Monday, May 13, 2013

Tree of Life Sympathy Card

Tree of Life Sympathy Cricut

Another Sympathy card. I try to strike a balance recognizing the solemnity of the occasion, celebrating the life of the deceased, and honoring and comforting the living who mourn. This one is for a friend of mine who lost her brother after a long illness.

I decided to use a tree in this card, representing the Tree of Life. My Cricut “Wall Décor and More” cartridge has a great tree image so I used that to cut my image from a neutral cardstock. The cardstock is double sided so I ran another piece of it through my Cuttlebug  using a honeycomb embossing folder.

Tree of Life Sympathy

I layered a gray panel across the middle, adhered the tree, bordered the gray panel with coordinating scrapbook borders and tied a black and white polka dot ribbon around the panel before adhering the embossed panel to the card.

Tree of LIfe Sympathy CLoseup

Finished off the card with different sizes of black self adhesive rhinestones and a brass leaf charm.

Sharing At: 


Saturday, May 11, 2013

Mothers Day Cards in Pink and Gray

Mother's Day in Pink and Gray

If I could have sent each of my bloggy mom friends a handmade card, I would have. Since I can’t, I’m sharing the ones I made for the moms in my non-bloggy life who have been shocked to see pink coming from me!
Mother's Day Pink Gray

I am not known for being a pink person but for some reason I just felt like using pink.Maybe it was the washi tape I found? OK it was the pink washi tape!

Fresh Ink Pink

I stamped on cream cardstock using a Hampton Arts rose stamp and black pigment ink then embossed with clear embossing ink. Some of the images I colored the area behind the rose with pink chalk ink. For others, I colored in the flower with colored pencil. Trimmed and layered with black and pink papers. I added a drop of pink liquid pearls to the center of each flower. I used  a combination of grey and silver floral papers, pink papers and embellishments including American Crafts glitter tape to finish the cards.

Wishing all the moms out there a very Happy Mother’s Day!

Sharing At: 

Wrapping Up Blogiversary Week: Final Giveaway from DCWV/Blue Moon Beads

Happy Mother's Day eve everyone. I'm here with the last giveaway celebrating my blogiversary  week. I'm on the design team for Blue Moon Beads which also owns the amazing paper line Die Cuts With a View. I'm super excited that they've offered one of my readers the chance to win a goodie box containing a mix of both! Trust me, you won't be disappointed.






I'm also behind on announcing the winners for the last two giveaways so here goes.

The winner of the $25 gift certificate to CutCardstock.com is LM. The winner of the bird's nest pendant and leaf charm bracelet is: Angela M. CONGRATS ! Both winners have been emailed. The DCWV / Blue Moon Beads giveaway winner will be announced on Tuesday.

Thanks again SO much for making my blogiversary week fun.

The Answer Is Chocolate

Thursday, May 9, 2013

BFF Open House Link Party #104: Come Share What You've Been Working On!

The Answer Is Chocolate

It's Friday Eve and once again time to party! Thanks so much to you all for making my blogiversary  week celebration so much fun. There will be one final giveaway starting on Saturday.

It's been a busy week around blogland. Lots of inspiring Mother's Day, Teacher Appreciation, Graduation, and Father's Day ideas popping up. 


Ales from anportraits shared this gorgeous kusudama ball made from origami flowers. She has a step by step tutorial to show you how to make these flowers. 


I am forever losing sunglasses or else breaking them because they're not in a case. Jeanie from create and babble has a stylish case makeover at a price that can't be beat. Embellish a case from the Dollar Store! 


While there are no babies anywhere near on my horizon, I adore this yellow and gray nursery shared by Andrea from Arch. The color scheme works for any room. 


Finally, if you're looking for a special dessert perfect for Mother's Day, Aimee from Twigg Studios shared this citrus cake complete with pineapple flowers! So pretty and I know...it's not chocolate ! 

OK on to this week's party! 

The Answer Is Chocolate




Bird's Nest Pendant and Leaf Charm Bracelet Giveaway: Still Celebrating My Blogiversary

Bird's Nest Pendant and Leaf Bracelet

Are you tired of giveaways yet? This is another one from me to you celebrating my blogiversary week. If you spend any time here you know how much fun I have making jewelry and one of my recent popular posts involved wire bird’s nest pendants so I made one to give away!

Nest Pendant

For the eggs, I used silver glass pearls and wrapped them in aluminum wire. The pendant is strung on suede cord.  I also love making stretchy bracelets, so the same winner will get a coordinating one of those. In keeping with the nature theme, this one has a silver leaf charm.

Pearl and Stone Bracelet

The bracelet is a mix of stone beads and more silver glass pearls.

Ready, set, GO:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


The Answer Is Chocolate
<div align="center"><a href="http://answerischoco.com" title="The Answer Is Chocolate"><img src="http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff511/AnswerIsChoco/Blog%20Buttons/3rdAnniversaryButton_zps3ac5dd0a.jpg" alt="The Answer Is Chocolate" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

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

Anniversary Banner-001

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. 










The Answer Is Chocolate
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.answerischoco.com/" title="The Answer Is Chocolate"><img src="http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff511/AnswerIsChoco/Blog%20Buttons/3rdAnniversaryButton_zps3ac5dd0a.jpg" alt="The Answer Is Chocolate" style="border:none;" /></a></div>


Monday, May 6, 2013

Blogiversary Giveaway #2: Cigar Box Full of Goodies to Alter It With

Anniversary Banner-001

Don't forget I have a giveaway from My Memories Suite going here.  

This giveaway is sponsored by : ME. My readers know that I love to alter things. I'm also really lucky to have a husband who gets that, and does things like bring  home cigar boxes for me to play with. I have seen them for sale at up to 10 times what he's gotten them for. SO ...I want to give one away to one lucky reader. 

I think I read somewhere( or just made up in my head) that it's bad luck to give away an empty box. What fun would it be to have a cigar box to alter without anything to alter it with anyway?  One reader will get a box filled with some of my favorite goodies to play with. Want to see? 


There are rub-ons and embellishments and washi tape oh my! Couldn't resist including a mini paper mache dress form too. 


Here's the top of the box (some places I've found cigar boxes rip off the lid but this lid is fully in tact which makes this a great place to store bits and pieces) You can use as is, cover it, or incorporate the design into your altered vision. 


And the box itself is a nice cedar ( I think ..but it's some kind of wood!). So in keeping with my history of "craftsplaining" um no, I don't smoke cigars but I sure do love the boxes they come in! Who wants it? (Gonna have to limit this to US only because ....postage)


The Answer Is Chocolate
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.answerischoco.com/" title="The Answer Is Chocolate"><img src="http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff511/AnswerIsChoco/Blog%20Buttons/3rdAnniversaryButton_zps3ac5dd0a.jpg" alt="The Answer Is Chocolate" style="border:none;" /></a></div>