AiFactory - Embellishment Challenge

It's Thursday and that means it's time for another AiFactory project. This week we've been challenged to use 5 embellishments. No more, no less. I only squeaked by if you count each of the buttons as a whole entity instead of in their individual parts and if the ribbon doesn't count, since it's a bookmark, and it came with ribbon already - I just changed out the one that it already had.

With those two caveats, my embellishments are the 2 buttons and the 3 dewdrops.

We had a choice this week, and I got to use the darling Sammy Seahorse. Isn't he just the cutest thing?

If you play along this week, you could win the entire release! It's brand new and called Sea Creatures Digital Stamps.

Head over to the AiFactory Challenge Blog for full details. You have until midnight, EST, Jan. 27 to link up your creation. As always, the DT ladies are listed on the left sidebar. Please go leave them some love.

This project is also for:
Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 29 - Buttons
Sew Many Challenges #1 - Anything Goes

Blogging for Baylee with Paper Makeup Stamps

Good morning! If you're looking for my {ippity} hop post, it's beneath this one, but although I wrote this post first, I've switched the order, as I want to make sure this one is seen.

Today I have a very, very special post. Today, Paper Makeup Stamps is releasing a stamp that is both a tribute and a way to help the family of a little girl whose life touched a tremendous number of people during her too-short 13 years.

I met Sonda Tadlock about a year ago through her business, Cup Cards to Go. Sonda's daughter, Baylee, was diagnosed with Leigh's Syndrome at the age of 9 months. Often patients with Leigh's Sydrome do not live past 2 years of age, but Baylee not only lived, she thrived. Unfortunately, tragedy struck a second time and a tumor was discovered in July 2009. Baylee was given no more than 3 months to survive and hospice care was begun.

In December, I was talking to my sweet friend, Ashley Newell. After a discussion where she and I expressed our feelings of helplessness and concern, we approached Katie Cotton about the possibility of a stamp to help. Katie, being the generous person that she is, immediately said yes. She spoke with Diem, the amazingly talented designer of the Beautiful Day Fairy line. This image is the result.
You may purchase this beautiful stamp at Paper Makeup Stamps here. The proceeds will go to the Tadlock family to use in whatever way they may need.

Baylee Rose Tadlock passed away on January 9, 2010.

The Tadlocks have set up a scholarship fund in Baylee's name with Project Ride, a program which give therapeutic recreational horse riding instruction to children and adults with special needs. You can see photos of Baylee at Project Ride here.

I am honoured to be included in this release. I hope you like my card.

Easy Peasy Ippity Hop

Hey there Peeps! This is a really quick, drive by posting to go with my super quick, easy-peasy card.

{ippity} stamps are incredibly versatile. This is not my normal card style at all. For those who know me, please do not be too shocked when you see it. If you check my other post for today, you'll know exactly why I've made it.This uses the Devoted set, which you can purchase from me here.

Check out the {ippity} blog for a full list of hop participants and have a wonderful day.

Cherries!

Hey everyone! I have some news. I've made the Design Team for Scrapbooking and Crafting Friends! This is my first challenge with the group, which is sponsored by MyGrafico.

There are several different divisions for the team. This week I'm working with the Mini Projects Division, and our theme is cherries. I chose to make an ATC. The main image is from MyGrafico's Valentine's Day Stamps set. I printed it out three times on Neenah classic crest solar white and coloured it in with Copics. I cut the leaves and cherries out separately, so that I could add some dimension to the card. The top cherry has 3 layers, where the leaves and the smaller cherry have only 2. The stems are just on the base, which was cut out with an oval nestability, sponged with Fired Brick Distress ink and then I further distressed the edges before placing it on the ATC background.

The main background has cherries and the sentiment, both from Unity Stamps' June 2009 KOTM, Perfect in Every Way, stamped in Fired Brick. The sentiment is also embossed with clear embossing powder.Check out the Scrapbooking and Crafting Friends group. There's a fun group there and a lot of great ideas for projects.

This is also for the following challenges:
Gingersnap Creations #38: Spicy Supply Challenge - embossing
Your Next Stamp: Challenge #7 - embossing
Digital Tuesday: Challenge #41 - emboss it
Die Cuts R Us: Leftovers - the red backing is a piece of cardstock leftover from Christmas cards (not sure it counts as scrapbook paper, but it really was leftover!)

Friends with Sparkly Flair

Hey there, everyone! This is going to be a quick post, since there are a lot of blogs to get through today - and somebody has a blinkie to find. Leave a comment on that person's post and you just might win some random Unity goodness! Good luck in finding the blinkie. I don't know who has it this week.

