Snow Fairy

This is a tw0-post day on my blog...today is round two of the Kraftin' Kimmie November previews! Please feel free to scroll up to see my sneak peek for today(it will be up at 7:00 am EST)...and for links to the other previews!

Ready for a new challenge at Wags 'n Whiskers Stamps?? Today's challenge is brought to us by the lovely Tracy. She would like to see you using Acetate, Vellum or Tissue on your project. Just wait until you see the gorgeous projects by the rest of the design team over at the Wags 'n Whiskers Blog!

I decided to pull out one of the beautiful WnW fairies...this is "Rhiannon" coloured up as a snow fairy. She is usually perched on a branch, but I eliminated that so that she could be nestled on an arrangement of snowflakes and swirls. This was a fun challenge for me as I rarely use vellum on my cards. I ran strips of vellum and cardstock through my Xyron "sticker maker"...I know that's not the right name, lol. It's a little "X" shaped contraption that you can insert ribbon, paper or other thin embellies through to apply a film of adhesive. I used Spellbinders Doodle Parts to cut out the swirls and then broke out my Ritz Microfine Glitter for the very first time, and applied it to the now sticky vellum and cardstock. I love this glitter! Just burnish it with your finger for a beautiful velvety finish...so pretty! The snowflakes started off as clear plastic. I coated them with glittery "snow" paint, sprinkled them with coarse glitter and topped them off with a rhinestone centre. The pretty DP is from a DCWV Christmas Stack. Finally, I added some random rhinestones for additional sparkle.

Rhiannon was stamped on Neenah cardstock and coloured with my Copics. Those wings were just crying out for some Stardust Stickles...these are the perfect Stickles for fairy wings. They also add to the "frosty" look I was after for this "snow fairy". (The first photo turned out rather bright...it's too "blue". The colours are actually not quite that intense. This second photo is a little more accurate colour-wise...the papers are teal.)

Copics: Skin: E0000, E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, Y21, Y23, Y26, E33, E37, E59 Clothes: BG0000, BG000, BG01, B14, B37, B99, C00, C1, C3, C5 Wings: BG01, BG000, BG0000, RVooo, blender

We would love to have you play along with our challenge this week. You could be the lucky winner of a WnW stamps! Remember that the Wags 'n Whiskers Challenges are now open to projects featuring ANY stamp line...just link up your project at the Wags 'n Whiskers Blog. Now, if you already own some Wags 'n Whiskers stamps, go ahead and use them in the challenges...those projects featuring a WnW image will be entered into a bonus draw for a WnW digital stamp!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Wags 'n Whiskers "Rhiannon"

Ink: Memento, Copics

Paper: Neenah, DCWV, Bazzill

Embellishments: Ritz microfine glitter, plastic snowflakes, rhinestones, Stardust Stickles, machine stitching

Tools: Spellbinders Ovals, Doodle Parts, Snowflakes

Time for the November Sneak Peeks at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!!

(This is post #2 today...please scroll back to see the lucky winner of my Sweet 'n Sassy Birthday Blog Hop candy!)

November 11. Remembrance Day. This is such an important day on the calender, and I would like to take the opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to all the men and women who have served to protect our country. My sympathies are extended to all who have lost loved ones to war. To have just one day to express our thanks and appreciation for their selfless service and ultimate sacrifice seems hardly sufficient. I remember that as a child in school, the moment of silence always seemed an eternity. Now it doesn't seem long enough to reflect on what those soldiers went through....what they gave up to protect complete strangers...what they sacrificed for the cause they fought for. Today we thank them. We express our appreciation through silence and reflection, through poems and songs, through memorials and services. Today, I am praying for the soldiers currently serving around the world...and for their families. I pray for strength, protection and wisdom for the soldiers...for strength, peace and comfort for the families. God bless.

Release day is fast approaching at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps...the big date is Sunday November 14th! :) You are in for quite the treat this month, as Kimmie has some fantastic new stamps lined up for November...you are going to want each and every one! (you know...Christmas is just around the corner, so you can make them part of your wish list this year!!) There are six fabulous "Krafty Girls" by artist Annie Rodrigue as well as several adorable winter Miles the Mouse stamps by artist Stephen Leary. Over the next few days, the Krafty Girls and Krafty Guests will be sharing sneak peeks with you...make sure to visit the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog each day to see who is participating each day. The official release day is this Sunday. Not only will you be able to buy the stamps that day, but Kimmie also has a great blog hop planned!

