Jingle On

Hello Cardz TV Gallery fans, Brenda here from Friends Craftin' with Friends and it's my turn to share a project with you. Right now my projects are simple and all done in advance, scheduled to post as I am taking time off since the passing of my husband. So please pardon my quickie cards. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Recipe:

Paper: Scrap piece from the Paper Studio-Hobby Lobby

Greenery:  Martha Steward branch punch

Jingle Bell: My Creative Time Warm Holiday Fun Stamp and Die set

Sentiments: Cardz TV Naughty or Nice stamp set

Thankful Heart

Hello Cardz TV Gallery fans, Brenda here from Friends Craftin' with Friends and it's my turn to share a project with you. Right now my projects are simple and all done in advance, scheduled to post as I am still mourning my husband's passing. So please pardon my quickie cards. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Recipe:

Pattern Paper - DCWV I think it is a stack from last year

Dies: My Creative Time - A Thankful Heart Stamp & Die set, Stitched Squares Inside & Out, Stitched Rectangular Frames Dies & More

Sentiment - Cardz TV - Heartfelt Wishes Stamp set

Everyday is a Gift

Hello Cardz TV Gallery fans, Brenda here from Friends Craftin' with Friends and it's my turn to share a project with you. Right now my projects are simple and all done in advance, scheduled to post as I am still mourning my husband's death.  So please pardon my quickie cards. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Recipe:

Sentiment: Cardz TV Just Saying Stamp set

Tree, Cloud & Sun: My Creative Time Seasonal Greetings Stamp & Die set, Fun Stitched Clouds dies, Build a Banner Kit

It's Fall Ya'll!-Cardz TV Challenge

This is a pre-scheduled post-
Hello crafty friends, Brenda here from Friends Craftin' with Friends and it is my turn to share a project with you here at Cardz TV Gallery. Today I have a simple card for you. I made a "word" collage using fall words from the Cardz TV stamp set called "Fall Fun" and you can buy any Cardz TV stamp sets here. My "stitched" border is another Cardz TV stamp set called "Basic Borders. Just a simple fall card to send out to family or friends. 

Recipe: Cardz TV Stamp sets "Fall Fun" & "Basic Borders"
             My Creative Time " A Thankful Heart: leaves dies
             Distress Inks to color my leaves and India Ink to stamp sentiments

Please make sure to check back everyday through Saturday for more inspiring projects using Cardz TV stamp sets! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Tree's that Shade-BBTB2 Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, here it is Monday once again. I hope you all had a safe and fun 4th of July. It rained here until 5:30 and we caught a glimpse of the sun for a brief minute. So we just hung out relaxing. And I baked hubby some cookies. Last Monday when hubby had chemo he had another allergic reaction, much milder because of their swift actions. They had given him Benedryl before starting chemo. After being into chemo for a while, the head nurse comes by and asked me if hubby had that rash on his forehead and I said no. He said he didn't think he saw one either, so he stopped chemo and started flushing saline through his system. Doc came out and looked at hubby and once the rash left, they started chemo back up and hubby finished up with out any more happenings. Now before he goes in next Monday, he has to take 4 new pills the night before, 4 the morning of and 30 minutes before chemo, he is to take 2 Benedryl pills. I assume they will be giving him a shot of Benedryl as well once there. That really knocks hubby and other chemo patients out and they sleep the entire time. Hope this next round doesn't have any reactions with it! We did get some good news, hubby's tumor marker came down by 50 points! We were so happy to hear that. Of course he has a long way to go, but we are going in the right direction!

