Heavy Metal

I hope you’re sitting down, two posts from me in one day – that hasn’t happened in a very lo-o-ong time.  If you’ve been following my blog for awhile you know how much I love Bugaboo images and when I saw the challenge this morning from Catch the Bug, I wanted to make sure and play along with this one.

I combined two Bugaboo digi stamps to make this darling scene.  I colored the image with copic markers and added brads to the center of the flowers for the “Heavy Metal” elements for this weeks challenge.

This is the type of card I enjoy making the most – minimal embellishments, using copics, having a fun image to color and of course DP – LOVE, LOVE, LOVE DP.  I love the look of the heavily embellished cards but I struggle to make them.  I’ve always had difficulty arranging flowers in a vase and it is just as hard for me to make them look pretty on a card, too!

I used a LOTV stamp for the sentiment, punched out the border and added a ribbon to finish the card.

Thanks for stopping by – hopefully you’ll stop back again soon!  Dee

Other Challenges:

Scrappy Frogs – Summer Flowers     Stamps R Us – Throught the Garden Gate

The Paper Shelter – The Color Green      Do it with Digi’s – Summer Fun

Meljens – 1 bow, 3 brads & a Circle      Critter Sketch – Happy Birthday to Me

 

In the News…

I seem to get most of my news from the homepage of our internet browser – if there is anything that peeks my interest I will watch the nightly news.  It’s sad to say but unless it’s local news, it’s old news by the time it shows up in print in the newspaper.

How many of you still receive a daily newspaper? I have to admit that even though we do receive a daily newspaper, the only ones that really get read are the ones we get on the weekend – love the Sunday paper!  It’s a perfect Sunday morning when I get to grab the paper still dressed in my jammies, a freshly brewed cup of coffee in one hand and a light breeze blowing  as I read the paper on the porch swing.  I’m hoping tomorrow morning will be one of those mornings!

Today’s card started out with inspiration from Simon Says Challenge this week to incorporate newspaper; either actual newsprint or an image with a newspaper.  I’m using the sketch from CPS Card Sketches for this week.

I had the perfect stamp from LOTV to use for my card, I think it is so sweet how the little one is lovingly giving a gift to his dad.  The stamp was so easy to color!

The DP is from DCWV paper stack, Celebration.  Sorry, I can’t remember where I got the metal gift embellishment, I found it in my stash of things to use up.  I tried to stay away from flowers and use more masculine products!

The sentiment is a PTI stamp  from the #4 Fillable Frames stamp set.

I hope you enjoy viewing my card as much as I had fun making it.  Have a great weekend – stop back again soon!  Dee

Other Challenges:

Sentimental Sunday’s – For the Men in our Lives     Die Cut Dreams – Animal Antics

Clear it Out – Anything Goes      Creative Card Crew – Animal Antics

Fab ‘n Funky – Animal Magic     Cute Card Thursday – For His Eyes Only

Stampin’ for the Weekend – Paws for Thoughts      I Did it Creations – Animals

Totally Papercrafts – One for the Boys

Enjoy Your Day

Wow! Can you believe it’s been two weeks since our last challenge at Aud Sentiments? The summer is just flying by – hopefully you all are getting a chance to enjoy the warmer weather, I know I am.

Our sponsor for the next two weeks is Just Some Lines, they have some super cute and whimsical digi stamps to choose from – be sure to check them out.

The challenge for the next two weeks is Enjoy Your Day!

Today I’m putting just a bit of spin on my card.  At first glance it looks like an ordinary card but when you prop it up, it becomes an easel card.

The DP is from DCWV’s Celebration paper pad – I just love the turquoise and orange color combination, it’s is so bright and cheerful.  How about my buttoned up flowers, they’re from Wild Orchid.  I think the bakers twine is the perfect embellishment to tie these two panels together.

The sentiment was printed from the computer and cut out using a PTI die, I then doodled around the edge to dress it up a bit.

I hope I’ve inspired you to join us this week for our Enjoy Your Day Challenge at Aud Sentiments – I can’t wait to see what you create!  Dee

Other Challenges:

Totally Papercrafts – Girly Girls     Birthday Sundaes – Anything Goes

Just Some Lines – Easel      One Stitch at aTime – Flowers

Craft Your Passion – Text It     Lollipop – Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly – Getting Cute     Southern Girls – Happy Birthday

Keep on Truckin’

I hope you are having a fantastic weekend – we are sunny and in the 90’s with humidity right around 80%, feels a bit muggy but I’ll take it  over snow anyday.

In the sport section of our newspaper they do a flashback to what happened 10 years ago and 25 years ago on that date.  To my surprise, I saw my son’s name detailing one of his high school baseball games where he hit a home run.  I’m not sure where those 10 years went any that got me reminiscing about his boyhood days.

Isn’t this a great stamp from LOTV to use when making a card for a boy?  Some of the kids’ favorite toys have been the large boxes their gifts have come in – not the toy itself!

I’m using the sketch for this week’s challenge at Sketch ‘N Stash.  I used several different papers from the Marjolaine line from BasicGrey.  For some reason, I thought it would be fun to try some stitching for this project.  I used to sew a lot years ago but I can see there is a technique to sewing with paper – I’m definitely going to need to practice a bit more to get this down.  I resorted to faux stitching on the photo mat.

I’m not entire happy with how this card turned out but the cute image makes up for lack of sewing skills.  I do think the screw brads give the card a bit more of a masculine feel.  I’m glad you stopped by – I hope you’ll stop back again soon!  Dee

Other Challenges:

Crafty Creations – Boys to Men      Creative Inspiration – No Flowers Allowed

Simon Says – Anything Goes      Crafty Sentiments – Use Stitching

Paper Crafting Journey – For a Guy     Sweet Stampin – One for the Boys

Totally Gorjuss – All About Boys     A Gem of a Challenge – Let’s Hear it for the Boys

Give a man a fish…

Hello!  Today I finally had a chance to make a card just for the fun of it.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE to make cards for my DT’s but it’s also fun to play along with some of the other challenges out there.  So many great challenges – so little time.

I saw this sketch at The House That Stamps Built’s challenge blog.  A good friend of mine is celebrating his birthday and I looked through my stash of cards and I only have a few cards with a masculine theme so I decided to start from scratch and make one just for him.

I’ve been a fan of Bugaboo Stamps since they made their arrival on the digi scene a year and a half ago.  Today I’m using one of their newer images, Gus Fishing.  Once again Jodi has combined the image with a humorous sentiment.

I thought I had some fish buttons but I must have used them on another project so I used a couple of fishes from an image from Digi Design House’s soon to be released Summer Fun stamp set.

I embossed the panels behind the image using a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Thanks for stopping by – I hope you’ll stop back again soon!  Dee

Other Challenges:

Do You Stack Up – Squares     Stamp Something – Digi Day

Stampin for the Weekend – My Favorite Things (Bugaboo Stamps)

2 Sisters – Birthdays     Catch the Bug – Anything Goes

Digis with Attitude – Anything Goes     Stamptacular Sunday – Seeing Double (fish)

 

 

Arboretum Collage

Happy 4th of July!  We are having the most wonderful weekend here – the weather is just gorgeous, it’s sunny with just a slight breeze!

As a new week begins, so does a new challenge for you from Digi Design House.  This is a fun one – we want to see a “Handmade Flower” somewhere on your project/card.  There are so many different techniques now to making one’s own embellishments.

I must admit my Handmade Flower isn’t probably the most technically advanced but I think it works really well with the image I used.  The base of the flower was die cut using felt and a Marianne Designs die cut.  I topped the felt flower with a Wild Orchid flower and a button.

The digital stamp I used is Arboretum Collage from Digi Design House. If you remember a couple of weeks ago I dug out my Prismacolor Pencils and this image was just screaming for them.  I added a few warm tones near the base of the tree – do you think it looks like a sunrise?  I hope so as that is what I was striving for.

I printed the image out two times.  The first time, I printed the image on kraft paper.  I cut out the image and ran a white ink pad around the edges and then lightly swiped it across the entire stamp.  I really like the look of the white ink on the kraft paper!

The second time I printed the image on white PTI cardstock and colored the image using Prismacolor pencils and OMS to blend the colors together.  Okay, I have to admit it – this was actually the third time I printed off the image.  I printed the image on kraft paper and colored it using the Prismacolor pencils but it looked too muted and muddy for me so I opted for coloring on the white cardstock.

After I colored the image, I cut out just the center image and matted the image and adhered it to the card using foam dots to raise the image off of the card just a bit.

If you’re new to my site, this type of layout is my way of using all of those square layouts.  The card hinges and opens to reveal a square area to write one’s sentiment.

I added some twine to the left section of the card, topped it with my “Homemade Flower” to complete my card.

I’m so glad you were able to stop by and visit – I hope I’ll see your “Homemade Flowers” at our Digi Design House Challenge!  Dee

Other Challenges:

Digi Doodle – Anything Goes     Hannah and Friends – For a Man

Moving Along with the Times – Here Comes Summer      Lollipop – Anything Goes

Paper Crafting Journey – Anything Goes     Crafty Catz – Colors of Summer

One Stitch at a Time – Use a Digi Stamp     Craft Your Passion – Anything Goes

Lavendar and Lemon

Greetings, hope you’re having a wonderful day!

I need to explain to my faithful subscribers what has been happening to a couple of posts that have disappeared before you’ve had a chance to see them.  The first two were posts that I should have made to another site I have.  I’m trying to organize a family reunion that we will be hosting in August – I certainly didn’t need to bore you with those details.  The card that briefly went up on Monday was pulled as it will post on the 4th of July.  I failed to submit my DT card in time to make Monday’s Digi Design House challenge for this week – I had it done three weeks ago, so much for trying be organized! Check out all the great cards so far for the Homemade Flower challenge at DDH!

I wanted to spend my off day in my craft room but I had dental cleaning first thing this morning – after running a few errands it was already noon.  Why does it seem that time passes so much quicker when we’re not at work?

I quickly went through a few of the challenges that were issued today and a couple of them really caught my eye.  Simon Says is challenging us to use the colors Lavendar and Lemon – so far pretty easy.  Now what sketch to use – I decided to use this sketch from Fab and Funky which coordinated perfectly with The ABC Challenge – “X” is for crossing ribbons!

I inked up one of my new LOTV stamps and colored it using copics (two of my favorite things). I added a few Wild Orchid flowers to complete my card.  I embossed the background cardstock with Budding Vine, a Craft Concepts embossing folder using my Cuttlebug (another favorite thing).

I’m glad you were able stop by and visit for a few minutes, please stop back again, soon!  Dee

Other Challenges:

Timbroscrapmania – In the Garden     Stampin for the Weekend – My Favorite Things

By the Cute & Girly – In the Garden     Secret Saturday – Embossings

The Shabby Tearoom – My Favorite Things     Stamps R Us – There was a Little Girl

All-American Boy

It wasn’t until my hubby mentioned this morning that I realized the 4th of July holiday is next weekend.  May be it’s because it has been so cool and rainy here – it feels more like springtime than summertime.

It should have dawned on me when I saw all of the Red, White and Blue challenges right now 😉

I’ve had this LOTV stamp for awhile now and it seemed like the perfect time to ink it up and use it with this week’s sketch challenge at LOTV.  I colored the image with copics and added a few button embellishments along with a computer generated sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!  Dee

Challenges:

Cards 4 Men – Stars      Penny’s Paper-Crafty Challenge – Red, White and Blue

Pal’s Paper Art – Stars      Paper Play – Stars and Stripes

Craft Us Crazy – Red, White and Blue      Card Crafting Mamas – Red. White and Blue

Polka Doodles – Red, White and Blue      Stamp Something – Red, White and Blue

Stamptacular Sunday – Stars and Stripes

Oh so Sweet…

Happy Sunday to you all!

Let me start off by apologing for not posting much this past week.  I’ve been a bit preoccupied by the major flooding that is occurring 100 miles to the north of where we live in Minot, ND.  I lived in Minot for over 15 years and my husband is from that area.  We still have family and friends that live there so I’ve been glued to the television watching the coverage of the devestation that is happening.

Yesterday I received some stamps that I ordered from Lili of the Valley and that was the motivation I needed to head up to my craft room.

I started off with this great inspirational photo from The Shabby Tearoom – the challenge also is to incorporate Polka Dots &/or Gingham, how fun is that?

Picture Perfect has a similar color inspiration photo – love it when I can combine challenges – don’t you?

I then chose this sketch from Creatalicious:

I looked through all of my designer papers and I couldn’t believe it when I couldn’t find any gingham paper.  I really didn’t want to head in to town to look for paper when I thought I’d try using digital papers.  I found this wonderful collection, Cherry Blossoms from Nitwit.  I’ve only used digi papers once before and I can’t believe I haven’t discovered how easy it is to use them.  The best part is, everything is color-coordinated – loved it!  I could print off just what I needed – no wasted pieces that I never know what to do with.

For the top embellishment; I colored the flower with copics to better match the papers, the swirls are using a Marianne Designs diecut and I added gem to the center of the flower and on each of the swirls.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for being so patient with my lack of postings!  Dee

Other Challenges:

Everybody Art – Anything Goes

Paper Crafting Journey – Anything Goes

Crafts and Me – We’re in Stitches (sentiment)

Creative Inspiration – Stitiching

Happy Birthday Zach!

Wow, I can’t believe baby Zach is a year old already.  Zach is the sweetest, calmest baby in the world – he rarely if ever cries and he always has a smile on his face.  I just love him to pieces – I am one lucky gramma!

I was trying to decide what image to use for Zach’s 1st birthday when I remembered this adorable digital stamp from Mo’s Digital Pencil.  This little guy reminds me so much of Zach, just a cuddle bug.  The challenge this week at DP2 is “A Recipe for Friendship” – for Zach his best friend is his brother Toby and then after that just about anything he can cuddly up with.

I used the sketch from this weeks challenge at Sketch and Stash:

I snuck my sentiment in on the embossed #1 that I cut out using my Cricut.  The DP is from One Heart…One Mind.

I added Wild Orchid flowers and topped them with buttons and a few leaf punches from an EK Success punch.

I lightly sponged some shading around the image to give the illusion of matting.

I’m glad you stopped by and I hope you’ll stop back again soon!

Other Challenges:

Cupcake Craft Challenge – Things with Tails     House of Gilli – Use Buttons

There She Goes – Milestones      Penny’s Paper-Craft – Best Friends

The Paper Shelter – Celebration       Charisma Cards – How Old?

Pal’s Paper Art – Signature Style (matting DP – love it)      Little Miss Muffet – Numbers

Do it with Digis – Animal Magic       Card Making Mamas – For a Child

Stampin with the Dragon – Friendship