Peaceful Lake Scene

Coffee of the Day - Pumpkin Spice

Hello! First I want to share some cool news with you. Today in the UK a most amazing magazine goes on sale. Digital Crafting Essentials vol. 1, looks to be a fabulous magazine, packed with images and samples from some of our most fave artists! not only will you see my fellow Jellypark peeps inside, but also Saturated Canary, Heather Ellis (the artist behind Pure Innocence at MFT), Crafters Companion, and many others. I can't even begin to express what an honor it is to be included in this magazine!!! when you buy a copy, you receive 2 DVDs loaded with images. so cool! I'll show you my card in a later post.....

Next up is a card I made for the 'Peace and Quiet' Hope You Can Cling To challenge at SCS. the idea was to create a card using just images, no words or sentiments, to reflect a peaceful scene. I remembered that I had this wonderful image from Phindy's Place, so was glad to use it. papers are Basic Grey Serenade and border die is MFT. burlap ribbon is May Arts and button & seam binding are from my stash. pretty simple, but that is pretty much the idea.

------> TOMORROW is the day I am hostess at Hope You Can Cling To!!!!! I hope you will stop by both here and over at SCS!!!! I would love to have you play along! :)

don't forget the Pinktober blog candy! I hope to get to everyone's blogs and projects this weekend. sorry I haven't made it yet. y'all are fabulous for making projects though. thank you! :)

Challenges:
Crafting by Designs - anything goes
Crafting with Dragonflies - nature/trees/leaves
Penny's Paper Crafty - anything goes
Designed to Color - tie it up
4 Krafty Girlz - anything goes
Flourishes - burlap or canvas
Kaboodle Doodles - earth tones/colors
Perfectly Rustics - watercoloring (I color almost all of my images this way)
Inkspirational - anything goes

This Little Piggie Talked on her Cell Phone.....

Coffee of the Day - Vanilla Nut

Paulette over at Create with TLC gifted me with one of her new sets, Pig Latin, thinking I might be able to do something fun with it..... I don't think she had any idea just quite how 'fun' I was going to be! ha! as soon as I heard the words 'pig latin', this wonderful oldie but goodie image, 'Piggy Call', from Phindy's Place popped right into my wonky doodle head. hope you like how it turned out! :)



Papers are Basic Grey Serendipity, an exclusive (and VERY hard to track down set!) from JoAnn's. I found this one paper pad and haven't been able to find any more...there is a companion paper and I can't seem to find that one either. they only sell them in stores and I just don't get out much these days. ack! if any of you run across any of these papers, please let me know and I'll be happy to send you the $$ to have you pick one up for me if you don't mind. you KNOW what a goober I am for my Basic Grey....I get mushier than an old can of peas when I am around them....but I digress....

the little accents for the most part are all part of the same Serendipity collection. I distressed the flowers before putting them together. I did add a bit of netting for more texture. the little butterfly was coated in rock candy distress stickles before adding the dew drop. everything is pretty self explanatory, but as always, post here or pop me an email if you ever have a question about how I did something.

you wouldn't believe just HOW MUCH I look like this little piggie - bald and very round! ha! but not the topless part. nope. not happening. ;)

Brave Boots are back on again!! do they match the tutu?....Hello card challenge at Moxie Fab
Crafty Cardmakers - create your own flowers
Use Your Stuff - button up
One Stitch at a Time - use a digi
Quirky Crafts - make us laugh
Robin's Fetish - distressing
Stampin' Sisters in Christ - use something new (entire Serendipity line of products)
Hybrid Chick Card Caravan - stitching
Phindy's Place - song inspiration ('Call Me' by Blondie is the first one that came to mind! giggles!)
Poodles Parlour - cute and/or cuddly
Stamping for the Weekend - show us your style (a bit cute, a bit shabby, just a teeny bit frilly, & a whole lotta pink!)
Craft Room Challenge - friendship
Digital Tuesday - amazing animals
Basic Grey - fave color combo (PINK and anything, especially kraft! tee hee!)
Jessica's Craft Shaque - pink

Dreaming's easy with a good book, a good friend, and a big comfy chair!

Coffee of the Day - Tiramisu

I love a good book anytime, but add along a good friend and a comfy chair, and I am in little piggie heaven! and we all know how I feel about a girl and her pink sparkly shoes..... pure delight! :)

Well, one of my fave artists, Phindy, has issued a request straight from her heart. Her precious sister is quite sick and has never received a handmade card. Phindy is asking for anyone who has a moment to send cards of encouragement. More info can be found here at the PCP group. Please, please consider mailing out a card to spread just a bit of love to someone who needs to see some beauty from her hospital bed. I know y'all are just amazing! I have seen it my self time and time again! Oh, I am getting weepy as I think of how blessed I am to have the greatest friends and followers! thank you!

On to the card deets ~
Papers for this baby are Basic Grey Junebug. I used a piece of Prima packaging that came with that pretty bluish rose you see over in the right corner. Now just a little note about the color, because yes, it does matter for one of the challenges. (Michele, this is for YOU! grins!!!) these are shades of blue - just a lovely greenish blue. according to Stampin' Up, this is baja breeze - not only one of my fave ever colors, but a shade that is coming back for it's premier return! can we get a woooo hoooooo in the house?! oh yeah, I am excited! this would have also mattered had I gotten my act together and had this posted last night in time for the last Stampin Sisters in Christ challenge, but I was sicker than the proverbial dog and just didn't get it to my blog in time.... oh well. consider it your Sunday morning special instead.

Now I know you are intrigued about Michele's challenge....... she is the lovely owner of Crafts 4 Eternity. for a very short time I was blessed to be a member of her DT. now I just get to play! tee hee! every week she provides a fabby sketch and a few little extra bonuses thrown in. this week you must use blue and beads. if you look closely you will see BLUE beads on the paper button flower petals as well as the buttons of the chair arms.

You know how much I love my shimmerz paints. in order to get some fun accents on this chair, I painted the pink & golden flowers with my shimmerz. and of course those fabbylicious shoes! All of the buttons are vintage. the big huge BLUE one even came with the extra 'whatever' that is on it - which I happen to think makes it all the more cool! you know I love my JoAnn's trim bits, found this way cool BG word charm in my stash that I am slowly uncovering, added a glitter chipboard flourish to help accent the sketch that I am always twisting & turning & adapting on poor Michele, and that pretty much finishes the card. I sure hope Phindy's sister enjoys it. I tried to poor as much love into it as I could. :)

Other challenges:

I Love Digi - charming

Paper Cutz - dog or cat

Papertake Weekly - shiny, sparkly, special

Cute Card Thursday - someone special

Gingersnap Creations - read

Shabby Tea Room - chipboard

Cupcake Craft - buttons

A wonderful Digi Designer - Phindy's Place! :)

Coffee of the Day - Vanilla Macadamia

Good morning! I hope that you are finding this is a beautiful day! I woke up this morning feeling so gloriously blessed. Not in a financial or material sense by any means, but I am surrounded by the most precious family & friends a woman could possibly have. Our dogs and cats make me smile every single day. I see God's majesty in the nature all around me as I gaze out the window. I have met the most phenomenal people through this 'hobby' I call papercrafting. How could I possibly be left wanting? :)

I would like to take this post to introduce you to a most amazing artist, Philomena O'Neill, also known as Phindy. Her digis just make me smile - really BIG! they most certainly bring out the 'awwwww...... how sweet!' factor! Her store is called Phindy's Place and can be found on Etsy - and you know how much I love that spot!!! :) I have 2 projects to show you today, both of which I am entering in a few challenges. I will list those at the end of the post. These are some wonderful NEW images for me, and I was so excited to get ahold of them! n fact, the 'Cheep Cheep' image is a freebie to the members of her PCP group, so if you aren't one yet, what are you waiting for?! :D

My first card uses the image called "Counting Sheep. Isn't it just adorable? (the image, not my card... giggles!) The papers for both cards are from the Prima Nursery Tales collection. The edges of the main image were first sponged and then edged in frosted stickles. A good cyberfriend of mine, Dru, of Garden of Dreams, uses such pretty glitter on her vintage items. I am going to try to do more of that, so this is something NEW for me. Also, while I was enjoying the '12 Tags of Christmas' over on Tim Holtz' most inspiring blog last month, I saw him doing some REALLY neat things with stickles - none of which was just leaving the stickles in the plain line that comes straight from the bottle. He was always smooshing it around - so I tried that, too. another NEW thing for me. Added some wonderful vintage buttons from my stash and a bit of luscious satin Anna Griffin ribbon with a little pin. The card base edges are inked with white craft.

For the second card, I am using the brand spankin' NEW image 'CheepCheep' that just came out yesterday for all of the PCP members, as I mentioned above. I added some baby ric rac and gorgeous Prima trim. That beautiful flower is also a Prima and one that I just received as well, so it is NEW to me, too! A bit different than the Prima flowers I usually use, so I am trying to step outside of my box a bit, but still keep to my style. The card base edges here were also sponged with the white craft ink.

Now you may be wondering why I keep emphasizing all of the NEW stuff here........ well, some of these challenges are all about NEW beginnings and fresh starts. So I am trying out some NEW techniques, NEW products, NEW designers, and at the same time remember that every morning starts out with NEW mercies. Thank you, God for that! :) Your grace astounds me Every Single Day!!!

The challenges:

Cute Card Thursday - All New

Paper Take Weekly Challenge - New Beginnings

Fussy & Fancy Friday Challenge - New

Stampin' for the Weekend - New Beginnings

Cards for Men - New