well!  I'll probably catch up by Christmas.

I love how the Graphic45 stacks enhance this kind of card and the pages are SO pretty, that they need no embellishment, except perhaps a smidge of ink around the edges.

My second Mother's Day card is from the Secret Garden stack.  I added a tiny rose and some ribbon to the stamped tag.  (The tag is the only Cricut cut on the card!!!!!)

I finished the card just in time to link with the Exploring Cricut and More Mother's Day challenge here.

Thanks for visiting with me on this rainy Saturday!  : ) Christine

Mother's Day Card

Here's the first of my Mother's Day cards.  I usually make two - one for my DD and one for my DDIL.  (I will buy a posy of flowers for DD # 2 in memory of our angel GC)

The family traditionally has brunch at DH's Golf Club and the DGDs salivate over the menu in the weeks prior to the occasion and make plans to eat all their favorites.  Lovely!

I tried my hand at a trifold shutter card at Christmas following a pattern from SVGCuts.  This time I imported the file into Design Space and used the Explore to cut the pieces.  The roses were cut from Art Nouveau and the sentiment  phrase comes from Florals Embellished.  I used the Explore to write the outline of the phrase and then colored it in with glitter pens. The paper is from Graphic 45, of course.

The challenge over at BBTB2 this week is... Mother's Day!

I am also linking my card with Challenge Number 210 at FCCB.

To all you Moms, Grandmas and Aunties out there -  Happy Mother's Day!

Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Never Ending Card

I have had this Lori Whitlock svg for a never ending card for ages and every time I opened it up, it looked too complicated to mess with.  On Saturday, National Scrapbooking Day, I was determined to just do it!

I cut out the card with scrap paper and after watching Lori's Youtube video, I was able to put it together.  Sooooo cool! 

O. K. Time for the real thing - a card for my DS's birthday.  I abandoned the svg and using Lori's measurements, I cut the card using my paper trimmer since I needed to use specific images to decorate the card.  To save time, I cut a square mask, placed it on the Good Ol' Sports papers, drew round the inside and cut it out!   Easy peasy.

 I decided to cut a band to hold the card together and added a label from Preserves and the sentiment 'Happy Birthday' from Wild Card 2.  There are so many layers and such dimension to this cut that it looks like chipboard when it's all put together.  I'll be using this image again!

The challenge at     FCCB
this week is to use patterned paper. All wight!  (As Master J is wont to say!)  Thanks for visiting with me today.  And try a never ending card yourself!  : ) Christine

Birthday Card for an 'Outdoor Man!'

Saturday was National Scrapbooking Day and I spent most of the day 'playing' in my Craft Room, browsing the 'net and visiting Craft Warehouse.  A perfect 'me' day!
My Cricut Circle sisters coordinated 2 days of challenges, tutorials and sharing and fun!  I learned so, so, much.

One of the first challenges was to make a project for a guy and you can see Diane's fabulous wallet mini here.

Awe inspiring and jaw dropping!  I love this Good Ol' Sports Graphic 45 stack and have a project to share with you later,  made with this paper pack.

I was able to combine this challenge with a project that was on my to - do list and again the card was inspired by one on Pinterest that used Stampin' Up products.  I used 'Animal Antics' for the background scene but replaced the trees with less cartoonish, more realistic cuts.  The elk and wolf come from 'Outdoor Man.'

This was a fun card to make and the BEST part was that when DH saw it he asked me to make one exactly like it for his friend's birthday in June.  He specified the exact same colors and papers.  Aghhh!  My hope is that he won't remember the exact same colors and papers by the time June rolls around and I can tweak it a little!

Happy Birthday, Jon!  Thanks for visiting with me today.  : )  Christine

Cinco de Mayo Pinata Treats

Where did April go?  Here in my little corner of the PNW,  April seemed to be a continuation of Winter with cool temperatures and lots of rain.  Yesterday, with May right around the corner, the Clerk of the Weather assigned us a glorious 75 degree day!   We celebrated by taking Cocoa and Sam walking on the dyke trail and then consuming a Hagen Daz ice cream in the Bi Mart parking lot.  Yeah!

May means lots of birthdays, Mother's Day, National Scrapbooking Day, and ... the next set of treats for the OHM children.  I chose this fun little pinata cut from Ole and cut it twice.  My on - line friend,  Scrapalette, from the Cricut MB taught us how to make any cut into a container by adding a U shaped strip between the two cuts.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy! (Thanks, Scrapalette!)   I added mini Kit Kats to the pinatas.  So cute, quick and easy!   Thanks for visiting with me today. : ) Christine

Baby Boy Card

I have been extra - specially busy with Grandma duties!  How wonderful is that? One of the great features of Design Space is that I can play around with lots of images and design projects with one eye on a sleeping Master J. or on 2 busily playing young ladies!  So I have plenty of projects ready to cut and just need to get on with it! 

The challenge over at Bitten By The Bug 2 this week is to include a bird on a project but the DT did such a fantastic job of all the popular bird cuts and I wanted something different.  A few years ago, I had to stop myself buying the Sentimentals cart just for this one image of a bird carrying an envelope in its beak.  Perfect! ( And free on my HSN subscription!)  

The cut is very simple with just two layers, so I needed to add dimension and interest in the background.  I love this daisy overlay and it cut beautifully.  The sentiment was written with the Explore.  Love, love, love this feature of the Explore.

Back to my Grandma duties!   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Trekkie Alert and Pinterest Party

Narelle, The Non Crafty Crafter has a wonderful blog full of the most useful information for Cricut-eers.  This week she is holding her very first Pinterest Party.  The idea is to pick a project that has been pinned on Pinterest, use the pin to inspire or, as in my case, totally scraplift and then post your project on Narelle's blog.

