Magical Monday - Birthday Challenge

This week Julie Smith brings us our challenge over at the Paper Cupcakes Challenge Blog. She would like us to make a birthday card/project; it's that easy! I used a new released image "Dogwood Cupcake" by Paper Cupcakes. It is sitting in the store right now and I will be adding 10 more new images by the end of tomorrow.

I colored my image with my colored pencils and used some of my Stickles on the cupcake icing as well on the leaves and ticket. I wish you could really see how pretty the sparkle is, but I don't think it shows up that well in the pics. The embossing folder is Tiny Bubbles by Cuttlebug. I crimped my patterned paper and layered my flowers and punched my butterflies. This was a pretty easy card to make. I just loved how it turned out. The one thing I love about digis is that you can resize your image and this cupcake is fairly large. The card is a 5x7. Yum yum, it would be deadly if you ate a cupcake that large! :o)





Well, it stopped raining for two days and the rain is back. We did get our soccer game in on Saturday and the fields weren't too bad either, but the wind was a killer. I had a nice weekend, although it was busy, but hey I am use to that. Hope you had a nice weekend as well and now I am ready to start another week!

Make sure you stop by Paper Cupcakes and check out my new images in the "new arrivals" area. I am hoping to have them all up-loaded by the end of today. There will be a total of 14 new ones. Four are sitting there right now as I had to stop and move on to something else. If they all aren't there, come back a bit later in the evening (my ETS of course) and they should all be there (I hope). If by chance they all aren't there it is because I had to take my car into the shop. I have a hole in my raditor and will need to address this asap or otherwise I have no transportation. Car repairs stink!

So, have a lovely day and leave a message or a hi if you stopped by. I always love to read them.

Magical Monday - PCC Image & No Store Bought Pattern Paper

This week's challenge over at the Paper Cupcake's Challege Blog Marie Bridgeman brings us this weeks challenge. She wants us to use a Paper Cupcake image and no store bought pattern paper. This week I decided to mess around and do something I haven't tried before as a technique. So, I thought I would attempt to antique my image. I am not so sure I liked exactly how it turned out and I think I would do it a little differently the next time, but I decided to go ahead and used what I did.

The image that I started with is called "Orchid Tea Cup with Bird" by Paper Cupcakes. After I colored the image I crinkled it all up, then smoothed it out. I then sponged on some inks, pink and then a brownish color. It kind of adhered to the crinkles in the paper. I then added the clear crackle and let that dry and then went back and sponged back over that with a little darker brown to fill in the crackles. I think if I was to do this again I would just crinkle the paper, add the crackle, let it dry then rub the ink on and over the dry crackle. So, I will try that the next time and see what I like best. I don't hate this, but not sure I am thrilled with it either.

I made my flower with lace that I just twisted and glued to a card stock circle and then added a bead to the center to finish it off. The lace you see running up and down the card is the same lace I made to use the flower. Added the rhinestones and called it complete and then headed out weekend away to the water park.

I like this card much better in real life. My image doesn't really lay flat and I liked that and so it is not adhered flat to the card, but you really can't see that here at all.



Have a Heartfelt day!

Tea Party ~ Sketch Blog Hop

I hope you have enjoyed this Tea Party Hop!! If you arrived from Nilla's blog and have visited all 13 other blogs; you have now arrived on the last blog of the hop. If you did not arrive from Nilla's blog you will want to start at the beginning of the hop which is the Paper Cupcakes Challenge Blog which you can find here; as not to miss anything and to be eligible for the random drawings!

The image that I bring you is called "Tea Party Princess" I truly love this image. I really don't enjoy drawing people too much, but I really like how she turned out. I colored my image with colored pencils and kept my card fairly simple as to really showcase the image. I used both the Garden Trellis and the Hydrangea Petal punches by Martha Stewart to do the side of my card. Then of course I finished it off with pearls and rhinestones. It turned out just how I had envisioned it.


