Fluttering Butterflies

Hello crafty folks! It's Monday and that means I get to share another project with you. A new challenge starts today (see post above) where we all get to play tic-tac-toe and choose three in a row!

 
I've made a tag (oh how I love tags!) using the Tim Holtz Tag & Bookplate die. The beautiful paper is Pink Paislee's Butterfly Garden, and my challenge row is "lace-distress-glitter". I wanted to showcase the birdcage and bird on the paper, so I built around them. There is a bit of distressed lace on the bottom (spritzed with Glimmer Mist). I age-distressed the edges of my tag with Vintage Photo ink and the flowers and butterfly spots are glittered with Stickles Star Dust.  The Prima vine is tinged with Tattered Rose Distress ink and touched with Stickles Star Dust. The butterflies are cut from one of the PP Butterfly Garden pages, and the hanger is made from apricot seam binding.

Click to make me bigger!

 Thanks for visiting today! I hope you can be inspired with all our projects this week to challenge yourself to a game of Tic-Tac-Toe. You could win a $20 voucher from The Beary Scrap!

Cheers,
Susan

DIY Crinoline Flower

Hello crafty friends! This week the design team is continuing with Do It Yourself Embellishment samples to go along with our current challenge. I've been a fan of crinoline flowers seen here and there and decided to try it myself!

Click for a bigger, better view!

I used Tim Holtz/Sizzix Tattered Florals die and cut three medium flowers and 2 of the smallest flowers on the die. I pressed one of each flower size into a Spun Sugar Distress Ink pad, and the others were spritzed with Glimmer Mist. It has a pink-ish brown-ish color and was perfect for the vintage look. I used a heat tool and tweezers to dry each flower then poked a hole in the centers. The flower "pollen" is a button from the My Mind's Eye Market Street button set. 

The tag is cut using the Tim Holtz Tag & Bookplate die. I used the Madison Avenue Dress Shop Glitter paper. Ages ago I cut out the dress form from this paper but never used the rest of it. Luckily I cut close enough to the form that I was able to use the sewing machine image as a design element on this tag, weeks later. Yay for pack rats!

  The twine on the faux spool is from the Madison Avenue collection, and the needle from my stash. And here's the rest of the story:

Card Recipe

• Paper - My Mind's Eye Madison Avenue: "Pretty" Dress Shop Glitter; "Cherish" Pintuck on the back;  dress form and faux thread spool are cut from Madison Ave's "Girlfriends" Lovely Glittered Paper
• Medium - Ranger Distress Ink's Vintage Photo layered over Spun Sugar in the edges, and Spun Sugar on the flower layers; Glimmer Mist
• Embellishments - My Mind's Eye Madison Avenue: "Happily Ever After" Trim on the thread spool and rhinestone buttons Kaisercraft Pearls in Latte; Baby Pink Seam Binding on the corseting, and both Baby Pink and Ivory as the tag's hanger; lace, eyelets and needle charm from stash
• Tools - Tim Holtz Alterations Sizzix dies: Tattered Florals and Tag & Bookplate
• Adhesives - 1/4" Scor-Tape; 1/8" 3D Dots; Fabri-Tac

Thanks so much for stopping by today. The design team will be showing all sorts of cool DIY embellishments all week, and hopefully we can inspire you to join our Beary Sweet "DIY Embellishment" Challenge. It's going on now through June 30th - come play with us!

Cheers,
Susan

Mischievous Fairy!

Hello hello! It's Memorial Day here in the US, and I hope with all my heart that everyone takes a moment to celebrate and remember those who fought the good fight. Thank you all.

This week Gini and I are wrapping up our current Beary Sweet "Nature" Challenge before Patricia kicks off a new sketch challenge on Wednesday. Can you believe June is almost here?!

I can't seem to break away from butterflies during my nature-themed projects, and this last one is no different. :) This time, it seems the fairy has released the butterflies from captivity!

Pink Paislee's Butterfly Garden line is the name of the game on this Tim Holtz Alterations/Sizzix die cut tag. I've used Butterfly Garden for both the tag itself and the cut-out butterflies. The fairy was cut from the "Botanical Garden" sheet.

The Butterfly Garden wood cage (currently sold out - check back for more) was colored with Tattered Rose Distress Ink and then randomly dotted with the same color Distress Stickles. I was very inspired by Guest DT Debbie and her pink glittered cage of 2 weeks ago!

I added Star Dust Stickles to all the wings and mulberry paper flowers, and used Frosted Lace Stickles on the rose for a little glitter without all the glamour.

Card Recipe

• Paper - Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden "Butterfly Wings" and "Botanical Garden" 12x12 sheets
• Medium -Ranger Distress Ink in Tattered Rose and Vintage Photo; Ranger Stickles in Star Dust and Frosted Lace, and Distress Stickles in Tattered Rose.
• Embellishment -Sage seam binding; hand cut butterflies and fairy from the Butterfly Garden sheets; Pink Paislee wood cage; Mulberry Paper Roses; assorted pearls; decorative pins from my collection
• Adhesive -Fabri-Tac
• Tools - Tim Holtz Alterations "Tag & Bookplate Die"; Honeybee Scissors for precision cutting

Thanks for visiting today! You shave until midnight EST tomorrow to enter your Nature-inspired project into our Beary Sweet Challenge. You could win a $20 voucher to The Beary Scrap!

