This is Gumble

GUMBLE ROCKS!  HE WON THE CHALLENGE AT  

ORDER OF THE OPUS GLUEI!

Gumble is a free digi image from Stretch n Bubbles.  I love the way he printed out on the paper, it looks like he is holding a pink heart in his cute little hand.  I could not do that again if I tried!  Gumble was free for Alison hitting 100 more followers, she is almost at 300!  She is giving away an image for hitting her milestones on the way to 500, stop by and check out what her design team does with her images, they are fantastic!  And there is a Wednesday freebie there today too!  I am entering Gumble in quite a few challenges.  The Order of Opus Gluei is looking for a Valentine with red white and pink.  

Crazy for Challenges is looking for a Valentine, 

Digital Tuesday Challenge  is All About the Animal's, I don't know if Gumble can qualify as an animal, he looks like a Monster to me? 

Drunken Stampers (great name) wants me to use any kind of metal, like the red metal brad I used for the flower.  

Crafty Cardmakers is looking for anything digital, and keep checking that site, they will soon have a tutorial on how to merge or use 2 digital images together.  I want to learn how to do that!  

I traced Gumble with my Zig glue pen then added some black glitter and some googly eyes.  I used some pop dots to lift him off the paper.  The heart was cut with my Cricut Plantin Schoolbook, the patterned paper is from DCWV, the background stitched paper was purchased 5 years ago from Costco, sorry I don't know the mfg.  Computer sentiment trimmed with the new Stampin Up Punch.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane  

Spellbinders Kleenex Box

 

This is a Kleenex box I made for the Spellbinders contest.  I did not make it in this year, but I will try again next year.  I need to grow more in my card making, and I know that.  This will make a perfect gift for a girlfriend who has been ill.  I took apart a Kleenex box and traced it on to the back of this pretty red foiled card stock.   I made all the folds using a ruler, and put it back together again.  I decorated it with a lot of my Spellbinders products.    I used the Spellbinders Impressabilities Flourish to emboss the box itself.  The Spellbinders Petite Oval Scalloped was used to make the hole in the top.  I taped a baggie inside the hole firmly on all 4 sides of the opening, then I cut a slit in it just like the original Kleenex box had.  The edges are decorated with Spellbinders Grand 12" Classic Lace Border and silver foil card stock.  I also used the smaller inside piece of the Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Pendant Shapeabilities to decorate the 4 sides.  I love how the foiled card stock takes to the Spellbinders dies.  If you go to the Spellbinders blog you will see some of their work with the Spellbinders foil which is much sturdier than my card stock.  I think my friend Peggy will like this.  Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

Aimee Josephine

 

Aimee Josephine comes from the Kahwinkedink Primitive line of digi stamps.  I don't know if I did her justice, I maybe should have aged her a bit, to keep with the primitive influence.  The lovely border background came from Briar Press, it is called a button border.  It reminded me of a primitive art necklace which is why I chose to use it here.  I printed it out on the aqua cs and then cut it out and mounted it to the Core'dinations red cs that I embossed with the Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls Embossing Folder.  I printed Aimee Josephine on white cs and then colored her in.  I used my Spellbinders Petite Ovals to cut her out.  I made 2 copies of my digi image, I experimented and colored in the first one, then cut her out and used her as a mask.  I used some of the Zig, 2 way glue, let it dry so it would be re-positionable and mounted 1 image on top of the other so I could use the Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Turquoise Blue.  I really love that glimmer mist!  If you would like to see more of Aimee Josephine stop by Kards and Klay, you will see more of her there.  I am going to enter her in the Color Chef challenge, red, blue and white.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Wilhelmina Marie

Beautiful Wilhelminamarie is a digi stamp my friend Kristen made.  The minute I saw her I fell in love with her.  Kristen has many more sweet digi's available at her site, Kahwinkedink.  You can stop by her blog Kards and Klay and see the many beautiful cards she has there.  And this digi is FREE, just stop by her blog and snag her, she's near the bottom of the page!   It's Kards and Klay, and be sure to leave her a sweet message.

I made this card for a challenge at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps at SNR Universe.  The challenge is to use buttons, and there is a free digi image involved, but you must submit your card today!  

Sweet 'n Sassy also has a store where she too has beautiful digi's.  After all, we can never have too many digi's can we?

This is a 5 x 7 card, I used Stampin Up kraft and Patterns 3 dp and Core'dinations cs.  I embossed the Core'dinations with Cuttlebug 5 x 7 Embossing folder - Plum Blossoms.  I used the Spellbinders Deckled Mega Rectangles Nestabilities also.  The 2 miniature buttons are from my stash.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Cuttlebug Kimiko Geisha's

 

I made the Geisha's on this card with my new Cuttlebug 5 x 7 Emboss Folders and some wonderful foil cardstock, I love how you can see the reflection in the picture.  The Giesha'a are from the Kimiko folder.  I embossed and debossed so that I have 2 images facing different directions.  This was quite easy, I folded the foiled card stock in 1/2 so the shiny side was facing front and back.  After I embossed them in the blue foil I cut them out.  Then I ran double scraps of white card stock through for the heads and hands, which I also colored, cut out, then glued on.  The lovely dragon is from the Cricut Pagoda cartridge I received for Christmas and haven't used yet!  I cut this at 2 1/2 in the gold and red foils.  I also used the Cuttlebug A2 Japanese Scales to give the dragon more texture, and the Cuttlebug 5 x 7 Oriental Weave on the Wausau Copper card stock.   This card is for the Practical Scrappers Die Cut Challenge.   Which works out well, because they encourage us to use what we have, and I bought these earrings at least 1 year ago!  I used both my Cricut and Cuttlebug folders to make this.

