New Year's Candle

     Good Morning! We are stepping ever closer to the New Year and this card is a reminder that I wish you all Bright Blessing's for the coming year.
      The candle and the "saying" is from FCD by Pamela's set called Oh Holey Night.   I water colored the candle and then used a white gel pen to highlight a couple of spots. This stamp is so versatile, I have been playing with it for over 6 weeks; it will be one of the stamps I come back to over and over! When can you NOT use a candle???!!!
      As luck would have it this card was perfect for the Christian Paper Crafts challenge, Color Monday......we were to use bashful blue (or any light shade of blue), a light shade of purple, white, and an optional color is black....(red sneaked in there on mine!). Wonderful group of ladies, I love this site!
      Check out Pamela's site for stamps, magazines, digital images, tutorials and even gift certificates!! Her products are of exceptional quality and she is such a delight to work with! You will find stamp sets for every occasion!!
      Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a blessed day!

Materials used:
FCD by Pamela
paper~ DCWV, Club Scrap, SU!
ink~ Memories black, Versamark
other~ punches, Nestibilities, water colors, markers, white gel pen, ribbon, pearls

Another Poinsettia Card

     I made this card last week and decided this would be my last poinsettia card for this Christmas season. It was watercolored with pencils and markers, I just love this digital stamp......you can get your very own from FCD by Pamela. Go over and take a look at all the stamp sets on sale, you will be totally amazed...it is NOT too late to tell your husband about all the goodies. They won't be shipped until after Pamela's return but that's shouldn't pose a problem, right!!! Remember the digitals download with NO waiting.
     I do hope you all have enjoyed the gift preparations and the specialness of this time of year. I have had the opportunity through the economic downturn to be reminded what Christmas is all about. I haven't had the stress, the rush, the chaos, the worry that I have experienced in years past. I have taken the time to read Matthew and Luke's retelling of the birth of our Messiah. The comfort and warmness of the gift of love from our Father has warmed my heart and given me a chance to truly enjoy celebrating the birth of Jesus.This gift of love and the sacrifices/gifts we make for our loved ones is, to me, a part of the meaning of the Christmas story!
     Merry Christmas to each of you with Blessings for the coming year. Thank you for stopping by and for sharing your thoughts and comments this past year, I look forward to hearing more from you in 2010!!
    Christmas Blessings to you all!!

Firecracker Designs is Having a Blow OUT!

End of Year Inventory Blow Out!

Today Pamela moves to the second week of the blow out sale!!

50% items-CLICK HERE!

Help  make room for next year’s rubber! Most sets are being discontinued, so don’t delay!

All prices are already marked, all items on the sale page!! (As item sells out, they are removed from the store.)

How it will work: Week 1 will be 40% off; discount will increase by 10% each week until inventory is gone or December is over!

Discount changes every Thursday 40% - 50% (Dec 10) - 60% (Dec 17) -70% (Dec 24) Off!!

Get `em until they’re gone or until the year is Gone!

Discount taken from original prices, and is for IN STOCK ITEMS ONLY!

Orders will be processed as they are received. If your item goes out of stock, your order total will be adjusted.)

Due to the steep discounts on these items, coupons are not applicable.

Don't forget to check out the gift card option; shop, mark the page, give it to your dear significant other, sit back and wait for Christmas! Your stocking will be filled with goodies from Pamela!!

Gingerbread House

  
    At last, I have been able to get another card ready for posting! This card holds a special place in my stack of cards; the gingerbread house was designed and made by me using PSP9. I wanted a gingerbread house but one that could be manipulated to be the focal point or used as a background; making it large or small. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out so I printed it out and colored it; by the time I got it colored I was thrilled, so decided to use it to highlight Pamela's stamp set "Holly Jolly Christmas"! I love how it looks like the elf is climbing out of the chimney!
     The roof on the house has white dimensional puff paint on it along with glitter. It's hard to get a good photo of the glitter but in real life it looks amazing! Mr. Elf has glitter on his hat, his pants and his slippers, he is just so cute! Don't you just love the look on his face!!
     I hope you have enjoyed my elf coming out of the chimney! Thanks for dropping in, I hope you are having a HOLLY JOLLY time getting ready for Christmas!

materials:
paper-Club Scap/ K&Co                   
water colors pencils/markers/glitter pens
dimensional puff paint                      
glitter
FCD by Pamela "Holly Jolly Christmas"
nestibilities
hand written message on tag
gingerbread house designed by Donna using PSP9

What a Sale!!!

