D2D Summer Hibiscus

Do you subscribe to Scrapbook News & Review, an online magazine?  We publish 2 times per month and it's always full of great ideas, tutorials, and tons of eye candy.  Check it out here.  For a real chance to get published, you can submit artwork by clicking on the "calls" tab!

For today, I have a card for the  

Delightful Inspiration Challenge - Tropical Summer

I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits.  Cardstock & DP from Stampin' Up!  Ribbon is from my stash.  Peace.

Anyone for Anya

I love when I get a picture in my head of a card I want to create and it comes out even better than what I pictured... that's what happened with my card for the:

Anyone for Anya Challenge - Sketch

Isn't she freaking adorable?  LOL  I love her rosy cheeks.  I used the very cheeky "Cheeky Beach" stamp from The Greeting Farm, stamped on SU! Natural Ivory cardstock in Sepia ink, heat embossed, and colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits.  All that yummy DP is from 7Gypsies, 2 different pads.  I love the vintagey look of this card - I so often do bright colors and stamp on white, that I forget how nice these ivory and brown tones can look.

I am taking off to Maine for the weekend with Jeremy on Friday, really looking forward to a relaxing weekend away.  I am bringing my Stephen King book, a few magazines, a change of clothes and my beach attire and THAT.  IS.  ALL.  No laptop.  OK - I'm bringing my cell phone.  A girl can only go without so much.... ;)

Peace.

Michelle Perkett & Sugar Bowl Challenges

I can't believe how quickly Tuesdays roll around each week!  hee hee  This week, our theme at the Michelle Perkett Studio challenge blog is "All in the Ocean" - this is an easy challenge since Michelle has so many GORGEOUS mermaids you can use!  Here's what I came up with:

I used the beautiful Elisa image, colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits and SU! markers.  Cardstock, DP & brads are from SU! 

And the challenge at the Sugar Bowl is a sketch, which I flipped onto its side and came up with this:

I love this Gorjuss Girl stamp, I paper-pieced her dress and colored the rest with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits and Prismacolor markers.  Flower & button are from my stash, brads are from SU!  DP is from My Mind's Eye.

Peace.

By Lori Designs - My Favorite Puddle Jumper

Keep reading below for graduation party pics!  :)

Today's card is for the:

We also had to use our favorite Puddle Jumper image - mine is Ella Umbrella:

I colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits and Prismacolor markers.  Cardstock is from SU!  DP is from My Mind's Eye.  Gemstone stickers are from my stash.

Here are a few pics from Trev's graduation party -

The "graduation cookie" because Trev doesn't like cake:

Trev with the collage that Cass and I made for him, with pics from when he was an infant up to graduation:

Me and sweet lil' Elianna:

My nephews Chris & Eric:

My nephew Josh:

Cass on the right, her best friend Jamie on the left:

 Trevor had a great day, and the weather held out for us despite the prediction for thunderstorms.  :)  I'm thankful to everyone who came and celebrated the day with us.
Peace.

Tiddly Inks Sugar and Spice

So the challenge this week at Tiddly Inks is Sugar and Spice with a Twist... our mission was to include a humorous or sarcastic sentiment on our creation.  Here's what I came up with:

I think this is the first time I've used one of Christy's stamps from Stamping Bella instead of the TI digital images for the challenge!  I used "Addy 'tude LOVES her 'tinis" and colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits and SU! markers.  I added some glitter to the drinks and her earrings.  DP is from Die Cuts With a View - buttons are from my stash.  I love this sentiment, which came with the stamp set... and I thought it was appropriate for this challenge.  Hope you're having a fabulous weekend, my friends.  Peace.

ATS - Pinwheels!

Today's the big day - Trevor's party!  I'm sure I'll have lots of pics to post tomorrow or Monday, so stay tuned!

For today, I made this card for the:

All That Scraps Wednesday Challenge - Pinwheels!

I used the sweet Honey stamp and colored her with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits.  Cardstock & DP are from SU!  Buttons are from my stash.  Peace.

Bellarific Friday

Soooo busy - quickly posting for the Bellarific Friday challenge, which was a sketch this week.  Here is my card:

I used  Arthur from the Arthur & Annie set, colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits.  Cardstock & DP is from Stampin' Up!  

Next up is a card I made with one of the adorable images from Just Some Lines called "Jenny Dress Up":

I colored her with SU! markers - all cardstock, DP, ribbon & brads by SU!


Off to go shopping for stuff for Trev's graduation party tomorrow.  Have a great day!  Peace.

HDH Menacing Mermaids & D2D

I love how the Haunted Design House blog comes up with unique challenges every week.  It's always a lot of fun playing along, and this week was no exception. The theme is:

Menacing Mermaids

Here's what I came up with:

I used Syren from The Greeting Farm - colored her hair blazing red and her eyes a glowy-red, I was really going for a creepy, devilish look - how'd I do?  ;)  She's colored with Prismacolor markers and Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits.  I used 2 different colored glitters on her tail.  DP is from 7Gypsies - dontcha just LOVE that map paper?  And the musical notes with the word BEAUTIFUL - I can just hear Syren singing a creepy, lonesome mermaid song....  *sigh*  Eyelets & brads are from SU!

Next up is my card for this week's

Delightful Inspiration Stamp of the Month Challenge

I colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits.  DP is from My Mind's Eye, buttons from foof-a-la, ribbon is from my stash.  Peace.

Pink Elephant Circus and ABC Challenge - W is for Wedding

This week is just FLYING by!  I am looking forward to making the most of this Summer - my kids are growing up so very fast, and I want to enjoy every minute that they still want to spend with me!  :)  I can hardly believe that Trev is going to be old enough to vote in one month, and Cass will have her license in 3 months.  It truly does go by in the blink of an eye!

My first card today is for the:
Pink Elephant Challenge #104 - Join the Circus!

These adorable stamps are from The Greeting Farm, colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits.  Cardstock, DP, glitter & ribbon all from SU!  Button is from my stash.

This next card was for a challenge that I missed the deadline for, but wanted to post anyway!  LOL   So here it is, for the already-over:

ABC Challenge - W is for Weddings

I used the sweet bride Anya stamp from The Greeting Farm, colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits and Prismacolor markers.  Cardstock, brads, glitter and "cherish "  stamp by SU!  Ribbon is from my stash.  Peace.

MPS, Sweet Stampin' & Polka Doodles - Wings!

Time for another Tuesday challenge at Michelle Perkett Studio and this week, the theme is 

WINGS!

Use any of Michelle's gorgeous images that include wings in some way and show us your stuff!  I used Lilly the Enchanted Fairy and came up with this card:

I am also entering it into the:
Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Things with Wings

and the:
Polka Doodles Challenge 24 - All of a Flutter

I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits and Prismacolor markers.  DP is from Die Cuts With a View, buttons are from foof-a-la.  Cardstock & glitter are from Stampin' Up!

I was getting quite accustomed to spending my days at my crafting table, so I feel like I'm having withdrawals after not being able to do so for the past 4 or 5 days!  I am going to spend some time today and tomorrow making cards and preparing for the next week's posts and commitments, because I have Trev's graduation party Saturday and I'm going to have to spend Thursday and Friday cleaning and cooking.  I am PRAYING for nice weather - actually, I'm just praying that it doesn't rain.  Cass and I are making him this giant collage on a poster board of pics of him from the time he was an infant until now.  I'll be sure to take a pic of it when it's done and share it here, along with the million or so other pics I'm sure I'll take on Saturday.  LOL

Have a good day!  Peace.

Tiddly Inks #54

Did anyone miss me yesterday?  ;)  Jeremy's mom had flown in from California and she took us out for a Father's Day breakfast yesterday morning.  Then we spent the afternoon at my mom's house, the kids went swimming and I just relaxed by the pool for a couple of hours, it was heavenly.  My mom has really been great the past few weeks, I must say.  It's been difficult to get through the loss of someone we didn't expect to lose for many more years... this is a picture of me and my nana from a couple of years ago (nana was my mom's mom):

She was a hot shit who always spoke her mind, but made sure you knew she loved you no matter what.  Rest in peace, nana, you will be missed but never forgotten.

So anyway - spent most of the weekend attending services for my nana, so I didn't get much crafting done.  I did, however, manage to squeak out a card for the:

Tiddly Inks Challenge #54 - Create a One-Layered Card

Holy crap, this was hard.  LOL  I used the Poppy frame and the Poppy girl as my images, colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits.  I used a bunch of thank-you stickers from Mrs. Grossman's and some black sticky gemstones to give it some bling, and added glitter to the main flower.  Then I just dragged the edges of my card over a red ink pad and voila - a one-layer card that actually looks half-way decent.  Whodathunkit?  hee hee

Have a good day - peace.

