Sweet Girl Silhouettes + A (Small) Giveaway!

The term silhouette is derived from a french finance minister named Etienne de Silhouette, who had to impose strict economic sanctions in 1759 because of war.  His name became synonymous with cheap.  Silhouettes, either painted or cut out, were way cheaper than a portrait painting!  I think silhouettes are beautiful.  Especially sweet little girls!  

(You'll have to imagine that the sequin at the top of the card is bright gold.  Could not get it to photograph correctly!)  

I'm giving away a stamp set that includes this sweet girl silhouette.  You can see the entire set at the bottom of this post.

This silhouette is one of my favorites and I've used it before.  She is adorable and I love the scene with the kitty at attention and the doll.  You can download this Sweet Silhouette below.

Check out those pretty papers.  I discovered a store called The Simple Surface.  Seriously, they have created some beautiful digital papers.

You can download the sweet silhouette image HERE.
Dropbox seems to work differently for different people.  Either right click and save when image appears or click the download button in the top right corner.  If neither method works, email me and I'll send the files to you.

Here's a quick peek at my sweet girls in the early morning during my last visit.  We'll have to have a silhouette of Louisa done someday!

Above is the stamp set I'm giving away.  It looks a little yellow here and there.  My set looks that way, too.  I'm thinking they use a slightly different formula in the UK to make their clear stamps.  They don't look as clear as we are used to, but it doesn't affect performance.   Along with the stamp set, I'm also sending along a couple of surprises.  
I love this stamp set.  All the silhouettes are sweet girls and I like both frames and the bows.   One commenter (you can email me, too), will be randomly selected.  Just let me know in your comment that you would like the stamps.  
Have a lovely week!

Digital Paper	Stitched Borders 2	Flutter of Butterflies - Lace	Silhouette Washi Tape
JAM Paper® Metallic Cardstock, 8.5 x 11, 110lb Stardream Metallic Gold, 50/pack (173SD8511GO285) | S	True Black Cardstock	ASH PINK - Hug Snug	ORANGE - Hug Snug Seam Binding
Accent Opaque White 120lb	tombow mono glue	Aleene's Tacky Glue

InLinkz.com

Free Silhouette Image + Halloween Party Winners!

Hi, there!  Are you about ready for another work week?  Hope you've had a lovely weekend!

Speaking of lovely...this silhouette certainly is:

Isn't her dog sweet?  I was lucky to find such a darling vintage card!  I've got her and the sentiment ready for you to download.  

You can download the silhouette and sentiment HERE.

You can tell that I cut the girl and her dog out of the card.  Love how the texture of the original card came through. 

The Halloween Party was great fun and WOW!  there were a lot of wonderful projects!  Hope you had fun!   Now to announce the winners!!

Lawn Fawn Pillowbox and Peek-A-Bat Dies:  Jennifer Scull

The Cutting Cafe Three Sets of Your Choice:  2amscrapper

The Funkie Junkie $25.00 gift certificate:  cm (carol)

My Mega Party Giveaway:  Lisa

Congratulations to all of you!  I always wish I could give a prize to everyone - thank you to all of you that left such sweet comments!!

If you are a winner, email me(you can click on the email on my sidebar) and I'll get back with you on the details of collecting your prize.

Want one more chance to win?  The challenge is open until October 3rd.  You can find all the details HERE.

Have a wonderful week!

Doily Circle Die

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Fancy Card

I've been catching up on some housecleaning  straightening (I don't know how my craft stuff ends up everywhere when it has its own room) and creating some goodies for a new gig that I'll tell you about later this month.  The weather is beautiful today - lots of sun, for a change!

I want to share that Chocolate Mint Brownie recipe I mentioned awhile back.  It's from 100 Best Holiday Cookies.  I don't think we've baked  much from this cookbook, but based on the brownies, I think we need to be using it a lot more!  I have to say, hands-down, these are the BEST brownies ever and I've been looking a long time for a homemade brownie to love.

1 C butter

4 squares unsweetened chocolate

1 1/2 C granulated sugar

3 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp mint extract

1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 C flour

Preheat to 325 degrees.  Grease and flour 9" square baking pan.

Melt butter and choc in double boiler.  Remove from heat and beat in sugar, eggs, salt, mint, and vanilla until well blended.  Stir in  flour.  Spread batter in pan.  Bake 35 mins. until top is firm and edges begin to pull away.  Cool completely.

Frosting:

Beat 6 tblsp butter, 1/2 tsp mint extract, and 2 drops green food coloring at medium speed until fluffy.  Add 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 C at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in 2 to 3 tblsp milk, one tblsp at a time, until spreading consistancy is reached.  Spread over cooled brownies.

Drizzle with chocolate glaze (1/3 C semisweet choc chips and 2 tblsp butter melted in microwave).

Yummy, yummy, yummy! 

This fancy card is made with some wonderful digital images from Made by Janet.  I love silhouettes and find it very hard to resist them when I find them!

