Exciting news to share!

No card today, but I do want to share some exciting news with you.  Next Thursday I will begin posting along with a talented group of designers for Lindsays Stamp Stuff. I am truly honored to be a part of this professional group of crafters.   Lindsay has an awesome online digi store and so much more.  She has loads of resources available on her blog The Frugal Crafter.  This week she has a video demonstrating how you can lean to paint the above scenic watercolor in less than 10 minutes.  This is awesome!  I can't believe she offers this class for free, and she also has a gorgeous Seaside Paper freebie you can pick up while you are there!   Please stop by to see what the rest of the LSS DT has to offer this week.  As always, thanks for looking, ~Diane

Lindsay Weirich (Owner & Stamp Designer)
Cheryl Gorka (DT Coordinator)
Cindi Hooks
Diane Bove
Jennifer Bliss
Karin Martin
Leanne Garner
Lisa Jurecek
Margie Visnick
Melissa Craig
Rebekah Doak
Rhonda Walker
Shannon Neparko
Tamara Bennett
Tracey Allen

Jen Jumps Rope

For this weeks challenge of Sticks and Stones at Kahwinkedink I chose to use "rhinestones" on my card. This sweet little image is Jen Jumps Rope, she just makes me want to smile!  I followed the card sketch at Card Patterns Weekly Sketch Blog.  I used the pink and green colors from Forever Friends challenge blog.  I used DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies card stock,  Spellbinders Petite Ovals Nestabilities, and Cuttlebug Swiss dots embossing folder.  Be sure to stop by Kahwinkedink  today to pick up your Tuesday freebie digi image.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Ready 2 Rock

The challenge at Bitten by the Bug 2  uses the Hannah Montana Cartridge, Ready 2 Rock.    I don't have this cartridge, but they do allow improvisation.  So I used my Cricut Plantin Schoolbook to cut the Ready 2 Rock, and the Cuttlebug 5x7  Oriental Weave embossing folder on my silver foil card stock.  This is a 5 x 7 card, the guitar is Iron on Art by Horizon Group, it is made for fabric but it worked very well by ironing it on to my card stock.  The little metal sandals have been in my craft box forever. A big thanks to the BBTB2 group, they always have a great idea for a challenge, and lots of Cricut inspiration!.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Kahwinkedink Challenge week 3

This weeks challenge over at Kahwinkedink is to make your own embellishment.  I made mine with the Imaginisce i*top Medium Topper Punch, using the same DCWV dp.  I then added a bumblebee that I stamped onto clear polyester and added some Stampin Up Crystal effects to.  I added some seed beads to the flowers in this sweet digi image Primitive Flowers, from Kahwinkedink, I love the simplicity of this image, it's one of my favorites.  Stop by the Kahwinkedink blog and pick up your Tuesday freebie and see what the rest of the talented design team has made. 

I used this layout, Sweet Sketch 49 from Arlana at Sweet Sketch Wednesday for this card, this is definitely a keeper too, I really like this lay out.  As you can see I turned it sideways.  I will enter this into their challenge.   Also The Crazy Challenge for something new, my Primitive Flower digi. 

I used Spellbinders Deckled Mega Rectangles Nestabilities , the bumblebee is from a retired Stampin Up set and the dp is DCWV The Glitter Stack, and I almost forgot, I embossed it with a Sizzix Texture Plate.    Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Crafty Secrets Friendship and Flowers

I made this card for the Crafty Secrets Challenge I am co hosting at Paper Craft Planet.  The challenge is Flowers,  please stop by and see what the other Crafty Secrets lovers have made.  I found this fun challenge site on my  friend Mona's blog, it is called
2 Sketches 4 You  it is hosted by Kazan Clark and Laura Davis.  I used their fab sketch to make this card, I'm not sure if I can post their sketch here, so you will have to go check it out.  I would also like to enter this into the Let your Garden Grow challenge to make  DIY flowers at Quixotic Challenges.  I actually bought the lovely little pearl centers for my flowers at Quixotic Paperie, and I am in love with them.  And last but not least my friends at Order of the Opus Gluei are hosting a challenge to use ribbon in a different way.  This is a 5 x 7 card, I used Memory Botique cs, Crafty Secrets Friendship and Flowers image, velvet ribbons and rhinestone lace are from JoAnns.  I embossed the cs with Cuttlebug A2  Japanese Scales embossing folder, I cut the flowers with Cricut Pagoda, colored them in with Niji Pearlescent Watercolor Set and set Quixotic Flat Backed Pearls - 4mm - Cappucino - in the centers.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Kahwinkedink Challenge Week 2

