Sweet and Simple

I made this sweet little card for this week's challenge at Do it With Digis.  I get to be a guest Digi Diva over there occasionally.  The theme this week is fairies/pixies so I used one of the Prairie Fairy images -  Tippy Toe Fairy.  She's one of my favorite fairy images from the Prairie Fairy.  Her skin and hair were colored with Copics and I took a bottle of Liquid Pearls and an aqua painter and painted her dress and wings with Liquid Pearls.  It looks so pretty IRL.  Special Birthday Wishes are going out to Kirsty Vittetoe and the gang over at the City Crafter Challenge Blog.  The blog is celebrating its first birthday this week.  Congratulations on a fabulous first year and wishing you many more!

A little about what I have going on with this card.  The lovely DP is from the Ever After pack by Cosmo Cricket and miracle of miracles, I even managed to let some of it show through!  How do you like the doily lace?  I found a few packs of it and snatched them up to sell in my new Etsy shop.  It comes in strips three inches wide and 40 inches long.  It will work lovely for card making and scrapbooking!  You'll definitely be seeing more of it on upcoming cards!  And I had to add another of my fluffy crinoline flowers (tutorial) to which I added a hand folded seam binding rose as a center - I love the pop of color the pink gave.  In fact, I liked the pink so much I added a small seam binding bow and found some tiny paper flowers of the same color in my stash that worked perfectly to add a bit of decoration to the doily.  

The heart is from an old SU set - Gentler Times.  I stamped it on black CS with versamark and embossed it in white.  To finish the card off, I added a few black Kaiser pearls and a metal filigree butterfly.  I love using metal in my art so I've added metal filigree findings to what I am selling on my Funkie's Junk blog.  This sweet butterfly started life as an antique bronze.  But I wanted it black to coordinate with my card so I applied Adirondack Alcohol ink in Pitch Black with a felt pad.  I think it's so cool to be able to use  the alcohol inks to change the color of metals.  

That about wraps it up.  I hope you will stop over to the Do it With Digis blog and check out what the design team has created.  Thanks ever so much for stopping by today!

Challenges Entered:
City Crafter Challenge - Happy Birthday City Crafter
Charisma Cardz - Pink, Black and Green

Friends Forever

Good morning!  Hope you are having a great week.  Today I have a card to share that I made as a guest designer for Do it With Digis.  This is one of my favorite images from the Prairie Fairy called A Helping Hand and sentiment is from Sentiments 4 You.  The challenge this time at Do it With Digis is a really lovely sketch challenge.  The papers are Pink Pirouette and Close to Cocoa from Stampin' Up! and the pink/brown digital paper is from Summertime Designs - Happy Mother's Day kit (I darkened the brown pattern with my PhotoShop) and the green digital paper is from Barely Mine Designs Vintage set.  The newsprint from which I die cut the butterflies is Classified Ads from Whimsey Stamps and has become a favorite go to stamp for me.  Too bad the sweet little butterflies don't show up well against that busy DP background.  

I hope you will stop over to Do it With Digis to check out the beautiful work of the design team and maybe participate by using this beautiful sketch.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Challenges Entered:
Oh La La - For Someone Special
Digital Tuesday - Use a Die Cut
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Use Three Patterned Papers

Harbor Gulls

Isn't this a wonderful image? It's a new digital image from The Prairie Fairy called Harbor Gulls. I was so pleased at how it looked when colored with Copics. I thought the image was striking enough that it didn't need a lot of embellshments so I kept it pretty plain. Our challenge theme this week at Fairy Fun Friday is Embossing. I used both heat and dry embossing on this piece. Heat embossed was the map stamp on the frame and with clear ultra thick embossing powder around the parimeter of the base layer. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory, but if you have any questions, just leave a comment and I will update this post with the response.

