Fabulous Friday

Good Morning!  Actually as you're reading this I am on way to Michigan visiting my cousin.  Please pray for safe travel for me.

Anyway, I got to cheat a little... my daughter participated in my friend Joni's challenge blog Raise The Bar and was selected to be a Guest Designer.  Yay for Hollyanne!  She was so excited.  But since she's the Guest Designer and I'm her Mom, I got to see the challenge a little ahead of time.  I'm so glad, too, because I rarely get to play.   So here's what I did with the sketch...

Continuing my week's orange theme, I pulled out one of my favorite stamp sets - the Spring Kit from All That Scraps and did a little paper piecing.  I am totally loving this card!

Please head on over to Hollyanne's blog and leave her a little comment love.

Supplies:

Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Pumpkin Pie

Paper:  Orange polka dots (Recollections)

Copics:  E00, E02, E29, Y17, YR16, YR20, YR23

Embellishments:  twill & grosgrain ribbons, flower (Recollections), button (my stash),

  embroidery floss

I had so much fun making this card!  I hope you enjoy it, too.  Thanks for stopping by!

Welcome to the Soft Pencil Customer Blog Hop!

Good Afternoon!  I am so glad that you are here for the Soft Pencil Anniversary (Customer) Blog Hop!  If you arrived here from Piali's blog then you're on the right track!  If you just happened to come to my blog for my Lindsay's Stamp Stuff post (click here) or just came to visit and want to join the Soft Pencil fun, click on the Soft Pencil link above to start at the beginning.  You are sure to see lots and lots of treats and inspiration.

Sticking my with orange theme of the week and using the great sketch from Cards & Things Challenges and Digital Tuesday Challenge Cute People, this is the card I came up with...

The image I used is called Butterfairy and since I adore butterflies and fairies - this was a great choice for me!  The wings were a lot of fun to color - they reminded me of when I was a kid, I used to get a piece of paper and then with a black crayon drew all kinds of random scribbles.  In a sense I was creating the black sticky part of stained glass.  Then I painstakingly colored each open section, careful to not repeat a color right next each other.  This was really hard to do having only a 24 box of Crayolas.  But it kept me busy for hours!

At this angle of the card you can see the flowers I made (thanks to my friend Joni's instructions - you're right, the were easy!) and all the glitter over her wings.

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Lavender Lace, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia
Copics:  BV00, BV02, E00, E02, E29, E57, YR16, YR20
Tools:  CM Oval cutter, Scallop Oval Nestabilities, SU! Scallop border punch, circle punches
Embellishements:  Organdy ribbon, Doodlebug Sugared Brads, Stickles (Diamond)

This picture is show you front view of the flowers I made.  I tried to add Stickles to the edges, but I think my card stock was still a little to wet for it to spread better.

I hope you enjoyed my card for the blog hop.  Your next stop is Larissa.  Have fun!!

Thursdays with Lindsay

Good Morning!  Are you enjoying my fun week of orange?  I sure hope so.  I never knew just how much fun this color could be.  OK so continuing with the theme of the week, I had to have Lindsay's Stamp Stuff play along.  Here's what I did...

First of all, let me say that I think I need to be on a Thorazine drip for taking on this card in the manner in which I did.  Do you see that flower?  It took me an hour to do all that cut work!  Crazy!!  Several years ago I attended a crop.  At this crop there was a young couple there, it was really cool to see a husband and wife tag-teaming the scrapbooking while taking care of their baby.  This man amazed me.  Not that he was into scrapbooking WITH his wife, but the wonderful things he created with his X-Acto knife!  That man could do precision cut work with his craft knife that would compete with any laser cut piece I've ever seen.  I thought he was nuts!  But did admire his work.  I can't do near what he could, but I am pleased with how this turned out.

I did use the sketch from Sketches by Tamara.  Great sketch!  Where I put the flower is supposed to be a sentiment, so I'm not sure if this will qualify for her challenge, but it was fun anyway.  Edit:  I missed the challenge on that sketch anyway!  I keep forgetting to look at my dates!!  And thanks to a friend to point me into another direction for a different challenge, I submit this to My Time to Craft Challenge.

