Cute Little Valentine Gift Bags

Just one more project to share with you for a quick to put together gift bag for giving your littles a sweet surprise. I got a box from Scrapbook Trends a few days ago with my project from the Quick and Easy special issue, and in it was the adorable "Love Me Do" line from My Mind's Eye. I didn't want the holiday to come and go without using this fab product so I found some little gift bags and got to work.
























These really cute little gift bags are from Target, but I am sure that there are lots of places that you could find something similar to them.
























Trim top of gift bag off to get a clean edge and to make the bags more to scale for the project. This little bag ended up 5" tall by 3" wide.

















Cut 1/2" strips of paper from 12" x 12" piece of paper and then cut them into 6" pieces. Place some double sided tape adhesive on the ends on the top of the strip.

















After getting adhesive onto the strips of paper, adhere to the inside of the bag for little handles, so cute!!

















Cut a cute piece of background paper and adhere it to the bag.

















Punch a heart out of the red paper and distress lightly around the edges to give it a little frame to make it really pop of the background paper.

















Use a 3-D foam square to adhere the heart to the front of the bag.

















All the little gift bags ready to get some goodies put into them for the cute little primary kids I teach tomorrow. They are my little sweeties, and I can't wait to see the look of surprise on their darling faces when I give them these tomorrow after church is over. I made some for my kids too, even though they are older they still enjoy feeling the love from us!

















I hope everyone has a very love filled day tomorrow!
B-

Show Your Love!

How easy and cheerful is this fun Valentine's garland? It is made with Girl Friday papers from Cosmo Cricket, super cute!

I have shown a few steps in the construction process, just in case someone wants to play along.

















Start by folding a piece of paper in half and cutting out a heart to use for a template. Trace onto the paper you are using and then cut out.























Outline the edges with Stickles, and set aside to dry.
















Find the letters you need to spell the word you have chosen for your galand and paint them. I love Claudine Hellmuth's paint for this kind of project, creamy and great coverage. After they dried I put a layer of Stickles on them and set them aside to dry.

















While everything is drying trim pink tulle to the lengths you want to hang your the hearts from. Also cut a piece that is the width of whatever area it is that you will be hanging it from.

















Use a dry adhesive to go around the edges of one heart and go down the middle and across the width of the heart twice on the other. Place a piece of tulle over the stripe of adhesive going down the middle and place the two sides together, pressing firmly over the entire piece.
















Stitch a little Maya Road crystal on to the bottom of the tulle give it a little weight so it hangs nicely.























Tie all of the pieces to the large piece of tulle and hang it somewhere that will share the love with everyone that sees it.
























I just got a lovely box of the new Cosmo Cricket that I had ordered from Ellen's Shop. Buttons, papers and tiny alpha stickers, oh my! They are so fabulous, and I can't wait to create more projects to share with you from all of that fun stuff!

Hope you are feeling inspired to show the love!
B-

Love At Home

So grateful for my sweet family, the kids are so supportive of my daily creative efforts and my husband puts up with a lot of industry byproduct that I bring into our home from my commitments. I am very blessed that we have love in our home to help us with the negative that comes in everyday. The positive benefits from our kindness and patience with each other makes all of the negative stuff insignificant and helps us keep each other as a priority.

I have been have been missing Tyler even more than usual for the last couple of weeks, and it has made me more tender to the barbs and comments from others. He has been dealing with a really bad head cold and I am praying that he doesn't get an infection from it. It is hard that he is so far away and I want so badly to take care of him while he isn't well. I know that the Lord will keep a watchful eye on him, and that he is very blessed for the service he gives on a daily basis. In one month we will be in the countdown until he gets to come home. We had been keeping track of how long he has been gone and it will be exciting to think of it the other way!

I had a wonderful time creating this project that is in the CLASSroom. I will be doing a Trend Watch article every other week, and continue with the technique tags too. If you would like instructions on how to create it, the information is waiting for you there!

There is another fun project that I created today and have just a few more pictures to take so that I can share it with you tomorrow, hope you can stop by again to feel the love!

B-

Sharing a little Love

It was a Monday with some ups and downs for me, so I made a little project that I thought would be fun to share that cheered me up a little. Maybe it will do the same for you.























