CHARMED, I'm Sure

First of all, good news...Katie cleaned up her DISASTER of a room on Saturday so I was able to paint it the colors she wanted, lime green on the bottom 1/3 of the walls and a bright blue on the top. Today or tomorrow I'll be cutting out some circle stencils so we can put lime green polka dots on the blue parts of her wall. So now, the journal I made for her the other day is a perfect match to her room!
On to today's card. This is the latest image from Designed to Delight and it's called "Charmed". Have you thought about playing along with D2D? If so, check in on Friday for the first free image of the month. Everyone gets it, even if you haven't played along before. So you pick up the free image on Friday, make something with it, and you get the next week's image free. As long as you make something with the D2D image each week, you keep getting the next free one! It's great! Faith's images are awesome so you should really think about joining in.

Challenges:
Designed to Delight: Charmed image
Mami Doodles: In the Garden theme AND use ribbon
Raise the Bar: Use the colors of your bedroom
Stamp Something: sketch
Incy Wincy: Anything Goes
Corrosive Challenge: birthday
Pile it On: boyish colors
Crafty Ann's Challenge: one digi image, max 3 colors, ribbon and flowers

Beary Happy Birthday

This adorable image is from Phindy's Place. I colored her with my Copics. I also used my Cuttlebug Swiss dots folder to emboss the cream cardstock and the flower petals. I made the flower petals with my Blossom Nestie.

Challenges:
Creative Belli Blog: Birthday theme and use something old (I used some old dp for the stripe across the card and I used a not often used border punch)
Charisma Cards: Girly card with flowers
Cute Card Thursday: Make your own something (I made the flower)
Treehouse Stamps: Birthday theme and Faux techinique (I used faux stitching)
Paper Play Challenges: Pastels
Eat Sleep Stamp: sketch
Playdate Cafe: light green, light blue, off white

Bugaboo-Just in Time

Phew...I think I got this card completed in time for the Bugaboo challenge which I think ends tonight or tomorrow. The challenge this time is a sketch. If you use a Bugaboo image, you get two chances to win some awesome Bugaboo stamps!

I got to use two things I picked up at the convention a couple of weeks ago..the baby pom pom fringe (LOVE THAT!) and one of the Prima flowers that I got in a BIG tube of Primas!

Let the Sun Shine In

How's this for a bright and sunny card? That's the challenge this week at Kah Wink E Dink and this is their image too. Make any card featuring the sun and use yellow as well. I also used the colors from the Color Throwdown which were Barely Banana, Rich Razzleberry, Plum and Olive. You don't have to use those exact colors, just use what you have that is close. The sketch is from Lora at Cardmaker.

Meet Bootsie

This is Bootsie. He's one of the many adorable images you can get from the Digi Doodle Shop. I was the lucky random winner of the Digi Doodle Shops Challenge last week and I chose this adorable guy as my prize. NOW, the disclaimer, I will not regularly be coloring Bootsie orange. Nope...that was kind of a stretch for me because I was playing along with the Colour Create challenge which was to use burnt orange, black and cream and I thought Bootsie would look good kind of rusty colored but obviously, I didn't quite have the right color Copics for the job! Next time you see Bootsie on this blog, he'll be a nice, safe brown!

Challenges:
Colour Create: burnt orange, black and cream...optional to use checks
Digi Doodles: anything goes
Sketch Saturday: Sketch

A CASEd Card

Okay so the challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges this week is to CASE (Copy And Selectively Edit) one of the DT's cards. I chose a super cute card by Mercy Kerin...WOW is she talented! I loved her design on this card and the colors she used. I used a different lion image (from Meljens) and a different color scheme...I guess that was my "selectively edit" part.

Here's a closeup of the lion's face and mane...can you see that I glittered the whole thing with my Spica pen? I also Stickled the ears and paws.

Challenges:
Crazy for Challenges: CASE the DT
Copic Color Create: B02, BV02 and YG 03 (I actually HAD all these colors!)
ABC Challenge: Thank You
Sew Many Cards: Anything Goes
Crafts and Me: Sparkle
I Love Digi: Thank You

An Altered Journal

I'm not much of an "alter-er". I make cards and that's pretty much it. Yeah, sometimes I make a tag or a box but I'm not a papercrafter...I'm pretty much just a cardmaker. This week I went out of my comfort zone and attempted an altered composition book. I have to admit, it was super easy and I like the results so I might be making more of these...although those of you who have read my blog before know that I am a practical person so if I don't have a use for something, I'm not going to make it. This journal has found a home with my daughter, Katie. I made it in the colors that we're going to paint her room (someday, when she cleans it up and I can actually get around in there with a ladder and a paint roller!) and I used one of her favorite images on the front.

Here's a photo of it with the matching bookmark-though I may re-do the bookmark, I'm not that happy with the way I stamped her name:

And here's a closeup of this supercute image from Meljens:

Challenges:
Die Cuts R Us: Make two coordinating things
A Spoonful of Sugar:make something 3d
Daisy Doodles: Anything but a card
Digital Tuesday Challenge: Anything but a card AND a digi image
Papertake Weekly:Do something different
Cupcake Craft Challenge: No square cards
Just Cute Bears: Sketch and a bear image

Splish Splash!

This is the newest image from Faith at Designed to Delight and it's another cute one. If you haven't played along in April, check out her site next week to get the first freebie of May. Then you can play along all month with a new image each week. I combined several challenges on this card, including using distressing- I sanded the heck out of my papers- and keeping it simple and not using any designer papers. TOUGH!!

Designed to Delight- April Showers image
Digi Doodles-use blue, yellow and green
Pals Paper Arts- Keep it Simple
Paperplay Challenges- no patterned paper
Eat Sleep Stamp- sketch
Crafty Creations- distressing

Under the Sea

Or the river or the lake, or along side the river or sea. That's the challenge this week at Cardmaker-to use a sea, river or lake animal or a seascape image. Pretty flexible really. I used this cute image from StretchNBubbles. Ever since I watched an Animal Planet show about how deadly hippos are (who knew?) I've been VERY afraid of them. Luckily this hippo is super cute so I'm not scared of him.
I tried a couple of new things on this card. First, I used VersaMark watermark ink. I've never done that before and I really like the effect! I'm definitely going to use it more often. I also made my own flowers. I used the smallest die cut of my Blossom Nestabilities. I cut out three white and three peach, punched a hole through the middle and fastened it with a brad. Then I crinkled up all the layers and dabbed some distress ink around the edges.

Here's a closeup/side shot of the flowers:

Challenges:
All Sorts: Inspiration challenge (I used some of the colors)
Pollycraft: Make your own flowers
CPS Cardsketches: Sketch
Cardmaker: Under the sea

How Sweet is This?

Meljens makes some of the cutest digi images, including this super sweet girl hugging her teddy bear. I love it! If you love Meljen's images, hop over to their store...there are still a few days left to get 25% off your whole order..you don't want to miss out!

Challenges:
Crafts and Me Challenge-brown pink and yellow
Dare you to Digi Stamp-digi image and flowers
Meljens challenge-for the little ones
I love digi-sketch and digi image
Clearly iStamp-use ribbon
Raise the Bar-your favorite color (brown and pink for me!)
Our Creative Corner-blossoms
One Stitch at at Time-flowers
Pile it On- Make it Sweet