WIN YUMMY STUFF!

it's not over yet, but it's feeling pretty good already. these three-day workweeks stink! ;)

now then... to get you ready for the weekend, and the END OF THE MONTH, i have a couple of exciting things to share.

first, our final challenge for october is up at Design Dollies - this is your chance to combine all three challenges for this week and be entered for all three category prizes! here's my artsy-Dollie, Kristy's final october sketch:



and i played around with some new goodies, including these yummy cork letters, and UTEE (it was FUN!) - too bad you can't see the awesome gold glimmer mist:





click HERE for this challenge, and be sure to upload to Mr. Linky by sunday at midnight if you're combining challenges! here's the prize for this challenge:




ANNNNNNND, we have a new challenge up at Humble Pie! it's our first sketch challenge, and i had a lot of fun with it! here's the sketch:



and here's my Umbrella Ellie card:

Click Here to check out what the rest of the Bakers have done in the kitchen, and to play along! the prize this week is $10 in Humble Pie bucks to spend on your favourite Humble Pie stamps from The Town Scrapper! :) good luck!

i will be announcing the winner of our Design Dollies colour challenges on monday, plus showing you the november prize, AND i may have a little something else up my sleeve, too!

POLL CANCELLED, but how awesome is Heidi?

not me, but my groovy creative friend, Heidi, has been working REALLY hard to land herself a spot on the Torendi design team. her stuff is amazing, and i think she's outdone herself with this card:







PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, i implore you! go on over to Heidi's blog for the rundown, or take my word for it and run on over to Torendi's blog to cast your vote, American Idol style! i think she's a SHOE-IN with this balloon card... the glitter (every stripe lovingly sprinkled and done by hand!), the little woven basket, the airplane... is it not STUNNING?!

i'd love to see her win this final round, and the top two vote-winners will earn their spots on the design team! please help!

one cute card, bunch o'challenges! (and an ATC)

another attempt at combining challenges over here! not something i tend to do very often, so i had a little extra fun playing...

here's the list of challenges:

La-La Land Crafts - their challenge is RIBBON (and i seldom make a card without it these days!)
Allsorts Challenge wants to see "furry friends"... i LOVE this little stamp and the poor kitty that Leah is holding (yes, this stamp is called LEAH!)
Passion For Promarkers wants ANIMALS!
Simon Says Challenge is looking for a Get Well card.
Practical Scrappers calls for PUNCHES - that's where my circles come in.
Daring Cardmakers - their challenge this week is "These are a Few of my Favourite Things"... to use at least 5 of your faves in a project, or to throw down 10 and thereby earn their "gold star award"... hee hee. i definitely have 10 faves in here!
1 - image coloured with watercolour pencils
2 - Creative Memories corner rounder (thank you, Adina-Dollie!)
3 - ORANGE!
4 - Basic Grey - the cut out circles are from the Lime Rickey collection. i have a slight obsesssion for BG paper. *drool*
5 - buttons - they've become something of an obsession
6 - big brads - they just make the flowers look BOLDER, and i'm all about bold!
7 - Cosmo Cricket paper - this is from the new Nutmeg mini-deck, and it's SO yummy!
8 - clouds - i seek out papers that have cloud patterns on them, because i think i'm a little in love. it may be unhealthy.
9 - the tag - i keep buying and buying tags, and while i LOVE using them, i can't possibly use them up quickly enough to justify buying more, but somehow, i NEED more. you all understand.
10 - yummy gingham ribbon. even better that it's orange! :D

okay, so here's the card...



and here's a little ATC i did with the Tilda and Friends ATC Challenge in mind, because this is their final challenge before they close up shop. it's a shame, because i really like their blog! anywho, the challenge is to use fall colours, which is a happy little combination for me...



and i am WIPED OUT. spent the evening chez Mom and Papa T, watching the Phillies kick the butts of the Yankees. i enjoyed the game more than i thought i would! go Phils!

oh, and have you voted for Heidi yet? scroll up to my top post, as i've made it sticky until the Torendi competition is OVER and they've asked her to join their design team. PLEASE VOTE! :)

Heidi also has some delish BLOG CANDY up for grabs - go visit her to win this and MORE:

(ends Nov. 30!)

