MDS Blog Hop Week 9

This week's theme was to use Pear Pizzaz, So Saffron, Cajun Craze, Night of Navy with one Neutral (I picked Early Espresso). I have to admit that I immediately I got nervous...really nervous. Where to begin? The colors seemed fallish I guess. I tried a scrap page. Did not like it at all. Then it hit me!

September 30th is a special day for my family and a great reason for me to make a small gift for two very special people in my life. Today is my parents' 44th wedding anniversary! and I had the perfect gift for them. I had seen this idea of special family dates on Pinterest (did you go look at that yet?) and knew I could make one for them on MDS! (I had already planned to make one for me!) The top dates are their birthdays and the bottom are my brother and mine. Not really the ACTUAL dates seen here but the Anniversary date is!  I played around several times with the colors of the challenge given and settled on this. The designer series paper is Autumn Spice - Patterns 1 and 4.  The numbers are from the Sweet Details Alpha and Numbers download. I printed it out as a 8x10 on Whisper White cardstock at the best quality ink.  

I bought a beautiful dark wood frame from Walmart for just $10.00. Then I took my Leaves #2 die cut and cut two leaves- one in So Saffron and other in Cajun Craze. The latter is embossed with the new Snow Burst Embossing Folder. Then a 1/8" taffeta ribbon in Early Espresso was added with a glue dot. They are attached to the frame with dimensionals. 

Next I needed a matching card for them.  I found a template of a 4.25x5.5" card and made my own modifications to fit my colors and celebration. I printed all four side of the card on my printer.  Added them to a 4.25x5.5 Early Espresso card and finished off with real Early Espresso Baker's Twine.  Never have made a card like this before but it is a good way to cover a darker card base.

So I hope you liked my MDS creation this week! I thought these would be great family gifts for Christmas too! Easy and inexpensive but all about celebrating FAMILY.

Love you Mom and Dad!

I am SUPER EXCITED to show you next week's MDS Blog Hop project!

Check back then but right now you want to continue to the next Design Diva on the list below.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Cindy

Jeanna

Rochelle

Mandy

Julie

Amber

Terri

Aly

me:)

Erica

Heather

Alesha

Pantry Finale

So you know you just can not have PLAIN white scraps of paper on those corkboard fabric tiles from yesterday's post!  I had to MDS it and add some design flavor to it!

I took the To Do List MDS download # 125775 and sized it down to 4 x 5.5 which gave me room for 4 on a 8.5x11 page.  Then I wanted the "To Do List" part to be replaced with "Items to Restock". To do this, I just added a small square punch to fit over the words and filled it with whisper white.  Then I copied the pasted three times over the other ones on the whole page.  Then I added a text box. Typed my words and changed the font to Nashville 22 to match my labels. Copied and pasted them in place on the other three.

I liked having the date there so that I left that. I also liked the completed boxes to the right. I can take them with me to the grocery store and check them off! Still something was missing. Too plain.

I added the stamp image from the MDS download Charming # 123988. Copied it to each one. Changed it to Basic Gray and opacity to 10% giving it just enough to see.

I printed several on regular paper in two sizes, cut them and have them pinned on my tiles.

Very functional with a flare!

Sorry for the blurry pics. Ipad are NOT quality cameras but they work in a pinch!

Check back tomorrow for MDS BLOG HOP FRIDAY!

Have a great day!

Cindy

I (heart) Pinterest! Pantry style.

I have to confess. 

 I am a Pinterest addict.

I...need...help!

My favorite is the DYI - do it yourself section. The projects will spark some craftyness inside you! 

So remember the pantry makeover with labels on Friday's post. I was not done there. I wanted a place to put remember notes or a grocery needs list. That way when we are low on something I could just jot it down and post it all in one place then collect them all when I was heading to the grocery store on my weekly run there.

You need the following supplies:

12x12 corkboard tiles

hot glue gun and sticks

scissors

spray adhesive

1/2 yard of fabric 

Cut fabric 14x14.

Spray the adhesive (doing this outside would be better) on one side of the corkboard tile. Just a little will to the trick. Then position your fabric on top and smooth out the wrinkles.

Flip over and start to glue down the fabric sides with the glue gun. Everyone has a way to the corners differently.  I did two opposite sides then trimmed the corners. Then did the next two sides and tried to lay as flat as I could. The first one was a trial run and the next two tiles went smoother.  I used LOTS of glue.

This is what it looks like all glue down and finished. 

Then I took the super sticky adhesive tabs that came with the tiles and put them on. 

Here are my finished pantry boards.  What do you think?  I just need to find some cute push pins and cut some white 3x3 paper and perhaps attach a pen on the side of one with some ribbon.

Then I made two smaller versions in the 6x6 corkboard tiles for another cabinet holding our spices and meds.  Then I can remember the next time to get more Claratin!

Go check out Pinterest HERE and find me there! You can become a follower of my boards and see what Pinterest things I will be making next!

Have a crafty day!

Cindy

MDS Blog Hop Week 8

Everyone needs a little organization in their lives, right? As soon as Heather gave us the theme, I knew I had a fantastic idea!  Recently we had a problem with ants...see we got lots of rain and they were looking for dry ground and food!  I had to clean out our pantry which then prompted me to clear out the pantry of old out-dated foods. I also got a chance to re-organize my WONDERFUL Tupperware bins.  I got them YEARS ago and it was one of the best things I ever did for organization in my house. I did have some paper labels with tape on them and knew that I could do SO much better now with MDS! 

I select my favorite punch - decorative label to complete my task. There are three layers of the decorative label on just one of them. The first layer is Basic Black and is the true size of the real punch. The next layer is Baha Breeze and slightly smaller. The last layer is Whisper White and slightly smaller again. But I added a Basic Black mat to that layer.  I highlighted all the layers and grouped them together. Copy and paste tons of them to fit the 8.5x11 page.  Made a list of what to label and then added text in Nashville font.

I printed this out on a sheet of whole label sticker paper.

Then I used my Decorative Label punch and punched them all out. I think it was genius of the MDS designers to make the auto default punch image be the size of the actual punches!

Here is the top half of my pantry. 

Here is the bottom half of my pantry. 

Close up of the labels. The best part is when my husband opened it and stood there for 10 minutes in shock!  Shocked that it was organized OR trying to find something that was not there anymore?

Now continue to blog hop to our other Domestic Goddesses and their organization projects!

Jeanna

Rochelle

Mandy

Julie

Amber

Terri

Aly

me:)

Erica

Heather

Alesha

Have a great day!

Cindy

Christmas Stockings

I am completely embarrassed. I took picture of these Holiday Mini card swap RIGHT before I mailed them off. I JUST noticed that the adorable jingle bell and linen thread bow are MISSING! It WAS there I promise! And now I do not have that card anymore. Bummed.

But I wanted to show you the cool trick on this card.  I used the Textured Impressions Embossing folder called Snow Burst (I love it more then last year's snowflake embossing folder) and I just embossed the top half and bottom half of the layer. Tip - I put a sharpie marker line on the folder to know where to place my paper each time. The sentiment fits right in that area perfectly. I used the new Hand-Penned Holidays stamp set from the Holiday Mini. Beautiful set! A must have! The stocking were made with the new Stocking Builder Punch and Stitched Stockings stamp set also from the Holiday Mini. Colors are Crumb Cake, Baha Breeze and Early Espresso. The silver jingle bell (Holiday Mini too!) with a linen thread bow where attached at the top of the stocking. You can see the glue dot there. Go figure!

Better ask Jill if they got there all in one piece! How embarrassing!

Have a great day!

Cindy

Vintage Halloween A la Carte

          I recently got involved with a Holiday Mini Catalog card swap on Stampin Connection for demos. I thought it would be good to get my stampin mojo back to life!  Yeah, it worked! :)

The card shows off the fabulous A la carte stamps that Stampin Up has in the new Holiday Mini. This one is called Haunted Forest #123841 for $9.95.  As soon as I saw it, I knew that watercoloring would be awesome on it! I "framed" it with Decorative Label punch in Basic Black on the top and bottom after distressing and sponging the edges. The paper is from Frightful Sight in the SU catalog. I tore a bit on the bottom edge and added a printed newsprint paper under it. The seam binding ribbon in Very Vanilla was cut in half and scrunched to add a vintage touch. The whole card is sponged with Crumb Cake. Colors are Cajun Craze, Old Olive, Very Vanilla and Basic Black.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cindy

MDS Blog Hop Week 7

I just have to say that Fall and that Spice Cake Designer Series Paper goes together like peanut butter and jelly. I have been using Spice Cake on MDS and in the real stuff like crazy! So when our theme FALL came up...yeah you guessed it!

Our weather is cooling down and we are ready for FALL around here. I think of all the great things Fall brings and the colors of the Fall and I just get giddly with excitement! So I wanted to create a scrap page that reflecks my Fall "joys".  I really love how this page turned out. Simple and few words to showcase the feeling of Fall.

