January Product Challenge

Hard to believe it's already Sunday. This week (and weekend) seems to be flying by so fast. Can't say that I got in as much crafty time as I would have liked this week but I guess that's to be expected my first week back to work after a 2 week vacation.

But I do have to say I was inspired by my crafty friend Elise. She posted this beautiful wreath on the cricut message board last week Elise's wreath (scroll to post #5). Well I don't have the Art Philosophy cartridge and I'm really trying to use my stash. So since I do have the Flower Shoppe cart which I'm loving by the way I thought I could use a flower from there. Of course they aren't exactly the same flower but you still get the same results.

I knew I wanted to do red and pale pink. The key word being PALE pink. Well of course I didn't have the right shade of pink. Okay let me run to the store and get some ...... oh wait I'm supposed to be using my supplies not buying more. For Christmas I ordered some Glimmer Mists


from Blitsy. If you haven't checked them out hop on over to their website. They change their inventory all the time so you want to get it while it's hot. They ship SUPER DUPER fast. I've ordered from them 3 times and had all 3 of my orders within a few days of ordering.

So back to my project .... so a crafty friend suggested why not mist the paper and get the desired color you are looking for. So I took this paper

Front (notice the shimmer on the front side?)

Back (to dull for my liking)

and spritzed the paper (sorry it's hard to see the red paper)

I only spritzed the back of the red paper and then spritzed both sides of the cream paper.

I decided I don't want to make a wreath like Elise cause 150 flowers (which by the way only took her like a few hours to assemble (according to her)) I knew would take me weeks to complete. So I looked around my craft space and found these foam balls that I used for a different project


Silly me thought oh those aren't to large I could knock that out in a day and then I can do a hanging flower ball .... well either I'm the slowest crafter in the world or Elise is super craft woman cause this took me about a week to finish (mind you I didn't have hours to work on it at a time). Here's the finished product (except for the ribbon cause well I haven't decided which one to use yet cause I must use something from my stash)


Being a circle it was definitely hard to count how many flowers I used but I'd estimate there are about 65 flowers on there.

Now get out those glimmer mists (or any other "misting" product) and start creating. If you too were inspired by Elise's project watch out she's a guest designer this month and I can't wait to see what she has in store for us.

Happy crafting!!!!!

---Caroline

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!!!!!!! We are looking for another great year of challenges and if you saw Allison's announcement on Friday we are looking for some designers to join the challenge ranks.

How many of you made resolutions this year? Not me .... well maybe that isn't entirely true. I tend not to make resolutions cause I always fail. But I did tell myself that I was going to try to craft more often so in the spirit of my "no resolutions" to help achieve my goal why not have a challenge right? Well it is Sunday and it's time for another challenge.

For today's challenge it's an Anything goes challenge but with a twist. You must use pictures in your project. Gasp ... I know who doesn't use pictures??? Well I was reflecting on the many projects I completed for 2011 and well I made a TON of cards but also neglected my other love, Photography. So why not incorporate my love of both. This past week while on vacation I had the opportunity to go to Butterfly World in South Florida. And OMG I'm freaking in love. I will definitely be going back there and probably by myself cause I could literally spend HOURS and HOURS and HOURS sitting there photographing the butterflies and birds.

Sorry, didn't mean to get off on a tangent. So I had these photo coasters lying around waiting for pictures and I wanted to send them to my mom and dad to enjoy to remember our trip to butterfly world.



The coasters came in a cute little wooden box but I thought it was to plain. So I decided to jazz it up a little but and cut a vine from Wall Decor and More and then added some 3-D flowers from Flower Shoppe and a layered butterfly from an EK punch.



And here they are all inside the case



Now let's start off the year right and see some of those crafty projects you are working on. Don't forget to see the design team post below if you haven't already.

Happy Crafting and here's to a great 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!

---Caroline

October Product Challenge

Happy Sunday everyone! Today's Challenge is a shimmer challenge. There are all kinds of shimmer products on the market. From Smooch, to perfect pearls, to Glimmer mist, to making your own.


I was determined today not to make a card. I mean I'm not only a card maker right? Well then how come it seems that I only post cards? Well I decided to get in the trenches and alter a box I got from Michael's in the clearance section for like $2.00. The box was a recipe box but I don't want to use it for recipes so I figured I would need to alter it to fit for my intended purpose.

After




Before



It might be hard to see in the picture but I used the smootch spritzers (the clear/pearlescent color) on the base flower. I used the Smooch paints on the leaves and use the water color shimmers on the orange center and then spritzed with the smootch.

I then used a rhinestone swirl on the front of the box. I'm really pleased with how the box turned out. Now let's see what you come up with.

Now before you say you don't have any shimmer products you know here at Paper Craft Weekend Challenge it's all about crafting so if you don't have any shimmer products then use anything that "shimmers".

Happy Crafting!!!

---Caroline