December 2015 Linky Challenge & Blog Hop with FREE downloads and PRIZE

Hello, Friends!

It's the first Monday in December and that means it's time for another inspiring Linky Challenge and Blog Hop.  The Design Team has been as busy as the elves in Santa's workshop, and we bet that you're also caught up in all the wonderful holiday preparations, so this month we decided to make things easy on everyone and have an "ANYTHING GOES as long as you use Crafty Secrets" challenge.  That's right!  Feel free to enter any card, layout, canvas, mini book, home decor, altered art or what have you where Crafty Secrets is the star, and you're good to go.  Let's take a sneaky peek at what the design team has cooked up for you this month.

I spent a fun afternoon trolling through the hundreds of papers, printables, templates and images found within our amazing Creating with Vintage Christmas CD.  Oh, what a treasure trove of goodies I found there!  I created a fun new version of a pocket card with the cutest Christmas poem and some surprises tucked inside.  You will find some tips on how to alter chipboard and a step out on how to create the pocket on my blog, Kathy by Design.

Ginny took full advantage of our "anything goes" theme and created a stunning winter birthday card using papers and images from both our Creating with Vintage Typography CD and our Creating with Vintage Patterns CD.    She'll share a really fun tip for adding texture to a project.  You can find more photos and her tutorial on her beautiful blog, Polly's Paper Studio. 

 

I don't know about you, but I'm a huge fan of the "rustic" style that is trending right now.  There's just something about that aged, rusty look that creates a wonderful feeling of nostalgia.  Michele tapped into that vibe and created a gorgeous rusty Ball Canning Lid ornament using this Old World Santa image from the Creating with Vintage Christmas CD.  She'll tell you how to make one of your own on her amazing blog, Thoughts of a Cardmaking Scrapbooker.  

 

Sheila welcomes Christmas with a  digital layout that is so fresh and pretty and Christmassy that I can't stop looking at it!  If you are new to using digital products,  I highly recommend that you follow her blog as she shares amazing tutorials in her PhotoShop Friday posts.  Sheila also used our Creating with Vintage Christmas CD, and I just love the fact that it looks totally different from both my project and Michele's project.  That's the beauty of these CD's: they are so loaded with goodies that you can create and create and create and each project can have its own unique look.  Sheila will show you how to change the opacity of digital papers in a clear, easy to follow tutorial on her blog, Sheila Rumney Design and Photography.  

 

Shantaie always has such fun and fresh ideas to share with us, so I've dubbed her "the funnest kid on the block."  This month, she dazzles us with a sparkly Christmas tree ornament that has a great Retro vibe.  And of course, she used our Creating with Retro Christmas CD.  If you'd like to learn how to make your very own Retro Styled Snow Globe ornament, be sure to pop by Shantaie's fun and fabby blog, Inking Pink. 

 

Diane never fails to delight us with her Linky Challenge projects, and this month she has created a very clever 2016 Calendar Gift Card.  I would never have thought to combine images from our Little Blessings Creative Scraps  and papers from our Retro Kitchen Digital Kit with our FREE 2016 Calendar download, but she did and the result is nothing short of fantastic!  These would make such great gifts for co-workers, Secret Santas and friends near and far.  You will definitely want to visit Nellie's Nest to get the scoop on how to make these clever and innovative cards.

 

And, here's some exciting news for you: Sandy has bundled our Creating with Vintage Christmas and Creating with Retro Christmas CD together at a special price of just $22.00!  You can find this special Christmas Bundle in the online store.  We are still working on emptying out our warehouse and prices have been reduced on dozens of your favorite Crafty Secrets goodies.  So after you finish the hop, you might want to take a little shopping trip and visit the store.  You've all been very good this year and deserve a little Christmas treat!

Come Play with Us!

Now, here's the really fun part!  Each month we invite you to play along with us in the Linky Challenge.  Since this month's theme is "anything goes" you can make anything you like as long as it features Crafty Secrets in the design.  Just link your project up below, and we'll be popping by to see what you've made.  And one of you will be randomly chosen to win a $25 digital shopping spree in the online store!  Just link your Crafty Secrets project up before MIDNIGHT on Sunday, December 20th.  The winner will be chosen on Monday, December 21st and announced on the blog on Wednesday, December 23rd, just in time for Christmas!  

And to thank you for playing along, we have a couple of free downloads to share with you.  These both come from our Creating with Retro Christmas CD, and you can use them in your Linky Challenge entry if you would like to do so.   But please note: these images are for PERSONAL USE only and cannot be shared, reproduced or sold. They are intended for those who are joining the fun this month.  Feel free to invite your friends to visit the blog, download their own copy and join the party.  Thank you! 

 

This cute Christmas Patchwork Quilt paper is loaded with creative possibilities!  I just know you all are going to create some fabulous projects with this one!  To download, just click on the image until it is full sized, then choose the option to save it to your computer.  You can print this out as 8x8 paper, 6x6 paper, or you can even crop the individual squares out and use them that way.  I can't wait to see what you make with this clever paper!

And how about this cutie pie retro snow couple?  I love that he is holding the mistletoe over her head, hoping for a Christmas kiss!    To get all the goodies on this  fun Retro CD, you can order it HERE. (PS: It's on Sale!!!) This CD includes all our Retro Designer Papers, Images, Ephemera and Templates! If you love Christmas and fun retro images like Santa, whimsical snowmen, adorable children and animals, festive frames, embellishments, words and more – you will love this series! A labor of love, this collection is packed full of a wide variety of over 170 fun Retro style images and festive embellishments for the holidays.

I'm so glad you stopped by today and I know you'll be inspired by the wonderful projects and tutorials our designers have prepared for you.  This is such a busy time of year, filled with hustle and bustle and long to-do lists.  We hope you'll take a moment or two for yourself: to be creative, to be inspired, to reflect and to ENJOY the holidays.  That's our Christmas wish for you!

On behalf of Sandy Redburn, I wish you JOY and CREATIVITY!

Cheerio,

Kathy Clement

Design Team Leader/Crafty Secrets

ADD YOUR LINKY CHALLENGE PROJECT BELOW:

Black Friday - Cyber Monday SALE, Free Gift and Christmas Specials!

 Welcome to our Black Friday to Cyber Monday Sale with further markdowns on all our Christmas items in printed as well as Digital Christmas - saving you an extra 30% off sale prices until Mon, Nov 30 at 12 midnight!  We also have a Free Printable Gift when you place any order just add our Winter Birds Folding Mini Box and Gift Tag to your cart for free! 

 

With Christmas on Sale - all of our Printable Mini Christmas Boxes and Baskets are 30% off until Mon 12PM Nov 30/15 so now just $2.07 and you can print them again and again. Just add a little glitter and ribbon and you can create beautiful table settings, ornaments for trees, little gift boxes, or crop the images and use as embellishments.
Mini 2" Boxes and Gift Tags: Winter Kids , Santa's , Angels  , Winter Birds (free with order)
Printable Baskets, Bowls or Pockets in Christmas Kids ,  Retro Christmas ,  Santas,

Check out this adorable Christmas card by DT Leader Kathy Clement she created using a image from our Christmas 54 Image Pack - which is a free gift with orders being sent out over $15.00

Our Christmas Creative Scraps are also marked down to just $1.37 until Monday 12 PM and our Vintage Christmas Image Booklet is just $1.50!

We only have 2 Christmas theme Clear Stamp Set styles left in medium 4" x 6" size. Snow Bunnies is on sale for just $2.50 until Monday 12 PM.

Christmas Joy is our other Clear Christmas Set on Sale for $2.50. This is such a versatile set to create ornaments with. We had over 325 of this set in stock when we stopped have our Clear stamps manufactured - hence why we still have some sets.  Once sold out they will be turned into a Digital Stamp Set like our other sets. The Digital stamps are larger, can be re-sized, reversed, cropped and printed on a variety of mediums over and over. Digital items have no shipping and an instant download link when purchased.

There are  some fantastic jumbo Digital Christmas Stamp Sets that are larger and fun to color like our Vintage Santa Large Digital Set with 30 designs on sale for $6.96!

This is our Christmas Tree Set which has a great old truck, trees, garlands, ornaments and more in 68 PNG files total at 300 dpi with 39 Black/White designs as well as 29 full color files on sale 30% off till Mon 12pm for $6.96.

I hope you had a fabulous thanksgiving! 

I've been busy getting settled in the townhouse we bought and I will have to do a post with a bunch of before and after photos to share when we are done.

Wishing you joy & creativity 

Sandy

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November Linky Party Winner and Holiday Inspiration from our Design Team

Hello, Friends!

I want to thank all of you who played along in our November Linky Challenge and Blog Hop.  I had so much fun visiting your lovely blogs and peeking at your pretty projects.  You all did a great job!  I put all the numbers in a hat, and pulled out a lucky winner who will receive a $25 digital shopping spree at Crafty Secrets....and the winner is.....

Theresa P. of Theresa's Studio who shared this gorgeous Poppy Card with us:

Theresa chose to work with our Poppies Digital Art Stamps.  I just think her coloring is gorgeous, and I love the embossed background!  Thanks so much for joining the fun, Theresa, and congrats on your win!

