Grouchy Gretchen Glitters

I love Grumpy Gretchen and all her attitude. You can get this stamp and Gretchen in many other outfits at the Digis With Attitude Store here. The ribbon is from my stash, the flower in the left corner are modified die cuts (not sure the brand). The tag and frame also came with the flowers, again, not sure what brand. The background paper is The Paper Studio. I wanted to include a close up of the image, because it is so cute!
The two flowers that are the same are from Stef aka Glitterbabe, and can be found here (along with several other cute freebies). The middle flower is one of Linda's at Back to Paper. The brads are some I've had awhile, from Joann's I believe. I used stickles to glitter it up!
This picture is meant to showcase the gold ring and button in the corner. One of the challenges was to use a non traditional craft item, so I searched my apartment and came up with an earring I picked up at a garage sale. (I typically use clip ones to accent a necklace, shoe or hairpin.) This one had a post, so a couple nail poundings later, it became my accent.
Challenges:
Glitterbabe Challenge- Glitter+Glitterbabe Image+Anything Goes
Digital Tuesday- Non craft Item + digi
Digi Doodle Shop- anything goes+digi image
One Stop Craft Challenge- anything goes
Papertake Weekly- add some sparkle

Guest Post

A good friend of my husband and mine came over to craft with me. Being our best man, I know him well and it was interesting to see him in this 'new light'. He was making a card for his girlfriend's birthday and I laughed at how everything had to by just right, down to the last 1/16th of an inch. While he was here I discovered I had won Glitterbabe's challenge and got really excited. He asked me to enter his card in one or two to see if it would win.

Here is the front, he used Amanda Blu papers (all). The brads are Doodlebug Design Inc. The bubbled frame is from the Jubilee Cricut cartridge (it is actually cut out of the black, showing through to a piece that was adhered to the back of the black). The Swirls and Butterfly are from the Stamping Cricut cartridge.
A close up:
The inside. He wrote two parallel poems for her and this is a picture of them, aren't they sweet? I didn't talk to her after he gave her it, but I assume she liked it, cause I think it's pretty nifty :)
Challenges:

Papertake Weekly- add some sparkle (the blue paper has lots of glitter, seen best in 1st image)
2 Sisters Challenge- anything goes

Engagement Layout

A year later, I am finally getting around to scrapping the day my wonderful husband and I got engaged. I forgot how long it takes to make a scrapbook page, as I haven't done this in such a long time. . . but rather than seeing this as a started project, I am viewing this as a double layout completed (so that I feel less intimidated by the largeness of the project at hand).
The leaves that I embossed (shown below) are Autumn Leaves brand (also on a frame and corresponding piece on the second page of layout).
The leaves are from the Stamping cricut cartridge and the lettering is from the Jubilee cartridge.


Both the brown plaid ribbon and the red are from my stash-sorry the labels are no longer on them!Challenges:

For Fun Challenge-red, brown, creme (there are a few other colors, but those 3 are def there) I think it is my first time playing with them :)
Glitterbabes-frame it+glitter (embossing+ring=bling)
Stampin Royalty-ribbons (brown and red)
2 Sisters-anything goes
Digi With Attitude!-Bling it On (ring+embossing)
and a new one for me My Creative Time- polka dots

MyGrafico- embossing

Scrapbooking

I was just thinking and I haven't made a scrapbook in 3 1/2 years! Starting on my wedding pictures Friday night. I hope I can be creative enough!

Wow, Wow, Wowsers!

What wonderful candy The Stamping Boutique has! Their design team always has stunning cards and great challenges as well, so you should become a follower if you aren't already. The rules are simple, leave a comment, if you are a follower you get an extra entry and if you become a follower (to earn extra entries and see gorgeous cards), let me know by commenting here so that I can get an extra entry as well.

Was trying to put the picture of the goodies in, but looks like 5pm Wed Oct 20th (blogger Maintenance) is 10:45am here... sorry bout that. But you should still be able to hop over and get a chance at the goodies!

Ahoy!

I made this card for a special little guy who has a birthday coming up. He was one of my ring bearers in June and never ceases to make me smile.


I used Stretch N Bubbles image "Cute Pirate" (which can be found in their store here), and I agree, he is rather cute! The sketch is from Papertake Weekly's Challenge, and it was quite fun indeed :D I used stickles for the glitter, markers to color the images and created my own sentiment which reads, "Hoping your birthday leads you to the treasure you seek". Just one I thought of.
Other Challenges (not mentioned above):
Little Paper Shop- Glitter/Stickles
Lots To Do- Plain and Simple

Lemon Tea Bath Bomb

The recipe for the bath bomb I posted earlier on my blog. You can find it here. I promised pictures, so here they are. I also made a container pretty just for them. Next time I think I will roll them into balls (like a traditional bath bomb), as they kind of look like squished muffins :)
But nice smelling and moisturizing squished muffins <3 The first picture is them drying after I took them out of the muffin pan.


