It's time for a "Wishy Washi" Blog Hop!

"Wishy Washi" is our newest theme at Paper Issues! In celebration of the newest theme, several of the design team girls have put together a showcase of projects showing off their "wishy washi" side. :) Why wishy washi? Because Freckled Fawn is sponsoring a fabulous giveaway! They are giving away a $25 gift certificate to their online store! Loaded with the most unique and whimsical washi tapes on the market, I know you will jump at the chance to win such a fantastic prize!

For my featured project, I have created a magnetic dart board that will service double duty over the next few weeks. My son, Sam will be turning 5 this Thursday and we have a huge circus/carnival birthday party planned for him. With his party quickly approaching, I need to get on the ball (no pun intended) and start preparing. What's a carnival without tons of games? Going through my tremendous stash of junk I can't seem to let go of, I remembered purchasing this dartboard 8 years ago and have never put it to use. Let me start by telling you that this metal board was super cool, except for the fact that it was a "truth or dare" dartboard! Are you kidding me? I can only imagine a group of teenagers getting a hold of this! I decided to "repurpose" the board to not only act as a perfect carnival game but also as a gift for Sam to proudly display and play with in his room. (not as truth or dare, but as darts!)

Going with carnival colors, I painted everything in aqua, black and kept the red circle on the outer edge. Tapering down some big vintage numbers washi tape, I created the inner circle. I love the look, it almost has a roulette wheel feel to it. Radiating out for visual interest, I added more numbers washi tape and the super cool red pointed finger tape from Freckled Fawn's Post Office Set. I am sure you are wondering about that elephant on the ball? It is an image from Norma Cornes I purchased at Dreamstime.com. Talk about great photography! Printing it on photo paper and fussy cutting around it, I glued it to the center for the perfect focal point of the piece. I added a few stamped images here and there, and created a magnet out of this amazing cast iron vintage #5 to represent Sam's special birthday. I made it as a magnet so that it can be removed while playing with the darts. :)

Finishing it up last night, Sam came over and saw the finished product. He disappeared into the other room and came back with his little coin pouch. He told me that he wanted to give me his $ for making this for him, and that he loved it. That is a moment I will never forget. Talk about the best compliment for a mama. I love you my little Sam. :)

Back to business! As I mentioned earlier, this is a blog hop! I am at the tail end of the hop, so if you haven't already visited all the other showcased projects, please be sure to check them all out!

1. Christina H- http://christinaheeren.blogspot.com/
2. Patricia http://www.roebuck-adventures.blogspot.com/
3. Audrey http://audreysreflection.blogspot.com/
4. Missy http://www.missygener.com/
5. Amy B http://www.curlyqmosaics.blogspot.com/

Are you ready to see what you can win? Aren't these tapes delish? Be sure to check out Paper Issues for all the details about how you can win! Not only follow Paper Issues, but following my blog as well is very much appreciated!

Lastly, don't forget to visit Paper Issues for all your scrapbooking needs! Just enter CURLYQ for a 20% discount! Have a great day! Off to do more party planning! :)
Amy

I am so excited!

I just discovered that Ormolu featured one of my calendars on their blog today! I am doing a little happy dance right now! :)

http://ormolu.typepad.com/blog/2012/07/reader-spotlights.html

Have a wonderful night everyone, I know I will!

I Can See "Clearly" Now...

Guess what? It is time for Paper Issues' newest theme, I Can See Clearly! This time around we want to showcase your "clear" projects. You can link up transparencies, washi tape, vellum yummies, anything! The best part about it is the HUGE, fantabulous giveaway that goes along with it! Lowri of the PaperVine has graciously put together a prize pack anyone would love to win, and it could be yours! Visit Paper Issues for all the details, and to link up, link up, link up!

In honor of the newest theme, I decided to create my sister-in-law's birthday card going in that direction..the use of "clear" materials. I have lots of great printed overlays, but I decided to incorporate packaging plastics as my clear component as well as a creative way of "going" green. :)

To start with, I knew I wanted to capture lots of confetti, as I have seen lots of it around the web lately. This great chipboard scalloped frame (sent to me in a RAK from Michelle Hernandez) was the perfect border. Going through some of my Cricut die-cuts, I found the letters "happy" and tacked them down to the kraft first. Next I punched lots of bright, glittery, festive papers and trapped the dots behind the plastic by using my handy dandy sewing machine. I love the zigzag stitch, it creates such a nice, secure hold. To create the base, I simply cut some strips of scrap papers from MME, Jenni Bowlin, etc. I sewed them to the center of the dot embossed card and then put the confetti oval at the top. Feeling that it needed a little something else, I started dabbling with more plastic scraps and black staz-on. I used a banner stamp from Girls' Paperie Jubilee and then fussy cut around the pennants. Lastly, I stamped "birthday" on the plastic oval using a Stampin' Up stamp from the Bursting with Joy set.

Again, please don't forget to link up your projects over the next 2 weeks for your chance to win, and possibly be in the spotlight! Paper Issues loves you!

Thanks for stopping by, and a special thanks to Michelle for the wonderful element that was perfect for this card! :)

Amy

"HAPPY" Friday!

For those of you that live in the US, I hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day with family and friends! I just wanted to drop by and share a card I created for a dear friend's birthday awhile back.

Definitely not as complex as many of my cards are, I used a Cavallini card cover as my starting point and worked from it to embellish and give it that extra special touch. I basically cut some kraft cardstock down to size, added some funky lime damask board from a cut down file folder and then stapled the card to the front in a tilted fashion. I tied some pale pink seem binding around the birdie's neck with a metal "birthday" tag, added some "HAPPY" Thickers to the top of the card and by the time I added the black/white twine I felt that the card was complete.

Wrapping her gift in kraft paper and adorning it with some lime damask packing tape, diecut scraps and twine...it all complemented the card perfectly. As I have said before, I love focusing on presentation. Yeah, some people may think it is a waste of time, but that is something I truly enjoy doing. Especially for those who appreciate it the most. :)

I hope you all have a "HAPPY" Friday and a wonderful weekend!