November Stack-a-holic Template Challenge Winners!

I seriously cannot believe that it is DECEMBER tomorrow!!! Where does time go?! I know this was a busy, busy month for you and I apprecriate everyone who took the time to submit their layouts this month! As alwys, I was blown away! I was curious how each of you would tackle the little dots that go around the outside of the layout. Wow. I couldn't believe what you thought of!!! 

If you can't remember, this was the template from Sketch Savvy that we used for November.

I had a hard time narrowing it down to a TOP 10 but I did it :) Here they are!

Mindi Brown- Black Current Stack

Chris Dring- Crafty Stack

Jacqueline Nguyen- Guy Stack

Andrea Jones- Support Our Troops 300dpi Digital Kit

Jamie Larsen- Nantucket

Cynthia Baldwin- Simply Autumn Stack

Trisha- Ghosts & Goblins Stack

Tracy Thompson- Stack 7

Susan- Royal Garden Stack

Jenny Evans- Lemon Flower Stack

Aren't they awesome this month!! I have loved going through each layout. THANK YOU for playing with us this month! I know December is crazy too so I will get December's template up on Friday so you have plenty of time to create :) And for our winner chosen by random.... 

Congratulations to:

Tracy Thompson!

Email me your address {erinmadsen@diecutsinc.com} and I will get your prize right out to you!!

See you back here on Friday!!

Rolled Paper Christmas Tree Decoration

Hello my friends! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mine couldn't have been better...except maybe I could have done without my little guy catching a bad cough. But if that's the only thing I can complain about then that makes me pretty darn lucky :) 

I am SO ready to start posting Christmas projects! I love this time of year and try and hold off my Christmas posts until after Thanksgiving. Which is kinda hard since I have had holiday paper in my possession for a couple months!

For today's project, I used the new Christmas & Winter Stack at Jo-Ann's. This is one of the great 180 sheet stacks which is a killer deal! If you love a traditional paper stack, you will LOVE this! And the paper in this stack works great with this project because the thinner paper is really easy to roll :)

This is what I created on my Sunday afternoon at home :) I love how it turned out and it looks perfect on my kitchen table! 

I painted a scrap piece of wood and created my tree on that. But you could easily do this on a canvas or even a piece of cardstock that you frame and keep the glass out. 

To create on wood: Paint your scrap wood & apply a thin layer of Mod Podge over it. Let it dry. Add your tree trunk paper piece and apply another thin layer of Mod Podge. Sprinkle a little glitter while Mod Podge is still wet. Let dry. Start rolled paper pieces.

HINT* I have discovered Mod Podge Hard Coat which I love! It doesn't leave any kind of sticky residue feeling afterwards. I have never been a Mod Podge Expert but I am always getting better, practice makes perfect :)

I rolled pieces of paper around a pencil, hot glued the ends and slipped the pencil out. I went down in lengths every 1/2 inch to make the tree shape. My smallest piece is 1/2 inch wide and my widest is 10 1/2 inches. I hot glued the rolls to the wood. Added some buttons, ribbon and a cute bird that I hand cut out. I love how it turned out and it will for sure come out every holiday at my house :)

 A couple more things...November Stack-a-holic Template Entries are due by midnight TONIGHT! So if you haven't emailed me your entry, be sure to do so. I can't wait to share the winners on Wednesday :)

And we have 2 winners from our comments last week! Keep those comments coming to increase your chances to win! Congrats to: 

Judy Webb said...

Love seeing ideas gifted artist make with DCWV paper.

November 21, 2011 2:07 PM 

AND

jengd said...

LOVE this! So clean and simple - looks great against that grungy paper!

November 21, 2011 10:17 AM 

Send me your address {erinmadsen@diecutsinc.com} and I will get your prizes right out to you :) 

Have a fabulous Monday!

Thankful...

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my blogging friends!! I hope each of you are enjoying your day. I am so lucky to be with my entire family. Lucky girl. 

I wanted to share a few "gratitude" quotes with you that I have stumbled on recently. 

Because I love them :)

I am grateful for so many things in my life. But among the things high on my list is a job that I adore at DCWV, bosses that I respect and want to work hard for, co-workers who have become my family, and a husband who supports me in my choice to have a career and a family too.

Life is GOOD :)

Thanksgiving Eve

It's Thanksgiving Eve 2011! I'm sure a lot of you are busy making lots of food in preparation for tomorrow. I am simply on "Pie Patrol" which is my specialty! This morning I will be making an apple crumb pie and a pumpkin pie from scratch. There is something about making pies...it makes me feel very domestic :) I love it!

I use the Pioneer Woman's Pie Crust Recipe which CANNOT be beat! I promise! It's worth the extra effort, the crust flakes in your mouth!

HERE is my Apple Crumb Pie Recipe. I double the topping so it's nice and crumby :)

And you can't beat the classic Libby's Pumpkin Pie Recipe on the side of the pumpkin puree can, right!?

Before I begin my Thanksgiving Break, I wanted to share one least paper project :) Because I am just not ready to put all of this year's fun autumn & harvest paper away!

Simply Autumn is still available at Michaels Stores. I have already gone through 2 of these stacks! I absolutely love it!! I wanted to make something that I could pull out year after year that shows the things that my boys are thankful for.

So I came up with this Thanksgiving Door Hanger. My boys love anything that they can hang on their bedroom door nob. Random boys :) For the base, I used the back chipboard piece from a random stack that I had on hand. I cut it down to 4 1/2 inches x 9 inches. I traced a cup and cut it out for the door nob hole. Covered it with some cute paper....

Added a fun bow & a Post It Note Pad. I decorated the first piece with "Troy is Thankful For..."

Each page my son can write something that he is thankful for. I love seeing his nice handwriting! Someone taught him well ;) And of course, I added the date once he was done so we could pull it out next year and continue to add to the list. I think this will be fun to use every year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow! I have so much to be grateful for and I try to live my life grateful each and every day. But it's so wonderful to have a special day where we can show our gratitude and recognize our many, many blessings. I hope each of you have a wonderful day :)

Collage Musings Frame

Hey everyone! Can you believe it's the week of Thanksgiving?! This is my favorite holiday of the year...with Christmas a quick 2nd place :) We alternate years with our families so this year we get to go to my parents with my family which makes the holiday perfect to me :) I will have another last minute Thanksgiving craft for you on Wednesday!

First off, I want to remind everyone how I am picking giveaway winners from the blog now. Every Monday I will pick 2 winners from the comments that were left the week before on the blog posts. So everyday there is a post, be sure to leave a comment so you can hopefully be a winner one of these days! 

Congratulations to:

Debbie (from Sugar Land) said...

Really cute idea! Thanks for sharing with us.

November 14, 2011 6:53 PM 

AND

                                                                          Fran said...

Great idea. Love your creative ideas and the paper packs are awesome. Really fun. Thanks.

November 15, 2011 5:01 AM 

Email your addresses to me and I will get your prize right out to you! 

{erinmadsen@diecutsinc.com}

I wanted to show you a great gift idea using our stack, Collage Musings. Handmade gifts are the only way to go! Gifts like this one are easy, inexpensive and right from the heart :)

I purchased a $3 frame from my local superstore. I cut down a piece of patterned paper to 5x7 and framed it IN FRONT of the glass. Then I punched our hearts with a heart punch and folded them in half. Used some strong liquid glue and put the glue only on the crease of the fold so they hearts stayed 3 dimensional. That was it! 

This could easily be personalized with a name, an anniversary date or birthday. That is the great thing about handmade gifts. You can personalize anything as you create it! I hope this project gets your ideas flowing and you begin to think what you can create for people that you love this holiday season. 

Have a great Monday! I will be back here on Wednesday with my last Thanksgiving project of the season. And then it's on to Christmas! Can't wait ;)

Mixed Media Fun

Oh this is going to be a happy post. I can just tell :)

While I was on the Michaels Cruise last month, I had to the chance to take some classes that really opened my eyes to some new forms of crafting. One of these classes was from Kathy Kromer of Michaels who is a an amazing artist and taught us about Mixed Media Art.

