Ringing in the New Year with a Triangle Treat Holder!

Before I get started, I would like to wish my family and friends in Japan:
新年あけましておめでとうございます!

To all those who are already celebrating 2010: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I hope that everyone else has a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve!

I have been getting quite a few requests for the Triangle Treat Holder that I had posted a week ago for La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge.

There is another site that I blog for and I decided to post it there. The blog is called "The Crop Spot" and it is on Scrapbooking Supplies R Us site, which is the online store linked with Memories Live On... an awesome local scrapbook store that I teach at.

Here's are some sneak peeks for the tutorial...

Check out the Triangle Treat Holder Tutorial!

Leave me a comment there or here and let me know what you think of the tutorial.

Wishing you all the best in 2010!!

hugs,

A New Year Challenge!

Can you believe there are just three more days until the new year? What are you going to be doing this new year's eve? How about a couple of new challenges to kick off the new year? To see La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge, click HERE!

Time for another Pretties Wednesday Challenge & Blog Hop!! If you didn't hop onto my blog via Kristy Ketterlin's blog then you might want to hop over to the very beginning of this blog hop with Christie Ortman's blog.

This week it is Julie Masse’s turn to host the challenge and she has the perfect challenge to kick off the new year! Julie has challenged us to alrer a notebook to use for 2010!

I thought long and hard about what kind of notebook or journal that I wanted to make for the new year. I am SO bad about birthdays so I decided to alter a small notebook to keep birthday reminders in. There is a little charm that I attached to the spine that I will use as a bookmark. The cakes are from one of my favorite Paper Pretties set "Time for Cake". I colored the cakes with Copics and added some bling with Papertrey glitter. I added some glaze on the tops of the cakes of each layer as well. I really love this set!!

Ugh! I need to find a way to take better pictures. Any suggestions?

Here's how to enter the challenge!
Create a card using the challenge above and any Paper Pretties stamp set(s) you have. Upload your project to the Paper Pretties gallery. Please include it in the Weekly Challenges category and use keyword PWC84.

Deadline: 6pm EST Tuesday, January 5th.

Prize: $15.00 coupon to the Paper Pretties Boutique.

I hope you will join us this week for the challenge!

Now hop on over to check out what Jennifer Greco has altered!

Charmed!

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday! I am so excited for the new year!

Before I get to La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge, I just wanted to say "CONGRATULATIONS" to Elena and Kristine who are staying with us and moving up to the Design Team!

I am also very excited that we are going to have two new Guest Designers for the months of January-February! We can't be more excited to have these very talented ladies join our team!!! Welcome, Cheryl Rowley of Cottage Creations and Pam Sparks of Expressions with Heart!!

Now for this week's challenge at La-La Land Crafts!

One of my "things to try" in the new year is to try new techniques and new supplies. Well, it turns out that I get to start early on my crafty new year resolution. This week's challenge at La-La Land Crafts calls for charms. I don't own any so I found some pretty ones at Michaels.

Here's what Kathy has to say about this week's challenge:

Hello there! Welcome to another great La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge! I am Kathy and this week is my turn to pick the challenge. I decided to go with CHARMS. I hope this one isn't too challenging for you!

Well, I have to admit it was quite a challenge but not because of having to add a charm. I went through two layouts and attempts at putting them together before tossing them aside and working on this one. I took a little vacation from the craft table for a week and I guess my muse decided to go on her own vacation. *sigh*

Here's what I came up with for this week's CHARMED challenge!

This is Princess Rosie! I decided to make her into twins!


I hope that you will kick off the new year with us and join in on the fun!
I look forward to seeing what you do with this challenge!

hugs,

Paper Pretties SALE

Happy Monday, everyone!

Paper Pretties is having a Boxing Day Blowout sale from now until New Years Day. Everything Christmas related - stamps, paper, ribbon, etc. - is 45% off!!

No coupon code needed!

