Joy in Little Things

Got a quick post today. I've been undergoing a huge project of purging my craft room and it's closet of unwanted/unnecessary items. I'm loving a cleaned-up, less cluttered room. However, its obviously deterred me from actually creating, but that's okay. There's more room and efficiency to do that now. I should take pictures while it's all cleaned up to share what works for me. But, onto my card that I did a few days ago. This card was inspired by Leslie Miller's card (Running with Scissors) here, and I really like it and set out to CASE it. However, it really didn't look all that much like her card by the time I finished because I had to change it to use what I had, but I ended up liking it very much. I was very thankful for the inspiration. Yikes, I almost got rid of this stamp set. It is "Oh So Lovely" from SU! The papers are Cosmo Cricket, the punch is new from SU! and I'm really liking it. I'm off to more projects, (golly it's nice to de-clutter) so have a wonderful day and week-end and as always, thank you so much for stopping by. I love when you do.

Welcome Little One

I made this card for a very special lady who is being given a baby shower for her first little girl. I'm also going to enter this into the Pretty in Pink challenge on Crazy 4 Challenges blog. My image is from Flourishes "Rock-a-Bye-Baby" with a paper-pieced hat on the moon and sleeper on the baby. It is colored with Copics and cut out with a Labels Six Nestie. The onesie is from SU's "By Ones and by Twos" and the sentiment from SU's! "Full of Life". The border at the bottom is Spellbinder's Lattice Borders. I added a few Kaiser "Rose" half pearls. The papers are all SU!
Thanks for stopping by.

Quick Post with Link for Tutorial

Some of you have mentioned wanting to learn the technique for using a Nestie where the image extends outside of the Nestie shape. I learned this technique at Rachel Jakes' blog here , but I have one suggestion to make. In her sixth picture down she shows making a light pencil mark where you'll cut to on the outside of the Nestie frame. However, you need to make the mark lightly on the inside of the frame. You'll see in her next picture that she actually cuts up to that point. That way you can gently slide the Nestie die up to where it needs to go. I tend to make light pencil marks here and there to make sure I line it up correctly once I put the Nestie back into place after cutting my image to where it needs to be cut. Sounds confusing, but the pictures will all make sense. Let me know if you have any problems.

Cloud Nine Leah

I'm back with another valentine card for you, and this one was so much fun to do. I love this image. I pulled out my Bittersweet BG paper from last year and used the colors on one of the papers to build my color scheme. I colored her with my Copics - love those markers! - and I cut her with a circle Nestie using the technique where part of it overlaps the die cut. I've used this quite a bit and so glad I learned about this. It seemed to be perfect with this one. My sentiment is from Alota Rubber Stamp's "Valentine Cuties" and I punched it with the Word Punch from SU backed with one cut from the new Modern Word Punch. I've got too more adorable images from Whimsie Doodles colored and ready to assemble into cards. I'll be sharing those with you as well so stay tuned. If you're interested in the tutorial on that technique with the Nesties, let me know in the comments and I'll try to find the link to it and send it to you. If I can't find it, I'll do my own. It's worth knowing for those times when your image doesn't quite fit. Hope your'e having a great week-end and thanks for stopping by.

I Love Ewe

Another post!....yes, from me! This one is a Busy Beauty new release called "I love Ewe Too" and it is in the Busy Beauty Boutique, along with several others that were just released. I thought this little lambie was too cute and had fun coloring her up. My layout is compliments of the sketch from Friday Sketchers this week. My papers are the new DP's from SU!, and my sentiment, bless them!, is from Just-Rite stampers Curlz font set. It JUST fit into my smallest Labels Six nestie. ("JUST fit", get it? Sorry- I'm punchy from cough syrup.) Yea....still not 100% but got another card done. Now I'll cough my way into some housework. That's sure to put me back down, right? Maybe if I get moving I'll actually feel a bit better, so off to the work!

Valentine's A-Plenty

You may be wondering where I disappeared to since my last post was a week ago. I've had that nasty cold, cough, no-can-talk stuff that's going around. I feel like I lost a whole week. I did manage to work intermittently on cards, but without much exhuberance I'm sorry to say. However, I finished these adorable valentines from Whimsie Doodles that I colored a week ago and I just love them. In fact, today they released 4 more and I've got to make them up as well 'cause they're just so darn cute! I colored these with my copics and used a variety of papers to go with each. They're pretty self-explanatory so I'll let it go with that. Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by. I'll try to quit being MIA and get back to some faithful blogging. Have a wonderful week-end.

Copic Creations Challenge #20

Well, it's mid-January and time for another Copic Creations challenge. Our challenge this time is Ethnic Skin Tones, and our sponsor is Philomena and you can find her images at Phindy's Place here. Her images are wonderful as you will see when you look at what the DT came up with for the challenge. My image is called "Bedtime Story," and I thought she looked like an adorable little Hispanic girl. My DP's are from Basic Grey's "Sugar Rush." The Copic colors I used for my skin tones are E11, E13, E17 and the cheeks are R32. The other images the DT colored are really fabulous, so I hope you can hop on over to the CC blog and take a look. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful week-end.... with some warmer temps, too.

Blog Hop Winner

Just a quick post to announce the winner of the Busy Beauties Blog Hop. From my blog, the winner is Stacy from Impressions of a Ribbon Addict. Congrats, Stacy. Thanks for leaving your comment. Be sure to e-mail Carolyn at BusyBeauties@nc.rr.com with your choice of your free digi-stamp.

