DCWV January Stack-a-holic Challenge

   First, this is not the project I was going to try to get to today.  The first project I wanted to do was to sand and paint this great bird feeder we have - except I can't find the sand paper and my boyfriend has the flu, so I am out of luck on that one til I get to the store or he gets better.

   I've been wanting to get to the DCWV challenge so this evening seemed like the best time.  Although I'm not sure if I will be asked to drive said boyfriend to the ER.  He should have gone earlier but he thought he'd be ok.  He's got a temp of 101.2.  And he's a man.  And he's sick.  So I'm basically living with an oversized child right now.  I just hope he feels better soon.

   Anyhoo, I got down to business and took the card challenge.  Here is the challenge drawing:

   Here is my interpretation:

   I used plain cardstock, patterned paper (Switchboard)  from Pinkpaislee, burlap paper from DCWV, and dimensional hearts by Pebbles.
   
   The notebook border was made by using my Creative Memories border maker and the tag was made with the Creative Memories Shape Maker Circle Tag.  I used my Fiskars 3-in-1 Tag Maker that I won several months ago.  I do love that little piece of equipment!  Actually, I love everything I have or I wouldn't have it!

   We just received Christmas gifts from my bf's sister this past week and I thought this would be a great opportunity to tell her thank you!  I will be writing her a personal note and then sending this out and I hope she likes it as much as I do!

Birthday Card For My Bro

Yesterday I made a birthday card for my brother.  It wasn’t his birthday, but we were celebrating it at my mom’s apartment.  I looked to Pinterest for my card making inspiration.  I knew I wanted to do a fold-in card - possibly called a tri-fold.  I can never remember as I am not big on making cards.  I like doing them, but my first love is scrapbooking.  You can imagine my delight when I came across a tri-fold that looked like a good “man” card! 

I have an 8.5”x11” Colorbok stack that has only blue and brown patterned paper and I just love it but the only time I use it is for “man” or sympathy cards, so I was really glad to take it out and use it.

I put little banners on the front – two on one side, one on the other – and they keep the card closed!  I stamped “Happy Birthday” on the middle banner with a Fiskars stamp and dropped a silver star on it for some “pop”.  I made an envelope using my Cricut and the card was good to go!

My brother loved it and actually asked me if I made it!  Yeah bro – I did!  Let me know what you think!

Toilet Paper Roll Album

             Last year at a scrapbook event I met a woman who was carrying toilet paper rolls in her stash of paper.  She talked of a toilet paper roll album that she had started making and had even been handing out as gifts.  I was intrigued, but did nothing.  I kept thinking about it, but since we use the roll-less TP, I was pretty much up the creek in the supplies department.

Fast forward to September 2014 – the local supply store has stopped carrying the roll-less TP and we have to buy the regular kind.  Finally, I can begin!  I knew immediately what paper I was going to use.  I had the Tim Holtz Lost and Found stack and had been dying to use it.  Then I started cruising YouTube to find a tutorial, and boy did I find one!  Check out My Sisters Scrapper – she has a ton of great tutorials and the ones I watched are really easy to follow! 

http://youtu.be/-8vndiRxuWk?list=UUuSLCMH4NBu0wUKEzD6Jw3w

She lists all the supplies you’ll need, plus dimensions, and it was like taking a class in my craft room. 

I didn’t do any embellishing – it’s not my strong point, plus I’m afraid to store anything that has stuff all over it.  There should be a class out there – “Don’t Fear the Embellie!”  Also, I will try to find better magnets.  The ones I picked up don’t seem strong enough when placed under paper.  I might need to use thinner paper though instead of cardstock. 

I love the product I ended up with.  Several of my friends have said it looks like something one would find in a gift shop.  I know I’m going to make several more and pass them on as gifts this Christmas.  I just feel really good about how well it turned out and wanted to share.

Tools I used:

Fiskars trimmer
Creative Memories trimmer
Fiskars tag punch
Creative Memories round tag

Fiskateers WCMD Challenge

As you may know, several weeks ago we crafters celebrated World Card Making Day.  Some of us celebrated by drinking our coffee and moving on with the day.  Others thought about crafting but went shopping instead and bought new supplies.  Others trolled Facebook and were rewarded by the Fiskateers wanting to do several challenges for the day.

The first challenge was to do a Halloween card.  As it was the beginning of October I thought this was a great idea!  Plus, I have never made a Halloween card.  I actually don’t make a lot of cards and those I do make, well, I’m a little embarrassed to send.  But this challenge pulled together a lot of colors that I like – mainly orange (the official Fiskars color), and anything bright or dark or spooky!  I love anything on black so I made this cute little card.  I used the Fiskars gingerbread man punch for the ghosts and just cut off one of the legs.

The second challenge was to create a card with a flower embellishment on it.  I used my border punch system by Creative Memories, using the notebook cartridge with some pretty patterned pink cardstock.  Once punched, I scored it using my Martha Stewart scoring board and hot glued the sucker together into a rosette.  This was after several tries of creating a ripped piece of cardstock twisted into a beautiful rose, and crumpled circles of paper manipulated to look like morning glories.  Didn’t work.  So I made the rosette.  I like it!  I ripped apart a tiny silk flower and popped an enamel dot on top and I think it looks cute!

The last card of the challenge was a thank you card.  At this point I didn’t know what I was going to do.  You can tell, because this card is by far the least worked upon.  To be truthful, I did the Halloween card the first day and then the other two I had worked in a couple of days after.  It was an extremely tough weekend and I had a hard time getting to my room to work.  You know how it is!  As I was part of the initial cheer heard on the Fiskateer FB page regarding these challenges, I persevered.  I wanted something a little more formal and I pulled out this paper pad I had purchased previously.  Now smile – that sounded cool!  I love the blues and browns in this pack and I especially loved the blue patterned paper that I grabbed.  The paper is by Colorbok, by the way.  I used my cricut to cut out “merci” and then I placed everything together with some ribbon to embellish, colored my merci with glitter glue, and voila!  The card is finished!  I ended up having to tack town the ribbon with hot glue, smudged my lettering and had to re-do the glitter as best as I could.  I don’t think it’s too bad…

After the weekend was over I was contacted by Fiskateers to let me know that my Halloween card was chosen (at random) as a winner!  There were so many other cards that were great, but this little card I do love!  I have no idea who I am going to send it to though!  I received my prize yesterday, after a fifteen hour day of work, appointments and meetings.  I have yet to play with it but I am thoroughly excited to get my hands on it and go.

Thank you Fiskateers!  It was truly a wonderful experience getting together with other Fiskateers for a day to challenge ourselves and encourage each other in our crafting and especially card making.  It’s been a long time since we’ve done this and I’m really glad I got to be a part of it.  It also made me want to kick-start this blog, so thank you!