Good Morning, this weeks Tuesday challenge at Kahwinkedink is to make a Mans Card.  This is normally such a challenge for me but with the new Military Men images it was easy!  I used the Tank You image for my card.  I used the paper piecing technique and printed the images onto this camouflage dp from Paper Pizzaz.  The silver cs is from Stampin Up, I embossed the Tim Holtz ideaology sprocket gears right on to it with my Wizard.  The words were cut with Cricut Plantin Schoolbook.  Stop over to the Kahwinkedink blog and join us for this challenge.  You can pick up the free digi of the week while you are there.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Contemporary Butterfly

I made this card for 2 challenges.  The challenge at Tellens Place is to use more than 1butterfly or a dragonfly in your project.  I also used the sketch at Sweet Sketch Wednesdays for the lay out.  Actually I goofed and had only 1 butterfly, as I was writing this post I noticed the word MORE than one, in bold no less.  Off I dashed to add more butterflies, ha ha.  Card Stock is DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies,  I used Spellbinders Lotus Pendant and Shapeabilities, Spellbinders Ribbon Tags Trio Shapeabilities.  The butterflies are  Stampin up Wonderful Wings and Martha Stewart medium punch.  I finally tried out the Imaginisce i*top Brad Maker, Small Topper Punch,  Small Brad Daddies that I won.  These were so easy to make, and I like the contemporary look they gave to this card.  I can see where making these can be addictive!  The ribbon I had was a bright white, so I used Ranger's Tim Holtz Distress Ink Scattered Straw to give it the same yellow tinge that the dp had.  I really like the Ranger distressing inks!  The stamped sentiment is a Just Rite stamp.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Play Date Cafe Challenge card.

I made this card for the Play Date Cafe Challenge to use these colors for inspiration.  I love these colors together, I remember when I was 10 I had a favorite skirt that was pleated and plaid (Oh yes) in these exact colors.  

These awesome images are from Birds Cards, she has a ton of beautiful digital images and they are all free.  I learned some tips from Bird too on how to do the shading, you must visit her site.    Paper is Around the Block Ash filigree , and I used a snip of vellum on the lamp shade.  I used the Spellbinders Labels 8 and  Petite Ovals Nestabilities.  Stampin Up Texturz Plates Backgrounds #1 Flourish and Perfect Details.  I finished it off with some glitter, pearls, a feather and a flower.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Kahwinkedink Design Team

I am happy to announce that I will be on the design team for Kahwinkedink digi images with my good friend Kristen.   You can look forward to seeing her images here every Tuesday.  Hop over to her blog and see what the amazing design team has made, and while you're there pick up the free image of the week.  This week's freebie is this cute little sun Here Comes The Sun

So without further adieu, here is the new DT,

Scrappy   http://big-scrappy-world.blogspot.com/ 

Tink  http://tinktime-tink.blogspot.com/
Courtney  http://atouchofpink-courtney.blogspot.com/
I made this weeks card for the Tuesday Challenge at Kahwinkedink to use blue.  That was easy with these adorable swimming images.  I used  Tristan Deep Sea Diving,  Floaties  and  Here Comes The Sun    (this weeks Tuesday  Freebie).  I made the bubble ocean paper with dish soap, bubbles and food coloring.  You can find the tutorial for it in my sidebar.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

05/01/10 Heartwarming Vintage/Crafty Secrets bi-weekly challenge

I made this Shadowbox for the  Heartwarming Vintage/Crafty Secrets bi-weekly challenge Jan and I are hosting at Paper Craft Planet.  If you love Crafty Secrets Products, this is the group for you!  Jan has challenged us to use a photo in our project.  This is my favorite photo of my Mother and Father in law taken while they were dating in Italy. 

I used the Crafty Secrets Cotton Scraps- Family, along with the Accucut Shadow Box Portrait Designed by Vicki Chrisman.  The lace paper is Karen Foster antique lace, lace, Victoria Lynn ribbon rose, flowers and ribbon from JoAnns, heart shaped button from my button box.  I used Tattered Angels Glimmer Screens Fanciful with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Coffee Shop, and Ranger's Tim Holtz Distress Ink Antique Linen.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

More of my Passion for Pop Ups

In case you haven't noticed, I love pop up cards, this one is based on what is called the simple box.  I made this for a sweet friend to give to her Mum for Mothers Day.  I am entering it into the following challenges.

  Our Creative Corner is challenging us to use blossoms on our cards.

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 36 is Flowers.

Digital Tuesday Challenge April flowers or April Showers.

