Birthday Box - Etsy Inspired Challenge #99

Wow...where did the week go?! We have been busy getting the last details and extra cleaning/purging done in preparation for putting our house on the market. We are going to go look at a possible new house tomorrow. It's such a big decision...we want everything to be so perfect but at the same time we realize that we probably can't have it all for the price we want.

I did make time to work on my Etsy Inspired project this week though! I just had to play with the adorable image I received from our sponsor this week, Bugaboo Stamps. And our featured Etsy shop, Becky Kazana, is filled with lots of fun wedding and party decor that is sure to inspire you! I loved her birthday banner and came up with this cute, eco-friendly gift box...perfect for filling with some birthday treats or small gift.



Start saving your berry and tomato containers! They can be reused in so many different ways...use them to store your own crafting goodies or decorate them as I've done here to use for gift giving.

Isn't that turtle image adorable?! And I am loving the blue, green, and purple combination in BoBunny's Peacock Lane collection.

For your chance to win some fabulous digital stamps or beautiful cards be sure to find your own inspiration from Becky Kazana's shop and then link your newly inspired creation up to the Etsy Inspired blog by Friday at noon.

And take some time to visit these lovely ladies too!

• Ashley
• De
• Emily B
• Emily N
• Heather (July Guest Designer)
• Joy
• Savannah
• Stephanie
• Virginia

Be sure to join us next week for our 100th challenge celebration!!! There will be tons of prizes to be won and of course, lots of great inspiration too! :)

Bee Mine - Etsy Inspired Challenge #98

Well it has been quite a week for me...tons of projects, a possible new home on the horizon, and lots of activities too. I am looking forward to a slightly quieter week next week. This weekend is supposed to be beautiful so hopefully I can find some time to enjoy it! :)

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge features a great little shop, EmenGee Designs, filled with fun purses, jewelry, and hair accessories. I absolutely loved this little Bumblebee mini clasp purse, which they just happen to be giving away to one lucky winner this week!

Here is my bee card:

I love these sweet little bees from Doodlebug Designs and paired with the cute blue and yellow paper/stickers from Echo Park's Sweet Summertime collection, I think this card turned out to be pretty adorable! :) The fun glitter letters are American Crafts Dear Lizzy Thickers.

This week we also have a great new sponsor, Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps and one lucky winner will receive 3 digital stamps of their choice!

If you are new to the Etsy Inspired Challenge, you can read a little bit more about the rules HERE. But it really is quite easy to play along with us. Simply visit EmenGee Designs and find an item that inspires you. Create a project of your own and link it up to the Etsy Inspired blog by Friday at noon PST. Then check back Friday evening to see if you've won one of the great prizes!

Also, the Design Team always loves your comments and they might just inspire you a little more too!

• Ashley
• De
• Emily B
• Emily N
• Heather (July Guest Designer)
• Joy
• Savannah
• Stephanie
• Virginia

And our 100th challenge is coming up in two weeks...mark your calendars because you are not going to want to miss the amazing prizes we have in store! :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Just Keep Swimming (Take 2)

So, you may remember my Just Keep Swimming card from a few days ago. Today I'm sharing an updated version. It was so incredible close to Kazan's sketch #57 over at 2 Sketches 4 You that I decided to tweek it a bit to fit the sketch and take the opportunity to make the card even better!

My 3 embellishments are on the right side instead of the left but otherwise the layout is pretty much the same.




The two little fish popped up on foam squares add extra dimension to the bottom area of the card and give it better balance I think. I'm really happy with this fun and cute encouragement card! I am also entering this card into the Moxie Fab World's Card Style Fun and Cute challenge.

Thanks for stopping by! I will be back tomorrow with another project to share!

This card was created using Cosmo Cricket's Snorkel collection and a little Bo Bunny double dot cardstock for the edge of the sun.

Elegant Wedding Card

Hello everyone! We have been busy, busy this week with tennis camp, swimming lessons, and possibly the purchase of a new home!!! We are getting ready to put in an offer next week so we'll see what happens.

I've been doing some crafting this week...lots of projects to share with you all in the next few weeks! :) Today I wanted to share a card that I created using Kazan's sketch #57 over at 2 Sketches 4 You. I am also submitting this card to the Card Style Classy and Elegant challenge in the Moxie Fab World.


I really enjoyed working with this sketch and discovered a great new use for my AC Thickers brackets/parentheses. And since each Thickers set has different shaped brackets, you can really create a lot of fun borders with them!

This card uses My Mind's Eye Lush collection, American Crafts Dear Lizzy thickers, some tulle, and Martha Stewart butterfly punch and coarse glitter.

I thought this would be a great wedding card. Here is a close up of the little tulle flower/embellishment I created.


Okay, I'm off to submit a few things now and then clean up around here...my craft space is a mess! If we get this new house I will finally have a little room to craft in!!! Have a great day!

Just Keep Swimming! - Etsy Inspired Challenge #97

It's Saturday, time for another Etsy Inspired Challenge! This week's shop is full of treasures from the beach...the perfect summer inspiration! Mermaid's Tears Jewelry has beautiful hand crafted sea glass necklaces and earrings. I love sea glass...so many lovely blues and greens. I was inspired by the water/beach feel of the shop. So, I found my Cosmo Cricket Snorkel collection and came up with this colorful encouragement card.




I created the waves and outer edge of the sun by using a small circle punch. To create the pocket I simply applied glue along the 3 straight edges and adhered it to the card. The center of the sun and the boat are popped up on foam squares for dimension.

Now for the good stuff! Our sponsor this week is Denami Design and they will be giving one lucky winner a $30 gift certificate to their shop. Mermaid's Tears Jewelry is also offering up a prize for another lucky winner. Ready to play?! Thought so! :)

- Visit Mermaid's Tears Jewelry and find an item that inspires you.
- Create a project of your own and link it up to the Etsy Inspired Blog by Friday at noon.

For more inspiration, visit our wonderful DT!

• Ashley
• De
• Emily B
• Emily N
• Heather (July Guest Designer)
• Joy
• Savannah
• Stephanie
• Virginia

Enjoy your weekend! I don't have much planned this weekend...which is sometimes a nice thing. Hopefully I will get a few more projects completed and time to rest up for our busy week coming up!

2 Sketches 4 You Challenge

Well, I have been crafting my little heart out this week and I absolutely had to make sure to create a few cards for the 2 Sketches 4 You challenge because the winner will be getting a spot on their Design Team! What a fabulous prize!

So I came up with two different cards based on Laura's Sketch #56.

First up is a fun little Valentine/Love themed card.

This pretty in pink card uses Papertrey Ink cardstock, Bo Bunny double dot paper, Doodlebug Designs chunky glitter (love this stuff!), a ticket from Teresa Collins (Crush die-cut charms), and some seam binding. I love how perfectly seam binding threads through my sewing machine so I can easily create this ruffled look. I actually did two layers to give this card extra frills. :) I also popped one of the hearts up on some foam squares for added dimension.

For my second card I went with a fresh color combination and simple sentiment.

Can you tell I'm on a bit of a glitter kick this week?! :) For this card I used some of Echo Park's Sweet Summertime collection and American Crafts Thickers. Do you ever use up all your semi-colons, periods or dots for the i's and j's? I don't...so I've been working on some creative ideas for using them up. For this card I used them to create the circle. I like how it adds focus to the sentiment.

Okay, that's it for me today but I will be back tomorrow! Have a great afternoon!

Christmas in July

Hi there! So we did actually end up going to the beach yesterday and had a great time...the tide was way out so the kids had a lot of fun exploring and playing in the sand. We saw starfish, crabs, moon snails, and even a little eel. Today we enjoyed story time at the bookstore and playing outside. And I even got a little more crafting time in too!

So this week's challenge over at The Shabby Tea Room is to create a Christmas card. Since Christmas is soooo far away still (although I know it will sneak up on us quickly) I just wasn't ready to really dive into traditional Christmas colors, Santa, or snowmen. Instead I was inspired by Bo Bunny's Peacock Lane collection to use a very different Christmas color combination and I was also inspired by the Card Style Classy and Elegant challenge in the Moxie Fab World to create this card.

I am so pleased with how this turned out! I love the rich turquoise and purple together and all the glitter really kicks this card up a notch, don't you think?!

A few design tips from this card:
- Cover your chipboard snowflake with white paint or ink and let dry before adhering glitter. This allows the glitter to really shine and prevents the kraft chipboard from showing.

- Adhere a transparency/acetate overlay by using Terrifically Tacky Tape (or other strong adhesive tape) in hidden places. I attached my snowflake overlay by using tape along the edge where I knew I would be placing my ribbon over and another piece is under the stamped sentiment.

- Look at your stamps in a whole new way! Sometimes using just part of a stamp is exactly what you need for a project. Here I emphasized the word peace with my thickers and then masked it on my stamp.

- Finally, don't be afraid to try mixing different colors...you never know what fabulous creation you might come up with!

Details:
White Cardstock and stamp - Papertrey Ink
Turquoise and Purple paper - Bo Bunny (back side of double dot paper)
Glitter Letters - American Crafts
White glitter on snowflake - Martha Stewart
Ribbon - May Arts
Snowflake Overlay - Making Memories (Mistletoe collection)
Rhinestone - Me & My Big Ideas

If you're up for creating a Christmas or classy/elegant card, there's still time to play in both The Shabby Tea Room and Moxie Fab challenges!

I'll be back tomorrow with two more cards to share!

At the Beach - an American Crafts Challenge

Happy Wednesday! We have been having a nice week so far...swimming lessons, playing outside, and a successful trip to the outlet mall. I also have been squeezing in lots of crafting time...4 layouts and a few cards so far...hoping to finish up a few more before the end of the week!

So, have you seen some of the new CHA releases?! I am loving the new American Crafts City Park...great colors, fun embellishments and some new products too like decorative tags and tape...can't wait to get my hands on some of these goodies! :) Did you know that Amercian Crafts also has a challenge every week on their blog? I made the time to play along this week and finally scrapbook a few pictures from our summer vacation last year to Cannon Beach, OR.


I love that middle picture of the boys so into building their sandcastles and roads...a trip to the beach is always a fun filled day. In fact my oldest was asking just yesterday when we can head to the beach again!

Except for the sandpaper, everything on this layout is American Crafts...from their Everyday, Backyard, and Blue Skies collections, plus pretty much no layout is complete without some thickers and ribbon! :)

Just a few tips from this layout:
- for pictures that may have something you don't care for, skip the photo editing and simply cover it up with an embellishment or some patterned paper like my middle picture above (in fact, that picture is actually of the beach and sky but I think by covering up the people/building in the background with the wave-like paper it actually now looks like a photo of the sand and ocean)

- To create waves use a circle punch along the edge of the paper varying how far in you punch to give each strip a more realistic feel. Then ink the edges to help the waves stand out (here I used SU's not quite navy). Finally adhere the waves to your paper, just along the bottom, so that you can gently fold/roll each wave up to give the page dimension.

- For the sand, I highly recommend a gritty sandpaper...it gives your page great texture and a real sand feel. You can also cut little sandcastles out of it for an extra fun embellishment!


I hope you have a wonderful day! It is looking like another beautiful day here...maybe we'll head to the beach! :)

We love soccer!!!

Did anyone watch the FIFA world cup today? We caught the last half...go Spain! Growing up I had a lot of good friends that played soccer but I myself never did. I was more into dance, the arts, and basketball. However, I married a soccer loving man and my boys have a passion for soccer as well. So while my guys were all watching the game I decided to join in the soccer fun by scrapbooking one of my favorite photos from the spring soccer season this year.

I used Bo Bunny's current Layout Challenge. I always love having a great sketch to work with!


Aren't my little soccer players adorable?! :) I'm really happy with how this layout came together. After picking out the photo I wanted to use, I dug around in my BoBunny stash and found this great striped paper left over from the Christmas collection 'Tis the Season. It had all the right colors and the coordinating sticker sheet even had the right letters left for me to spell love. Then I just grabbed some coordinating Bo Bunny double dot papers, buttons, and more letters (from the Sophie collection) to create my layout.

The white cardstock is Bazzill Basics and the soccer ball sticker is from EK Success.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend! I'll be back in a few days with another layout!

3 Wishes - Etsy Inspired Challenge #96

Hello friends! Sorry I have been a little absent from the blog lately. I have been busy working on a custom order for my Etsy shop and have been creating several layouts and cards that I can't share quite yet. Also I am just enjoying summer with my boys! But of course I made some time to create a project for this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge!

Our featured Etsy shop this week is a great little vintage shop that I discovered while browsing. Octavia & Brown is filled with wonderful vintage items for the home. Although I'm more of a clean and simple kind of gal, there's something about the charming vintage pieces in this shop that make me want to head out to flea markets and estate sales to see what goodies I can find!

I was inspired by the graphic feel and colors of the vintage numbers and letters in the shop.


These are the pieces that inspired me to use some new American Crafts goodies that I picked up last week. Isn't that number paper fun?! I wanted to highlight the number 3 so I used my Spellbinders Nestabilities to create a circle frame and added extra detail with a white gel pen. Then I used some great May Arts ribbon and American Crafts thickers to finish off the card.

To play along in the challenge simply head on over to Octavia & Brown and find an item that inspires you, create a project of your own and link it up to the Etsy Inspired blog for your chance to win! This week you could win some beautiful vintage plates from Octavia & Brown. Or a wonderful prize pack from our sponsor this week, Charleston Scrapbook Company!

Before you get started be sure to visit the rest of the Design Team!

• Ashley
• De
• Emily B
• Emily N
• Heather (July Guest Designer)
• Jackie
• Joy
• Savannah
• Stephanie
• Virginia

Enjoy your weekend! I'm off to play some tennis with my boys and my dad...should be fun!

love - Etsy Inspired Challenge #95

Today is an exciting day for the Etsy Inspired team because we have 4 fabulous new design team members and a new guest designer for the month too! I just want to personally welcome the new gals...I have already stopped by your inspiring blogs and I can't wait to see what you have created for your first week! :)

I love the shop we have for you to be inspired by this week! Kimmie Prout is filled with fun and colorful polymer clay embellishments...perfect for card making and scrapbooking!


I adored the colors and designs on these buttons and immediately pulled out my Echo Park Sweet Summertime collection to start crafting. I was also inspired by 2 Sketches 4 You current sketch challenge. Instead of squares I used hearts and I really like the end result. The letters are from American Crafts Dear Lizzy collection and the cardstock is Bazzill Basics.

If you like these buttons too then you are definitely going to want to play along in the challenge this week because Kimmie Prout will be giving one winner $15 plus free shipping for her shop. And we also have another wonderful sponsor this week, Pink Cat Studios, who will be giving one winner 5 free digi images!

Okay, now I know you are ready to play so head on over to Kimmie Prout's shop and find an item that inspires you, create a project of your own and link it up to the Etsy Inspired blog for your chance to win!

Before you get started be sure to visit the new Design Team! I know they have some amazing projects for you to be inspired by too!

• Ashley
• De
• Emily B
• Emily N
• Heather (July Guest Designer)
• Jackie
• Joy
• Kerry
• Savannah
• Stephanie
• Virginia

Have a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

Sweet Summertime Pinwheels

Happy Friday everyone! I have been trying to find time to craft lately but I have been too busy playing outside with my boys! :) I did make some time this morning though to participate in a new challenge that I have had my eye on for awhile now, The Shabby Tea Room.


The challenge this week was to be inspired by this photo which immediately made me think of Echo Park's Sweet Summertime collection. I also was inspired by Scrapbook Trends current challenge to use circles on a project.

If you want to participate in either of these challenges you still have time...projects are due by Sunday.

Okay, that's it for me today...off to play some more with my boys! Don't you just love summertime?! Maybe I'll have enough energy to work on some projects after they go to bed tonight! :)