2nd Challenge in one day ;- )

     The freebie challenge is from The Outlawz and you can find us here. It looks like I goofed up though. I thought both challenges had given us extra time due to the holidays, but it appears the deadline was Jan. 1st for this image and I missed it. Oh well, here is my card anyway. I used one of the cupcake images that Anne Fenton created and colored it in Photoshop. I paired it with 2 patterned papers from Paper Studio and added ribbon from Michaels. I underlined the Happy Birthday on the one paper with a white gel pen and added an embellishment from Creative Charms (added - It's called Groovy Petals) that Diane from Capedia Designs sent to me. You can find a link to her wonderful blog here or on my side bar. I cut out Judy's name using my Gypsy and the Opposites Attract cartridge. Now, Judy does read my blog and I'm kind of bummed that she is going to see her card, so I'm not going to show the inside. We're not going to question whether or not the inside got finished in time. We are just not going to go there. Let's just say, her birthday is still a ways away and I don't want to spoil the surprise. 'nuf said OK!

     Thanks for dropping by and please leave me some feedback or a kind word ;- ) Have a wonderful weekend!

Anniversary Swirl

     Well, I'm still behind but I do have 1 card done ;- ) It's an anniversary card for a dear friend's (who I've known since 2nd grade and is my son's godmother) son and daughter-in-law.  I used the oval card in Cricut's Wild Card cart  (6 1/4 in. if you cut the envelope to fit a 12 in pice of paper) for this card and welded my own Happy Anniversary from the Plantin SchoolBook cart on the Gypsy using the Wisteria paper from Basic Grey adding a gem from Hero Arts for the dot in the  i and a flower from Creative Charms. In the nothing comes easy category of my life lately,  my Xyron was jammed, but fortunately the LetraTac came through for attaching the sentiment (see posts here, if you want to know more about LetraTac.)  To cover the window, I cut the blackout option and cut it in half, using only 1 oval here.

     On the inside, I made a digital sentiment using LDJ Jilligraphy font from Lettering Delights. You can find them at the affiliate link on my side bar. I also added a line element from Print Shop, which is what I laid it out in. I cut the sentiment with an oval nestibility and inked it with Distress Inks Peeled Paint and Concord Grape. The swirls are from the same Oval card in Wild Card, under the icon button and I used the Gypsy to reverse one of them. I added pearls to the ends.

     I made the matching envelope as well. I used the remaining oval, cut in half, in place of the envelope liner (I had a mail carrier to beat and waste not, want not ;- ) I might have blinged it up some if I wasn't in a hurry, but I do like the simplicity of the way it turned out, so maybe all in all it was a good thing. The green paper is Bazzil from Archivers.

     I will probably make, the now belated anniversary card that is left, the same, possibly in different colors. It will depend on what I find when I dig through the mess I made in my studio. I also will have to make a belated birthday card. She is such a good friend, she will understand and will probably get a call and maybe that will just be all she wants. She isn't a card sender, herself. Then I'm on to my next crazy bunch. I'm sure that I'm already running behind. >.< I know I need to make 2 groups to go out to the college students I send to.  I wanted to get them out before Halloween and I haven't updated my total to include the new freshman, so I don't even know how many I need to make. Though, I do know what I'm making. For the ones I sent to last year I have a design picked out and the new ones will get the same design I sent last year, ha ha!

  Thanks, as always, for stopping by. I'm glad you came.  Please feed my ego with a comment or ask any questions you might have ;- ) Have a blessed and creative day!
     

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!

Tiny Dancer!

     This card was made for the progressive challenge at Crafter's Digital Art Center (CDAC - find them here)  with the freebie image by WhoopsieDaisy Digital Stamps.  I colored the stamp using Photoshop Elements. I've never colored anything using Elements before and I like how she turned out. The scalloped mat is Core'dinations and the pattern paper is from Basic Grey's Wisteria Stack.  I colored the ribbon with a Copic because I didn't have any dark enough (the color matches better than it appears in the photo, sorry the camera I usually use is in Finland with my husband.) This was the first time I tried to make a pleated ribbon (another first, this is also my first challenge ;- ) All of the tutorials I've seen have you use a hot glue gun, but I decided to try it with Aileen's Tacky glue and it worked fine. The flower is from Creative Charms, just love them.  I stamped the sentiment with Dusty Concord from Ranger and a stamp from Clear Stamps.

     I haven't finished the inside like I usually do, because I'm not sure whom I'm giving this card to. I have a friend whose birthday is coming up, that this card would be great for (ok, now that's the 2nd time I dangled a preposition, it's beginning to annoy me), but I had a different card in mind for her, before I had to finish this image for the challenge. So, maybe I'll just finish this card up for her.

     What would I do differently? Well, I meant to corner round the card, but put the ribbon on the pattern paper, before I remembered and couldn't do it then. I think that would look nice with the ruffles and the flowers. I also thought this image might look nice on a round scalloped card.

     Thanks for stopping by and spending some time with me. Please, leave a comment so that I know you were here. Take some time to be creative today! Have a wonder-filled day.

