Thanks a Bunch, Sweet Summer Fun, Happy Birthday to You

Hello.  Welcome to my blog.  I have three cards for y'all tonight.  I've been working right along.

The first card is a Thank You Card.  I used an image from Meljen's Designs.  

Challenges I am entering for this card:

Meljen's--Colorful Cardstock

Cupcake Inspiration--Color Challenge

Avenue 613--Anything Goes with optional Friendship Day

Craftin' Desert Divas--Sketch Challenge

My next card uses the Monthly Challenge Image from Lacy Sunshine called Honey Sticky Wings.  You can purchase it in the store for $2 so you can participate in the challenge.  I used sentiments from Stampin' Up.

Challenges I am Entering with this card:

Lacy Sunshine--Summer with Honey Sticky Wings

The Squirrel and the Fox--Inspired by a Song or Movie (I used the movie "Bee Movie")

Through the Purple Haze--Sweet Summer
Crafty Sentiments--Add a Sentiment
Fantastic Tuesday--Anything Goes
Just Us Girls--Ribbon

My last card uses as image from Dustin Pike.  I just love his dragon images.  His monkey ones are cute too. I used a paper pack that I received free when I bought a magazine this month.

In the Pink--Animal Antics
Crazy 4 Challenges--Bunting/Banners
Craft Your Passion--Sweet Treats
Cards and More--Green and Pink

2013 in Review

Hello, my friends.  Today is New Year's Eve.  The last day of 2013.  As I sit here, looking back on this year, I see alot of things.  Good things, bad things, sad things, happy things and every where in between.  This has been a hard year for my family.  We've struggled with deaths in our family.  My dad passed away on Memorial Day from cancer, my uncle passed away two weeks after that from cancer, and we lost my 23 year old cousin to a drunk driving accident in July.  We've struggled financially, emotionally, and physically.  During the first few months of this year I was recovering from a broken neck and neck surgery, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and for Christmas, I had the Shingles.

But, on the bright side, my husband and I have a stronger relationship, my daughter is doing great in 4th grade and I have three new design team positions for the new year.  I have been enjoying my current design team positions and have been stretching my boundaries with my card making.

I would like to revisit some of my most favorite cards of 2013.  These are the ones that I think turned out the best.  I hope y'all enjoy this trip down memory lane.

This one was made for Sassy Studio Designs PCP challenge

I followed a sketch challenge to create this card.

Using a new star burst technique

One of the cards made for Teapot Tuesday over at Splitcoast Stampers

Kenny K's wonderful talent just inspires me

I made this card for my dad's 65th birthday, but never got to give it to him.

Another beautiful Kenny K creation

I think this has to be my most favorite of the whole year.  I just love how this one turned out.

Using a Dustin Pike image.

I love sunflowers, and this Fred She Said set is just beautiful.

Beccy Muir created this amazing birdhouse.  It was one of the first cards that added all those flowers to.

This is one of my first tries at Gothic art.  Terri's image is just beautiful.

This was my design team call entry for Kenny K.

Using the same image from Delicious Doodles as I did previously shows the versatility of Teri's images.

My first Gothic inspired altered project.  I joined the 31 Days of Halloween Blog Hop with Smeared and Smudged this year and this was one of the projects.

A wonderful image from Rick St. Dennis.  His images are so fun.

QKR Design Team entry during October

This beautiful little girl is a QKR Design Team entry that you will see next week, but I just love it and since I created it in 2013, I wanted to showcase it.

Thank you for taking this trip down memory lane with me.  There are tons more cards that I love and have enjoyed making, but I didn't want to burn out your retinas.  I look forward to seeing each and every one of you in the new year and being able to showcase my work for another year.  Thank you for being my followers.  I have made it almost up to 100.  I'm very humbled that I have that many people interested in my work.  I truly appreciate all the wonderful comments y'all have left for me during this past year and I look forward to seeing alot more.  I love reading them.  My New Year's wish for all my friends in blog land is:

May you always have sunshine in your face, food on your table, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, family and friends surrounding you, enough faith to sustain you, and may your crafting always make you happy.

Happy New Year!

Prayers for America Card

Good Morning.  Wow, I just happened to glance down and see that it's 4 am.  Holy smokes.  Well, let's get these cards posted.  

As I was looking through my challenge list for this week, I realized that one of them was Red, White, and Blue.  In light of what has gone on in Boston and Texas this past week, I decided to make a card as a tribute to those who lost their lives and were injured.

Sorry the pic is a little dark, but hopefully you can see all the elements.  This little guy is marching his way across the USA to bring support to those in Boston and Texas.  I used my colored pencils to bring him to life.  After coloring him, I used my Fiskars Oval shape cutter to die cut him.  The card base is Recollections Red and I used it for the mats on the DP also.  All the DP is from DCWV.  I used the shape cutter to cut out the sentiment oval and mat, also.  I hand wrote the sentiment and inked the image and sentiment with DI Vintage Photo.  Adding some red gems from Queen and Co. finished off this prayerful card.  

Thank you for joining me tonight/this morning.  I hope y'all enjoy your Saturday and God bless America!

Challenges:
Dustin Pike--Anything Goes
The Sweetest Thing--#182 Sketch Challenge
Creative Craft Challenges 2--#8 Red, White and Blue

Friends are Forever

Hiya friends.  Welcome back.  I have a card for y'all today that  uses a Dustin Pike image.  I changed it up a bit.  Usually the Dudley images are manly, but I would like y'all to meet Dudletta...

This is Dudley's twin sister.  I used this cute little image from the Dudley collection and made "her" pink and sparkly.  I used my Chromatix for this one.  For the sky I used three different Distress Inks..Tumbled Glass, Wild Honey, and Tattered Rose.  I inked the edges just a bit with Vintage Photo.  I matted Dudletta on a panel of Chocolate Chip card stock (SU) and then on a panel of Pink (Recollections)  I followed the Mojo Monday Sketch for this week to make this card.  The card base is also Chocolate Chip.  The DP is from SEI Chocolat collection.  I used a Fiskars border punch for the green border and the sentiment is from a Fiskars set called All Year Cheer.  I used a Fiskars small scallop oval punch for the sentiment.  Adding some green pearls from Queen and Co. finished off the card.

Thanks for stopping in tonight and I hope you enjoyed meeting Dudletta.  God bless y'all.

Challenges:
Dustin Pike--Girly  Cards
Bearly Mine--#79  Girly Pink
Mojo Monday--#286
Crafty Cardmakers--#87 Friends

Irish for the Day

Hi there.  I just got some really bad news.  Our neighbor and friend was killed last night in a car accident.  He hit the guardrail and the Jeep flipped and rolled and he was ejected from the car.  Please pray for the Chappel family.  They just lost their dad at the end of last year.  Our friend was suffering from blood clots in his legs, so I am really hoping that one broke loose and hit his heart.  I would hate to think that he was conscious when he was thrown from the car.  Thanks for your prayers.

The card I have for y'all features a stamp from Dustin Pike.  I love his little dragons.  They are so dang cute. I printed out the image on Neenah card stock and colored him with BIC markers and Spectrum Noir.

I used a new technique that I watched on StampTV with Gina K.  You use your smallest Nestabilities, any shape, and place them randomly on your DP or card stock.  I used a piece of green vellum.  Cut a piece of card stock or DP the same size as the one with the holes and once you get them cut out in a pattern, adhere the cut piece to the second piece.  You can run both of them through an embossing folder if you like.  I used an Argyle pattern folder for the second piece of DP.  I then matted that onto another piece of DCWV  DP.  The whole thing is placed on a Very Vanilla card base from SU. I die cut the image with oval Nestabilities and inked the image with DI Wild Honey.  The scalloped mat is Mint Green card stock from Gina K.  I added three buttons from my stash.  I stamped the greeting from Studio G with Versa Magic Spanish Olive.

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

Challenge:
Dustin Pike--Pastels

Dirt Road Anthem

Here we go..card #3.  When I saw this image, I immediately thought of Jason Aldeen's Dirt Road Anthem.  

I found this cute image online for free when I first started into my digi stamp obsession.  It is from Dustin Pike and is from 2009.  I used my BIC markers and a metallic silver gel pen to give the image some life.  I remember going to the Monster Truck shows with my dad when I was a kid.  I loved it.  Grave Digger was one of my favorites.   I cut out the image and used pop dots to add it to the card to make it kinda look like it's zooming across the card.  The card base is Crumb Cake from SU.  I added a cool DP from Colorbok's Masculine pack that looks like dirt and mud.  The corners are made from a Dark Blue card stock from Recollections and DP from DCWV My Guy pack.  I inked the edges of the truck with DI Vintage Photo so that the white wasn't so stark.  The sentiment is from Verses which I matted on Black from SU.

I hope the little boy or big boy for that matter who receives this card enjoys it.  Thank you for keeping up with me.  God bless y'all.

Challenges:
Pike's Playground--Boy/Male card
One Stop Craft Challenge--For the Kids
My Time to Craft--#210 Inspired by a Song
Just Us Girls--#177 Inspiration Photo--my inspiration was the brown and blue.

Tame the Dragon

Let's go dragon hunting.  I chose this adorable dragon stamp and back ground  from Dustin Pike to make my card for the Cute Card Thursday challenge..Out of This World.   I already had it printed out and colored, but just hadn't had the right opportunity to use it...until now.

I have always loved dragons.  When I was into painting ceramics, I made a whole collection for my brother, who collects them.  I even had a small collection from the Franklin Mint that I ended up giving to my brother.  I don't view them as mystical or witch related.  To me they represent what could be.  The freedom of soaring through the air and making your own destiny.  Yeah, I'm a dreamer.  LOL.  I guess in part, they represent my life before motherhood.  That time in my life when I could just pick up and go and not have to worry about a babysitter, or making sure my child has everything she needs before I can spend the extra money on myself.  Wistful, I know.

I colored the images with my colored pencils and OMS.  I do alot of colored pencil work, but I feel comfortable with it.  I am trying to slowly learn how to use my Spectrum Noir pens and make the images turn out right, but it takes a while to master it.  I would love to be able to afford a set of Copics.  That would be my wish.  My dragon wish.  To be blessed to receive the whole set of Copics.  Yes, I wish big.  Some of the AC Moore stores have started carrying Copics, but they are $7.99 each.  I think that is just a little expensive.  Maybe with our tax refund I can invest in two or three from each color family.  Anyway, back to the card.

I used SU Crumb Cake for the card base which is an A2 size.  I matted the background on a piece of turquoise card stock from Recollections after inking the edges with DI Vintage Photo.  I fussy cut the dragon knight out and used pop dots to add him to the center.  The sentiment I searched and searched for on the internet.  I finally found a dragon quote that I liked by Noela Evans.  I have no idea who she is, but I liked her quote.  I printed it out in turquoise ink and matted it on a scrap of black card stock.  I used pop dots for the sentiment.  That's it.  Very minimal product on this card.  I think it qualifies for Out of this World..don't y'all?

Well, that's the last card for this set of cards.  I will have more, probably tomorrow or Monday.  Thanks for taking time out of your schedules to come visit me here on my blog.  God bless you and have a great day!