Santa hands out some cash! =)

Well, today's the day! Santa dropped by and used random.org to pick out some lucky crafters for my Christmas in July Cash candy drawing! He's so excited... all the new CHA products and the Christmas stamps that are coming out now (oh my aching wallet - LOTV's Christmas release this week was IMPOSSIBLE to resist! Seriously, best one yet!)... well, it's just a fantastic time to be a crafter!  (Ok, if you're a Christmas fanatic crafter, that is. heh heh)

First, a big THANK YOU to all of my new Followers! I didn't expect that many people to come wandering through from all over the globe! My favorite thing about blogging our craft is that it is a worldwide community and there are so many talented people in every corner! It's a great experience and I sincerely thank you all, Followers new and old, for voluntarily choosing to share it with me! I hope that I live up to your crafty expectations! =)

I wish I could give something to all of you, but since I haven't won the Lotto yet, I have to be a bit more realistic. LOL 

So, no more blathering about.... I know what you came for...  LOL Here are the winners Santa and random.org picked...

For the Original Followers prize of $40/25GBP/30EUR, the winner is.....

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ZIPPY from Zippy's Zone! 

For my All Followers, Old and New prize of $25/15GBP/20EUR, the winner is.....

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RHONDA from Realm of Rhonda Sue!

For my Anyone prize of $15/10GBP/13EUR, the winner is......

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DONNA from Designs by MeMe!

And because I'm a sucker for Christmas, a BONUS draw from the All Followers group, with a prize of  $15/10GBP/13EUR, the winner is......

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 KAREN from Karen's Kreative Kards!

YAY! Congratulations to all of you! I'll also be sending each of you an email, but just in case I get spam filtered, you can find my email on my Blogger profile! =)  Hope you enjoy your prizes!

Happy Crafting to one and all!
Christy



SAS4K DT Card: Animal Cards for Kids - What's Up Giraffe

Happy Saturday, my crafty friends!

Time for another challenge at Send A Smile 4 Kids and this one's another fun one for creating a kid's card: Animals!  Our sponsors for this challenge are Delicious Doodles and Stamping Dragon Designs who are offering 4 digi images so we'll have TWO random winners! Twice the fun! LOL

Our sponsors once again generously offered up some images to our DT members, and as I was surfing through Stamping Dragon Designs, this slightly rude giraffe caught my eye and this is what I chose to do with him:

Hee hee Love that tongue! LOL It reminds me of a favorite moment in the movie My Friend Totoro when the little girl and boy stick their tongues out at each other. =)   I colored him with Copics... actually I colored one image but didn't like the final blend from the E40s so I went with more red browns and I was much happier with this second image. Also, the practice for getting that blend on his forehead was very useful. I'm not sure I'm going to be coloring up too many realistically-drawn images, but it was a fun challenge from what has -so far- been my usual style.

I colored the sky the same way I did this Emerald Fairies image, laying in a relatively smooth base of blue, then using the colorless blender to pick up and push the ink into cloud shapes, then highlighting a bit with C00, C0 and C1. It takes several passes, but I don't have an airbrush, which is probably my favorite look I see on other cards. And as my image was printed on an inkjet this time, I didn't want to risk a Distress Ink sky bleeding my image lines even though I'd heat set them with a Ranger heat tool. I layered my image and inked all the cardstock edges with a combination of Scattered Straw and a touch of Walnut Stain here and there, which nicely mimics the giraffe skin pattern.

I randomly cut out a tree branch from brown cardstock and used a CC Cutter, Leafy Branches, for the leaves, dabbing them with Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint DI. There are some very tiny foam pieces in there to help keep the dimension. I like the effect and hope to use that again. =)

I layered a tan grosgrain ribbon over a sheer brown that tied into the background paper and added pearls, chocolate on the ribbons and champagne in the corners. Last I added my sentiment which I created in Word.

Hope you are feeling inspired to pull out an animal image of your own and get creating... there are lots of fantastic creations by my Teamies over on SAS4K so be sure to stop by!

