A Fabulous Friday Mother's Day Card

Wishing you top of the morning on this Fabulous Friday morning! Thanks so much if you are starting your day with me today. This week, Tracy, the owner of Sugar Creek Hollow has challenged her design team to make a Mother's Day card. So I have put together this quick and easy card, the highlights of which are the beautiful Sugar Creek Hollow images along with a super Spellbinders diecut and Cuttlebug embossed panel. Actually, what took me the longest was making the rolled lace flower. I made a completely different one first, which took awhile and then it was too big so I set it aside for another project and whipped up this one instead.

Be sure to hurry on over to the Sugar Creek Hollow store to grab the Fabulous Friday Freebie. This week Tracy is giving you the lovely Mother's Day sentiment that I have used inside the Mirror Frame. And you'll definitely want to stop by the blogs of the rest of the design team and see the wonderful Mother's Day card they have designed for this Fabulous Friday.

♥Donna♥Stephanie♥Loretta♥Cheri♥

♥Sarah♥Dani♥Tracy-Owner♥Kelly♥

♥Marsha♥Joan♥Nancy♥

♥Joseline-DT Coordinator♥

♥Kristina♥Cassie♥Bernadette - May Guest Designer♥

Thanks so much for stopping by this morning and for any comment you care to leave. I love to hear from you, whether it's comments or questions. It's so nice to know folks are out there and reading my blog!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges:

Stamp Simply - April Showers Bring May Flowers (3-D Flowers)

S2G Twisted Thursdays - Add the words 'Mom' or 'Mother' to your card

A Prairie Fairy Preview

More big news this week. As of May 1st, I will be on the Prairie Fairy's Design Team. What an exciting week this has been for me. First Isabella's Sketchbook and now the Prairie Fairy. This card uses a digital image from The Prairie Fairy. I created it with the specifics to fit both the Mojo Monday sketch and the Shabby Tea Room challenge. I saw a card last week using Aida cloth and that it was wonderfully shabby. Since I have an entire box full of it in my closet, left over from my cross stitch days, I decided to drag it out and re-purpose it. I also used it to create a little hand made flower. Then, of course, I couldn't resist getting out the embroidry floss and doing a few cross stitches too. The paper is Afternoon Tea (retired SU) and the images are colored with Copics. The punch is from SU and the embossing folder from Cuttlebug.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges:

Stamp Simply - April Showers Bring May Flowers

Chrisma Cardz - Girly Card with Flowers

Cute Card Thursday - Make Your Own (I made the flower)

Paper Play - Pretty Pastels

Two Challenges and Big News!

Welcome to my Wednesday post. It's the day I always share what I have made for the Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge. This week's challenge is to make an easel card. The team has done a great job and has some lovely samples to show you. Be sure to stop by and check them out. Our sponsor this week is Digital Delights and the random drawing winner will receive a $10 gift certificate for digital images from Wendy's store.

For the past two days I have had some exciting news that I have been dying to share! I was invited to join a brand new digi stamp company's first design team. It's none other than Isabella's Sketchbook! I discovered her store and challenge blog about a month ago and fell in love with her images. She has such a wonderful vintage/retro style to her drawings. I've used several of them in recent weeks so if you are a regular reader, you have already seen some of her work.

Today is the big announcement about the design team over on Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge blog. I hope you will stop by and see who else made the team. There is some major talent on this team and there will be some wonderful samples to inspire you. This week it's an open challenge. All you have to do to enter is use one of Isabella's images. The winner of this week's challenge will receive six of Isabella's digital images. So what are you waiting for. See ya over there!

If you're interested in the details, here they are in brief: Both images are from Isabella's Sketchbook, the DP is Cosmo Cricket (which I hated to use, but just felt it went perfectly with these images!), sentiment typed in Metalic Avacodo font on my computer. Other: Antique Linen and Vintage Photo distressing inks, Martha Stewart punch, Spellbinders dies, Cuttlebug Oliva alphabet dies to cut the X and O, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, colored with Copics and yes, I did make the cute tiny yellow ribbon flower. Oh, and yes there is an 's' on 'always'; it's just behind the hug. Obviously I forgot to test for alignment before I glued the stopper down. And one last detail, totally irrelevant, I had a BLAST coloring that image of the little girl. I was grinning the entire time!

