PIO Plus

This is gonna be a long post, just because I feel as I start writing this that I think I might have a lot to say! LOL

First, I realized I totally forgot to post my Pile It On! post yesterday, so I am going to start there and just add to it.

So, we have a wonderful sponsor this week at Pile It On! SOFTPENCIL!! This is the second time they have sponsored us and they really have the most ADORABLE images!! See my little bat? That's my SoftPencil image.

Now, if you've been a reader for a while, you know I have gone from paper to pretty much entirely digital. This week's Pile It On! challenge is to do something 3-D. Now our three dimensional could merely mean a button, pop dots - anything that gives your project some dimension! So, me being me, I made an actual 3-D Project - in both the project, as well as the tag....take a peek:

This really is a super simple project. I made the tag only....the rest is a clear plastic cup (yup - those cheapie drinking cups you buy and throw away for a party) and the treat sacks. I bought these because they were "classic" black - although those are skulls! LOL And then I made my tag. The tag is actually on with the twist tie that comes with the treat sacks, the ribbon is totally embellishment.

And of course with all Pile It On! challenges, you need to PILE IT ON!! So here are the other challenges that work for my project:

• Pile It On - 3-D
• Belli Challenge - Halloween & Bling
• CCEE Stampers - Go Digital
• Fun with Shapes - Halloween
• Gingersnap Creations - Bling
• DareU2DigiStamp - punches or die cuts & digi image

So hopefully you will run over to the Pile It On! blog and have fun with our challenge this week.

Next up are a bunch of layouts I did yesterday - and it's actually not all of them. So if you just want to have a peek and tell me what you think if you feel like it. I have listed the credits below each layout so if you see something you like on there, you can go and grab it!

But first, I must say, this first layout uses a template that my friend Lita created. She's just started to make them and they've been MARVELOUS! So if you like the layout of the layout (lol) let me know...I would love to pass that information on to her!

• Papers - Lazy Daisy by Amanda Heimann
• Template - Litabells Designs
• Embellishments - all from Amy Stoffel - Kits include - Itty Bitty Screwed Flowers, Autumn Garden, Lovin' from the Oven, Hanabi Hart
• Alpha - Elemental Scraps Collab - EgoCentric - November Mega

And that it for that layout....the following are all layouts made using templates from Studio Hillary! Like I said, I was just creating yesterday like there would be no tomorrow!

IN THE MIDDLE CREDITS:

• Template - Flying Solo Set #2 by Studio Hillary
• Kit - Outloud by Shawna Clingerman (retired, sorry)
  

PRICELESS CREDITS:

• Template - Flying Solo Set #1 by Studio Hillary
• Kit - I Heart Mommy by Shawna Clingerman - available at Sweet Shoppe Designs
  

AMAZING CREDITS:

• Template - Watercolor Splash Set#1 by Studio Hillary
• Kit - You Don' Know Me by Shawna Clingerman available at Sweet Shoppe Designs
• Title - Titleography - Elegant by Shawna Clingerman available Sweet Shoppe Designs
• Flowers - Tutti Frutti Flowers by Sugarplum Paperie available at The DigiChick

I think that's it for today!! Happy Creating to you and I hope you all had a great World Cardmaking Day this past Saturday. Don't forget - Digital Scrapbooking Day is coming up in November! I am sure there are lots of great things planned!

Pile It On - Punches!

I am still feeling under the weather, so I will make this short and sweet!! It's Sunday and time for a new Pile It On challenge! This week the challenge is PUNCHES! We also have CRAZED as a GREAT sponsor! Be sure to run over to the Pile It On! blog and check it out.

Here's my card:

• Pile It On - Punches
• Our Creative Corner - Color combo
• Paper Maniac - Ribbon
• Papertake Weekly - Faking It
• Three Clovers - Doodles

Thanks for looking...and as always, more to come...including a change to my blog look...be sure to come back and check it all out!!

