CraftJunkieToo Design Team Challenge

Happy Wednesday my Blogger Friends and also to my CraftJunkieToo Guest - Welcome to my Blog! 

Today our fearless leader Tracy (http://craftjunkietoo.blogspot.com/) has asked her design team to post "My Favorite Things".   She requested we show five (or more) of our favorite things we use when crafting.  WOW... HOW AWESOME is this challenge going to be!  Let's not waste any time.....Let's get this challenge started:

First up, and without a doubt - my three "GO TO" crafting tools that I use for every single card/project I make are: 1) My Paper Snips which have a precision-ground tip which allows me to cut my cardstock to the end of the blade (which other scissors just can't do).  2) My snail adhesive - which is my GO-TO double-sided permanent adhesive that I just can't live without......AND....3) My bone folder - which helps me to score my paper and make seriously tight/crisp folds.

I can't even begin to start  papercrafting without my number two crafting tool an that is my 12" paper trimmer.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Fiskar trimmer - it features solid black grid lines that allow me to measure and cut widths up to 15-1/2" and as detailed as 1/16th of an inch.  I can also opt to pop in my black score blade which allows me to score my cards or project too.

My third MUST HAVE are my Sketch Books that I've created for both Scrapbooking and Cardmaking.  I have (and continue to) gather sketches that appear in publications and on the internet as resources for layouts and recipes to help me create my cards and scrapbook pages.

When I struggling for a card layout - the first place I go is my CardMaking Sketche Book and I can basically flip to any page and I have a layout that I can custom design to whatever my spirit is feeling on that day.

My fourth MUST HAVE are those sassy little Stampin' Dimensionals that are double-sided foam adhesive which add both depth and dimension to my projects.  I seriously LOVE Stampin' Dimensionals and probably use them on ever card I create.

My number five MUST HAVE is my Big Shot.  I swear...if there is ever a fire in my house....you will see me running out of my house with my Big Shot tucked under my arm.  I LOVE this DieCut machine.

I think what I love the most about the Big Shot.......It Does It ALL.  It helps me create fabulous shapes - It allows me to emboss and I can even use as a letterpress machine.  It's my GO TO DieCuting Machine!

The number Six spot (and YES.....I did go over the five items which Tracy requested).....is held for my Stamp-a-ma-jig.  Once you try this little tool - You will be HOOKED!  It is used as a stamp positioner that allows you precise stamp alignment every single time.  I urge you to ask your Stampin' UP! demonstrator to show you how this little puppy works - It is one of those tools that you have to see to understand.

Though it's at spot Seven - I have to say that my ribbon drawer(s) are probably my favorite part of my studio design.  When I had my studio designed I asked my designer to give me a fun little way to store my ribbons and he did not fail me.  He designed two drawers (one on each side of my upper cabinets between my window) and each of these drawers slide out to reveal a ribbon drawer that has been designed with seven dowels that store all my ribbon (well.....almost all of it - I must admit - I have serious Ribbon Issues!).

I keep my ribbon grouped into sizes and that way if I'm looking for a particular ribbon width - I just run through that section and start pulling off the amount of ribbon I need for that particular project and I'm good to go! I even have a pair (okay I do have two pairs) of the Stampin' UP! Craft Scissors tucked inside this cabinet - These scissors are the highest quality scissors that cut my ribbon like butter.

And my final favorite thing I use when papercrafting has to be my Stampin' UP! tool kit.  It's a retired tool kit that Stampin' UP! offered a couple years ago.  It basically holds every tool I might need when papercrafting in a zipper case and is perfect when heading out to crops to just toss into my bag and that way I'm ready for any papercrafting project need.

Here's a close-up of a few of the tools that are tucked inside this fun little zipper case.  

SO....that's it for my favorite things to use when papercrafting.  I hope you enjoyed the stop and maybe picked up a few ideas to help make your papercrafting be more productive and fun. 

If you are interested in checking out what the rest of the CraftJunkieToo Design Team members posted - head on over to Tracy's blog at http://craftjunkietoo.blogspotlcom/.  I just know they are going to blow you away with their amazing posts.

I'll be back tomorrow to share some more Kards by Kadie creations......Keep Living Your Dream!

Kadie's FU Project Card

It's Tuesday my Blogger Friends and I seriously can't believe I've already been in Madison for a week.  How true is the statement...Time Flies When Your Having A Good (or is that GREAT) Time!  My heart is seriously so full of joy being with my grandkids.......I am having soooo much fun with them (and with my daughters too).  

Todays card is the card I brought over to Kris house on the 19th to have her create for our FU swap card.  You might remember this little number from a post I did for my SouthWest Stampers swap card.  I seriously was running out of time to prepare for our vacation and I didn't want to not bring a card for Kris to make - so I pulled out all the pieces to have Kris create this fun little number.

 I had Kris run the front of the Whisper White card base through the Big Shot using the Perfect Poka Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder from Stampin' UP!

 The stamp set we used for our tree image comes from the fun little stamp set "Trendy Trees" (LOVE this stamp set).

We also used the new Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer punch to create our flower and to spice up the center of our flower we used the Sweet Buttons Embosslits Die from Stampin' UP!  With the help of some Island Indigo cardstock and some White Bakers Twine - the embosslits die helped to simultaneously cut and emboss our Island Indigo cardstock and created the perfect center for our  Blossom Bouquet flower.  Don't you just love it when you can add lots of WOW to your cards without creating lots of thickness....LOVE IT!

I'm off to meet up with our Financial Advisor.....Mark is without a doubt the only one that can give me my investment issue without loosing me along the way with the all the investment lingo that I SO DON'T UNDERSTAND.  Know the market has not been looking good over the last several weeks - but ....I'm in it for the long haul and all I can do is hold tight and trust that Mark has my best interest at heart and is making good investment decision (hence the reason for our meeting today).

I'll be back tomorrow to share a FUN little CraftJunkieToo Designer Challenge.  Tracy asked her design team to share "My Favorite Things" and we will all be sharing our top five favorite things we use when crafting/designing.  Can't wait to share that post with you - Hope you can come back and join me.  Keep Living Your Dream!

Kris FU Project Card

Happy Monday my Blogger Friends and today I want to share a quick little card that my friend Kris Holmes helped me to make at our FU (Fabulously Unique) gathering in August.  I need to tell you that this card is SO MUCH MORE PRETTY in person - seems like no matter what I did.....the real beauty of this card just couldn't be captured on film.

Here is the card Kris had me create.....

She used her Cricut to make this quick tag and all we neded to do was stamp a "thanks so much" message onto the lower right corner of our tag.....and then with the help of a retired Stampin' UP! flower set - we stamped flowers around the tag and inked them up with two different colors from Stampin' UP!

We also added a beautiful ribbon to the edge of our tag and secured it down with a mini glue dot.

Kris used a DCWV stack for the paper on our card - and I have to say that I love love love everything about this card.  This recipe will end up being one of those recipes that I use often.  It's a CLEAN - and SIMPLE card that hold a whole lot of WOW FACTOR to it.  Thank You Kris for sharing this creation with me.  I feel blessed to have you as a stampin buddie. 

Hope you can join me tomorrow for my FU August Swap card.  Keep Living Your Dream!

Mini Milk Carton Holder

Happy Sunday my Blogger Friends and today we are heading off to Little-America to treat the kids to a fun day at the amusement park.  It's a fun little amusement park that is designed specifically for little ones.  Typically there aren't a lot of long lines and the kids get their dose of THRILLS and SPILLS and the adults can either ride along with them or (in my case) stand outside the ropes and take LOTS of pictures.

For todays post, I want to share the quick little Mini Milk Carton Holder that I had Kris make when we met for our FU (Fabulously Unique) gathering.  Here is the Mini Milk Carton Holder that Kris made......

This little creation was made with two of the Mini Milk Carton Holders that are from the Stampin' UP! Big Shot die.............

We also made a container to hold our two milk carton. 

The base of our holder is a 4-1/4" x 6" piece of Chocolate Chip Cardstock and it is scored at 1-1/4" on all four sides.  The handle is made with a 1-3/4" x 11" piece of Chocolate Chip Cardstock and it is scored at 1-1/34", 5-1/2" and 9-1/4".  For the handle you fold your cardstock at the 5-1/2 score line and punch a small oval through all thicknesses and assemble. You then position that piece into your base and you've created a fun little handle that fits two mini milk carton containers into the base container that you've created with the 4-1/4"x6" piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock.

I stamped my "Just Because" sentiment on a piece of Whisper White and punched that out using the (retired) small oval punch and then layered it onto a small oval piece of Chocolate Chip and layered that piece onto a crumb cake scallop circle piece.

I also added some Victoria lace trim to the top of my handle and two chocolate chip clips to the tops of my Mini Milk Carton to give it that little something something it was needing.  Over all - I think this project turned out GREAT! 

I'll be back tomorrow to share the card Kris had me make at our FU Swap gathering in August.....Keep Living Your Dream!

Pop-Up Little Witch

Hi Blogger Friends and today is Saturday and I'm going to spend the day with my girlfriends out at Archiver's.  We have reserved a couple tables and will be connecting this morning and going strong until midnight......we seriously know how to PLAY.  So let me get started with a fun little project that my friend Kris Holmes taught me right before I headed back to Wisconsin.....

This little witch is made from a fun little company (Some Assembly Required) that sells a fabulous book that has a basic "pear" template on the inside and walks you through all the steps necessary to create MANY FUN 3-D figures.  Kris picked out this Witch creation and let me tell you.....This project was AMAZING!

Kris was kind enough to have all the green pieces for our witch all cut and ready for assembly.  The base of the witches head was an interlocking green pear piece and after I got the interlocking pieces all assemblied - I added the eyes and nose and added the purple hair to each side ofr the face and topped the head off with a fun little witches black hat.......and....called this one donel

Here's a view of my witch as I am looking above her....and as you can see.....all the pieces of green cardstock that Kris pre-cut for me linked together to form the base (head) of my project.

The hardest part of this project is getting the first couple of interlockind pieces to stay together and then once they grab hold - the rest of the pieces go together quick and easy.

The hair is just added onto the base pear piece and with a little wiggle and fine-tuning the whole witch comes together in snap.

There's just something ADORABLE about this face that makes me SMILE.......BIG!

And.....Who could resist those fabulous eye?

Thanks for stopping by today - I'll be back tomorrow to share the fun little Mini Milk Carton Treat Holder that I had Kris make last Friday at our FU August gathering....Hope you can join me.

Keep Living Your Dream!

Card from Kris

It's Friday my Blogger Friends and today I want to share the card I received from my friend Kris Holmes.  Kris made this card for our FU (Fabulously Unique) stamping group to meet our August card swap challenge.  Our color challenge was Blue and Brown.......and our technique challenge was to use our cuddlebug.  Kris hit this one out of the park......

Kris used the Stampin' UP! Owl punch along with some oval nestabilities and she created this darling little owl card that just screams FUN!

Kris also used the Tim Holtz embossing folder and this folder seriously looks like the side of a tree trunk - and without a doubt was PERFECT for this card creation.

And here's the darling little owl that Kris put on the inside of her card........

And she even punched out the hole on the front of her card so the owl would be peeking through the front of the card.

And I leave you with this little owl seriously peeking out from the inside of the card Kris created.  Fabulous Job Kris!

Hope you can join me tomorrow for more Kards by Kadie creations - Keep Living Your Dream!

Jan's sweetest card ever......

Hi My Blogger Friends and HAPPY Thursday to you!  Today I want to share a sweet little card that my BFF sent to me last week.  Check this little number out.......

Jan sent this card to me last week and I just knew when I opened it up it was from a PaperTrey Ink set.

I have to say that this card is SO MUCH prettier in person.......The strawberry is so pretty and Jan popped it up with dimensionals and the shadow that it created helped to make this little strawberry come to life - BIG TIME!

Jan did an amazing job of matching colors and creating an adorable card for me.....Thank You Jan!

I'm off to meet up with my daughters this morning - we are meeting up at Starbucks (my favorite place to go hang out when I travel) and the girls are taking some time off to bond with their mom - so can only image how much fun we are going to have.  Hope you can join me tomorrow for more Kards by Kadie creations - thanks for stopping in today and Keep Living Your Dreams!

Kadie's Crafternooner Swap Card

Happy Wednesday my Blogger Friends and I landed in HEAVEN last night and immediately checked in with my little people.  It was too late to make it to their house (my daughters are totally GREAT MOM's when it comes to bedtime)......So we made plans to head over to their house this morning and get my LONG OVER DOSE of Grandkids Squeeze in. YAHOO!

So my quick share today is my August FU swap card that I made (look familiar Jan?) for Kris, Debbie and Ann.

I got the idea for my card from my BFF on her card that she shared with our Crafternooner group a couple months ago.  I used my Textured Impressions Embossing Folder on the Pacific Point center piece.

The flowers are a combination of punched scallop circles and then some retired SU Pretties Flowers (dyed to match our challenge colors of Brown and Blue).   I used my Little Leaves Sizzlits Die to create the leaves that I tucked behind my flowers.

And this stamp set is a set from Paper Smooches that is inked up in Pacific Point ink.

I also added a little bit of Stickles to the tips of my die cut leaves....It gave this card that little something something it was needing.

Thanks for stopping in today - I'm off to get my grandkids and we are going to head back to the hotel and spend the day in the pool and playing (and of course catching up).  My daughter will swing by the hotel when she gets off work and pick the kids up - and we are meeting up with Roger and Donna for dinner tonight.  BUSY BUSY BUSY!  Keep Living Your Dream!

Jan's Crafternooner Swap Card

Happy Tuesday my Blogger Friends and today I am OUT OF HERE to head back to Wisconsin for some SERIOUS RandR with my daughters and little people......I about can't stand it - I'm so excited!  I plan to get a serious dose of my grandkids in the next three weeks - Hopefully, I won't forget to post on my blog (I MAKE NO PROMISES).  But for today - I have a special little number from my BFF......

This card was made for my Crafternooners August swap card by Jan.  Our color challenge was Green, Turquoise and Blue.......and Jan nailed that part of the challenge. We also had the optional theme of flowers and Jan got those added to her card too.

Check out the pearls that Jan added to her card - is this not just BEAUTIFUL!

And her flowers are just stunning!  I love how Jan has glittered up the blue flowers and the sparkly look is just so lovely.

And there I LOVE everything there is to love about this little girl.  TOO STINKIN CUTE!

And without fail.....Jan put the finishing touches on the inside of her card.  Truly a card that will be stashed away in my FOREVER basket.  This one is just too pretty to ever give away.

I leave you with one final look at Jan's completed card.  THANKS JAN!

I'm off to Wisconsin and should be ready to post something quick tomorrow morning.  I have plans to go pick up my grandkids in the morning and bringing them back to the hotel and having a swim-day.  We will also hit Noodles for lunch and when my daughter gets off work - she'll swing by and pick them up.  Can only image how much FUN we are going to have in the pool all day.  Keep Living Your Dream!