Sites of the week

A week or so ago, my friend Susan came over to play while Ellie was at school. She said she wanted to try doing an altered file folder like the one that Taylor had on her blog. Susan said she wanted to make hers a Christmas planner. While I thought it was a super cuuuute idea, I never intended on doing one of these, especially since my Christmas shopping this year is super light since our family decided to draw names (woohoooo!!) and we are not hosting any kind of festivities (HUGE wooohooooo!!). Once she got here I decided to give it a shot. WOW!!…that was fun…and A LOT of work, especially since I had no plan for it and was flying by the seat of my pants. You’ll notice that there isn’t anything on the inside cards because I intend to give this away as a gift to a dear friend of mine and I would like her to alter it as she sees fit, maybe a scrapbook of sorts, maybe an organizer…who knows!

Here’s a shot of it closed. I chose not to put a ribbon closure on this one, but think that it would be best to do on organizers, especially if they will be rattling around in a purse.

Here’s a shot of it opened up. I chose to do something a little different, yet a little the same for each of the panels.

I used a combination of papers on this projects. The red and white polka dot paper is from American Crafts. The ornate green has the reverse of the red, green and white stripes and is from Making Memories. The cardstock that I used is from SU! The images are (from L to R) SU!, Stampendous, The Cat’s Pajamas and PaperTrey. I do not have the exact dimension of the cuts that I made, but Taylor has a very helpful tutorial that you can see HERE.

***ETA*** The stamps that I used on the front of this are from the $1 section at Michael’s.

Before I get started, just wanted to let you know my final article for Craft Critique is running today. It’s all about papercrafting with the Janome Sew Mini…something that I love!! This is my final article for Craft Critique, as I have stepped down from my Senior Reporter position. I hope to continue writing here and there for them in the future, tho!

Yay!! Nichole named my project an honorable mention last month. Since then I have had quite a few requests for the template/measurements of this project. Below I have posted a template. Please note that it is not to scale. It wraps around the box and there is a seam in the back. This can very easily be altered for a hidden seam. I attached the bottom portion with red liner tape, but the top portion is not attached so that it can easily be slipped on and off. We made one of these for my last stamp camp and the box was filled with peppermints. The boxes are available from PaperTrey and also through Impress. Hope this helps everyone with the question, “How did you do that??” ”

**Click for larger view**

TOP:

BOTTOM:

Come on back tomorrow for a sketch for you to try!! This one is pretty interesting!! Happy Friday!

Did you attend the MFT Cocktail Party last night? It was a blast! Carole is now offering pole dancing lessons at church…LOL!! Who says stampers aren’t a little crazy!?!? My eyes still hurt from trying to keep up with the conversation! If you missed, you can still check out the challenge and the coupon code HERE.
Here are a few more projects using the new releases from My Favorite Things. The first couple of projects use the digi paper that was just released. This stuff is so much fun. I never even thought to use digi paper in the past, but I am hooked now!!…probably not too bad of a thing since our local paper place is closing its doors as of the end of the year {pass the tissues!}.

This box uses the digi paper printed on acetate (thank for the idea Cindy!)…

This box follows the same directions as the one in THIS TUTORIAL, but the score marks are at 4.5″, 5.5″, 10″ and 11″. For this box I just created a folded over piece on the top, but you can easily create the same kind of top as the tutorial using the score marks given here.

Finally, here are a few samples using the Icing On The Cake Set. The first is the card that was used as a sample for the challenge, to incorporate an ATC into a card. The second is a box (from Cricut’s Bags, Tags, Boxes and More cartridge) that I decorated/embellished using this set.

I am in the process of getting Ellie’s teacher gifts ready…slowly, but surely. This container is the first thing that I have checked off my list. I have another one in the works, and then all the stuff that is going inside. I figured if I at least got the containers done I would be in good shape because I can always fill them with cookies if I don’t have time to make all the other stuff that I have planned for the ensemble. I got this container at Hobby Lobby for a whopping $2.33. I painted the inside and then got to work on the outside. The DP that I used here is from American Crafts {my fave paper!!}. The flowers were purchased at Recollections individually {how cool is that!?!} and then layered and put together with a pearl brad. Finally, the letter is from the Cuttlebug Red Tag Alphabet and the ribbon is SU! Olive 5/8″ grosgrain.
Ellie is in school today {yay!}. My phone is turned off. I am going to check some more stuff off my to do list and maybe get some cleaning done, too. Have a great day!!

Before…

After:

Ok, not really, because I really don’t like snow or cold weather in general. It makes me want to stay in bed all day in flannel jammies, with flannel sheet under a ginormous down blanket. I am one of those people that likes wearing flip flops all year long. I long for hot days and warm nights. Today it is very cool and windy. I feel cold from the inside out…I hate that. In case you are wondering, yes, I am wearing flip flops, which has nothing to do with me feeling so chilled…LOL. I don’t like the cold!!! HOWEVER, what I love about the cooler weather is that it brings with it holidays and family and really fun decor! You know, the fun decor that we all love, but thank goodness we don’t have to have it in the way 365 days a year! I love winter and Christmas stuff, so when I saw an unfinished mini sled at our local Hobby Lobby on sale for 50% off, I had to at least try to do something with it!

First, I painted the sled white. I then covered the sled with a couple kinds of DP and sanded the edges so that the paper was flush against the lines of the sled. I wrapped shimmery ribbon around the sled. I have had this ribbon forever and finally found a project that it matches perfectly to! {love when that happens!} The main image panel has ones snowflake stamped on it from the PaperTrey set, Snowflake Serenade. I used Memory Makers stickers to spell out “Let it” and the word “Snow” was created with the Red Tag Cuttlebug alpha. I outlined the letters with my Sakura Stardust pen {yes, you must have one of these!!}. I added some bling {Swarovksi crystals} to make it sparkle just a little more.
I really liked how this came out and I think that will recreate this a few times over for gifts.