Last Post for 2012 {Cleary Besotted with the Sweet Sunday Sketch}

One last post before the holidays! I will be away from my craft room for a whole TWO WEEKS! EEK! Hopefully I won't go into withdrawal! I am excited to get away with my hubby. I am looking forward to shopping and relaxing. And yes...I will be hitting every stamp and scrapbooking store I can find!

I have wanted to play with Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch for a long time! Tonight I inked up another "Clearly Besotted" stamp that I won a couple of weeks ago! It was such an awesome surprise! I used some designer paper from my stash and some brand new "Simple Stories" pattern paper called Snap Colour Vibe (I lurve this paper)! I have seen a lot of designers use the sentiment cut up in a cute way and I decided to give that a whirl when I saw the tab on the side of Karen's sketch. This sweet little girl is coloured with Copics and then I fussy cut her out, so I could make her stick out of the sketch. I turned Karen's awesome sketch on the side...thank you for the inspiration Karen!

One of my personal challenges this year is to use ribbon more often on my projects! Is it too much here? I also created my card for the following challenges.

Pile It On - Embellishments 

Great Impressions--anything goes

Love to Create--anything goes

Make It Monday--anything goes

To all my blogging pals, have a very Merry Christmas and I wish you all the best for the coming year!

Thoughts of You Warm My Heart {Holiday Spirit}

Tonight I had the chance to play along with the TAWS Challenge! I have never played along with them before and I loved their inspiration photo, especially the vibrant colours! So I picked out one of their adorable digi designs and went to work! I was looking for a clean sketch and found a great one at Retro Sketches. I made this card for a co-worker, who helps me so much in my classroom! She is amazing and loves coffee! This will be a holiday thank you card for her which is perfect for the Ribbon Carousel Holiday Spirit theme.

During the Black Friday Sale a few weeks ago, I took advantage of some amazing deals at the Ribbon Carousel. I bought some Simple Stories "Snap-Colour Vibe" Paper! LOVE it! I wish I had bought two packs! The ribbon is from American Crafts and the Baker's Twine is some I had in my stash! I coloured the cute mug with my Copics. This card came together very quickly!

Merry Monday Winners for our {Any Past Sketch} Challenge

Thank you so much to all of our participants over the past year of sketches! When I started this challenge, it was to build my own stash of Christmas cards and to get myself ahead of the game for the holidays! It has been wonderful seeing all the stunning artwork that you have been sharing! Thank you! And a special thank you to my awesome team of designers, you ladies inspire me!

We wish you all the best for the Holiday Season!

We will be back on Monday, January 7th!

The Top Pick is voted on by the design team. 

This week we chose this stunning card created by:

Jen Nelson

We hope you will join us as our Guest Designer for Monday, January 7th. I will email you with the information soon!

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.

Cleary Besotted and Seize the Birthday

Good morning stamping friends! What a great day I had yesterday! I spent the day getting laundry done, wrapping gifts and I managed to get some cards made! Yippee! I finished my card for the Merry Monday Challenge in January, I finished my Whimsy and Stars Blog Hop card for January 5th and I managed to MAKE a brand new card for the Linky Party I have having at Seize the Birthday! It was a busy day!

Recently I played along with a challenge and I won! I could not believe I had won and the best part was there was a prize from Clearly Besotted Stamps! I won FOUR of their stamps! Now I will admit I had not heard of Clearly Besotted but I MUST tell you, their name is perfect for their stamps. These images stamp beautifully and I LOVED colouring them! I used a sentiment from Stampin' Up that I thought was perfect for this sweet fairy and the birthday theme! Thank you Besotted Stamps for the fun prize!

And some other challenges I would like to enter:

Challenges 4 Everybody - 2W, 3C - Always Anything Goes

Sparkles Forum Challenges -M, 3E, P15 - Anything goes

I will be back on Monday night with our Merry Monday Winners.

Meet the Design Team for "Seize the Birthday"!

