Weekly DT Challenge - PageMap Sketch

Good morning everyone! I'm not usually up this early on my day off (who doesn't like to sleep in?!) but this weekend is a rare one and I have the ENTIRE weekend off of work (yay!) so I'm spending it in the beautiful city of Chicago with my boyfriend. :) I wanted to get this post up today so that when I return on Sunday I can have everything ready for the brand new Made Especially For You weekly challenges.


The challenge at Becky's Sweet Creations this week was to create a card based off a PageMap sketch, which I've posted below. It's been a while since I've made a black and white card, and as soon as I saw the "flags" on the sketch I knew my black and white adhesive ribbons would be the perfect embellishments.

Close-up of the embossing

PageMap sketch the card is based off of

What I Used To Make The Card:
- Black and white cardstock paper
- Cuttlebug with Spots 'n Dots embossing folder
- Black and white patterned adhesive ribbon
- iRock with black and white gems
- White flower embellishment
- 'hello' stamp in white ink
- Circle cutter


Have a fabulous weekend! :)


Ashley

Card Swap Creations :)

If you read my previous post, you know that I recently participated in my first card swap with the design team at Becky's Sweet Creations. Last time I shared with you what I received from the two-part swap (fall-themed cards and Halloween cards) and today I'm going to show you the cards I made for the swap. I wanted to wait until I knew that most of the other ladies received my cards before posting them so that

With my limited supplies, I knew that creating both of these cards were going to be a challenge. I needed materials that I could use a lot of without having to buy more. (I'm trying to cut down my crafting budget, it isn't easy but so far it's successful!) For the fall card, I knew I wanted to use the Cuttlebug fall leaves die cuts, and you know how I love my glitter, so I combined the two to have the best of both worlds. :)

Close-up of the card. I embossed the leaves with the D'vine Swirl embossing folder and then created my own glitter glue using an Elmer's glue pen and the appropriate color glitter (yellow with yellow leaves, orange with orange, etc.)

Here are the other five cards I made for the fall swap. 

The second part of the swap was the Halloween group. I have only made a few Halloween cards since I've started paper crafting, but so far I haven't been pleased with ANY of the Halloween cards I've created. These turned out all right.

The one aspect I absolutely love about this card is the polka dot paper! I love polka dots and think the Halloween colors look so cute together. :) I handmade the ghosts and gave them googly eyes to liven them up a bit, and also embossed the green paper with polka dots and used my iRock to apply the gems in the corners of the card.

Close-up of the chipboard glittered letters. I painted each with acrylic paint and then sprinkled glitter on them before they dried so that I wouldn't have to go back and apply glue in order for the glitter to stick.

The seven Halloween cards I made for the swap.

Inside of the card. I felt so bad about leaving it blank! I found the cute jack o' lantern stamp at Michael's in the $1 bin and couldn't pass it up. Unfortunately I didn't have a 'Happy Halloween' stamp, so I hand wrote it and also distresses the bottom of the card with green ink to represent grass. 

I had so much fun making the cards for this swap! I hope to do plenty more in the future. It does get a bit tiring after a while, though, having to make the same card over and over again. I usually use what I call an "assembly line" process and make the same element for each card all at the same time rather than individually making each card. 

How do you go about making multiple cards for a swap? I'd love to hear your strategies and techniques!

Thanks for taking the time to read! :)

Ashley

Card Swap Goodies! :)

I was so excited when I checked the mail today and found card swap goodies inside! This is the first card swap I've participated in so that makes it even more exciting. :) The swap was for the Becky's Sweet Creations DT that I'm a part of, and the swap itself was actually divided into two categories, fall-themed cards and Halloween cards. I made cards for both categories (which I'll post later this week), and here's what I received in return:

Halloween Card Swap

 These were the Halloween swap cards. Aren't they just adorable?! The DT ladies did an awesome job :) I've posted close-ups below so that you can get a better look. 