Cheers,
Susan

Wish ...

Hello all and welcome to my latest edition of The Beary Scrap Challenge -- 'Nature' plus a charm for us this week!

My nature embellishments are a gorgeous Wood Shape No. 4 dragonfly from Pink Paislee's Butterfly Garden Collection that I inked with paint, liberally applied glitter and then adhered a snipett of vintage lace and Kaisercraft pearls, a pretty little blue bird in flight atop an image of vintage sheet music paper, and a pretty little blossom from Prima!

The beautiful papers are Botanical from Prima and I added a few little bobbles of Kaisercraft Latte Pearls!

I used JustRite's Signs of Life cling stamp set along with a couple of Spellbinders rectangle and circle scalloped dies to complete my design!  The charm and ticket are both from Tim Holtz.

Thank you so much for popping by today for a visit with me!  I'll be back here again next Thursday with another creation for The Beary Scrap Challenge Blog!

Until then, happy stamping :)

Hugs!

Debbie

xoxoxoxoxo

Nature Is Calling!

Hello hello and happy Monday to you! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I had a birthday... and it was good. *wink*

So, this is Week 2 of our Beary Sweet Nature Challenge, where you can enter any project that you think conjures up "nature" in your noggin. As a bonus challenge to the design team, we have to include a charm in our project. Easy enough!

Kimm just got this fun filmstrip ribbon into the store, and I decided to use that as my jumping-off point. Here's what happened when it all landed:

Card Recipe

• Paper: Bo Bunny Gabrielle 6x6 pad; Bazzill Basics Lily Pad and Walnut
• Medium: Ranger Distress Ink in Walnut Stain; Stickles Star Dust and Patina; Ranger Glossy Accents as a top layer on the bitty butterflies; Irridescent acrylic paints on the Pink Paislee wood butterfly
• Embellishments: Tiny butterflies cut from a sheet in the Gabrielle paper pad with homemade wire antennae; Tim Holtz Idea-ology Film Strip Ribbon; Pearls; Assorted Prima flowers; Hand made decorative stick pins; crochet lace from stash
• Adhesive: 1/4" Scor-Tape; 3D Dots - 1/8" black 
• Tools: Scor-Pal (check out the Scor-Pal Mini!); Ranger Blending Tool; sewing machine

Thanks for visiting today! Come back all week for more great design team samples of our Nature theme. I hope you can enter our Beary Sweet Nature challenge, too. You could win a $20 voucher from The Beary Scrap!

Cheers,
Susan

It's Wings & Insects Week!

Hello crafty friends! I hope you had a beautiful weekend. We're in the final week for our Beary Sweet Challenge using a "Wings" theme.  We have some great entries and hope to see yours, too. You could win a $20 gift voucher from The Beary Scrap!

This week the design team is adding an insect to our winged projects. This ought to be fun!

I've made another tag - oh how I love working on this small "canvas"! The Basic Grey Capella line is quite delicious, and I've chosen this vine design as my "jumping off point". This design is sold out but you can find a similar one with BG's Figaro paper - check it out!

Even though this tag isn't a "busy" one, it's full of technique. The bird and cage were cut with Tim Holtz "Caged Bird" die using grungepaper. I colored the paper with Vintage Photo Distress Stain - if you don't have that one hand you can use brown Bazzill card stock!

My next step was to stamp all over the cage with the text stamp from My Mind's Eye/Portobello Road "Boy" stamp set. I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink and stamped a couple of times to cover the cage. Once that was done I covered all the cage "wires" with Glossy Accents and set aside to dry.

While that dried I looked through my BG Cappella stash for a good bird paper. I decided this one worked well with the little flower "eye" and the swoosh would make a great wing. I used a Kaisercraft black pearl for the eye and gussied up the wing and eye with Star Dust Stickles. Oh, and I layered a little Vintage Photo and Weathered Wood Distress Ink on the edges.

I used the FABULOUS Empressor tool to round my bird's edges and give him a little volume. All you have to do is lay the item (bird, flower, etc) on a piece of foam and make little circles with the Empressor all along the edges so they curl up. It works great with flowers "right side up" and I turned my bird upside down to make his little body stick out. I used to use vintage glass swizzle sticks and paint brush handles and find this tool so much smoother. It's a must-have!

The rose vine is made of Mulberry Paper Roses and leaves from my stash. I inked them with Tattered Rose and used the same color Stickles. Once dry I jus would them around the outside edge of the cage. I love how this vine mimics the vine-y pattern on the tag background.

