Color inspiration with Windy & Diana

What would Halloween be with out Orange and black? This month we challenge Windy and Diana to create their projects around this color inspiration and boy oh boy did they nail it! Take a peek at their beautiful work.

Windy's:

Hi everyone, its Windy here with a little Halloween inspiration to share today. For October I was so excited to work from this image because Halloween is my most favorite holiday! There is just something about orange and black that I absolutely love! And pumpkins are a definite fav... I'm always the first person to the pumpkin patch on the day it opens & usually amass quite a few for my porch before Halloween arrives.

So it was great to use this scheme to create a few cards. For these projects, I tried to use Halloween colors to make a non-Halloween card... a fun challenge:)

For the first card I created something that is very close to my signature style...an elegant note card. But for my second card I tried something a bit cuter... love those mustaches from the Fun House collection and have been looking for a reason to use them since I got them.

What do you think... ready to use a Halloween palette for an all occasion card?

GCD
Studios products: rub ons (Fun House collection); patterned
paper (Soul Petite Orange, Soul Food Collection); brad (Soul Food
Metal Rimmed Glass Brads). Other Products: ribbon
(Michael's Stores Inc.); cardstock (Papertrey Ink), colored/glittered
cardstock (DCWV); punches (EK Success & Fiskars), pins (Maya
Road).

And here is Diana's:

I love fall time. I love how the leaves start changing into beautiful shades of orange and reds. I love the cool crisp air. Best of all, I love the smell of homemade soup cooking on the stove. Nothing warms up the belly like a nice bowl of soup.

This month I was inspired to create a layout based on the traditional color scheme of Halloween. I just had to create a page with a picture of my first bowl of pumpkin soup for the year. I used pops of orange, black, cream, and gray. This is such a lovely color scheme and can work great with any type of layout.

Supplies:
Sweet Surrender The Little Lovebirds
Sweet Surrender Tying the Knot
Sweet Surrender Cabochons
Soul Food Transparent Shapes
Elementary My Dear Paper Pack

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Creating!

Gift tags peek-a-boo with Windy

Hello! It Windy here with a little technique that I use to make my gift tags a little more interesting. If you search inspiration sites like Etsy or Pinterest you see that tags are very popular and trendy right now... especially tags that are die cut. So I thought I'd take that trend and make a recessed spot on a few tags that would serve as the perfect home for these embellies...

I love that look... want to see how I did it?

1. Start with two tags, a chipboard circle, a circle punch, foam
adhesive and a transparency shape.

2. Punch a hole near the bottom of the tag.

3. Place foam adhesive on the tag.

4. Layer with the second tag.

5. Place chipboard circle in the center of tags.

6. Embellish rest of tag.

That's it... a new twist on tags. Have a nice one!

Fifty layered butterflies

When I stumbled across this image...

source

...I just knew I wanted to try something similar out of paper. What better than a few of my favorite GCD Studios papers, a pair of butterfly dies, and a styrofoam ball to bring it all together?

First I created about fifty layered butterflies. I simply die-cut a large butterfly and a smaller butterfly and stapled them together. To give the impression of flight, I bent the wings out from the center. To add the butterflies to the styrofoam ball, I used pearl head pins. If you are looking for a more permanent attachment, I suggest using glue, as well. I love the look of the pearls in the center of the butterflies, but you could use glue exclusively, too.

After playing with a few different patterns for attaching the butterflies, I realized that random was the way to go. Some face up, some face down, others face each other. To cover up any spots where the styrofoam ball was showing through, I added smaller butterfly punches. If you want to be really picky about not seeing the ball, I suggest wrapping it in fabric or ribbon, or even painting it.

To create a handle for my bouquet, I added a Magic Wand from SRM Press. I filled it with white pearl chocolates to match the pearl pins. Ribbon and tulle tied in bows at the base of the ball, as well as a coordinating tag, finish it off.

I think this kind of bouquet would be a lovely gift for a birthday, a bride-to-be, or a special get well. You could hang the ball from a ribbon for a fun variation (little girls room?), or plant the bouquet in a pot for a topiary look. You could even use flower shapes or other punches besides butterflies. Of course, pretty GCD papers are a must:

Glittered Bird Floral

Charcoal Floral

Grey Floral

Pink Floral

Green Floral

Wedding Die Cut

Thank you for stopping by today!

Cutest gift bags ever!

The kids get SO much candy on Halloween, don't they? In general we are not a big candy family (we go in more for ice cream and baked goods lol), but that only makes the kids more excited about the mountains of candy they amass on Halloween. For me, though, I like to give them a little gift bag with some fun Halloween items like a coloring book and crayons or bubbles. And to make it even more special, I try and dress up the gift bag and usually put their names on them too. Once again I looked to Pinterest for ideas on making a fun gift bag. I found these:

image from http://thepinkcouch.blogspot.com/2009/10/trick-or-treat-bags.html

I just love the ruffled crepe paper! Did you know you can get two rolls of crepe paper (one orange and one black for $1 at The Dollar Tree? Armed with my crepe paper, I pulled out some fun GCD Studios products and went to work. Here is what I came up with:

I made the big crepe paper bow by rolling it in larger and larger loops and then stapling the middle. I added a loop of tickets from the Funhouse Collection in the center as well as Chipboard Wheel and Mini Flag.