Thank you to all of my blogging pals for their support of the new challenge "Seize the Birthday"! I am delighted to be designing for this challenge starting January 10th! I am in desperate need of some birthday cards for my stash! I am excited to be designing with these talented ladies, please be sure to visit the "Seize the Birthday" Challenge blog.

Jen Nelson

Lesley Croghan (That's me)

Lynn Hayes
Rose Miller

Stacey Schafer

There is also a Guest Designer search/Linky Party on right now too for the challenge, please click HERE for more information!

Please visit the blogs of these talented ladies and be sure to LIKE our Facebook page...it would be wonderful to have you join the PARTY on January 10th!

Linky PARTY-Celebrating Birthdays!

Just for fun, I am hosting a Linky Party over at the new challenge blog called 

"Seize the Birthday". 

All you need to do is create a new post on your blog with a birthday card you have made in the past or a newly create birthday card. No back linking please. You may use a card you created in the past but please create a new post for it.

That is all! You are welcome to link up and combine other challenges to your Linky Party post; the more the merrier!

Here are a few rules, so we can all be consistent:

1. Please include the Linky Party Badge, just copy and paste it into your post.

2. Comment on each other's cards and posts...it is Christmas after all and Santa is watching.

3. No back linking please. You may use a card you created in the past but you must create a new post for it.

4. Please include a link back to our "Seize the Birthday" blog.

5. Have fun!

That is it!! This linky party will end on Tuesday, December 18th at Midnight (PST). The winner of our Linky Party will be a Guest Designer for one of our upcoming challenges.

I decided to link up this cute birthday card that I gave to a co-worker! I used a digi stamp from Pink Cat Studios. I inked up this sweet monster with my Copics and had fun using the deckled rectangle nestabilities for a "chewed" look on the card! This is a card I made last year so I am not entering it into any other challenges. I would love for you to share your favourite birthday card you have made in the past or maybe you have a new card all ready to go!

A Confession to Make and an Announcement...

Hello blogging friends! I have a small confession to make...I am a blogging addict! Yes, it is true! I also am addicted to making cards, creating new challenge blogs and making good card making friends online...some might call this a "problem"...I call it JOYFUL!

It has been an amazing year of blogging for me...I have enjoyed working with new card makers with the Merry Monday Challenge SO much! Thank you ladies! I have decided to permanently leave some of my original challenge blogs which I created with the support and guidance of some dear friends. Thank you to Nance Leedy, Jen Mitchell, Jen Timko and Anne Marie Hile for stepping up and taking charge of The Paper Players, Freshly Made Sketches and The Dynamic Duos. I am still behind the scenes as an administrator but have stepped down from designing. I have moved on from Stampin' Up and I am looking forward to an new adventure in blogging.

2013 brings some big changes for me as a card maker, I am excited to be designing for Whimsy and Stars Digital Stamps, I am thrilled to be designing for Merry Monday and now I am equally excited to introduce a brand new challenge called "Seize the Birthday".

I was looking through my boxes of cards and I realized just how lacking I was in birthday themed cards. It was tragic how many "thinking of you" cards I had in my stash! LOL! I seriously needed to get inspired and to go "birthday bonkers"!

So I decided to create a (hopefully fun) birthday card challenge...here is the link to it...

Seize the BIRTHDAY

The party starts on January 10th!!! I will be announcing the team soon.

We are looking for sponsors...if you would like to sponsor one of our challenges, please email me by clicking my little email envelope icon on the top of my blog. We would love to have you!

If you took the time to read all this, I thank you! Some of my best friends I have met through making cards. 

Merry Monday Two Week Challenge {A Year in Review, Any Past Sketch Will Do!}

Looking for last week's winners? Please CLICK HERE.

Although our weekly challenges are finished for 2012, we have decided to have a 2 week "Any Past Sketch" Challenge here at Merry Monday! You are welcome to use any of the past Merry Monday Sketches. 

To see all the sketches, please CLICK HERE.

When you create your post on your blog, please be sure to include the Sketch you used as well as the card you created. I used Sketch #6 and this sweet digital snow gal from Sweet and Sassy Stamps.

