Thursday, October 31, 2013

Blog Candy Winner!!

Thank you so much to all of my followers!
Whether you are brand new to
Queen Bee Paper Crafts
or you've been following for a while,
I truly appreciate the time you choose to spend here.

Now is the time a lot of you have been waiting for....
Who won my very first Blog Candy?
Well, Random.Org has spoken and the winner is....


Number 5.
That's Julie!
A more appropriate name would be:
Everything Beautiful by Julie.
Go take a look at her work.  
You'll immediately see what I'm talking about!

Huge congrats Julie, I just need your mailing address
and you'll be getting your candy ASAP.
Since you are also a follower on Facebook,
you'll be getting the entire haul.
Horray!!

I look forward to growing my blog even more in the coming months.  You, my followers, are going to be instrumental in that.  I really enjoy reading your comments...and I'd love to know if there is anything that you would like to see me add in future posts.

Thanks to all who entered my Blog Candy drawing.  I hope to have more in the near future.  So, if you didn't win this time you'll get another shot.  Just make sure to keep checking back!





How to improve your photos

 I have been thrilled to be on the Design Team at
from the moment Lisa invited me.
The challenge this month has made me even happier to be there!
It gave me the final push to do something I've been wanting to do for quite some time and just hadn't gotten around to it.

Our challenge this month:
My craft room -- Construct a lightbox

The challenge is broken down into different parts.  They are:

Challenge Part A:
Do some online research about creating a handmade lightbox & decide which design will best suit you & your needs.  Use your research as a guide/reference & remember to give credit in your challenge post.


Challenge Part B:  
Create your lightbox; taking step-by-step photos as you go. Remember to explain each step with how you are putting it together until you have completed your project. It would also be a good idea to include a list of the supplies you have used.


Challenge Part C:  
1) Take a photo of one of your designs without the lightbox as you would have done before you created it. This is your 'before' photo.
2) Take another photo of the same design but this time inside your lightbox. This is your 'after' photo.

Challenge Part D: 
Explain your experience including: 
1) Has the lightbox helped you?  If so, how?
2) Are you using the lightbox inside the house or outside?
3) Are you using lights?  If so, what kind?
4) Tell us two tips or tricks about creating or using a lightbox.

I started this challenge in my usual place...
YouTube!
My search turned up a fantastic video by Pam Sparks.  You can see her video here.  The part that sold me on this design is the fact that it folds flat for storage.  Awesome, right?

Here are the step by step photos of the construction of my lightbox.

Supplies I had to purchase:
2- clamp on work lights: $6.47 each = $12.94
2- 5' lengths of 1/2" PVC pipe: $2.82 each = $5.64
4- 1/2" PVC end caps: $.27 each = $1.08
4- 1/2" PVC elbows: $.31 each = $1.24
4- 1/2" PVC t-connectors: $.24 each = $.96
1- sheet white poster board: $.50
2- Sylvania Daylight 23 w (100w replacement) light bulbs: $9.98 

Items I had on hand:
Tape measure, sharpie, pipe cutter (they cost about $8) spring clamps, white fabric (1/2 yard will be more than enough)

The total cost including estimating for the pipe cutter ($8), clamps ($2), and fabric ($2.50) is:  $44.84.  You can cut the PVC with a saw that you already have and save the cost of the pipe cutter.  Large paper binders will work in place of the spring clamps.

You will need to cut the PVC into the following lengths:
4 @ 15"
4 @ 12"
4 @ 1 1/2"

Using a pipe cutter is really simple.  You can see a video on how to use one here.  Note that this video does show cutting copper tubing but it is exactly the same technique for PVC. 

After you have all of the lengths cut, you simply assemble the lightbox in the following order:

Place elbows onto each end of a 15" piece of PVC.

Add 1 1/2" pieces into each of the elbows.

Place t-connectors onto each of the 1 1/2" pieces.

Put 15" pieces into the t-connectors.

Repeat those steps until you have a complete rectangle.

Insert the 12" pieces into the open holes of each of the t-connectors.  Also, push the end caps onto the 12" pieces.  These give a nice smooth foot to your lightbox and will help prevent scratching any table tops.


Since the pieces are just snugged together and not glued in any way, the 12" legs will swing down.  The light box is now completely flat and ready for storage.  This is the feature of the design that really sold me!

You can see here that I've just leaned the sheet of poster board up against the back bar of the PVC frame.  The work lights are clamped onto chairs.

I draped the white fabric over the PVC frame and used the spring clamps to keep in taut.

I was amazed at how simple it was to put this entire thing together!
I spent about an hour or so from start to finish...not counting the shopping time.  Even more amazing is the difference it makes in my photos.  Below you can see the before and after.

