Winner!

Congratulations to Patty, winner of the Tire Swing Stamp!  Here's what she wrote:
"I’m so excited! How awesome…I won something…I’m weeping so it is difficult to type or see what I’m typing. I’m so new to all of this and this ole dog is trying to learn all this new blogging, posting, and stamping stuff.  Thanks so much for blessing me with this precious stamp."
Patty also had some great memories of swinging with her friends at recess when she was a girl:
"It reminded me so much of when I was a child however; we didn’t have a car much less a tire to use as a swing.  At school during recess, my friend and I would swing all during recess.  I loved that you colored her hair reddish brown as that is my hair coloring. Believe it or not, my hair was almost that long"
Personally, my hair was never long.  I was one of those kids who cried when I got the tangles combed out of my hair (it's curly underneath the top layer, so evilly prone to tangles!), so my mom decided I was a pixie cut girl, lol.  I always envied those long locked beauties!

This is my "tire swing"- an old rope that goes out over the quarry.  Not for the faint of heart.  There are picnic tables, old cars, and TADPOLES (eeee!) lurking under the surface of that water.

Bless you, too, Patty! And I hope you have tons of fun with your new stamp!

XO
D

Bone Idle

Ahhhh, the sweet calm has arrived after the storm of preparing samples for CHA.  In some ways I'm sad that I'm not going this year.  I don't get to hang out with all my awesome crafty friends and do awesome crafty things...oh and I don't get to go to Disneyland! But... I get to breath!  And I don't have jet lag!  Boy howdy, is that ever a good thing!  So today, as a treat I did ab-so-lute-ly nothing.  Nada.  It was gorgeous :-)

Part of doing nothing was going out with Alfie to chat with the horses, Red and Bud.

They are total posers, lol.

Then Gabby the cat and I curled up on the sofa and (finally!) watched the newest Indiana Jones movie.  Harrison Ford is still a looker in my book.

Hope everyone is a having a similarly delightful weekend and don't forget you have 'til midnight tonight to enter for a chance to win the tire swing stamp!

XO
D

A big THANK YOU!!!!!! and Blog Candy!

I got a lot of great comments on the tire swing stamp I used on this yellow card (also seen at the bottom of my Spellbinders reveal entry)  She's a Door County Kid made by Door County Rubberstamps.  We sell them at Backroads Plum Crazy, but if you can't get here or to Oscar's shop in Door County then do visit their website- their stamps are so adorable and work great with Copics!

I figured while we were "in the swing" (har har)) of giving away fantabulous things, I'd throw out some more blog candy!  E-mail me by Saturday (the 24th of January) 11:59 PM CST at donya@backroadsplumcrazy.com and put "tire swing" as your subject line for a chance to win your very own!

Stamps:  Tire Swing by Door County Rubberstamps
                Live by Inque Boutique
Ink:        Tsukineko Brilliance Graphite
Paper:    Buttercream Cardstock
               Yellow Gingham Paper from my stash bought eons ago
               White Cardstcock
               aged teal scrap
Extras:   Copic Sketch markers, Spellbinders Classic Circle and Pinking Circle dies, Pop Dots

A Special Message from Spellbinders

The 5th Anniversary party for Spellbinders Paper Arts is nearing its end. Spellbinders’ staff is  hurrying-- scurrying to get all the little details finished for the big “party” in Anaheim at the Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show. You still have until 11:59 CST, January 21, to enter Trudee Sauer’s http://trudee.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/ blog  contest. Then Spellbinders will be drawing for the Grand Prize Winner, and will announce the Grand Prize winner on the Spellbinders Blog on January 31.

Today, Stacey Caron, Creative Director and Co-founder of Spellbinders Paper Arts shares a special message for you, so check it out here http://spellbinderspaperarts.com/blog/a-special-message-from-stacey-caron/

I also want to thank everyone so much for their comments and e-mails!  Hope to see you all around :-) and good luck!

Spellbinders Blog Frenzy

"Thanks to everyone who entered the Spellbinders' 5th Anniversary Party to win my Die Template release. You can no longer enter to win my release. Please check out Linda and Trudee's blogs for two more chances to enter the contest.

