For the Birds

I wanted to share an altered project with you today. I found this cute church birdhouse at Michael's and decided I would see if I could make a book, with recipes for the birds (you know...bird treats) - that would nest onto the front of the house.

I am really pleased with how this turned out - the book fit perfectly.

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp and Show: show some love (granted..it's some love for the birds!)
Delightful Sketches: Come Fly with Me

Guest DT Call for the Beary Scrap!

Guest Designer Call!

Hello Beary Sweet friends,

I have been so blessed to be a part of the Beary Scrap Design Team for the past year, and I have some very exciting news for you! We are holding a Guest Design Team call for 4 lucky designers. All of the details are on the Beary Scrap Store Blog. Kimm is so sweet and generous - and we all have such a great time....In other words, you need to make something with the sketch below, so you can try to join us for three months!

Our first Guest Designer term will start April 1st and include 2 (yes, 2!) guest designers. Each term will be three months. In this call, we are looking for a total of 4 guest designers – two for Term 1 (April 1 – June 30) and two for Term 2 ( July 1 – September 30, 2011).

We would love to see your best creations!

Heartfelt Creations Wednesday

Oh my goodness! I realized I never shared my cards with you from last weeks Heartfelt Creations, so today, I'm giving you a double dose!


12 x 12 layout

HCPC 3317 Open Petals

HCPC 2242 Innoscents Flowers 2

HCPC 3303 Posy Patch Flowers

Spellbinders Blossom 2

Other: Prima Papers, Prima Flowers, German Vintage Glass Glitter, Martha Stewart Cricut Cake Cartridge, Anna Griffin glitter letters, Glimmer Mist

I assembled my background by first spraying my paper using Glimmer Mist and an a resist screen. I distressed the layers and sewed them together. I laid down my basic layout pictures and then began building my floral arrangement around the page. Some of my flowers were store bought, but my favorite flowers are the ones that I made using the Innoscents flower stamps, and cutting them with the Spellbinders. I stamped and cut two flowers of every side and then I trimmed every other flower petal away, to allow me to shape each petal. A layer of dimensional tape was added between each layer of flower. I used the leaves from Open Petals to describe who I am.

6 x 6 card

HCPC 3359 Daffy Dafodil

HCPC 3363 Inspire Me Sentiments

other:

Spellbinders Eyelet Pendants, Echo Park Life is Good papers, Kreaxions Punch #910- Vinca

I tried using watercoloring with glaze pens to color my Daffodil- then cut it out. I cut a circle with my nesties, and stamped my sentiment in the center. I cut a yellow Eyelet Pendant to go under my sentiment. To make the blue frame for the stack, I used the die to only emboss the blue. This left an outline of the entire die, and then I fussy cut that to get a little larger cut. I punched two decorative strips and offset them, to achieve and blue and yellow edge. I distressed the layers and assembled everything with pop dots.

Beary Scrap's February Sketch

Wow, it's the first day of February - so we have a new sketch challenge for you at the Beary Scrap. This is such an easy sketch to work with - I know you will enjoy it! I really love making flowers, so I made an easy card that highlights a flower made with Tim Holtz' Tattered Florals die. The papers are from Basic Grey's Curio line - and are so elegant - I just wanted to show them off!
You have until the 14th to play along for your chance to win a $20 gift certificate to the Beary Scrap. You might want to keep an eye on our blog, cause we are going to have some exciting announcements coming up that you won't want to miss!

Belles n Whistles - Vintage

I think the anything but winter challenge last time at Belles n Whistles really worked! This weekend, we had 65 degree weather - and it was marvelous! But now that that challenge is over, we have a new one for you, or should I say an old one....as in vintage! I had so much fun with this one, by pulling out vintage sewing remnants from my Great-grandmother. I know that Tanya Baking is actually cooking, and not sewing - but don't they really kind of go hand in hand? And besides, she looked so cute on the Material Girl paper by Cosmo Cricket.

I hope that you will play along with this fun challenge - and I also wanted to remind you that you can now use any Elisabeth Bell image to play in our challenges.

Challenges:
Friday Sketchers: sketch

Beary Scrap Loves You!

This is the second week of the Love/Friendship theme at the Beary Scrap - and you know, I love this Be Mine paper from Echo Park. I also got to use some of our new German Glass Glitter - I used the silver around my flourishes and the transparent pink around the inner heart. I combined cuts from the regular Spellbinders nestie heart set and the Nested Hearts set. By doing so, it left me the perfect little hole to attach my ribbon through.

We hope that you will come play along - There's a $20 goft certificate to be won!

Challenges:
Simon Says: Bingo - gems, ribbon, glitter
Creatilicious- ribbon and love
Really Reasonable Ribbon - heart/ribbon
JustRite- Love is in the Air

Cosmo Cricket meets Belle - Still time to Vote!

