Aspiring to Creativity: October 2013

Christmas Bow - DT Christmas Card Challenges #48

Hope that everyone had a good week. It's time for the next Christmas Card Challenge! This week's challenge is to use "Bows" on your card. Of course you don't have to use bows to enter a card as long as it is a Christmas card.

I'm only using one photo for this post because you'll be seeing this card again for a class along with some others posted for Christmas Card Challenges.

You can see some glitter around the edge of the Graphic 45 12 Days of Christmas paper. I placed 1/8" Scor Tape around the edge and then covered it and rubbed in Snow Glitter to make it all sparkle. The image, also from 12 Days of Christmas, is double matted and Star Dust Stickles have been applied around the pink mat edge. I also added Star Dust Stickles to the sleeves, bodice lace, and hem lace of the woman's dress.

The berries on the little holly fussy cut piece, I applied Glossy Accents to make them pop and shine.

In order to fit the elaborate bow tucked under, I had to triple stack the foam dimensionals. The bow with lace was created using the Mini-Bowdabra. Love that little tool! I then used some more Star Dust Stickles with a light and gentle touch on the lace and ribbon.

So that's it for this card. Now hop on over to Christmas Card Challenges and see the DT inspirational creations and join in on the fun.

Alanna - DT coordinator

Anne C

Anne J

Jenn

Monica

Sabrina - That's me!

Sparkle-- Owner

Thank you for checking in today and having a peek. All the best with your Christmas card making!

Versatile Card Box! - Graphic 45 French Country

This is the second of the Graphic 45 Club classes coming up in November! The first one, I have to wait to post, but you can see this one now. We'll be making this fun, creative and versatile card box!

This box holds a lot of cards, even well embellished ones! The box measures 6"wide x 6"high x 3 1/2" deep and can hold 5 1/2" square cards with envelopes or 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" cards with envelopes. It also has a pen holder, a covered address book to match, and a perpetual calendar to keep track of birthdays.

Here are a few photos showing you what it looks like on the outside.

And the view from on top...

When you take the lid off, the front of the box falls open to reveal what's inside.

Isn't that fun! See how much more room there is for more cards! The four I have in here you can see here. They are very embellished, and there's still room for more! Let's take a closer look at the perpetual calendar.

Now let's have a look at the covered address book.

And here is the box without anything inside it.

Hope you enjoyed your little overview of the box. Thank you for stopping by to have a look.

Happy papercrafting!

Flowers for Christmas - CCC #47

Hello everyone! I can't believe how this week just flew by! Time for another fun challenge at Christmas Card Challenges! This weeks challenge is "Flowers". And what better paper for a Christmas card with flowers could there than using Graphic 45's "12 Days of Christmas" collection for challenge #47.

Even though this gorgeous paper is a Christmas paper, with the roses on it, one has to look to see the holly and berries that make it so. For that reason I decided to use the Elizabeth Craft Designs "Sprig with Berries" die in three different greens. Adding the Star Dust Stickles, also helped to give it a bit more of a Christmas feel.

The sentiment is from the Hot Off The Press "Christmas" stamp & punch set, and is heat embossed in gold, later adding tiny drops of Xmas Red Stickles.

Here is the card from different angles. I must apologize, however, for not having edged the the fussy cut flower pieces. I usually like to do that to hide the white core of the paper, but due to time constraints, I didn't do that this time round.

You will be seeing this card again posted with some others as this will also be one of the cards for a future class at Scrapbook Parade. But, for now, hop on over to the Christmas Card Challenges blog to see the DT inspirational cards posted there and the entries. Remember, you don't have to play along with the challenge as long as you post a Christmas card.

Alanna - DT coordinator

Anne C

Anne J

Jenn

Monica

Sabrina - That's me!

Sparkle-- Owner

Hard to believe that Christmas is only two months away! Hope that you are inspired to start creating your Christmas cards. Thank you for stopping by to have a peek at my creation for this this week's challenge #47.

Happy cardmaking!

My Five Beautiful Grand-Daughters

-Graphic 45 Secret Garden - Oct Vintage Double Page LO Class

Hello blog friends! It's hard to believe that Autumn is here and soon it will be Winter! In my reluctance to accept the coming of winter, I turn to the beautiful Graphic 45 Secret Garden collection that is all about Spring and Summer. I also wanted to have a layout with all of my five grand-daughters together and another layout of my two grandsons together. Obviously with the Secret Garden colours I chose to create a layout of my five beautiful grand-daughters.

The five Grand-Daughters are from three of my five children. I love them all to pieces. Any way, let's get back to the design of this LO.

I used Kraft and Butter Mints cardstock, Inkssentials Foil Tape Sheets to back and fussy cut the flowers, Tim Holtz Tea Dye ink, and We R Memory Keepers Lace Kerchief Lucky 8 Punch as well as the Frilly Lace Punch. Also from We R Memory Keepers, I used the Envelope Punch Board to form the illusion of an envelope peeking out that holds a tag to pull out. From Graphic 45's Secret Garden collection I used chipboard die-cuts #2, cardstock banners, Springtime, Leafy Treetops, and Seed Fairy papers; and lastly, Martha Stewart's Large Double Monarch Butterfly punch.

Here is a closer look at the left section of the layout...

...and the right section...

...and the detail close-ups. Here you see the layering of the banners.

You can see the three layers, above, used to build up the banner. Next is a closer look at the envelope flap and tag.

On the left you can see the envelope flap created using the We R envelope board. Since there are so many layers in this area of the LO I decided not to make the whole completed envelope and thereby adding even more layers, so I just used the board to create the flap and attached it behind so that I could still slip a tag in it.

