Magical Monday - Clean & Simple

Happy Monday everyone! OK, I know people in general look at Mondays and don't usually connect happy with it, but hey you have to start your week sometime, so why not make it a happy one! This weeks challenge over at TMITA is brought to us by Sue Walsh. It was to make a clean and simple card. Clean and simple can sometimes challenge me, but I really love the card I made with this image "Softly Afloat" by Paper Cupcakes this week. The only thing I colored were the stems on my flowers. I printed the image once on white card stock, twice and orange card stock and once on yellow card stock. I then cut out the orange flowers twice and glue the first ones down, then placed the second ones on pop-up dots and then just glued down the yellow ones as well as my butterfly. Then I just matted the image and then placed that on a larger mat, tied my pretty green ribbon on and it called it clean, simple and complete. The sentiment is computer generated and the font is Santa's Sleigh, which is one of my faves!

This week has just flown by and my time seems like I have no time. I have worked on mural type work all week during the days and the evenings have been consumed with softball and baseball games and practice. I will be working again this week on my work and hopefully will finish it up by the end of the week. We froze on Saturday during the games, it was really cold and there were high winds which made it twice as cold. I took like five blankets for the girls to keep warm with since they were in shorts (I was wearing my winter coat with gloves). I lost a blanket and my cell phone in the process of getting back to the car, but the day ended with good news both were returned to me hours later which made me quite happy. I had a nice Mother's day, attended church, went out to lunch, came home and took a nap, called my mom and made my card for today and will head for bed early since I have to head out for work in the morning.



So, have a great Monday and thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to stop by and visit me!

This weeks challenge is brought to us by Olga Jewell this week over at TMITA/PCC. It was to follow a sketch, which I love to do, but rarely do on my own. I used the image "Follow Me" and used a fun summery pp that was in my scraps. Kept it fairly clean and simple. Colored with my Bic Mark-its. Well, this past week zoomed by super fast and the next 2 weeks I will be working on putting some paint on some walls for some designs I did for a church, so I will be away during the days and I am sure busy when home as usual.



So, thanks for stopping by and now I am headed for bed just short of mid-night. Thanks for stopping by I hope to get by some of your blogs soon, so please forgive me if I haven't been by to visit, believe me I certainly miss stopping by and enjoying all your inspirations! Have a Magical Monday, or at least a good one anyway!

Magical Monday - Anything Goes

This is the card I made for the challenge over at TMITA/PCC. The free image this week is called "Easter Lilies" from Paper Cupcakes. I cut my image out and mounted it on black card stock. I colored my image with my color pencils only. The pp was from some scraps. I stamped my sentiment which is by Stampabilities and then I punched holes for all the ribbons and then tied them all on.



I think this turned fairly striking with the color combo. I almost always get the designer's projects before I do mine and I always open them up and always love them all and I'm always inspired by them as well and then sometimes it makes it hard for me to look at the image with my own perspective on how I might approach it. I love this image and think it is really versatile and love what the designer's all did with it. So, make sure you go by and check them out, because they are all so lovely as always!

Now, more on the personal side, baseball & softball season has officially started here in the Midwest. I don't even want to imagine how much more will be added to our schedule because of it too. With 2 of them playing we can pretty much kiss every Saturday day good-by and a few week nights as well, for practice and week night games. The one thing with Avery's game, I certainly can take my drawing pad or a good book, because let's just say, there is not a lot of action going on with the 5 & 6 year olds except tossing dirt into the wind or tackling each other and making a pile to get the ball when it is hit. Although, it can be interesting/funny to watch at times. One little boy on Saturday that was on second ran back to first instead of third, then onto third base, then onto the pitcher's mound, then back to third and the around the pitcher's mound again then back to first. I would say he was quite in his own little world of base running. Oh, and he was on our team too! :O) Morgan has not had her first game yet, but they will be much more interesting to watch. She is quite the little ball player and catcher. So, here are pics of our 2 players. Aren't they just the cutest? It was opening day with the parade, so needless to say we were there all day, well running back and forth. The parade was at 8:30, our game at 3:00 and practice for the other at 5:00. Crazy crazy, I only hope we can keep up with it all!




Well, thanks for stopping by and I always love your company and if you took time to read all this, I truly am blessed! Have a great Monday and here's to another week in my world! :O)

Magical Monday - Recipe Challenge

This week's challenge over at There's Magic In the Air with Paper Cupcake Stamps is a recipe challenge brought to us by Kim McDonald. If you would like to see the recipe you can find it and the challenge blog here. I used the image "My Cup of Tea" by Paper Cupcakes. I used my Bic Mark-its to color it and well, I am pretty sure as simple as it is you can figure the rest of it out! :O) This was a really quick and simple card to make and I am positive I made it in less than an half an hour; including the coloring. I think it is cute and will make a perfect girlfriend kind of card.



Well, that's it for me for this posting. I might just get to bed before 11:00PM tonight which will be such a blessing! Well, take time to smell the coffee today and if you don't like coffee try some of the spring flowers! :O) Thanks for stopping by today! I always enjoy your company!

Color Combo Challenge

This week's challenge over at TMITA/PCC is brought to us by Nilla Berglie. She asked us to use colors blue, green and white as the main theme for our project. I started making my project at 10:30PM tonight and it is now 11:40PM and needless to say I am past ready to go to bed. I had the large chocolate bar that I bought myself for Easter, but have not gotten around to eating it, so I decided to make it into a treat for someone else and save myself from absorbing the calories! Of course this was a fairly easy and quick project to do and I also thought it turned out cute and I will have it on hand for a upcoming treat for a friend or to go with a birthday gift for one of my kids. OR maybe I will slide off the wrapper really nicely and set it aside and eat the chocolate THEN just purchase another one and slide it back on when I need it! So, what would you do???? :O)



OK.. off to bed with me now! Maybe I will dream of eating my chocolate bar in my sleep then I won't have the urge to eat it tomorrow!

Magical Monday - Spring Challenge: 3-D flowers & Leaves

This week over at TMITA/PCC Selma Stevenson brings us our challenge which is a Spring challenge and using 3-D flowers and leaves. This is the card I made for that challenge. The image is by Paper Cupcakes and is called "Mossed Topped Birdhouse". I used scrap paper for my background and my flowers I punched and kept simple like the flowers in the pattern paper. I love this orange and green together and though my card turned out pretty springy and cheery. I colored my image with my Bic Mark-its. The sentiment is computer generated.



Thought I would save some time and also post these 2 layouts I did for challenges over at Scrapbook.com that I am in a group with. It seems like since I started this digital image journey I don't seem to be scrapping as much as I would like to, I always try to get in these 2 challenges every month. Usually just under the wire, but I love both of them and I so love to scrap my pictures and memories.

This first one is pictures of all four of my children's baby pictures and pictures of how they look right now. The challenge to this lo was suppose to be something on time. This is what I came up with. Fairly simple, but I so love how it turned out.



This one is a lo of our cat Storm. We have had him just about a year now and he is just a lovely cat with a great personality and very loving. I rarely get great shots of him, because he is black for one and when ever I use a flash he always closes his eyes. These were some great ones taken of him shortly after we got him. He was a stray where my daughter worked and she snuck him in late one evening and needless to say we all fell in love with him. The challenge here was to use some masking which I used at the bottom of the lo. I used a piece of paper that was punched for my mask and also to use something that was green, which were my leaves in the flowers.


I hope everyone had a lovely Easter Sunday. The weather was just beautiful here for once and the day was just lovely. Thanks for stopping by and big thanks if you left me some lovins! Have a spring filled day!

Magical Monday - Let's make a basket!

This is my project for TMITA/PPC blog. Sue Welsh brings use this week's challenge of making a paper basket or altering one. I made my own and did my own thing. I made a template which you can find in this post.

For my basket I started with a double sided 12x12 patterned piece of paper. I used the 2 scalloped nestability for the top flap found on each side that is white. I cut these in half and then placed them around all four sides. Before placing them on the sides I punched holes in the scallops to give it more of an eyelet lace look. I wove my basket with the other side of the patterned paper (see instructions below). I gathered lace the length of my handle and glued it on and placed the ribbon on top of that and attached my handle after the basket was put together. I added the tiny pink poms poms around the top edge and then added the pretty bows to each side of the handle. I placed an image on each side and then layered flowers on the other two as well. I found that cute little pink humming bird at Michael's and thought it would be so pretty sitting on the handle and found the cute fuzzy chicks at Hobby Lobby which I might add that Avery just loved!



I also made my first side step card to go with my little basket. I carried the theme of the basket to the card. I have seen these type of cards many times and I have always loved the ones I have seen so I gave it a try. The end result was much smaller then I expected, but I was still pleased with the card. You can find the instructions for this card here.



Quick Woven Basket Tutorial:

This is a picture how I divided my paper and of the lines I cut to make this quick woven paper basket. The finished basket ends up measuring 4x4 square.


1. Start with either a 12x12 piece of card stock or a doubled sided piece of atterned paper.

2. Score into nine 4x4 inch squares.

3. Cut along the lines that say cut (4 times the middle squares). They measure one inch each across. This will be the part you weave with the other paper.

4. (Note) The flaps/squares on each corner will fold inward to be the inside of your basket. The lines that don't say cut will be the lines you fold.

5. Cut 16, 1x4 inch pieces of paper that you want to weave with. I used the other side of my patterned paper. You will need 4 strips for each side.

6. Weave each side. Pay close attention with the first woven piece when moving on to the second side, because if you are using a different color or another pp you will want it to be alternated on the next flap so the weave looks like it is carried on the next side when you close up the basket. (does that make sense?)

7. After all sides are woven, glue all the ends on those pieces to secure them in place. (do this on both sides of the paper; inside and outside).

8. Now fold the flaps upward to start forming your basket and the large squares found on the corners that were not woven fold in so that they become the inside of the basket. I placed glue on the flaps before folding in so I could hold them in place while the adhered. I always use Aleene's quick dry tacky glue, it adheres really quickly... I love that stuff. Do that on all four sides.

9. This is where I cut 2 large scalloped nestibilities and cut them in half and used them for the top edge of the basket under the pink pom poms. You of course could finish off your basket however you want.

10. Cut handle the desired length that you would like. I cut mine about 1x11. I glued mine to the basket as well, but you could certainly attach with brads or ribbons or anything creative. I glued on my gathered lace and let it dry before attaching it to my basket.

11. Embellish however you want, have fun!

I think this would make a fun project for a child. If a younger child did this you could make all the cuts for them and let them do the weaving and gluing. These would also be fun to make and maybe place some spring flowers in and give as a gift if you were visiting someone on Easter Sunday as well.

I had a lot making my basket and card! My children are on spring break this week, so I imagine this week will fly by!!

If you want to check out my store for some more great images, please stop by Paper Cupcakes and check out the new images that just arrived~ you can find them HERE.

So, I say... have an "Eggs-traordinary" day!!

Magical Monday - 1,2,3 Create

This week's challenge over at TMITA/PCC is brought to us by Olga Jewell. The challenge is 1,2,3 Create. Which means using 1 Paper Cupcake image, 2 Ribbons and 3 Buttons. This is my take on it. The image I used is "Happily Together" which was one of the give-a-way images for last week.

So, I have my one image "Happily Together" by Paper Cupcakes, 2 ribbons; the purple ribbon going across the poms poms and then I made my second ribbon into a bow, hope that works, and then my 3 buttons in my flowers. I used my Bic Mark-its to color the image. I really liked how this card turned out it just feels so happy to me. :O)





Here is a card I made last week when my mom came over. We made pop-up cards because she wanted do the challenge card. This is my pop-up card that I made that day. I decided to use 3 smaller images and and I colored them with my Bic Mark-its and added stickles to the bunnies. I really liked how Kim added her stickles on her bunnies so I did the same on these bunnies.



This is the inside and the bunny pops up, but it is kind of hard to tell, but the image is fairly large so I had to keep it somewhat close to the back so although it pops up it only sets about an inch from the back.



Mondays are one of my busiest days to get things done, so thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

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.

Magical Monday - Color Challenge w/ metal

This week's challenge over at TMITA/PCC is brought to us by Danielle Lord. Since this image is for St. Patrick's Day, you can see where why the challenge went where it did. :o) Green & Gold for the colors to be used outside the image and a twist to add some metal somewhere. I wish you could see my pp better because it has some foil type lines running through it, but they really don't show. I heat embossed the swirls you see in the background and just added some gold brads for my metal twist. Not sure if I am really thrilled with this, but I started making it about 10:00PM this evening, so... it is what it is. Although, I really love the little saying that is on the front. So, I might make another and do something else. I rarely send cards out for St. Patrick's day, so I made my sentiment so I could use it as a more everyday kind of card.



Well, that's it for the challenge and these next two cards I made for a few of my girlfriends that had birthdays. Of course they are late birthday cards, but I am telling you my time just is flying these days and I just can't seem to get ahead of it with all I have to still accomplish. ((big sigh)) Anyways.... enough whining, this first image is "Designer Cupcake" by Paper Cupcake Stamps and can be found in my store here. I must say I am satisfied with both these cards. I mean after all who doesn't love a good cupcake?!?



This image is called "Magnolia Cupcakes" and it too can be found at my store Paper Cupcakes.


May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day. May songbirds serenade you every step along the way. May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue. And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.

Magical Monday - Sketch Challenge

Here is the card I made for the Magical Monday Challenge which was a sketch brought to us by Patti Nelson this week. I have had a sick little boy since Thursday, Saturday is when he started feeling better. Thank goodness, but it certainly adjusts your time in a different direction. For this challenge you could use any cupcake image. I used the image "For the love of lipstick". I have not finished the inside, but it is going to say "When is comes to friends, you're just the right shade" I took this pic last night, so I will see if I can get a little brighter one. I colored my image with my color pencils and Avery helped me pick all the colors. There were a few rejects in his choices, but for the most part he did well! :O)



Well, that's it for me today, now I need to get moving on finishing some paintings I am hoping to deliver this week. So... have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

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!

Some More Cards...

These were some cards I stayed up late and made for some of my dear friend's birthdays, I didn't use any images and just did all paper. I made my own template for the card and just went from there. I really loved how they turned out. That's it for now, because I am extremely tired and off to bed early. I will be back with more details at later.