My BFF

It snowed here in the early morning hours then turned into a cold rain, the kind of day to stay in and create. Too bad we still had school so I packed a bag of crafting stuff because I was really in the card making mood and I decided to spend my lunchtime finishing up this card.

I really love this image from Mo's Digital Pencil, she is so cute! It was one of the few times I picked the DP first and then colored to match it. I also knew I wanted to use these pink feathery, lace flowers that I have had for years and couldn't ever seem to find the right use for them, till now. I decided to distress this card because it kind of went with the image and DP. I really like the way it came out, after I looked at the card posted I think I should have stamped some little flowers on the saying or made it smaller too much white showing I think, next time I'll know better.

Here are the challenges that this card fits

Paper Sundaes Sixth Challenge-Their challenge was to do some distressing on your card. I used my distressing tool on every layer. This is my first time trying their challenges, lots of fun!
Crazy 4 Challenges C4C25-The challenge is this great sketch that I used, I loved working with this one!
Practical Scrappers Challenge-Their challenge was fun because it is to use stamps, rubber, digi,
acrylic or foam, your choice. I chose DIGI, though I love rubber too!
Lexi's Creations Challenge #8-This is an easy challenge this week, the challenge is "anything goes", how fun is that!
Incy Wincy Challenge 31-Their challenge is Touchy Feely, add some texture to your project. My card has lots, the distressing, the embossed flower panel, and the lace flowers. Great challenge!
Dare U 2 Digi Challenge 31-Use your punches and a digi of course. I punched the branches around the flowers and the swirls around the saying.
Cupcake Crafts Challenge 79-The challenge this week is friends. What little boy or girl who had a pet didn't think of them as their best friend in the whole world, just like these two cuties!
Saturday Spotlight Challenge SSHP19-Doing the Mess Around is the challenge. They want you to distress your card. I love the look of distressed edges on a card, fun challenge!
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge FTTC55-The challenge is to use flowers on your creation. I put three of these lacey flowers together to make this flower. So glad I found their great blog!

Supplies
Stamps- Mo's Digital Pencil Digi stamps, Hero Arts(saying)
Paper- SU Green Galore, Pixie Pink CS, Papertrey White CS, Basic Grey DP
Inks- Copics, SU Pixie Pink Ink
Accessories- Nesties, MS Branch Punch, Paper Shaper Swirl Punch, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Lacy Flowers, Recollection Sticker Pearls

Thank you so much for stopping by to see my card, it really means a lot to me and all your wonderful comments are really very much appreciated. Please stop by again soon!

Happy Creating,
Mary

Fall Beauty, TSSC86

I started this card a couple of days ago planning on finishing it pretty quickly for Mary Jo's Monday Lunchtime challenge, TSSC86. But things got in the way and I just finished it today. The only good thing about it was that I used some of my new Fall Basic Grey paper and the whole 6x6 pack is beautiful! I loved them all so much that I bought two packs of it! Also I used Smooch to make the berries and originally I only had red ones then yesterday I picked up the pumpkin color so then I decided to use my harvest color(yellow) to make three different color berries on the wreath. It now looks a lot more fallish. I guess things worked out for the best. I tried to take a close up of the wreath so you could see the bright, metallic shimmer of the Smooch colors, IRL it still shimmers a lot more.

Finally I thought the card needed a bit more texture so I used my Scor-it to make lines in the solid DP and the sanded them to make them stand out a bit more. I like the card to look balanced, KWIM? I am happy with the finished card though it evolved a lot from my first ideas.

Supplies
Stamps: Memory Box, Hero Arts
Paper: SU Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, Papertrey White, DP Basic Grey
Ink: Memento Brown, Pumpkin Pie, Smooch Colors
Accessories: Scor-it Mini, Nesties, Recollections Pearls, Leaf Punch, Michaels Ribbon

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my creation. I hope you liked it as much as I liked making it. Pleas stop by again soon.

Have a great start to the week,
Mary

Color My World,TSSC77, Copic Creations #7

I just love Sugar Nellie stamps and the Home Grown girls are beginning to become my favorites. I am not sure why this one was one of the first I bought, maybe because you don't often see a stamp of a cute girl doing painting.

I made this card for Mary Jo's Monday Sketch challenge, TSSC77, It was a really easy sketch to work with. I chose to turn the sketch on it's side for this card and then add my own touches to it.
You can't tell from the picture but all the paint(except the wall) and the paintbrush have Crystal Effects on it to give the idea of wet paint.

I also used this card for the Copic Creations challenge #7, to color an image with brunette hair. I am always experimenting with hair color to try to get it as natural as possible. I love that Copics let me blend as much as I want and play around with what I don't like.

