Blog Candy Giveaway

Sorry this is late ladies!!  I knew I should have prescheduled this.  Life happens and last night my sister came over with her boyfriend and we played a very long yet fun game of monopoly and I had one two many glasses of wine.  Two glasses would have sufficed...at least that's what my head is telling me this morning.  Anyhow here's what's up for grabs.

1) Three sheets of double sided Basic Grey (BG) paper from the NEW Nook 'n Pantry collection

2) Three sheets from the fabulously cute BG Eskimo Kisses collection

3) Four sheets from the Three Bugs in a Rug Playtime collection.

4) 3Bugs Playtime alphabet die cuts

5) Two Sheets of 3Bugs Snips 'n Snails paper.

6) Five Sheets from the Fancy Pants Wildhearts Collection

7) FP Wildheart diecut sheet

8)  Two Sheets of this beautiful butterfly paper.  I believe it's MME.

9)  One sheet of scrapbooking butterfly stickers.

10) Eight sheets of Stampin' Up! Delicate Dots dsp. 2 sheets of 4 designs.

11) Two Sheets of SU! Wild Wasabi textured cardstock

12) Two Sheets of SU! Soft Sky textured cardstock

13) Two Sheets of SU! dsp


14) Three full sheets of SU! cardstock quality stickers to match the above.

15) Side Stitched ribbon in Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, and Blue Bayou

16) One yard of stripped grosgrain ribbon in Wild Wasabi

17) One beautiful yard of Purely Pomegranate ribbon.  That's all I could part with.

18)  New Pair of scissors

19)  Old Olive Stamp pad

20)  Stampin' Up! Hostess Set "Holiday Best"

So, what do you think?  Is that enough for you to play along with me.  The only thing I want you to do to enter for this is leave a comment on this post answering one (or both) of the following questions:

1)  What's your favourite tool, product, colour, etc. that you just couldn't live without?

2)  What kind of advice would you give to new paper crafters/stampers?

Anyhow, please let everyone you know about my little celebration giveaway.  I'll be posting my Card Patterns guest designer submission as soon as I can or you can just hop on over there and see it for yourself.

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend.  I do apologize again for not getting this posted sooner.  I did promise it would be here.  Good luck to you all!  I'll be announcing the winner December 5th.

Love my Scraps...

better yet I love my friends paper scraps even more.  A few weeks ago I gave my blog friend Maureen some Cosmo Cricket paper knowing she would do something wonderful with the Ever After collection especially since at the time it was sitting in my paper bins (that's right BINS) waiting to be used. As some of you may know, I'm a paper hoarder.  I like a little bit of everything!  I like sheets sold separately because I don't always like every print in a collection and double sided papers are better that way I have yet another option.  I like options...sometimes it gets me into creative bloc trouble but c'est la vie! I could think of worse calamities....now having no dp would terrify me.

Okay, back on story telling track....I gave the paper to Maureen and she sent me this lovely thank you card and several these lattice die cuts (she knew I didn't have the die yet) in amazing colours and I hope that she used her scraps to make them (those dies take up so much paper).  I'm so grateful that she sent these die cuts because I'm really interested in knowing how much I'd use it.

So, for Crazy 4 Challenges #12 , I chose to use the Wild Wasabi textured lattice die.  I brought it all together with scraps of paper in my scrap bin, the butterfly die (love it),  a "Hard to Say" sentiment, and a button.  What do you think?  It was a really easy card to make and I love the cheerful colours.

This little scrap swap has put me in the giving mood.  Tomorrow, in celebration of my first guest designer post,  I'll also be posting my Blog Candy that I will be giving away December 5th.  All you'll need to do for a chance to win is leave a comment on that post and your numbered comment may be randomly chosen.

To friends we like to share with!  Cheers!

Paper:  SU! Wild Wasabi, Tangarine Tango, Bashful Blue, Whisper White NSU dp
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie
Accessories:  SU! Lattice and Butterfly die cuts
Stamp:  Hard To Say

Sharing in Your Sorrow

Here's one of the Sympathy cards that I made this last week.  I used Sketch Girl #9 challenge and it is unfortunately their last sketch until the New Year.

I really liked the idea of framing that tree into three separate panels.  In real live the tree has a bit of shimmer.  Because I don't have Sage Shadow ink I had to improvise by mixing re-inkers and platinum shimmer paint.  I used 4 parts Blue Bayou, 1 part Old Olive and some shimmer paint.  I think it came up close enough.

Because I used Chocolate Chip for my card base I needed an area on the inside to write.  The Top Note Die is a wonderfully easy way to do that.

And you know for all the beauty that is in this card it is  the sentiment inside that means the most! This Stampin' Up! set is one of my faves and this sentiment says it all: "Praying for friends to comfort you, faith to uphold you, and loving memories to heal your heart."  I mean really what more can one say on such a sad occasion?

Anyhow, I hope to add some cheerful cards in the next week starting on Saturday with my first Guest Designer submission for Card Patterns .  They really liked my Delight in Life Card ~ Hepburn Style and I want to thank all of you for all the lovely comments.  It was a sweet reward being able to tell my husband that my blog friends really liked it  ;-)  LOL I hope you'll come see what I've created on Saturday and join in the fun.  I also have a surprise planned.

Paper:  Chcolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Real Rust, Gold fiber cs,

Ink:  See post, Chocolate Chip

Accessories:  Buttons, Top note die, ticket corner punch

Stamps:  Thoughts and Prayers

Christmas Wishes from the Kitchen

I'm so excited that Everything but the Kitchen Sink challenges has it's own blog now making it easier to keep track of their interesting challenges.  To kick things off the talented DT member Courtney came up with a sketch based on her beautiful fireplace mantel.  It looked like a lot of fun and this is one of those challenges that I really want to support and encourage because it's a great way to get the creative juices flowing.  The design team (DT) is made up of amazingly creative women who are very encouraging with their fellow bloggers.  Please stop by their blogs and get ready to be inspired.

Here's my card.  It's not as detailed as I wanted to be with stitching or paper piercing but I did manage to get around to practicing my french knots on the front panel.  It has been a pretty crazy week.

We attended the memorial mass on Friday for our loved one who passed away after a 2 yr battle with cancer.  It was emotionally draining but it was great to have such a wonderful visits with family and friends.  The hardest part was thinking that there was someone missing and then remembering it was the one person who's life you were celebrating.  Very weird to say the least.  And now I'm just dealing with trying to get my family healthy again.  My daughter has missed 4 days of school and my husband has missed 2 days of work due to a horrible chest cold.  No fevers so that's a plus.

So back to my card.  I used an old SU! stamp set Old Fashioned Christmas.  Remember that one?  The images on that set are beautifully etched.  And I love the sentiment from that set.  I decided to use holly images and add french knots for colour and texture.  Another thing I like about this card is that the light background pieces give the perception of a cross.  Isn't that neat?  Like I said, I didn't have much time to put a lot of thought into the details but I think it turned out quite well considering.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful, healthy week!

Paper:  NSU designer paper, SU! Rose Red, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla

Ink:  Rose Red, Always Artichoke

Stamp set: Old Fashioned Christmas (retired)

Delight in Life ~ Hepburn Style

I'm so excited to show you this card.  It's something like I've never created before and I couldn't have done it without the inspiration from 3 challenges, my Top Note die, and my new nestibilities.  The first challenge was the Crazy 4 Challenges to use acetate as an element and I was particularly drawn to this card's layout idea.  I have a bunch of acetate around but never think to reach for it!  The next challenge was a sketch from Card Patterns .  This sketch was really cool and could be incorporated well with the polkadot acetate from the SU! Night and Day specialty dp I planned on using.

Next I went in search of just the right paper and came across the bold but elegant black and white dp in my scrap bin.  I was instantly reminded of the card Maureen  had just done as a guest designer for Cinema Saturday.  Her card is just gorgeous and uses the Tiffany blue colour to give it the Audrey Hepburn flair.  I decided I would take my first stab at the Cinema Saturday challenge .  The challenge is inspired by the Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck classic "Roman Holiday" and the added challenge was to incorporate pearls.

I wanted to create a card with style that reflected Hepburn's flair.  It's pretty hard to nail that flair the way she always could.  I used scallops to represent the arches of the roman colosseum and I used my Labels 1 nestibilities instead of straight edge squares to emphasize the architecture seen throughout Rome.  The hard part was deciding which stamp to use.  And I finally decided on one of my favourites and I think captures Princess Ann's purpose for escaping her royal obligations during her trip in Rome.  While exploring Rome she got to spend the day doing all the things she always wanted to do.

So in the end I came up with this 6.5" x 5" card that I'm very pleased with.  Originally I had just 2 large black pearl on the top left corner instead of the Melon Mambo ribbon.  My husband who has always given me positive feedback was not as fond of it...even for a girly card.  He said it was too bold and black.  So I decided to added a little bit more girly to it by using the ribbon instead and I am now doubting the wow factor I thought I had with this card.  Oh well.  It was fun to try something new and I'm proud of myself for finding a way to incorporate three challenges into one creation.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that I've done something here thats inspired you.  Have a fabulous week.

Celebrating Life

While we will be celebrating the life of a cousin gone too soon on Friday at a mass, I have a friend who will be soon celebrating the arrival of her baby.  I've designed a couple of cards here for her to use as her baby announcements  I hope she likes them.

The first card is a really simple card using the circle and oval scallop punches together and the individual Sweetness Unlimited stamp.  I'm so happy that SU! has come out with this individual stamps because sometimes a person only wants one image or greeting for certain events as opposed to a whole set that they will only use once.  I used Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo, and Razzleberry Lemonade dp along with some ribbon and designer buttons.  The ink is actually Rose Red and is a pretty close match for Melon Mambo.

My next card was inspired by one of the cards Leigh Ann at Sketch Girl  sent me with her blog candy.  It's a simple enough sketch and I got a chance to use my new Top Note die inside the card for a place to write all the baby specifics.

I used all the same paper and colours except I used the scallop border punch and the Favorite Teddy bear stamp set.  I hope she likes her options because I'm right out of ideas this week.

Take care my friends.  Have a wonderful day and Happy Crafting.

HO HO HO - Mercy's Tuesday Sketch #47

Sunday blessings to you all!  I'm back with a card to share and some sad news.  Our family is trying to cope with the loss of a friendly, warm, and intelligent man this week.  His battle with cancer has ended and so too has his pain.  If there might be anything that can bring comfort that thought will.  Of course with this sad news my heart hasn't been in the right place for stamping or creating.  I did manage to make a few baby cards for my friend which I will share tomorrow.  Baby cards are always a happy thing to focus on.

Today I managed find it in me to make something cheerful and bright for the holidays using Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #47 .  I didn't feel like stamping so I dug out the SU! rub-ons that I bought last season and a bunch of scrap paper.  I used gold floss for the stitching and the PTI vintage button that was part of the Blog candy I won over at Sketch Girl .

Anyhow it's nothing fancy but I'm sure someone will appreciate it this holiday season.  Thanks so much for stopping by to look.  I'm sorry I don't have a lot of new things to inspire you but I'm sure you understand.  Happy crafting!

Paper:  Glossy White, Real Red, Kraft, Soft Suede dsp, Christmas Cocoa dsp, Whisper white
Accessories:  Gold Floss, SU! Rub-ons Old Saint Nick, green button