St. Patrick's Day Cards

Good Morning Everyone!


Today I am going to share a St. Patrick's Day wreath, some cards and of course a story.  When Robbie and Marie were younger a leprechaun lived with us.  Signs of him would appear early in March each year.  We'd open the refrigerator and would discover that our milk had turned green!  We'd pour an unopened can of juice that was clearly marked "Fruit Punch", but when we poured it the juice was green.  We'd make instant vanilla pudding that turned green while we were stirring it.  On St. Patrick's Day while we mashed a pot of potatoes they'd turn green.  Year after year both of my children squealed with delight as they discovered the tricks that the tiny creature had played on us. 


One day Robbie and his friend Steven were playing in the sandbox in our backyard.  Suddenly I heard both of them screaming, "Mom, Mom!"  "Carol, Carol!", as they raced into the house.  I could tell by the tone of their voices that they were both very excited about something.  Robbie extended his arm towards me to show what was hidden inside his hand.  It was a tiny lug nut cover that resembled a top hat.  Both children were completely convinced that they had found a leprechaun's hat.  They begged me to lock it up inside the china closet so that the leprechaun couldn't get it back. 

I had a tiny "laughing bag" that I purchased at Spencer's Gifts many years ago.  I'd keep it in my pocket and would keep my distance from the children so they wouldn't realize the sound was coming from me.  I'd press the button and we'd hear the leprechaun laughing and laughing.  The children would race all over the house looking for him.  Robbie and Steven were sure that the leprechaun was trying to get his hat back!

Fun, fun, fun!  Happy memories for all of us. 

Here's the wreath I made this year.

I used 2 Accucut shamrock dies to cut the 2 largest shamrocks.  The small shamrock was cut from another die and the buttons are from Favorite Findings.  You'll notice that none of the papers are actually "St. Patrick's Day" papers.  I used a variety of papers from SEI that had some green on them along with an interesting pattern.

There are some rainbow patterned papers in SEI's Corrine collection.  So far I have used just one of those

patterns to create some cards. 

The chickie leprechaun and pot of gold were stamped with wooden stamps from Denami Design. 

Here are a couple of cards that I made yesterday.  The shamrock paper is from Reminisce.

Have a great day!

Carol

Miscellaneous Cards

Good Morning Everyone!

It's been a wonderful week.  It's school vacation week here in Massachusetts and I have had the chance to catch up with many of my teacher friends and other friends too.  I haven't spent much time in "My Own Little Corner" but need to do that today as I have many card orders to fulfill. 

Meanwhile, I just glanced through my photo files and found a few cards to share with you.  This first photograph shows the gift bag I made for Annie and some of the small gift cards I made for her too.  The elephants were cut from an AccuCut die.  They're small and didn't involve a lot of work and are just meant to be included with a gift. 

I got into making some "fruity" cards while I was preparing for this past Monday's cherry themed class.  I love the way the embossing shows up on this card.  The paper which is from SEI's Couture collection is a pearl foil paper.  The embossing pulls out the sparkle from the paper and makes it look especially pretty.

I like this card too.  It was another quick and easy one to create and will work perfectly in the fruit themed packages of cards I am creating.  

Have a "grape" day!

Carol

Happy Birthday, Annie!

Good Morning Everyone!

My dear friend Annie will be celebrating her 90th birthday on March 21.  I met Annie 37 years ago when I was a student teacher and we have been good friends ever since then.  Annie is an amazing woman.  She swims 3 or 4 days a week during the winter and pretty much every day during the summer.  She is very active in her church, travels, entertains, cooks, bakes, wallpapers, goes apple and blueberry picking, and loves life. 

She had dinner at our home a couple of weeks ago and told us that her goal is to live to be 100.  She said her father lived to be 94 and her mother lived to be 98 and she plans to live longer than both of them.  She said after she's 100 she'll take whatever years she gets! 

Annie has a collection of elephants.  I cannot remember her story of how that collection began, but I know there are elephants on her mantle and in other parts of her living room.  So I decided to make her a birthday card with an elephant theme and her gift is an assortment of greeting cards with elephants on them. 

Here's Annie's birthday card.

Have a great day!

Carol

Cherry Themed Cards

Happy President's Day!

I attended the Patrick F. Lyndon Elementary School in West Roxbury, MA from kindergarten through sixth grade. The school had huge windows as many schools once did. Throughout the school year the students in each grade created the same seasonal or holiday decorations.  In February every student cut out a silhouette of Lincoln and Washington.  Some of the sixth grade students hung each of the silhouettes in the windows in a pattern of Washington, Lincoln, Washington, Lincoln... We were read and told stories of Lincoln growing up in a log cabin and Washington chopping down a cherry tree.

