Two Bears In A Box

Hi Everyone,
I have a bit of a back story for this little box.  I will try to be as brief as I can.  Over the years at work my friend Kathy and I would go on break together. Twice a day for 15 minutes, for about 10 years or so. Maybe even more.  We would walk and talk and pretty much brighten each others day.  Kathy is a dear friend and we were always bouncing stories off of one another. At one point in time we worked in the same department but even when we changed our departments we continued to go on break together. Okay ... here is the story ... one day we were walking along and there on the ground we see one of those pencil topper animals. It was a koala bear.  It was so cute. We picked it up and carefully placed on the branch of a box hedge.  He looked so cute clipped onto the branch.  Every time we would walk we would look for him.  As the seasons would change we would check on him.  Sometimes it was difficult to find him.  That little koala hung in there through rain, snow and the summer heat for years.  We started to notice his fur was falling away.  Time was starting to take its toll on our little koala bear.  And time was beginning to take its toll on me as well.  Diagnosed in Jan. 2016 with pancreatic cancer I was out of work for 10 months.  I was thankful that I was able to return to work for about 4 months or so but as my health failed I once again left work in Feb. '17.  I felt like I abandoned my break buddy.  Kathy and I stay in close contact and one day she called me to tell me that the property owner where our koala was had taken down the hedges.  Our koala was gone! Kathy looked and looked for him but to no avail she was unable to find him.  We were both saddened by this turn of events.  Silly I know, two grown women getting upset over a pencil topper.  In the back of my mind I knew I had to somehow commemorate our break times together and our little koala bear too.  So here is a picture of my little something, something I made for my dear friend Kathy.

I am retiring from my position at work and I will miss everyone from my work family so much but none as much as my dear friend Kathy.  I really had fun with this box and those little bears and Kathy loved them too! Till next time friends, thanks for stopping by.
Lysa

Summer Dishes - It's All About the Crate!

Hi Everyone,
So here's the thing, I am obsessed with dishes. Yup, it's a down right fetish. I change out my dishes for each season of the year.  I get this from my Mom who always was entertaining family and friends.  Her tablescape was as important as the meal that was on it.  I think I knew how to set a formal table by age 5. Keep in mind my Mom was born in 1917 so let us just say she beats Martha Stewart by years and years.  So I figured I would pass on this tradition to my daughter by giving her a set of summer dishes for Mother's Day for her new home.  Along with a way to display them as well. We love a beach theme with a patriotic flare so I chose a set of Tim Cofey dishes called Pier 45. They are a discontinued pattern but with a lot of searching I was able to put together service for 8. Including some red, white, and blue silverware, napkins and drink ware. Even wine charms that I made.  What I want to highlight is the crate that I decorated.  I created a logo for them and used the thermal laser print transfer technique to transfer the logo to the wooden crate.  Here is a picture of how it came out.

I had so much fun putting this together and Sam loved it.  It was the perfect gift for Mother's Day.  Here is a pic where you can see the wine charms I made a little better as well as the logo. The logo is dated 2016 for the year they married.

I told her she needs to have me over for a crab dinner! I think I deserve it, Don't you? More wine charms on the way for sure and a patriotic necklace too!!  Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the warm weather that is finally on its way.
Lysa

Paper Crate Project Summer 2017

Hi Everyone,
I got so excited when I saw a sneak peek of the new SU crate die that I knew I had to make a digital cut file for one.  Sure I like dies but who could be limited to one size. I also did not like the way the die was a 2 piece cut.  The seams show on both front and back when assembled.  That's just wrong in my book,  Not that I am a favor box snob but lets face it I am.
I had so much fun making these.  I filled them with sea shells and sand.  The sand is from the Jersey shore.  And you know us Jersey peeps, we are all about the shore!  I so see these filled with shell shaped chocolate for a beach themed wedding.  A little sign with the couples name and date. Now that's a favor!  Here is a picture of 4 that I made.  I think I will make a few more as well.

OMG! I love them!!!
If you want to try to make one here is a pic of the pdf with instructions.

