It's Halloween Again!!!

HALLOWEEN INVITES!!!

My cards and envelopes before I addressed them!  (Front of the cards) 

I think that Halloween is actually my favorite holiday.  I get so excited for Halloween things and this year is no different.  I'm having a small Halloween brunch get together and I made the invites this weekend!! I got a lot of inspiration from Papersource and I want to share my work here!

This Papersource card inspired me!  I bought the spiderweb stamp!

Strawberry Spongecake!

So, this cake doesn't necessarily use "scissors" or "ink" as the blog title suggests.  However, it was a creative labor of love and I was very proud of the aesthetics of the end product, so I want to post it here with some of the steps that went into it. 

The cake was from the book "Birthday Cakes" by Fiona Cairns.  It graces the cover and it looks just gorgeous.  My friend and I used the recipe for the Neopolitan Spongecake (also found in the book - though we only made the vanilla layer) instead of the Lemon and Elderflower recipe that was suggested for this cake.  Instead of buttercream, we used whipped cream and we muddled some strawberries and sugar to put as one of the middle layers.  

It tasted great and was pleasing to the eye!  Definitely would repeat.  Wouldn't mind layering it with butter cream and using whipped cream as the outer coating.  I just love the way the strawberries look and like the idea of keeping the green tops on the strawberries on top.  

Easter Eggs and an Easter Dog.

Easter Time means an opportunity to get crafty.  This year I made a few eggs and they brightened up the house to kick off Spring.  There are so many cool things you can do with Easter eggs and crafting supplies!  I focused on dye, stickers, glitter and rhinestones.  Next year we'll kick it up a notch. 

Here are the eggs and some other Easter frills: 

This is a mozzarella Easter bunny from an Italian specialty store on Staten Island.  A-mazing.  

 And here are some pics of my little Easter bunny, my chihuahua, T-Bone: 

Paper Taco Card!

"Let's Taco-'bout how Awesome You Are"

I made this card for someone who is awesome, just to let them know ;).

I was inspired by a little taco crawl in downtown Manhattan at Ponche Taqueria, Tacombi al Fonda and La Esquina.  I started thinking that a little taco card would be absolutely adorable so I put it together using my Silhouette Cameo, various Martha Stewart glitters and glitter paper from Paper Source.

You can't see it but the card opens up and you can write on the inside.  Taco-'bout adorable.  Lol.  Sorry, Im gonna get as much play out of that pun as possible ;)

Yours Til the Taco Crunches,
Christina

Paper Puppies

For my mom's birthday, I used one of the Paper Source's adorable garland kits to make paper replicas of my chihuahuas!!! I thought they looked so cute on top of her gift.  

The kit (find here: http://www.papersource.com/item/Doggie-Kit/4071295705.html) came with instructions to make different dog breeds!!!  I adapted so that I could make multiple chihuahuas - a little tan guy, my T-Bone, a black and white baby, Riblet, and I used a good gel pen to give the coloring to my brindle girl, Pork Chop.  Love my little animals.  

Here they are:

New Years Vision Board

Here's a sample of a New Year's Vision board.  It's a way to envision goals for the year and then make them tangible through whatever medium you wish.

1. FIrst, I brainstormed for a while, making lists of goals I actually want to achieve this year.

2. Then, I narrowed the list down to what I particularly want to focus on, to make it manageable.

3. Next, I started thinking about how I could use objects, shapes and other symbols to represent my goals.

4. I used paint, stickers, my Cameo Silhouette, washi tape and whatever else I could find to depict some goals for the new year.

5. Of course the last step is actually following through... hahaha... I'll get back to you on that ;)

2015 Vision Board:

While Visions of Sugar Plums Dance Through Their Heads

This is a little ornament-shaped Christmas card I made, featuring two small dogs (modeled after my chihuahuas, Riblet and T Bone).  They are sleeping in their bed, dreaming of sugar plums on the night before Christmas...  I love the way the sugar plums came out!  I used a visine see through envelope under the glitter and sugar plums and other stickers, so that it looks a little more magical.   I also used a fine paper from Paper Source for the comforter.  The Santa hats are also stickers from Paper Source.

 These are some Christmas ornaments I also made and gave as gifts to some of my coworkers.  I used various Martha Stewart glitters and stickers from Paper Source (my favorite store). These ornaments were given to me by an amazing friend and were made out of cardboard and were completely plain before I used paint, washi tape and other accoutrement to sparkle them up.