10 Minute Craft Dash & Little Red Riding Hood Giveaway

I knew I wouldn't have much time today, but I really wanted to make a card, so I turned to the 10 Minute Craft Dash Challenge for inspiration.  I've had school/Little Red Riding Hood on my mind (you'll see why in a second), and the challenge colors were perfect for where my thoughts were already occupied.

Please pardon the shadows in the photo.  Remember what I said about not having much time today?  The sun wasn't exactly cooperating (but I am so glad for the sun...did I mention it snowed here yesterday...sigh) and I had to choose between truer color or fewer shadows....I went with color.  This card reminds me so much of notes I would write in middle school--notebook paper, speech bubbles, short thoughts, mix of words and pictures.  Oh, and I owe a huge thanks to my sweet blogging friend Marybeth for being able to finish this card in time (9 minutes 46 seconds).  A while back she sent me these speech bubble diecuts to help hold me over until Papertrey restocked the Bubble Talk dies and I could place another order.  And if that wasn't good enough, she also sent me some of the Lil' Inkers stitched mat dies....love them!

Okay, so why have I been thinking about Little Red Riding Hood and school?  My sweet and super talented sister just created a few new educational packets based on the story Little Red Riding Hood and she has a giveaway on her blog right now that you could win them for free.  You have until next Friday, October 4th to enter.  My sister is a talented artist and teacher, and both of those talents are evident in her educational packets.  I know I'm biased, but I promise you any child would be blessed to have her as a teacher, and I've used her packets with both my toddler and older preschool/school-age children I've worked with and they are fantastic tools for teaching and fun, too.  Go check them out on her website Learn & Grow Designs...you won't be disappointed. :)

Card Supplies

Stamps: PTI (Bubble Talk), Verve (Notebook Paper Plain Jane)

Ink: Memento (London Fog), PTI (Pure Poppy), SU! (Blue Buckaroo), Versamark

Cardstock: PTI (Pure Poppy, Stamper's Select White)

Dies: Lil' Inker (Stitched Mats: Rectangles), PTI (Bubble Talk)

Other: SU! (white embossing powder)

PTI September Blog Hop Card 3

Hello!  Here's my last card for PTI's September Blog Hop featuring wreaths.

I had the idea to make a wreath out of snowflakes, so I pulled out my snowflake punch and got to work.  Since the wreath was all white I decided I wanted to make a bright and cheerful card.  I knew I wanted to pair it with aqua mist, then I found the bright green ribbon, and the last color added was PTI's hibiscus burst.  The card is pretty straightforward, so I spare you the details, but I did want to point out something that's hard to see.  After I added a bit of texture to the card, I flicked white paint on it.  It was more watered down than I had wanted but ended up creating a fun wet snow look that I just love.  I used my favorite Christmas sentiment from PTI's Star of Wonder set to finish the card off. Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you're having fun on the hop. :)

PTI September Blog Hop, Moxie Fab, CFC115 & CAS-ology #63

Seeing as I love wreaths I knew I would have to make more than one card for PTI's September Blog Hop.  

My original plan was to make this a Christmas card with a red, cream, and kraft color scheme, but when I finished wrapping my burlap wreath, my eye stumbled upon these beautiful leaves that I received in a surprise package yesterday from the super sweet Marybeth. (Thank you, Marybeth...you're the best!)  I'm completely in love with these stitched leaves and just had to add them to my project, so  I ended up changing the layout, color scheme, and theme. :)  

With the change of theme and colors, my card ended up working for the current CAS-ology Cue Card Challenge: Autumn and CAS-ual Fridays Challenge: Fall Colors & a Leaf.  Yay! It's been a while since I've been able to play along with these challenges, and I'm glad I finally got some extra time.  I'm also entering this into the General Craft Supplies Challenge that is part of the celebrations at Moxie Fab World for the new Handmade Cards magazine.  The burlap certainly came from my general craft supply (I bought it with intention of making a knock off of these cute ghost lights from Pottery Barn), but the wreath also has buttons and black sequins that were part of my stash long before they ever became popular embellishments on cards.

