A rant about blog candy

Ok so I just started blogging in September and since have three times been the so called "winner" of blog candy from three different blogs. I say so called as I have never actually received the items I supposedly won. I am starting to wonder if the jokes on me. Is blog candy not  real? Perhaps it's virtual. I also imagine there must be a margin of error in it, especially those blogs that have hundreds of followers and must get a lot of email. But not three times in a row from three different people. Regardless I find it extremely disappointing. Especially since I am not out there looking at blogs or commenting on peoples work just to get something for free. It's nice that they offer but really I am looking for inspiration and if I like your work I'll follow you and leave a comment whether you're offering something up to win or not.  But to announce that someone won something cool and get them excited and then never actually send anything is mean in my book. Does it mean I'll stop playing along? No probably not, I am sure that there are some honest people out there and on the off chance that I do actually receive something down the line, what does it hurt? In the meantime though I just had to get this off my chest.:(

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My scrap booking goals for 2011 are to complete one layout per week. Totally doable right?

I made several of these hot chocolate pockets to give as gifts.

A few more Christmas pins

A few more shrink art Christmas pins to give as gifts.

Merry Christmas! Last of the Homemade Gifts

These are inserts for stainless steel mugs I purchased at WalMart photo department. I cut the characters with Create A Critter and used scraps I had on hand. They are gifts for my boys who like to take hot chocolate or tea in the car.

CD folder

So my sister asked me for copies of some of my kids music for her daughter. Little does she know I burned my entire kids songs playlist of over 400 songs. Of course I couldn't just giver her some CD's. I made this little folder with 8 CD pockets inside. I got to use my new Build A Bear stamp set that I just got with my demo kit for signing on with Stampin Up! The paper is Stampin Up! except for the white folder. That was created with some extra thick Bazzil card stock I had. You may notice a little smudge of black ink on the bears foot and an edge of the circle. As I was tying the finishing ribbon on the folder I set it down on a dirty distressing sponge. I wasn't starting over so I stamped the entire folder with red distress ink to try and cover it.

Snowman Soup packet take one

So I really have wanted to try my hand at one of these snowman soup gift bags. Here is my first try. I need to tweak the dimensions a little bit. I wanted to avoid using the Cricut to cut the circle in the middle but with a punch I can't get that far down the paper. It just needs to be a little bigger so it doesn't bulge quite so much. I'll work on it. All the ones I have seen looked so neat and clean too. My cocoa mixed in with the marshmallows quite a bit and made them look dirty. Oh well. Don't know how to avoid that. This is what I'll be working on tomorrow.

For my dog niece

Yes I have a sister who has a dog for a child. We all know someone like that are have been that person at some point in our lives. Since she buys gifts for all our children and get nuttin' from us I made this for her dog Miko.

Her dog is a Husky so I tried to use the colors to match. I had the dog papers and paw print ribbon on hand. I cut the dog at 4" and I use the border feature on Paper Pups (came on my Gypsy) and cut a border that was 11.5 inches long. Since it doesn't allow you to use the shadow feature in combination with borders I cut another border slightly larger and edited out the yum part with my Gypsy. Of course it is filled with Milkbones. Hope she likes it (my sister and the dog:)

Teacher Gifts

My teacher gifts are finished. I added a Bath and Body Works lotion and antibacterial gel to each can and they are ready to go.

Shrink Plastic Pins

Here is a sampling of some of the pins I made using shrink plastic and clip art from Darcie Heater. They are super simple to  make. You just print the images on shrink plastic, cut them out and bake in the oven (just like when you were a kid!). Then I embellished them with wire and rhinestones and glued pins on the backs. That's it! I love the way they came out. I think these would be great little home made gifts. I am taking these up to sell at Paper Crafters Unlimited or maybe just trade for some more shrink plastic hehe.

Crafting with the kids

Aren't these Santa's adorable. My three year olds' made them! I cute the hat at 6" with the Simply Charmed cartridge. Then I handed over the glue sticks and cotton balls and let them have at it. I punched out the cheeks and nose from some red and pink scraps with some circle punches and gave the kids some googly eyes (which they love). The finished products are hanging proudly in my kitchen.

Snowman Tees

Here are the shirts I made for my boys. I used the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge to cut these snowmen from vinyl. I adhered the vinyl to the shirts and painted with fabric paint. I am not thrilled with the way they came out. On one I tried to use a foam paint brush to  apply the paint but you can see the brush strokes. It didn't cover well. On the other I applied it with the tip of the bottle but it came out very thick and uneven and took forever to dry. Maybe it would work better with fabric paint that isn't dimensional.

