A New Challenge and a GIVEAWAY!!!

Hi my crafty friends! Happy day after the Super Bowl - boy, am I GLAD that is over. . .now we can get back to our regularly scheduled program :)

First I want to remind all of you that there is a NEW Challenge posted on Anything But a Card - it's a Tic Tac Toe themed challenge and is gonna be SO much fun ~ here is a picture of the elements you can use, but remember, use the items in either a diagonal or horizontal row; just like Tic Tac Toe!

Click on the picture to go to the Anything But a Card blog for further details!


Now for a fantastic giveaway! Globecraft & Piccolo is giving away a $10 gift certificate EVERY DAY from February 2, 2014 to February 8, 2014 - here is what you have to do to be in the running:

• Leave a comment on daily posts Sunday, February 2nd through Saturday, February 8th
• You must be a Follower of the Globecraft Piccolo blog
• You must like us on Facebook (click on the Facebook tab at the top of the blog)
• Only 1 comment per day per person
• If you refer a friend and your name is mentioned in their comment, you will get a second entry to the drawing for that day
• Winners will be chosen by Random.org and announced on Sunday February 9th
• You can win on multiple days so be sure to visit each day

So to sum it up, we will be awarding 7 people who comment this week; Sunday, February 2nd through Saturday, February 8th a $10 store credit.  

How cool is that! 

Remember, if you are looking for challenges to enter your creations in, please check out Challenges for Days - don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a chance to win some goodies! 

Have a great day! ~Christi~
PS: Please feel free to share this post everywhere & anywhere!

A Balancing Act. . .

BALANCE is this month’s theme at Anything But a Card and it was a tough one for me. I feel that I lack balance in most aspects of my life, yet it is something that I don’t think about often.  My thought behind my project was that I need a reminder, a daily reminder, to balance my life.  One of the things that I feel will help me balance my crafty life is to use up some of this tremendous stash I have so I decided to make a banner using manila tags.  I recently put a cork board above my craft room computer and with all these elements combined, my balance project was born.

The Tags, already colored & layered

What I Used:

• 7 Manila #8 Tags
• Old book pages dry brushed with gesso (mine were already done)
• Distress Paints in the following colors: Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire and Brushed Pewter.
• Water Spritz Bottle
• Craft Sheet
• Purple Cardstock (for letters)
• Silhouette Cameo (for letters – you can also cut them freehand or use stickers)
• Stickles in Diamond
• White Cardstock
• Gesso
• Eye Dropper
• Silver ribbon
• Your Words (the words you choose to put on your tags)
• 7 plastic coated paper clips
• Crafter’s Pick Glue

First, I “made” the tags.  I used the Distress Paints and just continually made the colors swirl into each other and then I smooshed the tags onto the craft sheet.  When I saw a combination of color I liked, I would allow the tags to dry before adding more color (I used a heat gun or let them dry naturally).  Then I would color them some more with the Distress Paints – I wanted as much of the manila color to be covered as possible, but I didn’t want them to get muddy, which is why the drying is important.   I used some old book pages that I had already covered with plain gesso in the next step.  The white gesso looked too stark next to the warm purples and blues so I colored some gesso with the Seedless Preserves Distress Paint.  I just used an eye dropper and mixed the color in until I got a shade I liked.  Then I put that mix on the pages.  Once they dried, I ripped them into approximately the same size so I could mat them onto the tags. 

The letters were cut out using my Silhouette Cameo.  I just picked a font and spelled out BALANCE using the purple cardstock cut out the letters and glued them onto the tags.

The tags before the bling & some of the goodies I used to decorate the word cards.

 One thing that was important to me was the ability to change what the tags said; so instead of printing my word on the tag, I printed it onto white cardstock.  I used rubber stamps, Distress Markers, the computer, my own printing, decorative scissors, inks and punches to make my words.  I had a fabulous time! It felt like playing – like back when I first started rubber stamping. I just went to town!  I chose words that began with the same letter that was on the tag they were clipped to; for example, on the “L” in balance I stuck the word “learn”. 

The word cards on the first three letters

That’s the way I have it right now, but that may change.  I wanted to be able to change the words because I know if my eye gets used to seeing something I won’t “see” it anymore. 

