Cardz TV Fall Fun Home Decor Gallery Design

I'm so excited to be posting my first project for Mary's new Cardz TV Gallery. This is a daily project blog featuring some of the most fabulous designers on a rotating schedule. I'm very grateful to be a part of the group. That means every single day you can find new inspiration for using Cardz TV Stamps. For my first project I decided to do one of my favorite paper crafts--Home Decor. I love, love, love to make home decor projects. The thing is they always have to be easy to display and easy to store taking up little space. If you've never visited my blog before you might not know that hubby and I recently did some serious downsizing after retiring. We went from living in a 3300 square foot home to a tiny little park model RV that is 500 square feet. A park model is basically a small manufactured home. It got delivered on wheels to a lot we chose in an RV resort in Florida. The wheels are removed and it gets anchored to the ground. We love our little "cottage" with the two rockers on the front porch and living in a small space in a 55+ resort.

Anyway, onto my project. I've had this pumpkin kit in my stash for at least five years. In fact, it has traveled cross country with us several times and I finally decided to get it made. The shadowbox pumpkin frame is from Darcie's, LLC. It comes with the chipboard frame pieces, an acrylic top piece, clips to hold it together and the leaves for embellishing. You just add printed papers of your choice by tracing the chipboard pieces onto the paper, cutting them out and gluing them on. I added a Fall title to the inside of the frame before closing it up with the clips. I cut it with my Cricut and the Gypsy Font cartridge. I wanted to add a special touch to the leaves so I ran the paper through my Cuttlebug's Divine Swirls folder and inked them up good before attaching to the chipboard. For the finishing touches I cut a tag for my sentiment "Harvest Time" which came from the Cardz TV Fall Fun stamps set. This sentiment actually comes in a straight line but I took my Cutter Bee scissors and cut the two words apart to place them as you see them here. I often cut Mary's stamps apart to stretch the use of them. Sometimes I even combine words from different sets to make a whole new sentiment. I also stamped the pumpkin from the Fall Fun set, ran it through the Cuttlebug in the Dotted Swiss folder and inked it up. A little bit of thick twine tied onto the leaves and the project was complete. I'm so glad you stopped by today and hope to see you again soon.

Made it Myself

The other day I had a few spare moments away from doctor appointments, physical therapy and other assorted hum drum life stuff. I got wind of a way to make my own enamel dots.  Why would I want to do such a thing you ask? Well, it boils down to being cheap and always looking for ways to save money so I can buy some crafty goodies that cost a little more. (Mainly the metal dies I've become addicted to). So I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some cheap plastic beads in the kids crafts aisle. I put them on a parchment lined cookie sheet and then I stuck them in the oven. Here is what they looked like before baking.

I put them in the oven preheated to 425 degrees. I set the timer for 15 minutes, but it only took about 11 minutes for them to melt in my oven. Voila--the perfect enamel dots. Here they are when they came out of the oven.  No more holes in the center and perfectly shaped. Now I have to find some beads in a smaller size to make more. Tell me you don't want to try this yourself now. 

The Cutting Cafe K-Cup Holder Box

Hello my crafty friends! It's time for my second project for the month for The Cutting Cafe. Today I'm showcasing a wonderful container that holds two of the
K-Cups for a Keurig coffee maker. It's called the K-Cup Holder template and cutting file. This file features one K-Cup Holder to hold two K-Cups in a box with a lid or a window lid and one to hold four cups with a handle. It comes in the following formats: PDF, WPC, SVG and MTC. This makes a cute little gift for a pick-me-up for a friend, family member or even a teacher or other service worker. You could also make some to give as token Christmas or holiday gifts. I made the holder with the window lid that holds two cups. I constructed the box from brown cardstock and covered the sides of the lid with a patterned paper. I simply tied it up with a pretty grosgrain ribbon, added a tag and a second sentiment on one side of the box. I printed these on a piece of textured kraft paper. This box was so quick and easy to put together and I didn't even use a cutting machine. I printed the PDF file and cut it by hand.

Wedding Card

This past weekend hubby and I had the opportunity to attend our backyard neighbor's wedding. We've grown to love Ruthe since we bought our place behind her and sadly we only had a short time to know her husband before he passed away about a year a half ago.  Ruthe was married to Zeke for over 50 years. It is rare to find true love once in life, but Ruthe has been blessed to meet another fine man. This is proof to me that you are never too old to find love.

Ruthe and her new husband, Del, had a beautiful ceremony. Her youngest son is a minister so he officiated at the wedding. It was such a happy day for the whole family and it was a blessing to share in their joy. This occasion called for a special card. To create my card I started with a white cardstock A2 card. I added a blush colored mat and then topped it with an embossed white mat with a scalloped heart cut into it. I used a My Creative Time die for the scalloped heart and for the word love. One commenter asked what folder I used for the scrolls in the corners. I can only say for sure that it is a Sizzix folder. Can't elaborate on an exact name. Sorry!

Now for the sad part of this love story. No not for Ruthe, but for us. Ruthe will be moving out of her place and moving to her new hubby's home. We lost our bestest neighbor. For now she will be renting her place out. If she decides to sell I sure hope we get another fantastic neighbor just like her.

Exciting News

Hello all my crafty friends! Today I'm going to share some very exciting news with you all. There is some excitement coming soon to my good friend Mary's Cardz TV blog. Mary has chosen a group of gals to be her Gallery Designers. I'm proud and thrilled to be one of the chosen group and I truly thank Mary for the opportunity and her faith in my design abilities. What I'm most thrilled about, Mary is giving us free rein to design and create anything we want with her fabulous stamps. Since I love all kinds of papercrafting, not just cards, I will be able to included scrapbook layouts, home decor, fun gift wrapping and anything else I can come up with. There will be posts each and every day on this new site as we all take turns to show Mary's stamps in the best possible way. Right now the site is under construction, but I can tell you it won't be long now. Make sure to keep an eye on the Cardz TV blog at the end of the month (my first assignment is scheduled for September 30th). I know you're going to be in for a real treat.

I Moose You So Much

On a recent trip to my local scrapbook store I fell in love with a cute little Lawn Fawn stamp and die set called Critters in the Arctic. I really loved the cute little moose and knew I had the perfect Cardz TV Stamps sentiment to go with it. I whipped this together in no time at all. Sometimes I get the urge to make an odd size card, so this measures 3.5 x 5.5". I added a turquoise colored mat and a tree patterned paper from the Pebbles Lakeside 6x6 paper pad. I stamped and die cut the moose adding him to the front of the card along with a little strip of die cut grass I found in my leftover die cut scraps. The speech bubble is from the My Creative Time Stitched Round Speech Bubble die set. As I said before my sentiment is Cardz TV stamps More Critter Captions.

My Creative Time Challenge

Hello my crafty friends! I'm very excited to be posting my first design post-op after hand surgery. My cast is off and life is much improved! I start physical therapy on Monday. Even though the wrist and hand don't quite move properly I'm very encouraged with things at this point. I thought I'd start with an easy project and decided to make a tag for the challenge going on at My Creative Time. I used a dark brown cardstock for the bottom tag layer and the frame and white cardstock for the top layer of the tag. Next I used the Tag Die Layers to cut the three green zigzags for the bottom of the tag. I used light gray cardstock for the arrow. For the sentiments and the people I used Momento Rich Cocoa ink to stamp them. To finish the tag off I added a sheer white ribbon tied on with a brown hemp.

Here is the photo inspiration that inspired my design.

I used the following MCT products in my project:

• Tag Dies
• Tag Die Layers
• Stitched Mini Frame & Arrow Dies
• Bracket Sentiment
• Many Greetings

Surgery Update

It's been a little quiet on my blog lately. The reason---I recently had hand surgery. It's a surgery that I've been putting off for years, first because I was too busy dealing with the breast cancer journey, then because of lifestyle changes. When we retired five years ago and started traveling a lot in our RV there was never a good time. Then we sold our house and lived in our RV for a couple years traveling back and forth between Michigan and Florida. This summer we decided to sell our camper and move to Florida full time. It was time to take care of some health issues that have been piling up. Finding all new doctors was almost a full time job and I finally scheduled an appointment with a hand specialist. She didn't waste any time and scheduled surgery to repair tendons in my thumb and fix my carpal tunnel. I have had a cast on my right hand since August 28th. I'm looking forward to having the cast removed and my stitches taken out next week. Being forced to do nothing is driving me crazy and not being able to craft, oh my word, it's awful. I hope I'll be able to get back to creating soon. Meanwhile, I thought I'd share a photo of my poor hand. Let me also say, typing one handed stinks big time. LOL

The Cutting Cafe Back to School Stationary Caddy

It's back to school time and The Cutting Cafe Design Team is showcasing some fabulous projects for students or teachers. I'm showcasing the new Stationary Caddy Template and Cutting File. This cutting file comes in PDF, SVG, MTC or WPC form to use with a cutting machine or if you don't have a cutting machine you can hand cut this easily. I actually didn't feel like dragging out a cutting machine so I just printed the PDF version and hand cut it. The style I'm showing is the two box style in the front row. There is also a version that has three boxes of equal size in the front. This is a really great item for a teacher's desktop or for a student to organize their supplies. If I was still teaching I would have this on my desk at work. Since I am retired I'm using mine as a craft storage/card organizer. I've long needed some way to organize my cards that I make for friends and family. I've made monthly sorters with tabs at the top. I adapted on the cutting files from The Planner Templates and Cutting File for my dividers. In each month I've written down the birthdays or anniversaries that I need to make cards for on an index card. Then when the cards are made I file them in date order to send out. Hopefully, this will keep me organized enough to have cards made in advance so I don't run around at the last minute madly rushing to get a card in the mail. So far it's working great. Right next to the dividers is a smaller box that is the perfect size for storing my craft tools. In my front row the larger side holds my Doodlebug sequins and glitter bottles and the smaller box has washi tape in it. Make sure you head to The Cutting Cafe Blog to see the rest of the Design Team's back to school projects. Thanks for stopping by.