Birthday Card

I made this card for my husbands birthday last Friday. I used the cute little terrier on Create a Critter and some ancient Creative Memories scrap paper I had. I think the ribbon is also old old old from Stampin Up! I love to use old scraps I have in my stash to make cards. The greeting is from a Stampin Up! set I have and I punched it with my scallop oval from Stampin Up! I embellished the hat (that was cut from Simply Charmed) with Stickles and I gave the dog a wet nose with Crystal Effects. I have some more fun projects to post soon. I am working on some T-Shirts for my boys that are almost done and some shrink plastic jewelry that I need to work on tonight. I want to have several pieces completed to put in my Mom's scrapbook store Paper Crafters Unlimited when I go up to visit on Friday.

Blog candy

Look at this beautiful Christmas embellishment lot. Sassy Scrapper is giving it away. Can you believe it is stuff she doesn't use. I'd love to have it.

Cards for Donation to Childrens Hospital

Chris Wooten of the Turned Gypsy Blog is collecting cards to donate to a childrens hospital. I sent her two dozen! If you have cards of any type to brighten a childs day please send them to her.

Santa Card

I got my free sample of Action Wobbles just before Thanksgiving and have had this card in mind ever since. I just love the way the Santa shakes when he laughs his big Hohoho! I used the Christmas solutions cartridge for Santa and Plantin Schoolbook for the Hohoho. I used my Gypsy to weld the letters all together. The paper and ribbon is from last year's Stampin Up stash.

Advent calendar

My mom and I created this advent calendar a few years ago. I might not have even had kids at the time, I can't recall, It's all a blur. Anyhow I found it difficult to find trinkets small enough to fit in these favor tins and I had several incidents of the lids falling off and dumping out candy when I filled them with things like M&Ms. Last year I saw a great idea in Disney Family Fun magazine for an advent calendar filled with fun things to do as a family everyday leading up to Christmas. I just finished printing up my list of things and I am cutting them and putting the little slips of paper in the tins. Some are simple things like read Twas the Night before Christmas, watch the Polar Express and make a paper plate Santa. Others are take the train to see Santa at the Danbury Rail Museum and go to the Holiday Spirit Festival at Bowdoin Park. I am looking forward to sharing the calendar with the boys tomorrow and I am glad I don't have to worry about spilling mishaps with the calendar this year.

Thanksgiving Table Favors

I know Thanksgiving has come and gone. But I did make favors for the table and take photos. I loved the Gratitude Stamp Set in the Stampin Up Holiday mini this year and the paper that went with it. It was just beautiful. We made these at the Stamping in the Woods retreat I went on this fall with my upline and stamping friends. I covered Hershey's nuggets with the paper and put them in treat bags. The bags had to be folded and taped in the back so the chocolates fit snugly. My sons were so excited to eat their chocolates that all they did during dinner was ask if they could open them!

Stuff to add

I do have photos of things I have been working on to add. I just haven't gotten to it yet but I will. I have been enjoying all the project on the blogs I follow and not spending enough time crafting my own project. Stay tuned for an update.

Fall frame

I love this frame. It's the first project I completed with my new gypsy and I can't believe how easy it was to make all these cuts. I started with a white mat from Michael's and stamped SU Pumpkin Pie Ink all over it. It didn't cover evenly but I really like the way it gave it texture. It almost looks suede to me. Then I used TH walnut stain distress ink all over the mat. I cut the apples, basket, leaves, and acorns from Doodlecharms. The pumpkins and wheelbarrow are from Everyday Paper Dolls. The tree is from Stretch Your Imagination and the font is All Mixed Up. The apples got a coat of glossy accents to make them shine and some brads made the basket. Everything is shaded with distress inks. I'd like to come up with a few more designs to give these frames as gifts (but we'll see how much I actually complete before Christmas). Oh yeah a side note I bought a cheap-o frame from WalMart and when I tried to stuff this into the frame the glass cracked in three places! So I either need to find some frames with a little more dimension or not use dimensionals on my die cuts.

Altered Paint Can

I just whipped this up as a sample project for a workshop I am hostessing for my friend Beth who just signed on with Stampin Up. I used the ornament punch and stamp set and this paper and ribbon is actually from last year. Beth ordered the candy cane paper from the mini catalogue so that's what we'll be using. Gotta see if she has ribbon to match. I think it came out pretty cute and would be great for cookies or a small gift. Quick, easy and cheap teacher gifts too!

Tissue Box

I made this tissue box cover from the tutorial on Split Coast Stampers. The paper is stampin up autumn vine and the gobble and turkey are from the create a critter cartridge.

Finally!

This layout has taken me over a week. I saw this sketch over at My Litttle Shoebox and wanted to enter the challenge. And challenge it was! I used Accent essentials and Create a Critter for my cuts. The patterned paper is DCWV recycled stack and the cardstock is Stampin Up! Those are also SU chipboard letters died Pacific Point Blue and embellished with Glossy Accents. I am quite pleased with it and think I did the sketch justice.

