IFTL Madison Womack wins "Top Banana"!

I've got a lot of catching up to do in naming my "Top Bananas" so this is my second one this week. 

In case you missed my announcement, "Top Bananas" are fellow bloggers whose work is a-peel-ing to me ... or who do good deeds to help others through their craft ... as well as some papercrafting vendors who have products I endorse, at fair prices, with excellent customer service. 

You can find all of my "Top Bananas" listed on the page by clicking the link at the top of my blog.

So without further ado ...

The second winner of a CardMonkey Top Banana is MADISON WOMACK, owner/artist behind the Funky Cards blog.  Madison is a fabulous 17-year old in California, who is wiser and more generous than her years.

Madison initiated and runs a community service project she calls "I Feel the Love".  Through the project, she calls on fellow crafters to join with her in making and sending cards for children and/or their families who are facing serious health trials or loss. 

Through her project, Madison has received and given more than 500 cards, reaching her goal a year before she expected! 

Each month, Madison makes a difficult choice of which child to feature as that month's IFTL Child.  This month, it's BRANDON, a beautiful boy who receives his care at the facility where I work: Pediatric Specialty Care. 

Here is the card I made for Brandon, as part of Madison's IFTL effort:

Brandon's Mom Linda calls Brandon "Li'l Man", so I thought this image that
I found on Silhouette America's online store would be fun and personal.
I scaled it large enough to fit onto a 5"x7" card, cut in primary colors, and
mounted it using an Action Wobble, for fun. 

Please hop over to Madison's site to read more about Brandon, IFTL, and to see how you can make/send a card for this adorable young boy, just 5 years old and facing a lifetime of therapy as a result of a tragic car accident.

Thank you for all you do, Madison ... and congratulations on being named a "Top Banana!"

Creatively Yours,

Christmas is in 223 days ... and NOT counting!

Let it be known that I have NOT yet started the 2012 Christmas Countdown but I wanted to try out my Silhouette Cameo cutting an intricate pattern in a smaller card-size. 

This lacy winter tree scene depicted here was designed by Lori Whitlock for Silhouette's online image store. Lori designed it to be a full 12x12" scrapbook background page. I reduced it to 5.75" square to mount it on a 6" square cream colored card. 

I wondered if the Cameo would be able to capture/cut the tiniest cuts -- see the snowflake at the very bottom? Unbelievably, the Cameo cut neatly through the Core-dinations cardstock I used, and the off-cuts adhered firmly to the cutting mat. I was amazed at how little "weeding" I had to do before affixing this card to the ivory base and calling it done.

Have you been attracted to the Silhouette Cameo yet? 



Creatively Yours,

Introducing: My first "Top Banana" Award

In redesigning my blog recently -- a project that's underway and will likely a dynamic process -- I decided to add a page (up there, on the top row) for my "Top Bananas". 

Some of the "Top Bananas" will be people, fellow bloggers.  Others will be papercrafting vendors who have products I endorse, at fair prices, with excellent customer service. 

Still others will be good-deed doers in this papercrafting world whose work is simply a-peel-ing to me.

The first winner of a CardMonkey Top Banana is a crafty sister-in-crime, Jenn McLean, who has spruced up my website just to be nice.  Jenn and I struck up a long-distance friendship ... she's oh, 2962 miles away, on the west coast of Canada.  We are so much alike, and yet so very different, that we've decided to start a co-blog called "Elle 'N Jenn". It will be the blog version of Thelma and Louise, or Laverne and Shirley, or Oscar and Felix.

Not only is Jenn a sweet fellow blogger, but she encourages good deeds among fellow artists. Check out the story of Jenn's participation in The Butterfly Project, which she writes about in the first issue of a European magazine for artists called "Featuring." 

Jenn writes on her blog today about her having become a published artist and writer.  Click HERE to be linked to Jenn's site and the story.

