I have to share...

I just have to share this post from one of the talented ladies, Dawn Lotharius over at the Die Cut Divas blog! She made this adorable 3D Circus Cake from the Cake Dies available at CC&M...

Here's the link to the post: http://die-cut-diva.blogspot.com/2011/08/colorful-animal-cake-many-pics.html

She is one creative lady, I tell ya!!

Other than sharing this with you, I have been super busy working on a sample project for a little Art Group I joined that starts tomorrow! I am doing the first one! 

 You can see my post here. 

In addition to this little tin, I have also been working on my Marie album for CC&M. 

 You can check it out here. I am almost done with it! I think it's coming along really well!

Mom has been diligently working on another mini! A fabulous Paris trip album! You're gonna wanna buy this one when it's up on Etsy, believe me! It's fantastic!!

And, last but not least, Kim has designed a few FAB cards for the shop! She's become quite the carder of late!! We hope to have all that up early next month!

That's it for now! Gotta get the kiddo off to school!

Talk to ya later!

- Becky

Another "Outside the Box" Creation from our Crazy Bird Lady!

(This is a copy of our DT post over at the Die Cut Diva Blog...)

Hi all! Becky here to share another FABULOUS project from my sister, a.k.a. Kim, "The Crazy Bird Lady!" She's still cranking out these amazing pieces inspired by her "slight" obsession with birds (& the book "Delight in the Details")! This time around, she used the Schoolhouse Picture Frame as her base for this gorgeous tag!

She traced the schoolhouse die onto a piece of needlepoint mesh & cut it about 1/4" larger to frame the schoolhouse a little. She covered the die with some papers & inside the little oval frame of the schoolhouse is a stamped bird image (Tim Holtz) surrounded by pearls, butterflies & bird eggs.

At the bottom, she hung a couple of great little charms (7 Gypsies, I think).

Another fabulous creation don't'cha think?? She is so GREAT at thinking outside the box with all the fabulous dies from Creative Cuts & More! Who would have ever thought of using this schoolhouse as a birdhouse but my uber-talented sister!! So, take a look at all the dies that CC&M has to offer & see what amazing things you can do too!

Be sure to keep checking in to see what our other talented designers are up to all week & we'll be back next Friday with another "Outside the Box" creation using the fabulous products from CC&M!!

Here's a little sneak peek:

Designer: Kim Langhorst

It's going to be a "Banner" Spring! (Copy)

Hello there! (This is a copy of the post that's over on the Die Cut Diva Blog...)

Becky here, blogging for my sister Kim (as usual! LOL!)!

She just finished this BEAUTIFUL banner using the Banner Die from Creative Cuts & More in a GORGEOUS Aqua Lagoon Stardream Fuse Metallic paper!

She said that she was inspired by a similar banner in this book: "Delight in the Details" by Lisa Pace. Here's a bunch of close-ups for you to admire...

Don't just love all the little touches! 

Here's a couple more close-ups of one of the banner pieces:

Isn't she just so darn clever!!

It looks absolutely beautiful on her mantle!

And sooooo very easy to work with when the banner pieces are pre-cut for you from CC&M!! There are tons of great colors to choose from & other dies that you can pick-out to embellish your banner too! Hop onto the shop & browse around!!

That's it for today!

See you soon!

designer: Kim Langhorst

A Splash of Color - Play Date Cafe Challenge #46

Hello Everyone!!

Welcome to The Play Date Cafe Color Splash Blog Hop sponsored by Creative Cuts & More!

Here was the challenge:

Create a layout, card, 3D piece using only a SPLASH of Pink, Copper or Gold with 

diecuts from Creative Cuts & More!

I chose to work with the Crayon Box again (I used this recently on my 9/2 post over at the Creative Cuts & More blog - Die Cut Diva & here because I just LOVE it!!!
(**AND, I have a special announcement regarding this post - we will be gathering up most of the "ingredients" from this project & creating a KIT to sell on Etsy by the end of the month!!! So stay tuned!!**)

I started off stamping the Kraft colored box with this cool Arched Doorway stamp from Lost Cost Designs, (Yes, I figured out a way to stamp it onto cardstock to continue the archway when the lid was closed. I simply stamped the top part of the arch onto white cardstock, Glimmer Misted it with "Sand" & "Tattered Leather" to get the tone closer to the crayon box's Kraft color. Then I lined it up with the rest of the arch. Viola!) Then I assembled the box with Killer Red Tacky Tape.

