The Character Cafe

Winner of our Final Challenge!

2011-01-07T00:00:00.002-05:00

Hey bloggers!

We hope you are all doing well and getting crafty with any new goodies you may have gotten over the holidays. I know we have!

So, our final challenge started on December 23rd and since we know that most of you out there have had a busy couple of weeks we had decided to extend the challenge and we’re here to announce our final winner…

#21! Sammibugscrapshack!

Congrats! If you haven’t heard from us, please contact us so we can send you out your gift certificate…

That goes for any other winners out there who may not have gotten their prize… if you think you are one of those, please contact us, we do have trouble with cyber space sometimes and maybe our e-mails have gone awry or we couldn’t contact you or we just plain old forgot (yes, rare, but could happen!).

So there it is… our final challenge is finished and with it, a sad so long!

We would love to take this opportunity to thank our current DT members, Fink (who fearlessly took on the roll of Marketing Manager!), Lola, Deanette, Cleota, Chelsea, Georgia, Joyce, Jessica, DJ and Nancy for all their wonderful creations and for being part of our team these past few months!

Last, but definitely not least we want to thank you, our supporters for all your kind words and encouragement. It has been a total blast! We wish that life didn’t get in the way and there were more hours in the day, but for now, we’re called to do some other things and so we won’t say good bye because it seems too final, (we’ll be back soon with a special thank you) but we will say so long! See you in blogville, and again, thanks from the bottom of our hearts xoxo

Happy crafting!

Kendra & Kelly (the not-so-imaginary illustrator!)

P.S. Just so you know, the store will remain open for now (everything at $1 still!) and we are here to answer any questions and/or if you have any problems, so don’t be shy!

Winner of December 17th Challenge

2011-01-03T08:51:00.004-05:00

Hey crafters....hope everyone has had a good holiday with family & friends. We wish everyone a prosperous New Year for 2011!! The hustle & bustle over the holidays has made us a wee bit late on this post. The winner from December 17th Challenge is...

# 7 Sharon

Send us an e-mail if you don't hear from us in the next few days and we'll send you your $5.00 gift certificate.

We decided to extend the current challenge until this coming friday since it's our last one if you'd like to enter go here.

Don't forget about our sale in the store...all of the digi's are on sale for a $1.00...for a limited time so hurry and get shopping before it's over!!

Have a great day bloggers!!

Kelly ( & Kendra )

Feature Friday at TCC

2010-12-25T07:26:00.010-05:00

Good morning, we're sorry that this is late being posted, but with everyone so busy this time of year the posting was "temporarily" forgotten. I (dj) volunteered to do the posting, since I don't have anything going on. Since this is still December, our challenge this week is still Dazzle, but this time using Sparkle/Sparkle/Sparkle. Did I say Sparkle? LOL. This can be any kind of thing that sparkles, like glitter, glossy accents, stickles...(you get the picture). Unfortunately sparkle doesn't always show up that well when we photograph the card. However, if you'd like some inspiration, please take a look at what we did this week. Oh, and we were able to use one of our favorite TCC images.

Don't forget to stop by The Character Cafe Store and stock up on the images that are on sale. (Most of the images are still only $1.) The winner of this week's challenge will win a $5 Gift Certificate. Think how many images that would get you. I'm sure that Kelly or Kendra will stop by later to announce last week's winner. All of us here at The Character Cafe have enjoyed sharing our cards with you. We hope that next year will be safe for all. If the Linky is not up and working, please feel free to leave the link to your project in with your comments.

Hugs from,

All The Character Cafe Team

Feature Friday Challenge – Shiny/Foil

2010-12-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome bloggers! First off, let us just say thank you to everyone who participated last week. I know it seems to pale in comparison to some blog challenges out there, but we had a whopping 70 participants!!! That’s a record here at TCC, so YIPPEE!!!!

On to the WINNER….

#40 MARIA MATTER

Congrats Maria, we will be in touch with your $5 Gift Certificate to the Cafe Store! If you see this, and haven’t heard from us, please send us an e-mail…

Now for this weeks’ challenge… we want you to use Shiny material like foil or glitter paper, anything that has a mirror-like finish…

So to help inspire you, our fabulous DT came up with these creations…

Joyce

Cleota

Nancy

Georgia

Deanette (not sure what happened to your picture last night?! Trying it again)

Jessica

and of course, Lola!

We hope that you find some time to play along in what we realize is a super busy season for most of you out there.

Up for grabs is a $5.00 Gift Certificate to the Cafe Store and a blog badge for you!

Well, this is the point in our post that we bring to you some important news for the future of The Character Cafe. Kelly and I have been drawing for the Cafe for a few months shy of 2 years now and while we’ve enjoyed it tremendously, we are finding it harder and harder to find time to complete our images, let alone participate in our groups and getting to know you all.

We recruited Fink to help us out and while she took on all that we asked of her, it seemed that the time she freed up for our drawing ended up being needed elsewhere in our lives.

It was with heavy hearts that we had to come to terms with the fact that there really aren’t enough hours in the day and it just isn’t feasible for us to take on another Design Team at this time. So, we have informed our current (and wonderful) Design Team that the last 2 weeks of December are voluntary.

After that, the Cafe Store will remain open and we are here for customer service, but we will not be drawing any new images starting Jan. 2011. Our blog will also remain as Kelly and/or I may wish to pop in and say hi, or you never know…

We want to thank our friends/supporters from the bottom of our hearts for the past 2 years of crafty goodness and we will definitely be seeing you in blogville!!!

As a thank you, we are also putting all Cafe images on sale for $1 only… get them while you can ladies!!!

Happy crafting,

Sincerely,

Kendra (& Kelly)

Feature Friday Dazzling December

2010-12-10T00:13:00.002-05:00

It is time again for a Feature Friday here at The Character Café! I can’t believe how fast December is already going. So many things to do but so little time.

The design team has come up with some fantastic projects to show you so I won’t keep blabbing on but show them to you.

This weeks challenge is GLITTER, GLITTER, GLITTER!!! Do you get that we want to see plenty of glitter???

Deanette

Georgia

Joyce

Nancy

Are these not wonderful creations? I can’t wait to see what you all will do for us! Remember to use glitter for the chance to win a $5 gift certificate plus 2 new release images! Come on join us! There will be a special announcement coming from us so check back to see what that might be!

Drum roll please…….Last weeks challenge winner

2010-12-04T13:48:00.001-05:00

What awesome projects you all did! I was dazzled by all the beauty I saw. Like I said before I am so glad there is Random.org! LOL

Our winner is………………………

Anne Harada

Please email Fink (mytwogirls@oh.rr.com) for your prize!

The Final Blog Hop for 2010

2010-12-03T00:22:00.001-05:00

Welcome! Hopefully you are coming here after visiting the creatively talented design team! If not you might want to go to the store for the start of the hop! I know last month I said can you believe it is November well now it is DECEMBER!!! The busiest time of the year for everyone including this talented team! Just so you know this is the last month for the current team and we are looking for new members! I hope you will give it a shot! I will be posting the details soon to the blog as well as through blogland! Be looking for it! I know I have been scurrying to stores, buying and buying some more! Just for the heck of it my girls and I did Black Friday too! LOL Good thing we are night owls but were tired for days! Hee hee

Back to why were are really here. You have a chance to win a grand prize of a $5.00 gift certificate and 2 new release images! All you have to do is make sure you leave love for the talented design team then leave a comment here as well! Now come on that is easy for you to do! You will have until 10:00 p.m. next Thursday to leave comments to be included in the random drawing!!!!

The design team has awesome stuff to show you so let’s get you the blog hop order!

Start: Store

The Character Café blog

Remember follow the rules for a chance to win! Check back next week so that you can check if you are the winner! Good luck!

Winner for our last challenge is

2010-11-26T00:54:00.001-05:00

I know you all want to know who it is!!!! I want to promise I used random.org not that I picked this lady since we both have the same name and spell it the same (not the common way) but I go by Fink since most botch my first name anyway, LOL Plus Fink is easier and I usually am the only one! Ha ha

Who is it????????????

Sheri

Contact Fink for your prize!

Last Feature Friday of November...

2010-11-26T00:01:00.008-05:00

Can you believe that the new year is almost here. I can remember when everyone was so worried about what the year 2000 would bring. Now it's almost 2011. Wow!

Well, enough trivia. Let's get down to what you came for. LOL! Welcome to our latest Feature Friday Challenge. It's really a fairly easy challenge this week. While we didn't have too many join this week, it means that those who did, have a better opportunity to win! We hope more will join in this week. The winner will receive a $5 gift certificate from The Character Cafe's Shop.

This week all you need to do is to again use some natural (or neutral) color and this week we'd like to see some glitter/sparkle. See, not to difficult.

Now, let's take a look at what the lovely ladies on the DT have to show you this week.

We hope you have a great weekend and that you get to all of the Black Friday Sales that you want to, from all of us at TCC.

Feature Friday Recipe Challenge

2010-11-19T00:01:00.037-05:00

Well, its Friday again, and time for our new challenge at The Character Cafe! But first, I would like to thank everyone who participated in last week's challenge....what a wonderful turn out!!! As this is the first time that I have hosted a challenge, I really do hope you will all enter again this week......

Now, this time around we are asking that you include a homemade flower and use some Natural colours (shades of brown or kraft) on your project. The flowers can be made using punches, die cuts, ribbon, paper, fabric, or whatever your imagination can dream up!

.....and now for some wonderful samples from out Design Team:

Me (Joyce)

The winner of this week's challenge will receive a $5 gift certificate for The Character Cafe store, where you are sure to find something that pleases you! Hopefully we've given you some inspiration, and we look forward to visiting your blogs and looking at all your cards. Thanks for visiting, and remember.....HAVE FUN!

Our Blog Hop Winner and Last weeks winner

2010-11-18T22:44:00.002-05:00

Hey all-

I heard from our Blog Hop Winner Craftymom205! Michel Espey is happy to having a shopping spree!

What a great turn out we had for last weeks challenge! All the participants did fantastic work! Glad I do Random.Org or I would never be able to pick just one!

And the Winner is Lynn's Designer Creations!!!!

Please contact Fink for your prize! Awesome job ladies!

Feature Friday Challenge

2010-11-11T22:00:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by for this weeks Feature Friday. The challenge this week is:

EMBOSSING

Let's take a look at some fantastic examples created by the Design Team:

Cleota - Christmas Tree Shopping

Jessica - Christmas Tree Shopping

So join us this week and post your EMBOSSED creation for a chance to win! We really appreciate all our players and thank you all for stopping by!

November Blog Hop and New Releases!

2010-11-04T23:59:00.000-04:00

Welcome! Hopefully you are coming here after visiting the creatively talented design team! If not you might want to go to the store for the start of the hop! Can you believe it is already November? Soon we will have shorter evenings, brisk fall nights and for those in the US, Thanksgiving!!!!! Don’t you just love getting together with your family and friends to celebrate with some good old turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes and gravy!!!! Boy I am stuffed already!!! Oh and who can forget those wonderful desserts! Yum

Here is the blog list order:

1. Jessica - Harvest
2. Joyce - Christmas tree shopping
3. Deanette - Cardinal
4. Georgia - Remy & Fredrik
5. Fink - Harvest
6. Cleota - Stefan & Katherine
7. Lola - Christmas tree shopping
8. Chelsea - Cardinal
9. Nancy - Festive Lion

Finish at the Cafe Blog

This week you will notice that we are missing a couple of designers! We unfortunately will be losing Tina because of family and time constraints. We will miss her talent, awesome coloring and the wonderful easel cards that she does! We do wish her well in the future and hope she comes back and tries our challenges! We also have DJ missing since she is in the hospital this time around but we wish her well.

Don’t forget to come join us at CDAC and SNR! Just look for The Character Café groups! Also, if you are on a team that is looking for sponsorship, please contact Fink at mytwogirls@oh.rr.com! We would love to sponsor your group! See you next week!

Winner of our 1,2,3 challenge is

2010-10-29T14:35:00.002-04:00

The winning name drawn was.................................

Carolina Girl (Cely)

Please contact me (Fink) for your prize! :)

Feature Friday

2010-10-29T09:24:00.004-04:00

Wow it's Friday already. Can you believe that Halloween is already here? Christmas is just around the corner. This week's challenge is to use:

Orange

die cut (ie. spellbinders)

ribbon

3 circles

The design team has come up with some great stuff.

Joyce

Georgia

Nancy

I just love what everyone has done. Such a wide selection of great work. To check out all the great details of these projects & more go by and check out the wondeful blogs of the design team.

Our prize this week is a $5 gift certificate to The Character Cafe Store.
Why not hop on over and do a little daydreaming about which digis you'll choose if you win

Feature Friday: 1, 2, 3 Challenge

2010-10-21T23:59:00.076-04:00

Good morning lovelies! Welcome to another Feature Friday!

Our prize this week is a $5 gift certificate to The Character Cafe Store. Why not hop on over and do a little daydreaming about which digis you'll choose if you win?

The ladies have outdone themselves for you this week, so take a peek, get inspired and then show us what you've got!

