YOUR FAVORITE PROJECT of 2014

 YOUR FAVORITE PROJECT 2014 project is a new challenge at Your Scrapbook Place. You can find all the information here

My favorite project for 2014? I don't have one, but I do have one from 2013. It is a double layout about my crocheting. I love to crochet, it is a tension reliever for me and I usually end up with something useful. I chose this project for this challenge because its about me and what I like to do.



  The post about this picture and its companion page can be found here.

 I hope you check out the challenge at YSBP and tell us about your favorite project.

Mystery Crochet Along

If you are familiar with me and my blog, you know I enjoy a challenge. I also enjoy a mystery. I love to read mystery books, watch a good mystery movie and enter needlework mystery projects. Most of them are crocheted afghans/blankets. However I never blog about them or post anything to the "Mystery" blog. This one is different. They aren't going to give me five squares to do this week, or three last week, and within a couple of months I'm  to have crocheted 60 squares.  I don't crochet that fast. Some day...
 I think this one is more to my speed. It is, however going to be a challenge for me. You see, its a stuffed something. I have tried making stuffed toys, but always get hung up on the stuffing part. Hidden in drawers, in the backs of closets and in storage are crocheted and knitted items that need to be stuffed and completed. I just can't seem to stuff anything and have it look right. See my problem? See why this is a challenge for me?

Here is what I have started:

I found this link in my e-mail:  Mystery Crochet Along  I started my project Saturday evening. I'm trying to use up some of my left over yarn, so instead of going out and buying more Red Heart yarn in the colors suggested, I rummaged through my boxes of yarn to get my colors. Would you believe that I have absolutely no red? I think I have enough yarn to open a yarn shop but I have no red!

I decided on this color which I think is Claret (the band is missing from the skein). I know its a wine color, but not sure which one. Anyway, this is how far I have gotten. I'm stopped here because I need eyes and stuffing. At round 27, I was to add the eyes and round 58 begins the stuffing process. There's that stuffing again. I had planned on going by one of the craft stores in my area this morning after my walk to purchase stuffing and eyes, but I forgot my coupons.

Another phase was to begin today, but as I write this, it isn't up. Maybe they are waiting for me to catch up. LOL  By-the-way, I have posted the above picture to the Mystery Crochet Along blog. I'm committed now. I now have to figure out who to give this thing to after its finished.

If you like to crochet, hop on over to the Mystery Crochet Along. Gift giving season is coming.

Thanks for stopping by and if you decide to enter this crochet project, let me know how you are doing with it. I will be back next week with a progress report.

Black and White plus One

It’s a fun challenge at Your Scrapbook Place starting Oct. 15 through Oct. 31. There will be a random drawing of all entries and the prize will be three digital images from Squigglefly. 

October is Halloween month and what goes better with Halloween than Black and White.  October is also Breast Cancer month. Because I couldn't decide which theme to use, I have made a card for each of them.

The color I chose for my Halloween card is a yellow orange. I used “Haunted House”  die from QuicKuts and the sentiment is from Stamping Up.

For my Breast Cancer card, I used pink. Pink is not one of my favorite colors. However, since this is Breast Cancer month and the color is pink, what can I say. The word “believe” is cut using Cricut’ s Pink Journey cartridge, the image is from Squigglefly “Shy Bear Show your Support” by Lynn Stansbery. Isn’t she a cute bear?

Check out the challenge here. The DT has been quite busy making some wonderful inspiration.  

Spooky Fun Challenge

Halloween is coming soon and so is a new challenge at Your Scrapbook Place. Are you ready? Uhh, the challenge is already here. Oh my, I think I sorta got behind myself there. You can find the new challenge here and its a fun one. And...there is a prize for some lucky entrant. Ikes Art is the sponsor and is offering five digital images to the luck winner of the random drawing. But you have to enter your project and link it back to YSBP in order to be in the drawing. So go check out Ike's Art to see what you could win.

