On my craft room wall

Birthdays and Birthday Cards

2012-03-01T06:00:00.004-05:00

Hello, everyone. I have been terrible about posting on my blog and am truly feeling disappointed in myself about it. Even though I haven't been posting, I have been creating. January and February are big in my family for birthdays, and it seems like I've made plenty of birthday cards between the end of January through the middle of February.

The end of January marked some milestone birthdays for both my son Danny, and my niece Jennifer. Danny turned 21 and Jennifer turned 18. I used the same card design for both their cards. And here you have them:

I cut the "21" from the Cricut Cindy Loo cartridge at 2.62" (sized on my Gypsy). Next, I cut the "Happy Birthday" from the Cricut Caligraphy cartridge at 3".

I placed my numbers on a mat of decorative paper, which I offset onto a black mat, which I offset on the card base. I adhered using my ATG..

Next I adhered the "Happy Birthday" over the "21", added a rhinestone over the "i" and a metal square in the corner. Wow, a simple card that I like!

A simple (but appropriate) sentiment for the inside of the card (matted with some scraps) and this card is done.

I liked this one so much, I decided I would copy the design for my niece whose birthday was three days later. Here is her finished card . I could not get a good picture of the card no matter how hard I tried, so excuse the poor quality. I loved the bright colors I used for her card.

Supplies:
Numbers from Cindy Loo cartridge (Provocraft)
Happy Birthday from Caligraphy cartridge (Provocraft)
Patterned Paper/cardstock: Story of US by ATD (a seriously old mat stack) for the "21" card; Twitterpated by SEI for the "18" card
Bling from stash (various manufacturers)
Finished card size: 4-1/4 X 5-1/2 (A2)

"Family" sign

2012-02-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day! I am featured over at The Bugbytes today. Hope you check out how my friend Kate and I put this nifty sign together.

If you'd have Silhouette Studio and would like the studio files for the project, leave me your e-mail and I'll be happy to e-mail them to you. I do not have these in svg form so you will need Silhouette Studio software to be able to use the files.

A Card for all Challenges

2012-02-05T16:05:00.000-05:00

Happy Sunday Afternoon. While we await the start of the Superbowl here at our house, I thought I'd do a quick blog post. I love when a single card can accomplish several things. First, I made my daughter a Valentine's Day card a full 9 day's before Valentine's Day. Sweet! Second, my friend Teresa Russell and I challenged each other to craft this weekend post it to our blogs......check! Third, the sketch challenge over at Paper Craft Weekend Challenge presented me with the perfect reason to use this stamp set I purchased at Michaels about a month or two ago. I usually do not splurge on stamps I just "love". They always need to be practical. Well, this was an exception. I love this stamp set and I know my daughter will love the card. Not at all a typical Valentine's Day card, but she won't care. The stamp set is from Inkadinkado. Ivory and black cardstock and Stamping Dimensionals from Stampin Up. Stazon Black ink and Promarkers used to color. Patterned paper from my stash purchased several years ago. Lacy ribbon purchased from sewing dept at Hobby Lobby. I seriously enjoyed making this, so thanks to Kristen, Teresa and Allison for motivating me to do it!

Valentine's Day Kids Craft

2012-01-27T09:05:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday, everyone! It's been a long week and I'm so ready for the weekend! Today I am featured over at the Passionately Artistic blog. Check out how to make this easy necklace using shrinky plastic material. Tutorial included. Enjoy!

Baby Card

2012-01-17T21:14:00.002-05:00

Hello All! Carole here with a happy card and happy news. I have so many things I want to say, I may need to bullet point everything so I don't forget something important I want to share. Yes, that's what I'm going to do. Here goes:

My nephew Travis, and his wife Britni (from here on out referred to as my niece, because to me, she is), had their first child last Thursday, January 12th. Aila Lael. What a beautiful name. More about that sweet thing later.
Normally I would be jealous that my younger sister got to be a grandmother before me. But age has a way of mellowing a person and I'm so thrilled and happy for her and her whole family! This tiny little angel is loved by so many people. I just know I want to be part of her life in any way I can be.
I love this card I am going to share with you. I love it so much I hate to give it away, but I also can't wait to share it with the recipients because I want them to see how much the event this card is meant to commemorate means to me.
I must thank my friend Sabrina Friduss because the inspiration for this design came through her and her blog.
I am going to enter this into the Card Patterns Sketch Challenge 148 that I was led to after seeing Sabrina's submission for this Challenge. So thanks to them for giving me a starting point. It truly made this card doable for me.

Here's the card I made for baby Aila:

Before I give you the specifics I have to mention that either my camera sucks, or I just do not know how to use it. This card looks so much better in person. The colors, while subtle, are definitely not washed out. Thanks for indulging me in this side note!

How I did it:

I won't be able to give you all the specifics but a general idea of the parts and pieces. The paper is from two different retired Stampin Up paper packs. I'm not even sure what they are called. I have to believe Britni and Travis took special care in choosing their daughter's name. It's so filled with meaning and representative of their faith that I know the name means so much to them. So, with respect for her given name, I decided to choose a theme that celebrates the beauty of it. First, I looked up the meanings of her first and second name on the internet, and copy and pasted them to a word doc. Next, I typed her name repeatedly into two tables on a word doc and printed out the documents on patterned Stampin Up paper. My sister mentioned to me that the baby's room was decorated in a green and brown color scheme and a large tree was painted on one wall. I used this as my cue for colors and design elements. I knew the meaning of the baby's first name, "oak tree", was important to her parents. So I decided to use a tree stamp (I think it's an oak tree, I'm not good about these things but it looks strong so I think it must be one) on this card as well. The quick and dirty of this...I took the baby's name and definitions and cut them into 4 strips lengthwise. I matted them on a rectangle of brown cardstock. I used a Stampin Up corner and matching border punch to punch around two sides of a rectangle in a coordinating color. I adhered the brown rectangle with words to the punched mat. I wrapped a piece of wide green scrap ribbon around this mat and tied a bow. I stamped the oak tree (a Stampin Up stamp) on a piece of patterned paper cut into a circle shape and colored it with some Promarkers. I die cut a fancy coordinating cut using my Cricut and the Martha Stewart Elegant cartridge (I think) and matted the stamped circle to it using pop dots. I then adhered this on top of the ribbon with more pop dots. Wanting to use the stick pins and beads I previously purchased, I fashioned two coordinating stick pins and stuck them through the ribbon. I adhered the completed mat to the Ivory cardstock that I covered with a coordinating piece of patterned paper.

