Anything Goes at Go Fish!

This week's challenge at Go Fish Challenge Blog is anything goes! Create any project you'd like and submit it for a chance to win a Darice embossing folder!

For today's anything goes challenge I created an exploding box using my good ol' Peachy Keen Stamps.

The snowmen are cut from the Stretch Your Imagination at 3" and the snowflakes are cut at 2" from the Winter Lace cartridge. The actual exploding box is cut from the Artiste cartridge to fit a 12 x 12 piece of scrapbook paper. I embellished the snowflakes with Stickles and also added some ribbon, pearls, and bling to give their bases some flair.

Hope to see you join us in this week's challenge!

3D Halloween Coffin

When I found out the next challenge over at the Go Fish Challenge Blog was going to be to create a 3D Halloween item, I knew just what to make for my design team project!

I've been eyeing this fun 3D coffin in the Artiste handbook for quite some time now, and couldn't wait to finally make it. It was actually a lot simpler to make then I thought it was going to be. :)

The skeleton is cut from the Artiste cartridge as well, I cut him out and then adhered him to black cardstock so that he was all one piece, and then cut around the black cardstock leaving a tiny layer around the skeleton. He's laying on a bed of Reese's peanut butter cups - I was originally going to make these for the 25 third graders I'm student teaching this semester, but because October is such a busy month for me I just don't have enough time, and think I'm going to make a simpler treat bag instead. 

The RIP letters are actually cut from the Pooh Font Cartridge (about as far away from scary as you can get) but they were the "spookiest" letters I had, and didn't want to use just a plain font. The coffin itself is cut from gray cardstock and measures at about 6 inches long and 1.5 inches high. It's inked with Tim Holtz distress ink in Black Soot to give it a spookier, aged effect. I'm so happy with the way it turned out!

Stop by Go Fish to check out the other 3D Halloween projects made by the design team!

Thanks so much for reading!

Ashley

October Button Calendar

Happy Monday! Today I'd like to share with you a project I made for the new GoFish! challenge... create a project using buttons.

I love buttons and really don't use them often enough, so this challenge was a great way to use up some of my stash! I made this cute button calendar inspired by an idea I saw on Pinterest.

The calendar base itself is made out of a shoe box lid that I painted black with acrylic paint. :) Definitely an inexpensive project and one that I already had the materials for! The 'October' letters are stamped on 0.25" circles that I cut with my Cricut, and the numbers are handwritten on green and purple cardstock circles, also cut at 0.25" with my Cricut. They fit perfectly inside of the buttons. The Halloween-themed papers are from the DCWV Halloween & Fall paper pad. 

Thanks so much for reading! I'd love if you played along in this week's GoFish challenge. :)

Ashley

Go Fish 1 Year Anniversary Challenge!

Looking for the Fall Ball Blog Hop? Please click here.

Congratulations to the Go Fish Challenge Blog on their one year anniversary! They have had some great challenges this past year and I'm so excited to keep designing for them! In honor of their anniversary, their current challenge is to create an anniversary card... CAS style (clean and simple). 

Using my Cuttlebug, Cricut Expression and the Artiste cartridge, I created this simple anniversary card.

I never realized how challenging it could be to make a clean and simple card! Not that my cards are usually overflowing with details, but still! After making embellished cards so continuously it was hard to resist throwing on some pearls and flowers, but I succeeded. 

Come play along with us!

Ashley

GoFish! Back to School Challenge

Whew! As much as I love back to school, it sure can be stressful! My classes for this semester started this week and boy, it's definitely overwhelming! I know after about a week or two I'll get a routine down pat and everything will be okay, but for now it's just a lot of information to take in. Lucky for me, I was able to take a break from worrying about everything and make this cute and simple back to school card for the back to school challenge at GoFish Challenge Blog.

The challenge is to make a card or layout inspired by this sketch:

I used the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge to cut the school bus, and the sentiment is computer-generated. The black and white star flags are actually adhesive ribbon I have in my stash, and I thought it helped tie the card together nicely.

This challenge runs from September 1st - September 14th, come join us!

Back to School Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Back to School Blog Hop, brought to you by the fabulous design teams of Made Especially For You and the GoFish Challenge Blog!

These two design teams have joined together to bring you some fun and crafty inspiration to help you get started on those back to school projects! If you've just come across the hop and would like to start at the beginning, please visit Made Especially For You.

I got my Artiste cartridge a couple of weeks ago and knew right away I wanted to use it to make a fun project for this hop. I make cards all the time, which I love, but every once in a while it's fun to make something different, don't ya think? I had never made a 3D project using my Cricut and I knew this was the time to give it a try. I decided to make a snack bag (similar to a lunch bag) that could be used for a kid to bring his or her snack to school. 

I used the Create a Critter cartridge to cut the apple and the Pooh Font Set cartridge to cut the letters. I cut four of each letter and layered them with sticky dots and then covered them with glossy accents. I addd the dots on the scalloped part of the bag with a white gel pen, and the bag is made out of Kraft cardstock. 

I realize that my alignments aren't 100% perfect, I was slightly off on scoring the fold of the bag and I didn't score the insides hard enough to where they folded nicely, I had to use a little elbow grease to get those to fold, but other than that, I'm really happy with how it turned out!

