There's Magic In The Air Skating By.

The challenge calls for something reflective, like foil, along with Nina's image.  So finally, this is it!  My card for There's Magic in the Air Magical Monday challenge.  This penguin is adorable but oh the troubles I had getting him on to this card!  I made the mistake of asking my dear sweet husband, whose opinion I value, for his opinion on what I had so far.  I felt it needed to be tweaked a little.  Did I say a little?  This is a totally different card!  I like it better, but he is such a perfectionist.  My tree was too big, it would look better if I bent the edges of  the tree underneath.  When he wanted me to make jagged edges on the tree I had to put my foot down.  ha ha.  His constructive input really did help me get it just the way I wanted it though.  I used Nina's free image called Skating By, Cuttlebug Lace Tree and gold foil, the blue paper is Stampin Up and I used white embossing powder on the hat.  The star and snowflakes came from a set of confetti from JoAnns (only 1 dollar!)  I printed the penquin twice, once on white cs that I colored and cut out, then onto the blue that I attached him to.  Thats it, thanks for looking.  ~Diane

Play Date Cafe Challenge #5, and Soartful Challenges - Lovely

Welcome to the new designer at Play Date Cafe, Julie Campbell.  I went to her site A Vintage Chic and I saw all of her gorgeous work there too.  She really inspired me this week, and she has some fantastic blogs that she follows too.  That's where I found the image for this card.  The site is called Old Photo Album and she has some wonderful, free, vintage photographs!  I also had a chance to use the Bazzill jewel templates flowers and flourishes, and the  self adhesive jewels in wild pansy,  that I won through When Creativity Knocks Great Crafters Tool Hunt.   Bazzill really has it together on this system.  It makes it so easy to look like a professional when adding the beautiful jewels to your projects.  Check out my beautiful swirl, I am really proud of it!  Thank you Bazzill!   Stop by Play Date Cafe and see what Julie and all her other team members made, and you will see my inspiration.  I love the vintage look of the pearls and lace.   I just found another challenge site SoArtful Challenges, and they just happen to be using this exact image in their challenge this week, called Lovely.  Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

More Snowmen!

My friend want's some Christmas cards with Snowmen, so I will show you the second Snowman card I made.  I hope she likes it.  I used the digital image Snowmen from Kahwinkedink.  Labels 8 Nestabilities, Fleur de Lis Pendant and Ribbon Tags Trio Shapeabilities by Spellbinders.   Sage Shadow, pink and ivory cs and markers from Stampin Up, dp is DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Boy. I did the embossing with Cuttlebug Snowflakes, added ivory ribbon and LD Wedding from Scrap n Fonts. 

Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

Spellbinders is doing it again! Black Friday Contest to announce 3 new sets of Nesties!

Just in time for Christmas, Spellbinders is adding three new sets to the Nesties line up!

Nesties™-008 Octagons - Large Octagon, Small Octagon, Large scalloped, Small scalloped

Nesties™-009 Flower - Peony, Dahlia, Blossom, Two Blossom
Nesties™-010 Label - Labels Two, Large Labels, Small Labels and Labels Four

I had such a hard time deciding which one of the flowers I wanted most, problem solved! 

Want to know what makes this even sweeter?  In honor of Black Friday, the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season, they are giving away 12 sets of Nesties™! You can win a set of Nesties™ by commenting on the Black Friday Blog Posts, once every 6 hours, starting at 12:00am Eastern Standard Time, November 27, 2009. They will give away 3 sets every 6 hours in the time slots as follows:
    * 12:00-5:59 am EST: Ultra Early Bird Give-Away
    * 6:00-11:59 am EST: Early Bird Give-Away
    * 12:00-5:59 pm EST: Sleepin’ In Special
    * 6:00-12:00 midnight EST: Gettin’ Back from the Mall Specials
Enter by posting a comment, on November 27, on the Spellbinders™ Blog, only once in each time slot, for a total of 4 times.  Entrants are eligible for the time slot they enter in, and for the future drawings. For example, if you enter between 12:01 and 5:59 am, you will be entered in all four drawings. You may enter again after 6:00 am to double your chance of winning, enter again after 12:00pm to triple your odds, and again after 6:00pm to for a total of four entries.
Spellbinders™ will draw three prize winner names from Random.org for each time slot. Each individual winner will receive one new Nesties™ set as announced, retail value of $80. A total of 12 winners will be announced on November 27-28, 2010. The total retail value of all prizes is $960.00.
Ok so I copied the information from their site, so now all you have to do is click on the link from here.  Spellbinders has such fab contests, they are an extremely generous company!  Good luck, I hope to see you there!  ~Diane

Christmas Card in honor of Henry

A very sad story to share here today.  A fellow stamper/paper crafter has lost her son quite suddenly.  Henry Anderson was only 3 years old, he suddenly became ill and passed away.  It is still uncertain as to the cause of his death.  The kind owner of Paper Makuep Stamps, Katie Cotton, was an online friend of Henry's mom, Sarah Anderson. Katie is a mom of two boys herself and a very generous person. One of the new releases from Paper Makeup Stamps is a cute little boy fairy making a snow angel in the snow. Katie named him Henry in honor of Sarah's son and is offering the image as a digital image. The cost of the image is a mere $3.00, and the proceeds will go to the Anderson family.  Anyone wishing to contribute by purchasing this commemorative digital image can follow the links here on my blog.  I don't know you Sarah Anderson, but my heart and prayers go out to you.  I hope you will find some small comfort in knowing so many people care.  I hope some of you reading this will consider sharing this story with the links to Paper Makeup Stamps on your blogs, so this image can live on in our hearts as we raise more money for the Anderson family.  I found this story thanks to the ladies at the Just Us Girls JUGS challenge site, as they know Katie Cotton.  Thanks for looking,  ~Diane

No wonder they called it the Wonder Store!

Whoo Hoo!  This card was chosen for the Fab 4 at Play Date Cafe!

                                          

       

               

 I made this card with the inspiration provided by two very popular challenge sites.  My friend Sandi came up with the inspiration colors of blue/green, chocolate brown, tan and cream for the Play Date Cafe Challenge.  Sandi used whimsy and humor with these very elegant colors in her challenge card, so I decided to be a bit whimsical yet elegant myself.

 The challenge inspiration at Just Us Girls (JUGS) called for some dry embossing and to make it a Birthday card, celebrating team member Dana's birthday, I hope you had a good birthday.

Now for my own personal inspiration, I found this little booklet tucked inside one of my Grandmothers old cookbooks.  I wonder how many times she pulled it out to admire all the beautiful dresses.  I collect old and antique cookbooks because I love to reading them, and cooking the recipes.  It's a great way to get a glimpse into the lives of the women of that era.  This advertising ephemera has 6 ladies in different dresses all advertising the Paragon Broadcloth dresses for 1 dollar each!  The Wonder Store must have been Wonderful!  Beautiful dresses for 1 dollar!  I added the aged tan order blank, and stamped Happy Birthday in chocolate brown on it.  Wouldn't Dana just love to get one of these dresses for 1 dollar for her birthday?  I used Stampin Up ivory, and chocolate brown.  The blue/green dp is K &Company Brenda Walton "Mira".  I dry embossed the chocolate brown cs with a Sizzix Texture plate, and the dp was dry embossed with Cuttlebug Textile embossing folder.  Happy Birthday stamp is from Warmest Regards.  I hope you enjoy this, I had fun making it!  Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

How's that go, a day late and a dollar short?

 

That's me this week!  I am a day late with the challenge sketch at JUGS, but since it was such a great sketch I want to post it anyway.  Besides, I used this wonderful new digi image Snowmen from my friend Kristen at Kards and Klay's, shop Kahwinkedink, and I can't wait to show it off!  I made the letters and small circles with Cricut Plantin Schoolbook, cs Regal Rose, Mellow Moss from Stampin Up, dp K &Company Brenda Walton "Mira", Stampin up fine cosmo glitter - green and confetti snowflakes from JoAnns.  Best of all, I had a chance to use one of my new toys from Spellbinders, that I won in the When Creativity Knocks, Great Crafters Tool Hunt.  I used the Spellbinders Impressabilities Snowflake.  What I really like about this is that I was able to fill my 5 x 7 card front with the embossed image.  It took me some time to figure it out, but I cut the frame off of the Impressibility and ran it through my Wizard twice.  On the second pass I let the portion of the card that was done hang outside of the plates, so it didn't flatten it out.  I cut my frame off very carefully, because I intend to use that to emboss a rectangle frame in the future.
Personal note, the Just Us Girls team has a special challenge for you (in addition to a new one they will have for you on Saturday). This one is to raise money for a family that you may or may not have heard about. One of our fellow stampers in our very charitable stamping community suddenly lost her son last week. Henry Anderson was only three years old, suddenly became ill, and passed away. It is still uncertain what the cause of his death was.  Please stop over to the JUGS site for details on how we can help this family.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Play Date Cafe Challenge # 3

I love the colors chosen for this weeks challenge at Play Date Cafe!  I used the Stampin up Real Red, which is one of my favorites, along with a white and black.  I embossed the red cs with a Sizzix embossing plate, I cut the layered panels with Spellbinders Deckled Mega Rectangles Nestabilities.  I heat embossed the Stampin up Kanji and Oriental Paintings using Versamark and black opaque embossing powder.  I used a Stampin Up punch for the Kanji squares and trimmed the red and black squares to a slightly larger size.  This is a fun challenge site, so stop by and check it out!

When Creativity Knocks Tool Hunt Tools have arrived!

Whoo Hoo!  It's here!  When Creativity Knocks Great Crafters Tool Hunt prize package has arrived! These are all the wonderful tools Ana and Megan scoped out at the CHA Craft Supershow in Florida.  I entered the contest by voting for my favorite tool, Spellbinders Impressabilities.  Spellbinders won and so did I!  Although it looks like a have a whole new list of favorites now!  Thank you Ana and Megan Araujo,and all of the Awesome Great Crafters Tool Hunt manufacturers
for making this generous prize possible!
I am so excited, I have so many wonderful tools to explore and share!  I will be highlighting each manufacturers tool(s) as I make projects with them in the coming weeks.  And these manufacturers were so very generous I am totally amazed!  I received way more than I anticipated from anyone, this is an awesome prize package!  Even more awesome than I had anticipated!  I have spent my weekend photographing  all of my wonderful new tools.  There were so many that I had to stand on a chair to get them all in the same shot!   Do you have any idea how hard it was to photograph them before I opened them?  I so wanted to tear into those packages, but I restrained myself till after the pictures were taken.  The photo above is from Cindi Bisson Associate Producer, When Creativity Knocks.  She sent me a picture of it before it arrived, it was packaged up so beautifully in baskets with cellophane and a large ribbon.  And the contents totally blew me away!  Hold on to your hats!  This is the line up!

Bazzill in Stitch'z carrying case, Bazzill In Stitch'z floss, Bazzill In Stitch'z piercing tool,  Bazzill In Stitch'z Piercing mat, Bazzill In Stitch'z 8 x 8 Flowers, Bazzill In Stitch'z Heidi Lynn's CAPS, Bazzill In Stitch'z Formal Flourishes, Bazzill Jewel Templates bling,  Bazzill jewel templates Christmas,  Bazzill jewel templates garden,  Bazzill jewel templates alphabet, Bazzill jewel templates flowers and flourishes,  Bazzill jewel templates borders Bazzill self adhesive jewels in chablis, clear, wild pansy, paulypoo and desert sun!  Wow!  They even gave me the carrying case to keep it all organized!  Thank you Bazzill, this is a totally awesome package!    I can't wait to try it all out!

imaginisce i*top Brad Maker,  imaginisce i*top Medium Topper Punch, imaginisce i*top  Small Topper Punch, 2 packages imaginisce i*top  Small Brad Daddies,  2 packages imaginisce i*top  Medium Brad Daddies, imaginisce i*top Topper Template for all 3 sizes.  Thank you imaginisce!

Tattered Angels Glimmer Screens Vintage Ice, attered Angels Tweezers, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Turquoise Blue, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Wheatfields, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Deep Plum, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Coffee Shop, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Pink Taffy,

Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Iridescent Gold.  Thank you Tattered Angels!

Spellbinders  Impressabilities Paisley, Spellbinders Impressabilities Snowflake, Spellbinders Impressabilities Butterfly, Spellbinders ImpressabilitiesCircles, Spellbinders Impressabilities Tulips, Spellbinders Impressabilities Flourish.  Thank you Spellbinders and congrats on winning the Great Crafters Tool Hunt along with me!

We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper 1/4" & 1/2" round     
Completely Stencible  Re-Usable, Customizable Stenciling Kit         
McGill Angel Punch

Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro                                                                      

Easy Arranger 5"  and Dangles in Champagne

Thank you all, these are wonderful prizes I will truly enjoy for years to come!

These are the extra items sent along with the prize package from When Creativity Knocks. 
Creative Hot Marks

Scraperfect Perfect Printing Pouch                                                    

Clover Sweetheart Rose Maker 

Thank you Ana and Megan Araujo, When Creativity Knocks Executive Producer/Designer

and Cindi Bisson Associate Producer and all of the Awesome Great Crafters Tool Hunt manufacturers for making this generous prize possible!  I just can't thank all of you enough, this is so much more than I ever could have dreamed of!

Be sure to stop by When Creativity Knocks, Ana and Megan Araujo bring you fun, creative projects each week.  Ana travels across the country hosting home crafting parties for amateurs.  Each episode features projects for all ages.  Episodes can be viewed weekly on When Creativity Knocks.  This is an informative and interactive site.  Be sure to check out the Bloggers Bonanza (promoting designers blogs) and Creative journal, 2 of my favorite spots. Thanks for sharing the excitement with me, many new projects featuring these tools will follow.  ~Diane

Two for One Challenge

 

I made this card with 2 challenges in mind.  The sweet little bird on a pumpkin is a free digital image from Nina May of There's Magic in the Air.  Nina taught me how to download and adjust a digital image.  I am also using this for a new color challenge, over at Play Date Cafe.  The colors are orange, yellow and dark brown.  

The products I used for this card are as follows. The beautiful designer paper is K &Company Brenda Walton Mira, you can't see the pretty shiny gold trim in this photo, it is gorgeous paper.  I used DCWV Heritage textured cs in brown, a vellum flower I made on the Cricut, I embossed with a Sizzix texture plate and cut and embossed with Spellbinders Labels 8.  The orange cs was from a sale.  This was a fun but really challenging exercise for me.  I would have to say color is my weak point in papercrafting so I am happy to be learning more at Play Date Cafe.  And I am also new to digital art, Nina at There's Magic in the Air has already helped me there, now I just need to master some coloring techniques.  Hope you enjoyed this, thanks for looking.  ~Diane

Just Us Girls challenge # 5 card

This is my entry for the 5th Just Us Girls Challenge.  This week they have challenged us to create a holiday card designed to present a photo.  This is a special Wild Card Challenge with a little something for everyone who plays.  You will have to go to their site to check it out!  I used clear polyester to make this card which is 5 x 7.  I used metallic blue card stock to cut the word Joy with my Cricut Plantin Schoolbook cartridge.  The holly leaves were cut on green and red metallic card stock with Cricut Stretch Your Imagination.  I found Rachael Ray in a magazine.  I hope you can see it well enough.  The J and 2 cut outs of holly are on the front, the OY is on the inside and I put a large holly leaf next to the Y for a signature.  Hope you enjoy, thanks for looking.  ~Diane 

Thank you Aletha for the Beautiful Mandala.

