Bowl full of Apples!

     For my project in Crafter's Digital Art Center's (CDAC) Progressive Challenge round 3, I used Glitterbabes's image "apple bowl." I colored the image digitally in PhotoShop Elements. I thought a friend of mine, who is a librarian, could use note cards with this image, for volunteers and teachers. I matted the image with peach and black Core'dinations cardstock. I didn't have a punch or Cricut cart with an apple border so I used the A Child's Year cart and took the apple icon and made it a border with my Gypsy by welding multiple apples, until I had enough to cover the 4 inches of my base. The note cards, BTW, are 4inches by 4 inches. I then highlighted the apples on the border with a white gel pen.

     On the inside, I used apple pattern paper, that I'd gotten at Hobby Lobby, but I'm afraid I forgot to write down whose it is, before  using it all >.< I then digitally made a place for her to write that is 3.5 inches by 3.5 inches. I used a free brush set called School Dayz Sketches Brushes by redheadstock which I found on devionArt Here.

     I still need to make envelopes and a box to hold them, but I needed to post this, because the project needed to be posted before the end of the month. Check out the other images and projects here and you can join us for the next round for only $1,which gets you the next set of images (they are free as long as you continue with the challenges.) You can find the info on how the Challenge works at the link above as well.

     Thanks for stopping by today. Please leave a comment or ask any questions you might have. The nice thing about coloring an image digitally is that you can easily make multiple copies quickly (and correct mistakes ;- ) Have a weekend filled with special moments.

For a good Cause!

      I don't usually post Mary Kay Cosmetics things here, but they are donating money to end domestic violence. I've been with Mary Kay for 29 years as a consultant and this is a great cause and easy to do. All you have to do is like their Facebook page. For every new fan through Oct. 31st, Mary Kay will donate $1 to help end domestic violence – up to $1 million! www.facebook.com/marykay

So, share this post and ask your friends to 'Like' the Mary Kay Facebook page! 

Together, we've donated over $39K to help break the cycle, so far.

Thanks for helping so many families out there ;- )

Birthday Fun

     Well, I promised I'd post the card today and I will, but first let me explain, ha, got your attention now don't I. Before using this caption, I did get my husbands permission, since it's for a friend of ours, whom he works with. Also, I did not invent this caption, it's on the Sweet Treats cart from Provo craft, I just removed the candle, but it is valid for this image as well. Now you are really interested, if you haven't peeked already ;- ) (My son thought it was objectionable though, again Provo Craft made it up, not me.)

     The image, called favor is from the Sweet Treats cart also and I made it into a shaped card (actually the blackout of the image)  in Design Studio, changing both the length and width. It will fit in a business size envelope. I layered it with the main image and embossed the horn part with Swiss Dots. I used AC Metallic Cardstock and K andCompany Confetti Designer Mat Stack for the layers. I cut the sentiment from some scrap cardstock then I doodled on it with gel pens and a sharpie and inked it with Distress Inks. I attached it with pop dots.

     The inside sentiment was done digitally and the fonts are LDJ Birthday Bash from Lettering Delights (find them on my side bar - great fonts, dings, SVG's, graphics and cut-outs) and NewWGL4Font. Now there are a number of fonts with this name and I'm not sure where I got mine, but if you go to dingbats.font-cat.com here, you can find a number of them including this one and get them free. I had to fussy cut the papers and I added some metallic confetti that I had from Stampendous Class a Peel "Grad you Did It" graduation stickers.

     Actually, John is a very good friend and the card is fine. Thanks for stopping by. Please, leave a comment. they really do mean so much. Have a weekend full of inspirational activities ;- )

Give-away mention.

     I forgot to mention that Enfys has a give-away going on at her blog of Letraset Promarkers. The drawing is the 25th so hurry up and check it out here! Who wouldn't want to win these? Have an inspired weekend!

It's a jungle out there ;- )

     Well, I only got today's card half finished. I'll give you a tease and tell you it's a birthday card and I used the Sweet Treats cart, but it doesn't have food on it. I used Design Studio to make a shaped card and changed both the height and width, so that meant extra work with the layers. I should finish it up and be able to post it tomorrow, God willing ;- )  I've also spent a lot of time cleaning up my browser bookmarks. Who knew that could take up most of a day. At least, I can now find the blogs that are most important, when I have the time, ha ha, as well as those projects I've marked. All those blogs that have been abandoned are now gone off of my bookmarks as well. While I was computer house cleaning, I cleaned up some of my files, too, not that you'd know it by looking at my desktop. there as so many of you wonderful,  creative, generous people out there giving away such great freebies, I just can't keep them organized between my 2 computers. Thank you all!
     I decided since I didn't have a card, I'd visually entertain you with some animal photos that were on my computer. My husband and I love to take photos and I don't get all of them backed up and off my computer that well either. So here are some of my favorites, though there is a better one of the tigers from a few years before, that I have removed. Maybe I'll find it and post it sometime. We caught 2 of them playing ;- )

And Finally, 

the end.

Sorry, I couldn't resist ;- )

     Maybe sometime, when I don't finish my work >.< I'll share "The birds that visit my yard" series. That's a nice set-up, but I'm afraid that would be my last "series," ha ha. I don't think I could find another group of photos, so much for "series." Thanks for stopping by and indulging me. Hope maybe you were entertained or your creativity was sparked in some way. Please leave a comment. I really appreciate hearing from you. Have a blessed day! 

Celebration card for an Anniversary!

     Today's card is for my neighbor's anniversary. I had picked up Cricut's Wild Card cart from Menard's when they had them for $4 after a mail-in rebate. Great deal! On this cart they have a tri-fold card and envelope that was meant for New Year's Eve called Celebrate, but I thought it would make a great anniversary card. On the internet I found a few places where people had listed the largest sizes you could cut the envelopes on a 12x12 piece of paper and the corresponding size card to cut. You can find a list here at Obsessed With Scrapbooking. So for this card, I cut it at 5 1/2 inches from black Core'dinations cardstock. I cut the liner items with gold metallic cardstock and the icon (cork) from kraft cardstock and stamped it with Hero Arts Designer Woodgrain stamp then clear embossed it.  I attached the cork with pop dots. The pattern paper is Confetti from Paper Pizzaz. I found a label shape I liked on the Storybook cart (the Thank You image page) and cut it out in red and a slightly smaller  one from printer paper ( I used the Gypsy to get the sizes I wanted) that I had already printed their names on. The font I used is Tango. I attached this with pop dots. In order to keep the card from popping open, I made a band to slip over the card and attached the sentiment on it. I cut the sentiment from Lyrical Letters. Cutting it at this size makes it very delicate and prone to tearing, so it had to be pieced a bit and I used the LetraTac I had mentioned back on this post to attach it. You can find it online at Dick Blicks here. I get nothing for this, I just think it's cool.

     This card wasn't meant to be a gift card holder, but since I was going to cover the front and giving them a gift card, I decided to cut slits in it to hold the gift card. I cut a piece of the pattern paper to cover that at the bottom and used a piece of the same paper as a mat for the sentiment. I created the sentiment digitally and the font is SNF Infinity from Scrap N Fonts. Currently Scrap N Fonts is having a Dollar Sale. You can find their sale here.

     Since I added the band, the envelope won't close right, but I thought I'd show it here anyway.  Cool envelope, huh ; - )Sorry, I hadn't realized it was out of focus or I would have retaken the photo during the day >.<

     Well, thanks for stopping by and spending some time with me today. Please leave a comment, so that I know you were here. They always brighten my day ;- ) Have a wonder-filled week!

It's finally feeling like fall here, and Free PhotoShop Brush links

     It's finally feeling like fall and I can't wait for the next few days when it gets warmer again ;- ) It's suppose to return to the mid to upper 70's maybe even 80, so much nicer, then these lows in the 30's. The weather however, caused me to come up with today's card, which is a Thinking of You card. The papers are from Four Seasons Paper Value Pack by The Paper Studio. I came up with the idea for the card, while lying in bed early one morning. I didn't expect the image to be so big, but then I didn't have the stamps with me, ha ha. Since the image is so large, the card is 8 inches by 5 inches. I used a Hero Arts stamp for the tall pumpkin and a Stampabilities stamp for the rounder one. This is actually the first time that I masked while stamping and also the first time I colored an image by painting it with Distress Inks. The I went over some of the details with a colored pencil and some with a brown glitter gel pen from Sakura. I really liked how it turned out.  The sentiment is stamped with Clear Stamps Greetings and Mementos ink, adding a couple of Hero Arts gems. On the bottom panel, I added some popped up embellishments, that I had left over from when I use to do the Youth bulletin board and don't know whose they are.

     I've made this card for my aunt, whose eyesight has deteriorated due to diabetes, so the digital sentiment on the inside is quite large and I will include a personal letter as well. The font is Lobster Two Bold which was designed by Pablo Impallari and can be found at Font Squirrel for free here. The pumpkin graphic is actually a very cool PhotoShop brush called Fall Preview Sabordes. Which is a free preview that includes 5 brushes designed by Michael Murdock of Sabor Designs, that are actually sketches. You can find them at Brusheesy here. The full set (20 brushes) are available for $5. The leaves are also found at Brusheesy and include 50 brushes (leaves) from hawksmont and you can find them here (also free.) I had some other great finds, but didn't use them here ;- )

     So, it took a bit before I got this posted, because I was trying out some new things and checking out some videos. It's hard to balance actually creating with an end product in mind and creating with just experimenting and trying new techniques, but no actual output achieved, other than getting messy. Sometimes, I just like to get messy and learn something new, but it's not for show, oh, no! It's often for the circular file, ha ha, at least for now.
     Thanks for stopping by and checking out my newest card. Please leave a comment if you have time. Even if it's just to say Hi, I like to know you were here. It energizes me. Have a glorious weekend.

My 2nd Progressive Challenge Entry... bookmark.

     If you follow my blog, you may remember that I'm participating in a progressive challenge over at Crafter's Digital Art Center (CDAC). "How does the CDAC Progressive Challenges work? The CDAC Progressive Challenge is a proactive freebie challenge. What that means is as long as you are proactive by making and submitting cards to this challenge you will continue to get freebies offered in a large variety of styles. These images are created by the artists that have groups here on CDAC and by those that participate in the CDAC drawing Challenges. This is a fun way to get and use fabulous images that will be offered during these challenges." You can join in the middle or if you miss a time by paying $1 for the images at that point. Find all of the info here. All of the images for this round were kind of back-to-school related. I really didn't have a card to make using those type of images and they weren't really what I needed for my college students, so I decided to make a bookmark for my neighbor. She is a big Elvis fan and, it's hard to see but the small book says, Gigi, which is what her Grandchildren call her. I colored the image and added the titles in PhotoShop Elements. I used Core'dinatons, with a white core for the main piece and embossed it with Sizzix Texturz Starter Kit's plate called Dashes, because they kind of looked like books. I used a sandpaper block to bring out the embossing. I matted the image with a green pattern paper from my scraps, that I'd gotten at Hobby Lobby and some reddish scrap cardstock. I used the Martha Stewart circle cutter to cut out the image.

Click on image to make it larger.

     Now I'd thought I'd get more done today, because, well, it's only a bookmark, but when putting the blade in the circle cutter, it popped out of it's blade protector and slashed my finger, Yowie! As  you can see, I got no blood on the image, he he, but bleed I did. So, a bandaged fingertip, makes for awkward, crafting, including this typing BTW ;- ) So, hopefully with a smaller bandage, it's back to creating tomorrow. You should come and join us at CDAC, we'd love to have you.Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment, so that I know you were here. I'm sooo happy to hear from you. Have a wonderfully creative week.

The Big Three-0 and window box visitors.

     Well, as promised today's card is for my friend's son's thirtieth birthday, though I still don't see how that is possible, since we were babies 30 years ago. He must be adopted ;- ) Anyway, I embossed and sanded the Core'dinations cardstock using  the Cuttlebug embossing folder. I cut out the "30" from AC metallic cardstock, using the  Cricut Plantin Schoolbook Cart and the Gypsy, so that I could size the width and height separately and popped it up on the card. The sentiment is from Clear Stamps and is embossed with sterling silver embossing powder. I really got creative to make the label. I used the gypsy to resize what was suppose to be the mat from the "Families are Forever" card on the Cricut Just Because Cards cart. It would be button 34, the one with the tree swing in the handbook. I turned off the keep proportions lock and changed the proportions to .6 inches wide by 2.5 inches long. I added a brad and popped it up. The edges are inked with Ranger Distress Fired Brick.

     On the inside, the sentiment is done digitally in Print Shop. The fonts are LD Thankful and LD Dabble both from Lettering Delights. They have great fonts and dingbats, as well as SVG's and graphics. If you sign-up for their e-mails, you get 9 fonts free. You can check them out here, through my affiliate link or by clicking the link in my sidebar. I then added stickers from American Traditional Designs Party Icons, that I get at Hobby Lobby. The Happy Birthday pattern paper is also from Hobby Lobby.

