AiFactory Challenge - Halloween Sentiments

Good morning! It's that time of the week again and we've got a colour challenge this week! The team is using the Haunted Tags & Quotes set, and everyone is trying to do something a little different. We hope we've succeeded in giving everyone some good eye candy to look at. If you want some real candy, feel free to Trick or Treat at my house on October 31 - but remember, I live in military housing and it's generally only allowed from 6-8pm.

Here are the colours Erin chose for our challenge this week.
In keeping with my party theme of last week, I decided that we needed some wine glass charms. Yup - time for the shrink plastic! If you haven't played with this since childhood, do yourself a favour and give it a whirl. It's fun!I had a little trouble with some of the printer colours, but overall, they came out pretty cute. Next time I won't use memory wire and I'll get some bigger beads for the sides, but sometimes you just use what you've got.
A couple quick notes - eldest son cut the memory wire for me. That was a big not-gonna-happen when I tried myself. Also, when you're recovering from tendinitis, don't decide that a project requiring lots of cutting and manipulation of jump rings is a good idea. It's not.

Now that you've had your moment to laugh at me for the day, head over to the rest of the AiFactory team and see what they've got to show for this week's challenge. The AiFactory challenge blog has all the deets.

Friends with Flair - week 3

Why is it that when you most need your internet connection, the whole thing goes kablooie? Mine shut down yesterday afternoon and I just got it back - nearly 15 hours later.

This is just a little CAS card using the bicycle image from the August '09 KOTM "Following My Heart..." It's a sweet set and this is one of my favourite images from it. It reminds me of a bike my grandparents had when I was growing up. Because the base of the card is so dark, I used the same light blue to line the inside and the patterned paper to accent the inner edge. I don't often do much to the insides of my cards, but I do really like how they look, so I may start doing it a lot more often.

Unity has come up with a new thing called "Who Does That?" They're as crazy as always, and have released 17 new kits and singles this weekend. Yesterday, someone won 551 stamps!

Who does that??

To see what else they've been up to, check out their blog. There's also a list of the other Friends with Flair participants - and I know they're just waiting to share their creations.

Have a great day!

Mary Travers

Earlier this week, Patrick Swayze passed away from pancreatic cancer, one of the nastiest cancers out there. Today we have lost a legend, this time from side-effects of a bone marrow transplant. Mary Travers, along with her partners, Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow, brought me many hours of pleasure through music. She fought for civil rights and against war. She was never afraid to speak out.

Mary, we hate to see you go.

AiFactory Challenge #3

Good afternoon peeps. Yup, the wrists are still taking a toll, but it's getting better.

This week our challenge is to make a Halloween project using this adorable Little Witch designed by Softpencil. How cute is she?? I wanted to do some paper piecing with her, but the wrists got in my way again (darn it!), so even though I have 3 of her coloured, only one of her got cut out. That's okay, though - I'll be ready to make something else with the other two closer to Halloween. I'm thinking maybe little candy bags for the younger girls' teachers?

Anyhoo....one of the things I like to do is to swap mix cds. I get introduced to all kinds of music I never would have heard that way, which I find fascinating. I've "discovered" several fabulous artists, and rediscovered some old favourites, as a result of these swaps. So this week, I made a cd holder. I followed this tutorial on YouTube for the base. I sponged the edges of the paper with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and coloured the Little Witch with Copics. Once she was done, I added some Spica marker to her clothes and the pumpkin's mouth for a little sparkle, because everyone needs a little sparkle.The other side has the opening flap, which is covered with the same sponged polka-dotted paper. I've left room at the bottom for the title of whatever cd I enclose. It's perfect for a mix of Halloween party music.

Head on over to the AiFactory Challenge blog for full deets on this week's challenge and prize.

Once you've done that, please check out the rest of the DT and their fabulous creations.

Annamarie
Ashley
De
Elizabeth
Erin
Kerry
Mia'

Etsy Inspired #52

Hi guys. It's been interesting trying to type or craft this week. I have tendinitis in both wrists - so it takes me about 6x as long to do anything. But...I still got it done! Barely.

Since we got to choose our own shop for inspiration, I went with haveitconfections. Warning - you will likely drool all over your keyboard. I didn't take any particular item as my inspiration. I want the entire shop. I thought, what goes with all of those lovely sweets? Coffee. Thus, my card.

I'm drinking a cup right now. I just wish I had some of the goodies from haveitconfections!

Now, off to do my card for Unity. Have a good one!

Friends With Flair Friday - Week 2

Hey everyone...typing from class...full post will be up later. Please come back to check this afternoon.

