Priscilla's Papercrafts: Hearth and Home

Thursday, October 15, 2015

October Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop

It's that time again...time for another Blog Hop from the Wacky Watercooler gang. This month it's all about the holidays! From Halloween through New Year's, let's see what our friends have come up with to help get you in the spirit! You may have just hopped over from the ever-awesome Heidi Weaver--she never fails to WOW me! And if you've just joined us now, don't neglect to make your way around and see what everyone has created.

I couldn't choose just one holiday, so I chose three--let's start off with Halloween. I simply couldn't resist the adorable Howl-o-Ween stamp set and matching Boo To You framelits dies.

This Cascading Card uses nearly every stamp in the set. My owl is getting ready to Trick or Treat--see his little pumpkin candy holder?

This card also uses Happy Haunting Designer Series Paper.

And the best part? The card folds flat so it can be mailed:

Because it's rather tall, I used my Envelope Punch Board to make my own, matching envelope--easy peasy!

I'll feature this card later next week, so you can have directions on how to put it together.

Next up (for us Americans) is Thanksgiving (our Canadian friends celebrated earlier this week--Happy Thanksgiving!). This is a holiday that goes hand in hand with beautiful autumn colors, and I SO love seeing the leaves turn. So what could be better than seeing the trees through your window?

I used the always-classic stamp set Lovely as a Tree. I mean, who doesn't own this? On my card base of Whisper White Thick cardstock, I stamped my trees after coloring directly on the stamp with Stampin' Write markers in Old Olive, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, and Cherry Cobbler.

I then took a piece of Whisper White, adhered Envelope Paper "wallpaper" to the top half and cut a rectangular opening. A "chair rail" of Tip Top Taupe was scored and glued down. The window was cut out with the Hearth and Home Thinlits die and a piece of Window Sheet was added to the back; this was adhered to my "wall". Then this layer was popped up with Dimensionals to make it look like you are looking through a window.

And of course, every window needs a little "dressing"--Tip Top Taupe 1" Dotted Lace Trim made a perfect valance!

And finally, let's have a little Christmas spirit.

I'm getting a jump start on my Christmas wrapping. Using the Tag a Bag Gift Boxes makes it easy! These food-safe Kraft boxes (6-7/8" x 2-1/8" x 2-1/2") with acetate sleeves are perfect for treats and small gifts. And decorating them is fun and easy.

I took one and covered the box with Season of Cheer Designer Series Paper. Then I slipped the box inside the acetate sleeve and tied it with White Organza Ribbon. There's some fancy looped Silver 1/8" ribbon and some Silver Sequins, and then a pretty tag.

But I'm not done:

This time I used the same DSP but in traditional Christmas colors, Mossy Meadow and Cherry Cobbler. I wrapped the sleeve with Mossy Meadow and Burlap Ribbon, then tied on some sparkly Gold Glitter Ribbon.

This tag uses Embellished Ornaments and Project Life Season of Cheer...and check out the little Santa hat! Cute!

OK that's it for me. Come back next week for directions on my samples here.

And now on to Buffy Cooper, who has something fantastic to show you!

Thanks for stopping by...enjoy the Hop!

http://wackywatercoolerstamping.blogspot.com

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Gift from the Garden

I love flowers! I hate to garden!

There, I've said it! I am not a gardener, even though I love flowers. The colors, the scents, the textures of each petal-ripple excites my senses. But don't make me get my hands dirty.

Wait a minute! Don't get my hands dirty? Really? You should see me after an afternoon of stampin'! The only way to get my hands clean is to wash my hair (if you haven't tried that yet, do it--gets all the ink off your fingers, even under your nails). So maybe it's not really the part about getting my hands dirty (I'm a nurse, after all - I've had some pretty dirty hands). Maybe it's the worms...yeah that's probably it. Somehow digging in the dirt and suddenly noticing half a worm on each side of your trowel really, really gets to me (maybe the nurse thing again).

But when I saw Gift from the Garden, I knew I had to own it. I love the little pots of flowers, the garden gloves and the watering can. And the boots are great!

So today, when trying to figure out what to make with my new Hearth and Home Thinlits Dies, I reached for my Gift from the Garden. And lookie what I ended up with:

This little work of art uses a number of new items, along with a few oldies, but goodies.

I started with the Brick Wall Embossing Folder. I've been trying to figure out how to get "mortar" between my bricks. So today I patted some Craft White ink directly on the raised spaces between the bricks of my embossing folder, inserted my Cajun Craze card stock and ran it through my Big Shot. And voila! Mortar! I love it!

I then cut a rectangle in the middle of the bricks, using the window frame from the framelit as a guide.

This allowed me to make a little window scene behind the window. I used a piece of Hello Honey cardstock with two wedges of Tea Lace Paper Doilies to make curtains.

I cut my window using the Hearth and Home Thinlits and Early Espresso paper. Then I cut a piece of Window Sheet and adhered it to the back for a window. For the windowsill, I first stamped a section of the Hardwood background stamp with Early Espresso ink, and then used the framelit to cut it out.

Now for the fussy part:

Yes, I inked the flowerpots/flowers with Stampin' Write Markers, stamped them on Whisper White cardstock and then fussy-cut them out. I know, I know--too much work. But look how stinkin' cute they are sitting on my windowsill!

I stamped my sentiment from A Dozen Thoughts using Cajun Craze ink and cut either edge with the Stampin' Trimmer and the Small Scallop cutting blade. All it needed was a little bow of Linen Thread (doubled) and I was done.

Can't wait to send this to someone who likes flowers as much as I do.