Ready for a challenge?........

Hi everyone..........I'm still here I promise! Just dropping in to hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and wishing you a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

I need to get my crafting mojo in motion, as I've been too busy enjoying the festivities to get anything else done and, oh did I mention working!

Hopefully I'll be back soon with a few projects to show you, but for now I just wanted to share a little of the exciting stuff going on at byLoriDesigns.

First up........are you ready for a challenge (or two!)..............

Yep, starting January 6th we all get to jump in feet first and play along with those Lollipops and Sugarsticks so be sure to check it out at the Lollipop Shop.

Secondly........can you handle the excitement......could there possibly be more? Oh yes..........if you're up to the challenge, and ever wanted the chance to play with the cutest Lori Boyd creations on a weekly basis, then here's your chance..........

Be sure to hop over to the Lollipop Shop and check out all the details and I'll see you there.

Happy New Year!

Baby No.3 !!!!

Good morning all. Hope you're having a good week. Only 1 more day until the mini adults start their Christmas vacation, so if you're anything like me, I'm frantically running around trying to tie up loose ends ie. scouring the stores to find those last few stubborn gifts that do not want to be found!

Thought I'd visit again today with the last of my triplet of baby cards. This one, again for another pink bundle, but......it's not pink, and I'm not awarding prizes for anyone who can guess which colour it is! Here's Baby Olivia...............



Another sweetie designed by Lori Boyd, which as usual you can find over at the Lollipop Shop.

So, of course I went with lilac..........apart from it being the other obvious colour for babies of the girlie variety, I'm informed by the expectant Mom that the nursery is being painted in 'said' colour.

DP's are again from Martha Stewart, and I cut and embossed the 'stroller stamp' from white cardstock using the folder included with my Cuttlebug. Couldn't resist adding those button wheels - cute! The scalloped circle is cut using a Nestie and I obviously threaded white ribbon through and added a charm. The white rick rack is from my stash and lastly, I stamped 'New Baby' directly on there. Sweet!

I was originally going to give these cards upon the babies arrivals, but since seeing the beautiful new baby girl drawings created by Mo Manning recently, I'm thinking these will be given at the baby showers, and 2 new cards will be made!

I'm off to hunt down some challenges for this sweetie.........pickings are a little slim right now as everything is geared toward Christmas, but.......... I shall persevere!

Remember, don't get swamped by the gift shopping. I'll leave you with the words of 'the Grinch' which I used on a card recently (and which I am trying to abide by......really!)...........

"Maybe Christmas", he thought "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps means a little bit more".

Have a great day.

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Challenges entered:

Other Lovelies - Thoughtful Thursday #37 The letter 'N' (New Baby)

Crafty Sentiments Designs Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog - Recipe, 3 papers, 2 embellishments, 1 image.

CES Challenges - #16 Anything but a Christmas card

The Crafty Pad Challenge Blog - #101 Embossing

The Crazy Challenge - #45 Use at least 3 DP

Karber Weekly Challenge - #18 Anything Goes using a Digi

Congrats for Grandma!

Good Monday morning......at least it would be if we hadn't had a huge dump of snow throughout last night, and still persisting this morning! I certainly have no intention of heading out today, so I thought I'd make the effort and visit 'blogland'.......2 days in a row! I will try to be a more frequent visitor this week, especially as my scrapping friend Dee is probably getting tired of sitting with coffee in hand every morning, waiting for little old Miss No Show here!

On to business......a card no doubt. Remember a while back, I mentioned I had to make 3 baby cards - 2 for colleagues expecting pink bundles early next year, and the other for a first time Grandma, who's bundle of 'boy' arrived last month? Anyhow, so far I've only ever posted one card, which you can check out here if you really feel the urge to. Today, I'm here with the second......Grandma's 'Congratulations' card...........


This is another sweet image designed by Lori Boyd called Sugar Stick Girl with Stroller, and you can find her of course over at the Lollipop Shop. I thought I'd do some paper piecing on here and I really love this digi paper, which I picked up as a freebie from Pop"N"Stick a while back. I thought it would work perfectly for a Grandma type of card.....not too 'babyish'.

I coloured what was left of the image using mainly Copic's and a touch of Prisma's. Now don't examine her face too closely (I know that's exactly what you will now do!) but this is what happens when your E000 marker is practically dried out, and you are desperately trying to coax the last dying dregs from it..............a girl with a far from satisfactory spray tan session! Never fear, I've recently purchased a new marker.

I added a couple of brads to serve as wheels, a ticket with a rub-on, doodled around the edge of the DP, added ribbon and a safety pin........done. I like this card, but then again, I do have a 'thing' for plaid!

This little lady will be wheeling her way into the following challenges:

Karber Weekly Challenge - #18 Anything Goes

Creative Card Crew Challenge - Anything Goes

Delicious Doodles - #4 Recipe.....use 1 image, 2 DP's, 3 embellishments

Totally Papercrafts Challenge - #46 Paper piecing

Marks Finest Papers - #33 Paper piecing

CES Challenges - #16 Anything but a Christmas Card

Bye for now.

Sweet.........

Good morning all.........sorry I've been a little absent this week. I've been celebrating the fact that I have family staying, who have flown in for Christmas, and therefore some company, a helping hand, and of course............babysitters! Yay!

So, Sunday has rolled around again and with it a nasty dose of snow, according to weather forecasts in these parts. Good news is though, there is a new challenge of course, over at the OSAAT Challenge Blog, the last challenge of the year. I'm sure you'll like the theme this week............everyone's favourite..........Anything Goes, and of course we have another great sponsor who will be offering a $10 gift voucher to one lucky winner...........


So on with the show......here's my DT creation for this week..............

Sweet huh? This week I got to use an image called 'Kissing Couple' from Stampin Dragon Designs, which you can find at the Stitchy Bear and I Did It Creations Store. Really cute I thought, and you've gotta love silhouette's......no colouring involved and therefore a real time saver!

