Young Crafters Blog Hop

Welcome to the Young Crafters Unite Favorite Things Blog Hop! If you're just stumbling through, I highly recommend you start at the main page to get some background on the hop, and then click on through to the end. I'm sure you'll see some great things!

If you're coming in order, you should have come to my page from New Ideas, a blog by Isha. I hope you looked around for awhile. She's got some gorgeous yet simple cards using border punches, rainbow colors, and twine. I love her work!

For those of you who are new to my blog, I'm a young crafter because I am, in fact, young. I'm 26, a relatively newlywed substitute teacher married to an airline pilot. We're building a life together in the suburbs of Atlanta, which is far from where we grew up -- I was raised on a cattle ranch in North Dakota, and he was raised in the suburbs of St. Paul, Minnesota. We still visit both frequently, but we save our visits for the spring and summer months, letting us enjoy the north at its best and leave the south at its worst! ;)

{Supplies: Studio Calico May Kit: Lawn Party, Fiskars Threading Water border punch, Marvy Uchida pennant punch, Martha Stewart Holidays Baker's Twine, Recollections kraft cardstock, various gems and pearls, Spellbinders Labels Eight die set, Stampabilities Pigment Ink Pad in Brown, and Unity Stamp Co. Bevy of Butterflies stamp set}

When I read that this would be a favorite things hop, I was a little distressed. How could I pick any small assortment of favorite things? I love this hobby too much to pick favorites! So, I realized I'd have to take a different approach. I picked a favorite person and decided to make a project for her. I chose my cousin Erin, who is starting college in about six weeks. I wanted to make a fun card to greet her shortly after she moved into her dorm at North Dakota State University. I had the Bevy of Butterflies set from Unity Stamp Co. on my desk and realized that the small "Best of Luck" stamp would be perfect for what I was planning. From there, I chose a favorite Studio Calico kit.

I loved this kit because it was full of delightful spring colors without being too heavy on pink, the little banners were a neat embellishment, and there were still some fun neutrals in the kit. Most of all, I loved all the orange in it, too. I decided it was time to let go of the last of my banners, so I snipped them from their toothpicks and punched pennants out of scraps to help fill out the area I intended for my banner. I decided how much of the card I wanted the banner to cover, and cut the black and white handwritten paper to cover that area. I then chose the bottom papers to bring in some color.

I traced around the outside of my Martha Stewart Circle Cutter to get the banner's arch. I had planned to use my Sew Easy to pierce the holes, but it didn't have the turn radius I needed, so I instead poked the holes by hand. I handstitched with brown and white twine, and then added my sentiment. I finished by dressing up some of the banners with my favorite simple, quick embellishment: pearls and gems.

I hadn't planned on having the banner overlap the page, but I loved how it looked when I started laying it down, so I decided to go with it. I think it's going to be really fun for Erin when she receives it, and it will be easy to just send it in a slightly larger envelope.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Please leave a comment letting me know you were here, and remember, commenters on the blog hop have the chance of winning some great prizes ( $20 from Simon Says Stamp, their choice of stamp set from Paper Smooches, or their choice of stamp set from Lawn Fawn)! Also, feel free to stop back in the future to see more cards, layouts, and some home decor projects I've got planned!

Next up on the blog hop: Neat & Tangled, a blog by Danielle Walls! Enjoy the rest of the hop!