Celebrating St. Patrick's Day and trapping Leprechauns

My daughter and I were talking about St. Patrick’s Day which is on Saturday, March 17^th. We started reminiscing about when we use to live in Tucson, AZ and head downtown every year to their annual St. Patrick’s Day parade and then close friends of ours, who are very Irish, would host a big St. Patty’s Day party in the evening.

Needless to say, we always decorated the house and the kids did crafts to help with the decorating. As my daughter and I were talking, she said the best thing we ever made was Leprechaun traps. These fun traps can be made out of many things from cereal boxes to shoe boxes and are great for letting children’s imaginations run wild. They also can make math and science more tangible when the children are figuring out which type of trap will work best.

Here are pictures of the Leprechaun houses we made way back in 2011.

The story behind Leprechaun traps is that children must believe Leprechauns are real to catch them. You design and make your trap and put something gold in it to get the Leprechaun's attention. Leprechauns love all things gold! When the Leprechaun comes to steal the gold, he gets trapped.  Parents get to play the Leprechaun, like the Tooth Fairy, and snatch the gold in the trap and leave a Leprechaun surprise for the children to find in the morning. Leprechauns are tricky fellows and always figure out how to get out of the trap with their reward before the children awaken. 😊

Here are some links to ideas of Leprechaun houses that you can share with your children.

This is a slide show of different Leprechaun houses to start the creative juices flowing.

https://www.popsugar.com/moms/Leprechaun-Trap-Ideas-34294517

Do you have a child that has the Martha Stewart creative bug? If so, here is a link to a trap from Marthastewart.com.

https://www.marthastewart.com/1057454/how-make-leprechaun-trap?slide=3399688

Some other fun St. Patrick’s Day activities I found on line.

This is a STEAM activity where your children make a Celtic knot design. The description and link to the printable curves is here: https://jdaniel4smom.com/2018/02/steam-activity-irish-designs-with-celtic-knots.html

Here is a whole list of St. Patrick’s Day activities from yummy food to free printables. https://www.momsandmunchkins.ca/st-patricks-day-activities/

You can print these cute little Leprechauns to make fun straw rockets. Have your children see how far their Leprechaun will sail! https://jdaniel4smom.com/2018/02/straw-rockets-with-leaping-leprechaun-pictures.html

Bridal Luncheon and Dreaming Tree

What a wonderful weekend it was! This past weekend my beautiful niece got married in one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever been too.

They decided to hold the wedding outside of Dallas, Texas which meant most of the family either drove or flew in. I live in Austin so I drove the distance to enjoy the beautiful ceremony. I decided because of the situation with everyone coming in for the wedding, including the bride, I would host a bridal luncheon for the bride and bride's maids. The bride's mom was co-hostess but she was flying in late Thursday night so I said I would handle it. I love putting together parties as much as I love crafting and sewing.

The restaurant I chose for the luncheon is called Le Hacienda Rance in Colleyville, TX. There is a fun story I have to share about this restaurant. The owner was the inventor of the original frozen margarita machine and his first machine is in the Smithsonian Institute of History.  Needless to say, I had to have a frozen margarita to celebrate that bit of history.

I made decorations for the luncheon using cutting files from Dreaming Tree and my Cricut Explore Air. Thanks to the vases from the ABC Flowers SVG Bundle and the rose from the Cupid Crush SVG Bundle, I had beautiful centerpieces that went with her wedding colors of blue and grey.

It helps to watch the construction videos that Dreaming Tree makes. I ruined my first flower and was up all night putting these vases and flowers together. I wish I had taken a picture of that first rose to show you how bad it was. Once I watched the video, I knew exactly how to put the rose together and make it look beautiful.

The mother of the bride has a wonderful gift for making garlands using origami to make dresses and suits. She made a very special garland for her daughter and son-in-law.

Now that the wedding has come and gone, I am moving on to my Saint Patrick decorations. I hope to have my mantel decked out in green before the weekend has ended.

