I MUST START MORE CHRISTMAS CARDS!

WOW!  Time passes too swiftly for me.  I do think I'm aging!  When I look back at everything my husband I have done in the past 10 days, my head literally swims.  As of right now, we have totally put in 416 square feet of vegetables for tending and harvesting as the summer goes along.  We also totally remodelled one bathroom, refloored 4 other rooms, and one of those rooms was my craft room.  So unfortunately I'm searching from room to room to create cards tonite!  Eventually everything comes back together with that lovely floor which I feel was so worth it!

Here is a lovely CAS card made with the cutest kitty and a bow of poinsettia.  I have purchased a lot of FRED SHE SAID digis and it's totally fun to draw from the lot and pull pieces together to create a card!

Isn't she the sweetest little feline!  So cute you just want to hang more toys in front of her - and I'm sure she believes that ornament is just a toy!  I will have more yet this month to show you!

Be sure to check out FRED SHE SAID'S PINTEREST SITE as well as PAPER CRAFT PLANET where I do upload my designs also.  Enjoy your weekend!

DOGWOODS 'ALMOST' BLOOMING HERE

How wonderful to be doing cards of images of flowers - our weather is just bustin' out all over with all kinds of flowers, including the 'white' ones.  You know - the allergy offenders!  And my nose is running along with everyone else's in the area.  Our biggest problem however is the dust and chemicals being kicked up by the farmers!  That I can't do much about.

Aren't these dogwoods just beautiful!!!  I couldn't help but make a clean and simple (CAS) card for a 15th anniversary of my daughter and son in law!  I kept the background in black to show off the card a bit better!  I computer generated the Happy Anniversary at the same time I printed the digi.  I do hope you like it.

I printed out several others using Happy Birthday sentiments and Just a Note Sentiments!

Come on over to the FRED SHE SAID STORE and grab yourself a bit of an early summer with the huge collection of dogwoods!  You can make it super simple by using the precolored 'oh so real looking' images!  I did!!!

EVERYTHING IS COMING UP ROSES IN MAY!

May 15, 2013 Sketch Theme: Everything’s Coming Up Roses

Everything is coming up roses at SCRAPBOOK PLACE CHALLENGES BLOGSPOT!  Pick a rose, grab this sketch and submit a card to the SBP Challenge happening right now for the next 2 weeks!  

I chose to show 2 cards using the same image but different themes and differing colors.  In fact, the background of both cards was created with alcohol inks!  

and my second card is below:

  I also sprayed this card with Tattered Mist to get a beautiful showy green cast to the multiple colors I used.  It's a bit less showy cause it was my first.

So come on over to SBP Challenges and join us for a fun flowery challenge! 

SHE ATE AN APPLE AND FELL ASLEEP!

At SEEMS A LITTLE SKETCHY we are having a beaut of a challenge - such a fun sketch!  I love sketches!!!  Do you love sketches?  It makes card making so easy.  I actually print a few sketches and keep them hanging in front of my creating area in my craft room.

Well for the next 2 weeks, we'll be playing with Sketch 39 (below) at SEEMS A LITTLE SKETCHY.  Your objective is to create a card using that sketch.  Easy peasy!

Our sponsor is Sassy Studio Designs

AND THE PRIZE IS 4 digi images of choice

\I chose Snow White and want to surprise a couple little girls on my birthday list with this cute image.....

 SNOW WHITE

  I hope you join in this sketch challenge with me and the other ladies; you can move the elements around if you wish. I chose to do it this time  and I still love the sketch!!!

Go over to Sassy Studios and grab yourself Snow White and see what you can do with her!  Come on back to SEEMS A LITTLE SKETCHY AND JOIN ME!

See you on the flip side!  

WHAT'S IN MY POCKET?

Check out this really different pocket card - I know I used to make a lot of them and found 4 of them yet incomplete in my 'to do' card box!  So I decided to use this card with a HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAG in the pocket behind PATCH DOG.  I found a tut for a DOUBLE POCKET CARD very similar to mine (by using the variation at the bottom of the tut), just click HERE.

Let me intro PATCH DOG by image artist DAWN COLLINS - he is so sweet and so able to be used on any type of card.  Hop on over to Squigglefly's new artists and new images, by clicking HERE!

