Monday, July 28, 2014

Creative Bloggers hop!

I have been asked by my friend Pam Henness to join in with the Creative Bloggers Hop. Its a continuous Hop Every Monday with a host of Different Inspirational Bloggers taking part each week.

Pam and I were on my first design teams together, Ladybug Crafts and I have to say Kerry, the ownder of LCI, certainly set a high standard for any dt leaders to follow, to say she is awesome is an understatement and I am forever thankful for the fellow designers I met there and am still friends with. Is this craft wonderful in so many ways or what?

So I am suppose to just answer a few questions for you to get to know a bit about me.

What am I working on?
I have just ordered a set of watercolors from the Billy Showell website and would love to learn to do botanical images. I have always loved anything botanical and I will never know if I don't try right? I am also dabbling just a bit in mixed media, I need to be more "free" with my art which is difficult for me. I like everything nice and orderly.
 
How does my work differ from others in my genre?
I think my cards tend to be a bit simpler then a lot of others I see now, the trend seems to be "card overload". Although I admire people that can do this, it isn't my style and frankly, I don't like to hide the pretty paper I am using! I tend to focus more on my coloring then the embellishments although with the stash I have I better start using some more!
 
Why do I write/create what I do?
I have always had my hands busy in some type of art form, I can quilt, do stained glass and now of course cardmaking but I love cards most of all. First off, no pricked or cut fingers from sharp edges haha! And a card comes together much faster then a quilt or stained glass. I love being able to make something to give to someone that I am proud of and to make their day just a bit better. Cause really, isn't that what we are here for? To make it just a bit better in our little area of the world?
 
How does your creative process work?
Well, I normally have a card due for a team or find a new image I really want to color up to begin. Then I pick out my papers, I like to pull my colors off of them to color with and it also gives me the "feel" of the card at that time. Then off to Pinterest for some layout and embellishment ideas.
 
Okay, now I get to pick three bloggers to answer the questions and my choices are: 
 

 
 Elaine is my best friend in the world. Everyone should be so lucky to have a friend like her. She was one of my first followers and I had the best time visiting her in England this summer. Her creations are always gorgeous yet elegantly simple and I thank God everyday for putting her in my life.
 
      Sheri
 
I met Sheri while I was on the Kraftin Kimmie dt and we have been fast friends ever since. She is my go to person for anything Silhouette related, she can use that machine like nobodies business! I love the themes she uses on her cards and her projects go beyond the simple cards I tend to do. Love her to bits!
 
 
 
My coloring friend extraordinaire! Have you seen her classes over at her website? If not, you don't know what you are missing out on! She is my go to person for coloring questions and just being silly. She constantly amazes me with not only her coloring but her generosity and true concern for all of her friends and students. Like Elaine and Sheri, we all have an immense love for our cats and this is frequently a topic of conversation.
 
I am so thankful for all of my friends in the crafty world, they are my second family and I don't know what I would do without them. Thanks for popping by!





 

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Things with wings

Hello everyone! Today starts a new challenge at Mo's DP challenge blog and Anja is hosting our challenge this time. Also, if you haven't seen her tutorial on using colored pencils she just posted it to her blog and the facebook page. Our challenge for the next two weeks is "Things with Wings" and here is my sweetie.

This is one of the images in the 3 baby fairies set, I just love her holding the little ladybug. Papers are Graphic 45 and the sentiment was a gift from my BFF Elaine, I believe it is Stampin Up.  I have also added some wink of stella to her wings but of course it doesn't show in the photo. The foliage at her feet is a clear stamp I used the added some stickles to.

Alright, please make sure to check out the dt creations, we always have such an awesome variety of things to show you and we love seeing what you come up with in return! Of course Mo is giving away a $5 credit to the store for every 25 entries and you can always enter your card into our Facebook challenge, it is always Anything Goes!

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Power Poppy

Hello everyone! I am on a roll, three cards in the past week and another one tomorrow if you care to come back! This card was made for the Power Poppy challenge which is a Peep of the Week, basically it can be anything as long as you use one of their images. Well, I have almost all of the digis and a friend recently put out a request for some cards for a friend that wasn't feeling well so I thought it was the perfect time to color another one up.

This is the Gerbera Daisy image and I printed it off in a pale gray ink so I could try the "no lines" technique. Not too bad I think!

I hope everyone is staying cool and enjoying their summer!

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Bluebird of Happiness

Hello everyone! I have a card I made just because I love the image, this is called The Buzzard from Art Impressions and it was one of the images I won from the challenge I played along with a few weeks ago, he is hysterical!

I would like to enter this into the current challenge which is an easy one, "Happy Birthday".

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Lavinia stamps

Good morning! Another different project for me today, this is one of the digital images from Lavinia stamps called Zen Bryony. I am entering this into the Lavinia challenge blog which is to use "Summer Colors".

She is colored with copics and I made all of the orange flowers to coordinate with her. A bit of white paint on her drops in her hair and some stickles on the bubbles floating around her for a bit of bling.  A simple easy card today!

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Boy birthday!

Hello friends! It is time for another challenge at Mo's DP2 challenge and our challenge for the next two weeks is a "Boys Birthday" hosted by the wonderful Elaine. Please remember, it is a "boys" birthday and not a "girls" birthday as err...someone else did haha!

I have used a newer image today called Blast, it also comes in a girl version too.

Papers are older MME I believe, I am trying to use older paper pads up as I can. He is colored with copics and the sentiment is included with the image. We love to see what you have to share with us and please make sure to join us over on our facebook page, we have occasional sales, lots of inspiration and some awesome camaraderie going on. Plus every month is our "Anything Goes" challenge so you can enter your card on the challenge blog and on facebook! Woohoo!  Hope to see you there!

Trying colored pencils

Good morning everyone! Since I have cut back on my dt obligations I have had some more time to play a bit with all of the crafty stuff I have and one of those is my colored pencils. And I have always loved anything botanical so I decided to play along with the latest challenge over at Power Poppy (love these floral images!) and try out my pencils for the first time without copics. So be gentle okay?

This is one of the latest releases called Countryside Bouquet and is a digi image, my fav! The challenge this week is to go with your countries colors, I was shooting for red, white and blue but think mine ended up being more pink, yellow and purple. Still pretty though and the thought was there! The sentiment is a freebie from the site. I have used my spectrum noir pencils for this and they blended together really easily so I am happy so far. More practice just like anything else though to get better highlights and shadows but it was fun to try something different. Oh, papers are Pion that my BFF Elaine gave to me and I have been hoarding.

I would like to enter this into the Power Poppy challenge.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Art by Miran

Good morning everyone! We have a new sponsor over at the Kit and Clowder blog for our monthly challenge and this month we are all coloring images by Art by Miran and here is a link to her etsy shop and her facebook page.

Our challenge this month is "clothing" to correspond with the awesome newly released clothing class at Kit and Clowder and I have tried my hand at the "dip dye" look Alyce has taught in the class.

My image is Rosy cheek Emma, I have never been a big Manga fan but I LOVE her images! I will list my copic colors below, papers are by LOTV and the butterflies are MFT dies I believe. I have also added a small portion of a diecut from La La Land at the bottom with a touch of flower soft across the grass portion. A smidgen of light blue frantage around the edges and she is done.
The winner of the challenge will get three free images of their choice from the store. Please make sure to link up your cards at Kit and Clowder challenge for us to see them, we love to see how people are coming along with their coloring!

Copics
Skin  E000-00-11-04  R20
Dress B12-14-16-18 and Y11-13-15-17 YR24
Hair  Y21 YR23-27  E59
Leaves  Shinhan  GY48  G46-54  BG52
Rose RV63-66-69