Studio Challenges: No Peeking

Hello and welcome! Today is a new challenge over at The Studio Challenges. The challenge is to make a layout based on this wonderful, festive table setting. Get out those Christmas papers and have fun!!!

The Studio Challenges

I was trying to be creative with taking photos of my son around our 

tree. Looks like he's got a tree bulb nearly up his nose right? My son

seems to always do this quirky movement with his eyes and mouth when I want

to take photos. Needless to say, he was still an excited 7 year old!!!

'No Peeking' is not your "normal" page title. In fact, I couldn't

find it at all in my usual places to look so I had to make my own

using SCAL3 and some fancy font.

I love stitching - the end!

Supplies:

Paper - Teresa Collins - Tinsel & Company

Stickers from various places

Sequins and Candy Cane - Hobby Lobby

Arrow punch and cork board 

Silhouette and SCAL3 - title

Red Thread and circle template

Poinsettia from somewhere

Give a Crafter a Cookie Challenge: Cookies for Santa

We have a new challenge this week at "Give a Crafter a Cookie". 

Here is the image we are working with. Beautiful!

I wanted to do something fun and adorable for two sets of people. One being my husband's coworkers and the second being for SAS4Kids. I made enough of these gingerbread face cards for both! The best part was using up scraps and using Christmas/Winter embellishments that were trapped in a drawer somewhere. 

The face is two files combined from My Scrap Chick.  I used
the smile from a snowman face to brighten up the card. I didn't want to
send a "sad" face to kids in hospitals.

I did alter the smile and eyes by using the shadow feature on SCAL3.

Bigger eyes are easier to work with. Also, I cut the smile out once and

traced it with a black pen to save me the headache of working

with a thin cut (and using a bunch of extra black card stock).

Supplies:

-AC Brown Sugar Cardstock

-AC White Cardstock

-Various Winter and Christmas scrap paper

-EP Holidays solid paper

-Various Christmas embellishments from Hobby Lobby

-Twine

-Recollections Glitter Glue (on the white)

-Chalk

-White Gel Pen

-Charcoal Grey ink (I didn't want to shade with black = too harsh)

-Stamp from My Craft Spot

-Embossing powder (on the stamp)

Tools for the eyes - top secret!

Our sponsor for this week.

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Candy Cane Treat Boxes

Stopping by to share with you the treat boxes I made for my son's 

4th grade teachers.

They are a free file provided by Dreaming Tree!

Paper is Graphic 45 - 12 Days of Christmas

Thanks for stopping by today!!!

The Studio Challenges: Together

Oh boy did I positively drool over this year's Doodlebug Design's - Flea Market. I even bought extra embellishments from the collection cause I simply loved it all.

I seem to be going back in time these past few months scrapping about the year that Alvaro, an exchange student from Spain, stayed with us. This photo is one of my favorites with these two playing "bull fighting" at the Homestead, Ky. What I don't have a photo of is Alvaro holding his ribs after my son head butted him. It's all good though!

This layout is part of this week's challenge at The Studio Challenges. The challenge is a sketch so hop on over there to view the sketch as well as the other fabulous layouts by our design team.

Thanks for stopping by today!

I so miss my sewing machine. I wanted stitching so
I went with hand-stitching on this layout.

Up close photo of clustering embellishments.

Supplies:

-Doodlebug Designs - Flea Market

-Hobby Lobby - Wooden Leaves

-Silhouette Online Store - Large Circle Leaf Wreath

-Hand-Stitching

New Design Team and Card

 Hello and welcome!! Today I would like to announce that I'm part of a new design team called "If You Give a Crafter a Cookie".

Cute, right?!

It's simple really . . . be inspired by the image of cookies for that week's challenge. This is a great opportunity to also show off any other type of projects we can come up with because it's not just a card challenge.

Woot!!

Without further ado, here is this week's cookie challenge!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Give a Crafter a Cookie

Well, I guess my first project is a card. LOL This is a
3-D pop dot card that I got from the online
Silhouette store.

Supplies:

-AC White Cardstock

-BoBunny Altitude Collection

-Silver Ribbon from HL

-AC Coffee Cardstock (deer)

-Pop-Dots

-Silhouette Cameo

Before I forget, they do have a weekly sponsor for their challenges. Since most of the sponsors are all about stamping and coloring, I will most likely be doing my own thing.  I must say though that Beccy's images are awesome!!! Enjoy!

Beccy's Place

Creative Scrappers: Brrrrrr

Creative Scrappers is hosting a BLOG HOP today in conjunction with Spiegelmom Scraps. I hope you take a few minutes of your busy day to join us!

