Some Odd Girl HolODDday Hop!

Hello Oddies, welcome to Day 1 of our Hol-ODD-Day Hop!

We Odd Girls have joined together for a fun event for EVERYONE - not just because you get to hop, but because you get to PARTICIPATE and share your own holiday creations. So glad you've joined us for our 3rd annual Hol-ODD-Day Hop!
 

We mixed things up a bit to bring you a nice variety of holiday projects that we hope will inspire you.

You can comment on all of the blogs, participate by linking your own below (to be eligible to win, be sure you link to us in your post), and comment throughout the event on other people's links as well! And there will be PRESENTS! The hop goes from now through Friday, December 12th, and we'll be announcing 3 winners next Wednesday, December 17th, so you have plenty of time to comment between now and then! Our Hol-ODD-Day Hop link party will close at midnight on Friday the 12th.

Today, all of the Odd Girls have projects to share for the big event, so you can visit their blogs to see all the action happening. Here's the hop list for our awesome team:

Some Odd Girl blog (featuring a new inspiration project each day!)
Tabbatha
Linda
Katie
Mary Pat
Stephanie
Alexis
Nicole
Suzanne
Judy
Jo Ann
Melissa
Leah
Brianna
Lenny
Anna
Kristy

 

It's an Odd Girl Snowglobe!!!

I'll come back soon to give you deets on how I did this, but with so much awesome talent on this team, you need to get hopping to see the rest of the projects.

Remember to comment along the way, and link up your holiday-themed projects using Some Odd Girl stamps (new or old)!

Next stop is the delightful KATIE

See you soon!

Linda

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi there!

BIG news to share today.  SUCH a big secret that I've had to keep for MONTHS!!


First I'll tell you my news, and then I'll fill you in.

I'M A SCRAPBOOKING MASTER FOR 2015

We have a scrapbooking magazine here in Australia, called Scrapbooking Memories-- and it is THE magazine. It showcases incredibly talented artists, a wide variety of styles, its just amazing. I've been a huge fan of it for several years.

A year or so ago, I saw the December issue while I was in the airport, about to leave Melbourne to move back to Perth, and bought it. I read it on the plane here and there, and kept re-reading the Masters articles.

Masters are 10 lucky scrapbookers, who enter a competition, and if chosen, are in the magazine for the year, showing their beautiful work, based on challenges from participating sponsor companies.

I remember thinking "I'm never going to be that good." (I wasn't being a downer, I just really never thought I'd ever be in that league).

Fast-forward several months, and a friend who is on one the Scrappy Canary design team with me, (Bernii--who is also a Master for this year, and is INCREDIBLY good), mentioned to the DT group, that the Masters competition had just been announced.  There were about 12 weeks to enter and strict specifications of what was required to do so. As soon as she said it, my gut told me to give it a go. (My gut NEVER says that lol)

I got to work (or play really), on the required projects. I was so so so inspired by the challenges we had to follow. The work I did, was honestly the best I've ever done. I was so inspired, I got all but one of the projects finished within about four days. It just flowed out of me. On the day I needed to get my parcel packed up and ready to ship to the magazine for submission, I felt sick. Literally. I was clammy and my heart was pounding as I taped up the box. I almost told Matt (hubs) to take it for me.

So I sent it in, and held my breath for what felt like weeks, until September 1st, when the winners would be phoned.

September 1st arrived, and I was a zombie. We'd had the WORST week or two where the entire family had been sick as dogs, several things had gone wrong and basically I was wallowing about life.

I walked around the house with my mobile phone in hand just in case. I kept repeating to myself 'it doesn't matter if you don't get it, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter it doesn't matter'.

I got the baby to sleep, and sat down with some tea.  I glanced at Facebook and my heart dropped into my stomach when I saw Scrapbooking Memories had posted a photo of Vanessa (the editor) ringing winners).

Then my phone rang and it was a Sydney number.

I don't know anyone in Sydney.

Now, I'm not going to give you a blow-by-blow account of the phone call because in all honesty, it was embarrassing. I sobbed. I sobbed and sat down on the bed and stared out the windows while Vanessa told me they loved my work and were inviting me to be a master. I sobbed so much I'm not sure my words made any sense to her!

I also apologised for sobbing so much LOL!

After I hung up the phone, I walked around the house in a daze. Hubs came home for lunch and I told him, he was so happy and excited for me. (He knew I'd get in apparently lol).

I'm not sure if anyone in my family "gets it", how exciting this is. how big of a deal it is. For you stampers and crafters, it's kinda like being named Stamping Royalty. It's THE big deal.

But there you have it.

I'm beyond excited and thrilled and still very much in disbelief.

