Friday, January 31, 2014

Sister Act Challenge #42

I found inspiration again from my blog buddy, Chrissy.  This time she used Kenny K's Super Genius image that I was over the moon for.  I didn't wait a minute before popping over to the site and buying it.  This will be such a handy image for so many occasions!  I used my computer to generate the sentiment and print it on the same page as the image - genius, right?!?  It's my first Kenny K purchase and I was astounded with how quickly the card came together.  It's already off in the mail as a belated birthday card (which is why I didn't add bulky embellishments - although it screamed for some buttons).

Hope you will play along with us at the Sister Act Challenge Blog.  Digi Darla is the sponsor of our anything goes challenge this week.  Good luck!




Challenges Entered:
Kenny K - anything goes
Make It Monday - anything goes
Cute Card Thursday - something new (Kenny K image)
Southern Girls - something new (Kenny K images)

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Sketch Saturday - Sketch #294

Welcome back for a new sketch at the Sketch Saturday Challenge Blog.  The Etsy shop, Milk Coffee is this week's sponsor.  I am using their image,  Charlotte Valentine Date.

I was shopping at Marshall's last summer and happened upon a package of cute little corked bottles with beads, sequins and heart confetti.  Thinking it would be good for something, I spent $1.99 and used some of the supplies in this Valentine shaker card.  You can see the hearts and seed beads in both pictures.  I have three granddaughters, so one of them will get this card. Now I just have to make two more!!


I decided to keep practicing coloring folds in the dress.  Let me tell you that getting my eye to see them a lot of work!  The whole light source thing can do me in at times!  It's much easier if I can look at something, but I was going from my own brain on this.  It took SEVERAL tries, some in black and white with pencil and others using markers.

I'm not sure about the bottom of the skirt.  The ripples seem like a little too much as I look the right now with a fresh eye!  Fortunately, I can be patient as I work through the process!  

Have fun with Alex's great sketch this week and upload your cards at Sketch Saturday.

Challenges Entered:
Make It Monday - anything goes
The Pink Elephant - Color challenge: pink, red, your choice
Party Time Tuesday - Use ribbon
Pause, Dream, Enjoy - friendship
Creative Inspiration - use ribbon
Divas by Design - anything goes
Crafting by Designs Weekly Challenge- Get Your Girl On
4 Crafty Chicks - Bling
Digitally Sweet - anything goes
Card Makin Mamas - interactive card

Friday, January 24, 2014

Sister Act Challenge #41

Meljens Designs is sponsoring the Sister Act Challenge Blog.  This is their image, Happy Little Whale.

Since Valentine's Day is coming soon, I decided to make this whale pink and turn it into a card that I can give as a Valentine.  My RV00 was running out of ink, so my blending isn't as smooth as I would have liked, but the card looks okay IRL.  I fussy cut the whale, popped it out on Stampin' Dimensionals and I used Stickles to accent the swirls and the pink dots.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Color Me Creative - Challenge #85 - Use Texture!

The newest challenge at Color Me Creative put me to the test and really stretched my skills.  Paper Temptress is sponsoring our use texture challenge.  I honestly don't think of using texture when I color with my Copics.  Luckily, I had time available to "play around".  When I'm unsure about how to do something with my Copics, I turn to You Tube and watch a video.  That helped in this case too.

Using Birdie Brown's Winter Bear image, I figured I could work on creating fur and give the sweater texture too.  The image is a simple line drawing. You can see an older colored version on the artist's blog.

The thing I love the best about my work on the fur is the snout.  There isn't one drawn on the face, it's created using texture.  My original vision was to make a polar bear, but this guy has a whole lot more gray than any polar bear I've seen!  Oops!

The other texture I worked on was using a scrap from an old cotton sweater to give the bear's sweater a look like it had been knit.  The technique is pretty simple.  After coloring the image, wetting the scrap of sweater fabric with Copic Colorless Blender Solution and patting it on the image should give it the look of a knitted sweater.  My trouble came when I couldn't find my bottle of Colorless Blender Solution.  I resorted to trying to saturate the scrap by coloring it with my colorless blender marker.  It didn't saturate the fabric enough, but if you look carefully you can see texture on the sweater.  I then had the idea of coloring on the sweater scrap with one of my Copics and then tapping it on the image.  You can you see how that idea turned out on the bear's hat.  If I was feeling ambitious, I would have started over - but the whole image was already colored - and I was d-o-n-e!

The purpose behind telling you this story is because I hope it will encourage you to take a risk and try something new. The whole thing doesn't have to be perfect, but like me and my little bear, I learned some new things along the way and had moments of great satisfaction!

I am super-excited to visit the blogs of folks playing along with our texture challenge at Color Me Creative.  I know that I will be inspired by your work.

Challenges Entered:
Clear it Out - Layer it up/patterned paper stash
Creative Inspiration - Anything goes
Crafting By Designs - anything goes
Southern Girls Challenge - something new (new technique)
Digitally Sweet - anything goes
Digi Haven - Baby It's Cold Outside!
613 Avenue Create #55 - anything goes with an optional twist of winter blues
Make It Monday - anything goes

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Sketch Saturday - Sketch #293

Sketch Saturday is on Sketch #293 this week.  No coloring for me on this card, which is unusual! Since Archivers is closing their stores in the U.S.,  I had to go shopping and stumbled upon some good finds that were well-priced.  I bought a die cut set and used it for this week's card.   The word "love", the scalloped frame, the big gray heart, medium red heart, and one of the little red hearts are all from my Archiver's find.  The solid red paper is suede and the heart paper is glitter.  I used a heart border that had been sitting on my desk since last Valentine's day and brought out my Stampin' Up! heart punch to bring in a variety of shapes. Once I had the basic card idea in my head, it came together very quickly!

Our DT coordinator, Deb is this week's sketch artist.    Bunny Zoe Crafts is our sponsor this week.  Their site is amazing and they ship worldwide!  I can't wait to see what you create from Deb's great sketch.


Friday, January 17, 2014

Sister Act - Challenge #40

Back for another Friday Sister Act Card Challenge.  Digital Delights by Louby Loo is sponsoring the challenge.

This week, I am using the last of the I Birdie Brown images I bought in October.  I've combined it with a png fence image from Make It Crafty. The cool thing about using png images is they can be layered.  I'm still trying to figure out how to work with them, but for this card, I was able to figure out how to layer the fence in front of the bear.  I used the same fence in this card earlier in December.

I hope you will go to the Sister Act blog and find inspiration in the DT's cards.  I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with this week!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Stick It Down - January Card Challenge

It's the second Tuesday of the month and that means it's time for the first card challenge at the Stick It Down Challenge Blog!  Each Tuesday, you will find scrapbook page layouts or a card sketch challenge.  Card sketches are always the second Tuesday of the month.

I am the sketch designer.  The first sketch is simple, which allows you to give it your creative twist.
Stick It Down - January Card Sketch

I used an image from the Etsy shop, All Dressed Up.  This is one of the Wear with Style girls from set 1.  While you are checking out the darling images from All Dressed Up, take a look at their Challenge Blog too!




I love challenging myself in my coloring.  For a while, I really concentrated on hair.  The more I have practiced, the easier it has become.  On this image, I focused my attention on creating folds in her dress rather than simply shading the skirt.  I spent some time on You Tube watching videos about coloring folds. As I began to try it for myself, it took four or five tries before I could see where the shading and highlights needed to go.  I felt satisfied with this one.   The background paper was on sale at a local craft shop.  I think the pattern and color combination is a fabulous jumping off point for this stylish girl.

I hope you will play along with the Stick It Down sketch this month.  I will be visiting the blog of each card that is uploaded.  I can't wait to see what you do with the sketch!