Spiegelmom Scraps sent me a wonderful mix of blue sequins, cork stars and gold doilies. I used them all on my layout! I will also be giving away a prize for THIS BLOG STOP! It will be a grab bag consisting of coordinating goodies for one of YOUR layouts!! Please be a follower of this blog for a chance to win that grab bag!!

Here's the order for today's hop!

Anne Keller

Ashley Smith

Audrey Yeager

Caroli Schulz

Christine Beuzit

Jinny Newlin

Joefil Cate

Kristine Davidson 

Majken Pullin

Marielle LeBlanc

Nicole Doiron

Rachel Lowe

Sarah King

Suzanna Lee

Valérie Ouellet

Vivian Lake - YOU ARE HERE

Yvette Weber

Please take advantage of this coupon on your next purchase from Spiegelmom Scraps.

Enjoy our reveal this month and please join us on December 15th for a

another blog hop with design team members from SMS!

Tag us using #Creatingwithsketches and #spiegelmomscraps.

We will also have a great prize for one of our participants as

well as a copy of the new Creating with Sketches V4!!

Your next stop is at Yvette's!!

Supplies:
Paper:
---BoBunny's Sleigh Ride
Goodies were provided by Spieglemom Scraps.
---Doily, Sequins and snowflakes, Corkstars
Title from another of BoBunny's previous winter line
Wooden Snowflake
Acrylic snowflake
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The Studio Challenges: You are the Apple of my Eye

Hello and welcome to this week's new challenge with "The Studio Challenges". Today we have a table setting scene for your inspiration.

This is one of those photos that I purposely took this way because I KNEW I would want to scrap about it. LOL  You do that right???

Thanks for stopping by today!

This challenge will be up for two weeks!
Come and play!

I did follow a sketch on my Pinterest board, but
it doesn't seem to be working at the moment.

Title cut from the Silhouette online store.

Cluster of stickers from both Carta Bella and BoBunny.

Supplies:

Carta Bella - Autumn

Cocoa Brown Cardstock - title

Silhouette Online store - title

Twine - Target

BoBunny - Apple Cider Stickers

BoBunny brads

Wood embellishments

You Melt My Heart

Hello!! Recently I came across another blog I follow and she used these cute Winter Faces from My Scrap Chick!

They are absolutely perfect for making cards for kids . . . . SendASmile4Kids.

This card also aligns perfectly with Janis' Merry Christmas blog, which is to use a snowman.

Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by today!!

Snow Kisses

Hello everyone! Today is a quick post featuring the sketch from DieCuttinDivas.

I will also be entering this into the SendASmile4Kids challenge.

Also don't forget TheMerryChristmasBlog!

Paper is from the BoBunny 'Altitude' collection.

Thanks for stopping by today!!

The Studio Challenges: Pumpkin Kisses

Today begins a new challenge at The Studio Challenges with this color palette as inspiration.

I did have to go digging thru my stash to figure out what I had to make this challenge work for me. It seems I had the right color flowers to start off with though!

Over the years, whenever my family and I have an outing, I don't just take a few pictures. I seem to take hundreds, literally. I am also very rarely the one in front of the camera, and it's even more rare for me to actually scrap a photo with me in it. You have that problem too, right?!

I have scrapped about this wonderful day at this pumpkin patch before but not this specific photo. My child was rather twitchy and excited so it was hard to get him to "pose" for the camera. If you look closely, I have his arm wrapped around my leg to anchor him.

For the color palette, I reached for BoBunny's Mamma Razzi and Market Street.

Thanks for stopping by today!!! Please join us at The Studio Challenge and let us see what you create.

The title is from Silhouette online store. I loved the "kisses"
part of the title.

The yellow flower is handmade by me!

Supplies:

Paper:

---BoBunny Mamma Razzi2 and Market Street

BoBunny Market Street stickers

Flowers and leaves by Paper Studio

Handmade flower (yellow)

Silhouette Cameo (title)

Creative Scrappers: Explore

Hello there! Today is my first entry with the Creative Scrappers Design Team!

Here is the sketch:

Pretty easy, huh?! For me, as I started putting this page together, I felt like it was too "square" and "plain". That's when I reached for my sew easy and added stitching to my layout. I think it breaks up the "square" look without taking it away - if that makes any sense.

I reached for all BoBunny - mostly scraps for this page. I did use my Silhouette for the title. Please go back to the Creative Scrappers blog for more inspiration from our fabulous design team!!!

Thanks for stopping by today!!

Supplies:

--Paper:

----Bobunny - Weekend Market

----Scraps from Et Cetera, Weekend Market and Mama Razzi 2

Silhouette Cameo - title

Hobby Lobby wooden leaves

Hobby Lobby bicycle and postcard charm

Tim Holtz charm

Black Thread using Sew Easy

... and more.

Haunted Fairy Cottage

Today I have something very special to share with you. From the moment Mary with SVGCuts released this Fairy Cottage I knew I wanted to make it a Halloween project.

I originally envisioned a "gnome home" but finding miniature gnomes at the last minute proved to be a bit difficult. Maybe next year. . .

This project is rather time consuming, but not particularly difficult. The hardest part to assemble was the tiny skeleton and little twigs. This project takes time and I did it in four different stages. Stage one was organizing the paper I wanted with the svg file. Organizing the svg files into SCAL3 (or any other cutting software) takes time. Stage two was cutting it all out and keeping it organized. Stage three was assembling the house. Yes, this part alone took me about 4-5 hours. Stage four was the diorama. Overall this took many hours over the course of several days. Be patient and have fun!

I think my favorite detail is the spider on the door.
It's actually part of the patterned paper.

The basket is actually a nest. 

I used Rose Gold Stickles on the window.

The pinecones, pumpkins, and "nest" basket
are from Hobby Lobby.

Any  type of bling here adds to the house.

The tiny skeleton (less than 3") was tedious
but worth it.

The witch is actually a button. I poked a hole in the side to
insert the loop of the button.

Tips you might find helpful:

You will need over 15 different open pages on your svg cutting software. Refer often to the cutting menu/pdf file. It can prove most useful. Don't forget to save it once you have it organized. You never know when your computer or software program will decide to crash.

Go crazy with you paper choices. I chose Bobunny's Wicked for the house. I loved mixing up patterned papers for the two sections. Also, I used the lightest yellow card stock I had (Paper Accents Textured Citronella) instead of vellum.

Over a year ago I invested in Authentique's Flutter in which the one side is wood grain. I bought 25 sheets from CreateForLess and it has proven useful for 3-D projects that you want a genuine "wood" look and feel. It is also rather thick paper and holds up well. Also, 3-D projects take a lot more paper than scrapbooking and card making so I invest in bulk often, especially with solid colors.

Invest in a LOW heat gun. A high heat gun dries far more quickly. The LOW heat gun gives you a few more seconds which can prove most beneficial when working with paper. I don't use the heat gun for everything, just for sealing and places that prove difficult to keep together with conventional craft glue. For Halloween projects, it can also look like spider web's.

Local craft stores are packed with "crafty project" items in bulk, like the tiny pumpkins and pinecones. My extras all came from Hobby Lobby. Have fun shopping!

Supplies:
BoBunny's Wicked paper
Authentique Flutter (wood grain paper)
Paper Accents Textured Citronella (glass windows)
AC card stock Chestnut
Light Green Card stock (from ??)
Scotch Create Tacky Glue
Low Heat Glue gun
Black and White card stock
Bling (roof piece)
Halloween button (witch on side of house)
Ribbon (along bottom of house)
Rose Gold Stickles (window)
Paper Piercer
Craft extras (Fall section) from Hobby Lobby
Brown ink
Silhouette Cameo with SCAL3

SVGCuts:
Fairy Cottage
Spooky Silhouette

Diorama kit from Hobby Lobby

Studio Challenges: Karate

Hello and welcome! Today is my first post as a design team member of The Studio Challenges. The challenge for the next two weeks is to use three items from the Tic Tac Toe board.

I chose the bottom row using arrows, buttons, and twine.

I also followed a sketch by Scrapbook Challenges on my Pinterest board.

My son has been learning Tae Kwon Do (or karate) for over 2 and 1/2 years. This is the first time I have scrapped about it. *Gasp*

In this photo, he has just earned his third-brown belt. With only two more levels in brown to go, he will then qualify to earn his black belt. I couldn't be more proud!!!

I immediately reached for the Bella Blvd. - Color Chaos - for this layout to symbolize the various color belt ranks a martial artist must go thru. Plus I thought it went well with the B/W photo. I didn't want "color" everywhere though, as karate is about control and "clean lines".

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Paper:
----Heavy White Cardstock
----Bella Blvd - Color Chaos
EP - Everyday Eclectic sticker
Color Chaos stickers
Die cuts from . . . ?
October Afternoon buttons
3D embellishments from Michael's
Brads
Thickers
Black Twine

You're Frightfully Sweet!

Who can resist that sweet face?!!

For the challenge "If you give a crafter a cookie"

I also mailed this to the organization SendASmile4Kids.

I made this using TreasureBoxDesigns file and patterned paper by American Crafts' "Haunted".

Thanks for stopping by today!