Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #34 Fred She Said Sunflower

Greetings everyone! Well, it is freezing here this morning in Georgia. I am not wearing shorts. This is one of only a few days out of the year you won't find me in my shorts...LOL The temperature is below freezing and we have had to run the water all night so the pipes don't freeze!!!

Today's card is for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. This digi image is from Fred She Said. I love Sunflowers....completely adore them. They are bright and sunny and put a smile on my face every time I see one.
To make the portion of the sketch that looks like a half flower, I used my spellbinders Sunflower Die and cut two of each size sunflowers and cut them up to create what you see here. I used the leaf die as well. The corner treatments are a sizzx die.
I glued some seed beads in the center of the Sunflower and used lots of glitter stickles on the flowers. The focal point and the Sunflowers are distressed with Rangers Tea Dye ink. You can see all my 3D layering on this as well.

Here is the inside of my card. I have a confession to make. For the first 6 months of this year...I did not finish off my cards on the inside...can you imagine??? I had to take one whole week this summer and finish them off. I said never again after trying to hunt papers to match for hours on end!!! So I make sure to finish the insides or I do not consider my card complete.

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Congratulations to our winners this week!!!!

Our Gold Star Winner for MMSC33 is:

#8 Christina C.

Our Remarkables are:
#1 Peggy Elms
#18 Gunn aka Mrs. Plum
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This Week's Sketch Challenge:

Don't forget to enter your name and link to your card in Mr. Linky at Priscillastyles. Thanks for stopping in today to visit. I hope to be back with more creations this week.

Snowman With Lights and Snowflakes

Greetings to one and all. This is a card that I made for my Mom for Christmas. I thought she needed something fun as she is not doing well right now. She is on steroids and antibiotics and having problems breathing. She has COPD which really knocks her down always in the Winter back in ConnecticutThis is Snowman Lights stamp by Stampdenous. It happens to be one of my favorite snowman stamps. I colored it with pencils. I also happened upon the loopy punch around the page set at Walmart a couple of weeks ago marked down to $5....that to me seems like a steal. This is the first I used it....but I really love it, so it won't be the last. I used lots and lots of glitter on this--all Martha Stewart brand. The snowflake is from spellbinders and the paper is from Debbie Mumm Holiday Stack. A fun card with nice bright colors!!!

Gingerbread House with Recipes

Here is a Gingerbread Card I made with the Martha Stewart Peppermint punch. I really love that peppermint punch. For a person like me that likes to do a lot of Gingerbread cards, I am going to get a lot of use out of that punch!!!

Here is the inside of my card. There are 12 cookie recipes from my personal collection in this card. The lace is another new Martha stewart punch that punches this pretty lace with one punch. Its quite a large punch, but I love the look you get. The images are stickers I got from Walmart.

I made two pockets to hold all the recipes in this card nicely. The tags are double sided and are decorated on both sides as well. Hope you have enjoyed looking at this Gingerbread creation. Now for more pictures of my home!!!

This picture was taken in my formal dining room looking into my formal living room. This again is my Gingerbread Tree.

Here is a close up of some of my Gingerbread Ornaments. This is such a fun tree. I have been collecting Gingerbread type things for around 5-6 years now.


Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate it. I'll be back again tomorrow with one more Christmas Card I think and that will be it. I have a few more decorations to share as well!!!

Carol

Fred She Said Emma With Chickadee Shaker Card

Hi readers....I trust that you all had a very Merry Christmas and enjoyed your time with friends and family. Over the next couple of day, I have a couple more Christmas Cards to share with you and then it is on to something different for a while for the New Year. I know by now you will probably be sick of seeing Christmas cards...but I never am. They are my favorite to make.
This is just one of those images I cannot get enough of!!! Tracy from Fred She Said does a wonderful job with her digital images. Click on my sidebar to go to her blog and see more of her wonderful digis. I used silver stickles on this for accent and love the way it looks.Here is the inside of the card. The snowflake is an actual Christmas tree ornament that can easily be removed from the card and hung on your Christmas Tree. I used Ranger distress Broken China ink and the Martha Stewart snowflake border punch. The big snowflake is the Snowflake die from Spellbinders.
Here is a picture of my foyer. I did the decorations in a winter wonderland theme....all white lights and snowflakes, ice and silver. I cut the heads off my dolls in this picture on top of my quilt rack. Sorry!!! My husband made me two of these gigantic quilt racks....I love them!!!This is the other side of the foyer going into my formal living room where my Gingerbread Tree is that you can see here. Hope you have enjoyed some of my Christmas scenery. I will have more pictures tomorrow! Thanks for dropping in...I appreciate it.

Carol

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #33

Love and joy come to you, And to you your wassail, too,
And God bless you, and send you A Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year!

Sending all of you and your families my fondest wish for a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Today's card for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge is a wonderful design from Fred She Said. Tracey has the most awesome digital stamps. I just fall in love with everyone of them. I will have a couple more coming soon as I am still doing some Christmas cards. I invite you to stop by her store and take a look at all the wonderful images she has....you will be delighted!!!
Here is the inside of my card. I love the image so much, I repeated it many times on this card. You can't see in the photo, but I did glitter it a lot and used the frosted lace stickles for the candle drippings. I felt this image was very nostalgic so I used the Rangers tea dye ink for highlights on this card. Please check the sketch out at "Priscillastyles" and join us in this weeks challenge!

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Congratulations to our Midnight Madness Awards this week they are as follows:

Our Gold Star Winner Winner this week is:
#13 Teri Sherman

Our Remarkables this week are:
#20 Sue Drees
#21 Gunn aka Mrs. Plum

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OUR MONTHLY BONUS SPONSOR FOR DECEMBER IS.....

OUR WEEKLY BONUS SPONSOR FOR MMSC33 IS.....

Priscilla of "Priscillastyles"
Priscilla will be providing a stamp set to one lucky winner

Penguins on Parade

Don't you just love Penguins. They are naturally dressed in their Christmas finery for the Holidays with their tuxedo coloring. This guy is no exception. I paper pieced this little fellow and added lots of frosty glittered snowflakes. This year I have really used my Spellbinders Snowflake dies. I really love this snowflake pictured here and made many of them and have glittered all of them. I can't seem to get enough glitter!!!!
This is the inside of the card. This penguin paper is actually last years Debbie Mumm stack. The larger penguins were on one of the sheets. It's really pretty paper and perfect with my paper pieced penguin. The little penguin on the envelope is from Michael's on their end cap display where all the .99 cent stickers are.I thought I would share some more decorations from my home again today. This is the bottom shelf of my bookcase in my foyer. The Christmas Tree is battery operated and lights up. It is from the Boyds Bear Collection that was produced and distributed by "The Danbury Mint". You can see my little Boyds Bear Train in front of it. Of course, the plush bears are also Boyds and I must say are so soft and cuddly when you hold them. The frames hold pictures of my boys visiting Santa when they were younger.....so precious!!!!

Thanks for stopping by. I have been busy baking cookies. I made several dozen....I think something like 10 dozen of Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip cookies. Mmmm, I will be dieting the first of the year!!! LOL

Carol

Have a Beary Merry Christmas

You know sooner or later a Bear was going to show up here for Christmas!!! Oh my, I have missed my bear cards. I paper pieced this little fellow and used the MS branch punch to dress him up for Christmas!!!! Oh, how I love this guy!!!! I made my presents out of glitter felt and ribbon.Here is the inside of my card. I made the bear on the inside a Christmas Tree Ornament. All you do is untie the bow and he is ready to hang on your tree. I made him on chipboard and put felt on the back to finish him off. I did the presents again for the other side.
Here he is....my little guy. My husband says I am a big kid sometimes. He found me in bed reading my "Night Before Christmas" pop up book last night. I will have to take some pictures of it. As a paper crafter I am amazed by the pop-up images in it. Stayed tuned tomorrow.Those of you that visit know I am a bear lover/collector. I have 4 themed trees up this year in my home. I didn't put the Star War's one up this year. This is my Boyds Bear tree. It is filled with stuffed bears and Boyds Bear Ornaments. There are gold glitter snowflakes, sequined ornaments, and small blown glass ornaments as well.Just like my cards.....don't you think I really embellished this tree!!!!! LOL What can I say....I LOVE STUFF!!!! Ha, I just noticed you can see some tags....as a collector you are never suppose to take the tags off you know....YIKES.LOL I have been collecting since 1988-guess in a few years these might be Vintage...LOL At the very top of this picture you can see my Grinch....I always put something unusual on my theme tree to make it interesting...LOL