I'm linking my card up to
Inspire Me Fridays - #68 Anything Goes
Ruby's Rainbow Challenges - #33 Cute Animals (he's not soft and cuddly, but that tongue makes him cute to me!)
Make It Monday

ATCs and Cards with Attitude - #18 Anything Goes

Have a great weekend and happy crafting!
Christy

Bugaboo Christmas in July

This week Bugaboo ran a Christmas in July celebration, with challenges every day. I wasn't able to participate in all of the daily challenges, but I did get two cards finished so I'm going to post them quick before bed.

I had so much fun coloring these up... I love Christmas cards and I love these simple graphic images that are cheerful and easy to color. My inner child was having a blast. LOL

The first card is for the Sparkle and Shine challenge from Thursday. I used that adorable penguin Poppi.

I colored Poppi and shadowed the ornament with Copics and glittered the heck out of that ornament. A nice coat of Stardust Stickles. I used Stardust's larger cousin, Crystal Ice, to coat the Martha Stewart snowflakes. The dark red paper is pearlized and there's a thin line of metallic blue gel pen around the background paper. Lots of glitz! =) I popped up Poppi and all the snowflakes on foam dots. Simple but colorful, sparkly and fun!

My second card is for the Monday challenge... create a Christmas card using a non-Christmas image. I chose this Brat image, World Boy...

Again, I used Copics to color. A Star Circle Nestabilities die was used to cut out my computer-generated sentiment. I popped the die cut up on thin foam and the image on thicker foam for dimension and layered both over the same dark red pearlized paper that I used on the first card. I wanted to keep it simple and use earth tones (har har) so that that colorful globe stood out so I inked the edges and adhered everything to a kraft cardstock card base and added some star buttons with a little foam to the corners. 

Easy peasy! There are a few other challenges I'm entering, but it's late and only the Bugaboo has a deadline tonight, so I'll be back with my edit. In the meantime, check out Bugaboo Stamps for yourself - great digis and you can find Jodie's images in rubber too over at Totally Stampalicious!

Happy Crafting!
Christy

PCJ DT: Pearls & Swirls - Saturated Canary

Greetings, my bloggy friends and an extra-special big hello to my new Followers! Thanks for joining me on my crafty travels and for spreading the news of my Christmas in July Cash Candy! =)   I will be 'round to visit you soon! I meant to do it this week, but the days have zoomed by much faster than expected... I started attending an aquarobics class last week and the trip every night is now eating up 2 or 2.5 hours of my evenings. I'm starting to fall into a routine, but it was a big adjustment at first.

I have been trying to get just a little bit of crafty time in each night and did a lot of coloring over the last week... Nothing more relaxing than getting into a coloring groove. =)  One of the images I really enjoyed coloring up was for this fortnight's challenge at Paper-Crafting Journey of Pearls and Swirls, sponsored by Saturated Canary! One randomly chosen winner will receive two Saturated Canary digital images! Krista generously offered an image to each of the DT members and I was drawn to Honey, who reminds me of my friend Nancy's granddaughter. There's just something about that girly tutu and heart t-shirt with those big boots together. And that bunny! Love! It was just the perfect image for a card for Nancy.

And a side view...

I'm very happy with how this one turned out... My coloring came out nearly exactly as I pictured it (especially considering I pictured it based on my own skills, not the fantastic examples that populate my Google Reader every day! LOL)... not perfect, but my coloring is getting better! I had problems with the dark grays/black bleeding around the boot and it took ages to keep adding blender to push the ink back where it belonged.  But imperfections aside, I had such a good time coloring her up! =) I wanted to add a bit of shadowing around her, but I was afraid of ruining my image after all that work, so I left it plain and colored in just a bit of ground beneath her. I definitely need to do some practice images to see what shadow colors look good with which image colors. Sigh. More practice. Always the answer. LOL 

I did add a bit of girly glitter with a little Stardust Stickles on the underlayers of the tutu and a metallic silver pen for her shoelaces and the pull at the back of her left boot.

