Tutorial for Carin

Hey Everyone! Well, my dear friend Mojo is nowhere to be found, but luckily I have some projects already done and ready for posts, so my blog shouldn't suffer. I hope to find Mojo a little later tonight since I REALLY want to participate in the last Farm Fresh Friday challenge. Remember this project from last week?

I was asked by my friend Carin for a template of the box. Well, I ended up doing a tutorial for her and thought I'd share it here for you all to see. In the center of the first picture you'll see the box that holds all these notecards. These notecards are 4.25x5.5 folded in half. That way I was able to get 4 cards out of one sheet of 8.5x11 inch paper. The five notecards you see fit inside snuggly, but 4 will fit very well depending on how much embellishment you add to the cards. Ok, so here's the tutorial. Please be kind since this is only the second time I've ever done something like this! First you need a piece of cardstock that is 6.25x 5.5. Score the long side of the cardstock at 3 and 3.5 inches.

Score the short side of the cardstock at .5 and 5 inches. That give your half an inch on each side.

Next you need to cut the little squares made by the scores. Cut only to the half inch score line. Here is a picture to show you what I mean:

Next you should put strong adhesive on two of the long tabs and the two little square tabs. I used sticky strip as you can see here:

Now, since I don't like my tabs to show, this is the order that I put the sides together. First I had the tab with the sticky strip on the inside:

Next I stuck the little tab onto that tab as you can see here:

Finally I closed that side by sticking the last tab to the other two as you can see here:

I did the same thing on the other side of the box and that way the little tabs don't show at all. Next we have to make the box lid! First you need a piece of cardstock that is 5.5x1.5 inches.

This one must be scored just right so that it fits over the bottom of your box without being too snug or loose. First you score one side at 7/16.

Then turn the paper 90 degrees and score at 7/16. Do this for all four sides.

Next you'll want to cut these four lines as I've shown you here:

And put sticky strip on the little tabs like this (pretend the x's are tape;):

And finally you'll want to tape them inside the lid like this:

That way the tabs won't show on the outside of the lid. After that, you're done! All that's left is to embellish your box and lid, oh, and make some notecards to put inside! I hope that made sense and if you try out the tutorial, please let me know, I'd love to see it!!!

I hope you all have a Mojo-filled Day and until next post, be blessed.

SOA ended well!

Hey there friends! During the Stamp Out Alzheimer's event, I hosted a challenge called "Not A Card Button Challenge." The Challenge was to create something that was NOT a card and to use Buttons. I created this framed art: I used a lot of my favorite buttons on this project. First I drew the heart and wrote the scripture all around the edges of the paper and next to the heart then I sponged the white ink. Oh btw, the rest of the scripture was covered up by the frame, but I know it's there! In real life the contrast between the white ink and the kraft cardstock is NOT this harsh. Here it looks like a definite line between the two, but there isn't really. Next I picked a bunch of buttons, a few pearls and two heart brads to fill in the heart.

I had to play around with the buttons to distribute the colors and make them all fit but it was a fun, rewarding and relaxing time just playing with pretty buttons. Here is a close up of part of the scripture:

I have this frame displayed in our entertainment center. It's in a spot that isn't too obvious, but I know it's there and it's kinda comforting in a wierd way.

The Stamp Out Alzheimer's event ended with over to $6,500 raised!!! To think that this event started last year with just Jen Tapler posting some challenges on her blog and sending out prizes all on her own with a handful of participants, to this event that was a HUGEMONGOUS success!!! Wow, I can't wait to see what happens next year!

Until next post, be blessed.

A monochramatic Angel

Hey there friends! How are you all this fine Thursday? I meant to post yesterday but the day just got away from me. Well, I had quite a happy surprise on Monday evening when I opened up the Club Anya blog! THIS project was posted on the blog!!!

I couldn't believe it! One of my creations was featured on the CA blog!!! And I had just posted it to the TGF gallery just a couple hours before! Well, here it is for you all to see. I originally made this little notebook for the Monochramatic challenge during the Club Anya release, but I didn't get it done in time to post for the challenge. I posted anyway and I'm glad I did. I paper pieced Angel Anya's bow and dress, colored her with Copics, cut out circles with my circle cutter and stamped "wonderful" onto the circle. Oh, and I added a little prima flower with a brad in the middle to add some "prettyness". The notepad was actually copied from a $1 notepad I bought at the BX a little while ago. I think it's 10.5 inches by 3 inches and scored around 4 & 4.25 and again at 8 & 8.25. But don't quote me on that! Here's a pic of the top flap opened:

I put a little panel of DP here just to decorate it a little. See the magnet on the top flap? I stole that off the original notepad. There's a little piece of metal between the panel of DP and the grey paper. Here's the second flap opened:

I stole the notepad paper from the original cover too! Sure, it doesn't really match, but it fit and I like it! Well, I hope you liked my little notebook.

