Carolina's Creative Pad

So many projects, so little time...and it's only Monday!

Happy Monday! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and looking forward to summer as much as I am. My sister only has two more weeks left of school, my nephew has three, and I started the count down. Being a school teacher, she usually takes summers off which means summer vacation for me as well, and as you can tell I'm so looking forward to that.

I have a fun week ahead of me including two baking classes, a haircut, and well, as you could have guessed, some projects to share with you. Today was my day to post over at the Hybrid Chick blog, so make sure to check out full tutorials there. Along with the tutorials, I'm giving away a fun chipboard album, so make sure to head over there to see how I put these projects together.

I used an Avery iron-on transfer sheet along with Mari Koegelenberg's What's Cooking? The Collection kit. I have four of these bags and they are what I take with me to the grocery store. I've been meaning to pretty them up a bit and this is what I came up with.

The next project is a tag. I have also been meaning to make some personalized tags to hang from scrapbook bags, carry~on luggage, and my camera bag...this is what I came up with.

I'm in love with Maya Roads Avocado Metallic Mist right now, so just to warn you, you'll be seeing some more projects with it and other fun colors as well. Again make sure to head over to the Hybrid Chick blog for the tutorials on these two projects.

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Today is also my turn to post over at the Unity blog...can't believe my guest design time is coming to an end...it's been a fun ride that's for sure! The card I put together is also for this week's Technique Lover's Challenge over at SCS (TLC274) which is called Black Magic. Here's what I came up with using this month's Unity Stampin Store Kit, Naturally You.

 

The technique is simple: you stamp your image on black or dark card stock with white ink, heat set it, color your image with watercolor pencils, add some accents with a white gel pen, and decorate as you wish to finish off your card!

I had a lot of fun with the little details on this image and wanted to finish it off with a fun fun ribbon treatment. Hope you'll give this technique a try!

Stamps: Unity Stamps: Stampin' Store Kit of the Month: Naturally You
Paper: Gina K. Designs Pure Black Onyx and White card stock; Cosmo Cricket: Garden Variety
Ink: Maya Roads: Pure White Ink
Accessories: Ribbon; Halfback Pearls; SU!: Watercolor Pencils; White Gel Pen; Spellbinders: Curved Rectangle Die

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hybrid Backpack ~ A Fun Packing Idea & Sew Easy Sunday Video Tutorial

Happy Monday and hope you had a fabulous weekend! Mine was jam~packed, crafty, fun weekend and one of the many things that came out of it is a project I'm going to be sharing with you today.

The inspiration for this project came from several things: Teacher Appreciation week which is quickly approaching and this month's KOM, Together We Bloom, and Moxie Fab World's Shimmer & Shine Gallery Challenge.

I put together a note card set all wrapped up in a backpack; the backpack is a hybrid project. Here's what the backpack looks like along with one of the note cards I sneaked out of the backpack to share with you.

Here's a close-up photo of the backpack.

Here's a photo of the back of the backpack.

The backpack is a Digichick template from the kit called Back to School~Backpack Album and I've put a step-by-step tutorial over at the Hybrid Chick blog for you to follow along. The paper is from October Afternoon and it's called Norm's News. I love this pattern...it's so retro and fun and thought it was perfect for a designer backpack.

The closure are magnets I hid under the ribbon flower. I'm calling this ribbon flower Blossom because it reminds me of those blossom roses I'm seeing everywhere these days. I put a quick video tutorial to show you how I made it and added a link towards the bottom of this post if you care to check it out!

I was a bit on the fence as to what to do with the pocket until I saw Moxie Fab World's Shimmer & Shine Gallery Challenge...it's all about adding some shine! I decided to do just that by adding rhinestones to the adorable image from the Together We Bloom set and here's a close up of that.

I wanted to also decorate the inside of the backpack since this is where the note cards will be stored and here's a photo of what that looks like inside.

The cards were so much fun to put together and came together quite quickly. Here's a close up of one of the cards.

The layout is quite CAS (clean and simple) which I think is fitting since the backpack has so much going on. I used one of the journaling cards that come in the Back to School~Backpack Album kit as a backdrop for the notebook image from Unity's Hodgepodge of Happiness set. I love how you really don't have to add much to this image to make it pop ~ just a bit of coloring! I finished off the note cards with some bling in the bottom right corner and some ribbon to tie it all together.

As I mentioned above, I did put a quick video tutorial to show you how to make the Blossom Ribbon Flowers. Here's a close up of the back of the flowers with magnets placed on them prior to adhering them to the backpack.

You can watch the video below or just click on the links above the video to view it over at YouTube or Vimeo.

watch video below /Watch at YouTube / Watch at Vimeo

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs Blog Hop and Sew Easy Sunday Video Tutorial

Happy Monday! Welcome to Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designsblog hop. I am very excited to be part of this very fun blog hop. Today we are sharing some of the amazing templates Kelleigh designed so that you can see the endless possibilities you can achieve with them.

I'm still finishing up my easter decorations, so I went with Kelleigh's Easter Basket template.

 

I started off by shrinking the template on Photoshop so I could fit four on one page as well as and lightened the color of the lines it looked something like this.

