A Final Farewell to Southern Girls Challenge-Thanks for the memories

Several years ago, I was thrilled to be on the Southern Girls Design Team.  They were based in New Zealand and Australia and mostly had teamies from those countries.  So, imagine my surprise when I was asked to join them!  And it was a great friendship and experience for me.
I was saddened to hear recently that they will be calling an end to the group now, years later, but are having a Great Get-together for one last time with as many DT members as they can locate.  We were all asked to submit one of our favorite projects for SGC and this one, using an image called Emerald Fairies, was my submission. 

I had fun putting her on a triple step card base!  It's amazing to see how I've grown artistically since that time and it was from DT's taking a chance on me and letting me get more and more experience with them that made that happen.

So Lou and Tracey, I wish you both all the best going forward.  I'm sure no matter what you will be doing, it will be a success and will fill you both with Blessings.  Thank you again for believing in a gal from "Southern" Illinois long ago and for giving me a chance!  You were the Best and I wish you well.

Emerald Fairies and Artful Inkings are debuting as a Sponsors at Southern Girls Challenge! Welcome!

 This great new sponsor for SGC is named Emerald Fairies and they have so many cute pixies it just puts a smile on your face to work with them!  The one that I'm using is called "Jewel" and she fits right into the theme at Southern Girls Challenge this time--Stripes!
I'm using an Outer Stair Step Card blank from The Paper Cut in a very springlike color, Sour Apple.  With this being pre-scored, it takes all the measurement and folding hassles out of your hands!  Easy, Peasy!  On the back level, I used a fence die cut and a TH grass dc and then multicolored small prima flowers to create an outdoor scene.  The design paper I used was 2 sided so I used both as accent papers.  The digital image was colored in copics and then I used diamond Stickles on the wings for some shimmer.  I used my computer to create the sentiment and then mounted it on some complimentary green cardstock.  Here at Southern Girls, we have a new challenge every 3 weeks with different, awesome sponsors.  Come and place your entries and join in the fun!

And additional card was needed so I quickly chose a cute image with a guitar, as my husband sells guitars in our shop in his spare time!  This image was very easy to color and shade so that made me happy!  I basically used some masculine striped paper and musical paper from my stash...sad but I could probably furnish a shop with my paper addiction.  I made some loops from a roll of satin ribbon and added them to the matted image.  Stamped with a Studio G "Big Hugs" stamp on the front and Hero Arts stamp with happy Birthday image.  Think I've got several uses for this card!
 

Make It Crafty joins Southern Girls Challenge with Banners & Pennants!

 Banners & Pennants Challenge Going on NOW!

We are being sponsored this week at Southern Girls Challenge by the great Make It Crafty Group~They have wonderful digi's and Rubber Stamps and such a variety it was fun browsing through all their goodies!  I never have enough boy cards and when I saw this one, It looks like our grandson playing with his remote control car that we got him for Christmas!  this image is called Racing Rick and was such fun!  I was a bit sorry that the depth of the browns in the hair seemed to get washed out in the photo of the card-I must do better with my lighting! 
The neat thing about this image from their store is that you got individual png images as well as the groups together!  This directional paper in primary colors was in my "boy" stash and it has a coordinating connected circles paper that I used in the inside of the card, with a bed mat/stamped with a Happy Birthday sentiment.  I trimmed out the arrows from the front, lined them up in pennant style, glued them and then used my white jelly roll pen to create the "stitches" to join the pennants.  A circle on the front to fill a blank space and threaded circle rounds out the card.  Hope you like and will come back to visit me sometime.  At SGC, we have 3 week Challenges so you have plenty of time to get an entry in to win some images!!

Ladybug Crafts Ink-a NEW sponsor for Southern Girls Challenge!

Welcome to our very first challenge of 2014 here at Southern Girls Challenge! :)  Welcome back to our regulars and also any newbies that might be joining us for the first time.  Christmas has flown by and now it is all about fresh starts and new beginnings so for our challenge for this brand spanking New Year we want to see a celebration of new things, New Baby, Newly Weds, new pressies or just using new stash.

How "FUNNY" that my NEW thing is a NEW COLD!!!!  Should have been expecting it what with the sub-zero weather for the last 2 weeks and then it was 52 (1) day this week!  Yikes-Everyone has colds!!! So this image called Unwell Nikki that I got from our Newest Sponsor, Ladybug Crafts Ink, is PERFECT!!  In keeping with the angled bed she used in order to get the perspective on the bed, I decided to angle the layout also.  Since she is so "modern", I used some glossy, glittered embossed geometric paper as the base. A simple Get Well stamp, some puffy satin floral flower trim and some complimentary buttons finish the card.  I'm always needing get well cards so what a great opportunity.  Thanks for looking and come join us for the next 2 weeks showing what's NEW for YOU in 2014 and you too could be a winner of some digis from our 2 sponsors!! 

