Inspiration Photo at Friendships' Garden

Hello out there! I hope wherever you are, a bit of spring weather may be coming your way this weekend and that you find some time for some fun paper crafting!

Our new challenge at Friendships' Garden this week is based on this great photo and color scheme:



Aren't those fun colors? They definitely make me feel like spring! Our challenge also has a BIRTHDAY themed twist, be sure to check out the Friendships' Garden Challenge blog to see all of the Design Team's fab creations, there are some really wonderful cards! Here is my take on this challenge:


We'd love to see what you can come up so please visit our Challenge Blog and link up your card by midnight EST on Sunday March 4th for your chance to win a gift certificate from our great sponsor, Altered Angel and a chance to be a guest designer for Friendships Garden! I can't wait to see what you come up with!


I used this sketch from Card Patterns to help design my card, I really like the rows of boxes, tons of possibilities there!

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

CardPatterns-- Sketch 153
Pile it On-- Sending Happiness
Card Makin' Mamas-- Happy Birthday
Cupcake Craft Challenges-- Fluffy Pink Cupcakes
Aud Sentiments-- Happy
My Time To Craft-- Bring on the Cake
Paper Sundaes-- Birthdays

Thanks for looking!

Just a Thank You

Just taking a quick minute to share a Thank You card made this week; I love the colors of this card, I could make everything brown, yellow and green!

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Do You Stack Up? -- Layers
Craft Us Crazy-- Favorite colors (brown/yellow/green)
Cute Card Thursday-- Flower power
Pretty Little Ribbon Shop-- Anything goes (with ribbon)
Cardabilities-- Sketch 48
Flutterby Wednesday-- Anything with wings
Little Darlings-- Favorite embellishement (flowers)

Thanks for looking!

Sketch + Valentines at Friendship's Garden

We have a new challenge for you over at Friendships' Garden this week-- it's almost February and Valentines is coming up so we'd like you to make a VALENTINE THEMED card based on this sketch:
Isn't this a great simple sketch? Feel free to twist and turn it as you like, just as long as we can see the sketch in there somewhere. Be sure to check out all the DT creations by clicking here -- there are some awesome cards that will be sure to inspire you! And here is my creation:


I really had fun with this card, even though I am not a big fan of Valentines' Day (thus the turquoise and brown instead of pink!) You can find this free vintage image and others by clicking here . Our challenge runs until midnight Sunday Feb. 5th so visit the Friendship's Garden Challenge blog to link your card for a chance to win a $10.00 Gift Certificate from our sponsor Altered Angel.

I am also entering my card in the following challenges:
Polka Doodles-- Vintage/Retro
Ruby's Rainbow-- Love
Dutch Dare-- Buttons Galore
Crafty Creations-- Valentines
Wags & Whiskers-- Valentines/Love
Poodles Parlour-- Valentine/Love



Thanks for looking!

Time for Making Cards

I love January! There is actually time for some crafting after the craziness of the Christmas holidays! And thus I actually had time for making a few cards this week with this awesome paper collection from Authentique.





I am entering the above card in the following challenges:

Crop Stop-- Distressed, Vintage or Shabby Chic
Do You Stack Up-- Patterned Paper
Papertake Weekly-- Buttons, Bows, Blings and Blooms

And here is a couple more cards made with the same paper line:



Thanks for looking!

Clean and Simple Challenge at Friendship's Garden!

A Clean and Simple Card-- well, I have to say that is definitely a challenge for me! I like to add all the fun little embellishments so making a simple card, that is outside my box! But that is our new challenge at Friendship's Garden Challenge Blog and here is my card:



This is my first project as a Garden Girl and I am so excited to be a new member of this great Design Team-- these ladies are all very talented and have some great ideas to show you! Come check out our challenges by clicking here and make sure to become a follower so you can keep up with all the fun things we have got planned (including a blog hop coming up very soon!) Also check out these talented ladies:

Becky
Carolyn
Erin
Ciska
Dena
Chana
Sam
Sharon

We hope you come by Friendship's Garden and join us, enter our challenge for your chance to win a $10.00 Gift Certificate from our fab sponsor, Altered Angel.

A Beary Sad Day

If you have been reading The Beary Scrap Design Team blog this week, you know that we are discontinuing our Design Team and that each of us has taken a day this week to say goodbye (what an awful word!) I have been dreading this day for awhile and it still makes me a little teary to think of the end of our DT. I love all my fellow DT ladies and will miss them dearly! These wonderful ladies have inspired me, encouraged me, made me laugh and truly blessed my life! You can view my full, sappy post here.


My Design Team farewell project had to be a Tear Bear and so I created this Thank You card as a tribute to all the Beary Scrap followers out there who kept us going so long, thank you!