I totally love that tree from the download Leaves of a Tree. Here it is in Soft Suede and made larger. The round corner punches were filled with Spice Cake DSP.  I used the punch letters and filled them with DSP at first but it was too busy and switched to Soft Suede. The leaf is in More Mustard with a drop shadow and is from the Leaves of a Tree download too.  Background is Vintage Overlays in Soft Suede at 20% opacity. Some Chocolate Chip stitching corners frame it in. The font is CK Ali.

It say "Leaves falling...Comfy Blanket...Making Soup...Snuggling with you."

That is what Fall is all about!

Check out some more FALL-tastic projects from our MDS divas below!

Jeanna

Rochelle

Mandy

Julie

Amber

Terri

Aly

ME

Erica

Heather

Alesha

Have a magical day!

Cindy

East of Main Salon projects

My friend and hairdresser Angie asked me a few weeks ago to come up with a gift card certificate for her new salon opening October 1st. She told me the colors she was going with and the font of her logo and her style/theme.  I first did this in My Digital Studio and printed it so we could see if I was going in the right direction. She loved it and could not believe how well it matched her fabrics and paints and theme. This was my first real draft of the project.  Pretty much stayed the same except for the E was changed to English Vivace font and sized down to fit the burlap bags.  I created parts fo this in MDS and used real materials to make it.

These were printed on Very Vanilla cardstock and then punched out with the decorative label punch and sponged with Crumb Cake.

These were printed on Crumb Cake cardstock and cut to size for the front of the GC.

She loved it so much that now I am doing her matching gift certificates, thank you cards, tags, signs, bags, burlap bags, and Christmas cards for her salon! I am so honored that she loves what I made for her to put my design in her entire salon! 

So now you know why I have been MIA for the past week.

I will show you how I used more of the MDS program to create the other pieces.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cindy

MDS Blog Hop Week 6

This week MDS Blog Hop challenge was Hybrid Halloween and selected by the talented Mandy.  Here is a funny side story...I had to go all the way to Utah to meet Mandy for the first time and she lives right here in Georgia too!  So working with her on this MDS blog hop is very cool! Glad to call her friend!

What I love about MDS is that you can do multiples of the same project in a flash!  I knew I wanted to do something with our new cellophane bags in the Holiday Mini Catalog. They are just 2.50 for 50 of them! So I plan to make a bunch of these for my daughters' classmates this Halloween. I added on a 8.5x11 landscape format, two square punches and filled them with Peach Parfait.  I left a space of white so that I would know where to make the folds.  Then I added borders from the Pick Your Poison Embellishments download #125614.  I added the sentiment from the Scaredy Cat download #123143 in Whisper White and scaled it down to 2".  I also add the spider image from the same download in Whisper White.  Saved a jpeg and printed on my printer. 

I cut on each side of the Happy Halloween title so that it was 2" in width. Then trimmed off the extra white area. 

To secure to the bag (filled with jelly beans, cut closed end off and then tied at both ends with 1.8" taffeta black ribbon), I poked a hole with my paper-piercing tool. Add a mini silver brad once around the treat.  

To top it off, I added a rhinestone to the body of the spider. Simple, easy and quick! 49 more to go! 

I hope you liked my version of my Hybrid Halloween Treat!

To see more fabulous Halloween projects and pages, check out more from our MDS blog hoppers!

1. Jeanna Bohanon

2.Rochelle Gould

3.Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc

5.Terri Mongeon

6. me

7. Erica Shaw

8. Heather Summers

Have a magical day!

Cindy

MDS Blog Hop Week 5

Gotta love Fridays! Cause it is MDS Blog Hoppin Day! Our theme (courtesy of Rochelle) this week was "outside or nature"  with at least two photos. The outside or nature theme was a perfect way to showcase my daughter Megan's new passion...photography. While we in Chattanooga, she wanted to use my camera ALL THE TIME! She really wants a BIG camera like mine of her own. She got some really great shots like this one on the right of the page.

I am using some new downloads that just came out September 1st with the NEW Mini Holiday Catalog! The awesome Spice Cake Designer Series Paper #125610 and Leaves of a Tree Brush Stamp set #125612. I also used the Inspired by Nature Brush Stamp Set #124473 for the grass and "live with passion" title.

Those papers are so versatile for the antique, memories, history, fall, Thanksgiving and so much more! They look really great in person with the real papers!

Check out the other MDS Blog Hop designers and their designs for this week here:

1. Jeanna Bohanon

2. Rochelle Gould

3. Julie Leblanc

4. Amber Meadows

5. Terri Mongeon

6. ME!

7. Erica Shaw

8. Heather Summers

9. Alesha Walls

Thanks for stopping by our HOP!

Cindy