Altered Metal Barn Star

I wanted to make my mother a unique mother's day gift. I came across some cheap metal barn stars and decided to create this project for her for mother's day. I was inspired to share this by Melanie over at the Croppinsville Blog. For this altered barn star, i cut all of my paper pieces using a pattern. I printed my pictures on photo paper and cut them using my pattern. I inked the edges of my paper using cranberry Colorbok Cats Eye Pigment Ink. Then I put modge podge all of the star and attached my pieces. I followed up with 4 additional coats of modge podge. This is the end result.

Croppinsville Hometown Bloggers Blog Challenge

Jen over at Croppinsville has posted a blog challenge.

What 5 crafting tools could I not live without?

1. Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife ~ available at Croppinsville $4.29.
2. Carl Rotary Paper Trimmer ~ straight cuts most everytime.
3. Cricut ~ I love it.
4. Computer ~ Need for journaling and photo printing & editting.
5. Ruler ~ straight lines and perfect measurements.

So make sure that you take this challenge on your blog...Post a link at the Croppinsville Blog so we can find out just what you like.

Croppinsville Is Open For Business

Croppinsville online is now open for business. Please make sure you go and check out what they have available...

Croppinsville is a truly unique Stampin' and Scrappin' Spot. We specialize in carrying trendy, funky independents in addition to your favorite brands - the latest and greatest - we like to order the whole kit-n-caboodle too, so you can find everything you want in one place. We love to support small businesses, and we even encourage our own designers and try to develop their own designs. Find something new and exciting. We're working on our own line of products as well!

At Croppinsville, you'll find a unique Designer's gallery, there's also a gallery for customers! Don't miss our BLOG - staffed by a team of guest designers and Hometown Bloggers - they are constantly at work bringing you tutorials, challenges, games and prizes. Join our community and participate in swaps, contests and more. Make Croppinsville your Hometown too!

Croppinsville rewards you for your loyalty as well - for every $150 you spend, you receive $25 to spend. No silly restrictions, strange qualifications, etc. - spend your money any way you want and earn your reward! Shop the sales - you still earn your rewards! You want low shipping and you want your goodies fast - you pay only half the shipping for orders up to $60 and for orders over $60 - shipping is free! Orders received by 3 pm ship the same day! Always find a little something special and unexpected in your box - a little Random Act of Kindness. You can shop anywhere, and we want to thank you for shopping at Croppinsville!

Our goal at Croppinsville is great Customer Service - to provide inspiration, resources, and all the materials you need... and we want to do this quickly, carefully, and at a great price.

Croppinsville was founded by Allie Gower, a stamper and scrapper who simply knows that the specialized art of customer service has not been lost. She loves to eat, sleep and breathe creativity! She firmly believes that online shopping does not have to be a cold, impersonal experience, and that she and her employees, and her fabulous designers and Hometown Bloggers are completely committed to serving all those who come to Croppinsville - whether it's through the doors or over the internet waves. Because Allie is also passionate about the environment, Croppinsville is a GREEN company. The store itself is comprised of a majority of recycled fixtures and materials, and she has purposefully chosen many vendors that utilize GREEN technology, like Creative Imaginations and Prima Marketing. To quote one of her favorite designers, Nina Perrin, "when life gives you scraps, make something."

Stop in and check out the blog at Croppinsville Blog there's a lot going on over there in honor of the opening.

I'll be heading up Grand Opening Bingo...Here are the details. Go check it out and join in the fun.

Hometown BINGO!
Welcome to Croppinsville. We’re go glad you’ve stopped by and we hope that you’ll join us for lots of fun games, challenges, tips, techniques, tutorials and swaps. In honor of the recent opening of the new online and Brick & Mortar store, we’re hosting a grand opening bingo game. It’s pretty simple. You’ll pick 50 words from the list of 100. All the words are scrap related goodies or manufacturers carried at Croppinsville. Once you select your 50 words, you must email them along with your name, email address and a link to your blog (if you have one), to croppinbingo@yahoo.com before 11:59pm EST on June 21st. Beginning on June 23rd we’ll call 16 words each day. The first 8 (eight) words will be posted by 7:00 am EST and the last 8 (eight) words will be posted by 9:00 pm EST. So make sure to stop by to check out the bingo words twice daily and while you’re visiting, check out the other happenings at Croppinsville.Allie, the owner of Croppinsville is offering a $15 gift card to Croppinsville for the bingo winner. To be the winner of the grand opening bingo prize, you must be the first to cross off all of your bingo words and post a comment on this blog post. You must also send an email to croppingbingo@yahoo.com calling Bingo. We’ll then verify the word list you originally emailed against the words called and the winner will be determined.So why not join us in the fun… Remember to get your lists in by the deadline. A confirmation of the word list receipt will be sent to the email address provided for verification that the list was received prior to the deadline. Also remember to stop in at Croppinsville and check out all of the great products.

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on 'donating a mammogram' for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors /advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram's in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site!
http://www.thebreastcancersite.com

Coconut Showdown Challenge #1

I decided to join in the fun over at Coconut Scrapshop . They're having a little contest from now until the end of June. The first challenge was to use the modern grid technique to create a layout. I'm really not all into stampin on my layouts but I did try to accomodate the challenge..

The supplies used: DCWV Glitter CS, MM Pink Artisan CS, Unity Stamp Border of Bell from the Vintage Blue Bells Set , CM Journaling Pen, Cuttlebug Swiss Dot Embossing Folder, Colorbok CS, Heidi Swapp Blossoms, HL Glitter Alphas, Misc Buttons, Target $ Spot Butterfly Stamp, Walmart Rubon, Studio G Stamp, Marcella By K Black Ink

A New Kit Club

There's a new kit club starting up... Go here Shopcropsuey to check it out...Be sure to post a comment letting them know that Janean C sent you. This should be fun and exciting to see how this new kit club developes. They've also got a design team call...Check it out!

Focus on My 12 Year Old...

Today's post is to focus on the creativity of a child. My 12 year old daughter, has always been advanced for her age. She could read when she was almost 4, she could spell cuccumber when she was 5, she could memorize stories after having read it one time and the list goes on...She's also been blessed with this monsterous amount of creativity. She loves to create with me. She's created some pretty amazing stuff for a 12 year old.

Yesterday we had a pretty rainy day so she hit the scrap paper box... On her own, no guidance, no sketch, just out of her head she created 4 cards. She stamped, designed and watercolored each one completely on her own. So I thought I'd share with you what she created.

If you can't tell, I'm quite proud of her. So everyone who visits, please leave her a little love.

Swap Signups...

Hurry over to Croppinsville and join the first ever swap. The first 9 to signup will participate. You'll receive a free Autumn Leaves "Prepare To Be Amazed" stamp. This stamp will be used to create 11 identical items. You'll receive 10 items in return. Allie, the store owner of Croppinsville, will keep one item from each swapper. Some may be used to display in her b&m store. There will also be an online viewer contest.

Weekend Color Challenge

Erica over at One Creative Life posted a weekend color challenge last week. I decided to give it a try. I love these colors but I decided to go ahead and add some blue to it also. Here's a link to the challenge.

The supplies I used are: DCWV CS, Bazzill Bling Card Stock, Cuttlebug Divine Swirls Embossing Folder, Art Warehouse Fresh Design Swatch Book Rubbons, Studio G Thinking of You Stamp, Colorbok Cats Eye Ink, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Vintage Photo.

Weekend Sketch Challenge #51

I decided to give this weekend sketch challenge at Beate's Fresh & Fun Blog a try. It was a lot of fun creating and I love how it came out. I had an adorable, annoying little critter (Bennie) chompin at my feet while I was creating this morning..After about 5 minutes of playin he decided to give up and curl up at my feet to take a short cat nap. The little fella wore himself out.

Supplies used: Pink Textured CS, DCWV Green CS, PP from Stack, Magenta Skittles, Misc Pink Ribbon, PSX Thinking of You Rubber Stamp, Imaginisce Flowers Clear Stamp, Kimberly Watercolor Pencils, Dove Blender Pen, Colorbok Cats Eye Pigment Ink Orchid & Magenta, Fruit Punch Stickles, and Stazon.

Cupcake Challenge #19

So I don't really own any cupcake stamps...Just some stamped images. I decided that I loved these stamps together with this paper. Pink and Black is now my favorite color combo. To be honest, I love black with any bright color. I think it's very bold. I decided after many visits to Taylored Expressions' Blog to try one of the challenges..This was so fun that I may want to go back and do several of the challenges. But for starters, I've completed this Love card for Challenge #19. I'm so excited about how it came out.

The Bells of Love sentiment is from the Vintage Blue Bells Stamp Set that I received as part of a blog candy win from Unity Stamp Company . The concept behind the stamp sets at Unity is amazing. Even more amazing is the new hanging storage system they have for the stamps. I'd love to have one of every stamp they have.

Here's a supply list: Pink Textured CS, White Textured CS, DCWV All Dressed UP PP, Cotton Candy Stickles, Colorbok Cats Eye Pigment Ink Black & Orchid, Unity Stamp Co. Bells Of Love Stamp, Studio G Stamp.

Stamp Something Challenge

I decided to jump on this challenge at Stamp Something . I loved this sketch and decided that I could use up some scraps...I bought this stamp from a Garage Sale a few weeks ago and loved it the moment I laid eyes on it. So here I am using it. Details will follow later..I'm ready for bed. It seems like today was a long one.

CMK Design Team Call Layout

I decided to submit this layout for The Last Scrapper Standing Contest at Create My Keepsake. When registering to enter the contest, you had to scraplift one of the current design team members and upload the layout. I chose to scraplift Leslie Ashe as I just love her style. I chose A Rose By Any Other Name. Here's what I came up with. The competition so far looks very stiff, but at least I gave my best effort.

The photo used in this layout was one that my silly daughter took of herself one day.. She does this often and alot of them have become the source of photos for many of my layouts. I used photoshop to do some snazzy editting to give it some jazz. I really like how the layout turned out.

Supplies used: Around the Block Shrink Plastic Stickers, Heidi Swapp Ghost Shapes, Kaiser Crafts Flowers, Doodlebug Beetle Black Paper Posies, Black Diamond Stickles, Around The Block Big Brads, Colorbok Chipboards Pieces, Colorbok Cats Eye Black & Magents Ink, Paper Studio Scallop Cirlce Punch, DCWV Glitter Cardstock, Junkitz Teen Labelz, Wilton Dollie