2012-A Year in Projects

My friend Dee Dee, of UmWow Studio, has thrown out a challenge to share our top 10 favorite project of 2012.  When I looked back I couldn’t believe all the projects I have done this year… and I really had a hard time narrowing it down to ten.
I decided I would work my way backwards in order of newest to oldest…
First a 12x12 layout of my nieces this Christmas, I love this picture!!

This is a gift card box I gave my brother and sister-in-law (with a gift card in it) for Christmas.
Next is my December design team project, Reflections of {YOU}
And then my November design team project, Thankful for Moments.
 
This was for a swap over at VLVS!, tag with coordinating ATC.
Here is a 12x12 layout I did for the VLVS! design team call…I didn’t make it but I will try again next time and I really like all the projects I did!!
I have made a couple of these tealight holders but this is my favorite, I think…inspired by a project Scrappy Canuck did as her farewell post over at The Crop.

This was a canvas I made as a gift for some friends…
A card for a Crop Chocolate challenge, #24 Totally up to You
And last but not least…this was one of my first focus group challenge entries.  A challenge that Amber’s husband Brantley picked…inspired by sunsets.

Well, this is what 2012’s year in projects looked like for me.  Thanks for all your kind comments this year, my first for blogging!  I am looking forward to more great adventures in 2013.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Design Team Inspiration

Who’s inspired by the Crop Chocolate design team?  I AM!!  And even though I am on the design team it is where I find LOADS of creative inspiration!!!
Challenge 43 over at Crop Chocolate, Inspired By....is posted and you have until next year to get entered ;)  well January 4th 2013 anyway.  Here is the challenge:  "The Design Team term is almost over. For this week's challenge, look back through The Crop and make a project inspired by one of the current design team members."
My entry was inspired by fellow Chocolatier Nina.  It was her December project, the theme was Reflections of {YOU}.
Here is her project and you can see all the details by popping over to The Crop.

Moi! - by NinaN

I absolutely love this layout!  Obviously, right?… since I was inspired by it!!
This is my version:

Crop Chocolate products: MME Miss Caroline Dolled Up kit, Distress Ink-Walnut Stain and Black Soot, MME Stella & Rose Gertie buttons, AC precision pen
Non-CC product: Lucky 8 mini punch, Fiskars heart punch, VLVS! ultra high gloss embossing powder, lace stamp

I hope you will go over to The Crop and be inspired by one (or all) of the design team members and I especially hope you will post a project in this weeks challenge.  Another one of my great inspirations is seeing you work!!
Happy New Year!!!

WINNERS! Yep, two…

First, THANK YOU!  I was overwhelmed by all of the sweet comments everyone left about my lil’ ol’ project.  I love to create and it is even better when others love it too!

Now, my first winner, selected from all the comments over at The Crop, will get a custom made mini canvas.  Here it is just waiting to be altered.  I will be contacting my winner with a couple of questions and then I will get busy!



And the randomly selected winner is: 

LBAB December 17, 2012 1:33 PM Congratulations on your 100th post. Love all your work. Thanks for sharing your talent with us


The second winner, selected from the comments on my blog, celebrating my 100th blog post will receive 1 yard of six different velvet ribbons.
 Aren’t they beautiful colors and texture?!!!


The winner of these lovelies is:


Amber R. :) December 18, 2012 8:24 PM LOVE this LO, and LOVE having you on my Design Team!! Such a fun technique to have in the books. :)

Ladies!  Please PM me over at Crop Chocolate with  you addresses and we will go from there.
Again, thank  you all so much for your support and sweetness!!  I am super excited about the next 100 posts!

Reflections of {ME} and my 100th post!!