The inside sentiment was printed on the same patterned paper on my printer using Microsoft Word. I decorated the inside with the same border punch and scraps of paper I used for the front of the card.

Aila Lael means "oak tree of God", in case you could not read the card. What a beautiful, strong name. I wish the three of them much love and blessings. How wonderful the start of a new family is.

Gift Check Holder

2012-01-11T03:00:00.000-05:00

Good day, all! Today this project is being featured over at The Bugbytes. Please visit me there where I've posted more pictures and instructions.

Thanks,

Carole

Share a Story winners!

2011-12-28T20:00:00.003-05:00

Thanks to all of you for sharing your stories. I loved reading them. I decided I love an interactive blog! Anyway, I wish I had enough for all of you, but since I don't, I had my son pick 4 winners. Since I have no idea how to use random.org to choose multiple winners, I was forced to revert to the old fashioned method of writing numbers on bits of paper and having someone choose. That someone was my home from college son, Danny. So, thanks to him, the following ladies will be receiving a twine sampler of 9 colors:

"missstamper said...

When my oldest daughter was a toddler some mornings her dad would be the one to get her ready and take her to daycare. He tried to fix her hair, but to no avail. The daycare ladies were so nice, because when I came to pick her up, her hair would be nicely braided!"

missstamper....I need a way to contact you! Send me an email address or let me know if you are on the Cricut message board and I can contact you there!

"Teresa said...

Okay this is my second attempt at typing out this story...The first one got eaten by my iPad!! LOL!

My story also has to do with decorating the Christmas tree and some lessons learned this year. Decorating the tree at my house is a family affair, including grandkids. We decorated really late this year due to my being out of town the first week of December due to a death on my side of the family. So we decorated this past week. I learned three major lessons through all of this. First, we usually decorate with all the grandkids. Due to the lateness and just lack of being able to get it all together the older two grandchildren were not there. Well since they do not really seem to be into it usually anyhow I didn't think that really mattered much until this past weekend when the oldest (almost 15) said "where is my ornament?" and that made me think that no matter how old or how uninvolved they may seem a tradition is still important.

Second, as we were decorating the tree I pulled out what I thought was an old and "lost its usefulness" ornament. I stated I don't think I am going to put this one on the tree...my 29 y/o daughter looked at me and replied "well I made that and I think it needs to go on the tree" so second lesson learned no matter how old the child is or how much I think an ornament has lost its luster it is still important.

The final lesson I learned this Christmas season I learned while sitting at the bedside of my dying aunt. I am a huge procrastinator and the reason we did not decorate the tree is cause I kept putting it off. Well being with family the week of my aunt's final days and then her viewing and funeral made me realize that it is really important to make time to do things with family. So no more procrastinating about doing things. That tree was up the weekend after Thanksgiving and I had the whole week off school but needed time to recoup so did not want to bother doing all that. Well, God did not promise us tomorrow so I plan on doing things with my children and grandchildren while I can and not putting things off anymore.

Sorry for rambling on...but those are the three main lessons I learned this Christmas season...so far anyway."

"BethanyR said...

My favorite Christmas story is about my middle son. When he was in fifth grade his social studies teacher asked the kids, when they returned back to school after Christmas break, to write about their family holiday traditions. Food seems to be important to my son Jon because from early on whenever he had to write about his family it mentioned food. One of our traditions is on Christmas day I make crepes for breakfast. Jon didn't know how to spell crepes but he gave it his best shot. His teacher called him up to her desk to ask him what he was trying to say as his essay read...."My mom makes crap for Christmas breakfast. She makes the best craps in the world, beside my presents her crap is my favorite part of Christmas day". I have the essay and it is framed!..."

"Scrappin Dhilly said...

My favorite Christmas story was when my youngest of two children was 9 years old and questioning whether or not Santa really exists. I have always told my kids that "You must believe to receive". Well, one day when Mom isn't around, my 9 year old son asks his Dad, "is Santa real?" My husband responds, "no". He doesn't bother to play along or anything, plain and simple, "no". As soon as I get home my son bursts out, "you have been lying to me, Santa is not real, and you even lied about the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, you're a liar!" I was totally heart broken, my poor baby. That was about four years ago, I still tell my kids, "you have to believe to receive!" Happy holidays and thanks for the fun giveaway!'

Congratulations, ladies! I will be contacting you for your addresses. Oh, here's a picture of the 4 twine samples....one will be coming your way very soon!

Have fun with your twine!

Carole

Yikes! It's almost Christmas! Share a story....

2011-12-21T18:14:00.002-05:00

Hi, all! Carole here. I have no projects to post. Well I have projects to post, I just have not taken pictures of them, and considering how behind I am on my Christmas preparations, I am probably NOT going to get to it any time soon. Look for one of my New Year's Resolutions to be "Do Not Neglect My Personal Blog".

