The Character Cafe New Releases - Meet the Wiggies!

Hope you all had a fabulous New Year and managed some relaxing "me" time in there somewhere (I tried unsuccessfully!)

The Character Cafe is releasing 8 great images for January and I'm here to share with you "The Wiggies"... I just love how these guys turned out. Kelly and I have been talking up a storm how many little forms of these guys we could have and it's just so fun. I hope you love them as much as I do because I really want to expand their "world"!!!!

If you've just arrived here, you didn't miss much of the hop.... Not sure why we did this, but out of habit, we had the start of the hop at The Cafe Store... only, normally, Kelly and I don't necessarily participate, however, in retrospect, this should've been your first stop... SORRY!!!!

I'll go over the details for you to prevent you having to hop over to the store... (but do that after and get some goodies okay?!).

We ask that you...

• post a comment on all the DT (and our) Blogs
• at the end, on The Cafe Blog, please let us know what kind of cards/paper crafting you do most of all (i.e. Birthday, Thank you, Scrap pages...)

That's it!!!! We wanted it to be simple since life's been so crazy lately. If you'd like to sign up & follow our blog(s) that would be great too, but it's not required for this hop.

What we're offering...

• each DT Member (and us) will draw from our comments and offer the image we're working with as a prize
• Collect the pieces of the code along the way to receive 30% off your entire purchase at The Cafe Store
• one winner will be drawn to receive 4 of the New Releases (The Wiggies, Oh Lolly Lolly, Puppy Love and Calvin) - some great digital stamps for you to try!

With that, on to my post.... The first piece of the code is "B" (case sensitive)

Now, meet "The Wiggies"...


I let my hubby have some creative input and he put the axe to my buttons, flowers, brads and said that the card was great just the way it was and to add anything would just take away from it... sooooooo, I did just that and although now I want to add some small pearls or something, I do love it regardless.

Card details: Bazzil cardstock, Basic Grey DP, The Wiggies Digital Stamp from The Cafe coloured with Copics and some Sakura Stardust accents. I also used a Fiskars border punch.

Hope you enjoy the hop.... you want to head to Sara's Blog next. The code is good until next Friday and we'll post all the winners when we do our Feature Friday posts as well :)

Happy crafting,
Kendra


Here's the blog list in case you lose your way...

Me
Sara
Piali
Billie
Heather
Fink
Lola
Meredith
Rachel
Deanne
Angie C
Angie E
Diane
Kelly - The Cafe Blog

The Character Cafe - 12 Hops, Missing Link!

Well, not sure what happened to Meredith?! Hope she's okay... seems to me I didn't even hear from her before the hop so really, I should have been prepared, but alas, I wasn't so I'm very sorry.

On the 9th hop of Christmas, T C C has for me... 9 beautiful brads....

If you've arrived here from Lola's Blog, then you're on the right track... if not, you should head back to the START so you don't miss a thing of this fantastic blog hop with FABULOUS blog candy :) (including a Copic Airbrush System and Copics tee hee)...

Be sure to:

• Comment on all the blogs to qualify for the Grand Prize
• Become a follower if you aren't already
• Tell us at The Cafe Blog which image is your favorite!

Also, get more ballots in the tree for more chances to win by telling others (5 more ballots), ask them to tell us who told them (and you'll both get another ballot!), use the freebie Chibi at the end of the hop to make something, link it and tell us for another 5 ballots!

I've whipped up another project using the image Meredith was to work with (one of my faves!)... Monster Gift from The Cafe Store... not much of a project, but I've made 14 cards and this little guy today as well as did all the family stuff, so not bad if I do say so myself! Although, my hubby has done 24,658 loads of laundry (so he says!) in my absence LOL. thanks hun!

Well... not much to say except that I coloured him with Copics and used a piece of Basic Grey paper for the present covering, a nestie to cut the shape and some American Craft ribbon with a coloured staple, voila.... easy peasy Christmas tag (or you could use it for a birthday, Valentines gift or any gift really!)...


Hope you enjoy! Good luck, now I really have to go and fix up this headache! You should head on over to Heather's Blog now to continue the hop and see all the great stuff we have for you.

Happy crafting/hopping :)
Kendra

The Character Cafe 12 HOPS of Christmas BLOG CANDY!

....... On the 4th hop of Christmas, T C C gave to me... 4 feet of Hemp.... 3 jingle bells, 2 Copic Sketch Markers, and a Copic Airbrush System for FREE!!!! Hop along to find out what else is in the goody box :)

Yay!!! Kelly and I have been wanting to jump in and play with the DT for some time now, but it just never seemed to work out for us... however, the circumstances are not ideal this time, as we're filling in for Angie E who is really sick right now *hugs to you Angie!*. Regardless, it was really fun to whip up a card for the hop using "Jacob Santa"... one of the 12 New Releases by The Character Cafe!!!

Before I get to card details, let's be sure you're on track to win the AWESOME Blog Candy we've got in store for you! If you just left Angie C's blog, then you're in the right spot, however, if you're just popping in here and aren't part of the hop, you might want to go start at the beginning in order to qualify for the Grand Prize! Also, be sure to leave a comment, since you can only win the Grand Prize if you comment on everyone's blogs (you do have until the 18th of December to do so though!)...

If you decide not to play along for the Grand Prize though, you can still win this little cutie by leaving me a comment! On the 18th, all the DT members will draw winners from their comments to receive the image they worked with....

On to the card!

Okay, please excuse my horrible photo... I couldn't get my hands to steady (must be all the excitement, or lack of sleep!) to get a decent pic and this was the only one that turned out! You can't tell, but I did emboss the cardstock with a Fiskars snowflake template... I used my new Snowflake Spellbinder die, my new Marvy scallop punch (soooo lovin' those!), a sentiment from Studio G, Spellbinder scallop nesties, Bazill cardstock and Jacob Santa, beautifully coloured with watercolour pencils by the very talented Kelly :)... oh, and you can't forget the stickles!!!!

Could be better, but for 1/2 hour (which may be a ton of time for some of you crafters, but not me!)... I think it's pretty great... might actually make its way to a teacher I know!!! Think I've got to make another now.

Okay, enough already... hop along to Rachel's blog and see what she has in store for you!

I have some other projects to share soon... I know, I've been neglecting my blog for far too long!!! Can't wait to share some of the stuff I've been making :)

Happy crafting, uh, I mean, hopping!
Kendra (& Kelly)

My Time to Create Colour Challenge!!!

I've managed a challenge this week, woooo hoooooo!!! Lauren Meader's My Time To Create Colour Challenge. Boy was it fun too :) Truth be told, 3 of my 4 children have birthdays in September so I needed a few cards and well, I saw these colours and I just LOVE them! These are actually some of my favorites of all time and I use them whenever possible and so honestly, it wasn't a hard challenge for me, but fun. Here's the colour pic...


and my submission... Please note that I've never done a colour challenge before so I'm not sure if there's any kind of leeway to veer off the colours slightly, but I hope that this is okay?!!! I tried to stay within the spirit of the colours :) Also, my fairy's dress is more red than it looks (Copic - Strong Red)!!!


Card Deets:

• Image from The Character Cafe "Fairy Belle" coloured with Copics, misc. stars stamp, Gina K Sentiment (inside)
  
• Paper: Bazzil cardstock, K&Company Classic McKenna, Wassau
• Embellishments: Nesties, Basic Grey Glazed brad
• Other Details: Handwritten Sentiment, Sakura Glitter pens, distressing

On another note.... I also made my son a card too (it's one of my favs now I think!!!), but I'm going to go post it over at The Cafe Blog for a bit of inspiration while announcing our new Design Team!!!! Head over there and check it out if you've got a minute :)

Well, that's it for today,
Happy Crafting!
Kendra

Feature Friday - Guest Designer Piali

It's Friday again, and that means time for Feature Friday with TCC :)

Today, we're featuring a paper piecing project by Piali using Syd Golfer from The Character Cafe. It rocks... Syd Golfer is one of my favorite images especially when paper pieced!

A note from our Guest Designer: Piali

Hi, I am Piali..a full-time Mom and part-time crafter. I am addicted to papercrafting. I love to make cards and gifts for friends and family. Three months ago, I used to be only a rubber stamper... that's when I discovered Digi stamps/images. I absolutely love the endless possibilities of digi stamps. I like to paper piece the digi stamps a lot and here is my card with "SYD GOLFER" ... just love this image. It's hard to find images for male cards... thanks to TCC, this is just perfect.

Here's Piali's card as well as a bit of a visual tutorial for "piecing" it all together!









I just love it... never thought to print on the coloured paper for the background to be green/blue like that. Very simple, yet effective! Thanks so much Piali :)

If you would like to see more fabulous creations and maybe learn another trick or two, be sure to check out Piali's blog (don't forget to leave some love!)!

Oh, and don't forget to play along with us in this weeks' Work It Wednesday (it's a sketch!!!)