Now that that's all taken care of here is my card for some inspiration

I used Ike's Art Witchy. Isn't she cute and sexy? Coloring isn't one of my better skills so I was hesitant about doing this type of image; so... I jumped out of my box again, grabbed my Copics and went to work.  My card is of a simple style using only glitter pens as embellishment. The Happy Halloween was cut using my Cricut and the Create a Critter 2 cartridge. Having been over a year not using my Cricut, it took me two days, including a half hour on hold to Provo Craft, to figure out how to update my Gypsy so I could link CC2. But that is another post. Oh, I never did talk to anyone at Provo Craft.

Now you've seen what I did, there is more inspiration  here.

Thank you for stopping by

New Your Scrapbook Place challenge

Back To Basics - There will be no layering, no matting, no embellishments, no heat embossing or dry embossing allowed on this card. You will create a Card only using White Card Front Base, Ink Pads and Rubber Stamps or digital stamps. It's a Basic Card. In Any Theme you would like to do. Please be creative.   
 Creative Bug Designs is offering as a prize of five digital images that some lucky person will win in a random drawing of all those that enter the YSBP challenge.

These cards are being entered into a challenge at CBD, more information on that at the bottom of this post. 

For the YSBP challenge, I really had a hard time with the Back to Basic thing. I wanted so much to put a few sparkles on my card. The image, Ginarth, from Creative But Designs just screams for sparkles. I love clean and simple cards, but I also like to put a spot or two of embellishment on them. 

The above card was my second card. I sponged Ginarth instead of coloring with pencils or pens.  The card below was my first attempt at a CAS card. I sponged in a sky and "grass" I didn't really like the adorable little dragon on a totally white background. I like the dragon in my first card better than the one on the card above. I used pencils and pens on her. 

Creative Bug Digital currently has their own challenge going on right now also.  The theme is Child's Play meaning a card meant for a child 0-18.  You can find out all the details you need for it here 

 I'm entering my cards in the CBD challenge, except, I don't have a little girl to send the card to. As I worked on it, it dawned on me that I could send it to a Cards 4 Troops program. I have started working with my SU enabler making C4T and I'm sure that there are some deployed personnel that have little girls that would enjoy this card. I just hope my card is nice enough.

TAG - You're It!! YSBP Challenge

Hello, lovely crafters!  It's time again to post a new challenge the at SBP Challenge blog. The theme is TAGS and the sky's the limit. You can create a tag, or create with tags! You can ink them, paint them, fold them, create a tag-shaped card, alter a tag, use tags on layouts, altered art, mixed media canvas...well, you get the picture!

The guest sponsor this month is Lisa from Decosse's Dynamite Doodles and Lisa has generously offered some fabulous digital prizes from her Grab Bag 1 Cotton Candy Collection:

• A random participant will receive the full mini kit.
• A random participant who becomes or is a Follower of SBP blog will receive all three sets of tags sets (patterned, textured and numbered).
• A random person who uses the FREE DIGI that Lisa has offered will receive both accessories sections (floral accessories and general accessories).
• A random person who leaves a comment on this post will receive the word art set.

BONUS!!! Lisa is offering a freebie for you to use on your project. You can snag it here: DDD FREE DIGI

First of all, I don't do tags. Never used tags, even on gifts. So this challenge is a real challenge. In fact, its a double challenge for me. The DTs, of which I am one, were given digital items of our choice to make a tag. While I have Photoshop, I don't use it for anything other than cropping photos. I have tried to learn it, but...  I was always taught "if at first you don't succeed, try try again" Taking this to heart, I tried again. Getting all of the images into Photoshop was no problem. However, placing everything on the tag, well that's a different story.

Here is my first digital tag using Photoshop. Please, don't laugh.

I only downloaded the digis you see above, so I limited myself and used the same ones for the next tag. The tag is one you can download for free at  DDD FREE DIGI.  After much trial and error, this is my second tag using the freebee.

