Home Sweet Home Organizer

So, I am incredibly organized with my good crafting paper, but when it comes to various household papers like bills…not so great.  When Craftwell and Lawn Fawn challenged the Design Team to create spring home décor projects, I instantly thought of spring cleaning…and that led me to organizing…and that led me to my nemesis, the household paperwork.  So with that in mind, I came up with something that I hope will help me out a bit.

 

I got the idea from Pinterest and just couldn’t resist using the gorgeous Lawn Fawn Pink Lemonade papers.  I grabbed an old hardcover book from my stash and wrapped the book in the papers.  Once that was complete, I took 2 pages at a time and folded them over in half.  When I started, I was adhering the pages in place, but quickly found out that that wasn’t necessary as long as you tuck in the edges nice and tight into the binding.

 

Once that was done, I grabbed some more Pink Lemonade papers and stamped my favorite little house from the Home Sweet Home stamp set five times.  I then lined up the coordinating die and cut each one out with my precious eBosser.  I grabbed another paper and cut out five more houses.  I then adhered the two houses together at the top and got them nicely lined up.  Then I added a little adhesive inside the two houses and sandwiched them on top of some of the folded pages.  I decided to space them out to allow some extra room in the front and the back so that if I need to add more houses, I can do that at a later time.

To finish things off, I grabbed the alphabet stickers that come with the Pink Lemonade paper pack and added my labels to the book pages right next to the houses.  Now, I can tuck in bills, receipts or notes inside the organizer and actually know where everything is LOL!  Wish me luck that my Home Sweet Home Organizer does the trick!

 

Don’t forget that Craftwell and Lawn Fawn are giving away a Pink Lemonade Paper Pack! 

TO WIN….You must go like Lawn Fawn on Facebook and then head over to the Official Craftwell Blog and leave a comment.  The winner will be announced on Saturday March 30th!  Good luck to everyone!

Wearable Art with PrintOnIt.com’s Transfer Paper

 

I very rarely make something for myself, but today’s project is just that.  Normally, I carry a purse that is rather large and has room for all sorts of stuff, but sometimes I just want to grab the bare necessities and go.  So, one day at Joann’s, I found this little plain black cloth purse with a couple of front pockets and I knew I could do something with this.  It is just the right size to throw my wallet and phone in there and I can dash off.  Of course, as a mom, I can’t resist doing something with it that reflects how proud I am of my boys.  That instantly brought to mind a die that I got from Papertrey Ink a few months back called Fabulous Frames.  Pair that up with transfer paper from PrintOnIt.com and we have a perfect combination for my new little purse.

The first thing that I did was print up some blocks of digital paper (and of course some recent pictures of my boys) onto the transfer paper using my inkjet printer.  Then I set to work using my wonderful eBosser and the dies to cut out the the pictures and the frames.  This die actually cuts all three pieces of once, so by mixing and matching the exterior frame with the interior frame, I saved a lot of material.  I also used PTI’s Loop De Loop die on another piece of the transfer paper for the border that is right above the pockets.

After doing all my die cuts, it was pretty smooth sailing.  I just lined everything up onto the purse and laid a piece of parchment paper on top and ironed everything in place.  Done!

 

PrintOnIt.com’s transfer paper really makes projects like this a breeze.  I also love that the transfer paper is thin so that it conforms well to your fabric.  If you are thinking of making some wearable art, be sure to check it out!

The Boys are getting anxious!

 

As you all probably know by now, I am the mom of two wonderful boys.  They are my pride and joy and I feel very blessed to be their mom.  They cannot wait for Halloween so I thought why not make them some t-shirts to express that!  Here are my two little munchkins, Jared and Mason, showing off the shirts that I made for them.

I used some of Cooler Concepts’ Dark t-shirt transfer film to make these and have to say it…love this stuff.  It is nice and thin once ironed on.  Now, I wanted to make these using my eBosser of course (because I am addicted) so here is how I did it.

