TAWS January Release Blog Hop

How are you enjoying the Alley Way Stamps Blog Hop so far?  Aren't these girls super-amazingly talented?  These stamps are so much fun to work with and couldn't be any more adorable!  For this quick card I used the new set, "Sittin' Pretty" and a RetroSketches sketch from a couple weeks ago:

One person will win ALL 3 NEW SETS!! YEP!! So if you want that person to be you.. all you have to do is comment on the hop! 
Here are ways you can win.. You can pick and choose which ones you want to do.. but the more you comment, the more chances you have to win.. 

1-Comment on The Alley Way Stamps Blog

2-Comment on the DT girls blogs (below)

3-Post about it on facebook or your blog

4-Like us on Facebook
(leave a seperate comment for each that you do)

 You have until tonight, December 31st by 10:30 PM TAWS time to leave comments.

Here are the DT Blogs to visit

4CCC-122 {Color Challenge}

Welcome back for our FINAL 4 Crafty Chicks' Challenge of 2012! Can you believe we're through
another year?  This week, Lori is our hostess-with-the-mostest and she's created this lovely, soft color combo for you all to play with:

I found a fantastic, CAS sketch challenge, CAS(E) This Sketch, and LOVE their sketches - this is based on their very first one from a few months ago:

 

I hope you enjoyed your Christmas with family and friends - now to prepare for 2013!  Please take some time to play along with us this week and don't forget to visit the other Chicks if you need a bit more inspiration!

TAWS Day One Sneak Peek {The Gang}

Happy Boxing Day!!!  Did you all have a super-duper Christmas?  I have had a house full of family since the weekend and have enjoyed every single minute of it... We are heading out skiing with the DH's family tomorrow so there is not going to be any time to rest and relax the rest of this year! :)

I've got some exciting news to share with all of my crafty friends - I've been asked to join the amazing design team over at The Alley Way Stamps!  Ali has got some of the CUTEST stamps around and the sentiment fonts are awesome - and the girls on the design team are amazingly talented.  I can't wait for you all to see what we've got coming for you over the next few months.

Today I've got a sneak peek of the first of three new sets being released this month, "The Gang."  Actually, my card also has an element on it from one of the other new sets but I kind of got them mixed up when I was making my card...oops!  Too lazy to go back and change it so it stayed right where it was!

Here ya go:

Please stop by TAWS Blog to see who else has some sneak peeks for this set - you're going to love it!  Thanks for stopping by - see you in a couple days!

4CCC-121 {Make Your Own Patterned Paper} & December SFYTT & CQC165

 Hello everyone!  It's a quick post from me today - there is WAYYYY too much stuff to do around here.  My family arrives this weekend and I am NOT ready!

This week's challenge over at the 4 Crafty Chicks' is being hosted by Tamie and she wants you to make your OWN patterned paper.  You all know how much I love my 6X6 paper pads so this was REALLY a challenge for me.

I pulled out one of my new SU! two-step stamping sets, Reason to Smile, and got to work combining the final SFYTT sketch for this year with a Colour Q combo from a few weeks ago:

Here are links to all of my SFYTT cards for this year - glad I got to play along:


Thanks for stopping by today - ENJOY the next few days!  If you happen to have some down-time, we'd love to have you join us at the 4CCC!

  

{SSSC174}

Happy Sunday, everyone!  Are you all getting excited about Christmas?   Things here have been kind of nuts around here with work and Christmas shopping and trying to get as much done ahead of time as I can for the big day.  I *think* I'm doing pretty good but, golly, you should see my lists!

So, it's time for another fabulous Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge and this week's has a few more layers which was fun for me to do because I tend to gravitate to the CAS sketches.  I used to joke that if a card didn't fit in an envelope, it probably had enough layers and embellishments!  So, here you go:

I pulled out one of last year's TCP Christmas sets, "Best Fishes," and got to work:

I also used the Color Throwdown combo from a few weeks ago:

All of the fabulous Sweet Sunday Stampers have inspiration for you, so please stop by and say hello to:

Dana White

Dawn Easton (taking a break this week)

Jackie Pedro 

Karen Giron 

Karen Motz 

Lori Tecler 

Lynn Put 

Sarah-Jane Kalé 

Tracy Clemente 

Vicki Burdick 

... and our super-duper guest stamper, Danielle Lounds!

That's it for me today - we'll be back after Christmas with our final sketch for 2012...can you believe how quickly 2013 has come?  Enjoy the next couple of weeks and Happy Holidays to you and yours.  :)

 

4CCC-120 {You're Invited}

Welcome back for another challenge with the 4 Crafty Chicks!  This week, I'm your hostess-with-the-mostest  and I've got a fun challemge for you.  This time of year is filled with parties so I want to see your invitiations to the festivities!  You could also make an invitation for a birthday, wedding or baby shower - you decide. :)

I decided to go CAS (something I'm embracing much more these days) and make an invitation that could be used for a birthday party or even just a casual get-together between friends...

This sketch from RetroSketches was perfect:

If you need some more inspiration, please don't forget to visit the rest of the Chicks' blogs - I know they"d love to have you stop by. :)  See you on Sunday for a new Sweet Sunday Sketch!

 

4CCC-119 {Snowmen}

 Boy oh boy!!! It's December and Christmas is quickly approaching! Are you ready?  Are you one of *those* people who finish their shopping in JULY or are you the last-minute type?  I am definitely the latter - I have good intentions of starting and finishing early but just don't seem to get around to it...

Our first 4 Crafty Chicks' Challenge this month is brought to us by Leanne and she wants to see some SNOWMEN...one snowman or a whole bunch of snowmen - that's up to you. :)

For my card I used a Mojo Monday sketch from a few weeks ago, some old SU! DSP and a Taylored Expressions stamp that had never seen ink! EGADS!  Can you imagine???  The horror, I tell ya...

 As always, I really appreciate you all taking the time to stop by and see what I've been up to - enjoy the rest of your week...and get some shopping done!  :)

{SSSC173}

YIPPEE!!!  It's December!!!  I can hardly believe it is here already and there are only 23 days until Christmas - I have soooooo much stuff to do between now and then.  We're hosting my family this year so we'll have 6-8 additional humans in the house plus *possibly* FIVE extra dogs!  I am really looking forward to it but the next few weeks are going to be extremely busy.  I haven't even started the Christmas shopping, we have to finish painting and getting the guest room ready so my nieces have somewhere to sleep and the list goes on...work, school, gym and somewhere in there I suppose I need to eat and sleep!

But right now I'm comfy and cozy in my craft room with my Christmas tunes cranked and I think that's where I'll be for the rest of the day trying to get a bunch of DT stuff done for this month.  I know everyone is busy this month but we'd love it if you joined us for a fun sketch over at Sweet Sunday Sketches sometime over the next two weeks.  It's another stunner that is super-simple to make CAS...and quick:

I decided to leave the sketch just as it is and use a very simple sentiment from a MFT Pure Innocence set I found in my box...never inked...*sigh*

The color combo is from this week's CR84FN Color Challenge:

All of the fabulous Sweet Sunday Stampers have inspiration for you, so please stop by and say hello to:

Dana White 

Dawn Easton 

Jackie Pedro 

Karen Giron 

Karen Motz 

Lori Tecler 

Lynn Put 

Sarah-Jane Kalé 

Tracy Clemente 

Vicki Burdick 

... and our amazingly talented Guest Sweet Stamper, Lisa Henke!

Thanks for stopping by today - have a wonderful week!

4CCC-118 {Crazy Egg - Ornaments}

It's the fifth Thursday of the month and you know what that means...it's CRAZY EGG Challenge time over at the 4 Crafty Chicks' Challenge.  This time around we started thinking about Christmas and have decided on a theme of  "Ornaments" for this crazy egg challenge - interpret as you may...ornament paper, dies, even make your very own Christmas ornament.

For my card, I used MME "12 Days of Christmas" paper decorated with ornaments and then complemented it with The Cat's Pajamas' "J*lly H*liday" stamp set.  And, as usual, I come in *just* in the nick of time with Jen's Sketch for You To Try for November:

Don't forget about the prize package up for grabs if you play along with us over at the 4 Crafty Chicks...Tamie's got some fun stuff for you to win.  Thanks for stopping by - see you on Sunday for a brand new Sweet Sunday Sketch.  Enjoy the rest of your week!
 

4CCC-117 {Tropical Destination}

Hello, hello, hello!!!  Thank you for stopping by today to check on the new 4 Crafty Chicks' Challenge.  This week Lori is the hostess extraordinaire and since it has been somewhat chilly around these parts, she wants to see some cards/projects inspired by a tropical destination. 

When I went looking for some paper and stamps to make my card, I realized that my choices were rather limited.  Eventually I found a sentiment from an AmyR Stamps set as well as the shell from one of the Pure Innocence girlies that I figured would work perfectly together - who doesn't search for shells on the beach when they are on holidays?  An old 6x6 paper pad from Cosmo Cricket, "Salt Air" was discovered and used  - I love how the shapes on the paper mimic the shape of the shell...

I also used this week's RetroSketches sketch:

That's it for me today - I hope you will play along with our "tropical destination" challenge.  If you can't go to the beach, why not imagine yourself there while making a card?  :)  Later, gators!