Spellbinders Blog Frenzy

"Thanks to everyone who entered the Spellbinders' 5th Anniversary Party to win my Die Template release. You can no longer enter to win my release. Please check out Linda and Trudee's blogs for two more chances to enter the contest.

Check the  Spellbinders Blog for the announcement of Daily Winners. Grand prize winner will be announced on January 30th."
PLEASE NOTE: Commenting on this post is (very!) welcome but does not enter you into the contest. This contest is sponsored directly by Spellbinders Paper Arts. Please read the post to find directions for entering the contest. If you have any questions, please e-mail ContestQuestions@spellbinders.us.
Oh!  I love this time of year!  Everybody is coming out with all of their new lines for the year, but I think Spellbinders has topped them all for their 5 year Anniversary!  They came out with some really excellent dies this time around (I love, love, love the ones I got!), plus Spellbinders is celebrating their 5 year anniversary by sharing 16 days of sneak peeks, with LOTS of drawings for dies!!  Today there will be a drawing for the die I am showing you (the perfectly perfect Polka Dot Frame) and the previously revealed dies during the Spellbinders 5 Year Anniversary celebration.   Each day an additional die is added to the daily giveaway list for a grand total of more than16 dies on the 16th day of reveals!  Holy Smokes, that’s a LOT of prizes!

You’ll want to be sure and catch the two remaining sneak peaks!
JANUARY 19: Linda’s Works of Heart by Linda Duke
[http://lindaduke.typepad.com/lindas_works_of_heart/]
JANUARY 20: Follow Your Bliss by Trudee Sauer
[http://trudee.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/]
Winners will be announced on Spellbinders blog at http://www.spellbinderspaperarts.com/blog
And don’t forget you have until 11:59 PM on January 18th, 2009 to sign up for the give-away on Sally Lynn’s Blog [http://inkyheart.typepad.com/]!

The die template I’m revealing today is the Polka Dot Frameability.  I love Polka Dots!  They are so fun!  I mean can anyone just think “Polka Dot” and not smile :-) ?  The new Polka Dot Frameability is super versatile, skipping from fun and kitschy, sweetly vintage, or even elegant with just a switch of papers and ink.

Here’s the information you’ll need when it comes time to hunt this little number down:  Polka Dot Frame: SKU # S5-016, MSRP $24.99
This die is a natural for all fashions of paper artsiness, it would be lovely on a scrapbook page, great on a card front, and lends itself to off the page uses as well.  When I got mine in the mail, I’d just come home from having New Year’s brunch at Chez Colette (a wonderful little casual French restaurant at the Sofitel in Minneapolis). With La Vie en Rose stuck in my head and café au lait humming through my veins, I thought I’d make a little gift bag any lover of French couture would be proud to receive.

 

This project is surprisingly green; you only really need two pieces of paper, everything else is from the thrift store or *ahem* rifled from your grandmother’s sewing room.

For the bag you will need:
A die cutting machine (I love the Wizard and think it gives the best results)
Polka Dot Frame Die Template
Webster’s Pages Bloomin’ Beauty Paper
Worldwin Light Totally Tan Cardstock (this about the color of antique book paper which you can use if you aren’t concerned with your bag being acid free)
Silk and/or satin ribbons (yum!)
Two buttons
Old Sewing Pattern (preferably some size small horror that no one in their right mind would ever want to actually use)
Sewing Machine
Foam Dots
Craft Glue (I love Beacon’s 3 in 1 Craft Glue, dries super fast and strong)
Charcoal Gray or Black Ink Pad
Copies of a great old photo

The bag itself is blindingly simple.  Score and fold the red polka dot paper in half.  Tape or pin a length of black satin ribbon on each side to make a handle.  Then stitch the ends shut with a zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine.

 

Using craft glue or some heavy duty double-sided tape, attach a ribbon band around the entire bag.

 

Now here comes the fun part! The frame! The pictures here are using the Wizard, which I find to be the best machine on the market (I do own another machine but it is a very dusty and unused thing), and we are all about quality, no? ;-)

Here’s a step by step of how I created the frame, if you are new to the Wizard or want to see how to easily use the Spellbinder dies in whatever machine you have at home, I’ve included a video demo by Stacey Caron at the bottom of my instructions.

Put your Polka Dot Frame (the biggest one) rough side up on the magnetic spacer plate (or white spacer plate if you have the Purple Wizard).

 

Place your tan colored paper on top of your die.

Put your second white mat on top, and run it through your machine to cut the base frame out.

Now here’s where the die starts getting special.  Keep your paper in the die but remove the spacer plate and put the tan embossing mat on top of your paper.

Put on the top white mat, and run the sandwich through your machine.  You now have lovely embossed polka dots… but wait there’s more!  We’re going to stencil through the die!

This step works really well with smaller ink pads, but daubers of various kinds (example: cotton balls) work too.  Rub the ink pad all over the open spaces in the die.

Wow! Check out those perfect little charcoal colored polka dots!  No way could I have done those by hand!  Now trim your photo to fit your frame and mount them together.

Repeat the above cutting and stenciling with the smaller polka dot frame die.  Use this frame around your sentiment.

Okay, now you’ve got regular stenciling down, let’s kick it up a notch. Reverse Stenciling! This time ink up the smaller quatrefoil (clover shaped) die itself.

Then cut/emboss like normal.  Pop the paper out of the die and you’ve got a perfect border! 

Now just top it with a button.

  

And attach it to the smaller Polka Dot Frame.

Now put it all together on the bag with a little foam tape or pop dots.

I made a simple pin to attach to the bag handle, using the new Peony (S4-193) die template set and an old sewing pattern.  Haute couture!

If you’re feeling like you want to go on with your Polka Dot Party, create a card to go with the bag from some leftover tan cardstock.  I really like how you can create the look of a shaped card with this die simply by making your card base slightly smaller than your frame (a 3.25 x 9.5 strip folded in half is about perfect)

While I was creating this project it started snowing again.  So I decided to take my own advice (Warm Wishes!) and make a summery little card using the same basic technique.

Here are the videos I promised: http://spellbinderspaperarts.com/videos

Now the important  stuff- CONTEST RULES!!!!!!

Spellbinders 5 Year Anniversary Celebration
Sneak Peek Party Drawing Information

Spellbinders will randomly pick one entry from each of the 16 Spellbinders Sneak Peek Blog reveals as stated in the “Rules”. This name will be drawn to receive the die being revealed and any other dies listed as a part of said blog give-away.  These entries must follow all rules stated below to be valid for the drawing. 
Entrants visiting all 16 Spellbinders 5 Year Anniversary Celebration Sneak Peeks Blog reveals and correctly entering their information into the 16 separate drawings, as described below, will automatically be entered into a GRAND PRIZE give away of a full set of all 28 NEW RELEASE dies debuting at the Winter Craft and Hobby Association Show in Anaheim, California, on January 25-28, 2009!

Rules

Any participant wishing to be included in the daily drawing for the Spellbinders Birthday Celebration Sneak Peek die give away must adhere to all of the following rules:
1. Participant must click on the provided link on Reveal blog to enter each     individual drawing on sneak peeks between January 5 and January 20, 2009.

2. Participant must type in the subject line the name of the die being revealed. 
3. Participant must send their entry for this blog before 12:00 midnight Central Standard Time on January 19, 2009.
4. Participant is only allowed to enter each of the 16 Spellbinders sneak peek blog give away drawings one time per sneak peek. Participant must use the same email address daily to be considered for grand prize entry, no exceptions. Please consider whether you will have access to the same e-mail from January 5th through the 20th and plan accordingly.
5. Spellbinders Design Team members and employees are not eligible for drawings. 
 Any participant wishing to be automatically entered into the drawing for the Spellbinders 5 Year Anniversary Celebration Sneak Peek Grand Prize drawing, must enter the drawing from all of the 16 blog reveals and follow all the above rules.
Please note:
*Spellbinders will only use email information to contact the winner.
*Spellbinders will not share this email address with any other parties. 
*Spellbinders will not use this email information for advertisements or communications other than to contact the winner.
*If you wish to be included in further communications from Spellbinders, please go to their homepage SpellbindersPaperArts.com and sign up for their newsletter.
For more Spellbinders product release information go to www.SpellbindersPaperArts.Com
If you have any questions regarding the contest, please e-mail ContestQuestions@spellbinders.us


Thanks to everyone who stopped by, hope you are feeling inspired by all the great projects, and good luck!
-Donya

Sistah

Ok, now everyone is going to think all my family listens to nothing but Metallica and Marilyn Manson (in truth it's more likely to be Cole Porter) but here we go.  My sweet 16 year old sister.  Yo.