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I always love to hear from you!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges for this card:

Your Next Stamp - Going Dotty

Stamptacular Sunday - Sew Special

City Crafter - Easel Card

My Time to Craft - Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

Die Cut Dreams - Make Your Own Flowers

Pollycraft - May Your Own Flowers

One Stitch at a Time - Flowers

Craft Your Passion - Recipe - 1 ribbon, 2 DPs, 1 flower

Sentimental Sundays - Blooming Gorgeous (flower(s) and sentiment)

ABC Challenge - T is for Thank You

May Flowers

A good Tuesday morning to you! So happy you stopped by to see what I have made for this fortnight's Creative Card Crew challenge. It was my turn to set the challenge this time and I decided the theme would be April Showers Bring May Flowers. I think most of the rest of the DT went with the April Showers part of the theme, but since I already did an April showers card last week, I decided on May Flowers. I really wanted to do a vintage image for this project and rather than actual flowers I decided on seeds for flowers. I thought this Burpee's Seed catalog cover from 1901 was the perfect image for this project. I followed last week's Shabby Tea Room sketch. I was really challenged by that sketch and didn't think the first card I did for it was quite right so wanted to try it again. Unfortunately, I forgot that I couldn't publish this card until Tuesday so I missed submitting it for last week's challenge. On second thought, after thinking about this further, I am going to enter it into the Shabby Tea Room for this week's challenge. The theme is Comforts of Home and I think a flower garden definitely qualifies as a homey comfort.

Okay, the details - no stamping here, but ink distressed the edges with Creamy Caramel ink (what is Stampin' Up THINKING? Discontinuing my favorite distressing ink and one of my favorite card stocks?), the wonderful vintage image was downloaded from the Shabby chic papirskatter. I used the SU border punch from Sell-a-Bration. Card stock is Creamy Caramel, Not Quite Navy and Very Vanilla. Flower by Prima, colored with Copics, ribbon from Michael's sale bin and button from Foo-fa-la.

Now it's time stop by the Creative Card Crew to see what the other DT members have for your inspiration today. You'll want to be sure to make a card for this challenge to be entered into the drawing for this lovely Rachel Ann Miller stamp given by our sponsor Crafty Addicts.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for any comment you care to leave. Have a wonderful day!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges:

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Vintage Style

Practical Scrappers - Floss, Fibers & Ribbon

The Shabby Tea Room - Comforts of Home

Dogwood Revisited

Another wonderful challenge this week at Our Creative Corner by our April host Dana Grothaus - Blooming Blossoms - a challenge that fits perfectly into this time of the year. I titled my post Dogwood Revisited because I won this dogwood stamp as a result of another dogwood card I entered into a recent Caardvark's challenge. The sponsor was JustRite stamps and this card came in first place. I am still so excited because I won the entire JustRite release for the month of April plus a spot as a guest designer. So here is the very first card I have ever made with a JustRite stamp. The image was so quick and easy to color. I LOVE how their stamps have the interchangeable frame around them and they fit perfectly into the Nestabilities die cuts.

Update to Post: I didn't have time to complete the inside of the card before the OCC DT card was due. However, I decided the card was perfect for a Mother's Day card and completed the inside with Mother's Day sentiments. Here's a look at the inside panels.




Card Details: SU Pink Pirouette and Wild Wasabi, digital DP, all edges sponged with Antique Linen distress ink, image colored with Copics, lots of stitching, paper piercing, distressing, etc. If there is anything specific you are dying to know, let me know in the comments or email.

The rest of the OCC team has some awesome samples for your inspiration. Hope you will also swing by their blogs and let them know how much you enjoy their work!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Blessings & hugs,



Challenges:
Secret Crafter - Distressing
Clearly Inspired - All Tied Up
Crafty Catz - Use Stitching
Daring Cardmakers - Die Cut Crazy
Sew Many Challenges - Anything Goes
Belli Challenge - Die Cut Shapes
Little Red Wagon - Use Ruffles
Tellen's Place - Use Ink Distressing

JustRite Friday Challenge - May Day or Mother's Day

Paper Cutz - Mother's Day

Pixie Cottage - Mother's Day and/or Sketch

Gingersnaps Creations - Botanical

Tea for One

Good morning, thank you so much for making my Fabulous Friday post part of your morning routine. I'm here with my design team card for Sugar Creek Hollow, but that's not all. Tracy has a Friday Freebie for you at the store site so make sure you stop by and pick it up. For today's card, I've used two Sugar Creek Hollow digital images - the tea pot and the tea cup. I used the layout for the Shabby Tea Room sketch this week so I could enter my card in their challenge. What a tough sketch. I think it is one of the most difficult, er challenging, sketches I have ever done. I spent several days trying to figure out what I was going to do for that sketch challenge. I knew I wanted to work it in with my Fabulous Friday card for Sugar Creek Hollow. I'm quite pleased with the end result. I think the blue and the lace really sets off the tea pot and cup nicely.

