Bugaboo's Happy New Year Challenge

Hello everyone! Are you ready for another fun Bugaboo Challenge? This week, the challenge is to make a New Year's card. Check out the Catch the Bug Blog to see what the Bugaboo DT came up with for this challenge, then, create your card and get entered to win up to 7 free Bugaboo images. What a great way to start the new year, right?

Please join in the challenge, I can't wait to see what you create!

Oldie But Goodie Day

Happy Thursday everyone! Despite all the chaos and hub-bub around you these days, you can count on some things to stay comfortably the same. One of those things is that Thursday is ALWAYS Oldie But Goodie day at Bugaboo Stamps and the Catch the Bug blog. This may very well be the last of the Christmas cards you see from me this year :)

Isn't this Santa ADORABLE? If you're still scrambling to finish those last minute cards, pop over to Bugaboo and pick this guy up. He's so easy to color and makes such a cute card, you'll finish off that cardmaking to-do list in no time. :)
This is being entered in the Spoonful of Sugar challenge which is to make a Christmas card.

Challenge Time!

Hello everyone! Are you getting excited that it's getting SO CLOSE to Christmas? I went to see a fantastic Christmas light display last night with my family. It was beautiful. It's hard not to be in the Christmas spirit after that. Well, I guess all you have to do is step into a store and that will pretty much suck the spirit right out of you. :) SO, let's all stay out of the stores today and stay home and craft. You can play along in the Catch the Bug Challenge today which is to make a recipe card. Check out the details HERE.
Here is my card, with a recipe for my all-time favorite cookie, Chocolate Chips. What can I say? I'm easy to please.

I hope you'll play along! Remember that you can win 7,4 or 2 Bugaboo images of your choice- wouldn't that be a fantastic Christmas present to yourself?

Scarlette Occasions

Hooray for Friday! The best day of the week for so many reasons, not the least of which is FREEBIE FRIDAY at Bugaboo Stamps. This week, Jodie is releasing a new set called Scarlette Occasions and you can get this one for free today:

Of course you can decide if you'd like this "occasion" to be a birthday or Christmas or some other gift giving event for you. I went with the birthday theme since I am a little tired of Christmas themed cards at the moment! :)

Oldie But Goodie Day

Hello, welcome to Thursday! Yep, it's another Oldie But Goodie Day at Bugaboo Stamps. Head over to the Catch the Bug Blog to see what "old" Bugaboo images the DT has created with today. You might see something you forgot, or missed the first time around and with Christmas right around the corner, you know you deserve some new images. :)
I used this cutie Santa image. I know some of you might be a bit tired of making Christmas cards, but for those of you who still have a few to make, this guy would be perfect, dontcha think?

Thanks to my fellow DT, Scrappy, I am able to enter this card into these challenges:
Allsorts - Last Minute Christmas
Our Daily Bread - Christmas
Lil Red Wagon - Use a Diecut (Nesties)
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes
Stamp Something - Digi Day
A Spoonfull of Sugar - Christmas
OSAAT - Anything Goes
Tiffany Doodles - Christmas

The Cutest Brats on the Block

I know we're getting down to the wire for Christmas. Some of you may be a little tired of Christmas images and Christmas cards and you're ready to just be DONE with all things Christmas crafting. :) When you see the new Christmas Brat images that Jodie is releasing today, it might just inspire you to make a few more Christmas cards. These brats are SO CUTE, you're going to want the whole set. Come on, you know you've been good. You deserve it...go get them all for yourself HERE.

And you can go see what the rest of the DT did with this adorable Christmas brat HERE.

I'm entering this card in the Crafty Ho's Challenge which is to use red and green.

Winter Wonderland

Hello again. It's time for another Catch the Bug Challenge with Bugaboo Stamps. I hope you played along in our "Anything Goes" challenge last week. We had a lot of great...no FABULOUS..entries. This week the challenge is Winter Wonderland. What does that mean, you ask? Well, it means use bling, glitter, stickles or something of the sort to make your creation sparkle like a Winter Wonderland. I used this adorable Reindeer and lots of glitter and stickles:

I hope you'll come and play along in the Catch the Bug challenge. You can win 7, 4 or 2 Bugaboo images of your choice...woo hoo! Remember, to win the 7, you have to use a Bugaboo image.
Can't wait to see what you create!

