Holiday Card Blog Hop and a Giveaway!!

 Hello crafty friends!! I'm so excited to participate in my first Joy's Life blog hop featuring holiday cards. If you're participating in the hop, you should have come from Anne's blog. If you stumbled upon my blog in some other way, I invite you to join in on all the fun. Click here to be taken to Joy's Life, where the blog hopping fun begins. Many of us are having giveaways, so you won't want to miss out on your chance to win free stuff!!

We're all using the latest and greatest release of Joy's Life stamps - the Wintery Puns set. I chose  the sentiment "Orna-ment for eachother." Isn't that the cutest little phrase!?! You too, can be the proud owner of this or another Joy's Life stamp set because ...

I'm hosting a giveaway!

You heard read it here! All you have to do is become a follower of my blog and leave a comment telling me which Joy's Life stamp set you want and why you like it. If you're already a follower, all you have to do is leave a comment. One lucky winner will receive one Joy's Life stamp set of their choice.

Added on 12/3: The giveaway ends on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 9:30 p.m. EST. I will use random.org to generate an eligible winner, who will be announced on my blog. Thanks and good luck!

Thanks for stopping by. Below is the order of the blog hop. Christine is the next stop and she has a cute card to share!!

Joy: www.joyslife.com
Amanda: http://www.whiteruffles.blogspot.com/
Anne: http://anniebeescraftroom.blogspot.com/
Annette: http://www.aspoonfullofsugarcrafts.blogspot.com/ <-----  That's me!!
Christine: http://www.stampynwifesspace.blogspot.com/
Jennie: http://earthyscrap.blogspot.com/
Maria: http://joyfulstamper.blogspot.com/
Martha: http://pattisscrapingtime.blogspot.com/
Melisa: http://melisascraftycreations.blogspot.com/
Stacey: http://staceyscreativecorner.blogspot.com/
Susie: http://www.thedieshaveit.com/
Tracy http://www.thepickledowl.blogspot.com/

Stinky Socks!!

Did that get your attention? You're probably wondering what stinky socks have to do with a blog about cards. Well, here's the connection:

I made this card for the Joy's Life design team challenge "Boys Zone" - make a project rough and tough using distressing, grunge and anything else we love about our boys. While I'm not a fan of stinky socks (and, really, who is?) I think it is a perfect representation of the typical rough and tough lifestyle that boys embrace. And I know!! I have an adorable six-year-old boy who comes home with muddy grass-stained jeans almost every day!! Ha! Gotta love those boys!! 

The stamp is from the Joy's Life Wild Life Puns set, which is full of cute sentiments about animals, camping and scouting. The socks came from a free coloring page I found online. I printed and cut them with my Silhouette machine and colored them with Copics. Then, the real fun began. The socks were way too pretty, so I misted them with some water, crinkled them up into a ball, let them dry and uncrinkled them. Then I distressed the edges. I adhered them onto some distressed card stock with dimensional stickers and drew squiggly "stink" lines. The grunge image under the sentiment is from Tattered Angels. I can almost smell it ... almost.

And now, I have something that is not so stinky to share with you. On Friday, Joy's Life will be having a Holiday Card Blog Hop. The design team has been hard at work making some lovely (aka NOT stinky) cards. You are invited to attend. And note: THERE WILL BE GIVEAWAYS!! Oh yeah, baby. Free stuff. You totally need to check it out this Friday. The hop starts at www.joyslife.com. Start there. Just. Do. It.

Hay There!!!

Hello my fabulous crafty friends. Some of you may be first-time visitors who came here from Joy's Life. Welcome!! I look forward to getting to know everyone.

Below is a card I made for the Joy's Life DT challenge to use a sentiment that complements a photo. Well, this was a bit of a challenge for me. You see, I'm not really a scrapbooker. I'm a card maker, and I also occasionally make other paper craft projects. While I could have attempted a scrapbook page, I decided to stay true to my style and make a card. Besides, I wanted readers to know that Joy's Life stamps are versatile. They work well with cards, scrapbooks, tags or other craft projects.


I really wanted to use the Hay There! stamp from the Barnyard Puns set. I initially found a photo of a horse chewing on hay, but after I printed the photo, I didn't like it, so I found this cute free image of a doggy in a hay field. He looks like he's saying "hi" doesn't he?

I sized the image to 2x1.5 inches. I created the little stack of hay by cutting beige and kraft paper into small strips. I tied them with some baker's twine and proceeded to quill  the edges a bit to make it look like real hay. I had these adorable dog bone buttons that fit on the hay perfectly. The paw prints are also created with a Joy's Life stamp. The stamp is from the Lots of Pun set.

Thanks for visiting!! I look forward to "seeing" you again next week!!

I created this card while on the Joy's Life Design Team. Here is the card recipe:

Paper: Stampin' Up!
Stamps: Joy's Life Barnyard Puns and Lots of Pun
Ink: Stampin' Up! Tsuniko
Embellies: Baker's Twine, button, heart

Random Fun!!