I printed the paper with my Canon G2000 and all the cutting was done with my Cricut Explore Air2. I loved designing the paper as much as designing the file.
I have the file available as a PDF and an SVG.  You can find the downloads here on my mediafire account:
The PDF is here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/q3ol23d7jed3s1s/wood_crate_instructions.pdf
and the SVG is here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/zq1bjktjcmfa92k/wooden_crate_to_post.svg
Feel free to resize this file to your needs.  Please leave a comment as they really make me happy! I appreciate when people link back to my blog.  Please don't sell the file, just share share it as it was meant to be shared not sold!!
Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

Lindt Bunnies 2017 - I Love This Little Bunny!

Hi Everyone,
I am so happy to say I spent some quality time in the craftroom last week. What got me up and moving was that the Hubster surprised me with a Cricut Explore Air 2.  Now I know I swore off Cricut years ago after the whole law suit against Make the Cut and Sure Cuts Alot. I don't even want to talk about the whole Cricut Imagine debacle but after years of boycotting Provocraft I have returned. And the fact is I love the cutter.  Now keep in mind I collect cutting plotters like a musician collects instruments.  This makes number 11 for me. I really think I have reached the end of the collecting road but who knows I am a bit addicted to them. There are so many reviews and videos on this machine available on line so there is no need for me to say anymore than "Provocraft hit a home run with this Explore Air 2". With that said I thought I would show you some pics of my very first project that I made using it.  First here is a pic of the cutter.  I love the color.  The hubs got it from HSN on their all day craft event. It came bundled with 3 mats and access to their cutting files (Cricut Access membership) for three months.  Which I most likely won't use as I design my own files. Here is the pic:

  I had to clear the space in the craftroom just to make room for it.  I left my Brother Scan and Cut along with my KNK Zing within easy reach so I could use them as needed. 
My Daughter is hosting her first ever family holiday dinner for Easter Sunday so I thought making table favors would be a great project for running the Cricut Explore through its paces.  I had a blast and did not waste any paper as everything cut perfectly. I did use some punches on this project but the box and most of the elements were cut with the Cricut.  Here are some pics:

I really had fun making these and using this cutter.  Now that the software supports .SVG files I can design to my hearts content with my CraftArtist Pro software, save as an .SVG and import the file into Cricut Design Space to cut.  Thanks Provocraft for joining the real world. Now if you would just make an off line software package I would be even happier as not everyone has reliable internet service. Next up I will check out the cutter print and cut functions as that feature is important to me.  Many thanks to the Hubs for getting this for me, it really gave me a reason to keep on keep'in on!
Wishing Everyone a happy and healthy day. Thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

A Picture Really Is Worth A Thousand words (And Dollars Too!)

Hi Everyone,
Not sure if anyone is still with me as my health issues keep me at a minimum crafting level.  I try and try to keep crafts in my life and do manage to get into the craftspace here and there.  I must say the space is a mess and I say everyday I am getting in there to clean up and organize.  Well, that just never happens!  My general health is not great and the month of February was not kind to me. I ended up in the hospital twice. The first time for four days and the second time for six days.  Amazing how the Doctors and Nurses can bring you back to life. Okay enough of the cancer drag and onto the thousand dollars.  A friend at work son is getting married. Yeah, I so love a happy occasion. My friend  Cindy asked if I ever made a money cake as she wanted to give them one at the bridal shower.  I told her "No, only diaper cakes".  After a bit of research I thought the money cake looked like an easy and fun project.  I must say I was a tad nervous when I fell ill as I had $1,000.00 of Cindy's money in my house.  It all worked out as I worked on it a little at a time over the course of 2 weeks or so.  I think I spent about 3 hours total time on the assembly of the cake and the project got me out of my sick bed and into the craftspace (A huge thanks to Cindy).  So let me start by saying I had to put my own spin on the cake.  I started with figuring out the money.  I use my CraftArtist2 software to create the 3 tiers of the cakebase (which are 10", 8", and 6") I then created 3/4 inch circles to go around the base circle placing them in a format of bills that added up to $1,000.00 dollars.  This template was great as my friend could clearly see the bills she needed to get from the bank.  My research showed that most people roll the bill and secure them with small rubber bands. Not me as usual because I wanted all the rolled bills to be the same size.  I had an idea to create 3/4"X1/2" tubes out of the candy bags I use for Hershey nugget crafts and it worked like a charm.  I simply used my wood burning tool to divide and seal the bag and then cut that strip into 1/2 " lengths with a pair of scissors.  Worked great and all the rolls were the same size. If you look close in this picture you can see them centered on the bill.