 

First off, I printed some digital paper onto the transfer film. I used Echo Park’s Apothecary Emporium Collection which you can get digitally at JessicaSprague.com.  Then I turned to a die from Papertrey Ink called Modern Alphabet (Upper Case).  Here is how the die comes.

It comes on this sheet of magnet and also notice that the letters are attached with a thin piece of metal.  The reason for this is that you can break them apart.  No tools needed , just a little bending back and forth and they come apart.  That means that you can cut only the letters that you need.  When you do that, just put them on the magnet sheet for storage so you don’t lose any of them.

 

The eBosser cut the transfer paper like butter and in no time at all, I had all my letters ready to iron onto the shirts.  After removing the backing paper from each letter, I laid them out on my shirts.  I decided to go with a wonky line up just to add a little interest.  Here are all the letters laid out.

All I had to do at this point was place some parchment paper on top and them iron on.  So Easy!  My sons loved them and had to wear them the very next day.  Jared even told me that one of his teachers told him that she loved his shirt.

Now to survive the next 23 days until Halloween!

Back 2 School Blog Hop

 

Hi everyone!!!  Welcome to the Back 2 School Blog Hop!!  If you came here from Cassie’s Blog….you are in the right place!  If you just happened upon the Blog Hop, please start over at Cassie’s Blog so that you don’t miss out.  There are giveaways along the way and Craftwell is giving away an eCraft Machine!!

 

When I get my boys ready to go back to school, we always come up with a little gift to give the teacher to welcome him or her back as well.  Usually we like to include some school supplies because teachers can’t seem to get enough school supplies!  A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by State Line Bag Company and they asked me to try out some of their new Premium Muslin bags.  I just knew that these would be perfect for my teacher gift.  These bags are perfect for packaging so many kinds of things.  They are made from a high quality muslin and come in lots of different sizes.

 

To start my project, I turned to a Lettering Delights Cut Its Set called Toad-ally School.  I selected my image and then using Make the Cut, manipulated it by using the Boolean Join function so that I actually created a stencil of each color.  Then I cut out each one in vinyl.  Next, I took some scrap cardstock and placed it inside the bag.  I applied the first vinyl stencil.

Then I painted it in…

Then removed the stencil…

Once the paint is dry, apply the next layer and repeat until all done.

Now, I couldn’t stop there.  I decided to add the teacher’s name to the bag using a thin metal die and fabric and to do that I used my trusty eBosser.  I am guessing that you want to see how I did that, so I made you a little video…

Here is the final project!

 

GIVEAWAY TIME!!

Now, on with some fun stuff!  State Line Bag Company has given me some bags to give away!  To win the bags, you must be a follower of my blog and you must leave me a comment below!  That’s it! Easy Peasy!

 

And you don’t want to miss out on that eCraft giveaway, so make sure you continue on with the hop by going to Kelly’s blog next.  Here is the whole lineup in case you get lost!

Cassie Box http://www.somethingfromcassie.com/

Denise O’Connor: http://purplepaperparadise.blogspot.com/ <—YOU ARE HERE

Kelly Feldman: http://www.wannabeescrapper.blogspot.com/ <—GO HERE NEXT

Kim Gaughan: http://www.craftypinkanchor.blogspot.com/

Carrie Walz http://everydaymoments-carrie.blogspot.com/

KimberlyRae Forde: http://kreationsbykimberlyrae.com/blog/

Aimee Maddern: http://aimeesarmoire.typepad.com/

Jodi Baune: http://dancingintherainjb.blogspot.com/

Debi Tullier: http://fabric-ecraft.blogspot.com/

Lowri McNabb: http://www.papervinenz.com/

Craftwell Blog: http://blog.craftwellusa.com/

 

Happy Hopping Everyone!

Back to School Chalkboard Countdown and Another eBosser Video

 

So we are in big time Back to School mode in our house!  My son Jared is going to be starting 2nd grade and he is a little nervous about it.  Part of the reason why he is so nervous is that for Kindergarten and 1st Grade, he had the same teacher whom he just loved!  Now with 2nd Grade he is about to get a new teacher and he is worried that he won’t like her as much as his last teacher.  To get him prepared for 2nd grade and maybe even excited about it, I decided that we needed to have a Countdown to the first day of school.

