Merry Christmas and an EP Blog Hop Winner!!!

Hey Everyone, how are your holidays going? I hope everything is going smoothly and that you have time to enjoy your family and friends. I am one of those crazies who works non stop and never gets the chance to slow down and enjoy so I know how important it is. I have some sitting down time planned for tomorrow with my family so I am looking forward to that. Now you are thinking...."WHY is she chatting!? I want to know if I won that Echo Park Blog Hop!!!"  LOL!

I really hope you all have a wonderful holiday and I love giving out a collection kit to someone for the holidays! And I want to say thank you again to all of you for joining in these blog hops - Don't forget there is one every month. My winner this month is Orlanda!!! So please send me an email with your mailing address and choice of collection kits so that Echo Park can send that right out to you!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Orlanda S. said...

Love your covered button and your snowflakes. Great details in this wonderful page. Love your kitty!!!

9:48 PM

Come back and visit soon because I have some more fun Photo Freedom layouts to share with you. :)

**December Echo Park Paper Design Team Blog Hop!!**

Welcome to the Echo Park Paper Design Team Blog Hop! Today the Echo Park Paper Design Team is showcasing projects from our latest collections. Be sure to follow the blog hop list below as you hop from one blog to the next. Return to the Echo Park Paper blog at any time for the next blogger on the list in case you get lost or confused! ONE winner will be selected from each blog to receive an Echo Park Paper collection kit of their choosing. To qualify for the kit, comments will be due by midnight EST, Sunday, December 23rd to qualify for the drawing. The winner will be announced on each blog Monday, December 24th  so be sure to check back to see if you've won.

Echo ParkPaper

Kandis Smith

Wendy SueAnderson

TamaraTripodi

Linda Auclair

Lowri McNabb

SusanStringfellow (You are Here)

Davinie Fiero

And back to Echo Park Paper

Now for a little holiday fun - Have you tried the Echo Park Photo Freedom collections? I had never done the divided pages and after playing with them recently, I found out that it's really alot of fun to try another format! I will be sharing some more of my pages soon, but right now I have to show you this page using the Dear Santa collection (Click here to see the collection because it fun stuff). After seeing some of my Photo Freedom layouts, my husband suggested trying a traditional type layout just for fun and this is what I came up with. Since this collection has Noel all over it, I had to do a Noel page :) and of course I couldn't keep things contained in their own pockets so my snowflakes and things are spanning out to adjacent pockets. Just a really fun thing to try. 

Another thing I tried was making my own covered buttons using the papers. I  used the Dritz buttons that are designed to be fabric covered and I cut a circle from the papers and a circle from the clear packaging of the collection and followed the directions for the buttons. It makes a cool shiny covered button - kind of like homemade flair. Here are some close ups

Gift box *DCWV "Traditional Holiday Stack"

Are you giving any small gifts and need a little pillow box? Cardstock weight patterned paper is just ideal! Check out these great holiday papers with gold foil from the New DCWV "Traditional Holiday Stack". This collection has holiday designs printed on kraft cardstock so it's a great weight for a pillow box and the gold foil just puts it over the top for me. One of my trees has lots of golds in the ornaments so the wrapping paper I use usually has gold foil or glittered designs. This collection is just perfect for the gift cards that I got for my mother-in-law. :) I cut out a little soldier and gift tag too. So don't forget you have a whole bunch of great gift wrap options in your stash!

My December Daily - part 1

Hey guys, how many of you are doing something like a December Daily? If you are, share a link to your gallery and blog to inspire everyone. I know everyone is making it look just so fun! I have to tell you that I have caved. I got a red Snap album and a good friend gave me the October Afternoon 8x8 Good Cheer pad so I thought I would start with that, add papers and embellishments from last year's OA "Holiday Style" collection and various sparkly tinsels and sequins from my grandmother. And then I was totally surprised when my scrapping buddy, Kristin, gave me the new October Afternoon holiday mini kit as a gift! I have enough cute goodies now to make 5 years worth! LOL!!!

So here is my game plan - Using the Snap album and all of these goodies, I wanted to do a photo a day for December showing all of the pretties that I love during the season. We start our holiday season the day after Thanksgiving though, so my book starts there with our Tree Day and decorating.

