Delicious Doodles Birthday Digital Stamp Freebies

Teri will be sharing a free digi a day from Sunday August 15th through to Saturday August 21st. All the goodies will be available in the Delicious Doodles Shop.

For more digi goodness check out my posts on

• Free Digital Stamps list... just a starting point - not comprehensive.
  
• Crafters Digital Arts Center Spotlight
• Free Digital Stamps All In One Place

Tim Holtz Candy

Tim Holtz seems to be something of a crafting rockstar. 

Stacy from Scrap With Stacy is celebrating her birthday in style with a fabulous Tim Holtz giveaway. It closes August 23rd. Head on over to find out more and to wish Stacy a Happy Birthday.

Here is the low down on the crafty bonanza. I have my eye on the distress ink... love it.

1- Film Strip Ribbon (Idea-ology)
1 - Muse Tokens (12 tokens)
1 pkg - 48 Charm Fragments
1 pkg - Grunge Flakes - Stampers Anonymous Stamps
1 pkg - Journaling Tickets - (Idea-ology)
1 pkg - Grungeboard - Basics - Plain (10 sheets)
1 pkg - Grungeboard - Plain Elements (94 shapes)
1 pkg - 3 sheets of 12x12 Grunge Paper
1 pkg - Ruler Ribbon (36 inches)
1 pkg - Timeworks Masks (5 pieces)
2 pads - Distress Ink (Brushed Corduroy and Frayed Burlap)
1 pkg - Tissue Tape -Symphony (2 rolls- 16 yards each)

Jak Heath Candy

The amazingly talented Jak Heath is offering blog candy.

You can be in the running for a set of Promarkers and a set of ultra cute HAnglar baby stamps. What a great combination. The candy closes August 8 at 10 p.m. UK time.

When you go to check it out,  be sure to take some time to look around the blog.

I have been a long time follower of Jak's blog and she has a wealth of great ideas. Her cards using Mo Manning digital images are stunning. I'm also a fan of her style with Stampin Up cards. Plus there are even some free designs by Jak herself including background papers - all beautfiul.

Operation Write Home & No Glitter On Cards

Operation Write Home

This may be old hat to some, but it's a very worthwhile concept and I was interested in the background of their no glliter on cards requirement.

Operation Write Home asks you to make cards to send to soldiers overseas. Their mission is 

To support our nation’s armed forces by sending blank greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them.

What a great idea!

To support this cause, Operation Write Home offers card makers a lot of support and have developed a blog community. Check out the site and blog for card challenges and some great tips for card making.

There are even some free digital stamps donated by well known digital artists to help you with making cards for the armed forces.

No Gllitter Rule for Operation Write Home Cards

And the most often asked question - Why no glitter?
The reason behind our "no glitter" requirement may help to clarify things. It's not about the shiny aspect of glitter. It's about the messy side of it!

Many of our deployed heroes live in very primitive conditions. Primitive as in no showers for a couple weeks. No laundry. Nowhere to get cleaned up. And if they open a box of cards and get sprinkled all over, they might have absolutely nowhere to get rid of all that mess; they may not even realise it's all over them.

And if they have glitter on their uniforms it can put them at risk — it can make them visible to night vision goggles, and that is just not a risk we're willing to take!

More on the topic at the site.

Easy Origami Men's Shirt For Male Card

Simple Origami Men's Shirt
I found some great instructions at Operation Write Home for the men's shirt above - great for men's or boy's cards. These would make an effective Thank You card for a male teacher too.

My friend makes these beautifully, and gave me one to copy. I worked it out by taking one apart, but now the visual instructions in this great tutorial will be a big help. It shows the folds, the direction and order of the folds etc. with very clear instructions and photos.

Origami Men's Shirt Video Tutorial
They also tracked down a great Origami Men's Short video on YouTube. This adds some more hints for folding and finishing these origami shirts.




Variations
You can draw buttons or add brads for buttons. It's amazing how different papers give a different look e.g. a formal shirt with a tie or a beach shirt with summery papers. Different sized shirts can be effective too.

I'm going to give it another try, now that I have some more reference points. Thanks Operation Write Home.


Image Credit: Operation Write Home

Crafters Digital Arts Centre Spotlight

Are you a digital stamp fan?

Crafters Digital Arts Center
Check out the Crafters Digital Arts Centre. This is a great relatively new resource for those who are interested in digital art, digital challenges, digital stamp freebies etc. It's a Ning Network, so it's set up much the same as Papercraft Planet with a forum etc.

Digital artists such as Michelle Perkett, Karen's Doodles and Dustin Pike are represented there. As well as some free digital stamps, you also see what new digital stamps are coming up for sale.

Free Tutorials
One of the aspects I've found incredibly useful is the Tutuorial Section shared by the leaders and community there. There are over 60 tutorials available right now. They cover a huge range of topics related to digital stamps and digital art.

Tutorial - Faux Postage Stamps in Microsoft Word
One I found really interesting is Faux Postage Stamp. You could adapt this for any digital stamp.

There is also a listing of tutorials which will be "go live" when they are ready... good to know what's ahead, and more are added regularly.

Check It Out
It looks like a generous and active community, so take a look if you're interested in doing digital or hybrid work with your cards, scrapbooking or mixed media art. Want to know more? Head on over and explore. I found it really interesting and informative - also good to have a specific digi focus all in one place.

Craft Stamper Magazine Fan & Tag Books

What is your favourite craft magazine?

I'm a big fan of Craft Stamper, a montly UK magazine for papercrafters. It has a mixed media touch as well as tradiitonal cards and other papercraft projects. Craft Stamper comes with a free clear stamp and extra projects online related to the magazine.

Flag Books & Tag Books
I'm going to attempt the Flag Book pictured on the cover of the June edition above, for my calligraphy project.

If you're a fan of Craft Stamper Magazine, the Craft Quartet is a blog inspired by the magazine. The whole blog is about projects sparked by Craft Stamper. There are some great posts on the flag books. They look stunning.

When researching flag books, I also found this great video from the super talented Dawn from Dawn's Stampin' Thoughts. She calls it a tag book, but it's the same effect.



 


Update: Check out an innovative flag book or flag card variation with different size tags from Jozart Designs, a blog I follow... very inspiring.

Any more flag book, tag book or flag card variations? I'd love to hear about more ideas for this technique.

The Beauty of Letterpress - Video

FireFly Letterpress from ilovetypography.com on Vimeo.

Creating From The Heart Blog Giveaway

Melissa at Creating From The Heart has a gorgeous blog.

Pop over to check out her beautiful tea time treats .... tea party themed gift containers and other tea time goodies... very clever creations.

I love a tea party, and this tea party has candy as well. Yes, that's blog candy.

Check out the Creating From The Heart blog candy giveaway. Wow! A Sizzix Big Shot and 3 dies too... very generous.

The giveaway closes on May 31st. See you over there.

Big News Blog Candy at Make It Crafty

Zoe at Make It Crafty has a great big news blog candy giveaway.

She's keeping us in suspense about her big news, but is sounding the fanfare with a big giveaway leading up to the announcement.

On offer are Copic markers in a stand up case, just for starters. Then, there are stickers, paper, brads, flowers and more.

Entries are open internationally, and close May 31st, 2010.

She has some really creative ideas. My favourite is the Rocking Horse Card. I love the Rocking Horse because it is so innovative and intearctive. It actually does rock. How clever!

It's much more than a card. This is the sort of card kids (or adults) would keep.It's something special.There's a video on the Rocking Horse blog post if you want to see it in action.

Take a look around the Make It Crafty blog while you're there... lots of inspiration.