A Sweet Square

Today I want to share a square card made for The Designer Challenge over at My Creative Time.

I chose a stamp inspired by a recent day trip with my family. We have had so much rainfall lately that the TVA decided that they needed to release water out of Fontana Dam. We have been camping there for years and I have never seen the water released through the spillway. This picture was taken from the top of the dam. I am truly blessed to live in such a beautiful place.

This picture is at the bottom of the dam with my guys :)

How did this inspire my card? During our drive from the top of the dam to the bottom we stopped at the local ice cream shop and enjoyed a very sweet treat. I was also badly beaten in a game of checkers by the little guy but I try not to dwell on that.

I colored the image with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and backed it with green vellum paper punched with Martha Stewart's Loops. The designer paper is DCWV Sweet Shoppe stack. Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

Catch a Wave

This evening I was in the mood to play with my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. I am still learning how to blend and get the right color combination. I used a digital stamp from Pollycraft called "Summer Things - Cool Cat." I am entering this in ABC35 "Anything Goes" Challenge.

The paper is from My Mind's Eye "Fine& Dandy" 6x6 pack. I think I'll go color some more. 

Have a blessed day!

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

As an instructional math coach I work with over 40 high school math teachers. I wanted to share with each of them how much they are appreciated so I made crafty gifts. I am extremely thankful for Pinterest as I found almost all of my ideas there.

Gift #1: Marvelous & Magnificent Teacher
I found the glass cruets at Joanns in the wedding section. I used Inkscape to create the label which I have shared here and imported it into Silhouette Designer software to complete a print and cut.

Gift #2: Thank You Pillow Box
The pillow box is from Lettering Delights and was the perfect size for a 100 Grand. I used Make the Cut to cut them all and tied baker's twine around the flap. The little buttons are from Tuesday Morning where I purchased them at a going out of business sale.

Gift #3: Thanks for the 'Extra' work
These were made specifically for the Math Leadership Team. We meet once a month and the teachers are always taking on extra responsibilities. They are a wonderful team to work with and our teachers in the county benefit greatly from their leadership.

Gift #4: Thank you with Sharpies
I have been saving Crystal Light plastic canisters without any idea what I would do with them. Then I found this site where there was the idea and a free printable tag. I simply printed the tag and cut it out using scissors. Yep, no fancy cutting machine for this one. Just simple scissors and my xyron machine. This was the gift specifically for my son's teacher.

Gift #5 Lemonade
These were simple to make. I cut the strips at 2.5" wide and 10" long and scored it at 3" and 7.5". I used a Martha Stewart punch to cut the circle and an EK Success punch for the border.

Gift #6 M&M packs
After making gift #1 I had an entire bag of m&ms left. I made these treat bags and adorned the tag with washi tape and a small button.

I really enjoyed handing out the treats each day and letting the teachers know they are appreciated. Hope this has inspired you to send a little treat. Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

A Baby's Bib

There are lots of babies being born lately. Two of my colleagues have had babies in the past month (one with twins) and our pastor just became a grandpa. So I have been busy making baby cards. I didn't snap a picture of the first two so I can only share one today.

I saw a picture on Pinterest of a cute baby bib card but when I went to find a cut file for it I was out of luck. I visited all of my favorites (Lettering Delights, SVG Cuts, The Cutting Files, Silhouette Store, and the MTC Gallery) and was unable to find the bib I was looking for. I searched for an image that I could pixel trace and still no luck. Finally I had to resort to making my own.

Since I made my own I would like to share the file.

Now, I've never shared a file before so if you are unable to download please leave me a note and I will work on it some more. I have chosen to use Google Drive to do this. To download just click on the format you would like MTC format or SVG format.

Thanks for stopping by and if you use the file I would love to see what you do with it. Leave me a note and a link and I'll come visit.

Have a blessed day!

Happy New Year 2013

Happy New Year. Yeah.... I know {sigh}... I haven't posted anything since my October Halloween treats. I wonder if I even have anyone who looks at my crafty ramblings anymore. I promise have made some treats since then. There were candy bar treat boxes for Thanksgiving and Fisher and I made some turkeys out of trail mix and pipe cleaners. For Christmas I made a variety of treats. I have over 40 teachers that I work with and I had each of them a little crafty gift. I even have pictures of some of the creations. But now that the holidays are over I'm not sure sharing them at this point would be proper blog etiquette. Maybe I'll write them and schedule them for next year {can you schedule posts that far away????} or maybe I'll just pin them on Pinterest.

Anyway, I welcome anyone who takes a glimpse at what I've worked on tonight. It's been relaxing and a much needed activity. {Today has brought me very sad news and crafting is real therapy for me.} I saw these "ready to bake" sugar cookies at the grocery store on sell for $0.99 for 2 dozen. I snatched up three boxes with this New Year's treat in mind.

I created a simple print and cut using the Silhouette Designer Software (but you could easily do it without designer.) Thanks to a quick Google search I found an easy tutorial here on how to get my words to wrap.

 I even have enough cookies left over to send to Fisher's class tomorrow. Isn't the snowman cute?

I really enjoy making treats for others. It is great to surprise someone with a "thinking of you" gift. Well, I suppose that is enough for tonight. Have a blessed day!

Classroom Halloween Treats

October has been a very busy month and last week was the busiest. I started with staff development for all of the high school math teachers in my county on Monday. A PLC session for Course 1 teachers on Tuesday. Then I traveled to the state Math Leadership Conference on Wednesday, followed by the state math conference on Thursday & Friday (of which I had a part in planning). I also presented two sessions. Saturday I coordinated the Fall Festival at the church consisting of a Trunk or Treat, hot dog supper, hayride and bonfire. On top of all that I started getting sick. Spent the entire day in bed on Sunday and went to the doctor today.

Feeling much better, I finished the classroom treats for my son's classroom. I found this idea on Pinterest and my son thought it was hilarious. Using a large container of cheese puffs, we filled small snack bags. (We also discovered that our little dog loves cheese puffs.)

I used Frank's Friends Alpha from Lettering Delights for the pumpkin and designed the entire card in Inkscape. I imported into Silhouette Studio, enclosed with a rectangle, filled the page, and did a print and cut.

I couldn't resist the second project. (Again, I pinned it on Pinterest.) I purchased mandarin oranges in individual containers and used a Sharpie to draw faces.

That's all the projects I have for today. I have a few planned tomorrow for my colleagues. Thanks for dropping by and have a blessed day!

Dig for a Cure

One of the teachers I work with is a volleyball coach. This Saturday, her team is having a fundraiser called Dig for a Cure. Last week I ordered six pink water bottles for $1.50 each from WOOT.com. I wasn't sure at the time what I was going to do with them but I knew I could use them for something. (Oh, this could get very bad if I do this too often.) Fortunately, they aren't sticking around for too long. I used MTCs pixel trace of a ribbon I found by searching Google Images. I cut the ribbon and the words out of vinyl and put them onto the bottles. The plan is to put a t-shirt inside and sell them this weekend as part of the fundraiser. 

I like the way they turned out. Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

A Little Old and A Little New

My mother-in-law's birthday was yesterday and I actually had some free time to craft. My father-in-law had asked me to create a card for him to give to her and of course I had to make one from us. This first card is the one I made for my father-in-law to give to her. The "little old" is the use of the phrase "live, laugh, love." It's one of my favorite phrases to use because I find it suitable for a variety of situations. The "little new" is to challenge myself to use MTC to weld the words together instead of using my stamp. The flowers are also a new purchase from the local store.

 

This second card is the one from us. The "little old" is the flower stamp which I have had for years and is well used. The "little new" is the sewing. I do not sew but love the look on cards. I found a simple crafters sewing machine for $9 and thought I would try it out. I used Spectrum Noir alcohol markers to color which is still a technique I want to get better at.

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to look.
Have a blessed day!

A Sympathy Card

My SILs mother passed away this past week and I wanted to make a special card for her. I was inspired by Jin Yong's post on Simple Shapes at Under A Cherry Tree.

The entire project was done with MTC and cut with my Silhouette Cameo. I started with a 3" and a 2.5" square, stacked them, and did a Boolean Join. Next, I copied and pasted (in place) three other squares. I overlapped them slightly and welded them together. The words are Script MT Bold font with the letters welded together. I placed the words just touching the frame and did another weld. The butterfly is from LDs  Cloud Nine set. I created a shadow with blackout and was finished within a few minutes.

On the inside I printed "... and the greatest of these is love." to complete the verse from 1 Corinthians 13. The bling was put on with my irock tool.

I know it has been awhile since I posted so I don't know if anyone out there even reads these posts; but if you do, thanks for letting me share. If you are so inclined please pray for my SIL. This was sudden and she needs to feel God's strength to help her through.

Have a blessed day!

End of Year Teacher Treats

I am so proud of Fisher. He got the Excellence in Reading & Math yesterday at the end of the year awards ceremony. He was so excited about finishing Kindergarten and of course starting summer vacation. I am in awe of how well he is reading. I can teach high school students math but am amazed at how elementary teachers teach students how to read.

To show my gratitude I made his teachers and the ladies in the office some end of the year treats. For the ladies in the office I put together this apple from the Fall Harvest Favor Box from SVG Attic and placed two small caramel brownies inside. (Unfortunately I didn't take the best pics so it is difficult to see that they are apples.)

For his teachers, I made these cute flip flop boxes from My Graphico. They were easy to assemble. I placed two caramel brownies in each of these too.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a blessed day!

So Sweet

Happy Memorial Day! I am thankful for the men and women who have sacrificed their lives for this country. May they always be remembered.

Now the card I would like to share. I have been working on this for a few days. I want to get better at coloring with my Spectrum Noir Markers so I have colored this little girl with a watermelon from Kristie Daily multiple times. 

I used the sketch Mojo Monday 243 

Thanks for stopping by. Have a blessed day!

Bride & Groom Wedding Card

One of the young ladies from our church got married today. I wanted to make her an extra special card. I decided to use Patricia Zapata's Ring Box Cut It from Lettering Delights. I used my Silhouette Cameo and Make the Cut. The top of the box is backed with a piece of colored vellum.

The lace is from the $1 bin at AC Moores and was wrapped around the edge. White self-adhesive pearls were used at each intersection of the rings. I liked how both added a little elegant look and went with the theme of a wedding card.

For the card, I used an image from the internet of a bride & groom holding hands. Pixel trace with MTC made cutting the image out very easy. The corner I found in the MTC gallery. The cardstock is a metallic blue that has a shimmer to it.

I used the embossing folder Butterfly Kisses from Craft Concepts on a piece of white vellum. I colored the back of the butterflies with my Spectrum Noir TB4 marker.

Finally the box was a little too deep for a single card so I cut a piece of white cardstock an inch larger in both dimensions, folded it an inch on each side, trimmed the corner pieces, and put it in the box. This lifted the card to the top. The ribbon is threaded through small slits I made in the bottom of the box and tied on top.

I am entering this in Ashley's Welch Creations Challenge #7, the ABC DT Challenge "Graduation or Wedding" card,  and the Cardz TV Challenge #109 "Say I Do"

By the way, the wedding was beautiful. Have a blessed day!

Get Well Fast

I like sketch challenges but I don't participate as often as I would like. I have started following Allison at Stampin' When I Can. She has a weekly post where people can add their sketch challenges. It's great to have so many to choose from.

Yesterday I had some time to make a get well card for a little boy who had surgery. I followed the Mojo Monday Sketch 242. I used an image from LD's Fast Car graphic set. The lettering was done with Silhouette Studio. I'm not real happy with the button. I thought I could put a trophy but didn't find what I was looking for. Fisher and I included a Hot Wheels coloring book, crayons, and a Hot Wheel for him to enjoy while he is recovering.

Thanks for the visit.

Have a blessed day!