Hearts for the Grand Kids

Valentine's Day is sneaking up quickly. I like to stay ahead of the game, and made Valentine cards for my three year old and 1-1/2 year old grandsons.

 Hugs & Kisses for the littlest boy. He loves dinosaurs, so I used Little Yellow Bicycle's Babysaurus paper, Dinos All Over. I began with cutting cream colored cardstock for the card base, then cut a peach color cardstock fro the front backing. I left an edge to show the peach when I cut and pasted the babysaurus paper. Using my heart punch, I punched out two peach colored hearts and dressed them up with sparkly stickers from K&Company, Berry Sweet. The Hugs & Kisses is on vellum paper by Kd! I used vellum tape from Scotch to adhere. The inside of the card is dressed with the peach color cardstock. I used the Cricut cartridge, Jubilee, for the Love You. To gussy it up, I attached plastic "candy hearts" stickers from Recollections. I just hope my little guy doesn't try to eat the artificial treats!

 My 3 year old grandson is into trains. So, using Cricut's B is for Boy cartridge, I cut the train shape with a textured red 8 x 10 cardstock from Archivers. the choo choo letters are cut from pink cardstock scraps, using the same cartridge. The backing of the train is a red dot paper scrap that I had, which is resting upon the red textured paper cut to fit the card. Recollections candy hearts stickers are in the blue sections. The train has K & Company sparkly stickers on the stack and as steam clouds.

The inside of the card allowed me to use a swiss dot blue colored scrap that I had. The Love You is cut out of red cardstock, using the Cricut Jubilee cartridge. Sweet & simple projects. I will have to get fancier in the years ahead, but for now, these little guys will be more into the treats they get than the cards.  Grandchildren are the best little things in life!     Sneaking off..........................

Recipe Box Reborn!

It is the end of January. Each year, I find myself sorting through my cubbies, cleaning out and purging. Today, I stumbled upon an old recipe box I had used for coupons. It is just a plastic, beige colored box. Nothing special. Kind of ugly. I am in need of a recipe box for holding some of my favorite cookie recipes. I have zillions of cookie recipes it seems.... many handed down from my Mother & my Grandmothers. I have to keep them. So, I did a mini project this morning and my recipe box was REBORN.

 Just needed a few supplies to give this recipe box it's facelift. I used Webster's Pages: 6 x 6 paper pad choosing a pattern that I liked from the Park Drive Collection. Cut & paste......

 ON the top of the box, I used a scrap of the pattern, using the reverse side. Then used letters from Webster's Pages Story Tellers alphabet stickers, Timeless Letter.

 I used the reverse side of the 6 x 6 paper fro the front, then added a piece of the front side of the pattern, finishing it off with a heart made from scraps and an old recipe card. I think it looks better than the old unadorned box! Now, where did I put all those recipe cards?   Sneaking off.....................

It is winter in Minnesnowtah and normally, I would be out there in my snowshoes loving it. However, this year, I have been penalized with surgery, so I am indoors looking out an longing for the winter. My lovely daughter (one.heart.scrapper) is here to assist me. Alas, I believe she has hidden my snowshoes!  As I sit in my recliner chair, I am pretty much forced to second guess the location of ornaments I have hung on my Christmas tree. My tree is decorated with mini colored lights, so I have used white and gold ornaments to dress it up. Snowbabies monopolize the tree. Each one is special to me. The majority have been given to me by my Goddaughter, Tiffany. Tiffany was born on Christmas Day twenty six years ago. Here is a snippent of my tree:

I love the Snowbabies.  I recently purchased the lovely white dusted pinecone. At the same time, these interesting little sprays with white pearl sequins twirled with oval rhinestones at the tip caught my eye. I am now second guessing these little sprays....

Do the sprays look like snakes to you??  Wishing you a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!
                                                                                       Sneaking off ............................

Sneaking up toward Winter.....

Winter has come to the Northwoods of Minnesnowtah on Thanksgiving Day. The lakes are beginning to freeze up in the shallow areas, the birds are searching for food. After I took this picture, I cleaned the snow out of my bird feeders and filled them up. A happy celebration for the birds who came the minute I finished filling the feeders!  My husband was busy making the Thanksgiving Turkey when I decided we needed a centerpiece for the table. I took out a small basket that I had made a few years back and decided that I would gather up some decorative nature items to fill the basket. This is what I came up with:

Cattails, Evergreen, Pinecones, Dried wild flowers, Twigs, a Birch stick, and Dried grasses. I thought it turned our pretty.


This is the first year that I did not make my Christmas cards. With my back injury and now a more persistent physical issue which is demanding surgery, I just did not take the time. I am making my holiday gift tags though, so I plan to post them next week. Oh the Holidays are such a busy time. It is important to take care of ourselves so that we can in turn take care of others. Happy Holidays!
Sneaking off................

A Showering Event:

I am back. I have been struggling with a back injury, but now with my daughter here to inspire me to move forward, I am finding that my art and my crafting is proving to be a healing source for me.

My sister and I recently hosted a bridal shower for our niece, Tiffany. Tiffany is a teacher, so we chose to have an alphabet shower. Each guest was given a letter to which they would purchase a gift, tying in the letter, and add the letter on an outside tag. We spelled out the Bride's married name, and gifts were opened in the order of the letters of her name to be. Here are the creative tags for the gifts she received. By the way, it was a "relative shower". I was amazed at the creativity of my family!

T was on an aqua color scalloped background with a silver shimmer heart, then the same aqua paper for the T, which was adorned with crystals. (Gift was Two wood Tongs and a wooden salad bowl)

I: very simple pink background with a shimmery silver I and a ping grosgrain ribbon held it to the gift bag.
(Gift was Ice Tongs and Ice Cream Drink mixes)

Looks like my photographer forgot to snap some of the letters......ah gee whiz. Well, moving on...

N: aqua background, shimmery silver N: Gift was Note Pads and New pens?

N: a royal blue yarn N on a silver sparkle star: Gift was New bathroom towels...

R: (this one from our Glitter Princess) Shimmer textured black paper with a fancy pink letter R, glittered, of course! Gift was a bottle of Red Wine and a bottle of Reisling Wine

Another lovely N, sparkle silver background with a glittery aqua N and a wedding cake sticker, all tied with aqua tulle and a satin aqua color ribbon.

This one from the Bride's furture mother-in-law: mini puppy dog bones on a lovely bag adorned with silk flowers! D is for Dishes!

B from one of the Bridesmaids: cute idea, B's clipped from advertisements!
The bag held a Big gift!

A pretty purple N sits on a green backing upon a purple tag. Rhinestones add shape to the N.

R: on a card from a guest who could not attend. Pink R with cute floral stickers, the gift? Read Me! (and a gift card).

All the guests had fun with their creations. We topped off the celebration with a few fabulous games and then Make Your Own Ice Cream Sundaes. It was an outdoor shower on a lovely 80 degree sunshining Minnesota Sunday!

You're Invited!

For a few moments, my sister and I thought of how much fun it would be to make wedding invitations. There are so many unique and interesting invitations choices these days for brides. Many talented brides are choosing to create their own masterpiece of an invitation for their wedding. My sister and I thought for only a moment, then we decided to use the time just as a fun way to create. Here are some of the designs I came up with for an autumn wedding:

Going with ORANGE and a leaf theme here... All of thee invites were made from scraps I have on hand.
This orange card is a basic orange cardstock with gold metallic background for the gold stamped leaf which is on yellow cardstock. A golden yellow organza ribbon was used. The card is sealed with foil leaf stickers.

This one did not photograph as well as I had hoped. An organza ribbon holds a gold stamped leaf design (on gold yellow cardstock, atop orange cardstock).

Just a basic invite with a brown cardstock backing. The leaves are stamped over the invitation in gold ink.

This invitation was printed first, then stamped with orange ink using a small leaf stamp. The off white cardstock was then glued to the brown cardstock backing. This is so easy to do.

Torn paper invitation. The invitation info was printed on a lightweight paper, then torn. I used the orange and a gold shimmer paper for backgrounds, punched holes in the top part and tied in a paprika colored organza ribbon.

The above photos show colors of brown and off white. The invite is printed in brown and then the bronze ink is used to stamp on the maple leaf. I think the layout makes this one dramatic.

Using a textured ribbon....

The brown satin ribbon is edged with gold threading, making this knot stand out on this card.

I used stamps to create this card. The dove is embossed with sparkle embossing ink. I added a gemstone between peace and joy to carry on with the sparkle theme. Gold shimmer cardstock is used as backing and an aqua ink is used for the design and words.

My sister and I worked on this one together. I added the wire embelishment to "jazz" it up a bit. Stampin' Up stamps were used for the wordage background and the L O V E. Gold ink on off white cardstock, and gold Stampin Up cardstock were used.

Orange textured shimmer cardstock with bronze shimmer cardstock, black ink and bronze gemstones. I'd use this for a card for birthdays, friendship, get well, etc.

Background was stamped with subtle autumn colors of ink, then the invitation was glued on top, I used a paper punch to punch out leaves in shimmer tones of reds and bronze.

Ivory cardstock, a gold foil pattern cardstock, and ivory paper for the invite words.

Basic design makes this invitation look clean. Orange cardstock, brown satin ribbon, ivory cardstock with brown print.

This pocket fold design is a popular one where the directions and rsvp, etc. can be tucked into a pocket. I used a printed foil pattern paper in champagne on ivory for this invitation. Two different patterns in the same colors make the card interesting. (Yes, it is a duo sided paper.) I like the elegance of this card.

I could go on and on....I made 26 different cards - which I believe is a record for me! - in three hours time.
It was a fun day of sharing stories and exploring creativity with my sister.

Spring Hath Sprung in Minnesota

The end of March is near. It has been too long since my last post. I have to admit that I have been out enjoying this awesome early spring. Our temperatures here have been in the 70's. May like weather in March. Wow. I am loving it! Today, I am posting some of my simple cards I made with leftover scraps and unused stickers.

My daughter, Cherie, let me play with her Cuddlebug. I had so much fun embossing scrap papers! I ended up using a pretty pink piece for my background here. I cut out a floral glitter flowery piece from scrap paper and backed it to look like a framed piece. Easy, simple, inexpensive....well, let's go so far as to say FREE!

Again, leftover scrap papers, added some ribbon and a slide. The phrase is a stick on that I had "leftover".

A series of three cards, using a large scrap of paisley paper. Simple, quick, and fun!

I had some textured scraps that I wanted to use up. I just can't throw this stuff out. I figure I can always find a use for scraps. The grey-silver card needed some pizazz, so I added the pink phrase sticker.

Two cards using black scraps. The black background does not help the presentation of the top card..... I used black shimmery cardstock for the card, adding the beige and black printed paper for background. The pink paper was one of my Cuddlebug embossing pieces, then I used stick on sequin and cloth flowers.

The butterfly card, is black and white. I had the butterfly and framed piece, then designed using scraps around that. Fun!
Tea time! So now I am .....................................................................Sneaking off....................