Happy New Year 2013

Just a short note to wish all of my wonderful friends far and near a wonderful, safe and prosperous New Year. It has been my extreme pleasure knowing all of you for these last years since I started my blog. Your continued support of me and my crafting is more appreciated than words can say. May you have a wonderful, safe and Blessed New Year.

Hugs ~ Charlene

There's Something Magical About Christmas

Well here we are, the last challenge at Digistamps4Joy before we take a break for Christmas. And we have such a wonderful challenge for everyone. The theme of our challenge this time is “There’s Something Magical About Christmas”. We want to see projects that depict “Your” meaning of the Magic of Christmas.

To me, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ, so the image that I used is NativityVillage.

I coloured the image using my SU felts and my gold glitter pen. The black and the gold cs is from Recollections. The oval shaped easel card is a svg file from The Cutting Café that I printed out in pdf form and then cut it out by hand (I don’t have a cutting machine).

I decorated it with my Madera Corner Die by Memory Box, red roses from my local dollar store (I know they look like they’re pink, but they are red lol), and some red flat backed pearls by Recollections.

The sentiment is by Teresa Arsenault and if you click on the picture you will get a close up of this wonderful sentiment. I cut it out using my Nestibilities scallop die.

Now it’s your turn to show us what makes Christmas “magical” to you. For some fabulous ideas and to check out all of the rules and prizes for the challenge, head on over to our Challenge Blog. Remember, our challenge lasts for 3 weeks this time as we are taking a break over the Christmas holidays. Our next challenge will start on January 9^th, 2013.

 

I would like to take this time to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and All of the Best for the New Year.

Thanks for visiting ~ Charlene
 

Challenges Entered:

ABC Christmas Challenge: Y is for Your Punch and/or Die (my Memory Box Madera Corner Die & Nestibilities Scallop ovals)
Sweet Stampin Christmas: Challenge #1 -Anything Goes with a Christmas feel
Diva's By Design: Challenge #66 - Anything Goes
For Fun Challenges: Christian Christmas card or project
Freshly Brewed Challenges: Challenge #125 - Christmas 
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge Blog: Challenge #106 - Merry Christmas
 

Snow, Snow, Snow

It’s time for another reminder for Digistamps4Joy’s current challenge. Our current challenge is called “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and we are looking for your creations that make us think of the cold. It could be a snowman, a snow covered scene or even a fireplace or a nice mug of hot chocolate. Whatever it is that makes you think of the cold. This is also a recipe challenge so we will be looking for 1 image, 2 patterned papers, and 3 snowflakes.

 

I chose to use Digistamps4Joy’s Gilly Gluwein for my card. She is dressed up all nice and warm and holding her mug of Hot Apple Cider. Nothing like a nice hot mug of apple cider on a cold day.  

The style of card that I decided to do is called an Upright Diamond fold card and you can find the tutorial for it here.

The cs is by Bazzil and the dp’s are pieces that I had left in my stash from another card. The little hat and stocking were from my local dollar store as were the snowflakes. The red flat backed pearls are by Recollections.

I used my Nestibilities Scalloped Oval for my image and my inside sentiment. Both sentiments are by Desert Diva.

I added stickles to the pompom on her hat as well as the Merry Christmas sentiment and the embellishment hat and stocking.

So now it’s your turn and we would just love to see what you come up with. Just remember that it is a recipe challenge and you need to have 1 image (digital or stamped)…of course we would love to see a Digistamps4Joy image, and it would also get you a chance to win $10 worth of Digistamps4Joy images…2 patterned papers, and 3 snowflakes. For full challenge rules, and to check out the fabulous projects that the rest of our very talented Design Team has come up with, just head on over to our Challenge Blog.

 

 

While you’re there you might also want to pop into the store and check out the store and all of the incredible images that Margy has been adding. Every Sunday is a New Release day so you can imaging how many wonderful images there are.

 

Thanks for dropping by and From Our House to Yours…Have a Very Merry Christmas ~ Charlene
 

Challenges Entered:

Shelly's Images: TTT Challenge - Christmas is in the Air
The Outlawz: Twisted Thursday Challenge - Add Snowflakes

 

 

 

Winter Wonderland

It’s that time again, time for another challenge from Pattie’s Creations. And what a fabulous challenge we have for you. If you haven’t been able to tell by how busy all of the malls and stores have become, Christmas will soon be upon us. Now I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am nowhere near ready for Christmas. Every year I tell myself that I will start making my Christmas cards early…well you know the old saying about the best laid plans of mice and men? Yup…that should give you an idea of how well that idea went *laughing*

Thankfully Pattie’s Creations has decided to have a challenge that will get at least 1 more of my many Christmas cards I need done. That’s right, our new challenge is for you to create a Christmas card.

I chose to use Pattie’s adorable images “Penguin Igloo” and Snow Globe.

I decided for this challenge to do a Gate fold card. The white and red cs is from Recollections. I used a digital paper by Bearly Mine Design and printed it out in shades of black and grey on the red to give me my dp.

The large snowflake behind the image and the small fabric snowflakes in the corners I got at my local dollar store. The ribbon is some that I’ve had in my stash for the last couple of years. I punched the corners with my SU ticket corner punch. I heat embossed the snow in the bottom of my snow globe and falling inside it…the embossing powder is called Christmas Tinsel and my sister gave it to me years ago.

The sentiment on the inside is part of a set of 10 different Christmas sentiments by Pattie’s Creations. I framed it with a frame, but for the life of me I can’t remember who the frame is by, so as soon as I know, I will post it here.

I coloured everything with a combination of my Staedtler pencil crayons with oms, my SU felts and my gold and green metallic pens. I used stickles on the penguin’s hat.

So now it’s your turn to show us what you’ve got. The challenge will be running until January 11^th, 2013 as the DT is going to be taking a holiday. The rules for the challenge are easy…make a Christmas card…yes it must be a Christmas card and it must have a stamp (digital or rubber) on it. Please no back linking and turning off your word verification would really help us to make comments on your wonderful creations. For a list of all the rules and the fabulous prizes to be won, head on over to Pattie’s Challenge Blog. And while you’re there, check out the incredible creations that my fellow teamies have made.

Thanks for visiting ~ Charlene

Challenges Entered:

Avadares: Challenge #6 - Anything With a Digi
Shelly's Images: TTT Challenge - Christmas is in the Air

Digistamps4Joy Freebie Friday

It’s Freebie Friday time again at Digistamps4Joy and boy does Margy every have a great freebie for you this month. This freebie can be used for making some awesome gifts, as you will see by what the dt has done.

The freebie today is a “Setof Calendar Stamps” that you can find at the store. I made an easel card note pad holder/calendar with mine.

I paired up the calendar with Wisteria Splendor. The cs and dp I used was by SU and I coloured the Wisteria Splendor image with my SU felts. I did the door knocker and handle with my silver metallic pen and the grass in front with my Staedtler pencil crayons. The shape behind my image is from my Microsoft Word program. I made the sentiment on my computer.

I didn’t have a note pad that was 5x5, so I cut up loose leaf paper, punched holes in it with my cropodile and added brads to keep them together. The flowers are prisma flowers and I added the vine using my Meridian Border die by Memory box. I added just a touch of stickles onto the tops of my flowers. The 3 white flat backed pearls are by Recollections. The ribbon is something that I had in my stash.

So pop on over to the Digistamps4Joy Store and pick up your “Set of Calendar Stamps”…we can’t wait to see what you do with them. Then hop on over to our Challenge blog and see what the rest of the DT has to show you.

Thanks for visiting ~ Charlene

Challenges Entered:

Avadares: Challenge #6 - Anything with a Digi
Anything But a Card: Challenge #7
Desert Island Crafts: Challenge #43 - Pick 3 (Anything but a card, ribbon, glitter)
Digi Galore: Anything Goes
Mema's Crafts: December - Anything Goes

Birthday Wishes

Hi everyone, I just wanted to show you a new card that I did up using a couple of Digistamps4Joy's new(er) images "Button Set" and "Neighbor Nancy"

I coloured her with my SU felts and my Staedtler pencil crayons with oms. I used the buttons for making the centers of my flowers. I used my Star Dust stickles on my flowers and added a small white flatbacked pearl to the center. I made my leaves with my Memory Box leaves die. The vine was made using my Meridian Border die by Memory Box.

The pearl spray, pearl swirl and ribbon were from my stash and the sentiment is from Birds Cards.

You can find all of these images and all of their other incredible one's, just head on over to Digistamps4Joy Store. And just a reminder...this Friday (December 7th) is Freebie Friday so while you're at the store check out the awesome freebie that Margy has for you. But don't wait because it's only going to be free for a short time (2 days) then you can buy it in the store.