I did it, now its your turn.
Thanks for stopping by

Fall is Coming

Fall is coming, Fall is coming! The From the Heart Stamps {community}  August Free stamp of the Month challengefeatures PigWit and he is certainly into Fall. He is so cute. The stamp set is Pumpkin PigWit. I enjoyed putting this card together. Looking for layout ideas I went to FtHS  I {heart} Sketches. I liked the current challenge sketch and this is what I came up with.

I am entering my card in the August Free Digital Stamp of the Month challenge.  While the Sketch challenge entry gives the entrant a dollar off of a stamp in the Digital stamp store, I am happy with the free digital stamp I get every month. All I have to do to earn my free digi is use the digi and make the post linking it to the challenge site.  

There you have it. I have made the links for each challenge over at From the Heart digital stamps.

Thanks for stopping by.

Your Scrapbook Place challenge ending soon

It's Monday and the current challenge at Your Scrapbook Place, “A color challenge with a Theme” is almost over. Have you entered your project yet?

I hear that some of you would like to do something other than a card. Make whatever you would like to make, just follow the color scheme and theme of Get Well.

I’m entering this card.  

I found a card with a similar design on Pinterest, thought it quite pretty and wanted to make one like it. I did want to change it a bit, to make it my own.  

The colors are SU, the floral stamp set is Mixed Bunch, background swirl is Everything Eleanor, the sentiment is Perfectly Penned and the punch is Blossom.  

Now it’s your turn

You have until Saturday at midnight to enter our challenge and be in the random drawing for three (3) digital images of your choice from Stamping Boutique. They have some really cute digis.

Color Challenge with a Theme

Its the 15th of August and Your Scrapbook Place has another challenge for you. This month its a Color challenge, that's easy to do. However, you also need to make it a "Get Well" card.

Here are the colors to use: Crisp Canteloupe, Baked Brown Sugar and Bermuda Bay.
Use any brand of paper, just try to match the colors as closely as possible.

The challenge is being sponsored by Stamping boutique, and they have some really cute digital stamps. They are also offering three free digital stamps to the winner of a random drawing of the entries into the challenge.

The Digi is Get Well Beary Soon by Stamping Boutique. The background is computer generated as is the sentiment. 

 Here is another card using the same digital image, sentiment and background paper.
I saw the card on Splitcoast Stampers and you can find the directions here for making this Quarter Fold Card. Its a very easy card to make.

Another card I made, had a terrible time with it. When I chose the colors for this challenge, I didn't think to check my paper supply. Yes, I'm the one that came up with this challenge. Any how, I had one piece of card stock in the Crisp Cantaloupe and less than one piece of the Bermuda Bay of which I now have none. This little guy is Stamping Boutique Puppy - Surprise. He makes a really cute digi for a Get Well card. He is so cute.

There you have it. So hop on over to Your Scrapbook Place,  check out the inspiration from the Design Team to give you some ideas for your own card. Would love to see an entry from you.


Here are the Rules to be eligible for the random drawing/

Challenge Rules:

• You are welcome to combine your entry with other challenges.
• New projects/cards only - no back linking. Limit three submissions per person.
• Please link your project post to the challenge blog, not your entire blog link. If your project is not linked, it will not be counted in the random drawing
• Please include a link back to this blog in your entry post. If it is not linked back, it will not be counted in the drawing.

Anything But a Card

Your Scrapbook Challenge "Anything But a Card" ends tonight. I'm a bit late since it has already ended on the East Coast. This is my "Anything" which is progress.


Here are four of the squares I have made so far. They are from a pattern called Connie's Garden. I actually have made about eight squares in several color combinations. I get bored doing the same thing over and over again. None of the squares shown here are the same.

 A closer view of one of the squares.

Just starting one of the squares

None of the squares have been blocked yet, not until I'm ready to put them together. There is another row that I haven't put on any of the squares. I'm not sure if I want to or not. When I start to put it together, I will decide.

