Speaking of Teepees . . .

I thought I had already posted this but apparently I haven't.  Back in 2013, Cricut had a contest using designs from their Southwest cartridge.  I rarely enter contests where skill determines the winner, but I had an idea for something I wanted to make as a gift for my two-year-old nephew anyway so I decided to enter.  I actually won!!  I couldn't believe it!  It was a great gift package worth nearly $500!  I've never won anything like that before or since. 

Here is the teepee I made:

 

I made the extra props just for the contest.  I didn't even give him the cacti or critters.

 

The back

 

Close up of the sign I made.  I created the letters using various shapes on the Southwest cartridge.  I enjoy challenges like that.

 

 

 

This was what it looks like unassembled.

 

I made the teepee from a canvas dropcloth.  For the poles I cut bamboo from my mother-in-law's yard.  The designs are fabric appliques cut from the Southwest cartridge.  If you are interested in more details on how to make this, you can find the instructions on the Cricut website HERE.

 

I was pretty proud of it, but I was really shocked when I learned I had won.  I had so much fun making this I have made three more since.  One was identical to this one, one was plain, and one I recently made customized for my two-year-old grandson.  (I hope to post that one later.)

Thanksgiving Teepees

I host Thanksgiving each year and I like to have a fun activity available to anyone who would like to participate.  Last year I found a teepee printable on the Made With Happy blog.  I thought the kids and some of the adults would enjoy it.  I was pleasantly surprised at the participation, especially from one of the newest members of the family, my youngest sister's husband.  He is very creative and seems to be good at everything!  He took the teepee to new levels (literally).  Here are some of the creations:

 

My creative granddaughter's teepee

 

 

This one was done by one of my crazy nephews.

 

 

Not sure who did this one, but I like it.

 

 

My sister's family compound/reservation, including the royal palace complete with a hot tub and an outhouse.

 

 

Here's a close up.

 

 

Somebody burned the turkey!

 

 

My patriotic nephew's version

 

Not sure what we'll do this year.  I'm still trying to decide.  Hope we have as much fun as last year!

Falling Leaves

Just a quick post.  I ran across these pictures from several years ago.  I cut a bunch of leaves (and a few pumpkins) from black contact paper and applied them to my bathroom wall for a fun little addition to my skeleton shower curtain. 

Pastor Appreciation Bulletin Board - Flowers

A few years ago I did a bulletin board for Pastor Appreciation (found HERE).  This year I finally got around to replacing it with this one.  Once again I had church members write short notes of encouragement and/or appreciation to the pastor and his wife, only this time I used flowers instead of lambs.  This one was also inspired by various ideas on Pinterest (my best friend).

Although I did plan ahead a little more for this one, I still ended up rushing through the assembly.  I cut the flowers out a couple of weeks in advance and handed them out, but I had to wait for them to be returned to me before I could put it all together.  I decided the flowers needed to be inked so I did that last minute too.  Fortunately, I was able to reuse the cloud border from some previous bulletin board, and I made a similar shaped border for the bottom to resemble bushes.

Unfortunately, the photo is not very good, but I added two tiny butterflies and bent their wings to make them 3-D.  Except for the ones for the word "GROW", the flower stems and leaves were drawn after I had already stapled down the flowers.  (Definitely not the best way to do it, but I had to come back and add them later because I just ran out of time).

Pumpkin Carriage

This pumpkin carriage was originally supposed to be a decoration for my daughter's fall wedding, but it didn't get finished in time so it just became a decoration for my home.  (It turns out there is a lot of stuff to do to prepare for a wedding -- who knew?? 😉)  I had planned to add a silhouette of a couple inside and also an appropriate license plate (I forgot what that was going to be), but I didn't see any reason to add those details after missing the deadline.

The file is from the Enchanted Autumn kit from SVG Cuts.  I really enjoyed making it.  I just wish I had completed it in time for the wedding.

 

I added a strand of tiny lights (from the Dollar Tree) to the inside and put one of the lights through a hole into each of the tiny lanterns.  I really loved how it turned out!

 

Here is another view of it lit.  If you look closely you will see in the background the fall tree I made featured in an earlier post HERE.

90th Birthday Party

My mother-in-law just celebrated her 90th year here on Earth.  We were thrilled to celebrate with her and throw her a party.  As usual, things didn't go exactly as planned and I didn't make half the decorations I had hoped to, but nobody knew that except me (and maybe anybody who saw my Pinterest board).  I made her a photo book with pictures from all throughout her lifetime.  I had it printed at Costco and used it as a guest book.  Compiling and organizing all the photos took many more hours than I care to count, so that set me way behind for the party decorations.  I've learned to just let it go and it will be fine.  The important thing is that we all had a wonderful time and she can't stop talking about it.

 

 

 This was the bulletin board I did with lots of pictures of her and her family and friends.  I'm (unofficially) in charge of bulletin boards at my church (where we had the party) and this one was due for a change, which worked out great for me.  I did this for the party and then changed it out for our Homecoming celebration the next day.  I cut out the Happy Birthday balloons and the big 90 on my Silhouette machine.  You can't tell from the picture, but the letters and numbers were cut from white glitter cardstock and the balloons were cut from three different teal cardstocks (one was embossed).  I really like how they turned out.  I wish I had gotten better photos, but we were really pushed for time just to get things set up before the guest of honor arrived.

 

 

 

Here is a close up of the Happy Birthday balloon banner.

