Be(SILVER)ware!!

I am CRAZY in love with our Frugal Finds Feature over at Practical Scrappers.  How Christine, Erin, and I continue to out-do ourselves and inspire the ladies to create with things you would never think possible for scrapbooking and cardmaking blows me away.  The best part is, I don't know where I come up with my own ideas-- you never know where your crafting is going to take you. 

I have two projects to share.  This was the first one I created. I was inspired for this creation when, after Christine announced what her choice was.  Now I'll admit, I was not happy with her when she told us her choice -- even promised severe payback with my choice for next month (bwaa ha ha *note* my evil laugh). I found my groove and "dug right it".

Supplies:

Broken ends of plastic spoons (flower petals)

Cardstock: The Paper Company (kraft)

Pattern Paper: Crate Paper (Emma's Shoppe, Random, Seasons, & Peppermint Collections)

Tools: Cuttlebug

Dies: Provo Craft (maple leaf cut and emboss combo), Die-namics: rolled mum die,

Spellbinders: Lacey Squares

Stamps: Studio g (thanks so much)

Ink: Tsukineko VersaMagic Chalk Ink (red magic and hint of pesto),

 Copic Markers (Y06, Y08, Y17)

Bling: pearl from a random string of pearls

Hot Glue Gun

I cut off the ends of my spoons, colored with my copics to highlight the center of the flower, then hot glued them together to form a flower.  I placed the rolled mum in the center to hide the broken bases and topped that off with a little pearl.  For my leaves, I used the maple leaf cut and emboss combo die but I cut it up to only use one of the three points.

 

The second card I have up here I got a little crazy--no surprise there!  This one might be considered dangerous because even though it's plastic, but the fun I had creating this card is PRICELESS!! So much fun, that it is my new favorite all time project EVER, and I doubt I will surpass this (though I will try).  On this one, I used some clear pastic knives--take a look:



Supplies:

Cardstock: The Paper Company (kraft and white)

Pattern Paper: Little Yellow Bicycle "Hello Fall"

Ink: Studio g (light blue chalking ink),

Copic Markers (R35, YR04, Y17, G05, B29,V09)

Dies: Spellbinders (Lacey Circles)

Punches: EK Sucess- Cupcake punch (clouds)

Cuttlebug (D'vine Swirls Embossing Folder)

Brown Letter Stickers (unknown from a swap)

Clear Plastic Knives

Wire Cutters (cut off plastic knives)

Metal File (file sharp points of knives down)

Hot Glue Gun

I stared and stared at a box of clear plastic knives for at least two hours.  I even joked with the ladies on the design team (while chatting on facebook) that the only thing I could think to do with them was throw them across my office at the sytrofoam wreaths hanging from my office doorknob.  And no joke, I did take a few stabs at that due to mental block.  But the more and more I stared at them I saw the arch shape and thought of a rainbow. 

Coloring the spoons with my Copics worked so well with the spoons, I decided to give it another go with the clear plastic to get more of a stained glass/transparent look.  I colored each one of the serated ends first on the front side. Now, here's the trick!  When coloring on plastic, you have to be careful not to do too many layers.  It becomes streaky (you can kind of see it on the green), but it did trigger me to go back and color the other side to enhance the color (doing both front and back) which worked great for the blue and violet leaving no streaks at all!  Finally, I hot glued them down to my card and staggered the embossed clouds inbetween to get that 3-D effect.

Hope you enjoyed my silverware inspiration today!  You can head over to Practical Scrappers to see the rest of the gals' inspiration!

