Cards, Cards and More Cards...

 Hi there family, friends and followers.  I can't believe that it's been over a month since I last updated my blog.  I have been busy with this month's Cricut Club kit & visiting with family. My precious granddaughter turned 10 earlier this month & I was excited because I was able to go to her party in the Salt Lake City area over Mother's day weekend.  I can now drive again, Yipee!!! However I have been laid off from my job, so  I have been looking for another LPN job but with my current lifting restrictions, due to my recent back surgery, I have not been able to find another job yet.  I have spoken to a disability lawyer and she has informed me that she thinks I would be granted disability due to my age and lifting restrictions. This was a hard decision but I have begun the very long process required to get disability approved. The up-side of not working is that I have tons of time to craft and have gotten caught up on some  projects.  I thought I would share the cards with you. I hope you are inspired and will give the step cards a try they look amazing and they are fairly easy to make. I found the instructions on YouTube.

I used my Paper Lace Cricut cartridge for this card. I sent them to everyone who blessed me after my back surgery. As I had a lot of these to make I was thankful that I could make several at a time on my Cricut.  All the supplies are from my stash.

I used my Nifty Fifties Cricut cartridge for this card, it was for a special boy who loves cars and turned 13 yrs old this year.  I made a pocket on the inside of the card for some $$$. I remember the day he was born, time is just wheezing by...

I have a dear friend who came over and took me out to lunch and craft store shopping while I was recovering from my surgery.  She loves Steampunk stuff and I happened to have this Jolee's sticker set in my stash so I thought I'd use it for this card.  Actually everything is from my stash.

This is my first step card.  The focal piece is a cut from my Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge.The image is stamped and hand colored with colored pencils and OMS. It's a 5 1/2  inch square card so I even made an envelope that matched for it using my Martha Stewart scoring board.  My mother in law loved it!!!

For my second step card  I used my Birthday Bash Cricut cartridge for the dog, the mats, gift boxes and the number 10. All the paper and embellishments are from my stash.  The dog on the front is on a homemade action wobble. My granddaughter loves her dogs.

Okay yes another step card but they are fun to make and they look awesome. This one is for the older brother of the boy who got the car card above and this one also holds $$$ which all teen guys like. Masculine cards are a challenge for me but I think this one turned out very good.

Yep I love step cards, this one is cut the same as the one above but is overall smaller and fits in a standard A2 envelope.  This one is for my youngest son Robert to thank him for the his sweet & yummy Mother's day gift.  He has been accepted to Lawyer school and will start in the fall. I am extremely proud of him. I made a second one with slightly different paper for my oldest son and his family for their lovely figurine they gave me. My oldest son services his country in the USAF and leaves in about 1 week for a year in Korea, so your prayers for his safety would be greatly appreciated. Without the sacrifices of men & women like him we would not be able to live in this land of the free. Thanks Philip for your service, I am very proud of you. Can you tell I love my boys???

Okay last one I promise.  I made this card for my Pastor's wife to thank her for being an awesome Pastor's wife, friend & for all she did in putting together a wonderful women's retreat. The word "THANKS" is from my George Cricut cartridge.  I also decorated a journal, pen & gift bag to match.


Well that's it for now from my corner of the web.  I hope you have enjoyed your visit and will leave me a comment so I know you stopped by. I wish you all a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

God Bless,
Vickie

Necessity is the Mother of Invention...

Hi there blogger friends, family and followers.  I am sure you have all heard somewhere that old saying "Necessity is the Mother of Invention"  Well I am not sure that is what happened this last weekend but as I was struggling to use some of my current craft supplies I was hit with 2 ideas to make using my supplies easier.  The first idea came as I was trying to remove an embossing folder from my over full binder, you know the ones that Provo craft sold with the sleeves to hold everything in place. The binder is great for the dies but not so user friendly for the embossing folders that I had. Probably because I really had too many folders in the binder and some of my folders where from other companies, anyway I remembered that I had seen a great idea by Sarah Hamer on her website that she uses for the storage of her stamp sets.  So I decided that since I did not need it for stamp storage I could use her idea with a bit of adaptation for my embossing folders. (My clear stamps are in binders alphabetically, yes I am an organization nut but it really helps me be creative.) I cut the dividers using white cardstock, my Just Because Cards Cricut cartridge and my Gypsy.  I printed labels off from my computer and ran the printer paper through my Xyron to make them into stickers.  I love how it came out and it is so much more organized (yes alphabetically), there is room for some more folders now and it's a breeze to use too.  The basket was part of a gift my darling husband gave me last year for mother's day and it originally have lots of bath goodies in it.  Since this idea came from Sarah I will be linking it up at her Tuesday Link up party today. So please stop by her site and see all the creative people there.  Thanks Sarah for this wonderful idea!!!

 

The next  idea came to me as I was struggling to get some of my Stickles to work and remembered that I had seen a holder for sale on the web that held your Stickles bottles upside down. Since I am not currently working I just could not justify buying this item right now or replacing any stickles either, so I thought what if I used some leftover chipboard and just cut out slots so that they fit together in a grid fashion.  So I gave it a try and it work!!!  I know the bottom pieces of the chipboard are hard to see in this picture, but they hold the long top pieces in place and keep the Stickles bottles from falling over. The basket is just one of those 3 for a $2 plastic baskets you get at any discount store.  I wrote the name of the stickles on the bottom of the bottle with a sharpie marker and yes they too are organized into the RGB or rainbow color order.

 I hope this has sparked some ideas for you too.  Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the web.

God Bless,

Vickie