Little Friends

Over on PaperCraftPlanet, the HouseMouse & Friends group has a new challenge: make a lattice card.  Since I received several diecut lattice card bases, this was surprisingly easy to do.  the hard part was trying to choose a HouseMouse image to color!

Instead of placing a solid colored or white piece of paper "behind" the lattice design, I chose a leftover piece of patterned paper from the DCWV Once Upon a Time Stack and adhered it directly to the back of the lattice.  When you open the card, there is a piece of white card stock on which to write a message.

A satin ribbon flower, some pearls and a bit of purple lace are enough to embellish my card and I'm done!  The group is giving away a prize package to one lucky challenge player.  Wish me luck!!

Just Breathe!

Queen Kat Designs has expanded their line to include digital images!  I am so happy because a crafter has a lot more options with digi's than with rubber (although rubber can never be replaced in my mind).

In order to show you one of the benefits from working with digi's, I made a stair step card using an April new release called "Just Breathe by artist Nora Blansett.  It is perfect for showcasing digital images!!

I printed the image several times in three different sizes.  After I made my step card base, I colored all the flowers with my trusty Copics.  On the back face of my card, I used one 3x5 sized image.  The middle "step"   uses two wallet sized prints, and the front of the card uses four of the smallest prints I can get using Microsoft Windows Picture Manager.

Once the flower images were in place, I embellished the dark blue background, first with inked edges in white, and then adhering some flourish diecuts and pearls for a fantastical "night sky in the garden" look.  I had a leftover metal charm from Tim Holtz Ideology which reads, "Reality has limits. Imagination is boundless."  It was the perfect sentiment to go with my use of Nora's flowers!  Using her digi's, in fact any digi's, erases any boundaries you might have with a stamped image, as you can see above!

A couple silk ribbon roses and a few more pearls and my card is complete.  It can be folded flat for mailing, and then stood up for presentation.  I love the look of this, and plan to give it to my neighbor, who is a Shakespeare fan and loves the play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream".  I like to think that my garden of flowers would fit right in with the fairies and flowers that Shakespeare dreamed up.

Go check out Nor'as newest release, Just Breathe, in the SHOPPE.  While you're there, look at all the wonderful stamps and digi's and tear down those crafting boundaries with some inspiration from Queen Kat Designs.  Once you do, show it to us on the QKD Facebook Page.  Happy crafting!!

A Recipe Challenge

That's what Squigglefly has in store for you this week on their challenge blog!!  Make a card using a Squigglefly image (FREEBIES HERE) and follow this simple recipe:
Use patterned paper, at least two brads, and a tag on your project.

That's it!  So easy this week!  So here's my card, using Diana Garrison's new April release digi, "Dove".
I used leftover pieces of patterned papers from my stash file, punched a tag on coordinating cardstock and stamped the sentiment, and found two pearl brads rolling around on the bottom of my embellishment box.
The Dove digi is colored with Copics in shades of teal and yellow.  I love Diana's image, as i can use it for many different types of cards, including birthday, religious, sympathy and "just Because", like this one!!
You can find "Dove" and other April releases at the Squigglefly Store.  Don't forget to check out the Squigglefly Facebook page, too!  You never know what to expect there as far as challenges and giveaways!!
Don't forget to post your card on the Challenge Blog for your chance to win!

Welcome Spring!

Welcome, Spring! And Welcome to the Spring Blossoms Blog Hop!  I don’t know where you are located, but in Chicago, Spring has stalled, and needs a mighty PUSH to get it rolling.

So hop along with us as we inspire Spring to get its butt in gear and to get your creativity going!  If you’ve come here from Robin’s Blog, you are hopping on the right trail.  If not, no worries, start at Lori's Blog so you don’t miss all the festive flowers and Spring projects along the way.

Today I was really missing my robins and crocuses and fat little squirrels scurrying about.  The robins are shivering in their nests, the crocuses are just clear of a thin layer of ice, and the squirrels, well, they’re sitting pretty in their tree holes, popping those nuts in their mouths and getting fatter.

So I really needed to push the Spring envelope and came up with a Spring Blossoms candle.  I used a combination of Prima flowers and some feathers.  It's easy to alter a candle.  You just need the items you want to embed into your candle, a heat gun and some wax paper.

