Made In Heaven

Hi Guys!

Well this week at Mo's Digital Pencil we want to see your FAVORITE Mo image.

Its a bit tricky cos if you're like me you have lots of favorites. :-)

This is one of my favorites. I used it last year and a lady saw it on my blog and special ordered two for two of her friends. She also chose the sentiment, which I just printed on the computer.

So these are the results.

I would like to play along with 

Play Date Cafe: color

Digi Doodle Shop's Best: purple and green

I do like this yellow one for

Pixie Cottage -  sweet as candy

Recipe:

Paper: DCWV

Colors: Prismacolors

Image: Mo Manning

Buttons, twine, ribbon: Sew Sweet

And a challenge for this one...

Pixie Cottage -  sweet as candy

That's it from me! Have a wonderful weekend!

We Have A Winner!!

First of all, thank you everyone who joined in the fun. Now's the exciting time to reveal the winner. courtesy of Random.Org....

Timestamp: 2011-10-19 20:00:29 UTC

And commenter #7 was.....*drumroll, please*

Kazbee!

Kaz Bee said...

Hi Dorcus

WOW!!! Had a look at the website and so glad that you pointed me to it, it's great. I loved so much of it, it was difficult to find a favourite as I can see soooo many uses for all the utilities, loved teh calendars, books and the papers; although my ultimate favourites were the Digital Scrapbooking Kits, great for beginners and advanced scrapbookers alike. Your pages gave fantastic examples too - they're brilliant, you should be very proud of them, they are true treasures. I was all so impressed with the My Memories Website for it's scrapbooking that I have told a friend of mine who runs college classes here in England and she is going to tell her students about it as she thought it was so good (hope that's OK). Ooh and I've liked the Facebook and twitter; how could I not, LOL. Thank you once again.

Congratulations Kazbee!!

Email me and I'll get your software 'virtually' packed up for you! :-)

New 'My Memory Suite' Freebie

Hi All!

A quick layout for you using My Memory Suite 

Aren't the boys super cute?

Awwwww...

So anyway!

it's Wednesday today and do you know what that means? It means a new freebie for your  My Memory Suite software ! Yay!

Just head over to the freebie page here and add this quick page freebie to your cart. Easy Peasy!

There's also plenty of other freebies you can snag while you're there. :-)

If you don't own  MMS software, remember, you can buy a software and use my PROMO code 

STMMMS24757

You will get $10 off the software as well as $10 worth of free goods.

You can't beat that!

Also, tomorrow will be the day that the *winner* is announced for  my MMS Giveaway, so if you've already entered, sit tight and if you haven't entered, there's still one day left to do so.

                                                 Click here

I'll be back tomorrow with a card!

Thanks for visiting and Happy Crafting!

Frosty Whiskers

Hi Guys!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Today's card I am featuring the art of designer Tina Wenke. It's the first time I've had the privilege to work with one of her images and I have to say its pretty cute.

Recipe:

Stamp: Tina Wenke

Colors: Lyra Rembrant Pencils

Paper:  Basic Gray

Web Ribbon:  Bunny Zoe's

Wooden Embellisments: Bunny Zoe's

Brad: Basic Gray

Corner: Wild Orchid Crafts

Liquid pearls

Pink ribbon: From stash

Distress Inks: Bunny Zoe's

I am also going to

with this card and here it is:

• Colors – Fall colors
• Papers – Pattern paper, polka dots, crepe paper (fun!)
• Stamps – Men, senior citizens, leaves and, okay, I'm gonna say it, bare bottoms (like, maybe, cute baby bottoms?)
• Color Mediums – Copic markers, Glimmer Mist
• Embellishments – lace, thread, buttons, tags, pearls, ribbon, seam binding, twine
• Techniques – paper piecing, sewing, layer your buttons, make a bow bouquet (a bow with lots of layers and elements)
• Tools – Die cuts, punches
• Themes –masculine, Autumn/Fall and make us laugh!