The Details: The CS is Bashful Blue from SU and the designer paper is printed on my home printer. I altered the blues in both the print and the gingham to match Bashful Blue. The tea set is digitally paper pieced using Photoshop Elements 7. No stamping and no coloring on this project. A CB border embossing folder was used, the flower is handmade using Bashful Blue CS and the leaf branch is a Sizzix die. The chunky glitter was purchased at Jo-Ann's. I think that's it, but if you have any questions, feel free to leave it in the comments or email me.

I hope you will take time to stop by the rest of the design teams' blogs and leve them some love. They have some amazing samples to show you today using Sugar Creek Hollow digital images. And don't forget to pick up your Friday Freebie!

♥Donna♥Stephanie♥Loretta♥Cheri♥
♥Sarah♥Dani♥Tracy-Owner♥Kelly♥
♥Marsha♥Joan♥Nancy♥
♥Joseline-DT Coordinator♥
♥Kristina♥Cassie♥

Thanks again for stopping by. I love to hear from you so comments are appreciated! Hope you have a Fabulous Friday!

Hugs & blessings,

Challenges:

The Shabby Tea Room - Sketch Challenge

Dare You to Digi Stamp - Use Flowers

ABC Challenge - S is for Sparkle

Wildflower Wednesday - Paper Piecing

A Yummy Challenge

I'm so happy you stopped by today because I have a special treat to share with you! Have you seen the yummy digital images over at Isabella's Sketchbook? Isabella has so many delicious treats, all fat free, in store for you. I was honored to be invited to be the guest host on her challenge blog this week and her mouthwatering images inspired me to set the challenge as Favorite Foods. Pie is high on my list of favorite foods so I selected this rich pie a la mode as the image I wanted to work with this week.

Before I printed the image, I created the sentiment in Publisher, layered it on Isabella's digi and also set it to print with the checked border (it's so much fun to see what you can do on your computer with the digi images!). The blue and white DP was also printed on my home printer. The image was colored with Copics. The black panel was dry embossed with the Cuttlebug Victoria EF and then brayered with Versamark and clear embossed.

I hope to see a project entered for you in Isabella's challenge this week. You do have to use one of her images, but they are really reasonably priced and very high quality. Have fun browsing through her sketchbook and then whip up a delictable delight for this week's challenge. You just might win a gift certificate for more IS images! Oh, and one last note about Isabella's. She is setting up her first design team and has a DT call going on through April 26th. You can read all about it here.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by and for your lovely comments about my cards!

Hugs & blessings,

Challenges:

Paper Sundaes - No people

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Add stitches

April Showers

My goodness, it's Wednesday already! This week is going by in a woosssssh! I'm here today to share my Creative Inspirations DT card with you. We have a sketch to challenge you this week. I really loved the sketch - too bad I covered up all the nice layout features with my embellishments. Why did I spend so much time dry embossing and then clear heat embossing that black panel, and then sewing it down with a fancy stitch? All you can see is a little corner and edge peeking out. I am going to use this sketch again and hopefully will restrain myself next time. What do you think - can I do it?

The Details (there are lots of dets this time as I worked on this silly thing all day on Tuesday): The wonderful vintage calendar is from a site called Clearly Vintage which has an abundance of free vintage images. I downloaded all 12 months and hope to do a card a month with them. I printed it onto Very Vanilla CS and sponged it with Creamy Caramel.

The DP is digital from Designer Digitals, again printed on my home computer. Last week, a reader left me a question about ink usage when printing DP. It's really not too user unfriendly. I put a color cartridge into my printer in November and didn't change it again until March. Nowadays I don't do too much color printing other than card making so most of that was to print DP. I am not displeased with that amount of ink usage - especially for the instant gratification I get when I can alter and print my own paper, matching it up with other elements I am using.

The DP was also sponged with Creamy Caramel and distressed. The circle panel was stamped with the SU Script BG stamp in Vintage Photo and sponged also with Creamy Caramel. The black panel was dry embossed with the CB Victoria EF and then brayered with Versamark and clear embossed. I made up my own sentiment "There can be no rainbow without drops of rain", printed it and then dry embossed it with the CB Organic border EF, sponged it with Creamy Caramel, punched it with a MS border punch and sewed it down. Bow is crinkled seam binding, flourish is a die cut from a BossKut die with Creamy Caramel paper and sponged with the same ink.

