New Years Card - by Cricutica Paula I.

Products Used

BAsic Grey Clear Stamps

Echo Park 6X6 For the Record

My Mind's Eye 6X6 Union Square

Glimmer Mist - Candy Apple Red

Black cardstock

Stampin Up! Classic ink in crumb cake

SU! Scallop punch

Making Memories Shimmer Alphas- Silver Metro & Black/White

Instructions

1. Cut card base using black cardstock (4 1/4X 5 1/2).

2. Cut first layer using For the Record red polka dot paper (4X5 1/4).

3. Cut final paper layer using Union Square "happy" paper (3 3/4X5).

4. Punch Scallop circle and place on top of Union Square paper in area where you desire to create void (use glue dot if necessary to keep in place).

5. Spray at angle with glimmer mist.

6. Allow to dry.

7. Stamp in void.  I used firework stamp.

8. Place alpha/numerical stickers in place.

9. Using adhesive layer papers, Voila!

Blog Hop!

Good morning!  This weekend we will be hosting a Valentines Day blog hop where you can win one of 2 fabulous monthly kits {of your choice!!} sponsored by WeScrap!  

Start at Beth's Blog and hop your way through. You will be given further instruction as well as some fun Valentines Day craft ideas!

I'll draw the winner of the 2 kits on February 1! Happy Hopping!! :)

xoxo Amber

Guest Designer DawnC and her Mary Antoinette Shoe

CC Supplies:

MM Noir Paperie paper

EP Wintertime Red cardstock

MM Wedding pins

MM Wedding flowers

MM Wedding trims

MM Vintage Findings leaves

AC Clear Bling brads

Ranger Ice Stickles

Non- CC Supplies:

Fabric Tac

ATG gun and adhesive

Modge Podge

Bone folder

Ruler

Scissors

Cricut Flower Shoppe cartridge

Shoe pattern - http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/2010/01/elegant-shoe-tutorial.html

1.  Begin by cutting the pattern.  You will need to cut two soles.  Cut the top/toe of the shoe about 1/4" larger so you will have more space to tuck a treat inside the shoe.   I also prefer using a nice weight double sided paper such as MME, Fancy Pants or EP. 

2.  Place the toe pattern on the cut piece and score around the edge of the pattern.  Now snip into the score line.  This is the section that will be attached to the bottom of the show.  Score the heel along the about 1/4 inch from the flat edge and cut about 5 notches from the center out.  Snip the rest.  Again this is the section that will be glued to the bottom of the shoe. 

3.  I run my ATG gun along the edge of the bottom of the sole at the toe.   Then attach one side of the toe piece at a time using the score line as a guide.  Do the same for the heel starting in the center of the back. 

4.   At this point you may want to add any lace or trim to the heel or across the toe if you want to tuck the ends onto the sole.   Fabric-tac seems to work the best for me.  Once that is complete then Modge Podge the 2nd sole to the bottom of the shoe and trim around the edges if needed.  I use Modge Podge because it adds a little more sturdiness to the shoe.   I usually set a small jar or bottle in the heel of the shoe to keep it from curling.  

5.  Now you can go to town embellishing  your shoe making it as elaborate as you want.  

How Sweet It Is - by LilMissCrafter Jamie

Video:

Description:

Song Title - How Sweet It Is to Be Loved By You

1. Start with a 5 x 7" card base

2. Cut a piece of patterned paper to 4.5" x 6.5".

3. Adhere a piece of patterned paper cut to 4.25" x 6.25" to the front of the paper in step 2.

4. Use permanent markers and a ruler to draw stripes on the ribbon of your choice (lighter colored ribbon works best).

4. Tie ribbon around the patterned paper from step 3.

5. Cut a heart out of cardstock and add adhesive to the front (I used a Xyron machine).

6. Wind the twine from the outside of the heart towards the inside until covered.

7. Attach a skewer (painted white using distress stain) to the back of the heart with strong adhesive (I used Beacon's 3 in 1 glue).

8. Embellish with die cuts and stamps as desired.

9. Adhere cardfront to the base of the card. 

 

Materials:

Paper: Victoria Gardens Paper by Echo Park

Twine: The Twinery

Ribbon: Satin Ribbon from World Market

Various Die Cuts & button from my stash

Skewer painted white with Picket Fence Distress Stain by Tim Holtz

8 Days a Week by JeepMama

Using Crackle Paint on a metal item & How to put together my 8 Days a Week Scrapbook Layout

Products Used:

Tim Holtz/Ranger Crackle Paint Rock Candy

7 Gypsies Metal Number Plate 8

Teresa Collins Noel Paper (music side)

Lyrics to song

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Old Paper

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Vintage Photo

Tim Holtz Tool

Glitz Rub-on 12” Grid

Dear Lizzy Black Alpha from American Crafts

Miscellaneous black alpha

Lush Alpha in Black from My Mind’s Eye

Lush Paper in Black from My Mind’s Eye

Making Memories Piercing Tool/Ball Tip

7 Gypsies Black Velvet Flowers & Leaf

Large Glue Dots

3 Photos @ 2-1/4”3-1/2” each

Instructions:

1. coat metal number plate with crackle paint, allow to dry
2. trim lyrics to song into a strip, distress edges with Old Paper ink using TH Tool
3. wad lyrics strip into tight ball, flatten back out, ink high points on paper
4. distress edges of Teresa Collins paper with Old Paper ink using TH tool, repeat with Vintage Photo ink
5. create coffee stains with Vintage Photo ink (I recommend watching D²’s video on how to do this)
6. apply rub-on about 2-1/4” from right edge of paper
7. adhear lyrics strip to page (except bottom)
8. mount photos on Black Lush Paper & adhear them to page on top of rub-on
9. lay metal number plate on page (do not adhear yet)
10. apply lettering under number plate
11. adhear flower to page (I used a large glue dot in center & on each petal where the petals begin to turn up)
12. adhear metal number plate to flower using glue does
13. adhear leaf using glue dots under bottom of lyrics strip, making sure leaf does not hang off paper

Wiinter Wonderland by Michele M.

Ingredients:

7-10 “circular” cutouts ranging from 1” to 6” in diameter (with a ½” variance), cut to the center of each cutout (This works perfectly with circles or big petal flower cutouts)

Adhesive

Pop-up glue dots or hot glue

Ink pad (any choice of color will work)

Stickles

First step:            Starting with the largest cutout, fold inwards making a “cone” and firmly glue down. Repeat this step with all of the cutouts.

Second step:      Take the first “cone” and put a pop-up glue dot or hot glue on the top of the cone. Then place the next sized cone on top of the first cone and press down firmly. Repeat this step with the remaining cones until all of the cones have been placed.

Third step:          Take your ink pad and “flock” your tree by starting at the top of the tree and lightly ink the tree in a downward motion.

Fourth step:       The final step is to decorate your tree. Using Stickles, place little dots or other designs on the tree.

**I had originally recorded my sister and her 9 year old daughter making these trees. They are very easy to make for just about any age. Perfect for Christmas centerpieces!

Long Neck Bottle - by Moon Jenn

 I started my project with a Cognac bottle.

I used:

Making Memories Silver Paint

My Mind Eye LUSH paper

Prima Flowers

My Minds Eye Lush Rhinestones

My Minds Eye Lush Brads

Adhesive

Clear coat sealer

I painted the bottle with MM silver paint.

It took 3-4 coats to make it look nicely painted.

then I sealed the paint with a clearcoat sealer.

I used a 3 inch high piece of MME lush paper around the base.

Decorated it with Prima flowers

Tied ribbon around the base

I purchased the blue glittery thing from Michaels.

Added it to the top of the bottle to complete my project.