The word cards on the last four letters

I used plastic coated paperclips to attach my words to my tags.  Lastly, I threaded a small piece of silver ribbon through each tag & then tied that to a long piece of ribbon – this way I can also move the tags around a bit if need be.  This is when I decided that the letters blended in too much and needed a bit of bling, so I took the word cards off the tags and ran the Diamond Stickles inside the letters.  I like it MUCH better with the bling. Then I put the word cards back on & hung the banner up - TADA!

  

All blinged up - complete with cat hair

The banner all done & hanging up!

I really enjoyed making this banner – and once I got going the process was much smoother than I anticipated.  Personally, I enjoy to be challenged; helps me stretch my wings.  I hope this inspires you to create some balance in your life, if needed. Don't forget, there is still time to enter the challenge at Anything But a Card - create some balance & link it up! Thanks for stopping by!  

I would like to enter my Tag Banner in the following challenges:
Brown Sugar Challenge - #77 Anything Goes 
Treasured Times Challenge Blog - #10 Anything Goes
Crafty Girls Challenge - #9 Anything Goes (second entry)

Ornaments

Since it is my week to post a project for Anything But a Card Challenge Blog and the current challenge is “Anything Goes, with a Holiday Twist” I thought these ornaments I made fit the bill perfectly.  I love to decorate chipboard and book board shapes and I have built up quite a stash of them over the years.  Classic case of “I like these SO much that I don’t want to use them” - I am really bad at that when it comes to paper; but I have employed a trick to make me use it – I just cut it. Even if I cut off a small square, it’s been cut and therefore loses some of its power and allows me to use it. It seems to work with other items, too, but instead of cutting, I open the package.  Whatever mind games I play with myself, it works for me!  So I tore open my drawer of shapes and dug right in, determined I was going to use something I had hoarded. 

I searched in the stash and found a pack of Buck Naked Ornaments from Cosmo Cricket.  When I searched the Cosmo Cricket website, I couldn’t find them, but if you do a search on the internet, various suppliers will come up.  I must have had these things for at least 10 years and had forgotten all about them.  I opened the pack and selected a few of the ornaments and snowflakes to play with. As always, I gessoed the board before I did anything. As usual, I knew I wanted to use them, but had no clue as to what they’d become. 

All gessoed up & ready to party!

I started the Angel Ornament the week I lost my cat Spike and before I knew that I’d had to send Boo to join him at the Rainbow Bridge (for those of you who aren’t familiar with the Rainbow Bridge click HERE, it will take you to a site where the poem is – but be warned – it is emotional! You may want to bookmark it and read it after the Holidays!). I first painted the ornament red but I didn’t like it at all.  It wasn't a deep red like I wanted, more like an orange red –

The red I didn't like

Blue is one of my favorite colors and JacquardProducts makes the most beautiful blue paint called  Lumiere Pearl Blue, so that is what I decided to use, ditch the red and go with the blue. I painted it and set it aside to dry while I searched for an image to put inside the circle.  I found the beautiful angel in my pile, and it is actually wrapping paper that I picked up a while back at the wonderful dollar store.  I cut the image to size.  I also felt that since it was wrapping paper I wanted to protect the image, so I used my Silhouette CAMEO to cut a circle that fit in the ornament out of acetate.  Once my ornament was dry, I glued the image and the acetate down and covered it with the other ornament.  Glued that together and finished off with a piece of gold ribbon.  Now I have a tribute of my kitties (although I do plan on making something else with their pictures and names on it).  I am very happy with how this turned out and I have it hanging in my craft room since we won’t be having a holiday tree.  We had decided that with the kitten (and now 2 new cats - more on them later) having a tree is just too much this year but I will have one next year!

Sorry I didn't take many pictures while making this!

 The snowflake came from the same pack of Cosmo Cricket book board ornaments.  There are few other snowflake shapes, but this one called to me.  Wasn't sure what color I wanted to paint the snowflake, so I dug through my acrylic paints and found paint by Folk Art called Metallic Champagne – I loved champagne when I was younger (hic) and I like the subtle sparkle of this paint, so the red became metallic champagne.  

I often leave works in progress on my tables so I can see them and when an idea strikes I can work on the project, providing I can find it – my room is organized chaos, but my two female cats have decided they like to play with my goodies as much as I do! Because of that, I do have to be careful about what I leave out. I have some gold ribbon that went perfectly with the pale gold so I wove that through the snowflake. 

