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 - Lets be Thankful Challenge

This week over at the Paper Cupcakes Challenge Blog Jessie Fitzhenry brings us this weeks challenge. She wants us to make either a "thank you" card or a "Thanksgiving" card. I made both.

For this first card I used the image "Tulips in Bottles" by Paper Cupcakes. I kept this clean and simple as I love this image. I stamped the sentiment which is from Hero Arts in a soft pink. I colored the image with my colored pencils and Stickles the edges of the die. The background paper is from a DCWV stack. Yep, clean and simple. I love the softness to this card.

The next two cards I used the image "Fall Angel; Give Thanks" by Paper Cupcakes. I colored these images with my Bic Mark-its and used some Stickles on some parts of the image which you can't really see. These are really pretty in real life. My mom came over last week and I made these. The idea for this card was in a book she brought with her. The top right side of the card that you see with the pattern paper is actually the inside of the card which I thought was cool. I just cut the front top of the card at an angle which left the left side bottom half attached at the fold. Then you place your image like I did and then the inside paper is what you see behind the image. I should have taken a picture with it open so you could see it better. I will place the sentiment behind where the image sets which will work perfectly. The sentiment on this first card is "Gratitude" and was stamped and I wish I could tell you who's it was, but I am too tired to go look at the moment.

Well, I am thankful for you today for stopping by my little corner of the blog world and even more grateful if you left me some love. I really need to make my rounds again soon, seems like I just can't find enough time to visit everyone like I love visiting, so hopefully in the next week or two I can work a round of blogs in! And wow, can you believe it is now November? Geeze, I am not a big winter season kind of person so November never thrills me, but I do love the Holidays it brings which is the upside! Have a great week and I challenge you to notice things in your life to be thankful for!

Free Digital Image - "Lucky Bear"

This weeks image from Paper Cupcakes is this cute little bear image called "Lucky Bear". This weeks challenge is brought to us by Nilla and she asked us to distress. I distressed the edges of my paper with my scissors and then I also crumpled my paper and then pressed it back out. I really like this look on my cards. My sewing machine has been messed up for years with the tension so I figured I could use it because that would fit the look! :O) I so love real sewing on cards, so I got out my machine. I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to use this card in regards to a sentiment, so I went with this little chipboard word that said "charmed". So I will most likely use it as a friendship card. Needless to say since I wasn't sure how I was going to use it, I have not finished the inside yet. There it a little tag that comes out that is under the image. I thought I would place the word "friends" on it, but haven't yet decided. I used glossy accents on my shamrock and the bear's nose and I also added some on the dots of the flowers on the green paper. Both papers are Paper Studio. I just loved it paired with the orange card stock.

Well, thanks for stopping by and I would feel very "charmed" if you left me a comment of lovins! :O) Have a charming day!

Free Digital Image - "I Heart You"

This week's challenge over at TMITA/PCC was to make a Valentine's gift tag with some kind of stitching (tread or hand drawn) using this image from Paper Cupcakes "I Heart You".

I have lots of favorite color combinations and green and pink is one of them. I seen this really pretty paper from Paper Studio and thought it would be perfect. I colored my teddy bear with my colored pencils and also added some soft pink into the lighter parts of him, but I am not sure you can see it here. I cut my tag with my Fiskars shaper tool and then just added my embellishments. OH, I hand stitched my "x's", I love to hand stitch and always love the look, but I love stitching on things all the way around! I also finished off the other side of my tag with the pretty pp as well. This was really a quick project and I just loved how all the projects turned out over at the challenge blog, but then again, I always love 'em. So make sure you stop by and check them all out as well as their personal blogs.

This was a lot of fun, so if you are looking for a bit of creative fun today, make a cute tag with this image! In the mean time have a heartfelt day!

Free Digital Image - Miss Kitty

This week's FREE image over at TMITA/PCC is this cute image called "Miss Kitty". I ended up making a card to match this this cute little box in bag that I wanted to try a few weeks back, but didn't. So, I thought the pp would be so cute on this. I colored my image with my colored pencils. I also made my bigger flower that is on my card to match my pp out of just white card stock and I inked the middle and just drew on the black outline. I punched my hearts. Really, this was not a very over difficult project and was really a quickie for me, but I love how the set turned out. On my image I have a little green lines with the white, but it does not show up very well. At first my plans were to attach my "Miss Kitty" onto my box in a bag, but I printed her off a little bigger then what I thought worked well, so I just decided to make the set. I think the pp for the bag in a box works well by itself, but will probably add a cute little tag to dangle from the bow or I still might print off a smaller image and add it still. Oh, I also placed the heart and the bow on pop-up dots.