The flower is hand made using a Spellbinders Flower Petals die. My inspiration came from this post. You have to see the amazing flowers and really beautiful card Grace Nywening made. Using Very Vanilla CS, I cut four each of three sizes of flowers and stamped both sides with a Tim Holtz floral flourish stamp in Vintage Photo. Then I sponged all edges with Creamy Caramel and snipped each petal from the edge to almost the center. Then I squirted each die cut with Tattered Angels glimmer mist to saturate them, shaped each individual layer and let them dry. Then I stacked them together, gluing each layer. Finally I am happy with a flower that I made! I thought it was the perfect finishing touch.

So, I spent way longer than I should have messing around with this little masterpiece. Hope you like it! I sincerely appreciate the time you take to leave me a comment.

Please check out the wonderful sketch and fab prize this week at the Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge blog. Actually, it's two prizes: super yummy ribbons from Crafty Ribbons AND the opportunity to be our guest designer for the month of May!!! The other DT members have some wonderful work for your inspiration! Hop on over, get inspired and make a challenge card for this week's sketch challenge!

Hugs and blessings,

Challenges:

Caardvark's - Monochromatic

Quixotic Challenges - Make a Splash

My Time to Craft - Quick Quotes

All That Scraps - Sewing on your project

Time to Say Good Bye

This is my last challenge for the Pile it On design team. I joined the team in January for a three month term and could have renewed for another three months. But I have been feeling a little pressed for time lately, plus some other opportunities have presented themselves. So I am saying good bye to this team. I have really enjoyed the opportunity to work with such a high profile, talented team. And I have really learned to work the challenges - maybe you have noticed? It's been a lot of fun, but it is time to move on. For my last Pile it On card, the challenge is spring and I again chose one of Isabella's Sketchbook images. This one is called Mary, Mary. Isn't she adorable? Coloring all these images lately is really giving me a workout with the Copics. I've had them for a year but haven't used them much. Now I am really putting my coloring skills to the test and trying to learn as I go. And I'm wondering how soon they are going to run out of ink!

The Details: Nothing too complex here. Used Cosmo Cricket DP, SU CS and some Spellbinders dies. I sponged the image panel with Antique Linen distress ink and the other edges were sponged with Close to Cocoa ink. The ribbon is retired SU and the brad (I think) is Basic Gray from a couple of years ago (found it my stash and wondered why I was saving it - LOL!).

Here are my Pile it On challenges for this week:

Pile it On - Is it Finally Spring?

Allsorts - In Stitches

Paper Makeup - Use 5 embellies (2 buttons, 2 ribbons, paper piercing)
Res-Q-Challenge - Take a mental health break
Stamp Something - Something layered

Cute Card Thursday - Touchy Feely (texture)

Meljen's Designs - Add those 3-D elements

All That Scraps - Distressing

Creative Belli Challenge - Die cut shapes
Papertake Weekley - Cutie Pie

Corrosive Challenge- Paper Piercing

Hope you will stop on over to the Pile it On blog to see how the other team members are celebrating spring. There's a DT call going on over there too, so what are you waiting for?

Thanks so much for stopping by and for all the lovely comments! Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!

Blessings, & hugs,

Butterfly and Blossoms

Back again on this beautiful Saturday morning to bring you the latest challenge from Our Creative Corner. This week, our hostess Dana Grothaus has challenged us to include a butterfly in our creation. I have been so busy this week and ended up making this card at the last minute, without much preplanning. I realized too late that I don't have a very good selection of butterflies - in stamps or embellishments. I wanted to use this sketch/image from Isabella's Sketchbook so any butterfly I included had to be fairly small. I found this small metal one in my stash and embossed it with Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Power in silver to give it a distressed look. The sentiment was printed on vellum on my home printer and clear embossed, the edges were ripped and sponged with Close to Cocoa ink. All other edges were sponged with Antique Linen distress ink. The CS and DP is all from SU. The image was colored with Copics.

I really like the image, but the card is maybe not one of my best efforts. I think my mojo was a little flat after making two cards yesterday. Hope to get a little creative break over the weekend but I do have another card due on Sunday for Pile it On.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you will also stop by Our Creative Corner and see what the rest of the team has done with the butterfly challenge.

Wishing you a wonderful Saturday of relaxation and refreshment.

Hugs & blessings,

Linda

A little P. S. - A reader inquired about the font I used to print the sentiment on my home computer. It is called Black Rose and I downloaded it from this site http://scrapvillage.com/fontsb.htm. I have been using their fonts for several years with no problems. They have tons of great FREE fonts. I find I am printing more and more of my own sentiments on my home computer.

Challenges:

One Stop Craft Challenge - Things with Wings

CCEE Stampers - Recuperating (from tax day)

Two in One

Two posts in one day...two tags on one card...strange happenings here at the Funkie Junkie. I don't think I have ever posted twice in one day, but I made two cards for today and felt two posts were better than one combined. A couple of weeks ago, I entered this card into a challenge at The Prairie Fairy Challenge and it came in #1. The prize was three wonderful Prairie Fairy digital images and an opportunity to be a guest designer for this week's challenge. The challenge is use eyelets and string on your card. This is the card I made for the challenge, using one of the digis I won. I really struggled with the eyelets part. I hardly ever use eyelets any more and I kept noodling it, trying to come up with a creative way of using them. Finally I decided to make a tag, but I needed more than one eyelet, plus the image didn't really fit on the tag die size I have, so I came up with the wacky idea of "stamping" the image across two tags. It was a little tricky with the printer, but I got it to work.

Not too many details to describe. I used the same retired SU Porcelain Prints. The tags were dei cut with a Spellbinders die and the image was colored with Copics. I added some Stickles to her wings for a bit of shimmer.

Be sure to stop by the Prairie Fairy Challenge blog today and check out the wonderful work the designers over there do. I'm so excited I got to join in the fun with them this week!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you are getting the weekend off to a great start!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges entered:

Dare You to Digistamp - Metal

Quixotic Challenge - Heavy Metal

Paper Cutz - Use a tag (haha, I should win - isnt' 2 better than 1?)

Something Completely Different - My 'D' is for diecut

Meljen's Designs - 3D

Flutter By Wednesdays - Open challenge, just include a fairy, angel or butterfly

For Fun Challenges - Make an encouraging card

Vintage Boots

It's Fabulous Friday again over at Sugar Creek Hollow. You know what that means, don't you? It's the Friday Freebie and I think Tracy has something great for us today. Be sure to stop by and pick it up! This is my design team card for Fabulous Friday. We had a sketch challenge this week and I decided to use the boots. It was one of the first images in the store, but I have never used it. I wanted to do something with a strong vintage flavor this week and the boots fit the bill perfectly!

Details: Digital image from Sugar Creek Hollow. The paper is the retired SU Porcelain Prints matched up with the also-retired Blue Bayou, a combination which I never seem to get tired of. The corners of the die cut were embossed with the Cuttlebug Fancy Corners embossing folder and brayered with Blue Bayou ink. The edges of the DP were sponged with Old Paper distressing ink, as was the circle focal image. I went a bit heavier than usual with the sponging on the focal image because the first few passes were pretty gray from the printer ink smearing a bit, even though I had heat-set it. I kept sponging and blended away the gray. The flowers were hand made using the Cuttlebug Flower die and topped off with a silver-toned bead cap I purchased on eBay.

I hope you will stop by the blogs of the other design team members and see the beautiful work they have done with the Sugar Creek Hollow digital images.

♥Donna♥Stephanie♥Loretta♥Cheri♥
♥Sarah♥Dani♥Tracy-Owner♥Kelly♥
♥Marsha♥Joan♥Nancy♥
♥Joseline-DT Coordinator♥
♥Kristina♥Cassie♥

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by my blog to see what I have to offer for inspiration today. I do so appreciate all the love comments too! Have a great Friday!

Hugs & blessings,

Challenges entered:

Cute Card Thursday - Touchy Feely (Texture)

All That Scraps - Distressing

Little Red Wagon - Dry Embossing

Stampotique - Make it Girly

Digital Tuesday - Paper Piece with Digis

Altered CD Challenge

Welcome back to my regular Wednesday post for the Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge Blog. Our hostess, Nat, has challenged us to make an altered CD this week. Well, you probably know I'm not big on projects, but when it's a challenge we're always up for it, right? I just happened to be browsing Isabella's Sketchbook store and saw this adorable round digital image and thought it would be perfect. So at least I had a starting place. I colored it with Copics and then embossed it three times with ultra thick embossing powder, put in in the freezer for 20 minutes and then cracked it. After that, I rubbed Creamy Caramel ink into it to make the crackes look aged. I'm not all that happy with the result. I was pleased with the coloring job I did, but then the Versamark sort of smeared the Copic ink. The first time I tried it, it had even worse bleeding. I had the image all colored and looking beautiful. I coated it with Tim Holtz Crackle Accents and left it to dry over night. When I checked it the next morning, the ink had bled quite badly. So the first attempt hit the trash. If you look closely at this one, you can see that some of the blue ink seemd to bleed a bit. It wasn't like that until I applied the Versamark and the EP crystals. Lesson - embossing doesn't work so hot with Copics.

