What a THRILL

Well, here I am with the biggest and happiest event for me this year and my computer crashes, I kid you not!!!!! And, it happens right as I am getting the news that I didn't get the job I interviewed for on Monday!! So needless to say, I ironed 5 shirts like a mad woman, had the sniffles, and then tried my computer again and here I am!!!! lol

Let me just say it is an absolute thrill for me to have been chosen as the Guest Designer for the Midnight Madness Team for the month of September. The talent of all the participants in the weekly challenges by the players is amazing. I enjoy looking at everyone's creations. They inspire my own creativity so very much. I hope to return the favor to you in the month of September and can't wait to see what you have in store.

I am going to savor the pleasure of being able to work with a dynamite creative Design Team at Midnight Madness and wrap myself in the pleasure of their friendship and encouragement. It is going to be an exciting time for me and I wish to thank you all for giving me this opportunity. I will truly cherish it!

Carol

Double Challenge Vintage Halloween

When I woke up this morning, there were certain things I knew I wanted to accomplish....like laundry, make the beds, bake a lemon chiffon cake, and do the Midnight Madness Challenge. When I saw that the challenge at Splitcoast Stampers this morning for the "Way to Use It" was vintage, I knew I just had to combine the two.
My card today was layered four times. I used clear liquid embossing on all the images. The pumpkins are stickers from K & Company and I liquid embossed them as well. I crochet the flowers on this card and put a rhinestone in the middle that matches the rhinestones I applied on the sizzx swirl. The Martha Stewart branch punch was used to accent the flowers as well.

The paper used in this card is called the Indian Summer Fall Stack that I got at JoAnn's a few weeks ago. It is just full of the most luscious colors for fall. You are going to want to get a couple of these for your stash.

I hope you enjoyed viewing my card. Don't forget to join us at Midnight Madness for lots of fun and fabulous prizes. There is even cash up for grabs. Who couldn't use a little cash for those trips to JoAnn's and Michael's....lol Thanks and have a great day.

Carol

Project Tuesday Treat Boxes

Today's project was something I saw on Project Tuesday. I needed a little something more for the gifts I am giving at the ladies birthday luncheon tomorrow for my craft club. We have two celebrating a birthday in August. Above you see these boxes I made with the directions found here on Project Tuesday. I kind of tweeked my boxes to match the projects that I already had made so that they would match my projects that I already had done. Tomorrow I intend to fill these with candy and put them in their gift bag. I did put acrylic windows in my boxes. The pink gift box matches a set I posted on my blog here last Tuesday for Digital Two for Tuesday. That little girl is a free vintage digital design.
This is a picture of one of the gift sets I am giving one of the ladies. It is a 3 x 3 box of gift cards, a tea bag holder, a candy holder box, the gift bag and a tag. I have a feeling they may be wanting me to teach a class after seeing this....what do you think? lol

Hope every one is having a "Terrific Tuesday"!! I'll be back with another project again soon.

Carol

Painted Grid Technique Card

This card is a result of the "Technique Lovers" challenge at Splitcoast Stampers. It is something called painted grid. You can find the directions for how to do this here. I used drywall tape and gold acrylic paint on all my papers that you see here. It gets nice and messy doing this and I thought I was back in kindergarten. I just used lots of wax paper for a nice easy clean up. I love the design it puts on your paper. So pretty. Hope you will give it a try.

Stamp- Inkadinkado
Ink- Memento brown Versa Mark
Paper- Pocket full of Posies
Accessories- Nesties labels, black embossing powder, gold brads, ribbon, stickles, brayer, gold acrylic paint.

Thanks for looking and as always, I cherish each and every one of your comments!