Thanks for looking ~ Charlene

Challenges Entered:

Crafting For All Seasons: Challenge #41 - Use flowers
EFG: Challenge #47- Easel Card :) Won :D
Papertake Weekly Challenge: Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door: Challenge #47 - Anything Goes

PATTIE'S CREATIONS IS HAVING A SALE!!

You read right, Pattie's Creations is having a sale...and just in time for Christmas! From Friday Nov. 30 until Saturday December 8th, Pattie is offering 20% off of all of her fabulous images! To take advantage of this great deal, just head on over to her shop and pick your favorites out of all of her fab images. At checkout, use the code ALLIE2 to receive your 20 % off. Now isn't that easy?

It's Havest Time

It’s Friday again and that means another challenge at Pattie’s Creations…yippee!! This time our challenge is Harvest Time or Thanksgiving Holiday. We are being sponsored by Dude Time Doodles for this challenge and we were given some wonderful images to choose from. I chose the image Pumpkin + Field as I just loved the look of it so much.

The brown cs is by Bazzil and the yellow/orange cs, green cs and dp is from SU. The ribbon is some that I got at a garage sale and the swirls are by Deco. I coloured the image with my SU felts and Staedtler pencil crayons.

Our challenge is for 2 weeks and will end on Thursday December 6. We can’t wait to see what you create. For all of the challenge rules and a list of prizes, please head on over to our challenge blog. While you’re there check out all of the incredible creations by my team mates.

 

Thanks for visiting ~ Charlene

Challenges Entered:

Lady Anne's Challenges: Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes

Digistamps4Joy Thankful Challenge Reminder

It’s time for the reminder post for Digistamps4Joy’s current challenge. The theme of the challenge is “Giving Thanks” so we want to see your creations on what you are thankful for. You can be thankful for someone, for something someone has done, for you animals, family, the weather…whatever it is that you want.  

The image that I chose to use for this challenge is Wisteria Splendor as I am thankful for the home that I have. With the economy the way that it is and many people not having a place to call home, I am thankful that my family and I have a home to live in.

 

I coloured the image with my Su felts and added some stickles to the Whisteria. I made my snowflake flowers out of some confetti that I had in my stash and added the ornaments on that I picked up at my local dollar store. I got the wonderful ribbon from my wonderful friend Kim…it was part of her blogversary stash that I won. The cs is from SU and the dp is stuff I had in my stash. The little red flat backed pearls in my flowers are by Recollections. The medallion behind my image is Whimsy Circle by Memory box. And the sentiment was done by me on my computer.
 

As this is a 3 week challenge this time, our challenge will continue until Dec. 3, which gives you lots of time to join in. To see the challenge rules and list of prizes head on over to our challenge blog. While you’re there check out what my teammates have come up with and maybe leave them some love.
 

 

Thanks for visiting ~ Charlene

Challenges Entered:

 

Outlaws: Twisted Thursday – Punches and Dies
Lady Anne's Challenges: Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes

It's Movember!!

Hi all, this posting is going to be a bit different than most of my other postings. For those of you that don’t know, November is Men’s Health Awareness month. As such, it has been renamed Movember and there are thousands of Movember campaigns being done around the world. The idea of Movember is not only to raise awareness of the health issues men face, but to also raise funds to help with research for such serious and often deadly diseases such as prostate cancer. I have 2 uncles that passed away from prostate cancer and I have to wonder if they had been more aware of the medical issues men can have with their prostates, if they would have been checked sooner.

Here are some facts that have been posted on the National Movember web site:

• The average life expectancy for men is four to five years less than women.
• 1 in 4 Canadians are expected to die from cancer.
• 1 in 7 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.
• In 2012, 26,500 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in men and 4,000 will lose their battle.
• 1 in 4 cancer patients experience clinical depression
• Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in Canadian males between the ages of 15 and 29.
• Tobacco is the single most preventable cause of cancer in Canada, responsible for over 37,000 deaths annually.
• 1 in every 11 men will develop lung cancer.
• While not as common, men can get breast cancer. About 200 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed among men and about 55 men will die from the disease.
• More than 75,000 cases of non-melanoma skin cancer are diagnosed each year in Canada.
• An estimated 6.6% of the population over the age of 20 has diabetes in Canada.
• Approximately 6 million Canadian adults have high blood pressure, representing 19% of the adult population; 17% are unaware of their condition. Even 30 year olds can have high blood pressure!
• 1 in 5 of Canadians will personally experience a mental illness each year
• Four times as many men commit suicide compared with women

Now I don’t know about you, but these stats are just mind blowing! And scary…these are our husbands, father’s, brothers and sons we are talking about. And they are dieing for reasons that can be avoided. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. To read up on what Movember is and the work that they are trying to accomplish click here and it will take you directly to their National page.

The reason that I am writing about this is because my nephew, Chris, is part of the Movember movement and is trying to raise funds. If you are able to, please check out his blog and if you are able to, please make a donation to the cause. It doesn't matter how big or small your donation is, every little bit helps. If you are not comfortable making a donation to his site, please consider the national site or look for a Movember fundraiser near you. 

 

We all rally around the fundraisers for Breast Cancer and for cancer as a whole, let’s rally around our men and let them know that their health is just as important to us as ours is to them.

 

Thanks for visiting….Charlene

Digistamps4Joy New Release for Sunday November 11

Hi all, I hope that you have all been having a wonderful weekend. Things have been really up in the air in my household…my parents came for a visit, which was wonderful, but then our van died and we have been spending the last while trying to find a new set of wheels for the hubby on little money. Ah well…what do you do? Enough about the drama in my life…I know that you are here for something totally different.

Now today is Sunday and you all know what that means…yup, Digistamps4Joy is having a new release and what a bunch of incredible images they are releasing. Margy, our ever generous owner, gave us 2 different images to choose from this time…one for today’s release and one to blow you away with later. The one that I decided to use for today’s posting is called Beatrix the Bead Fairy. I combined her with our Freebie, Joy and Peace Sentiment by Margy,  from the beginning of the month.

The green cs is by Bassil and the dp was from my stash. I coloured Beatrix and the Joy and Peace Sentiment with my SU felts and my gold and red glitter pens and my green metallic pen. I also used my Staedtler pencil crayons and oms for her skin. I went over the wording of the sentiment with my gold felt. I got to use my new die from Memory box (my dh was such a sweetie and knew that I was in need of a pick me up recently so he bought me 2 new dies). I can’t remember the name off the top of my head and but will come back and let you all know tomorrow or later today. I also added some gold flecked Stickles to the die and the holly berries. I cut in around the holly in my dp with my exacto knife so that I could slip the sentiment in and have the holly leaves “cradle” it.
 

To see this new image and all of the rest of the releases, just go to our Challenge Blog and check them out and all of the fabulous creations my teammates have made.

 

Thanks for visiting ~ Charlene

Challenges Entered:

Corrosive Challenge: Challenge # 162 - Flutter by (Wings)
Dream Valley Challenges: Challenge #45 - Anything Goes


 

 

 

 

Digistamps4Joy November Freebie Friday

Hi all, tomorrow is the first Friday of the month and you know what that means….yup….it’s the day for Digistamps4Joy’s Friday Freebie!! And boy oh boy, you do not want to miss out on this one…it is just too sweet! 

Now I can’t get into specifics…buuuuut.....Margy has come up with such a wonderfully versatile image. And if you want to see some great inspiration using it, well you will just have to stop by the online shop and check it out.  

Now things have changed a bit for our Freebie Friday’s. You can now find the images in our store under “Freebies”. It means that you will have to have an account with Digistamps4Joy, but don’t worry you can sign up for free :) 

Remember that this sweet image is only going to be available for 2 days…on Sunday it will go out of the Freebies area and be put into the store where you can buy it.

 

Thanks for visiting….

 

Hugs ~ Charlene

Blog Hop Winner

Well today's the day that we announce the winners of our World Card Making Day Blog Hop! I hope that you all had as much fun as we did and were inspired by what we had to show you. So I won't keep you all in suspense any longer...since I don't have a fancy machine to do it for me, I assigned a number to every name and my dd picked a winner out of a bowl and the winner of the adorable image I used, Festive Snooze, is PUMPY (PAM)!!! Congratulations Pam...I am so excited for you and I can't wait to see what you do with this sweet little image! Thank you to everyone who joined in on our Blog Hop...it was so wonderful to read all of your comments and have you all become a follower of my blog. For a full list of winners head on over to our Challenge Blog.

