Flowers for Mom!

This Sunday is Mother's Day and I am all set to celebrate my Moms. I'm even going to surprise mine with a package-I'm putting her gift in the mail, which I never do. She usually has to wait until the next time we see each other to get her gifts. She'll love this.

Today is the 6th, so that means the Limelight Papercrafts DT gets to share our monthly project with all of you. I've been hard at work making up this beautiful Jillibean bouquet. Yep-that's our challenge this month, to make a bouquet of something. I made beautiful paper flowers.

Super easy to make with any variety of flower dies. I curled the tips of the paper petals with a bone folder, and places foam dimensionals between the layers. For the centers of the flowers, I simply cut a strip of cs, snipped along the edge like you would if you were making faux grass and then rolled it up. Double sided dp works great-I used the new Jillibean soup dp, because it shows a pattern on both the top and bottom of the flower. The tin can is from the dollar spot at Target. I added some coordinating Jillibean Bean Stalks twill and twine to finish it off. How cool is this? I even made a matching Mother's day card. Again, easy to so with the same papers, twine, and flower dies. The letters are also Jillibean soup-alphabeans brown stripes. I added in some Jillibean Core'dinations cardstock, some stitching and a scalloped edge to my card, oh and of course a sweet red button.

Follow me to see what the rest of the DT has done with this month's project-bouquets!

Limelight Papercrafts Blog ~ Mandy

Altered Ambitions ~ Christi

dahlhouse designs ~ Lisa

millers-ink ~ Lynn

Taylor~Made by... ~ JenMarie

give a big warm welcome to our May Guest Designer

Jennie~stampin'away the day

and Then off you go to shop! Limelight has the latest and greatest!!!

THE "HELP US MAKE ROOM" SALE! (Through May 10)
*All Past Unity Store Kits (September through April) ONLY $23!!
*Pink Cat Studio Small Stamp Sets $6 and Full Stamp Sets $10!
*Webster's Pages Seaside Fabric Fancies and Glitter Sparklers - $3.99 each!
*Turquoise Dot Sparklers $1.50!
*Glitzers Pink Bling Stickers only $3.50!
*Sparkle Fibers 25% off!
*Glitz Roller Doodles stamps only $2! That's HALF OFF!!

ooooey, goooooey Chocolate!

Welcome to a Saturday edition of a Limelight Project parade. Each month, Mandy challenges the DT to a themed project. This month.....it's all things chocolate. I was inspired by the lovely, Nook & Pantry paper by Basic Grey-those strawberries were just calling out for some chocolate! I just adore chocolate covered strawberries...yummmmm! I scored this Martha Stewart punch on clearance at the end of Halloween-seriously, I paid $3.20 for it!!! I love how it looks like real chocolate dripping off the paper. I used Beate's treat pouch tutorial (which was actually something I made at one of my very first SU workshops over 7 years ago. it's so simple to make and such a great way to give a little treat.) and as little Valentine's Day yummies for my boys I'm going to give them each a chocolate covered strawberry placed in a cello bag (if I can fit 2 in there, I will). I made a card to match using the heart (embossed with chocolate craft ink and clear embossing powder-it looks like real chocolate too-mmmmmm) from the Unity Oct. store KOTM, and the sentiment from the Unity Sept. store KOTM. Both of those kits are ON SALE!!! The green gingham and ric rac and button are both at Limelight Papercrafts, too. See what else is on sale-Lots of Goodies, I promise.
Before you do, make sure you see what other oooey, gooooey chocolaty treats the Limelight DT has in store for you.
Limelight Papercrafts Blog ~ Mandy
Altered Ambitions ~ Christi
Caffinated Cropper~ Amy
dahlhouse designs ~ Lisa
Taylor~Made by... ~ JenMarie

ETA: Mandy has posted a Guest DT contest on her blog!!! Check it out!!!!

As always, thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs, Lisa

Project Parade with the Six Chicks!!!