Even though I am behind on my Christmas to do list, I had to take the time to share a "Things that make you go hmmmmmm" with you all. A few weeks ago my dear husband decided to put up the Christmas tree. Thank goodness or we probably would not have a tree up yet. He also decorated it with ornaments he found in the Christmas box. Now, we have enough ornaments to decorate at least 3 trees, but given how bad I am about having time to decorate at all, we usually only decorate one tree. But I digress.

While examining his fine work I could not help but notice that somehow he managed to find the ugliest, least sentimental of all our ornaments and decorate the tree with them. In other words, he used the "reject" box. Well, I couldn't tell him that after the effort he put into it, but tonight I will be adding all the sentimental ornaments. The ones picked out by the kids, given to us in ornament exchanges or from co-workers and friends I've long lost touch with, and of course the handmade ornaments made by our children while in school.

His choosing the rejected box of ornaments reminded me of how he would do something similar long ago. When left to take care of our daughter, in the days before she could dress herself, he somehow always managed to find the stained shirt and the one size too small pants/shorts/skirt to dress her in. Of course, they didn't match either. I would come home and wonder how the heck he even found the outfit, knowing it was in the back of the drawer, under tons of newer, nicer clothes. He had to WORK hard to find those crappy clothes! Anyway, something that annoyed me terribly back then has turned into a story that I hold dear to my heart. Because really, he had no clue the outfit was hideous. He thought she looked beautiful in it.

Share a story.....and I'll give you a sampler of twine. I only have 4 so if more than 4 people post, I'll pick names randomly. I guess I'll give you all some time. How about until Wednesday, December 28th? Around 8:00 pm That's when I'll choose. Oh, and leave a way for me to get a hold of you, please!

Merry Christmas!

Starbucks Gift card winner

2011-12-14T20:49:00.015-05:00

Hi, all. I forgot I was supposed to pick the random winner of my Holiday Blog Hop prize last night. Sorry about that. The prize is a $10 Starbucks gift card. The winner, as chosen by Random.org is

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:19This is so funny because 19 is my lucky number! And today it is also the lucky number for:

Congatulations, marg0006! I will send this to you as soon as I get your mailing address!

marg0006 said...

This is such a cute wreath. Thanks for such a creative and fun idea.
marg0006@verizon.net

DECEMBER 11, 2011 3:17 AM

Congatulations, marg0006! I will send this to you as soon as I get your mailing address!
If any one can tell me how to copy a random.org generator I would appreciate it. Whenever I paste it, it changes the max number to 100. Frustrating!

Tissue Paper Candle

2011-12-11T13:37:00.001-05:00

Happy Sunday! Not sure why I said that because after Sunday comes Monday and I'm so NOT ready for the new work week to begin....yet. Today my Tissue Paper Candle is being featured at TheBugBytes. I hope you will take a peek.

Holiday Blog Hop-Paper wreath

2011-12-10T05:00:00.037-05:00

Happy Holidays to all of you Blog Hoppers! Carole here, and you are On my craft room wall. You should have hopped here from Jen's blog. If you started here, you should go back to The BugBytes and start at the beginning. There are lots of great projects and prizes being shared and I would hate for you to miss any of them!

Pam - http://www.thebugbytes.com/
Jeannie - http://nonnasscraps.blogspot.com/
Jen - http://3catsandabug.blogspot.com/
Carole - http://www.onmycraftroomwall.blogspot.com/ YOU ARE HERE
Lisa Brooks - http://thejourneyoflisaslife.blogspot.com
Audrey - http://cuteandsome.blogspot.com/
Mila - http://milamemories.blogspot.com/
Sheila aka sassylady - http://shesasassylady.blogspot.com/
Elizabeth - http://217creations.blogspot.com/
Kelly Millet - http://www.kamscraftyplace.blogspot.com
Dayna Sabrina - http://www.sabrioletdesigns.blogspot.com/
Lori - http://www.scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com
Denine Vajja - http://pumpkinspiceblog.blogspot.com/
Melissa - www.melissamade2.blogspot.com
Allison - http://goodybagdiva.blogspot.com/

Now on to my very simple project.

I am in love with making these paper wreaths!

Now, I must confess, this is the only picture of my project I did not delete. Well, I did delete it but luckily I still have the one I sent to Pam (thank goodness you asked for one, Pam!) I took at least 8 pictures last week of this process and when I just went to upload them to this post, I noticed that I did not save them to my computer and deleted them from my camera. Considering I rarely delete photos from my camera, the irony is not lost on me. Oh well, this is such an easy project I should be able to adequately describe the process.

Supplies:
8" styrofoam wreath (I used the green hard styrofoam)
straight pins
12 X 12 double sided paper or cardstock (about 3 or 4 sheets)
ribbon-18" length
mini ornament balls
pen, pencil or something similar

Cut paper into 1/2" strips. Then cut each strip in half. You will have a pile of 6" X 1/2" paper strips. Take a paper strip and wrap it completely around a pen or pencil. After wrapping the entire strip around the pencil, let it drop from the pencil. The paper should be curly. Do this with at least half of your cut paper strips. Once you have a nice pile of curls, you are ready to start pinning them to your foam wreath. First, tie your piece of ribbon at the top of the wreath to create a hanger. Next, push a stick pin through the center of a paper curl and pin it to the styrofoam wreath. I always start at the top of the wreath, by the ribbon hanger and then work my way around the wreath, clockwise. I do not cover the back of the wreath as it will be against a wall or flat surface once I hang it. Curl more paper strips as needed. Once you go completely around the wreath, give it a good once over and fill in any spots you feel you need to. You can make the wreath as full of paper curls as you want. The look is entirely yours.

OK, I've decided I must have pictures to share....luckily I can recreate a few to help explain the process.....