Thanks, Sparky! :)

my lovely friend Kim - fellow Baker at Humble Pie Stamps and fellow Maven at Cafe Mojo, left a little present for me on her blog today:



SO sweet! i just love this girl - she's so supportive and encouraging to her bloggy friends, and she is SUPER creative and does some wonderful work herself! thank you so much for the award, dollface! so i'm supposed to send the award to 5 people, link 'em all up, and answer the following questions in just ONE WORD.... here goes.

1. Where is your cell phone? here
2. Your hair? DIRE!
3. Your mother? dunno
4. Your father? provider
5. Your favorite food? indian!
6. Your dream last night? flooring
7. Your favorite drink? BOBA!
8. Your dream/goal? publication
9. What room are you in? "office"
10. Your hobby? craftin'!
11. Your fear? abandonment
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? HOUSE
13. Where were you last night? airport :(
14. Something that you aren't? patient
15. Muffins? coffee
16. Wish list item? WORKSPACE
17. Where did you grow up? niagara
18. Last thing you did? typed
19. What are you wearing? camo
20. Your TV? no
21. Your Pets? MUCHKA!
22. Friends? distant
23. Your life? ever-changing
24. Your mood? migrainey
25. Missing Someone? usually
26. vehicle? Talullah
27. Something your not wearing? makeup
28. Your favorite store? Jo-Ann
29. Your favorite color? ORANGE
30. When was the last time you laughed? two
31. Last time you cried? funeral
32. Your best friend? Smudgy
33. One place that I go to over and over? bathroom. :)
34. Facebook? EW.
35. Favorite place to eat? Panera! <3

soooooo... 5 people on whom i would like to bestow this little award thingy:

Juls, whose fussycutting rivals mine, and who combines some of the most unusual and lovely colours;
Lauren, whom i discovered only recently, but to whose blog i have been turning for unlimited inspiration;
Bree, who has some of the most AMAZING ideas and has a button stash TO DIE FOR;
my Holmes/Kristy-Dollie, who is afraid of NOTHING and can make any unthinkable, worthless item look like a million bucks;
and my Adina-Dollie, whose love for all things vintage is insane, and endearing, and who still lives too far away, even though it only takes 2 hours to get to her house.

happy hump day, folks! back to work for me... but i'll have stuff to share tomorrow!

this week's Cafe Mojo challenge!

oh, i am NOT looking forward to working in 10 hours, but it's gotta be done. i'm going to be inundated with quotes and follow-ups and calls and emails, but it was totally worth it.

here's another card i made last week for our newest Cafe Mojo challenge, to use the colours PURPLE, ORANGE and GREEN! i think i did a happy little cabbage patch when i saw that was the DT's task...



clean and simple, but probably one of my faves to date. come and play along - we have GREAT secret prizes! :D (upload by saturday, november 7th!)

and right now, my sweet english friend is on a plane back home, and i'm missing her very much. she stamped to her heart's content before we left for the airport, and i bought a ton of brown paper so i can cut some flourishes for her with my Cuttlebug, so i'm already excited about sending her a little care package.

returning soon, i promise!

just saying hi and posting a few challengy things while i have some spare time... will be driving my english bird to the Newark airport this afternoon, but not before we get her some fabulous stamped images ready to go. i'm going to pick her up in a little bit, but first, some stuff that's going on....

our new Humble Pie challenge is posted, and it's a FUN ONE! the task is to create something with a halloween theme that is NOT a card. (you do not have to use Humble Pie stamps for this!) i made a lantern sleeve using Ellie:





pop over HERE to play along! there is so much that can be done for halloween, and our Bakers have used some yummy recipes!

we also have two new features on the Humble Pie Blog; Tutorials, and Tips and Tricks from the kitchen... check us out for time and money-saving ideas!

and we are into our fourth week of challenges at Design Dollies!! so far we've loved the response you've all given us, and the projects submitted have been wonderful! this week, we'll be wrapping up and getting ready for new challenges and a new prize pack in each category for November. but FIRST... the challenges that are going on RIGHT NOW...

Kristy posted another yummy sketch challenge last Thursday:



my take on this:





(how much can a person love ball trim?)

you have until this WEDNESDAY NIGHT (midnight EST) to upload your entry for this sketch (the deadline is past for combining all three of last week's challenges).

then, yesterday we posted our new colour challenge, MONOCHROMATIC BROWNS. any project, but you must use mono browns as your predominant colours.

here's my card:





(don't you just LOVE that sentiment?!)

and then our last October ELEMENTS challenge from the Adina Dollie... STRIPES! any theme, any colours, but STRIPES must be VERY visible throughout. i chose a Bella for the occasion:



and finally - sorry for the photo-heavy content in this one, folks, i have some catching up to do! - a card i made for Caardvarks' new challenge, "a tall order"...





there, i think that wraps it all up for now! i'm sure there are some things i'm forgetting, but my time is limited until later tonight, then back to our regularly scheduled programming starting tomorrow! i'm not looking forward to getting back to work, but i have missed my bloggy friends! have a great day, folks! :)

SUPAH QUICK!

posting these before i head into town with my english penpal... we had a great time down at the shore and i did a TON of crafting!

challenges for the sketch at CardPatterns, SPCC (colours), Use Your Stash (stripes, scallops, and hand journalling), and something else... oh poo, i wrote it down but my stuff's still all packed up in the car. i'll add that one in later.



and this one for my friend Janet's "Corrosive Creations", following a sketch:



GOTTA GO!! :)

my first Fhiona card for Your Next Stamp!

woot! finally got to play with Windswept Fhiona, from Your Next Stamp, and i just love her! she stamps crisp and pretty, and she just reminds me so much of the Powerpuff Girls. :)

this card is for my first Your Next Stamp Challenge, which, incidentally, is their first challenge as well! i had originally tried to use a CPS sketch, but it looks like i missed the deadline for that. oh well. i still love this Fhiona and know just who's going to be getting her in the mail. :)



the challenge is PINK AND YELLOW. well she's the only stamp i have of theirs so far, so i tried to make this little AUTUMN girl look as pink and yellowy as possible, so i had to throw in some brown, too.

okay! off to the inlaws' house, but i'll be back tomorrow with my new Design Dollies colour challenge! stop by and say hi! :D

NEW HUMBLE PIE CHALLENGE and some lucky winners!

yay, we made it to friday! anyone else out there in the blogosphere have a particularly rough week at their jobs? it's been a big struggle over here, with lots of deadlines, and customers looking for things they needed LAST MONTH, and plenty of phone tag. what's more, i'm trying to wrap up a ton of loose ends today and tomorrow, because i am ON VACATION next week! in fact, i'll be heading down to my inlaws' shorehouse with my wonderful penpal from England, and we'll be doing little more than making cards for 4 days straight. sound like bliss? yeah, i certainly think so! :)

anyway... hopefully you'll find some things to keep you occupied. ;) new challenges are up at both Humble Pie Stamps and Design Dollies, with yummy prizes to be won for all of 'em! oh, and if you're curious, you don't have to use Humble Pie stamps/images to play along with our challenges, but you could certainly win some!

take this lovely FLOWER MAGGIE, for example:





i made this card for our NEW CHALLENGE at Humble Pie Stamps, which is to bring out the BUTTONS AND BLING! oh, this was an easy one for me, as i am a BIG fan of both! come over and check out all the yummy samples from our Bakers, who have been very hard at work in the Humble Pie kitchen, and join us! :)

Design Dollies new SKETCH challenge is up!

and today is the very last day to enter for our yummy BLOG CANDY! get your answers in and be sure to link us up for your chance to win!

so today brings you the third challenge of the week at Design Dollies, which means you now have a chance to combine any or all of this week's challenges before SUNDAY at midnight EST. we've noticed many of you doing the all-in-one, which is fantastic! just link your projects up to EACH of the challenge posts and you might walk away with THREE different prizes for the month!

okay, so today's Sketch challenge day, and our supremely talented artist Dollie, HOLMES, aka Kristy, has given us another awesome sketch to play with.

here she be:



i flipped it on its side to play, and here's my take on it...



find this sketch challenge here and JOIN US! :)

there's a pawty goin' on right here....

well not really, but i've just finished eating a YUMMY bowl of habanero popcorn and now i'm enjoying some chocolate chai tea, while they hack away at a tree outside my front window.

i've been PRODUCTIVE, though!

see this?



it's for my sister-in-law, for her 38th birthday in april! talk about getting a head start, right? well we have an ongoing joke that she and i are both the same age - stuck forever at 29. and LOVING IT! :)

anywho, it's for SPCC (for their finally friday challenge to use FLOWERS!), and at the new Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps challenge blog, calling for a BIRTHDAY CARD! now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

OH, but make SURE you check out the Design Dollies, because we're giving away candy, and we have two of our three challenges posted for the week!

