So, I am in the car with my mom and my sister heading back form Napa Valley on Wednesday and I am telling my mom about this contest I want to enter. The only two rules the contest had were you had to use at least one stamp and you had to stamp something that wasn’t paper. Well my mom says as she comes to a screeching halt on the side of the road, you should stamp some bark off these eucalyptus trees. Brilliant, I thought, so the three of us got out of the car and proceeded to look for the best pieces of eucalyptus bark. Not only did we get some great bark pieces we also found these acorn top type things. 

When I got home I decided I wanted to do a box and I had this great box my husband use to put some Valentines candy in. I have been on a recycling kick so I though I would reuse the box, plus for the smaller cuts of paper I used all scraps. The flower background is from a K and Company paper pack my brother got me, man he has good taste he is alway finding me the best scrap booking stuff.

 It took some effort to get the eucalyptus bark to flatten out but once I got a good flat piece I decided to see if it would work in my die cut machine and it did. I cut out a nice circle for my stamp and then used a natural pice for an accent. I also used a smaller circle punch to make the yellow bell flowers. Those great acorn things make great embellishments when turned up side down. I grab handfuls of those things so you might see them again in future projects. Lastly, I embossed the pick square to add some dimension to the background.

Thanks mom for the great idea, Matt for the box, Jesse for the great paper and Jenny for collecting smelly bark on the side of the road. I hope you like my box!

I am off to a great start this week, it is only Tuesday and I have already met my goal to make one card this week. This particular card I made is to fit two challenges, I know it might be cheating a little bit but it all came together so well. The first contest I am entering is  for i thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com, their challenge this week was to make something using a button. I thought a button would make a great center for a flower. Then using some of my 1/4 inch quilling paper I pulled it threw the center holes to make the flower center and then hand cut out pedals to match. To give color to my edges I used various shades of red and pink chalk with a touch of yellow for a highlight.  

The second challenge that I am going to use my card for caardvarks.blogspot.com. This is the first time I have entered a card on their site. I am very excited to join the challenge this week. They have a great site full of wonderful ideas and a very skilled design team. Their challenge was to use critters on your card. I know my critters are small but I feel they give the card that great finishing touch. Using my butterfly hole punch I punched out a few using the paper from the flower and the card background. Then using my chalk I gave them some highlights to help them pop.  To view the pictures in a larger size just click on them.

Hello my fellow friends here is my card of the week. So, I like to look around the internet at other scrapers blogs and see what they are doing and to see what the trends are. Lately everyone has been using buttons and I have been wanting to use buttons too, but I have not been able to find any that I like. Then  I remembered I had this dilemma a while ago and I solved it by getting button die cuts. So, with the help of my Sizzix Sixxlets Button Die Set #1 I made the following card for cardpositioningsystems.blogspot.com card contest. I hope you like!

To see a large version of the picture just click on it, then to see it full screen click on it again.