Cocoa cards on their way to college ;- )

     Well, the cards have been on their way for a few days now, but my husband believes in sharing and shared his nasty cold virus with me (which may have some home from college in the first place with our son, but he doesn't usually get very sick.) There are 14 cards in total, but only 10 were still here for there photo shoot ;- ) The cards for the guys all use the same pattern paper, while I use a few different pattern papers on the ones for the gals.

     The image is from Bugaboo Digi Stamp and I won it during a blog hop from Cely (Creating in Carolina) back during Christmas in July. I colored it digitally, which sure makes making multiples easy ;- ) and cut them out with the large oval nestability. The pattern papers are all from DCWV Holiday Collection Christmas Stack. The mats are a Bazzil paper from Archiver. The ribbon was scavenged from boxes of Godiva Chocolates over many years ;- ) (Yea! Hubby) I used Viva Decor Pearl Pens, to add the pearl dots, on the sentiment, which is from Hero Arts Big Hugs (stamped with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and clear embossed) and also Sickles on the hearts for the gal cards, but only Stardust pens by Sakura to the hearts on the guy cards. Oh, and of course there is inking! The oval for the sentiment was cut on the Cricut using the Gypsy and Accent Essentials, after making sure the keep proportions was unchecked. A friend came over the first day and helped me cut our all of the images, mats, paper and card bases, so a special shout-out to Diana for her help!!!! Her daughter will get her card this week ;- )

     On the first cards, which went out before I took photos, I used pattern paper on the inside, but realized that the sentiment inside covered so much, that it was a waste, so I then just used more of the Bazzil card stock to mat the sentiment. The fonts in the sentiment are LD Penelope (from Lettering Delights) and Kingthings Christmas (the snowy font, available as a freebie Here or at dafont, but dafont was down for maintenance when I went to link to them.) I had added a post-it to the cocoa, because it required the addition of milk instead of water and I wanted to be sure they noticed that. I embossed a stamp from Inkadinkadoo's Warm Holiday Wishes with silver glitter finish.

     Sorry, about the photo, but the sun came out from behind the clouds and I usually photo after the sun is well past this window, but they needed to get into their envelopes. I created eveloboxes with The Ultimate Crafter's Companion for each of these cards (sorry, I didn't photo them), so there was enough room for them to fit. My son said his college treated his card like a package and sent him an e-mail when it arrived and he had to pick it up from the package person.

     Hope your week is full of inspiration and warm weather. We are expecting great weather here ;- ) Thanks for stopping by and I'd appreciating hearing from you! Your comments mean so much to me. Feel free to ask me any questions too!

Progressive Challenge for chocolate and book lovers.

     Today's post is another bookmark using a Bugaboo freebie image from Creative Digital Arts Center's (CDAC) Progressive Challenge. You can join this series for $1 here and as long as you participate, the next set of images are free. I colored the image in PhotoShop Elements and got the reflective effect on the glasses by using the plastic wrap effect that's available in the Filters in PhotoShop. The print fabric was made by using the Abstract Flower brush which comes in PhotoShop. The background paper is Jenni Bowlin's Brown and Cream Collection from Core Impressions. I sanded it to bring out the design. The sentiment was done digitally in PhotoShop as well using the font SNF Jester Curls. You can find Scrap N Fonts here. I inked both the image and the sentiment (the sentiment more heavily) to knock down the whiteness of the paper with Tea Dye Distress Ink. I think this will make a great gift for a friend, shhhh ;- )

     Thanks for dropping in and checking out my newest challenge entry. Hope you had a great day. Please leave a comment before you go. they really make my day ;- )

Bugaboo is having a sale, prizes and there will be a new store.

     The link to the new store link is http://bugaboostamps.3dcartstores.com/ 

Please note this will change back to the Bugaboo address in a few days they will alert you when this happens and remind you to change your links.  They apologize for this minor inconvenience but trust them with the new store it is worth it!

First off for the month of May everything is 50 % off! So now is a great time to stock up. With the grand re-opening of the store they are offering up some wonderful prize packages for their loyal followers! You could be the winner of a $10 Gift Certificate, a $20 Gift Certificate, or you could be the lucky winner who gets 7 free images every month for the rest of 2011! That means you could be one of the lucky 8 winners! 

To add to the excitement Jodie says, every order placed in May will have their name placed in the pot for a chance to win one of five $20 gift certificates that she will be giving away at the end of the month!

So go check it out!

Bunny hopping for the guys.

     Well, I finished the card for the male college students on my list.  I basically just changed the colors on the front and used a different paper on the inside.

   Compare to the card for the gals from last post.

     If you hadn't read the earlier post, the pockets are for packets of Fun Dip. I've known these students since at least kindergarten. Most of them went to grammar school with my son.

     I thought I'd show you the background paper I made,  since you can't really see it with the images on the card. It's a great idea when you need paper and plain colored paper just won't do. Info in previous post (the boy's is gold perfect pearls however.)

     I've finished them all, up to the point of the water coloring. I have to mention that these Bugaboo bunnies are very mischievous. My husband cut out the bunnies (I was tired of cutting out black rectangles myself) and by the time he got upstairs to my craft room, 14 of the bunnies had disappeared. I know I had cut and scored all of the card bases ahead of time, so I could just assemble them all and when the time came, 5 bases were missing. I had the 2 1/2 inches of cardstock that was cut off of them, but they were nowhere to be found. <.< Very suspicious. I wonder were the bunnies put the cardstock and what they plan on doing with it?  Here is a photo of all of the finished cards together.

     Again, a special thanks goes to Creating in Carolina for the original idea. Today she has another cute card on her blog and a free jelly bean svg.  I'd also like to mention that Letraset is having a give-away, where you can win all 3 Promarker blending sets. Check out the details at this  Going Buggy post. Enfys always has some great inspiration on her blog too.

     Thanks for stopping by. Please, leave a comment if you have time. They really mean a lot. Have a week filled with joy and creativity!

Casing a Bunny ;- )

     Well this one, owes a special shout out to Carolina Girl, over at Creating in Carolina. She had such a fun card on her blog and I was just stuck on what to make for the college students for Easter. Sooo I cased her idea. You can see her card here. It just put such a smile on my face. I went and a bought the stamps from Bugaboo Stamps. I had found Fun Dip at Walmart last week and thought it would be fun to send the college students, in the pocket card, like I made for them before with a packet of cocoa.   It would bring back memories, from when most of them were in grammar school together. You can find the directions for making the pocket card here.

     I made the background papers, using Perfect Medium and a stamp by Studio G, then I added Perfect Pearls Opal, one row at a time. When the whole piece was done,  I spritzed some water into the air with a mini mister and ran the card stock through it. The Bugaboo bunny stamps were sized and colored in PhotoShop Elements 3. I noticed while looking at the picture, that this card has the one square, I missed coloring 2 of the dots. I'll have to fix that <.<

The sentiment is another  Studio G stamp and the sticker is from Sticko. The inside has paper that I had leftover, from covering large Hershey bars, for the daughters of one of my friends at Easter last year. Very handy! The sentiment is a Studio G stamp, embossed and I used my nestibilities. The stamp under the candy is from Craftsmart.

    
     The guy's version will be a bit different and I'll post it, when I get one finished. One done, 8 more to go ;- )  What would I do differently? Well, I wouldn't have used the bunny with the unpainted dots ;- ) My sunrise may look a bit like a sunset.  I did think about glossing there noses, but there are too many of them. Maybe if I was doing one card.  Nothing else, because I'm too close to it and have 9 to do total.
What do you think?

     Thanks again to Carolina Girl. Check out her great work, (the link was above and is also on my right margin.)  I just peeked over there and she's offering a free SVG, that's available for 5 days.  Thanks for stopping by and please comment if you have time. They really mean more than you know.