Hugs ~ Charlene

Christmas Greetings

It’s time for another challenge at Digistamps4Joy…well, actually it’s been on for a week already and I’m just doing the one week reminder. Last week Team A posted their lovely creations for our challenge, this week is Team B’s turn. So what is this challenge you ask? Well this time we would like you to make a tag. That’s right, we want to see tags. Now this can be a gift tag or a tag on a card, whatever you choose to make.

So since Christmas is just around the corner (sorry to remind you, but it’s true), I decided to do a Christmas tag. I used Digistamps4Joy’s wonderful new image by Jen Lee, called Vintage Lantern Girl. She was just so much fun to play with.

The tag is a svg file by Birds Cards that I printed out and cut out by hand. I then printed out the image on white cs and then paper pieced her outfit. I wish I could tell you what the papers were, but they were just pieces I had in my stash. I used my red glitter pen to trace out the pointsettias on her dress and hat.

I used my bronze metallic pen for the lamp and my gold glitter pen for the light in the lamp.

I then added stickles onto the “fur” part of her outfit and used my Staedtler pencil crayons and oms to colour her dress, band on her hat her face and hair. I used my white gel pen to add small white dots to her dress and the band of her hat. The Merry Christmas and the holly were part of my stash.

Now it’s your turn to show us what you got. Just head on over to Digistamps4JoyChallenge blog to check out all the rules and prizes. And while you’re there, check out what my team mates, from A and B, have done up to inspire you.

 

Thanks for visiting…..Charlene

 

Challenges Entered:

Deep Ocean Challenge Blog: Challenge #36 - Anything Goes
Lady Anne's Challenge: Monday Anything Goes
The Crafty Blogger Network: Challenge #4- Anything Goes
House of Gilli: Anything Goes
Stamp and Create.com: October Challenge Winter Wonderland
 

Digistamps4Joy World Card Making Day Blog Hop

Welcome to our World Card Making Day Blog Hop. You have arrived at Charlene’s Blog in the Fraser Valley in Beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

To celebrate World Card Making Day Digistamps4Joy is having a blog hop! And guess what…Digistamps4Joy is also offering the prizes! And what prizes they are too. Each DT member has gotten to choose her favorite image from the store to make a project out of….and that is the prize for her blog. So the image she presents it the image you have a chance to win! So with 12 stops along the hop, that gives you 12 chances to win! You might win one image…you might win more as each prize will be randomly drawn by each blog owner.

If you landed on my page first, then just carry on down the list, and from the top again till you are back at my blog OR start at the top at the Digistamps4Joy blog, and work your way though to the final stop (Ursula’s blog). The hop order is indicated on each blog, so you will not ‘get lost’!

Digistamps4joy (starting blog)

JEN

AMANDA

ANGELA

BERNI

CHARLENE(that’s me, so you are here now)

DESIRE (Your next stop)

ELENOR

MARGY

KAREN

KARIN

URSULA (last blog)

This is the card that I am showcasing for the Blog Hop. I used the image Festive Snooze and you can get it at the store or maybe win it here.

I coloured it with Staedtler Pencil crayons, oms, and my red and gold glitter pens. I used my homemade white flower soft for the snow at the bottom of the image. I used my SU Christmas Wheel (sorry, I don’t remember the exact name of it) and glitter blue embossing powder to add the flourishes. The frame for the image and sentiment was made with my Nestibilities Scalloped Oval Dies. In behind the image I have added more of my heat embossed paper. The base dp is from Bazzil and the glitter paper was some that I have had in my stash for years. I also used the glitter paper to punch out the snowflakes. The ornament is a svg from The Cutting Café. I used my SU ticket corner punch on some of my corners. The card fold is called a Center Step Card.

And this is the image that you can win on my blog

RULES FOR ENTERING THE RANDOM DRAW

Please read carefully - we do not want you to miss out!

 

1) Be/become a follower of THIS blog.

                                 2) Make a comment on this posting

 

So that IS easy isn’t it!!

 

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Your next stop will be the talented Desire.

The Hop will end at 6 am (Central African Time) on Tuesday 9^th October.

The full list of winners will be announced on Thursday 11^h October on the Digistamps4Joy blog. 

Each blog will also indicate its own winner on 11^th October.

 

Thanks for visiting…have fun on the hop!   Charlene