Products Used:
Paper: SU Natural and Not Quite Navy CS, Digital DP Coming Home pack from Little Scrap Garden (looks like it is no longer available - couldn't find a link)
Accessories: SU Word Window Punch, Top Note die and brass brads, Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles and Distressed Stripes embossing folders

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a great day!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges entered:

City Crafter Challenge Blog - One for the Boys

Sew Sorry

Today kicks off the last challenge for Isabella's Sketchbook. It's being suspended indefinitely as the lovely Isabella deals with a cross-country move and some family health issues. I am so sorry to see this design team end. I have really enjoyed getting to know some fantastic women who are also skilled paper artisans. Even though the challenges are suspended, Isabella's Sketchbook Digital Boutique will remain open - yay!! We'll still have the opportunity to purchase her beautiful digis.

Our challenge this week is to make your own flowers - something that I totally love to do. For my last card, I chose express my regret with Isabella's cute sewing basket digi. I used the sketch from this week's Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge. The papers are a digital download from Raspberry Road and the image was colored with Copics. I made the flower following the Dimensional Flower tutorial on SplitcoastStampers. The sentiment was printed on my computer.

Products Used:
Stamps: Digital Image by Isabella's Sketchbook, sentiment computer generated
Paper: Flourishes CS for image, Bravo Burgundy, Raspberry Road DP
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Copics
Accessories: Spellbinders Circle and Scallop Dies, Tim Holtz Tattered Foral Die, Creative Memories Cutting System for large shape, Martha Stewart border punch, floral trim, ribbon, button

I want to thank Isabella for choosing me for her first design team. It's been awesome working with her fantastic images. I wish her many blessings as she goes through the next few months.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Hugs and blessings to you too!

Challenges Entered:

Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge

Sweet Little "Miss"

Welcome to Wednesday! It's Isabella Sketchbook time again and this week we are challenging you to make a card that hides something. I chose a pocket card since I have never made a design like this before. I used the Isabella's Sketchbook Waiting image which I think is among the sweetest in her digi boutique. I colored her with Copics and did some paper piecing to create wall paper and the window shade. I printed the sentiment and the digital designer paper on my printer and I finally found a perfect use for my SU crocheted flower.



Products Used:
Samps: Waiting by Isabella's Sketchbook
Paper: SU Cardstock - Wild Wasabi and Whisper White, DP is from the Oh So Shabby Paper Packs 1 & 2 from Raspberry Road Designs
Ink: Copics, Creamy Caramel and Vintage Photo, Printer Ink
Accessories: SU Border Punch, Spellbinders Fancy Tag Die, lace and ribbon from Jo-Ann's, crocheted flower from Stampin' Up! The pink cord came as a freebie with something I ordered. I wish I remember where because I would like to order more - LOL!!

Now it's time to hustle on over to Isabella's Sketchbook challenge to see what the other designers have been up to this week. I'm sure it's something special because we have a truly talented design team!

♥Annika♥Cec♥Diana♥Jackie♥Linda♥Lisa♥Peggy♥Peri♥Randi♥Sharon♥Sue♥Viv♥

Challenges Entered:

The Shabby Tea Room - Delicate Cottage Rose (see inspiration photo on blog)

Order of the Opus Gluei - You Gotta Move It (out of your stash)

Stamptacular Sunday - Buttons and Bows

Sentimental Sundays - Ribbon or Lace

Alphabet Challenge - P is for Punches

Frosted Designs - Recipe Challenge: Use 5 or more of: Punch, Felt, Ribbon, Colors pink, blue or purple, flowers, banner, bird, buttons, butterfly, glitter

Allsorts Challenge - Paper Piercing/Paper Piecing

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - What Are Little Girls Made Of?

Elegant Buttons & Bows

Top of the morning to you! I hope your day has started out fabulously! Thanks so much for stopping by for my second post of the morning. This one is for our weekly challenge at Isabella's Sketchbook challenge. Our challenge this week is "Buttons & Bows", always a fun challenge in my opinion! I decided to use the Festive Bird digital image from Isabella's Sketchbook boutique. I filled in the black with my photo editing program and printed it out on Flourishes card stock. So the only coloring I did was with Copics on the green ribbon. I used only black, white and green to qualify for the color challenge this week at the Play Date Cafe which I now see that I MISSED :(. I love doing black and white so this was no hardship at all. I was shooting for sort of a vintage elegance so I added a bit of Vintage Photo DI, but didn't scissor distress the edges this time. The flower was handmade using cardstock that I photocopied a newspaper onto the front and the back of.

Products Used:
Paper/CS: Card shell and border punch - Very Vanilla, die cut leaves - white Bazzill, dove and panel - Flourishes white, SU Basic Black, polka dot DP - digital from Pink Petticoat, white print - digital is from the Black Tie Affair paper packfrom Designer Digitals.
Ink: Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink, Copics
Accessories: Leaves cut with Branch with Leaves die from Szzix, Spellbinders Labels 5 die, Spellbinders Flower Creations 3 used for handmade flower, black sheer ribbon hit with heat tool to make it crinkle, SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter

That's the scoop. Now it's your turn to show us your buttons and bows! Just be sure you use an Isabella's Sketchbook image to be eligible for the prize of two digital images of your choice. If you don't have an IS image, stop by the boutique and pick up the freebie there.

And in case you feel compelled to leave some love for the rest of the DT, here are the links to their blogs:

♥Annika♥Cec♥Diana♥Jackie♥Linda♥Lisa♥Peggy♥Peri♥Randi♥Sharon♥Sue♥Viv♥

Thanks again for stopping by and for any comment you care to leave. Hope you are having a wonderful week!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:

TuesdayTaggers - Lots of Lovely Black

ABC Challenge - N is for Nature

Rosie D's - All Creatures Great and Small

Craftalucious Challenge - Make your own flowers

A Mini 3-D Project

Hello friends, so happy to have you back with me today for Fairy Fun Friday ! Our challenge this week is to make a 3-D project. My week has been super hectic and I didn't have a lot of time to plan. I remembered seeing this lovely bookmark highlighted a few weeks ago on SplitCoastStampers. Here is the tutorial posted there. I whipped this together in just about two hours which is equivalent to lightening speed for me. I had a real urge to drag out some fall colors but I mitigated it a bit by choosing a pattern with some blue in it rather than all earth tones. The colors here are Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Baja Breeze and a snippet of really, really old SU DP called Autumn Meadows. I used Spellbinders Labels #1 and a border die. The image is Terracotta Pot from the Prairie Fairy and it was colored with Copics. I finished it off with machine stitching and some pretty crinkled seam binding.

I hope you'll make something 3-D to share with us this week at Fairy Fun Friday. Stop by the blog and maybe even the blogs of the rest of the DT.

♥Margreet - Margreet's Scrapcards ♥Suzi - Sugar n Spice♥Viv - Crafting Haven♥ Hege-Annie - Hege-Annie's Paper {He}Art++ ♥Ann - Raindrop Echo Designs ♥Carla - Carla's Corner ♥Corry - Fancy Free 4Ever ♥Lori - Just Ducky ♥Kelly - Kelly's Kreative Korner♥Trisha - T-Bear's Touch ♥Sue - Arty's♥

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for your lovely comments!

Blessings & hugs,

A Symbiotic Relationship

Another week is winding down and that brings us around to Fairy Fun Friday again. I'm so happy you took the time to stop by today to see what I have made for our weekly challenge. This week's challenge is called Lace it Up, which I interpreted by adding lace to my sample. I decided to use the wonderful muted colors from the Play Date Cafe's challenge this week.

Card Details:
Image: In the Garden by The Prairie Fairy
Sentiment: Raindrop Echo Designs (I'm not sure if this is available. I picked it up as a freebie from Sentimental Sundays a few weeks ago.)
Paper: The background paper is from Designer Digitals La Cremerie Citrouilles paper pack but I altered the color in my PSE to match one of the color chips given in the Play Date Cafe challenge. The paper used to mat the main image is an antique botanical drawing from the Vintage Moth. Flourishes card stock was used to print the digital image on which works wonderful with Copics. Stampin' Up Basic Black and Whisper White
Ink: Copics, Creamy Caramel and Frayed Burlap DI
Other: Crocheted lace and buttons

Questions? If you have any questions on my work, supplies or techniques, please leave them in the Comments section and then check back later for an updated post including that information.

The rest of the design team has some lacy beauties to share with you so be sure to stop by Fairy Fun Friday and check them out. Hope to see you playing along with this week's challenge.

