Happy Birthday box card...

My granddaughter Lucy's birthday was on November 20. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LUCY!!!

I decided to make her a box card, using Silhouette file #57264. This is quite a large card, fitting neatly into a 5" X 7" envelope.

The balloons are not part of the file. I made them with a balloon punch and added them with strips of clear acetate.

If you look closely at this photo, you can see the strips of acetate (from some packaging material) that hold the balloons in place. I used Glossy Accents to adhere them, so they are very secure.

On the back I added another balloon and a stamped sentiment, leaving room for a signature and a personal note.

I think Lucy liked her card. She seemed very pleased that it was not the usual kind of card.

Because Lucy's birthday is so close to Thanksgiving--and we were spending the holiday at her house--we were able to personally deliver her card and presents and watch her open them. So much fun!

I hope all my friends and family in the U.S. had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Thanksgiving is nearly here...

I made a few more cards (six of this particular layout) to round out my stash of Thanksgiving cards to send to family and friends. Once again, I used a Darice EF to add some texture to my background.

My pumpkins came from a Silhouette file which I cut from different pieces of orange-patterned cardstock. As you can see, I did a little inking to give them some dimension.

My "vine" is actually a Die-Namics leafy flourish die that I cut apart to add a little greenery to my pumpkins.

On the inside of my card I again used some paper with a subtle leaf pattern. The sentiment was computer-generated, and my leaf was cut with a Martha Stewart punch out of some CS that had been colored with various distress inks.

Well, that's it for my Thanksgiving cards. Now it's full-speed ahead to Christmas!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Sweet birthday wishes...

I made this card for my youngest sister's birthday, which is today!

Happy Birthday, Michelle!

😃

My little berry basket is a file from Silhouette. I honestly don't remember if it was a freebie or one that I purchased. I like it though. It's simple to cut out and put together, and I think it looks great.

The doily cut behind my berry basket was done with a Prima die. I'm always amazed at how pretty this doily is when I cut it out. I should definitely use it more often!!

On the inside of my card, I added another strawberry and printed the sentiment with my Silhouette. The "Sweet Birthday Wishes" on the front of the card was also printed with my Silhouette. I really love being able to print my sentiment and then cut out the perfect-sized rectangle of cardstock, all on one machine.

We finally got some snow here yesterday. No real accumulation yet, but I'm sure it won't be long before the white stuff is here to stay. Boo!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Thanksgiving cards at last...

This card was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest. I began by embossing some kraft cardstock with a Darice EF and then cutting it into two pieces so that I could fit a sentiment strip between them. The sentiment was stamped with black Versafine ink and then heat-embossed with clear embossing powder.

To make my pretty leaf, I randomly sponged some red, orange and brown distress inks onto some yellow cardstock. I used a Darice leaf die to cut it out. Then I sponged some darker brown ink onto the die (with the die-cut still inside it) which gave the leaf veins some definition.

Finally, I added some sparkle with a clear Wink of Stella brush and a few sequins.

Here's another of the leaf shapes that came in the 3-leaf die set from Darice.

And this is the final leaf shape. Since this one was narrower, I used two leaves on my card and a bit of raffia to make them look as though they are tied together.

For the inside of my card, I used some pretty paper that had a subtle leaf pattern on it that was the same color as the embossed cardstock on the front of my card. My sentiment was computer-generated.

I made 12 of these cards to send out to family and friends. And now I've REALLY got to buckle down and get my Christmas cards done. I'm starting to get a little panicky about my Christmas preparations. I should know by now that it happens every year. I'm always scrambling during the last weeks before the holidays.

How about you? Are you through making Christmas cards? Done shopping and wrapping? Ready to decorate the house? Baked goods in the freezer? If so, I'm SO impressed!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Just a few more photos...

I thought I'd share just a few more photos with you from our trip to the eastern U.S. This is a photo of Hildene,  the home of Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, in Manchester, Vermont. It is a beautiful old home. I didn't know how economically successful Robert Lincoln was until we visited this home.

We also visited President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park, New York. Another beautiful home, but a little dark inside for my taste. The week before we had also visited his summer home--Campobello--in New Brunswick, Canada. That home was simpler, but also light and airy - more to my liking!

Next we traveled to New York City. This view of Manhattan is from the top of Rockefeller Center. We had an unexpected disaster as we drove into New York our first night there. Our little RV hit a very big and deep pothole which caused a rear leaf spring to break. Not only did it break, but it came right up through the floor, making a big hole!! We had the RV towed to a repair shop where they told us it would cost as much to fix it as we had paid for it in the first place! Also, it would not be a quick fix. We called our insurance company and realized we'd have to continue our trip by car while they figured out if and how they might help cover the cost of the damage. We rented a car, bought some luggage and went on with our trip.

We spent about 5 days in New York, visiting as many landmarks as we could. This is a photo of the 9/11 Memorial. We also went through the museum, which is very sobering.

This is a view of the new World Trade Center.

I tried to imagine the horror of the two former towers collapsing on this site, and it is just beyond imagination, even though I watched it happen on the morning news.

My husband is a huge Frank Lloyd Wright fan, so we had to visit the Gugenheim Museum, which he designed. It is such an unusual building. I liked that it wasn't a large museum--you can walk through it and enjoy the art in just a couple of hours.

We took a boat tour of the harbor, which gave us a great view of the Statue of Liberty.

Next we headed to Philadelphia. This is a photo of me with a dumb look on my face looking at the Liberty Bell. We also toured Independence Hall and many of the other historic sites in the old part of the city.

Of course, we also had to take a little side trip over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art - not to look at the art, but to see the steps that Rocky ran up in the first "Rocky" movie.

