Joyeux Noel

OK...so not only am I on the

'Christmas card designing' track, but

apparently I am loving all the bling that

can be used to really take it to another level!

When I saw the finale challenge for EBTKS,

I knew I had to put my newest acquisition to use.

TEXTURES!!!

I love the new 'Snowflake Impressabilities' from

Spellbinders.  I used it with Coordinations cardstock, so when

I sanded it, I got this great teal-y green affect.

Kind of reminds me of a velvet embossed sofa!

 I then took my terrific Prima Poinsettias and sprayed

them with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in

Bazzill Navajo, which I believe was a limited edition color.

The beautiful top card is from Fancy Pants Design.

I embellished with teardrop rhinestones and a

gigantic pearl center.  The black diamond

rhinestone flourish is from Prima as well.

The simple sentiment is from The Paper Company.

I am also offering this card over at 

Simon Says Stamp & Show ~ Holiday Greeting
There She Goes Challenge ~ Bring on the Bling

Well...I am off to make a few more things.
I am feeling a bit 'crafty' tonight.

News From The Open Window

Even though I haven't offered much in the way of posting this weekend, there has still been a lot going on. As I said yesterday, I have been gathering a bunch of new 'goodies' to have a little fun with. You may recognize the EF from Cuttlebug that I used on this card. I enjoyed doing something a bit simpler...just added a little 'bling' with a variety of rhinestones, pearls and glitter glue.

Let's see...what else did I want to share? OH! My new Artful Inkables stamps arrived and I know the rest of the design team are already working on some great projects. Also, mark your calendars because the AI BLOG HOP begins Saturday, August 15th! I will make sure I remind you this coming week, but you will not want to miss seeing the new stamp sets that will be available starting on that date and of course, if you participate in THE HOP, you just may win ALL 3 BRAND NEW STAMP SETS!

Tags for the tag swap have started arriving as well. The first batch are pretty cool! I know Caz in the UK also put hers in the post and Ross from Australia should have hers on the way as well. A very international swap to say the least. As soon as I get the entire collection, I will post a gallery photo for all to see.

I very excited for my friend Mona over at Cupcake's Creations. Her blog went through a facelift over the weekend and it looks FABULOUS (say it with a high, wavy lilt, please)! If you haven't checked out her blog yet, please do. I love the talent of this lady and you need to get to know her a little bit.....that's all I'm sayin' for now......

Last but not least, as we bloggers reach milestones with our blogs, blog candy offers become quite the big deal. I am nearing my 100th follower, so it won't be long and I have already started gathering some pretty cool stuff for you to win (can you say Martha Stewart?). But in the meantime, I wanted to mention a fellow blogger who is doing the same in honor of not only her 1ooth follower, but also she has had 25,000 visits to her blog. Congrats to Steph over at Where'd All My Money Go?!
Head on over and leave a comment of congratulations for quite an accomplishment.

That's it for now....I have so many more things to share with you about some play dates that we will be offering with you, but those announcements will have to wait just a bit longer...STAY TUNED!

Good Tuesday Morning

Just a quick little post this morning as I await the arrival of my 1 year old grandson for a play date! It's going to be an absolutely beautiful day, so I am going to take him on a little excursion in the car, then probably for a walk around the neighborhood, followed by lunch and then a nap. Not sure what he is going to do while I take the nap, but I am sure he will find something to play with in Mema's art studio!

As you can see I am still playing with the new Martha Stewart Loop punches. I see all sorts of possibilities coming with these little accessories! If you are like me, I have experienced some difficulties punching through cardstocks with some of her punches, but these have worked very well, so I hope you will give them a try. Again, I used Basic Grey papers and Martha pink topaz rhinestones, because they are the perfect match! Oh and of course, put 'the bug' to use with the Spellbinders scalloped circles and the Cuttlebug dotted EF.

Hope you are having a good start to your day (or a good ending for our overseas friends). I will be back a little later to share another new project with you.

Here's to Jury Duty, Paula Deen and New Friends!

I know we have a bit of time before we NEED Halloween cards, but for those of you who make and sell your creations, you know it's never too early to start.
I had fun with all the rhinestones on this project. The tree is from Penny Black Rubber Stamps and the greeting is Inkadinkado. Bo-Bunny's Mango Luau Dude provides the backdrop for this 'not-so-very-scary card. You'll find this one available in my Etsy store.



So I made it through my day 'on-call' for jury duty. They were able to choose the jury from the first 35 names called, so the other 65 or so of us did not have to be interviewed, but we did have to stay until the day was complete. I know for most, we realize jury duty is a right and a privilege. I believe that the hardest part is knowing that you may have to spend hours on end in one room and never get the call. Oh, and did I mention that you have to do it with approximately 100 total strangers?! Well I must say that today ended up being a pretty good time for 7 or 8 of us. We got our 'party' started at 9am sharp and continued until we were dismissed at 3pm. This group of women entered the room not knowing a thing about one another, but after getting acquainted in the morning, having a fabulous lunch together(our waitress was the spitting image of Paula Deen) and waiting out the rest of the afternoon for our name to be called (and that only happened for one of us), we were scheduling our 'jury duty reunion' for one year from today.

None of these girls were stampers....but that may change. One asked about my workshops, and then they passed around my stamping magazines. The next thing I know, I have all of their email addresses for my next round of classes. In fact, they said they would stop by The Open Window and take a look in, so if you're there girls A BIG HELLO FROM ME! I had a great day getting to know a little bit about all of you and I hope you will stop by often!

Better Late Than Never

For more great ideas using Martha's punches,
click here...here... 
and here...

 I am so excited about the new punches for the holidays by Martha Stewart that I am posting this after just finishing the project. My card uses the Punch Around the Page 'Loop' punches. I started with the corner loop, punched all four corners, then used the matching border and filled in the sides. Isn't it fun?! I am actually working on another square card that I hope to share with you tomorrow. I also used some Basic Grey papers, Martha Stewart Pink Topaz Rhinestones and the greeting is from Scrappy Cat (which by the way, all of the SC stamp sets are on clearance at Michael's right now for $2.49....half price!)

So guess who has jury duty tomorrow? I called ahead tonight to make sure that I still had to go....and I do. Believe me, I'm all about doing my civic duty, but when I could be at home playing with my stamps, well need I say more. The last time I was called up, my stamp store was in full operation and could not do without me, so I had to be excused. I have a completed project ready to share with you tomorrow night, just in case I have to spend the entire day at the court house.

I have been chatting back and forth with the new Design Team for Artful Inkables today and I can tell you that Kristen and the senior DT have some fabulous things for all of us to look forward to. Excitement is brewing over a new bi-weekly challenge that you will be able to participate in for 'free stuff' as well as our first blog hop that will feature the new releases from AI. The new sets should be in my mailbox any day and I am ready to go! So I hope you will stay tuned and I do look forward to you playing along with us!

One more thing....I had a terrific response to my hosting a color challenge here at The Open Window, so I am working on the details and hope to have that for you within the next couple of weeks.

Hope you had a great weekend....here's to a good first week of August! I will see you tomorrow.

BLOG CANDY GIVEAWAY! It's the Shoes...Always the Shoes!

Hey everyone....it's been a quiet couple of days here in blogland, so it's time to get ready for some fun and fashion!

This shoe card is a popular design for me. I have a couple for sale in my Etsy shop, but here is your chance to not only win the card, but I will send you enough shoes to make a dozen of your own creations, complete with rhinestone details! These shoes are all made from handmade paper from Thailand, so no two are ever alike.

In order to win, just leave a comment at the bottom of this post with a link to your blog. I will make a visit and choose my favorite blog from the list who left comments with their link. If you don't have a blog, you are more than welcome to nominate one (1) of your favorites. If that blog is chosen, you will receive the blog candy and I will send a little something to the blog owner. Deadline for this giveaway is Monday, July 13th at 6:00pm CST. Don't wait until the last minute....I'll need time to really give a look!

As always, I will throw in some extra goodies as well, so it's worth leaving your comment.
Good luck and let's have fun with this one!