I've done several of the assignments for the year and I'm still so very nervous but all-the-while having so so much fun.

And now today that I can tell you, I'm SO relieved. I've felt like bubbles were inside me bursting to get out.

And before I go, I have to thank three ladies. Ruth and Lisa for being my cheerleaders and keeping me sane while I made my submission projects (I'm sorry I couldn't tell you I got in till now!!!!) and to Mary Dawn who has no idea I submitted at all, but who's voice kept me going all the way through the entire process. She was the first person to ever tell me she loved my work, that it was beautiful and ethereal and that I'm her favourite scrapbooker. Without that voice of support in my head, I wouldn't have ever tried.

I can't WAIT to share my projects with you once they start being published (SQUEEEE!!!)

See you soon

Linda xxx

Watercolour Winter Trees: a video

Hi crafty peeps!

I'm here with ANOTHER video for you! I know! shocking :)

So today I'm using the beautiful Neat and Tangled set called Winter Trees--oh my goodness I love it to pieces!

I'll add links to all the products as soon as I can :)

Hope you liked!

See you again soon

L xx

You are my Most Favourite

Hi friends!

A quick post today to share with you all, a card that came together pretty quickly, which is always a PLUS for a busy mum like me!

I used the gorgeous set Fall Friends from Some Odd Girl (I've been wanting this set for ages and I finally gave in and bought it--it's on sale, so be sure to pick it up before it disappears!)

I used the starburst image from the Avery Elle set Bright Days, and the sentiment, which is such a favourite of mine (and is, ironically called My Favourite) from Neat and Tangled.

I stamped the starburst using a new Stampin Up ink pad I just got, and the off-white cardstock is the delicious Flecked Heavy Cardstock from Avery Elle--it's delicious!

I'll see you again soon!

Linda xx

ThingsCrafted Grand Opening BLOG HOP!

Hello!!

Welcome to the ThingsCrafted Blog Hop!! This hop is chock-a-block FULL of amazing designers, get ready to have your socks blown off!!

You might have come here from the incredibly lovely and talented Jennifer McGuire (having to come after her in a Blog Hop is both nerve-wracking and very exciting!), if you didn't come from Jennifer's blog or would like to go back to the beginning of the hop, please go to the ThingsCrafted blog to start!

A little background on ThingsCrafted: ThingsCrafted is a place where handmade design and customization come together to create a wonderful company who creates and encourages color, personality and community. 

ThingsCrafted was founded by Britta Swiderski, a designer with a background in the world of papercrafting and a history of working with awesome graphic design clients. ThingsCrafted provides custom products - starting with stamps - to suit your lifestyle all starting with handwritten designs. They all go from pencil to computer to your doorstep! We love to create stamps and designs for addresses, "made by"s for the projects you send to others, favorite phrases or shapes for project life and planner organization and so much more. 

I decided to go with a Medium Rectangle stamp because I wanted something that would be close to the width of a card, or at least to take up a large portion of my card.

I perused Pinterest carefully and came up with a couple of images that I really loved;  THIS for the general "sketch" or layout of the stamp and THIS for the style of the flowers. After showing Britta and discussing what I wanted with her, she came up with a final design almost immediately--it's fantastic:

 How cool is that?!

To show you how versatile it is, I made a second card showing how very different it can look.

Something more modern and elegant!

Love a stamp you can get a lot of uses from!

Britta is also offering some pre-designed stamps for those that want to try something new and handmade but don't have a particular need for a custom stamp. 

I got this one: Adventure - and man oh man, I can't wait to use it. 

Here are the direct links to the other pre-designed stamps she's offering...I'll be getting these too.

Solid Banner

Fond

Happy

I Love You Heart

Solid Heart

Thank You

Aren't they lovely??

Thank you for stopping by today. Before you go - make sure to leave a comment on this post and each one along the hop to enter to win a custom stamp! One will be given away at each stop along the hop. We'll be getting in touch with you via email, so make sure you add your email to your comment! We'll be drawing winners on Tuesday, the 25th of November, so be sure to leave a comment by then.

There's also a special treat for everyone in the blog hop - 15% off your order until Tuesday, November 25th using the code GRAND15OFF as part of the Grand Opening event! The next stop on the ThingsCrafted blog hop is one of my most FAVOURITE people in the whole world, Kelly Marie!.

Britta is such a pleasure to work with, I really hope you'll create something with her! I know I will be again :)

Happy hopping!

Some odd Girl November Release: Garden Mae

Hi friends!

I'm here today because it's release time over at Some Odd Girl!

Today's set is called Garden Mae and she's so fun and cute. Those big eyes get me every time!

I copic coloured her, and added some freckles for fun (it's my first try at freckles to hopefully you think it worked!)

