Anyone For Anya & Sweet Stop Challenges

For the Anyone For Anya sketch challenge (#5) this week, I used Vivi digi image and made her into a birthday elf:

Colors are Brilliant Blue, Bashful Blue, Garden Green, and Pumpkin Pie.

And for the Sweet Stop's sketch challenge, I made this card for one of my favorite cousins, who is turning 21 in January:

Colors above are Pretty in Pink, Cameo Coral, and Rose Red.

Come back tomorrow for TGF's Sketches for Days 9 and 10. Peace.

Lord Have Mercy - Mercy's Sketch Challenge

You'd think I'd be so done with Christmas cards by now, huh? hee hee I just love this little Vivi stamp from The Greeting Farm! This card is for Mercy's Tuesday Sketch challenge at Lord Have Mercy:

I used Stampin' Up! designer series background papers, miscellaneous ribbon, and colors are Stampin' Up! markers Old Olive, Garden Green, Real Red, along with PrismaColor colored pencils.
Peace.

Digital Tuesday & TGF Day 8 Sketch

I am not able to upload pics on my home computer, I have to use my laptop all of a sudden.... any ideas why or advice from any of you bloggers? I've never had a problem until yesterday - tried re-booting my computer, nothing. Help!

So anyway - here is my entry for the Digital Tuesday Winter Dazzling Diamonds challenge, the challenge was to use a lot of Dazzling Diamonds glitter as snow - I used CC Designs digi image Birgitte Santa, and the snowflake is a "sticky cut" from Stampin' Up!'s Sticky Cuts Sweet, covered in Dazzling Diamonds:

And here is Day 8's sketch from The Greeting Farm's 12 Days of Sketches, I used Savannah from the Wild Sprouts line:

I will hopefully be back later with Days 9 and 10 for the challenge. Peace.

On the 7th Day of Christmas...

I finally had a chance yesterday to catch up with the sketches for the "12 Days of Sketches" challenge at The Greeting Farm. Not only that, but I am LOVING my new Prisma Color colored pencils. I love the different hair shades I can come up with now, and the colors just blend so nicely with the Gamsol. I am in card-making heaven and may not leave my craft room for a while. hee hee Anyway - here are the cards/sketches, click on the "day xx" for a link back to the sketch, if you'd like to see it.

Day 3, using Yoga Anya:

Day 4, using the Miss Anya Love set:

Day 5 - another from the Miss Anya Love set:

Day 6 - Sassy Suzi (this card is for 2 challenges - the Day 6 for the 12 Days of Sketches and also for Farm Fresh Friday's Day 6 Sketch challenge):

And Day 7 - last of the Miss Anya Love set:

And of course Day 8 was posted today, so I'm off to my craft room to create some more. I am lucky enough to be able to stay home all day today and do whatever I want - AND my friend Linda is coming over tomorrow to make cards with me. Luckily, Linda doesn't care if my floors are swept - right, Linda? ;) I hope not, cuz I am having too much fun with my new pencils and things to waste any of my free vacation time cleaning floors! hee hee

Back later! Peace.

Crazy 4 Challenges - Sketch Challenge

First off - this is for the Crazy 4 Challenges sketch challenge C4C17 this week.

I was sooooo excited to finally get a nice set of Prisma Color colored pencils for Christmas. I had never used them before, but love the way other people's coloring looks when they do. My sis and I picked them out the day after Thanksgiving, so we got a really good deal on them for my mom (we do her shopping - hee hee).... so I got a set of 72 pencils. I went and bought some Gamsol (odorless mineral spirits) and blending stumps at the suggestion of some friends and sat down and just gave it a whirl, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the results:

The lettering is actually all glittery in real life, but looks dull in this pic, sorry about that. I used Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip cardstock, along with assorted background papers.

Come back tomorrow for my versions of sketches 3-7 for the Greeting Farm's "12 days of sketches." :)
Peace.

Just Magnolia - Sketch challenge

I have been so busy with holiday stuff, my poor blog has been neglected! LOL Here is my entry for the Just Magnolia sketch challenge:

I used Whisper White cardstock, along with Tempting Turquoise and Designer Series background papers.

Christmas was a whirlwind - as usual. I must have gained at least 10 pounds - but it was soooo worth it. hee hee I am so thankful to have this entire upcoming week off from work. I plan to spend a lot of time in my craft room! I also have some Christmas pics that I'll share soon. Peace.

Anyone for Anya - Last Christmas...

The challenge at Anyone for Anya this week is Last Christmas (card of the year). I went with Mrs. Claus from the merry xmas set - I love this image:

I used Su! Very Vanilla, Real Red, and Garden Green for colors. Dazzling Diamonds glitter on her "fur trim" - tags by SU! All stamps by the Greeting Farm.
It was one below zero this morning and my hubby is an iron worker and has to go work outside all day. Poor guy. Peace.

Tuesday Morning Sketches and Pink Elephant challenges

I decided to use the same image for 2 challenges - I know a lot of folks try to make one card or project and submit it to as many challenges as they can. To me, though, part of the charm of participating in challenges is seeing how many different things I can come up with. So I used the same image, but made different cards.

This one is for the Tuesday Morning sketches challenge, which was a recipe challenge. The recipe was "one tag, one hidden message, and lots of glitter."
I used "Lush" from Whimsie Doodles - she's covered in Dazzling Diamonds glitter, the olives are colored with olive glitter and the martini has light blue glitter in the bottom of the glass:

Here is the "hidden message/tag" - I used brads to attach the image to the front of the card and embellished behind it with the tag/hidden message:

This is just another view:
Lastly - this is the plain old inside of the card:
The colors I used above are Stampin' Up! Regal Rose and Old Olive (also Whisper White).

This card below is for the Pink Elephant challenge, which was to make a winter or Christmas card. I went with the New Year's theme here, again using Lush from Whimsie Doodles, but changed up the colors a bit:

The colors on this one are Very Vanilla, Real Red, and Old Olive. I used Dazzling Diamonds glitter for Lushie (hee hee), olive glitter for the olives, and red glitter for the remainder of Lushie's martini.... LOL

Come back tomorrow for my entry for the Anyone for Anya challenge. :) Have a good Monday - it's a 3-day work week for me, and then I have ELEVEN blessed days off! WOO HOO!!!!!
Peace.

TGF 12 Days of Sketches - Days 1 and 2

The Greeting Farm is doing a "12 Days of Sketches" challenge - Days 1 and 2 have already been published. Here are my entries - Day 1 uses Lolli Anya, which I had been DYING to play with, isn't she so stinkin' adorable?!?

Colors are SU! Rose Red, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, and Bashful Blue. Designer Series background papers, and WW cardstock. Dazzling Diamonds glitter on her hair ribbons. Ribbon and heart-shaped button are from my stash.

Day 2 - I used Me Time Anya, another stamp I had been anxious to play with - this is my first creation with her:

Close-up so you can see the sparkly bubbles and the glazed bathtub better. I used Crystal Effects for the tub, and sprinkled just a tiny bit of Dazzling Diamonds glitter on it to give it some texture and "pop":
Colors are SU! WW, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, and So Saffron. Ribbon is SU! Certainly Celery grosgrain.
Peace.

Crazy 4 Challenges - Treat Package

Crazy 4 Challenges posted a fun challenge this weekend - to make a treat package. I love such open-ended challenges! Bonus points for chocolate - but to me, what's a treat package that DOESN'T involve chocolate? hee hee

Here's what I came up with:

I used Whimsie Doodles digi image Save Earth - colors are SU! Real Red and Whisper White, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Garden Green, Brocade Blue - Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Bag is filled with Lindt Lindor smooth milk chocolates - yum!!! Peace.

Fairy Challenge

The Greeting Farm sends out a newsletter and last month they issued a challenge to just submit a card using one of the fairy images. I guess only ONE person submitted one, so they left the contest open longer - which prompted me to purchase the Summer Fairy digi image and create this card below:

Colors are SU! WW, Lovely Lilac, Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, and Rose Red (center of flower). "Dream" brad in my stash.
Peace.

Sugar Bowl - Favorite Color

The Sugar Bowl's sketch challenge had a "please include" option of adding your favorite color. I chose Certainly Celery, as it's just about my favorite of the Stampin' Up! colors. This is Frog Prince by Sugar Nellies, colored in Bashful Blue and Real Red.

We are supposed to get up to a foot of snow tomorrow. I'm thinkin' we're definitely going to have a white Christmas! LOL Sounds like a perfect day to stay in and make cards to me!!! Peace.

Kitty in Present

I have the day off from work today - so happy. :) It's been very stressful at work lately, and I originally took the day off to finish my Christmas shopping. But I am just about done already! So this morning, a friend called me to give her a ride and we went out to breakfast. Now I am just going to clean the house a bit, run to the post office and a couple of stores, and then come home and make some cards and stuff. I have a surprise coming up that I'm realllllly excited about. But I can't tell you now, so you'll just have to keep coming back. ;)

So anway - here is Kitty in Present digi image by Pink Cat Studio. This is the front of the card:

Colors are SU! WW, Basic Gray, Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery (the flower and confetti are Apricot Appeal and Cameo Coral).

This is the inside of the card:

Close-up of inside:
Have a happy Friday - one week left until Christmas!!! Peace.

Load of Old Blogocks and Dragonfly Cards

BLOG CANDY ALERT - please see A Load of Old Blogocks for a chance to win some cool blog candy, which happens to include a set by TGF, one of my FAVORITE stamp companies!

Even though I'm a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I find that I don't use my actual Stampin' Up! stamps all that much. I love our cardstock and inks and glitters and stuff, but I am absolutely addicted to so many other stamp companies, as anyone who visits my blog is aware. So anyway, I decided to bust out a few SU! sets and make some cards. This is from a retired set called "All I Have Seen" - the colors are Bordering Blue, So Saffron, and Whisper White:

This card just uses WW and Bordering Blue - I used a white gel pen to make the dotted line.

I'm so looking forward to Christmas and the vacation I get from work. It's been quite stressful lately and I am really excited about having 11 days off. :) I always get emotional around this time of year, for lots of reasons. Today, my 16-year-old son Trevor told me he wanted to give up putting minutes on his cell phone to get Jeremy (his dad/my hubby) Christmas gifts. He is just so sweet, he made my day.

Hope you are all having a good week. Peace.

Club Anya Wanna Get Festive Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Club Anya blog hop! I hope you enjoy all the beautiful cards and projects you will see along the way. I am completely addicted to the Greeting Farm's line of stamps and images, and I get so much inspiration from seeing what my fellow stampers come up with. Here are some things I made to share with you tonight:

Above - Anya from "Dress Me". I used Stampin' Up! WW, Sahara Sand, Ruby Red, and Tempting Turquoise cardstock, along with designer series background papers in the same colors (same for the next project below). Prismacolor marker for skin tone. Dazzling Diamonds glitter on eyelids, silver glitter on headband.

Below - I altered Skater Ian with Santa Ian from Xmas Sweeties to make Skater Santa - this one is an ornament:

I used a white gel pen for the dots.

Now to change it up a bit - here's My Guy Ian Autumn digi image with Santa's hat - colors are Brocade Blue, Old Olive, More Mustard, WW, Real Red, Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie:
Thanks for stopping by. Go back here to enjoy the rest of the hop!
Peace.

Club Anya - The Complete Package

Club Anya's challenge this week was "The Complete Package". The challenge was to make a gift or packaging for a gift. I decided to make a gift-card holder for a friend, there's a Starbucks gift card inside it.
So this is Anya from the "Dress Me" set, and Santa's hat from the Xmas Sweeties set. "naughty" and "nice" also from the Xmas Sweeties set. The "to and from" tag is from a Stampin' Up! set. This is the top of the box:

And here's a side view:

Colors are SU! WW, Ruby Red, Tempting Turqoise - Designer Series paper also has Sahara Sand in it. I used a silver ribbon from my stash to wrap around the top of the box. Her eyeshadow is Certainly Celery and glitter is Dazzling Diamonds.

Be sure to come back tomorrow to check out Club Anya's Blog Hop! See you then. Peace.

Whimsie Doodles Cookie-Challenge

I'm off to do some early-shopping this morning before all the crazy crowds start to show up. I also have to go to the post office, which should be a zoo. LOL I just wanted to share some more Whimsie Doodles cards I made for winter/Christmas. These first 2 were for the "Cookie Contest" which was simply to use a cookie/round shape in your card. This first one uses Snow Friend by Whimsie Doodles and the colors are SU! More Mustard, Bravo Burgundy, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, and Kraft:

This card uses "Peas on Earth" image, and the colors are SU! Very Vanilla, Real Red, and Old Olive:

And then I just made a couple more, this one also uses Snow Friend and the colors are Bravo Burgundy, Sage Shadow, So Saffron, and Very Vanilla:

And last but not least, one of my favorite images - Tweet Holiday - with the colors Very Vanilla and Real Red for cardstock - other colors for coloring are Certainly Celery, Old Olive, So Saffront, Close to Cocoa, Pale Plum, and More Mustard:
That's all for now - off I go to shop 'til I drop. I'll be back tomorrow with some more creations. Have a great weekend!! Peace.

Whimsie Doodles Winter cards

I just adore the Whimsie Doodles digital images - these are all from the Winter/Christmas collection.

This is Tweet Holiday, using SU! Cameo Coral and Real Red cardstock:

And this is Snow Angel:

I actually made a couple of cards for the Whimsie Doodles challenge, but haven't uploaded them from my camera yet. Will be back later today or early tomorrow to share them. Have a happy Friday! Peace.

And MORE Christmas cards...

So I realized during my self-declared Snow Day yesterday that I still need to make about THIRTY more Christmas cards. I had forgotten about the people I work with! So I was in a card-making frenzy yesterday and I had a blast, here are just a few of the Christmas cards that I made:

Above card uses digi image Christmas Pig & Chick from Pink Cat Studio and the colors are SU! WW, Tempting Turquoise and Pretty in Pink.

The next two cards were made using a freebie digi image from Pixie Dust Studio:

Above card uses Kraft cardstock along with WW, Basic Black, and Bravo Burgundy.

Below card uses WW, BB, and Real Red.

I created some cards for the latest Whimsie Doodles challenge, as well - will post those tomorrow. Peace.

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

OK this is just too funny - I was ALL excited about posting this card, I just LOVE how it came out! For the Digital Tuesday challenge this week, the challenge was to make a card using your favorite Christmas song as your inspiration. I decided to make a card based on "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" - and I think it came out so stinkin' cute! But even funnier - JUST as I sat down to post this, that song came on the radio! I kid you not! So anyway - here it is - whaddayathink?

I used digi image Santa from the CC Designs North Pole digi set. Little girl is Princess Ava from the Greeting Farm. I had to cut her head off and re-position it, so she'd be tilting her head UP to kiss Santa. I also had to get rid of the froggy that she's usually holding and kissing. The mistletoe is from Stampin' Up! and is cut out and adhered with a dimensional pop-up. Paper, cardstock and inks are Stampin' Up! in Very Vanilla, Real Red, Basic Black, and Old Olive.
Peace!

Snow Day!

So today was the first snow day of the season! My work/college didn't close, but the roads are awful and we had about 6 inches by 7 a.m. and it was still coming down hard, so I declared my own snow day. All of my staff called in, too. Personally, I think it's irresponsible of a college to NOT close when the weather is so bad. I'm just thankful to have a boss who understands and doesn't force us to come in!

So anyway - in honor of this snowy day, here are some Winter-y cards!

This one is my favorite (the brads are light blue gemstone brads, much prettier and more sparkly IRL):

More later. Stay warm and dry! Peace.