Friday, October 16, 2009

Prowling at the 1st Midnight Madness Blog Hop

Welcome

Welcome to Prowling at the 1st Midnight Madness Blog Hop. Here at Midnight Madness we are celebrating "you" our players and welcoming those of you who are new with a fun and exciting blog hop. We have TWENTY FIVE exciting prizes to give away. As a matter of fact, here is the list of how we are giving away these prizes:

One Grand prize random drawing valued at $100
350th BRAND NEW Sketch Player SPECIAL Prize valued at $50
11 "Cards from the Crypt" (picked by our DT members from MMSC archives)
12 random Package winners drawn

You have until Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12 p.m. Midnight EST to leave your name in Mr. Linky at Priscilla's Midnight Madness Blog to be eligible for the prizes. Prize winners will be notified at the end of the week.

If you would like to be entered for the prizes and you DO NOT have a blog, you still can participate. You will have to follow these 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. Link up to Mr. Linky with first name and last name initial and in the URL space enter this address http://priscillastyles.blogspot.com/

In order to have a chance at winning any of the prizes, 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 by any chance the 350th BRAND NEW player or any of the "Cards for the Crypt" winners are not claimed, then those prizes will be added to the random winners drawn. To start off, you must begin at Priscilla's Midnight Madness Blog! If you have not started there, I suggest you go back and begin again...you don't want to miss out on the Prizes! If you have arrived from Carolyn's Creative Card Corner, 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!





Meet the Midnight Madness Design Team

Let's get to know each other! I would love for you to leave me a comment and tell me about yourself.

I get my best ideas for crafting just right before I fall asleep. I usually always have a diet cream soda on my table in the summer or a pot of Mango Mandarin tea in the winter and some kind of chocolate.
I can definitely not live without my cuddlebug!
As an ultimate craft project, I once built a log home in Preston Connecticut
At a yard sale I would do back flips if I found old Stampin Up sets for $2 each!
My money saving secrets are to use those Michael and JoAnn coupon's faithfully!!! Never pay full price for anything!
My philosophy when I was younger was to find a man to marry who would make me laugh. With everyday stress of sick children, bills to pay, cars breaking down, losing jobs, and trying to make ends meet-if you marry someone who can make you laugh-then you can get through anything!
I would be able to survive in the wilderness because I am a hiker and a backpacker.
My Dad is my hero, he was the most patient, loving, patriotic, and hard-working person I ever knew!


Cards from the Crypt



I have chosen a card from MMSC #20 by Kym Weber at Nana's Keepsakes. I thought this card was a perfect interpretation of the sketch and is unique with the "Football" theme. The faces on the football embellishments really tickled me and the background embossing looks like a football. A really delightful masculine card! Thanks Kym for sharing your creative talents with us.



Welcome to My Birthday Party

Hello, come in. So nice you could come to my Birthday party. This is what greets you in my Foyer when you come through our door. I am so happy you could come to my Party and help me celebrate!

It looks like some of my friends have already arrived. They are so happy to meet you. Please sit down and take a seat right next to me.

This is a boxed cake-favor cake that holds chocolate cake bonbons for you to take home and enjoy once the party is over.
I will let you in on a secret. This is the first cake I have ever made. I was not sure it was going to turn out. So as not to waste all my precious card stock (I have been laid off you know), I decided to use discarded CD Label envelopes that are similar in weight and size of an Express Mail envelope from the post office. They are scraps my husband saved me when I was looking around for scrap cardboard to make templates for my paper piecing patterns. They were white on the inside and perfect for this!!!! So I cut my templates out of those and dry embossed them with the swirl folder through my cuddlebug.

I made a little pumpkin to place on everyone's plate. This was made with Scallop nestablities. I used the next size down from the largest one. I cut eleven of them, sponged with Rangers distress ink and assemble by folding and adhering. I had just enough of this orange card stock left over from last years Halloween cards that I sent to my family. The stem is just some scrap card stock rolled and glued in the middle accented by a couple punched leaves and some strips of card stock I curled on a tooth pick. The leaves on the napkins were made with scrap card stock with the leaf shapeabilities, sponged with Rangers distress ink and adhered to the raffia.

