St.Patrick's Day Fun...this year traps and extra special events

Our "Lucky" kitties, a table top banner, and this years Leprechaun trap

This year we have something extra special to celebrate.....it is our kitties "birthday!" At least we think it is. Technically we don' know so we just chose it for them. As adopted kitties who lost their mother just as their eyes were opening, they are super special and super great pets. I love how attached they are to our girls so I will gladly celebrate them.

But no Leprechaun this year either. Our playful pets meant a bit of a change so we (the girls) set up the trap on the kitchen counter with a note and a trail of "coins" to attract any Leprechauns who might come around....The girls think they like marshmallows so in they went as well as tic tacs and some shamrocks. I loved their creativity and I got off easy with using last years trap. Next year we might need to update. I was a bit under the weather the end of this week and didn't help them much but the Leprechaun did leave some coins (real and plastic) as well as some chocolate coins and half munched mini marshmallows. G convinced her 5 year old sister B they were lucky and she ate one...yuck! LOL

SO, my only real project for this holiday was a "centerpiece" for a friend who is always kind enough to host a great St Pats party each year. She really is a great cook who puts out tons of great food. All the traditional Irish favorites like corned beef and cabbage, stew, and soda bread all home made! Plus some great dinner items like shrimp, lasagna, and all the little things to go with it.(she was super sweet to add special items for guest with Gluten free diets and vegetarians too!) Overall a perfect hostess with party favors for us adults too, not to mention the selection of adult beverages...LOL

I wasn't sure if it was my bad brownies from last year or my supposed skill at making paper projects that prompted her to ask for "something different" when I asked what to bring, but I had a project in mind anyway so I was happy to oblige...that one didn't happen but I'll tell you about what I ended up making. ;)

I wanted to make a cloud on one side and a pot of gold on the other connected by a rainbow with lettering on it. Sounds great right. Well maybe someday I can pull that 3D thing together but this year it was giving me fits! So, plan x or so I came up with a smaller "banner" that can sit on a table using chopsticks stolen from given to us with our take out.

My brain was malfunctioning this week and it took forever to create the box that supports the banner, and it still wasn't great. I have to make some improvements before attempting to share it....but it was easy to put together once the design was finished.

The space between the sticks measured just a hair over 12" so it was super easy to use my Make The Cut software to create a shape, duplicate it to the number of "banners" and then size it to fit the 12". I felt so clever when I realized that IRISH and LUCKY both have to same number of letters but nearly botched it when I forgot to reverse the direction when putting on the shamrocks, doh...I did mirror the shamrocks though...phew.

Next the little Leprechauns from the Lettering Delights SVG file were a print and cut, which didn't turn out as nice as I would have liked since my Zing needs to be re-calibrated I guess....but I love how easy it was to mirror the image in MTC and then cut out a shadow after printing...and this is a set of layered SVG's! If you remember my banner from last year, I cut individual pieces for this guy since he was a bit bigger on that one.

Hope you have a Happy St. Patricks Day! Thanks for stopping by...up next time, proof that good things really do come in small packages....

Quick Gift...not a card, but cash!

I like to have a few gift card boxes on hand since it is such an easy gift, and my girls always seem to have a party to go to...

 This really cute gift box is great for gift cards, and the slot raises the card and makes a nice presentation. But sometimes you want to give cash....

So, I was able to fold a 20$ bill into a cute origami dollar sign. I have a book that diagrams all these cute folds but it was Youtube to the rescue after all. There are so many ways to present money I can't wait to try it again! They make removable/temporary glue dots which worked great to secure this to the card I made so it will lift up as the box opens.

If you'd like to make this gift box, the file is available at MyTimeMadeEasy.com where they have some great packaging SVG files. I added a half circle cut out for a finger cut out but it is basically their file....The tag was a simple design I made using Make The Cut software and cut it all with the Zing (as usual)

Thanks for stopping by, have fun with your crafty endeavors....

Be Mine-craft Valentines

The Minecraft craze has hit my daughters elementary school and my girls all play the "creative mode" using the iPad, so this idea was the perfect fit. Which is good since the treat my daughter picked to hand out, didn't fit into the goodie bag we originally planned!

If you have a "minecraft" fan you know this will be a hit since it is sort of addicting. As a result, there are lots of sites already out there with ideas for papercrafting minecraft items. Lucky for me, I have a machine that can take the PDF's and other images and create a cutting file to make these fast and easy. In fact I have a mini paper set of a "creepers" and other things thanks to these sites. :) I am sorry to say I can't give credit for this since image since I had never intended to post this and don't have the info. I will try to figure it out and update. Lesson learned. *the images were downloaded from this site. Now for the funny part...it is associated with seller of the digi paper I bought and they referred me there in the download email. LOL.*

OK back to the Valentine...I downloaded and used a template for the coloring but since the trace was so jagged on the edge I just eyeballed it and created another shape on top of the image. This was pretty easy since I already had a cube design made in anticipation that I would be getting a set of papers to use instead of this download. I had ordered(too late) a set of digital papers for minecraft from an Etsy store but didn't get it in time(no fault of the store I have to add). I am actually excited to get it and hope to create mire cutting files once I do....but this Valentine came out pretty good too.

I used print and then didn't get the registration marks to fit on the mat but because the ZIng uses a laser light and lets the user set the starting point of the paper, I was able to get the cut nearly perfect to the image by setting it very carefully....love my Zing!

Not the best picture but my G finished putting stickers on this AM and it was off to school early so she could also go t the school store.

 The stickers on the sides are "puny." Best things about Valentines day is that your actually supposed to use puns. Love that! For these I used a minecraft font found at the FontMeme.  Then created a shadow and used the print and cut feature of MTC software using my Zing. Easy! I have to say I had a bit of trouble cutting the sticker paper without going through so I suggest very little blade (near 0) and minimum force of about 30 maybe?

Hope you can make one for your Minecraft fan!Oh, I forgot the most important part of this post...
When my G got out of the car, she actually skipped up to the door this AM! That's why I do this. The skip, and the smile. :)

Have a great Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day...

The paper is still flying here and only the littlest, B has had her Valentine celebration. So the girls will get their surprises from me tomorrow morning, and I will be finishing up my middle one, G's Valentines for her class party ASAP. Sorta hard to do since her treat she picked out won't fit very neatly in the cute project she picked out. We'll figure it out today, and I'll get no sleep tonight!

In the meantime, check out how cute these "Animal bags and boxes" from a Lettering Delights file came out.

Super cute huh? But in order to put two of the bags on one 12X12, they come out pretty small. The back has a fun pun printed out onto a card so that B could write her name before I attached it.

Thanks for stopping by, hope your Valentines Day is super!

Ice Cream?

SO, it was a cold January day and we decide we wanted ice cream! LOL

Looks yummy Huh? It ends up as yummy soft serve!

We also wanted some fun and I had a bunch of stuff already for freezer bag ice cream so we went for it! I found several recipes online and went with my own, since I do seem to have an issue with following directions! But the main ingredients are pretty standard: Cream or milk with various levels of fat, vanilla, sugar, ice, rock salt if you have it, and plastic bags. I double bagged mine since it seemed a common suggestion.....I suggest it too.

This is what we used....I had yummy heavy whipping cream and really good vanilla but milk and extract is fine too.

We used a small pitcher to hold our ice since I used the chipped ice from the in door ice machine. It worked well but there was still a bit of entertainment from the few stray ice cubes flying around. :) For cats and kids alike.

After putting the ingredients in one bag I doubled it up, then put it into the ice and rock salt filled outer one.

And then we shook and shook the bags for a long time! It was fun and even the littlest almost finished hers. I think a smaller portion would have been better so it would take less time to freeze up.

It was more fun than this looks! Ha Ha Ha!

Even the teenager had some fun....

The best part is eating it!

Have fun and I hope you try it! It's a lot less work than you think and very fun! I do suggest gloves too....and have some towels handy too.....

Sorry for the terrible iPhone pics....my "good" camera has quit on me and I haven't decided what to get next!

