Hello there my friends.  Welcome back to my blog.  I am so excited to be able to tell y'all the good news.  I am now part of The Crafter's Cafe Blog Team.  There are some very talented ladies on our team here at TCCB.  Hopefully you guys made it here from Alex's Blog.  If not, please go back and start at the beginning of the hop. 

Many of you already know me, but for those of you who don't, my name is Emily Thubbron and I am a craft-aholic.  I have been crafting in some form or fashion since I was a child.  I transitioned into paper crafting in 2003 when I was pregnant with my daughter and wanted  a way to showcase the thousands of pictures I knew I was going to snap of her. I made my way into card making in 2010.  

I have been married to my wonderful hubby, Tim, for 13 years and we have one daughter, Kierstynne, who just turned 9 in May.  I was born and raised in Virginia and moved to Pennsylvania in 1999.  We have a Jack Russell named Bully and a huge, Garfield type cat named Marshmallow.

Here are a couple of pictures of some of my work so that you get the idea of my style, which varies quite a bit.  

So now that you know a bit about me, let me tell you how this hop is going to work!  We are breaking this hop up into two separate hops.  Hop one introducing TEAM A will last for three days, then hop two introducing TEAM B will start and last for three days.  After both hops have been completed,  we will select a couple of lucky winners from those who commented on everyone's blogs and on the blog hop posts here on the challenge blog.

Here are our wonderful sponsors for this hop:

My Heart Pieces

Lacy Sunshine

Shelly's Images

Creative Bug

Here is the blog hop list for Team B.  In order to be eligible to win one of the great blog hop prizes, you must leave some love on all of the DT blogs.  When you have hopped through the list, make sure you go back to Crafter's Cafe and leave a comment that you have visited all the blogs.  

Karen http://busybusyhoneybee.wordpress.com/

Chana http://www.redoralee.blogspot.com/

Rosica http://theworldofotusscops.blogspot.com/

Michelle P http://ladyofleisureink.blogspot.com/

Isobel http://isobelcreationblogspotcom.blogspot.co.uk/

Zoe http://handmadewithlotsoflove.blogspot.co.uk/

Maureen (Mo) http://maureenjscott.blogspot.co.uk/  

Carol (Cass) http://casscreatingnow.blogspot.com.au/

Alex T  http://prettypaperandinkyfingers.blogspot.co.uk/

Ems http://www.emsmanythoughts.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much for hopping along with our new DT.  Good luck!

Am I Beautiful Yet?

Good morning y'all.  What a beautiful start to our weekend.  The sun is shining, a nice breeze is blowing and God is so good.

Thanks for stopping in for some eye candy today.  I have a Gothic card for y'all today.  I chose an image from Ike's World to make this card.

After printing off this image onto Neenah card stock, I colored her with BIC Markers and Spectrum Noir pens.  I colored in the spikes on her collar and the cross earring with a Metallic Silver pen.  The image is trimmed down, distressed and inked with DI Black Soot.  I used Recollections Black and Purple card stock for the mats and the background.  The DP is from last year's Recollection Halloween collection.  You can't really tell, but the Dark Purple stripe is glittered.  The flower is Recollections and that purple and white polka dot brad is about 7 years old.  I don't even remember where I got it.  I printed out the sentiment and trimmed and inked (Versa Magic Purple) it, matted it on a piece of black card stock and adhered it onto the side.

I hope y'all enjoyed your visit today.  Enjoy your Saturday.  God bless y'all.

Challenges:
Stamping with Dragon--Anything Goes
Avenue 613--#25 Anything Goes
Shopping Our Stash--#107 Use Oldest Embellishment
TTCRD--Anything Goes

God Bless America

God Bless America, land that I love.  Stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light from above.  This should be our prayer every day.  America has gone away from what our forefathers planned for us to be.  Praying for America should be one of our greatest prayers.

I used two different Digi Darla images to make this card.  I couldn't decide which one I wanted to use, so I used them both.

After printing off the images onto Neenah card stock, I used my BIC markers and Sakura pens to add some color.  Don't you just love her nails?  If I were a girly girl, I would so paint mine like this for 4th of July.  After coloring in the images and trimming them, I matted them on panels of Red from Recollections.  The card base is Colorbok White.  The DP is from the Americana Collection by Colorbok.  I used some of the left over DP from my Army Honey card and used a star punch to make the little stars and fussy cut out the bigger ones.  I popped the sentiment up for interest.

I hope you enjoyed this early 4th of July card..well not so early considering next Thursday is the 4th.  God bless y'all and have a great night.

Challenges:
Crafts 4 Eternity--#129 Spots and Stripes
Created with Love--#47 4th of July
Shelly's Images--Stars, Stripes and Sparkle

Fly Like a Bird

Welcome back.  I'm so glad y'all stopped in.  I have a card for ya that is just for the birds..he he

I love this little image.  It's one of those I downloaded when I first started with digi stamps and I have no idea who designed it.  If you know, please leave me a comment so that I can give the proper credit. :)
I started this card by printing out the image and sentiment (Verses) on Neenah card stock.  I used BIC Markers and Sakura glitter pens to color in the image.  After trimming it down, I matted it onto a panel of Recollections Red card stock.  The sentiment is matted onto Olive Green Recollections card stock.  The DPs are from DCWV.  Each piece of DP is matted onto either red, green or both colors of card stock. The sentiment is popped up. 

Thanks for stopping by tonight again to see my work.  God bless y'all.

Challenges:
Outlawz Color Challenge: Red, Green and White with a Music Twist
Cute Card Thursday--Fly Like a Bird

4th of July Thank You

Hello and happy Thursday.  We had a wonderful evening at the Lake Winola Fireman's Carnival Parade. Our church had a float in the parade promoting our Vacation Bible School--Mega Sports Camp.  There was only one drawback...it poured down rain.  Kierstynne looked like a drowned rat when we picked her up at the church.  Poor kids.

Thanks for stopping in tonight to see what I have been up to.  The card I have for y'all for this post uses a Sassy Studio image.  Sassy Studio is having a progressive challenge until the 14th of July.  All you have to do is send a request to the email listed in the post and you will receive the Army Honey image.  Make a card with that image and you can request the next one, Air Force Honey.  Once you make a card with that one, request the Sailor Honey.  You can get three images this round plus a chance to win 2 images from Sassy Studio Design.  Click HERE for all the rules and details.

Here's the card I created for the challenge:

I printed off this Army Honey onto Neenah card stock and used Spectrum Noir to color it in.  I used a polka dot method of coloring it to make it look like army fatigues.  I know this technique has a name, but I'm not sure what it's called.  I made a standard card base from SU dark red card stock and used DP from Colorbok's Americana collection.  The white doily behind the image is from my friend, Jan.  Thanks Jan!  The sentiment is from Cloud 9's America set and I stamped it in Bahama Blue Memento ink.  I added three red gems from Queen and Co to finish off the card.

Thanks again for stopping in.  Stay tuned.  I have a few more to post tonight.  God bless y'all.

Challenges:
Sassy Studio Design--Progressive Challenge #2 
ABC Challenges--#34 Red, White and Blue
Outlawz Twisted Thursday--July 1st (Canada) or July 4th (USA)
Splitcoast Stampers--Wednesday's Sketch Challenge 442

Charm is Deceitful

Hello again.  Thanks for coming back.  I have a much calmer, more peaceful card for y'all this time.  :)  I don't do the Gothic stuff very much, but I do enjoy it every now and again.

The card for this post uses a Scripture verse from Proverbs 31.  

This sentiment image is a Beyond the Fringe image.  I printed it out on Neenah white card stock and trimmed it down, matted it and added a piece of green and pink heart DP from DCWV.  I followed the sketch for Twist of Faith this week to make this card.  I used Recollections pink for a card base and matted the image and DP onto Recollections Olive Green.  Adding three pink pearls from Queen and Co finished it off.

I appreciate y'all stopping by to visit.  I will have more for ya tomorrow.  God bless y'all and have a great night.

Challenge:
Twist of Faith--#42 Sketch Challenge

Love is Eternal

Hello my friends.  I hope y'all have enjoyed your Monday.  We had a terrible storm earlier this evening.  The winds were whipping and it was hailing and raining.  It's done now thank the Lord.

The card I have for y'all this post is a Fantasy card.  What do you think of when you hear the word fantasy..Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Star Wars, fairies, elves...I think of Vampires.  I know I shouldn't but I love Vampires.  I think it's just the thought of someone loving me forever no matter what and desiring me enough to want to spend eternity with me.  I know, I'm a hopeless romantic and my poor husband doesn't a have a drop of romance in his whole body. :)

The image I chose is from Phee McFaddell.  Isn't she a cute little vampire.  He's an elf vampire.  I printed out the image onto Neenah card stock and used my Spectrum Noir pens and Sakura glitter gel pens to color in the image.  I rounded the corners of the image, inked them with DI Black Soot and matted it onto a piece of dark red card stock from Recollections.  The card base is made from Colorbok card stock.  I added two DPs..one from DCWV and one from the Recollections Halloween collection from last year.  I used pop dots to add dimension to the image.  The beaded trim is from Michael's and the feathers are from my daughter's school kit that we had left over.  I added three Recollections flowers and a red brad.  

