Coffee for a Month Birthday Book

One of my mom's friends just celebrated a birthday and was looking for something unique to give her since she has EVERYTHING. She came up with a great idea that I was able to turn into a {great ;-)} project!

I used the same process to make this Coffee for a Month book as I did to make these Birthday Card books forever ago. 

There are 5 pages and each is listed with a day of the week. The green color is hard to see here, but in real life it pops! She put enough money to buy coffee for 4 Mondays in this pocket. She then did the same with Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday... a month of coffee money!

Since the back of each page has a pocket too, I made little tags that will pull out. On each tag my mom wrote a special quote, memory, or thought to share with her BFF. This way as she flips through the book she'll have something to make her smile.

You can see with having only five pages the book isn't thick at all! I love that. I used the 1" cinch binding in red and tied it up with cute ribbon that matches the birthday themed paper. I (of course!) used my new Cricut Explore to cut the word "coffee," the phrase "love you a latte" and my very own favorite KB font welded to write each day of the week.

Hydrangea Birthday Card

Using my new Cricut Explore and the svg files from Just Rite Papercraft I made this card for my little sister's birthday earlier this week. I stamped it with my JustRite stamps I recently bought, and colored it with my copic markers. 

We also got a special treat (though schools weren't closed) on Thursday. The weathermen were forecasting "less than an inch, turning to rain by noon" but it turned out to be "more than 3" all freaking day long." :-) I thoroughly enjoyed it, but we didn't get much done in class. I had several little boys who kept their eyes peeked through the blinds more than they looked at their work!

View from our classroom windows:

Another Birthday Card

Here is another birthday card I made while playing around with my new Explore today. The downside is going to be that I click on images I want now without having to consider what cartridge it came from.. hmmm.... So here is a pretty flower and pretty floral background. :-) I used the birthday stamps from Papertrey Ink, and I have no idea where the cool ribbon came from. I've had it forever.

Birthday Card and a New Cricut!

My mom's best friend is having a birthday next week, and she's had a really rough last few years. I made this sweet card for her, even though she says that she's not celebrating anymore birthdays. She needs to know how much she's loved!

The inside:

And the back:

On another note, I bought a new Cricut Explore machine back on Launch Day in February (backordered so I didn't get it until the 11th!) It's SO awesome because now I can not only use cartridges, but I can cut svg files, jpg files, and ANY font that's on my computer. Oh my goodness I'm in Heaven! lol I've been SO happy we've had snow/ice days lately because there never seems to be enough time to craft.

Here is my name I cut with pink vinyl and added to personalize my new machine. I think it turned out super cute!

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More cards

"The key to a happy life is laughter, friendship, and love"

This one is simple and elegant.

A thank you card...

And I bought this cutie-patootie door decoration at Joann's with a gift card I had received for Christmas. It matches my room perfectly. Love it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here is the card I made my sweetheart for Valentine's Day. It says "Of all the places in the world to be... with you is my favorite!" I used the globe from Going Places cut onto brown paper. I sprayed it with "Goosebumps" to give it a leathery feel. It's super cool! 

Another card- the first in a series I'm working on- is this cute little card that could be used for pretty much any purpose.

And here is a cool picture of the foot and a half snowstorm we got Wednesday-Thursday last week. Luckily we have a 4WD truck, otherwise I'd still be stuck in my driveway! This picture was taken on Friday (Valentines) as it was starting to melt.

Dogs and Babies

My mini schnauzer, Toby, recently chewed up a really nice pair of shoes for the first time ever a few days ago. I bought a pair of quality flats to wear at school since my foot/ankle had been giving me such problems, and these shoes felt like a dream. So yes, anyway, I spent almost $200 on a pair of shoes (yes, I know... $200?!? But trust me, it was worth it) and my dog chewed one up less than 6 months later. The company is WONDERFUL, though, and offered to give me a discount on a new pair if I would send a picture of the shoe and offending pup. I sent them this dog-shaming picture and ordered a new pair the very same evening:

Anyway, he inspired me to pull out some doggie paper and make a few cards. For starters, I practiced coloring with my copics on a piece of yellow card stock. 

Then I made these!

And one of my co-workers lost her cocker-spaniel after a long sickness, so I made her a sympathy card.

I also practiced coloring a new island stamp and playing with Tim Holtz distress inks to make a thank you card.

And for some reason I never posted about this I made in the fall... we had a baby shower at work for one of the ladies. This card was made out of a sheet of white paper and some ribbon (yay Cricut New Arrival and my copic markers!)

 And, being on the hospitality committee, I was responsible for making a banner. A friend gave me some zebra print fabric, so I covered it with starch and added some more Cricut lettering and ribbon and other decorations for cuteness!

Halloween Costume- Belle

I've been so behind it's already December and I haven't shown off my Halloween costume yet! Oh my! Well, I decided to go with Belle from Beauty and the Beast this year (my school/work calls it "Book Character Day") and I was feeling brave so I bought the fabric and made my own costume. I'm not sure what I was thinking, as I was on crutches wearing a huge dress, but it worked and I didn't fall. Yay!

Here is the skirt part...

And here is the final outcome! I can't believe this is the only picture I got. My classroom was cold so I wore a sweater. Anyway, it was cute! I'm holding up my "Classic Fairy Tales" book, although the beautiful yellow-dressed Belle was technically the movie version, not from a book. Oh well!

Charmed Necklaces

Several of you know that I was out of service for a couple months after having surgery on my foot (I've got a slight scar now with cute little stitch-dots around it) and couldn't go upstairs to my craft room. I'm glad to say that I'm off crutches now and working my way to getting back to normal. My dog, Elsie, has puppies back at the beginning of October, and they're finding their forever homes this week! There are four cute white snuggly creatures and one salt-and-pepper (which looks alarmingly a lot like her grandmother, my dear Sophie, that we lost last Christmas!) 

The last couple of posts have mentioned a few things I've been into lately, and this one is special because I'm making these cute little necklaces for my co-workers for Christmas! Other than the fact that my fingertips have been sticky for a couple days now, it's SO much fun! I've been going around the house trying to find things that will fit inside the pendant shapes I bought from Sun and Moon Crafts. They have a few sampler kits I've tried before (my sisters and I have a tradition of making crafty things on Christmas Eve while waiting for the rest of the family to get their act together to open presents) but check out the prices on the individual pieces! There was a girl down on the market in Roanoke selling these for $15-$20! That's CRAZY since each piece is less than 50 cents. I bought some long necklaces (36") and shorter ones (24" and 20") and lots of different size pendants. I bought the glass toppers for some of them, and the glaze to use with some glass tiles. Such fun!

I love this balloon!

This butterfly is glittery!

Three snowmen

My dining room work-table (Why didn't I use my craft room, you ask? Because it's still messy from the Wand Making I did last week.) 

And just for fun, here are a couple pictures of my Christmassy house!