The Outlawz Paper a la Mode Challenge

Good Saturday morning, everybody!  My goodness!  Do you realize that we are at the end of October already???  Monday is Halloween, then it's less than a month until Thanksgiving and I have not even started my Christmas cards yet!  I just can't get over how the second half of the year has flown by so quickly.  So much has happened this year and yet the most important thing of all still evades me... a job!  I can't fathom that I have been unemployed for 14 months.  I have not been without a job this long except after my son was born since I was 16 years old!  If it was by choice it would be different, but it's not.

Anyway, enough of the bad stuff.  Let's talk about the good stuff.  It's the weekend and therefore it's time for another new Paper a la Mode challenge at The Outlawz!  Woot woot!  This week, our fearless leader, Rona, has given us the challenge to use stitching on our projects.  It has to be real stitching too, either by hand or machine.... no faux stitching allowed.  Well, I have done plenty of faux stitching but I had yet to use a sewing machine on any of my projects.  One reason was that I was afraid I would mess it up and that my colored image would be trashed.  Well, this time, I decided to take that risk and I did some straight and zig zag stitching on my card.  I don't know how well it will show up in the photos but I used a copper metallic thread.

The image is, of course, Tilda by Magnolia Stamps.  This was another of the cute Tildas my friend, Tracy Valore sent me a few months ago.  She knew how much I loved Tilda but that I had none of the Magnolia stamps so she stamped off a bunch of them and mailed them to me.  I had so much fun coloring all those cute little sweeties. This version holds a basket full of some kind of flowers.  I wasn't sure what kind of flower they are supposed to be so I made them look like Delphinium by coloring them blue.  I stitched around the image, and both of the mats.

I used the Martha Stewart's small butterfly and rose leaf punches, a Sizzix leafy vine die and a Spellbinders Shapeability Fancy Label die.  The flowers are from Recollections as are the pearls.  The DP is from K and Company and the image is colored with Copics.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Card Makin' Mamas #32 - Cut It Out (the MS punches, Spellbinders and Sizzix dies were used to create my card elements)

I hope you'll visit The Outlawz and check out the great challenges we have going on every day of the week.    We always have some fabulous prizes donated by some totally awesome sponsors.  I'm going to try to be back tomorrow with another new project if I can get it finished in time.  If I don't, it will be the first part of the week.  Thanks for stopping by today.  Look for my first project for Joy's Life coming soon!  Until next time, have a blessed weekend and...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Love Week at JustWordz Stamps

Hello, all my lovely readers!

Well, after a few days of being without my computer, I'm back with a new project for JustWordz. The system fan went out on my desktop computer on Sunday afternoon and I had problems finding a replacement for it.  The darned computer is only about 4 years old or so and already the parts are obsolete?! I don't know how these technology companies expect the average consumer to keep up with the constant changes. I know I can't and gave up even trying years ago! I have a laptop but all my photo editing software as well as the software for my Cricut and Silhouette, along with all my bookmarks and resume are on this computer so I had no choice but to get it fixed as quickly as possible. Well, I finally found a replacement, had to drive about 35 miles to get it but thankfully, I was able to replace it myself and now I'm back up and running again.

And just in the nick of time too because it's Friday, the beginning of the weekend and time for another new project for JustWords! Yay!!! This week, Kim asked her design team to create projects about that marvelous and mysterious 4-letter word, LOVE. There are many different kinds and many degrees of love so we are going to demonstrate several of them using the fantastic Everyday Sentiments stamp set which is available for purchase on the JustWordz blog. The sentiment that she gave me to work with was "Sweet on you" and when I started thinking about it, there were at least a dozen different projects that came to mind. The most obvious, of course, is something sweet... like candy or ice cream or a cupcake, but I didn't want to go for the obvious this time so I went with a more traditional meaning. I chose an adorably sweet Tilda as my image. She is holding a basket of what look to me like Peonies, which I adore. Look at this darling and tell me that she doesn't just ooze sweetness! LOL

For some reason, Tilda's little dress looks bluer than it is in person and after trying unsuccessfully to adjust it without adjusting the color of the background, I just gave up. It's close enough to satisfy me until I have more time to mess with it.

Materials and Suppies:

Base card - Core'dinations
Mats - DCWV Cardstock
White cardstock - Recollections
DP - K Ology Addison Collection
Image - Magnolia Stamps
Coloring medium - Copics
Ribbon - Michael's dollar bin
Leafy vine - Sizzix
Die cut - Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Eleven
Rose - Recollections
Tag and hearts - Heidi Grace'
Sentiment - JustWordz Everyday Sentiment stamp set
Dew drops - courtesy of Kim of JustWordz
Glitter flowers on inside - K & Company

I will enter this card in the following challenges:

TBD

Time is drawing near for the release of 2 new stamps sets from JustWordz so if you want to take advantage of the introductory price Kim is offering until the official release, you'd better hurry over to her blog and place your order. In case you haven't seen them yet, I am including pictures of the new sets below.

Don't forget to visit my JustWordz teamies to see the fabulous projects they have created this week! I haven't seen them yet but I'm sure they are just as wonderful as they always are. I have links to their individual blogs in my left sidebar.  

Come back tomorrow for a new new project for the Paper a la Mode challenge at The Outlawz. The Outlawz will be hosting a huge party the week of October 2nd to celebrate reaching 1,000 members with special challenges, a blog hop, games and tons of prizes! See my left sidebar or The Outlawz Challenge site for more information. Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

A cute little Tilda for a very warm Saturday...

Good morning, my crafty friends!

This is going to be a pretty quick post I think. I have a ton of things to do today and if I don't get an early start, I may not start at all! Our unseasonably hot weather is supposed to continue through at least the coming week (UGH!) so any outdoor activity is best done during the morning hours. To be honest, I'm really not in the mood to get out this early.

Anyway, this little cutie will hopefully warm your heart without making you break a sweat! Here is one of the adorable Tildas that my friend Tracy, of Tracy's Stamping Corner, stamped and sent to me a while back. I still have close to a dozen that I have not put onto cards yet. I guess I need to get busy again as I'm getting close to the end of the stack I made during my last crafting frenzy. I have an anniversary gift to make for some dear friends as well as that wedding album I keep mentioning. I finally got the photographs so I can actually start working on it. I have to have the anniversary gift finished in two weeks and I'm not sure yet how I want to do it.

Now, back to Tilda. I thought this was a particularly cute one and I used soft shade of lime green and medium pink as my palette because I wanted to use flowers!! Yes, I have finally made another card with the flowers piled on! I have missed them so. Here she is with her little gift package and party hat with streamers falling down around her. This image could be used for several different occasions, the most obvious of which is birthdays.

I hand wrote the greeting "Just 4 You" myself on pastel pink cardstock with a black .025 Copic Multiliner.  The medium pink card base is DCWV, mats are Recollections solid color cardstock in lime green and dp is from one of my favorite My Mind's Eye stacks, called Home Glitter Book. This little 6" x 6" stack has 54 sheets of the most amazing patterns I have seen in a single collection in quite a while and they are all glittered!  I have used these papers on several of my cards before. I used my Copics to color little Tilda. The little flowers are from Michael's.  The pearls are Recollections. I made the mats on the inside with one of Martha Stewart's Punch Around the Page sets and the circles were cut using Cutter Bee's Circle Scissor.  The sentiment stamp is by Inkadinkadoo.

I am entering this card in the following challenge:

Magnolia-licious June color challenge   

That's all for now, folks.  I hope your weekend is glorious and that you find something fun to do with your friends and families.  Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Jillian's Birthday Blog Hop - Day 4

Welcome to Jillian's Birthday Blog Hop! We're super happy to have you hopping with us today.

Before I go any farther, I'd like to ask you to please take a minute and go here and vote for your favorite project from each day of this blog hop! More information can be found toward the bottom of this post.

Welcome back for the last day of our 4-day blog hop in honor of our friend, Jillian's, 12th birthday which takes place tomorrow. If you were here any of the past 3 days, you no doubt were inspired by all of the birthday awesomeness you saw. Once again, we have all new projects to show you today! If this is your first time hopping with us, then you may want to go all the way back to Friday's posts and work your way forward to see what you missed and to find out more about the birthday girl herself. She is a very talented and ambitious young lady who has endeavored to create and sell her own line of stamps. If you're not familiar with her stamps, you owe it to yourself to check them out on her website. 

If you have arrived here by way of Deanne's Creative Juice, you're headed in the right direction.  If you're just stopping by to visit or have happened here by chance, you might want to start at Deanne's blog so you can hop along with us. There might be blog candy at some of the stops and you wouldn't want to miss that. would you?  The blog list should be posted at each stop in case you get lost.

I have another birthday card to show you today, featuring an image from Magnolia Stamps.  This is cute little Tilda and she has a yummy cake for our birthday girl.  Isn't it a funny thing that I'm celebrating Jillian's birthday with her yet none of my cards bear her fabulous stamps!  Well, as usual there's a good explanation for that.  The stamps I own from Jillian's line aren't appropriate for birthdays so I had to use stamps I already had.  There are several other cards in previous blog posts on which her stamps were used.  

5 1/2" square aqua card base and aqua and white mats are cut from Core'dinations. Yellow mats inside are cut from Recollections cardstock.  The dp is from My Mind's Eye Home Glitter Book, which you know by now if you follow my blog, is one of my favorite stacks. The pretty aqua ribbon is from Michael's and the punches used on the inside mats are MS Crafts' Stamp Around the Page.  I hope you have enjoyed seeing my card and I hope Jillian likes it.  The inside sentiment is my own and I did the lettering to match the front greeting as much as possible.  The heart stick pin was sent to me by a crafty friend in Louisiana and I added the Swarovski crystals and tiny silver beads.  

Voting Information:

Deanne has made things interesting by offering up a bit of blog candy to the participants in the hop.  The prize is a Cricut Imagine cartridge!  We are linking our projects each day during the hop to her blog so visitors can vote on them.  The crafter who created the project that receives the most votes wins the cartridge.  Please go here to cast your vote for your favorite project.  You'll find them grouped together by date.  I'd love to win but please vote for the project you like best. We would appreciate your support and your votes.

Candy Alert!

This is the last day of the hop and therefore, the last project I made for it.  I'll have a small parcel of blog candy for one lucky hopper.  To be entered into my drawing, all you need to do is become a follower if you aren't already and leave a comment with a way for me to contact you.  On the 14th, I will use Random. org to select one winner from all of the comments from the four days (combined).  The more comments you leave, the more entries you will get.  Sorry but due to the cost of overseas shipping, I'm going to have to limit shipping to the US and Canada.  Now it's time to hop along to My Favorite Blog to see what incredible birthday project she has to show you.

Thanks for hopping with us today.  Here is the blog list!

Deanne's Creative Juice

Anniebees Craftroom  <--- You are here

My Favorite Blog 

Scrapping Card Making and Living with Fibro

Funky Cards 

Scrappin with Cricut 

Courts Craft Corner

Handcrafted Simply by Us

Jillian has another hop going on over at her Blog!  Go over and see what's going on there. Tell her that you came from Deanne's Blog Hop and give her some birthday love. A link to her blog is provided below:

http://www.ajillianvancedesign.com/Blog.html

Happy crafting!
Anniebee