Paper Girls Challenge #12: Upclyled Mesh

This round is brought to you by Charity Becker. She thought it would be fun to make use of the mesh that comes from grocery store produce. I had this bit of red mesh I was saving since she announced her challenge to the rest of the Paper Girls. I had a bit of black too but didn't have time to implement my idea for it.When I started my page I don't think I was going to use it for this challenge until my friend Misty pointed out that the tree would look really cute with some red mesh wrapped around it. She was right! I love her little burst of inspiration and it really fit with the color scheme of the Little Yellow Bicycle papers I was working with.

I can't wait to see what everyone does with their own mesh produce bags! Check out The Paper Girls Challenge blog for more inspiration!

Owl Birthday Cake

My daughter has a little obsession with owls. I don't know where she gets it from. It might have to do with all of the owl stamps, stuffed animals and other various items I've collected over the years. I do have a thing for them too. So for her 9th birthday she wanted an owl cake. I'm no stranger to fondant but i really didn't feel like mixing and coloring a batch. I couldn't get motivated. So I decided to go to the store in search of candy that would help me decorate her cake. First I had Necco wafers in mind. I couldn't find them anywhere convenient. Forget that. I mean, decorating this cake with candy is supposed to be the lazy way.  While at the store I spotted a bag of the fruit flavored Tootsie rolls. Ah Ha! That was the answer. I grabbed two bags in case I needed extras of any given color. That was a good idea. My mom had mentioned that Oreos would make great eyes, so I grabbed a pack of those, some junior mints for the pupils, and the large pretzel rods and the leaf gumdrops for accents.

When I got back I started out by smashing the Tootsie rolls between my fingers to smash them. My mom pointed out it would be faster to roll them out with a rolling pin. Yeah. I knew that. Smack forehead. Anyway the result is an oblong oval which we cut in half with kitchen sheers. As we were working I found that the candy has a tendency to melt into its neighbors so it is necessary to lay them individually on wax paper or parchment. After a few of the candies were ready to go I started laying them out on the frosted cakes. I just did 9" circle pans and chocolate frosting. The ears are stabilized with cut down parts of Oreo cookie carved into a triangle shape. the side that was left over from opening the Oreo to expose the white filling. I shaped the beak with orange tootsie roll and the feet are just trimmed with kitchen shears. If I was thinking ahead I would have covered a cake board for better presentation. But I really was feeling lazy yesterday. I used little daubs of frosting to hold the branches and leaves in place and voila!

 

Here's a picture of the birthday girl. I'm glad that I didn't just go buy a cake . It was her idea to put the candles in like eyelashes. Super cute!

Paper Girls Challenge #11: Rub On

Here we are again with another Challenge that will help you use up supplies you've been hoarding in your craft room. I have a whole stack of rub ons from a Santa Sack I bought from October Afternoon at Christmas time. Most of them are sentiments for cards so I decided to make a card for this challenge.

I wanted to use a couple of other things that I had to have and after purchasing haven't been used. (Don't tell my husband!!) I feel much better now that they have been used. It's like they feel loved now. LOL. Any how... I used this lovely background stamp by Hero Arts stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock by SU with VersaMark ink. Then I embossed the image in clear embossing powder. After it cooled down I got out some Tim Holtz distress stains, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, and Aged Mahogany. I swiped some of each color on my craft mat starting in the order listed above and adding more ink until there was an area big enough to press my cardstock down into. When I lifted it off there were some spots that didn't get ink so I went over those areas with the Wild Honey or the Marmalade until it looked right. Lastly, I spritzed it with water to make the colors run together a little more. The hardest part is waiting for the cardstock to dry afterward.

The rub on is the sentiment on Cherry Cobbler cardstock, matted with Pumpkin Pie cardstock.

Hope you enjoy working on this challenge at the Paper Girls Challenge blog. If you've never joined in I want to encourage you to play along. It's so much fun!

Paper Girls Challenge Blog #10 Photo Inspiration

This challenge was to use this photo as inspiration for your project. I loved how the photo looked so I decided to go with a literal interpretation and mist my background paper to look similar.

 

And this is what I came up with. I used  the Turquoise 7 sketch by Kristy Lee at ScrapbookSteals. It was perfect for showing off my background paper. Here's a photo showing how I made the background. First I cut the wavy design into a 12 x 12 page protector. Then I placed my white sheet of paper in a box large enough to accommodate it. It's a little hard to see the page protector in the photo, but I laid it down and spritzed each color separately. I had to clean the mask between colors to make sure I got a clean mist between each color. Also the piece of paper is there to cover any area that the mask didn't cover.
 

I also wanted to give props to this pin I saw on Pinterest because it is what gave me the idea to do a misted background in the first place.

Make sure to keep checking out more of our challenges at the Paper Girls Challenge Blog!