Digi Haven Challenger's Choice

We know how much our Digi Haven challenge participants love using free digis, so this week we're giving them their choice of ANY free digi that's free during the duration of the challenge! :) For the design team, on the other hand, we all used the same porcupine(?) image on our cards this week.

I'll admit this card was a challenge to make since I had no idea what kind of occassion this digi could be used for, so I made it sans sentiment and gave it a feminine feel by using floral background paper. This little guy is just too cute! Even though I have no idea what kind of animal he is... lol. :)

Sadly, this is my last challenge as a Digi Haven design team member. While I had full intentions of staying on the team for a much longer period of time, my school/work schedule this semester is a heavy load and I didn't want to take the chance of becoming an MIA design team member. Already after the first week of classes I'm pretty stressed, so I feel I made the right decision. It's been a pleasure being on the team and I will definitely come and visit! :)

Have a fantastic weekend!

Ashley

Stamping with Dragon Birthday Challenge!

Stamping with Dragon is having a birthday challenge this week! The sponsor is Whoopsi Daisy and they generously provided images for the design team to work with. How could you not love this cute, little cupcake baker?! :)

She was colored with Prismacolor pencils and was placed on some fun die cuts from the Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge. She was fun to color and I'm glad I finally had an image to use with that paisley background paper I've had forever! :)

I'm sad to announce that this is my last challenge as a Stamping with Dragon design team member. I have loved being on the team these past three months and will miss everyone and creating for the blog, although I do hope to participate in challenges when I can. I'm a full-time student studying to become an elementary school teacher and due to my crazy busy schedule this semester I do not want to take the chance of becoming an uncommitted design team member. Thank you so much for allowing me to join your team!

A Good Life

This week's WYEGW at My Cricut Craft Room is all about using the shadow feature on a Cricut cartridge. For my project, I decided to use this adorable lady bug from the Create a Critter cartridge, which actually isn't the main image on the page (if you look at the back of the box it's not on there), which is the whole purpose of WYEGW. :)

Along with the Create a Critter cartridge, I also used Artiste and Elegant Edges. Artiste was used to make the actual card with the rounded corners, along with the 3D flower. Even though there isn't a shadow feature on Elegant Edges, I gave the scalloped shape a shadow just to go along with the theme. :) The background paper is from the Recollections 'Bold Basics' stack and the solid card stock papers are Recollections as well.

Stop by My Cricut Craft Room to see the other design team members' wonderful projects!

Movie Night Invitation

For this week's paper piecing challenge here at Made Especially For You, I decided to make an invitation to invite you all to the launch of my brand-new challenge blog, Red Carpet Studio! 

Red Carpet Studio is a movie-inspired challenge blog that will feature alternating card and layout challenges, all inspired by movies or aspects of Hollywood! Our first challenge starts this Sunday, September 2nd, and we'll be kicking it off with a premiere party! Those who attend the party will receive exclusive, free downloads from our sponsors, get a sneak peek at our upcoming challenges, and get to see some awesome movie projects created by the design team! The fun starts Friday August 31st and ends Sunday September 2nd with the start of the first challenge.

Using the Movie Night pattern from Scraptastical Kreations, I created this movie night invitation:

I cut the ticket using the Artiste cartridge along with the 090212 numbers, which spells out the date of the first challenge. ;) The 'You're Invited To A Movie Night' were also cut with the Artiste cartridge. The popcorn was paper pieced from the Scraptastical Kreations pattern and I used a white gel pen to faux stitch around the edges. This was my first time paper piecing and I really enjoyed it! 

I hope you join us for this week's challenge and stop by the premiere party! :)

Days Gone By

This week's challenge at Digi Haven is all about using a freebie vintage digital stamp on your project! Vintage cards simply terrify me because vintage is definitely not my style. I am so jealous of those who can pull off making beautiful vintage cards because I'm certainly not one of them! My style is definitely very modern, so I knew this challenge would be an actual challenge for me.

I used this freebie Drummer Boy image from Free Digital Vintage Stamps, which is a great place to go if you are ever looking for vintage stamps! They have a wide variety to choose from.

I used the most "vintagey" paper I could find in my collection, which turned out to be the perfect paper to match the digi. The sentiment is computer-generated and the buttons are from an old button stash, you should see some of the vintage buttons in there!

