Hermoine?

Just two more days before we return home from our camping trip to Yellowstone National Park but yahoo! we have WiFi at the campground here in Twin Falls.
It has been an amazing experience and I have so much admiration for the Park Rangers as they try to balance people's desire to experience all the park has to offer, with their primary charge, the care of the natural wonders and the wildlife.  Sadly, there were a couple of tragedies while we were in the Park.
Today I want to show you a card I made for my DGD who is transitioning from elementary school to middle school in September.
S is a Harry Potter fan and when the Motivation Monday challenge asked for a graduation card using school colors, I immediately thought of this image from Wizard Academy by Pretty Paper Pretty Ribbons.

I was able to reconfigure her arms so that she is holding a wand instead of books.   The sentiment stamps both inside and outside come from Design By Sassy.

Happily, S LOVED her card!   Thanks for visiting with me today.  Back on the road tomorrow : )  Christine

Just Chicken In!

One of my ongoing resolutions is to send more random cards through the mail.   I'm just not good at creating them and getting them mailed.  I myself, love to get snail mail from friends and family.  I should just do it! Right?

Anyway, I made this card for my sister from a sketch.  The border across the bottom of the sketch reminded me of a fence, I had just unmounted this old CTMH stamp set, and eureka! The card was born. 

The scene on the front was created from images from Luau, Country Life, My Community and Hello Kitty Greetings.  I snipped away the cartoonish chicken that came attached to the fence and replaced it with this one from My Community.   Much nicer and she reminds me of Violet who is Numero Uno in my chicken coop!

The inner sentiment was written with the Explore and the font is Chloe.

Now I just need to get it in the mail!   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : )  Christine

Mr. Incredible Window Card

I called my daughter and asked, "Does DSIL like The Incredibles movie?"  "Well," she replied, "J (my grandson) does!"   Close enough, right?  Here's the birthday card for my DSIL featuring Mr. Incredible because... he is Mr. Incredible!

The base of the card is a window card pioneered many years ago by Sheila, of the She's A Sassy Lady blog using the Gypsy and the Cricut Expression.  Of course, it's much easier to create this type of card using DS and the Explore.  For one thing, the larger screen of my laptop is much easier to the eyes, and secondly, designing on the virtual canvas gives a good feel for the look and size of the finished project. 

Mr. Incredible's shadow layer and the speech bubble layer are welded to the frame of the window card.  This adds stability to the card and it looks 'finished' on the inside.  The window card style requires that the outside design continues on the inside and this makes the card such fun to make and fun to receive.  Here's the innies:-

Happy Birthday D!  Thank you all for visiting with me today  : )  Christine

Stardust Tea Light Birthday Card

It's my day on the She's a Sassy Lady blog and I'm sharing a card that I made for my youngest DGD's recent birthday.

Rarely, rarely, does this happen, but when I received my new stamps from DesignwithSassy, a card  just popped in my head AND it worked out just the way I hoped!  Ta da!

 I needed a simple tent card, so I placed a square on the DS canvas and sized it at 5" by 10" to form the card base.  It would have been easy peasy to add a variety of differently sized stars on the lower half of the card and attach to make the star shaped cut outs.  Unfortunately,  I wanted to use the "Star in Square" image from the Artbooking cart because I like the way the stars fit at the edges!

I discovered that I was unable to use the contour button to hide the outer square and therefore could not 'attach' the image to the front of the card to cut out the stars.  Soooo, the only way I could make it work was to slice a square in the front of the card base and then weld in the "Star in Square" image.  Yes!!!  Then I attached the score line and voila!

To finish the card I glued on the Accented Star from the Home Decor cart and added a square of platinum vellum behind the stars.  I placed a frame around the outside and inside of the stars panel to finish it off neatly.  Inside I attached the Shooting Stars frame from Artbooking and used my MISTI to stamp the inspirational stardust sentiment from the Happy Birthday collection.

A length of silver ribbon and I was done!

It looks so pretty with the tea light placed inside the card, don't you think?  Then, of course, I had to craft a box since an envelope could not contain both the card and tea light!

Thank you for visiting with me today : )  Christine

Cookie Monster Treats

Unfortunately, (and don't get me started!) at this time of year, the schools around here go into high stakes testing mode.   Translation - stressed out children, teachers, principals and administrations.  To try and alleviate matters, the teachers encourage parents and volunteers to provide little extras for the students that they can snack on or drink during breaks. 

This year, I bought little packets of Chips Ahoy cookies and decorated them with a belly band with an encouraging message and a cute little Cookie Monster image from the Sesame Street Font cartridge.

