Good morning!
It's time for a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown, and this week the theme is Your on my Mind!  We want to see those thinking of you cards!!

Our fabulous sponsor this week is Digital Delights.  They have such darling images there, so I decided to use one that I purchased just recently to go with all the animal cards I've been making.

Isn't he so sweet!!??  He looked like he was laying in the grass dreaming of someone and thus perfect for this challenge :)
Now, I know...I just made a couple of cards with this green paper...but it was sitting on the top of my stash and worked perfect with the other two papers!  So I grabbed it and finished it off :)

This little cutie is Lie Down Pup from the Lonely Pups Set and I've colored him in with colored pencils.  I chalked some light clouds behind him and then penciled in some grass.  He's cut out with my spellbinders ovals and mounted onto my card.  I used a MS punch for the loopy border and added some green ribbon along with a die cut bone at the top of the card.

I hope you will join us this week!  Be sure to check out the rest of the design teams creations, they are pretty fabulous!!

Now I'm off to clean.  The dizzies from yesterday are mostly gone, still going to take it a little slow today, but definitely need to clean this apartment!  Lol :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    A Gem of a Challenge #68-Add a Bow
    Delightful Challenge-Sketch
    Eclectic Ellapu-Masculine
    Whoopsi Daisy-Add a Sentiment

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Monday to all of you!
Was your weekend fabulous?  Are you ready for a new challenge??

This week at Digi Makeover, we are challenging you to use stripes on your projects!! 
Instead of the traditional line stripes for my card, I went a little wild :)

As in animal print :)  I've always been an animal print kind of person.  Leopard prints and zebra prints have been my favorites for so so long.  I even painted our bedroom when we lived in Washington in leopard print colors (it looked fabulous by the way :) )

So when stripes was listed as our challenge this week, the first thing that popped into my mind was zebra stripes.  I've had this patterned paper for-ever!!  Of course, it was a pack that has all the other animal prints with it as well.  But I stuck with the zebra.  I really wanted the zebra print to stand out, so I kept my card nice and simple.  Which, honestly was really REALLY hard!  All that white space around my image was killing me...but I left it, and I'm glad I did because now seeing it posted here makes me love it!

The cute sentiment is from the Retail Therapy set from Paper Makeup.  I added some image effects to it in Word so it has a slight shadow and a black border.  Then I colored in the shoe to match my paper.

The last 2 details were the black dots around the sentiment and the clear gems on the side.  I clearly need more practice with making my paint dots the same size...

Anyhow, I hope you will join us this week!  Just remember to use a digi!  And please do stop by the rest of the makeup artists this week as they have some fabulous creations.  We even have 2 new ladies joining our team!!  Send out a very warm welcome to Audrey and Jan!!  So glad you ladies are with us!

Now, I'm off...I managed to wake up this morning not feeling so great.  I've got the whole world-is-spinning dizziness factor going on which is no fun.  And since it's easier to deal with laying down, I am hitting the couch for awhile :) 
Have a lovely day!!

Happy Friday!!
I seriously have a love/hate relationship with Friday mornings...I absolutely love that-hello-it's Friday!  For the next 2 mornings, I can stay up till 2 am and sleep in till noon 8 (our cats aren't that generous...don't mess with their breakfast time!)  But at the same time, I hate getting out of my nice warm bed...I just want to lay there and snuggle with my hubby and let the weekend begin.  But I know that can't happen, so I roll out of bed and make him breakfast.  And thus starts my day :)

I figured, since I'm up I should share something with you!  And since I finished this card yesterday, it's perfect for this post.

Isn't that image precious?!  It's Petunias and Hummingbird from Fred She Said and it is so adorable!  I went with a soft pink and white color scheme and I think it really worked for this card.  Pink seems to be a favorite color of mine to use on cards.  Which is weird because I'm not a huge pink fan...

To go with the image, I made up a couple of flowers.  The large one took me a while to work out.  I tried a different style of petunia first and it turned out awful...so I went with a different style.  I used my copics to streak some color through the middle of the layers and then glued them all together with a pearl in the center.