I kept the card design really simple because I wanted Mae to be the focus. The pretty yellow patterned paper is from the Some Odd Girl Sunshine Sorbet paper pad.

I hope you'll head over to the Some Odd Girl blog, to check out the rest of our creations--you should see what the DT have made to inspire you today!

See you soon!

Linda x

Some Odd Girl November Release: Wink Mae

Hi Oddlets!

It's release time and today I'm introducing Wink Mae!

This is SUCH a fun set, the frame is really cool and I can't wait to play with it all more.

Here's my card:

Instead of using the frame as a portrait frame for the girl, I thought it would be fun to use the frame to frame the sentiment (are you still with me?!).

I heat embossed the frame with gold glittery embossing powder, which gave it a nice antique look.

I used my white gel pen to draw a slightly wonky line around the outside of the green patterned paper panel, I love this look, it really finishes off simple cards.

I hope you like her! I'll be back again soon but till then, please head over to the blog or Facebook page to see even more inspiration!

See you soon!

Linda

Trick or Treat with The ODD GIRLS!

We’d like to welcome you to Some Odd Girl‘s 2nd annual Trick or Treat Halloween Hop!

Thank you so much for joining us!  All of the Odd Girls have concocted a creepy little creation to inspire you today, and you’re invited to visit each blog to see what’s been brewing!   You might have arrived from JoAnn’s blog – if so, you’re on the right track!  If not, you’ll want to CLICK HERE to get things started, because you won’t want to miss a thing!

We’ll be sharing some of these pretties are the Some Odd Girl blog over the next few days, but TODAY, we kick things off!  So you might be wondering what this Trick or Treat stuff is all about, yeah?  Well, in addition to amazing papercrafty goodness you’ll see at each stop, you’ll get tricks along the way, too!  Simple tips and tricks to little secrets we papercrafters have figured out that we want to share with you!  That covers the Tricks.

And then there are TREATS!

woohoo!!! 

As you hop, you’ll come across some Treats, located at random Odd Girls‘ blogs.  We have some clear stamps, some Odds & Ends, some digi stamps and lots and lots of inspiration for you!  AND, as if that wasn’t exciting already, we have a discount code for you!

Be sure to leave a comment at each stop, and if YOU have any tricks you’d like to share, we’d love to hear them!  There might just be a prize in it for one commenter who leaves us a trick!  Okay.  So have you got all that?  Are you ready?  Well allllll righty!  LET’S HOP!   Here’s your hop order:

Some Odd Girl blog

Paola

Mary Pat

Stephanie

Lenny

Anna

Judy

Brianna

Melissa

Katie

JoAnn

Linda

Leah

Suzanne

Alexis

Tabbatha

Nicole

Kristy


And here is my project!




to Halloween-up Moulin Mae, I added a fun mask to her face, and some spiderwebs to her stockings! It's easy to alter your stamps in simple ways like this, to really help make the images suit your theme!

And there you have it!  We will hop now through October 31st at midnight Eastern, and our winners will be announced back here on the Some Odd Girl blog on Monday, November 3rd.  Happy Haunting – I mean HOPPING!    Your next stop is Leah!

And a very Happy Halloween from all of us at Some Odd Girl!

Beep Boop!

Hi friends!

I'm here with a fun kids card I made using the ADORABLE Beep Boop set from Lawn Fawn.

I think it's pretty self explanatory, heat embossing using Ranger Silver embossing powder, of the gear parts on black card stock, then I copic coloured the images and die cut them out using the coordinating dies.

I thought a funny internal sentiment might be the way to go!

Hope you like it!

See you again soon

Do What Makes You Happy with Simon Says Stamp Exclusives.

Hi crafty peeps!

I'm here today with a SUPER FUN mixed media canvas I whipped up last night and just now, this morning.

I've been itching to get painty and messy, so that's just what I did.

I used lots of Simon Says Stamp exclusive stamps and stencils--take a look;

First of all I did some spritzing and spraying, after gesso-ing the canvas. Next I added lots of layers with Gelatos and Faber Castell Artist Pitt Pens, as well as STAMPING (of course!)

The gold shine is from Luminarte acrylic glaze, this would work just as well.

 Love how these Simon Says Stamp Scribble Flowers stamps look. Such a great stamp set.  They're coloured in with Faber Castell PITT pens (big brush), while the ink is still wet, you can just smear and blend them in with your finger--this also softens the colour, so they blend n with your canvas better.

I used the Simon Says STARS AND DOTS stencil for this--how cool does it look!?  First I swiped over the stencil with Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste, and then after it dried, to make the white really pop out, I roughly coloured over the stars with a White Gelato, so the edges would really catch the pigment of the gelato--the effect in real life is SUPER cool.

 I love overlapping white texture with some colour. its so fun.

will you look at that drippage

For the "sentiment", I used Simon Says BIG YOU stamp, I hand-wrote the "makes" and "HAPPY" and the 'do what' is using Mama Elephant Midnight Letters.   All of the sentiment was stamped using the Black Big Brush PITT pen.

Hope you like it! It came together SUPER SUPER fast, which is always an added bonus lol.

I'm off to have some breakfast now, but I'd love to hear what you think.

Linda xx

thanks Friend, with Simon Says Stamp

Hi there~

I've got a simple card to share with you today.

I saw a cool card on Pinterest, using a peep-through panel, with the rest of the card simple and white. I loved how effective this looked, and how much it made the stamped/coloured area POP out.

I've been meaning to play with this Simon Says Stamp exclusive set Butterfly Friends since I got it, so I did today.

Here's what I made

Nice and simple, but effective, huh?!

I stamped the butterflies with Simon Says Stamp inks in Cotton Candy, Surf Blue, Audrey Blue, Mint and Doll Pink. The sentiment is stamped in Simon Says Stamp Black Ink and Doll Pink. 

hard to see but there's a line of Wink of Stella along the edges of the popped up panels

For a bit more of sumthin-sumthin, I added a line of Wink of Stella, as you can see above. This gives just the right last touch to a super simple card.

I think I might use this style again soon. I'd like to see how many versions I could get out of this one 'sketch' if you will. I think it'd work for an autumn card, a wedding or sympathy card, or even a birthday card.  What do you think?

See you soon!

Brighter Days

Hi loves!

I'm here with a card today that I made for a dear friend of our family.  Her grandfather passed away about 3 months ago, and we've just found out that her grandmother left us just yesterday.

I wanted to send her a sympathy card that would make her smile, but still seem somber enough for the sad circumstances.

Here it is

I stamped and diecut the Lawn Fawn tag, before stamping the rest of the scene. I then coloured it with Prismacolour Pencils, and blended it in with some Mineral Spirits and a paper blending stump. (Is that what they're called?!)

For the background panel, I used some Peerless watercolours to paint brighter tones of the same colours I used on the bunny's umbrella (Thanks again to Lisa for the sample-kit--you're the BEST!).  I then stamped the sentiment using Lawn Fawn's Violet's ABC's (how beautiful is that font?!) before adhering it down to a blue American Crafts textured cardstock panel.

I like how the brightness of the watercoloured background echos the sentiment of brighter days, in juxtaposition to the pale, subdued panel with the bunny (who is in his sad state).

Here's a detail shot of his little fluffy bunny tail (I cut a small slit in the stamped tail, then pushed a tiny bit of cotton wool through from the back--thanks for the great idea Lisa!)

A little touch of Gelly Roll pen for the splash of rain.

That's it for me for today! Lots of Lawn Fawny goodness. I've been dying to use these staamps since I got them, they were so nice to work with as always. Made a sad occasion for needing a card, a bit less sad.

See you tomorrow, Crafty Friends.

New card over at Create a Smile Stamps

Hey there!

I'm over at Create a Smile Stamps with a card that I think would be a good option for creating christmas or holiday cards, en masse!

Hope you'll stop by and check it out!

Here's a sneak peek:

See you again soon~

ABNH and LAWN FAWN! Challenge time.

Hi friends!

Sorry it's been a while, it's been crazy here!

Ok so it's time for a new challenge over at ABNH, and this time we want you to

 

This month, we're collaborating with the delightful

You have the chance to win a

Thanks to our ever-generous sponsors,

So for this one, I recycled/upcycled some plastic packaging. I've been itching to do a shaker card for a while now, so I gave one a go.

 I think it's mostly self-explanatory, but let me give you a quick tip before I go. Make the top panel MUCH higher than you think you'll need. At first I only used one layer of dimensional tape, then I had to gently rip the entire panel up, so I could add another layer. (To be honest, I think next time I'll try a third layer, t o keep it up really nice and high.)

Also, why oh WHY didn't I buy the matching die to coordinate with this stamp set?! This would have been much faster to make if I had!

 Hope you like it and you'll consider playing along! We'd love to see what you make.

See you really soon!

walking the dog piper

Hi Oddlets!

It's release time right now at Some Odd Girl, and today's image is SUCH a fun one, I can't wait to play with it more!

Walking the dog Piper is so sweet and that little schnauzer dog is just like the one I had growing up.

I coloured her in with copics, and went for a modern graphic look for the rest of the card. The sentiment is from the same set! So fun.

I hope you'll check out the rest of the DT's work, they're all incredible!

See you soon!