♥Margreet - Margreet's Scrapcards ♥Suzi - Sugar n Spice♥Viv - Crafting Haven♥ Hege-Annie - Hege-Annie's Paper {He}Art++ ♥Ann - Raindrop Echo Designs ♥Carla - Carla's Corner ♥Corry - Fancy Free 4Ever ♥Lori - Just Ducky ♥Kelly - Kelly's Kreative Korner♥Trisha - T-Bear's Touch ♥Sue - Arty's♥

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I sincerely appreciate any comments you care to leave.

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:
Play Date Cafe - Photo Inspiration Color Challenge
One Stitch at a Time - Use a digital image
The Pink Elephant - Color Challenge: Brown
Paper Playtime - Flower Power
Pixie Cottage - Sketch and/or Double Up (use two stamps, one of which can be a sentiment)
Just Inspirational - Use a digital image
Stamp Something - Something Flowery

It's a Boy Thing!

Yay, it's Friday! And that means another challenge from Prairie Fairy! That's right, hop on over to Fairy Fun Friday and check out the challenge and the DT inspiration. The challenge is "For the Boys". That's right, we always need more guy cards! I made mine pretty generic. It could be used for a birthday or some other occasion. I think it would be great just for inspiration for a young man. I was thinking of sending it to my son who had his 27th birthday last week. I was on vacation and never got a card made for him. This could be a belated birthday card. I think he would like it and I was thinking of him while I was creating this card.

Before I left for vacation, I was trying to alter a bathing suit I had purchased that didn't fit just right and I BROKE MY SEWING MACHINE. Can you imagine? The first time I have tried to sew on cloth in probably two years and the cloth was too thick. I heard a bad "thunk" and then the needle wouldn't go all the way down. I worked on it awhile last night to no avail so I ended up stitching this card by hand using some old, old crochet thread from my grandmother's sewing box. I actually like the way it turned out - very rustic looking but it is NOT something I want to do all the time. I dropped the machine off today at a local repair shop and am hoping to get it back in a week or so.

After using cork for the OCC challenge last week, I fell in love with it and here it is again! I think you may see it frequently until I get sick of it! It's really great for embellishing male-oriented cards. It adds some pizzaz without being girly. The image is called Pokin Puddles by the Prairie and the sentiment is from Raindrop Echo Designs. The image was colored with Copics and cut out with a Spellbinders label die. The cardstock and twill tape are from SU, the DP from Cosmo Cricket and the stars DP was someting from a local craft shop that I purchased about 10 years ago. The buttons are from Jo-Ann's and the brad from SU.

Here are the blog links for the Fairy Fun Friday design team. I hope you will pay them a visit this week and let them know how fabulous their work is! And be sure to stop by the blog and play along with us this week!

♥Margreet - Margreet's Scrapcards

♥Suzi - Sugar n Spice

♥Viv - Crafting Haven

♥ Hege-Annie - Hege-Annie's Paper {He}Art++

♥Ann - Raindrop Echo Designs

♥Carla - Carla's Corner

♥Corry - Fancy Free 4Ever

♥Lori - Just Ducky

♥Kelly - Kelly's Kreative Korner

♥Tonya - Stamp Happens

♥Trisha - T-Bear's Touch

♥Sue - Arty's♥

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a relaxing, sun filled weekend!

Challenges Entered:

Incy Wincy Designs - Distress It

My Time to Craft - Butterfly Bliss

Tuesday Throwdown - Stitching

Flutter By Wednesday - Use 3 layers and a fairy, angel or butterfy

Dare You to Digi Stamp - Stitching

Res-Q-Challenge - Don't be anemic, eat a hamburger (use red)

Stamp Something - Something Digital (both the image and sentiment are digital)

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Babies/Children

Posies 'n Punches

Hello and happy Wednesday! I'm so glad to be back among my blogging buddies! I was away for another long weekend in Key West. This was family weekend with all my DH's sisters and their DHs. Too many people and too fast-paced to be relaxing, but it was still great to spend time with the family. But now I am back -no more long weekends until the fall football season rolls around. I'm just starting to get back into the card-making groove and have a lot to catch up on.

