Happy New Year!

I have had the most wonderful week with my family and I thought I'd share a picture of the ones I've been spending my time with....hence, the lack of cards or blogging. I've missed connecting with all of you, but I know you have all been tied up with holiday festivities also and we can get back to blogging and cards soon, right?! As you can see by the picture, there were 19 of us for Christmas and for dinner each day after until yesterday. It was a full house for sure, but lots of fun. I don't know when we'll have the chance to all be together again so we made the most of our time together. This picture features our 4 kids, their spouses and 9 grandkids, plus of course my DH and myself.
Tomorrow is the 1st and time for another Copic Creations challenge, and this was the first card I've done in a couple of weeks. Hope you can check out the challenge. Happy New Year to all! See you next year. :)

Princess Post

Not much time these days to post, and I'm so sorry that I haven't been around to see your latest creations. I would love to see what you're all doing, but I've been busy every moment and this is the first chance I've had to post to my blog. I'm still hoping to find some quiet time to stop by for a visit and actually be able to leave a comment. Meanwhile I had to post my little princess and her birthday card. I took her to her first production of the Nutcracker on Saturday and she was so excited! Her 6th birthday was last week, and I bought her a fancy dress and coat and it was even cold enough out to wear it. Her mom fixed her hair so pretty and polished her nails and put sparklies all over her cute little face. She was sooooo excited, and she loved the performance. It was even more special because her dad and her aunt both play in the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra that accompanied the performance. It was outstanding, and she loved it......so did I!! I'm thankful that our fair city is still very supportive of the arts. So, I colored the image on her card to try to match her dress. It's mostly the dress color that matches, and their blonde hair. She's holding a Nutcracker that we bought at the production. The image is one of Mo's designs, and when I saw it I thought it would be perfect for our little princess. The background is gold-embossed with Flourishes "Damask." Thank you, all you faithful bloggers who still stop and visit and comment. I promise I haven't forgotten you and I will be around soon. I hope you have a safe and wonderful Christmas!

Copic Creations Challenge #18

It's time for our next Copic Creations challenge, and our theme for this challenge is coloring pine branches, and our sponsor is House-Mouse. They are offering a $25 Gift Card to the winner of this challenge. The DT has come up with some adorable examples and these little mousies will put a smile on your faces for sure. My image is called "The Gift of Friendship" and I love the festive way they're going about decorating the tree. My colors for the pine branches are YG13, G28 and G82. I used DP's from my Holiday Stack from DCWV. That stack has some awesome papers. I used my Nesties, Labels Five for the mice and the sentiment. The sentiment is from Flourishes "Christmas Tea" and I embossed it with gold embossing powder. This was a fun challenge and I hope you get a chance to play along. Be sure to check out what the rest of the DT has done for this challenge. Thank you so much for stopping by.

Wishing You Peace on Earth

I finally got to put my Swiss Pixie Nora onto a card. She's been colored for over a month, but with all the preparations for Christmas, she had to sit patiently and wait to be finished. So, here is this sweet little girl, offering wishes for Peace on Earth. I cut her and the background label from my Nesties Labels Four. I used Basic Grey's "Eskimo Kisses" for the DP. The design in the background label makes me think of a tweed which reminds me of a winter coat or scarf, and the background paper looks like it could be a winter snowstorm. The suede ribbon is from Sharon Johnson's ribbon store, the buckle from Flourishes, and the sentiment is computer-generated and punched with SU's Modern Label Punch. I find that I'm using that a lot. I've had much on my plate as I'm sure all of you do. If you did stop by, thank you so much. I hate that I haven't been able to comment on everyone's work, but "tis the season...." I'll try to catch up soon. Don't forget that tomorrow is our next Copic Creations challenge, and the DT's cards are looking so, so cute! Be sure to check it out, and if you can squeeze it in, be sure to play along. You'll love our sponsor. Have a wonderful Monday.

Christmas challenge at Mo's Challenge Blog

I decided to enter this into the challenge for this week for Mo's Challenge blog. I colored this some time ago but never put it together, so this was the perfect time. The challenge was to do a Christmas card for someone special, so I finished this one to send off with a Christmas wish. I used my MS snowflake border and corner punch, which I'm still getting used to because I can't always get it to line up right. If any of you have conquered this and want to share that with me, please feel free. I added some glitter to the snowflakes, but it's kind of hard to see in the picture. The sentiment is computer generated using a font called "angelic-war" that I downloaded here. My ribbon, CS and DP are from Stampin' Up. I'm staying awfully busy these days but I did want to share this with you and participate in a challenge.....something I have rarely been able to do lately. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you can enjoy the wonder and joy of the holiday season.

