Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Glitter and Twine and Sparkles OH MY!



So............ this is what my Dear Mom and I were up to last weekend............MOST of last weekend!!! She likes to give her Sorority Sisters a special gift at Christmas. We'd been pondering over various ideas for the lst few months and decided that Christmas Tags would be sweet and practical. Since her Party is next week, last Friday I figured that we better get our butt in gear and get going with these as the party would be here before we knew it AND I wasn't sure how long it would really take to make 180 tags and 30 Toppers!


So.................... what do you think?




I got this great Tim Holtz Die at Scrappin' Great Deals!



This is the longer carved ornament. I  like that there are two ornaments on one die!



I didn't have enough glittery paper to do 30 of the same colour, so we changed it up a bit!


I think the purple and black is my Fave Colour Combo!



This one looks rather elegant too IRL


We threw in a couple of quickie tags............made with the SU ornament punch and matching stamp set!




We jazzed this one up with some Viva Pearl Pen



This one was made with my Cricut Cartridge............easy peasy too!



An alternative topper!!!!

Now just to get the danged mess cleaned up!!!!!

Happy Stamping!


Monday, November 28, 2011

TTC06 Touch Twin Colour Challenge


This week we have a great colour challenge going on over at the Touch Twin Challenge Blog!

The challenge is to use the following colours

BR103, BR107, Y34, R4

Head on over to the Challenge Blog to see the colours up close

One person will be randomly chosen among entries to win 
12 Touch Twin markers!!!



Gina K is sponsoring our Challenges this month and I used this adorable set called


the colours I used are 

R 1,4, 131, 139
BR 97, 103, 107
WG 0.5, 1, 3
GY 173, 175
CG 1,3, 5
YR 133
Y 34

Wow! that almost looks like an eye chart!!!!

Additional Supplies include Colourbox Licorice Ink by Stephanie Barnard
SU! Certainly Celery and Bliss Blue

Hope you'll play along with our Challenge!

To enter:

Post a link to your project on the Challenge Blog
Post a link to our challenge on your blog.
Please do not combine this challenge with more than 5 challenges.
No back linking. Your project must be new.


For extra chances to win:


Follow the Touch Twin & More Challenge blog.
Like us on Facebook.
Subscribe to our newsletter.
Add our Touch Twin & More Challenges button to your blog.

Don't have a blog? That's OK. Just post to any online gallery with the keywords TTC06 and TouchTwin and post a direct link in the comment section of the post on blog.

Don't have any Touch Twin markers? That's OK too... for now. Starting in January we will require using our markers, but for now you can use any coloring medium.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Sweet Memories!



I want to share   a little Christmas Gift that I've made for my son Jonathon.  For many years, we'd make a Gingerbread House each Christmas. Where does the time go? My sweet little boy has grown into an almost 6'5" young man. I'm sure that he'd humour me and build a Gingerbread House if I asked, but I'm sure it wouldn't be quite the same!




I started the project with a couple of things...........this nifty kraftboard box by Graphic 45 and The My Minds Eye Lost and Found Christmas Collection pack. I'm not sure if Scrappin' Great Deals still has the kit in stock, but you can find all the fabulous papers here .


The Box has a magnetic closure and a very cool accordion album inside, that you can decorate to your taste.



I started by covering the outside and the inside covers of the box with some of the matching papers

.

I sponged Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Brushed Corduroy to all the edges, as it softens it down. Also to cut down on the bulk a bit, I used the Lost and Found Christmas Stamps (which happen to be on sale now!) to Stamp the outside edges and interior of the box.


I embellished the box and layout with some of the die cuts from the Tag sheet in the kit as well as with the My Minds Eye decorative brads.

Here's a few shots of the accordion album

The Cover



These pictures are dated.........my sweet 9 year old is now 15......we had a lot of fun making gingerbread houses at Christmas



I had to don that Santa Hat too!........................I'm not sure if more candy made it onto the house, or into our bellies!






Ohhhh the Concentration here!


A little pocket for tucking in the Journaling and an extra picture or two!

Hmmm I haven't seen Jon make this particularly interesting face for at least a year or two!

Did I mention that I LOVE papercrafting kits? I managed to get this project done, along with 3 or 4 cards, a glass ornament and I still have a full sheet of paper that I intend to do another layout with!



Hope you enjoyed my project!





Saturday, November 26, 2011

C4C 115 -Add a little snow




Joycelyn is our Challenge Hostess this month and here's her final Challenge. It's been a great month J!

This is the time of year when many of us start decorating our homes for the upcoming holiday season!! Well I think, being a Canadian, the greatest outdoor decoration of all is that which Mother Nature gives us PLENTY of!!! SNOW!!! For me, Christmas just isn't the same without some fresh fallen snow!
This week's challenge is to make a card or project with some sort of snow on it!!!

For my card, I used a Snow Globe Kit from Flower Soft! I obviously didn't make the card into a Snow Globe, you can do pretty things with the kit as it is!! I really couldn't capture the colours all that well this morning so I have to tell you that this card is BEAUTIFUL in real life. The blue is not quite so bold on the Tan Base.