Tie ribbon at top of wreath

Curl paper around pencil

Curled paper

Place pin through paper

Start by placing paper curls at top of wreath and keep adding working around wreath in clockwise direction

Once you are done with attaching the paper curls, you can add the decorative ornaments. I used a 12 cluster pack of ornaments I got on sale at Michael's for less than $2.00. I separated the ornaments, which were each attached to a long wire. I cut the wire in half (it was too long) and stuck the wire into the styrofoam wreath in various spots around the circle. At times it was difficult to poke the wire through the hard styrofoam, for these times I first poked a hole with a straight pin and then stuck the bulb wire into the styrofoam. Once again, here is the finished project:

This is a simple and quick project to complete. If shouldn't take more than a few hours from start to finish, and that's if you are chatting with friends and snacking during the process. Little skill is required and it is a nice project to do with friends who may be new to the crafting world.

Now, for my giveaway. If you are a follower of my blog and you leave a comment here, you will be entered in a random drawing to receive a $10 Starbucks gift card. Who can't use a little extra caffeine during the holiday season? The drawing will be held at 9:00 PM on Tuesday, December 13th.

Next up on the blog hop is a really good friend and someone I am lucky enough to get to craft with frequently, Lisa Brooks. Please hop on over to her blog Rather B Scrappin and see what she has to share with all of you.

Happy Holidays!

Carole

Etched mirrored ornaments

2011-11-13T01:03:00.001-05:00

Hello, my lovelies! Today I am featured on The BugBytes blog. I hope you will hop over there and become a follower. Pam is one of the sweetest people I've had the pleasure of meeting through my love of crafting and she has some of the most amazing Design Teams. I am so honored to be part of this group. Now, on to my project, which I created for an ornament swap I participated in just yesterday. I hope you will enjoy!

I purchased this pack of mirrored ornaments at Michaels.

I removed the silver cord to make it easier to etch.

Next I pulled out my Cricut vinyl and transfer tape. A tip about vinyl. I once read on Diane Campbell's (Capadia Designs) blog that she thought Cricut vinyl worked best for etching. And I must agree. Resist the tremendous urge you will have to use less expensive vinyl. Etching is not something you can un-do and I have found that I get better results with the Cricut vinyl.

After pulling out this brushed silver vinyl, it seemed the texture was different so I went and pulled out some blue instead. It was a wise decision. Not only was the texture what I needed, it showed up better on the mirrored surface.

I laid out my design on my Gypsy using the following Cricut cartridge cuts and sizes:

George and Basic Shapes-Circle cut at 2.49" using Silhouette feature

Winter Lace-snowflake cut at .87"

Birthday Cake-2011 cut at 1.00"

I welded the star, the "2" and a "1" to the inside of the circle. Not sure if I was going to like the negative or the positive of the design better, I decided to etch both before deciding. I had 6 ornaments and only needed 5 for the exchange so I felt I had one extra to test.

Here I am applying a nice thick coat of etching cream. I let this cream sit on it for like 30 minutes because I was busy doing something (watching tv). I rinsed off the cream under warm running water and wiped dry with a paper towel.

Next the big reveal! I pulled off the vinyl and discarded it.

I decided I liked both the negative and positive etched designs so I did the rest of my ornaments using both. Which saved me lots of time and vinyl by using all the cuts.

By the way, I placed the circle slightly off center and liked the effect a lot. Here are my 6 etched mirrored ornaments.

I didn't just want the front to be pretty, so I decided I needed to decorate the back of the ornament as well. Using white smooth Bazill cardstock, I cut 2 snowflake doily cuts from the Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art cartridge at 2.75" and 1 snowflake doily shadow cut also at 2.75"

I ran one of the doily cuts and the shadow cut through the Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

I adhered the embossed snowflake doily to the unembossed snowflake doily using pop dots. I adhered these two layers to the shadow (unembossed side) also using pop dots.

I centered the ornament on the front side of the shadow cut and using a pencil, marked the hole.

Next I punched a hole through all three layers of cardstock.

Using my hot glue gun I adhered the mirrored ornament to the cardstock.

I threaded a lavendar organza ribbon through the hole and tied a knot. I added a lavendar sparkly adhesive raindot to the center of the snowflake.

Here is the back of the ornament:

Here is the front of the negative etched ornament.

Thank you for stopping by!

Carole

Paper Craft Weekend Challenge - product challenge

2011-11-06T18:34:00.001-05:00

My second post of the weekend is also for the Paper Craft Weekend Challenge. Caroline's challenge was to use beads. I have a very limited supply of beads, but I did buy these rochaille beads several years ago in the hopes of using them for a Christmas project. Well, that never happened, however, I am working on some tags for a tag swap at an event I am attending next week. I thought, how can I incorporate these beads into these tags? A simple solution was to add a row of them to the tag, and thread a few on some white twine. Simple, but I like it enough to add this embellishment to all the tags I made. The cardstock is from My Mind's Eye, Colorful Christmas collection (this was from a couple years ago).Beads from Westrim. I used Avery Shipping tags purchased at Office Max for the base. I'm liking these! Oh, I piped a line of Aileen's craft glue to the tags and placed the beads into the glue. I threaded the beads onto very thin white twine and tied knots on either side of the beads. Easy peasy.

Fall Card for Paper Craft Weekend Challenge blog

2011-11-06T10:53:00.002-05:00

Happy Fallback Sunday! I love the weekend when we get to put our clocks back an hour. I just love getting that extra weekend hour. Anyway, this is a quick post so I can link my project to the Paper Craft Weekend challenge sketch challenge this weekend. I used Allison's card sketch for this project.