     I think the inside looks kind of like a celebration ;- ) 

The other day I shared some roses, so today I thought I'd share some visitors to my flowers with you.

 Notice the center of it's back. How feathery it is. Click on photo to enlarge.

 Look at that face \. ./

     Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment, so that I know that you were here ;- ) Have a blessed day!

Purple Wishes for a birthday

    Well, if it didn't happen again, sheeesh, but after the headache and the holiday, I now have a card to share. So, without any ado, here is a birthday card for a friend I've known since 2nd grade (I won't say how many years that is ;- ) She is also my son's Godmother. You might be able to guess, her favorite color is purple.  I loved the papers from Basic Grey's Wisteria stack for her from the minute I saw the stack and then I ran across some dimensional stickers from K & Company, that went well with some of the papers and also were purple and sparkly (Botanical.) So I took these and cut the sentiment from Cricut's Lyrical Letters cart to make the front.

     In order to attach the sentiment, I used a great product that I first learned about from Diane at Capadiadesigns who does a lot of wonderful creative cards. It's called LetraTac and it's sheets of adhesive dots. The dots are very small and I use them the same way Diane did here, by just putting the item I wish to glue on the sheet, burnishing it, then removing it from the sheet and attaching to the card. The item will pick up the very small dots of glue and the rest of the sheet will retain it's glue and can be used again. I got mine from Dick Blick's Art Supplies. I'm lucky and have one locally, but you can also get it online. I do have a Xyron, but find it works best on solid images. Here is a photo of the sheet showing how little I used for this card (I also used a bit to do the straps of the flip-flops, 5 posts ago.)

You can put the letters where you want to use the paper efficiently. The shiny white parts are the remaining glue dots that I can use next time. The "B" is right side up, the other pieces were done sideways. 

The smallest pack came with 10 sheets. It will last me forever, ha ha.

     The inside of the card was matted with Core'dinations and done digitally in PrintShop. The font used is Chaucer, which is a free font and the closest I could had to the style of the sentiment on the front. I added more of the K & Company embellishments and a strip of the wisteria paper.

     The next card will be for her son. Yikes, he's going to be 30! Can't be. We were babies 30 years ago. 

     Remember, if you haven't checked out http://cutterfreebies.creativebusyhands.com you should. She has freebies from around the web each week and there are some really cute SVG's there this week. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my card. Please leave me a comment. They really mean so much to me - just knowing you were here : - >

Stop and smell the roses.

     The card I have for today, was made for a dear friend's daughter. I prepare you, for when you read the sentiment on the inside ;- ) I'm sure I will be getting a call from her mother, who was the Matron of Honor at my wedding. The image is a Hero Arts stamp and I painted it with water colors. I added and embellishment from Creative Charms. The pattern paper is from Paper Studio, as is the paper strip I used for the sentiment. I used a glitter pen over the blue Happy Birthday words and it darkened the whole look of the sentiment a bit too much, so I added the white dashes with a white Signo Gel pen to the top and bottom of the sentiment.

     I did struggle with what to write on the inside. It is the hardest part of making cards for me. Everything always seems so trite. Maria still has one of the first digital cards I ever made, going back to the Mac II with the first version of Print Shop, on a very dottie, dot matrix printer (maybe 26 years.) She also is the first recipient, of the first cut and pieced card I ever made, which was for her wedding shower (2 1/2 years ago). That's a lot of written sentiments. This sentiment was done digitally with a combination of Print Shop, using LD Penelope from Lettering Delights for the font and Photoshop Elements, using Inobscuro roses brushes to make the rose background. I "stamped" the rose, used the find edges filter with a darker color and then dragged it into Print Shop. I think it gave a very nice and artistic effect. I went over the rose outlines with a clear glitter pen. You can see the glitter better in the second photo of the inside, which has the colors wrong because of the setting sun, but does show the effect of the glitter. Just noticed, while looking at the photo, the font used for "Maria" is Black Rose. It's a free font that you can get from any number of free sites. I also went over the "29" with a gel pen.

 Click to make larger

Click to make larger - then you can see the glitter better, so I don't sound crazy ;- )

     As long as I'm talking about roses, Here are a few photos I took yesterday, of the roses from my new bush that we planted this year. OK, in the vase there is a ringer as well ;- ) I love the ruffled petals on this yellow rose.

     Thanks for coming by and spending some time here today. Please leave a comment. They really mean a lot to me. Have a blessed day!