Christmas in July challenge #3 3D scene

For our next challenge we were to make something outside our comfort zone. I went ahead and made a 3D scene. I'm going to put either a photo, stamped image or quote inside the door. Oh yeah the door opens! I was thinking that because of it's circular shape it would look good with a battery operated tealight behind the door.
Recipe:
Christmas cart, door dark brown paper,
christmas cart, door blackout kraft paper, covered in green, top cut off
christmas door, door shift kraft paper, inked with distress ink walnut
all door pieces at 5.65"
christmas wreath green cardstock, 1.52", inked with walnut, added red ribbon, red & clear bling
snowflake paper die cuts with a view cut out with MS circle cutter, cut in half
base is styrofoam circle, I painted and distressed it, added glitter, flock, flakes (doesn't really show up in the pic)
I also added a backing to the door to make it stand up, I basically just cut a strip of paper and made a stand

Christmas In July Scrapbook Layout

I'm involved in an online challenge where we have to create various projects. Here is a LO for the Christmas holiday. I can't believe that people are already talking about it!

I used the Jolly Holidays cricut cartridge for the mittens and bird and the gypsy wanderings cart for the small border of presents. My paper was Die Cuts with a View Christmas stack from last year and also a sheet of provocraft christmas paper pad. The rest was cardstock and bling from stash. I embossed the bird and mittens with my polka dot cuttlebug folder. I also added white flock on the mittens. They are free hanging from a button with some red bakers twine. I attached the other bakers twine with my tiny attacher (love that thing).

Stores to know

I've discovered a new venue for my scrap shopping. I had heard the name before but when I visited the shop it is adorable and I looove that they have digital offerings.
Check out Pretty Little Studio and all their vintage, colorful goodies! They have a couple of free goodies to download like the image below.

Swatch books and Crafting

I don't know how many of you have heard of swatchbooks but certain paper companies make small books with samples of their paper so that when you are crafting you can match up the paper to your project and buy the exact right hue that you want. I just bought the Bazill swatchbook for their Burlap line and it is awesome, it even includes the RGB code so you can enter on your Imagine machine if you have one or in Photoshop if you want to match exactly to your cardstock. How awesome is that?

California Cricut Circle Pennant Contest

So the Cricut Circle is having a Pennant contest for everyone to celebrate their CHA event. They will string up all of the entries together and yes I sent mine today Priority mail. I'm nervous it will get jacked up in the mailing process though and sad that I didn't take more pictures than these. It's alot cuter in person as there is sparkle everywhere. I was in a hurry to mail it off though and  the light was not working out. Oh well.

I really worked alot on this thing. I of course used my cricut bug (carts used gypsy wanderings, smiley cards, pop neighborhood, gypsy font, George, Old West) The Birthday bash cart was used as the base for the pennant which a girl named Heidi was so kind to cut for me!

I used alot of stickles, glimmermist on the background, along with rock candy crackle finish on the water. I cut a border from gypsy wanderings in half and flocked it with white as the waves. I have a limited amount of carts so I had to improvise on my design like the sailboat is part of a border that I cut out and embossed. I chalked the cheeks on my sun and hand drew the windows on the skyscrapers, then added glossy accents on them. I also added glossy accents on my crab after hand drawing his face.

I used a plank from the Old West cart but then cut them in half an added lines with my white pen (an idea inspired by Monique Griffith's adorable Stampede page kit).
I glimmer glazed the car with chandelier and used a transparent sheet for the window. I embossed the trees with my cuttlebug and used rock candy stickles on the mountain tops. Lastly I used a product called mud puddles on my beach part for my sand. It is a fabulous if messy, 3D product that similulates various tones of sand.

I was inspired by my state of California since it has everything you could think of from snowy mountains to sunny beaches. Where I live though it's lots of country land so I wanted to express that with alot of green (paper from Die cuts with a View)

Thanks for reading this long post!

Charity Wings Live @ CHA event

So I did this last year and it was soo much fun plus it helps charity. You will be mailed a box full of goodies that you will use in online make n takes. My favorite part was interacting with everyone through a live chat, event the hosts! You will get to see live on air samples of the newest products like you were there, which we all know is not happening for the average shopper at CHA anymore. There are some amazing talented ladies that came on last time and this time there will be a progressive make n take that looks adorable. Check it out @ Charity Wings!

On an off topic Back up your stuff!

About 6 weeks ago my laptop computer died on me. I was devastated as I loooove my computer. I had to do without it for about 2 weeks but now I have it back and am back to surfing the sites from the comfort of anywhere I want. The moral of this story though is if you don't want to lose your things like pictures and bookmarked websites like me then back up your data. Anyone can buy a flash drive, sd card, or external hard drive for under $100 or even under $20 so there is no excuse. There is even a device called a Picture Keeper that is a flash drive that will back up all your pics automatically in like 2 minutes, however I always have 2 backup sources. I only lost like 10 pictures as I try my best to back up everything but this time I got lazy and those pics won't ever come back so today when you finish reading this BACK UP YOUR STUFF!

Did you know?...

GCD Studios has a free downloadable pdf newsletter every month? I love their vintagey papers as their textures are amazing. When I first felt them I thought it felt like some sort of fabric and it had a luxurious shimmer to it. Check out the pdf here:http://www.gcdstudios.com/ under the In the Studios section. The pdf is 7 pages long and filled with techniques, inspiration and news from them.