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, along with my Spellbinders labels 8, 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

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