In this photo, I've used my previous method of indoor photography.  That consisted of white cloth draped on foam core lit with a very bright floor lamp directed straight at the card.  Not good.  I was constantly having to heavily edit the photos to get the color correct.
This is exactly the same card photographed in my brand new lightbox.  The only editing I've done to either picture is to crop them.  The color in this photo, by the way, is what the card looks like in person!
Now, for the final part of the challenge:
Having this lightbox is going to make my posts so much easier because the amount of time I have to spend editing my pictures will be cut dramatically.  Since I live in central Indiana and winter is quickly approaching, I'll be using this indoors.  I did have to search a little bit at Lowe's (my favorite hardware store) for the correct lights.  Pam made a point of mentioning that the light bulbs were "daylight."  I found loads of cool white bulbs but the selection of daylight is rather limited.  In all honesty, I've not tried any other type of lights with my lightbox so I can't say if they make that much difference.  All I do know for certain is that I'm over the moon crazy for the results this current set up has delivered.  I don't plan on changing a thing!

We hope you will be joining us for this month's challenge at
The difference a good lightbox can make to your photography and blog posts will astonish you.

As a huge bonus, there is a prize of $20 (Australian) that you can use at any online craft store you choose!  Just think of the digis you could get...or the awesome embellishments you could find.  Get to looking around for the lightbox that will work best for you.  You'll be so happy that you did.  I sure am!!

If you're a Facebooker, make sure to check out the Dreamtime Designs FB page.  We'd love to have you join us and discuss how your project is going.  You can come by with any questions you have about how we've made our own lightboxes too.  You'll find us here.
 

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Stamp 'n Doodle Halloween Challenge

Today begins a new challenge at
This week we want to see your Halloween projects.

For my project, I decided to make a pillow box for some Trick or Treat goodies.  The image I used is called "Milady."
I've colored her with my ProMarkers.
The pillow box was cut using the Cricut Tags, Bags, Boxes & More 2 cartridge.


The papers are all Recollections.  The gem stickers are from the dollar bin at Michaels.  The ribbon is from my stash.

You can find this project in the following challenges:

Going Grey with Scrap-Creations -- Halloween
Loves Rubberstamps -- Halloween
Try It On Tuesdays -- Halloween
2 Creative Chicks -- Halloween
Sparkles Monthly Challenges -- Halloween
Kaboodle Doodles -- Anything goes Halloween
Love to Create -- Halloween
The Paper Shelter -- Halloween

I hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween.  Make sure to link up your new Halloween project at Stamp 'n Doodle.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Just Inspirational Challenges & Delicious Doodles

All of us on Team B at
would like to thank everyone that joined us for our Brads challenge.  What a simple embellishment and yet so many great ways to use them!
We really have some talented folks entering our challenges...hope to see you all back this week and lots of new faces, too.

For this week, our theme is
Kraft paper

Our fabulous sponsor is

The lucky winner will be able to select some of the coolest digis available!  The variety at Delicious Doodles is incredible.  If you're looking for something a bit edgier, you'll love their images.  There are also some very feminine ones.  I think everyone will be able to find something that suits their fancy.

This week, I've really stepped out of my usual comfort zone and attempted to do something a bit Steampunk.  I'm not real familiar with the style so if I failed miserably, please be kind with your remarks!


This hot little Mama's name is Steampunk Sally and she looks like she has a "Take no prisoners" kind of attitude.  My kinda' chick!



Since our theme is Kraft, I printed and colored the image on Kraft from Paper Temptress.  It is the Colored Brown Bag Kraft that I've recently become addicted to using for coloring.

The paper used for the clock and the dry embossed mat at the bottom of the card are also from Paper Temptress.  It is the Eggplant Brown Bag.  I love the texture the sanding gives the embossed mat.  Since it is kraft core, it really adds a lot of visual interest.


In the photo above, you can see a bit of the dimension from the skull and cross bones.  I printed the image on white paper as well as the kraft.  The skull and cross bones was covered with a thin layer of Glossy Accents and fussy cut after it had dried completely.  It was then just paper pieced onto the colored kraft.


I used is a Tim Holtz sentiment stamp that fits Sally's attitude perfectly.
"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting new discoveries."
Love that!!
The quote is actually from A. A. Milne,
most famous for "Winnie the Pooh."

Other supplies used for this card:
Coloring medium: ProMarkers
Paper for card base: Bazzill
Designer Paper: DCWV Tattered Time stack
Charm, gears and clock hands: Michael jewelry dept.
Rustic twine: Etsy

Everyone at Just Inspirational Challenges is excited to see your new creations using kraft paper this week.  Good luck to all that join us!!

