Blue, Blue, Blue, Blue Christmas

I LOVE Sparkle Creations Christmas Card Challenges! I have been enjoying participating in some of the blog challenges lately, but I haven't been this excited about a challenge before. Her challenge this week is to create a card inspired by your favourite Christmas song.

Christmas has always been one of my favourite times of the year. For me, it begins November 1st. That's when I normally put up my small Christmas tree upstairs so as I wrap Christmas gifts I can place them under the tree.

Christmas music can be heard as early as June in my house. My girlfriends and I have gotten together in the summer months to begin making Christmas cards and what better way to get in the mood than to play Christmas music.

The first Christmas CD that is played in my house every year is Elvis. For anyone who knows me, they know it's not Christmas for me until Blue Christmas is heard throughout my house. The next Christmas CD I play is Anne Murray and my newest favourite Christmas CD is Elvis Christmas Duets. Anne Murray & Elvis sing Silver Bells together. Can life get any better than that!?

Anyways, I am not an Elvis freaky fan with posters and collectibles all over the house, but I did make sure that my daughter new who Elvis was before any other singer. I just love his music and grew up listening to it. My musical heart loves all types of music, but I love the 50's & the 60's music and country music the most.

I do, however, own Elvis scrapbooking stickers, papers & fabrics. Three or four years ago, My Sentiments Exactly came out with a stamp set called Blue Blue Christmas and I had to buy it. This past March when I was on a family trip in Duluth, I came across Elvis fabric.

So, can you see how I could get so excited about this challenge. I had the perfect stamp, this Elvis fabric that I never knew what I was going to do with it and it all came together this morning down in my scrap room. I love how it turned out and I have enough paper to make 5 more cards just like it. It's a very simple Christmas card, but I love it. Thank you Sparkle for inspiring me today!

I used Bazzill & Core'dinations cardstock, Pebbles Inc. Lil' Buddy Collection - Bubba Two-Sided Patterned Paper, Fabric from Hancock Fabrics in Duluth, Maya Road Buttons, Kaiser Craft Rhinestones, Stampin' Up Taffeta Ribbon, My Sentiments Exactly - Blue Blue Christmas Stamp Set, CC Designs - Winter Sentiments Stamp Set and Stampin' Up - Winter Wishes Stamp Set.

I am submitting this card in to Sparkle Creations Christmas Card Challenges. I have been meaning to participate in her previous challenges, but I haven't been able to find the time. I am hoping to continue to participate in her challenges throughout the rest of the summer.

Have a Fabulous Day!

Stephanie's Surprise Bridal Shower Album

Caroline Tierney - Stephanie's Sister

Caroline Tierney - Stephanie' Sister

Jennifer Pearson

Tanis Lahti

Cyndi Roy

Lee Ann Kubinec

Ellena Esteves

Shanna Cameron Picard

Brandi LeClair

Amy Digby - My 12 year old daughter.

Donna Digby

Donna Digby

Good day! Well, I had mentioned in my last post that I would let you in on the surprise that my girlfriends and I did for one of our friends on the weekend.

Our girlfriend, Stephanie Tierney, is getting married on World Card Making Day (October 2nd) and we decided to make her an 8x8 album for her Bridal Shower memories. Under each layout above is the friend's name who designed that page for her.

Her wedding colours are going to be brown and orange to fit the Fall season. Since her wedding scrapbook will probably be done in her wedding colours, we decided to make the bridal shower album with a purple theme because that is her favourite colour.

My girlfriends and I get together as often as we can to scrapbook. Lately, we have been renting the Oliver Road Community Centre's downstairs hall to accommodate us. We decided to spice up this gathering by presenting Stephanie with her album and throwing in a few decorations to spruce up the event.

The surprise went off without a hitch and it was a huge success.

On my 2 page layout, my "background" paper is actually fabric and I used the same fabric to make my own ribbon and tie across the bottom of the page. I used a matching Core'dinations cardstock for the photo mats; which I distressed with my new Zutter Distrezz-it-All electronic distressor. The ribbon is from Stampin' Up, the buttons & embroidery floss are from my stash and I used the Circle Nestabilities die-cuts for my round journal box.

For the last page of the album, Showered with Love, I used an old All My Memories paper line from my personal stash. I cut the umbrella (A Child's Year) & the lettering (Alphalicious) out with my Cricut machine and the upside down hearts with the EK Success small folk heart punch.

In each heart are the names of Stephanie's friends who contributed to the album. We will be placing a group shot of us on this page with my daughter's photo off to the side. The photo isn't the greatest because I could only shoot with my flash on because it had gotten late by the time I had realized that I hadn't shot this page.

For Amy's page, she used patterned papers from the Glitter Stack by Die Cuts With a View, Core'dinations cardstock, Prima Marketing flowers that she glimmer misted with Tattered Angels Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist and Prima Marketing Rhinestones. This was her first time using glimmer mist and she did a fantastic job!