Pile It On! #14 - BIRTHDAY

Okay - I am a little late with my own post, but I am here now!!! Today the challenge over at PILE IT ON! is BIRTHDAY! We also have Hambo Stamps sponsoring us this week and the Design Team has made CUTE cards with the Digital Images offered by Hambo.

As a Nascar fan - I just HAD to use this race car driver!




And in true PILE IT ON! fashion, here are the challenges for this card:

• Pile It On! - Birthday (and Hambo Stamps)
  
• All Sorts - Something for the Boys
• Eat, Sleep, Stamp - Sketch

Thanks for stopping by!! Will be back with more soon!

Pile It On! - No Patterned Paper (OMG)

It's Sunday - and we all know what that means!! A new challenge from the PILE IT ON! blog. Be sure to check out this week's top three and what the FANTABULOUS Design Team created.

And now - for this week's challenge - NO PATTERNED PAPER! I know, I know - don't shoot the messenger - it wasn't my week to set the challenge! LOL However, please remember - you can make your own patterned paper!

This week, we had a sponsor - DIGI STAMP CHARACTER. So I used their adorable little girl image to make my patterned paper. Here's what I came up with:



And here's my "pile":

• Pile It On! - No patterned paper
• 365 Cards - sunflower inspiration
• No Time To Stamp - Stamp Simply - Make a card for a friend!

And that's it for this one! Kind of a small pile, huh? Just goes to show you it doesn't take 10 challenges to make a Pile It On! card!

Thanks for playing with us - I can't wait to see what you create!!

The Fresh Batch!

Hey there everybody!! It's Thursday - and you know what that means! Another sketch for the Fresh Batch to work on! And we definitely have a Fresh Batch this week - so be sure to stop by the Stamps & Smiles blog and check them out!! We have a NEW FANTABULOUS Sketch Artist this week - DALIS!!! She drew us a fabulous sketch - which you can see HERE. This is my take on it!



You know this would have to hit at least one other challenge right? Because as you all know - it's what I do! LOL

• Stamps & Smiles - Sketch
• Pile It On! - watercolor your image
• If the Shoe Fits - use a cupcake on your card
• Dutch Dare - Use cutting dies or punches

And that's it for me - be sure to come back - I always have MORE to show you!!

One more....

It's Sunday people!! That means a new challenge from PILE IT ON!! This week's challenge is to use WATERCOLORING on your project. Now I want it to be known that I am NOT a stamper! However, I also didn't set the challenge this week - my partner in crime Dalis did!

Also, it's the last Sunday of the month and our sponsor this week is STAMPS & SMILES! She has such cute stamps (like the cupcake on my tag) so you might want to check out the Stamps & Smiles store!

I know I have been making a bunch of these Sour Cream containers lately - but they're so quick and easy and a great little treat to give somebody as just a simple pick-me-up! I promise - last one for a while!!

True to my normal - and Pile It On's theory - this obviously hits more than one challenge:

• Pile It On! - Watercoloring
• Stamps & Smiles Project Tuesday - Sour Cream Container
• Charisma Cards - Tag It - use a tag on your project
• Dutch Dare - punches
• Try It Out Tuesday - Pink Lemonade (this is probably a slight stretch, but I am taking it!)

That will do it for this one! Be sure to check out the PILE IT ON! blog and see what the other Design Team members created!

Thanks for stopping by!

PILE IT ON! - Challenge #6 - Sketch

It's Sunday and time for the next challenge at PILE IT ON!! This week, my lovely partner in crime Dalis has provided the Design Team with a sketch!! Be sure to run on over to the PILE IT ON! Blog and check out all the details. Remember - need to combine our challenge (this week is the sketch) with at least one other CURRENT challenge!

Here's mine:


Challenges....

• Pile It On - Sketch
• Raspberry Ribbons - Circles & Ribbon
• Belli Challenge - Texture
• Stamp Something - Pink, yellow, green

Thanks for stopping by! Can't wait to see what you create this week!

Christmas In July

Ho Ho Ho and all that jazz! Okay- since it's July - our challenge peeps seem to ask for Christmas in July, so I didn't want to disappoint anybody! Here's the card:



Of course it's Thursday - so it's also Stamps & Smiles day here at my blog and the Sketch team over at the Stamps & Smiles blog have some wonderful samples for you, so be sure to check them out.

So this card is for:

• Stamps & Smiles - Sketch
• Flutter By Wednesday - Butterfly, buttons & bows (well, only one bow!)
• Charisma - Buttons
• Stamp Something - Xmas in July
  
• Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - Xmas in July
• Getting Creative with Ann - Basic Tools - the only tools I used on this were my cutter and two hand punches (not even my Cuttlebug)
• Pile It On! - three different embellishments - buttons, ribbon, and rhinestones
  

And that's about it for this one...check out the post below and you will see my layout for ScrapSchemes this week!

PILE IT ON! - Challenge #4

Hello! Glad to see you back here! And if it's your first visit to my blog - welcome! Today is Sunday and that means it's time for a new challenge from PILE IT ON! Be sure to check out the Pile It On! blog, because there's a LOT of goodness over there today, including the ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE NEW DESIGN TEAM!

And today's challenge - you might ask? To use THREE DIFFERENT EMBELLISHMENTS on your project - meaning if you use two ribbons - it's only counts as one embellishment - and of course, you need to incorporate at least one other CURRENT challenge. As you will see on my card below I used ribbon, flowers & crystals.

I'm not sure you can tell - but this card is made from acetate! I love the elegant looks it gives it but I don't use it all that often!



The challenges included for this card - and it works HARD I tell you!

• Pile It On! - Three different embellishments
• Our Creative Corner - red, white & blue
• Flutterby - open, but use a butterfly
• Card Patterns - Sketch - I don't normally "copy" a sketch quite as closely as this, but as soon as I saw the sketch, this card came right into my head!
• Crafty Creations - Celebrations
• Libby's Little Addiction - Courtney's Closet - you have to go see the cute little outfit Courtney is wearing - it's so cute with a little American butterfly!
  
• ABC - U is for USA
• Three Clovers - Red, White & Blue
• Cuttlebug Spot - Celebrate your Country
• Color Chef - Red, White & Blue
• The Pink Elephant - Favorite Color Combo
• **ETA** Also works for today's 2RedBananas challenge - make it patriotic! Since I just made it and posted in this morning, I have no problem counting it - although they will probably see another one - I LOVE red, white & blue!!
  

That's it for this one! Be sure to check out the Pile It On! Blog to see what the Design Team created, who the top three scoops are - and we even had TWO Sweet Sprinkle Awards given this week!

Thanks for visiting!

It's TUESDAY!!

And I assume you all know what that means...it's time for this week's Project Tuesday challenge!! This week it's an A2 CARD BOX. I can tell you it was quick and simple and you don't have to make the cards, but I did and used a simple little recipe and the whole project - including the cards - was done in LESS THAN AN HOUR! The box itself probably took less than 20 minutes.

There are plenty of photos here for you to see it. Be sure to check out the Project Tuesday blog so you can see what the other girls did - all the creations are FANTABULOUS!! And be sure to read to the end, because this one covers a couple of challenges! (of course!)

• Project Tuesday - A2 Card box
• Secret Crafter - Pretty Packaging
• Stamptacular Sunday - Animals - now I am probably PUSHING this challenge. Obviously for Stamptacular Sunday you MUST stamp. Well, I have the little FOR YOU stamp on the front of the box and all those little cards do have sentiments stamped inside - all different ones so that you have multiple occasions to use them - but I neglected to take a picture of the insides. I will see if I can remember to get an inside photo up soon. I did - however - hit the animal part with GUSTO!! Each of the 6 cards has a different animal on it - there's a bunny, bird, owl, deer, frog and I forget the last one! LOL
• Die Cut Dreams asked for anything BUT a card!
• Charisma Cards - Any project, Any Theme
• Pile It On!! - Must use four buttons
• Creative Inspirations is also asking for anything BUT a card!

