Sizzix ScoreBoard Blog Hop

Wow! Do I have something fun to share! A designer friend of mine, Eileen Hull, at http://www.eileenhull.blogspot.com/ contacted me and a few other designers to do a blog hop featuring a new product called ScoreBoard™, that she designed for Sizzix.®

She sent each of us a package containing five new ScoreBoard™ boxes (more about the other boxes later). The first box is called ScoreBoard™ Scalloped Box. We were told that we could design the box any way we wanted. She also added an extra challenge to design the box using office supplies. Although I chose not to use the office supplies, the other designers did. The end result was wonderfully creative boxes by some of the top designer professionals in the business! Each box is as unique as the designer who created them.

I decided for my box, I would design something around my favorite flower, the sunflower. Here are the basic instructions for the ScoreBoard™ Scalloped Box:

• Cover box with yellow checkered pattern paper using Zip Dry Paper Glue.

• Stamp large sunflower with black inkpad on white cardstock twice. Color with color pencils. I used Gamsol mineral spirits and a blending stump to give a watercolor look to my stamped images.

• Cut out one sunflower leaving the image whole. With the second image, cut out only parts of the sunflower. (This is what gives you a three dimensional look.) Cover both images with Matte Accents Dimensional Medium. Let dry.

• For the cards, cut orange cardstock 5 1/2"W x 3 3/4"H. Fold in half. Cut pattern paper 2 1/2" x 3 1/2". Adhere pattern paper to cardstock. Stamp watering can with black inkpad on white cardstock. Color with pencils. Cut out. Spray image with Preserve It! Paper Protectant. Adhere Sparkle Fibers to sunflower centers. Adhere image to card with 3D foam tape. Stamp "Just for You" with Vintage Green inkpad. Cut out. Adhere to card front.

• For the inside of card, cut yellow cardstock 2 1/2" W x 3 1/2"H. Add Butterscotch inkpad around edges.
Stamp "Friends are flowers" with
Vintage Green inkpad. Adhere to
 inside of card.

• Adhere large sunflowers together. Spray image with Preserve It! Adhere Sparkle Fibers to center of sunflower. Using glue gun, adhere garden tools and sunflower to the front of box.

• Ink edges of box with Butterscotch inkpad. Adhere Velcro to box. Tie ribbon around the box for the finishing touch!

Now that I have explained how I created my box, I hope that you will "hop" on over to the other designers' blogs to see what they designed. Once you have seen all the different boxes, you can go to Eileen's blog at www.eileenhull.blogspot.com and vote for your favorite. (Hopefully, you'll vote for mine!) Be sure that you post a comment on each blog you visit. Eileen will be picking a comment at random to win a prize. So you don't want to miss out on that!!

And lastly, as I mentioned before, Eileen sent us a total of five different boxes. Every two weeks we will do this all over again with a brand new ScoreBoard™ box. The next box will be a Tea Cup box that I will post on April 14th. You don't want to miss any of these ScoreBoard™ boxes. So stay tuned...

March is National Craft Month!

Did you know that March is National Craft Month? Since I was born in this month, it explains a lot about my creative nature and the journey into my creative life. I thought that since March is National Craft Month, I would share some of the things I'm working on.

I have been a very busy girl this month. I am currently working on the following:

• Creating new projects for magazine publication
• Working on my step outs for a project already sold to a magazine
• Participating in a Sizzix Blog Hop hosted by my friend Eileen Hull
• Working up some designs for a few manufacturers I work with
• Playing with some new product! My favorite thing to do!

And although it doesn't have anything to do with crafting, I'm planning a getaway to Las Vegas with my husband for some fun and gambling. Let's hope I win some money. If I do, then I can buy more crafting products. So I guess my trip is about crafting after all!!
That's what I'm up to this month. What about you?

Unibind: Another Great Company!

One of the great things I love about my job is working with some of the best manufacturers in the craft industry. Their generous support is something that is very much appreciated not only by me, but by all professtional designers. When I get a box in the mail full of new product (sometimes not even on the market yet!) it's like Christmas morning! I recently received a box like that from a company called Unibind. They sent me a machine and some hard covered albums  for me to play with. I figured it was just another way to put together a scrapbook album. Boy, was I wrong!!! This machine doesn't just put your scrapbooks together. It adheres your pages inside the album giving your scrapbook a professtional finish and something that will remain intact in your family for years! The days of pages falling out of your albums after time, is over.It is so easy to use, it's just unbelievable! But don't limit yourself to just scrapbooks. I made a book I called "Love Letters".

On the inside pages instead of pictures, I did pages that held cards, stationery and envelopes, making it a wonderful stationery set that you can keep for yourself or give as a gift.

Of course you can also create some incredible scrapbooks with these albums. I designed one with my son & his girlfriend called "Monkey Business". It was so fun to work with these pictures of my son Michael and his girlfriend Amanda. It has been a family joke since Michael was a little  boy, trying to get him to take a "decent" picture. He was always making goofy faces. When he started dating Amanda she too was always trying to get a nice picture of them together. Of course after a year of trying, she finally gave up.

If you are interested in trying this wonderful machine out for yourself, please be sure to check out their website at  http://www.myphotobookcreator.com/  You will not be disappointed!!

25th Anniversary Page for Clearsnap

I have been talking so much about Clearsnap (I LOVE this company), I thought I would share another project I designed for them. They sent me some new product that wasn't on the market yet and asked me to create something with it. That is how my 25th wedding anniversary was immortalized. It is such a special time to celebrate and I wanted to create something just as special and also something that was glitzy! The project was made with Clearsnap's Sparkling Fibers, the Memory Essentials Rollagraph, inks, and some great papers. The Sparkling Fibers are so easy and fun to work with. You adhere them to your paper like you would glitter, but since it's more three dimentional, it gives you that added WOW! factor that you sometimes want with your projects. I think I achived that. What do you think? Be sure to check them out at http://www.clearsnap.com/