Magnolia Down Under Challenge #81

Our challenge at Magnolia Down Under this week is using a technique I just LOVE - Embossing! You can use either dry embossing or heat embossing - or a mixture of both.

To me embossing is all about adding texture - and so I wanted the texture to be the star of the show. To this end I went with a white on white theme to showcase the different textures. I have used 3 different embossing folders for added interest. I decided against embossing the Magnolia Doohickey die fence as it's flat finish adds another dimension. I added a little glass pebble with a frog prince inside as a touch of whimsy.

Please don't forget to check out our blog HERE to see what the rest of the Magnolia Down Under DT has embossed to inspire you.

xXx

A Special Stamp Release

Hi everyone - I firstly want to apologise for being MIA from blogland at the moment. I am currently on a family holiday in gorgeous New Zealand. I've been hoping to post some photos along the way but the internet connectivity I have is very limited - I can't even upload photos without it timing out!

I have been asked to pass on this special release announcement to you from my friend Betty over at Simply Betty Stamps! I'll let her tell you the story of this cute stamp as I have my daughter nagging me for the netbook while we still have time left.....

I'll be back when I can...hopefully our next stop will offer better internet access - until then - take care

xXx

Betty's Story - in her own words....

Hello everyone! I am hoping to reach many of you on this special post.

My daughter Rio is turning 13! OMG another teen in the house! Two teens+one toddler= disasterous fun... on most days! LOL

Okay okay, so let me tell you about the Special Image for my Special girl Rio with a Special Birthday request we got from her this year...

Every year I ask the kids what they want for their birthday. Money, a trip, a party, or an overnight stay at Disneyland.... Rio came to me and said, "Mom, is it really really my choice what I get for my birthday?" I told her of course! So she says, "Ok, this year mom, I want money, but can I do anything at all with it? I mean anything I want mom?" Again, I said of course. "Okay, I want my birthday money to be donated to the children of St. Jude's hospital so they can have a special day, or whatever the money is needed for. I don't want to have money to just blow when I can help other kids that can't get out of bed, or go outside. That's what I want for my birthday!"

Of course I was already choking on my tears before she finished her sentence! What a marvelous request, selfless and special! I had a special image made for her 13th birthday, and I have not told her about it, or shown it to her. I am asking for a very special request myself in honor of my daughter's selflessness.

The image is now available for $3.00, I am asking you all to purchase this special stamp and help me bring my daughter special birthday wishes by mailing off a card you make with the image to her... but wait that's not all... the $3.00 made from every purchase will be donated to St. Jude's, again in Rio's honor. I am planning on taking her after her birthday to the hospital with the money we raise from this image and her birthday money as requested and giving it all to the hospital!

Her birthday is Feb. 8th, if you all could find it in your hearts to give my little girl that special card my mailing it to her I know it would make her day so special... she is always so grateful of the little things and my hope is to fill that mailbox of ours to the brim with Birthday cards! I plan to gather all cards mailed to her from now until the 8th, and secretly putting them all in the mailbox along with her very favorite chocolates: York Peppermint Patties and Peanut Butter cups! That evening after her birthday dinner I am going to ask her to walk down the street with me to the cluster boxes and have her open the mailbox (I am going to pretend I have not checked the mail all day of course) then BAM! they all pop out at her! Whoohooo! She will be thrilled once she realizes what exactly all those letters are.

Here is our mailing address:

PO BOX 132314
Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

So, would you all be willing to help Rio raise a little money for the kids and send off a card? If so you can purchase the image at simplybettystamps.com under Rio the Birthday Girl digi! She is the first (but limited edition) of six new Emos to come in the future!

Here is the image: what do you think of it? Pretty cute huh? She's the special birthday diva turing 13!! I will run this image for $3.00 until the 8th of Feb. after that she will be gone for good. So please be aware that she will be a very limited edition digi! She may later make a debut in rubber but I am not making any promises, I will try my best if there is enough interest in her to be made into Rubber. Thank you all for your support! And please please please spread the word about this special fund raiser. Thank you all again!

Mo's Dream Team Blog Hop

YAY it's the third Thursday of the month so that means it's Mo's Dream team Blog Hop Time!!!! I soo hope this comes up properly as I'm currently holidaying in New Zealand with my family AND I'm this month's host and therefore the start of the hop!!!

I chose the theme of Vintage - mainly because it's a style I just LOVE the look of but very rarely try myself! I hope I haven't upset the rest of the Dream Team too much with my choice - but I just know they'll come up with some masterpieces for our viewing pleasure!

I decided to use Mo's Prairie Girl - available HERE. I love this little girl and the fact that she's from another era has helped with my challenge. I sprayed my background DP and image with some Glimmermist to add an aged patina. Being a digital image I used my heat tool to dry the glimmermist off quickly - and love the soft, sparkly look I ended up with.

Some lace, build-a-brads, a Tim Holtz sentiment frame and some Prima flowers add some vintage textures to my card. The DP is from Webster's - the sentiment was punched out of a Websters Page too.

Your next stop on the hop is the amazing  Mina's blog,

This is the hop list in case you get lost along the way - all the links are on my left sidebar under Mo's DT logo...

Me, Mina, Elaine, Arielle, Lori, Kerttu, Jak, Bea, Heidy, Maya, Alice

xXx

Magnolia Down Under Challenge #79

This week at Magnolia Down Under Challenges we are asking you to add, create or incorporate a calendar into your creation. I was originally planning to use a specific month and circle the date on my little calendar page - but then I figured I'd need to know exactly WHO this would be going to - so instead went with the calendar being just an embellishment.

I've used stickles on all the white edges, on the flowers and Tilda's balloon and lace hem - so this is really sparkly IRL. I love this new Tilda from the So Special collection - and the sentiment is from there too. My DP is from 7 Gypsies.

We have a fabulous prize on offer this week too - a limited edition Tilda made especially for our sponsor Crea Shop Dyemelot - so you won't find her anywhere else. I just wish I could enter for a chance to win this cutie!!!

I don't need to tell you that the rest of our DT has some GORGEOUS inspiration for you - in fact I told one of the girls to stop showing me up - LOL. But I'm sooo proud to be part of this fabulously talented team so please make sure you stop by our blog HERE and see WHY!

xXx

One of Mo's Little Fairies

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE Mo Manning's fairies - they are all soo darn cute, and have personality and character too. This little gal is one of a set of 5 called "Little Fairies", and they can all be found over at Mo's store HERE.

I pulled out my fabulous Kaiser Le Chateau paper pad - thinking I'd use the soft blues and browns from it. But as I put it together I found that with the addition of some black this became a much edgier card than I had planned. That's WHY I create as I go - I'm never quite sure where I'll end up and that's a whole heap of fun!!! I'm actually really happy with this one - and my teenage daughter really loved it too which is always nice - so it was obviously meant to be! The sentiment is from the paper pad too.

xXx

Tickled Pink Stamps Challenge #2

This week's challenge over at Tickled Pink Stamps Challenges is the theme

I {Heart} You

I may have taken the whole theme a little too literally but I thought the new Cherrie with Heart that was just released yesterday would work perfectly along with a chipboard alpha I had in my stash. The alpha was already glittered up - but was white and didn't stand out enough - so I used my copics to colour them to match! And of course I had to glitter up the heart too!

And as Tickled Pink Stamps is sponsoring this week's Friday Sketcher's Challenge I worked with their new sketch. My DP is Material Girl by Cosmo Cricket and was a gift from a dear cyber friend!

And just to let you know Kellie is currently having a

School Holiday CRAZY SALE instore

- check it out HERE

xXx

New Rubber From La-La land Crafts

La-La land Crafts is releasing their fabulous 4 new love themed stamps in rubber today along with the adorable Formal Luka and Fancy Dress Marci! You can check them out on the La-La Land Crafts blog and if you leave a comment on today's post, you could win ALL 6 STAMPS!!! You must leave your comment by midnight Sunday, January 16th to be eligible!

This is one of the new images - Sugar and Spice Marci. She's soo cute with her little heart topped cupcake and apron. I have used some fabulous DP from the Nook and Pantry range by Basic Grey - it's a perfect match for Marci. The ticket sentiments are from Bizzy Bec's  and just seemed to be the right finishing touch!

xXx

Just INKlined meets Sketch Saturday #137

I have used this week's fabulous sketch from Sketch Saturday to help me showcase this fabulous image from Just INKlined Stamps. How I wish we had a snapshot of what happens next - I think there may be a bit of a feud going on here, can you see Mycroft's paw "helping" the vase tip over the edge of the chest - LOL. This is Mycroft and Watson and they are available instore HERE. I decided to keep the layout simple to let the image shine as it's fairly detailed and I printed it off fairly large.

xXx

Magnolia So Special Collection Pre-Order

Hi all, I just wanted to let you know that you can now PRE-ORDER your Magnolia 'Your So Special Stamps HERE… at Tickled Pink Stamps, but you better get in QUICK, they are already flying out the store with 15% OFF and this is one of the cutest collections yet!

 Also the new Magnolia Ink is available for pre-order and is expected to arrive next week!!! Woo Hoo!!

xXx

Tickled Pink Stamps New Release Preview Day 5

This is my second post for the day -

PLEASE check out the VERY SPECIAL post below

Well we're nearly at the end of the previews for this new release from Tickled Pink Stamps - it's Day 5 today and we have one more to go tomorrow before the release on Wednesday. Don't forget to check out the blog HERE for ALL the new release images, fabulous DT inspiration and enter for a chance to win your own stamps!

This is the adorable Cherrie with Rose - and once again I paired her with the new sentiment set and die being released Wednesday too - these are FABULOUS and soo versatile for any occasion! Cherrie is such a little cutie - and soo easy to colour in!

And don't forget to enter our NEW Tickled Pink Challenge HERE - we'll have a new challenge every Friday!

xXx

Help For Katie

I have often said the crafting and blogging community has one of the biggest hearts around - especially when it comes to helping one of our own! Katie Emmerson Renz is married to Kevin and they have 3 beautiful boys - the twins Nate & Will aged 5 and Hunter aged 10. The family had some news just before Christmas that has rocked their world as they know it.

Katie has been diagnosed with stage 4 Stomach Cancer and is currently undergoing her only option which is Chemotherapy. As I mentioned before Katie is a fellow crafter and is much loved within the crafting community - you can read Katie's story on her own blog HERE  - but before you leave me to visit Katie I want you to check this out....

Jak Heath has done an amazing job lining up some fantastic artists to help with an appeal - Help for Katie. We are collecting to help with Katie's treatment and to give her lovely boys a treat too. Listed on Jak's Blog HERE is all of the digital designs that you will get for donating £15 (approx AU$D23.50/ US$23.30) - you will see you will receive far more in goods value than your £15 donation. The link to make the donation is there too.

I have used 2 of the images here to showcase them for you - and the rest of the Just INKlined DT are showcasing different images from the collection - you can check their blogs out under the Just INKlined logo on my left sidebar. Please be aware we are all posting at different times during the day to maximise exposure to this worthy cause...

This cutie is from Tiddly Inks.

And this one is from artist Jim Harker from Just INKlined

We also have some prizes....

* Letraset have donated a full set of 148 markers over £200 (~US$310) in value.
* Paper Temptress has donated 5 Silver Lustre Packages and 1x $25 Gift Voucher

Every time a donation is made they will be entered into a draw for the prizes, if you donate twice you will get 2 chances to win one of the prizes. The draw for the prizes will be made on February the 10th

Katie and her Family would like to say a very special thank you to all of the artists that gave up their time to help make this happen.

These are the companys that have freely given their artwork for this cause- their names are linked to their sites if you'd like to visit them.

Jak Heath Designs

Just INKlined Digital Stamps

Clear Dollar Stamps

Doodle Pantry Digital Stamps

True D-Doodle Designs

Waltzing Mouse Stamps

Mo's Digital Pencil

Studio 33, McMahon Five Designs

Sassy Cheryls

Tiddly Inks

Make It Crafty

Paper in the Works

By Lori Designs

Digital Delights by Louby Loo

Letraset

Paper Temptress

xXx

Tickled Pink Stamps New Release Preview Day 2

It's Day 2 of previews for our new release from Tickled Pink Stamps and today we're featuring Lilith. She's obviously feeling a little unlucky in love so I felt the Pat Benatar song suited her perfectly. I computer generated the words and stamped the new sentiment frame around it before cutting it out with the matching die.

This image, sentiment set and die will be released on January 13th. In the meantime don't forget to pop over to our blog and check out what the rest of the Pink Ladies have done with Lilith - there is some STUNNING cards for your viewing pleasure AND a chance to win Lilith for yourself. And check in there each day to see the other previews.

xXx

Tickled Pink Stamps New Release Preview Day 1 - and the START of the NEW TPS Challenges

YAY - it's preview time for our first release of 2011 over at Tickled Pink Stamps - and don't forget to check out what the Pink Ladies have done over on our blog each day where there will be heaps of inspiration and prizes on offer! We have six days of previews on the blog starting today and then release day is January 13th, 2011.

