A2 Stationary Box with A Window

My favorite season (Fall) is finally upon us! I couldn’t be happier right now. This means I don’t have to suffer in the summer heat any longer, and I can get out all of my sweaters, gloves, and beanies out. Not only do I love the fall weather but everything else that comes along with it; such as, the awesome fall inspired crafting products. Lawn Fawn came out with some pretty amazing products for fall, and—of course, I LOVE them! Today I’m making a really cute A2 box with a window using their new fall paper collection, Intothe Woods, as well as their new die set, Stitched Journaling Card (which I used to create the window on the back of the box). Not only did I use their new paper, and die set for this—I also used their super cute new brown and white twine, you can find it by clicking here.

As if the paper, twine, and dies aren't cute enough—Lawn Fawn also has a coordinating stamp set that goes with the entire collection named, Into the Woods. This set contains adorable images like this deer, clouds, and text bubble that I used to create the stationary. I was so excited to get this stamp set out and create something with it. I’ve been working so many hours, getting all of my orders out, and I haven’t been able to use that many of the new products I got from LF. So you can image how happy I was to make these cards, hehe. I wanted these cards to be colorful yet still only one layer. I used plenty of different, Hero Arts shadow inks, and I think the colors I used match perfectly with the paper I used to make the box.

If you are interested in learning how I made the box, you can find the tutorial I made on the subject by clicking here. I also created a template for this box so that I will always remember the dimensions—it really comes in handy, because I make so many different things and it’s hard for me to remember the sizes of things!

If you have any questions on how I made this box, feel free to leave me a comment, but don't forget you can click here for the tutorial. Have a great Wednesday! 

Card of the Week, You're a Good Apple

I was inspired to create this card by my niece, Samantha. She just entered pre-school a few days ago and I can’t believe it! It’s really cool though, because now I can be one of those crafters/card-makers that makes cards for teachers now, hehe. For this particular card design, I used a few old Lawn Fawn stamp set, and a few new ones as well. To create the pattern paper background I stamped the line paper stamp directly onto a white A2 size card base, using the stamp set, schoolhouse backdrops. That stamp set comes with the cutest stamps! 

To create the chalkboard, I used the wood grain pattern paper (which I love), from the, Into the woods petite paper pack, and the black chalkboard paper (for the sentiment) from the, Peach Love Joy petite paper pack. For the sentiment on the chalkboard, I used the LF stamp set, A good apple. 

The two ink colors I used for the paper pattern design on the card base are, Soft pool, and Pale tomato by Hero Arts. I’m SO IN LOVE with their ink—it’s not even funny. I’m always trying to find a reason to use them. The quality is amazing. Well, I hope you enjoyed this card, and feel free to leave me a comment letting me know what you think! Have a great weekend. 

Surprise! It's Kelly Marie's Birthday Party Blog Hop!

Today a bunch of crafty gals and I are getting together to celebrate the birthday of, Kelly Marie, one of the owners of Lawn Fawn! It’s a little virtual surprise party; and, we’re each making her something using the awesome LF products. I hope she is thrilled about it!

I made Kelly, a Birthday card using the new stamp set, Ourfriendship grows, and thought it would be cute to make some matching cupcake toppers! I made chocolate cupcake toppers with chocolate frosting and ground Oreo’s to make the top of the cupcakes look like dirt, hehe. I ate one for you Kelly! 

Dear Kelly,

I wish you a very happy birthday! I hope you were surprised, and I’m so thankful to have met you and that I can call you my friend. Thanks for being awesome; and, for sharing all your creativity, kindness, and Lawn Fawn awesomeness with the world! You’re the best.

Your friend,

Nicole

Like I mentioned before, a bunch of us girls got together for this surprise party blog hop, and each one of use made something special for, Kelly. Thank you for stopping by from Chari's blog, and next up on the hop is, Teri. Take some time to view the projects made by all the other girls! They’re so amazing! You can head over to Tiffany's blog if you would like to start from the beginning. 

Tiffany Johnson: http://iheartartblog.com/

Deborah Townsend: http://thepaintandpapercottage.blogspot.com/

Laurel Beard: http://laurelbeard.org

Nancy Krueger & Mama Fawn: http://happyheart-nancyljk.blogspot.com/

Ivy Wong: http://www.ishouldbesleepingbut.blogspot.com/

Cheiron Brandon: http://cheironbrandon.typepad.com

Melissa Shea: http://lovemyscraps.com

Jenn Shurkus: http://shurkus.com

Jasmine Marie: http://iam-bookish.blogspot.com

Annette Allen: http://www.myclevercreations.blogspot.com

Christiana Reuling: http://christygetscrafty.blogspot.com/

Sarah Martina Parker: http://sarahmartina.com/

Lauren Taylor: http://www.laurentaylormade.com/

Cristina Nuñez: http://mypaperjourney.blogspot.com/

Elena Roussakis: http://justmeprints.blogspot.com/

Britta Swiderski: http://brittaswiderski.com/

Karin Åkesdotter: http://peppermintpattys-papercraft.blogspot.se/

Charlene Bopp: http://pebbles-creativeside.blogspot.com

Audrey Tokach: http://pinkinkoriginals.blogspot.com/2013/09/kelly-maries-surprise-birthday-party-hop.html