On a separate piece of cardstock I stamped the Pixie (from Red Lead Paper Works) first in black & then again but with embossing ink & embossed it in gold powder. Then I cut out the WINGS to each & swapped them so the black Pixie would have the gold wings.
I then colored them in with the pink & mounted her on the front of the box.
That was really it for the challenge, but I knew that I wanted to use this box for my daughters school photos over the years, so I kept going... (it would also make a GREAT ATC box!)

(the top of the box says "Watch Me Take Flight")

(Inside the box is all these little cards & butterflies)

(On the back of the cards is room for a title, date & 5 Favorite things)

 I cut 18 pieces of white cardstock to approx 2.5x3.5" to accomodate a wallet photo. I then punched butterflies out of more Kraft cardstock that I had previously stamped with various patterns; layered them in 3's & stapled them down the center onto the cards. I used my dymo labeller to make the age labels (I made enough to place on 9 cards - Pre-K through 6th grade) in pink too.

Lastly, I stamped this great "Favorite Things" (from For the Luv of Art's August Kit) image onto the other set of 9 cards - I didn't want the staple showing through the other side, so I glued these to the back of the photo cards (We'll simplify this for the kits).

Isn't it a great way to keep all those adorable school photos in one tiny spot?!!

CC&M's June Blog Hop!

Happy Flag Day to everyone!!
Becky here again (you'll find I do most of the posts with Kim & Mom over my shoulder! LOL!!),
Here we are for another fun BLOG HOP with Creative Cuts & More!!

Hopefully you've followed the links & came to us via Lisa Sommerville's beautiful site! Amazing work huh?!  If you didn't arrive here from Lisa's blog, you don't want to miss what our designers have in store for you! The CC&M June Blog Hop starts at http://die-cut-diva.blogspot.com/. (My sis, Kim has a great Revolutionary War album at the beginning of the hop & there are some more photos at the end of this post! You don't want to miss it!)

If for some reason one of the links is broken along the Hop do not worry, HOP back over to Die Cut Diva where the complete list will be.

This month's theme? Patriotic & Picnics!
What better time to get ready for all those summer BBQ's & the Fireworks on July 4th than to make up a little card & favor ensemble?!?!

 I think we tend to forget that a lot of these cards & favors are not meant to be kept forever & tend to only use our scrapbook supplies for them - they don't HAVE to be acid-free all the time!

But for the invitation, I punched 2 different sized stars w/my Fiskars punches out of some flag-decorated paper plates! (I would have asked for some CC&M starsCC&M card to work with, but I had no idea what I was doing when I placed my order for the Hop!)  Then I sanded them a tad & adhered them to a piece of white cardstock that I had already stamped with the Tim Holtz "sun rays" stamp. You'll also notice that the edges look burned?  Well, they are! I blasted back to my 4th grade history class where we burned the edges of paper to make scrolls with a match! What fun!!  Attached all that to a square in Bazzill Blue Canvas Textured Cardstock, added the dymo label & VIOLA! A great little invite ready to send out! (Inside is another "torched" piece of paper with all the party details!)

The card was fun, but this is what I am most excited to show you...

This "Dinner Bell" Favor was made from the CC&M Bell Box in the Galvanized Silver Metallic paper! Isn't it awesome! (I'm very proud of it!) 

Here's what I did to get the rusty look...

1. I mixed 3 colors of embossing powder - Zing's black & chestnut with Stamp-n-Stuffs copper (not much copper) & tested the look on some scraps until I achieved a "rusty metal" color.

2. I stamped embossing fluid just on the edges & corners of each side of the bell as well as the top, 

3. I sprinkled the powders on & heated it all up. 

4. Once it was cool, I sanded away some of the embossed areas & went over all of them with Tea Dye Distress Ink, but wiped some of it off with a paper towel (the ink will only stick to the paper, not the powder, so that it sinks into any areas missed with the powders from the beginning).

