Purple Valentines Blog Hop Giveaway

Thank you all for visiting and posting comments during this wonderful week of love.  I enjoyed reading all the wonderful comments so very much!   

So.......... I offer congratulations to the winner of the Purple Love tags:  Kris Dickinson

Welcome to the "Purple Blog Hop Giveaway". There is so much love all around us and when I was pondering what to create for this giveaway blog hop, I saw some tags for sale at the local scrapbook store, they were so cute, and perfect for the gift to give during this special blog hop, so....I thought I would make some purple love tags to share the love.

These tags were so fun to make. They're constructed out of three great shades of violet-purple. The tags feature a heart cut from embossed paper with a lovely flower on it's side. They express it all with love stamped across the bottom in black ink. To finish the tag a strand of baker's twine was inserted into the top.

Use these tags to send a personal love note, to dress a gift package or make them the start of a cute love banner. The set comes with five 3 inch wide tags. To receive a set of tags, simply leave a comment below this post and share what you would consider as the most romantic gift. Not only will I enjoy reading all your comments, there will be one lucky commenter who will win the set of 5 tags. The winner will be selected at random and posted on this blog February 15th.
If you haven't been to the Dean Designs blog,  please go, it is a lovely destination and it is the originating site for this fabulous blog hop!
Thanks for your visit, have a week filled with chocolate hearts and warm hugs!

Kung-Hsi Fa-Ts'ai

Cleaning house, washing clothes, doing hair, decorating, planning feast, Celebrate.
On the eve of the Chinese New Year, I am busy making the preparations to enjoy many Celebrations.
My first celebration is the Pink Saturday Celebration.
This week in learning & sharing cultures, several groups of Girl Scouts, here in the valley have painted fans for the new year. It was such a fun project, I also participated,  painting mine Pink in honor of this auspicious day!!

I will also be celebrating by making a trip to the Chinese market later in the day to pick up a box of fortune cookies and enjoy some Chinese Pancakes,while I am there. Chinese pancakes are wonderful. They are smaller in size and they are stuffed with the most delicious fillings. You may choose, coconut, custard or red bean paste. If you haven't tried them, please do, I highly recommend it.

This evening I will be celebrating among friends and perhaps playing some card games or just enjoying friends in fellowship and meaningful conversations.
Beverly at "How Sweet The Sound" is hosting many more friends celebrating Pink Saturday, so please take some time and visit these more of these wonderful friends as they share their Pink.

  Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful Pink Saturday and Kung Hsi Fa-Ts'ai.

Love is in the Air

Congratulations to the winner of the AR Customer Blog Hop: The blog hop winner came from Lynn's blog:  Jess
Welcome to stop 6 as you hop along this wonderful "Creations by AR" Customer Valentine's Day Blog Hop.

You have just come from a visit from Lynn's blog, so I hope you're having fun hopping along and discovering the fabulous templates that are available to you from Creations By AR. I was so excited that Lisa announced another customer blog hop. The templates are so easy to use and every project looks amazing when completed, I just had to join.

 Love really is in the air! 

When I signed up to participate, I had no idea what I wanted to create, after contemplation with the papers I wanted to use, I selected the the heart shaped box template with the planter template and created a little Valentine's Day treat that is so very sweet!

To make this wonderful Valentine's day favor, I used the small heart template and cut out 2 hearts, these were glues together with the right sides out and a pixie stick was inserted between them before the glue was dry.

Next came the planters, which is really ideal when used with double sided paper. My paper was single sided so I cut out two and then glued the two papers together. This produced a contrasting top for the planter.

This template assembled quickly and easily so I was able to make several favors for my valentine's day guests.

A little cube of floral foam was inserted into the planter to hold the Pixie stick in place and some small conversation hearts were then piled into the planter to hide the foam. A small tag stamped with the word valentine was made and attached to the Pixie stick with a pink gingham ribbon, this gives a little identity to each one of the favor's.

So easy to make and so very sweet to add to your table for this special day of Love!

I do hope you are commenting along the way and letting us know how much fun you're having visiting everyone on this blog hop! When the blog hop is over a winner will be selected from all the comments, so please comment along the way!  The lucky winner will receive a new template from AR! 
If you have been hopping in order, you have one more stop to make at Jennyfer's blog, so enjoy!
If you're a facebook user, please go to Creations By AR and Like her page!