As a bonus, anyone who orders during the sale will receive a FREE Around the Block Antiquing Tool ! How cool is that?!

Here's a little information about this handy dandy tool:

It has a very ergonomic little handle that is very easy to hold and work with. One end of the tool is a little ink pad (brown in this case) and the other end is a little sanding disc. The ink pad end comes with a little plastic cover so that the ink doesn't dry out. This end works really nicely on the eges of cards stock before or after they are sanded as well as for "swiping" over card stock to give it an aged appearance.

The sanding edge works so nicely both on the edges of cards and to sand the surface of white core card stock or photos.

La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge 18 - Anything but a card!

Hoooooray! It's wonderful Wednesday and that means two awesome challenges from Paper Pretties and La-Land Crafts! If you are looking for PWC83 - Nontraditional Valentine (no reds or pinks), then click HERE!

I hope you all had a chance to join the royal blog hop last week. It was so much fun! Thanks to all who stopped by and left me a comment. I have a winner to announce. But first, I need to let you know what our challenge this week is!

Our talented Kim Yu is hosting this week's challenge. LLWWC18 is ANYTHING BUT A CARD. Here's what Kim has to say about this challenge:

Now, for this week, I would like to challenge everyone to create ANYTHING BUT A CARD! I know everyone is quite busy at the moment with the Holiday but we hope you can come and play along! Why not make this a real challenge for yourself before the year ends? :D

To get you inspired, our awesome Design Team and Guest Designers have come up with a few samples for you! Check them out at La-La Land Crafts blog HERE!

My inspiration is from my Christmas tree. This year, the boys and I had decided to decorate our tree with the small gifts and treats that we have been receiving over the past couple of weeks. As a teacher, I get many handmade gifts from the children and I cherish all of them! In keeping with the handmade theme, I decided to make a few ornaments that I could fill with little goodies for the boys to open every day after Christmas until the New Year, when our Christmas tree comes down. This triangular ornament (treat holder) is one that I made during a make-and-take at the store by a demonstrator from a stamp company. It's so quick and easy to make! I will make up the tutorial on this later this week.

Here's what I came up with:

Down the Slopes Rosie

JOIN IN ON THE FUN!!!
I LOVE seeing all of the fabulous creations you all come up with!

Need some inspiration? Check out what our awesome DT and GDT have come up with!!!
Elena
Kathy
Katie
Kim
Kristine
Lisa
Maureen


NOW...
I have a winner of the Fairy Lala stamp from last week.
I drew a name from the box and I pulled:


KATHY WINTER

Congratulations, Kathy!
Please email me your mailing address. It's up in the sidebar under "About Me".

Orange You Gonna Be My Valentine?

Can you believe there's only two more days 'til Christmas?! Yikes! Seriously... where does the time go? Well, it's time for another Pretties Wednesday Challenge & Blog Hop! If you are following the Paper Pretties' Wednesday Challenge blog hop, then you should be coming from Wendy's blog. If not, then simply start with Julie Masse so that you don't miss out on a thing!

BTW, have you checked out the new and FABULOUS Paper Pretties' website? It's awesome!

To take our minds off of the Christmas countdown, our talented Jana Weaver has a Valentine challenge for you! The challenge is to create a Valentines card without using any Red or Pink! No red or pink on the designer paper and on Sophia... or any other Paper Pretties stamp you want to use. Jana did say pink on the cheeks are okay though. Ha ha ha!! Can you do this? I did... it was really fun!

Orange You Gonna Be My Valentine?
You have a piece of my heart!!

Come play along with us!!!
How to Enter: Create a card using the challenge above and any Paper Pretties stamp set(s) you have. Upload your project to the Paper Pretties gallery. Please include it in the Weekly Challenges category and use keyword PWC83.
Deadline: 6pm EST Tuesday, December 29th.
Prize: $15.00 coupon to the Paper Pretties Boutique.

Now hop on over to Jennifer's blog to see what she has come up with for this fun Valentine challenge!


