Over-decorated ...

I had lots of fun creating this card for a challenge on Mo's Digital Challenge Blog. The challenge was to create a Christmas scene using at least 2 of Mo's images. When I looked through my stamps, the first idea that really grabbed me was a mental image of the animals in "Coexist" decorated like a Christmas tree with Sam (from "Sam in Trouble") sheepishly looking on. I don't know if I truly captured the idea but I tried with a string of lights, a glittery star and a set of antlers.

What was used:

• Basic Grey, "Eskimo Kisses", patterned paper
• Art Impressions stamp (antlers)
• Stickles glitter glue, multiple colours
• Copic markers
• Font, "Scrap Kids"

Digital Stamp Freebies

I've been scouring the internet for digital stamp freebies and thought I would share my findings. These links will take you to sites where I've found free digital images (plus a few sites for free digital papers). If you find others, please let me know and I will expand the list.

AI Factory

Becca Kay - anime as well as some really sweet papers & blogger skins; also check out her wordpress site for an adorable kitty and Friday Freebies

Bugaboo Stamps - Friday freebies plus other freebies on the blog

Charmed Cards & Crafts - freebie of girl running through rain

Cheeky Radish Designs - freebie on the SNR group site

Creations by Penny

Cuddly Buddly - cute circle digi stamps plus papers, templates & printables

Cute Daisy May - Little girl in fancy dress

Daisie Company - Christmas set includes gingerbread houses, cookies and trees

Design House Digital - free digital kits include papers, embellishments, images

Digital Delights by Louby Loo - Freebie every Friday

Digital Doodling - assorted "Tilly" freebies

DigiSparkle - need to create an account to receive

Digistamp Boutique - monthly freebie

Digital Tuesday - absolutely beautiful vintage images posted every Tuesday

Doodle Dragon Studios - Dustin Pike posts freebies featuring his adorable dragons and other characters regularly. He is quite prolific in releasing new images for sale, too, and they are always worth purchasing.

DZ Doodles - Friday freeebies

Fred, She Said - lots of freebies including flowers, fun monsters, backgrounds and decoupage downloads; generally posted on Mondays

GTC Crafty Corner - over 60 freebies

Hambo Stamps - fun cat & pig stamps

Lost in Paper Scraps - list of freebies on right side

Mo's Digital Pencil - 6 freebies (& counting) available on her blog - she regularly releases new images for sale too (and they are always worth the purchase)

Mygrafico - free digistamps and clipart

Phindy's Place - Lovely angel provided for 1st Challenge

Pink Petticoat

Pixie Dust Studio

Prairie Fairy - kitty fairy

Sew Many Cards - Friday freebies. Cute animals with stitch detailing. Also check out their Challenge Blog for Friday freebies

Simple Doodles

Stamps and Smiles

Stamp by Step - digi set updated periodically

Stretch N' Bubbles - Free digi Wednesdays (but only available for that week)

Tales from Pollycraft - Lovebirds available permanently plus a new freebie posted every Friday (but only available for that week)

The Creative Cottage - monthly freebies

The Greeting Farm - Mer-kid and New Year's Baby

Robyn's Fetish - Wacky Wednesday Freebies

The Stamping Boutique - freebies available through the Paper Craft Planet group

Two Scoops Rice Designs - Whimsical images monthly featuring a cute little mouse named Mumford

WinkWinkInk - New freebie posted every month or so

Other places to find images:

Another great resource for free images is clip art. Doing a search of "free clip art" and whatever subject you're looking for will bring about thousands of options. Here are my favorites:

Disney Stationary - coloring pages have lots of quality images

Random Scrapbook Pages

After a couple of weekends of intense scrapbooking (first the BC Crop for Kids and then CKC in Seattle) I would've hoped to have more to show but at least these pages are finished and there are several others that are close to being done.


My Nephew Callum: Colin & Lyndsey always get the best family pictures taken and this series of their new son, Callum, are certainly no exception. The pictures are so absolutely adorable I had to scrapbook them. I initially had them laid out on just plain yellow'ish cardstock but it was too boring so I ended up stamping a car image that matched the patterned paper style using Versamark ink (for a watermark look) all over.

Summer Day: The second completed page includes some great pictures from the boys' daycare. I love how their personalities just shine through. The photos were taken on a sunny summer picnic at the park.

The World is Your Canvas: Another summer shot, this time of Alex expressing creativity through sidewalk chalk. I did a bit of photoshopping to blur the background slightly to really put emphasis on Alex. The banner was created with clipart and Word. The words down the side are rub-ons. Thanks to Jacqui for suggesting I add the pale red line down the left of the page to make it look like ruled school paper.

CK Media "1 Stamp Set, 10 Techniques" layout: This layout is based on a class I took at CKC. The original was (of course) 12" x 12" so I adapted it to an 8-1/2" x 11" size as that is my preferred album size. My friend Jacqui took all the photos during a visit from my parents this past August. The shots were fabulous, especially as everyone started to loosen up and act out. I divided the title "Together" over both pages to further point out how not-together we are in the pictures. Poor Phil (my dear husband) even had to be cut out of the shots because there was too much space between him and the rest of us.

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Well, that's it for now. I can hear said dear husband shouting at the kids so it is probably time for me to rejoin them. Thanks for looking!

Thankfully the snow is just on the card

I created this card in response to a challenge on Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge Blog. The challenge was to use 3 different papers, 2 ribbons and one decorative edge. I admit I cheated a bit by using my border punch on the corners of the paper instead of along the edge. Check out the samples from the design team as they are fantastic!

I chose Mo's digital stamp "Door with Wreath" which I coloured with Copic markers. After cutting the image out, I layered it on some textured cardstock and then added Fun Flock to add "snow" around the base of the door and above the doorway. The wreath was "blinged" up with Christmas Red Stickles and the golden bow was pulled off an old embellishment I figured I would never use. I really like the shine of the red paper - it doesn't show well in the photo but it is very rich in real life.

Dustin Pike freebie and sale!

If, like me, you are a fan of Dustin Pike's dragons, monkeys and other creatures, you will absolutely have to check out his blog today and tomorrow. He is having a one-day only blow-out sale of images past & present tomorrow, Nov 25 (even though there is a hint in his blog to beat the rush and buy today). I have already downloaded mine and it's killing me that I have to wait another 5 hours for work to end so I can use them.

Time to start on Christmas

It is mid-November so more than time to start on Christmas cards. My latest uses a digital stamp freebie from Phindy's Place and a colour challenge from PCP Color Challenge.

I started by colouring the angel with my copics. Then I used silver Stickles on the stars for ultimate shine. I cut the angel out and pop-dotted her on a plain yellow cardstock and then drew in the silver swirls with more Stickles. The sentiment is from Penny Black and it's simply stamped in black on a blue shadow background (made by stamping with the reverse side of the sentiment stamp). Final touch was the addition of crystal Stickles on the angel's wings.

Thanks for looking!

Copic Buzz Challenge

I'm so excited to have a chance to be a guest designer on the Copic Buzz Challenge! Thanks to Robyn's Fetish for providing a free image for me use - isn't the fireplace cute? Of course everything is coloured using my Copics. I am particularly proud of the glow from the fire - it worked out very well.

Card #1 – 3D Card

The original digital stamp had 4 stockings hanging from the mantle but the 2 outside stockings were only sketched in lightly so they didn't look very good when coloured. I hid the sketched-in stockings on each card by “moving” the two middle stockings and adhering them with pop dots over the sketched stockings.

Then I added the pair of mice in stockings (Penny Black stamp) to the center. The cat in the sweater is also a Penny Black stamp. I added Stickles glitter glue to the cat’s sweater, holly berries and stockings. The cat is sitting on an actual piece of wrapping paper that I curled & distressed!

Card #2 – Shadow box card

The scallop circle is cut on my Cricut and then inked with Versamark frost to give it shine.

I made my own patterned paper by stamping the blue cardstock with a holly stamp I got free in a magazine using the same Versamark frost ink.

I extended the fireplace by creating a chimney from pieces of another copy of the fireplace digital stamp.

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Well, that's it for today. I have to go work madly on a scrapbook I'm making for a co-worker who is retiring this week. Nothing like leaving it to the last minute!!!

In Hot Water?

Dustin Pike released his latest freebie (a Turkey in a cooking pot) yesterday and I had to make a card with it immediately. Since Thanksgiving is long over I didn't want to make a Thanksgiving card so I ended up creating the following:

I think the card is quite amusing (if I do say so myself) and I also succeeded in meeting 2 different challenges with it - I used the sketch from Copic Buzz Challenge #22 and the colour combo came from a colour challenge from PCP Color Challenge #42.

I used my copics to colour the turkey as well as the oven mitts (which were a free clipart image). The sentiment is just some old alphabet stickers I had in the drawer.

CKC Projects - A Greeting for Every Season

I had such a great time at CKC (Creating Keepsakes Convention) in Seattle!  Jacqui, Lee & I took tonnes of classes and shopped until we dropped. All of the classes were quite interesting although VERY fast-paced. I didn't complete a single project during classtime. Now that I'm home and almost unpacked, I thought I would share some of the projects as they are completed.

This first set of cards was part of the "A Greeting for Every Season" class that was sponsored by Technique Tuesday. The cards were made with their "Long Stemmed Sentiments" stamp set and some technique tiles (which are basically off-white chipboard shapes).

My favorite is the bottom left card with all the pussywillows. I learned the greatest (easiest) technique for using stamps. Before stamping the "Thinking of You" sentiment, we flipped the stamp over and stamped the shadow box using the backside of the stamp. What an easy way to create a perfect sized shadow for any sentiment or image! The pussywillows are ghost-stamped (ink the stamp, stamp on paper and then stamp again without re-inking) which is a favorite technique of mine.

The fern card (top left) is made of two technique tiles that I inked to achieve a mottled look. There is dark green cardstock behind the fern cutout itself.

The vase card (top right) is very elegant with its bunch of flowers inside a hand-cut vase. I added some glossy accents to the flowers to give even more dimension.

The final card is still in need of a sentiment but I haven't decided what to use. The card itself was quite labor-intensive. The 3 birds are hand-cut and the technique tile branch is inked.

Well, that's it for now. I expect Jacqui will post her cards onto her blog soon (hint, hint Jacqui) so hopefully she will add a link so everyone can see hers. Same class but very different results!


PS - Jacqui has posted her cards on her blog - check it out - http://craftyjacks.blogspot.com/2009/11/fall-fun-and-classes.html

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge

The latest challenge on Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge is to create a wedding card inspired by the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". I decided to do something a little different from a traditional wedding card in order to capture the unrestrained joy of the movie (I also have a co-worker that has been trying to get her significant other to the altar so I figure this card will be great if she ever succeeds).

The sentiment inside says "Congratulations on making it to the altar!"

I used a sketch from another challenge - (Scrap 'n Stamp blog - for the layout. The image is a digital stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil that is coloured with Copics. It doesn't show well in the picture but I've used a Glaze pen on the dress to add shine to the dots and to the confetti. The flourish on the left is also covered in glitter.

Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge #4

Challenge #4 at Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge Blog was to create a card using anything BUT a standard fold. I decided to try a stair fold that was used by Lydia Bancroft in her design team sample.



The stamp is one of my favorites from Mo - the two cats are just enjoying themselves so thoroughly. And I'm pretty sure that they are not singing in tune.

I coloured the images with Copics and then added some stickles for extra shine (glitter is always good!). The presents on the front "step" are a cardstock sticker. The "Fa La La" was printed off my computer.