She pretty much is hardcore, her favorite movies are Domino and Tank Girl... and this is what she wore to Homecoming this past fall.  Whereas you could not have paid me enough to go to homecoming.  Ever.

I cut a slit behind her arm and tucked an ornate white wing into it.  The wing is actually a corner cut from the Storybook cartridge.  I really wanted it on the page and couldn't figure out where to put it, then had one of those AHA! moments.
The pink lotuses are cut from Amy Butler's Lotus Tea Box paper. Background paper is Bobunny (same as yesterday's layout I did of my mom) and strip of skull paper is a sheet from DCWV's Rockstar line.

Rock on Mom

This is my wonderful Mother :-) I think seeing this one might be able to see how I became who I am :-)  This picture is a self portrait taken when she won a contest for a copy of the book Scrap City (totally awesome book btw) that I kinda sorta stole until she forced me to give it back, lol.

Find some good punky paper (the paper I used is by Bobunny)
Mat a black and white 5x7 with white cardstock and then black.
To make the title I used Flirt glitter alphabet stickers by Reminisce, but you could just as easily use red cardstock and the new Blackletter cartridge.  I cut a guitar out of red cardstock using the Indie Art Cricut cartridge and tacked it on the end. 
Voila on hardcore mama in 15 minutes or less :-)

I used to be Snow White

...but I drifted- Mae West 

The view from my front door.  Part of that snow drift is the driveway...the black part is my car.  Oh well, at least I have all of my Christmas shopping done, so I don't need to go anywhere.  UPS delivered the last yesterday.  I feel so sorry for those drivers, our poor guy has to go out in weather that would turn my hair and my knuckles white.   Now I've got plenty of time to decorate, wrap, and bake, and no excuse! (like I needed one)  Oh the weather outside is frightful, inside is so delightful....
One thing that I don't have to wrap- Merry Christmas to me!  A new Copic Block Stand for all my Sketches.  Oh, the organizational glory of it!

PLUS! I got new stamps from JustRite!!! and new dies to experiment with from Spellbinders for CHA!!!  Oh heck, I may just have to dig my car out and head down to the shop after all.   Then again, maybe after a cup of hot chocolate.... It just started snowing again.

Shock and Awe

Harvest time is here again, the time of year when I rush out the cornfield with a machete to harvest corn for decorative shocks before the renter comes with his huge and much more effective machines.

Unfortunately Alfie had his own idea of what shocks meant. 
I stumbled across the (not so) Urban Hennery while hunting up information on raising your own chickens (my two hens have started laying teensy little eggs!)  Laura had a neat challenge going: Dark Days.  The goal is to fix at least one meal from 90% local ingredients per week.  I'm lucky enough to live near Sugar Creek Farm, a large Mennonite population, and a lovely grandmother who taught me how to put up corn and tomatos this past summer, which means lots of locally grown food is available.  We also harvested and pickled bucketloads of BEETS which I have no love of.  I decided to participate and see if the Dark Days participants can inspire beet tolerance even in this most prejudiced of persons.

Pssst

You should head on over to the newly unveiled Spellbinders website http://www.spellbinderspaperarts.com   It's really great, very pretty and most importantly-much, much easier to use.  Check out the Inspiration Alley to see large images of projects or check out the new Blog for neat techniques and giveaways!

Mooooooo

At long last!  I downloaded my camera and snuck a few moments to scrap the new stars of The Dairy Barn B&B (aka my residence)  Meet Thumper and Bumper, two new steers destined to be fabulous grass fed steaks.  A bit unsentimental of a view perhaps, but I am very fond of ribeye and I'm trying to be a stronger locavore.   They are very sweet calves.  They like their ears and chins scratched just like big dogs :-)

Thumper and Bumper were actually being raised in secret by one of my uncle's friends.  We've been talking in code about them for about 6 months before we suprised Grandpa Don with them.  The lack of shocked reaction was kinda dissapointing, but that's a stoic old farmer for you.  Don't let him fool you, he's just goofy over those two cows.  Probably likes them even more since he doesn't have to get up at 4 am to milk them.

See Alfie. See Alfie the cow dog "gaurd" the strange new additions to the farmyard.

PS- Isn't that paper pretty?  I just discovered Webster's Pages, I'm completely in love with them.  It's Anna Griffin meets Basic Grey and them made 10 times more wonderful.  Go check out their sample pages here - http://websterspages.ning.com/  I promise you'll be inspired!