Check out the Unity blog for a list of all the participants in today's blog hop.

Today's card uses the StampTV sketch challenge (STVSCJH07) and Colour Create's Challenge #36 - Kraft, Blue & White. I finally inked up Spunky Princess, which I've had since Lisa Hetrick designed it well over a year ago to benefit Taylor Jones.
Little Taylor is doing great, and I hope she continues to improve. If anyone can beat the cancer monster for good, I believe it is she.

A Lovely Softpencil Thursday

Hey peeps! I'm back with my second post of the day! This time I have another one of Softpencil's darling Valentine collection digistamps. This one is called Lovely Couple. Don't you just want to squeeze them? I do.

Our challenge was to use one of our favourite sketches. I'm a sketch fiend, so choosing one was really hard! I went with a brand new one from Get Sketchy (#20) because it looked interesting and because I really wanted to stretch myself. The sketch itself wasn't the hard part - combining all the different papers was! I'm not completely convinced of the outcome.Check out what the rest of the team has to show. Everyone is listed on the left sidebar. There's also a Softpencil group over at Paper Craft Planet, where you can play along.

AiFactory is Etsy Inspired with Ella in Love

Hey everyone. Cross your fingers that my computer behaves itself long enough for me to post. For some reason it seems to think that glitching out is the new norm and it's making me just a teensy bit cranky. Doesn't it know I have things to do???
It's Thursday and that means I'll have two posts today. The first one is for AiFactory. There's another new release this week! Yup, that's a good thing, ladies and gents. She's a Valentine's digi-stamp and she's been named Ella on Cloud 9. You can find out all the deets on how to win your very own copy on the AiFactory Challenge Blog.This week, in honour of Valentine's Day, the team is using red and something lacy. I found these cute little heart doilies months ago at Michaels. I actually bought them to use as masks, but this one worked perfectly for my card today.

As I mentioned, she's EtsyInspired. I chose these cute little Valentine's hairclips as my inspiration. Aren't they just darling? They remind me of the little leaves in Ella's hair. I can see her wearing these little hearts instead. Not only that, but the scalloped backing is from this week's EIC sponsor, the Paper Temptress!
It's Iridescent Morphing Mauve, text weight.

Other challenges this card is for are as follows:
StampTV: Blast From the Past Challenge 5 - heat embossing. There is embossing on the sentiment and on a heart stamped inside, which I forgot to take a photograph of.
Daring Cardmarkers: Monthly Birthstone Challenge, Garnet. Garnets are red. The darker red is used for the background stamping as well as the sentiment.
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge: Chalks. Yes, there is chalk over the sentiment. Pebbles.
CBC82: Glitter (the heart, the cloud and her hair doodles all have Spica glitter on them)
Stamp Simply #121: Love is in the Air
Getting Creative with Ann (GCA#73): Love is in the Air

Have a great Thursday!

Winnie's Whims Blog Candy

Okay peeps, you've gotta check this out. Of course, if you win, you must send it to me! (Kidding!)

Patty at Winnie's Whims & My Crafts is offering some of the most amazing blog candy I've seen from an individual blogger. She is giving away a light box with lights and a mini tripod - the perfect set up for taking blog photographs. How awesome is that? In fact, here is the photo she has posted of the candy.
Best of luck to all who enter. She's giving extra entries for comments on any postings between now and January 18 on days when she posts a project if you follow her blog.

EIC Meets GinaK

Hi everyone! I hope you guys had a great weekend. I'm still kicking myself for forgetting that {ippity} hop is on Mondays - not Tuesdays. Next week.

Today, I have a card that is only for a few challenges. The main two are a sketch challenge issued by GinaK Designs for the latest release party and one of my all-time favourite challenges, Etsy Inspired.

For EIC #70, the shop is Skylar's Candy Clips. If you have little girls, you will love this shop. They have the cutest hair clips, pony tail holders, headbands and other hair accessories! It almost makes me wish my girls were younger again. Almost. I chose this headband as my inspiration this week. Aren't the colours pretty? It's from the Mom line, and is for older girls or adults.

The stamps are from GinaK Designs Signs of Autumn and Thanks a Million! sets. This is the first time I've used them. I spent yesterday cutting the stamps apart so I could use them today!