You can also see in the photo above, behind the photo, the lacy circle I created using the Frilly Lace punch peeking out a little here and there.

In this next photo you will see more close up some of the foil backed flowers I fussy cut and the chipboard die-cut I used to create the title of the layout.

You can also see the Monarch butterfly that I inked and doubled with the bottom layer being Kraft cardstock.

Lastly, you can see a close-up of the chipboard laser cut scroll.

Thank you so much for stopping by to have a look at my Secret Garden double layout. I can hardly wait to make one for my two Grand-Sons next! Hope you are inspired to pull out some of your spring papers to create a layout of your own.

Happy Scrapbooking!

Snowflake Wreath - Color Combo for CCC #46

Sorry I didn't get this posted this morning at the start of the new challenge. I've had a very busy couple of weeks and taught two classes yesterday, had to get off early to church this morning, and celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with my parents the rest of the day even though it really isn't till tomorrow. I have work to do tomorrow so we celebrated it today. So here it is nearly the end of the day!

My first thought and idea for this week's Pink, Brown & White Christmas Card Challenge was something very different from what I decided to make in the end. I was going to go soft with mostly white and a bit of pink with a very little touch of brown. Then I thought, "Why not try something different for a change? Go outside your comfort zone Sabrina." So I did, and went with a very dark brown and a deep and bright pink, with touches of a lighter pink, and white of course.

Starting with a white pencil crayon made my faux stitched border. Then taking some older cling stamps I stamped them in white all over the brown. Next, I die cut and punched out some snowflakes in the deeper bright pink, in softer light pink, and in white.

I then put some of them through my 1 1/2" Xyron sticker maker and pulled out some light pink, deeper bright pink, and some white Chrystal glitter. I applied these to some of the snowflakes leaving some without glitter. The next step was to pop up and create a wreath using some of those snowflakes.

I think that next time I do this, I would use fewer snowflakes so that you could more easily see the individual snowflakes, rather than bunching them up so tightly.

Here are some other views of the card.

Check out what the rest of the design team created for a Christmas card using the challenge colours of Pink, Brown & White.

Alanna - DT coordinator

Anne C

Anne J

Jenn

Monica

Sabrina - That's me!

Sparkle-- Owner

And why not take a peek at some of the entries too at Christmas Card Challenges!

Thank you for stopping by today.

Christmas in a Tea Cup & Baby Jesus in a Manger - Nov Spectrum Noir Class

Busy teaching a lot of classes these days, but I do have something new to post for you today. I finally got around to making the cards for the Nov Spectrum Noir class. Using stamped images that require a bit more detail colouring, but they are so adorable! Here are the cards.

The first one on the left is a stamp from Stampavie by Tina Wenke titled "Baby Jesus With Animals". Lots of detail in that little stamp. You can't tell that the halo and some of the light has a very light touch of Diamond Stickles.

These are the Spectrum Noir markers used for this image-
CT1, CT2, CT3, CT4, GB8, GB10, IG1, IG2, IG4, IG6, IG8, EB1, EB2, EB5, EB7, BG1, BG2, BG4, BG6, BG8, BG10, FS2, FS3, FS6, GB5, TN7, BGR1, 7 TB2, as well as the blender pen.

The second card, a stamp by Penny Black titled "Christmas in a Cup" is so adorable. I just love that big smile on the little mouse's face while he sleeps.

It was a bit of a challenge to try and get the gold to look like the gold you find on many tea cups, but I think I succeeded.

I had so much fun colouring this cute little mouse in the tea cup. These are the Spectrum Noir markers I used to colour this image with.

IG1, IG2, IG4, IG6, EB1, EB2, TN2, FS2, FS6, BT1, BT2, TB1, TB2, DG2, DG4, BG1, BG2, BGR1, CT1, GB8, GB10, CR11, DR7, & the blender pen.

Well, I hope you enjoyed looking at my colouring of these two images for our November Spectrum Noir class and are inspired to try some colouring of your own.

Happy colouring!

Lights! Inspirational Photo - Christmas Card Challenge #45

Time for an inspirational photo over at Christmas Card Challenge #45 and it's all about Christmas lights! It's also a new month which means it's prize time this week. One lucky winner will receive a free rubber stamp from Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps this week. For my followers, you'll be surprised to note that I didn't use a single foam dimensional/pop-dot on this card!

I used my Spectrum Noir markers and then Diamond Stickles to make the ligtbulbs sparkle. A very basic and simple card.

I guess since this is a photo inspired challenge, I should show you the photo, right! It's to the left.

To view the other DT inspirational cards check out the challenge over at Christmas Card Challenge #45 or go to the DT links below and see many more of their creative designs.

Alanna - DT coordinator

Anne C

Anne J

Jenn

Monica

Sabrina - That's me!

Sparkle-- Owner

I know that this a short posting for me, but thank you for stopping by to have a look at this week's inspirational DT card for Christmas Card Challenge #45.

Happy Christmas card making!

Relief Society Bulletin Board

I've been meaning to post this for days now, but have been very busy. Still am, and should be doing something else right now, but will make this short.

The church I am a member of has a women's organization called "Relief Society". The Relief Society president of my Ward (congregation) asked if I would decorate the large bulletin board outside the Relief Society room with the theme of "Strengthening Home and Family". So using the Upsy Daisy collection 'Home Sweet Home', and my 'Heritage' cartridge on my Cricut, this is the board.

The little houses you see all over were fussy cut out from the leftover paper used to mat the printed quotes and popped up on the board. Yes, I can't go without popping things up, even on a bulletin board. The section on the right is for posting announcements, etc.

Here are closeups of the three corners.