Valentine Grapevine Heart Wreath

Hiya & thanks for popping by. Sharing the last of the cards sent along to DD. This one was done for DD herself, and she didn't see the image when it was being colored at Christmas.

 

Let me first welcome a new follower: Pia of Pias Papir og Perler. Thanks so much for joining in as a new follower here. I can promise you a treat if you take time to zip over & say Hello to Pia...she's got some fabulous cards for you to enjoy. It's always lovely meeting new card friends.

 

Second: Had to do another round of Random Generator last evening. The last name drawn did not make contact in the required time. Folks, this gets harder than I thought it would be. Got a couple of numbers, but didn't have a complete name or blog name either...and it was not followers that I've seen visit for a long time. {that time was not a concern, but more of identifying who the person is}. Since this is the 3rd iteration, was trying to find someone with a blog, or a name that I could identify. (If that doesn't make sense, for example, there are several Sarahs, Brendas, Cathys where there is only a first name, and no blog listed - so not exactly certain who this may be.  I hope I'm not being unfair to anyone!!!). The last run where I had a blog link and could be certain of who the follower or blog link is:

 

#216, Brenda of Inkspired to Stamp

 

This post is scheduled to go live on 1/28/15 at 8am, so Brenda will have until 1/30/15 at 8am (the same 48 hours given to other winners)  to contact me for her blog candy.  Oh....I'm hoping RG won't have to work again to do this last candy win!





 

- Grapevine Wreath (R142) and that's all it says on the wooden block...have had this one for a long time. Colored with Copics and fussy cut. Bow has WoS. In fussy cutting, some of the swirls & stems on the wreath were just snipped off, as the tiny bits were too intricate to try to cut well.

- added a Cheery Lynn flourish die, cut from white c/s, then colored with copics. Snipped the piece apart to thread it around the grapevine. Wasn't sure if it might be a bit 'much', but left it alone.

- VOS for the background, there's a pink heart under the wreath.  Think this is Paper Studio dp that has been in the stash for years.

- plain red card front, heat embossed with another old sentiment, using my favorite Ranger Queen's Gold EP. This card had a little bit of green tucked inside, so even if DD is not thrilled with the card, she'll like the green stuff. She can have a nice lunch on Dad & Mom.

That's it! Now gotta get goin' on some cards for myself to send. Come again soon. Hugs

Penny Black Kissing Hedgies

Hi & welcome. Yet another Valentine...this one was sent to DD with the idea that she might give it to her DH. He liked the Christmas card I did for him, so I hope he'll like this one. I did! Love these little Hedgies, you know.

- PBlack Hedgehog kisses cling stamp, colored with Copics, WoS on the balloons.

- Hearts EF, snippets from an earlier Valentine card

- S/B corner die (this is a real oldie...forgot I had this set, and saw it when I was looking for somethin' else. Happens to me a lot :-)

The inside is a little mushy, so if DD doesn't give it to SIL, it may not get used. The others I sent her were a different purpose.

Hope you like it, and come again when you have time. Stay warm if it's cold in your part of the world. Big Hugs.

Raccoon Valentine

Good morning, and here's another of the Valentine cards done for DD...and I hope she has the package in her hot little hands by now. If you look closely, you'll see I'm using snippets of card stock from cards shared earlier. I liked this houndstooth pattern and think it looks nice with the red. 

 

 

 

- Great Impressions image, colored with copics, die cut with S/B Labels 3. (Used some black WoS on Rocky's black mask & body)

- 6x6 paper pack (think it was Authentique - Pretty).

- MS heart border punch. Tiny hearts on bottom are the cut out bits.

- hand cut the faux mat and the fish tail banners.

- Heart brad & card front embossed with a hearts EF.

That's it! Hope you aren't getting totally sick of seeing Valentine cards. Next up is St. Paddy's Day. I promise, there won't be quite so many of those! Have a wonderful day and come again when you can. Big Hugs.

Gelatos and Brusho-s Thinking of You

Hello and thanks for popping in for a visit. Hope today finds everyone feeling fit, staying warm, and having something pleasant happening in their lives just at the moment.

Winner 257 did not contact me in the required amount of time (1-25-2015 by 6pm), so RG was polled again. This time the winner is #61, who is Shirley R, of Card Art, Etc.).  Shirley will have until 1-27-2015, 6pm EST to contact me with her info. Sure don't like having a sweet follower miss out on the candy, but must be fair to everyone. All the other winners have provided their information.

Today's card was a play session with Gelatos and Brusho-s. It was inspired by Brenda of inkspired to stamp (Jan 15 2015 post) when seeing a NBUS card that she made, using a Jennifer McGuire technique.

