Exciting News, a Challenge and a Prize for YOU!

A while back I received a very nice email from Dawn Rapsas of UStamp with Dawn and Friends inviting me to be a guest designer for the “with love 2010″ edition. I happily accepted and can now let you all know! Yeah!

I just sent in my first project and am super excited about it. I hope you are too!

To celebrate this occasion, I have been given ONE FREE PASS for With Love 2010 UStamp (starting January 15th) and I’m going to give it to one lucky reader of this blog. How? Well, I’m going to put forth a challenge to you – a Happy Un-Christmas Challenge!

Here is what you need to do:

• Make a project (card, scrapbook page, 3D item) using Christmas stamps in a non-Christmas way. We all have them out still, let’s use them one more time!
• Link your project in the comments section below
• You have until January 5th at midnight PST to complete your project and link here to be in the draw to win
• A very discriminating panel of judges will decide the grand prize winner of a UStamp pass and there will be 2nd and 3rd place prizes as well

Looking forward to seeing what you all come up with!! I’ll post a few of my own in the coming week.

You’re a Fox

I decided to play around with some new goodies today and am using the Fox & Friends stamp set from the upcoming Occasions Mini Catalogue. It is so cute! I was inspired by the Pals Paper Arts challenge this week and wanted to start making some Valentine’s cards – although this one has an alternative colour scheme from the typical Valentine’s projects.

The base of the is card is So Saffron and is layered with Soft Suede. I then added horizontal stripes of Thoroughly Modern designer series paper and Dusty Durango cardstock.

For the focal point, I wanted to use the set but not the “normal” way. So I used my Soft Suede marker with the rocket image from Pun Fun and markered the “you’re a” and then stamped the fox in Dusty Durango. I think I’ll give it to my hubby for Valentine’s. The stamped piece is layered on Soft Suede and then So Saffron. I added a half of a 1″ circle to the top right and a small piece of Soft Suede Polka Dotted grosgrain held in with a Vintage Brad.

I then used the Love You Much stamp set to make the scallop circle piece to the lower left of the focal point. I stamped the image in Soft Suede ink. I cut out a So Saffron heart and add it with a dimensional.

Lastly, I added a strip of the Soft Suede Polka Dotted grosgrain along the bottom and tacked it down with two Vintage Brads.

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used to make this project – CLICK HERE to buy them NOW!

Cardstock: So Saffron, Soft Suede, Dusty Durango, Whisper White.

Ink: Dusty Durango, Soft Suede.

Stamps: Fox & Friends, Love You Much.

Accessories: Thoroughly Modern DSP, Vintage Brads, Soft Suede Polka Dot grosgrain, 1″ circle punch.

Happy Holidays!

Feelin’ Sketchy

When I’m feeling a bit stretched creatively I love to do online challenges. The sketch challenge on SCS was just what I needed to complete a birthday card for a neighbour’s 40th birthday!

I recently received some of the new and upcoming Felted Flowers from the new Occasions Mini Catalogue after completing the My Digital Studio Certification. They are so awesome and I just wanted to use them on a project ASAP.

The stem stamp from Flower Fancy just seemed to lend itself to being dressed up with these flowers so I stamped it on some watercolour paper with Jet Black StazOn, watercoloured it slightly with Old Olive ink and then adhered the flowers using Tombow Multi Adhesive.

I layered this on some Rose Red cardstock, then onto the back layers of Old Olive designer paper. The last of the layers include Chocolate Chip, then Rose Red and lastly Pretty In Pink.

The layer across centre is simply a piece of Double Stitched wide Chocolate Chip grosgrain. I thought it went well with the stitching on the flowers.

Please contact your local demonstrator (or me is you are in Canada and don’t have a demo) for your very own copy of the Occasions Mini Catalogue – it is so awesome!

Products used on this project – CLICK HERE to buy the NOW!

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Pretty In Pink, Rose Red, Watercolour paper.

Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Old Olive.

Stamps: Flower Fancy, On Your Birthday.

Accessories: Old Olive DSP, Aquapainter, Felt Flowers, Tombow, Double Stitched wide Chocolate Chip grosgrain.

Playing with some New Goodies!

The new Occasions Mini is coming soon – are you ready? This card contains some sneak peeks for you so watch closely…….

Things are pretty hectic around here with the holidays upon us so a lot of my creations for the next while are going to be pretty simple. I don’t know why I think that is a bad thing, its not, right? Simple is good! Simple takes less time!

I used Pretty In Pink for the card base and layered it with some Basic Black and then Whisper White. I used the new Very Vintage jumbo wheel to make a faux torn layer. How? I used a piece of copy paper and ripped it and then laid it over the lower left of the white layer. I then wheeled over the open side in Basic Black and then sponged some Basic Gray on the edge for a little extra shadow. This has to be one of my favourite ways to use my wheels.

Then, I used the set Wonderful Favourites for the sentiment and added a few little butterflies using the new Beautiful Wings embosslit die (it is so cute!). I used the Kalidescope designer paper for the little butterflies.

Thanks for stopping in!

Products used on this project – CLICK HERE to buy them NOW!

Cardstock: Pretty In Pink, Whisper White, Basic Black.

Ink: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink.

Stamps: Wonderful Favourites, Very Vintage Jumbo Wheel.

Accessories: Sizzix Big Shot, Beautiful Wings embosslit, Pretty In Pink grosgrain ribbon, Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, Stampin’ Sponges.

Like a Stalker…..

I’m feeling a little under the weather today so I’m trying to do very “stationary” things – like posting to my blog!

I got my new pre-order goodies from the upcoming Occasions Mini catalogue and just had to play yesterday and here is one of my first creations!

I had a little piece of Pink Flamingo designer series paper and wanted to use it on a project – this was it! I layered the DSP on some Basic Black cardstock and then cut a layer in Whisper White the same size and again layered it on black.

I stamped the single Like-O-Meter stamp in Basic Black onto the white cardstock and then again on some scrap Real Red. I cut out the meter part and adhered it.

For the card base, I used Whisper White and then layered it with Basic Black. I added a layer of Cameo Coral and used the new heart border punch on one end and backed that with Real Red. I love how crisp this punch is!

Had to add some ribbon (5/8″ Basic Black grosgrain) for good measure.

Have a great day!

Products used on this project – CLICK HERE to buy them NOW!

Card Stock: Whisper White, Cameo Coral, Basic Black, Real Red.

Ink: Basic Black.

Stamps: Like-O-Meter (available in January 2010)

Accessories: Heart border punch (available in January 2010), 5/8″ Basic Black grosgrain, Pink Flamingo DSP.

Slow and Steady

First off, do you like the festive snow I’ve got falling on my blog? Cute, huh?

I really love the Nature’s Nest stamp set but sometimes have a hard time using it. When Pals Paper Arts posted their challenge was a colour one, I knew these colours suited this particular image just perfectly!

The base of this card is Crushed Curry and it’s layered with Soft Suede and then Old Olive. I cut out a bunch of leaves from the Sizzlet Little Leaves and adhered them to the the olive layer for a textured leafy effect. I then ran my ink pad lightly over it to highlight them a little more.

I added a diagonal strip of Soft Suede cardstock and over it I adhered a strip of Crushed Curry Polka Dotted ribbon. I tacked it down with three Antique Brass brads.

Now for the turtle. I stamped him in Jet Black StazOn on watercolour paper and used my Old Olive, Soft Suede and Crushed Curry markers and my aquapainter to colour him in. I added a Sahara Sand shadow underneath him and then layered this piece on Soft Suede.

Lastly, I needed a sentiment….I used the circular image from WOW Flowers and used my Soft Suede marker as to omit the centre flower. I stamped it on Crushed Curry cardstock and punched it out with my 1 1/4″ circle punch. I then cut it in half (well a little bigger) and adhered it to the card. To the centre I used a Jumbo Antique Brass Eyelet (put in with my Crop-A-Dile) and tied a little bit of Crushed Curry ribbon to top it off.

Great challenge, Thanks!

Products used to make this project – CLICK HERE to buy them NOW!

Cardstock: Old Olive, Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, watercolour paper.

Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Old Olive, Sahara Sand.

Stamps: Natures Nest, WOW Flowers.

Accessories: Stampin’ Write Markers, Aquapainter, Sizzix Big Shot, Little Leaves Sizzlet, Vintage Brads, Crushed Curry Polka Dot Ribbon, Crop-A-Dile, 1 1/4″ circle punch, Jumbo Eyelets.

From Disneyland

I’ve started to make my Disneyland 2009 book pages. I’m trying to do a few every night but WOW, have we taken a lot of photos! How do you pick?

This photo was taken yesterday in the sunshine (thank goodness because it’s been pretty cold and rainy).

I think the most favourite part of this trip has been visiting with the characters, my kids (all three) are just loving it!

We ran into Chip and Dale yesterday right after Avery’s make over at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique and Owen completed his Jedi training. They were in top form.

The page itself is quite easy really. The My Digital Studio software is so easy to use! I’ve been using the Happy Day template and changing them out a bit on each page. On this one, I took the happy birthday over lay off and added two large snowflakes from Snow Burst. I changed their colour to while and then decreased the opacity so they blend nicely into the background. I added one more but kept it white and added a shadow and a Brocade Blue brad to the centre (also added a drop shadow).

I threw in a couple of elements from Winter Post as this just looked like a postcard to me.

Thanks for stopping by!

Update on Yesterday’s Post

A couple of you asked what you do with the tiles from yesterday’s post. Well, after you cure them by baking them, you use them as coasters!

I’ve made some before where I’ve used spray sealers but then when you use them with “sweaty” drinks, the condensation runs off and defeats the purpose of a coaster. So, by using Sharpies and curing them, the tiles will then absorb the water off the glass.

Terrific Tiles

I was recently set to do a Terrific Tiles class but I didn’t have any registrants (boo hoo) but one brave hostess decided that was just the class she needed to provide to her friends and decided to host a private tile class at her home!

We had such a great time crafting sets of tiles, each participant made different sets! Inside this handmade box is a set of 4 tiles. I decided with my set to make a matching set of tiles using the Cheers to You stamp set.

The box is made with the harder cardboard piece that comes with our designer paper as it is nice and sturdy. I used StazOn to stamp the images around the box so it’d match just perfectly. I then used a piece of window sheet to put over as a topper and tied it with a ribbon.

Here are the tiles themselves:

I stamped the images in Jet Black StazOn and coloured them in with Sharpies. I then baked them for 30 minutes on 350 degrees and added little soft bottoms to them.

I think these are going to go to my neighbours who are collecting our mail while we are away. I love trying to come up with new and fun ideas for gifts for friends!

Come to think of it, I think this fits into Shelli’s challenge on her blog this month!