Wednesday Challenge Time!

Time is sure flying by isn't it?! I just can't seem to catch up with the days they are going by so quickly. Today is the Every Other Wednesday Challenge at the Pixie Cottage Blog.
What I want to know is what happened to the other Wednesday?! I lost it somewhere. If you happen to find it I sure would like it back please. I am getting older by the minute at this rate.

Okay stamping friends, let's get on to this challenge. The challenge is to make a card with stitching on it. I love to see a card with the sewing on it. I just don't do it enough. I use old "Betsy" to do my sewing. My sewing machine is a Singer. It isn't black and it doesn't have a peddle but it is OLD. It still does the trick though. (More than I can say for myself these days!) So I will hang on to it.
If you look close you can see my stitching around the cardstock edges. Nothing fancy. My image is "Hannah pulling her sled". What a wonderful image! So fun to color! I also added Magnolia's Winter Trees from last years collection. My decorative paper is from DCVW, also a previous years collection. My yummy buttons are from Papertrey Ink. (I have been collecting Papertrey stamps,paper and all of their other goodies! So you will be seeing cards made with Papertrey stamps soon!) Cardstock is from Hobby Lobby. (Yes I am hoarding my Bazzill again!) My ribbon...I couldn't tell you where I picked that up. But I would guess you could find it just about anywhere. It looks like it may have been one of my Walmart finds. I colored my image with my beloved Prismacolor and Lyra pencils. For other details I used some Flower Soft Polar White from Michelle's Scrapbooking and More. Some Stickles glitter glue (Michelle has you cover with Stickles also!) and some Fun Fluff stuff.
That about covers it for this card. Now hurry over to the Pixie Cottage to see who won the last challenge. It may just have been YOU! There were so many talented stamping artists that joined the challenge last time. And I do mean ARTISTS. The cards were amazing. Thanks to all who have been joining us for the challenges. You make this so much fun for all of us on the Design Team. Good luck to you all this time around!

Charity Auction for Toys for Tots...

Michelle from the Pixie Cottage and Michelle's Scrapbooking and More is having a charity auction on Ebay for "Toys for Tots". Please take a minute to go to Ebay and check this auction out. This year especially, with so many people out of work donations to charities will be down from previous years. The auction includes over 20 handcrafted cards with a beautifully decorated card box. Also, if you mention you heard about this auction on the Pixie Cottage Blog you will receive one free Pixie Cottage Stamp along with your winnings . 100% of the final sale price will go to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. To view and bid on this auction Please click here. Thank you so much for letting me have a few minutes of your time to tell you about this auction.

"A Day Late and a dollar short..."

Pixie Cottage Saturday Showcase

Friday Sketchers

It's Saturday Card showcase at the Pixie Cottage . (Just pretend it's still Saturday, okay?) What a wonderful group of cards and projects the Pixie girls have for you this time! I am really going to have to kick it up a notch to keep up with these girls. With each showing of their cards I am left with my mouth hanging open in awe of the amazing cards and projects they come up with. Be sure to go by the Pixie Cottage blog to take a look. I chose the adorable image by Tina Akonom. Tina also does paper piecing for scrapbook pages. It must be nice to be so talented! You can find a link to Tina's blog on the Pixie Cottage blog.
I love being able to use non traditional colors on Christmas cards. Yes, I am still using my prismacolor pencils. I will make a card with my copics and go right back to my prismacolor and Lyra colored pencils. I need to resign to the fact that I am just partial to my colored pencils. I love the way they blend. I love the control I have with them also. When I pick up a marker I expect to be able to blend my colors the same way and markers just don't work that way. I just can't get the blending down with my copics. At least not to the quality I demand from myself. I still need a lot of practice with them.
For this card I used the sketch from the Friday Sketchers Challenge Blog. I love the sketches they challenge us to use at Friday Sketchers. They work so well for the square cards I have come to love! The square size gives all the more area to fill with an image and embellishments! When you are as addicted to this hobby as I am you will understand wanting a bigger canvas to work on. Michelle, our supreme, sweet leader at the Pixie Cottage is kind enough to be sponsoring "Friday Sketchers" this week. You can win two beautiful Pixie Cottage stamps. The theme for this week's Saturday Showcase of cards at the Pixie Cottage was the design team's choice. So I went for another Christmas image. For the snow I used Polar White Flower Soft. (Also from Michelle's store!) I added glitter to the candy cane with Stickles glitter. The snowflakes are made using a Cuttlebug die. The ribbon and decorative paper is from my stash. I believe my decorative paper is Anna Griffin. It was the first scrapbook paper I ever purchased. Oh the memories! LOL! I broke down and pulled out the solid cardstock from my Baziill collection I have been hoarding. Bazzill has the most gorgeous cardstock colors! The gems are from the jewelry department at Hobby Lobby. They are just flat back acrylic stones. For the quantity I got in the package of the "gems", they cost so much less than Dew Drops and they are just as pretty if not prettier. When I go into a craft store I can be in any department and think "hmmm...how can I use that on a card!" You won't believe all the things I collect!

