Ho Ho Ho, Holiday Design Team projects...

Yeah, this month I was ON TIME for the Lollishops Design Team reveal. I have been working on things ever since I got my kit a few weeks ago and it really helped me get in the groove for the holiday cards and tags I am making for upcoming holiday boutiques and maybe a swap or two.

I received a bunch of fun vintage holiday goodies compiled by Sadie of Lollishops and this months sponsor Chocolate Letters who has some great, inspirational supplies and goodies.

Initially I wanted to make an advent calendar with my goodies but I was unable to find the form I wanted so my pile of inspiration turned into a pile of projects. I was really inspired to create useable items as opposed to knicky knacky "sit arounds" because I am in major purge mode. I started with a couple of gift boxes embellished with goodies from the kit like this cute felty Santa and cool ribbons. And I can't wait to give someone a treat in this cute round one embellished with a little vintage house and snow trimmed in old sheet music, crepe paper and vintage lace...

Next I moved onto another fun project which my daughter and her little friends have been coveting. Some fun Christmas wands! I made several but this one was the one I used my design team goodies on:

This of course led to some ornaments which were heavily inspired by my friend Karin. I am especially loving the white and gold one with the vintage bells from Chocolate Letters. (Sorry the picture is not great)








I imagine by now this post is getting pretty wonky with pictures and text but please bear with me.

Finally I want to share some tags and cards I created with the goodies from this kit. I got some cute collage images and various tag bits which I cut up and used in various projects. I plan to make some stuff that would be cute with one of these gift tags attached.
I love to make greeting cards and as I mentioned before this challenge really kick started me to get moving on my holiday cards. These are just a couple of the stack I made which I will
also share as the holidays get closer.

By the way, I haven't hosted a card swap for a while and its getting a bit late for a big organized swap, but if anyone would like to do a small 3 for 3 or so card swap with me, please let me know. I haven't done any swaps for awhile and I miss it!!

If you have made it this far with me in this post Thank You! Here is the good part. leave me a comment with a way to contact you and I will enter your name in a drawing to win a box of holiday goodies (both finished items and some bits and pieces to create with). Thanks for reading!!

a giveaway....

The little has a break all week so we've been hanging out at home. We finally have a break in the rain and today I have all the windows open to air the place out. I am feeling the call of spring and feel inspired to paint and plant things in the yard.

One thing I am REALLY determined to do this spring is do an EXTREME purge on my studio. Some of the stuff will be donated, some will be sold and some will be given away on my blog. THIS IS ONE of those times...

I have a bag full of random bits that I will send off to one lucky commenter here. I will draw a name next Friday the 27th to win. This bag is chock full of papers (vintage and new) including wallpaper, books pages, scrapbook papers, decorative papers and MORE, like doo dads, award ribbons, beads, buttons, trims, ribbon, collage images and so much more I cannot even name it. This is a wonderful collection of things sure to jump start your creativity. Please leave a comment and make sure I can contact you should you be the winner.
BTW, I will cover postage within the continental US. If you are Int'l. I will cover the first $5 in postage but the rest is up to you so be willing to cover that if you want to enter. Good luck!

In other news, I am contemplating hosting a "Blog Garage Sale" and thought it might be a fun group event. We could pick a date to post items for sale and promote it in the community. I would make a list of all those participating. If you are interested, please mention it in your comment and I will keep a list. I am thinking in a month or so, after I get back from ArtFest..???

How many have you entered?

I finally got around to visiting some of the blogs giving away goodies in Lisa's 3rd One World, One Heart event. I was stunned to pop over there and see that there are 911 blogs posted in the list of participating blogs! That's 911 plus chances to win as many of these are giving away multiple things. I know Lisa must just be reeling at how popular this has become.

Anyway, I have been enjoying finding new and talented people. I have bookmarked some new Etsy shops, found some people I'd like to have in Portals and I have tossed my name in the hat for some cool giveaways. If you haven't yet, I urge you to hope on over there and check it out for yourself.

Oh yeah, and YES for the third year, I am participating but this year through the Portals blog. If you are interested.. hop on over HERE to enter! Good luck and happy surfing!

oooh, contests!!

Joleen has begun revamping the Portals blog this weekend. Its looking pretty awesome. We really want to make it a stand alone blog with all kinds features, tutorials and contests in addition to Portals news, instead of just a place where we post the newest issue.

To kick it off right for the new year we are having a contest where you can win issue #7, the HOME issue which we're planning for March of this year. If you haven't checked the current issue out yet you can see that it is full color, professionally printed and bound and just brimming with fabulous, COLORFUL and inspiring art.

