A Christmas Inspiration!

Sorry I've been out of posting lately! What can I say...it's the Christmas season, and things always get a little crazy around here this time of year.
Today's challenge for Friendship's Garden was a color challenge from a Pinterest photo (here's a link to my Pinterest boards!):

And here's my project:

 I stuck with Stampin' Up!'s Jolly Holly Designer Series Paper for all of my patterned paper. This line went perfectly with the inspiration piece!

I singed a piece of my lace doily (couldn't resist!) for a bit of texture, added a distressed, pre-fab dimensional sentiment embellishment (Me and My Big Ideas) and a bit of green fuzzy yarn.

I can't wait to see you take on this week's project!! Make sure to link it back here!

I'll be back soon with more Christmas (and beyond!) projects to inspire you this Christmas season!!

Art Journaling

While I was waiting for paint to dry last night (literally), I made this little ditty in my art journal. Getting the hang of those gelatos finally!
Rough? yes.
Amazing? not really.
Part of me and where I'm going? yes.

Non-Christmas(ish) Party Fun with Glue Dots!

I love birthdays! I love that everyone has that one special day that they get celebrated.
But.

 {are there any Christmas babies out there??}

Yeah. Christmas babies tend to have their birthdays accidentally forgotten in the hustle and bustle of the season, or may get a 'combo gift'...
                "This present is for your birthday and Christmas!"


So this year, I wanted to do something special for my 'Christmas baby' friend. We'll be having a normal, non-Christmas(ish) party for her this year. I was in charge of dessert and favors.   (!!!)

As much as I love birthdays, I love a good sale, too!! In all of the crafty stores, Christmas displays and goodies are speedily being set up and readied for the upcoming Christmas season...with $ales!! I went shopping for favors and was viciously attacked by 50% off Christmas items!!

So with my non-Christmas(ish) party theme, I snatched up an arm-full of clear plastic Christmas ornaments :)

Favors:

These are super easy to make and a lot of fun, too!! I'll walk you through the steps. Ready?
You'll need the following supplies:

• Clear ornament (I chose plastic...from experience!)
• Glue Lines® and an assortment of other Glue Dots®
• Coordinating glitter, ribbon and paper flowers
• Glittered chipboard letters (I used Thickers)
• Wood floor finish (I've used a few different brands that have all worked)
• Small piece of plastic wrap

 
The first step is to pour a bit of the floor finish into the clean ornament, cover the opening with plastic wrap, and make sure the entire inside of the ornament is coated.

Once the inside is coated, pour out the excess liquid and pour in the glitter. Give it a good shake to make sure it gets everywhere! Put the hanger back onto the top.

Cut your ribbon to fit around the ornament and apply your Glue Lines® to the back.

Peel off the plastic from the Glue Lines® and adhere your ribbon around the ornament. Use Ultra Thin Glue Dots® to apply paper flowers and finish off with your chipboard letter!




For the second ornament, I glittered the inside and used varying sizes of Glue Dots® (Mini, Permanent, and Craft) and randomly adhered them to the outside of the ornament. Press the dots into the glitter and wipe off the excess. Decorate with paper flowers and chipboard letter.

Cake:
When it comes to cake, I ran straight to the cupcake shop!! I love making kids cakes, but thought cupcakes would be more appropriate for this party. I wanted to dress them up a bit, so I used the Cindy Loo Cricut cartridge to cut out cute butterfly cupcake wrappers. I cut out some coordinating paper to line the wrappers and used some Micro Glue Dots® to adhere them.

Can you see those micro dots?? They're there!! Get out the magnifying glass!!

Use a 1" Glue Line® on the end where the tabs are (I don't care for using the tabs...they always fall apart!), wrap the liner around the cupcake and glue for a perfect fit.

I love them! I think everything turned out really well and we'll have a great non-Christmas(ish) birthday party.

I wrote this blog post while participating on the Glue Dots® design team.

Thanksgiving Recipe

Welcome to another challenge from Friendship's Garden!!

Before I get to my project for this week, I wanted to let you know that we're planting a few more flowers at Friendship's Garden!! Our design team will be growing beginning in January. If you're interested in joining our Garden Girl team, please check out this post for more information!



This week we have another 'recipe' challenge: Thanksgiving Theme project using:

1 Die Cut, 

2 Patterned Papers, and 

3 Trims (ribbon, lace, etc.)

I did a Halloween project last month using this awesome Owl Punch from Stampin' Up!:

The dressed up little guys looked like this:

http://deeplyrootedlife.blogspot.com/2011/10/ghoultide-blog-hop.html

I thought I'd take a new season's twist on this punch and see what I could come up with for Thanksgiving! I thought about doing the expected 'turkey', but decided to get a bit more creative and make my little guy a Pilgrim!

I used the punch to cut most of the pieces, but I hand cut his hat and his collar.

My recipe was: 

1 Die Cut = Pilgrim Owl

2 Patterned papers: Stampin' Up! Patterned Paper Pack

and 3 Trims: brown felt trim, yellow cording and orange baker's twine

Hope you enjoyed this recipe challenge. Can't wait to see what YOU come up with!! Make sure you post your projects back to Friendship's Garden here. 

Quick page...and I mean QUICK!

So I'm on my own for a bit! My wonderful hubby took the kids to visit his parents out of state until Thanksgiving. It's only been a few days since they left, and I think I've slept the majority of the time away!! Hopefully I'll be able to get quite a few posts up while I have a bit of extra time on my hands.


I've had this piece of cardstock since I started scrapbooking in 2008, and I could never figure out how I wanted to use it. It's a very bold image, and already had a title printed on it. This combination can either equal a quick page or a challenge that takes 3 years to figure out!

I bought it because I was sure my son, in the years to come, would do something that would make me want to use this paper. While I'm sure that he did, this cardstock still never 'spoke' to me. It wasn't until my daughter came along that I wanted to pull this out!

Cardstock is Write Print Crafters 'Engine Tach'

All I did to complete this LO was to trim my pictures down to fit into a cluster to the side of the title and add my beloved Thickers letters (these were Iguana). I had run out of i's, so I used one of the tilde pieces to replace it! This page might have taken me 5 minutes to complete!


Are you ready for my tip of the day when it comes to using a sheet of letters? 

Use a water soluble marker to mark over the letters on the plastic packaging for the letters you'll need. You can easily tell if you'll have the correct letters for what you want to spell, and the marker will wipe right off with a tissue or baby wipe!




A lot of scrapbookers I've talked to say that they'd rather have their pages done, even if they don't love the page. While I have a hard time with this motto, personally, I think this page meets the best of both worlds!

All About Boys Blog Hop, Day Two!

Welcome to All About Boys Blog Hop day two of two! {If you want to check out day one of the hop CLICK HERE}

I am so glad you joined us today!
Boy themed projects seem harder to come by, so that is why we have dedicated TWO whole days to nothing but boys! Hopefully you are able to walk away with some fabulous ideas in mind. We have a lot of very talented people that will be sharing their projects with you, and what would a hop be without a little prize at the end?? :)

There is a FANTASTIC prize package waiting for you! All you have to do to be eligible is...

1. Leave a comment on every blog BOTH DAYS

2. Become a follower on every blog (if you already are just put that in with your comment)

3. Become a fan of Paper Creations by Mindy on facebook (stop in and say hi too!)

Three easy steps and you're eligible for the prize!


Now .....what will you win?? (are you ready for this lineup?!?)

Scraptastical Kreations $20 gift certificate

 Designs on Cloud 9 $20 gift certificate

Little Scraps of Heaven Designs $20 gift certificate

Paper Piecings by Nikki $20 Gift certificate

The Beary Scrap $15 gift certificate

Beary Sweet Designs $20 gift certificate

WOW! Wish I could enter the hop myself!
AND, to sweeten the deal, Mindy has her own personal "goodie bag" for you.


Now onto my project -

I had a print of my son enlarged, and I've been waiting for the perfect time to get it out and finish it!
I inked the fronts and edges of grungeboard for all of the lettering. The smaller prints at the bottom are taken from the proofs that are sent with my pictures when they come back from the developer!
I also hand drew some clouds from white cardstock in the same style as the clouds of the background paper to add some dimension and interest. I used Glue Dots to adhere everything to my layout.