Lisa Eisner - http://craftingwithprincesslisa.blogspot.com/

Diana Auberle - http://kreativfenster.blogspot.com/

Mary Roberson - http://handmadeheartfelt.wordpress.com/

Raissa Spatola - http://www.raissastamps.com/my_weblog/

Lynn - http://heavenlycrafts.blogspot.co.uk/

Gigi Lorenc - http://sunshinelollipopsandbutterflies.blogspot.com/

Jennyfer Leung - http://scrapalajen.blogspot.com/

Please leave a comment, I would love to read it...and remember that  a winner will be selected to receive a brand new template! Many thanks for coming by and good luck!

A Moo Moment

It was time to stop all things and take a few minutes to be creative and participate in the current Moo- Mania moo card challenge. The theme for this challenge is postage stamps, so I quickly found a few images and began creating a little collage. It was so fun I couldn't stop at one!

This moo card was put together using images from the wonderful Artchix studio and Graphics 45. The trim was purchased from the Daiso in San Francisco. It was fun creating this warm vintage card.

Of course. when being creative, why stop...just keep on going? This pretty moo card was created from a Artchix collage sheet, with a  flower and postage stamp that came from a collage element collection from Hot Off the Press. To finish the card a little pink German scrap was glues to each end.

 Of course, I had a creative moment while I was cleaning and organizing papers and created this fun Moo called Magic Slippers. Of course they were Ruby Slippers,weren't they?. I began to by using the back of the paper pad, so wonderful, never have to waste the packaging again! Oh isn't the lion so sweet, who needs courage when you are so darling!
 To participate in this moo challenge head on over to Moo-Mania, while you are there take the time view the large gallery of wonderful Moo Cards and join the fun!

Enio Bonchev - 2012 Rose oil production.avi

Bulgarian Rose is such a wonderful aroma. A truly enchanting scent. A marvelous ingredient in your Perfume, your lotion or even in your cup of tea. It is extremely feminine and the scent lingers and becomes very memorable.
It takes a great deal of rose petals to get oil and the process for harvesting is amazing. It is perfect to share on this Pink Saturday! For more wonderful pretty pink roses please visit Beverly at "How Sweet the Sound".
Thank you for sharing a wonderful moment with me this Pink Saturday!

Sweet Pink

It's been a wonderful week, with so many great events happening.
It's been raining here in the desert, which, when it does brings great joy to those who live here. When the rain occurs on the weekend it's very tempting to snuggle in a warm bed and sleep in, but not this girl, I was up and about.
Today was the day packages went out. Two wonderful visitors, who left comments, will receive envelopes with substrates and some collage elements to to create with! One Package to Ellen and one package to Birgit. I want to thank everyone who posted a comment on my last giveaway. An attempt to contact everyone was made to send a package to you, however there were several that did not respond or their link did not work.
Today, as a special event for Pink Saturday, I want to share a tiny china basket. This is so cute and petit, perfect to hold a special trinket, The basket is small and one one side features a tiny pink rose, with a tiny blue rose on the other side.

Pink Rose

Blue Rose

If you would like this small decoration, which would look lovely in a romantic vintage decorated room, please leave a comment on this post. I will pick a winner and announce it on next weeks Pink Saturday post!
Visiting others who participate in Pink Saturday is wonderful, so please visit Beverly, at How Sweet The Sound, who is sharing a vintage photo of herself and the real Beatrice, as well as many other beautiful bloggers!
Have a happy Pink Saturday!

The sweet side of swapping

Creating ATC's for a swap event is so enjoyable. From forming an idea, collecting the materials, and then building the card. It brings about a great feeling of accomplishment. Going to the event or receiving cards from a swap, however, is the most exciting part. It's like opening a box of chocolates! Each has it's own flavor! This months trade is no exception.
Now on to the cards.......

A wonderful card to share the love, wonderful embossing and UTEE! Covered in paint and ink. A true valentine!

 

This  fun card features a beautiful coy, dressed in a collage and coated in wax at it's best.

I love sassy girls and this one is a true party girl. When she arrived at the table the party really did start!

And to complete the set my own contribution.This chocolate and lime concoction, finished with a bow.
We did have fun and each of us left with a  great set of cards and a new challenge for next month!

It's A Pink Paper Doll Saturday!

