Bird Swing - Anything Goes at 7 Kids:)

Hello Happy Crafters! Guess what? We are going into the 90's today! Good-bye winter, forget spring and hello summer. Crazy, crazy weather. Last night I purchased most of my flowers for the flower bed and it is going to be pink, red, violet and yellow! Ah, and to be outside without a coat or sweater, watching kids ride their bikes, birds humming in the back yard, windows open with fresh air coming in and I am one happy camper! What is the weather like where you live? My friends in South Africa are headed into winter - eeeks. Talking about SA - I want to give a great big shout out CONGRATULATIONS to my friend Sharon Keanly who purchased a home this year and will have her own crafting room and lots more!! I am so excited for her, she has worked so hard and deserves her little corner of the world:) Love you Sharon!

Well, are you ready for some fun by creating what ever you want? It's  "anything goes" over at the 7 Kids College Fund challenge! Come on over and play for a chance to win a $20.00 gift certificate to the store! Have you been to the store lately?  Let me tell you about some of the sales going on. Do you love Popcorn The Bear, Stampendous, Magnolia's - they are all on sale right now. 7 Kids is growing and growing and you need to stop by the store daily to see all the new products Tab has been adding.... unbelievable. Here are just some of the new items coming in and are up for pre-order: The links will not work at this time for they are on pre-order. If you purchase anything from the 7 Kids College Fund Store - please use the store blinkie on my right side bar so I will get credit or on any other DT's blog.

BTW did you see the soap I made on my last posting! EASY PEASY kit from 7 Kids and they make wonderful gifts for the ones you  just don't know what to buy and fantastic Mother's Day gifts. Picture a card and the wrapping of the soap done in the same design paper!! Cute!

Cutterpillar Pro - paper cutter that is awesome!	Doohickeys Dies
Gorjuss Girls	Heidi Schwoerer/2 Cute Ink
La-La Land	Magnolia Once Upon a Time
Prima	Spellbinders D-Lites
Stamping Bella	Tiddly Inks
Wink of Stella Glitter Markers	WRMK Envelope Punch Board
Tim Holtz Idea-ology	Embossing Folders (92 Darice folders!)
Frou Frou

Well, after all my gabbing!:)  This is my project for the "Anything Goes Challenge"  I created a step- card and if you like this design - guess where you will be able to find the directions to make it?? That's right - in the next issue of Through The Craft Room Door Magazine. You can can see a sneak of what the magazine has in the spring issue by watching the video above. 94 full pages with no advertisements, full of tutorials, articles and inspirations.

Colleen

Bird Swing from Whimsy Stamps

Graphic 45 8 x 8 Paper Pad "A Secret Garden"

Copic Markers:  B-000, B000, B1, BG000. E35, E33, E31, YG61, YG25

X-Press It Blending Card

X-Press It double sided tape 1/4 inch

Pop It from Ranger

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink for stamping

Spellbinders - Grand Big Scallop Ovals

Have an awesome day my friends and thank you for stopping by:) 

Challenges

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Making Gift Soap

Making Homemade Soap - awesome Mothers Day Gifts!

Hello happy crafters! This is Colleen and I am bringing you a whole new level to making craft gifts and just in time for Mothers Day!! 7 Kids now sells a all in one soap making kit and let me tell you, my son, granddaughter and me had a blast doing it. It was our first time so there is a little bit of room for improvement but I am still please with our results. Did I tell you this was easy peasy to do?

There are several kits available to chose from, I chose   SOAP MAKING 101 KIT from Life of the Party to try first. The kits comes with 16 ounces of clear soap, 16 ounces of white soap, .27 ounces of Cucumber Melon Fragrance, 27 ounces of red color, .27 ounces yellow color, .27 ounces of blue color, .03 ounces of white pearl powder, four molds and instructions. You need to supply a glass measuring cup and a small spritzer filled with alcohol.  Decide what shape you want your soap and the colors you would like to make it. We did four different shapes and designs. Break your bars of soaps into pieces into a glass container. The directions will advise you to how many you will need for each design.  Place in microwave for approx. 1 minute or less. Keep checking to see if the soap has melted. Add your coloring and fragrance and stir. At this time you can add the shimmering  powder which I forgot to do:(  Stir.   Pour into your mold. Easy peasy - my son is doing this while I shoot the photo's:) Spritz with alcohol to remove all the air bubbles. I filled my mini mister and it was perfectly. While that was hardening - we prepared the other bars.  It takes 1 1/2 - 2 hours to completely dry. We made two fancy bars by removing them and cutting them into regtangles or straight lines.  With the rectangle bar we sliced evenly 3 times across the length and 3 times across the width. We placed every other rectangle back into the mold   Slowly pour the second color between the rectangles. Spritz again with alcohol which made this look like glass when done This is how it looked when dried. I love the way it has a marble look to it.  The circle we cut into triangles and layered the hexagon with pink and white . Square bar was cut into four strips and filled with the white soap in between to form the strips. Before wrapping you can wrap your bar of soap tightly and heat it slightly with a heat gun to adhere the plastic wrap to the bar. There are so many different ways of wrapping your soap to make a beautiful gift. Create a card with matching paper and will make a very loving gift.  Love you Abbie, thank you for helping me! Challenges: Crafty Ribbons - Anything Goes with Ribbon

