Celebrating 3 Years at The Play Date Cafe !

This sentiment says it all !

We are celebrating over at

Where has the time gone ? ? ?

Just three short years ago, my UK bestie

Sarah Anderson and I shared this challenge with the world

and we never looked back !

{by the way . . . she will be joining us on Monday, Oct 22nd}

There have been many, MANY changes since then

but the challenge remains the same.

To interpret the colors as YOU see them

and enter whatever type of project you'd like.

With celebration comes more changes beginning

with a whole new look !

We would love for you to take our brand new badge

and place it on your blog with a link to The Cafe.

During the next 5 days, our designers will be visiting blogs

watching for our badge.  Randomly, we will hand out prizes

when we see it.  Help us reach 2,000 followers and even

more prizes will be awarded !

Along with that, we have amazing sponsors who will be

sharing 15 prizes for our weekly winner & honorable mentions.

You'll find all these details and even MORE SURPRISES

over at The Cafe.

This week's colors are some of the boldest we've ever had !

I chose to take a very simple route putting them together using flowers

from Prima & a beautiful gem flourish from Zva Creative.

The sentiment is from FarmHouse Paper Company.

I hope you will make plans to join us for each of the next five days

as we celebrate.  We would love to have you *LIKE* us over

on Facebook and follow along on Twitter @ThePDCC

I want to say THANK YOU to all who have supported our challenge.

Whether you are a brand new, a long-time player

or just peek in for some inspiration . . .

It's all possible because of YOU !

Project Recipe:

Patterned Paper: Rondelle by Prima from StopandScrap.com

Stamps: Sugar Hill Autumn by Farmhouse Paper Company

Embellishments: gem flourish by Zva Creative

flowers by Prima

Countdown to a Celebration!

Please Scroll Down for the

EAD DESIGNS BLOG HOP

Hello !

I'm back again with an uber-quick post.

I didn't have a chance to share the card I created for the current

challenge over at The Play Date Cafe due to a minor accident

involving my husband Paul last Wednesday evening.

I chatted with several of you over on Facebook, but long story short . . .

We were at Home Depot searching for some finished wood to use

as a base for our brand new 60-gallon freshwater aquarium.

The clerk asked Paul to help him move a few of the sheets

and on sheet #2, Paul lifted his head and cut it open on a metal

bracket above.  Needless to say, stitches were put in and the

evening got away from me.  Well, the rest of the week into

the weekend got away from me.

He is doing well now and I thank you for your kind

thoughts, messages and prayers, both on facebook

and via email.  It is always such a blessing to know I am

in a community of caring folks.

So here is this week's challenge

and here is my interpretation

I love this new paper from Prima's Rondelle collection.

As soon as I got my 6x6 pad in from StopandScrap.com,

I knew I wanted to use it for this challenge.

I created my frame using a Spellbinders die & matching

pearl Nestabling from Want2Scrap. I used a fab tiny print

stamp from Glitz Design and stamped it on the diagonal.

The sentiment is from PTI.

I really hope you will make plans to join us this Thursday, October 18th

as The Play Date Cafe celebrates it 3rd Anniversary.

We will party for FIVE days with . . .

alumni designers

 fabulous sponsors

and

great surprises

We are working hard to reach a milestone

2,000 follower mark

and prizes will be involved !

So I hope you will stop by and sign on to follow

{if you aren't already}

because we'd love to have you !

Project Recipe:

Cardstock: Gina K Designs & American Crafts

Patterned Paper: Rondelle by Prima

Stamps: Glitz Design & PaperTrey Ink

Tools:  Fancy Tags Two die by Spellbinders, Big Shot

Embellishments: Nestabling by Want2Scrap

gems by KandCompany

Celebrate!

It is Monday indeed and time for this week's

If you are hopping with us, you will have come by way of

Judith's blog Jay Gee's Nook

If not, it's only a few steps back to join us from the start at the

EAD Designs blog

Last week, the sad announcement was made that EAD

would be closing their 'web' doors this month.

