Time for a winner — I have used random.org to draw a number for my winner (your number was determined by comment order):

AND THE WINNER IS…..

FRANCES!

Thank you to all that helped me out by taking my poll!

The contest is over, but the poll is still open and I would love nothing more than to hear more of your opinions! Feel free: GO HERE TO TAKE THE POLL

Frances will be receiving this card set that was designed to best serve several of her card giving needs: Birthday, Thank You and Encouragement; There are 2 each of 4 designs & sentiments.

Yay, for fun color combos! This week at the Shoe’s we are challenging you to use: Burgundy, Lime Green and Fuchsia. Unique and beautiful!

Our sweet sponsor this week is Digi Kitty, who provided the design team with these two cute little froggie digital stamps. As you can see, I used them to create some of my own patterned paper on the Fuchsia! I worked on Photoshop and had a great time. Below you can see how I did this. I scanned in some of my fun polka dot patterned paper and inverted it to be black and white. I then opened up the two froggie images and dragged them to where I wanted them to go on the polka dot space. I played with the sizes of the images so that one was smaller than the other and even overlapped a couple of the images. I actually never have done this before but since I’m not a huge fan of coloring in images, it was the way to go with these cutie images! Hope you like!

The sketch comes from The Pink Elephant this week and also decided to join in on the Pollycraft Challenge to Double Up on images.

The Photoshop layout:

The finished product:

GOODIES! Coming My Way!

I am so so excited that today my Papertrey Ink order is coming in. Been watching my mula since I got laid off but this time I couldn’t resist! Let’s just say I am doing my part in stimulating the economy :) Here are a few snippets of which stamps I am getting and will be playing with this next week (since this weekend is jam packed!!).

Butterfly Dreams

Petal Power

Signature Greetings

This week over at If The Shoe Fits… we are challenging you all to use PLAID on your project!

I had a lot of fun with this one because I got to break out one of my favorite Close To My Heart paper packet (which by the way is no longer available :( and this is also one of my favorite color combos: Juniper, Tulip and Sorbet. I went crazy with my little heart punch and created my own background! Fun, fun… hope you enjoy it, as well as the cute video that all Stamper’s should see below!

Other challenges used:

Gingersnap Creations: 3 Colors You Love (oh how perfect!)

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday: It’s All About You — Use what YOU love! yay!

Close To My Heart has some amazing quality acrylic stamps!

I love them and I am sure that many of you do too! Well this month, CTMH is challenging their consultants to create a video representing how our acrylic stamps are ‘clearly the best!”

If you search for Clearly the Best CTMH in You Tube you will be able to find all of the participants… but I wanted to share my favorite here with you today :) Even if you don’t stamp, you can appreciate this cute video: STAMPING OLYMPICS! (see below)

• Close To My Heart uses the highest-quality polymer in its stamps, which will retain their “stickiness” and shape throughout a lifetime with proper, easy care.
• Clear stamps ensure perfect ink coverage every time. Seeing through both blocks and stamps makes producing a great image easy!
• Close To My Heart was a pioneer in wood-and-rubber stamps as well as clear stamps, extensively testing and researching both products for years. We have produced hundreds of thousands of stamps in both materials and moved to My Acrylix® clear stamps because of their longevity, superior quality, and ability to hold fine detail. Close To My Heart has built on decades of experience in the stamp industry to achieve supreme, industry-leading expertise, quality, and variety in clear stamps.
• My Acrylix® stamps can be used to create a variety of custom looks: grouped on a single block, stretched or arched, and applied using the base and shade applied in two or three steps for layered images.
• My Acrylix stamps are ready to use right out of the package, and the handy carrier sheet and color-coded packaging make them easy to store and access. Since our stamps are clear, you’ll never have to worry about lining up stickers with stamp images. Just place the stamp on the block and you’re ready to go!

I know many of you are probably already using Acrylic stamps and that is super exciting since there are so many more artistic ventures with them! But I wanted to let you in on the special details of CTMH quality Acrylic stamps! Happy Stamping!

Woo hoo! More time for more challenges! I think Im on a roll!