I will miss the Design Team but Kimm's store is still open so be sure to check out her great prices!

Thanksgiving Challenge at Friendship's Garden

Today I am so excited to share with you a card I made as a Guest Designer at Friendship's Garden. This is a new challenge blog for cards, tags and altered projects that I am so excited about! The DT ladies are fabulous and besides their beautiful projects, leave such nice comments! The focus of their challenges is to use something BESIDES a stamped image and I love this! I am in awe of the beautifully stamped and colored images I see all over blogland but that is just not me and let me tell you, this challenge blog is me! I love it!

So when they asked me to be a Guest Designer after I entered a challenge I was so excited and honored to do it. The challenge for this week is THANKSGIVING and the project recipe is: 1 Die cut, 2 patterned papers and 3 trims. This challenge is running for the next two weeks so take time to check out this new blog and enter your project.

Here is my Thanksgiving themed card:



Thanks for looking!

Card under 15 minutes!

Have you ever timed yourself making a card? I found the funnest (is that a word?) challenge over at a new challenge blog called Friendship's Garden (love, love, love this blog--- more details on that coming next week!) The challenge was to make a card in 15 minutes of less and I thought, that's easy, I can do that, no problem!

Well, it wasn't as easy as I thought because I started my timer and before I knew it, it was already up to 8 minutes and I was just starting! I had to hurry! This was such a fun challenge and really stretched me. Here is my official timer (yah, I just barely made it!)


And here is my card:


This card is based on this sketch from Card Patterns:



Definitely check out Friendship's Garden and see if you can make a card in 15 minutes or less!

Happy Halloween!

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

MacBeth Act IV Scene 1

Here I am with my second Double or Nothing post for The Beary Scrap and this week is dedicated to our DT leader Susan (and a guy named William!)-- who inspired me early this week by saying she was waiting to see a Double, Double Toil and Trouble project! I guess I haven't had enough of Halloween because that got me in the mood for a little Shakespeare (I do have an English minor!) and a double dose of Tear Bear Witches.


And so my Double or Nothing project this week is a DOUBLE pair of Halloween birthday days with DOUBLE Tear Bear Witches to wish my two nieces a DOUBLE Halloween birthday! (Yes it's true, these two sisters, turning 8 and 5 this year, share that spooky day a birthday. If you read my Halloween post last year, you might know who else shares that day with them! Hint: There's a reason I like Halloween so much!)


Here's a look at the front of my Halloween birthday cards, the Tear Bears are decorated with all kinds of cute Halloween stickers and bling.

A closeup of one of the cards:

Here they are standing up:
And a look at the inside:

I am entering this in the following challenges:
Scrapbook Sisters-- Anything Goes
Do You Stack Up?-- Halloween
The Paper Shelter-- Anything Goes
Penny's Paper- Crafty Challenge-- Halloween
Crop Stop -- Unique Fold
Party Time Tuesdays-- Anything Goes
Deep Ocean Challenge-- SWEET
Hooked on Crafts-- Halloween
Make it Monday-- Anything Goes
Paper Playtime-- Anything Goes
Birthday Sundaes-- Birthday Card
Crafty Calendar-- Spooky Birthday
Come and Get it Challenges-- Anything Goes
The Secret Crafter-- Spooky or Whimsical

So, did you figure it out? Yep, it's my birthday too today! We are a whole freaky family of witches. And what I would love the most for my birthday is for YOU to enter our Double or Nothing challenge so I can visit your blogs and get inspired by your talented projects, so be sure to link up your project by 11:59 EST on Halloween night for your chance to win!

Golden Anniversary

It's been awhile since I made something fun and got to enter it in a challenge so here is an anniversary card I made for a special order. I love these colors, dark autumn colors are my absolute favorite! I was really happy with how it turned out and my customer adored it!

I am entering this in the following challenges:


Southern Girls Challenge-- Anything Goes
Do You Stack Up?-- Swirls
ABC Challenges-- Anything Goes
Penny's Challenges-- Anything Goes
Party Time Tuesday-- Anything Goes
4 Crafty Chicks-- Anything Goes

Buttons & Pumpkins

It's Week 2 of our current Beary Sweet Challenge, "Happy Fall Y'All" and the DT challenge this week was to add buttons to our Happy Fall projects. I decided I wouldn't add just a button or two, but a whole barrel full!


Or at least an entire pumpkin full! The center of my card is a pumpkin made from buttons.


To start with I found a pumpkin pattern, (you can get your own copy by clicking here), traced it onto Bo Bunny Double Dot Burnt Orange cardstock and cut it out. Then I used Tacky Glue and adhered all shades and sizes of orange buttons to my pumpkin. This is a little tricky and I found it worked the best to just put glue on a small area, find buttons to fit and then move on to the next area, adjusting as I went. Once my pumpkin was dry I could then mount it to my card.


