Pin Swap ... Come Join In

Hi everybody! I hope the weather wherever you live has been behaving in a nice way. We had some devastating tornadoes in my area last weekend, and we almost never have tornadoes. I live in Hampton, Virginia, and my family lives in Arkansas, and they have had a lot of tornadoes there too in the last week. Major damage and several lives lost, so my prayers to all those affected.

A couple of months ago, my dear friend Jenn invited me over to join Crafter's Digital Art Center (CDAC) and particpate in a beaded stickpin swap. The swap was to make pins in spring colors to be used to decorate cards, scrapbook layouts, or whatever you like. These are a couple of photos of the pins I made.

This first one shows the packaging that I made to present the pins. Inside I used a fabric-wrapped piece of cork as a holder for the pins.

This one is a bunch of the pins I made (yes, I got carried away) stuck into a little blending sponge I had handy.

This shot shows a closeup of a few of the pins.

These are extremely easy to make. There is a quick tutorial on the CDAC Pin Swap thread in the Swap Group that shows you how they are made - the rest is up to your imagination.

I had never worked with beads before, and these were so much fun, that I signed up for the new pin swap, where we are doing various groups for different holiday themes - 4th of July, Halloween, Fall/Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine's Day. I signed up for all of the groups!

We would love to have you join in the fun, so please come on over to CDAC and check it out! You can find the main CDAC site at http://priscillastyles.ning.com/
. After you join, just look at the "Groups" and find the one for "CDAC Swap Central" and look for the Swap No. 7 - Holiday Colors Beaded Stick Pin Swap. You can sign up for one holiday group or all five - it's up to you! You'll love it!

Thanks for stopping by, and big hugs and Easter blessings to everyone!

Happy Birthday ... and some Echo Park

Yesterday's Question of the Day over at Simply Scrapping Crafts asked what was my least favorite line of papercrafting supplies. I really don't have a least favorite, but I did comment that I didn't understand all the hype over Echo Park, and that I don't generally care for their papers.

Well ... fast forward a few hours, and my lovely friends over at The Outlawz have a nice Sunday CAS Challenge, which I felt inspired to participate in. So guess what I used? You guessed it - Echo Park - their new Playground papers. The challenge is to have at least two punches (I used 3), use the color blue, and have some plain cardstock that isn't embossed or stamped upon. So here's my take on the challenge:

I also found myself one of those little flower frogs (at least that's what I think it's called) at Michael's to hold my cards while I photograph them. Now to just make myself a lightbox - one of these days!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you'll leave me a sweet comment - I always enjoy knowing that my friends stopped by! Hugs to you!

Love ... and a Bird

Was in another crafty mood tonight - I haven't gotten this must craftiness accomplished in ... well, probably never.

The Outlawz Thursday POM Challenge this week is to add stitching to your design, and of course you are to use Prismas or some other medium of your choice. This week I decided to use some Tim Holtz Distress Inks, for both my stamps and to distress around the edges of the patterned paper. The stamps are from Unity, the patterned paper is from BoBunny, the ribbon came out of my stash, and I made the stickpin.

Thanks for coming by, and I always appreciate the sweet comments and encouragement that everyone leaves. Big hugs!

Hi!

Hi everybody! I've been feeling a need to create lately - I think it's just a way to release stress and escape from whatever is on my mind. I wanted something "pretty", and that usually means that pink and green are involved - not sure why that is my sort of "go to" color combo, but it just is. I also wanted to use this Hero Arts stamp I've had for awhile but just couldn't make work for me yet. I am not a very good stamper, and I usually think my stamped images look too flat or something. So I decided to stamp it onto some patterned paper, then I added some color highlights with my Copic markers and some Stickles. Then I framed it up with a darker color so that it would really stand out against the white background.

Thanks for stopping by to look at my latest creation - it always makes me feel so good when someone leaves me a nice comment! Big hugs to everybody!

Easter Egg Tree

Back last fall I made a card that had this awesome stamp on it from Unity Stamp Company, and I added golden beads to it for Autumn. Well, now that Spring is approaching - I say approaching because even though the trees and daffodils are blooming here in Virginia, it snowed and sleeted the last two days (yuck!) - I decided to make another similar tree for Spring!

And as luck (and careful timing) would have it, I have two challenges that this card is perfect for. The first challenge is Clare's Wednesday Card Challenge at Simply Scrapping Crafts. The challenge this week (actually last week, but I was slow at getting this done) was to use only one stamped image or sentiment. Actually, that's pretty easy for me, because I am not a huge stamper, but I do love this tree!

The second challenge is over at The Outlawz. The Monday Greeting Card Challenge is on today, and the new challenge is to use your favorite image, color, or sentiment in your card. Since this is my favorite stamp, and these lovely Easter colors are some of my favorites too, I think this should work out nicely!

I used the Sassafras Lass Sweetly Smitten Wee Bundle patterned papers, some Bazzill cardstock, the Unity stamp, some random ribbon and embroidery floss from my stash, and those fabulous beads came from Lisa Keifer's Etsy shop. If you don't know Lisa, she is a fabulously sweet friend and is on the design team at The Outlawz (along with many of my other fabulously sweet friends)! The beads on the tree are sewn on with just regular white thread, so they swing freely. The ones around the bottom of the tree are also sewn on, but I put a dot of glue under each one to keep them in place like eggs laying on the ground.

Thanks for stopping by! Hugs to everybody!

Friendship ... is a Million Little Things

Good Sunday morning to everybody! The weather here in yucky today - can't believe it was actually sleeting this morning when I got up! But since I'm staying indoors today, my friends over at The Outlawz have a great Weekly CAS Challenge this week with a sweet sketch by Amy, and I couldn't resist playing along. I've had this collection of Teresa Collins on my table for the last several weeks, so I just keep using it however I can - I love that blue and black color combo.

Oy vey! I just looked outside and it's sleeting again - just in the time I could type up this post. What happened to "in like a lion and out like a lamb"? Oh well, Spring will be here sooner or later!

Thanks to everyone for stopping by!

CAS "Hello" Card

The March 25th CAS Challenge at Simply Scrapping Crafts has a little sketch and the challenge to add texture to your cardstock. It's a sweet, simple sketch, so I couldn't resist. This is a pre-made card base that I added those embossed lines to with my Scor-Pal. The scalloped strip is from some Prima papers that I had already cut last weekend but never used. I hand-dyed the seam binding and made the stickpin myself. The alphabet stickers are from Cosmo Cricket, and I colored two tiny pearls with my Copics and added them as a little accent.

I have a list of challenges I want to try to do this weekend, so back to my craft room for a bit to see what I can get done.

Thanks for stopping by! Hugs!