I Like to Move It, Move It (Using Alcohol Inks with Bubble Wrap) - Scrappy Canuck (Karen)

 

My oldest daughter loves to dance, so when Amber challenged us to use a song as an inspiration for a project, I knew that I had to create a page all about our little dancing queen (no pun intended)!  Her favourite song is actually on the Madagascar soundtrack - I Like To Move It - which seems perfectly fitting somehow, don't you?  So, I narrowed down the picture choices (although not very well...they were all so cute) and created a layout that shows her at her very best!  The accordion fold on the lower part of the page, held shut with some great Charcoal twine, allowed me to include more pictures than I thought I would be able to!  Then out came the alcohol inks and bubble wrap for some fun lettering.  Here's how:

Materials:

Adirondack Alcohol Inks in at least 2 colors

Small piece of bubble wrap (approx. 2" x 2")

Vellum or other non-porous paper

Optional - stamp image and Ranger Archival Ink

Instructions:  

1. Place both your vellum and your bubble wrap down on a protected surface with the textured part of the wrap facing up

2. Using one color of Alcohol Ink, place a few drops down on the bubble wrap. You can put the on the bubbles or in between - it really doesn't matter.

3. Using a second colour of ink, add a few drops of ink onto the bubble wrap. Do not worry if your colours overlap - they will blend as you work them onto the vellum. 

4. Repeat with as many colors as you would like.  

5. Carefully turn over the bubble wrap and pat down onto the vellum. Continue patting the bubble wrap on the vellum until it becomes tacky and runs out of ink. 

6. If you still have space left on the vellum to fill, simply add more ink to your bubble wrap and reapply. The ink on the bubble wrap will be dry, so you don't need to worry about the inks mixing.  

7. Optional step - Using Archival ink, stamp an image randomly over the dried ink

8. Cut out your letters or embellishments.

9. Apply to your project using a clear adhesive.  

The neat thing about this technique is that you can use the bubble wrap as an embellishment as well!  It's shiny finish really brings out the color in the inks and it's a fun way to add texture to your project!

Out with the Old...

and In with the NEW! That's our January, 2012 slogan. Here's why.

We have a TON of really SWEET items in our warehouse that we need to move out this month. We need to make space for new product and move out the previously sold items. So for the next few days/weeks, we're going to binge a ton of stuff. Some will be put into new product assortments while others will be sold as it sold the first time it was featured.

--

On another topic--that's relevant to why we're repeating and binging items. This if from an email sent to a customer asking why certain items update as Sold Out:

Whenever there is an item(s) that updates to Sold Out it's because of a few things. From time to time we will feature an item before it lands in our warehouse. We have paid for the item and have received shipping confirmation that it's en route for delivery the next day. When we receive the package we sometimes find out that certain items are backordered, partially shipped or sold out on the manufacturer's end. This is one of the causes of selling an item out on our end. Yesterday we met as a company and determined that we will not sell an item until is accounted for, a SKU is created and and it's shelved, ready to ship. This from time to time also slows our packaging as we receive a shipping confirmation but don't get items until days later.

The other reason we see this is with some items and manufacturers certain items are allotted as consignment product. This is usually the case with certain items from Making Memories and Echo Park. They will come to us and say, "We have 1000 6x6 Season's Greetings Paper Pads. How many can you sell through?" We'll respond by saying, "We can sell through about 750 of them." Then they set aside that number for us to sell. There has been a few occasions where the Consignment PO gets lost or overlooked and the manufacturer sells a portion of those items to another retail channel. In certain instances we will contact the other retailer and purchases the items from them to fulfill orders and that puts us behind as well. This has been a good model for us when it works since we only purchase with cash and not terms or credit. We've seen this breakdown a few too many times lately and have decided to move past this model.

Our decision to do everything with cash has helped us do a lot of things like put money into site development and reserve rooms for the 2012 Spring Thing. It has helped us stay liquid while we've seen many other retail channels turn their light off. We will continue working on cash however, we have changed our policy to only sell items once they're in the warehouse. This will fix the Sold Out issue and dramatically speed up our shipping.

Thank you for your email and addressing your concerns. This helps us become a better, more consumer friendly company and gives us goals to work towards.

--

There have been occasions where we have sold an item before it lands in our warehouse. We have submitted a PO, we've been charged for the item(s), we've paid for the item(s) and have received shipment confirmation. There has been occasion where we've sold the item a day before it is scheduled to land in your warehouse only to find out that the items is back ordered. We are changing our internal policy so that we won't see something until it's received, counted and a SKU is created.

Thank you ALL for such a SWEET 2011!

