Isabella's Sketchbook Blog Hop

Welcome to our first blog hop for Isabella's Sketchbook. Isabella gave this lucious lemon digital image to the design team to use for this blog hop. Isn't it fabulous? I can't wait to see how the rest of the team used it in their creations this week.

This week our challenge to YOU is to do a card with an Isabella image with the theme "Anything Goes". You can do whatever you like! This is a circular blog hop. That means you can start anywhere and continue until you come back to your starting point. Isabella will be giving away one image each to NINE winners. To be in the random drawing for the images, you must leave a comment on the DTs' blogs. The more comments you leave, the more chances you have in the drawing.

Have fun and enjoy the hop! Your next hop is over to Oh So Cute, by Lisa. Be sure to keep hopping and leaving comments along the way (the more comments, the more chance of winning) until you've come back to where you started. After leaving a comment here, hop on over to Lisa's blog to see her fabulous creation. The hop will be open until Friday, July 2nd at 8:00 p.m.

Card Details: Image by Isabella's Sketchbook (hasn't been released for sale at this time - check back soon!), digital designer paper by Pink Petticoat and Designer Digitals (changed the color to B&W in PSE), the yellow polka dot background on the image was digitally paper pieced using Pretty Petticoat digital papers, coloring done with Copics, a little Crystal Effects on the handle to make it look like glass, ribbon from Jo-Ann's, jewelry spacers with a tiny silver "pearl" on top and saving the best til last, the punch work was done with a Martha Stewart punch following the tutorial from the amazing Becka Feeken. She has a series of tutorials on her blog to show how to do this. Be sure to check it out!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you will play along with us this week on our blog hop and good luck in the drawing!

UPDATE - HOP WINNERS: Please stop by Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge Blog to see if you were a winner. Congrats to all the lucky ladies who won a fabulous digital image from Isabella's Boutique. Isabella and her entire Design Team thank you playing with us in our first blog hop. We had a blast and hope that you did too!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:

Quirky Crafts Challenge - Ribbons

ABC Challenge - X is for Xtra Dimension

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Let's Go Digital

Sew Many Cards - Anything Goes

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Fruit Inspired

Pretty Peacock

Hello and welcome to another Saturday with Our Creative Corner. It's my last week to be hostess. I've had a blast this month coming up with the challenges and I hope you have enjoyed them too. This week, our sponsor is Isabella's Sketchbook, one of the design teams I represent. I'm sure you know that Isabella has over 250 beautiful digital images over at her store and she will be giving three imges to the random winner of this week's challenge.

Our challenge this week is to keep our cool and chill out using the cool colors of blue and green. I selected this Peacock digital image to work with this week. I thought the image was perfect for this color challenge of blue and green. In the neighborhood where I live, we have several flocks of peacocks roaming around, but we rarely see a male with his gorgeous tailfeathers spread. They mostly just drag them around. But when you do see the rare display, it is truly stunning it its beauty. I came home to find one large tailfeather in my driveway the other day and picked it up to use to match up the colors. I know this is a pretty simple card for me, but I thought the colors, DP design and the punch design all worked together so beautifully to support the peacock motiff. The DP is digital from Pretty Petticoat. I scanned the Brilliant Blue and Green Galore into my PSE and changed the colors on the DP to match exactly. And luckily I had the exact colors in Copic markers to color the iamge. So everything just sort of fell together for this card. The bow is a la (the incredibly talented and generous) Becka Feeken. You can check out her amazing tutorial here on making a Collar Bow.

That's pretty much all the details for this card. I hope you will pop on over to Our Creative Corner to see the other beautiful work by our design team.

♥Wendy Jensen♥Dana Grothaus♥Diane Gilbert♥Jennifer Meyer

♥Julie LeBlanc♥Sarah Gough♥Lori Rider♥

Thanks for spending your Saturday morning with me. Hope to see you again next week. Have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings & hugs,

Happy Travels

Hello and welcome to my Wednesday post for Isabella's Sketchbook. This week our challenge theme is Summer Fun. And what could be more fun in the summer than the annual summer vacation. So I am celebrating my week in Key West with this Happy Travels card.
I used the Suitcase Stack digital image from Isabella's Sketchbook. I just love the retro flair it has to it. I stamped the Creamy Caramel panel with the large palm tree from the SU Balmy Breezes set (retired) in Chocolate Chip and Versamark and then clear embossed it. The DP is a very light print with many travel icons on it, a digital paper from Designer Digitals called Journey Home. I created my little luggage tag with the SU tag punch, a buckle from the Hodge Podge Hardware set and a bit of narrow grosgrain black ribbon. The Bon Voyage sentiment is computer generated and the globe stamped on it is from Crafty Secrets. The ribbon and black brads are from SU and the bottom mat on the image panel is the picket fence border punch from Martha Stewart.

I hope you will stop by the challenge blog and maybe even enter this week. All you need to do is use an Isabella's image and follow the challenge theme. You have a great chance of winning 2 of her wonderful digital images plus the gorgeous "I Won" badge for your blog! And while you are at it, stop by the DT blogs and leave them some love.

