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

High Heeled Thanks

I made this card for the Just Us Girls Challenge to use Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Bashful Blue . It should also be a Thank you card.  I decided since these are not my usual colors, I would really break out of the box and not do the traditional type of card I normally would do.  I decided I would really take a chance.  I even tried to get my lay out to be a bit out of the box for me.  Not my neatly layered, equally spaced, symmetrical style.   The awesome image is from Stretch n Bubbles,   Alison offers Freebies on Wednesday for her followers if you want to give digital images a try.    I saw this shoe and thought of my boa material instantly!  I sprayed it ever so slightly with the Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Turquoise Blue, I used some of my dp that I made with the bubbles and a straw technique.  I do believe my blue is the Stampin up Bashful Blue, but I didn't have the pumpkin Pie or Really Rust so I came as close as I could.  I embossed the dp with the Cuttlebug Swiss dots, embossing folder and used the Cuttlebug Textile for the other 2 pieces I cut from my Spellbinders Labels 8 Nestabilities.  Ribbons are from JoAnns and Big Lots, and I don't know where my Thanks jelly is from.  I really enjoyed making this card, I stretched my skills and learned some new things.  Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

Tellens Place Challenge

All Right!  This card won the the first challenge at Tellens Place!  A new challenge starts today, and there is another awesome freebie digi image, but you don't need a digi image to enter!  Thanks for picking this card.  ~Diane

This is the card I made for the Tellens Place Challenge.  The challenge was to "embellish it".  The adorable image was a freebie at her challenge site.  I'm not sure if you can read the caption, it say's "Now this is how to shop Black Friday.  While the kids are in line, I'll be on line."  My grown children have plans to camp out at a few stores to get the doorbuster deals.  Not me, I will be sipping my coffee sitting at the computer, looking for the on line deals.  I'll also be watching the clock for the Spellbinders Black Friday contest!  ha ha.  Tellens Place is a new challenge site, run by a wonderfully sweet lady named Terry.  Her son Marcus draws awesome images which she also sells at her Etsy store.  Marcus drew this sweet lady for her first challenge.  I was also the fortunate recipient of some of Terry's blog candy, of which I used the blue and brown cs from her stash.  I also used my Spellbinders Impressabilities Circles, and the Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Coffee Shop, I really like how that came out.  And it was so easy too.  I used Bazzill jewel templates Borders, and then placed 4 misc jewels in too.  These are more items from When Creativity Knocks Great Tool Hunt. The font is LD Going Nuts Scrap n Fonts (free fonts).  I colored the image with Stampin Up Markers, Prismacolor pencils, Souffle 3D ink, and a Tombow and Copic marker.

This is a picture of my blog candy from Terry at Tellens Place.  She even included some directions and envelopes for me!  And don't forget the adorable images, I stood them up in the back so you could see them better.  Thank you Terry.

 

Thanks for looking, don't forget to check out the Tellens Place Challenge site, new challenges start on Wednesday.  ~Diane

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.  I used the Cuttlebug Swiss dots folder and I made my flower from the Spellbinders round scallop die distressed with Tattered Angels glimmer mist.  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