Thanks for stopping by.

Memories of summer.....

I've had a special picture I was waiting to scrap for a while, and recently I ran across it while cleaning up, and the scrap bug bit me. Well maybe I should say my heart went Zing? ;)

The clean up, plus stumbling across a new SVG site, plus some great updates to MTC(Make the Cut, my favorite cutting software) all made this whole thing come together so easily. It was very inspiring. I think all these things are going to take my scrap booking to a new level and make it much easier overall.

My G is so attached to this flag which we have displayed in our home and use for Girl Scouts. I even imported the journaling to print and cut it to a new size...its all straight in real life too. LOL

To create this page I made a basic layout in MTC using elements I purchased from MissKate'sCuttables  plus a few of my own elements....Miss Kate's is a super new site that adds new files every day and works like a dream. It has a daily freebie, wishlists, and keeps track of your account/purchases too! Great site! Plus the SVG's are small inexpensive sets I find really fits my needs. She also includes a PNG and JPG file for digi or hybrid or simple print and cut! Been working with Photshop and digi/hybrid pages to use my patterned papers and create more exact colors and hope to show those soon! I've already played with it a bit and need to put it all together.

OK back to my page....G had done a simple page of her own and included a bit of journaling for a project at school, but I wanted one a bit more elaborate. With MTC, I created the mat with the wavy side piece, the simple star center piece, and the base blue layer with the stars cut out to add to the elements from the kit.

To do this I imported all the SVG's into MTC and moved and sized them till I felt it looked right. Next I made adjustments to colors and separated the different pieces into separate layers and pages according to color. The new image handling properties o the MTC software made this possible without freezing or crashing everything. Next I chose my papers and went to town! My Zing was amazing! It cut the finest detail on the firework I was able to layer three colors in descending sizing....down to super thin!

each blue square represents one inch! ooooooh, ahhhhhhh.... ;) fireworks you know...

The blue background paper is a really thick sheet of mulberry paper and cut with my ZIng on multicut 2 qnd speed 9 with the blade extended fairly far out. As a result of trial and error as well as advice from the MTC forum, I used lower pressure than one would think and nothing tore! I am not sure it made a good choice for cutting but the texture looks really nice in person.

Not totally satisfied with the center section but overall it was a super easy page to pull together and with no guessing at sizing, color combos, and placement! My days of pushing paper around the page may be over! Maybe....

Thanks for stopping by and have a great time scrapping!

What A Character...

My G has almost constantly had her nose in a book since she received the Dork Diaries gift set for Christmas, so it was a no brainer that she dressed up as Nikki for "Character Day" at school. The elementary school had a reading month with various special days to make it fun for the kids. On day they were allowed to dress as a character in a book.

The main character in Dork Diaries is just like my G, and they bonded instantly. G even got her hair trimmed a bit extra so she could do the hairstyle, and of course we had to make the special pen and diary. :)

G as Nikki....

Thank goodness there were a few black and white pictures for us to model things after!

The diary and pencil...

The pencil could be a fun treat for a party or something extra for homework fun? For the pencil, I simply trimmed a strip of blue paper from a 12X12 sheet and put score tape all along the back in a few spots before twisting it around a pink striped pencil. The top was a strip of paper (same thickness as the blue but pink) with score tape and then I added a row of shorter strips in two different sizes linded up edge to edge. I then put another strip of score tape in a few spots so that it stuck when I wound it around the base of the pencils eraser. The strips sorta stuck out of the top and after bending them down a bit, I added two stars back to back on the end....yep with score tape. LOL

 Just a few things we have been up to! Thanks for stopping in.

A couple of cards....

Unfortunately I have needed a few too many of these kinds of cards. My heart was heavy as I looked for something special to make for two friends, and I finally settled on using an element from SVGcuts.com's Iris fold cards. These are super pretty and hopefully lift the spirits of my friends.

One of my long distant friends lost her MIL and I substituted a basic flower for the original. I copied it again slightly differently for a "get well soon card" for a wonderful lady who needs her spirits lifted after a series on mini strokes and some trouble regulating her heart rhythm. I really hope for her full recovery for purely selfish reasons...she gives the best hugs. I wish my card could be a great big hug for her and my friends across the country too.

How SVGcuts.com saved my Christmas

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Mine was quite peaceful despite having people over three different times and less time than usual for crafting for gifts. That brings me to how SVGcuts.com saved my Christmas....

Most of the time I am crafting last minute and don't even have a chance to take pictures of every project, so I have to say how much I love the online resources for craft files. I can download a project in my PJs in the middle of the night! Some resources are so much better than others. I never am frustrated over a project that won't come together from SVGcuts.com and as mentioned before, they always post video instructions, just in case. Perfectly designed SVG files and instruction videos? Gotta love that!

This year I was looking for a way to package simple candy for teachers gifts so it had to be a bit more special....but not too difficult. I was so impressed by the files I used this year....amazingly the toy soldier was a freebie even! It all went together so well I was able to achieve my goal without too many late nights or added stress.

So without further ado, here's what I made....BTW a gift card fit easily into each of these containers along with some candy for a few special gifts.

A whole bunch of Santa's hats.....cotton balls for the tops. :) For my younger daughter who had to transport these on the bus and hand out herself....nice and contained. This was Santa's Village Kit...

A virtual forest of trees for the High Schooler's teachers...simple yet cute! Using Santas Helpful Elves kit. So helpful...:)

A small blizzard of snowmen....goodness how cute were these for a few more special teachers and friends? Oh plus a few gift bag boxes you keep seeing a peek of behind stuff. Christmas open House Kit!

A special Toy Soldier (freebie) was perfect for my older daughters Orchestra teacher.. They performed a few pieces from the Nutcracker this year so how perfect was that?  He did miss the hand warmers this year tho I think.

And even a special gift box for my High Schooler's Agricultural Sciences teacher.....how cool is that? Much cuter IRL BTW. From Santa's Village Kit.

I hope your holidays were filled with as much crafty fun as mine were. I wish you God's blessing of peace in the new year too!

A Christmas past project....

Here's a great project I have made in several different forms over the years. It's always a hit, even with older kids.... :) Free files by following the link at the end of the page.

The original post is copied here:

Hi everyone, my little ones (all of them, even the 13 yo) loved these "tumblers" so much over Easter I thought they might like some new ones...for Christmas. I first saw the idea for these very old style toys on Family Fun.com. A website that always inspires me. It takes nearly no time at all and they create so much fun! I have created an SVG file, a SUT2 file and a .cut file for everyone which I will attempt to share at the bottom of the page.

These little things tumble end over end "magically" :)

After cutting out the file on your machine score these folds...a heavier cardstock tends to hold up better.

This adhesive is called "scoretape" but I also like Scotch quick dry adhesive. If this is your first time to my blog. let me tell you how much I love scoretape...well maybe not or you won't come back...LOL "Red tape" also works well but be sure your double sided tape doesn't extend beyond the and keep the marbles from rolling freely.

OK so you can use whatever you want for your ramp, even an ironing board or an even longer cushion but it does need a bit of friction so it wont just slide down anticlimactically without flipping...really sad when that happens... also it can be a fun challenge to get it balanced on edge (without bending the paper). 


Please note that I am just a mom and comments (nice ones) keep me sane. I ask you to please not share this file, instead refer them to my site. Also please do not create this for profit, including contests, without my permission. Instead, contact me ahead of time if you want to use my file. Thanks and enjoy!

 Go to the original post for the file freebies.....
 Here

How many pictures do you have to take, until you get the right one??

OK so I read once that the number of photos you must take to get a good group shoot is a function of the number in the group....It was a real formula something like n! So, for 5 people it would be 120 photos. No wonder I can't see to get a good pic of my three. It must be an even larger number if you factor in ages...LOL.

This brings me to the point of the whole post.....my disaster pictures from years past that I actually cherish for the fun memories. Like they say, "you're gonna miss this"

The first year we tried for the three girls...2007

 It gets a bit better......