For my card I started with an 8.5x11 pearlized black cardstock with the matte side folded in. I took a blank embossed and pearlized wedding invitation card - I've had a box of these for 8 or 9 years - which was a little too big. I cut a strip out of the middle and ended up cutting too much! I 'fixed' that by adding some light gray satin ribbon and creating an accent strip across the middle. I added a gray swirl digi paper from Pink Petticoat, trimmed to fit inside the invitation's inside border and a pink paper cut with the largest Romantic Rectangle die from Spellbinders was layered under my image with a bit of corner rounding and a lot of pink and white pearls to accent. I added a few more teeny tiny pearls on the bare strip of pearlized black cardstock... love those itsy bitsy pearls! No sentiment, as tends to happen with my 'just because' cards. I didn't photograph the inside, but I used the matching RSVP card on the inside with a few more teeny pearls. Kind of elegant. =) 

Here's a closeup of the top corner. I took it at the last minute, so the lighting isn't as white as on the other photos, sorry!

I thought about adding a bow or a swirl die cut, but in person the pearlized and embossed swirl pattern on the wedding card really stands out and my coworker is not really into bows and flowers and froufrou, so I kept it simple. It gives it a sort of white-on-white effect with the pop of pink of that girly tutu and pink lacey edge from the die! =)

 So if this doesn't get you in the mood for pearls and swirls, check out my teamies' creations over at Paper-Crafting Journey and catch all the details for the challenge!  And if you haven't entered my Christmas in July Cash candy going on HERE, make sure you come back and check it out -- $40 gift certificate for my existing Followers, $25 for new or existing Followers, and $15 for anyone, regardless of whether they Follow or not! =)

In the meantime, I'm entering my card in the following challenges and link-ups:

ATCs and Cards with Attitude - #18 Anything Goes

Dream Valley - #36 Anything but Square

Whoopsie Daisy - Use Up Your Stash  (used my 8-year-old invitation paper!)

Simon Says Stamp & Show - No Rules!

Make It Monday - Link Up

Lexi's Creations - #69 For a Friend

Papertake Weekly  - All Things Girlie

Creative Craft Challenges 2 - Pink and Black

Wishcraft Waste Not Wednesdays - Wk 27 Neglected Stash (I think 8 years qualifies as neglected! LOL)

The Paper Shelter - #73 Anything Goes

Divas By Design - #44 Anything Goes
Moving Along with the Times - Pink, Pearly & Pretty

I will be back tomorrow with some CHRISTMAS CARDS! Woohoo! =)  Til then, happy crafting!

Christy

Christy's Christmas in July Candy Cash!!!

Happy Monday, my fellow bloggers and crafty folk! As promised... today is a special day on my blog... my first ever blog candy!

Since my first year of blogging was a bit of a slow start, a blogoversary celebration didn't seem in order, and I was too busy to really think through a birthday bash last month, so I've settled on my favorite unholiday. Christmas in July!  With brand new Christmas stamp and paper releases in the not-too-distant future, what would be better than having a little extra crafty cash to pick up some of the yummy holiday items at your favorite online store?  I am offering up THREE gift certificates to any store of the winners' choosing, so long as I am able to purchase a gift certificate online.

Most importantly, I would like to say THANK YOU to my current Followers. It seems every time I see candy offered, lots of new people begin following a blog, but I wanted to be sure that my current Followers know how much I appreciate them and their comments. I've been inconsistent with returning visits myself the past several months so I'm going to assuage my guilt with some cold, hard cash! LOL =)

The first--and biggest--candy is open only to the original 36 Followers as of July 8. Any others linking into the first candy will be deleted. I am offering a second candy for Followers, whether they be my original Followers or new ones, and a third candy is open to anyone, Follower or not. That gives my original Followers three chances and any new Followers two chances to win! And it still gives anyone not really interested in following my blog a chance to win, too, just for helping to spread the news. =)

A few very simple rules...

1. Please post the pic above on your blog and link it back here to this blog post.
2. Blogland is full of lovely crafty bloggers who take the time to make and post their crafty creations to share with our online community so no candy-only blogs. (It's my candy so I get to make the rules!)
3. Enter using the InLinkz provided for the candy or candies that apply to you.

The candy will run until Friday, July 27th. I will use random.org or a similar online method to draw a name for each of the candies and announce the winners on Saturday, July 28th! 

So that's it... I will be posting a bit more regularly in the next three weeks, so I hope you enjoy my little celebration!

