Refresh Me

That's the theme this week for the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog, and it's to be done by creating an all white card except for the image. Well it just so happens that white on white is one of my favorite things, so this was a fun challenge for me.

The image I picked from the Tiddly Ink Store is called Tiny Dancer. I colored her with Copics, and then colored her tutu and her headband with my Spicas. The glitter sheen doesn't show up in the picture, but it's there. I used my Martha Stewart ScorBoard to score the card front, and then the Martha Stewart Deep Lattice Edge Punch to punch a band to go across the card.

Before I took up card making, one of my favorite things to do was to create children's Heirloom clothing, using Swiss Batiste(think tissue paper thin fabric), French cotton laces and satin ribbons. That's the approach I took with this challenge. I have a smocking plate called Party Ribbons. The smocking on the dress is nothing more than row on row of wave stitch(basic smocking stitch), but what makes the dress is when you come back and weave ribbon through the waves. Well when I looked at the lattice, I thought why not weave the ribbon here. Then of course, I had to add some lace around the scalloped image. My sentiment was created simply in Word and says it all - Dance(another favorite thing of mine), so you see this was an all about me card.

Thanks for stopping in, and I love getting feedback.

No More Snow!

I've always said the only place I want to see snow is in Colorado during our ski vacation, and then I don't want it to snow while I'm skiing, just at night. Let's face it I'm a fair weather girl. Having said that the challenge over on the Sassy Cheryl's Challenge blog this week is Snow. Well living in Mississippi we rarely see snow and when it does snow, it's very short lived. How ironic that this challenge came right after two days of snow followed by days of temps that didn't get above freezing. In fact, we still have snow in the woods surrounding the house. I know I've never seen snow last a week in Mississippi. I promised myself I wouldn't complain about cold weather after the summer we had, but girls, I've got to tell you, I'm hanging on to that promise by a thread.

At any rate, since the challenge was snow, and I've had enough of it, I decided to take a bit of a snarky approach to the challenge. I've loved this image since I first bought it. She's the Sassy Cheryl Winter stamp. Knowing that Sassy Cheryl is feeling the same way I am about snow, I have her being pommelled by snow and cheering "No More Snow!" She's colored with Copics.

The paper is Snowy Background from Stamping All Day. I sprayed it with my Tattered Angels glimmer mist to give it some sparkle. I used my Cuttlebug and my Spellbinders snowflake dies to cut the snowflakes. I sprayed them with Quilters Baste and sprinkled on super fine glitter. Since I make cards for OWH and glitter is a no-no, it was fun to let glow with the glitz.

I'm glad you stopped by and I love hearing from you.

Stressed or Distressed or Both

Well, I'm definitely feeling the stress of being down to the wire on getting my challenge card posted to the Phindy's Place Challenge blog. The theme this week is to distress you card. Fortunately, distressed isn't also stressing me, but the fact that I'm a week late with a birthday card is. Guess where this card is going?

For my card I chose this image called Beary Beautiful. Isn't she lovely. I colored her with my Copics, and I think I can feel the breeze blowing her dress. Can't you? I have to tell you I CASED the card from Loupy Lou. Thank you Lou. I loved the torn section, and it screamed Distressed to me. Not sure where the paper is from, but I think it came out of a pad. It already looked distressed, I just used my deckle blade on my rotary cutter to make the edges look torn. I wove a piece of the same DP through a Martha Stewart Punched piece of cardstock, and then hitting them both with a Tim Holtz distressed ink pad. Finally I ran two lengths of narrow ribbon through the punched piece and tied a bow. I waited to the end to stamp my sentiment, and that was almost a bad mistake. It didn't stamp as dark as I wanted, so I took a Copic and CAREFULLY went over the letters.

Off to get it posted on the challenge blog before time runs out

I'm So Blue

The challenge courtesy of Sassy Ann on the Sassy Cheryls Challenge Blog for this week was to create a card that was all about blue. Well when she said all about blue, I took her at her word. Not only is my image blue, but so are my papers, my bling and I even have a blue sentiment that's all about blue.

This sweet image from Sassy Cheryl's Store is called Missing You. It's going to be perfect for my OWH box, as they're always looking for cards with general sentiments like Missing You or Thinking of You. She's colored with Copics. The papers are from a huge collection of scrapbook paper I bought at Sam's more years ago than I can remember. The flourishes were cut with my latest Sissix purchase. I had to purchase the flourishes so I could use my I-Rock tool to add bling, and don't you know that flourishes just call for bling. The top layer of DP is embossed with D'vine Swirls and then sanded to give it a little distressed look. I took my blue stamp pad and dabbed on anything that was white to give it a blue feel. Finally instead of using Photoshop Elements to create my Sentiment, I did it with my Make-the-Cut software and then printed it to my printer(actually my neighbor's printer since mine is dead).

I think I got the challenge rules met, and I loved making the card. Just need to get a wee bit faster. Now I better get back to organizing before my neighbor decides she wants her half of the table. I've completely taken over the room. I definitely have to clean before Show Me Thursday.

Show Me Thursday #7

It's been a couple of weeks since I did a Sassy Cheryl Show Me Thursday. I missed some, and Cheryl cancelled one, since I think she figured none of us had time for crafting over Christmas. Instead of making a New Year's Resolution, I'm making daily resolutions. So far they've been about purging and reorganizing in my house.

Well this week, I decided that I needed to redo my Spellbinders organization. I'd been using the DVD cases with the magnetic strips inside, but I have some that wouldn't fit in the the case. A couple of months ago I downloaded a SVG cut file for folders for storing your Embossing folders from Creations by Christy. She's a master of organization, and I loved what she did with the (She's since reorganized them again, but I don't have a Clip It Up). I converted the SVG using my Make-the-Cut software, and I've loved the storage, since I found a perfect container for holding them.

Recently Christy redid her Spellbinders storing them in a notebook. That wasn't the way I wanted to go, since I don't want to be hauling out the notebook to grab one Spellbinder, but I loved her idea of putting it on chipboard. So with that thought in mind, I lengthened the folder file that I had created for the embossing folders and decided to just go with the left/right. My way of organizing this time was to alpabetize first by type e.g. circle, frame, oval, etc. and then by style of each type. Once I had my organization done, I cut pockets made using cheap transparencies and taped them to the outside of the folder front with the folder in the correct position(left or right). I cut a piece of heavy chipboard smaller than my folder, added magnetic tape. I labeled the folder and the chipboard. Add the Spellbinders to the magnet strip and then slip the chipboard into the folder.

This is a picture of the Spellbinder folders. By leaving out the center folder and organizing them by type, I've found it's easier to find them.

This might not work for you, but it's working great for me. Oh and do you see my new purple carrying case behind my Copics. My neighbor's DD's family gave it to me for Christmas. It folds flat and stores great.

Thank You

Thank you Phindy's Place Challenge Blog DT for two weeks on this challenge. Thank you also happens to be the theme of the challenge on the Challenge blog this week. Also this week for the first time, images don't have to be a Phindy's Place image, although I can't imagine entering the challenge without it being a Phindy's Place image.

I am so over Christmas, so I knew this card had to be be some other colors besides Christmas green and red. I'm also taking a coloring class, trying to get more proficient with my Copics. Our last lesson was to color an image of our choice and use it in a card challenge, so I knew A Phindy's Cutie was just the image to use. This image is called Little Swinger, and I absolutely love her. The papers are some I printed from ComputerScrapbook.com and are from the Corinne Silke's Another Tea Party kit.

Do you remember swinging as a child and feeling the sun on your face as you flew to the sky? Oh what joy that was. Phindy has captured so many of my childhood memories in her image. Be sure to go check all of her cutie images out at her Store.

I'm BAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!

It's been so long since I blogged, it may take me a while to get back into it, even though I now have 2 challenge cards to blog along with some OWH cards. The past weeks have been a blur and unfortunately crafting WASN'T in the mix, but I'm BAAAAACKKKKKKK!

This card is not the first card I've done since my daughter and her family went home, and I got my house back together. However, it is the first one in terms of making a challenge date. The image is called Birthday Cake Desire, and it meets the theme of Teddy Bears set by Sassy Judy on the Sassy Cheryls Challenge blog this week. One thing that there are plenty of images of over in Sassy Cheryls Store. I do want to thank you all for letting it be a two week challenge, so that I could participate.

My image is colored with Copics, and the paper is from The Paper Studio I think. I got it out of my scrap box. This card is for my cousin's birthday tomorrow. The Birthday Stamp is from the $1 bin at Michaels, and I had a little fun playing with my I-Roc.

It's good to be back.