Come to My Pad Card

Here is another card I made using the heat embossing technique. This is my second card using it. I really like it! Now just to master it! ;-)




I stamped the lily flower using the versa mark stamp pad and the sprinkled black embossing powder (reflections brand)over it, dusted the excess off and then heated it up to its glossy shine. I used Copic markers to color it in. (sorry don't remember which colors I used but the actual color is the purple above.)




In this picture you can see the shine of the embossing powder. I don't know why the picture came out more pink than purple though.





I used SU's olive ink to stamp the lily pad onto the white card stock and used pop dots to place the lily flower on top of the lily pad. The stamp set is from The Stamps of Life - "lily4me". I also added some purple twine from The Twinery.

Hope you like my card!

Happy Crafting!

~Michelle

**Announcing** CSDivas' Newest DT Member

We are so excited to announce that the Creative Scrapbooking Divas have added a new Diva.

Please help us welcome.............(drum roll please!)

Liz Terrazas

We sure hope you enjoyed all her projects and creativity while she was our Guest DT member for January!! We enjoyed her so much we just could not let her go! We had to keep her!!

She will now be posting regularly here along with the entire CS Divas Design Team!

We are very excited!

Please give her a big CSD Welcome and leave a comment for her below!!

An altered Taco Box . . . for a special little girl!!!

It's Friday and that means I am creating and posting for 

my DT Friday here at Creative Scrapbooking Divas today.  

I am highlighting an altered item I finished to give to my daughter Ariana.  

A while back, you may recall, I had made a few "special boxes" for my kiddos.  If you would like to peek at those, click HERE to see Lance Jr.'s and HERE to see Gabriella's.  My intentions were to make one for each of the three smaller kids.  Well, as my mind wandered down new paths, and I got caught up in other crafts probably, I neglected to finish a box for sweet little Ariana.  Mommy is so sorry honey!  I Love You!  

I had planned on using a Taco Bell Family Pack to alter for her special box.  Well, somehow the original box I had saved was tossed out.  That is probably part of the reason 

this project was on hold.  

So, a few months ago, during an online crop I was participating in on Blog Frog 

with Maryanne of Scrappy Gifts, 

I started to alter a new one.  

The challenge was to alter an item bigger than your head...

I snapped this picture to show I was playing fair LOL

  Needless to say, I didn't finish and missed the deadline.  

 

The box made its way onto a shelf and has been sitting there ever since.  That is, until I decided to finish Ariana's "Special Box".  I had already finished covering the entire box with brown paper packaging and lots of Mod Podge, but that was as far as I had gotten. 

All that was left to do now was take down some measurements, choose my papers, and of course, add some Unity images somewhere (I <3 Unity).   Ariana is such a girly girl.  Pink and Purple are her favorite colors and she is always playing dress up.  So, I definitely wanted to go with lots of Pink on this one with some fun and whimsical girly elements.  

The papers I used were from some Blog Candy I won at Cindy's Blog, not sure of the company or brand, though.  I pulled out some matching embellishments, chipboard letters, and stamps.

  I distressed all of the paper edges with TH - Vintage Photo.

 

Here are all the pieces ready to be placed on the box with a generous helping of Mod Podge.

 

As you may notice, the middle 'A' is a bit different.  That is because I didn't have 3, so I tried to be clever and turned a 'V' upside down and placed a matching chipboard heart in the center.  It works!

 

Now it was time to add the stamping.   My Unity January Kit of The Month arrived yesterday, so as I looked at the stamps, played around with some ideas, it all came to me. 

 The butterflies, the frame, and the sentiment are all of the January KOM.  The sentiment reads: "precious , happy, memory, journey".  I thought this was perfect for a keepsake box.

I plugged in my hot glue gun to finish added everything that was left: some flowers (from my stash and from my dear Blend Nataliya, the name tag, a few butterflies (also from Nataliya) and a button I borrowed from dear sweet Ria (my BFF's mom). 