Aren't these flowers absolutely gorgeous? These are from Fred She Said from her Whirly Flower line. There are approximately 100 flowers and leaves in this elegant creation. I sponged all of these flowers and leaves and assembled them on the cake. The topiary have also been made from recycled items. I wanted to make sure I didn't go over my budget for this party. The flower pots are 4" and were 80 cents each at Lowe's. I have a whole box of foam balls from old Christmas Ornaments that I took the satin off years ago and just kept the Styrofoam. I know you know how expensive Styrofoam has gotten. So go comb those yard sales for ornaments that people are trying to get rid of. I just took two 3" balls for the top and used three 4" balls. The third one was cut in half to used in the pot. My husband had left over dowel rods in his garage that I just inked up. I used three flower punches for the flowers. There are yellow head quilt pins holding them in the foam.

Here is an aerial view of the table. The quilt was made by me several years ago. It matches the one you saw when you came in.

Here's a nice close up of the topiary!


Here is a nice close up of the pumpkin!
***Update: I checked with Priscilla, and we will feature a tutorial for this little pumpkin on November 4, just in time to make for your Thanksgiving Feast Activities!


I used a Fiskars pumpkin squeeze punch and Spellbinders classic lace border for the trim. Be sure to take home your Chocolate Bon Bon Cake. Thank you for coming to my Birthday party today, it was fun creating these things for you and I hope you enjoyed them!


The Secret Phrase


My word for the secret phrase is . You have reached the end of our Blog Hop and you should now have all the words in the phrase. Be sure to proceed to Priscilla's Midnight Madness Blog and enter your name in Mr. Linky for your chance to win one of the fabulous prizes. If you name is pulled, we will contact you by email and ask you for the phrase. You must have the phrase to win!

Just a little something I would love to share with you. You can't imagine how much I enjoy visiting you each week. Sometimes I sit here and giggle, sometimes it's a huge loud laugh, sometimes it's a tear, and sometimes it's a warm fuzzy feeling. You fill my life with your stories about your life and you fill me with the love of your craft which is the common bond that brings us together. I get inspired by all the different blogs that I visit. You ladies are all special to me. Your creativity is a tremendous boost to my own aspiring creations. When I look back on what I did 9 months ago, I can't believe how far I have come. It has only been by what you have done for me. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart!!! NOW GO WIN SOME PRIZES!!!!





Please proceed to PRISCILLA'S MIDNIGHT MADNESS BLOG to enter your name in Mr. Linky!



Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #23 Vintage Halloween

Welcome to Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge Number 23. All the Design Team Members are getting excited about this Friday and working hard on our fabulous projects for:

PROWLING AT THE 1st MIDNIGHT MADNESS BLOG HOP

Date and Time: October 16, 2009 - October 20, 2009 12 p.m. Midnight

25 Prizes will be given away as follows:

One Grand prize random drawing

350th BRAND NEW Sketch Player SPECIAL Prize

11 “Cards from the Crypt” (picked by our DT members from MMSC archives)

12 random Package winners drawn

Just wait to see what we have in store for you. It should be fun and fabulous for all who attend.

The Midnight Madness team wishes to thank this weeks weekly sponsor:

They are providing this weeks winner with a $50 gift voucher. WOW, the lucky winner will sure be able to do some great shopping with that!

We also would like to thank this months sponsor:All the design team members have been working with Cheslea's Gurlee Girl Designs and I have got to tell you they are of the finest quality and stamp a perfect image every time. Who could resist these cute little girls!!



And here is this weeks sketch. I really enjoyed working with this one. It was so much fun and perfect to go with my image choice.Here you you will see my Vintage Halloween Girl with her Kitty Cat. She is getting ready to go Trick or Treating. I used some non-traditional colors for this one. The papers are from the Indian Summer Fall Stack.I used my Fleur De Lis Shapabilities and the Spellbinders Classic Lace Border. I did some stitching with my sewing machine and used some rhinestones.This is a nice close up picture of all the layering I did on this card. The Fleur De Lis's were cut from some metallic paper I have.Here are the crochet flowers. I crochet these while sitting in the car while my husband drives. I tell you they come in handy!! I used embroidery floss for these with a punched flower center and brad. The inside of my card has been decorated as well. I repeated the image of the Girl with the Cat again and used a bigger crochet flower (it is two layered) inside.Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed my card. I'm intimidated and afraid of doing vintage images even though I love them. So little by little I have been practicing until I get do them justice!

Carol

Monday, October 12, 2009

Canning for the Southern Girl

Here is one of my latest projects....Apple Butter. Do you find that people inspire you? I know I do. A lady in my craft group does canning. I saw her beautiful prepared fruits which brought back memories of all the jams, jellies, and sauces I used to put up this time of year in Connecticut.Here in Georgia it is still in the high 80's and 90's and too hot to can. But I got this brilliant idea to make Apple Butter in my crock pot. That way I wouldn't heat up the house cooking. But, then I had the dilemma of how I was going to process the filled jars in a water bath without the cooking heat again being in the house. Well, my dh who loves my homemade jams and jellies brought out the turkey fryer which my canning pot fit on and set it up outside in our barbecue grilling area...problem solved. It worked beautifully. I will be making pumpkin butter soon!!! lol If there is a will there is a way. I used my stamping in this project by stamping an apple and writing what is in the jars. On the back I wrote, "From the Kitchen of", just in case I give these to friends. You can't see in the picture, but I did put some sparkles around the apple and it looks really sweet.So, on some of my stamp scouting trips, I will be looking for some fruit stamps that I can use in this way. I can't wait to start the pumpkin butter, because the apple butter made the house smell scrumptious. If you would like to have the recipe for this apple butter, please leave me a comment here and I will email it to you. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Carol

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Hero Arts Happy Pumpkin Faces

Now isn't this just one of those Halloween cards that makes you smile!!! You can't help it when all these pumpkins are smiling back at you!!! I love these bright happy colors. This stamp is from Hero Arts.This is a picture of the inside of the card. I used Debbie Mumm's Holiday stack for this card. I just love Debbie Mumm papers....well, I really just love Debbie Mumm starting back with her quilt patterns!!! This is a side view to show you all the layers involved in this card. I stamped my image four times, colored, layered, and lacquered. The frame is spellbinders frameabilities. I justed some gold brads and gold rhinestones for bling!In this picture you can see how the image is so shiny and how I decorated the envelope with the spider border punch. Thanks for stopping by to visit me today. I hope you enjoyed you stay. I just wanted to mention that you can see a peek of my "Debbie Mumm" quilt in this picture...lol I told you I was a fan!!! Have a great day!

Carol

Monday, October 5, 2009

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #22 Cat Costume Girl

ANNOUNCING

PROWLING AT THE 1st MIDNIGHT MADNESS BLOG HOP

Date and Time: October 16, 2009 - October 20, 2009 12 p.m. Midnight

25 Prizes will be given away as follows:

One Grand prize random drawing

350th BRAND NEW Sketch Player SPECIAL Prize

13 “Cards from the Crypt” (picked by our DT members from MMSC archives)

As an added bonus if our "PLAYERS" this next week...add the BLOG HOP LOGO to their side bar they will get an extra entry in the Weekly Bonus Drawing. If you enter add the Logo then when your go to Mr. Linky add your name with ONE with a direct link to your card and and your name again in theOTHER ONE to either your main blog address or a Special Post about our upcoming Blog Hop. BUT in order to qualify with the second entry on Mr. Linky, the logo HAS to be on the SIDE BAR with a link back to the Midnight Madness blog.

You're not going to want to miss all the fun and excitement we have planned for you. This is a celebration for our valued weekly sketch challenge players and welcome new players. It sure to be a fun time for all.



The Midnight Madness Design Team wishes to thank our generous sponsors for their generous contributions. Our monthly sponsor is:Chelsea has so generously provided us with all of wonderful sets of her Gurlee Girl Designs. I can't tell you how much I love her stamps. Thank you so much Chelsea. The quality is amazing and they stamp a perfect image each and every time. I am totally enthralled with these amazing images and know you will be too! They are the perfect size for your stamping needs. Be sure to stayed tuned to my blog to see more things I am doing with these Gurlee Girl Designs.



Our weekly sponsor is:We are so happy to announce that this week we have the wonderful Simon Says Stamps weekly Bonus prize for MMSC22 They are always one of our favorite sponsors because they have over 100,000 items in stock and ship USA orders over $60 and International orders over $120 for free. We are please to have them as a reoccurring sponsor here at the Midnight Madness sketch challenge blog. Be sure to stop in and check out all they have to offer.


MIDNIGHT MADNESS MASTERPIECE AWARD
Each week we are awarding a special Badge Award to one person for their outstanding sketch submission. If you would like to be considered for this award, please make sure your card link is posted to Mr. Linky by Sunday of each week. This is our way of let you know how wonderfully talented you are and how much we appreciate you sharing your craft with us. This week we are proud to say the“MIDNIGHT MADNESS MASTERPIECE” Gold Star Award goes to.....




The "NEW" MM REMARKABLES AWARD!!
The Midnight Madness Team has created a very special award called The “Midnight Madness Remarkables” Award !! We would like to acknowledge those entries that are just exceptionally Remarkable!! During our voting each week, due to the caliber of the cards entered in our challenges, we end up with so many ties and close votes, so this Fairy logo is for those recipients to display proudly. If you would each like to take our fairy logo for your side bar, she would love to come stay with you.


Thank you all for playing and please help me in congratulating our “Midnight Madness Remarkables” award winners…..



Take a look at this amazing sketch that Priscilla has provided for all of us. This was a fun one to work up and I know you are going to enjoy it.

Here is my card created with this sketch. I used Chelsea's Cat Girl image. Now tell me, how cute is this girl dressed in her cat costume for Halloween. She is so darling in this sweet dress holding her pumpkin to pick up her treats as she goes door to door. Just look at her legs......I tweaked this stamp and added the stripes for these cool stockings. And, Ijust couldn't resist putting all these purrfectly wonderful cats with her.

As you can see in this picture below, I stamped the image on the envelope to match this sweet card and colored it to match.
Here is how I did the inside of the card. I actually made this little girl fish net stockings in this picture. If you double click to enlarge the photo, you can see it better! I love that you have the versatility to do this with Chelsea's stamps. The other thing I loved was putting some orange glittering eyeshadow above her eyes. I was reminiscing about last year at this time when I went to the "Southern Women's Show" with my girlfriends. They had a booth where they were putting glitter eyeliner on all the woman who wanted it with a sugar solution. We all had it done and bought some. I still put mine on for parties!!!! lolThis is a view of all the luscious layers that I used in creating this card. I also hand embroidered the edge of the frame with ribbon.
Thanks for stopping in today and viewing my Midnight Madness Card. I want to invite you again to place the Midnight Madness Logo for the Blog Hop in your side bar this week, and you will have two chances for the weekly prize drawing. WOW

Mark you calendars for October 16 to October 20 for the 1st Prowling at the Midnight Madness Blog Hop....See you there!!!!!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Happy World Card Making Day

Happy World Card Making Day!

Rosey's come to wish all of you a Happy World Cardmaking Day! ... Rosey will be available later today at Fred She Said ;)

To celebrate, Fred, She Said Designs is offering a $25 CAD Gift Certificate to the Fred, She Said Store and a $25 USD Gift Certificate to one of Fred's favourite stores for dies, embossing folders, stamping stuff and embellishments - www.CropStop.com! WOW, who couldn't use more embossing folders and embellishments, huh!!!

To enter go to Fred, She Said Blog for details! Entries are new cards or projects using any Fred, She Said product or freebie! ( enter using Mr. Linky or via email attachment if you don't have a blog) The winner will be selected Tuesday October 13th by random draw. So please head on over to Fred, She Said ( http://fred-she-said.blogspot.com ) and check it out!

Please tell your friends and family about this contest. Tracey has the most beautiful digi's around and her pin pricking patterns are phenomenal. They are easy and fun to use for all your cardmaking and scrapbooking needs.In honor of National Card Making Day, I thought I would share with you this fun card I made using the stamping technique called Rock n' Roll. You can find out how to do this from the tutorial over at Splitcoast Stampers here.

I used an Inkadindadoo stamp for the Bird, a flourish stamp for the background and a Martha Stewart punch for the flowers. The ink is VersaMagic Dew Drop in Purple Hydrangea and Aegean Blue. I also used the Martha Steward web corner punch because I liked the lacy look of it and am hoping to get more bang for my buck out of it...lol

Thanks for stopping by today and have a happy day making cards. Isn't it fun to have a special day in honor of our beloved craft. I am hoping I get to buy myself a present!!! lol Don't forget to enter the Fred She Said contest. See you again soon!

Carol

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Tri-Fold Halloween Shutter Card

Greetings everyone. Today is the most gorgeous day in Georgia at 82 degrees....no humidity!!! I wanted to share this card with you that I made for last Friday's (September 25) Virtual Stamp Night over at Split Coast Stampers. This was the first challenge starting off a terrific night of fun techniques. This card, for me anyway, has caused quite a stir. I have never had almost 1200 hits on a card ever!!!! My guess would be everyone pretty much liked it.

The thing of it is, I have seen these lots of times, I think there has been a couple of challenges even with this card. I have passed on it because I thought it was too difficult, too time consuming, oh-gosh, I'll just say I was scared of it!!! But, I sat down and started playing and before you know it, I was loving this card. Now I have a gazillion ideas for more. So don't be surprised if you come by, and you see others of this wonderful card. You can find the directions for it here. So go ahead, give it a try, I promise you will be amazed. Thanks for stopping by and have a terrific day!