A little birdie told me

Hello Happy Crafters! It's that time again!! It's all about Kevin, who is the 7 Kids College Fund mascot - so the challenge is  "Things With Wings" which can be birds, butterflies, angels, you get the point!  How did Kevin, a wild pigeon become our mascot?  Well, one day he was in front of 7 Kids store when Tab, the owner noticed he had trouble walking.  Kevin allowed Tab  to not only  look at his foot, but let her cut away hair, string and other debris which was constricting the blood flow to his toes.   Since that day, Kevin visits Tab on a regular basis and waddles into her store to say hi and take food.  Wouldn't it be nice if everyone was this caring about animals? 

Yesterday, was my birthday, so I thought it was appropriate to make myself a birthday card!! I love, love this stamps set "A little bird told me" from Crafter's Companion.  The sentiment, birds, girl are all part of the set....awesome!  Come play with us and have a chance to win a $20.00 gift certificate just for playing - to be eligible you need to use a 7 Kids College Fund Stamp....you have two weeks to order this cutie and make your own card!

A LITTLE BIRD S.W.A.L.K. 6 Stamp Collection

Memento Ink

Tuxedo Black to stamp image

Sponged the following onto Xpress It Blending Card

New Sprout - grass

Summer Sky - Sky

Cantalope - Sky

Angle Pink - Sky

Stamped the trees with VersaMark and embossed it with -

Frantage - Aged Hunter - by Stampendous and heated with heat gun

Colored with Copic Markers

Fence - Cameo

Stampendous blog hop

Welcome to 7 Kids College Fund monthly blog hop! You should have arrived here from Rhea's blog! We are showcasing Stampendous today with all of their awesome products from rubber stamps to flaky embossing powders. 

For my creation, I wanted to do something different and went WAY out of my comfort zone to create my project. I decided to make myself a note pad for I am always running around looking for paper. 

Using Vintage Piano

 I stamped it on Graphic 45 - Secret Garden 8 x 8 design paper. Talking about yummy paper - another paper pad where every single page is scrumptious! 

Distressed the edges of my paper with Antique Linen Distress Ink 

I applied Versa Mark to around the edges of the paper and sprinkled it with Stampendous Embossing Enamel Aged Hunter - a chunky enamel with bits of copper, black and gold flecks in it. Melted the powder with my heat gun and BTW -Aged Hunter would be perfect to use on tree's on Christmas cards,

I used all the same products on the card below except flower, tag and used plain paper. I wanted to show you how versatile the same stamp can be.

The New Stampendous preorder products are in the store and  ready for you to order. They are expected to ship  very early April. Check out the jumbo flowers and all the new Frantage products (new colors of mica, glitter glass, vintage embossing powder, color fragments and more)!

Rhea Wiegand
Colleen Holmes - your here!
Karen Gauthier 
Kim O'Connell
Rosemary Bridges
Shannon White 
Christine Riley

For all of Stampendous products, rather in store or pre-order you will receive  a 10% discount use the code:

HOP10

The prize for this hop is a $20 GIFT CERTIFICATE. 
You must post a comment on each DT and follow their blog if you'd like to be eligible!
Winner will be announce on Wednesday, March 27:)
 you must post on each DT blog and back to the store.

Vintage Piano

Graphic 45 - Secret Garden  8x8 paper pad

Enamel Embossing Powder - Aged Hunter

Versa Mark Ink Pad - this holds your embossing powders to your paper while you apply your heat gun. 