Family Flip Flop Mini Album

Today over at Practical Scrappers, we are doing our "10 thing to do with a..." feature.  This week's choice...the dreaded scoring board.  Most of you probably have one of these lying around espically if you are a card maker or a fan of the making boxes.  My project today is a mini album, a flip-flop mini to be exact.  You can find the instructions for this over at the Scor-Pal website.  This was one of the first projects outside of a scraopbook page, I ever learn how to create back in 2007.  I decided it was time to revisit the past and redo what was done then.  Now I did changed mine up a bit.  Instead of making the larger tags giving you only a front and back, I made it a pull out tag giving you double the place for pictures and journaling (two out outside, and a two on the pull out tag).

album cover

album open

one of the pull-out tag sections...these areas will fit a 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" photo

Supplies:

2 pieces of Chipboard 6 1/4"x 6 1/4" (light weight--I used recycled cereal boxes)

Cardstock: The Paper Company (kraft)

Pattern Paper: Crate Paper (Restoration Collection)

Embellishments: Crate Paper Chipboard and Cardstock (Restoration Collection)

Ribbon: Crate Paper (Static Collection) 

Ink: Versa Mark ( Jumbo Java Chalking Ink), Staz-on Timber Brown

Punches: Martha Stewart

Bling: Studio 18

Stamps: Autumn Leaves (journaling lines)

 

Thanks for stopping in today.  Make sure you head over to Practical Scrappers to see what the rest of the ladies came up with for using their scoring board.  Also, if you scroll down to the post below, you will find my second project that I made some envelopes using my scoring board. 

Happy Scrapping!!

A Little Picky??

I have two projects to share with you today for our monthly frugal finds feature over at Practical Scrappers. Today, the ladies and I are using toothpicks. They were a lot of fun to do!  I did have a meltdown while creating my layout and ripped the entire project apart, but it was all for the good.  It also inspired some more crafty ideas on how I could use those little picks!

On this layout, I placed two round toothpicks together and wrapped a double layer of Martha Stewart twine around them to create my flagpole embellishment! By the way, this layout is well over due!  This weekend will mark a year ago that Layton took his journey to Canada!

 

Here I went for the not so obvious! Not only can you use them to embellish, but you can use them as a tool! I took a stab at quilling on this card.  Here I used my round toothpicks to roll  the pattern paper strips around the toothpick to create her flower petals and leaves. Not only did they do the rolling, but I used them to apply the glue to the rolled petals and leaves.

Confetti Card

Can you tell I'm behind?  Made this card a week ago and just putting it up on my blog.  But, at least I'm getting a day off work to do so, having our first snow day of the year--TIS CRAZY!!!!

Here's a card I made for the Challenge Me Tuesday --confetti challenge last week at Practical Scrappers ( you can check out some more of our confetti inspiration here).

Frugal Finds: Bobby Pins

Hi All!  Very busy weekend here and just getting around to posting these projects that went up earlier today on Practical Scrappers.   We brought back our monthly feature this week of frugal finds and I challenged the ladies to create a project using bobby pins.  I was inspired back in the end of February when my Delaney went to a Fancy Nancy theme birthday party and I was pinning her hair up and thought, " how can I use these in my crafting?"  It was a lot of fun and I still have a few other ideas I will be trying, but here are the two projects I came up with for today's post!

On this layout I  painted my bobby pins white with white acrylic paint then used them to create the journaling lines in the bottom right hand corner of  the layout.  Now I have to say that I am quite proud of the hand stitching I did around the page on photo on this layout.  I used the holes from MS border punch as my guide ans stitching around it with the embroidery floss which took me 53 minutes to do.

Product List:

Pattern Paper:  Crate Paper- Peppermint Collection

Cardstock: Core'dinations (smooth red)

Embellishments & Buttons: Crate Paper - Pepperiment Collection

Alphas: Studio g

Punches: Martha Stewart Framed Dots combo set

Tools: Creative Memories Circle Cutter

Twine:  Martha Stewart Bakers Twine

Red Embroidery floss

Bobby pins

White Acrylic paint

Black journaling pen

How about a little R&R here--Restoration & Random that is from my favorite manufacturer, Crate Paper. Here, I was inspired by the layout of this card from my online SAS sister,  Cassie D'Ambrosio. Cass is fabulous person of inspiration for me.  I love her clean and simple style and always look forward to seeing what she shares with us in our SAS gallery.   From Cass's design on her one of her cards she shared with us, I decided to add my own twist by adding some more painted bobby pins and then embellishing them with some dew drops from one of our past sponsors The Robin's Nest. 

