Happy New Year

Hello Dear Friends, Happy new Year 2013..I know I am a bit late. But since this is my very first post in 2013, Hopefully I am forgiven..

We have a brand new challenge over at ICR forum - To create a calendar for 2013 along with the twist of using a recycled or upcycled element in your project. Loved this concept and what a great start for new year craft mojo.

I choose to use an old CD case to hold my Calendar Pages - making it my recycled element. I choose to go with different calendar pages for each month, just so that it will be more fun.

Here is my CD Calendar case with Jan, Feb and March Views, I also have additional photos of all the pages.

March is a birthday month in our home with lots of birthdays - so my March calendar is all Birthday based. You can click on each photo to see a bigger view.

Here are the pictures of my sets,

I had really lots of fun decorating the calendar pages bases on themes for each month. I used the Free Calendar download from Write. Click. Scrapbook. You can see I have a Diwali themed calendar page as well.

I printed the calendars directly on the patterned pages in some cases (where the pattern paper was light enough for the calendar to be read) and in some cases I added it separately.

I hope you will stop by ICR and play along with this challenge.

Thanks for stopping.

Altered Notepads for Christmas Gifts

I wanted to share some of the Notepads that I have been doing as Christmas gifts for some of my friend's daughter's :) I need to do one Masculine also for my friend's son. Had forgotten about it.

I used the Junior Legal Pad from Staples and got it cut into half. It has been so much fun doing these :)



Some tips from my side,

1) I attached the notebook to the cardstock using scortape (or any double sided tape). It felt easier for me to put the scoretape on the card stock and then attach the notepad than the other way. :)

2) It was easier to get a few notepad fronts done as designing is only involved there. Then you can mass assemble the notepads because then you just have to score and attach :)

3) I cut my Card stock to 8x5 1/4. And to make the scoring easier, I put it on scorpal and scored it at 2.5 and then turned it around and again scored it at 2.5. This gave me a perfect 1/4 inch spine.

Supplies:
Stamp - PTI Take a Note, PTI Damask Designs
Ink - PTI Raspberry Fizz, PTI Dark Chocolate, PTI Scarlett Jewel
Paper - PTI DP, BG Eskimo Kisses DP, PTI Kraft, Ocean Tides, Sweet Blush, Dark Chocolate, Raspberry Fizz, White CS
Other - PTI Ribbon, PTI Buttons, Circle Punches, Generic Gemstones.

Pals Paper Arts Challenged combined with Paperworks Co UCC #7

I combined the Pals Paper Arts Challenge #13 - which was to create anything but a card and the Paperworks Stamp Co Ultimate Craft Challenge #7 which was to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and to use some brads.

I did a small Christmas Ornament/Decor using some leftover chipboard. Covered it with some left over Martha Stewart DP and added some ribbon. :) Nice and easy. Kind of small and nice to gift to co-workers.



Sorry for the image quality. :) This is what happens when I work at night :) on these challenges.

Supplies:
Stamp - PTI VIntage Labels, PTI Signature Christmas
Paper - Martha Stewart DP, GKD Pure Luxury White
Ink - PTI Dark Chocolate, PTI Pure Poppy
Other - SU Jeweled Brads, Nestabilities Label One, Gems, Satin Ribbon, Chipboard Coaster

PTI April Blog Hop

It is PTI Blog Hop Time :)

The challenge for this month is to use the Timeless Templates. Here is the link to the bloghop.



For this challenge, I used the free Recipe wrap template and created a birthday calendar list from it. It was a CASE of Geny Cassady's design.
But I repurposed it for Birthday/Anniversary List rather than just calendar. That way I have to just check that list once a week to know which cards I have to make.

It was fun working with the template. It was very easy to do and fun. I used Ocean Tides CS and the new leaves DP to cover it. For the insides I used the Dark Chocolate DP and Dark Chocolate CS Trim. Stamp from Garden of Life stamped in Ocean tides gave that additional look.

I am not too happy about the blue hemp cord that I have used. I might change it into something more substantial.

But overall I am very happy about this template and see many more uses for it.

Thanks for looking.

Closed View:



Open View first half:



Open View - second half:



Complete View:



Supplies:
Stamp - PTI Garden of Life, PTI It's a Celebration
Ink - PTI Ocean Tides
Paper - PTI Ocean Tides, Dark Chocolate CS, PTI Leaves DP and Chocolate Remix DP
Other - SU Scallop Punch, Hemp Cord, Generic Ribbon

OCC Recycled Challenge

April 22nd being Earth Day, the OCC challenge this time was to create a card or project using recycled item. I was thinking about it when I realized that I needed something to hold the 10 cards that I was creating for my friend. Just then I had unpacked a new stamp set from PTI and was feeling bad about trashing the plastic pack they come in. That is when it hit me that I could re-use it to put cards for my friend.

Here is the PTI Recycled stamp case to hold Cards for my friend. Nothing complex, just a simple project.





Supplies:
Stamp - None
Ink - None
Paper - PTI DP
Other - Chipboard flowers

Bag the Challenge

Nichole Heady from PTI has been having various give aways to celebrate PTI's 2nd anniversary. You can see her blog here
Day 5 challenge was to alter a bag, any bag. Of course Nichole has done amazing work with her Tote using Garden Life set, but I am have no expertise in sewing. So taking inspiration from Chris and Amy (Whose blog links are on the right hand side), I altered this gift bag to give my husband his Valentine's day gift. This is the first time I am altering a gift bag and it was really fun and I think the final product looks much better than any store bought Valentine day gift bag.

Here is my bag creation,


Close up of the Heart prints center part,



Supplies: PTI Black and White Basics DP, PTI White Shimmer and Raspberry Fizz Card stock, PTI Heart Prints Set, Nestabilities, PTI Circle Borders and Corners, Raspberry Fizz Ribbon, Generic Twine, PTI Raspberry Fizz and Pure Snow Ink.

DISCLAIMER: I apologize in advance for the bad photography. That is a result of my laziness (i.e. not using tripod) and my eagerness to take pictures in the evening as soon as I am done with it and not waiting till daylight.

Also I was running out of sticky tape, so tried some regular glue for the side panels on this bag and that did not work out too well. :(