Well you know if it is Monday then it is time for a new BBTB2 challenge. Our challenge was to use a tree on our project. It get's hot in the summer and we all love the shade a tree can provide in the summer months. I have to tell you that the layout I did for this challenge gave me all sorts of problems from the get go. The final thing that happened was I ran out of ink in my printer. lol But I only needed one more thing and that is a trail sign in front of my critter riding the 4 wheeler, so I will add it when I get more ink. Just before hubby got sick with his fevers, we went to VA for the Easter holiday. It was warm and sunny. We road the 4 wheeler's and a Ranger all over our friend's 300 acres and had a ball. So I took some pictures from that to make my layout with. Our friends have made all kinds of trails throughout their land, there is one spot where it is a huge hill that goes down, like a steep roller coaster hill. I always dreaded going down or up it on the back of a 4 wheeler with hubby. My friend (who is more like a sister to me) got a Ranger, so I started riding with her in it. That little truck ATV takes that hill like it is nothing, and it isn't near as scary. lol We went first down the big hill and then the guys came after us. One at a time. And since we were at the bottom first we took pictures of the guys come down. I wish the picture showed how steep that hill really is! We also went through some mucky water that had collected in a "hole" and became very muddy as well as slippery. Once again us girls went first and waited for the guys to come through and took pictures of them. We girls were protected inside the Ranger, but the guys, well their 4 wheeler's got muddy and they had to put up their feet to stay dry and mud free. lol It was a great time that weekend, ending with a beautiful Easter meal that us girls made. After the meal we got on the road to head home because hubby had his first appointment at Johns Hopkins. But as we know, he never got back down because of the fevers. We are hoping by fall he will be able to go back. 

As always, I thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to visit little ole me, your comments always make my day. If I haven't been around to see you, I will be soon. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Recipe:
Campin' Critters Cricut cartridge
Print and Cut using the Explore
Papers from an old DCWV paper stack, 
Plain light blue paper-don't know who it is by
SU Rotary Alpha stamp
My Creative Time die Arrows

Flags/Banners-BBTB2 Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, I hope this Monday finds you all well and ready for a new week. It is chemo today, yes usually we go on Tuesdays, but this week Tuesday was pretty booked up, so we went with a Monday. Keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well this week at chemo. Hubby seems to be doing pretty good, those fevers are few now, which is a good sign. My ribs are healing slowly. They still hurt but not like they did, but sleeping is still a challenge. I will get there though, just time is needed and I've got that.

Trying to get back into the swing of getting crafty. I don't always do well in the summer as it seems to be a lot to do in the summer. Of course this year, we are getting washed away by all the rain. We got 7 1/2 inches of rain this past week! With 3 1/4 just on Saturday! So I won't be mowing grass for a while so that is one thing off the plate. lol Although I do love to mow the grass. Anyway we have a new challenge over at BBTB2. Our talented and so sweet design team sister, Michele, gave us the challenge of making a project using a flag or banner for the upcoming holiday. Gosh, can you believe that the 4th of July is this weekend?!! Summer is flying by and I'm not ready for that. lol My card for today is very simple, but patriotic.  I used the print and cut feature on my Explore for the girl and her flag. That's it, I told you it was simple. I don't have much mojo at times. lol But I think it is good enough to use for Hero mail in my OWH box. So I will write a letter in it to one of our Hero's. Now it is your turn, make anything with a flag or banner and link up with us. Can't wait to see what you all make! 

As always, thanks for taking time from your busy schedule to stop by and visit me. I know I'm behind on making my rounds and I'm trying to get caught up a little each night. Have a wonderful week and thanks again for your sweet comments, they really do make my day! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Recipe:
girl and flag-Summer Celebrations
banners-Art Philosophy
sentiments and inside border-My Creative Time 4th of July Stamps

Rudolph Day

Hello my crafty friends, sorry I have been MIA lately. I hurt my ribs right before the wedding, and then there was the wedding, visiting grandkids, a gender reveal party, chemo and of course Father's Day-busy times. Hubby had an allergic reaction to chemo this past time while getting it, scared the daylights out of me but the nurses were quick and had him back in shape. They were really awesome and kept a great eye on him while he finished up chemo. He finished his chemo and he finished up without any more reactions thank goodness. 