Tomorrow I have some exciting news to share, and some pics of random pretty stuff too!

Until next post, be blessed.

Hatter the Leprechaun

Hi Everyone! So this is gonna be a quick post. Angel Baby's sleepy and wants to cuddle so she's pulling my hair and trying to give me kisses! Yesterday was St. Patty's day, and even though I forgot until I read a St. Patty's day blog post, I did manage to get some stamping time and get the kids some little treat tins made. I used The Greeting Farm's Hatter stamp from the Wonderland stamp set and colored his outfit green to make him into a Leprechaun! Here's a pic of the three tins I made: They are all pretty much the same only I used different colors of twine and a few different buttons on them. I used scrap green paper to cover just the tops of the tins, added a little DP from Making Memories (I think) and the buttons are a mixture of SU!, Wal-mart, and stolen buttons from my mom, heeheehee! Of course I colored Hatter with my Copics. Here's an upclose of Ashton's tin:

I put some Ritter Sport mini chocolates in there with some green M&M's and the kids LOVED them! It only took me about an hour to make all three tins which is relatively quick for me. What did you all do for St. Patrick's day? Any "green" traditions? I forgot to wear green, so Andrew pinched me! So I just used one of my Copic markers and swiped a green mark on the back of my hand, lol! Well, I hope you all have a Wonderful Wednesday and leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by!

OH! P.S. As I've been cleaning and organizing the house, I'm finding a ton of books that I've read but don't really care to read again. (I love to read, that's my second favorite hobby next to cardmaking I think). So, is anyone interested in a little Book Blog Candy? Or maybe a Book Swap? Hm, maybe I'll just list a few here, and I'll send them to whoever wants them first? Let me know what you think. If no one is interested at all, I'll probably end up keeping them, lol!

Until next post, be blessed!

My Big Project!

Hey there! How are you all on this fine Monday? Have you adjusted to the Daylight Savings Time change yet? I was wondering how all that worked here in Italy and I found out that we don't change our clocks until the last Sunday of March. I guess that makes sense since we are on a different part of the planet... Anyway, remember the big project I was working on but I had to wait on a couple orders to come in to finish it? Well, BOTH orders came in on Friday, and I finished my project! First off, let me show you the card that inspired my card: My Mom sent this Valentine's Day card to Angel and I thought, "Hey, I can make something like that!" Here is the front on my card:

I used Imaginesce papers and cut out the tree, carriage, castle, and "Royalty" word then stuck them back over the images with pop dots to make them dimensional. At first I was going to put another panel over the patterened paper with a stamped image on it, but I loved the paper just as it was and didn't want to hide any of it. I stamped "once upon a time..." from my new Stampin' Up! stamp set along the bottom of the card front in Ballet Blue ink so it wouldn't stand out too much. The outside of the card came out very pretty, but I didn't want it to be too impressive because the inside is supposed to be the main focus of the card! Here it is:

What do you think? I love how it turned out, and I have plans for a lot more pop-out scene cards! TGF is coming out with some designer papers that coordinate with their stamps, and they are perfect for pop-out scenes like this! I used a lot more Imaginesce papers inside the card, along with some blue patterned paper I had in my scrap bin for the sky. I think it's Daisy Dee's paper but I'm not sure. The Castle, Carriage, Tree and Frog are all Imaginesce stamps that I stamped on white cardstock, colored and cut out to put into the scene. Oh, wait, the frog was actually stamped onto some green polka dot paper (K&Co paper) and colored with a green copic marker, then layered onto white cardstock for weight. Here's a closer pic of the inside, left:

The Unicorn is a digital image from TGF that I printed out and colored then cut it out and stuck it on the card with dimensionals. I wanted the Unicorn to look like it was closer than the castle. Here is a close pic of the inside, right:

It's hard to see in the pics, but I also stamped "Fairy Tales do come true" from the Stampin' Up! stamp set in the center of the inside of the card, in green ink. I wanted it to be a subtle sentiment, since this card is really just for decoration for my Angel Baby's room. Princess Anya is the other stamp I was waiting on to finish this card. Here is a close-up of her (since she is the star of the card!):

I paper pieced her dress with the Imaginesce papers, but the rest is colored with my copics. I stamped her twice and colored the crown and star on the wand and glued just those two items to the main image so they would have more depth to them. I really love this image and I already have another one waiting to be added to a card. I forsee using Princess Anya A LOT in the future! And just for the fun of it, here's a picture of my little princess after a yummy dinner:

See the noodle on her forehead? The silly girl!
Well, I hope you enjoyed my post today. Until next post, be blessed!