I'm not sure what I'm going to make yet or even in what order. Whether I'm going to do a full afghan or a lap robe, it all depends on when I get tired of making squares. LOL I have made it my goal to make one square a day. That way, in two months I will have enough to make a blanket. Then comes the not so fun job of putting all the squares together.

I found the pattern on line and fell in love with it. If you want to see the square, you can find it here. The one I saw used two pinks, I'm using several different colors of pink and am going to add some wine colors. I think purples and pinks go very nicely together.

Thanks for coming by . Take care and drive safe.

A Blog Hop with a Difference

I was invited to this blog hop with a difference by Pat Martin at PATACAKE PAGES. When Pat tagged me, she gave me specific instructions as to what I needed to post. Her instructions were very simple, post whatever I wanted as long as I answered four questions about my own crafting. I am also to choose three bloggers adding their links in order to continue this blog hop with a difference. Well, being the procrastinator that I am, I neglected to contact three people for permission to tag them. I think that sort of takes the fun out of it. Soooo, further down in this post I will give three links to three blogs that I think you will enjoy visiting.

Now for the questions I was given to answer. And guess what, it’s all about ME.

1.   What am I working on?

I have several projects going. I enjoy doing needle work, paper crafting and reading. Currently, I am working on a set of cards with themes that I don’t usually do. It has been very difficult for me to come up with something I like. I thought this would be easy, but it has ended up being quite a challenge. 

My first card was supposed to be a masculine birthday card. I wasn’t thinking when I made my background paper and made a card for Daddy. That’s masculine isn’t it? I still need to add the sentiment.

This next card is to be a Father’s day card. As you can see, I haven’t gotten very far. My image is complete. I fussy cut his scarf and added black embellishment for the eyes. Both images are from From the Heart Digital Stamps. I love working with digital stamps.

I am also crocheting in my spare time. I have made a goal of completing one square a day. I usually work on these while watching TV at night.

This square, I found online and fell in love with it. I plan to make a lap robe.

2.  How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I don’t know that it does. I stay close to what I’m comfortable with and don’t go outside the box very often. While a lot of card and scrapbook crafters use a lot of bling, I tend to go easy with it. I do put bling on nearly every card or scrapbook page I make, but not as much as I could. Plain and simply is my style.

3.  Why do I do what I do?

Silly question, I do it because I enjoy working with my hands. I like to be productive, except when I’m reading. My one fear as I grow older is that I will lose enough of my eyesight that I won’t be able to do the stitching I so love to do. I’m not cross stitching as much as I would like, it’s getting harder to see those tiny holes in the cloth. But I can still crochet, knit and do paper crafting. I have been doing needle work since I was about eight years old starting off with embroidery.  Why do I do my crafting? It’s a part of me and has been for many years.

4.  How do I come up with stuff?

I look at what others have done. If I see something I like, I try it, work with it and usually end up with something totally different. I guess you could say I steal ideas to get me started. I can start a card with an idea in my head and when I have finally finished the card it is nowhere near what I envisioned when I started.

The card below is the third card of the set. It is to be very basic, no embellishments of any kind, no layering, no bling, no embossing, no using punches. dies, etc. A white card using only stamps and ink, I saw a card fitting the specks that I fell in love with and wanted to make one like it. My card is nothing like that one. The only thing on my card from the card I copied is the Everything Eleanor swirl. I added the butterflies using a masking technique that I learned at an SU event.  

Where did this different kind of blog hop come from? Lisa from Path of Positivity. She has the most interesting blog. There is one challenge a month and it can be… Go on over there and check it out. Challenge 17 for August is up.

Oh, I didn’t tag a blog did I? Here is one that is always upbeat. Kathy is a quilter and makes beautiful quilts. I met Kathy a couple of years ago via the internet. At the time we had the Cricut in common. She has gotten rid of her Cricut and doesn't do cards or scrapbooking now. Her creative juices are flowing in a different direction now. Design Originals by KC 

Check out Holley's Blog. I don't know Holley very well, we are on a yahoo group together. She is a DT member at Your Scrapbook Place, which has recently started offering challenges.