Magical Monday - Doily

Well, here we are at the beginning of another week. We lost our power for 2 days and just got it back on last night. Needless to say we are a spoiled society and we take so much for granted. It is good to be back to the norm. We borrowed a generator from my parents and since we didn't have air we had a fan going in the front room. Avery and I slept on the floor Sunday night and remind me the next time that I am too old to sleep on the floor without any kind of air mattress!! Although he was so cute and kept telling me how much fun he had, so I guess a little bit of soreness was all worth it! Running a little behind because of no access to the Internet, but here is the challenge for this week for Paper Cupcakes. Angie Gittles brings us the challenge this week and she wanted us to use a doily. I don't use them much on cards, but I do love the look of them on cards. I just don't think to go there. I ran out to the dollar store and picked up a package. I really wanted a smaller one, but they only had the larger ones so I picked out an 8 inch package. I let the doily pretty much cover the whole background of my card.

I used the "Teddy bear Sunday" image three times and colored it like a neapolitan ice cream adding the light green rhinestones also made me think of some yummy spumoni ice cream.  I keep this card really clean and simple.  I colored my image with my colored pencils and added some glossy accents on the syrup on the bears as well as the cherries and then once dry I added some stickles on the cherries, but that is hard to see in these pics.  I added the pretty red ribbon and bow to set it all off. 

You can find the challenge at the Paper Cupcake's Challenge Blog; There's Magic In The Air HERE.

With everything so dry and with the drought in Indiana everything is drying and dying so early and things are going to seed quickly.  That is the case with my cone flowers this year.  I have not been watering a lot since everything was close to dead when I got back from vacation.  Anyway.... since my cone flowers are going to seed they have been attracting the goldfinches to my cone flowers.  So I decided to sit not far from where I kept seeing them land and attempted to get some pictures of them so I could do a few watercolors of them.  Here are a few pictures I got that I thought where pretty good pictures.

In the picture below this little birdie was singing.... it's song was so beautiful and lovely to watch.

In this picture below he is looking right at me.

Have a beautiful day and make sure you take time to see the beautiful things that are all around you in the small things we tend to take for granted sometimes.    These goldfinches were just that.  They brought a lot of joy to my day and it felt good to sit in the sun and capture part of this beauty in still to enjoy and to maybe paint at a later date.  Thanks for lurking by and seize the day with some joy!

Magical Monday - Waste Not

"Waste Not" is the name of the game. This week Shirley Quarry brings us our challenge and she would love to see us make a card or project with something you have recycled. It can be a coke tab, recycled game piece, tag, etc.. be creative and have fun!

I chose the image "Dancing Bear with Ribbons" by Paper Cupcakes. I colored the image with Bic Mark-its. The recycled item that I used is the charm piece hanging from the flower in the bottom right corner. It was actually part of an earring that one of my daughters tossed out. There were three charms on each earring and I took that one off and used it like a charm. This was a pretty simple and easy card.

You can find the challenge at the Paper Cupcake's Challenge Blog; There's Magic In The Air.

Had a great week away this past week in the sand and sun.  The below picture was the first night on the beach.  This rainbow was the most vibrant rainbow I have ever seen and it was completely full from side to side and at times you could see a double rainbow very faintly.

Have an enchanting kind of day!

Magical Monday - Sketch

This week I bring you the challenge for Paper Cupcakes which is a sketch. You can find the challenge at the Paper Cupcake's Challenge Blog; There's Magic In The Air.

This week I present you with two sketches so you have a choice. Pick one of the sketches found at Paper Cupcake's Challenge Blog; There's Magic In The Air and then use it. You can flip it, rotate it or stretch it, just as long as you can still see the original sketch on your card.

The image "Margarita Cupcake" is a freebie for 48 hours and after that you can find it in the store. So, make sure you stop by and snag it and while you'll there why don't you show a little appreciation for the freebie and play along with the challenge as well. I colored my image with colored pencils and colored the cupcake holder to match my ribbon. Went with summery bright colors and added some stickles to the icing and lime. Then added a cute little flower and some rhinestones.  It was a pretty quick card since I was following a sketch, which is why I love sketches.