Thanks for stopping by. If anyone knows if there are other Bloggers who are Boyds Bear Lovers like me, would you kindly let me know. Thanks.
Carol

Kitty Cat in a Mitten Card

Next to fall, Christmas is my favorite time of year. Do you like vintage Christmas things. I was just on the internet and found some blogs that participate in Vintage Christmas Monday for the month of December. It was fun to visit some of the blogs. I must return when I have more time. Anything goes on these blogs....could be old Christmas Pictures, decorations...whatever...I even saw some old toys. I had a good laugh when I came across some ornaments dated 1979....I'm thinking really now....that is vintage??? Boy, am I getting old...LOL

I have been trying different things for my Christmas Cards. This is a paper pieced pattern that I came up with recently. It is a kitty cat in a mitten. I made the little mittens hanging on the clothesline to match.

Here is the inside of my card. I surrounded my sentiment with the mittens again and used really tiny clothespins to attach them to the clothes line.

I just think these mittens are so cute I had to include another picture of them! I just love paper piecing. I have a couple more to show you soon. I did a bear dressed like a Christmas tree and a Penguin with a hat and scarf that is adorable....so check back this week for the pictures.

I thought I would share a picture with you today of my Christmas decorations above my sink...now who wouldn't want to do dishes when you have all these pretty Gingerbreads to look at. Sorry for the flashback there from the flash on my window. I want to post some pictures of my Christmas Trees but it has been dark and cloudy here for over a week. I will try again soon.
Have a wonderful day.

Carol

Midnight Madness Challenge #31 Blog Hop

Midnight Madness Christmas Blog Hop

Welcome to our Midnight madness Christmas Blog Hop. We know this is a busy time of year for everyone so we are including our blog hop with our regular weekly Challenge MMSC #31. We invite you to participate in our challenge by making a card from our fabulous sketch and to be inspired by the projects on our blogs and make a matching ornament or small project. You are not required to do the project, but it would be a treat for us to see what you come up with and we would love it !!! You also do not have to do the sketch to participate in the blog hop. As an added bonus, we are going to do something a little different this time around. Each of our Design Team is offering up their card and project as a prize. WOW, a chance to own a Midnight Madness Card and design!!!

1 Blog Hop GRAND Prize Drawing
12 Design Team Featured Card with Ornament Small Project Random Drawing
1 PRETTY PAPER Christmas Card drawing from the 12 Highlighted on Each DT Blog from the MMSC #28

You have until Tuesday, December 15, 2009 12 p.m. Midnight EST to enter your MMSC#31 in Mr. Linky at Priscilla's Midnight Madness Blog as always to be eligible for the Regular Weekly Bonus Prize.

If you would like your name entered in for the MIDNIGHT MADNESS BLOG HOP PRIZES, you will have to follow the directions below.....

1. To be eligible for the Blog Hop Grand Prize, 12 Design Team Card/Project Drawing, and Pretty Paper drawing; you must leave a comment on each of the Designer's Blogs during your journey through the Hop. once your name has been chosen, we will check to make sure you have commented on each blog before you are notified.

2. Enter your name and the words BLOG HOP in Mr. Linky, to be eligible for the Blog Hop prizes. As an added bonus, if you do the sketch you can enter your link to your card/project and have tow entry chances for the prizes.

3. In order to have a chance at winning any of the prizes, except for the Regular Weekly Bonus, you must gather a secret phrase along the Blog hop. Each Design Team Member will have a particular word or words listed on their blog and as long as you visit them in order, you will have the secret phrase at the end. If you are picked as a Prize winner you will be contacted by email and you must email back the secret phrase WITHIN 48 HOURS to claim your prize. If there is not response within the 48 hours time frame, another winner will be chosen until all prizes are awarded. To start off, you must being at Priscilla's Midnight Madness Blog! If you have not started there, I suggest you go back and begin again..l.you don't want to miss out on the Prizes! if you have arrived from Jane-The Paper Affair then you are on the correct course.
If you want a chance to win you will have to follow the instructions listed above. Thank you and have fun on the Hop.

If you would like to be considered for the Christmas Blog Hop Prizes, and you DO NOT have a blog, you still can participate. You will have to follow the directions below.....

1. Leave a comment on the Midnight Madness Blog Hop comment section with your email address, first name and last name initial.
2. lLink up to Mr. Linky with first name, last name initial, the words BLOG HOP and in the URL space enter this address http://priscillastyles.blogspot.com/

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Pretty Paper Christmas Card Picks

Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbon of Blue,
Wrap your presents to your darling from you,
Pretty pencils to write I love you,
Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons of Blue.

My Pretty Paper pick is Kerri Michaud's Rockin" Christmas. This is just the sweetest image for Christmas. To me Christmas is all about Children and their wide eyed wonderment in all the lights and festivities, the excitement of Santa, and the innocence of hopes and dreams. When my boys were younger my husband and I did some very creative things to keep the magic in Christmas for them. Thank you Kerri for participating and good luck in the drawing!!!

For something Festive for the Season we want to feature our favorite cards from MMSC#28 to honor our Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge Players who played along with us that week. Our Pretty Paper card choices will need to do the blog hop, leave a comment at each of the Design Team Blogs, and collect a word from each of the blogs visited for the winning phrase and place their name in Mr. Linky with "BLOG HOP" after their name at Priscilla's Midnight Madness Blog! We will enter your name in a drawing for one winner form our 12 entries. We will email you when we verify that you have entered your name in Mr. Linky and have left a comment on each of the Design Team Blogs, you will need to email back the phrase in order to qualify for your prize. Even if your card has been chosen for the "Pretty Paper" you are still eligible for the other prizes.

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My Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge MMSC#31 and Ornament

Hi Y'all!!! That's how we say it here in Georgia....kinda different for me seeing how I am from Connecticut and say...Hey youse guys!!! LOL My boys catch me all the time slipping into my New England accent and I have to straighten myself out. Today's MMSC#31 is "Purple". Does anyone else besides me find that purple is hard to photograph? Yikes!
What I did was cut a piece of white paper 5-1/2 x 5-1/2 and I tore in diagonal sort of down the middle to create my hills. I took some liberties with the sketch because the half rounds and the wintry theme were speaking to me!!!!They overlap here and I covered the entire white paper with Martha Stewart Tinsel Glitter.Here is the inside of my card. I really like making cards that include something useful in them. So I made this pocket and these tags as part of my project to match.

Here is a close up of the tags that come with this lovely card. I silver embossed the snowflakes you see in the background.Here is a close up of the Christmas Ornament I made to match my card. If I didn't have all the tags in the pocket, I could have put this in the card as a gift as well. I hope you have enjoyed my card, tags, and ornament.
Each design team member is offering their cards and projects as blog candy. For a chance to win my card and ornament, please just leave a comment on this post as well as my other Design Team Sister's. If you do not have a blog, please leave your email address and name (first and last) in the comment as well. A winner will be randomly chosen after our Blog Hop is over on 12/15. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, 12/16.

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Our Monthly Sponsor for December is:

Fran from the Frantic Stamper Inc. is the sponsor of our Monthly Bonus Prize Winner. You can visit Fran at her store at the Frantic Stamper Inc, your #1 source for rubberstamping and scrapbooking supplies. Friendly one-on-one service since 1996!! You can read about their store upgrading to a 6000 square feet warehouse with many new products at Frantic Stamper Happenings. Fran is offering a MEGA package worth $250 to one of you lucky players this month! Frantic Stamper is also an official vendor for Martha Stewart products and has the Largest Selection of punches online. Please browse the tremendous selection of scrapbooking and card making supplies at her shop. Wow, here is the picture of the MEGA prize package!!! Some lucky winner will receive this. Thank you so much Fran!

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Revealing the Word for the Secret Phrase

My words for the secret phrase is and now you have reached the end of the Blog Hop. Be sure to return to Priscillastyles to leave your name in Mr. Linky after commenting o all the Design Team Members Blogs for your chance at the prizes. Thank you for playing in our weekly challenges and for all your support each week. Everyone at Midnight Madness would like to wish you and yours a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New year. We thank you for joining us in our special Christmas Blog Hop and invite you to participate in the sketch challenge this week with a small project of your own. Here at Midnight madness we are looking forward to 2010 with more exciting fun and prizes and meeting and making friends with all of our participants past, present, and future. Thank you and good luck winning the prizes!!!

Vintage Christmas Tree Card

Hi everyone!!! Today's card is a Vintage Christmas tree with lots of holly framing the image. Here, also, is one of my Boyds Bearstones.
A close up here to show the embossing and stitching and the little jingle bell on the bow.This is the inside of the card. I made a pocket to tuck in theater, movie, sport, or concert tickets....of course, CASH would always be nice too!!!! LOL

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Todays: CHRISTMAS AT CAROL's HOUSE

Well you know I love bears....so expect to see lots of them. The garland around the fireplace is filled with small little bears tucked in the branches. Mr. and Mrs. Clause are animated and lit up. The dolls are from the Boyds Bear collection and are probably 10 years old now. There are more things that light up on the mantel, but they don't show in the photograph. Hope you enjoyed the peek into my home. Let me know what you think!

Hugs,
Carol

MMSC30 Wings and Things

This is my entry for this weeks MMSC30 Sketch Challenge at Midnight Madness. This is an image from one of my favorite stamp companies "Darcie's". Isn't she cute!!!

I hand embroidered the eyelash yarn around the scallop spellbinders die cut. All of the panels are stitched and stickled...my favorite embellishment!!! This paper is so pretty. I actually found this the other day when looking for something else. Many years ago I used to belong to the "Boyds Collector's Forum" on the Internet. We used to have Secret Sister's and Swap's and this paper I received from one of my fellow Boyd's lover.I love this sweet Angel so much, I could not resist putting her inside the card. I used a verse from the Bible for my sentiment.

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The CHRISTMAS BLOG HOP is coming December 8th-15th. The Design Team has a few little surprises up their sleeves to get you in the festive holiday mode. So do your MMSC#30 card and link it up here, put on some Christmas music, put up your decorations and get ready to join us in a festive celebration.

We have appreciate you helping us spread the news these past few weeks. Please continue for this one last week until the launch of the blog hop as our prize patrol has been out viewing the Logo in your side bar. We have lots of stuff going on here, so be sure to check out the “General Rules” for all the details. Please check back Weds for our MMSC29 Bonus winner and our Holiday Logo winner this week. You have till Midnight EST 12-1-09 to get your MMSC29 entries in to qualify. One winner will be drawn for our Bonus giveaway on Wednesday, so be sure to check back for that. If you miss the deadline, you are still welcome to link up to Mr Linky, but any entries after the "LAST CALL" will not be in the drawing.

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Our Gold Star Winner this week is:
#23 Super Nan

Our Remarkables this week go to:
#2 Karen Wallace
#17 ConnieThank you for playing this week everyone and we would be honored if our award winners would pick up their badges on the side bar and please display them proudly.
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Our Weekly Bonus Sponsor is
SUNSHINE’S STAMPS
They are being very generous with their give away this week with a prize valued at $45. Please check it out here.

Our Monthly Bonus Sponsor is:

Fran from the Frantic Stamper Inc. is the sponsor of our Monthly Bonus Prize Winner. You can visit Fran at her store at the Frantic Stamper Inc, your #1 source for rubberstamping and scrapbooking supplies. Fran is offering a MEGA package worth $250 to one of you lucky players this month! You can check it out here.

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Here is the sketch for MMSC#30. We are adding the theme "WINGS and THINGS" to the challenge. What are WINGS and THINGS you ask. It is any image you can find--- Reindeer, Angels, Birds, Butterflies, Sleighs, Stars, Snowflakes....anything that can fly in the air!!!!! I hope you have lots of fun with this sketch and theme and are inspired by the design team! Now lets see your creativity fly!!!! LOL

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Now put your favorite Christmas Music on, get out your Christmas crafting supplies and join us in the fun. I will be around visiting your blogs to see what you have created.
Carol