Here's a closer picture. I wanted you to see the dimension in the layer and the wee bit of Silver that I added to the Polar White Flower Soft

Sorry I'm late with my post. It's been a crazy week AND I am working on making 180 Christmas Tags with my Mom..........yep One Hundred and Eighty! Crazy eh?

Speaking of Crazy, you'll want to see the Crazy Creations this week. The DT have outdone themselves again. Just follow the links on my sidebar to their blogs. You won't be disappointed!!!!

Oh............and don't forget to play along and link up your cards on the C4C blog

Happy Saturday!





Friday, November 25, 2011

Admit One


Today, I took a little time just to stamp for me! I got some fun stamps from The Cat's Pajamas last month, and had only inked one up so far. The Challenge on Splitcoaststampers yesterday was to use Ribbon in a fun and fancy way. As you can see, I rolled my ribbon and used it to ground the little pennants in the sweet paper. 

Isn't this little Barker Bear Cute!? I coloured him with my Touch Twin Markers




The Mix of Designer Papers are from the Simple Stories Life Documented line and include Celebrate Life and Life is Good. I cut the little pennants right out of the paper!!! Other little doodads include misc Ribbon, Stitching, Wire and the SU Tag Punch.

For those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, I hope you enjoyed a wonderful Holiday.

See you tomorrow with my C4C post

Happy Stamping!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

SDC43 It's a non traditional Christmas



Before you know it, Christmas will be upon us! How many of you have started your Christmas cards?  I'm curious, do you make ALL of your Christmas cards, none of them or a bit of both? 

This week  i'm the Hostess and I'm challenging the team to make a non traditional Christmas card. The main rule is 

NO RED OR GREEN

I can't wait to see all of the great ideas!

Pull out your Stampotique Stamps as this is a Stampotique only week! 

Play along with this week's challenge for your chance to win a $30 Stampotique Gift Certificate, be sure to link in your entries by 5 p.m. EST on 12/13/11 by using the InLinkz on the Stampotique Designer Challenge Blog . Please no back linking to previous posts and only one entry per person.

For my card, I started out with this pretty paper from the Let it Snow Stack from Dovercraft. I sponged all the edges with Tim Holtz Corduroy distress ink. Then I stamped this fun Postcard Stamp. I knew that I wanted to use it as a background. I found this gorgeous Brown and Gold Ribbon at Michaels last week. I think I'm going to have to go back for some more, it's so pretty. 

So I had all those elements complete and I had to think about what I would use for my main image. .. I perused my wonderful cache of stamps and thought this Happy Holiday's stamp would work perfectly.........now what about colouring it?  I didn't want to add much colour, as I really liked the neutral theme I had going on here. I am a huge fan of my Teammate Maria's neutral designs and I followed her theme to a degree to create my card, although it's much darker. So I just decided to add some shading to the main image. I did this by "smooshing" some Brushed Corduroy ink onto a palette. Picking up the colour with my water brush, I added layers of colour until I achieved the result that I wanted. I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out and it looks much "sparklier" in real life!

Happy Stamping!


Saturday, November 19, 2011

Crazy 4 Challenge 114- Black, White and WOW!!!!



Welcome to another happy Saturday here at the Crazy 4 Challenges Blog!!

Our November hostess Joycelyn has brought us a fun challenge that she's  done a few times in the past, but it is definitely one of her faves!

BLACK, WHITE, and WOW!!!

So that means create a card using black & white and only one other WOW color!!!

So my WOW! Consisted of this Fun Glittery Paper in Gold! I kept my card relatively simple, using the Tim Holtz Carved Ornament Die along with the Joy Magnetic Insert. I embossed the white panel with a Paisley Embossing Folder  as well as  the Black Ornament, but unfortunately it's hard to see in the picture!

I liked the simple design of the card so much, I created another in a Rosy Red Colour Combination!



If you decide to play along with us, all you have to do is create a card/project and upload it to your blog and/or to your SCS Gallery using the keyword C4C114. Don't forget to go back to the C4C site and link it on Mr Linky so that everyone else can see it too.


Don't forget to check out the rest of the crazie's creations~~~


Happy Stamping!


Friday, November 18, 2011

First Snowfall



Elements of  raising a puppy are reminiscent of  the joy of raising a baby. I still recall the look on Jonathon's face and the squeals of delight as he experienced the feeling of dewy grass under his toes. Yesterday, mother nature blessed us with a brief yet beautiful snowfall. I was taking a little break from work and noticed the big fluffy flakes through the kitchen window.


My first thought was to get Sydney outside as I was really excited to see her reaction. As we stepped over the vestibule and onto the damp porch, her little doe eyes widened. Head cocked to the left, (seems to be her perplexed look) we headed out onto the lawn. As she looked up into the sky, the snowflakes were melting on her nose.

 More investigation followed. Nose to the ground, she burrowed through the grass, tentatively tasting the cool flakes as if she were a sampler at Costco! Nose to the ground, nose to the sky, we repeated that pattern for a few minutes.


She wasn't too happy to have to go into the house to don her winter jacket, but I just had to have some photos of her fashion highness! If i'd thought a little harder, I'd have taken the camera the first time out, but in a sense, I'm glad I didn't. My focus was solely experiencing the pleasure of a new experience for Sydney.