Spotty Dotty JSL & Spotlight Saturday MPS

Time for our 3rd challenge at the JUST SOME LINES blog - Tina is hosting this time, and her theme is SPOTTY DOTTY.  Let's see those projects with spots and polka dots!  Here's my sample:

I used the absolutely adorable Emo Sofie, and I paper-pieced the heck out of her.  LOL  I actually had originally made this card for my monochromatic challenge but I couldn't use it because Sofie hadn't been released yet!  hee hee  But she just happened to be perfect for the Spotty Dotty challenge, too!  The DP is from My Mind's Eye, buttons are from foof-a-la.

Come play along with us by linking up your NEW polka-dotty creation at the Just Some Lines blog!  If you use an image from JSL, you'll get an extra chance to win the random drawing!
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Next up - today is Spotlight Saturday at Michelle Perkett Studio!  Here are some of the cards I've made using images from Michelle's new release, the Angel Collection.

First up is Peace Angel:

The next angel is Inspiration:

The next angel is Love:

And you've already seen this one, but I couldn't leave out the last angel of the collection, Faith:

You can find these new images, along with lots of other gorgeous ones, in Michelle's Etsy shop here.  Peace.

Bellarific Friday

Attending services for my nana this evening.  This kind of stuff just really sucks, you know?  Combine the grief you're already feeling on top of complicated family relationships and seeing people you haven't seen in God-knows-how-long... it's just so draining.  Emotionally exhausting.  I'll be glad when this weekend is over.

Quickly posting my card for Stamping Bella's Bellarific Friday, the theme was "Here Comes Summer":

I used one of the Mavis stamps and used a highlighting technique with my circle punches.  If you look closely, the Taken with Teal cardstock is all glittery, I've sprayed it with SU! Vanilla Smooch Spritz - I absolutely LOVE the effect.  I was surprised you could see it so well in the picture, but it's even prettier IRL.  Text stamps are from My Favorite Things (Pure Innocence line).  DP is from SU!  Buttons are from my stash.

Peace.

D2D - Mary Mary...

I'm waiting for my sister to pick me up and take me out to breakfast, so I took the opportunity to make this card quick for the Designed2Delight Monthly Challenge - I almost forgot this week, with everything going on!

I used the adorable Mary Mary freebie that I got for playing last week and colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits and a couple of markers.  DP is from My Mind's Eye - buttons are from foof-a-la.  I just typed the sentiment in Microsoft Works and printed it out.  Off to enjoy some sistah (as we say in Massachusetts) time.  :)  Peace.

Sweet Stampin'

Today's card is for the:

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Food Glorious Food

My cupcake image/sentiment is from Michelle Perkett Studios, colored with Prismacolor markers.  The paper is this new DP I just HAD TO buy because I had no DP with any purples in it...it's from Die Cuts With a View and it's the heavy, glittery kind.  Love it.  Button is from foof-a-la.  Lately, I want to put buttons on everything.  Guess it's my new obsession.  

Have a lot on my mind so just keeping it short today.  Peace.

Lovely Hanglar

 My nana passed away last night, she was 80 years old.  I'm exhausted and sad and feeling really... nostalgic, I guess.  I went to the hospital to say goodbye to her a few hours before it happened, and my mom and her sisters (7 of them) were just devastated.  My nana's mom, my great-grandmother, lived to be about 94 years old.  My nana has never been sick, either - so none of us were prepared for this.  Not that you can ever really be prepared.  Rest in peace, nana, I love you.
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I hardly ever do boy cards, and I realized while going through my stash of, ahem, over 200 cards... that there was just way too much pink and flowers and mermaids and princesses...  So today's card is for the:

Lovely Hanglar Challenge - Sketch

Cardstock and eyelets are from Stampin' Up!  DP is from EK Success. Image is colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits.
Peace.

MPS, Crafty Catz & Moving Along with the Times

The challenge this week at Michelle Perkett Studios is FLOWERS GALORE!  Please, please, PLEASE - I beg you - read the rules to challenges that you enter, and play fair by following those rules.  To play along with the MPS Mermaids, you MUST use an image by Michelle Perkett Studio.  She has tons of freebies available on her PaperCraftPlanet page, which makes it even easier.  Thank you so much - we really appreciate you taking the time to play by the rules.

My card uses the beautiful Flower Goddess image, colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits and Prismacolor markers.  I added a little Dazzling Diamonds glitter to it and cut it out with my Coluzzle.  Cardstock & DP is from SU!  Buttons are from my stash. I kept this simple because I didn't want to distract from the gorgeous image.  I really love this DP, too, and thought the butterflies were the perfect touch.  Hope you play along with us this week for a chance to win a free image of your choice from Michelle's Etsy shop.  

Next up is a bookmark I made with another of Michelle's images, Faith from the new Angel Collection.  This is for the:

Crafty Catz Challenge - Make a Bookmark


and


Moving Along with the Times Challenge - Anything but a Card

I colored her with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits, and fussy-cut her out.  Buttons are from my stash - gemstone brads are from SU!
Peace.

ATS, Flutterby Wednesday & Crafty Ho's

And we're back to Monday.  ;)  This is my daughter's last full of week school for the year, then final exams next week.  I think I'm looking forward to the break just as much as she is!
I really love the way today's card came out, and I made it with 2 challenges in mind - 


All That Scraps Wednesday Challenge - Aqua, Yellow & Lime

and

Flutterby Wednesday - Going Dotty
and
Crafty Ho's - Yellow, Green & Blue

I used the sweet Lil Bug Emma digi stamp from All That Scraps, I paper-pieced her clothes and colored the rest with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits and Prismacolor markers.  DP,  buttons and glitter are from SU!


Have a great week!  Peace.

Lots of Challenges :)

OK can I just tell you that today's first card really lived up to the challenge of pleasure and pain???  LOL  The challenge I made this for is the:

Haunted Design House Macabre Monday Challenge - Pleasure & Pain

So the pleasure of this card was coloring the rather large Tiddly Inks image that I printed out, as I always love using these images.  The rest - a giant pain.  Here's the story:  first of all, I couldn't find any suitable DP for what I wanted to do - so I spent money on printable digi paper from Tiddly Inks that matched the card.  So the first pain was spending money.  hee hee  Then I decided to use silver accents - I really find eyelets a pain, so I went with them.  THEN I decided that because I was using silver, I wanted to try out some of the SU! Silver Smooch Spritz that I had never used yet... OMG WHAT A ROYAL PAIN!!!!  LOL  I didn't realize I had the cap off already and I was tugging and tugging and SPLAT!  Silver Smooch Spritz all over the back (thank God) of my already-colored image and my brand new light pink T-shirt (it came out in the wash just fine).  So after all that debacle, here's what I finally came up with:

Do you like?  I really like that Smooch Spritz stuff, but I admit I didn't realize it was this dark.  The big splotches were what bled through from my little, er, accident... hee hee  Then I spritzed the front lightly.  I just wanted to give it a darker, more gothic effect.  Anyway, the image is called Made For You and is colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits.  I'm also entering it into the:

Tiddly Inks Challenge - Gothic or Dark Card

Next up - as a member of the Just Some Lines Design Team, I wanted to help promote our sponsorship of the challenge at:
Pile It On - Crooked Angles

So of course I had to make sure I piled on the challenges... so I'm also entering it into the following challenges:
Tuesday Throwdown #52 - Use an Animal

Cupcake Craft Challenges #145 - Things with Tails

Lollipop Crafts - Inspired by Song (the song I chose was "Stray Cat Strut" by the Straycats)


I used the Just Some Lines digital stamp Cat in a Hat 1, which you can find in the store here.  I colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits.  DP is from My Mind's Eye.  Gemstone stickies are from my stash. 

Don't forget to check out the ANGEL RELEASE PARTY this afternoon at 3:00 EST at Michelle Perkett's Paper Craft Planet group!  Peace.

Craft Your Passion & NEW RELEASE at Michelle Perkett Studio!

Good morning.  I love getting out my Greeting Farm stamps and playing with them, they totally make me feel like a little kid playing with my paper dolls.  Which I loved.  LOL  So today's card is for the:

Craft Your Passion Challenge - Anything Goes

I colored Harlow with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits and added some glitter to her eyeshadow.  That gorgeous DP is from My Mind's Eye - the only "con" to this paper is that it's not double-sided, but I can easily overlook that with how awesome it all coordinates and all the great ways it can be used.  Off to color some more!  

*NEW RELEASE * NEW RELEASE * NEW RELEASE*

Michelle Perkett's new digital stamp set "Angel Collection" will be released tomorrow and will be available at her Etsy shop in the afternoon! They are called Love, Inspiration, Faith and Peace - and they are just gorgeous, see:

We will be having a release party tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. EST at the Michelle Perkett Studio PaperCraft Planet group - how fun is that?  We will have fun, games and freebies to kick off the week long celebration of daily challenges and on Saturday the 18th we will have another fun party and would love for you to join us for the festivities in honor of the new digital stamp collection!

We will be having fun "angelic" themed challenges every day this coming week and will finish up the week with another fun Party next Saturday at the same time (noon PST /3:00 p.m. EST)!  There will be more freebies for that party too, so don't miss out! Hope to see you there!  :)

Peace.

