A.R.T. #7 Challenge

Another week is drawing to an end and today I have another fun creation to share with you for the A.R.T. (A Random Thursday) Challenge.  We have an easy one for you this week ...

ANYTHING GOES!!

I always love this challenge because it's lets me get caught up on some of the theme cards I need (you know, like trapping two mice in one trap, LOL)!

I was in need of some baby cards so that is my theme for the day . . .

I am so pleased with how this card came together!  

I had recently purchased some sentiment stamps through Jo-Ann Online (50% off sale) and this sentiment is from one of those stamp sets (the other one is all about laughter).  I just LOVED these baby shoes so stamped them twice, once on the tag and once on pink paper.  Did a little fussy cutting, colored the ribbon and stitching then popped them up ... too cute!!  I thought a little faux stitching to match the stitching on the booties was just the perfect finishing touch.  What do you think??

Other challenges:
Paper Crafting Journey - Punches and/or Dies
Divas by Design - Anything Goes
Paper Shelter - Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew - Baby

Please be sure to pop over and check out what my teammies have created for your inspiration today!  And then I hope you'll come join in our fun!  Just click the link HERE to pop right on over to the A.R.T. Challenge Blog!
 

Hope to see you there!

Until then and as always ...

 Edit:  Oh My Gosh ... I totally forgot to show you the inside of this card 
(yep ... still trying to keep up with my New Years resolution)!

 

Recipe for my card:

Papers:  white cs, Crafty Secrets Pastels dp, Crafty Secrets double sided pink digital paper
Stamps/Ink:  Impression Obsession E6117 Baby Shoes, Fiskars 'Precious Baby Quotes', Versafine Onyx, Memento 'Angel Pink'
Accessories:  Jo-Ann's baby pink satin ribbon, glue dots, Martha Stewart Floral Vine border punch, Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, xPress It foam mounting tape
Technique:  faux stitching

A Crafty Secrets Photo Frame . . .

Hello everyone ... I'm so glad you've come by for a visit!

Recently our neighbor was blessed with a new baby niece and when she showed me the photo of her holding little 'Harper' I knew I wanted to do something special for her and came up with this idea.

A 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" easel photo frame card.

(I have actually added a copy of the photo she shared with me and gave it to her over the weekend ... she was thrilled and immediately placed it on the mantle for everyone to see!)

View of the back.

The paper I've used for my creation is one of the new Double Sided Digital papers which you can find HERE.   I fussy cut out  the little baby ephemera  from a Crafty Secrets booklet that I don't believe is any longer in print but there is a huge assortment of items you can pick from to fill this need HERE.

By using x-Press It Foam Mounting Tape on the top part of the baby shirt (upper left corner), I was able to adhere my photo of Aunt Christy & Harper into place without any problem after photos were taken to share here on my blog.

The sentiment is from the Medium Poppy stamp set which is now also available in digital form HERE.  And my easel was created using the Tim Holtz Sizzix Small Easel Die and slightly heavier grade chipboard than used for my base card.

Here are the quick & easy steps I took to create this treasured project:

I found this wonderful 40pt. 8 1/2 x 11 chipboard pack at Michaels and it is PERFECT for this type of project.  (I think it was $3 or $4 for 25 sheets.)

The first thing I did was cut a sheet in half ... make it 5 1/2" x 8 1/2".

After deciding on this pretty PINK double sided digital paper, I did the following:

• Opened a NEW BLANK document in Word 2010.
• Modified my margin settings to 0" on all four sides.
• Insert, picture (located it in my computer files)
• Rotated and modified the size to fit HALF my full page size
• Repeated the process ... Insert, picture (for my coordinating paper file)
• Rotated and modified the size to fit the other HALF of my full page size.
• Printed in high quality onto photo paper.
• Cut in half for the FRONT and BACK of my Picture Frame Easel Card.

Once I had my 2 sheets of digital design paper printed and cut,
I simply adhered it to the chipboard using ModPodge.

You can decorate to your hearts content on a project like this but in my case I wanted to keep it simple and bring more of the focus to this precious newborn and her Aunt.

Other Challenges:
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Pink and White
Cupcake Craft Challenge - Anything But Square
Digi Darla's Challenge - Easel Card
Love To Scrap - Anything Goes
Make It Monday - Always Anything Goes
Stamp With Fun - Celebrate
Use Your Stuff - Baby on the Brain (ephemera images from booklet 4+ years old, easel die 2 yrs old)
Vintage Stamping Challenge - Pretty in Pink
Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Paper Minutes - Anything Goes
Outlawz Color Challenge -


I hope you've enjoyed my project today and will give it a try.  It certainly made for a quick, easy & special gift for my neighbor & friend Christy!

Have a fabulous day and thanks so much for stopping by!
As always . . .

OKAY ... I think I'm ready!

Hello my friends!

I 'THINK' I'm ready for Saturday's craft show ... at least I hope so!  With doing 2 craft shows in a 3 week period, it kind of put the crunch on me to replace those things that sold well at the first show (i.e. tissue box holders, birthday cards, baby cards).  So, with hubby's help I think I'm all set.  Now just need to look over things one more time and PACK IT UP!

My husband doesn't usually get involved in my crafting but he generously spent a few hours cutting paper for all the tissue box covers and Hershey Bar Pouches over the past couple of days.  

HUGE HELP!!

Here are the 'everyday' tissue box covers I made yesterday and finished decorating today.

Something else that was pointed out to me at the last show was that I didn't have any Baby Boy cards left ... so of course I jumped right on that too.  Here's what I came up with quickly.

 Since I already had this bunny colored and in my stash ... I decided to whip up a Baby Girl card too.

OKAY ... I think I'm ready!

On a separate note,  

this time LAST week was absolutely beautiful here in NE Ohio.  

The temperatures were in the 70s and we were enjoying an Indian Summer.

Here are a couple photos I snapped while we were enjoying the last days on the deck!

 One week later and after the wind & rain from Hurricane Sandy ...

Trees are bare and the skies are gloomy  (took this lower photo about an hour ago)!

 

And, I was so thrilled to see the Bacopa in this pot rebloom (even though the Fountain Grass has seen better days, LOL) on our deck ... 

But again ... the wind & rain has taken it's toll on this planter too.  

Time to take it apart and store it till next spring.

Afterall, it is November!

Okay ... that's it for me!  

I'm tired and need to get out of the "cave" for awhile.  Thanks so much for stopping by and for always encouraging me with your kind comments!

Too COLD to play in the cave ...

Happy Saturday Afternoon All!!!

After spending 3 hours this morning clearing my driveway of the 14" of snow & helping neighbors with theirs, I decided it was time to play.  So, I went down into the Crafting Cave to "play" and BRRRRR , it's toooooo cooooold !  So, until it warms up (heater is on now), I thought I'd share a couple creations with you that I worked on last evening! 
First off are the cards I made for the STAMP SIMPLY Challenge over on Sharon Johnson's blog - "OH BABY".  Yep, we are to make BABY creations and since I recently purchased these adorable BUTTON BEAR digis from WinkWinkInk, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.


Isn't this a sweet image!!!  I've had this babyfood designer paper for so long I couldn't even find a name on it ... sorry!!  I've used a Nestabilities Labels4 and added hearts/sentiment from a Fiskars stamp set.  Add a little touch of ribbon and it's ready to go!!   My second baby creation is another WinkWinkInk digi, the girl version of Button Bears.  Another cutie!!  My background paper on this card is from Pixie Press. I've done some paper piercing around the outer edge and added pretty little pink ribbons & pearls for that "feminine" touch.  What do you think??  Oh and before I forget, I took the idea from my friend Vicki Parsons (Stamped Smiles) and used REAL tiny buttons on the button joints of the bears.  She's so clever!!!  (Hey Vicki!)  You just have to check out the awesome creation she made with this digi,  you can see it HERE.

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Remember THIS creation I made for the challenge over on Paper Maniac???   Well, how THRILLED was I to receive an email that my card had won for their texture challenge.  WHOO HOO!  What's really cool is that I won my choice of Cuttlebug EF & Spellbinder Impressability ... here's what I picked!  Thanks Paper Maniac!!!   Mind you, I don't play the challenge with the hopes of winning something free ... I just truly enjoy the CHALLENGE! But it sure is fun when you are lucky enough to win something along the way!  Just had to share!! 

I also want to do a "shout out" of thanks to Lyneen!  I won her birthday giveaway last month and due to illness she was late in sending it.  Well, I received my package past week and oh my gosh, what awesome images!  Thanks so much Lyneen!   If you like vintage, PLEASE check out Lyneen's blog, I am ... Dreaming of Castles.

Okay, the CAVE should be warmed up by now so I'm going to go play before having to start dinner!  Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I wish you all a wonderful, safe weekend!!!  Enjoy!!

Color Throwdown #57

Time for another Color Throwdown Challenge! What do you think of this color combo?? My first thought was "baby card"! So that's exactly the direction I took. I personally don't have much need these days for baby cards but I'm sure someone in the family will ... so, here we go!!

I have used Bashful Blue, wasn't sure what Positively Pink was so I used Melon Mambo and for the Certainly Celery ... I thought this piece of Anna Griffin designer paper was "close enough". Due to the fact that this cute little rockin' horse was an RAK from my online friend Kay Squires (waving Hi to Kay) ... I don't know who makes it ... but if you know (or if Kay's out there) please let me know and I will edit this post. I've used SU watercolor pencils and blender pens for the coloring and Nestabilities Labels One for the layout/matting. The ribbon is double sided satin from Michael's and I've used my Bow Easy (which I purchased from Sharon Johnson's Ribbon Store) to make this perfect bow! I know it's hard to see, but I've used a Signo white pen and made little dots at the four corners of my main image. Pretty easy peasy ... but oh so cute!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today ... it means so much to me!! Hope you're having a wonderful day!! I'm having a few friends in to "PLAY" tomorrow so I'd better get my house cleaning started! LOL!!

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EDIT ... I just heard from Kay and this cute little image is "Stamps by Judith".