Oh I should tell you my pp is actually from the dollar store that I bought when I first started scrapping, but I think it is soo cute and wonder why I haven't used it yet... ummm.... I think I have lots of pp like that! LOL... how about you? I would challenge you to pull some of your oldest pp out and use some of it up, you might find that you just might fall back in love with it!!

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 Digital Image - "Harvest Geese"

Here is my card for the Magical Monday over at There's Magic In The Air. This week's challenge was brought to us by Curt and we were suppose to use pop dots or foam squares to make something pop. I actually popped my sentiment only because I made this card a while back and thought I would have time to make another, but didn't. If I would have popped something up on my image it would have been the fence and maybe the white pumpkin and the goose on the right. I made this card with scrap pp so I can't tell ya who made it. The lace is from my mom and I punched out circles and placed 1/2 of them above and below the image and added some red rhinestones to each. I added a layered flower because it brought all the colors together and I loved what Dawn did with her ribbon when she sent her card to me so I lifted the idea and did three smaller versions! I colored my image with color pencils and it is actually a little more rich in color in real life.



Well, that's it for me, hope you enjoyed your visit, leave me some luvins and let me know what you think, I love hearing from you!

Deco Flower - Magical Monday

This weeks challenge over at There's Magic In The Air was to emboss (heat or dry) or score something on your card. I wanted my card to be more contemporary so I leaned towards that. Leigh Anne knows just how much I LOVE to emboss, heat embossing is my favorite, but I love how easy dry embossing has become with all the folders now.

So, I decided this image would be a great image to duplicate so I made three to place on this first card. I colored these with my Bic Mark-its. I then added that gold heat embossing around the edges of each image. Then I chalked the back ground with the some colors in the image. I basicially just showcased the images. I placed black stickles on the center of the flower and the dots above it, but that is hard to tell. I dry embossed using a cuttlebug tiny bubbles embossing folder. Then just added some gold trim to match the embossing and three black jewels for some detail. This card was extremely hard to photograph, not sure why, but it truly was.



I pretty bascically did the same techniques here with a different design; and of course I just used one image and added the butterfly!



I really wish you could see these in real life, they are so much prettier! Sometimes, I really don't think the camera catches just how beautiful our cards really are, but oh well, you will just have to believe me on this!

This card I made fairly quick for a thank you a while back prior to this challenge. I added a lot of dots around the flower top to this image. I must say I really like this image.



Thanks for stopping by, leave me a measage it certainly MAKES my day!

Cuttlebug Embossing Folders + Paper Rose = Beautiful Project

So, while visiting Curt's blog over the last few weeks I was inspired to come up with this completed project. He had posted these wonderful cards that really were fairly simple because the cuttlebug embossing folders did so much of the work. I think we all sometimes forget how truly wonderful these little folders are all by themselves. Yes, this post just emphasized just how wonderfully they stand on their own. So, first thing I thought was I would case them. Although I didn't have any of the folders he used, mainly because I wasn't sure how I would use them with other things, now I will have to buy some of them (thanks Curt). So, since I knew I wanted to make this as a gift set of cards I knew I wanted to put them in something that was more a keepsake once the cards were gone. So, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought one of those little brown paper mache type boxes. So, just like the cards I wanted the box to reflect the same kind of texture and look. So, this is what I came up with.

Below is the complete project: (double left click the picture for a much larger view)


The card stock on the box is from the Green Stack from DCWV and has little brown dots and also had those scrolls already on it. I sent the pieces through the cuttlebug to emboss and the sanded the embossing. I then added a gold metallic rub-on to the top of that to give it a more vintage look. I did that all over the box. For the lid I started off adding some ivory lace to keep with the Victorian feel and added a brown ribbon on top of that. I knew I wanted to use one of those paper roses that Helen had posted a tutorial on her blog a few months back that I had never made, but thought they were beautiful and wanted to give one a try.


I added a friendship verse that reads: If I had one gift that I could give you, my friend, it would be the ability to see yourself as others see you, because only then would you know how extremely special you are. I also added a little butterfly to the side to add some interest.



I really wanted to keep the overall box fairly simple and beautiful. I wanted the embossing, the verse and the simplicity to stand out. With the rose I added pearls to the top and coated them with a golden paint to make them match the rose and added some black crystals swirls as well. To not over due it, I left it at that.

I just loved how my rose turned out. I started with a golden yellowish orange card stock and followed the instructions on Helen's blog. I added to the edges of the hearts (see tutorial) Tim Holtz mustard seed distress ink. Then I went back and added a pink from color box right over the mustard seed. After putting the rose together, I then sprayed it with a purple glimmer mist. Then I went back once more and added a yellowish metallic rub-in to the tips of the rose petals. Once it all dried I also sprayed it with a "Deft" satin lacquer spray to seal it. I really do love how this overall project finished out.


I am such a "matchy" kind of girl, I wanted something on my envelopes to match my cards, so I decided to embossed just the flap on the envelope with the folder that matched the card. I was so pleased, an envie that matched!


The next two pictures is the set of all eight cards that will be placed in the box as a gift set!





I agree with Curt, this project is so much more beautiful in real life I wish you could see it in person. My box it much richer also in color, but I love how it turned out and I am sure I will be making these again! Thanks again Curt and Helen for the inspiration incorporated into my project!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a cheekie day!

You Hoo..... it's "Kacey" !!!

Morning everyone! Yes, it's a Magical Monday again over at There's Magic In The Air. Below are the cards I made with the Free image "Kacey". This first card I followed the challenge over there which was a sketch. I wanted to do two complete different looks. This first one kind of soft in color, so I chose the pink with the black, which is always one of my favorite combos.



This second card I kept pretty simple, but wanted it to be way more fun in color. I really liked this pattern paper here and thought I really wanted it to do most of the work for me.... sometimes I am just that way; can you say lazy?! LOL.. but really I thought I colored the image so brightly in primary colors I thought with the paper I really did not want it to be too busy, so simple is good. I did add a few little blue flowers with rhinestones and the little red butterfly.



Now, make sure you go by "There's Magic In The Air" because this weeks give-a-way for the random drawing for participating in the challenge this week is another one of my digital images that has not been released and may never be free. So, if you want a chance on winning it, you have to participate! Did I mention it is super cute too? So go check it out. The image is full of summer fun!

So, thanks for stopping by and make sure you find the magic in today. It is everywhere; all you have to do is take notice!

Father's Day Card

This is the card I made my father for Father's day, The pics aren't great, but oh well, this is as good as it gets since it is long gone. I will be making a tutorial on how to make this card in a few, so make sure you check back soon.

The stamp image is my own original. How exciting is that? Keep a eye on my blog because I will have way more where that came from!!

Mother Day Cards

These are the mother day cards I made this year... needless to say with graduation and open house I am a bit behind in posting these. This first one I seen over at split coast stampers. I could not find any kind of template or tutorial on how to make it over there, so I thought I would make my own. So, just so you know this is not my original idea and do not claim it as mine. To be honest if there is an original template out there, I do not know who gets credit for it, but this one I made on my own by just viewing the other's in the gallery. If you would like your own template that I made you can find it if you click on the title post. That should take you to the flower pot template with the instructions on how I made mine. I did use a fiskars border punch long the pot rim to add a little decorative touch. So if you download my template and make a card, please give me credit for it. You can size it too to make a smaller pot if you like too! I think this turned out super cute and found out later that my mom at first couldn't figure out how to "open it"... LOL... I didn't think she wouldn't know to just pull on the flowers, so one might all "pull up" on the back side! :O)






















This picture is what the card looks like once you pull the sentiment piece out of the pot.


These are the other cards I made:


Since when I make cards, I pretty much ALWAYS use my own idea and design. So I have decided to go to my printship program and everytime I make a card I am going to make a sketch for that card to post too. I figure there are a lot of people that use these and love to have a base to start their idea out with. So, today I made these two sketches to post with my two cards. So keep coming back because I will try to post a card sketch every week. I think I will look at my lo's too and do some layout ones also! I have never done this before, but found it to be easy so why not? Hope these sketches help some of you out. I also would love to have the credit if you use one with a link back to my blog as well as seeing your card from the sketch too!!

























thanks for stopping by today!

Purse Gift Card Holder

Here is a cute little purse gift card holder that I made. I got the template from Helen's blog. Click here if you would like one too. I found this just at the right time, these little purses are quick and easy and awe soooo fun to make. Just look how cute they are too. I made this one with a matching mini thank you card to slip inside the purse with the gift card. It is for my son's speech teacher. So, blog on over to Helen's blog she has lots of cute things over there and you will love her work. Thanks for stopping by and now back to painting my mural!



Have a great day!

House Mouse Challenge #35 - wish someone well

This weeks house mouse challenge is to make a card or anything you like to wish someone well! Sooooo, it certainly seems like I have lots of people I can send this too lately... and since I have a mess I thought I would go ahead and make this before I cleaned it up.

You really can't see it in this picture, but I used a liquid glaze on the puddle and the raindrops.





















Thanks for hopping by!