Definition:

Mixed media tends to refer to a work of visual art that combines various traditionally distinct visual art media. For example, a work on canvas that combines paint, ink, and collage could properly be called a "mixed media" work

So basically...a piece of art that incorporates lots of "stuff". Paint, ink, scrapbook paper, ribbon, buttons, basically ANYTHING :) Oh and glitter never hurt anything either!

 

Here are a few pieces that I found on Pinetrest. I love how they used scrapbook paper to help capture the mood of their art.

These two were painted by Christy Tomlinson, a popular mixed media artist in the craft industry.  I would love to sit in her studio and paint with her for a day :)

So in our class, Kathy gave us very little guidance...something that is usually hard for me! 

We sat down and saw a canvas, brushes, paint, Liquidex Gel Medium...

An awesome stack...Retro Collage, which was perfect for this project...

And 2 photos of Kathy's Aunt Martha.

Aunt Martha was quite the woman...lol. We heard all about her and she was pretty darn funny. We used one of the photos on our canvas and the other we cut up and used parts of her dress, collar, glasses for templates. Aunt Martha loved to give advice...

And this is what she said to me! "Be Where Your Feet Are" Make sure your head is not wondering in a moment with your family. Make sure your head is connected to work during my work hours. BE where my feet are. This is always my struggle...but I'm always getting better at it.

When I sat down with my supplies I thought, "What in the world am I doing." And then I just went at it! It was so fun to do something new with our paper. It was so fun to feel like an artist! I mean...like a "paint and brushes" kinda artist :) Cause paper crafters are artists 100%!

It has been fun to try something new with our papers. It has inspired me to create more with our papers and paints and sparkly goodies :) I love that about our love of crafting. It is always evolving and growing! Our creativity is always surprising us.

I hope this was a happy post for you too :) Have a great day!

Whimsy Gift Box with Magnets

Hey guys! Thank you for all of your birthday wishes! You are too sweet to me :) I had a great day and weekend and I believe you when you tell me that 30 is just the beginning!

I wanted to show you another gift idea that you could make for friends or loved ones this holiday. I used the Whimsy Stack which has been around for a couple of years. I love how we are DCWV are always ahead of the trend because 2 years later, this stack is right on with other lines that are out there!

The colors in the Whimsy Stack are gorgeous and I love the little owls, bunnies and birds.

First off, I covered the lid of a Altoids box. You could use an empty mint container and paint the outside of it to cover up the packaging. Or you can buy empty ones HERE. I used Mod Podge to glue down the paper, inked the edges and then applied another coat of Mod Podge.

 

When you open up the box you have 3 little coordinating magnets. I covered old game pieces or you can use some cut down wood scraps. I applied the paper to the game pieces in the same process as the cover. Mod Podge, ink, Mod Podge.

Added a magnet to the back of and there you have it! They are fun because the stick to the inside of the tin. You could easily tie a ribbon around the container and add a little tag. 

I will be making a few sets of these for some neighbors but I think I will use some of our new Christmas papers. What do ya think?

Side note: I wanted to tell you a new way that I will be picking weekly giveaway winners. I see the traffic that our blog receives and I know a TON of you are stopping by everyday. Which I absolutely love!! But no one leaves me comments and I really want this blog to be interactive so I can hear from you and what you think of our products and our company! So every Monday I will pick a couple winners from the comments from the week before. So every day, be sure to leave a comment when you stop and see our projects! So today, I want to giveaway stacks to: 

Nikki said...

Beautiful Stack and what a great project!!thanks for sharing

Nikki C

November 7, 2011 10:31 PM 

and

Chris D. said...

Happy Birthday Erin! Have a fabulous day!

November 11, 2011 5:14 PM 

Email me your addresses and I will get prizes out to you :) erinmadsen@diecutsinc.com

Can't wait to hear from more of you! That is one of the best perks of my job :)

See you on Wednesday!