Christmas in July over at Lacy Sunshine! Get your cards done early and Think Cool!

 This week, Team A of the Lacy Sunshine Group, is continuing the monthly Theme of "Christmas in July" and I'm loving it!!!  I'm so getting a jump on my Christmas cards this year~

One of the Images you can now find in the Lacy Sunshine Shop is Hollyanna- perfect for me as Holly is one of my all time favorite decorations during the Holidays!  I pictured her in her black velvet fancy pants with a red velvet dress over top.  Her "Wings" are the holly leaves!  This die that I have has gorgeous loops around the square making it perfect for weaving in and out some ribbon.  It looks so pretty with a bow tied at the corner.  I cut her feet at the edges so that they would not get caught in the die cut.  Used a super Holly paper I had in my stash and added a chipboard verse that I accented with resin holly sprigs.  The inside has a stamped Christmas sentiment with Seasonal paper in the background.
So come and join us in our Challenge and feel the rush of the cold breezes in your face-just like Christmas!  That's what I'm telling myself in this terrible Illinois humid heat!

So Long to All our Friends from Seems a Little Sketchy! It's been a great Ride~

                                                 For me..32 Sketches, many papers/designs/copic colored images and countless embellishments later...we are seeing the end of  a great site full of Sketch Ideas for several crafters.  The owner and DT members of Seems a Little Sketchy have decided to close the SALS site down, going the way of many online creative sites.  Who can really say if it's because of today's hectic schedules or just a change in the creative juices of followers.  But, it takes endless hours and devotion for Mari, the owner, to put together the sketches and sponsorships for all of us and you the public to use and at some point, you just have to choose your battles.  To you, all of our devoted followers or even the ones that just use the sketches for their personal use, we thank you for following us and leaving sweet comments behind.  We have loved seeing each and every one of your designs and creations and hope to see you somewhere else on the net!

This week, our final 2 week challenge is sponsored by Stamping Dragon Designs and I'm using the Winter Beauty image.  I've turned the sketch, of course lol, and just love these bumpy, sparkly crystal clear buttons for the accents.   Inside I split the design paper to cover the seam in the ribbon and have used the sentiment from a Doodle Pantry set.
It has been fun and rewarding to belong to this great team and I will miss the friendships I've formed.  We hope that it has been a good ride for you as well.  Please support Mari's other design site called Creative Card Crew.  I'm sure she would love to see you all again at that location!

Cinnamon & Berries are Festive on the December release from Doodle Pantry!

Get ready for the most stunning December Release from Doodle Pantry!  We have great, intense colored images for those cards we all need quickly as well as black & white images for those color enthusiasts.  As usual, Laurie has come up with  a super mixture of spiritual, funny, and traditional sets and I know you will love to use them all!
The set I'm using is called Cinnamon & Berries.  I Love the coloring she's used-all that you see: the mat, paper, paper "ribbon", the sentiment and of course the image are all in the set!  Any set you get from this great site are plentiful in their choices!  I wanted a frosty look so I applied some white flower soft on the berries-love how it turned out!

On the inside, I used some holly paper from my stash and then layered the set's papers and sentiment.
With the start of the new Year, we will begin with some wonderful and exciting things at Doodle Pantry--can't mention much more than that but be sure to check back with us each week!  Hope you will take the time to check on all the great cards that the DT has created for you-we are always hoping to inspire you!
A Special Offer that Laurie is still offering until Dec. 2nd is the SALE 30% off Christmas/Winter products (not bundles or gift certs)!  It's a great time to get all your Christmas images for your cards!!  Check it out!

Turkey Day cards are warming up our hearts at Doodle Pantry!

I love this time of year when the leaves have turned and there's a crisp breeze in the air.  It won't be long before Thanksgiving Day is upon us and we're stuffing all those yummy goodies into our tummys.
It's a perfect time to use some of Doodle Pantry's wonderful images on my Fall cards.  The beauty of the digital images is that you can combine several different elements of several different sets to make a gorgeous creation.  The leaves come from the set called "Eat More Ham" and the Craft Star is from the set "Autumn Star" (Laurie from DP has several of these 'Star' sets).  Of course the digital paper, mat, sentiments, and the "ribbons" are all from Doodle Pantry!  A One-Stop Shop for sure!  I used some fall cardstock stickers with leaves on the inside accent over some Fall leaf papers from Paper Studio.  Be sure to stop by and let your fingers do your shopping!

Squiggle Fly is going Dotty--I'm thinking Snow!

This week at Squigglefly, Rhonda's Rowdy Rascals  are asking that we use Polka Dots on our creations and the winning prize is a free digital from our Vast library of images from their talented artists.  What a great opportunity!!   The image that I'm using this week is Christmas Baby Reindeer by Fawn Palmer.  Now this image holds a special place in my heart because it was the image that I used when I actually got published in a magazine!  It was so exciting!!  I also layered a sentiment from the Have a Merry Christmas Set by our own Charlene Mitchell, Design Team Member.  I'm just getting comfortable with that process and plan to use her phrases a lot more!
Now, I know I'm not showing a lot of Dots/Snow but I didn't want to detract too much from the featured image on the card.  Guess it could be pointed out that there are Burgundy Stickles polkadots/berries on the wreath around the neck~ Alright that might be stretching it a little bit!  Hope you get inspired to get started on your cards soon!!  It's so amazing how quickly this gets the jump on us all!