Wednesday, December 30, 2009

SSW #30 - Skating Away...

This week's sketch is sponsored by Squiggle Fly. Go on over and check out their cute digis. My favorites are the ones by Crissy Anderson, but there are lots of cute images available.

Here's this week's sketch:


This is my card using the sketch. I used the cute Figure Eight Snowman.


The SSW DT members have been using a lot of glitter on their cards lately and I've really loved the effect so I incorporated some into my card this week. Arlana has picked some very talented DT members and I'm always inspired by everyone else on the team.

Visit the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog to check out all the other DT members' cards and be sure to play along with this week's sketch. I don't know about where you live, but the weather here is more frightful than delightful - a perfect excuse to stay inside and be creative!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Fab Friday.... belated

If you own a Crop-A-Dile, you know they have a reputation for punching through just about anything - chipboard, aluminum pails, lampshades, etc. But did you know they also punch through rawhides?

I wanted to give my dog, Dixie, a treat in her stocking (yes, my pets all have their own stockings!) and rawhides are her favorite thing. I knew my High Hopes stamp of Santa handing a puppy a Christmas bone would make the most adorable tag, so I pondered how to attach it to the rawhide....

Voila! Crop-A-Dile to the rescue:


It was a big hit with Dixie :)

If you don't have a pet or know anyone who does, hopefully this tip will inspire you to think of another unusual material for your next Crop-A-Dile project!

Blog Hop with Candy!

Check out the Friday Sketchers' Blog Hop. There are seven great cards with a chance for a little blog candy on each stop on the hop. Imagine starting your new year with a free goodie or two? Get hoppin'! :)

Fab Friday

Consider it like the mail these days ... a little slower with increased holiday business! :) I'll be posting a Fab Friday (on Saturday) as soon as I get my glut of Christmas photos downloaded off my camera.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

SSW 29 - One Freshly Made Card....

This week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday sponsor is Freshly Brewed Designs. Here's this week's sketch:


Here's my card:


Stop by the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog to check out the other DT members' cards. Hope to see you join us in this week's challenge!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Christmas Crush!

The countdown to Christmas is in full swing, so it has been so hard to find time to post! I have been stamping/creating, though. I made a few gifts for my daughter Jessica to give her friends (several candy bar wrappers and I stamped the plain white mat in a photo frame to make it pretty. My most ambitious undertaking was compiling some favorite Christmas recipes into little cook/scrapbooks for my mother and MIL. I used this adorable image from Mo Manning of Digital Pencil Too. It's called Louis and Bronte and it was just so appropriate for a recipe book of Christmas cookies! I don't know if Mo has this one in the shop or not, but I got it as a freebie for being a member of the Digital Pencil Too group on Paper Craft Planet.

I made one brunette and one blonde Louis:


(I used Paint Shop Pro to temporarily remove the frog on Louis' shorts. I then cut & pasted the image into a Word document without saving the changes to Mo's original artwork.)

After laminating all of the pages, I used my Bind It All to make 2 6X6 recipe books. I'll try to get a photo of one of the finished products. (The one for my mom is wrapped & ready to ship off to NJ tomorrow.)

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Under the Mistletoe

It's Wednesday and you know what that means... another SSW sketch and more great cards from the design team!


I just love this Alex and Felicity series from our sponsor, Sally-Ann Hancock's DigiStamp Boutique! You can find this image in the store's Christmas collection.

Don't they make the cutest couple? :-) Be sure to head on over to the Digistamp Boutique and check out the Christmas images - they're all 20% off. And, then come back and play along with this week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge. You may just win a great prize from Sally-Ann!

Friday, December 11, 2009

A Digitally Fab Friday!

I'm back in the groove! I'm posting (semi-regularly at least) and I remembered Fab Friday! :)

I have become a huge fan of digital stamps. They're cheap, they're resizable and they are *instant* gratification. No waiting for the mailman or the guy in the brown truck. :) So, the topic of this week's Fab Friday is digi stamps. One of my favorite digi stamp stores is, of course, DigiStamp Boutique. If you haven't been in the shop lately, be sure to check out all her Christmas images while they're still on sale 20% off. I'll be posting a Felicity card later this weekend.

In my hunt for fun new digis, I've found several rubber stamp artists' work in digital form. If you're a fan of the Tiddly Inks stamps from Stamping Bella, check out Christy Croll's Tiddly Inks store on Etsy. If you're a High Hopes fan, check out Crissy Anderson's digital artwork on Squigglefly. And if you've fallen in love with the cute little Pure Innocence girls at My Favorite Things, be sure to visit Heather Ellis' Digital Stamp Characters shop at Etsy.

Happy shopping! :)

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

SSW27

It's time for another Sweet Sketch Wednesday sketch challenge! Here's this week's sketch:


Here's the card I made with this cute little bunny from this week's sponsor, Bee Crafty:


We are getting our first real taste of winter today, so this springy little guy is a welcome sight! (How many days until spring is here again? I miss it already!)

Monday, December 7, 2009

The big hit

What has been our most popular item at the craft shows we did this fall? Glass pebble magnets. We sold a bunch of these at Saturday's craft show, as well as at Hatton. I guess they're popular because they're decorative but yet useful and the price fits in just about anyone's budget. (We charged 50 cents each for these at all the shows.)

Here's the board we used to display our magnets:

Sadly, I didn't sell any of these domino magnets. :-( Which just goes to show how fickle the craft show business is. A few years ago, any snowman stamped domino (pin, etc.) was a good seller for me.

Here's the star of the show, the lowly little pebble magnet!


I used a discontinued "all season" set from TAC. The images were the perfect size for these magnets. They were so fun to color and came out so cute!

I'm back....

I survived the back to back craft show and holiday open house. Barely. I will definitely be posting some projects this week, though.

In the mean time, since I missed Fab Friday (again!), I thought I'd share a freebie I found today. If you like vintage images, you can find some really pretty vintage tags on the Peggy Loves Vintage blog.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

MIA & SSW

My apologies for not posting these days. I completely blanked on Fab Friday! I'm trying to prepare for a craft show on Saturday and a home business open house on Sunday. Needless to say, I've crafted a lot but just have been too busy to photograph & blog it.

Of course, I made time to play along with this week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday sketch, though! This week there were two sketches:



I chose to make a card with the Double Take sketch and this adorable image from this week's sponsor, Whimsie Doodles:

I adhere the tree with some pop dots. I love the dimension it gives the card when you see it in person.

Be sure to stop by the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog and check out the rest of the design team members' cards.

Supplies: Muffin for Christmas (Whimsie Doodles), greeting from TAC, SU! corner punch, Nestabilities (scalloped circle & label), CM Shapecutting System (circles), Prismacolor pencils with OMS, ribbon from Michaels.