Kitten curiousity

Today's card uses a new image from Mo's Digital Pencil. This cute kitten was available as a short-term freebie to fans of Mo's Facebook page (if you aren't already a fan, why not?).

I challenged myself to add in stripes instead of just colouring him solid - I used my cat Natty as my model although in truth the result bears absolutely no resemblance to her (lol). I'm still pretty pleased with the result as this is a real step forward in my colouring repetoire. I also practiced my blending, especially on the leaves. You may not be able to tell, but they are coloured with a mix of orange, yellow, green & brown copics.

I decided to make this card very clean & simple by using a sketch design from Cute Card Thursday and keeping the embellishments to a minimum. The papers are from Basic Grey and the brads are from my stash (I did add some Glossy Accents to the brads though as they were too flat). I made multiple print-outs of Mo's digi stamp, in different sizes, so that I could add the leaves falling down. I had a lot of fun adding dimension to the leaves! After cutting them out, I rounded the edges (using a rounded stick and pressing into my palm) and then added Zip-dry glue in layers so that the leaves would hold their rounded shape. I'm pleased with the results because each leaf appears to curl slightly differently so it looks like they are actually falling over the kitten.

Challenges:
Copic Creations - shading on or around your image
Craftalicious Challenges - harvest festival or autumn
Little Red Wagon - make your own embellishment (I altered the brads but also made the leaf embellies from a digi stamp)
Sketchy Colours - yellow, orange, green, brown
Stamp Something - something with Fall colours
All Sorts Challenge - plain & simple

A Free Christmas

There are just too many digital images available and too little time to colour and use them all! This latest is a freebie being offered by Bugaboo as part of the Holiday/Special Occasion challenge at CDAC. Isn't the little mouse too adorable? In addition to this being a free image, the papers and sentiment were also a free gift with purchase of a magazine. So this card basically cost me $0 (the buttons even came out of my lost button jar).

All of the Nitwit patterned papers and embellishments (except for the buttons) came free in the latest issue of Paper Crafting Magazine. I coloured the mouse to match the soft blues/pinks/greens in the papers. The only real effort for this card was the addition of some glossy accents to the holly berries and the embossing of the card blank itself (using Cuttlebug "Flourishes" folder). Oh, and the cutting out of the holly leaves ... thank goodness for sharp scissors!!!

Challenges:
MAWTT - sketch, plus choose at least 3 items from the "to do" list (I chose buttons, embossing, leaves, 2 patterned papers)
Creative Belli - anything that starts with "B" (buttons, bumpy [embellished] paper)
Totally Gorjuss - Christmas
CDAC Holiday/Special Occasion Challenge - sponsored by Bugaboo, Christmas

Copic shading

The latest challenge at Copic Creations is to add shading either around your image or within your image. Well, I bought this digital image a few weeks back and have been dying to use it so this was the perfect challenge to inspire me. The image is from Make it Crafty - I am in love with all their images but hesitated buying because I worried that my colouring isn't good enough for these incredibly detailed stamps. It took quite a bit of work but I am really happy with the result!

For the first time, I made full use of my collection of grey markers on a project. I used warm greys for shading the wood and plants, cool greys for the stone steps and neutral greys for everything else. I tend to be quite hesitant about my shading but this time I pushed myself to add more and as a result I think the image looks very dimensional.

I chose some Basic Grey patterned papers (from the "Pyrus" set) and used basic kraft paper for all of the matting. The sketch is from the current Basic Grey Challenge. The only part of this card that makes me unhappy is the 3 flowers that I made for embellishment. I tried to mimic the shape of the flowers in the stamped image and then crumpled up the paper to give more dimension, but I'm afraid they just don't really work. I can't think of anything better though so they'll have to do for now. Hopefully I will come up with something better before the card gets used. If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Challenges:
Basic Grey Challenges - sketch
A Spoon Full of Sugar - anything goes
Creative Card Crew - autumn or fall (autumn colours)
Everybody Art Challenge - autumn (autumn colours)
Charisma Cardz - anything goes
Copic Creations - shading on or around your image
Stamp Something - something with Fall colours

Lending a hand

Another thank you card for the upcoming "Crop for Kids" weekend crop. This time I used a Dustin Pike Doodle Dragons image (isn't it fun?) and a bit of a different colour combo.

I really didn't want this to look like a Christmas card even though the snowman and wintery clothing definitely leans that way. I think the matching of orange with a lighter green manages to avoid just that. After colouring in the image with my Copics, I added some Stickles (frosted lace) to give the shine of snow at their feet.

I keep looking at the card thinking that it needs "more" but I can't decide more of what. I guess clean & simple is sometimes the best way to go ...


Challenges:
All Sorts Challenge - plain & simple
Totally Papercrafts - a kind of magic (what could be more magical than dragons and living snowmen)
Raise the Bar - bundle up (scarves, hats, gloves)
Crafty Ho's - sketch

I spy a birthday boy

My oldest son is at an age where he will be attending lots of birthday parties so I am increasing my stash of boy birthday cards. I had a bit of fun making this card over the last couple of evenings. I chose this Mo Manning image for a couple of reasons - first, it was "Talk like a pirate day" on the weekend, and second I just LOVE this image. 

I coloured the pirate with Copic markers and then matted it on some scrap cardstock. In fact, all of the cardstock was from my scrap bin! I love how the multi-colour arrow paper mimics the direction the pirate is looking. Since this is a boy's card, the ribbon embellishment is actually some sisal cording that I coloured with Copic to match the pirate coat. The only other embellishment is a chain across the middle fold (made with a EK Success border punch).



The pirate flag is some clipart I found online. I added the "I Spy" wording over top, cut out the image, added a toothpick behind the flag pole and then glued the entire thing to strong cardstock so the entire thing would stand up. What I think is kind-of cool is when the card sits flat, the flag lays down flat too, only to pop up when the card is folded/opened.

A pretty simple card but I find that boys just don't appreciate too much detail and bother.

Challenges:
CCEE Stampers - talk like a pirate
Crafts & Me - easel card
My Time to Craft - kids at play

If the shoe fits ...

There are just so many ways to finish this sentiment that I will just leave it to your imagination. The image is from Bugaboo (if you hurry, you can get the image free!). I used one of Scrappy's Bugaboo sketches for the design. And the papers are from Basic Grey's "Eerie" pack. This was a very quick & easy card but I'm liking it, mainly for the options of what to write inside (does the shoe fit because you're a witch or something that rhymes with witch? hmmm).

Challenges:
Paper Playtime - if the shoe fits ...
A Spoon Full of Sugar - fall into Autumn colours
Stamp Something - something digi (the image)
Creative Belli Challenge - anything that starts with "B" ("b"asic grey paper, "b"rown matting, "b"ig-"b"uckled shoes)

The "Crop for Kids" is nearly here

16 more days until the BC Crop for Kids!!!! I can hardly wait for a weekend of scrapbooking, card making and gossiping with my friends.

As part of the Crop, we've been asked to donate thank you cards (to be given to the sponsors). Every card donated will result in an entry into a special draw. Well, sounds like a good enough reason to make a couple of cards .... There are 2 cards today so make sure to keep scrolling down.

Card #1:
This first card uses a sweet teddy bear image from Tales From Pollycraft along with My Mind's Eye papers. I kept the design very simple, using a card sketch from Papertake Weekly Challenge. The colouring is done (of course) with Copics.

Challenges:

CCEE Stampers - teddy bears
Craftalicious - thank you
Papertake Weekly Challenge - picture inspiration (I chose the colours as my inspiration)

Card #2:
This second card uses a fun image from Doodle Dragons Studio. I wanted to make this card more masculine so I chose some fun embossed papers from DCWV citrs matstack. The card  is a diamond fold with the bear image on a paper spring. It's hard to see in the photo but the bear's nose & paws, as well as the sentiment, are cut out and popped up to give dimension - instead of using pop dots, I layered on glue so that the entire image would be rounded. The final touch was the addition of the bows on either side.

Challenges:

CCEE Stampers - teddy bears

Craftalicious - thank you

Simon Says Stamps - move it (the image in card #2 is on a spring)
Everybody Art Challenge - a different card shape
Doodle Dragon Studio - fancy folds
Quirky Crafts - sketch (it was a lot of fun adapting this sketch to a diamond shaped card)

Ray of sunshine

My cousin recently celebrated the birth of her first child - a baby girl named Soleil Raye. I wanted to make something special for this lovely addition to the family and so came up with a coordinated gift set of card, gift box, and journal.

