Nativity Puddle Jumpers

Good morning! First I need to issue an apology. I had a card saved ready to edit my post for Saturday but I TOTALLY forgot to finish it up on Friday...and had no idea that it was a scheduled post instead of a draft! OMG! So you guys got a card and no post. Thats a new one, even for me, LOL!!

For todays post I have a card made with one of Lori Boyd's newest Puddle Jumpers...this is the Nativity PJ digi. I completely fell in love with this image! I colored the image with subtle purples, greens and tans to match the Cosmo Cricket paper. Totally not my usual bright colors, but it looks perfect for Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, don't you think? I did the card in honor of having been one of the winners in the by Lori designs contest last week! (more on that another day...)

The paper is from the "Mitten Weather" 6x6 pad by Cosmo Cricket, and I still have 2 available in the Boutique!! The sentiment is by Stampendous! called Christmas Peace.

Other challenges that I entered this card in:

• Friday Sketchers: sketch
• Christmas Stampin' : anything goes
• Sweet Stampin': buttons & bows
• Fab 'n' Funky Challenges: Going with the Flow
• Paper Cutz: Anything Goes
• Meljens Designs: Buttons and Bows
• ABC Christmas Challenge: X is for Christmas

OK, gotta scram! Lots to do in the coming weeks! Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

-Cyndi

STMC34

November Blog Hop with InStyle

{Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday! We had a nice relaxing time at my in laws house...everyone ate too much and then we watched football and the parade. Only problem was Michael is still sick. Urgh. Mommy is ready for him to get better and get back to school so that I can get some work done!}

OK, so its blog hop time! If you arrived here from Angelique's blog then you are right on track!! My project for the Hop is a scrap layout I made using more photos from our ski trip last year. I also used "Suzette" a digi image from InStyle Stamps for my project.

This month at InStyle Stamps our theme is to make a project using one of our favorite holiday songs as inspiration. I went with "Let it Snow". The lyrics I printed out from HERE

The snowflakes are felt from my stash that were available fron Stampin' Up! a number of years ago. I added some stickles to each one :) (Notice more divine twine? hehe) Here's the closeup of Suzette. After I colored her with copics I polka dotted her sweater and made her scarf striped.

At the top of the pages (and the bottom) I punched borders with my Martha Stewart icicle punch then added more stickles to these too.

Another closeup of the snowflakes, and you can see how I cut the picture and mats for it out with Spellbinders Nestabilites.

OK, the list of supplies and copics are below! In the meantime, time to hop on to Cathy's blog!

Don't forget when you are done to head back over to the InStyle Stamps blog at the end and to vote for your favorite project!

-Cyndi

• Supplies:
• Stamps: Suzette digi (InStyle Stamps)
• Paper: Winter Wonderland pp (Martha Stewart); white cs (Bazzill); grey cs (SU!)
• Accessories: Icicle Punch (Martha Stewart); Labels 3 & Circles Nestabilities (Spellbinders); ribbon (Creative Impressions); stickles (Ranger); buttons (Basic Grey); copic markers; Divine Twine; felt snowflakes (SU!)

Giving Thanks & a Pixie Dust sketch

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends! I hope you all enjoy a wonderful and blessed day with your family. We will be heading down to my in-laws this year, for the first time in a long while. Usually its at my house with his parents and mine, but we are traveling this year so that his brother can join in too!

Today I have a thankful card for you for this weeks Pixie Dust Studio challenge. Its time for our monthly sketch, and we also challenge you to include a bit of thankfulness as well.

I used Baker Fairy, from Pixie Dust Studio as my image. She is colored with copics on Neenah paper and cut out. My leaf was created with a leaf Nestabilies from Spellbinders which was also embossed with a Spellbinders Impressabilities. AND, did you notice that I finally got my hands on some Divine Twine! I ordered mine from Endless Inkabilities from my cyber friend Kim!

This is the sketch for the week if you'd like to play along. You have until next Wednesday night to participate. The close up of the embellie/ribbon treatment is below as is my total list of supplies.

Challenges for this card:

Pixie Dust Studio: sketch & thankful

Stamp Something: Something with Thanks

Fab 'n Funky: Going with the Flow

Crazy 4 Challenges: Circles

OK, thats it today! Tomorrow is the InStyle Stamps blog Hop :) Thanks for popping in today!

