Pretty Christmas Bird

Hey, y'all! Awhile ago I fell in love with the adorable images by Victoria at Victoria Case Art Designs, and today I have the honor of being the Guest Designer for the VC Stamp Challenge. The challenge is a color challenge - dark blue, light blue, and white or ivory, and it's also a Christmas in July theme. I decided that "Pretty Bird" would work out nicely for a Christmas motif and also for the blues and white/ivory. I made my poinsettia ivory instead of red and painted it with Buttercream Shimmerz. The snowflakes are stenciled in Brocade Blue from punching out the snowflake with my MS punch. The bow was done with my Bow Easy from Sharon Johnson's Ribbon Store. He was so much fun to color and I think he makes a darling Holiday card. Hope you like him. Be sure to check out what the rest of the DT did for this week's challenge and then I hope you'll join us. Happy Thursday to you!

Just Sittin' Around in Orange and Pink

This card is for VC's Stamp Challenge this week, which is a color challenge using bright orange and hot (or dark) pink and white. I love this monkey - he's called "Monkey Flowers" and is available both as a digitial image and rubber stamp. I colored him with my Copics and used SU's "Sweet Always" and "Summer Picnic" DP's for my papers. The sentiment is from AMuse Artstamps, mounted with dimensionals and embellished with half-pearls. I think this little guy just looks so cute and totally cool. The DT came up with some great cards so be sure to take a look if you can. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful week.

Copic Creations Challenge #7

Welcome to our 7th posting of the Copic Creations Challenges. The theme for this one is brunettes and Diana Crick is providing our prize which is a Scor-Pal. This time our DT member Jami turned us onto the line art drawings of some wonderful artists. The artist for this line art is from Spain and can be found here. This is not something I would typically do, but I was fascinated with how gorgeous her drawings were and decided to stretch myself for this challenge. I also did another card, much more typical of me and you know how much I love Victoria Case Art Designs anyway. Be sure to look at the other entries from our wonderful DT because 3 of the girls did one of these line art drawings and they're absolutely beautiful. We also have some adorable Tildas from other DT members. The "brunette" Copic colors I used for "Enchanting" were Y21, E25, E27, E29 and E33. The colors for the VCAD image are R02, E25, E27, E33. I used Basic Grey's Marrakech for the DP's - I'm loving the colors in those papers. I love the way I can blend with my Copic markers - I really enjoy working with them. I hope you'll join us for this challenge. Thanks for stopping by and please be assured that I am always encouraged by your comments.

A Card and a Cake

Today we had a birthday party for my grandson who turned 1. We had six 1-year-olds, plus other kids and of course adults for a grand total of 29 people. I made my grandson a caterpillar cake because he loves the caterpillar on Baby Einstein, and then I fashioned a caterpillar card to go with it. Thanks Kristine for the reminder. Last week we took him shopping and bought all his presents and even gave him some early, so.... since I wasn't having to remember shopping or wrapping presents, I almost forgot to do his card. I know - that's unthinkable, but I had a lot going on to prepare for this and I just plain forgot. I have had this image from Victoria Case Art Designs ready to color for awhile now, so I used their sketch from this week's challenge so I could also post it to their challenge. I never do any cake decorating, so I was nervous about doing these little cakes justice, but it really was fun. In fact, I was running out of time and my DSIL asked if he could help. He said, "why not, I can spackle....", and so he piped the frosting, spread it (just like spackling, right?!) and dipped the pieces in the stuff right along with me. Before you go thinking this guy's a bit girly, you should know he's a Marine through and through. Just a willing Dad who's also talented working with his hands. I was proud of him and we got done just in time. Thanks, Richard. My daughter planned the whole party and prepared lunch for the whole crew, so I was proud of her, too. Anyway, long post but wanted to share the pictures of a wonderful party. Thanks so much for stopping by. Happy Sunday!

Featured Artist with a Challenge Card

The other night Shelby, (my granddaughter,) asked if she could color an image I was working on for a challenge, and since I had printed out more than one image I gave her one to color. She used mine as a guide, along with my COPICS, yes, my Copic markers, and did an amazing job coloring her image. In fact it's brighter than mine. I told her I thought I liked hers better and she said, "it's okay Grandma, I like yours too." Then, she proceeded to cut at least half of it out herself and then tell me what color CS she wanted to use and even cut the ribbon she wanted on her card. I'm blown away! I might as well turn my blog over to her.....she's smart enough to operate the computer and in no time she'd probably be leaving comments on all of your blogs. :) I am so proud of her artistry. I walked out of the room and in a little while she called me back to see her finished product. She even added her own shadows and highlighting - with my COPICS! Anyway, the challenge can be found on the Victoria Case Challenge Blog here, and the challenge is chocolate, ivory, and violet. Shelby had to leave before we actually assembled her card, although this is the way she layered it. I finished it so that I could post it to the challenge. I love Victoria Case designs - they're so much fun to color and to look at. She had a bunch of new images since the last time I checked, and that wasn't all that long ago. Well, I'd better end this. Thanks for stopping by and thanks for your encouraging comments. My wonderful SIL was the only family member that left a comment the last time I presented Shelby's work, so KUDOS to you Richard! I'll have to find some blog candy for you. :) BTW, here is a pic of my wonderful little guest artist. Grandma's just a wee bit proud.

Not Your Usual Grad Card

This is not what you're used to seeing for a graduation card, right? I colored this adorable dragon from Victoria Case Art Designs and have been waiting to put it together. This week I added the pink background from PTI (Berry Sorbet), and then the DP's from Basic Grey's Euphoria. I had need of a graduation card for this week-end and I brought out this sentiment from PTI's Pond Life Sentiments that I decided would be perfect with a graduation card and my "fairy dragon". I do have a stamp with the cap and diploma that says Congratulations Graduate which I stamped on the inside of the card. It just happened that the hat, cut out, fit my dragon's head perfectly. Now this is no ordinary dragon. Her wings are colored in Atyou Spica glitter pens and her belly is alternately Stickles and Flower Soft. She's one smart, diva dragon, and don't you just love those eyes! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful week-end.

Birthday Wishes

Today is my grandson's birthday - he's 13 today -and I made him this card. The image is from Victoria Case Art Designs and it is called Boy Gamer. They have some great new stamps, both digital and rubber and I know I'll have to add some to my collection. The sentiment is another one in the group that America sent me. I sure am getting use out of those. I colored this with my Copic markers. There are just a few days left to get in on our Copic Challenge #4 with the prize being 3 Magnolia stamps. June 1 starts our next challenge so hope you'll join us. Thanks for stopping by and happy Friday.

Childhood Memories

Do you remember being a little kid and being scared to go to bed? And why were you scared? Was it, perhaps, that there were........

MONSTERS under your bed??!!!







Of course, we know there's no such thing, but c'mon - as a little kid there COULD have been, right? I am excited about this and several new stamps I acquired from Victoria Case Art Designs. They have both digital and rubber stamps, and I'm just in love with so many of their images. This one happens to be a rubber stamp and I couldn't wait to put it together and post it. I'm hoping to post the others I bought soon, but at least you can be looking at this one and maybe checking out their stamps. I colored the image with my Copics, cut it with my Label 1 Nesties, mounted it on Basic Grey DP cut with another Labels 1 Nestie, and used background papers from SU's East Coast Prep. I used my MS lace punch for the borders at the top. I pondered a sentiment for awhile and then realized this image goes perfectly with "Wish you were here!" I made up the sentiment with my Just Rite "Special Occasion" font. I hope you can check out their other stamps. I'm really liking them a lot. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Tuesday.