Fab Friday Quickie

I'm still in crafting mode getting ready for tomorrow's big craft sale, so this Fab Friday post is a quick one! I stumbled across this site the other day:

Design Seeds

It's simply a blog of beautiful photographs with accompanying color palettes like this:

Great for color inspiration in all your cardmaking and scrapbooking projects. Enjoy!
Lisa

My First Easel Card

I made my first easel card this week. I don't know how many more I'll make of these, but it was fun to try (and succeed) and making one.

I was inspired to try this because of several easel/fancy folds challenges this week. I'm also entering this card into several other challenges, so I included a Magnolia stamp (my fave Standing Fall Tilda), a "Thinking of You" sentiment and an autumn-ish color scheme, as well as giving Tilda some auburn tresses.

Pile It On Challenge - #39 Fancy Folds
Bows and Berries - anything goes
Delightful Challenges - Fall
4 Crafty Chicks - Fall
One Stop Craft Challenge - easel card
Paper Pretties - Fall
Paper Shelter - anything goes
Scrapbook Sisters - Fall
Stamp With Fun - anything goes
Tuesday Throwdown – Thinking of You
Incy Wincy – Fancy Folds
Sweet Stampin' - Anything Goes
http://blog.icopic.com/ - red hair due on Sunday
http://magnoliadownunderchallenges.blogspot.com/ - fancy folds
http://justmagnolia.blogspot.com/ - Fall/back to school

Lisa

Birthday Jasper

Welcome to my weekly DigiStamp Boutique (DSB) post. It turned out to be good timing that I hadn't prepared my card in advance. Sally-Ann, owner of DSB, just released some new images, including this cutie, Birthday Jasper:

Supplies: Birthday Jasper (DSB), teal polka dot paper (Tim Holtz), Salsa 6X6 scrap pad (Junkitz), sentiment (computer generated using Segoe Script type), Copics, buttons (Paper Studio), Scrapper's Floss (TAC).

I'm putting this little guy to work and entering him in the following challenges:
Stampin' for the Weekend - Challenge #17 What a Cutie!
Crafty Sentiments Design - Happy Birthday!
Southern Girls Challenge - Anything Goes!
Delicious Doodles Challenges - Challenge #2 Cute as a Button

If you're interested in checking out the other new images in the shop, head on over to the new releases page. There's Jasper with flower and Sketchy snow person. All are equally equally adorable! :)

Lisa

Milk Carton Box Tutorial

As promised, today's Fab Friday post is a tutorial for a milk carton box. Let me give credit where credit is due. I totally stole , um I mean, was inspired by this milk carton on Kerry's blog. Kerry has a wonderful tutorial on her blog. But, unfortunately the measurements are all in centimeters. Not much for those of us on this side of the pond. ;-)

Supplies:
8.5 X 11" piece of cardstock
Scor-Pal
printed paper, stamped image, etc. for decorating
ink & sponge (optional)
small binder clip
adhesive

Directions:
Along short side of paper, score at 2.5", 5.5" and 7.5"
Turn paper and score along long side at 2.5", 5", 7.5" and 10". Cut out bottom right hand corner and notch bottom tabs as shown in photo below. Add 1" scores halfway between 2.5" & 5" scores and halfway between the 7.5" and 10" scores, as shown below

To find the half way point, align your scores along the 3" and 5.5" marks as shown below. Score at the 4.25" mark. repeat for other 1" score.

Using your bone folder, go over all of your score marks. This will make your box much easier to assemble!

If you're going to ink the edges of your box, the easiest time to do this is before assembling your box. Also, this is the easiest time to add any decorative paper and/or images. Cut your printed paper to 2.25" X 2.75".

Next, add adhesive as shown below. I recommend using a dry adhesive since it grabs right away and you don't have to hold or clamp the box together while a wet glue dries. The second section is the best one to place your image on. The first and third panels are notched to form the sides of the box. The panel all the way on the right is where the sides of the paper are joined to form the box. This is best hidden at the back of the box.

The fourth bottom section has adhesive on the other side. This is the bottom flap of your box.and will cover the other flaps.

