TTT Challenge out with the Old, In with the NEW"!!!

Hello girls, it's time for a new challenge and also our last for this year so a last change for 2012 to win a beautiful prize. This challenge is so great, I bet you have some oldies and some new, so show them off! Our great DT did their utmost to give you some excitement and inspiration, using the gorgeous Image called "Jingle Bells" you can have your own, it's available in the shop.

Amanda

Amanda used her NEW swirls from Marianne Design and corners from Joy 

Darlene

Darlene used her NEW Cheery Lynn Holly Branch Die
Jackie

Jackie used her NEW Marianne Design Creatable 
Marianne

Marianne used her NEW Desing Papers 
Miranda

Miranda used her NEW Design Papers.

We would love to have a lot of entries, for entries we have some rules:
1. Put a direct link to your blogpost NOT your entire blog, using mr. Linky beneath.
2. We would LOVE it, when you use an Image of Shelly, but it's not required.
3. Only NEW projects can participate, no backlinking to old ones.
4. Follow the theme (yeah we look into that).  Be sure to specify in your post which NEW item you used.
5. Only 5 entries per person.
6. PLEASE turn of your wordverification, we love to comment on your entry but if it's on, it takes too much time.

Have tons of fun with the new Challenge, and since we're ahead of the holidays, the team all wishes you a fabulous Christmas time, with love and health of your families and beloved ones!

TTT Challenge Winners - Christmas is in the air

Wow....it is snowing and blowing outside and my internet is extremely slow.  

I know some in 

the area are without power so I am going to try to quickly get this post up before

 I lose internet or electricity.  :) 

Since this challenge was part of our very special 12 Days of Christmas event, we will have 3 Beary Favorite projects that will win a gift voucher to Shelly's Images.  

Our 3 Beary Favorites are...

Jo Ann from J. Atterbury Creations

Desiree from Doing Life

Stephanie from Steph's Scrap Happenings.  

I will be emailing each of you very soon with your $6 gift voucher.  (assuming our power stays on)  Please also be sure to grab your "Beary" Favorite badge here.

Thanks again to everyone who entered our challenge.  Your creativity always inspires us.    If you didn't win today please be sure to visit www.shellysimages.com and click "Monthly Digi Giveaway".  Then just enter your name and email address to enter for our October giveaway.  Be sure to enter once each month for your chance to win.  

Our new challenge begins very soon and we hope you will all join us again.  

Technique Tuesday

Hi girls, it's my turn again, to share something with you. Most of the times I shared a special fold or a little project, giftbox, but not this time, I have something different. But I think it's important. Please use your stuff!!! Pimp up your card!!! I really do love Clean And Simple, but most of the time, we girls forget to use our lovely supplies, I know some of you have stuff they bought and really never ever used it. And it makes such a difference if you DO use them. To show you I have made a card with the wonderful digi Jingle Bells, this is the lay-out and how I colourd it, only using my nesties.

Nothing wrong about it, but we can do better. We can ink the edges of our fabulous designpapers, and please use them, I love layers. Use foam to lift up your image, I used foam behind my nestie and behind my image, so it has more attitude now. Use the wonderful ribbons and lace, use your dies, don't leave them behind.....

Now my card is finished, it has so much more, and if I wanna do something extra I decorate the inside too, it only takes a minute, but it gives an extra touch, don't you think?

12 Days of Christmas - Winners Announcement

Thanks so much to everyone who joined us for our 12 Days of Christmas here at Shelly's Images.

I had such fun reading all the posts, reading the letters to Santa, learning new recipes, and hearing from many of our friends.

Our prize winners are...

1st Day of Christmas - Guess How Many Game

The correct answer was 81 (Min promises she didn't eat any out of the jar)

Lorianna guessed exactly right.  And Mina was the 2nd closest guess.  You will each receive a $6 Gift Voucher.

Congratulations Lorianna and Mina.  Please email me at shelly@shellysimages.com so I can send you your Gift Vouchers.

3rd Day of Christmas - Crafty Letter to Santa

The design team and I chose two letters as our very favorite.  Congratulations to Edwina Brown and Crafty Girl.  I have your email addresses and will email you very soon with the digi stamps that you asked Santa to bring you.  I checked with Santa and he said it was ok for you to have these gifts a little early.