 Please ignore the fact that the snowflake looks like a darker gold

 I loved it, but it needed some bling. I found a pack of gems by Darice and I chose to put them around the flake and put a larger one in the middle.  Even though the gems have self adhesive on them, I always add a dab of glue just to make sure. I feel like the snowflake came out looking very elegant and it has also has a home in my room, until next year.

 Tada! With help from Manny once again, here is my finished snowflake

 

I hope you enjoyed my ornaments! They were a pleasure to make – I love to play and decorate naked chipboard - and very easy and fun!  

Don't forget to link up your creations to the Anything But a Card blog! It's inspiring to see how everyone interprets the theme and you just might win!

I would also like to enter my creations in the following challenges:

Stampin with the Dragon - Gifts & Ornaments

Crafting for all Seasons - Christmas, Anything but a Card

Rhedd & Rosie Challenges - Use old Stash (the ornaments are at least 10 years old and mentioned in my post)

Fall Leaves Wreath

Before I get into my post, I want to apologize for not being around these last few weeks.  One of my cats, Boo, had a serious health scare and I was very preoccupied with him.  Thankfully, it appears that he is going to be fine!  So, now, on with the show!

 I love the dollar store (in my area it’s called Dollar Tree) and on one of my visits I found these cute wreaths and fabric-like leaves.  The leaves come in a pack of 50, so of course I had to have 2 packs.  I decided that these would make a fabulous project for my introduction to the Design Team for Anything But a Card Challenge blog. Yes, my dear readers, I landed a design gig and I am SO excited as this will be my first time on a design team! I hope I make them proud!

The leaves & wreath before. . .

 OK, enough gushing, back to the project.  I took my wreath (it is small, measures approximately 8 ½” round) and pulled out my leaves & glue and went to work.  Those of you who can use a hot glue gun may want to try that instead of using regular glue like I did, I am glue gun challenged and can’t use one without causing a disaster (but that story is for another time). 

The beginning of the leafing. . .

What I did was spread the glue on the edges of the leaf and then I pushed the part of the leaf I wanted to attach through the wreath with a craft stick – I only glued the bottom of the leaves until I was almost done and added some more to fill in some spots.  On the fill in leaves, I glued the bottom edges and put a few dabs on the body of the leaf (of course all the glue was on the back of the leaves). 

All Leafed Up (wreath holding courtesy of Manny)

The Gluing of the letters

 Then I decided that I wanted to add the word fall to the wreath.  So I turned to my trusty Silhouette Cameo and made the word fall using a thick font.  Once I got a size I liked I also made a mirror image of it so I had 2 full sets of the word “FALL”.  I cut both of them out of different papers I had from Basic Grey.  Then I took the letters, put glue on one of them, placed a piece of string (that I also got at the Dollar Store) and sandwiched the string between the 2 letters so they could move and you’d see both sides. 

  After I finished with the letters, I placed them under a heavy book to really squish them together.  I then edged the letters with a Distress marker in Brushed Corduroy.

  

Now, I realized after I cut the letters, put them together and was getting ready to hang them that I cut them out wrong.  But I was going to hang them anyway – so I did.  I hung them and. . . I hated it. I didn't like that I had messed up the letters so if they twirled they wouldn't be right and I didn't like the way they looked hanging at all. Since I didn’t want to waste the letters so I cut the strings off and edged the tops with the Distress Marker so you can’t see the white string.  Then I experimented with placing the letters directly on the wreath and I really liked the way that looked, so I guess between me not cutting the letters correctly and then hating them hanging are my happy accidents.  I think the letters look better where I ended up placing them.  I used double stick tape to hold them and it worked perfectly! 

All Done!! (again Manny the Wreath holder is holding the wreath)

And a close up of my beautiful letters!

I would also like to enter my project in the following challenges:
Hiding in My Craft Room - Die Cuts (my letters - FALL - are die cuts)
CRAFTITUDE - Anything Goes or Falling Leaves
Addicted to Stamps and More! - Anything Goes
Fab 'N Funky - Anything Goes
Crafty Girls Challenges - Anything Goes
City Crafter Challenge Blog - Wreath