Resemblance to dinos is pure coincidence

A couple of friends are hitting landmark birthdays this year and when I saw Lucy Abrams' card in the January/February 2013 issue of Paper Crafts Magazine (page 55)  I just knew that I had to scraplift the design. I printed the sentiments directly onto kraft card blanks (in case you can't read it from the picture, I've put the sentiment text below the photo). The dinos (from Dustin Pike's Doodle Dragons Studio) are printed on patterned paper and then paper-pieced and coloured. The papers are all from Basic Grey "Granola". The grey ribbon is an upcycle item as it came wrapped around a blanket that I bought a couple of months ago (love "free" stuff).

*Image is for entertainment purposes only. Any resemblance to a real person (i.e. you) is purely coincidental. 

Challenges:
Charisma Cardz - birthday
365 Day Cards - kraft
ABC Challenges - CAS
Tammy's Scrapin Corner - manly cards
Basic Grey Challenges - anything goes

The word is out ...

I was totally inspired by the cover of the latest Simply Cards and Papercrafts magazine to make this batch of cards for the BC Childrens Hospital. They often request cards that can be given to kids when they go home and the balloons and sentiment just seemed ideal.

To duplicate the look of the balloons, I first printed off a digi of an old dictionary page (from The Graphics Fairy), then I put the printed paper back in the printer and printed off a bunch of balloon digis (from Dustin Pike). After colouring and cutting out the balloons, I added pop dots and string (actually cross-stitch floss left over from another project). The polka dot paper was scrap so I'm not sure who makes it. The final cards are quite dimensional and because I didn't adhere the string except in a few spots, they also have some movement. I made a batch of these and will include them in the next Send A Smile 4 Kids (Canada) card delivery.

Challenges:
Crazy Challenge - seeing spots
Fashionista Challenge - for a child

I {heart} to stamp - sketch
Moving Along with the Times - flying high
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
Simon Says Stamp & Show - read all about it

Going home cards for the hospital

Whew, second post in one day but I just realized that I had to get typing if I'm going to make the deadline for entering these cards into the latest Doodle Dragon's challenge. The challenge is "My Life is a Zoo" so I chose to use these 2 pre-coloured digital stamps from Dustin Pike. Aren't they adorable?

I made these as going home cards for the BC Childrens Hospital (I'll donate them via Send A Smile 4 Kids). I used pre-coloured images and a computer-generated sentiment. The animal on each card is fussy-cut and popped up in front of the zoo fence. Inside, the cards read "Congratulations on going home."


Supplies: Digital stamps (Doodle Dragon Studios), patterned papers (Me R Memory Keepers, free with Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine), brads (from stash)
 
Challenges:

• Crafty Cardmakers - time (both cards celebrate going home after time spent in hospital)
• Heidi's Hobbystuggu - animal
• Pike's Playground - my life is a zoo
• Sunday Sketch & Stamp - sketch

Easter greetings

I love finding a great sketch that can be used for multiple cards! I just finished making this batch of cards for the BC Childrens Hospital (sending them via Send A Smile 4 Kids Canada) using last week's sketch from Sketch and Stash. Most of the papers are from the "Peep" pack from We R Memory Keepers. The ribbons, flowers & buttons are freebies from a magazine. The gorgeous die cuts are Memory Box (thank you to my BFF Lee for cutting & sending these for me!). The bunny & puppy images are digital stamps from Karen's Doodles and the dragon is from Dustin Pike's Doodle Dragon Studios. Of course they are all coloured using Copic markers.

After assembling the cards I decided that they needed some some "bling" so I added Glossy Accents on the Easter eggs (background paper on dragon card, eggs in basket on bunny card) and Stickles to the basket filler (dragon card).

Challenges:
2 Sisters - anything goes
Allsorts - anything goes
Corrosive Challenges - another dimension (the images and flowers are popped up)
Crafty Catz - something starting with "B" (buttons, bunny)
Crazy Challenge - anything goes
Doodle Dragon - Pike's Playground - bling (glossy eggs & sparkly yellow basket filler)
Going Grey with Scrap-Creations - pop it
Karen's Doodles - pastel Easter
Moving Along With the Times - layers
Send a Smile 4 Kids - Easter/spring
Truly Madly Crafty - ribbon & bling

Spooktacular Halloween

It's been awhile since I made anything but a standard card so I decided to make this Halloween card an easel design. The digi is from Dustin Pike's Doodle Dragon Studio (I just can't get enough of Dudley the dragon) and I've coloured him using my wonderful Copic markers. The corners are punched using one of Martha Stewart's around the page corner punches.