My insect is a little bumble bee on a homemade stick pin. The seam binding (now in stock!) is Latte and oh-so-luscious. I can't wait to get my crafty little hands on all the wonderful colors!

Card Recipe

• Paper: Basic Grey Cappella
• Medium: Distress Ink in Vintage Photo, Tattered Rose and Weathered Wood; Glossy Accents; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Stickles in Star Dust; Distress Stickles in Tattered Rose
• Embellishments: Mulberry Paper Roses; Seam Binding in Latte; Kaisercraft Pearl in black; all others from stash
• Tools: Tim Holtz Alterations Tag & Bookplate die; My Mind's Eye/Lost and Found/Portobello Road "Boy" stamp set; Journaling Genie Empressor tool
• Adhesives: Fabri-Tac on the vine side of the cage and bird wing; 1/8" Scor-Tape on the right side of cage; silicone under the bird for the 3D effect

Thanks so much for visiting today. We all really hope to see your entries on our "Wings" challenge, going on now through Saturday night!

Cheers,

Susan

Spring Fairy Tag

Hi there and happy spring! Depending on where you live you might have gotten a surprise spring snow over the weekend. What was up with that? Sunday morning we woke up to a couple of inches of the fluffy white stuff, but it was all gone by the afternoon.

This week the design team is showing more projects using our current Spring challenge theme. We've added ribbons to our projects for a little extra oomph. At the end of the week Senior DT Jamie and Brenda, our very first Guest Designer will introduce our April sketch challenge. Yay!

I made a quick tag using our new Tim Holtz dies: Tag & Bookplates and Tattered Florals, and Graphic 45's "Once Upon A Springtime".

This really was a quick project - it took just about 2 hours, which is record time for me! The flower was made by cutting the Tattered Floral shapes twice and offsetting each size so the space between the petals doesn't show. I cut the largest flower down by about a half-inch. The petals are rounded with the awesome Empressor tool. To the edges I randomly added a combination of Star Dust and Crystal Stickles with my fingertip.

The little fairy tag was pulled from the Once Upon A Springtime "Tags" die-cut 12x12 page - loads of cool embellishments on that sheet! I cut an extra wing and added a little Stickles to the wing, crown and sceptre for a little bling.

Card Recipe

• Paper: Graphic 45 Once Upon A Springtime
• Medium: Ranger Distress Ink in Walnut Stain, Tattered Rose, Bundled Sage; Glimmer Mist in Pearl; Stickles in Diamond, Star Dust and Crystal
• Embellishments: G45 Springtime Tag; Kaisercraft Pearls in snow; May Arts lace; seam binding ribbon and pearly branch from stash
• Tools: Tim Holtz Alterations Tag & Bookplate die and Tattered Florals die, Journaling Genie Empressor; Sizzix branch die from stash
• Adhesive: Fabri-Tac

Thanks for visiting today. There's still plenty of time to join our Beary Sweet Spring Challenge and Birthday Bash. It's going on until March 31 - you could win one of 5 fabulous birthday prizes!

Cheers,
Susan

The 411 on Love

Please scroll down for our BSC #17 winners - thanks everyone!

---

Hello hello and Happy Monday! We're off on a new challenge here at The Beary Scrap DT and Challenge blog. Our theme for this challenge is

Friendship or Love

Since Husband and I love each other dearly but *don't* observe Valentine's Day, I started out with a friendship theme. As things happen, this card took on a life of it's own and I've fallen in love with it. *grin*

The flower... oh the flower! Don't you just love it? I used Patricia's video tutorial for my flower and made it using Basic Grey's Curio paper. (The flower is the large template.) I can't wait to try it with grungepaper. Check it out HERE at her blog! Thanks so much Patricia for putting together such a wonderfully detailed tutorial.

The "Things I Love" layer is a card stock embellishment from the My Mind's Eye/Laundry Line/Coastal collection. Yes, I know it says "things" as in plural... but I'm claiming artistic license and only listing one thing - YOU. *wink* I spritzed it with a little water and carefully crunched it up to get the creased effect and allowed to dry. Then I spritzed with Pearl Glimmer Mist for the sparklies.

Some other details - the butterfly is from one of the Curio papers. I painted it with Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint, dried, cut out and inked the edges with Distress ink. The antennae are hand made with a piece of black wire, dried glue and black paint. The Scrabble tile edges were roughed up with a nail file and consoled with a walnut ink-stained chunk of foam.

Card Recipe

• Paper: Bazzill Basics Mud Pie; Basic Grey Curio (6x6 pad)
• Medium: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut Stain; Stickles Walnut Stain; Glimmer Mist Pearl and Rose Tea; Tim Holtz Distress Crackle paint in Rock Candy
• Embellishments: My Minds Eye "Things I Love" layer from the Coastal Collection; Flower is made from Basic Grey's Curio pad; Bazzill tulle (behind flower and under lace); everything else is from my stash

Thanks so much for visiting! I hope we can inspire you throughout the week to join our challenge before January 31st.

Cheers,
Susan