Altered Magnetic Clipboard

1.) Altered Magnetic Clipboard

2.) I purchased a very inexpensive clipboard from our local Dollar Tree. I then painted the clipboard with Martha Stewart Magnetic Paint. I actually had to paint 6 coats in order to get the clipboard coated well enough for the magnets to hold notes well when hung on a wall. 

3.) After allowing the magnetic paint to dry for at least 24 hours, I then painted the clipboard (front and back) with Making Memories Scrapbook Colors Paint. I then let this dry 24 hours also.

4.) I chose several coordinating papers from the Sweet Girl line of Echo Park papers and used them to decorate the back, sides and bottom of the clipboard. I also used various ribbons to decorate the clip at the top of the board.

5.) To make coordinated magnets, I chose stickers from Sweet Girl by Echo Park and used them to make the magnets. I first glued a small round magnet to the back of each sticker. I then used corn starch to spread over the balance of the sticky area of the sticker to take the stickiness away. I also used the tree and house sticker to add more decorations to the clipbaord. 

6.) Here you can see my completed Magnetic Clipboard with coordinating magnets

Grandma's Quilt

Crop Chocolate DT challenge for April is Grandma’s quilt . . . when I think of Grandma’s quilt, my mind goes to small intricate designs cut from beautiful patterned material and carefully sewn together.  Always leaving one with a feeling of it being beautiful, warm and cozy.  I actually wanted to make a quilt when I was younger.  I chose the pattern, the material and cut all of the pieces out.  I even sewed about a 2’ x 2’ area of the quilt together . . . stored it away for several years, then realized it would never be complete.

Iris paper folding gives me the same feel as quilt patters, but they are much easier to complete.  I chose Pineapple Blossom pattern to make this card.   Here is how I did this.

Products used:  EP Springtime paper, Carta Bella Alphabet Junction paper, tape, miscellaneous yellow ribbon, miscellaneous Turquoise flower.

You can find many different patterns for Iris Paper Folding by simply googling it on the internet.  Once you have chose your pattern you then use a craft knife and the pattern and cut out an aperture in the colored cardstock (this is the outline of the pattern).  This will make the frame for the project.  If you want to cut a fancy border, now is the time to do that too.  ( I chose not to cut fancy borders.)

You then position the card with the aperture cutout over the pattern, face down. You will be working on the back side of the card.

Tape the card to the template using non-permanent tape (Masking tape works well for this. If the tape is too sticky, stick it to a cotton cloth first to reduce its stickiness)

Choose several different patterns of coordinated paper.  Cut in strips (your pattern will give the width of the strips).  Fold the strips in half on the long edge.

Arrange your folded strips of paper in the order that you want to apply them to the card.  (patterns are usually numbered so that you know the order to arrange the folded strips of paper.)

Start with #1 on the template:

Cut a strip of paper so that it is a little longer than the aperture opening.
Line up the folded side of the strip of paper with the inside edge of the area labeled with a "1"
Tape both ends of the strip of paper to the back of the card

Using the next color, follow the same instructions for #2. Repeat all the way around the aperture, following the numbers and working inward as you complete each round. Stop when you have the desired size for the aperture opening.

The back of the card will look quite messy as you progress, but when you flip the card over it reveals a beautiful quilt-like pattern.

To finish the center attach a piece of holographic paper (or other paper of your choice), a small picture, a decorative button, etc. You can now mount your finished work using glue or double-sided tape. 3D Foam pads works well if you used a heavier weight paper for your design and you find that it is too thick to mount directly onto the card.

Hope you enjoy this tutorial.