Can't wait to see what you come with!

PWC82 Eyelets!! and New Home for Paper Pretties!

This is my second post for today!
La-La Land Crafts is having a FAIRY TALE RELEASE BLOG HOP!
Click HERE for some magical blog candy!!



Paper Pretties Challenge #82:
This week Christi is hosting the challenge and it's all about EYELETS! I know! Isn't this a terrific challenge?! I still have a few containers of eyelets but I rarely use them any more. What a good opportunity to rummage through your stash!

Here's what I came up with:

I just LOVE "Gliding By Sophia"! I used Bo Bunny dp and Be Merry Accessory Sheet from My Mind's Eye. I kept it simple and embellishment free, trying to keep the focus on the eyelets that are on the snowman and the tree.

Now it's your turn! Play along with us!

How to Enter:
Create a card using the challenge above and any Paper Pretties stamp set(s) you have.
Upload your project to the Paper Pretties gallery.
Please include it in the Weekly Challenges category and use keyword PWC82.
Deadline: 6pm EST Tuesday, December 22nd.
Prize: $15.00 coupon to the Paper Pretties Boutique.

Hop on over to check out what Jennifer Greco has in store for you!

BUT... before you go, I have some FABULOUS news about Paper Pretties!


Paper Pretties has a new home!!
We are very excited to introduce you to our new and very improved home. Same address but with many upgrades to the site that will be of great benefit to those of you who visit regularly.

A new and very exciting feature is that our home page is now a feed! This means that you can subscribe and get all of our updates for challenges, sales, and happening at Paper Pretties. This also means that the Paper Clip will no longer be active.

To celebrate everything in the store (except for the clearance section as it is already deeply discounted) is on sale! It is for 35% off with the coupon code "newsite" (no spaces and case sensitive). Now that's awesome!! The sale will run from NOW until Saturday, December 19th at 11:59 pm cst.

So... go shop, shop, shop before the sale ends!!

La-La Land Fairy Tale Release Blog Hop!!

Welcome to La-La Land Crafts' Fairy Tale Release Blog Hop!

To celebrate the release of our new Princess Rosie stamp, we are giving her the royal treatment that she deserves. Every member of our Design Team and the Guest Designers have made their cards with Princess Rosie, which they are now showing on their blogs.

To make the Blog Hop even more fun, you will find some clues (a secret word or two) on every blog. When you follow the order of the Blog Hop and get to the very end, you will have collected all of the words and will be able to put them together into a sentence. When you are done, you will need to come back to La-La Land Crafts Blog and leave your entry into the Blog Candy with Mr Linky.

What's in it for you???

Besides seeing all the gorgeous cards from our Design Team? :)

The winner of the Blog Hop will receive the newly released Princess Rosie stamp along with these goodies:

There's more! While on your treasure hunt for the secret words, you might find some more treats offered by our designers! I have one here! Leave me a comment about the blog hop, Princess Rosie, the cards, and you will be entered for a chance to win FAIRY LALA!!



Best of all, I have some great news for you! Princess Rosie stamp is already available for purchase in our online store!!


What do you have to do to join our Blog Hop?

* Start your Blog Hop here at the La-La Land Crafts' blog

* Each DT Member will guide you to the next Blog during the Blog Hop

* Collect all of the secret words and put them together into a sentence

* Final stop is back at La-La Land Crafts Blog where you have to leave your entry as a comment under this post. IMPORTANT!! Do not reveal your answer in your comment!! We will contact the winner for the answer. If the answer is incorrect we will draw the winning number again..

One entry per person please. We will draw the winning number from all the entries next Wednesday, December 23rd, around 10 am PST. Everyone is welcome to participate. We will ship internationally!!

We wouldreally appreciate it if you could help spread the word about our Blog Hop on your blog or just by the word of mouth if you don't have a blog.

