Hi everyone! Today my focus is on stamping!!!  Something that’s really is not in my comfort zone. In fact, coming up with a project for this assignment was a little scary for me. After playing around with the Amber Road Impressions Stamp Set, I decided to use the border stamp to enhance this Fall project. I have to say, I had a lot of fun using the stamp and will definitely have to try stamping more often.

Instead of a basic black, I used a plum colored ink, to stamp out my border images.

Below you can see a sample of one of the strips before it was stamped, and one after it was stamped and die-cut.

I used about thirteen strips in all, on this. Since the strips will overlap, only two of the strips need to be the stamped on along both edges (one for the front of the costume and one for the back).

The strips were then stitched along the border, before adhering to the dress form.

I used the discarded zig-zag strips as trim on the hat and on the base, seen below.

So I guess stamping is not as scary as I thought!! It was actually a lot of fun!!!

Pink Paislee supplies used:

• Patterned paper – Dusk, Sunset and Nightfall (from Twilight Collection) Harvest Hayride and Bonfire (from the Amber Road collection)
• Amber Road – Impressions Stamp Set
• Twilight – Bella Brads
• Twilight – Press Ons
• Expressions Glitter Alphabets – Licorice
• Chipboard Elements
• Topsiders – Borders

Other supplies:

Shimmerz Paints – Spritz (Licorice, Rock-a-Fella Blue and Bamboo Leaf) and Shimmerz (Vintage Wine and Mossy Stone)

Creative Imaginations – 16″ Bare Elements Dress Form

Fiskars – Scalloped border punch

Other – Beads, leaves and embroidery floss (thread) from Hobby Lobby.

Have a great week!

Hello everyone!  Today is Friday Feelings day on the blog.  I have to admit to you all that I was very anxious when I realized that my blogging day fell on Friday this month.  I am not a journaler and never was.  I never kept a diary as a kid, and I don’t like to put my feelings on paper.  (At least not for anyone else to see.)  So for this project I really had to think.

I decided to make a project that focused on a quote.  I really love to use quotes.  They can convey how I feel without having to struggle with coming up with just the right words.  There are so many websites to use for this purpose.  Here are a few of my favorite sites:  ThinkExist.com, Quote Garden, Quoteland.com.  There are tons of others, so if these don’t work for you, just type “quotes” in your favorite search engine and start looking.   

My project today is an envelope mini.  I made my envelopes using an AccuCut die, but you can use a regular envelope and just dress it up.  The new Amber Road collection was just perfect for this project.  The focus is on a quote by Helen Keller.  It reads “What we have once enjoyed we can never lose.  All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.”  My dad died 25 years ago this November, and I thought this mini would be just right for keeping those special letters and small momentos from him.  Maybe even for writing a letter to him now to put my feelings about this anniversary down on paper. 

Products used:  Amber Road:  Apple Cider, Harvest Hayride, Bonfire, Press Ons, Punchouts; Twilight:  Bella Brads, Expressions Glitter Alphabets-Limeade; Captivating: Press Ons  

Other products:  binder ring, chipboard heart, letter rub-ons, ribbon

I hope this project will inspire everyone, especially those of you who don’t like to share your journaling with the world, to get your feelings down on paper and put them in a safe place. 

So the next time you get stuck on your journaling or just want to keep keep it private, try adding a quote to your project. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hello everyone!  Today I’m gonna show you how I create these fun little flowers using the canvas patches from the Amber Road collection.  For one of my projects during CHA Summer, I used a piece of one of the patches to create a partial flower for a layout,  and using that idea, I wanted to create a little flower embellishment set, all from just one piece of canvas.

This is the layout from CHA Summer, Farm Fun, using a cut strip from the canvas…I love the texture and dimension that the canvas gives this layout.  You can also see that I cut another small strip in the right hand corner, fraying the edges, as another accent behind the clear border sticker.

and here is the little hanging card/magnet holder that I created for this month’s blog post.

The first thing that I did was cut my canvas patch into three strips.  I cut mine at different widths to create three different sized flowers.  The largest is roughly 1 3/4 inches wide, the second about 1 inch and the smallest at 1/2 inch wide. The next thing is to hand stitch along one edge of the strip, then pull your thread tight.  I tied off a simple knot to finish off the flower.  Basically the same thing as a ribbon flower. For a little more texture, I frayed the edges up a bit by pulling some loose threads.

After I had the canvas part done, I used some of the circle elements from the Postcards patterned paper and some punched shapes from the coordinating papers to layer my flowers together, securing the layers with a brad.  The only other thing that I added to my flowers were magnets.  I bought a pack of magnets from my local craft store and adhered one the the back of each of my flowers.

After creating the hanging card using patterned paper and some of the Punchouts and Press Ons, I secured my flower magnets onto the card, using additional magnets on the back of the card to hold the flowers temporarily in place.  This way, the magnets can be removed and you still have a pretty little card hanger.

And there you have it.  A nice little gift for a special someone or a fall decoration for your own home to start off the fall season.  (Makes me want hot cocoa…if only it weren’t still almost 90 degrees!)

In their young little minds, that is probably one of the most important questions our kiddos will be asked in the coming weeks.  But, they need not make that difficult decision!  Not with this fun little project I have concocted in my Halloween craft lab…

This little container was crafted using 2 different sized papier mache boxes that were covered in various styles of “Twilight” papers.  They were then hot-glued one on top of the other, and embellished with some ghoulishly glittery alphas, devilish brads, witchy labels, ghostly stickers and lots of other terrifically terrifying odd and ends.

The top lid lifts off to reveal an assortment of tricks (plastic spider rings, temporary tattoos, etc.) to hand out to your little goblins…

And, the bottom lid lifts off to reveal lots of treats for those sweet fangs… er, teeth.

So, don’t ever let, “Trick or treat?” be a conundrum around your haunted house ever again!  Give those adorable costumed sweeties knocking on your door the best of both worlds!