Fall Tag Challenge - Eclips/Ecal

 This is our September Eclips challenge for 2021. We were to make three fall tags.

I kept them pretty simple and in the same color/style. I love fall colors and the leaves turning golden, orange, maroon and red.

May you see the autumn leaves fall!

Misc Cards 2021

 Posting today some cards that I made during 2021. I didn't want to make individual posts for each card.

First is a card for my sis-in-law.

Here's another one for a different sis-in-law.

And, two more quick ones for my sis-in-law's sisters.

Happy Birthday, Ladies!

Bookmark Challenge

 Another Eclips Challenge, and a pretty simple one. Things have been hectic, so I haven't posted as much as I'd like.

This was a challenge to make a bookmark. Simple enough, right? Well, this one was really, really simple, but I think it's so darling.

Made with a 5-1/2" square piece of cardstock, and then one triangle, of your choice of color, pattern, sentiment, etc.

So easy and nice and small.

Here's a mat photo of the cutting mat for one of them. Only two pieces to cut, and could easily be cut by hand. No need for a cutting machine, but my preference is to always use one. The added triangle overlay is optional. You can do whatever you want!

Enjoy your next book! 

Dear Book, Please Take Me Somewhere Special!

Mini Album Challenge

Our June, 2021 challenge was to make a mini-album. I made it for my grandsons. It's a simple small one, and fun to make.

This is just a sampling of the pages here.

Celebrating the Family!

Pocket Challenge - Eclips

This was a different, but interesting, challenge. We were asked to make a pocket (such as a pocket or envelope for insertion of Ephemera). I have an artist friend, Susan Deming, who is so talented. I asked if I could use some of her designs to make pocket art. This is what I came up with. Oh, and I sent her the finished project.

It's hard to see where the pockets are as I matched them up with each other pretty good. There are actually four pockets, but I used only the lower 3. I didn't want to cover up the darling house on the top of the hill by a tag. It was a bit of a puzzle to get things aligned and make it work, but it eventually came together.

Here's the card with the tags inserted.

And, a view of the back.

Hope you like it. If you want to see Susan's Art, you can go to https://www.susandeming.art/. Take a look!

Express Yourself with Your Passion

A Sweet Friend's Journey

 My dearest friend underwent a bone marrow transplant on 4/24, and with it being "covid time," no one was allowed to be with her in the hospital for her entire stay. Desvastating! 

I decided to make her a box with a card to open everyday she was in the hospital. The box was made of chipboard, so it's very sturdy. I made over 30 cards, and my daughter made some darling felt foods that we interspersed throughout the cards.

I put tabs on all of the envelopes with dates on which date to open the card.

My daughter made these darling felt foods.

When she arrived home, we had a revised drive by, I guess you'd call it a "stand by," as none of us could get anywhere near her because she had no immune system. I made a banner for the garage door, and friends and family brought balloons and posters, and we call cheered as she arrived home.

I also made a banner for her bedroom, with photos of all of her family and friends.

Our girl is an amazing warrier, and is fighting and keeping the most positive attitude. We could not be more proud of her. She's getting stronger every day.

Fighting the good fight...and winning!

California Dreamin'

 I designed and made this box for the April "Dream Theme" Eclips Challenge. We were to make anything related to dreaming, so I chose California Dreaming.  I added Sweet Dreams tea in the box. I'm not too experienced at designing with angles like this, so it took a couple of tries, but ended up kind of cute.    

This is the back.

It's supposed to be a surfboard shape, but ended up a bit to wide...oh well!

I wrote the lyrics to California Dreamin' around the edges.

Then a bit of rope around the edges for a finishing touch.

Hope you were reminded of ocean dreams and sipping sweet tea.

Sweet Dreams!

Bunco Valentine's Treat Boxes

 Here's the 10th installment of my February Bunco treat boxes. Yup, the 10th year I have  made some sort of treat/favor for my Bunco group. I always choose February to host Bunco, and have had fun making something for my Bunco girls. 

This year I made a mini takeout box (filled with Dove heart chocolates). The pattern comes from SVG Cuts Crush on Me SVG Kit. I printed digital paper by Meredith Cardall's This Year: Love Notes, which I purchased at Snap Click Supply Co. I made this at about 75% of the original size, and they are 3-1/8" tall.

Front:  The circle was a p2c image that I made in a Affinity Photo. On the top of the box I designed a small name tag. 

Back Side: Pattern from original cut file by SVG Cuts.

I made 12 of these, one for each girl. I delivered them all today. I hope they enjoy them. I know one sweet Bunco member who has kept all 10 of my treats containers. How sweet is that!? I expect most of them to be trashed after a week. Thanks, Sandy! You are the sweetest!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

January/February Birthdays (and misc Mario) Post

Here's a fun card that I made for my daughter's birthday. And, it's a free pattern from Dreaming Tree. Head on over to the link and pick it up for free! I added my daughter and her sons in the water's edge for a little fun. Also added the sentiment portion inside.

 Inside

Next, exactly a week latter, was my husband's Groundhog Day birthday. I made the shirt for commemorate the day. That's my youngest grandson checking out a wood-carved vase that the hubs received.