-Cyndi

• Supplies:
• Stamps: Baker Fairy digi (Pixie Dust Studio); Thanks sentiment (H&M)
• Paper: Olivia pp (Bo Bunny); Joy Ride pp (Cosmo Cricket); cs (Bazzill & Neenah)
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Crushed Olive, Brushed Corduroy, & Dried Marigold Tim Holtz distress ink (Ranger)
• Accessories: sponge daubers; leaf Nestabilties & Scrollwork Impressabilties (Spellbinders); button (Basic Grey); ribbon (Bo Bunny); divine Twine; copic markers

Black Friday SALE!

Lollipop Christmas

I have a just for fun card for you today! I used 2 of the images from the new "Lollipop Christmas" digi from By Lori Designs. I fell in love with these lollipops when they were first released at Stamping Bella last year, but now I really love that I can pick up some as digis!!

I used some fun paper from the Martha Stewart "Winter Wonderland" pad. LOVE the colors, and they are just perfect for this image...simple and bold :) I added some litter to the dresses and some White Flower Soft to the hats. Closeup is below so its easier to see.

This card is entered in for these challenges:

• Papertake Weekly: Cut it Out
• Karber Weekly Challenge: 2 or more DP and a digi
• MelJen's Designs: Sparkle & Shine
• Paperkutz Challenge: Christmas & bling
• Pile it On: Winter Means...Christmas!!

List of supplies is below and the photo of the copics that I used :) Have a great Evening and thanks for popping in to visit me :)

-Cyndi

• Supplies:
• Stamps: Lollipop Christmas (By Lori Designs); sentiment (Recollections)
• Paper: Winter Wonderland pp (Martha Stewart); White cs (Neenah); Pomegranate & Carob cs (Bazzill)
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Accessories: Polar White Flower Soft; Green glitter (Stampendous); ribbon (Creative Impressions); button (Basic Grey); Copic markers

Puppy Love

Today is release day at InStyle Stamps! We have a bunch of adorable new images available in the store today...6 to be exact! If you missed seeing previews of any of these head over to the ISS blog and check out last weeks posts!

For my card today I used "Puppy Love". I wanted something bright and fun so I pulled out my 6x6 "Joy Ride" paper pad from Cosmo Cricket ...perfect!! Added some extra borders and whatnots and the sentiment is by Stampendous!

Challenges:

Southern Girl Challenge: My Favorite Color (orange)

Pixie Cottage : Ribbons & Bows

Little Paper Shop: Die Cuts

Here's a closeup of him :) Hope you all have a great week, thanks for visiting me!

-Cyndi

• Supplies Used:
• Stamps: Puppy Love digi (InStyle Stamps); Happy Messages (Stampendous)
• Paper: Joy Ride pp (Cosmo Cricket); Bazzill & Neenah cs
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Accessories: Jumbo Scallop & Circle dies (Spellbinders); jumbo zig zag (My Favorite Things); ribbon (Michael's & SU!); button & brad (Basic Grey); white uniball pen (Signo); Copic Markers (pictured below)

Lil Christmas Lolita...just for fun!

It is so rare when I get time to do some stamping just for me :) I always feel gulity after my DT stuff is done that I should be commenting on blogs, working on my store stuff, catching up on scrapping, etc. But the other day I decided to work with an image I have been wanting for a long while!

Actually not so much the image, but any from this line of images! I just have to be careful what I spend, but $3 for a digital isn't so bad in the budget once in a while! So, this is Lil Christmas Lolita Lilith. I just love her sassy expression! She is from Tickled Pink Stamps in Australia, but the digis of course arrive almost instantly!!

She was fun to color, and I enjoyed putting fun touches into the card as well, like the stretchy pom-poms that I never use :) Also I love the blood red tips on her hair. My youngest daughter wants to do this to hers. I think it would be fun, but I know her dad will not like it. Maybe semi-permanent ??