I tied a bit of baker's twine around the handle for an added touch and Voila....

 

I was so happy to see sweet little Ariana's face light up when I presented it to her this morning.  My kids are early risers and so energetic at 6:00 a.m.  I figured this would keep her mind occupied until I was able to finish a few cups of coffee.  Well, she hasn't left it alone since...he he he!

Thank you so much
for joining us here
at The Mansion

and don't forget to
Keep Crafting

:O)

Jessica

Project 12 2011 Winner + P12 Dec 2011 layout

We have a Winner Diva.....  (drumrolls please).............

The winner for the Project 12 2011 Challenge is.....................

..............................................

....................................................

.....................................................

K A R E N    L A D D

With 9 entries she sure had big chances to win!!!

CONGRATULATIONS KAREN
Please send me your mail addres via email (lmorgan1966@hotmail.com)

Thanks to our wonderful players:
Shannon Hart
Robin Perry-Perkey
Karen Azeka Ladd
Jessica Shelton

Love you Divas!!!!

And to continue with the motivation I want to share with you December 2011 P-12 layout....
 

I focused my photos in events during December:  Pre-Xmas parties at work and with friends, Xmas cooking and my fave of all pictures is the picture on the left side of my 2 daughters hugging. As sisters they fight all the time and when we went to drop some presents to my daughter Val house, they hug themselves and told each other "I love you sister".  They made me cry with this awesome Xmas gift.

I know that you may be asking where is P-12 January sketch?  It's on it's way ladies!  am having troubles to upload pictures.  To upload this one I had to go thru picasa.  I will post it soon and give plenty of time to post your entries.

Big hug and blessing,

Admin DT Luisa

My Tweet Valentine

Here a simple valentine card I made.













Happy Crafting!

~Michelle

Guest DT Member Liz - Post 4

Hello Friends,

I hope your January has been fabulous. I had such a great time as Guest DT this month..

I am looking forward to more of you joining my card challenge posted January 1st. If you have not yet posted your project, please do.   Click ~Here~ for Challenge.

I created a few cards to show you how fun unconventional card sizes can make terrific letters and small notes. I sometimes have something more than just an A2 standard greeting card can hold. I'm sure you all have had this happen. I took some 8.5 x 11 cardstock and trimed them to make great 5 x 5 cards and standard size 10 envelope sized cards. I bought a box of white CD covers for my 5x5 cards, and a large box of 25 letter size envelopes and got started.

Here are just a few of the samples I've come up with for truly trendy JUST A NOTE cards.




















I thank you all for following and hope to see you all again,
Truly Thankful,
Liz Terrazas

Shape up Your Scrapbooking Space w/Luisa!

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Hello Divas, Luisa here!  don't forget to add your links for :Project 12, 2011 challenge".  Chek out the link on top... Now, let's begin the new year with some little twits!  You like twists , right? What I mean for twists is...  My  posting days are Wednesdays and I have been organizing myself to create a weekly posting plan for you guys.  Having said that, please allow me to introduce my weeply posting plan for you: Week 1 - Project 12 What is Project 12?  (For those who are not familiar with it!) We create a monthly review ayout with previous month pictures (events, daily life, happenings, etc). The idea behind this project is to gather all the important happenings of one month in a 2 page layout.  This way, if you don't have time to scrapbook all the photos, that's ok, at least you will have one layout that covers the whole month.  Your family will love to see these layouts... Here is how it works: - I will provide an sketch and this year it will be mandatory to use it. - I will also include a color combination to use (the twist). - I will choose a winner every 3 months among participants who submit their 3 monthly review layouts. Week 2 - Shape up Your Scrapbooking Space! If you are a seasoned Diva, you know am an "organizational junkie".  Yes I love to have things organized and have to do lists and plans for everthing (crafty, at work and personal).  Declutering my files at the end of December, I found this article from Creating Keepsakes Magazine (from 2010):

http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/articles/Shape_Up_Your_Scrap_Space?utm_source=Jan17_2011_CKNF&utm_medium=eletter&utm_content=OrgganizeContent&utm_campaign=Jan17_2011_CKNF

And I decided to follow this easy month by month system to help me keep my stuff organized.
Therefore, I will start posting these monthly challenges every month for you.  If you want to play with me you are more then welcome.
I will send a small RAK to each person who do each month "Shape up Your Scrapbooking Space" challenge and submit a link to their post with before and after pictures AND add a link to CSDivas Blog letting people know that you are playing our challenge.

Week 3 - Divas Sharing Our Projects! 
I will share with you how am I doing with my 2012 ongoing projects:
- P-12
- Project Life
- Art Journal
And we will love to see your creations too, so link up your projects!  We all love comments about our creations, let's share it with the CSDivas!

Week 4 - Free theme
Am leaving Week 4 as a "free theme" to post interesting, funny and creative things I found in the web.

Week 5 - Free theme (when there is a 5 week mont of course)!

How this plan sounds? My intentions are to organize my self and post interesting articles for you and to help you guys (at the same time am forcing myself) to complete your Monthly Review Layouts (P-12) and to organize our creative spaces throughout the year.

Are you with me?  Do you like the posting plan?  Please let us know!  We appreciate your feedback and love yout entries and comments...

Onto our first Shape Your Scrapbooking Challenge with the CSDivas!!!
Guess what?  I created a simple button for us! 

Am not a digi girl (don't know how to use photoshop and other photo editing programs!!) but I know how to make a button using Word, Powerpoint and Paint (all from Microsoft) and this is what came out...
If you like it, please post it in you blog and blog posts for this challenge.

Your January Missions (should you accept them) are....

1) Store Your Scraps
     Clean your desk area and put all reausable scraps in your "scraps" container.  If you
don't have a "home for your scraps" this is a good time to designate one.  You can use
an accordion folder, sterile drawers, a 3 ring binder with page protectors (one per color).  Let us know if you need ideas...

2) Take 10
    Find 10 things and put them in their space or assing them a "home".  If you do this at
least 10 days of the month, your space will be neat in tidy in no time.

3) Declutter your Desk area
    Unused supplies and papers whould be put away for use next time.  I try to do this
every time I create something, but not always I achieve it.  How many times you start
creating and use your punches, paints, stamps, pens, ribbons, buttons, etc. and you lay
eveything on your desk area?  Make it a goal to either put everything back to it's place,
right after you are done creating (best option, this way you will have a clean area
waiting for you to create!!!) or just before your next creating session (it works, but
sometimes it could de-motivate you...) You want to create not clean!!!

4) Create a Donation Station
    Find a box to put older or items you dislike.  Remember those stacks of paper you
bought and already  used inn tooo many layouts?  All lthose stickers, deco scissors,
ribbons, etc that you don't want or use anymore, could help bring a smile to a child
(hospital), elderly (resting home) or someone else.  Let's declutter our space and make
other happy!

To play along, please post a link in this post (we will post a link in a visible area for easy access).  Let me figure up how to do it... Remember, am not a digi or techy girl!

There you go... Your first mission is posted and you have 13 days to accomplish it.  Due date for this challenge is January 31st...

Hugs and blessings,

Give Thanks Card

My card for today is "Give Thanks to the Lord for He is good!"

This is my first time heat embossing.  It's not the best job done but I actually like it! 

Here is the card I made.




The stamp was one of my wood stamps I had in my drawer.  The moment I saw the stamp, I knew I wanted to heat emboss "Lord". 





I decided to use some hemp cord I bought from Walmart in the jewelry craft section.



I used glue but too much came out when I first squeezed it so I tried to fix it a little bit.  It probably would have come out better had I used my versa mark pad......but I like it.  It's not perfect but I am satisfied with the results for my first time.  I used the Reflections embossing powder in their brown bronze which turned into a bronze metallic.










I kept the card simple because I didn't want to take away from the scripture.

I distressed the plaid cardstock and used the Spellbinders Deckled Rectangles to cut out the scripture and for the matting.  I used pop dots to lift up the Scripture.

Hope you like it.  And if any one has some tips on heat embossing, please share!

Thank you.

Happy Crafting!

~Michelle

Guest DT Member Liz - Post 3

Hello Friends,

Have you taken time to craft this year? I was at my local Michael's store and found a dollar bin full of fabulous CUPCAKE wrappers. I bought a couple packs with the intentions of making great desserts. As I walked further, I saw some pre-packaged die cut flowers and of course grabbed them. THEN my crafting friends, I had a LIGHT BULB moment....

I can save money, have more choices and use my left over wrappers from past baking projects..

MAKE MY OWN DIE CUT FLOWERS USING THE CUPCAKE WRAPPERS...

I brought out my BIG Kick and Sizzix Tattered Floral die by JIM HOLTZ ~ I used 2 wrappers that I battered by folding, rolling and scrunching them up.. I made them look wrinkled then straightened them out and cut them in half to cover both the small and medium flower dies.

here are the steps and results.


















The fun and possibilities are endless...

Have a great time and make each flower your OWN...

Happy Crafting!
Liz

CSDivas Challenges Reminder

The Diva Mansion has been crawling with tons of creativity.  If you haven't stopped by in while, sit down, relax, and enjoy some wonderful talent, some challenges, excellent tips and tutorials

all in a Diva Friendly atmosphere!!!

Be sure to scroll through the newest posts to be sure

you haven't missed out on any of the fun!!!

I also wanted to share another reminder for the current Challenges here at the Divas.

Beautiful prizes up for grabs and very low entries!!!

Try it out!!!

We would love having you join the Mansion!!!

Admin Diva DT Luisa's - P-12 Challenge

P-12 Challenge with Luisa!!! 

due 1/20/12

~ GO HERE~

*************************************

 Guest Diva DT Liz's Thank You Card Challenge

Simple and Elegant Thank You's

due 1/31/12

~ GO HERE~

*************************************

Diva DT Jessica's JANUARY - Recipe Challenge

 due 1/31/12

 RECIPE:

1 - shape that doesn't have  a straight line (i.e. heart, circle, oval, scallop, etc.)

2 - colors (can be 2 different colors or 2 shades of the same color as long as these are the FOCAL colors in your creation)

2 - buttons, brads, or bling

1 - metal element/embellishment

2 - words, sentiments, or journaling spots

~GO HERE~

*************************************

Thanks for joining us!!!

Diva DT Jessica

Snow One Like You!!!!

Love this cute little card.  It took a little while to complete in between kids coming home and dinner and such!!!  But all in all, the time was well spent.  The Outlawz Sketch SC0111 was an instant "I can't wait to try that one" and the paper colors were inspired by Ribbon Carosuel Challenge - RCC35 Inspirational Pic!

The base card stock is from Recollections.  The chocolate brown is from a stack in my stash.  I stamped the Snowflake from Sweet Stamps using Cloud White VersaMagic onto the chocolate card stock.  I distressed all of the edges of each layer.  I embossed the white squares using my Snowflakes folder, then adhered some Recycled silver snowflake confetti from a gift received at Christmas.   I placed some Icy Blue 3 GirlJAM Ribbon along the bottom and added a bow after tying it with by BowEasy.  The sentiment is by Unity Stamp Co., but I am not sure what set as it was a random stamp included in a Grab Bag I purchased last month.  I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink and Embossing powder in Vintage Photo for the sentiment.

Here is the Outlawz sketch:

Here is the RCC photo inspiration:

Thanks for stopping by the Manion

and Don't Forget

to Keep On Crafting

:O)

Jessica