Flower Soft/Penny Black blog hop

I'm so excited to be joining some of the Flower Soft designers in a joint blog hop with the Penny Black design team! Both companies have some great prizes up for grabs for a few lucky commenters and participants. If you just happened on the blog hop because you're a regular reader of my blog, and you'd like to view the entire hop, you can start at the Penny Black Blog - there you'll find a full list of participants, and all the details you need. If you're already hopping and you arrived here from Cathy Andronicou's blog, you're doing just fine.

I colored this sweet image (Micey Day clear set) using my Touch Twin Markers, and framed it in some die cut windows (cut with a Quickutz circle die and a Cheery Lynn doily die). I used Penny Black's Rose Garden cardstock (pink) along with a few small scraps of Memory Box cardstock for the leaves. The base panel is embossed with a Sizzix Texturz plate. I added Sweet Pea Flower Soft to the bouquet and Ivory Flower Soft to the flower center (die from Cheery Lynn Designs).
These are the Touch Twin Markers that I used:
To be eligible to win a prize, be sure to leave a comment on all participating blogs - easy as that! 3 random commenters will receive brand new 2012 Penny Black Valentine stamps, and 3 commenters will receive a bottle of Flower Soft glue and 3 pots of Flower Soft (Poppy Red, Peony Pink, Polar White).

For the grand prize, use one of the Blog Hop projects as inspiration and create a new Penny Black stamped project. Upload it into the Penny Black gallery by the end of the Hop with the tag “pennyblackbloghop”. Be sure to let us know which project inspired you! A winner will be chosen to GUEST DESIGN at the Penny Black Blog!

After you leave a comment here, you'll be hopping on to Peet Roeven's blog - hope you're enjoying the hop so far!

Year in review...

I wanted to fill this day with 'something'.... thought it would be fun to look back over this year and pick out a favorite from each month. Such a year! I wonder what's coming in 2012?!! Here we go:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

That's it! Thanks so much for a great year - how fun to grow and learn together!

Heartfelt Creations

If you'd like a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Heartfelt Creations, take a little blog hop with the HCDT Alumni! I'm not able to participate this time (my stamps are on the other side of the world), but you can start the hop over at Olga's blog. Good luck, and enjoy!

TTC08 - Color Challenge

There's a new challenge up at the Touch Twin Markers & More Challenge blog - this time we're using our markers to create projects with a specific color combination. We hope you'll join the fun! If you don't have the exact colors listed, just try to stay as close as you can.I chose a Christmas set to work with, just for fun - the colors went so well with this set called Holly4Christmas from The Stamps of Life. We're so grateful to them for sponsoring our challenges this month! This set has so many elements and so many possibilities! I just love the string of lights.These are the markers I used to color my card:
You can visit the Touch Twin Markers & More Challenge blog for all the details if you'd like to play! Don't have a blog? That's OK. Just post to any online gallery with the keywords TTC08 and touchtwin. Don't have Touch markers? That's OK too for now. Starting in January we will require using our markers, but for now you can use any coloring medium. Have fun!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you peace this Christmas...

Custom stamps

I temporarily lost the stamp I use on all my card backs last week... I wanted to be sure I had 'something', and had been wanting to order new ones anyway to correct some information that was wrong on my old one, so I went ahead and ordered these 2 stamps........ and of course I found the missing one the next day. LOL!! If you're ever in need of a custom stamp for your card backs or envelopes, I really recommend Rubberstamps.net - they are super speedy, and I love the etched blocks! If you need help designing a high res logo or label for a stamp design, I'd be happy to help you out... take a look at the fonts and design choices over at Digisigis and pop me an email (cost would be $1 per text line or image, min. $3 - same as for watermarks).

Impression Obsession DT Thursday

It's my turn to share a card for Impression Obsession Design Team Thursday! On the weeks we don't have a challenge to share, the IO designers take turns sharing a personal project. We hope you're inspired!

I thought it would be fun to share some of Alesa Baker's new Valentine images - these are some of my favorites - I am always a sucker for coffee images, and this one is particularly tender. :) I paired it with a new sentiment, stamped on a disposable coaster I picked up during our travels. The coaster is layered on a die-cut doily from Cheery Lynn Designs, and a panel embossed using a Sizzix Texturz plate.

Here's a close-up on the cup - I colored it on Kraft cardstock using my new Polychromos pencils.

Stamps I used: D8679 Latte Love and C8681 In My Thoughts
Thanks for stopping by today!

Penguin card

Made this little cutie up before we left Indonesia - all my stamping supplies were packed, but I had enough still handy to piece this penguin together. He's based on a free vector graphic that I found online, and I've made a simple template available for your personal use, if you'd like to make one as well - Merry Christmas! Make sure you send me a link if you make one, so I can see it too!

Christmas Puppy

Here's another card for the current Touch Twin challenge (TTC07) to color up an animal using markers. This is Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' Christmas Puppy, and this time I colored it up to look like our mama dog, Mija, when she was a puppy.
These are the Touch Twin markers that I used:

Just passing this link along...

Just in case you're needing a last-minute Christmas gift, or need a few art supply items - Dick Blick has a great special on just today - a really low minimum order for free shipping (which is usually $7.95). Clicking through from my site gives me a little extra spending money, and I appreciate it a bunch!

FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS $16 OR MORE
PLUS 10% off on orders of $119, December 16, 2011 only.
Exclusions apply.

Crazy for Cocoa blog hop!

Welcome to the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Crazy 4 Cocoa blog hop! We all adore Cocoa and thought it would be fun to showcase him all month long. Today, as part of the fun, the Sweet 'n Sassy Design Divas have joined together with a few of the talented Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Challenge ladies to bring a great Cocoa Mouse blog hop to you!

If you just happened on the blog hop because you're a regular reader of my blog, and you'd like to view the entire hop, you can start back at the Sweet 'n Sassy Blog - you'll find a full list of participants there, and all the details you need. If you're already hopping and you arrived here from Makiko's blog, you're doing just fine.

My card is a 4" square, fun little size... It actually started off smaller... but when I stuck it all together I failed to notice which side the fold was on, and it was *ahem* on the right... so I ended up cutting the back off and re-layering... but... that allowed me to add the chocolate chip cookie paper layer, so... it's all good. HA! Cocoa (from the So Sweet clear set) is stamped with Memento Desert Sand ink on an Inchie Plus matboard square from Inchie Arts, and colored with Touch Twin Markers.I cut the lace border twice... the second time I folded my cardstock and positioned the die so the fold of the cardstock lay just inside the scalloped edge. That gave me an almost double-wide diecut that was a perfect width to layer under the laced diecut.These are the Touch Twin markers that I used:
Don't forget, during the month of December we really are Crazy 4 Cocoa. The entire line of Cocoa Mouse clear stamp sets and digi images are 10% off!

And there's MORE!!! We want YOU to hop along with us! All you have to do is make a card or project featuring Cocoa Mouse and add your direct link to our linky tool below. One participant (drawn at random) will win their choice of ONE free Cocoa Mouse clear stamp set or FOUR free Cocoa Mouse digis! You have until Saturday, December 17 at 11:30 PM EST to add your direct link...go get stamping!





From here you'll be moving on to Taylor Usry's blog - hope you're enjoying the hop so far!!

Just in case you get lost along the way, here is the whole list of design team members hopping along today:

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps ♥ Korin Sutherland ♥ Bridget Finlay ♥ Kim Singdahlsen ♥ Harriet Skelly ♥ Jessica Fick ♥ Kim O'Connell ♥ Sandy Domelle ♥ Monika Davis ♥ Carol Longacre ♥ Ceal Pritchett ♥ Kim Schofield ♥ Mary Faus ♥ Stephanie Wright ♥ Holly McMillen ♥ Stephanie Serrano ♥ Cathy McCauley ♥ Makiko Jones ♥ Dina Kowal ♥ Taylor Usry ♥

Impression Obsession DT Challenge: Pink

The Impression Obsession team's challenge today is to create a pink card. This Cupcake Background was calling me... this is such a versatile background, with such a fun variety of cupcakes in all shapes and sizes! It can be kept as a background, or the cupcakes could be cut out and pieced, etc. Such a fun image. I stamped the sentiment "Fill Your Day" on a Spellbinders die cut.
These are the Touch Markers that I used:

Be sure to check out these other designers' blogs for inspiration, and keep an eye out for some new stamps that will be available soon!! Lots of exciting new products and changes coming at Impression Obsession in the new year. Can't wait!

Daniela @ For the First Time
Jeanne @ Inky Paws
Laura @ Laura's Stamp Art Journal
Vicki @ Summerthyme Studio

Remember you can enter these challenges too, using your Impression Obsession stamps! See the I.O. blog for all the details - you might even win a $25 gift certificate!! We'd love to have you join us.