Announcement for my followers

As some of you have been aware, Google has announced a few months ago that they will be retiring the Google Friend Connect (GFC) widget, also known as the Followers gadget for all non-Blogger sites. (see announcement) Which means, WordPress blogs (like The Arty Carty blog) and other sites that utilize this feature will no longer be able to.

I have done some research and found a few ways for you to continue following my blog:

1) Follow me using my RSS feed (it’s the link that says “RSS – post” on my sidebar)

- this is the closest alternative to the Follow me gadget. It allows you to subscribe to my post and stream them automatically to a variety of readers (including Google reader).

2) “Like” me using the Facebook Fan Box on my sidebar.

- This will allow my post to stream directly onto your facebook account and it also allows you to leave comments and interact with me much like Facebook. (ditto to Twitter , if you have  a Twitter account)

3) Google recommends that in place of a GFC widget that Bloggers create a Google+ page and add a badge to their sidebar. (that’s the G+ button you see on my sidebar). The problem with this is that the features are completely different. Google+ is 100% a social network. It allows you to follow and interact with people and businesses much like Facebook, but its not a way to subscribe to a blog.

I look forward to your continued support on my RSS feed, Facebook/Twitter or G+.

Thanks my friends.

Steph

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Crafter’s Companion Giveaway

Just wanted to share that Crafter’s Companion is having an awesome giveaway right now. (The design team has been given the challenge to spread this message to everyone we know)

You will be entered into a drawing for $100 gift certificate for anything on the Crafter’s Companion website and so will I (you will be making two people very happy – you and me)

1) Just become a Crafter’s Companion blog follower http://crafterscompanion.blogspot.com/ and
2) email YOUR NAME AND MY NAME (Steph) to bindy@crafterscompanion.com

- that’s it … I know I could think of LOTS of things I could get on the website for $100; couldn’t you?

Contest starts Jan 25 and ends on Feb 29th… you don’t want to miss this.

Post it on your FB page,

Tweet about it,

Pin it,

please help me out and spread the word.

***** open to new Crafter’s Companion followers and US residents only *****

 

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Wire Works Wednesday

Well hello again,

I like the fact that once a month, the Flower Soft design team are featuring creative ways to use Flower Soft wires! It helps me use a product that seldomly comes to my mind when creating and I’m astound how much fun it is on my creative psyche to find ways to use them – not to mention, I’m actually using up my stash! All the more motivation!

My background patterned paper is from My Mind’s Eye, papers used for my pinwheels are from Studio Calico, the pinwheel tutorial can be found here. I colored the Flower Soft wires with alcohol markers and sentiment stamp is from Unity Stamps.

I hope I inspired you to use your stash or find creative ways to use them to add instant dimension to your work.

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Lots of Laugh from the old croonie

Welcome peeps,

Did the title give away the challenge theme this week at Color Me Creative Classroom? Well, the theme is lots of laughs and bright colors. The sponsor of many good things is I Brake for Stamps.

I made a tag this week since I choose a label stamp (aka smaller size) with the intent of making it into a label for a gift for a friend. Here is my tag:

And here is a closer view of the trendy and crazy old lady who makes me laugh:

I glittered up her glasses, hat pin and earrings too. Boy, was that a tiny image to color. (lesson learnt) Tag was a 7 gypsies pre-printed tag that I dressed up with a sticker from Fancy Pants and a doily diecut from Papertrey Ink. Ribbon trim is from Crate Paper – love how vintagey that looks.

To enter in the challenge, you can use any image you want as long as they are colored with alcohol markers. Your card must also be newly created. Don’t forget when you play along the entire month, you are also entered into the monthly drawing for the shopping spree at Oozak. How can you beat two prize opportunities – head on over to be inspired and get to coloring.

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It’s all about texture.

It’s Stampendous Saturday again – time to enter into Feburary’s Stampendous challenge – it’s all about texture this month -  use flocking, embossing powders, glitters, mica fragments, dry embossing etc. … you name it – if it adds texture, get it on your project!

Here is my card with tons of mica flakes and embossing enamel on it – it was so mesmerizing to watch all the embossing enamel melt into the dry embossing.

Check out these inspiration from my other fabulously talented Stampendous team members:

Stephanie Lee (that’s me)

We want YOU to play along with us!  Just add your direct link to your card (make sure you’ve loaded it up with tons of TEXTURE) to the linky tool below my signature (or on the Stampendous blog) no later than March 1, 2012 at 11:00 PM EST.  You do not have to use Stampendous products to play along, but we sure love it when you do!  And as an extra incentive for playing, one lucky person (drawn at random from all the entries) will receive this gorgeous Corset Ladies Perfectly Clear Stamp Set:

Due to shipping restrictions, the winner must have a US address.  We hope you get a chance to play along with us – happy stamping!

