Teacher Appreciation

Sometimes I feel like I could write a PinFail blog. Other times...is that Martha calling? This is one of those Martha moments, I am always shocked (and happy) when a crafty moment works out well. This was for Kaylee's Kindergarten Teacher. I of course got the idea from Pinterest. I bought a straight sided vase. Then I went to the dollar store and bought some decorative pencils. I needed 4 packs of 12 pencils. I had a few left over but how many you need will depend on the size of your container. To test that I had enough before I started sticking the pencils down, I took an elastic band and put it around the middle of the vase. Then I slipped the pencils in underneath it all the way around. This was supposed to also ensure that there would be no gaps at the end (more on that later). Everything looked good so a-sticking I went. Now some people just use the elastic band, put a ribbon over it and call it complete. The advantage to this is that the Teacher can use the pencils. My issue with this was that the pencils all have a lean to them so I went with a stick-em method.

First I placed a piece of painter's tape up the length of my vase to act as straight line/guide for my first pencil. I used my table as the bottom guide. The carpet was used just to take the photo so you can't see the rest of the messy living room. Then I hot glued my pencil and tried to place it on my vase. By the time I got the pencil on the glue had cooled. Second try I put glue on the vase and stuck my pencil on. But when I wiggled the pencil into place it popped off. Repeat first and second try with glue gun. Then I got out the 1/4" Skor Tape. Perfect! It's clear (shows clear through the inside of the vase too), and you can wiggle your pencils into place and they still stay on.

Taped all of my pencils on except 2. Then I learned that while there was room for 2 pencils at the bottom there was only room for 1 and a half at the top. Apparently the silver tops are just a bit wider than the bottoms. I considered leaving the one pencil stuck out a bit at the top (it was really close) but I thought maybe I could pinch the tops enough with a pair of pliers to make them fit. Eureka, I'm a genius, it worked.
More double sided Skor Tape to the beautiful polka dot ribbon from my LSS and then wrapped the ribbon tightly around the middle of the pencils. Next time I would move this up just a bit to leave more room for the tag. I used a potato masher to make the bow. I just Googled potato masher bow. The tag was a Silhouette cut file and the image was from Tiddly Inks - Grow a Little Love. I colored her to look like my Kaylee with Prismacolor pencils. On the back I wrote her teacher's thank-you message. I attached it to the pink bow with pink twine. Kaylee picked out the flowers.

Supplies used:

Straight sided vase

4 packages of decorative pencils/12 to a package

1/4" Skor Tape

Pliers

1 metre of ribbon

Tag optional



Her Teacher loved it. And there were 2 classes of Kindergartners (they go all day every other day) and they graduated 23 from Kaylee's class and just as many in the other class. So I think you can agree with me that she deserved a special something along with our thanks!

Here's a picture of my Kindergarten graduate *sigh*:

 

 

 

 

Hip To Be Square Or Rectangular

Welcome all, our challenge this fortnight at Crafting With Dragonflies is to make a box. We have 2 sponsors, QKR Stampede and Sassy Studio Designs, so we will have 2 prize winners and a top 3! Be sure to be a follower, no backlinking and follow the theme so that you will have a chance to win. I look forward to visiting!
My box is a cut file from Silhouette. You can also buy it as an SVG cut file from Lori Whitlock's shop. It is a card holder with sleeve. It holds A2 sized cards, awesome! I cut the box shapes from Kraft paper. Then used Skor Tape to put the boxes together along the perforated folds.

I then cut my Recollections patterned papers, also part of the Silhouette cut file. Ran them through my Xyron and attached them to my boxes.

The cut file also includes this super cool tag that you can attach with brads and the holes for the brads are pre-cut into your box. They do think of everything. I used mirror paper to cut the frame for my tag and white cardstock for where the writing will go. Attached it with 2 small silver brads.
Then I used the print and cut feature of my Silhouette for my image Little Honey's - Princess Aurora Honey from Sassy Studio Designs. I colored her using my Prismacolor pencils. This time I tried to use grey to do some shading afterwards. I felt like it made her look more like she was wearing Cinderella's cleaning dress than Sleeping Beauty's but The Husband said it looked like shading. I attached her with pop dots.