And our sponsor for The Catered Crop this week is no other than:

 one incredibly lucky, randomly picked player will win a prize package from Copic Markers: 

• X-Press It Blending Card
• High Tack Double Sided tape samples,
• a 2011 Color Swatch Book and
• a four-piece Sketch Marker gift set.

 How cool is that? So you really have to join in with so many options and such a cool bag of goodies to win!

While I'm at it, how about a few challenges:

The Squirrel & the Fox - One for the Girls

Creatalicious Challenges -- Distress your Edges

Crafting Life's Little Pieces -  Sketch*

That's it from me today! I hope you all have a great week ahead of you and thanks so much for coming by!

Sunshine ON My Shoulders

Hi Guys!

(First of all, I'm a day early. That's cos I didn't know what day it was when I programmed this post. *groan*.

Seriously, I am LOSING it! So don't look at this til tomorrow, ok? Just kidding. lol)

Welcome to a new challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil. Yay!

We want to see projects Inspired By A Song.

Well, when I look at this cheeky little face, so full of the joys of living I think of John Denver's song: "Sunshine On My Shoulders".

Isn't she a cutie? Such innocence. there isn't a care in the world....

Recipe:

Paper: DCWV

Ribbon, twine, buttons : Sew Sweet

Dies: Nesties

Butterfly: A gift

Border Punch: Martha Stewart

 Challenges

Anything Goes Challenge - Diecuts/Punches or Both 2nd Week

Tuesday Throwdown - Think Pink

Craft Your Passion - A Card for All Occasions

Make it Monday with Kraft Outlet - must include Kraft cardstock - To Die Cut For

Make it Monday - always Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp and Show... - Things with Wings

The Ribbon Reel Pastel Colours PLUS Ribbon/Lace/Twine

Thanks so much for coming by!

Looking Back

Hi All!

Well I've been playing with My Memory Suite again and made this layout using some older pictures of my daughter. She's always loved to dress up and I love to catch her when she doesn't know I'm spying. lol 

And while I'm at it I wanted to explain some of the aspects of this software. Every week or so, new "Quick Pages" are added to the site which you can download for free.  So you can build on your "virtual stash" without spending a penny.

So for example, the page below is this week's freebie. Check it out here.

It contains two pages as well as elements for decoration.

And remember, when you buy a software and use my PROMO code 

STMMMS24757

You will get $10 off the software as well as $10 worth of free goods

*Also, I just want to remind you that there is still time to enter my giveaway where you can enter to win one My Memory Suite for FREE.

(offer ends Oct 20th)

Click here

Happy Crafting Everyone!!

Pot Pinchers

Hi Guys!

So no card today. But I thought you might like to see what other craftiness I get up to when the mood hits me. Last week I got it in my head to make some pot pinchers. The thought just popped in my head and I HAD to make them. Did I have a pattern? No. But I HAD to make them, see? You understand the obsession that comes upon one? I think you do. Most crafters/artists are alike in that aspect.

So I went online and found a youtube video here which showed the process but alas, no pattern. (but being a visual person, the video actually helped more than a pattern). Then I went to E-How and found some written instructions  here which I'm sure were excellent ( although Greek to me) but I understood enough to see that they used a 9x5 inch rectangle as the base. I took it from there and made my own template with cardstock.

Here's what you'll need:

Cut 4 9x5 rectangles of fabric, round corners

Cut 8 4 1/2 x5 rectangles of fabric

long strips or fabric cut on the bias about 1 1/2 -2 inches wide for the seam binding (or buy some)

Cotton Quilt Batting

Now follow instructions on the youtube video.

(by the way, the video produces some pretty small mits, the above measurements will give you a bit more finger room.)

So these three sets were all made using scrap fabric and cotton batting. You can use an insulating fabric made special for ironing boards etc but I didn't have any. Though if I owned an ironing board I might have cut the cover up and used it. You could do that.Or you could live on the edge and just make sure your mit doesn't get wet and you'll be fine. :-)

Anyway, all these cute little embellishments I made with buttons, felt, and ribbon available at Sew Sweet.

The yoyo embellie above I used a yoyo maker for. I just bought a simple circle one at the craft store but if you go online via that link above you can see flower shaped ones as well. You know, cos we all need more reasons to spend  money :-)

And in case you're still unsure how to use these oven mitts, you stick your fingers in like so:

Isn't it cuuute?

I would like to play along with  Inspire Me Fridays.

Thats all for today!

Thanks so much for visiting. :-)

O- Fish-Ally Awesome

Hi All!

To start with, if you're looking for my blog candy click here

And if you're looking for my Scrapbook Software giveaway, click here

If you're looking for my latest project you're in the right place. :-)

Ok! So a new challenge for Bunny Zoe's starts today. This month we want to see LACE on your projects. I opted for paper lace using a handy dandy Martha Stewart punch. It's so pretty and cooperates in lying flat much easier than the fabric variety. :-)

But we're happy to see lace of any kind on your projects.

Recipe:

Image: Purrfect Day (Wags And Whiskers)

colors: Prismacolors

Papers: MME Lime Twist

Buttons and Button Twine : Sew Sweet

Dies: Nestabilities

Border Punch: Martha Stewart

Challenges:
Card Cupids - Use a Decorative Punch of Some Type
Paper Sundaes -- Your Favorite Colour Combination 
One Stop Craft - Anything goes
Inspire Me Fridays - always anything goes
Just Add Ink - add a die cut
Totally Papercrafts - animals
Art Impressions Stamps Challenge - Stripes
Crafts and Me -  use a digi
Creative Belli -  -paper piecing 
Divas by Design - buttons


Thanks for coming by!

My Memory Suite Giveaway

Hi Guys!

So you may have noticed a little icon at the top of my sidebar and wondered what it was all about. Well, I'm gonna tell you!

I was approached by My Memories and asked if I would review their cool digital software.

To be honest, I had never heard of them before. I know. Where have I been, right?

Anyway, before I tell you what this hot ticket can DO, let me tell you what's in it for you. After all, the title of this post is "My Memory Suite GIVEAWAY", right?

OK, so get this!

~*One of my peeps is going to win this whole software kit for free!*~

And the rest of you, well no worries cos even if you don't win I am giving you a discount code for $10 off the software (which is pretty affordable to begin with) plus another $10 off in free products like digital papers/elements. 

That's $20 just for being you.

And I'm not gonna make you wait either. You can use the code right now if you want to.

Here it is: STMMMS24757

Just go to My Memories Store here. Add the suite to cart. Add any additional papers you want and fill in  the promo code. Easy Peasy. That's if you can't wait or are of a pessimistic nature and think you're not going to win anyway. But if you can wait then here's what I want you to do.

  Check out My Memories website and tell me in a comment what product/s attract you the most.

That's all you've got to do to be entered into the prize givaway.

If you want extra chances to win (greedy aren't you?) you can follow My Memories Blog,  and "like" them on Facebook or Twitter

OK, enough of that!

Now here's what I've been doing with it:

Below you can see I still need some practice seeing where the page ends. I could have come up a bit higher with my embellies on the bottom. But its the beauty of digital. I can go back in and do that. No glue wasted. :-)

And  the last one I'm just being silly. :-) 

Yes, it was fun. 

It's been absolutely YEARS since Ive done a layout, but here's another cool thing about this software: in addition to scrapbooking you can do calendars, cards, memory books, (complete with interactive DVDs where you can also add movies and sound/music to you pages.. 

Its awesome!

Below you can watch a demo....

                                                                           OK!
         So visit  My Memories website and come back and tell me what you would LOVE to do with this                                software!
                                                   I can't wait to hear what you all think!

All Dressed Up

Hi Guys!

Well I'm finally back with a card. :-)

This week's challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil is: Patchwork. You  can interpret that how you will but I decided to make a crazy quilt stitched background which I thought fit well with a little girl dressing up.

Recipe:

Image: Mo Manning

Colors: Lyra Rembrant pencils on Kraft cardstock

Ribbon, twine,  buttons and lace: Sew Sweet

Papers: K&Co.