OK, thats it for now! Have a great Saturday and thanks for hopping by :) -Cyndi

• Challenges for this card:
• Lil Lolita Boutique: Anything Goes Christmas Style
• The Burtonesque Dolls: Movie Madness: Edward Scissorhands
• Stamp Insanity: Sketch
• 365 Cards: Something Stretchy
• Lolipop Crafts: Girlie Girl
• ABC Christms Challenge: X is for Xmas

• Supplies:
• Stamps: Lil Christmas Lolita Lilith digi (Tickled Pink Stamps); Merry Holidays (Stamping Bella)
• Paper: Merrymint (American Crafts); Bazzill & Neenah cs
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Accessories: Labels 4 & Labels 13 & Dbl end tags (Spellbinders); white pom poms (Bazzill); Border punch (EK); Apple Red & White glitter (Stampendous); snowflake brads (Recollections); copic markers; Clear glaze pen

What's in the Toybox?

Game on, duuuuuude. This is Gamer-a-saurus. He is my absolute fav of the new Toybox images from Pixie Dust Studios!! And, the good news is , the toybox is now open! Head over to the Pixie Dust store to pick your up!!

I love dinos, and we are definitely a gaming family... I think we have just about every model of every make out there from the 360 back to the original Nintendo 64! But hey, thats 4 kids in the house, plus mom is a tech geek big kid too :)

Gamer is just one of the adorable images that are in the new Toybox Collection from Pixie Dust Studio. Below you can see all the rest of the fun toys!

Here's the list of supplies plus my copics :)

• Supplies:
• Stamps: Gamer-a-saurus digi (Pixie Dust Studio); alphabet (Stampendous)
• Paper: Bungle in the Jungle pp (Sassafras Lass); Bazzill cs; Neenah white cs
• Ink: Lipstick Red Tim Holtz distress ink (Ranger)
• Accessories: Octogon Nestabilties (Spellbinders); ribbon (Michael's); star sticker (Sassafras Lass); copic markers; stapler

Let's go on a Safari!

Its Safari time at Pixie Dust Studio, come join us this week with a safari theme card or project for this weeks challenge! See more samples from the rest of the DT at the Pixie Dust Studio Challenge Blog!

I used the brand new image Plushie the Pony ( a sneak peek into tomorrow's Toy Box release!!) I took a look at the stripes on some of his mane and thought....zebra!! But of course (s)he has to go on safari in a bright childish way...cause every time I see him I start singing, "my little pony"... Love the image Kathy, but the song has GOT to go out of my head!!

Here's a closeup shot of Miss Plushie. My papers are from Anna Griffin and Bo Bunny. Ribbon is from my stash, Michael's perhaps?

The Love sentiment is by Unity, and I colored it to match Plushies little mane :)

Be sure to play along with the Pixies this week! You have until next Wed night!

Other challenges my card is entered in:

Sketch Saturday: sketch

Stamp Something: use a digi

Fab 'n' Funky: Forget me Not (Love stamp never used before from 2 years ago!!)

Thanks for popping in!

-Cyndi

Kitten Play Sneak Peek :)

Its sneak peek week at InStyle Stamps and we have some adorable new images this week for you :) Today I made an ornament with the new digi called "Kitten Play". I am a total cat freak, so how could I resist this little sweetie?

The image includes the little scalloped border which of course could be colored in a solid color, or in multiple colors like I did here. I had to go with a Christmas color theme because I really wanted to use a sprig of this cute red blingy garland stuff that I got at Michael's last week. They were only like 69 cents each, and I can get a bunch of sprigs off one piece!

So, to match the glittery bling I added some Apple Red glitter from Stampendous! to her tag on her collar and some Green glitter to the Ornament that she is playing with. No, thats not a ball in my world. My cats LOVE ornaments. Sigh.

Be sure to head over to the ISS blog for more peeks today, and our release party will be tomorrow night!!

-Cyndi

Toy Box Sneak Peek from Pixie Dust Studio

Kathy at Pixie Dust Studio has done it again! She has a whole Toy Box full of adorable images coming your way this Friday! I have a card for you today using one of the images. This one is "Do Little Dolly", isn't she a doll?

As soon as I saw her I knew I wanted to use this new gorgeous paper from Martha Stewart that I picked up from Michael's with a coupon recently :) She's colored to match on Neenah carstock, then cut out and glittered with some White Pearl glitter from Stampendous!

I also glittered around all the panels of the card to add a sparkly snowy look. The snowflakes were die cut with a Spellbinders die, ribbon and punches are from SU!, and the sentiment is by A Muse.

Here's a closeup of Dolly's adorable face, and I actually like the way her hair turned out!!

And here's the snowflakes, with a gem in the middle (Hero Arts) and a better view of all the glitter :) Copics that I used are shown below.

Challenges for this card:

i{heart}2stamp: SFYTT

Lexi's Creations: Traditional Christmas Colors

Delightful Challenges: Glitter it Up

Saturday Challenge: Sparkle and Shine

Mark's Finest Papers: A snowflake

Sweet Stampin' Challenge: Snowflakes

ABC Christmas Challenge: Winter Wonderland

Thats it! TaTa! Be sure to visit the rest of the DT --------> over there in the side bar!! to see more cute creations with the new Toy Box Release from Pixie Dust Studio! And don't forget, a new challenge on the PDS Challenge site tomorrow, I think you may see more peeks there, I know I have one :)

-Cyndi

The Christmas Star

My card tonight uses one of the cutest new Stampendous! clear Holiday sets this year. This is "Nativity Cast" and comes with many other nativity familiars. Such a sweet set!

I used the sketch from The Pink Elephant Challenge blog for my layout. I added one extra panel at the bottom where the sentiment is, because I wanted to use this scrap of pattern paper. All of the paper is in fact my scraps from a beautiful Fancy Pants line from a couple of years back. I think the colors are just rich and gorgeous.

• Other challenges entered:
• The Pink Elephant: sketch
• Pile It On #45: Holidays with Family and Friends
• Cute Card Thursday: Anything Goes
• Crazy for Challenges: Christmas
• Little Red Wagon: Do it in 3's
• Karber Christmas: Use a Digi
• AiFactory: Die cut or Punch

Hope you're having a great night! I am trying to play catch up :) Lots of sneak peeks and new releases this week!!

-Cyndi

Ahoy, me mateys!

Yo, ho, ho! What a glorious Saturday it looks to be here in NC...sunny but a nice breeze, yeah boy! So, on a personal update. We won our first round in the Playoffs last night. Go figure. I think we were all ready to be done with the season...its cooooold on Friday nights! BUT, nice to know that our Davie boys have really risen above what everyone was expecting this year :)

So, I am in a cleaning mood and realized I still have quite a few cards that have yet to be blogged just hanging out on my mac. Hrm. Today I have for you one of my last ones I made for The Cottage before I left. This is Pirate Tilda.

I remember that I really loved making this card. Used a Tim Holtz edger die, TH Baroque die, and all kinds of other neat stuff from work. The papers are Creative Imaginations and Bo Bunny. Stickers I think were CI also. Ribbon is by Bazzill, and flowers are Prima. Other details escape me, it been a while, sorry!

I made it into a sideways opening match book card. Here's the open view and below is a closeup of precious Tilda.

Anywhoooo, thats about it for the card. I am hiding out for a few minutes at Starbucks while all the kiddos are occupied. Have a great weekend! Only 6 days til Harry Potter!!

-Cyndi

Wicked Holiday Greetings!

I offer you wickedly fabulous greetings! This is Louie, from Simply Betty Stamps, who was originally intended for a halloween challenge a while back atSimply Betty Challenges, but it somehow got misplaced on my work island, imagine that! So.... as I was cleaning up my space the other day I thought it would be fun to send Louie to a Christmas party, New Orleans style of course.

He really reminds me of the guy from The Princess and the Frog, BTW. I think its the hat and the flower. He's of course colored with Copics and glittered up a bit with some Apple Red Stampendous! glitter. The background was stamped with the large Spiderweb stamp, also by Stampendous! and aibrushed.

The greeting is a masked combo of "Wicked!" by A Muse, and "Seasons Greetings" from Northwoods. Did a bit of color overlap there too :) Papers are a hodgepodge on this baby...all from my stash of older stuff except the scrap of Purple from the Hallowe'en in Wonderland Collection by Graphic 45.

Overall, I had a ton of fun making this card. I'm really trying to not spend any money but I'm having a hard time not caving on the new Emo Christmas digis from Simply Betty. They look soooo fun to color! (What are you still doing here? Go check them out!!)

OK, if you are lingering...

I am so glad its Friday. Long week. Kids outta school....but no, couldn't be that easy. Rachael still had a band concert at 9am for Veterans Day, and Cheer and Tumbling. Perry still had school. UNCSA never gets out except for Christmas seems like. Sigh. So I still spent the day running kids around when all I wanted was a holiday so I could stay in jammies and stamp. Hopefully tomorrow!

Have a great and lazy weekend! Relax before the holiday crunch hits hard in a few weeks.

-Cyndi

• Stamps: Louie digi (Simply Betty Stamps); Wicked! (A Muse); Seasons Greetings (Northwoods); Spiderweb (Stampendous)
• Paper: Hallowe'en in Wonderland (Graphic 45); Eerie (Basic Grey); pp (Creative Imaginations); Ebony cs (Bazzill); white cs (Neenah)
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Lipstick Red, Concord Grape, & Crushed Olive (Tim Holtz by Ranger)
• Accessories: Labels 4 & Fancy Labels (Spellbinders); Apple Red glitter (Stampendous!); Spiderweb punch (Martha Stewart for EK); skull braddie (?); ribbon (Michael's & SU!); copic markers; airbrush

Pixie Dust Challenge

A day late on this, oopps! Here is my card for this weeks Pixie Dust Challenge! This week the challenge is to create a card for a guy. I know, those are always the hardest to make. Well, I thought I would do a Thanksgiving card with John Smith. Its even in nice generic (ie boring for me, LOL ) browns and blues.

Had to add just a touch of color with the striped paper from the Bo Bunny Olivia line. It was just toooo dull for me. Anyway, I loved the Leaves Collection and this was the last image that I had yet to color so I thought him appropriate today. Go check out the rest of the collection HERE which includes Pocahontas and an Autumn Pixie!

AND be sure to head to the PDS Challenge blog to play along with us this week!

Thanks for visiting!

-Cyndi

ISS Color Challenge

Its color challenge day at InStyle Stamps! The colors are green, red, cream, and brown, but if you scroll down you can see that we actually had a photo of Christmas pudding for our color inspiration!

I used an old favorite InStyle Stamps image, Kissmas Monkey for my card. He was stamped on Neenah classic white and colored with copics then cut out. I looped his tail around the ribbon and used the sketch for this week from Stamp Something for the layout.

We hope you'll join us this month at InSTyle! There are free digis to be had for a lucky winner!! Here's the photo to pull your colors from:

Challenges this card is entered for:

Our Creative Corner: Attitude of Gratitude (I am thankful for my children)

Stamp Something: sketch

Little Red Wagon: Do it in 3's (3 snowflake brads)

A Crafty Little Place: Red, White, Green

Pile it On: Furry Holiday Cards

Digital Tuesday: Use Never Used Stash (ribbon)

OK, thats a lot this week for me all on one card!! So, thanks for stopping by today! Have a happy hump day!

-Cyndi

• Supplies:
• Stamps: Kissmas Monkey digi (InStyle Stamps); I'll hang onto You (Stampendous)
• Paper: Mitten Weather (Cosmo Cricket); red dots (Kaiser Kraft); Kraft cs (SU!)
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Accessories: Circle Nesties (Spellbinders); snowflake brads (Recollections); ribbon (stash); Ornament Cuttlebug folder (Provocraft); Tag punch (EK): Copic Markers (R46, R29, R27, YG 17, YG11, G81, E29, E27, E25, E21)

STMC31: A layout for you!

Its my turn this week to create the sketch for the weekly Stampendous! challenge and I thought I would torture everyone with a scrapbook challenge! To participate, all you have to do is create a scrapbook page. It doesn't have to include Stampendous! products, but of course we love to see them!

It also doesn't have to be based on this sketch but some people like to have a sketch to work with, so heres what I came up with for you:

If you do play along please use the tag STMC31 in public galleries so we can find your creation! Also please add a link to your art in the Stampendous blog post!

For my layout I used some fun new Winter images! The penguins are from the set "Yule Penguins", and the snowflakes are from "Snowman Flurry". The alphabets are "Storybook" and an older retired one. All stamps are by Stampendous!

The papers are from the 3 Bugs in a Rug Line "Snow Much Fun", available in my store, The SCrappy Chick Boutique as single sheets and later this week in a kit form!

The pic is of my DD Taylor and my sweet baby boy Michael from last year's skiing trip.

Other supplies: Ribbon (Bo Bunny, Creative Impressions, & Michael's); Circle & Heart Nestabilties (Spellbinders); white gel pen (Signo); copic markers; black fine line pen

Alrighty, thanks for hopping by today!

-Cyndi