halloween cards (& blog candy winner!)

i don't usually "do" halloween, but when jolene surprised me with these *FABULOUS* recollections monsta stamps, i knew immediately that i had to use them to make cards for the nieces and nephew. (well, i mean, there are FOUR of them...and they are LITTLE MONSTAS...how perfect can ya get??!) these guys are hangin' out over at caardvarks today, where there's also additional holiday eye candy for your viewing pleasure!

(monstas: recollections clear stamps; text background: justrite "brayton uppercase" font set; patterned paper: bo bunny, kaiser, sassafras, basic grey, scrapbook wizard, gcd, autumn leaves; cardstock: core'dinations; black glossy cardstock: ranger; inks: colorbox & staz-on; ribbon: michaels; buttons: joann fabric; adhesives: xyron, tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape)

i based the entire set on this adorable sheet of bo-bunny paper, which i actually bought for its reverse side during the Great Purple Quest surrounding niece lindsay's birthday. i know it sounds nuts to say the whole thing's based on this when there is only one teeeeeeny circle of it used, but the color scheme, the cute-but-not-cutesy style, and the verrrrrrrry faint distressing all came directly from here. see?

to make the spooky "boo BOOOO boOOoOOOooO" text background behind the monstas i used the larger block of my justrite horizontal wood stampers set and all the B's and O's (& zeros & upside down Q's!!!) from the font set and the 2 3/8" round stamper set; then i stamped the whole thing on each color of basic grey solid paper...then lined up just underneath each block... (the JR's are easily aligned if you work pretty parallel and trim the edges) ...and stamped again to fill the space. i wanted each one to be the same...but different...and i don't have any halloween text stamps.

i made the "tombstone" by tracing a fancy colorbok chipboard frame (from darling june); the bats are hand-drawn & mounted on jewelry wire with foam tape. you can't really see it in the photo, but the b&w panels and the colored mats are attached to each other (& the card) with machine stitching. "happy halloween" is computer-generated in "westate" font & printed on avery clear labels; it's inside each card, as well. oh yeah, and everything with eyes has a googly eyes...except the bats, who have teeeeeeeeeeny purple pearls. you know, to make them more *realistic*! :)

ok so now that all the creative essplainin' stuff is over, let's get to the GOOD PART, ok?!?! by which i mean, of course,

who won the blog candy??!

the random number generator chose # 32

which means that ♥Leah♥ is the lucky winner!

(which is quite funny, since her nom d'blog is "LEAH THE ORANGE" & i had already turned this bit of text orange for halloween!)

please email me with your postal address, missus, so i can get your goodies in the mail ASAP!

many thanks to everyone who played & all to the darlings who linked to my giveaway! i ♥LOVED♥ reading all of your favorites and hope you had a chance to look at everyone else's answers, because there's some great stuff there!!!

walkin' tall

ladies and gentlemen, it's the 20th of the october, 2009, so for the very last time may i wish you a:

HAPPY CAARDVARKS

CHALLENGE DAY!!!

on this occasion we are sponsored by a company called nikki sivils, scrapbooker, purveyor of fine papers, albums, rubber stamps and other scrappy accoutrements, who are providing a lovely and generous prize to our lucky winner. the challenge is TALL CARDS! easy-peasy, right?! ok, yeah, it WAS, actually...but not until after i spent about 3 days running rings around myself logically. over-thinkin' it, thy name is lauren!

as you know, i've been digi-dabbling for a while now, but i don't think i've made a hybrid card yet. this one started as an experiement with some gorgeous rhonna farrer brushes. eventually a wider and more text-based version became a fancy label for mailing birthday presents. (many of my digi-experiments become address labels for some reason; i guess because they are always useful and yet hard to be over-critical about??) while i was pondering what would fill a vertical rectangle nicely, these lovely birdcages sprang to mind. i planned to start from scratch, but when i looked at the saved label i realized that it already had nearly every element i wanted to use...it just needed to be re-sized and re-shaped! so that's what i did.

i printed two copies of the inner panel on glossy photo paper. one i trimmed to size. from the other i carefully cut out the birdcages. i mounted them on foam tape for extra dimension, and layered the panel onto coordinating paper and then a glossy black cardbase. i liked the look of it, but...somehow...it just was not alllllll that exciting to me. i considered going back and re-formatting the whole thing, so as to leave room for embellishments, when it hit me: the cages are black with lots of dangly beady bits--wouldn't it be great if they were encrusted with real jet crystals??!

it took over an hour to cut and paste a prima flourish into pieces of the correct size and shape to adorn all three cages, but it was worth every second! this card has soooo much sparkle and shine and dimension it's almost a bit sinful, really. but in a gooooooooood way.