See ya soon. :)

October Hop - Waterfall Cards

Welcome to the

Welcome to A Year of Card Techniques Blog Hop where each month we feature a different card technique. We’ve assembled a team of card makers who range from new to advanced, so you’ll see a great variety of cards and ideas.

There’s just something about interactive cards!  And Waterfall Cards are among the best interactive card techniques.  They look intricate, though, so we’ll let you in on any hints we uncover along the way.   Hopefully, we’ll inspire you to try one for yourself.

If you would like to check out our past technique hops, you can do that here:

• January-Shaving Cream Marbleizing
• February-So Sketchy
• March-no hop this month
• April-Stamp Set Showdown
• May-World of Watercolor
• June-Basic Card Folds
• July-Bleaching Your Card
• August-World of Watercolor
• September-Inlaid & Lifted Die Cuts

This month our amazing sponsor is none other than  Bugaboo Stamps

Please take a moment to check out their store here, their blog here and their Facebook page here.

And the awesome prize this month is $12.00 gift code to the store (about four digi images).

We really appreciate feedback, so please leave a comment on each of the blogs in the hop today.  The winner will be announced on Sunday, October 29, 2017, on A Piece of (my) Heart’s blog, so be sure to check her blog on Sunday.  If you would prefer to be notified if you win, please leave your email address in the comments and someone will contact you.  The winner will have until November 16, 2017, to claim their prize.

You should have arrived here from Wilma's blog.. If you're visiting here first, you might want to start at the beginning so you don't miss a thing and increase your chances of winning by commenting on each blog.

I love making these cards and use to make them all the time. Once you figure out the measurements, they're not that hard. I have a friend visiting and I even put her to work making one. We plan on giving these to the local VA hospital during the holiday season.

We had videos to look at to make these or jog our memories in my case. I found the videos were hard for me to follow. I needed written directions which I found on Splitcoast Stampers and have included the link here: Waterfall Card Directions

These are the three I made.

This is the one my friend made.

This last one is special because it was made for me a few years ago by a good friend and her children. I love the torn tree shape. It shows how creative you can get with these and her children did most of the work on it.

Here is a quick (and I mean quick) video to show you what is on each panel of the cards we made. The last card in the video with animals, I used colored pencils to color the animals.

Now you’re off to visit with Lisa.. Hope you had fun and thanks for stopping by. See you next month with another technique!

Jearise AKA Lorby :)

Here’s the full line-up in case you get lost:

Sharon
Claudia
Wilma
Jearise
Lisa
Jodie
Card A Day Challenge Team
Debbie
Amanda
Sandy

Chalk N Stock October Challenge

Good day, dear friends. Today begins another challenge at Chalk N Stock where anything goes all month/every month. We were a chalk use challenge group but not everyone uses chalk in their paper crafting so we are an anything goes group now, but loved our name so much that we have decided to keep it. Spread the word and let all your paper crafting friends know that we would love to see their creations!

For our October challenge, I used a beautiful window pane digital stamp from Bugaboo Stamps. They have beautiful stamps as well as cute, funny and cuddly. Check them out!

I used colored pencils to color the blue background, ladybugs and flower. The leaves are colored with alcohol markers in shades of green. This is a big square card that measures 6 inches by 6 inches. I'll have to make a custom envelope for it when it's time to go in the mail.

Enjoy your fall and all the beautiful shades of red, yellow, orange and brown.  Hmm, now I think I want to go make a Halloween card. Check back later this week and see if I did.

Happy days, Jearise AKA Lorby living a crafting world.

Chalk N Stock September Challenge

Boy, have I got some great news to share today in regards to the Chalk N Stock monthly challenge.

Drum roll please... Chalk N Stock is now a ANYTHING GOES challenge and DON'T have to have chalk on your project to enter. That's right, anything you can create with or without chalk can be entered into the challenge.

The challenge date has been changed also and now the challenges will start on the 15th of each month and end on the 14th of the following month.

