365 Cards Day 365 - and my LAST post

Well, peeps...it's Day 365 at 365 Cards Challenge Blog. And, sadly this is my LAST post as part of the design team. After 2 years, I am saying good-bye to Pam and the gang. I have had a blast doing the challenges with you, and I am very sad that my time has come to an end. But, I think it's time for me to move on, and time for Pam to find a new "trouble maker" for the team. I wish the 365 Crew all the best!

Now, for Day 365 Challenge! It's a music inspired challenge today, and Pam selected "Wind Beneath My Wings" as the song to inspire us. Here is my card.

I used the new Bo Bunny Gabrielle papers and a scripture stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs. Having the Lord as the "wind beneath my wings" is such a blessing to me. This scripture from Isaiah says it so perfectly.

I stamped with brown ink (Memento Rich Cocoa) rather than black. The brown ink gives such a soft look to the sentiment. I used Martha Stewart butterfly punches to add a few extra butterflies to the card.

365 Cards does have a sponsor this week - Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps. I did not use one of their images, because I had to go out with my Rebel Badge shining!!!

I hope you have enjoyed this journey with me, and please continue to support the girls at 365 Cards. I hope to have time to play along in their challenges in the future. To Pam and the girls - thanks for the best time! You are ALL amazing and I have loved working with you!

More Glamour Puss Cards!

I am making the 40 minute trip to one of my local stamp stores today (Stamping Details, Poway, CA) to deliver my March samples, and remembered that I had not shown you the last two cards from the February sample set.

This month, I used Glamour Puss from Loralie Designs. For this card, I fussy cut the lady, then popped her up a bit from the oval shapes.

Glamour Puss is colored with Copics, and I used some Stickles on her purse and jewelry, and her flower. I think she has sparkly eye shadow also.

The paper is Bo Bunny. This paper was hard for me to work with! But I managed it. Whew! Check out that fab button! That's from Papertrey Ink.

The next card is pretty wild. I went with a more monochromatic color scheme. I cut the stamped image out again, and popped it off the card.

Her dress is paper pieced and I added lots of glitter, and some pearls. I also used the Spellbinders lacy squares die that I recently purchased.

I'm not sure about her hat. I think it looks like a fez! Only with a flower rather than a tassel! {giggle}

I'll post the March lady in a few days! I think you'll LOVE her!

Graphic45 and May Arts - Part 2

The Graphic45 and May Arts Blog Hop has been going on all week. I totally spaced and did not realize I had a project posted yesterday! They already posted my card and treat bag earlier in the week, so figured they did not want to post this project! But when I checked the blog today, I saw that they had posted my gift card holder yesterday! Doh!

At any rate, here is the project. This is an accordion fold gift card holder. I learned to make these little accordion books YEARS ago, and they are easy to customize for all sorts of things. Plus, they are EASY to make!

I used Graphic45 Curtain Call papers. These are so fantastic! But I am fast running out of them, I've used them so much! I am hoping the G45 DT gets a "thank you" box at the end of our term...and that they stuff a lot of Curtain Call paper in there! {wink} To hold the little booklet closed, I used May Arts silk ribbon, and some thin ribbon that looks a bit like a film strip.

The booklet/gift cardholder is 6x3 inches and the covers are made from chipboard. I use Graphix chipboard because it's a nice heavy weight, plus I found a bunch of it in the bargain bin at the Sizzix warehouse sale a few months ago!

I decorated my cover with some of Tim Holtz's filmstrip ribbon. I received a piece of this in one of my LSS Club kits a long time ago, and have been hoarding it! Recently, I got a whole roll as a gift, so I de-hoarded the 12" piece from my kit! I rolled the filmstrip ribbon and added a Tim Holtz mini paperclip for added interest. I just used glue dots to attach the ribbon to my project. How fab are the tickets from the Curtain Call paper?!

The chipboard scrolls are from Imaginarium Designs. Their chipboard shapes are so fantastic. The lovely Jane, who is also on the G45 DT, is "the woman in charge" there! They featured one of my cards on their blog the other day. Very sweet of them!

