Handmade Flower Challenge - StampFairy

It's a new challenge at StampFairy today and the challenge is "Handmade Flowers". I'm excited to show this card using a fun new technique designed by my friend Emma Fewkes at Lady & the Stamp and she calls it a "bendy fold card".

You can see the bended panels a bit better in this photo. I'm just crazy for this design - full of dimension, it provides such a wonderful showcase for images. Emma is providing the tutorial for this at her blog - just follow this link Bendy Fold Card - leave her a comment with your email address and she'll send the tutorial to you via email.  Fantastic design Emma - thanks for sharing it!

I'm showcasing StampFairy's Donny Honey Bear. This is just one of 10 digis in this collection and they're all absolutely adorable. There's a freebie Bee Hive with this set, also featured on my card, and it's a perfect pair with any of the images.

And finally, here's a closeup up of one of the handmade flowers on my card and the focus of the StampFairy challenge this week. I punched circles and scallop circles in different sizes from the digital papers I used on the card and then scrunched them over and over again until they were good and crumpled. A rhinestone brad from SU keeps the layers together and also attaches it to the card base here. My digital papers "Bumble Blooms" are designed by Julie Billingsley for Sweet Shoppe Designs.

We invite you to play along in the StampFairy challenge this week by entering a card or project that features Handmade Flowers. You can enter or get more details on the challenge at the StampFairy Challenge Blog. We will name three winners from the entries that use a StampFairy image from the Shop: 1st place receives 3 StampFairy images of your choice, 2nd place receives 2 images and 3rd place picks 1 image. Challenge entries with non-StampFairy images will be eligible for our Top Three Badge and will be entered into a monthly draw for a free StampFairy image.

Be sure to stop by the rest of the StampFairy Design Team blogs (the links are right there on my left sidebar) and see their inspiring challenge cards. For more cards using the Donny Honey Bear images, visit Gerda's StampFairy World - there's some wonderful creations there too.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Vintage Valentines at Sugar Creek Hollow

Greetings and happy Saturday! Today is another sensational Saturday at Sugar Creek Hollow and that means a new challenge and we have one that's perfect for this time of year. Valentine's Day is only a few weeks away and now is a good time to start creating a special card for those special folks in your lives. So to that end, this week we're challenging you to create a VINTAGE VALENTINE card this week. 

Nothing to worry about in making a vintage style card - you're probably already using many of the techniques that lead to that look, like distressing for instance.  You're basically wanting your card and papers to look old - so if you do that with rubbing a little brownish ink on the edges of your papers or scraping them against your scissors to "tatter" them a bit - that's all it takes to start. But we also have a great tutorial available on the Sugar Creek Hollow blog if you'd like to learn more about achieving a vintage style look.  So pull out your distress inks, buttons and lace scraps and join us in the challenge this week.

If you look at this closeup photo, I've used distress inks along the edges of my papers and a vintage looking image to achieve the look. This wonderful "Valentine Birdhouse" image is new at the Sugar Creek Hollow Shoppe. I've also combined it with the "Barn Swallow" digi from SCH. As you can see I've paper-pieced this entire card. I've used digital papers here - some absolutely fantastic ones that have a vintage look. These papers are available at Shery K Designs - a wonderful and reasonable source for digi papers.

If you are new to the Sugar Creek Hollow challenges, we welcome you and hope you play along! Each week we will choose one random winner, who will receive a free digi of their choice from the Sugar Creek Hollow Shoppe and a badge to display on your blog. If you use a Sugar Creek Hollow image you will get two entries in the random draw. Just follow the instructions at the Sugar Creek Hollow blog and join us in the weekly fun!

Each week the Design Team will choose a Card of the Week and the creator of that card will get a badge to display. One overall winner will be chosen each month from the Cards of the Week. That person will be invited to be a Guest Designer and participate in the next challenge. An image will be provided to them to work with. The Card of the Week prize will be given when we have a minimum of 10 entries.

Now visit the Sugar Creek Hollow blog to see the rest of the design team creations - I know you'll be inspired by their talent in creating vintage style cards. Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet Sketch Wednesday

Greetings and happy Wednesday! This week we have an absolutely fabulous sketch at Sweet Sketch Wednesday and are sponsored by the wonderfully whimsical Bugaboo Stamps. 