It's no secret, I  have always enjoyed paper dolls. Whether they were babies, girls and boys, fashion dolls or home made, it didn't matter. Whenever there was an opportunity to create a paper doll, that opportunity had to be taken!
I am equally excited and jump at the opportunity to participate in paper doll swaps.
One of my favorites to swap, as I have posted, are the Artchix paper doll swaps. I love Helga's selection of paper dolls. They are so much fun to put together and alter. They are also a great way to to begin with paper dolls if you haven't created one yet and are looking for a fun first project.
If you already enjoy creating and altering paper dolls , to play with or to use in an altered project, there is a vast selection from which to choose.

Paper Thin Personas have 312 pages of printable paper dolls. There are several dolls in several series here.

They are charming. They are both in color and as line drawings, so they can be colored or altered.
There are also the brad jointed dolls jointed that can be put together and played with or they can be magnificently altered. This is a fine example from  Evelyn's Blog. There are some wonderful images of vintage articulated paper dolls to enjoy.

Feeling like creating a jointed paper doll for a trade. There is a wonderful selection of templates at the Enchanted Gallery. I really enjoy these, as they are larger to work with and you can get really collage crazy with these!
If you are looking for a little Pink and red Valentine's Day fun, Tipjunkie has an adorable collection of paper dolls that can be cut and created very quickly! “Little Lisha” from Tricia Rennea.

Today I have made some mini darlings with a pink wardrobe to celebrate this wonderful Pink Saturday! I began with a small paper doll template created by American Girl, which is no longer available. I added the charming faces from a Hero Arts Stamp, "Faces of Friendship"
I used the clothes page from the American Girl template as the patterns and cut out some simple pink clothes for these dollies to wear! They are so fun to make and create! They each have a little pink stand too!

Thank you for coming by this Pink Saturday to share in the wonderful Pink celebration.I hope you catch the paper doll fever!  Please take some time and go to Beverly's How Sweet The Sound, to see and enjoy the many other wonderful Pink Saturday posts.

Share the Love

 There is a fabulous group of women in the valley that have been meeting once a month on Saturday morning to share art. It was my fortune to have joined them. It is a pleasure that I look forward to. Each month  a challenge is announced and we go home and create an ATC for each member to swap. I have posted these cards several times in the past with so much enthusiasm. We sometimes create a project together on the spot and we talk about the latest and greatest products on the market. We also share a little of our lives with each other, which I cherish deeply.
This past year it has been very difficult to meet up with these sweethearts, but last month I was so happy to do so. We had a grab bag swap and we exchanged our holiday inspired ATC's.
This month I am a few days ahead of the game, as I am usually rushing around on a Friday night looking for bits and pieces to complete my project, not fulling completing it until I rush out the door the next morning , blowing on the stickles to get it dry before I arrive at event.
This month the only requirement was to use the cardboard substrate. So this is where I began. I had a collection of paper and embellishments in a little bag so I went with the heart theme and created my art from  this find.

 

The substrates are covered with a fun group of background paper. 

The paper was sheeted as a 6x6, there was one of  3 different prints to work with.

More paper was used to create hearts and patterned strips.

These were glued on, after a brown string was was wrapped and tied around the card.

There was a a wonderful sheet of stickers to use, there are so many wonderful inspiring words, among them are believe, scatter joy, love dream and create.

The finished cards are small pieces of joy! I so hope the recipients will be happy with these cards to add to their growing collections! Such an inspiration to share the love.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Feeling the shivers this week is something that doesn't occur often, but this week, baby it's cold outside.
A picture will speak a thousand words~and yes~ this is a picture of a house in Arizona!

I was out and about looking for some pink to share and found this house, complete with roof to ground icicles, all around, on my way. This house, not mine, is up in the White Mountain Area of Arizona! It was actually a Sunny day, but the freezing temperatures made it look overcast and cold!

I was wishing during this trip I had one of my knitted scarfs. So this past week I picked up a pair of knitting needles and completed this warm scarf. When I showed it to a friend,  I was informed that it was an infinity scarf.

It was easy to make, a perfect project for a beginner.

• 1 pair of knitting needles, a size 15 U.S. was used here
• 2 balls of Patons bobbly yarn, any color
• 1 Bodkin to sew ends 

Cast on 16 stitches and proceed to knit every row. When you come to the end of the second ball, cast off and sew the ends together. Slip over your neck and model your new accessory!