Here is a shot of the booklet with the ribbon untied. I used some Diamond Stickles on the chipboard to make it sparkle, plus a bit of Star Dust on the flowers.

To create the inside, I just used a sheet of G45 paper cut to 10 3/8 x 5 1/2 inches. I scored the paper at 2 1/2, 5 1/2, and 7 3/4 inches. Graphic45 paper is super thick, so I holds up well to scoring and whatnot. I glued the scored paper to the chipboard covers, and then created a gift card holder out of one of the inside panels. I glued one of the G45 Envelope Tag Staples to the panel, and slipped a gift card inside! These envies are the PERFECT size for a standard gift card! I tied a bit of the May Arts thin silk ribbon to the envelope flap for more interest, plus used a bit more of the filmstrip ribbon to decorate the envelope.

I hope this little project has inspired you to jazz up your next gift card! Sometimes gift cards seem so impersonal, that it's nice to create a bit of art to go with it!

Before I sign off for today, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who left comments and good wishes on my Spellbinders posts over the past few days! I am so happy to have touched so many people, and I'm super excited to share all my crafty goodies with you here in Blogger-land! Y'all make keeping this blog worth it! Have a groovy, and craft-filled, weekend!

Spellbinders DT Contest Projects Revealed!

Here are the projects you've been waiting for! OK, maybe not, but look at them anyway! {grin} These are the projects I created for the Spellbinders Design Team Contest, Rounds 1 and 2. For Round 1 we could make a card, a layout, or an altered item. I, naturally, chose to make a card.

It's a thing of beauty, right?! I love how this card turned out, but I'll never be able to mail it to anyone! It's like a superstar card that will live on my desk!

I started out with the little stamped bird cage (My Cute Stamps). I colored it with Copics and then cut it out with Spellbinders circle Nesties. So simple, but how was that going to be a winning entry?!

I had just purchased the Basic Grey Curio papers and the Spellbinders Nestie lacy squares dies, so decided to use those for the card. I also had a bit of matching twill from Really Reasonable Ribbon that I wanted to use. But the card still wasn't a winner!

I found some roses in my stash, which matched the colors, and added those, plus some Stickles for a bit of glitter. Then I found some matching pearls in a bin. I decided to add the oval sentiment to give the card some balance.

I decorated the inside with another lacy square and a Hero Arts stamp. And gobs of cardstock!

So there you have it, my Round 1 project! {cue angel choir}

For Round 2 we were instructed to make a 12x12 page layout. Yikes! I have not scrapped much in the last year, so I started to panic. I finally made a page, but I was not 100% happy with it. I showed it to my dh and my BFF and they both said, "Great page, but it's not a Spellbinders page." Oh boy! So, I went back to the drawing board and came up with this page.

I used Spellbinders Nestie circles, lacy circles, and scallop circles for the banner and journaling blocks. The paper is Pink Paislee Queen Bee. I have to thank my dh who suggested the photo. He took this photo when we were in Paris in 2007, and it goes perfectly with the papers. And yes, I do make my pages first and then add photos! Don't ask me why, but that's how I scrapbook! I always get the page idea first, and then need to find a photo to fit! I always say, "This scrapbooking thing would be so much more fun if I did not have to add photos!"

The "wow" part of this page is the flowers. I made the "newsprint" flowers by using the Spellbinders Blossom 2 dies to cut old book pages, in various sizes. I then created flowers with the die cuts. I sprayed each flower with glimmer mist, and added some Stickles. All of the other paper flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. I added some glitter to those as well. I placed a few pearls here and there to finish it off.

There you have it! My entries into the contest. I cannot show you my final projects, but hopefully you will see them at some point in the future! Hope you enjoyed looking!

Spellbinders 2011-2012 Design Team

Spellbinders announced the new 2011-2012 team this morning, on the Blog. Lots of talented ladies...and who is that near the bottom of the list? Me? Really?! Waaaaaahoooooooo!

Kimberly Crawford
Tonya Dirk
Christine Emberson
Judy Hayes
Lesley Langdon
Tina McDonald
AJ Otto
Windy Robinson
Gloria Stengel <----- that's me, baby!