And, lastly, I was given some Lego scan codes, so thought I'd make some dimensional square boxes that my  grandson could use when building his Lego Mario interactive courses. They turned out really cute, except the scans do not work. We can get a little coin beep, but it doesn't do what it's supposed to, so it was a fail. It still looks pretty fun though, so had to share it.

And, there you go. Happy Birthday, Alicia and Keith! Love you both!

Happy Birthday, Family (2021)

Eclips Heart Challenge. January 2021

We have a new Eclips/Ecal challenge going on...anything Heart  themed. I love our group of Sizzix Eclips Ecal Makers on Facebook. We all contribute and learn/share new techniques to this cutting machine that we love, but that unfortunately is no longer being sold.

I attempted to design a project altering a layered geometric heart, but it was a total failure, so I went a totally different direction. I guess my altering nodes technique needs a bit of work. So, here is what I finally came up with:

I ended up with a heart box made from two different SVG Cuts kits. The box itself comes from the Love Me Do SVG Kit. I chose to make the smallest heart shaped box.

Of course, I couldn't just leave it at that. I decided to add to the top and incorporate the raised heart from the "HUGS" bag from the All My Love SVG Kit. I reduced the size of this heart to about 2-3/4" tall, so that it would fit on the top of the small heart-shaped box.

I used digital paper from Creative Fabrica, called Watercolor Hearts. I think it's so pretty. 

I did a print2cut on the flower of the raised heart. After the heart was inserted into the top of the heart box, I took another copy of the raised edge portion, removed all of the nodes from all of the tabs, which left me with just the band. I filled that with the pattern of another digi paper, again from the Watercolor Hearts paper collection, and reduced the size to give it a look that popped a bit more. I used print-2-cut, inked it, and then placed it over the original edge. It really set it off nicely.

And, there you have it. I may still add something to the raised heart, but that's to be seen.

Ya Gotta Have Heart!

12 Days of Christmas Tags 2020

Another year of the Eclips Challenge Christmas Tags. Last year I was able to get only 5 done, but this year I managed to make all 12. Seriously, this is about my favorite challenge of the year, and I'm already thinking of what I want to do for 2021. Beginning on December 1, and continuing each day until December 12, we all make and post a tag of our choice. The challenges on our Facebook page (Eclips and eCal Users) encourage us to try new techniques using our Ecal software and cut using our Sizzix Eclips cutting machines.

The first tag has a retro feel, with digi paper from Carte Bella (A Very Merry Christmas). It has two layers, one popped out with foam squares. The candy jar is printed on the back panel, and the front panel has a cut-out so that it shows through. Used print-2-cut for this one.

Tag #2 is one where I designed the 2-layer background shape using circles from the shapes library. The snowman is a cut-2-print, and I freehand cut the hat and added some shimmer.

Tag #3 is made from a free cut file from Simply Crafty SVGs. It holds 6 Hershey kisses, and is so cute! You can click on the link and check it out!

Tag #4 is a simple one. I saw it on Pinterest, and recreated it. They were so simple that I whipped up six of them, and actually used them on gifts this year. You can see that the trunk of the trees is made up of the wording MERRY.

Tag #5 is one I made up myself. The snow globe and tree are made from basic shapes, and the houses and snowman are print-2-cut. Used glitter cardstock around the edge, and my shimmer brush on all of the snowflakes in the background.

Tag #6 is a fun one. I made some outlined snowflakes and an additional snowflake for dimension, then added a bit of bling. It's simple, but one of my favorites. Again, I think I got the idea for this one on Pinterest.

The base for Tag #7 came from SVG Cuts, and then I altered it to style it like Santa, and sized it down (it was originally a card). All glitter cardstock was used.

Tag #8 comes from a free pattern that I got when I first started out with my cutting machine in 2011. There was also a Christmas Tree (Tag #10). They were designed by Penny Duncan, and offered on a blog that doesn't even exist anymore that I am aware of. This one has gold metallic cardstock in the background, and some little gold bling accents. This was the first time I've made this one.

Tag #9 was another Pinterest-inspired one. The scalloped circle was made with basic shapes in Ecal3 (I cut using a Sizzix Eclips2). The deer is a print-2-cut from a digital element pack.

Tag #10 is another pattern from Penny Duncan Designs. It holds a special place in my heart, because it was one of the very first things I cut with my Eclips back in 2011. It was fun to make it again for this challenge. Also, Penny has always been so generous and kind when I have had exchanges with her.

Tag #11 is a cutie. I took these gnomes and the tree from Simply Crafty SVGs' Gnome Family Slimline Card, and grouped them for the tag. Love the way it turned out.

And, finally, Tag #12. This darling rocking horse came from a card by SVG Cuts. It's in the Home for Christmas Box Cards set. Mary's beautiful design is just lovely.

And, there you have it! Feeling accomplished during a time when I've been feeling overwhelmed with life and wonderful grandchildren that I spend a lot of time with. My daughter and fam lived out of state for five years, so during that time I had lots of free time to craft whenever I wanted. Now, they take much of my time, and I'm not sad at all about that! But, I do sometimes miss the freedom of having my crafty time.

Here are all of my tags together. If you're a tag addict, I have postings each year for the past four years, I believe, that we have been doing this challenge.

I hope your holidays were a blessing to you, and that you were able to have at least some snippets of time with family and friends.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!