And that will do it for this one! Thanks for stopping by! :)

PILE IT ON! - Challenge #4 - BUTTON UP!

This week the new challenge for PILE IT ON is....

USE FOUR OR MORE BUTTONS in your project...and as usual - AT LEAST one other challenge!

Challenges:

• Pile It On! - Button it up!
• Stamps and Smiles Tuesday Sketch - since I turned the sketch into a layout - this is obviously a VERY loose interpretation, but I just wanted to show you how versatile sketches are and that even if it doesn't look exactly like the sketch, it was inspirational!
  
• 365 Cards - Day 118 - You've Been Framed - now I might be cheating on this one because as we all know that 365 is about cards and this is a layout, but.....who cares? lol (My friend Gloria cheats on her 365 challenges all the time, so.....LOL - she's going to love reading that!!!)
  
• Charisma Cardz stated to create ANYTHING you wanted this week, no theme, no restrictions, so....here's mine!
• Scrap, Inspire, Create asked us to celebrate PARENTHOOD. The funny story behind this layout is that my daughter and her boyfriend Jimmy were gathering all the kids - mine and Jimmy's mother's to go have pictures taken for Mother's Day. Unfortunately, they had a bank account issue and were unable to have them taken. Since they were pretty much dressed and ready to go, I grabbed my camera and did the photos myself!! These are the three separate photos I took of each of my three children.
• Use It - I am going to claim this one! They asked for something inspired by nature - which would be the flowers, polka dots - which I have, favorite embellishment - I have used several different "embellishments" and to mail it to someone special (I am just wondering if email counts here??)

There's one more thing I have to tell you about my creation today - which could break many rules for some challenge blogs - It's DIGITAL! I have been playing in the digital world and LOVING IT!!! I have always been a scrapbooker and if you had told me a year ago that I would be make 5-10 cards every week instead of scrapbook pages, I would have told you that you were LOONEY! But here I am, making card after card (except this week - I was a very bad, lazy crafter! LOL) and NOT pages to go into my albums! Well, I had been thinking of trying digital for quite a while and since I had a program on my computer, I thought - HECK, why not?? So I started into the digital world!

So be on the look out for more digital and non-digital creations - and ANNOUNCEMENTS!

Stamps & Smiles #20

Once again I decided to combine the Stamps & Smiles sketch with this week's Project Tuesday! The stamps is from Stamps & Smiles CuppyLand set. I think this came out SOO cute! This would be so perfect for a favor for a shower or a little girl's birthday party!




I even hit a couple of challenges with this one:

• Stamps & Smiles Sketch #21
• Project Tuesday - One Sheet Box
• Pile It On! - Use purple - any shade, any amount
• Creative Inspirations - anything but a card!
  

And that's it for this one!! Thanks for stopping by!

It's PROJECT TUESDAY!

Today's project is a One-Sheet Box. I had never done one of these, but I can tell you it came together quickly - about 20 minutes for me! I thought of a few details later - I could have done this, I should have done that...but in the end, I figured it was probably going to have to travel, so I stayed with simple and streamlined - which if you know me, is pretty much my normal anyway!



I opted for patterned paper for the actual box/bag. When you see the instructions, you will understand what I mean, but it's all folded - no cutting involved (unless you start with a 12x12 sheet of paper as opposed to 8.5 x 11). Anywho, the instructions I believe say cardstock and stamp - if you know me, I do not consider myself a stamper, so patterned paper worked perfectly! This PP happens to be Doodlebug, the cardstock in the layers is CTMH and the stamp is Unity. The dew drops were purchased at CropStop.com and I got the ribbon at my LSS in their "clearance - aka end of the roll" bin.




Also, I have been able to combine this with a few other things going on in blogland (aka CHALLENGES!!)

• Project Tuesday - obviously!
• Pile It On! - use purple - any shade, any amount
• Stamp Something - black & white with one other color

And that's all for this one!!