We hope you will visit us often to see whats going on and maybe even jump in by offering up your own artwork or a tutorial for a future issue!

In other contest news, Joleen is ALSO hosting a give away on her blog where you can win something cool that she hasn't shared yet.

And finally, I am jumping on the band wagon and offering up my OWN give away. I will be giving away one of my JUNQUE packs which are simply brimming with stuff for creating. There are snippets of all kinds of papers, fabric, trims, shapes, failed art projects, stickers, Dresdens, fibers, charms, beads, buttons.. I can't even LIST all the things I stuff into these packs. They are super inspiring and useful to launch projects from ATCs to journal pages, collages and mixed media projects. What I want you to do is to leave a comment telling me an idea you'd like to see in a future issue of Portals. I will choose a winner on Friday the 16th and announce it here. Be sure you leave me a way to contact you! Have a great and creative day!

the face of forty...

Hi All, my computer is "in the shop" so I just thought I'd check in from the little's computer. I strung the cable out to the living room so I could get online.. LOL Just a reminder that I will draw a name for the ornaments shown in the post below on Saturday night so if you are interested, leave a comment!!

Not much else to share.. I don't have any opther pix to upload right now since I am not on my computer. I hope to get it back tomorrow. I am just going to post a recent journal lay out I did until I get back.. Hopefully I will also have another Karin update to share tomorrow as well. So if you are waiting for news, keep an eye on her blog!! Cheers

xoxo

Just a quick reminder that today is ther last day to drop your name in the hat fo0r my give away. Check out the post below to leave a comment and contact info. I will draw a name tomorrow. I am off to the airport!

Au Revoir & Give away!

Well, I am pretty much packed and ready to fly out to Oklahoma tomorrow. I have been texting with Donna all day... we're both SO EXCITED! I have been gathering and wrapping little goodies for Holly & Donna and their herds of boys and trying to gather up everything Hannah might need. I am pooped and ready to just GO.

Today I finished up and photographed another batch of cards inspired by my Summer Card Swap. I figure that since I will be gone for the next week, I will schedule Blogger to post a card each day and then when I get back I will add them all to the Flickr group. I am still really enjoying creating cards and seeing what the other girls are sending in. I recently got a packet from Ellen of One Ripe Peach. I don't think I need to tell you how adorable they are!! She was so sweet and sent me this darling little package with a cute little journal she made as a hostess gift. I love it. Ellen does such darling and beautiful work so I was thrilled when she agreed to be part of this swap. I will have to take pictures of the cards she sent so everyone can see.

In parting, I have a sneak peek of my newest "Bluhm Studios" creation, which will be available in my Etsy shop upon my return. I am taking one each to Donna and Holly. To be entered into the drawing for a third, please leave a comment on this post and I will draw a name when I return from my trip. It was a lot of fun wrapping said item(s) and I used some vintage wallpaper trim to embellish each package which is just a hint of what is inside! Good luck...

One World, One Heart winner...

Hey All,
I just got back from a busy day out and nice dinner with my family. Now we are watching LOST and I just fired up the 'ole random number generator to pick a winner for my banner. CONGRATULATIONS to lucky number 11, BETH QUINN! Thanks to everyone for visiting my blog during this fun give way!!
Happy Valentine's Day!!

put a little LOVE in your heart

Woohoo, I finished it! This banner is my give away offering for the One World, One Heart giveaway hosted by the wonderful Lisa of Oceandreamer. I will draw a name on the evening of Thursday, Feb 14th to win this banner. Even though V-Day will be over by the time the winner receives this banner, I feel like one can always have room for some extra LOVE, right? If you'd like a shot at winning this banner please leave a comment on this post. Please be sure there is a way I can contact you should you win, otherwise I will have to draw another name. Good luck!
PS If you click on the image you can go to my flickr and see the close up shots of each letter.

blues

Ack, Friday night I hit the wall. I am SO SICK! I basically laid around most of Saturday in my bedroom. No computer, no projects. Just my book, the blankets an occasional cat and the TV. I can't remember feeling this bad for a couple of years at least. Yesterday G & H went to visit G's brother so they were gone for several hours leaving me in a quiet house. While I was not feeling much better, coughing, fever, etc.. I did manage to drag myself to get a Starbuck's mocha and then came back and watched cheesy movies and HGTV. I had my computer on much of the afternoon and spent it chatting with my friend Sharon in WA who was also homebound after a late night partying. We worked on Blythe sewing projects, discussed some projects and just chatted about things. It was kind of nice to have some quiet time to myself.

