The 12 Days of Christmas Quest: Day Ten

Hello all! It is Thursday, January 3rd, and it is the tenth day of Christmas! It is time to continue the quest.

If you missed day one click HERE to start from the beginning and read all the details.

Day two: click HERE
Day three: click HERE
Day four: click HERE
Day five: click HERE
 Day six: click HERE

Day seven: click HERE

 Day eight: click HERE

Day nine: click HERE

As a quick refresher, each day during the 12 Days of Christmas (Dec. 25th to Jan. 5th), you're going to be given a task to follow. I'll be sending you on a quest to visit the stores or blogs of designers that I love in order to create specific Wish Lists that I want you to share with me. You will be able to leave your daily Wish List in a comment on the post for each respective day. If you follow the instructions for each day, you'll earn a free digital paper.

To make it fair for everyone, I will have comment moderation on and won't be publishing any comments for The 12 Days of Christmas until the quest is over.

Since this is a busy time of year for most people, you will have plenty of time to complete the quest. It is completely up to you as to when you submit your answers (daily, all at once at the end, or otherwise). AS LONG AS ALL your Wish Lists are submitted, no later than January 12th, 2019, then you will qualify to receive the paper(s) for whichever day(s) you participate.

Here is the paper up for grabs today...

This paper is 3600 x 3600 pixels, in jpg format and published at 300 dpi. Credits include: Brooke Gazarek, Janet Scott and Elif Sahin (Pixel Scrapper). In the zip folder that will be emailed should you successfully complete the quest, you will find a copy of the paper, its preview sheet, the credit information and my terms of use which are standard to all my folders.

Play along each of the 12 days and you'll earn yourself the full set! So, how about we get started with today's clue!!!

On the tenth day of Christmas,
it is time to earn paper number ten.
I'm running out of things to say, so I'll just say,
good tidings to all animals, children, women and men!!!

Task:
Head on over to the Christmas/Winter/New Year section of the Lunagirl store and let me know the name of THREE digital collage sheets that have ANGELS in them that you want to add to your Wish List. Hint: I've set the link below to go to the Christmas/Winter/New Year section of the store to make it easier to find.

Click HERE to head there now!

When you come up with a response for today's task, simply leave your Wish List in a comment on THIS POST. Now for many of you, especially those who have played in previous years, the odds are that I should have your e-mail address in order to send out the free paper you earn. If you are new to the quest or are not sure whether I might have your email address, please be sure to also leave your email address in your comment. If you would prefer to keep your address private, then check out the bottom paragraph from Day 1 for how to send it to me.

May your travels this year be safe ones! See you all tomorrow for day number eleven!!!

Cheers! 

The 12 Days of Christmas Quest: Day Ten

Hello all! It is Wednesday, January 3rd, and it is the tenth day of Christmas! It is time to continue the quest.

 If you missed day one click HERE to start from the beginning and read all the details.

Day two: click HERE
Day three: click HERE
Day four: clck HERE
Day five: click HERE

Day six: click HERE

Day seven: click HERE

Day eight: click HERE 

Day nine: click HERE

As a quick refresher, each day during the 12 Days of Christmas (Dec. 25th to Jan. 5th), you're going to be given a task to follow. I'll be sending you on a quest to visit the stores or blogs of designers that I love in order to create specific Wish Lists that I want you to share with me. You will be able to leave your daily Wish List in a comment on the post for each respective day. If you follow the instructions for each day, you'll earn a free digital paper.

To make it fair for everyone, I will have comment moderation on and won't be publishing any comments for The 12 Days of Christmas until the quest is over.

Since this is a busy time of year for most people, you will have plenty of time to complete the quest. It is completely up to you as to when you submit your answers (daily, all at once at the end, or otherwise). AS LONG AS ALL your Wish Lists are submitted, no later than January 12th, 2018, then you will qualify to receive the paper(s) for whichever day(s) you participate.

Here is the paper up for grabs today...

This paper is 3600 x 3600 pixels, in jpg format and published at 300 dpi. Credits include: Pixaroma (purchased through Deal Jumbo) and Textures 4 Photoshop. In the zip folder that will be emailed should you successfully complete the quest, you will find a copy of the paper, its preview sheet, the credit information and my terms of use which are standard to all my folders.

Play along each of the 12 days and you'll earn yourself the full set! So, how about we get started with today's clue!!!

On the tenth day of Christmas,
it is time to earn paper number ten.
I'm running out of things to say, so I'll just say,
good tidings to all animals, children, women and men!!!

Task:
Head on over to the Christmas/Winter/New Year section of the Lunagirl store and let me know the name of THREE digital collage sheets that have SANTA CLAUS in them that you want to add to your Wish List. Hint: I've set the link below to go to the Christmas/Winter/New Year section of the store to make it easier to find.

Click HERE to head there now!

When you come up with a response for today's task, simply leave your Wish List in a comment on THIS POST. Now for many of you, especially those who have played in previous years, the odds are that I should have your e-mail address in order to send out the free paper you earn. If you are new to the quest or are not sure whether I might have your email address, please be sure to also leave your email address in your comment. Now if you are afraid of being spammed, you can write your address by adding {at} and {dot} in their respective spots (see sample below) so that robot spammers won't grab it from the comments when they are published. If you would prefer that no one else see your email address, then you can send it to me in an email to decossesdynamitedoodles {at} yahoo {dot} ca (be sure to replace 'at' and 'dot' with the appropriate symbols) or by clicking HERE to bring up my address in your email program, with the subject heading, "12 DoC 2017: Email Addy for DP Mail Out".

May your travels this year be safe ones! See you all tomorrow for day number eleven!!!

Cheers! 

The 12 Days of Christmas Quest: Day Eleven

Hello everyone! It is the eleventh day of Christmas and it is time to continue the quest. Can you believe there are just two days to go?!

If you missed day one click HERE to start from the beginning and read all the details.

Day two: click HERE
Day three: click HERE
Day four: clck HERE
Day five: click HERE

Day six: click HERE

Day seven: click HERE

Day eight: click HERE

Day nine: click HERE
Day ten: click HERE

As a quick refresher, each day during the 12 Days of Christmas (Dec. 25th to Jan. 5th), you're going to be given a task to follow. I'll be sending you on a quest to find something or provide me with certain facts from the stores or blogs of designers that I love. Then, it will just be a matter of emailing me the answer to my query and you'll earn a free digital paper.

Since this is a busy time of year for most people, you will have plenty of time to complete the quest. It is completely up to you as to when and how you submit your answers (daily, all at once at the end, or otherwise) AS LONG AS all your answers are sent in no later than January 12th, 2017.

Here is the paper up for grabs today...

This paper is 3600 x 3600 pixels, in jpg format and published at 300 dpi. Credits include: Amanda Ilkov (purchased through The Fancy Deal) and 8 Red Fish Creative (obtained from Design Cuts). In the zip folder that will be emailed should you successfully complete the quest, you will find a copy of the paper, its preview sheet, the credit information and my terms of use which are standard to all my folders.

Play along each of the 12 days and you'll earn yourself the full set! So, how about we get started with today's clue!!!

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
it is time to earn paper number eleven.
It is a very well know fact that, all good designers

 and card makers go to heaven!!!

Task:
Head on over to the Christmas/Winter/New Year section of the Lunagirl store and let me know the FULL NAME of all the digital collage sheets that have the word ANGEL or ANGELS in the title. Hint: I've set the link below to go to the Christmas/Winter/New Year section of the store to make it easier to find.

Click HERE to head there now!

When you come up with a response, send an email to decossesdynamitedoodles {at} yahoo {dot} ca (be sure to replace 'at' and 'dot' with the appropriate symbols) or by clicking HERE to bring up my address in your email program, with the subject heading, "12 Days of Christmas: Day Eleven".

May the happiness you experienced during the holidays, last the whole year through! See you all tomorrow for day number twelve, the final day!!!

Cheers! 

Motivational Monday & PoP Midway Reminder: GROWTH

 If you are new to my blog and would like to know why I started Motivational Monday, please go HERE.

Hello and a warm welcome to those of you stopping by this Monday.  I appreciate you taking the time to come over and read what I have to say.  I also appreciate the birthday wishes that you left me.  Thanks so much for helping to make my day yesterday, a special one.

This evening, I'll be sharing a reflection on growth along with a couple freebies at the bottom of the post.  The reflection, and one of the freebies can also be found over on my Path of Positivity challenge blog as part of the midway post where the theme this month is GROWTH.  

On with today's thoughts...

Keep on Growing

It doesn't matter whether you are 25, 50 or even 75!  You are never too old to grow and develop.  We may get stuck and mired down at times during our life that makes us think we'll never reach our objectives but it doesn't matter.  We can always pick up and start again.

My husband is one example of this.  He had a difficult time as a child in school and was told by many that he would never amount to anything.  His own mother and many of his siblings would often call him 'stupid' and 'a retard'.  Both terms that shouldn't be part of anyone's vocabulary!  He dropped out of high school but later went on to complete his GED (which is a general equivalence of a high school diploma), and then put himself through night school to become a Bookkeeper all while working at the same time.  Years later, not satisfied with where he was at, he decided to go back to school--at the age of 36.  Again, amidst ridicule such as, "you're too old" and "what are you thinking".  He ended up graduating from a two year program and went on to have a very satisfying career in that field for over 10 years.

He knew what he wanted and he never gave up.  He didn't stay complacent with where his life was at.  He didn't give up and get stuck on what someone else's ideas of success meant.  Even when he struggled with reading and writing, he never gave up wanting to learn and grow.   Of course, today we know that he has both learning disabilities (visual, auditory AND kinaesthetic) and Attention Deficit Disorder having undergone testing.  Had he been properly diagnosed as a child, he may not have had as many educational struggles as he did.  However, even facing those difficulties he never gave up and continued wanting to learn and grow.

Even today, after having retired from his career at the local college, he has gone on to learn a new career as a tax professional.  This is his fifth year with the organization and each year he must learn more in order to improve his skills.  At the age of 65 (well, he will be on Wednesday),  he show no signs of ever wanting to stop the process of learning.

This is just one example.  There are many places in our lives for us to grow and develop.  It doesn't matter whether it is growth related to our career or business, our personal life or our spiritual one.  It is important that each of us continues to develop and grow throughout life.  It can be the little things we work on or it can be the bigger ones too.  The key is that you keep trying to improve yourself and work towards the person you were always meant to be!

 __________________________________________________________________________________

Here are the promised freebies.  The first was offered up at the challenge start and the second was just offered up today for the midway...

© 2015

Font Information:

• Nickainley font and Blenda font created by Seniors Studio

© 2015

Font Information:

• Blenda Script font created by Seniors Studio
• Slim Joe font created by Ion Lucin

Please be sure to click on the images to bring them up into the lightbox in their proper size before saving them.  Click on the font name to take you to a download location.  All these fonts were listed as free for commercial use at the time each of these project were made, and as such, it is my understanding, that I am within my rights to use these fonts in my creations and offer them to others.  Please refer to my full terms of service for what you can and cannot do with these digital creations.

These word art creations are in png format and published at 300 ppi. They are quite large in order to accommodate different programs that people work with.   If you are a card maker you can always resize them smaller without distorting the quality.  

Credit Notes For These Creations:
© Lisa L. Décosse. PUO. However, you are allowed to use the sentiments on handmade projects that you intend to sell on a small scale basis provided credit is given. You also need to include a credit note and a link to this blog should you use any of my images in your creations and post them on your blog. Please be sure to familiarize yourself with my full terms of use found in the 'Download Instructions & T.O.U.' tab at the top of this page. Of important note:  Please do not share my images with family, friends, etc. Additionally, do not post any images to file sharing services like Box®, 4-Shared®, etc. Instead, please direct people to my blog(s) so they can grab the image for themselves. If you would like to post a watermarked version of the image, please contact me to obtain one.

_______________________________________________________________

I invite you to go and check out, not only, the fabulous creations some members of my Design Team had the opportunity to create over on the Path of Positivity (click HERE for the midway) but also some of the great entries into this month's challenge (click HERE for the challenge).  I also invite you to come over and enter a project yourself, if you haven't already.  

This month our sponsor is Sparkle N Sprinkle...

With spring here for many of us, this is the perfect month to be exploring the concept of growth.  
 
