Ahoy Little Sailor

This adorable little fella is Sailor Boy Randy and he is available at the Busy Beauties Boutique here. I colored him a little while back and just hadn't decided quite how to showcase him. The other day I noticed that my PTI Bitty Baby Blessings set had this sentiment in it and I immediately thought of using Sailor Randy. Then I thought of the Magnolia-Licious stamp "Pier and Fence" I used in the top portion of my card and it all pleasantly came together. The star panel is my Stars embossing folder and I used my Riding Hood Red and Brilliant Blue papers from SU! I love how this turned out- hope you do too. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week-end.

Color Challenge

Goodmorning and happy Saturday! Busy Beauties is currently hosting a color challenge. I made this card for my SIL's sister who is graduating from nursing school. This seemed to be the perfect image. The challenge was to use red and blue somewhere, so I decided to color my image with a monochromatic color-scheme and let the red and blue pop out. I also decided to link this to the Sunday Sketch and Stamp challenge, so this uses their sketch because Busy Beauties is sponsoring this challenge. I used my Tiny Bubbles and Hearts EF's and the grad hat and sentiment are from Flourishes new set "Hats Off." I hope you have a chance to play along with our BB color challenge. Thanks for stopping by.

Tea, Cookies and a Sketch

The Busy Beauties DT were invited to sponsor this week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday. The sketch was a great one to do and I used one of the new Busy Beauties releases called "Tea and Cookies." I'm loving my Basic Grey Kioshi papers and used them again for this card. I colored my image with Copics and I colored my flowers with Copics also. The sentiments on the circle are from PTI's "Tea for Two" and the sentiment at the bottom is from Flourishes "Christmas Tea." I hope you can join in on the challenge - I think you'll love the sketch. Thanks for your visit and your comments. They always encourage me.

Welcoming Spring with a Twist & Shout

Welcome!
We’ve got a “SPRING” in our step today and NEW Busy

Beauties Boutique images in our hands and we are delighted to have you along for the hop! If you are just starting out, please be sure to hop back to Carolyn’s blog so you don’t miss any of the fun! If you are arriving here from Barb's blog then you are right on track.

I loved all the new images but I decided to go with this one called "Eat Cake." Since I am a rather conservative-type person when it comes to going Green on my cards, I realized that I would most likely use buttons and ribbons recycled from somewhere/something. While there are many, many things you could employ to "Go Green" on a card, I chose to stick with the traditional items one might add without a great deal of trouble. That's what I did with this image. I sewed on buttons, and attached my sunny yellow ribbon. My solid CSs are So Saffron and Tangerine Tango from SU! My tiny dot DP is from PTI and my striped DP is from Cosmo Cricket. My Swiss-Dot embossed Tangerine Tango is sponged with Tim Holtz' "Rusty Hinge" Distress Ink. My sentiment is from SU's "Sweet Little Sentiments." I colored my whole image with my Copic markers.

We hope you’ll join us for a TWIST & a SHOUT! The “TWIST” being our new GO GREEN WITH A TWIST Challenge (in honor of Earth Day) at the Busy Beauties Creation Station! And the “SHOUT” being a RELEASE PARTY over on Paper Craft Planet this SATURDAY AT 8 P.M. EDT. We'll bring the Party Favors! *wink, wink*

Your next stop is Kadie! Thanks for bopping & hopping with us, and we hope to see you for the TWIST and SHOUT!

New Image Release and New Challenge Blog

ALL ABOARD (woot, woot!) FOR A NEW BUSY BEAUTIES ADVENTURE!!!!!

WELCOME! Today is a very BIG day for us, and we are way beyond excited! We hope you’ll join us on a fabulous journey as we travel through Wonderland with awesome new ALICE INSPIRED IMAGES from the Busy Beauties Boutique! Along the way, we’re also welcoming our April Guest DT SUSAN! Our final destination is our BRAND NEW BLOG: The Busy Beauties Creation Station!!!!! The adventure begins at Catherine’s blog. If you are arriving from Rachel's blog then you are on the right trail.

For my choices for the Hop, I love the Alice images Carolyn and Thomas have come up with. I must admit when I first saw the cat it was not anything like I expected. The Queen, likewise, looked very ominous. But when it came time to decide which images to do for the hop, those are the two I chose. I decided to "take a walk on the dark side" and I really enjoyed working these up. Since the Queen has sort of a Phantom look going on, I decided to keep the colors on the dark side as well. I used my 7 Gypsies "Savannah" DP and I was pleased with the vintage look it offered. I incorporated quotes from the "Alice in Wonderland" book for both of my cards.

"Chester Cat" is certainly not the harmless looking cat we're familiar with from the classic Disney movie, but he is apparently truer to the actual cat in the original story. I made an easel card with him and used Basic Grey's Eerie Paper Pad DP's to carry out sort of a cat/madness theme. I printed out two "Mad Scrapper" images, mirror-imaging one of them, and colored them and cut out just the heads, again to accentuate the "mad"-hatter idea. Once again I used a quote from the book. I colored all images with Copic markers. I know you'll love the rest of the images you'll find along the hop, so be sure to continue the journey and then join our challenge from our very own Busy Beauties Challenge Blog.