The grand prize winner of the SSW86 challenge this week will receive 7 digi stamps worth $21 - that's a "wow" prize!  We're so thankful to Jodie at Bugaboo for her generous support of Sweet Sketch Wednesday and her darling digi stamps that keep smiles on our faces!

And here's the "wow" sketch for this week created by our talented Arlana Patten. This sketch is great for multiple coordinated designer papers.  So pull  yours out, grab a Bugaboo image and this sketch and join our fun challenge this week!

The Bugaboo image I've selected for this week's challenge is "Deacon Heart" and you can find him here at the Bugaboo store. I paired him up with Cosmo Cricket "Circa 1934" papers which I thought would be great on a guy card. A felt heart with a little black clip and some corduroy buttons and we have a Valentine's Day card any boy would love to receive.

Now be sure to visit the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog where the design team creations will just "wow" you too! And make sure you leave a little love there in the comments section to qualify for the grand prize.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp Fairy - New Release and Challenge

Can you believe it's Monday again? The last week of January and winter's really bearing down here in Michigan with sub-zero temps.  But that's okay because when it's too cold to be out and about, I hunker down in my craft room and create up a storm!  Like this card for the new StampFairy challenge this week that is all about CIRCLES.

 

Linda Ballet - just released!

I'm also featuring a new StampFairy digi from a collection just released on Friday called "Linda Ballet". Isn't she adorable? You'll have a lot of fun creating cards for the dancer in your world using these new digis. Visit the link and you'll also find a freebie surprise waiting for you there too.



 Here she is a little closer. You can see I paper-pieced her tutu, shoes and hair ribbon - I just couldn't resist another paper-piecing - these digis are so perfect for it.  And you can see I went crazy with circles for the challenge this week.

These wonderful papers are all digital - can you believe it?!  They're from Shery K Designs and I discovered this source from Lis, one of our StampFairy design team members. Digi papers are easy to use and work fantastically with digi stamps. This source has very reasonable prices and beautiful designs - go check out Shery K Designs and see for yourself.

We'd love to have you join us in the StampFairy challenge this week and it's simple to do. Just create a card or project featuring CIRCLES and enter your creation at the StampFairy Challenge Blog. We will name three winners from the entries that use a StampFairy image from the Shop: 1st place receives 3 StampFairy images of your choice, 2nd place receives 2 images and 3rd place picks 1 image. Challenge entries with non-StampFairy images will be eligible for our Top Three Badge and will be entered into a monthly draw for a free StampFairy image.

Be sure to stop by the rest of the StampFairy design team blogs and see their inspiring challenge cards. For more cards using the Linda Ballet images, visit Gerda's StampFairy World - there's some wonderful creations there too.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Sugar Creek Hollow Color Splash Challenge

Happy Saturday! It's another sensational Saturday with Sugar Creek Hollow and another design challenge to boot!  This week it's black and white with a splash of color - your choice on that.  This week I'm featuring one of the gorgeous new Valentine's Day digis called "Vintage Post Card". When I first saw this image designed by Tracy Vinson a million ideas for its use popped into my head, including this here for the color splash challenge.

Did you know that all the proceeds from the sale of Sugar Creek Hollow digi stamps go to charity?  Yes - When you purchase items from us, you are helping to put food in the mouths of hungry children,
and provide clothing and shelter for those who are less fortunate.

If you are new to the Sugar Creek Hollow challenges, we welcome you and hope you play along! Each week we will choose one random winner, who will receive a free digi of their choice from the Sugar Creek Hollow Shoppe and a badge to display on your blog. If you use a Sugar Creek Hollow image you will get two entries in the random draw. Just follow the instructions at the Sugar Creek Hollow blog and join us in the weekly fun!

In this challenge, my splash of color is a pale pink used on the Vintage Post Card digi and background papers with Tattered Rose distress inks from Tim Holtz. The main use of pale pink is on the side panel which is also a Sugar Creek Hollow digi image called "Blue Plate Special". I changed the color of the image in my photo editing software. I just thought it was a unique way to use the digi and achieve the "splash of color" part of the challenge. The black florals used here are a sewing applique I found at Joanne's sewing and craft store. 

Now visit the Sugar Creek Hollow blog to see the rest of the design team creations - I know you'll be inspired by their talent.  Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet Sketch Wednesday - SSW85

Happy midweek everyone! Today is Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge day and we welcome back Digi Stamp Boutique as our sponsor this week. This darling "Love Owls" image caught my eye and I thought how adorable for a Valentines card for one of my favorite couples. You can find it at the Digi Stamp Boutique Store here.

The Grand Prize winner of this week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge will receive 6 free digi images from Digi Stamp Boutique - WOW! - thanks Sally Ann for your generous prize and SSW sponsorship!

Now for this week's sketch - a total keeper and your best "go to sketch" that you'll frequent time and time again!

Thanks Arlana for another awesome sketch. I love your sketches for the layering possibilities and because they're so darn practical too. That's what I mean about being a "go to sketch" - easy to do, nice finished look, focus on the image panel, etc. I could just go on and on about the Sweet Sketches at Sweet Sketch Wednesday!

Here's a close up of the image - you can see I colored those love birds with Copic markers and then glittered up their heart feathers. The papers I've used here are K&Company. And in case there were not enough hearts on this Valentines card, I added another with the silver charm!

Now for more inspiration, visit the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog and gaze on the terrific showcase of cards from my design team buddies. And please remember to leave them a little love along the way too!  Thanks for stopping by today - looking forward to seeing your card using this week's sketch!

Chili Chihuahua - Meljen Challenge 41

I have a spicy hot card tonight for the Meljens Designs challenge! This hot number is called Chili Chihuahua and it's my entry into Challenge 41 - Square or Round shape cards. I couldn't resist the challenge to make a round card - I mean how often do you really create round cards? And this one was a fun one with this adorable image.  You can find the current challenge here and quite a bit of inspiration too from Meljen's talented design team.

I colored Mr. Chili here with Copics, added some sparkle with a glitter gel pen, layered it with lots of layers thanks to Spellbinders Nestie dies and used Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety papers and SU cardstock in Poppy, Artichoke and Summer Sun.  A quick one but fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Doodle Pantry Challenge - DPDC5

What a fun day off I've had today. I had some extra time to just play in my craft room and decided to make up this darling image from Doodle Pantry and play in their challenge - DPDC5. This image is called "Branch Birds 2" and it just cracks me up with the sentiment "Dare to be Different"!  The challenge simply calls for using a Doodle Pantry image and that's fine by me - I love the cute and whimsical images that Laurie Wilson creates.

I used Prismacolor pencils with gamsol blending solution to color these adorable birds. I think the pencils provide a soft look here but still rich with color. I've used Basic Grey papers - Sugar Rush Pulled Taffy and Romani Collico and Stampin Up's Peach Parfait cardstock. The border punch is EK Success - just picked it up this morning at Joanne's while my son was at baseball practice next door (got to love that!).

That's it for today. Back to work tomorrow so I'm signing off early tonight. Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp Fairy Challenge - Paper Piecing

Happy Monday everyone! It's StampFairy challenge day! I find it fun to start the work week with the adorable images from StampFairy - they'll perk up any day but sometimes we just need a lift for Mondays - don't we?!!  We have a new challenge this week too - the focus is paper piecing and StampFairy images are so perfect for that technique.

For my card, I've chosen one of the adorable Kasi the cat images to paper piece. Here I've used papers from the Stampin Up "Woodland Walk" series. I've popped darling Kasi's head and yarn ball for dimension and also sponged around Kasi's body and face to better define the image on the DP. I also did the nose and inner ears on white cardstock and colored them with Copics first, then cut and glued them on the paper pieced image. It's that easy and I love the look of paper piecing - just a fun way to enhance your images and so easy with digi stamps.