Also, last, but not least, The Character Cafe is looking for new Design Team Members! Go check out the details and apply!

That's it for today,
Happy crafting
Kendra & Kelly

The Character Cafe - Blog Hop!!

Yay, it's Friday!!

Hope everyone's having fun on the hop. If you just stumbled upon this blog, then you should go back and start at the beginning at The Character Cafe. There are prizes to win if you follow along, comment on all the DT members blogs and become a follower of the Cafe Blog/website. You will get your name entered in a draw to win some TCC images. Also, there's a discount code (58620271) that you can use to receive 30% off your purchases at TCC store (which you probably already got if you're already doing the Hop)! The discount is good from Aug. 21st at 12:00 noon until Aug. 25th at 12:00 midnight. Further down the post, there's also a Halloween freebie for you to download :) Lots of goodies!!!! Hope you enjoy and have fun.

Now for my project. I used a new release for August called "DracuTy".

The sentiment I used, I created last night. It will be available at The Character Cafe soon.

It will work well with all of our new Halloween images.

I used my faithful water colour pencils...then used black ink on the edges.

Black cardstock from DCWV and orange DP from basic grey.

I used brown ink to ink edges of sentiment and not sure if you can tell from the pic, I used a clear stardust pen on the spider web.

Other Details: Red gem brads, orange ribbon, silver grommets and black rope from my

"friendly neighbourhood craft store" aka. Kendra's craft room. (hee,hee)

Now for the FREEBIE! We've got a tombstone for you to celebrate Halloween... hope you enjoy! Just click the image to be taken to the 4Shared download link.

Have fun on the rest of the blog hop. From here you will want to head on over to Colleen's Blog.

Kelly "The imaginary illustrator" ;)



On a bit of a sad note... Sara is unable to participate in our Blog Hop at the last minute due to family illness and so we're sending her lots of prayers, and adding this little bit to cover the image she was working with... I'm sure when things settle down she'll share with us her creation that no doubt will blow our socks off, but in the meantime, we'd like to introduce to you "Seamour Turtle".... he's a bit wrinkly granted, but I think Kelly did a fantastic job colouring him!!! Personally, he's one of my favs this month :) I think I'm going to do him up right and put him on the wall in my bathroom... I can't wait (already have it all planned out in my head) & I'll be sure to share when that happens!




Well, hope you're enjoying the hop and all the inspiration! "See" you soon, but until then, Happy Crafting :)
Kendra

Feature Friday Guest Designer - Vivi!!!

Hi all, this week we have a super talented Guest Designer showcased at the Cafe. Her name is Viviane, otherwise known as Vivi. We're so excited to have her agree to be a Guest Desiger, so thanks Vivi!

Q & A with Viviane Casale "Vivi"
I am Viviane Casale, 41 yo and live in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Q: What got you started crafting?
A: I started in the crafting world when I first saw a bookmark made with quilling techinique few years ago.. I just couldn't believe that a strip of paper could make such beautiful things.. so I dedicated the last 4 years to quilling, learning how to make cards, bookmarkers, miniatures and others things until I found digital and rubber stamps and how cute they are!! So I have been working with stamps for over a year and loving it...

Q: What could you not live without (craft related that is)?
A: I found so many great tutorials that teach you how to work with a techinique.. I just love it !! I had no idea how many beautiful cards we could do with a stamp.. lol I must confess I would not be able to make a card without the tutorials.. they make our lives so easy!! I'm so thankful to them!!

Q: What is your embellishment of choice?
A: One of the many things I leanrt and adore is how to use ribbon on the card.. oh, it makes the card so charming and elegant.. It is funny, but now I cannot make a card without a ribbon on it.. this is one of my favorite embellishements for making cards.
Anyway, I'm so addicted to card making now that can't stop and don't want to stop...

Here is what Vivi created for her showcase using Bertie n Friend digi image from the July Release at the Cafe.


To see more wonderful creations by Vivi, be sure to visit her blog and show some love!

Also, if you're feeling the need to blurf, and share some more love why not check out the rest of our Design Team creations too... they're all hosting some TCC inspiration!


Billie, Sara, Tesa, Mary, Elaine, Steph, Heather, Colleen, and don't forget to play along for Work It Wednesday hosted by Shelley (you too could win some goods & be a Guest Designer!).


We hope you enjoy what you see and walk away with a bit of inspiration. Again, if you see something you like, it would be great and is most appreciated if you share with a comment :)

Happy crafting!
Kelly & Kendra (& Vivi!!!)