Christmas, Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge

Good evening Bloggers. Welcome to another new follower! I surely do appreciate my followers!  We had a beautiful sunshine day, made it to our fitness center, did some errands..all in all, a productive day. (I don't seem to have enough of those...my own fault). I entered a Christmas Challenge yesterday at Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra. She kindly sent me a link to another challenge & since I had a card nearly ready, thought I would take the plunge. Here goes:

 

 

Used Memento Summer Sky, London Fog for the snow, sponging using a template to create the snowdrifts. Used Memento Summer Sky, Angel Pink & Dandelion Yellow for the sky. Then started stamping on the sponged piece

 

- Snowbirds image is Art Impressions (are they not adorable?! Colored with copics since I was coloring over the Memento sponging)

 

- Trees (don't remember company, used Memento Cottage Ivy, stamping off once before stamping)

 

I dabbed some London Fog under the birds  and around the tree bases using a Q-tip to create a bit of a shadow.

 

Then used a thin Multi-liner pen to creae their tracks

 

- Diecut with S/Binders Classic Square Large.

- Diecut blue mat with S/Binders Grand Square #1 die

- Diecut cardbase (Snowflake paper from a 12x12 Christmas pack) with S/Binders Grand Scalloped Square #1 die

- used a S/Binders Medallion (think it is Morrocan) to cut a small medallion, cut it apart, adhered with glue dots, added some red rhinestones.

- Peace sentiment from a clear Impression Obsession set, stamped with Versamark, embossed with Ranger Silver Detail Embossing.

 

The little white edge showing at the bottom is because I can't get the card to lie flat. Will have to use the old 'stack a heavy book' routine, or else perhaps some repositionable adhesive until it behaves properly.

 

Thanks for joining me this evening, and please check out Hazel's CHNC, Challenge 113. I'm off to test Mr. Linky. Sometimes he likes me, sometimes he does not! In the meantime, have a wonderful evening. Hugs.

 

 

 

Christmas, Rudolph, Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra

Good evening friends, welcome to another new follower who is from Scotland! I hope that you all had a good day. For any who might have been in the USA Midwest blizzard path, I also hope you are tucked warm & snug tonight. Have just been reading about a lot of power outages & it's brrrr when your heat goes kaput. After being inspired by this beautiful card and reading about Miss Mo Googling card folds, I decided I would try the same search. I settled on a Z-fold (nothing fancy like Mo did, but this fold is NEW TO ME!). Didn't get the card photographed until this evening, no natural light, just the overhead kitchen lights. I found some Photo Shop tips at Splitcoast Stampers, so tried to edit the photo a bit. I hope simple editing made a clearer & sharper picture. Here's the card I'm sharing & submitting for Rudolph Day; but now I am puzzled as to what sort of a closure to add to front fold, so the front will stay down flat!

 

- Cardbase cut from Red Reflections lightweight cardstock

- papers were from The Paper Studio, Old World Paper Pack, 4 1/2x 6 1/2

- Stamp - Deigh Co, 193 - Peekin Reindeer, colored with copics; nose has Stickles Christmas Red, Spica pens for some glitter on the candy cane red stripes, stocking. Polar White Flower Soft & Ultra Glitter (sparkly) on the furry hat

- Image diecut with S/Binders  Labels #15, sponged with DI Milled Lavendar while in die

- EFolders: Front Panel was Crafts Two - Baubles; Inside Panel - Darice Dot Point

- Sentiment: Great Impressions D378, diecut with S/Binder Grommets #3, stamped with Versamark, heat embossed with Ranger Queen's Gold

I also added a design paper panel to the underside of the front fold, embossed with an EF, and hidden by the front fold & image, is a cutout from an upcycled Christmas card. I like this card, and will try this fold again. (along with trying to learn some other new ones!)

Now there is a nifty challenge going on here  (it's called Rudolph Day, and is a great way to get a jump start on next year's Christmas cards...plus a place to get a look at some wonderful cards by some talented crafters). So if you have time, please surf over to Stamping for Pleasure Rudolph Day
to spend a little time while browsing some really pretty cards.

I've been following another Christmas Challenge over on Facebook, and I think I'll see if I can submit this card...I believe it meets the critera for Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra for February...so I hope you'll take a look at this blog too. Hazel does some awesome cards and has some stunning entries in this challenge. It will be my first time to participate.

As always, thanks for joining me, and have a relaxing evening. Hope to see you again tomorrow with another card for Rudolph Day, if I can get another one finished!

Miscellaneous

Good evening dear friends & followers! This morning I saw Face No. 100 pop into the followers list. WooHoo!  (Now blogger says it's 100, but my spreadsheet only has 99 names, so I'm going with blogger! I hope I don't miss anybody whose name I can't identify!). A warm welcome to Laurie #100, and I hope you will enjoy what you see here on your visits.

100 followers Blog Candy

So here's the Blog Candy that I have as a gift for a lucky person - well I hope the person will feel lucky when she gets it! - who was selected when I ran the Random Generator just a few minutes ago. Now, I don't know how to copy & post the results...so I'll just have to ask that you trust me that I tried to be very fair. The number that showed up, was #29. I compared that number to the list I have in my spreadsheet, and came up with a name. (More on the name in a bit!). I spent most of the afternoon catching up on paperwork, filing, and stuff I absolutely detest doing (too much like being back at work!)..but it has to be done. THEN I started trying to do some blog visits to followers that I have in my Blogfollowers folder...I try to visit those folks who signed up to follow me. When I get that round done (and alas, I was behind again), then I go to some of the challenge blogs that I have entered, and met such nice folks. Some of those folks are in the followers' list as well. I'm not quite caught up yet...but I'm trying. I have a question, and I hope some blog savvy person can answer me. I see a lot about Google Circles...and some of those blogs I can't access - even though these folks have joined here. I get a message about not being invited, or something of the sort. So if I don't visit your blog - at least occasionally if not regularly - and you have a "Circle", that may be why you're not seeing comments from me. If you'll explain the system to me, then I can try to visit!

 

OK...drum roll if you please: #29's name in the spreadsheet corresponded to BLS60 (http://friendscraftinwithfriends.blogspot.com/).

 

So Miss BLS60 - Friendscraftinwithfriends... please contact me with the info so I can box up the goodies and get them in the mail. I have comment moderation set on, and will not post your pertinent info publically. Miss BLS60 has 48 hours from 9pm, 2-24-13 to contact me, or I will run random generator once more. Don't forget - I also have a blogaversary coming up next month, and I have some more goodies I'd like to place in a new, loving home!

 

Congratulations to Miss BLS60. Thanks to all of you who have taken time to visit this blog, leave comments, and provide me so much encouragement & in many instances, blog help or other advice. You'll never realize how much it's meant to me in creative growth or just having good advice or an ear to listen. I've been so thankful for the many caring friends I've met with this blog.

Good night, and I'm off to watch whatever Brit series is on PBS tonight. I'm gonna miss my fix of Downton Abbey. I sure didn't like the way this past season ended!! Thanks as always for your visit, and have a marvelous Monday!

 

BLS60 contacted me today, so the blog candy will be hers. But don't forget, I will have some more next month, so stay tuned!!! 

 

 

St. Paddy's Card

Happy Sunday Morning, get a cup of something and please join me for a little visit. Here's another St. Pat's card - and I think I'm nearly finished with those I want to have ready to send. I was pleased with this one, but then as I was taking the photo - guess what? I realized I had the front adhered the wrong way.. card opening is on the wrong side! Oh well, I can fix that...slice it off, adhere to another cardbase. Then I realized I had the tiny shamrock design paper going wrong way...I could fix that too, but if I remove the sentiment, that may leave a spot. So once this goes onto another cardbase, it is what it IS!

- oval ellipse is from the center of yesterday's card - (a snippet!) C/bug Ellegant Ellipse EF

- design papers from stash - several years ago, but I still like them. Didn't buy any new St. Pat's papers this year

- green trim hiding join of the 2 papers was a snippet, embossed with Quik Kutz Swirls

- shamrocks were diecut with Impression Obsession Shamrock die, on a snippet of Sookwang (sticky paper) left from this project. The leftovers were just the right size to diecut the shamrocks, then I used Ritz Glitter (in a green color) to dust over the surface, burnished, adhered down.

- sentiment computer generated with a Celtic font downloaded from Dafonts, printed in green ink
diecut with S/Binder Labels Trio, sponged with DI Peeled Paint.

This was an easy card to put together...too bad I screwed it up so badly!!! I still like it though. Now it's time to perhaps make a few Easter cards, and oh yes, there's Rudolph Day to get one made & entered.

St. Paddy's Day

Hello again & I hope you've had a pleasant day. I spent part of it doing some house chores; then getting some chili in the crockpot, fixing sides of cornbread & cabbage slaw ...all ready to put on the table. And cleaned up the kitchen too. I feel so organized! (I never have a meal prepared this far ahead unless we're planning for guests. I'm breaking my arm at patting myself on the back!). When I worked I used to do things in this fashion, but since retirement, boy - did I ever get lax (and love every minute of it). We've had another dreary gray day, and it's a bit on the chilly side, so what better night for a chili crockpot dinner? On to the card:

- image is Our Daily Bread Designs (Simple Things). The cling rubber stamped out wonderfully well using my stamp press.

- image stamped with Memento Cottage Ivy, a very pretty & versatile green

- C/bug plus Emboss folder Elegant Ellipse diecut the oval on green Recollection cardstock

- Reimbossed with C/B EF Kassie's Brocade, because I thought the card front looked too plain with just the Ellipse embossing.

- Trim...ribbon from stash, border trim cut from a border pattern paper in the stash, shamrock diecut with Impression Obsession Die; used versamark & Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel, 3 coats for a nice effect

- sentiment was computer generated with a font downloaded from Dafonts, one of the Celtic themes, printed with green ink...diecut with S/binders Grommet Tags (#2), sponged with DI Peeled Paint

- green rhinestones.

Have a great evening, and as always, thanks for popping in for a visit. Always love to see where my visitors live. And thanks too, if you feel like taking time to leave a comment. Hugs & Happy Sunday.


Miscellaneous

Good afternoon everyone. Before I post the card I'm sharing today, I want to thank Miss Almo for passing along the Liebster Award. And I'm so honored that Miss Almo thought of me, and played it forward. Thank you Mo, it was an honor and it's always a thrill to have somebody recognize you for something.

 

ABOUT THE AWARD

This award was designed to be a blog award in the pay it forward fashion. Once you've been nominated, you award it to five blogs that you like that have fewer than 200 followers, to encourage new visitors to visit these blogs.

 

RULES FOR ACCEPTANCE





Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog. Post the award onto your blog. Give the award to five bloggers who you appreciate that have fewer than 200 followers. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know that you have given them this awesome award!

PAY IT FORWARD

Here are five awesome blogs that I think you should check out:

Sandy

 

Shari

 

Rosie

 

Anne

 

Lori

 

Ok, folks I hope I did this properly, and I'll be putting a little notice to each of these bloggers that I've nominated each of them for this award. All have lovely blogs with wonderful cards, and less than the required amount of followers. I hope you'll pay each of these bloggers a visit and check out their work.  Thanks, and thanks again to Mo, for nominating my blog. Hugs and back in a few minutes with a card to share today.

 

 

 

Birthday

Good Morning Friends. It's a very gray drizzly one here in Upstate SC, and we may be getting some sleet later today (even heard the other "S" word bandied about). We're planning to go to the fitness center in a bit, so I'll do this post and be off to get dressed.

This card will be a birthday card for a cousin who belongs to the Red Hat Ladies*. I did the card, then decided to use a new Elizabeth Craft Die for the sentiment. Not sure if I like the sentiment on the front of the card. I'll show you both pics and see what you think.

