Howdy, 2013

I had so much fun Guest Designing this month for Eureka Stamps (you can see all my GDT projects here); their images are so much fun to color, and I liked being able to play with Southwest themes.

For their final challenge of 2012 and their first challenge of 2013, the Eureka Challenge team wants you to use Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue. I designed this card, featuring Eureka's Cactus, while visiting my Mom in Arizona.

Inspiration/Challenges:

1. Eureka Stamps Challenge #20: Recipe
• Old: Metal embellishments (a friend gave Mom a big bag of Western-themed metal embellishments, and she passed few along to me), and jean-patterned paper 
• New: Bright green Liquid Pearls, patterned papers, and star ribbon
• Borrowed: Mom's gecko punch
• Blue: Blue patterned papers & blue thread (machine-stitched)
2. Hiding in my Craft Room #78: Freestyle
3. Jellypark Challenge: Old & New
4. Card Crafter's Circle: Anything Goes
5. Charisma Cardz: Anything Goes
6. Paper Play: Out with the old in with the new
7. Shelly's Images: Out with the old in with the New
8. Great Impressions: Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting,

Delightful Dancin'

Wow, Christmas is only a week away! I think I have all our gifts and cards together ... but I always find myself making a few extra things at the last minute.

I couldn't resist making a penny-rocker with Rosa, one of my favorite images from Mo's Digital Pencil.

I'm entering this into the current "D is for..." challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil Too. My Ds are Dots, Dancer, and Doily.

Thank you for visiting,

Christmas Spirit at Eureka Stamps

It's my third challenge as the December Guest Designer at Eureka Stamps, and this week we want to see your Christmas Spirit. I mixed classic with silly with these sweet Holly Doggies:

It's such a silly sentiment, but I couldn't resist! It and the little bone stamps from a polymer set. I stamped them onto a precut tag, added the border with a PITT artist pen, and inked it with Vintage Photo distress ink. I colored the image with Copics and then added texture with the three colors of Flowersoft's Teddy Bear collection, using a ZIG glue pen.


Inspiration/Challenges:

1. Come and Get It Challenges - Anything Christmas
2. Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes 
3. Everybody-Art-Challenge #217 - Anything Goes
4. Here Come the Boys - Anything Goes
5. Lia Stampz Challenge - Winter holidays
6. The Squirrel & the Fox - Christmas 
7. Sunny Challenges - Winter holiday card 
8. Unique Crafters Challenge - Christmas 
9. Visible Image Monthly Challenge - Christmas

 
Hope you'll join in on the "Christmas Spirit" at Eureka Stamps this week. The challenge will end on Dec 23, and we'll be taking a break fro the Christmas Holidays, and then we'll return with a new challenge on the 31st.

Thank you for visiting,

Piling on the Embellishments

click photos to enlarge

Our theme at the Pile It On! Challenge for the month of December is "Pile On The Embellishments," so I used a bunch of long-hoarded embellishments to make this very shiny and fairly heavy card. I cut the matching envelope on my Cricut.

The big tag is an actual gift tag that I saved from last year (it reads, "Nice List... You made it!"), complete with pretty ribbon. The mauve-and-gold Santa ribbon is from my mom's stash.

As I plan to give this card to a family member, I decorated the inside with photos of my dogs in the little plush antlers Mom gave me. The antlers on Percy (our Iguana) and on me were PhotoShopped on! You can see another photo of Allen in his antlers on my post for the OSAAT blog hop.

Inspiration/Challenges:

1. ATCs and Cards with Attitude - Always Anything Goes
2. Aud Sentiments Challenge - Anything goes with seasonal sentiment
3. Card Crafter's Circle - Red, White and Green
4. CCEE Stampers - Santa Claus is coming to town
5. Crafting for all Seasons - Green, red, and glitter/sparkle
6. Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge - Blingtastic
7. Crafty Ribbons - Tag/label big or small
8. Jellypark Challenges - Tag it
9. Pixie Dust Studio - Christmas Traditional Colours
10. Use It Tuesdays - All About Christmas/Hannukah (the tag came with a gift from "Santa" last year, and I've been hoarding the light bulbs & Santa hat brads forever!)

In the "small world" category, on my way home from visiting my parents last week, I sat next to the nicest woman, who ended up being CAKath from Splitcoast Stampers! I told her that I seem to be meeting crafters everywhere, so there must be a lot of us... She replied that there might not so many of us, but we tend to find each other. Isn't that too true! 