Shanna Vineyard
Michelle Woerner
Latisha Yoast

I am so excited and happy that I cannot stand it! I've known about this since Monday evening and have not been able to say a word to anyone, except my husband, my sister, and my BFF. None of them are active in the online craft world, so they were safe to tell. {grin}

I cannot wait to start my term! As you know, if you follow this blog, I LOVE Spellbinders dies and use them all the time. To have a chance to DT for the company is a dream come true for me. I have a list of 5-6 companies that I'd love to work for and Spellbinders and Graphic45 are both at the top of the list. So you can imagine how HAPPY I am right now!

Congratulations to the other ladies on the team. I look forward to getting to know these ladies better!

Check back, either later today or tomorrow, as I'll be showing my round 1 and round 2 projects. My final round project will remain secret because Spellbinders gets dibs on using it. Hopefully they love it and will use it somehow. {wink}

Ok, now to stop walking around with my head in the clouds and get busy with something...

Sketch Tuesday #97

Good morning, all you crazy, crafting peeps! I hope those of you who had the day off yesterday (for President's Day) had a relaxing time.

Here is the Christian Paper Crafts Sketch Tuesday #97. It's full of layers and shapes again this week. I think this one is perfect for you scrapbookers out there. Today is also Blog Hop Day at CPC! See the cool blinkie on my right sidebar? There is a new hop and a new theme the 22nd of every month! Make sure you play along, because there are prizes to be won! The theme this month is Beat the Winter Blues.

I think I "beat the blues" with this card! I used the color blue and a spring theme, plus the perfect Scripture to go with our theme.

The paper is NEW My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose, called Hattie. I love these new lines and wish I had purchased 2 of each pad instead of only one! The flowers are Prima. I don't use yellow very often, so I'm not sure why I have a whole package of yellow flowers in my stash, but I do. And they came in handy for this card!

The Scripture stamp is from Our Daily Bread Designs. It's from the Scripture Collection 1. I love these stamps! It took me so long to finally buy a few sets, and now I am so in love with how they stamp and what they look like on a card. {swoon}

I'm entering this card into the challenge at Simon Says Stamps. They asked us to make an embellie. I used three flowers and a brad to make my embellie. And for Paper Sundaes, who asked for the colors navy, dark green, and brown (masculine colors).

Graphic45 {hearts} May Arts Ribbon

May Arts Ribbon is sponsoring the Graphic45 Design Team this week. Check out the G45 Blog to see the fab prize you can win! The G45 DT was given a big ole bag of May Arts ribbon to play with. And, oh wow! I stopped by the May Arts booth at CHA and they had some amazing new stuff coming out. My favorite was the silk ribbons! Since May Arts is wholesale only, I have to shop around to buy their ribbon, so I was so excited to get to play with some as part of my Graphic45 duties!

Here are two projects that I made using the May Arts ribbon. This first project is a card, naturally! I used the new Graphic45 Curtain Call papers. I love the old movie stills in this line. I am an AVID fan of old black and white movies! I even love the old silent films!

I created a card background with G45 paper, then added a paper doily that I found in the candy section of Michael's Crafts. I sprayed the doily with glimmer mist to make it look old. The chipboard scroll is from my DT pal Jane. You can see more at her blog Imaginarium Designs.

I tied some of the wide silk ribbon around the card, and made a big, fat bow! Yep, I tied that bow all by my little self. No Bow Easy tool this time! The champagne color of this ribbon is perfect for the papers. The fabbie rose is from Wild Orchid Crafts. I sprayed it with some mist too, just for fun! And no card is complete without a few pins! I used a vintage trinket pin from Maya Road and a memo pin from Tim Holtz. And that really cool brad was part of my prize pack from Really Reasonable Ribbon, and is from Creative Charms. Just so you know, RRR carries lots of May Arts ribbon, including this silk goodness!

For my second project, I used the Graphic45 Le Cirque papers and grosgrain ribbon to make a treat bag.