Thanks!

AiFactory - Cards for Kate

Welcome to Tuesday and the AiFactory challenge! This week, the whole team is joining a card drive for a sweet, 5 year old girl named Kate who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer at the end of July. Her story and that of the card drive can be found here.

The team is using Sweet Bugs in a Garden and we'll be giving away this cute set, too!

I decided to go all digital this week. I've been doing a lot of digital work for school, so thought it would be fun to see how it went with a card. This is actually my second attempt. I neglected to take into account the ink saturation levels when printing on coloured cardstock - learn from my mistake and keep that in mind!
The only thing on this card that did not come directly from the set was the font, which, for those of you who are in to such things, is called Sybil Green. I thought it was really cute and I matched the colour directly to the orange in the butterfly wings.

So, please, please play along this week. Even if you never do challenges, this is the week. You can win prizes, but you'll also be bringing joy to a little girl and her family. Entries are due for AiFactory's part by September 14. Of course, full deets on the challenge can be found on the AiFactory challenge blog.

Etsy Inspired #51

I'm back again for a quickish post. This week the shop is RedCrowArts. She makes clay pieces and mosaic art. There was a lot to choose from. I had a hard time narrowing it down. Eventually, I chose this cute little stoneware turtle.

I wanted to do something a teensy bit different this week - so I made something I hadn't in a long time. I made an inchie. This gave me a chance to pull out a darling little stamp from Karen Lockhart. Now, if you haven't seen her stamps, they're adorable, and they're one of the things that got me stamping. In fact, the first stamp I bought when I started stamping last year was her Itty Bitty sheep.
Although you can't see it in the photo, this little thing sparkles all over, except for the sand and the tree bark, from green, gold and clear Spica markers. Gotta love 'em! The actual colouring was done with Prismacolor pencils.

A neat thing to do with inchies is to add a little bit of magnet tape to the back of them and stick them to your refrigerator. Having your own bits of art adorning your fridge is a lot more fun than store-bought magnets, in my opinion. They're especially fun to use when putting up your children's art or school awards.

Don't forget tomorrow is the big EtsyInspired Birthday Bash. I can hardly wait!!

First Friends With Flair Friday

Hey everyone!! It's a new month, a new week and a new Friends with Flair Friday. Yup, Hip Hop Hangover is now Friends with Flair Friday and I am super excited to be able to participate!! It did feel pretty weird not to have Hip Hop yesterday, but we are assured that, beginning September 17, something new and wonderful awaits. Besides, much of the internet has been abuzz with the changes in the IDA at a certain other large stamp company.

I'm working on some swaps for Swap-bot, so I made my card for the Vintage Card Swap and used Unity's first Store Kit of the Month, 100% Happy, to make it. The apron image is so cute and my partner loves red, so that's where the card comes from.
Recently I was involved in a swap where we sent butterflies to the Holocaust Museum of Houston's Butterfly Project. These are two of the butterflies I made. One went to the museum and one went to my partner. I sent a few others to the project, but did not photograph them. I used one of the butterflies from Butterfly Beauty.I'll upload these to SCS and put full details there. Have a wonderful day!

Free Uggs? What??

Well, today is turning into a very interesting day. On the one hand, I believe that Stampin' Up! has just seriously shot themselves in the foot. I'm not going to go into that particular rant at the moment, however. Instead, let me point you to this little tidbit, which I read about on Ashley's blog. Whoogaboots is giving away a pair of Uggs.

Yes, you heard me correctly. Giving. Away.

I want a pair of pink ones. I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but I've wanted a pair for about 18 years now. But we've either lived somewhere where Uggs were inappropriate (can you say Texas?) or couldn't afford them. Now we're in a good climate for them and, now that I'm a bit older, my feet are always frozen in the winter. I think it's time for some pink Uggs. Maybe I'll win a pair. Or maybe you will!

AiFactory Challenge

Good morning everyone!

Today is my first morning on the AiFactory Design Team and I am super-duper excited!! There is a brand new AiFactory challenge blog and this week's challenge, while really the third challenge overall, is the first one with a semi-full DT. It's a really easy one, too. Anything goes. It doesn't get any easier than that! Now, of course we'd be extremely happy if you used an image from AiFactory. There are even some AiFreebies to get you started, and you can find them all here.

The prize this week is the Cowboy Digi-set, which the DT is using. You can see the entire thing on the site here. I did add a rubber sentiment to mine, but that's because my card is for our lovely founder and shop owner, Mia'. I think lots of good things will be coming her way.By the way, there is still a DT Call. It runs through Sept. 15, and you can find that info here.