When You are Feeling Blue -- Just Paint Yourself Another Color

     I wanted to make a card for the "Winter Blues" challenge over at Sassy Cheryl's and I had just the image I wanted to use -- a Sassy Cheryl merged with a DZ Doodles reindeer.  I had printed some of these out for my Christmas cards and didn't get a chance to color them up, so here was my opportunity.  But everything, and I do mean everything went wrong with coloring this card.  From me being too heavy handed with the Copics (happens to me a lot, especially when I am tired) to the Stickles throwing up all over it.  I ignored the poor coloring, scraped off what Stickles I could and made it into a card for my granddaughter to play with (she's too young to be a critic, so she appreciates any card I give her).  

Sassy Cheryl:  Sassy Sally Plays A Trick & DZ Doodles Reindeer

I haven't given up on this merged duo, but hopefully I will do a better job on my next try!

   Last night, I colored up this image for a birthday card and it wasn't until this morning when I was stamping the sentiment on, that I realized that this card is blue, too.  So, this is the card that I am going to enter in the Sassy Cheryl Challenge:

Sassy Cheryl:  Just Be Yourself

Main Image:  Sassy Cheryl

Sentiment:  My Sentiment Exactly

Copics:

Skin:  R00, R11, E21, E00 

Hair:  E57, E55, E51

T-shirt:  C3, C1

Overalls:  B99, B97, B95, B93

Socks:  B00, B000, B95, B93

Shoes:  110, C7, C5, C3

Ground:  E43 and a variety of E's for dots

Background:  B00, B000, B95, B21, Silver Gel Pen

To cards -- duds and all...

Trim the Tree

   If I were actually outside trying to trim the tree like the little mice on this image, the snow would have to be shaken off first.  Snowed yesterday, last night and this morning -- more expected tomorrow, so it is easy to stay in the mood to make a Christmas card.
   The challenge over at House Mouse is to use a House Mouse stamp that you have never used before.  Simple for me, since my Christmas present to myself this past year was several of the HM Christmas stamps and I was just dieing to give them a try.  I started out trying to color "Chin Up" (the one with the mouse hanging off the holly branch - I know you have seen it; it is just too cute), but I couldn't do justice to the large holly leaves.  My green selection of Copics just doesn't include the colors I envision for those leaves.  If any one has any suggestions for colors for holly leaves, I would sure appreciate hearing them!!!  So anyway, I set that image aside for now and gave "Trim the Tree" a try.

House Mouse:  Trim the Tree

Sentiment Stamp:  Limited Edition

Paper and Ribbon:  Sorry, don't know who made them.  Once they go in my stash, unfortunately, I forget pretty quick who they are by.

Copics:

Mice:  E57, E55, E53, E51, R00, R11

Berries:  R89, R39, R37, R35

Ribbon:  R27, R24, R22

Ground:  B00, B000

Tree Bark:  YG97, E71

Tree Needles:  G28, G24, G21 (with white gel pen on tips)

Sky:  Duck Egg Pro-Marker, Prismacolor black pen with white gel pen in centers

Hope Everyone has a GREAT weekend!!

Teddy X. Tree

  This past Christmas season, I promised myself that I would not wait until the last minute to make all my Christmas cards, so you are liable to be seeing a whole lot of Christmas cards throughout the year here -- or at least I hope to stick to it!  Did you make any New Year's resolutions this year?

Bugaboo  Ted Xmas Tree

  Image:  Bugaboo

Sentiment:  Stampabilities   Embossed with Ranger embossing powder

Cardstock:  Bazzill

Patterned Paper:   ?

Card Blank:  5.75 X 5.75  Pacon Heavy Tag Board

Copics:

Bear:  E59, E57, E55, E51, R00  

Bear's Nose:  110, C7

Hat:  R27, R24, R22, C3, C1

Tree:  G28, G24, G21   (Extra branches drawn in with Prismacolor marker).

Tree trunk:  YG93, E71, E70

Star:  Y35, Y15

Box:  E31, E51

Bulbs:  R39, R37, R35, C3

Ground:  E43 with various E dots

Outlined with Duck Egg ProMarker

Challenge to Enter:  ABC Christmas Challenge:  A for Anything Christmas

May we keep a bit of Christmas with us all year round!

Hanglar Heart

The colors on this card are hot pinks and greens, perfect for the rising temperatures outdoors.

