Yay!!  It's Friday!!  I love Fridays :)
Of course, it might be a little more enjoyable if it weren't so hot and sticky here...guess it's time to lug the air conditioner out.

Well, in between all the breaks I took to wash the sweat off my hands, I managed to make up a sweet little baby card.  I haven't made a baby card in so long, it was a blast to pull out this sweet image and pink it up!

This is Cuddle Cloud Baby from Meljen's Designs.  I just love the sweet little look on this cuties face!  So soft and adorable.  I just want to squeeze up on that cloud with her and cuddle :)

I cut out a scallop circle with my Silhouette and layered my colored image onto that.  The background of the image has been chalked with a couple colors of pink to separate it from the white frame.

Then I printed and cut out 2 of the sweet little clouds from under the baby, chalked those edges and layered them behind the frame.  The sweet tag was hand cut and affixed behind the clouds and I added some ribbon, a simple stamp, and tiny pearls.  A few finishing ribbon and bow details, pearls in the corner, glitter on the swirls and it was all done :)  So so cute!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Divas by Design-Tie a Ribbon
    Fussy and Fancy #90-Bling it On
    Ruby's Rainbow #55-Baby
    Sweet Sketch #208
    There She Goes #209-Circles

You can follow along with me on Facebook and Bloglovin!  Thanks for stopping by :)

Though I've never had them, a small part of me is mildly obsessed with dreadlocks.  The cool looking ones...not the gross messy ones that look like really bad bed head.

I've seen lots of the synthetic styles on Etsy and have been really tempted to buy a set, but money just doesn't allow that right now.  So I've settled on just admiring the well dressed ones here in Montreal, and coloring them up on fun images.

To date, this was the most fun image to color!  I took my time and made sure to really plan every part out so that it wasn't rushed and messy.  There was a girl on the metro last year that had green dreadlocks and they were awesome!  So I went with that inspiration for my girlies hair.

Of course, this fun paper from Pinecone Press Papers was an obvious choice for this card.  The hippie colors and sweet patterns are just so much fun!

I colored Dreads in with my pencils and added little white dots around her for accent.  I realized half way through outlining her that my blue copic marker was empty...it resulted in a very messy outline.  So I tried to work with some chalks and blend the rough line out a little.  It turned out pretty darn cool :)

Then I just layered up a flower with a sparkly paper button in the middle and added the cute sentiment tag from Birdie Brown.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Catered Crop-Yellow
    Crafting with Dragonflies #3-One for the Girls
    Creative Inspirations #216-Anything Goes with Buttons
    Fab n Funky #173-For the Girls
    Saturated Canary #44-Hair That's Different
    The Squirrel and the Fox #44-Here Comes the Girls
    That Craft Place-Dies and Punches

Thanks for stopping by!  Remember to follow me on Facebook and Bloglovin!! <3

Good morning!  We're starting a new challenge today at Digi Makeover and it's an easy one-Anything Goes!  You can make whatever you wish!

Father's day is coming up soon and I haven't started on any cards...these last few weeks my motivation to craft has been pretty slim.  But I browsed through the stamps available at Paper Makeup and found this sweet monster image and just loved it, so I went with that.

Stuck with a black and white theme.  It felt more suited to the image than trying to throw a bunch of color in there.  I tried to add a little bow to my baby monster but getting a bow that small to look good was just too hard...so I left it off.  I used Me and Pops from Paper Makeup and added a few square brads behind the image that I have had for...oh...7 years...lol :)

Stop by and join in the fun this week!

Entering this card into the following challenges:
    Card Mania #21-Spots and Stripes
    Cupcake Crafts #244-Boys
    Digi Darla #64-Father's Day
    Word Art Wednesday #81-Anything Goes

We decided that since camping isn't possible for us right now, we were going to make smores on the porch!  I saw this idea someplace on Pinterest and finally got the chance to try it out.

The little terracotta pot wrapped in tin foil worked perfectly and we enjoyed some nice warm and gooey smores last night after supper :)  Just like camping!

This past week has not been easy.
I am thankful to my wonderful design teams for being patient with my absence and understanding my need to take a little time off.

On Thursday, May 16 at about 8:30 pm my Grandpa Veldink passed away.  I found out Friday morning from my mom and felt my world crash in around me.

Growing up we didn't see much of my grandparents, but it was always my favorite place to go.  Their home was always radiating with love, warm and cozy and smelled of something fabulous baking in the oven.  A grandparents house through and through.  I'd always get excited pulling into their driveway and see Grandpa sitting in his favorite rocking chair in front of the window.  He was always there, never failed.

The joy that greeted us at the door was always so heart warming.  Of course, then the shouting would start because Grandpa was deaf from working in factories growing up and couldn't hear anything...though somehow he always heard what Grandma had to say :)

And then we would sit down to eat.  If there is one thing that will always remind me of Grandpa Veldink, it's the Lord's Prayer.  He started every meal with it.  I can still hear him saying it in my head with his unique gruff voice.  It's hard to describe, but I can't think of the Lord's Prayer without hearing Grandpa's voice.

With him passing, I wanted to make something to remember him by.  While Grandpa will always be in my heart and I will always look back on my childhood memories with him: riding tandem bikes around the campground, falling asleep to the static on the radio because he couldn't hear what was playing, sitting in their living room listening to stories about their childhood or the details that went into building their house; I wanted something that represented them.  Something that pretty much screamed Grandpa and Grandma.

I made this, not with the intention of it being a card, but with the plan to put it into a scrapbook project that I am working on to tell the story of all of our families.

It pretty much is Grandpa and Grandma in a nutshell.  I love the vintage yet rustic feel of it all because that's pretty much how it felt walking into their house.  The green reminds me of all the fields they had around their place.  They were farmers while my mom was growing up and built a house right next to that farm after they sold it.

Of course, the focus is on the Lord's Prayer printed in the middle.  I printed it onto patterned paper so that the tone stayed neutral.  The pattern behind the prayer reminds me of the pattern that they had carved into their living room ceiling.  It was so mesmerizing to look at.  Little rainbow type swirls formed into a spiral on the ceiling.  They would sit and talk about how they watched the young man up on the ladder swipe each and every one of those arches, going round and round until the whole ceiling was covered.  It was amazing!

I wrapped a piece of lace that I pulled from my Grandma's sewing cabinet around the middle and made a large bow with it as well.  Which I then topped with a twine flower (to represent all the hay they had in their barns) and a green paper button.  The pearls were added last.  It just needed something a little more and Grandma always wore pearls.

While my focus was to make something to remember Grandpa with, I think this fits the bill perfect to remember them both as a whole.

Grandpa was 94, in love with the Lord, and in love with caramel frappe's from McDonald's.  I know God welcomed him with open arms and took all the pain and suffering that he was going through away.  I am going to miss him but I know we will see each other again.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Sharing my story here:
    The Corrosive Challenge #174-My Sentiments Exactly
    Deep Ocean #52-Ribbons/Lace
    Fab n Funky #172-Ribbon/Lace
    Fussy and Fancy #89-Pearls and Lace
    Inky Impressions #109-Distress It
    Lets Craft and Create #70-Die Cuts
    Nutcrafters #43-Use Kraft
    Pretty Little Ribbons-Lace
    The Sisterhood of Crafters-Only a Sentiment
    Word Art Wednesday #81-Anything Goes

I first want to say a HUGE thank you to Matthew for all his help with this project.  Without him, I may not have been able to complete some of the necessary parts :)  So thank you babe!  I love you <3

Just a forewarning, this post is going to be very photo heavy.  I am absolutely in love with the end result of this repurposed project and want to share as much of it as I can.  And everyone loves looking at pictures more than reading about all the details right?  Thought you'd be okay with that :)

A few details about this project before I get to the pics.  This past Christmas while we were visiting family in MI, my mom gave me my Grandma Veldink's old recipe box.  It was full of all her fabulous recipes, but slightly dirty and falling apart.  So I decided to fix it up a bit.