This is the inside of my zig zag card meant to be sent to a friend on his/her birthday.  Come on over to Squigglefly and join in RHONDA'S ROWDY RASCALS Challenge:

SFC1913-RRR--There's Something In My Pocket - make a card that has a pocket to hold something - maybe a book mark, a gift card, or a small tag
  
There are always freebies here to use in this challenge so you can win an image stampset and start your own collection.  Just click HERE! 

 

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR TO DESIGN WITH?

Hi everyone!  It's May 6 and Squigglefly introduces a new challenge for all of us at:

HHH SFC1813 MONOTONE CARD

"Make a card using one color as your primary;  Pick whichever color you like.  Make a card using all blues;  make a card using all reds, make a card using all greens.....would be great if you also incorporate your image in the monotone type, but you can color your image as the one feature if you choose."

I had asked the artist by way of her sister to see if she could create me this image.  And wow! did she ever come thru!  I'm making several note cards as well as sympathy cards, and I plan to print it out in 8x10 and frame it!  It's just beautiful! This image is now available at Squigglefly, (click!)

POWER OF PRAYER

Image artist: Lynne Stansbery

Image comes with a different sentiment than I used here.

Check out all the new images at launched at Squigglefly on May 1st - I am absolutely positive you will find one you like, if not more.  Then bring that colored image project over to the Squiggleflyblog and enter our challenge for the possibility of winning your choice of a digi stampset!

SHOWER ME WITH FLOWERS!

WOW LADIES!  Spring is really sprung - finally in the Midwest!  Amidst all the unusual record rainfalls and the flooded homes/basements/rivers/town streets, I can see a lot of May Flowers beginning to bloom.

And even better with  this post, I get to introduce you to the latest new artist at Squigglefly - YOU MUST CHECK HER WORK OUT!  Her name is Pammie Lehto and I've known her for quite sometime now thru the group called SCRAPBOOK PLACE!  I knew she was extremely talented so it doesn't surprise me that Squigglefly asked her to join their marvelous team of artists!  WELCOME ABOARD PAMMIE!

Well what is even better is I get to debut one of Pammie's first images at Squigglefly called 

TRELLIS AND PICKET FENCE 

 Pamela Lehto - artist

So the May 1, 2013 Challenge Theme for SBP CHALLENGES: is May Flowers and here is the image from Pammie I'm using - I've created 2 different cards using the same colored image in left and right formats.  (Don't you love to do that!)

 AND ONE MORE CARD/IMAGE!

These are both 6x6 and flat and should not cause any grief with the postal system.  All coloring is with my awesome copic pens - the picket fence is actually an ivory color - difficult to see from your monitor probably.  

The challenge for Squigglefly Blogspot is: -Odd Man Out - make a card that uses elements or images in odd numbers.

Come on over to SCRAPBOOK PLACE CHALLENGES BLOGSPOT and join in our 2 week long challenge making any card you like which will represent some pretty May Flowers.  Easy peasy!

And meanwhile, swing on over to Squigglefly (click!) and pick up an image from Pammie and enter it both on the SBP CHALLENGE as well as the SQUIGGLEFLY BLOGSPOT CHALLENGE (click!).

Ahhhhhh how easy, right?!!! 

ODD MAN OUT AT SQUIGGLEFLY (SFC 1713)

Rhonda's Rowdy Rascals at Squigglefly Challenge Blogspot have a super fun challenge.  So you need to grab a Squigglefly image and come on over.  Here is the other rule other than use a Squigglefly image:  Odd Man Out - make a card that uses elements or images in odd numbers

DOVE (L Face) - DIANA GARRISON

Three gems, one ribbon, a group of 3 flowers facing the dove.......all symbolic of the way to create a card front - using only odd numbers in the embellishments.  I found the following info on CARD MAKING 101 and try to faithfully follow the sage advice:

When placing your embellishments, it often helps to use the "Rule of Uneven Numbers". This rule states that using an odd number of embellishments (such as 1, 3, 5 or 7) is visually appealing and will give balance to your design. This might be one large Dazzles™ as the focal on a card, 3 brads along the edge of the card mat, or 5 small silk flowers as a border. The embellishments don’t have to be exactly the same, either: You can use an uneven number of similar embellishments to add impact—similar embellishments might be the same item but in a different color, material or size.

So the ball is in your card shop - grab an image and come on over and join us for some great fun and possibly free images for you!!!

IS IT A BIRD? IS IT A PLANE? IT SEEMS A LITTLE SKETCHY!

WOO HOO - Here we go with a new great challenge using a sketch at SEEMS A LITTLE SKETCHY! Read on.......and get excited!

KENNY K DOWNLOADS is our sponsor - 1 prize will be given at a random drawing of all images presented in this challenge.  

I chose to use Super Hero for a couple boy birthday cards this month.  I also have one reserved for Hubby for Father's Day.  Did you know that on April 18, 2013, the history of Superman was 75 years old and we owe that history to a small young boy.  Click here for a cool story of where he lived and what he did to get the Superman fad/history started.

This image became quite the topic of a convo with me and my leader Marti, and also included Kenny K and his wife Elena!  I had posted to Marti that my husband flies a remote controlled 7 ft. Superman that he built and this image would be used for a great Father's Day card for him.  It is becoming the topic of interest around here in the country when people drive by if he's out in the field flying.  So we put up a video of the Super man flying

This caught Kenny K's eye and he told us he had formerly had a job which was at the building the Daily Planet was filmed in.  How cool is that!  Anyway, click the link and check out my hubby flying his Superman........after you take a look at my cards!

 SUPER HERO

Come on over to SEEMS A LITTLE SKETCHY and join in the SUPER FUN we are having in this challenge.  Just click on that link, and before you go, click on FOLLOW ME and let me know by comment you were here.  Thanks for swooping by and don't let your cape get caught on a tree limb!  

HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS SUPERMAN!!!

APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS - even LOVE Hearts!

PLANT A SEED OF LOVE

Image Artist: Cheryl Alger

April Showers bring May Flowers!  In the upper Midwest we are deluged with rain, so hopefully that means this year we will have a lot of May Flowers!  This is such a fun image to color and make cards with, or color and use for embellishment on your scrapbook pages.  Have you tried coloring digis in a smaller image and using them for SB embellishments?  Saves money!

Well I love so many artists' images at Squigglefly, I wish I could just collect them all, but more new ones keep coming out.  So hop on over to Squigglefly's store and pick yourself out an image with or without sentiments (they do have separate sentiments as well) and don't forget there are a lot of free ones.  If you need help, just come back here and lmk.

Meanwhile let my LOVE HEARTS Seeds bring you lots of flowers this year!  Decorate, decorate, decorate!  Make your own flowers and glitz up your craft area with some tissue paper flowers!  Ah the possibilities are endless!

If you are not a follower already of mine, please sign up.  The 100th follower will trigger a drawing of a stampset for someone!  Have an awesome Monday!

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL BIRTHDAY!

Have you been over to Fred She Said to check out the new digi papers -  a double wow on beautiful!  I love flowers and so do most of my friends!  The background paper used here is from the :

FSS-BMD Floral Surprise Papers SET 

 ...and guess what?!!!  The sweet gal holding the birthday cake is also from FRED, SHE SAID, check her out here:

EMMA & THE CAKE -- choose from 5 different colored Emmas or color her yourself!  I pulled the sentiment from another sentiment folder, add a button and a bow and a bit of multi layering and now have an easily put together 5.5 x 5.5 birthday card! Believe me that is easy - I put together 2 cards in the same time it usually takes me just 3/4 of 1 card's time.  And the colors are so vibrant!

THE LAND OF HAPPY FLOWERS!

Now I have to explain a little before I show  you my finished project!  One day this person that I am learned that I have an afib problem with my heart.  After multiple visits to the ER and learning thru the testing my cardiologist did, I was forced to give up ALL caffeine - in anything I drink.  Little did I know that I was totally addicted to caffeine.  I've always been one of those gals with endless energy - til now.  But I've learned to adjust my life and now I feel great with the help of 2 important heart meds to help with a ventricle problem as well.

But recently at a local restaurant I was given straight caffeinated coffee - my heart didn't relax for 4 hours!  So from now on, I take my laminated bunch of Happy Flowers with me and place the card on my table so there never is another problem.  Granted some people don't understand, but I have to understand if I'm to protect my health.

So all that being said, I've chosen the HAPPY FLOWERS RAINBOW SET from Fred, She Said's Store.  The colors are just beautiful when printed out even on an 'average HP printer' which I have.  I printed 2 and folded the half sheet in quarters and passed it thru by Xyron 510 Laminating cartridge.  It fits in my purse and goes with me easily now.  The laminated flowers are on the right.....I tried to keep the shine off.