It's Jan. 6 already and that means today is a treat day from the Limelight Papercrafts DT. Each month Mandy asks us to create a project with a coordinating card or packaging. This month our theme was Wearable Art!!! I knew right away I wanted to make a cute ribbon flower for my hair. With all the ribbon choices, Limelight carries, I had a hard time deciding what to use. I settled on this fabulous silk ribbon by May Arts. Here's how I did it. To make the flower, you stitch up one side of the ribbon, gathering it as you go. When you get the the end of your ribbon piece, you stitch up the two ends together. I ended up adding a gorgeous stitched brad by Basic Grey to the center of my flower. I love how it pops against the black. I then took a hair clip from my bathroom and sewed my ribbon flower onto the clip. This was really super easy and so fun to make myself a hair accessory (I can't believe I modeled this for you all, but in a house of boys, I was the only one around with hair long enough. Plus it's for me, so I'm happy to share it! Just don't laugh at me).

I thought if I ever made another one of these (just might for my nieces) I thought this cute little pillow box would be a perfect fit for the hair accessory! I used the same ribbon, added another stitched brad and a fun little tag stamped with the Chicks Rule sentiment from the Unity Sept. Store Kit....everything extraordinary! The pink polka dotted dp is from Duck in a Row dp pad by Oct. Afternoon. So, who would have guessed I could be crafty with my stamping/scrapping supplies and make such a fun wearable piece of art? Thanks for the challenge, Mandy! Be sure to see what other inspiring works of art the other Six Chicks come up with this month.

Limelight Papercrafts Blog ~ Mandy
Altered Ambitions ~ Christi
Caffinated Cropper~ Amy
dahlhouse designs ~ Lisa
RyannMarin Designs ~ Ryann
Taylor~Made by... ~ JenMarie

After that, be sure to stop by the

Limelight Papercrafts online store for some great shopping!

ON SALE NOW:
Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses, Cosmo Cricket Jolly By Golly, and select holiday stamps 30% off!

Cosmo Cricket Oh Joy! Crafting Kit ONLY $10!
Selected Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket, and other products at major savings!

Hugs, Lisa

Six Chicks Project Parade!!!

Good Morning, Happy Sunday and Happy December 6!!!! It's that time of month again when the Limelight DT get's to dazzle you with our monthly projects. This month our theme is anything to do with Calenders. Right away I knew what I wanted to do.

I have this neighbor who is wonderful about remembering birthdays. She sends a little something to each of our family member's on their special day. I want to be better at remembering birthday's, so I have been wanting to make one of these birthday date folders for some time. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make myself a little something cute to help me remember all the birthday's in my life. It was so easy to do with all the coordinating products Limelight Papercrafts carries. Actually, that was the hardest part for me, choosing which papers I wanted to use. I went with the Jillibean Soup products, most of them from the Lentil Soup line. Chocolate and olive are two of my favorite colors to work with so I knew this would be perfect. The template is a My Timeless template, it's the Recipe Wrap Up. There are 4 little pockets on the inside which hold the lined, month cards. I then can write the person's name and their birth date for their birthday month and I now have them all in one place. Here's a close up of the monthly cards. The template I used had the year printed on them, so I covered 'em up with a 3/4 circle since I don't need this 1 year, I get to use this over and over.

There are many different panels you can decorate on this template, I left a few of them plain, used 4 of them for the pockets and then did up 2 of them with large paperclips if I needed to add any notes or bits of paper along the years.

So here you have it, a great way to make a coordinated birthday date book. here's all the supplies I used:

CS: Kraft, olive, and chocolate chip cs, Jillibean Soup dp

Ink: white gel pen

Accessories: Bean stalks, cool beans, scalloped border punch, various circle punches, janome sew mini.

Be sure to see what the rest of the team came up with for this month's challenge. It's the perfect time to get started on next year's calender projects!!!!

Limelight Papercrafts Blog ~ Mandy
Altered Ambitions ~ Christi
Caffinated Cropper~ Amy
dahlhouse designs ~ Lisa
My Little Creative Escape~ Lisa
RyannMarin Designs ~ Ryann
Taylor~Made by... ~ JenMarie

and our December guest: JULIE SMITH

Limelight Papercraft specials:

On sale through Wednesday , 12/10:
All Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses, Nook & Pantry, and Wassail - 15% off!
All Pink Paislee Mistletoe & Co. - 20% off!
Open Stock Jillibean Soup 12x12 patterned papers - Buy 3, Get 1 Free! (Enter your choice of free Jillibean Soup papers in the Comments section at checkout!)