Well I finally got into my crafty room and made a card for Rudolph day, which started today. It always starts on the 25th of each month and you have until the end of the month to link up your card. I love playing along as often as I can, it gives me some Christmas cards made ahead of time for once. lol  My card is a total CASE. You can see the original card here. Mine isn't as CAS as Kristie's but I am happy with the way it came out. I fell in love with Kristie's card as soon as I saw it and so I thought I would try to CASE it. I used Lawn Fawn's Joy to the Woods stamp set, my watercolors and water color paper, hot pressed. I ordered hot pressed by mistake and then wondered what the difference was between hot and cold press watercolor paper. I found out that hot press watercolor paper is smooth and the colors sit more on top of the paper instead of absorbing into the paper thus making them look more vibrant. Cold press is textured and the watercolors absorb more into the paper. Both are neat and can have a place in the craft room. So it was a happy mistake, why don't you try both and see if you love them both?! So I took my watercolor paper and cut it to size to fit on my A2 card base. I taped around my paper with micro-pore tape to give a border. Then I water colored a sky background using black watercolor. I heat to dry it, then darken the upper part of the sky some more, then dried it with my heat gun. I popped up my birch trees and glued my cardinal down flat on the birch tree. I cut my "merry" out and glued it down. My "Christmas" was stamped with the rotary alpha stamp by SU. I was a little sloppy with it, I really need to practice using it. lol And I got some black ink underneath my sentiment, so I took a red Spectrum Noir maker and made a red line at the bottom of my card as well as on the inside. I want to see how a few silver stars will look yet in the sky, so may add some of them later. But that is about it. My CASE'd card. I hope you like my little CASE'd card and I want to thank you for popping by for a visit today. It always makes my day when you visit me and I love your sweet, sweet comments! I am going to try and get some wedding pics uploaded as well as the results from the gender reveal party. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Recipe:

Lawn Fawn, Joy to the Woods

My Creative Time, Boughs of Holly

hot press watercolor paper

Loi Water colors Pocket Field Sketch Box 

Rudolph Day

Hi my crafty friends, I have two Christmas cards I wanted to share with you. The first one I'm entering in the Rudolph Day challenge. Rudolph Day always starts on the 25th of each month and ends on the last day of that same month. So it is always fun to play along so I will have a nice stash of Christmas cards when the time comes. For this Rudolph Day card, I used a stencil from Stamplorations that I won over at Darnell's NBUS challenge one time. I used white embossing paste with the tree stencil, it actually has to trees in this stencil! Then I put SU gold embossing powder on it. Let it dry and then heated the gold. I popped it up on foam tape to my card base.  I need a little more practice with getting the embossing paste smooth. lol  I did the sentiment the in the same embossing paste. Just a very simple CAS card. 

For my second card, I was going to enter it into the Muse Christmas Vision challenge, but of course I didn't get the card photograph so it didn't get entered. But I did play along! So that makes two more Christmas cards for my stash. For this one I used a SU stamp set, added some stickles and some Wink of Stella to the pine cone and needles. I also moved the pine needles just a smidgen and re-stamped with white ink to make the pine needles not so stark looking. Not sure I like it though, but it is done, so it is staying that way. lol  Nothing really to this one either. Cut my ovals using a My Creative Time die. Just easy peasy, plain Jane. 

Thanks for taking the time from your busy day and visiting me. I so love when you do and your comments always lift my spirits! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Muse-Christmas Visions Challenge

Hi my crafty friends, a little update on hubby and then I have a card believe it or not. Hubby had a partial treatment today, the one chemo he didn't get because that is every two weeks, so next week he will get it. He is have some better days, not great, but better and better is always good! Still getting fevers as well, but they aren't as high, but we have been keeping on top of them with the Tylenol and ice packs. Next week he will get everything in his treatment including the pump he will wear for 48 hours. But it will be done differently this go around. The pump gets dropped off here at our home and then a nurse will come to the house will hook hubby up and then will come back to take it off. Last time the nurse in the chemo center put it on for him and then we would go back in to get it off. It will be nice not to have to run back in just to get it taken off. Now it is a wait and see game, hopefully this treatment will shrink the larger tumor and make the smaller ones disappear like it did last time. So keeping the faith and fingers crossed and looking forward to better days with some normalcy. This care giver is getting worn out! But will continue to care for hubby as long as needed. The funeral for my mother went well and it was good to get together with family. DS has been home from college for a week now and it is good to have him home. I think. He still has boxes and his crap all over the house. lol He has been working in the fields and working at the movie house, so not much time for him to clean up his stuff. Hopefully soon! It is just finding a place to store everything until Aug. when school starts again. Hubby isn't able to get into the fields yet, so some of our sons are doing what they can. Hopefully soon hubby will be able to get in the tractor and go, he really needs to and I really need him to be able to do just that! 

