Use a Digi

The new challenge goes live today at One Stitch at a Time and the theme is Use a Digi.

 

This week I worked with Hope Jacare Doodles' Christmas Snowman digi stamp:

 

 

I coloured the image with my Promarkers and cut it out:

 

 

I used some pretty Christmas-themed papers and a doily for a fairly quick and simple Christmas card, attaching the image with foam tape for a little dimension.

 

 

You don't need to use a Stitchy Bear product to enter the challenge but if you do you'll be in with a chance of winning our main prize. Entries without a Stitchy Bear product will be entered into the draw to win a $3 gift voucher to the Stitchy Bear Digi Outlet - and don't forget there is currently a sale on at Stitchy Bear Digi Outlet with 50% of all products! :)

 

 

Brrrr... is it cold in here?

Well here we are in October and the prospect of winter begins to loom before us...

 

So to warm you up a bit, here's a cute little creation for this week's Winter Wonderland challenge at One Stitch at a Time:

 

 

This week I've used Beary Dust's Hot Chocolate image. I'm rather envious of this cuddly little bear... I could just do with soaking in a bath of lovely warm hot chocolate right about now. :D I coloured the image with my Promarkers and added a few white gel pen highlights before fussy cutting it out:

 

 

I decorated my card with some pretty christmas-themed papers in warm red and cool aqua and cut a pretty snowflake frame with my Cameo over which to layer my cut-out image:

 

 

I layered the frame and my image (attached with foam pads) over a piece of pretty white lace and finsihed things off with some flowers and some dotted flourishes done with a 3D liner pen.

 

You can enter any kind of project you like into the challenge, as long as it meets the challenge theme, and entries using a Stitchy Bear product will be eligible to win our main prize. Entries not using a Stitchy Bear product will be entered into the draw to win a $3 gift voucher for the Stitchy Bear digi outlet.

 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes
Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes
Robyn's Fetish - Square Cards Only
Yumi & Fumi Handmade - Anything Goes
2 Sisters - Anything Goes
Colour Me Creative - Anything Goes
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes
Craftitude - Anything Goes
Pattie's Creations - Ribbon
Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything Goes
Stampin' For The Weekend - Anything Goes

Beat the Christmas Rush - April

The 25th is upon us again, which means it's time for Creative Craft World's linky party plan to get a head start on your Christmas card making - Beat the Christmas Rush! :)

 

If you're new to the idea, it's very simple... each month make 1-5 Christmas cards, post them to your blog and link your entry at the CCW blog before the 25th of the month. It's a lot of fun seeing everyone else's creations and by the time we get to November you'll have a stash of cards ready to go - and may even by lucky enough to pick yourself up a prize along the way. :)

 

For my card this month I went with a fairly Clean and Simple design:

 

 

The starting point for this card was these insanely cute little wooden robot cut-outs that I got recently at Hobbycraft (it was one of those impulse purchases where you have no idea what you're actually going to *do* with them, they're just so cute that you've got to have them! :D).

 

 

I thought they'd look cute on a plain white card so I coloured them with my Promarkers in christmassy colours... and then I suddenly remembered that I have an old Dymo machine that would be perfect for the greeting! After a bit of digging around in the craft room, I found it and it even had red tape in it - perfect! :)

 

 

I ripped a bit of red card and a strip of punchinella and layered them onto my card blank for attaching the robots over the top. I stuck down my Dymo sentiment strip and finished things off with a couple of little gemstones.

 

 

And now onto my choice of my favourite card(s) from last month's BtCR entries.

 

We had some great entries this month but my favourite was this adorable card by Tracey Boley:

 

 

I love the pretty beige and purple colour scheme, the cute image with touches of glitter, and the asymetrical ribbon. Overall, a very striking, but cute, card. :) You can read more about how Tracey made this card at her blog.

 

I'm finding myself really enjoying BtCR as the months go on... it's a nice feeling to actually be ahead of myself a bit for once and to think that I won't be rushing around making Christms cards at the last minute this year! :lol:

 

I'm going to enter my card into the following challenges:

Celebrate the Occasion - Clean and Simple

Craft-Room Challenge - So Sentimental

Ladybug Crafts - Red and White

Cutie Pie Challenge - Clean and Simple

 

 

 

 

Beat the Christmas Rush

The 25th of the month is upon us once again - Gosh, isn't this year going quickly? And would someone please tell Mother Nature that it's the 25th of March and we are done with the snow now, please?! - and that means it's once again time for Creative Craft World's monthly Beat the Christmas Rush linky party.