Stamped sentiment: Whimsy

Challenges:
Bearly Mine -3x Design/Backing papers to be used. 2nd Week
Cards und More - #38 Lace & Buttons 1st Week
Jen's Digi Stamps -  Let's Hear It For The Girls 2nd Week
Paper and Such Design - Recipe Choose 3 items from the list below* 
(lace, ribbon, designer paper)

Sweet Stamps -- Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes (plus Ribbons)
Make it Monday - always Anything Goes
Paper Pretties  Colour Combo:  Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow
Creative Inspirations Paint - Buttons
One Stitch At A Time - Use a Digi
The Kraft Journal- Lots of Layers


Thanks for stopping by!

A Bit O' Candy!

                                                               

Hi Guys!

Its been a little while since Ive had some candy for you all so how about some yummy rubbah?

You don't have to become a follower if you don't want to but if you like my work enough to do so  I am thrilled.

You all make Blogland a happy place and this is my little way of saying thank you.

Please leave me a comment and let me know why you'd like to have this stamp set.

*This post will stay on top for one week and then will reside in my sidebar until November 1st.*

Sharing Is Stealing

Hi All,
I just wanted to share a letter with you all from my favoritist artist ever, Mo Manning. As many of you know she has been dealing with some serious copyright infringement issues as of late, some of which are so serious it could shut the digital industry down completely if us crafters don't stand up for the artists behind our craft.
I know you all are probably like me and would just die to see our digi stamp companies go out of business. And probably, like me, you have shared a stamped image or two (out of ignorance) in times past. Well, I think the following letter will change the way that many of us look at things .....grab a cuppa and read on.....

Dear Crafter,

First of all, I do not think you're a horrible person, and I really do appreciate you writing to me.  I wanted to give you a chance to respond -- which is why I didn't simply put up your name and let people "at you."  So I have shown I CARE about you -- even after people cried to know  your name -- but do you care about me?

NONE of us can sit here drawing for hours and hours every day to put new stamp images up if we are not being paid a livable wage.  If you can't buy a stamp -- why in heaven's name would you think that gives you the moral right to steal it from me?

I am a single mum.  I adopted two special needs (from abused homes) children as a single mother, and have raised them all by myself without asking anyone for anything.  I couldn't work in a regular job because my kids had difficulty in regular school for many years . . . so besides trying to heal them emotionally, I had to home-school them AND try to earn enough money to keep a roof over our heads.  For YEARS I slept on a couch in the living room because I couldn't afford a place with real beds for all three of us and I wanted my kids to be the ones to have the beds. Six years ago I almost died because I waited too long to go to the hospital because I couldn't afford health insurance.  I am still under thousands and thousands of dollars hospital bills because of that.  My youngest is 19 now -- and both kids are just out on their own . . . but my own mum is blind, has lung disease and severe arthritis so now I need to take care of her. 

The only reason I'm telling you this is because I want you to understand that EVERYONE has their sad stories.  In all these years I have never taken anything that wasn't mine.  I would never say, hey, I can't afford to buy this music CD, so I'll go ask my friends if they can burn a copy for me.  If I can't afford something I want -- I save up for it or I go without.  I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to do something simple like take my kids to see a movie but simply couldn't.  Stamps are a luxury -- not a need.  If you (or someone else) can't afford them -- you can't simply steal them. (And my images are NOT expensive.  They are $3 US no matter where you live in the world because all of them are available through my digital shop.)