Challenges (lots of halloween inspiration this week!):

4 Crafty Chicks - marker it up
Southern Girls - stripes & polka dots
Crafting for all Seasons - halloween
Creative Card Crew - spooky fun
Creative Stamp Friends - halloween
Digital Tuesday - halloween
Dream Valley Challenges - halloween
Here Come the Boys - halloween
Magical Monday - halloween
One Stop Craft - halloween
Paper Creations Ink - halloween
Paper Take Weekly - halloween colours
Quirky Crafts - halloween
Simon Says Stamp and Show - stripes
The Crazy Challenge - halloween
Whimsical Wednesdays - halloween
Sentimental Sundays - fancy folds
Through the Craftroom Door - halloween

Trick or Treat Dragon

Today's card features one of my favourite dragons (from Dustin Pike's Doodle Dragon Studios) who is all dressed up for trick or treating. He's using his pillow case for maximum candy capacity and has a little bit of bling (see the clasp for the cape) to make sure everyone notices him as he wanders the streets. This card will be donated to Cards for Kids (Canada).

Challenges:

• Card Makin' Mamas - Go digi
• Colour Me Creative - Fall or Halloween
• C.R.A.F.T. - Children
• Creative Craft Challenge - Use a charm (the candy corn charm)
• Shopping Our Stash - Birds, bugs or beasts (no people)
• Sunday Sketch and Stamp - Sketch

Jedi birthday

Update: Yay! My card was chosen as one of the top 3 over at Totally Papercrafts!

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We just got back from vacation and I realized that the kids have a couple of birthday parties coming up quickly so I sat down and made this card in a bit of a rush. It's pretty simple (and looking at the photo now, I wish I could go back and jazz it up with some layering or inking) but the kid it's destined for is a huge Star Wars fan so I figure he'll be happy.

The card uses a sketch from Sketches by Carly and a digital image from Dustin Pike. The papers are all Basic Grey and the circles are cut using Nestabilities.

Challenges:

• Corrosive Challenges - all about kids
• Doodle Dragon - animals
• Sketches by Carly - sketch
• Stamps R Us - happy birthday
• Totally Gorjuss - punch or die cut
• Totally Papercrafts - one for the boys

Peek-a-boo Bear

I haven't added an inside sentiment to today's card but I figure it could end up being either "And a happy birthday to you!" or "I love you!" depending on the occasion. Regardless of what I end up writing on the inside, I'm pretty pleased with the front. The cutie-patootie bear is a Dustin Pike creation - isn't he just so adorable? I coloured him with Copic markers and then popped him on top of a few layers of Basic Grey papers. The entire thing looked a bit plain so I added in some faux stitching which I think finishes off the card quite nicely. The heart tag was sitting in my stash and with the addition of "Peek-a-boo" makes a great sentiment.

I used a really nice sketch from i{heart}2stamp -

Challenges:
I can't believe how many challenges this card applies to. Everyone is thinking love & hearts this week!

• 2 Sisters - hearts
• BasicGrey - hearts
• Catered Crop  - I used the following items from the recipe: repeating patterns on patterned paper, Copic Color Mediums, heart shapes, a tag with a sentiment
• Crafty Cardmakers - hearts
• Crafty Creations - use 3 words
• Crafty Emma - cute & cuddly
• Crazy 4 Challenges - hearts
• Creative Cowgirls - hearts
• Cupcake Craft - I heart you
• Fun with Shapes & More - hearts
• i{heart}2stamp - sketch
• Lexi's Creations - bears
• Paper Take Weekly - hearts
• Paperworks Co - hearts
• Scrap-Creations - animal antics
• Stamp Man - hearts

Looking in to say happy birthday

First off, if you haven't already checked out the Ezee Pzee blog hop then you still have time - the hop ends tomorrow (Jan 25) and the candy available is just fabulous! Scroll down here or click on the blog candy link in my sidebar to join the hop.
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I'm totally psyched about today's card! I picked up the image from Dustin Pike ages ago and although I love it, I hadn't used it yet.

So this weekend I was inventorying my embossing folders and when I came across this brick wall fade (from Tim Holtz) I knew that I had the perfect item to work with the image. I embossed on "Black Magic' Core'dinations paper and then lightly sanded to bring out the blue core. I cut the image out carefully and then rounded the edges to give a bit of dimension.

Since the image and colours are so strong, I chose to use a clean & simple sketch from Sunday Sketch & Stamp for the card design.

Challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - for a man/boy

Alys' Sunday Challenge - for the guys

Cards for Men - for a male & celebrate (in this case a birthday)

Catered Crop - recipe (I used Copic markers & black ink; polka dot paper)

Craft Your Passion - use 2 patterned papers

Crazy Challenge - dots & spots (polka dot paper)

Fab 'n Funky - animal magic

I Did It Creations - card for a child

My Time to Craft - spots & dots (polka dot paper)

Sunday Sketch & Stamp - SKETCH

Candy Cane Bear

I have a very simple card to share today. This one uses a digital stamp from one of my favourite digi designers Dustin Pike (Doodle Dragon Studios). This guy puts out literally hundreds of images each year and his prices are unbelievable.

For this card I coloured the bear using Copic markers and then matted him on a selection of traditionally coloured papers. The largest red panel is embossed with a candy-cane stripe folder. In order to keep the card from looking too plain, and to mimic the rounding of the candy cane, I used my corner punch on the two outside edges of the card front. Like I said, super easy but I think this will be great for so many people this coming Christmas.

Challenges:

Christmas All Year Round - anything goes (Christmas)

Fuzzy Wuzzy - anything goes (include an animal)

Stamp Something - use a digi

Karber Christmas - use a digi and anything goes

ABC Christmas - "A" is for anything Christmas

Paper Crafting Journey - use a digi

Some Odd Girl - embossing

Dragons are girly, too

I love Dustin Pike's digital stamps and use them all the time for birthday cards but I hadn't realized that I tended to only use them for boys' cards until the latest challenge on Doodle Dragon Studio. Kerri challenged us to make any Doodle Dragon Studios DRAGON IMAGE GO GIRLY. I used a sketch from Midnight Madness to get me started and then went crazy with girly colours, patterns and embellishments. I thought it would be fun to have the flower (made with QuicKutz "daisy" die cut) with several petals flying off in the wind created by the carousel horse.

I'm thinking it might need some glitter and glossy accents to really finish it up but I have to mull over it for awhile. I would likely add glitter to the flowers & petals, maybe to the dragon herself. And som glossy accents to the horse or just the saddle? What do you think?

The challenges this card fits with include:

• Doodle Dragon Studio - go girly with a dragon
• Midnight Madness - sketch
• Simon Says Stamps Challenge - mother's day or girly
• C.R.A.F.T. - mother's day or flowers

Recipe:
Digital stamp - Doodle Dragon Studio
Papers - Basic Grey
Die cut - QuicKutz "daisy"
Copic markers

A card for Delia

One of the reasons I so love being a crafter is how quickly the crafting community responds to a call for help. This was proven yet again when Dustin Pike posted a request for cards for a sick little girl on his blog. From what I have heard, the cards are flooding into little Delia! I made this card for her - I hope all the goodwill cheers her day.

This was such a fun card to make as I took inspiration from quite a few challenges (and used a brand-new digi stamp):

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  Crazy 4 Challenges - valentine card
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  One Stop Craft Challenge - use the colours apple green, chocolate & clotted cream
• 
  
  The Pink Elephant - valentine card
• 
  
  Digital Tuesday - all about animals
• 
  
  Everybody Art Cchallenge - valentine card
• 
  
  Truly Scrumptious - sketch, plus use buttons & bows
• 
  
  Copics Colour - use copic colours R29, RV23, B12
• 
  
  Cute Card Thursday - valentine card
• 
  
  ABC Challenge - "n" for new stash
• Simon Says Stamps - love

The Recipe:

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  Digi stamp is called Herbert the Turtle, from Karen's Doodles - I just discovered her work and am totally in love with her style!
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  Papers - Basic Grey
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  Ribbon - scrap ribbons

Thanks for looking!

Happy birthday Dad

Just a quick post to share this card that I pulled together for my Dad's birthday. He loves fishing and there was just something about the grin on this Dustin Pike digi-stamp that just reminded me of him.

I used a Paper Maniac challenge (use texture, faux stitching and non-round buttons) as my inspiration. The stitching is added to the fisherman's suspenders & hat. Texture is achieved with addition of some twine. And the fish he is holding is actually a wooden button that I've had sitting around forever.

Valentine's Day is approaching

I can't believe it is half-way through January already! I am ever so rapidly losing control of my time, and yet I still manage to find time to craft. It's the only thing keeping me sane!!!

Anyway, today I have a couple of valentine's day cards to share - I'm not sure which one (if either) my husband will get.

This first card is made for 2 challenges:

• Dustin Pike's first ever challenge at his new challenge blog (he even provides a free random stamp to use)
• Copic Creations challenge #19 to colour fur

I used two Dustin Pike stamps - the bear and the background (from his pirate set). The images are coloured with Copics (of course). I followed Marianne Walker's Tutorial - Coloring Fur for the bear. I need lots more practice but I think the result is still more realistic than I usually achieve.

Recipe: 

Digital images - Dustin Pike

Paper - Basic Grey, Lemonade

Ribbon - scrap, unknown

Other - glossy accents, heart brads

This second card uses a digital stamp from a brand-new company called Wink* Wink* Ink. The image is a freebie and it is just soooo cute.

Recipe:

Digital image - Wink* Wink* Ink

Paper - Basic Grey, Granola

Dustin Pike freebie and sale!

If, like me, you are a fan of Dustin Pike's dragons, monkeys and other creatures, you will absolutely have to check out his blog today and tomorrow. He is having a one-day only blow-out sale of images past & present tomorrow, Nov 25 (even though there is a hint in his blog to beat the rush and buy today). I have already downloaded mine and it's killing me that I have to wait another 5 hours for work to end so I can use them.