Allsorts Challenge has the photo below as an inspiration. 

Here's what I used to make this card.  Card Front - Mum cut with  Cricut Plantin Schoolbook, Pink Passion card stock, Wonderful Wings, Baroque Motifs Stampin Up, Krylon 18 kt gold leafing pen,  Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls embossing folder.  

Inside - If you look closely you will see 5 tiny butterflies punched with Marvy Standard & Jumbo butterfly punch.  My flowers are a combination, the majority are from Sarah Paris Butterfly Garden Digi Stamps.   I purchased from My Grafico, 1 flower is from Inkadoo Doodle Flowers and 1 other from Stampin Up Polka Dots and Petals.  Vellum insert and butterflies from Paper and More.  Martha Stewart lace punch and Ranger's Tim Holtz Distress Ink worn lipstick.  Floral paper and glitter from JoAnns.   Whew!  I used a lot of products on this little card, which by the way is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2.    If you are interested, I do have instructions on how to make a Pop Up card in an older post.  You will find it under Pop Ups and again in Tutorials in my sidebar. Thanks for looking, ~Diane 

My first ATC

 Wow!  My first ATC and I won the challenge at Tellens Place!  And I won a $10.00 gift certificate to Scrapbook.com!  Thank you so very much! 

I made this ATC for the challenge at Tellens Place.  This is my first ATC, I was a feeling a bit awkward, I usually make 5 x 7 cards so this was really tiny for me.  I am glad though, towards the end it started to  come together for me.  And when ever I do something new I grow.  The darling digi image is from Tellens Place, the paper is DCWV The Sweet Stack, 2 scrap ribbons and the ric rac is new all from JoAnns.  I used a little foam to lift the images off the card stock. I also used Ranger's Tim Holtz Distress Ink worn lipstick.   BTW, those are chocolate chip cookies I am mixing up in the bowl, ha ha.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Tuesdays Tools - Firefox QuickNote

I have found some exciting and helpful tools that make my life and writing this blog so much easier!  I would love to share them with you.  I am not a very technical or computer savvy person so I have written this for people like me.  If you copy and print this out you will literally be able to go step by step. 

Today I will share Firefox QuickNote, for this add on you will need Firefox as your browser.  Firefox is just another free browser, like Internet Explorer or Opera.  These tools are only available on Firefox, the other browsers may have something similar that I am not aware of.

If you have Firefox go to Tools at the top of your page, click on Add Ons then you will be at Get Add Ons.  There will be a search box (search all add ons) you will type in QuickNote A picture of QuickNote will pop up, click on it and it will say Learn More or Add to Firefox.  You want to Add to Firefox.  A warning box will appear asking if you trust the site, you will click Install Now.  Then you will be asked to Re-Start your computer.  When you have re started it will offer to search for updates, if it does you can, if it doesn't don't worry about it just close that box.

To access QuickNote you will find it at the top of your screen in Tools, click on it and then when you scroll over QuickNote your options are Float, Sidebar and Settings.  The first time you will want to start in Settings.  This will have a section that says Number of Notes (Tabs) you will want 4.  As I am pretty low tech myself, that is the only selection I make on that page so close that window.  Go back to Tools, QuickNote and you may choose either Float or Sidebar.  You can try each one, see what one you like best.  I have 2 screens so I put mine on Float and move it to my second screen.  The nice part about 2 screens is that I can leave it (QuickNote) up, it does not disappear when I start typing on my other screen.  So it is just like having a book open to the right spot at all times.  It may look small, but you can pull the edge to make it wider and it does have a scroll bar , it will  keep getting longer as you go, so you can add to it endlessly!

So what do I do with it you ask. You are gonna LOVE this, I could not be without it.   I have divided the 4 sections into handy file drawers.

