Retirement card with attached CD

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A friend of ours retired last year.  I compiled a CD of retirement songs & made a card that was attached to the box by using the Zutter Bind-It-All.  I pretty much finished this five minutes before walking out the door to the retirement party, so this is the only photo I got of it.  I need to make another one for someone else, so  will try to get more photos of that one before giving it to the recipient.

BTW, the songs on the CD were:

1. King of the Road - Roger Miller
2. Good Times - Chic
3. Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodby - Steam
4. It's Five O'Clock Somewhere - Alan Jackson/Jimmy Buffett
5. The Best is Yet To Come - Frank Sinatra
6. Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford
7. I'm Free - Rolling Stones
8. Old Days - Chicago
9. Blue Skies - Eva Cassidy
10. Five O'Clock World - The Vogues
11. Workin' For A Livin' - Huey Lewis & The News

Tissue box covers & rolled/quilled flowers!

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I like these as small gifts.  Something you can give someone & they won't feel obligated to give something in return.  Plus, it's something if they don't like, they can always re-gift it.

This is the most recent one.  The flower on the front is the first rolled/quilled flower, I've done.  They look a bit complicated.  But they really are very easy to make & look lovely!

Here's a close up of it & the cut, from SilhouetteOnline.  The leaves were cut with the Cuttlebug Daisy Quilling Kit. 

Here are some others:

Hostess gift boxes for flameless candles

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Last holiday season, my hostess gift of choice was a flameless candle bought in three packs from QVC.  But since they came in a three pack, I needed a box for each one.  So...I made them on my Silhouette Cameo.

This one was gifted right before Thanksgiving, so I wanted a fall theme but not really Thanksgiving, yet.

This one was for a Thanksgiving evening get together.  I wanted a fall theme but this one also bordered upon Christmas.  The butterfly is a Spellbinders die from the Wonderful Wings set, which is one of my favorites.

This one was for a Christmas party so all out, full Monty Christmas theme.

Another Christmas themed one:

I made a poinsettia for the top of the two Christmas themed boxes.  I cut the three layers, assembled them largest on the bottom & the smaller ones on top & secured with a brad.

The cut for the box was from SilhouetteOnline.  This is the bottom of the box.  I also cut a square from a cereal or cracker box that was the size of the bottom of the assembled box.  I used some of the scraps to cover it, then put it in the bottom to give the box more strength.  Since the lids are not tight fitting, I always secured them to the bottom of the box by tying with a ribbon.  This prevents someone from picking it up by the sides & the lid sliding off & letting the bottom of the box (and the candle!) fall.

This is the top of the box:

These are the cuts for the poinsettia:

Going Away Card using Cricut & Cameo cuts

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This was a going away card for a gal who worked with my husband for many years.  

Her name is cut with the Cricut Lyrical Letters cartridge. The butterfly was cut on the Silhouette Cameo, using a cut from SilhouetteOnline.

The cattails on the inside were cut on the Cricut using the Art Nouveau cartridge. 

The font is JasmineUPC.

To create the scalloped edge on the front, I used the scalloped die from Spellbinders E8-007 Edgeabilites Classic Edges set.

Piano birthday card - Cricut Quarternote cartridge!

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I made this a few months ago for a good friend who has a grand piano in her home.  The sentiment was printed on my computer printer.  The piano, keyboard & notes are Cricut cuts & I used black sparkle paper.

Momism book

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I compiled this booklet last year. After my mother passed away, I had this insatiable need to make something physical that would either remind people of her or would acquaint people with her.  For several months, I fought with this need, since I really didn't know what I wanted to make or how to make it.  I just knew I needed to make something.  I bought all the right tools but nothing really came to fruition, until I made this booklet.  This was very cathartic for me & I still make them to give to people.  

Since I it was a booklet with photographs, I wanted to find photo paper that was printable on both sides.  I'd never heard of such a thing, but thanks to Google, I realized what I needed was "brochure" paper.  

The pages were assembled in Microsoft Publisher 2010.

I also found the Zutter Dreamkutz very helpful for this project.  It's a pretty limited tool.  But when you want to cut a lot of paper that is 12 inches or less in half, this tool is very helpful because it's faster than using a traditional guillotine paper cutter.

Finally, to bind the booklets, I used the Zutter Bind-It-All. 

Mother's birthday luncheon 2013

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Since my mother passed away in April 2012, I've decided to remember her birthday each year by having a girls luncheon.  It keeps me from being sad on that day & is always a lot of fun.  One of the things I most enjoy about my girls luncheon is I get to do it up all girly.  I use my wedding china, crystal & silver.  Sometimes I need extras so I use Bob's grandmother's china or his mother's silver.  We always have a toast to my mother & I always forget to take photos during the event.  But here's a glimpse of this year's event.

The table, partially set (I did add flatware!):

Flowers:

The menu was somewhat retro '80's.  Asparagus quiche, my "big salad" (I have this huge wooden salad bowl that I love & I toss in a lot of tasty things - it's never quite the same from one time to the next) with store bought cranberry salad dressing, risotto, champagne punch & Tazo Passion tea.  Funny because I wanted to serve the champagne punch my girlfriend served at my bridal shower.  I used the same recipe for our wedding.  She later used the same recipe for her wedding & for her first born's (our goddaughter) baptism.  But I couldn't find it.  I looked everywhere.  I still find it incredulous that I had that recipe for many years & yet cannot find it anywhere now.  So I've either lost it or, since that was well before I got into being an organizing freak, it's buried in the garage in some box labeled "dollhouse" or something.  

I'd also planned on having broccoli cheese soup each year, in honor of my mother.  That was one of the things she continued to love in her last few years.  I did serve it last year.  But this year, I didn't have the time/energy to do it. 

Dessert was Apricot Brandy Pound Cake cupcakes with Apricot Cream Cheese Frosting.  The cupcake recipe is one I've used for a few decades but never made as cupcakes before.  I found the frosting recipe on the 'net here. The decos are Wilton, purchased from Party City.

 I stole this photo from Mz. Linda Parker!  (shhh...)
 

The favors - purses made with my Cricut & Silhouette Cameo:

Each purse contained a Crazy Rumors lip balm, See's sucker, hand lotion & Teavana strawberry rose champagne tea:

More on the purses/handbags/favors & how to make them is here.