Fiskafriends - The Power of Community Blog Hop

First of all I want to welcome my old and new readers. If you were following my blog before you know that I am a big Fiskars fan and one of the original Fiskateers. I wrote before how important that experience was for me as a crafter but mostly, being a Fiskateer meant for me and for many many others being part of the community.

I am happy to join my friends from Fiskafriends facebook group in our first Fiskafriend Blog Hop.

While thinking about my crafting friends and online community I decided to look around me and see if I can find a crafting community close to me. I designed 3 simple cards and posted an invitation on my local Facebook page to join me for free card making class.

I am going to share the cards I made and show how I made them using my favorite Fiskars tools.

Card No 1

To make the first card I picked three washi tapes in coordinating colors and adhered them to the front of the card. I used the new tapes from Love My Tapes etsy store, they are just gorgeous! I punched a circle and a scalloped  circle using Fiskars squeeze punches and stamped the sentiment on the white scalloped circle.

The butterfly is punched from washi tape layered on top of vellum. I love using this technique because the vellum doesn't take away the tape transparency but adds sturdiness.

I added the butterfly to the card using a small piece of foam tape and finished with a touch of bling.

Card No 2

This is very simple design that can be used over and over. By changing the selection of washi tapes this card can be made appropriate for any occasion.

I trimmed a piece of white cardstock to be a little smaller than my card front and covered it with selection of happy washi tapes. I trimmed the extra pieces of washi tape and adhered the cardstock to the card front. I added the sentiment with sharpie pen and finished with three small acrylic hearts.

Card No 3

This card requires just a little more work.

I started by stamping the lace flowers on white cardstock that I cut out using my favorite Fiskars micro tip scissors.

I layered torn pieces of washi tape in various lengths directly on the card front. I picked tapes in shades of gray and black.

I added the flowers to the card with adhesive foam for more dimension and finished with a sentiment sticker, a vintage button and jewels.

I thought that these three designs are relatively simple to make and give a good introduction to several paper crafting tools and techniques. And I was right :)

I had a great response to my invitation and I already did two out of four card making classes.

We had the best time chatting, getting to know each other, admiring each others work and just being creative.

These are the cards that were made by ladies that didn't do any paper crafting before.

I am amazed how beautiful their cards turned out and I sure hope we made one little step towards building a vibrant, supportive crafting community.

There is no blog hop without a giveaway ;-) In addition to the sponsor giveaway drawing on the Fiskafriends blog I would like to offer my own giveaway: Fiskars® Teresa Collins Non-stick Detail Scissors and 5 Love My Tapes washi tapes.

Comment on my blog post to be entered into my giveaway. For additional entries you can follow me on Bloglovin (the button is on the left side bar).

Blog comments for my giveaway will close Sunday, March 29th @ 11:59pm (Pacific) and the winner will be announced Tuesday, March 31st here on my blog.

Here is the full list of the blogs participating in the Fiskafriends blog hop:

Jean Bullock, #8889

Susan Slomski, #6150

Cindy deRosier, #4113

Tifany DeGough, #5942

Cheryl Waters, #002

Jean Marmo, #7358

Teresa Godines #6857

 Michelle O'Driscoll #7586 

Nancy Carroll  #11488 

******you are here***** 

Maya Oren-Dahan #351   

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Amy Martin Jones #8546 

Karen Poirier-Brode (Ladydoc) #2858 

Tanya Napier #5407  

Pamela Haskin #8040

Stasia Sloma #9314 

Tracy Moloney  #6773 

Kim Chenez #5612 

If you would like to be eligible for the sponsor giveaway drawing START and the Fiskafriends blog and follow the instructions there.

Class valentines and valentine shadow box

Happy Valentine! I hope the weekend is treating you well, regardless if you are celebrating today or not.

Valentine is not big in our house but we take very seriously the class Valentines project (at least I do). Every year I try to do something fun. This year I decided to make something with Eli that we already did with his big sisters years ago - heart shaped crayons.

Eli had the best time peeling the crayons and deciding what colors go where.

I posted more about this project on the Love My Tapes blog, Eli used their beautiful washi tape to write his "tos" and "froms".

This is what he gave to his classmates.

We did something different for the teachers. I designed a card with heart shaped window in the Silhouette software and cut it from white cardstock.  The heart-shaped crayon is added to the card with thick glue dot. The words on the card front are cut from vinyl with Silhouette Cameo.

Eli used Fiskars heart punches to decorate the inside of the card.

I made these chocolate dipped marshmallows for Eli's class party. I already made them once 2 years ago but this time I went with a simple topper - cardstock hearts and vinyl letters. Everything was designed and cut with Silhouette Cameo. The kids loved them!

The last project I am sharing today is a shadowbox I made for me. I used files from the new Digiplayground store to cut the hearts and the quote for the glass.

I used paper for the hearts and vinyl for the quote. I think a have a shadowbox addiction since this is the third one I am making in the last few months.

I made this shadowbox thinking about the Scrappy Hands "Family" challenge. It was posted last Sunday and tomorrow the DT will share another round of inspiration. Go take a look - fabulous projects!

To finish, I am going to share a picture of the rose I received from my husband :)

Thank you for stopping by and reading this long post :)

For my grandma - Scrap It Girl May Challenge

Happy May, my dear blog readers!The weather is getting better every day (I am not going to let few weather hiccups to rain on my parade - literally), the grass is green again, the first wave of blossoming is already behind us. I am looking forward to being more outside and just soak in the sunshine before it gets too hot for me :)

As always, on the first of the month, I am sharing a project that I made for Scrap It Girl monthly challenge. today I am going to share something special to me. The challenge theme this month is Mother Day or Mother Nature. I rummaged through the box of old photographs and found the picture of my grandmother and me, probably from 1973.

Supplies: cardstock (Core'dinations), patterned paper (Jenni Bowlin, Making Memories), vellum, washi tape (Love My Tapes), pearls and jewels (Recollection), stickers (Carta Bella), wood heart (Unique Laser Designs), corner punch (EK Succss), paper clip, Silhouette Cameo

I used lightly sanded Core'dinations cardstock as a background. The papers are from old Jenni Bowlin kits. I didn't want to use adhesive on the picture, so I made a photo mat from vellum with punched photo slits that hold the picture.

 

To make the butterflies I covered vellum sheet with strips of Love My Tapes washi tape and run the sheet through the Silhouette. I used standard vellum setting but changed the blade depth to 3. The butterfly wings naturally curl up. 

Small wood heart from Unique Laser Designs is also covered with washi tape. It rests on a paper clip and a small piece of adhesive foam. Nothing is glued to the picture itself.

You are remembered, grandma.

That's all from me for today. Check what other designed did here and share your project with us.