Limelight Monthly Project

Today is the 6th, so that means it's time for the monthly Limelight Papercrafts Project Parade! This month we are featuring Fall or Halloween Home decor with a matching card. My project popped into my head one night while I was falling asleep. I am happy to say it came together much better than I expected. I think it is so cute and adds such a fun element to my kitchen island. I got out all my other fall decorations today, so this fits right in. I made the cutest little fall tree with branches from a tree we have out front of our house. I love that I brought in a little bit of nature!I used the acorn and leaf images from the Unity Sept. Store KOTM (YES, those are my favorite images from the kit, along with the grateful sentiment) and accented the branches with the brown gingham ribbon, Off Beat Buttons, and some gorgeous October Afternoon papers. Here's a close up of the vase tag and tree ornaments. And here is the card I made to match. I actually made this first and used this as my inspiration for the tree. Those polka dots and stripes together just make me smile.
I added stitching and some die cute leaves to help give the fall feeling to the card. Once again, I used my stamp-a-majig and markers to stamp the sentiment just right! Follow me and come see what fabulous Fall/Halloween projects the rest of the DT came up with. Mandy, Amy, Lee, JenMarie, Ryann, and our October Guest designer Sarah Martina!!!

It's a Spooktacular Time with Limelight!

Good morning and welcome to the Limelight Papercrafts, Six Chicks project parade. This month we are sharing some spooktacular treats. I had a crafting block thinking about what I wanted to show you all this month, then it came to me, and it came together quickly and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Plus this is so economical-it's using what you have. I created the card and the treat pouch out of 1 8 1/2 x 11 piece of cs! How's that for being resourceful.

I started this whole project by folding a whole sheet of cs in half at 5 1/2 inch. Then I cut the folded piece at 4 1/2 inches. I ran the larger folded piece through the Big Shot with the Scalloped Square Bigz die, making sure I moved the folded edge down a bit so it didn't get cut. I made it into a pouch by running a zig zag stitch down and around three of the sides. I added a few jumbo eyelets to the top corners (you could add a ribbon or twine through those to create a handle). Then I worked with the fun new Halloween set by Unity, Hauntingly Sweet and some October Afternoon dp in an Orange pattern. I used my favorite gingham ribbon and dyed it with a bit of Dusty Durango ink. It's all about the Candy Corn, love the sentiment, so that's what's in the little cello bag, tied off with a bit of black hemp twine. Look, my card coordinates. I used the left over cs that I cut off from the pouch. I used the same colors with a bit of Crushed Curry tossed in (couldn't resist adding a big yellow moon behind my tree!), the same OA dp, ribbon and even the zig zag stitch and scallop! One of the best things about this stamp set is that it comes with 3 sentiments. I used the happy Halloween on this one. There you have it, hope you're feeling motivated to create some fun Halloween treats this year. Now join me to see what the other six chicks have been creating! Mandy, Amy, Lorie, Lee, JenMarie, Ryann, and our Septmber Guest designer Ann Cox!!!
Also don't forget the Limelight Specials!!! They are always fabulous and make shopping a little bit easier! Who can resist a sale, right?!!! Have a great start to your week, it's a Holiday after all! Long weekends are nice! Hugs, Lisa

Six Chicks Project Parade...back to school!!!

