World Cardmaking Day!!!

Well, it's that time of year! Today, October 3rd, 2009 is World Cardmaking Day! The PIO design team wanted to give you all a little inspiration to help you celebrate on this wonderful holiday! Here are some of our favorite cards that we have made and some of the ways that we get inspired for a card. Enjoy and happy crafting!


Heidi - Haphazardly Crafty

Heidi says: I am always inspired by the season. Fall is one of my favorite seasons, so I always get so excited when the leaves finally begin to turn. With this card, I took a leaf patterned piece of American Craft paper and covered it in glitter to give it a completely different look. I really love the way it turned out.


Amy - And She Loved Flowers...



Amy says: I find tons of inspiration from the designs of other bloggers out there. I just love seeing all of the fun and new things that everyone is trying out. When I sit down to start a card, I usually can think of a recent project or technique that someone has used that I want to try out on my card and I go for it! On this card, I had recently been seeing others use background stamps for parts of the layout that were not the entire background. I used my polka dot background stamp to create a single strip, allowing it to pop off the card a bit more. I love how easy it was to add an accent to my card that way!


Deanna - Dee's Paper Tree



Dee Says... I love a great challenge... a sketch, a color combo or a dare, it justs gets my creative juices flowing! I still seem to stay true to the clean and simple style most often though! I started this card with a sketch and fantastic product! You should always have lots of that around! :)

Dalis - Stamprgrl

Dalis Says... Make it sparkle!!!! this is my all time favorite card I have created. I added sparkles in all the petals and on the geese couple.

Maureen - My C.A.S.E. Studies


Maureen says... I love a great sketch and patterned paper! Sketches are my favorite type of challenge because half the work is already done for you! And I love patterned paper because it helps set the colors and mood of a card!

Happy WCMD!

Did you know...????

That some of our DT members have their own challenge blog? And that of course they would love you to Pile THEIR challenge ON! Here is the information you will need to go give them a visit!

Katie - Cooking It Up with Katie

Julie - Eazy Breezy "Kwel" Colour

Amy - Scrap or Dare

Deanna - Loonie Stamper

TOP 3 Scoops and Sweet Sprinkles.

TOP 3 SCOOPS.... grab your blinkie ladies!!!

Laurel for this simple but stunning card:

Sandra for this dream of a card!

Avina for this oh so colorful LO:

And yes, we are having a sweet sprinkles this week...

Mona for this flippin' cute set... you better check out all the close up pictures she added on her blog. (plus this is a green project!)

Challenge #17 - Let them eat cake!

Our Random winner is Lucky #86..... Hazel!!!! Hazel, email us to get your Crazed! goodies.

Also, it's the last Sunday of the month and our sponsor this week is STAMPS & SMILES! She has such cute stamps (like the cupcake on my tag) so you might want to check out the Stamps & Smiles store! Also, coming REALLY soon a new release for Stamps and Smiles... we will keep you ladies updated! A random winner will get a goodie bag from Stamps and Smiles!

This week's challenge is "Let them eat cake! Some kind of pastry on your project", have some sweet fun with this one! Here are the amazing team w/ some sweet sweet projects!

Julie - KewlStamps-n-More

Challenges for Julie:

• Pile it on (Eat cake and Stamp and smiles layout),
• combined with the Clean and simple sketch,
• Stamp and Smiles sketch,
• Easy Breezy Kewl Colour Challenge and
• almost got all ingredients for Cooking it up with Katie.

Amy -- And She Loved Flowers...


Challenges for Amy:

• Pile It On --Let them eat cake! Some kind of pastry on your project
• Stamps and Smiles -- Sketch
• Our Creative Corner -- Monochromatic Cards
• One Stop Craft Challenge: Die Cuts
• Whimsy Stamps: Buttons, Buttons who's got buttons

Timi - My Journey to the world of Scrapbooking

Challenges for Timi:

• Pile it on - Let them eat cake
• Scrap Inspire Create - September Pick and Mix Challenge
• Coordinates Collection - September Scrap Challenge # 4
• A Peek Into Yesterday - September PDT Challenges (Week 3)

Ann - Raindrop Echo Designs

Challenges for Ann:

• Pile It On - Challenge #17 Pastry
• The Fresh Batch - Sketch #34
• Roses on Paper - Challenge #21 Stitches
• Simon Says Challenge - It's a Stitch Up!
• PaperPlay Challenges - Week #36 Spot This
• One Stop Craft - Challenge #48 Die Cuts
  

Maureen - My C.A.S.E. Studies

Challenges for Maureen:

• Pile It On! - #17: "Let them eat cake!" (include some kind of pastry)
• Stamps and Smiles - sketch #34
• PaperPlay - #36: "Spot This"
• Three Clovers - #32: use a number
• Secret Crafter - #51: "Animal Antics"

