Springtime Thank Yous

The gals in our office are always very sweet at birthday time. They always find a vase of flowers, a balloon, or in my case a basket of plants that make the day special. This year it was a beautiful mixture of green plants, and tiny, non-sneeze inducing flowers.

They also chipped in to get me a gift card for Cheesecake Factory. Yum! Can't wait to use that one. I wanted to make thank you cards that were just as special. I found some sheets of Graphic 45 paper I had picked up that were spring-y and kind of festive that I thought might do the trick. They are all from the Once Upon a Springtime Collection.

I really did not do a lot to put these together. The centers of the frames actually came out to be used as embellishments. I chose to mix and match with other frames and then raise the centers off of the card with foam tape squares. I inked edges with CM's brown chalk ink and added a Bo Bunny Tutu dots paper rectangle with the sentiment stamped to finish them off.

As quick and simple as these were to put together, I really like the look of them.

Thank Ewe All

With any good birthday there are bound to be at least a few gifts. And if their are gifts, Thank You cards should soon be following, according to Miss Manners anyway.

This morning I am sharing a set of Thank You cards I made to give to the six brave parents who went on a field trip with my class last Friday. Since part of what we saw was a real working farm and vegetable garden I thought the Thank Ewe Card from "Just Because Cards" Cart would work perfectly. I had bought a few sheets of paper with farm animals to use on the scrapbook pages that would surely be done with all my pictures from the day. So I took some of that paper, some leftover Reflections blank cards and had a blast making the cards.

The oval is cut at 1.8"
The sheep is cut at 2"

I swirled white puffy paint on the white top layer to give it a woolly feel. Gotta love finding things from other crafts that work well with cards and scrapbooks.

Then I added just a few 1.5 or 2 " squares to the inside to pull it all together.

Now the last of the Blog Candy or Give Aways.... 2 CM 7 x 7 paper album kits Wishes and Dreams, and With Love. I opened the With Love kit to show you all that comes in it (Paper Album, printed paper, photo mats, stickers, embellishments, and envelop.

As always, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post before 10 pm Sunday, April 17th to be eligible.

Off to make my Birthday Thank You's now. I will post winners from the first 3 days of give aways later this afternoon.

An Award, for me? You shouldn't have!...

Wow, I just came to my blog to find I had just received my very first blog award!! LB at Cool Beans by LB awarded this fun award to me just today! I have seen this award on other blogs and was surprised to have it passed on to me. Thank you, L.B., for making me smile!

In order to accept this award, I need to link back to the person who awarded it to me, share 8 things about myself, pay it forward to 8 bloggers that I love visiting, and contact those bloggers and let them know I have given them the Stylish Blogger award also.

So 8 things about me:

I have a great husband that makes me laugh and supports my every changing interests.

I love coffee, could be something fun like Gingerbread Latte, but really any coffee with cream will do.
I am a Disney Geek!
I have been teaching for more than 20 years.
I lived in Japan for two years while I was in college
I have a cat that enjoys doing his own brand of yoga.
I am a big Doctor Who fan.
Though I love my job, I would love to retire to have more time to really craft and quilt.

Here are eight blogs I enjoy visiting. They are very creative people, whether with words, photos, or crafts of all sortsl Some have been blogging longer than others, but I have seen their work in person, their blogs or message boards. Therefore, I am passing on this award to them. Please check them out. I am sure you will be inspired as I have been.

Crafting with Katie

Greengirl Scraps

Tx Scrapper Mom

The Cricut Spot

Cricut Croppin' with Cassandra

Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust

Grace Pix

Sew Green Mama

Feeling Frosty - Cricut Circle Challenge

Each week the Cricut Circle Blog holds a weekly challenge for its members. This week the challenge is Feeling Frosty - use a snowflake cut from a Cricut cartridge, something metal, and white paint. I chose to combine this challenge with the need to make some thank you cards.

I used cards from a winter seasonal pack of card bases by DCWV. I wish I still had the box to tell you the name of the set. I cut the winter bird from 3 Birds on Parade at 3.5 ", and funky snowflake cuts from DoodleCharms, at 3". Most of the cardstock is from Creative Memories, or scraps from other projects.



A close-up of one card.



I added some silver snowflake brads (very old, don't know the make) and some white puffy paint dots and details to the cards. The sentiment inside is "Warmest Thanks for your thoughtfulness."