Details: Step 1 - I cut a ring about 1/2" wide using my old Creative Memories cutting system. The circle is the same diameter as the CD. Then I wrapped it with cream satin ribbon. Step 2 - I ran a basting thread along the edge of the lace and gathered it a bit so it would curve around the diameter of the CD and glued it in place with Beacon Fabri-Tac glue. Step 3 - I cut a scalloped ring to fit just inside the outer circle with Nestabilities. I used the white cardboard backing from an SU designer paper pack. I cut two and layered one ont top of the other for thickness, then sponged the edges with Creamy Caramel and applied chunky glitter. Step 4 - The image panel was glued to the back of the glitter ring, which was then glued to the top of the satin ribbon ring. I prettied up the ribbon and was good to go.

I really don't care for projects because they take time away from card making, but I must admit, this was fun to do and I may make more for gifts. I think I'll leave out the cracked glass step next time and just enjoy the image is it is.

So now you've seen my little project, why don't you run on over to the Creative Inspirations blog to see the other projects the DT has for your inspiration. There are some fab projects to get you started! And when you are done there, stop by Isabella's Sketchbook, Isabella's Challenge and Isabella's Sketchbook Blog. She has some fab images in her store, great illustrations on her blog to inspire you, a terrific Wednesday challenge AND a DT CALL. So whatcha waitin' for? Get hoppin'!!!

Blessings on your day,

Challenges entered:

The Crazy Challenge - Don't call me flat (3-D challenge)

Corrosive - Textures

One Stitch at a Time - Torn, Distressed, Shabby

Creative Belli Challenge - Die Cut Shapes

Birthday Blooms

Good morning and thanks for stopping by to see what I have in store for you today. This week's challenge at Creative Card Crew is to make a birthday card. Easy peasy, right? We always need a supply of birthday cards in our stash. A couple of weeks ago while cruising the challenge blogs looking for challenges to enter, I came across a wonderful new digital artist, Isabella of Isabella's Sketchbook. Her style immediately appealed to me and I have used several of her images recently. This is another one of hers. I think it is so totally cool. I love the flower pots with the wrought iron in front of them. The image was a real challenge to color because it is so small; lots of tiny, tight spaces to get your marker or paint brush into (but of course, you could print a larger version that would be easier to color). But it came out great and I had a lot of fun with it. As soon as I saw the image in Isabella's store, I envisioned it in this Mary Engelbreit style and I think it looks great done up like this. I am entering this card into Isabella's weekly challenge. This week's challenge required a circle somewhere on the card. Hence the circle sentiment. It looked a sort of bare so I did a little playing with the digital image. I cropped out one of the daffodils and carefully erased all the wrought iron from it in PSE7. Then I colored it and made it less opaque in PSE7 to create a faded, watermark type of effect.

Details: All the DP is digital, printed on my home computer. The yellow is from Designer Digitals and I don't remember where the gingham is from. I just keep using it and changing the color to match whatever project I am working on. The sentiments were all done on my computer. The image is colored with Copics and I used a Spellbinders tag die for the red Happy Birthday panel.

The Stamping Boutique is sponsoring the Creative Card Crew challenge this fortnight. They are giving an awesome prize - 5 digital images of the winner's choice. Be sure to stop by and check out their darling images. I have used several of them on projects and they are just so cute!

I'm so glad you took the time to visit me today. The other design team members at the Creative Card Crew have some great birthday samples for your inpiration. Be sure to check them out! I hope to see you playing along with us this week!

Blessings,

Challenges entered:

Isabella's Sketchbook - Use one of Isabella's Sketchbook digis, floral theme, round object somewhere

Paper Sundaes - Make a scene

Stamp, Scrap, Doodle - Birthday card

Paper Cutz - Use 3 patterned papers

Prairie Fairy Fridays - Inspiration photo

Raise the Bar - Let it Spring

Res-Q-Challenge - Let's play (this one was really fun - it was a word search and you used the words you found on your card - mine uses: dies, flowers, pattern, spring, square and yellow)

Sew Many Challenges - Use stitching

Stamp Something - Stitch something

Embracing Bows and Whites

This week at Our Creative Corner, our hostess Dana Grothaus has another great challenge. Last week it was buttons, this week it's bows, another of my favorite embellisments. Here is the design team sample that I made this week for Our Creative Corner. I also made it with the Shabby Tea Room challenge in mind, which is to embrace the whites. The challenge is to make a predominately white card with one other color. I hope mine is white enough. It seemed to be until I added that huge bow of shabby seam binding. That really shifted the color to more pink than I had planned.

