Christmas 2014

Just a quick post to show you our Christmas cards this year!  We rented a moving truck today to move boxes and small pieces of furniture.  Our family helped us move today- we could not have done it without them!  We have hired movers for the big "stuff" to move the rest on Friday.  What a day!  I am sore from head to toe!  I almost, almost bought store bought Christmas cards this year.  Trying to pack boxes and make this move takes soooo much of my time.  But I was able to make the above cards- even though my Craft room is disassembled!  This week I will finish packing it all up to move.

 

I used Pan Pastels to make the moon glow.  I love the trees die cuts that add dimension to the card.

As soon as I can get my Craft room up and running in our new home- I will post pictures.  Not sure when that will be- so in case I don't get a chance before Christmas- Merry Christmas to all!

Empty Craft Room

I finally figured out why I couldn't upload pictures!  My cord was not plugged in!  We had been "hacked" by unknowns who demanded moola to release our files!  I have lost 2 years worth of pictures but it just means making some new memories.  My husband was able to get our computer back and for now it is up and working!  Yipee!   If that excitement was not enough- we found the home of our dreams and bought it!  But, of course, that means moving from the condo.  It also means I will have a Craft room above ground!  These are pictures of my Craft room after boxing everything up!  I won't tell you how many boxes I used.  Yikes, I have a lot of stuff!!

 

All my dies are off the wall!  I left enough stuff to make my Christmas cards.  I will show pictures soon!  Look how empty it looks!

 

 

All my wooden stamps have been boxed up too!  Tom made this shelf just for those stamps! I think one day they will be considered vintage since now we tend to use clear self sticking stamps.

 

 

I still have to box my paper!  My office will be making our Christmas cards again this year to send to other offices! I will show you pictures after next week of those cards too! This is a busy month for us!  As if Christmas time wasn't busy enough- moving to a new home just adds to the excitement!  I can't wait.  I will post pictures of my NEW Craft room once it is set up!

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our computer was "hacked"!!  Someone held all our folders hostage and would not release them  unless we paid $700.00!!   Well, of course we didn't pay.   We basically had to start all over again from the last time we backed up our files- which was 2 years ago.  There is a lesson there...!!!  So I can't upload pictures yet.  Gotta figure out how to do it since it isn't working at all.  I wanted to show you some pictures of my empty craft room!  We are in the process of packing everything and moving to a new home about 3 miles away!!  I get to have a craft room that won't be in the basement!  I can't wait!  I will be sure to post pictures of our new home and my new craft room!

So no pictures until we get our ability to download pictures again. Hopefully, that will be soon.  In the meantime, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Spider Halloween Treats

I adore Stampin Up's Curvy Keepsake Box!  When I saw all the cute ideas using this thinlet die - I had to get it.  I made these to give away at work to the kids who might come in.  We didn't get many kids so I gave them to the staff!  Aren't they a hoot!  The idea wasn't mine- I saw it several times by different people on Pinterest. 

 

Just as a quick follow up-  the office selected the Christmas card they want to make this year!  I sort of threw a wrench into the selection when I threw into the mix the card below.   I didn't even take a picture of it with the others because I didn't dream they would pick it ....but they did!  Our card this year is the Origami Christmas Tree!   Tada!

 

 

Most of my craft room has been packed away with just a few items left so that I can make my own Christmas cards.  I can't tell you how much I miss it already.  I will show you what it looks like in my next post. 

Take care!

 

 

Fall Projects!

 

I am sorry it's been so long since I have posted anything on my blog!  I have been busy, busy!  Every year, my office gets together to make Christmas cards for the other offices.  I will make a few different cards and then we select which one it will be.  Most of these cards I saw on Pinterest!  It seems like that is where most of my inspiration comes from lately. 

 

 

I love the card above!  The dies comes from Memory Box.  It just has such a serene feel to it. 

 

This card makes me laugh.  I have done a bunch of singing reindeer, Santas and snowmen in the past.  But I like this one singing all by himself.

 

The card above and the card below are made from dies/ punches from Stampin Up.  I bought them so I want to use them!!  I think both these cards are contenders. 

It will be interesting to see which one they pick!  We have to make about 20 of them!  It should be fun.  I will let you know which one they pick.

 

I am also playing around with making Gingerbread houses to fill with goodies.  I am still experimenting on the design.  It might be a little while before I post again.   My husband and I have bought a new house!  We have been living in a condo and have loved it but it has really become too small.  Plus as I get closer to retirement, I realize I would like to do some gardening. Our kids are having kids-and with the dogs and all- the condo is just too small.  We close on the new house in December.  We still have to sell this condo so I will be cleaning, moving and cleaning.  I hate to think of moving my Craft room.. I will have to show you the before and after.  The new house has a BIG room upstairs that I will be using for my new Craft room.  I can't wait!!   I still have to design our Christmas cards so I can't pack my craft room just yet!!  Now you know why I have been sooooo busy!  Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

Fairy Garden House!

I have been playing with some of my new stuff from my order from Stampin Up!  I love the Curvy Keepsake die!  I have seen sooo many cute
ideas from Pinterest.   But it always reminded me of a Fairy House.  Here is my idea of a little garden house for Gnomes or Fairies!

 

I did use 2 embossing folders to give it some texture.  The butterfly is from Martha Stewart. 

 

Back of Fairy House

 

 

 

Here are some of the items I used to make my Fairy House. 

 

Another view

On another note, my sisters and I went to Hobby Lobby in Bangor!  We had not been there before so it was a real treat!  We spent 2 hours going aisle to aisle just to see what they had!  It was fun!  Here are a few pictures-

 

I love these waiters!

Burlap is another favorite!

How many days til Christmas?

Beautiful!

Don't you love sunflowers?

  Sorry for the long post- but I wanted to share the Birthday card I made for our daughter, Emily.  She and her husband, Rob, are waiting for the birth of their son!  He is due any day now!  I can't wait to meet him!!  Anyway, I was inspired by a similar card on Pinterest.  I used Graphic 45 paper- my favorite- to make this card.   I added some bling to make it pop!  I hope she liked it!  Have a fabulous week!

 

Inside sentiment

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween Slide - No- Glide!

Just a quick post to show you the card I have been working on.  I have used many of the Sizzix dies before for my Halloween cards.  But I wanted to make a 3D Halloween card this time.  This is made the same as the SlideNGlide cards I have been make but without the rounded bottom.  I also did not use the heavy weight poster board but used card stock instead.  So, no motion on this card but I still love the fact that it is a 3D card.

 

Fall is in the air now.  We have taken out the air conditioner and screen door.  It makes me sad that Summer is gone but I do love Fall. It is my favorite time of year....if just Winter wasn't so close behind!

 

Back of card

 

Top view

 

 

Cat's Meow!

I have made one more Slide N Glide card!  As I said in a previous post, I was inspired by the PopnRock cards that I saw on Pinterest!   Below you can see that I started out with a different look for my cats but they looked too scary for me!  So I changed out the eyes with googley eyes!  They looked a little more friendly to me!

I mounted the cats on a base that is made from the small oval punch from SU that I cut in half.  The picture below shows that I can still fold this card up and mail it.  It is a little bulky and will probably cost more but you can mail it!  I will add more detail to the front but I wanted to show you how it looks for now.

This picture gives you a better view of the mechanism that is used to make the cats move. 

The back  of the card!

I did a video of the way to assemble the mechanism that made the cats in the back ground move!  This is the same technique I used to make the sail boat move in a previous post back in August.  I was going to share a template for the flap I used for the Cat's Meow but my scanner is acting up!  I will try and share it later - when my husband fixes the printer.  It is just a little larger than the template I shared in August.  Hope my video isn't too confusing!  Let me know if you have any questions!

 

Stockholm Maine 2014 vacation!

We just got back from vacationing on Madawaska Lake in Northern Maine!  The weather was just perfect!    The photo above was the view from our camp that we rented for 1 week!   It was the first time we rented this camp and it was just right for Tom and I and my sister and her husband and my Mom!

My brother in law, Russ, used the kayak one afternoon and then my sister went with him in the paddle boat another afternoon.   The lake was calm and looked like glass for most of our stay!  We all played lots of golf at Limestone and Caribou Golf courses.  It was great to spend so much time outside!

Here are a few shots from out travels around Stockholm, Maine.  It is so beautiful at the lake!  The countryside is beautiful too!  It was really tough to leave!

We saw geese every morning!



Yup, lots of Potato fields

If not potato then grain! So beautiful!

My sister and I took some craft projects with us to work on when we could.  There was a great area just off the kitchen that gave us plenty of space to work!  I am working on another Slide N Glide card that I hope to have ready soon.  It involves lots of cats!    I loved our stay in Northern Maine but it is always nice to come home! 

Until next year!

Care Bear Slide N Glide Card

I made this card for our daughter, Emily's shower! Emily and Rob are having a baby in September! We are so excited!   I love baby showers!  Her shower was so much fun!

Emily used to collect Care Bears when she was little.  I thought this card might be fun to make!  I saw these little bears on Pinterest and decided to recreate them!

I used my SU slot punch to create the opening to make two of the bears stand up.  This gives the card the 3D effect.  I recently made a birthday card for my sister, Rochelle, using the Slide N Glide technique.  Her card had Slide but no Glide.  But I did use the technique below to give it a 3D effect.  See the video below to see how I did this technique:

Slide N Glide Pirate Ship!

 I could say I have been hard at work making this tutorial but... mmmmmm... I have had some fun the last couple of weeks too!  Who can resist going to the Moxie Festival in Lisbon or the Clam Festival in Yarmouth.  I had lobster rolls and fried dough and fried clams galore!   Fun, fun, fun!

But I have also had some fun in my craft room too!  I love these Slide N Glide cards!  I have done a tutorial and made some templates in case you want to try to make one too!  I do recommend, in my tutorial, using Poster Board for these cards.  I used card stock on my Get Well Chicken but I find that the more Add Ons the more weight there is on the card.  It can make the card stock bow.  The Poster Board is only 97 cents  at Walmart and you get a HUGE sheet of it!  It is really light weight but heavier than card stock.

On the pirate ship below - I didn't use the 2nd flap.  The 2nd flap really adds stability when you are adding stand ups to your card.  I did use the the 2nd flap in my Get Well Chicken- which is on a previous post.

Side Shot

Back of card
 

 

Underneath




 

This video will show you how to put together the flaps of the card.  I will do another video to show you how to add the additional stand up pieces that you might want to use to decorate the card.  Sorry to have to do it in 2 parts but I know my camera will only do about 10 minutes in taping and I felt it would take longer than that to show you all I wanted to show!   Watch for my next post!

I finally figured out how to add a link to my templates!  I hope these will help you
make your own Slide N Glide cards!



SLIDE N GLIDE TEMPLATE BASE




SLIDE N GLIDE FLAPS

Get Well Chicken

I have been busy working on ideas for a Slide N Glide tutorial. My husband looked at the basic card while I was working on it and said " I see a chicken".   So I tried decided to try and make a chicken! This one is using the basic template with no add ons.  I think I need to change the blade on my Xacto knife- having a sharp blade makes this much easier!  The picture below is a side view of the card.

This is the Slide N Glide card when it's closed.  I used a Sizzix die for the little chicken.  As you can tell, I used Graphic 45 paper to add color to my chicken!

 

I didn't decorate the back much but you can always add more!  The flaps on the back keep the "wings" from falling out.