 

When thinking about how I wanted to do this project, I knew that I wanted to make something that could be used for other occasions as well.  So, my trusty wonderful eBosser helped me to create some bottle cap magnets for the title.  My eCraft has been a little lonely since the eBosser came home, so I had to show my eCraft some love too.  My eCraft cut out the green vinyl for the letters in the bottle caps as well as the “Countdown” out of the white vinyl.

The very first step was to prepare my surface…do you recognize what it was?  It is actually a cookie sheet.  I got a three pack of Chefmate cookie sheets from Target and decided to use the smallest one for this project.  I began by painting the back of the cookie sheet with some Martha Stewart Chalkboard Paint.  While my cookie sheet was drying, I cut out all my vinyl using the Lettering Delights font called LD Mon Cherie.  I set those to the side, and set out to flatten some bottle caps with my eBosser.

 

I experimented with a couple of sandwiches and finally found one that works great with the No More Shims Embossing Mat made by Scor Pal.  Want to see how it works?  Check out the video below!

After flattening the bottle caps, I used a 1” punch to punch circles from the My Mind’s Eye School Daze 6x6 paper pad.  I added one letter to each circle and then using a little Glossy Accents adhered the paper inside the bottle cap.  I added an epoxy sticker on top of each one and then once that was dry, I adhered a magnet onto the back of the bottle cap.  The cookie sheet is still magnetic through the chalkboard paint.  You just want to make sure the magnet is strong enough for it.  Once my cookie sheet was dry, I added the “Countdown” vinyl onto the chalkboard and then using my Big Bite punched a hole into the Cookie Sheet so that I could attach my ribbon.  I made the ribbon kind of on the long side so that my son can erase the numbers and write in the new one each day.

I just love that when Halloween comes around, I can make a new set of bottle caps that say Halloween to add on the board.  Also by using the back of the cookie sheet, the Back 2 School bottle caps can be stored on the other side for next year.  So easy! 

 

I think this just may work because when I was taking the above pictures, Jared asked me if he could be in the picture with it, and of course I said YES!

What do you think?  Have I won this Mommy battle? 

Dressing Up a Gift with the eCraft

 

One of the things that I love about my eCraft is that it allows me to take something that is bland and boring and turn it into something beautiful.  That is one of the things that I did with my eCraft for Mother’s Day, but this is something that can be done for any gift-giving holiday.  For Mother’s Day I got my mom and my mother-in-law a necklace and they came in these silver metallic boxes.  With boxes like these, I don’t need to get out the wrapping paper, but I did feel like they needed to be dressed up, so my trusty eCraft came to my rescue!

Using the Gift Bow file from the Christmas Gift Bags & Boxes collection at SVGCuts.com, I imported it into my eCraftshop Pro software and I was off cutting.  I used double sided papers from K&Company (from Citronella and Poppy Seed) so that you get that little peek of color inside the bow.  Such a nice touch.

To assemble the bow, I followed the video that SVG Cuts created to go with it.

 

The doily underneath is the My Favorite Things High Tea Party Doily die and I also die cut the Tim Holtz ticket strips to make the “tags”.  Using Distress Inks to match the colors found in the patterned paper, I colored the tags and then used some Tim Holtz Visual Artistry Seamless Experience stamps to embellish the tags.  I then handwrote the “To” and “From” for a more personal touch.  (We affectionately call my MIL “Gal” in case you were wondering).  Once the bow was assembled and everything else was ready to go, all I needed to do was adhere it on the box.