End of Year Inventory Blow Out!

How it will work: Week 1 will be 40% off; discount will increase by 10% each week until inventory is gone or December is over! Discount changes every Thursday 40% - 50% - 60% -70% Off!
Get ‘em until they’re gone or until the year is Gone! Discount on IN STOCK ITEMS ONLY!
(Orders will be processed as they are received. Orders placed after Dec. 15 will be shipped in Jan.)

A Self Made Card, Huh???

Good Morning!
     This particular card didn't even start out as a card, it was a test to see how gold embossing would work with this stamp. The stamp is from FCD's Holly Jolly Christmas. I stamped it three times just to be sure I got good coverage from the Vesamark and them embossed.
     It looked pretty good; then this idea hit, that you could probably put little jewels in the areas without embossing and make a very bright, colorful tree. Hmmm, so still playing around I found some jewels and started placing them. Very glitzy, very "loud", not my style....but still kind of eye catching. So....
     I had already colored and cut out the little jack in the box which is also from Holly Jolly Christmas, I placed it on the card and low and behold it looked like it belonged there. Before I knew it the card was made, all I needed was a tag. Why not, so I made the tag (from the same stamp set) and it was done.
     Now I had to decide if I would actually post this and share it. Well, it certainly isn't one of my favorite cards but then my taste doesn't flow towards glitzy; other may enjoy seeing it and knowing how "it made itself". This stamp set is phenomenal, it has all kinds of possibilities!! You really should check it out, Pamela always has something special going on and she has awesome stamps and digital stamps to chose from!!
   I hope you enjoyed the "self-made" card!*smile*

Peace on Earth!

This poinsettia is one of Pamela's digital images! I love the way the three flowers fit together and since the leaves of a pointsettia are the same as the petals, you can cut out leaves from the image as well! How easy is that! In fact I printed the image on green paper added some stickles......Leaves! The main flower is mostly red but the two smaller images are more pink, not so sure I would do that again. It actually looks better in person than in the photo. In order to further emphasize the larger flower I added tiny little pearls to the center.  I used nestibilities for the mats and for the design at the bottom of the page that has the pearls on it. That is actually the top of one of the frame nesties. The lacy border was done with a punch by Martha Stewart, the ribbon is from Ben Franklin, the verse and leaf on the top of the card is from FCD Oh Holey Night. The colored cardstock is Club Scrap.

Cyber Monday!!

Pamela has done it again, since it's Cyber Monday Firecracker Designs is having a special coupon sale. Everything in the store (except digitals) will be affected.

Use code CYBER30 to get 30% off everything IN STOCK in the store!! Hurry it ends tonight at midnight!! (EST) Woohoo!!!!

Fire Cracker Designs by Pamela!!

Black Friday Sale!!

Sale starts at 6 am, on Black Friday. See list below for times. Coupons expire at end times!!

Sale ONE: All rubber 50% off : Friday 6am-10am EST Use code: TG50
Sale TWO: All clear 30% off: Friday 10am-2pm EST Use code: TG30
Sale THREE: All Shimmerz & Flower Soft 30% off :  

Friday 2pm-6pm EST Use code: TGSHIFL

In stock items only.

No combining coupons, no combining shipping.

SHOP TIL YOU DROP!! Orders will begin shipping on Saturday!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

PS:

Did you know FCD has a wish list option? Put your list together, give your hubby the link, the list, the codes and the times.... you have what you want for Christmas!!

Vickie Kertz is the Winner!

