Easel card for a challenge.

     Hey, long time no see >.< Sorry about that. I have been working on a card for my college students and three have been mailed, but I forgot to take photos of them (hurrying to get those out the door, my son comes home on Friday, Yippeee!) Should have more of them done soon and then I'll post those (only 11 more to go, hee hee.) They are cocoa cards.

     Today's card is for the Progressive Challenge over at Crafter's Digital Art Center (here.) This is the last leg of this group of the Progressive, so you can get in the next round, if you would like to join. We get they greatest images to work with and the next group is free as long as you use one from the current group in a project within the challenge period (usually 2 weeks.) The first group is free and if you missed the first group you can join in for $1 and as I said we will be starting with a new first group on March 1st.

     From the title, you can tell todays' card is also an easel card ;- ) You are a quick group!  I used the image provided by A Day For Daises which is perfect for a card for my best friend from grammar school's daughter. I colored in in PhotoShop Elements. The only thing fancy was a multi-bristle brush you would find in the Assorted Brushes at the bottom left. It kind of looks like half a squiggly doodled spider, LOL. I used that with hair highlights and lowlights and dabbed or stippled with it on a base colored hair to make the hair look more realistic. I just kind of messed around with it until I got something I liked. You have to love that undo button. Only remember with doing this dabbing you can only undo so far (depending on how many levels of undo you have set) and you might dab a lot of times, if you use a small brush which will look better.

     The solid color papers are from Core'dinatiions and the pattern paper is from Paper Studio's Four Seasons paper pack, which is available at Hobby Lobby and has so many great patterns. I cut the scalloped circle with Quick Kutz Nesting Circle Dies, but I cut the circle with the Martha Stewart Circle Cutter, because I didn't want a circle as large as the one that came with the Quick Kutz set. For the oval sentiment I used Nestabilities Large Oval and Large Scalloped Oval. I inked the card edges and the image with Dusty Concord Distress Ink. The image also has some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink on it. I wanted to know back some of the starkness of the white. The sentiment is from Hero Arts Sweet Wonderful You and is stamped with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. The ballet slippers with the bow is a free SVG from SVG Cuts, which I used Sure Cuts A Lot 2 and my Expression to cut. They have lots of free images and the ballet slippers are still available here.  You can check out SVG Cuts here. There is a link to the Sure Cuts A Lot software on my sidebar. I inked the edges of the ballet slippers and the bow with a Copic to give it more dimension and popped up the bow.

     Thanks for fluttering by today. I'm really glad that you were here. I do love reading your comments. Please leave one before you go ;- ) Have a wonderfully creative week!

Two posts in one day ;- )

     Ha! bet you thought I wouldn't be back, well here I am and I will be posting twice because I have 2 challenge deadlines today (did I hear someone say, ahhh, that's why... hmmm.) Well, I've been busy playing scrabble and monopoly and going to the movies and just spending time with my family and friends, while my son was home. Then, there is always a let down after he returns to college. I'm suppose to use this blog and the card making to help me get past that, but I didn't fee like it, so there! I actually have been busy editing photos in Photoshop and I do have another card and a gift holder I made to show you, but I will keep those for maybe tomorrow. We don't want to overload you all in one day ;- )

     The first challenge is CDAC (Creative Digital Art Center). You'll find us here. I used the snow globe image from Crafty Ann's (only, wait, you can't see that yet.) They had provided a number of other nice images that you could pair with it, but since I have a friend whose birthday is coming up and she loves penguins (her name is Gwyn and that is how she explains to people how to pronounce her name correctly, not Gwen), I figured I'd use Meljen's Penguin's Little Letter image to go with it. This will fit her challenge "Anything Goes" so I'll enter it there too ;- ) The images were colored in Photoshop. The black card stock is Core'dinations Black Magic and is embossed with Sizzix's snowflakes. I cut the hole with Martha's circle cutter. I set up the words and the heart on the Gypsy. The letters, except for birthday, are from the Cricut Plantin Schoolbook cartridge and "birthday" is an element from the Cricut Sweet Treats cartridge. The heart was cut from card stock from the Peppermint Forest pack.

front

     I wanted the inside of the card to have a surprise, so that is where the snow globe image can be seen. The sentiment is my own, done in Print Shop. The fonts are LD dabble from Lettering Delights,  Kauffman (the script) and wm Christmas3 for the  skating penguin. You can get it as a freebie here. I added glitter pen to the base of the snow globe and Martha Stewart fine crystal glitter to the snow at the base of the penguin.

 inside card

close-up of image inside card

     This would also make a nice Valentine card. Please leave a comment, because I love to hear from you.  I'm also entering this into the challenge at Going Buggy here for grey (black)/ red/ white. Read the next post for the challenge from The Outlawz.