 

To finish off this post, I thought I would share with all of you a story about my Mother’s Day.  First off, I am leery of Mother’s Day.  Every single Mother’s Day that I have had since becoming a mother…something has gone wrong.  From the grill catching on fire, to a flat tire on the car, to baby Jared spitting up all over me and having to spend the rest of the day in borrowed clothes…Mother’s Day has not been kind to me.  Mother’s Day for 2012 actually wasn’t half bad!  Did something go wrong?  Yes, but it could have been so much worse.  We were leaving the house to go to our Mother’s Day lunch with all the moms and extended family.  I put these boxes in a white plastic grocery bag along with the cards to bring along.  I needed to drive that day, so I handed the bag to my husband so that the kids didn’t smash them up.  We stopped at a local store to get flowers for my husband’s grandmother and I ran in the store leaving him in the car with the kids.  When I got back to the car, I noticed that the car was cleaner.  I admit that my car is not the cleanest thing and usually the cup holders have old drinks sitting there which it did that day.  My husband turned to me and said, I cleaned up for you.  I said thank you and then asked him where the bag with the presents was.  The look on his face was….well you can guess.  Turned out that he used that white plastic grocery bag to throw away some of the garbage and did not take the gifts out of the bag!  Quickly he fished the boxes and cards out, but it was too late.  The bows and cards were wet.  Yuck!  Fortunately they did not get soaked and he spent the rest of the drive cleaning them off so that at least we had something to give the moms.  So overall, not a bad Mother’s Day…at least for me.

My favorite eCraft Design Team Project to Date!

Well, I hope all of you are prepared for a long post…if not, take a moment and get comfy and your beverage of choice. I have an extra-special project to share with you today. This may even be my favorite Design Team project to date. Normally when I make something, I make it for someone else and I rarely make something for myself, but today’s project is just that. I made something that is just for me, and it is something that I will use just about every day.

I am an avid reader. So much so that over 3 years ago, my husband surprised me with a Kindle 2. At the time, the Kindle 2 was incredibly expensive, but he said that we needed it because we had completely run out of room for books. He was right, and since I cannot bear to throw out or give away a book that I enjoyed, the books had piled up. So much so that we have boxes full of books stored in our garage. Since getting the Kindle, I have read over 100 books on it and fell in love with it. Well, a few weeks ago I celebrated my birthday and my husband and kids got me a new Kindle Touch. My Kindle 2 still works just fine, but my husband said that he would like to read some books every now and then, but couldn’t bear to tear the Kindle 2 out of my hands. So, now he gets to read on the Kindle 2 and I get to use the Kindle Touch. I had to laugh at this because is it a present for him or me? I am not complaining though, because I am loving the Kindle Touch. So, after getting the Kindle Touch I started searching for a cover for it and was getting discouraged. Most of the covers were not very pretty and the ones that were are crazy expensive and none of them really felt like “me”. So I decided to make my own.

Don’t have a Kindle Touch? No worries, you can do this with any eReader or Tablet. So the first step is to start with the basic structure. Using medium weight chipboard, batting, canvas, and elastic, I constructed this.

To do this, I measured my Kindle Touch and cut one chipboard piece that was slightly larger than my Kindle Touch. I ran this piece through my Xyron 9” Creative Station and covered it in the canvas and I attached the elastic strips in the corners to hold my Kindle Touch. Now I made two covers that were slightly larger than that base layer for the front and back of my cover. I also cut a piece for the spine. I covered the front and back pieces in batting (again running the chipboard through my Xyron, attaching batting and then just trimming) to provide a little cushion just in case I should drop my Kindle Touch and then I proceeded to cover both covers and the spine in one piece of canvas so that all three pieces were connected. I left a gap in between each piece to allow me to be able to fold the front back. Once this was done, I added a strap piece that I sewed in my sewing machine that also has a Basic Grey magnetic disc in it. The other magnet will be added during the decoration of the covers so that this strap can hold it all together when not in use. I added more canvas on the inside that had been hemmed with the sewing machine to prevent fraying. Now that that was done, I could add my base unit on the inside. I have to give it up for my Xyron, it worked overdrive on this project for me. Love how much easier it made this part of my project. With that, the basic construction was done and now comes the fun part…

Using Glue N Seal Matte (Michaels’s), I added some Dearest Jane patterned paper from Papertrey Ink. I then cut some Claudine Hellmuth Sticky Back Canvas in my eCraft (pressure of 8, blade cap on, no stabilizer, no tabs) in my eCraft for the spine. I just used a rectangle and added a border from Lettering Delights Scalloped Border set. I also used some Frayed Burlap ink refill watered down in a mini mister to dye that canvas to coordinate with the brown in the paper and added that on the spine once dry. Next I found some images online for some of my favorite books. Since I had a vintage feeling going with this, I stuck with some of my favorite classic novels. I added these on the front and on the back of the cover. I also adhered my Basic Grey magnetic piece in a spot where I knew it would be covered by my focal point. Here is the back cover…

To complete this project, I knew I needed something really special. I contacted one of the designers over at Craftwell and asked them to create an Ella image of her reading a book. I was so thrilled when they not only created one, but that it was exactly what I had wanted! Thank you Craftwell, I think it is absolutely perfect and I know that I will be using it again!

Now, I have a little surprise for you. I asked Craftwell if they would please make this image available to you on eCraftCentral.com, and they agreed! Starting today you can get this image. Just so you know, I flipped this image, the original has Ella facing the other way. This is another great thing about these images, the versatility.

So head on over to eCraftCentral.com and get this image available HERE! While you are there, take a look around and see what else you might like, there is a ton of images available!

My Boys Bracelet for the eCraft Design Team

 

Bake and Shrink from PrintOnIt.com is some pretty cool stuff.  I love that I can print anything that I want on it!  One day, I was strolling around Michaels with a coupon burning in my pocket and I made my way into the jewelry aisle.  There I found this cuff bracelet.

All of a sudden, I was struck with the idea for this project.  It wasn’t until I was at the register that I realized that little beauty was on sale!  Oh well, I will save the coupon for another day because I really wanted to get home and make this idea.

 

Now in the Bake and Shrink instructions, they said that whatever you cut will shrink to approximately 1/4 of it’s original size.  I was confused by this because the last time I made something with this, I did not think that they got that small, so I figured a little experimentation was in order.  First I printed out a picture of my boys that I took last Thanksgiving onto the Bake & Shrink.  Then using the Print & Cut Hinge Method, I cut a large circle from the picture. This circle was large enough that if it did shrink to 1/4 of it’s size, it would fit in the bracelet. I placed this in the oven and watched it shrink.  I was thinking of making a video on this, but my oven door is dirty and I was too anxious to stop to clean it…sorry!

 

Once it baked, I knew right away that it would not fit in my bracelet …but it also provided me with the information that I needed to get the right measurement.  Based on the sizes, I figured that it shrinks to approximately 40% of it’s original size.  So out came the calculator and some straining to remember math that I learned in high school and eventually I figured out what size my circle needed to be before baking.  So I printed out another Bake and Shrink sheet with a picture of my boys and again used the Print & Cut Hinge Method to cut my circle.  Back to the oven…

 

With baited breath I watched and once the shrinking was done and I took it out of the oven, I stood there in shock.  Are my eyes deceiving me or did I do my math right???  This circle was almost perfect.  With just a little sanding on one side, the circle fit perfectly into my bracelet.  Now, for the next step…since Bake and Shrink is white and it is thicker than the indentation in my cuff bracelet, that means that I would see a ring of white.  I decided that I really wanted this edge to be black, so I took out my black Copic and carefully colored the edge and that was all it took to change the color.

The only thing left was to take some Glossy Accents and adhere the Bake and Shrink into the bracelet and then prop it up to dry.  Now, I can take my boys with me everywhere and show them off!

Oh, and that piece that was too big for the bracelet, well with a little more Glossy Accents and a magnet, I made a refrigerator magnet.

Have a great week everyone!!!

Baby Frame for the eCraft Design Team Challenge

 

Welcome to Challenge Week on the eCraft by Craftwell blog!  This week we have been challenged to use the products from PrintOnIt.com to create a baby gift.  Now, all sorts of ideas popped in my head for this including onesies, socks, blankets, ornaments, etc.  I decided to do something a little bit more personalized.  I made this to show how the Inkjet Opaque Transfer Sheets don’t have to go on clothes.