Hanglar and Stanglar

Image:  Hanglar and Stanglar

Sentiment:  Hanna Stamps

Papers:  DCWV

Punch:  Paper Shapers

Embossing Folder:  Cuttlebug

Other:  3L Pop Dots, White Gel Pen

Copics:

Skin:  E00, E02, R00, R11

Hair:  E55, E53, E51

Heart:    G28, G24, G21

Outfit:  R85, R83, R81

Trim on Outfit, Shoes, Socks:  E29, E25, E23, E21

Challenges to enter in:  Outlawz Wednesday Sketch Challenge

Here's hoping things are warming up for you, too!

Burpee, Gurney's, Johnny's Selected, Henry Field, Michigan Bulb....

   The temperature is -8 degrees F.  The wind chill is -33.  Roads are "slick and hazardous."   Power outages are to be expected.  And the first seed catalog of the season arrived, which makes everything else - well, if not alright at least more bearable -- and while I am cuddled on the couch dreaming of my garden yet to be -- it is down right nice!!   So, today I chose Sassy Cheryl's Farmer Sally to make a card for a friend who also likes to garden and "put away."

Copics:

Skin:  R00, R11, E02, E11, E00

Hair:  E59, E57

Overalls:  B99, B97, B95, B93

Shirt:  N3, N1, YG97, YG95

Hat:  E99, E97, E93, YG97, YG95, Y26

Shoes:  E49, E47, E43, E41

Potato Fork:  E37, E33, E31, C5, C3, C1

Tomato:  R27, R24, R22

Carrots:  YR68, YR63, YG09, YG03

Ground:  Many different E tones, YG97

Outlined in Pearl Blue ProMarker

Sentiment Stamp:  ?

Burlap Paper:  DCWV

Cardstock:  Bazzill

Brads:  Spare Parts

Card Sketch:  Outlawz

Card Blank:  Made from Pacon Heavyweight Tag Board

Challenge to Enter In:  Anything Goes at Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blogspot

Stay Warm  -- Soon We Will Be Gardening In the Sun!

Red Hot Flowers

  Snowing and cold today.  Forecast:  More Snow and Colder.  So, naturally my thoughts ran to heat and flowers -- the grass is always greener type thing, huh?  I got some new red Bazzill cardstock for Christmas and I saw a new card layout on the internet, so I decided to try to incorporate them both into a card.

Heartfelt Creations

Flower Dies and Stamp:  Heartfelt Creations

Sentiment Stamp:  Impression Obsession

Embossing Powder:  American Crafts

Ink:  Stampabilites

Cardstock:  Bazzill

Card Blank:  Made from Pacon Creative Studios Heavyweight Tagboard

Challenges to enter in:  Outlawz, Clean and Simple

If you need snow, you are welcome to come here and get it.

(The best snow is in the driveway and on the walk!)

Hopper Celebration

  The bunnies are partying here -- maybe they are celebrating the 12 days of Christmas or it's a New Year's party that was over extended:

Happy Hoppers

Copics:

Left Rabbit:  E55, E53, E51, R00; Hat:  B05, B02, Silver Metallic Pen

Middle Rabbit:  E57, E55, E53, R00; Hat: RV06, RV23, Silver Metallic Pen

Right Rabbit:  C5, C3, C1, R00, R11; Hat: BG13, BG34, Silver Metallic Pen

Ground:  E43 and whatever browns I grabbed to make dots

Background:  Pearl Blue Pro-marker and Silver Metallic Pen

Sentiment Stamp:  Fiskars embossed with silver Ranger embossing powder

Streamer stickers:  Mrs. Grossman's

Other:  Silver Mirrored Cardstock, Pink flocked brad

Challenges to enter in:  House Mouse Monday Challenge -- Silver and/or Gold

Here's to Celebrations!

A Gaming B-day

   My grandson loves his video games, so when I saw this digi at The Paper Shelter I had to buy it for his b-day card.  It is hard to believe that he will be 9 soon!  Since this is a new digi, I'm going to use it to enter the Alcohol Marker Challenge at Outlawz -- the topic of which is "Something New."

The Paper Shelter:  Mad About Video Games

Copics:

Skin:  E21, E11, E02, E00, R00, R11

Hair:  E37, E99, E97, E95, E93

Chair:  YG97, YG95, YG93

Pants:  B97, B95, B93

Shirt:  E55, E53, E51

Game Controller:  110, C7, C5, C3, R24

Ground:  E43 (and dots in whatever brown I grabbed)

Outline:  B000

Papers, brads, fiber and Birthday sticker:  ??

Dies:  Spellbinders

Happy Gaming Everyone!

