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

November Product Challenge ~ Beads, Beads, Beads

So this week has totally kicked my butt. I have had zero mojo, inspiration or creativity. So I decided I was going to play with something that I've been seeing everywhere I look BEADS!!!! It seems like they want me to use them. So I got out my little box of beads and started playing.

So I decided I would make a quick lanyard which could be used on your cell phone, gypsy stylus, zipper pulls whatever suits you


Then I decided to try to make some of those fun stick pins that I'm seeing on cards and layouts. Can't wait to add this to a future project. They are super simple to make and only take a few minutes to make all of them


Now you don't have to use large beads like those you can also use seed beads, letter beads, or even micro beads in your projects


Here are two images where I used microbeads in my projects



Now let's see what you can do with beads!!!!!

---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

September Product Challege

Welcome back!!! Everyone is off to a great start. Today's Challenge is Glitter!!!!

I know, I know, I know ... so many of you are afraid of glitter or don't like it because it makes a mess. But you know us .... you can use any type of glitter.



That's right you can use Stickles, Glitter Pens, Glitter chipboard, glitter.

As much as I love glitter, yes the messy kind of glitter I decided to use stickles for this project.



I recently purchased some promarkers to use with my stamps and couldn't wait to try them out and decided to use this stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.

I then used stickles to embelish portions of the stamps



I used clear stickles on the fluffy parts of the stocking and silver stickles on the heart.

Here on the holly I used red and gold stickles for the berries



If you haven't tried promarkers yet and are looking for a good quality marker to color your stamps with I highly recommend them. They are a cheaper alternative to copics. I purchased mine from Carpe Diem and although their shipping is slightly high they are still cheaper then other places. I have also heard that some Joann's are carrying a 12 pack in their "fine arts" section but I haven't been lucky enough to find them their.

Now it's your turn ... Let's see what you can do with glitter. And don't be afraid of it. it really is a lot of fun to use. Happy Crafting!!!

---Caroline