There's a new challenge in town and it is called Muse-Christmas Visions. A designer team member posts a card and you are to take inspiration from that card. Here is the card that was posted by designer Kimberly Wiener:

Beautiful isn't it?! Well I happened to receive a box of watercolors from my Momma Mary for my birthday, wasn't that so sweet of her?!! Thanks Momma Mary!! I haven't done much watercoloring, in fact, I don't think I've done anything but smooshing with distress inks and a spritz of water. lol So this may very well be my first time watercoloring. And even though it isn't great, it isn't to bad either. I will take it! The inside turned out better than the outside did, but that's ok, I'm still pretty happy with it. I took Kimberly's card and kinda' CASED it-I did say kinda' didn't I? lol  So besides my new Koi Watercolors which are NBUS, I also used a NBUS stamp set that I won in a NBUS challenge by my Auntie Darnell! Thanks Auntie!!! I was happy to be able to play with some of my NBUS, got plenty  more to go though. 

Recipe:
watercolor paper
Koi Watercolor Pocket Field Sketch box paints
DCWV Gold Foil paper
My Creative Time Stitched Rectangular Frame Dies and More
Stamplorations Holiday Sketches Christmas Flower stamp set
SU Vanilla cardstock for the card base
SU Gold Embossing Powder
Sequins from Peachy Cheap

Rudolph Day

Hello my crafty friends, I have just a little update before I show you my card. We went to see the family doctor again on Monday and he is running more blood tests on Lyme's, Pancreatis and the usual blood work and a abdomen/pelvic CAT scan. Saw our local oncologist today and he was more concerned this the fevers are higher than we first suspected. Our thermometer wasn't working right and we got a new one. Hubby's fever went up to 101.8 on Sunday evening, so doc didn't like that. He added on more blood work, port blood withdrawal and he added a chest CAT scan to the family doctors scan. Hubby has already did the blood work today and the CAT scan is for Thursday afternoon. So now it is just a matter of trying to "catch" whatever is causing the fevers with the blood work and scan. I know stuff going on in the blood work doesn't always show up right away. It took almost 2 years to get the "right" blood work to show up with my Lupus when they were trying to diagnose me. Doc talked to us about that and I told him I could relate, and when he found out that I had Lupus and RA, he said that I know exactly what he is talking about. Even now my doctor doesn't "catch" my Lupus acting up with blood work because the timing is usually off. So hopefully they will find something. If they can't after extensive testing,  doc said he will start hubby on the backup chemo plan and if it is his tumors causing the fever, and if the treatment works well like it did the first time, that could make the fevers go away. So we will see how it goes. I feel much better now that they are taking these fevers more serious! Last time hubby had a fever was when his tumor ruptured in the colon making him a lifetime chemo patient, but we didn't know he had a tumor. Family doc didn't take his fevers serious then either because his blood work was perfect. Well his blood work has been perfect this whole time all through chemo! So you can't go by just the blood work. Sorry, I said this was going to be quick and it wasn't. lol

Ok, I have been so tense, stressed and just plain in a funk so I had to go into my craft room for a while just to get away from all of this health stuff. It's weird because part of me wants to craft, but another part of me doesn't want too. But I forced myself to make a card for Rudolph Day. And low and behold I made two Christmas cards to go into my stash for this Christmas. But the one I'm entering into the Rudolph Day is the first one. Rudolph Day  always starts on the 25th of each month and runs to the end of that month. It's a great way to build your Christmas card stash, so I've been trying to play along each month, but I missed March's. Anyway I'm entering my card over at Rudolph Day. My card is a standard A2. I used some cork board material that Loll sent to me, bless her heart, she is just the sweetest! I also used SU's Wondrous Wreath and a sentiment from My Creative Time, as is my stitched layer. I embossed the sentiment in SU gold embossing powder along with the second layer of my wreath. I used my Misti to stamp the layers to my wreath, that worked out perfectly, I just didn't die cut it perfectly. lol But it wasn't to bad and I am please with how this card came out. I hope you like it too.

 Showing the gold shine. May stamp this bow and emboss in gold and then cut it out. I don't like that the bow loops don't have any "holes" in them. lol

My second card is just a simple little card too. I used My Creative Time Products on this one.

