PMS Digi Makeover Challenge: Color Challenge

Well I'd say it's about darn time for another post on the ol' blog, huh? I've been a little absent because last week i was in DISNEY! Man it was fun! I've been in catch up mode since our return early in the week. I will get some of those pictures posted for those who are interested.

But that is not what today's post is about! Todays post is about the PMS digi makeover challenge! Each Monday (yes i missed last week), the PMS Digi Artists bring you a new challenge and this week is a color challenge, perfect with some fall colors for you!

Super easy and you know you want to play along!

Here is my project using the Digi version (of course) of the new set, Color it Autumn!

Again, with digi's i like to play with the size of the digi a bit so i WAY enlarged these images and layered them to make them the focus of what i thought would be a card until i decided it was a bit too large and thought it would be better as a fun house decoration!

I colored the pumpkins with copics YR18, YR15, YR14, Yr12, YR21, E25, E27 and the leaves with YG99, YG95, YG 93 YG91 and then airbrushed around the frame with E23 including a little bit of airbrush onto the pumpkins for more shading. It discolored my leaves a bit, but overall, i liked the effect of airbrushing onto the pumpkins as well. I then used a colorless blender to remove a bit and added a white gel pen some some subtle highlights.

Be sure to check out the PMS company blog for more inspiration from the Digi team as well as get yourself entered in on the challenge!

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My Time Made Easy - September Release Blog Hop

Today is the My Time Made Easy ™ LLC Release and to celebrate we have a BLOG HOP with some hidden treasure!

Each design team member is featuring a different themed house/Shoppe! You won't want to miss anyone!!

· Lauren Meader

· Katie Cotton (that's me)

· Lesa Rapp

· Lisa Kind

· Pam Imholz

· Silke Ledlow

· Stephanie Kraft

· Tracey Cuccia

· Tammy Hershberger

Kristin Bueter

and Dawn Easton

Be sure you leave a comment on each design team member's blog today because TWO of the design team members are going to be picked to have someone from their blog comments WIN a $50 Gift Certificate to My Time Made Easy ™ LLC!

NO ONE knows which two designers are hiding the treasure, so don't forget to stop by each design team members blog and leave a little love there. Include your email address-so you can be contacted if YOU are one of the lucky winners!

Winners will be drawn September 3rd, and announced on Lauren Meader's Blog .

Well it's midnight on the first! Well, at least it is when this is first posted! Which means anytime after now all the new products from My Time Made Easy are live and ready for shoppers on the site! Speaking of shopping, thats exactly what this release is all about! The release this month is a little different than in the past... only 1 template and it's a MEGA template complete with many bonus features that makes you able to recreate this 1 template again and again all the while being able to make it look different every time! Gotta love that! Ironically... in my project today, i only used the template base and none of the bonus features. I actually intended to create the chimney but totally forgot until i was typing up this post! haha!

Here is my Bit O' Blarney shoppe. I love the irish cottage feel and how this turned out. I was laying in bed the other night thinking of my sister who is currently IN Ireland. Yes, thats right, she's there and i'm here. Thats not cool. haha. Just kidding, my sister is MORE than deserving of this vacation and i'm so happy for her. In fact, this little cottage will be given to her.

Ok, back to my middle of night scheming of how to create the Shop Around template into more of an Irish Cottage. Well i know what an irish cottage looks like (I've been to Ireland, though YEARS ago and have a small collection of english cottage figurines but still i learned long ago that when you are working on a new art project, this first thing you need is RESEARCH. So i googled Irish Cottage Photos. Beware, the previous link will have you packing your bags and searching for flights to Ireland! Don't they just look so peaceful and serene. I could craft there all day long! Hahahaha!

So step one of creating my Irish Cottage shop was that roof! I went to PetSmart and bought a small bag of Rabbit Snacking straw. It was PERFECT for the job! Very easy to cut down to the size i needed and was light weight. It easily adhered to the scor-tape i had underneath.

In case you'd like to recreate this at home (you know you wanna!) I started with the sides before ever adhering the roof pieces together. This allowed me to cut the straw pieces in a straight line and now having to somehow magically know the exact length to and have placed.

Next up i did all the perpendicular to the ground pieces and assembled my roof. There is an extra roof piece (which i did not use in my previous shoppe post) which allows an overhand. I adhered my straw pieces to this separate roof piece and then adhered that to the top.

Ok, so you get how to make the roof... next up was making it look even more lifelike... so i knew i wanted some bright bits of green moss. I used Flowersoft in what else but SHAMROCK GREEN. :D It was the perfect extra!

Now that I had my roof satisfactory, I knew i still wanted very old looking walls and for that, i KNEW that the grey stone wall from the Construction Materials pretty printables paper pack would be just PERFECT. There are so many wonderful papers in the collection that it makes any project for the Shop Around template a breeze!

Next up came decorating the shoppe! I used the Home Improvment Stamp Set for my door. I was inspired by this photo and decided to use Barn Door red ink by Distress Inks. I then sponged the edges with Aged Mahogany to give it a more worn look. Since most all the photos i was looking at had dark windows, i decided to color in the windows of my door black. Also in the linked photo is a bright red wheel barrow and i thought... HEY! MTME has a wheel barrow in the Just for You set! I stamped and cut it out so that I could color in the wheel barrow with copics and then i added Flowersoft to the top.

I did want to make my template a bit more like a shoppe and not just an irish cottage. And any shoppe needs a sign! I used the boutique sign from the Shoppe Window set and just was very careful to only ink the sign itself and not the word Boutique inside. I then hand wrote my "Bit O Blarney" (thanks tangii for helping me think up the perfect irish shop name!). You can also see in this photo how i went a little crazy with the flowersoft for moss. I was having a lot of fun just adding bits everywhere!

Ok... ONE LAST THING (for now... hehehe). I also created a matching card using the Homemade and matching Envelope cut file. I wanted the over all look to match that of the Bit O Blarney shop so I created the same roof to stick out over the top and created a similar door.

The card then pulls out of the envelope (so cute, huh?) Since i wanted the card to slide in and out nicely, i opted to keep the inside simple. I've left the inside for a heartfelt note. The over all thoughts of this card for me is for Good Luck, which afterall is what a Bit O Blarney would be? Right?

So there you have it! Now be sure to check out the entire design team and have a wonderful day!!!

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I love CRACKLE!

Hello everyone! This is a little project i did with the youth group at our church.

The youth group leader wanted to focus on CREATIVITY for the month and asked if I would be interested in sharing with the youth. Um, YEAH! I love sharing what talents God gave me, especially with those younger than I am. That is my gift back to Him!

So i wanted to keep the project fun, purposeful, easily to do both feminine and masculine

but at the same time not too terribly difficult.

Here is our project!

This is one of those little paper mache boxes you can pick up at a craft store (in this case, i got mine at Hobby Lobby, but they all carry them!) And while it retails for .99cents, this is one of those items that goes on sale ALL the time. I picked them up for .50 each.

To keep in line with the "use your own creativity" idea, i brought ALL of my acrylic paints so that they could chose colors that inspired them. There were clemson boxes, girlie boxes, black and rustic boxes. And they were all fascinated at watching the paint CRACKLE!

I do loooooove crackle!

I also brought ALL of the Paper Makeup Stamps wordart (wow, didnt realize we had so many)

in order for them to each choose a quote that spoke to them.

And i brought embellishments in every bits and sizes so that they could doctor up their creation.

All in all, i think it was a success! They had a blast and i got a few thank you calls from parents.

Now to share with you details on what I chose to do!

First i painted the entire box with brown acrylic paint and let that dry. Then i painted the crackle medium over the box and let it dry slightly (the longer you wait, the more fine cracks, the less time, you get be fat thick cracks. I like mine somewhere in the middle).

Here is an overview of the top of the box...

This quote is from the Believe Scripture set from Paper Makeup Stamps.

I stamped it, then cut it out with the small long rectangle nesties and matted it with brown cardstock cut with scallop long rectangles nesties. Before adhering, i distressed the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink.

To adorn the top of the box, i took a SUPER cute button that is in the shape of a flower (Creative Cafe) and threaded some DMC floss thru so it would look sewn onto the box.

Using a martha stewart branches punch, i punched the same brown cardstock and glued to either side of the flower button.

More distressing...

To get this dirty and weathered look on the box, i use an antiquing glaze which you can find in the same area of the craft store as the paint and crackle medium. The natural textures of the paper mache box (uneven edges, etc) are PERFECT for this since the glaze doesnt go on quite a smooth.

So thats it! if there is enough interest, i'd be happy o do a step by step or even video tutorial on this process. :D Just leave a comment if you'd really like to see it!

I have a really big announcement from paper makeup stamps tomorrow so be sure to check back in!

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It's a PMS blog hop!

It's the 7th! That means it's time for a PMS blog hop!

