Tale of the Multi-Tasking, Craft-and-Design-Loving, Mother-of-Two, Singaporean-Living-in-US, Corporate-Working Mom Named Grace Hester

Market Street Stamps and The Twinery Blog Hop

Welcome to The Twinery / Market Street Stamps Blog Hop! (Friday & Saturday, Nov 18-19)

If you came from Jessica Larsen's blog, you're moving along just fine!

Here's my card made using Buttercream, Honeydew, and Carribean baker's twine from The Twinery and the So Happy stamp set from Market Street Stamps!

Giveaway Deets:

The Twinery will be giving away:

One Ultimate Sampler Pack (retail value $25)

Market Street Stamps will be giving away:

One $25 Shopping Spree

How to Enter:

You must visit each blog, each day and leave a comment on each post to be eligible to win either prize.

Deadline for prize giveaway is Friday, Nov 25^th.

Prize Winners will be drawn at random and will be announced Saturday, Nov 26^th on both The Twinery and Market Street Stamps Blogs.

Next Stop:  Sarah Jay (Whose blog happens to be called Criminal Grace!  Groovy right?)

String of Holiday Ornaments from The Stamps of Life and The Twinery

 

The {Stamps} of Life and The Twinery Design Teams are playing together for this hop!  Are you ready for some fun?

About The Twinery:

Our twine is made from 100% cotton, it’s eco-friendly and made in the USA. Whether you’re gift wrapping, crafting or tying up baked goods to give to a friend, our baker’s twine adds a fresh, yet nostalgic look to any project at hand! Our baker’s twine comes in 14 delicious colors and is uniquely twisted against a bright white hue, creating an eye-popping burst of color and a creative embellishment! Our twine has lots of color which lends to a fun, candy-striped look. For creative ideas & more…visit OUR BLOG!

About The {Stamps} of Life:

We feature high quality, made in the USA, clear stamps and digital stamps/brushes for stampers, card makers and scrapbookers. Feel free to browse our gallery with more than 2500 samples using our stamps, watch our free how-to videos and join our club!

As you make your way through the hop make sure you comment on each and every post. There will be 2 prize winners chosen randomly among the blogs:

One winner will win 2 stamp sets  (winners choice) valued at $12.95 -total retail value: $26.90 per prize! from The {Stamps} of Life.

&

One winner will win the Ultimate Color Sampler Pack ($25 value!) from The Twinery!!!

The prize winners will be announced on The {Stamps}of Life and The Twinery Blogs on Wednesday November 16th.

Here's my card that combines the baker's twine from The Twinery and the fun stamps from {Stamps}of Life,

I used the Holly4Christmas set and the Buttercream, Blossom, and Honeydew baker's twine from The Twinery to make this card. There's some holly stamps included in the Holly4Christmas set that would work well with the twine too.  Hope you like it!  Now round back to The Twinery Blog for the full list of participants to make sure you did not miss anyone!

Handmade Holiday Shadowbox Gift

Welcome to the Handmade Holidays Blog Hop!!!

 

Calling all crafters! We’ve gathered designers from some of our favorite manufacturers to show you ways to create something from the heart this holiday season. This 3 day Hop includes over 60 stops with inspiration brimming from every corner. Explore all thoughtful and frugal handmade gifts you could make for the holidays, all in one place on this Hop!

To sweeten to Hop, we’re offering a gift for you! For every comment you leave on the blogs in the Hop, you’ll be entered to win a prize pack from one of the participating manufacturer sponsors!

The Twinery is going to be giving away THREE of our Ultimate Sampler Packs to one lucky winner...that's enough for you to keep and then some to give away to 2 special friends for the holidays! 

 

 

To Enter on This Blog,

Leave a comment answering the question,
"What was the best handmade holiday gift you've ever given or received?"

For Extra Entries...

Like Grace Hester Designs on Facebook

Follow Grace Hester on Twitter

Be sure to leave a comment for each action as well for the extra entries.

For this blog hop, I had the opportunity to play with some of Clearsnap's fun products, Designer Foils and Smooch Spritzes.  Here is my handmade creation - a tree made from resin stones and framed in a shadowbox, ready for gift-giving!

