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...a spook-tacular haunted house birthday card

hannah, the assistant here for another guest posting.  don't you just love fall?  i love the change in weather, the colors, and pumpkin everything!  pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin spice muffins, i love it all! 

here at the MAMBI art department we love birthdays and we try to make a special card for our birthday people.  one such birthday baby is tonya.  she's one of our wonderful graphic artists and her birthday happens to fall on october 31st!  how cool is that?

since her birthday is especially unique we decided to make a spook-tacular haunted house birthday card with a surprise inside when she opens it.  this is an adaptation of renée's original box template (which you can find under "project sheets" to the right). 

materials:
for top of box:
4 – sheets of the same patterned paper from MAMBI's Bright Coordinates paper pad, cut to 8" x 8"
black and white cardstock for ghosts and house details
white pencil/pen
follow lid template

for bottom of box:
4 – sheets of the same patterned paper from MAMBI's Bright Coordinates paper pad, cut to 8" x 12"
black cardstock for doors and windows
follow bottom template

inside box:
strips of coordinating pattern or color paper to write messages on,
tape runner

instructions:
1. assemble box lid and bottom according to templates provided above. 

2. cut house roof-top from black cardstock and adhere to lid of box.  cut out ghosts from white cardstock and color in eyes. adhere to roof-top in a spooky way.  take black cardstock scraps and make a little door and windows for the bottom of the box. use your white pencil/pen to draw in details.

3. take your strips of paper (we xyroned two different patterns back to back) and write your birthday messages but leaving 1/2" at one end of the strip blank so you can adhere the strips to the inside of the box lid.  this is great if you have a lot of people signing one card or have a lot of things to say.  fold your strips of paper in an accordion style so the strips will fit inside the box and will tumble open when the lid is lifted off.  you'll want to fold before your adhere strips to the lid. 

4. if you have empty areas you can add a spooky ghost to the strips to fill in the area. 

hope you are inspired to make a handmade card for your next birthday friend and that you have a safe and fun halloween.  happy halloween!

...the winner is!

the winner of this week's giveaway is lorraine m.!  she'll be receiving a taste of our A Kid Like Me™ Christmas collection.  here's what lorraine loves about christmas:

So much fun being a kid and believing in the magic of Christmas! The anticipation and the presents! That looks like a wonderful collection!

congratulations and please email me your street address.  thanks to everyone for leaving a comment and have a safe halloween weekend!

...mambi monday's - giveaway

hello everyone.  if you find yourself walking down the aisles of costco you'll notice that it's already christmas in october.  halloween hasn't even passed yet and we've got holiday cheer up to our ears.  but i'm not complaining because i love christmas. 

today we have a mambi giveaway with selected products from our A Kid Like Me™ Christmas collection.  no matter how old (or young!) you are christmas can be a magical time of the year.  please leave a comment about why you think "it's fun to be a kid like me™ at christmas time" and one winner on friday will be announced to receive a taste of christmas in october.  good luck!

... meet frank

 

everyone hannah the assistant here, long time no post!  can you believe it?  summer has ended and fall is on our doorstep. 

today i’d like to share a project that builds upon the box template that renée shared a while back.  it’s using our awesome ‘Bright Coordinates’ paper pad.  this huge stack of paper is a great go-to pad for basic colors in some awesome patterns.  we’ll be making a frankenstein box that puts us in the mood for halloween. 

supplies:

8 pieces of green paper from the MAMBI ‘Bright Coordinates’ paper pad
12x12” black paper
scrap paper in pink and ivory
scissors
tape
distressing ink + sponge

instructions:

step 1
follow the box template provided.  make two sets of the bottom using green sheets from the pad.  you don’t want to make a top and bottom because we want the halves to sit on top of each other.

step 2
next use the bottom edge of one of your box halves to trace on to your 12x12” black paper.  this will become the hair. 

draw a jagged pattern around the square shape to create the hairline for frank.

step 3
cut along the jagged lines.  score along the traced box shape.  fold down firmly along your score lines making sure the pencil marks are hidden inside.  we want the hair to lay flat on the green box so cut in towards the corners of the scored box, hair to scored box. 

 

use tape runner along the inside edges of the box and attach to the top half of your box.  tape the hair down on all four sides and you might find that you’ll need to cut off more of the hair around the corners of the box.

step 4
tape your two box halves together creating a hinge.  i used white tape so it’s easier to see better but you could also xyron a strip of paper or use clear tape. 

step 5
create the face features using your scrap paper and inking the edges to create depth.  only attach your features to the appropriate box half so frank’s mouth can still open.

 

there you go! 

...a little self reflection

sometimes we need some space and some time to just simply be. if you know anything about me, you know that's a hard lesson for me to learn. so the next time you are feeling like you want to get your mind off of the world and just listen to your thoughts or tune everything out you must visit the lake shrine temple in pacific palisades, ca. it is literally a diamond in the rough. it was dedicated by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1950 and is still impeccable. the grounds include a court that honors the 5 principal religions of the world. it is said that some of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes are enshrined there. and, the temple itself resides on a hilltop that overlooks the lake.

...the winner is

congratulations Nitasha J. you are the lucky winner this week. please email me your street address. after you've received your winnings don't forget to tell me what your favorite sassy product is by sending me an email or commenting on this post.

the giveaway: the entire sassy collection

...a sassy giveaway

ok, so this has got to be the longest it's ever taken me to do a post. i wanted to post this giveaway last week. but, for one reason or another i couldn't get my act together. but, i did a couple of things that i can be proud of so it's not so bad afterall.

 

if you haven't seen our new collection in JoAnn's, then let me be the first to introduce you to sassy. it's bright and fun with a dash of dark gray and black. personally, i LOVE it. it's simply sassy. i know normally i would want to make a card but, for some reason it reminds me of paper lanterns. now, this is not my original idea but, it definitely has the renée spin on it.

my project:

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my tip:
for the insert of the lantern i used a transparency from our black and white specialty pad with transparency (PXT-08). i also used a battery operated votive and a piece of chipboard for the base.

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the giveaway: the entire sassy collection

the catch:
i will pick one winner on friday evening. tell me what have you procrastinated about in the last week and what did you do instead that thing you were really supposed to be doing. after you've recieved you winnings tell me what your favorite product is by sending me an email.

...oh my, it tastes like a smootie

so, we got a lot of awesome presents for our wedding and, i love them all. i did get one of-the-wall thing that i'm not sure what we should do with it. however, the one present that i use everyday is my cuisinart smart stick. please note that i said it's mine. i'm not sure if i'm going to share this one with michael. wow! i have to admit that i love breakfast but i never have the time to eat it and never have the time to make it. besides, i can't eat early in the morning. so, since i got this smart stick i've been making smoothies for breakfast. yum! it takes me less that 10 minutes and in some weird way is fun. and, i can make it early put it in the refrigerator and have it whenever i want; not something you can do with an egg white omelet. i mean, i'm look forward to making these things. so, this morning hannah & i brought in some fruit, yogurt, juice, milk, mason jars (that's how i like to drink my smoothie) and our smart sticks and we made smoothies. they were so good, paige thought they tasted like smoothies. LOL! she's so cute.

don't forget to live creatively and have a safe holiday weekend.

...paper flowers?

i've noticed in the last 2 days that a lot of you have been looking at my past post titled: ...flowers from my paper garden. so, if you are interested in how to make the paper flowers i used for my favors at my wedding reception i thought i would help you out by posting the link here so you wouldn't have to go searching deep into the blog for it.

layering different colors to create a richer palette

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a garden of paper flowers

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rachel and hannah having fun (you can even attach it to a head band as a fun accessory)

...a summer b-day card

summer is almost over and the birthday's have come and gone. this is one of my favorite cards from this summer. i guess because it's different... it is a mobile, a birthday card mobile. which could make any birthday celebration fun. i used the chipboard from our 12x12 scrapbook kits and covered it with cardstock then sanded the edges. it was difficult to align the embroidery floss with the main center circle but, i finally got it. i purposely had 2 distinct sides to the card so whenever it blew in the wind you would see something different. i also used velcro to close the 2 cards on either side of the circle. everything else are stickers from our new sticker collection and some kind words to the birthday person.