Now, if you've visited my blog before, you will know that any colour paired with black is an instant hit in my book, this lovely shade of turquoise being no exception. I had absolutely no intention of using this colour (I was going to keep it solely black and white) till I was routing through my stash and found this awesomely 'blinged' 'SWEET' sentiment I'd bought from a Michaels cheapie bin months ago.............perfect..........a colour scheme was born!

Papers on here are from Queen Martha Stewart again, and I used a Sizzix die (that I haven't used forevah!) for the numerous swirls. The flower is a combination of Prima and Sandylion and the cute heart button is another I picked up from my favourite scrapbook store......Two Scrapbook Friends. The bling and perfectly matched stick pins are $ store finds......gotta love em! As a finishing touch, I added embroidery floss from my stash and doodled around the edge of the card.

I like this card, it's super cute so I think I'll keep it for an Anniversary type of thing. Hop on over to OSAAT and check out the awesome inspiration from the rest of the DT.

This card, will of course be entering a few challenges, so I'll be back later with the deets.

Have a wonderful weekend.....what's left of it, and keep warm. I promise to be back soon with a few more creations.

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Challenges entered:

Craft Your Passion Challenges - #35 Anything Goes

There She Goes - #84 Bring on the Bling

Artful Inkables - #34 Use punches and/or Die cuts

Creative Card Crew Challenge - Anything Goes

Little Red Wagon - #58 Use a Die Cut

Card Makin' Mama's - #11 Anything Goes

Delicious Doodles - #4 Recipe....use 1 image, 2 DP's, 3 embellishments

Stamp Something - Use a Digi

Craft Your Days Away - #10 Punch it out - use a punch/die cut

Jingle bells and Naughty or Nice?...........

Good morning everyone, hope you're having a great weekend........has the Christmas 'shopping' spirit kicked in yet? Yep, I think it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, Sunday has rolled around again and that means it's time once again for a new challenge over at the OSAAT Challenge Blog. The theme this week is 'old stash, new stash', meaning use a bit of both. We have another great sponsor this week........

.............'Michelle's Scrapbooking & more' are offering a $15 gift voucher to one lucky winner. I actually have 2 creations again this week, so first up, I have a fairly traditional Christmas card.............

This week I got to colour up an image from Gingerloft Studios called Reindeer Carousel, which you can find at the Stitchy Bear Store. This image cries of traditional Christmas, but I didn't want to go too vintage so I used a fair bit of green.......a colour I don't use too often.

The reindeer was coloured with my Prisma pencils and you can't tell from the photo, but the pole, sprig of holly and bells are layered with Glossy Accents. DP's are from Bo Bunny, I used an EK Success punch around the image, and ribbon and bells are $ store finds (my old stash). I also used a tiny piece of my Jillibean Soup twine to attach the bells to the ribbon. Oh, almost forgot, I used another EK Success (my new stash) on the striped paper and fed the ribbon through. The sentiment, which I really like, is a freebie I picked up a while ago from Bizzy Becs, if you'd like to check it out.

That's about it for this one, so on to my second DT creation.............Naughty or Nice.........

Another (mostly) white Christmas card. I've realised I have a slight attachment to the red/white/black colour scheme, as there's another card, half created in the same scheme, sitting on my desk.

I really love this image......Vintage Vamp by Stitchy Stamps, which you can also find of course at the Stitchy Bear Store. I had every intention of going vintage with this, till I realised the image was called Vintage 'Vamp' and not 'Stamp' as I originally thought! (lol) Armed with that info, I knew she'd be wearing a little red number.............and voila.........a Christmas card! I had a little fun with the sentiments on here also, as she strikes me as swaying toward the 'Naughty' list!

Well, no Prisma pencils on here, only Copic markers, and all cardstock is of the plain white variety.......embossed of course with a couple of Cuttlebug folders. The cute red trim is some I picked up a fair while ago (my old stash-not sure of the make) and have been itching to use, and the red snowflakes are new, but again, not sure of the manufacturer. The Christmas Bingo ticket is a digi from Sarah Hurley, and the 'Naughty or Nice' sentiment is again another cute freebie I picked up from Bizzy Becs. I cut both circular sentiments using a 'Nestie' and threaded twine or ribbon through. The 'Dear Santa' sentiment is printed from my PC, onto cardstock I'd punched using an EK Success punch. All the corners on this Easel card have been punched/embossed using a Fiskars corner punch.

And that's about it.......I'll be back later of course with challenge hopefulls.

Go check out the other OSAAT Design Team creations and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

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Challenges entered:

The Corrosive Challenge Blog - #93 Red and White for Christmas

Crafty Hos' Challenge Blog - Any religious holiday

I Did It Creations Challenge Blog - #32 Vintage Christmas

Gingerloft Challenge - #7 Bows

Dutch Dare Card Challenges - #92 Christmas Card/Tag/Ornament

Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog - #129 Christmas Animals

Card Makin' Mamas Challenge Blog - #11 Anything Goes

Delicious Doodles The Challenges - #3 Use a Digi

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - #112 Christmas

Mark's Finest Papers - #32 Red and Green

Baby it's cold outside.........

Hi, it's me dropping in to say a quick hello with a card that has been sitting waiting to be 'blogged' so to speak, for over a week. I don't have much time, so let's get to it.
Here's another Lori Boyd creation.......I will be back with a different variety of digi soon (I promise!), it's just that I had a little colouring frenzy recently will all the new releases from byLoriDesigns - they're addictive! So, as I was saying .......here's Winter Dana and Penny...........

You can obviously find these sweet Puddle Jumpers over at the Lollipop Shop. I decided to go with a non-traditional colour scheme, mainly because I couldn't wait any longer to cut into this beautiful line of Christmas papers from Bo Bunny...........they've been burning a hole in my stash for a few weeks now and the colours are so pretty.

