Live Healthy Fridays

I haven't done a post in a while, but that doesn't mean I am not still finding some interesting things to share about choosing healthier options.  I used to be a sugar addict and would drink one to two Cokes a day.  I also loathe the taste of diet sodas and am fearful of how aspartame would affect my health.  Recently I found a natural alternative called Zevia.

Zevia sodas come in a variety of flavors and are naturally flavored and naturally sweetened with Stevia which is also known as "sweet leaf".  You can read more about this product HERE.  Oprah recently featured Zevia in her magazine as part of the O List.

You can find the soda at many grocery stores including Kroger and King Sooper chains in the natural food or drink sections.  It has made a big difference for me and I have kicked my sugar addiction and have not had a Coke since September of 2010.

Thank you so much for stopping by -

Hopping with the Imaginisce i-top

How is the Imaginisce i-top Hop treating you so far? Have you discovered some clever ideas for using an i-top on your cards? If you are just jumping into the hop, there is an opportunity to find some wonderful ideas for using an i-top on cards and a chance to win your very own i-top and accessories just for playing along. Please see the details at the bottom of this post.

I thought it would be fun to make a dimensional birthday card with a party hat as the theme. I also used the Imaginisce Birthday Bash collection to create this and one of the 28mm Brad Daddies was the perfect topper for my hat, because it helped dress up the hat by attaching the curling ribbon perfectly.

I used the 28mm punch to purposely select these candle graphics in the patterned paper. Isn't it fun? Because it is an enormous brad, it poked through the chipboard very easily and then had space to attach the curling ribbon securely.

It only took a few ingredients to make this card. Below is a visual recipe for fun...

First Ingredient - Trusty i-top from Imaginisce. I used this to create the large pom pom on the party hat.

Second Ingredient - 28 mm Brad Daddies from Imaginisce. They are the perfect size for making a graphic on patterned paper show up on your project. I used the punch to select the little candles as part of my design for the card.

Third Ingredient - Birthday Bash collection from Imaginisce. This is one of my very favorite collections as I love to scrap with reds, browns and blues. This is just the perfect palette of birthday happiness.

Fourth Ingredient - Melody Ross Chipboard Banners. I happened to have these lying around my scraproom, but really you could cut your own 5 x 5 chipboard triangle to create the same effect.

Fifth Ingredient - Cricut Birthday Bash Cartridge. This one is so much fun and very different from some of the other Cricut birthday themes. I set the hat brim to 9.5 inches to perfectly match the bottom of the the chipboard banners.

Sixth Ingredient - White Curling Ribbon. Who doesn't have some of this lying around the house? It made a perfectly inexpensive embellishment for my party hat. I used three strips and cut them to different lengths.

Seventh Ingredient - White Gel Pen. I love to doodle stitching on my projects and this time for fun, I added some x's to break up the pattern.

Seven is a lucky number for a recipe of ingredients, so I hope that you get some inspiration for a project of your own. And...I hope you walk away from this hop with your very own i-top.

Next Stop on the Hop -

Imaginisce Blog

Fine Print

Please visit all three of the designer's blogs, leave a comment and then hop back here to the Imaginisce blog and leave a final comment letting us know what you discovered about the projects and the i-top. All of your comments make you eligible to win an awesome i-top and accessories of your own.

Courtney Lee

Kim Holmes

Liz Qualman

You Could Win This...

One more thing - You will also want to haunt the Imaginisce blog all week for more ideas on how to use the super creative and incredibly fun i-top with chances to win your very own i-top each day and a SECRET grand prize opportunity on Friday.

Thank you so much for stopping by -

A New Year & A New Challenge

Happy New Year everyone! Can you believe it is already 2011??? Where does the time go... Since it's a new year, Imaginisce would like to start it off right with some new challenges. Not to worry, I'm sure we'll still throw in a few sketches here and there, but for this month, we'd like to see what you can alter with stuff you have lying around at home and some of your awesome Imaginisce products. Please see the Imaginisce blog for more details on the challenge. Below are some monogram letters I have had hiding in my scraproom for ages, just needed the right kind of inspiration to get them out.

I used the Imaginisce Garden Party collection to cover the letters and then used my Brand spankin' new d-stress tool from Imaginisce to sand the edges of the papers so they are flush with the letters. It was so easy and the result is really nice.

The d-stress is battery operated and super handy with it's three different crafting tips. I know I will find a million uses for this creative tool. It's also small enough to easily store and big enough to get you into to the right kind of crafting trouble.

Don't you just love the Imaginisce Roly Rosies? They are so darn cute and easy to make. They are already perforated and ready to punch out and come with a special rolling tool that makes it easy to create this effect. I merely added some ink to make the edges of the paper stand out more. The netting is from a large Fashion Fabric Flower.

For this embellishment, I combined the Roly Rosie with some of the Garden Party flowers and added some netting from the Fashion Fabric Flowers. The leaves were made with my Martha Stewart leaf punch, some ink and then a bit of bling with my i-rock. I wanted to keep the paper simple and let the embellishing do all the talking.

Next stop on the hop -

Tracey Taylor

http://tailoredpages.blogspot.com/

Or back to the

Imaginisce Blog

Fine Print and Prize

Be sure to FOLLOW EVERY blog

and COMMENT on EVERY blog

then COMMENT on this post at the Imaginisce Blog for your chance to win THIS!!!!!!

An awesome Imaginisce i-rock package valued at OVER $50.00

(not all product shown)!!!
The winner will the announced on the Imaginisce blog on Friday, January 7th.

Thank you so much for stopping by and enjoy the first day of the New Year -

All About Cupcakes

One of the things I love about Valentine collections is how you can stretch the theme of love into many aspects of your life. The Cupcake Love collection from Little Yellow Bicycle is one of those wonderful lines that you can create almost any theme and the bright, fun colors are perfect for pages about the sweeties in your life. My daughter is such a "little" consumer, that I had to make a project about her shopping addiction. She will save all of her allowance and "borrow" all of the spare change she can scrounge up in the house to save enough money to go on a shopping spree. Thus the title, "Real Cupcakes Love to Shop."

For the title I used a combination of the Cupcake Love cardstock stickers and the banners from the Heart Cut Out Sheet with Glitter. Together with some smaller alphabets, it makes a really fun title.

The Heart Stick Pins and Layered Felt Sliders really add some great texture to the page as well as a soft accent. I am in love with the details on these sweet little cupcakes. They were a perfect embellishment for the theme of my page.

Talk about fun! The Epoxy Sprinkle Stickers will make you giggle as you apply them to your project. I thought the best part of this "sweet" project was to add some Sprinkles on top. Even though it looks like I used up all of my stash, the truth is I have over half of the package left for yet another yummy project.

The Cupcake Love collection is a must have in your stash! Thank you so much for stopping by -