    Vickie your number was chosen by the random number generator and you won the adorable stamp set Snow Lady Wreath! Congratulations, please contact me so I can get your mailing address and send your set to you.
     I would like to thank each of you for stopping by and making this such a wonderful Blog Hop. I hope you enjoyed it as much as each of us did! We won't be having a hop in December so I guess we will have to wait until next year to hop together again. Please stop by anytime and leave me a message, visit Pamela's store soon to get your Christmas Stamps as she will closing on Dec. 15th for the holidays.
     If you haven't tried digital stamping this might be the perfect opportunity to give them a try, Pamela has some great digital stamps and some pointers on using them.
     Happy Thanksgiving to all of you wonderful folks! I would like to share this Thanksgiving Day prayer with you:

A Thanksgiving Day Prayer

Lord, so often times, as any other day
When we sit down to our meal and pray

We hurry along and make fast the blessing
Thanks, amen. Now please pass the dressing

We're slaves to the olfactory overload
We must rush our prayer before the food gets cold

But Lord, I'd like to take a few minute more
To really give thanks to what I'm thankful for

For my family, my health, a nice soft bed
My friends, my freedom, a roof over my head

I'm thankful right now to be surrounded by those
Whose lives touch me more than they'll ever possibly know

Thankful Lord, that You've blessed me beyond measure
Thankful that in my heart lives life's greatest treasure

That You, dear Jesus, reside in that place
And I'm ever so grateful for Your unending grace

So please, heavenly Father, bless this food You've provided
And bless each and every person invited

Amen!

--Scott Wesemann

    Blessings to all!

Thanks...... and Boy will You be Excited!

     Hi and welcome to the November Blog Hop for FCD by Pamela. This is a very Special blog hop, not only will you have a chance to win an overall gift from FCD but each and every designer has BLOG CANDY to give away! That means each of you have multiple chances to win!

     As always, in order to be eligible to win you must leave a comment and your email address on each blog you visit. That shouldn't be hard, after all you get to view projects made with Pamela's stamp sets and get ideas and have a chance to win a prize! My Candy is Snow Lady Wreath: 
This an adorable set full of potential for those holiday cards, layouts and gifts! Good Luck!!

     Ok, now to my project for November's hop. Our theme was to make a Thank You card, layout or gift thanking someone. I looked and looked for something just a little different and ran into SCS's tutorial on how to make a File Folder Accordian Book.  This is a great project and I really had a lot of fun making mine. I used both Holly Jolly Christmas and Oh Holey Night sets. I used such a mixture of papers I'm not even sure where it all came from; some of it is K&Co, some is Basic Grey and some is paper that was separated out from it's original book and could be from anywhere. I also used a couple of embellishments that have been in a Christmas folder for years, actually I had forgotten about them; hmmm, what does that say about my organization skills??!!
     Take a look, leave me a comment and your email address and then hop over to Melisa's for more eye candy and another chance to win!!

Special Notice: FCD by Pamela will be closed beginning Dec 15th for the holidays. Get in early to place your order!!
 

Remember to go to each designers page and leave comments and email addresses, each designer has a stamp set that you have a chance to win! Good Luck to all of you!! Winners will be announced on Monday night at 8 PM (or as soon after that as the Designer can post it ...remember we are all in different time zones

Mouse in the House!

  

    I just can't stay away from this little mouse! He is part of the Oh Holey Night stamp set you can get from FCD by Pamela! I wanted to do a collage with this set and Mr. Mouse had to be the focal point. I stamped him first, made a mask and then stamped the candle and the cheese. I colored with watercolored pencils, markers and then added some glitter gel pen for highlights. After I was happy with the colors I cut him out, and matted him on a circle to represent a full moon.
    I was disappointed in how the flame turned out so I made another flame with an area around it for glowing, the colors on this one were more acceptable; this was added on top of the original flame. The dp is from some Christmas paper that has been hanging around a couple of years, I can't remember exactly who makes it. Some of you may recognize it and can help give credit for it. The solid cardstock if from Club Scrap. All the stamps and saying are from FCD by Pamela! Hope you like my collage, I am pretty happy with it!
    Thanks for stopping in, leave me some "love"!

Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day to all who have worn the uniform and served our nation. We all know that Freedom is not free; American's veteran's have paid a heavy price to make sure that freedom and liberty still reign in this awesome country.
My family has a number of vets, my grandfather from WWI, my Dad from WWII, and my husband from the Vietnam conflict. I am honored to have made this card to say "Thank You" for all you have done and all you have sacrificed. To all our great heroes from the past and into the future I am in awe of your courage and love of country.
This card is dedicated to you!

      card information: digital back ground made in several layers, the candle is from a stamp set by FCD called Oh Holey Night.