I printed it out onto a piece of My Mind's Eye Abbey Road pattern paper, cut them out and ended up with four tiny baskets. I adhered them together; added some handles, a sentiment and the adorable bunny image from Gina K. Designs Just So Hoppyset designed by Melanie Muenchinger; and filled it with some Easter Eggs.

Here's a front view of it.

Here's a view from the top so you get a better idea of how I adhered the baskets.

I just had to design a dress for the bunny...just couldn't help it! I'm also going to be making a couple more of these to send to the my hubby's co-workers ~ I just adore those ladies and I'm sure they'll want to have it displayed in their cubicles. They really do make adorable decorations or just a lovely gift.

I put a short video tutorial on how to make the ribbon knots on the handle, which you can watch below or just click on the links right above the video to view it over at YouTube or Vimeo.

watch video below /Watch at YouTube/ Watch at Vimeo

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Are you ready for more inspiration? Check out what the rest of the designers have come up with and don't miss out on winning some blog candy...more details on that below!

• Kelleigh
• Tracy
• Sally
• Laura
• Juli
• Julie
• Christy
• Dana
• LuAnn
• Jacinda
• Viva
• Dalis
• Holly
• Sharyn
• Karen Lewis
• Linda
• Alice
• Mel
• Sunghee
• Carolina
• Debbie
• Kim

As I mentioned above, Kelleigh is going to be giving away a $10 gift certiciate. Make sure to check out THIS blog post for all the information.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Inspiration Monday, Seasonal Saturday, & Hybrid Project

Happy Monday! When you travel, do you ever count on something to be available for you, only to get there and find out that it is not? Well, it happened to me this weekend. Friday morning, Hubby and I joined a group of friends and their children (there was a total of 16 of us) in Tahoe to take advantage of the perfect ski season we've been having here in California. I packed up my laptop with all my saved photos and files to be able to update my blog every night while we stayed there. We get there, AMAZING house by the way, and come to find out that there is no internet connection...thus my absence and lack of posting since Thursday.

My apologies for the unexpected break, but I do have some items to share with you today. I decided to combine next week's Sew Easy Sunday projects with yesterday's project, so I will be posting them together on March 21; however, I do have my Seasonal Saturday project to share with you. I do want to start off with my Inspiration Monday card, so here we go.

On the 15th of every month, the current Splitcoastampers stampers design team (Dirty Dozen) reveal a gallery that is created around a central theme. This gallery is available to all those who are Fan Club members. This month, I was honored to be asked to create a card for it. The theme is All Creatures Great and Small. Here's what I came up with, Some Bunny Loves You.

A group of Dirty Dozen Alumni were asked to make a card for this month's gallery for Susan Lilies who recently received some life changing news. I was going to make a card for her anyway, but it's also great to be able to showcase it over at Splitcoaststampers. Please visit her blog for all the details and keep her and her family in your prayers.  

The card I created for her pretty much says it all. Susan is an amazing artist with a wonderful sense of humor and thought she would get a kick out of this one. I'm using Gina K. Designs' Just so Hoppy! designed by Melanie Muenchinger. The base of the card as well as piece of My Mind's Eye pattern paper I cut out using Stampin' Up! Scallop Circle Bigz Die. I ran the card front through the Big Shot with the Textured Impressions' Perfect Polka Dots and attached half of the pattern paper to the card front. I tied a piece of satin ribbon into a bow, adhered it to the card front, and finished it off with a flower in the middle.

I stamped the bunny, basket of flowers, and sentiment on scrap piece of paper with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I punched out the sentiment with the Modern Label punch, added some dashes around the edge along with some ink; some halfback pearls on each end; and attached it to the card front with some dimensionals. To the bunny I added some Sparkly Fluff (cotton candy pink) to the ears and nose; Colored the basket with Copics and cut them both out. I attached the bunny and basket to the card front with dimensionals as well.

Stamps: Gina K. Designs: Just So Hoppy

 Paper: Pure Luxury Vanilla Card Stock; My Mind's Eye BeLoved

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Accessories: Big Shot; Bigz Scallop Circle die; Textured Impressions Perfect Polka Dots; Cotton Candy Pink Sparkly Fluff; Satin Ribbon; Sparkly Fluff; Halfback Pearls

 

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The Seasonal Saturday I planned to past this past Saturday is this one, Seasonal Saturday: Spellbinders Bunny.

 

 

 

I designed it using Spellbinders Borderabilities Jumbo Scalloped Border Petites, the larger die from the set as shown here.

 

 

The pattern paper is from My Mind's Eye Abbey Road designer paper and the fluff I used is called Sugar Sparkly Fluff. I thought the best way to show you how I put it together was by putting together a step-by-step video, so here you go and enjoy!

 

watch video below / Watch at YouTube / Watch at Vimeo

 

These little bunnies would be great to add to a bag, a box, a scrapbook page, or even a card...so many fun things you can add her to...hope you have fun putting them together!

 

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The last project I'd like to share with you is actually for a tutorial I put together over at the Hybrid Chick blog.  I wanted to design a vintage style bookmark with out all the bulk and was able to achieve that with digital images and finished it off with a sentiment from Gina K. Designs Hand-in-Hand stamp set designed by Melanie Muenchinger. Here's what my bookmark looks like:

 

 

 

As I mentioned above, you can find the step-by-step tutorial over at the Hybrid Chic blog. 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by and check back tomorrow for my Double Take Tuesday card!