Made Especially For You

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Banner Bonanza Blog Hop Winners!

Thanks so much to all those who took the time to participate in our Banner Bonanza Blog Hop this past weekend! We had so much fun making our banners and hoped you had fun viewing them as well. :) Maybe you even found an idea or two you'd like to try!

Our winners from the hop are...

Drum roll please...

3 Girl Jam

$15 Gift Certificate

WINNER: SARAH

Miriam's Crafting Supplies

Choice of 10 Sets of Pearls

WINNER: YVONNE

Hot Berry Designs

$10 Gift Certificate

WINNER: LINDA

Close to My Heart Consultant - Lucy Kelleher

$10 Gift Certificate

*Please visit and "like" her Facebook page as well as leave a comment to be eligible to win*

WINNER: TONYA

Winners should email Ashley at especiallymadeblog@gmail.com no later than Tuesday February 19th to claim their prizes.

Thanks again to all who hopped! :)

Sunday, February 10, 2013

I'm a Paper Doll!

I'm super excited to announce that I am officially a member of The Paper Nest Dolls design team!

The Paper Nest is actually a scrapbooking store located in Fort Meyers, Florida, but recently the super awesome owner, Christine, took her love for her kids and drawing to the next level and started designing her own digital stamps! They are SO cute and so much fun to color. You'll be seeing them quite often here at Made Especially For You! AND guess what, they'll even be available in rubber at the end of this month! How exciting!

Right now all of The Paper Nest Dolls digis are available on Etsy, but soon they'll be available on their store website! I even have a special code for you to use to receive 20% off your entire purchase!

Leave the code "I love paper" in the notes section on Etsy when you make your purchase and you'll receive an invoice with 20% off your entire purchase.

Super easy and such a great deal!

Thanks so much for stopping by, make sure to give The Paper Nest Dolls a follow and check out their adorable images! You won't regret it, I promise. :)

Have a great week!

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Xmas Red Stickles Linky Party!

Looking for the Banner Bonanza Blog Hop?

Please click here :)

All that Stickles is having an Xmas Red linky party this week! One of the best colors to use on all those Valentine's Day projects you've been working on. :)

It even matches our logo! :)

For my DT project this week, I created a money envelope. Last weekend as part of the Whimsical Designs blog hop I shared Valentine's Day treat bags I made for a fundraiser I'm doing. That post can be found here. I sold the treat bags for $1 each at work, and they've been gone like crazy! 33 of them were gone in a matter of, like, two days. (I'm actually off to make more of them after this post. :)

Using the Artiste cartridge, I made a really simple envelope to place next to the treat basket where my coworkers could put their money:

I used Xmas Red Stickles to accent a few of the letters and also to trace the hearts. The 'Thank You' was cut from the Sweethearts cartridge.

To seal the envelope I used adhesive Velcro and also dotted the trim with some more Stickles.

The envelope and the treat bags!

And that's all there is to it! Simple quick and easy to make. :) We'd love for you to join the linky party! You can create ANY type of project as long as it has Xmas Red Stickles. Our monthly sponsors are Whimsical Designs, Bugaboo Images, SK Digis, Fresh Brewed Designs, Digital Delights by Louby Loo and Stinkin' Cute Paper Piecings.

The design team also has some great inspiration to share with you! See you there!

Friday, February 8, 2013

Banner Bonanza Blog Hop

Welcome to the Banner Bonanza Blog Hop!

We're so glad you could join us today! If you're looking to start at the beginning of the hop, you're in the right place. :)

Today we'd like to share with you a variety of home decoration banners created for a variety of occasions! We hope you take home some inspiration and maybe even go create a banner yourself. :)

I created a banner for the Super Bowl party we had at our house last weekend! I chose to use the teams' colors, of course, which were red/gold and purple/gold, and I was so happy I had a matching color combo to work with! My fear was that I'd get two teams that had clashing color combos lol.. oh, the life of a crafter. :)

The banner pieces were cut at 7" each from the Birthday Bash Cricut cartridge, and the letters were cut at 4" also from the same cartridge. I accented the letters with some Candy Cane & Purple Stickles to match the team colors. The ribbon used to hold it together is just your basic white satin 3/8 ribbon, purchased at Michael's.

Alongside the inner gold pennants are faux stitched with the Picket Fence distress marker by Tim Holtz. I thought it added a nice touch!

We also have some fabulous sponsors giving away prizes

to those who comment on every stop of the hop!

3 Girl Jam

$15 Gift Certificate

Miriam's Crafting Supplies

Choice of 10 Sets of Pearls

Hot Berry Designs

$10 Gift Certificate

Close to My Heart Consultant - Lucy Kelleher

$10 Gift Certificate

*Please visit and "like" her Facebook page as well as leave a comment to be eligible to win*

Winners will be randomly chosen and announced on Tuesday February 12th at Made Especially For You. To be eligible to win, you must do the following:

1. Become a follower of each blog in the lineup (if you aren't already)

2. Leave a comment on every stop of the hop

3. Be sure to leave your contact information!

Your next stop is Angela's blog!

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

1. Ashley - http://especiallymade.blogspot.com

2. Angela - http://crazy3monkeys.blogspot.com

3. Teresa - http://freshandrenewed.blogspot.com

4. Sandy - http://scrapbookblessings.blogspot.com

5. Ashley - http://thebloghopprincess.blogspot.com

6. Daphne - http://craftyscrapsofstuff.blogspot.com

7. Cicily - http://pinkdalmationscrapper.blogspot.com

8. An'Jenic - http://anjenicgibson.blogspot.com

9. Connie - http://conniecancrop.blogspot.com

10. Julie - http://jk-littlebitofbling.blogspot.com

11. Elecia - http://creationsby-kahaulani.blogspot.com

12. Lucy - http://love2createitall.com

13. Robin - http://cutonedesignsbyrobin.blogspot.com

14. Lori - http://www.scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com

Happy Hopping!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Whimsical Wednesday "Textiles" Challenge

Happy Hump Day! Today I'd like to share with you a card I made for this week's Whimsical Wednesday challenge over at Whimsical Designs.

The Challenge: Add ribbon, lace, twine, or any other type of textile to your project.

Using some fun crinkle ribbon from 3 Girl Jam, here's what I came up with:

The bird/banner die cut is cut at 3" from the Birthday Bash Cricut cartridge using some solid Recollections cardstock. The background paper is embossed with a cupcake folder using my Cuttlebug, and the sentiment is from the Everyday Sentiments stamp set - available at Whimsical Designs. The pearls are from my stash and I used 3 Girl Jam crinkle ribbon in the shades of Coral Crush & Aqua Splash, from the Caribbean Splash bundle.

Our sponsor for this week's challenge is:

Freckled Fawn

One lucky winner will receive a $20 gift certificate to their shop!

Thanks for reading! Make sure to stop by Whimsical Designs to see what other textured inspiration my DT ladies have created for you. :)

Saturday, February 2, 2013

All that Stickles!

Looking for the Whimsical Designs "Love" Blog Hop?

Please click here. :)

So... in the midst of everything else I've been working on (my challenge blog, other design teams I'm on, this blog, school, work, etc) I've also been preparing for the launch of my new creative blog, All that Stickles! Who doesn't love Stickles?! The idea for a blog designated to Stickles came to me while crafting and I could NOT shake the idea, so I made it reality! Now every week will feature a linky party using the specified color of Stickles AND weekly tip/techniques/tutorials for using Stickles from the design team! How cool!

Our first linky party is anything goes!

Link up ANY craft project made using ANY type of Stickles!

The linky party ends on Friday Feb. 7 at 11:00 PM US CST.

Here's a quick look at what I made for our first linky party:

And some close-ups:

I'm not going to go into much detail now about how I made these Super Bowl table decorations, because on Thursday February 6th, I'll be sharing with you how I made them as part of our Tip/Technique/Tutorial Thursday on the All that Stickles blog!

Make sure to stop by and check out more great DT inspiration!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Whimsical Designs "Love" Blog Hop

Hi and welcome to the Whimsical Designs "Love" Blog Hop!

If you've come from Shelly's blog, you're in the right place!. If you need to start at the beginning of the hop, please visit Whimsical Designs.

For today's hop project, I made some (okay when I say "some," I really mean 20... more on that later!) 1" by 10" Valentine's Day treat bags using the 'With Love' stamp set from Whimsical Designs!

These treat bags were SO fun to make! I started by filling them with Valentine's Day-themed M&M's (I was able to get about 30 in each bag) and then started on the toppers. The hearts are cut at 3" from Cricut Craft Room and then embellished along the edges with Flamingo Liquid Pearls. The twine is Trendy Twine (Maraschino, Pink Sorbet, & Blossom) and of course the sentiment and the little heart is from the 'With Love' stamp set. The bee is cut from Create a Critter 2 at 2" - I glittered the heart antennas with Star Dust Stickles and even used vellum for the wings, although that's a bit hard to see.

I actually ended up making 20 of these (took about a bag and a half of M&M's - not too bad) because I'm going to be selling them for a $1 at work for a fundraiser I have to do. I figured if I'm going to be asking for money I might as well give my coworkers some chocolate in return!