BLOW OUT SALE at FCD!

BLOW OUT SALE!!  Pamela at FireCracker Designs for Pamela just increased the sale to 60% selected items!  Hop over today and check out these great deals!  HERE
Sale will increase to 60% off December 17th
Sale will increase to 70% off December 24th
Sale applies to SELECTED INSTOCK ITEMS ONLY so get them before they are gone!
Due to the steep discounts on these items, coupons are not applicable.
Orders recieved AFTER December 15th WILL NOT be shipped until January.

And make sure you check out her ADORABLE Digi Gift Cards!  A $5 gift card to FCD will make a great gift for a crafty friend!

(I will leave the info about the FCD sale at the top until it's over)

Poinsettia Digi Image by FCD

If you are a procratinator, and waited til the last minute to make a Christmas Card, then you will LOVE FireCracker Designs by Pamela's Digital Images.  Easy to download and print.  You can whip up a last minute Christmas Card in a small amount of time!  I used Pretty Poinsettias on the above card.  I combined it with one of the sentiments from Christmas Phrases 1.  I know Christmas is right around the corner, and most of us have already ordered our Christmas stamps.  But it's not to early to think about next year!  This set has beautiful Christmas Sentiments, so it will be perfect to use in 2010!  I plan on playing along with a year round Christmas Card Challenge Blog starting in 2010, so that I"m prepared to mail out cards earlier in 2010!

Here is another digital option that I'm reposting.  Again, easy to download and print, Away In A Manger is available along with all of Pamela's Digital Images HERE.

I combined the Away In A Manger Digi Image with 2 more sentiments from Christmas Phrases 1.

I couldn't resist creating one more Mistletoad card to send out!!  Hmmm, I wonder who will get this one??

This was a quick and easy one.  I stamped the snowflakes from the set in red and embossed to create a festive background.  I dressed up his Santa Hat with liquid applique around the band and white glitter at the tip of the hat. 

Pretty Poinsettias Details:

Digital and Rubber Stamp : Pretty Poinsettias and Christmas Phrases 1 by FCD

Patterned Paper : Sandylion

Colorization : Copic Markers

Stickles : Glitz Champagne by Suze Weinberg

Mistletoad Card Details :

Rubber Stamp Set : Mistletoad by FCD

Red Ink : Colorbox Chianti

Colorization : Prismacolor Pencils with OMS

Green = #989, #1005, #911

Red = #924, #937, covered in Shimmerz Royal Red

White Liquid Applique

White Stampendous Glitter applied with glue pen

Mistletoad Stocking Card

This is my first shaped card!  I want to try and do more of these in 2010.  I made this card using a free stocking pattern from Dreamland Magic.

Stamp Set : Mistletoad FireCracker Designs by Pamela

Patterened Paper : I'm not sure.  I can not believe that the paper didn't have the manufacturer name on it.  Bummer.

Embellishment : Making Memories Poinsettia

Thanks for looking.  I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.  I'm trying to finish up Christmas cards.  Great weekend to stay inside and get crafty, rainy weather.  We did get out in the rain and pick up a couple of gifts today.  We also went ahead and took care of our charity donations.  DH picked a local cancer organization sponsored by Donna Deegan (local news reporter who is a breast survivor herself).  I was going to give to "Feed the Children" and was really excited about donating to this organization, but when we googled it, there was lots of talk about fraud.  That made me really sad.  Of course there was no way to confirm any of it, so I went with a local organization that I KNOW, works with the homeless, and shares Christ with them, Trinity Rescue Mission.  We opted for our families giving to charities instead of exchanging gifts with siblings families.  It feels so good to know that the money went to others in need.  When we do this it feels more like a celebration of what Christmas is truely about.

Ornate Christmas Ornament

I love to put up Christmas Trees.  It's just another way to express myself artistically.  I hope to have a bigger home someday, and add more.  I have my largest tree in my living room and wanted that tree to SPEAK  the true meaning of Christmas. It's loaded with clear lights, burgandy and gold embellishments and lots of Nativity Ornaments. This year I'm adding these regal cross ornaments.  I think they will fit the theme perfectly.

I created this Ornate Cross Ornament using a stamp I purchased at a stamp show a couple of years ago.  The manufacturer is Holly Berry House.  They sale lots of medallion style stamps that would be gorgeous when stamped in repitition, cut and pieced together like I have above.  In addition, mine are double sided.  It took me a while to get them done ( I started them last year), but it was worth the time, and now I have a handmade ornament to pass down.   I'm going to shop for some gems to finish them off.  And I'm thinking some gold trim as a hanger will be perfect.  You can view more of Holly Berry's  gorgeous cross stamps HERE.