For my card I used some of the awesome new papers from Authentique's Glowing line. I love all their 6 x 6 paper pads, make sure to check out these new arrivals in the Beary Scrap store. I made my sentiment by applying letter stickers, inking over the top with an ink dauber and then removing the stickers.


I hope the beautiful fall colors and weather find you wherever you are and continue to inspire you to create this weekend. Happy crafting!

Happy Fall Y'All!

Well, it's Friday and it's also time for a brand new Beary Sweet Challenge! Our new theme is Happy Fall Y'All and I'd have to say, this is a piece of cake for me because I LOVE FALL. I love the cooler temperatures and the crisp scent in the air. I love harvest time (and I do live on a farm! :)), back to school, football and the beautiful fall colors! I chose to focus on some of those colors for my card this week:



I saw this idea for a strip of circles on a card here and was so excited to try it! What a simple, classic and cute idea. So here is how I did it:

1. Cut a strip of paper 3 inches wide by 5 7/8 inches long (so it will fit on a 6 inch card base).



2. Punch 16 circles from coordinating paper and ink all the edges. I used a 1 1/4 inch circle punch and the beautiful papers from Scenic Route's Sonoma line-- these are so perfect for fall, love them!


3. Begin glueing the circles onto the cardstock strip, starting at the bottom and overhanging the edges and overlapping the circles as you move up. I laid all the circles out on the cardstock without glue first to get the feel of where they should go.



4. Continue until you have used all 16 circles, the top ones will hang over the edge quite a way, that is fine!

5. Turn the whole thing over and trim the edges of the overhanging circles so they are even with the cardstock strip. Then ink around the edges of the whole piece.

.
There you are! The strip of circles is finished and ready to adhere to a card. I zigzagged stitched mine to another piece of cardstock 5 7/8 x 5 7/8 and then attached that to my 6 inch card. My word is a custom made vinyl applique that was actually for another project but has just been sitting around my work table and fit here perfect!

I can't wait to see your Fall creations, make sure to enter them in our new challenge for your chance to win!

Trucks are not Girly, Right?

Happy Friday everyone! At The Beary Scrap this week, we are using our current sketch and trying to make anything that is "not girly." Here is my attempt at something "not girly"-- I love to put flowers, bling, ribbon and lace on everything and so it was hard to come up with something not girly. But I think my masculine birthday card based on our current sketch came out pretty well-



While trying to decide what to do I had a sudden flash of this green pickup that I had seen on the Country Drive from Echo Park stickers and knew that would be the focus of my card. There are a lot of colors in this paper line but I stuck with just red, green and blue for my boy colors.

I popped up my pickup truck with some foam squares and then filled up the back with "Happy Birthday" strips. I couldn't resist putting just a little Stickles glitter glue on it for some detail and a few green hearts off the same sticker page as the pickup. (Hearts can be on a guy card, right?)


Have a great weekend and be sure to enter our sketch challenge for your chance to win!

Summer Sandals Inspiration

I have been enjoying some golden summer days this week-- my son's baseball games are finally over, the weather here is beautiful (high 80s, no wind-- that no wind part is amazing for Idaho!) and we finally have a little time to relax and enjoy some gorgeous summer nights outside. This mood has definitely carried over into my project for The Beary Scrap DT this week as here is a picture of something from my closet that inspired my card today:



My current favorite pair of sandals! I love sandals, I would wear them all year if I could. Unfortunately, the snow here kind of limits that but I do basically wear them April through October anyway! I love the big flowers on these sandals and so I borrowed this element and translated it into a summer card.



I made my flowers from sheets of artist canvas-- the ones that are ready to be put through a computer printer. I found a chipboard flower I liked and traced it three times. The first flower I cut right on my tracing lines, the second slightly smaller and the third slightly bigger. Then I stitched down the middle of each petal to copy the stitching on my sandals and put them together with a brad. I love the result!





I hope you are enjoying a little summer (or winter) sunshine this week, depending on where you live and you have time to fit a little paper crafting into those relaxation hours! You still have a few more days to enter our Inspiration from Your Closet Challenge so make sure to get your project posted for a chance to win!

Christmas in July at The Beary Scrap

Merry Christmas everyone! At least I hope you have enjoyed our Christmas in July projects this week and definitely hope you have entered your own project in our current challenge for your chance to win that great Christmas Magnolia stamp and some other goodies.

Here is my second go at the current sketch, this time a 5 x 7 Christmas card:

The base of my card is Bo Bunny Double Dot in a dark green and then I used the My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Union Square papers for the center. I trimmed the die cut edges from one of the papers and used those for my edges instead of punching my own fancy edge-- this worked perfect!