♥Annika♥Cec♥Diana♥Jackie♥Jennifer♥Linda♥Lisa♥Peggy♥Peri♥Randi♥Sharon♥Sue♥Viv♥

As always, I am deeply appreciative of your stopping by and of any comments you care to leave. Hope you are having a wonderful week!

Blessings & hugs,

Casing Sarah

Hello and welcome to my Saturday post for Our Creative Corner. So happy you could stop by today! I'm still hostess this week at Our Creative Corner and the challenge I dreamed up this week is Case and OCC Girl. I thought it sounded like fun and fun is what the DT had casing each other this week. I actually think I subconsciously came up with this challenge because loved Sarah Gough's card so much that I wanted an opportunity to case it. Seriously, when I first saw this beauty, my jaw just dropped! I just think the colors are absolutely gorgeous! I'm a big admirer of Sarah's work. It was a joy to case this card, both because of the lovely colors and also because Sarah took the trouble to photograph and describe the steps she took to make this complex card. I didn't so I'll refer you back to Sarah's original card to read all the steps she went through to come up with this masterpiece. Another reason I enjoyed it so was that I have been mainly using digital images lately and this was real stamping. It made me remember who much I love playing with stamps and ink!

Details: Paper - Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip. The DP is digital and I honestly don't remember which digital folder I pulled it out of. I used the same three colors of ink for distressing that Sarah used - Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip but I also used a bit of Vintage Photo too. The stamps - Build a Bauble by Prima, Script, Baroque Motiffs, Natural Beauty and Script from SU. Border punch is from Martha Stewart and I found the wonderful scrunchy lace on sale a few weeks ago at Jo-Ann. I really love it. It looks sort of a lady's garter - LOL!! The sentiment plaque is mounted on Spellbinders die cuts and I found some perfectly matching rhinestones in my stash.

I hope you will stop by Our Creative Corner and see what our wonderful DT has come up with for this challenge. Here are all the OCC girl's blogs so you can check them out and see what you want to case.

♥Wendy Jensen♥Dana Grothaus♥Diane Gilbert♥Jennifer Meyer♥Julie LeBlanc♥Sarah Gough♥Lori Rider♥

Thanks for stopping by. Can't wait to see what wonderful art work you will case!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:

Cardvards - Wet or Dry embossing

Thank You, Dad

Welcome back to my third post of the day. Are you tired of me yet? LOL!! It's been a super busy week for me, getting ready to leave for vacation. By the time you read this pre-scheduled post, I will probably already be in Key West. We planned to leave at 8:00 a.m. and it's only a three-hour drive. So while I unpack my bathing suit and get ready to hit the pool, you can read about my last Father's Day card of the year. This one was made for Fairy Fun Friday, the Prairie Fairy's challenge blog. Our challenge this week is to make a Father's Day card. This image is actually called Me 'n' My Grampa, but I elected to use it as a Dad card. Rather than color it up, I changed the lines to brown and printed it at 65% opacity, effectively using it as a background to the sentiment. The sentiment was made up by yours truly and printed on my computer.

Details: Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel and Basic Black card stock. Houndstooth paper is called World Traveler-Old Coat by Heidi Swapp and the pinstripe DP is called Floral Mocha Paperie by making Memories. A Martha Stewart boarder punch was used to make the double layer border panel. Spellbinders Labels One and Five dies were used for the center panel. The black brads are just stock brads from Jo-Ann's and the chipboard letters were cut with the Cuttlebug Oliva alphabet. I hand wrote the "Love you!" note which is held up by a mini clip from SU.

Hope you enjoyed all three of my creations today. Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you will come back tomorrow to see what I have made for this week's Our Creative Corner challenge.

Blessings & hugs,

Vintage Balloon

Several weeks ago, a card of mine was selected as one of the Top 3 at Raise the Bar challenge blog. It is their practice to invite the Top 3 to be guest designers several weeks later. This is my week to guest design for Raise the Bar. The challenge theme is to make a Father's Day card. I've made quite a few Father's Day cards this month and I'm sort of running out of gas on male oriented cards. Luckily, Sugar Creek Hollow recently came out with this wonderful digital image, Vintage Balloon which is a perfect image for a guy card. I paper pieced it by hand using the retired SU paper pack Brocade Backgrounds. The panel behind the balloon was stamped using the SU Artifacts set on Very Vanilla in Versamark, embossed with clear EP and sponged with Old Olive. The Vintage Balloon set comes with a "Happy Father's Day" sentiment, but I wanted to make my words wavy like a banner so I created my own on my computer. The brown edging around the main panel is actually the Martha Stewart picket fence border punch. I just let the tip ends peek out over the edge.

Thanks so much for stopping to check out this, my second post of the day. I'll be back again later this mornnig with my weekly card for Fairy Fun Friay, the Prairie Fairy weekly challenge.

Blessings & hugs,

Load It Up!

What a fun challenge we had this week for Fabulous Friday at Sugar Creek Hollow! The design team was challenged to make cards that were loaded - you could interpret that any way - could be loaded with layers, or embellishments or stamps - whatever your heart desired. Here's my loaded creation. Not so many layers this week, but lots of shabby chic sort of embellies. I used the wonderful Bee Tile from Sugar Creek Hollow and decided to stay with black and white to make a sharp impact. The white panel was embossed with the Victoria Cuttlebug EF, added a Prima black rhinestone flourish, a strip of fabric flowers (purchased in a strip at Jo-Ann's, white paper roses, a florist's pick embellishment and a silver heart. Enough embellies for you? Actually, I was second-guessing myself on this one, wondering if it was too over the top, but I came around to liking it and decided it was just enough - LOL!!!

Don't forget to stop by the Sugar Creek Hollow store to pick up your Fabulous Friday Freebie. Thanks so much for stopping by today and thank you for your comments.

Blessings & hugs,

Golf Umbrella

Good Wednesday morning to you! It's Isabella's Sketchbook challenge day and this week we are challenged to make a Father's Day card. My DH is a golfer so I decided on this image from Isabella's Sketchbook. I love the retro look of the image, which I digitally paper pieced. The digital DP is from Designs by Krista, a pack called Candy Apples. The card stock is SU's Really Rust and Always Avecado. The brads are from Michael's and again, I don't remember where I purchased the wired "ribbon". I printed the golf ball a bit smaller the second time, printed the Happy Father's Day on it and attached it to a Tin Holtz Fragment.

I hope you will stop by Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge and see the rest of the team's beautiful work. And maybe you could take time to pay them a visit at their personal blog too.

♥Annika♥Cec♥Diana♥Jackie♥Jennifer♥Linda♥Lisa♥Peggy♥Peri♥Randi♥Sharon♥Sue♥Viv♥

Thanks so much for stopping by this morning. Hope to see you this week over at Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge!

Blessings & hugs,

Winner - 30,000 Hits Blog Candy

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the drawing for my blog candy. Even more, thank you all for visiting my blog and encouraging me to continue to create! I will try to get around to say hi to every one of you over the next few weeks. I am snowed under these past couple of weeks with design work and getting ready to leave on a 10-day vacation. But come July, things should slow down a bit for me and I'll be abe to do more blogging and commenting.

Now to announce the winner. It's #8 - Sian from Ireland. Sian, congratulations!! Please email your address to thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com. If you get it to me by Thursday, I will get your package into the mail before I leave on vacation.

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
8
Timestamp: 2010-06-16 05:41:52 UTC

Thanks again to you all for answering my questions. It's very helpful and interesting to me to know who is visiting me!

Blessings & hugs,

30,000 Hits Blog Candy

I know 30,000 hits is not a lot compared to some crafters' blogs who are getting 100,000 or more a year, but it is a milestone for me. I'm super excited that so many of you are coming back again and again to look at my work. I am deeply appreciative of all your wonderful comments. I just don't have time to say thank you to every one individually so to thank you, I am offering a blog candy prize. It will be open through June 15th and is NOT to be advertised on anyone's blog. It is for those who come here frequently or who find their way here because they saw one of my cards and wanted to see more of my work. And while new followers are always appreciated, you DO NOT have to sign on as a follower to be eligible to win. However, you do need to do the following:

In the comments section:
- Number your entry so I can use a random generator to pick the winner
- I want to get to know who my visitors are so please answer these questions:

**Where you are from (country/city)

**How you found me (if you came just to leave a DT comment on a challenge entered, that's fine, just say so)

**How long you have been visiting my blog

**How frequently to you visit (once a month, once a week, twice a week or daily)

Thank you so much for visiting and for your wonderful comments.

Gotcha Cornered!

Good morning! Hoping your weekend is getting off to a great start. So happy that you stopped by to see my DT sample for Our Creative Corner. I am hostess over there for the month of June and will be setting the challenges. This week, I am challenging you to give some special love to the corners of your card. Instead of neglecting them, fill them with stamps, die cuts, metal, bling, flowers or whatever makes you happy. I'm looking forward to seeing all the creative ways you all can fill up those corners.

I just might have gone a little overboard on filling up my corners, but I definitely made my point! I started with a base of Very Vanilla and Riding Hood Red, overlaid by a layer of Cosmo Cricket DP (too bad I always cover up the beauiful DP). Four of the beautful filagree cross from the Spellbinders Cross Collection (limited edition) die set were cut out of Riding Hood Red. Next up is a layer of Creamy Caramel cut with the largest of the Scallop Squares Nestabilities. A chocolate chip square was cut using the Spellbinders Fair Isles pendant. The little circle flower is a die from the Classic Frame Frameabilities set also by Spellbinders. The pearls are from Kaiser Kraft. The image is from our sponsor this week, The Prairie Fairy, and was colored with Copics. Roberta will give five digital images to the random winner of this week's challenge.

I hope to see your creation entered into our challenge this week at Our Creative Corner. Be sure to stop by the other design team members blogs to see their beautiful work too!

