Welcome our December Guest DT

Can you believe that it's December 1st already? Once Thanksgiving hits it's a snowball effect until the New Years. Everyone is busy with baking, shopping, parties, and lots of family fun.

We have something exciting for you this month, we have two Guest Designers that will have lots of wonderful cards and projects to share with you and keep those creative juices going through the next few weeks.

Our First Guest Designer is Melanie Holtz and you will love her style. Be sure to pop by her blog and look around. She's so crafty and talented and I loved browsing through her blog. You can find her blog (HERE)!

Hello! My name is Melanie Holtz and I live in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. I am very happily married to my husband Dean. We have two wonderful children named Nathan and Ainsleigh.

We are all active members of a local church family, and are very passionate about our faith in Jesus Christ! I was completely thrilled to be given the opportunity to be a guest designer for Sweet 'N Sassy Digis. I love that right under the name of Sweet 'N Sassy Stamps, is the phrase "sharing the love of Christ through paper crafting". Giving a card that you have poured your time and effort into is such a great way to show somebody you care...that they "matter". Cards can be uplifting, encouraging, comforting...or just plain funny! We all need to giggle sometimes! Stamping has become a creative outlet for me, and I try to find a little time each day to work on something.

I am honored to be part of this team, and to be working with such talented ladies. I look forward to sharing some Sweet 'N Sassy projects with you all!

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Our Second Guest Designer is Mary Giles and again we have an UBER talented designer. I scrolled through her blog back several months just looking at all the wonderful cards she's done. Be sure to stop by her blog and take a peek yourself (HERE)!!!

Hello to all you wonderful crafters out there! My name Mary Giles (OhioMary on SCS) and I absolutely love making cards. I especially enjoy images that are fun to color. I just recently started to get into digi stamps more...and I LOVE them! I thought I would miss the actually stamping part, but digi stamps have offered me a way to get a perfect image everytime, I can resize them to my needs, and I love to print out images for my 3 yo daughter to color along with me. I do enjoy both forms of stamps though. I have been stamping seriously for about 2 years now and it all started from a swap I joined on SCS with many of whom I have formed everlasting friendships. I would not be where I am today if it wasn't for their support and encouragement.

By day I'm an engineer and I test software on helicopters. By night I'm a mommy to best thing to ever happen to me...my 3 yo daughter. I'm a wife to a wonderful and supportive husband who was my highschool sweetheart. Once the kiddo is in bed I let my creativity loose. Making cards has really been a stress reliever for me and has opened up the world to new friends and inspiration. I'm always looking to others for inspiration as I tend to be an inside the box type of person. I've always been drawn to handmade crafts and have learned to crochet, knit, and quilt. Quilting was my 1st serious hobby and while I still love quilting, I really like being able to finish a project in a few hours instead of a few months.

I'm really honored to be December's Guest Designer and many thanks to Korin for giving me this opportunity. I'm really looking forward to working with the Sweet N Sassy images along with the design team.

It's my clothes....

Good MONDAY Morning!!!!  WOW, the Thanksgiving Holiday has past and Christmas is JUST around the corner!  You know what that means, don't you?  YEP, Christmas DECOR!!!  And there's nothing like hanging a wreath on the ol' BUM, like Paulie the Bear above! HAHAHA!

Isn't he cute??  I would love to think that my butt looks big because of my clothes or something else that I put on my body!  Yeahhhhh, that's it.... it's not me, it's my clothes! LOL!!!!!!!! 

This image by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps can be found HERE at their store, for a mere $2.81, INCLUDING the sentiment!  Gotta love those digi images, versatile and storage free, except for a few megabytes on the ol' computer harddrive! 

Well, I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving holiday!  My family and I did, too, with my sister and her family and our parents in Tennessee.  The actual driving leaves something to be desired, but really, it was worth it to let my kiddos see their extended family and my Josh (college-kid!) was there, too, so it was great!  God blessed us with safe travels, great food that my sister prepared for all 12 of us and fun times playing some new card games!!  GOD is GOOD!

{OH, I nearly forgot!  My card: Basic Grey papers (Dasher); Copics for coloring, variety of buttons with metallic elastic SUP cording, and Nestibilities for scalloped and regular circles!}

Have a great Monday!

Happy Thanksgiving & New Digis!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are enjoying a beautiful day with your family and loved ones, and counting the many blessings in your life. One of the many things for which I am thankful this year is that we have this special day on which to give thanks and praise to our heavenly father -- isn't He fantastic?!?

In addition to being Thanksgiving, today is also Digi Day at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. We have four fun new sets designed by Korin Sutherland for you, and all are available to purchase in the online store today. I've put together a couple of projects for you today to show off these sweet new digis.

Our first two new digis this week are Feel Better Paulie and Get Well Wishes. Although I hate it when a loved one is sick, I love being able to send them some get well cheer, so I'm really excited about these sets. I used them to make a combination get well card/gift. On the outside is a get well wish, and on the inside...

...there is room to write a special note, along with a fresh packet of tissues to help with a speedy recovery. Because I really wanted a design to add to the note space, I used the border from Paulie's sweet little bed. I isolated the border by cropping it from the main image, and then printing out just that element. (For more information on how to crop and use just part of an image in this way, see the Cropping Digis tutorial here.)

This second card features the adorable new Cocoa's Mittens and Mitten Sentiments digis. One of the things that I love about these sets is how adaptable they are. Although I made my card Christmas-y, these digis could also be used for winter, Valentine's, and friendship cards, or even to decorate a winter, Christmas, or Valentines Day scrapbook page.


I hope you will take some time to stop by the store to check out these fun new additions, and I thank you very much for visiting here today. I know I speak for the whole Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps team when I tell you that we are all thankful for you, our loyal readers and customers. You are a blessing to all of us! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Winter Wishes

Good Morning!!  Where did the weekend GO?  OH MY!  I had a wonderful weekend with my son who is in college.  He decided to come home this weekend and spend some time with us!  And in just three short days I will see him again!  WOW, talk about being blessed!  I am so thankful to be able to spend even MORE time with him later this week for Thanksgiving at my parent's and sister's homes in Tennessee!  I am not looking forward to the actual 'traveling' to get there, but it will be a great time once we arrive, I am sure!

AND on that note, I do realize that with Thanksgiving this week, you were probably expecting a Thanksgiving card today, but I have been wanting to play with this image since it debuted a while back, but sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day or enough energy in the old bones! HA!

This digi image is called WINTER WISHES and is so sweet!  The sentiment is from another digi set called SHEPHERD BOY, I love the font, don't you?  I will be showcasing the Shepherd Boy set soon, too!  Anyhoo, my card above is a bit on the simple side, but I intentionally did that to showcase the focal image because it is just so sweet!  {Side Note: paper is retired and by Stampin' UP!; Copics for coloring, Spellbinders Nestibilities and Stampin' UP! punches for ovals and ribbon by Hobby Lobby; CLICK on pic for details}  Check back in later this week to see some new digi's!  You are sure to be delighted with what you see!! 

Happy 'Early' Thanksgiving!

Knowing You Makes Every Day Sweeter!

I had a hard time with the lighting on my picture. You can't see the glitter on the snowflakes but they are shimmery and pretty. There's nothing, in my mind, better than soft gingerbread cookies during the Christmas season. I love baking them and spending time with my daughter decorating them. We have so much fun and are making memories with a family tradition I hope she carries on.

The new digis out this week in the Sweet 'n Sassy Store are so sweet! We have the beautiful Gingerbread House, cute Gingerbread Couple, and the perfect Gingerbread Sentiments! I hope you stop by the store and purchase these....they will make such wonderful cards, tags, scrapbook pages, etc. I plan to use the Gingerbread People for gift tags on my baked goods to friends and family!

One other cookie I really love are soft chewy Gingersnap cookies. Since the baking season officially starts for me next week, I'll be baking something every week until the end of the year, I thought I'd add a recipe. This recipe was passed along to me by a sweet friend and it's a delicious recipe!

Gingersnaps

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup sugar (for dipping)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream shortening, brown sugar, molasses and egg in large bowl. In a separate bowl sift flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, blending until mixed. Dough can be chilled for easy handling.
3. Shape the dough into balls the size of whole walnuts. Roll balls in sugar, place on baking sheet.

Bake 8-9 minutes at 375 degrees. Cool on sheet one minute before transferring to rack. Makes 3-4 dozen.

YAY for Digi Day!

It's digi day and that means NEW digis!!! YAY! Deedee Anderson designed 3 new sets for you to enjoy!!! My card below features two of the three.


Stop by our site TODAY to grab all three new sets AND snatch up our Thursday freebie!

Not only are we releasing some adorable new digis, but we're also having a party!! WOOHOO!

Drop by our PCP group anytime today (November 19th) between 8am & 9pm EST for our first official PCP Digi Day event!

We will be posting a fun challenge with a freebie just for playing along as well as sneak peeks of upcoming digis.

We'll even have an early bird freebie for those who can play along with our challenge by 5pm EST tomorrow! That means you will have the chance to receive 2 freebies in addition to our weekly Thursday freebie on our website! WOW!!

Here's one of the freebies....


Don't miss the fun! See you there!

~Korin

Sweet Holidays (Sneak Peek!)

We are sailing full-steam-ahead, it seems, into the holiday season. With Thanksgiving only 8 days away now, I'm seriously starting to think about Christmas and getting very, very excited!! Our family has quite a few Christmas traditions that liven up the season, including making gingerbread houses. Sometimes we make one big one together, and sometimes we each make a tiny one to form a little town. I like the little ones the best, I think, because the personality of each one's maker really shines through. The houses don't always come out pretty -- LOL -- but they do always come out tasty! :-)

Speaking of gingerbread houses, I have a yummy sneak peek card to share with you today!


On the front of the card, I used the upcoming "Gingerbread House" digi along with one of the sweet greetings from the coordinating Gingerbread Sentiments set. I colored the image with Prismacolor markers, and added Stickles glitter to make the icicles shine. The fun paper in the background is a piece that a friend sent me. I have no idea who makes it, but I thought it was a perfect pairing for this image, with the snowflakes along the top and the sweet little trees along the bottom.

On the inside of the card, I used the "Gingerbread Couple" digi set. These images, too, were colored with Prismacolor markers.

All of these sweet digis will be available in the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps online store starting tomorrow. There will also be a new FREEBIE digi available for the duration of the day, so please don't forget to stop by!

Hugs,
Deedee

Thanksgiving Is Around The Corner!

Thanksgiving is fast approaching and with it brings lots of family, friends, food and traditions! Definitely a yummy and thankful time of the year!

What are you thankful for? God has been so good to me! I love sitting and absorbing the holidays when our family and loved ones are all around. I guess I just love "enjoying the moment" that I'm in. As I look at each person I think of how special they are and all that they mean to me. We never know when it's our last time to see some of these loved ones. Be sure to let those around you during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season know how thankful you truly are for them.

My card is made with the Sweet 'n Sassy digi, Thankful For You! I really love these pilgrims because they are so cute and the sentiments are perfect for Thanksgiving cards. The papers are by Recollections, with misc embellishments.

O, Christmas Tree!

Hi Digi Lovers! I thought I would share this card I made for this week's Sweet 'n Sassy's Sweet Stop Sketch ! CLICK HERE to see the sketch that we were to be inspired by. I used a Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps digi image and sentiment you can find HERE and some paper in lighter hues of blues and greens to make this a serene-feeling Christmas card. I love this digi-tree, it was so much fun to color and the font is just perfect! It's a really great image! AND you not only get this tree, you get another, too! AND another sentiment! All for just $3.75! What a bargain! Take some time to hop on over and see the beautiful creations at the Sweet Stop!

God Bless You and Yours!

Digi Day Release!

Check out today's fun digis....

Winter Wishes

Self Conscious Paulie

You can get them today!!

Happy digi stamping!
~Korin

Surprise release!

Introducing Templeton Turkey....


He was the main image in our Turkey Day stamp set, but this set recently sold out and since we've had it for two Autumn seasons, I won't be reordering it....HOWEVER, I have decided to add this little cutie to our digi line just in case you need a fun Thanksgiving image at the last minute ;).

You can get him TODAY!

Happy digi stamping!

~Korin

A Self-conscious Sneak Peek!

Most of us worry, at some point or another, about our figures and the fit of our clothing. Our little bear friend here is no exception. "Self-conscious Paulie" is feeling a bit concerned about his choice of holiday fashion! Of course, we think he's absolutely adorable in his Christmas wreath, and we hope he'll bring a warm winter smile to your face. "Self-conscious Paulie" is just one of the fun, new digis that will be available in the store starting tomorrow -- Digi Day! In addition to new digis, as always, there will also be a new freebie available for you to download at the store. Our weekly freebies are a great way to give digital stamping a try if you haven't already.

To make this card, I used this wonderful sketch by Teresa Kline of the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Design Team. Teresa created the sketch for the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Birthday Celebration on Paper Craft Planet this week. Yes, it's true -- Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps is celebrating it's second birthday this month!!! As part of the celebration, we are hosting five fun challenges this week on our group site at Paper Craft Planet. We hope you'll stop by and share in the fun!

Noses 4 Sale!

Good Monday Morning, Everyone!  Did you see my SnowLady?!  Isn't this hilarious?  She's selling 'NOSES"?? HAHAHA!  I just giggled when I saw this image, so funny!  She's available from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps HERE and is also a part of their Paper Craft Planet Challenge #5 beginning today!  This week, Leah's challenge is to use a snowlady or snowman in your card or other crafty creation!  So I hope you take time out for yourself and play along!  CLICK HERE for details!  {If you would like details on my card, CLICK HERE to be taken to my blog where I detailed out the supply list!} 

Oh, and if you haven't heard, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps DIGI DAY at SNR on Thursday went swimmingly!!  We had a fabulous time sharing our creations with each other and also getting some freebie digi's for playing along with the challenge!  Don't fret if you missed out, we will be having another DIGI DAY at SNR on the first Thursday of EVERY month!  So be sure to mark December 3rd on your calendar now so you are sure not to miss getting in on some challenges and some more free digi's!!!!!!!

May you have a blessed day!

New Digi Releases!!

Get Ready, GIRLS!  Today is going to be ONE exciting day!!!!!!!  First Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps is releasing two new digi sets!  First is a set of two reindeer (I am just showcasing one of the two reindeer here) and then there is a coordinating SENTIMENT set to go along with the REINDEER set!  I just love these reindeer!  They are so very cute and fun to color!  OH, and just wait until you see the other deer that has ornaments hanging from its antlers! SUPER SWEET!

Second, it is a Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps DIGI DAY over at SNR!  {For those of you who don't know, SNR stands for Scrapbook News and Review magazine!  Don't feel bad IF you didn't know, I just found out about them myself!}  SNSS is going to be challenging you, too!  And within a challenge, of course, will be some PRIZES!  So be sure to CLICK HERE to see what is going on over at SNR today!  The first Thursday of every month is going to be a SNR-DIGI DAY for Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, so you may just want to pencil that in on your calendar so you don't miss any of them!

And, finally THIRD... It is FREEBIE DIGI DAY!!!!!  Every Thursday Korin lavishes us with a freebie digi!  These are great for those newbie-digi crafters out there that just aren't too sure about going digitial!  Give it a whirl, it is FREE and if you are like me and love to color, you will be hooked right away! HAHA!  So CLICK HERE to see what digi is up for grabs today!

You can read about the details of my card HERE on my blog, since this post is LONG ENOUGH!  But, we hope you CLICK HERE on over to the SNR Challenge group and join us for tons of fun, a few prizes and I bet a lot of chatting! 

Blessings on your day!

Thankful for You!

Can you believe it's November already? Every time I look at the calendar, I'm startled anew! Just a few weeks ago I was longing for autumn, and now here we are -- smack dab in the middle of it!

Autumn is such a rich season, don't you think? Everywhere we look is evidence of God's bounty at its most vivid. It is little wonder that the Pilgrims chose this time of year to celebrate the first Thanksgiving. How can we not be grateful at this time of year for all the many blessings He grants us when they are so startlingly apparent everywhere we look?

My card today celebrates both the richness of this season as well as some of the greatest blessings in my own life -- friends and family. I feel so blessed every day to have the friends and family that I do, and I love that this season of thanksgiving gives me an excuse to reach out to them and tell them how grateful I am. To make this card, I used the Thankful for You digi set. This set includes both of the Pilgrim people shown here as well as four special sentiments -- everything you need to make "thankful for you" cards for your own loved ones!

I thank you for stopping by today, and hope that you will stop in again tomorrow. Tomorrow -- Thursday -- is Digi Day at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, and we'll have some very fun things to share with you that you won't want to miss! Happy digi stamping!!

Hugs,
Deedee

Can't get enough of that Sweet Cocoa!!

Happy Monday, Everyone! Did you have an enjoyable Halloween?? Mine was more than exciting with a transformer here and a wonder-woman there... BUT, I am SO GLAD it is November! That means pumpkin pie is just around the corner, seeing family, too; but it also means that I am blessed to be the NOVEMBER GUEST DESIGNER for Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' new DIGI BLOG!

Sweet 'n Sassy's Stamps Digi Blog is brand spankin' new, so I was asked to post a few items until they get their full Design Team together over the next month or so. I was more than happy to oblige! Working with Korin and Sandy is supah fun and I get to work with a fabulous bunch of artists, too. Oh, and if you are thinking that you have seen me before, it might be because I also am on the design team for the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sketch blog called The SWEET STOP !

About my card... isn't this little Sweet Cocoa Mouse just the cutest?? There are also Three Sentiments HERE that coordinate with this image, too, so be sure to check those out in the store, too! The paper is some retired paper by SUP and the ribbon is by Hobby Lobby. Coloring is by Copic markers and the circle scallop punch is double layered with red in back. Punch is by SUP as well.

Be sure to check back here on the blog every day so you don't miss anything new! Also, remember that Thursday is FREEBIE THURSDAY where Korin lavishes us with a freebie digi for our craftin' pleasure!

Edited to add: CLICK HERE to see Sweet 'n Sassy's PaperCraftPlanet group!  You can play along with this weeks challenge of using snowflakes in your card or other paper-creation!  Hope to see you there!

Here's to a great week!