Your recipe this week:

- Orange
- 1 Flower
- 2 brads

- 3 gems

DJ's gorgeous card using the new digi Flutter:

Cleota's beautiful creation using Sleepy Max:

Lola's sweet little card using Flutter:

And didn't Chelsea do a great job with Flutter?

And one from me. I used Sleepy Max too. (Jessie):

Fink chose to work with Simonstein. Isn't he cute?!

Feature Friday For Oct. 15th & Blog Hop Winner

2010-10-14T23:59:00.005-04:00

Welcome, To the feature Friday challenge. This is Georgia I will be your host for this week's challenge.

The challenge is to use

Orange, 3 Squares & 3 Flowers

I was so surprised to see that the design team choose only two different images.

Georgia

Deb

Tina

Joyce

Nancy

For everyone choosing the same images. We show how very versatile the images are. No two are the same. The other design team members will be out and bout in blog land this week checking out challenges to join. Be sure and go by to say hi to them all and check out all the great stuff they have going on.

The prize for trying this week's challenge is a $5 gift certificate.

Thanks to everyone for participating in our blog hop! We appreciate you taking the time to comment on the design team cards plus our images. Your feedback mean a great deal to us.

This month's Blog Hop winner is...........................

Thea, a newbie to the hop!

New Release with our New Team!!!

2010-10-07T23:59:00.001-04:00

Hello all! Fink here with our New Image Release and with our New Design Team!!!! I first would like to welcome DJ (Debra) to our team! We unfortunately had to lose Bettina to babysitting issues. This makes us very sad but DJ is ready to take over! We are hoping in the future that Bettina will be back!

If you have come here from my blog, you are on the right track! If you are just stopping by or found us by accident, we welcome you to join us in the hop! Please start at the store!

Please stop and visit each DT member so that you have a chance to win our Grand Prize which is a $5 gift certificate and 2 of the new releases! Leave a comment for them then finish here letting us know you were at played along! You will then be put in for the drawing. Easy as that! You also have a chance to win at each DT’s blog! Leave them love for your chance to win! Winners will be picked and announced next Friday!

Of course we would love for you to become a member of our store and follower at our blog but it is not required to win. We would also love to see you join our groups at CDAC and SNR. Hope to see you there!

Winners of 9/17 and 9/24 sketches

2010-10-04T15:26:00.002-04:00

Hey all
With the DT call, I am behind on posting the winners! I was hoping we would have more players for the sketches but not this time around! I just decided to chose the winners as the people who played!!!!

Winners

Debra

Kerstin

Rose Petal

Just contact me so that I can get your information! Congratulations

This Friday is different!!!! It is a challenge but

2010-10-01T00:04:00.026-04:00

NOT a blog hop!!! We are going to have our blog hop and new release next Friday instead plus we are sponsorings 365 cards!!!! Make sure you check back for that!

This week is just our way of introducing you to the new girls & to also say good-bye to some of our talented members who are moving on.

We wish them well in all their new crafting endeavours.

It's a sad goodbye to Sara who has been with us from the start of The Character Cafe.

Also sad farewells to Rachel, Audrey & Margie and also to Deanne, Angie E., Queenie & Angie C who had to step down early from their position.

We welcome back Deanette, Georgia, Lola and Fink (me)!

Now for the challenge...kind of a recipe,

Orange

2 embellishments

Ribbon

Pretty easy huh...so get crafty & come join us!!

I chose to give the new girls the image of Simonstein!!! They came up with great projects!

Bettina

Chelsea

Cleota

Jessica

Joyce

Nancy

Deanette

Georgia

Lola - Ancient Returning DT

Tina--GD who is offically with us!

Rachel

Fink- The new Marketing Manager/DT Coordinator! This is me! LOL

Check back next week for the blog hop! Gotta Run I keep fixing this but it keeps staying all crazy! It is 1 a.m. and I quit! LOL

New Design Team

2010-09-27T17:29:00.007-04:00

It is my pleasure to introduce you to The Character Cafe Design team!!!!

Please help me in welcoming:

Jessica

Sr. DT's

Deanette

Georgia

Ancient DT's (Can't get rid of us!)

Lola

Fink (me)

I have to tell you I sure had a tough time picking this design team with the great applicants we had try out! I have been on the waiting end of being picked and really know how it feels to be waiting or not picked but now I really understand how the person who chooses everyone feels about it!!!! I sure wish I could have picked everyone but I just couldn't!!!! My decision was based on all kinds of things!!!! It did not matter if you were new or experienced when I decided. Please try out again if you were not chosen this time around!!!!

Welcome to the new gals!!!! We will be having a Feature Friday challenge this week instead of a new release! Our blog hop/new release will be postponed until next Friday!

New Feature Friday Sketch Challenge this week!!

2010-09-24T00:00:00.003-04:00

Happy Friday Everyone!! and Welcome to another fabulous Sketch Challenge here at The Character Cafe.
Below you will find this week's card which is the SKETCH TO FOLLOW created by none other than our very own DT Coordinator "Fink"

Fink created this beautiful card using the Walk on the Beach image. (This is the sketch)

Sara made this gorgeous card using the Fairy Syvilla Rose image.

Lola made this beautiful card using Remy Reindeer

I (Rachel) had a great time with this sketch and made this card using the Lillies image.

I sure hope you decide to join us this week for a fun sketch and a fabulous prize of Rockin' Fredrik, Izaac Elf, a $5 Gift Certificate to The Cafe Store as well as a blog badge! Be sure to add your creation to inlinkz and show us your fabulous creation!!!

Have a Great Week!!
hugs,

Rachel :0)

The Character Cafe Design Team call

2010-09-22T23:56:00.000-04:00

**Design Team call extended until Sept. 22nd @ 10 p.m. EST**

They say time flies and boy does it! It is time to look for new members for our design team!

Here is the info.

What we expect from you is:

1. You MUST have an active blog
2. You must actively participate in our groups at various places
3. MUST do at least 4 projects a month
4. MUST participate in the monthly blog hop/new releases
5. Post projects to any forums you are active on
6. You are requested to post a link on your blog to The Character Cafe store and blog

You will receive:

1. Minimum of 4 images / month
2. 40% discount
3. Link to your blog on the store and blog
4. Lifetime discount after your term
5. Fun and encouraging environment

If this sounds like something interesting to you, please send the following information to "Fink" at mytwogirls@oh.rr.com with DT call as the subject before 9/18 extended to 22nd to be considered.

1. 3 projects you are most proud of
2. Brief description of yourself
3. What DT's you are on
4. Why would you like to be on the DT

The new team will be announced on September 27th and will go to work on October 1st! Good luck

Feature Friday, Blog hop winner & Last weeks sketch winner

2010-09-17T15:15:00.008-04:00

Hey all-

Not sure what happened but my hostess for this week has not done the post so I am gonna share all the great projects with you. Let me get to that first! As you know this is sketch month! Please be kind as they are my sketches! :) LOL

Here is the girls cards:

Deanette

Georgia

Tina

Audrey:

Our blog hop winner is JLJ Designs! Send me an email so I can get you your prize! :)

Last weeks sketch winner is Kerstin!!!!! Congrats! Send me an email so you can get your prize! Thanks to everyone that tried! I hope you will all give this weeks sketch a try!

Gotta Run!

Put your link here:

September is Sketch Month At TCC!

2010-09-10T00:01:00.002-04:00

Happy Friday!!!! Hope your having a wonderful start to your weekend. This month our challenges are all about sketches. So if your like me and love to use someone else’s sketches this is the place for you to be this month. Here’s the sketch for this weeks’ challenge:

And here is some inspiration from the DT:

RACHEL

Now, you have the sketch and some inspiration, so what are you waiting for??

Our prize this week is TrixE and Mischief, a $5 gift certificate for The Cafe Store as well as a blog badge.

Make sure you stop by the rest of the team and see what awesomeness they came up with this week. Have a wonderful day!!!

September New Release Blog Hop

2010-09-03T00:01:00.001-04:00

Woohoo, it's blog hop time again!! Yay...September, kids are back in school...well not all kids. Us Canucks up here in Iglooville...they go back on Tuesday. Maybe then I can start gettin' crafty again since our summer has been so crazy busy. Anyways back to the hop, if you've just come from Fink's blog then you're on the right path. If you've just stumbled upon our blog then go back here to start at the begining.
Here's a recap on the details to qualify for the prize:

What we’re asking of you, the hoppers…Comment on all the DT member blogs to be eligible to win the Grand Prize. On Friday, each Designer will announce a winner from their comments to receive the digital stamp they worked with. We’d love for you to become a follower of our blog, or member of The Café Store, however, this is just a request, not a requirement to win anything. We know that once you try TCC, you’ll want to join us.

The Grand Prize winner will get 2 new release images + a $5.00 gift certificate for the store.

Hope you enjoyed all the wonderful creations from our talented DT as much as I did. This is our current team's last blog hop as they are finishing their term this month. We want to thank them for all their hard work and their beautiful creations...they continue to amaze us every week.

This also means that we will be announcing our DT call for our next term...stay tuned details will be up next week. Until then...happy crafting!!

Join us again next Friday for Feature Friday and a chance again to win our digi's. You can also find us on facebook, CDAC, AiFactory and 50/50.

Kendra & Kelly

Last week's winner is

2010-08-27T14:40:00.002-04:00

First I want to take the time to Thank You all for doing our challenges! We have had a great turn out these last few weeks! I am so excited to see you all participating plus the beautiful work! I have loved looking at the stunning projects you all have done!

Okay back to our winner..................................

Sharon

Congratulations to you! Contact me so that we can get you your prize!

We Challenge You - Feature Friday #30

2010-08-27T00:00:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone and Welcome to this weeks challenge:

CRUMBLING/TEARING plus 2 OR MORE BUTTONS

Link your creation below for your chance to win. You are not required to use a TCC image, but we sure would be flattered if you did.

Here's a little inspiration to get you started:

Georgia is using Puppy Love

Deanette's card features Suzie

Lola is showing off Miss Priss

Audrey's Birthday Witches using Witch Olga

Last but not least, Sara's card featuring Mistletoe Mo

So I hope you will play along with us this week for your chance to win Mistletoe Mo, Shelby Cobra and a $5 gift certificate from the Cafe Shop and a super cool badge for your blog. Also, we really want to thank you all for participating in our challenges. We really love seeing your awesome creations!

Last weeks winner is

2010-08-20T03:26:00.003-04:00

Beth!!!!! Congratulations on winning our sparkle challenge!!!!!!

Ladies, please remember to play again for your chance to win!!!!!!!

Feature Friday #29 ~ Dimensional Glaze

2010-08-20T00:01:00.001-04:00

Hello Everyone and Welcome to The Character Cafe Feature Fridays!

This weeks challenge is to use a Dimensional Glaze on your card/project.
You will love how this makes your cards really pop!!

Our fabulous DT has whipped up some amazing cards/projects to inspire you...

Rachel

Angie C.

Margie

Tina

When you are uploading your card into SCS, PCP or other stamping community, please be sure to use keywords TCCFF29 for this challenge . Can't wait to see your creations...

Feature Friday #28 - Bright Sparkle Card

2010-08-13T00:01:00.001-04:00

Hi Fellow TCC blogger! So glad you stopped by today! We sure hope you'll join us for this week's challenge! The challenge this week is to be "Bright" & "Sparkly". The prize this week is the Fairy Syvilla and Simonstein digital stamps, a $5 gift certificate from The Cafe Store & the winner's blog badge to add to your blog.

Here's the inspiration from the Awesome Design Team:

Georgia:

Sara:

Lola:

Me (Deanette):

Okay now you have until 10 pm EST on Thursday to get you project in for a chance to win the prize, good luck & we look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Blog Hop Winner!!!

2010-08-12T23:57:00.001-04:00

Hey bloggers… time to announce the winner for our blog hop last week. To those that joined us, thank you all for taking the time… to those that didn’t maybe next time?!

I started at the comments from top to bottom (1 to 10, Rachel not included)… and random.org picked #6… which is Regina, The Stampin Bean!!

Congrats Regina, you’ve won the entire August New Release Set…. YAY!!!

We hope you enjoyed all the images this month and fantastic inspiration provided by our Cafe Girls… if you happen to use a TCC image, please let us know, we would love to have a look and leave some love!!!

Be sure to check out this weeks sparkle and shine challenge and join in… better yet, join us with a TCC image :)

Happy crafting,

Kendra & Kelly

New Release Blog Hop with 2Sketches4U

2010-08-09T00:13:00.001-04:00

Hey bloggers, it’s time for our New Release Blog Hop! If you’ve just joined us, you’ll want to head over to the start, at The Cafe Store so you’re sure to get in on all the crafty goodness we have to offer. We’re super excited to be sponsoring the 2 sketches 4 u challenge site this week so be sure to head over there and join in for extra chances to win some TCC digi stamps after you hop along with us. They’re also using some TCC images so you’ll really want to head over there and see what they have for inspiration as well.

Now, if you’ve been hopping with us, you came from Georgia’s site and you’re right on track… only us left!

