Cupcake Themed Projects for Sweet Thang Swap

Good morning crafty friends! Today, I want to share a few projects I created for a recent swap I participated in. The swap was hosted by Traci, the owner of Art Attack Supplies over on Facebook and it was a sweets themed swap. I chose cupcakes as my theme and we were to create a bottle cap charm, a card, an altered journal and an additional handmade goody of our choice.We also had to make sure our projects were all packaged up in a pretty fashion.

Here's the bottle cap charm that I created. I purchased the cupcake images on etsy, punched one out and covered it with an epoxy sticker. I added glass beads and cute metal charms to dangle from the chain. For the packaging, I used my Spellbinders Curvy Rectangles die and cut out a thin piece of chipboard and covered it with a piece of pretty pattern paper.I used thin wire to keep my bottle cap charm in place.

I embossed a small glassine bag, and placed the bottle cap charm inside. Then I added a paper doily and a cute tag I created using Spellbinders dies, Avery Elle's cupcake stamp set and coordinating die, and a wood clothespin.

Next up is the Cupcake card! I used some pretty pattern papers from my stash, tulle and a pretty doily to create layers for my card. The large cupcake was die cut from an older Sizzix die called Cupcake and Cherry. I did some stitching on the cupcake liner, created a seam binding bow and a little tag stamped hello. I think it turned out so cute! 

I created a coordinating card box to package the card. The box is made out of white card stock and then covered with pattern paper. I made a cute paper rosette and topped it off with a bottle cap and sweet cupcake image. The rosette is adhered to a white satin ribbon belly band.

And here's the altered journal. I found the journal at my local craft store, covered it with layers of card stock and pattern papers. Then I added a bit of lace and another paper doily. I found the vintage cupcake image online and thought it went perfectly with the papers.

The pretty roses are from my stash and are covered with Diamond Dust for that "sugared" look. Then I added the Spellbinders die cut leaves to my flower clusters for a fuller look. I added a laser cut word at the bottom to complete the sweets theme.

I kept the packaging simple by wrapping the journal in tissue paper and ribbon. Then I topped it off with a burlap rose and vintage tag.

For my homemade goody of choice, I chose to make a cupcake shaped soap. It was my first time making soap and it was actually a lot of fun! I forgot to take pictures of the cupcake soap but you can see a little bit of it here, inside the oven box I packaged it in.

I found the oven box template here.(Thank you so much Marzi for the tutorial and template). I covered the box panels with paper as I was putting it together. Then I inked all my edges lightly with Vintage Photo Distress ink. I used metal brads for the "knobs", printed a tiny clock face and adhered it to the top. The burners are small circular paper clips I picked up at my local craft store.I also made a little oven mitt and hung it from a hook on the side of the oven box.

I added a strip of decorative card stock and braided trim on the sides of the oven box to pretty it up some more.Then I created a seam binding bow and topped it off with a tiny cupcake cut out.

I had a lot of fun creating all these projects and I sure hope my swap partner likes them!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

I'll be seeing you real soon.

"Mr. Skeleton in his Parlor" Halloween Shadowbox

Hello crafty friends! About two weeks ago, I walked into my local craft store to purchase some ribbon ( like I don't have enough, already) and witnessed the employees stocking the shelves with, with.. .(wait for it)....Halloween merchandise!!! Yes, you read that right! I literally let out a little shriek when I saw this beautiful sight. In case, you haven't guessed it yet, I really, really LOVE Halloween!
Halloween is  such a fun time of year for me and brings me  back to my childhood. Growing up, I was that shy little kid who wasn't afraid of creepy crawlies and made up games about monsters and ghouls . I loved a good scare( although nothing ever scared me) and I favored dark colored clothes over bright and cheery colors. I would often wear my hair in braids like my idol Wednesday Addams.Sure, people made fun of me but I loved that I was different. Fast forward 30 years later and my love for Halloween hasn't wavered one bit. My taste in clothes and color schemes sure has, and you couldn't pay me to pick up a spider or worm. But every Halloween season, that little girl gets to come back and live on in the spooky crafts and decor that now, bring a smile to my little girl's face. So for my first Halloween project of the 2015 season, I bring you "Mr. Skeleton in his Parlor"...

