OWH Memorial Day Bloghop

It's been a loooooong time since I've posted here, but I felt it was time to come back.  Grandkids, health, lack of mojo and so many things have kept me away, but this weekend was the perfect time to come back.  Although I don't have my own personal card to share with you today, I do have 146 other creations to share with you in the form of the Memorial Day Weekend Bloghop with Operation Write Home.

Grab yourself something cold to drink, and plan on getting tons of inspiration from all the crafty bloggers and companies that are involved in this bloghop.  You see, my daughter was one of the soldiers serving in Iraq that benefitted by receiving handmade cards to send home, so you can see why OWH is one of my favorite charities.

Don't forget to take a moment to thank all of those service members that lost their lives while serving our country.

~~~~Lee~~~~

New Scenic Stamping Blog

I'm soooooo excited!  I received an email from a very talented blog friend, Olga, introducing me to a new blog.  The name of the blog is Craft a Scene, and it was created by Nancy D of Crafting Passions (she was hooked on scenes by Sheree Campbell of Vancouver Island Craft Junkie).  This is a monthly challenge blog, and there will also be weekly samples and tutorials.

 

I copied the purpose of the blog, so you could see the easy criteria about this scenic blog:

"This is a special focus challenge blog that provides an opportunity for paper craft designers to showcase their scene projects. We especially love Stampscapes and will showcase techniques and tutorials using these wonderful stamps.
However, there are lots of companies that provide images for background scenes such as Stampscapes, Art Impressions, Magnolia, Make It Crafty, Digital Delights and too many others to name. You may also draw in your own scene background.
As long as your project has a background (or foreground) scene you meet the first challenge criteria."

Check this blog out for yourself, and see why I'm so excited!  Sheree is also having a design team call, so you may want to check this out, too.
 

~~~Lee~~~

My apologies go out to Nancy D of Crating Passions for not initially giving her proper credit for starting the Craft a Scene Challenge blog!!!  Thanks!

Elizabeth Dulemba's Halloween Images

I've been a big fan of Elizabeth Dulemba's at Coloring Page Tuesdays (and her awesome children's book illustrations) for well over a year now, but I forget to take pictures of the cards before they get sent out.  I made sure that I didn't let this happen again with these Halloween cards I made for my grandkids.  I love Halloween almost as much as Christmas, so it's not surprising that I make so many Halloween cards.

The first card uses the image called Witchy Potion.  She was printed out on Georgia Pacific cardstock and colored with Prisma colored pencils blended with Gamsol (odorless mineral spirits). 

I have a ball playing with all the fun embellishments that you can find now for Halloween, so I'm not sure who enjoyed these cards more, me or the grandkids!  I'm not a big fan of Walmart, but I'll stop in some of the smaller stores when they're not very busy.  Luckily, I was able to pick up lots of these goodies that they don't carry in my area.  The first of these goodies was the large epoxy brad with the words, Hocus Pocus, on it.  The colored rhinestones were in a set of clear stamps by Studio g.  I found the spider brad last year at the Target $1 Shop, and the Hocus Pocus rub-on this year.

 
The second card uses the image called, Ghost With Pumpkins.  This one was also colored with Prismas and blended with Gamsol. 

I love coloring Elizabeth's images.  They all have such wonderful facial expressions, and many of them focus on reading.  I was lucky enough to have won some of her autographed books last year, and my grandkids still ask me to read them again and again.  They also can't wait to see what Elizabeth will offer as a free image every week on her blog, Coloring Page Tuesdays.  What are you waiting for?  Hop on over to her blog to see all of the wonderful digi images she has to offer.  Don't forget to check out her books, too.  I know that my grandkids will be getting more of her books for Christmas.

Since I've been MIA again, I thought I should share some of the pictures of my youngest grandson, Caleb, that has been taking up so much of my time lately.  I've also been  helping out one of my daughter's friends by watching her baby, Marion.  It's hard to believe there is only 6 months difference between the two of them!



Check out Caleb's rolls on his rolls, and how he loves to laugh!

 


Don't you just love Caleb's baby blues?



Marion loves to lick her toys before she'll play with them.