Thanks so much for reading, have a great weekend!

Ashley

Stamping with Dragon Back to School Challenge

Stamping with Dragon is having a back to school challenge! The winner will receive their choice of four images from Stamping Dragon Designs.

It's hard to believe it's already time to go back to school! I start my fall courses next week (I'm studying to become an elementary school teacher) and while I'm excited for a new set of classes, I've definitely enjoyed having the summer off and more time for crafting. :) Time management will definitely be key this semester.

I created this card using the Jiggy Back to School image along with patterned paper from the DCWV High School mat stack. I also added a chipboard apple that I painted to match the maroon/burgundy/dark red color in the argyle paper.

Come join us in this week's challenge!

Three Pearls Challenge

This week's challenge at Made Especially For You is to create a card using three pearls. 

The nurse bear (from Bugaboo) is colored with Prismacolor pencils and distressed with red ink. The background is embossed with a floral Cuttlebug embossing folder and I added the pearls and some red ribbon from my stash. I like making CAS cards every once in a while!

Our sponsor this week is Bugaboo Stamps, and they graciously allowed each design team member to choose an image to use on their card. The winner of the challenge will win their choice of seven images from their store.

Come play along with us! :)

The Letter of The Day Is... H!

Every Monday at My Cricut Craft Room the design team creates projects inspired by the Letter of The Day. Today's Letter is H, and I'm excited to share with you the Halloween card I made!

This was the first Halloween card I made this year, and it left me feeling anxious to make more Halloween crafts! The ghost is cut from the 3 Birds on Parade cartridge (which is why it has feet). The background paper is Recollections and the stamp was found in the $1 bin at Michael's. I distressed the stamp and the background paper with black ink and then added black ribbon as an accent.

Stop by the blog to see the other projects the design team made to share with you!

Letting Kids Be Kids

This week's challenge at Digi Haven is all about kids!

Use any Free Interactive "Children doing something" Digital Image. As an example, a child walking a dog, smelling a flower, eating a piece of cake, praying, watering the garden, flying a kite ... etc. The images can be a forever freebie, limited time freebie or freebie of the month as long as it's free for the duration of this challenge. This Challenge ends on Thursday and the winners will be posted on Sunday.

I created a cute and simple easel card using a forever freebie found here of a boy catching a butterfly:

This was my first time coloring a boy digi and I love how the blue/yellow/green color combo turned out. It was also fun making an easel card rather than a typical square/rectangular card. The digi is colored with Prismacolor pencils.

Stop by Digi Haven to see the other design team member's creations and join us for this week's challenge! As a side note...

Starting in September Digi Haven will have a new challenge schedule. We will have a month long "anything goes" free digi challenge and two "themed" digi challenges that will last two weeks.

Have a great weekend!

Ashley

Anything But A Square or Rectangle...

...completely terrifies me! For someone who has only been making cards for a little over a year now, I hardly ever make shaped cards. Up until the past couple of months, I wasn't really able to anyways because I didn't have the materials to do so. Now that I have added a couple of Cricut cartridges to my collection that have the capability of making shaped cards, I'm slowly beginning to make some. :)

Anyways! This week's challenge at Stamping with Dragon is to create anything but a square or rectangle. I chose to use the Penny with Butterflies image to create my shaped card. The card is actually held together with a pink brad so that it can swing to the side to open and close.

I couldn't embellish the inside of the card too much because any 3D embellishments would have given the front of the card an awkward shape. The shape of the card was made using the Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge - perfect for creating shaped cards of all shapes and sizes!

Come join us for this week's challenge at Stamping with Dragon!

Have a crafty day!

Ashley

Thursday Craft 'n Chat - Scrapping On the Go

Good morning. My name is Tiare aka Classygirl and I am coming to you from the blog, iClassygirl.com!  I am very happy to be here today and to share this project with the Made Especially for You Blog Readers.

Today, I'd like to share a very simple technique I enjoy using to keep me organized and keep me creating at home or on the go.  It's a little something I like to call AnyTime, AnyWhere Scrapbooking.  It allows me to get may pages done quickly, easily and beautifully. I'll sum it up for you in three words: "page kits and sketches."

It's simple. I shop. I organize my supplies into page kits.  I grab my book of sketches. I grab a kit.  I create.  At any given time I have at least 20 pages kits put together and I'm ready to go!  Ask me to crop and I'm there!