And a quick note about the linky tool below – it’s the exact same collection that is being shared on the Stampendous blog, and some of my teammates’ blogs.  You can add your direct link to your project featuring texture here on my blog, or any of the other blogs that are sharing the collection!

Pin It

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Our Creative Corner Challenge

Table of contents for Our Creative Corner

  1. Our Creative Corner Challenge

Hello all,

I was completely taken by surprise and totally flattered when Tui Nathan from Our Creative Corner contacted me and asked if I would like to guest design for them. Of course I said yes – I had been playing in their challenges for a while and love the work of their design team. They also have a few new team members in place since January this year.

Well, this week’s challenge is black and white with a splash of color! Mine is a big splash of red …

Most of the supplies on the card is from Momenta – since my DT box just came from them and it’s conveniently sitting next to my craft table waiting to be used or put away. Only the white pearl-centered flower is from Offray. The doily die is from Papertrey Ink.

Everyone is welcome to play along. If you upload your card/project to SCS, please use the keyword OCCC. We do require that your project be a new project and not back-linked to a project made before this challenge started. Please be sure you link back to the OCC blog post in order to be eligible for our Top Talent award.  This challenge closes at 11:59 p.m.Eastern Time on March 2nd.

Have fun!

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My Lilac Heart

Hello peeps,

Happy Friday! Actually – it’s more like thank goodness it’s Friday – we have been struggling with colds all week at our household. Seems like the crud has been going around lately – my son’s kindergarten class has over 60% of his class out on school! and the school bus only has 4 kids on it all week (usually it’s a busload of 14 kids)

I am happy though to be creating this week – and today I am posting about Sheena Douglass’s gorgeous Paint Fusion flowers again. Nope – I haven’t mastered painting yet but I decided to do some “creative manuevering” with my image and created a heart from her flower stamps instead. For me, that’s the fun part in card making – you don’t have to create a flower just because it’s a flower stamp.

These were her small lilac stamps which I stamped and digitally flipped 1 over to create 2 lilac bushes facing each other like a heart (with rubber stamps, you could stamp, scan and flip digitally). I “tied” the 2 hearts together with a little ribbon from my stash – the sentiments that came to mind for me as I was “tying” the hearts together was “you and me”, “2 hearts as one”; “we’re joined together” – you get the point but I had none of those sentiment stamps. So I just wrote my sentiment out and added an Authentique Paper “&” sticker to create a contrast.

My image was colored with Spectrum Noir marker this time (DR1, DR3, DG3, DG4).  I also added some Flower Soft to the image to add some texture and dimension. Patterned papers are from Crate Paper and wooden frame is from Kaiser Craft.

I hope you have a fun and creative day yourself!

Steph

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Another Flower Soft Challenge

Table of contents for Flower Soft

  1. Wire Works Wednesday
  2. Another Flower Soft Challenge
  3. I Heart U
  4. True Blue challenge
  5. Wire Works
  6. Step it up …
  7. Happy New Year!

Welcome to another Flower Soft challenge this month,

This month’s challenge is to make an Anniversary or Valentine’s card – we would love to see you use a Flower Soft product on your card and include a link of it in the comments section of the Flower Soft blog.

I made my anniversary card with the Mabel Lucie Attwell 3D Pop Up Card Kit – a Flowersoft New Release. The card kits are new to me since I joined this design team and boy, it really makes card making very easy when everything is already in the kit!

Except for a bit of twine and some Flowersoft wires and flower soft for her bouquet, and a bit of white cardstock to mat the sentiment, everything you see come from the kit. How easy and quick is that to make a stinkin’ cute card!

 Here’s a list of my other Design Team members for more inspiration:

Deb Felts
Deb Seyer
Jennifer Buck
Linda Beeson
Krista Riley
Dawn Lusk
Lisa Murphy

If you upload your creation to SCS, please use the keyword FSC43 and flowersoft so we will be able to find you. The prize for this challenge is the Mabel Lucie Attwell 3D Pop-up Card Kit.

Have a creative kinda day!

Posted in Handmade Cards | Tagged | 2 Comments

Cardabilities Reveal for Febuary 15

Table of contents for Cardabilities

  1. Cardabilities Reveal for Febuary 15
  2. Cardabilities Reveal for January 30
  3. Cardabilities Reveal – Jan 15

Welcome to another Cardabilities reveal.