Thanks so much for spending some time with me today.
I'd love to read your comments!


Monday, October 28, 2013

Created with Love Challenges #64

Thanks to everyone who joined us last week for the Halloween Blog Hop at Created with Love Challenges!
If you submitted a project, make sure you go take a peek to see if you were one of our lucky winners.

Today begins a new challenge and the theme is always a huge crowd pleaser....
Anything Goes

Our sponsor this week is

Stamp 'n Doodle
The winner will receive 2 images of their choice.

My card was made for Operation Write Home so I kept it very clean and simple.  Since the number of "guy" cards are usually in short supply, I decided to use the Stamp 'n Doodle image called "Made it."  The fact that we're in the midst of the World Series here in the USA made this image very timely.



I kept the colors to just aqua, white and black.  It feels very masculine and I love the way it turned out.  The aqua paper is from Papertrey ink and I just used my Scor-pal to make the grid pattern on it.  That's such an easy way to make your own tone on tone patterned paper.

You can find this card in the following challenges:

Challenges 4 Everybody -- Anything goes
Color Me Creative -- Dudes, guys, masculine
Bloggers Challenges -- Black, white and a splash of color
Kitty Bee -- Black, white and one other color

All of us on the Design Team at Created with Love Challenges really look forward to seeing a huge array of projects for our Anything Goes challenge.  Have fun making your projects!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

Sunday, October 27, 2013

My first Bestie

My dear friend Julie inspired me to use this incredible Bestie image by Sheri Baldy.  Julie's cards, tags, canvasses, etc. are always so beautiful it's impossible for me to look at any of her work and not come away inspired and awed.  If you've never had a chance to take a look at her blog, you really should treat yourself to a visit!

I'm still trying to muddle my way through designing projects that are really blinged out.  The amount of time I spend deciding where to place the embellishments is a bit embarrassing.  I'm just so darned indecisive.  Hubby made me feel much better about it when he reminded me about how long it used to take me to do a floral arrangement when I was a new florist about 22 years ago.  Today, I can get finished with most floral designs in pretty quick time; so I just need to give myself a decade or 2 with cards and I'll be just fine....hopefully it won't take that long.

I have to say that the amount of time spent on this card was worth it.  I'm very happy with the results.  Starting with a really sweet image definitely helped!


I had so much fun coloring this one!  She's just so girly.  I had to go with all pinks to play that up.  The little feather embelly I put in her hair makes me think of a Flapper girl from the 1920's.




The ingredients for this card are:
Coloring medium:  ProMarkers
Papers: Papertrey Ink, Bazzill, DCWV Lace & Linen
Feather pick: Hobby Lobby
Flowers: Ebay
Pearl stickers: Recollections
Keyhole embelly:  Tim Holtz
Rhinestone ribbon: Michaels
Pink ribbon: My stash
White glitter chipboard accents: Colorbok
Paper doily: A stay at a Ramada Inn in Bowling Green, KY
Ink used on doily: Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet

Thanks so much for stopping by to take a look at my very first Bestie card.  There are sure to be more in the very near future!!


Saturday, October 26, 2013

Hiding in My Craft Room with a Critter

It's Saturday so you know what that means....
the time has come for a new challenge at

We were all blown away by the incredible entries in the Color It! challenge last week.  Thanks so much to everyone that joined us and we hope to see you all back with new projects for this week.
We would like to see what you can do with this theme:
Use a Critter
How much fun is that?  There are so many possibilities for this one....Thanksgiving turkeys, Christmas cuddly creatures, a layout with you pooch or kitty....anything with a critter.

This week one lucky winner will receive the Cricut Lite cartridge:
Wildlife





I've decided to use a dragonfly as my critter.
Maybe not too cute but still a critter; and I think they are really kind of magical.


That great silver paper you see is from Paper Temptress.  It's Patricia's Mirrored Reflective Cardstock and I'm crazy about this stuff!  It is so much shinier than it shows in the photos.  Plus, as you can see, it dry embosses like a dream.



For this card, I used my Cricut and the Home Decor cartridge.  The dragonfly was cut at 2 1/2" and glued to the Mirrored cardstock.  After the glue dried, I ran it through my Sizzix Texture Boutique.  I've kept this card A2 sized and very low in profile so it could be sent in with my next shipment of cards for Operation Write Home.  The only embellishments I added were the very small blue brads.

You can find this card in the following challenges:

A Creative Romance -- Add metal
Chocolate, Coffee, and Cards -- Bugs and little critters
Crafty Hands -- Anything goes
4 Krafty Girls -- Anything goes
Delightful Challenges -- Winged things
Southern Girls -- Shine on
Digistamps 4 Joy -- Embossing

What kinds of critters are we going to be finding in this week's challenge?  It should be very interesting!  All of us on the Design Team are excited to see your new creations.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!




Friday, October 25, 2013

Crafty Catz Spots and Stripes Challenge

I have to sadly tell you that today is the final day I will have the fun and honor of serving as a Guest Designer at
Crafty Catz.


However, that also means that I will be able to participate in the challenges over there again. They have some super sponsors and I look forward to being able to trying to win some of those yummy prizes.

This week, for example, the sponsor is:



Crimson Cloud
and the prize will be 3 packs of diecuts.  Very nice!

The theme for this week's challenge is:
Spots & Stripes

When I heard what the theme was, I knew right away I wanted to use Christmas Boo from Lacy Sunshine.  Her little sleeper is covered with polka dots and that great patchwork hat is full of stripes....perfect!  Here's a quick peek:



I've added her into the Scrolled Holiday Snowglobe also from Lacy Sunshine.  This pic really shows the embossing I did on the top and bottom of the globe.  I used a Versamark marker to fill in the areas I wanted the embossing powder.   Then, I set it with my heat gun and repeated those steps 2 more times to really give it some dimension.



This is the first time I attempted to do wood grain with my ProMarkers.  I'm pretty pleased with the result.  It was just a matter of playing with the different shades of browns and lots of layering.  The Ultra-fine Nib tips are an absolute must for me...they made the grain lines so much easier.  If you use ProMarkers, I highly recommend getting some of the Nibs!



You can see that, after I fussy cut the snowglobe, I used some mounting tape to make it pop just a bit off of the green mat that I dry embossed.



This final photo shows Boo in all her Christmas glory.  I've added very few embellishments to the card because the papers are so very busy. 

The ingredients of this card are:
Papers: Papertrey Ink and Recollections
Red Lace: The Paper Studio
Embossing powder: Recollections Opaque Bling
Baker's twine: Etsy
Taffeta and gold ribbons: my stash
Little gold bells: my Mom (Thanks!)

You can find this card in the following challenges:

Timeless Tuesday -- Fussy cutting
I would like to, once again, thank the lovely ladies at
for the fun I've had this past month!
It's been a pleasure to help provide inspiration pieces for your challenges.

 I always appreciate time that people spend visiting my blog.
Please leave a comment, if you have a minute or two.


Thursday, October 24, 2013

Redonkadoodles Thank you cards

Recently my Dad had to be hospitalized (a couple of times.)
He just couldn't say enough wonderful things about all of the people that helped care for him.  He was at St. Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.  First, he was on the 4th floor.  That stay lasted for about a week.  His second stay was on the 6th floor and that one was just shy of 2 weeks.  Needless to say, he got to know some of the techs, nurses, housekeeping staff, etc quite well.

Since I don't live in Georgia, I wasn't able to see him much.  Although hubby and I did surprise Dad with one short visit.  While we were there, it was very easy to see why he was so crazy about the people caring for him.  They were all fantastic....and even put up with his weird sense of humor.  Not an easy task!

I wanted to make some thank you cards for him to send to the staff.  But, given Dad's sense of humor, they couldn't be just any cards.  I decided on this hilarious image by Redonkadoodles.


I have to say that is so my Dad's personality!

Here are a few more pics of the cards that I made for him to send the fine folks at St. Joe's:




I hope the staff enjoys the cards and knows how very much our family truly appreciates their dedication!!

You can find this card in the following challenges:


Thanks so much for stopping by today.
I would love to read your comments!


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Stamp 'n Doodle Black and White

Thanks so much to everyone that was able to participate in last week's Anything Goes challenge at
It's always fun to see the incredible array of entries in an Anything Goes challenge....there are so many truly talented crafters out there!

Today begins another fun theme at Stamp 'n Doodle.  This week we would like to see your projects in
Black & White.
So please limit your colors to just Black & White but you can use traditional flesh tones on your images as well.

Here's my card for this week:


I decided to use Lynne's image called "I dressed all by myself" and cropped it down to just that sweet little face.  Doesn't she look like she would have a major princess attitude?  I love it!

The incredible silver paper I used (I consider silver to be a white metallic...my own artistic license) is from Paper Temptress.  It is called Mirrored Reflective Cardstock and I can not tell you how much I love this stuff!!  It has a great weight to it so I thought I'd try embossing it.  The results are even better than I would have hoped for....it's gorgeous!


This card can be found in the following challenges:

Cuttlebug Mania -- Black & white
Crafting When We Can -- Make it sparkle

I've made this card for Operation Write Home.  Since it is vitally important to never use any sort of loose glitter on their cards, this mirrored paper is a great way to add some big time bling.  I have a feeling I'm going to be using it quite often for OWH cards.  It's just so pretty and very unique!

All of us at Stamp 'n Doodle look forward to seeing your Black & White projects this week.  We know this can be a bit out of the comfort zone for some but that's what makes it a challenge.  Have fun with it!!

Thanks so much for taking the time to visit me today!


Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Add your direct link in Blogger comments

A while back, I had typed up a quick set of instructions for adding your direct blog link in comments for my Design Team 'sisters' at Dreamtime Designs Craft Challenges.
I thought I'd share them with you today.
Keep in mind that I am by no means a computer expert!
I found a super easy how-to while doing a bit of searching.
If I can ever find the website where I originally saw this,
I will be sure to provide the proper credit.

This will only work on blogs that allow for HTML in the comment section, so I always hit "Preview" before I publish the comment.  Most blogs do.  Some don't.  Always check if you plan on using HTML.

The basic format is this:
<a href="Your blog's URL">Text you want to show</a>
**I've changed the color of the text so it's a bit simpler to follow the instructions.  It's not necessary when you are doing your own codes.**

This will show as: Queen Bee Paper Crafts in the comment.
It will be a clickable link directly to my blog.
<a href="http://queenbeepapercrafts.blogspot.com">Queen Bee Paper Crafts</a>

It would still link to my blog, but Roberta would show in the comment, if I were to type it like this:
<a href="http://queenbeepapercrafts.blogspot.com">Roberta</a>

To direct people to my Facebook page, I use this:
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/QueenBeePaperCrafts">Follow me on Facebook</a>


So you put the full URL to your blog between the quote marks.  Between the > < symbols you put the text just as you would like it to display in the comment.

I have mine typed in a document that I have saved on my computer.  That way it's simple to just copy and paste it into the comments that I leave.  There's just no way I'd ever remember all of the little symbols on my own!

I hope this has made sense to you and that you've found it helpful.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
As I said above I'm no computer expert but I'll do my best to help you.

Thanks for stopping by today.
If you have a minute, leave me a comment....and I'd love to see your link included in it!


Monday, October 21, 2013

Created with Love Challenges Halloween Hop

 This week is my first week on the Design Team at
Created with Love Challenges.
Actually, I wasn't scheduled to officially begin until the first challenge in November.  When I saw that there's a Halloween Blog Hop this week, I asked if I could jump in early.  Chris and Dawn are such dolls
they said yes, of course.


It's so exciting to tell you that have 3 wonderful sponsors to help us celebrate our hop!  Make sure to check out their shops...loads of fun stuff in each one of them.

They are offering a 7 Digi Prize Pack to 1 lucky winner!

 They are offering 6 images to 1 lucky winner!

They are offering 3 images to 1 lucky winner!!

If you hopped in from Rachel's then you are in the right place.  If you've just happened by here, please be sure to start at the beginning....you don't want to miss anything.

Here is what I have created this week for the Halloween Hop:




Instead of doing a card, I decided to decorate the bowl that we'll be using on Halloween to pass out candy to all of our little neighborhood goblins.  The image is just attached with some super cute baker's twine so the bowl will be ready to use again after the Trick or Treaters have all finished.  No pesky adhesive to worry about cleaning up....love that!



I was lucky enough to receive this adorable digi from Paper Pretties to play with for our hop.  His name is Jack and he's pretty darned cute.  Right?!  I sure think so!

The ingredient used to make this project were:
My ProMarkers
Papers: Recollections
Baker's twine: Etsy
Buttons: Hobby Lobby

You can find this project in the following challenges:

Anything But a Card -- Orange and black
Catered Crops -- Orange is the new black
Hobbycutz -- Home decor, anything but a card
Totally Gorjuss -- String

Some of our fab Design Team members are offering up 
Blog Hop Candy; so be sure to Hop to all them, become a
 follower, and leave a comment!  You can find my candy by simply clicking the photo of it at the top of this column.

Now that you've reached the end of our Halloween Hop, go get your own project ready!  We can't wait to see what you share with us this week at Created With Love Challenges!!

Here is the master Hop list:
And now you're here at the last visit.

Once you have HOPPED to all the blogs above be sure to link up your Halloween creation to be in the drawing  to win 1 of the 3 prizes mentioned above from our wonderful sponsors! Don't forget that some of the ladies will be offering Blog Candy....so be sure to become a follower of each team member.

Thanks so much for visiting today!
I always appreciate the time you spend here and would love to read a comment from you.

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