Note 2 is where I keep my gold mine, it has all of my blog information at my fingertips.  Here is where I have all of my crafting products categorized and listed.  Whenever I get a new craft product I add it to my list here.  My categories are by manufacturer - Cricut, Spellbinders, Crafty Secrets, Stampin Up, Cuttlebug, Tattered Angels, Bazzill, then Papers, Pens/Pencils/Markers/Inks and Miscellaneous.  Between each section I do a row of stars to separate them, and I write my categories all in caps so it stands out and makes it easy to find. I also double space everything.  If I have a link, like I usually link my Spellbinders and Tattered Angels products back to them, I have that right in the middle of the stars.  I never have to look it up.  I have just added a new category called Techniques.  This is where I list a web address to a tutorial or tip from someone's blog. I get so frustrated when I can't remember where I saw that neat tutorial on how to make that beautiful flower with Glimmer Mist, who do I give credit to for the idea?  Now when I come across a neat idea I have a place to file it I just add a note with the address regarding what it was.  And if I forget a step it takes me back to that page too.  I really think it's important to give credits where they are due.  I have a category called Credits where I keep my most frequented sites for digi and vintage downloads.  You will laugh at this one, I even have a category for how to write "here" so when I need to link back to my blog post to enter it into a challenge I have the little formula right there.  All I have to do is copy and paste from http to html in to the formula. (Did I mention I was low tech?)   This really beats trying to write a post and walking back and forth to my craft room to find the names of the products I used. I know what I used, it's just what is the manufactures correct name and color for what I used.  Where did I get those flowers from? What was the color or name of the Distress ink, Glimmer Mist or punch I used?  It's all here, just a copy and paste away from my blog.  And that's the other added feature, it saves me from typing it all out, I just look it up and do a copy and paste and it goes right into my post!

For the curious, note 1 is for personal stuff, reminders, quotes and such, note 3 is for anything cooking, notes recipes and sites.  Note 4 is my how to where to for anything computer related.  Once you start using this you will ask yourself how did I function without it!  I would love to hear if you try this out or if you are already using it.  I hope you found something helpful here.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane
Thank you for the Anonymous comment, I have edited my error.  I did make a mistake on the name of the program, there are actually 2 different programs.  There are 2 separate programs Firefox Quicknote which is what I use, and Firefox QuickFox Notes.  QuickFox Notes resides as an icon (yellow page) on the right hand bottom of your screen.  When you click on it to pull it up it will appear on the bottom or lower 1/2 of your screen and to be honest I am not sure as yet how to save information here.  I hope this helps.  ~Diane

More Crafty Secret Fun

This is one of the Crafty Secrets Cotton Scraps that my friend Jan shared with me.  I entered this into the Crafty Secrets Sketch challenge over at Split Coast Stampers.  I really had fun making this card, I had an opportunity to use a lot of my new products and use up some of my old stash.  I am really getting hooked on Ranger's Tim Holtz Distress Ink's, this one is Scattered Straw they are really easy to work with.    I used Anna Griffins The Wedding Studio print it yourself programs. I found them on clearance, the lovely flourish was already printed on 2 sides, I saw lots of possibility's.  I also added some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Wheatfields.  It gave me the exact shade in the Crafty Secrets Cotton Scrap.  I found a local craft store that sells card stock by the pound and it is really nice and heavy, and I love that shade of red.  I embossed with Stampin Up Big Shot Texturz Plate Perfect Details another of my new favorites.  I also used Stampin Up Big Shot Texturz Plate Backgrounds #1.  I have had the ribbon forever, it is actually bright white but the Ranger ink took care of that. I love the button I used, it's vintage and the tiny plastic faux pearls are naturally yellowed.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Heartwarming Vintage Crafty Secrets challenge at PCP

Good Morning, I made this gift card holder for the Heartwarming Vintage Crafty Secrets challenge I am co-hostessing at Paper Craft Planet.  I am so excited that Jan invited me to co-hostess the bi-weekly challenges there and this is my first challenge!  This challenge is to create a gift card holder, since Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Graduations are almost here, I'm sure they won't go to waste!  It can be made out of card stock or metal, anything you like, just as long as you use Heartwarming Vintage/Crafty Secrets product.  I would love to see some of you join in the challenge there, here is the link. 

I used the Crafty Secrets French Labels Sticker to make my gift card holder.  The paper is  DCWV The Sweet Stack, Liquid Pearls White Opal and Blue Moon Madame Delphine's collection jewelery for the sweet little hand mirror.  I also used Ranger's Tim Holtz Distress Ink in broken china.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Sweet Blogger

I received this sweet award from my friend Alison at Stretch N Bubbles.  She has amazing digi images, and if you hurry on over you can still take part in her 1st ever blog hop and challenge.  She will now offer weekly challenges too.  Now I get to pass this on to 6 Sweet Bloggers I know.  Only 6!  That's hard because I know so many more.  In alphabetical order, because I love you all dearly. 

Cara -  Cara's Scrap N Stamp Art

Carole - Paper Arts

Jan - Papercraft Pleasures

Kristen - Kards and Klay
Kymberly - Free Trinkets and Treasures 
Terry - Tellen's Place
These are all amazing women you will love for their fantastic creativity and interesting blogs,  but I love them for their sweet, kind and generous hearts.   Thanks for looking, ~Diane