One More Day and Saskia's Cute Card

Hello my friends and all our new friends!  The Operation Write Home Blog Hop was awesome!  I do apologize if you followed my blog and it kicked you out, or if you couldn't even follow at all, Blogger went wonky on Saturday, it didn't make me very happy.  Since there was so much wonkyness I'm going to do my giveaway drawing tomm., so then if people didn't make it all the way through the hop or weren't able to leave comments etc., they have a little more time.

Now today, I have a wonderful card made by our lovely design team member Saskia.  She used the Off to See the Wizard digital Stamp from my SHOP and for the background she used the page from an old children's picture book.  Read more about her card in her POST.

Isn't this the cutest!

Operation Write Home Memorial DayWeekend Blog Hop

I apologize if you either followed my blog and it kicked you out (a couple people are missing!) or if the follow box just isn't there. Grrrr to Blogger :(  Okay, now I'm also missing comments!
Hello and welcome.  It's the Operation Write Home Memorial Day Weekend Blog Hop!
A quick note, Blogger had been acting wonky (at least for me) and my followers keep disappearing, so if you want to be my bloggy friend you might have to come back to hit that follow button.

For the blog hop we were supposed to make a missing you card and to snazz it up it was optional to make it red, white and blue.  Below are some shots of my card, it's pretty simple, I'm not the snazziest card maker.  I used my own image (digital stamp) and colored it with Prismacolor colored pencils (next week I'll have the digi stamp in my shop).  I made the text using a font from Adobe Illustrator and printed it on brown kraft cardstock.

 

I'm also having a giveaway, some blog candy as the cool kids call it.  Read the guidelines in the post before this one.

First: Choice of five digital stamps from my STORE!

Second

This collection of nifty stuff;  10 kraft permanent adhesive sticker sheets, pad of really cute tags, package of epoxy circles, package of chipboard, package of brown kraft mini gift tags.

Third: This sketckbook.  I have one of these myself and this is the paper I used for the image on my card.

Have fun on the rest of the hop.  I hope I make some new lovely bloggy friends.  Scroll down and read the two posts before this one.  That's where more details are, oh and I have a couple freebies there too.  The next stop on the hop is Yvette.  Her blog full of wonderful creations is Cre8tiveGirls.

The Goodies For My OWH Blog Hop Giveaway and a Digital Stamp and Note Card Freebie

This is my day before the Operation Write Home Memorial Day Blog Hop post, it's all about what I'll be giving away (or the blog candy as I think cool kids call it) and there's also a freebie at the bottom of this post.  I got pretty excited over doing this blog hop that I'm having three giveaways, so make sure you come back on Saturday morning (tomorrow) for the hop.  My first giveaway is a choice of five digital stamps from my Etsy Shop.  Here's a few samples of the digital stamps you can pick from.

Now, if you are a follower of this blog you could also win my second giveaway (below).

This giveaway is an actual tangible one.  It includes 10 permanent adhesive kraft brown sticker sheets, a pacakge of 24 self adhesive epoxy circles, a pad of 24 really cute tags, a package of 10 kraft paper mini gift tags and a package 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 chipboard (I think it's a 24 pack).  So, I love brown kraft paper, that's why most of this giveaway gift is made of brown kraft paper.  The sticker sheets are great for making your own stickers (I love using a 2 inch hole punch to make them), embellishments, decorations, labels, tags, you can do so many things with them.  The chipboard is great for the back of notepads, journals, cards, books, also so many uses.  This is some fun stuff!

Now, if I get some new blog followers I'll also give away the awesome sketchbook above.  I love using Prismacolor colored pencils and this paper is great for them.  This paper can go in your printer and you can print digital stamps right onto it or you can use your rubber stamps on it, or use it as an art journal.  I bought one of these recently, fell in love with it and went back to get another one so I could give it away.

Okay, some giveaway rules.

1. Leave a comment on the Blog Hop post and a link to your blog.

2. Anyone who leaves a comment is in the pool to win my first giveaway.

3.  In order to win the second and third giveaway prizes you have to be a blog follower.

4.  I have to get some new blog followers to giveaway the third prize.  I'm not sure how many, we'll see how many people leave comments, but hopefully I'll make some new bloggy friends.  Am I bribing you, perhaps, but you know.

Now, the Freebies, see below!

Download Note Cards HERE!

It would make me quite happy that if you use these freebies you are one of my bloggy followers, I like to call them friends.  To get the digital stamp, just click on the picture (that'll make it bigger), then right click and save as.  These are for personal use only.

CDAC Group, Pete and Doris, OWH Memorial Day Blog Hop

I now have a group at Crafters Digital Art Center, it's a community just for folks who like to use digital stamps.  You all should come and check it out and join the site if you don't already belong and then join my group cuz it's neato!

Crafters Digital Art Center also has challenges using digis, lots of other groups, like minded friends.  Then in my group you get to hang out with others who enjoy cute and I'll giving away freebies (there's one in there right now!), eventually I'll host a challenge there and lots of other fun nifty stuff!

In other new, Pete and Doris, I introduced them the other day, would really be happy if you liked them on Facebook.  Once they get a good chunk of friends I'm going to release some Pete and Doris digital stamps.

There's a like box in the sidebar and if you click the picture below it will take you to their page, I tried to embed some code to put up the official badge in this post, but Blogger won't let me:(



Pete and Doris Having Some Lunch

This weekend (starting on Saturday) Cute Crafty Land is participating in an Operation Write Home Memorial Day blog hop.  They are a wonderful organization that sends handmade cards to the troops overseas and to their loved ones, so they can send beautiful correspondences to each other.  Volunteer cardmakers make the cards and then Operation Write Home send them out to be used by the troops.  They can then write their message/sentiment theselves in a beautiful handmade card.  On Friday May 13, 2011, Operation Write Home's MILLIONTH card was shipped out to the USS Carl Vinson!  How awesome is that!

I know quite a few people in the military, I mysely use to be one of them.  I was an Army Reservist, I never went over seas, but after 911 I was activated stateside for a year and a half.  I'm not going to tell you my MOS (that's your Army job), but during my year and a half I met thousands of soldiers that went over seas, at that time they were all going to the Middle East.  I even saw off some of my friends.

Come back for the blog hop on Saturday, what you do is start at my blog and I will have a link to the next and then from there you just keep clicking through the blogs.  GOOD FUN!

Also check out the Operation Write Home website.  They have all the info you need if you would like to make cards for them and there's also links to all the OWH blogs.
Tomorrow I'll talk about the giveaway I'll have going on for the blog hop! 

Saskia, Pete and Doris

Saskia, our lovely design team member made this adorable Pete and Doris card.  If you don't know Pete and Doris, they're the duo above that I draw and they now have a Facebook page.  Saskia is a good friend of theirs and was helping word get out about their new fan page.  Check out Saskia's post HERE!  Pete and Doris were super excited when they saw this card, as was I, and we all really like that banner that adorns the top of the card!!  Thanks Saskia!  Pete and Doris should have their own digital stamps coming soon!

Prismacolor Paper Test

I bought this new sketchbook and was pretty excited about because it contains mixed media paper insted of regular old sketch book drawing paper.  I was excited because it's great for colored pencil and I wanted a nice paper I could print my digital stamps on and use to Prismacolor colored pencils to color them  Usually when I use my Prismacolors I use Bristol board, but Bristol board does not fit through my printer, but this paper does!  I then did a paper test so you can how the quality of the paper effects the outcome of what you color.

Now above is a snippet of part of a piece of shrubbery I colored with my Prismacolors on the mixed media paper.  It does have a grainy appearance, but you get the true color of the color pencil.  I think the blending also works better on a textured paper.

Now above here is cardstock that I printed and colored on.  Same shrubbery and colored pencils just different paper.  The cardstock mutes the color and gives it a smeary appearance.

Regular copy paper I think actually works better with Prismacolors as opposed to the cardstock.  as before same shrubbery, pencils and technique.  A little more texture comes through and you get a little closer to the true color of the colored pencil.

Maybe it's because I like texture, but I like the mixed media paper the best.  I only tested these three because they're the ones that fit through my printer.  It totally depends on the look you're going for, but I figured I show you the differences.

Below is the digital stamp fully colored with Prismacolors on mixed media paper.  I think I'm getting rusty in my colored pencil skills, I've been digital for too long.  I really don't like the part behind the girls head, it's too dark or something.

You can get this digital stamp HERE!

Some New Cute Digital Stamps

There's quite of few new digital stamps in the shop.  Above is just a few.  To check out the rest or to go a shopping click HERE.

Get Ready for Some Cuteness!

Our wonderful design team has created some major cuteness!

Saskia made this cuteness (above) using the Bubble Blowing Bear digital stamp!  A cute little party, Buntings and Bubbles she calls it!  For the background she used a page from an old children's story book!  Adorable idea!  Check out her post to read more!

Heather created these embellishments by tracing the digital stamps onto shrinky dink paper.  Notice the thickness on the baby cow to the bottom.  Now they can be used for card making, gift decorations, or jewelry!  Another cute idea!

Below is ileana's cuteness.  She used the Bunny and Sunny digi stamp.  The umbrealla, raincoat and boots are made with pieces of patterened paper using the paper piecrcing technique. She hand drew the frame and to read more about this card and how she made it check out her blog!

I love seeing all the different things made by Saskia, Heather and ileana!  so many great ideas!  You can get the digital stamps in the Etsy Shop HERE!

The layout on this post might be all wonkado, Blogger is acting crazy again!

Meet Saskia, Our Newest Design Team Member!

Meet Saskia Everybody!  Our Third Design Team Member!

I'm Saskia, a stay-at-home mum for our son Robbe (11 years) and hubby. We live in a small village in Belgium.

I started making cards about 5 years ago. First, I made 3d-cards, but soon I discovered great stamps and digi's. I love to work with derwent pencils, copic markers and I recently bought some promarkers.