My Card:





My card is actually a Joy Fold Card. Because I have made this type card before I didn't follow these instructions. I think my card is actually bigger. My card is a 5x7. I have a little flower on the bottom left side holding my flap in place. If you haven't tried one of these, you should. They are easy peasy!

My Sketch: My sketch will work for a joy fold card or a regular card.


I hope you have enjoyed our Tea Party~Sketch Hop; the new releases and enjoyed collecting some fun sketches to work from. We would love it if you would come back and join us for our Magical Monday Challenges as well; every Monday. Big thanks to the Designer Team and of course to all of you hoppers who took the time to hop along with us this week and left us some luvins along the way!

PLEASE make sure you read:

I will pick 2 participants in a random drawings August 18th to receive 5 images of their choice from Paper Cupcakes. To be eligible for the random drawings you must have visited all 14 blogs and left a message on each. If you have completed that and want to be eligible for the drawings place your name here in Mr. Linky with any link and you will be placed in the drawing. Make sure you check back August 18th on the Paper Cupcakes Blog to see if you won.

Now don't forget to leave me a quick note below as well as leave your name on Mr. Linky!





Here's to good friends who craft and of course a good cup of tea! Thanks for being part of our tea party with us today! You can find all the images you seen today here under New Arrivals. XOXO



Just in case you got lost along the way!

Paper Cupcakes Blog
Amber
Dru
Gloria
Jessie
Marie
Malenie
Pat
Patti N.
Patti P.
Kim
Carol
Nilla
Nina (leave your name and a message & any link here)

Magical Monday - PCC Image & Dog Days Of Summer

Not sure how it is for everyone across the nation, but it is certainly HOT here! How perfect the challenge fits from Paper Cupcakes this week which is brought to us by Patti Nelson and it is "Dog Days of Summer". We are suppose to be inspired by this phrase and be creative. I immediately think hot for summer weather and when it's hot I want to be in water! So, I picked this image to work with from Paper Cupcakes called "Ronan & Izzy; Summer Fun". I used my colored pencils to color the seal Ronan and the fish Izzy. Bic Mark-its to color the rest. I chalked my sky for the softness with a blue and yellow and popped my front side of the pool and ball on pop up dots, as well as the sentiment. Crimped my solid yellow piece of card stock. Added some glossy accents on the water in the pool and in the grass. My little bees were rub-on and I drew the trails behind them. Added some stickles and my ribbon.





The following cards are cards I made for some of the main challenges over at CDAC. They supply a free image that you need to use with their challenge. Heck, can't beat cute free images! Since I am taking them I kind of feel obligated to do the challenge, just a way to show some appreciation I think. After all I KNOW how much time and effort goes into one of these images, so I truly do appreciate them. Plus it is nice to be on the receiving end and I personally always love to see what people do with mine and I also love it when they leave a little post of thanks.

This first one was for Sew Many Cards which was a to use this cute image Eris and make a Christmas card. I kind of went non-traditional in color and then I made him pink! LOL.. but I think it turned out cute. Plus, all the following cards I made from my scraps, which I just love doing!



This next image was for the challenge from Shelly's Images which was a sketch challenge and of course her lovely free image. This image kind of reminded me of a vintage type image so I wanted to lean my card towards that and also masculine so I colored it with my Bic Mark-its and then rubbed some brown ink over the whole image to tone it down and give it a more vintage look. Then I went with browns, blues and black to lean it towards a masculine card.


This cute freebie was from Robyn's Fetish called "Katie Kitty" and it was a color challenge "Pink". I seen a card that opened like this somewhere, but it did not explain how to make it. So I spent some time doing my own thing, but keeping with what I had seen. So, I think this works good and I will be doing a tutorial on it within the week; (I hope) so check back because I took pictures while I made this and I also had to come up with templates so I will have that for you as well as soon as I sit down and make the time to write it all out by steps. So, check back here like I said in about a week and hopefully it will be posted in a new posting. The top picture is the card closed up and the bottom picture opened. The card stock has embossed dots, but you really can't see that. I think this one is way more cute in real life.



This is a card that is a straight lift from another card. I tend to save cards I like so I can later look back. This lift really caught my eye. I actually just drew all the doodles, but I copied what was on her card. Think the stamps are actually SU images, but like I said, I drew my own there. Than I just used my Bic Mark-its to color everything. I punched white flowers and then just doodled them as well. Thought it turned out super cute. It was a bridal shower card for my nephews bride to be. Kind of non-traditional, but I walk to a different beat sometimes and thought it was hip, cute and fun.


WOW, now that was a loooong posting. I spent one day last week making these. I certainly needed a fun day. Now this week I have a few layouts I want to get done for my group over at SB.com. So, have a great day and be inspired and inspire others!

Free Digital Image - "Tons Of Love"

These are the cards I made with this week's Free digital image "Tons Of Love" from PAPER CUPCAKES showcased on TMITA/PCC's blog.

This first card is for the challenge over at TMITA/PCC and it was to use the "Tons Of Love" image as well as Red Ribbon, Buttons and something Glittery and/or Sparkly.

I did my card tall and thin to fit into a regular business size envelope. I colored the elephant with my colored pencils to keep her soft and used the Bic Mark-its for her skirt and hearts for a little more rich color and boldness. I love this ribbon from Wal-mart and have it in several colors. The pp is from a Christmas stack called "Magic of the Season" from Hobby Lobby. I added Red Stickles to the waist of her skirt, toenails and to the hearts. Affixed a button onto of the bow and called it complete after I stamped the word love which is a stamp by Stampabilities. I always finish the insides of my cards, but never take pictures of them. I placed a verse inside that says, "Life's most beautiful things are not seen with the eyes, but felt with the heart"




I wanted to make a softer card in color, more of a baby type card with this image so I went with some pastels. I thought it would be fun to make a blue elephant and so I did just that. The photo corners are Heidi Swapp. I used the Fiskers scalloped border punch with the holes and then tied all those cute little blue bows through each hole. I added some small white pom-poms under the image and then added some blue ric-rac on top of that as well as along the top pp edge. Added 2 yellow rhinestones at the top. I yellow stickles her her skirt (bling bling), and pink Stickles to the toenails and hearts. I wanted to add a sentiment on the top right side, but I couldn't decide what I wanted so I left it blank for the time being, as well as the insides.





Well, that's it for "Ton's Of Love" for me today. I love taking an image and seeing the different looks you can achieve with it. I had fun with these two cards that reflect just that. Thanks for stopping by today and remember it only takes a few minutes to leave some lovins! :O)

Free Digital Image - Painted Pony

This card if for the color challenge over at TMITA w/PCC. The FREE image is called "Painted Pony" and if you missed out on the freebie you can find it in my new store Paper Cupcakes. If you haven't been by my store, make sure you check it out. It holds a lot of new digital images that you cannot get anywhere else. They are my originals.

I loved this color challenge that Patti Nelson brought us this week. I love it when the challenges include colors and/or sketches, mainly because it takes a lot of my thinking and decision making out of it. I decided to do another easel card. Although, instead of doing it square I decided to do a 5x7 that would fit into one of my envelopes. It doesn't quite stand the same, but none-the-less turned out cute and I was satisfied with it.