Supplies

Stamps: Sketched Shapes (PTI)

Ink: True Black (PTI)

Paper: Kraft, Scarlet Jewel, Spring Moss, White (PTI), polka dot (Haunted by MME)

Other: Stitched Leaves Die (Lawn Fawn), Gemstones (The Paper Studio), white burlap and buttons (Hobby Lobby), buttons

Papertrey September Blog Hop & Moxie Fab General Craft Challenge

I probably haven't mentioned this on the blog before, but I LOVE making wreaths.  It is one of my very favorite kinds of crafts to do.  Needless to say I was super excited when I saw that this month's theme for PTI's Blog Hop is wreaths...a perfect combination of two things that I love.  I've also been watching all the fun challenges at the Moxie Fab World to celebrate the release of Handmade Cards, and decided to enter this one into the General Craft Supplies Challenge.

I kind of feel like anything is fair game when it comes to cards these days, so I purposely pulled out supplies that I bought for other crafts to make sure I used something from my "general crafting" supplies.  The beads are from some necklaces/keychains I made with a church youth group I used to help with and the embroidery floss was originally used on some hand puppets I made a few years ago. 

The idea for the wreath on my card was inspired by some wreaths I've seen floating around Pinterest.  I love the argyle and have been wanting to make a wreath very similar to this for my front door.  I created the wreath by hand-cutting the diamonds from PTI's orange zest and true black cardstock, glued them on, and then wrapped the black floss around to create the argyle pattern.  Then I added the beads and the leaves (die cut with PTI's Happiness In Bloom Leaves Die).  I wanted to balance the shininess on the beads on the wreath, so I embossed the sentiment from PTI's Bountiful Banners.  Oh, and I added a little texture to the card front with PTI's Linen & Canvas Impression plate.

WPlus9 Monday Mood Board #20

Just popping in for a second to share a card I made last week.  It seems like I made it ages ago, though, as I haven't spent any time making cards in over a week.  Life has been full and busy but a good full--spending time with family, helping friends, playing outside, working on our home, etc.  I made this card using the current Monday Mood Board at WPlus9.  The inspiration this week was this card by the talented Elise Durenberger:

I used two of my favorite WPlus9 sets: Fresh Cut Florals (+ coordinating dies) and Strictly Sentiments 1. I obviously drew inspiration from the chevron and I used a similar layout....just rotated a bit.  I also used the same general color scheme (+ green and light blue).  The burlap was my interpretation of the twine and banner elements. My favorite part about the card, though, is that it has already been sent in the mail. :) When I did have a bit of extra time this week, instead of making cards I wrote on and mailed a bunch that I've been meaning to send out for a month (or more).  And I'm so glad I did.  It was time well spent.  Thanks for stopping by!  Happy weekend to you...

Wanna Sketch #8 & Simon Says...Emboss It

I made this card weeks ago using this sketch over at Dahlhouse Designs and totally forgot about it until I stumbled upon it last night.  I loved the simplicity of the sketch, so I wanted to keep my card simple.    To create the overlapping butterflies, I used the same technique that the incredible Jess Witty used on this card.  My favorite thing about the whole card might be the texture created by PTI's Linen & Canvas Impression Plate, though.  It's for sure my favorite IP.  ETA: Since the embossing was my favorite part of this card (and with Leigh's tip :) ), I decided this would be a great card to link up for the Simon Says....Emboss It Challenge.  Okay, I'm off to finish a card for my niece's birthday.  I'm struggling with it...can't quite get it to look how I want.  Wish me luck. :)

The sketch I used:

Craft Dash #25 Original + Remix

Isn't the color scheme for this week's 10 Minute Craft Dash fantastic?  I thought so, too, so I pulled out some PTI sets and used this card by Laurie Willison as my inspiration.  (I realize it was from last week's Muse Challenge, but I didn't get a chance to play along and loved Laurie's card too much to pass up the opportunity to CASE it.)

I finished the card in 9 minutes 33 seconds and I liked it...yay!  I did have a bit of an oops...about 2/3 of the way through the stamping the argyle pattern I realized I was on the wrong side of the card base, but I knew I wouldn't have time to start over.  My cards mostly go to family, so I figure they won't mind opening a card from the opposite direction, right?  Keeps things interesting.  As I was taking pictures of the card the argyle pattern completely reminded of a sweater vest my dad has.  He is the sweater vest king.  He loves them so much that for his 60th birthday my sister made him a sweater vest cake. (Wish I could find a picture of it...it was awesome.)  My oops got me thinking, what if I flipped the card vertically...so I did and I realized that with that orientation the card looked like part of a suit jacket with a sweater peeking out from underneath.  Soooo I had to make another card just for fun.