ANNNNNND, come and visit us at Humble Pie Stamps, because we have some new faces in the kitchen, and you still have time to play along for our SCALLOPS challenge! :)

fishnet stockings?

nooooo.... little christmas stocking tags, of course.

i wanted to post a picture in case anyone's looking for some tag ideas this year - these would have been INFINITELY easier were i the owner of a cricut or at least a stocking die for my cuttlebug, but, alas, when i have an idea, i have to go with it. so i hand cut these little puppies - there are red stockings in front and off-white in back so they're easier to write on - i attached them with eyelets and strung the bows and string through so they can be hung or stuck around a bigger bow. the little bows were from the dollar store - i think they're trimmings for those foot-high trees, but i thought they might be cute for cardmaking - so i bought several packs a couple of years ago (and have only used them up now). :)

that's what i do. i see something that i think might work, i buy it (often in bulk), then i stash it away, to be forgotten until it's time to organize/purge.

anywho, this fits the challenge this week for La-La Land Crafts, which is to do something related to christmas...



(TOTALLY horrid picture - sorry about that! i'd take another with the morning sun shining in, but i already have them packed up and ready to mail!)

now i have about six other things to TRY to accomplish today, not including a ton of phone calls! guess i shall get started. happy hump day, blogland dwellers!

so you think you can DOODLE?

yeah, so i'm trying to break into unfamiliar territory, and i am doing this art journal, full of things i love, things i hate, things that inspire me, things that scare me, etc...

in the Cafe Mom group for which i'm an administrator, we have a slew of things going on, and one of them is a doodling challenge. most of the people in the group are die-hard scrapbookers, and well, being a lowly cardmaker, i struggle to jump into these fierce waters... i scoured our huge stash of magazines to find something that might inspire me, and i came across a simple writeup for SAFFRON. mmm, saffron.

so i played.







i LOVE my "art journal" and it's proven therapeutic (albeit messy!) in so many ways already. a big thank you to my lovely friend (and fellow Baker) Kim, who sent me another, almost IDENTICAL journal, because she totally gets what i'm doing! this one will surely fill up quickly, so my new one will come in very handy.

show us your MOJO! new Cafe Mojo challenge!

okay, gang... time for another Cafe Mojo challenge! you have until Saturday, October 24th to show us your project that represents or celebrates a MOMENTOUS OCCASION!

check out what the Mavens have done HERE, and play along!

here's my contribution, to commemorate a friend who just got a new job, after being a stay-at-home-mom for quite a long time! WOOT! so very excited for her!





so much going on right now, i can barely catch my breath! but believe me, it's all the GOOD kind of stress! i am soaring!

a stitch in time... takes a lot of time!

we have a new challenge up for you at Design Dollies! the first two challenges of the week are up, so you are welcome to combine these two, or wait until thursday to throw all THREE together and have a shot at EACH of the prize packages offered for october! just remember to add your link to our dear friend, Mr. Linky, for EACH of the challenges.

and remember our BLOG CANDY up for grabs - you have until this THURSDAY at MIDNIGHT to play along.... some of you have been kind enough to follow and put our blinkies up on your page, which is WONDERFUL! but there's a second part to winning the candy; a little QUIZ so you can get to know each of the Dollies a little better... sharpen your pencils!

okay, so your ELEMENTS challenge this week, hosted by my sweet Adina Dollie, is HAND STITCHING! show us what you can do with a needle and thread (or yarn, or horse hair, or tinsel, whatever!)... this is what i did:





so whaddya think? ready to do some hand stitchin'? yeah, i wasn't either, but i'm pretty happy with the result. (for the record, i used crocheting yarn, as opposed to floss or thread, and it was MUCH easier to work with!)

sunshine and lollipops and a new challenge!

first of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to two very lovely, very creative and talented ladies, Kristy and Diana!

i hope you girls have a fantastic day! have a couple of slices of cake for me, 'kay? :)

now then. Design Dollies has another colour challenge for you! we're thrilled to see people playing along - some doing the individual challenges and others combining the three - and we hope you'll continue to join us!

you wanna win this prize?



here's your combo:


(that's peach and burgundy, in case your monitor tells you otherwise!)

you can do this challenge anytime before next sunday - SOME people are choosing to wait until we've revealed all three challenges for the week, because THEN they get a chance at all three prizes (one for each challenge category). if you're brave enough, go for it! but if you want a head start, show me whatcha got!

here's what i did (thank you to my Dollie, ADINA, for the Gorjuss Girl stamped image!):



feeling inspired? Come play with the Dollies!

congrats Kim! and our new Humble Pie challenge!

our first challenge winner at Humble Pie Stamps is my lovely friend Kim! congrats, dollface! hope you enjoy the stamp and the kit! i got my first Design Team kit in the mail on wednesday, and the quality of the stamps is FANTASTIC!

our new challenge is up today, so you have until next friday at midnight EST to submit your project... the theme is SCALLOPS! and the prize is $10 in Maggie Money to spend at The Town Scrapper! :) let's see how many people want to play along...

here's the card i made, using Umbrella Ellie (i LOVE her):





come and play along! egads, there's a lot going on for me right now. my best friend from canada is visiting, so we're going record store shopping today, and yummy food afterwards, and probably some Guitar Hero (Rocks the '80s)... have a great weekend everybody! :)

i'm feelin' ambitious!

so i manage to combine a slew of challenges into one card - i think i've tried two or three at a time, but this one combines SIX different challenges!

i used a fabulous Flower Maggie stamp from The Town Scrapper and played with some random bits and bobs i had lying around. here's what i came up with this aft:



first, i wanted to do another of the World Card Making Day colour combos at SPCC, so these were the colours:


and i love the Mojo Mondays sketches, so i used this one:


then i played along with:
Pollycraft's 5 "S" Words challenge - i used spots and sparkle
Cute Card Thursday's challenge to use CHARMS
Daring Cardmakers challenge to use PURPLE as the predominant colour
Pile It On's challenge was 3-dimensional (i popped Maggie up and my charm sticks out)

whew!

that is going to wrap it up for lil' ol' me today. i have some cleaning to do, and a best friend's visit for which to prepare! up to the Princeton Record Exchange tomorrow, and then a movie (ZOMBIELAND - woot!), and then he and i will be up late making cards. :)

before you go hopping off to someone else's blog though, why not take a gander at the Humble Pie challenge for this week! it ends tonight at midnight, so you still have a few hours to play! we only have a couple of submissions so far, so we'd love to see you lift one of the Bakers' cards! if you're feeling REALLY motivated, put together a little blogume (!!!) for our Design Team call! we need more Bakers in the Humble Pie kitchen! :)

Pie and Dollies and candy all around!

sounds like a little girl's dream, doesn't it?! :)

well i wanted to remind everyone that our first Humble Pie challenge is underway, and so far we have ONE participant! she's submitted a great card, but this also means that the odds are in her favour of winning - know what i mean, vern? we'd love to see you play! all you have to do is scraplift any of of our Bakers' cards and you can win this:



and this brand spankin' new Heather Hambleton stamp:



ANNNNND, we're looking for some talented crafty folks to join our Design Team, the BAKERS! here are the details for those interested in joining a fab team and showing off what you can do with Humble Pie Stamps! :)

and because i'm a serious busybody, i should let you know of the excitement we've got going on at Design Dollies! we kicked things off on monday with our colours challenge (royal blue, black and white), then tuesday we gave you our elements challenge (BLING!), and today we bring you a sketch challenge from our fab in-house artist, Holmes - i mean KRISTY! here's this week's sketch:



here's my take on the sketch:



SO... come over and play with your favourite Dollies! you can even choose to combine any or all of this week's challenges by SUNDAY AT MIDNIGHT EST (just make sure you follow the rules for all of them!) for a shot at EACH of the three prize packs we're giving away! yeah, nifty. we think so, too.

OH, and if that's not enough, we have yummy BLOG CANDY to be given away... with only a few people having given us the answers to our quiz questions! you have until next Thursday, October 15th at midnight EST to submit your answers! :)