{Supplies Used}

Stamps: Sweet and Sassy Digi called "Bundled Up Snowman", Flourishes "Pines and Poinsettias"

Inks: Copics and Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Papers: Echo Park "Happy Holidays" and Retired SU!, Flourishes White Cardstock

Extras: Big Shot, MFT Dienamics Snowflakes, Rhinestone

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

The Paper Players Theme Challenge-Snowmen

Dream Valley Challenges - 2W, 3E - (2nd week) Non-Traditional Christmas 

Crazy 4 Challenges-Snowman Themed Card

The design team has come up with some festive cards to get you in the spirit! You may notice that Vicki Burdick and Margaret Moody are now on our design team. These ladies have agreed to join us for Merry Monday 2013 and I am thrilled to have them both with us! Vicki has made a card for this week but Margaret will be officially joining us in January. Welcome ladies!

Allisa Chilton

 
Bonnie Klass

LeAnne Pugliese

Nina Forsyth

Wendy Aungst

Narelle Farrugia

Sue Joyce

Sherry Eckblad

Vicki Burdick

Margaret Moody 

(Off this Week)

Merry Monday Reminder with a few Challenges

I decided to make another card for the Merry Monday Year in Review Challenge and played along with a few other challenges too! I just discovered the Dilly Beans Challenge...I don't know how I missed them! They have a traditional holiday colours challenge that is on, so I decided to ink up this sweet Bear image from Whimsy and Stars Studios. This bear was a FREE gift was purchase until last night. I couldn't resist it!

The Merry Monday Challenge is on for another week until Sunday, December 16th at Noon (PST). Click HERE to play along. Here is the sketch I chose.

To see all the sketches, please CLICK HERE.

I am also entering my card into the Inspired By Challenge...I was inspired by the colours!

Whimsy and Stars Design Team Blog Hop {With a Prize!!}

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! To get ready for the season, we are having a blog hop to show off all the Christmas and winter themed images available from Whimsy and Stars Studio and to introduce the new Winter 2013 design team! I am so excited to share that I am on the team! Yippee!

If you just arrived from Lesa's blog, you are on the right track!  If not, please start at the beginning of the hop at the Whimsy and Stars Studio blog to make sure you don't miss out on anything. Hop along and leave a comment for each member of the design team.  

The hop will end on Friday, December 7th at midnight EST.  One random winner, to be announced on the Whimsy and Stars Studio blog on December 8th, will be picked from all the comments received to win the Grand Prize of THREE Digi Stamps.

For my first official design team creation, I decided to make a card using the sweet  Felicity Angel Stamp. You all know that I LOVE to colour and so I went to work, using a soft and subtle colour palette for my card, based on the My Mind's Eye Paper Pack called "Portabello Road". I loved the Blue, Kraft and Gray tones of the paper and tried to highlight them with my colouring. I added some Stickles on her dress and wings...to make them pop. I think my friend Ann would be proud of my shabby card!! I did lots of sponging!

{Supplies Used}

Stamps: Whimsy and Stars- Felicity Angel Stamp

Inks: Copics 

Papers: My Mind's Eye-Potabello Road, Flourishes White CS, 

Extras: Big Shot, MFT Dienamics Snowflakes, Rhinestone

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Retro Sketches #40

Come and Get it Challenges-Blue Christmas

Simon says Stamp - anything goes

Wags N Whiskers - Christmas

Young Crafters Unite-Happy Holidays

PIO - Pile on The Embellishments

For the duration of the hop,  Mabelle is offering a special gift with purchase. With any order from the Whimsy and Stars Studio Etsy store, you can select one of two special images, Stocking Ted or Xmas Tag. 

Thank you for hopping with us today!  Your next stop on the hop is the talented Marsha's blog. 

Don't forget to leave a comment at each stop on the hop to increase your chance of winning the Grand Prize!

