Ramblings...

Good Evening Everyone!

I do have more Valentines to share with you (as promised) but I am a little brain dead this evening. I went to fill up the sugar bowl and poured dumped the rest of the bag into my cup instead. That was like sign number three that this was not going to be a productive evening.

I don't know what combination of things led to it, but I am exhausted today. I get to work from home a couple days a week (hel-lo pj's). Today was an office day. I have noticed lately that it seems to be more tiring to go to the office. There are a couple reasons I can think of... 1. I have roughly a 30 minute drive each way. 2. Everyone is at the office so my brain is processing far more by being in the office than being at home. 3. well, I don't know. (I just giggled at myself here). This past week I worked from home Thursday and Friday, was off Saturday and Sunday for the weekend, and then had yesterday off for the holiday. Perhaps it is just shock that has me exhausted.

anywho... I do want to get a little more personal, but ramblings of what makes an office day tiring isn't why you come here. The weekend was very productive. LOTS of valentines were completed. Jim made me something based off of a picture I saw somewhere in blogland. I am going to have peruse my computer history to find the picture so I can give credit for the inspiration when I blog about it. Jim even typed part of what will be that blog post. :) I need to get the before pictures off of his camera.  We did a few more projects around here, most of them blog material. yay!!!!

On to the squirrels. We have a couple squirrel bird feeders in the side yard. We get lots of enjoyment watching the birds and the squirrels eat from the feeders and from the ground.  When the birds actually manage to fill a feeder it is quite impressive because these squirrels tend to dominate. Take a look at our squirrel friends.

I waited and waited for the third one to show up. He(she)

usually sits on the corn feeder. no luck on this day

see him sitting in the tree?

bottoms up

look at how red their bellies are

One of my favorite things about snow...all the little footy prints left behind

above

a sneak peak at the project Jim worked on for me.

a sneak peek at something else that happened this weekend. yay!!!!

hint: this will be a "have you repurposed lately?" post

If you read this far you are an AWESOME blog friend and I thank you. To say thank you I am sharing

this picture because it is true...

I "whale-y" like and each and every one of you who stop by, even for the briefest of moments.

The whale is also from the Create a Critter cartridge. 

The cut has a water spout coming from the blow hole, I cut that off.

I used Word to print the sentiment.

This cut would be great for baby cards.

Thanks again for stopping by!

Hopefully tomorrow is a more creative or at least, a more productive blog day.

Good night everyone!!!!

hugs ~~ Jen

Create A Critter Raccoon Valentine (Valentine #3)

As promised the Create a Critter Raccoon. This little bandit is on page 33 of the handbook.

This cute lil guy and his layers were cut at 3.5 inches.

I did not cut layer 3.

The card is a 4x6 card.

The inside of the card is stamped with a "Happy Valentine's Day" stamp.

Let's take a look at our {love bandit} layer by layer shall we?

The stripes for his tail gave me some fits as far as getting them where they belonged. That could be 

a combination of 1. I had been crafting a little too long the day I worked on him and

2. I did a good job of getting adhesive everywhere but where it belonged! ...imagine...

I think he turned out pretty cute. I couldn't decide between "You stole my heart" and "Love bandit." 

Jim said "love bandit" and it totally works!!!!!

The stamp is an alphabet set, the same set used to make the love bug saying found here.

One more look!

I inked the edges of the love bandit paper/cardstock.

I also inked the edges of the card.

Create a Critter is definitely a fun cartridge. I have had fun exploring it. Up next will be the frog and the owl.

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave some comment love. How are your Valentine projects coming?

partying here:

and at Pink Saturday

Create A Critter Ladybug Valentine

Here is Valentine #2. It was made using the ladybug cuts on page 66 of the Create a Critter handbook. I cut the ladybug, layer 1 and layer 2 - all were cut at 3.75.  Using my gypsy I was able to fit all cuts on two 12x12 cutting mats.

"love bug" was made from a couple The Paper Studio clear stamp sets.

I inked around the edges of the love bug paper.

The background paper was something that was in my drawer. :)

After looking at the pictures, I think I am going to add glitter glue to the heart on this one too.

The next one will be the raccoon. He is super cute. I actually have pictures of him and his layers.

Thanks for stopping by!

Partying here:

The Shady Porch for Rock 'N Share

Passionately Artistic above and beyond paper

Create A Critter Valentine #1

Thanks for stopping by. I have been busy making Valentines. All Valentines made so far have been made using the Cricut Create A Critter cartridge. I am going to give each Valentine its own post. Today is day number 1.

Today's Valentine was made using the 'accessory' cuts found on page 67. Both cuts were cut at 3 inches.

I added glitter glue to the {heart}

The cards are premade 4x5 cards.

The mat layer of paper is cut at 3.75 x 4.75.

The mat layer is from the DCWV Madly In Love stack.

Same cut. Same dimensions. Different paper, also from a DCWV stack. (possibly the same stack)

I cut a piece of what cardstock at 3.75x4.75 for the inside and stamped it with this Stampabilities stamp.

Thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned for more Create A Critter Valentines. Please leave some comment love. Have you started your Valentines?

xoxo

Jen

A homemade Christmas

Well, the first week of the year is over. Another week closer to another round of Christmas chaos and fun. Don't hate me, you know you've thought about it.


I've been telling you I was going to share the gift I made for Jim for Christmas. We do a homemade Christmas exchange with his Mom, Step-Dad and Grandparents. We draw names at Thanksgiving and you have from then until Christmas or Christmas Eve (depending on when we celebrate Christmas with them due to travelling to see my family) to make a gift for your person. There is no set price limit. It just needs to be from the heart. It doesn't have to be crafty, it can be from the kitchen too. 


I really wish I would have taken pictures of all the gifts, but I didn't want to be the only one with the camera at Christmas and annoy everyone. /sigh  There were some great gifts this year!!!


I drew Jim's name. Doesn't that make for some fancy footwork. ;) Wouldn't you know that once I have a project to do for Jim they don't put him on the schedule to work very many nights. I was finishing his gift the day it was to be exchanged. There are still some things I want to do to it, but it made it to the point of being giftable. It was packaged and ready to go with an hour to spare.


I was in the basement after I drew his name and I saw this box sitting in the shop.

I couldn't just take it, so I asked if I could "borrow" it. I told him he would get it back, it just wouldn't look like this anymore. As I walked away with the box he asked that I take a picture of the sticker on top. *done*


My original plan was to cover the box with the Monopoly game board that I had picked up at a sale this summer. I got the board and all the game pieces out and sat here and looked at it...and decided this wasn't the project for the Monopoly game after all. The  Monopoly game is back in the attic.


Plan B involved pictures and mod podge. I printed a bunch of pictures onto paper (it mod podges easier). I put pictures on each side of the box. I would lay them out first before mod podging.

You can see the mod podge in this picture. Since I was no longer covering the box with something big, I worked the sticker (Jim's had this for awhile) into the layout. I also added stickers.

I put ribbon the whole way around and finished it with a button. There are pictures on all sides. I put a funny picture and a poem on the bottom. On the inside I wrote a note and included a picture. The pictures are of moments, places, friends. Each one can start a conversation.


That is the outside of the box. For the inside of the box I was inspired by this photo I came across on Pinterest.

source

Hers is done with Vintage Post cards. My monthly dividers were in a plain state at the time of gifting (and still are). Someday each divider will have additional photos or keepsakes relating to something that has happened that month.

...the inside contents...

Each day of the year (including leap day) was stamped onto a notecard.

Then I went through pictures, ticket stubs, old journals/calendars of my own (of which I couldn't find them all) and even Facebook, and wrote the year and something that happened that day. Some days go back to 2008, others are bare.  It was fun going back through that stuff though. I walked through the transformation of this house. That was interesting. I have been telling myself I would share the transformation during these winter months. I promise I will. Things, we did, places we went, visiting. It was fun to write all those things down in one place.

This really would make a great gift for so many different occasions. Do you journal in someway? I use a yearly planner and try to write something every day. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please leave a comment. :-)

Playoff Sunday -- GO STEELERS!!!


Linking up to:
Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday Nite Special
At The Picket Fence for Inspiration Friday
My 1929 Charmer for Sunday's Best
Pinkapotamus for Pink Hippo Party

A Cars Birthday Party

We partied on New Year's Day! A birthday party for a very special 2 year old boy! Steph's (yes, the Steph I mention often) little boy turned two. The theme was Disney/Pixar's Cars.  Steph and I (and some help from Jim too) made the invitations.  Steph and I agreed on ideas for the tables and what sorts of decorations she wanted. She did the shopping and I went to work.

Let's take a look!

Here's the invitation:
We stamped the front...

The inside was done using Word... (and the thing this invitation is sitting on...a sneak peek at the Christmas present I want to share with you *smile*)

The birthday banner was cut out using the street sign shapes found on the Disney Pixar Cars Cricut cartridge. (I believe we went with 5.5 inches) The letters were cut out using the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge.

I cut out various other shapes from the Cars cartridge and put them on skewers. There is floral foam inside the buckets and I stuck the skewers into the foam.

The cuts on this cartridge are very intricate. McQueen was cut at a couple different sizes. I don't know if he is truly a pain in the bottom side or if I was too tired to be working on the project, but he ended up in the trash *gasp*
I do like how the buckets turned out. It was super windy the day of the party so some of the shredded paper covering the floral foam blew away.

The tables were decorated like roads...

Now I can't take credit for the cake, but it wouldn't be a party without a cake right? Here's the cake. It was done by our local bakery. I think they did a fine job!

Happy Birthday Buddy!!! Love and hugs from Uncle Jim and Aunt Jen {heart}
Steph, I hope the craftiness lived up to your expectations! It was fun (and I'm still taking over in October next year...love you too!)

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you will leave a comment. I am linking up at Someday Crafts for Whatever Goes Wednesday and Passionately Artistic

Happy New Year! and a card!!

Happy New Year Everyone! I know I am glad to close the door on 2011. While things could always be worse, we are truly hoping for some better times in 2012! We hope 2012 is a better year for everyone!!!!

Mother Nature has decided to start the year off with our first winter storm.  I had adopted the thought of "It didn't snow for Christmas, so it doesn't need to snow at all!" Well, Ma Nature feels differently.  It is pretty wild that we are this far into the winter weather season and this is our first major snow fall, with the most accumulation to come overnight. That brings a whole new meaning to "We'll see what tomorrow brings"

One day this week I will share with you one of the coolest Christmas presents I received. It has been hung, now it just needs photographed. :) I also need to share the gift I made for Jim, it too, needs photographed. The other thing I have to share is a post about a CARS theme birthday party. So-----as long as I sit down in front of this computer each night this week there will be some fun to be had! :-)

Since it was snowing out and Jim was working, I made a cup of hot peppermint tea and sat down to craft. I did make some cards this evening. Here is one of them.

The paper is from DCWV Madly in Love stack.
The stamp is from studio g and is stamped with Stampin' Up Very Vanilla.
The card was cut using the heart card from the Wild Card cartridge and was cut at 5 inches.
The black heart was cut using the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge and was cut at 2.5 inches.

The inside is blank because....I don't have a Happy Valentine's Day stamp. Oh darn!!! Gonna have to go shopping...
Have a great week and a Happy New Year!!!!
~Jim, Jen and Jynx