Today also sees the launch of our very first challenge over at the NEW Tickled Pink Stamps Challenges where the theme is Anything Goes - we had to make the first one easy right - LOL. We hope you can come along and play!

This is the ultra adorable Cherrie with Tag and she's been paired with our new sentiment set which is also being released on the 13th. The stamped heart on her tag, the frame and the sentiment are all part of the sentiment set - and of course there's a matching die to cut the frame.

xXx

A Sad State of Affairs

One of the things I love so much about crafting and blogging is the caring and sharing nature of the people involved. However, recently there has been a shocking case of someone out there in cyberspace removing watermarks from copyright digital images and posting them on a blog. Once this was brought to the various well known artist's attention these images were removed from the blog and the person responsible has been reported. But now the stolen images have been re-posted elsewhere. There is no other word for this than THEFT!

Theft is increasingly becoming a problem for any artist trying to make a living from digital images and for ALL our sakes we NEED to find a solution! Talented and respected artist Mo Manning tried to set up a "stamp out stamp thieves" campaign over a year ago and got lots of support from both fans and stamp companies. The thefts seemed to slow down so unfortunately the campaign did too.

But now we NEED YOU to check it out and help if you can!

The site is HERE

 Let's make this a happy and fair place for artists and crafter's alike!

Also, please pass the link along to any "pros" artists, stamp companies or shopkeepers who might like to join.

xXx

Start the New Year Off Right!

Over at Just INKlined some of the artists show a true sense of humour - this is poor ol' Maude Doodlebuns (Flab Fighter) trying to work off some of her Christmas excesses so she can fit into her Santa bikini later on in the year. You can find her instore HERE.

And for those of you you don't remember her glamour look for Christmas - here's the card I made earlier. And now you KNOW how she came to have that fabulous physique - it doesn't just happen - LOL.

Personally I think good on her - I'm still "thinking" about trying to work off those kilos I gained over the past few weeks - OK - honesty hurts - I need to work off several YEARS worth - LOL

xXx

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

I've had an idea in my head for a while and I want to see if you guys think I've pulled it off. I have several blogging friends who create the most amazing scenery cards and I wanted to give it a go. I've used Mo Manning's gorgeous Wizard of Oz image Kansas - available HERE - and merged two of Make It Crafty's fabulous scenery digital images (country walk and rainbow meadow) to re-create the yellow brick road and the rainbow from the movie! The sentiment is taken from the song line -  "And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true". I decided to glitter up the yellow brick road as well as Dorothy's red shoes.

Mo's Challenges have started back for the year and this week's challenge is "Bless the Beast and the Children" - meaning your card has to include both a little kiddie and an animal. Since Toto is hiding in Dorothy's basket I'm entering this over there.

EDIT - sorry I just realised I forgot to watermark my photo so have edited to fix that up!

xXx

Best Wishes for 2011 from Darling Marci

This is one of the gorgeous new images from La-La Land Crafts and her name is Darling Marci. She is the first seated Marci and I just LOVE her. Marci and I would like to wish all of you out there in blogland all the very best for 2011 - I hope it's a great year!

I used the gorgeous Basic Grey Kioshi paper pad and paper pieced Marci's dress. The layout is last week's Friday Sketchers sketch #134, and even though I'm too late for the challenge I felt the sketch was too fabulous NOT to use! Her cute little party shoes are all glittered up for New Year's.

You can buy Marci and Luka as a digis here on the blog or get them as  a rubber stamp in the store

Remember if you create something with any La-La stamps or digis, please share with us in the customer gallery! Once a month we have a Customer Appreciation Day and one of you will win a prize!

SALE - SALE - SALE

Did Santa miss a few items from your Wish List? Did you get some crafting money for Christmas?? Here is your chance to stock up on some of Marci and Luka stamps from La-La Land Crafts at a SALE price!!!!

For a LIMITED TIME, ONE WEEK ONLY all the SEASONAL Marci and Luka stamps - Christmas AND Halloween - are 20% OFF!!!

What exactly is on SALE? These Christmas/Winter Stamps:

- Winter Marci

- Santa Marci

- Ice Skating Marci

- Caroling Luka

and these Halloween Stamps:

- Witch Marci

- Pumpkin Marci

- and Pirate Luka

The sale is LIMITED to items in stock!!!! Don't miss out!!

Click HERE to go SHOPPING!!!!

*digis excluded

**sale price will be reflected in your Shopping Cart

***sale prices valid through January 6th

xXx