House of Mental Love Bears

What the heck does that title mean? LOL! Well, House of Mental is a company that makes some awesome digital images (among other things) and The Greeting Farm sells these exclusive digital images. One of the images is of a Love Bear. I love this Love Bear! I call him "Dr. Love Bear" because of his hat and needle. I decided to make a couple little projects with him. First, I had this Planner that I won from a blog candy: It's cute but not "me" so I decided to do what I love to do and alter it with some ink and paper. This is what came about:

I have to say, I love it! I think this is one of my favorite projects. I used papers from Basic Grey's Archaic collection because I thought it looked kinda like squirmy germs under a microscope. I backed the DP with chocolate chip card stock from Stampin' Up! The title of the appointment book and the year are handwritten by me on more mustard paper and backed with more CC card stock. The main image was colored with, yes, my copics and backed with some basic grey paper. I didn't have the correct punch for the binding holes, so I just used the old cover to mark the spots on the CC card stock and used a little hole punch to make the holes. They aren't perfect, but they work perfectly! Here's a close up of my Dr. Love Bear:

Isn't he cute? Well, I couldn't resist him, so I made a card out of him as well. This time I decided that I would use "traditional" bear colors on him. I used the basic grey papers again, and kept everything pretty simple and "straight". I say "straight" because DH and I had an intensive conversation about how he thinks some cards look unproffesional because they aren't lined up correctly. I think they look "handmade" he thinks they look "kindergartener-ish". So, on this card, I made sure the mats on the card are all exactly lined up, with 1/8" or 1/16" around each side of the panels. The ribbon is pretty darn perfectly lined up too, but since it is felt, it was difficult to keep it lined up. The brads were carefully measured and the holes for them were pre-poked using a piercing template.

All in all, I took extra time and made sure things were lined up just right. Yes, the card met with my DH's approval! LOL! If you're a "Lilavois" or if you know the "Lilavois", then you know how they can be with their criticisms! LOL! It was all in good fun. Here's a closeup of my coloring on Dr. Love Bear:

NO, I did NOT use my copics! LOL! I used my Koh-n-oor pencils and OMS (odorless mineral spirits) with my blending stumps. I felt like playing with my unloved pencils and I had a lot of fun with them. I am quite inexperienced with them. They are just like watercolor pencils, only different, and woodless. It's hard to explain, but they are great. I watched a tutorial on using OMS with blending stumps, so I'm going to give it another go. What do you all think of the different coloring medium?

Until next post, be blessed!

Pink Cat Studio images!

Hey there everyone. It's late on Thursday the 8th, so you are probably reading this on Friday the 9th. If that's the case, you're reading this on my birthday! Yup, another year older. I think it's going to be my best year yet. So, wanna see what I've been working on lately? Pink Cat Studio has some of the cutest images. There is this one in particular, and her name is Lily! Right now Pink Cat Studio is having a contest to use the digital image of Lily the Fairy and make a card with her. I made two cards for the contest and here is the first one: I had never used a digital image before and it was a lot simpler than I thought it would be. I just printed it out and there you go! I colored the images with my copic markers but had to be careful because the ink from the ink jet printer smeared if I went over it with my marker. Also, I discovered a way to flip the image so I think that first card has the image facing the opposite direction than was originally intended. Here is the other card I made:

I really like this one. I used Doodlefactory stamps to make a little scene for Lily the Fairy to be playing it. The mushrooms and clouds we all strategically stamped around the digital image, and then colored with my copic markers. I had a lot of fun using whatever colors I wanted to use, without worrying if they looked "real" or not. And next, I made something not for the contest, but for my daughter's new room when we get to Italy. Here it is:

Isn't this cute? I plan on doing her room in a fairy tale type of theme with princesses, castles, dragons, and fairies! I hope you can click on the picture and see it up close. There's some little dew drops around Angel's name and I used rhinestone buttons on the wand. I cut out Lily the Fairy so she'll be a little more dimensional over the name. I hope you all like it. I can't wait to get to Italy and put it up in Angel's room!
So that's it for this post. Thank you all so much for stopping by and checking out my projects.

Until next post, be blessed!