I have a card to share with you today using Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934 line and this adorable Belles n Whistles stamp, Mommy's Little Helper.

As you may know, I am in the top 10 for a spot on Cosmo Cricket's Design Team (Can you hear my heart pitter-pattering?) But here's the catch...One winner will be selected by popular vote - So, I really, really need your help! If you would go to Vote here - Cosmo Cricket's Blog - You will see a poll on the right hand side - All you have to do is just click on Gini Cagle - and you will help me tremendously! (And please ask your other friends to help me if you would!)

Thanks so much!

Challenges:
7 Kids College Fund: Challenge yourself (Tried a new technique from Tim Holtz's book for flowers)
Stamp Something: Something Cute
Papertake Weekly: Ribbons and Pearls
Cute Card Thursday:( 1-2-3) 1-image; 2 circles, 3 flowers
Totally Gorjuss: Hot,hot, hot
Wee Memories: Free your Creativity
Friday Sketchers: sketch

Please Help Me Win!

I love Cosmo Cricket and when I saw that I was in the top 10 for a spot on their DT, I was ecstatic! But I need your help - I am asking for my friends and followers to go to the Cosmo Cricket blog and vote for me. There is a poll on the right side of the page - all you have to do is check Gini Cagle. The voting only goes until Tuesday night.

Vote Here -for - Gini Cagle

OH MY GOODNESS!!

I can't tell you how excited I was to receive an email from Spellbinders saying that I won their grand prize from their Winter Release To Die For Blog Frenzy! I really drooled on my computer every day of previews - there was not a single day that I wasn't crazy over - and just look at what I won! Thank you so much Spellbinders for your generosity!


Gini’s prize includes the following, worth over $800!!
• All new die templates revealed during the Spellbinders Paper Arts To DIE For!! Blog Frenzy!!
• A Grand Calibur™ die cutting machine!!
• The balance of the new release die templates being revealed at the 2011 Winter Craft and Hobby Show on January 29, 2011!

I thought I would share a project that I made using Spellbinders/and Heartfelt Creations Dies (which are manufactured by Spellbinders). I've had this shabby and vintage child's dress form for years, and decided that she should be dressed with a Kraft Paper Apron. The flower, the polka-dots, the lace trim and the sash were all made using these dies. And even the center of my dots were embossed with Spellbinders Impressabilities. I can't wait to get my new dies and see what fun projects I can come up with! Thank you again Spellbinders!
Products:
HC Decorative Butterfly-Border Die
HC Perfect Petals Die
HC Perfect Petal Medley Stamp Set

Renaissance Hearts Border

Blossom

Standard Circle Small

Flourish Impressabilities

Challenges:
The Kraft Journal: Family (Memories of baking with my Great -Grandmother)

Flower Soft Hop - $50 Prize!

This week the Flower Soft girls are sharing some creations with using the new Flower Soft products that are being released. Our challenge this week is an easy one - Anything Goes with Flower Soft.

Entries must be uploaded to the SCS gallery and use at least one Flower Soft product (Flower Soft, toppers, stamps) to be eligible to win. Please use the keyword FSC21 and flowersoft (one word) when uploading to the gallery so we can find your project. Comments and challenge entries will be accepted until 6:00am CT on February 4th. Notice that we are changing the challenges to every other week.

Are you ready for the prize? Are you sitting down? The winner from the comments on the hop and the winner of the challenge will each win a $50 Flower Soft gift certificate!

I love the new toppers that we are introducing - Die Cut Dimensions - Wild Flowers. These sheets cut with all of the fancy cuts already made for you- You just pop out the flowers, shape them a little with your fingers and you have instant and gorgeous dimension. I also added some of the Peony Pink Flower Soft to the centers. I stamped my sentiment and the background paper using stamps from Heartfelt Creations ( Elegante Border and Swirl HC-225a and sentiment HCPC 3312 Uplifting Scriptures )

My second project today uses Ultra fine Neon Orange. I also placed this cute little snail on a bed of grass made from one of our newest colors, Meadow. The stamp set is Snail Mail from Our Craft Lounge.

Want even more inspiration? There is a new episode of Flower Soft TV every Friday. To register for announcements, contests and specials at Flower Soft TV go to http://www.flower-soft.tv/#information.html and then click green "REGISTER" button.

Now if you are ready to hop on, please head toward my talented friend Linda's blog and be sure to share some love along the way!

The Hop starts at the Flower Soft Blog - http://flower-softinc.blogspot.com/

Flower Soft Blog
Vicki Garrett
Jeanne Streiff

Deb Felts
Dina Kowal
Debbie Seyer
Gini Cagle
Linda Beeson
Cibele Glazer