Good morning my little Chickadee...

I see these adorable little birds out my window most every day. But even more so in the winter, when it's cold and they're looking for the seed we leave out. This is drawn by a fantastic artist, Deborah Boyet. You can see more of her artwork here. I'm on the her design team, which is not totally up and running yet, however her store is open. On this little guy I used mainly purple, yellow and green. It made me think of spring. The small flowers and gems are by recollections. I made the large one out of tissue paper, which I am totally in love with now. The punches are MS, and the green corners are by Sizzix. The sentiment is one that I picked out from Rainbow Echo Designs, which can be purchased at Whimsy Stamps.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Ooh La La Creations - three of a kind

Woodware USA Clear Stamps - anything

Digital Tuesday Challenge - sketch & digi

Top Tip Tuesday - flowers

Tuesday Throwdown - distressing

Cooking It Up With Katie - Used Digital Tuesday Challenges and added "dots" with Cuttlebug.

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog - anything

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges - digi

Paper Pretties - sewing (faux or real)

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - animals

Moving Along With The Times - spring

Crafty Sentiments - favorite things - flowers

Do You Stack Up - pattern paper

Ellephantastic Challenges - new beginnings (spring)

The Fuzzy Wuzzy Challenges - animal (even insects)

I hope that you enjoyed looking at my bird, and that you will leave me a comment.

Hugs,

dj1952

Little carrot-top...

At least I'm sure that's what she would have been called as an infant. This is the second of the images I did of the adorable head-shot images by Sugar Nellie, found at: Funky Kits . This little girl's name is Verity. Very pretty, but I'm not sure what it means. I decided to make an easel card this time. The papers are by K & Co.; the pearls (painted with my peach promarker)ribbon and buttons are from my stash. I made my own piece of blue "lace" and put it on the bottom like a ribbon. The back layer is distressed with scissors and like the other papers, inked with the Vintage Photo ink pad.

I made the flower using the smallest scalloped flower from Nestibilities, and cut them out of tissue and mulberry paper; you can cut up to 8-10 flowers at one slice. After stacking about 8 together and securing with a tiny brad, I crumpled the flower; then carefully pulled layers apart a little at a time. (The more layers you use, and crumple, the fuller the flower looks. This one with dots is made with tissue paper.)
Here's a close up of her head shot. I also have the complete images, but I'm more partial to the head shots, because you can see more detail in the face. Each of the girls have a different hair color. Joy, who I did earlier this month is a blonde; Grace is a brunette; and Faith has black hair. I'll be posting the other girls soon. Her hair and face is not quite this orange (as you can tell if you see the white background around her).

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Delicious Doodles Challenge -

get well or encouragemenet

Fairy Tale Challenge Blog - flower

Stamp Something - cute

A Gem of A Challenge - ribbon and lace

Mark's Finest Papers - sympathy

One Stop Craft Challenge - folds

Totally Gorjuss - hot colors

The Crafty Pad - girly

One Stitch at a Time - anything

Paper Sundaes - distressing

Sunday Sketch & Stamp - sketch
Craft Your Passion -

Bearly Mine Challenges - 3 flowers, 2 DP, 1 image

The Crazy Challenge - dots & stripes

Critter Sketch Challenge Blog - circle & distressing

Stamp Fairy Challenge - circles

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge - anything

Kaboodle Doodles Challenge Blog - bling

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you will leave some comments for me also.

Hugs,

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall..

This is another one of those cards that has been stuck in my mind since I purchased this adorable little lady months ago at Prairie Fairy Designs. However, I'm not as pleased with the execution as I would like, but it's done now.

Gillian is supposed to be at a studio and dancing looking at the mirror with the handrail attached to the mirror; the area above the top brads is supposed to be the beveled edge of the mirror, and the area below the brads is the baseboard. My papers are from K&Co. The buttons, ribbon and gems are from my stash. I made the felt flower with a die from My Favorite Things. And the leaves behind the flower are made with a MS stamp. I put acetate over the mirror image, so it would look like glass, and Glossy Accents over the wood floor so it would look waxed.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion Challenges - buttons

Flourishes - make a card larger than 5" x 7" (My card is 8-1/2" x 5.5")

Color Throwdown - pear, kraft, pink

Cooking it up With Katie - cute, green & brads

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge - anything

Digi Doodle Shop's Best - anything

AI Factory Challenges - anything

Moving Along With The Times - sketch

Do You Stack Up - pink

Pixie Dust Studio Pixie Challenge - buttons

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you will leave a comment.

Hugs,

Pay it Forward...

I just joined in a fabulous game that I found on Stacey's Crafty Creations' Blog. And this is how it goes:

I promised to send something handmade to the first five people who comment on my post. However, before you decide if you want to comment, know that you must also post this on your blog, promising to make something to the five people that post to yours.

The rules state that it must be something handmade or homemade by you and needs to be sent to the other five people during 2011. So you do have a little while to make your gifts.

I did a little research, by jumping back through the different posts, and there's a pretty long hop to see all of the posts. Very interesting!

Hugs,

Sprout loves to play in the dirt...

Sprout is a precious little thing. She loves to play in the dirt (that's why her face, hands and clothes are dirty) and watch things grow. She also has a generous heart and loves to share her things with others. So today she is thanking a friend as well.

On to a real life story. This is one image of several you can receive for making a small donation to help a young wife with cancer. You can find the full story and how you can help this family at Jak Heath's blog. You receive images from some fabulous designers, like this one from Mo's Digital Store. I hope you will pop over to Jak's blog and take a look.

I started out doing this with a sketch in mind, but my laptop died, and I've been trying to get things done on my dh's laptop (which is much newer, but I hate it!) and then finally back to my desktop, which is in another room, where I now feel cut-off from things (I've been working at my dining room table for a while now). And by the time I struggled with all of that, the challenge had expired. Oh well, another day, another challenge. LOL.

I used paper from my stash that I've had forever. The pearls are by Recollections and the raffia lace was purchased from Bunny Zoe. The pansies are some silk ones that I purchased from Michaels. The leaves, behind the pansies, and the butterflies are made with older MS punches. The border around the image and the paper on the inside of the card (as seen below) are around-the-page punch sets also by MS. I usually finish the inside of my card with one of the papers I've used on the front, or if I've used that up, I look for something similar. As I've done with this care, I usually use punches or decorative scissors around the paper so it will be special. If I am giving the card to someone rather than just making it ahead, I will type my message and then cut it out and place in the middle of the paper. I also put my logo and a sentiment or a small stamp or image on the back.
I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Sentiments - thank you

Mo's Digital Challenge - playtime

Stamp Something - anything

Do You Stack Up - distressing

2 Sisters Challenge Blog - flowers

Crazy 4 Challenges - thank you

Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Satursday - anything

Aly's Sunday Challenge - bling

One Stitch At a Time - something new - digi

Crafty Cardmakers - favorite coloring method - Prismacolor Pencils

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - thank you

Alota Rubber Stamps - spring

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will leave a comment.

Hugs,

Joy - Sweet Little Girl

How do you top a card that you received 92 comments on? I guess it's by letting the stamp speak for you. My last card was commented on so often because of the design of the card, more so than my work (or at least that's what I feel), so this card had to have an awesome image (of course I still don't expect to get anywhere near that many comments).

I found this lovely lady while blog-hopping. I've always loved Sugar Nellie stamps and now I'm thrilled that they also have some in digital format. Now, of course, I had to get all four of the girls , full length and faces. So, you'll be seeing them for a while. I really love the face shots the best (which I've already colored for each girl), because there is so much detail. I printed them on the "draft" mode of my printer, because they are made with quite a bit of shading, to aid those who may not be comfortable with coloring and shading yet.

I feel like the card is missing something, but I'm not sure what else I could have added without it being too busy. The papers are from K&Co., the ribbon from Bunny Zoe and the butterflies were made with a MS punch. The thing that is amazing is how much I paid for the charms. (They were in the $1 bin at Michaels and there were about 12-18 pieces in each package.) Needless to say, I bought up all of the ones I really liked, even if I didn't like each item in the bag. I haven't quite figured out the best way to attach them, as this is only the second charm I've used; I'm hoping someone out there in blogland will take pity on me and tell me their technique.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Top Tip Tuesday - anything

Creative Cottage - something new - digital image

Paper Crafting Journey - digi

Digi Doodle Shop's Best - pink & green

Meljen's DT & Challenge - square or round card

Dutch Dare Card Challenges - sewing

The Sugar Bowl - sketch

Craft Your Days Away - anything

Delicious Doodles Challenges - 3 colors - pink, green, yellow

2 Sisters Challenge - flowers

Aly's Sunday Challenge - wings

Going Buggy - Blog Party

Thanks again for stopping by. Check back as I'm working on getting a few things together to give away as candy, since I now have over 100 followers (woo hoo!). I thank everyone who has looked in on my creations. I hope you will leave a comment. (Even a "nice card" would be appreciated; remember I'm coming down off of a "92 comment high". LOL!

Hugs,

Making Memories...

Hello again. I've been working a while on this card. It's something I've been planning to do since around October, when I purchased the .svg file from Cards, Etc. to use with my Cricut, which I discovered while doing some blog hopping. I just kept putting it off, and I finally decided it was time to do it. There are several different aspects to the card, so there are several pictures.

This picture is of the front when it's totally closed. The flowers, ribbon and doilies are from my stash. The layered buttons are fairly new and I topped them with a gem.


This is the card with the front exposed so you can see Fluffles the cat. Isn't he cute? He's not too sure about his new friend, though. Of course, I would bet that the snail isn't too sure of him either.

This is a picture of the card partially open. I wasn't sure whether to post this picture or not, but if not, then you couldn't see the pretty detail on the other side of the petals that fold out. I basically just used the green paper for the last layer with the image of the girls and then on the outside of the petals. And then I used the burgundy paper for the inside of the petals and the final layer on the front of the card. Now you can see the card open. I used my nestibilities for the sentiment and then around the LOTV images. And I alternated dragonflies and butterflies on the petals, using both gems and pearls on them. The sentiment is one of these large sheet of sentiments you purchase, but I don't remember who they are by. I think I took as long deciding what I wanted to do with the card as I did putting everything together.

This is a closeup of the sentiment. (Obviously, LOL!)

And here is a closeup of my image. I colored them with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol and I distressed the edges with a Colorbox ink.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Ladybugs Crafts Ink - anything

Papertake Weekly - anything

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges - anything

Inky Impressions Challenges - ribbons & pearls

Southern Girls Challenge - anything

Cooking It Up With Katie - buttons, ribbon and an animal

Crafty Sentiments - anything

Cute Card Thursday - old stash (flowers, punches, ribbon)

Delightful Sketches - buttons

Digi Doodle Shop's Best - buttons

Moving Along With the Times - out with the old, in with the new (stash)

Rainbow Lady's Challenge - new to me

Sassy Studio Designs - anything new

Delicious Doodles Challenge - new

Do You Stack Up - buttons

CES Challenges - animal

Alota Rubber Stamps - stamp, ribbon & bow

Allsorts Challenge - fancy folds

2 Sisters Challenge - girly

Sweet Stampin Challenge - something new

Lollipop Crafts - fancy folds

Aly's Sunday Challenge - things with wings

Sentimental Sundays - anything with wings

Thanks for looking at my blog, and I hope you will leave a comment.

Hugs,

Hi there sweet pea...

What more can I say? She is a sweetie pie. My card is quick and easy; all I did was cut my papers, sewed around some of them, put down some pearls, and added a sentiment from There She Goes Clear Stamps. Oh, I did color around the image from LOTV with a purple, glitter, gel pen and there is glitter on the flower centers. I think this is one of the most adorable baby images; the fact that you can color it as a girl or a boy is an added plus. I stamped the little butterflies when I colored her with my Prismacolor pencils, ages ago. I also used a teeny, tiny flower stamp on her onesie and hat.

I'm entering her in the following challenges:

Fab n' Funky Challenges - quick & easy

Crafts and Me Challenges - anything

Digi Doodle Shop's Best - anything

Crafty Sentiments - anything

Dutch Dare Card Challenges - new beginnings

Lili of the Valley - new beginnings

Craft Your Days Away - punch

Delicious Doodles - purple

Stamp Something - glitter

Mark's Finest Papers - something new

Crazy 4 Challenges - celebrate something

One Stop Craft Challenge - new beginnings

Sketch Saturday - sketch

One Stitch At A Time - anything

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - sparkle & shine

Prairie Fairy Fridays - new beginnings

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed looking at my work and will leave a comment.

Hugs,

As Apples of Gold...

This is one of those cards that took foreverrrrrrrrrrr. LOL! I purchased Sadie a few weeks ago from Mo's Digital Pencil Shop along with a couple more. I actually colored her right away, and had my papers together ready to make a card.

However, I had other cards that needed to be finished first. Then I saw the challenge for Mo's Digital Challenge this week and I really wanted to join in. However, I didn't have an image that I wanted use from Mo's for this challenge, but I still wanted to use Sadie for this card, so I looked at the shop and of course had to buy a few new images that had little animals, so I could "borrow" one and use it with Sadie. Unfortunately I didn't think far enough ahead before I had recolored Sadie, or I could have just put them on the same card stock together.

My friend is in her 90's and recently was in the hospital. I wanted to let her know now how special she is to me and my husband, and not wait until we can't tell her. There's a Scripture she loves at Proverbs 25:11 that says: "As apples of gold in silver carvings is a word spoken at the right time for it." So I printed this on pink card stock and used one of the MS all-around-the-page punch sets and put it inside the card. (Sorry I forgot to take a picture of it.)

Close-up of Sadie and little goat from "Saturday's Child" image.

On the first image I colored, I colored the apples red. So this time I decided to color them more of a gold color. I had also used a different color scheme, which I wanted to change. This is also my first attempt to try to color an image with darker skin. My friend is such an elegant woman that I didn't want it to be so casual. I used roses from Recollections, ribbon from Zoe's, button, brads and paper from my stash. I also used one of my new Spellbinder's labels. I am entering this in the following challenges:

Incy Wincy Designs - distressing

Woodware USA Clear Stamps - anything

Digital Tuesday Challenge - anything plus a digi

Cooking It Up With Katie - ribbons & brads

Crafts & Me Challenges - anything

Inky Impressions Challnges - animal

The Play Date Cafe - light pink, dark pink and tan

Digi Doodle Shop's Best - anything

Crafty Sentiments - anything - They are showing their new releases and having a blog hop on January 6th. Come join in.

AI Factory Challenges - elegance

Mo's Digital Challenge - bless the beast and the children

Craft Your Days Away - punch

Totally Gorjuss - for someone special

Mark's Finest Papers - something new

The Secret Crafter - buttons and bows

Unscripted Sketches - older sketch #39

One Stitch At A Time - anything

Simply Create - embossing

Alota Rubber Stamps - at least 1 stamp, 1 bow & 1 ribbon

I hope you enjoyed looking at my card and will leave a comment.

Hugs,

My Favorite 5 from 2010...

Hello, I'm playing along with Debby, of A Scrapjourney and showing my favorite cards from 2010. And just as she was unable to get it down to five, I couldn't decide either, so I cut it off at six, also (I almost did seven, but I didn't want to be too far off the mark).

This was the anniversary card I made for my DH. He still has it displayed on the mantle even though our anniversary was in October, so I know he really likes it, which of course makes my heart warm.

This little girl from LOTV, is one of my favorites. It's also one of the first that I dressed up as much as I've ever done before. The colors were more red than they show on this card, as red is one of my favorite colors.

This card I did for my niece's wedding just last month. I've had this image for some time, but just had no occasions to use it. I was apparently in my "blue" spell when I did this one, because so many of my cards done around this time period were done in some shade of blue. This was an easel card also, which I really enjoy doing.

I did this card because I have always thought he was so cute. (You might have picked up on the fact that I really like images from LOTV; and you would be correct, in fact I have my eye on a couple more that I really, really need {want}. LOL!)

I chose this one, because it's the first one that I've done using the cameo style. It was so easy to accomplish on my Cricut, and I had wonderful papers to set it off. I enjoy coming up with different cards.

And last, but not really least this is another of my favorites that I only used Cricut cuts to make the card. I did do some coloring with my Prismacolors on certain elements of the card, I just liked how it turned out. It was for my DD and her husband for their anniversary this year, and I knew they would really enjoy it since a few years ago they actually did get to visit Paris and parts of Spain.

Now why not hop on over to Debby's and see what you need to do to win some candy. I hope you enjoyed looking at my favorites, also. I hope that everyone has a safe year.

Hugs,

dj