Just Us Girls Challenge # 16 Valentine

When I saw these colors over at the Just Us Girls Challenge I knew exactly what I wanted to make!  I have to say that is a really good feeling, especially since I was experiencing a little bit of a creative block the last few weeks.  I am so glad that is over and now I have a ton of ideas swimming around in my head again!  For this Valentine I used Stampin Up Very Vanilla, Core'dinations for the Burgundy, an unknown Gray cardstock and a paper flower for the Blush.  The awesome image that had all of these same colors in it came from Artfreebies.  Jeanette and June have some beautiful Vintage images there that they so graciously share with anyone who would like to stop by.

I embossed the gray card stock with my Spellbinders Impressabilities Flourish.  I should mention that 98% of my cards are all 5" x 7" including this one.  In order to get the Impressabilitie to emboss the full 5 x 7 without border lines,  I had to trim the edge off of 1 end with scissors. At first I hated doing  this, I felt like I was breaking one of my tools on purpose!  But over at the Spellbinders site they often cut pieces out of the Impressabilitie's for many different decorative designs and uses.  Once cut I then embossed 1/2 of the gray cardstock, then turned it so the already embossed portion was left sticking out as I sent it through my Wizard a second time.  I used a Stampin Spot in Bravo Burgundy to lightly highlight the flourishes and edges of the gray card stock.  The key and heart embellishments were found in the jewelery section at JoAnns.  I cut the heart out with Cricut Plantin Schoolbook, then embossed it with the Cuttlebug Swiss dots, embossing folder.
The Valentine sentiment was printed with my computer on to vellum.  I really enjoyed making this card and playing along with the challenge.  Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

Just Us Girls and Sweet Sketch Wednesday Challenges

I made this card for the Just Us Girls Challenge 15, add stitching to your project and the Sweet Sketch Wednesday Challenge   for the layout.  This is the first time I tried sewing on a card, I did it by hand because I heard sewing machines bite.  This was a lot of fun, I used the Bazzill In Stitch'z piercing tool, Bazzill In Stitch'z Piercing mat and the Bazzill In Stitch'z 8 x 8 Flowers stencil pattern that had a nice square edge I could follow, it was so easy to punch out!  Thanks to Bazzill and When Creativity Knocks, the right tools make a world of difference. The card stock is Certainly Celery from Stampin Up, the beautiful dp is Graphics 45, I am in love with their paper.  I used the Spellbinders Classic Circles Nestabilities to cut and emboss the circle, and the Ribbon Tags Trio Shapeabilities for the sentiment tag.  The sentiment is Stampin up Warmest Regards.  The image is from one of my old cookbooks, I aged it, and the lace with a little with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Coffee Shop.  Instead of laying out a newspaper while spraying it, I have decided to use tissue paper.  I plan to save the beautiful over-sprayed tissue to use for a flower or some other embellishment at a later date.  The Glimmer Mist is so beautiful I can't bear to waste it!  I added a little paper flower and  put a pearl in the center.  Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

Thank you Alison at Stretch N' Bubbles for the awesome $242 blog candy prize!

Wow!  I feel so truly blessed!  I won this awesome $242.00 worth of blog candy over at the Stretch N' Bubbles blog!  Thank you Alison, this is an extremely generous prize and I am so very fortunate to have won it.  Alison is a fun and trendy digital stamp designer that I have been following for quite some time now, because I do love her images!  I made the cute ladies shoe with the boa with her digital stamp (Feather Shoe without Border a set of 2 stamps).  And I had a ton of fun with my santa chic (Chick-a-dee).  She now has a design team offering all sorts of ideas on ways to use her super cool stamps.  The Stretch N' Bubbles blog also offers tutorials on how to work with a digital stamp for any of you who are new to the world of digital stamping.  She even has some ink tips for those of you who are more experienced.  One of the really great things I like is that she even offers to create a digital stamp for you, just email her at familybubbles@hotmail.com. with your idea.  And she is kind enough to offer a Free Digital Stamp Wednesday don't miss out on that.  The free digital stamp is a great way to get acquainted with the whole process of digital stamping.  I have a ton of rubber stamps mounted on wood blocks that take up a ton of space!  Digital stamps can be stored on your computer or on a flash drive.  I use a flash drive so I can set up folders to know which designer's stamp I am using and I keep the terms and conditions together with the images.  You can also re size a digital stamp to match the project you are working on, and for some reason they never come out crooked like the ones I stamp sometimes do, lol.  I hope you will stop by her blog and leave her some love, maybe even pick up one of her cool digi stamps,  I'm sure you will love them as much as I do!  Thank you again Alison this is a very generous prize that I have been so very fortunate to have won.  Thanks for looking, and yes I did buy a lottery ticket this morning!  ~Diane

Spellbinders Surprise Birthday Party!

Spellbinders is having another new product reveal, and we are all invited to join the fun! It is a Surprise Birthday Party and they are offering daily prizes to celebrate!

They will begin on January 7, 2010, Today! and will last for a week.  Each day 3 fabulous Designers will introduce one or more surprises!! Each day 3 lucky winners will win all of that day’s newly revealed product! At the end of the week they will select a Grand Prize Winner!!  I can't wait to see the new releases!  Click on the link to their blog to see the schedule of blogs and the official rules. Good Luck!  ~Diane

Published in Ready, Set, Create Dec.09 / Jan.10 issue

These are the 2 cards I made for the Dec.09 / Jan.10 publication of Ready Set Create.

  The first card 25th, uses my favorite Spellbinder die, Fleur de Lis and my Cricut.

By: Diane
Supplies:
Cardstock: Around the Block Ash Filigree
Gold glitter, Dazzling Diamonds
Stampin Up, Cricut Stretch Your Imagination cartridge, Spellbinders
Fleur de Lis Pendant, Shapeabilities, Petite Ovals
Nestabilities, MS lace punch, gray ribbon

 

This card made a full page featuring all three photo's.

Pop Up Spinner Combo Card

By: Diane
Supplies:
DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies, Stampin’ Up Doodle This, Wonderful Wings
and Delight in Life, Vellum, clear acetate, 2 pennies, dimensional foam.
I made this card with lots of love for my dear friend and fellow blogger Carole at Paper Arts.  She has taught me so much and she is such a wonderful friend, I am so fortunate to have met her.
The butterfly spins in circles, I have directions on how to make both a spinner and a pop up in some of my older posts.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, I was busy cooking and preparing as I am sure many of you were too.  I hope you enjoy and as always thanks for looking.  ~Diane

Happy Anniversary to Jan at Papercraft Pleasures and thank you for the Bind It All Blog Candy!

Look at this cute little Pink Wonder!  It is a Bind it All New Version 2.0 by Zutter Innovative Products, and I won it as a blog candy prize from Jan at Papercraft Pleasures.  Thank you Jan, this is just so awesome!  I can't wait to start creating some beautiful bound books and projects with this. Jan's blog Papercraft Pleasures is one of the first few blogs I started following.  I really admire her work, she has been published numerous times, and has many awards in her creative resume.  So it has always been a pleasure for me to follow her.  She has a very interesting blog with cards, scrapbooks, cooking, jewelry and much more!  There is just no end to her creativity!  This blog candy was in celebration of her 1 year Anniversary for her blog.  I suggest you might pop over to wish her a Happy Anniversary, and become a follower.  This is not the first time she has offered a Bind It All as blog candy either, I heard the last one went to Canada.  Thank you Jan, this is a very generous gift and just in time for Christmas!  Thanks for looking  ~Diane

Just Us Girls Challenge # 11

 

I made 2 cards for the JUGS Just Us Girls Challenge this week.  The challenge this week is to use the chalkboard technique.  Stamp your image in white ink, and then apply your chalks.  For those of you who have never tried this, the chalk will stick to your white ink.  I am so glad they suggested this challenge!  I chose to stamp this on some vellum I bought at JoAnns.  I colored it in with my Stampin Up chalks and then I used the eraser to clean it up.  I hardly ever use my Stampin Up chalks and I have never used the Eraser that comes with it.  I am so glad I gave it a try with this technique.  The eraser really cleans up the chalk residue that does not rub off, and I also used it to do some shading.

See the really neat embossing?  I was so fortunate to win those Cuttlebug folders along with a whole lot more from the JUGS challenge site last week!  Thank's to Mona from from Cupcake Creations, she sponsored the wonderful Blog Candy.  She has an interesting blog with beautiful creations, you must stop by.  There were 3 Cuttlebug folders, 4 really cool stamps, wonderful ornament gift tags she made (they are gorgeous) and a beautiful gift box she made with heat embossed snowflakes on it.  My daughter has already informed me I should put a gift card for her in the gift box.  I have a picture of all the goodies I received above.  I also want to thank Sandi from Paper Trail for the wonderful idea of using a double frame.  I saw a card on her blog where she used a double frame and I loved it, so I had to scraplift it!  I used the Spellbinders Labels 8 to make my frames.  I strongly suggest you use my links to stop by all of these sites, they all have so much to offer!  Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

Santa Chic

 

I made this card for 2 challenges this week.  The challenge at Play Date Cafe is hosted by Alison of Stretch n Bubbles this week.  Alison offered one of her images, but you can use any image you want.  The colors are Red, Lime Green and Bright Pink.  The challenge at Tellens Place is to use a technique called Paper Piecing, they too offer a free digi image to work with or not.   I embossed the red card stock with a Sizzix Texture Plate, I cut the 2 backgrounds with Labels 8 by Spellbinders.   I printed Alison's digi Chic on the green dp, and also printed it 4 more times on white cs.  I cut the flower hat 4 times, decreasing it's size on each cut, and colored each layer a different color.  I cut the purse and shoes out of the white cs also and colored them in and glued them on top of the patterned shoes. This was a lot of fun combining both challenges for this piece.  And even better since I really need to get my own Christmas cards done, Yikes!   Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

Winter Birds by Inkadoo

I made this card for the Just Us Girls challenge # 10.  This week it is a layout challenge, and I really like the layout so it was fun designing this card.  I used Winter Birds by Inkadoo stamp set and Night of Navy ink from Stampin Up.  This is the first time I have used this stamp set, found it on sale, then forgot about it.  For the background I used Core'dinations Cobalt Blues, and Cuttlebug Snowflakes, then I sanded it off.  I can't forget my Nesties, I used the round and Labels 8.  The stars are silver, and I used foam pop ups under all the white card stock to lift it up a bit.  JUGS has a new challenge every Saturday, so stop by and see what they are doing, the designers are top notch. Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

Pink and Red Valentine

This is my entry for the Tellens Place Red and Pink challenge # 3.  The fab digi gal image is a freebie from her site, although you don't have to use her images to enter, they are just too cute to pass up!  The wonderful red foiled card stock is a find from my local Dollar Treasure store.  I also used a piece of pink vellum from  Paper and More to fill in where I cut the heart out with the Cricut.  This is the first time I used the center point function.  It took me some time to figure out which direction to place the card stock to get the hearts to both print out in the same place with the hearts going in the same directions on both pieces, but I finally got it right.  I ran the heart cut outs through the Wizard with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dot folder.  Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

I'm feeling vintage, ha ha.

I am still in a vintage mood, so this is the project I made for the Jugs challenge.  The simple box template comes from a project I did at a Stampin Up workshop years ago.  I covered my box with a page from an old horticultural book that I misted with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Coffee Shop.  I really love that Glimmer Mist, it adds instant aging with just a touch of soft glimmer.  I cut the poinsettias on my Cricut, Joys of the Season cartridge.  The cs is Stampin Up Sage Shadow and the red is one of the limited edition colors from another year, maybe Pomegranate, also misted with  Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Coffee Shop.  The lace is hand crocheted, I found it at a garage sale this summer, what a steal!  I bought a box with about 20 feet of the lace and about 10 skeins of the embroidery floss.  The half pearls are from Michaels.  I hope you enjoyed, thanks for looking.  ~Diane