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.

Bulletin Board: VBS - Colossal Coaster World

I'm a little embarrassed to post this because as I was taking this bulletin board down, I realized that I never actually finished it.  This was to advertise our VBS this past summer.  I intended to put the Scripture verse and maybe some other related info on the bulletin board, but I had trouble deciding exactly what else to add and then I just completely forgot about it.  I was horrified when I realized I had left off the most important part!  Well, it did get a lot of attention, so I guess it served the purpose of advertising VBS.  (But shame on me!)

The "sky" background was some wrapping paper I found on clearance.  The border is a strip of tickets from the Dollar Tree.  The fence and gate along the bottom were cut from the Everyday Paper Dolls Cricut cartridge.  I added the Colossal Coaster World logo over the gate.  I cut the Help Wanted sign using CCR basics and put it on the fence as a subtle hint to fellow church members.  ;-)  The grass in front of the fence was actually a cattails border from Everyday Paper Dolls.  I used the cattails as the flower stems.  The flowers were from a small punch.  The ticket booth, carousel, ferris wheel, waterslide, and the roller coaster on the left are all from the Carousel cartridge. 

The roller coaster on the right is from the Summer Vacation cartridge.  I created the coaster cars by combining several shapes together and manipulating them in CCR until I was satisfied it looked like a roller coaster.  The reason I added my customized cars was because I was originally going to put photos of some of the church members on the rides, but then I decided they would have been too small to notice (and I just ran out of time and motivation).

The plane ride (bottom left) is also from Summer Vacation.

The lakes and some of the trees were from the Campin' Critters cartridge.  The other trees and bushes were cut in various sizes from Everyday Paper Dolls.

Most everything was cut out of poster board since they were so large, and I chose to hand paint them rather than cut layers.  It was a lot of work, but it was fun and I was fairly pleased with the overall result.

 

(See post about the Colossal Coaster World VBS decorations HERE )

Card for Wanda

Since it is quite obvious that I am never going to catch up posting previous creations, I might as well start with the one from today while it is fresh in my mind.  I made this card for a friend of mine for a housewarming gift.  I was unable to make it to the actual party (over a month ago) due to being on vacation, so when she invited our Sunday School class over I thought that was as good a time as any to give her the card.  I have been working on the card off and on this whole time, trying to learn my Silhouette software.  I got very frustrated at times, but I'm glad I soldiered on and won the battle.  Most everything cut with the Silhouette Cameo would have taken MUCH less time to just cut by hand, but I was determined to learn the machine and software.  I would learn a little and then by the time I got around to it again, I had forgotten what I learned and would have to start over.  (Ugh)

After the frustrating part was over, I had great fun adding all the details.  As always, the end result was much different than my original plan, but this was one I was actually pleased with.

The door is huge for a reason.  That was the main feature in order to place a gift card behind it.  I "built" the house to fit the door.  :-)  The window design changed several times before settling on this somewhat plain one.  The shutters were from the hen house Silhouette file by Jillibean Soup.  The grass was a border punch, as was the window valance.  The kitty, wreath, flowers, and tiny butterfly were various punches.  I drew lines for siding and roofing (can't really see the roof detail).  The doorknob is a brad.  I got the inside sentiment from the internet and just printed it and added a punched heart.

The actual card is just the house.  The "sky" and "grass" were just used for photographing the card, but I really like how it looks so I might just have to recreate it as a scrapbook page.  ;-)  The card only opens at the door.  I went back and forth as to whether or not the entire house should be hinged.  I even made the back hinged, but I whacked it off when I decided it was too flimsy to open the whole house (and I didn't want to stay up any longer to add more support).  Decision-making takes way more time than any crafting I do.  (Sigh)

Another Simple Card

This simple card was inspired by something I saw on the internet.  (I have no idea where or even what theirs looked like.)  This was for a wedding shower.  Once again I was in a giant hurry.  If I had had more time (and thought the couple would even care) I would have at least put centers in the flowers and maybe their names inside the heart.

Versatile Card

I liked this card so much I've made it twice (with just slight variations) -- once for a birthday and later for a get well card. I got the background paper from one of the paper packs (couldn't tell you which one, but it was a long time ago). I think that is what I like most about the card. The butterfly is from QuicKutz. This is my go-to die for semi-quick cards. (No card is truly quick for me.) I just love this butterfly! I like to attach only the body and fold the wings for a 3-D effect. The grass is a border punch, which I inked a little for dimension. I also inked the edges of the background paper. The flower is a punch (my go-to flower punch) with two punches layered together and a flower brad in the center. The ladybug is cut from a border punch. I just used a Sharpie pen for the details.

Catch Up Time

Well, I've been extremely busy lately, so I'm going to try to catch up somewhat. I'll be posting some of the things I've made recently (if I can remember how). This first one is a quick card I made about a year ago for my pastor's mother who was sick. The fence is a Sizzix die and the flowers, grass and dragonfly are from various punches.