Fly Away Celebration

Tonight I went to a  farewell party for a very special young friend whom I have know since she was born.  She is leaving tomorrow morning to drive all the way across the country to begin attending BYU, and start a brand new chapter in her life... Times like this come to each of us, and it is a time to reflect and celebrate new beginnings, yet cherishing the relationships that will last a long, long time....

 And so it is with my beloved HoneyBees... The time has come for the HoneyBees to Fly Away from the Hive over at BettyBee's Buzz.  I am sad, yet happy at the same time.  They all have achieved such success, that I am very excited for each of them!   I have chosen a familiar theme for my party centerpiece to honor them.  

The tutorial on how to create the centerpiece is over on BettyBee's Buzz...

  

 

 

Inside the card.

I am so very honored to have had the opportunity to be the Queen Bee to these amazing designers, and mostly my friends.  Most of them have served on other design teams with me, and continue to work very hard throughout the industry.   You will see their work in lots of places!!

I have listed a "tribute" to each of these amazing ladies on the blog.  I do hope you will stop over and leave some "Honey" for these sweeties!!

What will I be doing?

Oh, I'll be staying busy, too.  I will contiue to host Cricuteers in Paradise crops, and be a Tutorial Artist for Digital Delights, but am also very excited to be partnering with Wanda, and Kathy from PaperPhenomenon. to start a brand new company called WonderWorks Crops!  This is something new to the industry, and we are so thrilled to bring it to you. 

Please pop over to check out our first project!  This is a CROP only deal... you have to come see us to get the aweome Haunted Chateau!  OR invite us to come to you!!  We travel :)

 I know I will always be close to these ladies, because they aren't just a Design Team... they are my friends, my sisters that I chose... and I love them...

Happy Creating~

(We'll have one last post on Wednesday to show what the HoneyBees made for the Party!!!  One last Showcase!!!  We hope you will come by and leave them some honey :) 

Stars and Stripes Forever

Today at BettyBee's Buzz, the HoneyBees are tearing and ripping up cardboard boxes!  This is what I did with mine :)   I also recycled a Diet Coke can to create the blue field of stars, by coloring the aluminum with a Copic marker, then spritzing it with alcohol, and embossing with the Cuttlebug.  It is very easy to cut with scissors.  My star was hand cut.  The button is tied with gold metallic crochet cotton.  The two sentiment stamps were heat embossed in cobalt blue.  Finish off with three sparkly gems, and this card is worthy of a snappy salute! 

I do hope you will make two stops today... One at BettyBee's Buzz to check out the rest of the HoneyBee creations... and leave them some love!  And TWO to join Madison in her kick off for I Feel the Love at Funky Cards.  This spunky teenager, with a heart of gold, will be spearheading a great program to gather cards for a worthy recipient. 

Thanks for stopping by, and, as always... have a great day, and smile, share, and make someone happy!

Happy creating~

Welcome to Mish Mash Monday!

I'm calling it that, because it's a post full of a variety of good things :)

First is this Crocheted Lucky Penny project by our Brand New Design Team Member

over at BettyBee's Buzz ~

HoneyBee Judy Ford!!!

Second, these are my two furbabies, Rusty and Dusty, being hoot! 

This is 50 pounds of cat in a bathtub!  Aren't they cute?  Awww ...

OK, one more try..... here is the ribbon that absolutely REFUSED to be posted yesterday....

hoping for better luck today!  I will wear it proudly for Baby Paisley, and again in a couple of weeks for another new granddaughter coming up soon!!   (Lots of glittery goodness on there!!)

Last, but certainly not least, is a card I made for a very special friend, and then made a BIG GOOF.  I thought it was mailed a couple of weeks ago, and when cleaning out a tote bag, I found it this morning :0

I was even with her since then, and could have hand delivered it, if I had realized it.  Oh, well... the snail mail will have to do it for me.  My friend will know my heart was in it, even if my brain wasn't♥

The little pink flowers were really fun... just punch them from colored typing weight paper, then spritz with rubbing alcohol (it dries very quickly!)  while wet, fold and then roll to create the texture, then unroll, and when it dries, it makes a really pretty flower, that has a great dimension! 

Have a great week!  I'm flying off to Denver to meet my new Granddaughter!  I can't wait to hug my Daughters and Son-in-law, and my 2 3/4 year old Grandson, too! 



Happy crafting ~

It's a Frame Up!!

Last week, my sweet friend, HoneyBee Rosemary, gave each of us a white frame, provided a nice selection of assorted embellishments, and our challenge was to create whatever we wanted with it!

DCWV Linen Closet paper, Prima and Martha Stewart flowers, and Sizzix punched leaves were a great start.  I had the perfect dotted sheer ribbon, and a package of frisky little bumble bees, which add a lot of life and dimension, in and out of the frame.  The daisies are punched with an EK Success punch, and are colored with Copics. 