We’ve been working with Shelby Cobra digital image and I must admit, at first, I wasn’t sure what we’d use this gem for, however, upon starting to craft with her, let me tell you what an asset this image is going to be in your arsenal of digis!!! We were thinking of all kinds of ideas for her and her uses… a new driver card, birthday, father’s day, travel 'bon voyage’, teen birthday, (any boy occasion actually (and a few girls I know too) and so much more! Without further ado, here’s our creation (another wonderful colouring job by Kelly too!)…

Shelby Cobra

Using Laura’s fantastic sketch – flipped (please note, we’ve never followed a sketch before, so bare with us, we hope we didn’t flub it too badly)

Well, by now, we hope that you’ve commented on all the DT blogs in order to get a chance at winning the digi they worked with as well as the Grand Prize, which is the entire August New Release Set!!!

Also, we know that August can be a bit tough on those pocket books so we decided to have a sale… we’ve put all of our inventory on at 40% OFF, yes, that’s right, all of it, for a limited time only…

I almost forgot… we also have a freebie for you all, just for joining us! If you’ve seen this at 50/50, we have been moved to October, so we’re going to do you something different for then and thought we’d share this with everyone… (you can download an unwatermarked image at the store, click the image to get there)

Well, that’s it, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the images we’re offering or anything you’d like to see!

Take care, happy crafting,

Kendra & Kelly

Let's hear it for our round card winner

2010-08-08T00:25:00.001-04:00

GAIL!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for drawing the winner late but congratulations!

August New Release Sneak Peeks

2010-08-06T00:00:00.000-04:00

Hey bloggers, it’s that time of the month again when The Character Cafe has its New Release Blog Hop, however, this month we have a special opportunity to host our hop while we’re sponsoring 2 Sketches 4 U next week (they’re new challenge starts on Monday), and so this Friday, our team are only showing you some sneak peeks…

We’re very excited to be using the sketch that Laura has provided, but we can’t show it yet so for now, have a peek at what we’ve got to offer you all next week and come along and hop with us on Monday and play at 2 Sketches with us!!!! You’ll have so many chances to win, you won’t want to miss it.

Kelly has coloured up one of our images and as usual, has done a fantastic job… here’s just a little snippet for you…

Well, that’s it for now, to see the rest, you’ll have to join us Monday! We’ll start the hop at The Cafe Store and finish up here.

A reminder that if you are a member at CDAC, and 50/50 group, we’ve got some freebies for you there. If you’re not, well, why not join us, grab some freebies and chat it up? You can also find us on facebook if your so inclined.

Take care for now,

Happy crafting,

Kendra & Kelly

The Challenge winner for the pocket card

2010-07-30T02:53:00.002-04:00

Thanks to all those that have played along with us these weeks! It is so nice to see all of your creations!

I am happy to announce the winner to this challenge is..............

Lisa C!!!!!!!!!

Feature Friday #27-Round Card!

2010-07-30T00:01:00.002-04:00

Happy Friday morning to you all!!! I hope you are having a wonderful start to the weekend. It’s time for another challenge for you. This week the team has done Round Cards. How fun does this sound?! There are so many possibilities with this challenge. Here is some wonderful inspiration from the Design Team.

LOLA

DEANETTE

MARGIE

ME(SARA)

How cute are these right?! So get busy, bust out the circle punches, nesties, whatever you can use and link up your creation before 10 pm EST on Thursday the 5th. And don’t forget to have fun!

The prize for this week is a $10 Gift Certificate for The Cafe Store and a winner's blog badge!

The winner of last weeks challenge was.....

2010-07-23T01:14:00.002-04:00

picked out by Random.org, thank goodness because I would never been able to pick, but the number came out where our winner was

Jessica Fitzgerald!!!!!

FEATURE FRIDAY CHALLENGE #26 - pocket card

2010-07-23T00:01:00.002-04:00

Hello Everyone and welcome to another TCC FEATURE FRIDAY! Our challenge this week is to create a POCKET CARD. Pocket cards are so fun because there are so many different ways to do them. Each of our DT members has made their own unique creation this week and they are all AMAZING!

We hope you will join this FUN challenge, can't wait to see what you create. Remember to link your card using our Linky Tool no later than 10pm EST next Thurs., July 29. Our prize for this week is Froggin' Fredrik and Summer Chores, a $5 Gift Certificate all from The Cafe Store as well as a winner's blog badge!

While it is not necessary to use a TCC image for your creation, we'd sure LOVE to see one. Visit CHARACTER CAFE STORE to find some FREEBIES:)

Here's some inspiration from the DT:
ANGIE C.

The winner of last challenge is

2010-07-16T00:27:00.002-04:00

I know I am late with this as usual! One of these days I will remember to do this. Yeah right! :)

Anyway, the chosen number was 4 and the winner is.........................................

Rosepetal Creations!!!!!

Sandra, please come down you are the next winner at The Price is Right, I mean The Character Cafe! Hee hee!

Feature Friday Challenge #25 – Rectangle

2010-07-15T23:46:00.001-04:00

Hey bloggers,

Kelly and I are filling in this week… Queenie has had to take a leave from our team for a bit, but hopefully, we’ll see her back here sometime?!

This weeks’ challenge is to create a Rectangular card. Simple enough, however, Kelly and I didn’t do it the way the challenge was set out (I mean, Kelly didn’t… LOL) and well, we didn’t have time to re-do our card, so we’re going to share it anyway!

The actual measurements for your card should be 8.5” x 4" according to the details set our by our fearless DT Coordinator, Fink!!! Well, our card is rectangular???

Here it is…

Gotta love the glass effects look huh?

And, attempting to also do up a rectangular card is Lola, with this creation…

Margie did up this Bon Voyage creation…

And our Ancient one, Sara did up this cutie for us…

Deanette came up with this creation…

So it looks as though we didn’t quite manage to get this right… (well, most of us). I’d love for you to show us up and actually create this rectangle card the way Fink meant it to be :) I have faith that you all will do just fine too!!!

The prize this week is Thief Gerrard and Argh Matey, a $5 Gift Certificate for The Cafe Store as well as a winners blog badge.

Also, if you’re just joining us, you can also find us on Facebook, CDAC, AiFactory and 50/50 group, so if you’re at any of these, look us up!!!

Happy crafting,

Kendra (& Kelly)

Feature Friday #24 - Gatefold Card Challenge!

2010-07-09T00:01:00.012-04:00

Hi everyone,

We had a blast last week with the wonderful Blog Hop!

This week we have a fabulous Gatefold Card challenge!

Upload your creation using one of the Tutorials as your guide and use Mr. Linky below for your chance to win a digistamp from The Cafe Shop!
It's not a requirement to use a TCC image in order to participate.
We would love to see your entry using a TCC image.
You can use one in our FREEBIE section, if you don't have one as of yet.

I've found 3 wonderful tutorials to create beautiful Gatefold Cards!!

Here are the 3 Gatefold Card Tutorials

Tutorial 1

Tutorial 2

Tutorial 3

Enjoy the eyecandies from our fabulous Design Team!

Audrey

The prize this week will be Candle Quinn and the Poppies images as well as a $5 gift certificate for The Cafe Store and of course, a winner's blog badge!

Don't forget to go see what the rest of our Design Team has been up to, this is their off week for Feature Friday. They are to participate in any challenge(s) they want to in Blogville...so give them some looove too!!

Happy Crafting!!

July Blog hop Winners

2010-07-08T23:13:00.011-04:00

Hey there crafters ... hope your having a great Thursday trying to stay cool. ( I guess that depends where you live )

It's that time again ... to announce the winners from our blog hop.

Our Grand Prize goes to... comment # 6 Shannon ~ Desert Designs picked by random.org wins the image "Spott" & "Walk on the Beach" + a $5.00 gift certificate from the store.
Shannon, please contact us so we can send you your prize.

Our DT members will announce their winners on their individual blogs, so you might want to stop by and see if you're a winner of the image they used.

We had a little problem regarding our Blog Hop Challenge. In order to have a chance at being our next month's Guest DT you were to create anything using a TCC image. We were a little short on participants this past week and the ones that did participate must have missed that part about requiring a TCC image (OOOPS!!)... anyway, so we are going to go back through our last DT call applicants and pick someone from there to ask to be our Guest DT.

Now for our custom digi winner picked by random.org ( in order from the first participant to the last) from all the challenge participants for the month of June. We had 25 particpants this month ...up from 18 for May ( hey it's still growth, hee,hee )

Congratulations goes to Irit ~ Irit Shalom's Designs, you are our Custom Digital Stamp Image WINNER. You may give us a design request or picture and we will do our best to create a custom digi stamp for you based on your vision. We will do up to 3 revisions for you in order to get it "right" and in the end, you can name the digi stamp (a variation may be necessary if we already have a stamp with your chosen name)! We will retain the rights to the stamp and offer it for sale in The Cafe Store with all proceeds going to the Charity of your Choice for the next 4 months!
Can't wait to get started Irit! We'll be sending you an e-mail, however, again, if you see this feel free to send us one first if you haven't gotten ours yet :)

Okay bloggers, go check out this weeks' challenge and be sure to come back weekly and you too could win a Custom TCC digi with proceeds to your fav charity or maybe win some Free TCC digis through the challenge!!!

Happy crafting,
Kelly & Kendra

Blog Hop & July New Release

2010-07-02T00:01:00.001-04:00

Whoo hoo!! Before I forget Happy Canada Day Fellow Canadians!!! We've been having a blast here enjoing all our towns festivities...parade, games and fireworks tonight ( actually in about a half an hour ).

It's the blog hop...hope your having fun hopping along and checking out the wonderful creations from our talented design team. If you've just made your way here by chance you'll want to go back to the beginning and start here so you don't miss anything.

You should have just come from Audrey's blog

Here's the Blog hop details in case you missed it all along the way:

Each DT member will do a draw from their comments and give the image they worked with.

The Winner of the Grand prize will receive 2 new release images and $5 gift certificate to The Cafe store picked by random.org

Hoppers can create a project using any TCC image and link to us for a chance to be Guest Designer for August (Guest Designer will receive 2 images to work with for the month).

As usual, we ask that if hoppers like what they see, become a follower or join our webstore for our newsletter. This is not a requirement to win though.

Just a little note that hoppers can now find us at CDAC, Facebook, 50/50 Group as well as AiFactory.

Last but not least we are offering a sale at The Cafe Store that will last through until the - following Friday night (so good until Saturday, July 10th)

BUY any 6 images for $5.00!!!!

Hope you like our new images...& have a great weekend!!

Kelly & Kendra

The winner of the vellum challenge is

2010-07-01T23:39:00.002-04:00

We had many lovely entries that I am glad I don't have to decide!!!! The card that was picked by random.org and I have to say was just wonderful is.........................................

ERIN.......with her card winter wondlerland!!!!!

You have won the $5 gc, 2 images (Hilary--Love her and Tag) and a badge to display on your blog! Awesome job and congratulations!!!!!! Hope you will join us at CDAC, The special 50/50.

Our Guest Designers Vellum project

2010-07-01T17:47:00.003-04:00

Hey all-

Some how our Guest Designer, Mary's card was not included in our post so I thought I would add here for everyone to see!!!! It is so pretty!

Feature Friday Challenge #23

2010-06-24T23:00:00.003-04:00

Hello all and welcome to another exciting challenge with The Character Cafe. This weeks challenge is:

Vellum

So upload your creation featuring vellum using Mr. Linky below for your chance to win a digistamp from the Cafe Shop! You do not have to use a TCC image, but we wouldn't mind seeing them in your entry. If you do not own any TCC images, there are plenty to choose from in the FREEBIE section!

To get you all started, here's a little inspiration from the Design Team:

Sara's card features the adorable Chip

Lola's card shows the lovely Sooki Ooblis

Deanette's card has the adorable Lazy Day

Here's a super cute creation by Audrey using Suzie

So play along this week and show us some VELLUM!! You have until Thursday, July 1 at Midnight to submit your entry.

Don't forget to take a look at the rest of the DT for more TCC goodness!

Angie

Georgia

Fink

Audrey

Rachel

Queenie

If you're uploading your creation to an online gallery or other such site, please be sure to tag it with TCC so we can find it! (TCCFF23)

Your prize this week is Hillary Hippo and Tag , a $5 Gift Certificate from The Cafe Store as well as a blog badge for you to display! Also, if you join us at CDAC, you can enter there for extra chances to win extra prizes!!!

Okay people... get crafting :) *Kendra*

Feature Friday Challenge #22 WINNER!

2010-06-24T00:30:00.000-04:00

Hey bloggers,

Gotta make this quick since it’s late and well, there seemed to be no winners post so I’m not sure what happened there…

On to last weeks’ winner!

Congrats goes to………

#9 – Deb Neerman from “Paper Ink Scissors and Stamps”

with this creation…

Fantastic! Congrats Deb, you have won the Sooki Ooblis and Bang Boom images as well as a $5 Gift Certificate to The Character Cafe store! I will also send you a blog badge for your blog. If you see this and haven’t heard from me, please give us a shout… you never know what could happen.

Anyway, thanks so much to all our players this week! It was great fun to visit all of your blogs, sorry I didn’t get much commenting in this week though…. I’ll be back!