Marion can't believe I caught her catching flies!

  ~~~Lee~~~

CHALLENGES:

Crafts 4 Eternity - Magical 3

Crafty Catz - Halloween 3

Divas by Design - Something Spooky 2

Forever Friends - Anything Goes with an animal 4

I Brake for Challenges - Halloween 2

My Mum's Craft Shop -  Spooktacular - 2

Stampin' for the Weekend - Spooky 4

There She Goes Clear Stamps - Seasonal (Halloween or Fall)  1

Paper Play - Halloween/Witches! 3

Pixie Dust Studio - Spooky 2

Crafting for All Seasons - Halloween or Color Challenge 2

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Halloween - 6

Stamp-N-Doodle - Halloween 1

Stempelsonnen - Halloween 3

Top Tip Tuesday - Trick or Treat 31

First Card:
Card Base: Rubber Stampede
Card Stock:  Best Occasions Textured (flat black), Glossy Black - stash
Design Paper:  Target $1 Shop (purple),  Hobby Lobby (spiderwebs)   
Hocus Pocus Brad:  Studio G
Spider Brad:  Target $1 Shop
Rhinestones:  Studio g
Rub-Ons:  Target $1 Shop (Hocus Pocus) Basic Grey
Fibers:  My stash
Adhesive:  Scotch Glue Stick
Ink:  Vivid! purple and Memento Tuxedo Black

Second Card:
Card Base:  Stampin Up!
Design Paper:  Cloud 9 Design - Chitchat
Cardstock:  Best Occasions Textured
Boo Brad:  Studio g 
Ribbon:  Target $1 Shop
Stickers:  Stickopotamus (bats), stickeroni (trick or treat), Current (spiderweb & candy corn)
Adhesive:  Scotch Glue Stick & Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive

Ink:  Vivid! purple

Digi Stealing 101

I've been MIA again, but I saw that Mo Manning  of Digital Pencil Too has been having problems again with people offering her digis to others for free on their sites.  Mo has been very vigilant about this problem, and started a group called "Stamp Out" that's linked on my sidebar.  I wanted everyone to have a chance to read the letter which I included in its entirety below.  Although it's long, please take the time to read it, so you'll understand the significance of sharing digis with others.

"Dear Crafter,

First of all, I do not think you're a horrible person, and I really do appreciate you writing to me.  I wanted to give you a chance to respond -- which is why I didn't simply put up your name and let people "at you."  So I have shown I CARE about you -- even after people cried to know  your name -- but do you care about me?

NONE of us can sit here drawing for hours and hours every day to put new stamp images up if we are not being paid a livable wage.  If you can't buy a stamp -- why in heaven's name would you think that gives you the moral right to steal it from me?

I am a single mum.  I adopted two special needs (from abused homes) children as a single mother, and have raised them all by myself without asking anyone for anything.  I couldn't work in a regular job because my kids had difficulty in regular school for many years . . . so besides trying to heal them emotionally, I had to home-school them AND try to earn enough money to keep a roof over our heads.  For YEARS I slept on a couch in the living room because I couldn't afford a place with real beds for all three of us and I wanted my kids to be the ones to have the beds. Six years ago I almost died because I waited too long to go to the hospital because I couldn't afford health insurance.  I am still under thousands and thousands of dollars hospital bills because of that.  My youngest is 19 now -- and both kids are just out on their own . . . but my own mum is blind, has lung disease and severe arthritis so now I need to take care of her.

The only reason I'm telling you this is because I want you to understand that EVERYONE has their sad stories.  In all these years I have never taken anything that wasn't mine.  I would never say, hey, I can't afford to buy this music CD, so I'll go ask my friends if they can burn a copy for me.  If I can't afford something I want -- I save up for it or I go without.  I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to do something simple like take my kids to see a movie but simply couldn't.  Stamps are a luxury -- not a need.  If you (or someone else) can't afford them -- you can't simply steal them. (And my images are NOT expensive.  They are $3 US no matter where you live in the world because all of them are available through my digital shop.)

And here's the BIGGEST thing.  Every moment that my images are up on a site like yours, people are downloading them freely.  And those people who download them freely think, "Hey, it was just FREE" so they pass them along to OTHER people freely and pretty soon NO ONE needs to buy them anymore because they're available for FREE!  Magnolia now has people like you taking their images and scanning them in.  Here is the history of Magnolia:

1: Magnolia does popular stamps everyone loves.
2: For years people buy them and Magnolia thrives as a business
3: The Internet happens.
4: Crafters enjoy the Internet and become skilled at using computers.
5: Craft forums and Blogs become popular and crafters from all over the world meet and interact.
6: Large swap groups are formed in forums everywhere, sometimes with hundreds of participants each.  People mail each other stacks of stamped images.
7. People start using printed images they have found on the internet -- mostly clip art.
8. Digital stamp companies run by solo artists start springing up.
9. Someone gets the idea to scan in their Magnolia images to make THOSE into digis they can share easily.
10. Others see the scanned in Magnolia images and scan theirs in too.
11.People start emailing each other  "OOOh -- I don't have those ones!!" and scanned images exchange hands.  10s of images multiply into 100s and then 1000s.
12. SOME people decide to compile these thousands of Magnolia images on CDs and sell the collections on Ebay.  Other people decide to BUY these Magnolia CDs.
13. Magnolia's profits DIP because a growing number of people are getting hold of the pirated "digi" Magnolias and don't need to buy the rubber.
14. Magnolia decides it's not worth it to put out new stamps, and there is one more company who needs to find a different product.

We're at about number 13 right now -- Magnolia is a member of my group "Stamp Out" and I happen to know they are confused, worried and not sure what to do about the theft besides GIVE UP.  If this can happen to a long established company like Magnolia -- how quickly do you think it can happen to a small company like mine, or Lily of the Valley, or the Greeting Farm or Stamping Bella, Stampavie or any other.  I don't think people realize most of us are small businesses barely skating by.  This GROWING theft by crafters who care more that they have "this cute stamp too" than that the artist can feed their child -- is KILLING stamp companies.

I am one who will fight to the end to protect my art -- and the art of all my friends.  I will be retaining a lawyer soon, because this is just going too far and in the future someone is going to need to be made an example of.

So to wrap this up, Crafter.  I do believe a person can be redeemed.  I'm hoping you're a person like that.  I will believe your apology is sincere if you not only stop giving (AND RECEIVING) stolen images yourself -- but if you take my letter to heart and help spread the word this is wrong, wrong, wrong.  It worries me that you say you have gotten my images from Photobucket but didn't give me the information to have them taken down.

Please let me know that you have understood my huge frustration is not just with you - but with all who are being "nice" by sharing when in fact you are making artists struggle (even more) to put food on their tables.

xoMo "

The original post of the letter is on Mo's blog here.


Thanks, Mo, for sharing this issue with us!

~~~Lee~~~

Since too many people don't understand the significance of sharing digi stamps, I believe that Mo has done a great job of explaining the problem so eloquently. The people that steal digis remind me of  people that don't spay or neuter their pets. They say that a cat producing 2.8 kittens a liter just two times a year will be responsible for the births of 11,606,077 cats within nine years. So if one person takes just 6 digis a year and reposts them for others to take for free, they could very well be responsible for well over this number thanks to the Internet.  I realize this number seems extraordinary, but I hope that it helps to explain how sharing just a few digis with others can go totally out of control in such a short time period.

My Bad!

Several months ago I offered blog candy that was won by two very patient people.  I was very sick at the time with my Crohn's Disease, so I had one of my daughters mail the prizes...or so I thought.  I was helping her clean out her car yesterday, and guess what I found.  You're right, both of the blog candy packages!  One of the reasons that I don't blog as often as many other people is due to the problems with my Crohn's Disease, but that is no excuse for me not asking my daughter if she had mailed the packages.  I even had delivery confirmation on the packages, but thought I may have deleted the details when I felt good enough to check my emails again.

I can't believe that Rufus and Velda have been so patient, and both of them never contacted me to see if the blog candy had been shipped yet.  To both of you, I sincerely apologize for this mixup, and I intend to make it right with additional items.  Thanks to both of you for being so gracious!  The packages will be in the mail on Monday...I promise!

~~~Lee~~~

A Day for Daisies Birthday Card Trio

A while back, A Day for Daisies offered these three birthday digital stamps for free for people to use.  I meant to post them sooner, but life has gotten in the way (as usual).  All of the images are colored with Prismas and blended with OMS.

The first card uses design paper from the American Traditional Design Celebrate Scrapbook Bundle mounted on two layers of cardstock by The Paper Company.  I haven't been using my corner punches very often, but this All Night Media one was perfect for this image.  The ball and balloons have both been given dimension with the use of Glossy Accents.  After looking at this again, I realize that I probably should have also added the Glossy Accents to the snake and snail's shell.  Oh well, I might try it on the next one (or add it later). 

You may probably notice all those nasty little air bubbles that are sometimes caused by shaking the bottle or moving the solution around too much.  If you see these forming before the Glossy Accents dries, you can just pop them with a pin (that I usually have stored in the hole of the applicator tip to also help clear any clogs in the tip). 

The little girl on this image reminds me of a doll that I used to have many moons ago in my youth.  We would always gravitate towards red-headed dolls in our family since two of my sisters had red hair, so the color scheme of this image started with the hair color.

Glossy Accents was also added to the balloons and strawberry on this image.  The cardstock was run through the Cuttlebug.  I was going to go over the dots with the green ink that I used on the background of the image, but it really muddied up the color of the cardstock.  I need to remember to use non-white core cardstock when I use the Cuttlebug unless I'm planning on distressing it or needing the white core to show through the design.  The paper lace was two-sided, so I cut it in half to fit on this card.  The rick-rac was from my mom's stash of trims that I received when she died. 

This image is still driving me a bit more nuts than usual.  I was going to write Happy Birthday on all of the cards, but I wanted to do something unusual on them.  Any ideas that you have to write on the cards would be much appreciated.  Even though I didn't use Glossy Accents on this card, I think I will add it to the cherry, starwberries and grapes.  Due to the lines being so narrow on the wire portions of the image, I used a gel pen to color in the silver to make it show up better. 

If you look closely at the pansies, you may notice that I also used a gel pen on the purple portion to cover up my boo-boo.  When I tried to add the purple to it, the yellow and purple mixed too much to a yucky brown color.  Thank goodness I was able to save it since this was one of the last things I colored.  Since the gel pens were already out, I decided to add some yummy sprinkles to the tops of the cupcakes and some highlights with a white gel pen.

That's it for my A Day for Daisies images for now, but I have tons more to show you later.  I love so many of Tammy's collections that I'm surprised that I have any money left to spend for food!  I adore the ones with the babies, and of course the fairies will always be a favorite of mine. 

~~~Lee~~~

SUPPLIES

Card One:

Paper:  Cardstock by The Paper Company, Celebrate Scrapbook Bundle by American Traditional Designs

Punches:  All Night Media

Distress Ink:  Tea Dye

Bling:  Rhinestones by K & Company 

Ribbon and Charm:  My Stash

Dimension:  Glossy Accents

Adhesive:  Scotch Glue Stick

Card Two:

Paper:  Cardstock ?, DP from my Scrap Stash

Ribbon:  Paper by K & Company and Rick Rac and Ribbon from My Stash

Flowers:  Sandylion Essentials Stickers

Ink:  Stampin' Up! Certainly Celery

Bling:  Colobok Adhesive Flourishes (cut apart)

Dimension:  Glossy Accents

Adhesive:  Scotch Glue Stick

Card Three:

Paper:  Cardstock by The Paper Company,  DP by MME Penny Lane  Chic Stripes and Sweet Blossoms

Punch:  Fiskars Corner Punch

Die Cut:  Creative Memories Oval Cutter

Ink:  Vivid Lavender

Ribbon:  My Stash

Bling:  Rhinestones by K & Company

Adhesive:  Scotch Glue Stick

Challenges:

Card Two:

Stampin' Royalty - Bring on the Bling - 29

Tuesday Throwdown - Dimension and Texture - 29

Other Cards:

Bearly Mine Challenges - Bring on the Bling - 29

Digital Tuesday - Cute and Girly - 2

The Stamping Boutique - Stripes and Dots - 28

Another Rubber Stamp Company is Closing

I just read an update on the Softpencil Studio facebook page that The Angel Company is closed.  I went to their website to check it out, and this is their statement:

"It is with great sadness that I must announce we are hanging up our wings.  These past several years our industry has faced enormous challenges and as a result, we have seen many companies close their doors.  We continued to hope we could see The Angel Company through this recession and back into prosperous days and we held onto this hope as long as we could.