Close-up

Close-up

Fall Card Swap

These are the cards I received for the fall swap, they're so pretty! I can't stop looking at them :) There's a couple more on the way that unfortunately didn't make it on time, so when I receive those I'll add them to this post :)

On a side note, weekly challenges open to all bloggers begin next week on November 1st! The first challenge will be sponsored by Ready, Set, Create! and they will be offering a free one-year subscription to their e-zine to the winner! The top 3 will also receive a prize button :) We hope you'll join us!

Thanks for reading! :)

Ashley

My First Easel Card!

The weekly DT challenge at Becky's Sweet Creations this week is to create an easel card. While I have seen some absolutely stunning easel cards made by fellow bloggers, I myself had never made one until just recently. I'll admit I was a bit nervous at first seeing as that I usually only make cards that have "standard" shapes, but I found a really good tutorial online (which you can view here) that explained the process really well!


To make an easel card, you need a 12 x 12 sheet of paper. The majority of my paper collection is 8.5 x 11 because I am not a scrapbooker, and the only 12 x 12 sheet I had that was sturdy enough to be a card base was a bold yellow color, which you'll see in the pictures below. I also just bought a new birthday/party clear stamp set on clearance at Michael's for only $2.50 (I couldn't pass it up!) so I turned my easel card into a party invitation. The card itself is only 4 x 4 inches, which made it even more of a challenge to make since I'm used to creating larger cards.

Front view of the card. I left some space at the bottom for an extra message to be written if necessary.

Side view of the card. It doesn't look much like an easel card from the front, but from the side view you can definitely tell! 

What I Used To Make The Card:

- Yellow, white and green cardstock paper

- Blue ink to distress edges

- Birthday/party clear stamp set in blank ink

- Cuttlebug with balloon die cuts

- Liquid adhesive and glue dots

I'm off to do some laundry and get a head start on upcoming challenges. Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of your week! :)

Ashley

**SPONSORS WANTED**

Have a digital stamp store, etsy shop, or simply want to show off your own handmade talents? Become a sponsor for the newest feature of Made Especially For You - weekly challenges! Starting in November, Made Especially For You will be hosting weekly challenges that ALL bloggers are welcome to enter!

Our design team is looking for sponsors to provide a sponsorship for one or more of our weekly challenges. 

What exactly does being a sponsor entail?
  - Offering a prize for the winner of the challenge (the prize is 100% up to the sponsor, they can choose whatever they would like to give away, whether it relates to the challenge or not)

- Promotion of the sponsor's blog through the challenge, Made Especially For You's Facebook page and also through the blogs of the other ten design team members

- The design team is also willing to incorporate your offerings into the challenge, for example if you own a digital stamp store and are giving away a particular set of digital stamps, we would love to use those in our design team challenge sample creations!

Interested in becoming a sponsor? We'd love to have you! Send an e-mail to especiallymadeblog@gmail.com regarding this post and we'll go ahead and send you the available challenges that you can choose from! :)

Ashley
Made Especially For You DT Leader
especiallymadeblog@gmail.com

Weekly DT Challenge - Handmade Flowers

Hi everyone! I hope you all are having a great week, it's been beautiful here in Northern Illinois, in the 70's every day. Talk about an indian summer! :) I've been a good girl lately and have somehow miraculously caught up with all my homework (which doesn't happen very often) so I've had a lot of extra time for crafting lately. Last night I was actually able to complete this week's and also the next two weeks of challenges for the DT at Becky's Sweet Creations. It feels so good to finally be caught up! 


The challenge this week was to create a card using handmade flowers. I'm still learning how to make them, but with a little more practice I think I'll get there. I'm so lucky to have Becky as a DT leader, she sent me over 100 flower punches! A flower punch is definitely next on my shopping list. :) Here's the card I created for this week's challenge:

The sentiment says 'For A Special Friend' sorry if it's hard to read. 

Here's a close-up of the flowers. Each flower has four punches, so I used about 48 punches all together to make this card. They're painted with acrylic paint and once they dried I pinched them so that each layer was a little more "shriveled" than the next. They're super easy and so fun to make!

What I Used To Make The Card:

- White, yellow, green and purple cardstock paper

- 48 white cardstock flower punches

- Green, yellow and purple acrylic paint

- Cuttlebug with 'Floral Fantasy' embossing folder

- iRock with white gems

- 'For A Special Friend' sentiment in purple ink

- Circle cutter

- Liquid adhesive

Stop by Becky's Sweet Creations to see what other members of the DT came up with using flowers!