 - Gelato background was inspired by Alexandra at art scrap & more (Jan 17, 2015 post). Scribbled some pastel pink, peach, orange gelatos + gold metallic on acrylic block, spritzed very well with water. Scribbled the same gelato colors across a Mixed Media 98# weight cardstock.  Brushed across the  c/s scribbles with a damp brush to spread the colors, then smooshed the paper onto the wet acrylic block. At first it muddied with disappointing results. Rescribbled the pastels on the acrylic block, leaving out the gold, didn't wet the block quite so much, smooshed again. I was better pleased with the 2nd smooshing :-D.  This piece was dried, then embossed with a S/B 3D EF Oval Accent folder (and making the sandwich was a testing procedure. Previously broke a Cuttlebug using a 3D S/B emboss folder. The sandwich for this one was the multipurpose platform, no clear B bottom plate, the 3D E/F,  clear B top plate...very gently testing as it started through the B/Shot to be sure it was not too thick.) Used a S/B Classic oval to cut the opening.

- Canson #98 Mixed Media Paper spritzed with water, sprinkled Brusho Osto Red over and let the magic happen. Spritzed the partially dried gelato & Brusho pieces with a gold Tattered Angel spray and let each finish drying before using.

- MBox Delicate Butterfly Arch die cut, MB Leafy Branch die cut. Experimented with placing the Butterfly die under the oval, using bits of scor-tape to anchor. Trimmed off some bits. Snipped Leafy Branch and placed sprigs to fill where the Butterfly die left spaces. Added some tiny pearls to the blossoms.

- MB Lydon butterfly added for trim, and Elizabeth Craft sentiment finished off this card.
Hope you like it!

Come again when you have time and have a marvelous day. Warm hugs.

Rudolph Day #1 - January 2015

Hello and welcome to the first 2015 Rudolph Day post. As you know, our former hostess Sarn, of Stamping for Pleasure turned over the Hostess duties to our lovely Scrappymoi  of Scraps of Life by Scrappymoi.  So it will be exciting to see how things change up. One thing I know that has changed is that we submit only one card now, where during 2014, we submitted 2 cards. I know that certainly helped me to have a nice stash of Christmas cards ready when the time came (ok, except for inserts, which I was doing at the last minute!). My membership in the Christmas Card Club helped a lot as well.

Anyhoo...here's my card for our first Rudolph Day Challenge...hope you'll like it.

 - Artful cling stamp, Holly Angel - CM 729P, colored with copics, die cut with a S/Binder label die.

- Prima doily die (one of the purple looking plastic dies) - split the motif to make it work as a mat. This was the first use with these colored Prima dies, and it feels like it's plastic, but probably not. Just a different weight of metal. Used several passes through the B/Shot and it cut pretty well.

- papers are from a 6x6 pack, that wasn't terribly Christmas, but I liked the colors with Holly. However, little Holly does look a bit washed out now that I see the photo. May go back and darken her eyes and robe. I was ok with her hair..I like my angels to be 'golden'! (My DD is a blonde, sort of - with a little help these days!!!)

- sentiment stamped with a Fluid Chalk blue after having the shape die cut. Added 2 little pearls.

I do hope you'll join in the very first Rudolph Day Challenge for 2015. We have a brand new hostess, Miss Scrappymoi (Maureen) of Scraps of Life by Scrappymoi. This is going to be a scheduled post to go live 1-25-2015 12:01 AM (EST). I'll try to edit this post to provide a different link - as I'm waiting for Maureen to advise if there is another link for the challenge. Our wonderful hostess of previous years, Miss Sarn of Stamping for Pleasure did such a fantastic job of gathering all us Rudy folks each month, and I'm sure Maureen is going to keep the fun going.

Big Hugs, have a terrific Sunday. Come again soon.

Whiff of Joy Henry - Valentine

Whee! It's Saturday, and one of the 3 winners has provided her contact information. Still waiting to hear from the other 2 USA candy winners. The international winner contacted me this afternoon. Yippee!

Several visitors asked about this card and if that stamp was a PSX image. I actually thought it was made by Inkadinkadoo. When I checked, to my surprise it IS a PSX stamp, but I had never looked to see the maker. Thanks all of you who commented and caused me to relook!

 

 

- Whiff of Joy - Henry with Love Balloon, die cut with Lil Inker pierced oval. Background done with a cotton ball inked with Memento Summer Sky ink, dabbed gently around the oval after Henry was colored. Fiskers cloud punch and Viva Décor pearls on the clouds.

 

- corrugated paper saved from a box of chocolates sprayed with Dylusions Postbox Red, and Tattered Angels gold.

 

- Ribbons from stash.

 

- Cheery Lynn die sentiment

There's a beautiful new card added to the Cards by Friends section, received yesterday from my friend Gloria. She used a foiling technique and it's a totally gorgeous card. Gotta learn how to do that! Got an order for some Flitter Glu and metal gilding flakes too. Seeing lots of that look done around on Youtubes.