I hope you like my fantasy card.  I am also entering this into the Haunted Design House challenge and the theme is Unlucky 13.  Here is a list of the 13 elements I added to my card:
1 image
1 image mat
3 flowers
2 feathers
1 brad
1 length of beaded trim
2 DPs
1 DP mat
1 card base
For a total of 13.

Thanks for stopping in today.  I hope y'all have a great night.  God bless y'all.

Challenges:
Tuesday Throwdown--Fantasy
Haunted Design House--Unlucky 13

Digi Darla #68 At the Beach

Good morning friends.  It's Monday and that means another challenge at Digi Darla's.  This week our theme is At the Beach.  I chose "Virginia Lighthouse" as my focal image for this card.

I used Spectrum Noir pens and chalk to color in the image after printing it off on Neenah card stock.  I matted both the focal image and the sentiment (Dee's Bugaboo Boutique) onto Black Recollections card stock.  All the corners have been rounded.  I used another ancient paper from DCWV as the background. The strip across the bottom is actual sandpaper.  I learned the hard way not to cut sandpaper with your paper trimmer...:(  I had to immediately replace the blade.  I added three punched squares to the right hand side for a pop of color.  The card base is 6" square and is Tan by Colorbok.

I hope that you will give Digi Darla's challenge a try this week.  Thanks for stopping in and God bless.

Melonheadz Challenge--Beach

Good Monday morning friends.  I hope you enjoyed your weekend.  It was beautiful here.  We attended a wedding on Saturday and it was beautiful.

Our challenge at Melonheadz Friends is Beach--water, sand, fish etc.  The DT has made some beautiful inspirational cards for y'all.  Here's what I came up with:

I decided to an underwater scene.  I used the Mermaid Bundle to design this card.  I began by printing out all the images on Neenah card stock and coloring them with Spectrum Noir and BIC markers.  I fussy cut all the parts.  I made a 6" card base from Colorbok card stock.  The DPs are very old.  LOL.  1996 HOTP papers.  I found them in my stash and thought they would work perfectly.  I used Sakura Glitter Gel pens to add some sparkle to the bubbles.  Then I just added the elements in a way I liked.

I hope y'all enjoyed the eye candy for today and will play along with us at Melonheadz Friends for this fun challenge.  Thanks and God bless.

Paper a la Mode Weekly Challenge

Hello there friends.  Welcome back for another piece of eye candy.  Today's card was made for the Paper a la Mode Weekly Challenge over at the Outlawz.  Our theme this week is an Anything Goes with a twist.  If you decide to do the twist, it's Under the Sea.

I seem to be in a beach/water/under the sea kinda mood this week.  This is the third type of card like this that I have made. Do you think I may be in wishful thinking mode?   You will see the other two on Monday.

I used a background and mermaid from Sassy Studios to make this card.  I printed off the images onto Neenah card stock and colored them with Spectrum Noir.  I fussy cut the mermaid and fish (Inkadinkadoo) and added some Pearlized Transparent embossing powder to them for some shine.  The sentiment is mine.  The card base is Colorbok and is a 6" square. I added a mat of Kraft card stock (Recollections) under the sea background just for some contrast. 

I appreciate you stopping in today.  I hope you all enjoy your weekend.  I have a wedding tomorrow so we will be busy all day.  God bless y'all.

Imagine That Monthly Challenge

Welcome back.  I have one more card for y'all this morning.  This one is for the Imagine That Progressive Freebie Challenge.  This round the image is called Lilly's Flowers



Very cute, isn't she?  You can purchase this image for $1 to play along and then when you make your card and enter it on the Imagine That blog, you will get the next image free.

Here's what I came up with:

This is my first long and skinny card.  I pulled out my XCut Rectangle Dies to make this card.  I did realize something after I had already cut the image and the mat...they don't match up.  Go figure.  Guess I should have checked first.  So, I finagled it.  I used the largest scalloped die to make the card base from Navy Blue Recollections card stock.  It's about 6.5" tall and 4" wide.  I found a nice piece of flowered DP to use for the BG.  I fussy cut around the flowers and then die cut the image and matted on the Yellow Recollections mat.  I used BIC markers to color the image and the sentiment is inked with DI Vintage Photo.  Adding some gems from Queen and Co finished off this card.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Enjoy your day.  God bless.