Mouse with Lollipop

    This is one of the new stamps sets from FCD set called Oh Holey Night.  I have been itching to get my hands on this set, this little mouse

just makes me smile!!
    All the paper I used on this particular card is some that has been laying around for quite awhile, I think some of it is from Club Scrap and the rest is just "stash". I used  Spellbinders large ovals  to cut the mouse out after he was watercolored, he was then mounted on some handmade hunter green paper. I found this ancient border punch (I have no idea where I got it) that I used to punch the red paper and then unbelievably I took those tiny little leaves and glued them on the edge of the green mat. They turned out cute but man are they hard to keep track of. :) The buttons on Mr. Mouse's vest are just punched "holes", the fancy corners are from cuttlebug die cuts. Mr. Mouse is holding a match to light the candle shown in the stamp set but I wanted him to have a lollipop, (probably the influence of Trick or Treating) so I punched a small circle, used a white gel pen to draw the lines and then clear embossed it. I think he turned out pretty cute!

    If you get a chance go by Pamela's site and check out all of her Christmas stamp sets. She has added a couple of new ones this year (Oh Holey Night is one of the new sets); there are some really great sets to chose from!!
   Drop by anytime! Love to have you visit and leave me comments!

Trip to San Ramon- October 26-November 1, 2009

We (my husband Dave and sister Lauren who directs at the Hippodrome Theater in Gainesville, FL)  just got back from a visit with "the boys", ie my two adorable grandsons! I was lucky enough to get to hang around for halloween and participate in Trick or Treating. Ethan and Jonas decided to be Transformers; Ethan was Optimus Prime and Jonas was Bumblebee. The neighborhood they live in is full of kids so you can imagine the haul of candy they got. I just had to post pictures!! This was taken the night before the BIG night, sort of photo op night. LOL Aren't they awesome "Transformers"!!

Good Morning All!
Here it is Thursday and I haven't posted anything since last Friday, can we say "slack"?
FCD posts a new challenge each Sunday for the Design Team, we can participate if we want but it is not mandatory; this weeks challenge was basically just a background. The background is so "not me" that I figured it would be a good personal challenge to try to do something like it. So I decided to play along and made a card with the challenge background as my inspiration. First here is the challenge piece:

(sorry for the size)

Using my October stamp set Tumbling Scarecrow I decided to use one of the verses included which talks about the smells and sights of fall. Using fall colors as my palette this is the card I came up with.

As you can see this is way outside my usual style, but you know, I kind of like the way it turned out! :)  I used a piece of printed card stock from Club Scrap as the background mat, then I covered that with a piece of burlap looking, straw feeling material. I used various ink colors to swipe color directly on the material, this gave me license to put as many fall colors as I wanted into the paper pieces attached on top. These pieces came from various papers I had on hand, I did ink the edges to sort of bring them all into the color palette. Then I took a piece of the original mat paper and used a Fiscars border punch and attached it just under the edge of the straw material. Taking the verse from FCD stamp set I inked with versamark, black ink and clear embossed,  then cut out each part of the verse so I could fit it on the small piece of mat paper. The frame is from Spellbinders which when cut out gives you the small mat piece used for the verse. Clear as mud??

Ok, the frame was used as a stencil as well as a die cut so I could color in the open areas and then smooshed it into versamark and Utee'd. I did this twice to get the gloss I was looking for. The little apple embellies are from the Tumbling Scarecrow set as well and of course I had to Utee them to make sure they showed up. There you go, a card which uses the Challenge, makes me think outside my normal style and an acceptable card at that!  Challenges can be such a "good thing"!!

Thanks for stopping by, leave me your thoughts and comments. Hope your day is as bright as the colors of fall!!

FCD Blog Hop: Autumn Creations using Mesh!