Now that you're going to be warm when you go out, you can go out and about to shop. If happen to be in the northern part of Arizona, you can explore the second hand shops and Antique stores, This one actually caught my eye:

I thought that this little pink trailer would be perfect to hitch on to my pearly white Vespa. What do you think? Adorable, perfect to take on little overnights. It is in the garden of this yard. What do you think about the little bench made out of the headboard? I think that it needs a little more pink- and maybe some sweet flowers!

There is more sweet Pink today so please visit Beverly at "How Sweet the Sound", where you can delight the eye with some great Pink Saturday finds!

I now would like to thank everyone who came for a visit last week. I appreciate and thank you for your visit and comments.
I will email each one of you for your address, so I can send you an envelope with substrates and goodies to create some ATC'S or moo cards!

It being Saturday, I am going to run out to the orange groves to purchase some delicious oranges picked right from the tree! Life is wonderful! Enjoy!

Do I Hear Bells?

It's fun to ring in a new year. Plans are made, goals listed and happiness abounds. Each year goals are created for a positive course to follow and it usually goes smooth for a while and after the first few weeks new things appear that delight the eye and the plans change and the goals are altered. 

Last year I had set out in the beginning to use all the stash I had accumulated over the past years, but before spring arrived I had moved homes and this had me either boxing or leaving many of the supplies I had accumulated over the years.  This year my goals are a little more simplified. I plan to make a little creative space every day and to finish those projects already started and then to created some fun new artistic items that I have always wanted to create, but never got to try!                                                                   Recently I have unpacked quite a few of the things I was able to bring and happily have been able to be have a little creative time. So I gathered some supplies to assemble some ATC's. I have wanted to create some girlie girl cards for some time and am delighted to share them here.

Marie

I had great fun finding little bits to add to this image of Marie. I wanted to her to be embellished in pink!

Creating Paris themed cards are great fun. There is always an idea of art, culture and romance. Images to create Paris art are plentiful, too!

This ATC was made for a special friend. I was inspired by the lovely Dior stockings I used to purchase from France. They were lovely and so very feminine.

Paris ATC's

This is the Paris 2012 collection. They were so very fun to make.  Many of the images used are from Artchix, which is a favorite of mine. I have also used a few patterned papers as well as several stamped images. I grabbed many ink pads, but as yet have only unpacked a few, so most of the cards were edged in brown or silver ink. 

I have some extra blank board to share. If you would like several sheets cut to ATC size, post a comment  and I will pick someone at random from among the comments on Saturday morning! Let me know if you have ever used cardboard as a substrate or if you use watercolor paper or a heavy card stock?  I enjoy creating cards on this board as it is  wonderful and the cards have such a nice weight.

Thanks for your visit!
Until the next post, 

please be happy, and add some creativity to your day!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!
New things in life are wonderful! We all love them, we all have many of them; new hours, new days, new months and now this very day, a new year!  We ponder and reflect about these months, days and hours at the beginning of each new year, and make a plan to create and shape a wonderful and fruitful life.
With the previous year behind us let us welcome 2013 as a fresh beginning and mold our lives with our families, friends, neighbors and communities with joy and happiness. Let us share experiences that will not only shape our lives but bring gladness and joy to our souls.
I wish you an abundant, joyful, prosperous year full of creative accomplishments with overwhelming love and peace.
                                                                              *******

 New Year Project! Beautiful Wall Journal

Project 1

Today is the first day of the year and this is creative project one, so every joyful moment can be recorded! 

It's a beautiful wall hanging made from a kit by Heidi Swapp, purchased at Scrapbooks Etc. in Mesa, Arizona.

This hanging journal is constructed from paper, cardboard with fabric and ribbon embellishments. It was put together very quickly with scissors and glue! This memory keeper consists of twelve colorful 5 x 7 pages. The front cover is embellished with tiny flags that match the patterned paper and a tiny pocket that holds a inked tag. The back cover is finished with an aqua satin ruffle. The board is adorned with sweet fabric and tulle roses, doilies and a small frame, which is distressed in olive ink. A beautiful crystal hangs at the bottom and the top features a paper crown with an enchanting 3-D butterfly, a creamy ribbon tied with a bow at one end  completes this project. A perfect piece for a romantic decoration for a shabby kitchen or a romantic bedroom!

Thanks for coming for a visit! I welcome you to leave a comment to share.
Have a wonderful day and a most glorious New Year!