Flower Pot Card

I made a card for an amazing woman who has been so kind to me after moving to a new place. It was delivered to her a few days late but I think she loved it anyway.

I used Wild Card and Plantin schoolbook cartridges. I also used Cricut Craft Room, an embossing folder that came with the machine, and my rotary cutter.

I really don't have much to say about this card other that how beautiful I think it is and how much fun I had making it. If you want to know what any or all of the paper is or how I did anything please feel free to ask, I am more than happy to share. 

I have a few more projects coming up. I am waiting for a gift card to come in the mail for a birthday card and I have a really cute crochet/card combo that I will be mailing out to a friend as well. Plus a few more birthdays in the near future. I think I might take a break from knitting though. I get so frustrated because I make mistakes and then when I try and fix it I just make it worse. I was really liking the kindle case I was woking on but when I had to take out three days worth of work last night I almost had a break down. I might try it again simply because it was going to be so freaking cute. I guess we will have to see. Thanks for reading! 

Valentine's Day

Sorry it's been a few days since I posted last, I have been busy. I have lots to share with you in the next few days though. But since yesterday was Valentine's day I am going to talk about that. First of all of those of you that don't know, or know and like the story, I am going to share the story of St. Valentine. ...

In 270 A.D., marriage had been outlawed by the emperor of Rome, Claudius II. Claudius issued this decree because he thought that married men made bad soldiers since they were reluctant to be torn away from their families in the case of war. Claudius had also outlawed Christianity in this time period because he wished to be praised as the one supreme god, the Emperor of Rome. Valentine was the bishop of Interamna during this period of oppression. Valentine thought that the decrees of Rome were wrong. He believed that people should be free to love God and to marry. Valentine invited the young couples of the area to come to him. When they came, Valentine secretly performed services of matrimony and united the couples.

Valentine was eventually caught and was brought before the emperor. The emperor saw that Valentine had conviction and drive that was unsurpassed among his men. Claudius tried and tried to persuade Valentine to leave Christianity, serve the Roman empire and the Roman gods. In exchange, Claudius would pardon him and make him one of his allies. St. Valentine held to his faith and did not renounce Christ. Because of this, the emperor sentenced him to a three-part execution. First, Valentine would be beaten, then stoned, and then finally, decapitated. Valentine died on February 14th, 270 A.D.

While in prison, waiting for his sentence to be carried out, Valentine fell in love with the jailer's daughter, the blind Asterius. During the course of Valentine's prison stay, a miracle occurred and Asterius regained her sight. Valentine sent her a final farewell note. He signed his last note, "From Your Valentine." Even today, this message remains as the motto for our Valentine's Day celebrations.

I love that story!! 

I couldn't decide between two cards to make for my husband so he got both, one cute one and one funny one. I will share them both with you here today. Please note that the funny one is slightly naughty.

Since he got more than one card I decided that he needed a little Valentine mail box.

I used Valentines 3D Boxes, it is a Cricut Craft Room (which I discovered recently and will be discussing soon) exclusive. I used no name cheap paper from walmart. He loved it. I thought it was quite clever. While I admit that it might have been cuter had I used all one color of paper I am still happy with the way it turned out.

This is his cute card. I actually took the time to glue each leaf down individually, there are about 100 of them. I really wanted it to have texture and dimension. The only cartridge I used was Planton Schoolbook. The little owl and pink tree are stickers from walmart. I used a variety of paper and if you would like to know a specific one (or all of them) please ask and I would be happy to let you know.

This is the funny card, I saw one on pinterest and I about died laughing so I had to make him one. He thought it was hilarious. It isn't as nicely made as it could have been but since it was a joke I didn't want to spend much time on it. I used the Wild Card cartridge.

Every year I get him the same thing, a "puppy in a cup". I get a small stuffed animal and shove it into a coffee cup, I have done this for 4 years now. This year I decided not to go with the pink and red cup with hearts that he got for the past 3 years (different cups all with similar patterns) and got him an Air Force mug, he was so excited I practically had to wrestle it away from him so I could wash it before he used it. I didn't take a picture of it and I don't want to stick the puppy back into it and get him all dirty. Now what he got me is pretty spectacular. I have been wanting diamond earrings for years now. I have tons of sparkly earrings but none of the real thing. So he got me my first pair of real diamond earrings and I am in love with them.

Aren't they gorgeous! We don't usually do much for Valentine's day, we make a nice dinner at home and exchange small gifts. Thats what made this even more of a surprise. Speaking of nice dinner at home. Oh my was it good. We had steaks, cheesy potatoes, garlic cheddar biscuits, and for dessert chocolate covered strawberries.

I thought they turned out quite cute this year, I make them every year. I was going to get white chocolate and swirl them but I forgot to buy the white chocolate chips so I used some sprinkles I had in the cupboard. Plus I love any occasion I get to bust out my fine china, it's so beautiful.

I had an amazing day with the man of my dreams, but that is usually true of every day. I am thinking that this post is plenty long enough now so I will say good bye for today. But I will be back with more soon.

Sizzix Texture Boutique

I FINALLY got the rest of my embossing folders that I ordered. I am am thrilled with them. Now that I got to play with my embossing machine a little more I am ready to talk about it. I got the Texture Botique machine by Sizzix. I already have a cricut so I wanted something small that would just emboss, I didn't care if it could die-cut.

Aint it cute? I love that it looks like a little purse. The only thing that could make it better would be if it were pink! Everything is better when it's pink!

 

It came with quite a bit of stuff, sorry about the crappy picture, I was so excited when it came I just ripped open the box in the living room. It came with 1 large, 1 medium and 1 small folder, white and ivory cards/envelops, some sandable cardstock (I haven't decided what I think of this yet), rub on sentiments (that I will be trying shortly) and an "idea booklet". I use quotes because it shows a card and a candy label, not much of an idea booklet if you ask me.  

These are all of the embossing folders so far. I am obsessed with the stars and swirls (teal card on top left). I am going to have a lot of fun creating with these. I couldn't get the textures to show up better in pictures but I am thinking when they are on a project they will pop a lot more. I have some cool ideas in my head and I will be posting more as I finish them.

I am currently still working on the blanket for my cat AKA knitting basics practice. I ended up making my own pattern and I will share the pattern with you when I finish the "blanket" and make sure that the pattern works out. Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday Hubby!!

Today is my amazing husbands 29th birthday. I had a few surprises for him, I am in love with the card I made him. But first I will tell you about my epic accident prone moment. When I asked my husband what he wanted for his birthday he made a list of foods that he wanted to eat. He loves my cooking. One of the things he wanted was a roast. No problem, roast is easy, brown it in the pan, put in some soup and forget about it for a few hours (or try to forget about it, they smell so good). Anyway, I was heating a little olive oil in my slow cooker pan on the stove to brown the outside of the roast to give it a nice color. I went to flip the roast off of the little butcher tray (like I always do) but this time the roast slipped off the tray and the little plastic sheet that sits under the roast landed in the oil and made it pop all over my arm. Then melted to my pan (thankfully it came off easy).

I took this picture about 5 hours after it happened. All the little red dots are raised welts. It hurts like crazy. I am hoping that it feels better tomorrow. Not long after this happened I also ran into a counter, hit my head and stabbed my hand on a fork in the dishwasher. I am now seated on my couch snuggled in a soft blanked and trying to avoid anything hot or sharp.

Once all of that was over I actually got to celebrate his birthday. Adding to his list of wanted foods was home made salsa, after I made that I moved on to his "cake". I use quotes because he doesn't like cake, I make him apple crisp instead. Not my first choice but he loves it. To make it more birthday-ish I put candles in it.

I guess it kind of looks like a cake in a weird way. I did a little something different this time and added some brown sugar to the crust. That was a hit, he loved it. I think I cooked it a tad to long but he loved the crunchy edge crust so I guess thats ok (he ate some off my plate too). I didn't sing but the candles sure are cute.

Now on to the good stuff... Presents and the card.

Every year I put his gifts in some kind of "super hero" wrapping or something else that he would find humorous, this year it was Transformers. He loved it.

He has a MacBook Pro that he absolutely loves. So I decided to model his card after it.

 Sorry if the screen looks a little funky, I took the picture after I wrote my message on it and I didn't really want the world to see my birthday message, so I photoshoped it out. It is the same color as the keys.

I think it turned out quite cute. I am proud of it. It is a little wobbly because I have been experimenting with different glues. This project would have been better with a tape type glue for the card portion so that it didn't get all warped, but its cute anyway. The paper is ColorBok Midnight Garden and the card stock is ColorBok Neutrals. I used my rotary cutter for a lot of it and Plantin SchoolBook for some. I now know that I need a punch that will round corners because cutting all of the round edges by hand is not something I would choose to do again.

I know that I keep saying that I will be talking about my new embossing machine soon, but when I checked my tracking number it got pushed back another day, so maybe Monday? It usually takes a day longer to get here than what tracking says because we live in the middle of nowhere and now it is saying Saturday. I thought FedEx was supposed to be fast. It is so much slower than regular mail and I am really frustrated. I don't know that I will be ordering much from Joann.com anymore because this happened last time too, it took almost 3 weeks to get some embroidery floss (they had the color I wanted). At this rate it is much more beneficial to drive the hour + to civilization and shop in person. For many things it makes sense to order online because I am going to have to pay for gas anyway and shipping is usually cheaper. Hobby Lobby might be getting all of my business from now on. I wish Michael's did online ordering, I miss Michael's.

I will be back in a few days, maybe with an older project since I didn't make anything while I had the death cold, which I am thankfully over. I am also working on a little blanket for my cat, or as I like to call it, practice knitting. But he will love it, he loves afghans and if I make a little one it can be left out for him all the time. It's a win win. Thanks for reading :)

More cupcakes?

Last Saturday my husband reminded me that we had a birthday for his coworkers husband the next day. He had told me way in advance but I forgot, my bad. But I was thinking to myself, I have all of this card making stuff and what better occasion than a birthday to make a card. Now the problem I was facing was making a custom card for someone that I have met once and don't really know much about. Then it hit me, everyone loves cupcakes, and I just so happen to have a cartridge with a cupcake card on it. Perfect! 

 You unfortunately can't really see it but in the picture above the envelope has candles cut out on it. Next time I make this envelope I will cut something to put behind it so the candles show up more.

I think it turned out it, a little generic but thats what I was going for. The orange and blue paper are from cheap no name paper packs from Walmart. The brown swirly paper is from Classic Prints by K I Memories. The brown card stock is ColorBok Neutrals. 

My next project is going to be a knitted case for my Kindle, I have to get new needles, I don't have any circular ones. I have a few more cards that will be delivered soon (one for hubby's birthday tomorrow) that I will be sharing with you. As well as talking about my new embossing machine on Saturday when I get the rest of the embossing folders. Much more crafty fun to come! Thanks for reading! 

Cupcakes

I am so sorry that I have been MIA lately. I have a terrible cold and I haven't been up to doing much other than laying around and blowing my nose.

Since I have been sick I haven't created anything new for a bit. I started on a birthday card for my step father in law (I guess thats what I could call him, I usually just call him by his name). If it turns out like the picture in my head it is going to be pretty awesome. A friend of mine received her package yesterday so I am going to share what I made for her. First of I have a little rant though....

I ordered two things online about an hour apart from each other on Monday. One from eBay and one from Joann. Now one would think when ordering from a big company that things would get out of the warehouse quickly since they have many people working for them and something coming from a single person on eBay may (understandably) take a while. I ordered an embossing machine from ebay, which I received on Thursday. It's awesome. It came with a few embossing folders but not much, so I ordered a few more from Joann since they were having a kick ass sale on them. So after I receive the machine I get an email from Joann saying that my folders shipped and I should have them next Saturday (a week and a half). I am a little peeved at how long it's taking to get them. After I get the folders I will show you my new embossing machine. <end rant>

Ok, now that I got that off my chest let me show you some really cool pot holders with a matching card that I made. I have friend who is going through kind of a rough spot and I thought she might like a little cheering up and when I saw this pattern I had to make it for her. She bakes the worlds most amazing cupcakes so it was fitting. I call her my wifey because after I took one bite of her cupcakes I asked her to marry me.

Isn't it just the cutest! I love it so much. The original pattern was really cute but I wanted to embellish it a little bit more so I added the sprinkles and the scallops to look like the frosting was coming over the edge a little. The original pattern can be found Here. I originally found it on pinterest. I used This pattern for the scallops. I used glass beads in sets of three for the sprinkles and sewed them on before sewing the back and front pieces together so that the threads were hidden on the inside.

Since my new obsession is card making I couldn't send these adorable pot holders without a super cute coordinating card. I used the Love You A Latte cartridge for the cupcake and all of the background shapes including the frame on the envelope. I used Plantin Schoolbook for the envelope and her name and I cut the card with my rotary cutter. It is the same size that Plantin Schoolbook would have cut it but I don't like the notches it puts in to show you were to fold and it wastes a lot of paper. The lime green is ColorBok textured cardstock from the Summer Pastel pack, the black is ColorBok cardstock from the neutral pack, the light gray is ColorBok paper from the Midnight Garden pack, and the dark grey is from a random wedding paper pack that I have had forever, it came from walmart.

I am so excited about how well they match. I loved working on this project. It was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun at the same time. I have a few more projects that I am working on, I will be sharing them with you as soon as they are finished and/or delivered. It might be a few more days before I post again, I need to kick this cold!

Getting rid of weight

I havent shared on here that I am currently trying to be a healthier me. I saw a thing on pinterest that said "I am not losing weight, I am getting rid of it. I have no intention of finding it again". I love this! I hope that I don't ever find the weight that I have lost. So far I have lost 12 pounds out of a goal of 33. I am trying to lose the weight slowly and in a healthy way by making new habits for myself. I have done weird starvation diets and the weight always comes back plus some. I only shoot for one pound a week and so far thats pretty much what I have done, I started on November 7th (12 weeks, 12 pounds). Some weeks I lost more, some less, and I gained a little at Christmas but I am right on track to be at my goal by my birthday (June 18).

Anyway, so in my many wasted hours on pinterest I found a really cool visual aid for weight loss and I made my own version. I don't think I am wild about the jars I picked out, they are cute but the jewels sit in the little dip in the bottom and are hard to see.

I highly recommend buying stickers. I bought ribbon that matched some paper I had (then I didn't even use that paper). What I did was cut the letters on my cricut (I used the font on the Wild Card cartridge) put a dab of Elmer's glue on a piece of scrap paper and dipped the letters in using tweezers then placed them on the jar. As I am sure you can imagine the glue went everywhere, so I let it dry and then used the scoop hook took out of my cricut kit and scratched off all of the excess glue. It turned out just fine, but stickers would have been a lot easier. If I get new jars I will be getting stickers.

I looked at the jewels/rocks in the craft department and they were way to expensive, so these are actually meant for a fish tank. Just as cute and half the price. I will be putting the extras in my fish tank actually, his tank is super colorful and they will look great. He is probably the most spoiled beta ever, but he is very special to me, I will tell you more about him later. The website that inspired this little project can be found Here. I actually never looked at the page until now, I only saw the picture on pinterest. I love her idea of the big pink stone for her goal weight and I think I might be doing the same thing. I have them set up in my bathroom (which is pink of corse) and they fit right in. Hope you enjoyed this and I all keep you up to date on the weight loss goals and how they are going.

I mailed out a surprise to a friend yesterday and ordered some embossing stuff, I will be posting about both as soon as they are delivered.