Safari Adventure Mixed Media Box

Hi there!

Tonight I have a little project to share. This is a mixed media box from Graphic 45 featuring their adorable Safari Adventure paper line. Since little hands might be reaching for this, I tried to keep the embellishments and fussy cutting to a minimum.

These 5x5 boxes are so cute and come with 6 loose tags. Many crafters turn them into an album; I thought I'd keep each tag loose. Again, thinking about the little person who could be handling these photos. 

Leaving the tags unattached means you can switch out any tag to be the one that shows through the box's cover. (And that was a clunky sentence - but I'm too tired to fix it.)

These little boxes make for great gift ideas. This one in particular was a late Father's Day / Happy Birthday gift, so Safari Adventure made for the perfect paper. 

I have more Safari Adventure projects to share next! A mini album and a set of cards, from Graphic 45's monthly class series. Stay tuned!

Hallowe'en in Wonderland Cards and Envelopes

Hi again!

Here is some final Halloween inspiration for you on this dreary Friday afternoon. (I don't know about you, but I'm looking around the place, and suddenly feeling like adding a bit more festive decor around the place. There's something about grey skies, rain, cooler temps and changing leaves.)

First off is a card I made for my friend Lauren. She loves tea and recently started selling Queen Mary Tea. With Halloween around the corner, and a batch of fresh pumpkin spice caramels ordered from my go-to caramel place on the Oregon coast, a greeting card was the necessary next step.

I used a lot of the tea-themed paper and imagery from Hallowe'en in Wonderland to really play it up! To make the card extra fun, I made it accordion-style and with a little pop-up page featuring the Cheshire Cat.

For Lauren's card, I dressed up one of the Graphic 45 square policy envelopes with matching paper. 

Next up is a tag that I made for my friend Juanita. I used a black square tag as the base. She's our friend who moved away last year and who introduced us to those fabulous caramels I told you about yesterday.

I also made a coordinating envelope for Juanita's tag: 

Well that concludes some simple Halloween ideas. Or even fall-themed ones, if you don't celebrate Halloween. What's great about this paper line is that it has deep reds, greens and purple colors on the b-sides, making it great for any autumn-themed craft you can think of! 

I hope you all have a fun and creative weekend. Thanks for stopping by! 

Hallowe'en in Wonderland Trick or Treat Ideas

Happy Thursday!

Today is day two of my Graphic 45 Hallowe'en in Wonderland projects. I hinted a little bit yesterday about candy. What is a Halloween celebration without that?!

So there is some extra special candy that I've grown to love. Indulge Sweets in Seal Rock, Oregon makes the most delectable fudge, salted caramel chocolate truffles and my new favorite, homemade-style caramels. They remind me so much of the caramels that my friend Dee makes: exquisitely soft, smoother than silk and buttery.

I'll admit to stopping by every once and a while and grabbing a few. Last year, my friend Juanita from  the Nature Walk shop introduced me to Indulge Sweets' pumpkin spice caramels and I was hooked! My friend and her family would often buy out every piece of these caramels whenever they could. So naturally, when they moved across the country, I just had to send her a care package with her favorite candy.

A couple other sweet friends of mine were also on my treat list. One who is always sending me tantalizing treats in the mail, and another who I'm about to meet up with very soon. :) But what to do with those white boxes? Enter Graphic 45 DIY craft paper and the Hallowe'en in Wonderland Deluxe Collector's Edition. 

G45 debuted this cool craft paper earlier this year. It comes in 5 different styles, with each style being double-sided. For this project, I chose the Architecture and Alphabet paper and the Curiosity Collage & Butterflies design. 

The paper is thinner than Graphic 45's regular patterned paper, making it great for covering books, wood, plastic, pretty much any surface. I decided to use the paper as wrapping paper. I used one of my trusty Tim Holtz dies to cut out some fun lock shapes and voila - festive trick or treat boxes!

To make these a wee more fun, I made some gift tags using Graphic 45's artist trading tags and ornate metal keys. 

All I did was tie these onto the jute that I already tied around the caramel packages and voila, complete trick or treat packages! 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, where I'll be sharing some fun cards and envelopes I made with you guessed it, Hallowe'en in Wonderland. :) 

Hallowe'en in Wonderland Home Decor

Happy Wednesday!

Starting today through Friday, I have some fun and simple Halloween-inspired projects that I created using Graphic 45's Hallowe'en in Wonderful Deluxe Collector's Edition!

Today I have some home decor projects for you. Now, just a little preface: I've never really been one to "celebrate" Halloween; sure, I've trick or treated countless times as a kid (up until my early 20s, when I was Arwen from the Lord of the Rings) and made many outings to haunted mazes, including Portland's finest, the Pumpkin Patch.

But that's about as far as my celebrations go. Oh, and the candy - did I mention, the candy? We'll get to that tomorrow. :) First, a simple "Harvest" banner I made using Graphic 45's black alpha banner and a sheet from Hallowe'en in Wonderland.

I made this banner pretty simple. I wanted something that I could have hanging up through Thanksgiving, so I chose to create the word "Harvest." 

Up next, I have a dining room display. I found these gorgeous red sunflowers with purple leaves at the grocery store yesterday. Spooky and pretty.

I bought a black tablecloth from the Dollar Store, along with this "creepy cloth" from Grocery Outlet. I threw in some gourds and my flowers, with some May Arts ribbon.

The photo frames that I have in my dining room usually display some fern prints. But I swapped those out for some of the Hallowe'en in Wonderland paper. 

And finally, I made another banner, this one more Halloween-ish. I used some of Graphic 45's artist trading tags, Tim Holtz's rosette die and these fun Idea-ology Halloween adornments that I had stashed away. Oh, and you'll also spot some of the chipboard pieces from Hallowe'en in Wonderland along with some ornate metal keys. 

Well that wraps it up, friends. Have any of you been designing some fun fall projects with Hallowe'en in Wonderland? I'd love to see your photos! 

Stay tuned for tomorrow, I have some more decorating ideas for fall.