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!

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.