You may already know that our theme this month over at Crop Chocolate is Reflections of {YOU} and you may even know that I do not love having my picture taken so it took a great deal of thought and lots of searching to come up with the project I wanted to do to show you a great photo transfer technique.  Please pop over to The Crop and check out how I did it!!
In honor of our last project this term you could win a mini canvas custom made for you.  Just visit The Crop and leave a comment there, jump back over here to my blog and leave me a comment and I will pull a random winner…

This is also my 100th blog post!!  I can't believe I got to that milestone already, did I really have that much to say and to share??  Probably!!  To celebrate I am going to pull a second winner that will receive 1 yard of each of these BEAUTIFUL velvet ribbons I recently aquired.



Thank you for all your comments and support these past 100 posts!  I am looking forward to hundreds more!
Both winners will be announced Wednesday December 19th.

Thanks for stopping by and playing along!!!

Thankful for MOMENTS-Winner Announcement

Woohoo!!  Today is the day!!!  I used random.org  to pick a winner from all your posts...

True Random Number Generator  Result: 9 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Corrie November 6, 2012 12:14 AM

Great project left you love on the crop, that tag rocks

Yay Corrie!!  I will send out your tag this week!

Thanks for all the sweet comments ladies!  I truly appreciate them!

 Original post:

 Thankful for MOMENTS

Our theme for the November Crop Chocolate Design Team projects is 'Thankful'.  My altered book project is up on The Crop and of course I would love to know what you think!!

I am thankful for MOMENTS and what better way to cherish your keepsakes then in this altered book.

Check out how I created this by clicking here.
If you leave me a comment on The Crop and come back here and let me know what you think I will have a drawings for this Christmas tag I made this weekend with a new Tim Holtz die I just received.

As always, thanks for stopping by!!

Christmas Quickie

Today when I got home from work I decided to go into my scrappy space for a little relaxation…I worked on my ‘bulk’ Christmas cards, you know, the ones you send out to all the friends and family… it is a process so I do a little at a time.  Suddenly I decided to challenge myself to make a Christmas card in 30 minutes or less.  You might think it is impossible but alas, it is not!  I have a stash of one of a kind Christmas cards on hand for those special folks I want to give a special card to.  This is what I came up with:

Echo Park Dots and Stripes and Distress Ink-Walnut Stain purchased at Crop Chocolate, Bazzil cardstock, kraft card base, vintage music, stickles, hemp twine, May Arts burlap twine, Unity stamp and Tim Holtz dies.

I met my challenge to myself… 26 minutes 37 seconds, what do you think??

Texturize!

Challenge 37 at Crop Chocolate:  Adding texture to your project is a quick and easy way to create dimension and interest. This week, Nina and I-I being Miwa (based in Nina’s October project which is super cool-click here to see it) challenge you to add texture to your project (Anything goes! A card, layout, home decor, altered art, etc.) with an unusual and/or uncommon material, such as corrugated cardboard, burlap, pasty substances, or any other kind of 'rough' material.
I LOVE using uncommon and unusual materials.  I made a card…

CC products: CC shipping box, Echo Park Apothecary Emporium and Chillingsworth Manor, Carta Bella Kraft CS, Distress Ink-Walnut Stain, Bazzil CS, WRMK glitter brads
Non-CC products: Sissix die, gesso, stamps from VLVS!, Hero Arts and Inkadinkado.

Don’t you just love all the different pumpkins!!  And corrugated cardboard is so fun to add to any project!!  What would  you use it for??
Thanks for visiting and come back VERY soon!!

October Winner!!

Thank you all SO much for stopping by and 'sharing the love'!!  I appreciate it and love hearing what you have to say!!  As you know I love Crop Chocolate and all the people associated with this FANTASTIC place from everyone in the warehouse to all the friends I have made on the boards!

And now what you have been waiting for...

I used random.org to pick a winner:

True Random Number Result:6    Powered by RANDOM.ORG

And number 6 is:

Once Upon A Delight October 19, 2012 4:31 PM

Those bears are way too cute.


Please PM me over at Crop Chocolate with your name and address and I will get your sweet SURPRISE in the mail.