Thanks for stopping by to visit me, I always appreciate when you stop by. I love the love you guys always leave me, you are just the best!! Crafty hugs, Brenda

NUBUS and Rudy Day Challenges

Hello and yes I'm back again. lol I had some cards made for Rudolph Day and for Darnell's NBUS challenge and I have just been sitting on them for about a week now. Don't ask me why,  just not been in the groove at all. Anyway, I made 2 each of the skate's and mitten's cards. I used My Creative Stitched Oval dies, the skates and mittens are also from MCT and the poinsettia's are a die from Simon Says. Sentiments and pine is from MCT stamps. I like how cute and simple these cards are and I love that I added 4 more cards to my Christmas card stash. Yay for me! The NBUS was the oval dies as well as the mittens, skates and poinsettia dies. 

These two cards I made last month, but because the month was short I didn't get them in to play along with Rudy day, so I'm showing them here.  I think I used the Cricut cart Simple Holiday Cards to make this one. I kept my pieces and made another card just like it only in reverse. I think it made such pretty, simple cards for my Christmas stash. 

Since I used some snippets on my first two cards (for the skates, mittens and poinsettia) I'm going to go over the pond to play at the Playground.  I haven't been there in quiet a while so I'm looking forward to playing along. Of course I will also link up with Darnell's NBUS challenge to use your never been used schtuff, which I'm so sad to say I have a lot of! And last but not least I'm playing along with Rudolph Day. Thanks everyone and thanks for taking time from your day to visit me. Your comments always make my day brighter! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Die Class Projects

Hello crafty friends. Happy 1st day of spring to you all. Mother nature has decided to pull a bad joke on us by giving us about 4 inches of snow. Good thing is that it isn't laying on the roads and the sun is strong so it will melt quickly this time of year. Hubby and I are looking into other options for treatments for him. I hope whatever we find works well for him.

So in order to keep my mind a little busy I took the online class called Stretch Your Dies. This is the first time I've ever took an online class before and I am enjoying it. Of course I'm behind in all my homework. Some days it is just hard to get my mood up for getting crafty. But I did do day 1's homework. My first card is using your dies to do an inlaid design. The second card is done using craft foam to die cut out your word dies and images, then you heat the foam with your heat gun to shrink the foam. I never knew you could shrink craft foam! This fascinated me. I used the original size of the die in white to make my background look like it was embossed. Then I cut my flowers, leaves and word die again out of white craft foam. I used my Spectrum Noir markers to color the flowers, leaves and word die. Then I took my heat gun to it shrinking them. The heat make the flowers curl some, so they have some great dimension to them. And look at how much the "thanks" shrunk, amazing to me! And my last card I tried the smooshing watercolor technique by placing distress ink on my stamping block and spritzing it with water, then stamping it on the paper. I dried it with my heat gun and then took my word die and cut it out of the paper with part of it on the watercolor and part off the watercolor. Then I popped it up using more foam so that it stand up from the base layer, but still matches perfectly to the space. Hopefully I will get to day 2's class homework soon. I hope you have enjoyed seeing my simple cards today. As always want to thank you for your sweet comments. I also want to thank everyone for keep us in your prayers. Your support is amazing and even though I won't be here as much as I have been, I will be back from time to time. Thanks for not forgetting about me. And thank you for all your support and prayers, it is amazing how tight knit of a community it is in the crafty world and what amazing friends you all have been to me!! Thank you doesn't seem like it pays the bill....but please know I so appreciate you all! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Hello Crafty friends, I hope you are having a great hump day! Hubby's CAT scan was a wild one yesterday! First off he has to drink that chalky drink because they use the dye on him. Secondly, he got back there and the technician hooks up his IV, turns around to work on something else and when she turned back to him there was his blood all over the floor! The tubing had a crack in it letting the blood pool to the floor. Thirdly, while having his arms up and over his head, his face turned very red, which scared the technician so she called the doctor in. Hubby thinks that he just pinched off an artery or something like that. Anyway the doctor looked over him and let him go. I was waiting in the waiting room wondering what was taking so long. Well I found out when the technician walked him back out. She explain to me what had happened and then was going back to scrub up the blood. So glad she turned back around and they didn't drain his blood out of him!!!  Now we will wait to see what the scan shows.

It is my turn to post over at Cardz TV Gallery today. I recently had a SU party and I wanted a little thank you gift to place in the bags of my orders. So I made these cute bunny boxes on my Explore. I found it on the CTHM Artiste cartridge. I cut them at 7 inches, and I put 3 pieces of candy in them, a mint and 2 Hershey Kisses. On the spring color ones, I just stamped my "thanks" directly on the box, but for the white and black ones that wouldn't work, so I cut a tag out and placed my thanks on it instead. Aren't they dear?! The Cardz TV stamp set that I used was Heartfelt Wishes. I used the "many thanks" sentiment and just cut the "many" off. I can still put the stamp back together to stamp the whole sentiment if I so choose to. 

My next project is some boxes for Easter for my Grandchildren, still have to make another yet. I used my Explore once again with some Lori Whitlock files. My first time cutting SVG files and I have to say that I am loving using other files too! For these cute boxes, I used the CardzTV stamp set Easter Punnies, Birds and Bees and Easter Blessings. I stamped on a top note styled tag and placed it on the back of the boxes where I will sign "love papaw and grandma". These little boxes are just adorable and I will be filling them with some candy.

Thanks for take time out of your day to visit my little ole blog. I certainly love having you come by and your comments always make my day. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Think Spring! BBTB2 Challenge

Hello crafty friends, it is a busy Monday here. Taking MIL to see the radiologist to get her radiation treatments set up. She will be going everyday for 5 weeks and I will taking her. Hubby has a CAT scan this afternoon as his cancer marker keeps going up, so now doc wants to see what is going on. I don't understand how he can feel so good when the marker is going up. I sure hope that the CAT scan doesn't show the cancer is growing. This journey is still so stressful and now MIL has been added to the mix with her cancer. I swear they are going to put me in the grave. lol Yes, I'm being over dramatic, but it stressful for me.

Anyway on to why we are here for today. It is Monday as you all know that when Monday's roll around it's time for a new challenge over at BBTB2. My sweet friend and BBTB2 leader Susan has issued our challenge this week and she has chosen for us all to use a birdcage on our project. Not really sure how I wanted to go with this challenge at first, but then I got to playing around on the Explore design studio and just came up with my card. I welded a square doily from Mother's Day cartridge onto a square adjusting my sizing to make it the size of an A2 card base and cut it out in pink. I layer chocolate card stock behind the doily. Then I cut a birdcage out that I like, it came from the French Manor cartridge. I layered the birdcage onto a SB oval mat. Then I dressed up the doily and birdcage with punched out flowers using little Studio G punches-love these for when you want some tiny punched shapes. Then I added some liquid pearls to my flowers as well as added a MCT die cut butterfly to the cage. And lastly punched the word window shape from SU to place my sentiment on. My sentiments came from a Cardz TV Stamp set. I also finished off the inside of my card with another SB oval, some more of the punched flowers and my sentiment. 

I hope you will go over to BBTB2 to see what inspiration my DT sisters have for you and then I hope you will cut a Cricut birdcage to put on your project and link up with us. You know we love it when you get crafty with us!

As always, thank you so much for dropping by today. Your visits always mean so much to me and your comments really make my day! Crafty hugs, Brenda

 close up

Time to Celebrate-BBTB2 Challenge

Hello crafty friends, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Ours was pretty good. It snowed all day into the night on Saturday, we ended up with about 9 inches with a tad bit of freezing rain later in the late evening. I went shopping with my youngest son as he needed a new coat since his had gotten to short on him. Was glad to get home though, the roads were terrible, no plows had been at all and of course there are the people who drive like the roads are dry and clear. lol DS was ready to put me out his car! lol Please tell me I'm not alone with back seat driving with a teen. He is a really good driver, but it was the weather and the other nuts out there I didn't quite trust. lol Sunday was beautiful, sunny and warm at 42 degrees! After negative temps and wild winds, that 42 felt so good. Hubby pushed snow from the drive and then we took a nice 4 wheeler ride. Such beautiful scene seeing the farm land blanketed in snow!

