Chocolate Ribbon Cupcake & Cupcake Birthday Card

Hey Guys! Got a couple more projects to share with you today. I actually made these a few weeks back but haven't had a chance to post on my blog. Still playing catch up, as you can see.
A dear friend of mine celebrated her birthday recently by hosting a super fun challenge on Youtube. She asked everyone to make her a cupcake or anything depicting sweets. I guess we know what she's craving. She is 8 months pregnant after all, lol. I had never made a cupcake before ( well not one made out of paper) so I jumped at the challenge. And believe me it was! I don't understand how something as easy as making a cupcake liner could be so hard. But it was for me! I was having such a hard time getting the liner to adhere to my cup base. Too much of a perfectionist I guess. So after 3 botched tries, here's what I came up with.

 

Chocolate Ribbon Cupcake

 

I used a paper cup as my base for the cupcake. I cut it to stand 2 inches tall and adhered the scored liner to it with hot glue. The cupcake liner is 2 strips of paper, scored at 1/4 and glued end to end. I added a bit of lace and some pearls at the bottoms because I didn't want it to look to plain and I placed my cupcake on top of a die cut doily. I just love the way the brown satin ribbon looks like real chocolate. Almost good enough to eat huh? A few pearl " sprinkles" and a "cherry" on top finish off my sweet cupcake.

 

 

 

Cupcake Birthday Card

 

Inspired by my chocolate cupcake, I decided to create a coordinating card. I used the leftover scored strip from my cupcake and punched one edge with my MS punch. The top of the cupcake was created with a bunch of little punched out flowers using brown cardstock. I then added small pearls as sprinkles and topped it off with a pink flower sprinkled with diamond dust. I love the cute sentiment too! It's a Stampendous stamp I picked up at Michael's. It was just perfect for my card.

 

 

 

 Here's another view of the card. You can see I finished the inside as well. I kept it pretty simple so I can have lots of room for my message.

 

 

And here are my 2 cupcake projects side by side. I think they turned out real " sweet" and I hope you like them as well. My friend got a kick out of them and that always puts a smile on my face.

 

Until next time, my friends. Take care and I'll see you all real soon!

 



Kaisercraft Altered Dressform & Shabby Chic Card

Hello there friends! I'm back to share some new projects I created for a dear friend. She recently celebrated her birthday and is also in the process of redecorating her craft space. So I thought it would be perfect to create a décor piece that will fit right in with her new décor.

Ta-da! My Shabby Chic dressform!

 

I've had the Kaisercraft dressform for a while now and it was just begging to be altered. I gave it two coats of warm white paint and I sanded all the edges to give it a worn look. I used the "On this Day" paper collection, also by Kaisercraft, to create the pretty little corset.

 

 

I created the skirt out of pieces of gathered tulle. I only had white tulle so I colored it using Heidi Swapp's Color Shine spray in Blush. It is the perfect shade of pink and complimented the papers so well.

 

 

Here's a close up of the corset. Omg, those eyelets were a pain in the butt to set but I'm so glad I took the time to do it. They're the perfect touch!  I had to color that ribbon as well since I didn't have it in the right color. I just used a combination of Lindy's Stam Gang Sprays to get the right color. And just look at all those little rhinestones! Now that took some patience,lol. They are so tiny and I had to use a dab of glossy accents to adhere them on. It's all in the details!

 

 

I even finished the back.

 

 

 I kept the base pretty simple. Just added some dyed flowers, some pieces of bling flourish and cute little punched out butterflies. Pretty cute huh?

 

 

Now, you can't give a gift without a pretty card right? And as always, I like to coordinate my card to the project I've created. The card measure 5 1/2 x 51/2 and has several layers. The wooden piece in the center is from Michael's and I left it bare, since I really like the look of the wood. The colored flowers were dyed using color sprays I had on hand.

 

 

 Here's just another look at the card. You can see I finished the inside as well.

 

 

Here are the two projects together. I just love how they coordinate.

 

Well, that's all for today. I really hope you liked my projects. I had so much fun creating these for my friend. She smiled so big when she opened her package and that in itself is the greatest gift. Hope you all have a wonderful week and I'll see you all real soon!

 



12 Tags of 2014, April

Hey everybody! I feel like it's been a while since my last post. I've been doing a lot of crafting and I do have some new projects to share with you, but just haven't found the time to sit down and post. Work and family keep me pretty busy if you know what I mean. So here I am, trying to catch up...
I did manage to find the time to create my April tag with time to spare before the deadline. Tim did a beautiful job with this new tag. It's a little softer than the usual but oh, so pretty! And perfect for Spring.

My take on the April Tag

 



 

 I usually work with what I have on hand since I don't always have all the supplies Tim uses. But, I couldn't help myself and I ordered the new Frameworks Trellis die. It's what makes the tag special. How could I not have it, hehe. I'm so glad I did ,so many possibilities with this die.

 

 

I followed all of Tim's steps but used different color inks and paint for my background and on the trellis die cut. If you look closely at the die cut inserts, you can see where I used Tim's Seasonal Paper. I just had to incorporate those cute Easter bunnies into my tag.

 

 

This was my first time using my Tattered Pinecone die, can you believe it. I've had it forever and haven't touched it! That's what I like about making these tags every month. It gives me an opportunity to use some of the older things I have in my stash. I really like how my roses turned out but I felt the little cluster needed something more, you know. So added bits from an Easter pick and just tucked them here and there among the flowers. Perfect for Easter!

 

I had so much fun creating this tag and can't wait to play again next month. If you haven't participated, you should really consider joining in. You won't be disappointed.

 

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and I'll see y'all real soon!



DiscountPaperCrafts April Card Kit

Happy Tuesday everyone!
I'm looking outside my window right now and boy, is it gorgeous outside! Makes me wonder what I'm doing inside typing on this computer,lol. I literally can hear birds chirping and everything looks so green outside. The trees have gotten all their leaves and my roses are starting to bloom. I can't wait to see in them fully bloomed, in all their glory. I just know they're going to be gorgeous!
You know what else is gorgeous? The April Card Kit from DiscountPaperCrafts, of course! Cathie put together another beautiful kit and Kaylah and I had so much fun working with it. The kit features Kaisercraft's Telegraph Road paper pad and the coordinating collectables. The collectables make it so easy to put together fabulous cards and tags. You also get flowers, trims, Cheery Lynn doily die cuts and even the cardstock! It truly is a complete kit all on its own. We barely had to reach for our stash to complete our projects. Let me show what we created.

 

Just look at everything we made with the kit: 3 cards, 1 tag, and 2 favor boxes. And there's still plenty more paper left to create more!

 

 

 

These are the two favor boxes we created. I love the size of them and they are so simple to make. A few die cut pieces on top is all the embellishment they needed, since the paper is so pretty.

 

 

We filled our boxes with shredded tissue, added some mini cupcake liners and filled them with sea salt caramels. But, you can fill them with whatever you like. I think these make for a cute little gift.

 

 

Here's the first of our cards. It measure 5 1/2 x 5 1/2. We layered several pieces of pattern paper and used lots of die cuts from the coordinating Collectables pack. I love how the Cheery Lynn doily accents the sweet sentiment die cut. Some pretty flowers and die cut leaves add a cute touch.

 

 

This card turned out so pretty too. I love the pops of red and the sweet little bird die cut.

 

 

 Our last card was the easiest to make. We didn't want to cover up that cute cluster with the bird and vintage phone. So we fussy cut it out from a second piece of pattern paper and used foam tape and adhered it to the card to give it a 3D look. I created a few little banner pieces using some scraps and added a border strip on top. I just knew I was going to use that sentiment for this card because of the phone. So cute!

 

 

Last, but not least is our tag. We created the tag out of some leftover cardstock and covered both the front and back with pattern papers. Kaylah really wanted to use the other Cheery Lynn doily and so we cut it in half and placed it on the left of the tag. Then we added some flowers and die cut leaves to create a little cluster. Some more die cut Collectables and pearl string complete the look of the tag.

 

We hope you like what we've done with Cathie's wonderful kit and we really encourage you to get your hands on one. Cathie always puts together the best kits and this one is just jammed packed with goodies. You really don't need much else to create beautiful projects. You can purchase your kit here:

 https://www.etsy.com/listing/181746580/april-cardproject-kit-featuring?ref=shop_home_feat_1

 

Thank you so much for stopping by and we hope to see you real soon!

 



Prima Lyric Shabby Chic Projects

Happy Sunday everyone! I'm in such a great mood today because we finally get to see the sun! It's been raining for days without even a glimpse of sunshine.  I probably shouldn't complain too much since I know some of you are still seeing snow, but I'm just so tired of the gloom. Well, at least the rain kept me from going out and I've been pretty busy crafting and catching up on my to do lists. I have a few sweet friends who recently celebrated birthdays and I've been trying to finish their gifts so I can send them off. But as soon as I finish gifts for one, another has a birthday coming up! So I'm never on time sending my gifts, but better late than never, I always say.

My friend is such a talented crafter and she inspires me so much with her beautiful shabby chic projects. She's got shabby chic down to a "T" so I thought I'd give it a go and create something shabby just for her. So here goes....

I made a cute little easel card using Tim Holtz's Baroque Dies and the Prima Lyric collection, one of my faves. The flowers are all from my stash and were dabbed with glue and sprinkled with Diamond Dust. Once the glue dried I sponged some Snow-Tex on the tops of the flowers. This creates a beautiful shabby look and adds texture to the flowers as well.

 

I just love creating my own crinkled seam binding bows. I topped this one off with a ribbon buckle and flat back pearl.

I also altered a TP roll. I've never made one before and I think this is such a clever way to present a little gift. I'm going to add some metal charms inside an organza bag and tuck it inside the roll. So cute!

Love the way this chipboard wall hanging turned out! I had picked up the chipboard die cut at a scrapbook expo and now I'm kicking myself for not having bought more. Don't you just hate that?
The whole thing is covered with pattern paper and I fussy cut images from the collection and used them as embellishments.

 

 I often call my friend the "Shabby Chic Queen" so I thought this would be cute to add to the wall hanging. I love the font and glitter on these Recollections Alpha stickers.

 

Last, but not least, I altered a wooden box from Michael's. I whitewashed the inside of the box and adhered all my papers down with Mod Podge. I then used a Heidi Swapp stencil and some color sprays and a second stencil and modeling paste to create layers. Some lace, flowers and fussy cut elements round out the look of the box.

 

 The mesh screen on top of the box is the reason I bought it. It reminds me of a bug catcher box, but looks like all my butterflies got loose, lol.

 

 Here's the back view of the box. The hardware was alcohol inked with silver and then sponged with Snow-Tex to coordinate better with the papers and look of the box.

 

Side Views of the box....

 

 

Inside view of box...

 

                                     


Well, that's all folks! Hope you like my projects and please come back to visit real soon!

12 Tags of 2014, March

Hi guys, welcome back!

 So at the beginning of 2014, I told myself that I was going to start participating in Tim Holtz's  monthly tags. I had every intention of following thru on that promise,( I really did)  but life sometimes gets in the way. Needless to say, I missed out on the January and February tags but wasn't going to let March get away from me. And I'm so glad I took the time to create my tag(s) because they turned out awesome! If you aren't participating already, you really should consider getting started. It's never too late and I just love all the tips and techniques that Tim teaches us each month.Well, enough rambling...check out my take on the March Tag of 2014.

 

 I didn't have many of the products that Tim used for his tag, so I had to improvise. But, to be honest, that's actually the best part, because you end up with a  really unique tag. I used Steampunk CMS107 stamp set for the main images and a couple of random stamps from my stash.

This month's technique was smudging. You stamp your inked image onto one tag first, and then without re-inking, stamp again on a second tag. Then you immediate smudge the images using your  ink blending tool. You can see the smudging much better in the close up above. Pretty cool, huh? I used a stencil from Heidi Swapp and Lindy's Stamp Gang color spray in Tiffany Blue, concentrating on the upper right hand corner.

I  applied turquoise paint onto the word band and then rubbed it off with my finger. This step really helps to bring out the words in the band.. The jute string was stained with Peeled Paint Distress ink and I dabbed more of the turquoise paint on the edges of the tag. And viola... two really cool Steampunk inspired tags!

I had so much fun creating these tags that I couldn't stop there and thought I'd catch up on the two I missed.

Here's my take on the January tag:

 

It's almost identical to Tim's tag because I practically had every product he used. Of course, I changed it up a bit to make it my own. The chit chat stickers reflect what's important to me and the "R" on the charm further emphasizes that notion.. It's my family name!

 

My take on the February tag:

 

Again, I had to work with what I had on hand, but I just love the way it turned out! The arrow and scalloped edge were created using foil tape over cardstock. I then applied black gesso over the die cut pieces and rubbed some off with my finger to create a grungy look. I did the same thing on the wings except  they were die cut out of grungeboard. I used a toothpick to create the "feathers" and then added the black gesso to accent the wings. LOVE it!!!

 

Well, that's it for today's post. I really hope you like my tags and you really should consider joining in the fun each month. You not only get to  create an awesome tag but you may also win a prize if you upload your tag to Tim's blog. I'm on my way to do that now!

 

Have a wonderful week everybody! I'll see you all real soon.

Graphic 45 Design Team 2014 Audition

Hi everybody!
Well, here I go...I mustered enough courage to audition for Graphic 45's design team! And let me tell you, there were plenty of sleepless nights just thinking about it, LOL. It's no secret that I am in love with anything Graphic 45 and it would be a dream come true to land a spot on their amazing DT. So wish me luck!

First off, is my latest project using the Sweet Sentiments collection. I wanted to create an Easter centerpiece for my buffet. So, I found an old clay pot in my garage and I covered it with embossed strips of paper. I then created a pretty little field of flowers on top featuring the sweet little girls in their Sunday best. The Easter tree was created using some branches I found in my yard and I created 3D eggs using Spellbinders Ovals die and pattern paper. Lots of fussy cut details were added to make this sweet scene come to life.

 

 

 







I even created a cute little nest and made some little eggs out of clay. Details, details, details...

Up next, is my favorite Halloween piece using Steampunk Spells. I had such a blast creating this printers tray. I covered the entire tray with a sand and acrylic paint mixture to create this awesome texture. Then I dabbed some white paint in random spots to make it look like it was charred. I think it turned out awesome!

I'm always looking for unique items to recycle into art. This next piece was created out of a plastic case that came with my ipod. The shape was similar to an Altoids tin and I knew it would be perfect for my Once Upon a Springtime fairy scene.

Here's my Jules Verne's " 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" inspired canvas incorporating some Steampunk Debutante. I created the background with torn book pages, tulle, gesso, modeling paste, paint and color sprays. The cutout represents the submarine window looking out into the depths of the sea. There's even a light inside and when lit you can see the fish swimming by. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

Secret Garden is such a gorgeous collection. So here are two projects showcasing the beautiful papers. First up, is my vintage display cabinet.

And here's a sweet banner pennant card.

I know we only have to show 6 projects but it's so hard to pick out favorites when I love them all!

Couture Purse and Fan:



Ok, ok, last one I promise,

Well, that's it guys! Sorry it was a long post but I'm a sucker for details and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. Now, to wait patiently ( yeah right). I probably won't sleep for days!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I'll see you all real soon!