I started with a base of Whisper White, followed by a layer of DP with tiny pale pink flowers and then another layer of white embossed with the SU Finial Press embossing folder. All edges were sponged with Creamy Caramel, because I can't leave anything undistressed. The center element was two pieces of thin white cardboard (the kind that comes with the SU designer papers) that I cut with my Nesties and glued together to create my own chipboard since I can't seem to cut anything much thicker that that with the Nesties. I sponged the edges with Creamy Caramel and then coated it with glue and chunky glitter. A larger circle was cut with my Creative Memories cutting system and the Martha Stewart punch was used around the edge, then that circle was also embossed with the Finial Press EF. Zigzag stitching, some art pearls and a nice crop of Prima flowers came next topped off with the pink seam binding, a small tag and sentiment from Verve which was attached with a Tim Holtz tiny safty pin and a glittery charm.

Now I hope you'll stop by Our Creative Corner to see all the pretty ribbons and bows the rest of the DT has to offer. Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Challenges entered:

The Shabby Tea Room - Embrace the Whites

Meljen's - Girly Colors

Simple Doodles - Inspire Others (I hope I do)

Allsorts Challenge - Petals and Pearls

Totally Gorjuss - Texture

Sew Many Cards - Stitching

Another Fabulous Friday

Here is my design team sample for Sugar Creek Hollow's Fabulous Friday. Fabulous Friday is the day the design team gets together for a team challenge and it's the day you can pick up the Fabulous Friday Freebie on the store website.

For this card, the center medallion is actually two digital images. The text and border is one and the cherries are another. I reduced the size of the cherries and superimposed them four times on the quote, rotating and flipping as needed to fit nicely around it. They are colored with Copics. The image panel was also sponged with Creamy Caramel ink. The paper is from Cosmo Cricket and the border punch is Fiskars. I followed this week's Mojo Monday sketch and will be entering their challenge.

Hop on over to Sugar Creek Hollow and pick up the Fabulous Friday Freebie. And be sure to stop by the other DT's blogs. They all have beautiful samples to show you using the wonderful digial images from Sugar Creek Hollow.

♥Donna♥Stephanie♥Loretta♥Cheri♥
♥Sarah♥Dani♥Tracy-Owner♥Kelly♥
♥Marsha♥Joan♥Nancy♥
♥Joseline-DT Coordinator♥
♥Kristina♥Cassie♥

All Things are New Again...

The cycle of life...time marches on and the season unfolds. Easter is behind us and spring is certainly upon us. This week at Creative Inspiration Wednesday Challenge Blog, we are challenged to make a card/project incorporating the colors blue, green and brown. My imagination took hold of the green and blue and I had no choice - it was going to be a spring theme for me. I went searching through my stamp collection for something "growing", but just couldn't find the right thing. So I started combing the vintage sites and found this lovely vintage blue bird print from The Graphics Fairy. I printed the words "A song of spring" on it by running it through my printer a second time. I also used a spring BINGO card from Sugar Creek Hollow and a vintage sheet music from Heidi at Shabby Chic Papirskatter. The DP is from SU's Porcelain Prints and I used a Verve flourish stamp to stamp around the edge in Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I stamped around the edge of the Chocolate Chip as well and clear embossed it for texture. I made a chipboard flower using the SU punch and punching five layers of white CS and gluing them together to achieve chipboard thickness. Then I ink distressed the edge and stamped the flourish around each the edge of each petal in Vintage Photo and covered it with chunky glitter. I topped it off with two pink silk flowers that I sprayed with Glitter Mist. I absolutely LOVE the apple green satin ribbon. It's from Arts.licious (Chatter Box) and I have been hoarding it. I only have one small piece left :(.

So there you have my little spring confection. The other DT members have some beautiful creations this week. I hope you will stop by the Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge to check them out. Hope to see you joining in the fun this week!

Challenges:

Creative Belli - Use color spray (used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist on the flower)

For Fun Challenges - April showers bring May flowers (can be flowers, rain or spring)

Gingersnap Creations - The Good Earth

Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Anything Goes

The Pink Elephant - Nature

Rosie's and Dee's Challenge - Blessings (I think renewal is a blessing)

Quixotic Challenge - The Joys of Spring

Prairie Fairy Fridays - Texture

Stamp Simply - Use chipboard (mine flower is homemade chipboard)

Paper Cutz - Spring

Easel Card Challenge

The challenge this week at Pile it On is to make an easel card. For my card, I used another of Isabella's Sketchbook digital images. Love, love, love her beautiful images!! This little sweetie was colored with Copics. My DP is digital, printed on my home printer, from Designer Digitals and the gingham is paper I had left over from my Creative Memories consultant days. A Martha Stewart border punch and oval and square Nestabilities were also used. The flourish on the bottom panel is by Boss Kut, flowers by Prima and a silver-toned bead cap. The edges were sponged with Creamy Caramel ink and I don't have a clue where the lace came from.