I colored my images with my colored pencils. The tree is a stamp by Stampabilities called "Heart Tree". The stamp is actually only about 2 inches high, but I really wanted a bigger tree and didn't have one (I know I should have just drew one) but I really love this stamp, so unlike digi's where you can just enlarge them (which is one of the things I LOVE about digital stamps) I decided to stamp this and just enlarge it on my copier (is that legal?). The enlarged tree is about 4 1/2 inches and then cut it out after coloring it. I decided to cut grass to hold up my easel and actually did 2 layers one on the base and one on the front behind the pony. I got some fancy smancy scissors from my neighbor/friend Bea/Carl for Christmas that has five blades on both sides and was perfect for cutting my grass and I was excited to actually use them on a project verses just cut things up playing! Thanks Bea! I really loved all the design detail on this pony and had a lot of fun coloring it. I added glossy accents to parts of the designs on the pony and also added it to the red heart on the tree. I placed my painted pony on pop-up dots to make him stand out just a bit as well. I drew the sun in the top corner and added some color to that as well with my pencils and then added some glossy accents to that. Added a little butterfly and thought it looked like a perfect day for a pony out in a field. I really loved how this turned out, but I think my easel part could stand up a little higher and straighter, so I will be working on a way to perfect this size of card in making it into an easel card for easy mailing!

This is what the front of the card looks like prior to folding it out into an easel card:


A more close-up shot with both layers of grass:

The full easel card:


My black is actually blacker, but I think the light washed it out! Thanks for stopping by and taking a look and I hope you can find some time to play along with us as well over at There's Magic In The Air!

Magical Monday at TMITA

This week over at TMITA the challenge was to use any of the previous free images or the one posted which was a past free image or one from my new store Paper Cupcakes. All of the designers got to pick whichever image they wanted to work with from the store. I went with the image "Beary Nice Dance" . I made this image while on vacation in Tenn. and thought it would be fun for this challenge. Since we were suppose to incorporate something found in a New Years celebration or something that sparkled, I chose to place fireworks going off in the background. I used glue on a stamp with glitter. I have never really done that before and not sure if I like it more them embossing it... but it worked and looks great behind the dancing bears, but I truly love heat embossing. I chose to place the fireworks on black so it seemed more like evening and so they would pop. I colored my bears with my Bic Mark-its and cut them out and placed them on pop-up dots. I punched my little flowers and added some rhinestones to the middle. I also added a lovely green ribbon with a sparkle and gold trim. The sentiment is computer generated. I really liked how this turned out. I think this card has a happy feel to it and I can just imagine these two bears dancing at midnight in the deep dark forest under the fireworks having a delightful dance of romance!



So, have a "beary" nice day and have a safe and Happy New Year!

Free Digi - Sweet Trouble

This weeks challenge over at TMITA was to create a "Clean and Simple card with limitations on what you can use (e.g., "NO" brads, bows, or anything that would make it challenging to mail) and a color requirement PINK, of course, must appear on your card somewhere."

Soooo, since I have been wanting to do a easel card I chose to do that and then I kept my surface pretty flat. I added a fairly flat trim and then punched some snowflakes to match. I really love this style of card and I will be makikng many more of these and they are really simple as well, but I have to say it was hard to keep things flat and easy for mailing! I also used the embossing folder on one side and carried my pp up into my card that was on the base where my sentiment is. I drew a circle on my snowflakes and added some pink stickles. I also added some diamond stickles on her hat fluff. I also drew little circle on my container holding the candy canes to jaze it up a little to match the pp somewhat. I thought this image turned out really cute all colored up and I don't think she looks like much trouble either!! but then again, I don't own her! hehe




ok.. it is now 1:30AM and I am dead tired so that is it for me for this day!! Have a sweet day!

FREE digi - Snowy Flight

This weeks challenge over at There's Magic In The Air is to make anything BUT a card. I chose to alter this little tin I got out of the dollar bin at Target. It was like a little lunch box that had Boston Baked Beans Candy in it and I bought a few when I bought it. These measure about 4 x 2 3/4 inches, so they are not really very big. I thought I would use this to place a gift card in with some small candies.

The color of the tin was mostly a chocolate brown. So I left the brown on the small edges and then painted the tin inside the edges a lagoon color with Making Memories paint. I wanted to keep it fairly simple and so I went with the glitter stack paper from DCWV . I used my Bic Mark-its to color the image and used a light blue color pencil to add some shadowing on my snowman on the white. I placed him on pop dots too. I then added ribbons to match and I also had these big jingle bells so I thought a red one would be super cute so I added that to one side of the handle with all the ribbons and added the little element that said joy and called it complete. My only regret is that I only bought 3 of these little tins for a $1.00!! I wish I would have bought about 10 now!