Off to Toronto this weekend for a Taekwondo Tournament sponsored by The Karate Kid movie, Columbia Pictures and other great things… supposed to be someone famous there too! Fun, fun, now if there’s no disaster because of the G20 Summit….. I’ll let you know how it goes *fingers crossed*

Happy crafting!

Kendra

Feature Friday Challenge #22 ~ Paper Piecing

2010-06-18T23:40:00.000-04:00

Howdy all-

I hope you have had a great week! I have been a busy beaver with everything going on trying to help The Character Cafe grow! We are really moving along! We have some exciting news that will be coming up! So make sure you check back with us! We have some new places we are getting established with which will give you more places to find us!

We have some fantastic projects to show you from our outstanding DT! This week's challenge was to do Paper Piecing! Now come on you can do this so come play with us!!!!

So to the projects:

Kerstin Guest Designer

Angie

Georgia

Please check out the other DT gals which are doing challenges out in blogland!

Lola, Queenie, Sara, Audrey

See you soon! Remember to link your card to our challenge using Mr. Linky

Feature Friday Challenge #21 Winner!

2010-06-18T00:27:00.001-04:00

Hey bloggers! It’s time to announce the winner for our Father’s Day/Embossing Challenge!

First off, I have to say that random.org picked #1, which was Barb Chick and boy was her card fantastic, however, I had a problem because it didn’t fit our challenge… it may, but it said “Happy Birthday” and it was just so beautiful, I’m not sure if it was for a guy? So, Barb, if you’re reading, we so sorry, but we read your post and it never mentioned a male or Father’s Day.

Random.org picked #3 next, which is

Irit, who entered with this amazing layout… (sorry Irit, for some reason, we’re missing part of our blog and so I’ll link to you later when we find it! LOL)

You have won The Dock and Father’s Day Hatchling images from The Cafe Store, as well as a $5 Gift Certificate! Contact us for your prize and we’ll get it out as soon as possible. Also, don’t forget, your name will go into our draw at the end of the month, to win a custom TCC digi stamp image!!! All, participants in our challenges are entered for that matter.

Congrats and Fink will be along soon with this weeks’ challenge, sorry we’re a bit late… had a tad mix up here at TCC (keeps life interesting I guess?!).

Take care, happy crafting!

Kendra

Blog Hop Winners! Custom Stamp goes to....

2010-06-11T09:40:00.007-04:00

Hey Bloggers,

Not sure what happened there, but somehow our winners' post didn't make it up before this weeks' Feature Friday post, so if you're looking for TCCFF21 Challenge, scroll down or CLICK HERE.

Now on to the goods... We had a New Release Blog Hop and that means we've got some winners to announce, so let's get at it!

Our GRAND PRIZE goes to...

Gloria Westerman of Gloria West who said

"Just finish the hop....these images are so fun and loving too.....awesome job to the DT....I went to everyones blog except Rachael....she isn't up yet.....thank you for the hop....now off to get a freebie....."

Thanks Gloria, for hopping along with us, you have won 4 New Release Digital Stamp Images as well as a $5 Gift Certificate to The Cafe Store!

We'll be in touch soon, or feel free to send us an e-mail if you see this before you hear from us (you never know when messages get lost in cyberspace!?).

The Guest Designer offer goes too...

Mary Ski of Purrfect Sentiments

We would love for you to join us for the month of July and look forward to hearing from you! We'll be sending you an e-mail too, again feel free to beat us to it. LOL

Also, we have the wonderful task of awarding a CUSTOM Digital Stamp Image to one of our fantastic challenge supporters... YAY! We're so excited to be offering this unique prize.

We had 18 players for the 3 Challenges in May (I know, not a whole lot compared to some challenges, but we appreciate and thank each and every one of you for showing us some support and joining us with your wonderful creations!)...

Through random.org, our winner is (and we counted from the first entry, to the last in order)

#7 - Denise (kc242 Designs by Denise) from our Feature Friday #18!!!!

Congrats Denise, you are our Custom Digital Stamp Image WINNER. You may give us a design request or picture and we will do our best to create a custom digi stamp for you based on your vision. We will do up to 3 revisions for you in order to get it "right" and in the end, you can name the digi stamp (a variation may be necessary if we already have a stamp with your chosen name)! We will retain the rights to the stamp and offer it for sale in The Cafe Store with all proceeds going to the Charity of your Choice for the next 4 months!

Can't wait to get started Denise! We'll be sending you an e-mail, however, again, if you see this feel free to send us one first if you haven't gotten ours yet :)

Okay bloggers, go check out this weeks' challenge and be sure to come back weekly and you too could win a Custom TCC digi with proceeds to your fav charity or maybe win some Free TCC digis through the challenge!!!

Happy crafting,

Kendra & Kelly

Feature Friday Challenge # 21

2010-06-11T00:00:00.005-04:00

Hi, I'm Georgia and your host for this weeks challenge .This whole month we will be featuring technique's so to start the month off we are all about dad and embossing. {any kind of embossing} We want to see those fathers day cards. You know that is what is on all our minds right now.

The design team has come up with some really great stuff;

Georgia

Lola

Deanette

Rachael

Audrey

The prize this challenge is 2 of our new releases this month " The dock" and " Father's Day Hatchlings" + a $5.00 gift certificate for the store. You will also receive a winner's badge for your blog. All of our challenge players will be entered in the draw at the end of the month to have a chance at winning a custom designed & named digital stamp made by Character cafe. (some limitations apply) Be sure and add your project with the link below. Don't forget to go by all the design team members blogs to check out all the great things they have been working on. All images used can be found at the character cafe store so go by and see all the great stuff they have. Have a great week and happy crafting.

New Digital Stamp Release Blog Hop!

2010-06-04T00:45:00.002-04:00

Hey bloggers, we’re back with another blog hop to celebrate our June New Releases… (Do you get tired of blog hops or do you like being able to see all the new digi stamps and inspiration?)

Well, I’m going to have to make this fairly short and sweet since my little guy has decided to pick now to fuss in bed… ack!

This is your last stop on the blog hop and you should have arrived here from Fink’s site. If you didn’t you must’ve either just started with us or lost track of where you were (like I often do in blogville!)… at which point, you should just head over to the START and find your way.

Hopefully, you found LOTS of great stuff that inspired you to make wonderful creations (and tell us when you do!).

Be sure that you commented on all our DT Blogs along the way in order to have a chance to win 4 randomly chosen New Release images as well as a $5 Gift Certificate to The Cafe Store.

Also, be sure to join us by making a creation using a TCC digital stamp image and linking to our Linky Tool in order to have a chance at being Guest Designer for July! If you don’t have any TCC digis that’s a shame, but you’re in luck since we’ve got a bunch in the Freebie section of our Store, as well as a new one available until next Friday only (there are sentiments perfect for Father’s Day in the package at the store too!). Click image to go to Freebie.

Well, I sincerely hope that you don’t mind, but I think I’ll have to be back in the morning with our winner for our Custom Image… couldn’t make the draw until after 10pm so that all players could be included and well, my little guy is not very cooperative at the moment. Please forgive me!!! Actually, it will be better that way I think so that we can explain a bit about what we’ll do for the winner… hmmm, things have a way of working out like they’re supposed to, don’t they (sometimes anyway!).

Oh, and don’t forget about the discount code, good for 25% off your entire order (good until next Friday, June 11th at midnight – well, Saturday June 12 technically!). The code is "Summer" (case sensitive) - yeah, I know, it's not summer yet, but it sure was feeling like it lately!

Happy hopping!

Kendra :)

And our winner is.......

2010-06-03T23:23:00.002-04:00

What a great job all the ladies did with the challenge! I am so happy to see more people trying the challenges but help us get more!!! Tell your friends!!!!!!

I would like to take the time to say Congratulations to............

TINA

Kendra or Kelly will get with you soon! Congratulations again!

TCC Feature Friday #20 ~ Rhinestones, Ribbon and Red

2010-05-28T13:13:00.008-04:00

Hello Everyone and Welcome The Character Cafe Feature Fridays!

This weeks challenge is to use Rhinestones, Ribbon and Red! Wow that's a lot of R's LOL!!

Our fabulous DT has whipped up some amazing cards/projects to inspire you...

Angie C.

Be sure to check out the rest of the design team's wonderful work too...

Fink
Angie E.
Rachael “Queen La Rubba”
Lola
Margie
Sara

Deanne

When you are uploading your card into SCS, PCP or other stamping community, please be sure to use keywords TCCFF20 for this challenge . Can't wait to see your creations...

The prize this week will be two new release images "Tucker" & "Shadow" + a 20% off discount coupon to be used at The Cafe Store and a winner's blog badge. Thank you for your understanding this week has been a wee bit off dealing with illnesses, Nursing sick Aunts, hubby back problems and now Kendra suspects her little guy Brady is coming down with her strep throat she is getting over. Their off to the doctor's as I write. So we are sorry for the unforseen issues with this post and we appreciate your understanding.

We hope you all have a great (and healthy) weekend...Enjoy!!

Kelly & Kendra

Winner of TCCFF#19 ~ A Recipe Challenge

2010-05-28T00:22:00.006-04:00

Hope everyone's having a great week with great weather. We are having Fabulous weather here in Southwestern Ontario!! Time to announce our winner from this week's challenge TCCFF#19~ a Recipe Challenge: A Ribbon or Bow, a Tag & 2 buttons.

Picked by random.org...Congratulation goes to #1 ~ Tina. Tina wins 2 latest release images "Suzie" & "The mums". We will be sending that to you real soon along with a 20% off coupon to use at The Cafe Store and a Winner's Blog Badge. Here is Tina's winning card. Tina has amazing talent, check out her colouring!!

Remember to come and see what Fink has in store for our Feature Friday Challenge #20. Audrey is our host this week so come and join in for your chance to win a custom designed and named digital stamp at the end of the month.

Chat with you later

Kelly & Kendra

Tek Tuesday ~ Embossing on Fabric!!

2010-05-26T22:14:00.007-04:00

Hey there crafters...ughh what happened to Tuesday?? See what happens after a long weekend up here in igloo country ...Yes, we celebrated Victoria Day weekend (aka. May 2-4) what a hoot!! Fireworks, barbecues with good friends, the kiddies playing and having so much fun. So for this week's Tek Wednesday I found this very informative Tutorial here at Shelley's (aka. Scrappergirl). I never really thought about embossing on fabric to use with card making, I really have trouble thinking outside the box at times... hee, hee. I stumbled upon Shelley's blog looking for info on Embossing techniques. Her stuff is fantastic!! Check out her amazing Photography skills too...Shelley you rock!!

Kendra and I didn't didn't get much crafting in this past week...too much going on outside, kids soccer in full swing, barbecueing & relaxing with the neighbours, yard work, gardening... oh and also nursing husbands with a pinched nerve. Yes, Joe pinched a nerve in his back a week ago and we had to call an ambulance...it was pretty scary. He's coming along though, back to work today but taking it slow. So I've been playing nurse too Fink!! I did have to make a card this week for Joe's neice's confirmation...I realized other than our Angels we don't really have any religious images. So I drew an ornate cross that will be released next month at the Cafe store... here's our (My) card. Kendra helped lots...Thanks Kendra. I forgot, Kendra and I made coffee filter flowers after she posted last weeks Tek Tuesday...oh no that was Tek Wednesday too...hee, hee.

I'm really happy with the cross I drew very vintage looking. I used Kendra's Copics to colour the pearl drop. Here's a close up of the sentiment which is included with the cross and various other sentiments and occasions phrases.

There's one of the roses I made, I like how it turned out, I had a tough time with scrunching and poofing them as Kendra calls it. We both made about 7 or 8 each so watch for them on our cards.

Here's one more of the card laying flat. I love these tag nesties that my friendly neighbourhood craft store has. Kendra cut out a duplicate of this tag in box card to reinforce it because it hangs off the edge when the card is open. I inked the edges of it in Brown. The cross also with inked edges and raised up on pop dots. Because the two main elemnets are so ornate I used very little embelllies. The lace ribbon is from Dollarama.

While we were making that Kendra was also playing with her new "buckles" Nesties, I think that's what their called... She'll be here soon with pics. Kendra was trying her new embossing powders doing a few layers on box card, what a huge transformation. This is what ispired my Tek Wednesday Tutorial.

Wow this weeks flying by...see you tomorrow to announce this week's Feature Friday Winner!!...

Nurse Kelly & Kendra

TCC Feature Friday Challenge #19

2010-05-21T00:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to another Feature Friday Challenge with the TCC Design Team! This week we’re having a RECIPE challenge… you are asked to use

Ribbon or Bow

Tag

2 Buttons

Fink, was to host this week, however, she’s playing nurse so Kelly and I are stepping in!

Here are our fabulous DT inspirational creations for you!

Lola, using Precious Emmy from The Cafe Store… Angie E with a card using Pond Frogs (a new release this month at The Character Cafe store)

Sara who used Suzie, also from this months’ new releases at The Cafe.

Rachael “Queen la Rubba” used Shadow from this months new releases.

