Copic Creations Challenge - Coloring and Reading at their Best

Today is August 1st and time for our next Copic Creations Challenge. The theme of our challenge this time is "Reading," and it is sponsored by Children’s Book Illustrator and Author, Elizabeth O. Dulemba. Elizabeth has a great blog featuring her books and FREE coloring downloads and you can find it here. I made a couple of bookmarks for this challenge using two of her adorable images, "Reading Monster" and "A Book is a Ship." Both were colored with Copics and cut out and mounted. Be sure to check out all of her fabulous coloring-image downloads and have a ball making bookmarks, cards, just plain coloring. And by all means let them inspire you to start your own journey in a good book. The Design Team has come up with some beautiful reading-related projects for this challenge and I know you'll want to check them out here. I hope you're having a wonderful and relaxing summer. Why not make yourself a bookmark and start a new book. Thanks so much for stopping by my little "korner."

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #79

This is my first card for this challenge, and I loved the sketch for this week. I pondered what to do with it and I decided this would be a great time to get going on my Christmas cards. I have so many great stamp sets and stamps for Christmas use, so I pulled one out I hardly got to use last year. It's a Flourishes stamp set, "Christmas Tea," that I colored with Copics. I used my Spellbinders Deckled-Edge Ovals and sponged the Ivory oval with Tim Holtz Distress Ink "Old Paper." The Riding Hood Red paper I sponged with Rich Razzleberry. The DP's are K & Company's "Christmas Cheer", and the ribbon is from Stampin' Up. I wanted to keep it simple so that if I wanted to duplicate it, it wouldn't be too involved. I have been very involved with a secret project that I may share bits and pieces of with you when I'm done. I am loving doing it but it's quite involved, so it has consumed all of my time in the last week. I have a mid-August deadline to finish it, so I may not be around too very much between now and then. I will at least be back with our next Copic Creations challenge, and it is a fun challenge, so be sure to stay tuned. I'll try to take a break and post a few cards along the way, but if I don't you'll know that I'm working on my project. I can share that it does involve all of my fun stamping stuff, embellishments, etc., so I'm definitely in my craftroom - just not necessarily doing cards at the moment. I hope you are enjoying your summer. I can't believe it's almost August. Where does the time go?! Thanks so much for stopping by. I do love hearing from you.

Apron Glitz

It has been a difficult week for us with the death of a sister and dear friend, both within a week of each other. Obviously there has been no time for cards but I thought I would post this card that I did prior to these events. It started out to be a vintage card and ended up being a "glitz-y" vintage card. I am loving the Glitter Glitz that I learned about here and couldn't resist playing with it, so my apron ended up being a bit dressy. I still love how it turned out. I used October Afternoon's "Fly a Kite" designer papers, and a Lockhart apron Stamp. The glitter glitz and stamp can be found at Ellen Hutson's store here. Hopefully I'll be back soon with more posts and leaving comments. If you have any questions about this card feel free to e-mail me. Have a wonderful day.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! - a day early. I hope you have a wonderful time celebrating and I wish you dry weather for viewing fireworks. I made a simple little card to break in my new PTI's Vintage Picnic set. I colored my image with Copics and mounted it on dimensionals and adhered it to my star-embossed background. The top DP piece is PTI's 2008 Bitty Star Basics DP and the ribbon is from Michael's. The main CS is PTI's Kraft paper. My star is punched with my SU star punches and decorated with a button from PTI's vintage buttons. The sentiment is from the Vintage Picnic set. That pretty much says it all for my card. We're cooking out today plus celebrating 2 birthdays, so we're really celebrating! Thanks for stopping by and have a super Holiday week-end!

Copic Creations Challenge #31

It's July 1st - can that be???!! - and it's time for another Copic Creations Challenge. The theme for this challenge is coloring birds, and it is sponsored by Tiffany Richards of Tiffany Doodles. I was privileged to color one of her images which is a Hummingbird on a Branch. I decided to pair it up with a sheet of DP from Webster's Pages, Petite Paper Pad, Lullaby Lane/Life's Portrait, (that is a mouthful for a title.) I used my exacto knife to cut out the middle of the paper and then carefully placed the image, on a Spellbinders Big Scalloped Circle die, on the page backed by Baja Breeze CS. I adhered a Prima flower and some Leaf Ribbon from PTI. I listed the Copic colors I used on the Copic Creations site, so you can see them there. The DT did a fabulous job of coloring their birds and I do encourage you to take a look and then find a bird to color and join our challenge. Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Sock Monkey Babies

I have some baby cards to share with you. These adorable images are Whimsie Doodles images and can be found here. I learned from Cindy about a site called Vintage Workshop and got these great downloadable designer papers from them. My basic CS was a Kraft paper from PTI and the sentiment is from PTI's Bitty Baby Blessings. They're colored with copics and my train border on the boy's card is a Martha Stewart punch. I hope you're having a great week. Thanks so much for stopping by.

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.

Note Card Project

I made these notecards as a gift for my daughter's friend and a friend of ours as well. I got the idea for the card design from my Card Creations magazine. She is a missionary and I thought she could use thank you notes and plain note cards. My DP's are from Basic Grey's Bittersweet Collection Pack which included the letters for the top of the box that I made to accompany these. The scallop border is from a Stampin' Up punch. I made two of each and included envelopes and she really liked them. My flowers are punched from my Nellie Snellen punches from 7 Kids College Fund. I need to get busy and make her another set while I'm on a roll. Thanks for stopping by.

More Anniversary Wishes

I told you I was working on another Anniversary card, and this one was for my husband for our anniversary. We celebrated 42 years last week. I had fun making this one. I started with a piece of CS from my DCWV's "Old World" stack. I then inked up my SU "Medallion" stamp with Tim Holtz' Distress Ink "Broken China" which I stamped off once and then stamped off the page a bit. I also sponged two different colors of Distress Inks on my Nestie background piece to match the colors in the CS and adhered this adorable picture from Crafty Secrets' "Childhood Images and Journal Notes," cut with a "Labels Three" Nestie as well. I once again sponged some creme-colored CS for the bottom with "Antique Linen" Distress Ink, and the sentiment is computer-generated with Santa's Sleigh font from "dafont.com". I adhered a piece of "Not Quite Navy" ribbon over the seam of the two pieces of CS and added some half-pearls. The inside uses the same font and another piece of CS from the "Old World" stack and looks like this.

Happy Father's Day

Just wanted to share a few cards I did for my guys for Father's Day. The first is for my eldest son and I had to get this one in the mail so went for something simple. Hope it got there on time, but if not, it's not likely he'll check my blog and see it here first. If he does, Happy Father's Day Matt! My idea was inspired by Stacy's card here, but I changed mine slightly. I used a different cup and "steam" than she did, and I made my sentiment on the front a bookmark. I used the cup from Flourishes "Coffee with Friends" and free-handed the rim around it and colored them with Copics. The steam is a partial image from Impression Obsession's "Smell the Coffee" set. The top sentiment on the bookmark is from "Smell the Coffee" and then "A Man's View" from Flourishes.
My next two are adorable Whimsie Doodles images that I had to customize since my one son has boys and girls. The DP for the whales is from SU and the background DP is from my DCWV "Old World" stack (I'm loving these papers.) I was so intrigued with Ellen Hutson's glitter classes that I employed this technique on these two cards. I used my score-tape that I got from 7 Kids CF, lined it up along the edge of my DP and punched out the scallop edge with my SU edge punch. I adhered the CS to the main card and then peeled off the top strip and sprinkled my SU Ultra-Fine glitter over the Score-Tape. The second thin line was the tiny strip that was left when I punched the scallop so I glued it on and repeated the technique. You should be able to click on each picture for a closer view. I haven't delivered my husband's card yet as he is not here to receive it at the moment, so I'll wait on sharing that one. I hope all you dad's out there have a great Father's Day. Thanks for stopping by.

Copic Creations Challenge #30

It's time for another Copic Creations Challenge, and this one is to color on a non-white cardstock or paper. Our sponsor for this challenge is Stampavie, and I decided to use this adorable Sarah Kay image by Stampavie called Fanny's Cuddle. I colored on Stampin' Up's Bashful Blue card stock, and I was quite pleased that the colors showed up so well. I used the following Copics to color this image:
Hair- Y21,YR24
Skin-R11, R20
Blouse-R22,24,27
Dress-B32,34,37
Shoes-E42,43,57
Puppy-E31,35,37
My brown DP is from Basic Grey's Lily Kate, and the blue dot paper and green paper are from SU's Simply Scrappin' Happy B-Day. My flower is from Magnolia. I hope you join us for this challenge - you don't need to use a Stampavie image to participate - and I hope you'll check out all the great cards done by the rest of our talented design team. Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful week.

Anniversary Wishes for 60 Happy Years

I have a card to share with you. Shocking, I know. I've been MIA for a bit because I've had a bit more time with my daughter and grandson visiting inlaws and decided to address a quilt that I started 8 years ago, make a pillow, and scrapbook (actual - not digital) my Alaska pictures. So the fact that I also got two cards made is pretty impressive. The card I made is for my sister's 60th anniversary. Isn't that the coolest!! Now that's impressive. My brother-inlaw is the sweetest man and I was actually a baby when they got married, so they got lots of parenting practice with me before they started their own family. They have 5 wonderful children, 14 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren. My sister has always been an inspiration to me. She's a fabulous homemaker, cook, seamstress, mother, grandmother, and still hosts most of the family gatherings. My brother-in-law keeps us in stitches with his warm and witty sense of humor. I'm so proud of them and couldn't help but brag on them a bit before talking about the card. I was inspired by Susan Robert's inchie card from last Saturday and decided I must give one a try. I chose some images that I thought represented their marriage, stamped them and mounted them on black cardstock. The panel I mounted those on I stamped with Flourishes "Damask". I used my "Textile" Cuttlebug EF for the top and bottom of the white cardstock. The sentiment was my own and computer generated with "Santa's Sleigh" font. All of it is mounted on a sheet of SU's fancy paper from their "Taste of Textile" set. I added half-pearls in the corners and mailed off their card. I did another anniversary card today with a very vintage feel that I'll be sharing soon. As promised, I am including a few more Alaska pics. I'm working feverishly on my album while details are still fresh in my mind. The one of the sunset was taken at almost 10:00 p.m. That took some getting used to. The one below that is of my daughter and son-in-law and grandson who I'm missing very much. Glad they'll be back this week-end. The one on the right was taken on a tour out of Skagway. The views on that tour were breathtaking for sure. Thanks for stopping by. I apologize for the lack of posts but I am pleased with all that I'm able to accomplish.

A "Mo" Birthday Card and Alaska Pics

I want to share one of the cards I scrambled to make before leaving on our cruise. This one is for my grandson who turned 14 while we were away on the cruise. I realize this image is a little boy, but I'm sure Zach is going to want to drive as soon as mom and dad will allow it, which won't be for a few years but will come soon enough. This is an image from Mo's Digital Pencil called "Zoom" and I really had fun coloring it. I used Cosmo Cricket's "Boyfriend" paper and chipboard key to match and my sentiment is computer-generated.
I also wanted to include a few pictures from our trip.
This first one was taken in the town of Ketchikan and we were privileged to see several bald eagles. The next picture is a scene in the town of Ketchikan, and the last one is the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. I realize these pictures don't do justice to the incredibly beautiful scenery that we saw on our whole trip. I'll try to put a few up with each post for awhile. The view of the mountains in Skagway was breathtaking. I still have that feeling of the ship's gentle rocking - so relaxing! Thanks for stopping by and I hope your June is off to a great start.

Copic Creations Challenge #29

Hello and happy June 1! I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day. We just got back yesterday from our fabulous trip to Alaska on a cruise. What gorgeous country!!! I'll post some pics soon - this was our second trip there and I'm ready to go again....well, maybe I'll wait just a bit.
Our challenge this time is "coloring animals" and we have some awesome cards done by our DT from our sponsor, Hambo Stamps. Be sure to check out the challenge blog here for the details and to see what wonderful creations the DT came up with. I got to color this adorable gorilla which I entitled "Gorilla Gossip". I had to use my Basic Grey "Origins" paper with it and my sentiment is from Flourishes' "Gigi and Chloe" set. The palm tree is a brad that I twisted the prongs off of and I made a flower with my Nellie Snellen punches. I hope you like it and get to join in on this fun challenge. I'll be by soon to catch up on what you all have been up to. I hope your month of June is lovely in every way.

What's Cookin?

I saw this adorable new Willow image from Whiff of Joy at All That Scraps here and I really had to have it. You know how that goes, right? It's called Willow and Chicken Soup. It's part of a "get well" series of images that are really cute. However, I think it could work for a multitude of occasions, so I grabbed it up as it made its debut. I made it for my SIL's birthday. She loves to cook and it made me think of her. I colored it quite closely to the way it was colored on the ATS site, adding a few touches of my own. I found this great DP in my Basic Grey Nook and Pantry set. Just thought I would share it with you. I'm scrambling to make birthday/graduation cards for my sweet grandkids before leaving on our trip to Alaska. I had to bow out of the recent Busy Beauty blog hop because I am just running out of time. Perhaps I'll have time to schedule one more post so you won't forget me while I'm gone. When I get back it will be time for another Copic Creations challenge so stay tuned. Thanks so much for stopping by and I wish you a wonderful last week of May.