January IHP Design Team Challenge

This month’s i {heart} papers design team challenge was an inspiration challenge based on a lovely European candy store called, well, The Candy Store, in Ottawa, Canada. In keeping with the European-ness of it, and the candy-ness of course, I decided to alter a candy box I received as a gift. I wanted a way to package some sugar-free Dove chocolates, and this was the perfect size. The box was originally filled with the most incredible chocolates from Japan. Really, truly scrumptious. Interestingly, they were brought directly from Japan to me by the girlfriend of a dentist – hmmmm, do you think there’s a little collusion going on there?

The box was black to begin with, and I simply cut a sheet of paper from the delicious Echo Park Be Mine Collection Pack to cover the top, the inside, and all of the sides, leaving a bit of the black as a border. Both the circle pattern and the pink text pattern are 2 sides of the same 12x12 sheet. The Eiffel Tower label and the 2 little pink hearts are part of the collection pack – it has 2 sheets of stickers in it. I finished it off with a double bow made from some fuchsia silk ribbon in my stash (with the fabulous Bow Easy).

The inside of the box is decorated as well, with another one of those little pink heart stickers for an added pop of color. You can’t see it because of the chocolates, but the bottom is covered with the pink text paper too. Oh, and I’m afraid that by the time you see this, some of those candies might have mysteriously disappeared…

Now go take a look at what the rest of the design team came up with:

Cathleen
Deb
Gretchen
Kendra
Loretta
Lori
Lynn
Megan
Tracy
Kate

I’m guessing there will be some sweet treats to feast your eyes upon. If you’re inspired to participate and share your creation, please post it to the SCS gallery or PaperCraft planet gallery with the key word ‘ihp0111’ so we can all find it.

Have a delicious day!

Puppy Love

I think I’m gonna send this card to my daughter and son-in-law for Valentine’s Day from their puppy, Sugar. (I’ll have to move quickly to delete it from Facebook when it automatically loads there so she doesn’t see it beforehand ---shhhhh.)

I used Pat the Good Dog, a cutie OCL set that I just got from i {heart} papers, and I used the OCL Color Challenge of red, black and kraft, too. I made my own patterned paper with the border stamp in the set, and colored it, and the dog, with my Copic markers. Everything is stamped with Memento Cocoa ink.

The XOXOXO in the bone is from an old Hero Arts set, but any number of sentiments would fit in there. I used my Bow Easy to make a double bow from some black & white gingham ribbon in my stash.

I’ve got some more Valentines done too – but I’ll save them for another day.

Inspired by…

This week’s Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger was right up my alley, and I knew as soon as I had a chance I was gonna use this gorgeous cake as the inspiration for a card.

Look at this cake:
I decided that it would be really cool if I used my new Cricut Cake to make a card based on this inspiration. I love the fact that my two passions have collided on so many levels. I have used many paper crafting tools in cake decorating, and now I can use my Cricut Cake to cut paper for a card! I used the Elegant Cakes cartridge and some SU Shimmery White cardstock. Here’s the results:

It was impossible to get a really good shot of this card. You can’t see the shimmer of the paper; it’s really beautiful in person. And of course I had to add some butterflies (Martha punch) and some pearls to finish it off. 

I love how it came out! I’m sure you’ll be seeing more Cricut creations in the near future.

 

Happy New Year!

I thought I’d start the year off by pulling out one of my favorite OCL sets and wishing you all good fortune in 2011.

I’ve got much to be thankful for in the past year, and I can’t wait to see what this year brings! Good fortune, both financially and otherwise, would be nice. And the return of my mojo would be nice, too.

This card uses the sketch from the January SFYTT Sketch Challenge. I’m so glad Jen decided to switch to a monthly challenge instead of giving it up. Her sketches are the best, and they never fail to inspire me.

After I colored the designs on the tablecloth, I went over them with some Spica glitter pens to match the sparkle of the striped paper. And I wrote in the 2011 by hand in the crystal ball.

What I used:
Stamps: Crystal Clear(OCL)
Paper: Happy Day (s.e.i.), Black, Copic Blending Cardstock
Ink: Memento Black, Copic markers, Spica pens

Wishing you all the best in the new year.