I stamped the exact same pattern again, but this time I added buttons and the corner of a pocket.  I was going to change the placement of the sentiment, but I wasn't sure where to put it, so I just kept it the same.  And I love it....it's perfect for my dad.  I already had a birthday card for him, but I haven't mailed it yet, so now he'll have two.  Hopefully that will make up for the fact that they are both late.  My husband described the first card as "cool", so I figure I'll keep it and send it to someone with a good sense of humor...maybe that way my oops looks like an intentional joke. :)
Supplies
Stamps: PTI (Autumn Pattern Pieces, Bountiful Banners)
Ink: ColorBox (robin's egg), PTI (harvest gold, kraft) 
Paper: PTI (rustic cream)
Other: buttons

WPlus9 Monday Mood Board #19

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do when I first saw this week's Monday Mood Board at WPlus9, so I just started pulling out items I saw in the photo. I pulled out lace trim, burlap, twine, and paper and inks in the colors displayed.  

I also noticed some leftover tags I dyed during PTI's Stamp-a-faire event, so I grabbed those as well.  The variegated colors in the tag reminded me a lot of the shading on the flower in the inspiration photo, so I decided to use it.  

After creating a cluster of flowers with WPlus9's Fresh Cut Florals set, I wanted to add some type of texture to the card because the texture in the photo is what initially caught my eye.  I tried the lace first, but it didn't work, so I turned to the twine and burlap.  Happily I recalled Kelly Griglione's tutorial on using a piece of burlap to impress a background, so that is what I did.  I'm still so amazed that it turns out so well. (And I'm thrilled that I didn't have to buy PTI's burlap impression plate to achieve this awesome look...thank you, Kelly!)  The final touch was pulling a strand of burlap off and using it to tie a bow on my tag.  I love being able to use supplies in multiple ways, and I'm pretty happy about how the card turned out, too.

Supplies

Stamps: WPlus9 (Fresh Cut Florals)
Ink: PTI (berry sorbet, kraft, spring moss), SU! (pink pirouette), Tim Holtz (walnut stain)
Paper: PTI (kraft, white)
Other: PTI (Tag Sale Die #3), WPlus9 (Fresh Cut Florals dies), Hobby Lobby (burlap)

Moxie Fab: Holiday Home Decor

Mom: We all think that your idea for a homemade Christmas is wonderful.  SO, please stop reading. This gift is for you. :)  Love you!

Hello, friends!  I've been dying to play along with one of the holiday challenges at Moxie Fab World.  I've had an idea brewing for the Holiday Home Decor Challenge ever since I made this card, and today I finally got to make it.  Yippee!

I realize that the home decor projects published in Paper Crafts are on a smaller scale, but I didn't just want to make a project for a contest.  I wanted to make a project for someone. My mother always decorated for all the holidays, and I loved it.  I try to decorate for major holidays but certainly on a much smaller scale, especially since I now have to have everything higher than 4 1/2 feet off the ground (approximately the height my toddler can reach standing on a chair).  I know this is pretty large, but I wanted my home decor project to be something my mother could use.  So I turned on the Christmas music (I can't believe I broke my own rule of not listening to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving!) to get myself into the Spirit of Christmas and got to work.

My family knows I love making banners.  I've made lots.  But this is my first Christmas banner.  Is it simple?  Yes.  But I think that is the beauty of it.  I kept experimenting, but in the end took pretty much all the embellishments off.  I wanted attention to be drawn to the images and the message of the Savior's birth that they portray, and everything I tried seemed liked they distracted rather than enhanced that message.  I'm so happy with how the banner turned out.  I think it will look beautiful hanging on my parents mantle with one of my mom's nativities displayed above it.

 

I used relatively few supplies to make the banner.  The star of the show is Papertrey's Star of Wonder stamps.  All the images and the sentiments (with a little masking on the "Glory to God" sentiment) come from this set.  The patterned paper are from various My Mind's Eye collections.

