I had the difficult challenge to select a winner among the gorgeous entries in my Gothic Arch Card Challenge UK . Ultimately my first prize winner is HellyBelly who hails from Glouchestershire, UK.

HellyBelly has a romantic vision with attention to detail in embossing, stamping, and spritzing. I noticed that the embossed flowers in the corners, the fine stamping detail, and the subtle use of colours. Then of course the more larger, elaborate details stand out and it all adds up to a great combination - lovely!

As well, two runner-up prizes go to Maritrez and JuneMac1 for their wonderful creations!

To see more of the entries go here:http://www.crafts-beautiful.com/site/index.php/forums/viewthread/11905/

Just a Reminder: the challenge is still open for North America - till the 15 of January! See post below.

I attempted a purse and had a lot of fun. I used mainly the beautiful papers of Bella Rose from SU! and a few embellishments. I want to replace the flower with just the right button when I find it. Perhaps a nice chiselled clear mini-knob would be shabby-nice. I find with all the mini-areas and the main pockets, you can have a great mix of opportunities to play with different colours, prints, chalks, whichever your heart desires.

Thanks for looking. Happy Holidays!

Thank You for the Lovely Blog Award nomination I received from my nicest-of-nice friend Tracy or 'Queenie' - its a really nice gesture that I deeply appreciate! Queenie does wonderful creations of her own and you should take a moment to visit her blog http://www.queeniesscrapmad.blogspot.com/

Now for the other exciting part of this is that I can now select 7 more blogs definately worth the visit, so my nominations are:

1)http://www.debbiedesigns.typepad.com/

2)http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

3)http://www.lianakabel.blogspot.com/

4)http://www.mccartneyfineart.com/

5)http://www.lindaduke.typepad.com/

6)http://thepolkadotpixie.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html

7)http://stampinwithmarkiesmom.blogspot.com/

I must also post the rules for the award:

a. Add the logo to your blog

b. Add a link to the person's blog who recommended you

c. Nominate at least 7 other blogs

d. Notify them that they are One Lovely Blog!

Well, thank you for taking the time to read this -- I hope to provide a variety of blogs for your fun, and I do hope you visit them! Bye :)

Here is a close-up from Country Living's website featuring the aforementioned Country Living Holiday Collection stampin' kit from Stampin' Up!

Sigh - how pretty is that table setting! I would love this for New Years or my Birthday! Can you see it for a bride's shower? Ooooohh! Its really adaptable if you ask me!

Just remember - HURRY - its on till Dec 31rst!!!

Kit contains: stamp set, chipboard die-cuts {4 sheets, 12x12}, Designer Series paper {12 sheets}, Whisper White cardstock, Silver Metallic cord, White Taffeta ribbon, Pretties Kit components {decorative elements}, Red Riding Hood Classic Stampin' Spot {ink}, .......well lots more!

PLUS - free bonus! :) {And free gift with their magazine subscription}

SIMPLE!

Stampin' Up and Country Living Magazine joined forces to offer a fabby kit from SU! which can be used to wonderful results for decorating your home - Christmas or otherwise!

PLUS Country Living is offering a magazine subscription discount AND a special gift for SU! customers....not so shabby { shabby chic that is!}

* {see promotions to the left column}

You can see more of the special projects in Country Living here:http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/stampin-up-1208

HURRY if you want in on the beautiful kit - its limited! But if you order from me - I will up the ante! I will be pleased to offer you a FREE BONUS GIFT till December 31rst!

For myself I have used one of the chipboard snowflakes to make a simple statement on my hanging tray. It even came in handy when I wanted a place to display some ATCs I received from friends!

hELLO! I am hosting a challenge on the Crafts Beautiful [crafty magazine] forum across the pond.
http://www.crafts-beautiful.com/site/index.php/forums/viewthread/11905/

However - I have decided on offering the same challenge on our side of the pond - so its my first challenge here: my Gothic Arch Card Challenge!

Objective: create any card using the Gothic Arch style - and submit to me by providing a link to a picture of your make. I always judge my entries by the various degree of: artistic composition, originality, difficulty, and general attractiveness. I give each of those a possible 5 points each for a possible maximum total of 20 points. If there is a tie, then I will announce it and create a tie-breaker.

Deadline: please submit to me by January 15th. 2009. {North American contestants only}

Prize: Stampin' Up! Create-A-Calendar Kit

*** If there is less than 3 entries - I will not award a prize but will send each entry a consolation token of appreciation.

STAMPIN' UP! CARDS

Sleigh Bells Ring

This card is made using the stamp set ' Sleigh Bells Ring ' from SU!'s Fall/Winter 2008 Idea Catalog. It's a wonderful set for creating a traditional feeling.

Cardstock is also SU!'s - Sahara Sand. It's the perfect image to colour with SU!'s Stampin' Pastels chalk collection. I decided on the gate-fold style for this card as it allowed me to create a 'sneak peek' on the front - in the end, I simply slipped a nice velvet ribbon band to keep this closed and then can you see the recipient open to see the lovely gay scene of the sleighers being pulled by their horses - perhaps off to a festive dance at the church!

