Hello friends! I hope you are finding time to join our month-long November challenge. We want to see Your Beary Best!

Today I have a card to share using Authentique's "Wonder" 6x6 paper pad. I got a Beary Scrap package last Thursday and immediately had to dig into this paper. Love the colors and the vintage feel!

All of the patterned paper is from the pad. In addition, I used green and french vanilla Bazzill card stocks. The sparkle comes from Stickles in Star Dust and Candy Cane, and I added Kaisercraft yellow pearls to the flower. The seam binding is Sage and Ivory - I color-distressed the ivory seam binding by dabbing it onto Bundled Sage and Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The center piece was cut from a cool postcard-themed sheet and painted with Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.

Thanks for visiting today! Please join our "Your Beary Best" challenge - you could win a $30 gift voucher from The Beary Scrap!

Cheers,
Susan

Flower Pin

Please scroll down for our Beary Sweet Challenge #25 Winners!

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Hi, it's Gini here to share my first Nature-theme challenge project. For me - what springs to mind is flowers. I've loved studying flowers since I was a pre-schooler, so making handmade ones is right up my alley.

My project today is a little different. I made a pin. (Now, I'm not promising this won't end up on a layout, but for now, it's a wearable pin). I am so in love with the seam binding that Kimm is carrying in the store - and if you haven't tried it yet, you will fall in love too! I mixed two colors on my flower - Apricot and Melon. My center button is a custom epoxy I made using Cosmo Cricket's Salt Air and the Epiphany Craft 14 mm round tool and Vintage Setting. For my leaf flourish, I used a Heartfelt Creations/ Spellbinders die - and cut it out of grunge paper. I painted it using Distress Crackle paint. Then, cut out patterned paper form the Salt Air line, added some Distress Ink in Shabby Shutters and glued on top.

This challenge will go through the end of the month, so we would love to have you play along!

Crazy Cousin

Hello everyone! It's Brenda again, and I am so excited to show you the layout I made for this "wings" themed challenge.

I don't think it's any secret that I love butterflies. Well, actually, let me rephrase that--- I love to look at butterflies and I love to use butterflies on my layouts, but should a butterfly land on me, I freak out. Hey, it's still a bug even if it is a pretty bug! Anyhow, I digress. These next couple of weeks of creating for me will be so much fun because I love to use birds and butterflies and all sorts of things with things on my layouts and other projects.

For this week's layout, I scrapped one of my all-time-favorite pictures of my daughter with her older cousin. I should explain that my daughter was entirely too tired to be taking these pictures, but having all the cousins together is such a rarity, I couldn't just let her go to sleep without getting some pictures.  Well Harper made sure to tell me how she felt about this forced photo shoot with all the zany expressions she was giving.

I used one of my favorite lines again, Echo Park's For the Record. I can't get enough of it! There are just too many possibilities with these papers. I distressed my papers by running them through my Distrezz-it-all  and then inking the edges with Distress Inks using the Ranger Blending Tool. 

I wanted to add a little more color and visual interest, so I rolled down the edge of the paper and fastened it with a My Mind's Eye Lost and Found brad  and a sticker from the For the Record elements sticker sheet. I wanted to put the first part of my journalling up there but thought it would be too tough to read, so I painted a little area with Distress Crackle Paint in Old Paper. I then stitched around my journalling spot and used one of the stickers from For the Record for this part of the journalling. 

For the title, I used alphas from For the Record on the words "your" and "crazy" and "cousin" is using alphas from my stash.

I placed a label sticker from For the Record and then I stitched some more. I used another of the word stickers from the Elements sheet for the continuation of the journalling.

And lastly, I used another label and word sticker to finish off the journalling. For the embellishment under the photo, I layered two die cut butterflies cut out from FTR paper and put a button from my stash in the middle. I placed the butterfly over two border stickers from the kit. 

I had so much fun playing around with the idea of this theme, and I hope you will too when you join us. Don't forget, you have until April 30th to upload your creations! Thanks so much for looking and have a wonderful weekend! 

Santa Edwin is Checking His List

Please scroll down for our BSC #16 winners!

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Hello hello! Wow, it's already January 3rd - what's up with that? Time, she is a-flying'! I hope you had a happy New Year weekend. Husband and I had a quiet one - just like we like it!

We started a new Beary Sweet challenge on Saturday, and since it's the 1st of the month, you know what that means: 

It's Beary Sweet Sketch Time!

I have one last Christmas card to share with you. I know, I know, you're probably all Christmas'd out and well on your way to Valentines, Mardi Gras and Easter. I made this card back in mid-December for a customer using our January sketch. Time saver!

Isn't Edwin the cutest? I love him, and admit that the Magnolia chair with letters to Santa was difficult. How does one color white envelopes? I used a combination of french grays with a little yellow-ish. I used Distress paint in Rock Candy for a subtle texture... not fabulous, but effective. 

What *is* fabulous is the Echo Park papers. Once again those EP folks have hit it out of the park - I can only ask/plead/beg them to print 6x6 versions of their papers in the future. They've done it on some of the collections and I look forward to more for my smaller canvases!

Of course it's an easel card. I really like this style to show off the details. This Naughty or Nice list includes the actual recipient of this card - dear young Wesly. I purposely left the space next to his name blank, as if Santa Edwin hasn't decided about Wesly yet. What a fun little surprise for a 5 year old!

Card Recipe

• Stamp - Magnolia Santa Edwin and Christmas chair
• Paper - Bazzill Basics in Mud Pie, French Vanilla; Echo Park  "Merry Christmas" in Holly Berry (both sides) and Winter Wonderland
• Medium - Copic skin tones; Prismacolor pencils with OMS; Stickles in Star Dust, Diamond and Crystal;  Glossy Accents on the envelope seals; Distress Crackle Paint in Rock Candy; ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink in Chestnut Roan
• Embellishments - lace, tinsel, gems from stash
• Adhesives/Tools - Scor-Tape; Cuttlebug script embossing folder

Here's the challenge sketch - don't ya wanna play? *grin* You could win a $20 gift voucher from The Beary Scrap!

Thanks so much for visiting today!

Cheers,
Susan

Getting Krafty!

Hello friends! Today I'm bringing you a card made with kraft paper and a little Glimmer Mist. I've really enjoyed all the Halloween-theme projects lately, so I'm at it again. Click HERE for the current Beary Sweet Challenge - it's a fun sketch!

So, here's my spooky "kraftiness". I used My Mind's Eye Haunted papers as well as a kraft tag.The image is a vintage find from The Graphics Fairy.

I used pearl Glimmer Mist on the base layer and the tag. It doesn't look nearly as cool in this photo as it does in person, so just take my word for it - It's cool! The spider web is embossed with clear embossing powder, and the vintage image was painted with Rock Candy Distress paint. Oh, and the white pearl pins were colored with a black Copic.

Card Recipe

• Image: The Graphics Fairy vintage image printed on Neenah Card Stock
• Paper: My Mind's Eye Haunted - Flying Witch, Raven and Spiders; Bazzill Basics Mocha Divine and Ruby Red
• Medium: Glimmer Mist Pearl; Stampendous Detail Embossing Powder - Clear; Copic marker; Distress Crackle Paint in Rock Candy
• Embellishments: Bazzill tulle in black; Vintage red gems, button, pins from stash
• Adhesive: Score-Tape

Thanks for visiting today! You have a few days left to whip up a fun project for our Beary Sweet Sketch Challenge - come join us!

Cheers,
Susan