Warm Up With A Book!

Over the summer, I posted one of the bulletin boards I created for the children's department at the library where I work. It's definitely one of my favorite parts of my job, seeing as I get to put my craft side to good use. :) I put up this bulletin board a couple of days ago since the weather is getting chillier here and winter is fast approaching.

It's always fun trying to come up with an idea for a bulletin board and then utilizing the library's craft supplies to make it. For this bulletin board, I actually used the fire I used on the board I made over the summer (which you can view here). I like reusing creations myself or other coworkers have made because then they really get put to good use. The penguins are made from a clipart image I found online and colored with markers. I covered the background with blue paper and then added white paper on the bottom to look like snow.

Close-up of the cute snowmen border. The library has a really cute stock of borders to choose from. I'm still working on getting the paper flat, lol. It's a pain in the butt!

Close-up of one of the penguins. I tried my best to color well enough so the penguin didn't look like it was colored.

Close-up of the fire, made from tissue paper, gray construction paper and glitter. 

Thanks so much for reading, Happy Wednesday! :)

Ashley

Easy As 1, 2, 3! Challenge Card

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday weekend! I certainly enjoyed my break from schoolwork, although I'm not thrilled to pick up where I left off today. :/ At least this week's challenge is here to cheer me up! :) 


The challenge this week here at Made Especially For You is to create a card or scrapbook layout featuring '3' of something, whether it be ribbons, colors, papers, brads, etc. Click here to view the DT's awesome creations and also enter the challenge!


I created a simple card for the challenge this week, with the end of the semester workload increasing, it's been harder and harder to find time to craft. I can already tell I won't be sleeping much this week because of all the things I have to get done. Anyways, enough of my rambling, here's the card I made for the challenge:

  Left: Front view of the card                         Right: Side view of the card

I'm glad I'm finally getting the hang of taking better pictures! The lighting in my bathroom is actually fairly decent, and using white cardstock as both a vertical and horizontal backdrop helps a lot. 

I absolutely fell in love with the background paper when I first saw it at Michael's. I love the fun colors and stripes! It's been a while since I've made a bright card, so I was excited when I got to use it for the challenge. I used three circles as well as three rectangles to comply with the challenge. 

What I Used To Make The Card:

~ Background paper (sorry, I forgot the name! It's made by Recollections)

~ Blue, light pink, pink, purple & white cardstock paper

~ 1" circle punch

~ 'Just For You' stamp with black ink

~ Cuttlebug with the 'Spots n' Dots' embossing folder

~ Glue dots, paper trimmer & scissors

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope you play along with us! :)

Ashley

Sparkly Snowflake Ornaments

The weekly DT challenge over at Becky's Sweet Creations this week was to create an ornament. I just happened to be at Michael's the other evening when they had their special 25% off your entire purchase (including sale items!) sale from 4pm-9pm. Let's just say I spent a little more than I should have... :) While looking for something to inspire my ornament I found these super cute wooden snowflakes for only $1! Well, technically 75 cents since I got them 25% off. :) I found some winter-colored acrylic paint (only 69 cents) and painted them and then spruced them up with a bit of glitter.

The paint on the snowflake looks grey, but it's really blue. Take a look at the pictures below if you don't believe me! :)

I actually used two different color silver glitters for this snowflake. It's hard to tell in the picture, but you can sort of see it a little bit. :/

Other than a paint brush and an Elmer's glue pen, here's what I used to make the ornaments:

For the glitter, I used the colors 'Silver', 'Ocean', and 'Bling' For the acrylic paint, I used the colors 'Slate Grey' and 'Winter Blue.'

Here's a close-up of the actual paint color. See, I told you it was blue! :)

I'm so thankful for the wonderful ladies on my DT and also anyone who has supported my blog over the past six months or so. It's hard to believe how fast time has gone, and I'm so happy with the progress my blog has made. Thanks to everyone who has helped it grow! Have a very, very happy Thanksgiving. :)

Ashley

Education Cards & A Blog Candy Winner

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend and are enjoying the start of the holiday week! My creation for the Thanksgiving challenge this week was featured in the Give Thanks Blog Hop I participated in over this past weekend. You can view the card here. Unfortunately no more entries are being accepted for a chance to win the blog candy because... we have a winner!


Congratulations to Denise over at VinDeeLoo's This 'n That on winning 100 sheets of paper! I'll be contacting you shortly so you can claim your prize.


I recently participated in an Education Panel event at my college and was asked to make thank-you cards for the eleven teachers that were on the panel. I was so excited! Unfortunately I was asked a bit last minute and was in a time crunch, so I enlisted the help of my friend Tammy over at My Cricut Craft Chamber! Thanks so much Tammy for providing me with the adorable apples and chalkboards. :) Here are some pictures of the cards:

Close-up of the card. I found a black and white clipart picture of a ruler online and printed it on yellow-gold cardstock and then cut them all out by hand.

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Side view. There's a typed thank you message on the inside with either red or green background paper, I didn't have enough of either to fill all eleven cards so I made half of each.

All eleven of the cards

Thanks so much for reading! If you haven't already, stop by the 'Weekly Challenge' page to see some fabulous Thanksgiving projects created by the DT and also enter your Thanksgiving project for a chance to win some super cute clipart sets from MyGrafico!


Ashley

Give Thanks Blog Hop - Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of the Give Thanks Blog Hop! We're so happy to have you hopping along with us. :) If you came from Leah's blog, then you're in the right place! If you just came across the hop and would like to start at the beginning, please visit Denise's blog.


For the second day of the hop I created a simple Thanksgiving card. I normally don't use stickers or foam  pieces on my cards, but I couldn't pass up the bag of Thanksgiving-themed foam stickers at Michael's on clearance for only $1.50. Aren't they adorable?!

What fun is a blog hop without blog candy?! I'll be giving away the following 100 sheets of 6 x 6 inch assorted papers:

Top: 100 sheets of paper stacked

Bottom: Just some of the papers included in the 100 being given away!

Entering to win is simple! Here's what you have to do:

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

2.) 'Like' the Made Especially For You Facebook page

3.) Comment on a post either day of the hop with your contact information (you'll be entered a second time if you enter both days)

Thanks again for hopping along with us! Your next stop is Alina's blog.

Give Thanks Blog Hop - Day 1

Welcome to Day 1 of the Give Thanks Blog Hop! We're so happy to have you hopping along with us. :) If you came from Leah's blog, then you're in the right place! If you just came across the hop and would like to start at the beginning, please visit Denise's blog.

This hop is all about Thanksgiving and showing what we're thankful for! I created this 'give thanks' card for the hop and also for this week's DT challenge over at Becky's Sweet Creations. There's nothing like multitasking and killing two birds with one stone! :) 

The challenge was to use three buttons, ribbon, something gold and/or something Thanksgiving related. Perfect combination for this hop! :) The paper is 'Remember Souvenirs' by Recollections. The buttons are random buttons I chose from my mom's sewing stash, I thought they matched the color combo nicely. The gold border is a vintage cut for the cuttlebug, and the border of the card is twisted ribbon. It was too wide (I think it was two inches wide) to use as a bow for the card, so I twisted it tightly and adhered it to the border of the card using glue dots. The stamp is obviously computer generated and printed on cream colored cardstock, with a dark green layer of cardstock behind it. 

What fun is a blog hop without blog candy?! I'll be giving away the following 100 sheets of 6 x 6 inch assorted papers:

Top: 100 sheets of paper stacked

Bottom: Just some of the papers included in the 100 being given away!

Entering to win is simple! Here's what you have to do:

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

2.) 'Like' the Made Especially For You Facebook page

3.) Comment on a post either day of the hop with your contact information (you'll be entered a second time if you enter both days)

Thanks again for hopping along with us! Your next stop is Alina's blog.

For a chance to win a free exploding box ornament kit from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff, create an exploding box and enter it into Made Especially For You's weekly challenge!

Exploding Box

The challenge this week here at Made Especially For You is to make an exploding box. You can enter the challenge by clicking here. I had never made (or even heard of) an exploding box before, and was actually really nervous about this challenge. I found this great tutorial that really helped me out. Thankfully, it was easier than I thought it would be!

Inside of the box. There are three different layers. I loved that the papers were so bold because then less embellishing was needed. When read clockwise, the inside says "snow."

This is what the box looks like all closed up. This is why I loved the double-sided paper! The outside of the box is different than the papers on the inside. Instead of using ribbon I tied the bow with lace, it gives it a more "wintery" feel. 

I made my first trip to the scrapbooking store Archiver's (aka: heaven) last week and found some really gorgeous winter-themed paper that I knew would be PERFECT for my exploding box. The paper is double-sided and fairly heavy. The papers are made by Little Yellow Bicycle. Here are the 6 (well, 12, if you count both sides) sheets I purchase to make my box. I was so excited about them I just had to make cute collages to show you! :)

Thanks for reading, we hope you play along with us! :)

Ashley