We'd love to have you join us in the StampFairy challenge this week and it's simple to do. Just create a card or project with paper piecing and enter your creation at the StampFairy Challenge Blog. We will name three winners from the entries that use a StampFairy image from the Shop: 1st place receives 3 StampFairy images of your choice, 2nd place receives 2 images and 3rd place picks 1 image. Challenge entries with non-StampFairy images will be eligible for our Top Three Badge and will be entered into a monthly draw for a free StampFairy image.

Here's some of the new StampFairy releases to get you inspired - you'll find these in the StampFairy Shop and are perfect for paper piecing too!


Toby Teddy Bear ready for Spring - new today!



Donny Honey Bear



Lenny LadyBug

Be sure to stop by the StampFairy Challenge Blog and StampFairy World to see the DT creations featuring these new images and their challenge cards.  Thanks for stopping by today!

I'm entering my Kasi paper pieced card in the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments - Use "Two Word Sentiment" - I welcome their design team to my blog! This is my first entry in the Aud Sentiments challenges.

Sugar Creek Hollow - Fabric Challenge

It's Saturday and time for another challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow. This week our challenge is to use fabric on your card other than ribbon. This is a fun challenge - there are so many beautiful fabrics out there and they add texture and a rich feel to a card. Here I've used three different fabrics but they all coordinate wonderfully into a pink and blue Valentines theme.

Even the flower embellishment is made of fabric and of course the felt hearts sort of qualify as fabric too.  The medallion image is a new one at Sugar Creek Hollow - just released this week for Valentines Day. Actually for any day - this would be a perfect anniversary image or even for Mother's Day this spring. 

I colored the digi blue in my photo editing software and printed two copies. I cut out the center circle of one and sponged it with pink ink and mounted it with foam tape on top of the second printed image for dimension.

The best way to use fabric on a card is to apply iron-on interfacing (the stiffer kind) to the wrong side of the fabric first before you cut it out with scissors (here I used pinking shears on the background and blue/white side panel) or try to use a die cut (here a Nestie Label 17 was used with the floral fabric). From there you work with it like any cardstock really. It's that simple and yields a wonderful look.

Did you know that 100% of the proceeds from the sale of Sugar Creek Hollow digi stamps goes to charity?

Now it's time for you to try fabric and enter our Sugar Creek Hollow challenge this week. Everyone is invited to enter a card challenge. You are not required to use an image from Sugar Creek Hollow, but if you do, you will get two entries into the random prize draw. (There are lots of freebies at the Sugar Creek Hollow Shoppe) The winner of that draw will receive a digi of their choice from the Sugar Creek Hollow Shoppe and a badge to display on their blog. Once we reach a minimum of 10 entries, the Design Team will select a Card of the Week and the creator of that card will receive a special badge to display on their blog. Every month there will be a Guest Designer chosen from the Cards of the Week and that person will be invited to join the Design Team in a challenge. There are lots of reasons to play in our challenges so we can't wait to see your fabulous fabric creations this week!

Be sure to check out the rest of the design team fabric inspirations at the Sugar Creek Hollow blog and leave a little love along the way.  Thanks for stopping by!

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges (What fun!):
Southern Girls Challenge - "Totally Loved Up" theme
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - "Love is in the Air" theme
One Crazy Stamper - "Love" theme
Scrap-Creations - "Love is in the Air" theme

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge 86

It's been a couple months since I've played in the Midnight Madness sketch challenge and I'm finally back at it again this week. I've loved Priscilla's sketches and it feels good to be playing in her team's challenge again.

Here's this week's sketch - isn't it fun?! I thought so too and decided to use one of the new Valentine digi stamps over at Sugar Creek Hollow.  This birdhouse image is beautiful and has just been released by SCH and it fit the shape of a tag perfectly.

If you look closely you'll see that I've used fabric as the background panel.

This darling birdhouse was colored using Copics and embellished with a glitter gel pen around the heart and the vines.

Thanks for a great sketch this week Priscilla.  And I welcome back the MMSC DT to my blog!  It's been way too long and I've missed you all!  Thanks for stopping by!

I'm also entering this card in the Scrapbook Sisters card challenge #18 - "Hearts Desire" is theme of the challenge this week - fun one too! I welcome that design team to my blog as well - hope you visit often!