My Last Chapter... for now

CHAPTER 15: New ideas are SWIRLING...doors are opening...all in our little WONDERLAND...

"'It's no use talking about it,' Alice said, looking up at the house and pretending it was arguing with her. `I'm not going in again yet. I know I should have to get through the looking-glass again -- back into the old room -- and there'd be an end of all my adventures!'


So, resolutely turning back upon the house, she set out once more down the path, determined to keep straight on 'til she got to the hill. For a few minutes all went on well, and she was just saying, `I really shall do it this time -- ' when the path gave a sudden twist and shook itself (as she described it afterwards), and the next moment she found herself actually walking in at the door..."

Hello everyone! There's lots of excitement today as Oh, Alice! enters a new door! There are always twists and turns down Alice's path, and with that, there is good news, and some sad news, but we are all looking forward to the next Chapter in WONDERLAND!

First off, CONGRATS TO LYNNE PHELPS! YOU are the challenge winner and will grace the Oh, Alice! Tea Party for the month of JUNE! It was a seriously TOUGH decision for the Mad Hatter (Jess) to make, but everyone LOVED Lynne's creation and the vote was nearly unanimous! We are very excited and can't wait for next week when Lynne officially gets started!

Today we are also excited to welcome LITTLE PAPER SHOP as this week's challenge sponsor! The very generous Julia has not only let the DT play with this adorably cute ALICE digi stamp, but is offering a $15 Gift Certificate to the Little Paper Shop to one lucky winner this week! We can't thank Julia enough for this fabulous sponsorship and can't wait to see your creations this week. Our Challenge this week is a fun one!

Since there are so many ideas "SWIRLING" around at Oh, Alice! and they can't wait to bring you the next three months worth of challenges, they want to see what YOU have swirling around! The challenge is to USE SWIRLS on your card/project this week. You can use DP, stamps, bling...whatever swirls up your own creativity! You have until Friday, June 4th at 8pm CST to upload your card/creation using Inlinkz in this week's challenge post on Oh, Alice! One random winner will be chosen to WIN the Little Paper Shop gift certificate, to be announced next week on the Oh, Alice! blog! GOOD LUCK and get those ideas swirlin'!

Be sure to stop by the Oh, Alice! blog to see all the WONDERful swirl creations by the awesome design team!

A personal note from me: It is with heartfelt thanks and a bit of sadness that I say farewell to the Oh, Alice! Design Team (aka The Twisted Thirteen). What a truly FUN and memorable ride it's been down the rabbit hole with Jess and these amazing ladies! I will always be grateful to Jess for allowing me to be a part of this awesome challenge... and for the new friends I made during my time there.


Betty, Catherine, Mary, Pam and I are jumping off for now, but there are some amazing ladies jumping on starting in June. I, for one, will be keeping my eye out and playing in as many challenges as I can. I hope you will, too!

And thanks Jess for this awesome certificate! You and I will always be friends... and hopefully see each other again at CHA!!! Hugs and best wishes to you, sweet girl!!!

A note about my card: That amazing DP is Beautiful Blooms by Papertrey Ink (love love love!), paired with Hawaiian Shores cardstock. The brads are by Stampin Up!

Have a BLOOMING good day!

CLICK HERE FOR MY BLOG CANDY OPPORTUNITY

My New Blog Look... and Two Cards!

Hey y'all! That's what my kinfolk say in the south. I love it! I'm actually a little bit southern since my mother was born and raised in Mississippi and I was born in Alabama. But I digress (as usual). If you are reading this in Google Reader or similar, please click on over and check out my new blog design. This wonderfulness is by none other than Veronica McCollum of VK Design Co. I mean it when I say she is the easiest, most wonderful person to work with... not to mention, incredibly talented. She's actually pretty good at reading minds, too! I guess you'd have to be when trying to bring to life something that is a notion in someone else's mind. Anyway, we hope that it doesn't look too much like a pet store (ha ha). I absolutely love it, and am deeply grateful to Veronica for bringing my blog to life.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to say that I'm not really a cat lady, so to speak. I mean, I do have two cats... litter mates from a rescued mama... and had one other cat about 25 years ago. But that's it. One of my cats, a gray shorthaired tabby named Jazzy, is MY cat, though. She chose me as her Alpha and follows me around and "protects" me from the other marauding animals around here (that's her opinion... ha!). When I started getting into Splitcoast a little more than a year ago, I was trying to think of a clever handle. I suppose Jazzy must have been around at the time when The Cat's Meow popped into my head. (If you know me at all, you know I'm the queen of cliches.) So, I changed Cat to Craft, and viola! Not very exciting, but there you have it.

Onto a card! With all the activity of late, I've barely had time to do any stamping... in fact, almost none. It felt strange to finally sit down to stamp because I felt literally overwhelmed... I didn't know where to start or what to do first... and my mojo had completely left the building. So I turned to the best basic inspiration one can get, and that is a sketch challenge. I looked at several, actually, and so far have played with two.

The first is Viva la VERVE! March Week 3. Since I needed a masculine birthday card, I used the black rhinestone swirl from Prima rather than a ribbon. I didn't have room for the three "brads" to the left of the image, so I put them on the image instead in the form of more black rhinestones. This was because of the way I had to line things up to match the stamped image strip at the very top.

All paper, ink and stamps are from Papertrey Ink. The stamp set is Beyond Basic Borders by Pinefeather Press for Papertrey Ink (Heather Nichols).

The next card is loosely based on the current CCEE Stampers Sketch Challenge.


I had colored this digi stamp from Little Paper Shop awhile back and hunted around for some DP to match when I fell upon this scrap from K&Company's Berry Sweet Collection. I couldn't bear to cover up the design, so just skipped one of the sketch layers to make it work. It's hard to tell, but I sparkled up the scalloped mat with some glitter and used my atyou Spica gel pen on her shoes, belt, flower and butterfly. Although it doesn't photograph well, the other bit of bling I added in the corner... I believe that's also by Prima... really added the right touch. Something was just plain missing in that corner!

Please don't forget to support the SCS Cares Non-Raffle for the Victorian Bushfires Appeal. If you haven't looked lately, more wonderful prizes have been added to the gallery. And we really need to spread the word so that people will donate to this very worthy cause... and get a chance to win some wonderful prizes. I'm still offering a blog candy opportunity for those who post the logo and link on their blog.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!