Pink Paislee's "Inspiration Station Blog Tour"...

Welcome to the blog tour...we hope you will find our Mother's Day projects and ideas inspirational!

I decided to make a bracelet for mom with Pink Paislee's Queen Bee cork buttons and brads! But any of Pink Paislee's cork buttons would work for this project...you could also use the 365 cork buttons or the Bayberry Cottage cork buttons.

Here's  how I made this...

Step 1: Gather your supplies. You'll need 3 cork buttons and 3 brads by Pink Paislee, a bracelet, wire cutters, a hot glue gun and a hole puncher or Crop-a-dile. My mom gave me a big pack of these silver bracelets one time, so I thought I'd use one for this project.

Step 2: Snip an opening in the bracelet with wire cutters.

 Step 3: Choose 3 cork buttons you want to use on your bracelet. The larger ones work the best. Punch 2 small holes in each cork to create buttons. Make SURE you get the holes as far apart as you can (or the width of the brad is fine). If the holes are too close together, the cork will rip when you bend it to get the bracelet through.

Step 4: Slide the cork buttons onto the bracelet. You will have to bend them a bit to get them to go on. I used the larger one in the center and 2 similar ones on the sides.

Step 5: Cut the prongs off the back of the brads with the wire cutters. Add a dab of hot glue in the center of each cork button and adhere the brads.

The cork buttons stay put nicely on the bracelet. For extra durability, you might want to add a dab of hot glue on the back of the cork buttons where the holes were punched as well. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

I have one more thing to share before I go, a Mother's Day card:

To create this card:

1. Cut white cardstock 8 x 4 3/4". Fold in half for card base. Round the top right corner with a corner rounder.
2. Cut Bee Hive die cut paper 5" high x 2" wide. Adhere to right side of card.
3. Cut a piece of the Queen Bee Press Ons 4 3/4" x 2 1/2". Apply to the left side of card.
3. Adhere pleated ribbon to the back of the round die cut. Attach to card.
4. Adhere large cork button from Queen Bee cork buttons.
5. Print out saying, "To my mom, my best friend." Cut into a tag shape. Attach.
6. Adhere a smaller cork button.
7. Stamp 2 bees from the Queen Bee stamp set. Cut out and adhere. Pop up wings for dimension.
8. Cut 2 leaves from the Worker Bee paper. Distress the edges with your fingernail and attach to card.

Finished size: 5" x 4 1/2" (with everything hanging off included).

Please leave a comment here and then visit each of the following blogs for 11 more chances to win a $25 prize pack by Pink Paislee! Thanks for stopping in!
Danielle

Lisa Cole

Ania Jo Lexander

Stacey Michaud

Leena Loh

Jana Eubank

Amanda Muirhead

Kristen Swain

Tina Albertson

Jen Martakis

Erin Terrell Clarkson

Kayla Aimee

One more sleep...

...and I'm off to Reflections in California! So excited to be teaching with Kelly Goree, Elizabeth Kartchner, Katie Watson, Kelly Purkey, Maggie Holmes and Debbie Campos. My plane leaves at 6 in the morning here tomorrow and I live an hour north of the airport, so I have to get up EARLY, early. It's going to be a loooong day, but I'm extremely excited!

Stay tuned...because this Friday, Pink Paislee is doing something really fun, so check back to my blog then! I have my post all scheduled for while I'm gone. Well, I have to go finish packing, see you California ladies soon!
XO
Danielle

Jenni Bowlin sneaks...

Morning, hope you are all enjoying your Monday so far! I have a couple of sneak peeks for you of the next Jenni Bowlin kits, which go up for sale on the 30th. I loved the little chipboard houses that came in the kit this time!

Here I used the bottlecaps and flower from the add-on kit, and the rest is from the main kit (with the exception of the doilie from my stash). To create the roof of the house, I cut the bottlecaps in half, layered them on like little shingles and then trimmed the edges to correspond with the roof shape! You could use this card for "welcome home", "welcome to the neighborhood",  or even "welcome baby".

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There are a lot of fun, bright papers in this kit! See the brown floral paper? That one is made especially for this kit by Jenni B. You won't find it anywhere else. Yum. This is a layout about our neighborhood and how we LOVE to go on bike rides and walks here! We absolutely love this neighborhood of ours!
I used one of the houses to trace onto the brown patterned papers and saved the actual house for another project. I didn't want to use up all my chipboard houses on one page. (Love how the scalloped paper looks like a roof!)

That's it for me today. I have to get busy with my day, but thank you so much for stopping by!
Danielle

Adore-able...

Jenni Bowlin had these adorable little Kaisercraft photo holders for sale last month, and I just got one in the mail, so I had to alter it right away with the May project kit that I just received!  The May project kit (available soon) has everything you see here, with the exception of the photo holder and wooden clips/buttons.

(pics of my girls)

I embossed the heart with my Cuttlebug machine and Swiss Dots folder, and added the flower/ribbon/twine from the project kit and hot glued it onto one of the frames.