Christmas Exhaustion

  There is a good 4 inches of snow on the ground and it is still coming down.  I have to admit that it looks like a winter wonderland outside.  If only I didn't have to shovel!
   After Christmas, I always spend a few dollars on my crafting -- supplies and new stamps and digis.  This year, I found a place with wonderful digi images that I have never tried before.  Where have I been?  The Paper Shelter images come with a PNG, a JPEG outline image, a colored image in each of the same, and a JPEG background -- and they are all sooo cute!
    Here's my first effort coloring an image from The Paper Shelter:

The Paper Shelter:  December 26

Copics:

Skin:  R00, R11, E00

Hair:  E43, E41, E40

Suit:  R89, R39, R37, R34, R32

Fur, Boots, Belt and Gloves:  110, C7, C5, C3, C1

Bag:  YG97, YG95, YG93, YG91, E57, E55

Calendar:  E57, E55, E53, E51, E50, R24, YG09, YG07

Ground:  C5, W3

Outline:  B00, B000

Sentiment Stamp:  Stampabilities, Embossed with Ranger Embossing Powder.

Papers:  The Paper Studio and Bazzill

Ink:  Coffee Pigment (Way too thick and dark!)

Thread:  Metallic Red

Dies:  Spellbinders

I would like to enter this into the Anything Goes Christmas Challenge at The Paper Shelter's blog.

Hope you all have a good day!  And no one gets snowed under!!

Two Tiddly

  Oh, yeah!  The New Year is starting out right -- two posts in one day!  The grandkids had been staying with me and since they sleep later than I do, I had been slipping into the craft room and quietly crafting while they snoozed.  This morning I finished my CAS Thank You card -- and they slept on, so I took a peek at the Sketch Challenge over at Outlawz and the light bulb went off in my head (which doesn't happen often).  I had a few Tiddly Inks images that I had colored up for Christmas cards and didn't have a chance to use.  There they sat -- perfect for this week's sketch challenge.  So, I got busy and this is what I came up with using another wonderful sketch from Outlawz:

Tiddly Inks:  Caroling Wryn

   Sorry, I can't give you the details on the Copics used, it was colored during my breaks at work as I frantically tried to get Christmas cards made for everyone.  The papers were all from my scrap pile.  I can tell you that the corner and tag dies are from Cuttlebug.  And that I used Coffee and Walnut inks on all the papers and the main image is on pop dots.

   Sketch Challenge finished and still the kids slept on (starting a new year must have taken a lot out of them), so I decided to use the same sketch and image and make another Christmas card.  Here's the plainer more traditional version:

I'm pretty thrilled -- here it is January 1st and I've ALL READY started on this year's Christmas cards.  Now, that's amazing! 

My grandkids went home and I'm sitting here thinking "Uggghhh!  Work tomorrow."  But today, today was a good day.  I hope it was for you, too!

The Sweet Serenity of Books

   Happy New Year!!

   To start out 2014 right, I made a thank you card for a dear cousin, who passed on a box of favorite childhood books, with the hopes that in a few years time my granddaughter will fall in love with them too.  I used the CAS design that I have been using on so many cards lately (Still my favorite) and I am going to enter it in the CAS Challenge at Outlawz. 

Tiddly Inks  School Girl

Copics:

Skin:  R00, R11, E11, E21, E02, E00

Hair:  E79, E77, E74, E71, E70

Skirt:  B99, B97, B95, B93

Shirt and Bow:  R24, R22, R20

Socks:  C3, C1

Books:  N3, N1, R39, YG97, E59, E55

Ground:  E55, E33, E37, E79, YG97

The Longfellow Quote is by Serendipity and is stamped on using Memento Ink.

May 2014 Bring Us All Peace, Joy, Love and Prosperity!

Birthday Clown

Is everyone ready for the last day of 2013?  I started it out at the crafting table putting together this card (that I colored and glittered last night) for the Sparkle and Shine Challenge at Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog.   My great-niece is turning 3 soon and here is the card that I made for her to help celebrate her big day:

Sassy Sally Clowns Around

Copics:

Skin:  R00, R11, E02, E21, E00

Hair:  E59, E57, E55  (My E57 had a bad case of the blotchies -- guess in needs cleaned?)

Shirt:  N3, N1

Hat:  C7, C5, C3, 110

Shoes:  B29, B26, B24

Nose:  R27, R24, R22 (with Liquid Glass on top)

Outlined with Pearl Blue Pro-Marker

Other Products used:

Glitter, glitter and more glitter

Glitter paper

Mirrored paper

Glaze pen

Liquid Glass

White Gel Pen

Happy New Year Everyone!

Snow -- Man!

   Hello everyone!  This morning I made a card for the Friday's Alcohol Marker Challenge at Outlawz.  After all the CAS cards that I made this past year, I was anxious to add layers and embellies on this one -- after all Christmas vacation will be over soon and I will probably be back to very little time to craft -- so I am enjoying it while I can.  I hope you are too!!!

Tiddly Inks:  Winter Wryn and Snowman

Designer Paper:  Basic Gray's Pine Branch/Avalanche from the Fruitcake collection.

Cardstock:  DCWV

Embellishments:  The Paper Studio (pearls and snowflake)

Ribbon:  ??

Dies:  Spellbinders

Embossing Folder:  Cuttlebug
PopDots:  3L  The horizontal panel with the snowflake and the image are raised up.

Copics:

Skin:  R00, R11, E00

Hair:  E57, E37, E33, E51

Clothes:  YG97, YG95, YG93, YG91

Fur trim:  E33, E51

Snowman:  B00, B000, N1, R00, YR68, YR65

Snowman's Hat:  C7, C5, C3, C1, 110

Snowman's Scarf:  R29, R27, R24, R22, N3

Snow on Ground:  BG72, BG18

Background:  W3 

Falling Snow:  Uni-Paint marker (my smaller paint marker was empty, so I had to use the larger one here -- thus it is snowing snow balls instead of snow flakes).

A Christmas Thank You

   I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! 

    I made a card this morning using the design for this week's sketch challenge over at Outlawz.  The card may look more like a Valentine, but I am going to use it for a thank you card for a wonderful gift I received this Christmas.  The picture isn't very good (dreary weather today), but here it is:

Hanglar and Stanglar

Sentiment stamp:  Stampin' Up, Embossed w/red Ranger embossing powder

Hearts punched with a Paper Shaper punch, embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and embellished with Spare Parts flowers.

The designer paper was stitched with metallic thread all the way around it.

All papers (including the image and hearts) were distressed with Walnut ink (although it doesn't show up well in this picture). 

Copics:

 Skin:  E00, R00, R11, E21, E02

Hair:  E59, E57, E55, E53

Wings:  E33, E51

Shoes and Stick: E29, E25, E23, E31

Clothes:  YG97, YG95, YG93, YG91,

E79, E77, E74

Heart:  R39, R37, R35, R32

Ground: E43, E33, E57, G28

Outlined with Pearl Blue Pro-Marker

 

Singles for Christmas

Merry Christmas morning!  The turkey is in the oven and I am sitting here at the computer, trying to get woke up enough to get the rest of the cooking started -- until then, I thought I might as well post the last of the Christmas cards that I sent.

This card from Wee Stamps went out to Shauna P.:

This Serendipity snowman went out to Tracy S.:

This old-fashioned looking Santa from Just Ink Lined went out to Jill A.:

And this little Whipper Snapper snowman was sent to Monique P.:

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2013

I couldn't let the holiday go by without using some of Sassy Cheryl's images on some cards.

For Carson and Josie H. and Althea S.:

For Amelia and Vicky O. and BreAnn M:

For Karen O. and Donnie and Amanda:

Happy Christmas Eve!

Santa and Elf

These Rubbernecker images are so much fun to color.  (But I will never understand artist's who insist on putting a circle in the middle of checks -- there are a lot of them that do.)


Santa, hisself, went out to Maya K.:

 And this little elf went out to Mel W. in Florida:

A Precious Christmas

A few cards using Precious Moments. 

For Kelly W.:

 

For Tammy L. and Christy S.:

 

 

Bildmalarna Christmas 2013

Bildmalarna stamps are so cute, so I used a few for holiday cards this year. 

The first one here was sent to Claire E.  I used some of the Flower Soft that Claire sent me for the greenery around the advent candles and added a little glaze and fake snow to the candles themselves.

For Terrie R.:

For Fiorella C.:

For Dorthy C. and Angela B.:

Just received my latest order of Bildmalarna's and I'm anxious to get to the crafting table and give them a try -- but it will probably have to wait until after Christmas now.  Here's hoping your crafting table is filled with holiday goodies!!

H & S Christmas

   Even more than the Magnolia stamps, as far as nose-less people go, I think I like the Hanglar and Stanglar stamps.  Is it my imagination or do they not lend themselves more to the green and brown tones that I love?  My sources say, that the company is out of business now (I know if one goes to the web site, it is not functioning), it seems I found them too late.  Once again, I am dependent on the kindness of others for these images.  Both colored with Copics. 

My favorite among them went out to Denise Q.:

The male counterpart to this one (and thus my second favorite) went out to Cathy R.:

Like the cards say:  "Merry Christmas!"