We have some wonderful sponsors giving away prizes to those who comment on EVERY stop of the hop! Let's see what they have to offer...

Paper Piecings by Nikki

$15 Gift Certificate

Scraptastical Kreations

$20 Gift Certificate

The Stamping Boutique

3 images of the winner's choice

You must comment on every stop of the hop to be eligible to win a prize. Hoppers have through Sunday August 12th to comment. Winners will be randomly chosen and announced on Made Especially For You on Tuesday August 14th. 

Your next stop is C's blog.

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

Ashley - http://especiallymade.blogspot.com

C - http://www.tradefishdesigns.com

Laura - http://scrappinaroundtheclock.blogspot.ca/

Kate - http://scrapperscreativecorner.blogspot.com

Jessica - http://craftinandstampin.blogspot.com/

Amy - http://amyscraftingspace.blogspot.com/

Kathy - http://letsgetscrappytogether.blogspot.com/

Pam - http://scrappinfabpam.blogspot.com/

Nancy - http://thetrinketcollector.blogspot.com/

Cyndy - http://arcyscraps.blogspot.com/

Sarah - http://www.mypaperpie.blogspot.com/

Robin - http://www.thecricutscrapper.blogspot.com/

Eileen - http://www.scrappingactuary.blogspot.com/

Karen - http://simplyfrenzied-karen.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much for hopping along with us!

GoFish! Shape Challenge

GoFish is back with another fun, bi-monthly challenge! This challenge is all about shapes. 

Now, I'll admit that shaped cards scare me since I'm so used to and comfortable with regular square/rectangular cards. I didn't go out of my comfort zone and make a shaped card for this challenge (although I did for a future challenge for another DT I'm on, so stay tuned for that project!) but I did find a way to incorporate both circles and triangles onto my card. 

This photo has the most accurate lighting, for some reason when I use yellow the background of my photo turns yellowish and no matter what I do I can never fix it!

I love how fun and cheery the colors in this card are! The papers are from an Echo Park summer-themed paper pad, I can't remember the title off the top of my head. The flowers were punched with a 1" flower punch and then I used ink daubers to give them their color, and added a button in each of their centers. The triangular banner was created using a cut from the Destinations Cricut cartridge and hung on some pink and white twine, although it's hard to see the twine in the picture. The 'just for you' stamp is from my stash and I layered it with dark pink paper to match the background paper. I had a lot of fun making the card and was pleased with the result.

Head on over to the GoFish! Challenge Blog to submit your projects featuring shapes and see what else the design team has in store for you! And if you're not busy next Friday (August 10th) make sure to stop by Made Especially For You for a fun, back to school themed blog hop that the MEFY design team is co-hosting with the GoFish design team! 

GoFish! Christmas in July Challenge

Looking for the Fun In The Sun Beach Blog Hop? 

Please click here.

It's Christmas over at the GoFish Challenge Blog! This week's challenge is all about creating a Christmas in July project. I chose to make a card for this challenge - what a surprise :) - seeing as cards are my specialty and even though the year is going by super fast, I still felt it was a little early to be making Christmas decorations. A card on the other hand.. that, I can handle. :)

My favorite part about this card is most definitely the Christmas tree. The tree and it's shadow were cut from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge, but rather than using the layers from the cartridge to embellish the tree... I decorated it myself! Using scraps from the background paper (which is from the All Seasons Recollections paper pad) I used a hole punch to cut the ornaments cut little pieces of ribbon to use as garland. I added some gold glitter to the star and before I knew it my tree was decorated! I actually really love the way it turned out and am considering doing something similar for the holiday cards I'm going to be making for my coworkers later this year. :) The sentiment is sort of hard to read in the picture but it's actually fairly clear in person. It was my first time stamping the sentiment directly onto the card and I had to give it a try.

Stop by the GoFish Challenge Blog to see what other Christmasy creations the design team has made for you to help you get inspired to enter the challenge!

Ashley

GoFish! Patriotic Challenge

Happy Friday! It's been one of those weeks where I cannot wait for the weekend - I have the entire weekend off work for the first time in a while and am looking forward to working ahead on some cards and getting some other stuff done around the house, not to mention celebrating Father's Day. :)

The card I'm going to be sharing with you today is my first card as a design team member on the GoFish! Challenge blog. How exciting! If you've never heard of GoFish! before, they post a new challenge on the 1st and 15th of every month and all projects are welcome as long as they fit the theme of the challenge. Winners are chosen from each challenge and receive a prize from the challenge sponsor. Check out this week's challenge:

As I work ahead on creating cards for the design teams I'm on it seems like there's A LOT of 4th of July/patriotic challenges coming up! Luckily they're super fun to make, otherwise I would not be a happy crafter, LOL. Here's a look at the patriotic card I made for this week's challenge:

The adorable owl digi was given away as a freebie during Jaded Blossom's Customer Blog Hop about a month ago. It was too cute to pass up! They gave away a couple of other fun freebies, and if you like what you see, they're sponsoring this GoFish! Challenge, so make sure to submit a project for a chance to win!

Thanks so much for stopping by, have an awesome weekend and a Happy Father's Day!

Ashley