Recipe:
Cardstock: Bazill Swiss Dots (yellow), DCWV Harvest Gathering Mat stack
Cuttlebug Die cut/Embossing folder combo: Fall Leaf
Happy Thanksgiving Stamp: Inkadinkadoo
Grateful stamp:Studio G
Other assorted supplies: Corner chompers (ticket stub, 1/4 rounded edge); Stampin Up Ink: Soft suede and Early Espresso; twine (the Twinery), eyelets (provocraft)

Paper Craft Weekend Challenge

Winner of My Blog Hop Prize

2011-10-23T22:30:00.005-04:00

Hi, all! Thanks for stopping by my Fall Blog Hop entry. I was a little late in picking the winner as I got sidetracked watching a tv show. Anyhow, without further adieu (I really hate that word), here is the winner, as picked by random.org

And the winner is:

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:18

Kris said...Great job!



Send me your address and which store you'd like the gift card to, Kris (Joann's or Michaels). I will get this out to you in the next few days! Thanks for stopping by!

Fall Blog Hop-Halloween Treat Bag Decor

2011-10-22T00:01:00.003-04:00

Now, on to my project.

I started with this chipboard gift bag I found last year at Hobby Lobby in the Christmas decor section. I thought it would make a great Trick or Treat bag decorative candy holder.

My first step was to paint it. I purchased two types of orange acrylic paint at Michael's and wasn't sure which to use. I decided I would start with the plain orange paint, top it with a layer of the glitter paint, and see how it looked.

I removed the twine handles to make it easier to paint. I love painting chipboard! (I had to throw that in) I think chipboard takes paint so well, so I was a bit confused by how sheer this paint looked on my project. I realized after the second coat that I had purchased glossy paint (yes, it took me two coats to realize that) and that was why the chipboard was not absorbing the paint in the manner I was accustomed to. After the third coat, I decided a little of the chipboard color showing through didn't look so bad (right?)

Now I was ready to try out the Glamour Dust glitter paint, which I had never used before. I loved it as soon as the first brush stroke went on! Yay! It was pretty and sparkly and I was very happy with the result!

Time to decorate. I decided to use my Mini Monsters cartridge because I knew it would have the right characters for the look I wanted and I'd only used this cartridge for one other project. I needed to get my money's worth for this cartridge purchase!

I chose <Spooky> with Base shadow, Layer 1 and Layer 2, cut at 3"

And <Gross> with Base Shadow, Layer 1 and Layer 2, cut at 3"

For my letters I used the font from Birthday Cake (this is one of my top 5 favorite fonts to use) cut at 1.25". I cut both the Green and Purple letters the same size (no shadow) and layered the top letter slightly askew to create the shadow look. I had these cute little spider stickers a crafting friend gifted me and I thought they added just the right touch. I had intended on tying the twine handles back on but opted to use black and white grossgrain ribbon instead.

Filled with trick or treat candy, I decided this Trick or Treat bag will be the perfect candy holder come Halloween night! Until then, I have to hide the candy from the candy monsters lurking in my house.

Supplies:

Chipboard gift bag

Paint-Pumpkin Orange Glossy (Plaid) and Orange Glamour Dust (DecoArt)

Cardstock-The Ghosts and Goblins Cardstock matstack (DCWV-love this stack!)

Cartridges-Mini Monsters, Birthday Cake (Provocraft)

Ribbon from my stash. I used black diamond Stickles to accent the eyes.

Well, I need to give away some blog candy, don't you think? Yes, I do. Please leave a comment here with a way to contact you should you be chosen as the winner. I will pick the random winning comment Sunday evening (10/23/2011) at 9:00 pm EDT. The prize will be a $10 gift card to either Michael's or JoAnn's. Winner gets to choose which card they'd like.

Thanks for stopping by!

Now onto my talented friend Kate's blog over at Sassy and Scrappy.

Paper Flower Tutorial

2011-09-19T09:44:00.001-04:00

Good morning all! Remember the altered bottle I posted last week? Well, I have a tutorial for it this week over at the Chicas Gettin Crafty blog.

Check it out!

I'm a Winner!

2011-09-15T08:44:00.000-04:00

Woo Hoo! I won the Twine blog candy over at Paper Craft Weekend Challenge ! I cannot wait to use it on one of my next projects!

Allison and Caroline host two challenges a week, with guest designers one weekend of each month. Come check it out, and become a follower. The challenges are always just for fun. And we have a great group over there. Hope to see you soon!

Altered Bottle

2011-09-12T08:01:00.004-04:00

Here's my project for today's Chicas Getting Crafty Blog post. This was my "anything goes" project. Check out the link for more information!

Paper Craft Weekend Challenges-Chipboard and Bakers Twine

2011-09-11T21:28:00.001-04:00

This weekend at the Paper Craft Weekend Challenge blog, Allison's challenge was to choose chipboard, and Caroline's was to use baker's twine. Since I did not have the time to participate in both challenges, I combined them. Here is my result:

Materials Used:
Chipboard flower, DCWV mat stacks (The Fall Glitter Matstack and Harvest Gathering Matstack), Stampin Up supplies-Very vanilla and chocolate chip cardstock, chocolate chip scalloped edge ribbon, Vintage Labels stamp set, Fabulous Phrases stamp set, chocolate chip ink spot, chocolate chip marker, crushed curry marker (used to color chipboard daisy), really rust button, Daisies # 2 Die, Vintage label punch, Mini word punch; and Martha Stewart Twine.

Card size is A2. Matstack cardstock was cut to create a two patterned card front. Stamped and punched "Smile" label. Threaded ribbon through label and tape to back of cardfront. Chipboard flower colored with Crushed Curry marker and center was sponged with Chocolate chip ink. Leave about 4 inch tail of twine at front of chipboard flower and wrap twine through petal openings going around petal until each opening has twine wraped through twice. You should end with two pieces of twine facing each other. Cut twine so there is now two 4" tails. Thread each piece of twine through button and tie into a bow. Run Chocolate Chip cardstock through die cut machine with Daisies #2 Die. Glue chipboard flower on top of Daisy, making sure you can see the daisy under the chipboard flower. Set aside. Using Chocolate chip marker make stitches around bottom half of card front. Adhere flower to cardfront as show. Adhere completed card front to Very Vanilla card.

Please Call Card

2011-09-11T06:00:00.000-04:00

Hello, my friends. Today this card I made is featured on The BugBytes Blog. Please check it out over there for directions and additional snapshots.

Call someone you love today....
Carole

Paper Craft Weekend Challenges-Pt 2

2011-09-05T19:17:00.000-04:00

Second challenge of the weekend is from Caroline. She's the glitter girl! Her challenges always involve sparkly things. And if not for that "requirement" my tag probably wouldn't have any sparkle to it. I am not a tag maker, but due to the tag theme we had our monthly crop this month, I decided I would do tags for this week's challenges. I have a friend who's birthday gift will have this tag as an adornment. Everything but the Stickles, the twine, and the tag base is from Stampin Up.

Particulars: Paper is Nursery Nest (I will never use this paper for anything baby related. It's adorable for lots of things), Penant Punch, Pennant Parade stamp set, Pear Pizzazz cardstock, Marina Mist Satin Ribbon, all mounted on an Avery tag purchased from Office Max.

Paper Craft Weekend Challenges

2011-09-05T19:02:00.000-04:00

My good friends Caroline and Allison kicked off their new blog Paper Craft Weekend Challenge this weekend and I decided I needed to participate in their awesome challenges. Here's my first entry:

Allison gave us two sketches for her challenge. The first was a layout (Gosh I wish I had the time to get back into scrapbooking) the second was a card. Since I had to make Christmas tags for the church crop I co-hosted with my good friend Maggie on Saturday, I decided to use the card sketch challenge to make a tag.
All the materials I used for this tag came from a $5 Christmas kit I bought from Big Lots. The "for you" stamps were from the Fabulous Phrases Stamp set from Stampin Up. I made the flower using the Stampin Up 5 Petal Flower punch (punched 3 time). The leaves were also made from the 5 petal punch. I will have a tutorial on this flower making technique as a Technique Tuesday later in September.

Press Release-Come Join the fun!!!

2011-09-01T07:00:00.002-04:00

Allison (from Goody Bag Diva) and Caroline (from Caroline’s Craftography) are thrilled to announce their new challenge blog – Paper Craft Weekend Challenge! You can expect a challenge with a project to inspire you every Friday and Sunday. The only rule they expect you to stick to is having fun! The challenges won’t be limited to one type of machine or project – so get your materials and get ready to use your stuff. There will be some tutorials along the way – and it wouldn’t be any fun if there weren’t friends occasionally stopping by – so please come join them and get ready to get your craft on!

These ladies had the best Circle Member sponsored events on the Circle Board until recently. Well, now they're taking it to the masses. Please stop in, say hi, and participate in a challenge when you can. These ladies, and their followers, are a lot of fun! Come see for yourself. I know I'll be hanging out over there whenever I can.

Come join me.

Carole

Mini Monsters lampost

2011-08-31T08:00:00.004-04:00

I finally decided I had to use the Mini Monster cartridge I purchased on a whim. I am very happy with how this project turned out. The how tos and what fors are listed over at the Passionately Artistic blog. Here's my project:

I love Halloween projects. I can't wait to get started on all of them, Have a happy day!

Carole

Promarker Giveaway and an Anniversary Card

2011-08-29T08:22:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday morning, my lovelies! I woke up realizing I'm featured on two blogs today. Holy celebrity! Not really, but I do feel special. I would like to share both of them with you today.

Please check out my 50th Wedding Anniversary card over at Chicas Gettin Crafty and leave a comment for me. There is a contest there for an awesome wedding layout kit that you might want to enter while you're checking out the projects. Just become a follower and link your favorite wedding layout for a chance to win.

Next, check out my review of the Letraset Promarker over at Passionately Artistic. Maggie is giving away a set of 10 Promarkers so please be sure to become a follower and leave a comment. I love these markers and just bought some. You'll be seeing more of my projects using images colored with these markers.

Stay safe and crafty!
Carole

Wall Decor at Passionately Artistic

2011-08-24T08:34:00.001-04:00

Come over to the Passionately Artistic website to see an incredibly simple Wall Decor project I made. All you need for this project is a Die Cut Image (I used a tree with shadow from the Cricut Zooballoo cartridge), 9 sheets of cardstock and 3 frames. Check it out!

And have a great day!
Carole

Chance to Win an Imagine!!!!

2011-08-20T16:46:00.002-04:00

Hi, everyone,
A good friend of mine from the Cricut Circle is offering the chance to win an Imagine Bundle. It's a very impressive prize package. She is having a drawing to raise money for her two daughters and their families, who lost everything in a house fire not too long ago. Please check out this link Cricut Imagine Bundle prize drawing where you can get details about the prize drawing. There is also a link on that page that will take you to articles about the fire. I hope you will be able to participate in the drawing while helping out a good friend, and loving mother, at the same time. I know your support is very much appreciated.
Thank you,
Carole

P.S. I would like to give my blog followers an extra chance to win a little something. Any of my blog followers who donate to the drawing will also be eligible to win a Smashbook prize package from me. For every donation entry you receive from Kymberlee for the Imagine prize drawing, you will receive the same # of entries for my Smashbook prize package. Remember, you must be a follower of my blog in order to qualify for the Smashbook prize. Please tell your friends. I'll give you an extra ticket for every friend you refer that becomes a follower of my blog and makes a donation for Kymberlee's prize drawing. Drawing will be held at the conclusion of the Imagine prize drawing. Here's what you can win:

Flowery T-shirts

2011-08-15T08:00:00.021-04:00

Happy Monday, my crafties!