Dana and Penny were coloured this time around with..........Copic's, yep the Copic markers made an appearance once again. I'm getting quite attached to them.....it's like revisiting an old friendship! lol Ribbon and embroidery floss is from my stash, and the cute snowflake button is one of a bunch I picked up from my favourite local scrapbook store TSF, not sure of the make. I used a Fiskars punch to create the border and the extra snowflakes have been punched from the paper, layered and glittered. Oh, almost forgot, the Christmas tree is cut from another sheet of paper and 'popped' and the sentiment is printed directly onto this using my PC.

That's about all for now, except of course the challenges this will entered into. I'll be back later after hunting some down.

Have a great day......keep warm!

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Challenges being entered are as follows:

The Creative Cottage Challenge Blog - #28 Untraditional Christmas

Crafts and Me Challenges - White Christmas (snowflakes)

Totally Papercrafts Challenge - Untraditional Christmas

Fairy Fun Fridays - #40 Buttons and Bows

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - #60 Christmas

Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - Christmas with No Red and Green

Stampin' for the Weekend - #51 Winter

Stamp It Crazy - #15 Christmas

Stamps R Us - #10 Holiday Cards

The One Stop Craft Challenge Blog - #108 Christmas Cuties

OSAAT DT creation(s)..........

Good morning everyone, hope you're having a good day and enjoying the cold weather.....if you're on this part of the globe anyhow. Today's post will be relatively short and sweet as I'm scheduling this, which means as I'm typing, it's Saturday night (or I should say Sunday morning!) and way, WAY past my bedtime. So, sorry to disappoint, but no ramblings today.

Sunday means of course, a new challenge over at the OSAAT Challenge Blog, and the theme this week is to celebrate in style, meaning dig out the glitz, glitter, bling or whatever else you think you might need to give it the old 'razzle dazzle'! We have another great sponsor this week.........


..........Digi's With Attitude are offering a $10 voucher to one lucky winner but you know you've got to be in it to win it!

I actually have 2 cards to show you today, the first, using some very pretty digi papers from Panda Bear Designs.............

So as you can see, the front of the card is acetate which I've used many times but never actually like this, so there's a first for me. The Birthday cake was made using a paper piecing pattern I found online at Scrapbooks etc. I did emboss the frosting using a Cuttlebug folder, and ran the cake case through my paper crimper. There's glitter on the cake and candle flame, and of course, some bling which I dug from my stash. The ribbon and punch I used are from Martha Stewart.

Think that's all for that one, so let's move on to contestant number 2............

For this card, I used an image from Kelley Kids. Both this and the Panda Bear papers are included in a mega freebie pack you could get from the Stitchy Bear Stamps Store with any $10 purchase. I coloured again with Copic's and added glitter here and there, and I believe DP's are from Imaginisce. I also 'blinged' the 'Nestie' die cut and embossed using another Cuttlebug folder. The sentiment is printed from my PC.

I now have to show you the inside which I'm pretty proud of. Full credit goes to Sharon over at The Pixie Cottage, who did a great tutorial for this a couple of weeks ago........you can check it out here. When I saw it, I knew I'd be trying it out at some point, so here it is.........

.......does that look cool or what.........and believe me, it was fairly simple.....honest! I coloured the tree with Copic's and again, added more bling.

Well, that's all for now folks........don't forget to head on over to the OSAAT blog to check out the rest of the lovely DT creations. I'll be back later with challenge hopefuls!

Enjoy the rest of your day.

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The challenges one or both of these cards will be entering are:

I Did It Creations Challenge Blog - #31 Surprise Me

Gingerloft Challenge - #7 Bows

Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog - Merry Christmas

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Cut It Out

Artful Inkables - #34 Punches and/or Die Cuts

For Fun Challenges - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations - #88 Red/Green/Gold

Crafty Creations Challenge Blog - #95 Christmas

Inktegrity Design Team Challenges - #24 Anything Goes

Totally Gorjuss - Oh Christmas Tree

Stamp Insanity - Challenge Yourself (try something new)

Nativity...........

So here I am , back again.....2 days in a row........Wow! Could this become a habit? Doubtful, so don't hold you breath. I've been on a slight colouring frenzy recently, so I actually have a few cards ready and waiting for their blog debut..........if I ever get the time to post them. Today I'd like to say a "Good Morning" to my scrapping buddy Dee..........who I know is probably sitting there with cup of coffee in hand, ready to check out whatever nonsense I have to say today! Dee (a talented scrapbooker/cardmaker herself) is the only person I know who visits me in blogland everyday.....bless her. So I'm hoping she will like today's card............the original Christmas story.........here's Nativity...........


As I mentioned the other day, this is one of the recent Christmas digi's released from byLoriDesigns. You don't find many Nativity images around and this one is just perfect......for adults or kids, really sweet.

I didn't want to go OTT on Christmas papers here, I think the image holds enough significance, so I chose a completely 'non-Christmas' paper. This is from Basic Grey's Capella line released in the summertime I believe, and I love it's elegance.....serenity.....hmmmm I like that word.

Now for the fun part.........who'd have ever thought a quote from 'The Grinch' would be paired with a Nativity scene...........ME that's who! I had every intention of using a Bible quote or something similar, then I stumbled across this............(click to enlarge!)



..........which to be honest, says everything I was trying to say, even if it isn't all that fancy.

As for the deets.......there is obviously lace and pleated ribbon on there, although the image covers most of it. The flowers are punched, scrunched and have Stickles and a pearl on there. The edge of the paper is obviously distressed and inked, with a little faux stitching added. Oh, and I almost forgot..........my trusty Prisma pencils made an appearance for colouring......I knew this needed to have a fairly soft appearance. I also sponged around the image with 'Chalk Ink' and the sentiment is printed from my PC.

That's about it, another Christmas card to add to the pile.

I will be entering this into a few challenges I hope, so I'll be back to add those in a little while.

Crafty Creations Challenge Blog - #95 Christmas

Little Red Wagon - #56 Use Basic Grey

The Creative Cottage Challenge Blog - #28 Untraditional Christmas (no red, green, gold)

The Character Cafe - Recipe (use a homemade flower and natural colours)

Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - Christmas with NO red or green

Totally Gorjuss - #57 Not so traditional

Ellephantastic Challenge Blog - #19 Butterfly and/or Xmas

Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog - #47 Anything Christmassy/Winter

Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog - Merry Christmas

Lollipop Crafts - Christmas

Whoopsi Daisy Challenge - Holiday

Have a great day.

Sweet Pea..........

Tis' the season......for babies that is! I'm caught in the middle of a slight baby boom right now.........not my own offspring of course, but from a number of work colleague's. Card requirements are.........2 'girlie' cards for EDD's in Feb and 1 'boyish' card for a brand spanking new, first time Grandma, who's 'Grand' bundle arrived on Saturday! Hmmmm, maybe I should make that one, as I haven't even started it.........but I have made a girlie card so here's the first...........Sweet Pea Baby Addy.........

Now, who do we think of for baby images..........Lori Boyd of course! Sweet Pea Baby Addy is, I think, a little preview I was fortunate enough to be allowed to play with, so I don't think she's available yet. However there are plenty more cuties available at the Lollipop Shop...........super sweet if I say so myself. I did crop the original image slightly, purely because I was determined to use my lacy 'square' Nestie with ribbon threaded through, and Baby Addy is actually slightly rectangular, with a frame around her.

So, did ya notice something......AGAIN! No pencils, only Copic's, am I on a roll or what? I'll let you into a little secret.....it's not the last........there are more to come! Can you stand the suspense and anticipation? Yes, I'm sure you can, so let's move on.

DP's here are from my trusty Martha Stewart pad, and that embossed postage stamp, some of you Cuttlebug owners may recognize, was included within the 'Starter' package when I first bought it. There are also a few $$ store finds on here........white lace, pink ribbon and that really cute little girl charm (or maybe doll, I'm not quite sure!). Lastly I used a Fiskars punch for the trim.

I'll be back with my second 'girlie' card at some stage, and guess what......it's not pink. Any wild ideas as to what colour it might be?

One last thing..........there are more 'new' digi's available from byLoriDesigns at the Lollipop Shop Christmas ones! Woooohoooo! Here's a little glimpse..........

They are awesome and I've been lucky enough to get to play with them the last few days, so I'll be back at some point with those too.

Addy will be entered into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Cut It Out

A Spoonful Of Sugar - #131 Anything Goes

Artful INKables - #34 Use punches and/or Die cuts

Charisma Cardz - #46 Babies

Allsorts Challenge Blog - #79 Recipe......lace, ribbon and a charm

Crafty Emma's Store Challenges - #13 Lovely Lace

Karber Weekly Challenge - #15 Use 2 or more DP and a Digi

See ya later.

Order up!

Happy Sunday folks! You know what that means...........time for a new challenge (and new DT creation) over at the OSAAT Challenge Blog. We have a great sponsor this week.........Joanna Sheen, who is offering a 10GBP voucher to her store. If you'd like to get some ideas as to what you could spend your possible winnings on, you can check out the store right here.........



So, the theme for the challenge this week has a few possibilities..........you have the choice of opting for a Season or an event (ie. Christmas, Birthday, Graduation etc., anything worth celebrating). I took the easy route and went with............Birthday, mainly due to the fact that I have a girlfriends Birthday coming up next month and require a card. So here it is.......complete with a gal after my own heart!

You've got to admit she's pretty cute! The image called Al la Mode is from Stitchy Stamps (which you can find at the Stitchy Bear Boutique) as is the cute little Birthday sentiment ticket. I completely love these things right now, so be prepared, you'll be seeing more of them.

Did ya notice my colouring? No Prisma pencils......again! Only Copic's for this little lady. I'm practicing right now, and I don't necessarily prefer the look of markers, I'll probably always be a pencil gal, but OMG I can colour so much quicker with them. Only problem is, my favourite fleshy colours E0000 and E000 are absolutely on their last legs, almost mummified they're so dry, so if my images start to look a little ghostly white in the near future......you'll know why! Why couldn't this have happened last month......Halloween season and all!

The DP's I've used here are from Cosmo Cricket's Nutmeg line........I love em, takes me back to the 70's baby......we probably had curtains like that in our house. The note paper tucked in behind there is from a Jenni Bowlin pad and the wording on there is printed from my PC.........my further attempt at a little humour! I used a punch from Martha Stewart and bling and ribbon, I believe are a $ store find. There's also paper piercing and faux stitching on there, and lots of Tim Holtz Distress Ink.

I think that's about it, so why not head on over to OSAAT and check out the other DT creations.

This card will be entered into the following challenges:

Freshly Brewed Challenges - #23 Show Off Your Style

Frosted Designs - Distressing

Enjoy your day.

Hugs........

I'm back today with another Christmas card, this time in traditional colours. I used a cute image I picked up a while ago from Pollycraft, that has been sitting extremely patiently, waiting for me to add some colour. Wait no longer my friend........here's Sydney........

So I chose this image called Sydney Hugs, mainly because she reminded me very much of my eldest dd, or rather her unconditional attachment to a certain brown bear. It's not actually a Christmas image, but I thought it would work well with the sentiment I had in mind. I must confess also........I did intentionally 'chop off' the bottom portion of this image.........(not something I'm all that keen on doing after someone has gone to the trouble of designing the whole thing!), but I think sometimes you need to, such as here, where I wanted to concentrate on the 'HUGGING' theme.

On to the 'deets'..........as you can see, no Prisma pencils! I'm having a bit of a Copic's phase right now, probably due to the fact that I invested in half a dozen new shades. Be prepared, I will be back with a few more Copic creations in the near future, as I've been colouring like crazy the last few days. Whether I'll actually get around to blogging them is another matter!

So what do we have here........DP's are from SEI (they're embossed and have lots of lovely glitter on there which I don't think you can see in the photo!), stickpins from Maya Road, a chipboard heart, button and ribbon from my stash....not sure of manufacturers, and the sentiment is printed from my PC. I also used a Martha Stewart punch to create a co-ordinating photo corner.

Sydney will of course be entering a few challenges (anyone would think it's getting close to Christmas!):

Christmas Stampin All Year Long - #70 Stripe challenge

The Stamp Man Challenge Blog - #9 Christmas

Crazy 4 Challenges - #63 Christmas

Totally Gorjuss -#56 Traditional Christmas colours

Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog - #47 Anything Christmassy/Winter

2 Sisters Challenge Blog - #13 Christmas

Sentimental Sundays - #29 Childhood

I Did It Creations Challenge Blog - #29 Traditional Christmas Colours

Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog - Merry Christmas

Lexi's Creations - #27 Traditional Christmas colours

Pollycraft Challenge - #70 Glittery Christmas

Lollipop Crafts - #16 Very Girlie

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge - #93 Christmas

Tuesday Throwdown - #26 Buttons and Bows

The Pixie Cottage - #45 Sketch and/or ribbon and bows

ABC Christmas Challenge - X is for Xmas

Really Reasonable Ribbon's Ramblings - #12 Christmas theme (plus ribbon)

Digi Stamps 4 Joy - #6 Inspired by Christmas

Have a great weekend.....I'll be back soon.....I hope.

A little mermaid..........

Well, I'm back again, twice in two days.....Wow! Hope you're having a great weekend and enjoying what is probably the last of the good weather in these parts. It's Sunday and that means of course, time for a new challenge over at the OSAAT Challenge Blog, and therefore, a new DT creation from yours truly. The challenge this week is pretty much an 'Anything Goes' type of thing, but using your favourite colours. I don't think I have a particular favourite, as it tends to be whichever colour scheme I'm creating with at the time........I think they call that 'fickle' or something like that!

Anyhow, enough rambling. I got to play with a really pretty little image from Hope Jacare this week, which you can find at the Stitchy Bear Stamps and I Did It Creations Store. I chose to use those yummy shades of turquoise/aqua blue, you know the ones, and they are one of my favourites at least! Here is one super sweet mermaid............ Madeline.............

I have to tell ya, I love her tail, it's so pretty.

When I saw this image, my idea was to use some sort of net behind her with seashells and starfish caught in there.....great in theory! Couldn't exactly find anything that I could substitute for fishnet (not being of the fisherman type of card maker and having some on hand!), and I wasn't prepared to break out the needle and thread at this stage. So you know what I thought I'd use.............a Hairnet, or I think they were more correctly termed as a 'Wave' net........remember? Armed with this idea (last minute I might add), I hit a posse of dollar stores, as I certainly wasn't prepared to fork out big bucks on a package of 'Wave' net's..........despite what you may think I do not sleep in one of these each night! I quickly realized one thing.............anyone that is likely to wear a 'Wave' net probably dyes their hair 10 shades darker, cause the colour I had in mind was maybe a nice sandy or dirty blond and no-one (and I mean no-one!) sells anything other than dark brown/black!

OK, rambling over with, I hope the 'Wave' net wearers amongst us haven't been offended and surfed to the next blog(lol).

Shall we talk about cards? Yes, lets. My solution to the fishnet (or lack of) problem was to use a length of white tulle ( which I've had for ages trying to decide how or what to use it on), gathered in to the bow, which is pretty subtle and I'm guessing you probably can't see it too well, but at least it gave that little bit of texture I was looking for. The image is coloured with Prisma pencils and Copic markers for the fleshy areas. There is loads of glitter of course on her tail and a fair bit of Glossy Accents on her and the seashell. The sentiment is printed from my PC, torn and then inked. The two starfish, really pretty, were a $ store find I've had for a while gathering dust, and the treasure chest charm, I bought recently, I believe Blue Moon Beads, and have been itching to put it on something. Lastly, the DP's are from Queen Martha, and the seashell is chipboard I had in my stash, covered with card stock and sanded. I almost forgot to mention that I did 'pop' parts of Madeline's headgear and the seashell she is holding, to create a little more dimension.

OK, sorry if I bored you all with that.....I obviously have nothing better to do right now! Please hop on over to the OSAAT blog and check out what the other lovely ladies of the DT created, and why not join in this weeks challenge.........there are goodies up for grabs as always.

I hope you'll visit my blog again sometime if I promise not to rant over 'Hair' net's, 'Wave' nets or anything else remotely 'un'craft related!

Madeline will be swimming into the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion Challenges - #31 Recipe (use 2 of something)

Totally Stampalicious - Monday Blues

Digital Tuesday Challenge - #84 Use your never used stash (plus a digi)

The Pixie Cottage - #44 Sketch and/or 2 colours only

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - #58 Paper Tearing

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - #109 Sparkle and Shine

Order Of The Opus Gluei - #79 AnAttitude of Gratitude

Paper Sundaes - #44 Pick you Sundae Toppings (I chose blue and ribbon)

Enjoy what's left of the weekend.

I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas (card)..........

Finally.......... made it back to my blog after another busy week. I managed to finish a couple of cards I've been working on, so at least I'll be back on Sunday with my second creation, but for today's effort........I'll admit......I could resist no longer.............my first 'white on white' card.............


I did an easel card for this one and unfortunately, I'm a little disappointed with the photograph due to too much glare. I tried all different angles with the same result, so I guess that'll teach me for using white satin ribbon, a crystal tipped pin and enough glitter to fill a snowglobe! Oh well, we live and learn. You'll just have to take my word for how awesome it looks in real life. (lol!)

So, need I say where these super cute images are from? For those who are not aware of my addiction to anything Lori Boyd.......they are, of course, just a small collection of Lollipops and Sugarsticks from byLoriDesigns, which you can find at the Lollipop Shop. As the sentiment reads "From our family to yours", they are meant to represent my family on this card, and I've gotta say, they're a pretty good match up! The images are (for those who such as myself, really need to know!) from left to right, Avery Lollipop, Tammy Sugarstick, George Sugarstick and Lacie Lollipop. My goodness, are we cute.....hee, hee!

I coloured everything with my Prisma pencils and used Copic markers just for skin tones. I used a silver gel pen for Tammy's necklace and belt and there is oodles of glitter on everyone....except George of course! The figures are popped at various levels to create dimension, which you probably can't tell from the photo, as well as the background where I've used two different embossing folders. Here's another view of the card closed, although I'm not sure if it helps.......

There's a fair bit of stuff going on on this card so I'll try to quickly skip through the 'deets'. For anyone whose interested, it's a 6"x6" card, I used both a Spellbinders and Cuttlebug embossing folder, and a Martha Stewart 'icicle' punch (which I glittered) for the outside, and a snowflake EK Success punch for the base. You are blinded of course by the white satin ribbon, and there is white lace also on the base. The stick pin is from Maya Road and here's my little tip......I love using pins on cards but I'm always wary of sending them due to the obvious hazards. So, I always conveniently place an embellishment nearby, in this case a snowflake, and use a foam dot whenever possible (or maybe a glue dot) to 'pop' it, thereby giving me a relatively safe place to insert, hide and enclose the end of the pin. Obvious huh? No-one said it was going to be enlightening (lol).

Anyhow where was I............I made the tag from a piece of chipboard, printed the sentiment from my PC and adhered, sanded and added the ribbon. The snowflakes are all punched using 2 different sized EK Success punches I've had for a while and not used........they were glittered and then layered to create more depth, and finally the 'Merry Christmas' sentiment is again printed from my PC and cut using a Nestie.

Is that it......hope so. OK, after all that hard work, this baby is heading into a whole load of challenges. The nominees are as follows:

Bee Crafty - #42 Christmas

Crafty Cardmakers - Dry Embossing

There She Goes - #80 Create A Scene

A Spoonful Of Sugar - #129 Snow/Snowflakes

Top Tip Tuesday - #9 Use an Image and/or leave a Tip

For Fun Challenges - Dry Embossing

The ABC Challenge - H is for Holidays

ABC Christmas Challenge - W is for Winter Wonderland (and White)

Crafts and Me Challenges - #17 Glitter

Some Odd Girl Challenge Blog - Digi Day Early Bird Challenge....Dimension

Delightful Challenges - Glitter It Up

Crafty Purple Frog Challenge - Time for you to Sparkle

If The Shoe Fits - #54 DIY (a handmade embellishment)

The Character Cafe - Embossing

Stamp Something - Digi Day

Easy Craft Project The Challenges - #25 Red

Alota Rubber Stamps - #46 Tag You're It

Have a great weekend.

Tis the season.........

Happy Sunday everyone, hope you're having a good weekend. Today of course means it's time for a new challenge over at the OSAAT challenge blog. The theme this week is an Anything Goes type of Winter Wonderland, and we have a great sponsor...........

............Di's Digi Downloads will be offering 5 digi's to the winner!
I got to play with one of Di's digi's for my DT creation, so here is 'Come on, we have a lot to do'..............


Yay.......another Christmas card done! My Prisma pencils were used for colouring, no Copic's on this one at all. I used my lacy square Nestie (still love it!) and some yummy new twine from Jillibean Soup. The DP is from My Little Yellow Bicycle, and has been sitting all forlorn in my stash since last Christmas, along with the Christmas Tree cookie cutters, which have never been used till now. I also embossed, inked and 'Stickled' those to make em look pretty. The ticket (love, love, love it!!!) is actually a freebie I could not say no to from 'Lisa' over at her blog One Happy Little Crafter, so thank you to her, and if you'd like to pay her a visit.......please do! I glittered all furry bits and used Flower Soft for the first time as snow. Almost forgot.......you can't tell from the photo but I did stitch around the edge of the card.

That's about it for the 'deets' so pop on over to the OSAAT blog for some more awesome Christmas inspiration from the rest of the DT. Don't forget to enter this weeks challenge for a chance to win those digi's.

This card will be entering the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - #43 Let It Snow

Pollycraft - #68 It's Chill Time

Critter Sketch Challenge Blog - #38 Christmas

Paper Playtime -#23 Use a clock ticket or tag

Creative Belli Blog - #103 Flocking or Flowersoft

Charisma Cardz Challenges - #44 With love at Christmas

Crafty Purple Frog - Time to sparkle

If The Shoe Fits, Scrap It - Feeling Blue

Bee Crafty - #42 Christmas

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

You've gotta pick a pumpkin or two!

Well, I finally managed to finish colouring some of the new 'PJ's' that were released recently from byLoriDesigns and.........oh they are cute! Introducing Katie and Grace............

So these images are from a new line of digi's called the 'Wagon Trails' which you can find over at the Lollipop Shop , and who knows what may appear in those wagons in the future..........the possibilities are endless!

Now, when I'm deciding on sentiments for cards, I often wonder if anyone is on the same page as me. Take this card for example. Whilst I was colouring this image, a particular song was running through my head, with the word 'pumpkin' replacing one of the lyrics, and that's why it's ended up on today's creation. I thought it was quite witty (in my own sad little way!) and fit perfectly, but my question to you is...............does anyone have a clue which song I'm talking about? I'm guessing not, but I thought I'd throw it out there, so leave a comment if you think you know (and that includes you Mom if you're reading this!). I would say the Brit's amongst us would probably have a better chance at guessing correctly, and you'd definitely have to be no younger than 35...........although the movie this song came from, was a favourite of my 7yr old niece at one time, if I remember correctly. OK, no more clues, just take a guess and I'll call it market research! (lol)

Back to the relevant stuff! I coloured of course with my Prisma's and you know, Copic's for skin areas. DP's are from Queen Martha as I affectionately call her, as is the punched border. I covered a chipboard leaf with a scrap of DP from my stash, and added the button on there, along with a little twine from Jillibean Soup. The ribbon is again from a $$ store.......I'm lovin' the bargain ribbons I'm picking up from there recently! I embossed the brown cardstock using a Cuttlebug folder, and the sentiment is printed from my PC, then cut freehand and doodled.

Done. Cute I'd say, and perfect for Fall.
There are more new digi's over at the Lollipop Shop just bursting with 'cuteness'. Here's a little preview for you..............

They are $3 each and you can find them here.

So there you go, hop on over and take a look.........I'm just a touch excited trying to decide which image to colour up next!

'Katie and Grace' will be heading into the following challenges:

Stampavie and more - Orange

Stamps R Us - Buttons and Bows

Creative Card Crew Challenge - Let's Punch It

City Crafter Challenge Blog - Wk29 Get your Digi on

The Creative Cottage -#26 Embossing

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Leaves

CRAFT Challenge - #75 Dry Embossing

Stamp Insanity - #34 Punch-Drunk Love

Have a great weekend and I'll be back on Sunday with a creation for the new challenge over at OSAAT.

Love...........

OK, for today's card, something waaaaay different from my 'Lollipop's' and 'Bella' stamps I usually grab for. We're going..........Vintage! I love this style of card but never make one very often, cause I think I'm scared of messing it up. Anyhow, when I saw this beautiful image...........'LOVE' by Stitchy Stamps, (which you can find at the Stitchy Bear Store right here) I knew I needed to roll back the years and go for it. I know it's not perfect, as I kept itching to add a little more, but I am pleased with it, so here goes..............

Did I mention that I 'LOVE' this image.....so classic. I also 'LOVE' the papers from Graphic 45.........been hoarding them forever!

I coloured the image of course with my Prisma pencils, and a touch of Copic markers for skin tones and the word "love". I glittered the letters and fur and then fussy cut around the image. The telegram is cut from a sheet of the DP then inked, and the ticket is from a K&Company vintage pack. Ribbon and the pearly swirl are from a $$$$ store and the stick pins are from Jenni Bowlin. I also stitched and distressed the edge of the papers, and the sentiment is cut from a Nestie, printed from Word, and inked. Phew, that's all the 'deets' over with.

This classy Lady will be entered into a number of challenges of course, one being over at Flourishes Timeless Tuesday, whose challenge this week is to chose a particular print from Cafe Baudelaire Prints, as inspiration. I chose the following, so I'm hoping you can see a connection.............
The other challenges being entered are as follows:

Creative Craft Challenges - Anniversary/Celebration........It's their 1st year 'blogiversary' so lots of prizes up for grabs!

The Crafty Pad - #95 Stitching

Incy Wincy Designs - #66 Anything Goes

Crafty Cardmakers - #33 Stitching

Kaboodle Doodles - #43 Make It Vintage

A Spoonful Of Sugar - #128 Relish to Embellish

Cooking It Up With Katie - #36 Texture/Swirls/Black

Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog - #46 Glitter, Glamour, Girlie

Crafty Emma's Store Challenges - #10 Chocolate Caramel

See you tomorrow.........I'm actually organized and have something else prepared!!!! Also, don't forget the current challenge (Christmas-traditional or modern) over at the OSAAT Challenge Blog is still open til Saturday midnight!

Someday my Prince will come..........

Just thought I'd drop in with a quick post today, and show you a quirky little card I made last week. I used a very sweet image from byLoriDesigns.......the Lollipop Princess which you can find at the Lollipop Shop right here. Here she is..........Lollipop Princess, having a little trouble with.......shall we say...........an uncooperative frog!


I can tell this was made when I wasn't feeling 100% as there are very little (if any!) embellies on there. However I liked the idea of using a new fold (again from my 'Fast and Fun Folded Cards' book by Annies Attic)and that together with the frog leaping from the card , didn't allow much room for anything else. Here's the inside view............

Well, it makes me chuckle if no-one else! I guess the sentiment could apply to Princess or the frog. Hey, whichever side you take.....I'm not judging! Either way, I thought it would work as a good 'Pick Me Up' type of card.

The DP's are from the Pixie Licious line by Cosmo Cricket, and what little colouring there is, was done solely using Copic's, as I paper pieced the dress and frog. I inked around the paper edges using Tim Holtz Distress Ink and used a Fiskars punch to create the trim. I also doodled the froggy leaps, and around the DP, and printed a duplicate image of the Princess, to create the abandoned crown. There is a little glitter used on the crowns and wand, and also Glossy Accents on the frogs spots.

There you have it............never trust a crown wearing frog!

One other thing............there are some exciting new arrivals over at The Lollipop Shop............brand new Puddle Jumpers, or I should say PJ's have arrived in digi form. Yes, a whole new line of digi's, starting with the Wagon Trails series, created by the awesomely talented Lori Boyd, are now available to purchase right here. Far too cute to go into any detail, so get yourself over to the shop and take a look. I'm super excited to be colouring 'Katie and Grace' right now, so hopefully I'll be back soon with something to show you.

OK, I'm now going to hunt down some challenges for this little Princess, so I'll be back a little later with some hopefuls.

Have a great day.........hope the post Halloween sugar rush is easing a little. Oh well, probably only another 2 months till we reach the bottom of the stash!

Enjoy!

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OK, the challenges being entered are as follows:

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - #83 Hide and Seek

Crafty Cardmakers - Digital Plus

Lexi's Creations - #26 Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion Challenges - #30 Anything Goes

Fab'n'Funky Challenges - #46 Keeping It Simple

Simon Says Stamp - Punch Em'

Meljens Designs -#31 It's a 2-fer

I'm Back!

OK, so I know I'm probably a candidate for the worst (or at least the most absent) blogger this week but, oh I have been a sickly specimen! However, there is light at the end of the tunnel..........I had a 'cough free' night of sleep..........woooooohoooooo! Anyhow, enough about that, today is Sunday and that means it's time for a new challenge over at the OSAAT challenge blog.