(software: broderbund printshop; birdcage brushes and inked edge tool kit: rhonna farrer, house of 3; spots and dots brushes: katie pertiet, designer digitals; indian summer nights background paper (re-colored): marcie reckinger, funky playground; glossy photo paper: kodak premium; patterned paper: bo bunny; glossy black cardstock: ranger; black crystals: prima; lines of bling: heidi swapp; rhinestone flourish: oriental trading co; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow mono runner & 3m foam tape)

here's a close-up from the side so you can see the beads a bit better. it's still not as cool as the thing looks in real life, but short of inviting you all to new jersey for a personal glimpse of said masterpiece* i guess this will have to do!

you have until midnight, 10-31, to make a *brand new* tall card and submit a direct link to your creation via mr. linky. as per usual, all the rules and regs are on the varks' blog, as are pics of the prize, and an even more than usually amazing array of fabulous crew caards! why not stop by and drool awhile??!

but first: scroll down to THIS POST and enter the draw for my blog candy!

*though OF COURSE you'd be most welcome! just let me know so i can stock up on diet soda and beef jerky! :)

fond farewell and favorite things

if you've been over to caardvarks today, you've already heard the big news: the challenge that begins on tuesday, 10-20, will be my last as a caard crew member. it's a bittersweet moment for me. it's been nearly 2 1/2 years, and wow--what a fabulous experience! i've met people from all over the world, made dear friends, been inspired and challenged and astonished by the sheer amount of talent out there! not to mention learning countless things about papercrafting and computering and...well, it's been one heck of a ride and i'll treasure the memory forever.

but one of the things that makes caardvarks truly GREAT is the fact that they never rest on their laurels: there are always new challenges to be set, new ideas to explore, and fresh faces to be discovered! wait'll you meet the new team on 11-1: TRUST ME, you'll be blown away!!! as for myself, i am excited at the prospect of free time, creating without a deadline, and just generally seeing what comes next!

flicking through my personal archives this morning to choose a few faves, an informal count reveals i've made 169 caards and half a dozen projects for a total of 87 challenges and special events. i've done regular challenges, micro-challenges, the massively awesome 10-day, 10-k (two weeks after i made the team!), cardmaps' holiday special, lovefest, sketchfest, 2 blog hops (in the space of a month!), and over a dozen product-sponsored galleries. sheesh. no wonder i'm a bit tired, eh?! and it all happened, like most of the best things in my life, pretty much by accident.

i stumbled upon caardvarks one afternoon in june, 2007. at that time, i'd never done a challenge; i didn't even have a blog. i was excited to find 'varks because the only challenge blogs i'd seen (like the effer dares and "how much is too much") were for scrapbookers, not card-makers. i wanted to join in, but i didn't--and don't--really scrap, as such. as it happened, the day i found caardvarks was the day before the deadline of their first ever design team call. as i read the qualifications and responsibilities i got more and more excited. "i think i could DO THAT!" i said to lovely husband jeff, "i think i would LOVE THAT!" of course i knew i'd never be picked--i mean, i hadn't even participated on the site yet--but it just seemed waaaaaay too cool not to try. in a fit of the most astonishing chutzpah, i wrote in and sent links to my lifetime moments gallery. several days later i went back to see who'd been chosen and what the new challenge was. i was *literally* speechless staring at the screen and seeing my name.

i owe a GIANT thank you to caardvarks' owner and head designer jenyfur pohl. not only did she devise this whole magnificent idea in the first place, she works constantly and tirelessly devising challenges, securing prizes, finding sponsorship, recruiting fabulous talent, spreading the word and sharing the love! choosing me for the team was a magnificent and tremendously generous leap of faith on her part, and i cannot thank her enough!