If you started the Blog Hop at the La-La Land Crafts Blog and followed all the links to my post, then you are done! That's correct... this is your final stop! I have one last secret word for you to complete your sentence... "them." Congratulations on making it all the way through!! Now you just need to hop back to La-La Land Crafts Blog where you have to leave your entry as a comment on Irina's blog hop post.

Remember... please do not reveal your answer in your comment!! We will contact the winner for the answer. If the answer is incorrect we will draw the winning number again..

GOOD LUCK!!!!

A Prettie Birthday!

Prettie girl, Kristy Ketterlin is another year younger and we're celebrating it with a Paper Pretties Birthday Blog Hop!

The Birthday Hop started with Christie Ortman so if you didn’t start from there, you might want to hop over there first so you don’t miss out on any of the fun! If you have a moment, please hop over to Kristy and wish her a happy birthday with us!

I was looking through my Paper Pretties stamps and saw Sassy Shoes. I knew instantly that these were the perfect stamps for the card I had in mind.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KRISTY!!!




Now you get to hop over to visit Prettie girl, Jennifer Greco!

Don't forget to come back here tomorrow for some terrific news!

LLWWC 16 - Pink and Green!

It's Wednesday and you know what this means! I've got two awesome challenges! For the Paper Pretties Challenge, please scroll down or click HERE.

La-La Land Crafts' DT member, Lisa Hjulberg, has a Pink and Green challenge for you! That's right! Pink and Green! Here's what she has to say:

I don't know about you, but I'm loving this year's Christmas colors of pink and green. Pink seems to be the new red, and apple green (or variations thereof) is the new shade of green for Christmas. So this week's challenge is to use pink and green (and a neutral if you so desire) in your card/project.

For more information on the challenge and to see what our Design Team and Guest Designers have come up with, please visit La-La Land Crafts!

Here's my pink and green Santa Lala!



Be sure to go to La-La Land Crafts and check out the challenge!
I want to see what you come up with!! This is one of my favorite color combos!

hugs,

Prettie Scrapbook layouts

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Time for a new Paper Pretties Challenge!

If you are hopping from Kristy's blog, then you are at the right place!
If not, please start at the very beginning with Christie's blog, Little Pink Flowers, so that you don't miss any of the Prettie projects from the Prettie Girls!

The Prettie Girls' challenge this week is to make a 6x6 scrapbook page using the Pretties' Stamps. I didn't have any problems coming up with the layout and the stamped image. But I realized too late that I don't have any Christmas tree trimming pictures printed out for the layout... so you get to see my layout without pictures. They will go in the two little squares and I will make a second page to host the "family around the Christmas tree" picture.

I used the sketch from SBSC216 SCS Scrapbook Challenge and SCS Color Challenge CC248 (Artichoke, Bananas and Razzleberries) for inspiration.

Here you go!



Here's how to Enter!

Create a card using the challenge above and any Paper Pretties stamp set(s) you have. Upload your project to the Paper Pretties gallery. Please include it in the Weekly Challenges category and use keyword PWC81.
Deadline: 6pm EST Tuesday, December 15th.
Prize: $15.00 coupon to the Paper Pretties Boutique.

Now, don’t forget to see what the rest of the Prettie girls have come up with for this sketch challenge! Just in case, here are the links to our Design Team!

•Christie Ortman•Julie Masse
•Jana Weaver
•Jackie Rakoski
•Christi Thorsen
•Frances Byrne
•Heather Lee-Reppen
•Wendy Bond
•Kristy Ketterlin
•Jane Matsumoto (me)
•Jennifer Greco

Now hop on over to Jennifer's blog to see what she has come up with for this fun scrapbook challenge!

Hugs!

Another Prettie Peek... Time for Cake!

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening,
In the lane, snow is glistening
A beautiful sight,
We're happy tonight.
Walking in a winter wonderland.

I just love that song! As you already know, the Prettie girls at Paper Pretties have been showing off little Prettie Peeks at the December Release, which is now available HERE!

We had so much fun last month using a well known song for our peeks that we thought we'd try it again, and since we love giving things away, we'll have the same rules for prizes as last month - leave a comment on a card from the pretty peeks in the pretties gallery and we'll pick names for you to win the new releases. This month, in keeping with Christmas we've chosen a well known Christmas carol - Winter Wonderland!

The lines I chose for my inspiration if from the verse up above...

"snow is glistening" and "we're happy tonight".

TIME FOR CAKE

I love this set!

Stamp: Time For Cake
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Paper: Whisper White (SU)
Copics: YR04, RV06, YG03 (for the Copic Colour Challenge) and RV000
Accessories: Elegant Bouquet embossing folder (SU), Champagne Mist, mister, pearls (Kaiser Scrapbook), rhinestones (BasicGrey)

I also made this card for the Copic Colour Challenge #42.



Now remember, you could win THIS stamp set by commenting on my card in the Pretties Gallery. Every day this past week, a few of the Prettie Girls have been uploading their challenge cards based on the Winter Wonderland song. If you stop by the Pretties Gallery and leave a comment on that card, you'll have a chance to win the new set that has been used in that peek! So be sure to leave a comment on this card HERE for a chance to win!

Hop on over to Wendy's blog and see what she has for her Prettie Peek!

PWC80 - A Prettie Sketch!

Well, it's Wednesday again and you know what that means! There are two challenges posted here today! I am hosting this week's La-La Land Crafts challenge and if you love buttons as much as I do, then you're not going to want to miss out on it! Just click HERE or scroll down to the next post!

If you are following the Paper Pretties' Wednesday Challenge blog hop, then you should be coming from Kristy's blog. If not, then simply start with Christie's blog so that you don't miss out on what's new this month! Have you been following along with us this week? Have you seen all of the fabulous sneak peeks? Have you left comments in the Pretties' Gallery so that you can have your chances to win a new stamp set from the December release? I know! Pretty awesome, right?

This week, one of the Prettie girls, Frances, has come up with a sketch challenge for us!

For this challenge, I wanted to incorporate a SCS challenge that asked for Black, Very Vanilla, and Close to Cocoa. As soon as I started putting the cardstocks together with the sketch, I knew I just had to start working with the Time for Cake set. If you haven't seen them yet, just click on these direct links to Kristy, Jana, and Frances to see what they did with this beautiful set. I will be posting one last sneak peek with this set tomorrow so be sure to come back! :)


Here's my card!





Stamp: Time For Cake (Paper Pretties December Release)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Paper: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White
Rub-ons: "I Do" - Rouge de Garance Inspiration (Sandylion)
Embossing folder: Petals-A-Plenty (SU)
Glimmer: Champagne Mist (SU) with mister (Ranger) and water
Accessories: pearls (Kaiser Scrapbook), photo anchors (Making Memories)


Here's how to Enter!

Create a card using the challenge above and any Paper Pretties stamp set(s) you have. Upload your project to the Paper Pretties gallery. Please include it in the Weekly Challenges category and use keyword PWC80.
Deadline: 6pm EST Tuesday, December 8th.
Prize: $15.00 coupon to the Paper Pretties Boutique.

Now, don’t forget to see what the rest of the Prettie girls have come up with for this sketch challenge! Just in case, here are the links to our Design Team!

•Christie Ortman
•Julie Masse
•Jana Weaver
•Jackie Rakoski
•Christi Thorsen
•Frances Byrne
•Heather Lee-Reppen
•Wendy Bond
•Kristy Ketterlin
•Jane Matsumoto (me)
•Jennifer Greco

Now hop on over to Jennifer's blog to see what she has come up with for this fun sketch challenge!

Be sure to come back tomorrow for another Prettie Peek at our December Paper Pretties Release!

Hugs!

La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge 15 - Buttons, Buttons, Buttons!!