First Annual "March of the Snowmen" Blog Hop

Hi everyone!  I'm so excited to introduce to you the first annual "March of the Snowmen" Blog Hop!  I love snowmen images and so do all the other designers participating in this blog hop.  This talented group of ladies has planned some sensational snow flurried projects for you.  So before I list my own mini march of snowmen projects let me introduce you to our designers!  Make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom of my post before you start hopping though, because I'm giving away TWO blog candy packages!!  And check out each designers blogs carefully for MORE blog candy announcements!

Angella Crockett

Barb Foster

Deb Felts

Jen Carter

JenMarie Taylor

Jodi Heuser

Kelly Landers

Latisha Yoast

Laurie Unger

Laurie Willison

Linda Duke

Melisa Waldorf - You are here now

Michelle Bartnett

Mona Pendleton

Pam Imholz

Stacy Rogers

Snowman Project #1 was designed using a vintage FREE digi download from a challenge blog : Digital for Tuesday Challenge Blog.  They post a FREE vintage digi image each tuesday for you to design with.  The blog is sponsored by Clearly Vintage.  The owner sales vintage stamp sets that are wonderful.  So I wanted to take a minute to share this wonderful find with all my vintage lovin' friends.  I also designed this project for another challenge blog : Sunday Postcard Art.  When I can I have been playing along with challenge blogs for inchies, ATC's, collage, mixed media recently.

A postcard is 4" x 6".  I started with a piece of cardboard, tore away some of the surface to reveal the "ripples".  I layered on Weathered Wood Crackle Paint, then Sky Making Memories Acrylic Paint and lastly Picket Fence Crackle Paint.  I colored my image with Prismacolor pencils and OMS.  I add Shimmerz.  My "snow" is liquid applique.  I love that stuff!  I add a little white fun flock around the brim of the girls hat and Stampendous Prisma glitter to feather and ball on tip of girls hat.  All the other embellishments are things I picked up in the Christmas section of a local arts and crafts store. 

Snowman Project #2 was created using a wonderful vintage cut out by Crafty Secrets Heartwarming Vintage line of products.  I'm gonna be giving this one away at a Cookie Swap tomorrow night that is held annually by some of my Scrapbooking buddies here in town.

Snowman Project #3 was created using "Gifts of Love" by FireCracker Designs by Pamela.  You can check this set out HERE.  I love Martha Stewarts Snowflake border punch!  Perfect for you winter cards.

Snowman Project #4 features "Snowman Nativity" by The Angel Company.  I created my own watercolor background for this one, then stamped and embossed the snowflakes creating my own DP.  This is a Score-pal card, Cami card.  You can find the directions on the Scor-pal site.  If you are interested in ordering this set online from a TAC demo, let me know.  I can hook you up!  I'm hoping one of the designers in the hop show cases "Merriest Wishes".  It is one of the cutest snowman sets I have EVER seen!

The window creates a great card!

Here is another project using "Snowman Nativity" for Project #5.  I loved these little guys soooo much, I couldn't help creating a home decor project so I could sit them out on a table and enjoy them.  I used old wood stamp blocks as my base.

Blog Candy Packages for 2 Lucky Winners!

 

To qualify for blog candy all you have to do is leave me a comment with your email address included.  You have until 8pm EST Sunday December 6th.  At that time I will draw 2 names to win the above blog candy.  I will post the winners by 9pm EST.  Good Luck ladies!!

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope you enjoy the hop and are inspired to create your own snowmen projects to bring some winter cheer to your home or to someone else's mailbox this year!

I won $25 free Impression Obsession!

TEEHHEEEEEE (giggling).  Who doesn't love winning free stuff!  Every 2 weeks or so, Shirley Ross and the IO DT share inspiration and a customer challenge via a Blog Hop.  And Mitra, IO owner, offers up a $25 gift certificate to their online store!!  I love Impression Obsession images and started playing along.  Shirley has been posting the challenges for customers in advance, so you have time to do some shopping for the perfect IO image to use for the challenge.  Last week my name was drawn and I just finished doing a little shopping!  I can't wait to get my new images in the mail.  We would love to have you join us!  I have already created my card for this weeks challenge.  You can see the challenge and blog hop on Thursday HERE.

Here is my entry for the upcoming challenge.

I used Winter Wonderland F2268
I stamped my tree with VersaMagic and embossed with White Embossing Powder.  I realized that you were not going to be able to see the details if the entire card was white, including the stamped image, so I brushed over the embossed image with some green ink.  I used my Cuttlebug and embossing templates to create my textured background.  I used my Martha Stewart border punch to create even more white texture.  I added white Pearl Glitter and pearls to the tree.

