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

Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop Winner

And the winner is... Sue from Sue in CT! Congratulations, Sue! I will be contacting you shortly, you will have one week to claim your prize before it is awarded to another participant. 

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our hop, it means a lot that you helped support such a great cause. Have a great night!


Ashley

16 Rubber Stamps for $5!

Hi everyone! Just a quick post today. Thanks to everyone who participated in the Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop! I'll announce the winner of my blog candy on Monday. :)

Today I wanted to share with you a recent crafty purchase. I love doing reviews and wish I got to do more, but unfortunately my budget just doesn't allow for it. :( I was at Michael's the other night and couldn't pass this deal up - 16 rubber stamps along with red and green glitter glue AND ink for only $5!! It was originally $10 but on sale for 50% off. It's a Christmas-themed set made by Recollections.

This is the same set - notice the 8 different stamps on each side! The glitter glue and ink are on top.

Because they're usually so expensive, I don't have very many rubber stamps or ink. So when I saw this I definitely couldn't pass it up, especially since they can be used on Christmas cards I'm making for my coworkers. I also plan on making some fun, Christmas-themed tags with them. :)

Has anyone else seen or purchased this set at their local Michael's?

Have a great weekend!

Ashley

Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop

Hello crafty friends! Thank you for joining for our Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop. You will see great projects and read about some of our personal experiences with Epilepsy. Epilepsy is a medical condition that produces different types of seizures. Epilepsy affects 50 million people worldwide. If you would like to read more information about Epilepsy you can go to the Epilepsy foundation online at: www.epilepsyfoundation.org 


If you came from Holley's blog, you're in the right place! If you just came across the hop and would like to participate, here's the complete lineup:


Holley @ Holley's Blog
Ashley @ Made Especially For You                 <---------- You Are Here
Jessica @ Can You Pixel This
Lora @ Notes From The Scrapbooklady
Michelle @ Crafty Chelle
Rexann @ I Be Circled
Lisa @ Scrapping with Lisa
Zenita @ Scrappin' with Z
Sher @ Patterns by Sher


While I personally do not have Epilepsy, I know of people who do, including a cousin who sometimes suffers from epileptic seizures. I joined this hop because I wanted to help promote Epilepsy awareness and felt this was a great way to do so. 


For the hop, I made an Epilepsy awareness card. If you couldn't tell already, the color for Epilepsy awareness is purple, so I made a primarily purple card.

The card is 5 in x 5 in. I embossed the border with the D'vine Swirl embossing folder and then went over the swirls with an Elmer's glue pen and sprinkled silver glitter, creating my own glitter glue. I also glittered the chipboard letters myself (which are actually a royal purple, not black) and added the purple awareness ribbon and a few rhinestones to match the silver in the border.

This pictures provides a much better perspective of the chipboard letters. You can actually tell they're purple and not black. 

What fun is a blog hop without blog candy?! I'll be giving away the following purple goodies:

What's Included: 28 sheets of 6 x 6 patterned purple paper (4 of each shown in the picture), 2 spools of purple ribbon, purple glitter glue and purple ink by Studio G, 8 adhesive border frames, 6 purple heart punches and assorted purple chipboard pieces. 

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

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

2.) Leave a comment on this post with your contact information

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

And that's it! The winner will be chosen via Random.org and announced on Monday November 14th along with the new weekly challenge. If you haven't already, stop by the 'Weekly Challenge' page and play along with us! This week's challenge is to create a card based off a PageMap sketch. We'd love to have you. :)

You're next stop is Jessica's blog! Thanks for hopping along with us and showing your support for not only our blogs but for epilepsy awareness as well. 

Ashley

Tri-Fold Card

Hi everyone! I hope you all are having a great week. My stress level has been absolutely through the roof lately, so it's been hard to find craft. When I do have the time, though, it definitely makes for a good stress reliever. 

The weekly DT challenge over at Becky's Sweet Creations this week is to create a tri-fold card. I've only made one tri-fold card before, and that was for the Becky's Sweet Creations Boy/Girl Blog Hop I participated in about a month ago. I actually used the same template from that card to make this card, which you can view here. The only difference is that this time I made my tri-fold card horizontal instead of vertical, which is something I personally have never seen done before.

I had to put this card together rather quickly, as I've been swamped with everything and am slowly starting to fall behind my crafting schedule. :( The card was inspired from the polka dot paper that is used as the outside of the card. From there I just found whatever supplies I could that matched the colors of the polka dots, and just went with the flow from there. 

View of the bottom of the card. The blue paper is embossed with a mini flower embossing folder with my Cuttlebug. I left a blank yellow space at the bottom where a message could be written.

The letters are from a scrapbook kit I won a few months ago, unfortunately for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. It's a really cute kit that came with a lot of fun colored paper and embellishments. The flower stickers came from there as well. 

Outside of the card. I tied green ribbon around it to help keep it closed and to also give it a "present" appearance since it's a birthday card. I'm terrible at tying bows... I'm working on it!

I'm really sorry about the poor quality of these pictures. It's been non-stop cloudy for a few days now and because of that I havent' had any natural sunlight to take the pictures near. The lighting in my house is terrible for pictures and I take them with the camera on my iPod. Over winter break one of my goals is to come up with a spot for all of my craft pictures to be taken so that they actually look nice. Thanks for bearing with me. :) 

Thanks so much for reading! If you haven't already, take a moment to stop by the Weekly Challenge page to enter this week's PageMap sketch challenge. Our sponsor is giving away a great prize! 


Happy Wednesday! :)


Ashley

PageMap Sketch Challenge

Made Especially For You's weekly challenge this week is to create a card based off a PageMap sketch. I had a lot of fun creating this card, as I love being inspired by sketches and already having a "foundation" for the card, yet being able to make it completely my own. I stuck with the sketch and turned it into a birthday card.

Materials:

- Dark purple, light purple, pink, red, yellow and brown cardstock

- Polka dot patterned cardstock

- Purple and black ink

- 'Happy Birthday' sentiment (clear stamp)

- 3 wood circles covered in yellow, blue and orange tissue paper

- Cuttlebug with 'D'vine Swirl' and 'Spots 'n Dots' embossing folders

- Red, brown, pink and gold glitter

- Elmer's glue pen

- Adhesive dots

The card is based off the following PageMap sketch:

Click here to enter this week's challenge! We'd love to have you play along with us. :)

Thanks so much for all of your support and taking the time to read! Stop by again this friday, November 11th, and support the Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop. Blog candy included! :)

Ashley

Blue, Green and Pink Challenge

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to announce that Made Especially For You will now have weekly challenges open for all bloggers to enter! This week's challenge is to create a card or scrapbook layout using the colors blue, green and pink. Click here to enter. The challenge is sponsored by Ready, Set, Create! and the winner will receive a one year free subscription to their magazine! We hope you play along with us. :)


Here's my challenge creation:

Ashley