Scrappy Sunday Challenge

I am so loving the Stamin' Up! My Digital Studio.  What I love about it is that you are not limited to just Stampin' Up! stuff.  You can add your own digital backgrounds or embellishments that you get from other companies too.  It's awesome!  

Here's the sketch for this Scrappy Sunday Challenge over on PCP. 

 

Here's my layout.  

I'm finally scrapping my trips and vacations. 

Easy Paper Basket

 

And yay!  My video is featured on Paper Craft Planet's newsletter!

You can read it here.   It has a lot of great stuff in it!

AiFactory Challenge # 25 Recipe Cards

 

In this weeks AiFactory challenge we were given recipe cards to work with.  I thought oh geez, I hate to cook!  So I had to figure out the next best thing.....Food Network!  I do cook some but not by choice, it's by survival and my waistline tells me so!  So on to the challenge and not my weight issues :)

 

The recipe cards are awesome!  They are cute and fun and easy to print and cut.  You can find them at the AiFactory store.  I copied the image to a Word Doc and then placed the text onto the card and ta da a recipe!  Since I had picked my favorite (ok, the Food Network favorites) picnic recipe's I thought I would put them in a little straw cardstock to keep them handy.  I actually might try them, they sound easy and delicious!  Here is my creation:

  

  

  

  

  

So come on over to the AiFactory challenge and submit your favorite recipe!  The images don't have to be AiFactory but there are freebies at the store.   We have a great community to visit too.  It's a place to share ideas and inspiration. 

If you need help finding ideas visit the other design team members blogs too:

Angie

Carlie

Carole

Cheri

Erin

Fink

Fliss

Kerry

Laurie

Lola

Michelle

Penny

Thanks for stopping by!
Here's a picture of the recipe cards we used:

Associated Content Wrote An Article About Me!

 It's not everyday that someone wants to interview you for a article on your crafting. 

But someone wanted to interview me! It's exciting! 

Thank you Leslie for a wonderful interview and a great article!  

I appreciate it so much!

Quilling is Thrilling! Who Knew Little Scraps of Paper Could Be So Much Fun?

Interview with Monica Bergeron, a renown quiller.

Read More
Here's the article in it's text form.  Visit the above link for the complete article.

It's not quilting, it's quilling! That's the first thing Monica Bergeron has had to tell many people who've never heard of her craft. She says she even has to spell it out to these poor souls, but she is quite amused by their troubled expressions and enjoys explaining to folks that quilling has nothing to do with fabric, needles or thread but instead is an art performed with strips of paper that are rolled into coils, glued, and then formed into shapes.

Many things amuse Monica Bergeron, and this joy carries forward into her art, her teachings, and her websites. Monica, from what I can see, is one of the nation's premier quillers. She modestly described winning a recent competition sponsored by Lark Books - a leader in craft publishing - for a quilled card she created. However, her focus doesn't appear to be on competitions. Instead, she likes to use her talents to encourage and teach others and to create new and unusual items.

Monica first began quilling at the age of seven when her mother gave her a kit to make a quilled owl. Monica took to that owl as a duck takes to water.

"I think my Mother thought it would take me quite awhile to finish the project as she was unfamiliar with quilling. Well it is a time consuming craft but that didn't keep me from taking my time. You couldn't find quilling paper then, you had to buy kits. So I would cut strips of paper and make my own creations. I would use magazines, construction paper and any other paper I could get my hands on. I was hooked on quilling from that day I received that owl kit until today."

Most quillers use their art for scrap booking or card making. However, Monica doesn't limit herself to scrap books or cards. She makes quilled earrings and pendants as well as quilled covered boxes. Quilled eggs are her favorite. "The possibilities on where you can use or place your quilling are endless," Monica states.

Monica teaches quilling classes and maintains four blogs. She started the blogs to provide tutorials to introduce people to quilling and other paper crafts. She has both printable and video tutorials.

What with maintaining the blogs and teaching the classes, how does she get any quilling done? It seems so meticulous! "I roll my coils while I'm watching TV and I have a plastic storage container that has compartments where I store all of my rolled coils. That way they are all ready when I'm ready to create a project. If I'm on the phone I'm rolling coils too, it's just a part of what I do almost daily." She could probably roll coils in her sleep at this point!

I asked Monica what she would say to someone who wanted to start quilling. "I would tell anyone who wants to start quilling to go in in with an open mind and to not get frustrated. It does take practice but if you look at the end result its well worth it," Monica replied.

Looking at her lovely work, I would have to agree, the end result is clearly worth it!

Thanks again Leslie!  I do appreciate it!  Monica 

Scrappy Sunday

This week on Paper Craft Planet's Scrappy Sunday challenge, we had this sketch to use for our scrap layout:

 

I love making cards but scrapbooking digitally has become such a great thing for me!  I just purchased a color laser printer so that I can print right at home and not have to send away for things.  It was a big investment but seeing as how I have about 15 years of things to scrap it will save me money in the long run.  Anyway....here's what I came up with.  I used Stampin' Up! My Digital Studio.  I love it!  I got it from my demonstrator Anne, she's awesome and always answers anything I have questions about.  Thanks Anne!  

My dog Guido is having his 5th birthday soon and since I don't have "real" kids, my dogs are the next best thing.  Happy birthday Guido!

AiFactory Challenge 24 Make a 3D project or card

For this weeks AiFactory challenge we used a calendar from the AiFactory store.  We made them into something 3D.  I made a spiral pop up card for my challenge using the birds in the calendar.  

 

  

Check out the challenge blog and play along and join the AiFactory Community and meet others.  If you have never used or want to learn how to use digi's, then visit for ideas, tutorials and friends. 

You can see the other design teams cards by visiting their blogs too!  

Angie

Carlie

Carole

Cheri

Erin

Fink

Fliss

Kerry

Laurie

Lola

Michelle

Penny

Here's the calendar we used.  It's awesome!
Be sure to visit the AiFactory Store for all things digital.

One World One Heart Winner!

Congratulations to Micki Butler who won my giveaway.  

I can't believe I had over 400 entries in this giveaway!  I gave a 5" Xyron Creative Station!  You an see the original post with all the details here.  Congratulations Micki on winning!  It was nice to visit all the blogs.  There were over 1,000 blogs participating in the giveaways.  I have met some wonderful people along the way.  I am looking forward to it again next year.  Thank you Lisa for creating and hosting such a great event!  See you all next year!

Softpencil Challenge #19

For this weeks challenge over at Softpencil on PCP (oh that's paper craft planet) we had to make a "spring" card.  I know spring is coming, but it's a "spring" card, not a spring card.  Get it?  

Here's my card using a Softpencil digi that I won from the last challenge. Yay! And by the way, your card comes out like crap if you don't cut the corners right. Talk about ruler challenged. I think I need glasses :) And yes I'm still coloring like a 3 year old with my new Copics! And another thing.....if your card stock isn't heavy enough it's a flop card, not a spring card (Shhhhh it happened to me)! I just had some issues making this card. But Ta Da! Here it is!

 

One World One Heart Giveaway!

Comments are now closed.  Thank you to all who entered.  Wow!  Over 400 entries!  The winner will be posted shortly.

Read all about it, I know it's a long post but it's worth the read.
Or watch my video.
There's a giveaway too!

It's a great event with my 2nd year participating.

WHAT IS ONE WORLD ONE HEART?

Lisa created this event in 2007. The original idea behind this giveaway event was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way. 2007 had roughly 85-90 participants and many connections were made because of it......friendships that are still going strong.

There was a strong showing the first year for sure, and then in 2008 had just about tripled that number. In 2009 there were 911 participants and 28 countries were represented in the 2009 event as well.
This is more than wanting to win something.......that is only the means.......in the end it's about finding kindred spirits. Someone who may be fairly new to blogging, not sure how to navigate, find others and have others find them....Some are long time bloggers and in some cases well known in the blogging community. Whatever the case it brings all of them together.

This is an INTERNATIONAL event that has and had participants from the US, Canada, France, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Malaysia, Brazil, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Ireland, England,Wales, Slovenia and more. It transcends geographical location, socio economics, political affiliation, religious beliefs......it's a coming together like the giant community we are on this planet. If only it took a simple giveaway to create PEACE everywhere, in the mean time here we give from our hearts. We are not solving the worlds problems nor are we curing anything nor are we changing the world. We are merely generating a closer community between humans through blogging.

Thank you Lisa for another great event for the chance to meet new people and gain new friends.

So on to what I'm giving away to a great visitor on my blog. Leave a comment to let me know you were here.  I promise to head over to your blog and visit you as well.  My gift is something that I think anyone can use from scrap bookers, card makers and artists as well.  It's a Zyron 5" Creative Station.  I will draw the winning person's name on February 16th and let the winner know via email.  I will ship internationally so anyone can join in on the fun.  It's nice to meet you and see you soon!

 

As seen on the Martha Stewart Show . Creates stickers, magnets, labels, and laminate out of almost any item. Simply feed the item in, turn the handle and trim. Applies an even layer of adhesive to items up to 5" wide. Instantly laminates items up to 4.5" wide. Change applications quickly with easy load cartridges.

Includes a 5" wide x 18' long acid-free permanent adhesive cartridge, inspiration sheets and manual. Here's a video to see what it can do, courtesy of Xyron.

Visit my other blog and my other blog for another giveaway too!  Two more blogs to win from!

Thank you again for visiting and I look forward to meeting you soon!

AiFactory Challenge #23 Hearts Hearts Hearts

I first wanted to say how happy I am that I was chosen to be on the design team for AiFactory.  Yay!  There's a lot in store for everyone.  We just concluded our blog hop where someone won a gift certificate to the AiFactory store and the challenges every Thursday are so much fun.   

So on to this weeks challenge.  We are using a digital stamp by Softpencil and she calls it, or them I should say,  "A Lovely Couple".  They are too cute!  I bought my first set of Copic markers and I had a blast coloring with them, I think it's going to be a new addiction.  I hope my coloring gets better though.  Practice practice practice.  Our challenge was to use hearts in our cards.  So here's my card for the challenge:

  A Lovely Couple is a digital stamp designed by Softpencil.  The papers are by Scrap-Ease, The Paper Company & My Minds Eye.  The coloring is done with Copics.  And the ribbon I've had for 2 years is finally put to use! 

Visit the AiFactory Challenge Blog and come join the fun.  The prize given is always something sweet.  You don't have to use a AiFactory Stamp to join the challenge so get going!  Don't forget to visit the AiFactory Store to see all the great digis for sale.  

If you need inspiration be sure to visit our other design team members blogs too.

Angie
Carlie
Carole
Cheri
Erin
Fink
Fliss
Kerry
Laurie
Lola
Michelle
Penny

Softpencil Challenge # 18

Elizabeth started challenge #18 over on PCP and here's my card.  

The challenge was 1 of this, 2 of that and 3 of those. 

Visit the Softpencil group on PCP and play along too.

It's A AiFactory Meet The Design Team Blog Hop!

 

 Welcome to the hop!  If you arrived from Lola's blog then you are on the right track!  If you came from somewhere else then start at the AiFactory blog and get hopping.

My card is created using the cute and lovely Ella on cloud 9.  Ella was created at AiFactory where you can find digital stamps, digital resources and illustrations.  It's a great place for anything digital! 

I used a top note die in my big shot and then turned the cut piece around and cut again to get the octagon looking shape that Ella is sitting in.  She's colored with Prisma colored pencils and some Stampin' write markers.  

 

We will be randomly picking one comment from one of the Design Teams Blogs to win a $20 Gift Certificate to the AiFactory store! Whose blog is a secret so make sure you comment on them all.

Drawing will be at 11:30pm EST on Feb 10th, so get going! 

After you have left your comment on my blog, hop over to Fliss's blog next!

February 2010 Artist Of The Month

So I'm a huge Starbucks fan.  I know, some people don't like them for a lot of personal and political reasons.  But when your an addict, then your an addict and personal and political views can't change that.  

So on to who I love for this month's artist of the month.  

O.C. Styles 

She makes the most awesome coffee cuffs!  

Here's a bit about her from her Etsy store:

Growing up around a family full of creative people, I have always been inspired to create, craft and sew.

Being a mom of a beautiful little girl, a cute dog and a wife, I put my creativity to use everyday within my family. My daughter inspires me daily with the way she sees the world around her.

I love to create, sew and craft. I am a fabric maniac!!!

Having such passion for the beautiful and creative things, OC Styles brings all of these together to create unique, stylish, gifts for everyone.

 

  

 

Visit her store for other great handmade things too!