 

The joke below came in email this week and I had to laugh. When our DD was very small, she learned to talk early, and had a pretty good vocabulary. However, she would say some words that we just could not figure out what she meant. Then when we realized what she was saying, we had to smile. At night, we'd ask what she had done at nursery school that day, and she'd say " Played with Aza gran". We'd never heard of that name before, so of course would say "Who?". She would look at us as though we were not quite bright - say a bit disgustedly "Aza gran". I finally asked which child was "Aza gran" and the teacher said no kid by that name. After a minute's thought I asked - "Well who does she play with the most then?". "Adri-enne". I think DD was about 2 or 3 at the time. A niece was learning the Pledge of Allegiance in nursery school. She'd get to the part of "..and to the Republic, for which it stands". We realized the child was saying "For Richard Stands". We kept correcting her and she would say "But that's what Teacher said" and nothing could shake the kid. Finally her Mom had to get the Teacher to make her recite it correctly. If that Teacher told her, the words were "For Richard Stands", that's the way it was gonna be! So when I read this joke, both these old memories surfaced! Hope it gives you a laugh too.  

 

 A little boy was doing his math homework. He would say to himself 2+5, that son of a bxtxh is 7.   3+6, that son of a bxtxh  is 9...'. His mother heard what he was saying and gasped, "What are you DOING?". The little tyke answered "I'm doing my math homework, Mommy". "And this is how your teacher taught you to do it?" Mom asked. "Yes, ma'am" he replied. Infuriated his mother asked the teacher next day "What ARE you teaching my son in math?". The teacher said "Right now, we're learning addition". The mother asked, "And are you teaching them to say 2+2, the son of a bxtxh  is 4?!!!"  After the teacher stopped laughing, she answered, "What I taught them to say, was 2+2 the SUM OF WHICH, is 4!".

Don't forget Rudolph Day starts tomorrow, and we have a new hostess. So be sure to submit your cards and get a head start on Christmas 2015. Be sure to check the rules as Miss Scrappymoi has changed the requirements to be just one single card. My card is ready, but I haven't got a link for you just now. Hope to have it available when I post the card for tomorrow.

Thanks for joining me today. Have a blessed Saturday, and big hugs from me to you. Come back when you can, now heah?

Valentine - Surprise Blog Candy for my International Followers

Hi Again. I'm back with another Valentine card and a little surprise Blog Candy. When Random Generator for the blog candy was run earlier in the day, all the winners were USA residents. I felt that  all my lovely international followers were being a bit slighted. Decided that I would do another RG and select the first International follower whose name matched a number. That sweet follower will be thanked with an LOTV voucher in the amount of $35...which is approximately the cost of each of the earlier prizes. I have used LOTV before to send a voucher, so I know that company will work with my pay pal account and we can get the money conversion done properly....And I think all of us love the LOTV products.

First here's another {sorry!} Valentine card. Remember I still have to do some for my own use - so bear with me. This is another of the ones I did for DD.

-PB Hot Pants, Lil Inker Stitched Rectangle (or maybe it was MFT Pierced rectangle, gosh I forget!)

- S/B elegant ovals mat

- Momenta Arrows die cut from background paper created by spraying Dylusions over a piece of lace onto white cardstock. It was a bit too bright for my liking, so used it to die cut.

- other papers from Paper Studio 6x6 Love Struck pack

- VOS sticker hearts. Yay, that's it!

Congratulations to:

#254 - Kate of I Love Socks and Cards

The same rules as earlier: Contact me by 6:00PM EST on 1-25-15 and provide mailing address and also your email address please. (only I will see your personal data). I will contact LOTV and arrange for the voucher to be mailed directly to you. (at least this is the way LOTV handled it for me in the past..I hope they still do it that way.)

I do appreciate ALL of my lovely blog followers and it makes me happy to be able to send a little gift along to say so! I do so enjoy getting to know people from other parts of the world, learn about their lives and where they live...in places I shall probably never have the pleasure to see. I always love it when pictures are shared showing places that you visit. TTFN (TaTa for now. I watch too many British series methinks!). Big Hugs.

Penny Black - Tokens of Love

Good afternoon & warm welcomes. Hope you're not going to get sick of seeing Valentine cards, but that's the theme of most of my cards just now!

First order of business is to share the name of my newest followers:

Kellie of A Little Bit of Kellie and Sara of UTs Hobby Time . Shared Sara's blog link earlier, but I didn't have her name at that time. Sara was kind enough to let me share her name with you. Hope you'll take a few minutes and check out both of these awesome bloggers' work.

 

Another of the cards that were sent along to the DD. I'll keep the blather short, because the Blog Candy winners will be announced at the end of this post. Don't know how to insert the RG's results, so you'll just have to trust me on the numbers!

 

 

 

- PBlack Tokens of Love

- S/B Long Scalloped Rectangle

- MFT Stitched Fishtail banner

- VOS (probably Paper Studio) background paper

- Dylusions Sprayed background paper used for banner and card mat. Tried sprinkling Osti Red Brusho crystals over this piece while it was still wet...the crystals didn't spread as much as over just plain water.* You can just see some of the darker red sprinkles on the fish tail banner.