Here is the entire blog hop list in case you get lost along the way:   

Whimsy & Stars Studio  http://whimsyandstarsstudio.typepad.com/

Cheryl   http://shestamps.blogspot.com/

Christine  http://christinescreativetherapy.wordpress.com/

Debra http://creamcityangels.blogspot.com/

Kathy  http://willstampforwine.blogspot.com/

Lesa  http://punkydoodlepapers.typepad.com/

Lesley  http://www.alwaysplayingwithpaper.blogspot.com/  <<<<<<<< That's Me!

Marsha  http://www.stampingdownsouth.blogspot.com/

Melissa  http://8ers.blogspot.com/

Suzanne  http://sparklingscrapper.blogspot.com/

Tracy  http://iwannabuildamemory.blogspot.com/

Merry Monday Winners for Last Week AND a New Challenge Tomorrow!

Wow! What a terrific week of entries at Merry Monday! Thank you to everyone who joined in and who made another Christmas card for their stash! We are excited to announce our winners but we also want to let you know, we will be back tomorrow, with a 2 Week Challenge with a TWIST!

This week's Top Pick is Martha

We hope you will join us as our Guest Designer for Monday, January 7th. I will email you with the information soon!

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.

Merry Monday Reminder

Just a reminder that our Merry Monday Challenge is on! Come and play along with us! You have until Sunday, December 2nd at Noon (PST) to play. CLICK HERE to link up your card.

Getting my Craft On {Merry and Bright}

Tonight I was in a crafty mood! I went in search of a few fun challenges and decided to get inky! I love the sweet stamps at Totally Stampalicious, they are a Canadian Company which is cool! I am a Canadian too! So there I was looking through some different challenges and I knew I really wanted to challenge myself to make something with lots of layers and embellishments! So I tried my best! Totally Stampalicious has a "Let it Snow" Theme Challenge on this week, so I got out their WINTER BIRD SNOWMAN set and went to work!

{Supplies Used}

Stamps: WINTER BIRD SNOWMAN, Poinsettia and Pine from Flourishes

Inks: Copics, Basic Gray, Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Papers: My Mind's Eye, Flourishes Vanilla CS, October Afternoon

Extras: Pearls, Striped Ribbon, Scallop Punch, Sponge, Nestabilities, Stickles

One sketch challenge I always want to try but have not had the chance to play along with yet is the Deconstructed Sketch. I flipped the sketch and used my ribbon as a flag on the side, not down the side of the front panel. I also added pearls right along the bottom of the card. I really loved this sketch and found that it gave me great inspiration! 

I am also playing along with the following challenges

Creative Card Crew - 2W - #24 Anything Goes

Tuesday Throwdown - #125 Lots Of Layers

Crafty Ann's - 2W, SIO - Week 1, Birds & or Animals (no people or insects)

Some Exciting News {I am on the Design Team for Whimsy & Stars Studios}

Whimsy and Stars Digital and Rubber Stamps

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a design team call for Whimsy and Stars Stamps! I recently have moved on from selling Stampin' Up and have been dreaming of a wonderful opportunity like this, to be able to grow as a crafter!! I am proud to announce that I am on the 2013 Winter Design Team!!! Thank you to Mabelle for this great adventure! Mabelle designs digital stamps as well as rubber stamps. You can find her stamps by CLICKING HERE. 

Thursday, November 29th: Digi Stamp FREEBIE Day! 

From Thursday, November 29th until Saturday, December 1st at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time. You can grab the free digi above! 

Visit Mabelle's blog Whimsy and Stars Stamps for more information!

I made a clean and simple card with this stamp, to match the clean and simple look to the tree! Tuesday, December 4th is the Christmas DT Blog Hop! I am so pumped about this and I hope you will come back and join in the fun! 

{Supplies Used}

Stamps: Whimsy and Stars {Free Tree Stamp}

Inks: Copics

Papers: White Card Base from Flourishes, Echo Park Paper {Season's Greetings}

Extras: Real Red Button, Twine

Isn't that tree adorable! This week, be sure to grab this FREE Christmas Tree Digital Stamp for you to try! It was easy and fun to colour! 

I decided to play along with two challenges:

ABC Challenges - Anything Goes

Creative Stamp Friends - X-mas