I'm a Guest Designer Again! WooHoo!

Hey again to you fantastic readers!

I hope all is well with you guys. It is our last week before school starts here. This is always such a bittersweet time of year. My birthday is this month on the 27th (obviously that's a sweet part, ha!). School is starting, but I miss my monsters when they aren't around destroying stuff. The thing I am most looking forward to though,  is getting back to a good routine. In the Summer I am incessantly running late, and I HATE it! Something about the long lazy days makes my internal perception of time way off. Days, hours, and minutes all meld. For example: I will see I have 15 minutes to leave, and when I think it has been only 5 minutes I look and see it's actually been 12!(that happened yesterday morning)  August is the worst too, since we have so much packed into such a short period of time. Everything runs together. 

This year I start my first job in 5 years. I will be working at a Mother's Day Out 2 days a week with 1 year-olds. My son starts Pre-K this year, so my friend offered me the job to avoid me getting too lonely with all that free time. I will still have 3 free days a week, and I plan on spending much of them crafting and working on this blog. I am on a spending freeze right now. I can actually shop in my own craft closet which is fun.  I have found so many new supplies I forgot about that I need to use, and I can't wait!

Today I have the honor of being a guest designer for a 2nd time at DoubleClick-AKA Abusybee. If you missed my first project you can find it here. Akin to my other project this card was made with my very favorite paper collection, WRMK Hall Pass. This set is the one that started it all (actually it was just the lockers paper at first, now its everything). It was hoarded and untouched for over a year. I can't believe I waited so long. Though part of me is glad inexperienced-just-starting-out me didn't butcher it, as I'm sure I would have. 

I made this card to match the basket you all saw in my previous post.

 This card started as an "uh-oh" and really turned into something I love. Let me tell you how it all came about.  It was originally just a kraft colored one layer card. Then I go the bright idea to use eyelets to tie it in with the basket. Let me tell you if you try to punch holes in the middle of a card without a Big Bite... it can be problematic. Enter: new card base with golden mat. I am really happy with the colors. All of the paper elements were  from the Hall Pass collection. The other items were Skittles, WRMK wide eyelets, Doodlebug designs twine, kraft paper, some Glossy Accents, an Elizabeth Crafts die, and my Cricut with the Recess cartridge . The border along the bottom is actually two border stickers, (the stripe is by itself).  The banner is a sticker from the same sticker sheet as the borders. The "hello" die I used on solid textured card stock that was included in the Hall Pass collection kit. I thought using 5 colors would really stand out, but the colors are much more muted than those on the patterned paper I used for the "Teacher". To add interest I put glossy accents over the "hello" and I love how it looks now. 

I love those colors! I even like my lopsided bow. 

The teacher die cut is from the Cricut "Recess" cartridge. It originally said "favorite teacher", but I thought that would be a little presumptuous for the start of school. I used the 6x6 paper pad for the letters so the patterns would be smaller and not be lost on such a small cut. The white is actually just the same cut glued offset. I used a Sharpie to "ink" the letters and the kraft paper. I really like the effect. With all of that black inking, the two black Skittles were perfect! I feel like they really ground the image. 

This card was so much stinkin fun to make and I love how it turned out. I started to feel discouraged from all the little mess ups I had, but they really just added some awesome details to what was going to be a boring card. I hope you all like it as much as I do. :) Let me know what you think, or if you have any questions. Don't forget to check out the challenge over at DoubleClick-AKA Abusybee. Thanks for reading you guys!

~Dusty Rae

Guest Design at DoubleClick - AKA Abusybee

Hello Wonderful People!

I am a little late getting this post up, but that doesn't mean I am not SUPER EXCITED! Sick kids have a way of making me forget what day it is. I am so glad I get  to tell you all about the challenege going on at DoubleClick-Aka Abusybee. This is a Back-To-School Challenge and it was so much fun to be a guest designer for it.

     First let me say how much fun it is to work with Skittles (not the candy, but they do look just as yummy). If you all have never used them, you should. They are like enamel dots, but better. They have more visual dimension, and the little dome in the middle... well it's my favorite part.  I love it! 

   In this project I also got the chance to use some paper that is very special to me. All of it (with the exception of the kraft paper) is from the WRMK Hall Pass collection. This paper is what gave me a super passion for paper crafting... and started my paper collecting. I have 4 of the paper kits and numerous single sheets. I have been hoarding this for over a year, and have never used a single sheet on a project... that's right I said NEVER! This challenge was just begging for this line, and Skittles were the PERFECT addition.

This tag was included in the paper kit, and the ribbon is from Wal-Mart Floral Dept. I added a little Glossy Accents to the backpack for dimension. Look at those Skittles :)

I used some WRMK wide eyelets to prevent the paper from tearing, and my crop-a-dile to set them.

Isn't this such a fun basket? I adapted this from a video I saw on YouTube. (I can't find the original link) It's a 12x12 piece of paper scored to make a little basket. Originally you were supposed to score at 4 and 8 inches on each side, but I adjusted that somewhat to make the sides smaller and the opening larger. 

I love making back to school projects for my kids teachers. I feel they are so under appreciated much of the time. Not to mention, it gives me an excuse to craft! So all of you should make your back to school projects and submit them for the challenge over at DoubleClick-Aka Abusybee.  The winner will receive some wonderful Skittles of their very own. Check it out you guys!  Let me know what you all think, and feel free to ask any questions. Thanks for reading everyone!

~Dusty Rae