 Until the baby spit up and we jut decided to go with what we had.

I tried to let them get it out of their system so I did end up with a good one eventually.

This was a great year..... 2008

Clearly the littlest one doesn't like to wait around.

 This wasn't working either, 2009,......

 But she loves her sisters.

 

 I did end up with a good few individual ones. :)

 

 And finally 2010, I just waited till the traditional morning shot.

 It wasn't much help to try a different day, first thing in the AM....

 The oldest isn't enjoying the whole experience, and as far as the middle one....She wasn't too keen on her little sister getting so cozy, LOL

 So we will try again this year and I am sure it will be a super fun time as usual....with lots of great memories as usual.

Good luck preserving your holiday memories....all of them!

Leftover Turkey.....

I don't know about you but I had a ton of leftover turkey. Including the crafty type!

Love the nice fat bodies of these guys. It looks funky when you cut it out but goes together pretty easily...

 I used the Gobble Gratitude and Squirrel It Away sets from Lettering Delights to make some paper acorns and fun turkeys for display, and of course play. B and G each helped me put together one. Though the body was pretty tricky and I had to do that part. I used Sotch liquid fast dry glue....absolutely necessary here since the bodies are really likely to pull apart. The edges are all inked but it is sorta hard to tell. The Turkey set comes as a print and cut which I broke apart and just cut from paper using my MTC software and my Zing. The other set is a cut set....with cute 3D acorns and some suspicious squirrels.

Cute napkin rings...

Squirrel!!!

The girls enjoyed playing with the squirrels but the box style one from the set didn't make it to Thanksgiving day!

I hope you enjoyed the Thanskgiving Day and are gearing up for a blessed Christmas season. I was so grateful to have a realatively uneventful holiday, only set the smoke alarms off once and one nosebleed for G. LOL

But it was a good day. I was with my family and got to chat and share with friends so a very good day!

Thanks Coach!

This cut file was from My Creative Time LLC...oops that's My Time Made Easy LLC!
they have some great files...check them out!

Both my daughters play field hockey, and my youngest just finished up a great season.....the made it to the first round of the finals, but lost in the semi finals after a 1-1 tie, and overtime, and two more 2 tie breakers. It was a real victory for a team made up of more than half newbies! They were all disappointed after getting so far in the Hockey Fest but they surely weren't disappointed in their coach. 

The girls were so lucky to have a great coach. She was able to motivate them to want to win without getting too carried away. She made the game fun and had all the girls eager to practice and learn. Amazingly she taught them so much of the great basic skills! At the end of the season, the families pooled our resources to present her with a gift card to her favorite restaurant. I of course was happy to make a holder for her since that's what I do!

The gift card pops up when the box is opened!!!

A Crafty Tooth Fairy...

It hardly seems possible, but my littlest daughter has already lost her first tooth! It seems like just yesterday that she got her first tooth in that sweet little smile.

The tooth fairy was amazingly generous to my daughter G since her mom freaked out when she lost her first tooth. I have an excuse, I promise. It was soon after she had bumped her mouth and I thought it wasn't supposed to be out yet. So after I scared her so badly it seemed best to make it a very special event.

Both older girls got a little bracelet from an online shop and got a little mini seed pearl for each tooth. It was cute with crystals and all but it was so expensive for the size and quality I decided to try something different.

For B I got a faux Pandora style bracelet pretty cheap online for a small one. And then searched all around for beads and charms that are much cheaper then Pandora but just as pretty. The plan is to give one per tooth after the initial set.

In addition, I was able to use the super cute set of printables for a letter and tooth box. Lettering Delights has a set that was just perfect! I also was able to use the flat gift bag for just the right thing to leave under her pillow...

This is the super cute tooth box from Lettering Delights with an extra print and cut tooth on top. The cards were easy to import into MTC and print and cut...one for each tooth and a few for opposes...

Of course I had to add some ribbon! :)

 The big storm was the first night and I didn't have all he charms, so I had to leave the box for her first then leave a note card for her tooth for another night.

This was the first note from the first tooth fairy....