I'm still feeling good from the Classy Scrappers crop I attended on Saturday. We had a great time! My daughter, Kristen, ended up coming with me, which I always enjoy. There were also some new friends as well as some people I hadn't gotten to craft with for a while. My friend Sally brought her 13 yr old daughter, Julia, who was such a huge help and quite the crafter.

Maggie taught us all how to enhance a plain t-shirt with fabric flowers. Here's the shirt I made:

The t-shirt was purchased from Wal-Mart. I really like the neckline and it wasn't too pricey (maybe $5).

Here's a close up....the green flower was made from fabric Maggie provided. The other flowers were from an old shirt I was going to throw away.

Plastic beads were added to the large green flower. The green dots around the blue flowers were created with Tulip paint. The flowers and beads were added using Beacon Fabric Tac glue.

Now, here's Kristen's shirt:

I love the way her's turned out! Her flower placement is great.

Everyone's t-shirt was different and turned out great. We cut the flowers using Sizzix flower dies and the Cuttlebug. Cutting fabric is so simple with dies, even the knit shirt material Kristen and I used for our flowers cut easily.

This is a fun craft that you can do with minimal supplies. And recycling old clothes is a great perk of this project. I would love to see any shirts you've made. Leave me a link to your blog if you have any you'd like to share.

See you soon,
Carole

Chica's Getting Crafty.....Come Visit me!

2011-08-14T14:40:00.001-04:00

Happy Sunday everyone! Today, my first project as a Crafty Chica Design Team member is featured over on the Chica's Getting Crafty blog. Please check it out and leave me a little love (comment) over there if you don't mind! The card was inspired by a song my good friend Cathy and I love to dance to whenever we are out partying and given the opportunity to dance. I know a young couple who is in the process of purchasing their first home and this card will be making it's way to them with a housewarming gift in the near future.

Love Shack card

Thanks for checking it out!
Love ya,
Carole

Exciting News!

2011-08-10T08:26:00.000-04:00

...for me that is! I have been asked to be a Design Team member over on the Passionately Artistic blog. If you haven't visited the blog in a while, or have never visited the blog, you should check it out. Maggie has a linking party going on over there and there are some amazing projects you will want to take a look at.

The pencil holder I made is actually an altered dog food can (don't worry, I cleaned it out thoroughly). Since we can never find a pencil in our house, I thought this would be a great "back to school" project for our home. I used one of my favorite materials - dictionary papers, and favorite elements - paper flowers, to spruce up this pencil holder and make it more my style. A bit of tulle and some beaded flourishes and this project was complete. But you'll have to go the Passionately Artistic blog to take a peek!

I don't have a Design Team badge yet, but I have a link to the Passionately Artistic on the right side of my blog. Or, you can just follow this link Passionately Artistic.

Happy crafting!
Carole

Mini Album

2011-08-08T08:00:00.010-04:00

Hello, all. It's been too long since I've posted. I made this mini album a few months ago and have been wanting to post it. It's the first mini album I've made and it was a lot of fun. I'm quite proud of how it turned out.
This album will be going to my goddaughter, Danielle, who is the subject of this album. My beautiful goddaughter is lucky enough to be going to school at University of Hawaii. She posts the most awesome photos on Facebook, and I decided to snatch a few for this little book. I also included a photo of my other beautiful nieces, Jennifer and Rebecca (Danielle's sisters), and MY beautiful sister Theresa, the mother of these wonderful girls. I am truly going to hate giving this little book up, but I will. And I'm glad I'm posting for all to see, and so I can look at it whenever I get the urge.
I made the bones of this book at a class given by my good friend Maggie Lamarre at one of the monthly crops she hosts at a local church (let me know if you are interested in attending). I must give her thanks for the lesson. The book was made with chipboard (I used cereal boxes for most of it) and I loved the creative feedom making my own book gave me. I will be doing more of these.
Finished size of this album is 6" X 6".

Sew Easy (but not so quick) Get Well Card

2011-07-22T07:00:00.003-04:00

Hi, all,
I purchased a Sew Easy (We R Memory Keepers) kit on HSN a few months ago and decided I better try it out. The kit came with a mat, 4 stitch design heads, the Sew Easy tool and 4 cards of colored floss. Since the DCWV cardstock I used for this Get Well Soon card has a cross stitch type design, I decided this would be a good card to try out some stitches. For those unfamiliar with the Sew Easy tool, it's a manually manipulated handle with a rolling stitch "head". These heads come in different stitch designs. They twist on and off the handle easily and the tool is well designed for comfort and ease of use. You roll the tool with selected stitch head across your paper and it makes holes for you to stitch. Now, for my results:

I used the running stitch head (green cardstock) first. The result was less than stellar. I think I should have used more strands of floss. Since this was an experiment, I decided to move on to the cross stitch head. The green floss on the yellow cardstock is the result of that trial. It was better, but I was enjoying the act of stitching way more than the result. Also, the stitch heads were not completely piercing my paper, I had to use my paper piercer to finish making the holes. So, I decided for the yellow cross stitched border around the my stamped image, I would use my trusty Stampin' Up paper piercing template, mat and piercer. Loved it! It took me hours to do all this stitching, but I was cropping with friends and found it quite therapeutic.

The stamp I used is from a recently discontinued Stampin Up set (Wellness Wishes). I love this sick dog. He just makes you go awwwww..... It's my favorite part of the card! I colored the image with Stampin Up water color pencils.

I have not given up on my Sew Easy. In fact, I just bought some awesome metallic floss to try out with it. More to come....... I'll include pictures of the Sew Easy kit next time.

I'm Going to Be Published!!