And here are the details for upcoming challenges that Shirley shared recently:

Dec. 3 -- WHITE (Mainly White) challenge
Dec. 17 -- VALENTINES/LOVE
Jan. 7 -- SPRING
Jan. 21 -- SHAPED card (anything but rectangle)

I hope you will join us in the next challenge. If you would like to prepare early here are the guidelines:
Impression-Obsession stamps only please.
Entries will be accepted until the following Saturday at midnight.
You email your entry to me using the Email Shirley link provided near the top of the second sidebar to the right.
All participants' cards will be posted here and also permanently in our IO Customer Album in the very next sidebar over.

If you live in Jacksonville, know that I have purchased Impression Obsession stamps locally at Pictures In Time, Scrap and Stamp, and A Small Cleverness.

Or shop online at Impression Obsession Online Store.

Joy Banner Triangle #2

 I just completed the second triangle for my Joy Banner that I'm creating along with the gals over at Ready... Steady ... Stamp.  Here are the guidelines for this section of the project :

I gotta be honest.  I forgot about the Kraft paper and in a panic decided that I could add it as a dangle from the bottom, whew.  I think long term, though, I will be changing this out to a large gold star.  That would match my first section better.

I hope this inspires you to start a Christmas Banner of your own! Need more inspiration??  Jump over to Ready, Steady, Stamp and check out the other girls projects!

November CSS Blog Hop

It's time for another CenterStage Spotlight Challenge Blog hop!

Hostess: Jessica Fick {Design Team Coordinator}
Theme: Stamp and color the image on Patterned Paper

{ any occasion card acceptable, it doesn't have to be Christmas themed}

{ image may be cut out and layered, but must be stamped and colored on patterned paper}

Requirement: any GinaK Designs stamp set & glitter
Bonus Challenge: decorate the inside of your card to coordinate

I took the challenge and I hope you will too!  I used Little Tee's and the sentiment is from Elegant Post.

I stamped my images on DCWV Citrus Matstack.  The Matstacks make it easy since all the paper coordinates and they are the perfect size for card making.  The paper already had glitter on it, so my card was quick and easy!

I hope everyone isn't too stuffed with turkey to get crafty this weekend.  Thanks for stopping by!

Participating Designer's links:

Brenda Turner
Carla Suto,
Carolina Buchting,
Deb Felts
Geri Utterback ,
Giovana Smith,
Gina Krupsky
Janice Melton,
JenMarie Taylor,
Jennie Harper,
Joy Hadden,
Karen Knegten
Kay Simmons,
Linda Payne,
Melissa Cash,
Melissa Shultz,
Nina Brackett,
Pam Imholz,
Peggy Wainman,
Selma Stevenson,
Shannon Bracken,
Sharri Seffens
Sue VanDeVusse
Sue Walsh,
Tina Gilliland

Christmas Phrases by FCD

Hello!  I hope everyone has arrived back home safely if you had to travel for Thanksgiving.  I love Thanksgiving, it's my favorite holiday!  But I'm always exhausted by the time it's all over with.  I think it's because I try to get so much done in just a couple of days.  So I'm finally getting back on the computer tonight to find that I have recieved a gazillion emails since tuesday and that my post didn't go off as planned on Wednesday.  So you are gettin' a two tonight.  I'm starting with my FCD post you should have received Wednesday.  As you may remember, Pamela from FCD gave us each 2 wonderful Christmas sets to work with for November and December.  Tonight I'm focusing on Christmas Phrases.  These sentiments are perfect for so many different Christmas cards.  These sentiments would make a beautiful card if used alone with some decorative paper.  But I chose to combine them with a couple of other FCD Christmas sets.

. 

I combined this one with the ornament top and star from Season's Greetings.

I cut the tree section from a piece of green textured paper.

I combined this one with the snowflakes from Gifts of Love.

I found some snowflake patterned paper and stamped my FCD snowflakes using VersaMark Ink and embossed with white embossing powder.  Sooooo easy!

Pamela  packs alot of options on a plate, so you really get your moneys worth when you order from her.  It's not to late to order your Christmas stamps from her, because she mails them out so quickly.  The latest they will be shipping before the holidays is December 15th.

Hoping to post my FCD Christmas Ornaments by Sunday.  See ya then!

Variety is the spice of life ...