♥Wendy Jensen♥Dana Grothaus♥Diane Gilbert♥Jennifer Meyer

♥Julie LeBlanc♥Sarah Gough♥Lori Rider♥

Thanks again for stopping by and for the wonderful comments you all leave. I'm sorry that I haven't had time to return the favor, but am hoping things slow down a bit for me in July after I return from vacation.

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:

Crafty Catz - Embossing

Cardvarks - Wet or Dry Embossing

Glitz and Glitter - A Challenge for You!

Do we ever have a fun challenge for you this week at Fairy Fun Friday. It's all about glitz and glitter so get your bling on and come on over! It's that easy - no special image to use or sketch to follow - just bling it up to your heart's content. You can win 5 free images from the Prairie Fairy.

Here is my glitzy card to share. It uses the darling Tip Toe Fairy image from Prairie Fairy. Isn't she sweet? I'm not usually big on over-glitzy cards, but I have to admit I had fun with this one and like the way it turned out. It has just enough vintage appeal to please me. The paper is K&Co. and is glittered. I used a base of Groovy Guava and layered a piece of Very Vanilla over it which I had stamped around the edge with a text stamp and a flourish to give it some interest. I distressed the edges and sponged them with a combination of Frayed Burlap and Grovy Guava ink. The rhinestones are from Prima and I used two Spellbinders dies for the center medallion. Lots of craft foam was used to pop up the many layers. Any questions? Leave them in the comments and then check back to read my response.

Hope you'll join in the fun with us the week at Fairy Fun Friday. And take a few minutes to stop by the blogs of the other team mebers and leave them some love!

♥Lori♥Corry♥Kelly♥Margreet♥Suzi♥Viv♥Hege-Annie♥Ann♥Lisa♥Tonya♥
Terry♥Carla♥Trisha♥

Thanks so much for stopping by to see what I made for Fairy Fun Friday. I so appreciate your comments.

Blessings & hugs

Challenges Entered:

MelJen's - Sparkle, Glitter, Bling

No. 1 Dad

Hello and welcome to my Fabulous Friday post for Sugar Creek Hollow. This week, the DT was challenged to make a Father's Day card. I used the Father's Day set from Sugar Creek Hollow. It's a great set and a great deal - you get four images for $5 at the Sugar Creek Hollow store.

The card stock used here is Really Rust and Mellow Moss. The DP is from the Cosmo Cricket Outlaw pack. I was trying to remember where I got the twine and I think I picked it up at the food pantry I run. I believe it was used to fasten a crate of green beans together - LOL!! I snag anything I think can have a second life on one of my cards. It sure did come in handy to give this card an authentic western feel. I bought those star brads at a LSS when I first stared stamping. They've been hanging aroiund in my stash for at least 10 years and I've used them maybe twice before - not a great purchase, but came in handy here. I used a Spellbinders Nestability for the wanted sign and the poster was printed on my printer and distressed with Frayed Burlap distress ink. I printed the #1 Dad badge on SU gold paper and really wasn't happy with the way it looked, but couldn't really find anything better in my extensive stash so I went with it.

That about wraps up the details on this one. Let me know if you have any questions. Hope you will stop by the Sugar Creek Hollow store and pick up your Friday Freebie. Don't delay, they are only available for a week.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope to see you again real soon!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:

The Shabby Tea Room - Just for Dad

Cards for Men - Father's Day

My Partner in Crafting Crime - Show Papa Some Love

My Time to Craft Challenge - Xtra Special

One Stitch at a Time - Boys to Men

Pixie Cottage - Father's Day and/or sketch

Paper Cutz - Father's Day

CCEE Stampers - One for the Males

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Father's Day

Cherish Today

Good morning to you! I'm so glad your here today to see what I have made for Isabella's Sketchbook challenge. This week we have a sketch for you to follow. You can use any colors or theme, as long as you use an Isabella's Sketchbook image and follow the sketch. If you don't have an Isabella's image, check out the store. There is a free digi offered for you to use in the challenge. Or better yet, invest $3 and buy one of the many beautiful images she has for sale.


I chose to use a digital image called Girlie Apron and digitally paper pieced it using the Flour Sack digital paper pack from Raspberry Road Designs. Digital paper piecing is just the coolest thing ever. No more cutting and gluing teensy tiny pieces of DP. Just a few copy and pastes in my PhotoShop Elements and then print it out. The border punch used is from SU and the Spellbinders die is Labels 5. The ribbon color is Old Olive so I sponged the die cut panel softly with Old Olive to break up the whiteness. Oh, and the faux milk cap is from Jennie Bowlin.


I'm so glad you stopped by today. Now why don't you head on over to Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge or to my fellow DT members' blogs.

♥Annika♥Cec♥Diana♥Jackie♥Jennifer♥Linda♥Lisa♥Peggy♥Peri♥Randi♥Sharon♥Sue♥Viv♥


Any questions? Please leave them in the comments section and then stop back by to learn my response. Thanks again for coming by.


Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:
Aly's Sunday Challenge - Sewing
Creative Imaginations - Sewing
If the Shoe Fits - Down on the Farm
Stamp Something - Use a Digital Image
Incy Wincy - Paper Piecing

Sweet Baby Girl

Hello and welcome to my Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge Blog post. Sadly, this will be my last one with the team as I have stepped down. It was my decision, but it still makes me sad. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the team, but I had taken on too many teams and deadlines and something had to give.

This week the challenge is to make a card for a baby. I noticed that the entire team and one of the guest designers chose pink. I guess we all love those girly girl type of creations. Mine uses a darling image from Isabella's Sketchbook, DP from Raspberry Road Designs and gingham from Pink Petticoat. It's a digital bonanza! The image was colored with Copics, the edges sponged with Creamy Caramel and the sentiment computer generated. A Martha Stewart edge punch was used as well as the Swiss Dots embossing folder for the Cuttlebug. I feel like it's a little too washed out with all the pinks, but other than that I really like the way it looks.

Hope you will stop by the other Creative Inspirations designers' blogs and play along with our babies challenge. Thanks so much for making a stop at my blog today and for the lovely comments you may leave.

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:

Allsorts - Inspiration - Strawberries & Cream

A Spoonful of Sugar - Floral Delights

The Crazy Challenge - Distress It

Mojo Monday - Sketch

Res-Q-Challenge - Close it Up (stitching)

Sentimental Sundays - New or neglected stash (new image and new digital paper)

Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Make a hand made embellishment

Alphabet Challenge Blog - F is for Flowers

Creative Cottage Challenge - Going Pink

Creative Card Crew Thank You Challenge

This fortnightly challenge at the Creative Card Crew is to make a thank you card. I went with soft colors and shabby style for this one. The DP is Melissa Francis and the gingham is from The Pink Petticoat. All edges were roughed up and sponged with Creamy Caramel. I don't remember where the velveteen ribbon/trim is from, but it matched the Sage Shadow CS very nicely. The stamped image and sentiment are from Verve and the fabric flowers came already made up in Jo-Ann's trim aisle. I colored white pearls with my Copics.

Sorry for the short post, but my Internet is problematic and I'm trying to get this up before it goes out again. I'll be back later to flesh out this post. Til then, thanks and hope to see you again soon.

Blessings & hugs,

Beach Days!

We're kicking off a new month at Our Creative Corner and yours truly is the hostess. I set up the challenges several months ago and for this week I chose summer inspiration. I've had a look around the blogosphere and see that great minds think alike and there are several other similar themed challeges this week. Actually, for the OCC challenge, I am asking you to harken back to the days of your youth and make a card inspired by what summer was like for you back then. Here in the U.S.A., we have summer icons such as seasonal foods (think hot dogs, watermelon and ice cream), activies such as vacations, swimming and summer sports, celebrations such as family reunions, and the list goes on.

I actually had this card/post from last year in mind and wanted to do something similar, something more evocative of my growning up years, but my mojo has been riding me hard all week on the beach theme and it wasn't giving up until I produced one more. You see, my DH and I are getting ready to spend some serious time in Key West this summer starting with a 10 day stint beginning on June 18th. My SIL and her DH have rented a four-bedroom house for a month and we're invited to spend as much time there as we want to - or as much time as we can take off work - LOL. It's only a three hour drive for us so we plan to do the first 10 days and then probably long weekends for the rest of the time. We are super excited. We did this last year and had an absolute blast!! So two weeks from today we'll be rockin' on down to the Conch Republic, the island of beaches, sunsets and Margaritaville.

But enough of my vacation dreaming, I think you probably came here to learn about my OCC DT card for this week. It's the second one this week I have made with Flourishes Beach Life and Seaside Life sets. The hibiscus is from Stampendous. DP is My Mind's Eye Breaking Free. The letters were cut with the Cuttlebug Oliva alphabet dies. Most coloring was done with Copics, but the sea was sponged with SU inks.

Be sure to stop by Our Creative Corner and see what other summer inspired treasures the DT has to get your mojo cranked up. I can't wait to see where it leads YOU this week. We'd also love to have you visit all of our teamies' blogs. Here are the links to make it easy for you.

♥Wendy Jensen♥Dana Grothaus♥Diane Gilbert♥Jennifer Meyer♥Julie LeBlanc♥Sarah Gough♥Lori Rider♥

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you are a wonderful weekend.

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges entered:

Paper Cutz - Vacation Theme

Raise the Bar - Celebrate Summer

Stampin' for the Weekend - Summer/Travel theme

Papertake Weekly - Fun, Fun, Fun

Busy Beauties Creation Station - Anything Goes

Sugar Creek Hollow Blog Hop

Welcome to Linda's stop on the Sugar Creek Hollow Blog Hop. If you came here from Loretta's blog, you are on the right track. For today's hop game, we are asking you to collect one letter from each blog as you go to spell out a word. You will leave the answer on Tracy's blog and on the Sugar Creek Hollow blog.