One last thing, we've had just under 20 Classifieds purchases since the launch. Pretty cool!

Sweetly,

The CropChocolate.com Team

The Golden Years (Tie a Knot!) - D2 DeeDee

"Hey everybody!! I just wanted to share a quick way to tie those perfect knots we see everywhere.. you know.. the ones with the ribbon so taught and tight,, perfect and glistening?? With the beautiful little knotted ribbon strategically placed to be the perfect eye candy??

Well I recently saw a tutorial similar to mine, in photo form, and so I thought I would show it in video!! (I cannot for the life of me remember where I saw this.. but be informed... it is not my original idea! BUT OH SO HANDY!)

Materials from CropChocolate:

Rusty Hinge Distress Stain

Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink

MME Lost n Found Union Square

Daily Junque wooden alphas

Non CC:

Ribbon, Mustard Seed Distress Ink, Vintage Photo Distress Ink, Gems, Hole punch

TIP: Plan your card :) Sometimes I know it's kind of tough and the creativity just sweeps you away, but this type of ribbon tying needs a bit of planning :)

1) Start by building your card... keeping in mind where you'll want the ribbon

2) Figure out ribbon placement (in my case I knew it was going to be close to the base)

3) Punch a hole in the EXACT place you want your ribbon to be tied

4) Lay ribbon on your work where you want it to be placed..

5) Turn your piece over.. and bring the ends of your ribbon the hole

6) Thread your ribbon ends THROUGH the hole..

7) Flip your piece back over.. making sure one ribbon end is come between the ribbon and card through the TOP and the other through the BOTTOM

8) Tighten -- don't be afraid of ripping your piece.. but don't go "hulk" on it either.. lol

9) TIE A KNOT!! 

10) optional : you can tie into a bow now if you like, too :) I just happened to like the knotted look on this guy

11) Finish embellishing!

And here it is in video form:

Hope this comes in handy!! -DeeDee (D²)"

Butterfly Kisses - by CorrieW

This month's Design Team challenge was to create a project based on a song.  CorrieW is first and she chose to create a LO based on "Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carlisle.

Products Used

Lime Twist Happy Go Lucky "Perfect" Butterflies Paper

Liquid Pearls

White Ink

Card Stock

Rhinestone Template

Take rhinestone template and lightly attach to the paper (note I used painters tape, and removed some tackiness by sticking it on my shirt first)

Sponge a slightly contrasting ink over the holes of the template, you want this to be fairly light but contrasting enough to see the marks.

Squeeze liquid pearls on the marks left behind from the template, try to match the size of the marks as well.

When you have applied all of the liquid pearls gently tap the paper to remove the "peaks" left behind the pearls and round them out.

Let dry and use on your project, note I cut mine out but you don't need to.

Christmas Ornaments - by BethD488

 

CC Supplies:

EP Wintertime

Slice Design Card – Fa La La (bell – 2.5 and 4 inch, Noel – 2 inch, star – 2.5 inch)

MM circle cutter

Non-CC supplies:

SU twine

Jewelry spacers

Needle (preferably a needlepoint or cross stitch size so the twine fits through)

Adhesive

Straw (from juice box or something on the smaller side – could try coffee stirrers)

Instructions:

Begin by cutting out the following pieces of patterned paper:

1.       2 circles/rings – 4.25inch outside diameter, 3inch inside diameter

2.       2 shapes of choice – either 2inch or 2.5inch works best – remember to turn the paper over between cuts so that the images match when put back to back

3.       12inch piece of twine

4.       Piece of straw to fit between your shapes – you want this to come as close to the edge as possible

Tie a knot near one of the twine (this will be set below your ring).

Thread the first spacer on the twine (this will be set between the ring and your shape).  If you have something like the heart, you will need to tie another knot higher on the string so that the first spacer and shape won’t slide down to the ring.

Thread the twine through the straw.

Thread the second spacer on the twine (this will be set between the shape and the ring).

Glue everything together.  When applying the adhesive to the ring and shape make sure you cover the entire surface so that there won’t be any gaps when you put it together.  Before you glue the rings together, loop the top end of the twine in between the top of the rings so that you have a place to hang the ornament from.