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Black
Paper:  Basic Grey Ambrosia (Mandarin), Uptown Houndstooth (LSS)
Image:  Doodle Flowers (tulip)
Copics:  100, Y17, YG03, YG67, YR16, YR68
Tools:  Craft knife, Magic Matter, eyelet setter, Coluzzle circle cutter
Embellishments:  Eyelets

I do hope you like my card.  Lindsay released a brand new set call Seaside Sketches and it's beautiful.  Be sure to head on over to Lindsay's blog to see what she has in store for you and I know the team has some great stuff to share with you, too.  Thanks for stopping by!  And be sure to come back to my blog later on today for Soft Pencil's Anniversary blog hop.

Sweet Sketch Wednesday #51

Good Morning!  It's another Sweet Sketch Wednesday!  Arlana has another great sketch for us to play with this week and we have a new sponsor (new to me) this week, Roberta from Prairie Fairy Digital Stamps.  She's offering a prize of 5 single images of the winner's choice (db image counts as two). 

This is also my orange week - a week I'm setting aside to play and ponder the color of orange!  But first, here's the sketch...

An easy sketch with so much room for interpretation!  And here's my card...

Yep!  This is the same paper/color combo I used yesterday for my Tuesday Morning Sketches challenge.  I don't have a lot of orange in my collection, but I'm determined to use it!

Supplies:

Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Gable Green, Bazzil Bling

Paper:  The Paper Co - Paws & Claws Kitty Argyle

Copics:  C8, RV000, RV10, W-3, YR16, YR20

Tools:  Cuttlebug, Nestibilities, pop dots

Embellishments:  Prima flowers, Flower brad (Making Memories Spring colors)

I hope you enjoy my card.  Thank you for stopping by!  Head on over to Sweet Sketch Wednesday so you can join in the fun.  Be sure to leave lots of comment love for the design team - they are wonderful.

Tuesday Morning Sketches #47

Good Morning!  Yesterday I posted that this week is going to be my orange week.  I really like the color orange and it's not something I use very often.  So keeping with that idea and my sketch challenge over at Tuesday Morning Sketches, here's my card...

I love this paper!  I got it at Michaels on clearance.  It's actually a scrapbook page base paper and had a border of cats along the bottom.  I cut that off and am just using the pattern.  I also added Bazzil Bling paper and I don't know what the color is really called but I've been calling it Mango.

This week's sponsor is Melissa from MelJen's Designs.  I was thrilled when the DT Coordinator contacted me for sponsoring Tuesday Morning Sketches.  I've been admiring the wonderful designs drawn by the very talented Melissa Jenkins and was more than happy to have them sponsor.  This image was provided by MelJen's Designs and you all know how much I love sunflowers.  I also pulled out a very neglected QuicKutz die, a collection I believe is called Sunshine.

I am also entering this in to The Pink Elephant's challenge which is to use orange.  Do you think they'll let me enter everyday?  Heehee!!

Supplies:

Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Bazzil Bling, Gable Green

Paper:  The Paper Co Studio - Paws and Claws Kitty Argyle

Copics:  B000, C8, E29, E57, RV29, Y06, Y15, Y17, YG00, YG03, YR16, YR20

Stamps/Ink:  Mini Messages (PTI), Rich Cocoa (Memento)

Tools:  Cuttlebug, QuicKutz dies, corner rounder, MS border punch, pop dots

Embellishments:  Pearls (Recollections), Ribbon (Offray)

I hope you'll join me all week for my celebration of orange.  I also hope that you'll head on over to Tuesday Morning Sketches and join in the fun there.  There's a great prize to try to win!  Thank you so much for stopping by!

A Week of Orange!

Good Morning!  Happy Monday to you.  It's the beginning of a new week and a long holiday weekend.  I, for one, am looking very forward to it!!  I am off this weekend to visit a cousin I haven't seen in 15 years and I can't wait to be able to give him a great big hug!!

So I thought I would do something kinda fun this week.  After spending some time on the phone with a very good friend of mine that I haven't talked to in weeks, this idea came to me.  This very dear friend of mine loves the color orange, a color I am very afraid of in my papercrafting endeavors.  So to push me out of my box, I am celebrating orange this week.  Here's the card I made to kick it off...