Today, I'd like to introduce you to "Annie the Artist"....hmmm, wonder where Kimmie came up with the name for this lovely gal?? ;) lol I am totally in love with Annie Rodrigue's characters this month...they are FABULOUS!! The paper is from the Basic Grey "Olivia" line. The "Colour Me Happy" sentiment comes with "Annie"...she also comes with a little paintbrush accessory stamp.

"Annie" was stamped with Memento Ink on Neenah smooth paper and coloured with my Copic markers. Her cute little dress and shoes were jazzed up with some Stardust Stickles. The canvas on her easel is actually blank, so you can have her painting whatever your little heart desires...I chose to sketch in a rose.

Copics: Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: C10, C9, C7, C5, C3, C1, B60 Beret: R20, R22, R27, R46, R59 Dress: C00, C1, C3 Easel: E50, E31, E25, E59, E99 Canvas: E50, E30, E31, blender

For more sneak peeks of the soon-to-be-released November stamps, visit the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog where you will find links to all the participating Krafty Girls and Krafty Guests. Stay tuned over the next few days for more previews, our weekly challenge and the official release day blog hop on Sunday!

Have a wonderful day friends, and thanks so much for visiting!!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps "Annie the Artist" and matching sentiment

Ink: Memento, Copics, Black Soot Distress Ink

Paper: Neenah, Basic Grey, Bazzill

Embellishments: Flowers, button, hemp twine, Stardust Stickles

Winner of my Sweet 'n Sassy Blog Hop Candy!!

(This is one of two posts today... it's time for the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps November sneak peeks to begin!! Please feel free to scroll up to check out that post!)

Good morning folks! Just popping in quickly to announce the winner of the "Cocoa's Ornament" digital image from the Sweet 'n Sassy Birthday Blog Hop. Drum roll please....

The lucky winner (chosen by random.org) is...

"GRANDMAFAIRYMARY"!!!

Congrats...I know you will love this sweet festive digital stamp! I'm sure it will be perfect for your holiday crafting. :) Please email me for new your digi stamp! (you'll find my email link through my blogger profile)

I would just like to say a heartfelt thank you to all who participated in the Sweet 'n Sassy celebration...and thank you for all your lovely comments. :) Stay tuned to the other designer's blogs to see if you won their blog candy...and Korin will be posting a complete list of all the winners on the Sweet 'n Sassy Blog this Saturday.

Blessings,

Melanie

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Birthday Blog Hop!!

Good morning folks! Earlier this year, I had the privilege of being on the design team for Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with that wonderful group of ladies, and I certainly have missed them. I was absolutely thrilled when Korin, the owner of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, rallied up a bunch of us "alumni" and invited us to participate along with her current DT members in a Blog Hop to celebrate Sweet 'n Sassy's 3rd birthday!!

Here's a word from Korin about her wonderful company:

It's hard to believe that 3 years ago today Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps "opened for business" with just 4 clear stamp sets being sold on a simple blog. Since then SNSS has grown to over 100 clear stamp sets and hundreds of digital stamps! God has been so good to us!

Our images, sentiments and scripture stamps are sweet 'n sassy and everything in between. We're sure you'll find something you love. We hope you enjoy hopping along to see all the fun things we've created for your viewing pleasure. May you be inspired to create something truly amazing......something from your heart!

Today's huge Birthday Blog Hop includes the work of several Sweet 'n Sassy past and present design team members!! You will not want to miss a single participant's blog, as each and every one of us has BLOG CANDY to give away...so make sure to leave comments as you hop along!

The hop begins over at the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Blog, where you will also find a complete list of links to the hop participants. You should have arrived here after visiting with the very lovely and very talented Lisa...if not, just start the hop at the beginning, and you'll soon find your way back here. :)

For my card today, I used the festive digital stamp "Cocoa's Ornament". I adore this cute little mouse! Both the first and last projects I made during my term with Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps featured a Cocoa image, so I thought it fitting that I use him again for this celebration blog hop. One of the best features of digital stamps is the ability to re-size and flip them according to your specific project. Before printing the Cocoa stamp, I measured the Spellbinders die that I planned to use on my card, and adjusted the size of the image on my computer before printing. Before removing the image from the die, I used my Inkssentials Blending Tool to apply Distress Ink in Milled Lavender. The gorgeous Christmas paper is from Bo Bunny...I LOVE the colours in this paper line! The bow was tied with my Bow Easy. I added some machine stitching, rhinestones, pearls and a Spellbinders lace border as finishing touches.


"Cocoa's Ornament" was printed on Neenah smooth cardstock and coloured with Copic markers. Stardust Stickles were added to the bow and to the teal stripes on the ornament.

