A PATRIOTIC BLOG HOP

 Hello Crafty Folks,
Welcome to Crafting By Designs Patriotic(Colors of our Flag) Blog Hop!  This year we are celebrating our
1 year birthday with a mini-blog hop and I sure am happy you stopped by.

I have a couple of projects to share, for my first creation I was thinking of doing something yummy and I was actually inspired by the cupcakes my son made for dessert on the 4th of July.  They were made from scratch and extremely yummy! I was inspired to make this special Red,White & Blue treat.  I used a papermache cupcake box and decorated it with designer papers, lace & buttons all of which are my favorite things.  I topped it of with a cutesy banner stick pin and flower.

 Next I created this Red, White & Blue beauty basically from scraps, but extra effort went into this card as I pulled out the old sewing machine and did some stitching.  I used scraps of lace and ribbon, a button and the "Hope" ticket came from a Tim Holtz booklet.

I am so grateful that you stopped by and you're next stop will be Julia at Paper and Scraps Creations.  Just in case you might have gotten off track I've listed the line up of our blog hop to help you follow along.  Once you're done blog hopping why don't you come and join us over at Crafting by Designs and join in the FUN!

Happy Hopping :0)

Doris  (you're here) Moms Been Scrappin

Tammy at   Cuttin' and Stampin'  

Rene at Life in the Craft Lane 

You're Here - Tammy at Whimsically Me 

Julia at Paper and Scraps Creations by Julia 

Chrissie at Harvest Moon Papiere 

Cindy at Papers Pads and Pictures 

Margaret at Cats and Cards 

Gwen at Windchimes and Lilacs   

I'm Back!!

Hello Everyone!!
I don't even want to begin to apologize for my neglected BLOG!! I haven't able to post in so long and there is so much going on to talk about.  As many of my followers know, I am a homeschooling mom and this year I graduated my first Senior! This was such a milestone for my daughter and I.  We made it through unscathed and in one piece!  A homeschooling graduation is totally different than public school and the most glorious part of it all is that we could pray and proclaim the name of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ without any backlash! This was such a blessing, not to mention my daughters graduating class was a total of 4! Here's a pic of the high school graduates:

Okay on to crafting news!  I am going to be teaching craft classes this Summer to a bunch of great kids and I'm really looking forward to helping them grow creatively.  I have a great line up of projects and I'm hoping that it won't be too hard or tedious.  Check back on the site for class pics later on.

I have been so busy that I haven't even had the opportunity craft for my shop and that's pretty sad, but amazingly I am still selling things!  I did recently make a lovely book while trying to get back in the groove of things.  Here's my 5X7 journal:

This was a lot of fun to make but SORRY I can turn at the correct angle.  Grrrrr!

 I made this journal using Prima paper & flowers. The printed leaves are from the Michael's Recollection line, the resin rose is from Jolee's and I made the banner pennant using some pre-cut canvas from Canvas Corp.

 Well that is all I am posting for today, I really just wanted to get something going.  I am really going to post some more exciting new tomorrow.  Until then, Be Blessed Everyone!!!!

Splitcoast Stampers Leap Year Challenges

Hello Happy Crafters,

 

I had a great time hosting a challenge at Splitcoaststampers.  Since this February was a leap year all of the themes had to do with either the word LEAP or a LEAP phrase.  The challenge that I came up with was a "Leap In Time" coming up with an idea for a challenge was absolutely torture. I believe the LORD had pity on me and gave me a great idea!  In this challenge you needed to use pictures that chronicled a specific period in the past with current correlating picture(s) of the present. Whether it was a pictures of a child’s 1st birthday and now 21st birthday or maybe a daughter as a child playing with dolls and now holding her own baby.  There were many wonderful submissions.  I am attaching my sample which is of the sonogram of my oldest daughters first baby Israel.  This was really a sweet Leap In Time and if you've been a follower of my blog you've seen current pics. I'm this will inspire you to do a leap in time layout.  If you feel inspired I'd love to see a layout that you came up with as a "LEAP IN TIME"  I am including a Mr. Linky widget so that you can post a link of your layout to my site. 