What is a page kit you ask?  And how do I put one together?

Here is a page kit...it includes card stock, matching patterned paper, coordinating embellishments and photos.  

Not sure how to put a page kit together? You can check out my quick tutorial video here.

Next, I grab a sketch, based on the number of photos I want to use.

Now, it's time to create.  With my inspiration piece in hand and my kit..it only took me about 35 minutes to put this layout together!  Woohoo!

Supplies Used: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics; Patterned Paper: Scenic Route; Flowers: Prima;
Title Letters: American Crafts; Dragon Fly: Making Memories; Flourish: Recollections

Thank you so much for stopping by and thank you to MEFY for having me over for the Thursday Chat!  I appreciate new friends and comments at my blog http://www.iclassygirl.com.   I'd love to see your creations using this sketch. Please stop by and share on my blog HERE and you'll be entered to win a great prize!

Thanks again and I plan to stop by again, soon with some altered art, card and layout tutorials!

Have a CRAFTY day!

Go Fish Summer Photo Challenge

Happy Wednesday! Go Fish Challenge Blog is having a summer photo inspiration challenge from the 15th of August through the end of the month, and a new challenge will begin on September 1st. Here's a closer look at the challenge:

This photo is absolutely gorgeous and there are so many different way to be inspired by it! One of the first thing I always do when creating projects for photo inspiration challenges is look at the colors and see if I have matching papers in my stash, and then I go from there and try to implement other aspects of the photo as well. Here's what I came up with:

I used the colors from the photo to create a beach-themed card and on the bottom tan portion of the card I embossed it and then used white glitter to make it look like sand. :) I love the way it turned out!

Stop by Go Fish to see what other summery creations the design team has for you, we would love if you played along with us!

Ashley

Thinking of You at My Cricut Craft Room

We're thinking of you during today's Card Creating Tuesday at My Cricut Craft Room! The design team has created some wonderful 'thinking of you' cards to share with you, so make sure you stop by and take a peek!

My card was the first card I made using the brand-newArtiste cartridge - it's definitely a must-have cartridge! There are so many different 3D projects, cuts, phrases, and even a font set! It's a bit costly but definitely worth the investment. :)

The papers are from the CTMH Pemberley paper pack and the 3D flower was made using the Artiste cartridge. The 'thinking of you' sentiment is from my stash, I believe it was a $1 stamp at Michael's (my favorite!). The scalloped shape was cut using the Elegant Edges cartridge.

Thanks so much for stopping by, Happy Card Creating Tuesday!

Ashley

Back to School Blog Hop Winners!

Thanks so much to all those who participated in our Back to School Blog Hop this past weekend! 

Here are the winners from the hop:

Paper Piecings by Nikki

$15 Gift Certificate

WINNER: BEVERLY

Scraptastical Kreations

$20 Gift Certificate

WINNER: SARAH B.

The Stamping Boutique

3 images of the winner's choice

WINNER: ANGELA

Please email Ashley at especiallymadeblog@gmail.com no later than Saturday August 18th to claim your prize.

Thanks again to all our hoppers! See you during next month's hop! :)

Oh Happy Day!

And what a happy day it is! I'm very happy to say my crafty mojo has returned and I'm back to crafting regularly and working on my blogs. I hope it had a nice vacation because I sure didn't, lol! I made this card for this week's sketch challenge here at Made Especially For You to get myself back in the game. :)

The challenge this week is to create a card inspired by this lovely sketch:

And here's my take:

The papers are from the DCWV 'All Dressed Up' mat stack and the twine, ribbon, and fabric flower are all from my stash. The 'Oh Happy Day' sentiment came in the Artiste bundle from Close To My Heart. In the second photo you can see the white swirls of the paper were glittered, so I created a similar effect around the entire white border of the card by creating my own glitter glue. I think I'll be featuring a tutorial on how to make a tutorial on one of our upcoming Thursday Craft 'n Chat segments. :)

This week's challenge is Meljen's Designs, and one lucky winner will receive four non-colored images of their choice from the store. Don't forget that all challengers have a chance to be in the top three!

Stop by the Weekly Challenge page to see what inspiration the design team has for you this week!

Have a great week!

Ashley