I found these treat bag sized "lunch sacks" at Michael's Crafts. I originally purchased them to make a mini album, but of course I purchased more than I needed for that project! So I just used one bag, plus some bits of this and that to make a treat bag. This project is simple enough to make for your next kiddie party!

To pleat the ribbon, I ran my tape runner over the bag, then I ran a line of adhesive down the back of the ribbon. I then folded the ribbon over itself and the layers stuck together. No sewing required! The stamps I used here are from Teresa Collins' celebration set.

I hope you enjoyed my ribbon round-up post! If you are looking for the 365 Cards post, just scroll down!

365 Cards Day 358

Welcome to the Monday Challenge at 365 Cards! Pam gave us a color challenge today. And you know how she loves to throw crazy colors at us. She used to call this "Wacky Color Wednesday" and I am not sure WHY she moved it to Monday! {grin} Here is the scheme: purple, yellow/cream, orange, red, lime green.

Here is my card. I used the fabbie new My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose papers. This one is called Mabel. Funny - my mom's middle name and my one sister-in-law's first name is Stella. My paternal grandmother was called Mabel! Is that funny or what??! Plus my Cyber BFF is called Rose! {waves to Rose} So you know I HAD to buy these papers!

I got all the colors in there. Whew! The purple was hard, but the striped paper has a bit of purple, so I added some purple card stock. {neener neener, Pam!} 365 Cards does have a sponsor this week - Guylou's Inimitability Digistamps. I did not use one of their images, but make sure you go check them out!

The sentiment image is from Our Daily Bread Designs. This one is from Scripture Collection 3. I just got 4 new sets of stamps from ODBD and I love them! They are just lovely! Naturally I cut the circles with my Spellbinders dies. My other inspiration came from a sketch I saw on the Verve Stamps blog.

Now for some bad news... Next Monday will be my LAST post with 365 Cards Challenge Blog. I am stepping down from the team after 2 years! I have loved being part of the 365 Card girls. They are a fun group and Pam always makes sure we have interesting challenges. I will miss being part of this very unique blog. I wish Pam and the crew all the best!

I am entering this into the challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show who asked for stripes.

CropStop Sketch Challenge

I have another sketch for you...this time it's for the CropStop Challenge Blog. I'd like to see if you can stretch it, perhaps turn it into a page layout or even an altered item this week. See what you can do!

I made a card. What did you expect?! This is a card I made for my LSS, Stamping Details. I make 4 cards a month for the store, using the Loralie Designs stamps, and for this one I used my sketch for inspiration.

This stamp is called Glamour Puss. I gave her some glitter and glam! The dress is paper pieced with Bo Bunny paper, then I used Stickles to add some sparkle! The paper is NOT pre-glittered. I made that glitter paper, thank you very much! I even added glitter to the Kaiser flowers. Don't they look fantastic?

I also glittered the handbag and the flowers. The jewelery is black diamond Stickles. I used a bit of Queen and Company felt to make the scroll on the paper. I colored the image with Copics. I do all of the coloring BEFORE I add glitter glue. Very important to NOT mess up my very expensive pens!

CropStop Shopping List:
Ranger Distress Inks - Worn Lipstick, Spun Sugar
Memento Ink - Tuxedo Black
Stickles - Icicle, Black Diamond
Copic Markers

Graphic45 2011 Design Team Call Submissions

Graphic45 is having their 2011 Design Team Call. Each participant has been asked to create a blog post containing 10-15 projects, and then email the link to Graphic45. Picking 15 submissions has been very hard for me! I have so many creations that I did not know which ones to submit. Plus, some of my favorite projects are still "secret" as they were made for CHA or for the Graphic45 Blog!

Then I had the bright idea that I would submit a project from each of the 14 current Graphic45 paper lines! Here is proof that I am "in love" with this paper! I hope you enjoy looking at my creations.

Le Cirque - this is one of the new papers so most of what I made with is bright and fun line are still waiting for their reveal. However, here is a card I created for the Hampton Art Winter 2011 CHA booth, using the Graphic45/Hampton Art stamps. I also used Graphic45 Flower and Button Staples to make the flowers for this card. (You will see that Tim Holtz birdcage die cut often! It's the perfect partner for the G45 papers!)