One of the largest challenges affecting each of us is our industry not being able to support all of the direct sales companies in our field.  Even in a healthy economy, we are a niche market trying to compete for a very limited number of distributors.  As a small company, this has been a grueling challenge for us.  Times are tough for everyone ~ in direct sales and retail environments.

I would like to thank each of you for being an customer and Angel these past 14 years.  Indeed, it has been a pleasure to serve you.

The Angel Company"

We have lost so many fabulous rubber stamp companies, and many of them have been in the last year or so.  The bigger ones have had as many problems in this economy as the smaller ones.  I couldn't always budget to buy stamps from companies like Cornish Heritage Farms or The Angel Company, but I really loved so many of them and figured I could buy some of their items...later.  Well, later came, and they closed, so now people like me have to take a chance to get their favorites from Ebay, Etsy or other sites or stores.  I guess the lesson here is get them while you still can to help make sure that the company will be there tomorrow.    

~~~ Lee~~~

Elaine Cox's Katie Card

I thought it was about time I posted something before all you bloggers think I bit the dust!  Now that school is about to start, I'm going to have much more free time available without the grandkids. :o(

I've actually been making cards when I can, but I haven't posted them for awhile.  This card uses one of the Sweet Pea Stamps called Katie by the artist Elaine Cox.  I received this one from Jennifer Willis in a bloghop.  I love Elaine's images as well as sooooo many other ones offered by Sweet Pea Stamps.  I could easily spend every dollar I have buying all of these gorgeous stamps!

This image was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Prismas blended with OMS.  Who couldn't resist added a little sparkle to the leaves with a bit of Stickles.  You probably can't see it from the pics, but I used Glossy Accents on her eyes to give them a bit more depth.  The border was cut out with a Fiskars leaf border punch with some Stickles on it to tie it into the leaves on the image.  The mulberry paper matting was added to add more of an organic feel to the card.  To fray the mulberry paper, all you need to do is run a wet paintbrush around the edges, and then you pull the paper away around the wet sections.

I've been hoarding this gorgeous design paper from the DCWV Once Upon a Time paper stack, but I had to use it with this gorgeous image.  The leaves are embossed paper charms called Artsy Additions from HOTP.  All of the edges of the papers were inked with Tea Dye Distress Ink.  What's an earthy image like this without a bunch of fibers and ribbons from my stash?  It was also time to break out my stash of beads and start using them.

~~~Lee~~~

Supplies:
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Tea Dye Distress Ink
Color:  Prismacolor Colored Pencils
Dimension:  Glossy Accents
Papers: DCWV Once Upon a Time, The Paper Studio, Mulberry by unknown
Glitter:  Stickles

Embellishments:  HOTP Artsy Additions, Fibers, Ribbons & Beads from my stash

Challenges:
Clear It Out Challenge - Glitter - 29
Craft Us Crazy - Anything Goes -1
The Corrosive Challenge Blog - Girlie - 27
Happileigh Scrappin' Challenge - Girly Girl - 28
Karen's Doodles - Use your punches and diecuts - 28
Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes - 1
Paper Playtime - Anything Goes - 26
Pollycraft Monday Challenges - Autumn Colors - 28
Shelley's Images - Show Us What You Got! - 24
Stamp Insanity - Anything Goes - 25
Stamps R Us Challenge Blog - Anything Goes - 4

1000 Sheets of Paper MEGA Blog Candy!

WOW!  Amy over at 1000 Sheets of Paper is at it again.  Not only is she offering 1000 sheets of paper this year again as blog candy, she is also offering some really awesome stamps from her favorite companies as an added prize!  She decided to break the 1000 sheets of paper into groups of 200 sheets each and I can see why when you see what 1000 sheets looks like: 

The mega prize she is offering is jam-packed with blogger lusciousness.  Take a peek here:

In case you can't see it all, here's what' included:

• Tickled Pink Lil Steampunk Lilith and others
• Kraftin Kimmie Clarabelle, sentiments and others
• The Emerald Fairies Larakins
• Some Odd Girl Balloon Kaylee and Mooey
• My Favorite Things Pure Innocence Book in Hand
• The Craft's Meow Frieda stamps
• Stamping Bella Arthur and Annie
• Unity/Bella Blvd house
• The Greeting Farm Wild Sprouts that I designed (Stella, Ruby, Chelsea and Gigi)
• CC Designs Birthday Gretel
• and a Sweet November stamp from each release of this past year (Raspberry Flitter Friend, Briar and Sonata, Princess Isadora, Splash and Wave, Penelope and Juniper, Gemini, Darby and Dazzle, Milk and Cookies Christmas boy, Neva snowflake fairy, Fairwee Josie, jar and sentiments)

Random commenters also have a chance to win some more prizes like the one pictured below.

Since I can't possibly win all of these goodies myself, you will want to hop on over to 1000 Sheets of Paper by September 23rd if you want to have a chance to win any of these goodies!

~~~Lee~~~

Happy 4th of July!

Please take a moment today to remember those that are still fighting to make this celebration of freedom continue today.  We tend to take so much for granted.  When you're like me and have a servicemember in your family, it helps to remind you what this group of people have to sacrifice to continue to protect our freedoms.

I finally decided to post a card!  I wanted to make some cards for Operation Write Home that could be used for everyday, but yet conveys a patriotic message.  I think this card fits the bill!

You don't have to use patriotic design papers to make a patriotic card.  The design papers I used on this card are from the Winter Wonderland Specialty Pack from K & Company.  Look through that stash of papers that you've been hoarding and start using them!  It's hard to show all of the shimmer of these papers, but here's another angle:

Have a safe and happy 4th!   

REMINDER: More animals end up lost and in shelters on July 4th than any other day of the year. You can help by: 1. Keeping animals inside. 2. Create a calm environment for them with music, fans, etc. 3. Have updated ID tags on all animals and microchip.

~~~Lee~~~

Supplies:

Design Paper:  K & Company Winter Wonderland Specialty Pack,The Paper Company Cool Metallic
Cardstock:  Unknown Red High Gloss

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black

Ribbon:  K & Company Smitten Adhesive Paper Ribbon
Stamps:  $1 Rock On set, portion of sayings from Clear Breast Cancer set
Punches:  Martha Stewart Star Hand punches
Adhesive:  Ad Tech

Challenges:

Alota Rubber Stamps, Alota 62- The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics (...whose broad stripes and bright stars...) 7/9

Amber's Crafts and Stuff - Red, White and Blue 7/6

Come and Get It Challenges - Patriotic 7/9

Crafting For All Seasons - Red, White & Blue  7/6

Creative Inspirations Challenge - Red, White & Blue 7/8
CS Designs Challenge - Red, White & Blue 7/31   I won honorable mention for July!!!!
Digi Stamps 4 Joy - Red White & Blue 7/6
Ellephantastic Challenges - Celebration 8/5
Fairy Tale Challenge Blog #18 - America  7/8
Heart Song Inspirations - Red, white and blue and/or paper piecing.  7/9

Little Red Wagon - Patriotic  7/6

Mark's Finest Paper - Patriotic  7/9

Off the Wall Craftiness - Red, white & any shade of blue  7/7

Photo inspiration to the left for Off the Wall Craftiness
Pattie's Creations Design Challenge - Colors of Your Flag - Red/White & Blue 7/14

Pixie Dust Studio - "Be Proud" Red, white & blue with optional stars  7/6
Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog - Red, White & Blue and patriotic  7/7
The Shabby Tea Room - Happy Fourth of July photo inspiration  7/8
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Saturdays - Stars & Stripes  7/8
Sugar Creek Hollow - Patriotic with your country's colors  7/8