This morning I am catching up on Preschool stuff and working to try to get my One World, One Heart give away finished. Eep. I need to get it posted by tomorrow to be on the "big list". If you have not checked it out.. go see. There are over 300 give aways scheduled!! Check back later or tomorrow morning to see my give away. I am almost done!!! Cheers!!

you may already be a weiner.... (I mean winner)

Hey all, I drew names via the random number generator last night but I was too tired to post the winners of my 515th post give away. I have been burning the midnight oil lately keeping an eye on wheezy here. She is better as far as the croup goes but now it sounds like it is moving down into her chest. Since she has a history of bronchitis I am taking her back to the doctor today to make sure she is on the road to recovery. This is getting old for BOTH of us. So, without further ado, here are the winners for my give away.

First, and the winner of the "HOME" banner kit is SUSAN of Romantic Portuguese Roses.

Next, Miss Danielle from The Vintage Dragonfly is the winner of the "WISH" banner. Thanks Danielle for spreading the word of Bernie's rescue and supporting her cause. I know it is as close to your heart as it is to mine.

And finally, the winner of the Prize Pack which I will assemble specially for the winner is the lovely Maija of Maigirlz who is a buddy and fellow Bernie supporter.

If you lovely ladies would be so kind as to email me your mailing addresses I will get these treasures out to you asap. Thanks to everyone who entered and especially those who made donations to support Bernie. If you meant to but have not gotten around to it, its not to late to help out with the race for the $50,000 grant. Just click over to my side bar and make a $10 donation. Every little bit helps!!

I will post the Valentine pages a bit later on. The image up top is another little book I made in hopes of sending it off to my friends to do a page or two in round robin style. I want to do a couple more pages in it before sending it off to my dear friend Holly, who as agreed to add some of her own artwork to it.

"pea" update

Thanks to everyone who has sent well wishes and good vibes to us over the past few days. The little is doing better but not out of the woods yet. There have been a few long nights for me as I have gone to check on her regularly, prop her up, fill the humidifier, etc. The "croup" seems to be breaking down but moving down as well. I took her to see a pediatrician at our health plan clinic today and she said that it has moved from the throat but she can still hear some breathing difficulty and wheezing. It has not been diagnosed as asthma per se but it is being treated as such for now. She now has inhalers to use daily until it is cleared up and then the rescue inhaler to have on hand always, just like Mommy. She will be home for a least a couple more days but we are hoping she can return to school Friday. She misses her friends and teacher and miss a little peace and quiet ;) although I DO enjoy the extra snugglies that she has been doling out. I'll post another update when we pull completely out of the woods...

In other news, I have been busy on my laptop while sitting with the pea. I just completed a new banner for Heather at Pretty Petals. It was fun to work with her lovely images and use the sweet cherubs from a vintage baby book she recently acquired. In other design news, I got two sets of business cards back from the printer this week. Its so exciting to open each box, like a mini Christmas morning cracking open the flap and getting a whiff of paper and then seeing little printed treasures like these:

and these:

Finally, tomorrow is the drawing for my 515th post give away. There is still time to enter up until I draw the name. I will also share more of my Vintage Valentine Round Robin pages.

515!!

I have been procrastinating posting this 515th post because I do not have a prize ready and I wanted to have a fun give away. BUT something prompted me to post today despite not being quite ready... read on....

Today I learned that my pal Bernie Berlin is in the running for a $50,000 dollar grant through Network for Good and Parade magazine. To win she has to place in the top 4 in generating the most donations to her charity (A Place to Bark) through the 31st of January. As of today she is #3 BUT there are still 2 weeks to go and the competition is getting fierce. We want to keep her in the top 3. The minimum donation is $10 which is not much to so many of us. Think about $10... its just a couple of Starbuck's drinks, a trip through a drive- thru or a single movie ticket.

So, on this, my 515th post I am issuing a challenge to make a small donation and help Bernie get the dollars she so desperately needs to continue her animal rescue and build the facility she and her husband and planning for. The bonus (in addition to feeling good for helping out) is that if you make a donation, I will enter you an extra time into my 515th post drawing. Just post the reference # for your donation in the comments section and you are entered.

OK, now for the prizes... I will be giving away three prizes as follows:
1- Prize Pack (not yet assembled) full of goodies that I like to use to create art.. vintage wallpapers, book pages, millinery bits, flowers, jewelry, glitter, who knows what else will end up in it. It will be fun and full of inspiration and goodies though!
1- Joli Paquet HOME Banner Kit.. I have 2 left. They are lots of fun and have gotten good reviews from those who got them back at our first Joli Paquet event.
1- "WISH" Banner... this cute banner was made by me out of canvas paper and various papers, ribbons and embellishments a la Pam Garrison's class.

THREE ways to win...
1. leave a comment
2. make a donation to A Place to Bark and reference the transaction # for a 2nd chance to win.
3. BLOG about Bernie and this contest on your own blog and leave me a comment with a link for yet another chance.

As always, be sure you leave me a way to contact you provided you win. I will draw names on in one week on January 23rd. Good luck!!

flaky...

OK, maybe not really flaky.. but feeling flaky about my lack of regular blogging. Its just been insane here and I am battling the onset of SAD which I had HOPED I would skip this year due to new meds but that doesn't seem to be the case. I have pictures in my camera that I want to share but I am pleading lateness in my defense tonight.. instead I will share my recent online onsession and time waster....

MAKE A FLAKE!

If you make a flake (or several) post them to your blog and leave a comment. I feel like givin' something else away! Not sure what yet.. but I'm cleaning out the studio.. it might be good!!

random rambling...

Despite having a day to celebrate this week it was an emotionally grueling week. What I *thought* was a friendship turned out to be something completely false and I am saddened by that. I feel dumb for not recognizing it sooner and I feel hurt. All of that was compounded by stressful stuff with the little's school board and our biggest fund-raiser of the year. My co-chair decided that she didn't want to do it anymore and stuck me holding the bag. She is finishing up with the big poinsettia sale but after that I am stuck...

Speaking of fund-raising and kids.. I stumbled across this very cool website called Artsonia. Its a Kids Art Museum so you can set up a site for your kiddles and they can have their art there. The fund-raising part comes in when folks BUY stuff with the kids art on it like a mug or cards. Their school gets 15%. I think its an awesome concept for kids to have their own online art gallery! You can bet I will be pitching this to the board!

I had hoped to have some pictures of the goodies that came in the mail to share but my hands the camera haven't managed to meet up this week. I will try very hard to get some pix tomorrow. Just because I shirked that task doesn't mean I haven't kept busy though. I have been giving my mouse a workout in Photoshop to make this banner for my friend Beth:
I have to admit that as far as banners go this one was fairly easy because of all the yummy artwork that Beth sent me to use this time. She just finished up a workshop with Lynne Perrella so I had some fun stuff to work with. I also made up this cute gift certificate for my favorite pink girl, Cerri, of Little Pink Studio. She has them in her shop, just in time for the holidays.

OH! and speaking of shops ( boy, am I just the queen of segues tonight?) Ms HollyDoodle added even more of her fabulous Joli Paquet kits to her site. Her initial offering sold out in about 20 minutes leaving many a sparkle loving, crafty gal pouting in her studio. This will be the last batch so if you missed out pop over and there and get yours while you can. I personally have 2 on the way to me and can't wait to work on them with the wee one. Look how darling they are!

And speaking of bloggy friends.. the uber talented mosaic artist Michelle Legler has christened her new Typepad blog. Go check it out.. she is giving away one of her fabulous cupcakes!

Ok, I think my rambling is over... for now. There is still time to enter my birthday give away.. look down there....

they say its your birthday...

its my birthday too, yeah!


*To celebrate I am hosting a give-away and this one is a doozy! I am giving away a BLOG MAKE-OVER... which will include new banner, side bar buttons and a coordinating background installed. Blogger or Typepad accounts only. If you wish to enter, please comment and tell me to enter you in the contest and be sure I can contact you should you win. I will draw a winner late Sunday night. Good luck!

The Give Away

In all the excitement this morning to get my paquets listed I forgot to post that I, like many of the other Joli Girls, am having a give away for the finished banner which was the model for my kit.
All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and on Sunday night I will draw a name to win this cute banner. It measures about 6" x 12". Good luck!
Edited: PLEASE be sure you leave a way for me to contact you should you win. If I cannot contact you I will draw another name.

dum dum dum......

KARLA! Sugar Bear darling, you are a weener! I mean a winner! Karla wins the drawing for a packet of "my favorite things." Congrats Karla, send me your address and I will mail your packet right out.

Ok, in other exciting news I am very pleased to announce, after MONTHS of work and preparation that I have finally launched my WEB SITE!! Special thanks to Hope of Paper Relics for all her assistance in setting up the templates and flow of the site so I had a place to plop down my graphics. I should mention that the site is still under some construction but I feel it is complete enough to share now...

So, without further ado, may I present BLUHMSTUDIOS.COM

So, to celebrate my launch I am going to give away ANOTHER pack of "favorite goodies"... All you have to do is leave a comment and I will draw another name in a week. Good luck!! I look forward to hearing your comments on the site.
(small print: You MUST provide some way for me to contact you, so if your post does not provide a link to you, your email or blog you must leave me an email)