I won this beautiful mandala in a giveaway hosted on our Etsy Greetings Team Blog.  The Etsy Greetings Team is a membership group I proudly belong to.  Our profile: We are a dynamic team of greeting card artists who collaborate to promote our artisan-ship through Etsy.com.

Our goal is to become the number one resource for buyers seeking quality handmade cards.

About The Artist: Her name is Aletha and she lives in Tulsa, OK, better known as “tornado alley.” She is a self-taught artist and says she is still in the process of learning. She loves rubber stamps, mixed media, and collage.  She started with rubber stamp art around 10 years ago after working at Hobby Lobby as assistant manager. Rubber stamps, watercolors, paints, inks, paper, etc., are all a part of her. What comes out of that are collages, mini wall art, frameable art cards, greeting cards, note cards, handbound journals, bookmarks, mandalas, and seasonal items. If she can stamp it, paint it, cut it, tear it, glue it, varnish it, she will do it.  And the results are breathtaking.  Aletha's shops are  named AJ's Designs.  She has an Etsy shop along with an ArtFire and 1000 Markets locations.   Aletha also does spotlight interviews on her blog featuring fellow Etsy artists.  She is always thinking of others.  Her work is beautiful as you can see.  She not only sent me the lovely mandala of my choice (eggplant and teal) I also received one of her beautiful handmade cards and bookmarks, which are equally beautiful.   So what is a mandala? Mandala means "circle."  The design is concentric and based on circular composition.  The mandala can represent any stage of life, past, present and future.   I have decided to display my mandala in my craft room where it will bring harmony to my creativity and also remind me of my wonderful friend who gave it to me.  Thank you again Aletha, for all of your kindness.  ~Diane

Challenge Card for Just Us Girls

I made this card for a new challenge blog I recently found through Mona at Cupcake Creations. I even like the name of it "Just Us Girls" challenge. This weeks challenge is to add a 3D flower to your project. This is a card my friend Michelle asked me to make for her (multitasking) ha ha. I made my flower out of vellum on my Cricut. I get these amazing vellum colors from PaperandMore. I put seed beads in the center. I used Apricot Appeal, and the patterned paper is from Memory Boutique. I used the Martha Stewart lace punch on the bottom, and this is a
5 x 7 card. And I found the velvet ribbon on sale at JoAnns. I hope you like it
and thanks for looking. ~Diane

Play Date Cafe

This is my entry for the Play Date Cafe color challenge. It reminds me of what Autumn in Michigan sometimes looks like. I had a tough time photographing this. I am working on a greatly needed new set up for photography. I don't know if you can see it, I used the Crystal Effects to layer the leaves for a more dimensional look. I used Core'dinations on the brown tree and leaves and Cuttlebug folder Snowflakes and Swiss Dots. I cut the tree, pumpkin and leaves from Cricut Stretch Your Imagination. I added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the snowflakes. Not sure if you can see it, I used a flourish Clear stamp with Stazon white opaque ink to add just a hint of wind to the picture. I must say this was a lot fun to make and the colors really challenged my imagination. Stop over to the Play Date Cafe and see what the designers made.Below is the color challenge. Thanks for looking. ~Diane

Don't forget!

Tellen's Place
3 Separate Blog Candy giveaways, 10/23, 10/26 and 10/31. Don't miss out!

The Play Date Cafe
Starts it's brand new challenge blog today! The design team has some awesome examples to get our creative juices flowing!

The Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge Blog Candy
Is good through October 23rd. Make sure you stop by their blog, they have a great challenge going too. Look at my side bar the candy looks awesome! Click on Sonia for the current challenge.

Paper Arts
Blog is celebrating 30,000 hits mark. Congratulations! Carole!

Twinkles Glow with Stamps
Is giving blog candy to 2 of her followers! Wish her a
Happy Birthday, awesome candy too! Ends October 30th.
Good Luck! ~Diane

Having fun

I bought this digital image to show support for my friend Kristen at Kards and Klay. She is a really sweet and sincere blog sister whose blog I love. I love this paper, DCWV Glitter Collection, and as I was working with my Christmas Candelabra cards, I thought her image would look perfect! Definitely for someone with a great sense of humor I know, but guess what? It is getting more views in my Etsy shop than my Candelabra cards! I am not the only one who needs some humor in their life! This image actually has a cow and a bull, now that I think about that, I realize I called the bull a cow! I'll have to change that in the listing for all my farm friends. Stop by Kristens Kards and Klay. She has a free Tom the Turkey digi image on her site and there is a link to her Kahwinkedink shop also. Thanks for looking. ~Diane

Fun stuff to share

So much to share today. I received my Pay It Forward Gift from Amanda at Crafty Paper Girl. I signed up for this at Amanda's site. I believe the premise is to post this on your blog to encourage generosity within the blogging community. Amanda offered to send something she made to the first 5 people to sign up, requesting only that we Pay it Forward and do the same on our blogs. So last night I received this lovely set of note cards personalized with my name. I also received one of her beautiful felt apple embellishments. (She sells these beautiful embellishments at her Etsy store) Crafty Paper Girl. I love the way she packaged this gift,right on down to the sweet little embellished note, it made it so much fun to receive! Thank you Amanda, this is really sweet.
BTW, if anyone is interested, I have only received 2 responses to my request to pay it forward, I would be happy to have 3 more. So anyone interested can view my post here and still sign up.

And on to more good things to share. I also received some lovely blog candy from Michele at Thoughts of a Cardmaking Scrapbooker. Her blog is engaging, and her work is awesome!
I found Michele's blog by following a blog hop sponsored by the Bitten By The Bug blog. I love to follow blog hops because you can find the most interesting blogs along the way. I am so happy I found your blog Michele, I love to follow you. Thank you for all of these generous goodies! I can't wait to try them out! I have never seen the cute little self inking stampers from Just Rite, I can't wait to try them out! The flowers are awesome and I am excited to try the new Peachy Keen stamp too. All the goodies were great, thank you so much Michele.

Christmas Cards and gift tags

These are some Christmas cards I worked on this weekend. I bought the lovely digital image of the chandelier from Kaboodle doodles, it is called Pink and Black. It also comes with some lovely designer paper, not shown here. This is some of my card stock stash from DCWV. I printed the image onto the designer paper, then I cut and embossed it with my Spellbinders Labels 8 Nestabilities, the matching gift tags were cut and embossed with my Deckled Mega Rectangles Nestabilities. The green and red metallic foil card stock I used for the holly leaves was a find from last year at the Dollar store. I cut them with the Cricut Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. The leaves came out so nicely, I ran back on Sunday to see if I could grab some more. Luckily I was able to snatch up a few sheets, the green is now gone. I also bought some blue and red. Not sure yet what I will do with the blue, but I'm sure you will see it here when I do. I decided to try to be more creative in my photography, so I added the branch of berries to make it look more festive. I like the way it came out. I am also working with a homemade light box so I think my photo's are a bit brighter. Thanks for looking and thanks for all of your kind comments. I sincerely do appreciate it. ~Diane

From Complicated and time consuming to simple and easy.

This is made with the DCWV THE SWEET STACK and vellum from Paper and More center flower cut with Cricut Accent Essentials cartridge,Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Pendant Shapeabilities, Spellbinders Deckled Mega Rectangles Nestabilities, small flower punched with Stampin Up punch, thank you from Stampin Up and satin ribbon.

More of the DCWV THE SWEET STACK card stock, vellum Happy Birthday printed on the computer, Princess does not show up well, but the word is made of rhinestones. Balloons made with Cricut Walk in my Garden, the crowns were made with the Sizzix embossing plate on Core'dinations card stock that I cut and sanded, then added glitter to the centers.

This cupcake was made by using my Cricut Walk in my Garden, the flower pot, I used a corner rounder on the bottom edges. The circles were punched with an EK Success punch, I used the Souffle pens to add the sprinkles. The card stock is from DCWV The Sweet Stack .

More DCWV Sweet Stack card stock and a ribbon.
So I went from complicated and time consuming to very simple and easy in these cards. I hope you enjoy, thanks for looking. ~Diane

HONEST SCRAP AWARDS

I am blessed to have two wonderful friends who were both kind enough to share this blog award with me. Thank you Gwen at Busy Little Hands
and Kristen at Kristen's Kards and Klay. These are both fantastic women
whom I met through our mutual love of making cards.
So now I am supposed to share 10 things about myself, and pass this on to 5 other people, and since I have 2 awards I actually get to share with 10! I chose all of you in particular because you are all such honest, sharing women. Your blogs and personality's are full of giving to others, none of the me, me, me that you find in society today. I am proud to know all of you.

I would like to share this award with Carole at Paper Arts thanks for being such a sweet and caring friend, I have learned so much from you. Sandi at Paper Trail thank you for encouraging me and teaching us all about Copics. Aletha of AJ's Designs for always thinking of others by dedicating your blog to featuring other artists. Jeni at PnkGeenie you also share features to promote fellow Etsians. Nina of Having an Art Attack for your kindness in sharing your digital images and teaching others how to use them. Amanda of Crafty Paper Girl, thanks for my first blog candy win, I love your style and your Southern hospitality. Kim of Paper Craft Diva, I always learn something new from you. Kathy of Sweet Up North Mornings, your blog always makes me feel calm and refreshed. Carol of Extreme Cards, thanks for sharing your knowledge on the Wow factor. I am really so fortunate to have met all of these Amazing Women and to be able to learn from all of them.

10 things about me, I don't know that I am all that interesting, but here goes.

1. I love to cook, I make up most of my recipes nothing fancy, my other Email is eyelike2cook.
2. I worked for 15 years in sales and marketing as an account manager selling industrial plastics.
3. I quit my job to care for my Mother and Father in law and manage their health problems.
4. I had 3 children, my first 2 were twin girls I carried full term, but one of my little girl's was still born, she twisted herself up in the umbilical cord 48-72 hours before delivery.
5. I was 33 when my daughters were born and 38 with my son.
6. I have a tender heart, I cry too easily and care way too much about my friends.
7. I am Mom to my son's friends, who love to eat here and encourage me to open a restaurant.
8. I once sold a record breaking $72,000.00 order completely by phone, never meeting the customer in person.
9. I am probably one of the most loyal people you will ever know.
10. I have been fortunate enough to be married to the love of my life for 25 almost 26 years.

Just for Fun

Mojo Madness 107 Contest

OK so I am taking a stab at some challenges this week. This is not my usual style, but when I saw the layout at MojoMonday Sketch Blog I immediately thought of the crown embellishments and Princess rhinestones I bought last week. The rest of the card somewhat evolved from there. I kept trying different ribbons, and I did not like any of them until went for my mini boa. Perfect fit, and after all this is just for fun. And I certainly did have fun making this one. Thanks for looking. ~Diane

CLEARLY AUTUMN

The smell of Autumn is in the air. The trees are beginning to shed their leaves, everyone is busy putting the Halloween decorations up. So to celebrate Autumn, my favorite time of year, I made this card on clear polyester film. I made all the pieces with my Cricut Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. The pumpkins were cut from More Mustard Stampin Up, the leaves are done with Core'dinations Whitewash. I added some gold ink to the pumpkins, I like the effect. The tall pumpkin lying on its side is actually on the inside of the card, to be used as the signature plate. Thanks for looking~Diane

READY SET CREATE HAS PUBLISHED 3 OF MY CARDS!

UPDATE TO THIS POST, NEWS JUST IN 1CARDCREATOR HAS BEEN INFORMED SHE HAS WON A BEAUTIFUL MANDALA FROM ALETHA AT AJ'S DESIGNS! Whoo Hoo!
I will post it and show it to all of you when I receive it. Aletha allowed me to choose anyone I liked, and she will make it for me! Thank you so much Aletha for your generosity! I can't wait to share your beautiful creation with everyone. More Happy Time moves for me! This should be good for my waistline!

Whoo Hoo, this girl is doing another happy dance! Ready Set Create has chosen 3 of my cards for publication in their October/November E-Zine. If you would like to see them you will need to purchase the issue. I am so blessed with so many wonderful things lately! Thanks for sharing my excitement. ~Diane

MAGICAL MONDAY CHALLENGE CARD - Ribbon & Bow, Eldon with Flower

Eldon with Flower


Below is what it looks like when you shake the beads around.

This week I needed to make a card for a special young man. So I made this challenge card for There's Magic in the Air. The image is totally free and totally adorable! The challenge calls for the use of Eldon with Flower and use some ribbon and a bow. I followed Curt's lead and gave him a bow tie and attached the ribbon to the planter. I've been wanting to make another shaker card ever since I saw Curt's shaker cards. So I copied the image on to a piece of clear acetate and colored it with Dixon overhead projection markers (that I found at the dollar store) I used Spellbinders Labels 8 Nestabilities
to cut a window into card stock from DCWV THE SWEET STACK . I used the dimensional foam to separate the acetate from the card stock , added a piece of torn green vellum from Paper and More and placed two colors of green seed beads into the card for the shaker element. This was fun to make and I hope my special young man will like it, I know I do. Thanks for looking. ~Diane

CHECK OUT MY SPOTLIGHT AT AJ'S DESIGNS BLOG!

ALETHA FROM AJ'S DESIGNS MADE THIS BEAUTIFUL MANDALA

THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL MANDALA ORNAMENT MADE BY ALETHA FROM AJ'S DESIGNS

FOLLOW THIS LINK TO MY SPOTLIGHT

Wonderful Aletha from AJ's Designs who is a team member sister on the EtsyGreetings Team, did a really nice spotlight on me. I am really honored that she chose me, and you can stop by her blog and get to know me better. She asks such good questions for the interview, she really gets you thinking. She regularly chooses EtsyGreetings team members to spotlight, so it's a good blog to follow or bookmark. It just so happens she has a giveaway on the EtsyGreetings Team blog this week also, you can find the link in my sidebar. She is offering as a giveaway your choice of one of her beautiful Mandala cards OR an actual mandala.. Above are two samples of her work. She has had interest from one of the museums for her work on Mandala's. Thanks Aletha for choosing me, and going to all the trouble, I really appreciate it!
Happy Friday,thanks for looking. ~Diane

THANK YOU AMANDA FOR THE BLOG CANDY

Thank you Amanda from Crafty Paper Girl for the lovely blog candy you sent me. This is a card I made with the sweet owl stamp and pretty orange patterned paper you sent me. I am saving the buttons and ribbon for another project.



I also used card stock from DCWV NANA'S Kitchen, crystal effects and the cute googly neon eyes I found at a dollar store looked perfect for him. The fleur was made with Cricut Accent Essentials cartridge, and the sentiment is made with Cricut Walk in my Garden. Check out Amanda's Etsy shop, CraftyPaperGirl, she has some awesome felt owl embellishments there among many other fine things. This card is on its way to you Amanda.

Today is the debut of my watermark from Mama Dini's Digi-Sig Diner . Can you see it on my owl card? This beautiful watermark was designed for me by Dina Kowal and I am so happy with what she made for me. She was even kind enough to direct me to some free software, along with instructions for how to get the watermark to appear on my cards. Her work is beautiful, I bought all 3 colors white, black and gray. Have a great day and thanks for looking. ~Diane

MY AWESOME ARIZONA ROAD RUNNER

I am such a lucky gal! So many wonderful things have been happening to me, I feel truly blessed. My design team sister Carole made me this lovely embroidered ARIZONA ROAD RUNNER towel. Isn't it gorgeous? I absolutely love it, thank you Carole you are such a sweet and generous person! The best part of being on a design team is getting to know other crafters and sharing knowledge. As you see in the picture along side the towel, there are the beautiful butterflies Carole made with alcohol inks. She also sent me a piece of the acetate all inked up in the alcohol ink. I bought some of these a while back, but I never used them as I really wasn't sure what to do with them. Thank you Carole for teaching me yet another exciting medium to work with. She knows I love butterflies, and she also knows I love working with the acetate. And best of all she knows I love to learn new things, and she is all about new things. Thanks again Carole, you are a terrific design team sister, and friend. Stop by her blog and see her beautiful work. She has a gorgeous card posted there today with sweet little coffee cups on it.

CUSTOM CARD FOR GLENNA

I have been working on this card for the last few days, I wanted to share it with you. Glenna asked me to make this for her friends husband because she wanted to let him know how much she appreciated everything he did for her friends 40th Birthday. She found a similar card in my shop, and started thinking like I do when I get a great idea for a card. So we truly did design this card together, and it was a lot of fun. I had a chance to get to know Glenna and she is a very sweet and creative person. She has to be if she went to all this trouble for her friend. The inside of the card represents the back of an envelope. How many of you remember when you put the return address on the back of the card? We decided to use a little creative license, to be able to show the lining of the envelope. I made the envelope into a gusseted pocket, where I placed 20 special notes, all trimmed in gold ink. I typed out all the special things he did to make her Birthday special. I was touched by the sweetness and care not only of this husband to his wife, but also the sweetness of Glenna, making sure this did not go unnoticed. Each note tells a little story about all the very sweet things this man did for his wife's Birthday. Glenna hopes this will be a special memento for her friend and her husband.
I would have to say this is the best part of my Etsy shop, I get to know the people I am designing something for, and I get to share a small part of their celebrations. I am always touched by their kindness to each other and to me. In the process, I get to become a part of their history. Thank you Glenna for sharing this with me. Thanks for looking ~Diane

WINNER OF THE WHEN CREATIVITY KNOCKS GREAT CRAFTERS TOOL HUNT!

Drum roll please!!!!!!!! The Winners are Spellbinders Impressabilities ....... AND ME!!!!
How awesome is this!!!! I am so excited, I just received this lovely e mail - I will let Ana tell you, I am almost too excited to speak or write!

Congratulations! You are the lucky winner of ALL THE TOOLS in the first When Creativity Knocks Great Crafter’s Tool Hunt! The manufacturers are sending the tools to us and as soon as we have them all, we’ll package them up and ship them off to you so you can start creating with them! Thank you for taking part in the tool hunt and casting your vote. We hope you saw some great new tools you’ll be excited to try. We also hope you have explored our website and will continue to be a part of our forum, view our episodes, etc. The episode library is full of inspiration, and we have product reviews and more in our forum.

Whoo Hooo! Thank you, Thank you! And Thank you! I am so excited!! I am doing the happy dance right here, right now! Those are some awesome tools, and now they are mine! I can't wait to get them and start using them!!! Yippee! Hooray! Whoo Hooo! and many Thanks again! I can't wait to share the news with all my crafting friends!!! Thank you for all the great tutorials explaining how to use each and every item. I love your web site with all the great episodes, and the library is wonderful to go back to and explore! You will see me as a regular in your forum too. And thanks for all the inspiration too! I can't wait!

This is the Awesome Great Crafters Tool Hunt manufacturers line up!

Spellbinders - Impressabillities is the winning Cool Tool!
This was my vote, and they won too, see what they had to say!

Impressabilities Rules! We Won! If I can quote Stacey Caron, “Yeahhhhh!!!!! Yippee!!!!! Yahoo!!!!!!” We owe our faithful readers a huge thank you for supporting us and for loving our Impressabilities templates! Don’t forget to check in over at When Creativity Knocks, a lucky entrant will win a prize package of one of all the nominated tools featured in the contest! That's me! Spellbinders wins a full-length episode featuring the Spellbinders Impressabilities and will be featured on the When Creativity Knocks website as the When Creativity Knocks Best Tool and receive a trophy! We’ll let you know when that episode is ready to view, and show off our trophy too! So thank you again, from the bottom of our hearts! We really appreciate your support!

We are memory Keepers
Tattered Angels
McGill
Imaginisce
Hanna's Stamps
Glue Arts
Easy Arranger
Completely Stencible -
Bazill - Squeezer...

I cant wait to get them and try them all out!! I will give you an update when they come, and show you all the cool tools, and what they do!
Thank you Ana Araujo , When Creativity Knocks Executive Producer/Designer
and all of the Awesome Great Crafters Tool Hunt manufacturers
for making this generous prize possible! ~Diane

STEPPING OUTSIDE MY COMFORT ZONE

I entered this card in 2 challenges Theres Magic In The Air and Digital TuesdayChallenge.

The only way to grow is to learn new things. And with the internet and all of your wonderful blogs there is no shortage of things to learn! I know it's hard to sometimes step outside of our comfort zone, but we have to if we want to keep our designs fresh. I have been doing a lot of that lately. So this week I am really taking a leap! I am going to actually "enter" a challenge, first time, don't laugh. I've done contests, but never challenges. I have to say I admire all of you who do this on a daily basis. I visit your blogs and see that you make such beautiful cards and sometimes enter them into 3, 4, or 5 challenges!
Now if that's not scary enough, I am also going to do my very first digital image! Actually it's not that scary, thanks to Nina at There's Magic in the Air. She is offering some free digital images, but she has also offered a wonderful tutorial "What is a digital image and how do I use it". Thank you Nina, I've read tutorials on other sites and just reading them left me feeling confused and believing I needed some fancy programs to print one. She explains it so clearly you just have to try it!
This challenge on her beautiful Deco Flower image calls for you to heat or dry emboss something on the card along with her free image. This is a 5 x 7 card, I used my Spellbinders Labels 8 Nestabilities, to cut and dry emboss. I colored the flower with Marvy Embossing markers, and used Stampin Up Glassy glaze embossing powder. Since I took Nina's suggestion to make a few images on the same page, I cut part of the flower out after I heat embossed it, and laid it over the original image. I also heat embossed the flower on the original image, on the opposite petals, so the colors look shaded but they aren't. I used the new Souffle 3D opaque ink for the leaves, along with a green marker. The beads were stitched together but I had to cut them up and place them on the stem 1 by 1. I added the ribbon and hid the rough ends by making slits and tucking it to the inside of the card. Thank you Nina for offering the instructions and the free image, I don't think I would have tried this if I had to buy one, but now that I see how easy it is, I will probably buy some in the future. One thing I did discover, is that I need some better coloring tools! Well, thanks for looking. ~Diane

I love this little Sizzlet Chloe.
I used my Cuttlebug Swiss dots folder along with my labels 8 from Spellbinders.

FUSSY FUSSY CARDS

I've been busy all day working on these cards. They are so fussy and they do take quite a bit of time to cut, emboss, stamp and layer together. I don't know if you can see from the picture, but I made them with clear Mylar. Actually the Mylar has quite a bit more visual clarity to it than the acetate I usually use. I also used the brightly colored vellum from Paper and More. I used the Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Pendant and the Petite Ovals Nestabilities . The ribbon trim took forever to get in place, but it is worth it, because it really lends a rich look to the cards. I have found that the Fleur de Lis Pendant die can be a little fussy at times, but the Spellbinders site recommends that you add a piece of wax paper between the die and your card stock or vellum. That helps the problem of trying to remove the cut outs from the die, but I still have a problem getting the die to cut in the inside square. I have found 2 tricks that work for me that I will share. I take a thin piece of computer paper, cut it to the small size square, and place it behind the inner square only. I also have a magnet that is cut to the width of the plate. So I can run it through once in one direction and to run it in the other direction I only have to turn the magnet 1/4 turn. I'm making these as challenge gifts, I thought it would be cute to send them my $100 card! Lol. So girls if you see the color you want put your dibs on it quick! I have the hot pink I used for the Spellbinders contest already cut out, but not assembled as yet. And I have 1 more to make tomorrow, not sure what color that will be. I'm leaning towards the orange, I have another one of those pretty orange vellum flowers from the Cricut left over. I hope you are all enjoying your day. Thanks for looking ~Diane

SYMPATHY CARDS

I promised I would post some pictures later today, so here they are. Sadly 3 of my girlfriends have asked me for sympathy cards in the last 2 weeks. I will let Michelle pick her two, then I will list the others in my shop. This is a lovely Stampin Up set, Close as a Memory. I have had it for almost a year and this is the first time I have used it. The image has a watercolor effect, and my watercolors were a little too bright! I stamped the image in Mellow Moss SU, ivory and olive (I think) are Stampin Up. I should say I know for sure they are Stampin Up, I am just unsure of the names of the colors. I used the Spellbinders Labels 8 Nestabilities and the Spellbinders Deckled Mega Rectangles Nestabilities. I stamped one in black ink, and the other three I used the black embossing powder, I like that better. I glued Cricut flowers to one, used a shimmery watercolor paint on another, used my Aqua painter and some Stampin Up ink on another, and my 2 way glue pen and glitter on another. Well I hope you like these. Thanks for Looking, ~Diane

MY CREATIVE PROCESS

This is what the finished cards look like.
These are all of my creative stumbles, failed attempts, none of these would work for me.

I am getting ready to start up in the card club again this year. I dropped out last year and gave it a break so I am excited to get back to it again. So much inspiration! We do a card swap when we meet, you make however many cards all the same, and you leave with the same number of cards, 1 from each player. It is so much fun, but I am having a hard time getting back into the swing of the 4 x 5 card format. I have been making the 5 x 7 cards for the last year and it gives me so much more room to create. I finished my cards, but I feel bad, they are not my best. I just couldn't seem to get what I wanted on to the paper.
I bring this up because a friend of mine asked me the other day "how long does it take you to make a card?" I tried to explain to her the physical making is not what takes time, it's getting the idea. Once I have the idea it's easy peasy!
For the swap I had this great idea to use some of my tie dye card stock. I cut some vase's with my Cricut and and some vellum flowers. I put these real pretty 1/2 pearls I found in the center. I don't like it, the vases are too big and they look dumb with the flower. Forget the vases, I'll just use the flowers. I cut some shapes with my new Spellbinders labels 8 die (one of my winnings from the Spellbinders contest). I embossed my cardstock with the Cuttlebug folder, then I decided to run through some stick and peel gold foil to add the bird as an element. I cut out all the birds and stuck them on the card stock and then I embossed the bird onto the card stock. Ok so I like the look of this but not the color of the card stock I chose. Change colors, I then use the Swiss dots Cuttlebug folder to emboss the frame I made with the labels 8. Then I decide the brown card looks too plain. I use a Sizzix embossing plate on that. But to emboss the front I needed to change the direction of how the card opens. Looks good, with the labels 8 rounded corners I decide it would look nice if I punched the corners round too. Ok I like that too. I add a ribbon, ok I guess. It needs something, and it's not the pretty vellum flower. The flower is too big! Ok go through all my embellishments to see what would look good. Problem, I now need to find something large enough to hide where I peeled the flowers off of the ribbon. Ok these pretty metal flowers are in the right size and scale (somewhat) but the centers are plain. Go through my bling and see what I can find. I tried rhinestones in red then green, nope! I see, the bright yellow seed beads! I put it on and say I'm done, but I'm just not that happy with the results. It's not ugly, I'm not fishing for someone to say oh, it's nice, I know it's ok. I just know I had something in my head and I could not translate that to the paper and it disappointed me. So that's what I mean when I say it's the idea that takes time. Am I the only one who creates cards like this? What do you do when you stumble and just can't seem to get it right?
Thanks for reading ~Diane

STUFFED CABBAGE RECIPE TO SHARE

Not many of you know my alias is eyelike2cook, in fact my cards are still listed that way over at SCS. You know the whole thing about not being able to change your name. So today I decided I would share my other passion with you. This beautiful fall weather always puts me in the mood for stuffed cabbage. I love stuffed cabbage, but I hate to carefully peel the leaves off the cabbage to make it. It is always so tedious and time consuming. So last night for dinner I found a new way to stuff cabbage, in the pan. It really turned out good, so here's the recipe.
Pan Stuffed Cabbage
approx 1lb ground round
2 heads of cabbage
1 package Spanish rice (dry mix)
approx 3 cups tomato sauce (I didn't measure)
2 eggs
Mix eggs, rice mix and meat together, slice cabbage in 1/2, then into 1/2 inch slices. Place 1/2 of the sliced cabbage in the bottom of a very deep pan(large lasagna pan). Place the meat/rice mixture on top of the cabbage, then put the other 1/2 of the cabbage on top. Pour the tomato sauce on top. Cover with parchment paper, then foil to seal tight. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Results - awesome, I will never peel another cabbage leaf ! I hope you enjoyed this, thanks for looking. ~Diane

POP UP CARDS

Carole has a great challenge this week, pop up cards! I love making pop ups, they always bring such amazement to anyone who opens one up. They can range from simple to time consuming and elaborate. There are many ways to make a shelf, or you can buy pre made shelves to stick in your card. There is also the wire or plastic pop up that has your item spring forth and really pop out at you. I have pulled together some of my pop ups to share.

This is the inside of the card I made for this weeks challenge.
Card made with card stock from DCWV NANA'S Kitchen. Die cut flowers, grass and stems all made with Cricut Plantin Schoolbook, Cricut Accent Essentials and Cricut Walk in my Garden Misc supplies, mirrored butterfly, chunky black glitter, rhinestones, vellum butterfly with seed beads and Bazzil bitty blossoms.

Front of same card.

This is the inside of a card I custom made for a special customer in my Etsy store. I cut the balloons with my Cricut and stamped them, and added tiny strings to some of the balloons.

I made these with my vellum butterflies a while back when I was on a pop up kick!

This is an insanely detailed card, but I love it! I hand stamped the flowers, cut them out, stamped , cut and colored the bee, then covered it in Crystal effects. Like the balloon card I mounted the flowers in 3 layers.

For the front of the card I used an expensive napkin someone gave me as a gift. I found a technique make it into fancy cardstock. I separated the napkin layers, I then placed a piece of saran wrap on top of a sheet of cardstock and placed the napkin on top of that and ironed it until it stuck together. Did I say this was insanely time consuming? I used some of my vellum butterflies and dragonflies. I made 10 of these for the ladies in my card swap!

Well I hope you enjoyed my pop ups. Thanks for looking~Diane

Organizational tips for Scrapaholics

I need to organize, when my workspace is cluttered my brain stumbles on that clutter and it blocks my creativity. And now that I have recently joined the ranks of crafters who are addicted to Spellbinders , Quickcutz and Cuttlebug, I have a more pressing desire to organize my scraps. You don't need to waste a whole sheet of paper to cut with any of these dies or folders, so they are very economical in the sense that you can use up all those small scraps. That's what I told my DH, I need the dies so I can save money by using up all my scraps. That is if I can find them.

So I have decided to tackle the job of organizing my scraps. I currently keep my scraps in a very large shoe box on top of my worktable and another couple of shoe boxes on the shelf in the closet. Not a very desirable way to keep them, so I do more collecting of scraps then using them. Help came from my design sisters. Carole, summed it up well, " I keep even the smallest of papers and I have 3 trays. They are untidy, spill over and yell at me constantly to use them." I couldn't have said it any better Carole! (Mine are actually beginning to whine.)Margie admits "OK this is embarrassing, but this is what is happening to all of my scraps! It's all just getting stuffed on my keyboard shelf under my desk! I was hoping to use that shelf for "things I'm currently working on", but it turned into this, LOL! I need help! I hear you Margie, trust me, my mess is worse than yours. I've been saving mine since 2001!

Cara said "OK be nice!! I'm attaching my scrap bin. hee hee So you don't think I waste lots of paper, my SU demo has graciously shared bags of scraps with me, and 1/3 of the tote is instructional material I've collected in my 11 years of scrapping/stamping. What can I say , it works for me. It looks pretty organized to me, and it looks like you are actually using your scraps!I did some research and I found a few basic ways to organize your scraps. Some suggest to use an accordion file, and file by color, placing similar shades in the same section. This is good if you do crops, but I am more of a visual person, and I could fill 4 accordion folders!

ehow.com had an interesting 10 step program that ultimately ends with using a Cropper Hopper vertical paper holder. But I have to say I found step 3 to be somewhat amusing. "When deciding what to save, you might also consider factors like (a) is this an unusual color? or (b) do I have a lot more of this color or is this my last sheet? or (c) is this a color group that I use a lot? have a lot more of this color or is this my last sheet? and (4) is this a color group I use a lot of? I tend to save smaller sized scraps of unusual colors and expensive paper. I also tend to save smaller scraps if they go along with a larger scrap of the exact same color (like keeping a skinny strip that matches a larger rectangle of the same paper)"
Whew! Obviously I don't put that much thought into what I save, which is probably why I am buried in 4 boxes of it? ( I don't know, maybe I need to call my sponsor on it!)

The best idea for me came from a 5/15/07 post by Korie, we will always have paris. I liked this the best because it was more visual, and although much neater than mine will probably be, it's a great place to start. She has suggested the Cropper Hopper, along with color sorting, and she even made fancy labeled rimmed circle tags for them. (I'll skip the fancy tags.) I like the idea that it is simple, visual and they don't look like they take that much effort to keep up. Here is a picture from her site.

Both Carole and Cara also cut their scraps up ahead for embellishments. I have some thin scraps that I was thinking about punching some border edges onto, so they will be ready to go.

I save my paper scraps because I love the color, texture, pattern and feel of all the card stock and papers that I have. So what do you do with your paper scraps? Do you have an organizational tip you can share? Or do you just plop them in a box like me?
I'd love to hear your comments. ~Diane

Negatively Speaking

POSITIVELY STUNNING NEGATIVE CHALLENGE!

This is my negative card, my negative image is the Cricut cut out that was left after I cut out all those little flowers. This was certainly fun for me! Thanks for looking. ~Diane

Negatively Speaking

Today's post deals with using negatives, to utilize your scraps. I will show you how I made this acetate card with a left over negative from my Cricut.

Congratulations to the Tuesday Challenge winners...

3 of the Fav's (Top 3):
BrainyBairn

Kristen

SMK

Overall Winner!!!
Julia Moss

Thanks for looking ~Diane

Carole's Grand Opening

My friend Carole has just opened her Etsy shop,
would love to see you all support her

"I love sewing. I have seven sewing machines and they all are used frequently. Two machines are Brother Embroidery machines and there is such fun in creating projects with darling embroidery designs. I love to keep on hand embroidery hand towels to offer up as blog candy... this froggy represents one of the twenty froggy designs and earlier this year I finished a frog quilt. I am a frog collector and I have a bedroom with about 40 frogs sitting around from huge stuffed frogs to tiny little display frogs on a keychain.

I keep my creations. So much of my heart gets put upon anything I make so I just keep everything... I have stacks of quilts and towels, table runners, baby blankets and quilts, embroidery t-shirts, totes, trays and trays of cards that I have uploaded to various online sites, cards for design teams, cards that have been published. Now is the time I must finally open my Etsy shop.

The shop is open, but as of this moment, the shelves have not been stocked. My shop name is www.crayola58.etsy.com. Soon it will have cards of all styles and cute little handmade totes."

Isn't this the cutest hand towel!

Isn't it sweet! Thanks for looking ~Diane

Date as the main focus on a card

USE A DATE AS THE MAIN FOCUS OF YOUR CARD, LAYOUT, OR ALTERED PROJECT.

Recipe: White and orange cs, Spellbinders Classic Ovals Nestabilities, Just Rite Calendar Borders & Centers Oval Set Fiscars stamps, Tim Holtz mask, folk art black acrylic paint, crystal effects Stampin Up.

This is the first time I have ever worked with a mask, actually I thought I was buying a stencil. I was so wishing I had a black Copic Marker and an air gun! Copics would have made it so easy, but I had to make do with what I had. It was a little bit tricky to get the hang of it, but quite easy once you know what you are doing. I found the best results using a THICK white card stock. I stuck my mask on to the white cs and used a foam brush to apply the black acrylic paint. I did have a problem with the paint seeping under the mask, so for the last try I applied the paint and then immediately sponged up the excess paint from on top of the mask with a paper towel. I am happy with the final result. ~Diane

Spellbinders Grand Prize Winner!

Congratulations Margarita, of Grand Junction, Colorado, USA! She is the Grand Prize Winner in the Spellbinders Pendant Project contest! The Random Integer Generator made the final decision, which was a very fair way to do it. I won $100 in Spellbinder products, had a wonderful time working on my entries, following the reveals and being chosen in the Top 5! That in itself was quite a prize, so thank you Spellbinders and your Coordinating partners, I will be back again!

I also want to mention a challenge near and dear to my heart, posted by my friend Sandi at Paper Trail "Adopt a Teacher". Stop by her blog and read about how you can help, it's a wonderful and rewarding way to share our love of crafting. Thanks Sandi, (my daughter starts her first year of teaching on 8/31) for your challenge, you are Awesome!

This is my homemade flower card.

Recipe:Flower was made with Cricut Walk in my Garden and vellum from Paper and More. Spellbinders Petite Ovals Nestabilities and Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Pendant Shapeabilities. Beautiful background card stock from DCWV THE SWEET STACK, rhinestone and ribbon.

Where'd All My Money Go?!

I love the name of Steph's blog, Where'd All My Money Go?! I bet we all can relate to it too! She reached over 25,000 blog hits recently and she is looking to share the love with the most awesome Blog Candy! She will purchase a gift card or gift certificate to the place of your choice, so that you can get what you want! Are you ready for the Awesome part? The amount of the gift card will be $150. You have until 8/28 at 10 PM (central) to enter. I am posting and sharing this with you for totally selfish reasons, I want a chance to win! LOL You will totally enjoy your visit to her blog, as you scroll through her posts to the 8/9 Blog Candy post, check out all the beautiful cards and ideas along the way. And be sure to stop at the 8/12 Best Entrance post -( JK Wedding Entrance!) I love this You Tube video she kindly posted for us, I can watch it over and over. This video makes me smile from ear to ear, kinda like the way we'll be smiling if we win her blog candy! Thanks Steph, and good luck to us all! ~Diane

BUBBLES OF FUN DESIGNER CARD STOCK

Bubbles of Fun Designer Card Stock
Hello everyone, remember how much fun blowing bubbles used to be? Today's post is a tutorial which I hope will inspire you to let loose and have some fun with your paper crafting. In fact this is so much fun you could invite your children, grandchildren or friends to do this with you. I will show you how to make the Designer Bubble card stock I used in this Birthday card.

Card Recipe
Brown card stock, bubble card stock, violet pink vellum paper and the cute cake in the center is card stock from DCWV THE SWEET STACK. I cut and embossed the cake and sentiment with Spellbinders Petite Ovals Nestabilities.
I dipped the edges of my ovals in a Vivid raspberry ink pad and added some pink glitter to the flowers I cut with Cricut Walk in my Garden, and then added a brown ribbon.

Bubble Card Stock Recipe
Plastic tablecloth or protective cover for your table, plates to catch the bubble drips, small bowls, water and 1 teaspoon of sugar per small bowl. 1 bottle of bubbles- I only used 1/4 of this small bottle for all 5 dishes. Straws, food coloring (I used Neon Bright's I found at $store)
Sorry my recipe did not give a measurement for anything but the sugar. I did approximately 1 part bubbles to 2 parts water (free pour) and I added more food coloring as needed.
Card stock, I cut 8 1/2 x 11 sheets in 1/2 to make them a little easier to manage. I also try different colors because you never know what combination will look best. Rubber gloves are optional and old clothes for the little ones.

Now let the fun begin! Mix your water, bubbles, sugar and food coloring with your straw and start blowing bubbles! This was so much fun, and the bubbles were such beautiful colors too! Put a plate or old pie tin underneath to catch the mess, I figured that out a little late.

Notice the difference in the 2 bowls of bubbles? You want your bubbles to look like the top picture BIG, not the little bubbles near the straw in the second picture. Small bubbles make a large dark spot on your card stock.

Hold your card stock over the top of the bowl and let the card stock smash or break your bubbles. Pick up the card stock and move it around to fresh bubbles and keep doing this till you fill the page with bubbles (you may have to blow more bubbles to finish the page).

This does messy ,1/2 way through I added a plate underneath.

Above the card stock drying out on the table,
below you can see it brightens up after it dry's for 24 hours.

I do hope you decide to give this a try, it will definitely release the inner child in you. So now that you have your very own designer bubble card stock what will you create with it? I think it would be a great background to use as a frame on one of those cute images everyone colors in with their Copic's. Anyone else have any suggestions as to what you could do with your Designer Bubble card stock? Please share your ideas ~Diane

Chocolate brown, white and teal butterfly card

This week's Challenge is a color-combo!!

Chocolate Brown

Teal

White or Ivory

... AND to use an image using your fave coloring medium.

This is the card I made for the challenge, I used some of my bubble paper! Thanks for looking ~Diane

Spellbinders is thrilled to announce the Top 5 Winners in the Pendant Project Contest!

And I am thrilled to be one of them!

Here it is this is it! I have kept quiet since Thursday last week when I was told my card was chosen among the top 5! You have no idea how hard that has been! I just checked with Beth at Spellbinders and I can show you my card on my blog too! I have already won $100.00 in Spellbinders Dies and I have a shot at the Grand Prize of $500.00 plus goodies from Scrapbook Adhesives, My Minds Eye, Clearsnap, core'dinations and JustRite Stampers! Woo Hoo!

It was a difficult decision, there were so many entries, and so much creativity! Take a look at the Pendant Project Gallery!
Congratulations to all the top winners I share this honor with, and the 3 honorable mentions too!
Diane of Rochester Hills, Michigan, USA! Diane’s creative card using acetate and S4-204 Fleur de Lis Pendant with vellum caught our attention. That's me!
Margarita, of Grand Junction, Colorado, USA! Her entry was an elegant mini heritage album using S4-207 Kaleidoscope Pendant and S4-216 Kaleidoscope Borderabilities.
Marion of Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia! Marion’s adorable Baby card incorporated S4-208 In Spades Pendant, and S4-217 In Spades Borderabilities (both pieces!).
Monica of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada! Monica wowed us with her Queen’s Necklace. Monica used S4-204 Fleur de Lis Pendant, shrink plastic and a copper leafing pen to achieve these results!

Nicole of Wateford, Pennsylvania, USA! Nicole’s Framed Butterfly Quilt is just stunning. She used the S4-204 Fleur de Lis Pendant on this 12 x 12″ framed home decor piece.
And the honorable mentions were Baby Card by Kathy of New Plymouth, New Zealand.
Foil Pendant Card by Sandy of Canfield, Ohio, USA.
Purse by Jan of Garrison, Iowa, USA., (Jan is a blogger friend of mine!)

PAY IT FORWARD

I have been on the receiving end of Pay it Forward through an Etsy store, JTDtwo, she sent me some lovely storage boxes for the price of shipping, how sweet was that? Not to mention the very good fortune I have had of late! So when I saw this post on Amanda's Crafty Paper Girl blog I jumped at the chance! So this is how it works.

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me, especially for you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make but I hope you will.

2- What I create will be just for you.

3-They say I have a year to get it to you. But I promise it will NOT take that long.

4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It’s a surprise to both of us at this point.

The catch? You must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.

So the first five people who post, and are willing to pass it along, will get a handmade gift in the mail from me. When you get it, make sure you post a pic on your blog!

I hope you'll play along and pay it forward with me!

TODAY IS MY LUCKY DAY

Wow! My email started going crazy this morning, Claudia saw my name on the Spellbinders Blog! I am one of the Top 5 winners in the Spellbinders Pendant Project contest! Woo Hoo! Yippee! That means I have won $100.00 in Spellbinders products and I have a shot at the $500.00 Grand Prize! How awesome is that? I am so excited!!!

I also received a blog award "Circle of Friends" from my new friend and team member Margie this morning! I don't know how this day could get any better. Thanks for sharing my joy! ~Diane

And I'm passing it on to to these friends.

Carole
Sandi
Kristen
Jeni
Tara

Bubbles of fun Designer Bubble card stock

Hello and happy Friday! This is my newest card, I wrote you another tutorial, this one explains how to make the Designer Bubble card stock I featured in this card. I hope you enjoy it Thanks for looking ~Diane

Blog Award from Sandi at Paper Trail

Wow, how great is this! I have a blog award! My very sweet friend Sandi at Paper Trail sent me this blog award. My kids can hardly believe Mom writes a blog, when I told my daughter I received an award from a friend she just shook her head and said "I don't even know how to write a blog!" I haven't been blogging for very long, but I do love all the people I have met and all the inspiring sites I have visited. Blogging has opened a whole new world for me, and I love it. So now I need to list 5 things I love and choose 5 others to pass this on to.
The 5 things I love will have to start with:
1. My family and friends (including all my new blogging friends)
2. Don't laugh, I love to cook, I married my Italian sweetie, and became Italian through osmosis.
3. I love to make cards, that's a given.
4. Air conditioning, we Northern gals just can't take the heat and humidity.
5. Helping people. I know it sounds corny, but I feel like my blog gives me the opportunity to reach out and share what I've learned and help others in the process.

Now for the hard part, choosing 5 others to share this with. I have to say it will be my sisters in the Die Cuts R Us design team. This is a wonderful group of women whom I greatly admire.
Margie
Jessica
Cara
Amber
Gwen
Carole who introduced me to Sandi, also received this award from Sandi, so it's not mine to give to her, but I can't leave her off my list.
Please stop by to see their blogs, they have so much inspiration!
And thank you again Sandi! ~Diane