All with the help of my elves!

     Well, we finished the Christmas card on Thurs. and I finally found a moment to post it :- ) I have to give the credit to my DH elf for cutting the scallop from Recollections paper with the large nestabilities die (as well as scoring and folding all 40 cards, following through on the tree decorating when it stalled and signing all the cards.) My DS elf embossed the snowflakes and corner rounded the sentiment, as well as spraying the image with Crafter's Companion Spray & Sparkle Iridescent glitter varnish (gotta love him ;- ) The image and the sentiment are both from Meljen Designs and were colored in Photoshop. The pattern paper is a digital paper from Bits and Bobs and is part of a free sampler. I'm giving you the direct link to the free sampler I used, but here is a warning: I found the sampler from a direct link and when looking for it, for this post I found that this site does have kits that link to adult content (there is a warning), so you might want to be prepared or just go to the direct link, if you are interested in the paper and the matching embellishments. So you've been warned!

  
     I didn't take a photo of all 40, because there was no place to set them all up ;- ) At this point, I decided to diverge from my usual path, and just stamp on the inside with out adding any other paper (need to be quicker and simpler.) The sentiments are from Clear Dollar Stamps's Christmas Blessings and were embossed with holographic embossing powder. Now here are some stamping tips:
1) You will get ink on your fingers every time you touch the stamp block or stamp pad
2) Ink that doesn't wipe off will always come off on white cardstock when you touch it  >.<
3) you should totally wash your hands with soap & water and wipe the stamps every 4-5 cards (not      really moving fast, but very important!
4) A damp cloth to wipe your fingers with after touching the stamp &/or stamp pad will keep down finger smudges on your cards
5) ink smudges are a naturally occurring phenomenon on cards and only add to the beauty and value of your card (just like those tags on clothes)
6) forget perfectionism or you will never finish ;- )

     Yes, of course, I showed you the best one. I'll be entering this in Stamping With the Dragon's challenge which has anything to do with snow. Thanks for coming by. I hope you and your family have the most Blessed of Christmases. Please leave a comment before you go. I really love to hear from you!

Elves have been sighted ;- )

     Elves have been getting busy. One is working on the tree and the college elf has been spraying glitter for the Christmas cards and has learned to use a corner rounder ;- ) Amazing growth, that college brings, ha ha. However, today's item, is still not our Christmas card. Instead, it is a square tag that I made using the image from the Freebie Challenge at The Outlaws due, surprise, today!

     The image is from Anne's Digital Design by Anne Fenton. You can find her blog here, where she often offers some great freebies. I colored it digitally in PhotoShop. The red cardstock is from Core'dinattions and the pattern paper is from DCWV Holiday Christmas Stack. I just happened to pick up the ribbon this week from Michael's this week, on sale. The sentiment is from Inkadinkado and I embossed it with Kaleidoscope embossing powder.  I went over the sign with a glitter gel pen and added Diamond Glaze to the berries (it appears it's not dry >.<) A nice, very simple tag, where you can put the To: and From: info on the back.

     I'd like to go back to cutting down our tree next year. Just shopping for it, as we have the past couple of years (partly due to the surgeries) causes us to go out for it later and the pickings are slimmer and I don't get to enjoy looking at it as much.  Hope your holiday preparations are coming along on schedule. Thanks for taking the time to stop by. Please leave a comment before you dash off. I really appreciate them. Have a holly, jolly weekend ;- )

14 tags and the Cookies are on the Way for Finals! Also Freebie links!

     Well, you're probably wondering were I've been. the party's over and no word from me. I did also have a birthday this week and then I heard then some of my college students were on their way home this weekend!!! Yikes! The cookies haven't gone out, what is happening with this thing called time? Now I don't know what is happen to the college system, but it seems some of them just had to write mostly papers, instead of actually taking finals. What's with that. Don't they know it takes me time to make the 14 tags and mail the cookies? It takes days just to go over all of the possibilities of things that could be used on a tag!

     I finally narrowed it down to cutting the front of the tag with the Cricut's Christmas Cheer cartridge using the Joy tag. I used Design Studio to size it and lay it out with 3 tags on an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of cardstock. Seemed like a good idea, until I went to cut the solid back and Design Studio can't hide the cuts (contours) of the word JOY to make a solid tag, so I had to do the backs with the Gypsy and due to the way the one program allows you to do the size verses the other, the backs are just a bit smaller. Should have used the Gypsy for both parts. The Baby Jesus in the manger is an SVG purchased from Svgcuts.com and is part of the set O Holy Night and cut it with Sure Cuts A Lot. You can find the link on my sidebar. The sentiment is a digital image from Meljen's Designs that I got as a freebie. You can find her images here. She usually has freebies on Mondays. The red paper is a digital paper freebie from Papercraft Inspirations Issue 94 (online). Go here and the click downloads to check out all of their goodies ;- ) Are you beginning to see a bit of a trend, ha ha. I love freebies! The green paper, between the front and back tag is from Sue at PSP Crafting Gallery. You can find her freebies and those of some others here.  The final freebie is the ticket, which is a Member freebie (membership is free), from Crafter's Companion on the UK site, here. It's part of the Nov. set.  The digital freebies include papers, digital ribbons, tags, buttons and other elements all designed to go together. There is a new set every month. Most of the tag was embossed with Sizzix's Snowflake folder from the Christmas set (thanks hubby for helping out!) Yes, my DH know how to run the Big Kick ;- ) Everything was inked with distress inks to make them pop a bit and there is glitter pen and white gel pen on the holly berries.

     On the back, the gold metallic embossed sentiment is from Hero Arts and the rest is inked with Fired Brick distress ink.  The ribbon is from Michaels.

And here they are with their cookies, waiting to get boxed up.

     Here are a couple of photos of the food from our party. We did it mostly potluck this year for the first time. Yummy!

And finally, this is what you might have taken home if you participated in our White Elephant ;- )

     Thanks for dropping by and making all the way through the post ;- ) Have a wonderful weekend and please leave a comment before you go. They really mean so much to  me!

Creative Freebie Challenge at The Outlawz

     Well, here I am at another deadline, only this time I have no clue where the time went. I really love the images that we were given and I'm feeling bad that I just remembered today that it's the 19th, because I wanted to send more time with whichever image I chose. You know, do it's wonderfulness some justice.  I had planned on coloring it non-digitally, but with the short time, digital it is. I used a pattern on the top of the stocking to give it a more fuzzy feel. The wonderful image is by Sandi Huggett.  The papers are from K &Companies Peppermint Twist Specialty papers from last Christmas and some cream cardstock I had on hand which was embossed with snowflakes from the Sizzix Christmas folder set from last year.  The top of the stocking is stamped with a stamp by Inkadinkadoo from Christmas Wishes and embossed with Kaleidoscope powder. The inside of the card is unfinished, because I'm not sure who I'm going to send it to or if it will be a birthday card. I embellished the pink border snowflakes with Viva Decor Pearl pens. Sorry, for the poor quality on the photo, but I ran out of daylight :- (  You should come and join us at The Outlawz!

     I also went to Archiver on Fri, before going to get my son from college, and made their Make-N-Take.  I ended up rushing home, hoping that I wouldn't get all of the glitter all over the car >. > then the photo ornament might show my photo at my memorial service, if my hubby found red glitter glue all over the seats. Ha Ha! Here is a photo of the tag. Of course, every time I touched them, I had glitter glue on me!

    The photo ornament photo didn't turn out well, so I'll try to re-take it and post it another time (must have been all of the glitter.)  Thanks for stopping by and please, leave a comment before you move on. I really love to hear from you. Have a blessed Sunday!