I saw paper flowers all over CHA, and took a little time to figure out how to make them, there are loads of good tutorials out there, but it is really easy and all it takes is a little trial and error. First start with a circle (mine were all varied from 3" to 5") and then cut a spiral from the outside edge to the inside. Keep the width as even as you can until you reach the end and then start from the outside of the spiral and roll it until you reach the inside where you need to place a few glue dots on the rounded end. Then place the spiraled paper onto the top of the dots, and then gently press the paper into the dots to secure them.






















For a project like this you will need to make quite a few, a great way to spend some time if you have evening shows to watch but you still want to get something done. I used the Chic Bebe Girl line from Teresa Collins for this project because the pinks were so darling, but it would look great in any color of pink you have so use what you have if you don't have time or money to do any shopping.
















I started with a piece of cardboard from a shipping box that I had drawn a heart onto and then I trimmed it out with my Tonic Tim Holtz scissors, they are great for everything! Hot glue the first flowers into the middle and then work out from there. You can hot glue a ribbon onto the top to hang it with or punch holes before you put the flowers on and tie the ribbon through the holes.

















These flowers are great for embellishing lots of projects and look great in lots of different colors, I hope you take a few minutes to try making them and finding a project to make with them.

B-

*Edited*
I found the video tutorial that I watched to learn how to make these! Natasja Veerbeek shared this on her blog, Vintage Tearooms. Here is a direct link to the vimeo called "Wedding Bouquet". Have fun learning!!

I Think You are Hot!

Wanted to share the card I had made for our Valentine's swap with my card group. I loved the Pink Paislee Cupid colletion and really wanted to use it for this swap, so out came the stamps from my Domestic Love set.
























And of course I had to do the inside to match, it needed to show the love somewhere ;o)
























Keeping it cute and simple makes for a fun card that is easy to make multiples of.
Got love that when it is time for getting cards made for the ones that you love (or your kids love!)

B-

A Few More Thoughts and Pics From CHA

I still have a few random pictures and thoughts, so hope that you don't mind me sharing them.

It was really fun to contribute some samples to the Ranger booth, the "Hello Chica" card and the "Hey Sunshine" projects are mine. Claudine's product line is so versatile I just love playing with it!
























It was a great compliment to be included in Suze Weinberg's Melt Art Challenge for this show. I had a great time playing with Mold N' Pour, UTEE, and Perfect Pearls for this project. I wanted to play off of numbers and love, with the challenge of including a ticket theme as well. The other side of the sign said "Love is a Lottery". It was fun to have one side be romantic and the other be snarky and skeptical, and the sign flips over to reflect the mood I am in. Anyway, there are loads of really fun techniques that I played with, and I learned so much about the product line by playing with complete abandon. If you haven't tried this art medium yet, you have got to give it a go, it is a blast!
























I spent the first day of the show in Teresa's booth, and these are all of the wonderful people that I got to know from the experience. Stefanie, myself, Echo, Teresa, Candace, Greta and Jesse were all Team Teresa, good times!!















And another picture that Angie sent to me is of us getting to meet IRL for the first time! We are similar in so many ways, that getting to hug and have a visit for a few minutes was one of the highlights of the trip for me!





















A few more products to keep your eyes out for:

Paper tapes, both Pink Paislee and 7 Gypsies had them, and this is an amazing product with so much potential, can't wait to have them filling my house!

Flower ribbons from Webster's Pages were amazing, I want yards and yards of this in every color, amazing!

Photocentric is a company that has created a machine that lets you design your own stamps from home that are photo-polymer quality! I will be first in line to buy this!

Buttons and alphas from Cosmo Cricket that coordinate with all of their product lines, yum yum!

A new line of products from My Mind's Eye called Lush that is truly that. Elegant, timeless and full of delicious papers and embellishments, can't wait!

Mica flakes, vintage style crepe paper and a line called Kitschy Kitchen from Melissa Francis were calling my name, vintage was definitely a huge theme for this show and Melissa delivered!

Jenni Bowlin brought it with some fabulous vintage style products as well, and she has such a clever way of making them fresh. The buttons and butterflies from this show were a real standout and I am sure we will be seeing them everywhere!

Creative Imaginations has a product that is a wood paper. Basically anything you can do to paper you can do with this. It is obviously more brittle if you are going against the grain, but if you go with it, you can do some pretty amazing projects, even run it through your printer!

That is all I can think of right now, I think it is pretty covered between the first post and this one. But if anything else comes to mind I will be sure to mention it.

