WOYWW and Maya Road and Washi Tapes Giveaway!

Okay so there's sorta  a picture of my desk here, cleaner than it normally is, but only because I'm leaving this weekend and it needs to be sorta clean. haha If you haven't peaked at a few desks already head on over and check them out and share your own if you like.

Okay, so after much deliberation, I decided to finally make the leap and start a Facebook page to make sharing updates, tutorials, videos and pictures with everyone. I want it to be a place where other crafters can share their blogs and general creativity! In my head it sounds awesome. I mean there's only so much sharing we can do on here to and from one another. So, I'd love to have you come over and "Like" my page. 

HERE IS MY CRAFT DONKEY FACEBOOK PAGE

If you would be also add the page to your interest lists. That way you don't miss a thing! Thanks!

In the efforts of trying to get some of you to come over and like it I've decided to offer a mini giveaway. From those new likes. Then Next Monday I will be giving away a few Maya Road Goodies!!!

as well as some Washi Tape goodies from one of my favorite Etsy shop Le paper Cafe!! You can also follow Le Paper Cafe on Facebook.  The tapes pictures are not the ones you will rec. just an examaple, you will have a choice, however these are in a great spring color.. haha. 

 I haven't decided how many winners there will be just yet, but I'll base that on how many people come over and like the page. So feel free to share the page on your Facebook pages, your blogs, heck anywhere you think crafters may want to come and share their work with others. I just opened up the page to be view-able today so...anyone and everyone who likes it over the nest week will be entered.

So, thank you in advance for liking the page and for sharing with others who might want to share their creations with like minded crafters. 

Masculine Card & the Loot

I curbed my shopping for some time. However, I have made a few exceptions. Maya Road has been offering an amazing deal of almost 75% off their seasoned (my way of saying last season-and older) products. I've been luckily enough to catch it the two times they have done it and rec. a large box at discounted shipping for a fraction of the cost! I love these boxes. Each one has been completely different from the others! This is the 2nd box- unfortunately I wasn't able to catch a picture of the first box contents before putting them all away when re-doing the craft room. I just love Maya Road. The fun thing is you never know when they will have 50 boxes or 20 to offer- it's a fun surprise. They just announce it on their Facebook page you can find HERE Then follow the link and buy a box. Like I said I just adore the two hauls I've made thus far and looove a good discount!

If you get a chance head over there and let them know I sent you! They not only offer great motivation all month long but also some inside scoops on purchasing fun boxes full of goodies like this! Stay tuned after the reveal of my new space to win some of these great goodies!

Last night I made this card for a guy at work celebrating his anniversary with the company. Thought I would share it. 

Christmas Advent Calendar *PLUS A GIVEAWAY

This idea started with finding something through a friend who sells antiques and other things. My original thought was to turn it into a Halloween Haunted House. However, I didn't receive this house until after Halloween. I counted the spaces wondering what I could make of it now. There were exactly 25 spaces!!! I looked through my Christmas papers, thinking of an advent calendar type of thins,  trying to find something already in my stash that would work... I sadly state that I had 3 different brands with the theme of "25 days of Christmas". Insane I know. I have issues. Good news, I only used previously owned items on this house!!!

Christmas items have been on my mind lately. Trying to get things in order BEFORE the day itself. I do not think I will keep this project- think I'll sell it... not too sure yet. I love it, I do. It's just we don't really use advent calenders. 

A Pick'N Time is where I found this great house at one heck of a steal! Check out their site. They accept paypal and come up with all sorts of odd and unusual things. This is the BEFORE SHOT!

How'd that get in there?!?!?! Hee Hee

Go Steelers! By the grace of God they won last night!

Okay back to business. A minute to say something about this collection! It's just amazing. I love it, so many possibilities and things you can do with it. Ranging from cards, layouts, mini books, etc. 

In the spirit of making things and giving things. I've decided to offer this lovely collection pictured here as a giveaway!!! One lucky winner will win this great collection December 10th! Contest closes 12/05/12.

All you have to do is share a Holiday project of yours. Anything and everything can be used. Layout, card, off the page project. Simply add your project off in the sidebar. I can't wait to me motivated by all of your creative wonderfulness.

This is the lovely collections I used. I included a bit of Tim Holtz, and some inks, however all papers used were from this Simply wonderful line that I happened to have on hand- knowing I loved it! They were just waiting for a home. Lucky for me I also had purchased the cardstocks stickers as well. 

To check out other great creations check out Simple Stories blog!
http://simplestories.typepad.com/simple_stories/

Okay onto the project!

I own quite a few cake molds, that I just adore for crafting purposes. I've used these bricks many times. this time I used them on a white play dough!  That's right play dough! I keep this on hand as you never know when you will need it. I used the mold and ran a rolling pin over it and then turned it horizontal and used it again to make a special looking brick design.

Aren't these just adorable. I let them dry for about 24 hrs. Then dry painted over them with a mixed red and brick red paint to get just the right color. I cut 4 - 2 x 3 inch pieces  to create a fire place chimney. 

I then cut lots of random pieces from the Simple Stories Collection. At this point I did not adhere anything. I just began to ink and cut pieces for each area of the the house. Trying out different pieces to see where I wanted them and how I liked the look.

At this point I struggled with whether or not to paint the house or to use tissue tape or paper or to leave the wood showing through. I began moving on with other pieces while trying to figure out the character I wanted the house to take on. 

I cut many pieces and inked them up to use on the house. 

I went ahead and glittered little pieces here and there that I knew I'd want glittered and would be easier to do so before they were adhered. 

Anything I had hand cut out from the papers that I wanted to use as an embellishment I added a layer of Mod Podge to both sides to make it more sturdy. For this adorable mini banner I coated it twice for added protection. 

Here is my custom play dough and foam chimney, as well as a custom wreath and tree I made. Day 1 is shown as well in the top section of the house. The wreath was simple enough cut a piece of pre-snowed wreath I got for a dollar at Dollar General some time ago, made it smaller, added a bow, then adhered a sticker behind it to show through.  The little trees you see here were originally part of much larger trees, I just cut the tips off the tops of them to make miniature trees.  

I made sure that each section of this calendar had something POPPED off the page. You may not be able to see them all there, but I love how each box had something special and unique to offer.  

I really wish I could better show all of the layers and pieces that pop, bend and move in these sections.  

Love all the little pieces I was able to incorporate here. Like behind the 24 stamp number is another piece of play dough that I also ran through an embossing folder and allowed to dry then inked up. Adds a little something to it. 

I still have some little village people that I plan to add to it as well as some small gifts into this top section. However, I'm still working on them. 

A little Hambly Screen Prints added to the top section. just love those deer.  

In the 25 box, I layered the Christmas Tree as well as the presents to add more depth to that box. I also glittered both tree's stars. 

Thanks for looking and Sharing! When you share be sure to drop me a comment letting me know!

Dog Days of Winter Link Up

Triple the FUN- A Card, A Layout, A Giveaway!

I am lucky enough to know some amazing creative women and men in real life and online. One of the women I met last year through Mary Kay recently became a consultant for Silhouette. SOOO excited for her. Her designs are super cute. I don't own a Silhouette just yet but now after getting to play with some of the fun things it can do it's definitely on my short list for Christmas. After speaking with Emilee she was so nice and offered to send me some samples to play with. So excited to get these goodies in the mail. 

Before I share my creations I wanted to let Emilee tell you a little about herself and what drew her to the Silhouette.  

I fell in love with the Silhouette Cameo last Thanksgiving when my mother was online Christmas shopping for my sister. We had both spoken about how much we would like a Cricut for our fun arts and crafts projects and her scrapbooking hobby. After stumbling across a couple blogs that featured the Silhouette Cameo as a customizable die-cutting machine, we knew this was probably the device for which we had been looking. It had software that not only worked on a Mac computer, but we could pick and choose which designs to purchase (versus spending $40 on a single cartridge for only one needed design). We LOVED the idea of having an iTunes-like store to purchase any and all designs needed for our projects!

My favorite feature of the Silhouette Cameo is the sketch tool. I love to draw and doodle, and it's so fun to watch the machine recreate all of my designs quickly and easily. It is an easy way to make all of my projects have the look and feel of being hand-crafted, yet all the work was done for me! I think the beauty of a hand-crafted design is in the details and the Silhouette Cameo does this perfectly.

I am also a neat freak... some call it OCD... I call it being an organizational diva! Either way, I have enjoyed finding new ways to use my Silhouette Cameo to organize my office and my craft room. I think one of my favorite designs I created for the Silhouette Online Store thus far is my "pocket folder" ( http://www.silhouetteonlinestore.com/v2/viewShape.aspx?id=33215 ). Using one 12 x 12 inch piece of paper, you can create a double pocket folder (with a business card slot!!) to fit a half letter size piece of paper. Think of all of the fun organizing you can do with your pretty patterned paper!!

I have loved using my Silhouette Cameo as much as I have LOVED designing for it and the crafters who use them. I have a passion for making things look beautiful, so thank you to all of you have purchased my designs or just took the time to share your inspiration with me. You are helping me make my dreams come true!

Anyone who is interested in checking out more items Emilee has designed you can check them out HERE

Here are some things I created this past weekend with this wonderful designs. They were so much fun to play with. Check out the end of this post to see how you can WIN them!!

I have to admit I had never seen any pieces made from the Silhouette before. I loved this craft card piece. There were doodled dots on it that I poked through to give it more dimension

   Then I used my Pan Pastels to share in different areas of the card followed by the edges. Love how it turned out and was perfect for a card front!

I just love how it turned out!! So quick and easy.

Hard to believe but it's been nearly 4 months since I have sat down and created a full layout. I'm not sure what's been into me. However when I saw these adorable pocket folders I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them. I wanted to show how versatile they really are. I had some thoughts of turning them into a mini journal- because how cute would that be? But then decided on using one on a layout. I couldn't be happier with how perfect the size was for this idea.  I did a layout about my oldest pup Kujo- She's 13 now and doesn't do too much but for 12 years has been a huge part of our family. I wanted to showcase memories from each person in the family without overpowering the layout. 

This is the original newspaper ad I responded to to adopt her. 

Here's the super fun part- the folder. I adhered the pictures and some strips of paper to the front. Then adhered the back of the folder to my layout. 

On the inside I inked up all of the edges and added some fun papers as well as journaling pieces for each family to write their favorite memories. These folders work just stinking wonderfully. I love how I can add more pictures or as much journaling as I like while conserving space on the layout. 

Thanks for looking at my creations and a HUGE thank you to Emilee for donating them to me. She was also generous enough to donate TONS of extras for me to giveaway on the BLOG. 

It's super easy to win. Even easier to up your odds of winning 1 of 2 packages!

1.   Simply head over to Emilee's Facebook page Emilime Designs and "Like" her page. Then leave a comment on her wall letting her know Craft Donkey sent you and which of the items below or items in her shop you'd just love to work with. HERE is the link to her Facebook page. Visit her shop HERE

2. Follow # 1 then for a 2nd entry into the drawing share this blog post on your own blog or on your Facebook page, then leave me a link in the comments section below. If your not on Facebook/or have a blog or already a follower, just let me know in a comment below and you'll be entered! 

Deadline for this grand giveaway is Wednesday, October 17th, 2012! 

Hmmm that's not all folks!! Since it's the month of one of the funnest Holidays of all time. I'll also be throwing in a surprise grab bag of items worth $20!!