Ta da! This is my first official assignment for the Pazzles Design Team.

Pazzles fans are invited to participate in the May Challenge. The admin invites you to take a picture of something that inspires you and use it to create a craft. My Challenge Project revolves around Cooking/Baking. A desire for my children to eat healthy food inspired me to learn how to cook (over the past two years). Really cook. I have a great friend who took me under her wing. We had "lessons" in which we not only produced a finished product and I learned new skills, but we also were blessed with time together.

This is the photo that I submitted as my inspiration. (One of the first things I learned to make was my own chicken stock and then soup!)

Not only I have I learned to cook, but I have a repertoire of baked goods as well. I took this "inspiration" and created a little bake set. (I also made this set as a custom order thank you "card.")

I used a Double Easel Card for the base. Here are the steps:
Begin with an 8” square cardstock
Score and fold the card in half
Cut one of the halves in half
Take each of the panels and fold the inner edge down to the outer edge
Cut two pieces of card 4" square (or other shape)
Carefully attach the two pieces of card to the triangular flaps (make sure that they don't interfere with the opening of the card)

Instead of attaching square pieces of cardstock, I chose to use a recipe cards and an apron instead. I used the Apron Recipe Cards file from the Pazzles Craft Room. I had to Print & Cut the recipe cards.

Next I made a mixing bowl to hold the double easels up in place. I pulled the Round Box File from Pazzles. Please note that the file has two pieces that are very similar. However, one is slightly larger then the other: One for the outside of the bowl and one for the inside. You need to pay attention to how you assemble your bowls and which way to fold the printed side of the paper. You make both pieces and then insert one into the other. This is so that you can hide all the seams.

Make the Outside of the bowl

Make the Inside of the bowl

Insert inside piece of the bowl in to the outside piece.

Add embellishments to individual pieces and then attach all the pieces to the easel card. You can see that I added some cooking utensils that I found at Pazzles as well. I designed the flour and sugar bags myself. I used Print and Cut for those.

Here are other angels of the card. I hope you can see how the "easel" comes into play. And although this is an easel "card" you cannot fold it down for mailing. You have to send it in a box or hand deliver it!

If you have any questions, do let me know. I am happy to work with you on this.

Papers that I used:
Cosmo Cricket Tea for Two
Recollections Valentine Paper Pad

I have an exciting creation to share with you for this month's Made With Love (and Paper) design team project. I am tickled over the results that I achieved. It is exactly as I pictured in my mind. Don't you love when that happens? So, put on your rain coat and join me as I walk you through this adventure!

As we are posting during the month of May, our very appropriate theme is "April Showers Bring May Flowers." We used flowers, texture, and layering. Let's begin our walk in the rain.

Oh look! Flowers. Let's take a moment to stop and smell them. There are plenty of May Flowers--thanks to those April Showers! I interpreted both texturing and layering by using 3D rolled flowers. I used flower patterns from the Pazzles Craft Room. Pazzles calls them Twirled Flowers. I love all paper flowers no matter what you call them. The teal and peach flowers are actually the same pattern. Notice how I added texture to the teal flowers. Using Core'dinations cardstock, I cut the flowers with a shallow blade. This allowed the "petals" to tear as I removed them from the sheet of cardstock--adding to the natural look of the flower.

We need something to carry all our flowers. How about an umbrella? Michelle at Pazzles just released these wonderful 3D umbrella favors. I was glad. I was trying to create one myself and kept getting stuck. (I am finding the Pazzles Craft Room to be very handy.) I had to enlarge Michelle's Umbrella Favors to fit the scale of my project. Thus, I had to cut the pattern in half, but it all came together just perfectly! Darling? Yes!

Not only do showers produce flowers, they make puddles. I also have layers in my puddle. I pictured this in my head and it came out beautifully. I had to resist jumping in it!

Puddles are also great for splashing! Today we are wearing Orange Puddle Jumpers. You can even say the these boots are layered. I used a box that is found in the Pazzles built-in software and I drew up the boots myself. Of course I had to fiddle with the height and width of the box to hide it inside my boots.

A final touch of layering is the rain drops. You can see them clearly on the boots, not so much on the flowers. I used Glossy Accents to make the drops. In the final pictures you can see the rain drops on the boots. Not so much on the flowers. (My first time using Glossy Accents. I cannot wait to try other ideas with it.)

Now, I will take this all home and arrange a centerpiece on my dinner table. Promise me that the next time it rains, you will don your puddle jumpers, grab your kids or a friend, and find big puddles for splashing. And stop and smell the flowers along the way! Cheers.

More flower pics just because they are so delightful!

Today I have made a cross box for Easter. It is beautiful. I wish I had time to make more. Can you imagine the color choices?!

I used this brilliant pattern from SVG Attic. It is very easy to cut and to assemble. I found the lily a little tricky, but then SVG Attic directed me to their youtube tutorial for this project.

I made the box first. The pattern comes as an SVG file. I brought that into my Pazzles and then saved it as a WPC Pazzles software file. I converted the kiss cut lines to solid lines. I did this so I could emboss those lines for scoring instead of the traditional perforated cuts. I think it has a cleaner, more finished look. Because I am not truly embossing, I use the embossing tool on the adhesive mat to score first, then use the cutting tool to cut.

Assemble the box . . .

Next step is to make the lilies. They are beautiful. I used card stock. It would be fun to play around with different paper weights.

Adorning the box . . .

Finished Easter Cross Box

Here are a few items I made for St Pat's Day. Just quick cards to give you some ideas.
The Mar 17 circle digi and Happy St P Day sentiments were designed by me in Adobe Illustrator. I also designed the Happy St Patty's Day cut out in Pazzles.
Enjoy and Happy St P Day!!

Tri-4 Leaf Clover Card
Original design by The Cutting Cafe.

Easel Card
The Cutting Cafe also has a single clover. I used it to make an easel card.

You may recall that I live in the lovely state of MinneSNOWta. Sometimes, not so lovely in the winter. Indeed, it has been an extra cold winter. We are all anxious for spring.

What better time for design team made with love (and paper) to help bring a little encouragement in that department. Racehlle gave us a lot to live up o this time.

March 2014 Project
Theme: sand & sea
Requirements: white, tan and 2 blues

This was one of those creations that morphed several times. I am not even sure what I ended up with. I think I used up all of my creativity for Valentine's Day. When I was planning this in my head, originally I thought about creating a scrapbook page layout. That seemed the best for incorporating the theme and requirements. There was a lot to include. As I was creating my cut files, I decided to go with a step card. I had big plans to emboss my card stock and stack everything. Ha! I guess I did not know which type of step card I wanted. I was befuddled from that point on.

I started out with this:

. . . but I was not getting the layers that I pictured in my head. Maybe I can salvage it.

I ended up it a simple accordion step card. I think the sand castle should be removed--it's too busy. And not sure if I should add a face to the crab. What do you think?

I want to share how I made the sand dollar. I used two flowers from the Pazzles built-in library. For the first "cut" I embossed the "flower" right on my cutting mat! Then I did the cut of the dollar and holes. Here is a close up.

A recent trend in the paper crafting world is using mason jars. I want to share a number of different styles I have been playing with.

Here is my basic jar. I designed this with my Pazzles software. I designed the lid so be as true to real as possible.

I dressed the jars up with a layer of vellum to add the "glass" affect. These are a Valentine theme. The digi stamp tags are designed by Regina at The Cutting Cafe.

Here you can see how the vellum layer works.

I made some really cute jars. These are embellished to add a little joy.

And these are from a design from The Cutting Cafe. Again, I added a vellum layer.

Thank you for stopping in to The Paper Cafe.

Happy Valentine's Day. May you know the joy and love of friends. May you know the love, joy and peace of God. God gave us the best Valentine Gift ever in sacrificing his son Jesus Christ.

I love how this project turned out! I am so excited to share with you! This is 3D, old fashioned, paper candy jar. The design is created by Lauren at My Time Made Easy. The cut file includes a plain jar, as well as pieces to make a cat and a dog. Just adorable! I did make a cat and dog. But I also made two decorative jars. I am going to make chocolate truffles to put inside. These are a surprise for my kiddos and my god daughter!

I will sow you the completed jars first and then a dew pictures of the pieces broken down.
 

I assembled the dog's jar first. You will probably see a few mistakes. Practice makes perfect and now I am a pro at assembling these cuties. It is my opinion that parts of that pattern are a bit off. I was (of course) in a hurry to get these done (the night before Vday), so I just went with it and worked in adjustments as I assembled the jars. Now that the pressure is off, I will try to tweak the pattern. I do recommend checking into Lauren's creations tho. The tag on the dog is a digital stamp from my all-time favorite designer Regina at The Cutting Cafe. I use her creations over and over.

Side View of Candy Jars

Open Jar

Lid Assembly -- I love the glitter paper for the plain jars!

I am going to make this a quick post to share ideas for Valentine's Day. It will be picture heavy, but I hope to inspire you.
I always appreciate your comments. If you have questions on technique, do leave a comment.
For all of my cards, the digital stamps are from one of my favorite resources, The Cutting Cafe.

One-sided card fronts using embossing folders. These cards do not open.

Card fronts for the boys.

Embossed hearts and Inchies