Last Minute Fourth Of July Project: Firecracker Candle

I don't do a lot of decorating for the Fourth, but I have a few things on my mantle. Since we can't light fireworks in our city I wanted something that symbolized them so I altered a candle 

For this project you will need: 

• Tall jar candle ( ie prayer candle available at Dollar Tree or grocery store) 
• Patriotic colored papers (I used products from CutCardstock.com)
• Coordinating cupcake liners ( mine were left over from Christmas!)

Here's the plain candle and papers. To add a little extra sparkle to the "sparkler" go around the top and bottom rims of the candle with clear embossing ink and then dip in bright gold embossing powder and heat emboss. 

Measure and tear cream cardstock, trim it as well with gold embossing powder and adhere to candle. I used extra strong double sided tape but hot glue would work too. 

For the stripes, tear strips of the red paper and crinkle them ( I like vintagey looking Americana) and adhere them to the candle. 

I was going to make a lollie for my focal point and then remembered some red and white cupcake liners I had left over from Christmas so I ran to the kitchen and got those. 

Punch a circle from cardstock, fold cupcake liner in quarters and adhere to cardstock circle. Repeat until satisfied with thickness. 

The cupcake liners I had came in two different sizes so I made another layer of them using the smaller ones. Finished up with smaller punched circle in the middle, a navy button, and gold rhinestone center.  Shown here on my mantle with a previous Fourth project you can see here

Father's Day Cards in Cream and Blue

Now that Father’s Day has passed, I can share some of the cards I made to celebrate. The first card is a combination birthday and Father’s Day card for my FIL.  For this one I used papers by Basic Grey and Cut Cardstock.com and  vintage truck and sentiment stamps by Tim Holtz.

Made a 5x7 card from cream cardstock, ran some light blue cardstock through my Cuttlebug using a Tim Holtz embossing folder, stamped the truck with blue pigment ink and the sentiment with black. I kinda goofed on the first stamp of the sentiment, so went back over it and was actually pleased with the shadow effect. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it anyway.

For these cards, I used some pre-made cards  and embellisments from the David Tutera cardmaking collection along with another sheet from a Basic Grey pack.  The clocks are rub-ons I had in my stash but you could get the same effect with a clear sticker or stamp. I only had one of the “take some time” sentiment rub-ons but liked the sentiment so generated the second one using my label maker and then spruced it up with some embellishments.

The turquoise strip is a pre-cut David Tutera overlay that I trimmed to size. Finished with some coordinating washi tape.

Hope all the dads in your lives had a great Father’s Day!

Just The Ticket Card

Happy Monday all. I'm over at the CutCarstock Blog today sharing how I made this fun ticket themed card and matching envelope. Hope you'll drop by!

Blogiversary Giveaway #3: $25 Gift Certificate to CutCardstock.com

Hope everyone is having a great week and participating in the giveaway fun. I'm thrilled to be a Design Team member for CutCardstock.com. The wonderful folks there are giving one of my readers a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to their site!

With upcoming holidays like Father's Day ( I'm sure you've all got Mother's Day taken care of by now) , graduation season, prom season and it's always someone's birthday, who couldn't use some notecards or invitation sets?  CCS has got you covered. Flat Cards, Gatefold Cards, Invitation Sets and more, ready for your creativity. 

If you want full size card stock, CCS has a variety of sizes and brands. In case you need some ideas on how to use the variety of products you can find at CutCardstock.com, pop on over to the blog and see what my fellow Design Team members and I are up to each month. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Celebrate National Crafts Month With A CutCardstock Giveaway!

I'm doubly excited today. First, it's National Crafts month which, in addition to being a recognition and celebration of my favorite thing next to chocolate, is also usually a month with lots of wonderful ideas and projects shared by all of our favorite companies. 

But I'm even more excited that March begins my term on the CutCardstock.com design team! I'm honored to be part of a team that includes some very talented papercrafters. 

To kick off the month, CutCardstock.com is hosting a giveaway of some of their products. The giveaway is on now through March 5th. Available to US only. 

Prize pack is valued at $45, and includes:

• Brown Bag Kraft A2, square flap envelopes (50 pack)
• Brown Bag Kraft A2 folded cards (25 pack)
• Flavours Gourmet 8.5 x 11 sampler cardstock (16 pack)
• Curious Metallic Cryogen White 8.5 x 11 cardstock (25 pack)
• Mini Dot-N-Go Glue Dots in dispenser (300 count roll)
• Kraft Print Chiyogami Origami paper (48 sheets)

You can enter to win on Facebook here: 

Be sure to follow the CutCardstock.com blog  and Facebook pages to see my projects and those of my fellow design team members. This is also where you'll also  find news about specials on some great products.