I used my large daisy punch to make the daisy's and added some paint and tiny beads to the centers.  The little pink glittery stamens were supposed to be used in the center of my first petunia, but since that flopped I decided they would work well tucked behind the flowers for a little flourish.

Everything is colored up with my colored pencils and detailed with some stickles.  This card seemed to be a good fit for a mother's day card so I printed out the sentiment and double matted it in the corner.  Gorgeous!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Craft Your Passion #150-All That Glitters
    Crafty Cardmakers #85-Blooming Images
    Delicious Doodles #24-Flowers for Spring
    Digital Tuesday #198-Pink and White
    Fab n Funky #159-Flower Power
    Ladybug Crafts-Pink + 1 (white)
    The Sketchy Challenge #41
    Sentimental Sundays #142-Lace and Pearls

Thanks for stopping by!!

Good day my crafty friends!
I hope all is well in your part of the world.  We are on day 2 of a gusty snow storm. 

I'm sharing with you today an Easter card.  I decided to try 2 different layouts for this card...mostly because I love the image and wanted to make multiple cards with it :)

Aren't they darling!?  This sweetie is Murray from Saturated Canary.  I bought her probably last Easter and never colored her up!  So I broke out my pencils and got to work. 

The first card I made followed the sketch for challenge #195 at There She Goes this week.  I've found that my paper collection is starting to lack in the pastel eastery colored papers, but I found this multi-colored purple one and figured it would work well enough.  And I paired it with a soft green pattern.

I used my Cameo to cut out a doily and then trimmed off a small part of the bottom so it was flush with the edge of the card.  The butterflies are from a MS border punch I got for Christmas.  I just trimmed around the ones I wanted and stuck them onto my card.  There are small liquid pearl dots down the centers and 2 of them are covered with blue stickles.  The last touch was to add little pearl trails for 2 of the butterflies.

This next card turned out better in my opinion.  I love them both, but I think the layout worked a little better on this card.

For this card, I followed the sketch #22 at Graphicat Sketches.  And found an Easter ribbon that I purchased...yup!  Last year!  Maybe these were like after Easter clearance items or something...not sure why I would buy something and then not use it at all...

I didn't add any stickles to the butterflies this time, but I did add a small pearl trail and pearls to all the corners.

As I said, I love both of the cards and think they both turned out fabulous.  What do you think?  Do you like one of them better than the other...and why?

Thanks for stopping by!

Just stopping by real quick again today to share a little card I made.

I really love how it turned out!  These papers seemed to go so well together, making the card overall very soft and sweet.

The image is a freebie from Birdie Brown.  It's so cute and kept calling to me every time I browsed through my images.  So I decided to finally use it :)

I paper pieced the pin cushion part of the image with coordinating papers and then added stickles to the heart on the cushion.  The image is fussy cut and popped up onto the circle frame.  I took a few of my copics and did a dot shadow behind it.

The sentiment is printed off and flagged.  I added a few liquid pearls to the sentiment and the upper corner, as well as stitching with my white gel pen.

Overall it's a very simple card, but I think that's what I love about it.  Simple and sweet :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Birdie Brown February Challenge
    Sweet Sketch Wednesday #193

Thanks for stopping by!!

Morning everyone.  Hope you had a fabulous weekend.  Not a whole lot happened here.  We found a new grocery store (which was absolutely amazing!), and shopped around at a place called Sail which turned out to be similar to an REI just without all the mountain climbing stuff we were used to seeing in Washington :)  It was nice to discover those 2 stores.

This week at Digi Makeover our challenge is easy for you!  It's Anything Goes!
I decided to try a different style card this week.  It's an accordion fold, which looked difficult at first but turned out to be super easy :)

This is what the front looks like closed. I used the sweet image Sprout from Paper Makeup and colored her in with my pencils.  Chalked up some clouds in the sky and added a few roses to the corner.  Of course, I spritzed them with my shimmer mists so they sparkled :)

When you untie the bow, the accordion opens up to show another image and the sentiment!  The inside image is Rose from Paper Makeup.  I paired the 2 images together because it felt like Sprout was planting the flower and then Rose was enjoying what grew :)

The sentiment is printed off and cut out with a spellbinder.
I don't have the card fully mounted onto a card base yet, but the inside is decorated to say "Happy Birthday."

