MIDNIGHT MADNESS (MMSC88)

Happy Tuesday Folks!

Are you ready for another Midnight Madness challenge? All these Valentine's heart cards I'm seeing in blogland are just gorgeous! Some of them are so creative and it shows you are all in the Valentine's spirit!

Congratulations to all our winners this week.

our Masterpiece Award goes to

#59 Grace N

Our Remarkables go to

#21 Karin van Eijk

#53 Julie Glasgow

#54 Nancy Brown

Our sponsors are The Beary Scrap

Our Monthly Sponsor is Lindy's Stamp Gang 

This week I decided to make two cards using one of Priscilla's images. I couldn't decide which to use after I had colored them so I used both! The first card I cut the heart wreath out, added a metal charm in the center and used lots of stitching.

On my second card I used the image with distressed edging then used some Moonglow stains on the background dp from Lindy's Stamp Gang. Moonglow Moon Shadow in van Dyke Sepia and Starburst Stains in Creme Brulee Cream. I also embossed the dp on the second card.

Flowers are from Prima and pearls from Michael's

Here are the two cards together so you can see the difference with the two images!

Please take the time to visit my DT sisters and leave them some love!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs,

Charlotte

MIDNIGHT MADNESS (MMSC87)

Good Morning folks!

It's Tuesday again and time for some Midnight Madness! Are you all ready? I loved the sketch this week and decided to incorporate the CDAC heart pocket tutorial too which was really easy to do, but adds a nice added touch to your creation don't you think?

Congratulations to all our winners this week

Our Masterpiece Award goes to

#45 Linda-aka-Oz

Our Remarkables Awards go to

#23 Nancy Brown

#24 Brenda K

#36 Sharon Basel

Our sponsors are Priscillastyles-store

Our montly sponsor is Lindy's Stamp Gang 

Here's my card showing the tag out of the heart pocket

I used this pretty sunflower from Priscillastyles for my card which I've used a few times before. As it was more of a Valentine's card I decided to color it in a dark pink rather than the yellow of a sunflower. I printed the image in two sizes, colored them both then cut the images out. The smaller image petals were layered on top with foam dots. I just love the dimension it gives! I added some creme brulee starburst stains from Lindy's Stamp Gang on the top layer of petals and a glass dome with bee inside to the center of the image.  

The heart pocket was made from two gold colored doily's. I wrapped one around the other to give the pocket effect that the tag fits into.

I hope you will take the time to visit my DT sisters as they have some beautiful creations to see!

One other thing I wanted to say is thank you for all your thoughtful words and prayers for my family, we truly appreciate all the love and support during our difficult time!

After the last couple of stressful weeks we've had, I just wanted to spend some real quality time with my little boy over the weekend! Away from the computer, phones and any other distractions, so we went to try to get him to ride without training wheels (stabilizers). I figured that my DH and I would be out for a while holding onto the back of his seat getting tired but that wasn't the case...within a couple of mins he was actually riding on his own! Once he rode around a few times on his smaller bike we tried him with his new bike that he won last year at a bike parade for "Best Decorated Bike". He took to this new bigger bike like a duck to water! Made for a very proud moment! 

Thijs's first time without training wheels 

A few minutes later riding alone on his big bike!

Enjoy your day and make each moment count!

Hugs,

Charlotte

MIDNIGHT MADNESS (MMSC86)

Happy Tuesday All!

Today's post is written with a heavy heart! On Friday night my DH's uncle Wout passed away at the young age of 60. He had been having some problems with emphasema and his heart and was hooked up to 8 different machines the last few days. After discussing the procedure, the doctor's took him off the respirator on Friday morning and he passed away in the evening, leaving a wife, three children and 4 grandchildren. My in-laws were supposed to be going to Holland to celebrate my hubby's grandma's 90th birthday but instead they will be attending a funeral, now that the party has been canceled. It really is a sad case as we don't know what caused the emphasema as he didn't smoke and was an avid cyclist. The week before he was admitted to hospital he had still been cycling.

Wouter van Beek (Dec. 25th 1950 - Jan. 8th 2011)

Our lives change so quickly that it sure does make you appreciate each day you have.

OK sadness over for this post, now onto happier things with Midnight Madness.....

Firstly Congratulations to our winners on their beautiful creations this week!

Our sponsors are Doodle Pantry LLC

Our monthly sponsor is Lindy's Stamp Gang

My card was made for my DH's grandma so it will be on it's way to Holland today, hand delivered by my MIL! I used an image from Priscilla and some lucious stains from Lindy's Stamp Gang on my creation and in real life it is so pretty!

Butterfly image from Priscillastyles-store 

Flower dressed in Creme Brulee Cream Moonglow's starburst stains from Lindy's Stamp Gang  The new package I received was called "Little Lindy's Tiffany Chocolates" and let me tell you they are as decadent as they sound! I also trimmed the edges with Lindy's Autumn Maple Crimson stain that I've had for a while.

The background dp was also daubed with the delicious Creme Brulee which gives such a gorgeous creamy gold sheen to your paper. I colored Priscilla's butterfly with prismacolored pencils and added some cotton candy stickles. My embellies are all from Michael's, flowers from Prima.

I did end up changing some things on this card, I had originally wanted to add the sentiment "The Key to a Long Happy Life" but due to the circumstances I felt this was no longer appropriate. Grandma did not want to celebrate her 90th birthday after losing her son-in-law!

I hope your day brings you peace and happiness.

Hugs,

Charlotte

HELP FOR KATIE - DIGI STAMP PACKAGE FOR A CAUSE

Today's post was a request from Shawne over at Studio313 who was asked to make a digi set for a cause. What's the cause you might ask....well a very worthy one in the name of Katie. Here in the stamping community there is nothing better than rallying around to help someone in need and when you read Katie's story I know it will touch your heart.