I started with the inspiration from this week's Crafts 4 Eternity challenge.  The recipe is the sketch, gingham and add some food.  So I set off to work on finding gingham.  I snagged this digi-paper kit from MyGrafico and that turned out to be the easy part.  The hard part was finding an image in my stuff that had food.  Well, what I had really doesn't go with orange, except for the Kiki La Rue image that I have that is holding an ice cream cone - but one of the C4E DT members used that image, so I needed to be original.  OK... do I totally sound like I'm justifying that I bought a new image from All That Scraps?  Good, 'cause I am!  I bought the newest Kiki La Rue Cupcake and isn't she sweet?!

I have decided that I want lime green tights!  I'd probably never find them in my size, but they are the cutest!!  I also used some old stuff, too.  I found these loopy brads in my stash - totally forgot I had them and they worked out perfectly!

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Green Galore, Black, Gable Green
Paper:  JD Digi Designs Cute Animal Backgrounds & Borders
Copics:  E00, E02, E53, Y17, YG00, YG03, YR16, YR20, YR23, YR68
Tools:  Cuttlebug, Candy Stripes Embossing Folder
Embellishments:  Loopy Brads (Making Memories), Ribbon (Offray)

I hope you liked my card and that you'll join me all week for my ORANGE celebration!

Fabulous Friday

Good Morning!  Happy Friday.  It'll be a busy day for me as I'm trying to get myself organized for a garage sale.  Most likely I'll be rained out.  LOL
I have a card to share with you today that I made for the Busy Beauties Creation Station challenge.  They had a really fun blog hop yesterday and a great sketch at the end.  So here's what I did with the sketch...

I had this image all ready to go for my Tuesday Morning Sketches challenge, but then I had won some images from BBB that I just had to play with.  So now I finally am using this FABULOUS cake image from the Alice in Wonderland collection that was released... last month, I think.  I had a lot of fun with the sketch.  I also was very excited to finally to get to use some chipboard elements from Thickers that I picked up a long time ago!  See, I'm digging into what I have.

Supplies:

Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White

Paper:  Chocolat by SEI

Copics:  B00, B000, E29, E53, E57, G02, G05, RV000, RV02, RV10, R27, R29

Embellishments:  Stickles (Diamond), Thickers

Tools:  Nestibilities

Thanks for stopping by!  Off to the scary confines of the garage!

Thursdays with Lindsay

Good Morning!  I have a couple of cards to share with you today that I have to say were tedious and time consuming and I loved every minute of it!  For the first one, I enjoy puzzles, so this was a challenging puzzle.  Let me show it to you...

Over at my monthly card traders group, the challenge was to create a card using the brick wall technique.  You can find the tutorial over on SCS.  As I said, this is a bit tedious and time consuming, but if you enjoy puzzles, then you must give this a try!

I used the beautiful Iris image from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff and some digi paper that I found somewhere - probably A Cherry on Top.  I also used the sketch from The Pink Elephant having been inspired by my daughter giving it whirl Monday night.

This next card I made to play along with the Digital Tuesday challenge which is to have vellum on your card.  You all know that I am getting ready for a move, so I've been cleaning out stuff.  I literally took this vellum out of the trash (good thing I don't allow food/drink items to go into my craft room trash can).  I threw it away thinking to myself that I am not ever going to use these scraps, so why keep them.  Well, this is why we papercrafters are hoarders.

I pulled out the recently discovered paper piercing patterns and set to work.  This is actually a one layer element, but I cut it apart after doing all the piercing.  I also used a white gel pen to trace the scallops.  I like how I achieved a Pergamano look without all the work of the nibs and ink.  Again I used the beautiful Iris image.  Here's a close up of the focal image....

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Milled Ivory, Black, Perfect Plum
Paper:  Digi paper by CHaskell, Vellum (SU)
Pattern:  Madjara
Copics:  BV00, BV02, BV04, YG63, YG67
Ink:  Perfect Plum
Tools:  Piercer/Mat, SCAL/Cricut, white gel pen
Embellishments:  Bling by Recollections

I hope you enjoy my cards.  If you try these techniques, let me know.  I'd love to see what you did with them.  Now head on over to Lindsay's blog to see what she has in store for you.  Also, visit the rest of the team and leave them some love.  Lindsay has a wonderfully talented design team and they are sure to inspire you.

Sweet Sketch Wednesday #50

Good Morning!  Happy Sweet Sketch Wednesday.  Arlana has another fabulous sketch for us to play with and Sally Ann from Digi Stamp Boutique is back to sponsor us!  Wednesday can't get much better than this.

