Challenge #70 - Ornaments

Before we get to the details of the next challenge, we want to announce that we are reviving our Guest Designer program!  Notice that on the right sidebar of the blog there is a new spot to sign up to be a guest here at the Paper Girls Challenge Blog. If you are interested, please leave your blog address and email and we'll get in contact with you with details. Thanks!

On to the challenge! 

Are your houses all decorated for the holidays? Well, if not, maybe our challenge this week can inspire you! Michele here with the Paper Girls Challenge #70:

ORNAMENTS!!

You can create your own ornament, make a layout or December album page about ornaments, use ornament paper, stamps or embellishments on a layout or card. Just link up below and you will have a chance to win an assortment of crafty supplies! 

You have an extra week to create for this challenge, entries are due on January 3rd. 

Now let's take a look at some ornament projects. I used my Cricut to simply cut a paper stocking and paper wreath, then added twine and some embellishments to finish them off:

Check out some inspiration from the other Paper Girls:

Becci

Kristy

Charity 

Check her blog for a tutorial on the Poinsettia!

Erica

The winner of Challenge #69 is: #13 - Janis in ID!

Congratulations! Please send an e-mail with your shipping info to papergirlschallengeblog@gmail.com to claim your prize.

How to Join the Fun at the Paper Girls Challenge Blog:

1. Start by following our blog. To do so, click on the "Join this site" button on the right hand side of our blog. Please also feel free to follow by email too and like us on Facebook!

2. We will post new challenges the first and third Monday of every month. It will be up to you to create a project that has been inspired by our challenge!

3. Your entry should be made after the challenge has been posted. We will not say no to slightly older projects but we prefer to see your new creations!

4. Create a blog post about your entry and make sure to include a link back to The Paper Girls Challenge Blog. If you do not have a blog, you may post on our Facebook page or to an online gallery and then link that photo to our linky. However, please only do this if you do not have a blog.

5. Add a link to your blog post (or Facebook /gallery photo) on our Challenge using the Inlinkz tool located at the bottom of our posts. Please make sure you link the actual post with your entry and not your blog's address.

6. Please make sure you describe how you interpreted our challenge if it isn't clear. If we can't see it, we can't count it.

7. The Deadline for each challenge will be the Saturday at 11:55pm MST before the next challenge is posted. This will give you 1 week and 6 days to complete your projects.

8. Please limit your entries to 3 per person per challenge.

9. We use Random.org to pick the winner. Prizes will be sent directly from the hostess of the challenge. At this time, we can only ship to US and Canadian addresses, due to postage rates. We hope this will change in the future. In the meantime, we love to see creations from all over the world!

10. You will have two weeks to claim your prize once we post the winner.

11. The most important thing is to have fun!

Challenge #69: Small Gifts

Good morning Paper Girls!

Welcome to the first day of December! I bet you are already thinking about Christmas gifts and today I want to share with you a couple of ideas for wrapping smaller gifts - like teacher and neighbor gifts! A small gift can be even more touching with the right wrapping.

Here is what I am giving as teacher gifts this year (to church workers and my children's teachers):

Every year I like to give foaming hand soaps from Bath and Body works. I take the pre-made label off and add my own custom label for each teacher. Each year I buy different soaps and embellish them slightly differently but they're always a hit.

And here is what I will be giving as neighbor gifts this year. My tradition is to make homemade marshmallows and gift wrap them with a tin of cocoa from Trader Joe's or Costco.

Front

 

Back

For this project I used Coordinations solid and shimmer cardstocks, my Silhouette Cameo and sketch pens, and home-dyed bias tape.

Here is what I like to make for my girl's classmates:

Jamberry wrap pockets (also good for gift certificates or candy bars!)

And a tea wreath! 

The Paper Girls Design Team also has a few ideas for you of ways to gift wrap, package and create small gifts that warm the heart.

Michele

The winner of my Small Gifts challenge will receive this Small Gift Starter Set prize:

I hope these ideas have inspired you to play along!

