Mr. Smiley's Amazing Race

Your Paper Pantry Mr. Smiley stopped by for a couple of days.   We had a lot of fun.  What major US river did Mr. Smiley tour?  Watch the video and send your guess into Yourpaperpantry.comcast.net to be entered into the drawing.   You need to be a member of Your Paper Pantry to be eligible so check that out too.

I entered my home on DIY's Desperate Landscapes.

"Is my backyard my front yard or the other way around?"

Please watch the video and rate my landscape.   BULLDOZE IT!!!

DIY Desperate Landscape Entry Video

Altered Cigar Boxes-100 YouTube Subscriber Giveaway!!

Recently I went over 100 YouTube Subscribers on my YouTube Channel @ Runaway Crafting YouTube .and I decided to do a thank you giveaway.     I am giving away one of the altered wooden cigar boxes, of your choice of 3 (see pictures below) and I will fill it with some other giveaway items as shown in the video.  

Please watch the video to get all the information about the giveaway and how to enter.  But basically, please subscribe to my YouTube channel Runaway Crafting YouTube and leave a comment to enter.   You can also get another entry by subscribing to this blog and leaving a comment here as well. The entry period will end at noon central time on Saturday, March 10, 2012.   I will do a drawing and announce the winner shortly after the close of the entry period.  Please note that because of the size and weight of the box and other items, I need to limit the giveaway to United States Postal Service addresses only.

Now a little about the altered boxes.

The cigar boxes are approximately 5 1/2" x 7 1/2" x 2 1/4" and are made of wood.   Three colors are available, green, brown or tan.  Here is a link to a video with more details about the boxes. 

Thanks for subscribing, watching, commenting and posting your own items to share with me.   I am totally inspired by all of you. Amy

My submission for the Cricuteer February Swap

Your Paper Pantry Cricuteers February swap came from British Columbia to my house in Minnesota this week.  I took out 5 of what was in the envelope and added what is pictured below.  The swap is on its way to Tennessee.

 I used some cartridges and cuts I haven't used for a while or that I have never used.   Had fun!!!  Visit Your Paper Pantry dot ning dot com (www.yourpaperpantry.ning.com) to see more.  Have a great day and thanks for visiting my blog.  Amy

A few of my favorite. . . and NEW favorite things!!!

I put together a video to share some of my favorite crafting tools and some of my NEW favorite crafting tools.  I also made an announcement of a future giveaway for reaching 100 subscribers on Youtube.  Showed some cigar boxes that I am altering and some of the giveaway candy!

My 100 Subscriber Giveaway will be posted soon!  Amy

Christmas Cards made

I needed 62 Christmas cards to send out this year.  I decided to make a gate fold card.  The first picture is the 'prototype" of the card.

I used one Christmas paper pack for all of the cards from My Minds Eye.   The medallion in this card is stamped with writing, embossed in clear, and inked Stampin up inks.   The tree is cut from the Christmas noel cartridge and the medallion is cut from French Manor.  The inside of the card

Making the cards this way would be very time consuming so I streamlined it a little bit.   Instead of embossing the front medallion, I ran it through the Cuttlebug using either the Swiss dots or swirls folders.    For the inside, I just stamped the Merry Christmas on the cardstock rather than cutting, inking and gluing or taping the ovals.  I used two colors of stickles in the prototype; but only used red stickles on the rest of the cards. 

 So I started to mass produce this card starting with the card base of 8 1/2 x 5 1/2, scored at 2 1/8" and 6 3/8".   I cut the tag from the Pop Up Neighborhood cartridge at 4".  I was able to cut 8 tags out of a 12 x 12 sheet of paper cutting 6 landscape and 2 on portrait.   I'll be posting a video on how I did this.  I'm all about saving.   I cut the tree in shadow at 3 1/4" tall.  I was able to cut 12 from a 12 x 12 sheet but I used the parts in between as they were nice trees too and saved several sheets of paper.  I'll show this in the video too. 

 Then I cut what I used on the front panels of the gate card.  I first cut a 12 x 12 sheet into 3 4" strips and then cut 2, 5 3/8" pieces out of each strip yielding 6 per 12 x 12 sheet.  I waited to cut the 4" strips in half to mount on each side of the card until I was going to actually adhere it down.  I'll explain a little later.
I used Tim Holz Distress Winter Trio pack that came in the mail, for all the inking on the cards. 

I then stamped "Merry Christmas" on the inside panel with the red ink and folded and used a bone folder on cards.   Next I taped the pieces on the front panel.   I cut each 4" x 5 3/8" piece in half (2" each) and then taped them to the front of the card making sure that the pattern matched when the card was closed.  This is why I cut these one at a time to keep the pieces in order.
Next I ran the tags through the Cuttlebug BEFORE inking with the green or red.  I inked after the Cuttlebug to get the effect of having the ink on top of the embossing but not in between.   I assembled the cards using a combination of ATG tape and glue stick (again to save tape).   Then I put the red stickles on the trees and stood them up on the coffee table to dry (as shown in the picture).
I'm going to write "and have a Happy New Year!" on the inside with a Stampin Up marker and put my "trademark" on the back with the year.
I will show more detail in my YouTube video that I will post here.  Thanks for visiting and have a Merry Christmas!!! Amy

Baby gift for my niece--Tag, framed silhouette Dancer cut from Cricut, emobssed

My niece is having a baby in February and I put this together for her baby shower gift.   I put a gift card inside but I couldn't just do that.  In the first picture, I used a recycled white gift bag and needed to cover some names written on the bag.  I used a medallion cut from the French Manor cartridge, inked with Stampin up inks, a Little Bundle of Joy stamp and a flower I put together with a little green button brad for the center.  I colored the stamp with colored pencils.  This measures approximately 4" tall.

 

I made this tag for the baby whose name starts with a "P".     All the pieces were cut from Cricut cartridges including Country Life, and I'll add the others.  The tag is 6" tall.   I made the rosette from a piece of cardstock 1 1/2" by 12" scored every 1/4" .  I added the white stitching around the tag, pearls, ribbon bow, another button brad and recycled silk flowers.  All of the edges are inked with Stampin Up inks.   I didn't intend for this to be a Christmas onament but when my niece opened it up, she said, "oh, her first Christmas ornament."  Cool.

The back of the tag I ran through the Cuttlebug with this floral folder and I inked the inside of the folder with Tie Dye Distress ink.   Then I added some pink and brown ink around the edges and on top of the embossing.

Inside I put together this framed ballerina I cut from the Shall We Dance cart.  I embossed it with black embossing powder on black cardstock but when I make another one of these silhouettes, I will cover it with Glossy Accents or clear embossing powder.  I used a recycled silver frame, inked the mat with pink and green (the baby's room colors)  and mounted the ballerina on a pink patterned cardstock using sheet Glue Dots (one of my NEW favorite things!!!).

Preview