Here's a close up of the little sweetie. Isn't she adorable?


In the spirit of piling it on, my easel card is being entered into the following challenges:

Simple Doodles - Add Some Layers

Caardvarks - Lacy Days

Crafty Creations - Anything Goes

Stamp Something - Pink Somethings

For Fun Challenges - Anything Goes

Twisted Thursdays - Have Fun and Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly - It's Fill Your Boots Time (Open Challenge)

Meljen's Designs - Anything Goes

Just Us Girls - Sketch

One Stitch at a Time - Anything Goes

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - Sugar & Spice (a girly card)

Simon Says Stamp - It's So Distressing

Crafty Pad - Lace and Bows

As always, thanks so much for stopping by and for the lovely comments. Be sure to stop by Pile it On to see the awesome easel cards the rest of the design team has come up with!

Two Challenges in One

Springtime is the time for growth and changes and it has also brought changes to Our Creative Corner. Last week, we said sad goodbys to our team mates Silke Ledlow and Jenny Gropp. This week, we are greeting three brand new members of the OCC design team. Please help us give a big welcome to Diane Gilbert, Sarah Gough and Julie Leblanc! And the month of April brings us a new hostess too. Dana Grothaus has lined up some fabulous challenges for us this month. Her first challenge is Break Out the Buttons and I do so love buttons. But I have really been getting a kick out of making faux buttons and that is what I have done here. I know you can tell they are faux, but I think they are so cute made out of the same paper that I used on the card. The first set I made seemed a little too big, but they made great photo props. I made these using the SU half inch circle punch.

Although this is my OCC DT card, I specifically made this card to be entered into another challenge. Several days ago, happily I stumbled across a very talented digital artist - Isabella of Isabella's Sketchbook. She is just getting her business going and was offering a 20% special (sorry, through yesterday). I snapped up a bunch of her images. Her illustrations have a strong vintage flavor that appealed to me immediately. Her new challenge blog, Isabella's Challenge, is having its very first challenge this week and I wanted to enter it. It's a sketch challenge and the use of one of her images is required. I used both her image and sketch for this card.

Card Details: CS is SU Rose Romance and Pink Pirouette, the DP is digital from Designer Digitals. The image was colored with Copics, cut with Nestabilities and sponged with Bashful Blue (sky) and Old Paper Distress Ink (lower half) then sponged around the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The edges of the DP were sponged with Creamy Caramel. The vintage seam binding was purchased on Etsy.

Please be sure to stop by Diane, Julie and Sarah's blogs to congratulate them on joining the OCC. And while you're at it, maybe leave some love for the other design team members too.

Wishing you and your family a blessed Easter.

Challenges entered:

Isabella's Challenge - Sketch

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - How does your garden grow?

Stamping for the Weekend - Ribbons & Bows

Quirky Crafts - Flowers

Crafty Cardmakers - Spring into Spring

Paper Jewels - Buttons & Sewing

Sugar Creek Hollow New Release Blog Hop

Good morning and thank you for stopping by. Today is a brand new day at Sugar Creek Hollow. We have some exciting news, new digis and a blog hop game to play today.

First up, we want to welcome Martha from Creating Is Fun as our April Guest Designer. We also want to share that Kelly our March GD from Sandcastle Stamper has joined the SCH family as a full time designers. Please help me welcome these talented ladies to the team!

Now it's time to play and have some fun!!! Today is new release day. What better way to show you the new digis than with a game? The game is to find a secret letter in each of the design team's blog. Post the secret letter in their comment before you move on. Once you have found the secret word, post the entire word on the SCH's website. If you followed the game correctly, you will have a chance to win a fantastic prize!! You must visit each of the design team member's blogs. Here's a picture of the grand prize. In addition, you will win 2 SCH digis of your choice!



You should have arrived here from Sandcastle Stamper's blog. If you randomly arrived here and want to start the blog hop, click here for the first stop.

For my card, I colored my image with Copics and matched it up with Wild Wasabi and some DP from Scenic Route. The edges are all sponged with Antique Linen distress ink. I typed the sentiment on my home computer and overlayed it on top of the geranium image in which I had decreased the opacity to make it more like a watermark image. I am really starting to love digis because of the incredible flexibility they provide!!

Please continue on the blog hop in search of all the letters to learn the secret phrase. Now it's Time to hop to the next stop. Just click on the icon below. Thanks for stopping by. Have fun on the hop and best of luck in winning!

My button doesn't seem to be working so here is a link to the next stop.