Happy Anniversary 2nd Challenge Card

I think I'm becoming addicted - to challenges! This is only my second challenge entry, but I can already tell it definitely won't be the last. Like last week, I entered the Mojo Monday challenge again, except this week they're playing for prizes! There's still a little time left to enter if you're interested, here's this week's sketch:

I've always wanted to incorporate triangles into one of my cards and also make a black and red card, so this was the perfect opportunity for both. It took me a while to think of, but here's what I came up with:

Here's some close ups of the card, you can view them larger by clicking on them. The left picture focuses on the embossing (Polka Dot embossing folder by Provo Craft) and the right picture focuses on the sentiment. 

This card was made using:
Paper: Red, white & black cardstock
Sentiment: 'Happy Anniversary' stamp with red ink
Embossing: Cuttlebug with Polka Dot embossing folder
Embellishments: White & red chipboard flower, black & white patterned adhesive ribbon
Basic Supplies: Paper trimmer, decorative scissors, black marker, Elmer's glue pen, adhesive dots

What are some of your favorite weekly challenges? Feel free to post links, I would love to take a look!


Also, if you have the time, please take a moment to answer the poll on the top left-hand side of the homepage. Thanks! :)


Ashley

Read S'more Books

Whew, these last few days have been a whirlwind of writing papers, memorizing algebra formulas, completing tedious homework assignments and working at the library. I've had this post planned since Saturday and am just now finding the time to post it. 


I thought I'd change things up a bit and show you one of my favorite parts of my job working in the children's department at the library: decorating my bulletin board! I'm responsible for changing the layout on this bulletin board every month or so, and I'm free to do whatever I want with it as long as it relates to reading. Usually I find a cute reading saying and come up with a layout that goes with the saying. For August, I decided to do an end-of-the-summer theme (what kid wants to think about going back to school?) and used the quote "Read S'more Books." 

For the fire, I roughly sketched the flames on red, orange and yellow construction paper and then wadded up pieces of tissue paper and glued them to the construction paper to give it a 3-D effect. I used gray construction paper for the rocks and added silver and gold glitter just for fun.

I created the raccoon based off of a clipart photo and traced him onto gray construction paper and then used a black marker for the stripes. I also attached googly eyes and shredded cotton balls to also give him a 3-D appearance. 

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the letters have red and gold glitter on them and are supposed to look like the smoke and embers that are being given off by the fire. The ideas are always portrayed a lot better in my mind then what they come out looking like. :)

I used black construction paper for the background and cut the edges of green poster paper for the grass, and then added a decorative border. As a future teacher, this is definitely something I always enjoy doing at my job and look forward to doing in my classroom. 

I'll be back to posting cards later this week, one is one that I miraculously had time to create during the past crazy week and the other is for another Mojo Monday challenge I'm entering. Hope you all are having a great week, thanks for stopping by! :)

Ashley

First Challenge Card!

I am finally entering my first challenge! I absolutely love all of the sketches over at Mojo Monday and this week I created a card to enter in their weekly challenge. Here's the sketch: 

And here's what I came up with:

I was just dying to use bold, bright colors, and I thought a birthday card for a toddler would be perfect. Here's what I used to make the card:


- White, red, blue, green and yellow cardstock
- Cuttlebug
- Polka dot embossing folder
- Present die cut
- White buttons
- iRock with white gems
- Yellow chipboard tag and black chipboard '3'
- 'You're' stamp in black ink


If you're ever in need of some inspiration, Mojo Monday has card sketches from the past three years to get you started. Whenever I suffer from "crafter's block," as I call it, I always rely on Mojo Monday. Each week they post a new sketch for their challenge and there's one winner for every 50 entries, I believe. Give it a try if you haven't already! :)


I'm off to go enter the challenge now, have a great night!


Ashley

Blog Awards & Recent Purchases

It's almost Friday! :) And I'm super excited because I just found out I don't have to work tomorrow! I thought I was scheduled to work an eight hour shift tomorrow, but fortunately, I was wrong! Now that I have extra free time that I wasn't planning on, I thought I'd share with you a couple of blog awards I received and also some recent purchases. 


Both of these awards came from Karen at her blog, Crafted With Love By Karen. If you have the time, make sure to stop by. Her projects are so cute and creative! :) Thanks again Karen for your generosity, it is greatly appreciated!

Although I haven't been crafting much lately, I definitely have been doing a little shopping. There's nothing I love more than browsing the aisles at Michael's and Hobby Lobby to see what's on sale and on on clearance. I found some great buys this week:

40% off at Michael's

255 adhesive frames and photo corners on clearance at Michael's for only $1.99! They're super cute and came in a lot of fun colors. The left picture shows the front of the package and the right picture shows the back, I had no idea there were more on the other side when I first picked up the package, such a nice surprise! :)

I couldn't believe it what I was seeing when I first saw this Chipboard Chunk package on the clearance rack at Michael's. It was originally priced at $19.99... and I got it for $4.99! It has over 1000 chipboard pieces that range from alphabets to tags to fun seasonal shapes. Such a great find!

I also had Borders bookstore gift card that I had to use (it only had about $10 on it) and since the Borders in my town went out of business, I had to spend it online. While browsing their site, I found a pleasant surprise: they sell scrapbooking supplies! They had everything from stickers to embellishments to Cricut cartridges to Cuttlebug dies and embossing folders. With the gift card, I got both of these for a total of $7, and tested them out to share with you guys: 

If you click on any of the images, they'll open up so you can see them in a larger view. I couldn't have them extra large within the post because they would've been too big and "overflowed" onto the sides of my blog.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by, have a great weekend!

Ashley

Circles Go On Forever

I've been wanting to make a black & white card for a while now but couldn't come up with an idea for one.   I finally found some inspiration with the quote "If you love someone, put their name in a circle instead of a heart because hearts can break but circles go on forever." I wanted the card to have an elegant, romantic-feel but not include any hearts. Here's what I came up with:

I created the card so that it can read many ways: always love true, forever love deepest, always love deepest, true love forever, and true love is deepest. 

It's hard to tell in the other pictures, but the black border is embossed using the D'vine Swirl folder. 

Here's what I used to make the card:

- Black & white cardstock

- Black & white patterned paper from The Classics by The Paper Studio

- Cuttlebug

- D'vine Swirl embossing folder

- Alphabet stamps

- Black and white ink

- Paper trimmer

- Elmer's glue pen

- iRock with white & black gems

- White flower embellishments

This is on the top inside of the card. The original picture had too many shadows so I cropped it to just show the quote.

Here's the bottom of the inside of the card.

Close-up of the flower embellishment. I actually colored the gem black with a permanent marker because all I had were white ones.

I feel like I'm always saying this, but, the next two weeks are going to be extremely crazy for me with the end of summer classes and my work schedule. I'm going to try and craft whenever I can squeeze it in, but I have a feeling I won't have too much spare time. Once my break between summer and fall classes starts I'll definitely be crafting as much as I can so I always have something to post.

I hope you all had a great weekend, thanks for stopping by and for the support! :)

Ashley

First Cuttlebug Card :)

Hope you all are having a great day! I didn't have to work or go to class today, so I've been enjoying my day off by catching up on some things around the house and of course, crafting. :) This is the first card I've made using my cuttlebug, I incorporated both die cuts and embossing. Because stamps are too expensive for me (I only work part-time and put at least half of my paycheck into my savings account) I can't afford to  start a stamp collection just yet, so the sayings on the front of my cards are usually pretty basic. I don't always like the way typed quotes look on the front of the card, so I plan on investing in some fun stickers and chipboard letters to make up for it. :) I'd also like to purchase a C plate for my Cuttlebug so that I can buy some Sizzlits alphabet die cuts. Enough of my rambling, here's the card: 

Here's what I used to make the card:
- Willow Flowers paper by The Paper Studio
- Light blue, brown, pink and white card stock
- Light purple origami paper
- iRock with white gemstones
- Cuttlebug
- Asterisks die cut
- D'vine swirl embossing folder
- Paper trimmer
- Elmer's glue pen
- "Cloud" decorative scissors 
- Get well soon word stamps in blue ink 


My work and class schedule is fairly light these next few days (finally) so I plan on getting a lot of card making done so that I have cards ready for posting the days I'm super busy during the next 2 weeks. It's the last two weeks of my summer classes and a heavy work schedule, and then finally I'll have a 17 day break before the fall semester starts. :) I just hope I have enough time during the school year for crafting!


Thanks for stopping by!


Ashley

100 Follower Giveaway!

Check out Michelle's awesome 100 follower giveaway at scrappinforkenzie. Be sure to look at her creations as well, they're amazing! :)