Curtain Call - another new line. This is my favorite of the three recently released papers. I love the black/cream/tan combination. I created this fun card using elements from the paper, plus the new Graphic45/Hampton Art stamps. Since I am always a stamper first, I love that Graphic45 has matching stamps! For a fun twist, I added some tulle to the top of the card, plus an Tim Holtz ornate bookplate.

Once Upon a Springtime - This line was released in November and just screams spring! I had a hard time choosing my favorite project from this paper line. I had four or five selected, but this tag won the day! I used flower die cuts to make my own flower, plus added a lot of extra bits to this tag. For such a small project, it's packed full of techniques.

Steampunk Debutante - this line is my favorite of all the lines in the Graphic45 Collection. Again, it was hard to choose my favorite project. This card is something I made for Summer 2010 CHA. It has a lot of layers and extras, making it very special. It's grunge at it's best!

Hallowe'en in Wonderland - this was one of those lines that I thought I would not care for, as I'm not a fan of Alice in Wonderland. However, I made a lot of fun projects with this set of papers! And a few of my creations won recognition in Blogger-land. I chose this as my favorite because I love the distressed layers and the covered chipboard letters. Plus I mixed a few other lines in, and added some stamped images. Proving that all my toys can play together!

Christmas Past - this is an older line that got new life this past year. Graphic45 added a few new papers to the line, updating it and giving it new life. I chose this altered home decor item as my favorite project using this line. I love how all the small bits and flowers and things complement the paper, plus my ribbon is an exact match for the back of a scrap of Carol of the Bells - which I used on the bird's wing!

Le' Romantique - I had two projects that I loved, but knew I could only pick one if I wanted to stick to my "one project per line" rule for this submission. In the end, I chose this card which I recently made for the Graphic45 Valentine's blog post. I found some ribbon and lace in my stash that coordinated perfectly with the papers!

A Proper Gentleman - this is the line which I was most excited to see. All the previous lines were quite feminine, so having a masculine line was a wonderful surprise. Here is where I break my rule. I chose two projects to show for this line. The line is more versatile than most people know, and I wanted to show how it can be masculine, like the first card, and also, more neutral, like the second card. (Yes, I did sneak in a non-Graphic45 paper into that first card!)

On the Boardwalk - I enjoy making mini albums almost as much as I enjoy card making. This project is one of my favorite mini albums I've made using Graphic45 papers. I used a shaped album (Kaisercraft Sandcastle) and covered each shaped page with papers. I've included a few of the inside pages to show off how I used the papers.

Renaissance Faire - I had a moment when I thought that I had not created anything with this line! But then remembered this project, which I sold to a local store for their Graphic45 display! I love altering things, like this Maya Road tin. I altered the tin, and made a matching card.

Domestic Goddess - I have made a number of projects using this line, but the card I chose mixes the Domestic Goddess and retired Times Nouveau lines. They are a prefect match and I enjoy using them together. To me, nothing says HAPPY quite like a card with lots of layers! This card must weigh 2 pounds!

Transatlantique - I am mostly a card maker these days, but I wanted to include at least one scrapbook page in my submission list. Most of my pages using Graphic45 papers have been made more recently and are still "secret" projects, so I had to dig up an older page. I found this layout I made with the Transatlantique line.

Fashionista - I love the bold colors of this line. I used one of the new Graphic45 Black Policy Envelope Staples to make a mini album using the Fashionista papers. This was a FUN project, and it's still waiting for just the right photos! I've included a few close-up shots of the inside of the book so you can see how I used the papers for the embellishments.

Communique - this was the very first paper I ever saw from Graphic45! It still has a place in my heart, however it's very hard to find this line in stores, so I had to find an older project to show you. I love this card because I fussy-cut and layered all the small bits of paper to make the collage. And I used a pin - always a MUST for me!

I hope you enjoyed this walk down Graphic45 memory lane! I love Graphic45 papers and have been blessed beyond words to have been on the 2010 Design Team. I hope that they love my work enough to ask me back to the 2011 Team!

Thanks for looking!