Thursday, April 30, 2009

Thursday Thirteen: Things I Wouldn't Want to Live Without

1. The sound of my little man's laughter
2. the Grace of God
4. Capris
5. Ice Cream
6. Washing Machine/Dryer
7. Friends: local & cyber
8. the Promise of Spring
10. Electricity
11. my paper & stamps
12. Hot Showers
13. and the LOVE of my family!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun!
Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Cuttlebug Be Inspired Challenge 2: Mom's Day

Good morning girls! I hope your Wednesday is off to a wonderful start. Today the Cuttlebug Challenge blog is sponsored by My Graphico and one of the participants will win a set of digital stamps from there.

We were provided Shopping Boutique to work with this week and the prompt of creating cards for Mother's Day with a coordinating envelope. I cropped out the flower from the shopping bag, enlarged it and then printed it on red and yellow. The red was trimmed and I used the back and then embossed it with Stylized Flowers. The Yellow was cut out, embossed with Swiss Dots and then popped up with dimensionals. I also added some red and clear gems to the flower centers. My envelope flap was also embossed.

I decorated the front of the envelope by die cutting 3 flowers and then trimming the blossoms to match the flowers in the center of my big flower.

I hope you enjoyed it - it was fun to work with such a large scale image! Be sure to visit the Cuttlebug Challenge blog to view all the other creations by the design team! And have a beautiful day!!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Twinkling Tuesday: Army of All Things Boys Love

Good morning girls!! Today's Twinkling Tuesday challenge came from Nicky, Madelynn's younger brother. He loves frogs and requested cards that had a frog on them. Jessica assured us that if we didn't have frogs, he loved snails, turtles, etc just as much! I don't have a frog stamp and thought I might make one from punches but then I found this turtle stamp I picked up several months ago for my little man in the Michaels clearance bin. For just a quarter, I thought it was pretty cute!!

Here is the turtle that my little one colored while I worked on my card today. As soon as he saw it he said "just like the one at Nana's"; she has a little pond with a ceramic turtle by it. He had lots of fun throwing rocks in it!!

Here's my card - just a real quick and simple one this morning! My turtle was stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa and then colored with my Prismas and baby oil.
Here's a close-up of the cute little turtle!
I hope you'll join us this week and create something using a frog or the like! Nicky wants to see a whole ARMY of them!! (Did you know a group of frogs is called an Army....but a group of toads is called a Knot?) Please use keyword MTTSC20 when uploading at SCS or PCP. And leave a link over that the Twinkling Tuesday blog so we can check it out!!
Have a beautiful day! I've got laundry on my list for sure!!


Monday, April 27, 2009

Inky Impressions Submission

Good evening girls!! As many of you know, I was able to finally meet my new nephew in person this past weekend. He is just darling - such a charmer! And of course, he still has that sweet new baby smell. What is it about babies that just makes you want to stare at them? He was full of smiles for his Aunt Cass and my little man thought he was pretty neat too! I do think he thought the baby would play more so he was a little put off by that. It'll be fun to watch them as the little one grows though! I also have a few questions answered at the bottom of my post from my Vintage Paris card so read all the way through!

I submitted a few cards for the Inky Impressions design team call and was so excited to have made the second round. Nicole sent us all an image and a sketch to follow to create our cards. Here is my submission using this precious girl! I fell in love with the eyes when I first saw Nicole's images and that is still what draws me in - aren't they just gorgeous??

The entire image except for her hair is colored with my Prisma colored pencils and baby oil. I used Copics on her hair. I tried a new technique for the grass and sky that I am sooo happy about it! I think I spent just as much time blending those two elements as I did coloring the rest of the image. If you love to color, this is a great line - there is so much detail -- I feel just like a
n artist!!

Here is the full card:

The sketch is one I've used before - #218 from the SCS Sketch challenges. My base was run through the cuttlebug 3 times to get it all embossed. It may take an extra moment, but it adds so much I think!
Wish me luck in making the final team! No matter what, I still feel very honored to have made it this far! Ya'll know that I'll be doing the 'chair cheer' if I am fortunate enough to get to work with Nicole and her images though! If you haven't heard of this line before, take a moment to visit the blog and read all about it!

Okay - I am so happy that so many of ya'll enjoyed the Vintage Paris card I posted last week. It was a joy to make! I wanted to clear up a few things. Several of you think that I used corrugated cardboard on it. I didn't - that striped layer has been in my paper stash for a long, long time. I just crumpled it up and distressed the heck out of it before adhering it down. The main image is only ONE stamp! Gotta love that!! I did stamp it in red and then inked up just the one little bit with a black marker, cut it out and glued it over the main image to add a little pop! Just a trick to make it look like I assembled the whole collage! *wink*
I think that's it! Have a beautiful evening - or day if it's actually tomorrow when you read this!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Vintage Paris

Good morning girls!! Today I have another card created from a collaboration between Rebecca and I. She suggested the Paris theme and I added the collage style to it. Be sure to visit her and see how her card came out!



My card is loosely based on this week's sketch from Inspirational Card Sketches: #13. I had looked at it the other day and of course it had a circle and if you've been reading this blog long you know those intimidate me! But I loved the little strips on the sketch and was definitely thinking of those as I created this. You can see that I forgot about the horizontal strips but that's okay! I usually lay things out and THEN glue everything down. But since this was a collage and I didn't want to spend forever on it, I just glued as I went pretty much. I'm pretty happy with the effect!



Before I go, I am so blessed by each of you! It means the world that you would want to stop in and see what I'm up to! Each visit and every comment you leave is read and brings a smile to my face. And I love checking out your creations too - even though I don't get to visit every day, I love checking in and think that it's so wonderful to have blogging which allows us to share this passion for paper, stamps, ribbon and baubles together since we could never all be in the same place at the same time. I have been doubly blessed since last night as 2 gals have bestowed the Karma Award on me! Thanks so much girls!! I treasure them and you have lifted my spirits!!


Both June from Simply Elegant Paper Crafts and Deanne from Just Wasting Time bestowed this on me! Take a moment and go visit them - they both have such lovely cards to share!





The Karma Award: These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.
It's tough to choose only 8 but I tend to be a rule follower; I also hate making a list that's so finite but I did it. So I nominate in no particular order:


Janna


Heather


Nancy


Kim


Tricia


Spike


Anita


Eva

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Cuttlebug Be Inspired Challenge 28: Home Sweet {Welcome} Home

Happy Wednesday morning!! This is my second post for today. I hope you'll scroll down to see my Flutter By card too! I'd love to hear what you think of it!

This week the theme over at Cuttlebug Challenge is HOME SWEET HOME. We were sent the most delicious papers from Marks Paper Company to work with this week. My project today features papers from the Old Fashioned Courtship Collection. It's a really cool mix of Vintage, Traditional and Contemporary designs. Not only that but it's a nice, sturdy double-sided paper equivalent in quality to Basic Grey. I'm sharing that with you because I had never heard of Marks Paper until a few weeks ago as we started working on this challenge --- maybe it's new to you too? I loved using it and I'm thrilled to have some left to play with! If you've never visited the website, I really encourage you to do so. You can see lots of stuff that their design team has done.


Here's what I came up with:

I knew that I wanted to try to create some sort of "home" image but wasn't sure what to do exactly. As I began sketching out a design, I remembered all those flower pot cards I've seen over the last few weeks and I thought it would be really neat to have a home designed with a pull feature and so my {Welcome} Home Pocket Card was born! Since my measurements are completely different from what I saw for the flower pot card, I am sharing the entire process with you!

*Note: All edges were inked with Chocolate Chip ink.
1. Cut base (or "home") from paper to measure 4" x 7 3/4"

2. Score at 3/4" and at 4 1/4"

3. Fold so that the small portion is a "mountain" fold and the other is a "valley" fold.

4. Use a border punch to add interest to the eave or trim. Since my paper is double sided I get a contrasting pattern.
5. Adhere Red Liner Tape to the sides of the large section only. This will close off your card and keep your insert where you want it. Go ahead and close together. I also used a few glue dots to adhere my trim down flat as I didn't like the look of them sticking up.

6. Cut an insert measuring 3 3/8" x 5" for your card from a contrasting paper. Cut another piece from white cardstock to measure 2 7/8" x 3 1/4" and set aside.
7. For the roof, cut paper from a third pattern to measure 1 1/2" x 5". Below you will see a simple trick to ensure that you get matching angles on both sides of your roof. This is also a great trick to use when making your own tags!

8. As illustrated below, trim the right side of the roof at a slight angle. Take the cut off portion, flip it over and line it up over the left side of the room. Trace the angle and then trim that side as well. You can see in the final pic that you have a perfectly matched angle.

