Vroom...

Today's post makes me smile. I created this card for a challenge on the Play Date Cafe blog that featured the following prompt:

Make a project using black, white and a splash of emerald green.  With this challenge I riffled around my ever-growing stash of lovely paper and found the perfect collection  -- Happy Days from Echo Park.  I love the bright, retro imagery and have been wanting to use this car sticker ever since I got the collection last year from Crop Chocolate.  So, here's my happy card:

As I mentioned I used Echo Park paper and car sticker, SRM sentiment sticker, Queen and Co. rhinestones, foam adhesive from Recollections, Silhouette label die and Grand Calibur die cutting machine.

I hope you like it.

Snow Globes and Icy Snowflakes

Today's post is inspired by winter, snow and ice.  Although I live in Southern California where we never get snow, I love being in the mountains and watching snow fall -- especially when they're those big, fat snowflakes that slowly spiral down from a night sky.

It is with that in mind that I challenged myself to create this snow globe card.

I looked on You Tube for some tutorials to get me started and got some construction ideas from Libby Hickson's blog, Libby's Little Addiction.  But, in the end, I kind of winged it.  Here's how it did it:

Step 1: Gather your supplies.  I used paper and stickers from the Peaceful collection by Authentique that I purchased at cropchocolate.com, kraft, brown and green paper from Bazzill, twine from The Twinery, Color Box chalk ink in Moss, and pigment ink in Frost, foam adhesive and sparkle embossing powder from Recollections, Holiday stamps from Hero Arts, Perma Tac adhesive from Glue Arts, Beacons 3 in 1 glue, and buttons from my stash.

Step 2:  Cut brown cardstock to 11 1/2" x 5" and fold in half.  Using a circle cutter positioned slightly off the top of the fold, cut a 4 1/2" circle in the brown card -- CAUTION:  Do not cut a complete circle -- you need to leave the fold intact at the top of the card and leave the circle connected to the base at the bottom.

Step 3:  Cut the inner circle 3 1/2" -- this will be the opening of the snow globe. Then make angular cuts on the sides of the base of your snow globe -- 1/4" narrower at the top of the base than the bottom.

Step 4:  Cut a 4 1/2" circle in contrasting paper, make a straight cut across the top to fit the inside of the snow globe and adhere.

Step 5: Now for the fun stuff -- the decorations!  I cut pieces of patterned paper and Kraft card stock to layer on the base on the front and inside of the card.  I also fussy-cut the bird from the Authentique Peaceful Collection (Solitude pattern paper). Next I inked the edges of all the papers and applied foam adhesive to the bird.  I placed some pinecone stickers on the green cardstock and then adhered the bird on the green circle cut paper.

Step 6:  Cut a 4 1/2" circle out of acetate or plastic.  I used some packaging I had laying around.

Step 7:  Stamp snowflakes on the plastic circle using pigment ink, cover with sparkle embossing powder, remove excess embossing powder and set using a heat gun.  Be careful not to overheat the plastic -- it will melt.  (I found this out the hard way!) Now, glue the plastic to the inside front of the card with the  embossed snowflakes facing outward.

To finish, decorate the front of the card using stickers from the paper collection, buttons and twine and you're done!

Here is another card using this same technique I made for Christmas using Echo Park This & That Christmas Paper and stickers from Carta Bella Christmas Day collection.

New Weekly Challenge at PDC

It's another week and therefore another challenge at Play Date Cafe http://theplaydatecafe.blogspot.com/.

I loved this week's color prompt:

I decided to use some oldies but goodies from The Paper Loft.  Here is the card I made using paper from The Paper Loft (fussy cut flower and rust-colored paper in the back), card stock from Canson, bling from Making Memories Paper Reverie line, sentiment sticker from SRM, card stock from Bazzill (2 shades of chartreuse/green), stamp from Stampers Best and tag and twine from my stash.

Blog Candy Winner

What a fun Crop Chocolate Blog Hop!  Thanks to everyone for stopping by and for all your sweet comments.  I hope you'll check back often and see what's new in my crafty world because I plan to make 2013 a busy, crafty year!

Now for the good stuff:

I used a random number generator to select two blog candy winners from my commenters/followers this weekend.  Drum roll please...the winners are:

#19:  Karen (Karey 2005)
#22:  Misty W

Please send me your contact information (to lauraann562@gmail.com) and I'll get your prize packages out today.  Thanks again to everyone for all your support.

Crop Chocolate New Year's Blog Hop

Happy 2013 Everyone!  I'm excited to be a new member of the Crop Chocolate design team and a part of this New Year's Blog Hop.  I've admired the fabulous projects the past design team members have created ever since I stumbled upon Crop Chocolate and their fantastic deals a few years ago -- and now I get to be part of the fun.

If you've hopped in order you've just come from visiting Becky (Becky - http://onceuponadelight.blogspot.com/) and you're almost done  -- thanks for stopping by. You are at lauraannsbreakfastpizza.blogspot.com and I'm Laura Sanchez.  If you want to start at the beginning, go to Amber's blog - http://ambaju.blogspot.com/ . And as a special thank you I'm going to select 2 people who leave a comment and follow my blog to win a little blog candy!

Here are few fun facts about me:

1.  My favorite season is Fall/Autumn because I love it when it's windy and cool and it's time to light a fire in the fireplace.
2.  I am still best friends with my high school girlfriends.
3.  I love to cook and I won a chili cook-off contest at my work.
4.  I have a huge scrapping area in my home and I've run out of space for my paper hoard!
5.  I am an 18 year ovarian cancer survivor (this is my favorite fun fact).

I also wanted to share the 2 projects I submitted when I applied to be on the design team:

#1:  Exploding Box -- I made this box using paper from Echo Park's For The Record collection that I purchased on Crop Chocolate.  I love making these and giving them for gifts.  They are so special and can be customized with photos and journaling.

#2:  Congratulations on your Baby Pop Up Card -- This was made using My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup Boy paper, also purchased at Crop Chocolate.  I was inspired by a card and tutorial posted to CC by Scrappy Canuck.

Our design team will be posting new projects throughout the first half of this new year on cropchocolate.com and from what I've seen of the January projects, I know you'll love them.  You'll also love the great deals and fun, supportive community there.

Thanks for visiting.  Now for the sweets. Two lucky people who leave a comment and follow my blog will be selected to win a blog candy prize. I'll post the winners on this blog January 15th so don't forget to check back to see if you've won.

Now, on with the last stop of the Crop Chocolate Design Team hop!  Next up is Michele:

Michele - http://stuffbybelle.blogspot.com/

Card Entry for Play Date Cafe Challenge

This year I've challenged myself to get more involved in the scrappy community and one way to do that is to enter more challenges.

Today's post is to feature a card I made for challenge #163 on the Play Date Cafe blog. http://theplaydatecafe.blogspot.com/ The challenge was to create a project using the colors champagne, sky blue and tangerine.

When I saw these colors I immediately thought of the Stella & Rose Mabel paper I had purchased at Crop Chocolate about a year ago.  I love these colors and they fit well into the challenge.

Here is my happy little card:

For this card I used the following:
My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose Mabel designer card stock, chipboard sticker and trim.  The pearls and card base are by Recollections and the tangerine card stock is by Coredinations.  I also used Zip Dry glue.

Happy New Year - Welcome 2013

This is going to be an exciting year!  I am thrilled to have been selected for the Crop Chocolate design team and have already gotten started on some fun projects for the team.  We're having our first Blog Hop from January 11 - 14.

In looking back on 2012, I can definitely say it was a year of change.  Tyler headed up to Humboldt for college and we were faced with an "empty nest".  I was a little apprehensive about what that would be like, but have been pleasantly surprised with the changes in our lives.  We have gotten out more and found time to have fun and reconnect as a couple.  We even tackled a home improvement project (removing wallpaper and repainting our kitchen) and were happy with the results.

On a sad note, we lost my Dad in October.  We'll miss him dearly but know he's in a better place and rejoice in the fact that we had him in our lives for such a long, happy time.

As I look back on my crafty adventures in 2012 I am really proud of how I've pushed myself to learn new techniques and venture out of my comfort zone.  Here are some of my favorite projects from the past year:

#1:  I made these cards to thank two of my Dad's special care givers: 

#2:  I just love this cute little journal project I submitted to Instructagram:

#3: A card I made for my God Daughter for her birthday:

#4:  A card I made for one of my Instructagram.com tutorials -- Fussy Cutting:

#5:  The card I made for my Mom for Mother's Day:

#6:  A happy little card I made using S.E.I. paper and embellishments:

#7:  A card I did for a Crop Chocolate challenge using houses I made from Fancy Pants, It's the Little Things paper:

#8:  My two favorite cards from the Operation Write Home drive this past summer:

#9:  A card I made for my Sister In Law's birthday:

#10:  My first Design Team project (it's only a sneak peek since it doesn't debut until later this month):

Join me back later this week for the blog hop!