Every month of the 7th, Paper Makeup Stamps has a release. And every morning on the 7th, the Paper Makeup Artists join together in a blog hop!

Every blog has a letter. Hop along in the order provided during the hop and you'll get a phrase that is your code to get 15% off the entire release. If you don't feel like following our order, no worries, just use the links provided in the sidebar. You just might have some word unscrambling to do! My letter for you is....

Now if you forget that... nevermind, you won't. :D

Today each design team member is showing off one of the new "foodie" stamps!

I'm showcasing one of the apron combos (it's a build an apron set!) called Tina's Kitchen.

The sentiment is also from this set. :D

This is my recipe holder! I love making those big wooden clothespins into recipe holders for the kitchen. It's a great way to not get food splattered all over your index cards. You can use any size... this one happens to be a little monstorous, but i thought it was so fun and it was only 2.99 at AC moore. :D Those who have been following my blog for awhile might remember THIS VERSION i made for my sister. :) That post also give a little bit more of a step by step picture tutorial.

For the above recipe holder, i did not do any crackle. I simply painting it 1 coat of red acrylic paint. The wood grain came thru a little bit, which i decided i really liked, so i left it be. However, one of my favoritist things when working with bare wood is antiquing medium. it can be found in the same aisle of the craft store as the acrylic paint. It's a little bit more "gelly" like than paint and takes longer to dry. Just use a sponge... get it wet but wring ALL the water out. Then brush the antiquing medium along all your edges to give a more worn look. It's like sponging the edges of a card. :D

Now i wanted to give this a little something extra, so i ran some dotted ribbon (SU) up and down both sides. here's a more "aerial view".

Now to the part that is actually from this release! :D Tina's Kitchen is a super fun new set with various apron bits that you can custom put together to create your apron. Whether you want a more male apron, girlie apron, etc. There is also a few fun sentiments to go with the set.

This set works pretty seamlessly with the other foodie stamps being released. If you're doing the blog hop, you're getting to check them out. if you have jus come to my blog... you need to go back to the beginning at the PMS blog!

Now it's time to hop to Shaela, the designer of this awesome set!

Dont forget our release party is tonight at 8pm CST in our FORUM! Hope to see you there!

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Unity Candle Time

Wow everyone! You sure do know how to make a gal feel loved!

Comments for my blog candy (right now as i type this at 10:53 sunday evening) are at 83!

Which means the candy pot is now valued at $200!!!!! Thats some serious stampin' loot!

And it's only the 27th! The entries can roll in thru January 1st and I'll pick a winner on the 2nd.

Well i hope everyone had a wonderful christmas! Our christmas morning was a lot of fun! Later in the day my 3 year old suddenly said he was "worned out" and asked me to hold him. Um, this is my 3 year old who never even naps (AND he had a 2 hour nap already!) and is usually bouncing off the walls! I picked him up and knew by that magic mama touch, that my boy was sick! I took his temp and it was 102.3. Poor little bugger never gets sick. He said his head hurt, but he just wanted to rest and watch tv... NOT sleep. He already took a nap he informed me! So the the rest of christmas was a bit of a blur continuing onto the next day. Funny how when they always bounce off the walls you wish they would chill and then when they are sick and cant it's all you want them to do! Today however, he was back to his "good" ol bouncing off the walls self. And i found myself again wishing he would just chill out! hahahaha!

So now that christmas is done and gifts are given, i can show you some of the projects i made for friends and family. Now not all my family check my blog, but some (particularly my mama!) so i have to be careful of what i show on here! Now i get to show it all without worry! Which is good because my current crafting is for some sneak peeks of the offical My Time Made Easy ™ release (which by the way you're gonna love!) so my blog would be bare if it werent for these gifts! But, i'm gonna have to spread them out a wee bit! teehee.

The gift i'm going to show you today, was one of the gift i made for my hubby. This is actually all he ever asks for as a christmas present (well, usually because he's already got plans on the big thing he wants and bought it already, in this case, a Wii!) but he just wants me to make him something. He truly is fascination by the world of handmade things and he particularly things the way we "origami paper into gifts" and "make boring stuff cool" is awesome. So my boring thing for him was a candle. He loves candles. There is always one burning in every room in our house. I have found the candles they sell at AC Moore for 3 bucks on a sale day, smell just as great as many more expensive kinds. Maybe not quite as potent as a yankee candle, but hey, at 3 bucks versus 24, i'll take it! And because my hubby is a bit of a no fuss kinda guy, i kept my altering simple. Just enough to show him i lub him.

Here is my altered candle...

I used a really cool "background" ish stamp from Unity Stamp Company called So & So loves. I've always really loved this stamp and hadnt used it in quite some time, so it was time to bust it out. It's quite large and would just about cover the entire cover of a card. This is one of those large candles! I colored the image with copic markers.

For the top of my jar, i used one of the stamps from the December Kit of the Month from Unity.

It was just the perfect topper to my pretty simple candle. Although i did want a wee bit something extra to it, so i colored in the words (it was stamped in rich cocoa memento ink, and then colored in with the same medium pink color copic i used on the image)

This is just a quick overview shot so you get the idea of what it all looks like together...

And one final picture that i had to go back and take because i hubby loved this part... go figure...

The ribbon i used as a slight and subtle extra element to the candle. That was his first comment. "this stuff is cool... what is it?" haha. It's a paper ribbon from Daisy Bucket. Very neat stuff, you can stamp on it, color it, curl it. Split/fray it. Color here is "latte" but it comes in a lot of different colors. I did add some buttons too it as well, but i decided it looked like to much so i pulled them off. Wonderful thing about glass! Very little is permanent!

So thats my gift for hubby. I love altering candles! Such a neat way to personalize a gift and you can do it lickty split!

Stamps:
From Unity Stamp Company, So & So loves and sentiment from the December kit of the month

Copics:
E31, E55, E57 for trees
R20, R22, R24 for hearts
B12, B14, Yr04 for the birdie
B000, B00, B01 for the sky

Paper
Neenah Solar White classic crest
Chocolate Chip Cardstock

Tools & Accessories
Spellbinders Classic Circles (Large)
Paper ribbon from Daisy Bucket

Red Line ("magic") tape - you need a VERY strong adhesive for the paper to stick on the slick glass surface. It wouldnt be a big deal if it wasnt curved. but since the glass is, it has the tendency to unstick. So a strong adhesive is a must.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

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Home for the Holidays with Verve!

My subject title is multi purposeful! I really am going home for the holidays! Well, the thanksgiving holidays anyway! :) We're packing up the kiddos into the truck and making a very long 9 hour drive to Indiana. Please pray for me with no potty accidents and boys who dont try to poke each other!

The other reason for my post is Verve's Project Parade for the month! Now if it no small secret that I'm in love with verve's stamps along with the sketches, challenges, and delicious inspiration from the design team. It truly is the best place for me to go to work up the crafty mojo! And each month they have a project parade showing off the releases from that month fit with a prize at the end!

This month's project parade was to make a holiday gift. The samples from the design team were all less than $10! Well i followed suit making a gift for less than $5. Go me!!!!

I simply altered a candle jar. I love giving candles, and AC Moore has these fabulously smelling candles for only $4! All the paper and ribbon used on my candle were scraps! (the paper is actually baby boy paper! shh, dont tell the candle it's not christmas paper!)

Here is my gift...


Now of course since it's around the jar of the candle it was hard for me to photograph the scene. So here's a couple other shots...






This was super easy and quick to make! I always have these jar candles around (because we always have them lit in the house, and at 4 bucks a piece and them going on sale for 2 for $5 often, i buy them a lot!) So all i needed was a 3.5 strip of patterened paper, whatever other scraps and bit you want to embellish with and then maybe some ribbon. You could easily add other 3D embellishments. I stuck to paper piecing to make the images stand out. And since they were pieced onto the main patterned paper, i didnt want to distract from them so i kept the entire thing pretty flat.

To paper piece the trees and snowflakes i just stamped them onto paper and cut them out. I also stamped onto the main paper and glued the cutouts inside the stamped images. Also stamping on the background helps to give the paper pieced image a little more oompf.

I hope that everyone has a fantastically wonderful thanksgiving holiday and for those traveling, please be safe!

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Another Friday Freebie from PMS

There a new friday freebie over at the PMS blog... check it out!

Here's what I did with this word art....

I decided to go away from a card for this.  To me, this quote is one of those that needs to be a constant reminder in your life!  Just keep plugging on... no matter how tough a time gets, or how long it takes you, just keep going!  So in order to keep this a constant reminder, i make a little wall hanging that was super easy to do.  My patterned paper is glued onto a piece of thick chip board for a little more durability.  A simple cut out (and embossing) with the long rectable nestabilties, a little sponging and then adding the primas and brads made this one thing a snap.  Makes a quick and easy gift as well!