Besides making the medallions, the only tricky thing was stamping the images in brown ink and then re-stamping them in Versamark, so I could put some clear embossing powder on top.  I love how the embossing deepens the color so much.  Speaking of color, I was pretty excited about the hints of blue/blue-ish green in the papers.  I thought it took a pretty traditional color scheme and upped it just a notch...plus my favorite color is blue, so I was happy to sneak that in there, and I bet my mom will notice, too. :)

Oh, and I had to point out the clothespins.  I almost always use clothespins to hang my banners, but these ones are a bit fancier than usual and serve a dual purpose.  I covered them (which is so simple to do that I cannot believe I haven't done it before), but my favorite part is that they are magnetic.  I was trying to think of where I could hang the banner to have at least decent light and realized the door would be the best bet....and it happens to be magnetic. So I decided to make the clothespins into magnets.  

Now my mom can use them to hold papers on the fridge after Christmas.  Hee.  Silly little things like this make me happy.  Thanks for taking a look! I hope you enjoyed your weekend, especially those in the United States who had an extended weekend because of Labor Day.

  

Supplies

Stamps: Star of Wonder (PTI)
Ink: Cranberry (CTMH), Sage Shadow (SU!), Tea Dye Duo (PTI), Walnut Stain (Tim Holtz), VersaMark
Paper: Rustic Cream (PTI), Lost & Found, Lost & Found Two, Signature Christmas (MME), Union Square (Recollections)
Other: clear embossing powder (CTMH), 1 3/4" punch, clothespins, twine

Moxie Fab World: Holiday Food & Treat Wrap Challenge + Holiday Gift Wrap Challenge

Hi!  I wanted to make something for Moxie Fab World's Holiday Food & Treat Wrap Challenge, but I couldn't quite bring myself to make our typical holiday treats.  They're somewhat labor intensive and it's still hot enough outside that I didn't want to spend a whole lot of time with the stove and oven on.  Then I had a breakthrough this week.  I've been doing major cleaning in the "messy room" (which is unfortunately what my toddler calls the room I craft in...even when it is clean).  As I was dumping the little prima flowers out of their bottles I realized they would be perfect for packaging treats...itty-bitty marshmallows to be exact.  My mom just sent some out for my son and they are perfect for hot chocolate, so I decided to put together a little hot chocolate kit.

I started with the bottles.  I wanted to dress them up a bit, but not so much that they would be hard to hold and use.  Even the little chalkboard labels can easily be unclipped if they get in the way or if the bottles get refilled with something different.  But then I decided that I couldn't just bring a bunch of bottles over to a neighbor.  They had to be put into something, but not just a typical package....they were so bright and cheery I wanted them to be seen right away.  And so the wheels started turning...

The idea for this somewhat unconventional packaging came to me at about 5:00 this morning.  I probably should have just looked for a template, but true to how I usually do things, I decided to do things the hard way and figure it out myself.  I'm not gonna lie, the holder was a bit time consuming, but mostly just doing all the math to make sure the dimensions of the box were correct and that it would be strong enough to hold the bottles..  The box is divided into four little compartments that the snuggly fit each bottle. It's made out of chipboard, covered with some cute Christmas papers, and there is lots of reinforcing on all sides and especially the handle because the bottles are quite heavy.

And since the ideas for the bottles and the packaging came to me separately, I decided to enter the packing into Moxie Fab World's Holiday Gift Wrap Challenge as well.  This little box would actually be a great way to gift wrap lots of other things besides treats...I'm thinking lotions, body sprays, and soaps...things I love to get and therefore give as gifts.  It was so fun to make a non-card project.  I forget how much I like them.  Oh, and here's one last shot of the bottles in their holder, ready to go to one lucky neighbor. ;)

Craft Dash #24 & Moxie Fab World Holiday Card & Simon Says

I have a quick holiday card to share tonight.  I made it a few nights ago for a 10 Minute Craft Dash Challenge, but didn't get to enter it in before the deadline....that's been happening a lot lately, but the good news is that cards are getting made and this week's Simon Says Challenge is "Anything Goes", so this card works perfectly there. :) I actually made four cards using the Craft Dash color scheme, but I loved this one because it was such an unconventional color scheme for a Christmas card, which I intentionally made for Moxie Fab World's Holiday Card Challenge.  I did a bit of selective inking with this one.  The image is from Stampin' Up's Big on Christmas set and reads "Let it snow" with just the snowman head as the "o" in the word "snow".  However, I wanted a full snowman, so I stamped the head on some watercolor paper, drew a snowman body, watercolored it just a bit, and then put the whole snowman back in the word.  Does that make sense?  Hopefully. :)

Thanks for stopping by today!  Hope you have a happy week. :)