There's a really pretty shear ribbon that is the color of the sky background in the glitter paper, but because it is shear it did not photograph the color very well at all, but in real life you can really see the ice blue in the ribbon line and the ribbons are also soo much prettier in real life as well.



I just noticed I didn't make his little cheek rosie! Oh Well, I will be fixing that now! :O) Have a great week and and thanks for stopping by and leave me a message I love reading them, plus they really makes all this posting seem worth it! Make sure you join us for the Blog hop and also if you would be so kind, place the blog hop icon on your blog and help me spread the word!

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

FREE Digital Image: Elegant Pumpkins

This is the card I made for the There's Magic In The Air's
monochromatic challenge this week. This is also my first ever monochromatic anything I have ever made. So, this time I actually picked my pp and colors first prior to coloring my image (there's a concept!). I knew I wanted a terra cotta color so I started there and found this rusty terra cotta color. I love the old world stack and there is where I found my pp. Then I went to my card stock stack that was already in a monochromatic way and I picked my card stock. I also thought instead of going with a white or cream to print my image on I would go with the lightest color of my monochromatic color and printed it off on that. So when I colored my image I would let that color come through, thus making my image also matching my monochromatic color. Since I have not felt good all week I just made this tonight and found it really hard to photograph this color. My colors are a lot richer and this is a little off in the color. My mom gave me this ribbon which I think is up-teen years old, I usually use it for when I make bread for church, but found it was perfect for this card. I kept my card simple with lots of matting with the black and variations of the card stocks, but it is kind of hard to see the variations, there are 3, but they are slight, except the lightest which I printed the image off on. Then I placed those three little black stickers above the image and thought it looked elegant and so I left it at this. I colored this with my colored pencils. I really loved how this turned out. I will have to do more monochromatic things!



If you stopped by to look, thanks a lot and if you left me some luvins in a post, I just adore you! Have a Magical Monday!

FREE Digital Image: Cornucopia

This is the card I made for the challenge over at There's Magic In The Air. So, for more details of the challenge hop on over there to check it out and to also snag the free image.

For this card I wanted to to do some paper tearing so I chose to do the right side with the paper tearing and I wanted to use very few colors in my overall card. I chose to go with this Green Basic Grey paper from Urban Prairie. I loved the green and I had the perfect ribbon to go with it. I paired my pp with a brown card stock which I thought went nicely. I placed hemp through my button and added it to the top right corner of my image. I placed the sentiment on pop-up dots and called it complete. I truly loved how it turned out. I colored my image with my Bic Mark-its and the table, a little of the background and the glass jar with my color pencils. I also added the other sentiment on the inside of the card.



Took this pic inside and that is a shadow on the sentiment. :O)


This is the inside of the card, just simple.


Thanks for stopping by and extra thanks if you let me a message! :O)

FREE Digital Stamp Image: Autumn Splendor

This weeks challenge over at There's Magic In The Air was to be inspired by a picture in an way. You can stop by TMITA to see it and grab the FREE image as well.

I wanted more of an old fashion feel to my card this week. So I started off by printing my image on vanilla card stock. I colored my image with my colored pencils. I popped up my sunflower on foam dots for dimension as well as my computer generated sentiment and a few leaves. I punched my leaves in the scrap vanilla card stock and then cover them with a copper embossing powder which made them look more medallion like and then I drew on the veins to the leaves. I wish they showed up a little bit better here because they look really lovely and metallic and the ribbon has some metallic copper running through it as well. I also roughen up my edges of my image and sentiment and inked the edges with my colorbox chalks; a light brown. I folder the top right corner over of my image and finished it off with a cute little coppery mini brad and then rolled the same corner over with the green mat.



