Been a while since I posted . . .

but it was a great Christmas! We didn't have a lot of money to spend, but we still had a little something for everyone. We also had a GREAT time with family and friends this year. My parents totally loved the sign we made for them. I couldn't get a decent picture of it, but here is one from the kitchen table. It is about 3 feet long, so hard to get a picture by myself of it. I have to get a copy of the pic from Mom that I took of them holding it. (btw, they loved the coasters too). I had lots of help with this. I printed the letters on my computer in a long banner form, then used an Exact-O knife to cut them out, taped it on the wood after my husband measured to get it perfectly centered and we both traced the letters on. Then all 3 of us tried our hand at the Wizard dremel tool on a scrap piece of wood, and DH was the best, so he got the job of etching most of the letters. I finished up a few when his hand got too tired. Then I painted and lacquered during the week prior to Christmas with a little help from my guys. The final touches were the crosses on the corners, again etched by DH and actually used Stickles in the groove then clear lacquer over that. The top was sponged in white to make it look like clouds. Oh, did I say they LOVED it?! They both got a "little teary" as did we after wards. I was (and still am) thrilled that they enjoyed it so much! I can't wait to see it up on the barn--maybe when we go up again! I will be sure and take a picture to show you. Can you believe I forgot my camera when we went up. So I have to wait for Mom to email me her pictures. We all took turns with the camera on Saturday, and I know she has LOTS!

My hubby got me a Cricut (big surprise, because we were not going to get each other anything this year), and I feel so guilty having it, but he got a pretty good package deal on this one with 2 cartridges, cutting mat, 2 replacement blades and a spatula . . . well, I won't go on and on.

I just wanted to show you some really simplistic looking cards I made with it this past week. They are not my best work mind you, but it was fun to play around with it. I am having some trouble with it cutting all the way through SU cs though. Guess we really get our money's worth with that stuff, because it is tough! lol The "Miss You" card is an exact duplicate (well, okay with different dp and cs) from the example in the booklet that came with the samples cartridge, but the other is all my own. The images are from the Paper Pups cartridge. The "Love" card needs a ribbon/brad still, but I haven't decided what yet.