The design team has been as busy as the elves in Santa's workshop making some amazing projects with holiday themes.  I'm so excited to share them with you here today, and I think you will agree, Santa would definitely give these beauties two thumbs up!

Our Creating with Vintage Christmas CD is loaded down with all sorts of fabulous goodies: papers, tickets, images, frames, templates and more!  If you are only buying one new Christmas goodie this year, this definitely deserves a spot in your shopping cart!  Sandy has loads of great photos and more info on this great resource in the Crafty Secrets online store.  Click HERE to read all about it.

 

 

Designer Ginny used it to make this very vintage tag.  I love how simply stylish it is. It mixes a great country vibe with the sophistication of black and white, which is a very popular look this year.

So many wonderful Christmas memories are made in the kitchen!  Designer Sheila captured her crew baking their hearts out in this pretty digital layout that uses the Christmas Collage Paper from the Vintage Christmas CD.  I love Sheila's tutorials because they make working with digital product easy.  I love the way she faded the photos right into the collage background here, and then added "icicles" to make it really special!.

 

Sheila used another paper from the Vintage Christmas CD to make this layout that celebrates her family traditions.  You can find it HERE on her blog. 

 

The papers in this CD are just so gorgeous.  I made a shabby chic Christmas wall hanging using the snow babies paper found on the CD.  One of the advantages of working with digital paper is that you can print it to whatever size you want it to be.  I printed this one out in 8x8 format, then stitched it up with flowers, tassels and pretty trims.  The sentiment is from our Vintage Christmas Digital Art Stamps.  You can read all about it HERE. 

 

If Retro is your favorite style, we've got you covered there as well.  Our Creating with Retro Christmas CD is packed with  all our Retro Designer Papers, Images, Ephemera and Templates! If you love Christmas and fun retro images like Santa, whimsical snowmen, adorable children and animals, festive frames, embellishments, words and more – you will love this series! A labor of love, this collection is packed full of a wide variety of over 170 fun Retro style images and festive embellishments for the holidays.  There are ready to print cards, place cards, postcards, frames waiting for your holiday photos, a snow capped alphabet, advent numbers and a fabulous array of embellishments.

 

Diane has been rockin' round the Christmas tree with so many of the adorable images on this CD.  Take a look at this darling winter card made with our Snow Babies paper.  It's just the perfect winter card, good for Christmas or a winter birthday, too!  I just love the snowbanks she made with her die cuts, don' t you?

 

Diane loves this image so much, she used it on another sweet wintry card, adding just a touch of glitter to make the snow baby sparkle.  You can read all about it HERE.  

Ginny is a master when it comes to creating a great retro card.  Just take a look at this super fun North Pole Retro Wall Hanging she created with the fabby postcards on the CD. This looks like it should be hanging on the door of Santa's Workshop at the North Pole!

 

If you don't like to work with digital, we still have some great Christmas items available in the store.Our double-sided Merry Christmas Creative Scraps  can be best described as wonderful vintage to adorable retro. This is a colorful collection of Christmas themed images and sentiments. The sheet includes 22 great images printed on a medium weight cardstock. The designs are perfect for dressing up Christmas cards, gift tags, scrapbook pages, keepsakes and an array of paper crafts.

 

I fussy cut Santa from one of the super cute tags to make this interactive Christmas frame.  The red pocket really opens, and you can tuck a tiny gift inside each day as you countdown the days til Christmas.  You can read all about how I made it HERE. I think you'll be surprised when you find out where I got the background paper! How's that for a teaser?

 

Visit the Crafty Secrets online store for a wide selection of Christmas goodies! We have stamps, digital stamps, papers, CD's, scraps, booklets and more. I hope you'll take a minute to stop by and shop.  Remember, all orders over $35 ship FREE!  And digital items can be instantly downloaded, so you don't even have to wait to get your craft on!

I'll be back soon with more fun samples from the team.  I'm so glad you stopped by today, and on behalf of Sandy Redburn, I wish you joy and creativity!

Cheerio,

Kathy Clement

Design Team Leader/Crafty Secrets

November 2015 Linky Challenge and Blog Hop: Visions of Sugarplums with FREE downloads and prizes

Hello, Friends!

Welcome to the Crafty Secrets November 2015 Linky Challenge and Blog Hop!  We have some sweet surprises in store for you this month with our Visions of Sugarplums  hop.  The design team was challenged to create a Christmas themed project that could be anything BUT a card.  You are going to find loads of great ideas for gift giving, stocking stuffers and decor that will  help you get your home ready for the holidays in this month's hop!  So turn on some Christmas tunes, grab yourself a cup of Christmas cheer and let's get this party started with some sneak peeks of our designer's beautiful projects!