Above is the lovely inspirational photo from the lovely Melissa Phillips. The photos that she uses each Friday are from A Creative Mint and are always so amazing! Everyday I am truly amazed at all of the amazingly creative ladies out there! I really wanted to do some beading of my own but I couldn’t find my beads (probably still packed away somewhere)!

The sketch used is from today’s Card Patterns, which was perfectly heart-filled for Valentine’s weekend :) Over at Just Us Girls, they are challenging us to use the Split Negative technique. This is definitely a new one for me, so it was fun to try out… be sure to check out all of the wonderful creations from the design team! Other challenges used – Daring Cardmakers: Have a Heart; Belli Challenge: Use Ribbons.

Thanks for visiting!

Papertrey Ink is celebrating their 3rd Year Anniversary, as well as the February release and today the challenge was to create a card using origami! You can see my cute little creation using an origami pinwheel at the bottom of this post :)

How could I resist using this gorgeous and bold color combo from Embellish Magazine! In addition to the color challenge, we are to make a project using the Birthday Celebration Theme (piece of cake!). These colors are perfect for fun and happy… so needless to say this combo is permanently saved for future projects!

With this card, I used the 2 Sketches 4 You card sketch because, well… I just can’t resist a tall card! The inks used were Close To My Heart: Watermelon,  Moonstruck, Clover and Chocolate. The lovely design stamp is from the one and only Papertrey Ink — Giga Guidelines – and the cute little checklist birthday phrases are from CTMH’s It’s Your Day (and yes, I did cut the list stamp so that I can have the phrases separate!). I also used the Bitty Dots Basics from PTI. I just love the way this card came out! It will be going to my MIL for her upcoming birthday :)

Below is my Origami card for the Papertrey Ink challenge. I had never done one of these on a card before, so it was an interesting little baby adventure for this scrapper :) Yay for challenges that give you great results! Thanks, Nichole!

I can not even begin to believe that today is Friday! This week just flew by and there is still so much more to do :)

Well, here is my card for the If The Shoe Fits… Scrap It! Challenge. This week we are challenging you to a recipe: Ribbon, Hearts and 3 Eyelets! Are you ready to get creating?! I have to say that because of how crazy my week has been, I felt like I had run into a creative block! It was so frustrating! Here is my creation, nontheless and hopefully you all enjoy it! I also used the Embellishment Magazine Color Challenge : Turquoise, Chocolate and Pink.

Well, I have been… and not much time to create lately! I have been itching to create, especially because this is Papertrey Ink’s 3rd Anniversary! They have had so many fun announcements, activities and challenges — and I haven’t been able to one of them! But tonight, I was determined to change that. So here was my favorite design team color challenge, from the classy lady, Melissa Phillips!

Aren’t these colors just perfect together… I chose this color combo because it was going to be fresh and new to me. Not going to lie though… this is my 2nd rendition because I struggled with it. Definitely love the result and glad I was able to play along with PTI a little —  and now I get to go to bed, hehe!  Have a very goodnight everyone!

• Cardstock: PTI Scarlet Jewel and Vintage Cream
• Patterned Papers: PTI Aqua Mist Bitty Dots and Berry Sorbet In Bloom
• Accessories: CTMH Pearls, PTI White Silk Ribbon
• Tools: Fiskars Scalloped Scissors

Thanks for coming back for If the Shoe Fits… Scrap it! challenge #21!

This week we are having fun with a color challenge, just in time for the upcoming Valentine’s Day! Have you guessed the colors yet?! RED, PINK and WHITE. Ok, yes, I have Kraft cardstock as my base, but I couldn’t resist myself, it just worked so well!  I had some fun playing with some of my new Papertrey Ink goodies — Through The Trees and Background Basics: Hearts. I put off buying the heart set in December but quickly realized that it was a must have. I did the same thing with this months new Background Basics: Petal Power, but am pretty sure that it will be on the list for next month {Mostly because of this card HERE}!

For those of you who actually clicked on the link to see the inspirational card — Becky, is an amazing artist! Always love her cards and I think most of the time her creations have something new and different that I have never seen before. I love it when it works out that way :)

Other challenges I used were for:

• Crafty Creations: Wings
• Papertake Weekly: Love Actually Theme
• Pollycraft Challenge: Things with Wings :)

Hope that you all will find some time to play along with our color challenge this week!