Here are my HoneyBee Sisters!  Being together was the most wonderful time, and this framed photo will be a delightful reminder of so much fun.  It will have a very special place of honor in Studio Bee. 

Please pop over to BettyBee's Buzz, and see how the other girls did their frames, and HoneyBee Beth has created the most charming buttoned frame with her adorable grandkids!! 

Back soon!  Happy creating ~

More Bees!

                Surprise!  I forgot to share a special project with you for HoneyBee Retreat week!

Naturally, we couldn't have any other theme this past week than BEEs!!! 

So, I shared one of my favorite Bee embelishments.   The  project is a little mini album created with cereal boxes, covered with designer paper.

Aren't they cute?

                  Be sure to check out last week's Monday Motivational to see exactly how to make them!
I'll be back tomorrow with a new project for Whoopsi Daisy!

Happy creating!

Bee Projects

Here are some SWEET projects that I've been working on for a very special retreat with my dear friends, and design team, the HoneyBees!  We spent several days together just crafting, sharing ideas, tutoring, laughing, eating, and getting to know one another SO WELL.  It was the PERFECT SWARM!

 I stamped these bee hives and bees (CTMH) and added them to tubes of yellow and black M&Ms!

 One of our projects was to etch a commemorative mug.  I designed the logo on Make The Cut, and we cut out the vinyl, etched the designs and our names, and then enjoyed Root Beer Floats!

Court designed shirts, and screen printed them with her Yudu.  We added lots of gems with our I-Rocks.

Here are the HoneyBees!  Kristi, Rosemary, Court, June, Wanda and myself. 

I hope you get a chance to visit us over at BettyBee's Buzz, and see what we come up with to inspire you!  Monday we will be sharing another project that we did at our retreat. 

Happy creating ~

Here's a Real Sweet Treat!

 Happy Valentine's Day !!!  Today I have a sweet treat basket tutorial, that you can make for lots of treat occasions, over at BettyBee's Buzz!  And it's so easy you can whip up a bunch of 'em before the kids get home from school today! 

 

 I had so much fun with this little basket.  It will make a great centerpiece for the table, because it is a really nice size... but it is SO easy to make in itsy bitsy little sizes, too!!  The base on this one is 4 inches square, but it would be just as easy to do with a 1 inch square bottom, and put jelly beans in for Easter... OH, SO CUTE!!  This stamp is from The Baking Stamp Ensemble from Just RiteStampers, and the paper from the DCWV Sweet Stack couldn't have been more perfect!


  I hope you will click over and see today's Monday Motivational, and will be back with us on Wednesday to see the Sweet Treats the rest of the HoneyBees will be sharing. 

Happy Valentine's Day... and have a great week!!  My Valentine is going in the hospital today for a cardiac cath, and possibly some other work... I appreciate your prayers and good thoughts on his behalf.  I'll let you know how he is on my next post. 

Hugs,

Such Characters!

This week over at BettyBee's Buzz our challenge was to use a character of some sort in our projects. It could be in the form of a Cricut cut, photo, stickers, stamp, or downloaded image.... whatever inspiration we wanted. In keeping with my personal goal of doing more scrapbook pages this year, I used my Mickey Font Cricut Cartridge to cut the EPCOT letters and the ticket on this layout. I also downloaded the free Disney "Waltograph" font from dafont.com, so it was easy to do the lettering on my computer. The blackout image of Mickey is a Cuttlebug die cut called "TaDa", and I handcut the white shadow, which gave the right "POP" against the Echo Park background paper. I also used the Cuttlebug for texture, with the Seeing Spots folder on the red strip on the left.

It was a freezing cold day, but sharing the day with such warm friends made it wonderful! We had lunch at the Japanese restaurant, rode a bunch of rides, and walked the entire circle! I think Spaceship Earth was my favorite. I can't wait to have the opportunity to back again.

I must admit that after doing cards for so long, doing a scrapbook page was a challenge. I am really happy to have done it, and am very happy to have the memories of the day at Epcot with my friends saved for all time!
I hope you will pop over to BettyBee's Buzz, and see what June, Beth and Roe have done... then create your own characters to share! There is a prize this week, too!

Happy creating ~

Happy Holidays - and Heat Embossing

I am hoping that you are enjoying a very MERRY CHRISTMAS

with those that you love.

As you can imagine from my last post, things have been wonderfully exciting and busy around our place the past few days. Our oldest daughter and her family of 7 (plus Cocker Spaniel) arrived on Sat. afternoon to join with her sister who was the object of the surprise video on Wed! We have been getting a lot of last minute Christmas preparations taken care of, as well as visiting, playing with the children, and feeding the multitudes! I was also the target of a BIG CHRISTMAS GRINCH when someone hijacked my bank account, by setting up a new online account, etc. in my name!! BIG FAT inconvenience to have my $$ all tied up in disputes, plus having my debit card out of commission right now! They are on to the people who did this, but still.....

For BettyBee's Buzz this week, we are showcasing one of my very favorite mediums, which is Heat Embossing. I think it takes a regular project and turns it into a WOW piece! On Monday, June did a nice tutorial that will be helpful, if you need a little info. I hope you won't mind revisiting a few of my favorite old-timers, as my studio is one VERY BUSY guest room at this time!!
The card above is a gorgeous Snow Swirled Cuttlebug Folder, which dry embosses the edges (gives the raised image). Then the snow and swirl were topped with Icicle Stickles. The "Merry Christmas" is a rubber stamp that I stamped in Versamark Ink (clear and sticky), and then immediately onto a red ink pad.... then I stamped my image, and sprinkled clear embossing powder over the lettering. Using a heat gun, I heated the letters only, leaving the stickled alone. The clear over the red "melts" and gives it a beautiful, raised glassy looking letter (heat embossing). SO ELEGANT! I just love this card!

This one features the embossing on the sentiment as well, though this one was embossed with a sticky embossing powder that is designed to get hot, and melt, so that glitter will adhere to it. Then you heat it again, and the glue becomes hard and permanent.

My next little friend here is a pattern from the Queen of fun cards and techniques, Dawn Griffin, and he is super fun and easy to put together. Click on the link at the left side of the page to check out the tutorial :)
I'll be back later in the week with more festivities and fun!

Happy Holidays :)

Betty

Fred, She Said!

What a fun week this has been over at BettyBee's Buzz! What??!!?? You haven't been there yet? Well, you'd better hurry! Fred, She Said is our sponsor this week, and we have had a lot of fun with her digital images for Christmas, and she is offering a $20 Gift Certificate!! All you need to do is create a card, layout, or other project using an image of Fred's {and she even has Freebies!!!} and post it on BettyBee's Buzz, and you could win!!! The piece I did is using Christmas Ornament #1, and the background is one of her Paper Piercing Patterns. So easy to do, and yet so elegant. I colored my image with Copics, but if you aren't into coloring, she does have THE MOST gorgeous pre-colored images you can just download, cut and paste!

This little lady is Emma, the Caroler, and she comes in a set with these darling little birds. Fred has a sample of several different ways of coloring the birds on her blog, so they can be blue birds, robins, or whatever suits your project! They come with your download separate as well as here with Emma! So cute!

My personal thanks to Fred for sponsoring us at BettyBee's Buzz. I ask you to come and join us in the challenge, and show her some great support! I'd really appreciate it! We are having some wonderful blog candy coming up... and you would be in the running for that, too :) Double winnings, besides the pleasure of using one of these great images!

Have a wonderful day, and I'll be back tomorrow!

Happy creating ~

BettyBee

Vinyl Projects - Step by Step

Creating beautiful vinyl projects can be some of your favorite Christmas gifts this year, and I have the step-by-step directions for you here today. I hope you will find some great inspiration!

This ceramic tile costs a mere 69 cents at a local home improvement store. It is 13 inches square, and the vinyl is a scrap from a local sign shop.... again just a few cents worth. I have used Make-The-Cut for this project, but the principles that I am using are the same for any Cricut project.

The most important thing I could tell you is to ADJUST the BLADE to 2 or 3 so that it only cuts through the top layer of vinyl, and not the backing sheet!!! This will allow you to maintain the proper alignment that your Cricut has already created for you! (Trust me... hehehehe!) Check out this post to see a BIG vinyl job that I did, so I know what I am talking about :)

This is what your finished project will look like (after flexing the project so you can actually see the cuts).

This is "weeding" or removing all of the unwanted vinyl from the backing sheet. Be careful to save all of the centers of "e's" and other such letters, and make sure you don't let the weeds get stuck to the letters you are keeping.

This is completely weeded, and ready for the transfer tape.

The next step is to add a piece of "transfer tape" or masking tape over the vinyl on the backing sheet, and rub thoroughly over it, so all of the letters/designs stick to the transfer sheet.

Then you flip it over onto your tile, and everything stays perfectly in place! Isn't that easy? Now you rub all over the images with your fingers, and carefully pull away the transfer tape.

I wanted to give the back of my tile a nice cushioned, finished look, so I cut fun foam to fit. The piece that I had was 12x18, so it required a little piecing, but that wasn't a problem. I used the hot glue gun to adhere the foam to the tile. Work carefully, and pretty quickly, as the tile is cold, and causes the glue to set pretty quickly.

Here is the finished project, though I did go back and add a gold layer to the star, after I took this photo :)

If you are interested in the SVG file for this project, please leave a comment, or send me an email at the contact info listed in the right margain.

I hope you have enjoyed the tutorial, and will leave a comment or two!

Please check out BettyBeesBuzz and see the vinyl projects that the HoneyBees have done last week! Great ideas for home decor and gift ideas, as well as a place for you to share your projects!

Happy creating ~

BettyBee