I hope you all had a fun and romantic Valentine’s Day. And if you didn’t, I always tell myself – it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

And with all the love talk, here is the sketch for this reveal:

And here is my take:

 

I love that sentiment from Stampendous! So sweet and to the point. The border is a die from Spellbinders. Ribbon is from Offray and paper is from My Mind’s Eye.

I hope you find yourself inspired to play along too.

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Not a card …

Table of contents for The Pixie Cottage

  1. Not a card …
  2. Clean and simple here I come …
  3. Love and Kisses
  4. I cannot live without embossing

That’s the challenge at The Pixie Cottage this week – make anything but a card … or you can use the sketch below to make a non-card item (I’m thinking a layout or a home decor item or anything your creative minds can come up with):

I did a tag instead … really I made it like a bookmark because I gave my other bookmark away and I really need another one and never got around to making one.

My bird was stamped on vellum and I dabbed the whole thing with distressed ink and heat set the ink stained vellum till the whole thing was crispy.

So now it’s your turn to go and create and come back and share with us. I’m very curious to see what non card item you will be creating, especially if you choose to use the sketch.

The randomly picked winner of their choice of two fabulous Pixie Cottage stamps.

I hope your Valentine’s Day went well!

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Stencilled Florals

Table of contents for Momenta

  1. Stencilled Florals
  2. Exciting announcement

Hi everyone,

Today is my 1st post as part of the Momenta D-lite team. I’ve been spoilt by Momenta with such generous products and this is one that I created from my box of goodies.

Frankly, I didn’t even know Momenta made stencils. I have only ever bought Momenta papers and stickers. It’s so easy to create a card from stencils – all I did was colored inside the stencil with some distressed ink and I have a card topper to use. Threw in some twine and a sentiment sticker and I have a quick and easy card made in less than 15 mins.

I love how this one turned out and I think I will definately be using more stencils in my crafting arsenal.

Posted in Handmade Cards | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Stampendous Colored Fragments Blog Hop

Hello peeps!

 

This Saturday the Stampendous team has something extra special planned for you…we have combined our regular monthly challenge with a blog hop showcasing some of the great new products released at CHA last month!  Pull up a chair, grab a warm beverage and yummy snack, and get ready to be wowed!

We’ve asked our Design Team to use our new Color Fragments for this Blog Hop, creating a card, scrapbook page, or out of the box project with these little bits of pure color. Color Fragments can be applied with any adhesive, mixed with resins, paints, clays, or just used around the house in plants, fish bowls, candles, soaps, any craft you care to tackle. They are non-toxic, don’t melt at normal embossing temperatures, and you can easily crush them if you desire smaller flakes or different shapes. You’ll love our five spring colors, and you’ll adore what our team has done with them.  Now, check out the whole list of fabulousness for today:

Here is my card using the deliciously shabby blue colored fragments:

Here is a closer look at those fragments – I mixed together the shabby blue embossing enamels, with the gold glitter and powder blue color fragments and melted it into a nice crusty finish on my card – I then inked the edges up with rusty hinged distressed ink – love the pop of orange on the blue embossing enamels:

If you have not checked out this month’s great texture challenge, you can read all the details on the Stampendous blog.  Now, check out the whole list of fabulousness for today:

Wendy Price

Stephanie Lee (er – this would be me)
& a very special guest designer for our blog hop

As you hop from blog to blog, being wowed by all the amazing new goodies we are showing off, be sure to leave some love (and your contact email) for the designers, as well as on the Stampendous blog. The more you comment, the better your chances are to win one of these five fantastic prize packs.  Each one includes a brand new stamp set and bottle of color fragments from Stampendous:

 

 

 

 


Winners will be randomly selected from all comments left on blogs, so the more you comment the better your chances are to win one!!  You have until Sunday, February 12 th at 8:00 PM EST to leave a comment on each blog; winners will be announced on Monday, February 13th. Due to shipping restrictions, all winners must have a US/APO/FPO mailing address. 

And don’t forget….We want YOU to play along with us in our monthly challenge!  Just add your direct link to your card (make sure you’ve loaded it up with tons of TEXTURE) to the linky tool below my signature (or on the Stampendous blog) no later than March 1, 2012 at 11:00 PM EST.  You do not have to use Stampendous products to play along, but we sure love it when you do!  And as an extra incentive for playing, one lucky person (drawn at random from all the entries) will receive the gorgeous Corset Ladies Perfectly Clear Stamp Set.

 

Pin It

 

 

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Fun with mist

Good morning everyone,

It’s Friday and it’s my turn at the Crafter’s Companion blog post. I’m sharing with you Sheena Douglass’s newest release Paint Fusion set of stamps.

 

If you have never seen Sheena’s Youtube videos on how she paints her flowers, you need to see how talented this lady is!

I am full of awe at the artists who are able to draw stamps and paint – when all I do is just color in the images drawn by someone else and with easy to blend alcohol markers (not any paint mediums)

Well, I have no courage to try to recreating her painting masterpieces. *Whimp* – actually I did try and it came out as blobs of pathetic purple mess. So I stamped my flowers and leaves and sprayed painted them with a variety of glimmer mists instead. I did paint the background with gold acrylic paint – imagining the coarse brush strokes might add a contrast to the smooth shimmer of the spray. The flower stems were Flower Soft wires that I colored with Spectrum Noir markers (JG65).

If you do venture into the realm of painting a Sheena Douglass stamp, please share your work with us at the comments section or on my facebook page. I would LOVE to see it!

Have fun with your paints!

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Miss you …

It’s such a whirlwind going to CHA, meeting old and new people, then coming home to more whirlwind with a 2 yr old that wouldn’t stop and doesn’t go to school yet (aka – no recovery time for me).

I made this card just before CHA but never got around to posting it – now is the opportune time cause I feel like I miss the fairytale of CHA, all my blogland friends that I got to meet, my leisurely meals without getting up 20 times to cater to the whims of my children, the fact that I can get food without having to cook it and clean up – I just miss my entire experience.

Thank you to my friends who embraced me with open arms and made my trip awesome. And a special thanks to Laura Mann Weed for everything you have done.

My card was made with Stampendous Vintage typewriter stamp set, Basic Grey Paper and Prima trims.

Steph

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I Heart U

Welcome to another Flower Soft inspired post!

Those little pot of sprinkles are just amazing to work with and since joining the design team, I’ve discovered the card toppers and kits too that makes it a blast to make very cute looking cards!

Our challenge this week is to use any image to make a “Heart U” themed card – ya, any Valentine’s or Anniversary card that says I love you or has a heart on it. Here is my “Heart U” card …

I used Poppy Red Flower Soft as faux stitching around my doily heart. It’s simple enough to dot some flower soft glue around the heart and sprinkle those Flower Soft on the glue. I discovered that the Flower Soft does get into the other holes that don’t have glue on them so my advice is to flip the card 180 degrees upside down and tap the excess Flower Soft of the card straight off (instead of tipping it off sideways for the Flower Soft to slide off, KWIM)

Have fun with using your Flower Soft in fun and unique ways. My fellow design team mates has tons of inspiration for you as well… check them out.

Jennifer Buck 

Cibele Glazer

Dawn Lusk

Deb Felts

Debbie Seyer

Jeanne Streiff

Krista Riley

Linda Beeson

Lisa Murphy

Have fun creating.

Posted in Handmade Cards | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

and the winner …

for the Stampendous Superbowl giveaway is …

 conniesays:

Love the card and the look of the fragments!! very cool. Thanks for playing for the Superbowl party with Kathryn. c

Thank you ladies for all your kind comments.

Sorry no football updates here – I have no clue or preference as to who should be winning this football thing – BUT I do send HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Connie.

Send me your mailing information by 12 midnight tonight (contact info under “about me” tab) and have fun with your Chiffon color fragment!

p/s: for those of you who left comments on how I embossed the frame; I just add wet glue to the frame, and sprinkled in my mixture of shabby white embossing enamel/gold glitter/chiffon colored fragment and heat it from underneath. Easy peasy – anyone can do it.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Stampendous Superbowl Giveaway

Hi all,

When everyone in my house is watching the Superbowl, the non sports fan (you’re truly) is left to my own devices … so I made a card that celebrates the girly girl in me that says no Superbowl for me!

On my card, I played with the new colored fragments – mixed it in shabby white embossing enamel and gold glitter and embossed it around the frame.

Color Fragments Are Here!

This exciting new product can be used with any adhesive as an embellishment or mixed with embossing powder, paint, clay, resin…the possibilities are limited only by your imagination! They are available in five yummy colors for Spring and you can see them all HERE.

Join us for our BIG BLOG HOP on Saturday Feb 11th beginning at 8am EST- featuring members of our amazing design team using Color Fragments in all sorts of creative ways. These prizes will be given away on our blog hop:

We’ll be sneaking on to Kathryn Krieger’s Scrappy Bowl Sunday USTREAM event and giving away Color Fragments throughout the Super Bowl. You can find more info about this event on her blog.

I will announce a winner tomorrow morning (2/6) to give you all a chance to get to my blog. You will have until midnight tomorrow (2/6) to respond with your mailing address or I will have to pick a new winner. *Due to customs restirctions, U.S./APO/FPO winners only, sorry!*

Happy Crafting if you are not glued to the TV.

