Dragonfly Mini Cards

Hello everyone!  Just a quick post to link up a set of mini cards I made.  I think they would make a nice gift for someone.  :-)

I used my ink splash stamp from Neat and Tangled and stamped on 4 white card bases.  I stamped different sentiments in black.  (Let's Celebrate by Neat and Tangled, Thank You by All Night Media and the other two by Fiskars).  I stamped my dragonfly (sorry, don't know who makes this) four times and coloured them in with my Spectrum Noir markers and added some dazzling diamonds (SU!)glitter to the wings.  I fussy cut them out and adhered them to my card.  Added some sequins (also from Neat and Tangled) and they were done!  :-)

I'm linking up to the following challenges:

Little Tangles - mini cards
Paper Crafting Challenges - no patterned paper
Keep it Simple! - Bright Sparks (bright colours and sparkly)
CAS on Sunday - Sparkle and Shimmer (use glitter)

Well, that's all for now.  Have a lovely day and thanks for visiting!

I See a Sheep, or a Goat, or a Donkey.....

Well, I'm thinking I'm the only completely crazy person out there that saw an animal when I first took a look at this weeks CAS(E) This Sketch challenge.

I'm serious.  I didn't realize it was flowers until I started looking at the DT's projects.  LMAO!  All I could see was a sheep or goat type animal.  I thought to myself, oh how cute and different!  I think the hamster in my head is starved of oxygen or something.  :-). But rather than going along with the flowers I decided to just throw all caution to the wind and create a card based on what I first saw!  I decided to go with a sheep.     :-). Now, CAS(E) This Sketch has teamed up with the Runway Inspired Challenge where they look to fashion for inspiration.  I've followed the blog for some time but this is my first time playing.  Anyway, here's what I made.

You see it don't you?  Please tell me you do!  LOL.  Obviously, I took a few little liberties with the flower part and made it my sheep's head.  The bow is where the little flower would be.  :-). I liked the orange and black patterns and found some paper that reminded me of them.  It's hard to see but the black flourish is flocked.  I hand cut the half circle part.  I tried to emphasize the orange with the bow.  I didn't have any orange ribbon so I coloured some white with an alcohol marker.  Then stamped and embossed in white my sentiment (Fiskars).  I just hand drew the sheep's face.  This is being sent to my Mom to give to her friend who loves sheep.  :-).  I think it turned out rather cute.

I have some new followers to welcome today!  First up is, Shirley, from  Card Art, Etc.  She's been blogging for quite some time and a wonderful card artist.  Next is, Nonni, from Korttikarkuri-Runaway Cards, who has been blogging for a long while too and is well worth checking out!  I'm pretty sure she's my first follower from Finland too!  How cool is that?!  I'm constantly amazed by how this crafty community can bring together so many people all over the world.  It's fantastic!  Anyway, welcome to my blog, Shirley and Nonni.  I hope you enjoy your visits.

Well, that's all for now.  Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Thanks Teacher

It's a bit early yet for end of the year teacher cards but STAMPlorations had a great sketch challenge and this idea popped into my head sooooo....  Here's the sketch.

Great one, isn't it?  Anyway here's my card now.

I am very pleased with how this turned out.  I started with my black card base and took some actual ruled paper out of a book keeping the torn edges and cut it according to the sketch.  I added my A+ using some glitter letter stickers (Recollections).  I hand wrote the sentiment using a white charcoal pencil. It's looks like chalk!  :-). Then I added the apple which came from a 3D sticker set by Sandylion, I think.  I think my sons teacher will like this.  :-)

I'm also going to link up to the Moxie Fab World's new challenge, Hip on Handwriting Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

Thanks for visiting today and hope you all have a marvelous day!

A Trio of Christmas Challenges

So, I have a card today that was made with three Christmas challenges in mind.  Jingle Belles has an Earth Day theme where you are asked to reuse something.  Here's Festive Friday's inspiration picture.

They get better every time!  :-). And Merry Monday wants you to use Slate, Kraft, a White or Cream.  I'm sneaking in under the wire with this one!  I've got a little bit of red and green in my card and I hope that's okay.

I cut out part of a old Christmas card for my main image.  I took a piece of slate card stock embossed it with a damask embossing folder (Sissix).  Then I took some white paint and a sponge and wiped over the raised image.  It reminds me of the mirror in the FF picture.  I attached my image to this panel and layered it on white and then a kraft card base.  I added the white bow and underneath what looks to be slate and white twiggy greenery but it's actually snowflakes.  Made by my new Martha Stewart punch.  :-).

As for my decision to switch to Wordpress, I think I'm going to stay where I am until they truly start to force the switch to google plus.  Then I'll make my decision.  I'm just to lazy to move right now!  LOL!

Hope you are all having a lovely Easter weekend.  Thanks for stopping by!

Blue Butterfly

Hello!  Today I have a card to share using a stencil and colouring with my alcohol markers.  I also, have a decision to make and hopefully, I can get some of your input.  I'll talk more about that later.  Today's card was brought to you by the letter S and the number 3.  LOL.  It really came about from the sketch challenge over at Inkspirational.

Fun sketch, right?  So I'm linking up again there as well as at Spectrum Noir's monthly challenge which is "anything goes" and at Addicted to Stamps and More who also have and "anything goes" challenge right now.  I'm going to link up to Virginia's View as well.  She's got a stencil challenge going on right now.  Anyway, here's my card...

