Dot & Whimsy : December 2014

Bella Blvd: Reveal Week Day #1

It's Day #1 of the BELLA BLVD Reveal Week:
BELLA BOWS and ENAMEL DOTS & DOODADS

Introducing Bella Bows, a simply soft way to embellish your cards, layouts and crafts.

Created from felt, these darling bows are a great way to add some dimension & style

to all projects. In our signature Bella Blvd colors, Bella Bows are available in 12 single color packages, including an adhesive dot on each bow for easy application.

Okay, these are seriously the coolest things! I had the pleasure of creating

a card for the CHA Booth that focuses on the Bella Bows and here is a peek:

A look at ALL of those yummy colors:

Embellishing just got a whole lot more fun with the newest addition to the

Bella Blvd catalog: Enamel Dots and DooDads! A colorful assortment of self-sticking

enamel accents in 9 different colors, matching perfectly to our paper collections.

Each pack of Bella Blvd Enamel Dots comes with 38 assorted pieces, including 4 sizes.

And why only have round enamels, when you can have shaped Enamel DooDads

including photo corners, stars, hearts, and arrows too! Each pack of Bella Blvd Enamel

DooDads comes with 28 assorted pieces.

And a peek at a card that I made highlighting the Enamels:

Now here's your chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it!

Bella Blvd is giving away the entire Bella Bows and Enamel Dots & Doodads

collections to one lucky reader! Just leave us a comment on the Bella Blvd Blog

telling what you love about these new embellishments.

One comment per person.

Randomly chosen winners for ALL of the reveal giveaways will be announced on

Sunday, January 11th...good luck!

card Carta Bella Top Dog Dies

Winter Smiles & Saying Farewell

Wow, it has been a crazy, busy month, hasn't it!?!

I set aside the day yesterday to take down my Christmas tree

and decorations. Of course, in the process you must dust, vacuum

and fluff all of the old stuff that's coming back out onto the shelves again...

I always, always dread packing it all away so I'm glad it's over!

Now my house looks so clean...and sparse LOL

This will probably be my last post for 2014, so I wanted to send a

farewell to a few of the teams that I was so privileged to be a part of

for the past year or two:

DOODLEBUG DESIGN

NEWTON'S NOOK DESIGN

PINK PAISLEE

TOP DOG DESIGNS

I have decided that it was time to cut back on my commitments going into

2015, but I do have a couple of surprise announcements to share once

they're made public...I can't wait to share them with you!

Here is one of my final projects made with Top Dog Dies

With the chilly winter months still ahead of us, warm someone's day with this cozy

card using the Darling Deer Die Set...it's not just for Christmas projects!

I die-cut the deer image from brown cardstock and then a cute brown and white dot paper

by Carta Bella. The horns were snipped from the dot paper and then layered on top

of the cardstock image. Next, the Vintage A2 Mat Die was used to create a

snowy background and the deer was added with foam adhesive.

The snowy hill (cut from white cardstock) was spritzed with an iridescent spray

and also added at the bottom with foam adhesive. A simple sentiment sticker

from the same Carta Bella collection was attached, along with a small die-cut snowflake.

The serene scene and color scheme will surely brighten anyone's winter day!

I cannot believe that the CHA Winter show is just a week and a few days away...

if you're going, I hope to see you there!

Let me close by wishing you each a very Happy New Year...

Love and hugs to you all!

Christmas Cozy Christmas shabby chic Simple Stories tags

Cozy & Shabby Gifting Tags

Happy Holiday Greetings!

I have a quartet of Cozy Christmas shabby chic-style gifting tags to share with you today.

I've pulled together chipboard stickers, cardstock stickers, brads, enamel dots,

bits 'n pieces, insta squares and SN@P! cards from the collection by

SIMPLE STORIES

along with a few other basic office supplies from my stash.

To begin I started with basic manila shipping tags, as well as a couple of metal rim key tags (these can be found at office supply stores). I soaked the key tags in a tea solution overnight to give them an aged look.

Next, I prepared the tags by inking around the edges with a brown distress ink.

I started each tag with a mat of paper that was cut from a larger SN@P! card or placed two of the smaller Insta Squares together to form a background.

Add dimension by layering small stickers and die-cuts with foam adhesive. When adding the brads, I made sure that I attached them to a piece so that the prongs wouldn't show at the back of the tag.

Use dies to create your own mats for the different bits 'n pieces die cuts. And of course I had to add some pom pom trim and ribbon bows to the tops of each tag!

A bevy of beautiful, handmade tags can be whipped up in no time and they make lasting keepsakes for the recipients (or for yourself!). Have fun tag making!

Cozy Christmas Products:

5402 Fundamentals 12x12 Sticker

5403 Expressions 12x12 Sticker

5423 4x6 Sn@P! Cards

5427 Decorative Brads

5428 Chipboard Stickers

5429 Bits & Pieces

5430 Insta-Squares

5431 Enamel Dots

And don't forget to visit www.simplestories.com to see new product
and more projects from the Design Team!

-*-Wishing you a beautiful holiday season-*-

Authentique Paper Christmas Home Decor Sierra Pacific Crafts Wall Hanging

Photo Trio Wooden Plaque

Today I have a Christmas home decor project up at
AUTHENTIQUE PAPER
using one of the wood surfaces from Sierra Pacific Crafts
and the "Believe" Collection from Authentique.
www.authentiquepaper.com

From the Authentique Blog:

First, the three lower squares of wood were removed from the rings and then the
surfaces were painted with a black acrylic paint and a sponge brush.

Square dies came in handy when it came to creating the mats and cutting the
photos for the blocks.

Trim by Petaloo was added to the edges of the sentiment card, as well as a single
band of black and white baker's twine, which tied in nicely with the painted wood.
Matching ornaments were trimmed out from a separate piece of the "Adorn"
Paper and attached with foam adhesive.

In keeping with the shape of the wood pieces, the papers and photos were corner
rounded on the edges.The 6X6 paper pad of papers are ideal when creating small mats.

For the hanger, a length of gingham ribbon was tied through the hangers that were
all ready in place at the top of the larger wood surface. Next, two boutique style
bows were made and glued above the knotted ends of the hanger.

These wood pieces are inexpensive, yet well-made. If you're looking for a
handmade gift to give this Christmas, consider crafting one of these!

Thanks for visiting me today!