The strips of patterned paper are also From Funhouse. I mounted everything on a piece of black cardstock. The best part, though, is the mustache on a stick that I thought my kids would totally get a kick out of taking pictures with! Even little (non candy lol) gifts are more fun if you dress up the gift bag!

Supplies Used:

GCD Studios Funhouse Collection patterned paper, Mini Flag, Chipboard Wheel and ticket trim from Ribbon Spool.

Yellow, Gray and Blue... inspiration

Hello there.

We have a really fabulous color inspiration to share today! We had our designer's Heidi Van Laar and Ashley Harris work with it. Take a looksy to see how they were inspired with the same combo, but in different ways.

Up first is Heidi V:

Totally swoon worthy right? these colors together are just so luxe and vibrant! I tried to do them justice with a couple of cards.

this first one is inspired by not only the colors, but the actual picture itself, I mean really, how can you NOT be inspired by that dress?!

Supplies:
Cardstock: (white) Georgia-Pacific, Patterned Papers, (8x8 Artsy Urban pad, Tying the Knot from the Sweet Surrender collection) GCD Studios, Metal Rimmed brad: (Soul Food collection) GCD Studios, Ribbon: Offray, Die: Sizzix, Border Punch Fiskars.
Size: 4.25"x5.5"

I used a border die for the flowers and cut it twice, once from patterned paper and once from white cardstock.

I used papers from the Sweet Surrender and Artsy Urban collections and a brad from the Soul Food collection.

This being the month for all things creepy and spooky, I just had to do something for Halloween too.

Supplies:
Cardstock: (white) Georgia-Pacific, Patterned Papers, (8x8 Artsy Urban pad, Something Borrowed from the Sweet Surrender collection) GCD Studios, Filigree Brads & Round Doilies:(Sweet Surrender collection) GCD Studios, Ribbon: Wrights, Circle Die: Spellbinders, Bat: handcut
Size: 5"x5"

Again, using paper from Artsy Urban and Sweet Surrender, but this time I used the colors in opposite proportions, a black, white and gray card with just a pop of yellow.

I used a die cut doily and a framed brad from the Sweet Surrender collection, but to make the brad work for my card I had to do a bit of easy altering. I removed the epoxy sticker that was originally in the center of the brad and replaced it with a piece of cardstock that I stamped a sentiment on.

Have a great day!

And now here is Ashley's:

Well Helloooooo! How are you all doing? I am doing fabulously, thanks for asking. The reason you ask? Well, I got to play with one of the happiest colors on this beautiful earth. Yellow. It was color inspiration time with GCD Studios and up above is the image that I was inspired by. Nice huh?

Here is what I created with this fabulous inspiration:

I really like the scallops on this and the fun swirly jewels that added a touch of sparkly to it.

This one is clean and graphic and I just love it! Sigh...I hope you love it too!!

InLinkz.com

Thanks for hanging out with Ashley and Heidi V today. We hope you are inspired by their beautiful work!

Oodles and oodles of buttons?

Do you have oodles and oodles of buttons? If you're like me you do! I love buttons all shapes, sizes, and colors. So what's a girl to do when she has a stockpile of buttons? Use them of course! This time I decided I'd make a cute little Rainbow Purse for Miss Avery(she's my Punky Brewster child and loves color). I really love these awesome buttons by Melody Ross

And here is the fun little purse I made with them.

These little purses are really easy to create its a couple sheets of felt, buttons, ribbon, thread, and a sewing machine. Of course I didn't take photos while I made this so I'll just give you a quick rundown of how I made it.

Cut 1 sheet of felt in half. Cut the other sheet of felt a smidge smaller then what your purse will be.Sew your buttons onto the smidge smaller felt. then using a sewing machine stitch the felt with the buttons to one half of the 1st sheet of felt. stitch your ribbon handle to the inside of the purse. layer all your pieces of felt and stitch around the 3 sides leaving the opening at the top. Viol la you now have a cute little purse to give to your sweet girl!

and a closeup of all those buttons.

Not everything that is made for scrapbook has to be put on a layout so go create something off the page!Have fun!

Quilted frame

Hi there! Jennifer here, and today I'm going to show you how to make a quick altered piece to decorate your home this fall. We're going to start by "quilting" a background of paper to put in a frame.

You can pick up a cheap frame, or maybe you have one lying around the house to use. You could even change it up with a little paint if you want. Remove the glass as we won't be needing it.

Use a square punch to punch out various pieces of patterned paper. I tried to stick with a fall theme.

Trim a piece of neutral colored cardstock ( I used kraft ) to the size that will fit in your frame. Adhere the squares on in any pattern you'd like. Tip: It's easier to put your adhesive on the cardstock and stick the squares on, rather than try to put adhesive on each tiny square :)

Use your sewing machine to zig-zag stitch over the seams.

Here's what your finished base will look like.

Use letter stickers to add the quote of your choice.

There you have it! A fairly quick project to enjoy in your home or give as a gift. Thanks for stopping by today! Have a good one :)