Really and truly, as much work as involved with raising her, she brings a little Joy into my heart each and every day~!

"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive."
Gilda Radner

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Impression Obsession Challenge-Keeping it Clean with Stamps and No Patterned Paper



The Impression Obsession DT members have been busy stamping, inking, and designing their "Stamps Only - No Patterned Paper" creations . I enjoy texture in my creations, which can be achieved quite easily with the addition of designer paper. That being said ,you can add depth to cardstock by virtue of sponging and inks. I like the look of tone on tone ink to paper,as you can see peeking out a little in my tree background. For my main image, I used this super cute "a bump in the snow" I coloured it with my Touch Twin Markers. Here's my colour map!



I also used a sentiment and the star wreath from The Miracle of Christmas set to again, add some additional texture to the card.  I have to say that there's lots of glitter and glitz in this creation, having used Glamour Dust, White Gel pen and a rhinestone flower.
I'm also entering this card into the Ways to Use it Challenge at Splitcoaststampers for the Winter Card theme
So let's get to it and before you post your own entries and get all the details for the Challenge on the IO blog, check out the DT's beautiful cards on their blogs listed below:
If you would like to participate in the challenge for a chance to win a $25 Gift Certificate, we are using theInlinkz thumbnail format for posting your entries.  TheChallenge Guidelines widget is posted in the first sidebar to your right.  Don't forget our ending time for this challenge will be next Wednesday, November 23, Thanksgiving Eve, at 10 p.m. EST.  The winner is picked using Random.org.  I will also notify all the players of the winner that night.  The winner's name will also be posted with the DT Thursday post onNovember 24.  Thanks in advance for playing and joining in the fun everyone!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

It's an all new hop at Stampotique!




Announcing new images and new artists are always exciting here at Stampotique Originals and so we are thrilled to announce our newest artist, Kira Nichols.  Kira has designed some very unique monsters and kitties for her first line of stamps and our design team has had the opportunity to play with the stamps before they are released to the public.  Now if you've been Hopping already, you've arrived from the very talented Nellie's Blog!


I totally fell in LOVE with this sweet Nerd Kitty image. How cute is she? or is it a he? Not really sure, but I know for sure it's adorable!!! I coloured  Nerd Kitty in Prism Pencils and Teamed the image up with Graphic 45 Paper for a bit of a vintage look. This is also my card for the Stampotique Designer's Challenge currently going on at our Blog



And what about THIS GUY????? hehe............he made me giggle. This is Key Keeper. WAY cute too, as are all Kira's images! I was thrilled to be asked to be a Guest Designer for the Splitcoaststampers colour challenge this month and this is my CC card for this week


Again, I used my Prism Pencil for this image, with some sponging on the inside of the Nestie Template. I like the way this fun layout developed. I also used Sizzix Framelit Pennants by Stephanie Barnard to create the triangles. The Cardstock and Brads are from Stampin' Up!

Want a chance to win some of Kira's new images?  Hop along with our designers as well as our special guest, leaving comments along the way, for your chance to win some of Kira's new images.  We will randomly draw a winner from one of the blogs and announce the winner with our next challenge.

Your next stop is the Sweet, Lovely and Super Talented Willy........the queen of Beautiful Backgrounds.....oh I can't wait to see what she has for us!

Make sure to leave comments along the way and a randomly chosen commenter will win some of these new stamps.


Below is a complete list in case you go off the beaten path and need some redirection.

Kim Howard<----you are here

I couldn't resist adding a couple of pictures from Jonathon's Football game on Saturday. His Team won the KASSAA AA Championship Game and will be chasing the Eastern Ontario Title this Wednesday......please send some positive thoughts our way! I'd love to see the Boys advance!












Sunday, November 13, 2011

In the Garden with Gina K and Touch Twin Markers



Note: I just published this a touch early...OOOOPS! The challenge doesn't start until tomorrow morning.

Welcome to Touch Twin Challenge!!!
Our challenge is "In the Garden"

This month's challenges are sponsored by Gina K Designs!


The Touch Twin ARTisans will be featuring the sweet gnome from the Gnome One Like You set that was illustrated by ARTisan Tami Mayberry for Gina K Designs!


The challenge will run from November 14th - November 26nd with a winner being announced on November 27th.

One person will be randomly chosen among entries to win 
12 Touch Twin markers!!!

To enter:

Post a link to your project on the Touch Twin Challenge Site.
Post a link to our challenge on your blog.
Please do not combine this challenge with more than 5 challenges.
No back linking. Your project must be new.


For extra chances to win:


Follow the Touch Twin & More Challenge blog.
Like us on Facebook.
Subscribe to our newsletter.
Add our Touch Twin & More Challenges button to your blog.


Don't have a blog? That's OK. Just post to any online gallery with the keywords TTC05 and TouchTwin and post a direct link in the comment section of this post.

These are the Markers I used for my creation



And here's my Colour Map


Don't have any Touch Twin markers? That's OK too... for now. Starting in January we will require using our markers, but for now you can use any coloring medium.

Can't wait to see what you created