5. I assembled the box by simply folding it all together & gluing along the on edge.

6. I punched some more stars out of the dinner plates, sanded & glued them on.

7. I used my Crop-a-dile to attach the large eyelets in the top & tie some red, cream & blue ribbon from my stash through the holes.

 That's it! That's how I achieved my "rusty" Dinner Bell look for the favor box full of YUMMY red, white & blue Jelly Bellies!!

Hope you all enjoyed my post!

Now, you can either scroll on down to see some close ups of Kim's amazing Revolutionary War album, or KEEP HOPPIN' on over to Noelle's blog to see what she has up her sleeve this month!

Thanks for Hoppin' By!

Here are the close-ups of Kim's SUPER creative uses for all her CC&M Dies (You can find all the links on the Die Cut Diva Blog)!!!

 MOVIE CAMERA

BUCKLE & NAMEPLATE

ANOTHER BUCKLE

HINGES ON TAB!

STAR SHOOTING GUN!

HINGES AS A BANNER!

MY FAV- HINGES AS A FLAG POLE!

COOL ACETATE STAR!

MY ADORABLE NEPHEW IN

AN ANTIQUE FRAME!

THOSE GREAT FILMSTRIPS!

A CARD ON A SCRAP-

BOOK PAGE! 

(Altered with Glimmer Mist)

MORE FILMSTRIPS!

ANOTHER NAME PLATE

ANOTHER BUCKLE!

(also Glimmer Misted!)

AND LASTLY,

THE SCHOOL HOUSE!

Hope you enjoyed our projects! Please feel free to ask any questions about what or how we did something!

For next month's CC&M Hop we'll be thinking cool thoughts with CHRISTMAS IN JULY!

(We'll have a giveaway on next month too!)

But I hope we'll see you before then!

Cheerio!

Our FIRST Blog Hop!

We are SUPER excited to have been asked to join 

Creative Cuts and More's Blog Hop on Monday, May 17th

to celebrate the launch of a new website & storefront!

This is a great Colorado company offering tons of diecuts of shapes,

cards, boxes, mini-albums & more in all sorts of materials!

Join us Monday, May 17th

for a Celebration Blog Hop

with all new diecuts,

guest designers, and prizes!

 

Stop on by for a peek at what Becky has created for CC&M, 

as well as a few more photos of Kim's great project FEATURED on the new website!

When you've finished hopping around, come back here & leave us a comment.

We will randomly pick a winner on Tuesday, May 18th

to receive a FREE mini-album kit from us!

"Hop" to see you soon!

We've been spotted!

It's already been an interesting week for us & it's only half over!

Things might be looking up for us on Etsy!!

After a couple of small sales there, we have had our first pre-made scrapbook sale online (through Etsy)!!  

Wahhooooo!

That's right! Someone fell in love with our Vintage Style Hawaiian scrapbook & had to have it for her friend getting married in Maui! So, that beloved book will be on its way with her to Maui in a few short days! Jealous? I am! I'd sure like to be on my way to Maui!! I wonder if we should have offered "personal delivery service" on this one! LOL!!

In addition to some nice movement in the shop, we've also been commissioned to do some mini-album work for a local company, Creative Cuts & More. It's a small company offering hundreds of die-cut shapes & albums to order! They are re-launching their website soon (the above link is the old site, but still functional) & asked us to participate in all the fun! Even though we are creating these albums for our personal use, it might spark some interest in us (and you) to pick up an album or two for future projects! So, be on the look-out here & on their blog The Die-Cut-Diva for our completed samples!

And just when we thought things couldn't get any better, we've been spotted by a fellow crafter on Etsy! The shop-owner of ScrapMetal was kind enough to mention us on her blog after stumbling upon our shop today! So, now we are returning the favor!

She makes some really interesting & pretty, what I would call "assemblage" jewellery, as well as dabbles in the digital scrapbooking world!

Check out her shop on Etsy when you get a chance!

(http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScrapMetal)

That's about it for now.

Mom has made this really adorable PROM book that I am hoping to get photographed tomorrow & up on Etsy! Plus we have some fun acrylic stamps that I intend to put up as well!

Keep watching!

You'll never know what we're up to unless you visit often!