Gettin' Sketchy with Dustin Pike

I haven't colored a digi image from Dustin Pike in a while, and the images are so-o-o-o cute, just too cute to ignore!  So here is my newest Vaelntine's Day card.  The inside sentiment reads:  "Happy Valentine's Day to my Knight in Shinging Armor"
So far that makes four V-Day cards specifically targeted toward my hubby of 35 years.  Think he'll get the message???

The last challenge on their blog was to follow this sketch; otherwise, anything goes!




I colored my image with my trusty Copics, pictured below:

And as I am writing this, I discovered that the challenge here is closed now.  I missed my chance to win goodies, but I still had fun coloring this cutie up andf making a new card!!

Birthday Calories Don't Count

At least in the crafting world!!  I made a card for Squigglefly's new weekly challenge, which was to create a birthday card.  SO easy, and if Gram lasts until another Christmas (she is, after all, 101 years old), my gift to her has been a set of birthday cards, in calendar order and identified on the envies, for each member of the family.

So I used Squigglefly's Birthday Cake Kaboodle by artist Diane Carubia digi image and whipped up a card on one of my busiest days at work. 
Not only is it second shift, with classes in session from 5-7 pm, but I have to give an internet and real world safety presentation tonight and tomorrow night.  I've got the Grade 4-6 presentation under my belt, but have yet to write out my lesson plan and choose my media for the 7th and 8th grade presentation.
A bit of Basic Grey paper for the base, some pink cardstock to frame my image and sentiment, and a pretty butterfly to embellish finishes off the card.
If you have a few moments to relax in your crafting area, grab a Squigglefly image and make a birthday card.  You could win a free digi this week!
Do you Facebook or are you a member of PaperCraftPlanet?  Check out Squigglefly there for a Great Valentine's Giveaway!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Well, the committee liked those auction banners I made last week so much that they've asked for more.  Since this is for our church's Youth Group, whose activities have grown increasingly each year for the Hearts Fundraiser Dinner.  So I chalk this up as my own donation to the fundrasier (besides the items I already donated for a few baskets).
Anyway, here's my second take on a woman's gift basket banner.  I just have to add some lace from which to hang it on the basket and it's finished!  I cut the bottom part of this 12x12 piece of patterned paper.  From the leftover piece, I cut  a few matching flowers, curled them and adhered them to the woman's hat and at the top of the piece.  I also gave it dimension by adhering some pearls on the paper pearls of her necklace.  Than I titled the banned with alpha stickers and a flower to spell out MOM, placing some lace on the right for a border.
I know I have to make a banner for a teen girl's basket, and have that one already planned in my head.  I'll show it to you when I've finished it!

I Love Artist's Trading Cards!

Since I was overwhelmed this Christmas with family drama and no time off from work, I didn't get a chance to make my co-workers their annual ATC Christmas cards, so I promised myself I would make some for Valentine's Day.  They love these little pieces of art, so I was happy to create for them.  There are about 12 people that I cherish enough to create my cards, and here ar the first few I made.

If you're not familiar with ATC's, or Artist's Trading Cards, thery are the size of baseball cards, and are miniature pieces of art, kind of like a card front measuring 2.5x3.5"
So I have five done, with ten days left before the big day.  No worries, ATC cards are so easy to make!
I'm entering these ATC cards in the February challenge over at Your Scrapbook Place blog.  You can play, too!

It's That Old Devil Moon...

Here's a card I made for Valentine's Day, using Queen Kat Designs "Fae of Hearts" stamp by Joanna Bromley.  As I colored her, I realized that I had been humming the song "Old Devil Moon" from Finian's Rainbow, so I borrowed a verse from the song for my inside sentiment:

    Just when I think, I'm
    Free as a dove.
    Old devil moon,
    Deep in your eyes,
    Blinds me with love.
My first major purchase when I started working as a teen was to buy two tickets to the Arie Crown Theater in downtown Chicago for my parents to go see the live musical, Finian's Rainbow.  I was so proud of myself for getting such a great present, and knew my parents would enjoy their evening.

It wasn't until years and years later that I found out their seats were so high up and so far away from the stage that the music and voices reached them about two seconds after the actors could be seen mouthing the words!  So much for getting the cheap seats!!! I have it on DVD now, and still like the story line and the music.  Who wouldn't like to go to "Glocca Morra" or find a pot of gold to make a wish upon?

Birthday Cupcakes Go to the Dogs!

Well, to one dog, that is, and a cutie pie if I ever saw one.  This little guy's name is Bailey, and he is the second in a whole new line from Hambo Stamps.  Called "Bailey Cupcake", I colored him with my trusty Copics and popped him on a card front with one of the sentiments that come with the image.  The inside sentiment, also from this Hambo image, says "Hope your birthday is tail-waggin' good!"
The new challenge at the Hoedown this week is to help them celebrate their first birthday by making a birthday card.  You can use any Hambo image, but if you use Bailey Cupcake, you get your choice of one free digi from their store!  As a player, you also get their next digi image for free, so it's a two-fer for me and everyone who has Bailey Cupcake to play with!!
So hop on over to Hambo Challenge Blog and wish them a Happy Birthday!!

It's All ABout the Birthday!

I bet you all know at least one person who has a birthday for each month on the calendar.  Well, I've named February as my personal Birthday card crafting month.  I'll be making a birthday card a day until the 29th, which is a special birthday as it only comes around once every four years!

So for my first birthday card, I used Squigglefly's digi image Bit of a Witch by Cheryl Alger.  I love so many of Cheryl's images, and you will probably see a lot of them here this month.  I also like to use images that may be more geared toward a different theme or holiday than the way I use them.  This witch would be perfectly content to enjoy a frightfully good halloween, but witches have birthdays too, you know.  So I colored my little witch in non-Halloween colors and am sending her off to one of my high school girlfriends, whose birthday is later this month.
I colored the patterned paper in the same blue as her dress and the stamped stars that surround her with one of my trusty Copic markers.  I handwrote the sentiment and framed it with a slide mount, stamping it too with stars.  A couple of swirly paper clips and a bit of fiber finish off my card (well, I  couldn't resist using some stickles for shimmer, but the camera didn't catch it very well).

Now, some of you know that my granddaughter visits almost every month, and she loves to craft with her grandma.  When she saw me coloring, she asked for an image and to "use grandma's special markers so it would look just like Grandma's card, pleeeease").  So here is her creation as well.   I made her the card base and gave her one of my paper clips. She colored the image herself (yes, I let her use my coveted Copics) and used one of my Fiskars scissors to cut out her image and put it all together.  Not bad for a 4 year old!

So go and create a birthday card for someone you know.  If my preschool-aged granddaughter can make one, so can you!!!   Happy Crafting!