Brenda - Stamp It Up

Challenges for Brenda:

• Pile It On: Some kind of pastry on your project + sketch or project Tuesday from Stamps and Smiles
• Stamps and Smiles: Sketch
• Whimsy Stamps: Buttons, Buttons who's got buttons
• Colour Create Challenge: Hot pink, Dusty pink, and Ice chocolate with an option of pearls and swirls
  
• Paper Play Challenges: Spot This
  
• Color Throw Down: olive, rose red, mustard, regal rose, chocolate. Use all or a few colors
• Paper Cutz: at least 3 buttons
• Three Clovers: Use a number
• One Stop Craft Challenge: Die Cuts
  

And now - for this week's top three scoops!!
Ladies - be sure to grab the blinkie from the sidebar!!

COMING SOON... sorry ladies Vicki is still sick, and I am having to get every single entry reviewed by myself. I wanted to put the challenge up, but this part will come SOON!.

Challenge #16 - Crazed and Punches

Thank you all for your patience!!! The Pile It On! team is obviously under the weather this week - hopefully the rest of you are healthier than we are!!

First - we are going to give you the top three scoops! Ladies - please take your Top Three Scoops blinkie off the side bar - we hope you will wear it proudly!

If you click on the images, it will bring you to their blogs!

Clare for this card:

Hazel for this card:


Tracey for this card:



We also have a Sweet Sprinkles Award this week!! Look at this very cute set from Mona!!

We would love to thank THE CUTTING CAFE for sponsoring us last week...I will post the winner of that prize later this afternoon.

This week, CRAZED is sponsoring us. Please click on over to their store and check out their images!!

Last, but certainly not least - this week's challenge is to use

PUNCHES

Let's look at what the Design Team has done this week.

Vicki - Paper Hugs & Die Cut Dreams


Challenges for Vicki:

• Pile It On - Punches
• Our Creative Corner - Color combo
• Paper Maniac - Ribbon
• Papertake Weekly - Faking It
• Three Clovers - Doodles

Amy -- And She Loved Flowers...


Challenges for Amy:

• Pile It On -- Punches & Crazed Digital Paper (Love 1" Circle!)
• Mojo Monday -- Sketch
• Stamp Something -- Favorite Colors or Papers
• Secret Scrapper -- Girlie!
• Paper Maniac -- Ribbon
• My Time to Craft -- Polka Dot Party!

Julie - Kewlstamps-n-more
Challenges for Julie:

• Pile it on - Punches
• Belli Challenges - Fall / Halloween (Fall colors)
• Paper Bloom - Bling
• Three Clovers - Doodle / handwrite
• Whimsy Stamps - Fun Fall colors
• Pals Paper Arts - Kissable
• Clean & Simple - Sketch
• Paper Maniacs - Ribbon
• SP Color Combo - Black, Rust and White
• Creative Inspirations - animal

Brenda - Stamp It Up

Challenges for Brenda

• Pile It On: Punches
  
• La La Land Crafts: To use three different embellishments
  
• Creative Belli: Fall/Halloween
  
• Paper Maniac: Ribbon
  
• Tuesday Taggers: Die cut and or punches
  
• Simon Says: 3 embellishments, 2 papers, 1 image(okay I know this is a stretch, but the images on the right are digital paper)
  
• Whimsy Stamps: Fall colors

Denise - Stamping with Denise

Challenges for Denise:

• Pile It On! - punches
  
• Friday Sketchers - Sketch
  
• Charisma Cardz - Flower Power
  
• Simon Says Stamp - Recipe challenge
  
• Papertake Weekly - Faking It
  

Katie - Both sides of the paper

Challenges for Katie

• Delightful Sketches-Sketch
  
• Tuesday Taggers-Punches and/or Die Cuts.
  
• PaperTake Weekly-"Fake Anything"
  
• Everybody Art Challenge -Shabby
  
• Paper Maniac-Ribbon.
  
• Belli-Fall or Halloween theme.
  
• Paper Play-Tags
  
• Treehouse Stamps-"Just Around The Corner"
  
• Cooking It Up With Katie-1 image, 2 shapes and 3 paper embellishments

Deanna - Dee's Paper Tree

Challenges for Deanna:

• Pile It On - Crazed Digital Paper and Punches
• La La Land Crafts - Use 3 Different Embellies
• Paper Bloom - Bling
• 365 Cards - I Miss You & Finish Inside (see my blog for the inside pic)
• Three Clovers - Doodle or Handwriting

Thanks for joining us! We can't wait to see what you create this week!!

Delay Alert!!

Vicki here - due to much sickness going around - much of the Pile It On! team has been hit, the challenge will be up sometime Sunday afternoon. I apologize for the delay and thank you in advance for your understanding.

I would also like to thank you all for your participation each week! I generally try to comment on each and every entry every week, however, I have been hit with illness (A sinus infection actually) that has really kept me down these past few weeks. But please know that I LOVE all the entries and even if I didn't comment, I did look at them and will be back to my normal commenting this week!! I don't want you to think your entries are unnoticed, because each and every one is looked at EVERY week!!

Thanks again - and come back this afternoon for the challenge!!

Challenge #15 - Color Pop

OMG.... I can't believe you ladies didn't mention to us... that we forgot to post our winners for week #12.... we were going to announce both winners for the last two weeks today... but week #12 was long time ago... ohhhh my.... you ladies need to keep us straight...

For the winner of Week #12 for a digital image of their choice from Doodle Palace we have lucky #44 from that week which was Marcea! Congrats Marcea w/ a gorgeous colored kitty.

Winner for week #13, gets one awesome digi image from Hambo Stamps, is lucky number 78 which is Felicia Ow.... congrats Felicia, with a very cool LO!

Winner for Week #14, gets one awesome digi image from Hambo Stamps, is lucky number 46 which is Justine... congrats Justine, with some adorably cute cards!

Ladies, send us an email saying which week and sponsor you win from to get your goodies!

Before we move to this week's sponsor and challenge I want to make an announcement. One of our players Erin is doing something that really touch my heart. She is doing a card drive for her little neighbor who was in a boat accident... but she didn't stop at that, she and Denise owner of Whimsy Stamps (and DT for PIO) have created this awesome digi stamps, and all proceeds from this digi stamp will be for Paige's family.

And here is Erin's wonderful card w/ the digi image:

New week... and a new sponsor, this week we have "the Cutting Cafe" and let me tell you, you are not going to find someone as sweet as Regina the owner of the Cutting Cafe! Her cutting templates are as sweet as she is. She sells the templates in PDF (for those of us that use our little scissors to cut out still our patterns) and in WPC format for those of you that have SCAL or CraftRobo or Silhoutte or any cutting machine that accepts WPC format. Right now she has some cute brand new Fall and Halloween cuts AND did I mention she also sells digi images... I am telling you, this girl does it all! Go check her out at "the Cutting Cafe". The winner for week #15 will get some template goodness!!!!

Challenge #15... wow... how fast this year has gone, it's been 15 weeks since we started Pile It On! and we want to thank everyone for playing with us!

Now onto our challenge #15 - Color Pop! We want you to use white and black and ONE more color... and of course for your wonderful delight here is our superb DT w/ their creations.

Amy Schultz - And She Loved Flowers...


Amy's Challenges:

Pile It On -- Color Pop - Black & White with one other color

Stamp Something -- Your Favorite Embellishment (PEARLS!!!)

Practical Scrappers -- Basic Punches

Brenda - Stamp-it-up

Challenges for Brenda:

• Pile It On: Black/White and one other color, plus one other challenge
  
• Stamp Something: use your favorite embellishment
• Stamp Simply: Halloween
• Crafty Creations: Embossing
• Paper Play: No Patterned paper

Maureen - My C.A.S.E. Studies

Challenges for Maureen:

• Pile It On - "Color Pop" (black and white with only one other color)
• Sketchy Thursday - sketch
• Crafty Creations - embossing
• PaperPlay - no patterned paper
• Stamp Simply - Halloween

Ann - Raindrop Echo Designs

Challenges for Ann:

• Pile it On! - Black, White, and one other color
• Delightful Sketches - Sketch #6
  
• ABC Challenges - D is for Die Cuts
• Paper Blooms - Bling
• Stamp Something - Favorite Embellishment

Julie Leblanc - KewlStamps-n-More

Challenges for Julie:

• Pile it On - Color Pop - black white and one other color
• Paper Blooms - Bling
• Bee Crafty - Bookmark
• 3 Clovers - Letters
• ABC - Die Cuts ( in this case, my letters)
• Paper maniacs - Embossing
• Whimsy Stamps - Sew, sew,sew (real of faux)
• Belli - apples or pencils (School theme)
• Pals Paper Arts - Layout

And now for our Top Three Scoops!!!!! ok, so Vicki is sick this week again (girl you need to start taking your Flinstones vitamins... get well soon) so I had to go all by myself through out all 74 entries and pick only 3... well... guess again... I couldn't... I just couldn't pick just three... so we are having a top 4 scoops... LOL!!!! Ladies get your blinkie from the side of and display it proudly!

Nina - Crafting in Croatia for this card:

Monika - M.A.D. Stamper for this card:

Piali: Touch of Creation for this card:

and Lisa from Wishcraft for this card: