Cut it Up – Halloween

Time for another fun challenge from Cut it Up!  This time it’s Halloween.  I love making Halloween cards, but I made something different for this challenge.  It’s a candy bowl made with a file from our sponsor, Dreaming Tree.

This Halloween Treat Bowl is six-sided and is easier to put together than it looks.  I love how it’s decorated with negative space for the words and skeleton hands, and the bats and stars glued on elements.  It’ll be just the right size to hold the candy we’ll be giving out this year (if anybody comes to our door. . . )It’s lined with purple card stock, which adds an extra layer for stability.  Here are the sides.And here it is on my box of Harry Potter books!I didn’t fill it yet.  If I bought candy now, it would be long gone before the big day.  I usually buy it on Halloween day so we don’t pig out all month and gain ten pounds!!

Dreaming Tree’s prize is a $15 gift card to their store, so why not enter a Halloween project and get in the running?

Evelyn

Fall Blog Hop Winner!!

Thanks, everyone, for visiting my blog!  I hope you enjoyed the little Cut it Up Fall Blog Hop as much as we did.  Such a fun weekend activity!

The winner of my blog candy is #2, Marilyn!!  🎉

Congratulations, Marilyn!  Email me at    evelynholmberg@mac.com   with your mailing address and I’ll get your Autumn Splendor paper pad out to you this week!

Evelyn

Die Cuttin’ Divas October 2018 sketch challenge

It’s the first Tuesday of the month, and you know what that means?  Another awesome sketch challenge from Die Cuttin’ Divas!  There are a couple of ways to achieve this design.
I made two frames – the yellow and the orange – and layered them on top of a blue background.

When I design a card in Silhouette Design studio, I first make a rectangle or square in the size that I want the finished card to be so I can place everything and size it.  Looks like this.  The square for this card measures 4.75 inches.   I chose a recent freebie from Miss Kate’s Cuttables, Beehive, for this card and placed a copy of the svg onto my square.  I knew I wanted some kind of cutesy bee-related sentiment and went with Hap-bee Birthday.  I used the text tool to write it, filled it with brown and set it to no cut.  Next I placed the sentiment onto my square, grouped it, and did a print/cut on blue paper.

The beehive itself is cut at about 2 inches. That made for some very thin, tiny pieces.  I cut the bees many times but was only able to get one to cut cleanly.  I did the best I could with the others.  They all tore and I couldn’t get the tiny pieces out.  The flight line also tore. 😞

All in all, I think the card turned out pretty cute!  I did forget to add the tan rectangle from the sketch, though.  It’s still sitting on my desk . . .

It’s always fun to see how different people interpret a sketch.  We’d love to see your take on this one!

Evelyn

Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges – October 2018 card

New month, new card challenge over at Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges.  My husband needed a sympathy card for someone he knows from work.  They’re always sad to make.
I inked a pretty background and stamped the sentiment with Memento Tuxedo Black ink in my MISTI, added a couple mini brads to finish it off.  I love the black on the colored background.

The sentiment is from a set by SP & Company (I can’t find them on the web – maybe out of business?)  The set was called Poppy Field Summer.  I have made this style of card before using a mask to set off that center strip and just inking above and below it, but I wanted this card to have more substance than a one-layer card.  When I’ve made this card in the past, I used a stamp from a Close to My Heart set called Words of Comfort.  There is a very pretty “With Heartfelt Sympathy” stamp in that set in a beautiful font.  I can’t find my set anymore and I guess it’s retired cause I can’t find it anywhere now.  😦

The leaves are an old wood-mounted stamp.

Hope you join us this month at Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges.  It’s always cards now and open for a month!

Evelyn

 

Cut it Up – Fall Blog Hop

You’re in the right place!  Welcome to the Cut it Up Fall Blog Hop!  You should have started your hop from the Cut it Up blog and arrived here from Gerda’s.  The whole lineup is at the bottom of my post.

I’m so excited for this.  It’s going to be so much fun because there are designers from two teams participating – the Cut it Up team and some guests from Die Cuttin’ Divas!  Our sponsor for this blog hop is SVG Attic.  They’ve donated a $15 gift code!  And since no one claimed the $10 prize from Ink on 3, that’s up for grabs, too!

The winner will be chosen from the comments on Cut it Up Challenge Blog by random.org and will be announced on the Cut it Up blog on October 2^nd.  To be eligible to win, you must follow and comment on each of our blogs, including Cut it Up.  (You’re starting and ending at Cut it Up.  Be sure to leave a comment there to get in the running for the prize.)

Here’s my project.  I wanted to do something other than a card for this hop.  Dreaming Tree has such great projects to choose from so I went “shopping” there.  I chose one of their freebies, the Pumpkin Treat Box.  There’s an assembly video, but you don’t really need it; the box is straightforward.  I made mine almost exactly like their model, only adding some pretty fall paper to the sides.  The paper is from the Harvest paper pad by Love Nicole, which I picked up at A. C. Moore last year.I really liked last year’s Love Nicole autumn paper pad, so I stopped by A. C. Moore again to see if they had something new for this year.  They do!  I picked up two of their Autumn Splendor paper packs, one for myself and one to give away as blog candy – just a little way for me to thank you for visiting.  I can’t wait to start crafting with it.

To get in the running for this little prize, be or become a follower and leave me a comment on this post by October 2nd.   I’ll have Random.org choose the winner early that morning and post it then, too.

Here’s the whole lineup in case you need it.  Remember to comment on and follow each designer and CIU.  I’m the last designer, so hurry on over to Cut it Up and leave your comment there!  Thanks so much for hopping with us.  Hope you had as much fun as we did!