The card features "Flora" from Mo's Digital Pencil as well as a variety of papers from Basic Grey's new Pyrus collection. I wanted to use yellow (obviously, for her name) but not the expected brilliant sunshine yellow so I chose the Pyrus papers which I think are very warm and homey. The flower is made with pieces of a silk hydrangea which I coloured with Copic markers to match the dress. The card itself is a criss-cross pocket card. As you can see in the second picture, the inside piece pulls out to show the message (I photographed it before writing inside as my handwriting is absolutely atrocious!).

The gift is a journal which I bought (and so haven't included a picture here) but it can be kept in this box which I did make. I'm not thrilled with the box, especially seeing it photographed - honestly, it looks so much nicer in real life.

Again, I used Basic Grey "Pyrus" papers which I liberally embellished with Glossy Accents. The flowers are cut from a shiny mesh bag (that once held a lighting accessory from Ikea) and used dryer sheets using Tim Holtz' "Tattered Flowers" die cut. I know it sounds kind of weird but the mix of materials looks wonderful in real life - very delicate and ephemeral. After putting everything together I decided that the box looked too plain so I added a scalloped border with thin ribbon threaded through one series of holes. A bow of the same ribbon finished it up.


Challenges:
Digital Tuesday - dots (in the border punch) & stripes (in pp and in glossy accented lines)
Everybody Art - handmade flowers
Fab n Funky - what'eva
Mo's Digital Pencil - special folds and flowers
Our Creative Corner - favourite folds
Totally Gorjuss - flowers
Paper Sundaes - 3 or more types of embellishments (flower, brads, ribbon, glossy accents)

Frightening photo shoot

Last year, my BFF Jacqui held a Halloween photo shoot with her pets and then sent the photos out to friends & family in brown-paper-bag-albums. It's been almost a year but I've finally got around to scrapbooking the photos. Before checking out the layout however, I have to make a few assurances:

1. Jacqui is not insane (at least not certifiably); she has a great sense of humour
2. Peter, the dog, underwent intensive therapy following this shoot and aside from a lingering fear of feathers has fully recovered
3. The cat asked that her name be with-held in order to protect her privacy (and pride) 

Everytime I look at these photos I laugh. I particularly love the photo of Peter in the devil horns - he looks like he's wanting to be staked!

Scrapping these shots was a challenge because I needed to ensure that the album itself (in the bottom left corner) was accessible. I ended up cutting a strip of kraft cardstock which I attached on the right side only. The album then slides onto the card and is held in place. This way I can remove the album anytime I want to look through it. Not only is the cover quite wonderful, but there are stamped images along with lots of journalling all through the pages.

Aside from displaying the album, I also used the left-side page to highlight my 2 favourite pictures. Of course Peter's picture is easy to see but the other fave is hidden behind the orange pop-up doors. Are you ready??? 

I used quite a variety of product lines on these pages:

• "Trick or Treat" shiny embossed laser die-cut from Little Yellow Bicycle
• Ghost charm (unknown, from stash)
• Small rhinestone gems (unknown, from stash)
• "BOO" title from Ezee Pzee Embellishments (coloured black and then Glossy Accent'ed)
• QuicKutz 4x4 pop-up door die-cut
• Basic Grey patterned paper (orange)
• Bo Bunny "Boo Crew Dot" patterned paper (green)
• Bat chipboard shape from Ezee Pzee Embellishments (coloured black and then Glossy Accent'ed)

Challenges:

Totally Papercrafts - charming (ghost charm on pop-up doors)

A Spoon Full of Sugar - animal crackers

ABC Challenge - "C" is for charms

Simon Says Stamps Challenge - holiday fun (my holiday is Halloween)

Missing your birthday is a tragedy

I have been absolutely overwhelmed but it is still no excuse for missing my dear friend Lee's birthday. I decided that this image from Tiddly Inks was appropriate for how I was feeling.

I used a sketch from A Spoon Full of Sugar as the basis for the card. The papers are Coordinations and Basic Grey. I wanted bling so I added the gold chain and a couple of Dazzles outline stickers in the corners. In order to hold the chain in place I added a couple of jewelled brads but the brads were silver and clear so I coloured them with a yellow Copic marker to change the metal to gold and a green marker to change the gem to green. I just love my Copics!!!!

Challenges:

A Spoon Full of Sugar - sketch

Craftalicious - purple & green

Crafts & Me - gems & glitter

Tiddly Inks - birthday

Paper Playtime - castles, knights & damsels in distress

Crazy 4 Challenges - book related (in this case, the inspiration is Shakespeare's "Hamlet"; in fact, I considered using "To be, or not to be ... embarrassed at missing your birthday" as my sentiment.)

Crafty Catz - 3 embellishments (brads, stickers, chain), 2 pp (green BG and 2-sided Coordinations), 1 image

Happy anniversary

Today is my 9th wedding anniversary (and boy, I never thought we would make it this far) and so here is the card that I made for my husband. The images are from Bugaboo Stamps and although they don't bear any physical resemblance, I really think the attitude is pretty right on.

Card Front

Card interior

I chose green as it is DH's favourite colour but I had to put the wife (me) in bright pink because that's my favourite. I used papers from Basic Grey along with some knotted cord that my son found on the playground (honestly, how is that for the ultimate in recycling?). The card sketch is from Truly Scrumptious - I followed it pretty faithfully aside from changing the sentiment patch to a series of 3 pearls.

Luckily DH has a good sense of humour ... and I gave him the card after a very decadent dinner. LOL.

Challenges:

Truly Scrumptious - sketch; optional, add a knot

Pile it on - layers
Challenge Up Your Life - celebrations
The Creative Cottage - layers

Another sympathy card

Another day, another sympathy card ... I chose a very clean & simple design for this card.

The image is offered free by Paper Garden Projects - check them out as they have several beautiful, realistic flower images to offer. I realized after colouring the images that they should have been white (the flowers are snowdrops) but I really love the look of purple flowers with the green stems/leaves so I decided not to redo them. Purple is also a favourite colour of mine for sympathy cards, in particular. I don't know why, but purple just seems to have some majesty/sentimentality/serenity to it.

I cut out each of the three images with a Quickutz cookie cutter die and then matted it on a piece of purple Bazzil cardstock trimmed to be just slightly bigger. Then the purple is matted on a white cardstock that is border punched on both sides (using Fiskars "Lace" punch) to give the impression of lace. I added a few pearls to give the card a bit of shine and richness.

As I said, very simple ... I played around with embossing the base cardstock and adding various other embellishments but I kept coming back to this very simple design.

Challenges:
The Crafty Pad - simply pearls
The Pink Elephant - mostly white
My Time to Craft - in the garden
Crafty Creations - white plus one
Simon Says Stamps - pearls & lace

CDAC Fancy corners embellishment challenge

I am so glad that my parents are relatively young and healthy! This week my boss and my husband's cousin have both lost their mothers. It just reminds me of how important family is, and how lucky I am that I shouldn't have to face losing my parents for many years (decades) to come.

Sympathy cards are one of the hardest for me to make but I believe this one is subdued enough while not being depressing.

The rose image is currently being offered free by the Doodle Pantry, which is sponsoring the embellishment challenge at CDAC. I chose the image because I see the fully opened rose as symbolizing a life fully lived while the rosebud reminds us that life goes on. OK, I know it's sappy but when I hear of deaths it gets me all choked up and thinking deepish thoughts.

I selected Basic Grey's "Indian Summer" papers - the browns tone down the pink just enough - for all of the layers. The sketch is from Midnight Madness (I will definitely be putting this one into my "save" file) but substituted a bow for the sentiment block.

The bow is just a fabric scrap I had laying around. The CDAC embellishment challenge asked us to "get it cornered". I did this in 2 ways: first by adding some pearls in the outside corners, as well as staggering the brown matte at the corners.

Well, that's it for now - off I go to make another sympathy card. Perhaps I'll make a "new baby" card in between so that I don't get too depressed....

Challenges:

Alphabet Challenge - "R" is for "roses"

All Sorts Challenge - inspiration from the garden or park (roses)

Basic Grey Challenges - use fabric (the bow is fabric)

By the Cute & Girly - Indian summer (what could be more appropriate than a paper line called Indian Summer)

CDAC embellishment challenge - fancy up your corners