Graduation Time!

Hello my crafty friends, I know I haven't been around in a long time again. Lots of mowing to do, a long funk, a combined 90th and 80th birthday party and now shingles. Yes, shingles. Thought I was to young for them but apparently not! Very painful, but I am doing well with them now. And Saturday is the big day for Bret-graduation! So I have his card to share (among other crafty things), which is totally CASED from Pinterest as is the saying on the inside of it. It said the things I wanted too but more elegantly. lol I used my Cricut Explore of course with other supplies. As always the recipes will be at the bottom of this post.

The next card was for my late husband's uncle. His 90th and his sister's 80th birthday are this month and so the family had a party for them both. The first card is "his" card and is totally CASED from Pinterest too, but I can't find the card again to give credit for it. If I ever run across it again, I will put a link in this post. The inside is my idea. The second card is "her" card. I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the 80th card. 

This is a framed shadow box that I made for the Pink Out. I saw one in AC Moore and decided to CAS it too. I'm good at coping! lol But have another one in the works that is all my own idea but using the same design. As you can hopefully see the pattern paper is set lower than the white "love" so that it has depth. 

I have more to share, but will wait for another day as I need to go mow.....again. And then tomorrow late afternoon I'm heading up to Bret's school for graduation on Saturday. So exciting!

As always thank you for sticking by me when I'm never here and haven't been commenting much either. Part is my fault and part is not getting my notifications. But still, I'm sorry for not getting around. I hope to get into more of a routine, but who knows when that will happen. Bret and I will have to get into a routine once he is home to stay and I think he plans on moving out once he gets money saved up. So hard to say what will be around here. So bare with me please. 

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:

Grad card:
Cricut Explore and Design Space: Just search for a compass and a grad hat. Compass was a print and I attached it to my card stock layer. The grad hat I cut and layered. Colors are Bret's college school colors.
Typed my sentiment out and attached it to the card stock layer and print and cut it along with the compass.
AliExpress Die for the world
The inside was typed and attached and printed and cut on the card stock base.

90th and 80th card:
The eyes and nose is a stamp set from Cardz TV Stamps. I used the  nose to ink up  only for the mouth and colored it in. I added the "eyebrows" with a marker.
Circle Dies to trace around for the circle of the face.
Once again, I typed out the sentiment and printed and cut the card stock layer.
Inside sentiment was a Fiscar stamp set and the number dies are a My Creative Time Dies.
For the 80th card, the quilt die is a Gina Marie die. Papers from my stash.
Candle is from a My Favorite Things Stamp and Die set as is the sentiment.
Number Dies again are from My Creative Time Dies.

Frame Shadowbox:
Picked out the font I wanted to use and cut out the Love in chipboard and then cut it out again in white to put over the chipboard.
Picked my font again and cut it out of vinyl and placed it the "love" part.
Birds from Cricut Design Space cut in vinyl
Printed and cut my designer paper for behind the "love" and placed everything back in the frame. The digital paper is from Nitwit Collections.

Graduation

Hello my crafty friends, I know it has been a long while since I've posted. It's been a busy end of May and beginning June. But I have some things to share with you. First off I will share some pictures of my "baby" graduate.  This post will get pic heavy so please bare with me if you would. I'm a proud momma and just want to show off my baby. lol Then  I will have some crafty pictures for you as well.

I wanted some pictures of my baby before he left for the school.

Walking across the stage to get his diploma

 Proud Mom and Dad

 Brother #4 and Brother #2

The banner I made him. It is view-able from both sides. This side has rosettes and the other side doesn't. His name hang below but the wind kept it blowing so the letters where twirling. 

 The table ware, I made pockets with my envie punch board and place the napkin, the fork and the spoon in it so all everyone had to do is grab the whole pocket.

 I took a tuna can and placed these sentiments in it. Nothing fancy, just a little decoration.

 This is a can also that I just covers and decorated a little. Placed a store bought decoration in it.

 Same for this can. Nothing fancy. 

 My son's manager at our local movie house also bakes cakes. So I had her make his grad cake.

This is the envie pocket for the tableware. 