We’re still waiting on Taylor (Fink’s daughter, standing in for her), and Margie’s so if you’re still needing some inspiration be sure to check back soon!

Okay, so the prize this week will be Suzie and Mums images from The Cafe Store, a Discount Coupon for 20% off your entire order as well as a Winner’s Badge for your blog.

We look forward to seeing all your creations and since we had no problems, or complaints about our Linky Tool, we’ll stick with it… I really like being able to have the thumbnail views and hope you do too.

Happy crafting,

Kendra (& Kelly)

Winner of TCCFF #18 - Recycle & Reuse

2010-05-20T22:24:00.005-04:00

Hey there crafters...it's Thursday again and time to announce our winner of this past weeek's Feature Friday Challenge # 18. The challenge was pretty easy, all you had to have in your project was something that you had recycled and re-used.

Congratulations goes to our player # 4 ~ Lovely Linda picked by random.org. Here is Linda's winning scrapbook page layout...

How cute is that, every mom has a moment just like this etched in their mind for each of their kids. ( hee,hee)

Ooops...Kendra and I forgot to add the prize to last weeks blog post.

Linda you have won "pond frogs" & "This little pig" images + a one time use 20% discount coupon for the Cafe Store. Also you will receive a winner's blog badge. We will be sending you your prize soon.

Remember crafters, the more challenge entries you get in for the month...the more chances you'll have to win your very own custom designed & named digi stamp from the Cafe. So get crafty!!

Kendra and I followed our Tek Tuesday Tutorial for coffee filter flowers, they turned out pretty neat!! We'll be back on Tuesday to show you what we made with the beautiful flowers.

Kelly & Kendra

Tek Tuesday… a little late

2010-05-18T23:19:00.001-04:00

Hey bloggers, hope you all are well (unlike me!)… I have a nasty cold with a sinus headache and well, boo hoo, I’m sick!

Having said that, Kelly and I really wanted to share with you a tutorial on how those little coffee filter flowers were made. Those of you that were interested, probably already found a tutorial out there somewhere, but just in case you’re like me and you need it put right in front of you…. Here you go!

I used a Marvy Punch for mine, but I think you could probably use just about anything that strikes your fancy. I also like that she spritzes (is that a word or just spelled awfully wrong? LOL) her coffee filters with misters full of a dropper of re-inker and the rest water… looks very vibrant! Anyway, thanks to Sherry Cheever for her fab tutorial.

If you would like to have custom flowers but like the look of paper flowers that you purchase… check out the tutorial on Paper Craft Planet. I was just there and wow, these babies are CUTE and BEAUTIFUL! It seems pretty easy too. (The tutorial is by Jacquie Heffner, from afterhoursstamper.com)

Well, the crafting around here has come to a slow roll. My girls had a tae kwon do tournament this weekend which we prepared for all last week (or so it seemed!). Glad to say that my 5 year old got a 1st in sparring and a 4th in patterns and my 7 year old got a 3rd in sparring and a 2nd in patterns… I’m so proud of them. Troupers… my 7 year old was on the mat for around 3 1/2 hours… yes, you read that right… poor thing had full sparring gear on for about 2 hours since they had trouble with the computer at her mat! She had that kind of experience last tournament too… one of these days, she’ll have smooth sailing LOL

So, the only creation I have to share with you is of a kind of re-make of Kelly’s. The last time she used our Monster Gift image we didn’t get to take pics so we were sure to get them this time. It’s not quite the same as before, but it’s pretty darned close and still great if you ask me! We actually used fish tank gravel for the embellies… thought ourselves pretty creative with that one! Here it is…

and a close up (ain’t he cute?!) Monster Gift is available at The Character Cafe Store if you love him (like I do!).

Anyway, my pillow is screaming my name so I’d better run.

Happy crafting!

Kendra (&Kelly)

TCC Feature Friday #18 ~ Recycle and Reuse

2010-05-14T00:01:00.002-04:00

Hello Everyone and Welcome Back to The Character Cafe Feature Fridays!

Angie here and I am super excited to be your Host for the First Feature Friday challenge with our new Design Team!! This weeks challenge is Recyle and Reuse ~ Please use an item from your home to recycle and re-use on your project!!

My fabulous DT sisters and I have whipped up some great cards/projects to inspire you...

Me (Angie C.)
Recycled Peace Charm from DD's Bracelet

Georgia
Recycled empty drink mix container

Rachel
Recycled ribbon from marshmallow lollipop

Deanette

Recycled plastic cover of sticky tape package

Audrey
Recycled envie & calendar insert

Deanne
Recycled index card, tissue paper and re-coloured brads

Linda ~ Guest DT
Card made almost entirely from recycled items

Be sure to check out the rest of the design team's wonderful work too...

Fink
Angie E.
Rachael “Queen La Rubba”
Lola
Margie
Sara

When you are uploading your card into SCS, PCP or other stamping community, please be sure to use keywords TCCFF18 for this challenge . Can't wait to see your creations...

Also, just a reminder that the Discount Code offered for 30% off your entire TCC order during our blog hop is valid until tonight at midnight!

We're trying out a new Linky this week, hope it works! Let us know if you don't like it...

Blog Hop Winner & June Guest Designer

2010-05-13T22:11:00.005-04:00

Hey crafters...happy thursday!!

Time to announce our winner of the grand prize and the crafter that will have an opportunity to Guest Design with us for the month of June.

Drum roll please...picked by random.org.

Congratulations goes to...Lawren ~ AHobby~holic, you have won a $5.00 gift certificate to the cafe store + 4 images : "Shadow", "Pond Frogs", "This little piggy" & "Suzie". Enjoy your images Lawren!! Lawren we will be sending you your prize over the weekend.

Now for the lucky one chosen to have the opportunity to Guest Design with us for the month of June...The lucky one picked by random.org is...Kerstin, Congratulations Kerstin you have the opportunity to Guest Design with us for the month of June. We will be contacting you soon to see if you are interested to GD with us. Here is the card Kerstin made using our freebie Katt.

Come back and see what Angie Cortes has in store for this weeks Feature Friday Challenge #18, your gonna love it. Don't forget the more times you enter our challenges the more chances you'll have to win a Custom designed and named Digi stamp at the end of the month...we'll be announcing the winner at the June Blog Hop.

See ya then...
Kelly & Kendra

Tek Tuesday ~ Etched Window Tutorial

2010-05-08T13:06:00.043-04:00

Hey there crafters...Hope everyone had a great Mother's day on Sunday. Before I show you the tutorial I picked for this week I have to show you what Kendra and I worked on this weekend, Kendra and I got a bit crafty making some Mother's day cards together and few others.

Here is Kendra's card that she made for her mom... Kendra used the "mums" image available at the Cafe Store .

Kendra did a fabulous job colouring them with Copics first then prismacolours and OMS she stamped MOM with versa magic chalk ink then clear embossed it. I just love the ribbon she found in her stash and the rest of her embellishments, oh almost forgot Kendra sewed and it looks so good. I like the vintage look the card has... her mom will love it I'm sure.

Here is a card Kendra made for a bridal shower she has coming up...

It turned out really well, it`s funny how some cards just aren`t working out at the beginning then they end up being really great cards. Kendra used "Piper n' Prince" from the Cafe Store, it turned out so good. She coloured her with Prismas & OMS...Kendra is really rockin' the prismas lately!! Check out Kendra's cool coffee filter flowers, she learned how to make at our neighbourhood craft store (for real not at Kendra's craft room across the street ) ...I think this just might be an idea for a tutorial Kendra...hint hint. She also added gold 3D glitter accents on the petals. I love the papers she chose they compliment each other so well. Check out her detail with the cut out stamped leaves.

Here's a close up of the flowers, I can't wait to try them. The sentiment Kendra did is computer generated, available soon at the cafe.

Kendra really outdid her self this weekend, here's one more she created.

Kendra tried a cool but simple technique, she clear embossed on patterned paper & also stamped in white then clear embossed to get this unique flowered dress, then she cut them out. This card turned out soooo cute, I wish she had done it sooner. I could have used this for when my twin neices were born ... add an "s" to girl and taken out the word "a"... I love that new corner flower punch "my friendly neighbourhood craft store" just got in stock...can't wait to try it.

Now for my Mother's Day cards...

This one is for my mom...I justy love how it turned out. I used the "Mums" image from the Cafe store. The beautiful ribbon is available at "my friendly neighbourhood craft store" not sure what kind?? I colored the "Mums" with water color pencils. Sentiment is computer generated with the edges inked with 2 different greens, 1 chalk, 1 just pigment ink, a few pearls and DP from my stash.

This one is for my MIL...it's kind of my first Monochromatic & CAS all in one.

It's hard to tell from these pics...but the card stock is kind of an eggplent/dark plum colour. I coloured my Lillies available at the Cafe Store with copics and water colour pencils...I'm really happy how it turned out, Joe's mom will love it! I used 2 blue flowers and inked them with purple chalk ink with a pearl brad in the center and two more pearl drops in the bottom corner. The sentiment is inked in 2 colours of chalk ink. Then I used my embossing ink pen on the edge and used my rainbow glitter embossing powder, had to go over it a few times, it turned out so good.

Now onto the Tek Tuesday technique for this week...

I stumbled upon this tutorial for an Etched glass window from one of our fabulous follower's blogs ...

Our Cafe follower Jennifer Juniper has a funky blog with lots of cool stuff on it, you have to check it out. Here's the link for the Etched glass Tutorial that Jennifer had featured found at the blog called At second Street ... These two blogs are just awesome you have to go check them out. This technique is not paper crafting, but it is done using a DP as a stencil. This etched window idea would make a great gift idea, my Mom would have loved this for Mother's day...maybe next year.

Well that's it today for Tek Tuesday... remember our 30% discount code is still available for our blog hop, good until Friday at midnight (technically Saturday).

Chat with you later!

Kelly (& Kendra)

From Deannette please go to Queenie

2010-05-07T00:37:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately due to family issues, Deanne will not be able to participate in our hop! I hope that everything gets better for her soon.

So please go to Rach from Angie E.

Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience!

May New Release & New DT

2010-05-07T00:01:00.006-04:00

Hey all you hoppers... You should have just come from Angie C, unless you've just stumbled on to our blog in that case you'll need to go here to start at the beginning of the hop. Hope you enjoy the hop with our very talented new team!!

To celebrate our new DT members and returning gals, we are offering a 30% discount at the Cafe Store, good until Friday May 14 at midnight. The code for the discount is "newDT30" ( Case sensitive ).

We also have a freebie for you...who hoo!! Meet "Katt" (Kitt's partner in crime LOL) Click image to go to download link... or go to 4-shared

Now for contest details:

Did you remember to comment on all the DT blogs in order to be entered in the draw for our prize of 4 new release images + a $5.00 gift certificate for the Cafe store?

Each DT member will be also picking a winner using random.org to win the image that they have used. Please note we will substitute 1 previously released image if you win the grand prize + a DT member image.

For the Freebie Challenge, all you have to do to enter is make anything with our freebie or any other TCC image and come back and post it with Mr. Linky. One lucky participant will be asked to be Guest Designer for the month of June... how cool is that??!!

Kendra and I are going to try something new with our weekly challenge players... At the end of the month we will take all Feature Friday challenge entries and pick one lucky winner who will win one custom designed & named digi stamp. We will announce the winner at our June new release blog hop. Please note that The Character Cafe will retain the rights for the image and may need to suggest a variation of the name you choose if we already have an image with that name.

Thanks for joining us & see you on Tuesday... I'll be hosting this weeks Tek Tuesday.

Kelly (& Kendra)

Tek Tuesday a bit different…

2010-05-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

Hey bloggers! Hope you’ve been well lately. Kelly and I have kind of had a bit of a hiatus as you may have noticed… I must admit, it was a much needed break for us and we feel a lot better and refreshed now!

We have some new Design Team Members that we can’t wait to introduce you to this Friday when we have our New Release Blog Hop (you’ll have to be sure to join us!).

Kelly and I have decided to do Tek Tuesday ourselves since we need to get back into the crafty side of things and well, we like hanging out with you once in a while! Hopefully, this will motivate us to “get r done”!

This is a card I made using a Technique Tuesday stamp & a couple stamps from a set I got but can’t remember who by.

I really like the way the little angel looks.

This card was made with an Inkadinkado set, some Sakura stardust pens, Copics, nesties, flowers, brads, rhinestones. Not sure if this paper is BoBunny?

Here’s the inside too.

This is a card Kelly and I made for a shower she was going to. I didn’t like it in the beginning, but it turned out pretty good! Not sure who made these flower stamps, but I love em… stampendous made the little blue circle stamp and Hampton did the sentiment… used some rhinestones for the dots, hemp to add some texture and ribbon/paper from my stash.

Another card, this one using a cuttlebug embossing folder, Offray ribbon, brad from my stash, new fancy tag spellbinder die, Basic Grey paper and Studio G Sentiment.

Here’s the inside too… I actually got a Martha Stewart punch set this weekend too (along with those super cute Spellbinder tag dies!)

I just love this card… think it turned out great!

