CHA-cha-CHA

welcome gypsies and happy CHA week! 

for those of you that are new to the caravan, CHA stands for Craft & Hobby Association and this week in IL is the summer show. all this week companies will be sneak peeking their new products, bloggers will be frantically typing their reviews, and many of us will be strutting our stuff - showing off our projects for our design teams.

as a very proud member of authentique's design team, i got to send a big box of projects to the show. and this week i'll be featuring them here on the blog!

*** CHA-cha-CHA CONTEST ALERT ***

visit the caravan and leave a comment to get entered in a fabulous drawing! 

the more you visit and comment, the more chances you have to win!

the prize package includes 6x6 authentique paper bundles and some nifty extras to inspire your own creations! 

the winner will be announced on july 22!

so are you ready gypsies? then away we go!

the book of faeries

a fairy sighs in a secret garden, tucked away

 with trinkets and keepsakes and stolen treasures.

kept company by forest friends

knowing someone somewhere says "yes, i believe in faeries!"

~  materials  ~

"lively" paper collection - authentique

paper mache book box

tiny treasures from tim holtz, maya road, and marion smith for prima

by the sea

welcome gypsies and happy friday!

today's project features something old, something new, and a little something blue! as the first post for authentique's "earth friendly friday" i am thrilled to have created something coll and new from old stuff!

poor sad cigar box. this was a left-over from my local scrapbook store. they didn't want it anymore and i knew i would be able to do something with it. three years later and i finally am! i used authentique's glory collection for this project because is just screams summer!

i wanted to celebrate summer early, so i created a shadowbox. after cutting a window in the box's cover, i lined the inside and covered the outside.

then i fancy-cut my waves, pennants, lighthouse and friendly shark fin, as well as a beautiful mermaid and pieced them together. some distress ink around the edges adds a little accent and sets the paper layers off nicely

finishing touches are made from lots of sea shells in different sizes, twine and crepe ribbon, and some die-cut spirals cut from an old cardboard box.

finally the feet. i wanted something really unique and beachy, so i went with smooth rocks 

- not from the beach but don't tell.

so an old cigar box, rocks, shells, and some shipping cardboard combine with one of our newest collections into a brand new fabulous something. i hope you are inspired to upcycle something today!