If you want to begin the hop, your first stop will be on Joan's blog. When you leave here, you will continue on to Kristina's blog. To play and be eligible for the wonderful prize basket which includes a hand-made card from each of the design team members, you will need to leave a comment on each post plus leave the correct word on Tracy's and the Sugar Creek Hollow blog. Have you figured out my secret letter yet?

My card was made with the lovely Vintage Graduation digi set from Sugar Creek Hollow which can be found here. I'm sure you will find many uses for it during this graduation season and in the future.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoy our blog hop. Good luck on winning the prize basket!

Blessings & hugs,

Decorate-a-Bag Challenge

Happy Friday morning to you! If you are wondering what happened to my Sugar Creek Hollow Fabulous Friday post, we have delayed it until Saturday as we are doing a blog hop. That post will be up at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday.

Thanks so much for dropping by my blog today! I have something a little different to share with you. This week, the Fairy Fun Friday challenge is to decorate a gift bag. I really was not looking forward to this project because I didn't have a clue what to do or even where to start. But the deadline was ticking away so I plunged in. I have a whole package of these white lunch-type bags that I purchased a few years ago from SU. Why? Because I have to have everything, I guess. I'm used maybe two out of the whole package but they came it handy for this project. But a white bag? I've resisted buying a Copic airbrush system, but was thinking that it would really come in handy to add some color to all that white. Then I remembered my Mini Misters and Tim Holtz alcohol inks. I used Lettuce and Stream on the bag. Unfortunately one of the misters seemed to come out as a stream rather than a mist so there are a couple of places where the green color is blotchy. In my ribbon stash, I found ribbon that matched perfectly. That's when I relaxed and let the mojo take over. A couple of Spellbinders dies, a Cuttlebug die and an SU daisy punch later and this project was in the bag. The image, of course, is by the Prairie Fairy and can be found here.

Hope you will be inspired to decorate a gift bag and enter into our challenge. Take a look at what the other designers have done and maybe even swing by their blogs to leave them a little love.

♥Lori♥Corry♥Kelly♥Margreet♥Suzi♥Viv♥Hege-Annie♥Ann♥Lisa♥Tonya♥
Terry♥Carla♥Trisha, Guest DT♥

Thanks so much for stopping by today! If you haven't registered for my blog candy, please feel free to do so. The post is at the top of the blog.

Blessings & hugs,

Ice Cream Parlor

Welcome to Wednesday - it's Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge day! It's a black and white challenge (yeah, two in one week - LOL!). So glad you came by today to see my design team sample. For this challenge, it's okay to use color on your image, but everything else must be black and white. As always, you must use one of Isabella's images to enter.

While I was noodling various ideas for a black and white card, the image of the black and white checkerboard tiles of an old style ice cream parlor came to mind and I remembered this charming ice cream image (Hot Fudge Sundae) from Isabella's Sketchbook. That was enough to shift my mojo into high gear for this creation. I took it and ran. I created the checkerboard and stripes on my MS Publisher program by inserting a table. I added lines and columns and then filled every other one with black. For the strips, I started with columns and only one line - but I made that line several inches deep. Then I filled every other column with black. Easy peasy - took about 10 mintues to create and print my custom "DP". I used three different Martha Stewart border punches plus a Cuttlebug embossing folder plus the checkerboard panel was cut with a Spellbinders die. The image was colored with Copics.

I seem to be into making scenes these past two weeks. Last week it was a tea shop, yesterday a tropical beach scene and today an ice cream parlor. Don't know what's gotten into me - sometimes my crafting just takes on a life of it's own and I just follow along behind.

I hope you will stop by Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge and check out what the rest of the team has created in black and white. There are some wonderful pieces of art there. And while you are at it, stop by the other DT's blogs too and check out all their wonderful masterpieces!

♥Annika♥Cec♥Diana♥Jackie♥Jennifer♥Linda♥Lisa♥Peggy♥Peri♥Randi♥Sharon♥Sue♥Viv♥

Thanks for stopping and for your kind and encouraging comments. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments and stop by later to read my response.

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:

One Stitch at a Time - Something New

Bee Crafty - Something New

Doodle Palace - Retro Theme

MelJen's - Dry Embossing

Lazy Beach Days

Whoohoo!! Summer's here in all its glory and it's time to hit the beach! So this week at Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge Blog we are challenging you to make a beach inspired card. Can't wait to see all the wonderful entries that will be rolling in!

I used two Flourishes sets to make my DT card: Seaside Life and Beach Life. I really love both of these sets!! The shells were stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black on Flourishes card stock and colored with Copics. They were trimmed out and coated with Crystal Effects. I also used the shells to stamp around the perimeter of the Soft Suede layer in Versamark and then clear embossed them for texture. The DP is from the K&Co. Sea Glass stack. I bought it a year ago and hardly used it. Now I've used it twice in the past couple of weeks - great DP!!

I layered the Soft Suede and the DP together, stitched around the edge and then cut a window with the Labels 1 Spellbinders die. Then a frame was cut by taping the die used to cut the window and the next larger size together, being very careful to make sure the gap was equi-distant all the way around. This configuration was used to cut a frame in the Soft Suede.

I used Dusty Durango for the outer shell and the inside window because I thought it mimicked the firey ocean sunset. I cut a piece larger than the window and embossed it with the Cuttlebug Moroccan Screen EF and layered the serene ocean scene over it. The beach sign was made with some Cosmo Cricket DP that looked like wood. I stamped the sentiment in Vintage Photo Distress Ink and mounted in on a toothpick (coated with Vintage Photo distress ink too).

So, what do you think? I told the other designers on the team that I couldn't decide if I liked it or if it was an over-the-top mess. But is was a lot of fun to make so I guess that redeems it no matter what anyone else thinks - right?

Now it's time to hurry on over to the Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge blog to see the other wonderful creations from the design team members.

Thanks so much for stopping by to see what I made for Creative Inspirations this week. I love to know who is visiting so leave me a little comment if you have time.

Update: A reader asked about the fishing net - did I purchase it or make it. I made it - LOL! I looked all over for one to buy, couldn't find one and resorted to tying string together to make one. And wouldn't you know it. I was in Marshall's yesterday and they had a little bundle of shells all tied up in a pretty little net for $1.99. Of course, I snatched it up so I'm set for next time! Thanks for asking.

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges entered:

Chrisma Cardz Challenge - Going Around in Circles

Whimsical Wednesdays - The Diedrich Dare - Summer Inspiration

Everybody Art Challenge - Summer

Papertake Weekly - Fun, Fun, Fun

Tuesday Taggers - Touchy, feely texture

Pixie Cottage - Use metal and/or sketch (mine has metal)

The Pink Elephant - Gotta Wear Shades (bright colors)

Cupcake Craft Challenge - Summer Inspired

Perfume From Paris

I am so excited to be the featured guest designer at City Crafter Challenge Blog this week. It's a wonderful weekly challenge that has only been around for a few weeks, but already they have a large following - most likely because they have a group of extremely talented designers on their team, have great challenges, wonderful featured guests and great prizes. What more can one ask for in a challenge blog?


This week their sponsor is Digi Doodle Shop and they were kind enough to give me a free digital image to work with. I chose the Perfume from Paris set, which actually has three gorgeous perfume bottles. I wanted to to a Paris collage so there was only room to use one, but I was so happy with the way it looks when it is colored. I used a Versamark pen to add some gold embossing and also painted the entire bottle with a mixture of LuminArte Metallic Mica Luster Pearl powder mixed with Simple Solutions Medium Acrylic solution. It paints on a lovely shimmer. The bottle was colored with Copics.


I also used a stamp from SU's Gentler Times set to clear emboss around the Chocolate Chip outer layer as well as to emboss in gold on the flap of the envelope I made. The DP is from SU's retired LeJardin paper pack. All of the ephemera was obtained from various free vintage image sites that you can find listed along the right side of my blog. I printed them on my printer and aged them with various distress inks. The beautiful brass flower button is LaMode from Jo-Ann's and I've had the French Blue crinkle ribbon in my stash for several years. I've been looking for more since then and am so delighted that it has now become readily available.

That's it for this fun little card. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks so much to the ladies at the City Crafter blog for inviting me to be their guest designer this week. And thank you for stopping by to check out my latest post. I sincerely appreciate your visit and if you are so inclined, please register for my blog candy by leaving a comment on the top post on my blog.

Have a great week!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges entered:

Digi Doodle Shop - Anything Goes

Lucy's Cards - Use a Digital Image

Quirky Crafts - Girly Girl

Tuesday Taggers - Touchy, feely texture

Just a Note

Happy weekend everyone! I'm so glad you took a moment to stop to see what I have made for this week's Our Creative Corner challenge. This week it's a complex challenge: colors black and white with texture and a bonus - sentiment only, no stamped image. So here is what I came up with. I had planned on doing a sentiment only, but somehow I gravitated toward this silhouette set from Stampin' Up! I think it is so cool to do positive and negative with this set. I decided against dry embossing which would have added a lot of texture because the DP is so busy. I think it has plenty of texture without embossing. The image panels are popped up on craft foam, the vintage corners were cut from cardboard and embossed with black EP so they are thick, plus the pearls add texture. The vintage corners are a Cuttlebug die, the image panels were cut with Spellbinders Labels 3 dies. the DP is from a digital company I recently discovered - Pink Petticoat. The black image was stamped with Mememto Tuxedo Black and the white with SU white kraft ink and then embossed with white detail EP. The white EP gives sort of an orange peel texture which I don't dislike, but is a little different. A Martha Stewart border punch was used to create the paper lace that runs diagionally. The white and black pearls are from Kaiser.

Did you notice that I didn't stitch or distress this card? Quite a departure from my normal style, but I thought it was busy enough without stitching and I didn't distress because I wanted the sharp contrast of the black and white.

Here are the design team members for Our Creative Corner along with a link to their blogs. I hope you will take the time to stop by and let them know how much you enjoy their work.

♥Wendy Jensen♥Dana Grothaus♥Diane Gilbert♥Jennifer Meyer♥Jocelyn Turner

♥Julie LeBlanc♥Loretta Lock♥Sarah Gough♥Lori Rider♥

Be sure to stop by Our Creative Corner and enter your black and white with texture card in this week's challenge. I'm looking foward to seeing what you have made!

Thanks again for stopping by. Wishing you all a wonderful Memorial Day weekend if you are celebrating it and for all others have a happy and safe weekend too!

Note: A reader asked which SU set this is. It's an old, old set called Vintage Postard.

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges entered:

One Stop Craft Challenge - Swirls and pearls

Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge - Make a silhouette card

A Fairy Fun Friday Inspiration Challenge

Good morning and welcome back once again on this Fairy Fun Friday. I'm so glad you dropped in to see what I have made for this week's challenge because I really love the way this one came out and was excited to share it with you. Please stop by the challenge blog to check out the inspiration and what the other designers have to offer. When you look at what the others have done, you will see that I was the only one who intrepeted the bright color in the inspiration photo as red. Everyone else used orange. I guess because red is my favorite color that I just automatically saw red when I looked at the photo.

We'd love to have you stop by the blogs of the other designers and leave them some love too! Here's the line up:

♥Lori♥Corry♥Kelly♥Margreet♥Suzi♥Viv♥Hege-Annie♥Ann♥Lisa♥Tonya♥
Terry♥Carla♥Trisha, Guest DT♥

This is my first attempt at using the distress inks to watercolor. I haven't watercolored much in the past so I am encountering a learning curve, but I am reasonably happy with the way this one turned out. It was my second attempt. With the first try, I didn't let the piece dry long enough between colors and I had some bleeding/running together of the colors. The image is a digital image from The Prairie Fairy. (As a side note, Roberta is coming out with some fabulous new images, one of which she has used on her DT card today.) I wanted to start watercoloring digis, but one of the problems I have had with digis is that when I apply the watercolor the printer ink runs. Roberta came up with a wonderful fix for that issue. (See her post here.) Using the gray tone helps prevent the running problems AND looks so much more natural. I printed my image with light gray lines and used Tim Holtz distress inks to color it.

I used this week's Mojo Mondays sketch, Very Vanilla CS with Antique Linen sponging/distressing. I don't know who made the bottom layer of DP because a friend gave me a few sheets of DP that she didn't care for and this was one. I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder and a Spellbinder Label 5 die. The black DP is digital from The Pink Petticoat and was printed on my printer. The sentiment was also printed on my printer and cut with the Spellbinders Label 5 die. The black pearls are from Kaiser and the bead caps were purchased on eBay.

I think that about wraps up the details on this one. If you have questions, please leave them in the comments and I will post a reply here in this post. Thanks os much for stopping by and for your lovely comments. Don't forget to leave a comment for my 30,000 hit blog candy!

Note: A reader asked which Spellbinders label die I used - it was the Label 5 set and I updated my post above to reflect that. Thanks for asking!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges entered:

Crafts and Me - Distressing

Just Us Girls - Wild Card Dry Embossing

Mojo Monday #140 - Sketch

Kicking Off Our American Summer

Hello! Thank you for stopping by. I'm so glad you are here!

I seem to be in a very patriotic mood approaching this Memorial Day weekend. I think summer always puts me in that mood and this weekend will officially kick off our American summer. I'm looking forward to a barbecue, swimming and watermelon this weekend. What are your plans?

I made this card for Fabulous Friday at Sugar Creek Hollow. The DT challenge this week was to make a recessed window card. I started by assembling the designer paper (Melissa Frances/Stars and 7 Gypsies/Strips), the white CS and the border punched strip. I machine stitched around the outer edge and then used a Spellbinders Nestability to cut the circle. I had to use a shim and run it through the Cuttlebug three times to get it to cut all the way through. I applied two layers of craft foam to the back of the front panel to make a fairly deep recess. I took the cut out circle, rotated it 180 degrees and glued it to the front of the card. Then I layered the front panel over it. The cute little primitive angel is a digital image from Sugar Creek Hollow. I digitally paper pieced the gingham dress, colored the rest with Copics and blinged up her wings, heart and belt with Stickles. I thought the rolled flower and wood heart button were in keeping with the primitive theme I had going, but wanted something more. I kept thinking fireworks but couldn't figure out how to make them. I had the red paper and flourish die on my work table from a card that you will see tomorrow and though the flourish could give the impression of fire works. I added a little red stickles for firework bling.

Now that you know all about my card, I enourage you to stop by the Sugar Creek Hollow blog and see what the rest of the design team has come up with. I promise you won't be disappointed. And be sure to stop by the Sugar Creek Hollow store and check out this week's Fabulous Friday Freebie.

Thanks for stopping by! Please drop back by later this morning to see the card I have made for Fairy Fun Friday.

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:

No Time to Stamp - Flying High & Proud (colors of your country's flag - obviously mine is USA)

Charisma Cardz Challenge - Going around in circles

Pixie Dust Studio Pixie Challenge - Going round and round