Day 365: All Smiles Layout and Giveaway!

Oh my gosh it felt so good to make a page layout again! Today's layout was inspired by the new sketch over at Stuck Sketches.

I decided to combine my Penelope papers with some doilies (Doodlebug), purple shimmer trim, and gold stitching. I formed some flowers from my cricut die cut stash, and topped them with pink rhinestone gems (source unknown). Then I dug into my special buttons stash and grabbed some fun wooden and fabric buttons for accents.

Oh my golly, we did it! My 365 days of projects challenge is finally completed. There were a few days where I wondered how I would keep going, but you were always there to cheer me on and encourage me. I feel like I've learned a lot about how to make time for crafting and hopefully you've enjoyed my daily projects, too!

Since you have brought me so many smiles this year, I've got a nice box full of goodies I've found while unpacking to share with one of you! Just leave a comment on this post telling me something - your favorite project from this last year (yours or mine). what you are working on currently, how excited you are for the Gilmore Girls reunion, whatever is on your mind... I'll draw a winner and announce it next week. Thank you for sticking with me and always having something kind to say, Stampin' Friends!! 

Day 63: You Gotta Have Friends Layout

Last night I attended the Paper Issues Scrap and Chat online FB party and it was SO. MUCH. FUN!! We chatted on facebook, played some fun games, and there was an awesome scrapbooking challenge that I couldn't resist, even though lately I'm up to my ears in Heirloom Pro show prep!

I made this layout, using a fabulous sketch provided by  Orange Gearle. I applied texture paste using a Cricut honeycomb diecut as a template. I sprayed the texture paste with glitter and then I attempted to use my space heater to dry it faster....and it curled up like nobody's business. So then I stitched it to some Orange cardstock again and again and again. Lots of trimming and taping later, it was flat and ready to scrap!

I used up some of my new Amy Tangerine goodies that I won from the fabulous Melissa Elsner, who you should totally follow because she's keen! As a matter of fact, I'm planning to share the bounty - I used up some of the Amy Tangerine goodies, and I'm going to add a little something something and mail the rest (plus my goodness) to one of you! Follow me on instagram if you want to play along - I'll post that as soon as I get done with yet another birthday celebration today!

I wanted to grab a close up of this adorable piece of flair. You know who I'm talkin' 'bout, right Stamping Friends? 

Enter to get the first #CraftandShare box here!

Day 50: Butterfly Thinking of You

I can hardly believe that I've been daily blogging projects for 50 days now. When I set out to do this, I was hopeful, building my blog planner and making time to craft most nights. Now I've for Heirloom Pro show prep, and some other stuff brewing...but I'm still blogging. I think that calls for a little giveaway, right? But first...

  Today I've been working on a Hexagon themed card kit for the Heirloom Pro booth next month. I loved the contrast of the brightly colored butterfly against the sketchy leaves. How cute are the tiny hexagon corner pieces? 

I couldn't capture the sparkle of the butterfly, but there's shimmer in the colored areas, and on the tiny black butterflies too. Plus the spritz I used is opalescent. I stitched around the edge with 2 strands of white cotton thread.

Now for the giveaway! I'm putting together a little grab bag of some of my favorite embellies. I'm a lumpy bumpy girl, and I want to send you some bling! Enter using the Rafflecopter below, and at the end of the week I'll announce the winner. I've got my fingers crossed for you!

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Practical Scrappers Scrapping Our Stash Hop

Hello, Crafty Friends! I'm excited to be hopping today with the talented gals from Practical Scrappers in our monthly Scrapping Our Stash Hop. You should be arriving here from the blog of the fabulous SUSIE BENTZ! If you get lost you'll find the full list of hoppers on the Practical Scrappers blog. 

I created this Hoop Wall Hanging, which will be one of a series that will hang in my new stamp room here in Spokane. Since we are scrapping our stash almost everything I used is either retired CTMH, leftover from scrapbooking kits, or random craftiness I had just hanging around the stamp room. I bought ten hoops of various sizes to fill with fun quotes about stamping and glitter. Yay, project!

Lots of old favorites are in here, from Designer Rhinestone brads to that old Bohemian assortment which included crochet flowers and awesome old-but-new buttons. I used some pearl headed pins I keep around for unsticking my adhesive bottles.  I even had to create that cork "E" in LIFE from an extra B, lol. I have three of those awesome Bohemian Assortments to give away for you awesome hoppers, so be sure to enter to win below!

Next up on the hop is the talented ERIN MOREHOUSE. 

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Scrapping Our Stash Blog Hop and Giveaways!

Welcome to the Practical Scrappers Blog Hop 

where we are Scrapping our Stash.

This month we are focusing on scrapping our Valentine's stash, or at least stash that has to do with love.  I decided to dig deep into my stash of stamps that are spread all over the stamp pad as I get ready for the packers to arrive next week, and pulled out a beautiful retired stamp set from the Avonlea WOTG kit.

I also learned to hem my own jeans this week (thank you, Pinterest!) so I grabbed a strip of denim to accent my embellishment cluster at the top of my card. The papers are new (Ariana) but left over from my frame project last week. I used the cute slanted sketch from Retro Sketches this week.

We are thrilled to have Kiwi Lane Designs sponsoring this month!  

Kiwi Lane Designs creates templates that help take the frustration out of scrapbooking!  And one lucky winner today will get a border set and an accessory set from Kiwi Lane.  We are big fans of Kiwi Lane Designs and in fact have several members of our design team who either currently or in the past have been a part of their design team!  Details on how you can win this prize are at the Practical Scrappers blog! I'm giving away some stamps of my own at the bottom of this post!

  We recognize that this is a huge list for the blog hop and would love for you to visit as many as you can...but we are not making that mandatory to qualify for the prize at Practical Scrappers.  That said, many of the designers are offering prizes of their own so I do recommend seeing what you can get in on :).

Practical Scrappers Blog Hop List

Practical Scrappers: You Are Here

Krissy Clark

Christine Meyer
Kim Ryden
Patty Selah
Charity Hotrum

Lissa Mitchell
Jennifer Haggerty
Alison Day

Bobbi Smith

Michelle Johns
Kerri Yarus

Cathy Harper

Nicole Laha
Lanette Erickson

Majken Pullin

Erin Morehouse

Lisa Peeples
Claude Campeau
Wendy Coffman
Lee-Anne Thornton

Now, for my giveaway! I'm cleaning out the stamp stash, so I have 7 new and unused CTMH retired stamp sets to share in this mystery bag giveaway! Hope you win something good!  
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Practical Scrappers Scrapping Our Stash Hop

Welcome to the Practical Scrappers Blog Hop 

where we are Scrapping our Stash.

CHA is this weekend and that means the industry is putting out all kinds of fabulous new product.  So Practical Scrappers is kicking off a new feature with a blog hop of projects made solely from our stashes! I hit up my Frosted Stash to craft this sweet snowman card. 

When we finish our 6 page scrap club each month there's always a few items leftover. You know what I mean - a couple of stickers, some scraps of paper, bits of Sparkle Flourishes...and I always tuck those pieces into a 12x12 bag and save them for a rainy day. 

Today's Scrapping Our Stash challenge brought on a rainy day lickety split! I used bits of Frosted StickEase cut apart and glittered to create the main images on my card. At the bottom there you see a bit of BabyCakes Canvas StickEase peeking out. I filled in my stamped sentiment with Diamond Stickles for extra sparkle. I used this week's awesome Mojo Monday sketch to jumpstart my design. 

A special shout out to the sponsor of today's Practical Scrappers hop: Kiwi Lane Designs!

One lucky winner today will get a border set and an accessory set from Kiwi Lane over at Practical Scrappers, so head over there for the full hop list and details on how you can win!

Or hop on over to Lee-Anne Thornton's blog to check out her stash craftiness!

Black Friday Jamberry and Giveaway!

I'm not normally a Black Friday Shopper. The last time I went out Black Friday shopping I went to Target for a gift for my then 2 year old son. I hung out in the far back of the parking lot until the mad rush of people had entered the store, then I ran straight back to...toys, where no one was shopping for half off toy trains oddly enough. I grabbed my Thomas the Tank Engine treasure and made a beeline straight to the checkout. I was in and out in ten minutes. The time before that I was very pregnant with the same child, and obsessed with adding rhinestones to the announcement holiday cards I was crafting so I stood in line at Joanns F-O-R-E-V-E-R...to buy five packets of bitty glue on rhinestones (this was pre-self adhesive sparkle days). Pregnancy induced insanity. Still shaking my head.

Normally on Black Friday I hole up in my stamp room with a bunch of Stampin' Friends and we crop the day away. This year I'll be missing my girlies while making some fun family memories instead - but I am planning to sneak a teensy bit of time to head over to Jamberry and stock up on some of these exclusive Black Friday only designs. Those Navy Blue Winter Morning florals are practically screaming my name! Best of all they count towards the buy 3 get one free special, which makes Jams a totally affordable holiday splurge. Oh my Icy Polkas!

While I'm there I might just have to sneak a peek at the Holiday gift sets, with four coordinating shields...I pulled this from Instagram...all my fav bold and graphic black and whites plus GLITTER in the Monochromania set? Or that sheet of pretty soft sparkly metallics in the Bella Romantica set? I don't know how I'll choose. I do love that I can decide from the comfort of my home!

To share the Jamberry love, anyone ordering in the month of November will be automatically entered into a drawing for a free sheet of Jams...yes, even you lovely ladies who already ordered this month. Good luck, brave shoppers. I'll have another slice of pie for you!

I'm headed to StampNation!

I am so excited to share with you that today I'm joining the Design team over at StampNation! StampNation is a community of passionate papercrafters where we can share our love of all things paper in a positive and happy place. You'll see me doing blog posts on StampNation Challenges and if you're a StampNation Sistah I'll see you around on the boards!
You can check out more info on StampNation here.

So that's my big news for me...now for a little something for you! I've got a few of these little guys to share, and your comments were all super appreciated! 

Out Lucky Winners are:

Krista Ritskes

Sonja Foust  (Hurrah! The Pintester won!)

Kristen Hewitt 

If you see your name above, please send me your address and I'll get your new holiday bling out to you this week. Not like tomorrow or anything, 'cause I have a deep seated phobia of going to the Post Office with my children, but pre-Thanksgiving for sure! 

Pintester Movement: Ho Ho Ho Edition

One of my Craft Fair items that got a lot of "Isn't that cute!" squeals was this guy, inspired by this Pin, which unfortunately leads to a big fat nowhere. I found these Darice Mini 19mm Plastic Top Hats on Amazon and snatched up a pack. Ok...maybe what really happened is I was all wishy washy about getting 144 of these cuties and accidentally bought the bag "using" One Click with my elbow, hence the multiple hat projects this week. Oh well, I have Amazon Prime, so my two day shipping is always free anyhow, and then I had a new project for my craft fair to do list. Must've been fate...

So, hats ordered, it was time to go looking for the battery operated tea lights. I found mine at the Dollar Tree. I embellished the hat with some skinny ribbon and one of these Teensy Jingle Bells. I went with Glue On Wiggle Eyes and Black puffy paint for the face.  I wrapped the edge in Washi Tape, and dotted Pink Sharpie Marker onto the cheek area, which smeared into a not so attractive cheek flush. Then, being me, I fixed that with a layer of glitter gel, pounced over the pink smear so now his cheeks are flushed and sparkly. I made these guys using my glue gun and my handy new Glue Gun Pad given to me by my sweet convention roommate - and I didn't even burn myself!

All of this Christmas ornament hoopla was brought on by the newest Pintester Movement Challenge, which was to make a Holiday Ornament based on a Pinterest Pin. Sonja's videos and Pintests make me laugh until I snort, so you should totally check her out. Now I'm wrapping up this adorable little guy to mail off to Jodee from Cheeseblarg, 'cause Sonja said Jodee needs ornaments. I know it's not a cool zombie snowman, or holding a light saber, but his nose does light up and all, so Ho, Ho, Hope you like it Jodee!

Want one of your very own? Comment below and next week 

I'll do a drawing to rehome the remaining snow buddies. 

Let's see who is reading this far into the post!

(P.S. Some of those links are Amazon affiliate links, and if you click through to purchase pretty much anything I may receive a tiny bit of compensation. I only link items I've actually used AND liked. Buying random stuff through my affiliate links is a great way to support my crafty little blog at no cost to you, kind of like a little tip jar.  Thanks a bunch!)

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Practical Scrappers/Paper Secrets Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Welcome to the Practical Scrappers/Paper Secrets Blog Hop!  I am so excited to participate today!  This blog hop features the Ten Things Team from Practical Scrappers and members from the Design Team at Paper Secrets. Our topic for this hop is a fun, trendy one that will definitely catch your attention: wood! There is an awesomely cute give away from Paper Secrets (and you can get all the details on that below), but first here's my Wood project for you!

I wanted to make a project for the Moxie Fab Holiday Home Decor Challenge. I found a lovely Basswood Canvas from Walnut Hollow for my Holiday Display Quote with a nice smooth finish. It takes paint really well without showing grain or requiring sanding, which is great for lazy crafters like me who just want to get on with the bling. I painted the wooden canvas with acrylic paints, starting with two coats of Folk Art Metallic Bright Red paint. Then I layered on my (retired) Color Ready Sticker Letters for the holiday quote. I covered the whole wood canvas, stickers and all, with two coats of Martha Stewart Pure Platinum paint. I used temporary adhesive to stick on an Artbooking Chevron overlay to stencil on the chevrons with DecoArt Craft Twinkles glitter paint in Silver. Once the paints dried I carefully removed the stickers to reveal the red metallic letters of the quote. I did touch up some spots with a fine tipped brush, but it worked great. Any scrapbook stickers you have would probably do, even a mix of fonts!

I topped my "tree" off with a painted corrugated star and filled in the base with assorted bling and buttons. I painted some wooden buttons from my stash with Red Metallic and Silver Twinkles paints. The wood canvas is about 2 inches deep, so I sponged the edges with more of the Sliver Twinkles paint and wrapped it in red dotted washi tape. I can't wait to add this to my Holiday Mantle display!

Thanks for stopping by to have a peek at my holiday wood canvas. I hope you'll hop over to check out all the other amazing projects, too. 

Here's the Blog Hop List!

Practical Scrappers

Charity Hotrum

Lisa Moen

Jessica Arrant

Kristi Biesel 

Stephanie U

Patty Selah 

Karen Sessions

Kelly Holfield

Wendy Coffman (that's me!)

Deborah Johnson

Krissy Clark

Rochelle Spears

Kerri Yarus  

Lee-Anne Thornton

Leslii Wagner

Kelli Fortier

Kim Ryden 

Sue Kithcart 

Brenda Ragsdale

Charissa Miller

Christine Meyer

Sarah Clark

Kelly Jean Guzlas

Paper Secrets

Here's what you can win from Paper Secrets!

If you want a chance to win this fabulous collection of wooden goodies from Paper Secrets you can do any or all of the following:
1) Be a follower at Practical Scrappers
2) Be a follower at the Paper Secrets Blog
3) Like the Practical Scrappers Facebook Page
4) Like the Paper Secrets Facebook Page
5) Leave us a comment here telling us which of those you did :)

You have until 11:59 PM CST on Sunday, August 25th to enter.  A winner will be announced early next week over at Practical Scrappers! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

I'm linking this project up to the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Sing a Little Song Challenge. I had to add the word very to balance out my tree shape...but I've been humming this carol for days now!

A Trio of Handmade Hairclips

Today I'm sharing extra projects to make up for kind of missing posting yesterday....though I think I should be able to count my post-every-day-in-July streak as unbroken since I did get a post up before midnight. Ahem. Anyhooo, today I have a trio of hairclips for you! 

First up is my favorite of the three, a Chevron Ribbon Rosette surrounded by shiny pieces of the new Black Mini Medley. I used my hot glue gun to hold the rose together as I was building in onto the hair clip base, which I covered with a circle of the new Base and Bling adhesive. Then I went back with Silver Glitter Glitz and filled in any areas where the base/adhesive still showed once I was done building my clip.

Next I have a fluffier flower clip made with "petals" that I hand trimmed form the chevron ribbon and sealed on the edges with Liquid Glass. I sewed (yes, stitched something fabric instead of paper, shocking, I know!) a running stitch down a length of the ribbon and pulled it tight to make the rosette for the upper layer. I topped that off with a Base and Bling word flower and a ProPlayer Assortment gem.

Here's what the clips look like from the back. They seem pretty sturdy and my friend Amanda even wore this one to the Gala Dinner!

Here's my last hair clip (for now), made with the Sarita Textiles and making good use of the pinked edge on our textile packs! Speaking of Sarita, Congrats to Amy McVey, who won last week's Sarita Textiles giveaway! Hooray, Amy!

And speaking of giveaways, here's this week's Friday Favorite Things giveaway! This week I'm sharing a new set of the Ruby Mini Medley embellies full of sparkly goodness like glitter buttons and silver and red baker's twine!

You can't win if you don't enter - good luck!

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Friday Favorite Things Discover Joy

Today I'm sharing one of the Holiday layouts I did with ProPlayer. When I got the paper I panicked a little bit. I knew I didn't have photos to work in the theme we were given...so I had to work outside of that box. I surprised myself with a whole board of Holiday themed projects! This layout is stamplifted from a digital and Silhouette layout by Nichol Magouirk I found on Pinterest. I think this layout is the first thing I saw that made me think that ProPlayer would make adorable holiday projects!

I used the circuit board print and a snowflake overlay from Artbooking sponged with White Daisy ink to build the pattern. Then I used the Stitching guide to add the stitched details and swirls to my new patterned paper. A generous sprinkling of Sparkles finished off my handmade snowflake paper!

My title is a combo of the new E1026 Vogue alphabet and titles cut with Artbooking from our Silver Glitter Paper. The new packaging for E sized alphabets is so handy - two D sized liners (Double Ds!) tucking into our standard envelope! I used the Computer Code paper here, sponged with the same snowflake overlay from the red circuit board area. You can see a bit of the circle overlay from my Pocket Album project posted yesterday sponged into the Black CS area too.

Ready for a giveaway? I got all my bundles including my Artbooking this week - CTMH shipping is rockin'! I know there's been a bunch of new followers, and I was privileged to meet a bunch of you fabulous ladies at my classes during Extravaganza, so I want to do a giveaway every week this month...and I think we'll start with a beautiful new D1551 Swirls Around, a stamp set from the New Catalog going live in August!

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