Antique Linen Distress Ink

Tim Holtz 

Challenges:

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You will hop next to see my team sister, 

 Karen's fabulous creation.. 

Happy Thursday everyone! AnotherWhimsy stamp by Elisabeth Bell - Sweet Pick!  Sweet bunny did some sweet pickens with ducky watching!  Talking about Whimsy - did you see new Whimsy's stamps that entered the 7 Kids College Fund Store this week? They are by Sylvia Zet and Elisabeth Bell, who are by far the best whimsical stamp artists - so cute and perfect for any occasion:)

Last week I received Dover Craft - Garden Party Paper Pad. Let me tell ya - sweet, bright, summery and cheerful! I am super please with every single piece in it and how often can we say that? You don't even have to think twice about what papers you want to use for you want to use all of them!!

Supplies:Spring Pick

Colored with Copic Markers

X-Press It Blending Card

X-press tape 1/4 inchPop It Up

Mini Paper Blooms

Don't forget the 7 Kids College Fund Challenge is glitter!

Addicted to Stamps and More - Markers

All That Scrap Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes 

Cards by Lady Anne / Stamp Challenge - anything goes 

Fab 'n' Funky -  Pink, Green and Brown

It's all about glitter

Hello Happy Crafters! It's time for another fantastic challenge at 7 Kids College Fund and this week it is all about glitter! Who doesn't like glitter and lots of it! It does get everywhere at times and I have been known to have it everywhere and anywhere including a shinny hinny! Entering 7 KCF will give you the opportunity  to win  a $20.00 gift certificate to the store and who doesn't want to go shopping there?!!

Update on Diet (last posting) Day 10. DH lost 9 /12 lbs and I have lost 5 1/2. YEAH, it's a start:) Pain -  my pain level went higher for three days. I was even considering going to the ER for pain management. Then it dawned on me - I was not  following the diet exactly, and was not getting enough carbohydrates for my muscles. We made sweet potato fries, and it was like a took a large dose of narcotics. I am climbing the stairs with little difficulty, stooping, kneeling and a feeling of freedom, because I can move so much more! My mind feels clearer and my spirits are back to the old me. Will this last?? Only time will tell. 

Easter Bunny by Sylvia Zet for Whimsy Stamps

First Edition 6 x 6 paper pad "Spring Drop" - this paper pad is perfect for Easter and Spring Cards

Cheery Lynn Designs: Nesting Eggs and Lace Egg

X-Press It Blending Card

Tuxedo Black Momento Ink

Copics

Diamond Glaze by Judikins

Thristle Stickles Dry  Fine Glitter from Ranger

Yellow Stickles Dry Fine Glitter from Ranger

Eucalyptus Skickles Dry Fine Glitter from Ranger

Sowang Double Sided Tape: 8.5 x 11

Making Your Own Glitter Paper - used in the three eggs above. 

Supplies

Color Card Stock

Glitter

Sowang Double Sided Tape: 8.5 x 11 sheet

Die cut

Choose your color of glitter and card stock.  You want to use the same color of paper - just in case there is a small area not covered or rubbed off of the tape. 

Cut your card stock and double sided tape with your die cut. 

Peel the back paper off of the tape and apply it to your cut card stock. 

After you adhere your 2 sided tape to your card stock -

peel the white paper from the tape and cover it with glitter.

So pretty and much cheaper than buying glitter paper:)

You can see tutorials like this and much, much more in the Through The Craft Room Door Online magazine. March - April issue will be released on Saturday, March 16.  

All Things Grow With Love

Hello Happy Crafters! We were suppose to get a GIANTIC snow storm 8-10 inches and we got mostly rain! I have to admit I was disappointed, I love big snow storms and everything covered with a blanket of snow - so beautiful!

If you want to skip the personal information about our new diet...skip down to the third paragraph for details on my card today:)