Neutrals and Brights

Halloween is right around the corner and while it is not my favorite holiday, it’s beginning to grow on me.  It isn’t a big card making holiday either but I have done a couple in the last few weeks…including this one for the latest Crop Chocolate challenge.
Nina, a fellow Chocolatier, picked this weeks challenge based on my October design team project:  “I love how Michele mixed kraft and those fun bright colors on her project! So I want you to make a project using a neutral (such as kraft, black, white, grey, brown) and 3 bright colors.”
So it was only fitting that my project was inspired by her entry for the challenge.  Her card is super cute (click here to see it) and you can see a couple of her others on her blog by clicking here.

Crop Chocolate product: EP Chillingworth Manor and For the Record 2, Carta Bella Kraft CS, MM Spooky Alley clear stamp, Xyron Mega Runner
Non-CC: Kraftin Kimmie Pumpkinhead stamp, Momento ink and marker, burlap twine
Hope you are inspired by this challenge and that you will share your masterpiece!!

Favorite Candy and sweet SURPRISE.

October's project is up over on The Crop.  Our theme this month was inspiration from your favorite candy.  My favorite candy is gummi bears, I hope you will go check out what I came up with by clicking here.

   

 

 

And don't forget, if you need crafty supplies my FAVORITE place to shop is Crop Chocolate.  Stop by and see what they have to offer...it isn't just products.  You'll find inspiration, challenges and FRIENDSHIP!!

AND now for a give away...  go over to The Crop and check out my post, leave a comment there and then come back here and leave me a comment here.  I will pick a winner randomly from all the posts for a sweet SURPRISE.  This month it might be scrappy supplies, something handmade or maybe even a sweet treat to enjoy in honor of the theme for October projects.  Winner will be announed Tuesday October 23.

Happy Haunting!!                                          

 

Fantastic News!!

As you may know, I am currently a Chocolatier, a member of the Crop Chocolate design team.  I have been having SO much fun!  Working with all of these talented ladies has been INSPIRING!   Our term runs from July 2012-December 2012.  Just this week the projects were due for the selection of the next team for the January 2013-June 2013 term.  Of course I had to try out and I was LUCKY enough to have made the team!!!!!
This was one of my submissions, a folded circle frame. 

I used Fancy Pants Summers End, Distress Stain-Broken China, Distress Ink-Walnut Stain, Xyron Photo Tape all from Crop Chocolate.  I also used a Sizzix scallop circle die, Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, Spellbinders bitty blossoms and some pearls.
I also submitted this for my October Crop Chocolate Focus Groups project.  The challenge was to do a project inspired by Pinterest.

So, I am super excited about this fantastic news!  I absolutely love Crop Chocolate and am looking forward to working with all the ladies on the new team next year!  Make sure you check in often over at The Crop to see what spectacular things we have in store for you!!
Oh, we did have to do 2 projects for the try-out…you’ll be able to see my second project November 5th over on The Crop.

Inspired by my fellow design team members!

I worked on 2 project this weekend that were both inspired by my fellow design team members over at Crop Chocolate.
First Brenna inspired me to do a Halloween project.  Here project this month is a fun one.  Halloween is not really my favorite  but after seeing what she did I had to try it.  You can see her project over at The Crop.  I also entered this in Crop Chocolate’s weekly challenge: #35 Gimme Something Good to Eat.  You should see the other projects posted, they are GREAT!!  Click here to check them out.

Crop Chocolate products: MME Haunted, EP Little Boy, MM Spooky Alley Deco pins and spiders,Xyron photo tape, FP Oct 31 buttons, FP Lace, TA Glimmer Mist-Alaskan Salmon, Distress Ink-Spice Marmalade, Stickles-Crystal
Non-CC products: Twinery twine, ribbon, round box, raven, MS punch, Stickles-Paprika

I made this to fill with chocolate and give to my favorite uncle for a Halloween treat.  It was a fun project and I might be changing my mind about Halloween… ;)