Paper Issues new challenge is Tape It Up!  I've just got some washi tape from Impressions, so I'll have to get right on my contribution for the challenge.   Also, we've got a great deal - if you want to shop at Paper Issues and get a discount of 20%, just use the code chouxchoux at checkout!   Have a wonderful week!


Monday Linky:  Make It Monday

Silhouette Magnet with The Cutting Cafe

Regina has added some pretty silhouettes to The Cutting Cafe site.  I chose to use this beautiful butterfly from the Fun with Silhouettes set to make a clothespin magnet. 

I printed the butterfly on vintage ledger paper and cut it out.  Then I printed it again and cut out a heart.  I cut three more hearts and then sewed it all to the pink gingham.  I also cut a butterfly and hearts out of the Graphix clear craft sheets so that each layer would stand apart.

   I painted the clothespin pink and glued a magnet to the back. 

Here's that sweet magnet holding an old picture of the three of us - I think Lauren is three (maybe four) and she's now 25!  Love those big glasses on Dennis - he looks so young!  So do I, for that matter!  (I WAS young, only 25 or 26!)  I love the combination of the butterfly silhouette and the black and white picture.  Darling for the front of the fridge or on a magnet board.   This week's inspiration will be up soon at The Cutting Cafe blog - be sure to check out the other projects using pretty silhouettes! 

Vintage Blue and Pink

Love these silhouette digital images from Made by Janet.    Aren't they rich in detail?  These cards fill a request for two special cards in pink and blue that are almost alike...

  What do you think?   The background papers are also digital - from the new CD, Creating with Vintage Patterns, by Crafty Secrets. 

 The stamps are from Papertrey Ink.  I added the double frame to the images (one of those things that I'm not sure why, just like the look).

   The doilies are cut with Papertrey Ink's die Parisian Doily.  The eye pins are from Tim Holtz (I think those are pretty cool!) 

 All of these supplies got me to thinking about when I first started papercrafting and my husband said, "I thought this was SCRAP - booking...Why do you have to BUY anything?"  Well, he quit saying that a long time ago... 

Fourth of July from The Cutting Cafe

Regina added this great 4th of July sentiment circle to her store at The Cutting Cafe.    When I saw it, I knew I wanted to create an old fashioned "award" decoration.  I had picked up the silhouette stamp at Michaels not too long ago and thought they would work together beautifully.  

 I love red gingham so I used that for the ribbon base.  Paper Issues new challenge is Red, White and Blue so I'm linking this project up there. Check it out!  

  I'm looking forward to the 4th of July - Lauren and Paul will be here and it's never better than that! 

Something New at Craft Us Crazy!

A new theme goes up today at Craft Us Crazy:  Something New/Favorite Embellishment! 
We have two sponsors for this challenge.  One is Digital Delights.  The prize is 3 digital images!

About Digitial Delights:  Welcome to Digital Delights, a magical place filled with little digi creations from all walks of life. We have a wide range of digital stamps which are delivered straight to your email 24/7! In addition we also have a growing range of "Delightful Piecings" which are paper pieced files designed to be used with your cutting machines or for hand cutting. Fancy a new blog makeover, header or new watermark, then stop by our sister site Delightful Custom blogs.

Our second sponsor is The Pixie Cottage.  The prize is a $10 certificate!

About Pixie Cottage Stamps:  Michelle's Scrapbooking & More is the home of The Pixie Cottage Stamps.  We have been in the internet retail craft market for nearly five years!  We carry all the rubber and photopolymer stamps that crafter seem to crave, in addition we have all the goodies you need to make your scrapbooks and cards.  Stop by and sign up for our newsletter to receive big monthly discount coupons.  Take a look at our new Spellbinders, Cheery Lynn dies and Copic markers. 

 Here's my card for the Something New/Favorite Embellishment challenge:

There are several new things on my card.  The silhouette itself is new (from Made by Janet). I just got the Spellbinders die behind her and the Tattered Angels stencil I used for the background shape is also new.   Of course, some of my favorite embellishments are on here, too:  button, seam binding ribbon, twine.  The papers are all from Glitz Design and the little tag is a die from Papertrey Ink.  There is also something OLD on this card and that's the crocheted flower.  I came across six of these when I cleaned out by jewelry cabinet.   They are actually button covers from a dress I had in the 80's!  I just removed them from the button cover and voila! - a pretty embellishment!  Be sure to check out Craft Us Crazy for more inspiration and for all the details on this challenge and the prizes!

Sweet Silhouette

Love, love this silhouette!  It's just the sweetest with that little kitty looking up at the pretty little girl - do you think she's lecturing her dolly? 

 I used some lovely K & Co papers and a doily die from Papertrey Ink to make that little piece at the top.

  This was my first try to make a rose out of my seam binding ribbon - I think I'm happy with it!   Hope you are having a great week - so glad you stopped by!