A Winter Wonderland and a Winner!

Hello, and good Friday before the big Christmas Day!  I'm sure everyone is frantic getting all those last minute preparations done right about now... I know I am!  I sure am looking forward to all the good food and family time to be had though!  I am also anxious for more time to relax after all the holiday festivities come to a close as well! ;) 

However, today I wanted to first announce the winner of my giveaway that was up for grabs for the Advent Calendar day I hosted at The Nook! Thanks to everyone who left their wonderful comments... I really appreciated them!  And the winner is...

Sherri said...

oh wow, that looks just like real wood. how cool is that!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 5:50:00 PM

Yay, Sherri!  You won my card kit with the Tim Holtz Alterations Brick and Woodgrain Texture Fades!  Please pm me your address and I will get them off to you real soon!

Now who's ready for a Winter Wonderland?  I'm not really wanting any significant amount of snow right now, but I wouldn't mind a few flurries for Christmas Day.  Right this minute though, I will stay warm and enjoy the beauty of a previous snowfall from earlier in the year on my latest SOUS sketch layout.  Here's this week's sketch from SOUS designer, Sandi Clarkson...

And here's my interpretation, which I rotated...

(Please click on pictures to view larger)

I still used 3 photos, only I adjusted the placement and of course used larger pictures.  All cardstock used here is Core'dinations... even that vibrant glittered blue which is Core's line of "Glitter Silk" cardstock... perfect for Wintery pages and projects like this.  I have to say that it cuts wonderfully in the Cricut Expression too! The beautiful and intricate snowflake imagery here is cut using Cricut's Damask Decor cartridge.  I know I always seem to have a new favorite Cricut cart, lol... but this one totally IS a favorite! I also used the Martha Stewart pine needles deep edge punch again and I love the look of the design punched from white cardstock.  It really pops off that blue Glitter Silk!  The BG Nordic Holiday line was a pefect fit for a Winter page paired off with some really cool gray plaid May Arts ribbon.  Yes... I really love to look at the beauty of a Wintery scene like this! If only snow wasn't so cold!

I want to wish all my friends and followers a very Merry Christmas, and wonderful wishes for a very blessed and healthy New Year in 2012!  Love to ALL! 

Advent Calendar Day #19 At The Nook!

Today is the 19th... and that means it's the 19th Advent Calendar day at The Nook and I am happy to be the calendar host for the day!  If you haven't already heard about it, now is your chance to join in and help us count down the days til Christmas in a very exciting way and with some fabulous giveaways to boot! 

Everyday from December 1st up to December 25th, one Nook friend is hosting a giveaway on her blog as part of the Advent Calendar festivities!  I urge you to go back and take a look if you've missed out on any of the previous days because there is always fabulous inspiration!  If you check out the Nook blog you can find a link posted for the day's host, which today is me.  If you are coming here from the Nook's blog post, then I simply say, "Welcome"! 

Here is a list of all the participating blogs for the Advent Calendar... please visit!

1	Hilde	http://www.scoobieslilleblog.blogspot.com/
2	Antenucci	http://antenucci.blogspot.com/
3	Danielle	http://picsandcheesecake.blogspot.com/
4	Lisa J	http://cutcreateandcare.blogspot.com/
5	Pam	http://happytobecreating.blogspot.com/
6	Meg Aaron	http://thoughtsoftraveling.blogspot.com/
7	Mag	http://magandscrap.blogspot.com/
8	Monique	http://moniquesscrapbook.blogspot.com/
9 10	Kate Vickers Sherri	http://www.scrapsation.com/ http://faithandscraphappiness.blogspot.com/
11	Lilith Eeckels	http://lilithandscrap.blogspot.com/
12	~jan	http://jantatomir.blogspot.com/
13	Carol	http://carolmonson.blogspot.com/
14	Arty Carty	http://blog.artycarty.com/
15	Tanya	http://little-scrapper.blogspot.com/
16	Annelie Maddoc	http://swewi.wordpress.com/
17	Nenne	http://www.creativenenne.blogspot.com/
18	Nicole	http://justnicks.blogspot.com/
19	Andrea Amu	http://imlivinonscraps.blogspot.com/
20	Marinette	http://www.scraptherapie.com/
21	Pysselpetra	http://mittkreativakaos.blogspot.com/

22 Samantha http://samawright.blogspot.com/
23 Anna Sigga http://annasigga.typepad.com/scrappalicious/
24 Jennie http://pappersverk.blogspot.com/
25 Leah http://www.leahkillian.com/

Now onto some holiday sharing and giving from me!  Today I was busy creating some holiday cards and I got to thinking that it would be perfect for me to make up a little card kit with the products I've used on my cards and offer it up as a giveaway for today's Advent Calendar!  Here is the card I created using one of my favorite new embossing folders... the Tim Holtz Alterations woodgrain texture fade! 