Hope you enjoyed this page! Don't forget to follow my blog and leave a comment on this (and every!) post to be qualified for the goodies!!
Now hop on over to Melissa's Blog to see what she has in store for you.


In case you get lost - here is the line-up for Day 2:

1. Mindy Eggen 
2. Janet Murray Nagai 
3. Dawn Dorosz Muldowney 
4. Janet Smith  
5. Jamie L 
6. Doris     
7. Haidee 
8. Paula  
9. Erin Bullock  {you are here}
10. Melissa Haereiti {next stop is here!}
11. Lisa Tehonica Pontious 
12. Patti Ross 
13. Vicki Wilson 
14. Lisa

A Throw It Together Thanks

Last night, last minute quick thank you card!
I inked the edges and added some ribbon and chipboard letters. I stamped a flower in a light yellow to add some interest to the plain craft background.
An easy and quick way to make your card original is to round the edges of it. It adds interest without taking any time at all!
Check that off of the mile long 'to-do' list!!

A Quick Card for Frienship's Garden

Isn't this how it always works?? You spend hours (and knowing me, DAYS) working on a project, only to never have it turn out the way it is in your head. I don't know how many frustrating moments I've had in my craft lair pulling my hair out trying to fix a doomed project.


Aaaaaaand then you have a challenge. A 15 minute challenge.


And in 12:55.9 minutes,

you create one of your favorite cards. 

 
Ever.

I don't know. Maybe it's the unexpected black, red and green combo, or maybe it's the big, gaudy bow (along the lines of my Thanksgiving layout, too), but I really love this card! 

It was very quick to throw together (obviously). I used the front and reverse of my Stampin' Up! cardstock, and the trim, circle and Santa embellishments were all pre-made. I inked the edges of {everything} - of course - and used Glue Dots to adhere everything to my card base. The bow was made from a remnant package I bought at Hobby Lobby (the whole package was on sale for $2!)

Now some of you out there know me well enough to expect a Christmas card in the mail in the coming weeks...when you open it, just pretend it's the first time you've seen it!!

Hop back over to Friendship's Garden to post your 15 minute creation!!

used in this project:

InLinkz.com

Art Journaling...just me!

Journals have always been very popular. Remember back to your teen and pre-teen years when you had the journal with the little lock on it (that you thought no one could ever get in to...I mean, it had a lock on it, right?!)? Even scrapbooking {well heck, this blog!} is journaling. Visual journaling, I guess.
Well, a new {to me, at least} trend right now is Art Journals. These have also probably been around for eons, but they were probably just called 'sketch pads' until now. Also new to me is my very first art journal. I picked it up at Hobby Lobby tonight (it was on clearance for $2!).
Fair warning number one: I can't draw. Really, at all. I'm pretty horrible at it.
Fair warning number two: be kind. Like it says, this is me.

Here's my first entry:

I have aspirations for this book...here's hoping I can live up to my own visions :)

Autumn Leaves

Without a doubt, this is my favorite time of the year! The sound of the leaves crunching, the chill in the air, and gorgeous colors everywhere you look...nothing's better!
This week at Friendship's Garden, we're taking the sights, sounds, and the feel of Fall and wrapping it up in a nice little card.

Autumn Leaves Card

During this time of the year, I think everyone tends to think a little bit more about what they're thankful for, so I designed this thank you card using the colors of Fall.
I started with a patterned background, then added my decorative trims (I, of course, burned the lace first. I think it's an obsession of mine!) The leaves went on next, and I adhered them with craft Glue Dots (just in the center, so their edges can still pop up off the page for some added depth)

I inked the edges of my chipboard letters before I applied the, then added a corduroy button, threaded with some orange floss, on top. My last embellishment was a piece of orange ribbon that I picked up from a scrapbooking yard sale a few years ago.

Thanks for stopping by, and if you're here from Friendship's Garden, be sure to get your Autumn Leaves card made and post it back to the blog!!

used in this project:

InLinkz.com