2011-07-20T22:06:00.000-04:00

Holy Carp!!! A card I submitted to Cricut Magazine is going to be published! I am soooooo thrilled, words cannot express my joy! My submission will be published in the January 2012 Cricut magazine. That is if I get my stuff to them on time (insert nail biting emoticon here). I have to write all the materials and cuts I used and give a brief description of how I put the card together. I am working on that tonight, but I won't get this in the mail until Friday. I want everything to be perfect. Thanks to Maggie, Lisa, Kate and Cathy for the encouragement to create and submit my card. Love you ladies!

Just had to share my joy with my cyber friends!

A Patriotic Challenge

2011-06-29T21:25:00.004-04:00

Hi all! This is officially my first post. My friend Maggie made me this awesome blog and used some previous postings to start it for me. Thank you, Maggie! Welcome. I hope you will become a follower and come visit me often.

My project today is for the Cricut Circle Patriotic Challenge over on the Circle Blog. It seems most of my projects these days are made for, or inspired by, the Circle Blog. I'm not even sure what the prize is this time, but wish me luck!

My project is a wreath. I had a naked grapevine wreath just hanging around the house for several months and a bare door that needed an adornment and decided I'd take this opportunity to do something about both of them. The challenge requirements were simple, at least two Cricut cuts and a patriotic them.

Here's what I did:

The stars were cut from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge-cut at 3.5 inches (5) and 1.5 inches(10). I scored each heart from point straight across using my Scor-pal. I folded each point along the score line and then pinched each leg of the star . This created the 3D effect. I cut 5 Circles at 2.75 inches and hot glued a large star to each.

Glue each star/circle to a pleated circle (not sure what these are officially called). They were made by cutting 2 12"X2" paper strips. Each strip was scored at 1/2 inch intervals and then accordion folded. The accordions were attach end to end and then joined to made an accordion circle. I had to hold the accordion in place while hot gluing the circle/star to it and it was a bit tricky.

You can see at least one of my accordions turned out rather wonky (if you look closely). The USA sign was made using a simple frame and shadow from Lacy Labels (cut at 3.5 inches). The USA font was from the Birthday Cakes cartridge (cut at 2 inches), also with shadow. I'm really liking this cartridge. Thank you Kris S. (my Circle pal) for gifting me this awesome cartridge.

I added some eyelets and bakers twine and there you have it. I really did not have high expectations for this project but really like the way it turned out. And it was very quick and simple to put together.

The small stars were scattered around the wreath and adhered with hot glue. This was an extremely economical project. Materials were a grapevine wreath, cardstock, a few eyelets and bakers twine.

Maggie would be so proud of me for not being perfect...and yet still liking this project! Thanks to Daphne and Angie for giving me the patriotic paper I used, and to Maggie for teaching me how to make these stars 3D. I also used red, white and blue cardstock from Stampin' Up and Bazzill.

Please become a follower and leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you!
Carole

Happy Father's Day and a tray tutorial!

2011-06-09T04:30:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone,
Father's Day is in less than 2 weeks!

I bought this Painter's tray last November and decided I would have to do something special for myself with it. Not long after I saw a Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 paper pack being offered by a local scrapbook store and I asked a friend to pick it up for me.
Five months later I finally had an idea of what I would do with both items. Basically, use them with a hodge podge of textured embellishments to create something I liked looking at. Along the way friends donated pieces that I incorporated and I had a blast checking out the jewelry aisle for metal jewelry making "embellishments". I also cut out some of the images using my new E2 Cricut Machine.

Products used:
Circa 1934 Cosmo Cricket Paper pack and stickers
Painters Tray-7 Gypsies
Metal bird cage-Jewelry charm by Urban (? something or other),Large bling, black velvet, large white pearl button with stick pin, and acetate clock face - Teresa Collins,Metal embellishments-assorted jewelry charms found in Michaels,Multi layered bird-Picturesque cartridge-Image is cut 4 times from black cardstock and 3 times from newsprint paper stacked and pop dotted.
Door-Wild Card cartridge,Background for bird-Paper Lace (image is stretched using Gypsy)
"Lucky"-Cursive 101 cartridge-welded using Gypsy. Crystal glaze and clear rhinestone added.
Musical Notes-Hannah Montana cartridge,Viva Decor Pearl Pen-white (this might be my new favorite paper crafting material!)
Assorted buttons, tulle, brads, glitter pens, metal washers/gears round out the project.

This project was a blast! I highly recommend doing one for yourself!
Here is a final look.

Thank you,

Carole

how to spruce up your bathroom tutorial!

2011-06-07T11:42:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,
A quick way to spruce any bathroom!

Wood framed art trio
You can use dictionary papers to stamp the images and recreate this awesome frame trio below.

Instructions:

3 $1 square wood frame from Michaels. Painted with black acrylic paint. Newsprint paper from Stampin ‘Up Spring Mini catalog, distressed with Ranger Ink Vintage Photo Distress Ink.
Bird stamp and Nest stamp from Inkadinkado, Tree stamp from Stampin Up. Ink-Black/Versafine, other colored ink all from Stampin Up.
Metal dots from Imaginesce I-Rock collection. Two coats of Mod Podge were applied to paper/images.
I will add ribbon to hang frames on my bathroom wall.

Voila, this is a fun way to spruce up your home using your stash.
Have a great weekend,
Carole

Welcome, Bienvenue, Bienvenido,Willkommen,Καλώς ήρθατε

2011-06-06T04:11:00.000-04:00

Hello,
A big welcome to all my friends all over the world. This blog is created to share all my projects and as a spot for us to share our love of crafting.
Don't be shy feel free to leave me a message or tell me anything else that's on your mind.
My hope is that you will visit me often and also tell your friends about this blog.
With that in mind, have a great week till I see you again.
Carole