I printed out some digital paper from my stash onto the Inkjet Opaque Transfer Sheets and then cut out the letters using my eCraft.  This paper is very slippery so to get some clean cuts on these letters, I had to pull out all the stops.  I used a little spray temporary adhesive and adhered that to my veggie mat from Dollar Tree.  I also decided to tape down the edges with some painters tape just to make sure that I didn’t waste any of this material…this may have been overkill, but it worked!

 

Next I used my heat press to adhere the letters onto a piece of solid colored fabric from Joann’s.  If I had to do this project again, I would have to come up with a better method to keep the letters straight.  I put a piece of cardstock there and lined up the letters to the edge of the cardstock, but they are so light that at some point a couple of them shifted.

 

After my letters were adhered to my fabric, I adhered the whole panel to a piece of chipboard that was cut to fit my frame.  Now, it was time to do something with my frame…

 

This frame was originally black and the mom that I made this for really likes the distressed look so I actually did two different distressing techniques on it.  First, I painted the frame in some pale blue paint from Martha Stewart (Blue Sky) and then I used a sanding block to sand off some of the paint in some places.  Then I applied a heavy coat of Weather Crackle Effect by Martha Stewart and let that dry.  Once that medium was dry I painted on top of it in another Martha Stewart paint (Greek Tile).  I have to tell you…this was really cool because the crackle starts to happen once your top coat of paint starts to dry and the Martha Stewart paints dry pretty quickly.  I got the frame, the paints, and the Crackle from Michaels. After my painting techniques were done, I sprayed the frame with a clear coat to preserve the look (and to prevent any paint from chipping off). I love how this blue compliments the yellow in this little boy’s room.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and make sure you visit the eCraft by Craftwell blog each day this week to see what the other girls have done with this challenge!

Blinged Out Create Shirt

 

PrintOnIt.com has some great products, and this week I decided to create some a t-shirt perfect for crops or any other crafty get together.

First off, I took to Photoshop and created this design using some Digi Stamps.  I printed it out on Print On It’s Inkjet Opaque Transfer Paper.  I then cut out a rectangle with the eCraft around the design using the Print & Cut-Hinge Method.  When I adhered this down on my veggie mat, I made sure to tape it down really well because this paper has a real slick feel to it and that means that the rollers can have trouble gripping it, but if it is taped to the veggie mat, then no worries!

 

Now, while this was very nice…it still needed something.  Well I went in search of some inspiration by looking through my stamps and I came across some flourishes that I thought might make for some good rhinestone patterns and decided to see if I could make a rhinestone pattern from a stamped image.  Since this is a totally new to me technique, I decided to go ahead and make a little video for you so you can see how I did it. First a closer look at those rhinestones…

And now for those videos…first off, using Make the Cut and my scanner how I turned a stamp into a rhinestone pattern…

Next up how I applied the rhinestones right next to the Transfer Paper without ruining the transfer paper…

Hope you enjoyed my project this week!  Don’t forget to watch the eCraft on HSN on March 11th & 13th.

It’s Party Week on the eCraft Blog!

 

Let’s Party like it is 2012!!!!  Today I have my Party Décor Challenge project up on the eCraft blog and since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, I couldn’t help but make a Love Themed Project!  Here is a little sneak peek for you…

Head on over to the eCraft by Craftwell blog to see the entire project and instructions.  You can find my post HERE and while you are there, make sure you follow the blog so that you can see the amazing projects that Debi, Lyssa, Raven and Jennifer have for you all week long!  This is going a super fun week and you don’t want to miss a thing!

eCraft Video using Make the Cut

 

Hi everybody!

 

I have a fun and quick little project today for you!  I bought a canvas on clearance that had the “Keep Calm and Carry On” phrase that has been so popular lately.  I wanted to alter it to really make it my own and that is where my eCraft and Make the Cut came into play.  Here’s the final project….

 

and here is the video showing you how I did this using the eraser tool in Make the Cut….