Carol

Holly Berry House Medallion

I made this card a couple of weeks ago for Virtual Stamp night at Splitcoast Stampers. The challenge was to use your "knife" supplies to slice and dice for this challenge. I decided to go all out slicing and dicing by using this Holly Berry House Medallion. I stamped it 6 times, embossed with gold and diced them up. Pop dotted each layer. Used the swiss dot embossing folder for the background. Even though this is suppose to be vintage lace stamp, the color combo makes it look like I cooked up some "Chinese" cuisine!!!! Thanks for looking. This was a blast to do.

Holly Berry House Vintage Lace Medallion stamp
Gold embossing powder
Red, black, white card stock
Gold brads
Ribbon
Background black and white paper from "A Formal Affair"

Thank you Liz

Liz over at Right Brain Madness gave me this award. It is always so flattering and humbling to be recognized by your peers. I really appreciate it so very much!

To accept the award I had to do a few things:

*Thank the person who nominated me for this award.

*Copy the logo and place it on my blog.

*Link the person who nominated me for this award.

*Name seven things about me that people might find interesting.

*Post links to the seven blogs that I nominate.

*Leave comments of all seven blogs letting them know I nominated them.
Seven things interesting about me:
1) After 10 years of a job I loved as an AVP/Branch Manager of a bank I was laid off in January 2009. Still need a job if anyone needs a really hard dedicated worker. lol
2) I absolutely adore jewelry....the larger the better, especially bracelets and brooches.
3) I love sports especially football and baseball. Can be seen on the golf course occasionally and own my very own pink fish pole complete with flashing lights. I'm pretty good at skeet shooting and target practice.
4) I decorate my house for each of the different seasons and holidays. Right now I have a "Back to School" theme.
5) I love Aerosmith....my favorite band....ever!!!
6) I like to cook and bake
7) I love tea accoutrements
I will come back to edit this post when I find 7 people to award this to. Thanks again Liz for my blog award!

MMSC#15 Sparkling Snowflake Medallion

Here is the sketch for this weeks Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #15. Come join the fun with Priscilla and her wonderful and talented Design Team members. There is a lot of exciting fun, prices, and yes, even cash give-a-ways. You don't want to miss it.
Here is my card for this weeks challenge. Let me tell you how hard it was to photograph this thing. I must have taken 30 pictures to finally decide on this one. It has so much glitz and bling; and it is hard to see really how shiny this is. I showed the Medallion to my son Wesley when I was working on it last night, and he thought it was one of my brooches. lol He said it looked like a piece of jewelry.....and yes, I would probably wear something like this. I love brooches that are 3 inches wide and more. The bigger the better. I like my brooch to enter the room before me!!! hahahaha

Back to the card. This medallion is a freebe at Fred, She Said. Isn't it just gorgeous. It's a digital design that you can color yourself, change the size, or anything your imagination can provide. I attached rhinestones to all the little circles on mine. I pop dotted in three layers and covered it with stickles. I sugared my blue card stock with silver glitter. The snowflakes are a punch from last years Martha Stewart line. I actually got it in the clearance section at Walmart after Christmas. Everything is mounted on silver card stock and I used eyelets in the center of the snowflakes and tied an iridescent bow.

I hope you enjoyed looking at this creation. It was great fun putting it together and wonderful to add another Christmas card to my stash. Have a wonderful Saturday. See you again soon.

Carol

Three Challenge Bear

What a fun day today putting this together for three challenges. When I read at Splitcoast Stampers that the Way to Use it Challenge was to have something fuzzy on your card, I knew I had to do one of my paper pieced bears in curly felt. The second challenge that caught my eye was the Charisma Cards Thursday. It was a color challenge today using lemon, green, and pink. Don't you think those are just yummy summer colors? The third challenge at Eat Sleep Stamp was this sketch challenge:This was just so much fun to put together today. I used one of my own bear patterns and pieced this bear. I cut out my ovals with nesties, the corner treatment with a cuddlebug die, and the swirl florishes with a sizzx die. The flowers were crocheted by me with embroidery floss and I attached a pearl brad in the center. I have had that daisy ribbon forever and I cut off a couple of the flowers to dress up the bear. I used my Martha Stewart branch punch to accent the flowers. The sentiment is from Penny Black and the background was cut from a square nestie. The rhinestones are from the dollar bin at Michael's. All and all this was a fun card. Hope you enjoyed stopping in today. I appreciate it!!
Carol

Paper Pieced Penguin

Here we are in the most hazy, hottest, humid weather in Georgia...and I am thinking cool, frosty, penguins. Don't you love watching the nature shows with these adorable little guys swimming and playing in their tuxedos!!! This card was created for the Our Creative Corner challenge. Their challenge is "Christmas in August". Also there is a message as follows:

Last week we announced we are looking for a few girls to join the OCC Design Team. If you are interested in a spot, please leave your name HERE and include DT after your name. You will have until August 20th to apply, we then will announce the NEW DT September 1st.

How exciting!!! Good luck to everyone trying out.

No stamping today except for the sentiment. I love to paper piece. It's like putting a puzzle together. This penguin was paper pieced, the snowflakes are a punch. I did some faux stitching and glittered things up with stickles. The sentiment is something I got last year and don't remember the company or name. It was before I knew keeping all that stuff was important. Thanks for stopping by today and come join us in the challenge. It's great to get some Christmas cards done now, so that you are not rushing when Christmas is here!

Carol

Digital Two for Tuesday Guest Designer Projects

Greetings and welcome to my Digital Two for Tuesday's Guest Designer Submissions. I am just so beside myself with excitement. It has been a dream to be a Guest or Team member and here I am. So many thanks go to Cora for helping me make my dream come true. I had the best time creating these projects. Cora has just wonderful vintage images and she has two up every Tuesday on her blog for you to try. I wanted to show what can be done with digital images. They are so versatile. You can resize them to fit any project you wish to create. I wanted this to look like it came from an old magazine or book, so after I printed my images, I colored them with pencils, blended with baby oil. Then I sponged Rangers Distressing Ink in Tea dye all over the whole paper than heavily misted with water. I misted well, so that I had to let the paper dry overnight, then I ironed on the wrong side in the morning to flatten it out. I really like how it came out.

The above picture shows a gift collection put together with the fishing boy image. The box to the left is something I picked up at the dollar store a while back and I altered it. I was thinking how little boys always have pockets full of stuff....like marbles, rocks, coins, gum, baseball cards, plus you never know what other stuff...and they need a place to put them for safe keeping. It was pretty easy to do. I just measured all the sides and cut my paper to fit. To the right is a box of 3 x 3 note cards. You can find the tutorial for that here. I shrunk the image down small enought to fit on these. The gift bag is just a kraft bag that I altered along with the shipping tag that is tied on the handle. On the back side is a To: and From: stamped area for your sentiment. On the image on the box, I used liquid embossing in Antique Glass finish.
Here is a close up of the 3 x 3 cards with envelopes. I used my square nesties to cut the squares and used foam squares to pop these for dimension. I used stickles around the edges for some qlitz. I also lined the envelopes to match. The green ribbon is from the dollar bin at Michael's. The flowers are prima and I punched the centers with a Marvey punch from scraps of the green I used and attached together with brads. The leaves and branches are Martha Stewart punches. I also used the tea dye distress ink around the edges of the cards.


Here we have a girl gift set. When I looked at this pretty little girl for the first time I thought for sure I was looking at Shirley Temple!!! The left item with the "Smile" sentiment is a tea bag holder. It holds two tea bags. You can find the tutorial here. The purse to the left holds 3 x 3 gift cards as well. The middle gift is two bottles of bath and body that I created a belly band for and I tied another altered To, From tag on one of the bottles.As you can see in this picture, I used Velcro for the closure o the purse. The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch. The flourish is from sizzix. Again I used my Marvey flower punch for the center on the prima flowers and a brad to attach altogether. The pearl brad for the purse clasps comes from Michael's. I need to look up where I got this template for the purse. I will be back later today with the link.

I would like to invite you to Cora's Digital Two for Tuesday's blog to participate in the challenge. If you would like to recreate any of these projects and require help, please do not hesitate to let me know. I would be happy to assist you. I can't wait to see what you come up with. Be sure to leave a comment on Cora's Blog and post you card or projects.

MMSC#14 3 x 3 Sunflower Note Card Box

If you have been following my blog or stopping by frequently, you know I play the Midnight Madness Challenge over at Priscilla's Blog. This week I thought her sketch was pretty easy. So to make it a true challenge for myself, I thought I would up it a level and do the sketch 3 x 3. I always like to pile on the embellishments and this allowed me to do it!!! Pictured above is the actual outside of the box.
This is a picture of one of the actual gift cards that goes inside the box. As you can see in the photo, I have lined the envelope as well.
I made four cards and envelopes for this. You can see one of the cards lying in the bottom of the box. You can get the tutorial to do this box if you click here. It will take you to the resources page at Splitcoast Stampers where it gives you all the information to make one of these for yourself.

Here is another close up of the actual card. Now, I don't know what to tell you about the stamp. I just got it in the mail yesterday and I purchased it off of ebay. I really thought it was larger than it is 2-1/2 x 1-3/4 and there is no name or manufacturer on it. If someone knows any info on it, I would appreciate it. I colored it with pencils and stickled the flowers and the checkboard border. The border punch is from EK Success. I used black and goldenrod cardstock. The dp is an olive green and I do not know who makes it either...sorry. It was from an old stash.

Don't forget to stop on over at the Midnight Madness Blog for all the fun and prizes. Priscilla will be announcing the winner of the Big Shot soon and there are more prizes to come. Thanks for stopping by and as always your comments are appreciated.

VSN Challenge Soup-Hydrangea

Good morning!!! Have you wondered where I have been? Well, I will admit to working very hard on my Guest Design spot over at Cora's Digital Two for Tueday's. So being the excited person that I am about my very first opportunity as a Guest Designer, I went all out for this one. Please stayed tuned for Tuesday to see what is in store. I am thrilled to have been able to work with Cora for this and I can't thank her enough for having me. Make sure to drop on by this week, she has an excellent image for you to play with.

Today's card is from last nights Virtual Stamp Night at Split Coast Stampers. They are just so much fun, I have to join in. I like having challenges sprung on you and the time limit. I think it is the surprise element and the concept of having to wing it under pressure that is so much fun to me. I just love it.

Our challenge was to make Orchid Soup-which was a flower with a circle for our "bowl". I picked this image from Rubber Stampede and some nesties to come up with this design. I used my EK Success border punch, rhinestones, ribbon, stickles, JoAnn's Essentials book plate, and my computer for the sentiment. This was just a blast. Don't forget it starts back up today at noon time for the kiddies and runs until 10 p.m. Hope to see you there!

Debbie Mumm Halloween

This card used one of the pages from Debbie Mumm's Harvest Holiday stacks. These Halloween images are glittered. Debbie's papers are gorgeous this year. I used a black shiny paper from AC Specialty Papers cut with a square scalloped nestie for the square behind the image. Stuck on some orange rhinestones that I picked up from Michael's in their Halloween crafting section. The web was done with a Martha Stewart border punch. This card was so fast and easy to make. I hope you enjoyed viewing it today and will make one yourself! Thanks.

MMSC#13 Falling Leaves

I am thinking of a Barbara Streisand song called "New York State of Mind". I am in a "Fall State of Mind". It all started with the plans to do the Pumpkin Sugar Quilt. I was picking my fabrics out for my quilt from my stash and realizing just how much I love fall colors. So being in a "Fall State of Mine" I just had to make this card for this weeks Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge over at Priscilla's Blog. Don't forget to head on over and sign up for all the amazing prizes being offered there. You have until August 14 to sign up for the Blog Candy posted in my sidebar.

This is a Son Light Impressions stamp and has been stamped three times and layered. The leaves were from "A Whale of a Punch". I drew in the veins and distressed the edges and glittered them up. The background squares are from Cuddlebug and are in a set of four called "Vintage". The background paper is from this years Debbie Mumm Holiday Harvest Stack. I used my scalloped and plain oval nesties and embroidered the card in copper.

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you have a great weekend.

Matching Craft Items-CC230 Challenge

First, I will talk about this card I made to go with an afghan I finished today. This was made for today's color challenge at splitcoast stampers. The colors were Close to Cocoa, Blush Blossom, Certainly Celery, Cameo Coral, Whisper White. I used my cuddlebug argyle embossing folder for the background and distressed with memento ink. The rose is an Anita stamp and I used my nestibilities dies. Very quick and easy. The Happy Birthday frame is from JoAnn's.
This afghan was started in February when I got really sick with Bronchitis and I was almost finished and just didn't feel like working on it. I usually have a closet that I keep my homemade afghans in so that I can bring or give one to someone I know who is sick. Sometimes, I donate them to a charity for fund raising as well. My closet has been empty. So I am so happy to have finished this. What got me started was I joined a craft club last night and I have been working on this for 3 days to finish it. I am so excited because my next project is going to be a "Thimbleberries" Sugar Pumpkin wall quilt. We had a choice of a table runner or a wall quilt. I love thimbleberries and the fall fabric colors. I have my fabric all picked out from my stash except I need to get some browns. I plan on maybe picking them up tomorrow. How fun to combine these two crafts. I will be sharing more of my duo crafts in the future. Pattern is from "A Year of Afghans 2000" and is called Rosey Wrap on page 68.

Thanks for stopping by and checking what I have been up to. It sure is appreciated and please leave me a comment so I know what you think.

Have a great evening.
Carol

Paint Chip Overdose

Most of this card is made with paint chips. Do you know how much variety and texture there is out there in paint chips....it is amazing. I made this card for three challenges. The Virtual Stamp Night was held this past Saturday and that challenge was to use the paint chips...it so intrigued me. Over at My Grafico the challenge was to make a baby card. And, at The Cuddlebug Spot the challenge is to make a card with your favorite embossing folders. Why don't you check it out and join in. They have several prizes and one of them is all the new releases from CHA of the Cuddlebug embossing folders...WOW!!!

For the card:
Punched and assembled flowers from the paint chips
Punched the lace with Martha Stewart border punch and assembled
Punched the florish from a Cuddlebug die (sorry I don't know the name of it) Michael's has them right now for $9.99 reduced from $20.99 and they are gorgeous.
PSX Bear Stamp colored with pencils and blended
Cuddlebug Swirl embossing folder and the flowers from the "Frills" collection
Bow and tag stamped with "Baby" from a dollar bin stamp from "JoAnne's

Hope you enjoyed looking at today's card. I want to welcome my new followers to my blog. I sure do appreciate and look forward to you comments. Thank you so much for taking the time to visit me.

Carol

What's Cooking?

What's cooking at your neck of the woods? I think I am going to a baseball game tonight if we don't get our daily dose of horrendous thunder showers. Today's card was for the Inspiration Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers. Our inspiration was to be taken from the aprons at Heavenly Hostess. You just have to click on that link and see the gorgeous aprons over there. The cocktail aprons are pretty enough to wear to a party!!!

I drew out these aprons and little pockets that I placed on pop dots. All the cooking implements were cut from a card someone sent me years ago that I just loved and knew I would use for a project...well today was the day! I put those on pop dots as well. This was a fairly simple card but it took me forever to get my aprons right. I did faux stitching around them and the pockets. The lace is made with a Martha Stewart border punch and I stickled all the little food and utensils for some bling. Hope you enjoyed looking at this. Come on over to SCS and play in this challenge. Thanks for stopping by.

Carol