For my image I downloaded a FREE vintage Christmas graphic from this site: Vintage Christmas Images-- check it out for Christmas and lots of other vintage images. I added a bit of lace, pearls and a tiny bit of red Stickles (to match the glittered designer paper) to my Santa to dress him up before applying him to my card.

I used white seam binding spritzed with Brick Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist to go behind the Santa image and then tie the bow at the top and accented with some holly leaves and pearls. I absolutely love how easy it is to spray that seam binding to match any project! I am now totally out of white I have used it so much- time to restock!

Supplies Used:

Bo Bunny Double Dot Cardstock-- Olive
My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Union Square Designer papers
Seam Binding-- White
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (currently 30% off!!)
Stickles- Christmas Red
Kaiser Craft Pearls-- Latte
Holly leaf brads from my Christmas stash
Glue Dots

You have one more week to enter your projects based on our sketch so time to get craftin' and good luck!

Blast Off!

OOOoohhhh, I am in love with the new Seam Binding in stock at The Beary Scrap. It is versatile and comes in so many great colors! I had a lot of fun adding it to our sketch this week and using it to make my card blast off!


This sketch is just as versatile as the seam binding-- last week I used it to make a two page 12 x 12 layout and then this week brought it down to size in a 6 x 6 card. That's what I love about sketches-- they just jumpstart my brain and I can go anywhere from there!

I used Bo Bunny's Blast off papers. I really like the colors of these papers-- strong, vivid colors that are perfect for boys but could also work for some cute baby or birthday projects.



Instead of trying to find embellishments to match, I just cut my own from some of the papers (the bigger rockets are from as 12 x 12 page I got locally). All this fussy cutting does take time but it's worth it in the end as the rockets and stars match so perfectly.



For my last bit of dimension, I added that great seam binding, this time in white to simulate the cloud left by a rocket blasting off.


Be sure to check out all the colors of seam binding Kimm has available and enter your own version of our sketch in the current Beary Sweet Challenge for your chance to win a $20.00 voucher to The Beary Scrap store.

Nature Inspiration from The Beary Scrap

Happy Friday everyone! This is my second project for our Nature themed challenge at The Beary Scrap. The challenge is open until May 31st, 11:59 EST so be sure to enter for your chance to win a $20 voucher to The Beary Scrap!

My card is based on this great sketch from Card Patterns:


Here's a couple close-ups of the embellies:




Here's a peek at the inside, which I left fairly simply so there is plenty of room to write.

Supplies used:

Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden papers
Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden charms
Bazzill Swiss Dot Cardstock
KaiserCraft Pearls, Latte
Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Walnut Stain
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Sweet Clover
Seam Binding, Cocoa
Paper doilies (a package from the dollar store-- I love bargains!)
Glue Dots
Foam Squares

Thanks for looking! :):):)

Little Ballerinas

It's that time of year-- dance recitals! Here is my little redhead ballerina and her cousin after their program last weekend. Aren't they cute?




She wanted to make a Tear Bear ballerina for her teacher and so she helped trace the bear parts, tear them out and glue together. Then we dressed the bear and mounted it onto this simple card that she wrote in and took to her teacher along with a bag of treats.

A side view-- here you can see the dimension of the tulle dress and mulberry flowers:


This was so fun to make, especially with my little cutie helping. I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Pile it On-- Boys and Girls come out to Play
Southern Girls Challenge-- Let's Hear it for the Girls
Creative Card Crew-- Cute and Girly

Thanks for Looking!

Buttefly Notes

Well, it's Friday again already and my day at The Beary Scrap Design Team Challenge Blog. This is my third and my last "Things with Wings" project-- this time with an insect-- and I am back to butterflies again because I just can't get enough of them! My project this week is an altered tin "Notes" holder, the perfect little container for storing handmade cards all ready to be sent out .



I attached the paper to the front of my tin with good old Glue Dots (I prefer Zots by ThermoWeb but I also use the Glue Dots brand a lot). I have tried many different types of adhesives for putting paper on tin and found that the best thing is still glue dots.


To embellish the front of my tin, I created my own banner spelling "Notes" and then also made some felt flowers by cutting a small circle from felt, then starting at the outside and cutting in a spiral until I reached the middle. Then I put a large bit of hot glue in the spot I wanted and starting from the outside edge in, wound the felt round and round to create a flower, finishing off with a pearl for the center. I added felt leaves and some pearl floral centers to my flowers as well.


Here are some 3-D views of the top of the tin to show how the butterfly and flowers pop up:


And also a quick look at the inside cards-- they are just simple, without any sentiments, that way they can be used for whatever!


Check out our current Beary Scrap Challenge-- Things with Wings-- by clicking here and enter your own project. Thanks for looking!