Here is what the photo holder looked like before I started. I painted it with black acrylic paint, not covering the entire thing, leaving some of the natural color show through for a shabby look. I decided to add the little wooden clips from the craft store, so that the photos could be easily changed out!

You can find these photo holders here. And the May project kit (along with the main kit and add-ons) will be coming out soon! (on the 30th, I believe) Would be a great Mother's Day gift *wink*!

Stop by the Jenni Bowlin design team blog for lots of inspiration. Thanks for visiting today!
Danielle

Reflections event coming soon!

I've been working on my mini album class for the Reflections Event in California and am so excited...just had to pop in and show you a few sneaks of what we are going to be making!

There is SO much more, 14 pages for us to work on and lots of layering and techniques including hand stitching....

...these cute little "crocheted flowers" ...(no, we won't be crocheting, but I discovered a brand new technique that nobody has done before...I can't wait to show you!)

...and a MUCH, MUCH more!

We will be working with some Jenni Bowlin, Tattered Angels, Lily Bee, Pink Paislee, Cosmo Cricket, Prima, Sassafras Lass,  Technique Tuesday and Maya Road. (Hope I'm not forgetting anyone!) And also one thing that I custom-made for this class!

The book is about life moments, so bring any photos you want to use...any moments/photos you love of your family or loved ones. They don't have to be from a related event. Just random photos are fine. I love to scrap my favorite photos, but sometimes they are just random and don't have a story behind them. I used many wallet sized photos, but you can bring 4x6's if you wish and we can cut them down to fit. Bring some close up shots and some far away shots for cropping. See you in 2 weeks!

Danielle

Love Jenni B...

Jenni Bowlin's April kit has sold out once again. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to her monthly kits, you can view that here. Here are the add-on kits and here is the gallery. Everyone's work is so different! (and gorgeous) I had already worked with that particular Cosmo line, so I ended up creating more with a red, yellow and gray color scheme this time. :)

On this one, I sprayed with Glimmer Mist on the background and stitched a little "ruler" on the red cardstock. Sorry it looks so dark here. It's really a nice red. Please EXCUSE my crooked title! I didn't get a chance to take a new pic.

This last project is a "thank you, teacher" bookmark that slides right onto a book page to hold your spot.

I loved Jenni Bowlin's Bingo Alpha Tile Cards and when I saw them in this month's kit, the alphabet letters gave me the idea of creating something for a teacher. Teachers have so many books, of course, so I thought it would be fun to create a bookmark that slides onto the corner of a book page.

How to:
1. Fold the Jenni Bowlin bingo card in half horizontally.
2. Sew the bingo card together by machine sewing down the right edge of the folded card.
3. Cut a piece of red cardstock the same length as the yellow journaling card. Punch the edge with a scallop punch. Attach to top of journaling card and stitch if desired.
4. Stamp "thank you, teacher" with alphabet stamps.
5. Adhere chipboard letters from the kit to spell XYZ. Adhere finished journaling card.
6. Punch a heart from red cardstock. Adhere. Attach button from kit over heart.
7. Slide bookmark onto a book page.

Thanks for reading today! XO
Danielle

Sketch inspiration...

Morning! How was your weekend? We had a beautiful weekend and spent yesterday playing tennis and enjoying the playground at the park. It felt so good to get some sun and exercise!

Yesterday was my day for the Pink Paislee blog and it was "Sketch Sunday", so I decided to try some more sketches from the awesome Go To Sketches issue by Paper Crafts! Here is my first card, made with the Queen Bee line by Pink Paislee.

How to: I created the pocket with the background paper, then added a Queen Bee Borderline sticker to the center. Next, I attached a piece of the die cut paper (Bee Hive) that I cut out, and a flower cut from the Honey Bee paper. I used a Technique Tuesday Ali Edwards stamp on the bottom and 2 Prima flowers. The little doily is attached to the back of the card for a fun accent.

 Here is the second sketch I wanted to try.

How to: I used the Bee Hive paper for the background, because I liked how it already had the lines on it just like the sketch. I cut 2 pieces of doily edge for the brackets. I cut out some flowers for the left side from the Honey Bee paper and stamped the bee onto a transparency. The flower was created with the houndstooth Artisan Tape, and a cork button and a brad from the Queen Bee line.

I'll be back tomorrow with more goodies to share. Enjoy your day!
Danielle

On cloud 9...

This month Tattered Angels and Prima have matched up and we were sent some Prima products to work with. I had so much fun mixing these 2 manufacturers. They are a match MADE in heaven! You can see more of the team's work here at the Tattered Angels blog.

First, I was sent a Donna Downey camera bag by Prima. I love that you get to customize it the way you want, and I had a blast with it! I covered the top flap with the Prima ribbon and hot glued it on. I also added 3 little Prima flowers and 2 Prima burlap leaves.

When you open up the flap, there is a little Tattered Angels frame sprayed with Key Lime Pie Glimmer Mist, and the pocket underneath is sprayed with Sunflower. What is fun about this frame is that I have hot glued it on only on the sides and bottom, so you can slide a photo in and out at the top of the frame and change out your photo whenever you'd like!