Well as you know Monday's always bring a new challenge over at BBTB2. My sweet and talented friend, Diana, has give the DT and you the challenge of using a clock on our project. Oh man, at first I was thinking what am I going to make?!! lol But then I thought a little more, and decided on the following project. After having my Explore since before Christmas, I finally got it out the box and set it up. Oh man, does it ever cut nice! I am so loving it so far!!! I am having an issue about linking my carts. It is telling me that they are already linked. Well yes they are, to the Gypsy. So not sure what I have to do to get them to link to the Explore. So I guess I will call tomorrow. Anyway, I used one of the clock images they have in their library, it is a pocket watch and the reason I went with a pocket watch was that I have a pocket watch stamp from Studio 112. Someone had sent it to me and this is the first time using it. So yay, I used a NBUS!! (Never Been Used Schtuff) I used that stamp to make my background on my card base, I love how it turned out. Then I used MCT stitched rectangle dies to cute my black mat layer, which is a snippet, so I will be able to go play in the playground. I used MCT alpha stamps to stamp my sentiment and heat emboss it in SU white embossing powder. Using gold foil paper, I cut out my pocket watch on the Explore at 2 inches. Assembled my pocket watch and popped it up on my black mat.  I also popped up the mat layer on my card base. For the inside, I just stamped another pocket watch and die cut a gold MCT balloon in hologram paper. I haven't placed a sentiment inside yet, because I don't know what I am going to use the card for yet. It can be a birthday card, a retirement card, a new job card, etc...Lots of things to celebrate! And that is it folks, a super simple card but I am so loving it and loving the Explore.

Now it is your turn to make something with a clock and link up with us. Just make sure to use your Cricut for your clock cut, that's it! As always thanks so much for taking time out of your busy life to visit me. I am always happy to see you visit with me for a spell! Crafty hugs, Brenda

edited to add in some challenges that I'm going to play in

Snippets Playground- love going over to the playground to play and give Di some big hugs!
Time Out Challenges-"Rock Around the Clock" is the challenge. Thanks Anita for the heads up to play in this challenge as well!!

Happy Mother's Day?!!-BBTB2 Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, I hope where you are you are warm!!! It's cold here and I know it's cold in a lot of places. With the wind chill added in, we have been -20. That's cold baby! I feel like we live in Alaska! lol I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine this past weekend. Hubby and I enjoyed the gift the chemo center gave us and that was to stay at the Wyndham Hotel in Gettysburg, dinner for two and movie tickets. We walked up to the movie house and watched out movie. Then when we came out of the theater it was snowing like crazy, so back to the hotel we walk with the snow blowing in our faces. We looked like snowman by the time we got back to the hotel, but dummy me didn't think to take a picture. We just looked at each other and laughed. Then we shook off the snow and went up to our room to dry off and for me to dry my hair. I'm so glad we didn't have far to walk! Then we had a delicious meal in the hotel restaurant which was call 1863. They had period food, but we stuck with surf and turf. Very good, also had a crab cake for an appetizer that had some kind of slaw under it. I enjoyed it, hubby didn't care for the slaw stuff. For dessert we shared a peanut butter pie with homemade toasted marshmallow. I shouldn't  say we cause I ate it because hubby didn't care for that either. lol Yes, he is a little picky. We enjoyed our little vacation, which we both needed. But then come morning we were ready to get back home to our own stuff and bed. It was just to cold to do anything else and we don't ski to go to the ski resorts that are close by. We went a whole 10 miles away from home. lol I hope you all had a special time this past weekend!

Well today is Monday and that means it is time for a new challenge over at BBTB2. My sweet and talented design team friend Caroline has chosen the theme of "shaped cards". How easy is that?! So I used my Artfully Sent Cricut cartridge and cut the bird cage card out of a bronzy or copper colored metallic paper. For the inside I use white and backed it with black for the bird. I may go back and do some light inking on the inside. I haven't really decided just yet. I added a flower and butterfly die from My Creative Time. I used the Martha Steward branch punch for my greenery, which looking at it I think I will add a little more to balance out the left side of the flower with the right side better. I added some string pearl trim and stamped my sentiment on the inside using the CTMH stamps that came with my Artfully Sent bundle. On the inside I placed some MS punched branches with a flower button that has a liquid pearl on it. And that's it folks. A very easy and fairly quick shaped card that I think is pretty. This card will be for my MIL so it will be hand delivered and not mail. So now it is your turn, let's see those shaped cards everyone. Just make sure to use your Cricut and then link up with us over at BBTB2.

I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to visit my blog. You visits always bring excitement for me cause I love when you come to visit! Your comments always make me smile and I know how blessed I am to have such wonderful followers....not really followers but friends. That's what you are to me!! Crafty hugs, Brenda