The winner of Challenge #68 is: #7 - Cher K 

Congratulations, Cher! Please send an e-mail with your shipping info to papergirlschallengeblog@gmail.com to claim your prize.

How to Join the Fun at the Paper Girls Challenge Blog:

1. Start by following our blog. To do so, click on the "Join this site" button on the right hand side of our blog. Please also feel free to follow by email too and like us on Facebook!

2. We will post new challenges the first and third Monday of every month. It will be up to you to create a project that has been inspired by our challenge!

3. Your entry should be made after the challenge has been posted. We will not say no to slightly older projects but we prefer to see your new creations!

4. Create a blog post about your entry and make sure to include a link back to The Paper Girls Challenge Blog. If you do not have a blog, you may post on our Facebook page or to an online gallery and then link that photo to our linky. However, please only do this if you do not have a blog.

5. Add a link to your blog post (or Facebook /gallery photo) on our Challenge using the Inlinkz tool located at the bottom of our posts. Please make sure you link the actual post with your entry and not your blog's address.

6. Please make sure you describe how you interpreted our challenge if it isn't clear. If we can't see it, we can't count it.

7. The Deadline for each challenge will be the Saturday at 11:55pm MST before the next challenge is posted. This will give you 1 week and 6 days to complete your projects.

8. Please limit your entries to 3 per person per challenge.

9. We use Random.org to pick the winner. Prizes will be sent directly from the hostess of the challenge. At this time, we can only ship to US and Canadian addresses, due to postage rates. We hope this will change in the future. In the meantime, we love to see creations from all over the world!

10. You will have two weeks to claim your prize once we post the winner.

11. The most important thing is to have fun!

Challenge #68 Make a Thank You and send it to someone

'Tis the season of Thankfulness. So let's have a little extra fun with this challenge. We all like to make cards and other creations but I know as far as I'm concerned I accumulate more creations than I give away. So in addition to making a "Thank You" I'd like you send it to someone and to post who you have sent it out to. Who wouldn't appreciate a handmade card in the mail this week?

The Paper Girls have really done a great job providing inspiration. I hope it gets your creative juices flowing!

Here's my creation (Erica):

Becci

Charity


Kristy

Michele

Amber

The winner of Challenge #67 is:  Entry #4 Karen

Congratulations, Nancy! Please send an e-mail with your shipping info to papergirlschallengeblog@gmail.com to claim your prize.

How to Join the Fun at the Paper Girls Challenge Blog:

1. Start by following our blog. To do so, click on the "Join this site" button on the right hand side of our blog. Please also feel free to follow by email too and like us on Facebook!

2. We will post new challenges the first and third Monday of every month. It will be up to you to create a project that has been inspired by our challenge!

3. Your entry should be made after the challenge has been posted. We will not say no to slightly older projects but we prefer to see your new creations!

4. Create a blog post about your entry and make sure to include a link back to The Paper Girls Challenge Blog. If you do not have a blog, you may post on our Facebook page or to an online gallery and then link that photo to our linky. However, please only do this if you do not have a blog.

5. Add a link to your blog post (or Facebook /gallery photo) on our Challenge using the Inlinkz tool located at the bottom of our posts. Please make sure you link the actual post with your entry and not your blog's address.

6. Please make sure you describe how you interpreted our challenge if it isn't clear. If we can't see it, we can't count it.

7. The Deadline for each challenge will be the Saturday at 11:55pm MST before the next challenge is posted. This will give you 1 week and 6 days to complete your projects.

8. Please limit your entries to 3 per person per challenge.

9. We use Random.org to pick the winner. Prizes will be sent directly from the hostess of the challenge. At this time, we can only ship to US and Canadian addresses, due to postage rates. We hope this will change in the future. In the meantime, we love to see creations from all over the world!

