Secret Santa

TheBugbytes team and She's A Sassy Lady team held together two events. One was the Christmas tag swap and the other was the Secret Santa. Our budget was around $15 of crafty items.
I was Santa for Karon. Hope she liked what I sent her. She is such a sweetie and an such a talented designer . She designs in both our blogs.
My Santa was  a dear friend Kelly Millet . She sent me my Santa gift all the way from UK .
We have not met in person but we have for sure chatted virtually. We first met (virtually of course) through the cricut MB while hunting cartridges lol. We now share our love of coloring stamps . You should drop in her blog and see her projects.
Ok now on to the photos of all my goodies.

Here is the elegant card she made for me.

She sent me the goodies in this box and wrapped up in these lovely gift wrap

And here are the embellishments she sent

Flat Backed Adhesive  Pearls

Prima leaves

Prime flowers

Brads and Buttons

Lettered Beads

Beautiful Brass charms

Ribbons and lace

Isn't that awesome. Thank you Kelly. I love it.

I also want to share other goodies I got

Adele   from http://www.adelescreations.com/ & http://adelescraftyplace.blogspot.com/ -
also a designer at both TheBugbytes and Sassylady - sent me this lovely card calender. Thank you Adele. I have it on my kitchen stand

And I also want to share what Sheila sent me for my birthday. Yep more goodies. Thank you Sheila

A cute shaped card

Note and foam cling

Some flower

Some brads

A 6x 6 Authentique pad and K& Company sticker

2 CTMH stamps

I love love all the goodies. I am off to enjoy my hoard. Do share what crafty stuff you all got this Holiday!

There's something magical about Christmas - DS4J Challenge #57

Hi
This is Pam and we have a challenge back at DS4J

Challenge #57 -THEME : 'Christmas Fantasy ... There's something magical about Christmas'

Yes there is something Magical about Christmas isn't there?
I decided to do a card in simple clean style. Hope I did have some success with it as this is outside my comfort zone. My style is more organic (ha ha ha)

The pattern paper is from dcwv stack
The poinsettia were cut using spellbinder die and then the edges dipped in versamark and then heat embossed. I also used dipped a perfect medium pen in versamark and drew some veins on leaf and petals and heat embossed
The digi image is Poinsettia candles from DS4J shop and colored with copics.
I liked the way my shadow coloring turned out. Remembered what Colleen Schaan taught us :). Love the way she teaches.
Some pearls and gold ribbon embellishment and there you have a simple card.

Now go and make a project and head on over to DS4J and post your project in the linky there. Aren't challenges so fun?

I am entering mine in some too :)

1) http://simplycreatechallenges.blogspot.com/2012/12/14-linky-party.html
2) http://stampyourlifeblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/stamp-your-life-challenge-1.html
3) http://cardsgalorechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/december-challenge.html
4) http://natalieandamy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/winter-wishes.html

Butterfly

There was a new release at DS4J this week and I loved the frame in the release. I also had this butterfly image which I loved. It somehow screamed stained glass to me so decided to do a card

I colored with copics and spica and the die set is from marianne creatables which I got from http://dutchpapercrafts.blogspot.com/ . I love getting from her and she ships fast.

 I am entering this project  in these challenges

1) http://www.craftybloggersnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/12/challenge-6-sponsored-by-sassy-studio.html
2) http://simplycreatechallenges.blogspot.com/2012/12/14-linky-party.html

Box Card

I made this box card for my elfster in the secret santa exchange which was held for thebugbytes and shesasassylady blogs. I can share as I now know my elftser received it :)
I saw a couple of these videos in youtube on how to make it and decided that I would much rather like to cut it out in silhouette and so decided to make a silhouette file which of course I am sharing
Search for box cards to watch. I love interactive cards and this one was for sure fun to make
The kraft pattern paper is from hobby lobby I think the paper Studio brand. The medallion is from a fiskar stamp and cut with scallop circle spellbinder die. The ribbon I got from an online brad shop. I attached the medallion on top of belly band and not the card itself

And of course I needed to put some tags in it. All cut out with silhouette SD print and cut feature (from silhouette files which I modified)

It does conveniently fit in a standard envelope. If you want to grab the file (just the card basic)- look under the main tab under silhouette files

Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer!

Hello This is Pam from Papillon Digital Designs & The BugBytes today on Shes a Sassylady.
Thank you Sheila for having us in your design team and allowing us to post in your fun blog!
For today I have a card for you.

This cute digi image is from instyle stamps which came along with lots of images in a cd. Love this reindeer and had to color him. I decided to experiment and get bold with the background and colored the sky pretty dark . Colored with copics of course. The dark sky is using the B6 family ie B60-B69. Then it is feathered to V0 family and finally to YR0. While using copics I generally keep a scrap paper (a piece from the same kind of paper which I color and see how the colors blend and look by scratching in that) Guess the scratch paper practice stuck with me from watercolor days as my instructor used to ask us always to try on that before putting the brush on actual paper.

Well here is the card

The orange paper is really glittery and shiny

I have used Marianna Designables on the coredinations cardstock. Love how I can cut and emboss with it. I think the one I used is DS0907.  Then I rubbed the embossed paper with sandpaper to expose the white core.I have also used EK Success swirl punch on the edge. The reindeer image did not come with a background so I just sketched the snow and tree in.  I added some white snow with opaque white paint. I did add some glitter to the snow but you cant see it quite well in the photo. Some ribbons  and rhinestones to embellish. I punched out a snowflake from a paper to add as a medallion on the white ribbon. A Teressa Collins brad on the bow and a sentiment on the label inside completes the card.
Thank you Sheila once again and thank you readers for reading this post.
 Happy Holidays

Diva Gwendoline

Had to play with this new release digi from digistamps4Joy called Gwendoline

I have long wanted to do a step card but never tried it before so I decided to play with silhouette sd and design one. Of course I will load the the silhouette file for step card template in my blog. You can find it under the tab from main tab menu under silhouette files.

Here is the card using diva Gwen and colored using copics

The card is cut using silhouette SD. The pattern paper is a digi pattern from silhouette store and the butterfly and sentiments and the flowers and swirls and banners are all from silhouette store. You will recognize the small snowflake from yesterday's project. Had to use it again.
I will be entering this in a couple of challenges.
1) http://www.craftdoormagazine.com/2012/12/ttcrd-47-december-4th-10th.html
2) http://thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-pink-elephant-challenge-tpe177.html

Digistamps4Joy - Challenge #56 - Baby It is Cold Outside

Hello
This is my first design team project for Digistamps4Joy
It's a Recipe Challenge

THEME : 'BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE'

The Recipe is - use 1 image, 2 patterned papers, and three snowflakes.

Challenge runs from 5-18 December 2012

and

As usual there are some goodies up for grabs 

The randomly drawn winner will win THREE images of your choice from the store, and 2 runners up 1 image each.  

Of course, if you use a Digistamps4Joy image, you could win the big prize of $10 of images, and could be chosen as our Guest Designer!

so try your hand and link up your project at Digistamps4Joy

So here is my card for the challenge

and the inside of the card

Ingredients:

Paper : Cardstock from Hobby lobby - Paper studio ; Pattern paper - DCWV - dots, stripes and plaids and 2nd pattern paper is from cosmo cricket - digi paper - circa.
Digi stamp - Digistamps4Joy - cold cutie
Copics for coloring
Acrylic stamps - Pink stamper - winter punnies
Dies used - Spellbinder Oval, Spellbinder oval scallop, Spellbinder Spin from the cut fold and tuck line (center snowflake medallion); Spellbinder label; Memory box swirly tree; Cheery Lynn designs pine leaf
Misc: 2 small snowflakes created using kaleidoscope kreator software - filigree and cut using Silhouette Sd; Ribbon and twine; Rhinestones; ink; Flock and glitter for snow



I colored the cute digi  from Digistamps4Joy using copics and then cut her out leaving a little white around edge and leaving the part near her foot uncut. After cutting the nesting ovals I  laid the image onto the inner oval and cut the bottom in same shape to fit the curved oval. Then I added flock and glitter to create the snow effect. The center medallion snowflake is spellbinder cut fold and tuck die. Love it. The other 2 snowflakes were created using kaleidoscope kreator - filigree. The sentiments are using my pink stamper stamps. the backgroung white swirly tree is cut using memory box die and also glittered.


Do visit http://digistamps4joy-sa.blogspot.com/ and take part in the fun challenge using the recipe - 1 image; 2 pattern paper and 3 snowflakes!


I am entering this in some challenges
1) http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/
2) http://nomatterwhichchallenges.blogspot.com/
3) http://dutchdare-cardchallenges.blogspot.com/
4) http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.com/



Thank you for visiting and reading.

Design Team Digistamps4Joy

I am so glad that I was chosen to be on the design team of http://digistamps4joy-sa.blogspot.com/.
I can't wait to begin. As you know I love coloring and digi images and am so looking forward to  meet the rest of my design team members and start playing with these lovely digi images.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

Had to make some cards. The images are from Sassy Cheryl. Love these 2 cute images. My son wanted a boy card but couldn't resist the other cute girl image.
The pattern papers are all digi papers from cosmo cricket - from jessica sprague which I got way back. I think they are from circa pack and everlasting pack.

1st card

2nd Card

Christmas tag swap

Sheila from http://shesasassylady.blogspot.com/ and myself ie from http://www.thebugbytes.com/ decided to hold a tag swap for Christmas for both our designers ( in US only this time). 15 took part including Sheila and myself.
The requirement of the tag was that it had to be approx -  6 1/4"x 3 1/8 and not too bulky while layering so that 15 of them should fit inside a small usps flat rate box. Theme was Holidays

Here is a list of all the lovely designers who took part in this awesome tag swap

1) Sheila - http://shesasassylady.blogspot.com/

2) Lori - http://scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/

3) Cricut couple - http://cricutcouple.blogspot.com/

4) Elizabeth –   http://217creations.blogspot.com/

5)   Melissa - http://melissamade2.blogspot.com/

6)   Michelle -  http://ladyofleisureink.blogspot.com/      
7)   Jeannie - http://nonnasscraps.blogspot.com/      
8)   Beth -  http://thunderbirdlindybydesign.blogspot.com/

9)   Lisa -  http://momtooneson.blogspot.com/
10)  Denine - http://www.pumpkinspiceblog.blogspot.com/    
11)  Carolyn - http://cccscraproom.blogspot.com/      
12)  Charlotte - http://alittlebitofdetail.blogspot.com/      
13) Jennie - http://javajencreations.blogspot.com/      
14)  Cheryl - www.cherylswindow.com
15) Pam - http://www.thebugbytes.com & http://papillondigitaldesigns.com/

Now to the eye candy part - Here are the tags which came to me. Since Sheila has been a little busy she did the communicating role and I did the shipping part of it. So I should say I saw all the tags first :) :). Yeah! You should have seen me shouting with joy as each box came home. Yep I did dance a jig when each one came. Couldn't wait for the last ones to come home to mama. I did not send emails back to the last few I got as I sneaked to post office posted them and dint mention I did so as to surprise them all ooh was it worth it! when I got the first excited email!!! What fun!! 
Ok enough of me blabbering! Here we go in the blog listed order

1) Sheila did this wonderful tag. The penguin wobbles as you can see from the blurring action. She also sent a tiny circle tag. That girl always goes the xtra mile doesn't she? Once again her blog - http://shesasassylady.blogspot.com/

  
2) Lori sent this cutie. Love the rich colors. Love that pretty blinged newsprint star  and how she cut the 25. Her blog - http://scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/ . Do read her blog post about the tags to see the details in the making of this tag - http://scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/2012/11/tag-swap-beauties.html

3) Cricut couple sent this wonderful tag. Love the colors chosen. That pink snowflaked paper is so so pretty. Their blog -  http://cricutcouple.blogspot.com/

4) Elizabeth aka makeupgirl217 from http://217creations.blogspot.com/ sent this tim holtzy tag. The background is canvas. Love the texture on this one and the way she weaved the wreath/garland around the reindeer's neck. And the jingle bell. Love it!

5) Melissa from http://melissamade2.blogspot.com/ sent this lovely colored tag. It is a flapped tag so that we can add a message inside. Love that reindeer with that big nose. Cute!. I also got a cute colored card in the box she sent me. How sweet! 

6) Michelle -  http://ladyofleisureink.blogspot.com/ sent this wonderful tag. Love that blue colors and the candy dots on the tree as ornaments and the snow texture. Awesome. She also sent me a very pretty card. I will share the card on another post along with Melissa's lovely card. I tell you I have seen our designer's work on the blog but they do not come close to seeing, holding and touching their wonderful creations in person!!
Michelle's tag came in the lovely sealable plastic cover with her blog and detail on the label used as closure. Isn't that a wonderful idea. I so loved it that I copied the idea . I ordered some bags for my tags too and printed on a avery label. So easy to design on their software and then print it out! And she has a blog post about all the lovely tags - http://ladyofleisureink.blogspot.com/2012/11/tags-galore-part-1.html

7) Here is Jeannie 's - http://nonnasscraps.blogspot.com/  Beautiful tag. Love the shape of the tag. Her layering style is awesome.I still enjoy looking at the card she once sent me. The layering in that was beautiful too. She is such a sweetie.

8) Beth aka thunderbirdlindy from  http://thunderbirdlindybydesign.blogspot.com/ sent this gorgeous tag. Love the blue color and the way she has attached the fence. That faux rosette is so cute (which I think is from the close to my heart artiste collection if I am not wrong) Awesome!

9) Love this action tag - another wobbler tag - this one an adorable elf from Lisa - http://momtooneson.blogspot.com/ .I love the texture she added o the string the elf holds. Awesome job Lisa

10)  Denine - http://www.pumpkinspiceblog.blogspot.com/ sent this little beauty. Don't  you love tree with those different pattern papers . I Love how she has used so many pattern paper but still they look unified!

11) Carolyn from http://cccscraproom.blogspot.com/  sent this lovely tags. So richly embellisshed. Head on to her blog to read her blog post about the tags if you want to see the items she used to make this awesome tag. So many stamps and dies for both the front and the back. Love it. http://cccscraproom.blogspot.com/2012/11/2012-christmas-tag-swap.html

12) Charlotte from http://alittlebitofdetail.blogspot.com/ sent this cute vintage tag. Love the colors. That blue is awesome against the beige/sand color and the reindeer die cut on that cute label with the bling is so perfect! 

13) And this gorgeous purple colored tag is from Jennie aka Javajen - http://javajencreations.blogspot.com/. Love that shade of violet/purple. The ribbon she has used is so cute!

14)  Cheryl from www.cherylswindow.com sent this gorgeous card. Ooh the texture on this one!. She is so good with multimedia ! This one is so rich in texture like Elizabeth's tag. Cheryl also has a lovely blog post up - http://cherylswindow.com/christmas-tag-swap-using-sizzix-eclips-and-stamp2cut/

And lastly my tag

The base is kraft recollection paper. The red pattern paper is a digi paper .  The bow and holly and the tag are all cut with silhouette.

Here are the elements in a composite file. While cutting I used different files for economically using the paper/cardstock

The image is from dover's. I stickled the snowy regions and the ornaments 

The ribbon (bordering the tags) is from an Indian roll I had. We generally sew this on to our dress - churidhar or saree blouses. The corner die cut is from spellbinder parisan accents. I added the tag and a jingle charm to the white ribbon which is actually eggshell seam binding. I used some pearl spray behind the bow for added embellishment. On the back of the tag I stamped a swirl, some lines from a tag stamp and a bit of sentiment - as a note area. All these were stamped using the tim holtz markers. I went over the edges and also some areas inside the stamped area with memento dew drop - platinum.

Well that took care of the tags. I also made a card to send along inside 

I cut the red paper using the zutter . When cutting bulk this comes in so handy. Then using my big shot pro and sizzix texturz plate from kit 13 - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GP34SS/ref=ox_ya_os_product I embossed the red cardstock. The snowflake border - isn't that so cute? I love it is from memorybox dies which I got from dutchpapercrafts. ooh the pretty tree is also from dutchpapercrafts and is a cheerylynn doily tree die  I think. Inside of the card I just punched 2 circles with a circle punch and used paper trey ink ticket collection stamp (with the coordinated die) . The Happy holiday part was from another stamp set also from paper trey ink I think. I punched a small heart in green CS using a heart punch and used the left over snowflakes from the border (sift through the die cut confetti before throwing them out lol). Most of the pearls on the tree and flakes were added using the viva decor  liquid pearl.

Now these tags deserved to be wrapped up with due respect before sending them off to their wonderful homes didn't they? So I used these lovely muslin bags from http://statelinebag.com/muslin-bags/premium/  . I stamped using versacraft black ink which can be used on fabric and wood - They are ssortment of stamps mostly  from paper trey ink and a few from CTMH I think. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00161Q1MI/ref=wms_ohs_product
Then I colored using copic markers and added some diamond stickles.

After dividing all the tags and I should say a special thank you for each designer as they thoughtfully sent me 15 sets Instead of just sending me 14 ie keeping their tag for themselves . This made the dividing and sorting so so easier!. Well to continue I put the tags in the bag and the bag inside another ziplock bag so that all the precious tags don't get waterlogged in case of inclement weather and put them in priority box and off they were sent to their loving homes. And here I sit atleast looking at all of them once a day and enjoying them :)