See, I told you it was a fabulous sketch!  And here's what I did with it....

I am so pleased with how this card turned out.  Yes, I used the same paper earlier this week - I just love it.  And I am trying to be really good and not buy new.  I'm using what I have.  I'm using what I have.  I'm using what I have.  (Yes, I'm convincing myself this is a good thing.)

I do love my new Cricut Expression.  I still haven't played with it nearly as much as I want to, but here and there is good, too.  I did used an SVG file that I got from SVG Cuts that I think is so pretty!  When I put the card together though, the top and bottom looked so empty, so I went in search of paper piercing patterns and I found this one!  I LOVE IT!!

Here's a detail photo of the card so that you can see the wonderful design to the SVG frame I used.  You can also see the paper piercing I did.

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Chocolate Chip, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White
Paper:  Heidi Grace
Copics:  RV00, RV10, E57, YG63, YG67
Paper Piercing Pattern by Madjara
Tools:  SVG, SCAL/Cricut, paper piercer
Embellishments:  Close to Cocoa grosgrain, button

I hope you like my card.  I am so glad that you stopped by!  Now be sure to head on over to the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog to play along.

Tuesday Morning Sketches #46

Good Morning!  It's Tuesday - one of my favorite days of the week!  I have a fun challenge over on my challenge blog - no sketch this week.  This week we're using our favorite color combos and glitter.  I also have a very sweet sponsor.  Carolyn from Busy Beauties Boutique is sponsoring and you know that I've really enjoyed her digis a lot lately.

So here's my card.  I used the lovely tea and cookies image.  I did add a little extra squiggle line on the cookies so that it looked like glittered sugar frosting sitting on top of the cookies.  I also CANNOT believe I said favorite color combo and then had to choose one.  I have so many favorites!  But I went with turquoise and black... and polka dots.  And if you know me, you know that in my world, polka dots are a color.  I also followed the sketch from Mojo Monday which was super fun sketch to use!

Here's a close up of my image so you can see all the glitter I used.

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Black
Paper:  SU Tempting Turquoise dp
Copics:  BG01, BG05, BV00, BV02, E53, RV10, W-3, Y11, YG00, YG03
Stickles:  Diamond, Fruit Punch
Tools:  Swiss Dots CB folder, Labels One Nesties
Embellishments:  embroidery floss, SEI black button

I hope you join us over at Tuesday Morning Sketches!  Thanks for stopping by.

Ethereal Forest Designs Monday

Good Morning!  I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend.  Mine was busy, as usual.  Yesterday was picture day for Hollyanne.  She looked so pretty in all her recital costumes.

I have a card to share with you using Marble the Unicorn & Unicorn Sentiments.  I love this set, this was part of the original release from EFD.  I also participated in the Unscripted Sketches challenge which was to use their sketch and it's also National Chocolate Chip day, so I used Chocolate Chip card stock.

I am really pleased with how this card turned out.  I also am still amazing myself as I clean out my craft room and get it organized for packing on what I find.  I found this great textured ribbon in a card kit I received in a swap.

This is a detail photo of  Marble.  I used the Out of the Box technique on this image.  She is printed on card stock and then I cut the box to 1 1/2 inches on the sides and bottom.  I cut around her head and horn.  I like this technique - it's a little extra work, but I think it's worth it.

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Heidi Grace, Basic Grey
Copics:  B000, B02, Y28
Prismacolor:  Driftwood
Tools:  Scallop Square Nestibilities

I hope you enjoyed my card.  Thank you for stopping by to visit me today!

Hugs,
Melissa

Card Share Sunday

Good Evening,

I made this card earlier but couldn't post until tonight - my daughter's recital pictures were taken today and that took about 3 hours of day away.  Oh well, it was fun.

I made this card for the challenge over at The Sweet Stop.  Also, in honor of Sweet n Sassy Stamps bring back their clear stamps, I broke out one of the two SNSS stamp sets I own.

This set is Pond Pals and I love this set because of the cattails.  I've always thought they were the coolest thing!  It was a great sketch to play with, too.  One I think I'd like to use again.

