Friday, February 26, 2010

Sweet Fab Friday!

For this week's Fab Friday, I've found some soon-to-be-closing awesome blog candy to share with you.

The first blog candy can be found on Jacque's Joie de Vivre blog. Jacque is giving away some awesome candy to celebrate her spot on the Flower Soft dt.

One of my favorite online stores is 7kidscollege fund for the sheer variety of products and the great prices. Tabitha, the owner of 7kids, is offering candy on her blog for those who donate to Singleton Moms in support of her participation in the Lean on Me marathon. Your donation helps single moms fighting cancer AND gives you a shot at over $400 worth of blog candy.

Both of these blog candy drawing close Sunday, February 28th, so be sure to check them out soon!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Sweet Sketch Wednesday #38

It's Wednesday so it's time for another SSW sketch! This week's sketch is sponsored by My Grafico.



The design team was given images from the Zoom Vroom set. This little truck image seemed perfect for a little boy's birthdy card, so I chose primary colors for my card this wee:


Play along with the rest of the design team this week and you could win $10 in digis from My Grafico!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Simply Pink

The challenge this week on the DP2 Challenge blog was "Clean n Simple". I'm not a very "frou-frou" stamper, but this was a bit bare bones even for me! It made my choice of image really easy though. I chose "End of Summer" because the image is so complex - there are so many areas to color. It was also the perfect excuse to use pink (my favorite color) on my card. Several of my Copic markers went dry and I missed being able to use my favorite Begonia Pink and Tender Pink markers. I finally ordered some refills from Oozak & couldn't wait to break out my newly inked pinks! :)

(I used Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol on the sky and grass - my Copic collection is still pretty limited.)

Friday, February 19, 2010

Fab Friday - COPIC tutorials

I was doing a bit of surfing today and realized I hadn't visited the Magnolia-Licious site in a while. It's had a bit of a remake lately and there are some awesome tutorials for using your Copic markers!

Copic Tutorials

I've seen Suzanne's pdf tutorials before, but I hadn't seen her video tutorials. Suzanne's tutorials are really well made and she gives you lots of great tips. Enjoy!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Kraftin' Kimmie - Stash the Booy

Kraftin' Kimmie is celebrating a new release of pirate themed Moonlight Whispers stamps with a "Stash the Booty" challenge. I made this card for my mom for Mothers' Day. My mom loves roses and the color red.


There's a little tag on the right of the image that pulls out to reveal a sentiment. I knew I didn't want to make a monochromatic card and wasn't sure what color to use with it. I tried pairing red with PTI's Plum Pudding cardstock and found it made a good combination.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

DP2 Challenge #18

Things have settled down and I'm happy to be back participating in challenges again. Last week, I was able to participate in Mo Manning's DP2 Challenge and waited anxiously for the this week's challenge to be announced. Oh no! The new challenge was a color challenge - use red, white and pink along with a heart on your card. I love it! The problem was THIS was my card last week. Hmm, seems the red/pink/white/heart thing had just been done...

I still wanted to participate but didn't want to make a traditional Valentine card again. So, I came up with this card:


This is Valentines Day card that I'll put away to give my teenage daughter next year. I wanted the dog and cat to resemble our pets, so the dog has yellow Lab coloring and the cat resembles our cat Tiger. (That's Tiger you see up top in my blog banner. You can see a picture of Dixie on this post.) I had a lot of fun coloring in this image!

SSW 37

Here's this week's sketch which is being sponsored by Sally-Ann of DigiStamp Boutique.

For my card I used one of Sally-Ann's adorable new Easter images:

Isn't he just the cutest? This card makes me think warm and springy thoughts - something that is in short supply these days. I am so ready for winter to be over!

So, spring on over to the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog to see the other DT cards. Play along with us this week and you may just win a $10 gift certificate to the DigiStamp Boutique!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

DareU2Digistamp Challenge #31

This week's challenge on the DareU2Digistamp blog was to use punches in creating your card. I was still in the Valentines Day mood when I created this card, which includes 3 heart punch outs.


I used some of my favorite elements in this card - TAC's Scarlet cardstock, a scrap of Basic Grey Bittersweet dp, dark brown ribbon and the adorable Alfie from Digistamp Boutique. Alfie was one my first purchases from Sally-Ann's shop. He's just such a cool guy! :)

Speaking of adorable little guys, here's my foster dog, Lenny:

Isn't he cute? He's such a sweetie.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Light as a Feather...

I saw this challenge on the Copic Creations blog and had to participate for a chance to win that awesome set of Copic markers! The mistress of Copics herself, Marianne Walker, has a very helpful feather blending tutorial on her blog. My blending didn't come out nearly as nicely as hers, but it was a fun technique to try.

Image: Ruby Fairy from DigiStamp Boutique.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Fab Friday - Nesties storage

I just love my Nestabilities! They are hard to store, neatly, though. Here's a great idea for neat, travel-friendly storage:

http://melaniemuenchinger.blogspot.com/2009/01/binder-storage-for-nestabilities.htmlo

You can buy these plastic storage binders from several different companies, including The Angel Company. I already own a few of the larger binders for my stamp sets and really like them. I'm looking forward to trying this. The Ziploc bag I've been using just doesn't cut it anymore!