 

*This piece started out as one of my first Gelli plate efforts.  Gelli plate was inked with some copper acrylic paint, stencil placed and print pulled with white card stock. The piece has been on the table for a while. Since the background was white with the copper hearts, decided to spray Postbox Red Dylusions then sprinkle Osti Red Brusho crystals. Just goes to show, most warts can be salvaged to some purpose!!

 

- tiny heart brads - and yes there is some WoS on the Balloons & the envelope heart. The sentiment was done by masking off a portion of a stamp so that just the Valentine part showed, then punched with an SU oval punch. Card done.

****************************************************************************

NOW: Drumroll please: Congratulations to:

 

#224 - Benzi (http://benzistampz.blogspot.com/)

#180 - Shonna Erlenborn (http://shonasstampingstage.blogspot.com/)

#257 - Nancy ( http://whatsonmykitchencounter.blogspot.com/)

 

Did 3 passes on the Random Generator to get each number, matched the number to a name on the  database, and Ta-Da!

Each person has 48 hours to contact me by  1-25-15 at 6pm, provide mailing info, and an email address so that I can advise when candy is shipped.  Moderate comments is set to on, so any personal info left in a comment will only be seen by myself.  

 

Previous blog candy winners know that I like to include a little surprise in each envelope, which I hope the recipient will enjoy. It will be an unused product, or I will so state (sometimes I'll send along a well loved stamp that is extra to me. If it's stained, I will clean it as much as possible. Most of the items are duplicate purchases, or items purchased at good prices with the intention of using for blog candy. Sometimes original packaging has to be removed to make for easier mailing and I will say so.)

****************************************************************************

I want to thank each follower who took the time to join and help me reach this milestone goal. You can't believe how excited I am & I hope each person will be pleased with the items being sent. So thanks again for ALL of your support. Wish I could send something to each of you! Now it's set to go for the next milestone! I'm already collecting some goodies - oh I am optimistic, aren't I??? Many hugs, and hope I hear back from the winners within the time frame.

Penny Black Roses on the Run

Yahooo! Powered up the computer tonight and saw the 300 follower show up in the followers list. Whoo-ee! Candy time!! A big, warm welcome to UTs Hobby Time (sorry I don't know the blogger's name just yet).  Thanks so much for helping me reach this astounding milestone (well it is to me anyway!).

Sorry that I've been MIA for the last few days. I've received some lovely comments on the last couple of posts which made me feel so pleased. Had some other things going on in life & just haven't had a lot of time to spend on the computer lately. Also DD had requested some Valentine cards when she saw what I was coloring over our Christmas visit. Been working on those in the evenings, since she needed them soon in order  to send them out in a timely manner.  I'm sharing one here tonight:

- PBlack Roses on the Run, colored with copics & WoStella.

- S/B Decorative Labels 34 for the shape and some stencil coloring in the fancy edges.

- MBox Twisted hearts die; inserted the cut out pieces back in the die. Backed the red paper with some Elizabeth Craft double side tape (a new to me product, and it's a bit thinner than the Sookwang, so a tad easier to die cut. Made placing the cut out bits into the outline quite easy). Some VOSdimensional EK heart stickers were in the Valentine stamp drawer, so using some old stash too.

- Cheery Lynn sentiment cut from the same sticky paper as the hearts.

- Paper Studio 6x6 Love Struck paper pack.

Hope the DD will like this, and yes, I did finish off the inside. Even included envelopes for each card that was placed in the package sent to her.

As soon as I can catch up all the comments that are waiting on a return visit from me, I will be doing the Random Generator. It won't be long - I'll do my best to get it done and announced very shortly.

Thanks for joining me tonight, after another beautiful day. It was mammogram and bone density scan time for me - so I'm glad that's done for the year. Ya'll have a lovely evening. Big Hugs.

Thinking of You Yellow Roses

Good Morning, and thanks for joining me.

Please help me welcome a new follower, Darlene of Dar's Crafty Creations. We met over at the Snippets Playground and do give yourself a treat by checking out her wonderful cards. Additionally, if you've joined recently as a follower, and I didn't give you a welcome here on a blog post, please do contact me via a comment. I would like to add all of my new followers to the data base that I will soon be using to gift some blog candy. If I don't know you are following, then I can't include you in the count, and we surely wouldn't want that!!! 

Today's card has been received by the recipient, so thought I'd share it with my sweet blogging buddies. Here goes:

This is an old wooden stamp and one that I used a lot when I was learning to shade with copics. I still have a difficult time leaving 'white space' on an image, and apparently my eye doesn't like to see strong contrast. (which is what makes an image appear much more dimensional..I tend to color in a more subtle fashion. Then have to look at what I've done, try to go back and do some darker shading. Sometimes it works, sometimes not!). This is one of my favorite rose images though.

- S/B beaded oval to cut the image, a light Distress Ink green for the outer shading.

- Elizabeth Craft die sentiment - cut several layers for dimension, with the top layer being cut from a snippet of glitter gold.

SU embossing border on each side, and some pretty lace for the top trim.