And even better, the woodgrain is perfect embossed on some fabulous Tim Holtz Distress Collection Core'dinations cardstock. I also used the Cricut Winter Woodland cartridge to cut out the cardinal from some Tim Holtz Nostalgic Kraft-Core. Isn't the green pine needles border a really neat detail?  That is my new Martha Stewart Deep-Edge punch that I just got on sale at Michael's for 50% off! I also got the wood buttons in the Dollar bin at M's and spritzed them with some Burnt Red Glimmer Mist. 

Okay, here's what's up for grabs... and yes, the Tim Holtz Texture Fade set with the woodgrain is included in my card kit giveaway!

 

There's enough to complete 2 cards!  If you'd like a chance to have this kit, just leave me a comment here in this post by 12 PM EST, Wed. Dec. 21st.  I will randomly draw a winner by December 22nd. 

Also, You don't want to forget to hop on over to Leah Killian's blog and get entered for the grand prize sometime between now and Christmas Morning. You could win a free subscription to the always inspiring Nook kits!

My Friday Finale!

So excited that it is Friday, which makes me all the more excited to share some scrap-happy things today as well! 
First off, all week long on the Core'dinations blog, we've paired up with the most fabulous company, and a personal favorite of mine too... BASIC GREY!  I can never have enough BG collections, and the same goes for the awesome Core'dinations cardstock offered in Basic Grey patterns now too! 

If you haven’t heard, we have a BasicGrey Core Impressions line that we just LOVE! There are TWO Core Impression packs in this line that are fabulous. The Whimsy Collection is full of bright colors and whimsical patterns that match BasicGrey papers and embellishments. And the Ornate Collection has beautiful blues, greens and pinks that coordinate with BasicGrey papers and embellishments as well. You will be seeing both of these collections in action this week along with LOADS of BasicGrey goodies, too!

Each pack has FOUR embossed patterns in FIVE colors totaling 20 unique sheets and we sell certain sheets individually as well.

And you know it wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t have a giveaway! We are giving away one of EACH of our BasicGrey Core Impressions lines!!!

You have a few ways to win this week.

1.) Leave a comment here on the Core blog all week long! Leave a comment everyday for up to FIVE chances to win!

2.) Head over to our Facebook page for another chance to win!

3.) Make your way over the BasicGrey blog for additionial chances to win, too!

4.) And hurry over to the Facebook page, too! Tell them we sent you!

Now are you ready for some inspiration? Don’t forget to click HERE to get see the gorgeous projects over at the BG Blog and more chances to win win win!

Today was the final day of the swap, and I was pleased to have had two of my holiday layouts showcased using Basic Grey's super cool Nordic Holiday collection!

This first layout is pretty and festive... using some more traditional holiday prints included in the Nordic Holiday line, such as the red and green pointsettia pattern.  I paired it all with some floral embossed green cardstock from the Basic Grey Ornate Core Impressions line and green and white Core Essentials.  Punched border detailing really helps to define the backround texture of the cardstock! 

(Click on pictures to view larger)

Then, I also created the following page, which also leads me to another fun announcement! 

To create this page, I followed an awesome layout sketch for Dec. 9th from the Stuck On U Sketches (SOUS) challenge blog.  This sketch design was created by their own designer, Sandi Clarkson. 

And, I can now announce that I am a new design team member at SOUS!  I am very happy to be joining this fun site with such a great group of talented ladies!  Looking forward to designing with many, many more inspirational sketches in the weeks and months ahead!

Here are some more details of this holiday page...