And here's the BIGGEST thing.  Every moment that my images are up on a site like yours, people are downloading them freely.  And those people who download them freely think, "Hey, it was just FREE" so they pass them along to OTHER people freely and pretty soon NO ONE needs to buy them anymore because they're available for FREE!  Magnolia now has people like you taking their images and scanning them in.  Here is the history of Magnolia:

1: Magnolia does popular stamps everyone loves.
2: For years people buy them and Magnolia thrives as a business
3: The Internet happens.
4: Crafters enjoy the Internet and become skilled at using computers.
5: Craft forums and Blogs become popular and crafters from all over the world meet and interact.
6: Large swap groups are formed in forums everywhere, sometimes with hundreds of participants each.  People mail each other stacks of stamped images.
7. People start using printed images they have found on the internet -- mostly clip art.
8. Digital stamp companies run by solo artists start springing up.
9. Someone gets the idea to scan in their Magnolia images to make THOSE into digis they can share easily.
10. Others see the scanned in Magnolia images and scan theirs in too.
11.People start emailing each other  "OOOh -- I don't have those ones!!" and scanned images exchange hands.  10s of images multiply into 100s and then 1000s.
12. SOME people decide to compile these thousands of Magnolia images on CDs and sell the collections on Ebay.  Other people decide to BUY these Magnolia CDs.
13. Magnolia's profits DIP because a growing number of people are getting hold of the pirated "digi" Magnolias and don't need to buy the rubber.
14. Magnolia decides it's not worth it to put out new stamps, and there is one more company who needs to find a different product.

We're at about number 13 right now -- Magnolia is a member of my group "Stamp Out" and I happen to know they are confused, worried and not sure what to do about the theft besides GIVE UP.  If this can happen to a long established company like Magnolia -- how quickly do you think it can happen to a small company like mine, or Lily of the Valley, or the Greeting Farm or Stamping Bella, Stampavie or any other.  I don't think people realize most of us are small businesses barely skating by.  This GROWING theft by crafters who care more that they have "this cute stamp too" than that the artist can feed their child -- is KILLING stamp companies.

I am one who will fight to the end to protect my art -- and the art of all my friends.  I will be retaining a lawyer soon, because this is just going too far and in the future someone is going to need to be made an example of.

So to wrap this up, Crafter.  I do believe a person can be redeemed.  I'm hoping you're a person like that.  I will believe your apology is sincere if you not only stop giving (AND RECEIVING) stolen images yourself -- but if you take my letter to heart and help spread the word this is wrong, wrong, wrong.  It worries me that you say you have gotten my images from Photobucket but didn't give me the information to have them taken down.

Please let me know that you have understood my huge frustration is not just with you - but with all who are being "nice" by sharing when in fact you are making artists struggle (even more) to put food on their tables.

xoMo 


For the original post click here

I would just like to add a post script here. If in doubt about whether something you'd like to do is legal,  ask the artist. I have done this many times and yes, the answer is sometimes yes and often NO but its ok, you know where you stand.

Falling For You

Hi all!

A new card to share with you all. I think this image is pretty sweet, and perfect for all those fall themed cards.

A little note about the raffia lace. It's available at Bunny Zoes (see my recipe) but the cool thing is that although she sells lots of colors, I find that the yellow is perfect because you can ink it up and change the color. Like here I used rusts and olives to autumn-ize it. It's really versatile.

 Recipe:

Image: Bildamarna

Coloring: Lyras &Prismacolors

Raffia Ribbon: Bunny Zoe's

Checked Ribbon: from stash

distress ink (on raffia and paper edges)

Scrolly corner: Sizzex

zig zag ribbon: Sew Sweet

Bradz: Basic Grey

Frame Die: Spellbinder's Nestabilities

Paper: K&Co
I also made this card to

where we were casing E.T's wonderful project below:

Go to The Catered Crop where you can see the full recipe for yourself. There's so many options you'll have no end of choices for your own card. I hope you can join in!

Challenges:

Crafty Purple Frog - Lots of Layers (ends 12 Oct)

Paper Crafting Journey - Die cuts and/or a punches 

Rainbow Lady's - Autumn/Fall Flowers

Our Craft Lounge  - fall foliage

Stampin With The Dragon - Fall colors

Totally Papercrafts - Autumn

Designed 2 Delight - Use coloured pencils

ECP Challenges - An Autumn Project

Just Some Lines Fall(Autumn) Colours

Ps) The Outlaws is having a huge 1,000 member party, lots of cool sponsors and prizes so mark your calendars!

That's it for today.

*For blog candy click here

Happy Crafting!