I look forward to the November images, I think there will be a lot there you will just love. So, in the meantime, create and have a great day!

FREE Digital Stamp Image: Spooktacular Pumpkin

It's another Magical Monday over at There's Magic In The Air and the FREE image for this week is "Spooktacular Pumpkin".

Well, I thought if I left my ghost white there wouldn't be much to color on this image at all and I soo love to color so I decided to venture outside the box and make a purple ghost. My neighbor was with me when I colored him and just looked at me really odd, but that isn't anything new to me! LOL... I thought purple would be fun. Not sure why I always color my image prior to picking out my papers but I usually do, which can make it quite a bit harder, but upon looking through my stash found these papers which I just ended up loving for this card. I wish I could tell you what they were, but can't! I decided to cut this image out too since it was such a simple cut around and added it to the yellow gingham paper then I drew my "x" stitches around that which I just love. I added my 3-D elements which were the stickles in diamond down the ric-rac looking line on the paper as well as my on brads. I also added liquid glaze to all my pumpkins. If you are going to cut out your image do this prior to cutting out. You will have less curling of the edges. I then matted my yellow gingham twice and the added my bows and ribbon and thought is was just perfect and fun.



I think this little guy drinks a lot of grape juice for breakfast!. Ok.... that's it for now, so have fun creating with this image and have a spooktacular day yourself!

Magical Monday = Eldon with Flower

Eldon comes to you by the blog There's Magic In The Air and this weeks FREE image is "Eldon with Flower" and the challenge was to use ribbon and a bow. Well, I just love this little image and to read the story behind how Eldon came about you can read the details over at "There's Magic In The Air" as well. Now I really didn't make these cards for the challenge, mainly because I had them made prior to the challenge. I can do that since I actually drew the image! LOL.. but I thought he turned out so cute I couldn't wait to use him!

With Eldon, I intentionally kept him free of stripes, dots and other patterns, mainly because I wanted crafters to be able to "dress" him up in different ways and be able to change his look if they wanted to. I did this with the images below. I had a lot of fun making "designer Eldons"!

As we all know, a good Designer Team and Guest Designers are a very important component in representing an image. Seeing how one can use it creatively and inspiring others is truly a gift of talent. I certainly feel like I have been given a wonderful gift in the talent through my Designer Team and Guest Designers. I also feel very honored that they would step up and represent me, honor my images with their talents, encourage and uplift me with their words; all while sharing their work and inspiring all of you!

Now, I also feel very honored to by all who participate and share their wonderful work in the challenges as well. I truly love hearing what feedback I am getting. I realize that others are lurking and snagging the Free image and running, but I did expect that as well. LOL, I guess I would love to see the ones that just lurk and snag eventually leave a message of thanks and/or a link to their card/project that they made with it, even if it is at a later date. Although I am thrilled to see lots of people stopping by and taking advantage of my free images!

I thought this was a fun image and wanted to send my August team a little hand written note of thanks for the first month of success and support they have been for me. I decided to use this image for that and the designs are really quite simple, but I think they turned out cute. So, before Eldon made he's debute I was already creating with him. These are the cards I made my team:

Nilla, I am not sure if your card ever arrived, I believe this was yours.. I kept it a little more flat since it was going international, but I don't think it ever made it to you. (tear tear) I don't have much luck mailing to Malaysia, not sure why but things just don't seem to make it... it should have arrived by now!

This card I sent my friend Lynn for her birthday. I added a little birthday hat on him to make him a little more festive for a birthday! LOL...

OK... well that's it for Eldon with flower! I can't wait to see what everyone does with him!! So, if you stopped by to see my cards, leave me a message, beacause I don't get nearly enough luvins!! LOL... ok.. so I'm needy, what can I say.... don't you love reading posts left for you? So, I hope you stop by TMITA and snag Eldon, it's kind of my farewell to summer as fall sets in!!

Have a great day!