Next I was inspired by Miwa’s October project, calorie free cake.  You can see hers over at The Crop.
Crop Chocolate products:  FP My Family, EP For the Record 2, EP Little Boy, FP Happy Together trim, Xyron photo tape, Distress Ink-Brushed Corduroy, Stickles-Crystal
Non CC products:  MS punch, TH dies, wire, florist tape, round boxes, Distress Stickles-Vintage Photo
  
I made this for a friends birthday and filled it with her favorite candy.  I think she’ll like it!
A BIG thanks to Brenna and Miwa for the awesome inspiration this weekend!!  And thanks to everyone for stopping by, let me know what you think!!  I love to read your comments!!

OWH Blog Hop Winner Announcements!

We, the Crop Chocolate design team, had an amazing blog hop this past week benefiting Operation Write Home.  Each of our blogs had challenges for those willing to tackle them.  My challenge was to use an OWH sketch that I picked and make as many different cards as you could.  I had some AMAZING cards linked up for my challenge and because of all the talent out there I decided to give away several more prizes.
OK, so the first prize is the main blog candy for posting the most cards…21 cards by NinaN.  They were so beautiful, she is one talented lady!  Check out all of her work here.

Next, I am giving 24” of handmade washi tape to all of the ladies that did 20 or more cards.  I had two!!  NinaN and anne (Bo on CC).
Now, I decided to give the same washi to my friend Paula because she linked up super duper fast on the very first day (and then linked up even more a couple days later)!  This lady did hundreds (literally) of BEAUTIFUL cards to send to OWH.  You should hop over and see what she has been up to by clicking here.
I also did a random draw using random.org from all those who commented during the blog and all those who linked up cards.

LBAB was selected from all those who commented AND LucyE (Haf2scrap of CC) from all those who linked up.
I would like to say THANKS again to all those who stopped by, hopped or linked up!!  I love hearing from you and seeing what you are creating!! 
If you see your name above please message me over at Crop Chocolate with your address so I can get you some chocolatey sweetness out in the mail!!

Crop Chocolate’s Challenge 34a

You might already know that Crop Chocolate’s design team was having a blog hop this past week benefiting Operation Write Home so it was only fitting that this weeks challenge was to peruse the blogs and pick out one of the challenges and do a card using one of them for any occasion.  I picked Amber’s challenge.
With Halloween right around the corner, well you can guess the rest…

Crop Chocolate product: Echo Park Chillingsworth Manor, Distress Ink-Black Soot, MM Celery ribbon, Liquid Pearls-White and Xyron Mega Runner. Non-CC product:VLVS! Frankenstein (which I won while hopping along during the VLVS! All Hallows Eve party blog hop, thanks Lea!) and chicken wire stamp, high gloss embossing powder,Twinery twine-black, TH Mover and Shaper ticket die and label maker I used the Liquid Pearls to do some swirls as a 3D accent. What do you think???  Don’t you love that paper??

VLVS! Swap

Viva Las Vegastamps! is hosting a super fun swap for tags with coordinating ATC’s.   And I am SUPER excited to be participating!!  How can you not be excited when you look at this cute little guy, doesn’t he just make you smile?!?



I used (3) of my favorite Viva LasVegaStamps!:  Owl in a Vest, Chicken Wire,  Feather

I also used Viva Las VegaStamp miracle tape and high gloss embossing powder.  From my stash I used Tim Holtz dies-Bird on a branch and Tabs and Tags, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist-Moss, Jazz Blue and Woven Burlap, Ranger acrylic paint dabber, Ranger #8 tag, , burlap twine, muslin, Stickles-eucalyptus, Ranger markers, Momento Ink-Black, vintage button (from UmWow Studios).  From Crop Chocolate I used Carta Bella kraft cardstock,  Copics and Distress Ink-Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy.

   On the back of the tag is a Tim Holtz glassine envelope to house the coordinating ATC.



Keep an eye out for a post in the very near future showing the sets I get back from the swap.  Thanks for stopping by!