This picture showcases the top of the container I put them in. It is a dollar store Tupperware knock-off I bought when I first moved to college. I got much nicer stuff as wedding gifts and decided, hey, if I haven't used it in 4 months, why not alter it?!
The flower (nicely layered) is from Penny Duncan, she makes wonderful things, please hop over to her blog. She has many new cut files. The next one is a picture of the whole thing:
In this one you can see the bath bombs and the ribbon I added to the side:
And a showcase of the tags. The digi stamps are from Birds Cards (tub) and Ginger's House (sentiment). Both were free and still available :D
Challenges:
Little Paper Shop-color scheme (chocolate, yellow, blue)
Sentimental Sundays-tags
One Stop Craft Challenge-alter it
Anything Goes- ribbon

Trying Something Different

I came across a recipe in Woman's World Magazine for homemade bath bombs. I had purchased some in the past and really enjoyed them, so decided to try them out for myself. The recipe did call for some things I didn't have, so I made substitutions. I can share the original recipe with you via email (I guess they don't publish it online...) Below is my version (using the substitutes I had on hand). They are currently setting up, pictures to come.

Lemon Tea Bath Bomb:

1 cup baking soda
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup light oil (sunflower, canola, almond or olive-I used olive)
1 teaspoon green tea leaves (crushed)
1 muffin pan

In a large bowl (make sure it is large, the baking soda and lemon juice will bubble) mix all ingredients until bubbling stops and it is a paste-like texture. Press into the bottom of a muffin tin (I used a standard size tin, filled each cup 1/2 full and it made 7 bombs). Allow to sit in tin overnight or several hours to set up. Remove from tins and allow to air dry. Keeps indefinitely if stored in a dry container with a lid.

I'm excited to take them out of the muffin tin and see how they turn out!

Get Well Soon Grandma

As I was uploading the pictures I was trying to figure out who my husband's grandma would be to me [grandma-in-law, just my husbands grandma?] I decided it wasn't worth contemplating and since I call her Grandma Carol, that is who she is to me! She is also a crafter, and made a guest appearance on my mother-in-law, Tammy's blog. You can see her card here. Last week she had shoulder replacement surgery, so she has to take a break from crafting :( This is the get well card I made for her:

The flowers are from Designed to Delight~their challenge is to use this image this week. And I certainly had fun coloring it different ways (the first and last are digitally colored and the middle colored using markers). The Get Well Soon was printed off my computer (self-made).

I used stickles to add the glitter, the purple papers and ribbon are from my stash and the yellow is a piece of wall paper sample.

Challenges:
Designed to Delight-use digi image
Papertake Weekly-birthday bash (choose a challenge)-I chose Say It With Flowers from May
Creative Inspirations-Get Well Soon
One Stop Craft Challenge-alter it (I altered the digital image)
Glitterbabe-Glitter+Anything

YEA!!!

In honor of 25 followers (which was just reached today) I am giving away some prizes. Because I love suspense, and I'm sure you do too, I'm going to keep what you receive a secret.

"What?!" you say. Yes, I have decided it will be all the more fun on mail day if you don't know what you are getting. So what do you have to do? The first 5 people to leave me a comment (that gives you a 20% chance of winning) will receive a surprise in the mail (I will mail them out tomorrow, Saturday, October 9th).

"But you don't have my address, how will you mail it?" Well, right after you comment, you are going to email me your address so I can get everything in the mail, pronto. brandicriminger@yahoo.com

Thank you to everyone for your support of my art through this blog. I appreciate all the comments you take the time to leave and all the love you share.

P.S. If you are not a follower, become one and you can get in on this :)

Pumpkin

I saw something like this at Jeffrey Allens. It was made out of metal and had thin pieces that went down to form a pumpkin. Me, with a bit of crafter in me whereever I go, decided I could replicate it fairly well with paper and make a fall decoration for my living room. I'm thinking about doing some smaller ones, but my little sister is coming over for the weekend, maybe we will do them together!
The piece of orange you see in the direct front, is a piece of wall paper sample. I picked up some outdated ones a couple of weeks ago and am loving incorporating it into my art.

Nope, the glitter isn't in a straight line. But that is one of the things I love about art-nothing is perfect, and it doesn't have to be!

For those who are wondering: it is attached at the top and bottom by brads, which makes it easy to move the pieces around to form the circular pumpkin shape.