- image is from a Hero Arts set of 4 small stamps, Women in Hats (snippet of Copic Xpress paper used to stamp
- colored with copics, background airbrushed with V01, V04. Used colorless blender & piece of chenille to texturize
- S/Binder classic circle, classic scallop to diecut & mat
- red pieces were snippets left from another project. Both rectangle & circle were cutouts from where I try to avoid layers underneath top pieces. Rectangle was embossed with the SU mesh folder (and sorry, it has another name, but it looks like mesh to me!)
- Purple Bazzill textured cardbase - the good quality kind of Bazzill
- Happy Birthday is diecut with Elizabeth Craft Die on a snippet
- lavendar trim on the red rectangle is from a S/Binder small Moroccan Motif and was also a snippet
just large enough for this particular die to fit

Hope you like the card, hope my cousin will like it too! I'm off to see what those crazy girls are doing at the Playground. It's Friday, so I'm sure they will no doubt be up to something I don't want to miss! (I heard something about kissing boys? Come along...we'll check it out!). Have a grand day, do something fun or relaxing, and get ready for a wonderful weekend. As always, thanks for stopping to visit. I love seeing all the places my visitors are located. Hugs

* Here is part of a poem, about the Red Hat Ladies. I can't find a complete copy of the poem - uh, one has to buy that!
WARNING
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens . . .

The ending of the poem pleases its readers when the woman says . . .

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

St. Paddy's Card

Good Morning, and welcome! Here's another one of the St. Pat's cards I will be sending along to my Irish friends. This one was started last year, but got finished this year!

 



- image was a free digital image from Waltzing Mouse Stamps colored with copics

- diecut is S/binders Mega Labels 10, sponged with DI Antique Linen & Tea Dye while still in the die

- Green mirror paper is the negative from scalloped oval used in another project, then embossed with C/B Swiss Dots EF

- Gold glittered buttons are from stash...don't know the maker.

- card base is lightweight green Recollections c/s, embossed with the Stampin' Up Tulips EF

 

Not putting a sentiment on the outside, but I have an old Irish proverb that will get stamped in green ink, on the insert.

Hope you enjoy this one. As always, thanks for visiting, and have a wonderful Thursday. Hugs

 

 

Thinking of You, Outlawz

Good Morning, Bloggers and I trust your day is off to a great start. Here's a card to share this morning and it's an image I had colored some time ago (ah, a snippet), but had not put on a card. An earlier post was a Thinking of You that I intended to link to the Outlawz Friday Copic/Promarker Challenge, DUH, I didn't have any copic coloring on it! Not sure where my mind went to visit that day <g>. This image was in the 'debris' pile, so I decided I'd use it and make a cheery card; I liked it better anyway as a Thinking of you card. The gray was not all that cheery, so things worked out for the best after all.

- Image from Heartfelt Creations, colored with copics, Glossy Accents on cherries & Cardinal's beak
- Diecut with S/binders 11
- sponged with DI Tea Dye while still in the die
- Bazzill textured paper cardbase
- red circle, green square (snippets), embossed with SU mesh EF
- Thinking of You Elizabeth Crafts Design die

So...I'm off to link this with Outlawz Friday Copics/Promarkers Challenge and since I also have some snippets, I think I'll mosey over to the Playground I hear there is some fun activities going on with the girls there. Almost always something going on! Won't you come along & see what we can get into? As always, thanks for joining me today. Have a great day, and Hugs. Oh yes, nearly forgot to Congratulate Mrs. A on her win at the Playground! She won a nifty stamp set.

Thinking of You

Good afternoon, and welcome to Blogger Follower, No. 99 (Miss Brenda B). I saw the total number change, but when I count 'faces', I still count 98. (We'll go with 99 for the Random Gen, and hope I don't get a problem with someone that I can't identify as being the winner!). Today has been a totally lazy day. Hubby not feeling well again (same stuff as 3 wks ago - started early yesterday morning). I worked hard at housework on Sat., doing vaccuuming, floor cleaning, that kind of thing, and my back didn't like it one bit (my back is apparently smarter than "I" am!). Took an Aleve early this afternoon, and slept the afternoon away. Back feels better but nothing got done that should have been done. Ah well, it's nice to be retired and able to do that. Here is a card to share that I worked on last night, didn't turn at at all the way I planned. For one thing, I used a pretty patterned paper to emboss, but the emboss design was lost in the paper design (lesson learned), so I used the opposite side of the paper - which was a soft gray. Design showed up well, but the paper color was blah. I backed the embossed piece with a very bright pink to brighten it up. Then decided to add some tiny pearls.

- C/bug plus 2 emboss folder Blooming Bouquet (this is the kind that I showed for one of the Valentine posts, where the folder is green plastic & diecuts too,  rather than the usual opaque folder which embosses.
- Diecut Thinking of You from Elizabeth Crafts Designs (a new die I ordered from here. Was very pleased with the way this die cut, and think I'll get a lot of use with this one).
- all pearls & papers from stash

Outlawz is having their Friday Copic/Promarker Challenge Theme* as Thinking of You, so I believe I'll enter this, but perhaps do another, 'fancier' card later this week. For all you copic/Promarker users, this is a fun challenge, so I encourage you to check it out! Hope all of you had a more productive day than we did here at our house! Hugs, and thanks for the visit.
*Edit: Oops, not sure what I was thinking. This has no copic coloring on it! Not eligible for the Friday Copic challenge! My Baddd!

St. Paddy's Card

Good Afternoon, and a warm welcome to a new follower. Thank you for joining as a follower and hope you will be able to visit often as time permits. So many blogs to enjoy and so little time to blog surf!! (we're getting close to Blog Candy...LOL). Also want to say a BIG Happy Blogaversary to Anne at Redanne who is celebrating her one year at blogging today. Folks, this lady has so many delightful projects - many done with Tim Holtz inspiration...you have a treat in store when you take a browse at her blog. Congratulations & Well Done, Miss Anne.

I have to get started on St. Pat's cards for a couple of Irish friends, so here is my card to share today. I liked the finished card, but Oh, was it hard to photograph. Here goes:

I tried photographing, using different back drops, and settled on a piece of dark navy cardstock. So the dark edge you see is what I placed the card upon to photograph.

- Stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms (the old company, not the current digi company) and is a Thomas Kincade Foxglove Cottage
- Coloring done with Tsukineko Brushstix dabbed into Memento Ink pads.(if you aren't familiar with this item, I hope I've linked properly so you can see a picture).  The stamp is very detailed, and this was an easy way to color the image

- Ritz Cool Highlights glitter (see a great video on this technique here)
- Sookwang tape
- Shimmer Sheetz Peridot Green mat, embossed with Tim Holtz Leaves EF
- cardbase stamped with Colorbox Fluid Chalk Creamy Brown, using Impression Obsession Cover A Card 050 - Script
- overstamped with I.O. CC132 Ornate Snowflake using Fluid Chalk Lavendar
- Impression Obsession Shamrock DIE065AA

This was a fun card to create, and I hope if you enlarge the image, it will show up better. The Ritz Glitter gives the cottage a very misty look, just like what an Irish cottage might look like in my imagination. Hope you will like it, and as always - thanks for the visit and have a terrific Sunday afternoon. Hugs*
Edit: after looking at the enlarged photo, shot with a closeup setting, I decided to add another picture of this card, done with a different setting, different background;maybe it will show up a bit better. Think I was too close in the above picture to really do the card justice.

This photo has not been cropped or any changes made. I think I like the look of the card better in this picture where the camera was not so close.

Birthday, Penny Black and More

Good afternoon, sweet bloggers, and welcome to 2 more lovely followers. Thank you so much for taking time to sign up on the followers list. Love to have you visit here when you have time. I hope you will see something you enjoy. Just read the loveliest message from Miss Anne about my cards being a "Blessing". Oh, folks, did that ever make me feel so good (and humble too, 'cause I never thought of Blessing with regards to any card I might do!) So thank you - many, many times over for saying that. You made my day.  Another exciting thing that happened this afternoon: Our Upstate SC got our first little snowfall (of any note). We had a beautifully sunny morning. I was going downstairs to collect towels to launder, and noticed the sky had clouded over, so I'm thinking "maybe we'll get rain". I was downstairs - maybe 10 minutes. Came back up, and I can see out the laundry room window as I'm ascending the stairs, and think "well, the rain is here". Got to the top of the stairs where I have a good view out the window, and Oh My Gosh! It's not rain, it is SNOW! It came down very fast, quite thick, big flakes. It had some ice pellets in it too. I took some pictures & quickly sent to a lot of relatives - some live further south, some just a few hours north of us. By the time I had the pictures transferred from the camera, attached to an email, the heavy flurry had stopped. I don't think the ground is cold enough for it to linger around, but it was really pretty coming down. Was lovely to see it fall, as I am blessed to be able to stay inside where it is cozy & warm.

I have a card to enter in the February Penny Black and More  challenge. It's not a Penny Black stamp, but a Northwoods stamp. It does have some pink, some bling, so maybe it might fit in with the theme. I'm going to try anyway! <g>

- Stamp is Northwoods Heart Basket colored with copics, Rock Candy stickles for some sparkle
- Glossy Accents on the heart sprigs
- diecut with S/binder Label 23
- My Minds Eye Lost & Found design paper
- Prima pearl swirl
- lace-ribbon border is from stash
- mat for the stamped image, handcut from a piece of wallpaper sample

Hope you'll come along to Penny Black and More  to see some very pretty cards that have been submitted. Have a wonderful Saturday, and hope it's cosy wherever you are this afternoon.

Micellaneous

Good evening, Welcome to one more follower! Thank you so much for taking time to visit here, and join. I'm seeing one number difference bloggers count and what I have listed in my spreadsheet. So one of tomorrow's tasks is to check each name in the follower list against what I have in my spreadsheet. Then as I run the Random Generator, I can use an accurate number. My plan is to have the Generator run on the day I see the 100th picture show up! (Is why I want to be accurate in my counts!). I have been advised I should require the winner to be a follower, also comment on the day ..but I think just being a follower is enough appreciation for ME! Of course comments are lovely too.  As promised here is a picture of what I have planned for the 100th follower blogcandy. Keep in mind, my 1 year blogaversary will be March 7 when I made the first tentative post, but my first 'real' post was on March 10, so that is the date (10th) I am going to say is the anniversary. (Make sense?). So there are a few more things I plan to offer on that date...so...please stay tuned. I hope these craft goodies will be something that someone can use & enjoy. In the meantime, the 100th candy:

So to explain what is available on this 100th follower giveaway: A Scrapbook Almanac (I don't scrap, it was a gift...never used by a little ole lady, even once!), some lovely napkins (some courtesy of Miss Mary Mac of Glitter Grammy Plays with Paper fame. If you follow the link, you can see the lovely cards Miss Mary made with a couple of these napkins. There is a Cheery Lynn die, a Memory Box die, which works with the never inked Memory Box Bear stamp, a Cuttlebug EF folder, a Tim Holtz Texture Fade EF, a Darice EF. All of these are new items. To mail, I will be removing the blister package from the folders...to help with postage weight. And I just might throw in a thing or two as a surprise. I had to swipe a clear space on my desk to snap the picture, and there may be some other things visible, so I thought I best say just what is part of the candy. Wouldn't want to misrepresent things or disappoint anyone. I will ask that the winner contact me via the comment form here at the blog, provide your pertinent mailing info. I have Moderate Comments setting on, so I would never publish personal info.

On another note: We happened to see that we have a bunch of cheery yellow daffodils blooming their little hearts (or should I say "heads") out - in our front flower bed. I had noticed the shoots breaking ground in mid-January, along with some tulip greenery. Not seeing any blooms on the tulips yet. They are old bulbs, planted the first year we lived here, in 2003. I'm not into the digging up, saving bulbs, replanting school. At our house, plants have to be hardy to survive. (Many don't!). I intended to plant some cheery yellow pansies by our front steps as I've done in past years. It didn't happen. I didn't lose sleep over it ....So there is my gardening philosophy. I do enjoy seeing all the things when they bloom though. Just don't like the work involved in taking care of them. I have 2 sis-in-laws who love to grub in the dirt. They claim it is their therapy. Humph! To me, is just WORK! (I'm retired you know. Translate that to: Became Lazy. Or lazier than I was when I worked!!! LOL). Have a great evening, and I hope you had a wonderful day. Got a most lovely (purchased) card from DH, sentiments were beautiful (I HOPE he meant them...said he did). And a little heart box of 3 pieces of choc candy.  Neither of us need to have the candy around, so 3 pieces was a good choice. Then we had a nice dinner at Outback, along with most of the rest of our area. Was an hour and a half wait, and this was before 5pm. Zounds! Thanks for popping in. See you tomorrow I hope. Hugs.

Valentine, Outlawz Copic Challenge

Happy Valentine's Day and a BIG WARM WELCOME to my new followers. Whooee, maybe I'll meet that 100 followers goal before my blogaversary. Sure hope you will enjoy taking a peek at what I post here at Carolina Cards.  I will do my best to get some pictures posted of the blog candy this evening.

Outlawz has a Friday Copic/Promarkers Challenge, and I had appropriate stamps (ha! YOU knew I had Valentine stamps, right?!), so I thought I'd make another card, and enter this challenge.

Without further Yada, Yada, here's my card

- Penny Black Hearts Away

- Colored with Copics on Copic Xpress Paper

- S/Binder Deckled Rectangle Die cut, sponged with Distress Ink.

  (Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar)

- S/binder Grommet Tag for Sentiment

- Martha Stewart Heart Punch border

-Black textured Bazzill cardbase embossed with Cricut Cuttlebug     Hugs & Kisses Folder

- Sheer ribbon from stash, paper hearts trim - leftover snippets

 

I invite you to hop on over to Outlawz & see all the card entries for this Friday Challenge. There's sure to be some beautiful entries. Hugs & have a wonderful Valentine's Day. Thanks for the visit, as always, and come back again soon.

 

WOYWW

Good morning bloggers. Yippee, I see 4 more followers...maybe I'll make that 100 goal prior to March. Thanks to my new followers, I surely appreciate you taking the time to join and leave comments if time permits. Just a word on the comments: I'll post the comment even if you don't like something, because all comments are helpful..good or bad. I won't post if there is a link to advertising products, etc. (I am ok with links to your OWN blog, but not when it's to sell a product, etc. I hope that makes sense.) I have Moderate setting turned on, so I see comments before they post here. Lately I've gotten some SPAM stuff, so Miss Pixie explained how to turn those off! Thanks again Diane. That Pixie girl is a whiz at this blog stuff, and has been so generous with her help & encouragement. Muchly appreciated.

Today is Wednesday, so you know what that means? WOYWW. And if you don't know what THAT is, oh, you must check it out. It's like going to a big garage sale, or a lovely flea market (or whatever that might be called where you live. Anyway, you get to nose around, and see what some talented crafters have on their desks or in their workspaces). It's fun to peek in, so please join us at Miss Julia's, who makes all this cyber fun possible by hosting a fun circle of crafters.

We worked in my basement stamp room yesterday afternoon. I've shown some pics before of how we moved a table to behind a loveseat in my stamp/tv room. Well, yesterday the DH got some good ideas so he was moving furniture around in the room. I suggested that we should have taken some 'before' pictures, and his very dry comment was "who the Heck would care?"(and being a old navy sailor, he didn't say Heck, but this is a clean blog, so I'll use Heck!). So here goes with the pics.   Basically we moved the loveseat to where the sofa was (and my behind has to create a new 'fitted' space, as the end of the sofa where I sit to color had begun to mold itself to my posterior! <g>). We put 2 chairs where the loveseat had been, with the intention of building a bar-type arrangement with some cabinets & a formica top...in order that I can set up my laptop & Silhouette. The cabinets on my desk came from a lumber salvage, are basically bathroom vanity cabinets & have drawers, with a formica top. DH thinks to do something similar for my 'bar', have it waist level as is the desk (that's MY waist level, not a shorter person!). It will be possibly 3 cabinets, with shelving, rather than drawers, as I have in the desk. We think we can cram more crap supplies on shelving, rather than in drawers. I also worked last night on adding some more of my Spellbinders to the Art Bin magnetic sheets.

 

Next the desk, and you can see what is on it ...some new Stampin Up goodies.

 

And this is the view to the left of the desk, showing my DH-made heatgun holder, for the old Marvy heat gun I've had for long years. There is also a hook on the side of the desk, which holds the smaller Ranger heat tool.

I did clean off the top of the desk last night, wipe down the formica surface, but sad to say, it's all piled full again. Hope you enjoyed the tour of my 'work in progress'. Let's hop around to see some of the other workspaces around the world, hmm? I promise, it's fun. Thanks for stopping to visit, have a lovely day, and come again soon. Hugs*

*Edit: Forgot to say, look at the Hutch cabinet in the corner of #1 pic. This is a handmade piece, I got from a cousin, for $25. It was made as a 'dry sink' to hold a small tv. I have a lot of envelope/card sets stored in the dry sink portion, and stack packs of paper underneath that area. If I could take out the knicknacks on the 2 top shelves, I'd have some good storage too. (but that's DH's stuff, and it was originally meant to be his TV room so no-can-do-- at the moment).

 

 

Birthday

Good morning, and after a dreary gray chilly Monday, Tuesday dawned sunny & bright. My kind of day. First let me welcome some lovely new followers. I'm so happy to see your smiling faces in the 'Followers' box, and you're helping me towards my goal of 100 followers by March 7 (I believe that is the day I started this blog in 2012). And when I started, I'm thinking "Who on earth is gonna want to see anything I might do or write?". Can't tell you how much your taking time to visit, comment, encourage & offer good advice has meant to me. I've made so many new friends. It's always inspiring to make new friends. You get so many wonderful enrichments to your life. Okay...enough gush. Here's to the card:

- Stamp by Northwoods (may have purchased on eBay...can't remember)*
- copic coloring, Glossy Accents added to large pinecone, berries & Cardinal's beak
- spica pen on pine branches
- S/Binders Floral Oval diecut - largest die, then birthday sentiment with smallest die,
   sponged Pumice & Tea Die while image still in die
- green mat, snippet (traced outside edge of die, then fussy cut- interior of mat is diecut to save layers/weight and oval leftover used for another time)
- C/Bug Paper Lace 2 emboss on SU Crumbcake cardbase
- Fiskar punch to cut border scallop of My Minds Eye Fall Swirls Paper (snippet)
- rhinestone trim on tiny sentiment (also a snippet of the same green mat)

Ah, I have some snippets, this is not a scheduled post, so I think I can go play at Pixie's Playground and see what lovely cards have been submitted for the snippets fest. Won't you come along & have some fun with us? Love to see you there. There's such a friendly bunch of crafters..you're sure to meet someone you've been wanting to know. Have a wonderful day. Come again.
*Actually the image was a snippet too, as Mr. Cardinal was colored up for Christmas, didn't get used, so he will work as a winter birthday card! Ho, Ho, Ho.

Valentine

Good morning, pull up a chair & have a nice cup of something warm, and let's chat Valentine's Day. I think I am about finished with my Valentine projects, unless I think of one more card I need to get done! Whew! This one has a Cheery Lynn Two of Hearts diecut on the front, to which Glossy Accents was applied, then let dry. The white card front was embossed with an older Cuttlebug folder, which I think is called Hearts. (Pictures below so as to show what it looks like. I can not find this particular folder on any of the websites I checked and usually JoAnn has a lot of these older folders*). These folders emboss & diecut at the same time. When I first got some of these, I didn't know how to use them, as they are in 2 pieces. I thought one was supposed to separate the folders to get 2 designs...so not true! And I ruined 2 of them by taking them apart! OK...I removed the center heart part of the folder that is partially cut out when embossing is done (it is nearly cut out out anyway). I adhered a silvery snippet behind the cutout and then using my favorite Alene's Easy Flow glue, dotted a bit of glue around the red heart, slapped it down in the space. Had some diecut corners from the same silver snippet  (and again, this is a very old C/B corner die -found during my reorganization efforts). Thought it would look nice after I had the white cardfront adhered to the red cardbase.  Hope you like this one. Here's the pics of what this C/B folder looks like (just in case you may be interested <g>

Heart folder exterior

 

inside attached 2 pieces
 
*Edit: I searched online & found the name of this folder: He Loves Me


 

 

Valentine

Hi, and since I am off to a Silhouette class at one of our local stamp stores, this will be a scheduled post. Here's another Valentine card to share with you today. The stamp is Penny Black Hedgehog Kisses, colored with copics on Copic Xpress paper.  The stamped image had a little blurb of black smudge on the red balloon, grrr... There were some heart punches lying about on the desk from some other projects, so I thought "Why not use some UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) on a small heart, pop over the smudge?". So had to hunt up the UTEE, as I have not used it for a long while. Pressed the hearts into a Versamark pad, then dumped into the UTEE, heat embossed. Did this 3 or 4 times to build up the layers on the punch as much as I wanted. Not sure if the enlarge photo will show, but this makes a shiny & 3D embellishment. Card front was diecut with a S/Binder Large Label, then embossed with a Crafts Too Vintage Flower EF. After the UTEE hearts were glued down, I wished that I had colored the lighter pink hearts to match the pink balloon...oh well, too late now. Enjoy & have a wonderful Saturday. Hugs

Birthday

 

Good Morning, and thanks for taking time out of your day to visit here this morning. Hope you're all set for a great weekend & have something fun (or relaxing...whatever floats yer boat) planned. I have a birthday card to share today, which I hope you'll like. I used a Spellbinders D-lite Medallion 5 to diecut the card front, then did a bit of line scoring using the Scor-Buddy. Experimented with some acetate leftovers from the plastic packaging salvaged from sorting dies into the Art Bin storage I've been working on. I used alcohol inks in reds & yellows on the acetate, then placed a piece of yellowish cardstock behind that so the colors would show up better. The sentiment was stamped in Versamark, then heat embossed with my favorite Ranger Queen's Gold. I sprayed the card lightly with some Tattered Angels gold. I don't use these sprays often, so I tend to be a bit heavy-handed and I'm never sure I really like how it looks. I guess practice makes perfect. Come again when you have time to browse around to my little corner of Blogland.

 

 

Valentine

Happy Thursday and I'm back with yet another quick Valentine card. This one is probably the fastest card I've ever made. I had these lovely laser diecut Valentine motifs that I had found while we were in Florida for Christmas. Just had to use one of them, and couldn't think of a way to use it as creatively as I see so many other cardmakers use these rub ons...so I just plopped it onto a nice piece of good quality textured black Bazzill, added some rub on sentiments, and zip! I'm done. Got to get these cards into envelopes, addressed & in the mail. Hope you'll like this one. Absolutely no copic coloring at all. <g>

Jingle Belles

Good afternoon, and I'm back with a card you may have seen just a peek of earlier, if you saw my desk on WOYWW 192 fun earlier this morning.  There is a nifty winter challenge going on here featuring something icy, water-y, frozen, etc. So I thought I'd give it a go with this cute little Snowman (B06S - Freezer Space) that I purchased from The Stamp Doctor at a recent stamp convention. He made me smile when I saw his cute sign. The image was colored with copics, and then - just because I had been experimenting with some Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE), I used the UTEE on his hat & scarf. This gives a lovely shiny look to Mr. Snowman.