I will miss my Monday visits via our blog hop  : (

This is such a fun, geometric Stickerz set from EAD called

'Your Birthday'

I love the idea of bold, black graphics with red, don't you ?

I kept this really clean and SIMPLE for sure, as I used

Bazzill's swiss dot cardstock, so no embossing for me !

I embellished with the additional gems and that's it !

I also used this set on my Halloween card a couple

weeks ago and thought I would share it here, just in

case you missed it.  I love the 'bubbles' !

You can read all about it HERE

Here is the terrific set I used

 

It's time to send you on your way to

Liz's blog Liz's Paper Loft

I hope you enjoyed your visit and I hope

you'll stop by again soon

Project Recipe:

Cardstock: Gina K Designs & Bazzill

Embellishments: Your Birthday Stickerz by EAD Designs

gems by Recollections

 

 

Halloween Make a Wish

Happy Monday and welcome to this week's

You may have heard the sad news that EAD Designs will

be closing at the end of the month, so our design team is

savoring each week as we wind down our blog hops.

Hopefully, you joined me from

Judith's blog Jay Gee's Nook

If not, I invite you to join us from the beginning at the

EAD Designs Blog

I have had so much fun this season creating Halloween cards

and EAD is a BIG reason . . . just LOOK at this guy ! ! !

To create this card, I focused on the fun Stickerz set called

'Halloween Owls'

I just love that star hanging and thought it would be great to

add dimension by adding star gems and tiny rhinestones.

The sparkling stars next to the owl magician are from the

'Hocus Pocus' Stickerz set.

The sentiment is from the 'Birthday Sentiments' Stickerz set.

The final day to place orders is October 21st

so make sure you get your order in quickly!

Remember . . .

It's time to send you on your way to

Liz's Paper Loft

I hope you enjoyed your visit today and

I look forward to seeing you again soon !

Project Recipe:

Cardstock: Gina K Designs

Embellishments: Hocus Pocus, Halloween Owls & Birthday Sentiments Stickerz 

all by EAD Designs

star gems from White Blossom

Happy WCMD & Happy Autumn Too!

Welcome to Julie's Open Window !

I hope you are joining in the celebration of

I have plans to create cards for most of the day today and

hope to be back to share more a bit later.

I'm sharing a couple card created today using stamps

and embellishments from teams I love being a part of.

It's time to celebrate autumn here in Northern Illinois

This first card was created with a lot of paper-piecing and yet I

kept it very clean and simple.

I used stamps from TCM's 'Happy Fall'  'Golden Days'

along with fabby paper from Simple Stories 'Harvest Lane'

{which I received from StopandScrap.com}

Boy, Oh Boy . . . was this guy a hoot to create !

I love autumn scarecrows.  I think it's because my grandmother made me

a life-size couple nearly 20 years ago.  Their names are Alice (my grandma)

and Earl (my grandpa) and I adore them.

I simply stamped this guy from the 'Happy Fall' set and embellished

the heck out of him !  LOL

I colored him with Copic markers, used Stickles for the sparkle

and his 'straw' was created using baker's twine in Ocean & Mandarin

from The Twinery.

This last card is just a reminder project.

If you love to play with color and you love a good challenge,

we'd love to invite you to play with us over at

If you would like to see the original post of this card
featuring stamps from Gina K Designs, simply CLICK HERE

Guess who's sponsoring this week . . . ?

 So thankful you stopped by !
I have loads of projects to share and am in the middle of
creating a few more as well, so I hope you will stop by
later on today and enjoy your journey !

Scarecrow Project Recipe:

Patterned Paper: So Sophie by My Mind's Eye

Stamps: Happy Fall, Fall Blessings by The Craft's Meow 
Embellishments: baker's twine in Mandarin & Ocean
from The Twinery 
Stickles by Ranger

True Colors Project Recipe:

Patterned Paper: Harvest Lane by Simple Stories

Stamps: Happy Fall, Golden Days by The Craft's Meow

'Plum' Good

It's time for another 'splash' of color over at

I love this photo and I love 'plum'

I cannot believe I traveled all the way to Christmas with this card,

but I ordered some new Gina K Designs stamps and couldn't

wait to play with them.  As soon as I saw the splash, I knew what

I wanted to do.  I used new paper from FarmHouse Paper Company

called 'Fair Skies' {ordered from StopandScrap.com} and the

shade was perfect.

The little bows are baker's twine from The Twinery and always

make a nice little embellishment.  I used Charcoal and Lilac.

I love CAS for Christmas !

This week, we welcome a brand new sponsor to The Cafe

and we welcome a brand new designer to our team !

So make sure you join us in The Cafe this week.

One more thing . . . 

In two weeks time, we will be celebrating our

THIRD ANNIVERSARY

at

The Play Date Cafe

and I am super excited about all the festivities.

I can't reveal anything now, but suffice to say, there will be

lots of great giveaways, five days of posts and some

terrific surprises.

If you are not yet a follower there, we encourage you to

become one.  We are aiming for 2,000 followers by then.

What a great milestone that would be!

Mark your calendar & spread the word!

Project Recipe:

Patterned Paper: Fair Skies by FarmHouse Paper Company

from StopandScrap.com
Stamps: Ornamental Holiday by Gina K Designs

Embellishments: baker's twine in Charcoal & Lilac by The Twinery

gems by Recollections

Hocus Pocus!

For some very *JUICY* news
scroll on down !

Happy Monday!

It's time for our usual get-together with the designers of

If you've come by way of

Judith's blog Jay Gee's Nook

then you are in the perfect spot.

If not, we'd love to have you go back to the

EAD Designs blog

and get started there.

I haven't made many Halloween cards yet and it's one of my

favorite things to make during the season.

I love the colors and the fun themes and for this card, I mixed

two sets of 'Stickerz' from EAD . . .

'Hocus Pocus' and 'Your Birthday'

The only additions to the card is everyone's favorite

 'Drippy Goo' punch from Martha Stewart and a

few tiny rhinestones.

Here are the sets I used . . . 

It's time to send you on your way to

Liz's blog Liz's Paper Loft

Hope you enjoyed your visit.

It was lovely to see you.

Make sure you leave a little love before you move on

and you could be this week's winner !

Project Recipe:

Embellishments: Hocus Pocus & Your Birthday Stickerz by EAD Designs

gems from Recollections

Tools: Drippy Goo border punch by Martha Stewart

Something 'Juicy' to Share . . .

Fresh Squeezed Stamps - the name says it all!  I’m so excited to introduce you to this brand new clear stamp company owned by my friends Ryann Salamon and Shannon Fralish.  They’re launching their new company today, October 1^st, and have a weeklong celebration planned with fantastic guest designers, giveaways and more!  The Fresh Squeezed Stamps website (www.freshsqueezedstamps.com) goes live on Saturday, October 6, just in time for World Card Making Day. There are lots of fun and specials going on, so be sure and visit their blog every day this week and their website on Saturday to pick up the very first four sets!

To celebrate, we have a giveaway going on right here!  Fresh Squeezed Stamps is giving away one of their brand new stamp sets to four lucky winners!  All you have to do is use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter every day, so there are lots of chances to win a free set

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The winners will be announced on Fresh Squeezed Stamps’ blog, website and Facebook page on Saturday, October 6.  Stop by and tell them Julie Ranae sent you!  Congratulations Fresh Squeezed Stamps! 

Project Recipe:

Cardstock: Gina K Designs, Bazzill

Stamps: Fresh Squeezed Stamps 
Tools: Cloud & Rainbow dies by Lil' Inker Designs