 

If you're new to BtCR, the premise is simple... each month, make one (or more, if you'd like) Christmas card, post it to your blog by the 25th of the month and link up your creation at the Creative Craft World blog. The idea is that by November, you'll have a bunch of Christmas cards all ready to go - and there'll be some prizes to be won also. :)

 

So here's my card(s) for this month:

 

 

Yes, this time I actually managed to make more than one! :D I went with a fairly simple design that was suited to mass production.

 

 

I started with a panel of white card and embossed the top of it with a dotted embossing folder.

 

 

I then stamped my images and my sentiment (both Stampin' Up! stamps) and added a length of velvet ribbon and finished things off with a pearl centre for each of the baubles. The completed panels were attached to card blanks using foam pads.

 

Just for fun, I'm going to enter these cards into a couple of challenges:
Christmas Card Challenges - Clean and Simple
Pile It On - Dots
Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Anything Goes
 

So that's my cards for this month, how about the cards entered in February's BtCR? Each month, each of the CCW Design Team pick their favourite from the previous month's entries and this month I've chosen this lovely set of bauble-themed cards by Wendy:

 

 

Aren't they lovely? I love the simple yet striking design and the 3D element to them. Read more about how Wendy made these cards are her blog.

 

Beat the Christmas Rush

It's that time again.

 

It's the 25th of the month and time for the second installment of Creative Craft World's fun new monthly linky party - Beat the Christmas Rush. It's easy to join in with the fun - just make a Christmas card - or more than one if you like! - and link up your BtCR card at the Creative Craft World blog.

 

The idea is that if we all make even just one Christmas card each month during 2013, by the time Christmas come around, we'll have a head start of 11 cards ready to send out. There will be some prizes along the way and also each month the members of the CCW Design Team will each be choosing their favourite from the previous month's entries and posting it on their blog.

 

So with no further ado, here's my card for this month:

 

 

 

I went with a very simple look for my card this month because I was inspired by some of my online crafty friends who've been getting into papercutting. I wanted to have a go at this technique and liked the idea of cutting a simple design from white card and layering it over a white card blank with a simple stamped sentiment. I drew the design in reverse onto the back of the card and cut it out from the reverse side using a craft knife on a glass cutting mat. I quite like the result.*

 

*Note to self for future attempts: Make sure your cutting mat is really nice and clean cos it's a shame to do all that hard work cutting out the design from the rear side and then find that your cutting mat has left a dirty smudge on the front side! :/

 

And now for my favourite card from the January BtCR entries.

 

I loved looking at everyone's creations so thanks to everyone who entered last month, some really gorgeous cards. My favourite is....

 

 

This lovely set of coordinating cards by Wendy. I love the simple but striking design and the way it lends itself to "production line" making. :) You can see full details of how she made them at her blog here. 

 

Clean and Simple Christmas

I seem to be feeling the Christmas inspiration recently. :) I've already made one Christmas card for Creative Craft World's Beat the Christmas Rush linky party and now here's another one...
 

This one was very much inspired by this gorgeous digi stamp by Rebecca Sinz, one of the new releases at Sweet Pea Stamps. She's called Holly and as soon as I saw her I thought what a striking, unusual Christmas card she'd make (I love the way Rebecca draws faces, and her moody, gothic style). You can buy this image in digi format right now and you can pre-order (at special reduced pre-order price) the red rubber version, which will ship in February).

I coloured the image with my Promarkers, giving her festive red hair and a touch of goth-y eye make-up. :) I then trimmed the image to a rectangular shape and cut two more rectangles of the same size from white card which I then embossed using a snowflake embossing folder. I attached the three panels to a sideways DL card blank using foam tape and then cut a title from red cardstock using my Cameo.

And that was my clean and simple - but striking - Christmas card. And I've now got two Christmas cards done and it's only January! Go me! :)

 

Beat the Christmas Rush

"What's this?" I hear you cry. "Christmas? Already? Didn't we just do that?!"

 

Well, yes, we did, and wasn't it fun? ;) But here's an idea to make next Christmas a little bit.. well... perhaps, a bit less stressful. Cos if you're anything like me, you promise yourself every year that this year you're going to be organised and start making your Christmas cards early so that you're not rushing around at the last minute. And then, next thing you know, it's December, you haven't made any and, yes, you're rushing around at the last minute and desperately looking up the last posting dates for Christmas. ;)

 

So to help us all out with this little conundrum, the team at the Creative Craft World blog are launching a new monthly linky party called Beat the Christmas Rush. The idea is that each month of 2013 you try and make at least one Christmas card - or more if you get the chance. On the 25th of the month (see what we did there? ;D) there will be a BtCR post on the CCW blog with the Design Team sharing their festive makes to help inspire you and a Mr Linky where you can link up your own blog posts of your Christmas Cards.

 

It's gonna be fun, there's gonna be prizes to be won (details on the CCW blog), and at the end of it all, you'll find yourself approaching Christmas 2013 with a stash of Christmas cards already made! Woohoo! It's a win-win. :)

 

So to kick things off, the inaugural BtCR post can be found at the CCW blog here and here is my first Christmas Card of 2013!

 

 

The image is a fab digi stamp from Stitchy Bear Stamps coloured with my Promarkers, the papers are magazine freebies by Kaisercraft and the ribbon is a scrap that's been hanging around my ribbon drawer for forever! :)

 

Ooh and before I go, as part of the BtCR fun, each month the members of the CCW Design Team will be also picking their favourite card from those linked up in the previous month's BtCR linky party. Obviously, this being our first BtCR, we don't have previous entries to choose from so instead the DT have scoured blogland/Pinterest etc for cards that have caught their eye. And here's the one I've chosen to feature:

I found this gorgeous card by Joy Taylor on Pinterest - I love the clean and simple lines of this card and all the delicious texture.. dry embossing, heat embossing, baker's twine. Lush. You can read all about how she made this card on her blog post here.

 

Merry Christmas Lynette! :)

This time each year the Sweet Pea Stamps Design Team like to create a special blog hop for Lynette, owner of Sweet Pea Stamps, as our little Christmas gift to thank her for the gorgeous stamps she offers and for her generosity in letting us loose to play with them! :)

 

For my card for this special blog hop, I have used a gorgeous digi stamp called Cold by a new artist to Sweet Pea Stamps - the very talented Marlon Teunissen.

 

 

I love this pretty, wintery image and I chose to colour her in soft pastels.

 

 

I used wintery papers in similar colours and added some die-cut snowflakes and snowflake flourishes, finishing things off with a couple of pretty pink blossoms and a computer-printed sentiment.

 

 

But what would a blog hop be without some candy? To celebrate our Christmas thank you hop, we are offering you the chance to win these gorgeous rubber stamps:

 

 

All you need to do is follow the hop and leave comments along the way - each comment you leave gets you another chance in the prize draw.

 

You should have come here from Alex's blog and your next stop along the hop is Connie. If you missed the start or get lost along the way, just pop along to the Sweet Pea Stamps blog for the full list of participating blogs.

 

And Merry Christmas! :)

 

 

 

 

Christmas Blog Hop!

Welcome one and all to the One Stitch at a Time Christmas Blog Hop! :)

 

Yes, to celebrate the festive season, instead of our usual weekly challenge, OSAAT is bringing you a great big 3-week Design Team blog hop - each member of the Design Team has posted a Stitchy Bear creation on their blogs and you have 3 whole weeks to follow the hop and visit each of the Design Team blogs, and to create your own project and link it on the Blog Hop post at the OSAAT blog.

 

You should have come here from Josephine's blog but if not and you want to start from the beginning, you can find the full list at the OSAAT blog here.

 

The theme of the challenge is Use a Digi and I was given some gorgeous Christmassy digi papers by Stitchy Stamps to use for my card - I also used a Sylvie's Stamps digi image called Santa Lady 2.