And you know how your house looks Christmas morning when gift wrap is everywhere? well thats kind of the way my book is turning out - lots of holiday chaos. I hope you like it. I will put a photo at the bottom showing the pile of goodies that I am using :)

So here is my book from Nov 23rd up thru Dec 2nd. I expect that very soon holiday life will get in the way of my creating and sharing so it may be mid January before I finish this and share all of it.

 

Winner of the Nov Echo Park Blog Hop!

Hey guys, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. I am still dealing with leftovers and I am finishing up decorating for Christmas. I just wanted to stop by and announce the winner of the November Echo Park Design Team Blog Hop! I used Random.org and chose SUSAN from In a Hollow Tree Blog. 

Susan said...
Very pretty layout! The kiddos are cuties!

11:29 AM

Congrats Susan! * first of all - Great name! hee hee - and second please send me your shipping address and choice of Echo Park collection kit so that they can get that right out to you. 

Thanks to everyone who visited. I hope you were inspired by our blog hop creations and will join us again next month!

November Echo Park Design Team Blog Hop!!!

Welcome to the Echo Park Paper Design Team Blog Hop! Today the Echo Park Paper Design Team is showcasing projects from our latest collections. Be sure to follow the blog hop list below as you hop from one blog to the next. Return to the Echo Park Paper blog at any time for the next blogger on the list in case you get lost or confused! ONE winner will be selected from each blog to receive an Echo Park Paper collection kit of their choosing. To qualify for the kit, comments will be due by midnight EST, Sunday, November 25th to qualify for the drawing. The winner will be announced on each blog Monday, November 26th  so be sure to check back to see if you've won.

Kandis Smith

Davinie Fiero

Susan Stringfellow (you are here)

Tamara Tripodi

Linda Auclair

Lowri McNabb

Nancy Damiano

Wendy Sue Anderson

Jennifer Gallacher

Now before you start hopping here's a bit of inspiration! 

I have to share another project using Echo Park's Happy Holiday Collection. I wanted to scrap this adorable photo for my good friend, Kathleen, and you just have to love this collection for cute photos like this. It's just so cheerful and fun - plus it pairs perfectly with the Ultra White Felt cardstock by Carta Bella. Totally reminds me of sparkly lights and candy canes. And I just had to try a white on white title.... love it!  Then had to do a white on white border as well. The nice thick twine is from May Arts.

Now lets talk about stickers.... I know some of you avoid them, but this layout is full of some of the cutest stickers and they look good, huh? Twelve stickers! Just take them up a notch by adding some twine, rhinestones, or simply layering with some foam squares. And don't forget to brush the sticky backs with baby powder after adding the foam squares so that they don't stick to things that aren't planned. :) And a big thanks to Kathleen for letting me borrow her adorable family!

Oh and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate! 

 

Kali

Totally love this Carta Bella "Traditions" collection on their kraft cardstockm, it really makes the colors pop. Just the paper I needed for this photo of Kali River Rapids. You may remember that I did a Kali 2 pager with these papers, but I just had this one that needed its own page :) I had alot of fun layering bits of paper, tags and more kraft paper on this layout - it just came together so easily. The burlap ribbon and twine are from May Arts.

**DCWV Autumn Medley Stack Winner!**

I hope you are all having a beautiful crisp fall day today! I know our weather is just gorgeous and I would love it to stay this cool thru Thanksgiving. On to the fun - First, a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you for the nice comments and for following along. Come back often, there are more giveaways coming soon :)

The winner of the DCWV Autumn Medley Matstacks is LINDA161

linda161 said...
Love these fall colors. I would use these for fall scrapbook pages. There are so many beautiful options for fall photos to scrapbook.

***Linda, please send me an email at sstring@earthlink.com with your full name and mailing address so I can get these two stacks to you. 

thinking about holiday cards

Do you make holiday cards for family and friends? With Thanksgiving a week away, I have to start thinking about making my holiday cards. I don't make all of my cards. I mostly send cards that I have purchased because I have learned that no matter how much I would love to make all of my cards, it's not going to happen. I like to make cards but I am NOT making the same card twice, each has to be different. I am not good at assembly line cards. Then I get about 6 or 8 made and its already like Dec 20th. LOL! I have decided to just make a few when I have time, enjoy making them, and then maybe send a couple and hand deliver a couple. These cards usually go to my creative friends who will appreciate the effort. Then I find some super cute holiday cards with a great sentiment for most of my family. Maybe one day I will be organized enough to make cards for everyone :)

Here is a fun one that I did using the bright and cheerful "Happy Holidays" collection from Echo Park. You can't help but love the cute look of this collection and the bright colors and white really pop when you put it on the Kraft cardstock from Carta Bella.  I also used a really great white cotton looking ribbon from May Arts. I like the crisp look and it's wired too.

