You SPARKLE

I am loving these Twilight images I recently got from Pixie Dust Studios. How cute are they? Since the challenge at Cardmaker this week is to make a card for your favorite person, I am making a card for everyone in my family. I can't choose a favorite! This card is for my daughter who is a big Twilight fan, although she's definitely Team Jacob she still thinks this card is cute.

Closer look at the sparkle:

Challenges:
Little paper shop-sketch
Friends having fun-Eclipse theme
Cardmaker-card for favorite person
Simply Saturday-a repeated image
Just Scraps-double up something

SURPRISE! It's a BEAR!

I know, you hardly ever see super cute bear images on my blog so you're probably really surprised to see that I made a birthday card featuring a bear. Ha ha. This isn't just any bear though. This is the latest image from Faith at Designed to Delight. You know how D2D works, right? The first Friday of the month everyone gets a free image. If you make something with it, you get another free image the next Friday and so on. As long as you make something with the weekly freebie, you get the next one. And Faith's images are ADORABLE so you will not want to miss out. This Friday is the first Friday of July so pop over there and get the freebie and start playing along.

Challenges:
Designed 2 Delight-bear with present
Just Cute Bears-anything goes WITH A BEAR
Paper Sundaes-birthdays

Happy Birthday Kyle

Today is my oldest child's birthday. Kyle is 16 today. Do you know how long he's been waiting to turn 16??? He (and I!) thought this day would never get here. He's one of the youngest kids in his class and among his group of friends so he's been DYING, waiting while all of his friends turned sixteen (some almost a whole year ago!) and got their driver's licenses. Well, today's the day. We go at 8am to go try to get his license. He's excited, and a little nervous..though I don't think he'll admit that! **UPDATED! HE PASSED!!**
Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLE!! You might be bigger than me but you're still my little boy!
This image is from Karen's Doodles. There is a boy, a girl, a right-side and left-side driver so everyone is covered!

Challenges:
Charisma Cardz-guy card
Rosie and Dee-summer birthdays
Cardmaker-card for favorite person
Crafty Cardmakers-ink around card
Crazy challenge-make it in an hour
Cupcake Craft Challenge-sketch

Thank You BEARY Much

I can't get enough of this little bear from Sassy Cheryl's. He's just TOO cute and you can use him for so many things. I checked my stash of cards and realized that I'm very short on Thank You cards so I'll be trying to make more of those in the coming days and weeks.

Challenges:
One Stop Craft Challenge-pink and brown
Corosive Challenge-flowers flowers everywhere
Magical Crafts-flower power
Pollycraft-pinkalicious
There She Goes Challenge-green and plant/flowers

TAG! You're it!

What do I need to go along with my growing collection of Christmas cards? Christmas tags, of course! This looks enormous in the photo but it's really about 4 inches high and 2.5 inches wide.

Challenges:
Die cut dreams Christmas Club-arctic winter
Meljens challenge-bookmark or tag
This image is from Dawn Moore.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town...

In about 180 days! There is still time to get started on your Christmas cards and avoid the last minute rush. Here is a card I made today for the Bah Humbug challenge, as well as some others. This image is called "Santa Baby" and it's from the Digi Shack. It's not on their new server yet and the link I had before is not working anymore, so I would suggest visiting the Digi Shack and emailing them to purchase the image. Sorry about that.

All sorts-embossing
Crazy 4 Challenges-sketch
Secret crafter-strawberries and cream
Bah Humbug-santa theme
Winter Wonderland-strawberries and cream
This is one of my favorite Christmas images so I printed it out several times and colored it. I also loved how this card turned out so I made five more:

We Belong Together...Or DO We?

I know enough about the Twilight Series to know the Bella and Edward think they belong together. Now that I'm typing that, maybe it's just Bella who thinks they belong together. Whatever! They sure look like they're in love in this image from Pixie Dust Studios.

Challenges:
Bugaboo stamps challenge-love theme
Our Creative Corner-blues and greens
Sketch Saturday-sketch
Speedy the Cat-use three flowers
Raise the Bar-twilight theme
Maimi Doodles-blue white green w/ splash of red (I'm not sure if you can see that the flower in between them is red..kind of blends in with Edward's jacket)