Thanks for reading! 

Ashley

And The Winner Is...

Tammy at My Cricut Craft Chamber! Congratulations, Tammy! I've sent you an e-mail with all of the information.


Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to participate in our hop and support our design team! We cannot express how appreciative we are. We hope to do more hops in the future and we'd love for you to join us!


Ashley

Becky's Sweet Creations Boy/Girl Blog Hop - Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of Becky's Sweet Creations 2 Day Boy/Girl Blog Hop! This weekend we're going to be sharing with you a variety of boy and girl-themed projects that our design team has created. This is our first hop as a design team, and we're so excited to have you with us. Thanks so much for joining us! :)

If you came from Becky's blog then you're in the right place! If you're new to the hop and would like to start at the beginning, you can also visit Becky's blog since hers is the first in the lineup. :)

Here's the complete lineup in case you get lost along the way: 

Becky @ Becky's Sweet Creations

Ashley @ Made Especially For You     <---------- You are here

Lisa @ Lisa's Creative Niche

Laura @ Laura's Crafts and More 

Tammy @ The Cricut Craft Chamber

Carol @ Cardstock Scissors and Glue

Since yesterday's project was girl-themed, today's is boy-themed! I created another pop-up card to share with you, and I'm definitely a lot more pleased with this one than the one I posted yesterday! I hope you like it, too. :) I'll be honest and say that I didn't completely come up with the idea for this card, but I did tweak the original design to make it more of my own. 

This is a close-up of the card, I just love it! If I had the time I would've made a girl version to go along with it, but unfortunately time just didn't allow for it this week. The posts to the laundry line are the pop-ups in this card. The grass, posts and baby clothes were all templates that I found, but the flowers are handmade and I did the embossing and glittering on the grass myself. 

Here's a "long distance" shot of the card. 

What fun would a blog hop be without blog candy?! :) I had so much fun searching through my stash 

looking for boy/girl-themed goodies to giveaway. Luckily I found more than I thought I would! :)

- 12 sheets of 6x6 "boy" themed patterned paper

- Assorted brads in pastel colors

- 'baby' glittered chipboard letters in blue and pink

- Assorted punches

- Assorted chipboard embellishments in pastel colors (perfect for both cards and scrapbooking!)

Here's what you have to do to enter:

1.) Become a follower (if you aren't already)

2.) Comment on a post on either day of the hop (you'll be entered a second time if you comment both days)

3.) Leave a form of contact information in case you're the winner!

The winner will be chosen on Monday October 10th using random.org. I can't wait to give away the goodies! :)

Your next stop is Lisa's blog! Thanks so much for hopping along with us! :)

Ashley

Becky's Sweet Creations Boy/Girl Blog Hop - Day 1

Welcome to Becky's Sweet Creations 2 Day Boy/Girl Blog Hop! This weekend we're going to be sharing with you a variety of boy and girl-themed projects that our design team has created. This is our first hop as a design team, and we're so excited to have you with us. Thanks so much for joining us! :)

If you came from Becky's blog then you're in the right place! If you're new to the hop and would like to start at the beginning, you can also visit Becky's blog since hers is the first in the lineup. :)

Here's the complete lineup in case you get lost along the way: 

Becky @ Becky's Sweet Creations

Ashley @ Made Especially For You     <---------- You are here

Lisa @ Lisa's Creative Niche

Laura @ Laura's Crafts and More 

Tammy @ The Cricut Craft Chamber

Carol @ Cardstock Scissors and Glue

I've been experimenting with pop-up cards recently, and the card I'm going to show you is about as simple as a pop-up card can get. :) It was the first one I made and since it relates to the "girl" portion of the hop, I thought it'd be perfect. Tomorrow I'll be sharing with you a more complex pop-up card I made that relates to the "boy" portion. :)

Front of the card

Inside of the card

Close-up of the inside bottom portion of the card

What fun would a blog hop be without blog candy?! :) I had so much fun searching through my stash 

looking for boy/girl-themed goodies to giveaway. Luckily I found more than I thought I would! :)

- 12 sheets of 6x6 "boy" themed patterned paper

- Assorted brads in pastel colors

- 'baby' glittered chipboard letters in blue and pink

- Assorted punches

- Assorted chipboard embellishments in pastel colors (perfect for both cards and scrapbooking!)