 

In this layout I used:

My Minds Eye Lost & Found 1 Designer Paper

My Minds Eye 3-D diecut embellishments & zipper

Tim Holtz birdcage die

Heart punch ( cardboard box scrap inside and painted with gesso)

Stampin' Up butterfly & top note punch

Stash - buttons, flowers, leaf (Prima) & shipping tag

That's it for today! Praying you have an extremely Blessed week as we head into April!!!

Now show of your work:

New Fun Stuff

Hello Crafty Friends,

I have been struggling to get a post on my blog but as usual it's been pretty tough.  I am really excited about all of the orders I have received lately and I am knocking them out one by one.  My two newest orders is a pair of very shabby frames that I am going to do a bit of mixed media and a 3 ft well that I will be decorating for a Quinceanera. These are great projects but are going to required lots of time.  I was able to squeeze in a bit of time for myself so that I could have some things to put in my little shop for Springs and Easter.  But first I wanted to share a new Cricut Cart I just bought called Flower Shoppe.  I believe this is a must have for paper crafters I am posting a few pics:

 

Next I worked on a little something for Easter and they are my chocolate bunnies!!! They are super cute and really easy to make.  I used the Cricut Sampler Cart for my bunny and some brown cardstock.  Everything I used is in the pic.

I made a cute little treat holder and I'll show the pics later when I finish.

Well that is it for now, I just needed to post a little something and hopefully you got a teeny weeny bit of inspiration!  Now to finish up the 10 unfinished projects I have laying around!

Blessings!!

Wings and Blooms Blog Hop

WELCOME!!!

Today I am so excited to be participating in this super fun Blog Hop at Crafting By Designs and what a great way to get into the "Spring of Things" than to create wonderful crafts using things with wings and things that bloom.  That's what is all about today as you follow along with us as we share some inspiration with you.

I'm sure you've had lots of inspiration so far and if you're hopping in the right order you should have just arrived from Aletha JaneWilliams site AJS Designs  . Hopefully you've started at the beginning but if not you can always hop back in line by starting at the beginning site with Doris at Moms Been Scrappin.

Today I am sharing with you a few precious designs that I hope will inspire you to make something special.  My first project was from items that were going to be sold in a grab bag by a friend of mine.  She was selling these items "dirt" cheap because she was trying to get rid of them.  I am definitely an underdog when it comes to rescuing unwanted crafts with potential ..."another crafters trash...another crafters treasure."  A plain wooden birdhouse on a stick and a blue dented watering pail...it had artsy written all over it. My favorite part about this project was using my white resin birdcage (by Prima) that is in the center of the birdhouse.  Here's my finished project:

A sweet little project and the nest is loaded with goodies.

For the things with wings there is a butterfly and roses for the blooms & my sweet little resin birdcage.

Nestled in the nest are feathers and eggs with glitter and a few crystals

Just a little added touch to the dented part of the can...a loverly butterfly

My next project for the Wings and Bloom Hop is a twist on what was going to be a card but I thought it was cuter as embellishment for a gift bag.  This was a great project! I started out making a cupcake card and decided it was too big bulky so I added more stuff and used the cupcake for a bag.  Here's the finished project:

Completed yummy cupcake bag...3 lushes layers of trim

Lovely rosette Bloom with wooden "happiness" tag and twine bow

More blooms with pink heart centers...totally sweet

We have a wonderful giveaway for participating in this Wing and Bloom Hop. One lucky blog hopper will have a chance to win a package of goodies!!  All you have to do is visit each blog and leave a comment no later than 11:59 pm Monday March 19th and a winner will be picked using random.org and posted on Tuesday, March 20th.  

 I sure hope you enjoyed looking around and maybe even got some inspiration!  Don't stop here, now it's time to hop on over to Suzanne Russell by clicking here for more inspiration.