If you follow my blog, you will know I have muscular dystropy and fibromyalgia. The pain has really risen in the past few months and I hate taking pain pills.  Hubby and I have read so many articles about people who have taken gluten out of their diets had a significantly decrease in pain, lost weight, yadayada. I have gain a lot of weight in the past five years, because my activity level has decreased and the good old drug prednisone that makes you feel like you are starving all the time, and you eat everything that isn't tied down to the house. Any how, when  DH and I decide to do something, we go at it with full force and don't slow down. So on Sunday we started the JJ Virgin Diet, which is pretty strict to say the least. You are not allowed, not only gluten, but also soy, dairy, eggs, corn, sugar/artificial sweetners and peanuts! Your probably saying to yourself  "what is left to eat?"  Well, actually there is a lot you can eat, but 90 percent of it, I never heard of before we started this venture. And, it is costly.  For the first 21 days you drink a smoothie with Almond Milk, fruits, vegetables, protein mix and lots of seeds and nuts twice a day and eat one balance meal.  So before we start this, we had to go shopping. First thing on the list - Vitamix 5200 Mixer - trust me, this baby is a pretty penny for a mixer, but it does one awesome job making smoothies, LOL it also does a lot more them making smoothies.  Then we had to find meat that was gluten free - which means it only grazes on the land and has no antibiotics or hormones injected. Would you beleive most of your supermarkets do have them,  including BJ's. We, also bought Bison meat that  literally has no fat and taste very similair to beef. Meet that is gluten free is not cheap - it's like double the price of regular meet. Well,  this is day four and hubby lost 6 lbs and I lost 5 - yes, probably 3 of it is water, but it is a start! As far as the pain level goes - nothing different yet:( I'll keep you posted once a week of our progress!!
                                                 

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Today I am bringing you this sweetie by Mo Manning from Stamping Bella and her name is "Sprout." When I first saw this image, the first thing I thought was; "All things grow with love" Isn't she a sweetie?

Stamped my image onto X-Press It Blending Card with Tuxedo Black Momento Ink - this ink dries very quickly and perfect for coloring with Copic Markers.  I cut out the flower pot and the little heart on her pants and applied Diamond Glaze to them to make them shinny and 3D. I used Spellbinders to cut out the scallop circles in the back ground, sponged Memento - Summer Sky around the edges. Grommet tag by Spellbinders and placed a brad on each side.  Sorry the ribbon and flower are from my stash. The charm has "love" printed on it:)

The inside of my card I placed a packet of flower seeds. 

I left the right side blank so I can add a note or sentiment. 

Shopping List

Spout by Mo Manning from Stamping Bella

X-press It Blending Card

Tuxedo Black Momento Ink

Copics: Hair:E55, E53, E51, E50. Skin: E11, E00, E000, R20. Shirt: YR38, YR65, Y13. 

Pants: B95, B93, B91, W5, B12, B41. Red heart: R37, R35. Shoes: B14, B12.

 Flower Pot: E19, E09, E08, E07. Ground was dotted with several different brown. 

 Paper Pad from Authentique

Diamond Glaze by Judikins

Spellbinders: Gommet Tags

Spellbinders: Lacey Circles

Teddy Bear Mini Brads from Doddlebug

Thank you for visiting and come play with us at  7 Kids College Fund Challenge where you could win a $20.00 gift certificate to the store just for submitting a project - lots of fun and this week is "Anything Goes."

7 Kids College Fun Challenge - Anything Goes

Hello Happy Crafters! It's that time again for another 7 Kids College Fund challenge and this week is an easy peasy one and your favorite "Anything Goes"  so get out your creativity and come join us for some fun and even a chance of winning a $20.00 gift certificate to the store:)

Have you stopped over at the 7 Kids store lately. Let me tell you, Tab is adding all kinds of fun and new things every day including soap making kits! How cool is that and did you ever want to learn how to do quilling - there are  kits to learn how to do it too! You really need to stop by and check it all out.

Today my card is using a Mo Manning image that is available at 7 KCF - I just love this image, it reminds me so much of my girls when they were little! So very sweet - sometimes I wish I could wrinkle my nose and they would be small again and then common sense kicks in and says "I think not!"

Supplies Use:

Isabelle 6 x 6 paper pad by First Edition

Big Shoes by Mo Manning

Copic Markers:  Skin: E11, E00, E000. Green: G82, G43, G11, G40. Purse: R59, R37, R35, R32. 

Stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink onto X-press It blending card

X-Press It - two way tape

Judikins Diamond Glaze - is a dimensional adhesive that dries to a clear glass - like finish applied to her shoes.

