Followers?

What happened to all my people in my followers box??? I don't get it, I haven't touched my settings, and other people's blogs still have followers in their box of followers and other's don't; like mine? The amount still reflects on my dashboard, but their faces and links aren't there either???? Can someone inlighten me with some knowledge there? Thanks!!

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!

Avery turns 6!

ok.. having 3 blogs gets to be too much at times for clarity! I accidently just posted this on my Challenge blog!! geeze and had to do a quick change-ur-rooney! (gulp) LOL.. oh well...

This is a picture of my son that just turned six on September 4Th! Man it seems like just yesterday I was sitting on the bathroom floor crying after the stick turned pink so quickly!! LOL..I bet you thought I was going to say how quickly the years have passed, and yes they did, but my tears, they were not tears of joy at that time I must add. Well, what can I say, I was 42, between 3 miscarriages, being a high risk pregnancy and doing that math, what would you have done!? I sat there and cried! Although, now six years later, I can't even believe I was crying such tears. He is such a delightful child and very laid back and I can't even begin to imagine our lives without him!! He truly is a blessing and I love him so much! So, what do I know about age and babies, I can only do the math and I guess you should just not do math in situations like that, just embrace the miracle of it all!! So, that's my little personal tid-bit about me. Just thought I would share this sweet picture of him in front of his cake. It's a little blurry because I cropped it so close, but oh well, sweet non the less. Sitting in front of your cake and getting your picture taken is a tradition in this house and I can't wait to scrap it!

These are 2 layouts I did a few weeks back, but because I have been so busy getting things up and going with my new venture I am just now getting over to post them. These were done for challenges over at scrapbook.com with my ETG that I am a part of. I have to laugh, because one looks so fall and the other so springy!

This first one was done for the "AUGUST TECHNIQUE CHALLENGE: Old Meets New". Scrap any subject you like, but use some of the oldest-purchased supplies in your stash, as well as the most recent supplies you've purchased--together on the same layout! This can be anything--paper, embellies, tools, etc., BUT photos and adhesive are excluded . Be sure to tell us what you used! TWIST: inking something!

OK.. to be honest most of this is really really old! The pp in the background is actually from the dollar store. I use to buy a lot of pp there when I first started scrapping. This was really pretty and to be honest I am surprised I have never used it. I outlined all the leaves with a thin sharpie to blend with some of the black I placed elsewhere. The letters are also from the dollar store, the Autumn title I believe I got from a swap way back when and the lollipop flower is really recently new months back and the green card stock I bought actually today in a stack. I cut that out and then added the black doddle around the edges and printed off my butterflies from a program I have. The picture is back in 1996 when I was doing daycare out of my home. This was my group of children I watched. This was a our annual trip to Waterman's pumpkin patch. I always loved getting a pic with us all on the big pumpkins! I also inked the edges of the pp with moss green near the leaves.


This page is for our BOM challenge. It was to scrap a message to yourself--your past, present, or future self! Is there something you'd like to go back and tell your past self? Does your present self need a pep talk or need to address an issue? Is there something you've learned that would help your future self? This can be totally lighthearted--like, you might take a pic of your laundry and tell yourself to do it , OR, you may want to address something more serious and/or thought-provoking. TWIST: use 2 or more photos relevant to your message on the LO.

OK.. This lo is kind of simple in style and I was just hours under the deadline, so simple and quick was my motto that evening. My page actually opens like a book. The pink stipes with the birds on top are actually one piece. I cut the paper off that was on top of the birds and then placed a piece of purple card stock behind that. So, you open that whole piece from the birds down like a page in a book. The journaling is focused around the three key words I have on the front; Dream, Believe and Be. Since I am in the process of fulfilling a dream of mine with my new venture I really wanted this to be mainly about dreams being like a bird on a wire and they can take flight at any time.

I don't have all my journaling finished just yet. I am about 1/2 way through it and still in draft because how hard I have been working on other things right now. Although it is about dreaming big while you are young when you truly believe dreams can come true, about believing in yourself and your dreams when you're old enough to give up on them, because they don't seem to be attainable and then just being true to who you know you were meant to be and realizing your dreams are always at reach, if you only reach a little further then you think you can. So, that is a brief overview without really reading it here. So, of course that is a picture of me when I was about 5, 30 and 45.


OK.. well, it feels kind of good to post something other then one of my images! LOL... thanks for stopping by and have a creative kind of day! MAKE ART!

Thanks...

Thanks Nilla for sending me this beautiful award, you've have been such a great support to me! I have to give five things I like to do in a day! Well here it is.

1. Wake up and have a cup of java and head to the computer for my morning cyber space fix. Visit Scrapbook.com and chat wsith my girlfriends at the Eiffel Tower Group. Then blog hop a bit.
2. Listen to some good music
3. Draw, design and paper craft
4. Sit outside and visit with my neighbor Bea
5. Kiss my kids good-night, have a glass of wine then kiss my dear hubby good night!

I'm suppose to send this on, so I will be back later with those names!

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!

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!

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!

Blog Candy Give Away

Hi everyone, meant to post the WAY before now, but my friend Nilla is giving away this great blog candy so make sure you don't miss out on a chance of it! You can find it here. Don't just stop there, make sure you check out Nilla's lovely work as well through her other posts. You will find great inspiration there as well!

Here is what she is giving away:



Lovely stuff, I wonder who the lucky winner will be? You? Me? Hurry on over you only have until August 24th!

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!