Sweet Summer Treat

Hello again.  Welcome back to my blog.  The card I have for this post is my first Summer card of the season.  I chose a Mayzy Art image called Watermelon Wally.

Isn't he cute.  Looks like he's really enjoying his watermelon.  I printed out the image on Neenah card stock and used my BIC markers to color image.  I trimmed down the image and matted it on Red Recollections card stock.    The sentiment is mine.  I chose two DCWV DPs for this one and strange enough, I had colored the image first and then found this DP with the same colors as the image.  I added the strip of red plaid just because it's summery.  The card base is made from Gina K 120# Heavy Base Weight White.  I added a mat of Dark Blue Recollections card stock under the polka dot DP.  That cute little watermelon slice, it's Fiskars Fresh Fruit.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you enjoy your Wednesday.  God bless.

Challenges:
Mayzy Art--#19 Polka Dots
One Crazy Stamper--June "Summer" Challenge
ABC Challenges--#33  Summer
Cutie Pie Challenge--One for the Kids

The Outlawz CFC Challenge

Hello there friends.  Today I have a card for y'all that I made for the CFC challenge over on Outlawz.  Anne Fenton and Sandi Huggett design some beautiful artwork and we get to take advantage of their talents. 

For those of you who have never played along with the CFC challenge, it's very simple.  Join the Outlawz and then join the CFC group.  Send a friend request to Sandi and Anne and request this week's images.  Make a card/cards using the images and you will get the next set  to design with.

Here's one of the images for this round:

I began this card by printing out the image on Neenah card stock and coloring the rose with BIC markers.  The butterfly is colored with Sakura Glitter gel pens.  I used oval Nestabilities to die cut the image and mat.  The sentiment is from Dede Smith and is matted on Black card stock from Recollections.  I cut a piece of Yellow card stock from Recollections to 4x5.25 and ran it through my Cuttlebug with a Darice EF.  I adhered it to a Black (Recollections) card base.  I used a black Sakura glitter gel pen to add color to the raised dots on the card stock.  I shocked my own self when I didn't use any DP.

If you get a chance, why not head on over to the Outlawz and check us out.  Thanks for stopping in today and have a wonderfully blessed day.

Contest time at Kenny K

Hello there friends.  I just wanted to post this little tidbit of information.  Kenny K is having a contest to name their 5 newest girl that are being released on June 23rd.  You have the chance to win one or more of these cuties if your name for them is picked.

Now if you want to win one or more of these cuties, then get your thinking caps on and give us your best names you can come up with for them. Each girl has a number underneath them, so what we want you to do is.........

1. Write up a blog post with your name choices for each girl or just one girl as long as you put the number for them ie

3. Rachel

2. Copy the poster to your blog post, then come back here and link up your blog post with Inlinkz.

KennyK and Elena will be checking out your blog with your name choices and will choose the ones they think best match the girlz.

If your name/s are chosen, then you will win the girl/girlz for the winning names.

This contest will run until June 21st, and the winners will be announced on the day of release

JUNE 23RD.

So, here are the names I have chosen for the 5 girls.

1-Kierstynne

2-Sasha

3-Marciana

4-Sashaye

5-Zahara

What names would you chose?

V's Sweet Ideas Monthly Challenge

Welcome to my blog, friends.  I appreciate each and every one of you.  You are all special in my book.

The last card I have for y'all in this bunch is a sweet little baby card for V's Sweet Ideas Challenge #12.  The theme, of course, is Babies.

Can you believe it?  I actually made a standard A2 card.  LOL.  I seem to be stuck on the square cards, but I veered of course for this one.  

The image is from Dearie Dolls and was printed on Neenah card stock.  I did find a new Neenah on Amazon.  It's 110# and is called Index Card.  It works beautifully when blending alcohol pens and colored pencils.  The package is 250 sheets and costs roughly $13.   It's not super smooth like what I was buying at 7kidscollegefund.com, but it works well.  I like it.

I used my Spectrum Noir pens to color in the image and give it a bit of a shadow.  I trimmed it down to fit the entire width of the card.  I matted it onto a panel of SU Gray.  I made the card base from the same gray.  The DP is an oldie from my stash.  Adding a piece of Pink Gingham ribbon and some Pink Pearls from Queen and Co. finished off this card.  I think this qualifies for CAS, don't y'all?

Thanks so much for stopping in today.  If ya get a chance, make sure to pop in over at V's for this sweet challenge.  God bless y'all.