I LOVE cute things, as you can see on my blog  http://lusaro-snippers.blogspot.com/.

I used to work at a children's bookshop. I still buy illustrated books, just for myself! :) When I saw Melissa's work while I was blog-hopping, I immediately felt in love with her designs. So it's great to be part of her design team now!

Saskia's blog: Snippers & Co. stop by and say hi!

It's great to have Saskia on board.  We now have a design team of three lovely ladies!  We're going to have some fun here!

Meet Our Second Design Team Member

Meet Heather everybody, our second design team member!



Hello !  My name is Heather Bon and Missy is my sister !

I am a married mother of four, born and raised in Chicago and now living the suburban life in Mokena, IL.

 I don't have much spare time on my hands but when I do I enjoy a wide array of crafts.  Anything from creating jewelry and purses to painting and papercrafting.

 I also enjoy coloring with my kiddos and thanks to Missy I have discovered a grown up version of it !

 When I can, I shut myself in my laundry room -aka- "craft room", turn on my iPod and delve into whatever crafty project inspires me at that given moment.  It allows me some peace & quiet and an outlet for those day to day stresses.

 

Heather's work space.

In the top picture she's on her house phone with me (Missy) and taking her own picture with her cell phone!

Heather just started a blog called Heather Bon Creations.  She hasn't posted anything yet and could use some friends over there.

Plenty of great stuff to come from our two design team memebers!

Meet Our First Design Team Member!

Meet Ileana everybody.  She's our first official design team member!



Hi there! I´m Ileana Márquez, born Argentinian, living now in Madrid, Spain. My love for crafting I have to thank it to my mom who taught us me and my siblings that creating is a wonderful way to release your inner self. I started with all sorts of crafts but I discover the wonders of paper crafting 5 years ago when I was going thru a difficult time in my life. Since then I found paper crafting has a very therapeutic effect in me and now I can not live without creating something, even a tiny little thing helps a lot.
On my crafts I like to use whatever I have at hand, from coloring mediums to materials, I´m a strong supporter of recycling and those are my favorite kind of crafts. What I like most is I´m not able to spend much in craft supplies, that triggers my creativity to high levels! and it´s a nice and rewarding feeling.
I have a beautiful family that supports my hobby and they are the main receivers of my creations.

Check out Ileana's blog: All Things That Make Me Happy.  She crafts womderful creations.  Here's a a card Ileana made with one of my digtal stamps (poor giraffe got in an awful skateboarding accident).

Great card!  More wonderful creations from Ileana to come, so glad to have her here!  Stop by her blog also and say hi!

Copic Markers and Design Team

Hello my four lovely friends.  I went out and bought some Copic markers.  I figured since I'm making digital stamps I should know a little about these markers that everybody uses for paper crafts.  This is what I learned.  They're on the expensive side, I only bought four, two pinkies and two bluesies, but I think I needed at least one more of each color to make smoother transitions in the colors.  I also think I should pick up a colorless blender.  I practiced on paper first and then made a little digital stamp to color in. 

I need some more practice, I can't even color in the lines, reasons I need design team members!

When I bought my Copics I felt like I was buying some sorta illegal substance cuz I asked one of the sales people and they told me I had to go ask in framing.  I was like okay, so I went to the framing department.  After waiting a couple minutes a woman came to the counter and I asked her where I could find these markers.  She said, "Hold on a sec," and disappeared.   She then came back with the racks of markers.  I guess they are stolen quite often, so they are kept in hiding!  She supervised as I choose my colors.  She then told me to meet her up front, where I will receive the markers as I pay.  It was an interesting journey to buy some markers!

I added a new digi stamp to my Etsy store also (click in my sidebar to find it in my shop).

Design Team:,

Here's the low down, as you can see from my attempt above

 I'm not that great at the crafty end of digital stamp usage, I'm much better at drawing them!  So I need some people to be on the Melissa T. Liban Illustrations' Cute Crafty Land Design Team, boy that's a mouthful, we'll need to shorten that.

If you're interested you'll need a blog, you'll need to be able to e-mail me your creations and you'll need to make crafty things outta my digital stamps/clipart/ and or digital scrapbooking paper.  I'll send ya a badge for your blog and free cute clipart/digital stamps and scrapbooking paper.  I'm talking to a few people, but I'm looking for a few more.  Leave a comment or click on the contact me in the sidebar if your interested or would like more info.

Bye for now!

Hello and Welcome

Hi my friends, welcome to my new blog.  The main focus of this blog is cute and crfaty things you can do and make with my clipart, digi stamps and digital scrapbooking paper and to keep you updated on new stuff that I have added to my shops.  Here's a few samples of my clipart/digi stamps/papers.

The first two you can get in my Etsy shop (see sidebar) and the third one you can get on the D.A.I.S.I.E. Company site.

Yes, I like bunnies.

I'm also looking for some design team memebers, so contact me or leave a comment if you are interested.  I will then contact you with more details.  A couple things, you have to have a blog and you need to be able to send me photos of what you made via e-mail.