Hestia's Helper

12 July 2011

Starting the Christmas Countdown

You may have noticed the Countdown Timer in my sidebar?
Yep... we're already thinking about Christmas!!
I swear it's not sneaking up on my this year and I WILL have my cards ALL done on time this year! (yeah, right!!) LOL!!
I got to spend a little crafty time this weekend and I just LOVE how this card turned out!

The image is "Natalie" from The Stamping Boutique.
I colored her with my Prismacolor pencils and added a little "puffy paint" on the fringe of her suit.
For the background, I used Versamark ink and stamped the swirls and sentiment
(the stamps are all clear stamps in my drawer and I just can't remember who made them, MFT, maybe?). I then heat embossed them with Zing clear embossing powder. After it cooled, I spritzed it with gold "homemade" shimmery mist spray.

The Monthly Challenge at the Latte Lounge is "Christmas in July" and the FUN thing about our challenges there is that every week, we add a new "twist" to make the challenge progressively more challenging!
This week's add-on is: Add Punches or Die Cuts.
I cut the scalloped edge border with MTC and my Cricut, then added the red ribbon to (hopefully) "tie" it all together. Typically, I don't think red and purple are used together, but for this card, I think it's a perfect color combo!
It looks like I need a little "Adhesive Repair" on the bottom edge... oops!

And while we're getting ready for Christmas, look at my cute little Hexagon Box!
This is the newest project from DtsArt and is SO super-easy to cut and put together. And the file is also available in Pdf for the "cutter-free" folks!

There are actually 2 box sizes in the file. This is the "small" one and measures about 3.5" across the bottom!

The topper is a little tissue paper pom pom. I used the same pink tissue paper to line the box and make the "skirt'. Decorative edge scissors around the rim of the top and its ready to be placed under my virtual tree!

You can purchase this adorable box SVG set at Dardi's little corner of Cut and Create, DtsArt.com or DieCut Designer

Challenges:
Get Hippity with Ippity, Christmas in July
The Latte Lounge, Christmas in July
Stampin' Sisters in Christ, What works for you: What works for me here is having the freedom to choose! I chose the color combos that would typically not "go" together and it "worked" perfectly for me!

I would also like to enter the Christmas in July Challenge at Paper Creations Ink

11 July 2011

Fresh Brewed Sweet Blog Hop

Welcome to the Fresh Brewed Designs New Digi Blog Hop for July!!!

If you are just arriving, please go back to the start of the hop at Kelly's blog.
If you are arriving here from Linda's blog then you are right on track!

What is this hop all about you ask???

Sweet Talking!!!

Rich, creamy, chocolaty, fruity, thick, airy, light, sweet and delicious!

Desert.

Something we all LOVE and crave.

Summer time is the perfect time to try new ice cream flavors,

add fresh fruits to our favorite cakes, pies and cold drinks.

You know what I am talking about...

and I know your mouth is watering already :)

Fresh Brewed Designs has their own special recipe for SWEET things

and added a few new ingredients to their already darling Angel Cakes

for this image release.

Angel Cake loves summer and ice cream

and hanging out with her new best friend Huckleberry Pie.

Along this hop you will see Angel, Huck, and some too sweet for words

images that have been added to the Fresh Brewed Designs shop.

I was so lucky, I got to use TWO of the brand new images

for today's hop!

Allow me to introduce Huckleberry Pie with Almond Bark Pup.

and

So Sweet Waffle Cone

Deliciously adorable, right?

Want a chance to win these images plus more?

You will want to hop in full, leaving comments on ALL of the blogs in the hop.

There is ONE special secret hop stop that is giving away 5 digis of choice.

So you'll want to make sure you visit every one,

because we don't know who is the Secret Hop Stop!

This hop ends tonight at Midnight, so don't wait!!!

HOP NOW!

Thank you for your visit. It is time for you to move on to the next sweet stop.

Please hop on over to Sheryl's blog and see what delightfully delicious creations she has to share with you today.