 

I will make more of these...sometime...in my spare time...well I'll put it on the list anyway ;) I love them because I can put my super embellished cards in there and they won't get squished like they are in the box I am currently putting my cards in. Thanks for stopping by, be sure to check out my teamies Hip creations (see how I brought us back around to my title?!?). Have a great week!

I'd like to share at:

Created With Love Challenges anything goes, closes June 15,

Quirky Crafts more than one fold, closes June 22



For The Girls

Our challenge this fortnight at Crafting With Dragonflies is one for the girls. Our sponsors are Delicious Doodles and A Day For Daisies. Basic rules, please be sure to be a blog follower (so you'll be guaranteed to get our winners posts!), follow the theme and no backlinking. Join in so we can drop by and visit!
I used Mom Hugs by ADFD. These cards were for my Mom and Mother-In-Law for Mother's Day. Such a beautiful and versatile image. I colored them using my Prismacolor pencils so they would look like our Mom's and us when we were babies.
The shaped cards easel cards were a creation of mine. I took a scalloped frame and duplicated it twice in my Silhouette program. I overlapped two of them and welded them together. Drew a perforated line between them for the fold line and cut them out. Then I folded one side in half. This acts as my base. The third scalloped frame gets glued to the folded scallop base to act as my card front. I sent some patterned paper through the embosser and then gently rubbed some distress ink over it to make the pattern stand out. I did this only on my second card, learn as you go and all that, so the embossing on my MIL's card stands out way better than on my Mom's. The sentiment frame was also a Silhouette cut file and then I used pop dots to lift it off the page a bit. I also used some half pearls to Mom it up a bit :o) The flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts and were used at the insistence of my daughters. I thought the cards were done without them but they got the final word and I think they were right!
My lessons learned: you can make any shape into an easel card. Whatever shape you use for your card front is also the right side of your bottom card. You fold that in half and you have your base. Looking forward to trying this with teacups!

 For my Mom.

For my Mother-In-Law

 I would like to share my cards at:
Joanna Sheen Challenge girls, girls, girls, closes May 29,
A Day For Daisies anything goes, closes May 30,
Bugaboo Stamps photo inspiration, closes June 1,
Lady Anne's Challenge easel card, closes June 1,
The Squirrel and the Fox here come the girls, closes June 2,
Lacy Sunshine anything goes, closes June 7,
Addicted to Stamps bingo, lilac, flowers, embossing, closes June 9,
Hobbycutz Challenges flowers/roses, closes June 9,
The Crazy Challenge use a sentiment, closes June 10

Mother's Day Scrapbook Page

Our second challenge at Crafting With Dragonflies this fortnight is to create a scrapbook page with the theme of Mothers. We have our wonderful sponsor, Bugaboo Stamps, which offer the winner 7 digis of their choice. Just a gentle reminder to be eligible for the prize and top 3; no backlinking, follow the theme, and be a follower of the challenge blog. I look forward to seeing your creations! And I so loved my teamies cute and sentimental pages too.
I used a 12x12 dp I bought at Michael's. My tag was a Silhouette file that I used print and cut to put my Bugaboo image Love Blocks - with love on. I then heat embossed my image. I have never done that before and still have a ways to go before I am comfortable with it. I asked The Husband if I should redo my tag and he said, "I thought you were going for folksy". Well I am now, folksy it is ;o) I tied 3 different ribbons through the top. My butterfly and dragonfly are also Silhouette files cut out of yellow and purple vellum and then embellished with Jolee's Jewels hotfix Swarovski crystals. To frame my pictures I used purple tulle that I hand pleated. Not the easiest to get a straight edge and a little tricky at the corners but I like the idea.

These pictures are of my oldest daughter Kaylee and myself in 2008. Kaylee was about 8 months old. I am a chronological scrapbooker and am scrapping 2006 right now (don't say it, I know) so now I can say I am 1 ahead on 2008, lol. The most remarkable thing I noticed when scrapping these pictures, and it truly is a God winks moment as my Mom would say, is that the reflection in Kaylee's eyes is heart shaped. I told her it was because we were cuddling. Works for me!

We're All Abuzz

The Crafting With Dragonflies challenge blog is now live with our very first fortnightly challenge. Our theme for this challenge is dragonflies. And we have many wonderful sponsors and lots of great chances to win for our first challenge. Be sure to join in the fun!
First Prize: Eureka Stamps: 5 Digis (Plus a mystery Magnolia Tilda stamp from Hilde)
Prize: Sassy Studio Designs: 4 Digis
Prize: Crafts and Me: 3 Digis
Prize: A&T Digital Designs: 2 Digis

I used a Crafts and Me image and colored it up using my Prismacolor pencils. The pearl ribbon slider on my purple tulle bow and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. I added a dragonfly charm from my local scrapbook store. The leaves and frame are a Silhouette cut file.
Be sure to drop around to my teammates blogs, we all have such different styles, there is a lot of very cool dragonfly inspiration there.
We also have a freebie dragonfly image, graciously supplied by Hilde, on the challenge blog if you need one. I hope you'll join us so that I can drop around and visit!
I would like to share my card at:
Dream Valley Challenges things with wings, closes May 4,
Forever Friends lots of flowers, closes May 6,
Scrap-Creations insects or animals, closes May 7

Daddy's Birthday

This card is for the Husband for his birthday from the little girls. I used an image from Meljen's Designs and tried to color the little bears up with the same color hair as our little girls. That didn't work, but I think he'll get the idea. This was actually my second attempt. The first I used Copics but I just don't have enough of them yet to do a great job. For this one I went back to my old faithful Prismacolor pencils. I'm sure he would have liked either one, for him the bragging rights would be to know I spent the whole night making a card for him. I followed the sketch at C.R.A.F.T. Challenge.
The cardstock was a core'dinations embossed cardstock that I sanded to bring out the embossing. I used denim twine in the large yellow button.

We celebrated my Dad's 70th Birthday on the weekend. And we hosted here at our house. It was a busy weekend, so for the Husband's birthday he just wants a quiet night of pizza for supper and chocolate cake for dessert. OK, I think that can be arranged ;o)

Until Next Time

This is my final post as Guest DT at Digital Tuesday Challenge (until next time). The theme this week is to make a card for a boy and our sponsor is Spesch Stamps. Remember to use something digital.
For my card I used Draggy by Sylvia. I colored him with my Prismacolor pencils. I bought some burlap at Michaels on my last trip there and just cut it into ribbon strips. The buttons are BoBunny. The shaped card is a Silhouette file. Isn't he cute?

 I used the sketch from The Sketchy Challenge.

I would also like to share at:

My Craft Spot cute critters, ends Apr. 15

New Challenge Blog Candy

Hello all, our new challenge Blog, Crafting With Dragonflies has some yummy blog candy to give away while waiting for our first challenge to go live on May 1st.

4 x Sets of Clear Stamps:
Kaisercraft: Blae & Ivy
Pink Paislee: Nantucket
Inkadinkadoo: Snakeskins
Inkadinkadoo: Road Trip
3 Paperpads:
6 x 6 Teresa Collings-World Traveller
12 X 12 Dog Days by Deja Views
12 x 12 Cat;s life by Deja Views
2 x Alpha/Num foam sticker sheets ( 1 black, 1 pink)
Selections of Paper doilies
DIY 10pk Scored and folded Card pack 15x15 cm
Selection fo 3d Flowers incl. Crochet ones
2 small pakts of 3d Roses
small pack of embellies
1 x roll 50m/6mm double sided tape
Cuttlebug embossing folder : Swirls
6 white folded/3 hole paper bags, ready to make an album
24 large/long pearl headed stick pins
Selection of gold/silver 3d padded angel wings
24 large Apricot coloured paper flowers
3d Buttons/ embellies
Selection of Organza Ribbons
Small damask print craft tote bag with pockets (black/white and grey)
---------------------------------
WOW

The blog candy will run for the whole month of April, to be in the running to win this awesome prize, you must become a member of this blog and help spread the word, by posting the pic (top one) on your blog with the link back to here. Please click on the Linky to leave your entry and please leave a comment....

Thanks so much for doing that.

And..............we also have a second prize from Kitty Lane.

Kitty Lane is an Australian Company making gorgeous rubber stamps.
These are great quality and easy to use stamps that have a crisp and clear print.
To buy stamps from Kitty Lane, go to the Aussie ebay site.

ONE MORE TIME:
Join the blog, click on Mr Linky to leave your entry and leave a comment. Post the main blog candy pic with a link back to here on your blog.
One entry only
Easy, both winners will be chosen by random org.
Tell your friends and spread the word.