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Colors of LOVE

I can’t believe Valentine’s Day is coming; it just seem  like I just took down my Christmas tree! (no I didn’t just take it down last week although I know someone who did …)

Do you have plans in mind? Things get booked up pretty quickily at this time of the year … (hint hint to DH)

Right now, mine is to hibernate in my craftroom and make a Valentine’s Day Card with the Colors of LOVE! Oh wait – that’s also the challenge this week at Color Me Creative Classroom. The sponsor of many good things is Stamp Fairy.

And here is my card with the colors of LOVE (pinks, reds, white and cream):

My patterned papers are from Crate Paper’s new Paper Heart Collection  – can you tell I cannot resist every time new paper come out into the market just before CHA – it’s my pocketbook nightmare.
Well, to enter in the challenge, you can use any image you want as long as they are colored with Copic Markers or Promarkers. Your card must also be newly created. Don’t forget when you play along the entire month, you are also entered into the monthly drawing for the shopping spree at Oozak. How can you beat two prize opportunities – head on over to be inspired and get to coloring.

Posted in Handmade Cards | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Butterfly Frame

Hello everyone.

I am proud to share with you the newest release from Crafter’s Companion – Stamp It Stamps – that you may have seen at CHA last week. These are about the coolest vintagey looking stamps there are and here is the Butterfly Frame on my card.

Pardon the poor photo quality of this card – I didn’t have my lightbox with me when I had to take a photo 1 day before leaving for CHA last week.

Here is how I did the card:

I stamped the image onto kraft cardstock and embossed it with black embossing powder so it would still remain dark after I finish inking it.

This is the part I had the most fun with – I sprayed the image with white color mist and then dribbled brown color mist on top to age it further. The mists were from October Afternoon. The edges were trimmed with my deckling scissors and inked with brown chalk ink. I embellished the focal image further with some Stampendous mica flakes (crushed so it wouldn’t be so heavy). I love how those flakes easily attached with just adhesive and I get instant texture – I’m all for anything easy to use.

The rest of the card was left simple so that the focus would remain on the main image and sentiment – which happens to be from the Fairyopolis winter set.

Check out more card inspiration using this Stamp It collection from my Crafter’s Companion team mates.

Have a fun and inky day!

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Home Decor challenge!!

Table of contents for Wags n Whiskers

  1. Home Decor challenge!!
  2. Valentine’s day card
  3. White on white at Wags n Whiskers

Good morning everyone!

Can you use stamps on home decor projects? Why yes of course!!Everyone is stamping everything these days – so here is the challenge at Wags n Whiskers (WnW). Make a non-card home decoration item!

Well, one random participant will win a Free Wags ‘n Whiskers Rubber stamp! You don’t need to use a WnW image on your project to enter the challenge, but if you do, you will be entered into a 2nd drawing for a Free Wags ‘n Whiskers Digital Stamp!! Two chances to win!! If you are in need of a WnW design, click here for Rubber stamps, and here for Digis!

Here’s my home deco project:

 

 

Here’s a close up of the lovely angel from Wags n Whiskers Rhiannon.

The foliage are diecuts from Spellbinders foliage dies. The wreath was made using folded red burlap – lots of it. Here is the tutorial for it. I used the same size wreath form but I doubled the amount of burlap used – I like my wreath to be big and full because I think a skimpy, skinny wreath is kinda sad.

Ya – Suzanne – this was the red burlap wreath I was intending to make for your Through The Craftroom Door Christmas edition – I just finished it (in Feburary!!) I guess I could use it for Valentines Day too!

Last but not least, today is also my last post with Wags n Whiskers. Thanks for having me on the team! I enjoyed getting to know you all ladies and working with you. Good luck everyone!

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I am addicted to Shaved Ice.

Table of contents for Forever Friends

  1. I am addicted to Shaved Ice.
  2. A shaped card for baby.

Hello everyone,

Welcome to another Forever Friends challenge this month. The theme this month naturally is to make a Valentine’s theme card. Here is my cute and cuddly bear holding the biggest cuddly heart ever!

Gosh – this bear makes me swoon all the time! The background surrounding the bear is Stampendous Shaved Ice from the Frantage collection – I am addicted that stuff – can you tell! I apologize I don’t remember where that DP is from – it’s the last ramnant piece of scrap paper from my scrap drawer. The prize sponsor this month is Di’s Digi Download.

It’s one of the easiest challenge to play in – use any animal image will do, although we would love to see your Forever Friends bears. So what are you waiting for?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 2 Comments