However I made the background design directly behind the main stamp image differently in each card - I was experimenting and had a lot of fun as I wanted to go outside the norm and yet still keep the familiarity of christmas patterns. I tried using some lovely ribbons and made my tied bow embellishment in the left top-corner with 3 ribbons!

The stamp set comes with 3 stamps, the winter sleigh scene, a holly-berry accent, and a sentiment as you see on the card. I've already used the holly-berry stamp for other cards many times over! In fact, I'm waiting to see what other uses I come up with for this stamp set.

To balance the neutral shade of the cardstock, I found a pretty silver sparkle cardstock and used glitter ravishly around the images, and on berries. Red adds good 'punch' for the eye!

One additional fact is the card with the plaid background {not the red gingham} is made by using Papertrey Ink's clear stamp set " Faux Ribbon " - its been great fun making my own borders and even this plaid as I sent this card to a friend in bonnie Scotland!

* Note: Be aware that this set is on the Retired List of Stampin' Up! ....so if you want to get it then you'd best contact me. Thanks for looking! :)

STAMPIN' UP! PROMOTIONS

Just to let you know that there are several ' good things ' going on over at SU!

For one - the new Retired Stamps List is on!!!!... so you should have a good look and take advantage of the time you have left to pick up some of these favourite sets - its always sad to see some sets go into retirement, so think fast - lol!

Another great thing is Free Shipping for qualifying orders! Who couldn't stand to take advantage of that!

Till Jan 18th- there is still some great choices to be had from the Holiday Mini-Catalog and the Catalogue Sampler - maybe you can use some holiday gift money to reward yourself or someone close to you with a little tidbit from these collections.

Only until until Dec. 31 will you be able to order the fabulous Country Living holiday collection stampin' kit! It has really nice decorative ornament projects and comes with all the supplies you could hope for!

OK - now I can feel as though I've not been remiss to remind you girls! :) I'd hate to see anyone miss out!!

Stampin' Up! Cards



Happy Holiday Card

I made this card for the Staff at Crafts Beautiful Magazine/Forum and wanted to try making 3D poinsettias as the main focus. So I used a sheet of patterened paper in Red Riding Hood {see SU!'s Patterns Designer Series Paper} and one of the sentiments for the holidays found in SU!'s stamp set, Many Merry Messages - a very useful range of holiday expressions, 8 in total. I chose 'Happy Holiday' and scored the white paper to emphasize the clean, bold font. A few embellishments to help: red brads, glitter and gem.

To make the flowers : a strip of paper folded accordian style [^^^^]
: cut a simple leaf shape from the folded strip,
{do as many times needed to have the effect for each flower
- once in red leaves, and again in white leaves},
: pinch the leaves up at the ends after glueing them in place.

The brad is a slight illusion - to make it simplier, I snipped the ends of the brad off - then glued the brad top into place. Simple, clean - I was quite pleased -- I hope they enjoy it. One of the nice things about making cards is that the recipients are sure to have a variety of card types and this helps you to know that how ever you choose to make your card, it will have its place in the person's collection :)

Stampin' Up! Cards

Scandinavian Season Stamp Set


In this card, I have used the Scandinavian Season stamp set by stamping and cutting out the mitts. The cardstock and patterned paper are Baja Breeze as is the ink used. I coloured in parts using SU's Blender Pens. Finally, used Martha Stewart Border Punch and some peel offs and 3D stickers, glittery ribbon.
















Version 2



















Here using the same materials, I cut out a scalloped circle with my punch and placed some of the patterened paper behind it. Stamped my images and made a small 3D embellishment by cutting out a portion and securing it over the star image with a glue dot. A little glitter on top of that and some more cute 3D snowflake stickers, satin ribbon. Note how you can make it all the more customized by stamping the envelope too!

Close-up of the embellishment.

Another Friend's Version



















This card was made with the same stamp set, Scandinavian Season and was made by a young lady who has shown great potential as a wonderful card-maker! She hasn't tried many stamps before and look how lovely her card came out! The tree was stamped in Baja Breeze ink and she embossed the snowflakes with Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder also by Stampin' Up! The cardstock is from In Colour Assorted Paper Pack in the Pacific Point shade.

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone is feeling like busy elves - what would christmas be without the hectic pace of shopping, cooking, crafting...and the anticipation building before the big day? I have thought about this lately and instead of grumbling about it like I may have before - I say relish in it! Its all in the details - so when we look back we'll see how every step we take leads us to the best of memories!

And I have literally taken just about every 2nd day thus far to create a new card designs...somedays I created several - all from scratch! It might be a great accomplishment to have a grand plan, but that'll be another year for me I'm afraid. This year I made them up as I went along, lol - good exercise for the brain especially when you are under the crunch to get those international cards mailed!

So here are the cards I've made. I will follow this post with a show of my cards - I hope they inspire you! Almost 99% of them have been from my collection of Stampin' Up! stamps.
One card using a die cut from Quickutz, the Peace on Earth card. And a few feature Flourishes LLC and Papertrey Ink - all 3 companies regular favourites of mine.

I hope you enjoy them!