Unfortunately, my sons’ girlfriends grandmother passed away this weekend and so I made this for him to give to her. I also advised him that a flower would be a very nice gesture (he’s 17) and he was so sweet that he got her a violet plant! Not really what I meant, but very sweet. Simple card, but beautiful look I think… very CAS.

So Kelly’s mother had a birthday and Kelly made her this beautiful card using the Lilies from The Cafe Store printed out 3 times in different sizes. I love the inking on the vellum behind the main image… very soft and chic. It’s amazing how inking can take something to the next level!

And last, but not least is this little cutie Kelly made for a niece of hers who had a birthday (10th). I LOVE this card… the colours are perfect which must’ve been hard for Kelly since she has an aversion to pink (good thing she’s got boys!) She coloured a Ketto with her watercolour pencils, punched and inked some flowers (see, inking again… LOVE IT!) and that pink flower is from Technique Tuesday again… I adore it.

So now that we’ve bombarded you with our cards… LOL… we’ll get on with a Tutorial that I thought was fabulous and something very useable…

Slider Card by Maria Bell… (hope you don’t mind me sharing!)

I think this is so neat and would make a great gift for anyone really! I’ve yet to try it, but I really do want to and maybe next week I’ll have one for you… I think it might actually make a great Mother’s Day gift from the kids to Grandma!!!

Maria has some fabulous tutorials as well as lots of free cut files for you to create amazing cards, boxes and other things… you definitely want to check out her site… I LOVE it there.

Well, that’s it for this Tek Tuesday… hope you found something useful that gets your mojo going and if you have any questions, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer you!

Take care… see you Friday for the New Release Hop with our new DT!!!

Happy crafting,

Kendra (&Kelly)

Design Team Announcement!!!!

2010-04-20T22:52:00.001-04:00

Hey bloggers, we’re here with our DT pics…. ummmm, we neglected to send them the acceptance e-mail as of yet (just realized this!), however, we’ll announce it here, hope they accept and if they don’t well, I guess we’ll be back for an update in a few days!

The drum roll please………

Ladies, we will e-mail you a more formal acceptance with the invites to the group and forum tomorrow (been a LONG day)

Returning team members (hey, I guess you are now Senior too… Sara, you’re ancient! LOL)

So, we’ve heard from both our winners of our Anniversary candy and we’ll be heading to the Post Office tomorrow to get your goodies out to you :)

Bye for now, gotta pick up the teenager… late for a very important date!!!! he he he

Happy crafting,

Kendra & Kelly

Winner of TCC Anniversary Candy

2010-04-18T18:47:00.011-04:00

Hey there crafters, it's time to announce the winner of our Anniversary Candy...

Congratulations goes to...#21 Vicki Mazetti, picked by random.org.

...along with the Crafting Goodies, you will also receive a $15.00 dollar gift certificate to The Character Cafe Store.

Since we had a fair number of entrants, we decided to pick a second place winner using random.org.

Our second place winner will receive 12 TCC images already printed, heat set and ready to colour.

Congratulations goes to... #34 Audrey, picked by random.org.

On another note, we are still going through our applicants for our new DT members and will be back Tuesday morning to announce them. Sorry for the delay!

See you on Tuesday!!

Kelly & Kendra

P.S. Vicki & Audrey don't forget to e-mail us with your addresses so we can get your goodies out to you :)

Happy Anniversary to TCC & Winner of TCCFF#17

2010-04-01T09:38:00.011-04:00

Yay...it's our 1 year Anniversary for The Character Cafe and to celebrate we are offering some CANDY!!!

From today until April 15 come add your name to Mr. Linky for a chance to win.

Our candy will be a $15.00 gift certificate for The Cafe store and we also have a small bag of miscellaneous crafty goodies to go with it. We hope you'll join in on the fun for a chance to win!! We will announce our winner of the Anniversary candy after the 15th of April, when we also announce our new DT!!

And now to announce last week's Feature Friday winner - Anything but a card challenge. We had so many beautiful & creative entries in this challenge, we had fun checking out everyone's creations, so thanks to all that participated.

Congratulations goes to... #15,
Lisa C from Stamped Art by Lisa with these cuties and more... (picked by random.org, but not sure how to post the pic of it here - or get the pic at all!)

You have won Jocelyn Fairy and Hoppy Frog images as well as a $5.00 gift certificate from The Cafe Store.
You also will get a winner's blog badge and your blog will be featured in the winner's section of our store when we figure out what happened to it...aughhh!!

We are taking a break from our challenges for a few weeks while we get organized going through all the applicants for our next DT term. Hopefully Kendra and I will get a chance in between to get some crafting done and we'll be blogging to show you. In the meantime, it would be great if you see a TCC image around blogville and/or have created something yourself, give us a shout and we'll post it on the blog for all to see!!! Let's try something new?

We wish everyone a Happy Easter spending time with family & friends!! Don't forget, our $1 digi sale is ending soon, so if you want something, better get going to the Cafe while they're a steal!

Also, don't forget to check out our DT call, it's posted on SCS, PCP, SNR and our website home page for your convenience... why not come have some fun with us?!

Chat with you soon
Kelly "The imaginary illustrator" ;)

Tutorial Tuesday - Little Easter Gift Pocket,

2010-03-30T03:17:00.004-04:00

Wow, where does time go, I can't believe its time for another Tuesday Tutorial,

This weeks tutorial is a little pocket for some Easter treats,

The materials you need for this are a square of paper, my square was 6"

(this can be any size all depends on how big you want your pocket)

and decorations to finish it of with, I chose Buddy again,

I just love Buddy.

Fold your square in half diagonally like the photo below,

Then take one of the sides and fold to reach the other side,

I did from right to left first, like in the photo below,

I used a bone folder to get the folds nice and crisp,

then take the other point and bring across the one you have just folded,

this time was from left to right.

So it looks like the photo below,

and turn the front top down,

you will have this little shaped pocket that you can see in the picture below,

only one more step to go,

Decorate and fill with what you would like,

I used the Buddy Image, as I am stuck on cute dogs at the moment,

Hope you enjoyed this quick and easy tutorial,

This could even be used for our current Challenge running at the moment.

Thank You for stopping by, hope to see your Easter Pockets.

Hugs

Lilacanglia

Feature Friday Challenge #17 Anything But A Card

2010-03-26T00:00:00.005-04:00

Todays Friday Feature Challenge has been set by me (Angie aka Lilacanglia) this week,

I chose to give everyone a nice simple week, by opting for ANYTHING BUT A CARD,

we all would love to see your wonderful creations,

Our PRIZE this week is

Fairy Jocelyn and Hoppy Frog images as well as a $5.00 Gift Certificate for The Cafe Store, a Winner's Blog Badge, and your blog featured in the Winner's Section of the Store.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here are our DT's lovely inspiration for you,

Lola's Basket

Billie's Gift Bag

Deanne's Gift Box - altered Q-tip box

Angie's Clipboard,

Diane's Bookmark

Rachel's Treat Bag

Look forward to popping round all the entrants blogs and leaving comments,

and to seeing what lovely idea's you all come up with.

While your surfing some blogs, why not check out our other DT Girls who are participating in other challenges in blogville...

Piali, Heather, Sara, Angie C and Fink

Hugs

Angie aka lilacanglia

x X x

Hey bloggers, it's Kendra here... Just wanted to pop in and remind you all that this is the LAST Feature Friday with our DT Members for this term!!!! How about we show them lots of love and try to get a record number entries for the challenge???

In exchange for the efforts we're asking of you, we're going to go ahead and have a STOREWIDE SALE.... everything for $1... yes, it's true $1, (for a limited time only) so head on over there, grab your favs and get crafty with us!!!!

Can't wait to see your creations :)

... and a sad so long to Billie, Heather, Piali and Diane, we're sorry to see you leave, but we'll stay in touch and hope to have you back for some Guest Designing ;)

Winner of TCCFF #16 - A Color Challenge

2010-03-25T21:38:00.007-04:00

Hey it's Thuuurrrsssday!! Time to announce the winner from this past week's FF #16 - a colour challenge.

The prize this week is the adorable Buddy digi image and the beautiful Piper n' Prince digi image + a $5.00 Gift Certificate for The Character Cafe Store. Included with this prize the winner will receive a winner's blog badge and your blog will be featured in the winner's section of our store (if we can find the right hand side of our website - any suggestions???!!! aughh).

Congratulations to Yuliya, we will be sending you your prize soon.

Here is her winning card

Please don't hesitate to e-mail us if you haven't received it by next week as sometimes our e-mail goes to spam or gets lost in cyberspace...Lol :>

One last thing I'd like to mention we are having a sale starting tomorrow, in honour of some team members that are leaving. Everything is on sale at the store for $1.00, yes, you read that right $1.00 for any digital image. So, hurry in to the store, it's only on sale for a limited time.

Come on by tomorrow and see what our crafty ladies have in store for our challenge. Angie E. is our host, I can't tell you what the challenge is that wouldn't be fair, but I can tell you it's not a card...hee,hee.
Chat with you later.

Kelly "The imaginary illustrator" ;)

Tek Tuesday and cards to show

2010-03-24T13:40:00.015-04:00

Hey there crafty ladies (guys too, you know who you are),

Hope everyone's having a great week and weather to match!! It's a beautiful sunny day here in Delaware, Ontario...Canada (the sun is finally melting our igloos, hee,hee)

Seriously now, first off I would like to remind everyone about our DT call we announced last week. We've posted it on SCS, (should be up there soon), SNR and PCP. Or, you can always go to our Store or here.

Now for our Technique this week Kendra stumbled upon this neat die cut technique on how to incorporate your cricut (or any other similar cutting machine) with using digis.

Here's the link for printable diecuts. There's so much you could do with this, I think I need to try this at my friendly neighbourhood craft store soon (aka. Kendra's).

I also have some cards I've done recently to show you. I've been using OMS lately instead of water with my watercolour pencils... I'm liking it, especially how it doesn't wrinkle the cardstock.

Here's some examples of coloured digi images I did last week.

Here's a couple of my cards.

If you like what you see, you can find all these images and tons more at The Cafe Store.

Hope you continue to have a great week, we'll see you on Thursday to announce our FF Challenge winner from this week, and then Friday for our last Challenge with this terms' DT Members. Hope to "see" you then!

Kelly "The imaginary illustrator" ;)

Feature Friday Challenge #16 – Colour

2010-03-19T00:00:00.003-04:00

Hey bloggers,

It’s a beautiful week here in Southwestern Ontario and March Break (our Spring Break) so the kids have been having a blast getting rid of all that cabin fever…. YAY!

This week were bringing you a colour challenge…

and because I’m colour challenged (LOL), you can use whatever shades your cupboards contain, as long as their in the PURPLE, BLUE and YELLOW family (we’ll allow you a gimmie colour too, just because)

Without further ado and since I do have company from Alberta visiting… I’ll share my inspiration with you. I’m not really sure how true to life these colours are, but you’ll get the idea.

Thanks to Kelly for such amazing colouring yet again too!

Here's Piali’s creation…

Heather’s

Sara

Angie

and Fink’s (Fink ran into some trouble, keep an eye out for her post at some point this weekend hopefully!)

Kelly used a combination of Copics and watercolour pencils with OMS, and I used nesties and paper and embellies from my stash.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the DT girls hitting challenges around blogville…

Diane, Rachel, Deanne and Lola (Billie can’t participate this week due to other obligations)

So now for what you’ll win…

We’ll draw 1 winner to receive Buddy and Piper n Prince images as well as a $5.00 Gift Certificate to The Cafe Store, a winner’s blog badge and your blog featured in the Winner’s Section of our store (still working on those updates though!).

Off you go now, get crafty and we’ll see you soon!

Kendra

FF Challenge # 15 - Winner & DT Call Announcement

2010-03-18T21:55:00.020-04:00

Hey there fellow crafters, it's Thursday and it's time to pick a winner using random.org. The challenge was a sketch hosted by our very talented Deanne, hope you had a chance to check out her creation and the rest of our talented DT's this past week.

On to our winner...Congratulations to Deanette W. Deanette had two chances to win this week as she used the TCC image "Monster gift" in her card.

Deanette we will be sending you your prize soon.

Deanette wins Riley the Leprachaun and the AB Bundle images plus she gets a $5.00 gift certificate to shop at The Character Cafe Store...Yay!! Deanette will also recieve a winner's blog badge and her blog will be featured in our winners section of the store.

Here is her winning project.

Now for our news... It's that time again. We will be accepting applications for our next DT term. Term starting May 1st - September 31st.

This past six month term seemed to fly, we had so much fun together crafting and chit chatting on our forum. Most of our team is staying on for another term, we are sad to lose 4 talented ladies, who's plates are just too full to stay on. We wish them nothing but the best in their current & future crafting endeavours.

