Piling On one more card for 2013!

It's the final week of 2013, I can't believe it! It's also the final week of our "P is for..." Challenge at Pile It On (deadline January 4). I couldn't resist making one final card! Our sponsor for the month of December is Jellypark, so I used her Penguin with Woolly Hat digi stamp.

I piled on five "P" items: Penguin, Pocket, Polka Dots, [liquid] Pearls, and Postage Stamp. You can check out all the beautiful DT projects, including my other Penguin card, and join the challenge here at Pile It On!

I made a lot of these "Diagonal Double pocket cards" this year, as we mostly gave Gift Certificates. I got the idea from my mom, who had learned the technique at Scraps of Love. It's a variation of Claudia Rosa's tutorial at Splitcoaststampers. I like it because the card look good without or without the gift and is a fun way to use a double-sided paper, although in this case I used a one-sided paper so that I had white sheet on the inside for the message. This striking black-and-white paper is from a Recollections collection.

For the pearl accents, I used black and white Opal Liquid Pearls, and a gold Viva Pearl Pen. The penguin was painted with the same liquid pearls, it worked really nicely. The hat was paper-pieced with a shiny white paper, and detailed with a gold pen.

The sentiment piece was embossed/cut with a Christmas present (well, a post-Christmas-sale present, from my mom!) A.C. Moore had this and other specially-priced Pagemap/Spellbinders die sets, and this set goes along with a Pagemaps set I already own. And Mom bought herself a present too! We had such a nice visit.

I cut the foil stamp from a white card covered with a gold Rolo wrapper using my Xryon sticker machine, and popped it up with foam tape. I stamped the "warm wishes" sentiment with Staz-on. The middle fold was decorated with a lacey tape, and I added some scrap white ribbon just for good measure. The penguin is on an Action Wobble.

I'm entering this into the following Challenges:
Alphabet Challenge: W is for Whatever You Wish
Animal Friends Challenge: Anything Goes with an Animal
Crafts 4 Eternity #156: Something New (the die is new & this is my newest favorite fold)
Crafty Calendar: Cold and Frosty
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Bling

Thank you for visiting and hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

My first Crafting with Dragonflies DT project -- Christmas Tags

So, like many of us, I keep quite busy in the online crafting world: I'm a sponsor/DT coordinator, on 3 design teams, and volunteer twice a week at Paper Playful. However, I just couldn't pass up the invitation to join the Crafting with Dragonflies team. Hey, why the heck not?!
This is my first challenge as part of the DT. Our theme for this fortnight (I know that not a word we Americans use, but this is an Australian-based challenge & I really like the word!) is Christmas Tags. So, no cards, tags only!

I used Santa in Chimney by QKR Stampede to make tags for some little presents for our nieces and nephews. We visited them last month, and my Mom had bought them all sweet little ornaments, so I cut the boxes with my Silhouette (using a design by Lori Whitlock) and added the paper-pieced tags.

I pieced the image in three pieces: the base, which includes the chimney; his body and coat (which I digitally paper-pieced with a textured-red digi paper); and his bag, which was cut from a shiny green paper. I heat-embossed the names (I have a tutorial here). I used white flocking and Polar White FlowerSoft for Santa's beard and trim.

Here is a sample of the lovely ornaments Mom sent:

Inspiration/Challenges:
All Crafts Challenge: Anything but a Card
Anonymous Stamps Challenge: Anything Goes (optional theme: Deck the Halls)
MarkerPOP Challenge: Happy Holidays + Copics
Miriam's Crafting Blog Monthly Challenge: Homemade Gifts
My Craft Creations: Always Anything Goes
Perfectly Rustics: Christmas Gift

Many thanks to the Crafting with Dragonflies team for welcoming me into the fold. Hope you all will join us for this challenge! Thank you for visiting,

Paper-Pieced Penguin

The Pile It On Challenge is having its yearly December-long challenge, this year with the theme P is for...! The challenge will actually run 5 weeks, December 1 - January 4. You can enter as many times as you like, providing it is a new challenge made with our rules in mind.

I piled on four "P" items: Penguins, Polka Dots, Liquid Pearls, and Poinsettia. 

Our sponsor for the month of December is Jellypark, so I used her Penguin with Woolly Hat digi stamp:

The penguin and snowflake cut files are from Santa's North Pole Workshop set by SVG Cuts. I used SCAL to make the borders ... don't you think the ones on the inside look like the back of a line of penguins‽

The fabric poinsettias are from my stash, and although the one on top was already pre-glittered, I added some gold Stickles for extra shimmer.

The Notch-Swing card design was self-designed; If you'd like to try it yourself, the cutting file are available for purchase in my Etsy Shop.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Crafting By Designs: Christmas/Winter
Digi Sketch Challenge: Paper Piecing (2nd entry)
Fab 'n' Funky #195: Cute critters
Jellypark Friends Friday Challenge: Christmas
Left of Center Creative Challenges: LOC or No People
Shopping Our Stash #121: Holiday Or Winter (the fabric poinsettias are from my stash)
Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays): Anything Goes
Simply Create Too #51: Snow or Use Only White
Sweet Pea Stampers: Lots of Texture
The Crazy Challenge: Snowy winter

Update: This was the random prize winner for Fab 'n' Funky "Cute Critters" Challenge!

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us this week at Pile It On,

Anything Goes at Sunshine Mail

Happy December! It's time for a new Sunshine Mail Foundation Challenge. Our theme is "Anything Goes" and the only real rule is that you send in at least one card (it doesn't have to be the card you enter in the challenge; Donation guidelines here).

Our sponsor is Deasy Designs, so I used one of their freebies:

 It's on an Action Wobble:

Inspiration/Challenges:
Action Wobble Challenge: CAS card
Crafty Ribbons #72: Anything Goes with Ribbon
Creative Card Crew: Sweet Treats
Digi Sketch Challenge: Paper Piecing (2nd entry)
Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays): Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Thank you for visiting,and hope you'll join the Sunshine Mail Challenge,