I hope you will join us this week!  The only requirement is that you use a digi!  And be sure to check out the rest of the Makeup Artists creations, as they are lovely :)

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Charisma Cardz #6-Anything Goes
    Color Me Creative-Girly Time
    Whoopsi Daisy-Make it Girly

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!
I love each and every one of you for stopping by and enjoying my blog :)  Having you here means so darn much to me!  I love reading your comments and feeling your love through them!  Thank you so much for continuing to stop by my small piece of the blog world :)

I wanted to stop in real quick today and share a card I finished up yesterday.

This hottie is Martini Pin-Up (2) from Sassy Studio.  I LOVE this image!  It's sassy and fun, and while a little challenging, awesome to color!  The glass gave me a little trouble...what color is clear glass?? :)

Of course after showing it to the hubby, he came up with all kinds of ideas for Bond cards with this image....and I loved them, like always :)  So maybe one of those will show up here in a little bit.

I colored her all in with my colored pencils and then fretted about the glass.  I ended up adding just a little bit of blue to the sides/swirls and then covered the whole thing with glossy accents.  There is a small line of stickles at the top of the glass for some sparkle.

I really wanted her dress to be all sparkly and sequined looking, but I didn't want to use stickles.  So I ended up spraying her dress with some shimmer mists.  I was able to isolate the dress by cutting it out from a previous print off I did that I totally messed up on :)  Once I got done spraying her dress, a little had sprayed onto the background, which made it look super cool, so I covered my image again and sprayed the whole card!  :)

 

You can see the shimmer of her dress and the sparkle on the outside of the card in this pic.  I love how it looks!

I really love this paper combination.  The green paper has been in my stash for awhile and it's been a hard one to coordinate with.  So when the damask paper came out of my pile, I knew it would be a good match :)

This card was directly made to be entered into the guest design team call at Sassy Studio.  

I'd also like to enter it into the following challenges:

    Mojo Monday #280

    Charisma Cardz #6-Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous Valentine's Day!! <3

I've been doing a lot of crafting lately and it seems not a lot of blogging.  My pile of completed cards keeps growing, patiently waiting for me to share their details and file them away to their respective group.

I seem to do this a lot...work up a card to go along with several challenges, only to put it to the side and not share it with the world.  Need to stop doing that :)

Here are two of those cards that I've worked on recently and set aside.

This first one will be added to a collection of other cards to be sent out to my dear friend in Washington.  She has offered to help sell my cards through her sons girlfriend, who works at a dog salon.  So I've been working on dog/cat cards a lot lately.

This super cute image is Hanging Around Kitty from Meljen's Designs.  I loved this image as soon as I saw it, so of course it found it's way into my shopping cart.  I've colored the image up with my pencils and added glitter to the hearts and swirls.  I used a couple border punches on the 2 frames and a spellbinders die for the sentiment (which is from Create with TLC).

This was another one of those cards created from random scraps in my pile.  So happy to be getting rid of some of that stuff!  I love my papers, but I also know that I need to use what I have before I can justify buying more :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Crafting When We Card #37-For the Boys
    Graphicat Sketches #21
    Stamp n Doodle-Bingo (digi image, ribbon, sentiment)

This next card is another one that I fell in love with right away.

This sweetie is Bugs and Kisses from Tiddly Inks, and is so darn cute!  I purchased her awhile ago and I'm not really sure why it took me so long to put her on a card!  Again, the image is colored with my pencils and detailed with glitter.  I love the black/white/red color combination, and I wasn't really aiming for a Valentine card here...but those colors together at this time of year just lead the mind in that direction.  But I left off any Valentine specific details, so it can still just be a love card any other time of the year :)

I made up a few little stick pins to tuck into the bow and then stamped a few one word sentiments and cut them out with my spellbinders die.  The large scallop frame is cut with my Cameo.  At first it was just the black layer, but after holding it up to the card, the black sort of got lost in the background paper.  So I made a shadow layer in Silhouette Studio (super proud of myself for that!) and cut that out in white to help it stand out.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    A Gem of a Challenge #66-Hearts/Valentines
    DigiStamps4Joy #60-Romance is in the Air
    Divas by Design-Love and Romance
    Sentimental Sunday #141-Love is in the Air
    Sketch Saturday #245
    The Squirrel and the Fox #37-Love
    Tiddly Inks #103-Love is in the Air

Thanks for reading through my lengthy post :)  I'll try to get better at posting my cards more often...maybe say, once I finish them :)

Good morning everyone!
Time to start a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown, and I'm sure it's one of everyone's favorites-Anything Goes!