Texture is the Featured Style at Southern Girls Challenge~

 This new Folder for me is by Darcie and has so many different shaped snowflakes!  It's a perfect design for the 2-week contest at Southern Girls Challenge.  Nice deep embossing and it picks up the shimmer from the stunning cardstock by The Paper Cut called Vista "Stardream" Metallic.  The white branches were punchies given to me by a friend --I've been waiting for winter cards to use the white ones!

Southern Girls Challenge this week~~Make Believe

 Well, this might be stretching the challenge this week BUT given the gorgeous image from the Etsy Store called Rhoda Design Studio I had to come up with something that fit the bill!

So on this week's challenge at SGC, I am Making Believe that the cool, crisp breezes of FALL are on their way to give us a break from the oppressive heat we are having in Illinois!!!  How's that for a Stretch!  What is even more hilarious is that several of the DT live in New Zealand, Australia, and surrounding areas so when we're in Summertime, they are getting the reverse weather more or less and would probably be thrilled to be a little warmer.

I tried a different card style than I usually make but I'm loving the curved front effect!  This image from Rhoda's Etsy store is called Windy Day Margo and  was such fun to color up with my copics.  She looks Sassy!  The Leaf DP I used on the front is shiny embossed on each leaf-I just loved it when I purchased it! There is a twisted knot of Rust Twill that has Autumn Splendor printed on it and some branch punchies in browns stuck down into the knot.  I have a cream panel in the inside that is stamped with "Thank You".  Could even be as a Hostess card if you were invited to Thanksgiving Dinner somewhere

The challenges at Southern Girls Challenge are every 2 weeks and we get tons of International and Stateside entries.  There are always great prizes and sponsors and the winners are ALL HAND PICKED by the DT--No Random number choices here-I think that makes it even more special, don't you?  We'll hopefully see you there soon!
Thanks for stopping by!

Challenge 75 at Southern Girls Challenge-Things that start with "F" !!!!--Great Sponsors

Marianne Designs and Iva Nova Chest are the two sponsors this week on Southern Girls Challenge and we are SO Glad to have them here!  We were able to use any image to make our "F" word creation and I chose to use a Freebie over at Squigglefly, where I'm a DT member.  The cutie image is called "Fairy Fun" by Fawn Palmer and she's sitting in a Field of Flowers with 2 Fairies holding her braids! The sentiment is also from Squigglefly, created by a fellow DT member, Charlene Mitchell-you can use it in so many ways!

I used a copics and Stickles on the design, loopy paper lace, embossed green card stock and this wild variegated wide rick rack.

Come play with us for the next 2 weeks so you can have a chance to win some fabulous prizes from our sponsors! I think I put enough "F's" for everyone!

Southern Girls Has Announced their New Design Teams

It's almost been a year since The Southern Girls have had an Open DT Call so they felt it was time to see some new styles, methods and designs.  They had an overwhelming International participation and so many entries to choose from.  They are finally announcing the Gals that will make up the 2 alternating teams that every two weeks demonstrate unique ideas as hopefully some inspiration for their followers. 

Thankfully, I was one of the lucky Gals and will be staying on Team Lou for another Term.  I'm SO happy to be here representing such a great group.  We're friends as well as Scrapping Buds and have loads of fun while doing it.  Our Sponsors are nationally known, are generous to us, and offer up wonder images for us to use to showcase their sites.  We can't thank them enough!

If creating for such a great organization appeals to you, watch for the next DT call in 6 months and maybe you will will be a Southern Girl also!  Hope you become a follower of my Blog and catch all the news in all my DT groups of what's happening in the Scrapping World!  Thanks for visiting!

No Spooled Items Challenge at Southern Girls Challenge!

At first I panicked at the thought of not using Ribbon, or Baker's Twine, or other such "Spooled Items" on my card entry at Southern Girls Challenge.  These are some of my favorite Embellishments but then I got inspired to use some different size flower punches, buttons as my accents!  
In keeping with the July Patriotic theme, I used a vintage looking flag background.  The deep red mat behind the sweet Image has all kinds of patriotic sayings on it.  I roughed up the edges of the mat with a new toy for me-a Tim Holtz distressing tool. The Image I used this time was "Mommy's Little Helper" from D'arcys Diaries.  She has the most amazing digis!
The Sponsors for this 2 Week challenge are The Scrapbook Store, Papervine, and MARIANNE DESIGN.  They have some Wonderful prizes in store for the winner so be sure to join us in the fun!  We'll see you there!  Carolyn

Inky Impressions sponsors the Southern Girls Challenge~Punches or Die cuts!