PILE IT ON! - Challenge #3 - PURPLE

That's today's challenge over at the PILE IT ON! blog - much to Dalis' dismay! Of course, I chose the challenge, so she's just got to suck it up and deal with it.

So - PURPLE - any shade, any amount. We just want to see purple on your card - well, that and AT LEAST one other challenge!

I will apologize in advance for the photo - my light source is ABOVE my cards, so I get a shadow whenever I ribbon the card at the top like this....



Challenges:

• Pile It On! (Obviously) - use purple! The ribbon is purple, the gems at the bottom are purple, the flower and the D in Friends are all purple. (Almost Amethyst to be exact on the flower and D)
• Charisma Cards asked for sparkly. Their challenge is titled as Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend.
• Three Clovers asked for a NO LAYER card. Now - most of you may notice I don't generally stamp. With a one layer card - and she was specific - you can embellish all you want - but NO EXTRA PAPER OR CARDSTOCK - what else was I going to do???

So head on over to the PILE IT ON! blog and play! We also have the top three scoops listed, as well as a special award and a RAK! There were 4 gift certificates given away today - find out if you got one!!

Feeling a little KRAFTY today!

I was feeling pretty KRAFTY this morning (bad pun I know, but I couldn't help myself!!) Anyway, this might be WWWAAAAYYYY too much information, but I make more cards in my head while in the shower - which is where these two came from!! Anyway, enough of the personal information you didn't want to know - here's the cards!!




This card uses the same layout my friend Dalis used and said was a challenge somewhere, so if you recognize it - let us know! LOL Otherwise - this one covers the following:

• 365 Cards - They're trying to kill me I swear!! They asked for aqua, green, yellow, orange and brown. The catch - make it feminine! So here it is.
• All Sorts - they requested to use something with WINGS. I might have more for them this week.
• Daring Cardmakers - Miss you
• Charisma Cards asked for sparkle
• Flutterby Wednesday is always looking for those butterflies!!

Then I made this one - still krafty!!



Being Father's Day is tomorrow, you know there were plenty of challenges out there for masculine, etc, and this also incorporates a few others.

• Pile It On! asked for two different ribbons (at least!) Isn't that wide brown ribbon gorgeous!! I got it from a good friend (Hi Jenn!!) and love it!! I will have to convince her to tell me where she got it!
  
• 365 Cards asked for Masculine with argyle
• Our Creative Corner asked for stars
  
• Paper Blooms asked for Father's Day/Masculine
• Cuttlebug Challenge asked for Masculine/Father's Day
• Cuttlebug Spot asked for Father's Day/Masculine
• Fun Frilled asked for Father's Day

I will be back later with more...I need to do two more 365s to finish out the week!

PILE IT ON! - Challenge #2 - RIBBONS!!

First Dalis & I would like to thank ALL of you for participating in our debut challenge!! We were VERY excited to have as many participants as we did!! Having come up with the challenge idea myself, I am SO glad to find that I am not the only person who felt that putting more than one challenge on a card was acceptable!

Also - I just wanted to remind you about Design Team Call! We have lots of excellent submissions already and you can submit for the DT Call until June 30th. All the details for the call are in THIS post.

Since I already spilled the beans in my title you obviously know you need to use ribbons - at least TWO DIFFERENT RIBBONS! You must, of course, combine with at least one other challenge! Be sure to check out the PILE IT ON BLOG - because we have a SPONSOR!!

Onto my project!
I love these little bag tags and they are SOOO easy to make!! Only two challenges for this one:

• Pile It On! - use more than one ribbon
• Daring Cardmakers - Hot colors - yellow, red, and orange

Remember to check out the Pile It On blog and see what Dalis made and read all about our sponsor this week!

For Dad...

Father's Day is right around the corner and of course all the challenge blogs want Masculine/For Dad, etc., so I will work on Father's Day cards!


