Exciting News!

I have been waiting weeks to share my wonderful news... I have been asked to participate in the Craft Your Passions Challenges blog design team! I couldn't be more thrilled and am excited to share with you some of the wonderul images our talented sponsors create. Our challenge this week is "Anything Goes"... A nice easy one to play along with! So, come join us!

Our sponsor is JLJ Designs - I got to pick from their wonderful images and couldn't resist this adorable pig. I printed her out on some Basic Grey paper then added some highlights with my Copics. Lots of stitching, crumpling, layering added to the bright colorful look. I added a pretty little ribbon/bow and some patterned paper covered chipboard XO's to go with the theme. The title is computer generated, then colored with my Copics to match. It turned out very bright and cheery!

I would love to have you come join us at Craft Your Passion Challenges! It's a great way to have some creative fun and get inspired by other amazing artists!

Crissy Armstrong's Design Team Call

Here's another wonderful image from Crissy Armstrong! I had hoped to get a couple more cards posted for her design team call, but life caught up with me. I hope Crissy can see my love of her images... even if I didn't get a chance to enter as many cards as I wanted.

This is a simple but very cute one I finished a few days ago. I colored it with my Copics, put it on some cute design papers from my stash, a quick sentiment from Hampton Arts and added some stitching, lace and buttons to balance it all out. It will be in the mail on Monday, headed to my wonderful friend in California who is going through some rough times in life. I hope it brings a smile to her face and a warm feeling that she is loved and treasured!

I will be entering this in the following challenges:

Crissy Armstrongs - Design Team Call

Sentimental Sunday - #66 - In the Garden

Ribbon Carousel - #13 - A Stitch in Time

Paper Play Challenge - #0 - In the Garden

Thanks for making the stop here... God bless!

Happy Anniversary Honey!

When I sat down to make a card for my husband for our 21st anniversary, I knew I wanted to use the adorable images from Crissy Armstrong. I thought they were perfect since I really fell madly in love with Tom the night he first kissed me. No matter how long ago it was, I will alway remember the tender moment when he softly touched my lips... Wow, that's about as mushy as it gets, huh? I really am blessed though, and thank my Lord every day for bringing this wonderful man into my life.

The second thing I wanted to do with this one was work on my coloring. I am a "self taught" Copics user and I have a tendency to be heavy handed with my coloring - I put down a lot of ink when I use my Copics, and haven't really mastered the art of using white space as highlights. So, I decided to color these as a sepia image, only allowing myself three colors of brown and one skin tone. (Ok, in the end I also used blue on her eyes and red on her lips, but they don't really count). I wanted to really work on the shading techniques and work with white space! I think it turned out kinda fun and this gave it a very vintage feel to it. All in all, I liked the way it turned out and might have to try that excersise again sometime.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crissy Armstrong's - DT Call

Sunday's with Crissy - July - Distressing

Crafts and Me Challenges - #45 - Ribbon

Make it Monday - #47

Paper Shelter - #24 - Anything Goes

Pink Ink Sketch Challenge - #2

I've got more to post - I'll be back soon!

Another one for Crissy's DT

Is this like the most adorable image ever? I think so! I have used him several times now and just love how playful he is. Makes me want to go scratch his little fury belly!

I played with my Copics until I got the fury detail I like on him then cut him out so I could pop him off my background (another Crissy stamp by the way). I can hear the howling now! I decided he didn't need a lot of embellishment since he was just so cute. So, I added a few little notes cut out from my Cricut, a little bakers twine and the cut borders to finish it off. I also used some vintage ink stippled on to tone it all down and give it a more cohesive feel. I just love the way it turned out!

I would like to enter thsi in the following challenges:

Crissy Armstrong - Design Team Call

Sunday's with Crissy - Distressing

Sweet Sunday - Sketch SSSC127

Charisma Cards - #30 - Legged Friends

Sr. Stampalot - July - Anything Goes

Pile it On - #30 - Fun in the Sun

Thanks for stoppy by!

A card for Jen

When I needed an image to make a card for my niece's birthday, I immediately thought of this cute fairy from A Day For Daisies. I'm not sure why, but for some reason, it reminds me of Jen when she was younger. I had fun coloring her with my Copic's, trying to keep it soft and pastel, but as always, I have a hard time leaving white, so it ended up a little darker than I pictured. I do like it though. The background is all Copic colored as well, and the wings were just touched with a little yellow, then I used my concoction of shimmer paint to give it sparkle. (I have the instructions for this in my tutorial section if you are interested). I distressed the edges of the papers, (some DCWV and some Basic Grey), then finished it with a little baker's twine from My Minds Eye and a matching button on the stamped sentiment. I think Jen will appreciate it this happy little card.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:

Charisma Cards #29 - Summer Colors

Pollycraft Monday #102 - Summer Fun

Paper Shelter #23 - Spotlight on Green

Paper Take Weekly - Getting Cute

Ribbon Carousel #12 - Button

Make it Monday #46 - Linky Party

Copic Creations #54 - Pastel Colors

Thanks for stopping by!