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Kraft
Paper:  Paper Porcelain Prints (SU)
Copics:  B000, E29, E53, E57,YG63, YG67
Ink:  Memento Rich Cocoa
Tools:  CM circle cutters, pop-dots

The other part of the challenge was to create a masculine card - I'd say this is pretty masculine.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Fabulous Friday!

Good Afternoon!  I am a little late with my post today.  I started this card last night but my son wanted to talk with me so production stopped.

I decided to play along with a challenge I've not done before, this is for DCRU, or rather A Crafty Little Place.  It's a great sketch by Lori Boyd and was a lot of fun to make.

I used stamps from the Spring Pixie Kit by CC Designs.  I just love this set and I try to incorporate it into as many cards as I can.


Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Almost Amethyst
Paper:  Lily Kate by Basic Grey
Copics:  B000, BG01, BG05, BV00, BV02, BV04, C8, E00, E02,
  E29, E53, E57, W-3, Y06, Y11, Y15, Y17, YG63, YG67, YR20, YR23
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Tools:  CB Embossing Folder Floral Fantasy
Embellishments:  Offray ribbon, Sugared Brads by Doodlebug

Thank you for stopping by - I hope you have a really enjoyable weekend!!

Thursdays with Lindsay

Good Morning!  You know, there is nothing better to me than a really good cup of coffee in the morning.  I enjoy it when it's steaming hot and it's cool outside.  I finally got my Cricut Expression and I've been playing with it a bit.  Not has much as I'd hoped, but some and I've learned something.  I've learned that I have a lot to learn about it.  But I am rather excited about it because I now have a bigger canvas to use all the great SVG files that are available the require a bigger canvas.

Back around Christmas time, Lindsay released an SVG file for a Christmas Cookie box and I couldn't cut it with the the baby bug, so all I could do was simply admire it.  I finally got to play with it!  It's not Christmas time, but the box itself is so versatile.

I used this box to give the gift of coffee.  I cut the bag out and then traced the top scalloped part onto some white card stock and then adhered it off-set a bit.  I then used the Embossed Mats scallop circle that came with the set and I used All-Around Phrases (Add On) for the sentiment.  I printed out my favorite image from the Coffee Talk set and centered that with pop-dots.  I've decided I need a coffee mug that is lime green with pink polka dots!  I finished it off with coffee beans in a cello bag and tied it up with ribbon.

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White
Paper:  All That Scraps (unsure of the maker)
Copics:  RV10, RV13, W-3, YG00, YG03
Tools:  CM Circle Cutters, SCAL/Cricut

I hope my easy gift will inspire you to try out the amazing SVG files that Lindsay has available as well as her wonderful images.  Now be sure to visit Lindsay and the rest of the team.  Thank you for stopping by!

Sweet Sketch Wednesday #49

Good Morning!  It's Wednesday, the middle of the week and that marks another new sketch from Arlana, a wonderfully sweet sponsor and GREAT eye-candy from the design team!  This week is sponsored by Kathy of Pixie Dust Studio.  She's offering two digi images to the winner.  Fun!

Here's Arlana's fabulous sketch...

Kathy graciously gave the team images to play with.  Here's what I did with mine.

Yep!  I attempted black hair again.  I think she turned out really cute!

Then I started glittering and couldn't stop.  This picture doesn't capture all the shine in the glitter.  Sometimes my photography is hit or miss when taking a picture of glitter.  But hopefully you get the idea.

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Black
Paper:  SEI Chocolat, other DP from Michaels
Copics:  W-3, RV000, RV10, RV02, C8, C10, E00, E02, B000, Y28
Stickles:  Diamond, Frosted Lace, Fruit Punch, Gold
Embellishments:  Ribbon, Prima Flowers, rhinestone

Now head on over to the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog to find out how to play and feast your on eyes on some fantastic samples from the other DT members.  Thank you for stopping by!

Tuesday Morning Sketches #45

Good Morning!  I have a great sketch, super sponsor and lots of inspiration posted over on my challenge blog, Tuesday Morning Sketches.  I hope you hop on over there to join us this week!

Hollyanne and I were checking out some challenge blogs to play along with.  We happened on one called Just Cute Bears, their challenge this week is a multi-fold card.  Neither of us can really participate since their requirement is to use a bear.  Since there isn't a bear in sight on my card... it's simply something to share with you.  But we did make cards using a Spring Card tutorial.  Fun card to make!