Well, Moxie Fab World has done it again. They've gone and hosted a fun challenge in celebration of their 365 Cards issue, in which a card is featured for every day of the year. This challenge is appropriately named Random Fun because Cath wants us to make cards for random holidays and observances.

I have to tell you that this is so up my alley it's not even funny. My FB friends know that I appreciate strange random observances based on my posts. Let's see, I like to celebrate National Pierogi Day in October b/c my son looooves them. Then there is Ice Cream month in July because I love ice cream. And if I recall correctly National Donut Day just passed. Oh, and my BFF and I made up our own holiday based on an inside joke from way back in our college days. I can't share it b/c, well, you have to be there to appreciate it.

So when Cath issued this challenge, I was all over it. I have a fun sentiment stamp by Joy's Life that I have been dying to use and now I have the perfect excuse. Below is a card for World Egg Day, held on the second Friday of October. Ah yes! My crafty friends from all around the world can embrace and appreciate this special day, because it is a global observance, brought to us by the International Egg Commission. Why, you ask? Because according to the IEC's web site "all in all, the egg is a quite unique food - compact, affordable, with long lasting freshness and packaged superbly by nature. It’s enjoyed by people from every corner of the world and is a major contributor to a healthy nutritious diet. It’s worth shouting about, so remember to watch out for World Egg Day next October."

Here is my card in honor of this glorious day. It may crack you up, but the egg is really nothing to "yolk" about. (Ha, I'm killing myself here!)

Recipe:
Stamps - Joy's Life
Ink - Memento
Tools - Silhouette die cutting machine

"Wood" You Like to See My Card?

Hello my crafty peeps.I'm sharing a card I made for the Create Blog (Cards Magazine). The challenge is to make cards with real wood. So I pondered, and pondered and pondered ... "What do I have that is made of wood, but is also small enough and light enough to use on a card?" And then the invisible light bulb above my head went off. DING!! Toothpicks!! Yep, they're not just for getting food out of your teeth anymore! They're now considered card embellies, my friends.

Now that I had an idea, I had to put my elaborate (well, not really) plan in place. I created and then cut a sailboat on my Silhouette SD. I placed the negative on top of some patterned paper and traced an outline of the boat. Then I cut up my toothpicks into smaller pieces and glued them inside the traced image. I placed the negative cut image on top of the paper and popped them up with foam dots. Next I adhered the waves, also created on my Silhouette, onto the card. I also popped them up for some extra dimension. I stamped the sentiment with Stampin' Up! Island Indigo using one of the cute sentiments from Joy's Life stamps. I am so loving her cute punny sentiment stamps. I am still super thrilled to be designing for her.

Speaking of Joy's Life stamps, did you know the design team is hosting our first-ever challenge over on the Joy's Life Design Team blog? The challenge is to "make it messy." Break out your inks, paints, Smooch, mists or any wet, sticky, goopy supplies  and have fun making a mess!! (I don't know about you, but I'm always cleaning up after everyone else's mess. It's about time I get to make the mess!!) Click here to participate in the challenge. Submissions close Nov. 16. Have fun and happy crafting!

In the meantime, I am hoping this card "wood" float your boat:

I Fell Behind

Hi folks! Did I trick you into thinking this post was about not being able to keep up with my work (which is true when it comes to laundry)? It's actually about the time change!! This is a card I made with Joy's Life stamps. It's from her You're So Punny set. I think the sentiment was intended to be used with bees or other buzzing creatures, but I applied the sentiment in a different way.

You can read more about out on the ScrapStreet Magazine blog!!

It's Not Father's Day!!!

So you're all probably wondering why on earth I am posting Father's Day cards in November when most of us are still trying to get our heads around Christmas. Well, I am also thinking about Christmas, but the good folks at Paper Crafts Magazine are already planning the May/June issue. They recently posted calls to submit cards to the issue, including Mother's/Father's Day.

I wish I could report to you that my cards were accepted, but I didn't get in this time. :-( I'm still a newbie when it comes to submitting for publication, so I just have to keep trying harder every time. I'm not a big numbers person (Hello! Creative type here!), but these figures help me keep things in perspective. There were 640 cards submitted for only 90 spots. You do the math. There are a lot of "rejects."

The good news is that Amber Diagre (known as Dr. Amber in card world) hosts the Reject Blog Hop. Yep, all of our cards still have a chance at getting some love. Below are a couple of Father's Day cards I made. I love grandpa with his wire rim glasses, his white mustache and cute bow tie. He needs some lovin'.

 Recipe

Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps, My Favorite Things

Ink: Memento
Embellies: wire, googly eyes, ribbon, denim

Techniques: Heat embossing

Recipe

Stamps: Joy's Life, Clear Dollar Stamps

Paper: Stampin' Up, My Mind's Eye

Ink: Memento

Thanks for visiting and Happy Crafting!!