The official start time of this Hop is Friday, at 8:00 AM (EST). If you arrived early, please be patient as all the links may not be live yet. Welcome to the second Blog Hop for the newly named Design Team. I am so excited about being here and hope you will enjoy hopping around and visiting all the sites, make sure you leave a comment at each of your hops because there will be a Prize awarded to one lucky hopper! For this Blog Hop our inspiration was to make something with the theme  Autumn Creation using MESH.  Since my set for this month is Tumbling Scarecrow you would think this would soooo easy. The autumn part yes…….the mesh part…not so easy for me! I will freely admit, I am mesh challenged! What do you do when you are challenged to make something but you are challenged at or with the materials?? I go to Splitcoast Stampers for ideas!!! I didn’t find an idea that had mesh incorporated into the design but I found a project that a mesh challenged person could use mesh with. So here is my take on the Pillow Box Bucket! You will notice  you are supposed to use  Sizzix pillow box die cut for the sections which I didn’t have but I did have Spellbinders Curved Rectangles which I substituted.  After following all the other instructions carefully I think it worked just fine….

 
From the top you can see the candy inside and I used mesh!

Did I cheat? No, I used mesh it just isn’t attached! Besides I think the mesh adds a lot to the overall effect of the bucket! My little horsey buddy will love getting this for Halloween!
However, I just couldn’t leave well enough alone, no I had this notion running around in my head about making a “journal”. You know one of those where we take a regular composition book and then decorate it, I guess technically it would be called an altered composition book….whatever! This stamp set is just so adorable I started working on an “altered” composition book and you know what? I love the way this turned out, it even has mesh incorporated into the design!! Do you see it? It’s the spider web, use your imagination!! LOL Take a look!

These are pumpkins in a Pear Tree …grin….  Here are a couple more views of the book!

back cover

  inside front with custom bookplate

Inside the back cover….I used stickers to spell out “the end”. Fun, huh??

Ok, so off you go to visit  Melisa  to see the wonders she has designed for Autumn Creations with Mesh!! Then you will follow Melisa’s link to the next stop and so on until you wind up at Pamela’s!! Don’t forget to leave comments and your email address at each hop stop to be eligible for the Blog Candy!!!

Pamela has provided a coupon for 15% off during this blog hop, the coupon ends at the same time the hop ends....Monday 8:00 EST.  Code for the coupon is hopidays (magazines are not included)



check out Firecracker Designs by Pamela for a sneek peek of some Christmas goodies, oh man are they adorable!!!


Good Luck, have a great time and enjoy all the eye candy!!
I am so glad you stopped by!!

Attention: Blog Hop is Eminent.....starts Friday at 8:00 am

Count Your Blessings

Here is my take on the FREE digital stamp available at Firecracker Designs by Pamela. I also entered it in the LSC241 (Limited Supplies Challenge) for today's challenge on Split Coast Stampers.
What makes the digital stamp so great to work with is you can size it to fit whatever size card you are making. This card is a 7X5, but you could make any size you want because your image is totally sizeable. Paper is all from Club Scrap except for the image which was printed on SU! vanilla. I find this paper to be practically perfect for using watercolors and markers on ~ which just happens to be the technique used here. The little frilly fronds are from another Club Scap kit, they were just cut out and used as a decorative corner. The outline of the mat has a thin line of gold Krylon to make it stand out. Whatcha think? Pretty easy card but has some "umph" to it.
If you haven't already downloaded your Feebie, click here and get yourself this awesome stamp!

FREE Digital Stamp from FCD?!!

Yep, that's right, there is a FREE Digital Stamp from Firecracker Designs by Pamela! Keeping with the wonderful and classy designs of Pamela's stamps, this digital stamp is very classy and just in time to make Thanksgiving Day or Autumn cards.
I am working on mine today and will have it posted soon but you can see a couple of finished cards for ideas here and here.
TaDa.....here it is! Isn't is perfect for this time of year. When you go to Pamela's site she has instructions on how to copy it, scroll to the bottom area of the page and look for the download. I hope you enjoy this "freebie" as much as FCD's has enjoyed providing it for you. Be sure to tell us what you think!!

Select Christmas Stamps Sets on Special!!

Select stamp sets on Special!

October is Breat Cancer Awareness Month

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month I did this card. Using "pink" which is the choice of color from NBCA Organization, I used paper from Club Scrap's Kit for a Cause" and SU! vanilla. The saying is also from CS's kit. I tried to make a card that would be encouraging and delightful to receive. The pearls are just to make it bit more feminine. Thanks for dropping in!