Cardmaking With Diecuts. No Stamps, Inks, or Machines Needed

As a cardmaker, I love using anything and everything in my cards. I’ve written before that you don’t have to have a fancy schmancy machine to create shapes that add variety and texture to your cards. Heck , you don’t even have to stamp. All you need are pre-packaged die cuts that are available wherever scrapbooking supplies are sold.

For this project I used:

• Diecuts. I used ones I had in my stash and coordinated my cards around them
• American Crafts papers: green and white floral, teal and green
• Coordinating ribbon and rhinestones

You can use your diecuts as is or you can embellish them. For the card with the big butterfly, I layered in onto the teal paper and trimmed around it to give it a border. Also added some Stickles glitter glue and rhinestones.

For this card, I also ran a teal panel through my Cuttlebug using an embossing folder but you could also .leave the paper plain.

I added a piece of coordinating ribbon to my embossed panel.

Covered the front of the card with the green and white floral paper and added a floral diecut embellished with a clear rhinestone.

For the second card, I layered a panel of the green and white floral onto the teal paper, tore a scrap of the teal and wrapped with the ribbon and added the diecuts which I embellished with rhinestones.  I used my Cuttlebug to emboss paper for the first card, but I also wanted to show you can make cards just using the paper as is.

Waste not, want not so for this one I used leftover strips of the embossed paper from the first card to accent the second card.  So see? No stamps , inks, or die cut machines needed!

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Becca Lee Paperie Giveaway Winner

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway I recently hosted to Becca Lee Paperie. The Rafflecopter thingy-ma-widget has selected the winner and congrats to Jenn Erickson !!!

Thanks Rebecca for giving one of The Answer Is Chocolate's readers this great prize. Continued success with your Etsy shop.

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

Happy July. Let's Celebrate With a Fun Giveaway from Becca Lee Paperie

Happy July everyone. I hope wherever you are, you're managing to stay cooler than I am. Let's start July off with a very cool giveaway ( yes I'm punny).

About a year ago I introduced a lovely Etsy shop owned by a sweet couple and run by Rebecca. It started off as Pick Print Party and has grown over the year and is now Becca Lee Paperie where you can order customized invitations  in a wide variety of designs. Every occasion from showers, birth announcements, birthdays, weddings and just because is covered.

Having a Summer party?

How about a Luau themed invitation?  My readers know I love yellow and gray. This is such a perfect color scheme for a baby shower:

Or having a party just because? There are invites that can be customized for any occasion. This one is for a bridal shower but could easily be for anything. 

There are many more fun designs to peruse and choose from. To celebrate, Becca Lee Paperie is offering one  of my readers the chance to win a $50 credit to their shop!  This will be a Rafflecopter giveaway and winner will be announced Monday July 8. Good luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

BFF Open House Link Party #111

  

Hi all and welcome to the party. I'm traveling for work  this week so there won't be any features. I'll catch up on those after the Fourth of July holiday next week. 

We'll get right to the party! 

Lazy Person's Chocolate Croissants

I made these last week and now Mr. Chocolate wants me to make them all the time. I call them the lazy person’s croissant because you are not making the pastry from scratch. They are fast, easy, and yummy!

For these "fauxsants au chocolat" you will need:

• 1 sheet puff pastry
• Chocolate Chips
• Powdered Sugar

I just used store brand puff pastry. You can find it in the frozen aisle at the grocery store. The longest part of making these is thawing the pasty dough out which takes about 40 minutes.

Roll out your thawed pastry. It’ll come folded in thirds.

Roll out on a lightly floured surface then cut into strips.

Roll out each of your strips a little more and sprinkle a handful of chocolate chips onto each strip.

Fold the pastry over the chocolate chips and then again.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, drizzle with melted chocolate and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

BFF Open House Link Party #110

Happy Friday Eve all. Hope everyone had a very happy Father's Day and all the dads in your lives were wowed by your creativity. First time that College Boy wasn't here for Father's Day so I spoiled Mr. Chocolate appropriately. 

Let's take a peek at some ideas shared at last week's party and then we'll jump into this week's. 

These polka dot planters by Fonda over at Southern Scraps are just the thing to brighten up your porch or patio. 

Christine from I Dig Pinterest share her tutorial for this festive Fourth candy jar. Wouldn't a mantel full of these be fun? 

Rhonda from Messy Roost made this portable craft caddy that she can take anywhere inside or outside. Perfect for Summer crafting. 

And unless I missed it , I don't think I had ANY chocolate recipes linked up ! However, this delicious Strawberry Pizza shared by Leigh Anne at Your Home Based Mom could easily have some chocolate drizzled on it don'tcha think? Not that it isn't perfect just the way it is. 

Now on to this week's party. If it's your first time linking up, following's not required but I do love to meet new bloggers so at least leave a comment and say hi.