Busy Beauties Blog Hop Winner

My day has been super busy, but I'm happy to take a moment to announce the winner of our recent blog hop. I'm happy to announce that Christine of dolcreations is our winner. Congrats, Christine! Be sure to e-mail Carolyn at BusyBeauties@nc.rr.com and let her know what your choice is for your free image. Thank you so much to all of you that left such encouraging comments. It really made my day. I must admit, I'm loving having these images adorning my tree in my kitchen. Thank you, Carolyn and Thomas, for these great images. Hope you all have a lovely remainder of your week-end.

Busy Beauty Image Release

It's time for another release of some adorable Busy Beauty images, and once again we are having a blog hop to show them off. If you came here from Grace's blog, you're on the right track. If not, you'll want to go back and start there, because if you leave a comment on each blog you'll be eligible for the grand prize which is 3 images of your choice FREE from the Busy Beauties Boutique. Carolyn of "p.m.s. etc.", our author of Busy Beauties along with her artist-friend Thomas, will select our grand prize winner and announce it on her blog. When you are done at my blog, be sure to continue to Heather's blog. Also, like last time, each DT member will pick one winner who left a comment on their blog to pick one image from the boutique of their choice. So, without further ado, let's get started!
This tree is decorated with several of the newest images from Busy Beauties. Once I saw them, I knew what I wanted to do with them and as I colored them, I was getting pretty excited. I resized the oven mitts and pot holder to a bit larger size. (There are several different versions of oven mitts.) I printed the cupcakes in two different sizes. I colored my Frilly Cupcakes and then decorated them with Stickles. There are two pans of cookies-one plain and one with chocolate chips. I went with the plain and made them sugar cookies with sprinkles. I had to perch Baking Beauty in the tree since it displays her handiwork. She's munching on one of her yummy cookies. I also added Gingerbread Girl and Boy, Stick-Figure Reindeer, and Jolly, the snowman, to the tree. I played with the gingerbread people and the reindeer in Photoshop so I could make them holding hands, and I shrunk them down a bit. I left Jolly his regular size. I'm sorry he's a bit blurred in the picture. I promise he's not blurry in person. I wanted them to help announce their appearance so I put them on the tree as well. That doesn't even cover all the new releases, so I hope you'll follow the blog hop and check out the rest of the images and what the others have done with their images. Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

Copic Creations Challenge #17

Happy December 1. It's time for our 17th Copic Creations Challenge and this Challenge is bringing you snow and more specifically, snowmen. The DT has come up with the cutest snowmen and snow pictures to get you in the spirit of winter, holidays and all the warm fuzzy thoughts and feelings that go along with this time of year. My little duo is from Whimsie Doodles. It is a digi-stamp called Snow Friends. My snowmen were colored with N1 and R0000 for the pink one. I colored both of those in along the edge and used my colorless blender to pull the colors towards the middle. For the "blue" one I used N1 and BG10 and did the same thing. My trees were first colored in YG13 and G28, and then lightly sponged with Always Artichoke and Certain Celery. The scarves were done with RV10,11,& 14 and BG10 and 72. The tree trunks were colored at the base with E44 and then I blended my greens into that as I went up the tree trunk. It's such a simple image but I loved it when I saw it - I do love the look of whimsical images , and I like what they have to offer. My DP is Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses and the sentiment is from PTI's "Made of Snow." I hope you can take a moment and look at the cute snowy cards the girls have done for this challenge. Then if you can, play along. Our sponsor for this challenge is Whipper Snapper. Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful week.

Magnolias on Ice

I have been longing to ink up my Tilda and Edwin On Ice stamp, and when my new issue of Magnolia arrived I couldn't put it off any longer. I had also just received the background Park,Pond scene from Alota Rubber Stamps and I think it's a great scene for the two of these cuties to skate on. My DP's are from American Craft, "Merrymint" and I glittered up my die cuts in the upper corners to set it apart a bit. I colored everything with my Copics - have I mentioned that I LOVE my Copics!...and I used a bit of liquid applique to add some dimensional snow to my pine trees. I'm so envious of all of you who manage to keep up with your cards so faithfully through the busy holidays. I wish I could do that but I am just pulled in too many directions. I did manage to donate 28 cards to our church to send to our missionaries, and I have another 25 or 30 that I'll send out personally to family and friends, so I'm not exactly sitting around,-- just not getting to my posting or commenting as much as I'd like. Tomorrow is December 1 and that means another Copic Creations challenge. Be sure to check out what our DT has in store for this challenge and thanks so much for taking the time to stop by.

Just-Rite Snowman

This adorable snowman is from Just-Rite Stampers. I loved this set the first time I saw it and love the cards I've seen made with it. I used my Basic Grey DP's and my MS snowflake corner punch. I embossed my main CS with my Snowdots Embossing Folder. The sentiment comes from PTI's Mailbox Greetings set. I colored my snowman with my Copics. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful holiday. I want to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving day.

Flourishes' "I Believe" Santa

Wow, it's been over a week since my last post, but last week was a busy one for our family. My best friend was here for most of the week. While she was here, my precious 16-month-old grandson who lives with us was admitted to the hospital for 2 days with viral bronchialitis. Not a fun time. Needless to say, I was not stamping or blogging.
I did this card awhile ago but I was so inspired by this card from Linda Duke for Flourishes that I decided to go back and color mine. Linda's card is exquisite and I know mine doesn't hold a candle to hers, but I'm still very pleased with it. I had stamped it in one of my distress inks and just colored the berries and holly leaves at first. After seeing hers, I decided to be daring and try to color it. It was already in my card and ready to go, so if I messed up, I'd have to scratch the whole card. I colored it with my prismacolor pencils. Haven't used them in awhile. I do like how it turned out and I still think this image is incredibly beautiful and detailed. At our house, Santa is acknowledged but not emphasized, so I chose to use "Merry Christmas" instead of the "Believe" sentiment that comes with the set. I hope to be back before a whole week goes by again, and I hate that I've not had time to visit and comment on your blogs, but the holidays keep me busy. I'm so happy that 3 of my 4 kids and their families will be with us for Thanksgiving, and all 4 of my kids and their families will be home for Christmas. This will be a first in a long, long time. There will be 19 of us for that. Thank you for stopping and looking. I do love and miss your comments and just generally keeping in touch. Have a wonderful week and Thanksgiving Holiday and good luck if you dare to go out on Black Friday. LOL Hugs,

Copic Creations Challenge #16

It's mid-November and time for our 16th Copic Creations challenge. The theme of this challenge is "Gold", or coloring gold objects. Our challenge this time is sponsored by "I Brake for Stamps" and they have a very generous prize for the winner of the challenge. You can see the CC Blog for details. My card is one of their images called, obviously, "Santa." There was a lot to color, but I thought it was such a beautiful image and I am pleased with how it turned out. The DP's are mainly SU's Candy Cane and the two solid green CS pieces are both from SU! The copics I used for my gold items are YR21 and YR24. The DT has done some beautiful coloring on some beautiful images. I hope you check them out and then join
our challenge and color some gold. Thanks for looking.

House-Mouse "Kit" Challenge

This week's challenge at House Mouse was somewhat elaborate. The DT were all furnished a kit, but we the challengees were supposed to try to duplicate as best we could the ingredients in their kits. Those ingredients were:
Colour theme - Brown and Cream
1 x spotty/patterned paper
Brown Ribbon
Silver thread
Charm
Stamped image
Sentiment
Swirl die-cut (or something similar)
embossed card (brown or cream or both)
Pearls (or diamontes)
I had to make a card for my daughter's 3rd anniversary and this HM stamp was perfect, so I decided to see if I could make the card go with the challenge. She loves brown, so I used my PTI DP for the color/spotted paper. The ribbon is also PTI. The one thing I do not have is silver thread. I also have no charms but I used my ribbon slide from Flourishes and decided that could be my charm. My background is a Divine Swirl embossing folder for my Cuttlebug and I used my Kaiser half-pearls for the pearls. Hope this counts for the challenge, but even if it doesn't, I love how it turned out anyway. Thanks for stopping by. Thanks, America, for the challenge. It's nice to be participating.

Babies and Christmas

I have two cards to share with you today and they're both stamps from Flourishes. The first is from their Baby Love set and it is for our very dear friends who were blessed today with a new granddaughter. Their oldest grandchild is 16 if I'm not mistaken, so this has been a thrill for them to anticipate this new little one, and a girl at that. We are so happy for them. The papers used are from SU's Pink Pirouette. This set came out a few months ago and I immediately fell in love with it.
The next card is from their Christmas Wreath set, and I think it is one of the handsomest wreaths I've ever seen. I've already seen it colored several different ways and every one that I've seen is gorgeous. Flourishes is preparing to release their November sets this week so peek previews are already out there. No, I'm not doing a commercial for them. I just happen to love and have need for these images right now, so I'm thrilled that they're sitting here waiting for me to ink up. It's also time to donate my Christmas cards to our church for the Women's ministry to send out to our missionaries, so I need to go through what I've been saving up and get them ready to pass on to them. We are getting ready for Tropical Storm Ida and the rain is steadily increasing. Schools were cancelled today and much more is supposed to be closed tomorrow. I'm going to clean up and watch a movie and hope that we don't lost power. Thanks for stopping by. It's always a treat for me to see what others are doing and share with you what I've been doing.

Favorite Things Challenge at Flourishes

I love the challenge at Flourishes right now, and I actually had a chance to participate. The challenge is to do a card illustrating a line from Sound of Music's "My Favorite Things". If you don't remember the lyrics they can be found on their blog. I decided to do......oh, heck, I'm sure you can figure it out, although I upgraded from "strings." This is Flourishes "O Christmas Tree" set and I tried to keep the feel more country with this cute little tree. I love the plaid paper, which is from My Mind's Eye "Merry Days of Christmas" collection. The ribbon for the ribbon loops is from Sharon Johnson's ribbon store. My daughter is about to start rehearsing for our local production of Sound of Music, so I was excited to do this and get into the spirit. The DT has done some beautiful cards for this challenge. Be sure to check them out if you can. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week-end.

Christmas Treats

The other day I saw this adorable image on Cindy Haffner's blog and learned that it comes from Whimsie Doodles. It is a digi-stamp set, and there are 3 versions of the muffin bottom and 2 tops, the Christmas tree and a Snowman. I thought it was just so cute, and they do have some sweet images. The "Sweet Treats" sentiment is from one of my Just-Rite stamp sets and the holly leaves are punched with my MS punch. I colored it with my copics. The main DP is from Cosmo Cricket's Jolly by Golly. The ribbon is from SU and the slide is from Flourishes. Thanks for stopping by. I'm getting so anxious to post Christmas images, but I certainly don't want to overlook Thanksgiving. Have a wonderful week-end. Be sure to keep the families of the victims at Ft.Hood in your thoughts and prayers. Our SIL was just there last month. I'm so thankful he's home with us currently.

Copic Creations Challenge #15

Wow, November 1 and time for our 15th Copic Creations challenge. The theme of this challenge is red hair. I used an adorable image from Mo's Digital Pencil called End of Summer. Until today, it has still been summer here. It was warm and muggy all week long. I'm happy that the temps dropped today, but we were wondering if there would be an "end of summer" here. So while this isn't exactly autumn leaves and pumpkins, it would be right in tune with things in our part of the country. I used two colors for her hair,....YR18, and E07. I decided I liked the blend so I didn't add any more than that. I loved coloring this image. She looks so carefree and happy. I used little flower brads in the corners and attached brown Kaiser pearls in the centers. My sentiment is from SU. Be sure to check out what the rest of the DT did here. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

Little Boo's card

Here is my last Halloween post, made for my 16-month-old grandson. He lives with us and since the beginning we started calling him "Little Boo." I got this adorable image, FREE, from Digital Delights. You can follow their link to all future Freebies including this week's, which is really cute.
My head is swimming with thoughts of Christmas presents and tomorrow is November 1. Yikes! I've got a good start, but I'd love to have everything bought and wrapped by December 1 so I can address all the other things that take place in one little ol' month. We'll see if I can pull it off or not. Meanwhile, enjoy your day, however you spend it. Thanks for stopping by. Tomorrow is our next Copic Creations challenge, so be sure to check it out.

Halloween Bunny

This image is one of the Busy Beauties images that Carolyn from "p.m.s.etc." carries and when I saw this I had to have it. For me, there is a story behind this. When our second son was in high school, he had a girlfriend who's mom was doing a special Easter program for kids at a local park. My son's girlfriend somehow talked him into dressing up in a bunny costume and passing out candy. She got pictures of him, and one of them is very much like this image. It's been in a frame for years and it's too funny. Needless to say he hates it, but mom is proud of him for being a good sport, despite the resistance he had to being a cool dude in a bunny costume. The actual title of this image is "You call this a Halloween costume?" I forgot the "Halloween" , which would have made more sense, but otherwise it's perfect and it's off to my son. Like I mentioned yesterday, I don't normally give credence to Halloween, but the images are too stinkin' cute this year. I had to do cards, at least, plus of course we are armed with candy. Hope you like this, and if you need it quick, these are digi-stamps that can be purchased here. Happy Friday!

Halloween Fun

I have to say that I've had fun coloring my not-very-scary Halloween images this year. I decided to put them together in a Tri-fold card that I got the idea for from Flourishes here. I received the Basic Grey Halloween papers from Kelly of KLSnS and loved them, and I used 3 of them in this card. I put
my cute little Trick-or-Treat-ing ghost from MFT on the front of the card. He's supposed to be coming out from behind the tree so use your imagination please. I loved my images from C.C.Designs so Cow Emma is on the inside, as well as my adorable costumed-Tildas. My crazy cat from Mo's Digital Pencil is the finale. I tried to include a closer-up look of Cow Emma and Pumpkin Tilda. Aren't they the cutest! I normally don't get into Halloween, although strictly from the standpoint of kids getting to dress up, I love it. However, the paper already started today with it's warnings about times to let your kids go out and be sure you inspect their candy. When it comes down to that, I'm reminded of the evil that goes with it. I'm thankful our church has a big festival for the kids to come to and have a ball in costume. Anyway, I hope you like these little cuties. I'm really wanting to make and post so much more, but other demands have taken their toll lately. Maybe I can get back on a more regular schedule. Have a wonderful week-end and Happy Halloween. Thanks for stopping by.

Fall Wedding

I wanted to share another card I got done. This is for our nephew's wedding which we will be attending this week-end while in Orlando. I decided that they probably would prefer something with a "natural" look to it instead of a fancy wedding card, so I used my Falling Leaves set from Flourishes. The sentiment and rings are from Flourishes Wedding Essentials set. The sentiment on the inside is from Gina K called With This Ring, and the Congratulations is an Inkadinkadoo stamp that I love. I stamped the various leaves in Fall SU colors, and then colored the one leaf and acorns with my copics. I mounted this on SU's Soft Suede - I really like that color! The ribbon and buckle are also from Flourishes. Well, yay!...I managed to post two cards. If I have internet access while I'm away I'll try to get around to see what y'all are doing. If not, I'll have to ooh and ahh when I return. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week-end.

Fight Like a Girl

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I posted to my blog. I hate that, but I guess there are too many things competing with my stamping life right now. I did manage to make these two projects to send to my niece. She has been very involved for several years in Walks for Life relays and I thought maybe she would like to share these with friends of hers. I made the bookmarks first and they were pretty simple. I backed them with Pink Pirouette DP. The card I made needed some brighter pinks with it so I used both Pixie and Passion Pink CS with it. They're all done with Flourishes "Think Pink-Fight Like a Girl" set. I really like that set and I hate that I didn't get to this sooner so I could send more cards out to my own friends. We leave tomorrow for Disney World (I know, life is tough), so I wanted to get this posted before I leave. I hope you are enjoying Fall, wherever you are. We finally got a taste of cooler weather and I'm loving it. Thanks for stopping by.

Copic Creations Challenge #14

Welcome to our 14th Copic Creations Challenge. The theme for this one is "Black." I know that sounds strange, but I decided that it really was a great lesson and helpful to learn about coloring with various shades of greys to make black. Tilda's cap and gown are done in the warm grey tones, W2-W-7. Her socks and shoes are done in the cool grey tones, C-1, C-3 and darkened with C7. The warm tones have more of a brown look and the cool tones tend to have more of a blue look. The collar outline is done with a black multi-liner. I made my sentiment with my Just-Rite font and punched it with my Modern Label Punch. I would like to encourage you to join in on this one as it will broaden your coloring horizons to read the tutorials. Thanks for stopping by and be sure to take a look at what the rest of the design team did for this challenge...they've done an awesome job, as always.

First-Tooth Fairy

This card would qualify for the sketch for Mojo Monday if I had offset the image from the background. However, since I made the card first, that didn't happen so obviously I won't post it to the challenge. I did want to share it, though. I made it for my granddaughter because she lost her first tooth. Big memory! I used one of Mo's cute fairies for this. I colored her with my Copics and made my sentiment with the font from my Just-Rite stamper. I hope you're having a good start to your week. I think I'm finally on the mend because I'm starting to feel like stamping again. Thanks for stopping by.

Blog Hop Winner

Thank you to all who blog-hopped and left comments as we announced the Busy Beauties. As promised, there is one grand-prize winner who will be named on Carolyn's blog, and one runner-up for each blog represented in the BH. I'm happy to announce that Callie is the winner for my blog. Thank you for your comments, Callie. I have already sent this link to Carolyn so she can contact you for your prize. Congratulations and thanks to all of you for joining us. Hugs, and enjoy your day.

Introducing Busy Beauties Digi-Stamps

Today is an exciting day for Carolyn of p.m.s.etc. and her friend Thomas as they launch their own line of digi-stamps illustrated by Thomas called Busy Beauties. It is an exciting day for me because I was privileged to be in on the big announcement with several of my own versions of these new images. It is an exciting day for you because I think you'll love these images and they are available to you today here. Carolyn wanted the introduction to include a blog hop, with a grand prize being all the digi-stamps, at the end on her blog for those who followed along and left comments on each blog. PLUS, one commenter will be picked from each blog to win a prize of 3 digi-stamps of their choice, so be sure you leave those comments. If you're on the blog-hop trail, you should be arriving here from Annita's blog, and you will go to Rachel's blog from here. Now, without further ado, I'd like to present to you four of these amazing Busy Beauties:

This little beauty is called "Here Comes the Bride", and no doubt Frankie finds her a true beauty:



This next beauty is called Strawberry Lolita.














The next is Bubbly Beauty, enjoying some time to pamper
herself with her Champaigne Bubble Bath.



Next is Back-to-School Beauty.






I don't want to make you read all that went into making my cards as I'm sure you want to get on to the next blog. However, I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. I thoroughly enjoyed working on these images, and I have another adorable one to share with you, but I decided to start with these four. There is yet another image that I did not get to work up yet, but I'm sure you'll see it, or have seen it, along the way. Enjoy your hopping and please join me in wishing Carolyn and Thomas well on their new venture.

Christmas on the Classy Side

On Saturday, World Card-Making Day, I wanted to make at least one card in honor of the day, but I got to make two. I'll share the first with you today. I love how this turned out, although it was somewhat slow coming together since I made it up as I went. I got the main idea from a post that Susan "Rainy" Roberts did awhile ago with SU's ornament stamp and punch. I combined stamps from 3 different sets to make this. The main ornament and sentiment are from PTI's 2008 Holiday Tags Collection, the top of the ornament is from Verve's Ornamental Christmas, the background is the Damask stamp from Flourishes. I embossed the Damask in black EP as well as the ornaments and then I punched the ornaments with my 1-3/4" circle punch - a perfect fit. The sentiment is embossed in gold and punched with SU's Modern Label Punch. The ribbon is from Sharon Johnson's Ribbon store. All of this is on gold CS from SU. I used my MS punch for the "holly" and punched little red "berries" with my Crop-a-dile. They were a bit flat, so I added red half-pearls on top of them. My daughter thought the black ribbon confused things with the swirly background and thought something should go on top of the ribbon. The gold cord from SU was too yellow-gold, so I ended up cutting a thin strip of the gold CS and that seemed to work. I topped it all off with the fancy corners die cut for my Cuttlebug. The picture doesn't do justice to how rich it looks with all the embossing. It's a good thing I made these on Saturday because Sunday my cold seems to have turned into the flu. Since I'm laid up, I thought I'd at least try to post this. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week.

Copic Creations Challenge #13

Wow, I can't believe it's October 1st, and I can't believe we're on our 13th Copic Creations challenge. This one is sponsored by Christine Wooden at All That Scraps and the challenge is Pumpkins. The DT has outdone themselves with an adorable Fall and Halloween line-up for you. We all had a lot of fun with this one. I did the little puppy from CC Designs, and I chose this one because when my eldest was 7, I made him a Halloween costume that looked like this - white felt on black. This reminded me of that and so it was kind of special. I also used CC Design's tree and colored the moon. I used my Martha Stewart fence and bat punches. I picked up the cute background paper at JoAnn's and it's by Heidi Grace. The sentiment is from MFT's Trick or Treat with Who's That Girl. The Copic Colors I used are Y15, Y17, YR04, Black 100, N1. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you'll join us in this fun challenge. Have a wonderful beginning of the month.

Just Magnolia, Grey and Pink

My friend Christine from "dolcreations" inspired me with her own card to get in on the current Just Magnolia challenge. The challenge is to use grey and pink, with black optional. I used my Tilda with Hood stamp and colored her with my Copics. I was wanting to try the Flower Soft for the fur and it turned out okay. I used my Lace Tree embossing folder for my Cuttlebug and brayered it with pink on my silver paper from SU. I used Flourishes Poinsettias and Boxwoods set for the poinsettia and heat embossed it on two shades of pink and cut it out. The background DP is Cosmo Cricket's Jolly by Golly and the sentiment is stamped from my Inkadinkadoo alphabet. I added pink sparkly rhinestones to my tree and poinsettias and I was pleased that I finally got to ink up a cute little Tilda. This challenge ends tomorrow night, so I need to get this posted. Tomorrow is our 13th Copic Creations Challenge and I think you'll love what the DT has in store for you. As always, thanks for stopping by.

Well Done

I made this card for my granddaughter mainly, but it could be for anyone who has good news, or has succeeded in something. This image was offered as a freebie by Maurie "Mo" Manning at Digital Pencil Too and I thought it was just too cute. I'm loving my Cosmo Cricket papers, so I picked the papers and then colored my happy little girl with my copic markers. My granddaughter got a prize for reading the highest number of books, and she's just in K-5. She's a good little reader and I was very proud of her for reaching her goal. My sentiment was done with my Just-Rite Font and stamper. I also tried a new technique for me which is cutting an image that extends beyond the edge of your Nestie. The next time I'll be VERY careful if I have a thin piece which extends as you can see the wrinkles in her arm, but it did work, so I'm happy. I added a small ribbon loop with the sentiment with two ribbons from SU! "Mo"has added so many new images to her store and they're all just awesome. Thanks for stopping by and remember that it's time for another Copic Challenge this week, so stay tuned.....

Victorian Charm

This card was done with one of Flourishes newest sets, Cottage Home. My background paper is from Basic Grey's Two Scoops and it reminded me a little of Victorian wallpaper with the cherubs on it. The heart-slide is also from Flourishes and the ribbon is from SU. I used my Martha Stewart fence punch and matched it to a "cobblestone" sidewalk which is the Tiny Bubbles embossing folder for my Cuttlebug. I really like how this turned out, although the coloring took me awhile, mainly because I was deciding as I went what colors to make the house. Thanks for stopping by. I'm off to try another one of my new Flourishes sets and then finish some cute Halloween projects. Have a wonderful rest of the week-end.

Eldon has a Flower for You

Happy Friday morning! I want you to meet Eldon. He is this week's "freebie" from TMITA done by Nina May. I think he is adorable and he's on a special date, complete with flower. I have done so much with Fall colors lately that I went with the same idea in coloring Eldon. The challenge this week was from Curt and he called for adding ribbon and a bow. I cheated a bit and added a bow-tie instead of an actual bow. I used Basic Grey's "Acorn" from Indian Summer for the main DP and the orange piece is from Basic Grey's "Offbeat". The main CS is SU's Rich Razzleberry. The ribbon buckle is from Flourishes and the velvet ric-rac is from Sharon Johnson's Ribbon Store. I'm still pondering my sentiment. I'll probably make my own from my Just-Rite letters to say "A Flower for You" so that I can punch it out with my word window punch. Perhaps I'll just use "For You." Meanwhile, I thought I'd get this posted before my day gets busy and I fail to post it at all. I did want to share this in case you want to get your very own Eldon. He's available through Sunday I believe. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

A Not-Too-Scarey Halloween Card

When I first saw this card done up from My Favorite Things, I decided this set was a must-have. I just love these two little characters "twick or tweating" from "Trick or Treat with Who's That Girl". I paper-pieced "Who's That Girl's" dress and the rug from Basic Grey's "Mellow". The DP's are from the same paper pack. I embossed my sentiments in white EP and the pumpkin in black EP. I painted Shimmerz over the pumpkin and attached a gold half-bead to hang it from The bat is out of silver paper with MS's punch. I'm really tickled with this set and the end result. I don't ordinarily do much with Halloween but I'm sending this to my nephew's kids and I plan to make a few more for the grandkids and maybe some cutsie Halloween items for them to share with their friends at school. I hope you have a wonderful day as you start your week. Thanks for stopping by.

Flourishes Sketch Challenge

I actually jumped in on two challenges this week, besides Copics, of course. One was Flourishes' and they had a simple sketch challenge, but the cards the DT did were gorgeous and motivated me to get in on this. (It's one of those rare Saturdays when things aren't quite so busy.) I used Flourishes "All Wrapped Up" and my Wassail DP from Basic Grey. I cut out the packages from this paper, as well as the ribbon and bow, and then continued to use it for background paper. My main CS is gold from SU. The ribbon and buckle are both from Flourishes and I've been enjoying these gorgeous buckle embellishments. Be sure you check out the gorgeous cards the DT did and jump in on this one if you've got a bit of free time. Thanks for stopping by and I wish you a happy relaxing day and rest of your week-end.

Repeat Performance on House Mouse

House Mouse was the first challenge I ever participated in, and I was so excited because I loved these little guys. I'm sorry that I've had to let my participation slip some, but I can certainly join in this week since the challenge this week is to feature your favorite entry from the whole year of challenges. Wow, HM has been running challenges for a year already - where does the time go?! I think my favorite card, and a pretty challenging one, was this Chipboard challenge. I love the image, and I love how my chipboard ended up being the sun breaking through the rain. If you have a favorite that you've posted, pick it out and re-post it for this week's challenge. It's fun to revisit some favorites from the past. Then post it on the HM blog and while you're there check the updates to this wonderful challenge. Happy Anniversary, HM, and thanks for such wonderful challenges!! Have a wonderful Friday and week-end and thanks for stopping by.

Copic Creations Challenge #12

Good Tuesday morning to you all and welcome to our 12th Copic Creations challenge. This challenge is all about Fairies, Copics and colored pencils. We were furnished with these beautiful fairies from Janlynn, Stamps Happen. This one is Willow Flower Fairy from the Flower Fairies series. I am so impressed with the detail that these stamps have. I think they are so beautiful. I colored mine a bit differently than the image on the stamp suggested, but that's the beauty of stamping, isn't it. The challenge this time is to color with Copics AND colored pencils. If you happen to have a greater range of colored pencils than Copics, it's a great way to finish out your coloring. It's also helpful if you need to shade in such a tiny area that the Copics might not work. I did the mouth on my fairy with my Prismacolor Pencils. Had I been super careful and lighthanded, I probably could have used my Copic marker, but why chance it when you can add the pencil. There are several tutorials being offered, so check them out and give it a try. I hope you get to see what the rest of the DT came up with because these fairies are just so pretty and so are their cards. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

Autumn Blessings

I realize I have been MIA, but I am back and have some cards to share with you. We went to Arizona to see our son and his family and had a wonderful time with them. I have managed to crank out a few cards in the last few days with my newest Just-Rite stamper sets. Fall is such a colorful time of year and my daughter's favorite, so I couldn't way to play with this new set called Autumn Blessings. The DP with the leaves is from PTI, and the DP with the apples is from Basic Grey's Boxer in a single 12 x 12 sheet. The gingham ribbon is from Sharon Johnson and I've learned that these ovals fit the Large Classic Oval Nesties (not Petite), as shown in the card with the apples. The card in the top left was done with leaves from SU's Autumn Leaf Prints and the leaves at the bottom were embossed and cut out. I'm really enjoying this set, as well as the Merry Little Christmas set and Holiday Demi Phrases. What a wonderful way to personalize your cards. I'll try to post some of my projects made with those two sets before long. I hope you have a wonderful week and I'll be back with our next Copic Creations challenge on Tuesday.