*WARNING, lots of pictures*

This is a GDT for Sacrafter's shop. I used her House Shadowbox #2 as well as her wood street light pieces to create this spooktacular shadowbox scene.

 I wanted a "shingled" roof so I cut small pieces of pattern paper, inked the edges with Black Soot and adhered them to both sides of the roof.

 I used Tim Holtz's Brick embossing folder on black card stock for the sides of the house. After embossing the paper I rubbed a metallic gunmetal paint on top to pick up the details of the bricks.

I made a little window out of pattern paper and the Movers and Shapers Openings dies.

I added little "rose bushes" on each side of the house. Love the way that gunmetal paint looks on the brick embossed papers.

For the floor, I used the  TH  Wood Grain embossing folder and created "planks" with my MS scoring board. Can you see Mr. Skeleton's scaredy cat by his side?

I love this cute little wreath! It's one of Tim's and I colored it with LSG in Passionate Plum, then sprayed it with adhesive before sprinkling with purple glitter. Then, I added the little orange stickers and the skull and crossbones Idea-ology piece.

The moon is made out of chipboard and colored with orange and yellow acrylic paint. I, then die cut the bats with the Movers and Shapers die and black, flocked paper.They're popped up on foam squares for dimension.

This is the back of the house and you can really see the details in the brick embossed paper.

Here's a closer look at the inside of the shadowbox. You can see Mr. Skeleton reading his newspaper in the comfort of his parlor. The frame in the background was fussy cut from the patterned paper then I stamped and embossed the skull image in the center. I found the little wooden chair, book and lamp in the miniature section of my local craft store. The small side table is actually a wooden spool, painted black and distressed with sandpaper.

Love how Mr. Skeleton is crossing his legs!

Phew, that was a lot of pictures but there were so many cute details I just didn't want you to miss. This piece was so fun to create and it's both creepy and fun. My daughter got a kick out of it and can't wait for me to create more Halloween pieces. Neither can I, bwahahaha!

Hope you liked my little project and thank you so much for stopping by.

I'll be seeing you...(insert maniacal laugh here).

"Confetti" Birthday Card

Hi guys! Today is my youngest daughter's 10 birthday!!! I cannot believe how fast time has gone by. I mean, I can still vividly remember the moment she was placed in my arms for the first time. How she looked up at me with those big brown eyes and melted my heart.Now, here we are ten years later and she still has that affect on me. So, I've got a fun filled day planned for her and she's going to empty my wallet, because I just can't say "no" to her ( and she knows it).But, hey, you only turn 10 once, right? Before we head off , I wanted to share the cute birthday card I created for her.

Isn't it cute? I used Maggie Holmes' Confetti collection for my card. I think the bright colors and patterns are so fun and fit the mood of the card perfectly!

I fussy cut images from the paper pad and used a few ephemera pieces from the collection for a layered look. The cute cake is one of the chipboard pieces from the collection as well.

 I die cut the little banner out of gold foil paper and then die cut the individual pennants with scraps from the collection. It looks so cute and adds a festive touch.

Lastly , I added a few gold sequins for a touch of sparkle.

I do hope my baby likes her card and now, I'm off to celebrate her birthday!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!!!

"Rustic Harmony" Altered Cupboard

Hey crafty friends! Man, it's been a busy summer!!! I'm sure you all can relate, right? With the kids being home from school and trying to find ways to entertain them,(so they don't kill each other,lol), it's hard to find time to craft.Plus I still have to clean house, run errands and you know, do everything else.Geez the  never ending workload of a stay at home mom!!!  But... I did manage to make some time to create 2 more projects for Sacrafters shop, this month. I will share one today and the other on the next post. Today's project is a storage unit for my craft table. I needed something to store some of my smaller laces and trims, and Sacrafter's Cupboard w/ shadowbox was just perfect for the task.

Like all of Sacrafter's products, this was so easy to put together. I painted all the surfaces that were not going to be covered with paper, with a light gray acrylic paint I mixed myself.Then I adhered all my papers, buffed the edges and inked them with Tim Holtz's Pumice Stone Distress Ink. The papers I used are from Kaisercraft's Rustic Harmony collection and are just dreamy!

I didn't want to over embellish the top of the cupboard so I just added a wooden frame, a few of the coordinating die cuts, flowers and bits of lace. I threw in a few pearls here and there for good measure.

I spattered paint on the entire piece just to give it a more rustic feel. I really love the wood grain paper I used on the sides. Really looks great!

Here you can see the spools I used to hold the wooden frame up, on top. I painted them with the same light gray paint mixture and wrapped coordinating ribbon and lace around them.

The shadowbox area is perfect to store these simple lace cards. It fits quite a bit of them in there.

 The door pulls are Kaisercraft's wood flourishes with a G45 metal brad in the middle. I took the prongs off the brads, painted them with gunmetal paint and then dabbed light gray acrylic paint t the tops. Perfect little door pulls!

Behind the doors is storage space for more lace cards or spools. 

Here's the back of the unit covered with the pretty papers and splattered with bits of paint.

What a great piece! It was so much fun to alter and it looks so pretty sitting on my table. When I need to reach for some of my favorite smaller, laces all I have to do is reach across the table and there they are.

I sure hope you head on over to Sacrafters and check out her shop. If you love to create unique, off the page projects, this is your one stop shop! Don't forget you can use discount code "LIZFANS" to save 10% off your purchase of $30 or more. 

Thank you so much for stopping by today. Hope you'll come back and visit real soon!

Have a great day.

Tilda Altered Tray Embellishment Center w/ 3D Tea Cups

Happy Sunday everyone! Today, I'm coming at you with my first GDT project for Sacrafters shop, for the month of July.  Sa sent me so many awesome goodies to alter and I always get so excited when I'm asked to guest design for her shop.One of the first things I noticed, in my DT package, was a cute little serving tray. Having recently picked up Tim Holtz Tea Time die, I thought of a great way to incorporate the two into a cute embellishment center. Check it out!

This is the largest of the serving trays available in Sa's shop and was so easy to put together. I painted all the exposed parts with Bleached Sand acrylic paint by Americana and then I covered it with papers from Tilda's Tiny Treasures paper pad. I just adore this paper pad for all it's sweet images and gorgeous papers! 

All the edges were distressed with a sanding block to give it an aged look. Then I adhered a pretty floral trim all around the tray and flat back pearl trim on top of that.

I created small flower clusters on each handle side with die cuts from the paper pad and flowers from my stash.

I'm so in love with the gorgeous prints of this paper collection.

So shabby chic!

The sweet tea cups were created with Tim Holtz Tea Time die. I die cut the tea cups and saucers from the paper collection and made them 3D. If you're interested to see how I did that, go check out my mini tutorial, here.

I added a flower die cut piece to the front of each tea cup. Then I made the cute little tags and glued them to the inside of the tea cup. I filled each tea cup with shredded tissue and tiny fabric flowers. And now I have a really cute embellishment center for my craft table! I can switch out the embellishments to suit the project I'm working on and the tray serves as a pretty decor piece.

I hope you like my project and I encourage you all to check out Sacrafters shop. Her off the page products are so unique and so much fun to alter. You can use my discount code "LIZFANS" for 10% off your purchase of  $30 or more.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Hope to see you all real soon!

Have a great day.

"Oh So Lovely" Altered Photo Display Tray

Welcome back crafty friends. It's been a few weeks since I posted anything on my blog, but I got a good reason, I promise. You see, I uh...lost my mojo. I know, I know, that's crazy right? I tried and tried to sit down and create something pretty, but my mind was just  blank. Nothing was coming to me and I was just dying to create!After several days of ,well, nothing, I decided to take a break and just ride this one out. I've been stressing out a lot lately and I think that had a lot to do with me not being able to create. I knew my mojo wasn't gone forever ( or so I hoped). I think I just needed a little  "me" time with no DT projects and commitments. Sure enough, a few days ago, I was finally able to sit down and like magic, all my creative juices started flowing again! Yippee, my mojo was back! I've never been happier to get my hands all inky and create a mess in my craft space,lol. Today I'm sharing the fruits of my labor, a true labor of love.

You have no idea how happy it made me to finally craft! I had recently purchased Kaisercraft's "Oh so Lovely" paper pack and I was inspired by the beautiful mother/daughter sentiments throughout the collection. So, I decided to alter a photo tray, I had picked up at my local  craft store, and create a tribute to the special bond I have with my girls.

I wanted the tray to be bright, fun and feminine. The girls and I took silly selfies that I changed to black and white to coordinate better with the paper collection. I added bits of lace and sweet feminine touches throughout the tray.

I love the look of bare wood embellishments,that's why I left the word "Smile" as it was. The frame was die cut from chipboard and pattern paper and then I cut it in half.The sentiment in the center is from the coordinating Collectables pack by Kaisercraft.

 This is the sentiment that inspired the entire tray. I popped it onto another die cut piece and layered it over a paper doily. The birdcage was fussy cut from the collection and I also added two glass vials on the lower right hand corner. The vials are filled with tiny beads from my stash.

 Here's a silly picture of my oldest daughter and I . She has a habit of taking pictures with half her face gone,lol. I added a cute resin bicycle and lots of handmade flowers. The words are stickers that I cut up and popped up with foam tape.

I created a cute little banner to spell out "Love" and adhered it to the top of the compartment. Here's another silly picture of my little girl and I.A bit of lace and pearls round out this compartment.

For this compartment, I created a little "art journal" using Spellbinders Labels 7 dies. I created a little book and used a script stamp to stamp on the pages. I cut out the individual words from a sticker phrase.

All of the gorgeous flowers were handmade out of coffee filters. You can check out my coffee filter flower tutorial here.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Hope to see you all real soon.

Vintage Tea Themed Paper Bag Card

Welcome back to my blog! Today, I just have a quick card share I created for a challenge on Youtube. The challenge was hosted by Not2Shabby shop and required us to create a paper bag card. Having never made one before, I thought I'd participate and give it a go. Not only was so easy to make, but the card turned out great! Let me know what you think.

I went for a vintage, tea theme for my card with browns and pinks. I just love this paper collection by DCWV, appropriately called "Garden Tea Party". The paper bag I used is just a standard lunch bag size. I folded it in half and then adhered my papers. The closure for my bag is a bit of lace ribbon I had in my stash.

 

I created all the flowers from coordinating cardstock using Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms Dies. Then I dabbed them with white acrylic paint to make them more shabby. The leaves were fussy cut from the paper collection and I added pips to my flower clusters.

For the focal point of my card, I used a stamp set by Graphic 45 called Tea party. I stamped the images onto a piece of pattern paper and then fussy cut them out. I then,  adhered them to the Spellbinders circles with foam tape for dimension. The cute sentiment is from a Fiskars stamp set called Latte Love.

The inside is also decorated with the pattern paper. I created a pocket on the left hand side that's perfect for adding a gift card. The stacked tea cups and flowers were also fussy cut from the collection and adhered to the bottom right hand side. This still leaves plenty of room for me to write my message to the recipient.

 This is the back of the card, also covered with the beautiful papers.

That's it! I love the way it turned out. The paper collection and the stamps were just perfect for what I had in mind. Hope you like it too!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!