Foto Funday {week 39} 2012

Happy, Happy Autumn!

After a summertime hiatus here on the blog, I am back with a few photos to celebrate the arrival of autumn! I do hope you’ve all had a wonderful summer and that autumn finds you enjoying the crunch of leaves underfoot, the delicious briskness in the air, and the marvelous colors all around! Along with all of those, I am looking forward to the delicious treat of sipping my favorite hot beverages through this season… chai latte, Cocoa Mocha, and Spiced Orange Cider! What will you be sipping for the season?

I’ve already rounded up some cornstalks from the neighbor & bundled them on our front porch next to my old chair where I love to sit and do my devotions and prayer journal early each morning. I plan to pick up a few small pumpkins soon, then we’ll add some larger ones in October after hubby gets them carved in the marvelous way he does!

Now for those autumn photos I went out and took yesterday … they include some gorgeously-colored leaves off the cottonwood trees, and my lovely autumn crocus. Did you know there is such a thing as autumn crocus?? It never fails to amaze me when these lovely flowers pop up this time of year—they produce large, beautiful green foliage in the spring which dies off after a few weeks, then there is nothing until mid-September when the colorful blooms suddenly appear!

Blessings to you!

`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· Cari `·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·

     

Paper Crafts: Spring Card Trio

Good morning! With spring arriving I am sure that you, like me, are busy as can be! I've been enjoying all the spring flowers - the daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths - as well as the sight of all the birds! Our hummingbirds have been greedily feeding at our front window, much to our delight! I thought I would just pop on today and quickly share three cards I've created this spring - one for Easter, and two for weddings. I genuinely hope these inspire you in your own moments of creativity! :)

 {click images to view larger}

All three cards feature shapes cut using my Silhouette Cameo - love all the ways I can use my Silhouette! :D

Blessings to you!

`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· Cari `·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·

     

Special FREEBIE for National Scrapbooking Day

Happy {inter}National Scrapbook Day!! Are you enjoying some great scrapping deals and events all around scrapland? With all the excitement of iNSD I just couldn’t resist creating a little digital scrapbooking mini kit to share – Strength For The Journey. This mini collection includes two papers and six elements—3 wordart, 1 button ribbon, 1 flower, 1 scallop circle, and two stitch borders. These are all the same high quality, 300dpi product you have come to expect here at Cari Creates! Designs. I am trying a new file-sharing site—Minus.com—which I understand to be better than 4shared.

- Download Strength For The Journey –

I also want to pass along the news that you can now get my Storyboard Template packs! Due to customer requests, I have made these available for purchase at my Payloadz shop – for just $1 per pack.

Happy iNSD everyone!

Blessings to you!

`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· Cari `·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·

     

Fun Ideas for Valentines – and special savings!

On the heels of yesterday’s Valentine Treat Bag tutorial, I thought I’d share a few fabulous goodies from Lettering Delights for other Valentine projects! I just can’t get over how many adorable items they have! I also want to be sure you know about the special they are running: save 20% on $20 purchase with code: InLove!

I just love good old-fashioned “conversation hearts” candies, so these items really caught my eye! So much yumminess!

And then these cuter than cute “Love Bites” sets! If I had little ones at home still, I  would just have to send some of these to school with them! And the one that says “It’s not a CROC, I love you” – can’t you just see attaching that to a fun pair of CROCS for your favorite valentine??

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Blessings to you!

`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· Cari `·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·

     

Papercraft Project: Valentine Treat Bag

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and thought I’d share the steps in making a yummy little treat bag to give out to your favorite Valentines! I recently came up with this little treat bag and just loved how it turned out, so I decided to make up several like it to give out to family this Valentine’s Day.

Since I was making several, I decided to dig into some of my immense papercrafting stash and use up some beautiful papers & other crafty items I’ve had around for a while.

I started by cutting out my topper base layers:

• 3” squares of red patterned paper
• 2 1/2” squares of a coordinating patterned paper

(My patterned papers were older ones from Calambour’s Love Letter & Persia Collections)

I scored and folded them, then inked the edges of all with:

• Fired Brick Distress Ink by Tim Holtz

I then adhered the layers.

As I said, I’m making a number of these!

I printed out my sentiments in dark red on white cardstock using:

• Pupcat font

I trimmed them, then inked them with:

• Mustard Seed Distress Ink by Tim Holtz
• Fired Brick Distress Ink by Tim Holtz
• Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink by Tim Holtz

Next, I cut the center strips:

• 2 1/2” x 1/2” textured patterned paper

I inked the edges with red, then attached 3 brads to each:

• 1/8” antique copper brads

I punched out several hearts from patterned papers of yellow and red, and inked their edges red.

• Double-heart punch by EK Success

I adhered the yellow hearts atop the red hearts (or vice versa), slightly offset.

I adhered all pieces to the toppers, using pop foam squares for the sentiment pieces.

I filled my treat bags with candies, then attached the toppers to the bags with staples at each end of the middle paper strip.

• 3” square mini poly zip bags
• Metallic orange staples

And here it is!

For special gift-giving, I cut out a heart tag from white cardstock using mini pinking scissors, punched a tiny heart in the corner, and inked the edges.

I placed the treat bags inside these cellophane Valentine bags, attached the tag with a twisty, and there we go! A fun treat for someone special on Valentine’s!

I’d love to hear if you make up any of these Valentine treat bags, so be sure to come back and leave me a note!

:: IN OTHER NEWS ::

Have you heard? I am excited that the folks over at COLOURlovers are opening a new site, Creative Market, as a marvelous new resource for “handcrafted, mousemade design.” If you join now, before launch, you get a $5 voucher to spend at the site! Join here: Creative Market

Blessings to you!

`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.· Cari `·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·