Non-traditional Card Challenge

The challenge over at TMITA/PCC is brought to us by Kim. She wants us to make a non-traditional card. I made a slider card. My friend Curt posted this type card on his blog recently (found here) and he found it on Heather's Blog which you can find here. She has posted the instructions and a video on how to make it. It was really very simple and my card is super cute in real life. So, I gave it a try. I did make my slits a little longer because I wanted to add my other bunnies to the second and third tier, but that was easy and I did it as I went along. I used my Bic Mark-its to color it and used all scrap paper to make my card, which I love. Added some stickles, the ribbons and the flower and called it complete.

Well, that's it for me! I would suggest you make one of these, it was a lot of fun and mine turned out really cute and like I said it was really pretty simple as well. So, hop on over there and check it out.

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!!

Some More Cards...

Below are some other cards I made with some of my other images that you can find and purchase at Paper Cupcakes, my new digital stamp store. These images are exclusive only to Paper Cupcakes.

This first Image is called "Praise Him" and I must say this is one of my personal favorites. I actually made this image because I have a friend that plays the guitar and so I drew it so I could make her this birthday card. I colored this image with my Bic Mark-its. I loved how the blue and yellow turned out on her dress. I also took my white uni-ball pen and added some white lines on the bottom part of her dress to make it a little more dramatic with lines. I had the black ink lines, but wanted them to be a bit more apparent at first glance and truly loved how her dress turned out. I did color her guitar with colored pencils though, I wanted the look that the colored pencil gave me for her guitar, plus I feel like I have more control over the blending with my pencils and wanted a smooth overall blend with a softness. I was pleased with the overall card and must say this one is one of my favorites I have made.




This image is called "Small Orchid" and I colored it with my colored pencils. Colored pencils will always be one of my favorite mediums to color things with and I have yet to add any of the blending oils. Although I must say I have purchased some to try them out, but I just have never found myself reaching for them. I truly enjoy the blending aspect within the pencil lead itself.



The following are some more Christmas cards I made with more of my images that were not freebies and can also be found at Paper Cupcakes. I colored all of the below with my Bic-mark its as well, except the polar bear which I used a light blue colored pencil for the softness.

Image name: Polar bear Ride


Image Name: Snow girl


Image name: Gigi Christmas Shopping


Image name: Holly & Mitten Line


Image name: Christmas Spray Cupcake


Well, just wanted to post these and hope to have some more cards up soon with some other images from the store so you can see them colored up and used and hopefully get you excited about them as well as sell a little! :O)

So, thanks for stopping by and please leave me some lovins it always makes my day to read them, as I am sure it does the same for you when you get feedback as well! Have a cupcake kind of day!

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!

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: 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!

Free Digital Image - "Mouse Candy"

Well, here we are in October, which means in Indiana it is now officially Fall. This is the card I made to go along with the challenge over at There's Magic In The Air. It was a color challenge brought to us by Nilla and you can find more details here. I must admit I kind of fudged just a little on the colors... I had to add a little more color on my image but on the design on my card I kept true to the orange, black and one other color which I chose yellow (oh maybe not, I guess there is grey in the house, but isn't grey just a lighter tone of black? :O) ). When I was at Micheal's I seen these cute little wooden houses and there were some ghost, but I picked up this cute house and thought it would make a perfect home for my mouse here. I knew instantly when I found that house that I wanted a big yellow moon tucked behind the house. So, I used the swirls cuttlebug embossing folder to add some texture to my moon, and I added a touch of orange ink to the texture on the moon. I also found the ribbon with the yellow stars that same day and used it at the top. I decided to cut my image out to make the scene, but accidentally cut off one of the vines so I drew a few more on the pumpkin. I added 2 small rub-ons which was the spider's web and spider hanging from each side of the house. I also, used the swiss dots embossing folder on the black paper to make it look kind of like stars in the night. OK, Nilla you can slap me I didn't quite follow the challenge, but hey I did end up with one mighty cute card!



I have to say I just love this image and I had a lot of fun using it. I hope you do too, so in the mean time have a "mice" day!

