Candy at Chrissy D's

Chris has a candy that ends tomorrow (saturday). In it there is a wonderful stamp bearset and she's also including some papers, over 200 eyelets and other great embellishments that will make your cards beautiful.

Serious organizations?

Does anyone know a way to check charityorganizations? I've found a couple that I would like to support, but how do I know where the money goes and if it's properly used?

Friday sketchers baby card

This week there was this fabulous sketch on friday sketchers blog. I was stunned over the amazing cards that the DT members came up with and didn't even try to make anything close to it. The sketch was totally out of my comfort zone, especially since I had to make the oval by hand! Feels like I'm the only one that doesn't have the nestabilities, haha. I'm not sure why I did a baby card though. I don't really need any, but I wanted to use the bear that I bought a while ago and then I saw some pastel papers and it just happened, lol. It's a little too simple even for me, but I'm surprised that it doesn't look as bad as I thought. I guess I'm not so focused on cards at the moment because I'm more into sewing. I got a fabulous early Valentine gift from my sweetheart and today I got some more of those Tilda fabrics. I know what I'll be doing this weekend :) To be continued...

New candy winner

Since noone has claimed the second prize (again) I'm drawing a new winner...




the new winner




for the second time








is







Pink dandelion



You have one week to contact me or the lottery continues...

My first blinkie!

I'm not a computerwiz - not even close - and I don't even like computers (although I spend most of my time in front of it, lol) Let's just say the feeling is mutual since computers like to mess with me. Despite that I somehow managed to make my own blinkie! It's pretty simple and I'm not sure if the blinking text isn't too annoying, lol, but I'm so proud of myself! I took the photo, added the text and made it blink! wohoo!

The picture is of my half-finished birdie I made with my new Tilda fabric. I'm hoping to finish it before the end of the month to inspire you to join my challenge. You can click the image to go directly to the post where I try to explain what it's all about.

Speaking of the birdie here's what I have so far:



I'm thinking about adding some kind of beads to the edge. I was thinking about pearls, but I don't have any so these shiny beads will have to do (I only have a string of beads, but it's not long enough). I'm also thinking about adding a frill to his tail. The thing I'm mostly puzzled about is if I should have a piece of ribbon to hang him in, because if he sits, then the pretty dark-purple fabric doesn't show. I know I should've thought of this before because now I have to make a hole on the seam on his head, putting in the ribbon and sewing it by hand. It won't look as good as it would have if I had sewn the ribbon from the start. I'm thinking about adding eyes, but I'm not sure. Maybe he should be more decorative than representative. What do you think?

Icsketches DT call

Inspirational card sketches are having a DT call. I think it's about 2 hours left when I write this, lol. Talk about last minute, but I just found it and I wanted to try out.
Here is the info:

First and farmost there will be no compensation at this time.
I'm looking for 6 designers who love creating cards.
Your term will be 4 months. Term is from Feb-May 2009
If you would love or like to be on a Card Sketch Design Team this call is for you.
Every Tuesday I will send you a card sketch one week in advance for you to work on. You however as a DT member will have to get your creations to me no later then Monday at 12:00pm (noon) Central Standard Time.
You will also get to embellish your cards however you want. My sketches are for your inspiration only. And to help others get ideas on how to use these sketches.
To start this call off I want you to make a card using this sketch below. Then I want you to post it on your blog along with this call and leave me a direct link to your blog post in the comment section here.

While looking through the other womens' entries for the call I noticed noone used images for the rectangular pieces, so I wanted to make something different. I actually came up with this idea first, but got more incouraged when I noticed that most had used patterned paper for this rectangular part.

Both Alice images are from inkastamps. I wanted the card to look hopeful, like if you follow your dreams you get to live your dream (like the glittery text in the upper right corner says). The upper Alice is living her dream while the lower one is still reaching for hers. And it will all happen with time, when time has flown. The lower image is less decorated because she isn't quite there yet. Do I make any sense? The card is a little philosophical - or artlike if you will. I might actually frame it and have as a little artpiece by my corner...

Keep your fingers crossed that I make the DT team.

Oh baby

This week on a spoon full of sugar the theme was "oh baby" - create a card for a New Baby, Mum-to-be, New Mum or Pre-schooler. I had just coloured this wonderful bunny from uptown design and I couldn't resist making a baby card (especially when I just came across the paper while cleaning my corner). I cut the paper so the text "new arrival" would show in the corner. I used a new "technique" for the ribbon. It's a long piece of organzaribbon and a tiny piece of yellow that I wrapped the sheer one around. Does that make sense? It's 5.30am and I haven't slept at all tonight, so I might be a bit fuzzy, lol. (I'm having hard sleeping that's why I've been up all night) I actually stole the ribbon idea from a card I got today.