The blog candy will officially start on the 1st of April and end on the 30th of April 2013.

 

Be sure to join us, you won't want to miss a thing! And our first DT feature is none other than yours truly. The rest of the lovely ladies will soon follow and really, meeting other crafty people from all over the world, is that not the best part?!? Ok after the chance to win a whole bunch of candy ;o)

Trending Right Now

So I don't Tweet, I'm not a Twitter follower, but our weekly challenge this week at The Digital Tuesday Challenge is to use a paper crafting trend. I have chosen to use an action wobble. Be sure to check out my teamies for their inspiration on what is trending right now :o) The sponsor this week is Oak Pond Creations and remember to use something digital.
I made a small box from Kraft paper using a Silhouette cut file. I then put some Easter grass in the bottom and some mini eggs in too. The bunny image is from My Grafico. I used the print and cut feature in my Silhouette to print and cut out the bunny and an enlarged version of the bunny's head as well. I also cut the ears and whiskers off the bottom bunny. Then colored her using some gel markers and used purple Stickles on her flower and some Diamond Stickles on her tail.
I started to sew my dp to my cardstock when my bobbin ran out. Since the machine is new to me I knew I'd need to ask my Mom about winding a new bobbin. So I just picked out what was there and continued on without thread for the paper piercing. Then I diagonally tied some green ribbon over the corners of my box.
When I went to add the wobble to both the face of my bunny and the back of the larger head, I realized it was way too high of a spring, especially for a box which would lay flat, you would see the spring. I took apart another one I had and used wire cutters to shorten the spring. Put it back together and then reattached the spring to the bunnies.
Hope you all had a blessed Easter!

 



I'd like to share at:
Creative Creations Easter creations, closes April 15,
Cameo Creations Easter project, closes April 25

Springtime at DTC

Hello again all, well March 20th signalled the official first day of Spring here. I think we have had 2 (or maybe 3, I am starting to lose track) blizzards since then. We have a lot of snow and it is still cold. This is not normal for us (I know some people think we Canadians only have one season, hockey season) but we actually usually have 4. While I am anxious for Winter to be over, I am not anxious to trade our snow for mud. There is going to be a lot of flooding once all this snow melts. I'll trade in my Winter boots for rubber boots I guess.
The weekly challenge at the Digital Tuesday Challenge this week is Spring. Link up your Spring creations and don't forget to use something digital. The sponsor this week is QKR Stampede.
For my card I used Bugaboo Stamp's Scarlette Bubble Bath. I colored her using my Prismacolor pencils. I added Diamond Sparkles to her bubbles and Glossy Accents to her martini glass. A few half pearls make up the extra 'bubbles'. The purple cardstock lattice background, dp frame and sentiment are Silhouette files. I used some Tim Holtz distress ink in Spun Sugar on the sentiment. But I'm most proud of my flowers. I got the genius/crazy idea to make them out of old towels and washcloths. I really wanted to stick with my cleaning theme. And while they are not easy to cut, they really do add dimension and texture! Bo Bunny brads are the flower centers. And really, all Spring cleaning should be done with a martini, or other beverage of your choice, spoonful of sugar and all that ;o)

And some shots of Springtime here:

 

 Our snow mountains, all the snow my dad has moved out of our yard with the tractor.

One of the streets on our way to town.

I'd like to share my card at:

Sarah Hurley Challenge recycle, closes Mar. 30,

Eclectic Ellapu funny and/or whimsy, closes Mar. 31,  ***Top 5!!!***

Top Tip Tuesday rofl, closes Apr. 2,

Try it on Tuesday recycle it, closes Apr. 9





An Annual Tradition?!?

Hello all, my good bloggy friend Lora has kindly asked me to join the Digital Tuesday Challenge as a Guest Designer for March! You may remember I was a Guest Designer for them in March of 2012. I guess you could say we are just making it an annual tradition ;o)
The theme this fortnight is Easter. And the sponsor is Yours Or Mine Papercrafts. It would be wonderful if you could join us!
I chose an Easter project for the girls Sunday School Teachers. I used the 3D Shaker Window Box file from the Silhouette store to make these 2 cutie little round boxes. I didn't make the window/shaker part, I just made a solid top. I cut a scalloped frames just large enough to overhang the edges of the tops of my boxes. I used the digi stamp Little Lamb by Elisabeth Bell as my image for both boxes. I colored them up using my Prismacolor pencils and made them to look like my little girls. I used Copics to make the little polka dots around the images. I added 3mm Hotfix Jolee's Jewels Swarovski Crystals to the centers of some tiny Prima flowers. The first lamb got some DecoArt Snow Writer to create the dimensional wool effect. But I was worried that it lost a few details and that you couldn't really tell that it was a lamb anymore, so the second one was just colored as usual. Which do you like better? I still have to make a few more so I'm open to comments. I put in some Easter grass and some jellybeans and my little projects were complete!



 

I'd like to share my projects at:

Celebrate The Occasion Easter, closes Mar. 24,

Papertake Weekly Easter treats, closes Mar. 26,

Shopping Our Stash Easter/Spring, closes Mar. 26,

Hobby Cutz Easter, ends Mar. 31,

Clear It Out Easter, ABC, stash (crystals), closes Apr. 1,

Creative Creations things with the letter b (bling, blooms, bows), closes Apr. 1

Some Exciting News

The lovely Hilde, we met on the Poodles Parlour Challenge Blog, is starting a fortnightly Challenge Blog of her own. It is called Crafting With Dragonflies and goes live on May 1st. It will include all kinds of paper crafts, cardmaking, scrapbooking, altered objects, great sponsors and lots and lots of fun! And I will be on the Design Team!!!
I haven't been on one since the Poodle Parlour closed because of Jacqui's ill health. She was the creator and designer. She has since passed away. I hadn't mentioned anything about it before because it was so surreal to me. So joining Hilde in this adventure of hers really felt like a touch of homecoming. And oh how I've missed visiting entries and commenting (my favorite part). There is so much inspiration out there!
Crafting With Dragonflies is based out of Australia and challenges will start every second Wednesday at 10 a.m. There is a clock on the Challenge Blog with the local Sydney time so you can work out when that is for you in your area. It is 17 HOURS AHEAD for me. Crazy hey?!? Love it! And she is still looking for a couple of talented crafters to join us on the DT. Just e-mail Hilde at thegrasslady at gmail dot com if you are interested.
Be sure to follow the Challenge Blog so you'll be up to date on all the details. I happen to know there will be some tempting Blog Candy coming in April to kick things off with some fun! So great if you can join us!

I So Love This One

I have some catching up to do with you. First of all, my Winter Craft was chosen as the Friday Feature on the Silhouette Blog. It was chosen from the Silhouette Flickr group which has 2,900 members and 8,100 items/photos. You really could have knocked me over with a feather, really, I was that shocked...and proud. Wow!
Another thing you should know about me is that St. Patrick's Day is my favorite holiday. Maybe because it requires absolutely no planning/work on my part with the exception of do I have enough green to wear? We are Irish on my Dad's side so I feel completely comfortable "wearin' the green" as they say. Although everyone is a little Irish on St. Patrick's Day ;o) We are going on Saturday night to see Great Big Sea (a Celtic band from the East Coast) in Regina and I couldn't be more excited!
This turned out so very, very well. I know I am my own worst critic (aren't we all) but even I am in love with this one. I case'd this card which I saw on Facebook. All of the pieces are Silhouette cut files. I asked for a kids sewing machine for my birthday (last August) but my husband couldn't find any in town. So I have been watching auction/classified sites for one when my mom said I could have her old one. I didn't want to pay a lot for one because I knew I would only be using it to sew paper. But free, well that's perfect! I used a cardstock base and patterned paper, placed the hat band in place and then stitched around with gold thread. I was ok with how it went for my first try at it. I inked the edges of my buckle, flower petals, shamrock and clover, and sentiment. Then I started layering. I made the shamrock and clover centers from the same patterned paper as my background and glued that onto cardstock for support. Then added Glossy Accents on top to add dimension. The flower center is a brad. I used a glue gun on the twine. I used a pop dot to lift the shamrock off the page.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I would like to share my card at:

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge stitching, closes March 12,

Creative Corner Challenges go green, closes March 14,

Simply Create Too challenge #32 St. Patrick's Day, closes March 14, ***Top 3!!!***

Card Makin' Mamas green, closes March 15,

QKR Stampede show us the green/St. Patty's Day, closes March 15,

Catch the Bug green thumb, closes March 16,

Sentimental Sundays 3 embellies that start with b (brad, butterflies, buckle), closes March 17,

Clear It Out St. Patrick's Day stash items (my patterned paper), closes March 18, ***Top 3!!!***

{PIN}spirational Challenge St. Patrick's Day, closes March 18 ***Top 3!!!***

 



My Mind's Eye

This did not turn out how I envisioned it in my mind's eye. In fact I'm only sharing it because I like the idea of it but am not very fond of the finished product. I have a friend that uses the phrase 'put on my big girl panties' a lot, so I knew the image Big Girl Pants from Mo's Digital Pencil would be perfect for her birthday card. I decided to use a whole bunch of elements you would find on panties for the front of the card. I used a real elastic cut off of an old pair of panties and I sewed it onto the front of the card. I added some lace, a small fork bow, and a safety pin. Oh come on, you know you've got a pair of those too, lol. Colored her with Prismacolor pencils and paper pieced her panties. Sharon's hair really is pretty close to that color. Inside I included the verse which I'm sure I found on Pinterest:

Friends are like

UNDERPANTS...

Some crawl up your butt

Some snap under pressure

Some don't have the

strength to hold you up

Some get a little twisted

Some support you

Some are your favorite

Some are cheap and

just get bent out of shape

And some actually DO

cover your butt

when you need them to!!!

I would like to share my card at:

Digital Tuesday Challenge birthdays, closes March 5,

Catch The Bug Challenge anything goes, closes March 9,

Crafty Ribbons anything goes with ribbon, closes March 13,

Craft Us Crazy #38, anything goes, closes March 13,

The Sisterhood of Crafters birthdays, closes March 13,

Stampin' for the Weekend lace, closes March 14,

Sparkles lace it up, closes March 14

A Lot Of Valentine's Bling

For Kaylee and Abby's Sunday School classes and for the kids on the school bus I made these Valentine's Hershey Kiss rings. I bought some glittery pipe cleaners at the dollar store. And the Kisses were bundled up at the bulk foods store in bags for 99 cents and it was 20% off day. OK, sold! I wouldn't even want to guess the actual price of Hershey Kisses the week before Valentine's day so I lucked out there! Of course I was inspired by Pinterest and this is the post I followed for directions. These were my supplies: pipe cleaners, Kisses, and needle nosed pliers (you will thank me for this later).

Take 2 pipe cleaners and twist them together in the middle so that they are perpendicular.

Then place your Kiss bottom side down right in the center of your pipecleaners. I also removed the paper that was sticking out above the Kiss. It really just gets in the way.

Bring two of the sides up and give them and twist and then do the same for the other two sides. Try to keep them as close to the top of the Kiss as you can or your ring will stick up really high.

Then set the Kiss upright on top of one of your fingers or your thumb, depending on how big you want your ring size to be.

Wrap one side of your pipecleaners around your thumb and then wrap the tails around the bottom of your ring.

Wrap the other tails around the bottom of your ring also. This is where the pliers come in. Use them to tuck the sharp ends of the pipe cleaners in so that they don't cut/poke any little fingers. You don't need pliers to do this but your thumbs will get very sore if you do a lot of them "manually".

And a couple of shots with my models of course!

And the completed bling rings project!

I chose not to use the almond Kisses because there are so many children with nut allergies out there but the gold wrapped Kisses would have also made great bling rings if you knew they were safe for the children you were giving them to. And one other note, I didn't change rooms while working on my project, the carpet is the same carpet in all the pictures, I have no idea why it shows up as several different colors depending on which picture I took. Too funny.

Happy Valentine's Day all!

Shared at:
The Answer Is Chocolate linky party #92

Happy Chinese New Year

When the Chinese United Church closed in our town, the last few members joined our Church. We usually sit in the row ahead of them and they have made very good friends with our little girls. Because Chinese New Year falls on a Sunday this year, we wanted to take them some cards. I used Fan's Cricket by Mo Manning for my image. I colored her using Prismacolor pencils and some glitter gel pens for her trim and on the cricket cage. The Happy New Year banner, lanterns and Chinese lattice corner pieces were all cut files from my Silhouette. I did go over the gold cardstock that backs the lanterns with a Martha Stewart glitter marker to add some shine. I also used a gold trimmed crochet cotton as the string for the lanterns. The little girls decorated the insides. I love how they turned out!

I would like to share my cards at:

Mo's Challenge Blog anything goes, closes Feb. 14,

Crafty Ann's tie a yellow ribbon, closes Feb. 14,

Moving Along With The Times only girls allowed, closes Feb. 14,

QKR Stampede someone special, closes Feb. 15,

Glitter n Sparkle Challenge girls are made of, closes Feb. 17 ***Winner!***

A Valentine Birthday

My sister-in-law's birthday is February 10th. I chose a freebie image by Sylvia Zet from Wee Stamps that works for a birthday that is close to Valentine's day. I loved that it had two little birds that could be my 2 little ones. I just had to add eyelashes to the one little bird because my daughters felt that was what made them girl birds, ah kids. I outlined the image with my Zig markers. The sentiment and stitching were added in my Silhouette program and then printed on white cardstock. However I also went over the sentiment with my black marker too.



I would like to share my card at:
CAS-ual Fridays use markers, closes Jan. 31,
Charisma Cardz hearts and flowers, closes Jan. 31,
Card Makin' Mamas clean and simple, closes Feb. 1,
My Time To Craft things with wings, closes Feb. 2,
Addicted to CAS code word heart, closes Feb. 9

ABC123

I followed a sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches ***Top 5!*** for this birthday card for a Teacher friend of mine. The image is from Sassy Studio Designs. I used Kraft cardstock as my base. The red polka dot ribbon was from my stash and I made a fork bow from the thin green polka dot ribbon, also from my stash. I cut the hexagons out of my dp's using my Silhouette. I added Making Memories Funky Black 7/16" letter stickers to them. The image I printed onto white cardstock and colored with Prismacolor pencils to match my friend. I added the cuffs and shirt tails with a white get marker as well. The chalkboard I paper pieced with kraft paper to tie in to the cardstock and colored with a black opaque marker. A white gel pen added the sentiment. Glossy Accents on the apple and glasses finish things off. I've included a picture of my friend too, shhh, don't tell her ;o)

I would like to share my card at:

Crafts and Me Challenges something new, MME Lime Twist dp's, closes Jan. 23,

Moving Along With The Times birthday card, closes Jan. 24, ***Top 3!***

A and T Emerald Faeries celebrations, closes Jan. 31

My Abby is 3

My last catch up post from a very busy holiday season. My Abby turned 3 right before Christmas. So because we have a live tree and have to have the tree up, I always try to incorporate the Christmas decorations into her birthday party theme. This year the theme was Christmas Candy. The awesome tree decorations were from Michael's. I used 2 pool noodles, rolled and tied with ribbon (to hold their shape) and then wrapped in cellophane to look like 2 large candies.

The cake was a Pinterest inspired chocolate cake with chocolate icing, Kit Kat bars and Smarties. Be very glad your child wasn't having a piece before being sent home, lol! I baked 2 9" round chocolate cakes (from the box). Then made some chocolate icing and iced them both. The Kit Kat bars were placed around the outside. If they pulled away from the cake at all I used a little bit of chocolate icing as 'mortar' if you will. This held them on so well that I didn't need to tie a ribbon around to hold them on like some the Pinterest cakes I had seen. I realized part way around that I was not going to have enough Kit Kat bars to place each one side by side with no gap, so I had to space them far enough apart to make it all the way around, but not too far apart that the Smarties on top would fall out. My advice: buy extra Kit Kat bars, really not going to go to waste even if they are not used on the cake ;o) But the little gaps actually made cutting the cake easier, so I leave it to you to decide. Smarties go on top, I did push some in, but the icing had firmed up by this point so I didn't push them all in and yet they stayed really well. What I learned: that this cake can look good, really good, even if a regular person makes it!

For the tray underneath, another Pinterest idea, I bought the hard peppermint candies at Bulk Barn. Here's the link to my Pinspiration. We unwrapped each candy and put them on our pizza pan with some parchment paper on it. You can make them into any shape you like. Then into the oven at 350 degrees for around 8 to 10 minutes. Then remove and let cool completely before removing from the pan. My lessons learned: our tray did have a bit of a bubbled bottom, I think possibly from the holes in the pizza pan. Next time I'd try a cookie sheet. It is also quite fragile. And you will have to watch the children, I had a least 2 try to lick it!