Snow Blind

Good thing it's the middle of summer and you probably have your sunglasses nearby because you're going to need them! I'm not sure why but I am on a total Christmas card kick. Maybe it's in protest to the record heat were having, maybe because I love Christmas, I don't know what it is but I have totally been feeling like making Christmas cards. In my search for still MORE Christmas challenges (since it seems I can't just make a card on my own anymore...is that bad?)I found the Christmas Cards All Year Round challenge. It's a monthly challenge to make five Christmas cards around a given theme for that month. For June, the challenge is to use at least one bright color on your cards, and your favorite embellishments. ALL of these cards are bright and all feature a button which is quickly becomming my "go to" embellie. Plus, I can't seem to stop buying button packs! So, all five of these cards are for the CCAYR challenge for June, and I incorporated a couple of other challenges too:
This one is for this week's sketch challenge at Cardmaker:

These three use the Our Creative Corner Sketch for this week, which I rotated. They also work for the I Love Digi Challenge which is embossing:



And this one uses this week's CPS Sketch-again, I rotated this one:

These also all work for the Paper Cutz challenge which is to use circles, stars or squares and Fab's Big Christmas challenge which is to use ribbon and/or toppers.
Check out that Christmas Card total on my sidebar...I'm pretty excited about that!

Hmmm...Not Quite What I Pictured

I know this has happened to you. You have a great idea in your head about what a card is going to look like. You work hard, put all the pieces together and in the end, it doesn't quite look as good as you pictured it in your mind. That's what happened with this card. It looked really good in my mind! Don't get me wrong, I like this card, it's just not quite what I thought it would be. This is a recessed window card and there is transparency over the window. The snowflakes are stamped on the transparency.



Challenges:
ABC Challenge-x for xtra dimension (recessed window card, buttons)
Color Throwdown-blush choco chip moss
Sweet Sketch Wednesday-sketch
Crafty Creations Challenge-shiny glittery sparkle (stickled hat and buttons)
Sparkle Creations Christmas Card-3 patterned paper, 2 buttons, 1 ribbon, transparency
Digi Doodles Challenge-anything goes
Rainbow Lady's challenge-ice cream colors (mint, strawberry, chocolate)
Treehouse-pink, moss green, white and one color your choice (brown)
Shirley's 2 Girls-something new (all new paper from HL sale)

Last Post for the Day

Okay, I think this does it. This post catches me up on all the cards I've made but have not posted this week. I was saving my favorite for last. I love this image from Meljens. I love that you can color the flowers to match the paper you're using. This is another piece of paper from the Basic Grey Lemonade collection. I think I need more of this!

Challenges:
Crazy 4 Challenges-paper flowers
Just Us Girls-pink choc vanilla
Meljens challenge-fibers ribbon or lace & meljens image
Papertake Weekly Challenge-sketch

Thinking of You

I was in the middle of making this card when I read some sad news from one of my online friends so I decided to turn it into a "thinking of you" card. I popped it in the mail to her this morning. She's going through a tough time right now and I hope this card makes her smile.

This image is from Di's Digi Downloads. Are you going to make me say it again? Okay..if you haven't been to Di's, you're TOTALLY missing out on some of the cutest images you could ever want.
By the way, the patterned paper is from Basic Grey. The Lemonade collection. HOW AWESOME IS THIS LINE? Oh my gosh, I love it.
Challenges:
Paper Play Challenges: something old
Shirley's 2 Girls: something old
Sketch Saturday: sketch
Are you wondering what my "something old" is? Obviously it's not the paper since I just discovered that last weekend. It's that crocheted flower. Isn't it awesome? It's from my friend Tracy. I've been hoarding it for over a year! It pains me to actually use it up, but, in the interest of cheering up a friend, I'm willing to sacrifice. :)

How Girly Can You Get?

This week, the challenge at Paper Sundaes is "pretty princess"...make a girly card. I'm not big on loading up my cards with lots of flowers, bling, etc. so I'm not sure I pulled off a SUPER girly card but it's definitely a card for a girl.

The image is from The Stamping Boutique.
Challenges:
Paper Sundaes-pretty princess (girly card)
Eat Sleep Stamp-sketch
City Crafter-pink purple and pearls
Crafts and Me Challenge-birthday

A More Appropriate Card for the Weather

Okay, off the Christmas theme for awhile and I'm posting this card that is more fitting to the type of weather we're having. This image is from Bugaboo. I'm pretty sure it was one of last Friday's freebies so it's still available if you want to head over and get it for yourself.

Challenges:
One Stop Craft Challenge-for the boys
Simple doodles-fun in the sun
Cards for Men-sketch and guyish
Daisy Doodle Stamps-summertime

Lots of Posts Today

Another day where it's going to be 100 degrees and HUMID. Heat indicies at 105-110. UGH. I have been enjoying the air conditioning and crafting away in my basement corner but I've been lazy about photographing and posting my cards so I've got several to post today and I hope I'm not too late for some of these challenges!
In keeping with the "it's hot out, why not make Christmas cards" theme, I'm posting this card I made for the Bah Humbug challenge which is "a child's Christmas" this week.