10. You will have two weeks to claim your prize once we post the winner.

11. The most important thing is to have fun!

Challenge #67: Mixed Media

mixed media: a single art composition involving two or more artistic media such as pen, ink, chalk, pastel, graphite, collage, paint, and any other media

Can you guess what our new challenge is?? Yep. Mixed Media! Amber here today with our newest challenge. There are few things that make me happier than getting my fingers all dirty while digging in to a new mixed media canvas!

Here is what I've got for you today:

I made this 7"x14" canvas to hang in my craft room. I used acrylic paint, watercolor, ink, alcohol inks, embossing paste, embossing powder, and paper collage.


And here is what the rest of the Paper Girls came up with:

Cathryn has 2 terrific projects!

Media - Patterned Tissue, Rub-ons, Stencils, Acrylic paints, Scrapbook paper, Ink and Stamps, Decou-Page, Permanent Ink, and Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens on 2 6x6" canvases

AND...

Tissue paper, Rub-ons, Stencils, Acrylic paints, Gesso, Modeling paste, Stamps, Decou-Page, Permanent Inks, and Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens on a 5x7' canvas

Becci
Media - Gesso, Mister Huey's sprays, homemade stencil, Martha Stewart gold gilding 

Michele

Media - Mister Huey's mists, Teresa Collins stencils, Faber-Castell Whipped Spackle

Kristy

Media - Vinyl, watercolors, ink

Erica

Media- Faber Castell Gelatos and India Ink pens, Teresa Collins stencils

The winner of Challenge #66 is:  Entry #88 NancyH

Congratulations, Nancy! Please send an e-mail with your shipping info to papergirlschallengeblog@gmail.com to claim your prize.

How to Join the Fun at the Paper Girls Challenge Blog:

1. Start by following our blog. To do so, click on the "Join this site" button on the right hand side of our blog. Please also feel free to follow by email too and like us on Facebook!

2. We will post new challenges the first and third Monday of every month. It will be up to you to create a project that has been inspired by our challenge!

3. Your entry should be made after the challenge has been posted. We will not say no to slightly older projects but we prefer to see your new creations!

4. Create a blog post about your entry and make sure to include a link back to The Paper Girls Challenge Blog. If you do not have a blog, you may post on our Facebook page or to an online gallery and then link that photo to our linky. However, please only do this if you do not have a blog.

5. Add a link to your blog post (or Facebook /gallery photo) on our Challenge using the Inlinkz tool located at the bottom of our posts. Please make sure you link the actual post with your entry and not your blog's address.

6. Please make sure you describe how you interpreted our challenge if it isn't clear. If we can't see it, we can't count it.

7. The Deadline for each challenge will be the Saturday at 11:55pm MST before the next challenge is posted. This will give you 1 week and 6 days to complete your projects.

8. Please limit your entries to 3 per person per challenge.

9. We use Random.org to pick the winner. Prizes will be sent directly from the hostess of the challenge. At this time, we can only ship to US and Canadian addresses, due to postage rates. We hope this will change in the future. In the meantime, we love to see creations from all over the world!

10. You will have two weeks to claim your prize once we post the winner.

11. The most important thing is to have fun!

Challenge #66 - Anything Goes!

It's time for Paper Girls Challenge #66! Michele here, and this time the challenge is:

ANYTHING GOES!

Layouts, cards, home decor, other crafty projects, we want to see them so link up below! Take a look at what the Paper Girls have created to give you some inspiration:

I used 6x6 patterned papers and embellishments to make this layout:

Cathryn shared one of her favourite layouts ever....simple and elegant!!

Charity used lots of Paint, Mist, and Texture on this Layout.

Becci added a pop of gold with Martha Stewart's Liquid Gilding 

Erica added digital elements to her picture before printing it

Kristy did some doodling around the photos and the border on this gorgeous layout.

Amber was inspired by some specimen art to pop up all these butterflies on her layout:

The winner of my Anything Goes challenge will receive this prize:

Hope you can play along!

The winner of Challenge #65 is: #12 Brenda 

Congratulations, Brenda! Please send an e-mail with your shipping info to papergirlschallengeblog@gmail.com to claim your prize.