As promised in the video, here is a link to the Kevin & Amanda blog.  At the top, you will see a page called Free Fonts.  That is where I get a lot of cool handwritten fonts.  You may have noticed some of them throughout my blog including in my header.  Enjoy and Have a Great Day!

eCraft Monday Design Team Project

 

I am back with some eCrafty goodness today!  This week the Design Team was challenged to make another Christmas project using our wonderful Pink by Design Stamps and incorporate a sky element into the project, such as stars, clouds, sun, moon, planets, etc.  Continuing on with my personal challenge to make every project this month a food gift, I am incorporating one of my favorite ways to give food gifts.  This is so quick and easy to do and really makes a simple food gift special!

For this project, I started with a simple aluminum pan that you can find at any grocery store.  The ones that I got came 3 in a package, so while my Zucchini Bread was baking in 2 of the pans I used the third one to create my wrap.  These pans came with clear lids, so I attached the lid and took some measurements.  I used a flexible sewing tape measure to get my measurements.

All the way around, my measurement came in at 14 1/4” so I knew that I would have to paper piece the wrap.  I then proceeded to take some measurements of the sides and where I would need to score to get a nice clean fit.  Then I started to create the wrap.  I knew that I needed a panel on the top that measured 3 1/2” wide and then added 1/2” so that I would have something to attach to the rest of my wrap on each side.  I decided to use my computer to print my sentiment directly on this panel.  To do this I used Microsoft Publisher and set up a 8 1/2”x11” page document and used the Layout Guides to see the finish area.  This will also be where I want to cut this paper after it is done printing.

I printed my sentiment onto Papertrey Ink Soft Stone cardstock and used Lettering Delights Deck the Halls font for the sentiment.  Once I had it printed out I was ready to add my elements onto it.  The first thing that I did was use my eCraft to cut a large 7” circle out of Papertrey Ink Aqua Mist cardstock and then used my Xacto knife to cut a sliver off of it to create the ground on which my Polar Bears will stand.  These Polar Bears from the Pink by Design stamp set Beary Merry Christmas are just so cute that I had to use them again!

 

The next thing that I did was create the mat for my Polar Bears.  I actually did a video on how to do this that you can find HERE.  You will need Make the Cut and a scanner to do this.  Once I had my mat cut out, I used my Stamp a Ma Jig to line it up the stamp onto the mat.  Sometimes I skip this step and just eyeball it, but I made a small shadow on this mat and did not want to chance it.

The Stamp a ma jig really makes this easy to do.  To make sure that my mat did not move around on me, I used a little removable adhesive from 3L Adhesives to adhere it to my craft mat.  I then went to coloring in my bears with some Copics.

 

Nothing too fancy here, since I just needed a little color on the scarves and the sign.  The Copic colors that I used are RV34, BG11, BG13, BG18, T1 and T4.

 

Next step was to create my sky element.  Wouldn’t you know that the very day that I was figuring out what to do, eCraftCentral.com came out with THIS star?  It was just perfect for my project, and so I cut it out of American Crafts white glitter paper.  To add a little more pizazz to the star, I used my white Signo gel pen to add some lines to reflect the shining star.  Since my cardstock is a very light gray color, the white shows up very nicely.

I used some Foam Squares from 3L Adhesives to adhere my star and the Polar Bears and then created the rest of my wrap.  I used Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow for the rest of the wrap and Papertrey Ink Autumn Rose for the side accent pieces which were punched with a Martha Stewart border punch.

I also added some Crafty Power Tape from 3L Adhesives onto the accent pieces and added some Martha Stewart crystal fine glitter to add a little more shimmer.  As you can see in the picture above, my entire wrap was created before my bread was done!  I let my bread cool overnight and the next morning, I simply put the rest of it together.

Oh and in case you are wondering, the Zucchini Bread recipe that I used was from Paula Deen!  Can you tell that I love her recipes?

 

Are you following us on the eCraft by Craftwell blog?  If not, you really should be!!  Debi, Lisa and Raven have some more amazing projects this week and let’s not forget about our Friday video tutorials!  I’ll be back next Monday with another project for you and this is definitely a project you will not want to miss!