Just Fluttering By

Back in my craft room today with a new digi I bought from Tiddly Inks.  Christy Croll is the artist behind these stamps and digi images.  I became acquainted with her sweet style two years ago when I was taking  Creative Passion's self-paced Copic coloring class from Michelle Houghton.  We practiced on some of Christy's images and then I bought her stamps from Stamping Bella.

I just discovered her digi images two weeks ago and of course needed to make a purchase!   This one is called Fluttering By to Say Hi.  This card is going to my sweet granddaughter, Quinn.  I just got back from visiting her in CO.  We spent a lot of time stopping on our walks so she could get her face right up close to marvel at nature - just like this little girl.

I made this into a window card, which you can see a bit better in the close up below.  The dimension adds interest to the card.  I used Stickles on the girl's butterfly wings, shoes and headband. Rhinestones adorn her antennae, each of the die cut butterflies, and the outside of the circle.

Lots of Copics were used in my coloring.  I started out making her hair light blond, but didn't like it so I brought in some E's to give her a dark blonde or light brown hair color.  This is a new hair color for me, so I am glad I started light!

Hair:  Y02, 21 & E53, 55, 57, 13
Skin:  E00, 11, 13 & R20
Dress, shoes:  R11, 20, 22, 24
Butterfly wings:  BG11, 32, 34 & BV 02, 04, 07 & V05, 09
Flowers:  E13, 29, 49 & Y15, 18, 24
Grass: I pulled out lots of markers from the YG & G and just flicked in blades of grass.  I added some Y24 and R20 to tie in the colors I used on the girl and flowers.



Challenges entered:
Tiddly Inks -  Summer Treats and DT Call
Make It Monday - anything goes
A.R.T. Card Challenge - anything goes
Crazy 4 Challenges - picnic
Catered Crop - Summer Lovin'
613 Avenue Create - anything goes
Divas By Design - anything goes
Marker Pop! Challenge #27 - Lovely Locks
Party Time Tuesdays #131 - anything goes

Sketch Saturday - Sketch #269

This is the last weekend of my vacation.  I'm kind of feeling like the little monster in my card - a little down in the mouth!  I've had such a relaxing time and spent a good portion of it in my craft room! But, I have to work to pay for my card-making habit!

The digi company, Stamp Fairy is this week's Sketch Saturday sponsor.  My digi is from their Monsters Under My Bed collection.  I decided to take a different route this week and use paper piecing.  I printed the monster twice and used one of the images to cut up for the piecing.  I went in with my Copics and colored the green horns (YG 01, 03, 06) and gave him a touch of shading (W1, W3). Some of the papers I used are from deep in my stash - like six or seven years old! I adapted the sketch for an A6 card.

Hope you will play along with us at Sketch Saturday this week!

Challenges entered:
A.R.T. Challenge - anything goes
Use It Tuesday - What was I thinking?  - The green checked paper and the white and green polka dot paper are from a HUGE stack of 9 x 12" Lasting Memories paper that I bought on clearance for 10 cents each (and have hardly used any of them!!)

Sister Act Challenege #17

There's limited stamping on this card - only the black sentiment words.  All of the rest is die cut.  The three- part medallion die is from MFT.  I tried the inlaid technique with this card, so the circle is inlaid into the white and the rounded rectangle is inlaid into both the circle and the white.  It was fun and super-simple!  I would have done the letters too, but my Simon Says Stamps alphabet is still connected together.  (I'm afraid I will lose the little pieces in the usual chaos if my craft room!)  The card shape is die cute from Spellbinders Nesties and the little flowers are an old flower punch, using scraps of the other patterned papers.

Digi Darla Designs is the sponsor of this week's Sister Act Blog Challenge.  Our DT has great cards in store for you this week. Play along with us this week.  I'm looking forward to seeing your great creations!

Challenges entered:
Make It Monday - anything goes

Sketch Saturday - Sketch #268

 I made this card for a Summer Card Camp Class I am taking in July over at Online Card Classes.  I used colors from the first week when I put this sketch together.  The stamp is from MFT and the balloon is from Papertrey Ink's Birthday Style die set.  The flowers are part of their Mini Blooms set. You can't see it in the photo, but I used Stickles on them.  Cards that look simple actually take me as long to make as any card I color with Copics!!

Bunny Zoe's Crafts is sponsoring this week's challenge.  I hope you play along with us this week.

Sister Act Challenge # 16

Hope your July has been one of great weather.
It's hard to believe it's the middle of the month already.  We are back with another anything goes challenge over at the Sister Act Challenge Blog.  It has been amazing to see the number of people that participate in our weekly challenge.  I have loved visiting blogs from folks all around the world!  Google Translator is a wonderful tool.  I can get the gist of what has been written in Swedish, Polish, Finnish and a myriad of other languages.

My card is a Frankenstein-like creation from cleaning up all of the little piles on my desk!  I was determined to use some of the discards from other cards.  All of this week's card is recycled!  The Hero Arts birds were colored years ago (before I had Copics), the background paper was one I stamped and never used, the star was left from a card I made in March. And the polka dot panel was mounted in red and ready to use!  All I had to do was stamp the word celebrate, mount the birds, and decide on where to put those pesky sequins!  Not bad for a Frankenstein creation, right?

Can't wait to see what you have to share with us.  This week's sponsor is Resale Clip Art.

Mission Not So Impossible!

Today at Summer Card Camp, our mission (should we decide to accept it) was to take a Christmas stamp and use it in a non-Christmas card (sticking to the week's color palette). Truth be told, I don't have many Christmas stamps, so this might have been Mission Impossible for me.  However, tucked away in a little corner, I found my "Christmas Bough" set from Unity and the ideas began to flow.

I started out using watercolor paper with my new Distress Ink Markers over an embossed image (a couple of times).  They weren't quite what I was hoping for.  I wanted the bough to be downplayed a bit and this made it more of a feature.

Then I stamped off the bough one more time and pulled out some of my Copics and colored over the brown ink.  I cut it out, found this sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and called it a day!

Jump Right In!

Making a shaker card was an option at the Summer Card Camp 2 class today.  I've never made one before and became interested last week after reading a post on Laura Bassen's Blog, Doublestick Heaven.  Lauren was a guest instructor.  Lauren linked a great tutorial by Amy Rasavy about how to make shakers. They seemed fun, simple, and today was the day I finally got my act together!

I am thrilled with how this came out!!  I had some craft sequins that came in a variety of shapes and colors and found some seed beads super cheap at Marshall's, so they went in too!

This little cutie is from Doodle Pantry.  Jennifer Nilsson is the artist.  Her Etsy shop is fabulous! I've bought a few other images from her there, and have her Doodle Garden stamps from MFT.

I thought I would take a close up, to show his hair and goggles.  The hair was tricky to get it to look like a short boy haircut.  I love the goggles too.  I saw a tutorial a few weeks ago (I can't remember where) that showed how to color nylon stockings on a woman.  They colored the flesh tone first and then added the color on top.  I thought that same tip could apply to the goggles.  I'm not sure whether I'm happier about the shaker card or the coloring!

I have a feeling I will be spending part of tomorrow making a few more shakers!!





Challenge entries:
CMC Coloring Challenge #72 - anything goes
Make It Monday - anything goes
Tuesday Throwdown #156 - anything goes
Color Q Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Blog - by the sea
Crazy 4 Challenges #194 - marine life
613 Avenue Create - anything goes
Marker Pop! - anything goes
Oozak Blog - anything with textures