Tab's great candy give-away!

Check this out... Very generous candy give-away! Thanks Tab!

Birthday card for hubby

It's probably a little risky posting Tom's birthday card here before I actually give it to him on Tuesday, but I don't think he checks my blog out very often... So, I'm hoping I'm not blowing it - LOL. When I bought this Mo Manning stamp I knew it would soon become one of my "go to" images... It has such a great feel to it and is fairly versatile. I feel so lucky to have this wonderful man to grow old with. This month we will have been married for 22 years, and each and every day I feel blessed and amazed to have him in my life. I hope he realizes how much I love him.

I kept the card fairly simple as I normally end up doing with my "man" cards. I liked the sketch at Create 4 Fun, so it became my starting point. Then I basically just let the stamp and coloring speak for themselves... I added the typed sentiment to complete it.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Sentimental Sundays - For the Men in your life + sentiment

Deep Ocean Challenge - #3 - Cards

Create4Fun Challenge - July - Sketch

Pile it On - #29 - Life is a Picnic

Enjoy your week!

Thanks a Bunch

This was a fun card I put together just to have in my stash... I always like to have some on hand to use when I don't have time to make one for a special occassion. I loved this set of stamps from Stampendous, so versitile. I stamped it several times, colored them each with my Copics, then cut sections apart, tolled them and stacked them back together. Although it might not show in the photos, some areas are as high as four layers. I think it has a great rustic and country feel to it, accented by the pinkyshear border and yellow stitching.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Paper Play - #28 - Things with Wings

Crafts and Me - #43 - Summer Time

Have a great Sunday!

Crissy Armstrong - Design Team Call

The biggest delimema I had with this design team call out from Crissy Armstrong's "Sundays with Crissy" was trying to decide which adorable image I wanted to work with. LOL - not a bad thing to have to worry about. Anyone who knows me knows that I love and collect angels, so once I found this cutie, I knew I had to use her.

I colored her with my Copics, added a few little highlights with a white gel pen, some glitter on the wings and bubble, then just a dab of vintage destressed ink stippled on to help tone it down a bit to fit the ambiance of the card better.

The papers are from DCWV, the sentiment is computer generated. The edges of most of the paper is distressed and then inked, some of them got some hand stitching as well.

The clouds are just handrawn with a little gloss and glitter added...then a touch of ink again.

I loved working with this image and have already started another card using another one of Crissy's angels...

I would love to enter this card in the design team call as well as the distressing challenge at Sundays with Crissy and the Sweet Stop sketch challenge SSS116.

Have a great day!

Just dropping you a line...

I've loved this adorable set from Stampendous for a while now, but have never put them to the ink pad until this card. I got a wonderful RAK from my bestee with a small dollar type stamp in it that had the sentiment "Just dropping you a line..." and I knew I had to put it with these great fishy images. The fish bowl is actually stamped once on the background and once on a transparency. Then I colored the transparency very roughly with a blue water colored Copic. On the background I stamped the castle and bubbles on the bowl image. Then the fish were stamped and cut out separately so I could toll and pop them off the background a little. Then the transparency was laid over the background to give it the "bowl" look. When I went to take a photo of it all, the transparency just wanted to reflect back at me... So, I'm not sure you can really see the effect, but trust me... it's coolio! The papers are a fun set from GCD Studio's called Canta. Fun colors and a little bit of a whimsical feel, just what I was going for.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Karens Doodles - Use two images on one card

Southern Girl Challenge - Bring Out Your Inner Child

Deep Ocean Challenge - #3 - Cards

Everybody Art Challenge - #149 - Shapes

ColourQ - #92

Thanks for taking a looksee!

Thanks to Angie

My crafting time this week has been very limited - fighting off some vertigo and that hasn't allowed me to spend too much time doing what I love to do... But yesterday I had to sit down and make a card for my dear neighbor who has been such a sweetie this week. She has amazing knowledge and has been so kind as to share some of it with my hubby and I. She's also been giving me some acupuncture to help with the vertigo. Walking around with needles in my head seems to help...LOL Anyway, I wanted to do a card to say thanks and keep it simple and elegant. The stamps are from Stampendous, colored with my Copics, the paper from My Minds Eye. Added some bakers twine, stitching and destressed edges... That's about it!

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion - #65 - Anything goes

Make it Monday - #44 - Linky party

Paper Sundaes - #76 - Stitching

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge -#124

Happy 4th of July - God bless you!