Fab Friday - Easter basket

When I was checking out challenge blogs the other day, I came across this great Easter basket tutorial:

http://justmagnolia.blogspot.com/2010/02/special-monthly-challenge-tutorial-by.html

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Sweet Sketch Wednesday

Hi there! Welcome to another Sweet Sketch Wednesday. This week's sketch is sponsored by Soft Pencil.


Here's my take on the sketch, using the adorable Michu and Michula.



The sentiment is a retired stamp from TAC that just happen to fit inside the heart perfectly.

Be sure to play along with the rest of the design team. you might be the lucky winner this week!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Snow Day, part 2

I took advantage of yet another snow day to make some more cards. This first card is for the current sketch challenge on the Sugar Bowl blog:


We also had to include lace and use Sugar Nellie images.

The second card is for Mo Manning's Digital Pencil 2 challenge blog. This week's challenge is "wood/would". I don't own any Digital Pencil images that I could incorporate into the wood theme, so I chose a "would you be mine" theme to celebrate Valentines' Day.

I just love this Keisha image! The patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Bittersweet collection. I just love BG papers!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Snow day!

Well, that figures. Just as I was rinsing the last of the conditioner out of my hair in the shower this morning, the radio announced a snow day. (And I'd even listened to the latest closings before hopping in the shower!) Oh well, the day off gave me a chance to work with this new image from DigiStamp Boutique. After all this cold and snow, the sunny Isabella is a welcome sight!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Gratitude

I have a lot to be thankful for this week. Not only did I get to keep my job next year, I got proof once again of how wonderful my co-workers are. They were so sweet when they found out I would still be there next year. One gave me a hug, another told me that he emailed the principal to tell him all I did for the department, etc. My bosses both deserve a big thank you for putting in a good word for me with the principal. So, I made thank you cards for both of them.


This first card is for my female boss. I used this adorable Ketto (sorry - don't remember which one she is) along with some scraps from my stash. For the layout, I used week's MojoMonday sketch. (I love this sketch! It was a lot of fun) The image was colored with Copics.


This is the card I made for my male boss. I don't have too many "guy images" but I thought this retired Western set from TAC would work. I used a scrap of TAC's Rustic Chic along with TAC's brown and kraft cardstocks. I always have a hard time with masculine cards. All the usual card embellies - flowers, ribbons, etc. - are too girly. I did have some antique metal brads and twine in my stash, though. I also used my Heidi Swapp distressing tool to rough up the edges a bit to give it a more masculine/rustic feel. The image is colored with Prismacolor pencils and a blender pencil.

I'm hoping for a more calm, less stressful work week this week. Have a great week!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Fab Friday

Well, this was not a fab Friday, to say the least. I found out today that I get to keep my job (yay!) but that a work friend did not. :-( I found out before she did and it really put me in awkward position since I wasn't allowed to say anything (not that I wanted to be the one to break the news anyway, but...). Ugh. So, this sunny little card is just what the doctor ordered:

The layout is based on a terrific sketch from the Magnolia Down Under challenge blog. I got this cute little Tilda image in a swap on Split Coast Stampers, so I'm not sure which one she is. I colored her in with Copics, cut her out and then glued her on the circle so her legs overlapped the ribbon.

Now for the Fab Friday section of this post! :) The center flower is a great little embellishment trick I learned from the uber talented Angel, Barb Foster. Check out this tutorial to make your own. It's fun!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge

This week's Kraftin' Kimmie challenge was to make an aperture card. (That's a fancy way of saying a card with an opening in it! lol) I made this card to give to a co-worker. We're having layoffs at work and we've both been uber stressed about it. Inside, I wrote "Hang in there".


Yes, I used the same papers as yesterday's card. What can I say? I love that paper and I hate putting away scraps. I'd rather use up most of the papers so I just have a few smaller scraps to put away. :)

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Shelly

Sally-Ann has been oh so busy over at the DigiStamp Boutique! Here's a card I made with the adorable Shelly.

I used some more of those wonderful Penny Lane papers that I used on my SSW/Digital Pencil card last week. The card base is made from PTI cardstock. The Hello stamp is a retired one from TAC. (I love those Swirly Greetings!) I hand cut the little tag but the photo corner is made with a punch from Stampin' Up!

You can find more Shelly images along with her adorable buddy, Murtle, here.

SSW35

Welcome to this week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge. Here's our sketch for this week, which is sponsored by The Stamping Boutique.


Here's my card:


Be sure to stop at the SSW blog to check out the other DT members' cards. The Stamping Boutique is giving away a great prize to one lucky winner, so be sure to join us in this week's sketch!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

A "Daring" Challenge

I'm trying to get back into the challenge swing of things, so I decided to check out one of my favorite challenge blogs, DareU2DigiStamp. This week's challenge was to make a Valentines Day card. How easy is that?! :)

I was working on a card for an upcoming SSW challenge but the image just wasn't working with the papers I'd chosen. Fortunately, I had already colored in this adorable Coco image from Digistamp Boutique. He was just perfect! I altered the sketch a bit and voila: