A small find and a new Challenge

Spring is the season of rummage sales, tag sales, garage sales - all sort of opportunities to find interesting crafting possibilities for ridiculously low prices.  I have a tendency to see too many possibilities and have a hard time leaving things behind - which accounts for the cluttered condition of the attic and basement at our house!  One recent find was this tin of angel playing cards.

There are fifty four different vintage angel images on the cards and there are two decks of cards plus a sturdy tin.  All of this crafty inspiration for only 25 cents - how could I walk away and leave it behind?

I think that playing cards are something that are often left just sitting around at home, particularly the fancy souvenir type sets like this.  We have many sets and, while we do need a deck per person to play Hand and Foot, there are more than we can realistically be expected to use.

So the next challenge I want to make is to use a playing card somehow on a project.  This can be a card that you already have in the house or one that you find as a "treasure" somewhere.  I am thinking of a decorative or souvenir type card but any playing card will be fine.  I'll repeat the instructions for using the linky tool at the end of this post.

Take Out Box Challenge

Thanks to those of you who took the challenge and tried making a project inspired by the take out box.  It was really interesting to see the different interpretations.  It always amazes me to see how a single starting point can lead to very different results.  I visited all of the blogs and left comments (Marilyn Mae - I commented to you by email since you don't have a blog and Donna, I couldn't get the comment form to appear when I clicked to leave a comment so I also sent you an email - I hope I had the right address).

If you want to see the variety of projects that were made, please go to THIS POST and then follow the links at the bottom of the post to get a larger view and more details.  It would be great if you could leave a comment for each person - everyone loves to get comments!

Since there were only nine of you this week, I didn't draw a single winner.  I have a little something to send each of you.  Please email me at capadiadesigns@gmail.com with your full name and address and I'll send you your little something!  It may take a few days since we have graduation this weekend so please be patient.

link to discussion Day #3 - Time to Craft

(a new discussion will start at the end of the week)

Directions on linking your project for the  "Playing Card " inspiration challenge

Several people asked about using the linky tool to add a project and participate in the challenge.  I took some screen shots to show you how it works.

First, scroll to the bottom of the blog post HERE and click on the blue froggie link box.

These boxes will pop up.  If you have a blog where you have posted the project, you can just fill in the blanks and click "next step."  If you know the URL of the photo you want to post you can add that instead of a blog address.  If you just need to fill in something to get to the next screen you can use my blog address in this blank and then go to the tab on the next page that allows you to upload a photo from your computer.

This will take you to the blog post you linked and ask you to select the image to upload.

If you don't have a blog but have posted the image online - in a photo site, on a message board, or somewhere else you can provide the direct URL to upload.   You can find out the URL by right clicking and selecting "copy image location" from the list - then paste it in the blank.

If you don't have the image of your project anywhere online, you can click the third tab and upload the image directly from your computer.

Subscribe to Capadia Designs 

 

Family and Friends

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that our neighbors had a devastating house fire over a year ago.  Their house was taken down and is nearly rebuilt.  During the construction they have been able to rent the house right next door to ours so I see them even more than I did when they were in their original house.  

I sometimes pop over for an hour or two so that Lori can help at school or take one of the children to the doctor.  The twins have grown so much - from babies to toddlers and I enjoy spending time with them and their older brother and sister.  I was there Monday and when I got home, Lori sent me a message to tell me her son said that it's fun to have me as part of the family - very cute!

I wanted to work on my layout for the Take Out Box Challenge tonight.  I decided to do it digitally since my craftroom is in a state of confusion because I am still sorting everything.  I was thinking about the subject to choose when I found this quote in my Creative Memories Digital set called "Expressions of Those We Love" and it just seemed to fit.  

The best part of life is when you family becomes your friends, and your friends become your family.  Danica Whitfield

We have lived in many places, including eight years overseas in England and Germany. When we were expatriots, we found out how quickly friends can become your family as you adjust to the challenges of a new location.

I used my Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus 3.0 software to create this layout.  I took a bit of a shortcut by importing the photo of the box top, enlarging it to the 12 x 12 page size and then adding digital shapes to fit the various areas. The series of lines that looked like a journaling spot to me so I rotated the design 90 degrees from the photograph to make them horizontal.

I kept adding shapes to fit the takeout box design until I had a "sketch" that looked like this.  I set about adding patterns and colors using the Cheerful Power Palette and the Cheerful Spring Additions.  I was almost true to the "sketch" of the box design - I did eliminate two dots that would fall in a photo space and placed the larger circles behind the photos.