Well, that is it for today!  Have a great week ahead everyone! 

Until next time,

Motivational Monday & PoP #24 Midway Reminder: SERENDIPITY

 If you are new to my blog and would like to know why I started Motivational Monday, please go HERE.

This will be another packed post as I'll be sharing this month's Motivational Monday passage, a card I created and a couple freebies.  The reflection, my project and one of the freebies can also be found over on the midway post at the Path of Positivity.  This month the theme is SERENDIPITY.  On with today's thoughts... 

Sweet Serendipity

Ah sweet serendipity... that fortunate hapenstance where luck has us finding valuable or pleasant things that we had not looked for or anticipated.  Today I'm going to do something a bit different.  I'm going to share a personal story of how serendipity worked in my own life.

A long time ago, in a small town in central Ontario, a young girl dreamed of what her future might be.  She had always been fascinated with sign language and hoped one day to learn it.  Now when this young girl applied for college she found only one program that she was interested in, among all the courses available at all the colleges in Ontario.  That program would teach her how to work with children who had exceptional needs.  Just after her 19th birthday she received a letter stating she had been accepted into the college of her choice.  With deep joy she let out a little 'whoop'.  However, the next sentence took it away.  While she had been accepted into the college, unfortunately the program she chose was no longer available.  Her poor heart was broken.  Now what was she going to do?  There was only one program she had been interested in.  However, as she kept reading, the letter went on to recommend other programs that might be similar and her heart started to re-mend.  She read through the first two and no interest sparked but then she got to the next one in the list.  As it happened, a new program was being implemented that very year.  The program was called, 'Sign Language Communicator'.  At first she did a bit of a double take and had to read it again.  Sign Language?  Really?  If she'd seen that one listed, it would have been her first choice off the bat.  It seems that serendipity stepped in at just the right moment.  So, this young girl, full of dreams for her future enrolled in the Sign Language Communicator program and toddled of to college that very fall.

Now let me tell you another story.  This time it is the story of a man who was not satisfied with where his life was and decided to go back to school.  This man had always been fascinated with sign language and the deaf community.  In fact, he volunteered regularly with The Canadian Hearing Society in the city he lived in, in western Ontario.  He applied for and was accepted into St. Mary's college in Michigan into their sign language program.  He was very excited.  Unfortunately, it turned out that the tuition was going to be outrageously expensive and since the college was in the States, he could expect no help with funding from the Ontario government.  His poor heart was broken.  Now what was he going to do?  There was only one program he had been interested in.  As it turns out, he soon found out about a new program being offered in his home province and his heart started to re-mend.  He applied to the college offering it and was accepted into the college.  It seems that serendipity stepped in at just the right moment.  So, this man, full of dreams for a different future enrolled in the Sign Language Communicator program and toddled of to college that very fall.

There were twenty some odd students in the program.  Mostly females but there ended up being two men.  One was married and one was single.  Since the class size was so small, everyone got to know each other well although groups started to form.  Mostly, the more mature students hung out together and the younger ones in there own click but everyone knew everyone and all were friendly.  

During the second year of the program, the young girl started to struggle with the actual signing part of the program while the man struggled with the other components.  It seemed natural that these two come together to help each other out and so they did.  Within a month though, their friendship started developing into something else and a few weeks later they became a couple.  Three months later they became engaged, and fifteen months later they were married.  On April 29th of this year they will celebrate their 26th wedding anniversary together.  Neither of these people expected it to happen.  As the man often stated, "he didn't go to college to end up with a wife but somehow it worked out that he found one anyway".

Ah sweet serendipity...that fortunate hapenstance where luck came into play and directed the future of two people's lives.  Neither us these people had anticipated that the college program of their desire would come into existence.  Without that happening, these two people would never have met, never fallen in love and married.  Had it not been for the program opening up at just the right time, their lives would have taken very different paths.  Instead serendipity stepped in and they both found pleasant things that they had not looked for nor anticipated.  The quote by Lawrence Black that I used on the front of my card says it all as it could apply to both circumstances--their college program and their subsequent love:

 Serendipity: 

Look for something,
find something else, and
realize that what you've
found is more suited to your
needs than what you thought
you were looking for.

All I know is that without serendipity coming into play, I would have had a much different life.  Thank you serendipity!

__________________________________________________________________________________

This month our sponsors are...

 Lunagirl

and Sami Stamps

Next up, is the card I made for the midway using an image from Lunagirl.  It was the perfect opportunity to make an anniversary card for the hubs.  So you know what is coming...

HUBS

BACK AWAY

FROM THE

COMPUTER!

FRONT

Digital Image Details: 

• Wedding Day Digital Collage Sheet:  As stated above, this wonderful collage sheet is from Lunagirl.  If you are interested in purchasing this great selection of images, click on the watermark to head over to the page it can be found on in the store.  I decided to frame some of the images and basically create a paper for the backdrop to the sentiment.

Digital Embellishments:

• I created frames for each of the Lunagirl images along with a frame for the sentiment using templates from Sheila Reid, a designer with Pixel Scrapper.  

Digital Sentiment Details: 

• One I created.  Here is a closer look at it...

INSIDE

Digital Sentiment Details:

• One I created.

OVERALL

Paper Products:

• Card base: Michael's Recollection's Cardstock, cream.

Digital Paper Products: 

• The fabulous rich brown paper that I used in the background is one of the great Handmade Papers available through Nicecrane Designs.  I just love these papers.  If you are interested in purchasing this great selection of handmade papers, click on the watermark to head over to the page it can be found on in the Nicecrane Designs store.

Challenges I am hoping to enter:

• http://www.wordartwednesday.blogspot.ca/ (5E)-- Anything Goes 
• http://creativefingerschallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/ -- Anything Goes
• http://yourscrapbookplace.blogspot.ca/ -- Anything Goes
• http://ttcrd.blogspot.ca (2E)-- Anything Goes
• http://craftingfromtheheartchallengeblog.blogspot.ca/ -- Anything Goes
• more to follow

 __________________________________________________________________________________ 

Finally, that brings me to a couple of freebies.  The first was offered up at the challenge start and the second was just offered up today for the midway...

© 2015

The quote has been divided into two just in case you want to split it up and put the first part in a different area.  You can easily pull the two parts together to use them in the same area, as I did for the inside of my card.

Font Information: 

• Windsong  font created by Bright Ideas
• Libre Caslon font created by Impallari Type

© 2015

Font Information:

• Foglihten font created by gluk
• Butterscotch font and Butterscotch_Alt_p_to_z created by Nicky Laatz

Please be sure to click on the images to bring them up into the lightbox in their proper size before saving them.  Click on the font name to take you to a download location.  The first three fonts were listed as free for commercial use at the time this project was made.  The last one, Butterscotch, is one I have purchased as part of a bundle and the licence states that it may be used for commercial purposes.  As such, it is my understanding, that I am within my rights to use these fonts in my creations and offer them to others.  Please refer to my full terms of service for what you can and cannot do with this digital creation.

These word art creations are in png format and published at 300 ppi. They are quite large in order to accommodate different programs that people work with.   If you are a card maker you can always resize them smaller without distorting the quality.   

Credit Notes For These Creations:
© Lisa L. Décosse. PUO. However, you are allowed to use the sentiments on handmade projects that you intend to sell on a small scale basis provided credit is given. You also need to include a credit note and a link to this blog should you use any of my images in your creations and post them on your blog. Please be sure to familiarize yourself with my full terms of use found in the 'Download Instructions & T.O.U.' tab at the top of this page. Of important note:  Please do not share my images with family, friends, etc. Additionally, do not post any images to file sharing services like Box®, 4-Shared®, etc. Instead, please direct people to my blog(s) so they can grab the image for themselves. If you would like to post a watermarked version of the image, please contact me to obtain one.

_______________________________________________________________

I invite you to go and check out, not only, the fabulous creations some members of my Design Team had the opportunity to create over on the Path of Positivity (click HERE for the midway) but also some of the great entries into this month's challenge (click HERE for the challenge).  I also invite you to come over and enter a project yourself, if you haven't already.  There are so many kinds of cards that would work for this theme, including wedding and anniversary cards.  I'm sure that you can think of some situation where serendipity came into play.

Well, that is it for today!  Have a great week ahead everyone! 

Until next time,