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Whisper White, Bashful blue, Black
Stamps:  There She Goes Bloom, dotted cross-hatch (unknown)
Ink:  Bashful Blue, Tuxedo Black
Copics:  B02, B05, Y06, Y15, YG63, YG67
Tools:  Nesties Scallop Ovals, Scallop Square, CM Oval cutter
Embellishments:  Brads (SU), ribbon

I do hope you'll join us this week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Ethereal Forest Designs Monday

Good Morning!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and an enjoyable Mother's Day.

Today I have a really cute bag to share with you that I am also entering into the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge.  It's not a basket, per se, but it's cute anyway!

I did get my Cricut Expression and was delighted that I could actually cut a bigger pattern!  I used a candy box SVG file from the SCAL Yahoo Group.  It's a lovely gable box design.  I used the Mallard Duck image from Ethereal Forest Designs as well as the Duck Sentiments.  I'm going to fill this with some treats for one of my favorite residents at work.  I think he's going to love it, I hope.

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White
Paper:  Piggy Tales
Copics:  BG01, BG05, E29, E53, E57, C10, Y17, YG63, YG67, YR23
Tools:  Nestabilities Scallop Circles & Ovals, CM Circle Cutters

I hope you like my box and that it gives you inspiration to try one for yourself.  Thanks for stopping by!

Card Share

Hi everyone!  Happy Saturday night.  For a day that started out miserable for me, my evening ended up great!  It was a very busy day but after dinner, my daughter and I headed downstairs to the craft room and we made cards together.  Nothing like spending some quality time with my kids to get me in a better mood.

So here's a card that I made for the Busy Beauties Creation Station challenge and Just Us Girls.  I won the last Busy Beauties challenge and so I used one of my prize images.  This was so fun!

The BBB challenge was to use red, blue or both.  Now when I was first thinking of this challenge, I thought I would just use red.  I even found some fabulous Prima flowers on clearance for $2.99 to use with this challenge.  The flowers remain unopened and I love my card!  Inside is a little bookmark.  I'm planning on giving this to one of the senior ladies at my work - she loves to read.

The Just Us Girls Challenge was to create a pocket card.  I loved the DT line-up so much, that I used some of their ideas for inspiration.  Thank you Dana & LeAnne  for helping me get my creative juices flowing, you girls are very inspiring!

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Brocade Blue, Real Red
Paper:  Red polka dots (Recollections)
Copics:  G28, B95, B97, YG67, R27, R29, RV29, W-3, Y17, YR16, C8
Tools:  Diamond Plate CB folder, Scallop Circle Nesties, CM Circle Cutters
Embellishments:  Large eyelets, red polka dot grosgrain ribbon

I hope you like this card and thank you so much for visiting me.  And to all the Mother's and Mother-figures... Happy Mother's Day to you all.

Fabulous Friday

Good Morning!  I am so glad that I don't go into work until this afternoon.  I've been really stressing and struggling with this move that my creative spirit has flown away.  I didn't work on anything last night - I dozed most of the evening until bedtime.

I'm still not sure that my creative juices are flowing but I did want to try the sketch from The Sweet Stop and I hardly ever get to play along with Just Magnolia challenge, so I forced myself to work on a card for these challenges.  I'm not entirely happy with it, but I think it's OK.

The challenge at Just Magnolia is called It Takes Two - so two Magnolia images needed to be featured on the card.  I was thrilled when I dug through my card kits stash and found a kit that had two images in it.  I didn't follow the sketch at the The Sweet Stop to every letter of each of the elements.  My focal image ended up being too big for all the different parts.

Supplies:
Card stock:  Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  The first dp is unknown because it came in a kit, the other is Basic Grey
Copics:  B95, B97, E00, E02, E53, RV000, RV02, RV10, Y15, Y17, YG03,
  YR16, YR23, YR61, Colorless Blender
Ink:  Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Rich Cocoa
Stamps:  Just Saying by Inkadinkadoo
Tools:  circle punches, sponges
Embellishments:  Prima flowers, Pearls (Recollections)

Fortunately this card also fits the challenge over at my monthly card traders group.  I do hope you like my card and thank you so much for visiting.