The best part is when the cake is given to the Bride, all she has to do is pull up on the roll to get the money.  No need to disassemble anything.  Following the template I used glue dots placed on the plastic sleeves to create the strip of bills and then glue dots to attach the strips to the base.  No glue dots touch the money only the plastic sleeve.  I left open spaces for decorative elements.  This worked out perfect to keep the bills centered and organized. Again the template was worth taking the time to make.  Here is a picture of one of the die cuts used to fill the spaces:

Here is a close up of the topper:

Lots of ribbon on the cake make it pretty:

And here is the finished cake ready to go:

I really did enjoy this project. I used my CraftArtist2 software along with my Brother Scan N Cut to make the die cuts.  I want to thank my friend Cindy for inspiring me to get up and get moving.  I also want Cindy to know that I always feel just a bit a part of the wedding and the family when something I made appears at the shower or the wedding.  I am truly blessed to have peeps that still think of me as more than a person who is ill and do their best to help me to keep on keeping on. Much love and blessings to the happy couple for a wonderful wedding and long life together.  Thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

Crafts For My Daughter's Wedding

Hi Everyone,
It sure has been a long time since my last post. As many of you know I have been sick and trying my best to live my life while fighting pancreatic cancer. While it has been a huge challenge I am happy to say I am still here living and breathing.  One thing that help me through to this point was my daughter Sam's wedding.  While I was home on sick leave I did my best to craft as much as I could for the wedding. My intention was to post pictures along the way but it was all I could to to get each project done between my chemo treatments.  I did take cell phone pictures along the way and I thought I would share them with you now that things have settled down.  I will tell you that almost all of the projects were done using CraftArtist2 software.(my favorite)  I used my ZING and Brother Scan n Cut for most the die cutting. The other die cuts like the butterflies were made via my sizzix and the Stampin' Up butterfly die.  All the projects were so huge that I left my craft room for the dining room table.  The house was a hot holly mess for about six months!  All of the paper was ordered from LCI paper in Massachusetts and is Stardream paper in quartz, black and silver.  I got great feedback on the quality and level of all the projects.  So along with a few comments here are the pictures:
POCKET INVITES:
I purchased pre-made pockets as the cost was cheaper than if I cut them myself.

I foiled this die cut with my old Provo Your Story laminator.

The printing was all done with a canon laser printer. The corners were done with the SU triple corner punch.  My hand hurt after all the punching!

This quote is from the song they used for their first dance.
SHOWER INVITES:
I only took one pic, but the peeps loved them! Wish I had a better picture.

SHOWER FAVORS:
I bought them online and the packaging was awful so I needed to change it up.

They looked so much better!
THE BANNER:
I made a nice banner for the gift table at the shower.

Wish I had a better picture.  The letters are connected with SU butterflies.
THE REHEARSAL DINNER:
These were made with the SU floral bouquet die.

FAVORS FOR THE REHEARSAL DINNER:

Hershey Nuggets, one of my favs! Sure wish I had better pics!!
BUBBLES FOR THE CHURCH:

I made 65 of them and they are all gone. I should have kept one at the house as a keepsake.
CHURCH PROGRAM:
I had so much fun with these!

THE JENGA BLOCKS:
In lieu of a guest book the bride chose Jenga blocks to be on each table.  The guests wrote a lot of funny things.  This makes for a great keepsake!

The carrier is double sided so there were 12 blocks per table with two pens.  This went over BIG!
BUTTERFLIES: (like crazy)
Butterflies everywhere including the centerpieces.  I made them for the florist and then she attached two per centerpiece.

The florist loved them! I don't have a picture of the centerpieces yet.  I will add it once I get the pics from the photographer.
Oh my are you still with me.
 THE SEATING CANDLES:
These were changed up from the original design but still I got the look I was going for.  It brought a lot of candle light to the tables when the guests picked them up from the piano and brought them to the tables in the ballroom.

 WEDDING FAVORS FOR THE KIDS:

Because there was wine in the wedding favor, we made up these drink cups filled with candy for all of the kids.
AND FOR THE ADULTS:
A wine a cheese basket complete with cutting board.

Here is a better shot of the cutting board.

We made 75 baskets, here they are wrapped and ready to go.

 It was a bit of a pain getting them to the venue.  We bought boxes from home depot and got 12 into each box.  It was a lot.  I made a few other things as well and these items are just a few of them.  So now that the wedding is behind me it is time to start to focus on a Christmas craft.  I am not sure how it will go as I have returned to work full time and I will have to go back on a full chemo schedule.  Hopefully I will get my Christmas craft mojo going and I will have somethings to post.  Wish me luck and thanks for visiting.
Lysa

The Quiet Craftroom

Hi Everyone,
It has taken me a bit of time to sit down and type a blog post.  The craftroom has been quiet due to the fact that I have been ill. I was just going to let go of the blog as I only really posted as a means of inspiration and never a business but I thought it best that all know what is happening here on my end.  I have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  Awful, I know but a new journey still the same.  I have learned so much in the last month that I feel like I could write a book.  There is no need for details and such as I know everyone has been touched in some way by cancer. I just really wanted to take a moment to tell everyone in cyberspace how much I enjoyed posting pictures of the things I have made.  I hope at some point the craftroom will be a buzz again and I will be able to find some crafty good mojo to focus on. After all my new KNK Force cutter has arrived and I want to master that machine.  Thank you all for your visits. Blessings to you all for a crafty good time and a lifetime of happiness and good health.
Lysa 

Christmas Tic Tacs, So Cute!

Hi Everybody,
One more quick post. Just 5 days till Christmas and as always I am so not ready. It has been such a strange season.  The weather is so warm that it does not feel like the holidays at all.  There is not a bit of a nip in the air. We ate Thanksgiving dinner with the back sliding door open and something tells me Christmas dinner will be the same.  Once I get this post up I am off to start wrapping. I love to wrap and try to make the packages as pretty as I can.  My little favors this year that I leave on desks at work are cinnamon tic tacs.  Not to exciting but look how cute they are.

I saw these on a SU demonstrator website called Pink Buckaroo Designs. Her name is Erica Cerwin and you can find her here:
http://pinkbuckaroodesigns.blogspot.com
 I found the tic tacs at the Dollar Tree and I used Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla and a non SU Kraft paper. I just love the way they look.  Here is another pic:

The tic tacs are super mini's and they come 3 in a pack for $1.00 so I made 30 of them to pass out. Pretty darn cute for 33 cents a piece.
I just want to send out Best Wishes to all for a Very Merry Christmas and A Happy and Healthy New Year.  I hope next year I can find my way back to more steady blog posts and file sharing.  The year ahead will be busy because of my Daughter's wedding.  I so hope to share the crafty goodness I plan to be working on for the wedding. Again a Very Merry to All!!
Lysa

Just A Quick Post

Hi Everyone,
Oh my how the days pass. I have not posted for so long that it appears as my crafty life has fallen to the wayside.  Truth be told I have been busy as a bee and all is well here on my end.  Christmas is upon us and I have been crafty but I just have not had time to post.  I haven't really designed anything new but I have been crafting. My story for today was quick and easy craft from days gone by that was designed by someone else.  Rory needed some Christmas gift for school friends and we needed to get them done fast. I am sure you have seen these in the past as they were a holiday fair item from about 2009 or so.  The snowman candy wrapper is a classic and adding a pair of gloves from the dollar store make them an awesome and affordable gift for tween school friends.  Here is the picture of the eight I made:

The face is a download that is available online.  The Hershey bar is the 4.4 oz. size. It is huge!! The gloves came from Dollar Tree. I did sacrifice 1 pair of gloves to make the scarves. I hope you like the way them came out.  Hoping after the holidays I will get into the routine of posting.  In the meantime best wishes to all for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!!
Lysa

Ghosty and Witch Hat Clothespins and A Skully Necklace Too!

Hi Everyone,
Oh my, the month is flying by.  Surely it can't be Oct. 12th  already.  Normally in the month of October I have a lot of crafty good pictures to show.  This year while I have been banging out some crafty good Halloween projects I just have not had time to post or to prep a file for a file share. Let me catch you all up on craftroom happenings. First I have to tell you that I pre-ordered the KnK Force. YES, The Force WILL Be With Me! I am so excited that the machine will be coming to live in my craftroom sometime in November.  People it has a camera, Yes! A CAMERA. That is what you use for alignment for print and cut. Not only does it have a camera, it has true z axis, and a rotary tool. I plan to cut my little heart out.  The first thing I am going to cut is . . . a record album. Oh yes, records make for great recycled projects.  I plan to cut wood too.  I think that the craftroom is going to get pretty darn messy once the Force comes to play here. OK, so enough of that (mostly because I bought the Force with limited info and based my decision on how much I love my other 2 KnK cutters) but I do have a cool pic I got off of Facebook.  Here it is:

How sweet! It has color lighting!
Now for Halloween, I fell head over heals for the Stampin Up Witch Hat clothespin. True to form I had to make more of it than what it was. I just could not see why anyone would want the white paper backing on the glitter paper to show.  Come on Peeps, its all about the details. Part of me does understand that at $2.50 a sheet one might want to live with the white showing. I blew through my 4 sheets in about a minute because I made them double sided. So off to Michael's I went to get some more black glitter paper (also backed in white)(what's up with that, why would you not have a black backing???) Well it was a saving at @1.99 less 20% off my entire order (Thank you Michael's) While I was there I saw white glitter paper and knew right then that I had to make ghosties too.  Here is my pic of how they all came out.

I made 40 and the only thing I wish I had was white clothespins for the ghosties. I just didn't think to pick them up when I was at the store.  I love how they came out. I made so many that I even had some to donate to the Halloween bake sale at work.  I cut the ghosts with my ZING and most of the hat were made with SU punches but then I made a digital file because I was making so many.  Oh and Mr. Ghosts bow tie is my all time favorite Martha Stewart bat punch.  I swear I use it every year!!
So are you still with me? quick story, I get a home party catalog at work for Touchstone Crystal by Swarovski. Whooo baby, talk about pricey! So I see a necklace called the Zoe.  I loved it and thought this would be a great necklace for all us girls at the house.  After all we are all up and into Halloween.  Here is a pic of the necklace:

The price was $79.00 for the skull bead and the 6mm light amethyst pave ball bead. OK so it is two necklaces but no way could I buy 3. So off I went to one of my favorite bead suppliers Fusion Bead. Don't you know I made all 3 necklaces for less than the cost of 1.  And I even changed it up a bit to make them our own.  Here is a pic of mine and Sam's:

Hard as I tried to get good pics it was tough. But you get the idea. I am so happy with how they came out.  If you need to order Swarovski beads Fusion is a great source.  They always have a coupon. I made Rory's necklace just as the catalog one and it will look awesome with her costume this Halloween. Pics to follow for sure! All total with findings and chain I made the 3 necklaces for $58.00. The best part is that it is all Swarovski.
Thanks for visiting and let me know if you are interested in the cut file for either the Witch Hat or Ghostie clip, they were fun to make and if anyone wants the file I will take the time to upload it.
Lysa