Arrange your items (tissue paper, stamped images, flowers, sequins, etc) onto the face of your candle and place a sheet of wax paper much longer than the diameter of your candle (so you can grab the ends of the paper) tightly against it all.  Then use your heat gun to warm up the paper.  The side of the paper up against the candle will heat so much that the wax will melt and form a layer on top of the items you placed there.  You can do this several times to build up the layer, but once you're done you will have a personalized candle, either for yourself or as a gift.

Mine is going to my new daughter-in-law, who LOVES the color purple!!  Her birthday is later this month, she's a crafter, and she is going to flip when she sees this.  

Speaking of daughters, my own teen-aged daughter, Wendy, a crafter in her own right, helped me make the beautiful mirror you see below.  We pulled the blooms off a couple bushes of silk flowers, along with a few leaves.  We had an oval mirror that she was ready to give to Goodwill, but I rescued!  She hot glued the leaves, blooms and buds to the edges of the mirror, and she now has a beautiful Spring mirror to hang on her wall!  She loves it, and so do I!  The photo has a bit of lighting blur from the flash, but I think you get the idea.

I hope you like our Spring Projects.  Now it's time to hop along to Cicily's Blog.  Don't forget to leave a little love before you go!!  And for one lucky random commenter, I have a goody bag of prizes to send your way.

Here's the list of blogs if you get lost:

Lori  - http://www.scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/
Lucy  ~ http://love2createitall.com
Teresa ~http://freshandrenewed.blogspot.com/
Melissa -http://pinkpolkadotscrapping.blogspot.com
Robin - http://cutonedesignsbyrobin.blogspot.com/
ME   - http://patacakespages.blogspot.com
Cicily - http://pinkdalmationscrapper.blogspot.com
Sarah - http://itswhatkeepsmesane.blogspot.com
Christine ~ http://hotberrydesigns.blogspot.com/

Easter Thanks

My daughter's boyfriend, Justin, went on a 2 week tour of Europe with his mom over spring break.  Not only did he bring home some macaroons from France, a sweet treat my daughter loves, but he also thought of me and brought me a box of "biscuits and chocolates" from England.  That was really sweet of him to remember me, too, so I in turn made a sweet Thank You gift for him.

I used an ATC and some orange-colored raffia and filled a tin with Mint Chocolate-covered pretzels for him.  And I gave it to him at Easter dinner when he came by.

I love the versatility of ATC's, whose initials stand for Artist trading Cards.  they measure 2.5x3.5 inches, and are tiny card fronts.  You can trade them, use them as tags, on cards, on canvas and on altered art.  AND you can make them into tiny little cards for your friends or co-workers.  One year I made abunch of Christmas ATCs and made them into cards with matching envelopes.  They all loved theirs!

So, whatever you do, and however you do it, keep on crafting, friends!

Queen Kat Designs Has New Releases for April

...and I'm one of the lucky ones to get Sandra Caldwell's newest image, "Four-Eyed Flower" with which to play!  Here, I made a pretty birthday card for my neighbor, in shades of her favorite color, purple.

I colored my image with Copics, framing it with black card stock and popping it onto a die-cut card base.  I kept it simple, with just some inked edges, a couple flowers and some jewels to embellish it.  I received the beautiful sentiment from a crafting friend on my Yahoo group. I love swapping with other crafters--I get great ideas and inspiration, and often things I couldn't get any other way.

So, if you like what you see, be sure to visit the QKD Shoppe for some inspiration and all the new releases this month.  Sandra is one of many talented artists designing for Queen Kat Designs, and I do love to play with them all!! LOL  You will too!

Liquid Love

I love to embellish my cards with things that make it shiny, so what better challenge could I join but one that asks for the use of any type of "liquids" on your card..."make a card that uses liquid in some way - could be using an image that has water, using liquid alcohol inks for your backgrounds, or liquid crystal lacquer..."?!

After coloring my Squigglefly digi image, a sweet one from artist Cheryl Alger, called "Have You Heard", I used Liquid Glass from CTMH to give her shoes and the ladybug some shimmer. I also used Stickles on her hair bow.

The card base was diecut, and I added the violet pearls and adhesive stitches to finish off my card.  So, HAVE you heard?  Squigglefly has a new challenge, and they want you to play in it!!  grab a FREEBIE if you don't have any Squigglefly images yet for your chance to WIN!!