Digi Darla & Totally Stampalicious

What are you all up to this weekend?  We're expecting rain and thunder storms and stuff, so you will most likely find me inside.  LOL  We are hoping to get to California for a few weeks to visit Jeremy's mom in July/August.  I have never been in the Summer, and would LOVE to do a few beach days with the kids.  Man, I love California - I can't wait to go back.  :)

I made today's card for the following challenges:

Digi Darla Challenge - Something Blue

and

Totally Stampalicious - Use 3 Different Ribbons

 I colored this sweet Digi Darla image with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits.  Cardstock,, DP, and brads from SU!  Ribbon pieces are from my stash.

Have a great weekend!  Peace.

D2D

Today's card uses the freebie from Designed2Delight that Faith always posts the first Friday of each month.  If you play along with the challenge, you get another freebie each week.  She's so generous, and I always love her artwork.  So here's my card for the:

Delightful Inspiration Stamp of the Month Challenge

I colored the Garden Fence image with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits and Stampin' Up! markers.  Cardstock, DP and pink ribbon from SU!  Buttons & purple ribbon from my stash.

I am thankful for random friends I make through this wonderful hobby of mine, you all bring a ray of sunshine into my life.

Peace.

DYSU & Stamp Something

I've been creating stuff like a maniac for my staff position at Scrapbook News & Review magazine -  you should definitely get a subscription to this awesome online magazine, it's FULL of inspiration.  Also - you have one more week to submit something for the July calls, which you can see here.

I loved making this card for the following challenges:
 

Do You Stack Up Challenge - Orange

and

Stamp Something - Use a Digi Image

I used the gorgeous "butterfly create" stamp from Michelle Perkett Studio, colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits.  Cardstock, gemstone & flower brads, and glitter from SU!  Flowers from Prima, DP from My Mind's Eye.

Peace.

Michelle Perkett Father's Day Challenge

Time for another Tuesday challenge at Michelle Perkett Studio!  This time, our theme is Father's Day with BROWN/NEUTRAL colors.  Here's what I came up with:

I used the adorable Cal the California Surfing Cow image from Michelle's Etsy Shop here, colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits, and Prismacolor markers.  Cardstock, DP, and giant brown brads by SU!

And then I made one more card using the same image but in bright, summery colors:

I hope you'll join us and play along this week with your new creation using one of Michelle's images!

Peace.

Diva & Flower Girl

I have 2 sweet cards to share with you today, the first is for the Tiddly Inks Challenge #51 - Darling Diva and also for the Creative Card Crew Challenge - For a Diva

 The inside of the card:

I used Blow Me Away from the Tiddly Inks shop, colored with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits and Prismacolor markers.  I fussy cut her out, and mounted onto SU! cardstock and DP. Germstone brads also from SU!  Buttons from foof-a-la.

This next card is for the following challenges:

All That Scraps Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Flutterby Wednesday - Open Challenge (must use fairy, angel or butterfly)

Card Makin' Mamas - Use Your Scraps
 

And this is my bag of scraps that I chose from:

And the result:

I colored Heidi among the Flowers and colored her with Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits and SU! markers.  Cardstock, DP, buttons, rub-on sentiment and ribbon all from SU!  I had this piece of yellow DP in my stash after I had cut a circle from it, so I used it as a frame for the image.  I love the way it came out and it's so nice to have a reason to use up some scraps!

Peace.

TGF Fairy Tale Card

The Greeting Farm is having a royal contest that you can read all about here.  The first step is to make a card using TGF characters inspired by a fairy tale or princes/princesses.  I knew right away that I wanted to go the fairy tale route, and here is what I came up with:

  

Yes, it took forever to make.  LOL  But it was sooooo much fun!  I incorporated 3 different fairy tales into my card - can you tell which ones?  ;)  I merged a couple of background images from Make It Crafty so that the "hilly lane" image had a rainbow behind it.  I used a castle stamp from Stampin' Up! to turn into the "Emerald Castle" - I found the wolf image online when I searched google for "big bad wolf images".  Cheshire cat colored image in tree is from Tiddly Inks.  Queen of Hearts image is from Dilly Beans.  Cardstock is from SU!  I cut the sun out of a piece of Summer Sun cardstock.  Images are colored with a combination of Prismacolor pencils & mineral spirits, as well as SU! and Prismacolor markers.

I am also entering this into the:

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Playing in the Summer Sun

Hope you are all having a good weekend.  Peace.