How to Join the Fun at the Paper Girls Challenge Blog:

1. Start by following our blog. To do so, click on the "Join this site" button on the right hand side of our blog. Please also feel free to follow by email too and like us on Facebook!

2. We will post new challenges the first and third Monday of every month. It will be up to you to create a project that has been inspired by our challenge!

3. Your entry should be made after the challenge has been posted. We will not say no to slightly older projects but we prefer to see your new creations!

4. Create a blog post about your entry and make sure to include a link back to The Paper Girls Challenge Blog. If you do not have a blog, you may post on our Facebook page or to an online gallery and then link that photo to our linky. However, please only do this if you do not have a blog.

5. Add a link to your blog post (or Facebook /gallery photo) on our Challenge using the Inlinkz tool located at the bottom of our posts. Please make sure you link the actual post with your entry and not your blog's address.

6. Please make sure you describe how you interpreted our challenge if it isn't clear. If we can't see it, we can't count it.

7. The Deadline for each challenge will be the Saturday at 11:55pm MST before the next challenge is posted. This will give you 1 week and 6 days to complete your projects.

8. Please limit your entries to 3 per person per challenge.

9. We use Random.org to pick the winner. Prizes will be sent directly from the hostess of the challenge. At this time, we can only ship to US and Canadian addresses, due to postage rates. We hope this will change in the future. In the meantime, we love to see creations from all over the world!

10. You will have two weeks to claim your prize once we post the winner.

11. The most important thing is to have fun!

Challenge #65: Solid Cardstock

Charity here, welcome back to The Paper Girls Challenge!
This challenge is all about solid cardstock.
Use it as the Background for a layout, card, or other project. Of course the REAL fun here is what you do to the cardstock to spice it up. Here are some ideas from the Design Team.

Charity
Use Stamping, Embossing, and Textured Mediums to make your page stand out.

Becci
It's easier to match papers for a large project when solid cardstock is used.

Michele

Use white backgrounds to make patterned papers pop.

 

The winner of Challenge #64 is: #1...Bonnie McLain 

Congratulations, Bonnie! Please send an e-mail with your shipping info to papergirlschallengeblog@gmail.com to claim your prize.

 

How to Join the Fun at the Paper Girls Challenge Blog:

 

1. Start by following our blog. To do so, click on the "Join this site" button on the right hand side of our blog. Please also feel free to follow by email too and like us on Facebook!

2. We will post new challenges the first and third Monday of every month. It will be up to you to create a project that has been inspired by our challenge!

3. Your entry should be made after the challenge has been posted. We will not say no to slightly older projects but we prefer to see your new creations!

4. Create a blog post about your entry and make sure to include a link back to The Paper Girls Challenge Blog. If you do not have a blog, you may post on our Facebook page or to an online gallery and then link that photo to our linky. However, please only do this if you do not have a blog.

5. Add a link to your blog post (or Facebook /gallery photo) on our Challenge using the Inlinkz tool located at the bottom of our posts. Please make sure you link the actual post with your entry and not your blog's address.

6. Please make sure you describe how you interpreted our challenge if it isn't clear. If we can't see it, we can't count it.

7. The Deadline for each challenge will be the Saturday at 11:55pm MST before the next challenge is posted. This will give you 1 week and 6 days to complete your projects.

8. Please limit your entries to 3 per person per challenge.

9. We use Random.org to pick the winner. Prizes will be sent directly from the hostess of the challenge. At this time, we can only ship to US and Canadian addresses, due to postage rates. We hope this will change in the future. In the meantime, we love to see creations from all over the world!

10. You will have two weeks to claim your prize once we post the winner.

11. The most important thing is to have fun!

 

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Happy Monday!

Hello Everyone!

There are actually 5 Mondays in September, which would mean this is where we would typically do a blog hop here at The Paper Girls.  Today we decided to do something a little different.  Recently, we have had to say good-bye to some of our Girls.  We wanted do send them off with lots of love!  Each of you are amazing women and inspiring crafters.  We hope you will come back and share some of your talents with us in the future.  You will always be Paper Girls in our Hearts!

 Deborah

Heather

Jessica

Kyla

Misty

It is always sad to see friends go, but it also means that we can welcome some new Paper Girls to the family.  If you are interested, please send us an email at papergirlschallenge@gmail.com.

We will announce the winner of the Watercolor Challenge next Monday, along with our newest challenge.

Cheers!

Challenge #64: Watercoloring

Good morning!

I don't know about you, but I have been crazy about the watercoloring trend - both on cards and scrapbook layouts! I thought that someday I would take up watercoloring when I was an empty-nester but this trend has pushed me to take it up early!

I use Winsor-Newton paints as well as the new(ish) Mister Hueys Watercoloring set (available occasionally at Studio Calico). Here's a little snippet of what I am working with and I recommend watercolor paper for the thickness and because it doesn't pill up as easily).

I am going to share with you today some of the cards that I have recently made, and all of these cards were made easily with watercolors and an acrylic block - you're going to love this technique!

You will be amazed how easy it is to make these watercolor backgrounds, here is a list of what you will need for the following tutorial:

-Paper
-Paint brush (almost any)
-Watercolor paints
-Water spray bottle (with a misting nozzle)
-A clear acrylic block (bigger is better)

Here is how I achieved this look:

1. Add water and watercolors to your acrylic block

 2. Brush it all around to cover a portion of the block

3. Press the block onto the paper

4. Notice that the paint is a little dry, add more water and...

5. Stamp again :)

6. Admire your work. Drying at this point is optional (I have dried with a heat gun).

7. Repeat the same steps with your next color.

8. Repeat.

9. Repeat

 10. You guessed it, repeat again.

11. Whew, pause for a moment to admire your work.

12. I added a little plain water to my block to stamp in the white area here to blend the colors a little more.

12. Allow to air dry or use a heat gun. Then turn into a card!

I used watercolors on the cards that I showed above but this technique works with:

ink pads

water soluable crayons

gelatos

mister hueys sprays

ink daubers

watercolor paints

All you need to do it apply your choice of paint to your acrylic block, experiment with the amount of water that you need and press it on - voila!

Give this technique a try, post it over at The Paper Girls and you could be the lucky winner of this week's prize:

Here is more watercoloring inspiration for you from the awesome Paper Girl's Design Team:

Charity



Kristy

Michele

Erica

The winner of Challenge #63 is: Tanvi!

Please send us an e-mail at papergirlschallengeblog@gmail.com to claim your prize.

How to Join the Fun at the Paper Girls Challenge Blog:

1. Start by following our blog. To do so, click on the "Join this site" button on the right hand side of our blog. Please also feel free to follow by email too and like us on Facebook!

2. We will post new challenges the first and third Monday of every month. It will be up to you to create a project that has been inspired by our challenge!

3. Your entry should be made after the challenge has been posted. We will not say no to slightly older projects but we prefer to see your new creations!

4. Create a blog post about your entry and make sure to include a link back to The Paper Girls Challenge Blog. If you do not have a blog, you may post on our Facebook page or to an online gallery and then link that photo to our linky. However, please only do this if you do not have a blog.

5. Add a link to your blog post (or Facebook /gallery photo) on our Challenge using the Inlinkz tool located at the bottom of our posts. Please make sure you link the actual post with your entry and not your blog's address.

6. Please make sure you describe how you interpreted our challenge if it isn't clear. If we can't see it, we can't count it.

7. The Deadline for each challenge will be the Saturday at 11:55pm MST before the next challenge is posted. This will give you 1 week and 6 days to complete your projects.

8. Please limit your entries to 3 per person per challenge.

9. We use Random.org to pick the winner. Prizes will be sent directly from the hostess of the challenge. At this time, we can only ship to US and Canadian addresses, due to postage rates. We hope this will change in the future. In the meantime, we love to see creations from all over the world!

10. You will have two weeks to claim your prize once we post the winner.

11. The most important thing is to have fun!