Hope you like this one. Have a super nice day. Warm hugs & thanks for popping in.

Christmas Card Club - Challenge #2 - The Real Reason for the Season

Happy Sunshine Sunday. We've had 3 glorious days of beautiful sunshine with temperatures hovering near 60F. So thankful to have this kind of lovely weather after all the gloomy gray days last week.

Today is 2015's Challenge #2 at our Christmas Card Club. Our challenge theme of The Real Reason for the Season, was chosen by our dear Christine.  We had received a very pretty Nativity card some years ago. When I saw this week's theme, I knew exactly the card to recycle for this challenge. The card had quite a glossy finish, so was a bit hard to photograph. Each photo had reflective glare under the lights. Here goes with the best of the lot:

- S/Binders Majestic Labels 25 die cut the aperture from the white card base.

- Sizzix EF (657981) Holiday Frame was inked with Delicata Gold and embossed. (the gold doesn't show in the photo, but is quite pretty IRL).

- trimmed motif from a recycled card front, used 1/8" Scor-tape to adhere to card base. Fussy cut the star from the motif and glued on the outer portion of the card base.

- MB Blooming Poinsettia Die (small one) to create the flowers. (a portion of the recycled card's sentiment showed. In order to get the main motif visible in the aperture, only the top half of the sentiment was displayed. Die cut 5 sets of poinsettias from a white snippet, colored with copics to compliment the red & gold image. Placed the flowers to obscure the visible bits of the sentiment).

Left the poinsettias flat, keeping in mind extra postage required for next year's mailing. A seasonal sentiment will only be placed on the inside verse.

Hope you will check out the other Christmas Card Club members' ideas on this theme. Each member's blog is listed on the right hand side bar.

Thanks for joining me today, and have a super wonderful Sunday. Big Hugs to all.

It's also Week 160 over at the Snippets Playground, and this card does have some snippets, so off I go to see Little Parsnip! C'mon with me, won't you???

DeeDee's Digis - Happy Brrrr Day

HiYa! Hope this evening finds all my sweet friends doing swell. I am happy to say I have a new follower, the number of faces went to 298. However, I can't determine just who it is, & I would be so happy if whomever just signed on, would leave a comment as to your name & blog link - if you have a blog. I try to add all the 'faces' to my spreadsheet to be counted when doing Blog Candy - which is getting closer, folks!

Today is a card I enjoyed making and it has NBUS & snippets - YAY! I've been trying so hard to get a chance to play at Darnell's first NBUS challenge for 2015. Additionally there was a really cute DeeDee's Digi image that I wanted to use for a specific birthday card (it will be going to New England - where the temps have certainly been Brrrrr!). Here goes:

 

 

Fussy cut Happy Brrr-Day (non European version), did a bit of shading, some WoS on the metal of the skates.

 

NBUS items: S/B Decagon die cut out the 140# water color paper. Spritzed the die with some pearlized spray, a scant spray of water and {gulp} sprinkled 2 colors of my Brusho crystals that I got last October. Today I had a nice email from my friend Pixie {Miss, or Diane--she has a lot of aliases!} with a tip about using the Brusho-s. I confess I've been quite intimidated by them, have watched lots of videos. Pixie's email was just the spur I needed to get brave, thinking this could be my NBUS, & would make a nice background for this sweet little girl skater. It did, and I was fascinated watching the bits of color spread on the wet background. I wasn't certain at first if I had used too much water to wet the paper. Used Cobalt & Prussian blue to sprinkle one at a time. Had the Purple out, but decided to not use it.

 

- NBUS - Avery Elle Custom Panels Die - curved hill (this set has some angle dies in it too). Used a white snippet to die cut, covered the snippet with SnS brushable glue, and sprinkled some SnS Twinkling Clouds over & let it dry. Adhered to the decagon shape, tucking the snippets of glittering trees in behind this snowy layer. (IO Treescape - DIE027-P - which I think is also a NBUS, as I can't remember using it before)

 

Then realized the scene would look better if some more snow was added at the bottom (gosh, I hated to cover up the Brusho background though!), so tore another white snippet, got the Decagon back out, and cut that to fit what I wanted to cover up. Repeated the glue & Twinkling Clouds. Let me just say this product makes THE best snow! For a couple places where I didn't have good glue coverage, I added in some Crystal Stickles.

 

- Sentiment is from the Happy Brr Day set, printed & changed the font color to blue, smooshed the handcut fishtail through some blue ink, added some more stickles over the letters using my finger.

 

- the mesh texture silver card front was embossed with a Snowflake die. Another sentiment from the digi set will be used inside.

  

This one will be linked to Darnell's 2015 NBUS Challenge and also over at the Snippet's Playground Week 159. It also is a part of my DeeDee's Digis Design Team commitment, and was a fun card to make. The final result was not what I planned, it sort of evolved, with the plan to use this particular digi, and experiment with the Brusho products. It was fun!

 

Hope you'll check DeeDee's Digis Shop and perhaps join in the current challenge that is open until February 1. There is a delightful free digi this month called Ice Fishing. This cute set could be used for many different occasions..so don't miss out.

 

Ya'll stay warm, and come again when you have time. Big Hugs. God Bless.

 

DeeDee's Digis - From the Heart

Good Afternoon from drizzly, gray & damp South Carolina. First order of business is to welcome some lovely new followers:

Tiziana Biagioli of Sweet and Colored

Viv of Viv's Visuals

Barbara C of BJ Crafty 

NanaConnie of Grammy's Attic 

Kath B of Handmade by Kath

Margaret M of Em's Paperdaze 

Janis of Her Peaceful Garden

 Oh my goodness, do I love having new friends to get to know, and thanks so much to all of you for becoming followers here.
********************************************************************************** 

The latest goal of 300 followers is drawing near. I'm excited enough to share a picture of the Blog Candy that will be going out when that face pops into the Followers list with 300 above it!  If you should follow via Bloglovin, but are not in the 'Followers List' at the top of the blog, please do join there as well. I don't have a way (er...know how ...) to track Bloglovin followers. When new faces appear, that follower's name and blog(if I can find one)  is added to my data base and that's what is used for the Random Generator when Blog Candy is given away.

 

Win requirements will be: (1)regular follower of this blog** (2) Share the Candy picture on your own blog with a link back to this blog (3)There will be 3 winners when the Random drawing is done and announcement will be made when this is to be done.

**********************************************************************************
In the Cards by Friends section, shared some more of the wonderful Christmas cards we were blessed to receive this past Christmas; please do take a few minutes to enjoy those too.

Today's card uses a DeeDee's Digi image - From the Heart (currently on sale for $1.00). Papers, sentiment and image are all from this set. I think it made a cute (and Easy!) Valentine card. There's so much more that could be done with the set, but I just wanted to get a fast card made to do a post. DeeDee's has a new DT member, Faith Anderson of Daffodil Cards, and Faith does some awesome work in Photo Shop using these digis. The beauty of these designs (at least in my opinion) is that you can jazz them up as desired, or use as is, and still have a delightful card.

 

 

- Image fussy cut, and portions of a 2nd image were used to add a little dimension. Minimal shading on the chocolate heart done with copics. Glossy accents added on the bow in Bunny's hair.

 

- S/B Oval Bliss cut the oval mat, Large Petite Scalloped Oval for the sentiment, and MS heart punch did the border. Two little punchout hearts had a drop of G.Accents added. That's it...card is DONE and ready for mailing. Couldn't have been easier.

 

Thanks for visitin' this afternoon, and please do pop round to my new friends - say a big Howdy, and let them know I sent you if you would. Additionally, check out the pretty cards being added to the Friends' Cards section. The Blog Candy will be in the sidebar shortly. I hope it will make you drool a bit!! Big Hugs, stay warm. God Bless.

**Please don't become a follower just to be eligible for the Blog Candy. I hope all of my followers enjoy what I post, and come to visit as their time permits. Thank you.

DeeDee's Just Chillin'

Good evening Sweet Bloggers, and thanks for surfing in for a little visit on a cold winter's night. The title for the DeeDee's Digi card that is shared tonight is so very appropriate. As this is being typed, our outside temperature at 9:30PM EST is 23F. Brrrr. This morning at 4am, it was 15F, and I heard that it got as low as 8F. Pretty cold for this area just now. I am well aware that many of our USA states are much colder, and the wind chill factor makes it dreadful. Haven't seen any Euro news but expect my UK pals are seeing it frostier than we are. I'm so thankful that we have a warm house to shelter in, because when we get so cold as now, my thoughts always go out to those homeless who have to hunt shelter from the freezing temps and pray they will find a safe place out of the cold.

The first part of this post is an insurance rant, so if you don't want to listen :-)  - skip down to the card! Since we got back, I've been tied up with trying to get started with our new medicine company's plan (and I guess I best not name the company! As of right now, I'm so frustrated I could just spit! Folks I'm being polite here!). Monday I spent 2 1/2 hours on the phone with 5 different reps, who kept referring me to another representative. For simple questions at that. Each new call required at least a 20 minute hold, and most of it was 30 minutes. The last person said "I can't answer your questions, but I'll have someone return your call within 24 hrs". (12:30PM 1-5-2015). At 10am this morning - 1-8-2015, the phone rang, and woke me from a sound sleep. (yes I stayed up late watching Netflix and hunting for some craft bits). Another 2 hours spent with a nice representative. We may have made a tiny bit of progress, but the bottom line was: I wanted the forms to send in new prescriptions for the year. Each company we've ever had, sent blank forms, we sent in the  new physical prescriptions from our doctor, and got our medicines. This company is insisting that we give them our doctor's fax numbers, the insurance company will send out the form, which the doctor must complete and refax. DUH???A busy doctor's office is going to be eager to do this? I don't THINK so!
 
