In the Meadow We Can Build A Snowman

A new challenge has begun over at IldiCo! Pick a Christmas song to use as an inspiration for your creation, and then link your project to the challenge blog.

I decided to use the line from the song, 'Winter Wonderland', for my card. I love this new digi that happens to be a freebie today over at SNR!!! and while you are there, tonight is a great Digi Event with chatting, prizes, and fun from 8-10pm CST, so come join us!

My card uses Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses papers. The bow on the snowman's hat is painted with royal red shimmerz. I added some chunky glitter for snow to the ground and the snowman. The bear was stippled with several colors of ink to add extra dimension to his fur. The trim is by Prima. isn't that stuff beautiful? love it!!!! I added a few polka dots to the scarf with my white gel pen.

hope to see you tonight over at SNR!! :)

Friends of Faith Blog Hop!!!! Our God is SOOOOO Awesome!!! :)

Coffee of the Day - Pumpkin Spice of course! :)

Welcome to Scrapbook News and Review Magazine's A Faith Perspective Thankful for Friends Faith Blog Hop. Today, we're out in force on the internet -- showing our faith and giving the glory to God. United, we stand as Christian paper crafters and blog owners to make a presence on the internet for all to see. We're celebrating the theme of friends and we're happy to share our projects with you based on the verse:

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. " Eccl 4:9-10a

If you're just joining in on the fun, you can find the start of the train here. If you have arrived from the fabby blog of *KAREN* then you are in the right spot! :)

First, we would like to take a moment to thank our generous co-sponsors: Layers of Color Stamps, Gina K Designs Stamps and Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. Together with Scrapbook News and Review Magazine, these companies have donated some wonderful prizes for today's blog hop.

Prizes? Oh, yeah! There will be three lucky grand prize winners for today's event.

To enter, simply hop to the blogs of all of the participating staff members of Scrapbook News and Review Magazine, take note of the staff member's name, and leave a comment on their posts. Then send us an email at
games@scrapbooknewsandreview.com listing each of the staff members who participated in today's hop. It's that easy. All entries must be received by Monday, November 16, 2009 at 12 noon, EST and three winners will be randomly chosen to win.
What are the prizes?

*One $100 gift certificate from Layers of Color Stamps AND a 6 month subscription to Scrapbook News and Review Magazine.
*One basket of goodies -- four stamp sets from Gina K Designs and a 6 month subscription to Scrapbook News and Review Magazine.
*One set of digital stamps from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and a 3 month subscription to Scrapbook News and Review Magazine.

In addition, every participating staff member of Scrapbook News and Review Magazine will offer a free one-month subscription to the magazine to one of their lucky visitors by simply leaving a comment on their blog. That's a lot of chances to win, so let's get to the Hop!

I know how much my friends mean to me and how precious are those times we spend together. Many of those times seem to be spent over coffee, yeah, I know most of you are in shock. grins and giggles! but really, it is the conversations and the fellowship with these beautiful people that means more to me than the coffee. REALLY! :) and I have been told that one of my spiritual gifts is that of encouragement. I think because I have been through so much in my life, especially my battle with depression, I don't want to see other people suffer the way I did. And so I want to always try to fill people with hope, especially the hope that comes from knowing God in the most personal way. He is such a huge part of my life that I can't help but talk about Him to people and share about all that He does for me.

So this wonderful image from IldiCo seemed like the perfect one to use for a card to send to a friend when thinking of what to make for this blog hop. I have several friends going through some tough times right now. We all have them. We can't escape them. But no where is it said that we have to go through them alone. God brings friends into our lives for a reason. One of my favorite musical groups EVER is Jars of Clay. Honest to goodness, this one CD of theirs, Who We are Instead, I have gone through TWICE!!! and I am gonna have to go buy another one it looks like..... one of the songs on it is titled, "I'm In the Way". They lyrics are so very poignant. They are short, so I will post them here.

You sit and stare out at the sky/And think of ways to fake a smile.

But life is never what it seems/ Sometimes it only takes a while.

I'm in the way of fallin' down/ I won't let you go that far now.

If you think that hope was left behind/ I picked it up a mile ago.

And I am running close behind/ So don't give up and don't let go.

For my friends, I am here for you. You are not alone. Hope is in your hands. You may not see it, you may not feel it, but it is there nonetheless. And God will never ever leave you. He can't. He doesn't do that to His children. And He loves you more than you can possibly imagine. so do I. :)

so now on to the wonderful blog of *DANIELLE*!!!! and thank you for hopping along with us! have a marvy weekend!

Hot Chocolate Holder with a cutie bear!

Another card to show you using a fun image from IldiCo. I thought it would be fun to paper piece the coffee mug with this adorable little guy, so went looking through my papers for one that would work. Lo and behold, Basic Grey to the rescue! These fun new papers are from the Nook & Pantry collection. Paper piecing digis is so easy to do - don't let them intimidate you.

You will see the open and closed version of the hot choco holder here. The paper on the front covers the staple backs, always important if you can help it. Added in some fun brads and ric rack trim. Pretty easy peasy for a fun little giftie! the whipped cream topping is the white flower soft I have had fun playing with! yep, using it again! it just seemed perfect. stippled the bear again to give him a bit more depth. As you can see, the thin dec. paper piece on the far right side is actually on the inside of the card.

Enjoy your weekend! :)

Another little card for Jaimie

Coffee of the Day - Pumpkin Spice

Wanted to make another card for Jaimie, and when I saw this cutie from IldiCo., I knew it would be perfect. (for more info about cards for Jaimie, head to Stamp Something...For Jaimie or see my post below for Monday) I kept trying to remember that this card was for a 11 year old girl, so it is a bit different from my others. wanted it to be fun and full of smiles. (gosh, that makes it sound as if all of my cards are grumpy depressing ones!)

Anyhow, today is the release day for this new line by IldiCo called SnoPals. these precious snowmen and women are seen doing all kinds of fun activities! go check them out if you can. there is also a blog hop with them in conjunction with The Stamping Boutique and Sunshine Stamps going on today. It starts here if you would like to hop along and have a chance to win some cool prizes!

I used papers from the Basic Grey Figgy collection. The snowman is covered in stickles and then a bit of chunky glitter. The chunky glitter also covers the bottom left portion of the main image. I added in some clear dew drops for added fun. The great trim is by Webster's Pages and a few little buttons sit in the corner. I sure hope she likes it.

Have a great weekend, and I'll be back to post more later! :)

Coffee with a Cuddly Bear

Coffee of the Day - Pumpkin Spice


Today is a brand new challenge over at IldiCo. and my first challenge as a Guest DT member! woooo hooooooo! So of course I had to use the cutie coffee bear (1 of 2 of them ..... maybe you will see the other in days to come?!?! hmmmmmmmm....... gotta check back! grins!) I mean how else would I start my inaugural adventure with them than with a coffee card?! :)


Kept the card fairly simple, but modified the sketch a tad - flipped it over on its side and scooched the circle elements closer together. The papers I used are from the Jenni Bowlin mini pack, Red/Black Line Extension. used my stitching stamp across the edge where they join. The Starbucks' circles actually come from the bags they use to hold cookies, scones, etc. I punched them out and saved them for a future project - TA DA!!! the trim is one of my remnant finds, the mat of the main image is distressed, and the buttons were added right below a cute sentiment I use ALL the time 'cause I love it so!

wanted to fill you in a bit about how I colored our bear friend - did my usual watercoloring, but then took 2 different shades of ink and a dry watercolor brush to stipple ink over the bear. this helps to give him a furry look with more dimension. just a little tip for something fun to do! The card base is more of my coffee paper. I think it is my last sheet, so it's time to make some more! :) Dave really likes this card so I think it's heading with him to work........ :) gotta keep MY honey bear happy, too!


have a great day! love ya!
Jennifer

A Bear in the Leaves

Coffee of the Day - Dulche de Leche

Hello! I have been wanting to play with the cute bears from IldiCo for a while, and it just seemed as if I never had the time. well a challenge was posted to use sewing of some kind on your card, so I decided to play along even though I can not sew well at all! even faux sew! :)

Sadly the faux stitching doesn't seem to show up at all in the scan, so I will be making another card for the challenge - awwww shucks, gotta play with my bears again! grins!!!! The gold leaf matting piece as well as the dotted piece both have faux stitching on them in gold gel pen. Maybe if you look VERY closely and squint and aim your monitor just the right direction you might get some inkling of a shimmer of the stitching somewhere..........

Anyhow.... on to the deets......

The papers are Basic Grey Indian Summer; ribbon is a great find from the $1 bin at Michael's; leaves and card base are covered in scattered straw distress stickles; velvet leaves are Prima; button is JHB from JoAnn's.

I am quite interested to find out how many of you really don't like spiders. Fascinating! I will be cautious about posting spider cards in the future just for you! :)

Have a great day!

Jennifer

Some fun new digis!

Coffee of the Day - Vanilla Biscotti (yep, it's coffee!)

A happy Saturday morning to all of you! I wanted to share some cards with you today from 2 companies whose digis I am really enjoying. Digital stamping is really taking the crafting world by storm! I don't know that I will ever fully give up my regular stamps, because there are some things I just can't do with a digi. But these are quite fun to play with! I hope you give it a try if you haven't yet. And if you have, please check out these companies! fun stuff to be found!

The first card is from a company called The Stamping Boutique. This is the same one that sells the Latte Princess stamp you have seen before (and will most certainly see again!!) Tracey has drawn more Latte Ladies, so be sure to go see them. They are such fun!!! This card uses the "Let's Bee Friends" digi. I love this one! The coloring is all watercolors. Coal shimmerz was painted on the bees, pink shimmerz was painted on the rectangle border and Primas. Paper is Basic Grey Lemonade. this card just makes me happy!

This next card is for my hubby and son, Ryan. They do not like spiders. I mean they DO NOT LIKE spiders. anything spiders. so when they saw my card from the other day, their first reactions were BOTH, "but it has a spider on it". couldn't get beyond that. AT ALL!!! :D So this card is the ANTI-spider card. giggles! Ryan liked it much much better. He even smiled when he saw it. too funny! I used some of my famous coffee paper for the card base. The paper is from Daisy Hill. But then you get to this amazingly cute little bear from Ildi Co. Don't you wanna just sit beside him and give him a huge hug? I kept the card simple so the focus would be on him. Hopefully it will make someone smile just a little. A challenge blog will be starting up on the 17th, so be sure to check it out! I am also honored to be a Guest Designer with them for the month of November, so that will be quite exciting!

Now to share with you my last little goodie for the day. Yesterday David took me to Starbuck's for not just a Pumpkin Spice Frap, but for the Pumpkin scone, too!!!!! :) talk about a bonus day! I took this picture while I was in the restroom. Dave was mortified I took a pic in there. Even after I told him what it was all about, he just rolled his eyes. I don't think he gets it. ;) but I do think he puts up with a lot!!!! :D enjoy!