One would think that a simple option on a challenge like "use a die cut or PUNCH in your creation" would make it very simple for me..NOT, a case of too many choices and options!!!  At Southern Girls Challenge, come join us for our 2 week challenge and get a chance to win some wonderful prizes!
Our sponsor this week is Inky Impressions and I just love this digital stamp called Birthday Lili.  The image is very detailed and with very clean lines so inking it up was a lot of fun!  They have a lot of fun options in their store so check it out!
I finally opted to use some cardstock punches I bought WAY back when I first got started in Scrapbooking on my card and "attached" them to her hand with embroidery floss.  For a little girly feel to the design, I used a Martha Stewart lacy Scalloped edger along the butterflies.  The stamp and papers are from my scraping stash.
We hope you decide to join us in the challenge~you can use any image and layout, just follow the theme!  See you there~Carolyn

A Day for Daisies is sponsoring "Going Dotty" at Southern Girls Challenge

Southern Girls Challenge is offering their next 2 weeks challenge with the help of Images from A Day for Daisies!   If you've never been to their great site You've missed out on some fantastic digis!  The one I chose to use was "H is for Happy Birthday" and I love the whimsical characters surrounding the letter H.  I can just see this being used on SEVERAL Birthday cards in the future!

The THEME for this challenge is "Going Dotty" so bring out all your papers with dots, spots, and combinations of the circle theme and join us!  Besides the image, the thing I liked the most about this card was the Template that I pinned from Pinterest for the paper bow--I tried it for the first time on this card and I just love the look of it!  The great thing is that the paper bow will compress down in order to mail it and stay relatively fluffy when opened by the lucky recipient!

Thanks for Looking and come and play with us! Carolyn  

BUTTON UP-the newest challenge from Southern Girls! What Fun!

Well it's time for another challenge with Southern Girls!  this week we would love to see buttons, badges or flair on everyone's projects.  Remember with this great group, any type of papercraft is welcome-they love it all!
We are being sponsored by Delicious Doodles and the winner gets 4 images of their choice!  They're So generous!
I'm using the image Hydrangea and Butterfly and I love all the shading on the flower and butterfly-makes it so easy to give depth to your coloring! Now I could've used the inside of the frame for stamping a sentiment for my card but I chose to open it up to highlight a wonderful thought from the Bible.  There is Stickles on both the butterfly and Hydrangea and then I used several buttons to carry out our theme for this challenge.

Children Love Easter Egg Hunting at Southern Girls Challenge

It's almost time for Easter and here at Southern Girls Challenge, we're going to try to see it through the eyes of children!  I used this adorable child dressed up in a bunny leotard and bunny ear headdress digital image to "Hop on Down the Bunny Trail"-she's mounted with foam dots.  The background paper reminds me of the designs we would paint on the eggs!  I used some cardstock embellishments that came on a 12 x 12 page, complete with glittery bling-the top banner says Egg Painting Zone.  I inserted 2 little ATC style accents with Easter themes and then "Grounded" the card with a purple satin egg ribbon.

Southern Girls Challenge is playing in the Ocean!

Well...at least for me that is!  This bi-monthly challenge finds me using an image from Delicious Doodles called "Seahorses". I've had such fun blinging it up!  The theme of SGC this time is to use a banner or pennant- oh how I wish I had one of those neat pennant dies to make it all look so neat~since I don't I improvised and used some rough twine and put glittery starfish on it and made my own banner!  With some ocean wave paper in the background, I added some cheesecloth to look like netting, and Liquid White Opal Pearls to look like bubbles and blue rhinestones for the seahorse's eyes.  In the bottom corner, I clustered a group of buttons and attached 2 pewter charms of a seahorse and a scalloped clamshell with some embroidery floss.  This will make a great "wishing you well" card for anyone!  Thanks for looking and come back soon!

Saturated Canary is Sponsoring Us on Southern Girls Challenge

Welcome to my Blog and SGC for our second challenge of 2013.  This time around we were to use Kraft Cardstock on our projects.  Southern Girls Challenge has 2 wonderful  sponsors this time around. Krista kindly gave the DT an image each to use on our projects :)  So you can check out my use of the "Nikki" image and then pop over to the Saturated Canary shop and check out loads more.  

On my card, I wanted to make it look like snowflakes so I used a stitch on my sewing machine around the edge of the lime green mat.  Mounted the image on top of a deep purple dp with lots of hearts on it.  I threaded a die-namics die punch-Love You- through a wide sheer white organza ribbon.  I love having these already punched in several colors of cardstock so that I can use them on a whim!  I had a beautiful purple and green swirled butterfly cardstock punch that I added as an accent.


There will be an International winner that will get a complete 7 Dots Studio Collection and then there's an Australian/New Zealand winner picked that will get 2 Saturated Canary images of their choice.  Our challenges at SGC run for two weeks so you have lots of time to join us in the fun!  Challenges are open to ALL PAPERCRAFTERS!  As long as your entry fits the challenge criteria YOU ARE IN!  The idea is to have fun and play along, the bonus is the prizes.  Prize winners are chosen by Random.Org and the top 3 or 5 are chosen by the DT.  Come on Get Krafty!!

Southern Girls Challenge~Endless Summer #59

At Southern Girls Challenge this month, we were given the challenge of seeing summer colors, themes, images etc, just anything that conveys Summer :) You might think this is strange, as did I being from Illinois and we're bracing for some good ole' winter/Christmas weather (supposed to have snow for Christmas!) But then I remembered that the Leaders are from Australia and New Zealand etc. so their seasons are different from ours!  I know-this will make us feel warmer!

This really neat digital from Delicious Doodles is called "In the Harbor" and "Beachy" colors are some of my favorite to work with! I wanted it to PoP off of the blue weathered wood paper so I double mounted and offset the image so that I could put a panel of of "aged" looking fish. Rub-on sentiment from a friend, red/white baker's twine with a silver anchor tied onto it rounds out the card.  Inside I used some more weathered wood and some starfish paper.along with a stamped sentiment from a friend. Hope you like it enough to leave me some love~I really appreciate your comments.

Think Christmas with the Southern Girls Challenge

Time for another challenge here at Southern Girls, YAY!  This fortnight we want to see Christmas Projects.  Yep it is getting way closer to that time of the year and this is a great opportunity to get started on your cards for loved ones.

The Challenge is being sponsored by Delicious Doodles  and she will be awarding 2 prizes: one for gals in Australia/New Zealand, and the other for entries from the rest of the World.  

Her image that I chose to use was Poinsettia Corner.  I attached it to the outside of a card blank and fancy cut it down to highlight the beautiful flower.  The BP is from K & Company-I glazed the berry balls with Diamond Glaze.  The glow from the candles is already glazed and sparkly on the paper.  I accented the beads with Liquid Pearls and I used white Flower Soft for the snow.  There's plenty of room inside the Poinsettia flap for a greeting.  I hope this will entice you to start of YOUR Christmas cards-it means so much more when it's handmade!

Challenge #55-Tie A Ribbon Round It-Southern Girls Challenge

There's A Surprise from Southern Girls Challenge~ME!

That's right- In the middle of September, I was asked to join the group as a Design Team member and was thrilled to accept!  I'm a member of Team Lou and once a month, we create a theme card~This week we want to see ribbons on your projects, well ribbon, bakers twine, twine etc you get the idea, as long as it comes on a spool it is all good :)

Our Awesome sponsors are:

  

This is the card I designed for the Challenge.  I used the Blocks-Hummingbird image from Bugaboo!  isn't it gorgeous?  These flowers almost remind me of the purple asters that you see in the Fall of the year so I put a few Autumn Leaves mixed in with leaves.  The feathers are such a fun accent~I thought the yellow, pink, and deep purple colors gave some dimension to the card and  

really set off the handmade flower that was given to me by a dear friend-thanks Mel! Then, I used a heavy crocheted cotton ribbon to anchor all the elements.

Back to the Nuts & Bolts of the Challenges here 

on SGC:

The Challenges will be posted fortnightly on a Thursday and are open to crafters worldwide.  they close at 12:01 pm on the Tuesday of the second week.  Each week there will be 2 prizes, One for Australian/New Zealand entries and another for entrants  from the rest of the world.  Only 1 entry per person.  The idea is to have fun and play along, the bonus is the prizes!  Prize winners are chosen by Random.Org and the top 5 are chosen by the Design Team.

I would love to have you join us and see all the great creations-there are TONS of people playing and it's very interesting to see the creations from all over the world!  Thanks for looking and come back and visit real soon!

Carolyn