After today's 2 hour marathon, our doctor's office was closed for lunch, so as soon as I could get through to someone, called, explained my dilemma. Of course our nurse has to return the call. Well, she did (and she's a very sweet lady too!) and I went through my spiel, her first comment was "Horse -"  and I won't type the rest of it, but bet you can guess. Which is my exact thought as well. She said they have other patients with this company, and the company can just send me the stupid form, let me send in the prescriptions. We need to get this resolved, get our new supply. The reason we changed companies: our old company discontinued 2 of our tier 3 (translation: expensive meds!) medicines. We were concerned if we had to switch to another medicine, it would not be as effective (been there, done there, & our health suffered). After Monday, I told DH that I think I've made a very bad decision - which we can't change until next year's enrollment. So thanks for letting me vent!! Now onto the card - as I really DO need to chill mentally!

 

 

DeeDee's Just Chillin which is available at a FANTASTIC SALE price just now! If you like this little winter bear, don't wait too long. DeeDee found a way to keep her shop open - and still be in compliance with the new VAT rules. You can read about it here,  But I urge you, if you like these images, please do try to take advantage of some really excellent prices.

 

- Just Chillin was precolored, printed out, die cut with a Sizzix die set purchased with a coupon from the local Hobby Lobby. The tiny sentiment - part of the digi set - was cut with the smallest tag die in the set.

 

Copic shading was done on the image, some flocking added to the white bits, but doesn't show well in the photo, and Diamond stickles dropped on the snowflakes. Of course I had to find a place to add some WoS. (his boots and hat & scarf non-white trim)

 

Had seen a Joy fold card done recently by my pal, Carol L. so when this little guy was ready to card up, thought I'd give that fold a whirl. Thanks Carol and Brenda for the inspiration. (Brenda inspired Carol...see?)

 

- Front DP was from a 6x6 pack found on my travels, and is almost - not quite - tissue weight. Glued it on both sides of the white card base fold. The inner dot paper is from a DeeDee digi set Mix It Up. Had just a snippet of that left from an earlier project, thought it looked good with the snowflake DP, so printed out another sheet of it. Just love having digi paper available!!

 

Die cut the inside sentiment with a S/B Fleur de Elegance. Added a few stick on snowflakes, and Voila, finally finished a card!

 

I have to give some shout outs to some lovely new followers, but will do that in my next post. That Blog Candy give away is getting close, people! Also added some lovely cards that were in our collected mail, and have quite a few more to share, but not tonight. Hope you have time to check out the Friends Card tab at the top.

 

Do  check out the DeeDee's Digi sale, enjoy some wonderful inspiration by the talented Design Team. Stay warm tonight, wherever you may be, and God Bless, Big Hugs.

 

PS...I will do my best to catch up on blog visits to all you sweet folks who have been so kind to visit this past week.

CAS - Red, Green and White - Christmas Card Club

Good afternoon on the first Sunday of 2015. At our house it's still rainy, gloomy & gray for the 3rd day in a row. I saw that our weather is predicted to be much colder this coming week. It's time for this kind of weather, of course, but I do miss the sunshine.

Today is also the first Sunday for the Christmas Card Club where every 2 weeks we share a card themed to one of our members' challenge criteria. This time the choice was CAS, Red, Green and White, selected by our Miss Carol.  I started off with one design in my mind, had it nearly put together, and whoa, saw that perhaps it might not be as CAS as possible. So off I go with another idea, and that's why this is a later post than it should be.

- C/Bug Holly Ribbons EF, stitched oval (either My Favorite Things or Lil Inker die - not sure) and this was a snippet.

- MBox sentiment on a snippet of glitter c/s from this card and just large enough to use this die.

- Elizabeth Craft Design holly on another snippet and the berries were from another glitter bit from  the same card as above. I like the way this CAS turned out. Will share my first idea in a later post. A warning: It has cardinals!

I do hope you'll have time to take a look at the other Christmas Card Club members' interpretation of Carol's Red, Green, White CAS Challenge. Their blogs are listed on the right sidebar. It's a lovely way to pass a Sunday afternoon for sure.

Just checked that the Snippets Playground is open for Week 158 is open, and there definitely are some snippets on this card. I expect everyone is real tired of seeing Christmas cards, but what the hey....I miss my little buddy Parsnip, so I'm going to try to sneak in the gates with this one. Why don't you com'on along and meet this little sweet white bear who guards the gates of the Playground?

Hope the day is bright where you are, even if the weather is dismal. We're still mucking out from our trip. At least the laundry is done. Still got things to put away (Heck, we still have things to Find!) and bills to pay. I'm waiting for the first episode of Downton Abby which is scheduled for 9pm tonight on our PBS stations. I've been told by some of my Brit friends that it was good!

Thanks for visiting, and big hugs. Happy Day.

Sharing Lovely Christmas Cards

Hey, and thanks for stopping to visit. We arrived home after a safe & fairly uneventful drive up the road on New Year's day. Mr. made a good call on departure day as traffic was not terrible. It was heavy coming through Atlanta, but then it always is. We both said a heartfelt Thank You when we saw the entrance sign to our subdivision. It was hard to leave DD, but I did fairly well (at least for me!). Very nice to get back into our own bed last night.

Friday was spent just unpacking suitcase and some laundry. It was gray, rainy & very gloomy outside, and fit both our moods perfectly. I stayed in my flannel jammies all day, and read my kindle in between laundry-dryer loads & taking a couple of naps. With 5 dogs in the house, everything was subject to dog hair, so in the interest of not having any allergy attacks, I always re-launder all the clothes, then clean out the washer. Still have to get stuff out of the pickup - it takes time and motivation.

Just wanted to make a quick post to invite you to share some of the lovely handmade cards we've received from some extremely talented people. These are posted on the Cards by Friends Tab (at the top of the page). These were the ones of which I had taken photos; thought I had transferred to a flash drive to take along and share while in Florida. Couldn't find them on anything I had with me, but they were on the home computer. We've not collected our mail as yet, so I expect there will be a few more Christmas cards and if so, I'll share them later.

Hope all of you had a wonderful and SAFE New Year's Day. Will try to get back to posting in a bit. Got a few irons in the fire, so to speak and still regrouping after being away from home for 2 wks. And getting my mood back where it needs to be!!! God Bless and big hugs too.

HAPPY NEW YEAR - WELCOME 2015!

Gosh, I can remember when I was a youngster and we'd talk about the Year 2000 and it was like....some Sci-Fi happening that would never be here. Now imagine, we are 15 years into the Millenium!

Another thing I used to hear when I was a kid was when you get older time goes faster...now how crazy did that sound? We all had the same 24 hour day, 7 day week...etc. Well, I'm here to tell you, it really does seem to speed by a lot quicker now that I'm not 13 any longer. Felt like forever when I was 13 waiting to be 16; then from 16 to 18 was another long span of time. Once I passed 21, I think time started to go by a lot faster. I would hear my elders talk about feeling 'tired'. I wondered how on earth could they be tired, as I'd see them just sitting around, doing what was usual...nothing that seemed very strenuous to me. I never got tired. Well, boys howdy. Do I ever understand all that ole stuff now!!!

Ok...I've looked back, so now it's time to look forward to a new year. I will wish for World Peace - being an optimistic sort of person. I sure would be happy to read some good headlines, instead of all the anger, meanness & tragedy that is in the news today. Makes me wonder what happens to these people who just go shoot or hurt somebody for no reason, other than pure evilness. I do not understand that kind of action and it seems to be a daily occurrence all over the globe.

Next, I'd like to wish all of my sweet readers:

Love. We all need more of that.

Peace & contentment...yep, we all need a lot of that. Some of us more than others.

Health & Happiness are right up at the top of the list of wishes I send along to you.

Kindness  to yourselves and others whom we come in contact.

Tolerance to those who think, worship or look differently than we do. Each person is unique and has his/her own special gifts to offer. You never know when something you say or do may have an effect on other individual...for good or bad.

 

I thought about the order that I listed these wishes, and you may not agree with my priority. That's ok. I wish it for all of you just the same.

 

I'm looking forward to enjoying all the wonderful work that each of you brings to Blogland to share with the rest of us. This hobby has been such a blessing in my life - one that was a total & wonderful surprise; and one that keeps me well entertained on the days I have the leisure to sit and do blog surfing & visiting. I expect most of you feel the same about that. Seems like we just can't keep up with it all at times.

 

This is going to be a scheduled post to go Live at 00:00 January 1, 2015, Eastern Standard Time.

I have lots of comments that will be needing a return blog visit from me. Will try to catch up as soon as we arrive back home, (safely, God Willing) and I get my Goodby Blues under control. I have a real hard time saying goodbye to DD. We've enjoyed our visit & it's hard to leave, but will be good to get back to our own space and toys too.

 

I do have to clarify my comments about DH's driving. He is a very competent driver (he took 2 different courses in driving 18 wheelers years ago, and is a very conscientious driver). He puts up with a lot of 'OOOHs' and passenger brake applications from me without saying much - for a while. I'm just a very nervous passenger - with ANYBODY driving. But at least with Mr. I can vocalize it! It's just a more relaxed drive for both of us - if I tilt the seat back and doze off. (I get sleepy when I ride anyway, unless I'm the driver). Our pickup is very comfortable, and is a good size that we feel much safer traveling in it, than we do in the Ford Explorer that I usually drive. There's lots of crazies on the interstates it seems...my opinion is too much telephone texting. In a pickup that sits higher than cars, you can see a lot of things that aren't safe on the highways. I'm a firm believer that if you are behind the wheel, your entire focus needs to be on the road and traffic, not distracted by a cell phone. Even using Blu-Tooth technology. It still distracts your attention from the split second when you most need it.

 

So will be talking to you next from Homebase in South Carolina. In the meantime, have a wonderful New Year, be safe, God Bless and thanks for checking in. Hugs