The image is from Karen's Doodles.

Second Christmas Card of the Day

As promised, here is my second Christmas card of the day. This image is one of the many cute freebies from Cuddly Buddly.

Challenges:
Die cut dreams Christmas Club-all white christmas
Corosive Challenge-black white one other color
Crafty Hos-sketch

Birthday TOONS

Have you been to Di's Digi Downloads yet? I'm telling you, if you love adorable animal and people images you will LOVE Di's. No, I don't work for her, I'm not on her DT, I just love these images and one is cuter than the next. Take this little bear squished up in front of his presents...Awww...how cute is that?

Challenges:
Cardmaker: Birthday card featuring a cartoon image
Picture Perfect: navy, burgundy, tangerine and green
Critter Sketch challenge: sketch (optional pocket card)
Crazy Challenge: spotty

Christmas in June

Once again, it's going to be HOT here today. Temperature of 100 degrees and heat index between 105 and 110. UGH! So of course it happens to be a day that I'm posting a Christmas card-actually I'm going to post another one later so a TWO Christmas card day on the hottest day of the year (so far)!

Challenges:
Speedy the Cat-embossing
Winter Wonderland-festive tree
All sorts-sketch
Digital Tuesday Challenge-christmas
Tuesday Throwdown-dry embossing
This image is from StretchNBubbles. Check out the shop HERE for this and other awesome images by Alison. I used my Snowflakes, Snow Dots and Swiss Dots embossing folders.

Designed to Delight

I love this new image from Faith at Designed to Delight. I especially love this sentiment.

I'm loving the recessed window cards and I added a layer of transparancy on which I printed the image. I colored it with Copics.
Challenges:
Designed to Delight: bird image
Copic Creations: color on "other paper"
Our Creative Corner sketch: Sketch

One More Bugaboo

The challenge this week at Catch the Bug is to use your favorite team's colors on your card. I've made several cards already with red, white and blue for the USA's World Cup colors but this time I used Blue and Yellow for the colors of the St. Louis Rams.

I used the sketch from Cardmakers and the theme from Stamp Something which is "something summer". And by the way, this image is one of this week's FREEBIES from Bugaboo.

A Sweet Color Throwdown

Today I combined two of my favorite challenges: the Color Throwdown and Sweet Sketch Wednesday:

This image is from Sassy Cheryl's and it is definitely one of my favorites.
Challenges:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday: sketch
Color Throwdown: celery, navy and coral

A Softpencil Winter

Ahhh...winter. Yes, it's going to be about 95 degrees here and it's so humid that with the heat index it should feel like 102. YUCK! Well, what better time to make a frosty, snowy card for Christmas than today?

You know that I love to make Christmas cards in non-traditional colors, but even this was a stretch for me. I used the colors from the Colour Create challenge which was to be inspired by a photo of the Mad Hatter. Not what you typically think of when you're thinking Christmas card!
Challenges:
Rainbow Lady's: Christmas Cards with alcohol inks
Friends Having fun: sketch
Treehouse: use your fave tool (Copics and Cuttlebug)
ABC Challenge: W for weather
Colour Create: Mad Hatter inspiration

Cupcake Tag

I'm having fun with tags right now. I started with Christmas cards and then thought "hey, I should get started on my tags" and then I thought "hey, I need tags for birthdays too" and that's how I stumbled into making this tag:

This is one of my favorite images from StretchNBubbles. I was happy to find this cupcake ribbon to go along with it. Not an exact match but I think it makes it cute!
Challenges:
Charisma Cardz:bling
I love digi: digi image and anything but a card
Papertake Weekly: ice cream colors
Cute Card Thursday: sketch

Gone Fishin'

Today I used another GREAT image from Di's Digi Downloads. This one is a perfect summertime image and great for cards for guys, even if your guy is not a fisherman. I'm not that happy with the way this turned out. I was trying to get a lighter look on the bear's face and ended up messing that up and actually making it darker in the process of trying to correct my first attempt. Oh well...live and learn. This is going to be Kyle's card for John for Father's Day.

Challenges:
Crafty Cardmakers: cards for men
Incy Wincy: cards for men
There She Goes: distressed
Picture Perfect Creations: espresso, saffron, dark red and eggplant
Raise the Bar: for a special guy
Cupcake Craft: one for the boys
Critter Sketch: sketch
Pollycraft: Be inspired by a song ("sittin' on the dock of the bay")
Teddy Stampers: summer bear
Shabby Tea Room: summer fun

Update on Super Sam

Have you noticed the picture I have on my sidebar about the Send them to Sam campaign? You can read about it HERE. This little 5 year old boy is BRAVELY fighting cancer. He's undergoing tons of tests and having to take unbelieveable amounts of medicine to fight this thing and through it all he manages to keep this bright smile:

If you get a chance, why not brighten this little boy's day with a card? The mailing address has changed and you should now send cards to:
Samual Humphries
27566 E. Elmhurst Pl.
Aurora, CO 80016

I assume that is his home address. Hopefully that means he's spending more time at home than in the hospital which would be great.

Happy Gilmore or Caddyshack?

I couldn't decide which golf movie I wanted to use as my inspiration for this card. The challenge this week at Teddy Stampers is to be inspired by a movie and of course, use a teddy bear image on your card. I love this image from Di's Digi Downloads....just one of many MANY adorable ones to choose from.

Challenges:
Teddy Stampers: be inspired by a movie
Friday Sketchers: sketch

Happy Birthday to You

I need to find some new words for cute. I feel like I really overuse "adorable" and "super cute" but it seems like all the images I choose are ADORABLE and SUPER CUTE! This little turtle from Bugaboo is no exception.

Challenges:
Crafty Hos: use bright colors
Paper Sundaes: sketch

Just a Little Tag

In addition to Christmas cards, I'd like to have lots of Christmas tags before the December rush sets in. So this week, when the Sew Many Challenges challenge was to make something Christmas related that was not a card...I thought of a tag. This image is from Dustin Pike and I used a tag template from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More.

Challenges:
Bah Humbug: anything goes
Sew Many Challenges: Christmas related but not a card
Dare you to Digi Stamp: digi image and red white and blue
Meljens Challenge: sparkle, glitter and bling
Bugaboo: Colors of your favorite team (USA)

More Colors of the World Cup

This week at Bugaboo, the challenge is to use the colors of your favorite team (USA). This time I didn't use a Bugaboo image, but instead used this one from Di's Digi Downloads.

The layout is from the Corrosive Challenge which is featuring a sketch this week. I flipped it around but other than that, followed the sketch pretty closely. The theme is from Just Cute Bears which is to use a bear, of course, and use something that says "Summer" to you. Summer is also the theme of the Tuesday Throwdown and A Spoonful of Sugar's theme is something you can do in the sunshine. The colors are from the Bugaboo challenge (team colors) and the Rosie Dee Challenge (blue)

Christmas in June

I have caught the Christmas bug early this year. I'm so glad I've recently found a few new Christmas challenge blogs. They really inspire me to keep chugging along, making two or three Christmas cards per week. I'm excited to get to December with a whole lot of Christmas cards to choose from and no stressful, boring mass production.
This first one is for Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge which is to NOT use ribbon or brads and to use the color red. I also used the sketch from this week's Little Paper Shop Challenge. (I flipped it) The image is from the Stamping Boutique.

This next one is for the Winter Wonderland Challenge which was to use traditional Christmas flowers. I chose holly and I used the sketch from this week's CPS Challenge.

I'm obviously getting a lot of use out of my Snow Dots and Snowflakes embossing folders. Can you tell, those are two of my favorites.

Flowers for You

How sweet is this bear from Sassy Cheryl's? He's so fun to color and can be used for so many different occasions. I'll add the sentiment later.



Challenges:

Sketch Saturday-sketch

Henry's Giraffe

Is there a more fun image for a child's birthday card than this adorable monkey riding the giraffe? I don't think so!

Challenges:
Crafty Creations: a card for a child
StampNDoodle: photo inspiration of giraffes
Stamp Something: happy something
Pals Paper Arts: bermuda bay, curry and suede
Inkspirations: sketch

A Note from Teddy

This is just an example of the adorable images available from Di at Di's Digi Downloads. If you haven't checked out her site yet-get over there! You'll be so glad you did. For this card, I used the sketch from Create for Fun and the challenge from Speedy the Cat. The Speedy the Cat challenge was to make your own background paper. I'm not sure if you can tell, but I stamped butterflies on the cream colored cardstock with Versamark.

Here's a closeup so you can see the butterflies:

Happy Father's Day

I made this card for Katie to give to John for Father's Day. She likes the girliness of it-especially the pink. The image is Desiree from Bugaboo stamps.

Challenges:
Tuesday Taggers: all that blooms
Paper Cutz Challenge: Father's Day
Spoonful of Sugar: floral delights
Crafts and Me Challenge: friends and family
Shirley's 2 Girls: pink
Our Creative Corner Sketch: sketch
Charisma Cardz: Spots and Stripes
DigiDoodles Shop: tie it up

Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club

I made this card using a little $1 stamp of a polar bear that I got at Michael's about six months ago. Again using the colors from Bugaboo...the colors of your favorite team (USA) and the sketch from Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club.

I stamped the polar bear with Versamark and used the Swiss Dots and Snowflakes embossing folders.

Love You Tons!

This adorable elephant image is from Little Musings and it's called Eli and Son. Perfect for Father's Day, don't you think? Brendan is going to give this one to John for Father's Day.

Challenges:
One Stop Craft Challenge: sketch
Our Creative Corner: do something with the corners of the card
All Sorts: lace and or buttons (I chose buttons)
Magical Crafts Fortnightly Challenge: father's day
Stamptacular Sunday: Father's Day

Designed To Delight June Week 2

This adorable little mouse holding a cupcake is this week's freebie from Faith at Designed to Delight. It's just one of MANY cute images you can pick up at any time. If you want to play along with Faith's weekly freebie challenge, hop over there and join in.

Challenges:
Designed to Delight: use this mouse image
Treehouse:red, white and black
Little Red Wagon: sketch
One Stitch at a Time: Celebrations

Are You a Soccer Nut?

I guess most people are, especially with the World Cup going on right now. Exciting game this afternoon between England and the US. I don't know much about international soccer but I understand the US was expected to lose so I'm guessing a tie is some sort of victory for the US. ANYWAY...the challenge this week at Bugaboo is to use your flag colors, or your World Cup team colors or the colors of your favorite team in general. One of their freebies this week is perfect for this challenge. I colored the nut with my E55 Copic marker. Then I criss crossed it with my colorless blender to make it look like a peanut shell.

Bugaboo: team colors/flag colors
Moving Along with the Times: sketch
Simply Saturday: sponged edges
Just us Girls:use a digi image

A Black and White Challenge

I've had a blah week. I know I haven't posted anything since Tuesday. It's not that I haven't been doing anything, I've been coloring a lot of images but just lacked the motivation to turn those colored images into cards. I made quite a few cards yesterday afternoon and evening so you'll be seeing those in the coming days. Here's my first one. I struggled with this challenge this week at Cardmaker. The challenge was to make a card using only black and white. I can't do that effectively. ( I need color. I decided that about myself. ) Using this adorable little dog from Little Musings certainly helped. He's a cutie and he comes colored/shaded like this so you can pretty much just pop him on a card.

I used the sketch from the There She Goes challenge.

Winter Wonderland

Okay, it was about 85 degrees here today so we're not exactly feeling all Winter Wonderland-y but I do enjoy sitting in the air conditioning making Christmas cards! Especially with more adorable images from Cuddly Buddly. It's also nice to make Christmas cards without the pressure of having to get them done. I don't like to mass produce cards either-it gets so boring-so it's nice to take the time to make one card at a time.

Challenges:
Winter Wonderland: Love at Christmas (notice the mistletoe)
Picture Perfect Creations: rose, pacific point, sand
Papertake Weekly: sketch
Cupcake Craft: dazzle
Pollycraft: ribbon and bling
Here is a closeup so you can see where I blinged the berries of the mistletoe and the knots of their scarves. I also glittered the fur on their hats.

A Primary Color Birthday!

Wow...primary colors. A couple of weeks ago I participated in a challenge that was to do something "out of the box" and for that challenge I chose using primary colors. I just don't ever do it. I don't like them that much so I never reach for them in my stack of cardstock (lucky to even have a couple of pieces) and I certainly don't have much DP that is primary colored. I did find this little piece in a little pack I had so that worked out. This cute image is from Di's Digi Downloads. Haven't been there yet? WOW are you missing out!

I added the number 5 sticker to his jersey and I also did a criss cross pattern in the jersey with my colorless blender to make it look a little more mesh-like.
Challenges:
Just Scraps: primary colors
Little Paper Shop: primary colors
Critter Sketch Challenge: child's birthday card
Moving Along with the Times: sketch
One stitch at a time: boy/man card

A Sleepy Father's Day Greeting

This sleepy bear is from Dustin Pike. It's not that this bear really reminds me of my husband, I just thought he would make a cute card for Father's Day for him. We do like to drink coffee together on weekend mornings, maybe that was the connection. He definitely doesn't sit around in a nightshirt, sleeping cap and bunny slippers though!

Challenges:
The Shabby Tea Room: Father's Day
Cards for Men: Father's Day
Daisy Doodles: Father's Day
Just Cute Bears: Father's Day and a bear of course!
The Crazy Challenge: Distress it (lots of distress ink on this one)
Just Us Girls: sketch