Chillingsworth Manor Ornament *Echo Park*

I love sparkly holidays so I have a Nightmare Before Christmas black Halloween Tree. As soon as I saw this "Chillingsworth Manor" collection from Echo Park, I knew I had to make an ornament just so that I could put this little Nibbles the Mouse sticker on it. Ok, he might be a rat but I don't like rats so at my house he is a mouse.

I used a paper mache ornament shape from Hob Lob and just covered it with this gorgeous "Chillingsworth Manor" paper. If you haven't seen the individual papers in this collection yet, just click on it - there are a ton of really cool tags and journaling blocks but I love paper and its really good stuff. Anyway, on each edge I punched some flowers and put a pearl head straight pin into the ornament with some Gorilla Glue super glue. My Granny used to make lots of pin, bead, sequin, stryrofoam ball ornaments and the key is to dip the pin into white glue before putting it in the ball but this is a paper mache shape and its hollow inside so super glue is best. Same thing for the top - straight pin, glass bead, flowers. At the bottom I wanted a tassel so I used some really long black fringe and wrapped it around in a coil, glued it and stuck a pin thru it to hold it in place - also superglue. Then the trick is to put it high enough on the tree so that Figaro and Noel don't see that black fringe. LOL! I will share other photos of the tree later. I think I got some good photos on my new phone. I actually think with this black tree, the phone does better than my real camera because I am just not that good with lighting settings.

So Very Thankful DCWV Giveaway!

You guys are just the best and I think you need a chance to win some more fun papers. I made this Thankful card using one of the new DCWV collections called "The Wild Splendor". I just love these new fall collections with their sort of bronzy foil and glittery parts - they really add something to your cards and layouts. I layered this one and added a few strips of foam tape. I really should own stock in that stuff, as much as I use.

Anyway, I am celebrating fall and thanksgiving early because we finally had a bit of cold air here, it feels amazing, and I am totally in a thankful mood. Are you guys about ready for Turkey and Pie???

And now for your chance to win! Just leave me a comment here telling me what you would use these two MatStacks for and I will randomly draw a winner on Friday, Nov 16th. Well I usually have one of the boys pick names out of a bowl or use the random generator.

Here are the two MatStacks that one of you will win: The Autumn Melody MatStack with patterned papers that have the bronzy foiling and glittering, and the coordinating Autumn Melody Adhesive Cardstock Stack. These are the 4.5 x 6.5" MatStacks

Give Thanks Card and tutorial *Echo Park Fall Fever

This card was so much fun to put together, the owl is just too cute with those eyes, add a few layers and some hand stitching and you have a perfectly cute card. I used the Fall Fever Mini Theme collection by Echo Park, that nice Kraft cardstock from Carta Bella, and a doily.  Have you hand stitched on a card for someone special? Visit the Echo Park Blog HERE to see my step by step tutorial for this card and the blanket stitch that I used.

It's almost time for Turkey and pie so make a card to for someone who you are especially thankful for this year. 

Fall Fever Layout and a Winner!

Happy Monday! Let's get right to the winner - shall we!

My random winner of the Echo Park Design Team Blog hop is......

julie e said...

Love your mix of papers and trim!

8:57 AM

..... and guess what?! Great Impressions Stamps had me pick a Bonus winner to receive a special stamp prize! So my bonus winner is......

  blupixy said...These cards are amazing! Love the layers and banners!

10:56 AM

 Thank you to everyone who visited my blog for the hop! Don't forget to check the other blogs along the way to see if you were chosen. Also, we have an Echo Park blog hop each month so check back often for more chances to win :)

Now I don't know if you guys are having fall where you live, but here in Houston, it's still summer with a hint of cooler air that gives us hope and then leaves again. It's really getting on my nerves. That doesn't mean that I can't do a fall layout though.

I found an older photo of my son that I just love and have you seen the New Fall Fever Mini Theme collection from Echo Park? It's got this gorgeous rich woodgrain and the cutest owl - which you will see later on a card :) . Anyway, that's what I used for this layout and the little trees are my favorite part so I cut some from the patterned paper. The burlap and leather ribbons from May Arts were just the right textures for fall.