CARD 2

Grandma’s Quilt – repeated patterns come to mind and certain amount of home felt comfort.  For this card I used:

CC Products: Carta Bella Beautiful Moments. FP It’s the Little Things Trim.
Other Products used Spellbinders Hexagons, Cuttlebug Hexagon embossing plate

I used a plain white sheet of paper and embossed hexagons.  Then trimmed the embossed image to cover approximately 2/3rd of the front of the card.  I then trimmed the top of the white paper around the hexagon image.  I used Spellbinders dies and cut random hexagons from Beautiful Moments paper.  I adhered these randomly on the embossed hexagons.  Glue hexagon  portion to gold polka dot patterned paper (also Beautiful Moments) and then glued that to red Beautiful Moments patterned paper.  Used lace trim from It’s the Little Things to pull the card together and then stamped my birthday sentiment.  The lace with the repeating patterns feels likes Grandma’s quilt.

For the envelope, I glued some random hexagons to the envelope.

CARD 3

Again with the repeating patterns.  I had to really think hard about how to incorporate washi tape into Grandma’s Quilt.  After some research I found washi tape used on die cuts.   I am just so excited about using washi tape.  I love it on everything.

CC Products used: EP A Boy’s life paper,  EP All About A Boy washi tape.
Non CC Products Spellbinders Hexagons, SU Not Quite Navy Stamp Pad.

To begin this card cut your card front and then apply Washi tape across the front of the card.

Then cut out your Hexagon Die cuts,  Place the die cuts on the cards as you want them to placed later on and apply your washi tape so that it lines up with the washi tape on the card.  Then trim excess washi tape from hexagons
.

After trimming the excess washi tape, use stamp pad and ink edges of hexagons so they will pop on the card.  Use Pop Dots to adhere Hexagons.  Stamp sentiment.

Hope you enjoyed this.

Nature Inspired - View Master Wheel

Our Crop Chocolate DT Project this month was "Nature Inspired".  There are so many places to go with this theme and originally, I was trying really hard to tie the theme in with Easter, which should have been easy enough, but what I really wanted to do was scrapbook this picture of my youngest son.  This ties in two types of nature, the natural background of weathered wood, flowers, etc and the nature of a parent . . . to always feel that their children are a true blessing, which I do.  With that said, I will begin to explain how this layout was created.

CC Supplies:  All paper used was Fancy Pants Country Boutique, with the exception of the white cardstock used for the view master.   I also used, Lifestyle Circle dies and Country Boutique Embellishments.

Non CC Supplies, Misc. brad and Kaiser Rhinestones, Fiskars hole punch.  Stampin Up Punch.

I began by cutting out two identical circles, one out of white card stock and one out of copy paper.  The circle I cut was   3" and this will become the View Master wheel.  Set aside the card stock circle, using the copy paper circle fold in half and then in half again.  Mark the folds with a straight edge to find the center of your circle.  Fold the the diagonals to create to create 1/8 pieces (like 8 slices of pizza).  Place the two circles together, copy paper on top.  Use a piece of re-positional tape to hold the bottom circle in place if needed.  The copy circle acts as a guide as you punch notches around the circle.  Using a 1/8" handheld punch, punch notches around the circle on each of the eight crease lines on the outside edge of the circle and one in the center for the brad. Discard copy paper circle.  On the card stock circle you can stamp images or words.  One image in each of the 4 quadrants so that when the view master reel is turned it will reveal only one image at a time.

I then cut a strip of wood print card stock 3-1/2" wide and 12 inches long, I centered a 1-1/4" punched hole in the 3-1/2" wide strip (this is my view master window). I then attached my 3" inch circle with a brad to the back of this strip so that when turned each word (or image) would show through the window.  To the right of the 3-1/2" strip, I then carfully punched a partial hole (i also punched an identical hole in the 12 x 12 background paper) to allow the wheel to turn.

This completes the view master portion.  I then attached this strip to the right side of my layout.    I then cut out a black circle to frame the hole of the view master to bring attention to it.  I adhered my picture to the layout.

I wanted to use the pre-cut embellishments that came with this kit.  So I decided what I wanted printed on each embellishment i.e. "Tyler . . . some people call you . . .",  "I call you"  and "A Blessing".  I put this in a word document the way that I wanted it to appear on the embellishment and printed on copy paper to check placement.  When I got everything placed the way I wanted, I took repositional tape and taped the embellishment over the printed copy and put this back through my printer so that it would print on the embellishment.  I then adhered all embellishments to the layout.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I have.
Thanks for taking a look.

Washi Tape Flowers

Hello friends.  Our challenge this week on Crop Chocolate was to make our own flower on a project.  I wanted something unique.  Washi tape is my new love, so I knew I had to make a washi tape flower.  I had white polka with red washi tape, so i knew immediately what picture I had to use.  A picture of my daughter when she was a little girl.  I am finding it so much fun to go back and scrapbook some of the old photos of my now grown children.  It just brings a flood of fond memories back to me.    The flower in lower left corner is a handmade flower using washi tape.  Other materials used are: CC Products:  All paper (except misc. green) was from the Your Truly collection by EP.  MM Paper Reverie Sienne Gems  Non CC Products:  Green Paper, Misc. Pearl Brad, Cosmo Cricket Blackboard Vintage Mix and Misc. Washi Tape  (the dimensional rose is made with washi tape).

Hope you enjoy this.

Fur Baby Love.

The Crop Chocolate February DT Project was Fur Baby Love and the above is my entry.  Hope you enjoy this project and that it may give you some inspiration.

We have two fur babies living in our house and deciding which one to use for this submission was a little difficult.  But I really wanted to use my Paris Girl paper so . . . the toy poodle seemed to be the obvious choice.  Our poodle's name is Teddy and he has been with us for 10 years now.  This is a picture of him and my daughter, when he was about 1 year old.  He has always been her dog and "Puppy Love" is certainly a term that describes their relationship.  The two are still inseparable and their love for each other is so obvious.    I had a wonderful time creating this layout, but I really love all European style papers and crafts, so that made it so easy.  With the exception of one sheet of black paper, all of the paper I used was Paris Girl by Carta Bella and was purchased from Crop Chocolate.  Other items used in this layout was:  naked chipboard letter, white spray paint, Nestabling heart, Teresa Collins Spring Fling Bling, SU En Francais stamp, Paris Girl stickers, misc. pink ribbon TH Black Soot Distress Ink,  MS Black pen, and an Eiffel Tower and Heart charm.  

I wanted white letters with french script on them.  I began with naked chipboard letters and used white spray paint to paint them.  I set them aside to dry.  

I took my black and white picture and double matted it with an inner matte of patterned Paris Girl Paper and a small outer matte of black paper.  The black mat really makes the picture pop on the page.   

By the time I had the picture matted, my letters had dried.  I then took TH Black Soot Distress Ink and stamped the En Francais script onto the letters.  Again, I wanted to make the letters pop, but a mat would not really work for this.  So I took a MS Black pen and edged the outer edge of the letter in black.  When the letters were  placed on the lighter background this really made the letters pop on the page.  

I used Teresa Collins Spring Fling bling on the letter P to give it some accent.  I used a Nestabling Heart on the the letter O  and on the Letter L, I used Pink ribbon to tie a heart and Eiffel Tower Charm to the letter.  I glued these letters and the photo on the background paper with glue dots.  I then used the Eiffel Tower, two poodles and a ticket stub from the Paris Girl stickers to finish embellishing my page.  All finished and I am very happy with this page.  I  am so pleased with how the chipboard letters turned out.

Valentines

Hey - I want to share with you my entry into Crop Chocolate weekly challenge.  This week was "anything goes", so I took advantage to get some of my Valentines crafts out of the way.  I decorated three (left over) Christmas boxes, with a beautiful line of paper from Echo Park called "Be Mine".  These boxes will be filled with Kisses and other delectable treats.  I am very happy with the way they turned out.  I decorated the insides as well as the outsides, in hopes they will be recycled again for another purpose.  There are some other great projects out there this week, come and visit at www.cropchocolate.com.