Creating the Mystical Unicorn

     Today's card is for a little girl who is turning 5. Her favorite animal is the unicorn, so I decided to make it a shaped card. I used the unicorn from the  Cricut Paper Dolls Dress-Up cart. It's from the page with the pixi, I believe it's the 13th image. You're saying pixi? I know that's what I said, but I was just glad to have a unicorn. (I, too, thought it would be with the princess.) I used my Gypsy to make it a shaped card welding two unicorns (one flipped) with a small rectangle from Accent Essentials. I used pearlized cardstock  from Crafter's Companion, for the base because they have a nice sturdy cardstock (love this stuff) and I thought the pearlized finish made a nice card. I cut another unicorn  from white cardstock (hiding the eye cut - because I was going to use the gem, and some other cuts - I would have the Cricut draw) and before removing the mat (using the Gypsy) selected return to program, selected the parts I wanted drawn, replaced the blade with the Cri-Kits gel pen and selected cut again and added the lines to the unicorn. I re-cut part of the unicorn again using scrap paper with black Core'dinations where the hooves would be cut and stopped it after it cut the hooves. I was going to do the same for the horn with glitter cardstock, but decided to embossed it instead with an embossing pen and Kaleidoscope embossing powder. The mane and tail were embellished with Sparkly Fluff. I added a gem for the eye and the flower is from Creative Charms. The font is from the Storybook cart and welded on the Gypsy.

 Click photo for close-up, to see details

     I used Martha Stewart's circle cutter, to cut the circle, at 1 1/2 inches and embossed it with Divine Swirls.  I then inked it with Studio G chalk ink. The 5 was cut from the Storybook cart and they were popped up. The sentiment was made digitally and the fonts are Happy Birthday in Storybook and LD Farfetched for the rest, which is available from Lettering Delights (see the link on my sidebar - they also have graphics,  and SVG's .)  The hearts are Rain Dots from Cloud9 Design which is a Fiskers brand. and were a bit too peachy, so I colored them a bit with my Copics. The sentiment and it's mat were cut with nestibilities. This was popped up also, but not as high as the circle with the 5.

Click for a closer look.

     What would I do differently? I thought about putting a gold ribbon around the neck of the unicorn. I looked up photos and none of the unicorns had anything around their necks, except some had flowers. I guess you can't rope a unicorn ;- ) While doing this, (and I had suspected and was checking this also, but had already done the hooves) I noticed that none of the unicorns had black hooves (ok 1 or 2 may had), but white or pink ones. At this point, my son said to me, "Mom, unicorns aren't real. You can make them look any way you want!" These are the type of perfectionist details I'm suppose to be recovering from ;-) 

Later, when I was done I thought a dusting of Perfect Pearls over the body might have been a nice touch too. So these are some ideas for another time. I do think she will really like her card.

     Thanks for stopping by. Hope some of you are getting some cooler weather. We finally are. Who would have thought mid-80's would have been cooler ;- ) The front going through took my migraines with it, so good riddance. Please leave a comment. It just takes a moment and I really appreciate knowing you are out there. Have a wonder-filled weekend.

Birthday Honey Pop card.

     Well, there was some struggle involved with this card and I'm not sure I'm really totally happy with it, but I'm out of time. Maybe part of it was due to the headaches, or the heat or my having been gone from the "drawing board" for so long, but this did not come together easy.  I planned on using a Penny Black stamp of a bunny in a flower pot of pansies. Many of you know the one I mean. Well, I have no art training, so coloring that would take me a lot of time, which I was now running low on, so I decided instead to use the Inky Antics set Cupcake Birdie which goes with there Honey Pop honeycomb papers (you will see them inside of the card if you don't know them.) I still needed to decide the layout for the front of the card and papers were a stumper until I decided to use this element from the Cricut Imagine cart Better Together.

     This bow is one of the Icons. Now soon you will be saying (as soon as you see the card), but Debbie, I don't see this element on the card. Aha, just one of the many twists and turns of this card. So, since I was going to use this element, I decided to use the papers from the Better Together cart. Suddenly, my Imagine turned against me and declared my ink carts were missing, not low, missing. After arguing with it, reseating the carts, disconnecting the power (that will teach it to argue with me) and reloading the software (including an update), it seems the stubborn machine still couldn't find what was obviously there! No time to deal with customer service,  I changed the ink carts and will look into it more later. Have you had this problem? Please leave me a comment.

     With sanity restored, (it's mine is gone) I came up with this. I'd give you cut sizes, but my way  wasn't the efficient way to make this, if you hadn't guessed that already. More changes were made. The bow was replaced with the flower which is from Creative Charms, (love this). I added clear glitter gel pen accents to the flower centers on the background paper. The front I do like.

     Now the inside... The example from the company, just shows it on the main card stock, so I wasn't sure how well it would work if I glued paper through the center (would it close right? be too stiff? etc.) and didn't have time for experiments, so just went with that. I find that a bit plain though. I cut the bird and the main cherry from watercolor paper, after coloring with watercolor pencils. The stamped cherries are colored with red sharpies (liked the bright red) and green glitter gel pens. The sentiment, which comes with the set, is embossed with clear embossing powder.

     So there you go, a crazy odyssey of creative (I guess that's what it is) misadventures. Is that redundant? Well, it's late. So, I think the inside needs work, but I'm happy with the front. Always room for improvement ;- )

     Oh! meant to mention that Enfys has Blog Candy on her blog here!!! Check it out ;- )

     Thanks for making it this far, if you have. Please leave me a note. I love to hear from you. Have a Blessed  and safe 4th here in the States and a wonderful weekend elsewhere. Wave your flag with pride!