SketchMania August Winner!!

and our August winner is Belle!! Scroll below(or click to see her blog) to see all her fantastic work - but let me tell all you ladies that every piece was fantastic and everyone on the Design Team picked all kinds of different favorites - I hope everyone keeps playing and stays interested!!

SketchMania #9 and such!

..........and August is GOOOOOOOOOOOONE.

Thank you everyone for playing for last month's prize. We will be announcing the winning entry later this week, keep an eyeball out!

That means we have a new month, new sketches, new chances at a prize.. and a NEW SPONSOR!!

Our sponsor for September prides herself (and she should) on being as eco-friendly as possible! She recycles, she eats well, she rides a bike to work, she's one of my best friends (that's so eco-friendly!).. she's pretty fantastic, and a lot of her time is spent sharing some of her recycled goodies.. Here's Rachel from RachelMayDesigns.etsy.com with a little blurb about what she does and why as well her prize for the month!

"Rachelmaydesigns was created to showcase and sell handmade goods by Rachel May Bunke. With the increasing emphasis towards green design and sustainability today, the business has evolved to provide consumers with beautiful, functional and affordable handmade papergoods with the environment in mind.


Details of the sponsorship/prize: The cover of this EcoBook consists of handmade paper (made out of recycled junk mail and scraps of colored cardstock), a non-toxic adhesive, and recycled paperboard backing. The interior pages consist of 100% recycled paper. DIY Card Kits contain scraps of handmade paper, coordinating embellishments and a card and envelope. The handmade paper pack consists of four pages of autumn colored papers, all recycled, handmade and hand cut."

And HERE is this week's sketch as well the examples from our DesignTeam:

AJ(with a 12x12 layout):


DeeDee(with a 5.5x5.5 card):


Purnima(with a Halloween card):


Sarah Michelle(with an 8x8 layout):





Submit, as always, below in the Mr. Linky - you have until the 30th for this one! Please link directly to your blog entry (CropChocolate, facebook, flikr, photobucket are ok too!) and make sure your name is the title of the piece, we'll need to be able to notify our winner!

Sometimes..

you're just at a loss for the way people act. whether it's in real life or this virtual world we call the web.

Remember, either way, our words affect people and we should all be careful how we word the things we want to say.

UpDate on the flowers!

Look at how COOL these turn out when you practice!!!!

And I thought Lollipop flowers were cool...

Check out these ones made with just a little starch!!

I watched this tutorial here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
A couple of changes I made..
- instead of using 2 or 3 sizes of flower repeatedly.. I used my cricut and cut out some basic flower shapes at varied sizes; 3" 2 1/2" and 1 1/2"
- I also do not have any stamen at this time (I visited 5 stores this morning looking for some.. I'll be making a trip next to week to a bigger town with a HobbyLobby and getting some there!) so I did not put holes in mine.. I just glued together the layers and put down a smooth faced metal circle.. things that also work: Vintage buttons, old snaps, floral beads.. anything like that!
- I DID in fact sponge the outside of mine.. I used the Tim Holtz distress inks because they're water soluble and so when misted with water and starch the ink bled
- I did NOT use glimmer mist, just regular water
- The starch I used is not aerosol - I like to be environmental friendly wherever I can.


The first photo is of the petaloo brand and the line is "Flora Doodles" their handmade paper flowers.. I fell in love with these! they come in ALL sorts of colors...


now I love my own HANDMADE flowers even better! (remember this is the first - it's practice practice practice until it comes out just like you like!)


Please tell me what you think!!!

I got my DCWV Stacks today!

So I thought I would show each stack's front and my three favorite pages from each stack! (remember I won these by following the DCWV blog and just commenting regularly!)

The Midnight Spell Stack:

The Amber Autumn Stack:








The Black Currant Stack:

WOOOOOOHOOO!

The ladies over @ BigScrapDeal.com have just asked me to run both their facebook fan page as well as their BLOG! Which is fun.. I'll get to host all kinds of contests over there, rack up followers, do some networking, and just generally keep all their customers up to date on what's going on!

Right now I've put up a contest to see who can get the most people to follow over @ BSD so if you have an itching for competition go play!! It's fun and easy and someone's gonna be a winner!

Not to mention if you're unsure of what BigScrapDeal.com is.. go check it out! They're a site that offers fantastic steals on your favorite scrapbooking brands! And what's more.. their deals are UP until they're gone!