- diecut with S/Binders Marvelous Squares, largest die
- snowflakes diecut with Impression Obession (small flake) & Memory Box Crystal Snowflake (larger) on silver holograph paper
- Distress Inks Tumbled Glass & Stormy Sky sponged around diecut edge
- Recollections Starry Night paper pack - blue background, silver snowflake pattern

I'm off to link up my card, so I hope you'll check out the challenge and see some lovely cards at Jingle Belles Ho Ho H20. As always, thanks for dropping in for a visit. I appreciate your visits & comments so much as it means you took time from your busy day to think of me! Hugs



WOYWW

Good morning, welcome to another Wednesday WOYWW. If you don't know what WOYWW is, here's the place to learn at Miss Julia's where lots of crafters/cardmakers will share the goodness that is around their craft spaces today. Some are neat, some are tidy, some are messy, ALL are such fun, so please give yourself a treat and check this out! Here's some pictures I'm sharing (and yes, they are piled on my already messy desk). Just some of the treasures I picked up at last Saturday's Heirloom Stamp Show in Lawrenceville, Ga. The shelf above my desk has a fluorescent lamp affair attached to the underside of the shelf, courtesy of the DH. My stamp area is in a basement which has small ground level windows that allow limited natural light to enter a fairly largish room. I need plenty of artificial light. When I'm coloring an image while watching tv, I always take it upstairs to our kitchen table, where there is a window that admits lots of light, to check the colors. Here goes with the pictures...

 Some stamps (from the show), some Cheery Lynn Dies (projects I'm working on), a SU emboss border which I recently purchased)

Closer view of the new treasures, MS punches being used on some projects, an image I colored and experimented with using UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) on areas of the image

Be sure to pop over to WOYWW and check out some fun craftiness from all over the world. Have a blessed day. Come again when you have time.

Valentine

Good gracious, it's Wednesday aw-ready...and I'm back with another quick card to share. Here goes:

 

-  Memory Box Catalina Wreath diecut from white cardstock

 

-  Various size heart punches - red c/s, Glossy Accents for shine

 

-  S/Binders Fancy Framed Tags One - for sentiment

 

-  SU Regal Red for sentiment stamping & sponging

 

-  Darice Hearts Embossing Folder onto black cardstock

 

Once again, a fast card made, ready for an insert & pop in the mail. Have a great day, and don't forget about WOYWW Wednesday. I'll try to be back to share some pics if I can make it. This is a fun place to snoop around and see some really organized work spaces/desks, or some that are more like mine own. Whatever it might be, it's fun to look & join in. Miss Julia kindly provides us a place to play & snoop in sheer delight. Hugs.



Valentine

Good morning and welcome to my corner of blogland. Before I go any further in this post, I must give a great Shoutout to Miss Di (Pixie, of the Playground fame). She was kind enough (AND smart enough!) to do some work on my sidebar so that my Label area is not growing into Never-Neverland. Now there is a nifty little search box for Labels with a lovely dropdown menu; should someone care to look for a specifically themed card...well, off you can go. So many thanks for all your time & hard work Miss Pixie. It is so much appreciated. I love the look! Ahem...

This is another quick card, some snippets...which I would love to say came from the snippet file, but alas, they were just in the pile, rather towards the top, where my little eyes spied. (snippets were the red Cheery Lynn heart & white Spellbinders label die). I like this heart, and it's one of the CL dies that cut well for me. (I did some complaining to a couple vendors who sell these dies at Saturday's stamp show. They listened, reiterated all the proper ways to cut these, which I'm doing. However they just sell the things...don't have a voice in the manufacture. I always hope that they will take my comments back to the folks who make 'em.) Some of my frustration with these dies could be Operator Error, but honestly..I've looked &  looked at the instructional videos. I'm pretty sure I'm doing shimming, rotating, etc.  as instructed, yet still, with some of the intricate doily dies...well, not a happy experience. I hang out with folks much more experienced than I, and they too have problems with some of these dies. The dies are so beautiful when they cutout nicely.  This CL Celtic Heart die, though, works well for me, and I think it's pretty. The S/Binder is Fancy Framed Tags one, which I thought complimented the shape of the frilly heart. Sentiment was stamped and sponged with SU Regal Rose. The EF is a Darice Hearts folder. This was another quick card...I'm liking these quick cards. More to come. Gotta get some finished and into the mail. Thanks for spending time with me  and have a great day at whatever you may be doing. This is going to be a scheduled post, so I won't be linking to the Playground with this snippety card, but I heartily invite you to go for a visit. You'll enjoy the scenery there I guarantee. Some awesome talent, fer sure. Hugs.

Valentine

Happy Monday afternoon and welcome. I have a quick Valentine card to share, made with one of the new Lifestyle embossing folders (Roses) that I got at Saturday's stamp show. (2 folders to a pack). The pink card front is Bazzill (a snippet that I tested the folder on, liked the look, used it). The lacey heart on the medallions (also a test snippet) is backed with a snippet of red c/s, created with an EK success punch, then layered onto a  M.Stewart lacey medallion purchased some years ago.  Created the white border with an older MS lace border punch (one of my favorites), stuck on some rhinestones on the punched heart, and whoa, I'm done. I really do like this Rose embossing folder. It embossed quite deeply. This was the good quality Bazzill as well, so I'll have to remember that when using a lighter weight cardstock. Think I'll dash over to the Playground...I heard a rumor the snow had cleared and some fun activity was going on. Won't you join me? I know there will be lots of lovely cards to enjoy, even if there may still be snow puddles around.  As always, thanks for stopping in to visit. Hugs.

Tools

Hi, I'm back again with the new gadget my buddies told me about. It may not be 'new', but was new to us. This tool is from Lifestyle Crafts, and is called the Genius Ultimate Platform System. It is a large 6"x13" Magnetic platform, dies won't slide off. Quote from the box, which also has pictures on the side of which machines will be compatible with this system. (Now you might ask why did I have to go over to buy this? Well, I've learned over time, if these experienced stampers find a new tool, like it, I always wish I'd gotten 'whatever'. Then sometimes it may not be easily available. Here's a picture of the box and hopefully if you enlarge the image, you'll get a good view of the packaging.

Now here are pictures of the plates that were included.

   
This is the magnetic base plate that holds the dies (don't have to use tape to keep die from sliding - I HOPE) This set of dies was included in the package.

This is Plate 1 - which is for thin dies

 This is Plate 2 - which is for the thick metal dies.



I hope this system will do all expected from it, as it was a bit pricey...$49.99, but I got a bit of a discount as I'm on Archiver's mailing list. Don't shop there too often as it is quite a distance from our area. When we're traveling through Atlanta, and time permits, we can sometimes make a quick stop. Or when the stamp show is held at Lawrenceville, Ga., maybe I can get in to the store. It's a lovely store, lots of goodies. There was a good selection of stamps, papers, embellishments, kits...all manner of things to browse. But as you recall, I did promise I wouldn't 'stay all night', which I didn't. It's probably the faster I've been in & out of a shop in a good while, and I did buy a few other things aside from this new tool.

Here's a glimpse of a few other things that I hurriedly pulled from the bag to share with you. I'll try to unload some of the stamp show goodies, and share on Wednesday (WOYWW). They probably won't be on my desk, but ....they'll be scattered about my working surfaces. <g>

This is an Authenique 6x6 pack of Valentine theme papers, and 2 Lifestyle Crafts embossing folders. You did know that I needed more embossing folders, right? Remember the pictures of my storage project, with all the embossing folders I'm trying to corral. I love this particular tool a lot, in case you didn't notice! Hugs, and thanks for stopping back to visit. Have a great evening.

Valentine

Good afternoon, Blog Friends. Thanks for joining me on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Hope it is pleasant in your part of the world. This is the card I should have posted yesterday, didn't get it finished. It's a very simple card...white GP cardbase.
-  2 different MS punches for the hearts.
-  Memory Box Heart Chain Border die (minus 1 heart in the chain)
-  Spellbinders Impressabilities Flowers (the thin metal plates)-  (these are sharp, and one must be careful or they will CUT your fingers!
- Valentine ribbon from stash - probably purchased at Hobby Lobby on a roll

I folded the cardbase, placed the metal Impressability plate over the card front, with appropriate clear plastic plates for the Big Shot. Nothing embossed..so I got the rubber mat one uses for embossing...ran it through with that. Seemed to be working until...the last edge came through & POP...broke the top plate. Well, that plate was all cut up & old anyway...but still.. aggravation. I have several of these metal plates, don't use them much. For one thing, they seem to be too sharp to me & I'm extremely careful when handling one. I've seen some good Youtubes where ink is smooshed over the plate, then embossed, as done in letterpress. Thought about doing it with some red or pink ink...didn't do it. Oh yes, nearly forgot...my heart chain border was about one heart too long. Snipped this one off, centered the border on the card edge, and glued the extra heart on the top MS heart punch. Called it finished, and one card ready to go! Need to stamp the insert. The heart chain was cut from a snippet I had left from another project I'm working on, hope to finish this evening. I'll be back in a bit with some pictures of the new gadget I mentioned last evening, and a few new treasures. Thanks for visiting. See you soon. Hugs

Road Trip

Good evening Blog Friends, and Welcome to another new follower. We have discovered we both shop at the same wonderful scrapbook/stamping store in Spartanburg. The world is, indeed, a very small place. We connected through yet another blogger, where I surfed from link at blog #1. (I hope that makes sense!).

 

I should have had a card to share today...but last night I was tired from doing some much needed housework and didn't get it finished. (and it's a very simple one too...no images on it). While DH was feeling punk, I was being quiet, trying not to disturb with housework-y things - plus I don't need much excuse to be lazy. It's become a very bad habit. Enjoyable, but a bad habit. Now, if I could just learn to shed the guilt about it, I'd be home free!

 

This morning, we got up early - for me anyway - and headed south toward Atlanta, Ga. which is a couple hours from our area. There was an Heirloom Rubber Stamp show and though we'd been last year, we set the GPS on hubby's pickup, to route us to the place. Well, couple things went wrong...mostly MY fault. I was dozing, woke up, looked around and said "I think we are too far south...did you miss the turnoff?". Well, of course he didn't. <g>. So we drive on a bit, and finally even he is thinking we're too far south of where we need to be. We're on an interstate, and as you probably know, you can't just whip off that kind of road, in that kind of traffic, on a whim...you must look for an exit. Which we did. Pulled over, and re-entered the address, hoping to get directed to where we needed to go, from where we currently were. (Guess who had forgotten to push the Set as Destination button?). We finally do arrive at the site, and see all my stamping buddies unloading from their cars, so all was fine eventually. We shopped (well, truthfully I shopped, and DH carried the bags, and made a couple trips back to the vehicle so as not to be lugging so much around). We finished up, and we're going to an Archiver's store at the Mall of Georgia. My buddies have told me about this new gadge they had found there, and well, you know where THIS part of the story is going. We arrive at the place - which is in a group of mall-like stores. The GPS is saying "you have arrived at your destination", and we can't find the blooming store!! Drove around in the mall, through a couple places, finally spotted a landmark, and Voila, there is Archivers. As we're going inside, DH says "Don't be all night, I'm hungry". OK, I promise, I'll be quick. Just gotta get this one thing. RIGHT! But I did sort of hurry, and we find a place to eat. By now it's raining, and it is a cold rain. We eat, and head back for the Interstate Highway that we need to be on to get home. DH says "I know how to find it". I say "Well, you have a GPS, why don't you USE IT!". So we're following the GPS, and we're on all these 2 lane roads, not an interstate at all. After driving a bit, I'm thinking "I wonder if the settings got messed up somehow, and the GPS is set to avoid freeways". So very quietly, trying to be real nonchalant about pushing the buttons, Oh My Gosh...Yep. Change the settings. Tell him we need to pull over, let the GPS recalculate our route, as we don't want to take all the time the 2 lane roads will cost us. OK, you'll be happy to know I don't have any bruises or anything drastic, but he was a bit perturbed. Boy, did I hate having to fess up to that one!!! In my defense, I must say, we are still learning how to use the GPS on the pickup, which is different from the one on the SUV,(and both are Fords)  which is totally different from the portable Magellen one we used to use in our old cars... YADA, YADA.  So that was my day...hope you got a chuckle from my trip report. Maybe you've never been there before, but I get in the soup over stuff like that a lot. We had fun, though..at least I did. He didn't comment.

Will try to take pictures of some of my loot, and the 'new gadget' I found at Archiver's. Hopefully I'll post with a card tomorrow! In the meantime, thanks for popping by, have a great evening, and a Blessed Sunday. Hugs