When I was growing up Lincoln’s birthday was celebrated on February 12^th and Washington’s was celebrated on February 22^nd. We had school on Lincoln’s birthday, but Washington’s fell during school vacation week.  In later years Washington’s birthday became President’s Day and in Massachusetts in addition to Washington we honored other Presidents who were born in Massachusetts.

As I grew older I learned that Washington may not have chopped down a cherry tree and that February is known as National Cherry Month. While Robbie and Marie were growing up I looked for any excuse to celebrate a holiday so we always had something “cherry” to eat on February 22^nd. Okay, I confess I still look for any excuse to celebrate a holiday and we still often have something “cherry” to eat on February 22^nd.

This year President’s Day falls on Monday, February 20^th and in addition to eating something cherry we’re going to be creating cherry themed cards in my papercrafting classes.

I found some cherry patterned paper in my stash and bought some other sheets of it. I also found some clear cherry stamps in my stash along with cherry colored blank cards, buttons, ribbons, and rhinestones. I created some sample cards for my students and thought I’d share some of them with you.

Have a great night!

Carol

Happy Valentine's Day!

Good Morning Everyone!

It truly is early in the morning.  Just after 1 AM to be exact.  At 9 PM I couldn't keep my eyes open, went to bed, and fell asleep immediately.  I woke up sometime after midnight and now I am w-i-d-e awake.  I've been quietly sitting in "my own little corner" studying my stamps and reflecting on life. 

I thoroughly cleaned "my own little corner" after supper.  My worktable had gotten too cluttered and I didn't like the feel of it.  So I did a little rearranging and now I am a much happier camper.  I even went through mostly my clear stamps and pulled out ones I bought years ago when I was first starting to stamp and wasn't quite as discriminating as I am now.  I am happiest with stamps that give me a clean crisp image and I figured since I never use the ones that don't give me that result it was time to get rid of them.  Every now and then I go through some of my art supplies and donate them to a nursing home.  A few weeks ago Marie brought a huge stack of paper to work with her that had been sitting in my stash for years.  She has already used some of it with the residents. 

The wooden stamps that are now displayed on the wall just above my computer monitor are for St. Patrick's Day, Spring, and Easter.  I rearranged them this past weekend.   I rearrange my stamps and other craft supplies as the holidays and seasons are about to change.  It helps me see what I have, gives me a chance to dust things off, and puts the stamps that I want to inspire me front and center. 

"My own little corner" always gives me a feeling of peace.  I love to sit here and create.  My sister Pam in California and my sister Paula in Washington state both got their valentine packages on Saturday.  Both called me to thank me for the gifts and to tell me how much they loved them. 

When I first lost my job nearly 2 years ago I questioned whether or not I should be spending money on craft supplies.  Rob was about 25 years old at the time and told me that I should think about it this way.  When I purchase a stamp it makes me happy and the card I create with that stamp makes someone else happy so a stamp purchase gets a lot of mileage.  He added that I am happier and nicer to be around when I am creating and that I should create something each day. 

So I took Robbie's advice and try to create something each day.  When someone I know is having a birthday I love being able to whip up a card for them.  When I want to send a quick note to a friend or relative I love being able to create a card that is personal to them.  And I love being able to tell Paula and Pam and other special people in my life that I am thinking of them by sending them some little thing that I made.  That's why I enjoy creating seasonal Post It holders, Tic Tac wraps, Tea Bag holders and such.  I always have something on hand to grab when I want it. 

Now that I've done some rambling I am ready to head to back to bed.  Before I go I'll share one of the most recent valentines I created.

After I stamped the message on a piece of white tag I ran the tag through a hearts embossing folder that Peggy gave me years ago.  I used a Sizzix die to cut the hearts.  As I study the photograph  I wish I had glued the smallest heart where the apostrophe is.  Oh, well Marie won't mind.  Jeanne gave Marie this card for Valentine's Day. 

And now I am going to grab a few more hours of sleep while I can. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Carol

Follow-up Post for Chickies Blog Hop

Hi Everyone!

This is a follow-up post to my post for the Denami Design's Cute Chickies Blog Hop.  I promised to share the list I created that shows some of the chickie stamps you could use for each month of the year.  Denami Design has created more than 65 chickie stamps.  Here's the list I created.

January Skiing Chickie, Skating Chickie, Sledding Chickies, Snow Chickies

February Heart Chickie, Valentine Chickie, Chickie with Heart Balloon

March Shamrock Chickie

April Hatching Chickie, Chickie with Umbrella, Open Umbrella Chickie, Easter Basket Chickies

May Chickie with Flower

June Chickie Graduate, Sailboat Chickie

July Patriotic Chickie

August Surfer Chickie, BBQ Chickie

September Teacher Chickie, Chickie School Bus

October Pumpkin Chickie, Trick or Treat Chickies, Pick a chickie wearing a costume,

November Pilgrim Chickies,

December Angel Chickie, Santa Chickie

Remember Denami Design has created a Chickie Checklist to help you keep track of the chickie stamps that you already own and the ones you'd like to own.

Enjoy!

Carol

Cute Chickies Blog Hop

Happy Sunday Everyone!

I am a big fan of Denami Design’s rubber stamps, so I always enjoy participating in their blog hops, but I was especially excited when I heard about their Cute Chickies blog hop.

Here are the details for the hop.

When: The blog hop starts on February 12 at 6 AM, PST. However, you have until February 13, 2012, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs (to be eligible for a prize).Why: To be inspired by fun DeNami Design creations and also the chance to win mini shopping sprees on the DeNami Design website!

Prizes: We are giving away THREE $20 gift certificates to our website! We'll be giving away one gift certificate to a random participant (DT members not eligible) and then we'll also be giving away TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop.

If you started at the beginning of the hop you have arrived here from Karen McAlpine's incredibly creative blog at

http://www.dreamingncreating.blogspot.com

If you get lost along the way you can always start at the beginning of the blog at

http://denami.blogspot.com/

You are now at Carol Hartery's blog at http://www.carolhartery.blogspot.com/

I've already mentioned that I am a big fan of Denami Designs, but I especially LOVE their chickie stamps.

There are chickie stamps that can represent each month of the year so I decided to use some of those chickies to create a cute calendar that can be carried in a purse or displayed on a desk.  I found several types of business card holders in one of my desk drawers so I decided to create calendar pages that measured 2” x 3.5” which is the standard size for business cards. 

I found some free printable monthly calendars on Split Coast Stampers that were created by Cat. Here’s the link I used for this activity.

I printed the calendars and trimmed them so they’d fit on 2” x 3.5” patterned paper. I used my yellow oval Marvy Uchida paper punch to punch out 12 white ovals. I stamped a chickie onto each oval, adhered one to each of my calendar pages and used markers to color the stamped images.

I am positively thrilled with the results.  I want you to know that I have created other calendars, but this one was the fastest and easiest one I have ever made and the one I plan to create for stocking stuffers next Christmas.  Here are pictures to share with you!

The amazing folks at Denami Designs have created a Chickie Checklist for you.  You can use this checklist to keep track of the chickie stamps that you already have or to see which chickies you'd like to add to your collection.

I have created a list of chickies to help you plan a chickie calendar of your own.  I will publish that list tomorrow so that the post won't be confused with this post.

Now before you hop along to Rochelle Washington's awesome blog at

http://www.twotearsinmybucket.blogspot.com/

please leave a comment on my blog and possibly sign up to be a follower so you'll learn about some of my other creations. 

Have fun hopping through the blog and have a wonderful day!

Carol

Valentine Gifts

Good Morning Everyone!

For the past week I was knocked out of commission by a cold that first hit Marie, then me, and now Robbie.  Happily I finished making valentines and valentine gifts more than a week ago and in a few hours my sisters on the west coast should receive their packages.  I'm planning to rearrange my stamps this morning so that my St. Patrick's Day, Spring and Easter ones are front and center, but before I do that I want to share photographs of some of the gifts I created for Valentine's Day. 

The idea for this decorated honey jar came from the January/February 2012 issue of Paper Crafts magazine.  I created the blue background and text on my computer and then stamped on flowers and a bee. 

I saw the idea for these decorated candles and coordinating box in Paper Crafts magazine's special issue, 350 Cards & Gifts 2011.  I purchased the exact stamps that were used on the box, but instead of decorating the candles with stamped images I used flowers that I punched from tissue paper.  I discovered that the stamped flowers burned slightly, but the paper punched ones slowly sank to the bottom while the candle was burning. 

The idea for this tea bag holder came from Teri Anderson's blog.   I paper punched the hearts and then paper pierced the white one to make it look lacy.  The bees are stickers.  I stuck 2 each of them back to back and used mini glue dots to adhere them to the hearts. 

At Christmas time I saw a variety of ideas for packages of white Tic Tacs being decorated as snowmen.  I plan to "run" with that idea and use it for other holidays. 

I made a few bookmarks for the readers in my family.

And some Post It holders to toss into a purse. 

And lots and lots of baggies filled with chocolate hugs and kisses. 

Have a great weekend!

Carol