Our sponsors this week, all 3 of them, are as follows:

So there you go, lots of goodies up for grabs, no excuse not to enter! The theme this week is.........Christmas, traditional or modern, whichever you prefer. I thought I'd try something a little different again this week, so sometime during my battle against the germs, I came up with a couple of gift card holders............

So, I guess one is in traditional Christmas colours, the other more modern. Here's another view...........

I got to play with new Christmas digi papers this week from Panda Bear Designs which you will find shortly at the Stitchy Bear and I Did It Crafting Boutique. These papers are really pretty on their own, so I only embellished with various alpha stamps, ribbon, a sticker, glitter and stickles from my stash. These gift card holders fold pretty nicely too, so I think they'd look cool hung on the tree.

Well, that's it from me for now, but hopefully the creative juices will start to flow a little more freely from now on, so I should be back with another post fairly soon. Don't forget to head on over to the OSAAT blog to check out the beautiful creations from the rest of the DT.

Happy Halloween!

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OK, thought I'd better actually post the challenges this will be entered into!

Fab'n'Funky Challenges - Keep It Simple

ABC Challenge Blog - G is for Glitter

Stampavie and more - #114 Christmas

Crafty Purple Frog Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog - #26 Recipe:Ribbon, gems, at least one paper embellishment

Frosted Designs - Holiday Treats

Bah Humbug - Presents

Bee Crafty - #41 Christmas (must use a digi)

No point in hiding........

............Happy Sunday everyone, hope you're having a slightly better one than me! As I'm typing this, I have, I guess, a touch of the old laryngitis............absolutely no voice whatsoever, just a very friendly cough and sore throat to go with........Yummy! Anyhow, good job the typing fingers are working OK, as I'm sure you didn't drop in to listen to my list of ailments, so let's move on shall we?

It being Sunday and all, means of course that it's time for a new challenge over at the OSAAT challenge blog. Our theme this week is 'Celebration'............could be Birthday, anniversary, new baby, a particular holiday.............you name it, if it's worth celebrating, it's included. The prize given to one lucky winner will be your choice of 5 digi's from the Stitchy Bear and I Did It Creations Store.........you can check them out here

I got to play around with an image from Barbara Jenson this week, so without further ado, here she is...........Lady Bug..........

Now, I don't mind admitting that this card took (what felt like) a zillion crafting hours to create.
I wanted to have a relevant link between the image and a celebration, so I decided (in my wisdom!) to create a window, and have Ms Lady Bug peeking through the foliage, with the sentiment.........'No point in hiding.......' on the outside, and .......'we know it's your Birthday!' on the inside. So, that's what I did! Here's a view of the inside.......

Most time, I guess, was spent on cutting, firstly, the window, which I cut into the front of the card, then made a slightly larger frame and sandwiched a piece of acetate between it and the card. Secondly, on the rather large amount of fussy cutting.........the image, and then foliage, which just had to match the DP exactly (just had to!), so was cut from a coordinating sheet. The sentiment is printed from Word, DP's are from BoBunny's Kitchen Spice line, and I ruffled a touch of burnt orange ribbon to finish off.

She is of course, coloured with a combination of Copics and Prisma's, with just enough ultra fine glitter added to her wings, to make them sparkle. Here's a close up.........

So, if you'd like to check out what the other lovely ladies of the OSAAT DT have been up to, hop on over and take a look. You have until next Saturday to enter this weeks challenge.

This little lady however, will be joining the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - #41 A Natural Woman

Crafty Hos' Challenge Blog - Inspiration Picture Challenge (large tree in fall colours)

I Did It Creations Challenge Blog - #26 Surprise Me

Riley and Company - The colours of Autumn

Flutterby Wednesday - #127 Anything Goes (plus angel, fairy or butterfly)

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog - #40 As long as it flies

Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog - #123 Autumn Foliage

Daring Cardmakers - Autumn Leaves

Stamp Something - Digi Day

Creative Inspirations - #45 Halloween/Fall

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

First of many?

So another absent blogging week, mainly due to the fact that our household is fighting the incredibly annoying, and terribly persistent cold bug. We have an extremely efficient 'tag team' within the family, to ensure there's a continuous stream of coughing fits during the PM hours! Anyhow, I finally managed to scrape together at least one card this week, just in time for this weeks Bellarific Friday over at the Stamping Bella blog.

The challenge this week was a sketch............

.............so I thought I'd take the opportunity and make a Christmas card, especially as I haven't started making any yet (cue the blog post title!). Also, it gave me the opportunity to ink up my new 'Mavis wearing Holly' stamp I bought a few weeks ago. So here she is, the super festive, super sparkly...........Mavis...........

I took a few shots of this card, cause I'm not sure if you can tell that I cut the front in half diagonally. Here's the inside view..............

..............and of course there is lots of sparkly glitter, glossy accents and glaze pen going on, so here's a close up of that...........

The DP's on here, are from the Imaginisce 'Cottage Christmas' line, together with red cardstock from Martha Stewart. Mavis is coloured of course, with my Prisma pencils.....no Copics on here as there is no 'skin' present! There's also ultra fine glitter on her dress, glossy accents on the sprigs of holly and a touch of glaze pen on her nose. A new 'Eyelet Circle' Nestie works a treat in the center there (love it!), and some red ribbon and an abundance of faux stitching, finishes the job.

She will of course be entering some other challenges, but my throat now requires some TLC.........i.e. a cup of coffee, so I'll be back later with some hopefuls.

Hope you have a 'cough, sniff, croak, sneeze' free week!

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So here are the challenges Mavis will be joining:

Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog - #48 Ribbon

Gingerloft Challenge - #4 Winter

Pear Tree Designs - #22 Free For All

Meljens Designs Challenges and Inspiration - #30 Anything Goes

Delightful Challenges - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Southern Girls Challenge - #4 Glitter

Totally Gorjuss - #53 Sparkle

Have a great weekend...........see ya Sunday for a new OSAAT challenge.