Hello everybody! Welcome to another La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge

I get to host! This week's challenge is all about BUTTONS! I was organizing my embellishments and realized how many buttons I have managed to collect over the years. It seems that I love to collect and not use them! Does anyone else have this problem? Well, now you get to look through your stash and find one or two or however many you want to use for this challenge.

To find out more about this fun challenge, just hop over to La-La Land Crafts for the details! Post your project for this challenge on Mr. Linky and you have a chance for TOP 3 Faves... and the project with the most vote gets the Pepper with Cake stamp that I am using on my card today!



Here's my card!





Stamp: Pepper with Cake
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Close to Cocoa (SU)
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White (SU)
Copics: 0, E30, E33, E35, E39, E57, E59, E74, E79, Y06, YR07, R30, W00, W03
Accessories: Swiss Dot (Cuttlebug embossing folder), In A Stitch Green Blossoms (Sassafras), Flower Bed (Martha Stewart Deep Edger punch), sponge, brown ribbon

Be sure to go to La-La Land Crafts and check out the challenge!
I want to see what you come up with after going through your button stash!!

hugs,

Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge #15 - A gift for YOU!

La-La Land Crafts is sponsoring this week's Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge #15!

A lucky challenge winner will win these adorable La-La Land Crafts stamps!

Be sure to visit Stampin' Sisters in Christ and enter the challenge there!

“After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” Matthew 2:11

Well, I took this challenge literally and decided to present one of my favorite holiday treats inside the card.

Leave me a comment and you will get a chance to win this card, along with a surprise treat all wrapped up for Christmas!



I am not sure what happened with the colors! The green in these pictures are not this faded. I will try to take new pictures in better light and see if I can get better colors on there for you!

Santa, Build A Bear, and HUGE birthday giveaways from Lisa

I have been so sick this weekend... I don't know how those of you who have chronic sinusitis manage! I have been miserable!! It's worse than a migraine. At least with a migraine, I know there's an end and I can find some sort of relief with my migraine medication. But this sinus infection is has got my number! My head feels like it's gonna explode! Bleh!

I know you all LOVE blog candies and I have a HUGE one to share with you, but before I do, I just wanted to share a few pictures of my boys... who are growing up way too fast. I just wanted to capture some of their "cuteness" before it grows away. :)

Well, we took the boys on our annual "Sunday after Thanksgiving" trip to the mall to see Santa. The boys were happy as clams to sit for an hour to wait for Santa. They even found the glitter that the elves left behind when they decorated Santa's house! Looking up to the skylights, they found the reindeer antlers in the window... Keiji said that they weren't moving because the reindeers were too tired from their trip from the North Pole and they were taking naps. Here are some pictures...

Do you see the antlers?

Then we surprised them with a trip to Build A Bear!
Keiji fell in love with "Froggie" and Ken wanted a bear that he named "Santa Claws".

Keiji kissing and wishing on "Froggie's" heart

Ken inspecting "Santa Claws"

Now...

Will you join me in wishing the talented and sweet LISA HJULBERG a very happy birthday?

Lisa is one of our design team members for La-La Land Crafts and I am so blessed to know her. She is just an amazing person, inside and out. Lisa is giving away not one... not two... not three... but FIVE prize packages for her birthday. That's right... one for every decade. Now wait a minute! I didn't say that! LOL! It's from Lisa! Here's what she has to say:

Yep, it's the Big 5-0 for yours truly. Rather than be depressed, I'm focusing on my many blessings...and paying it forward!

I thought about offering one big huge prize, but I always wish everyone could win. Since that isn't possible (at least not until I win the lottery), I'm dividing up the candy into FIVE prize packages... one for every decade of my life so far.

So hop on over to The Craft's Meow and find out what you need to do to join in on the birthday celebration! Don't forget to wish Lisa a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Hey Lisa, I have been in bed for most of the weekend and have not been able to make a birthday card for you. I will get to it later tonight! I love you, girl! Happy, happy, HAPPY birthday, my friend.