Friday, December 31, 2010

Challenges ...

There is a lot of talk about challenges going on around this place. The Ribbon Girl are kicking off a brand new year by sponsoring the *new* Just Magnolia and Hanglar Stanglar challenge this week so of course I had to make a card for it. It's an 'Anything Goes' challenge and I have used the sketch from Friday Sketchers too


(digital papers from this kit, flowers from here and ribbon, stickles and pins from the Ribbon Girl)

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

News and a Design Team Call ...

As some of you may know, you will be able to find challenges at 
By LORi Designs very very soon!!

Our first challenge will be on Thursday, January 6th and the only hint I can give is that 
it's our favorite kind of challenge..... a Color Challenge!!


Lori has decided to add to the BLD Design Team ...YAY!!!

The Challenges will be Bi-weekly through out January and then once we have our 
Challenge Team, they will go weekly!!
We are so excited and hope you all love the challenges.

DT Requirements:

You must be willing and able to commit to a 4 month term.

You must be able to meet deadlines.

You must be willing to post a weekly card to your own blog.

You must include a link back to By LORi Designs Shop in each post you post.

DT Benefits:

You will get digi images to use on your cards.

You will receive a 50% Discount on any digis purchased from BLD.


If you would like to apply for a position on the 
please link your name and blog to Mr. Linky 
HERE
The Call Closes on Thursday January the 20th

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Gift Boxes ...

Now that the Christmas rush to make cards and wrap presents is over and all I have to do to fill my holiday days is to munch on the odd chocolate and watch festive films on the television I am getting a headstart on some birthday cards and parcels for the next month or so - I am determined to be more organised in the birthday card department this year :)


This parcel is for a friend, the pillow box is made from this template from Sweet Shoppe Designs and the papers are from this digital kit. The silk ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl and I used the new Nellie dies that I bought before Christmas and a Magnolia stamp



Photographs aren't so good, had to take them indoors again - can't wait for spring :-)

There is still time to enter The Ribbon Girl/Lili of the Valley blog giveaway here

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

A New Stamp Designer ...

Today I finally got a chance to play with this delightful little stamp.  She is called Maggie and is by a new designer, Bug and Roo Stamps by Hannah Boyd. Sounds familiar? She is the teenage daughter of my lovely friend Lori Boyd and you can read all about her here.


I used the digital Sweet Summertime papers by another of my talented friends, Crystal Wilkerson and a simple satin ribbon from The Ribbon Girl. I resized the banner from Crystals element pack and added button twine from the Ribbon Girl and lots of stickles of course!


If you would like your own Maggie she is here  together with a few friends

Sunday, December 19, 2010

My 2011 Calendar (tutorial) ...

Hi, today I want to share my gorgeous 2011 calendar that I made - with the help of Nitwit Collections!

I used the digital calendar kit that Mary Fran designed here and supplemented it with a few pieces of patterned paper and some white cardstock. I don't know about you but we tend to use our calendars as mini filing cabinets :lol: Tickets to concerts get clipped to the appropriate month page, hospital appointment letters get paper clipped to the back etc. So really we need more than just a calendar, we need somewhere to  keep all those important pieces of paper safe too. I have adapted Mary Fran's calendar slightly to incorporate some cardstock pockets on the reverse of each month to store the documents and tickets.


Download the calendar kit, unzip and print out each month - I printed at 90% so that they would fit on an A4 piece of paper - then I cut them all out


 I used a sheet of A4 cardstock for each page of the calendar and scored about 4 inches from the bottom


When I folded it over it created a pocket (well at least the beginnings of a pocket) and I made the fold nice and crisp by using a bone folder to smooth along the edge


I glued my pages to the cardstock and then trimmed down one edge leaving a narrow border all around



I glued down each side of the flap and then folded it back over to secure the pocket


This is where I added some extra pieces of patterned paper to make the pockets look a little prettier (even though they won't be seen as they are on the back of each page, but pretty is good!)


I repeated the process of gluing, trimming and sticking for each calendar month

the fronts:


the backs:


To join the calendar pages together I used my Bind-It-All (but you could use bookrings and punched holes or even tie pretty ribbons through the holes)



From start to finish the calendar took less than 2 hours and it is so pretty, the pockets on the back just make it even more useful - we won't lose those important pieces of paper now!

Friday, December 17, 2010

News from By LORi Designs ...

Christmas Special 
starts right now at 

Every $10 order gets this Santa Digi Free.
This special will run from now until Christmas Eve!

This is Lori's gorgeous card

And this is my card


You want another Special to chose from?
Ok, Ok...here ya go
for a Limited Time Only...
Christmas Special
Christmas Bundle I (Reg. $5)
Christmas Tree (Reg. $2)
Tanner (Reg. $3)
Puddle Jumper Nativity (Reg. $5)
You can get all you see above for $10 and the Santa Digi Free.
This sale will end Sunday Night at Midnight EST.

Click Button Below to Purchase 



Many Thanks!!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

A Christmas Present ...

This year my brother has asked for an IKEA giftcard for Christmas as they just moved house and need to buy new furniture. So I had to make a giftcard holder for the card and doubled it up as his Christmas card and I'm entering it into the CPS challenge


 

I used more papers inside the card to make the little pocket for the giftcard


I used a new digital kit by Crystal Wilkerson called Merry and Bright as well as lovely satin ribbon from the Ribbon Girl and alphabet stickers from October Afternoon


Monday, December 13, 2010

Winter ...

Over at The Pink Elephant blog we have a team challenge to create a Winter themed project. For my project I created this cute snowman shaped card

The snowman is from the Nitwitville digital kit from Nitwit Collections and the sentiment stamp is from Lili Of The Valley

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Sunday Sketch

There is a new Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge at Karen's blog today, fab sketch and this is my take on it.

My card is for a lovely friend who had a baby girl last week, I couldn't fit the First Christmas sentiment onto the front of the card - I just *had* to use that gorgeous rose pink silk ribbon as soon as it was delivered this morning - so the sentiment is inside




The gorgeous papers and the fairy are from this new Nitwit Collections digital kit and that beautiful silk ribbon is from the Ribbon Girl. Lots of scallops, stickles and layers to finish it all off :)

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Sending You Truckloads of Love ...

This little truck is so sweet :) and I love my new extra large Nestabilities dies too :)


From the Nitwitville digital kit by Nitwit Collections

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Not A Christmas Card ...

Today I wanted to share a card that isn't a Christmas card


She is a little Puddle Jumper digital stamp from Lori Boyd and very sweet. I used my Papershapers retro flower punch (I still love this shape even though my punch is really old!) to punch through some corrugated kraft cardstock and the striped button and Divine Twine bakers twine are both from Ribbon Girl

Monday, December 06, 2010

More Cards, More Challenges ...

Well I went back to school today after a week of snow closures, I have some time to make up from when I didn't get in last week but I when I looked at the box of cards that I created during those snowy days I was really pleased. The snow where I live is mostly still here but it has also been joined by its friend thick ice and it is so cold that I can imagine it will be here for several weeks yet. Anyway, onto the cards that I wanted to share.

This first card is for the current Just Magnolia challenge, to add sparkle. Well sparkle should really be my middle name and I used my favourite stardust Stickles on all the edges as well as pretty Doodlebug glitter on the chipboard star. The little Magnolia was stamped with Jane's stamp when we got together for a crafty weekend with some friends. The red and white Divine Twine bakers twine, gingham ribbon and teeny tiny silver bells are all from Ribbon Girl and the papers are from this Nitwit digital kit


My second card for today is my entry into the Waltzingmouse Sketch challenge, I loved the sketch and decided to use a little giftcard pocket on the front of the card so that it becomes a giving card.

The papers are from this Sweet Shoppe digital kit and the silk ribbon, Stickles, pink Divine Twine bakers twine and more of those teeny tiny bells are from Ribbon Girl

More Christmas Cards ...

A couple more Christmas cards from me today


Sunday, December 05, 2010

Gift Wrap ...

Today is day 5 of the Chicken Soup 12 Days of Christmas recipe extravaganza and this time I am sharing this decorated gift box as my example for the theme of gift wrap

This is a horrid pink patchwork gift box under this lovely holly paper but it looks much nicer now that it's decorated and covered!

The tag is a wooden star and I coloured the silk ribbon with a Copic pen to tone in with the design. All the berries on the paper have been coloured with red Stickles glitter glue and the edges of the lid have all been covered in Stikles too so it's all glittery and sparkly

The papers are from a digital kit by Julie Billingsley called A Frosty Christmas

Saturday, December 04, 2010

Mwah!

Today is Day 4 in the Chicken Soup 12 Days of Christmas recipe extravaganza  and I get to share this card that I made for the theme of holly and ivy

I made the holly paper by stamping in red and green - I love how it turned out. All the stamps are from Waltzingmouse, the gingham ribbon is from Ribbon Girl, dies are Nestabilities and the felt is from Papertrey

Thursday, December 02, 2010

A Few Challenges ...

I have two cards for challenges today  - I took full advantage of being snowed in and spending the day at home!

The first card is for the Papertake Weekly challenge (a sketch) and the Lili Of The Valley challenge (create a card with your favourite tools/stamps)

These days I just can't imagine me making a card without either printed digital papers, nestabilities dies or beautiful Stardust Stickles so these are my favourite things. My sentiment stamp is a Lili Of The Valley greeting stamp and to be honest these are making their way onto lots of my cards too. It helps that I bought all 3 sets when I was at the NEC so I just about have every occasion covered!


My second card is for the 2 Sketches 4 You challenge blog (sketch) and
the ABC challenge blog (ice and snow theme)