Chari Moss: http://www.mossymade.com/

Nicole Gavaldon: http://www.unifyhandmade.blogspot.com/

Teri Anderson: http://terisplace.wordpress.com/

Lynnette Kauffman: http://nettersnotables.blogspot.com/

Paulina Nakamura: http://www.prettypinkposh.com

Elise Constable: http://www.whimsipost.blogspot.com/

Vicky Papaioannou: http://www.clips-n-cuts.com/

Lenny Sacreas: http://getinspiredandbecreative.blogspot.be/

Kari Webster: http://www.kwcarddesign.com/

Tracy Gruber: http://www.owlbecraftin.blogspot.com/

Samantha Casey: http://www.samanthacasey.blogspot.com/

Samantha Mann: http://samsscrapcandy.blogspot.com/

Latisha Yoast: http://crafteebee.blogspot.com/

Sabine Meder: http://sweet-buttons-and-tiny-bows.blogspot.co.at/

Melissa Mann: http://melissamann.typepad.com/chasing_paper_dreams/

Vera Yates: http://www.lingshappyplace.blogspot.com/

Julie Campbell: http://www.stampedinhisimage.blogspot.com/

Jennifer McDermott: http://wonkywares.blogspot.com/

Lisa Rimke: http://therimkechronicles.blogspot.com/

Chan Vuong: http://humblechan.blogspot.com/

Chrissie Tobas: http://harvestmoonpapiere.blogspot.com

Nichol Magouirk: http://nicholmagouirk.typepad.com/things_that_really_matter/2013/09/kelly-maries-surprise-birthday-party-blog-hop.html

A Cute Halloween Cake using New Lawn Fawn Products

Oh my! I can’t believe how much time has gone by since the last time I’ve blogged. Today, though, I wanted to share this mini Halloween themed cake and banner I made using the new; and, adorable, stamps by Lawn Fawn. LF recently came out with a wide variety of new products and everything is so cute, and a must-have. For this DIY I’m using the new Christmas petite paper pack, new Lawn trimmings, and cute Halloween themed stamp set. In the, Peace Joy Love paper pack there are two chalkboard looking sheets of paper that I LOVE, and I’m using a sheet from that collection for this chalkboard themed banner.

If you notice in the images there is a mirror image of the bear in the bumble bee custom on the right. I've always wanted to try mirror stamping ever since Chari Moss create a tutorial on the subject (click here for the video), and I thought now would be a perfect time to give it a try. If you’re a stamper like me you should definitely give it a try—it’s so much fun!

For the pennants I used this EK success craft punch that I purchased from Paper Source; however, I think these are also available on eBay.

Here is a look at the new, Peach Joy Love, petite paper pack, and the cream and silver Lawn Trimmings—so awesome.

This is the new stamp set I used, critters in costume, it’s so adorable, I love this set so much and I can’t wait to make more Halloween things it.

I had so much fun making this cake, and banner. It didn't take much time to make it—which would be perfect to make the day before Halloween, too. I've been so busy with orders and it was nice to take an hour out of my day to craft just for fun. Not that I complaining about the success I've had lately, I’m so grateful for that. But once in a while I still like to craft for fun—in order to keep my crafty mojo going. 

Last Minute Mermaid Birthday Party

This past Saturday we had a last minute birthday party for my beautiful niece Samantha. We had about a week to prepare for this little party so I immediately started ordering supplies on Etsy in the color scheme we were working with. Sam, loves The Little Mermaid, so we wanted to have a really cute mermaid party for her without all of the Ariel overkill—I’m not a big fan of having a characters face on everything. However, we did need to have the presence of Ariel at the party to make our little one happy so we went with an Ariel crown purchased from Party City, some Ariel figures for her cake, and an Ariel shirt to go with her tutu. Oh! and there were also some Little Mermaid balloons, too. I purchased a few of the meringue cookies for the sweets table from Trader Joes, and the rock candy was also purchased from Party City but everything on that table was made by my younger sister, Melanie. Isn’t she so talented? She made cake pops, cheese cake bites, chocolate dipped oreos, macarons, pastry bites, and cake pearls. Everything tasted so amazing! I was glad Samantha had fun at her 3rd birthday party, and I’m glad I took a few snap shots of everything so I can show them to her when she’s older. 