Challenges entered:

• Color Me Creative Copic Challenge - girly
• Crafting for all Seasons - Dies and Punches 
• Crafts and Me - Dies/Punches
• Digistamps 4 Joy - Birthdays are fun 
• Divas by Design -Anything Goes
• Inky Impressions -   Splash of Red
• Papercraft Star - Happy Birthday

7 Kids College Fund Blog Hop - Tim Holtz

Hello Happy Crafters and welcome to The 7 Kids College Fund Design Team blog hop! Gosh, I'm happy to see you here - you have already seen some really awesome creations made with the Tim Holtz idea-ology products created by my DT sistah's! Is your mind whirling about what YOU can create with them? The list is totally endless. Make sure you comment at every blog to be elegible to win all these goodies from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology!

My granddaughters birthday is coming real soon and I wanted to give her something special. She loves my heart bracelet so I bought one for her. I made this cute little box to match the card. I wanted to show you the versatlity of two products by Tim. The "Game Spinners" I used for Marci to stand on and point to the sentiment below. The "Fanciful accourtrements"  I used on the front of the box, on the flower by the sentiment and on the bow. You can also use the game spinners as hands on a clock:)

Dress up Marci by Lala-Land
Tim Holtz Idea- ology  Fanciful accoutrements
Tim Holtz Idea- ology  Game Spinners 
Paper Pad- Love Letters by First Edition
Sowong Double Sided Tape

Mini Pop and Go Glue Dots

X-press it blending card Bright White (8 1/2 x 11)

Copics Sketch Markers

White Opal Liquid Pearls  to her necklace

Diamond Stickles - a glitter glue on her hat 

Diamond Glaze - a dimensional adhesive that dries to a clear glass-like finish

Thank you for stopping by and don't forget to check back on the store blog to see if you won on Wednesday, February 27!!

Rhea

Kim

Rosie

Shannon

Karen

                   Colleen   This is me!

Challenges

• Alphabet Challenge -  A for Anything with Wings
• Card Makin' Mamas -  cards only Birthday
• Cards by Lady Anne - Sentimental For Friday - , must use sentiment - cards
• Chocolate, Coffee & Cards -  buttons and bows
• Crafty Catz -  Dies and Punches
• Inspire Me Fridays – Anything Goes always
• Pattie's Creations -  include a digi / stamped image Fancy folds
• Peachy Keen Stamps  - 3D objects, metal
• Simply Create Too -  Mothers Day or Female
• Wags 'n Whiskers -  1 image, 2 ribbon, 3 dp, 4 embellies

Birthday Wishes at 7 Kids College Fund Challenge

It's time for another challenge at

7 Kids College Fund!

Everyone needs birthday cards so come on and join the fun!

Happy Birthday

We are kicking off our new fun filled and easy challenge and we hope you play along!  You can win a $20 gift certificate to the 7 Kids College Fund store.

For this challenge we have Happy Birthday.  No matter how you design it, Happy Birthday is fun and easy.  

I would love to know how to quilled and now it is easy to learn with Quilled Creations Beginner Quilling Kits at 7 KIDS COLLEGE FUND. Check the tools out - they are very inexpensive and 7 Kids is offering you a 10% discount:) Code: QUILL10 and the discount will be until 2/14.

Skippydee and Bella stamp can be used for so many different kinds of greeting cards decides "Happy Birthyday"  It could be used for "Missing You"  - Across the Miles, Thank you,  Thinking of you - the list is endless. And, I love, love the colors in the BoBunny - Powder Blue Mountain pad. Isn't it just gorgeous with the rich blue colors? 

Skippydee and Bella Stamp by Elisabeth Beth/Whimsy Stamps

Copics: Hair: E55, E53, E51. E50. Skin: E11, E00, E000, Cap & Coat: B24, B23, B21

 Pants: E74, E71, E70. Log: E59, E25, E31, E50, E99. 

X-Press It Blending Card - Bright White

BoBunny 6x6 Paper Pad - Powder Blue Mountain

Sowong Double Sided Tape

Mini Pop and Go Glue Dots

Memento Summer Sky Blue -  used to sponged the sky

Memento New Sprout used to stamp and sponge grass 

White Lace Ribbon by Melissa Frances

Challenges:

• Cards by Lady Anne / Stamp Challenge -  must stamp,  - anything goes 
• Jen's Digis - - Ribbons/Lace
• Penny's Paper-Crafty - favorite color combo ( mine is blues)
• The Perfect Sentiment - must have sentiment on front - animal + friendship sentiment
• Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge - Animals
• Party Time Tuesdays - anything goes 
• Shopping Our Stash - They Say It's Your Birthday
• Tuesday Throwdown - Anything Goes
• Vickie's Challenges - Anything Goes

Hugz