Other challenges this card is for:
Hand Full of Stamps #11: Say it with Flowers - the BG paper has flowers all over it
Frosted Designs: Ink Challenge - I've used chalk ink
Cute Card Thursday: All New - breaking out some new rubbah!
Fussy & Fancy: New - there's that new rubber again
Your Next Stamp Challenge #7: - Embossing - dry embossing with Nestabilities
ABC Challenge: L is for Layers - I think this is self-evident
Splitcoast Stampers Color Combinations #252: Bermuda Celery Hunters (SU Bermuda Bay, Certainly Celery and Hunter Green have all been used)

I'm having a blast trying to get as many challenges into one card as I can. That, in itself, is an extra challenge. One site that has multiple challenges listed is the Pile it On Challenge blog. If you have never tried it, you definitely should!

It's a New Year at Softpencil!

Hey there, everyone! Just a quick post to let you know that Elizabeth has a whole new look for the New Year! She's also moved her shop to a new home! That's right, there is a new Softpencil Shop where you can get your favourite Softpencil images in either jpg or png format. Jpg is standard, but if you prefer png, just make a note in the seller section.

Before I forget, I'd also like to welcome our 6 (yes, six!!) guest designers for January to the team. Check them out and leave them some love.

Tammy
Tami
Catherine Lavoine
Lesley
Stephanie
Catherine

Friends with {ippity} Flair

Wowie, I have been one busy blogger the past few days! I hope you guys like what I've been up to. I'm so happy to be back to crafting. I love going to visit friends and family, but I miss my stuff! Maybe next year I'll figure out how to take along enough so that I can create while I'm gone, but I sure didn't get it right this year!

Now that I'm back, I'm making up for lost time. Not only am I getting to do my regular blog posts, but I'm hitting the challenges. I'm going to make this short, since there are a bunch of blogs to hit today for the FWF hop (all info at the Unity Blog!) and keep the deets after the pic.

Challenges this card is for:
IHHC5 - use buttons
CPS#148 - sketch
Pile it On #30 - Crystal Clear (one of my buttons is clear)
Your Next Stamp #7 - Embossing (the oval, the red strip and the butterfly are all embossed)
Flutter By Wednesdays #91 - New (new stamp & new paper pack), plus butterfly
ABC Challenge - L is for Layering (in addition to the obvious ones, there's an extra butterfly layer)
Color Chef #33 - Monochromatic

Have a marvelous day!

AiFactory - Ella the Book Reader

Hey there Peeps! Today AiFactory is introducing a Brand Spanking NEW digistamp. She is Ella the Book Reader and she reminds me of myself as a child, except I wasn't quite this cute! I did, however, always have my nose buried in a book. Some days I'm still like that, and so are most of my children. My youngest hasn't seemed to have gotten there yet, even though she has been able to read things like The Silmarillion since she was 4. No, I am not kidding! She didn't understand it, but she could definitely read the words.

Anyhoo...back to Ella. You can read all the deets about her on the AiFactory Blog. Also, if you play along with us at the AiF Challenge Blog, you can win her for your very own! So head over and play!Don't forget to check out what the rest of the AiF team has been up to with Ella. Embossing is the theme, wet or dry, and there are some pretty cards to see. Links on the left side!

My card uses the sketch from Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge (MTSC55), and the sketch from Just Us Girls (JUGS14) and the colour scheme from both this owl at Manic Muffin Totes, the shop for this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge (EIC#69 already! Go EIC!!), and Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #21 (soft yellow, light aqua, chocolate and cream).

I'm also following Creative Card Crew's Challenge #42, Distressing (gotta love Core'dinations cardstock for distressing!), Fashionista Friday #15 (Color Your World - there are those Copics again), Fussy & Fancy's New Anything (Ella is brand new today!), and lastly, Pile it On Challenge #29 - Digital. WHEW!!

Be back tomorrow with a Friends with Flair post! Have a fabulous day!!

First Soft Pencil Thursday for 2010

I have been a busy girl the past couple days! Trying to get back into the swing of things after going on vacation is always a little rough, but this week has been extra crazy, what with getting the kids back in school and multiple dental appointments. I don't do dental appointments. Monday I did. And I get to go back twice this month for root canals. Plural. Lucky me!

Ahem.

Well, so anyway, today's dentist trip was for the eldest daughter's orthodontist. She got springs put on her teeth. Yup, she's a happy camper, too.

Today's Softpencil image is this absolutely adorable Valentine image called Two birds and Two Cats. Elizabeth has a whole new Valentine's collection out and you can see it on the Softpencil blog. I just love her artwork. It is so sweet!!

We were challenged to use red, olive and cream or ivory. This is what I came up with.

Since I'm still in multiple challenge mode, the card is also for the following challenges:
Fashionista Friday #15 - Colour your world: Use your favourite colouring method. I used Copics!
Pile it On #29 - Anything Digital! well, 'nuff said.
Fussy & Fancy Friday Challenge #1 - New: use something new. This is a new release! I think it counts. The sentiment (a Valentine's freebie from the Softpencil Papercraft Planet Group) is new to me, too.
HFOS#10 - Thinking about Love. I think that speaks for itself.
And lastly, StampTV's Blast From the Past challenge #4, which was to use a "cheater" bow.

Don't forget to head over to the Softpencil Blog and also to check out what the rest of the Softpencil design team has to share today. We've got a whole new cadre of Guest designers for the month of January. Let's give them a great big welcome and a lot of bloggy love! Links are on the left side.

Have a great one. I'll be back later with my AiFactory post.

A Challenge Card and GinaK Rocks!

Tonight, I have a card that is for a few challenges - and a very sweet lady on Swap-bot. Hi Poggy! This one's for you!!

The first challenge is STVSCJH05 over on GinaK's StampTV. Before I go any further, I need to give a great big shout out to the folks over at GinaK Designs. Their customer service is above and beyond. Seriously.

Deets:
Stamps - GinaK Designs Eclectic Summer
Eclectic Summer Sayings
Ink - Distress Ink Fired Brick
Etc - Vintage Attic Treasures Pearls, Copic Markers R46 & Airbrush
Tonic Paper Distresser, Inkssentials blending tool

The second challenge is SCS's CAS48, which is a Valentine's Day card. I think this one is still fairly clean and simple - which leads to Our Creative Corner's Clean & Simple challenge.

Lastly we have GCA#72 at Ann's Creative Nook, Stamp Something and Stamp Simply #120. All three challenges are to use something new, in celebration of the New Year. The pearls are brand new. In fact, I bought them this afternoon at The Queen's Ink.

Too bad there weren't any embossing challenges. There *was* one to use glitter, but Poggy hates glitter, so I skipped that one! Hope she likes the card...

Silly Hat

Happy New Year!!

This is my first post for the year and I've got just a little something silly to share. My darling middle daughter has a friend boy to whom she wished to give a gift. While we were down in NC over the holidays, my step-dad, Jerry, gave us all baseball hats from one of the properties where he does the landscaping. Hannah decided that her friend would like one of the hats, but that it needed a little bit something added. Turtles, to be specific.

And what does an intrepid crafter do when posed with such a request from one of her children? She stamps!

Now, I've never stamped on a non-flat surface, so it's not gorgeous, but I think it'll be okay for a 13 year old boy. The cool thing is that I got to use stamps and ink pads that hadn't been used before. Gotta love that!! Now I have my entry for this week's Stamp Something challenge and, since the hat is new, it works for GCA#72 at Ann's Creative Nook.

Deets:
Stamps - Unity you + me = happy
Ink - Stazon Teal Blue & Forest Green
Copics - BG09 & G29

We had a fabulous vacation, but I'm awfully glad to be back! I wish everyone a healthy, happy 2010.

Special 50/50

Hey guys. You are all cordially invited to join the 50/50 Digital Stamping Group and the Christmas Block Party!

All the deets are here. If you join, please tell them I sent you.

AiFactory Tuesday - Last Minute Gifts

I think my brain is still on overload. This week, we've been challenged to make something that could be created quickly and that could also be given to just about anyone. Since I've had multiple challenges on the brain (see yesterday's post), narrowing down "something" was harder than it should've been. Once that lightbulb went off, however, I had to stop myself from making more and more of these little goodies so I could take pictures and get them posted!!

The set we're using this week is Season's Greetings. It's a really cute set and would be great for Christmas party invitations, family Christmas letter stationery, gift tags, and a whole host of other goodies. I altered some binder clips that were leftover from work and made them into little photo or note holders.

In the first picture, I've shown them holding this year's school photos of my two younger daughters. The second pic is the clips close up.
I think they came out really cute! I think I'm going to give them to my mom when we go visit her later this week. I think she'll like them, especially if I include the pictures of the girls.

Please play along with us! You've got an extra week this time, due to the holidays, and you can win a clipart set of your choice from the AiFactory Store! Links to the rest of the team are on the left side-bar. You need not use an AiFactory image, but, as usual, we'd be thrilled if you did! Remember, if you post to SCS or PCP, this week's tag is AIF017.

Challenges this set is for:
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes & DT Call (my third entry)
Color Throwdown #73 - except I linked it too late.
Easy Craft Projects #2 - inspired by the picture frame idea
AllSorts Challenge Week 32 - Anything But a Card
Bee Crafty 20 - Circles and a digi
(not sure if this counts, since I could have used the line art and it is a digital image?)

That's all of 'em for this set. Challenges are a lot of fun. Thanks for reading! Have a great one!!

My First Ippity Hop!

Hey there peeps! I hope you are all having lots of fun checking out the {ippity} goodness this morning.

I'm gonna keep it short this morning, since this isn't just for the {ippity} hop. I used Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #52 and {ippity} Kissmas & Mistletoe. Patterned paper is Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses.
This card is also for the following challenges (yes, I'm multi-tasking again):
EtsyInspired #67 - Kindly Noted (using this card for the colours)
BasicGrey - Colour Combo (cream, pink and blue are all there in the Eskimo Kisses paper)
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #30 - Free For All
Crafty Calendar Challenge #3 - Winter Sparkle
Corrosive Challenge #43 - Blingy (holographic embossing powder is blingy, right?)
Stamp with Us - Christmas (SU Garden Green and Pretty in Pink card stock, plus Whisper White craft ink, snail adhesive, dimensionals)
Kaboodle Doodles - Sparkly Winter (I see a recurring theme here)
Kraftin' Kimmie - Sparkle Baby
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes & DT Call
Stamp Something - Holiday Something
One Stop Craft Challenge - Recycled (I recycled the cardstock for the snowman off another project, which is actually printed on the back side. Shhh!!)
Our Creative Corner - Let it Snow
Simon Says - Merry Christmas
Sophisticat - Christmas

Thanks for looking and have an awesome day!

Friends with Flair - End of the Year

Wow. Can you believe it's this close to the end of the year? And next week is...(taking a big breath)...Christmas??? I am SO not ready!! And this is so not the card I was going to make! But what are you gonna do when inspiration strikes?

I was trolling the net, trying to spark the mojo. I was going to use a challenge that required snowflakes or snowmen. That's great! I still need to make some more Christmas cards. Um, yeah. No. EIC struck again. Well, it did have some help from my friend, Becky, who is anxiously awaiting the birth of her son. I was looking through my stamps and looking at pictures and looking at sketches on different sites...

So I took the photo of this necklace from Marmar's shop, the sketch from this month's Sheetload of Cards, which, btw, is the last issue, so if you want them, you should scamper on over and download them before they disappear in March, and Unity's Bouncy Blue - and made a card for Becky.

Becky, if you're reading this today, I hope you like it!

Check out the full list of people participating this week on the Unity blog.

Quick announcement. You can purchase {ippity} stamps from me. Anything I sell is going to help my oldest daughter, Meagan travel to Europe next summer. She'll earn both high school and college credit, as well as it just being an incredible opportunity to learn and grow. I wish I could go with her! I can't, but I'm going to do what I can to make it possible.

Thanks for reading - and happy holidays!

Softpencil - It's Definitely Not a Card!

Happy Thursday everybody! It's Anything But a Card day today and believe me, I went about as far away from a card as I possibly could. When I first saw Gorgeous Life, the beautiful mandala designed by Elizabeth's very talented sister, Natalia, my brain went immediately to one of my other long-term hobbies.

I'm sure some of you have wondered where the name FibreJunky came from, considering I've been doing an awful lot of paper crafting these days. Well, for the past 15 years, I've been a spinner. I also knit, weave, sew...pretty much anything that has to do with some type of textile, yarn, thread, needle, colours...you name it, I've at least tried it. So, back to spinning. Some years ago, Spin-Off had an article about making your very own drop spindles out of used CDs. How could I not take this opportunity to make a pretty one??

Since it's Christmas time, I chose Christmas-y colours. The wool is some mystery wool/mohair blend - I think - that I had laying around. It's green. That's why I grabbed it and spun just enough up to make sure the spindle works.This handy, useful little project is also for Our Creative Corner's Holiday (Christmas) Challenge, Creative Card Crew's Anything Goes challenge, and the Whimsical Ink Society's Bright & Bold Challenge. I just love multi-tasking.

Hey - I've got 5 kids. If I don't multi-task, I'd never get anything at all done!

Now, two quick things before I go. First of all, please check out the rest of the DT's creations today. They're listed on the left side of the blog.

Second, I'd like to wish Elizabeth a great, big