Check the  Spellbinders Blog for the announcement of Daily Winners. Grand prize winner will be announced on January 30th."
PLEASE NOTE: Commenting on this post is (very!) welcome but does not enter you into the contest. This contest is sponsored directly by Spellbinders Paper Arts. Please read the post to find directions for entering the contest. If you have any questions, please e-mail ContestQuestions@spellbinders.us.
Oh!  I love this time of year!  Everybody is coming out with all of their new lines for the year, but I think Spellbinders has topped them all for their 5 year Anniversary!  They came out with some really excellent dies this time around (I love, love, love the ones I got!), plus Spellbinders is celebrating their 5 year anniversary by sharing 16 days of sneak peeks, with LOTS of drawings for dies!!  Today there will be a drawing for the die I am showing you (the perfectly perfect Polka Dot Frame) and the previously revealed dies during the Spellbinders 5 Year Anniversary celebration.   Each day an additional die is added to the daily giveaway list for a grand total of more than16 dies on the 16th day of reveals!  Holy Smokes, that’s a LOT of prizes!

You’ll want to be sure and catch the two remaining sneak peaks!
JANUARY 19: Linda’s Works of Heart by Linda Duke
[http://lindaduke.typepad.com/lindas_works_of_heart/]
JANUARY 20: Follow Your Bliss by Trudee Sauer
[http://trudee.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/]
Winners will be announced on Spellbinders blog at http://www.spellbinderspaperarts.com/blog
And don’t forget you have until 11:59 PM on January 18th, 2009 to sign up for the give-away on Sally Lynn’s Blog [http://inkyheart.typepad.com/]!

The die template I’m revealing today is the Polka Dot Frameability.  I love Polka Dots!  They are so fun!  I mean can anyone just think “Polka Dot” and not smile :-) ?  The new Polka Dot Frameability is super versatile, skipping from fun and kitschy, sweetly vintage, or even elegant with just a switch of papers and ink.

Here’s the information you’ll need when it comes time to hunt this little number down:  Polka Dot Frame: SKU # S5-016, MSRP $24.99
This die is a natural for all fashions of paper artsiness, it would be lovely on a scrapbook page, great on a card front, and lends itself to off the page uses as well.  When I got mine in the mail, I’d just come home from having New Year’s brunch at Chez Colette (a wonderful little casual French restaurant at the Sofitel in Minneapolis). With La Vie en Rose stuck in my head and café au lait humming through my veins, I thought I’d make a little gift bag any lover of French couture would be proud to receive.

 

This project is surprisingly green; you only really need two pieces of paper, everything else is from the thrift store or *ahem* rifled from your grandmother’s sewing room.

For the bag you will need:
A die cutting machine (I love the Wizard and think it gives the best results)
Polka Dot Frame Die Template
Webster’s Pages Bloomin’ Beauty Paper
Worldwin Light Totally Tan Cardstock (this about the color of antique book paper which you can use if you aren’t concerned with your bag being acid free)
Silk and/or satin ribbons (yum!)
Two buttons
Old Sewing Pattern (preferably some size small horror that no one in their right mind would ever want to actually use)
Sewing Machine
Foam Dots
Craft Glue (I love Beacon’s 3 in 1 Craft Glue, dries super fast and strong)
Charcoal Gray or Black Ink Pad
Copies of a great old photo

The bag itself is blindingly simple.  Score and fold the red polka dot paper in half.  Tape or pin a length of black satin ribbon on each side to make a handle.  Then stitch the ends shut with a zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine.

 

Using craft glue or some heavy duty double-sided tape, attach a ribbon band around the entire bag.

 

Now here comes the fun part! The frame! The pictures here are using the Wizard, which I find to be the best machine on the market (I do own another machine but it is a very dusty and unused thing), and we are all about quality, no? ;-)

Here’s a step by step of how I created the frame, if you are new to the Wizard or want to see how to easily use the Spellbinder dies in whatever machine you have at home, I’ve included a video demo by Stacey Caron at the bottom of my instructions.

Put your Polka Dot Frame (the biggest one) rough side up on the magnetic spacer plate (or white spacer plate if you have the Purple Wizard).

 

Place your tan colored paper on top of your die.