then there is ms. nathalia castellon. believe me when i say to you that it's impossible to overestimate the vital role of this lovely lady. in addition to all the fabulous techno-wizardry she does to keep the site going, on any given day she also supplies incalcuable amounts of help, advice, inspiration, organization, problem-solving, question-answering, mojo-kickstarting, pep-talking and den-mothering to both crew-members and readers. it's not for the first or last time that i send a hearty, "thanks, n!" her way.

finally to the rest of my fellow crew-members past, present and future...and each and every one of the fabulous caardvark readers, i am enormously in your debt for the boatloads of inspiration, encouragement, and friendship you have extended to me on a daily basis. it is TRULY the very best part of this whole wonderful experience and a genuine treasure to me! i won't say goodbye...and you won't have a chance to miss me...'cause i'm not GOING anywhere!!! i'll still be here makin' stuff and postin' it and generally rambling and being silly; and i'll still be around to see what YOU are doing (hopefully a bit more OFTEN, even!); in the meantime i will just say from the bottom of my heart,

♥ THANK YOU, DARLINGS!!! ♥

ps: tune in tomorrow...if ya like...CANDY...

baby, take a bow!

don't you love the name of this CAARDVARKS challenge? it's almost as good as the idea of devoting the next couple of weeks to making be-ribboned cards, actually...and how cool is that?!

today's card is rather a departure for me...it's pink and girlie and sparkly and flowery...quite a stretch, eh?!!!? ;) but when i saw this gorgeous may arts sheer wired ribbon, studded with pretty fabric butterflies and tiny white pearls, of course i COULD NOT resist having it, any more than i could stop myself from designing a whole card around it!

(butterfly wired ribbon: may arts; patterned paper & stickers: dena/creative imaginations; cardstock: core'dinations; sparkly chipboard letters: making memories; letter stickers: basic grey; adhesives: tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape, low-temp hot glue gun)

it *IS* slightly unusual for me to use all papers from the same collection, but i love this creative imaginations pack, and it's got such a nice variety of scale and pattern that i didn't really need to go looking for anything else. a combination of stickers and chipboard for my sentiment and i was all set!

here's a closer picture of one of the butterflies. i wanted to make it look like they were perching on the card, so i twisted the ribbon up quite tightly underneath them, and broke out my trusty hot glue gun to tack them in place.

be sure to check out the VARKS blog for details of how to link up your gorgeous brand-new ribbon card for a shot at some fabulous may arts goodies of your very own! (trust me, you WANT 'EM!!!) oh yeah, and don't forget to stop by our flickr gallery to see the fabulous design team projects!

ribbon-fanciers of the world, untie!

hello, darlings and welcome to another fabulous CAARDVARKS challenge day! this time around we're sponsored by the exceptionally fine folk at may arts who not only provided the design team with our choice of their lovely ribbons and trimmings, but who are giving a biiiiiiiiiig box of assorted fabulousness as the prize to our lucky winner!* all you have to do to qualify for said bounty is make a *NEW* card with some ribbon on it, and link it up by midnight, october 17th. in the meantime, why not check out the expanded gallery of caard-crew goodness over at our flickr gallery?!

before i show you today's card, can i just warn you...it doesn't have *ribbon* as such...it has a trimming--by may arts, naturally--these fabulous wired silver beads:

aren't they cool? i love how they give dimension and almost a sense of movement when you swirl them around a card. you know, a bit like this:

(wired silver beads: may arts; patterned paper: prima; bling word: mambi; other: vintage silk flowers, corrugated cardboard,

i've been known to spend *HOURS* when i'm in "collage mode"...but actually, this was a VERY quick card to make! the whole center bit of it was "fussy cut" out of this prima patterned paper. (it's called "coy"; it's from the "flirty" line.) i'd actually only BOUGHT it the day before...but i was dying to use it, so i kind of just built everything else around it.