As always, we have HOP PRIZES! There will be 3 winners chosen from the comments left on certain DT blogs, but it's a secret which blogs we'll draw from! The prize for these winners is their choice of 1 Free BBB Image! So be sure to leave some love all along the way! Blog Hop Winners will be announced Sunday night on the Creation Station blog. And there is a prize package for the randomly selected winner of our Inaugural Challenge, so be sure to check that out at the end of the hop!

Your next stop is Michelle's blog! Enjoy the ride and when you finally arrive at the Creation Station, you’ll see our Inaugural Challenge is posted and waiting for you! Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful week-end.

BB Blog Hop and Challenge!

Good Thursday morning to you. Welcome to

BUSY BEAUTIES BOUTIQUE NEW RELEASE BLOG HOP & CHALLENGE!!!!!
THANK YOU for joining the Busy Beauties today! If you are arriving here from Grace's Blog, you are hopping right along. To start at the beginning, please visit Carolyn’s blog.
We are super excited to introduce a new set of images and also share some news!
About my cards:
Thomas and Carolyn introduced a new Beauty named Savannah, and I'm loving this little girl. The card on the left is called "Apple of My Eye Savannah" and along with using this adorable new image of Savannah, I debuted my new Cosmo Cricket "Material Girl" papers, my Nellie Snellen flower punches (that also emboss) and my new Tim Holtz Distress Ink color, "Wild Honey" (sponged on the white CS behind Savannah). I'm loving that color. The sentiment is from SU's "Teeny Tiny Wishes".

The card on the right is another Savannah image called "Sassy Savannah." I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her, and I'm so glad she's going to be an ongoing image. I paper-pieced her skirt and colored the rest of her with Copics. The inside of my card says "Where've You Been? We've Missed You!" I used my Basic Grey "Nook and Pantry" papers with this card and sponged the orange flower a bit to tone it down.

And now, Coming Soon...The BUSY BEAUTIES BLOG! We are hoping to have all the kinks worked out and launch the blog next month, but we just couldn’t contain our excitement and want to get our feet wet now with OUR FIRST EVER BUSY BEAUTIES CHALLENGE! Our theme is “GO GREEN!” and the challenge is to use GREEN as the predominate color on your card/project. The challenge is open from now through WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17^TH (St. Patrick’s Day)! BBB images are of course encouraged & preferred, but not required for this one. Since our official blog is not yet ready, Catherine will be hosting the challenge on her blog, where you can find all the nitty-gritty details and link your creations. (She's the last stop of the hop, so just keep bopping along.)
And since this is our premier challenge, there is a tangible prize package for the winner:

The PRIZE includes: Basic Grey Origins 6x6 pad; 4 yards of American Crafts satin ribbon, 1 yard of May Arts striped twill ribbon, 1 jar of Shimmerz.

Here is my "Go Green" challenge card featuring our lovely "Shamrocked Beauty" with an Irish Blessing for you. I think I pretty much worked in all the green I possibly could, but I love how it turned out! The upper DP is from "Material Girl" again, and the bottom rows of green are Martha Stewart borders. The sentiment is from Flourishes "Irish Blessings."

Once again, there are "secret beauties" whose blogs will award one winner each with their choice of 3 images from the BBB. There will also be a grand prize winner who gets to choose 5 images from the BBB, so be sure to hop your way through the blogs, get acquainted with the wonderful new releases and leave a comment on each to be sure your name is eligible for a prize. Be sure you hop quickly because Carolyn will be choosing a winner on Friday. All of these new images will be in the Busy Beauties Boutique on Saturday.

Thanks so much for visiting! Your next stop is Michelle's Blog! Enjoy the show and we can't wait to see your GO GREEN Challenge creations!

Tailz and Finz

It's time to share a fun little card. This card features one of the newest releases from the Busy Beauties Boutique, available in the Boutique on March 4. I thought this was such a fun little pair and my grandson loves fish, or "feeh" as he calls them (he's only 20 months old so we go with the feeh.) I used my Cosmo Cricket papers with this called "Snorkel," and I added some bubbles from a House Mouse stamp. The sentiment was put together with my Just-Rite font set. I colored these two with my Copics. There are some great images being released so be sure to stay tuned for the latest and greatest coming from the Busy Beauties Boutique on March 4 as we feature them with another blog hop. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're having a good week.

Busy Beauties Blog Hop

It's time for another Busy Beauties blog hop. There were several images released once again so it was hard to decide what to work up for the blog hop. I decided to make an explosion box in order to display several of the images in one project by tucking them inside the box. My cover has "Teddy" with his message that he brings T.L.C. to Speed Your Recovery. Inside is full of goodies for most things that might ail you. There are band-aids, tissues, a prescription bottle of T.L.C., and the old stand-by....chicken soup. "Cuddle Me Better" Bear is in the middle and he looks like he has bandages and he's sick, poor baby. I printed him out twice, cut him out and made a backside and a little stand so he could be standing there waiting to greet you when you open the box. Regarding the blog hop, you should be coming here from Michelle's blog and going to Anita's blog from here. Instead of each DT member choosing a winner, we will have "Secret Beauties" along the hop who will be awarding three free images to one random commenter from their blog plus a grand prize winner of five free images (only those who leave a comment on each blog on the hop will be added into the grand prize drawing). I'm sure you'll see more of the new release images along the hop so be sure to check them out. They are all available in the Busy Beauties Boutique. Thanks for stopping by and have fun hopping.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.