Challenges:
Glitterbabe-anything goes+glitter
Digi Doodle Shop's Best-Orange Me Glad (I made this creation)
Tellens Place Designs-2 patterened papers (I am counting the wallpaper sample as patterned paper as well as the leaves-it is paper and has a pattern)
All Sorts-Travel or Holiday (I choose Holiday!)
My Paper Playground-something new you haven't used (I hadn't used the new paper for the leaves)

One more to go!

Jolara just became my 24th follower! For the rest of my followers, that means one more to go to prize time! (can you tell I'm getting excited?)

Free Stamps

Who doesn't love them? I sure do. Go here for your chance to win Elisabeth Bell stamps.

Recipe

This 'recipe card' showcases quite a few digital stamps. First of all, a shout-out to Stretch N Bubbles (who provided the cauldron (on left) for free. Be sure to stop by, pick it up, along with some others at their shop. Use the image and play along with their challenge here.
The apples came from the lovely Faith over at Delightful Inspiration (also free, so stop on over).
The frog/book came from Coloring Page Tuesdays, a couple of weeks ago.
The sentiment I typed and printed and the witch relaxing came from The Rusty Pickle (if you like free digis, they have a whole site full of them!) If you haven't noticed, I love free digis!



The paper is from NRN Designs, but I picked it up at a garage sale for super cheap awhile back. Challenges:
Stretch N Bubbles Creative Chicks Challenge #19
Designed to Delight Apple Challenge

Altered Notebook

Ok, so this is my first ever altered notebook, and I like how it turned out! I got the notebook itself at Michaels. They had buckets outside the store the other day when I went to buy ink at Office Max (next door). I called my hubby and told him I had been bad, but then again, I only spent $3.25 for 5 notebooks and 2 clear stamps-what a steal! This is for my little sister's birthday (that is her on the front). She is turning 10, and I think she will enjoy a pretty place to record her thoughts.

The sketch is a modified version of Let's Capture Our Memories' sketch #4. It is my first time partaking in one of their challenges, but I loved the sketch for this one, so here I go!Details: The ribbon and lace, as always, is from my stash. The pink one, that I added Stickles to, is from my grandmother. I'm sure it is nearly as old as I am, because it was still wrapped in a metal clip to hold it together :) The punch in the lower right hand corner is EK Success, the buttons are some I got in a scoop from Scrapbook Friend'z (a wonderful local store), and the brad was pulled from my office supplies. Not sure of the make of the background paper. Maybe The Paper Studio?


The sentiment, sadly, is one I took before I kept track of them, and wouldn't you know, they are so hard to find again! The swirl is from Fred, She Said (and might still be free). My sister is a real girly-girl (despite the fact that she lives on a farm), so I chose pink to bring that out. It also goes nicely with October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so it qualifies to be entered in Creative Scrapbooking Diva's pink challenge. I just joined them a couple of weeks ago, and am still getting the hang of everything. The next picture is just the back. I wanted to show how the lace came down and the little bit of glitter I applied.
Challenges:
Let's Capture Our Memories-sketch
Creative Scrapbooking Divas-Breast Cancer Awareness
Digital Tuesday-ribbons, buttons or bling-I have all 3!
Digi Doodle SHop-3D-buttons, ribbon
Glitterbabe-anything goes w sparkle
MamiDoodles-bday girl+sparkles
Pixie Dust-Swirly Swirls
Stamp SOmething-something to celebrate-birthday
Create with Connie and Mary-not a card

Flowers n' balls

Those of you who stop by often know I love free stuff and using what I have around the house in my art. This card is composed of both free and have around the house items. Believe it or not, both the background and the flower are from a free wallpaper sample book. (for those of you who don't know, you can stop by most wallpaper stores and pick up their outdated sample books for free!) The sample book I pulled the papers from is called Williamsburg Language of the Garden by Waverly.
The flower is actually part of a border that I cut out and then used pastel chalk to create the variation in colors that you can see (around the edges and at the base of the flower). I also added the glitter.

The red balls you see were something I had around the house. Can you guess what? Old Mardi-Gras beads!! I simply cut apart the beads and adhered them to the card. I love the shininess they add as well as the dimension!
I looked and looked to see if I could find and give credit to the person I downloaded the sentiment from. It is one I got before I started keeping track, I love that sentiment and use it often, I just wish I knew where it came from :( If it is you, please, please let me know so I can go back and give you credit on cards I have posted using it.


And For The Challenges:

Anything Goes- round

Digi Doodle Shop- 3D

Pink Piggy- anything goes

PolyCraft- anything goes