Evelyn

Fall Blog Hop lineup 2018

Cut it Up Challenge Blog
Vinita
Treva
Michelle
Leslie
Larelyn
Katrina
Katie
Gerda
Evelyn (me!)
Cut it Up Challenge Blog – Don’t forget to leave a comment here!  Prize winners are selected from the comments on Cut it Up.  Good luck!  ♡

 

Die Cuttin’ Divas – Fall Colors

Spring is my favorite season to be in, but I really love autumn colors to craft with.  They’re just so vibrant.  Our theme this week at Die Cuttin’ Divas is Fall Colors.  Create any kind of project that includes a die cut and uses fall colors.  Easy peasy!

This Stacked Pumpkin svg file from Miss Kate’s Cuttables caught my eye when I looked for a file to work with for this challenge.  It’s an oldie but goodie, a freebie from 2013.  The papers are oldies, too, both scraps from my stash.  The card is 9″ x 4.”  I wanted to have it fit in a business size envelope, but the leaves hang over and I didn’t want to cut them. . .  Not sure how I’ll send it!!  But a very fun file to put together!

Let your fall colors show at Die Cuttin’ Divas this week!  🙂

Evelyn

Persistence pays off

Did you ever have one of those projects?  You struggle, struggle, struggle, but stay with it and it finally pays off?  That’s the story with this little sweater.

I had bought 10 skeins each of a beige and a taupe alpaca fiber from Craftsy early this spring in preparation for Milo May.  They were on sale, and I can’t resist a sale . . .  Then Milo May came and I only made two using the alpaca.  I had a ton of it left in both colors, and I promised myself I’d use every last yard of it.  So I made a larger size Milo (the one that looks brown below) and a couple using two strands of yarn held together to try and use it up, but I still had more!

(The photos make it appear that there are more than two colors here, but there are only the taupe and beige.)

Next, I decided to make a sweater with the beige.  I looked at my patterns and chose the Flax Light.  Adding up the yardage in my remaining skeins, I figured that size 1-2 would use it up, and I was right.  I used up all of the beige and got this far:Uh oh.  Ran out of the beige.  I still had two skeins of taupe left, but I couldn’t just continue that sleeve with a different color.  I had to come up with a plan how to use some of the taupe without it looking like a mistake.  What I decided to do was to unravel the hem and the cuff and use that yarn to finish the sleeve.  Hopefully there would be enough.  Then I could knit the hems and sleeve cuffs with the taupe.  It was enough!!  Just!  So then I knitted the cuffs and hem with the taupe and it looked purposeful.Except that the ribbing on the neckline was beige.  I decided to rip that out and make it taupe, too.  I had never ripped out knitting from the top of a garment, only from the bottom.  Guess what?  It doesn’t unravel!!  I had to cut the fabric to pick up my yoke stitches.  It took an hour, and I lost one stitch somewhere.  Should have had 100, but only had 99 . . .   Close enough.  When I finished, there were lots of ends to weave in.  But you know what?  I love how it turned out!!There are 156 yards left of the taupe, then it’s all gone.  That’s enough for a newborn Milo, especially if I go down a needle size.  I’m going to make a project bag for travel knitting with it.

Just in time for the Fall Fiber Festival, which is two weeks away!!  😉

Evelyn

Cut it Up – Bags or Boxes

A great challenge theme for this time of year!  Everyone can use bags and boxes for all the holidays coming up, can’t they?  Why just wrap a gift when you can make a fun container to present it in?  Anyway, that’s our current challenge at Cut it Up – Bags or Boxes.  The Cutting Cafe is our sponsor this time around and they have a ton of bags and boxes on their site.  Our team got two files to work with – Fun with Fry Boxes and Assorted Shapes Milk Cartons.   I used elements from both for my project.
Obviously, I used the fry box, which cut out really nicely.  I love the shape of this box.  The sentiment is also from this set.  The apples are from the milk carton set.  I knew I wanted a fall theme and was hungry at the time, so . . .  Yummy apples!

Check out what the other design team members did with these files, then link up a bag or box of your own.  The prize is any 3 sets of your choice from The Cutting Cafe!  And they’re all awesome!

Evelyn

Die Cuttin’ Divas Tic-Tac-Toe

Tic-Tac-Toes are always fun challenges!  Here’s the Tic-Tac-Toe board for this week’s Die Cuttin’ Divas challenge.

I went down the left-hand column and used leaves, enamel dots, and twine.

The leaves are from Pooh and Friends Cricut cartridge, the dots were a thank you from my Stampin’ Up consultant, Dawn, and the twine is Chocolate Truffle Trendy Twine.

My son’s birthday is in September and I usually make him a football card, but when he was little and he’d ask us about his birthday, we’d always tell him it’s in the fall when the leaves turn colors.  So I decided to make him a fall-themed birthday card for a change.  Hope he likes it!

The papers are from the DCWV 8×8 paper pad called Maps, Text, & Ledgers.  The sentiment is from So Many Birthdays by Jaded Blossom.

Hop on over to DCD to see what the other ladies chose from the tic-tac-toe board.  It’s always cool to see how different everyone’s projects are when they start out with the same challenge!  🙂

Evelyn

The Merry Christmas Challenge – September, 2018

Welcome to the September Merry Christmas Challenge!  I’m showing some simple but fun and beautiful waterfall albums.  You can make them with any theme.  Check out my summer ones here.  The easy-to-follow tutorial is from Ginger, My Sister’s Scrapper.

I made many using some patterned paper, some print and cuts, some stickers, some die cuts . . . You get the idea!  Here they are individually.  You can click on any that you want to enlarge to see the detail better.

What will you link up this month?

Evelyn