Hoppy Easter Banner for the most challenges I've ever entered at one time, woo hoo!!!

Hello everyone and Happy Wednesday/Thursday, depending on when you are reading this!  I'm so happy to share with all of you a banner I made for a few challenges and for some Easter Decor in my home...

The main banner background was cut out using the B is for Boy Cartridge.  I made the rossets out of plain white paper, overlayed them with a pink paper cut using the same Cartridge.  The font letters were cut using the Alphabalicious Cartridge.  The front, middle and end flags were made using the Create a Critter Cartridge.  The final touches come from the pearls bought at JoAnn's in their dollar section, and the see-through yellow ribbon used to tie the banner flags all together!

Now on to the fun part... I am entering this into... wait for it... wait for it... 5 challenges!!!
Please go check these sites out to see what others have created too!

Wee Memories Challenge #49 - Anything goes
Beary Sweet Challenge #22 - Spring
Scrabookaholic by Abby Challenge #2 - Anything Spring
FCCB Challenge Me Monday #53 - Looks like Spring
Kleirrs Kreation - National Craft Month


Thank you for looking, and Happy Crafting!!!
Lisa

A Post Again Finally!

Hello everyone!  I wanted to put a quick post up on a three card set, in which I used fussy cutting as the main creative tool... enjoy!

My favorite thing about these cards is that I was able to make all 3 of them out of one paper!  This paper has been in my stash for a long time so I'm sorry that I can't tell you the maker!  Other items I used include the silver ribbon, and on the sympathy card I used my Sizzix Texture Boutique and the Divine Swirls Cuttlebug folder.

This has been entered into:
Kleirrs Kreation - National Craft Month
Bug Bites - Buggy Challenge - use a bug somewhere on your project!

Happy Crafting!
Lisa

Welcome Madeline!

Hello crafty friends!  I just wanted to post a quick blog to announce our happy new arrival, Madeline!  Born March 14th. 

I will return soon, with hopefully many more creations!  Happy crafting! 

A Layout to love!

I'm so proud of how this layout turned out!  I have been looking at many of your blogs and have gained tremendous inspiration that is taking me new directions everyday in the crafting world.  This layout is based on a sketch from the Beary Sweet Challenge #21...

This layout will be perfect for milestones of our little Madeline when she arrives, and I plan on adding a second co-ordinating page to go along with it!  I used my Martha Stewart edge punch for the side strip of green.  I used the Storybook Cartridge for the letters, corner designs, and butterflies.  The trees were made using the Stretch Your Imagination Cartridge, cut in 3 different sizes.  I ran all of the trees through my Sizzix Texture Boutique and Swirls embossing folder which I had ran my brown Stampin Up Ink pad along the front side for added contrast.  I also I added the hearts to the largest tree from the Basic George Cartridge.  The two flowers came from my stash and I accented one with a brown brad in the center of it.  I also ran a Stampin' Up ribbon in gold and white along the decorative strip and main background paper.  For some added "bling" I used gold and rainbow stickles.  And viola!!!

This LO will be entered into the following challenges:
Beary Sweet Challenge #21 - use sketch
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Me Monday #50 - use a tree
Cricut Cartridge Chaos Challenge #8 - use the Stretch Your Imagination Cartridge
Kleirr's Kreations - National Craft Month

Thank you soooo very much for taking the time to look at my work, I love and cherish all coments!
Happy Crafting!
Lisa

Please Read for awesome giveaway info!!!

Pink by Design is having a referral contest to the Pink by Design Mailing List and the Pink by Design Facebook page.  You will receive one entry for each person you refer.  Just have them add your name to the comments on the mail list or post on the Pink by Design wall that you sent them.

I would greatly appreciate anyone who would be willing to go to either of the above links and simply tell them that Lisa from Lisa's Creative Niche sent you!  You will also have the opportunity to enter into an awesome giveaway to win for yourself!  As soon as they reach 2,500 people on their facebook page to simply click the like it button then will be giving away a Cricut Imagine and/or a Cricut Expression 2!!!!!!!!!!  HELLO AWESOME PRIZES!!!!  

Thank you so much for your time and I greatly appreciate anyone who puts me down as their referral!!!
Happy Crafting!
Lisa

Challenge Card and DT Call entry...

Hello everyone!  I hope you are having a fantastic day!  Here is my card to share for today based on a Peachy Keen stamps sketch, and I am soooo excited ( with fingers crossed ) just to have the chance to enter this into a DT Call too!

I used the sketch provided by Peachy Keen Stamps for this weeks challenge for my card.  The ribbon comes from my stash and the paper is, believe it or not, called Christmas Magic by nancie rowe-janitz... It was double sided so the green strip going across the card is just the other side of the main background paper.  I then used a gold shimmer paper to make the larger circle, a maroon cardstock for the inner circle, and the same gold with a blue cardstock on the flowers.  All of the above cuts were made using my Basic George Cartridge and my expression machine.  I used pop dots on the maroon circle for dimension, and for bling I used my I-Rock tool with gold gemstones on the outer circle and blue gemstones on the flowers.  I also distressed the outside of the main background with Tim Holtz distressing ink.

Challenges/DT call entry for this project are:
Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge #47 - Use their sketch and add some bling!
Inking It Up! - DT call - must use the cricut
Southern Girls Challenge - use flowers
Kleirr's Kreations - National Craft Month

Thank you so much for looking!
Happy Crafting!
Lisa

A different take on a challenge sketch!

Hello Crafters!!!  First I want to let you all know that hopefully any day now I will be on a little "vacation", becoming a mommy to baby number two, so if I'm a no show all of a sudden I wanted you to know where I would be, hehehe!  Now onto my project for today:

Here's a picture of the sketch we were to use for SSD Challenge:

And here is what I came up with:



I can't wait to add a picture of my little man ontop of the green paper on this LO!  I kept with the sketch of the flower, by using a flower punch and adding a little dump truck in the center of it.  The lines on the bottom of the sketch are where my roads are!  I used my B is for Boys Cartridge for the title and the dump trucks.  And I love the way this came out!

I am entering this into three challenges:

SSDS - sketch challenge

Scrappy Mom's Terrific Tuesday Challenge - use B is for Boy Cartridge

Kleirrs Kreations - National Craft Month

Thank you so much for looking and as always...

Happy Crafting!

Lisa

Happy Tuesday!!! Sharing my first Easel Card Today!

Ok, so this week has been a first of many for me as far as creativity goes and I'm so proud to show you my first Easel Card that I made for a couple of challenges.  In fact there were many firsts that I tried with this card: 1. it's an Easel Card, 2.  I used a new technique using embossing in clear and then coloring in the flowers on the egg with water color pens and markers, 3. I used all new stamps and my new Martha Stewart glitter.  Thank you so much for looking!

I tried to get a good close up of the egg I made using clear embossing powder and my H2O brushes with ink, but this is as good as I could get!  I used my brown Stampin' Up Ink for all of the stamping.  The chick and the hot air balloon were colored in with my H2O brushes and various inks.  I used my stickles in white and blue for the balloon part and covered both the balloon and the chick in my accent gloss.  The flowers came from my stash and I spritzed them with White Glimmer Mist.  I destressed around the egg and my stamped sentiment ( which came in my 100 follower prize pack that I won earlier this month! ).  The pink paper was ran through my Sizzix Texture Boutique and Swiss dots cuttlebug folder.  Oh, and I almost forgot!!! The egg wobbles thanks to my first time use of my wobble stash!

Challenges for this card are:
K Andrews Simply Sunday Challenge: make a project with some sugar and spice!
Creative Sisters Challenge #3 : spring theme
Kleirrs Kreation : National Craft Month

Please visit these blogs for more fun and inspiration!  Thank you again for taking the time to look at my work!
Happy Crafting!
Lisa

My 2nd Stylish Blogger Award!

I wanted to thank Rachel at Live, Laugh, Create for thinking I deserved the Stylish Blogger Award!  Please go Check out her awesome site, I love the work she does!
Happy Crafting!
Lisa

PS- Be on the lookout for later today I will have a new crafting post for all of you!

My First Banner!!! And 5 challenges, boo ya!

I finally did it! I made my first banner, and I have to say I LOVE it!!!  ( Oh no, I feel another addiction coming on! hehehe! )

First, for the banner itself I used the B is for Boy Lite Cartridge in two shades of green.  The Irish Characters come from the Simply Charmed Cartridge, and were bedazzled with some gold stickles ( every flag of the banner has one gold stickle on the bottom of it ).  The letters were made using the Tie The Knot Cartridge in a gold textured paper that I have had in my stash for quite sometime.  I also used some shamrock stickers on random letters throughout the banner.  The banner says " LUCK O' THE IRISH ", and being an Irish family I found this to be most appropriate to hang in our house!  To tie it all together ( both figuratively and literally ) I used a green shiny organza ribbon from the Ribbon Boutique.

Now for some yummy challenges that this project is going into:
Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #19 - use green ribbon on a project
Kleirrs Kreation - National Craft Month
Paper Variety Challenge - use the color green on 50% of your project
Crafting with Christina Challenge #18 - Make something using a St. Patty's Day Theme and the color green
Throw back Thursday Challenge - use an older cart and St. Patty's Day Theme

Please go check out these challenge sites for more inspiration!
Happy Crafting!
Lisa

Owl Card for Challenge Goodness!!!

Good evening my crafting friends and thanks for stopping by!  I have a hooty-licious card to share with you tonight for more awesome challenges!

I used Basic George and Design Studio for the shape of the card.  The floral corner border and pretty little owl come from Disney's Happily Ever After Cartridge.  I ran the top layer of the owl through my Sizzix Texture Boutique and Swiss Dots Cuttle bug folder, after I had ran a blue Stampin' Up Ink Pad along the front of the folder ( the coloring difference is more noticeable in person, but this awesome technique came from Joy Life Blog ).  I also added white diamond stickles to the flowers on the corner border.  The flowers on the top left come from my stash and I sprayed them with white pearl mist for some shimmer, and added black brads to the center.  I used MPS Everyday Sayings stamp set for the Sentiment at the bottom, and I finished the card with light blue shimmer chalking ( which sadly also doesn't show up well when photographed ) around the top half of the card.

Awesome Challenges to be entered:

MPS challenge - use a feathered friend
FCCB Challenge #49 - make a shaped card besides square or rectangle
Getting Cricky With K Andrews - make an Owlish project
Kleirrs Kreation: National Scrapbook Month

Thank you everyone for looking and please check out what others have made for these challenges by clicking on the above links!!!
Happy Crafting!
Lisa

St. Patty's Card Challenge Fun!!!

Hello crafters!  It's getting close to St. Patty's Day, and what's not to love about a holiday where everyone pretends to be Irish just to use the excuse to drink some type of green beverage, wear green from head to toe, and talk in an Irish accent... hehehe!  Ok, well not everyone, but I sure do love it and better still not only am I Irish but my Hubby's family is too so I have double the excuse right?  Any who, onto my first St. Patty's Day Craft...

The idea for this card came from a Guest Designers use of beads and glam on the front of a mini album over on the Imaginesence Blog Page.  I have tons of beads myself for jewelry making and I loved the idea of incorporating them into my card/scrapping projects.  The diamond accents come from a gift package I won for a 100 follower giveaway, as do the stamps used.  The bottom stamp on the card says, " May good luck follow you wherever you may go" is kind of hard to see in the picture but was stamped with my brown Stampin' Up Ink pad and the little shamrock was colored in with a green marker and then green/gold stickles were added on top.  I punched a circle into the outer front of the card  and used the same circle punch to  cut out the white circle that I stamped the larger shamrock on with my green Stampin' Up Classic Ink Pad.  I then used my Glossy Accents over the top of the shamrock to give it some shine and texture.  I also added small gold stickle dots to the decorative stamp part around the shamrock.  If you look closely you will see that I also distressed the circle with a gold ink pad.  I used the argyle cuttlebug folder to run the green paper through and finished it with a pre-adhesive gold ribbon.

Whew - I know a lot to read, but thanks for taking the time to look!!!

Now onto the challenges to be entered with this card:
Kleirrs Kreation - National Craft Month
Celebrate the Occasion Challenge #3 - use Green, white and 1 optional color ( mine was gold )
Southern Girls Challenge - use brads, gems or dewdrops on your project

Thank you again, and please go check out the above challenge pages to see what others have created!
Happy Crafting!
Lisa

Smelling Lovely in the Challenge Department... hehehe!

Hello everyone!  Today's post is a little smell good kind of card that I'm entering into some awesome challenges! 

I made this card using the Peachy Keen Stamps Sketch.  The cute little skunk comes from the Create a Critter Cartridge, I also cut the flowers out from this cartridge in various sizes to get a layered flower look, and the bow came as an accessory to a different character on the cartridge.  I added white eyes and sweeping lines on the tail of my skunk with a white gel pen.  The bow has some pink stickles and one pink I-rock gem in the middle of it.  The flowers were spritzed with white glimmer mist and little pink heart brads were placed in the middle to hold the layers together.  The pink background paper was ran through my Sizzix Texture Boutique with the swirls cuttlebug A2 folder, and swept over with a lavender ink pad ( although it doesn't show up quite as well in this picture ).  I then used a white and black stitched ribbon that matched the 2nd background paper to tie in all of the designs and layers.  The bottom is stamped with "for you" in black, which also doesn't show up very well in this picture, but looks cute in person from Paper Studio stamp set.

I am entering this into the following challenges... and please go check them out!!!
GAB Challenge #4 - use wet/dry embossing
Kleirrs Kreation - National Craft Month
Peachy Keen Stamps Sketch Challenge #46 - use their sketch

Thank you so much for looking!
Happy Crafting!
Lisa

March Calender LO!

Since it is still March 1st as of the time of me posting this ( I can't believe I almost forgot! ), but here is my March Calender Layout.... simple and sweet!  Welcome March!  And don't forget what March is... Crafting Month!!!  So get crafting!

Happy Crafting!
Lisa

My 2nd Blogger Award!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!!!

Goodmorning everyone!  I woke up to a wonderful suprise in my email from Lissa at So many crafts, so little time telling me she had chosen me to recieve a  MY BLOG HAS ATTITUDE AWARD...

Woo hoo!!!  As a receiver of this award I have to tell three things about myself that are different than everyone else and to choose 3 more recipients for this award as well, so here we go:

1)  I am due with baby number 2 literally at any minute of any day now

2)  I met my hubby at a front porch party at the University of Dayton our senior year.

3)  I love eating cottage cheese and green olives together... and that's not just a preggo thing, I love it any time of the year, hehehe!

Ok, my three choices to receive this award are...

All About Me & My Scrapbook

Crafty Girl 21!

Kleirr's Kreation

Please go check these wonderful ladies blogs out that have some major Attitude!!! hehehe!  And thank you again to Lissa, please go see her page as well!

Happy Crafting!

Lisa