Thursdays with Lindsay

Good Morning,

Just a quick post here - it's actually Thursday night as I am writing this and it's past my bedtime.  I like working 6am to 2pm, but getting up at 4:30 is really tough!

I am sad, my Cricut Expression still hasn't arrived and I did hope it would be here in time for this posting because I wanted to play with BIGGER SVG files!  Oh well, it'll get here and then I can play over the weekend!  So for this card, I made a Mother's Day card using the sketch from Just Us Girls.  They are having a DT call and I'd love to apply, but....

For this card I used Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Magnola, Lovely Tickets, Old Paper and Houndstooth (Plum) Digi-Paper.  They can all be found here at Lindsay's store on MyGrafico.

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Milled Ivory, Perfect Plum
Paper:  Houndstooth digi paper LSS
Prismacolor Color Pencils:  Dark Brown, Violet, Limepeel and OMS
Tools:  Coluzzle circle cutter, Textile CB Embossing Folder, White Craft Ink
Embellishments:  Pearls (Recollections)

I hope you like my card and I'm sorry for the quick post.  Thank you so much for visiting.  Please be sure to visit the rest of the team, they all do such amazing work!  Have a great day!

Sweet Sketch Wednesday #48

Good Morning!  Happy Wednesday!  Arlana has another fabulous sketch for us to use this week and one of my favorite digi-stamp companies is back to sponsor us.  Jodie from Bugaboo is the sponsor this week and she's offering 7 digi-stamps to the randomly drawn winner.

So here's the sketch we're working with...

Cute, isn't it?  There is so much possibility to this sketch!  Here's my take on it...

I used the Desiree sitter image - I think she is soooo cute!  Do you happen to recognize the materials used?  I used an old Simply Scrappin' kit and I mean old.  This was Fresh Flowers and when SU! first introduced these kits, they were only available in 8 1/2 x 11.  I've been cleaning out my craft room and I came across this kit.  This kit contained card stock called Rose Romance which retired a long time ago, but it matched this other fabulous find I had in my stuff.  See the twill tape?  It's from Making Memories.

OK readers, I want your honest opinion, too.  I am trying to learn how to color shiny hair.  Does her hair look shiny or does it look like I made her into Bride of Frankenstein at age 4?

Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Rose Romance, Lovely Lilac
Paper:  Patterned card stock from Fresh Flowers Simply Scrappin kit
Copics:  C8, C18, BV02, BV00, E00, E02, RV000, RV02, RV10
Tools:  Nesties scallop, CM Circle cutters, Cuttlebug & CB Folder Swiss Dots
Embellishments:  MM twill tape, Prima Flowers, Sugar-Coated brads by Doodlebug

Thank you so much for stopping by.  Now head on over to the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog to find out how to play along and get more inspiration from my fabulous teammates!  Have a Sweet Day!

Tuesday Morning Sketches #44

Good Morning!  Welcome to your Tuesday.  I am so glad that you're here.  I have a simply gorgeous card to share with.  Boy am I humble!  LOL  But I am really excited about this card.

This week is sponsored by Stef of Glitterbabe's Art Shop.  I am so proud of Stef - she was designing her own line of digi-stamps for The Stamping Boutique (love Tracy's images) but then she stepped out on her own.  She has a tremendous talent.  She was so very kind in sharing some images with me and my team.  I chose to use Little Ballerina.  With recital fast approaching and my daughter in her 5th year of ballet, this set was the obvious choice.

The theme of recital this is year is Las Vegas.  The ballet number that Hollyanne is in is called Waltz of the Flowers.  I colored this image to resemble her costume for that number.  It is this lovely burgundy and black with lots of toule.  I started this card with a mat from Penny Duncan.  This is a Fleur de Lis frame SVG file that is absolutely gorgeous!


Supplies:
Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White & Milled Ivory, Baroque Burgundy
Prismacolor Pencils:  Black, Blush Pink, Tucson Red - blended with OMS
Tools:  SVG File from Penny Duncan, SCAL/Cricut, circle punches
Embellishments:  Making Memories bling brads

I am so excited that I have the day off today because my Cricut Expression is supposed to arrive today!  I have sold enough (but still more to sell) of my stuff to purchase an Expression - my Mom can finally have her baby bug back.  Come on UPS Guy!

Thank you so much for stopping by.  Now head on over to Tuesday Morning Sketches, we'd love to have you join in the fun.