Challenge Submissions of the {romantic} variety

Tonight's submission is pulling double duty again! I love combining challenges because the entries all become much more original. The color palette came from our wonderful friends over at The Play Date Cafe The colors for this challenge were {Black, Grey, White, and Cream} and once again I was inspired by the {story} behind the challenge. This go round the challenge palette came from a hotel that the host visited with her husband twenty years ago. {sweet, right?} so I couldn't help myself and made a romantic sweet card. I also pulled in a challenge from Charisma Cardz which was {anything but square} I pulled this in {obviously} in the ornate shape of the card.

The last thing I added was a sneak peak for you all at next weeks tutorial tuesday... On tuesday we will be looking at all the different ways to decorate those beautiful little stick pins we are all loving right now. I will be showing many different variations and giving away some blog candy. The candy will have some vintage {and not} stick pins plus charms, buttons, and all the other embellishments we will be showing that day. So make sure you are here for that!

{Materials Used:}

1. Storybook Cricut Cartridge for shape
2. Anna Griffin 1149 for the black damask print
3. The paper company translucent classic stripe for the creamy stripe overlay on the damask
4. Heidi Swapp mini overlays {clocks}
5. Vintage pin and beads
6. Tiny Swallow charm from Etsy {Smiling Frogs}

Winner {Winner} Chicken Dinner

Winners of the first five followers competition are ready! Two of you have already been contacted and sent me your addresses- Here are the remaining three:

1. Valerie G.
2. Jamie
3. Brenda Burfiend

Congrats Ladies! Send me your home addresses @ JenniferOsteen@ymail.com to claim your prizes and thanks so so so very much for being my first followers. You all mean so much to me as I start this journey!

Also, while I have you here let me remind you there is a giveaway going on that only one person has taken a shot at. There are two thrifty thursday posts I will be pulling a random comment from them to win the thrifty thursday {prize pack} located in the first thrifty thursday post. Two posts + a comment on each = two chances to win!

Good luck and see you later tonight with another {post}!

{Contest Entries} with old world charm!

So, the Embellish Magazine contest for this week was very inspiring! The challenge was to use Kraft, Turquoise, Brown and Orange and also to incorporate some ric rac. They used some beautiful old world travel pictures to convey the color scheme and I was as inspired by those as I was the palette. Here is my submission:

I just loved the old world details I chose for the top left including this {beautiful old key} I got at a thrift store. Here is a close up of the corner embellishments:

If you would like to craft along with this challenge just click the Embellish Magazine Link in the first paragraph. I also thought this would be an excellent card for a man so I chose to make it a birthday card and enter it into Caardvarks Birthday Challenge! Click here to check it out.

Hope you were inspired... See you next {post}

Friday Organization Tip: {stampers index} and giveaway!

So, one of the biggest problems I have as a crafter is knowing & {remembering} what supplies I have. This happens the most with ribbon, stamps, and embellishments. I will be showing you in the next couple of weeks different ways I have found to give myself {sample guides} of what I have. This weeks is {stamps!} I have a bunch of stamps and they are scattered amongst a couple of bins and baskets I have for them. They are pretty organized but I still would have to take all the bins down and look through them to place my eyeballs on each one.

Now I know it is not thrifty thursday anymore but this organizational tip is cheap and thrifty nonetheless. While I was out thrifting wednesday with my mom she was telling me all the alternative uses for these once adored flipper photo frames. I thought this one was so amazing I had to get it right to you all! So I bought one {there are a million of these everywhere at thrift stores} to make a stamp guide.

I got all my stamps out and started stamping 4x6 {the size of photos for the frame} sheets in themes. Like this Halloween page:

I also made notes on the pages before sliding them into the protectors about which bin the stamps were located in. You can see that above and in one of my Christmas {sheets} below:

The last step was to use my binder tab punch to make some tabs. I picked a nuetral paper because my craft area is in the public part of the apartment and stamped an image or saying from that theme's section on the tab. The tabs look like this:

Here is another page all devoted to {thank yous}:

Some variations:

1. For those of you have more stamps than one or two of these could ever contain: Make one for each theme. A whole picture frame flipper of christmas, or sentiments.
2. Those of you who stamp or create for design teams create these in themes of the company or designer who made them.
3. Use a different ink color on each theme or sheet so you also end up with a stamping rolodex of your ink colors.
4. If you have too many stamps to do this all in one day {which was a pain I admit} get the frame{s} and then add to them as you have your different stamp sets out until eventually they are all done.

Now for today's {giveaway} comment on how you would use this rolodex to organize your own stamp collection and I will draw a random comment for a {Stampology} set of extra large decorative tag stamps! Contest ends when next friday's Organizational tip post goes up.

Happy {stamping!}

Upcoming Events: {Orlando, FL}

I am very excited about a new homemade crafty bazaar in Orlando, FL this year! The 1st annual Homespun Chic Marketplace will take place on August 8th {My birthday} at the Winter Park farmers market in Downtown Winter Park, FL. The vendors are full but I have put my self on the waiting list and I will surely be there booth or not reporting on all the excellent things I find and posting them here! There is a clickable widget on the side of my page for the event: {check it out}

Also don't forget to comment on the two thrifty thursday posts for a chance to win the little mini blog candy. Two posts+ a comment on each = two chances to win!

See you in a bit for a new post!

{Thrifty} Thursday: Christmas in July, tutorials, Inspiration, and Giveaways----{continued!}

Let the thrifty crafting continue! This little guy just broke my heart today. He was supposed to be a whole snowman stuck to a piece of foam tape in there with snow to shake around but he dropped his hat and {his nose fell off} he even lost his grip to the tape....very {sad} Soooo I rescued him! I cut a hole in the back and stole everything out of it. Rebuilt him on a a card with some of that white mulberry paper. I couldn't let him get too hot {I live in Florida after all} so I let him take his snow with him.... on his hat and his "feet". {but I saved you some in the prize pack!}

Don't forget to comment on both thrifty thursday posts for two chances to win the goody {bag} Contest ends monday at 3:00p.m. We have some cards and a great organization post for you tomorrow! See you later {alligators!}

{Thrifty} Thursday: Christmas in July, tutorials, Inspiration, and Giveaways

So, lets be honest: I am {not} rich....and most of you are not swimming in swimming pools filled with money! Crafting can be expensive and I like to combine my love of thrift stores with my passion for crafting. On Thursdays I will be bringing you gobs of delicious ideas made from, with or inspired by my thrift store finds. I had an amazing day at some thrift shops and antique stores with my mom yesterday and my husband today.

On the top are some cute finds that are just for me but wanted to share. The pillow on the bottom is adorable I bought three- {only .69 a piece!} The snail hook is where my purse will be living and those gridded borders will definitely be put to good use.

On the bottom are my finds for crafting! So many delicious things....Read on to see how I used these items in my cards for today!

{blog candy!} Since I know the bad part of thrifting is that you wont find the same things I did and vice versa I bought some extra as giveaways for you readers! At the end of the post find out how to get your hands on this {not expensive} but very cute {prize}!

The inspiration for this card was a three dimensional soft plushie ornament with super cute {beads} and {stitching.} I cut a slit in the back and pulled out all its guts first. Next I trimmed around the image in a smaller circle cutting off the beads {don't freak- I saved the little guys} Lastly I took some light blue embroidery floss and stitched the edges. I love using different hues of the traditional primary red, green, and blue holiday colors. The paper I wanted for the card {me and my big ideas Holiday specialty card-stock pad} unfortunately featured much bolder hues than I was looking for so I covered it with {the paper company silver fluorescent paper} which changed all the darks to their pastel counter parts. Add some {Martha Stewart} holiday rub ons and you are off and running!

{thrifty} thursday: card two

This card I did for CPS Sketch #176 Challenge. I loved the sketch but then today when I was thrifting I found two chintzy kitchen magnet frames {the other one is in the prize pack!} I layered a gold written overlay {making memories clear creation: travel} on top of the two pieces of teal cardstock. I used a {making memories} embellishment on the frame and {fashion naturals} hemp cord in two colors across the card. The edges and everything in between were inked with {colorbox gold ink} to pull out the gold writing on the travel overlay. Quote is from {DCWV "Quote Stack" friendship/colored}. My husband really likes this card he kept saying: "you will win for sure" and he didn't understand when I told him this one was a random drawing. {He is cute!}

Well I am going to post s'more thrifty thursday stuff later tonight... but lets get to the prize instructions. This one is easy it will be a random selection from the comments. Since there will be more than one {thrifty thursday} post tonight you will have multiple entry options. Contest ends monday at 3:00p.m.

{Good Luck!}