Product List

Pattern Paper: Crate Paper Restoration & Random Collections

Chipboard Embellishment: Crate Paper Restoration Collection

Punches: Stampin' Up Ornament Punch

Tools: Creative Memories Circle Cutter

Stamp: Studio g

Ink: Tsukineko- Jumbo Java Chalk Ink

Dew Drops:  The Robin's Nest

Bobby Pins

White Acrylic Paint

Twine

Thanks for stopping in!  Hope you enjoyed my bobby pin inspiration!

 

Outta This World!

There's one thing I have to explain first before I post this layout...there is NO explaining my Jaedon.  He is the craziest little man in my world (that tells you a lot since both myself and my husband work in mental health), but I LOVE this guy to pieces.  My mother keeps trying to get me to video him and post him on You Tube and see how many hits he gets, but I am resisting.  I am totally convinced that someday in his life he will end up on a stage...stealing the show right out from under the rest.  These were some random pics I took with my cell phone and did a little editing plus turned them B&W as he was posing for me as he fixed his hair after getting his bath...LOL!!

The layout was created for the purpose of our Challenge Me Tuesday this week at Practical Scrappers of using shapes with 5 or more sides!  I think this just became my new favorite layout without any intention of doing so.

Product List:

Paper:  Crate Paper Orbit Collection

Embellishments: Crate Paper Orbit Collection

Alphas: Crate Paper Orbit Collection

Cuttlebug and Spots and Dots Embossing folder

Creative Memories Complete Cutting System-hexagon shape and circle

Buttons

Fiskars Border Punch

A Little Pins and Ribbon with Tutorial!

Not sure what happened, but this was actually supposed to go up on Thursday when it was featured on Practical Scrappers (me and blogger haven't been getting along to well--maybe because I have been paying much attention to it?). Anyhow, we did a feature on jazzin' up pins and here's a little something I came up with while playing with some ribbon and pins.

Here's the card

And here's an up close pic of my treatment...

How about a little picture tutorial of to create this yourself!

Items you will need:

2 floral corsage pins

1 piece of ribbon ( at least 1/2 inch wide by 12 inches long -the wider the ribbon the more full your embellishment will be).

Along  the top hem of the ribbon you are using create bunch by accordion folding the ribbon back and forth over the end of  a floral corsage pin ( I went back and forth 5 times). It will look this after that...

Next, you will want to go the bottom hem (making sure that you are going down through the ribbon) and repeat the accordion folding (again 5 times) and it will look like this...

Repeat these steps going the entire length of the pin.

After you have the length of the pin covered with the bunching of ribbon, flip it over and slide a second floral corsage pin through a few of the folds making sure that you have the pearl on the opposite end of one you started.

And here's your finished embellishment!!

Hope you enjoyed! Leave me a comment letting me know what you think!  Thanks for stopping in!

What Can You Do with Candy Wrappers??

Today at Practical Scappers we are doing our monthly frugal finds feature. With Valentine's Day in the past and all that candy that your kids have brought home from school from the parties, we have some fabulous ideas on how to recycle those wrappers and create some fun and interesting projects. Here are two of my projects that I had a blast making!

 This idea was inspired by an article in the Disney Family Fun Magazine to create your own Valentine's that look like your kids are holding giant lollipops.  You can check out the link here.   I just went with the giant lollipop theme and got rid of the real lollipops (no problem with three kiddos in my house) and created fake ones.  I wadded up a tissue and covered it with the wrapper then tied it off with some Martha Stewart baker's twine.  Also, I used the dum dums wrappers to create the accordion flowers on the ends of her banners.

If you are one of the scrappers who has a hidden stash of chocolate bars in you office then this project is for you!  On this card,  I  used some mini Hershey bar wrappers to embellish her card.  I altered some brads, used the wrapper as a layer of paper in her banner, and created an accordion flower out of them.  What a perfect way to get rid of the evidence-- no one will ever know ;)

Valentine Card

Here's my card that goes with my box (see post below)...just finished it up last night!

Flower Projects at Practical Scrappers

I've got two new projects for you (it sure has been awhile, huh?). Today at Practical Scrappers we are featuring projects using flowers on them. Now right before Christmas, I bought myself an early Christmas present from My Favorite Things Stamps. I fell in love with their Die-namics dies, which wasn't hard to do considering my love for my Cuttlebug. No matter where my scscrapping takes me, I know my Cuttlebug is here to stay!

Here's a look at my two projects....

Title: "Depression"

Pattern Paper: Authentique Glowing Collection (Solid Black)

Cardstock: The Paper Company (Black and White)

Paint: Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint (Picket Fence) 

Dymo Label Maker

My Favorite Things Stamps - Die-namics (Rolled Roses 3 sizes)

Letter Stickers: Unknown

White Lace Trim

Bling: Recollections (distributed by Michaels)

Pen: Marvy White gel pen

Note: this is NOT my photograph. HERE is the link to it... this page was for my own personal all about me album and this photograph summed it all up for me the feeling I had.  This layout is not being used for any submission to publications.

Title: Friends

Pattern Paper:  Crate Paper Blue Hill Collection

Cardstock: white card base from The Paper Company

Spellbinders Nestabilities Lacey Circles

My Favorite Things Stamps- Die-namics Rolled Roses (smallest die)

Glossy Accents by Inkssentials

Fiskars Lace Border punch

All other flowers, cardstock embellishments, and rub-on: Crate Paper Blue Hill Collections

Thanks for stopping in!

Snowman Soup

  Today is my day to share a holiday project idea at Practical Scrappers, and here's what I came up with-- my altered to go insulated coffee cups. I found these to go cups at my local Joann's in their bargain bins for $2.50 each ( and I used my coupon to over the holiday to get another 20% off ). These cups I made for my kids' teachers to go with the other little gift I made for them. 

These were super easy to make! When I got the cups they had another piece of paper in them. I traced them on my favorite paper (Crate Paper -Snow Day Collection) and embellished with the matching chipboard, cardstock cut outs, and cardstock borders.

Here's a look at just one of the cups up close. Next, I filled each cup with a package of hot chocolate mix, a bag of mini marshmallows, and added a Wilton peppermint swirl candy cane which you can see down below.

Finally, I made my little "snowman soup" tag. Now, there are a couple of different poems out there for "snowman soup", but I picked the one I liked best and printed it out. Here's an up close picture of the tag which reads:

Was told you've been real good this year

Always glad to hear it!

With freezing weather drawing near,

You'll need to warm the spirit!

So here's a little Snowman Soup

complete with stirring stick.

Add hot water, sip it slow,

It's sure to do the trick!

Again, these are super quick and easy gifts that are great for teachers, secret Santa exchanges, friends, or just anyone that you want warm their spirit this holiday season. Thanks for stopping in and don't forget, only 14 more shopping days left!

Make it PINK!!

October marks the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness and the importance of it is very dear to me (having a scare myself). It struck even closer though this past year to my husband and I when I co-worker of his was diagnosed at 33 years old. Just goes to show you age doesn't matter. Today also kicks off our first ever card contest at Practical Scrappers. It's been a huge turn out and I'm so excited to see how our contenders do with our challenges over the next six weeks. But this first round the theme is PINK and the perfect color for a breast cancer awareness card...

Materials used:

cardstock: The Paper Company
Pattern Paper:  Crate Paper, Blue Hill Collection
Embellishments: Crate Paper Blue Hill Collection chipboard buttons & shapes, and cut-outs
Bling: Basic Grey, opaline designer half pearls
Ink: Martha Stewart, Geranium chalking ink

Tulle
Electronic Cutter: Cricut Expressions, Provocraft
Software: SCAL 2.0
Cuttlebug, Provocraft 
D'Vine Swirls Embossing Folder, Provocraft

Authentique Giveaway!!

Hello everyone--life has been absloutely crazy, and I haven't blogged in awhile now. But, I wanted to stop in today to tell you all about a fabulous giveaway from Authentique on Practical Scrappers. I've just ordered my first Authentique Collection myself (The Glowing Collection, being the Halloween addict I am) and cannot wait to get it to play with! Just click on the Practical Scrappers Banner below to find out all the details!