Our fabulous sponsor this week is the Cutting Cafe and they have provided some adorable images for our design team to use.  I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to make!  I've withheld making Valentine's cards this year, but seeing all the lovey dovey creations everyone else is making made me sort of miss them...so I caved :)

Ok, it's not a "valentine" but it sure looks like one!  I've had this patterned paper in my stack for quite awhile now, and I could never find the right card to use it on.  It's a very busy pattern and I used to like those, but now I'm finding I like the simpler subtle patterns.  But using this paper by itself seemed to work great!

For the heart I punched out a few strips with my MS Doily Lace edge punch and then sort of wavy wrapped them around the heart.  I did this awhile ago and loved it, but forgot about it till I came across the pic of my previous card.  And it makes the heart look so frilly and fancy, even though it's just paper :)

I used some heart lady bugs from the Cute Critters set and paired them with a sentiment from the It's About That Time set.

The ribbons are from my stash.  I've had the sparkly heart ribbon for quite some time now...it was my last little scrap of it and I felt it needed to go on this card :)

I hope you will join us this week!  And be sure to check out the rest of our design teams projects!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Crafty Catz #169-Love is in the Air
    Dilly Bean-Hearts
    Fab N Funky #157-Valentine/Hearts
    Nutcrafters #36-Love and Friendship
    Simon Says-Have a Heart
    Timeless Tuesday #207-Put Your Heart on it
    Totally Gorjuss #170-Love
    V's Sweet Ideas #8-Love
    Word Art Wednesday #66-Anything Goes

Happy Monday to everyone!  I hope you are all warm and safe!

It's a new challenge week at Digi Makeover and we have a photo to inspire you with!

I must admit...I am pretty horrible at photo inspirations...color challenges too...I'm not really sure why.  You would think that photos and colors would create the most inspiration...but for me, I think I end up focusing too much on the photo and not allowing my creativity to run with what I see...

But I really tried for this week!  I love the field of flowers in this pic!  When we bought our house in Washington in 2007, the first thing I started doing was digging up the yard to put in flower beds and a garden!  It became an addiction.  I wanted more and more!  Of course...I wasn't always successful...I think I grew more weeds in some of my flower beds than actual flowers.  But I still loved it!  And it's one of the biggest things I miss now that we live in an apartment. (and the mountains...man do I miss those!)

Here is what I came up with:

While I like the overall card...somehow I don't feel like it goes with the inspiration photo...
I tried to play off the flowers...of course :)  I cut out a few layers with my Cameo and distressed around the edges with my copics.  I think the flower turned out fabulous!

Then I printed out Chelsea Fairy from Paper Makeup and colored her in with my pencils.  I cut her out and layered her onto a little scene.  I cut out a cloud template and used some chalk to create a little sky.  I was trying to get it to mimic the photo...but was afraid to go too dark on the blue.  Then drew in some grass and stamped my sentiment.

I'm hoping that even though the card is a bit off from the inspiration photo, that it still helped spark an idea in your mind and you will come play along with us this week!

And remember to be happy!  It can be a constant struggle when life keeps pushing down, but I keep trying to remind myself of all the joy I have and to focus on how happy that makes me :)

Thanks for stopping by!!

Happy Wednesday!!
Today has been a fabulous (while incredibly busy) day!  I have finally managed to get my new blog design that I have been working on all month completely implemented and set up!  It feels so good!!

It did have a few hiccups...and probably still does.  But nothing major :)
I have to say that without the help of my dear husband, I would not have been able to do this.  He helped me work through so much HTML code, viewing and fixing and going cross-eyed looking at all the funny little symbols.  But now, I just might be better at HTML coding than him :)  (sshhh...don't tell him)

Look around and let me know what you think!!  I always love reading your comments, and appreciate them so much!  I'm hoping with this new makeover to start trying new things here on my blog.  Not just posting cards, but food and favorites and other fun stuff like that.  Of course, today it's still just a card :)

I'm also happy to say that my Etsy shop is finally back open!  Not much is listed right now because my camera was throwing a fit today...but more will be coming, and I'm in love with everything I have to list!  I honestly think it's my best group of cards yet!

Anyhow, onto today's card!!
I've been playing around with images from this fabulous company-Some Odd Girl!  Just love them!  They are so easy to color, whether it's simple coloring or all out shading with depth and such (which I don't know how to do...but have seen lots of other people rock it!).
I only have a few of their images, and am dying to get more!  But decided for now to play with what I have.

I made a criss-cross pocket card using the sweet image Forest Friend Fairy.  And!  I used my markers again!!  The more I practice, the more comfortable they feel.  But of course, I only have pinks and browns...so I'm kind of limited on what they can be used on.  But they were perfect for this card :)

I used these fun papers again because I just love them!  They are so wild and bright.  And they sparkle!  Now who wouldn't love that?

Some Odd Girl has a sketch challenge going on right now, so I decided to try and play along.  Here's the sketch:

Now just imagine it on its side with the sentiment running horizontal and not vertical :)
I used my Silhouette and cut out the bright pink scallop circle behind my image.  Then used my scallop scissors on the light pink circle, which was then embossed with my Swiss Dots folder.

I pulled a few of my handmade roses out of my stash and colored in the centers with some of my copics.  Once everything was put together, I spritzed the roses with some shimmer mist so they also had a sparkle to them :)

 Love the way this card turned out!  The fun and crazy papers get mellowed out just a bit with the soft colors in the image and the elegant lace.  So girly and sweet :)

Thanks for stopping by!  I love having you visit :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Catered Crop-Polka Dots
    Creative Inspirations #200-Sent with Love
    Deep Ocean #44-Love and Lace
    Ruby's Rainbow #47-Roses
    Some Odd Girl-Sketch
    Totally Gorjuss #169-Anything Goes with Lace
    V's Sweet Ideas #8-Love Theme

Happy Monday my crafty friends!
How about that Superbowl!!  We're not big sports fans here in this house.  Soccer is about the only game we pay attention to...but the Superbowl is another story.  Of course, it's not as fun when you're home alone with no friends to hoot and holler with, but we still enjoyed it.

This week at Digi Makeover we are challenging you to use the colors Red, Black, and White only on your creations!  I love this color combination and had a blast putting together my card.
Of course, as you know, I've been attempting to make uniquer more creative cards lately.  I've been playing around with the slider pop-up card design (and really enjoying it) but struggling to get it just right.  But I decided to keep trying with my DT card this week :)

And it turned out perfect!  Of course, there were still issues.  But overall, it turned out exactly as I pictured and I love everything about it!

I used the Shaela Fairy image from Paper Makeup.  She's a new digi in the store and I just love her!
Another new thing for me that I'm showing off with this card is that I actually used markers!  Crazy!!  (I learned that I need a lot more practice...but still :) )
I received a set of Spectrum Noir markers for Christmas and purchased another set myself so I could play around with them and see if I really liked them.  It's going to take some time...I'm not very good at shading, and maybe that's because I don't have all the filler colors...I don't know.  But using what I had, I think it turned out pretty good.

I also have a few random Copics, so I used those on her dress, sparkler, and wings.

I embossed the scallop circle with my D'vine Swirls folder and layered that onto a die cut heart circle.

The edges of the pull tab are punched with my MS Doily Lace edge punch.  I love how that added so much elegance to the whole card.  The edges of the white paper are distressed with some black ink and I added stickles randomly around the patterned paper.  (I also added stickles to her wings and sparkler...but that was after I took the pics :) )

I love it so much I almost don't want to give it away!  Lol :)

I hope you will join us this week at Digi Makeover.  Just remember to use a digi, and be sure to check out the rest of the makeup artists gorgeous creations!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    613 Avenue Create #5-Anything Goes/Love
    Dilly Bean-Love Gives me Wings
    Incy Wincy Designs-Love is in the Air
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes