Tic Tac Toe Valentine

The tic tac toe grid is a Silhouette file (Valentine love tic tac toe)  that I sized to fit onto an A2 card.  I pop dotted the center heart and added some white and metallic silver pen work.

My Thoughts on Thanksgiving

It was 150 years ago that President Lincoln declared a national holiday to be a day for  ""Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.  **

Subsequent Presidents fiddled with the actual date for the national holiday and set it as the final Thursday in November.  

In 1939, November had five Thursdays so  President Roosevelt thought an earlier Thanksgiving would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas and changed it to the fourth Thursday of the month.   The country was still reeling from the effects of the depression and he wanted to stimulate the economy.

Perhaps his decision was the beginning of losing the real meaning of Thanksgiving. 

As a child, Thanksgiving was all about having a huge meal to be shared with your family.  My mother would cook and bake for days getting ready for the meal.  Our Thanksgiving table couldn't even accommodate all the food she'd prepare.  And, we all did our best to eat everything she sat before us.

There were no stores open on Thanksgiving offering super bargains or crazily extending shopping hours.  And, at our house, the meal wasn't scheduled around any football games that might be televised.  You visited with your relatives, yes, face to face, not via text messages then you ate the food prepared.  Afterwards, you visited again while the kids were outside playing.

In the last few years Thanksgiving has moved away from family meals and traditions and become a stepping stone for greed and envy as shoppers compete to find and buy merchandise.  Retailers have chosen to cash in and promote this by hosting Black Friday sales. Merchandise is chosen and sold for a limited amount of time which forces shoppers to be in their stores at a specific time to take advantage of their pricing.

I, for one, would like to see a return to the "old way" of celebrating the holiday where we'd all take time to be thankful for what we HAVE and not what we can push our way through a mob at 2:00 a.m. to buy. 




^{** Wikipedia}

Valentine A La Okieladybug

Last February my friend, Shirley, aka Okieladybug, hosted a Valentine card making party at her house.

She had designed and precut all the pieces so we could make several cards. 

This is my version of one of her designs.  It was a perfect opportunity to use some of the paper pads I have on hand.  This card uses, seven, yes, count 'em, seven different papers!

The inside sentiment is:  U mean the world to me, Happy Valentine's Day.

card design by Okieladybug

Paper Doily Card

I combined two different SVG files in Make The Cut for the cup and the steam.  The sentiment was printed on my computer; I added a lace doily and a Wr R Memory Keepers punched border.

Studio G Stamp Valentine

About three years ago, those of us on the Cricut message board were all crazy about Studio G stamps.  Each month a different set came out and it was a foot race to get to Michael's and buy them.

Over time, I've moved away from the dollar stamps but I'm glad that I kept the ones that I bought.  They come in handy when you just want to make a quick card.

The blue background paper is from Paper Studio and I added some tiny hearts with a Martha Stewart punch.  The stamped image was colored with Promarkers.

Valentines? Already??

Yep, we haven't even had our Thanksgiving turkey and I'm making Valentine cards for Operation Write Home!  They have to be received at their headquarters by December 31st to allow time to get them shipped overseas so I have to get busy! 

I haven't made any cards since early October.  All my time has been spent getting things made for a craft show coming up on December 14th in Ada. 

This cute card was seen on Pinterest and I back tracked to the original maker.  You can find it on Califormia Scrappin'.  It caught my eye because of the patriotic colors. 

I used Hallmark card software to print the words and the linked hearts on white cardstock.  Then I cut the red, white, and blue hearts with my Cameo.

My version of a card by Gina Karas

Santa Tulle Wreath

This was seen on Pinterest.  I back tracked and found the original post with instructions at Baby Rabies. Her instructions are very clear and it took me less than 2 hours to complete the project.

You'll need:

Santa hat---I found mine at the Dollar Tree
12" foam wreath
50 yards of 6" wide white tulle
glue gun
ribbon for hanger
cardboard to wrap tulle around to cut to the proper length

You'll cut the cardboard into a 15" square and wrap the tulle around it.  Then take your scissors and cut it on both edges so you'll have 15" strips.  This is the fastest way to handle the tulle!

Position your Santa hat on the wreath and mark the area of the wreath you'll want to cover with tulle for his beard.  Remove the hat so it won't be in the way as you work with the tulle.

Tie the 15" strips of tulle on the wreath with a simple knot.

When the beard is nice and full, crumple up a piece of tissue paper to stuff inside the hat and using hot glue, attach the hat onto the wreath.