I have found a great tip about how to get better photos when the daylight is gone. I'll try to fix it during the week and see if it makes any difference.

Blog candy

I've found so much candy it will make your head spin, lol. And I intend to give you more tips on candy throughout the year. I've noticed that the more I share the more I get. Think it's called karma :D

Lulu is celebrating her birthday and 12,000 hits by offering some yummy craftthings. I love the stamp she's offering - a girl playing an electric guitar. What I wouldn't give to be able to play that!

Lorraine is already having her second candy for 2009. Join in on the fun for a chance to win some goodies.

Claudi has some oval or round stampsets to be used with your nestabilities in her candy. These stamps (from Alota) work great with the sitting Magnolia stamps. Make sure you check out this blog. I'm a huge fan.

Leslie wanted to offer some candy at 1000 hits, but with Christmas and all she wasn't able to. Now it's up though and let me tell you - it was worth the wait! I'm hoping to win my first Sarah Kay stamp...

Camilla makes the most wonderful Magnolia cards and now she has a candy up for grabs. She is celebrating her birthday and being on the Magnolia DT for a year now. Guess what kind of stamp you can win?

Stacie is a jewelry designer and sells her beautiful things on etsy. She is offering one of her wonderful necklaces in her candy - a red hearpendant - just in time for Valentines. Make sure to visit her shop to see some more gorgeous things (you will need to tell her your favourite to be able to join the candy). Good luck!

Malin is giving away an adorable birdhouse. I've become totally nuts when it comes to birds, so I'm in. It's a Swedish shop, so I'm not sure if it's open to all, but there's no harm in trying if you would like to win it.

Kim has passed 12,000 hits and is giving away a Valentine candy. Yum, yum. Congrats on so many hits Kim.

Marlene is celebrating her first blogoversary with some awesome candy. Congrats on your first year Marlene!

Clare is celebrating 3000 hits with some candy for us. There will be some red and green things - perfect for Christmas! I know I'm in need of some Christmas papers and it's never too early to start :)

Zoe got published in her school newspaper and is celebrating by offering some candy. Among other stuff in her candy is a foxstamp that I'm inlove with, so hands off, he's mine ;)

Maria is celebrating 10,000 bloghits and she's offering two candies. And both consist of adorable stamps, so pop on over and try your luck.

Ally is having a Valentine candy. For every comment you leave in january you get an entry. She makes some great stuff, so it shouldn't be too hard. Ends jan. 31:st.

Jo is offering some great candy from K&Company. How about some stickers, alphabets and papers?

Melissa has been blogging for two years and is also reaching 10,000 hits. If you enter, please mantion me as you referral - thanks.

Allisa is sewing these wonderful cosmeticbags and she's giving away one of them in her candy. Make sure to check out her etsy shop for some other great creations.

Michelle is generously giving away stamps and 5 copicmarkers of your choice! Wow, I'd love to win some pink shades, since promarker don't have any good ones.

Kim's candy is heaven if you need papers and embellishments - especially if you're a fan of Basic Grey ;)

Paula sells these amazing elf/fairy stamps. A new stamp range will be released on the 1st Feb called SHARING SHERBERT. And she's giving one of us the chance to win the full set of 9 stamps. Plus: A nice little oval box that she has decorated to store them in...

Martine is celebrating her blogoversary with a very nice collection of items. Stamps are involved and that's all I need, lol.

June has some cute stamps and decorations in her candy. I think she even mentioned something about real chocolate...

Rachel is giving away candy that I like a lot - two embossingfolders, papers and embellishments. She's having this candy because she has reached 15,000 visitors! That is amazing! (I'm happy I've had about 500, lol)

Here are some other links to check out:
Betty
Necklace giveaway

Emma is celebrating her birthday and having over 5000 hits. Hurry and sign up for some awesome candy.

Shabby card

I've entered a challenge on a new blog I found the other day. It's called everybody art challenge and it's a German blog I think. The theme this week was "shabby" and I just had to try it. If you've seen my cards you might have noticed I don't make "shabby" cards ( my cards aren't shabby at all, lol) so this was definately a challenge.