Also, don't forget to follow me on instagram @unifyhandmade. I love to share behind the scense photos of what I'm doing. Here are a few shots I took while I was preparing for the party and during the party, too: 

Card of the Week, and Lawnscaping Challenge No.64

I recently made this mini-greeting card; namely, because I’ve been feeling like it’s been so long since I made a card just for fun—and it was about time I did! Sometimes I forget that I need to step away from making things for my shop, and make something for myself that can keep my creativity flowing. I feel that, that is an important thing to do—especially if I want to keep on creating new things for my shop.

I also noticed that Lawnscaping is currently hosting a fun challenge where you create a card using distress inks, and since I have a few distress inks I thought I’d give the challenge and try. I’m not too sure that I’ll win though, because while I did use 3 different distress inks you can’t really notice it that much. When I was making this card though, I just had fun and didn’t worry too much about how much or how little I was using distress ink—I mainly just wanted to have some fun. 

So, as you know I’m a huge fan of Lawn Fawn so of course I had to use my LF: stamps, paper, and twine! Here’s how I made the card: I cut a piece of card stock at 9 1/2” x 3 1/2”, and scored it length wise at 4 3/4” and set it aside. Next I cut a piece of yellow pattern paper from my Pink Lemonadepetite paper pack by LF, and cute it at 4 3/4" x 3 1/2" and set that aside as well. Next I grabbed my LF stamp sets: a birdie told me, say cheese, and critters in the forest and stamped out two of the Polaroid image, one fox, and one small text bubble on a piece of white card stock. Next I cut out the picture part of the polaroid image on one of the two images, and stamped the stump, and the tree as the background. Next I stamped the same images onto a piece of post-it paper and cut those out to use them as a mask so I could apply my distress ink colors, Broken China, and Peacock Features. Next I used a LF stamp and the distress ink to apply the stars in background. Once that was finished I removed the masks’ and colored in the tree and stump. Next I colored in the fox image, and the text bubble, then cut them out leaving a white boarder—I also cut out the full size polaroid image, too. Once all of that was cut out I adhered everything together, and applied some, Antique linen distress ink all around the polaroid image to make it look a bit vintage. Using the same Antique linen ink I grabbed a camera image from another one of my LF stamp sets and stamped that image three times at the bottom of the pattern paper to emphasize the polaroid picture. Next I wrapped some mint LF twine around the pattern paper, and adhered the image to the yellow panel using some foam adhesive, then adhered the whole thing to my card base, and it was finished!

Once this was done, I was so happy with it. I can’t wait to give it out. Isn’t it cute?

DIY Chalkboard To-Do List Frame

I’m definitely one of those crafters that is obsessed with the popular chalkboard theme; and, a while back I’d purchased some of the Martha Stewart chalkboard paint in hopes to create a cool blog post with it. But days, weeks, then months went by without making anything with it because I kept thinking about the dry time and the mess it would make—so I kept that post on the back burner. But! When I was at Michaels last weekend I noticed that they had chalkboard cardstock, and I was so excited to try it. To me, this Chalkboard cardstock made this post ten times easier, and there was hardly any mess.

What I love about this idea is that it’s super cheap. The total project was under $5.00 (but I had most of the tools needed to make this) for me, but if you don’t have some of the items I’m using to make this ‘to do list’ it will definitely cost more. I purchased the 5x7 frame from the dollar store, but you can use a frame that is any size. Now that I’ve tried this I really think I’d like to make a bigger one (but not go over the 12x12 size of course). 

The tools: 5x7 frame, chalkboard card stock, white embossing powder, heating tool, white ink pad, paper towel, stamps, versamark ink, and paper trimmer. 

1. I took my chalkboard cardstock and cut it down to a 5x7 piece, using my paper trimmer. Next, I removed the faux picture from the frame and tested out my chalkboard piece to ensure it was a perfect fit.

2. Next, I grabbed one of the banner stamps from the Lawn Fawn stamp set, Bannerific (click here to view the set), I placed it on my acrylic block, applied some versamark ink, and sprinkled some white embossing powder over it. Next, I heat set it using my Martha Stewart heating tool. If you've never embossed using powder, versamark, and a heating tool click here for a beginners tutorial--I just Googled and found this great video. 

3. To add the sentiment I used an alphabet stamp set by LF, Smitty’s ABCs (click here to view the set); and, repeated the embossing process. 

 4. Once that was finished I thought I’d grab another LF stamp set, Let it Snow (click here to view), and add a few star bursts’. I LOVED how it came out!

5. Next, I took my, Hampton Art, white pigment ink and used a paper towel to rub on my faux chalk distress markings. I’m hoping that when I need to completely clean off the words I’ll write on this chalkboard frame with water, these pigment ink distress markings will still be there, since this ink is supposed to be permanent, but we'll see. 

Once that was completed, it was basically done. I placed the chalkboard to do list into the frame, and added the glass in as a backing—to make it even sturdier (oh, and don’t forget to include the original backing as well) Now it’s ready for me to use, and I can’t wait. I’m going to have this on my desk for sure!

On the weekend this is what it’ll say ^^ hehe.