After leaving Philadelphia, we headed to Washington, D.C. We walked and walked and walked, taking in a number of the fantastic museums: Holocaust Museum, African American Museum of History & Culture and the American Indian Museum. We toured the Capitol and the Library of Congress and saw many of the famous memorials.

This is a section of the Viet Nam Memorial that holds the name of a young man from my high school who was killed in that conflict in 1968.

Here's a view of the White House - this was as close as we could get.

While in D.C., we took one day to tour Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington. It's quite a large estate so there was lots to see and lots to learn. There were a number of people dressed in period costumes giving demonstrations from that period including boat building, cooking, weaving, etc.

On our last day in D.C., which happened to be Sunday, we attended a morning service at the Washington National Cathedral. It's a beautiful structure that took 83 years to build! It suffered quite a bit of damage in an earthquake a few years ago, so they are still repairing parts of it.

Before heading to Chicago and then home, we toured Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous structure near Mill Run, Pennsylvania. It is truly an amazing home built over a waterfall in 1936-38 for the Kaufmann family. I recommend visiting if you ever get the chance!

After we arrived home, we learned that the insurance company had deemed our RV a total loss! We were pleased to receive the replacement value of the vehicle, and we will be purchasing another one. Can't wait!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Warning! This post is photo-heavy...

I have finally pulled together some photos from our recent trip into Canada and back down through parts of the eastern U.S.

We left on September 15 and headed for Ottawa, the capital city of Canada.

This is the parliament building in Ottawa, which we toured. It was so interesting to learn more about their government and how it works. This is a lovely building and the tour was very worthwhile.

From Ottawa we continued on toward Montreal (where we visited with friends and did a wee bit of sightseeing) and then to Quebec City.

Quebec City is a wonderful old city, founded in 1608. We took a walking tour and learned so much about its history. The photo at left shows one of the oldest homes (circa 1675) still in use in the city. It is now a restaurant called Aux Anciens Canadiens.

















After Quebec City we began to make our way down the eastern coast of the U. S.

I won't bore you with photos of every place we visited, but I'll try to give you an assortment.

This is my husband and me sitting in chairs made out of lobster traps.  They were actually quite comfortable!

We ate lobster and other seafood every day, since we don't get that much of it in Minnesota.

This is a photo of the Salem Witch Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. We learned in more detail about the witch trials that took place there in 1692-93. What a sad catastrophe that was! So many innocent lives lost, and all because of some sort of witchcraft hysteria.

We headed up into northern New Hampshire and were lucky enough to catch some of the fantastic fall color.

The pictures I am sharing with you here just don't do it justice.

It was amazing to come around a bend in the road and see an entire hillside covered with glorious red, orange and yellow trees. Truly breathtaking, even on a cloudy day.

We saw a couple of these pretty covered bridges. It's so nice that they maintain them for the public to enjoy.

I will end this post with a few pictures of American poet Robert Frost's home near Franconia, New Hampshire.

His home was a very simple structure, but...

there was a gorgeous view from his front porch. I can only imagine how this inspired his poetry!

This is my husband and I looking toward the house with a portion of that beautiful view in the background.

I will be back soon with a few more photos of our trip (as long as you're not too bored with them).

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Let's Craft and Create Challenge #119: Winter

It's hard to believe that 2016 has entered into its final two months and it is time for those winter-themed cards. But here we are in November with a brand new "winter" challenge and a fabulous intricate die as a prize to the winner. Checkout the details of this latest challenge and the prize over at Let's Craft and Create.

Here's my card for a little inspiration to join this fun challenge:

I had some wonderful paper embossed with silver dots that I wanted to use. It had been in my stash for years (maybe even a decade). It was one of those papers that I only wanted to use "for something special." I'm not sure why I do that! Every card I make should be considered "something special," right?

After adhering this pretty dotted paper to my card front, I created a panel stamped with a Deep Red Stamps image called "Winter Pines." I wish I had heat-embossed this image, rather than just stamping it, but I'll try that on another card.

I backed the panel with some silvery cardstock and added a sentiment cut with some Tim Holtz/Sizzix "Holiday Words" dies.

I also adhered a couple of Impression Obsession snowflake die-cuts with a flat-backed gem in their centers for a little sparkle.

On the inside of my card, I added a narrow strip of the silvery cardstock on the left and then heat-embossed an old Penny Black sentiment that I still really love.

Here's a closer look at that sentiment and the Impression Obsession snowflake die-cuts that I added.

I will definitely be making at least one more of these cards (with the remainder of my silver-dotted paper). I think they will work well to send to our friends who don't necessarily celebrate Christmas, but whom we want to remember over the holidays.

Now it's your turn! Visit Let's Craft and Create to see all the inspiration from my teammates, then enter the challenge with your own wintery project. It doesn't have to be a card. We love to see all kinds of paper creativity in the mix!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Even though Halloween has passed, I'll share one more "eek!" with you...

This card started off with a scrap of web-patterned DSP that had just one large spider on it along with some tiny ones. I wanted some medium-sized spiders on it, too, so I found a spider stamp (unknown brand) that matched really well and stamped a couple of those.

Then I die-cut the "Eek!" with some old Cuttlebug alpha dies and applied it to my DSP. My last thought was to add some green dripping goo (MS border punch) and some green dots on each side. Not sure it all works that well, but it's done. No changing it now.

More dripping goo, spiders and green dots on the inside, along with my stamped sentiment.

Now...I'm finally done. I will share NO MORE HALLOWEEN CARDS this year!. Bet you're relieved that I'm finally moving on to the next holiday.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl