Last Minute Halloween Fun!

I am so excited to share my last minute Halloween treat boxes with you! I finally got in the spirit of Halloween last night and stopped at my local Walgreens to get some candy! Next step was to figure out what I should create to house the yummies! After doing some searches I came across this candy box template from Martha Stewarts' website. I cut the box template out on black cardstock and used double sided tape to put it together. Next I decorated one of the sides with some spider web designer paper from the Fall Stack and used my Coluzzle to cut out the white circles that I stamped the cute spider on! The spider was from a retired Stampin' up Set "Cute as a bug". The circle was embellished with an autumn terracotta brad and a cut out of designer paper that says Happy Halloween was positioned on the circle. I added the circle to the box with a foam square. Lastly the box was filled with candy and closed. To close up the box, take a piece of orange ribbon that is folded in half and tye a knot in the end. The 2 flaps of the box are hole punched and then the ribbon can be pushed through the holes and the know keeps it from going through! I hope you enjoyed my last minute Halloween goody!

3 Girls And A Bottle of Wine!

The Timeless Tuesday Challenge this week was to use the colors Olive, Black, and Red. This became quite difficult on Saturday evening to achieve. On what should have been an extremely productive crafty Saturday night with friends, it quickly turned into a giggle fest and absolute madness! At between 6 to 8 hours of a crop night I was able to complete this one card. Yes all night and 1 card! I used barn red for the base of this card and a beautiful olive and black patterned paper that I swiped from one of my friends' collection as well as some more olive and black pieces to matt the focus. The stamped images were from the Close To My Heart stamp set called "Simple Beauty". The flower was stamped in black on olive cardstock and cut out. The image was colored in using some Prisma color pencils and then popped up using some really thick glue dots. These actually worked well in a pinch as I had just ran out of my foam dimensionals. The cardstock pieces were sponged around the edges using black ink and then I finally added the finishing touch of red sparkles to add just a little shine! This card was very fun to make but I have to say most of the amusement came from my 2 favorite crafty girls and a bottle of
Ballatore Spumante sparkling wine! If you are looking to try something new, Ballatore Spumante is super cheap and is a very tasty treat great for summer that can be picked up at any grocery store!

"Tasting notes
The delicate freshness of Ballatore makes it a mostcharming sparkling wine. Inviting aromas reminiscent of ripe peaches and apricots combine to form a delightfully complex bouquet. Well-balanced and rich in varietal character, this sparkling wine refreshes with melony flavors and a crisp, clean finish." http://www.grandwinecellar.com/

Hope you enjoy!

Christmas In August

Hello Crafters! Today I have created another Christmas card! At least the weather here in Arizona is only in the low 100's today! I can feel Fall coming.... soon I hope! Well this card was so fun to make! I had been wanting to use this cute "Merry Little Christmas" stamp set I purchased through Close To My Heart for quite some time so I finally brought it out today to play with. It features a couple of cute mice and a Charlie Brown feeling Christmas tree among a few other cute images. The Christmas theme challenge comes from the OCC Challenge Page . Make sure to check out their design team members' artwork for some awesome inspiration! The sketch was the challenge from 2 Red Bananas this week! It is a very clean sketch and super simple. The image was stamped using Versa Fine onyx black ink since it is water resistant I used it to feel confident that my coloring of the stamps would not bleed with the stamped images' ink. I decided to color this stamp in using a water brush. If you have never used one before they are tons of fun! You just fill it with water, dip in your ink pad, and paint like you would with a paintbrush. It acts a lot like a blender pen! The edges of the bamboo, white daisy, and garden green cardstock pieces were all distressed and some of the pieces were scored and sanded. The scoring technique was the challenge for Timeless Tuesday this week. I kept the scoring simple by using a stylus and my paper cutter to create some clean lines. Last but not least I did just the tiniest of embellishing by using some green floss and cross stitched little X patterns. I hope you enjoyed my card this week. Thanks for stopping by!

Go Fish!

Hello All! Today I am posting the card that I created for my dad's 60th Birthday! He is quite the fisherman so I used the "Campin Fever" stamp set by Close To My Heart and the "Back Country" paper packet and stickease also by CTMH! The sketch was provided by Mojo Monday's challenge. For my circles I used the Coluzzle cutting system and distressed my edges thereafter! For the Cottage Rumble they challenged us use torn paper or fabric so I tore the edges of my Barn Red cardstock for matting. To embellsih the card I simply tied some navy embroidery floss to the card and popped up some smaller circles that I stamped with fly lures and distressed slightly. This was a very simple card to put together. Thank you for taking a gander at my creation!

Christmas in July!

Today I had the urge to start my Christmas cards as it seems every year I get so busy that I barely get them done in time! I have to admit it is hard to create Christmas Cards in 110 degree heat but at the same time it got me a bit excited for the Fall season to arrive so I can start decorating for my favorite time of year! This card was created for three challenges. First is the In The Cottage Studio Christmas in July challenge. I decided to use the "Magical Season" stamp set by Close To My Heart! It is a great set with all of the seasonal favorites including Santa and his Sleigh, Swirly Christmas Trees, and of course Frosty the Snowman! I used Outdoor Denim card stock and "Snow Storm" paper by Around the Block! The second challenge is for Timeless Tuesdays and they are having us use Shimmerz! I have not yet tried this product but I added a bit of sparkle to my project with black and clear Stickles! Last but not least I found my design for this card from the Our Creative Corner sketch challenge. I hope you enjoyed reading about my newest card. Thanks for stopping by!

Puppy Post!

Hello all,

This week I have decided to put down the book I have been caught up in and get myself into the craft room! I hope you enjoy this card I created. For this one, I was going for quick and simple! I used a simple color scheme and used the Card Positioning Systems sketch challenge for the layout inspiration! For this card, the image of the cute puppy and "Ruff day?" stamp were from Stampin' up's Ruff Day set of 6! The ribbon was something I found from a dollar rack and the little bone shaped paper clip I found in my collection of embellishments! I love anything dealing with puppies so when I found that Our Creative Corner was having a challenge to use "pets" to be used as the theme of a project, I jumped at the opportunity! Make sure to check out some of these great challenges!

Thanks for checking out my creation this week!

A Paris Inspiration

Hello all,

Today I am posting for a couple more challenges! The first challenge is for Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge. Their challenge was to check out some impressive posters created by: Kim Poloson and pick one to use as inspiration. I have chosen the following poster called "Hat Boxes"

Kim Poloson's posters have French themes throughout. I chose to make an 8X3.5 inch card using the "Silhouette" paper packet by Close To My Heart. These are awesome black, white and bamboo cardstocks and designer papers that worked out perfectly to recreate the theme of the poster. The card layout was taken from the "Originals" card confidence program offered by CTMH which offers gorgeous layouts for keeping card making simple. The stamp set used for this card was Carte Postale by Stampin' up. I love this set containing french inspired images. As part of another challenge from Cute Card Thursday to use tags in the card. I decided to use a very small chipboard tag to stamp the word Merci "meaning Thank You" in french. The last challenge that I entered this card in was the Simon Says Stamp Challenge. This challenge was to create a card for their blogs upcoming birthday. Though this card is not a birthday theme, I decided that a Thank You card is fitting for this challenge as a thank you to Simon Says for offering great challenges and inspiration for the past year! Make sure to stop by the challenges as check them out. They are all offering some amazing inspirational art and of course awesome blog candy:)

I hope you enjoyed reading about this creation. Thanks for stopping by.

Keep Crafting,

Rebecca

4 Challenges Into One?

Combining 4 challenges can be rather tough but I am so excited with what came from this endeavor! The first challenge that this card was entered into was the House Mouse Monday Challenge. Their challenge was to use the colors of Neapolitan for inspiration. This means using strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate! Mmmmm I am really craving one of those yummy ice cream sandwiches right now!! As you can see I used those colors in my card using Chocolate cardstock as my card base with complimenting designer papers from the "Sonata" paper packet of Close To My Heart! I absolutely love this paper packet as it is full of musical themes! "One of my biggest passions!. The Vanilla or for CTMH "Buttercup" paper has a very slight musical note print and on the Chocolate accent pieces I stamped a musical words background from the "Elegant Notes" stamp set of Stampin" Up. The angel was stamped using Frost White Color Box Ink. I was very happy with how well it showed up on the Chocolate paper as you never know how it will turn out :) The next 2 challenges this card was entered into was the 2 RedBananas challenges. This challenge was a sketch challenge. The goal was to use this sketch

Because 2RedBananas is sponsoring the challenge for "Card Positioning Systems" CPS120Everyone can double dip and enter their cards into both challenges! The last challenge I entered was the Our Creatice Corner OCCC. Their challenge was to use a border punch! This was a little bit difficult as I do not yet have any border punches in my collection but I used a corner punch to create a scalloped edge! This card was so much fun! I even enjoyed coming up with a fun way to photograph the card using my clarinet as an easel!

I hope you enjoyed hearing about my card and that it might inspire you to get creative and join some of those fantastic challenges!

Happy Crafting,

Rebecca!

Celebrate!

It is time to celebrate! I have officially moved into my new house and FINALLY have my craft room up and running!! "Before and after pics of the new room will be coming soon!" For now I have decided to get a post up for the Timeless Tuesday Challenge FTTC19! This challenge was simply to use designer papers in the creation. I also entered the Easy Breezy challenge to make a 10 minute card fllcjuneI decided to use a stamp set from Close To My Heart "CTMH" called "Frogs". It is an older stamp set of theirs but new to me and I just love those froggies! The designer papers are from the "Boom -Di -Ada" collection from CTMH. The colors feature Barn Red, Autumn Terracotta, and Sweet Leaf. I started with a Barn Red base and selected the Sweet Leaf polka dot designer paper to compliment it. On the Barn Red, I stamped the plants with a Versa Mark stamp pad and then used dark brown chalk to bring out the image. I used the same technique for the creamy yellow image behind the frog as well as the frog itself. The frog was stamped on a separate piece of white cardstock with the Versa Mark and then I used different shades of green, yellow, and brown to bring up the image. It was then cut out and using Fiskars hole punches, the center of the frog was punched out to show the paper behind. All papers were chalked to bring the bright tone down a bit and the cardstock was distressed using scissors. Lastly ribbon from CTMH Autumn Terracotta ribbon rounds was added along with some matching brads.

I hope you enjoy my creation! The Versa Mark/ Chalking technique is so much fun! Give it a try:)

Keep Crafting,

Rebecca!

Opportunity Knocks!!

Hello Crafters!

For my first post I am taking the opportunity to spread the word about how sending a card can help in the fight to cure Alzheimer's Disease! How can sending a card help? Visit Jen Tapler Designs to see her challenge at http://jentapler.blogspot.com/2009/03/blogoversary-challenge-big-blog-candy.html Jen is going to collect the cards made for this challenge and auction them off to raise money for research, education, and help in the care for patients suffering from Alzheimer's. As if sending a card to help in the fight for this disease is not reason enough to join the challenge there is also a great blog candy price being offered!

The card I created for this challenge shown to the left was made using the Emporium Level 2 Paper Packet from Close To my Heart. This simple card showcases the "Dream Wishes" MyAcrylix stamp set. Using the flower pattern; a watermark background was created on the Buttercup cardstock using the matching Buttercup ink pad. Crystal Blue ink was utilized to stamp the card title on White Daisy Cardstock and the edges were sponged. Scalloped edges on various pieces of this card were created using Fiskars punches and a few accessories including a pewter photo clip, natural hemp , and twill ribbon tie this card together.

Thanks for checking out my post and keep crafting!