 

For the background paper, I used a page from the Tradewinds paper stack from Die Cuts with a View and spritz it with the Clearsnap Gold Glow Smooch Spritz.  It leaves a purrrty shimmer on the paper.  Here's how I embellished each of the elements on the collage,

1)  I cut out a star from chipboard, covered it with white glue, and then applied the Clearsnap Glitter on it.  I also spritz it with Clearsnap Gold Smooch Spritz since I don't get to play with glitter too often. :o)

2) I punched out a green circle and glued it to the back of the resin stone, then I wrapped The Twinery's Peapod baker's twine around it.

3)  Same technique except I left the back of the stone clear, and I used The Twinery's Maraschino baker's twine.

4)  I used the Holly Border Design Adhesives from Clearsnap and the Irish Eyes Designer Foil on a small square of cardstock and then used Tim Holtz's Distress Ink to add color to the background.  Then I punched the circle shape out of the paper and glued it to the resin stone.

5)  Hand-stamped the word "JOY" onto a small corner of the remaining paper from #4, trimmed in the shape of a ribbon and glue it onto red paper.  Then I punched a circle from it and glue the word strip onto the red circle, then onto the back of the resin stone.

6)  I just punch out a circle from another page from the Tradewinds paper stack that had a gold brocade pattern.

7)  Spritz a square of cardstock with the Clearsnap Cherry Ice Smooch Spritz and punched a circle out of the paper.

8)  Stamped a butterfly (from Martha Stewart's Doily Lace Butterfly stamp set) onto paper, distressed with distress ink and then punched a circle from the square.

9)  Stuck three glitter stars onto white cardstock.

10)  Use an alphabet stickers (using "E" for the gift recipients "Eames Family" and adhered it to cardstock, then punched a circle from it.

11)  Used a label tag to act as the base of the christmasd tree and slid a tag with the family's name.

The resin stones did make the page heavy so I adhered the page onto mat backing to make it more sturdy.  And now it is ready for gift-giving!

Here are the other blogs participating in the blog hop.  Leave a comment on each by Nov 7, 2011 at 11:59 PM PST. There are projects from the previous two days as well so have fun exploring,

Clearsnap – http://clearsnap.blogspot.com
Spellbinders  http://www.spellbinderspaperarts.com/Community/Blog.aspx
Hampton Art - http://blog.hamptonart.com/
Zutter – http://binditall.blogspot.com/
Graphic45 – http://g45papers.typepad.com/
Donna Salazar Designs – http://donnasalazar.typepad.com/
The Twinery - http://www.thetwineryblog.com/ 
Authentique Paper http://authentiquepaper.blogspot.com/
Glue Arts - http://gluearts.blogspot.com/
Sabrina Alery – Clearsnap http://sabrinaalery.blogspot.com/
Laura Denison – Graphic 45 http://www.followingthepapertrail.blogspot.com/
Karen Taylor – Donna Salazar Designs - http://creativeyearnings.blogspot.com/
Beverly Sizemore – Hampton Art  http://bevscreativepath.blogspot.com/
Kazan Clark  – Spellbinders http://nunutoolies.blogspot.com/
Janeen Shember – Authentique Paper  http://suburbngypsy.blogspot.com/
Charlotte Jenkins – Clearsnap http://suepup.blogspot.com/

== YOU ARE HERE ==

Grace Hester – The Twinery http://gracehester.typepad.com/

== YOU ARE HERE ==

Nicole Eccles – Graphic45 http://nicoleeccles.blogspot.com/
Audrey Pettit – Donna Salazar Designs - http://audreypettit.wordpress.com/
Nan Paturzo – Zutter http://scrappynan.blogspot.com/
Jeannie DeGruccio – Authentique Paper  http://polkacabana.wordpress.com/
Tamara Tripodi - Glue Arts http://happylifecraftywife.com/

Cheers to creating gifts from the heart this holiday season! Happy Hopping!

Just Called to Say Card (The Greeting Farm and The Twinery Blog Hop)

Welcome to our combined Blog Swap/Hop today featuring two fantastic companies,  The Twinery and The Greeting Farm!   If you're just getting here from Denice Bartucci's blog, WELCOME!  If you have yet to begin the hop, please visit the TWINERY BLOG to begin!  Hooray!

We are so excited to bring you a fun hop, loads of inspiration when the world of TGF Rubber stamps collides with the quality baker's twine we've all come to know and love, and some of the most talented designers in the industry with new and fun projects to share!

Did we mention PRIZES? There are definitely a few of those too so you'll want to check out our event today! Thank you so much for coming!