The last few days I have been busy playing with a variety of images.  They definitely don't seem to go in the same post!  Some of the artist I subscribe to seem to have a favorite genre/style and that's fine.  But I don't want my projects to "all look the same".  I like to mix it up ... cute, vintage, cards, layouts, home decor ... and now I'm attempting collage, creepy, more atc's, and inchies.  One things for sure, there is no tellin' what you will see here.  I hope you like variety as well.  I adding multiple seperate post today for each style.

One of my goals is to create holiday ATC's starting with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.  I got one of the 7 Gypsies Revolving ATC holders and liked it soooo much, I decided I wanted one for each of these holidays.  So I'm hoping over the next year or 2 I will fill them up with these little works of art!  ATC's and inchies are a great way to get a quick artistic fix! (I'm definitely addicted).

So I found 2 Creepy Halloween Challenge Blogs,

2 Inchy Challenge Blogs, and some other vintage/mixed media/ATC challenge blogs to encourage me.

I would love to have any of you join me!

Spooky ATC

Created for Haunted Design House.  Barb is so talented and great at taking a stamp purposed for one thing and turning it into a creepy image.  I'm not there yet.  I used a creepy tag from Pink Paisley that I trimmed down and this ADORABLE "Smile" boy by Daniel Torrente.  The theme was graves.  I just checked to see what today's challenge was, and it's "sinister smirks".  I think I'm gonna have to use this little guy again this week.  His face says it all, teehee!  I used an embossing template for the background and rubbed on some orange shimmery chalk.

When Cats Fly ATC

Created for Darkness Inspiration.  The theme is bats!  This one was easy peasy.  I searched through my halloween paper stash, found this green paper with black bats already on it.  I smeared on some acrylic paint so the Crafty Secrets image would stand out a little better. And then after seeing the inspiration art over at Darkness Inspiration, I decided to add a cat and some bat wings.  I wish I could think of some clever quotes for them.  Fill free to make some suggestions.

Keep scrolling for my other 2 post today ...  inchies ... and a vintage/girly Pink Persimmon Card!

Pink Persimmon Tea and Cake

I bought a couple of Pink Persimmon Stamp Sets a month or so ago.  I fell in love with the Vintage feel their images had.  Once again, there's nothing like a challenge to get me motivated.  Last Monday on the Pink Persimmon Blog they issued a Sketch Challenge.  The deadline is Monday November 30th.  You do not have to use their stamp sets so, come play along!!

These images are definitely a little softer than the Torrente "Smile" boy, hehe.

I used  their "Tea and Cake" and "Cute as a Button" sets.

I used one of the buttons to create my scalloped border.  DP : floral is Anna Griffin and pink background is My Minds Eye.  I'm not sure who the sentiment is by.  Tuelle is Bazzill.  I have fallen in love with using this stuff and I'm am definitely buying more.  Stick pin is Making Memories.  I picked the florals up in the wedding dept at Micheals.  I have mulitple colors and can't wait to use more of them.  Coloriztion : Prismacolor Pencils with OMS.  Spellbinders Die's.

Thanks soooo much for you patience with 3 back to back post for another one of my challenge crazed rants!

Inch by Inch ...

Without further ado ...

Sand Between My Toes

I have been checking these little works of art for well over a year now.  We have a wonderful stamping/mixed media/collage store here in Jacksonville, A Small Cleverness.

They do monthly ATC and Inchie swaps among other wonderfully artistic activities.  I go there often and check out the artistic endeavers of these talented ladies.  And I'm ALWAYS amazed at how much they can get into a 1" square.  These little squaures can be combined to create larger works of arts.

The above set was created for the Inchy by Inch Challenge Blog.   The theme was texture.  I decided to go with sand, since I had these tiny sea shell stamps.  I used Goldens Coarse Pumice Gel.  It can be purchased in the Art section of most art/hobby stores.  It's greyish and can be mixed with acrylic paint.  I'm not happy with the color of my sand, but didn't have time to remix and start all over.  I think most of these tiny shells are from an Impression Obsession set and a Mini Technique Tuesday set I've had forever.

Passionate About Purple

Photo not so great.  A little harder to photograph these little guys.  Sorry.  I created this one for Small World of Inchies and Twinchies.  The theme was Purple.  I kinda cheated, because I went shopping for some images specifically so that I could do inchies.  I found these decorative sqaure stamps, perfect for stamping inchie backgrounds, by Inkadinkado.  So then all I had to do was find a tiny butterfly stamp in my stash.  I used 2 different shades of purple.  I stamped the background twice, trimmed the darker shade down to the frame, secured /popped it up to the lighter base.  Stamped the mini butterflies in the darker purple, cut with cuticle sissors and adhered with a tiny bit of glue at the butterfly body, so that the wings could "fly".  I added some Stampendous Pearl Glitter!  LOVE that stuff!

Scroll down to the next post for a totally different look from the ATC's and Inchies.  You will see why I said the last couple of days I had a "variety" of projects to post!

FCD November Blog Hop!!

The official start time of the FCD Blog Hop is Friday at 8:00am (EST). If you have arrived early, please be patient, as all the links may not be live until 8:00am (EST).  Check out all the Blog Hop details at the bottom of the post.

Christmas in November!!  Blog Candy ALERT!!

Hello ladies.  It's that time of the month again !  No not THAT time of the month ...  time for another Blog Hop sponsored by FCD.  And this one is extra special, because EVERY participate has blog candy!!  Yep, you heard right!  And I believe we are all giving away stamp sets this month.  Pamela decided why wait til December??  She is generously starting her gift giving early!!  So make sure you check all of the blogs to qualify to win.  To enter your name in my drawing, just leave a comment with your email address. 

Pamela sent each of us 2 of her new Christmas Sets to work with for the next 2 months.  I have been having a ball creating with Mistletoad and Christmas Phrases.  It's not to late to order YOUR christmas stamps.  Order online today!  Shipping is fast with Pamela! 

On the 8x8 Layout above I used one of the phrases from Christmas Phrases along with one of Pamela's other Christmas stamp sets, Season's Greetings.  The tag below was designed using Season's Greetings as well.   

Pamela also designed a special Manger Digi for us to work with as well.

I combined it with Christmas Phrases to create THIS CARD.

And you can check out the projects I have designed using Mistletoad HERE.  Only 2 Mistletoad sets left at the store, so check out these projects and then place your order today!  While you are over there check out the Flower Soft and Shimmerz!

I can't wait to share the other projects I have designed using these sets.  Please check back weekly to check out some more options using these sets!

Blog Hop Details ...

This is a "circular blog hop" where the only beginning is wherever you start. You will know you are at the end of your blog hop when you have arrived back on the blog you started with. (There are only 9 of us, so you should be able to remember where you started)

As mentioned above, each of the blog hostesses have blog candy for you!  1 WINNER ... will be chosen by each of the blog hostesses.  That's a total of, I think, 9 chances to win!!  You have until 8pm EST monday night to qualify for blog candy.  At that time the winners will be selected.

Next Blogger to check out is Michelle ! (I just fixed the link!!  at 9:30am.  So, so, so, sorry!!)

FCD store will be closed December 15th for a Holiday break.

Here is my blog candy

Thanks for stopping by!!

Christmas Banner Challenge

Today I'm posting the first section of a Christmas Banner.  The girls at Ready, Set, Stamp Challenge Blog have inspired us to create a banner one section at a time, every 2 weeks.  So at the end of the 8 weeks we will reveal the completed banner.  No cheating allowed because you have to wait for the specific recipe every 2 weeks.  Our banner has to be an inverted triangle.  We get to choose our own colors.

A few other standard rules with their challenge are 1 stamp minimum, and no "cute" projects.  So please don't tell me my project is "cute", teehee.  Here are the rest of the ingredients for this portion of the challenge:

As you can see they have very specific requirements, so this one will limit me and may prove to be one of the hardest challenges I've done.  So hopefully I will make it to the end!  Last year I ran across a Dover Publications Book with lots of vintage images for different holidays.  So I've been dying to use them, and this seems like a great challenge to work my Christmas images from that book into a project.

My triangle measures 6 1/2 across the top and 7 1/2 from top to bottom.  I stamped and heat embossed the stars (Crafty Secrets) in gold to my DP (Creative Imaginations) and then ran the VersaMark pad along the edges of the triangle and embossed in gold as well to make it coordinate.  Obviosly my primary colors will be red, white and gold with a splash of green.  I added some Stampendous white Pearl Glitter to the letter "J", the snowballs, on the tree and around the edges of the triangle to tie that element in.  I used Stampendous red Pearl Glitter on the berries for the holly.

The next set of ingredients will be posted tomorrow, so I can't wait to see what they are!

Fall Card for Design Dollies Challenge Blog

Have I mentioned I LOVE fall colors!

I think that's why I've been so motivated to make so many.

DH just walked by and admired my cards, and said I better get started on the Christmas Cards. teehee.

Designed for Design Dollies Challenge Blog

Technique : Distress

I used my Tim Holtz distressing tool and ink for the technique.

Stamp Set : GinaK - So Grateful
Colorization : Prismacolor Pencils and OMS
DP:  Orange K& Company, Beige Paper Pizzazz
Fabric