Well, the heat is about to kill me over here, today was a whopping 106 and our air is having a hard time keeping up with the outside. With our air on and fans going in some of the rooms we still have 84 degrees in our home!! Although I still will take this over a cold winter. Well, that is it for me today. Going to keep this simple and short. I have a busy next few days and then I am off to escape on a little rendezvous with Eric. So, thanks for lurking by and have a joyful week!

 

Magical Monday - Let's Get Together

The challenge this week is "Let's Get Together" at the Paper Cupcake's Challenge Blog; There's Magic In The Air.

This week Carroll Davis brings us our challenge and since summer time is party time, she wanted us to make an invitation to any type of party. It could be a barbecue, cocktail party, baby or wedding shower, birthday party (child or adult), pool party or just a get together to have FUN!

I chose the image "July Celebration; with flag" by Paper Cupcakes. I have never seen this image colored in before, so I wanted to use it. I think this was perfect for a July celebration. I colored the image with colored pencils and used a light blue copic around the edges of the image. I made a triple tier slider card which you can find the instructions HERE. It really is not too hard. I have made this type card only one other time and once you make it the first time, it is fairly easy the next. I love how it slides open. I decided to keep this element free for the most part to keep it as flat as possible thinking you would most likely mail this type of invite. Although this is a mock invitation and I could have bulked it up, but decided not to.  We really are not having a BBQ on the 4th! So, don't be disappointed if you aren't invited; no one really is!

Well, that is it for me for today in regards to card making.  Today and yesterday have been frustrating days.  Went to a baby shower and when I arrived back home to work on my blog postings for the main blog my computer sent up all the bells and whistles for warnings and virus and telling me if I go any further I could crash my computer and so on.  I couldn't access anything and luckily a kind hearted friend took my computer and fixed it, but it took hours and I got it back late last night.  Then this morning I couldn't unzip things and had to call him to find I had to do a few little things, no biggie really, but then I went to blow dry my hair after my shower and blew a fuse to half the house.  And of course the half that had my internet service and my computer.  So, I started to string extension cords and finally got my internet back so I could work on this and then I realized my frig/freezer was off in the garage,  Well, it's been in the 90's so I didn't want that to stay off.  So, I called my neighbor to come look at our fuse box.  Now, I can flip some switches when it comes to this, I do know what to do, but the fuses where hanging out of the box when I flipped them over so I was scared to touch them as being horrified I would be electrocuted!  So, Carl came over and guess what, he shut down all the power!  Which meant I had to get my internet all back on.  I think my wireless box is on it's way out so I had to wiggle things and hold my head just right to get it to work today.  Needless to say it took hours which turned into all day.  I was stressed and then my daughter told me at 5:40 she had to be to play practice at 6:00 which is a good 1/2 hour away and my postings were not completed.  :o(    I know... it really all could have been way worst and it really is small matter in the big picture of things, but I am telling you, I was stressed and still am!  Here it is 11:30 and I am working on a post that should have posted at 6:00.  

Moral of the story is:  don't procrastinate!!!  Because when you do, you usually end up with a day like this!

Well on the up side, I am thinking that tomorrow will be much better, yes it will!!

 

Magical Monday - One For The Boys

The challenge this week is "One For The Boys" at the Paper Cupcake's Challenge Blog; There's Magic In The Air. Ildiko Cseh who brings us the challenge wants us to make any type of card or project, but it has to be for the boys/masculine. Free range in creativity and design. I am using the freebie this week from Paper Cupcakes which is the "Mustashe Cupcake" perfect for a masculine card and father's day. I paper pieced the cup and colored the cupcake with colored pencils and added some stickles to make it sparkle a bit. The card was pretty simple and quick.  The cards from the Designers turned out really cute this week using this image so make sure you stop by and see how they all colored thier image and did their cards.  Super cute they all are!!

Well, going to keep this short and sweet today. Have a great week and thanks for lurking by.  

Magical Monday - 3 In a Row

OK... I totally spaced doing my personal blog posting!  I thought about it around 4:30 today and then got side tracked cleaning up the paint cans everywhere and then made dinner.  Guess what?  Yeah, I just thought about it... so here it is short and sweet!

The challenge this week is "3 in a row" at the Paper Cupcake's Challenge Blog; There's Magic In The Air. This week Danie May wants us to pick 3 elements from the below grid that are in a row, can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal and incorporate them into your card or project.

I decided to use one of the new images over at Paper Cupcakes "Girl with Umbrella".  I must say I really liked this image!  Even though you really can't tell I cut the umbrella out and placed it on pop up dots so it is more 3_D.  I used my color pencils to color the image and used some stickles on the green lines on the umbrella.  The stickles is much prettier in real life; wish you could see it.  I did a fairly large image, since this image seemed to be long and narrow I didn't really want it to be small... so I went big and I really liked how it turned out.  I did the grid across the top.  So I used punches; butterfly & border.  Ribbon and two pattern papers.  I also inked the edges of the image with a cat eye chalk.  It really is a pretty simple and clean card, but it works really nicely with this image which I wanted to stand out. 

Had a really busy weekend, but nice and certainly not enough time to be everywhere and do everything we wanted to do this holiday weekend.  Thanks for lurking by and I hope you always take a little creativity away from visiting.  Have a great week!!

Magical Monday - Sketch

The challenge this week is a sketch brought to you by "me" at the Paper Cupcake's Challenge Blog; There's Magic In The Air. I love sketches so that is what I brought to the challenge. You can flip, rotate or stretch it as along as you can still see the initial sketch in your project. I am also using the freebie image "Sending Cheer Your Way" by Paper Cupcakes; which I might add is only available for free for the next 48 hours.  I colored the image with Bic Mark-its. I made the rose with my mom one day way back with one of her punches and thought it would be perfect for this card that I knew would be hand delivered to a special friend on her birthday. There was no way that that flower was going to make it through the mail in a regular envelope! I did an easel, because I thought the sketch would be perfect for that that type of card.
If you have never made an easel card before you can find the instructions HERE.

Here is the sketch:

My Card:

Well, today is my sweetie's birthday and he took off work and we are going to run away for the day and do something just the two of us.  Not sure what that is yet, but right now I just don't care what we do as long as we just get out the two of us and have a little fun. 

I had a great weekend.  The weather was just perfect.  The birthday party I hosted for my friend was full of lots of fun, good friends, good food and a perfect night in my book.  Went to church, great message and always love to see my church family weekly.  Got to spend part of the day with my mom, dad and sister and Jim.   Eric visited his mom while I visited mine (we splited and divided to save same time in our day) and then we went to the nursing home together to see Eric's step-mom.  Then I came home and played a yard game with Avery, then fell in the hammock and took a little nap, which was very much needed after this busy week.  It was a great day in all and now I have tomorrow to look forward to as well.

Thanks for lurking by and may your week hold much JOY!

Magical Monday - Be Inspired

The challenge this week is "Be Inspired" at the Paper Cupcake's Challenge Blog; There's Magic In The Air. Sonia Rivera gave us this beautifully clean picture with lots of white space and splashes of wonderful color. I automatically wanted to do a clean and simple card. So part of my inspiration for my card was the feeling the photo gave me which was neat and clean, but with a splash of color. Also, I chose an image of bottles, because I was also inspired by the 3 little bottles sitting on the table. I am all about the small details and I think those three little bottles reflected just that, small details in the room. I colored the image "Tender Loving Care" by Paper Cupcakes with colored pencils and dry embossed the background piece that was inspired by the design in the rug.

Well, since we are talking about being inspired, below is a canvas I did one late night. I have been feeling under the weather, a little blue and down lately and one night instead of going to bed I stayed up and ran across this blog. I love to get lost in creativity especially when it is just create as you go. I don't tend to do it very often (not sure why), but when I seen this blog Christy really inspired me. So, I stayed up late and I already had a canvas on hand, of course I already have tons of paper and pretty much everything on hand to get creative with. So, I have this one friend that is always finding "JoY" well that is what she is known for "Joy sayings".... she even takes pictures of Joy dish soap and posts them on FB, she so cracks me up and I just love her attitude. So anyone that would know her and would read this would know who I am speaking of. So... I thought I would go with a sentiment about joy.. since I have been feeling so blue... Plus I think it lifted my spirits. I didn't draw anything out (although I should have). The one thing I love about seeing Christy's videos is she just cut (well she appeared to anyway), although I must say my face is lacking a nose (what is that about) and her chest is not quite how I would really want it (seriously). But I just left them (which was very hard). I didn't really notice either one so much out of whack until of course I had them glued down. I really try to leave all my littler imperfections just that, imperfections and just kept adding. I have many layers, paint, ribbon, punched paper, stickles, rub-ons, marker, different papers and the big flower is my own digi image that I printed on tissue paper and plastered on in the background. I really liked how it turned out and although it does feel a little girlish, I still had tons of fun creating it. Just wanted to share it with you and you should check out Christy's blog she also has some classes you can take as well.

OK, that is it for me today.  I have tons to get completed and accomplished today.  So, if you are feeling a little down and need a little pick me up, remember we always have a choice on how we can direct our attitude... so I hope today you too will choose JOY!

Let's Get Aquainted....

The challenge this week is "Let's Get Acquainted" at the Paper Cupcake's Challenge Blog; There's Magic In The Air. Shirley wanted us to go to one of the Paper Cupcake's Designer's blog and case a card. I chose to go to Wilma Zengotita's blog and you can find the card I cased here. I think her card is a bit more in the square. I cut my card as a 5x7 and pouted a bit once I realized her card was more in square. So I just worked with the size I cut my card. I think overall it turned out OK. I colored my image with colored pencils. Chalked my sky with a blue and pink and then added stickles to the rain.






Yesterday was beautiful here, but a few days prior to that was rainy. Today has been a little bit of both. This was the perfect image for this week, I feel a little under the weather, but I am still trying to find the joy in the day. So, go find some joy within your day too! Thanks for lurking by!

Magical Monday - Circles, Glitter and Lace... oh my!

The challenge this week is "Circles, Glitter and Lace, Oh My!" at the Paper Cupcake's Challenge Blog; There's Magic In The Air. So, you had to use 2 circles, some glitter/stickles and lace. I used the image "Morgan Reading; with wings" by Paper Cupcakes. I decided to do a long card vs. the standard 5x7 card. I rarely make this type of card, but I love how this one turned out. My two circles are actually the yoyo flower I made. I used one larger circle and a circle that was a little smaller to make up the flower. I sprayed the circles with glimmer mist and then crunched them up until they dried and then added some stickles to the edges of the circles and wings on the image and in the grass as well. My lace is the bow. I colored my image with Bic Mark-its and the wings with colored pencils. I love the punch of the bright springy pink in the flowers and the butterflies I punched. I also chalked my sky with a blue and pink.









Well, that's it for me for today. My kids are on spring break this week and I always love that. Thanks for lurking by and have a lovely Easter Day this coming Sunday!

Magical Monday - Less is More

The challenge this week is "Less is More" at the Paper Cupcake's Challenge Blog; There's Magic In The Air. Paper Cupcakes is also giving away a freebie image "Egg Hunt" which I used in the top two cards. So, the whole idea of doing a Less is More card it to keep is simple, clean and make a card that someone else could reproduce in about 10 minutes. This is the design I came up with. Of course it totally takes me at least 10 minutes to just pick out my papers, so after you get that accomplished then it goes pretty quickly. I used Bic Mark-its to color the images on the top two cards. I added stickles to my tree leave and used a Martha Stewart border punch (loop I think). I think if you look at the card it is pretty self explanatory. I actually punched some tiny flowers out and placed them on my tree after taking the pics. I just couldn't help myself... it just felt like it needed that little extra on the trees. :o)

The below cards I did the same design layout. In fact I made these cards before I made the above cards. I actually made these thinking it would be for the challenge. Then I realized I was suppose to use the freebie and had a "duh" moment. Oh well, I have a set of what I think are really cute birthday card to have on hand now. And it made it easy for me to do the challenge because I had the design already completed and I do think it didn't take me very long at all to reproduce the design.

Image: Frilly Cupcake by Paper Cupcakes-Stamps

Image: Party Pig by Paper Cupcakes-Stamps (I didn't have my image in square that is why the lines are funny on that image, and after I printed it I didn't want to waste card stock so I just went with the minor flaw)




Image: Make a Wish by Paper Cupcakes-Stamps




Image: A Special Gift by Paper Cupcakes-Stamps




Well, that's it for me today. We have had a tough last two weeks and things are finally getting back into the swing of normal. Plus we are gearing up for Morgan to head to her State competition for her Speech this coming weekend. We are excited!!

Thanks for lurking by and have a lovely week!!