Vegetable Garden Stakes For My New Garden!

We've been out of town for a couple of weeks so I haven't had a chance to post photos of my new vegetable garden!  Compliments to my dad who basically did the whole thing thanks to my lack of muscle strength and inability to effectively shovel dirt.  :)

More on the vegetable stakes I made in a minute...

Now keep in mind that I was just thinking about a basic wood box with dirt thrown in...but, if you know my dad, you know that nothing (I mean NOTHING) can be a simple project.  I suppose it's the engineer in him.  Due to concerns that untreated wood might be a lure for termites and that treated wood might have chemicals that could seep into the vegetables, we went with stone pavers to contain the garden.  I must admit it looks nice, but OMG it was a LOT more work.  :)

The CFO was 100% against having a garden, which he describes as "work".  I, on the other hand, consider a garden to be FUN.  I obviously won the fight.  :) 

As you can see, the Mess Maker was in favor of a garden, too, because she wanted to "grow the vegetables" (aka water them).

We decided to go with tomatoes (two varieties), carrots, onions, bell peppers, radishes and cucumbers along with some herbs: basil, oregano, sage, thyme, parsley and rosemary.  The cucumbers are in a whiskey barrel next to the fence...I didn't want them to completely take over my little 4x8 foot garden. 

Now for the stakes:

Not that I can't identify the vegetables just by how they look, but I thought it'd be fun to "jazz" it up a bit by adding the garden stakes.  I used my Cricut, of course, some inking to make the signs look weathered, and LOTS of piecing together to make the individual vegetables.  For durability, I laminated each sign and then hotglued them to a stake to insert in the ground. 

Here is a rundown of what I used:

Sign:  Walk In My Garden (WIMG)

Lettering: All Mixed Up

  Tomato: pumpkin and palm tree top from Doodlecharms (DC)

Radish: bee from WIMG

Pepper: popsicle from DC

Carrot: pine branch from Joys Of The Season (JOTS)

Onion: bulb from JOTS

Basil: leaf from Blackletter

Sage: leaf from Blackletter

Rosemary: branch from Storybook (SB)

Parsley: branch from SB

Thyme: vine from SB

Oregano: branch from SB

And here is the finished result:

Thanks for looking and have a creative day!  (And if you have any tips on keeping my currently green vegetable plants alive, please, do share...I'm not exactly known as a green thumb!)  :)

Just Buggin Challenge #15: Christmas Garland

This week's Just Buggin Challenge #15 is called "Happy Holidays": Make a winter holiday or Christmas themed project!  I made a Christmas garland!

 I used Joys of the Season to cut the ornaments and flowers.  Then I used Accent Essentials to cut the white scalloped circles to mat the ornaments.  I used Winter Wonderland to cut the letters and added glitter glue to the accents within each letter.  To finish the ornaments, I punched a small hole in the bottom of each and added a silver Christmas charm (Making Memories). 

To attach the ornaments, I added silver glitter glue to mini clothespins and tied ribbons on them.  I used the clothespins to attach each oranament to the evergreen garland hanging on my mantle.

Thanks for looking!  :)

Just Buggin Challenge #11: Into The Wild

Here is my first project as a new DT member for Just Buggin!!!  Challenge #11 is called "Into The Wild": use a Cricut animal die cut on your project.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this polar bear from JOTS and so this was an easy decision for me with the upcoming Christmas holiday! 

Supplies used:

1. Patterned paper and coordinating cardstock: Magic Of The Season Paper Pack (Hobby Lobby)

2. Polar bear die cut (with shadow and layer): Joys of the Season (Cricut)

3. Tag die cut: JOTS (Cricut)

4.  "Peace" (tag) and winter flourish (on bear body): stamps (CTMH)

5. Adhesive rhinestone: craft supply (Hobby Lobby)

6. Glitter glue (Hobby Lobby)

7. Glue pen (to coat stamps): Martha Stewart Crafts

8. Crushed velvet flocking (Doodlebug Designs)

This card was relatively easy to make.  I cut the polar bear, the shadow and the layer (scarf) and adhered them together.  Then I stamped the bear using glue on my stamp instead of ink and added flocking to it and heated with my heat gun...this added some extra detail and dimension.  I stamped "Peace" on the tag, added a rhinestone and adhered it to the scarf.  Then I attached the bear to the card base with foam dots.  To finish, I added bits of sparkle to the background paper with glitter glue.

Hop on over to Just Buggin and check out the other DT examples...there are some really great projects!!!

Thanks for looking!!!  :)

Christmas Card: MojoMonday and SPCC Challenges

Here is a Christmas Card I made today for two different challenges:

SPCC's color combo this week is the following:

And here is MojoMonday's sketch this week:

When I saw the color combination over at SPCC, I immediately thought of some Christmas Tree Paper I've had since last year and hadn't used yet.  And I've been wanting to make a card with ornaments (Joys of the Season cartridge), so this sketch was perfect for the project!

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Because the coordinating green on the back of the tree print paper has sort of a "vintage-grunge" look, I inked everything to give it an "older" feel.  I used the coordinating green to mat the card base. 

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I used JOTS to cut the ornaments and layer...the olive green snowflake layer on the smaller ornament is attached it with a rhinestone brad and the inner portion is covered with a thin layer of glitter glue.  Then I cut a clear transparency with circular Christmas sentiments using my circle cutter to add over the border of the olive green layer on the snowflake layer (inked of course) and adhered with Tombo Aqua glue. 

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I cut the trees from the tree patterned paper, inked the edges and layered them on the larger ornament.  I hand cut the snow, inked it and added glitter glue.  I cut the small star with JOTS as well, inked it and added glitter glue. 

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I tied brown ribbons to both ornaments and layered them over two patterned paper strips (same paper as trees).  To finish off, I added three "snoball" embellishments...I even inked those!!!  :) 

TFL!!!