Here's what you have to do to enter:

1.) Become a follower (if you aren't already)

2.) Comment on a post on either day of the hop (you'll be entered a second time if you comment both days)

3.) Leave a form of contact information in case you're the winner!

The winner will be chosen on Monday October 10th using random.org. I can't wait to give away the goodies! :)

Your next stop is Lisa's blog! Thanks so much for hopping along with us, make sure to stop by tomorrow, too! :)

Ashley 

Red/Orange/Yellow DT Challenge

Just a quick post this afternoon, I thought I'd share with you the card I made for the DT challenge at Becky's Sweet Creations. The challenge this week was to make a card using only the colors red, orange and yellow. Here's what I came up with:

(The lighter circles look white, but they're actually a pale yellow). 

It's a busy day for me today, I just got home from volunteering to help set up a book sale that the library I work at is having. I'm off to make some lunch, get a haircut and then have a movie night with a friend tonight. And somewhere in there I also have to make time to finish up my blog hop creations! Make sure you stop by this weekend (October 8th & 9th) for the Boy/Girl Blog Hop! I'll be giving away some blog candy, too. :)


Have a great weekend!


Ashley

Cupcakes Galore

Hello crafty friends! I hope you all are having a great week. :) My storytimes have been going really well lately. There have only been a few kids at each session (our evening storytimes unfortunately are nowhere near as popular as are morning storytimes) it's been the perfect amount for a beginning storytime coordinator. :) I'm going to share with you the past two weeks of storytime crafts that the kids and I have done. 


The first craft I'm going to share with you is based on the story Little Mouse and the Big Cupcake. This story is so adorable, you should definitely read it if you have the chance! :) 

For the craft we each made our own cupcakes and decorated them by first coloring them with crayons and then using a glue stick to apply glitter for the sprinkles. This was the first time using glitter for many of the kids, so they had a lot of fun with this. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of their creations to share with you, but I do have a picture of the sample cupcake I made:

For a transition activity between the story and the craft, I created a matching game for the kids to play using the felt board. I made mini versions of the cupcakes they decorated and created them so that they can be matched in three different ways: by the bottom paper color, the frosting color and the sprinkles. It was too hard to tell the differences between the sprinkle colors in the pictures, so I'm just going to show you the other ways they can be matched.

In this picture all of the cupcakes are matched by the bottom paper color. The sprinkles don't look very fun in this picture, but I promise they are when you see them in person! :)

In this picture the cupcakes are matched by the color of their frosting. The kids had so much fun moving the cupcakes around so that they matched! 

Thanks so much for reading! Do any of you have fun storytime crafts you've made in the past? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Ashley

All That Glitters Is Gold

Hi everyone! I'd like to share with you the card I made for the design team's weekly challenge over at Becky's Sweet Creations (the card is also posted there). This week's challenge was to create something that you've been wanting to make or have already made. After a coworker of mine celebrated her golden birthday last week, I realized I had never made a golden birthday card for anyone before, and that's where the inspiration came from for this challenge. Here's what I came up with:

What I used to make the card:
- Cuttlebug with the D'vine Swirl embossing folder, vintage die cut and gift die cut
- Black, silver and gold cardstock paper
- 'Happy Birthday' clear stamps with gold ink
- 'golden' chipboard letters with gold glitter
- Silver glitter
- Elmer's glue pen and adhesive glue dots
- Gold adhesive embellishments


On a side note, next weekend (October 8th & 9th) Made Especially For You will be part of Becky's Sweet Creations Boy/Girl themed Blog Hop! It'll be a two-day hop that will showcase our design team's fabulous members and boy/girl themed projects. There will also be plenty of chances to win blog candy along the way! The button is posted on the sidebar of my blog, we hope to see you there! :)


Thanks so much for reading, enjoy the rest of your weekend!


Ashley