I hope that some more of you will have a chance to try this challenge.  I'll be visiting all of the posted links tomorrow to see the details of the various projects.  Please go to THIS POST for the complete explanation and directions about how to join the challenge and post your project.  You do not need a blog to participate.  The challenge closes tonight.

I'll be working on a card to meet this challenge as well and should post it tomorrow...if all goes well!

Thanks for accepting the challenge - please let me know if you'd like me to post more challenges in the future.  I decided to let the current discussion topic stay until tomorrow and I'll add a new topic that will run for a week and a half on Thursday.

link to discussion Day #3 - Time to Craft


Subscribe to Capadia Designs

Custom Crops Mystery Challenge

A few weeks ago I received this "mysterious" box in the mail from Custom Crops.



Inside there were some special instructions - "Your mission, should you choose to accept it...!"



When I opened the box I found these items - quite an unusual assortment. The challenge was to create a craft project using the mystery items

So what do you think I made? The rules were simple:

1. No designer would know what the mystery items were until the items arrived on each designers doorstep (in the infamous mystery box!).
2. Each designer could keep all of the mystery items once the challenge was completed.
3. Some part of each mystery item had to be included in the finished project.
4. Designers were permitted to use other craft products/tools in completing their project.
5. Designers were encouraged to "think outside of the box" and to come up with the most unique and innovative project.

Here is a LINK to the page on the Custom Crops site where you can find more details about the challenge.

The big "reveal" is on Monday, August 17th - be sure to stop by the Custom Crops site to see what all of the designers created. In the meanwhile - here is a tiny "sneak peek" at my project...



I can't wait to see what all of my fellow designers made - the challenge was a lot of fun and it will be interesting to see how we all incorporated this odd assortment of items into our projects!

Blog Celebration & Challenge - with Gifts!

My favorite numbers are three and seven. A few days ago I checked my blog and noticed that the visitor count was a very "lucky" number and the subscriber count and guestbook signatures also had lucky numbers





So...I decided to have a bit of a celebration!

I had been working on the designing the file you see pictured at the start of this post for a lace edge card (after creating some cuts that mimic punches I decided to work out my own pattern). I created this in both George in an A2 size



and Plantin Schoolbook in both A2 and 5 x 7



so that anyone with either bug and the trial version of the software could give this a try.

Here is the Challenge!

Create a card using one of these files and post it on the Cricut.com message board in this thread BLOG CELEBRATION AND CHALLENGE

Since I did not get this posted until Sunday afternoon (and next weekend is a holiday weekend -Memorial Day in the USA), I will give a deadline of Wednesday, May 28th to post the card you create. There are three prizes - you can ask to be in all three drawings or choose the ones to enter if you already own one of these gifts.

I will put slips of paper in three cans with the name of the each person who posted their interpretation of my card - if no choice is given you will be entered in all three drawings. I will post the winners in my blog and on the message board on Thursday, May 29th.

So what could you win? As you know I am a Creative Memories consultant and there are a few limited edition items that I love and in cleaning my scrap space I found that I happen to have brand new extras on hand. I will send one of these to the person whose name I draw from each can.

The first gift is pictured here - it is an adorable 7 x7 seven album in a pretty shade of lilac with a beautiful sparkling star on the front. The album has 12 white pages (24 sides) and I am also giving a set of the Fairies and Frills stickers that work well with this little album.



The second gift is a wonderful hole punch that cuts a detailed maple and oak leaf and comes with a plastic storage container for extra punched leaves. I know that I am often create files that imitate punches but I still do use punches in addition to my Cricut and this is a favorite for the beautiful detail of the shapes.



Finally, I have a set of templates for journaling, page decoration and page layout that were an exclusive gift for hostesses and are extremely versatile. There are four templates and they are great for adding some interest to your pages and some parts could even be used for cards (stickled flower and swirl shapes, etc.)



All of these items are no longer available from Creative Memories and they are hard to find.

Show me that you actually do use my files after you download them!

Use your imagination to create something unique with one of these files. I purposely cut the samples in plain ivory card stock so you would have a "blank slate" to start from.

Here are the links to download

Circle lace edge A2 card - George

Circle lace edge A2 card - Plantin Schoolbook

Circle lace edge 5 x 7 card - Plantin Schoolbook

Good luck - I look forward to seeing what you create!