A "Bloggy" Break

Hi crafty friends!! Hope you are enjoying a restful weekend!

I am going to be taking a short "bloggy" break and I am hoping to "unplug" from my computer. I will be turning the computer off tomorrow and I hope to leave the crafting world behind...for a few days anyway. I am pretty tired. 

I will be around, just not on the computer! 

Just wanted you to know... *smiles*

Also, my blog has a bunch of posts scheduled to go live (fingers crossed that they do!) but I will not be answering emails.

Hope you all have a great week and I will catch up with you all soon...

Sweet Stamps "How To Start a Card"-Post #1

Good morning!!! Ack! I am really excited because today is my first design team post over at the Sweet Stamps Blog.  Today I am sharing, how I start a card design...going from a blank canvas to a completed card! 

I hope you can stop by to see my post...I am sharing all the measurements of my card too...it was a fun post to write, I hope you will enjoy it.

Please CLICK HERE to see my post...thanks!

Gallery Idol {Final Challenge} A Christmas Collection

On Friday afternoon, I found out that I indeed did make it into the Top 5 at Gallery Idol. Whew! I have to say, this whole experience has been amazing and I had SO much fun this weekend, making my 4 different cards. 

Here was the challenge I found out about on Friday afternoon:

And now it’s time to announce the theme of round 5! We would like our five contestants to make four color-coordinated cards in four different styles! (Contestants, you can either photograph these all together in one shot or make a collage image.) To help with the concept of different card styles, you may want to consult our special issue, Card Style! 

Wow! 4 different styles of cards but all in the same colour. I quickly got access to the Online content of the card styles (thanks Amy T and Virginia) and I decided to choose Freestyle Collage, Clean & Graphic, Fun & Cute and Classy & Elegant.

I have used the colours Red, Black and White! My cards are all Christmas themed cards but they are all in the different styles mentioned above...here is the breakdown and my explanation of each card:

Card #1-Peace on Earth {Freestyle Collage}

The Freestyle Collage card is characterized as a card that uses:

• unrelated elements in a collection

This is my favourite style!! I love the idea of mashing all of these unrelated elements together to make a Christmas card! The burlap, the cork heart pin, the die cut circle, the french script font and the simple sentiment. I think this new style of card making is very cool and I am happy with my card. I hope you like it too!!!

Card #2-Santa Owl! {Fun & Cute}

The Fun & Cute card is characterized as a card that uses:

• bright colours
• sweet sentiment
• uncomplicated design
• whimsy
• polka dots
• punny sentiment
• playful

You can also use shapes like stars and hearts. And gingham patterns. Basically, this card should be fun and playful! I hope you like my take on HO-HO-HO!!! I just love Owls!!

Card #3-Most Wonderful Time of the Year {Clean & Graphic}

The Clean & Graphic card is characterized as a card that uses:

• clean lines
• simple treatment of text
• no frills
• bare boned
• message is communicated quickly

This was the first card I made, and so my colours were set for the other cards. 

Card #4-Merry Christmas {Classy & Elegant}

The Classy & Elegant card is characterized as a card that is:

• polished
• shiny finish
• sparkling embellishments
• rich colour scheme
• sophisticated sentiments
• regal
• sweeping
• dramatic
• monochromatic
• layered textures
• awe
• impress

I decided to ink up a stamp from Flourishes that I love and coloured the poinsettia with my Copic Markers. When I think of classy and elegant Christmas cards, I think of Music Notes. I also embossed the background with a damask design but it difficult to see in the photo. 

So those are my 4 cards made with the 4 styles!! I hope you like them and will vote for me!

I hope you like my Round 5 Cards for Gallery Idol. 

If you would like to vote for my card or for any of the participant's cards, 

please CLICK HERE to vote!!!

Merry Monday #68

Wow! Where did the month go! June is almost past and with it going, we have to say goodbye to our wonderful Featured Designer Debbie Marcinkiewicz! Thank you for all of your hard work, Debbie! We have really enjoyed having you craft with us!!!

I have no card to share this week! I am so sorry! I had a great weekend though, planning and creating my final 4 cards for Gallery Idol! I did make it into the Top 5 and we were challenged to make 4 cards. Lots of work but SO much fun!!! I will be sharing them on my blog this afternoon, I hope you can stop by!

My dear friends and amazing design team have come up with such awesome samples with my sketch!!! We hope you will join in the fun and play along!!!

Welcome to our Guest Designer this week Anja Curvers! She won our challenge a couple of weeks ago! Would you like to be a Guest Designer? Be sure to play along, as our weekly winner is our next Guest Designer!

Allisa Chilton

 
Bonnie Klass

LeAnne Pugliese

Nina Forsyth

Wendy Aungst

Narelle Farrugia

Sue Joyce

Sherry Eckblad

Margaret Moody 

Debbie Marcinkiewicz (FD)

Anja Curvers (Guest Designer)

Merry Monday Winners!

Another amazing week at Merry Monday!! 

Our TOP PICK for the week is:

Marcia Hill

Congrats, Marcia! We hope you will join us as our Guest Designer for Monday, July 1st. Please email Sherry at seckblad@aol.com. Be sure to put "Merry Monday Guest Designer" in the subject line.  

And our Honourable Mentions were voted on as well, if you received a vote from a design team member, your card and link is below. Congratulations! We hope you will display your badge with pride! If you are viewing this in Google Reader, you may have to visit the blog to see the actual cards that are linked below.

Exciting & Happy News!!! {SRM Stickers Design Team}

Good morning! 

I hope you will return later today to see my 

Gallery Idol Round 5 submissions at 2pm (PST). 

Wow, what an exciting day!! Today I have three important posts to share with you!!! The first being right now! 

I am proud and absolutely delighted to be designing for SRM Stickers! Hooray! 

Susan, the owner, has such an array of stickers to play with! I love them and I think you will love them too!!! 

I would like to share some projects I made using SRM Stickers in the past! I am looking forward to sharing some new projects with you soon!

Here is the new team! I am looking forward to crafting with them!

Angélique Jarrier

Angi Barrs

Corri Garza

Juliana Michaels

Latrice Murphy

Laurel Seabrook

Lesley Croghan

Michelle Giraud

Roberta Rosi

Shelly Kurth

Yvonne Yam

Ann Molvik

Tessa Buys

Have a happy day!!!

Top 5 at Gallery Idol

Yesterday morning I announced that I did not make it into the Top 5 at Gallery Idol. I received an email late yesterday afternoon from my stamping friend Sherry Eckblad, congratulating me on being in the Top 5 at Gallery Idol. 

I wondered what she was talking about but then in my inbox, further down was an email from Holly at Paper Crafts Magazine. The email from Holly, instructed me to look at the Top 5 announcement again and so I did. And this is what I saw...

Although this announcement should have been full of joy and happiness for me, it did come with mixed feelings. I have worried all night about what to write, to let my friends and family know of this news. Many of you have been emailing me or writing to me on FACEBOOK, and so I wanted to address it here.

So I am just going to say, how honoured I am to have this chance to compete. Again, I accept the challenge with mixed emotions but will try my best. 

Thank you for your support and love.

Gallery Idol {the cards I didn't share}

Thank you!!! Thank you to everyone who voted for me in Gallery Idol!!! I never thought, in a  million years, that I would have the opportunity to compete in a competition like this. To make the Top 20 was shocking and overwhelming and then to make Top 10...well, that was the icing on the cake!!!

I had a blast, spending time each weekend, thinking up ideas for my next project!!! And the comments of support and the emails I received were lovely and heart warming. What a sweet group of crafting friends I have!!!

I wanted to share my cards that did NOT make the cut for the three rounds I played...

Round 2: Father's Day

This was the card I was going to use, but right after I photographed it, I dropped an ink pad into it. So even though, I had the photo, if I did happen to make it through and my card was to be submitted for publishing...it would not work...with ink all over it. Yes, I nearly wept when that happened as it took a long time to conceive and create this card!!! LOL!

Round 3: Background Stamping

I created two other cards for this challenge. I wanted to cover my background stamping with vellum but in the end, I decided to create a bold card!! Using no vellum. Man, I found this particular challenge very difficult!!

Round 4: 10 Embellishments

This was going to be my more clean and simple card for the 10 embellishment card. I decided to create a fancier version of this...to really stretch myself! LOL!!! I was so pleased with what I created as it was out of my comfort zone. Not something I would usually create at all!!! But that was the fun of this challenge, getting me outside of MY box!! It was awesome and so much fun to challenge myself in that way!!

Thank you to everyone who voted for me!!! And a special thank you to Nicole Rixon of Sweet Stamps, for the shout out on the Sweet Stamps FACEBOOK page!!! That meant so much to me!!!

Merry Monday Reminder

There is still lots of time to play along with our current Merry Monday Sketch Challenge. 

You have until Sunday at Noon (PST) to upload your Christmas card based on the sketch.

To play along, please CLICK HERE.

Sweet Stamp Shop Designer and first Design Team Reveal!!!

If you are looking for the Whimsy and Stars Blog Hop...please CLICK HERE.

Such exciting news to share!! I am on the Sweet Stamp Shop design team and this week we have a brand new stamp release to share with you!!! Sweet Stamp Shop owner, Nicole Rixon, has created 3 new stamp sets for June and YOU WILL LOVE THEM!! 

Before I share my projects, I wanted to let you know that:

Today and tomorrow ONLY enjoy 20% off the new releases - use coupon code NR20.

Wheely Like You


Spin


Admit One

There are three sets to be released today, and I am featuring TWO of them called Wheely Like You and Spin. 

My first card features the Spin stamp set! I just adored the fun sentiments and decided to create a card which featured some of them. The fan was stamped in the side of the panel, and coloured with Copics. Wouldn't this be a SWEET congratulations card!

I am entering this card into the following challenge:

Created With Love - W, 3E, C10 - Your Favorite Things (Washi Tape, Pearls, Fun Papers)

My second card for the day, I featured the fun Wheely Like You set!! There are so many neat elements to this set and I knew right away, I wanted to create a card with some whimsy...hence my pattern paper choice!! I was also inspired to create something summery. I added some peach coloured baker's twine and I used some black grosgrain for the "flags". Adding twine is a fun way to add a little "fun" to your card! My sketch came from the Clean and Simple Challenge blog.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Clean and Simple Sketch

Ribbon Carousel-Fun in the Sun

Artistic Inspirations - W, E3 - Ribbon or Twine

The design team:

Nicole Rixon

Jessica Kephart

Kristen Foreman

Tracy Gruber

Danielle Pandeline

Jennifer Stricker

Lesley Croghan

Jessica Pascarella

Michele Duffy

Dannielle Robeson

Tenia Nelson

The amazing design team has created such vast and inspiring projects to share with all of you!!! It is wonderful to see all the different styles represented!  Be sure to visit our Sweet Stamp Shop blog to see all of the awesome RELEASE DAY samples, shared by the team!!!

And don't forget!

Today and tomorrow ONLY enjoy 20% off the new releases - use coupon code NR20.

Sweet Stamp Shop Blog