So now that I am totally in love with this HAPPY FLOWER set and can choose the colors I want and place in the pot where I want and add leaves and more stems, I decided to do a 6 piece Note Card Set for a friend - I put a JUST A NOTE caption on the upper right.  The inside is left blank for quick correspondence!  I printed the flowers once I had them placed where I liked on the right hand side of my sheet (only) - placing 2 on a sheet. Then I needed only slice the sheet in half and fold each half in half and I automatically had a card with an interior.  A quick siggy on the back and

wallah, I'm done!

Now doesn't that make your day happy?  I love the Fred,She Said store - I have learned how to work with these precolored images and they have often been mistaken for actual copic colored items. Happy Flowers Rainbow Collection  AND a digi set Happy Flowers Digi Set and Uplifting Sentiments to go with both.  These are sentiments and bible verses that are happy, uplifting and encouraging... also Happy Birthday and Easter ones too.... 22 sentiment files in all

There are also sets that are uncolored as well as Uplifting Sentiments sets.  I hope you'll come over to Fred, She Said and pick out something fun and give this a whirl!

............with or without coffee!  :)

LET'S MAKE A MOTHER'S DAY CARD

This week we prepare for Mother's Day - oh what a wonderful celebration.  Whether your mom is still with you or you are celebrating someone else's Mother's Day, make it a lovely day!

Rhonda's Rowdy Rascals on SQUIGGLEFLY have asked us to make a Mother's Day card for challenge #SFC1513-RRR.

 A MONKEY LOVER

Fawn Palmer

I chose A MONKEY LOVER drawn by Fawn Palmer.  It includes 2 sentiments as well and is so quick and easy to create and just dream with!  I made it simple with a 6x6 background from my dp stash and layered it with a pretty turquoise and dark brown background.  I hope you like it and I dearly hope you will join us at Squigglefly's Challenge and create a Mother's Day card using a Squigglefly image.  You could easily win a free digi stampset.  How awesome is that!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

HAPPY CINCO de MAYO!!

 I had but one stamped image in my thousands of images on hand, but I really like these HOT CHILI PEPPERS, don't you!  All the color on the background of this 6x6 are paint chips cut to fit and then I sewed them to the card front. 

Come on over to:

-SKETCH 7 for SCRAPBOOK PLACE CHALLENGES

 

and show us your celebration project for Cinco de Mayo.

I found all the following in wikipedia for those of us not familiar with the Mexican celebration.  It's very interesting.

Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "fifth of May") is a celebration held on 5 May. It originated with and is celebrated primarily by Mexican Americans in the United States.^[1]. A similar celebration takes place in the Mexican state of Puebla,^{[note 1][2][3][4]} where the holiday is called El Día de la Batalla de Puebla (English: The Day of the Battle of Puebla).^[5][6][7] It originated with Mexican-American communities in the American West as a way to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War,^[8][9] and today the date is observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride.^[10] In the state of Puebla, the date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín.^[3][11] Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day—the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico—which is celebrated on September 16.^[3][12]

A WHIMSY AND A TURTLE!

SEEMS A LITTLE SKETCHY has the cutest current sketch challenge to use on almost any sized card. Here's the sketch and you can use any image; click on my first link to get to their challenge page.  There are 5 DIGI IMAGES (your choice) up for grabs as prizes!

WHIMSY STAMPS IS OUR SPONSOR

My image came from DOODLE PANTRY AND IS called CUPID TURTLE!  Check him out - he comes with lots of fun goodies and is only a click away.  No waiting for the mail system on this one.

And speaking of the mail system, I kept this card as an A2 sized card, sewing 5 strips of cs for the background and outlining with gold leaf pen.  He'll be welcomed as a birthday card for sure - especially if there is cash inside!  :)

VERY GENTLE FRIENDS!

GENTLE FRIENDS

Image Artist - Cheryl Alger

Today Holley's Hobbyists challenged everyone to a simple recipe on their paper creation.  Here's her request: I give thee a recipe, on your card this week please use some printed paper, at least 2 brads, and a tag of any kind (size or shape);

I used 3 brads at the mid base of the card.  My image is such a sweet image to color with copics, no more needs to be said.  I had the tag in my stash and just embellished it with ladybugs to go with the the images.

Come on over to Squigglefly's Challenge now and enter a card - and get in the running for a sweet free stampset!   And then stop by Squigglefly's FACEBOOK and become a follower.  Once we reach 300 there are prizes in store!

TWO QUICK CARDS

Using Fred She Said's flowers.  I have a few card bases made up and I had all these flower pieces from my previous project, so I slit the petals and stretched and maneuvered them to look real and attached them to 2 card fronts.

The flowers and petals and greens and butterflies (everything) is available at Fred She Said's store.

Just another beautiful way to use up your stash - and what is even better is that both of these are okay for one FOREVER stamp!  Now that's cost saving!

A FLORAL FANTASY AT SCRAPBOOK PLACE

A floral fantasy for sure - I wish every rose I have in my garden were this pretty!  I do love flowers and I do love butterflies, isn't it a treasure to just think of the many ways we can use them on cards and other paper projects.

SCRAPBOOK PLACE CHALLENGES is giving us a chance to participate in a 2 week long challenge with a theme of FLORAL FANTASY.  Come on over and check the group's blog out.

This particular beautifully pre-colored rose comes from the FRED SHE SAID store and the link is:  Fred's Flowers v5 - A Lovely Blossom & Butterfly Coloured Decoupage Kit and just follow the link here to see how many different flowers and other items you get with the stampset.  It's unbelievable - it's beautiful!

I layered the various flower leaves and added a 3 dimensional butterfly with a bit of stickles and glitter everywhere.  I added a bit of Liquid Pearls in the center of the flower.

Everything comes in the stampset - you need only select the colors, print and fussy cut and then work with the paper to get it to rise like a real petal!

The interior of my card is an Easter verse which can be purchased HERE.  The card was sent to my gf in northern WI who lost her husband a few months ago.

I hope you had a beautiful Easter - and now our hearts and minds turn towards a beautiful spring!  I gave my cats a bit of dried catnip for a spring treat - and below are a couple photos of Chumley and one of the woods critters having fun!

LORD CHUMLEY - having a blast!

Even our resident possum came out for a few tidbits - now we're so anxious to get the garden planted - NEXT WEEK!

A LAZZZZZZZZZZZZY AFTERNOON ON THE LAKE

When I was coloring this image, we here in SW Wisconsin had not made it above 20 degrees in 2 days for a high.  What a treat to color warmth/sun/water/drifting/dreaming!  Oh my, I can hardly wait for a gorgeous lazy summer day!

This challenge is at SQUIGGLEFLY right now!  Rhonda's Rowdy Rascals has challenged everyone to create a card that uses liquid in some way - could be using an image that has water, using liquid alcohol inks for your backgrounds, or liquid crystal lacquer...

 A LAZY AFTERNOON - CHERYL ALGER

And as usual I never make 1 card - it's always 2 or more.  So I used the right and left side of the image.  That is such a beaut about using digis, so many variations!  I love digis!  And Squigglefly is the Queen's shop for digi shopping!  

Card #2 of Lazy Afternoon

Here are all the copic colors I used in both cards.  Both are 6x6 and flat enuf to mail in a 6.25 x 6.25 envie for only $.46.  That's my goal lately unless I'm hand delivering or selling!  I used a couple sheets from 6x6 Little Yellow Bicycle SPLASH paper pad - a bit of icicle stickles here and there and some easy peasy diecutting. 

COME JOIN US AT SQUIGGLEFLY CHALLENGE and hopefully win yourself soem free digis. Everyone has an equal chance as drawing is done by random generator!  Belle says: DO IT!

Ride 'Em Cowboy!

QRK STAMPEDE Image - Ride 'Em Cowboy

I enjoyed coloring these little forest and swamp critters with my copics!  Sometimes you can have just too much fun coloring, know what I mean?  I was imagining riding along on that lovely snail!

Card #2 - I never make just one card!

I needed a few more birthday cards for my grandson and great grandson this time, and this image is perfect!  I actually chose an A2 display this time rather than my usual 6x6 biggies.  And this is very flat and will mail very well.

Sketch designed by Tess Davis

Copics used.

Come on over to SEEMS A LITTLE SKETCHY - and enter your card or art project using the sketch above to some degree.  You actually have 2 weeks to do it, no excuses now, huh?  Good - I'll see you in the winner's circle!!!