Nate & Av - You're Special

Yes, that's right is another Magical Monday over at There's Magic In The Air! This week's FREE image is this super cute lion and mouse that are pals! The name of this image is "Nate & Av - You're Special". Just in case you are wondering the lion is Nate and the mouse is Av. Since I am the artist you might be interested to know a little interesting fact about this stamp image (soon to be series). I have an 18 year old son (well soon to be) and a 6 year old son. This image was designed with them in mind. I often look at them when they are wrestling around or messing around and I am always telling Nathan to be careful with Avery because he is so much smaller in size. I am always scared he is going to hurt him unintentionally. So, I thought how fun to make a stamp of buddies were their admiration for each other was so big, but their sizes were such the opposite. Now I bet you can figure out where their names came from too!

This card followed this lovely sketch provided by Nilla one of the Designers. So, with this sketch you could turn it, flip it or whatever, as long as you can still see the sketch in it. So, I did just that I flipped it vertically. I loved how my card turned out with the sketch; super cute. I colored my image with my Bic Mark-its and chalked my sky in yellow, pink and blue which also has a shimmer to it, but you really can't see it here. I added some buttons with floss and then I just punched out three blue holes to add the three elements on the one section. Added my sentiment on a pop up dots. Then added my ric-rac. I just LOVE ric-rac! I also drew some extra flowers on the side in the image. I always leave space for things like that in case people want to add things to the image. I am one of those people that will do stuff like that.

Can't you feel the love...

Well, that's if for Nate & Av. So, why don't you go snag the image, play along and make a card and send it to someone and let them know that they too, are Special!

Gigi on tube - paper piecing

This is the card I did to go along with the challenge over at There's Magic In The Air. The challenge was to do a paper piecing with this FREE image.

I paper pieced the umbrella, Gigi's swimsuit, her tube and her holves. I colored her body with my color pencils. I colored the dots from the image with the white Uni-ball pen, which is by far my favorite white pen. I really wanted to place my sentiment on the front, but I just couldn't place it where I felt I liked it, so I gave up and just placed it inside. The sentiment said "You're Sun Sational". I did my sky and water with chalks that have some sparkle in them, but you really can't see that in these pictures. I also placed Gigi's umbrella on pop-up dots to give it more dimension.





This is a card I did earlier in the year with this image. I colored this image with my Bic Mark-its:






















Well, that's it for Gigi, so why don't you float on over to my other blog and grab her and participate in this week's challenge!

In the mean time have a "Sun Sational" Day!

Get Inspired Challenge

I did these cards to play along with the Magical Monday challenge over at There's Magic In The Air. This week’s image was "Elvis in boots". The challenge was an inspirational challenge with color and textures. You can check it out here.

I kept my cards quite simple and concentrated more on the colors then anything. I wanted my image to stand alone and out on this card. I have a hard time keeping things simple sometimes, especially in my layouts. It's a little easier in my cards.

I colored my image with my Bic Mark-its and I used a diamond glaze on his rain boots and hat to make them more slick and also on the puddle. I thought the dotted ribbon was just wonderful with the button and thread being the perfect finishing touch.



You can see the diamond glaze better in this picture on his boots and in the puddle. The sentiment which is computer generated reads: Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves


Now isn't that button with the thread just too cute!

On this card, I kept it simple as well, but I copied the image in Print Shop Deluxe several times, as well as sized them down to smaller sizes and placed them that way on the original printout. I then drew more grass down the duck line and also added more water so they were in one big puddle. I then cut it out. I did this card, because if you have a program such as this you can crop the image close and place them closer together like in this card. This is one of the wonderful things about digital images. If you don't have a program Print Shop Deluxe is really not that expensive and fairly easy to use. It would really be worth the $50.00 to get it to do digital images in and your sentiments. You can find the program here you want to check it out.The letters are a bit brighter in real life but I took this picture in the evening. They were rub-ons and were actually a light blue, so I colored them red with my markers and then added black dots. Both these cards were colored with my Bic Mark-its. My youngest son Avery always tells me its a "Happy Day" and I just love that saying so I thought this looked like a Happy Day in a duck's life! I just also noticed on these pics that I did not color the eyes.. funny how you see stuff like that once uploaded, so I will go back and color them in now, but I am not taking more pics and uploading so you can pretend that they are colored! :O)





Well, that's it for Elvis, but I certainly will be using him a lot on other cards when I find time to do so!

I hope you find a puddle of joy somewhere today, so while you are looking for it.... have a Happy Day!