A Very Crabby Christmas to You

Yep, that's right, I said a "crabby Christmas" ...why would I say that you ask? Because today's Freebie Friday features Bugaboo's own Crabby Cathy with her not so merry Christmas sentiment:

Head over to Bugaboo and check out the rest of the set. You'll be sure to find something to express your holiday sentiments. :)

Oldie But Goodie Time Again

Yay, it's Thursday! That's almost Friday and it's also Oldie but Goodie time at Catch the Bug and Bugaboo Stamps. It's unusually cold here in Missouri and we're expecting a big (by Missouri standards) snowstorm this weekend so we might see some of these guys popping up:

He's from the Bugaboo Marshmallow Snowman collection and he's ADORABLE! Check out the Catch the Bug blog to see what the rest of the Bugaboo DT has to show you today. You're sure to see some images that you need to add to your Christmas list. :)

Challenge Time Again

Okay, we're fully into the Christmas season and we all know that means we're super busy and stressed out. Hopefully you're still making time for yourself and finding time to relax and create at least a couple of times per week. Bugaboo knows that you want to continue to participate in our challenges and we don't want to add extra stress to your life so this week's challenge is ANYTHING GOES! Yep, make whatever you want and post it to the challenge. You could win 7, 4 or 2 free Bugaboo images. How is that for a Christmas bonus?? Get all the details at the Catch the Bug Blog. I used this Bell image from the November digi club:

Remember, you can make whatever you want. It doesn't have to be a Christmas theme at all! Hope you'll join in the fun. Can't wait to see what you make.

Oldie But Goodie Day!

I feel it's only fair to warn you that for the whole month of December, I'm going to be showing you several of the super cute Christmas themed images that Jodie offers. Starting today with this adorable Blitzen...

Hop over to the Catch the Bug Blog to see what the rest of the DT wants to show you today. You're sure to add to your wish list and with Christmas right around the corner, that's not a bad thing!

Tutorial Wednesday at Bugaboo

Are you tired of not having just the right packaging for those little Christmas gifts? Or maybe you don't want to buy little plastic tubs to pack your homemade bakery treats in to give to your friends and co-workers. Well, I have a solution for you. Make your own SUPER ADORABLE holiday bag.
Here's a pic, so you know what you're getting into:


And a side view, just to be sure:



Still interested? Okay, here's what you'll need:
A paper lunchbag-cut 4.25 inches from the bottom
Cardstock cut at 4.25x5.5 inches for the front of the bag
Cardstock cut at 6.25x5.5 inches (scored at 4.25") for the back of the bag and front flap
Patterned paper cut at 4x5.25 for front, 4x5.25 inches for the back, and 1.75x5.25 for the flap
hole punch
approximately 8 inches of ribbon
Velcro dot closures
Your choice of adorable Bugaboo image printed about 2" high and colored to match your papers

Here's how you put it all together:
Layer your patterned paper on the cardstock for the front, back and front flap.
Use the hole punch to punch one hole on each side of the cardstock for the back of the bag, near the fold for the flap. Insert ribbon and use sticky tape or glue to secure to the inside (the side without the paterned paper on it) Here's a pic so you can see approximately where you should punch your holes:

Now comes the somewhat tricky part-take your paper lunchbag and turn it so the flat side is facing up. This will be the front of your bag.

Use a glue runner or sticky tape and place tape along the edges of the bag. Secure the cardstock that you prepared for the front of the bag to the paper bag. Turn the bag over and unfold the bag and flatten it out. This is the back side of the bag, before you flatten it out:

And this is what it should look like when you flatten it out. You want to add your prepared cardstock when the bag looks like this:

Put glue along the edges of this side. Take the cardstock that you prepared for the back of the bag and line it up with the cardstock for the front. Don't use the brown bag to determine where this piece goes because the brown bags can be uneven. Line the back piece up with the front piece and press in place.
Turn the bag over and stand it up. If it sits right, move on to the next step which is lining up and securing the velcro dot so the bag can close. If your bag doesn't line up right, adjust the front or back pieces to even it out and then proceed with the velcro step.

Now you decorate the bag as you see fit. I added some buttons at the top and matted my snowman image on two coordinating pieces of cardstock. The choice is yours.
I know this is a lot of instruction but once you walk through it and do it once, you'll be amazed at how easy it is and you'll want to make tons of these for all your small gifts or treats that you'll be giving out. One word of caution, paper bag sizes can vary so measure your paper bag first to make sure that these measurements will work for you. If your bag is a bit bigger, you'll have to adjust your measurements accordingly.
Have fun and if you make one of these bags, let me know, I'd love to see it.