10th Day of Christmas - Christmas Cookie Exchange

Congratulations to Gail Scott ($6 Gift Voucher) and Sharon ($3 Gift Voucher).

Ladies, please email me so that I can send your gift vouchers.

11th Day of Christmas - Christmas' Past

Thank you all for your nice comments.  

Congratulations to Sharon ($6 Gift Voucher) and Edwina Brown ($3 Gift Voucher)

Sharon, I will email your voucher as soon as I receive your email.  Edwina, I have your email address and will send your prize very soon.

12th Day of Christmas - What is under the tree at Shelly's Images?

Such a fun game.  And we got many, many great entries.  We had so many wonderful entries that I randomly chose 4 winners!!!!

Congratulations to Donna Walker, Komala, Sandra Hawes, and Charlene Bell.  

I will be emailing all 4 of you very soon with all of the gifts that you found under the tree at Shelly's Images.

I truly love this fun event each year!  Thanks again to everyone.  And a VERY, VERY special thanks to the Design Team who put lots of thought and work into this fun event.  There aren't enough ways for me to thank these wonderful ladies.  I am very lucky to have such an amazing team and such amazing friends. 

Merry Christmas!!!!!

12 Days of Christmas - Time is running out!

Sadly..our 12 Days of Christmas event is coming to an end.  

You still have about 5 hours to play along with any of our games and to grab any of the freebies that we offered.  Of course all of the tutorials will remain here at the blog and be available to you in the future.

If you didn't get your guess in for the "Guess How Many" game rush over to our 1st Day of Christmas post and get your guess in.  

And  you still have time to get your Crafty Letter to Santa written.  Santa hasn't loaded his sleigh yet and you might still get that wonderful crafty item you have been dreaming of.  Visit our 3rd Day of Christmas post to write your letter. 

Min would still love to see more cookie recipes.  Visit the 10th Day of Christmas to share your recipe and have a chance for some great prizes.  

And last but not least...be sure to visit our 12th day of Christmas to open the presents under the Shelly's Images Christmas tree.  At least one random winner will get all of the presents under the tree.

Hurry, hurry!  Just a few hours left before our winners are chosen and announced here at the blog.  

Be sure to mark your 2013 calendar for our 4th annual 12 Days of Christmas.  

On the 12th Day of Christmas...

....we opened the presents under Shelly's Images Christmas tree.

We had so much fun with this little game during our 2011 12 Days of Christmas...so we just had to play again.   Just click each of the presents (you have to click the name of the package, unfortunately blogger doesn't let us link a picture) under the Shelly's Images Christmas tree to open the package.  Write down the name of the digi stamp that you find in each package and email your answers to Shelly at shelly@shellysimages.com.  The names of each digi must be exactly correct.  But you have to hurry!!!  Tomorrow afternoon we will choose one random winner from the correct emails we receive.   The winner will receive all 3 (ooops....all 4 of the digi stamps.  Santa snuck an extra package under the tree :)  ) of the images found in the packages. One email per person please.  

 Present #1                 Present #2      

       Present #3                Present #4  


Have fun!  And remember, the names you email must be exactly correct.  Please don't comment to this post with your answers.  We want to be sure that everyone opens their own presents.  :)

   

On the 11th Day of Christmas

I love traditions.  And I am happy to say that my children have also come to love traditions.  One of the really fun traditions here at Shelly's Images has been our 12 Days of Christmas.  And since this year is our 3rd Annual 12 Days of Christmas celebration, I thought it might be fun to go back and visit a few Christmas' past.

If you have been following our blog for all 3 years then I hope some of these visits to Christmas' past will be great reminders.  And if you are newer to our blog then hopefully you will see something here that you missed before.

Our first flashback to Christmas past goes all the way back to our first 12 Days of Christmas Celebration in 2010.  I love these little paper Christmas trees that hook on the side of glasses as place settings.  Visit the original post for the template for this fun Tree Place Card.  And if you use Make the Cut software you are really in luck.  The original  post has a link to download the Make the Cut file.

Our second flashback also goes back to 2010.  This is one of my FAVORITE projects of all time.  I use my Christmas Shopping planner every year.

These Christmas Shopping planners are prefect for staying organized at Christmas.  I have one pocket inside my planner for each member of my family.  And I have one extra pocket at the back of my planner for "Other Family Members".  

Each pocket holds the list inserts (available to download at the original post).  These list inserts keep my list of the items I have gotten and items I still need to get.  The pockets also hold the original Letter to Santa from each of my children.  And best of all...I put all Christmas receipts into the pockets for any of those dreaded after Christmas returns.  I also find that it is great to leave everything in the pocket from one year to the next.  This serves as a great reminder of what I got my family last year.

Be sure to visit the original Christmas shopping planner post for all the details on how to make your own Christmas Shopping planner.  And there are a number of downloads to help you too.

For our 3rd visit to Christmas past I am going to actually share a fun tutorial that wasn't part of our 12 Days of Christmas but appeared at our blog right before Christmas last year.  This is such a fun project that I thought it should be part of our 12 Days of Christmas this year.  I made quite a few of these last year and they are hanging on my tree again this year.

The original post for our star ornament actually has a video tutorial to show you exactly how to make this beautiful project.  

I really hope you enjoyed this visit to Christmas' past.  Leave us a comment telling us about your favorite 12 Days of Christmas post.  It can be a favorite from this year or any of our past 12 Days of Christmas posts.  We will choose at least one random comment to win a Shelly's Images Gift voucher.

Be sure to check back tomorrow to find out what is under the tree at Shelly's Images.  This is always a fun game and of course lots of chances to win Shelly's Images Digi stamps.

Time is running out for our freebies and other games.  Don't forget to enter your guess for our 1st Day of Christmas game.  And there is still time to write your Crafty Letter to Santa.  Lots of fun prizes to win!

  

On the 10th Day of Christmas...

We've got some lip-smacking cookies and a clever little Cookie Tin Tag!

Yup - back with the YUMMY stuff again!  =)

So yesterday, I hosted my annual Holiday Brunch and Sweets Swap and boy, oh boy was it delicious, Brunch was scrumptious and the sweets - delectable!!  =)

See what I mean??  

These cookies are a Almond Joy Cookies AND Candy Cane Cookies - can you say YUMM-O?!

I love this new Candy Cane image that Shelly has over in the store.  PERFECT for this tag little sugary holiday treat tin!

On top of sharing this adorable little Christmas tag, I thought I'd share with you the Almond Joy Cookie Recipe too.

This recipe is from: Taste of Home Most Requested Recipes Cookbook 

(Taste of Home- one of my favorite places for recipes!)

1/3 cup butter, softened

3 oz. cream cheese, softened 3/4 cup sugar 1 egg yolk 2 tsp. almond extract 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 5 cups flaked coconut, divided (you can omit if you don’t like coconut) 48 milk chocolate kisses

In a large bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in egg yolk and almond extract.
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
Stir in 3 cups coconut.
Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.
Roll into 1-inch balls and roll in remaining coconut (or roll in sugar if you omitted coconut).  Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.
Immediately press a chocolate kiss into the center of each cookie.  Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Cool on pan for 2-3 minutes or until chocolate is softened.
Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

For the Candy Cane Cookies I used the same recipe and just omitted the coconut and replaced the chocolate kisses with Candy Cane Kisses.  Easy Peasy!

Breaking News - Breaking News - Breaking News

This is about where I begin trolling for new cookie recipes....

We'd love to have you share your favorite cookie recipe with us - or heck, even a new cookie recipe if you'd like.

Post the recipe in the comments below OR post it on your blog and leave us the link so we can visit and try your lip-smackin' confectionary creation.

One random comment with a recipe will win a $6 Gift voucher.  We might just randomly pick another prize winner too - you never know.  =)

Hugs & Happy Days!

On the 9th Day of Christmas

 

Today it is my turn you show you something during this fun 12 days of Christmas. I've made a tutorial for you of a book card.

You need:

- cardstock

- design paper

- scoring board

- border punch

- ribbon

For the book inside you need 4 pieces of cardstock. 2 of 24x12 cm (9.46x4.93 inch) and 2 of 24x14,5 cm (9.46x5.71 inch).

 For the card you need a piece of cardstock of 15x29,4 cm (5.91x11.58 inch).

 

Score at 13,7 and 15,7 cm (5.4 and 6.19 inch).

Score the 4 pieces of cardstock at every 2 cm (0.79 inch). Make a decorative edge at the end of every strip with a border punch.

 

Fold the strips like an accordion. Make sure that every fold is straight!

  

If you want you can ink the edges.

  Now comes the hard part. That is putting it together.

Stick a short strip and a long strip together. Make sure that the long strip is on top.

Glue the short side on top and then the long side.

Also glue the back side together.

 

Do this with the other 2 strips and then put the 2 parts together so you get a frame.

Front

 

Back

Before you put the in the card you glue the ribbon on the insides of the card.

Now you decorate the inside of the card with design paper and glue the frame in the card.

Now just decorate the bookcard and you're finished.

Today with our tutorial we are also giving you this set of "To: From" sentiments.  These sentiments will be available for download from now through December 12th.  Remember...sharing freebies is not allowed, but please do send your friends to our blog to get their freebies.

Sorry...our Freebie Event has expired

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  If you are downloading our freebie or using the tutorial please leave us a little comment.  We love hearing from you.

Hugs Miranda

On the 8th Day of Christmas . . .

 

Shelly's Images shared a fun & yummy holiday CANDY BAR POUCH tutorial using Shelly's Images Full Colored Candy Cane digi image!

Hello everyone!  Team member (and Elf in Training), Darlene here, and anxious to share this fun & easy project with you!  It's a great item to have on hand during the holidays when unexpected visitors show up at your door and you'd like to have a little something to give them to let them know you appreciate them.  Let's get started!

 You can use either solid color cardstock for your base or designer paper ... the choice is yours!  Depends on how clean & simple ... or how fancy you want to make your pouch!  Cut your paper 6 1/2" x 7 1/2" then score along the 6 1/2" side at 3" and 6" ... leaving a 1/2" margin for your adhesive.  I suggest you use a strong adhesive like Red Line Tape or Scor-Tape.

 Simply fold along your score lines.  Add your adhesive along the 1/2 margin and a small piece at the BOTTOM inside to keep your candy bar from falling through.

 Next you'll want to punch a hole where your ribbon will slide through.  I've used a 1/2" circle (that's what I had on hand) but you can use an oval punch or an elongated slit punch ... what ever works with the size of ribbon you choose to use.

 Next comes the fun of embellishing the front of the candy pouch.  I am using a piece of scrap Christmas design paper I had in my scrap bin for my background.  This panel is cut at 6 1/2" x 2 3/4".  The QUICK & EASY part comes by using Shelly's Images Pre-Colored Candy Cane digi image which (if you hurry) you can get for FREE today through the end of our 12 Days of Christmas Party!  Check out yesterday's post for details on getting your FREE candy cane image.  My only other embellishment is the Merry Christmas sentiment which is a die from Cheery Lynn Designs.

After printing out several Candy Canes on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of cardstock, I did a little fussy cutting to have enough candy canes available for all my holiday candy pouches.  You can adjust the size of this image to suit your needs (wonderful thing about digis!!!).  Also, please take note that these measurements are for the FULL SIZE PLAIN HERSHEY BAR.

 

 Once you choose the ribbon you want to use, you will need to cut a strip about 30" long.  Push the ribbon through both holes at the top and pull up until the ends are the same length.  Next you push the Hershey Bar down into the pouch, between the ribbon, all the way to the bottom, pushing down the ribbon with the Hershey Bar.  Then tie a pretty bow at the top.  

Pull up with bow and SURPRISE!

Not only do these make a wonderful little gift treat for friends and neighbors, but they are also an awesome stocking stuffer!  Who doesn't like a Hershey Bar???   I hope you've enjoyed this little tutorial and will give it a try!  

Please be sure to come back tomorrow for another FUN DAY at the Shelly's Images 12 Days of Christmas Party!  I'll be here ... hope you will be too!

HAVE FUN!

Elf Darlene

A proud member of the Shelly’s Images DT!