Sweet Little Tilda

I couldn't wait to ink up this image that was part of the "Christmas-Winter, 2009" stamp club set. I colored her using colors from the new Sugar Rush papers by Basic Grey. I've had a bit more time for stamping with the holidays over, so I actually made this card to incorporate two challenges. The pleated strip down the left-hand side is for the Just Magnolia challenge and includes a tutorial on paper-pleating. Their DT did some great cards illustrating this technique. I decided that I didn't want to completely lay my pleats down flat because I think they look rather cute popped up. The layout was from Mercy's Tuesday Sketch challenge. The layout itself is great. I just struggled because of wanting to use the papers I had picked out from the Sugar Rush pack, and then I wanted to incorporate the pleat, so it actually took me awhile to put it together. The sentiment is from SU's Happy Harmony. Be sure to stop by later to see who the winner of my blog's blog hop is. The winners will be picked and announced tonight. Thanks for stopping by and I wish you a wonderful up-coming week.
Edit to Post: I realized, sadly, that this layout doesn't quite line up with Mercy's Tuesday Challenge sketch, so perhaps I'll have time to do another one, but I'm not going to post this one to that challenge.

Just Chillin'

Yep, this little guy is just chillin' because he's "Chillin' Randy", another one of the Busy Beauty images available at the BB Boutique. I love this image and thought he'd be perfect to adorn a birthday card I had to make. I know Carolyn had a post recently that featured him in green and blue - if you missed it you should check it out because it was too cute! I also love blue and green together and this card had to be a "guy" card, so I went with the blue and green as well. This image can go with a lot of sentiments and I especially thought it went with this one, at least "attitude-wise." The sentiment is from Flourishes' Birthday Celebration. Randy and cake were colored with Copic Markers. There is a Chillin' Rosey" for the gals as well. Check out the boutique and all the great new images, and if you missed the Blog Hop, (previous post), be sure to see how cute these images are all done up. I hope you have a wonderful week-end. It's in the 20's here.......YIKES! Stay warm, wherever you are!

Busy Beauties Blog Hop and Release of New Images

Today is the day you get to see the latest images from the Busy Beauties Boutique. I hope you'll join us on our Blog Hop so you can see a variety of images that the DT has worked up. You should be coming here from Michelle's blog, so if that's where you were last, you're on the right track. I've worked up a few of my favorites, although it was hard to pick a favorite. My first card is "Randy's Heart", and I put him in a frame card that Claudia Rosa shared a tutorial on here. The Mailbox and sentiment are from SU!'s Wandering Words. The bench and tree are from C.C. Designs. My next pick is Randy's sweetheart, Rosey. This image is called "With Love, Rosey." She can't wait to send her letter to Randy. Isn't she just too cute! The last one I worked up for the blog hop is called "Cuppa Love." Believe me, it's been cold enough here to want to drink plenty of this stuff. I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing what awaits you at the next stop, which is Grace's blog. The winners will be chosen Sunday night, and a winner will be chosen from the comment section on each blog, plus a grand prize winner. The prizes will include your choice of a Busy Beauties Digi-Stamp. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy these great new images as much as we have.

Crafty Creations Challenge

Today the Busy Beauties are the sponsor for this week's Crafty Creations Challenge. The challenge is "Black, White and a Splash of Color." I chose one of the new releases for our Busy Beauties Blog Hop and release that starts tomorrow. I thought this image was really gorgeous and decided to make her work in black and white with a splash of red. I had a pair of white boots, a long time ago. I should have kept them - they'd be a hoot now, no?! Anyway, this beauty is wearing them very stylishly. Be sure to join the Busy Beauty Blog Hop tomorrow to see more of the images being released. Thanks for taking a look and have a wonderful day.

Happy New Year and Anything Goes Challenge

This week at Flutter By Wednesday the challenge is "anything goes" as long as it has a fairy, butterfly or angel on it. Tilda must count because she has wings. I waited a lonnng time to get this set from the stamp club, so I didn't want to waste any time inking up some of the images. This image looked like she's celebrating so she was perfect for celebrating the New Year. I added a bit of sparkle here and there and I love this new set of Nesties. She is colored with Copics and I used Basic Grey DP's and my Just-Rite sentiment "Happy New Year." Stay tuned for the Busy Beauty Blog Hop coming up. Thanks for visiting my blog and Happy New Year to all of you.

Copic Creations Challenge #19

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you're having fun doing whatever you do to celebrate, and I hope you can check out our CC challenge which is Coloring Fur. Our sponsor is Squigglefly, and we are featuring some cute images of theirs, all done up by our DT. I got this gorgeous tiger called "Just a little longer", and I enjoyed doing this a lot. I know Marianne's technique for doing fur requires a "nasty rag," but in the case of the tiger, I decided that his fur was on the smoother side so I tried doing more tiny strokes with my marker. The colors I used are posted on the CC site. I used a branch from a SU set to create the tree behind Mr. Tiger, and I used a combination of sentiments (SU's "Enjoy" and Gina K's "Lazy Days") to make the card one that I would actually send to someone. I also used some Nesties and my Cuttlebug "Argyle" embossing folder for the main CS. The half-pearls are Pewter from Kaiser. Thanks for stopping by and I want to wish you all a wonderful and happy New Year!