Today is August 6 (my mom's birthday, Happy Birthday Mom!!!) and it's time for another great round of Limelight's Project parade. This month we are showing off some fun back to school themed projects. My middle guy, Ryan, is starting Kindergarten. He is soooo excited to be going to school and most of all to be joining his big brother on the bus. I can't wait to see him on the first day. I did up this cute little gift set for him-a back pack tag, new pencils, and a little love note to wish him well. The October Afternoon dp, Cherry Hill, has the cutest little apple paper and I couldn't resist using it here on my projects. I have to say I CASED this tag from the adorable little luggage tags my dear friend, Becky, made up for a few of us last year for SU Convention. I plan to attach this to Ryan's back pack and will include his bus number on the backside. The letter R is a chipboard letter by Basic Grey. Brads are from the bittersweet collection. I also used the same fun papers and made this little pencil pouch. I made this with the Top Note die and attached the ends together with another Bittersweet brad. I also added some of this yummy brown gingham ribbon (LOVE this stuff, I just used up my stash and can't wait for more to get here!!!) and a OffBeat Button.To complete the ensamble, I also made a ver easy card to remind my little guy to just have fun!!! The sentiment was created by inking up words from the Unity set, Mix Up of Cutness. A little paper piercing and this little love note was complete. Hope I inspired you to create a little something for your little munchinkins or a teacher as the new school year begins!
Check out the rest of the DT and see what fun stuff they have to show us: Mandy, Amy, Lorie, Lee, JenMarie, Ryann, and our August guest designer, Tiffany Johnson.

Stars and Stripes-Six Chicks Project parade

Can you believe it's July 6th already? Wow! The summer needs to sloooooow down. The good news is it means today is the Limelight Six Chicks project parade. Since we just celebrated the 4th of July, we Mandy decided to have us work with Stars and Stripes and I finally decided to get a home decor piece done. I can not begin to tell you how simple and quick this project came together. I have no idea why I have waited so long to do up a picture frame. Here are the products I used. The paper, ribbon, and buttons you can get from Limelight Papercrafts, of course! I purchased a cheap white frame and added a few embellishments and some cute little chipboard letters and I created this fun frame! I punched out the stars with my small and large star punch (by SU) and added some buttons to finish it off. I love that limelight carries these white chipboard alphas. You can color them any color with your copics. I used basic black here. See what you have and get creating. Really, it's that easy! Come follow me and see what the rest of the DT did with stars and stripes: Mandy, Amy, Lorie, Lee, JenMarie, Ryann, and our Guest designer AJ. ! Have a great week1 Hugs, Lisa

Summer Six Chicks Project Parade

Hello, Hello! Today is June 6th, which means it is time to share the Limelight Summer Projects. That's our theme for this month's projects, SUMMER! What's more summer than beautiful flowers. I'm trying hard to keep them alive this year. I admit, I do not have a green thumb. Maybe that's why I love papercrafting, I can "grow" gardens of flowers and never kill them. LOL! I'm determined to make my flower pots last longer than 4th of July this year. So for my Summer project I made this easy flower pot. With a little white acyrlic paint, some stazon ink, and copics this pot was transformed from a plain 'ol terracotta pot to this!

Stamp is Flowers from Neverland and the ribbon is this gorgeous brown May Arts gingham. And to go along with this flower pot, I created a cute little flower pot card to go along with it!

Here's a shot of the card by itself. I saw these cards make their way around blogland before Mother's Day and I finally got around to making one. Oh, so easy to do.

I found these instructions by Stephanie Luman. I used her measurements and then created this one to fit my style. The paper is new stuff from October Afternoon (be prepared, you will be seeing a lot of it-ducks in a row and cherry hill are Awesome!). I used the same ribbon, added some new Kaiser rhinestones in Split Pea, and some Off Beat buttons to make it all come together. The flowers were cut with some Big Shot dies and punches by Stampin' Up! Oh, I almost forgot. This is a pull out card, so if you pull out the flowers, you'll see they are attached to a little card. I used the beautiful sentiment set by Unity, Something Within, that says, "A Friend Loves at All Times!" I took this over to my BFF today and made her day! That's all for this post. Follow me to see what the rest of the team came up with. I know they will be full of inspiration!
JenMarie, Amy, Lee, Lorie, Mandy, Ryann, and our Guest designer this month, Nikki!
Hugs, Lisa

Six Chicks Project Parade

Just in case you didn't know, today is the 6th of May. That means today I get to share the Limelight monthly project I've been working on. It's all things baby around here. I don't know about you, but I have quite a few friends that are having babies or have just had babies. And you know what, they are all BOYS! I haven't gotten to make a cute little baby girl card in soooo long. Most of my baby stamps are from Stampin' Up!, so I had to make due with what I have from Limelight. Which is fine, might as well get your monies worth from your stamps, right?! I chose to use the cute little ice cream stamps from Unity which used to be called Delectable Delights (looks like you can still get this smaller set, at Limelight) and is now part of the bigger, newer version of Mix of Cuteness.
My girlfriend Kim just had her third baby, so she doesn't really need anything, but of course I wanted to give her a little something. You always need new onesies for each baby you have. So, I stamped on the undershirt. ETA: I used Pallet Inks from Papertrey Ink on the Onsies-Ocean Tides, Summer Sunrise, and chocolate.

Next came the packaging. You always want to make the gift look cute and I ran through a couple ideas in my head that just didn't work. Then it hit me, I could use the packaging the Onesies came in and just re-do the insert with some fun designer paper. I pulled the insert out and traced it on some October Afternoon dp, cut it out and slid it back into the plastic. I rolled up the undershirts and put them back in.

What gift isn't complete without a coordinating card? I used the same CAS sketch from yesterday's SCS challenge along with the same ice cream images I used on the Onesies and made this cute little card.

I used some of this ribbon and one of these buttons to embellish this card. I know, it isn't your traditional baby card, but that's what I love about it, especially for a 3rd baby. Aren't all babies full of Sweet Stuff? I then slid the card into the back side of the packaging to complete the look of the gift, and hey, no envelope was needed!

Thanks for checking out my baby gift idea. I know, lots of pictures today, thanks for baring with me. I do have one more to share and it is for all of you who stop by my little corner of the blogging world. These are the beautiful irises I cut from my yard yesterday.
I couldn't resist cutting some and putting them in a vase. They have made me smile all day! I hope they make you smile too.
So now, follow me and see what the other six chicks have to share today. We have a new DT member, since Becky finished off her stint with Limelight last month. We are happy to have Amy Castellano join us (she was a guest designer back a month ago). We also have a new guest designer for the month of May, please welcome, Amy Tsuruta. Here's the team, check 'em out: JenMarie, Lee, Ryann, Lorie, Amy C., Mandy, and our guest designer Amy!

Special this week:FREE SHIMMERZ!Every order of $35 or more (before shipping, please) will receive one FREE jar of Shimmerz Paint! Please enter your choice of color in the Comments section at checkout. If your color choice is not available, or if no selection is made, we will choose a jar of Shimmerz to include for you!
That's all for today! Hugs, Lisa

I was Inspired to do more Green!

Okay, so I decided to jump in and show you one more Green Project today. I was cleaning up the boys craft table and was once again annoyed by all the pencils and markers falling all over the table. Do you have pencils coming out of your ears? I do, it seems that pencils are the little "goodies" to pass out at school. Since there are no food items allowed (due to food allergies), all the kids bring in little goodies bags for their birthdays and they always contain decorative pencils. I have been storing them in a few different plastic cups but they are so unstable and fall over all the time.

So I re-purposed an empty oatmeal container. I cut it down a bit and wrapped it with some fun October Afternoon (the nightlight collection is soooo cute for kids!). I didn't like the inside top of decorated container, so I added some fun wide ric rac to help hide the ugliness.I kept this very simple, and I know the concept isn't new. But come on, to be honest this is just a pencil holder for my boys and I didn't want to "waste" any of my precious supplies to pretty it up! LOL! They think it is spectacular and I'm happy that the pencils aren't all over the table anymore! See you tomorrow with a fun CAS card or two. I'm off to do a little distressing!

More Hugs, Lisa

Limelight Going Green!

Today is the 6th of April and it is time for our monthly Six Chicks Project parade. This month the chicks of Limelight are celebrating Earth Day (which is April 22)! We were to use recylced materials, stamp some trees, make a seed packet, something that benefits or celebrates this great planet of ours-EARTH!

I love my Giggle Grove trees, so I made this cute little card trio, gift set to give to my friend. She is always in need of some cards and these were perfect little note cards. I used the earthy designs of Basic Grey Off Beat dp and accented them with matching Off Beat buttons. The card measures 4 1/4 square, which allows room for the trees to stick out, off the top of the card. See the Kraft corrugated piece of cardstock? It's not cardstock, it is a piece of chipboard I created by re-purposing a Kellogs Frosted Mini wheats box. The boys had finished a box up the other day and I pulled it from my recycling bin (Yes, I am happy to say we recycle in our house. It is amazing to me how much stuff we pull out from the trash to put in the bin and it makes me happy to know those items are not going to the landfills). I cut the box up and used small strips to accent my card after I ran them through my crimper. I think it gave these cards a nice finishing touch! Here's some close ups of the cards.

Come follow me as I check out the rest of the DT and see what wonderful Earthy Projects they came up with: Becky, JenMarie, Mandy, Lorie, Lee, Ryann, and our guest designer, Rebekka.

Be sure to check out the home page of the Limelight Papercraft store. There is lots going on, from new products (yeah!), an Easter Sale, and the Easter Egg Promotion is still going on. Always lots of good stuff going on at Limelight! Hugs, Lisa

A Tisket A Tasket...

A green and yellow basket! Sorry if you'll be signing that one all day but I couldn't resist. It is the 6th of the month and that means the Six Chicks have our project parade. This month we were making or decorating baskets. I am so excited to share mine with you. I've had it sitting on my desk since Monday and I am so proud of my idea. So here it is!

Wanna know how I did it? It was easy and really not that time consuming. My base is one of those acrylic paint cans. Did you know Limelight carried them? I didn't until a few weeks ago. Mandy has some very cool alterable items in the store. Go check them out, they are listed under Accessories! Here is a quick tutorial on how I turned it into a basket. It's easy, you just need to channel your elementary school days! Remember those weaved place mats we made for Thanksgiving and then the teacher would go laminate them for you to take home and use? Same basic idea. I just weaved strips of Kiwi cs. Here's some visual for you.

I used a sheet of 12x4 1/4 inch textured kiwi cs (measure your can first, and remove the handle) for my base. I cut long slits along the base 1 inch apart. I then cut strips of the same cs 1 x 4 1/4 inch. I sponged the edges of all the cs with chocolate ink. Then I just weaved the strips through the base piece, alternating the over under pattern.

After I had the pieces all weaved together I simply wrapped it around the can and attached with red-lined sticky strip (any strong adhesive will work). Here is the finished can, all wrapped up.

I had scraps of the October Afternoon dp, picnic basket, and the wide ric rac still on my desk from my scrapbook page (don't forget to play along in this week's sketch challenge for a chance to win some of that ric rac!) so I pulled those together to create the cute little tag to adorn my basket. I also realized that the Almighty God stamp from Unity isn't just for Christmas. Easter is a time to celebrate Christ so I knew it would be perfect to remind us of the reason of the season! Topped it off with some Primas and a rhinestone brad. Come follow me and see what other fun baskets the rest of the DT created!
Becky, Lee, Lori, Jen-Marie, Ryann, Mandy, and our March Guest designers, Holly and Amy!
The paper special is still going on:March 2 - March 8FREE PAPER!!For every three individual sheets of cardstock you purchase, you'll get to choose one more for FREE! For every three individual sheets of patterned paper you purchase, you'll also choose one for FREE! Just let us know which one(s) you'd like for free in the Comments section of your order! (If no selection is made, we will still send you some assorted free paper!) Happy shopping!

AND be on the look out for details about Limelight's Easter Egg Promotion. The jist of it is this: place an order and get an egg (one of those plastic ones). It will be filled with some sort of goodie. It is random which egg you will get but you will get something FREE in your order.The prizes are cool things like dew drops, primas, ribbon, small stamps, buttons, cat's eye ink pads. There will even be a few BIG prizes written out on a piece of paper. This fun promotion will run through Sunday, April 12! Okay that's if from me and Limelight today. Be sure to scroll down to see my Stamp Something Challenge card. Hugs, Lisa