 

 

I chose to make an easel card and decorated it with two of the pretty Christmas-themed papers. I coloured in the digi image with Promarkers and cut her out before mounting her onto the card with foam tape, framing her against a decorative oval accented with gemstones. A layered snowflake finished things off nicely. :)

 

 

 

There are goodies galore to be won in the blog hop - and here's how you can win:

 

1. Follow the blog hop and leave a comment on every blog. Each blog will also have a letter to collect - when you have collected all the letters, email choccy.oona@gmail.com with the answer. Everyone who takes part will get themselves a fabulous Stitchy Bear Stamps freebie digi stamp and one lucky winner will be chosen at random to win ALL the Stitchy Bear stamps/papers used by the Design Team on their blog hop projects.

2. Each member of the Design Team will also be giving away the Stitchy Bear stamp (or papers) that they used for their Blog Hop creation - one winner will be chosen at random from all those who comment.

3. If you enter the OSAAT challenge using a Stitchy Bear digi stamp, you will be entered into the draw to win the entire set of Stitchy Bear images used by the Design Team in the Blog Hop.

4. If you enter the challenge without using a Stitchy Bear image, you will be entered into the draw to win one of the digi images used in the Blog Hop.

Your next stop on the hop is Nataliya's blog. And don't forget to Please Pick uP the Pertinent letter from my blog to be in with a chance of winning the Primo Blog HoP Prize! ;)

Quick and Easy Christmas Card

A new challenge starts today at Sweet Pea Stampers and the theme is Quick and Easy Christmas Card. It does exactly what it says on the tin... we're looking for your gorgeous creations that were quick and easy to put together, not taking hours to make.

 

For my creation I used Connie Fong's Angel of Christmas Stars digi stamp:

 

 

I decided to colour her very simply in shades of blue and grey (I envisioned her as a kind of ice angel) with just the flowers in colour to add highlights.

 

 

I teamed the image with some freebie Scandi-style papers that I got from a craft magazine and finished things off with some flowers (I've had these in my stash for years and years - aren't they just a perfect match for the flowers in the image?) and some gemstones.

 

 

Et voila, quick and easy. :)

 

The challenge is open for a month and you don't have to use a Sweet Pea Stamps image to enter but  doing so will give you an extra chance to win and we'd love to see your Sweet Pea Stamps creations.

 

You can buy this image in digi or red rubber format from the Sweet Pea Stamps store.

 

Pop Goes Christmas!

Anyone else remember those "Pop Goes..." albums? Pop Goes Mozart? Pop Goes Beethoven? No? Just me showing my age then... ;)

 

(P.S. My dad had those albums... I'm not *that* old! :lol:)

 

Anyhoo, Pop Dots & Layers is the theme of the current challenge at Dilly Beans Designers & Friday Challenge blog and this is the card I made for the challenge:

 

 

I used this sweet Amalia's Christmas Lights image and had a bit of a play with some different techniques... I paper-pieced her dress (by the simple expedient of taping a piece of patterned paper to a piece of A4 copy paper and printing the digi image a second time onto that paper), coloured the rest of her with Promarkers, and for the christmas lights I printed the image a third time, onto plain white card, coloured the lights with Promarkers, added highlights with a white gel pen and then covered them in Glossy Accents before cutting them out and attaching to the main image using foam pads:

 

 

I decorated the card base with christmas themed papers and a die-cut snowflake frame.

It's the Final Countdown!

Da-da-daaa-dah, dada-da-da-daaaah!

 

Heee! Couldn't resist! :)

 

But today is indeed the last day of Creative Craft World's Christmas Countdown.... and you know what that means, don't you? Yup, tomorrow's December. Christmas is almost here folks! :D

 

So we have one more project to share with you and it's a beauty... Melissa has made these stunning Christmas decorations (click on the link to see more about how to make these):

 

Aren't they gorgeous?

 

I hope you've enjoyed all the varied creations the Design Team have shared with you over the course of November. Don't forget, if you've been inspired to have a go at one of the projects featured, please do post a link on the Creative Craft World blog and let us see it.

 

And above all, have a very Merry Christmas! :)

 

It's a Gift!

Sue has a fantastic project to share today for Creative Craft World's Christmas Countdown... check out these adorable little gift boxes, each made from one sheet of A4 card! Click the link above for details of how Sue made them.

Our final Countdown project will be posted tomorrow. :)