 I used the BG Ornate Core Impressions in the Olive Cornbread pattern. I painted on some Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze within the embossed areas to give the cardstock a different look and then I also sprayed on some Glimmer Mist.  This all gave the olive toned cardstock a more golden and glitzy, festive look. I also used May Arts ribbons here... that chevron patterned ribbon is thee coolest and the red really gives a cheerful punch.  The stitched brad and fun feltie ornament sticker embellies are also all part of the Nordic Holiday line!  Finally, I used the Paper Lace 2 Cricut cart to cut out the pretty ornate circular background diecut. I really do love this page and have decided to frame it and gift it to my mom this Christmas.  I know she'll love it just as much as I do!

Before I go, I just wanted to thank everyone who has voted for my cards in the Card Sharks challenge at the Nook!  I appreciate the votes and comments so much.  There is also a little more time left to vote if you can... I believe voting closes at 9am PST Saturday morning (Dec. 10th). 

Vote for me HERE, please! 

Have a terrific and fun-filled weekend!  ;) 

This Card Shark Needs YOUR vote!

That's right my friends!  In order for me to swim and stay alive in the pool of big sharks, I do need the kindness of my friends!  For this third round of challenges they have opened up voting, and for me to continue to stay afloat, I do ask for and will appreciate your votes if you do believe that I deserve to survive and make it into the 4th and final round!

Here is the link to the Nook's blog where the voting is taking place. . . 
http://myscrapbooknookkits.blogspot.com/2011/12/card-shark-round-3-voting.html

And here is a refresher of my two cards that can be voted on in this round! 

Card Sharks Week 3 - Challenge #2

Card Sharks Week 3 - Challenge # 1

So, if you want to vote for my cards, simply add your vote with my name in the comments section of  both of the blog posts for these cards, HERE  and  HERE !  Thanks sooo very much!  ;)

Week 3 of Card Sharks!

Hello there, friends!

As the last few hours of the weekend wind to a close, I wanted to post about my card creations that I've done for this, the third week of Card Sharks challenges at The Nook!  Gotta tell ya that even though I'm not in the lead, I've still been having so much fun pushing myself with these creative challenges.  Plus, I've also had my first card that I made for Card Sharks requested for publication with Cricut magazine, so I can not be anything but happy about that!

So onto the latest challenges...

The first is "POKER FLUSH", which involves any 5 cards of the same suit... so we are to create a card using 5 embellishments of the same kind.  A variation of color or shape is allowed, but it should be easy to identify 5 embellies of the same suit!   I went with 5 trees to design a Christmas card. 

I used a tin Christmas tree ornament (in the center) that I bought after Christmas last year and I sanded it a bit and repainted with some Suade It Krylon spray and then spritzed on some Glimmer Mist.  Then I cut the two bird topped trees using the Give A Hoot Cricut cart and the other two trees using the Designer's Calendar cart.  Cardstock is Core'dinations Essentials, TH Kraft Core and BG Ornate collection (Chocolate Box).  The patterned paper is all from the BG Nordic Holiday collection.  I also embellished the tree cuts with Diamond Dust glass glitter, Sugar Coating glitter and glass micro-beads. And I almost forgot... I cut a strip of green Tim Holtz Kraft Core and punched it through my Dymo label maker for the "Oh Christmas Tree" banner.

 

I also happened to see that there is a diecut challenge going on over at Stuck On U Sketches right now using Christmas trees!  How perfect!

The second challenge is the game of "Crazy 8's".  Simple enough we had to use various elements to total a formula of 8 items and no more than 8. 

I used (1) Authentic patterned paper, (1) Authentic Diecut, (1) Webster's Pages Stickpin, (2) Velvet Maya Road ribbon flowers, and (3) Prima leaves.

And for the BONUS challenge, we needed to create a Love themed/Valentine's card. 

Here I used all Core cardstock and My Mind's Eye Lime Twist collection (with a bit more of the Stella and Rose wood-grain and speckled blue pattern from the Pretty Please line). Isn't that the cutest little nest of love birds?  Found this on the Sweethearts Cricut cart!  To create the  nest filler I cut up some jute string and glued the fibers to the top inside of the nest.  The stamp edge frame was cut using the Elegant Edges cart.

 

That's it!  Hopefully I'll be able to continue on and won't be eliminated from week 4!  Have a great week, friends!