Challenges Entered:
Divas By Design - Let's Celebrate
Divas by Design Top 3
Crafting By Designs - anything goes (month-long challenge)
4 Crafty Chicks - bows
Friday Mashup#142 - birthday and/or twine
Digitally Sweet - anything goes
Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog - girly, but no pink
Make It Monday - anything goes
All Dressed Up - anything goes
Alphabet Challenge - Xtraordinary - the colored folds on the dress  
613 Avenue Create - anything goes/optional celebration 

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Sketch Saturday - Sketch #292

Simon Says Stamp is sponsoring this week's challenge at Sketch Saturday.

I used a Dilly Beans image for my card called, Penguin in Scarf #522.  I decided to use masculine colors and papers to use for a male birthday card.  It was a pretty quick and simple image to color.

I hope you play along with our fun sketch this week!
Challenges Entered:
Dilly Beans Challenge Blog - Celebrations
Shopping Our Stash #133 - use something new (the papers)
Divas By Design - Let's Celebrate
Crafting By Designs - Birthday
Digitally Sweet - anything goes             Digi Haven - "Baby It's Cold Outside"

Friday, January 10, 2014

Sister Act - Challenge #39

After a two week hiatus, the DT members of the Sister Act Challenge Blog are back with our 39th anything goes challenge.  This week the Etsy shop A Random Fan is sponsoring us.  I'm using their image called Pirate Adventure.  The water was done by improvising the same sponging technique folks use for clouds.  (My first time!) I accidentally cut the end of the sword off as I was trimming the image, so I fussy cut another one and popped it out with pop dots.  I love how it turned out.  This card will be going to my youngest grandson for Valentine's Day.

Stop by the Sister Act blog to see what the other DT members have created and to read about the prize being offered this week.









Challenges Entered:
Party Time Tuesdays - color challenge
Shopping Our Stash #133 - use something new (EB folder)
Little Red Wagon - all purpose card
Simply Create Too - anything goes
Alphabet Challenge Blog "X"- Xtraordinary (the sponged ocean)
Card Makin Mamas - Anything goes




Sunday, January 5, 2014

Color Me Creative Challenge #84 - Anything Goes!

After all of the hustle and bustle of the past few weeks, the Color Me Creative crew wanted to make the first challenge of 2014 fun and stress free, so it's an Anything Goes challenge!  Pop by CMC and find some inspiration from the DT's  cards.  You have until January 16th to play around, so relax and have fun with it.  The prize is $10 to the digi shop of your choice!

I used a sweet Michelle Perkett Studio digi called Fairy Roses Wings for my card and combined it with a sketch from The Outlawz challenge site. While the camera doesn't pick up the Stickles I used on the flowers, it still captures the rich colors.  I love how this one turned out.  The papers and the image go so well together.







                                                         Challenges Entered:
Make It Monday - anything goes
Party Time Tuesdays - party theme
Shopping Our Stash-use the last of something (green button)
Little Red Wagon - "New" - (Michelle Perkett images are new to me)
Creative Inspirations Challenge 246 - celebration
Simon Says Stamp Blog- something new (Michelle Perkett images are new to me)
Crafting by Design - anything goes
The Outlawz - Wednesday Sketch Challenge
Simply Create Too - anything goes
Alphabet Challenge - something eXtraordinary (the image)
Sparkle N Sprinkle Jan. Challenge - AG with sparkle
Card Makin Mamas - anything goes

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Sketch Saturday - Sketch #291

Happy New Year!  It's been a long time since my last post and I missed being in my craft room over the holidays.  I actually need to spend a bit of time cleaning and organizing because my desk is piled high and there's not much working space!
 
Lack of space didn't stop me from working on a card for the first challenge of 2014 for Sketch Saturday.  Vanessa created this fun one and Sir Stampalot is our sponsor.  One lucky winner will receive a clear stamp set from them.

Thanks to Jen's talents, the blog has a fresh look for the new year.  I hope you will take a look at what the other DT gals created and check out this week's prize.  Good luck!

Challenges Entered:
Make It Monday - anything goes
Party Time Tuesdays - party theme
Crafting By Design - anything goes