My daughter's art teacher asked me to do a birthday cake for her daughter-in-law's 21st birthday.  My sister Grace (CardsNCakes.blogspot.com) had made a purse cake for her daughter and so Becca and I decided to use her idea.  This is the final product.  I must confess that Becca did 80% of the detail work and I did all the base icing.  My daughter Krista made the nail polish bottles and lipstick and eye shadow case out of gum paste. What team we make.  It took several hours to complete and my feet were killing me by the time we were through, but it was worth all the effort.  A great big thank you to my sister and my girls for all their help and inspiration!

I'm so excited, I just bought a new cartridge for my wee little Cricut machine, the Sweet Tooth Boxes.  I think I am really going to love this one.  This morning I made a little treasure chest, not for any particular reason, just to try out the new cartridge.  There are 10 different boxes to cut out and decorate for gifts of all kinds.  So, here is my little treasure chest.  I will change a few things like the latch and the lock on the front, the one on the cartridge is just to blah for me.  I"m also putting up pics of some of the Valentine Heart Boxes I did for friends and family.  The steampunk heart box was done by my daughter Becca,  I liked it so much I just had to post it.  More to come as I play with my new toy.

This is the front of the chest, after getting it together I decided I really need to make my own  latch and key hole, I don't like this one at all.

This is the chest open and you can see the latch and lock, it is very flimsy and I'm sure I can come  up with something better.  I used my spellbinders die cut to cut out the embellishments and stained it using Tim Holtz distress ink. 

Add caption

 My sister Grace showed me the tutorial on Splitcoaststampers last year and I loved it.  I made a dozen more of the them year. This is the Steampunk  heart box my daughter Becca made. The flowers are Spellbinders Spiral Blossom, she cut them out of Tattered Time paper and stained them.  She used a combination of Tim Holtz and Spare Parts gears and keys to embellish it.  

The bottom edge is a Jolee's Boutique border from Hobby Lobby and the upper edging is Tattered Time edge punched with an EK Success scallop punch.   

This is my first post for the New Year 2013.  My plan is to post more often this year and keep sharing my creations.  I went to a Stamping Up card class this last weekend and here are the cards we had fun making.  Class is such a blast!  We cut, chat and laugh our heads off!  I have a couple more ideas to put together and will be posting them soon.  See ya then!

This is my first Gate Fold card.  I love how the hearts intertwine and the silver paint on the embossed design is one trick I will use again.

I think this is my favorite card from class that day.  Stamping Up had this set of teeny tiny punches and stamps and I just had to have them.  I can see these popping up on lots of my cards in the future.

This is my favorite Valentine this year.  Love everything about it!

This looks like a simple little card to make but figuring out how to die cut all the hearts in colors and size and then overlapping them and interlocking them was a bit of a puzzle for this old lady!  

This is a little cake my daughter and I did just for some friends who just moved into a new home.

I made this card for my cousin Karen's husband, sadly she passed away after a long battle with cancer. My heart  aches for Ed for I know to well what he is feeling.  Hopefully this card will help in some small way to let him know he is not alone nor forgotten.

New Great Nephew

I made these little 3"x3" gift cards to send to my nieces baby boy who was born eight weeks early. The little fish card is for my other great nephew whose father is an avid fisherman!  God bless all the little babies in the world and keep them in His care. : )  

Thanksgiving Day

This is the cake I made for my daughter and her husband for their birthdays, the 20th and 22nd of November. We celebrate on Thanksgiving when the family gets together.  I sure had a lot of fun making this cake. Everyone thought it looked cute, but mostly they thought it tasted good!!!  I am grateful to have a big, wonderful family. I am truly grateful for the times we can get together for laughter and fun. I found this quote the other day, it's from the play "Annie" (Little Orphan Annie) and I want to share it with you. Especially my sister Grace.

"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying good-bye so hard . . . ."