as it turned out, i could've just paper-trimmer-cut a rectangle slightly larger than the frame, & glued it to my card base... (since i wound up mounting it on a similarly colored background!) ...but at the time i thought i'd be making either a diecut card in the shape of that fun frame, or mounting it on a transparency base. ah well, no harm done: this way i could use the surrounding bits for something else. for instance, the flowery bits at the edge make great hearts!

once i had the frame and the hearts...and of course i already knew i was going to use the silver wired beads...all i needed were some embellishments. i love these vintage silvery silk flowers my aunt found at a garage sale, and i'm never averse to bling, as well you know! lately i am also loving torn bits of corrugated cardboard, so i threw a bit of that on. (it also hides the hot glue i used to anchor the center of the wired beads so that the ends could be loose and swirly!) i finished off with a bit of dymo label, and that was that!

back tomorrow with another may arts card...

...this one has actual *RIBBON* on it, honest!!!

*i think we may just have found the challenge for which miss leslie breaks her "i don't need MORE stuff" rule!!! ;)

au revoir et adieu, mon petite sketchfest

can you believe an entire week has passed already in the whirlwind of color and pattern and fabulous inspiration we CAARDVARKS were pleased and proud to call SKETCHFEST?! what on earth will we do now??!?! i think the amazing heidi van laar should just show up EVERY DAY with a sketch for us, don't you? i wouldn't mind if she also told me what to wear to work, and perhaps gave ideas for a nutritious dinner; in fact, i'd hasten to do her bidding! :) but until i can swing that...here's a final, fabulous sketch:

it's nice, dontcha think? and super-flexible, as well. i think we'll see some AMAZING creations based on this baby, and i can't wait to get surfing around to them all. but in the meantime, here is my card:

it's got the last of that fun making memories decorative masking tape on it...mmmmmmmm...i ♥LOVE♥ that stuff! it inspired me to want to put a hibiscus on the card, actually. i was briefly hampered by the fact that i cannot draw...until i remembered that i had some rather fab heidi swapp hibiscus ghost shapes, that is! i traced one of those babies onto the orangey red paper from the kit, went crazy with some ink pads and glitter glue and i was a happy hibiscus-based camper! i used a 3" punch for my circle and cut the "hi" from a bit of "great escape" patterned paper which originally read, "hit the road" and that was the end of another fun challenge!

...UNTIL...

i was putting away all the leftover bits of the kit and realized i had not used even one of the little decorative pins...OR...the fun custom rubber stamp which says, "just be"! well, that just seemed SO WRONG...and since i still had a bunch of paper scraps, and loads of thickers, and the masking tape flourishes i used to illustrate the technique from my first card of this event, i figured i should make just one more. so i did:

the heart is yet another piece of fancy pants chipboard that i used as a template...the butterflies were made with my trust martha punch...and the kraft cardstock is from hobby lobby.

now THAT really is the last of my sketchfest cards, which is perfect timing because i'm dying to get out there and see what everyone else has made!!! ♥

sketchfest friday!

holy moly, it's been one heck of a week, hasn't it? we CAARDVARKS have been busier than one-armed paperhangers trying to get round and see allllllll the gorgeous sketchfest cards! i'm slightly sad to say, for the first time EVER, i've been unable to keep up with commenting on every single card...well heck, there have been 100+ each day!...i've compromised by commenting on each card for every other sketch.

speaking of sketches, here's the one m'colleague and sketch-idol miss heidi devised for today:

i like it: it's bold, it's simple, it's linear, and i just happened to have three more little maya road leather flowers to pop into those little boxes. woohoo!

you can't really tell from the photo, but that making memories patterned paper with the letters on is shiny, and so is the black cardstock i've used for the mats. the tan paper has very subtle ridged lines, the thickers are made of spongy foam, and the kraft cardstock (which the divine stef got me at hobby lobby) is the REAL DEAL with lots of speckles and spots. it's your basic cavalcade of texture, really!!! :)

sadly, tomorrow is the last day of sketchfest, but i can tell you in confidence that the sketch is particular superb. so much so, in fact, that i've made *TWO* cards for it. hasta manana, darlings!!!

i don't like to play favorites...