You know of course from the opening that this will cover a multitude of challenges, and here's the list:

• Cute Card Thursday asked us to pull out our punches and diecuts - #1 Dad was made with my BossKut Totally Tall alphabet
• PILE IT ON! - Non-stamped sentiment (this was our first challenge - go check out my new challenge blog!!)
• Three Clovers asked for Masculine (but as I was linking - it had a twist - you were suppose to use metal, which I didn't so this one doesn't really count here - but I had already completed this challenger earlier this week).
  
• Corrosive Challenge blog asked for Dad
• Stamptacular Sunday said - One for the Boys!
• This was the Super Sunday Sketch over at 365 Cards - this sketch kind of scared me, but I turned it and kind of went for the penant look! I'm liking it...
  

That will do it for this card and for me for tonight! Come back tomorrow - there'll be a new PROJECT TUESDAY up and it's a great challenge - lots of fun and so easy, you wouldn't believe it!

PILE IT ON!!

Welcome to the first challenge for PILE IT ON! In doing challenges, I found I love to combine them into one card/project - making the most of my time. I wanted to do ALL the challenges - so starting combining them - almost like an additional hobby to my hobby!

So I contacted my friend Dalis and asked her what she thought about partnering with me to create a new challenge blog. The theory behind the blog - PILE IT ON of course!! You must combine ONE OTHER CURRENT challenge with the PILE IT ON challenge. (Total details are of course on the PILE IT ON BLOG).

The first challenge for PILE IT ON is to use a NON-STAMPED SENTIMENT.

So in my usual fashion, here it is:



Here are the challenges it covers:

• PILE IT ON (of course!) - Non Stamped Sentiment - this was made using the QuicKutz Chemistry alphabet.
• Our Creative Corner - Sketch
• If The Shoe Fits - Color combination of pink & green
• Heart Hugs - Etsy Inspiration - Chicy Creations - My inspirational pieces is HERE.
• Secret Crafter - Bling - besides the glitter paper for the flower and non-stamped sentiment, I used rhinestones in the corners around the flower.
• Cute Card Thursday - Punches - The flowers is a QuicKutz Revolution die and again the non-stamped sentiment is the QuicKutz Chemistry alphabet. I so wish you could see the glitter on that flower - it's BEAUTIFUL!!
  

And that is the first challenge for PILE IT ON. Now, you only have to use ONE other challenge, and it must be current at the time of posting. You will need to link back to that challenge in your posting. We will be choosing our TOP THREE SCOOPS each week and they will be showcased on the blog. We are hoping to be able to give prizes from time to time, so watch for those. I do believe we have a sponsor coming up, so keep your eye out over for that - and head on over to PILE IT ON to hear about our DT CALL.

Thanks for visiting here...and if you just stopped in, be sure to hop on over to see what Dalis created!

A Goodie Bag!

I have made so many cards lately - but I think many of you know how much I LOVE 3-D projects! This one was one the challenges over at PROJECT TUESDAY a couple of weeks ago - and if you haven't checked out Project Tuesday you really should! We do a new project every Tuesday and they're usually quick and easy! Come on now - step out of your comfort zone and come visit us!

All that being said - here's the project. I am actually giving you two photos. The top one shows the "bag" part really well and the bottom shows the front.


And I know you know there are challenges involved, right? And if you don't, you really need to visit my blog more often! LOL So here they are:

• The sketch is from Taylored Expressions
• Although the genie bag project was something I previously did for Project Tuesday, this week Caardvarks asked for a 3-D project, so here it is.
• Colour Create asked for as many colors of the rainbow as possible. Thanks to the little dinosaur in the middle, I got red, yellow, purple and green! Four out of 7 is more than half anyway!
• Creative Card Crew said - Child's Play - for a child.
  
• Secret Crafter asked for Bling! Four rhinestone stars and the corners of the actual bag and four purple rhinestones at the corner of the red layer. Not to mention there are several red rhinestones in that dinosaur's tummy!! He's a little shaker dude!
  
• And I will tell you this project could also qualify for tomorrow's PILE IT ON challenge, but I know that's just a mean tease, so....I won't! LOL

So be sure to stop back tomorrow...PILE IT ON will be up first!