Busy Bees

I was a busy bee yesterday. I went to a crop in Hyde Park with the. Central-Perk-Scrappers. I met two fun ladies Karen and Jessica and got some good scrapping time in. I really put the Create A Critter cartridge to work too. I basically completed two layouts although I didn't finish the journaling on one of them so I'll post it when it's finished. I got a good head start on a third  ( I picked out a format and the paper two things that take up a lot of my time). I'll go ahead and post the one layout that is truly done now as I really liked it and want to share. I hope you like it too.

New Layout

I really struggled with this layout. I wanted to scrap these photos but the colors were so drab. Then I found these papers from KaiserCraft and the camo ribbon in my Mom's store Paper Crafters Unlimited. They worked with the boots that have a camo print in them. Still I couldn't figure out what to do with them. I think part of the problem was I had too many photos and couldn't really crop them down much. I used Accent Essentials to cut the scalloped circle and Graphically Speaking for the title. Here's the finished product. I was thinking it was kind of a boring layout until I used distress inks around the border of the whole thing. It made a huge difference. And to think I resisted these inks for so long.

Silverware Pockets

So yesterday was a productive day in crafting. I did some long overdue scrap organizing and then set in to work on a project I had in mind for awhile. I saw these adorable fabric "silverware pockets" at Hobby Lobby and thought Hmm maybe I can make something like that. The following are my versions. They are all made with a pocket card fold.

He is by far my favorite. It's the turkey from the Create a Critter Cartridge. The DS paper is SU Autumn Vine and I also used More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa , and Really Rust. Isn't he stinkin' cute.

 I like this one a lot too. It was by far the easiest. I just cut three 2" ovals in DS paper with the cricut and added the stamped greeting.

This one I am not so fond of. I created the sunflowers with the SU Something Sweet stamp set and added glitter to the centers. I used spray adhesive to adhere the glitter and for some reason it just didn't stick well. Maybe it was too wet? All I know is I wouldn't want something on my place setting that sheds glitter everywhere.

This one I used a stamp from SU Thoroughly Thankful. I love the way it looks when watercolored. This was my first time using watercolor pencils with a blender pen and I really like the way the colors turned out.

Halloween S-Fold card

I am entering this card in the Cricut Cardz challenge for a Halloween S-fold card. I used all cuts from Happy Hauntings and paper is Stampin Up.

My Christmas Card finalized

I am in love with my Christmas card. So happy with the way it came out. This stamp set was a hostess item in last years Stampin Up fall/holiday mini. I was so mad I couldn't get it but my demo recently sold it at her open house and I grabbed it up. The set is called Snow Buddies. The trees in the background are the tree from the Stampin Up Loads of Love set. In case you can't tell its a shaker card. I used foam tape on acetate and filled it with Diamond Dust. I cut the snow globe with the Cricut from the Doodlecharms cartridge. The designer paper is from a pack I bought at the Rhinebeck stamp show from the vendor Art Gone Wild http://agwstamps.com/. I used stickles and my new favorite product White Perfect Puff (also purchased at the show from the Artful Stamper http://www.artfulstamper.com/)  to make snow on the trees. Hope you like.

This LO of my boys flying kites on Mayo Beach in CC last year. The paper is Stampin Up and the fish bordering the bottom is a Stampin Up wheel. The kite was made for me by Paper Piecing by Design.

Just Beachy

The stamps used were from Stampin Up Just Beachy set. I used the fish, woody wagon and flip flops. The designer paper is Bo Bunny. The sun was cut out of a piece of Bo Bunny Paper.

Fun with Paint

I really wish this photo came out better because this LO is so nice in person. I'd be happy to take some tips on photographing your LO to get in those details. Along the yellow strip bordering the photos on the left side I set eyelets and tied different colored fibers for texture and color. The title says You Color My World and was cut from a piece of Vellum Paper. The paint jar and brush are from My Community. The papers are from a stack by DCWV.

Cape Cod Railway

I love this LO from our trip to Cape Cod last year. I made the and RR crossing sign from My Community and the fonts are Cursive 101 and Plantin Schoolbook.

Boo Banner

This banner is completely scraplifted from Mrs. B's craft room. She did such a great job and her tutorial was excellent. Since I don't have a gypsy all my cutouts were done individually from the Happy Hauntings Cartridge. The paper is from Stamping Up. I loved working with the Marta Stewart black glitter it gave it such a nice effect. Now I am really tempted to go back to Michaels and get her glow in the dark glitter.

Bath Time

I gotta learn to take better pictures. Anyway here's the layout I started weeks ago/ What took the most time was the hand stitching (that you really can't see in this photo). I love the effect but boy was it time consuming. The titele is hand stitched too. The boys, tub and bubbles are from Everyday Paper Dolls and the duch is from the New Arrival cartridge. Paper is some old stuff I had hanging around.

Still haven't finished the LO I started weeks ago but I did make a Christmas card prototype today. My DH's photo taking skills are better than mine but still lacking. Overall I like the card but it will have to be one of several designs I make. No way I'm doing 50 of these.