Happy crafting and good luck!
Christy
Christmas Elf

  

CANDY CASH #1 for the ORIGINAL 36 FOLLOWERS ONLY: $40 US/CA or 25 GBP or 30 EUR

CANDY CASH #2 for ANY Follower, old or new: $25 US/CA or 15 GBP or 20 EUR

CANDY CASH #3 open to ANYONE : $15 US/CA or 10 GBP or 13 EUR

SAS4K DT Cards: Christmas in July!

**For my Paper-Crafting Journey Challenge Design Team Post, click here.**

Ho Ho Ho!  While in reality my outer adult has been sweating and melting my way through this past week in the sweltering heat, my inner child has been playing in the snow, singing Christmas carols and glittering everything in sight. Time for the men in white coats? Nope... it's Christmas in July here at I Never Went to Kindergarten-land, the Send A Smile 4 Kids Challenge blog and at Bugaboo Stamps!  (Although I confess the men in white coats have been after me for years LOL)

Our current challenge at SAS4K is Christmas in July and we hope it will help you get a head start on your Christmas holiday card crafting! Donations of your cards isn't required for the challenge, but it's always welcome... just follow the guidelines here. 

We have two fabulous sponsors for this challenge: Bugaboo Stamps, donating 7 digis for a random winner, and Crafty Sentiment Designs, donating 3 digis for a second random winner. Plus you may be chosen as a Top Three!  Both sponsors also generously provided the DT with some really great images to play with and I had a ball doing my favorite kind of cards - Christmas Holiday! Bring on the snow and glitter! LOL 

I couldn't decide which image to use for my first card so I chose to use all THREE images we were given from Crafty Sentiment Designs (you can find them in their Christmas Digi shop):

 

Here is an image of it somewhat flat and folded up. It doesn't stay completely flat, but I'm sure some time in an envelope will change that. =)

I spent a lot of time coloring and glittering on this one, but I love it! I did some 1" folds at the bottom to be able to get the depth and dimension between the images that I wanted. Then a print of a digital Snowflakes paper from Summertime Designs' Winter Gifts kit by Summer Driggs (cool free kits!) gave me my color cues for the snowmen's outfits and accessories. I colored all the images with Copics and ProMarkers and added a well-restrained dose of Stardust and Waterfall Stickles on my snowmen and the little star swag on the tree and a bit of Christmas Red and Lime Green Stickles here and here. I used a metallic silver gel pen on the silver bell.

I fussy cut my images and adhered them to the various folds and then added a couple layers of cardstock on each fold to cover the bottom of my images. Here's a side view:

On the front I added a little red and white bakers twine and layered a computer-generated sentiment and a snowflake made from two Martha Stewart punches. The snowflake was colored with Copics to match the colors on my snowmen and glittered up. I even added Stardust Stickles to the clear gem in the center... it doesn't photograph well, but IRL it gives it a frosted look with lots of sparkle.

So cute and Christmas-y! =)

I'm entering this card in several challenges and link-ups...
2 Sisters Challenge Blog - #99 Christmas in July
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - #80 Snowmen
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - #16 Anything Goes
Fussy and Fancy - #66 Fancy Folds (hoping my folds are fancy enough LOL
Whimsy Stamps - #46 Anything Goes
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - CHRISTMAS Acrostics:  I used Coal buttons/nose, Carrot nose, winter Hat, Happy Snowmen, Red Ribbon, Red Twine, Red Christmas balls, winter Scarves, Sparkling Snow and Snowflakes, Twinkling Stars, Christmas Trees, Sparkling ear Muffs and Silver bell.  Whew!
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes 
Hooked on Crafts - #22 Christmas in July
Lollipop Crafts - #84 Christmas in July

I made a second card for our challenge post using this sweet gingerbread girl from Bugaboo Stamps:

I really focused on coloring on this one (using Copics) and am quite pleased with most of my blending, especially on my candy cane. The photo loses some of the detail, but there is a real 'roundness' to the cane in person. I used red liquid pearls to fill in the heart on her sweet ginger butt.