 

 

 

It took me forever to decide on what I wanted to use for centerpieces.  (I needed ten.)  I knew I wanted to use something with photos, but I had trouble choosing exactly what.  Lack of time finally made the decision for me so I made these lanterns since I thought they would be quick.  They would have been but I had to battle with both my printer and my Silhouette machine.  Also, I wanted to be able to possibly use these again in the future, so I assembled them using repositionable glue so I could store them flat.  It worked pretty well, but it slowed things down some.  The cut file was from SVG Cuts Tiki Party set (found HERE).  I wanted it larger than I could fit on the page, so I had to make some adjustments to the file before cutting.  Inspired by a few different ideas on Pinterest, I printed on vellum two different photos and alternated with text panels for each lantern.  I also cut lots of 90 confetti and spread around everywhere.

 

 

 

 Of course I had to make a crown for the party princess.  She wore it proudly during the entire party.  The cut file was a freebie by Bird's Cards.  I adjusted the file to fit an adult and cut it from silver glitter cardstock.

 

 

 

 This was also inspired by Pinterest (both the punch and the Fountain of Youth sign).  I love Pinterest!

 

 

 

 Costco made the cake, but I added the 90.  I had to guess at what size to cut it since we didn't pick up the cake until right before the party, and I almost made it too big.  I cut it from glitter cardstock and mounted it on clear plastic.

 

 

 

Here is the gift table.  (She requested no gifts, but she is just too loved.)  I had one of my helpers scatter more photos and 90 confetti.

 

 

 

 I take no credit for this.  My helpers did a beautiful job with the food table. 

 

 

 

 Dessert Table

 

 

 

I picked out some of the most interesting-looking/funny photos and placed one at each table for a game.  I asked the guests at each table to work together to make up a story about their photo.  Some tables had one or two sentence stories and others had two or three pages!  LOL 

 

Spring Explosion Box

Here are some close-ups of the explosion box mentioned in this post.  It has been so long ago I don't remember many details, but if anyone really cares you are welcome to ask and I'll try to answer any questions.  You can't see it very well in the picture, but the line of green beads is supposed to be a caterpillar. 

Then when you open the box, a butterfly emerges.

This picture shows a little of the detail.  You can barely tell that the corners are punched/embossed.  Each of the boxes I made had different butterfly stickers added.  This one probably was the one I liked least, so I kept it for myself.

 

Ladies Tea 2011

This was from the 2011 annual Ladies Tea at church.  It was my first attempt at anything like this.  I was really outside my comfort zone and very intimidated.  Each table is decorated by a different lady (or team).  The other ladies are so creative and talented.  I won't show their tables so mine won't look so bad.  :-)

We were supposed to give each lady at our table an inexpensive favor.  I made these explosion boxes.  I had planned to give them photos from the tea to add to the inside.  Yeah, that didn't happen.  Oh well.  The ladies at my table were my friends and family and they still love me.  I didn't get a picture of the inside of the boxes because I had stayed up all night finishing the boxes and was running late.  But I do still have one so maybe I'll post more about it later.  (Update:  I posted about the explosion box here.)

I made these as place cards.  My sweet daughter wrote the names for me because she is so much better at that than I am.  The bottom one was for my niece who was 8 months pregnant at the time.  :-)

The centerpiece I made.

This shows what I did for chair covers.  I used white pillowcases over the chairs and then just added the bows and butterflies.

It was near Easter so I made the theme for mine Spring/Rebirth.  I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out, but it was ok and we all had a good time.

Landscape Timber Leprechaun

 

My mother was so talented.  I definitely got my love of crafting from her, but unfortunately I did not inherit much of her talent and creativity.  She always amazed me at what she could make out of ordinary trash.  We didn't have much money so we weren't able to buy much, but my mother made us such cool things I treasure to this day.  I thought this post was fitting since her birthday was on St. Patrick's Day and she painted this landscape timber leprechaun (using no pattern) over 20 years ago.  She has been gone now for 10 years and I miss her dearly.  She was an amazing woman!

Mr. Bones Celebrates Valentine's Day

Well, I told you Mr. Bones would be making appearances from time to time.  As I mentioned previously, when I created Mr. Bones I had no idea how much fun he would be.  This post is about the Valentine's Day following his creation.  This was where the real fun began because the whole family got involved.

I had decorated him for Valentine's Day (most likely in the middle of the night while the family was asleep) and apparently my family thought they would add to the fun.  On Valentine's Day my husband (not much of a romantic, but sometimes he at least tries) left his Valentine wishes for me on a large heart placed on the skeleton.  (I was impressed he had cut the heart out by himself!  He just got lucky he didn't use some of my treasured paper!)

At some other time (I can't remember if it was before or after my husband's addition) my daughter added the moustache and monocle.  (Or maybe it was the hat and monocle.  Or maybe all three.)  I got a big kick out of both of them joining in on the fun!

This was four years ago, so I don't remember the details all that well.  (I barely remember yesterday).  Most of the accessories I made were from Cricut cartridges.  The Valentine card (Bee Mine) was from the Spring Holiday Cards cartridge.  The teddy bear and accessories were from the Teddy Bear Parade cartridge.  The dog is from Create a Critter.  The hearts (other than the one my hubby cut out) were probably various punches.  I can't remember where the teacup was from, possibly cut using my Slice machine. 

This was one of the best Valentine's Day surprises for me.  I loved it!

If you missed my other posts about Mr. Bones, you can read about him HERE and HERE