Stamps:
Friday Freebie from Paper Makeup Stamps

Paper:
Graphic 45

Tools and Accessories:
Eyelets from We R Memory Keepers
Satin Ribbon from Walmart
Glitter Flower Brads from Prima Marketing
Inks used for sponging: Ranger Distress Inks in Antique Linen and Tea Dye

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A Bella Clutch

Hi everyone! Sorry new stuff never went up on the "feeding the habit" blog. My camera wouldnt charge for me, so i was stuck. I think it's charged now though so i'll be off to take more pictures after i get this post up. :)

This is my entry for Lauren Meader's My Timeless Template challenge over at Stampin Out Alzheimer's event

I also needed to create something for the Bella Club meeting at Funkie Munkie Scraps this saturday. Did you know you can use Lauren's templates like that? You can! You just have to keep all copyright into printed onto the template! And i thought her templates would be perfect since we need a project to do, but it's isnt really a full on class. PERFECT! And i'm hoping that the ladies in the club will realize how perfect Lauren's Templates are and go purchase some of their own! :)

I used her Purseonality Clutch template to create this little bella clutch! Inside I've filled it with stamped out bella images, some baubles and other emBELLAshments and something that every girl needs.... CHOCOLATE! :)

Here's the finished project...






I was really pleased with how it came out and how fast it was able to come together! I printed the bottom out on Bazzill Cardstock (that i forgot to check the color on, SORRY!) and then the top (a separate template design making it super easy to have 2 colors) onto Bittersweet Bazzill Cardstock. The patterned paper i cut slightly smaller and then adhered it to the top side of the template centering it where i wanted and THEN i scored it. It makes it a lot easier to adhere it first so that way the score lines are perfectly fit together! I then ran it thru my sewing machine to give that true purse look. :) I followed this same process to the handle.

The bella is the mini Contentobeabella that comes with the larger version. She was the PERFECT size for this project!!!!



STAMPS
Contentobeabella and the sentiment is one of mwahbella's

COLORING:
Copic Markers: now this was small, so not a lot of shading going on, just straight colors!
Skin:E00, R20 (just a dot for cheeks!)
Hair & pants: E25
Shirt: R20, R21
Flower: R22, R24

PAPER
Cardstock is Bazzill
Patterned Paper is American Crafts from the Everyday Collection

TOOLS:
My Timeless Templates by Lauren Meader available at PaperTrey Ink
Scallop circle punch by SU
Sewing Machine

ACCESSORIES:
Bellas Baubles

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2nd post for the day - All That Scraps Challenge #24

Ok, so i know i said i'd be back with my card for my sketch... but i lied. Well, not entirely. I will be back with that, but i had started this project yesterday and i wanted to finish it (and clean off my craft table!) before i started on a new project. Even though i'm not currently on any design teams, i still feel like i have so much crafting to do this week! WHy? Because everyone has new stamp releases coming out and with these sneak peeks i want them all! And it seems like each company has challenges, and sketches, and prizes to be won! Oh i love it! So, with the recent no spending and use up what i have motto (imposed much more so by my husband than myself), the opportunity to win the stamps means a happier husband. haha. If not, i'm just going to seriously try to work some magic because all these new releases are steller!

Ok, back to my project...

Who says halloween has to be over after october? I had an idea to do something cute with a box and halloween pictures so when i read the All That Scraps challenge for this week (read the blog entry here) i thought, oh this will be perfect!

So i made my pizza box using this tutorial and then used some images from the september CC Designs releases. I colored my little "bat bear" with copic markers and used patterned paper from reminisce.


For the inside i put together a sort of "jacob's ladder" only much simpler. To do this, i simply cut square pieces of chipboard to fit inside the box. I connected them using pieces of grosgrain ribbon. My ribbon does not run down each chipboard square though it looks like it does. I cheated and just used strips about an inch and a half long and glued them to the chipboard using fabritac (which is a super strong adhesive, acid free, but bonds ribbon to paper like cement!). Then i topped each piece of chipboard (front and back) with a piece of black cardstock. Then i decorated each square piece (front and back)

So when you open the box you see this...


And as you lift the ladder (using ribbon i looped on the top piece) you see the ladder of different chipboard squares. Keep in mind there are no photos. Each year i will add the halloween photo from that year. By the time the boys are about 10, it will be full! But i can always add more pieces. The backside will have photos as well. But i wanted you to see the project without photos since i only have a couple of years to put on there for now!
Here's a picture of the ladder...


and here's 2 photos so you can see what the ladder (which is removable) looked like.



Thanks for stopping by for a 2nd time today!

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