Enjoy those whom you love!

Over at the CARDS blog, Paige is challenging us to create a Valentine without red or pink. I say, yay! to this one because I rarely use those colors in my valentines for my hubby. It just isn’t his thing. And since he is an artist, I need to make sure that my card will be impressive versus ‘cutesy.’ So here is my little card, made special just for him! Don’t you just love this color combo, this stamp set (Giga Guidlines) and just how simple it is? Those are all of the reasons I love it, anyway…

The other challenges I used for this card are from Pile It On, to use Non Wintery Colors; Creative Card Crew, to create a Valentine; Easy Craft Projects challenge to create a Valentine for a man; Paper Sundaes Valentine theme challenge. The way I do challenges is that I sit down each day and make a list of all of my favorite challenges and their link. Then when i am working on a project, I try to incorporate the challenges in for inspiration. Of course, this week was pretty easy because many were for Valentine’s!

Other than create this card, today I reorganized my scrap area (much needed) and I realized something… I AM ADDICTED TO BUTTONS! Seriously, I never knew how many buttons I have; now I know that the next time I see a totally adorable set of buttons that I can’t live without… I will remember that I CAN live without them, in order to give life to those just sitting and waiting for me to beautify them! I couldn’t resist taking a snapshot of my button collection so you can see what I mean… Keep in mind, these are only the buttons I am keeping out and available to myself. The rest are still in bags and jars, stashed away until they are needed again {perhaps in another decade or so, heh}

This is how I reorganized my bags of buttons that were recently purchased over at PTI! Grabbed these adorable little glass jars for a great price over at ROSS.

Here is my ‘old’ way of organizing my buttons, before I had a crazy collection… these are still precious to me and will still be used though:

Here is a close up of the detail to the card (before I decided to add the ribbon):

• Cardstock:  PTI Kraft & Rustic White and CTMH Chocolate
• Inks: CTMH Juniper, Honey, Sweet Leaf and Chocolate
• Stamps: PTI Giga Guidelines, PTI Take Note, My Cute Stamps – Ashley’s Blossoms, PTI Polka Dot Basics II
• Accessories: Misc. Honey Button, PTI White Silk 1/4″ Ribbon
• Tools: Fiskars Scalloped Scissors

Hey hey,

Welcome to my first week on the Design Team for If the Shoe Fits… Scrap It! I am excited that my first challenge with the team is definitely a challenging one. This week, create something VINTAGE! I very rarely scrap in this style, so it was fun and new to me. I really enjoyed breaking out the accessories that I consider vintage. I literally just went through my stuff and pulled out everything: Lace, Pearls, Hemp, Distressed Papers, Light Pinks, Doilies, etc. It was a fun time (…that is until I had to put it all away again!). Card Patterns had a great sketch (as always) this week so I couldn’t resist sneaking that into the challenge list…

In my January Project Kit from Scarlet Lime, I got these adorable paper punch outs from Pink Paislee. They have a bunch of cute Valentine sayings on them and this Potion No. 9 tag looked vintage to me with the light pink plaid, etc. I think that this card would also be adorable with a cute baby image or saying for a Baby Shower! You know what I found out about Doilies!? They can really be used year round! You don’t have to be creating a Valentine in order to use them (which was my previous mindset). I am totally excited to use these more, but feel free to let me know if I am using them too often :)

If anyone has any photography tips for projects with shiny accessories, such as buttons, pearls, rhinestones… let me know! I feel like the pearls on this card came out a bit blurry and too glowy (is that a word?). I don’t have a fancy camera, just my precious Canon Powershot — I do love my camera but sometimes have a tough time taking photos of my creations.

I hope that you all will join If the Shoe Fits… for this challenge! Would love to get more vintage ideas for the future! Happy Creating!

• Patterned Paper: K & Company Mat Deck
• Cardstock: PTI Rustic White and Lavendar
• Accessories: Wilton 4″ Doily, PTI Twine and Button, CTMH Cocoa Eyelets, Pearls, Pink Paislee Punch Outs
• Tools: Fiskars Border Punch, The Big Bite (eyelet setter), Foam Squares
• Technique: Distressing with Scissors
• Challenge: Card Patterns Sketch #48