Katie has been diagnosed with stage 4 Stomach Cancer and is currently undergoing her only option which is Chemotherapy. She is a wife and mom to three beautiful boys as well as being a fellow crafter.

You can read about Katie and her new journey Here

Her good friend Jak Heath has organized a wonderful package for a donation from digi artists such as Clear Dollar Stamps, Doodle Pantry, True D Doodle, Studio313, Waltzing Mouse Stamps, Mo's Digitals, and more......

and a prize package from

Letreset - 148 Promarkers,

and PaperTemptress has these beautiful papers plus a $25.00 gift certificate

 My card was made with Shawne's beautiful whale image and sentiments and is just darling!

Here are some closeups of this adorable set from Studio313 

and finally my fish charm! Well fish do hang out with whales after all, especially friendly whales! 

I do hope you will help this very worthy cause and follow Katie's story of her progress. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers!

Here are the links one more time

Katie's story

Jak's donation/prize page

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs,

Charlotte

DOODLE DRAGON CHALLENGE #26

Happy Sunday folks!

Hope your weekend is going well and you all got some crafting done or spent some quality time with your families!

We've had a bit of a break at Doodle Dragon studios over the Christmas vacation time but are now back in the swing of things. This weeks challenge is to make something with the "Winter" theme. I opted to make a small scrapbook of our winter vacation up to North Carolina. It was my son's first experience with snow, so for us to see a good 8" of the fluffy white stuff awaiting our arrival we were delighted! I was so excited to see my son's reaction and he didn't disappoint at all and spent a good four days playing in it, having snowball fights, and building snowmen! As this was such a special time I wanted to make it memorable for him with his own scrapbook so he can see his photos of the snow whenever he wants to. As space was limited on our trip I took only a few supplies up to the cabin with me. With only a few pencils, stickles and embellishments my creativity was limited too but I really enjoyed making this album for him. I actually used three of Dustin's images, two snowmen and the "Let it Snow" image for the inside cover. I colored them in with my prismacolored pencils then added lots of stickles in Diamond color, candy cane and light blue. The sparkle on the snowmen in real life is amazing....I love the Diamond stickles so much.  

This is the inside cover with more snow people and lots of snowflakes! Lastly, I have few photos to share of our winter trip and of course my son's super cute snowman for you all to see!

the roads after a few days....still slippery! 

my son making his snow angels! 

half buried in snow! 

the first snowman...complete with spiky hair! 

visiting our land...not quite so much snow here, but still pretty nonetheless.

Have a wonderful week and see you real soon!

Hugs,
Charlotte

MIDNIGHT MADNESS (MMSC85)

Good Morning folks!

 I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas filled with all the right things that are important to you and are getting ready to bring in the New Year too! December has been an unbelievably busy month for me, needless to say I haven't posted anything on my blog the entire month! Sorry!

I'm just getting back from being out of town and getting my fill of SNOW!!! Anyone who knows me knows how much I miss the fluffy white stuff, so my DH decided to grant me my wish....to have Christmas in the cold weather and as an added bonus he ordered snow for me too! So we have been playing outside in the cold weather for the past week....Now I need to get adjusted to being home and back to the daily routine....!!
OK, enough about my week away! Back to business....welcome back to those of you who took a break and for those of you who continued to play Midnight Madness over the holidays, well done you! It was lovely to see so many entries at this busy time of year.
Congratulations to all our winners!
Masterpiece Award
#28 Karen Wallace
#78 Nancy Brown
#94 Artesania
Remarkables Awards go to
#8 Brenda K
#26 Teri Sherman
#40 Maki Jones
Our weekly sponsor is Craft Brulee

 Our monthly sponsor is Lindy's Stamp Gang

Over at Midnight Madness we are all set for another sketch...are you? It's MMSC85 and I just loved playing around with this one. I decided to make an altered journal for a friend "Elise" who was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I have been thinking about her a lot lately as she has a young son just like me, and just the thought of what she is having to go through with her treatment while trying to explain it all to her son so he can comprehend, must be so difficult. This journal has special meaning too as I won one of Elise's blog candies and chose this beautiful stamp from Elisabeth Bell with this little girl hugging her bear, and Elise is now on that DT! So Elise, sweet friend, I'm sending this to you with lots of hugs and prayers for your complete recovery!

Did you all check out the new line up of DT members for 2011? If you didn't go check out Priscilla's blog as she has both of her DT's listed!

Well I'm going to sign off now and catch up on the unpacking!
****One last request, when we arrived home last night we found out that one of my DH's uncles was admitted into hospital on New Year. He is on a respirator and needs all the prayers he can get. I would appreciate it if you would keep him in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you so much!****
Happy New Year!

Hugs,

Charlotte

STUDIO313 HOTSPOT CHALLENGE - SHC5 ADD A CHARM!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Can you believe we have said goodbye to 2010 already and are welcoming 2011! Wow how time flies by these days. I sure hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and did something fun to bring in the New Year. I'm out of town enjoying some snow and colder weather and not in a hurry to go back to the heat of Miami!!

Over at Studio313 Hotspot Challenge this month we are adding a charm to our creations. I used Shawne's adorable penguin wrapped in his scarf for my creation and her "Let it Snow" digi too! Now I have to confess my resources here in the cabin are few as I didn't bring many crafting tools with me, so I apologise that my creation is not very detailed. I did remember to bring my stickles though and am lovin the sparkle on my little penguin! My charm is actually made with a swarovski crystal bead which also has some nice sparkle with it.  

The lighting in the cabin is not the same as I have at home so if the photo doesn't appear very clear...sorry!

I wish you all a really wonderful New Year and hope that 2011 brings you happiness, health and good times.

With much love,

Charlotte