I can't wait to get crafty with all of these delish products, are you excited too?

B-

Did You Know?

This is a little known fact...

You CAN'T take HUGE scissors in your carry-on with you when going through airport security.

Just saying...

















Can you see the scale of those shears next to my size 7 shoe? And to top that off, they are so heavy duty! I wasn't about to let go off these bad boys without a little tap dancing, so I got on my dancing shoes and started tapping!
Here is how it all happened.
Teresa called to find out where I was so that Stefanie could come and scoop me up so we could get to the airport before rush hour traffic got out of control. Good thing I had plenty of room in my carry on where I could put all the stuff I had acquired through walking the last day of the tradeshow. A few pieces of paper, some small packs of embellishments, cuttlebug plates, stamp making set, and a large set of scissors. You know, all the regular everyday kind of stuff for a crafty crafter. Shove all that into the carry on and get on the road, easy peasy.
Go through ticketing, get the big bag on its way and start through security with all of this harmless stuff anticipating an easy flight home. You should have seen the faces of the guys who were looking at the scanner, I stood there for a couple of minutes wondering what was taking so long for that bag, I had all of my others. Who stuff was behind mine that was hanging my stuff up, still completely clueless that I was the one hanging everyone else up. (that airport only has one scanner and everyone goes through it) Then it dawned on me! I was the doofus! (not a big surprise, I know) A kind, patient looking agent pulled me aside and asked what was in there, I sheepishly relayed my stupidity and he asked me to tell him where the scissors were without touching the bag. Of course it was in the bright orange Fiskars bag so that was easy to describe. Teresa felt a little embarrassed for me and suggested that I ask if I could mail them to myself or ask the ticketing agents if they could put them in my suitcase that had already made its way to the tarmac. I relayed my request, and he walked me through the terminal to the exit point, handed me the scissors and then said "see you in a few minutes". This is where I credit the quality of customer service that JetBlue offers. I approached the same ticketing agent that had just helped me and asked if I could have a huge favor, and then relayed the whole story to her. She laughed at/with me and then kindly took the scissors and said no problem, the bag was gone but it shouldn't be a problem to identify it and get them safely put in. Seriously? Can you even believe that I got to keep those fabulous scissors after all of that? They are now tucked away with my fabric stash awaiting the moment of inevitable service, and I am sure that they are glad that they have a home with me and not in the trash bin at the Long Beach Airport.
As a crafter, I got a groove, as a scary terrorist not so much. My advice is to not try this at any airport anywhere else in the world or you might risk getting frisked, detained and missing a flight..

;o)

B-

Extra Long Post from CHA

So here it goes, a really long post that is in no particular order...

I should try harder to get it organized, but there is just so much that I am going to use pictures as my cues.
First picture is Sharon Laakonen in the Prima booth. This was a fun booth, the favorites for me were the canvas line. Very alterable and fun. There were also loads of new flowers that I would love to get my hands on!
















And how cute is Maren Benedict? She has a fabulous laugh that makes your heart happy and we got to spend a little time together in the Pink Paislee booth!
















Speaking of Pink Paislee, here is a fun group pic, we are missing a few people as this was the last hour of Tuesday, and things were winding down.
Rebecca and Barry are such wonderful people and the product release for this show was amazing!! They have some beautiful paper that made its way home with me and the embellishments were so clever! Three of my show favorites came from this booth alone! The Artisan Elements are so incredible, cork buttons that coordinate with each line and pleated twill in beautiful colors, all are must haves for me!

















While I was there I had the opportunity to catch up with a few friends, but hadn't had my camera handy. It was fortune that when Laura Vegas and Lynn Ghahary came by I happened to have it out and we had the chance to snap a couple.

















It was so fun to get caught up with Summer Fullerton, Rachel Carlson and Kimber McGray. Summer and Kimber were in the Jillibean booth which had some darling new products, one of which was kraft cards and envelopes that look super cute when used with their stamps.
















Of course I can never get enough of my Kimmer-kins! I was lucky enough to grab a few hugs from her each day as she walked the halls with the delightful Kim Kesti.
















The new Melody Ross release with GCD was delicious! I got the grand tour from Lori Roop and was given a hug from Heidi Sonboul and Sherry Steveson.

















Dinner Tuesday evening with a few of my favorite crafty girls was the perfect evening! Ellen Hutson and Carmi Cimicata were introduced to each other but hit it right off!
















Claudine is always such a joy to visit with, but sitting next to her at dinner is a little disconcerting! She is petite with a very picky vegetarian palette, and then there is me...

none of the above.
















And Carmi shared dear Audrey Prinzbach with us and she is amazing! Talented in so many
ways, and funny too!


















And how about finishing the perfect evening with the perfect dessert? Dark chocolate fondue, yumm-O!


















This is Caroline from Zva Creative, it was so fun to pop by, check out my booth samples and give her a hug! She and John do a fantastic job of running their business and are a delight to work with.
















Some of the other people that I loved catching up with were April Foster from Studio Calico, the release from that shop is wonderful and their cute booth in the new exhibitors section was wonderfully done, another of my faves!

I had a few minutes to visit with Lisa Johnson in the Marvy Uchida booth, she is so funny and had no problem making fun of me when I walked by with that tired blank look on my face, a girl after my heart for sure! ;o)

Angie Hagist and Charity Hassel were in the October Afternoon booth, it was so fun to meet Angie in real life! She and I have a very similar sense of humor and I love her design style, always witty and clever! And speaking of clever, I got to spend a little time with Teri Anderson and she is about as clever as they come! She was walking the show with Ashley Harris, and it was nice to keep seeing them as well!

Another line that was a real stand out in my mind was the new Basic Grey Basics, so up my alley! Nikki Sivils had some fun releases, but the one that really hit home here was a line called "Dan the Record Man" Laurel has gotten excited about collecting "vinyl" and has an old school record player that her sweet boyfriend has given her. This line is right on trend with that crowd! I forgot to mention the release that October Afternoon had, which is ridiculous because it is wonderful!! Two lines that have a wonderful vintage feel and beautiful colors!! I can't wait to start playing with it!

I spent Sunday in the Teresa Collins booth with some outstanding women, and Teresa's new releases are sure to be a hit! The two baby lines are darling and the others are elegant and have beautiful neutral color palettes that will make them easy to use in any project.

There is so much more, but I am having a hard time remembering without more pictures to cue me. I did better this time, but it just shows me how much room I have for improvement!

I have a funny airport story that I will share later, thanks for popping in for a visit, hope I didn't bore you!!

B-

Domestic Love Winner Announced and Another Zva Sneak

Domestic Love is my favorite set of all the stamp sets I had the opportunity to design. I have a tutorial using it over in the CLASS room at Ellen's creating this fun tag. Loads of techniques using Claudine Hellmuth's Studio Line, and a cheeky poke at domestic bliss.

The winner of the stamp set was selected randomly....


Charlene Austin said...

Hi Becky....Congrats on the cover!! Woot Woot!! It's a total honour to be part of it with you and Tanis. That pinwheel is amazing!!! I love ALL of your work!

5:00 PM

Congrats Charlene! Please email me with your shipping details if you don't mind.

And a sneak peek of another delish Zva Creative swirly flourish that will be releasing at this show, I am really excited to get more of these hot numbers in my studio to play with!



I leave in just 36 hours to head to Anaheim for the CHAW - 10, finishing up some laundry and get the baggage prepped and packed. Really excited to catch up with treasured friends and see the latest and greatest in the crafting world! It will give me some lead time on how to plan the emptying of my wallet for the next few months, LOL!

I won't be updating for a few days, so please forgive me!

Best!
B-

Winner for the Zva Creative Blog Hop!

Zva winners have been chosen and their name will be announced sometime today on the following blogs:

Becky Olsen

Lori Roop

Angelica Franssen

Ingrid Danvers

Lisa Johnson

Each of the 5 winners will receive a Zva prize pack worth $30.00. Congrats winners!

So the winner from the comments left on my blog was randomly selected and big
congratulations to: IrishEyezDesigns

And to thank everyone who stopped by and left such sweet comments, I am sharing another Zva sneak peek!

B-

How about another Zva and Teresa Collins sneak peak?

This is a fun sneak because it has a little of both on it!
The flourish is one of the new Zva designs and is a beautiful combination of darling little pink and small bluish gray pearls. The paper, stamp and chipboard are from Teresa Collins new Chic Bebe line.
There are still a few hours to leave a comment on my Paper Crafts post to be entered to win my Domestic Love stamp set if you are interested. I did a really fun tutorial over at the CLASS room blog using it, if you have a minute, check it out!

B-

Zva Creative Blog Hop!

Yay, another Zva Creative DT Blog Hop!

We are joining together today to share a project that we have created using the latest Zva Creative products that are releasing at winter CHA craft show. I am hoping that you will take some time to join us for a little bit of fun! Zva is introducing 100+ brand new crystal and pearl embellishment designs at the show. All designs have a fresh new look and are available in various popular color choices. If you are attending, please stop by the Zva at Booth # 2991.

The Blog Hop begins at Kim Hughes' blog. She is linking to one of the Zva designers and that designer is linking to the next and so on. There are 12 design team members, so be prepared to be inspired along the way. Hidden on 5 of the blogs is a Zva Creative prize package! Those blogs will be randomly chosen after the hop is over, so it's important to leave a comment on as many blogs as you can along the way. Our team is so wonderfully diverse, so we are hoping that you will be inspired when you reach the end.

This Blog Hop runs through midnight on Tuesday, January 19th and the 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, January 20th. We will do our best to notify each winner, but it's best if you can pop in to all of the blogs once again on Wednesday...plus, you never know what kind of inspirational creation that you may find there. All you need to do is leave a comment on this Zva Blog Hop post...you do not need to leave a comment on each and every designer's blog post to qualify. The more times you leave a comment along the blog hop path though, the more chances you will have to be one of the lucky winners.

Now onto what it is that I am sharing today!
























The products that I have used are
FL-01CB-114 (Felt flowers pastel)
FL-01CB-115 (Felt flowers bright)
PE-02CB-102 (Multi-colored pearls)
EM-02CB-101 (pink Butterfly)
And the beautiful pink flourish is a brand new release for the show!

Your next stop on our exciting blog hop is...
Lynn Ghahary!!!!

Thank you SO MUCH for joining us!
B-

Sneak Peaks!

I have had a little time to play with some new Teresa Collins paper, and it is so cute! Easy to use too! This little card came together in no time and the layout was something that Laurel really liked, and she NEVER likes anything in pink, especially projects for her! Pop on over to Teresa's blog to see the rest of the line and the blue that goes right along with it, so adorable! There is a

Have You Seen It?

Card Creations Start to Finish is so beautiful and packed with inspiration for the outside and inside of you cards! I was lucky to have one of my projects that I contributed to this fabulous publication make it to the cover, along with the other fantastic projects that were created by Tanis Giesbrecht and Charlene Austin. I was so thrilled when P. Kelly told me that my pinwheel card would be on the cover. This project is so fun, easy to make and the pinwheel really spins!

You can receive free shipping on this gorgeous special issue through January 15th by visiting this link: http://www.shopscrapandpapercorner.com/productdetail/PC21209S42.htm

And make sure to leave a comment at the Paper Crafts Connection blog. Cosmo Cricket has donated 3 sets of the Early Bird collection for 3 of their lucky visitors! I adore this collection and it goes so beautifully with the Domestic Love stamp set I designed. Given that it is the perfect time of year to be using it, I want to give a set away, so leave a comment on this post by Midnight of Tuesday the 19th and I will pick a lucky winner to send it to!

Happy Crafting friends!

Wish I Was...

Skiing!!!
I love to ski, and the opportunities for me to get up into the mountains and enjoy this fabulous sport just haven't presented themselves (yet!) this year. But that can't stop me from doing a little dreaming in my studio can it? This fun little image is new in the Every Thing Creative shop, and has friends for the tennis court and golf course as well! (Can you tell I enjoy the outdoors?)
Details for the project are on the ETC blog if you are interested.
And be sure to come back tomorrow, I have something fun up my sleeve!

Ski ya later!!
B-

Yay!

After being separated from my computer for the last few days while it was visiting the dr. I realized just how attached to it I am! Should probably find a way to deal with my addiction, but for now I am doing a big ol' happy dance that it is back in the house and feeling so much better! Now just to avoid those ugly little buggies that manage to crawl in from the outside.
I did take a little time to slow down and enjoy my kids while this was all going on. We played some rock band, watched some movies and enjoyed the new season of Chuck!
In between all that fun, I did spend a little time in my studio and came out with a few new projects. I will be doing so new product sneaks over the next few weeks for Zva Creative and Teresa Collins, some really fun stuff! All of the new product out just makes my heart melt, I just love it all and can't wait until it ends up on my desk ready to be played with!
B-