"Come to the Well" Gift Set for my Sis

Do you ever feel like your "bucket" is depleting? You give and give of yourself to others but all the while not making sure you replenish YOU? Many of us women are guilty of not taking time for ourselves to fill up spiritually, mentally and physically. My dear sister is one of them, and she celebrates a big milestone birthday today. In honor of this day of celebrating her, I compiled a gift to "fill her bucket." And I literally filled a bucket!

My sister and I attended a Christian concert with a couple of friends last month where Casting Crowns was the headliner band. It was amazing!

Casting Crowns' lead singer, Mark Hall, wrote a book called The Well, and also Casting Crowns' latest CD is called Come to the Well. It seemed fitting for me to assemble a birthday gift for my sister with these great bucket fillers! Jesus definitely invites us to come to the well and replenish.

And for the first time ever, I used a card sketch to design my card. I knew I wanted to use the bucket from the Country Life Cricut cartridge, but CardPatterns' current sketch challenge # 143 helped me put the card together. I stayed with the colors of the book, the CD, and the Bath & Body Works festive "VanillaTini" products that I also bought my sister. I love when a color scheme emerges out of a gift- it just pulls it all together!

Here is the card:

And . . . The goods!

 Chocolate definitely fills a bucket-

Chocolate Twizzlers and Charleston Chews

are 2 of my sister's faves!

A different angle to see the rest of the bible verse,

"The JOY of the LORD is your strength" Nehemiah 8:10

Now it's all assembled in the bucket . . .

And wrapped up for giving!

Card Supplies:

• Cricut Country Life cartridge for bucket cut from silver cardstock scrap
•  Stampin' Up Sage Shadow (retired) cardstock for card base - cut to fit a business sized envelope
• Stampin' Up Very Vanilla cardstock
• Stampin' Up scallop edge punch
• Hero Arts alphabet set for "Fill up." on front
• Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip ink
• Graphite Light ATT font
• Ribbon from Fall Fun spool found in Target's dollar section last year
• Crystal blue skittles for raindrops

Bucket supplies:

• Cricut Stone Script cartridge for bible verse welded on my Gypsy
• Cricut transfer paper (the letters were pretty little and frail, so this was VERY helpful)
• Brown vinyl purchased from Expressionsvinyl.com  
• Ivory metal bucket/pail from Joann in planter section
• Cellophane basket wrap
• Raffia

This gift was really fun to put together because it combined things I enjoy and wanted to give, it had a theme, the colors all worked together to create a natural feel, I was able to personalize it, and it all was meaningful to my sister. Insert big grin here. :)

Next, I will do a post of Christmas cards past, and then I will post this year's card. Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderfully crafty week!

Rock Princess Cupcake Card and Gift Bag

We interrupt this holiday season's craft-making with a breaking need for a birthday card and gift bag!

Yes, my oldest daughter was invited to a birthday party today so I was in need of a birthday card and gift bag. I do have both on hand, but noooo, I wanted to match my gift (Bath & Body Works cupcake slipper socks, a body mist, a body butter and a lip gloss all in a pink theme) so I had to make it difficult on myself and create them! I'm such a nut. It was a nice little break from my Christmas cards, though.

Here they are:

Gift  bag

Close up of cupcake on bag

Card front

Card inside

Supplies:

• Cricut Rock Princess cartridge for the cupcake (welded on my Gypsy to create card)
• Stampin' Up Real Red cardstock
• Scraps of white, pink and brown cardstock from my stash
• "Happy Birthday" from Scrappy Mom's Simple Sentiments stamp set
• "Sweet Birthday Wishes" from Scrappy Moms' Sweet Somethings stamp set
• Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip ink
• Stickles in Waterfall, Fruit Punch, Xmas Red, Diamond and Cinnamon
• EK Success foam dots to pop cupcake up on gift bag

Again, this was a fun little break from my holiday crafting. And I purposely set out to use a cupcake other than from the Cricut Sweet Treats cartridge. I liked the one on Rock Princess, but decided to skip the crossbones the handbook shows with it.

I am happy to report that all of my Christmas cards are DONE! I stayed up until 2 am last night doing them, but they are DONE. I just need to stuff them in the envelopes and seal them - YES! I will wait to post them until after they are mailed out, though, so that my recipients receive them first. They get mailed the day before Thanksgiving.

This coming week I am off from work - Woohoo! This is the first week since Spring Break that I will have a whole week off. I'm so excited! I do need to stop into my office on Tuesday to complete a task that was unavoidable, but that's nothing compared to having to sit all day at my desk. Instead I will have my 1 1/2 year old cousins over for a visit (for the first couple days of vacation anyway). Talk about trading in my desk time for some physical activity- LOL! I'm looking forward to it, though. I'm hoping to torment them with tons of photos. Maybe I can even get some cute ones that their mom can use as her Christmas photo of them. Wish me luck!

I'm not sure if I'll get to post before Thanksgiving, so have a blessed day with your family and friends! And also, Happy Black Friday Shopping!!! :)

Naughty Or Nice?

Ah, that is the question so far for my Christmas season. That's because I've decided to go with a Santa theme for my Christmas cards this year (so not like me), which I've been working on feverishly. You can learn all about my extreme madness when it comes to Christmas cards in my last year's card post HERE.

So while I've been working on my Santa-themed Christmas cards, I thought I'd jump in Scrappy Mom's fun little challenge, to make a 3D item with twine or a button, and keep with my Santa theme!

Here it is:

Got these little holiday lotions for $1 each

at Bath & Body Works!



 Supplies:

• Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge- tote on p23 cut at Fit to Page, buckle on p23 cut at 1.25", and tag from p50 cut at 2" (had enough of me making stuff with this cartridge yet???)
• Red DCWV cardstock
• Black 12x12 cardstock strip from a scrap cut at .75" plus tag mat from scraps
• White cardstock scrap for tag
• Golden Pearl Core'dinations cardstock from JoAnn (individual sheets sold)
• Stampin' Up Sticky Strip (to hold box strongly together)
• White feather trim cut by the yard at Joann
• "Naughty or Nice?" sentiment from Scrappy Moms' Winter Wishes set
• Black Versa Ink
• Ranger clear embossing powder
• Marvy-Uchida embossing gun
• Maraschino Cherry baker's twine purchased from Scrappy Moms

This little gift holder was so easy to make! I can see myself making a bunch of these this Christmas season. It holds the little lotions perfectly, and I can even add in a gift card! So fun!

 

Thanks for popping by. Have a good week!

Count Your Blessings Thanksgiving Card

Hi fellow crafters! Hope you're having a great weekend!

As promised, here are my Thanksgiving cards I made for this year and am sending to close family and friends:

2 colors - Stampin' Up's

Purely Pomegranate and Really Rust

This photo is my fave

Inside of Really Rust card

 Purely Pomegranate

Inside of Purely Pomegranate

Supplies:

• Pretty photos of my daughters in the Fall leaves :)
• Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge for leaves
• Close to My Heart Celebrations maple leaf stamp (from Art Philosophy bundle)
• "Count Your Blessings" stamp from Scrappy Moms' The Charmed Life set
• Stampin' Up Purely Pomegranate ink (previous In Color)
• Stampin' Up Really Rust Ink (retired I think?)
• My Craft Spot Pumpkin Spice and Acorn Crinkle ribbons
• The Paper Company cardstock in kraft and textured brown from JoAnn
• Stampin' Up ticket corner punch (on photo)
• Monotype Corsiva font (preloaded on Windows)

A while back I emailed Kimberly of My Craft Spot to see if she had a plum colored crinkle ribbon. She was so sweet! She contacted me right away, she sent samples out, and I ordered a very nice looking plum. I was thinking that it would match my younger daughter's shirt. But after taking the photos, printing them, and then finally having them in hand, I realized the plum was not the true color of my daughter's shirt. It actually matches the Stampin' Up color, Razzleberry that I used on last year's Thanksgiving cards. Ugh! I do appreciate Kimberly making that plum ribbon for me, though, and will definitely put it to good use on another project.

 

Another thing I discovered upon having the photo prints in hand was that the one photo had some orange leaves in the background. So, luckily when I ordered the plum ribbon from My Craft Spot, I also ordered the Fall Collection, which included 4 beautiful colors: Pumpkin Spice, Golden Harvest, Acorn and Maple Leaf.  This allowed me to play around with the colors and still be able to use Kimberly's beautiful ribbon!

 

I also have to mention that I am LOVING having stamps that coordinate with Cricut cuts!! I don't mean to be an enabler, but if you like stamping and are Cricut-obsessed like me, then you might have a little fun with the Close To My Heart Art Philosophy bundle. There are some great stamps included like the leaf I used on the card. Check Melanie's Brown's blog, Courtney Lane Designs if you want more information on it. I have a couple more projects coming up that I will be utilizing this great cartridge. 

 

I am entering my Thanksgiving cards into My Craft Spot's "Gobble 'Til You Wobble" challenge to make a Thanksgiving project.

 

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!                 

Cards of Thanksgivings Past

Just as I did for Mother's Day and Father's Day, I am adding a post with all of my homemade Thanksgiving cards from past years. I find my blog to be a great resource for me when I want to look back on what I've previously done - especially when I'm away from home. It also shows how my daughters have grown (insert a long mom-like "awe" here) and how my crafting has changed. As you can see below, I have been a big Stampin' Up fan. :)

I started my handmade card endeavor in 2004 shortly after attending my first Stampin' Up home party, so here we go:

2004 - Quite simple!

2005 - Getting more detailed . . .

2006 - Yep, loved Gymboree for my girls!

2007 - There were 2 designs this year- vertical . . .

and horizontal!

2008 - No more Gymboree (insert sad Mom face here)

Still cute, though!

2009 - Gap outfits this year!

2010 (See original post HERE)

Next I will post this year's Thanksgiving card so stay tuned. :)

BTW, I'm so excited today! My turkey treat holders won a Top 5 spot on the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog for Challenge # 84- Woo Hoo! Thanks, FCCB!

Getting closer to Friday - YES!! Enjoy the rest of your week!

Eat Beef, not turkey!!

Hello everyone!

This weekend I finally put away the Halloween decorations, put up the little bit of Thanksgiving ones I have, and got busy with my Thanksgiving crafts! I made all 16 of my Thanksgiving cards, which I will post soon, but I've been slaving away at this project the better part of the weekend so I could jump into the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge # 84, "For The Birds!"

Like last school year (see post HERE), I made treats for the monthly teacher luncheon that each class sponsors at my girls' school. It is my older daughter's grade's turn this month. I was talking to the parent coordinator about it a few weeks back and she said she didn't want to have turkey as the main entree because the school puts on a big traditional Thanksgiving feast closer to the holiday. She is doing beef sandwiches instead. So, I offered to make the crafty treats to have at each school staff member's place setting and this is what I came up with:

 The holder was made using Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge -

I'm SO getting my money's worth out of it!!

I got mine through Melanie Brown, just in case you need a

CTMH consultant. She's the one that tempted me into getting

the Art Philosophy bundle in the first place by showing

so many fun projects on her blog! :) 

 Here is the back view of my treat.

 Here is a close-up of the message to the school staff.

I handcut the signs.

This is what each staff member will find

when they untie the baker's twine!

BTW, I got a 230-piece bag of these miniature chocolates

50% off after Halloween at Wal-Mart- Woo Hoo!!

The turkey is from the Cricut Simply Charmed cartridge.

He's whimsical but not too whimsical I think.

All my turkey treats together!

Supplies:

• Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge p22 for the treat holder (Got 2 on a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of kraft cardstock using my Gypsy!)
• Cricut Simply Charmed cartridge for turkeys (created layers on my Gypsy-much easier!)
• The Paper Company kraft cardstock from Joann
• Recollections black cardstock from Michael's
• Red, orange and yellow cardstock scraps from my stash
• Cappuccino baker's twine purchased from Scrappy Moms
• ChildWritten font which you can download for free HERE (I used all caps for "EAT BEEF!")
• Monotype Corsiva font for message to school staff (Mine was installed with Microsoft Office, but you may find for free somewhere on the web)
• Foam dots for behind the turkey

Why do I show a photo of this tray with all of my treats to one side? Well that's because I have 20 more to make and add to this tray -Yikes!! And if I didn't take a break and post, I wouldn't have made it into FCCB's challenge- LOL!

I will be back soon with a post of my Thanksgiving card. Also, I will post all of the previous Thanksgiving cards I have made since I started making my own cards (circa 2004, I think?). That post will be more of a reference for me, but bear with me. :)

Well, back to the turkey treat making factory. Have a good crafty week everyone!

Volleyball Coach Tumbler Gifts

Look out Vinyl Goddess Nicole! Jen has entered your tumbler-decorating realm and LOVES it - LOL!

Seriously, I've been loving the tumblers that Nicole has been decorating with vinyl on her blog, so I thought I would give it a try. I ordered my tumblers on Etsy from Saveacup. I ordered 12 tumblers (6 royal blue and 6 clear) and received free shipping. Their service was amazing! They answered my emailed question promptly, I was able to choose the colors, and they shipped the tumblers out right after I ordered them! They arrived well-packed, too. I would definitely order from them again.

So here are my decorated tumblers for my girls' volleyball coaches:

Supplies:

• Tumblers from Saveacup on Etsy
• White Cricut vinyl
• Cricut Alphalicious font cartridge for lettering (welded on my Gypsy)
• Cricut Sports Mania cartridge for volleyballs (duplicated many times on my Gypsy!!)
• Michael's Whimsy Cottage and Fit To Be Tied ribbon (purchased last Winter)
• Blue metallic shred for inside of tumblers

I am entering these tumblers into Paper Playtime's and Whimsical Wednesday's "Anything Goes" Challenges. Thanks for popping by and checking these out!

Happy November everyone! Have a good crafty remainder to your week!