Crop Chocolate Challenge

Our challenge for this week was use blue, green and white in your project.  This is a simple card using CC Products  Playground Grass Stain paper, TH Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, TH Shabby Shutters Distress Ink, Non CC  Stamp, white cardstock and bling.  I stamped my flowers and heat embossed in white.  I then used TH tumbled glass and shabby shutters and inked over the white embossing.  Added some bling and it was just that simple.

ICE

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be a member of the Crop Chocolate Design Team.  I was totally stunned and excited to receive this position . . . and a bit intimidated, but mostly excited.

Our theme for January is ICE . . . there are so many fun things you can do with ice, hut my mind immediately went to a picture of my oldest son's prom, which I had put off scrapbooking for a few years.  The theme of the prom was "What Dreams are Made Of" and the decorations were all snowy and icy.  The igloo in the background just sealed the deal.

This allows me to show you, what I think, is a really great technique.  Don’t you just hate it when you use glitter on a layout or card and the glitter flakes off every time you touch the card or look at the page?  Glitter is pretty, but I like it best when it stays in its place.  Well today I am going to show you how to use glitter and seal it so that it does not flake off.

To compliment my picture I chose to use Winterland paper by Fancy Pants throughout the layout.  I used the Below Zero for the background.   I cut letters and snow flakes using the Mistletoe design card with my Slice.  The glitter technique that I used with this layout is shown in the way I applied the glitter to the letters "DREAM" and to the snowflakes.  I wanted them to look icy, but not be messy.

In this picture, you will see I cut out letters, using Frigid paper for the words "What" and "are Made Of" and the Cards paper for "Dreams" and the snowflakes.

Now to adhere the glitter to the letters and snowflakes to give it an icy effect, I first sprayed the letters and snowflakes with Aleene's Tacky Spray and sprinkled with Hint of Violet Flower Soft Glitter.   The beauty of the Aleene’s Spray is that it dries very quickly.   After I shook the excess glitter off, I then sprayed the letters again with Mod Podge Gloss Lustre spray.   Again, this dries very quickly.    For this application, I think is much easier to use the spray instead of the brush on Mod Podge.    Using Mod Podge allows all of the beauty of the glitter to shine through, but not flake off.  I love this technique and it can be used with anything you want to glitter.

Below Zero paper is used for the background.  I attached the lettering "What" and "Are Made Of” which was cut from Frigid paper.  I also used Martha Stewart Snowflake punch and punched snowflake border on the top and bottom of a strip of Frigid paper and attached to the background paper above my photograph.   I used Electric Winter Transparency by Fancy Pants and attached the snowflakes and the letters "Dream" (cut from Snow Angel) with pop dots to give it some dimension and then placed this over the layout.  I also used a pretty mint green Pebbles Pearl Candy Dots to accent the snowflakes.

I hope you find this technique helpful in your future crafting.

Valentine Tag

Weather here is cold and getting colder . . . great weather for playing with paper.

Crop Chocolates weekly challenge this week is a project containing flowers, pink and bling.  So it sounded like the perfect recipe for a Valentines project.  Here is a gift tag ising CC Products FP Love 6x6; Paris Girl Le Grande Tour Paper (used in flowers), TH Spun Sugar Ink Pad.  Other products En Francais Stamp, misc. ribbons and charms.  Want 2 Scrap Bling.    The background is lightly stamped in Spun Sugar Ink with French Script, although it does not show up well in the picture.

Blog Hop Winners

I have blog candy to give out for our recent blog hop with Crop Chocolate.  The winners are MommyX2 who was randomly chosen for posting the day of the blog hop and Sharon Does Baskets for being the 50th follower.  I already have Sharon's address.  MommyX2, please PM me on Crop Chocolate with your address and I will send candy to both of you.  Congratulations and thanks for visiting my blog.

BLOG CANDY ALERT
Follower no. 50 will receive a nice package of craft supplies.
Just supply a way for me to get in touch with you to get a mailing address.

