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!

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 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 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!

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!

Gate Fold Card - Beached Boat

This is the card I made to play along with the Magical Monday challenge over at There's Magic In The Air (TMITA). For more details check out the blog here. The image is free for this week only.

This is only my second gate fold card that I have made and I really liked how it turned out. I picked a soft blue for the overall feel of the card. I think the image is a very calm and peaceful and so I wanted to use it for a friend who is going through some cancer right now. I wanted to make a card I could send to him, so this is what I came up with.

This is a picture of the card all closed up.




To open the card up you turn the photo anchors to the side of the image and sentiment and then the image slides out from under the sentiment. I hope they can figure it out! I am hoping if he doesn't figure it out, his wife will.




Below is the card all opened up. I left the inside pretty simple, but lined it with a pretty pattern paper. You can see the backside of the image at the top left and the backside of the sentiment at the bottom right. That might give you an idea how it works.



I colored my image with color pencils and then I did my sky with chalks, although I did add a little more yellow to the sky with my colored pencil, but the sky is mostly chalks.

Well, that's it for my gate fold! If you have never attempted a gate fold card before you should give it a try! (there is a link on the TMITA blog on how to make one). Stop by the blog and check out what the DT and GD's did with them, they all turned out great and of course they all are soo different!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!