New Year's Eve Party!

The Sentimental Sundays challenge blog is having a New Years Eve party that promises to be a lot of fun - including prizes! I'm planning on participating, so come and join in on the fun.

See you there!
Lisa

More Torico!

Since my daughter used the last one right away, I wanted to make another card with this cute birthday pup by Torico:

You can find this cute image and many other at Torico's Etsy shop, Birdie Brown. I colored him in with Prismacolor pencils and OMS and used more of that great Lime Twist 6X6 paper that I found at Archivers. (It is seriously a good thing that I do not have an Archivers anywhere near my house! LOL.)

Well, I'm off to play Santa. To those of you who celebrate - Have a very Merry Christmas!

Lisa

I Made a Card!!

OK, most of the time that is not big news. But lately - ? Eeek! I haven't made a card since the last Totally Papercrafts challenge. (BTW, are you playing along? You have until the end of the month to join in while the rest of the DT and I take a little break for the holidays.)

I've been a big fan of Torico ever since I discovered her work at There She Goes stamps. Torico also has a little Etsy shop where she sells some of her work in digital form. My oldest daughter needed a birthday card tonight so I whipped out this new image that I just bought. I love dogs so I just couldn't resist! And I used my brand new Lime Twist 6X6 pad that I bought the last time I was at Archivers. I really think great paper just makes so much difference in your cards! (The colors are a bit off. I had to take this in my bathroom - sadly the room in  my house with the best lighting - and then try to adjust for the artificial light with Photoshop.)

The layout is borrowed right from Torico's sample card in her Etsy shop. Embellishments are a computer generated sentiment and a ribbon scrap. (Did you notice the word "celebrate" on the ribbon?) I colored in the image with Prismacolor pencils and OMS.

Now that I'm off until the New Year, I hope to be back soon with another card!
Lisa

Partying with Totally Papercrafts!

Welcome to this week's Totally Papercrafts, Time to Party! Our sponsor this week is Karen's Doodles. I chose this adorable giraffe image. It's not your typical "party" image, but to me those giraffes look like they are having an awful lot of fun together! I made this card for my oldest daughter who loves giraffes and loves singing in her school choir. (In fact, she went to a carolling "party" last week where they surprised their choir director by showing up at his house to sing.)

At first, I was worried about what paper I could possibly use for a Christmas card with this much brown and yellow. Fortunately, I bought this Bo Bunny 6X6 pad the last time I was at Archiver's. The brown dots go with the giraffes nicely and it already had the swirl design printed along the bottom edge of the paper. The snowflakes were cut with my Cricut using the Winter Woodland cartridge.

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:
http://blog.icopic.com/ - holidays
http://mymumscraftshopchallenges.blogspot.com/ - cute and funky Christmas
http://cupcakecraftroom.blogspot.com/ – Christmas Traditions


Be sure to head on over to Totally Papercrafts to check out the rest of the DT's cards. TGIF!!!!
Lisa

Totally Exciting News!

Did you notice that things look a little different? Yes, you've come to the right blog! I've just decided it was time to "winterize" my blog with a new look to herald some other changes. :)

I've enjoyed my guest DT spot with the gals at Totally Papercrafts and was bummed that my temporary gig was about to end. But Cathy from TP emailed me over the weekend and asked me to become a permanent member of the team. I immediately said yes! You can now see the little blue Totally Papercrafts badge proudly displayed in my right sidebar. :)

I've made a few changes to my blog schedule. Since my Totally Papercrafts posts will be on Friday, I've decided to discontinue my Fab Fridays, instead just posting links and tips when I find something too good not to share. I've also decided that I would no longer have a weekly (Sunday) timeslot for my DigiStamp Boutique posts. This way I can post when a new set of images is released  and not feel tied to a schedule.

Wow. It's been tough getting to the computer lately to share my news with you. My kids have been needed the family computer for school so my computer time at home has been pretty limited. Only one more week of school, though, until break. Yay!