How cute is that?  The band was cut at 7.5 inches wide to allow for plenty of overlap, and Cookie Monster was cut at 1.2 inches high.  I also made a batch for the OHM shelter children.

This was fun and easy peasy little project, but I don't want to see Cookie Monster eyes again for a long time!   Thanks for visiting with me today.   : )  Christine

Mother's Day Card

Last week, Sheila provided us with a delightful Mother's Day project on the Design With Sassy Facebook group.  I basically followed the template she provided and made a card for my DDIL.

You can see that I added an extra little girl to the silhouette from A Child's Year to represent both my DGDs with their Mom.  The image was SO easy to alter in DS using the 'weld' feature.  Charlotte C. also used the Mother's Day image but substituted a little boy instead of the girl.  Oh the possibilities!
Here's the inside of my card:-

The basic design was so cute that I wanted to try adapting it for another card and chose to make a birthday card for my son.  I used the 'weld' feature again to personalize the card.  The little calendar on the front is free in DS.  So cool!

And the the innies:-

Thanks to Sheila for providing the template and thank YOU  for visiting with me today.   : ) Christine    

Happy Birthday Rob!

Mother's Day Cascade Card

Happy Mother's Day!  We had a delicious brunch at the Golf Club and then took everyone down to view the lot we chose last week for our new house.   We're so conflicted at the idea of moving from our home of 20 years but we know that as we age, taking care of our little slice of heaven will become increasingly more difficult.  Sigh!

Don't you just love the colors I chose for my card for DD # 1?   The pattern paper is from Graphic 45's Secret Garden stack and the toning cardstock comes from American Crafts.   The cascade card file was purchased from Dreaming Tree and is VERY easy to put together and personalize.  


The sentiment is from Scrappy Moms and I embossed it in white.  These dew drops are my favorite embellie right now! 

Hope all you Moms had a wonderful day!   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : )  Christine

A Mermaid's Tale

I picked up the Graphics 45 Beneath the Sea stack intending to use it for my DD's birthday card since she loves to be at the beach.  (And really, who doesn't?)   It included a little graphic "I'm Really a Mermaid." which seemed to be the perfect theme for KJ.

The mermaid is adapted from a Make It Now project in Design Space and I cut her abundant hair from russet pearlized paper since my DD's hair is naturally curly and dark red in color.  I added a frame to hide the many layers and pop dots and blinged her out with pearls.

The card is adapted from the Dreaming Tree cascade card file and I love the little pearl slides that secure the sheer ribbon.

It was such fun collaging the surfaces of the card with images from Graphics 45. 

Happy Birthday KJ!   Thank you for visiting with me today : )  Christine

Celebrating Earth Day!

DH decided that he needs to construct a staircase up to the loft in the barn/shop and our friend S came up to help with the project.  (What a team!)  While the guys were busy in the barn, C and I put together the Earth Day treat for the children at OHM.

This little treat 'tent' is very easy to put together.  It's basically a 3 " by 11" rectangle with two pencil holders attached at 3.5 " and scored at 4", 6" and 8.75".   (The pencil holder file was featured in this She's a Sassy Lady post and generously shared with me by Charlotte C.)   The triangle was sized to contain a Fruit by the Foot treat, but could be changed to accommodate any sized treat.

The earth is a Tim Holtz stamp from the Blueprint series and I water colored them - which is why no two are the same!  They are fussy cut and pop dotted onto the heart shape.

The Happy Earth Day image comes from 'Classroom - April and May' and is part of the DS subscription.  C and I thought they turned out pretty cute!  

We finished our project - but the guys,   not so much!!!  I guess I'll be having another lovely Craft n' Chat morning with C when they finally finish the job!  Thanks for visiting with me today.   Happy Earth Day!  : )  Christine

By the Sea Slider Card

Sheila, of She's A Sassy Lady fame has opened a new group on Facebook, and posts a Monday Motivation video with a challenge to create a similar card.  It's such fun!  and, honestly, some of the other groups I belong to have just gotten too big!  "Design With Sassy" feels like friends crafting together KWIM?

So, here's my version of the slider card that Sheila posted.  This has got to be the easiest slider card recipe ever!

The little starfish rotates as she slides along the beach and when I shared this card at my Card and Craft Club there were "Ooohs!" when it spun along.   :  )

 Here's the inside:

Is your mind buzzing with ideas?   How about a penguin skiing down a hill, or a bowling ball heading down the alley towards some pins?  Or a bee or butterfly flitting from flower to flower?   Come and join the group and see what the other members created.  We'd love to have you!  
Thanks for visiting today.  : )  Christine

Anna Griffin Fantastic Flips Cards

 The bad news is that I succumbed to the lure of the Anna Griffin Fantastic Flips card kit recently offered on HSN.   The good news is that I DIDN'T get the auto ship option!  (DH was not impressed, however.  LOL!)

 So, we were off in our RV last week to the southern Oregon coast for our Spring Break trip and the weather was just gorgeous!  DH went fishing in the bay with a buddy and I unpacked my Anna Griffin kit while Cocoa and Katie lay in the sun and snoozed.
 

 I like this style of card very much because it has plenty of room for embellishment AND for adding a personal message to the recipient.  I don't like that the card will not stay closed and lay flat when not in the envelope but that doesn't seem to bother anyone else!  Anyway, I had fun for a couple of hours making cards for all occasions and then got very bored with embellishing with just flowers and butterflies.  The unfinished cards got packed away until I have access to the variety of embellishments in my craftroom.   I can't wait to try the accompanying dies out for myself.

 Here's a look at three of the cards I made:-

And to my surprise, I found that I really like this unadorned sympathy card: -

A couple of pictures for my anti-Facebook DS.   Katie the water dog:-

And here's what Cocoa has to put up with!   Good job he's a mellow, yellow labradoodle!

Thanks for visiting with me today.  Happy Sunday!  : )  Christine

Happy Easter Bunny!

I hope you are having a lovely, lovely day : )    It's going to be a soggy, wet Easter Egg Hunt this afternoon for Master J, but he won't care!

One of the things I like about my Explore is that I often see something on Pinterest or on a blog that I can redesign in DS.   I've been seeing little treat boxes made from tag dies for a few weeks and I found it super easy to take a tag shape in DS, duplicate it, flip it, add a rectangle, align and weld together to make a very similar tag box.  I added some little flower cut outs for interest and here it is front and back!

Here's a screen shot of the tag.  I was able to get three from a 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock. 

 Inside the tag, I attached a tiny Lindt chocolate bunny.

 Hope all the children enjoy eating these as much as I enjoyed making them.   Have a fun day!   : )  Christine

Easter Wall Decor

I learned, many years ago, that if I needed to buy some special item for a project I should buy two of them rather than just one.   So, when I needed a white shadow box for my St. Patrick's Day project, I bought two of them and sure enough, in taking them out of their packages,  I managed to damage one frame!  So, there it sat on my desk for a week until yesterday, while flipping through the 'Easter' images in Design Space, I came across one of my favorite images from the Easter seasonal cart - this cute little chocolate bunny with his ears nibbled on one side.

Aha!   Inspiration struck and here's the result: -

 The 11 patterned paper bunnies are #M33047 from Theresa Collins' Bunnies and Chicks and I duplicated the chocolate bunny's bow and added one to each of the other bunnies.


I learned how to make the teeny tiny rolled rose from a tutorial on Paulette's blog here.  I used my quilling tool to roll them and glued them onto tiny scraps of paper which were then trimmed close to the base of the rose.

And of course, the damaged frame offered an opportunity to embellish!

I am linking my project with Challenge #272 - Easter over on the FCCB blog


and with the Spring Flings and Easter Things over on the BBTB2 blog.


The Cut It Up challenge # 92 is to include a bunny on your project.  Check!

You will truly be inspired by the variety of cards and projects you find so hustle over and check out the challenges!   Thanks for visiting with me today!   : )  Christine

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Top o' the mornin' to ye!   Just a quick post to share the little pots of gold I constructed for the children at OHM this month. 

The file - from SVG Cuts Feeling Lucky collection was resized so that I could fit 4 of the pots on one sheet of black 12 x 12 card stock and still fit 6/7 pieces of 'gold' (Rolos) inside plus a gold coin.

Cute huh?  Thanks for visiting with me today.   Enjoy your corned beef and cabbage!   : ) Christine

A Quick Birthday Gap Card With A Surprise!

It's our friend Steve's birthday this week and as usual, I was finding it SO hard to make something uncomplicated and plain as per DH's request.   I finally reverted to the old standby - the personalized Gap card (DS directions here) - and used the Varsity font for Steve's name. 

I finished off the front with some twine and added the 'Happy Birthday' sentiment from the Life's a Party cart inside the card.

But... this is a significant birthday and I wanted to acknowledge this in some way.  I typed 'birthday' in DS and up popped an image I'd never seen before from Photo Fun -Celebrations.  Could I find a way to use this image on the card,  perhaps with the number candles from Sweet Treats?  Bingo!  I put the birthday present overlay and the candles on the BACK of the card and firmly resisted the urge to get out the glitter, or the Stickles, or even the Wink of Stella!

The card was approved by DS - both front and back! - and I added our best wishes inside with a white gel pen.    Happy Birthday Steve!   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : )  Christine