New Year – New Design Team Blog Hop

Welcome to Crop Chocolates Design Team Blog Hop. New Year and a lot of “NEW” for me. Never been
on a Design Team before and never been a part of a blog hop. This looks like a promising year for meJ.

We were asked to tell you five fun things you did not know about us. Well you would think that would
be a very easy task . . . being that you don’t know me, but alas, suddenly I feel like I am not that much
fun.

1. My favorite vacation spot is Disney World. My favorite breakfast is served in the castle with all of the
other princesses and although it may look a little funny, I love skipping down the brick entrance path to
Disney. I am just a big kid at heart. (They have some really great restaurants in Disney World.)

2. I love trying lots of different foods. I love vegetables, fruits, cheeses and most of all CHOCOLATE!!!!
Chocolate candy, chocolate ice-cream, chocolate cake and of course . . . . Crop Chocolate. By the way,
if you are not a regular visitor at Crop Chocolate you may be interested in knowing the ladies there host
recipe exchanges from time to time and they are so much fun.

3. I love playing board games or card games with family and friends. One of my favorite games is “Dirty
Minds”. You can really learn a lot about your older children playing that game . . . but be careful; you
could leave this game scarred for life.

4. One thing that I find that can boost my creative mojo is a glass of wine or a nice mixed drink. Drink a
little. . . cut a little. . . drink a little. . . glue a little . . . drink a little . . . well you get the picture. But don’t
get the wrong impression . . . it has been a long, long time since I over indulged.

5. I absolutely love horror films and haunted houses and trails. Every year, our family tries to pick out
a spookier haunted experience than the last year. We always have 12 days of nightmares watching
horror flicks before Halloween.

Well I don’t know if those were fun or interesting . . . but now you know me. After reading this you may
think I am 10 years old, but no worries, the gray sprinkled in my hair and the character lines in my face
give my age away (Let’s just say they don’t card me anymore).

Now on to the good stuff. Our DT doubled in size this term. So this is your introduction to everyone and
their many talents. You should have gotten here from Julie’s blog but if you just happened by you
will want to start over at Amber’s blog and follow this order:

Amber  

Jenni 

Kathy 

Jasmine

Mary 

Nina 

Polly

DeeDee

Miwa 

Chris 

Corrie 

Karen

Julie

Becky - ME

Laura 

Michele 

By the time you have reached my blog, I know you have seen some fantastic work and inspiration. To
access additional inspiration visit CropChocolate.com. The DT’s theme this month is “Ice” and there
have been many great projects posted . . . and there are more to come. DT projects are shown on The
Crop and there is more inspiration in the contest area.

Don’t forget to visit Laura and Michelle.

I know you have probably already entered to win some great blog candy along the way.
I will also be giving away some fantastic blog candy so become a follower of my blog, if you
are not already, and leave a comment after you check out my project. I will be announcing the
winner of my blog candy January 20th right here. I can’t tell you what it is . . . but I can promise
it will be sweet.

The project I entered to become a member of the Design Team was a gift basket. I am going to
tell you about the gift basket I created, but because mine was centered on Christmas, I am going
to give you an idea for an all occasion gift basket you can create any time. Just check the end of
this blog.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Basket

Each year our company does a mirage of fund raisers for the benefit of the United Fund. Every
year I make a different gift basket that is auctioned. This year my gift basket doubled as a fund
raiser and an entry for the Design Team.

This was a simple process of making tags for the 12 days of Christmas which read as follows:

ON THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS your true love gave to you a partridge in a pear tree . . . Sorry but I couldn't find the partridge, so I am giving you some pears from the tree the partridge flew from
I covered a can of pears with decorative Christmas paper and placed this label on it.
ON THE SECOND DAY OF CHRISTMAS your true love gave to you two turtle doves . . . Unfortunately, I don't have any, will candy turtles and a Dove bar do?
I bought Turtles candy and a Dove candy bar and packaged them with this label.
ON THE THIRD DAY OF CHRISTMAS your true love gave to you three french hens . . . The French hens were not available, so, I'm giving some chicken noodle soup, compliments of the three French hens.
I covered a can of chicken noodle soup with decorative Christmas paper and placed this label on the front.
ON THE FOURTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS your true love gave to you four colly birds. . . Black birds . .  phew, I can't do that to you.  So here is a pencil and paper to keep in touch with friends both old and new.

I purchased an Address book and packaged it with this label.
ON THE FIFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS your true love gave to you five golden rings, but will some golden pineapple rings suffice?
I covered a can of pineapple rings with decorative Christmas paper and put the label on the can.
ON THE SIXTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS your true love gave to you  six geese a laying . . .You don't really want messy geese all over the house do you?  How about some of the eggs they left behind?
I used white chocolate candy melts (barely heated them in the microwave) and placed a yellow M&M in the middle, resembling fried eggs.  I then packaged these and use the above label.
ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS your true love gave to you seven swans a swimming . . . all of the swans have flown south for the winter, but they left this ugly duckling behind.
I packaged a yellow rubber duck and used the label.
ON THE EIGHTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS your true love gave to you eight maids a milking . . . the maids were all milking, milk foaming like suds.  And then they all vanished just leaving "Milk Duds".
I wrapped a pack of Milk Duds in decorative Christmas paper and used the label on the front.

ON THE NINTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS your true love gave to you nine ladies dancing . . . here are some canes used by the ladies to help them walk home after they were out dancing all night.
I used nine candy canes tied with a red ribbon and used the above tag.
ON THE TENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS your true love gave to you ten Lords-a-leapin' . . .After the Lords get done leapin; this is what they use to massage their sore muscles
I packaged some foot soak and lotion and used the following tag..
ON THE ELEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS your true love gave to you eleven pipers piping . . . here's a pipe of your own, have fun and don't blow the day.
I used a toy horn with the tag.
ON THE TWELFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS your true love gave to you twelve drummers drumming . . . no drummers, we though you could use some quiet time, so here is a special treat we drummed up for you, so relax and enjoy.
I bought a can of Hot Chocolate mix and wrapped it in paper and gold cord to make it look like a drum and placed the tag on the front.

I used some crinkled paper in the bottom of a basket, filled the basket with the above items and tied the basket in a decorative Christmas bow.  Totally ready to give as a gift that will amuse the recipient.

All of the paper was Christmas paper purchased from Crop Chocolate and most of it was from EP Dots and Stripes.

Now for the instructions for a Gift Basket for any time of  the year.  Below is a recipe for Mexican Bean Soup.  Simply purchase the ingredients, decorate the cans and make covers for the packaged items.  Place them in a basket with a pretty recipe card that tells the recipient how to assemble the soup.


Mexican Bean Soup

INGREDIENTS

1 can (15 oz.) pinto beans
1 can (15 oz.) kidney beans
1 can (15 oz.) navy beans
1 can (15 oz.) corn
1 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes
1 can (15 oz.) Ro-tel or tomatoes with green chilis added
1 packet taco seasoning
1⁄2 packet dry ranch salad dressing
1⁄2 c. water

DIRECTIONS Place all ingredients in
slow cooker; stir together. Note: Do not
drain canned items, include the liquid in
the soup. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.
Serve with grated cheese, sour cream,
and tortilla chips.

Hollow Book

I was recently inspired by a hollow book created By Belle from Crop Chocolate.  So I decided to make one for myself.  Let me just say . . . . she did not tell us in her instructions how difficult it was to hollow out the book.  (she has instructions on instructagram.com)  Not easy for me, but I have no patience.  Anyways, after I got the book hollowed out it was fun decorating it.  I used all paper from Authenitique's Blissful Collections (purchased on Crop Chocolate).  I used Spellbinders Fleur dis Lis border and an older Fleur dis Lis embellishment on the front.  My son is going to use this book to store his remote controls.