Well, that is all for now. It has been raining since 2:45 p.m. today. So, I thought it was appropriate to post the Bridal Shower layouts on this rainy day. Enjoy!

You're Fintastic!

This is to all my girlfriends out there; especially the ones that I spent 12 hours scrapbooking with this past Saturday.....You're Fintastic!

What a fabulous day with the girls. We scrapbooked, laughed, ate great food, laughed, shared ideas, laughed and did a nice surprise for one of our bride-to-be girlfriends. Watch for a post later this week for more information about the surprise we did.

Anyways, back to this card. I placed an order on June 13th with Kraftin' Kimmie for the new limited edition mermaid stamps. My order arrived in the mail on the 18th....one day before my 12 hour crop with my girlfriends. I was totally thrilled.

On the 17th, BoBunny's four new releases arrived to my store. One of those new releases was the Sun Kissed line; which goes perfectly with the new mermaid stamps. I had been busy all week and hadn't had time to put together a project to work on during my scrapbooking day. So, now with my new mermaid stamps and the Sun Kissed line, I was all set to play.

So, the above card is what I designed that day. I used BoBunny's Sun Kissed Paper & Sun Kissed Cut Out Sheet of paper, BoBunny Double Dot paper, BoBunny Bling, Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps, Stamping Bella Bonbons, Life's a Beach Cricut Cartridge (coral), EK Success Corner Punch, DecoArt Glamour Dust & generic red & yellow thread for the stitching.

The copic markers I used are: Hair - Y19, Y17 & Y21; Skin - R00 & R000; Lips - R27; Mermaid Tail - YG23 & BG18.

I have submitted this card to the Paper Sundaes Challenge #23 - Pretty as a Princess. The card doesn't have to have a princess on it; the card just needs to be a "Girliest Girl Card".

Sit Back, Relax & Enjoy!

Here is my other card that I have been able to complete using scraps leftover from my other Kraftin' Kimmie card and my July Calendar page workshop.

The image on the outside of the card and the sentiment on the inside of the card are Kraftin' Kimmie stamps, the sentiment on the outside of the card is from Stamping Bella, the cardstock is Core'dinations, the patterned paper is BoBunny's Flower Child line, the brads are from Queen & Company, the embroidery floss is from my stash and I used the Labels Four Nestability die-cut.

The Copic Markers I used to colour this image are: hair - E37, E39 & E99; clothing - Y08, YG23 & BG18; skin - E00 & E000 and the sunglasses - T3, T5, T4 & T1.

I have submitted my card to this week's challenge at Paper Sundaes Blog. This week they have a sketch for their challenge.

I am proud to report that this card was chosen as one of the Paper Sundaes Top Three Winners out of 39 submissions and without a vote from my best-friend Shanna. Not that she voted against me, she didn't participate in the vote at all, so there was no favouritism.

You're Toadally Awesome!

My girlfriends and I have been on a real good/bad stamp spending spree lately. In one week, we put in 4 different orders for stamps. We ordered from the States, the UK and Canada. Is this really a problem....nah! We need all the stamps we can get....right girlfriends!?

Anyways, I am proud to say that the stamps used on this card are from Kraftin' Kimmie...a Canadian artist. I borrowed from all my girlfriends their Kraftin' Kimmie stamps so I could play this past weekend. I borrowed this stamp from my girlfriend, Caroline.

When we do purchase our stamps together, we each try to buy different ones from each other, so we have a larger pool to draw from.

I used BoBunny's Flower Child paper line, Prima Marketing flowers, Core'dinations cardstock, Kaiser Craft rhinestones and my Labels Eight Nestabilities die-cut.

The Copic Markers I used to colour my image are: hair - E49, E47 & E44; skin - E00 & E000; frog - YG21 & YG23; dress & hair accessories - R27, BG18, YG23 & Y08.

It was kind of neat to just make a card for the fun of it. I had no one's birthday in mind and this isn't for any workshops coming up. I just wanted to play with the new line of stamps that I love.

Life's Too Short to Eat One Scoop!

I got to play around in my scrap room last night and I came up with this fun birthday card. In the past couple of months, I have probably purchased 50 plus CC Design stamps. Before last night, only a handful had been inked. So, I am very happy that I have inked a few more of my CC Design stamps and I had a lot of fun making this card.

I used Core'dinations cardstock, Doodlebug patterned paper, Stamping Bella Bling, Stampin' Up Ribbon, CTMH Stitching Stamps, Nestabilities and I even used eyelets. I told you I had a lot of fun making this card.

I coloured with the following copic markers: small white space to blend with the background paper - BG45; ice cream cone - YR12 & YR23; ice cream - R81 & RV02 and the teddy bear - E55, E57 & E53.

I have submitted my card to this week's challenge at Paper Sundaes Blog. The theme this week is Summer Fun.

Have a Great Day!