Copics: Cocoa: W00, W1, W3, W5, E50, R11, RV000, R83, R83 Ornament: YG00, YG11, YG20, YG67, G99, BG0000, BG000, BG11, BG72, BG75, BG78, RV000, V00, V01, V12, V15, V09, C00, C01, C03, E50, Y21, Y26, Y17, E33

BLOG CANDY TIME!!! Do you adore "Cocoa's Ornament" as much as I do??? Guess what...I get to give this digital image away to one lucky hop participant. :) Just imagine how many great projects he would be perfect for in the upcoming weeks!! Make sure to leave a comment on this post by Wednesday November 10 at 10:00 pm EST, and I'll announce the winner on Thursday November 11th! (Make sure to check back on my blog to see if you are the lucky winner!!)

When you are finished with the hop, make sure to visit the Sweet 'n Sassy Store to browse through the wonderful selection of stamps available for purchase!

Time for me to send you off to visit the next lovely gal on the hop...the very sweet and talented Joni!

Thanks again Korin for the invitation to join in the Sweet 'n Sassy birthday bash! It has been so much fun to reconnect with everybody and to have the chance to create with Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps again.

Happy hopping friends...and don't forget to leave those comments for your chance to win some great Sweet 'n Sassy prizes!!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Digital Stamp "Cocoa with Ornament"
Ink: Copic markers, Milled Lavender Distress Ink
Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, Bo Bunny
Embellishments: Ribbon, Stickles, rhinestones, pearls, machine stitching
Tools: Spellbinders, Bow Easy

Monday Morning News

Well, good morning Sunshine!! lol I hope everybody enjoyed their weekend...ours was great, but it was over way too fast. We sat down last night to watch Toy Story 3...oh my goodness!! It was a such a great movie! I had hoped to squeeze in some crafty time over the weekend, but it just didn't happen. Sooo...I'll be colouring and assembling each evening as I've got a busy few days fast approaching on my blog! :)



I don't have a card to share with you today, but thought I'd tell you about a couple of fun news tidbits!

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps is celebrating their 3rd birthday tomorrow....and Korin has put together a fantastic blog hop to celebrate!! I had the privilege of being on her DT earlier this year...she has so many great stamps to suit every occasion (both clear sets and digital images)! Korin invited a bunch of "alumni" to participate in the birthday bash hop along with her current DT, so I'll be back tomorrow as one of the stops on the hop with card featuring one of her sweet digital stamps! (Oh, and there are a ton of prizes being given away tomorrow, so make sure to join in the fun!!)



For those of you living in the London area, I wanted to let you know that my good friend Krista VanTol will be teaching her first class at Scrappin' Great Deals this Saturday!! Krista is such a sweetheart...and SO very talented!! She has a wonderful style, and her colouring with Copic markers is absolutely gorgeous. She is a wonderful teacher, and I know that those attending will thoroughly enjoy themselves...and be able to pick up some of her tips and tricks for working magic with those markers!! (you can check out the cards Krista has planned for the class on her blog post HERE.)

That's about it from me this morning...I have a jam packed day ahead!! I hope to see you back tomorrow morning for the Sweet 'n Sassy Blog Hop...and stay tuned later in the week for a ton of Kraftin' Kimmie fun!! ;)

Blessings,

Melanie

How Distressing!!

Can you believe it's already November 6th??? Have you all started your Christmas shopping yet? I say this every year, but honestly my goal is to be done by the end of November. I almost met that goal last year. I only had a couple of things left to get in December. I would prefer to avoid the chaotic stores as much as possible in December...and to get in a little Christmas crafting with Ainsleigh. Dean and I actually went to a Christmas party last night...crazy, huh?? LOL, friends of ours always hold theirs the first week in November in order to beat the upcoming rush of get-togethers. Their house was decorated, carols were playing and we even had a few snowflakes falling outside to boot! We had a great time. :)

Our new challenge over at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog is courtesy of our lovely Krafty hostess this week, the very talented Tara!! Her challenge is called "How Distressing"...I love to add distressing to my cards, whether by ink or by physically distressing the edges of the paper...it really adds such a nice finishing touch to your project.

For this week's card, I inked up "Willard" who was just released a couple of weeks ago...what a cutie! When I saw him all bundled up like that, he made me think of the little brother Randy from the movie The Christmas Story. Remember when his mom had layered him up in all his winter outerwear??...and then he fell out in the snow, and couldn't get up?? LOL...."Ralphie...I can't get up. Raaaalphieeeeee....!!!" (You know, that's a movie that I both love and hate at the same time. We used to watch it EVERY year in elementary school. I can remember piling into the library with the other classes to watch Ralphie on his quest to acquire a Red Ryder BB Gun. His mother didn't want him to have one of course...she just told him "you'll shoot your eye out", hehe. I still giggle about the hideous leg lamp from "Fragile"!! Halmark actually made that into an ornament...complete in it's crate marked "Fragile"...almost bought that one! lol)

Anyways, lol, back to stamping!! I used some great Christmas papers from My Mind's Eye (Holly Jolly) and distressed all the edges with a pair of dull scissors. I also sponged around the paper edges with Bundled Sage Distress Ink. The snowflakes were cut with Spellbinders, sponged with the white ink and given a coat of Stardust Stickles. (um, in real life the red snowflake really does match the papers!) The "Warm Wishes" sentiment comes with Willard...he also has a little Christmas Tree accessory stamp.

Willard was stamped on Neenah smooth paper with Memento Ink and coloured with my Copic markers. I used some fun Perfect Puff on the trim of his hat...Krista and I both picked up a bottle of this fun product while shopping at Scrapfest a few weeks ago. I've been itching to play around with it, especially since I've already seen some great samples by Krista!! (she totally beat me to playing with our new "toy", lol) I love the texture it creates when heated, and it's quite fun to watch it "puff" up! (yup...doesn't take much to amuse me I guess, lol) I just used my hairdryer as I don't even own a heat tool.


Copics: Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, E31, E33, E37 Clothes: R20, R27, R46, R59, G20, YG91, YG93, G99, BG0000, BG000, BG11, BG72, BG75, BG78 Mug: C9, C5, C3, C1 Hot Chocolate: E25, E50

Have you visited the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Challenge Blog today to check out the amazing distressed projects by the rest of the lovely Krafty Girls and our November Krafty Guests?? Make sure to take note of the stamp that Tara used on her card this week, because that's the stamp you could win if you play along with our challenge...but only if you make sure to use a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp on your submission! In need of some new Kraftin' Kimmie rubber? Well then, head on over to the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Online Store to do some Krafty shopping!

Have a wonderful Saturday friends!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps: "Willard" and coordinating sentiment "Warm Wishes"

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, My Mind's Eye

Ink: Memento, Copics, Bundled Sage Distress Ink

Embellishments: Dollar store pearls, Stickles

Tools: Spellbinders

Sister Act

Happy Friday folks! We have a brand new challenge over at Wags 'n Whiskers today...Barbara would like to see projects celebrating Sisters or Friendship. I am very happy to be back playing alongside the rest of the WnW Divas this month...October ended up being so busy at our house, that I had to take a few weeks off. I'm hoping November is a little less hectic!

Have you heard that there is a big change to the Wags 'n Whiskers challenges?? You are now welcome to play along using any stamp you wish...all entries will be eligible to win the WnW stamp being offered as a prize! However, if you do chose to use a WnW image on your entry then you will also be eligible to win a bonus digital stamp!!

I had yet to ink up "Rosalie" from the second fairy release. I decided to stamp her twice (after masking the first) to create a little pair of dancing sisters. The design paper is from both Cloud 9 Designs and Basic Grey. The little metal "Girlfriends" tag is from the dollar store, the white ribbon is from Walmart and that gorgeous pink silk ribbon is May Arts Silk Ribbon from Lacey's store Stamp and Create...honestly, if you've never tried working with this ribbon you must purchase some. It is absolutely divine for tying beautiful bows!



The "sisters" were stamped on Neenah smooth paper with Memento Ink and coloured with Copic makers. I was quite generous with the Stardust Stickles on their cute fairy outfits.

Copics: Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, E30, E31, E33, E37, E59/E50, Y21, Y23, Y26, E31, E33, E37 Clothes: RV000, R83, R85, R89, G20, G82, G85 Wings: RV000, R83, G20, Y00, colourless blender

Need a little inspiration? Well, hop on over to the Wags 'n Whiskers Blog to see what the rest of the very talented Divas have created this week! Remember that the weekly prize draw will now include entries featuring any stamp...but there will be a bonus prize offered for those who use a WnW stamp! (You can find Wags 'n Whiskers Stamps HERE.)

Have a wonderful day friends and thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Wags 'n Whiskers "Rosalie"

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, Basic Grey, Cloud 9 Designs

Ink: Memento, Copics

Embellishments: Machine stitching, Stardust Stickles, metal dollar store embellishment, ribbon