 Then I carefully applied white enamel in the icing sections and held my breath as I dumped Glamour Dust over it while it was wet. I waited until it had dried to dust it off and see what stuck. Turns out, quite a bit! Lovely sparkle.

(Oh, how I LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE Christmas holiday cards! hee hee ho ho hee!) 

I kept the layout very simple and made a smaller card than usual (4.5x5.5") so that the image was large and in charge. The papers are from a DCWV Christmas and Winter 180-page pack and I used some kraft cardstock. All my edges are well inked with either Burlap or Walnut Distress Inks (or both!). Very country, I think. I know my followers will be oh-so-shocked to hear I popped my image up on foam dots. Ha! I tied on a bit of Christmas red and white twine and a button and added three itsy bitsy pearls to finish it off. Yummy!

I'm entering this card in the Just Some Lines challenge - Clean and Simple.

Now... this month is going to be full of fun...

SAS4K is joining Bugaboo for their Christmas in July celebration over at Catch the Bug from July 14-21. Plenty of fun and prizes to be had and lots and lots of SPARKLE! =) LOL And they will be doing a card drive for SAS4K as part of their celebration. Click on the image below to get all the details!

And if you've hung in all the way to the end of this monster post... here's a bit of a reward:
On Monday I'll be having my first ever BLOG CANDY here at I Never Went to Kindergarten, with a special bonus for my current followers. It will be a super sweet Christmas in July!

So see you Monday and until then...

Happy Crafting!
Christy
Christmas Elf

PCJ DT Card: Summer! - Daniel Summertime

Happy Saturday!

It is H.O.T. here and has been all week.... high 90s every day with strong sunshine (that's 36, 37-ish for you Celsius followers. LOL) It's too hot to think and I'm wondering if some of my brain has melted... I went to do my post for today's SAS4K cards and I realized I never did my PCJ DT post on Thursday!  I hope it cools off soon!

So... the challenge this fornight at Paper-Crafting Journey is SUMMER!!!!

That's whatever SUMMER means to you... weddings, beaches, vacations, colors, water... maybe even Christmas for you peeps south of the 'quator! =) Our challenge is sponsored by Fresh Brewed Designs and they have some great digital stamp images plus they'll be having a blog hop soon to celebrate the release of some new rubber stamps on July 14-16 with some special giveaways!  For our challenge, the randomly chosen winner will get to choose three of their digis!

Summer to me always reminds me of my childhood. We didn't go to the beach much, but there were lots of swimming pools and playing outside in the dirt.... and tans. Even though I used to get a lovely honey brown color every summer, I haven't gotten a tan since I was 18 years old. That summer I saw the face of an older relative who tanned all the time, even sometimes in tanning beds, and I decided I didn't want to look like that in 20 years. I haven't used an SPF under 30 in nearly a decade. I guess it worked, because when people found out that this past birthday was the big 4-0, responses were mostly "no way!" and "you're not 40!" I find this particularly ironic because in my midteens I was always mistaken for being older than I was. LOL It's also funny to see me next to a couple of my brothers who inherited their coloring from my mother's Native American ancestor as I'm so pale and they, well, my mother once misidentified her own son at a distance, thinking he was latino. hee hee

Anyway... So I chose this cute little boy, Daniel Summertime...

I colored him with Copics and chose darker skin tones than I have been using to get that tan look. It took a little more blending and layers of coloring, but it came out ok. I decided that Summer also meant bright, vibrant colors, so I took my color cues from these super digital papers from the Flipflopsicle kit by Summer Driggs. (Summertime Designs are FABULOUS papers and FREE!)The two center panels were taped together and popped up over a jute ribbon. I fussy cut Daniel and popped him up as well.

The sandcastle and bucket buttons are from a pack I picked up at Wal-Mart and the piece de resistance is my flip flop. It's one of those keychains you get from Oriental Trading Company or party stores to give to kids as favors. I stuck a little clear gem in the hole from the chain. Isn't it cute? A few last gems in the corners and done!

So there you have it... my idea of Summertime... what's yours?  Be sure to join us at Paper-Crafting Journey and post your Summer paper craft! =)  And don't forget -- 12 more days to submit for our Design Team Call here! 

Happy Crafting!
Christy