Sending you HUGS and SMILES and lots of FRESH BREWED CREATIVITY!

Hop order:

Kelly

Gale

Linda

Stacie YOU ARE HERE

Sheryl: (Guest)

Heather

Challenges:

The Crazy Challenge, Summertime

Kaboodle Doodles, Use those Scissors

KB Cute Monday, Something Cute

Paper Playtime, Summer

Stamptacular Sunday, Sketch
Stamping Sisters in Christ, What works for you: what works for me is having FUN with my work! I had a BLAST working with these new images!!

06 July 2011

Meatball Makeover

I just love that title!

That is the name of the image I used in today's card!

Meatball Makeover

and it's available now at the Fresh Brewed Shop!

Since it's Wednesday, it's time for a new challenge

at the Freshly Brewed Challenge Blog

And this is the start of the Month Long Challenge!

That means real, live in-the-mail prizes for the winner!

I honestly had a blast with this card!

The image cracked me up the minute I saw it!

She's just so darn cute!

And with the challenge this week at Fresh Brewed

this is one of those cards that just put itself together!

The challenge is to create a card using:

2 patterned papers

2 shapes

and

2 embellishments

My patterned papers are from the DCWV School Days pack.

My shapes are a Star and a Circle

and my embellies are buttons tied with embroidery thread.

The banner and "birthday" text were written with my Cri-Kits pens

and the banner is from SVGCuts.com "Day at the Carnival"

I tried to color the Meatball to look like a traditional spicy meatball,

like my Grammy used to make!

I tell ya, getting that color combo isn't very easy!

No one in the world makes meatballs like my Grammy!

She is an "old skool" cook who actually tasted the raw meat mixture

before making and cooking the meatballs...

I think she finally quit doing that with all the scare about raw meat,

but there's nothing on this planet like sinking your teeth

into one of her meatballs!

YUM!!

05 July 2011

Stamping Boutique Challenge #10 and Christmas at the Lounge

Today begins our Tenth challenge at
The Stamping Boutique!

We were challenged to
"Create a Scene"

After seeing the work of my DT Teamies, I think I may have been a little off the mark on this one, but, hey, it's all about personal interpretation, right?
The girls created some awesome scenes, using TSB images, complete with trees, grass and clouds.
My interpretation was all about the scene in the image. The guy in this image is called "Prince Lonnie Latte" and he's our favorite Princess Jennifer Latte's boyfriend!
I added the "Kiss the Cook" on his apron and colored the image with Prismacolor pencils. The papers are from JLJ Designs: Back to Nature Digital Paper Pack.

I even took my photo inside my grill, just for the full "effect"! (-:

His oven mitt and cooking utensils are from the brand new Lettering Delights "Cut its" Super Bundle... yep, I caved in and got it!! I had a 25% off coupon from a previous purchase, so for just over $36, I have about 750 new SVG files to play with! There are 50 sets that cover just about everything and anything you could possibly need, and each set has at least 15 SVG's in it!

Plan to see LOTS more die cuts from me in the near future! (-:

Also, this week is the beginning of the July Month long challenge at the Latte Lounge!
We chose a theme of
Christmas in July
and believe me, getting in the mood for Christmas when it's 95 degrees outside is quite a challenge! Altho, perhaps a little snow would feel good about now!
Tracey has drawn an entire set of the "Twelve Days of Christmas" in snowman form. This is the First Day... complete with one partridge and a pear tree!
The green seam binding is from JLJ Designs and all the other papers are from my scrap drawer, so I have no idea where they came from...

In case you didn't see the badge on my sidebar, it's a good time to go check out JLJ Designs shop at ArtFire!
She's having a 25% off Christmas sale all month and you can even get FREE shipping for orders over $25... when you see Jen's shop, getting up to $25 won't be any problem at all!
I have a set of her craft pins that I am totally hoarding until the "just right" project comes along, but I use her digi papers all the time and I LOVE them!!

I would also like to enter the Christmas in July Challenge at Paper Creations Ink
with my First Day of Christmas card.