I managed to get this card finished for this week's Isabella's Sketchbook challenge before I left so it was already "in the can". Our challenge this week is another easy one - use punches. I have been fascinated lately by Becca Feeken's amazing use of punches amd wanted to try more of her right angle punching. So I made this two-layer element according to her video tutorial and a Martha Stewart corner punch. I thought it was too plain so I wrapped it with vintage crinkled seam binding and added buttons. The image, Flower Song, is relatively new in Isabella's boutique. I decided to give it a vintage flavor with the retired Parisian Summer SU papers and Creamy Caramel sponging. It was colored with Copics and the sentiment was made up on my computer, which was then cut with a Spellbinders tag die. Let me know if you need any more information on anything here.

Now that you've had a peek at my DT card, I hope you will stop by the rest of the teams' blogs and pick up a little inspiration.

♥Annika♥Cec♥Diana♥Jackie♥Linda♥Lisa♥Peggy♥Peri♥Randi♥Sharon♥Sue♥Viv♥

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for any comments you care to leave.

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:
Mark's Finest Papers - Use Punches
Paper Sundaes - Lots of Layers
Papertake Weekly - In the Garden
Stampin' Bees - Polka Dots

Truly Scrumptious - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Your Next Stamp - Flower Power

For Fun - Use Your Fav Coloring Medium - no die cuts as main image

Celebrating Life!

Hello and welcome to my Wednesday post for Isabella's Sketchbook. This week's challenge is "Anything Goes" combined with an Isabella's Sketchbook image. We thought it would be a great week to relax, kick back and enjoy the summer. So check your inventory of Isabella's Sketchbook images, pick one out and have a go. You could win two of Isabella's delightful images. The one I used is called Cup Stack and I don't believe it's available yet. I digitally paper pieced it, including the background of the image panel using the Sweet Violets digital paper pack from Designer Digitals. I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch and also lined the colors up with this week's Just For Fun Color Challenge which is to use purple, green and blue.

The die cuts were cut with a Cuttlebug die, the embossing folder used was from Stampin' Up! I used two different Spellbinders dies, the sentiment was a lovely freebie from Ann Vento at Raindrop Echo Designs/Sentimental Sundays Challenge. You can buy her digital sentiments from Whimsey Stamps. The mini library clip is from SU and the button is from Jo-Ann's.

Let me know if you have any questions or need more information.

Now it's time to stop by Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge Blog and the blogs of my teamies. I do so hope you will be able to play along with us this week!

♥Annika♥Cec♥Diana♥Jackie♥Linda♥Lisa♥Peggy♥Peri♥Randi♥Sharon♥Sue♥Viv♥

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Blessings & hugs,

Pretty Peacock

Hello and welcome to another Saturday with Our Creative Corner. It's my last week to be hostess. I've had a blast this month coming up with the challenges and I hope you have enjoyed them too. This week, our sponsor is Isabella's Sketchbook, one of the design teams I represent. I'm sure you know that Isabella has over 250 beautiful digital images over at her store and she will be giving three imges to the random winner of this week's challenge.

Our challenge this week is to keep our cool and chill out using the cool colors of blue and green. I selected this Peacock digital image to work with this week. I thought the image was perfect for this color challenge of blue and green. In the neighborhood where I live, we have several flocks of peacocks roaming around, but we rarely see a male with his gorgeous tailfeathers spread. They mostly just drag them around. But when you do see the rare display, it is truly stunning it its beauty. I came home to find one large tailfeather in my driveway the other day and picked it up to use to match up the colors. I know this is a pretty simple card for me, but I thought the colors, DP design and the punch design all worked together so beautifully to support the peacock motiff. The DP is digital from Pretty Petticoat. I scanned the Brilliant Blue and Green Galore into my PSE and changed the colors on the DP to match exactly. And luckily I had the exact colors in Copic markers to color the iamge. So everything just sort of fell together for this card. The bow is a la (the incredibly talented and generous) Becka Feeken. You can check out her amazing tutorial here on making a Collar Bow.

That's pretty much all the details for this card. I hope you will pop on over to Our Creative Corner to see the other beautiful work by our design team.