One last thing, we have new design team members who are excited to be on the team and show you what they have created in the hopes of inspiring you!

I have to show you our new design team button.

It took me some time to find a picture of myself to share but I eventually did. I'm usually the one behind the camera and not in front of it.

Now for my card, which still has a touch of chalk ink because I love using it to edge my cards.

I made this card for a dear friend whose birthday we were celebrating. I used pencils to color the digital file and the yellow around the saying "birthday girl" is chalk ink. I have found the washy tape is fun to use but I have to use to layers on cards with dark backgrounds like I did on this card.

Here is the inside of the card and the rest of the saying.

I couldn't figure out why I had a dark dot on all my photos and then realized I have a piece of fuzz on the inside of my camera lens. I hate when that happens. LOL

Now it's your turn to get creative and show us what you got at Chalk N Stock monthly challenge!

Trying this out

I've been playing with my background and found this groovy design that seems to fit my heading perfectly. Do you agree?

A Year of Card Techniques - Stamping on Patterned Paper

Welcome to the

Welcome to A Year of Card Techniques Blog Hop where each month we feature a different card technique.  We’ve assembled a team of card makers who range from new to advanced, so you’ll see a great variety of cards and ideas.

We all love our stamp sets and we all love our patterned paper.  Well, this month we’re combining the two by stamping ON patterned paper for some unique projects.  It will be fun to see what stamps and papers our team decides to pair together.   And if you would like to check out our past technique hops, you can do that here:

• January-Shaving Cream Marbleizing
• February-So Sketchy
• March-no hop this month
• April-Stamp Set Showdown
• May-World of Watercolor
• June-Basic Card Folds
• July-Bleaching Your Card

Our amazing sponsor this month is Card a Day Challenge Blog.

Please take a moment to check out the CADC blog here.

And the awesome prizes this month are:

We  really appreciate feedback, so please leave a comment on each of the  blogs in the hop today.   The winner will be announced on Sunday,  August 27, 2017 on A Piece of (my) Heart’s blog, so be sure to go back and check her blog to see if you are the winner!  If you would prefer to be notified, please leave your email address in the comments and someone will contact you if you win.    The winner will have until September 9, 2017 to claim their prize.  

You should have arrived here from Wilma. If you're visiting  here first, you might want to start at the beginning so you don't miss a thing and increase your chances of winning by commenting on  each blog.

This month was were challenged to try stamping on patterned paper. I enjoyed this challenge so much that I got my project done over a month before they were due. Here it is and I hope I can remember what I used to do it. That's the problem with doing a project so far in advance. LOL

Here is what I used to do the embossing: clear embossing powder, a resin bag, and Big and Bossy tinted embossing ink.

1. Run the resin bag over your card stock before embossing. This stops the embossing powder from sticking to the card stock and the powder will then only stick to where you use your ink.

2. Use lightly tinted or clear stamping ink and ink and stamp your image.

3. Pour, (yes, pour) embossing powder over the image. Have a scrap piece of paper bigger than your card stock underneath and use this to dump the excess powder off onto.

4. Lightly tap the card stock near the image without touching the image to get off an excess still clinging to the image. (Once you have done this, you can make the scarp piece of paper into a funnel and put the excess powder back into the container.

5. Turn on your heat gun and use it to melt the powder. Some people like to use the heat directly on the image while others like to use it under the paper. Either way works as long as you don't do it too long then you either burn the paper or the powder. I have found that doing it under the paper and hold the paper away from me and looking at the embossing area from the side view, I can see when the powder is melting better than look directly at the image. The powder will become glossy when it's melted.

I hope you go try this method and I love to emboss cards be it regular embossing or like we did for this hop.

Now you’re off to visit with Sandy. Hope you had fun and thanks for stopping by.  See you next month with another technique!

See ya next month! Jearise AKA Lorby

Here’s the full line-up in case you get lost:

Sharon
Claudia
Kim
Wilma
Jearise
Sandy
Jodie
Card A Day Challenge Team
Debbie
Amanda