This story ties in to Pile It On because we started talking about BCA cards and it ends up that she also made & sent a card to Jennifer Scull from our Design Team! Jennifer has been such an inspiration during the past year, and I'm so pleased that she's going to be coming back as a regular DT member in January. 

Hope you'll join us this month at Pile It On!  Thank you for visiting,

Final OSAAT challenge of the year... and a Blog Hop!

Over at One Stitch at a Time (OSAAT), the challenge blog for the StitchyBear Digital Stamps (SBDS), we're celebrating the end of the year with an easy "Use a Digi" Challenge & Blog Hop! 

If you're hopping along, you should have arrived here from the talented Tracey's blog. Your next stop is the crafty Karen. You can see the entire hop list & rules at OSAAT (because otherwise the next sentence will seem really weird; otherwise, you'll know you'll need it!)

"Lucky Lady/Gent, Let me Lend you a Letter: L."  

Besides collecting letters, be sure to leave a comment on every blog post, including this one, for a chance to win the product we used. I used Christmas Day Tiny Tickets and Christmas Paper VI by Stitchy Stamps to make this Christmas photo album.

My generous mom gave me the die-cut pages, and I covered them with the DP and added Stitckles to the pages (and some liquid pearls to the front).

I ink-distressed the tickets and added color detail with colored pencils & Sakura glaze pens. The precut frames are from Studio Calico (although I did have to trim them a little bit), and I bought them at my favorite craft shop in Arizona, Scraps of Love. I made this for my parents, but I made it while I was visiting them so I put the frames on with re-positional glue, and added photos once I returned home... and then sent the book back to my folks. It went across the country twice! I especially wanted to take photos of my dogs in the little plush antlers Mom gave me. As you can see, they were good sports but weren't too excited about it!

 

I'm entering this into the following fabulous Challenges:
Avadares: Anything with a digi
Bloggers: Holiday Gifts

Just Add Ink: Just add Christmas

Little Miss Muffet Challenges: Christmas Related  
Simon Says Stamp: Your Favorite (2nd Entry) Favorites: Stickles & Pearl Pen
Totally Stampalicious: Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting & for participating in the OSAAT Blog Hop!  Your next stop is the talented Karen.

Sweet Spirals with The Lollipop Ladies

You may remember the Chupa Chups-themed card I made last month, inspired by a challenge at The Lollipop Ladies; Well, I won a GDT spot for their 6oth Challenge! The theme is Candy Canes with the extra challenge of Spirals.

I made a "vintage" Telescoping Card, using some beautiful Graphic 45 papers:

I distressed on the pieces with Vintage Photo distress ink, and coated all the pieces with Creative Medium for a vintage texture. I pulled all the candy-cane-themed paper from my mom's Christmas stash (yeah, I had lots of crafting fun during my visit!) and realized later that it was all (with one possible exception) Graphic 45 brand! 

I added red Stickles and cream Liquid Pearls.

The Lollipop Ladies Challenge #60

Inspiration/Challenges:
The Lollipop Ladies: Candy Canes/Spirals
Card Makin' Mamas: Happy Holidays
Charisma Cardz #49: Christmas Makes
Craftymess Challenge #23: Vintage Christmas
Creative Belli #158: candy/sweets
Fab 'n' Funky Challenge #151: Vintage Christmas
Fat Pages & Cards with Attitude: Always Anything Goes 
Simon Says Stamp: Your Favorite (Paper: Graphic 45; Tool: BigShot & Spellbinders Dies) 

Thank you for visiting,

Sparkle & Shine at Eureka Stamps

Whoop, it's my second week guest designing with the talented group over at Eureka Stamps! This week the theme is "Sparkle and Shine", and I used their Shadow Holly Square digi stamp:

I changed the black on the image to yellow, and printed it on a shiny paper. I colored the image with Sharpies and then covered it with Stickles. I just spent a fabulous two weeks with my parents (well, mostly fabulous...Why do I insist on reverting to 15 when I go back home?!), and I totally raided my mom's craft stash to make this card. We got the pretty paper at Michaels, and I found this lovely blue-and-gold ribbon at an estate sale...for a dime!

Inspiration/Challenges:
Card Crafter's Circle - December Celebrations
Dilly Beans - Traditional Christmas Colors
Merry Monday - Any Past Sketch / Challenge #5
Robyn's Fetish - Christmas Cards
The Ribbon Girls - Christmas Projects + ribbon
Speedy and Friends #136 - A Christmas Card, use Red and Green
Stamp your Life - Anything goes
Sweet n' Sassy Digi Challenge - Christmas

Thank you for visiting,

December Guest Designer at Eureka Stamps

I'm very tickled to announce that I was invited to be the December Guest Designer at Eureka Stamps! They have so many adorable and creative stamps — both digi and rubber.

Today begins their 17th challenge, with the theme of Winter Wonderland. Their store has lots of images that would work for this challenge, but I chose the fantastically fun Santa & Dillos. 

Although this card may not portray a traditional winter wonderland, for many in this world we have more sun than snow at the holidays! I'm visiting my folks in Sun City West, Arizona, so I had the perfect backdrop!

Challenges:

1. Crimbo Crackers #29 - Anything holiday/festive goes 
2. ATCs & Cards With Attitude - Anything Goes
3. DL.ART Thankful Thursday Challenge - December holiday 
4. Fussy and Fancy - I Love Christmas 
5. Jingle Belles - Anything (Holiday) Goes   
6. Paper Shelter Challenge #92 - Christmas 
7. Penny's Paper-Crafty #104 - More than 1 fold   
8. Stamp n Doodle - Fabulous folds
9. Wags 'n Whiskers - Christmas 
10. Winter Wonderland - Santa Claus is coming to town

I made a simple step card modeled after this one, made by my crafty inspiration, my wonderful Mom:

Thank you for visiting,

Being Cool at Card Cupids

Happy December! It's time for another great challenge at Card Cupids, and we have some great news too... Card Cupids has expanded into the Sunshine Mail Foundation!

Our sponsor is Bugaboo Stamps, and they provided our DT with these three adorable images that I just had to pile all together:

I cut the circles on my Bigshot with a Spellbinders die, and for the blank "snowballs" I ran them through my sticker machine and then covered them with white flocking. I colored the images with Copics & added white flocking with a ZIG glue pen. The flagpole is made with a plastic toothpick I took home from sandwiches (O how my husband rolled his eyes!), which I covered with baker's twine. I stamped "Warm Wishes" onto blue paper and hand-cut the flag. The background paper is from my stash.

Inspiration/Challenges:

1. Catch The Bug - Anything goes
2. Crafty Ann's - Birds & or Animals (no people or insects)
3. Cards by Lady Anne - Sentimental For Friday - Anything Goes + sentiment
4. DRS Designs #51 - Snowfun
5. Dutch Dare Card Challenge #193 - Winter Wonderlands
6. My time to craft #199 - Snowmen
7. Raise The Bar – Bundle Up
8. Simon Says Stamp - anything goes

 
Hope you'll join in with us for our "Cool" challenge at Sunshine Mail and be a Card Cupid! The only requirement for our challenges, other than the theme, is to send in at least one card to Card Cupids/Sunshine Mail (the simple instructions are here). We're always getting requests for cards, so do check out the blog. 

Thank you for visiting,

Sweet Hot Chocolate

It's "Anything Goes" week at One Stitch at a Time (OSAAT), so I made a cute little Hot Chocolate holder using Hot Chocolate by Beary Dust Stamps.

Everything is paper-pieced; the only thing I colored was the hot chocolate. I used Flower Soft's Teddy Bear collection to make the cute Teddy fuzzy!

I used the Sliding Treat Holder tutorial from Pioneer Party. You can see other treat holders I've made here.


Inspiration/Challenges:

1. ABC Challenges: Anything Goes
2. Cards by Lady Anne / Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes
3. Crafty Boots: Anything Goes  
4. DL.ART Thankful Thursday Challenge - Anything goes 
5. A Gem of a Challenge #60 -  Paper Piecing 
6. Emergency Crafters - Anything Goes
7. Fat Pages & Cards with Attitude – Anything Goes
8. Inspire Me Fridays – Always Anything Goes
9. Pixie Dust Studio - Winter Holiday Creations

Hope you'll join the "Anything Goes" challenge at One Stitch at a Time this week (and be sure to check out my teamies' fabulous projects). For entries using a StitchyBear Store product (be sure to add a # after your name when entering), the prize is a a selection of images from Crafts from Rick St Dennis. You're welcome to enter the challenge using different products, but instead you'll be entered into the draw to win a £3 coupon to StitchyBear Digi Stamps. Can't wait to see what you create! 

Thank you for visiting,