The Greeting Farm first sprouted into the stamping world in 2008 as a small dream and has cultivated into something wonderful because of wonderful customers like you! With three years of farm-fresh images under their belt, TGF is going strong and love brings you fun-loving, animated characters, including the best-selling "Anya" line. The Greeting Farm brings you cute, charismatic images that are LOADS of fun to COLOR! There is truly something for EVERYONE on the Farm and we are so glad to be teaming up with the Twinery today!

As for the Twinery, twine is made from 100% cotton, it's eco-friendly and made in the USA. Whether you're gift wrapping, crafting or tying up baked goods to give to a friend, this TOP quality baker's twine adds a fresh, yet nostalgic look to any project at hand! The Twinery twine comes in 14 delicious colors and is uniquely twisted against a bright white hue, creating an eye-popping burst of color and a creative embellishment! It has lots of color which lends to a fun, candy-striped look.

I was provided the Cheeky Chat rubber stamp for the project contribition and made a simple "I Just Called to Say" card that tied-in with the fun graphic.

I also used The Twiner's twie to tie the note to the front and then sewed around the box to anchor it a little better on the card layout.

Now...I DID mention something about PRIZES, didn't I? ;) There are TWO prize packs up for grabs and you will have until Sunday, October 23rd at 5pm CST to comment on ALL the blogs and enter for your chance to win one of them!

The Greeting Farm is giving away their ENTIRE November release EARLY to one lucky winner- that is four stamps in all and EARLY nonetheless!

The Twinery is giving away one “COLORFUL BUNCH” sampler pack!

That's TWO great prizes, TWO chances to win...and endless inspiration beginning HERE:

The TWINERY Blog

Julie Ranae

Jessica Diedrich

Emily Leiphart

Lori Craig

Caroline Stender

Carisa Zglobicki

Angelica Suarez

Tracey Pickersgill

Tifany DeGough

Denice Bartucci

Grace Hester <=  YOU ARE HERE

Kim Yu

Becca Fabozzi

The Greeting Farm Blog

Thank you SO much for stopping by today!   Now it's time to head over to Kim Yu's blog, thanks so much for sharing in our SUPER fun event today!

Spanish Counting Album (Sweet 'n Sassy and The Twinery Blog Hop)

 

Hello visitor!  If you have arrived from Monika’s blog, then you’re staying on-track on today’s The Twinery and Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps blog hop!  But if you did not, and would love to get started from the first stop, simply return back to The Twinery’s blog for the full list!

For this blog hop, The Twinery’s Design Team was challenged with creating something using Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps and The Twinery’s baker’s twine.  I chose the Polka Dot Silhouettes Clear Stamp Set from Sweet ‘N Sassy stamps to create a Spanish counting book for Gianna, my 3.5-year-old. 

I started with an American Crafts 6 X 6 mini album.  On most of the 6 X 6 pages, I repeated the stamps to match the number for the page and printed some tags (using Fei-Fei's Coming Home digital kit) with the number and object name in Spanish.  I also distressed each page by shaving the page edges using Tim Holtz's Paper Distresser, and then using his Distress Inks on the raw edges. 

But to add a little peek-a-boo element to the book, I punched a hole in each page and reinforced it with kraft hole reinforcements.  Then I threaded The Twinery’s baker’s twine through it to create a string “pull”. 

When you pull the page up, the page underneath reveals the Spanish number and word that corresponds to the picture.

To give the stamping a more dimensional look, I stamped the [motif] is a light solid color first, then inked the edges in Versamark black, and stamped it for a “screenprinting look”. 

I really love the versatility of this stamp set.  You can’t go wrong with polka dots on silhouettes!

Now the details on the giveaway:

There will be TWO prizes awarded for those who leave comments on all participating blogs.

The Twinery will give away to one winner:  One Ultimate Color Sampler Pack (retail value $25)

Sweet & Sassy Stamps will give away to one winner:  One Season of Change Stamp & Die Set (retail value $28)

You need to comment on ALL BLOGS to be eligible to win.  The deadline to hop/leave comments is 11:59 EST, Saturday Oct 22^nd.  The Twinery’s winner will be announced on The Twinery’s blog and Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps’s winner will be announced on their blog on Sunday Oct 23rd. 

Your next stop is Taylor’s!  Enjoy her lovely creation!

Baker's Twine Rosettes for Operation Julie's Smile Blog Hop

Thanks for joining me today for Operation Julie's Smile Blog Hop! If you arrived from Hera's blog, you're on the right bloggity-train to "Craft-ford station" *ha ha ha I crack myself up*.  If not, you can start from the beginning at the Sweet Stamp Shop Blog and work your way through the 120+ blogs participating this weekend.  (Wow right?)

So who is this "Julie" and what is Operation Julie's Smile?  Well Julie is Julie Ranae Murray and for me personally, I got to know Julie through being on the same The Twinery Design Team.  Julie is our DT Coordinator and wears that hat for many other design teams as well.  Despite having to juggle so many teams and the work that comes along with being a Coordinator, she has been so sweet and encouraging to a rookie DT member like me. 

Unfortunately, Julie has had to have some pretty major dental surgeries in her lifetime due to medication she had to take as a child.  You can read the full story here but in summary, due to a recent chipped tooth incident that was not fixable by the dentist, Julie agreed to have her two front teeth removed only with the understanding that the $4K quote she was given would be for the services of removing teeth AND included putting permanent teeth in post-removal.  Come to find out POST-REMOVAL that the quote they provided were just for removal!  So poor Julie is now without her two front teeth and is "forced" into a situation of having to live without them unless she has $7K to return and finish the process.  So the blogosphere is rallying around Operation Julie's Smile starting today and ending October 9th to help raise money for Julie to receive two front teeth and to help her to be able to smile confidently again.

"Please help Julie smile confidently again" Donation

So if I could ask that you kindly consider giving towards this effort by clicking on the Donate button.  There are a variety of companies and design teams who are participating in this hop and there are over $2500 worth of prizes to be won.  No amount is too small!  Prizes will be drawn for the following:

1.    from Blog Comments left
2.    from PayPal Donation list
3.    for Blog Hop Hosts

Now for my contribution to the blog hop, I was inspired by Julie's story and her plight and was also reminded as to how often we take our ability to smile for granted.  So I started a mini album titled "smile" and the idea is to take some of my favourite smiling photos of my family and friends and add them to the mini album.

I collected scraps of paper, fabric, cardboard, chipboard, and whatever I could find.  Then I covered some chipboard I had with pearlescent paper from Colorbok's English Moss collection, sanded down the sides, then layered glitter cut-outs and chipboard letters on top of the paper.  Once I sized down the other elements that would go in as pages in this album, I used my trusty Cinch binding machine to bind the stack together to form a mini album.

Here is a page in the mini album where I incorporated some of The Twinery's baker's twine as the key design element.  The page is shorter in width so as to let the previous and following pages peek through on the side.  I took some Stone baker's twine and added them as "flower stems" to the page.  Then I rolled some Carribean baker's twine (since the palette was turquoise, grey, brown) around my index finger, slipped it off to loosely form a rosette.  Each rosette was then pasted onto the paper using a glue dot.  Where the middle of the rosette was open and showing the adhesive beneath, I added a matching gem for the center of the flower. 

Here's a closer look,

I also added a glitter dragonfly and a small paper tag that I printed from Fei-Fei's Coming Home digital kit that says, "SMILE EVERY DAY" in line with the theme of the mini album. :o)

Here are some other work-in-progress pages.  The left page was made from corrugated cardboard that I had set aside from a package I received.  The blue chevron page on the right is actually one of the many paper goodies from Linda & Harriett's outlet & craft bin sale awhile back.  Love their craft bin sale!

Another page and to show you some of the colors and materials used.  (Black die-cut paper from Colorbok's English Moss collection, Kraft Resist paper from Tim Holtz's Paper Stash collection - I applied a distressing effect here, American Crafts tags, The Twinery's baker's twine, and washi tape from Kawaii Goodies.) 
 

I am looking forward to sharing this album once it's completed!

Thanks for visiting today and your next stop on this blog hop is with,

Monique Hanson

But before you go, please please considering donating so Julie can share a brand new smile with all of us soon.  Also, leave a comment to earn 2 entries to win and don't forget to be thankful for your SMILE!

7000

Winner of The Twinery Sampler!

Quick drive-by post to announce the winner of The Twinery Sampler from our Blog Hop a few days ago.  Congrats Lisa!  Please email me at grace[a]gracehesterdesigns[d]com to claim your prize!