If you have little people in your home, I know you've heard this question asked a million times?  "How many days til Christmas?"  Whether you are 3 or 103, this festive Christmas Countdown Calendar is a sweet, interactive way to keep track of the number of days til Christmas.   You will find loads of photos, details and supply lists for this festive project on my blog, Kathy by Design.

 

Victorian Christmas decor is back in style, and Ginny has created a wall hanging that captures our Visions of Sugarplums theme to perfection.  The pink color palette, Victorian image and stunning embellishments will have you swooning, and her tutorial on how to color match your flowers is one that you find very useful indeed.  You can read all about it, and see all the pretty details on Ginny's Blog, Polly's Paper Studio.

 

 Decorating the Christmas tree is something we all look forward to, and handmade ornaments are the best!  Sheila has created a darling hanging ornament that is just loaded with vintage goodness.  In her tutorial, she'll share how to change the colors on a digital PNG file.  If you are new to digital, Sheila does the BEST tutorials with clear, step by step instructions.  Visit her blog, Sheila Rumney Design and Photography to learn how, and then schedule a crafting day for the family so you can fill your tree with beautiful handmade ornaments like this one.

 

Don't you just love snowmen as Christmas decor?  You can keep your home filled with cheer right through the winter with this darling bottle cap ornament from Michele.  If you love retro images, these sweet ornaments will be at the top of your wish list, and you can find out how Michele made them on her blog, Thoughts of a Cardmaking Scrapbooker.

 

You can almost feel the brush of angel wings in Diane's beautiful Christmas ornaments.  The soft blues and touches of glitter and tinsel are absolutely heavenly!   Her tutorial will show you how to work with paper mache and digital papers.  Get all the info you'll need to make some of these pretties up on Diane's blog: Nellie's Nest.

 

Gifts in a jar are always popular at Christmas.  You can fill them up with jams or jellies, bath salts, cookie mixes, small candles, hand scrub or homemade candies.  When you have a jar as pretty as this one that Shantaie altered, it is a gift all on its own.  Shantaie always has such fun ideas for embellishing, and this month, she'll show you how to  make a tassel for embellishing your goodies.  You can find product links and this tutorial on Shantaie's blog, Inking Pink.

 

If you are in need of beautiful supplies for your Christmas Crafting, we have loads of options in our Crafty Vintage Girl online store.  If you like to work with digital product, our two Christmas CD's are filled to the brim with beautiful papers, Bingo cards, templates, printable images, PNG files, fonts, words and more.  If retro is your thing, you'll love our Creating with Retro Christmas CD for its bright colors, nostalgic images and playful feel.  

 

If you swoon over Victorian and traditional images, we've got you covered with our Creating with Vintage Christmas CD.  The rich colors, vintage patterns, templates, Post Cards, fonts, frames and ephemera on this CD are all that you need to fill your home with Christmas cheer. 

Our online store is filled with almost as many Christmas treats as Santa's workshop! We have both digital and traditional supplies in stock to help you and your Christmas helpers create a holiday that is Merry and Bright!  You'll find great deals and FREE SHIPPING on domestic orders over $35!  

I hope these sneak peeks have you in the mood to create, because we'd like to invite you to play along with us in this month's Linky Challenge.  Just create any project you like using your Crafty Secrets goodies, and link it up below this post.   You don't need to follow our Christmas theme, but it's always fun if you do.  We're offering a $25 digital shopping spree to one randomly chosen participant, and we'll all be stopping by your blogs to take a peek at your handiwork.  This is such a great way to bring new people to your blog, share your love of crafting and, maybe win a prize.  Note: You MUST use Crafty Secrets product in your entry to be eligible to win the prize. 

To thank you for playing along, we'd like to share some Christmas treats with you.  Plaids, checks and houndstooth patterns are very "in" this season, and this traditional red plaid paper from our Creating with Vintage Christmas CD is one of my all time favorite prints.  Simply click on the image then select the option to save the file to your computer.  You can print it out in any size you choose, on any type of paper you choose.  

And how about a digital stamp this month?  Last year, we released a fabulous digital stamp set called Deer Christmas. It is a stamper's dream with 37 digital stamps ranging from elegant etchings to fun, whimsical images, with deer being the unifying theme.  This handsome deer postcard can be used on its own, or as a card focal.  

Please remember that these images are not to be shared, sold or otherwise reproduced.  They are provided here for those who play along in this month's Linky Challenge. 

We are so glad you are joining us for this fun, inspirational hop and we can't wait to see what you make!  You have until midnight PST, Sunday November 15th to upload your project below.

On behalf of Sandy Redburn, I wish you joy and creativity!

Cheerio,

Kathy Clement

Design Team Leader/ Crafty Secrets


ENTER YOUR PROJECT HERE: