I am not a good gardener. My sister seems to have gotten all of the gardening genes in the family. I had no intention of buying the new Garden Party kit, but when I saw it, all I could think of was that my sister would love cards made with it. She's not a card maker, but she loves getting hand made cards from me. Here is what I hope will be the first of many for her.
Queen & Co. just released a new set called Lucky Day kit, and it's perfect with their Fish Bowl Shaped Card kit for a pot of gold. I used a small circle die from one of the Foundations die sets to cut gold coins from shiny gold card stock, as well as for the buckle on the Leprechaun hat.
I bought the Queen & Co. Teapot card/die set awhile back, thinking I'd use it for a banner. My daughter has a cozy tea nook, and she loves Alice in Wonderland. I made this card for her, although I think it will have to be given to her in person rather than mailed. The card is more than 1/4 inch thick, which means it would need to be sent as a package.
I don't always decorate the inside, but it needed a little teabag for the sentiment.
All dies used were from Queen & Co., except for the tiny heart, which was a leftover from the Lori Whitlock mailbox box card project (posted a couple of weeks ago). I shaped the flowers with flower shaping tools. I prefer the Heartfelt Creations handmade flowers that I usually do, but this was an experiment to see whether I could make similar flowers with the Queen & Co. Foundation die flowers. I think I'll stick to my Heartfelt Creations stamped flowers in the future.
The paper is from K&Company. It was from my stash, a Tuesday Morning find from long ago.
It's obvious, but this card was inspired by the Lori Whitlock Silhouette Mailbox box card that I made and posted recently. I like a little more depth to my box cards, though. I've been making my own box cards for years, so I created a cutting file from scratch that was more suited to my preference for a deeper box card.
I had ordered the last Love Letters set from Queen & Co., and was looking forward to getting it, even if it was after Valentine's Day. It was to be delivered Saturday. I wasn't sure what would happen because of the weather, and also because the ceiling caved in at our local post office. However, it came. My Valentine Mailbox box cards (referred to above and shown recently) seem to be taking their time to get through the mail system to their intended recipients. It took 10 days for my sister to get hers.
Anyway, I thought the Love Letters set would be perfect for a mailbox box card, so I created the cutting file and made it this morning.
I live in Texas. We get very little winter weather most years (if any). This week we got a rare and particularly overwhelming winter storm that knocked out a lot of the Texas power grid. The temperatures dropped to single digits, which is practically unheard of here. Half of the wind turbines froze, and the other sources of energy didn't fare as well as hoped, either. One of the two nuclear reactors had to be shut down when something froze, and the gas, coal, and oil production diminished significantly, too. We had rolling blackouts, although some folks just lost their power and didn't get it back. Our newlywed son and his wife were among those who lost power for over 56 hours. After being without power for 14 hours, and getting colder as evening approached, they braved the roads and the drive to get to our house. We had rolling blackouts (one hour off, one hour on), but not nearly as bad as some had to endure. We stayed relatively warm. Now we are under a boil water advisory, too. Thankfully, so far our pipes seem to have come through it okay. One of our neighbors had to have his water shut off due to a burst pipe.
With snow still outside that has lasted a few days instead of just a few hours, I felt like making a winter card, which is a rare thing for me. The colors actually look better together in real life. I don't remember who makes the snowman stamp or the sentiment, but I used Queen & Co. Foundation dies and Simple Stories Winter Farmhouse Snowed In paper (of course). I used Wink of Stella on the white fur of the hat and on the snowflakes. I popped the snowman and added a few rhinestones.
I made this for my youngest DDIL's mom, who sent me a care package when my DH was in the hospital. People who let me know they cared made such a difference.
I created it with a Silhouette cutting file by Lori Whitlock.
My husband came home from the rehab facility on the 13th. I made 2 identical cards early that morning. One was for the medical staff, the other for the Physical Therapy team. I used Queen & Co. Foundation dies, stamp set, and papers. It was an adaptation of the Hugs card that I posted relatively recently. I didn't have time to try to get creative and do something completely from scratch.
It's wonderful to have him home, but I am still struggling to find time to craft. He starts outpatient physical therapy tomorrow, so hopefully he will recover his strength and be more independent soon. He's worth every minute of the time I spend helping him, but it's been really frustrating for him to need so much help. I have also missed my crafting time.