...with my cards. i mean, they're kind of a bit like children-- (all right, not really, but go with me, ok?) --so of course i love them all equally. however, if i *DID* like to play favorites...today's sketchfest card might well be my pick.

but i'm getting ahead of myself! i haven't even shown you heidi's fantastic sketch yet, have i? ok, here you go:


is that wonderful, or what? look at that beautiful curved line...and the three little accents that hang over it. niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. when i saw that lovely curve i immediately knew i wanted it to be the opening of my card. and logistically this was a great idea because i had sort of weird shaped pieces left of this fun passport-y making memories paper from my studio calico kit. but then, how...and where...would i attach the fab maya road leather flowers i wanted to use in the three spaces? well obviously i needed an element to overhang, and somehow a butterfly seemed like a good idea. i traced a tattered angels chipboard one onto a scrap of patterned paper, et voila: a flight of fancy!

there are LOADS more gorgeous sketch cards from the design team over at CAARDVARKS, not to mention links to all of the amazing readers' cards from every sketch this week. if you have a few minutes, or need a bit of inspiration, i seriously do not believe there's a better place to find card-making mojo in the whole wide world!!! ENJOY!

wednesday: after tuesday...before thursday...

...but equally

sketch-fest-y!!!

(yes, yes, i know, titles are not my strong suit at the moment.

IOU some snappy nomenclature next week, for sure!)

nonetheless today IS equally sketchfesty...and to prove it, here's another massively cool heidi van laar scheme from which we can make our next lot of fabulous cards:

one of the things i liked about working with the wonderful studio calico add-on kit, "director's cut" is that it gave me a chance to try out supplies i would probably *not* have chosen on my own. these little yellow bicycle journaling cards, for instance, are VERY cool...but if they hadn't just ARRIVED in the kit, i don't think i'd've sought them out. which would've been a shame, really, because i like the result of grouping them together!

you can see i've used super-duper-thin black mats on *everything* again...i apologize if you're getting sick of them, but having stumbled upon this technique when i made the cupcake gift-set for jeff's mom recently, i just love how it sets multiple layers apart from each other while having a cleaner look than inking or outlining. the sunburst medallion is cut from one of the pieces of making memories' "great escape" patterned paper that came in the kit, the hearts were more chipboard pieces i traced onto patterned paper, and i used part of the shaped bit of the diecut background paper as a sort of pediment at the top of my card. a few minutes with the manual typewriter and a couple of aqua thickers later, i had a sort of fun & funky "guy" birthday card to replenish my stocks.

i hope you are enjoying sketchfest as much as we CAARDVARKS are! it certainly seems as if people are having fun, we've had RECORD numbers of cards so far, which is *AWESOME* if a bit daunting!!! back tomorrow with more sketchy goodness!

if it's tuesday, it must be SKETCHFEST!!!

this week has been a BLAST so far! i cannot *believe* how many entries we have had already at CAARDVARKS for the first two studio calico sketch cards! it's hard to keep up with the comments...but i'm PSYCHED to see so many awesome cards!!!

moving on to today's sketch...which is wonderful, naturally, being a heidi van laar original:



i don't think i've *QUITE* done this one justice, but i did my best. of course it doesn't help that i could not get a good picture of it for anything! ah well. here it is anyway:

i've used the "little stickers on a shape" trick again, this time it's an arrow. i cut the letters from the making memories paper in the kit, and used two of the little yellow bicycle journaling cards. you can't really see it in the main photo, but here's a closeup that shows the "moods" on the round card...i've circled "happy" since it's a birthday card, and then down on the date card i've circled my cousin tom's birthday.

and that's about it for today, i'll be back tomorrow with the midpoint of sketchfest! and i can't wait to see all the cards in the gallery!

sketchfest, day two!*

are you having fun yet??! because i sure am! i have to say that this might well be my very favorite CAARDVARKS event ever! i loooooooooove heidi's sketches, i LOVE the studio calico kit we were given to make our cards, and i especially love seeing all the different & brilliantly original interpretations our readers devise for their own creations!

but enough intro, let's get to the sketch!

isn't it excellent?! well no duh, i mean it's another heidi van laar design, and she only does FABULOUS!!! i am fairly happy with my card, too, as a matter of fact:

(all materials are from studio calico's "director's cut" add-on kit; sadly it has sold out so i don't have a link or photo to show you; it's amongst the sketchfest prizes, though, so get over to 'varks and post your own card for a shot at one!)

i'm rather proud of having used some bits of *packaging* on this one: the panel with the compass and the word "travel" come from the making memories tiny words stickers; the word "love" and the row of tiny hearts come from the studio calico packing card; and the scalloppy orange border is the negative bit from cutting out a cute shape from a pack of decorative pins!

for the heart shape i used a piece of fancy pants chipboard as a template on a piece of scrap cardstock, and filled in the shape using the tiny "great escape" wordfetti stickers. (this is very similar to how i used the decorative tape to make yesterday's flourishes; see a mini-tutorial here.) the rest is just regular supplies from the kit, it had a very nice selection of travel-themed items, but you will see from the rest of my cards (& the other gorgeous dt examples!) that they're adaptable to all sorts of other themes!

i have to say that one of the main things i learned from working with this fun selection of products is i really, REALLY like decorative masking tape (♥♥♥!) and i can completely understand how people get utterly addicted to collecting it!!! it's just lucky i don't have any OCD tendencies, then, eh??! ;)

more tomorrow, but in the meantime:

♥ HAPPY MONDAY, DARLINGS!!! ♥

*because some days i ROCK at thinkin' up creative blogpost titles...and some days...not-so-much. guess which one *today* was??! (sorry!) :)

hello and welcome to...

♥ sketchfest! ♥

i do hope you're rested and rarin' to go, because this is going to be an action-packed, fun-filled, sketch-based week!!! the caardvarks have got a brand new 24-hour sketch challenge every single day, and there are loads of lovely studio calico goodies up for grabs, as well as... are you ready for this?! hold onto your hat, ok? ...for our grand prize at the end of the week, one very special cardmaker who's completed ALL SEVEN sketches by the deadlines will be offered a spot on the caardvarks crew!!! uh-huh, you read that right. how cool is THAT??!

the 'varks were each given a luscious studio calico add-on kit with which to create our cards for this week. i've never worked with a kit before... (despite lusting over MANY, particularly the SC ones) ...so i wanted to see if i could budget the supplies and do ALL SEVEN sketches without adding in any additional supplies except neutral cardstock. it was a bit of a challenge...but i'm proud to report that i succeeded; i even made an extra card, and i have leftovers!

i absolutley LOVE all of m'colleague heidi van laar's gorgeous sketches for this event,but secretly... (shhhhh!) ...this one *might* be my favorite. i mean, just look at that lovely oval focal point, not to mention the gorgeous swirly bits! yeah, this one kinda has "lauren" written all overit, dontcha think?!


i wound up rotating the sketch 90 degrees so that i could fit a festive birthday greeting into the oval,but other than that i stuck quite strictly to the sketch. i used maya road chipboard flourishes as a template to make my swirls, which are composed of the kit's decorative tape (see photos below). i used a stencil to trace the inner oval, cut it out and mounted it on a second piece of paper from the kit and cut out again leaving about an 1/8" border all around. super-thin, high-contrast mats are my new favorite technique...a bit rough on the old carpal tunnels, but hard to beat for a dramatic look!

all primary materials are from the studio calico "director's cut" add-on kit; other items: hobby lobby kraft cardstock, colorbox inks, zig pen, marvy & martha stewart butterflypunches, fiskars border punch

and now a quick photostory of how to make decorative tape into patterned paper...and use it to create fun flourishes!

TRACE your desired shape on a scrap of cardstock

COVER the traced shape with tape

RE-TRACE the shape on top of the tape

CUT OUT the shape and use it like any other embellishment!

be sure to stop over at CAARDVARKS to read all the details of this week's festivities, see the design team's gorgeous cards, and learn how to link up your own gorgeous creations. i'll be back tomorrow with my card for day two!

today is the first day of the rest of your life!

coincidentally, but in a completely unrelated way, it is also the first day of the JustRite font mega blog hop! my projects will be featured tomorrow, but seeing as the JustRite folks have rounded up more than *50* MEGA-talented designers, it's well worth a mosey over to the JustRite Blog for a peek! (oh yeah and did i mention there are *prizes*??!)


today is the third day of the caardvarks' in the studio blog hop, sponsored by GCD studios. having seen my fellow crew-members cards and projects for this event, i must strongly urge you to make with the mouse-clicking for the good of your mojo! (completely disregarding the fact that there are *prizes*!)


saturday is nephew matthew's second birthday...a fact which is not being commemorated in any way on t'interwebz, except for me telling you it, here. :)

on the other hand, we're back online sunday in a BIG WAY for the first day of sketchfest over at caardvarks, sponsored by studio calico, which lasts and entire week and will feature SEVEN consecutive 24-hour challenges, with sketches courtesy of the magnificent heidi van laar. (oh yeah and i b'lieve there may be *prizes*!)

in the studio blog hop

♥ W E L C O M E ♥

to the first CAARDVARKS and GCD STUDIOS collaboration! i hope you're having fun seeing all the fabulous inspiring projects the crew have created with these gorgeous papers and embellishments!

i fell in love with the eye candy collection! well, heck, what's not to love about these luscious patterns and bright happy colors? especially if you have a mother-in-law who's celebrating a significant birthday, and you need to make an extra-special gift set. i made a memory box, photo album, birthday card and a gift bag in which to present them all, and still only used about a third of my paper pad!

(patterned papers: GCD designs from the eye candy collection, with a bit of red textured paper from the sunny days collection; template for cupcakes & hearts: "db love pastries" font from scrap-n-fonts; black cardstock: core'dinations; ink: colorbox; acrylic paint & glossy sealer spray: folk art; 12 x 9" wooden memory box: michael's; 4 x 6" photo album: sei; adhesives: xyron cartridge, tombow power hold adhesive runner, 3m foam tape & double stick tape; other: paper trimmer, scalloppy decorative scissors, several sizes of ek success circle punches)

since the blog-hoppers have lots of ground to cover, i've put "solo" pictures of each item, and detail on the process, in a separate post immediately below this one. i'll try my best to answer any questions left via comments or email, but let me anticpate the two most obvious questions right now:

#1: YES, i hand cut all of the cupcake layers and the hearts using a cupcake dingbat i re-sized & printed out; then i mounted them on black cardstock and re-cut them all freehand to leave a 1/16th inch border of black! (i held 3-4 layers together, so it's a *little* less work than it looks like, but yeah, it was A LOT of hand-cutting!)

...and...

#2: YES, i'm pretty sure i *AM* crazy, actually!!! :)

of course, GCD makes more than paper, they have gorgeous glitter letters, fabulous chipboard diecuts, and all sorts of fun embellishments! here are a couple of cards i made, using some of the more dimensional items:

(patterned papers, glitter letters, epoxy stickers & chipboard journaling block: GCD designs; glossy black cardstock: ranger; flowers: prima; ink: colorbox; pen: zig; adhesives: xyron cartridge, tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape)

(patterned papers, chipboard letters & tag, rub-ons, cardstock tag: GCD designs; cardstock: core'dinations; ink: colorbox; ribbon: queen & co;adhesives: xyron cartridge, tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape)


and now i will send the hoppers on their way, with a fond farewell and a reminder of the running order:

Jenyfur
♥ Lauren ♥ (...you are here...)
Mel
Lori
Tanis

Adela
GCD Studios Blog

♥♥♥ happy hopping!!! ♥♥♥

GCD gift set details

in today's main post, for my day of the GCD studios blog hop, i showed you the four piece birthday gift set i made for lovely husband jeff's mother's upcoming "significant birthday". the set includes a gift bag, a birthday card, a small photo album (to fill with pics from the party we're having later this month) and a box in which to save all the cards and mementoes from the big day. in the interests of keeping the blog hop post short, i just showed a photo and listed my materials, but just in case anyone needs more detail, here you go!

the box: is unfinished balsa wood from michaels, and cost about $5. it's approximately 9.5 x 12". (with a slightly larger lid, so you can paint and decoupage without worrying about fit!) since i really dislike going around corners and over edges and making everything line up perfectly on multiple planes of vision, i did what i usually do in these situations: i cheated! i base coated the entire inside and all around the edges of the outside in black acyrilic paint, and then had lovely husband jeff take it outside for a coat of spray-on glossy sealant. this way, i could work only on the flat panels of each side of the box, and the narrow border of black is an intentional design statement! (if you're new to 3-D papercrafting, TRUST ME, this is the way to go!)

i made the decorative panel for the top of the box first. i used broderbund's printshop software to make a template for the oval in the exact size and shape i wanted, and a cute dingbat font (db love pastries) for the cupcake. (later i re-sized the whole thing as one object to have smaller but identical motifs for the photobook & card, without having to re-create the work.) i printed out a few copies, which i then stapled to 3 or 4 layers of patterned paper and cut out multiples of the various bits. my intention was just to paper-piece them the normal way, with maybe a black outline, but these gorgeous vibrant prints were just a little too strong when layered directly on top of each other, so i wound up mounting each piece on black cardstock and cutting again to leave about a 1/16th of an inch border. i put little squares of foam tape on the lower edges of each cupcake layer and the heart at the top, so they would have a bit of dimension.

the scallops around the oval are the cute motifs from the brown "sweet tarts" patterned paper, on which i used a 1" circle punch. i then used a 1 3/8" circle punch on the black cardstock, cut all the circles in half, layered them, and attached them to the edge of the oval with (gasp!) regular old scotch tape. the strips which make up the frame were cut with a paper trimmer from the reverse side of the "candy charms" paper, mounted on black and then cut with scallopy decorative scissors.

for nearly a day i thought the box was FINISHED with just the cupcake and the frame on the rectangular background of "taffy" paper, but eventually i decided it needed one more thing...so i made the little corner elements by stacking leftover hearts & sweet tart circles in various ways until i found a combo i liked. again i used foam tape to pop them up.

after the top was done, it was just a question of choosing something for the edges, and to line the inside of the box and lid and WOOHOO it looked pretty fab, if i do say so myself!

the card: measures 6 x 8.25" and is built on a black cardstock base. the materials and basic process were much the same as for the box, but i've scaled the cupcake down slightly to fit the smaller proportions, and i changed around the papers i used for the various elements. the scallops were made of black cardstock using a 3/4" circle punch. again i used stripes from the reverse side of the "candy charms" paper, but i trimmed them slightly differently and mounted them across the corners instead of in a frame pattern. i made a coordinating panel for the inside using light blue patterned paper from the sunny days collection and printed my text in "tabitha" font, formatted in broderbund's printshop.

the photo book: is from the SEI preservation series, with teal covers made from supersturdy plastic-coated cardstock. since the teal chimed in quite well with some of the stripes from the reverse side of the "candy charms" paper, and the spine was already conveniently colored black, i only needed to affix a panel to the front of the album which matched the other items in the set. again i scaled down the cupcake and the oval, and switched up the placement of the various patterns. this time the scallop frame was cut with my trusty decorative scissors... (one of my very first papercrafting purchases from michael's; at least 15 years ago!) ...and the frame uses slightly thinner stripes on the top and bottom than on the sides.

the bag: is a plain black one from hallmark which measures 10.5 x 13 x 6.5". it was made after the rest of the set was finished, when i realized that i had to have some way to *wrap* everything else! i used a leftover oval and cupcake, punched more black circles for the scallopped border, made another set of corner strips, and swapped out the plain black ribbon for some brown-n-pink stripes on the handle...and we're good to go!

now i cannot wait for the party so we can give

the birthday girl her presents!

(complete materials: all patterned papers: GCD designs from the eye candy collection, with a bit of red textured paper from the sunny days collection; template for cupcakes & hearts: "db love pastries" font from scrap-n-fonts; black cardstock: core'dinations; ink: colorbox; acrylic paint & glossy sealer spray: folk art; 12 x 9" wooden memory box: michael's; 4 x 6" photo album: sei; adhesives: xyron cartridge, tombow power hold adhesive runner, 3m foam tape & double stick tape; other: decorative scissors, several sizes of ek success circle punches; tabitha font (used inside card & photo book)