Supplies:
Stamps: Sugar Nellie, Hero Arts
Paper: SU Pretty in Pink, Cool Caribbean, Papertrey White, DP Basic Grey
Inks: SU Cool Caribbean, Memento black and Copics
Accessories: Nesties, SU pearls Crystal Effects, Prima flowers, Michaels ribbon, and JoAnns pearl beads

Thanks for stopping by to see what I have created. I hope you enjoy my cards.
Have a wonderful day,
Mary

Beauty in Bloom

This is another of the cards that I did while we spent the weekend in Vermont stamping. When I saw this flower in my LSS I fell in love with it. I love to garden and spent the whole day yesterday outside getting my gardens in tiptop shape. It didn't hurt that I had my son and husband out there with me digging up and moving plants where I wanted them, prepping the beds for new plants and cleaning up after me! This card reminds me of my flowers!

The stamp is one of the new ones from Cornish Heritage Farms. I colored it with Copics in my favorite colors and brushed on Stickles with a brush so I had a hint of sparkle on the flower. I also used my favorite paper from Magenta, it has soft blues, purples and a touch of yellow, pink and green in it. I added the pearl strand for just a touch of elegance.

Supplies:

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms, Hero Arts

Paper: SU Bliss Blue, Lavender Lace, Neenah white and DP Magenta

Ink: Memento black and Copics

Accessories: Nesties, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Stickles, SU corner punch, Misc brads, Michaels ribbon, Joanns Pearl ribbon

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you stop by again soon.

Mary

3CTC10 Monkeying Around

This card I made for Kerry's Thursday Challenge, 3CTC10. The challenge was to use a zoo animal on your card. These challenges are a lot of fun every Thursday so check them out!

If you read my earlier vacation post you would know that I have really taken a liking to digi stamps. This image was created by Dustin Pike. Every time he reveals more of his cute creations they win me over. I couldn't resist this monkey's smile!

The sky behind the monkey was made with my cloud maker kit. I have been experimenting with making my sky look like what I see when I look outside. Today the blue looked very bright with lots of big puffy clouds. This is how mine turned out, close to the real thing. I still need to tweak it a bit.

Supplies
Stamps: Digi Stamp by Dustin Pike, Hero Arts
CS: SU Old Olive, Close to Cocoa, Neenah white, DP CTMH
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Old Olive and Copics
Accessories: Prima Flowers, Nesties, Cuttlebug embossing folders, Magic Mesh unknown leaf punch and misc. string, clip and button, and Michaels ribbon


I hope you like looking at my creations. Leave a comment to let me know what you think of using digital stamps on your projects. I would really like to know if others have grown to like using them like I have.


Thanks for stopping by,
Mary

3CTC8, Springtime Friends

I made this card for Kerry's Thursday Challenge, 3CTC8. These are definitely not my usual colors of choice. Always Artichoke, So Saffron and Rose Red are very pretty together just a bit hard to work with wanting to color with blues and purples, my colors of comfort.

It is finally beginning to look and sound like Spring here in New England. This bunny didn't exactly remind me of an Easter bunny so I decided on a Springtime bunny. I hope we see some real ones hopping around here soon! I bought a cloud maker template a short time ago and I love the way the sky comes out using it. I colored the grasses and the flower to match the color challenge but I really like bunnies to be gray or brown and I always color my birds blue. I didn't have any ribbon to match so I ran white ribbon across my ink pad so it would match the Always Artichoke DP. A trick that Kerry taught me many years ago.

Supplies:
Stamps: SU and Hero Arts
CS: SU Always Artichoke, So Saffron, Rose Red and DP SU 6x6 pack
Ink: SU Always Artichoke, So Saffron, Rose Red, Memento Black and Copics
Accessories: Nesties, Michael's Ribbon, Hero Arts Rhinestones and Dew Drops

Thanks for stopping by to see what I created.
Please come again soon,
Mary

Can't get enough of.....

This beautiful textured DP from SU. I love the colors, the designs and the texture. I love that you can use a distressing edger and the sponge color on the rough edges to look like the inside is color tinted to the rest of the front. I will definitely be stocking up on alot more of this soon because it is made with an in color so it will be gone this summer I bet.

I made this card this card for Mary Jo's Monday Lunchtime Sketch challenge, TSSC63. I think this sketch was my favorite so far. I think it has so many possibilities, for beautiful cards. The oval in the center was made with Rubber Stamp Tapestry peg stamps. Anyone who has ever stamped with me or seen alot of my cards know these are some of my favorite stamps to play with. On this card I tried to match the DP that has the flower pattern. I came close but it isn't perfect. I'll have to keep trying. I have been distressing alot on my cards lately, I go through phases, this is just the latest I guess. I wanted to darken the Baha Breeze CS a bit so I sponged the edges with the same color ink. I also pulled out my Pretties kit. I usually hoard these wonderful embellishments but decided to start using them on my cards.

Supplies:
Stamps: Rubber Stamp Tapestry, Hero Arts
CS: SU Choc Chip, Baha Breeze and SU DP
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Choc Chip, Creamy Caramel, Baha Breeze
Accessories: SU Pretties, Nesties, MM Distressing edger, MS punch and Michael's ribbon

Thanks for stopping by to take a look at what I have created.
I appreciate any comments that you leave about my cards.
Please come back again soon,
Mary

Life is Fun! TSSC62

Life is so going out of control. School has been so busy because of the state mandated testing, MCAS. I have had a million things going on outside of school and at home so that I can't find time to make cards. Thank goodness it is warming up and the sounds of Spring are in the air. April vacation is only a few weeks away!!!

I made this card for Mary Jo's Monday Lunchtime Challenge, TSSC62, I just got the chance to take a pic and post it. I love the look of all these cute dogs so I just couldn't pass this stamp up when I saw it at one of our LSS. The dare to be different was made by the same stamp company, Stamping Bella, but I not sure it was meant to be with this dog stamp but I really liked them together!

Supplies:
Stamps: Stamping Bellas, Hero Arts, paws (unknown)
CS: SU Choc Chip, Close to Cocoa, Neenah white and DP Provo
Inks: SU Choc Chip, Marvy Markers and Copics
Accessories: Nesties, Misc brads

I hope you found this card to be as cute as I did and that it put a smile on your face. Thanks for looking. Please visit again soon!

Mary

3CTC2, Blue, Brown, and Buttons

Kerry this is an apology to you I had your Thursday challenge card just about done Thursday afternoon but then...

Last week was our first week back to school after a wonderful week off. It kinds of reminds me that Spring is close and we are on the home stretch for the end of the school year. It can be a tiring week so when Thursday came and I fell asleep on the couch right after dinner I just shrugged it off. Friday I was tired again but still just said that I was glad it was the end of the week. Friday night I woke up and boy was I feeling awful. An awful sore throat, headache, chills one minute and sweats the next. Saturday I got up and felt not any better but dragged myself out of the house because I had an appt. for a haircut and didn't want to cancel it. Needless to say I wasn't any better Saturday night or Sunday. By Sunday night I was worse and ended up at the ER. Five hours later, 1:00 am, after being poked, drilled and medicated, they sent me home. I had a temp of 103 and major case of strep throat and an ear infection. Thank goodness for the snowstorm today because school was canceled. I will hopefully only have to miss tomorrow the doctor said by tomorrow night I should feel alot better and be able to swallow.
I did finish assembling your card today and scanned it (it came out a little darker than it should have) I hate being this late but couldn't even think about cards. I really like your challenges keep up the creative ideas!!!

Supplies:
Stamps: Hero Arts, Wordsworth
CS: SU Choc. Chip, Baja Breeze, and DP SU (I love the texture on it)
Ink: Baja Breeze and Choc. Chip
Accessories: Nesties, SU punch, Michael's ribbon, misc buttons and pearl stickers from Michaels

I am going to try to do MJ Monday's challenge card tomorrow, so check back to see if I get it done it looks like a fun sketch!

Thanks for looking,
Mary

Springtime Friends

It was warmer around here today for the first time since early fall. Things were starting to melt and tomorrow is suppose to be even a bit warmer. It put me in the mood for the feel of Spring to be right around the corner. This is a stamp I bought a while ago and never found the right time to use it on a card until now. It definitely reminds me of Spring!

The backround was made from two different pieces of SU DP paper. The side with the swirls I thought needed a little something extra after I put the papers side by side so I used my white Signo pen and dotted along the side of the swirls so that it would compliment the polka dotted side. I even went a bit further and ran the scalloped circles through my dotted swiss embossing folder.The image was colored with Copics and the wings of the bees and part of the flower petals have shimmerz painted on them. I sponged Pretty in Pink on the center of the Pretties flower.

Supplies:
Stamps: Hero Arts(saying) and Penny Black
CS: CTMH textured white, Neenah white and SU DP Pretty in Pink
Ink: Versafine black and SU Pretty in Pink, Copics
Accessories: Dew Drops, SU Pretties Flower, Nesties, Cuttlebug folder and White Signo Pen

I did a lot of coloring so far this weekend so I should be posting lots of new creations this week. Please stop by often and let me know if you like my take on Spring is just around the corner!

Thanks for looking,
Mary