Originally, my daughter wanted it. She loved it. But, I LOVE it too. Think I'm going to keep it! Maybe we can share. :)

The next project I did was a scrapbook page of my girls and me from last weekend before we left for our Easter egg hunt. New photos always inspire me.

I sprayed the Prima background paper with Sunflower Glimmer Mist. There was a bit of red already in the paper, so I added a few splashes in the bottom right hand corner with Tuttie Fruiti to add a little more of that color. The chipboard frame is sprayed with Vintage Pink Glimmer Mist and I created my own flower from crepe paper, also sprayed with Sunflower. The chipboard alphas are misted with Graphite.

I misted the Prima burlap leaves with Key Lime Pie and hand stitched on them.

Lastly, is a quick card made with 2 Maya Road chipboard album pieces. I loved the gray background, so I chose Graphite Glimmer Mist to spray over the Tattered Angels swirly Glimmer Screen. Loved how the white frame popped against the gray, so I left it white and just added some glitter to it. The Prima flower is also misted with Sunflower. Wish ticket is by Crafty Secrets, and the pin and button are Jenni Bowlin.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope these projects inspire you to try something you haven't tried before with Tattered Angels products!

Danielle

"Go-To-Gals and friends" blog hop!

Hey all!  My talented friend Betsy Veldman asked me to participate in Paper Crafts' Go-To-Gals and friends blog hop with her to celebrate the new issue of Go-To Sketches! This issue is now available and you will absolutely love it!

When I received my copy, I couldn't put it down. So much inspiration inside! I'm not used to using sketches very often, but I've found lately that it is really helpful when you are in a hurry to create a nice card for somebody and want it to be awesome, but just don't have a lot of time to decide where to put things on your card. Sketches really give me that extra little bit of help when I need it. (Awesome for me, being the indecisive person that I am.) And inside are lots of ideas for each sketch, which I loved. I was lucky enough to have 3 cards chosen for this book.

Look at this cute sketch that Betsy created! Below is a new card I created from her sketch.

I used 4 squares instead of 9 and moved my sentiment over to the left. Also used butterflies instead of flowers. I raised up some of the squares with pop dots to show off the negative butterflies that I punched out of the squares. (Made with the April kit at Hip 2 Be Square Scrapbooking!)

 If you'd like to win a copy of this issue, please leave a comment here on my blog and next, visit the Paper Crafts Connections blog and leave a comment there too!

The more blogs you visit in the hop, the more chances you have to win! Thanks for stopping by!

XO,
Danielle

Butterfly tutorial...

I love spring. The fresh, happy colors. The warm breezes. New life popping up everywhere! It's such a breath of fresh air! We are supposed to have a terrific warm weekend here in New York for Easter and I'm so excited. We get together with my husband's family and all of the cousins and their children for the Easter egg hunt each year. I was in charge of finding a pinata, so we did that today and found a cute egg pinata. It's one of my favorite holidays to spoil the girls!

I made this little card for the Jenni Bowlin blog and want to share with you how I made the little crepe paper butterflies! See the blog HERE for the tutorial and supply list. I am so loving crepe paper.

They are really easy and fun to make. I used the Jenni Bowlin Crepe Paper Ribbon for this one, but you could use any size... the larger the piece, the larger your butterfly will be. I made it the same way I made this one, except on the blue one, I didn't round the edges before fanning it out.

What do you think of the yellow ribbon on the card? Oh. MY. I can't get enough of this stuff! If you have seen Tammy Tutterow's video here, then you know what I'm talking about! I first saw this ribbon on Melissa Phillips' blog. She is the queen of shabby and all things beautiful. She is so inspiring. I had to order some seam binding and try it out. I sprayed mine with Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels in Lemon Zest, Sunshine and Candlelight. LOVE it! Thank you, Melissa, for always inspiring me and all of your readers!

Enjoy your Easter holiday with your loved ones,
Danielle

JBS Mercantile and a new line...

This month's kits are up for sale HERE at Jenni Bowlin! You are going to love these.

Everything here is from the main kit, except the red/white ribbon from the add-on kit, which I made a flower out of. Oh, and the stencil that I used on the bottom of the page is in the add-on kit also. I just laid it over my cardstock and inked over the stencil with the little ink pad! Super easy and a fun technique to try on a page, something I haven't done in a very long time! I left the banner plain and loved how the gray alphas looked with it.

This is my friend's daughter, Ava. She is almost one and isn't she so cute! You can see more ideas with this kit here, and check back on the 10th. We'll have more inspiration for you then.

I still have more to do with this kit, but just wanted to share with you that it's up for sale. Visit the Jenni Bowlin blog today for a giveaway!

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In other news, Pink Paislee is coming out with another new line mid-release!

This line called Starlight and the papers are gorgeous in real life with so much detail to them, as Pink Paislee's papers always are! Be on the lookout for this line coming out sometime soon in April. (Click on image to see it larger.)

 Danielle