♥Wendy Jensen♥Dana Grothaus♥Diane Gilbert♥Jennifer Meyer

♥Julie LeBlanc♥Sarah Gough♥Lori Rider♥

Thanks for spending your Saturday morning with me. Hope to see you again next week. Have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings & hugs,

Happy Travels

Hello and welcome to my Wednesday post for Isabella's Sketchbook. This week our challenge theme is Summer Fun. And what could be more fun in the summer than the annual summer vacation. So I am celebrating my week in Key West with this Happy Travels card.
I used the Suitcase Stack digital image from Isabella's Sketchbook. I just love the retro flair it has to it. I stamped the Creamy Caramel panel with the large palm tree from the SU Balmy Breezes set (retired) in Chocolate Chip and Versamark and then clear embossed it. The DP is a very light print with many travel icons on it, a digital paper from Designer Digitals called Journey Home. I created my little luggage tag with the SU tag punch, a buckle from the Hodge Podge Hardware set and a bit of narrow grosgrain black ribbon. The Bon Voyage sentiment is computer generated and the globe stamped on it is from Crafty Secrets. The ribbon and black brads are from SU and the bottom mat on the image panel is the picket fence border punch from Martha Stewart.

I hope you will stop by the challenge blog and maybe even enter this week. All you need to do is use an Isabella's image and follow the challenge theme. You have a great chance of winning 2 of her wonderful digital images plus the gorgeous "I Won" badge for your blog! And while you are at it, stop by the DT blogs and leave them some love.

♥Annika♥Cec♥Diana♥Jackie♥Jennifer♥Linda♥Lisa♥Peggy♥Peri♥Randi♥Sharon♥Sue♥Viv♥

As always, I am deeply appreciative of your stopping by and of any comments you care to leave. Hope you are having a wonderful week!

Blessings & hugs,

Thank You, Dad

Welcome back to my third post of the day. Are you tired of me yet? LOL!! It's been a super busy week for me, getting ready to leave for vacation. By the time you read this pre-scheduled post, I will probably already be in Key West. We planned to leave at 8:00 a.m. and it's only a three-hour drive. So while I unpack my bathing suit and get ready to hit the pool, you can read about my last Father's Day card of the year. This one was made for Fairy Fun Friday, the Prairie Fairy's challenge blog. Our challenge this week is to make a Father's Day card. This image is actually called Me 'n' My Grampa, but I elected to use it as a Dad card. Rather than color it up, I changed the lines to brown and printed it at 65% opacity, effectively using it as a background to the sentiment. The sentiment was made up by yours truly and printed on my computer.

Details: Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel and Basic Black card stock. Houndstooth paper is called World Traveler-Old Coat by Heidi Swapp and the pinstripe DP is called Floral Mocha Paperie by making Memories. A Martha Stewart boarder punch was used to make the double layer border panel. Spellbinders Labels One and Five dies were used for the center panel. The black brads are just stock brads from Jo-Ann's and the chipboard letters were cut with the Cuttlebug Oliva alphabet. I hand wrote the "Love you!" note which is held up by a mini clip from SU.

Hope you enjoyed all three of my creations today. Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you will come back tomorrow to see what I have made for this week's Our Creative Corner challenge.

Blessings & hugs,

Golf Umbrella

Good Wednesday morning to you! It's Isabella's Sketchbook challenge day and this week we are challenged to make a Father's Day card. My DH is a golfer so I decided on this image from Isabella's Sketchbook. I love the retro look of the image, which I digitally paper pieced. The digital DP is from Designs by Krista, a pack called Candy Apples. The card stock is SU's Really Rust and Always Avecado. The brads are from Michael's and again, I don't remember where I purchased the wired "ribbon". I printed the golf ball a bit smaller the second time, printed the Happy Father's Day on it and attached it to a Tin Holtz Fragment.

I hope you will stop by Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge and see the rest of the team's beautiful work. And maybe you could take time to pay them a visit at their personal blog too.

♥Annika♥Cec♥Diana♥Jackie♥Jennifer♥Linda♥Lisa♥Peggy♥Peri♥Randi♥Sharon♥Sue♥Viv♥

Thanks so much for stopping by this morning. Hope to see you this week over at Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge!

Blessings & hugs,

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

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.