Put your second white mat on top, and run it through your machine to cut the base frame out.

Now here’s where the die starts getting special.  Keep your paper in the die but remove the spacer plate and put the tan embossing mat on top of your paper.

Put on the top white mat, and run the sandwich through your machine.  You now have lovely embossed polka dots… but wait there’s more!  We’re going to stencil through the die!

This step works really well with smaller ink pads, but daubers of various kinds (example: cotton balls) work too.  Rub the ink pad all over the open spaces in the die.

Wow! Check out those perfect little charcoal colored polka dots!  No way could I have done those by hand!  Now trim your photo to fit your frame and mount them together.

Repeat the above cutting and stenciling with the smaller polka dot frame die.  Use this frame around your sentiment.

Okay, now you’ve got regular stenciling down, let’s kick it up a notch. Reverse Stenciling! This time ink up the smaller quatrefoil (clover shaped) die itself.

Then cut/emboss like normal.  Pop the paper out of the die and you’ve got a perfect border! 

Now just top it with a button.

  

And attach it to the smaller Polka Dot Frame.

Now put it all together on the bag with a little foam tape or pop dots.

I made a simple pin to attach to the bag handle, using the new Peony (S4-193) die template set and an old sewing pattern.  Haute couture!

If you’re feeling like you want to go on with your Polka Dot Party, create a card to go with the bag from some leftover tan cardstock.  I really like how you can create the look of a shaped card with this die simply by making your card base slightly smaller than your frame (a 3.25 x 9.5 strip folded in half is about perfect)

While I was creating this project it started snowing again.  So I decided to take my own advice (Warm Wishes!) and make a summery little card using the same basic technique.

Here are the videos I promised: http://spellbinderspaperarts.com/videos

Now the important  stuff- CONTEST RULES!!!!!!

Spellbinders 5 Year Anniversary Celebration
Sneak Peek Party Drawing Information

Spellbinders will randomly pick one entry from each of the 16 Spellbinders Sneak Peek Blog reveals as stated in the “Rules”. This name will be drawn to receive the die being revealed and any other dies listed as a part of said blog give-away.  These entries must follow all rules stated below to be valid for the drawing. 
Entrants visiting all 16 Spellbinders 5 Year Anniversary Celebration Sneak Peeks Blog reveals and correctly entering their information into the 16 separate drawings, as described below, will automatically be entered into a GRAND PRIZE give away of a full set of all 28 NEW RELEASE dies debuting at the Winter Craft and Hobby Association Show in Anaheim, California, on January 25-28, 2009!

Rules

Any participant wishing to be included in the daily drawing for the Spellbinders Birthday Celebration Sneak Peek die give away must adhere to all of the following rules:
1. Participant must click on the provided link on Reveal blog to enter each     individual drawing on sneak peeks between January 5 and January 20, 2009.

2. Participant must type in the subject line the name of the die being revealed. 
3. Participant must send their entry for this blog before 12:00 midnight Central Standard Time on January 19, 2009.
4. Participant is only allowed to enter each of the 16 Spellbinders sneak peek blog give away drawings one time per sneak peek. Participant must use the same email address daily to be considered for grand prize entry, no exceptions. Please consider whether you will have access to the same e-mail from January 5th through the 20th and plan accordingly.
5. Spellbinders Design Team members and employees are not eligible for drawings. 
 Any participant wishing to be automatically entered into the drawing for the Spellbinders 5 Year Anniversary Celebration Sneak Peek Grand Prize drawing, must enter the drawing from all of the 16 blog reveals and follow all the above rules.
Please note:
*Spellbinders will only use email information to contact the winner.
*Spellbinders will not share this email address with any other parties. 
*Spellbinders will not use this email information for advertisements or communications other than to contact the winner.
*If you wish to be included in further communications from Spellbinders, please go to their homepage SpellbindersPaperArts.com and sign up for their newsletter.
For more Spellbinders product release information go to www.SpellbindersPaperArts.Com
If you have any questions regarding the contest, please e-mail ContestQuestions@spellbinders.us


Thanks to everyone who stopped by, hope you are feeling inspired by all the great projects, and good luck!
-Donya