 I thought it would be fun to share a picture of my embellishments, the silver fans I used.  These were inexpensive earrings that I cut up and glued on to the card.  I found my earings and foil card stock  at my local Dollar Treasure.  By the way, I absolutely love the new 5 x 7 folders from Cuttlebug!  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Edith Mayfly

My friend Kristen of Kards and Klay has some fab new digi images, this one is Edith Mayfly.  Edith got her sweet name in a contest "name the digi", that Cheri, at The Paper Freak won.  Kristen will be offering free images on her blog in the future.   Be sure to stop by and see what she is making, she is a prolific card crafter!  I just had to Google "prolific" and make sure I was using the right word.  Here's the definition: 1. producing offspring, young, fruit, etc., abundantly; highly fruitful: a prolific pear tree. 2. producing in large quantities or with great frequency;   Yep, that sounds right, that is Kristen to a T!  She also has a shop Kahwinkedink, where you can buy some of her images.

I used card stock from DCWV The Sweet Stack, and some pink vellum.  I also used some Studio g glitter glue on the wings and the Cuttlebug embossing folder Mandarin Screen.  Thanks for looking,  ~Diane

WHISPERING

I titled this post whispering, I believe the reason these fine ladies are whispering is because they obviously can't breathe!  Look how tiny those waists are!  Aren't you so glad we don't have to wear corsets?  I found this wonderful image at Vintage Holiday Crafts.  I used a new Spellbinder technique I learned from Sherry Cheever's Walkin on the Bad Side blog.  Sherry is a Designer for Spellbinder.  There is a video on both blogs, Sherry's and the Spellbinders blog to show you how you can do this.  Along with another technique on how to reverse it, and use your negatives, I love to conserve paper! 

I made this "Vintage" image for the challenge at Busy Little Hands.  I think you can see the layers pretty good from the picture, there is a large piece of dimensional foam between each of the 5 layers.  I did a bit of my own take on Sherry's technique, since I am using faces, not flowers.  I chose to use the Spellbinder Petite Oval to frame the ladies faces and the Scalloped Petite Ovals to pick up on the ruffled theme of the dresses.  I added the different shape of the Labels 8 to the last layer to pick up all of the background in the picture.  I used the Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Coffee Shop to feather off the edges, the image actually ended about 1/4" below the Labels 8 frame.  The DP is Melissa Frances, 2 different ribbons from JoAnns, I sewed (by hand again) through both layers this time.  The sweet little 4 leaf clovers are actually real pressed clovers from my blog candy stash from Alison at Stretch N Bubbles.  By the way, this is a 5 x 7 card like most of my cards are.  Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

Thank you Gwen, this card won the challenge over at Busy Little Hands!

Bubble Bath Libby

Bubble Bath Libby, is one of my favorite digi images, she is made by Alison, of Stretch N Bubbles.  So when I saw the colors over at the Play Date Cafe, I knew right away I wanted to make something with her.  This is a first for me, but she is actually going to make it into FIVE challenges.  Whew!  I find this very exciting.  2 Red Bananas has a Banana Split Sunday Challenge "Think Round".  The Sketch layout comes from Stampin For the Weekend, and I will be using this sketch again, I really like it.  And also for Corrosive Challenges by Janet, lets go Digi, and Stretch N Bubbles is a sponsor there this month.  Practical Scrappers is looking for something embossed.  On to the recipe.  I used Bubble Bath Libby digi image, Tempting Turquoise, a paint sample, Very Vanilla and some of my foiled cardstock from my stash.  I embossed it with Cuttlebug Swiss dots and Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls Embossing Folders I won from my friend Mona at Cupcakes Creations (stop by, she is a fantastic papercrafter!)  I also used my Spellbinders ImpressabilitiesCircles, I was really trying to keep that bubbly theme going.  The sentiment was computer generated, I used some pop dots to lift the sentiment up off the card a little.  I used my atyou Spica sky blue glitter marker pen to trace the bubbles, then I painted the bubbles and the tub with Close to my Heart Create a shade paint Pearl and then I used Stampin Up Crystal effects to add some dimension to the bubbles.

 Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

GOTCHA!

 

I made this fun little Valentine using the sketch Michelle provided for the Tellens Place challenge.  I also used one of the free digital images Terry so generously gives out.  Stop by her site and see whats going on, it's always fun.  This one is not my usual 5 x 7, it is 4 1/2 x 5.  Actually it started out as a 5 x 7, because I was working off a sketch I made in my notebook of what it should look like.  I was not sure about something so I checked back and realized my dimensions were way off!  So I cut away the excess to make it look more like the sketch.

I used my Spellbinders Petite Ovals, and the card stock is DCWV.  I colored it in with my Stampin Up markers, and I used a Copic for the skin color.  I also used my new atyou Spica sky blue glitter marker pen.  I have heard everyone talk about these, I found this one at my LCS on sale so I gave it a try.  I do like it, I don't know if the camera picked it up, but it has a little glitter in the ink, kind of sparkly.  It is the darker blue I used for the trim, belt and boots.  I found the wooden Gotcha! sentiment in the childrens craft section of JoAnns.  Well this was fun, these challenges are really inspiring.  Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

 

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

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

No wonder they called it the Wonder Store!

                                       

       

               

 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

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