I received a package of new stamps from Michelle a few days ago. (Michelle owns the "Pixie Cottage" and "Michelle's Scrapbbooking and More On line store. Be sure to visit her store and see all of the goodies she carries. Michelle has everything from Magnolias, Copics, Wiff of Joy, Bazzill paper, Flower Soft and more!) It's so fun getting a package of new stamps once a month! I am like a little kid on Christmas morning when I see that package in the mail! I can't wait to get them inked up. I love the variety of stamps offered from the Pixie Cottage. I love all kinds of stamps and would be so bored with just one style. Speaking of new stamps I also just received a batch of the new Magnolia Christmas stamps I purchased from Michelle! Oh they are sooooo cute! There just isn't enough hours in a day for me to get all the stamping done that I want to do!
Speaking of stamping I better get busy and finish my card for the Pixie Cottage Every Other Wednesday Challenge.
I hope you all can join us.

Pixie Wednesday!

Come join us for a challenge at the

Pixie Cottage Blog.

As we continue our "Every other Wednesday Challenge" at the Pixie Cottage, we have a sketch challenge for you to try. Go to the Pixie Cottage Blog for all of the details and to enter.

This is our third challenge at the Pixie Cottage. I am continuously amazed at the talent and creativity of the card makers that enter these challenges! They sure know how to make the challenges their own! Top three? Let's say top three times ten! What a task it is to pick only three. In saying that be sure to go to the Pixie Cottage Blog to see our top three entries from the last challenge. The top three chosen from each week will have a chance to be a guest designer. Also at the end of every challenge there will be a random drawing with all the entries to win some prizes!

For my card I choose the way to cute Reindeer by ArTish. I think we can guess which Reindeer ArTish chose to illustrate! "Rudolph with his nose shining bright" is an understatement! LOL! I love the way Artish hung the ornaments from Rudolph's antlers. I happened to have some miniature tree garland that was made of ornaments that matched perfectly. I am a die hard crafter who saves everything thinking I may use it in a project "someday"! Here are my other supplies: DP Die Cuts with a View, Paper Studio Solid Card Stock, White Card stockPapertrey, Glaze Pen, Lyra and Prismacolor Pencils, Martha Stewart sparkle fiber, Martha Stewart Punches, Ribbon from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to go to the Pixie Cottage Blog. The Design Team has posted some new cards there for you also. I will be back soon with another project!

Party Time!

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today I have a quick post for you. I have been busy with birthday card making. This card was made using a free digi stamp from the wonderful artist Mo Manning. (Thanks MO!) My sister-in-law loves animals so this adorable image was just perfect for her. There wasn't enough time to add very many embellishments. Somehow I depleted my birthday card supply. I had to get this card ready in a flash so I had to keep it simple. My Copic markers were used for coloring the image. The image itself was fairly simple so I thought I couldn't do too much damage with my markers. I did reach for my Lyra color pencils for the background shade. I added some sparkle with a paint by Folk Art that I had in my stash from my shirt painting days called "Sparkles" (#255 Iridescent Pearl). It worked wonderfully! I just added it with a small paint brush. If I had more time to work on this card I would of added more of everything, pattern paper, embellishments, bling....

You know how it goes would of, could of, should of.

Thanks for stopping by. You're time spent reading my blog is appreciated!

Saturday Card Showcase

Happy Saturday! Today the Pixie Cottage is having their Saturday Showcase of Cards. Our showcase theme for this week is holiday and winter cards. I had a hard time choosing my image for this week. All of the artists images are so adorable. After actually coloring several images I finally decided on these cute little penguins by artist Eileen Gutierrez. Eileen is just one of the talented artist that illustrate for Pixie Cottage Stamps. The Design Team has done a wonderful job of putting some cards together for you this week. If you haven't had the chance to visit the Pixie Cottage Blog , be sure to do so to view the Design Team's cards. Also at the blog, Michelle, from the Pixie Cottage and who is also the owner of Michelle's Scrapbooking and More is offering some great blog candy! You don't want to miss out on the chance to win free stamps do you? You have until November 23rd. to get your name in for the random drawing.

Here are my amazing Pixie team members:

Kristen

Katie

Tammy

Risa

Renata

Peggy

Tara

Anne

Andrea

If you haven't had a chance to check out the Pixie Cottage's Design Teams individual blogs let me encourage you to do so. They all have a variety of art interests and techniques. They are amazing. I am blessed to work with a group of ladies that are so talented!

I hope to get some more card making done today. I still have the other Pixie Cottage images that I colored to make into cards! My stamping room, which had become more of a room to store all of my paper crafting and hobby supplies, needs some attention desperately. I am back to keeping my kitchen table covered up with stamping supplies. The kitchen table does make the best stamping table!

I hope you all enjoy your Saturday!

Supplies: Prismacolor Pencils, OMS, Pattern Paper by Me and My Big Ideas, Pop Poms, Ribbon, Red Stardust Glitter Pen, Neenah Crest Solar White, Color Cardstock Paper Studio's Michaels.

Come Celebrate With Us!

Come Celebrate With Us! It's time for another Every Other Wednesday Challenge st the Pixie Cottage!

I Know today is Tuesday and the challenge below started last Wednesday. I apologize for the delay. Sometimes life just changes all of my plans. You still have a week to enter this challenge. It's time for another "Every Other Wednesday Pixie Cottage challenge". Join us over at the Pixie Cottage blog for our latest exciting challenge! Before I tell what the challenge requires this time, I just want to personally thank you for participating in the last challenge. We had a wonderful response for our first challenge. I know that is because of all our stamping friends out there. We appreciate each and everyone of you! The entries were all fabulous!

My congrats to Stephanie (Designs by Steph__1999)!who was chosen by random drawing.

We also had our top three winners:

Denise (KC242 Designs by Denise), Barb (Stampelicious), and last but not least Faith (Delightful Inspiration) were our top three winners. It was so hard picking out just three top cards. The cards are not show in order of who had the best card. These girls did an amazing job with the challenge and are all equal in talent! Winning a top three spot puts you in the running to be a guest designer. Although these girls can't be in the top three for 60 days. They will be eligible to win the random drawing prize for each challenge. (Did someone say Prizes???!!) Plus they get the honor of displaying a special banner on their blog. Thanks so much for participating. I hope you all had as much as we at the Pixie Cottage did.

Now onto this weeks Pixie Cottage Challenge. Our theme is "Celebrate". Go to the Pixie Cottage blog here for all of the details. I decided to use this adorable Santa face illustrated by Alisa Ramirez for my card. Isn't this just just the most perfect Santa!

What fun he was to create!I used Flower Soft in polar white on Santa's beard. (I purchased this sparkly fluffy flower soft at

Michelle's Scrapbooking.)

I used flocking on Santa's hat and sleeves. Santa was colored with Primacolors. I cut Santa's arms off and popped them out with pop dots. Boy that sounds painful doesn't it?LOL! I promise you it didn't hurt Santa a bit. A pom pom was used on Santa's hat. I made the wreath using Martha Stewart's paper punch. I had a pack of card stock mats in my stash with adhesive on the back.(I think the card stock pad was made by Die Cuts With A View) I cut a circle rim out of a sheet of the card stock using my Cuttlebug with my Nestibilities dies to create a guide for me to to place the punched out leaves to make my wreath. I used the sticky side of the card stock ring to attach my leaves to. My snowflake pattern paper is from American Crafts. My solid paper is from Paper Studios. The red stones on the wreath are from Hobby Lobby in the jewelry department. They are flat back faceted acrylic stones.

Now hurry over to the Pixie Cottage Blog to get all of the Challenge's details. Plus you don't want to miss all of the beautiful cards and projects the Pixie girls have to share with you.

I have one more little surprise for you! The Pixie Cottage is giving away 6 stamps! All you have to do is go to the Pixie Cottage blog, leave a comment telling us what stamp out of the 6 they are giving away is your favorite and why. So easy! Here is a peak at the 6 stamps that are may be yours!

Okay now rush on over

to the Pixie Cottage Blog.

See you all soon!

New Cards at the Pixie Cottage

Happy Saturday! Today over at the Pixie Cottage Blog the design team will be previewing several new Winter Stamps that are soon to be released at Michelle's Scrapbooking and more. I hope you will stop by to view the amazing cards my fellow design team members have created using some of these adorable new stamps. For my card I chose the Gingerbread illustrated by artist Tina Akonom. I love gingerbread men! This stamp was such a joy to color. I can tell this one is going to be a favorite of mine for a long time to come!

Every other Wednesday at the Pixie Cottage Blog there will be a challenge. If you haven't completed our last challenge yet, you still have time. All entries need to be in on Sunday night at midnight EST. As a reminder here is the sketch challenge currently going on:

It has been so much fun seeing all of the fabulous card entries. Thank you to all who have entered!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Supplies: solid card stock by Paper Studios, Kraft card stock by Papertrey, Prismacolors, Odorless mineral spirits, charm and ribbon from my stash, label by Sizzix, oval punch by Stampin Up, glitter, red rhinestones, sewing, glaze pen, white souffle pen, pop-dots

The Stamping Addiction...

Hello blogging friends. I am so happy to be stamping again. I had a project that took me approximately four weeks. That was almost four weeks where I could not stamp without the guilt of neglecting my other obligation. I think I actually was having withdrawals! Laugh, you may. But if you are a stamper you might just relate. One night I was working on my project. I had worked for hours. My husband had gone to bed. It's not that my husband was restricting me from stamping or anything. (Besides if someone tells me I "can't" do something I will bust my butt trying. LOL!) It's just when you know you should be doing something else, and you are stamping instead. You know your conscience nags at you! I just had to stamp out a few of the images Michelle from the Pixie Cottage had sent me. The Pixie Cottage has released such a variety of stamps that I love seeing what they are coming out with next! It was killing me not to see them in ink!

Finally my project is done and I am FREE! I am not wasting anytime. I have been stamping my little heart out! Art of some form is just part of who I am. If I could not do some form of art I think it would actually depress me. Creating something let's you express yourself, and it gives you a sense of self worth. Even when no one else likes what you have created, you get satisfaction in the fact that you received a finished result from something you worked on. I love art!

The card I am sharing with you today is made with Tilda and a pond scene from the Pixie Cottage. There are so many Magnolia stamps that will go with this stamp. It was hard to choose just one. I finally settled on Tilda with her puppy. If you look close you can see that Tilda's pig tails, her legs and the puppy are all popped out with pop dots. I made my flowers with a paper punch by the Punch Bunch. The oval punch set is from Stampin' Up. My sentiment is from Verve Stamps. The Ribbon is from my ever growing stash. I would love to tell you from whom the green polka dot paper is from, but I did it again! I forgot to write down the name of the paper before I glued everything down. I am so sorry! My card stock is from Papertrey Ink. I absolutely love Papertrey Ink! I don't want my blog to become a big advertisement. But I have to share what is great with my fellow stamping addicts. I won't pass along anything I don't love myself. I was not brave enough to tackle these stamped images with my copic markers. I colored the images with my Prismacolor Pencils and Odorless Mineral Spirits. I wanted just a light background so I chalked the background. I took a piece of wax paper and rubbed over the whole image to seal it. It worked really great! It also took away that crayon colored look. Sometimes you just have to try something to see if it works. If you try the wax paper, be sure to test it first . I would hate for you to ruin an image.

I hope you will stop back by and visit with me. I have so many new stamps to share with you. Just because I had to take a break from stamping doesn't mean I haven't received any new stamps!

Over at the Pixie Cottage on Saturday you will see a preview of the new Winter stamps being released! I hope you will join us. My fellow designers have some beautiful cards to show you. I want to thank my stamping friends who joined in the Pixie Cottages first challenge. With each entry, those of us who are involved with the Pixie Cottage, got all that more excited.

I hope you all are enjoying your Fall. I love reading blogs. Everyone is posting such gorgeous Fall cards and projects. Wishing you all God's blessings.

Spoooooky!

Stopping by with a quick post for you tonight. I finally found time to make a card with my Magnolia Halloween stamps. This card is going to my "Secret Sister" at the Yahoo Magnolia-lious group. I did a blogger no no. I forgot to write down the name of my decorative paper before I glued it down to my card. Of course I only had one sheet of this paper left. All of the stamps used on this card are from Magnolia-lious. The tree, pumpkins, cat, Tilda with her broom, and Edwin Dracula. The spider is a sticker from Recollections. I did a lot of cutting out on this card. I stamped Tilda, Edwin, a pumpkin and the tree first. I masked the tree to make Edwin look like he was hiding behind it. The cat and other pumpkin are raised up on pop dots. It was such a fun card to create. The most difficult part was wrapping the tulle around the cut out images! I had a few sticky fingers when I was done. Looking at the little children in their costumes reminds me of the days as a child when we would go trick or treating with pillow cases. When we got home we would spread all of our goodies on the floor to see what we got. That also could be a very risky thing to do with two brothers near by!