After viewing all of the Wing and Bloom Blogs and you feel inspired we sure would love to see some of that creativity at the Crafting By Design site and you can do that by posting your creations here
In case you get lost along the way, here's the whole blog hop line up:

Doris at Moms Been Scrappin 
Tammy Smith at Cuttin’ and Stampin’ 
Cindy Leek at Papers Pads and Pictures
Julia Vazquez at Papers and Scraps Creations
Sharon Duff at Sharons Scrappin
Chrissie Tobas at Harvestmoon Papiere
Rene van Wyk at Life in the Craft Lane
Aletha Jane Williams at AJ’s Designs
Your HERE Tammy Martinez at Whimsically Me
Suzanne Russell at Beauty and Blessings
Beth Pollack at Mossberry Cottage
Berni Cuttino at Chasing the Dream
Deb Fortin at Paper Arts and Other Crafty Things
Gwen T at Wind Chimes and Lilacs
Theresa Gerber at Crafts Friends and Angels
Susan Janicki at StampersBest
Gloria Suave at Globug Ideas
Yvonne Spinks at One Creative Momma 

Blessings and Happy Hopping!!

Getting Back In The Swing!

I am so excited to be getting back into my blogging, I have been so busy with special orders and projects that my poor little site has been neglected.  To get back into the crafty swing of things I am going to be participating in a special Blog Hop starting tomorrow morning, Friday, March 16th.  I sure hope that you will stop by and hop along with us as we commemorate a beautiful change in seasons.  You are sure to be dazzled with all sorts of Fluttery things with Wings and awesome Flowery, Blooming Creations.

Until then I wanted to share with you a few projects that I have been working on. The Scrapbooking Factory recently got in some Super Happy Mail and it was the new line of papers from My Minds Eye, my new fave "Follow Your Heart."  I absolutely adore this paper and I made a few samples to put in the store.

The first layout is and 8x8 of my adorable grandson, Israel.  This paper is so fun and easy to work with and the colors are soft and the graphics are adorable:

Isn't this an absolutely gorgeous line of paper. The paper is double-sided making it doubly fun to work with.  I created a little banner and a few mattes and also trimmed the "you fly you soar" accent matte with coordinating twine from the same line.

Next I created a super cute card from the, "Follow Your Heart line," and I also used plenty of scraps for each project, not wasting a strip of paper.

This card has a punch heart and die cut flowers by Sizzix.  

This was a very sweet and simple card. The small "enjoy" pennant was cut from one of the graphics on the 12x12 sheet.

Totally switching gears I wanted to share a layout I did using a photo of my daughter.  The challenge came from the Scrapbook Throwdown a month ago and we were challenged to use fabric in our layout.  In this particular layout I used several pieces of material.  The largest being the fabric flower I made using a Gluber
The other fabric elements included trim on the bottom of the birdcage and the top of the birdcage.

Fabric flower made with a Gluber

Strip of fabric ruffle on birdcage.

Well that's it for now.  Please stop by tomorrow when I'll post some really sweet projects and links to follow for the Blog Hop!!!

Blessings and have a sweet crafty day!

 

Scrapbook Throwdown Challenge

SIX + PHOTOS

Hello Everyone I am back with another neat challenge from the Scrapbook Throwdown.  This was definitely a challenge for me creating a layout using 6 or more pics.  As I stated previously find the pics is probably one of the biggest challenges for me but this time I came across a goldmined.  Well, I came across it on my memory stick.  Well I took my little stick up to Walgreens and ordered this fun little hiking trip that my husband and I  took our son and his little "rat pack," affectionately named by my husband.  Believe it or not these pics where taken right behind our house.  We don't live in a rural neighborhood or anything like that we just happen to live in a neighborhood that has a cool creek and high eleveated areas and it's really neat.  We had a great time and the best part of all for the boys was find just the right walking stick to ward off wolves, lions, tigers or bears that we might run into along the way!!!

 I used some fun paper by BoBunny and cut out circles, tags and scalloped strips; stars and pennants.  Most of the embellishments; even the "happy day" phrase are either made from scraps or stash.


Rat Pack On Safari

Stay tuned or more scrapbooking throwdown and other good stuff.

Blessings!!