I hope I didn't bore you too much!!! Now hopefully I will get back on track with my crafting. Mowing the grass takes up much of my time and then of course I am all ready to get into the pool after mowing. lol But it will have to warm up a little more before I do. Mowing takes a lot out of me and I am mowing every 2 days. I love mowing but I can tell it is getting a little harder on me each year. And most of it is the heat. We don't haven't had high temps but it has been really humid and tropical. Today we did get to 94 and I almost got in the pool when I was done mowing, but there was still some spiders in there from opening the pool. Hubby got them out this evening for me and now I'm good to go. lol I don't mind spiders in the grass and such, but don't want them swimming with me!  As always thank you for stopping by and sittin' a spell with me. I always love when you stop by and I love your sweet comments. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Grad Button

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you are having a wonder Thursday. It is a grey day around and 32 degrees cooler as well!! How you can sweat buckets one day and be freezing the next day is beyond me. lol But that is this crazy weather for you. Hope it is warm but not hot where you are today. I like perfect weather. lol Not sure where to go to find it, but that's what I like. Me and a million other people, right?!

I have made a little Grad button that I will be wearing tomorrow night at Graduation, and will probably wear it at my son's grad party too and who knows where else. lol I used Accents Essentials Cricut cartridge for my spiky circles. I really wanted the Graduation Cricut cartridge but didn't buy it when it was marked down and now people are selling it at outrageous prices. Lived and learned on that one! But all is ok, as I made what I had work for me.  I cut them out in silver and a maroon cardstock and off set them. I use silver and maroon ribbon as well as some white ribbon. I staples these in between the spiky circles. Then I made a rosette using the MCT stitched rosette dies. Took a wallet sized pic from his grad pictures and made it into a circle using a old My Creative Memories cutter and placed it on my rosette with hot glue. I was going to use vinyl to put his initials, school initials and the year but I have so many letter stickers that I just decided to use those instead, they are My Creative Memories too. This will make it's way into the photo album after I'm done wearing it. That's it! Now all I have to do is wear it! Next is going to be some table decorations and banners. Thanks for stopping by a spell and visiting with me. I really love it when you do stop by especially on a grey day. I appreciate and love all your comments and offers of help when I need it. Karen, I am so looking forward to your tutorials on water color next month!! Crafty hugs to you all, Brenda

Entering my grad button over at Decorate to Celebrate! for their challenge of "Everything wonderful about caps and gowns and diplomas and birthdays"

Grad Invites

Hello my crafty friends, I hope this hump day finds you all getting ready for the upcoming weekend. Time is flying by and May will soon be over. How did that happen?!! And it hasn't even really heated up here yet. So unusual. But I have found that the weather has been unusual since the beginning of winter and since it was such a cold and bitter winter, I look for the summer to be on the cool side as well. Not sure it will be worth opening the pool which is my tropical oasis :-(  Might be enjoying the hot tub instead! lol 

Well as you know my baby will be graduating on the 30th of May. I can't believe it-I really can't. I can't image being kid-less. I've been a mom forever, what ever will I do without a child at home giving me a hard time?! This is gonna be hard but I know this too shall pass and I will find my niche eventually. Just not looking forward to it at all. 

Here is my "baby"- He's turned into a handsome man and I'm sure gonna miss this smiling face come Aug. And yes, that is totally mischief you see in them eyes and that smile!!

So his school colors are maroon and grey and his sports colors are red, white and blue. I used the red, white and blue for his congrats card, but for his invites I decided to go with his school colors.  I used a few My Creative Time products on this card. The "your invited to a" and "party" is from the "Let's Celebrate" stamp and die set, "graduation", "class of", and the "grad hat" came from "Follow Your Dreams" stamp set, the photo corners came from a Fiskars grad set, the "2014 comes from "Just Simply Live" stamp and die set. 

The inside of the invite-the heart is covering up our phone number. Once again the the banner is from Let's Celebrate and the grad scroll is from Follow Your Dreams and the "we're so proud" stamp is from the Fiskars stamp set.

Close up-

Well that is it, kept is pretty simple so they were easy to make. Now I just have to pray for some nice weather for graduation and for his graduation party. I hope you like his invite. I asked him if he wanted to approve of the invite and he said, "No, just sent them out." lol Typical guy! But I think he is looking forward to his party and just knowing that he is done with high school. He didn't like high school. Our other 5 boys loved high school. Bret did not, but I didn't like high school either so maybe, just maybe he is a tab bit like his mother. He looks like and acts like his dad and I can see his 5 brothers in him too. You would never know that I had anything to do with his conception. lol But I am starting to see little signs that he had a touch of me in him too. I hope to share some grad decorations and banners as I get them made. So I hope you will check back! Thanks for stopping by for a spell, gosh you know how much I love it when you do!! Thank you so very much for all the birthday wishes too! That guy up there, well he had a party for me and got me this beautiful cake. I will share more on some birthday adventures soon. Until then crafty hugs my friends! Brenda