So heres the details for the DT call, (we're looking for a 5 month term, starting May)

What's expected:

1 weekly posting (includes our blog hop)
Ability to post on Fridays
Help us be more active in the crafting/stamping community through galleries/forums like SCS, SNR, PCP etc.
Link all DT members on your blog
Link our store and our blog on your blog with our blog/store badges

What you will receive:

All digi stamps released during your term with TCC
A link to your blog on our blog and website
A link to your blog on each DT's blog
40% discount on any images from the store during your DT term

What you need to apply:

Submit a new project using any TCC image
A brief description about yourself
Tell us about any previous DT work
Include current teams and description of your responsibilities
Any work you've had published
Your blog address
Any galleries/forums you post to regularly

If your interested in this opportunity, please e-mail all your info and project to:
Charactercafe@gmail.com by no later than April 15th. Please note we will notifying only accepted applicants and if we do not hear back from you within 72 hrs with a yes, we will have to select another applicant.

If you are not sure you can fufill these DT duties but would like to be a guest designer with us, just e-mail us and let us know.

That's about it for tonight... pop back tomorrow for Feature Friday Challenge #16. Kendra and I will be hosting... it's a colour challenge.

Kelly "The imaginary illustrator" ;)

Easel Card Tutorial .........

2010-03-18T04:41:00.005-04:00

Good Morning to all,

I start with an apology for being late with the tutorial this week,

but due to me being ill, it got delayed,

Today's tutorial is a nice easy one, how to make a easel card,

as from blog hopping I noticed a lot of people are still wary of doing these great cards,

they are nice and easy, and I hope this will help show the way.

The materials you need are a card blank of whatever shape and size you wish,

then another piece of card the same size and shape of the blank you start with.

I used a 6" x 4" card blank,

a piece of card 6" x 4"

Digi Image Buddy from the Character Cafe.

Backing paper and sentiments from my stash.

Take the front of the card blank and fold this into half and crease,

as above photo shows.

Then use double sided tape put it on the opening edge like and next to the crease like the photo below, as this is where the spare piece of card sticks to, I normally stick it after decorating it.

After decorating your spare piece of card, how you wish,

and also adding backing paper to the lower half of the card blank,

stick the decorated piece to the folded flap like the photo below.

The photo below shows the two sentiments I am using on the lower part of the easel card,

you need to raise these so I used 1mm foam pads,

Once you have stuck them the easel card will stay up as these stop it from falling flat,

as you can see in the photo below.

I watercoloured Buddy, who you can get from the Character Cafe Shop,

and used purple mirri board to back him after distressing around him with chalks.

I sure hope this has helped you all,

it is easy to do and would love to see some in our feature friday challenge this week,

Hugs

Lilacanglia

x X x

Feature Friday Challenge #15 - A Sketch!

2010-03-12T05:52:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone!!!

Deanne here this week with a Feature Friday! Today I have a very simple sketch for you to try!!!

What'd I tell ya? Easy enough isn't it!!! We'd love for you to try it!

Here are some cards for you from the design team to inspire you!

Lola

Billie

Rachel

Diane

...and here's my card.

Check out the other design team members blog too for more Character Cafe fun stuff!

Okay, so the prize this week is Leprachaun Riley & AB Bundle images and a $5.00 Gift Certificate for The Cafe Store, a blog badge and your blog featured in our winner's section of the store (I so hope to get that updated a bit soon, sorry!).

So, if you use a TCC image, we'll give you 2 entries in the draw (in random org, we will adjust the number to reflect the additions and your second entry will be the next number after all entries in Mr. Linky). Also, as usual, if you use a Tek Tuesday project idea, be sure to let us know and we'll send you 2 additional images from The Store to play with!!!

Okay, happy crafting!

March Blog Hop Winners!!

2010-03-11T21:21:00.011-05:00

Hey there crafters.. .it's Thursday, and time to announce our winners from this months' blog hop.

First off our DT members will be drawing one lucky crafter from their comments tonight to win the image they worked with... how awesome is that?? They will be posting their winners and someone will be e-mailing the lucky winners soon.

For our challenge this hop all you had to do was use any TCC image and make something with it...easy peasy!! The winner of the challenge picked by random.org is... Linda B., Congratulations Linda, we will be sending you your prize of a $10.00 Gift Certificate for the Cafe Store soon. Also, for winning, you have the option of Guest Designing with us for March 19th Feature Friday Challenge and again on March 26th!! Yay!!

For Our Grand Prize, you had to comment on the Blog, and this lucky crafter picked by random.org wins the entire March release...whoo, hoo!!
The Winner is... Deesdesigns! Congratulations Dee, we'll be e-mailing your prize to you soon. You also will have the option of joining us as Guest Designer on March 19th and 26th!!!
As usual, if you haven't heard from us, feel free to send us an e-mail in case ours goes missing in cyberspace or we can't find yours (although I think I have them both somewhere?!).

Now, just a reminder that our next challenge is all ready to go and Deanne has a great sketch for you all and our DT ladies have really rocked the inspiration this week, so check it out!

Good night!
Kendra

Tek Tuesday – Sharing…

2010-03-10T08:26:00.001-05:00

Hey bloggers… well, the flu (or a version of it) finally hit my house. We’ve been pretty lucky this year since we hadn’t had it, but my oldest dd and my oldest son both fell victims to it. So far, they’re doing okay though, so fingers crossed it’s just a 24 hour thing and it avoids the rest of us!

Anyway, I woke this morning to the CUTEST little bird house that is being shared on a blog I just recently subscribed to. It’s perfect for those spring/Easter projects you might be eagerly wanting to make. Also, it’s pretty cool because she uses digital paper and such in her creating process, so I thought that would be neat to share. Her blog is pretty cool and well worth the read, so if you feel like blurfing, this is a must read!

CREATIVITY IN PROGRESS

I so hope she doesn’t mind that I’m showing you a pic (I did tell her I was going to post about this to my readers) but you have to see it in order to appreciate it fully and RUN over there!!! It is a little box….

AND…. to top it off, she’s sharing her template… SO CUTE :)

Okay, now for my share… I never took pics because it was my tester and well, then I ran out of time to re-make it due to work and family obligations, but here’s a cute little embellishment I made and if you really like it, I’m sure you could figure it out, but if you want me to still go a head and do up the how to’s just let me know!

I used a prima flower, some ribbon scraps and a Basic Grey button, oh and some thread/yarn. I sewed the ribbon to avoid lumpy glue and mess, but other than that, easy peasy, neat and cute (IMO anyway).

Also, I’ll share some simple cards that I’ve made recently (although there’s no TCC images used, ooops!)…

Okay, because I just couldn’t leave without sharing some TCC images… we’re sponsoring The Diedrich Dare Challenge Blog this month and the DT girls there have done some wonderful work… now, I didn’t have time to go collect them all, but here’s a few samples of their creations…. (go to the challenge blog for more details and more creations using TCC images… while you’re there… ENTER! LOL)

I’ll share more from the other girls next week :) Thanks ladies, you are very talented!

Okay, so that’s it for this week… hope you have a great rest of the week and join us Friday for our next Challenge!

“See” you! Happy crafting,

Kendra

March New Release Blog Hop & Freebie!

2010-03-05T00:00:00.001-05:00

If you’re just blurfing by now and you haven’t been hopping along with us, you may want to start at the beginning in order to soak up all the crafty goodness presented by our FABULOUS DT (which, sadly enough is the last Hop for some since their 6 month term is up after March and they’re headed on to other things, but we’ll discuss all that at a later date)!

If you are arriving from Lola’s blog, then YOU DID IT, thank you for hopping along with us :) Hope you’ve enjoyed all the images this month and wonderful inspiration given by our DT.

So, let’s just review the details…

Did you comment on our DT blogs? They’re going to be giving away the image they worked with so be sure you showed some love okay?

Comment here and let us know what you think of us doing all sketches next term, or if you like a bit of mix up in there and we’ll draw a name to receive our entire March Release as well as offer you the chance to be a Guest Designer with us for the rest of March (you can join us any or all of the remaining Feature Fridays).

Use a TCC image (if you don’t have one, we’ve got Freebies) and create something, posting to your blog or gallery and come back and link up to Mr. Linky and we’ll draw a name to receive a $10 Gift Certificate to The Cafe Store, and offer you to be a Guest Designer for us for the rest of March (you can join us any or all of the remaining Feature Fridays).

Now, just in case you’ve already collected all our freebies, we’ve got a new one for you… meet Fuzz, he’s now also available with the rest of the freebies at the store, or you can get him from 4shared if you prefer.

You have until next Thursday at 10pm to get your craft on with a TCC image and enter your name in Mr. Linky. We’ll announce all the winners with our next Feature Friday too :)

Happy crafting!

Kendra

Winner, TCCFF14 Challenge!

2010-03-04T22:30:00.000-05:00

Hey bloggers,

It's been another great week of yummy crafts to blurf, so thanks for that :) We're getting ready for another blog hop to celebrate our New Releases for March so be sure to check back and see what great stuff our DT comes up with for inspiration... starts at midnight (although there's always a few bumps in the hop, so we'll see!LOL)

Anyway, we’ve got our winner this week…

Sita from Kay’s Creative Corner with this creation

I absolutely adore it… it’s so beautiful and perfect for its sentiment.

Congrats Sita, you’ve won the Ballerina Allison and Lillies images from The Cafe Store, a 15% off Discount Coupon, winner’s blog badge and your blog featured in our winner’s section of the store (which I’m trying to update, but I’m a bit behind, sorry!).

Okay, well, if we ever want to start the Blog Hop, I’d better get going… lots of work still to do. So if you haven’t heard from me in the next few days Sita, please shoot me an e-mail just in case :)

Happy crafting, hope you see you all hopping soon!

Kendra

Digi Image On A Candle Tutorial

2010-03-01T08:49:00.003-05:00

Good Morning to you all,

Its time for another Character Cafe Tutorial by me, (lilacanglia)

This week I am going to show you how to digi image onto a candle,

the materials you will need are

candle,

Digi Image (I used Character Cafe's Dayzee)

Greaseproof Paper,

Tissue Paper,

pens/colours

PERMISSION FROM THE DIGI OWNERS TO COPY THE IMAGE

I printed of the Dayzee image the size to fit my candle,
then I traced it onto the tissue paper,
coloured it with my whisper pens.
Cut Dayzee out roughly with a edging to her like in the photo below.

You then place the image where you want it,

wrap around with greaseproof paper with the glossy side nearest to the candle,then turn heat gun on to heat slightly before running it around the image

Take of the greaseproof paper and see if the edges of your image have melted into the candle,

it is easier to do less time with your heat gun then do it again instead of melting the candle with to much heat the first time.

Here is my finished result.

Thanks for stopping by

Hope to see you back on Friday.

Hugs

lilacanglia

x X x

Feature Friday #14

2010-02-26T00:01:00.016-05:00

I (Diane) am hosting this week's challenge at The Character Cafe. My challenge was to make a monochromatic card with all the extras. To offset the lack of color, feel free to add prima flowers, ribbons, brads and bling and show off your embellishing talent!

Here's my card:

Here are the cards from the girls that are working with me this week:

And we have two special Guest Designer who were winners from this month's release:

Stacie

Vicki W

The prize for this weeks' challenge is the Ballerina Allison and Lillies images from The Cafe Store, a 15% off Discount Coupon for your entire purchase, a Winner's Blog Badge as well as your blog featured in our Winner's Section of the store (I will update this soon... been delayed by my computer woes, sorry!).

We hope to see you play along this week, it's great seeing all the wonderful creations!

Diane

Winner, TCCFF13 – Recipe Challenge

2010-02-25T22:49:00.001-05:00

Hello bloggers! We had a bunch of players this week, and some great creations to blurf through so thank you :)

Up for grabs this week was Benjamin Bunny and Boots n Hearts from The Character Cafe Store, a 15% off Discount Coupon, blog badge and your blog featured in our Winner’s Section of the store.

We went to random.org in order to pick this weeks’ winner (maybe if we consistently have enough players, we’ll pick our top 3 best creations???!!!) and it came up #1!….

Congrats to Jeri M of Crafty J’s Place (currently inundated with Twilight yumminess – thanks Jeri!), who won with this creation…

I’ll be e-mailing you in the next day or two, but if you haven’t heard from me yet, and you’re reading this, shoot me an e-mail just in case I can’t find one for you or mine are going missing in cyberspace somehow! LOL

Okay bloggers, check back later for Feature Friday Challenge #14 hosted by Diane… we also have 2 Guest Designers with us this week, Stacie and Vicki, so be sure to come see what inspiration they have for you.

Happy crafting!

Kendra

Tek Tuesday – More than JUST a stamp!

2010-02-23T00:00:00.001-05:00

Hey there all you crafters it's Tek Tuesday here at the Cafe!!

We are sad to announce that Meredith has left our team. Her plate was getting too full being on numerous Design teams and trying to juggle family life...she had to step down as part of our Tek Tuesday Team. Even though it's sad to see her go, Kendra and I have been having fun hosting a few Tek Tuesday Tutorials.

For our tutorial today we will be showing you how easy it is to take any digi stamp, enlarge it, lighten the image, print it, colour it with watercolours (or other medium) and voila! ~ handpainted/coloured artwork for your walls.

I chose to use Calvin for this, I enlarged him to be big enough to fit an 8.5" x 11" sheet of water colour paper. I'm thinking you could probably send the file to your local print shop too and manage a larger scale, just check on the kind of paper they'll print on, or maybe bring in your own? In my Coreldraw program I changed the outline colour from 100% black to 20% black, (Kendra tells me it can be done in Paint Shop Pro also) You want it light so it resembles a light pencil sketch. Either that, or if you want really simple, just change your printer settings to a fast draft print (or equivalent). Print it and then heat set it, rub it with microglaze, or spray it with a fixative. I then coloured him using my water colour pencils adding the water after he was completely coloured, (you can see above where I’ve added the water around his eyes)....

There you have it... pretty simple, artwork ready to be framed and hung on your wall (I just finished him today, so maybe we’ll be back once he’s framed!).

And one last close up… (ain’t he cute?!)

Glad you stopped by this week, pop back in on Friday for Feature Friday Challenge #14. Diane will be hosting a colour challenge... I've seen her card and it's awesome!!

Craft with you soon!!
Kelly "the imaginary illustrator" ;)

Feature Friday Challenge – LUCKY #13!

2010-02-19T00:00:00.002-05:00

Hi bloggers!

I'm baaaackkkk! Yes, I had to get a new laptop because my little one pushed mine off the table and well, it was going to cost $620 for a new screen!!!! This one's a tad bit faster, with a bit more RAM and hard drive space, but really, my old one was just fine (my hubby's on the other hand, could've used a push LOL, what can you do though? - don't say trade him either!

Anyway, we're on to Challenge #13 this week at The Character Cafe and Kelly and I are hosting it. Since we had some computer trouble, we're going to ask our winners from last week to participate in next weeks' challenge instead of today.

The Challenge this week is a Recipe Challenge… not an easy task for the likes of me, but I managed (barely)… hope you care to take the challenge too and show us what you’ve got!

The Recipe is as follows:

1 Digi Image (if you don’t have any, we’ve got freebies)

3 Pieces of Paper

5 Embellishments

That’s it… and against all “odds” (ha ha ha, I know, not really funny), I actually did it! I didn’t think I would though because more than 1 paper, max 2 is usually it for me, and then I couldn’t figure out my embellishments, but alas, I did and here it is… (excuse the unedited pics, I haven’t added my photo editor yet)

I’ve used Monkey Lovin from The Character Cafe, coloured fabulously by Kelly with watercolours, Bazzil cardstock, We R Memory Keepers DP and some from my stash, 2 pearl gems coloured with Copics, 2 Making Memories brads and some thread.

For your added inspiration, we have a few more for you too…

From Rachel…

and Piali…

Deanne created this one...

For the prize this week, we have Benjamin Bunny (image Piali used) and Boots n Hearts from The Character Cafe. You will also receive a Winner’s Discount good for 15% off your entire purchase at The Cafe Store, a winner’s badge for your blog and your blog featured in our winner’s section of the store.

Well, that’s it for this week… hope you find some time to play along with us.

Happy crafting,

Kendra & Kelly

Winner, TCCFF12 – Colour Challenge

2010-02-18T22:44:00.001-05:00

Just here to announce the winner from last weeks’ Colour Challenge… and we didn’t add the prize to the post, so the winner will receive 3 Digital stamps/images of their choice from The Character Cafe store along with the 15% off Discount code, Winner’s Blog Badge and their blog featured in our Winner’s Section at The Store.

Without further ado… the winner is Adele from Nogards Space with this card…

Congrats Adele, I’ll be in touch soon, but if you haven’t heard from me in the next few days feel free to send an e-mail just in case we can’t find one for you, or ours gets stuck somewhere in cyberspace!

For our previous winners… due to our recent computer woes, we haven’t managed to send out any of your winning images but rest assured, we’ll be getting to that too in the next couple days… just gotta move my date over to the new computer now that I got it!

Okay bloggers, come back later and check out next weeks’ challenge and play along… we love to see what you create!

Happy crafting,

Kendra

Today's Multi Fold Tutorial ..............

2010-02-15T10:17:00.004-05:00

Happy Tuesday to you all,

Here is today's tutorial

You will need -

a piece of card measuring 296mm long x 121mm wide, and a matching 62mm square.

Character Cafe Images of your choice.

Fold length ways down the middle,

like in the photo below.

Mark on both ends at the edges at 58mm and 103mm,

mark on the centre fold at both ends 78mm (just a dot will do for this)

Score straight across the width of the card at the 58mm marks,

then from the dot in the centre of the card diagonally up to the 103mm marks on the edges,

Score straight across the width of the card at the 58mm marks,

then from the dot in the centre of the card diagonally up to the 103mm marks on the edges,

With the back of the card facing you fold along the 58mm score line towards you.

Choose your images from the Character Cafe shop.

and colour, I have cut my chosen images out.

Apply these to the two squares at either end of the card.

I made a 3rd square with Happy 80th Birthday Dad on.

and then put name under this in the centre, as I used these for table place settings for

his birthday meal.

Below you can see the finished project.

This can be used as cards, place settings anything you wish.

Hope you enjoyed todays tutorial,

and look forward to seeing them used in our Friday Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by

Hugs

lilacanglia

x X x

Feature Friday Color Challenge

2010-02-11T23:24:00.002-05:00

Good morning all! It’s me-Sara-I’m your host for this weeks’ challenge which is a color challenge. My challenge to you is to use the colors-Pink, Blue and Yellow! I know this sounds a little different, but I promise you that you will end up liking it ALOT!! So without any more jabbering from me, here are the other DT’s adorable examples. Also make sure you link you creation using mr. linky. And please visit the other DT members blogs to see what they’ve created for you this week!

Sara-Me

Have a wonderful day, and have fun with the challenge!

February Blog Hop Winners!!

2010-02-11T22:57:00.008-05:00

Hey there it's Thursday... and its time to announce our winners from the February New Release Blog Hop.

But first I must make mention that I have been having some computer issues...touch wood...everythings working o.k. right now ( I hope I don't jinx it ). Secondly Kendra's laptop was working just fine until her 19 month old ds decided to see if it would bounce when thrown on to the floor...well it didn't bounce...it's pretty much toast. She's waiting to find out what can be salvaged if anything. Yah... Kendra's not a happy camper right about now. So please please please be patient with us if you need to reach us and you don't hear back from us within 24-48 hrs like we usually are able to respond...it could mean I'm ...oh I don't even want to say it... it could mean I'm having problems again with mine.

Now onto the winners from the hop...

Congratulations to Vicki W, who was picked by random org from the comments. Vicki W. you have won 4 images of your choice. We will be contacting you soon, so you can let us know which images you would like...again please be patient with us considering our puter problems.

Now for the Grand Prize...our entire new release...the winner is Stacey Congratulations Stacey you've won all 9 new images.

Here is her creation using "Bertie and friend"

We will be contacting you soon and sending you your images. It was pretty easy...no challenge, just had to make something (using TCC images) and post it...however if you used a TEK TUESDAY TECHNIQUE you automatically win 2 free images of our choice. Stacey we will be sending you two more images for incorporating a Tek Tuesday Technique in your project. Last but not least we have another entry who also used a Tek Tuesday Technique... Congratulations Linda B...we will be sending you 2 free images of our choice, we'll get that to you soon.

Thanks for hopping along with us this week hope you enjoyed it!!

Don't forget to visit tomorrow, Sara is hosting this weeks FF Colour Challenge. So stop by and play along.

Kelly & Kendra

Tek Tuesday - Paper Bag Purse

2010-02-08T22:59:00.005-05:00

Hi all,

It's Kendra here, with your Tek Tuesday installment. Angie E is out of commission for a bit and we hope she's back up and running soon, but for today, you're stuck with me.

I have never done a tutorial before, but I came across this paper bag idea while thinking of something to share with our Sparks and Brownies group this Thurs. I have been enlisted to do the craft for the night and since Angie couldn't make it for today's post, I figured I'd share with you how we're making our "treat bags" for Valentines day....

It's SUPER EASY, and versatile... you can decorate this for anything... I'm thinking, Birthday Parties, Easter, quick thank you bags and really, just because!

Here it goes...

For supplies you will need

an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock (you'll have left overs)
a 12" strip of 1" width ribbon
2 brads
1 paper bag
velcro piece (or other type of closure)
adhesives and embellishments

First off, my paper bag is 5" across and I am making them 4" tall, so I cut a piece of cardstock at 4"x5" for the front...

and 4"x6" for the back and lid... score the lid at 4" and 5"...

Next, I'm showing you how I attached the cardstock because those darned paper bags are not always straight and even (I so wanted to rip them apart and re-make them, but didn't!)... I cut the paper bags at 4" tall (sorry, I didn't get a pic of this, but if you fold over the bottom part of the paper bag that sits flat so that it tries to line up with the extended side already - it won't line up if your bags are like mine but that's ok - then score at 4" and cut)... line up your cardstock with the TOP of the paper bag - the part you cut... You may have cardstock that overhangs the bottom a bit. This will make your bag stand better if that's the case (uneven bags)... having said that, put your adhesive on the bag, not the cardstock... In the pic below, you see how I folded the cardstock BACK so I could see how it lined up with the paper bag and it hangs over the one bottom edge a bit...

Then (and you could probably do this FIRST), I lined up the lid on my ScorPal so that I could easily mark at 1/2" for my brads (you see my ooops, score line? LOL)...Then, I folded over my ribbon so it would be purty and added my brads (this was a tester I had done (we're not using that old magnet, it was just for show for my Sparks/Brownies leaders to get the idea)...
Then, just embellish as you see fit... I went to the dollar store and got a whole bunch of glittery goodness for the kids... then I decided when I was making this for you all, that it was missing something... A STAMP!!!! I've decided, I'm going to pre-stamp all the cardstock pieces because it just makes it IMO... no, sadly, it's not a TCC Stamp, but it's still super cute and works perfect for this. When I added the velcro, I decided it'd be better with some sort of reinforcement so I added a 1" stripe of heavy DP to help keep it from tearing when the kiddies are opening and closing their purses. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how to apply the velcro right? I bought the little circle dots at the dollar store (16 sets, not bad).

The kids are also going to get to make cards for their love ones (those will be with TCC stamps), but you don't get to see them unfortunately, because I'm not done preparing them yet! LOL.

Here's the finished product (well, as finished as it'll get for 5-8 yr olds!), however, I did decorate the back too, same sort of stuff...
Sorry for the bad pics in spots, my 19 month old has decided that naps are not an option the past couple days and it's really been throwing me for a loop so this last pic was done tonight under poor lighting, but you get the idea!

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and can find some way to use it. I actually LOVE how easy it is (my tester with NO direction/instructions and embellishments added, only took me 10 minutes, that's how easy it was!).

Happy crafting!
Kendra

February New Release Blog Hop is here!

2010-02-05T00:00:00.002-05:00

Hey bloggers...

We've got some great digi stamps / images for you this month and our DT gals have been working hard on some super inspiration as usual. If you haven't been hopping along with us, you'll want to head over to the START first. Don't worry, you should end up back here later :) You should have come from Heather's site if you've been hopping...

So, did you pick up the FREEBIE along the way? If not, you can find a few at The Cafe Store and try them out... be sure to come back here and link up to Mr. Linky for your chance to win the entire February New Release Set (that's 9 images!!!)

If getting crafty is just not in the cards, we wouldn't leave you out in the cold... just leave us a comment, why not let us know what you'd like to see from TCC next???? We'll draw a name and the winner will receive 4 of the Feb. New Releases of their choice... Also.... we want YOU to be our Guest Designer for February 19th!!!!! Of course, it's your choice, but we're offering it up to our winner :)

Also, make sure you commented on the DT blogs along the way because they will each be drawing a name in order to give away the digi stamp they were working with!

This hop was pretty simple... been a bit crazy around here lately. We hope that you enjoyed all the fantastic inspiration and get lucky & win some TCC images!!! Better yet, we'd like to see you use them too... they're no good sitting on that hard drive of yours - LOL

So, happy crafting, come back soon to link up that creation of yours and here's an added bonus that I just decided on.... use a Tek Tuesday project idea and we'll send you TWO (2) FREE images from our stock just because :) Let us know though because the list is growing (although not quite fast enough... I have to update that list, I'm a bit behind... please forgive me?)

I'm going to share an image released earlier in the month... I've been playing around with PSP and digital colouring... what do you think? I know, lots of practice, but it's a start!

Okay, so I'm off...
Happy crafting
Kendra

Winner Feature Friday Challenge #11 - Sketchy...

2010-02-04T23:07:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm back to report the winner for Feature Friday Challenge #11... we had a great sketch to work with and the winner, with this creation...

is... LINDA, from Card Challenges & More!

You've won Birdie Love and Love Bug Cupid digital stamp/image sets from The Character Cafe, as well as a 15% off Discount Coupon for your entire purchase, a blog badge as well as, we're adding you to our specials section of our website!

I'll be e-mailing you shortly, but if you haven't heard from me, please feel free to check your spam and then if nothing, give us a shout... life's a bit busy and it's release time :)

Thank you to those that do play along in our challenges, we really appreciate your time and efforts!

Be back shortly for February New Release Blog Hop... "see" you then!
Happy crafting,
Kendra