Christmas Stuff

Oh my goodness, has it really been NINE days since I last posted??? I'm so sorry! Things have been SO busy. I have a lot to talk about, but I'll try to make it brief. First, here are some wonderful Christmas cards that I have gotten. This first one is from Shannon. I love that she didn't use traditional holiday colors! Thanks so much for the card Shannon. Next, this card is from Rina.

Look at all that dimension! She obviously spent a lot of time on this card, cutting out the different parts of the image, embossing, coloring, and even adding fluff (flock?) on the sheep! Thanks so much Rina! This next one is from Liann.

This snowman is so adorable! I love how she cuttlebugged the white layer and then put it askew to the other layers. Thanks so much Liann! And this card is from Curt.

Isn't it elegant? It's all sparkly silver and gold, with embossing, and glitter, and lots of shine! Finally, I have a project that I made to show you.

I made this little stocking holder using one of the FREE My Timeless Templates from Papertrey Ink. It was so much easier than I thought it would be! I used My Sweet Shoppe stamp set from Doodlefactory to decorate the stocking, and put an adorable little snowman (filled with chocolate of course) inside. Isn't it so cute! I loved making this and I will definitely be making more of these socks. Probably for Father's day... I'll have to brainstorm on that.

Well, if you've made it this far into my post and are still reading, thank you! I have some news to share. We finally got our orders!!! It took much longer than anticipated, and when all is said and done, we'll be in Italy just about 8 weeks AFTER we originally planned, but it's all working out regardless! I had originally wanted to give out blog candy in celebration of our orders, but with the craziness of the holidays and our move, I'm going to have to postpone the candy for a little while. Besides, my birthday and blogaversary are coming up! I'll start working on a really good blog candy to make up for not having one now, and then I'll give it away after the move. I hope you all come back soon!

Until next post, be blessed.

Christmas Labels

It's been too many days since I last posted, but I haven't done much stamping so there hasn't been much to post. I did have some fun yesterday after getting all my Christmas cards filled out and addressed. But before I show you the labels, here's a fun picture of my Angel baby's top tooth.Isn't that cute? She is just cutting the other top tooth, but for now she looks silly with just the one showing through. Well, when I was doing all my Christmas cards, I realized that I didn't have any return address labels so I decided to make some. I had fun stamping them out and coloring them in. I had to cover up the labels above and below whatever I was stamping since the image was bigger than the labels. A few images overlapped, but it isn't too obvious when you put it on an envelope. I wanted to try it so I put one on an envelope:

I also made some others, including this holly one:

I used all the snowflake ones that I made and didn't get a pic first, oh well. Some of you reading this will get to see the snowflake label in person! I have been working on some holiday tags to put on presents, so I'll show those to you when I get them done. And I have three challenges that I am determined to complete by Monday, so hopefully I can do that and even share them with you here. I'm going to get off this 'puter and watch Narnia now, so until next post, be blessed!

The rest of SAR!

Well, I was supposed to post this on Thursday... but for some reason days keep slipping by! Please forgive me for not posting every day, I really want to but I just seem to run out of time. So, I'm going to make up for my absence with a bunch of pictures! Remember that I told you we did a Secret Santa gift exchange? Well, this is the gift that I got:

It's three handmade gift card holders! They are adorable! They are like little wallets that hold money and/or a gift card. Here's a pic of the inside:And see that cute snowman bag in the background? The git cardholders came in that. It's so cute and I keep it hanging off a shelf in my room with all my Holiday Swaps in it.

Next are the Swap cards that I got. This first one was made by the fabulous Christine:

This one was made by the very talented Jan:This one was made by our hostess-with-the-mostest, Jennifer:This one is made by my Amazing Upline, Alisha:This next one was made by the Stupendous Shirley (the top flap opens up, and is held closed with the image panel, I have GOT to try this fold!):And this last swap was made by the Generous Ginger (who also made my Secret Santa gift!):

And Finally, the Grand Finale!!! Jennifer, our hostess with the mostest, taught us how to make THIS wonderful gift!These four cards and enveloped fit INSIDE this adorable little house! I loved making this project. It was a little labor intensive, but Jennifer had mostly everything ready for us... so it was a TON of fun. Here's a closer pic of the house and two of the cards.The window in the house is all sparkly. It's made with packing tape and glitter! Here's an up close of the other two cards and the envies:This SAR was so much fun and festive. It will be the last one I get to go to, and I'm going to miss getting together with these wonderfully talented ladies and paper crafting. I just hope that I can find another group to craft with when we move. Well, that's the whole post for tonight. I hope some of you are still reading! lol! If you have any questions about any of these projects, just ask and I'll try to answer the best I can. Enjoy the new week... only a couple days till Thanksgiving!

Until next post, be blessed.