I looked through my recent stampstash and had a hard time finding anything that would go with the style. Since I don't buy papers in shabby colorscheme I wanted an image that would help the theme. It wasn't easy while digging through cute animals, fairies and little girls, but eventually I came across a bag of unmounted stamps I'd bought in autumn. They were from inkastamps and her style of stamps would work great! I don't think I've made a single card with the stamps since I bought them so it was time to do that.

I absolutely loved this lady first time I saw her, but when I got her home I didn't know how to stamp with her. This was before I discovered promarkers and colouring her with waterpencils was hard. Now I tried with my promarkers and I loved it! So from now on I think you will see some cards made with these kind of stamps. I also got a mail from my friend saying that she saw the same images all over the blogs. I must admit I've gotten stuck in what everybody else are doing and buying too, so she got me thinking. She inspired me to dig out some more unusual stamps I've bought before, some that aren't even sold anymore I think. With this said I want you to prepare yourselves for some more unusual - if not cards, then at least - images.





Now I'm off to make some more cards and to enjoy my freshly baked cookies :)

House mouse challenge #21

Phew, this one was a hard one - a color challenge using:
olive green - sure, I love that color.
peachy pink - hmm, yeah I can make that work AND
navy blue?! - YUCK! lol.

I swear I didn't look at the DT cards when I did this one (there is a card using the same image and colored similar). I just had this image of the jumping mice and thought it would work great with green and peach. I hoped I was going to find some navy blue for the background and I did. I had a small piece of this beautiful blue with silver swirls paper. I was going to add a text, but I wanted as much of the blue paper to show. The card is simple, but I think it turned out great. The only thing that annoys me is that the scrappy glue I use ruins the ribbon. I thought it would dry completly, but it didn't. Instead it leaves marke. What do you use to fasten ribbons? Especially those thin ones, or the see-through?

The branches, mice and leaves are colored in with promarkers/pantone. I didn't have this peachy shade, not even close, so I used light orange and fushia waterpencils to get the shade. That's why some of the flowers are more pink and some more orange. I think it makes them look more natural though so I'm glad I didn't have the right shade becasue it made me try something new. I'm starting to realize more and more that that's what these challenges are all about. It might not be the endproduct that matters, but how you got there.




I noticed - after bloghopping at the other girls' blogs - that the navy blue wasn't very popular, lol. Most of them just used the color on a flower or a narrow border. I just went all in it seems in comparison, lol, almost too much. But I'm actually even more proud of this card now when I see that the blue was hard for so many to add to their cards. I guess I was lucky with this background paper. I think I'll look for more next time I'm in town...

Go to the house mouse challenge blog and see for yourself what wonderful cards the other girls created. There are a lot of great interpretations out there.

Last week I was actually the winner on the HMchallenge blog. There was this wonderful prize and I got it! It arrived in the mail during the week and it's my first Christmas/winter house mouse! This is one of my favourite winter stamps and I'm so glad I got it. Thank you so much to 7 kids college fund for sponsoring. The funny thing is that I almost missed to be in the draw for the stamp because I hadn't read that the cards need to be uploaded by sunday 8pm GMT. I loaded mine up after that, but they decided to run the same challenge for another week (because of the holidays and all) so I made the deadline and won. Phew. If they hadn't run it for another week I wouldn't have been in the draw and someone else would've won. So I want to say sorry to that person for "stealing" your stamp ;)

Aren't they just too cute?

Candy for a cause

I like participating in these things where you send your cards to someone, brightening up their lives or help raise money to charity. I have found a blog that uses the cards you send in and give them to students. You can read all about it HERE and find out how to enter. It is open until the end of january so I need to hurry. Did I mention there is a huge candy for one lucky winner? So many companies are sponsoring this candy: ALL THAT SCRAPS, STAMPING BELLA, IMPRESS RUBBER STAMPS, VERVE STAMPS, GLUE ART & PAPER STUDIO, SCOR-PAL, PEZ-A-DOODLE DESIGNS, THERE SHE GOES, FLOURISHES, GINA K DESIGNS, MY FAVORITE THINGS, CAT’S PAJAMAS, UNITY STAMP COMPANY, CORNISH HERITAGE FARMS, STORAGE UNITS, INK & MORE, ECLECTIC PAPERIE, JUST RITE STAMPERS. You don't want to miss this. Can you imagine being the winner of all of this? I sure can't. Think it would go to my head, lol.

I'm sending this card because you can use it for easter, spring, birthday or just because. I think it's so bright and lovely it will cheer anyone up:



I hope you will join too especially if you live in the US, then you have a couple of more days to send your card/s.