9. Insert the base insert into your card and line up where you want your roof.

10. You can see that my roof allows some of the trim to peek out. Trim off the excess that is showing from the insert above the roof line. Adhere the white piece for the insert, lining it up so that is is tucked under the roof.
11. Add decorative elements to house. The doorknob is a decorative brad and the panes are just drawn by hand. Here are the measurements that I used.

Door: 1" x 2"
Upper Windows: 7/8" x 3/4"
Lower Windows: 7/8" x 1 1/4"
Chimney: 3/4" x 1 1/4" (5/8" showing)


12. Use your Cuttlebug and the Welcome Baby combo die set to create the sentiment. You can see how I just trimmed off the "baby" for my project.

Another view of the home with the sentiment showing! I think this would be great to welcome someone to the neighborhood or to even leave out for a guest to welcome them to your home.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I just love being able to share with each of you!! I hope you'll participate in the Home Sweet Home challenge this week at Cuttlebug Challenge. Marks Paper is giving away a paper pack to a lucky participant!! Use keyword CBI28 if uploading to online galleries. And don't forget to enter the link to your project in Mr Linky at the CBC blog to be entered in the giveaway!
FREEBIE: Marks Paper actually has a FREE digital pack on their website. Really cute patches that you could use for the challenge. Go HERE to get it (click on the photo and the pdf will open. Then just save, print and use!)

One last thing!!! Don't forget that next weekend is the BIG, Cuttlebug Challenge SPA RETREAT event. The 3 days will kick off with a blog hop on Friday. There are lots of projects being put together by the design team and a PLETHORA of PRIZES!! You won't want to miss it!!

Flutter By Wednesday: White Dotted Butterfly

Good morning girls!! Happy Wednesday! You know I love Wednesday's because it's Flutter By and CuttleBug time! So this is my first post today and my Cuttlebug Challenge post (with tutorial) will follow! Be sure to look at both and let me know what you think!

Danni is the creator of Flutter By Wednesday and every week she challenges us to use a butterfly in our project. Just a few weeks ago she added fairies in to the mix too! Someday I know I'll use a fairy but for now I'm sticking with the butterflies!! I have sooo many ideas that Wednesday can't come fast enough!


I wanted a quick and simple card this week. Last week when I was cutting out numbers for my Cuttlebug card I also cut out some butterflies using the Cricut. I have no idea what cartridge this was on. I embossed him with my Swiss Dots folder and added the "hi" sentiment. The card looks VERY plain - which I didn't really mind as I love a good CAS (clean and simple) look. But it felt very flat and so I decided to stamp a subtle background. My Tres Chic was not easily available so I just started grabbing sentiment stamps that were and added them on, not really worrying about what they said, but hoping for a great mix of typography! What do you think? To finish off the card I used foam tape to adhere my butterfly.

I already hinted that this week was special!! Not only is Jodi our featured stamper this week (be sure to visit her and leave some love) but our Guest Flutter By Designer is Lauren!! THE Lauren!! Be sure to visit Danni's blog to see what she has to share with us today. As always, we want to see YOUR Flutter By creations too! Use keyword FBW at SCS or PCP or link up your blog post over at Danni's site in Mr Linky! Here are the rest of the team's links - go see what they came up with!!

Flutter on sweet friends!!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Twinkle Tuesday: Words to Guide Me

It's Twinkling Tuesday again girls!! This is one of my favorite days of the week. Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesday is a sketch challenge started by 9 year old Madelynn, whose Mom is Jessica, The Whimsical Butterfly! Each week we get a sketch by Madelynn or a Temporary Twinkie. This week her brother Jack provided our sketch and of course, it's a doozy! Check it out!

I tell ya, these kiddos today really are talented!! I have to say that I thought....and thought....and thought a whole lot more about this sketch. I am not even sure I'm completely happy with it. Those little side snippets just had me spinning. I tried lace, buttons, ribbon, flowers, pearls, paper scalloped strips, more lace, well, you get the picture. I finally just adhered the butterflies so I wouldn't think it any more! Do you ever do that? Over think the whole thing? And then finally just glue something - anything - down so you can call it good?

My main image is using one of my beloved PSX stamps. Oh, how I wish PSX was still in business! But what a wonderful thought to us a guide in daily life!
Sow Courtesy
Reap Friendship
Plant Kindness
& Gather Love

Here's some butterfly goodness to enjoy! They are punched out of some Anna Griffin paper. It's an "older" pattern that has been out for Years but it's still a great one!!
Now, we would love to have you join us this week - and I am so anxious to see what everyone does with those side snippets! Please use keyword MTTSC19 when uploading to SCS/PCP. Of course you can always link it up over at the Twinkling Tuesday blog as well. Bonnie is our featured stamper this week so be sure to leave her some love. This week we say goodbye to Jami and Danni from the team. Even though they won't be participating every week, they will always be friends and will still be stops I love to make! Won't you leave them some love too?
OH! And check this out (Be sure to browse around LollyChops blog too - she's a terrific writer and has a different craft skill in every bone!!)! I can't wait to get my tube in the mail. At first today I thought of creating some modern wall art out of it. But now I have a completely different idea and I can't wait to get started! I hope it turns out as fabulous in real life as it already is in my mind!
Have a Twinkling, Beautiful day girls!!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Grand Opening

Happy Monday girls!! Just a reminder that the Modern Sugar Blvd store will be opening today at Noon MST. There are 3 digi-images being released today:


Blog Gal

Cake Gal

In the Kitchen Gal
You can see more sneak peeks of projects using these images at the following DT blogs (links in my sidebar):

Crystal
Anita
Michele
Dee
Melissa
Mandy
Tenia
Wendy
Sue
Don't forget to visit the Modern Sugar Blvd blog to see the schedule of events planned for this Grand Opening Week!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

White Chocolate Raspberry Cake

I'm so excited to finally be able to show you my full project using one of the new images from Modern Sugar Blvd!


This Cake Gal is such a fun image. I love that she has a retro feel to her. I printed the digi image onto white cardstock using a laser printer. She was colored with my prismacolor pencils and baby oil except for her skin which uses copics.

I picked up this yummy gourmet mix and knew that it would be a sweet gift for someone. I know many bloggers would probably completely cover the box, but I think it's pretty cute with it's pink polka dots already. So I just wanted to create a coordinating tag to attach to it.

Some embossing, some punching, some lace and a handful of pearls were used to create my tag.


And here is the finished project! I hope you enjoyed it!! Be sure to visit the Modern Sugar Blvd blog to get all the details on the week's celebration! Yep - a whole WEEK! And don't forget that the store will be opening at Noon MST tomorrow!

Buttercream or Whipped?

Good afternoon!! I have another sneak peek of a new image being offered by Modern Sugar Blvd! What is your favorite kind of icing on a cake? I love that whipped cream frosting. Buttercream is hit or miss for me. If it's fresh, it's great, but if it's been frozen - not so much!!

Can I get a Woot for Lolly who guessed she was either cooking, ironing or nurturing. Good job!! I can't wait to show ya'll the finished project I created using this image! It's going to post later this evening. Modern Sugar Blvd will officially open its doors on Monday at Noon Mountain time!

I wanted to say thanks to everyone who wished me well regarding my toe. I *might* have over exaggerated my injury. When hubby finally came home he said he didn't think it was broken. And after waking up this morning, I have to agree. It doesn't even really hurt anymore. But last night since it hurt to put weight on it I was convinced it was broken.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Don't Forget the Sugar!

Modern Sugar Blvd is a new stamp company opening it's doors on Monday, April 20th. I feel incredibly fortunate to be working with the rest of the girls that are on the design team. There is some SERIOUS TALENT on the team! A few faces I've seen around blogland and lots of new ones!

Here is a little something I just whipped up using one of the images. I only get to share a sneak peek with you today.


Being in the jewelry business, I HAD to give her a big pearl earring!! What do you think she is doing??? This is one of the greatest girl images ever - EVER!!

I'll have another sneak peek for you tomorrow morning and then a full reveal later in the evening. While you wait, stop by the Modern Sugar Blvd blog and see some of the creations that the rest of the team did.

I hope you have had a wonderful Saturday. Mine has been awesomely painful! Awesome because I've had the best time with my little guy today - oh he just made me laugh like crazy this morning and painful because I am fairly certain that I broke my big toe. Those who know me "in real life" are probably not surprised as they all KNOW what a klutz I can be.

Friday, April 17, 2009

I'm Feeling Lucky!!

I found this awesome blog candy giveaway today for an Incredible Colorbox ink pad. I'd love to win it so I'm crossing my fingers!! If I don't win it though I want it to be one of you! Here's the link!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Club Anya Blog Hop


Good evening!! Hope you are having a wonderful day! Here is my Anya card for the blog hop!!
I used this weeks sketch from the Inspirational Card Sketches blog!

Enjoy!! Gotta dash - I thought we were spending the night at home - but hubby is taking me out!! I'll be hopping later!!


See the rest of the participants at the Club Anya blog!

Cuttlebug Be Inspired Challenge 27: Numbers All Around

Welcome back!! Wednesday is Be Inspired day over at the Cuttlebug Challenge. This week our theme was numbers. This suggestion is from the oh so talented Betty Bee from the team. She suggested it in honor of "tax day". Isn't that clever?



Maggie had some wonderful suggestions for this theme:


* to use stamps that have #'s on them


* create a card that has a clock


* use the # folder to create a card


* create a little flower pot using # as flower pick


* create a lo use # as timeline


* use a large # on a tag



We have a wonderful sponsor this week - Elle Studio She has the greatest selection of journaling tags and little bits and even a few stamps! The journaling tags are great for scrapbooking - that is a given but they are also wonderful for card making and other paper projects too!

I don't have the numbers folder but loved the way it looks. So I visited my LSS (The Paper Garden) and used the Cricut machine to cut out some numbers in a variety of sizes and fonts in white cardstock. I knew that I wanted a white on white look and the number ONE to be big and prominently displayed.

I also cut my large ONE out in white since I didn't know exactly what ribbon I would want to use. Hey, my muse rarely warns me of what is to come!!!





My card is a 5 1/2 square base that has been embossed with the Swiss Dots folder. Some of the numbers were left plain and some were embossed with various folders. After running them through my Xyron, I applied them to another white layer, turning as I went so they were all jumbled. Here's an unedited photo that shows the background a little better!

After getting home and picking out my ribbon, I sponged Real Red ink onto my ONE and then embossed it using Swiss Dots. Making Memories letters finish out my sentiment. This one is for my hubby! But I think this would also be great for a birthday card. This layer is raised of off the base with dimensionals.

Pretty basic, but I love trying to take a mostly white card and make it something wow!! I also JUST realized that this card and my card for the Flutterby post use the same color scheme - and the same concept - even though they were created months apart!

Don't forget to share your creations using your Cuttlebug and the theme of numbers with us! Just add it to Mr Linky on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog so we can come have a look-see! Also, please use keyword CBI27 when uploading to online galleries!

Also, just a reminder that the first weekend in May is the 1st Annual Spa Retreat! There is a lot of work and planning going on behind the scenes right now to make this the BEST EVER event! You don't want to miss it so mark it on your calendars now!!!


One more little tidbit that I wanted to share with you! CropStop is offering the Cuttlebug Challenge readers a 10% discount on your $30 minimum purchase (regular shipping rates as normal). All the time. Every day. That's pretty cool! Just use code CC4 when you are checking out!

I'll be back this evening for the Club Anya Blog Hop! Have a beautiful day girls!!

Flutter By Wednesday: A Kaleidoscope

The butterfly counts not months, but moments and has time enough - R. Tagore

Is that not a beautiful quote?!? Love, LOVE it!!

This week Danni challenged us to use punches in our creation. Danni has added fairies to the weekly challenges as they flutter just like butterflies. We'd love to have you join us. You can use keyword FBW when uploading at SCS/PCP. Be sure to visit Danni and leave the link in Mr Linky so we can all come see them. Kristie is this week's Featured Member so be sure to leave her some love!


I created this card a long time ago actually and just never shared it. So this week it fit perfectly with the challenge!! I saw a card very similar to this at SCS that used the Cuttlebug Butterfly die and was on a much grander scale. I can't find it now but thought it was lovely and wanted to create something similar!

I know I shared yesterday that my local stamp club was meeting and the theme was butterflies. I just played with scraps and my butterfly punches for my swap cards. They are very, very simple compared to what I normally do. No cuttlebugging. No dimensionals. Just pure PLAY! Here are some of my favorites! I hope you enjoy them.


Love the pearl body on this one! I don't think I've seen anyone else use 2 different sizes of pearl/bling before and will definitely be using it again!


This one was Very Much like one of the PMS cards I made.




Have a beautiful day ladies!! I hope you'll play along and create something with a Flutterby or Fairy! My Cuttlebug Challenge card is next to post!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Twinkling Tuesday: Butterfly ATC

I'm back!! The haircut went really well! Thanks for the tip Heather. I did that. I also bribed him with a new Car if he sat still and didn't scream. He did say "ow!" a lot when she was wetting his hair. And for my family that reads my blog, here's an after photo:

This week's Twinkling Tuesday sketch really makes you think. I can't wait to go visit the rest of the team and see how they interpreted it. You should give it a go too - I'd love to see what you come up with!!

HunH!?! I know - I tell ya, these kiddos are soooo talented!! Tonight is my local stamp club. I suggested a theme of butterflies and am happy that it is this month. Thought I would try this sketch out in a small ATC size. I have to warn you - it is BRIGHT!!! Lots of pattern and color, not my usual style.



A close up of my Bright, Beautiful Butterflies:



That's it for me today! Come back tomorrow - it's Wednesday so lots going on around here!! I can't wait to show off my Cuttlebug Challenge card!


Be sure to check out the rest of the Twinklettes this week! Their links are over in my sidebar!! As always, have a beautiful day!!

Tuesday Already?

Good morning girls!! Wow - Monday just kinda flew by around here! Thanks so much for all the wonderful comments on my tutorial I posted yesterday! They put a big smile on my face!! I so appreciate each of you!

I will post my Twinkling Tuesday card later. I got busy today running errands, and cooking and more errands. And I even finally Finished my taxes. I've been working on them and would get to a point where I just couldn't focus on it any more!! So they'd get pushed aside. But hubby was so sweet and did the dishes while I double-checked and finalized it all up!

Also, I posted on Saturday my Teacup Trio card for a little challenge between my stamping friend Rebecca and I. She had some computer woes over the weekend - we've all been there, right? UGH! No Fun! But she finally got her card posted to her blog and WOW - it's a beauty!! But I knew it would be!! Head over here to see her card and leave her some love. You'll be glad you made the trip!!

Ack! It's 1:30 am!!! Gotta hit the hay. The little man is getting a haircut tomorrow. I like his hair a little longer and kinda shaggy. I am alone in this viewpoint. Should be a wonderful hour of my day full of squirming, screaming, tears....you get the idea. I am seriously considering bribing him. He'll do a lot of things for a Cars toy. It seems totally lame to cave to the bribery....but....there are scissors involved. Any hints on how to get a 2 year old boy to sit still for a haircut?

Have a beautiful day and I'll see you this afternoon!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Butterfly Hanging Basket

The challenge last week at Paper Makeup Stamps was to create a basket. I created a little puffy basket that could easily be hung on a friend's doorknob and filled with a small little treat.





I thought I might offer a photo montage of how I put this basket together. Here's what you'll need:

Cuttlebug

Die Cut

Cardstock

Stamp - Paper Makeup Stamps - I used the large one: What lies behind us

Ink

Distressing Tools - sponge dauber, edge distresser

Punches

Pearls

Piercer, Template, Mat

Twine

Red Sticky Tape

Embossing folder

Crimper

Scissors


I used my Labels One Nestability to cut out 2 pieces of cardstock. Any shape would work this. Spike mentioned yesterday on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog to have a set of B plates for cutting and a set for embossing. I think that is a great tip and will be implementing that soon here in my space. I also embossed each die cut using my Swiss Dots embossing folder.


I stamped the quote in Baja Breeze and then distressed the edges with ink and my distresser tool.

Apply adhesive to your die cut on the lower half only. I used regular adhesive here but then had to go back and re-do it with Red Sticky Tape. So start with that should you make one.


I just used my piercer tool to add holes for my twine. You can eyeball but I used my piercer guide to help make sure they were fairly even as I didn't want it to hang crooked.


Add quote to front, and decorate as desired. I had quite a bit of dictionary scraps from my paper flowers. So I punched out a handful of butterflies and also created some decorative strips with my border punches. For the filler, I just took some Kraft cardstock scrap, crimped it and then cut it into strips.


Crumple them up and add to your basket. I was going to add a Ghiradelli chocolate square. But when I cleaned out my desk drawer a few weekends ago, I guess I threw them all away. {Breathe} I know, I throw chocolate away too. I'm sorry! Please don't hate me!! LOL!!!! Since there was no chocolate, I put a stamp inside. What a sweet treat for a stamper!!


I hope you enjoyed this post! If you make one, I'd love to know so I can take a peek!


Have a beautiful day!!