This is Jenn's amazing work of art she painted and submitted
to The Butterfly Project, as featured in the Spring 2012 issue of Featuring:

To purchase a copy of this magazine or to subscribe, click this link:

So Jenn, this banana's for you.  Thank you again for all your help in reworking my blog and figuring out a way to get me to be a little more OCD in my messy world. Thank you for brightening my days with Random Acts of Kindness and happy mail, like the sweet handmade earrings and bookmark I received yesterday.  OH, and this scan really doesn't do the work justice, but here is a beautiful watercolor painting Jenn did just for me -- just because. 

Don't I have wonderful, warm and talented friends?!  Hop over the Jenn's blog and congratulate her on her first publication!  Please tell her I sent you :).

Creatively Yours,

P.S.  -- A special shout-out to one of my best friends, Bernie, who had his left knee replaced yesterday -- and to his wife Star (my "bestie") for her loving support of him. Be well, my friends!!

P.P.S.  -- And happy birthday to my hubby John today ... and to my friend Jenn (above) tomorrow!! 

My 400th blog posting!! Unleash Your Imagination

What better way to celebrate my 400th blog posting (in less than 2 years) than sharing with you a 3-D home decor project I made for my Paper Jungle. 

I came up with this idea when my mind was wandering, thinking about what I'd like to feature in this weekend's Disney Pixar Blog Hop (May 19-20, beginning at www.craftychicsblog.blogspot.com). I'm co-hosting this time, so please swing by. I have two different projects to post on Days 1 and 2 ... and here is my "extra" project I made just .... because.

On my trips to Disney, I'm always staggered by the creative genius that seems to drip from the water faucets at the theme park. Wouldn't you love to spend some time living in the "right brain" of a Disney Imagineer? 

One of my favorite characters in Disney is Figment, and the whole Imagination Station. I wanted to depict Figment as being confined ... perhaps by time or circumstance?  So I started with this pretty birdcage that stands 17" high x 11" wide. Unfinished, it's by KaiserCraft. 

I painted it white with acrylic paint, and topped the ring at the top and the cage's feet with gold metallic paint pen by Krylon.  The Figment image is one I Googled and then hand-cut. I broke out center portions of the cage, putting the shards in Figment's hands as if he broke out of the cage; I threaded the Figment image as if she/he/it was being unleashed.

Figment is standing on a mountain of scrap paper and cut outs. I made this collage by spreading a coating of white glue on plain paper and sprinkling off-cuts from my trash can all over it. Some bits are hole punches, some are bitty butterflies, cut ovals, heart shapes, etc.  I then applied a thin layer of glue over the surface, and lightly sprinkled glitter over the pile. 

For the UNLEASH banner at the top, I used Cricut's Art Philosophy cartridge, cut at 1.25", for the pennant, and Cricut's Simply Sweet cartridge for the font, cut at 1".  Figment is holding a clothesline of Scrabble squares held on with miniature clothespins to spell the word YOUR.  The word IMAGINATION was cut using PTI dies.  Rolled roses topped off the pretty display.

Do what you can to

DO SOMETHING CREATIVE EVERY DAY!

Thank you to all of my followers,

to whom I dedicate this blog.

Creatively Yours,

Mother's Day Wreath and loving mother!

Last weekend, I had the pleasure and privilege of spending the day crafting with my pride and joy, my daughter, Emily.  (That's her, far left ... and me, far right).  You've likely "met" Emily many times through my blogging ... she's my mini-me, and the reason I got into papercrafting.

Emily had Saturday off; she typically works weekends as a pediatric nurse at the internationally-renowned Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She asked if we could spend the day together in an early celebration of Mothers' Day, since she works next weekend. 

Peace Valley Lavendar Farm, near Doylestown, PA


She suggested that we paint pottery. Instead, and because we got a late start and the day was too dreary to go to the Lavendar Farm here in Bucks County (that's for another day, though!), I suggested that we stop at Joann's for some crafting supplies, and spend the day papercrafting and sewing.