Cut a short piece of ribbon, fold it in half and either tack it with a few stitches or use the hot glue to make a hanger on the back of the hat, and you're done!

Biker's Sign

I saw this saying on a t-shirt and thought it would be perfect to utilize the last 8" x 10" floating frame that I bought for the craft show.  It's laying on a sheet of white paper so the lettering would show up in the photo.

The font is Antigoni Medium.  I haven't decided yet if I'll put anything on the face of the white frame.  After I look at it a day or two, I'll decide what it needs.

This is the largest vinyl cut out that I've applied in a single piece.  Thanks, Shirley,  for reminding me to use registration marks!

Floating frames are fun to make.  Next time JoAnn's has them on sale for 60% off, I'm going to pick up a few more to have on hand.

Added sort of a checkerboard onto the frame.  I think I like it!

 

A Few More Post-It Note Holders

 I used a Tim Holtz stamp on this one.

I've had these embellishments for some time.

Finally found something to use them on!

Post-It Note Holders

Dawn Griffith shares how to make these post-it note holders on her Stampin' Up blog Dawn's Stamping Studio.   You can make three of them from a single sheet of 12" x 12"cardstock.

I used some paper doilies, butterflies, leaf stickers and Pearl Pen dots on mine.  The little pens can be found at Staples in a multi-pack.

Post-It Note Holders

 These are made with clear acrylic frames with the easel on the back.

 I used scrapbook paper and K & Company borders with some adhesive pearls on this one.



Both of these are 4" x 6" in size.



The Tart & Tangy stamp set from Stampin' Up was one of the first sets I ever bought.  I still use it a lot!

 These were done the same way.  They're 3 1/2" x 5" size.  I cut and pop dotted some of the border pieces on these.

These are 4" x 6".  On the yellow one I used some flowers I found at Michael's.  The blue denim one has paper from a Paper Studio stack.

Fettuccine Alfredo With Chicken and Broccoli

This is a dish that I enjoy and my husband will eat, but isn't crazy about having, so, I make it when he's not home for dinner.  It only takes about 20 minutes to make since the sauce goes together quickly.  It takes longer to cook the pasta than any other part of the recipe!

Start the water for the pasta first.  It can come to a boil while you prepare the other ingredients.

FETTUCCINE ALFREDO WITH CHICKEN AND BROCCOLI

1 boneless chicken breast -  Smart Chicken is best
butter
heavy cream
Parmesan cheese
broccoli
olive oil
Fettuccine pasta

Slice the chicken breast across the grain about 1/2" thick
In a skillet, heat 2-3 tsp. of good olive oil
Brown the chicken on one side, turn, and sprinkle generously with black pepper
Cook chicken until done

In a saucepan, melt butter add cream and heat thouroughly
Add Parmesan cheese and keep sauce warm
*** a jar of Bertoli Alfredo sauce can be used****

Separate broccoli into florets and steam in the microwave until tender

Prepare pasta according to package directions.

When pasta is done, add the sliced chicken, broccoli and sauce.

Smart Chicken breasts are pretty large so this will make two generous servings.

Miniature Suitcases

I have a set of three tiny suitcases.  This one measures just 11" x 7" and it's the largest of the three.  I used  Challenge Contour font and added some swirls with hearts using Oracal 651 white vinyl.  Then I added two Christmas floral picks and a wired ribbon bow.  This is another project for the craft show next month.

The medium sized one is 5 1/2" x 9 3/4".  I used Partridge font for the lettering and just added a tulle bow on top. The reindeer and snowflakes are Silhouette files.

The smallest one is 7 1/4" x 4 1/2".  I used Partridge font for the lettering and the candy canes are Silhouette files.

Faux cupcake Jars

This project came from Club Chica Circle.  The "icing" on top is white caulk, the "cherry" is a large jingle bell.  I added some diamond dust glitter to make the icing sparkle and set the jar down inside a cupcake wrapper from the Cricut Artiste cartridge.  The openings in the wrapper were just perfect to thread some 1/8" ribbon through to add a bow.

These were done on 4 oz. Ball jelly jars, but any size jar would work.  I filled them with wrapped peppermint candies.

Bless The Food Floating Frame

This is the largest vinyl project I've done.  The frame is 11" x 14".  I used Lobster 1.4 font and a corner decoration found online.

Doing a floating frame is pretty easy.  You don't have to mirror your lettering since it's applied onto the surface of the piece of glass in the rear.

I had tried to use a much more elaborate font to do this and my machine was just not cooperating this evening!  After ruining a couple of pieces of vinyl, I gave up and changed the font.