I do have a card to share with you today. I wanted to use my Cricut Winter Wonderland cartridge and came up with this card:

You can kind of see it in the photo, but I added some glitter to the "snow" using my glue pen and some ultrafine glitter. You can see it a little better here, although I have yet to master the art of photographing the sparkle:

They were fairly quick to make. I also decided to type the greeting and "signatures" inside my card. They're dated, too, so all I have to do is write the names of the people I'm sending the card to. My handwriting is pretty terrible, so I figure not making people read it is sort of a Christmas gift in itself. ;-)

See you on Friday with my first Totally Papercrafts post as an official TP Design Team member! I can't wait! :)
Lisa

Totally Papercrafts

And now for something really different... After weeks of making lots of Christmas cards, snowy cards, etc., this week's Totally Papercrafts challenge is "Anything but Christmas". (I think the girls were just a little overwhelmed by all the "snow" entries last week, lol!)

We are being sponsored this week by Meljen's Designs. Since I never seem to have enough birthday cards, I chose this cute birthday cupcake from Meljen for my card. I think it looks cute with this scrap of cupcake paper from my stash. (I am really trying to use up my scraps!)

Today's Fab Friday tip: If you're a fan of Meljen's designs, be sure to join her group over on Paper Craft Planet. She occasionally gives out free images only to members of the group. It's also a great way to get the latest Meljen news and meet other fans of her images.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming... (of Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!). :)
Lisa

Candy Everyone Wants

No, I'm not talking about the 10,000 Maniacs song. :) Tracey is giving away some wonderful candy over at her blog, BrossARTaddiction. It's very easy to enter. Just visit her blog for details. Here's a peak of just some of the goodies that will be included in the prize:

Check out the blog candy section of my sidebar (lower right hand side of the screen) for some more changes for goodies!
Lisa

New December images

Yay! There's a big batch of new images up in the DigiStamp Boutique store, including this cute new Jasper with pudding. For this month only, he's part of a specially priced set of two images called Christmas Jasper. (He'll still be available in January, but the images will be sold separately and no longer at the special set price.)

Supplies: Christmas Jasper (DSB), Copic markers, sentiment (TAC), border punch (Fiskars), pink bakers twine (Lime Twist), papers from my scrap stash, button (All My Memories).

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - Sketch #184
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Raise the Bar - It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

Be sure to stop by the shop and see the rest of the December images. There are some cute Valentines Louie images, if (unlike me!) you are on top of your Christmas cards and are ready to get set for Valentines Day.

Lisa

Merry Christmas, Tilda

It's damp and drizzly today and somewhat warm for this time of year, so it's not feeling very Christmas-y out yet. This little Tilda card, though, should put me in the mood:

I bought this Christmas Party Tilda a while ago and haven't inked her up nearly enough. She's so cute!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Just Magnolia - Anything Goes
Magnolia Stamp Lovers - Red and White
Pile It On Challenges - Sugar and Spice
2 Sisters - Punches or Dies
Crafty Cat Weekly Challenge - the colours of Christmas

Lisa

Let It Snow

Well, not really. I personally am in no rush to see the white stuff, having endured a blizzard and several other large storms last winter. However, it is fun to look at some snow-inspired cards as part of this week's Totally Papercrafts challenge Let It Snow! Our sponsor this week is Mandi Moore, who is a rep for Stampin' Up. I have a few SU! sets and my favorite is probably this snowman set:

I am also entering this cute little guy in the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - Winter Wonderland challenge

Copic Oz - Christmas challenge

Craft Your Days Away - Buttons or Bows 

Crazy4Challenges - use snow

DSYU - ribbon

Designed2Delight - Snowmen!

The papers are from a My Minds Eye 6X6 pad that I bought at Archivers called "12 Days of Christmas". I just love using those pads for cardmaking - the scale is always right and they take all the work out of matching your patterns. So, that's my Fab Friday tip to you.: :) You can find them online, in chain stores like Archivers and Hobby Lobby and at your favorite local scrapbook store.

Now head on over to the Totally Papercrafts blog and check out the other design team members' snowy creations! :)

Have a great weekend! TGIF!
Lisa