Happy Holidays...

It's Sunday night and the weekend went by WAY too quick again. sigh. I'm so looking forward to a little break from the school schedule this week for turkey day. For the past 2 weeks I've been taking care of sick little ones. 1 trip to the ER, 5 trips to the pediatricians, 3 kids out of school a total of 13 days, 5 trips to the pharmacy (and I won't even bother adding in the time trying to search down liquid Tamiflu that is NO WHERE to be found) and 0 time or motivation to stamp. It was SO nice to get back into a stamping groove this weekend.

Today's card is one that I created using Lizzie Anne's Fanciful Flourishes set. I love creating background patterns with my stamps, and these stamps were perfect for it!

supplies used: stamps: Lizzie Anne Designs (Fanciful Flourishes & Nov '09 Monthly Mix)

oh, Christmas Tree...

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree....

Today's card is one using a few of the new Lizzie Anne Design stamp sets: November Monthly Mix (sentiment), Deck the Halls (tree), Way up North (snowflakes).

The trees were paper pieced and rolled pieces of brown cardstock were used as tree trunks. I embossed the snowflakes in clear EP on the background.

winter wishes...

Last weeks Stampendous class at Paper Craft Planet focused on chalks. One of the techniques was to chalk over removable stickers. Well since I didn't have any snowflake stickers I decided to make my own. Using the Cricut and repositionable adhesive, I was able to use the diecuts as mask to chalk over.

Love this cute little penguin from Stampendous! Isn't he cute? He's from the Snowy Short Stack Clear Set.

Come join in the fun for Stampendous Back to Basic Contest at Paper Craft Planet. There is an incredible prize to be won by one lucky participant each week. If you don't have any Stampendous stamps yet don't let that stop you. You can use any stamps as long as you follow the technique. This weeks class is on acetate!

December '09 Lizzie Anne Monthly Mix sneaks...

Are you ready to see the new Lizzie Anne Monthly Mix for December? Check out "Celebrate"....

"If you aren't a Mix Member yet, now is a great time to join! We keep adding new incentives to our Mix Club Membership...we like to spoil our Mix Members.

Some incentives are...

• An ONGOING 20%DISCOUNT on all other Lizzie Anne Designs products.
  
• FREE SHIPPING offer on non-club orders....if you'd like us to hold an additional order you've placed to ship with your Monthly Mix set, we'll refund your shipping on that order (our international customers LOVE this benefit!)
  
• THREE storage cases with every shipment
  
• The option to add on the Singles of the Month for $5...half off the regular retail price!
  

Are you ready to Mix it up? Go here to sign up for the Monthly Mix Club! "

Here are two of my samples using the new set! How cute is that bird? And I'm loving the simple elegance of that snow globe. I think that may just become my Christmas card design this year!

Have a great week!

Its a blog hop...

I am so excited to get to be a part of Gina K's blog hop using Melanie Muenchinger's new stamps. Melanie recently sent me her gorgeous new set Festive Frame to play with. I've been slowly getting back into woodburning and as soon as I saw the frame I knew I had to try burning it.

I used an old piece of pine wood. I stamped the image onto the wood using a light brown waterbase ink. Using a variety of pyrography tips, I set to work burning the design into the wood. I took a bit of creative liberty and left out the oval in the center. I knew the curve would be a hard line to burn because the tool would want to pull with the grain of the wood. I stained it with antiquing glaze and colored it with watercolors. The sentiment is Scrapworks rubons. I added a bit of white highlights with a gel pen. A ribbon wrapped around the entire block and tied in a bow finishes it off.

Melanie Muenchinger, the Illustrator of Festive Frame has invited a couple of her friends to join in on the blog hop tonight, so click on their blog links to see the projects they've created:

Joan Ervin

Linda Payne

Then, check in on these GinaK Designer's participating in the Blog Hop tonight:

Carolyn King
Donna Baker
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Lee Murphy
Melanie Muenchinger
Theresa Momber

And the fabulous Center Stage Spotlight Team:

Deb Felts
Diana S. Queen
Melissa Cash
Sharri Seffens

After you're done hopping to all the Designer's blogs stop by GinaK's Idea Center here: Festive Frame for lots more ideas on how to use Melanie's stamp set. And, don't forget to check in on GinaK's blog so you can leave your comment to be entered as a chance to win this stamp set, too!

Sweet & Sassy Sketch Challenge (prize)

I'm back with another fun Paper Craft Planet sketch challenge, sponsored by Sweet n' Sassy Stamps. To play along, create a card using this sketch:

To play, upload your card to the Paper Craft Planet photo gallery, and use the tag "SNSS1" -- all caps, please. (Here is a tutorial on adding pictures to the gallery, if you need it.) Sweet n' Sassy Stamps has generously offered a chance to win this adorable stamp for one of our lucky challenge players.

Here is my card using the Do Not Open Until Christmas set ...

Since I still have not joined in the Copic craze yet, I usually have to color my digital images with colored pencils/baby oil. On this card, I decided to take a different approach and color the image directly in photoshop. I then printed it out and went in and added shadows with colored pencils.

The Supernovas and I all used the new digital stamps for our cards. Check out what the other Super Novas came up with:

Adela Rossol

Lynn Mercurio

Kim Burmeister

Lori Tecler

Sankari Wegman

Susanna Boyd

Dream Big...

My poor forgotten blog. I haven't really forgotten it, but last week was just crazy busy with Halloween and then I had a sick child on top of it. Since I haven't gotten alot of stamping time in lately, I'm sharing an book that I made using Dixie Pieces October kit.

I cut a 8x4 and 2 4x4 pieces from the canvas, found in the kit. The flower was created by wetting pieces of crepe paper with a water/vinegar mix and letting the color bleed onto the canvas. Once the color was dry I roughly machine stitched some petals in to define the flower. I added some layered buttons for a center. The sides were machine stitched to the cover and a handmade graph paper notebook was slipped inside the cover. The final touch was an inspirational sentiment from Molly Stamps, stamped on the cover.

And I have to thank two super sweet friends, Andrea and Tammy for giving me this award. You girls ROCK! Thank you!!!

The rules are that I have to answer these questions with one word answers and then pass the award on. I totally couldn't answer some of these in one word answers but I kept them brief. So onto the questions:

1. Where is your cell phone? pocket
2. Your hair? ponytail
3. Your mother? busy
4. Your father? missed
5. Your fave food? chocolate
6. Your dream last night? Phillies
7. Your fave drink? coffee
8. Your dream/goal? stamp illustrator
9. What room are you in? living room
10. Your hobby? stamping
11. Your fear? death
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? warm climate
13. Where you were last night? photography class
14. Something that you aren't? employed...anyone hiring? ;-)
15. Muffins? YUM!
16. Wish List Item? CS4
17. Where did you grow up? Pineys
18. Last thing you did? shopped
19. What are you wearing? Hoodie
20. Your TV? OFF
21. Your Pets? needy
22. Friends? thankful for
23. Your Life? hectic
24. Your Mood? tired
25. Missing Someone? yes
26. Vehicle? Scion
27. Something your not wearing? jacket
28. Your fave store? craft store
29. Your fave color? green
30. Last time you laughed? morning
31. Last time you cried? last week
32. Your best friend? DH
33. One place that I go to over and over? school
34. One person who emails regularly? school
35. Fave place to eat? BK
36. Facebook? Yep!

hmmm, the second part of the award is that I have to pass on the award to 5 friends so I'm passing it on to: Sankari , Susanna , Dianna , Stephanie , and Meg .