Emily worked on a large poster she was asked to make for work, showing some stats on handwashing, infection control, etc.  We bounced ideas off one another ... she wound up using titles cut using Cricut's Simply Sweet cartridge, and a nurse cut "fill to page" from Cricut's Every Day Paper Dolls, and a fussy cut kite with ribbon "tails" on the twine string to show "Soaring to Success!!".  If Em sends me a pic of it, I'll add it to this post. It turned out really darling, Emily!!

I worked on this paper flower wreath I made for my Mom.

To make most of the flowers shown here, I used Cricut's Art Philosophy cartridge, shown here, and four individual Silhouette Cameo files I purchased at Silhouette America, online. 

I hot-glued them to a foam wreath, stacking more than 150 flowers in mostly pastel colors.  It's amazingly sturdy, this wreath, and is going out in today's mail to Mom for Mother's Day.  I love it and hope I get the time to make one for myself, one day.

My mom is inspirational!  (That's my mom, front and center, in the photo above.) Isn't she beautiful and remarkable for 82-years young this year, and a survivor of a massive brain stem stroke?  She is incredible.  As I grew up, Mom worked as a nurse in the critical care unit of our local hospital, and in cardiac care. She earned her R.N. at King's County School of Nursing (Brooklyn, NY) more than 60 years ago.

Mom's handmade bikinis kind of looked like this one I found
on Etsy. The ones we made had more of a halter top than
bandeau, but you get the idea. Mom purchased worn jeans
from prisons, and boiled them to sterilize for her bikinis!

Later, when mothering became a full-time job, Mom continued to work in crafty areas. She designed and exported/sold denim string bikinis in the early 1970's, and collected and appliqued vintage fabrics onto denim skirts, shirts, jackets and pants.  She later designed and sewed bridal gowns, eventually turning to a team of Amish seamstresses to contract sew for her work that was sold in some of the area's finest bridal studios.

By the time we were entering college, Mom re-entered nursing, though in case management. She founded her own company when she was 50, and turned it into a multi-million dollar enterprise with 20+ employees.  Surprisingly, I never thought of Mom as one with an entrepreneurial spirit ... I saw her as more of a survivalist, doing what she enjoyed doing and earning a reputation and money to support our family as Dad (a lawyer) was nearing retirement.

This weekend while with Emily, I also stitched together 9 burpie cloths for Charlotte, to make a burpie blankie for my precious granddaughter. (That's her up top, too, in the center -- rounding out the four generations of crafty women!!)

While I was stitching the blankie, Charlotte came upstairs to the PaperJungle (a dangerous proposition!) and stood dancing to the rhythm of the sewing machine doing its top-stitch. She loves her burpie blanket, sleeping with it now instead of one or two loose burpies, snuggling.

Do you too enjoy crafting time with your family? I have warm, wonderful memories of crafting with my grandmother when I was a child; with her, I specifically remember upcycling an empty white plastic Clorox bleach bottle, turning it on its side, adding thread spools for legs, and felt for eyes, and making it into a piggy bank.

And I remember cutting Betsy McCall paper dolls, and making clothes for my Troll doll out of scrap fabric. I made ceramics with my Mom and Grandmom, and watercolored with my Mom and Dad.

So I'm just wondering ... Is there a crafting gene?   Did you get yours from your Mom, and have you shared it with a child and/or grandchildren?  What are you doing to impart the love you have for crafting onto your family?  I'd really like to know!

Creatively yours,

Day 2: Flowers, Flowers Everywhere Blog Hop

Flowers, flowers, everywhere flowers...Don't you just love flowers? They bring color and beauty along with fragrance to our world and that is why this hop is celebrating them in all their glory. Hop along to see how the crafty people in our line up have used flowers in and on their projects.

Our Hostess for this hop is Lissa Marie (So Many Crafts) and her site is the place to start if you've happened upon this hop by accident and want to see more pretty flowers. Otherwise continue on and enjoy all the color and beauty of flowers everywhere.

Yesterday, I introduced you to "The Card Kitchen" cards kit from Jillibean Soup, and showed you this principal card I made for this hop:

"Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you
get flowers."

In addition to the other 3 cards I showed you yesterday (scroll down on my blog for that post, if you missed it), here are the other cards I made too, all from the same kit:

And believe it or not, I still have paper and embellishments leftover to make even more cards. I'm raving about The Card Kitchen card kit because it offers instant inspiration and everything you need to make so many cards in one sitting.

I've subscribed to THE CARD KITCHEN kit club because I think it's worth the $22.95/mo membership (plus S/H). In fact, I'm glad I did ~~ because the May kit is already sold out!  A subscription ensures that you'll get a kit before it's available to the general public, much like getting season tickets to your favorite sporting event!  {*GO PHILLIES!*}

How about you? Have you ever tried a kit in your paper crafting? Is there one you might recommend? 

Now continue on the Hop to LIZ.

In case you've gotten lost, here is a full line-up for this Hop:

Lissa Marie ~ www.somanycrafts.com/

Ellen ♥ CardMonkey ~ http://cardmonkey-business.blogspot.com/ YOU ARE HERE

Liz ~ http://tryin2craft.blogspot.com/ GO HERE NEXT

Jearise ~ www.lorbysworld.blogspot.com/

Robin ~ http://scrapandchat.blogspot.com/

Cicily ~ http://pinkdalmationscrapper.blogspot.com/

Tina ~ http://twochicsandacricut.blogspot.com/

Anna ~ http://todittledattle.blogspot.com/

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere Blog Hop - May 5 and 6

Flowers, flowers, everywhere flowers...Don't you just love flowers? They bring color and beauty along with fragrance to our world and that is why this hop is celebrating them in all their glory. Hop along to see how the crafty people in our line up have used flowers in and on their projects.

Our Hostess for this hop is Lissa Marie (So Many Crafts) and her site is the place to start if you've happened upon this hop by accident and want to see more pretty flowers. Otherwise continue on and enjoy all the color and beauty of flowers everywhere.

Here is the card I produced for this hop.  Isn't its sentiment so sweet and right:

"Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get flowers."

I made the card from the terrific April kit I purchased from Jillibean Soup, which featured the Coconut Lime line of papers.

The monthly kits are called "The Card Kitchen". They come with everything you need to make at least 8 cards, including all the papers, trims, embellishments, stickers, and very detailed "recipes".   I enjoyed using the kit (the first time I've ever done so!) that I have become a subscriber and will receive my kits monthly. Hurry, May's kit!

Another very nice thing about this kit is that there is enough paper leftover to make your own designs for additional cards. I made several "extras" and I still have paper leftover for other projects.

For this particular card, the paper was layered under a preprinted cardstock greeting. The ruffled roses are made from torn strips of gathered cotton (with exposed fray) that are just swirled around a finger or pencil.

For you seamstresses out there, these torn strips would be so easy to make, to produce your own trim for flower rosettes. I think I'll give that a go with some fabric scraps I  have left over.

I made the roses a little different in that I cut ribbon leaves from leftover ribbon, and added pearls to the centers of the flowers, just because.

Here are some more cards I made from the kit:

Stop back tomorrow on the Flowers, Flowers Everywhere Hop to see more cards I made from the same kit.

Now continue on the Hop to LIZ.

In case you've gotten lost, here is a full line-up for this Hop:

Lissa Marie ~  www.somanycrafts.com/

Ellen ♥ CardMonkey ~ http://cardmonkey-business.blogspot.com/   YOU ARE HERE

Liz  ~ http://tryin2craft.blogspot.com/  GO HERE NEXT

Jearise ~  www.lorbysworld.blogspot.com/

Robin ~ http://scrapandchat.blogspot.com/

Cicily ~ http://pinkdalmationscrapper.blogspot.com/

Tina ~ http://twochicsandacricut.blogspot.com/

Jessi ~ http://mylifeinartscrafts.blogspot.com/