Here are the results:

 

 The image is Free Hugs colored in with pencils.  I used copics on the frame to shade it out to the right colors and then added a few roses and a stick pin from Karen Christiansen

 The inside still has all of my grandma's recipes.  I also decorated a small notebook to use as our budget tracker.  I'm hoping that by putting Fairy Wishes on the front, she will wave her sweet wand and make some money appear :)

 Fairy Wishes is colored with copics for her dress and pencils for everything else, along with glitter on her wings/wand/hem.

 

I made up 2 5x5 1/2 inch white boxes to put inside to hold everything.  I didn't taper them down to match the curve of the box, but they still work perfectly inside.

 

 I love love LOVE this and am so happy with how it turned out, even if it did take me several days to complete :)  I also added a strip of some lace that I got from Grandma's sewing closet to the top running through the middle of the border.  It's an added touch of Grandma that I love.

Just for comparison...this is how it started:

I'd like to enter this in to the following challenges and link parties:
    7 Kids College Fund #72-Anything but a Card
    Card Mania #20-Flower Power
    Color Me Creative #68-Anything Goes
    Delicious Doodles #35-Anything but a Card
    House of Gilli-Anything Goes + Lace and Pearls
    Little Darlings Contest
    Whimsical Designs-Alter It 

    Assets and Efforts #2
    Get Your Craft On #102 
    Sweet Tooth Tuesdays
    Your Whims Wednesday #111

Thanks for stopping by!
Be sure to follow me on Bloglovin and Facebook!!

Happy Monday!  I hope your weekend was fabulous!  We were able to hang out with some friends on Saturday and play some games together.  It was quite a blast!

Today we are starting a new challenge at Digi Makeover and it's the Great Outdoors!  When I started making my card the weather was gorgeous.  Bright and sunny with a slight breeze.  Made me totally think of having a picnic!  Now though...it's freezing with talks of snow...not so much picnic weather anymore...but I still love my card :)

My plan was to make up the front of my card to look like a picnic basket and then add a sweet little image to the middle of it.  But the basket turned out so stinkin cute that I didn't want to cover it up!

So instead I added my image to the inside.

For the front, I took a bunch of 1/2 inch strips and wove them together to form the basket.  All of the edges are inked with some brown ink to give them dimension.  I punched a border into the red gingham paper and added that to make the top of the basket.  Then placed a few brads at the base of the handles.

When you open the card, the image sort of pops up at you on the left side.  I used the sweet image Picnic Duo and colored them in with my pencils.

Then printed off a sentiment from the Freckled Lemonade set and framed it in a scallop circle.

I hope you will join us this week for our Great Outdoors challenge!
Thanks for stopping by!

Stopping in real quick before the weekend activities start :)

I bought a few Sugar Nellie stamps awhile ago and have loved using them, so decided to grab one again and whip up a card with it.

I just love this sweet image.  The cute little bunny and her full fluttery wings...just gorgeous :)
I matched up some bright pink paper with a more subtle black and white pattern.  Then cut out a heart border with my Silhouette.  It's originally from Bird's Cards, but I edited it slightly to include the middle brackets so I could weave ribbon through all the hearts.

The large flower is cut out and rolled up.  Then I made up some two-toned roses and a daisy to decorate around the frame.

I added some stickles to her wings and some small pink paint dots to the upper corner and the flourish.  It's just so cute!  I don't add flowers to my cards very often, but it's so much fun when I do!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    A Gem of a Challenge #79-Things with Wings
    Deep Ocean #51-Let's Sparkle
    Ruby's Rainbow #53-Furry Friends
    Sassy Studio #176-April Showers Bring May Flowers
    Simon Says Challenge-Things With Wings
    The Sisterhood of Crafters-April Showers Bring May Flowers
    The Sugar Bowl #103-Anything Goes
    Sweet Sketch #205

Have a great weekend!!

Woohooo!! It's Friday!  You know I love Fridays :)

And I'm so proud of myself, I've posted a new card every day this week!  That hasn't happened in months!  And not just anything...but cards that I'm actually proud of and want to show off to you!  That makes me even happier :)

Continuing with that today, I have another fab card that I just love!

I have had a few 6x6 Kaisercraft paper packs sitting on my desk for quite awhile now.  They aren't really patterns that I am fond of (got them at a yard sale), but there are a few pages in them that I like...so I keep them around.  I pulled them out for this card and tried to use up some of the likeable pieces, and I love how they matched up together so well!

I wasn't too fond of using 2 striped patterns on the same card, but I think it turned out alright.  The dark brown borders around everything help to separate all the pieces.

I used another new image from Alicia's Little Shop called Alicia Loves Reading.  Lately I have been diving into the Game of Thrones series.  It took me quite awhile to really pick them up and start reading because I love the shows, and there is just so much information (ie. names, places, events) to keep track of that I was afraid I would get overwhelmed.  Fortunately I have a husband who's brain is like a sponge...seriously he remembers just about everything.  So if I get confused or stuck, he's normally able to remind me or walk me through my confusion.  It's been a good read so far and I'm excited to move on to the rest of the books.

Anyhow, back to my card :)
I cut out a scallop circle to frame her in and ran a brown ribbon and bow behind everything.  The last few details were the pearls around the image and running down my little accent flag.  The sentiment is from Create with TLC.  I thought it went well with the image since normally reading is a relaxing activity for people :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Alicia's Challenge #5-Anything Goes
    Crafts 4 Eternity #123-Tic Tac Toe (ribbon, use up scraps, bling)
    Delightful Challenges-Stash It
    Mojo Monday #292

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a fabulous weekend, and be sure to follow me on Bloglovin and Facebook!

Ever hear of a stamp company that people really like and think "that's cool, I'll check it out later."  Then forget for a long time...and then see something else about them and decide to check them out and oh-my-gosh-buy-everything!

That was my experience with Doodle Pantry.  I have a few of their images, and they are cute, and I like to use them.  But I never took the time to look around at what they had to offer other than freebies.  Until I saw they were having a small sale and decided to just take a few minutes to browse around at their images.  Sort of a big mistake to browse because I wanted to purchase every image they have! (I kept myself to 6)...You must go check them out and see all their cuteness!

So, to go along with my new found obsession love, I made a card with one of my images.  I wanted it to be a wedding or anniversary card and felt that the Love Birdies image worked well for that.

I stuck to sort of a black and white color scheme, only adding color with my image.  It turned out so cute that way!  I really love it! 

I added a small personal touch to it with the sentiment.  "Long as I Live" is a song by John Michael Montgomery that we had played during our unity candle lighting at our own wedding and I thought it was a good sentiment that worked with the wedding/anniversary theme I was going for.

There are small silver liquid pearls in the corners, and I added tiny white paint dots all around the image for added elegance.  I also added glitter to the flowers on the side of their sweet little heart house.

I followed the sketch at Creative Inspirations this week, but moved a few of the panels around.  I really wanted to use this fancy die cut frame from Spellbinders, but I didn't want to use the giant one.  So I used the second largest and just shifted the two back panels to the outsides of the card.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Color Me Creative #67-Celebrations
    Crafty Catz #181-Inspired by a Song
    Creative Inspirations #213-Sketch
    Deep Ocean #51-Let's Sparkle
    Doodle Pantry #34-Use a Doodle Pantry Image
    Timeless Tuesday #219-Black Accents
    The Paper Shelter #111-Love is in the Air
    Simon Says-Things with Wings

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks for swinging by today loves!
I hope your week is sailing by!  Today has been a bit slow for me, but I've managed to finish up a few cards, so that always feels good :)

I purchased a few new images this week from Alicia's Little Shop and couldn't wait to get working with them!

This sweetie is Honey and she was so fun to color!  I loved all the folds in her dress!  And the fact that she's holding cupcakes..yumm!  I chose the sketch from Sweet Sketch this week, but couldn't decide which way I wanted to use it.  My plan was to have something different at the top, but when my Silhouette kept freezing up my compute, I had to go with something else.

So I chose this Cherish Border die from Memory Box, but wasn't sure if I liked it right side up (so it would have been on the bottom) or upside down.  I finally decided it looked fine upside down and put my card together. 

It seems I struggled more with this card than normal.  After coloring up my image, I made all the marks and cuts to do an "outside of the box" type die cut with it, only to make the wrong cuts around her head and messed everything up.  So I ended up just cutting her completely out and then adding a white layer behind her so I could do some dot shadowing.  Turned out alright so I'm not too upset :)

I love the pink and brown color combination here.  The dark mixed with the light is so eye catching!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Alicia's Challenge #5-Anything Goes
    The Paper Shelter #111-Love is in the Air
    Songbird #19-Totally Scrumptious
    The Sweet Stop Sketch #209
    Totally Gorjuss #182-Anything Goes with Swirls

Good morning loves!
It's going to be another hot day here in Montreal...I'm so not ready for these 80+ temps!  I love cooler weather and I look forward to that in the spring.  Temps this high shouldn't show up until July!  I've been tempted to pull out the air conditioner!  But we don't have the right parts to set it up with the slider doors yet...so I've settled for fans :)

Today we are starting a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown!  And since this coming Sunday is a special day, our challenge is to make a card for a special lady in your life.  That could be your mom, grandma, a close friend, or a sibling.

Our sponsor this week is Robyn's Fetish and they have graciously offered us a few images to work with.

I have used the very sweet Flowers for Mom image.  Pulled out some fun spring papers that I recently purchased and tried to match my pencils as closely as I could.

The background panel behind my image is embossed with my Swiss Dots folder.  I scallop cut a small piece of matching paper (it's the back side of the background paper...love when they are double sided!) and then wrapped some marigold twine from The Twinery around the seam where the two papers meet.

I printed off the sentiment and then used a labels die to give it a fancy cut.

Pretty simple card!  But I love the bright colors and how they all work together!
I hope you will join us this week!  You can link up to 3 projects, so get craftin!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Chocolate, Coffee, Cards #38-Mother's Day
    The Corrosive Challenge #173-Mother's Day
    Craft Your Passion #161-Floral Delights
    DigiStamps4Joy #55-Women are Special
    Melonheadz Friends-Mother's Day
    Retro Sketches #62
    The Squirrel and the Fox #43-Mother's Day
    V's Sweet Ideas #11-Mother's Day
    Whoopsi Daisy-Mother's Day
    Without Words-Brings Forth May Flowers

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to follow me on Bloglovin and Facebook!

Happy Monday!
Why do weekends go by so quickly?  I think Monday should be included in the weekend...for real :)

So Friday I shared with you my wedding card that featured my favorite color combo, so today I am sharing with you a card using my favorite color, which just so happens to be our challenge this week at Digi Makeover!  Convenient right? :)

(please forgive the odd quality of my pics lately...we have so much wonderful sunlight in our new apartment that I really want to use it for my card pics, but I'm not a pro at it yet and still practicing :) )

If you can't tell, my all time favorite color is BLUE!  It's also my hubby's favorite color, and funny story, on our first date he showed up with a blue Cavalier (my forever favorite car) and I knew I was going to marry him :)

I've had these funky papers in my stash forever and haven't really been able to find a good way to use them.  But my plan for this card seemed to work out perfectly to have an odd background and not something simply patterned.  The image I colored up is Hugging Fairies from Paper Makeup (LOVE!).  I was so excited to use this image, and you can now get it as a digi!!  Woot Woot!
I did my best to match the colors of the paper and then added glitter to their wings.  They just look so happy to be friends, I just love that.

Then came the fun part of the card.  I wanted to do something different than just a normal flat fronted card.  My fabulous mother-in-law gave me 2 whole binders of card pattern ideas a few years ago, so I dug those out and started searching.  Finally found one that I liked and got to work making it happen.

Ok, not all that exciting of a motion card, but it's still pretty cute!  And the fun thing with the star is that it's the same ribbon buckle I used on my wedding card.  I only cut out the outer edges instead of the entire thing to make a sun shape! 

The last little details are some marigold twine from The Twinery and some light blue liquid pearls along the bottom and in the top corners.

Be sure to use a digi and join in the fun with us this week! 

I'd love to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Let's Craft and Create #69-One for the Girls
    Shelly's Images-Kid Theme
    Simon Says-Happy Mail
    Sweet Sketch #204

Thanks for stopping by!

TGIF!!
I finally decided to stop being lazy from our move and get my craft stuff set up!  It's not completely done, but functional enough for me to get my craft on :)

One of my all time favorite color combinations is olive green and plum purple.  A classmate from high school had those as her wedding colors and I immediately fell in love with them!  But they aren't common colors for me to use together on a card.  Well, I decided to give it a shot today!

I had a lot of plum card stock left over from some wedding invitations I did a few years ago so I grabbed some of that and then sifted through my green paper.  Olive green...not a whole lot of that in my stash!  But I found some that I thought would work for this card.

I bought this paper for a Halloween scrapbook page a few years ago...quite a different topic from a wedding card!  But it's so pretty that I thought it would be gorgeous for this card!  And paired with the purple...wow!

I know it's a simple card.  But the paper is pretty busy and I wanted to keep it pretty minimal anyhow.  So, I cut out a ribbon buckle from Memory Box and then topped it with another metal buckle.  The layering looks so cool, I just love it.

The sentiment is printed off and cut out with a spellbinders.  I used some green chalk around the edges so the white wasn't so harsh on top of the green.  For the life of me, I can't remember where I got this sentiment...and I literally just downloaded it...sorry :(

The last little bit I added was silver liquid pearls in all the corners to help pull the silver from the bracket out to the rest of the card.

Love, love, love!  I'm so happy with this card, and I hope that it helps to really kick start my crafting again.  I've felt like the quality of my work has really gone down hill over the last month or so and it's time to change that.  Need to re-focus and put my best effort forward :)

I hope you have a fabulous weekend!!  Thanks for visiting :)

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Digi Darla's #60-Celebrate
    Eclectic Ellapu-Anything Goes
    Tuesday Morning Sketches #196
    Word Art Wednesday #78-Anything Goes

Oh boy am I late this week!  Moving is some tough stuff and can really mess up a persons schedule :)
But we are all settled in, though my craft room still needs some work before I can get crafting again.

I'm so sorry that it took me a few days to get this posted, but I'm here now!  This weeks Digi Makeover challenge is Celebrations!  I never have enough celebration cards on hand to send out...and it seems I am always in need of one...so it was nice to get a birthday card made up, even though I'm not completely fond of it.

Sorry for the poor photo quality as well.. After I finished this card I realized all my normal photo stuff was packed...so I had to try and find good lighting, which was rare in our old apartment.

I used Bobo the Clown Fairy from Paper Makeup Stamps and colored him in with my pencils.  I added lots of bright papers to this card and I'm not really sure it worked out.  They all match each other, but in a way, there's just too many colors.  Oh well :)  Still cute, in a way.

I hope you will join us this week!  Just use a digi.  And be sure to check out the rest of the makeup artists if you haven't already :)
<3 Emily