How to assemble the box is a matter of personal choice. I find it easiest to adhere the 3 inner bottom flaps to each other as I fold my paper into a box shape, then adhere the side seam of the box, leaving the last bottom flap as a final step. Some people may prefer to adhere the long side first and then worry about the bottom. (Kerry does it this way.) Experiment with how the box folds together before trying to glue it.

Use a binder clip to hold your box closed. You can find decorative ones in the store. Or, use your paper scraps and some adhesive to cover your clip. (This is a great way to use up any super skinny strips of paper.) Add a bow, if desired.

Voila!

Image: Penny Black
Paper: River Rock (SU!), My Minds Eye dp, pink cs (Bazzill)

One last tip. If you are making a lot of these, I would suggest scoring all the pieces of paper in one direction (i.e., along the short side of the paper or along the long side of the paper) and then score all of them again in the other direction. Once you get into the groove of scoring at certain intervals (no pun intended) it's easiest to keep scoring all the papers that way and then score them all in the other pattern. (As opposed to score, turn, score for each piece of 8.5 X 11 cardstock.)

Give these a try! They are a lot of fun.

Lisa

Kraftin Kimmie Christmas

That Kraftin Kimmie is really making me work hard for those challenges! ;-) First, there was the Halloween-inspired "Make It SPOOKY" challenge. I didn't have any KK Halloween stamps so I came up with this card using the slightly creepy Charlotte.

Then came this week's challenge - Christmas in September. Guess what? No KK Christmas stamp. So I once again put on my thinking cap (after blowing off the dust, lol!) and came up with this card using Lavender the Quilter:

I thought the "Warmest Wishes" sentiment tied together the quilt theme along with the holiday theme. And I used some of my Basic Grey Jovial 6X6 pad along with a red and green color scheme to complete the holiday feeling.

Of course, I won't have to worry about not having the right stamp for the next Christmas challenge. I was one of the lucky winners of the most Holiday Krafty Hop! Lucky, lucky me! :)

See you tomorrow for the milk carton box tutorial!
Lisa

Fall Tilda

It's starting to feel like summer days are on the wane and autumn will be here soon. It certainly is a good excuse to dust off one of my favorite Magnolia stamps, Standing Fall Tilda.  (She must be a lot of other people's favorites, because she's currently sold out at the Magnolia-licious store. I'm sure Diana will be getting more in stock soon, though.)

I'm entering Tilda in quite a few challenges:
Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
Anything Goes Challenges - Anything Goes
Outlawz - Wednesday's Sketch Challenge
Magnolia-licious Highlites - Fall or Back to School Challenge
Magnolia Stamp Lovers - Fall colors challenge

Whew, Tilda is really getting around today. :-)

Don't forget to stop by on Friday for my tutorial on making a milk carton box with your Scor-Pal.
Lisa

A Party and a Prize!

The Outlawz challenge group is celebrating having 1000 members with a party. And there's a great prize up for grabs - a $25 gift certificate to Paper Temptress and a large assortment. I *love* paper and can always use some new ribbon so this sounds like a great prize to me!

So, head on over to the Outlawz site and join if you're not already a member. Then, help spread the word and get your entries in for this great prize!
Lisa

Freakishly Fun!

Today's DSB card is actually a project. A milk box carton, to be exact. I was inspired to make one of these after seeing the adorable Halloween treat box that Kerry made.

Here's the side view so you can see all the cute papers that I used. :)

This little creature is from the September release, Cute Halloween Collection. The sentiment and bat are part of this month's freebie. I took advantage of the great "Buy 3, get 2 free" deal over at Crafty Chaos Designs to buy these fun "Eye of Newt" digital papers.

I am entering this project into two challenges: the monthly challenge over at Jillian Vance Designs' Freaky Fridays challenge and the "Happy Fall Y'All!" challenge over at Love to Crop! (I'm assuming fall colors includes Halloween colors.)

Kerry has a tutorial for the milk carton box on her blog. However, it is in centimeters and my Scor-Pal doesn't have metric measurements. So, come back on Friday for my Fab Friday post with inch measurements and a few tips I picked up while making today's project. (I loved making this so much that I plan on making a bunch more to sell at the upcoming Hatton craft show!)

Happy Stamping!
Lisa

The Big 13

Today's the big day in our house. My youngest daughter turns 13 on Sunday and she's having her birthday celebration with friends tonight (dinner out and a sleepover). While bloghopping the other day, I ran across this great inspiration her birthday card: Teenage Birthday. (Coincidentally, Terri was one of my team mates on the Sweet Sketch Wednesday design team.) My daughter is also into the Goth look. Must be the preteen/teen thing, probably thanks in part to the "Twilight" series.

I really liked the papers she used, so I checked out the Crafty Chaos Designs website. I fell in love with so many of the papers! I wound up buying "Halloween Bride" for Ali's card. I knew I wanted to use this cute Pinky image from Tiddly Winks and thought these papers were a good fit for the image - girly yet Goth. Here's the finished card:

Supplies: Halloween Bride digital paper (Crafty Chaos Designs), Pinky (Tiddly Inks), Labels 4 Nestabilities, Palette Noir ink, sponge, Copics, black and pink cardstock scraps, ribbon, black brads, Cricut with Winter Woodland cartridge.

Isn't she sweet? (In a Wednesday Addams kind of way! lol!)

Go check out Crafty Chaos Designs! I'm not sure how long the sale runs for, but right now if you buy 3 items, you get 2 items free! Just be sure to use the code "CCDbonus" during checkout. See site for details.
Lisa

DSB Sunday - New Images!

Sally-Ann has released a new set of images today, entitled Cute Nativity.

And now for today's card:

Supplies: Cute Nativity (DSB), kraft cardstock (TAC), twine, Copic markers, chalk (sky background), circle punches (CM), star punch, paper scraps, sentiment (computer generated).

Lisa

Fab Friday: World Cardmaking Day Contest

Wow, check out the prize package over at PaperCrafts World Card Making Day contest page!

They're looking for cards in five different categories:

a. Birthday

b. Christmas/Season's Greetings

c. Hello/Thinking of You

d. Love

e. Thank You

Cards must be postmarked by October 10th, so you've got plenty of time to enter! Get stamping! :)

Lisa

The Office

I hope you had a relaxing Labor Day! Ironically, one of the things I did on my day out of the office was to participate in the Kraftin' Kimmie "Let's Go to the Office!" challenge. :) We had to use a paper clip or other office supply in our project. (I used a spiral shaped paper clip.)

I love, love, love this KK Bird Fairy stamp! It doesn't show up in the picture, but I used glitter on her wings. She came out so nice and sparkly! Her little bird friend is just the cutest, isn't he?

See you tomorrow evening for a Fab Friday post!
Lisa

A Flurry of DSB Cards

Wow, how did it get to be September already?! If you're looking for new DigiStamp Boutique images, like my "DSB Sunday" cards, they're going to be a little late... :)  Sally-Ann is hard at work and promised to get us some new images soon. In the meantime, here is this week's flurry of cards. (Well, OK, maybe 3 is not a flurry. But it's still a lot in one day!)

First up is this cute new Henry image, part of the August Offer of the Month - Zoe and Henry Christmas collection. I love that polka-dot paper behind Henry. It's "Jingle Bells" from the Holly Jolly collection by My Minds Eye. I love their papers!

 

Next up is this friendly and frosty fellow from the July release Snow Peeps. I love using non-traditional colors on my holiday cards. This dp is from a great Creative Memories "Additions" kit, Cheerful Winter, which I bought it from my friend and CM consultant, Jill. (Just in case you're looking for a CM consultant of your own!) The layout is based on Sketch TECC57 from the Taylored Expressions Sketch Book.

Last, but certainly not least, is this adorable Poppy image, Ice Skating Poppy. I used more My Mind's Eye paper and another sketch, this one from the Mojo Monday 2009 Sketch Book (Week 74).

Have a great week!
Lisa

Fab Friday For the Books!

It's September, which means back to school time (for those lucky souls who weren't already back in August!). And back to scool makes me think of BOOKS. so this week's Fab Friday has a book inspired theme.

On my Cricut yahoogroup, one talented crafter posted a link to this beautiful bookmark:

Check out Christie's blog, Creations by Christie, for more beautiful bookmarks! Bookmarks make wonderful gifts so many people - teachers book club buddies, etc.! I'm inspired to try making one of these myself.

Lisa