I have been intrigued with this pin from The Weekend Stamper for some time. 

Star Trek Christmas Card

She made the Enterprise from punches and helpfully provided a picture of the pieces she used.  All I had to do was recreate the punched pieces as closely as possible in Design Space and then cut them out and piece them together.   I wrote "Boldly Go" using a font from George and Basic Shapes. Fun!

Hop on over to Narelle's blog and see what other crafters have recreated.   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Secret Garden

I was at my very first CK Scrapbooking Convention on Saturday.  It took considerable restraint... but I was a good girl and only bought paper ('Cause I need more paper! LOL!) including the Graphic 45 Secret Garden stack.  The card I had made for my DD's birthday went into my stash, and I plugged in the Explore and got busy with the Anna Griffin Make and Take Butterfly card.  I love that you can modify the design or enjoy the design just as it comes.  I popped up the butterflies on two layers of foam dots for lots of dimension and wrote the word 'Celebrate' with a Recollections glitter pen inserted in the Explore.

When our DD was little, DH read "The Secret Garden" to her at bedtime and it remains one of her favorite books to this day.  So when she opened her card it brought back many happy memories.  : )

The little gift bag is an SVGCuts file imported into the Explore.  The bottom layer of the butterfly was cut in vellum.   It's SO easy cut different materials with the Ex.  (I am going to try a felt flower on a headband for G next!) The bag is fastened with a rhinestone brad.

Thanks for visiting with me today. : ) Christine     Happy Birthday KJ!  LYM 

Another Card - in - a - Box!

This one is a Lori Whitlock SVG file.  I just love the scallops on the sides.  I added a few extra pop ups and lots of gold stickles.

 S had a hard time figuring out how to pop it open and Grandpa had to help.  I was secretly much impressed that he knew how to do this as I think he looks at my 'stuff' and just says, "Lovely!" or "He'll like that!" without paying much attention.  Guess I was wrong!  LOL!

Thanks for visiting with me today!   Happy Birthday sweet Sophia!   : ) 

Spring Break!

And although I no longer HAVE Spring Break, we celebrated retirement by coming to the beach this week!  Here's a view from the RV of the ocean and Cocoa and Sam enjoying the sunshine.  Bliss!

I brought along my latest box of goodies from Simon Says Stamp and enjoyed the challenge of making the sample cards with the few things I brought along in the RV.   I can see me getting a lot of use from this stamp set.  It's so much fun! 

Time to light the BBQ!  Thanks for visiting with me today!  : ) Christine

Help needed ASAP!

I've been seeing these beautiful accordion cards on Pinterest with each panel featuring one of the seasons.  I was inspired to use the Kanji symbols for the seasons from Pagoda and surround them with some gorgeous washi paper that has been in my stash forever!

Well, I am kinda pleased with the inside.  It looks like I imagined it would look, but... the outside is so ugly!   It doesn't fold neatly, odd edges stick out here and there and I wish I hadn't tried to round the corners.   So my question is, since I haven't seen any examples of the card folded up, is this normal?  Does it just not fit together nicely because of the sheer bulk of the 4 folds?  My valentine accordion card was not too pretty on the outside either.   Any suggestions?   All help gratefully accepted because I am determined to make one with 5 folds for my DGD's birthday! Agggh!  Help! Help!

Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Play Hoops!

One of the neat things about my DGDs is that they will try anything!  They have tried martial arts, dance, golf, tennis, volleyball, art, cooking to name just a few activities.   Recently,  6 year old G played basketball for the first time in a league that practiced in our local elementary schools.  It was such fun to go see her play every Saturday. (Except for the bleachers! Ouch!)   In her last game, G scored 2 baskets.  : )

I wanted to tell her how proud we are of her and found this fun basketball paper in a DCWV stack.   I made a teepee card and used my Create - A - Friend cart to decorate each side.  The little girl is on an Action Wobble.  Such a fun card to make, although someone (DH!) objected to the ribbon on the hoop!

Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

At the Beach

Several years ago my sister visited the lovely city of White Rock, and decided that she was going to live there.  Since she is quite persistent and determined, her dream came true!  White Rock is a sea side community and my sister regularly walks her dog on the beach. It is a great place for vacationing relatives too!

When I saw the phrase, "Life is better at the beach" in the Silhouette - on - line store, I naturally thought of her.  Here is the wall decor my DH and I made to celebrate her time in White Rock.  DH contributed the 'white' rock and the sand purloined from the local golf club!  Attaching that sand to the bottom of the frame took considerable ingenuity, I can tell you.  LOL!

The dog walker cut in vinyl comes from A Child's Year and was cut with the Explore.  The background beach is by DCWV.

Thanks for visiting today.  It's a rainy day and we are off to IKEA.  : )  Christine

Easter is coming!

What a busy few days!  My sister is here from BC and we have shopped, shopped, and shopped some more!   As we relaxed over a cup of tea yesterday, I showed her the new Design Space software and together we designed this Easter card.  It was fun!

One of the things that I loved about the Gypsy was welding shapes into window cards and I wondered if I could do this with Design Space.  Yes!   Easy peasy lemon squeezy!   And it is much easier to see that the shapes have successfully melded into one piece on the larger screen. 

The daffodils are from Art Nouveau and I chose them so that I could link 'our' card with the Spring Flowers challenge at Bitten By the Bug 2 here. 

Here is the welded card shape:-

And the completed card.   It really is such a pretty, pastel yellow but the shimmery surface made it hard to photograph.

Thanks for visiting with me today.  I really appreciate your comments and interest in my blog.  Thank you!  Lastly, a special shout - out to a friend in Chilliwack!