First I took my white panel and using some washi tape I masked off my diagonal section.  I took my mini echoes stencil (The Crafters Workshop) and sponged gold ink (Color Box) making it lighter as I got further out.  I removed the washi tape and adhered this to my dark blue card base.  Then I printed off the butterfly (digi stamp from) and coloured it with my Spectrum Noir markers (TB1, TB3, TB6, BGR1, BGR3, True Black.  I fussy cut it out and then attached it to the card with a little bit off glossy accents just on the body part of the butterfly so I could bend the wings up a bit.  Then I drew in the antennae and added the iridescent bling.  When I first saw the sketch I immediately thought it reminded me of a butterfly.  :-).   I'm quite pleased with the results.  I love my Spectrum Noir markers.  So fun to colour with.  Need to get more of the ink refills as some of my markers are running dry!  Gasp!!  :-)

So, the decision I mentioned earlier.  I'm thinking of switching my blog from blogger to Wordpress.  I'm not liking the changes I've been hearing about recently.  Forcing everyone to switch to a google + which as I understand puts more of your info out there which I'm uncomfortable with.  People have been having issues with the google friend connect which apparently, has been happening with my blog too.  I don't really want to switch over but I'm thinking it may be best but I just don't know.  Maybe some of you more experienced bloggers may have some suggestions or advice?  I don't want make things difficult for my existing followers either.  Le sigh.  Anyway, it'll take me some time I think to make a decision.  :-)

Thanks for coming by and visiting.  Have a wonderful day!

Hoppy Easter

Hello again!  It's my second post for today and this time I've got an Easter card to share.

I was inspired by the weekly a sketch challenge going on right now at STAMPlorations.  I followed the sketch pretty closely this time.

I decided I wanted to make and Easter card using this sketch and what I wanted to do came to me suddenly one night when I was watching a show.  The show had nothing to do with Easter but as it often happens, when my brain relaxes (in other words, the hamsters having a snooze) ideas just pop into my head.  :-).   Anyway, I cut four squares and stated stamping.  I stamped my bunny in grey masking off the bottom part and stamped my grass.  The grass is a small section of a SU! stamp.  I sponged some more green overtop to fill it in.  I coloured my bunny with Spectrum Noir markers.  I then stamped my eggs on two of the squares masking off the bottoms as well.  I used some old Le Plume markers to colour my egg stamp in the two colours then stamped them.  I did the same grass technique and colored with my SN markers as well.  The last square has the same grass and then the sentiment (by Verve) stamped in black.  I adhered my polka dot strip (Dear Lizzy Neapolitan collection by American Crafts) and then attached my squares with some foam tape.

I'm also going to link this up to CAS-ual Fridays challenge which is "good egg", using ovals.  And linking to Addicted to Stamps and More where they have an inspiration picture.

Well, that's all for now.  Not sure when my next post will be as there's another call for submissions over at PaperCrafts mag and I'll be working on that for a bit.  I've got something picked up for publication the last three calls.  Going to see if I can make it four!  :-). Hope you all have a wonderful day and thanks for visiting!

Birthday Peony

Good morning!  Well, it's morning where I am.  :-).  I can't believe the lovely temperatures we've been having lately.  Lovely sunny days too.  Well, except for one day last week when we had about 30mm of rain.  However the rain and warmth has melted an incredible amount of snow!  Yay!  It doesn't look good for the river flooding though this year.  I'm not sure how it's not going to flood.  So much snow and river levels were high before the winter too.  Luckily, our house is not in the flood zone.  :-).

Anyway, I've got a card to share today that features a lovely large peony stamp.  It's a jumbo stamp by Stampendous.  I don't think it's still available though.  I looked on their site and couldn't find it.  It's too bad cause it's lovely.

So, I stamped and embossed the peony in black then used my Spectrum Noir markers (DR3 & GB5) to colour it in.  You might wonder why the colours seem a bit muted.  Well, it started out as a different idea that didn't pan out so I fussy cut the peony out to salvage it.  The paper the peony is on is a medium blue colour which muted the colours.  I like the effect though.  Anyway, once that was done I stamped my flourishes (Inkadinkado) in dove grey StazOn.  I added a butterfly in the same grey.  The butterfly stamp is a very old one.  It one of the first stamps I bought all those many years ago when this illness....*cough*, I mean, obsession....I mean, hobby, started.  ;-).  I still love that butterfly.  I stamped the sentiment (Fiskars) in black. The next and last step was to adhere the peony to the card.  I love the way the bold peony looks on the white with the soft grey.

I'm linking up to the following challenges:

STAMPlorations - the monthly challenge is stamping and your favourite technique.  Well, colouring is one of my top favs to do.  :-)
The Card Concept - they want you to add a butterfly.  My card could be considered Clean & Simple or Clean & Graphic I suppose, though I think the latter applies more.

Spectrum Noir Challenge - it's an "anything goes" challenge this month
Time Out Challenge - the theme is birthday with an optional twist of masculine.  I decided to opt out of the twist.  :-)

On a little bit different note, I'd like to welcome a new follower!  Her name is Patti and her blog is stationary Styles.  She's been blogging since 2008!!  She's a wonderful card artist and I recommend checking out her blog.  :-). Welcome Patti!

Well, I do have another card to share but that will another post a little later on today.  Until then have a lovely day!