Creative Inspirations - Pastel Green, Pink & Cream

I couldn't be more excited and more stressed. The exciting part is that I am the Guest Designer for the Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog for the month of September (WooHoo - doin' the happy dance). The stressing part is that the first challenge is using pastel colors and I am the most pastel challenged person you will ever meet. So this card was made with great effort and lots drafts thrown in the trash can. lol

It's funny how sometimes you can be so proud of the little things. For me, it is the tag on this card. I made the sentiment in MS Word and doodled the little fly and squigglies with my copic multiliner. Now this may not seem like much to most people but for me it is a huge deal. I'm one of those people who stamps because they can't draw and trust me, I can't draw a straight line with a ruler (lmbo).


Copics used:
Frog: G20, YG43, YG41, YG00
Mouse: E44, E43, E42, E41
Shadowing: W3, W2, W1
Flower, Cheeks & Tongue: R22, R21, R20

I hope you get a chance to join in on the Creative Inspirations Pastel Green, Pink & Cream Challenge this week. The prize is a whopping 4, count 'em 4 free digis from MelJen Designs.

Reflection Technique

Well I have to say I have a ways to go before I've perfected this technique. :) I have an image of a fisherman in a boat and I think I will try working with that one. I have to say that I'm loving all of my beautiful flowers I got in my Wild Orchid order last week. It has been so fun playing with them and figuring out how to best use them.

I'm usually pretty random with the markers I use and I have a hard time listing them. But I remember which colors I used for this image and will try to list which ones I've used whenever possible, in the future.

Copics used:
Bunny: RV32, RV00, RV000, RV0000
Umbrella: C9, C7, C5, C3, C1, E31
Water: BG0000, B000, 0

Challenges I'm entering this card in:
Copic Creations - Reflections
Paper Play Time - Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Cupcake Craft - Let's get Digital
CSSC - Flower Power
Lollipop Craft - Sympathy
Mad for Markers - Use Pink Copics

WooHoo!!!!! I made the Southern Girls Design Team

I couldn't be more excited. I was chosen the be one of the members of Southern Girls Challenge Blog's very first design team. I guess everyone crossing their fingers for me really paid off (lol). So Thank You so much. Also a Big Big Thanks to Lou & Tracy for choosing me. I've had a chance to check out the blogs of the other DT member and all I can say is WOW, there are some amazingly talented ladies on this team. I feel very honored and blessed to be a part of it. Challenges are going to start up on September 9th and I participate in my first challenge on September 23rd (yay). So be sure to check out the Southern Girls Blog and I hope you can join in on the fun!!!


On a sadder note, today's card is one I made for some friends of mine who lost their dog this past weekend. He was 13 years old and they didn't even know he was sick. We had to put down our 13 year old Boston Terrier last year but he was seriously ill, which I think makes it easier in the long run.

I was so nervous coloring this image. The stamp belongs to a friend of mine and I stamped it last year. The problem was that it was stamped on Gina K paper, which used to be my favorite, but for the past few months I've been using Cryogen paper which is my new favorite. These two papers hold the copic ink in completely different ways. I had to revert back to the way I used to color in order to color this image and let me tell you, it wasn't easy. You have to work a lot harder to get even blending with the Gina K paper. Since this was my only copy of this image I was so afraid I would mess up. I did have a few boo-boos that my colorless blender wouldn't clean up so don't look too closely. *smiles*

Challenges I'm putting this card in:

I Did It Creations - for the sketch
Totally Paper Crafts - Keep It Clean and Simple
Creative Belli - Round and Metal

These Masculine Cards Are Killing Me

I have come to the conclusion that there is way too much testosterone in my life. I'm always making cards for boys and I'm dying to make pretty frilly pink things. To make matters worse, I got my first order for Wild Orchid today and all those pretty flowers are just screaming at me. I feel like a kid that peeked in the closet before Christmas and now I have to wait to use all my new goodies. Oh well, I guess the little guy in this image is so stinking cute that it makes up for the lack of girliness. lol

I made this card for a friend of my little boys', Rory. He is turning 2 on Saturday so I thought this image would be perfect. This image is called Sam in Trouble and it's another image by Mo Manning. Doesn't she just draw the cutest little kids. I'm really becoming a fan of Digi images. They are so versatile for resizing and combining images. But I'll never get up my Rubba either. :)

Challenges I'm putting this card in:

Lollipop Crafts - Ribbons and Buttons
Totally Gorjuss - Star
Cupcake Craft - Blue and Green
Rosie D's - One For The Boys
Create4Fun - Make a Birthday Card
City Crafter - I See Stars
Cute Card Thursday - Dieing for a Punch

For My Bestest Friend

I made this card for 2 main reasons. The first is that I needed a card to give my friend Mandy for being there for me. She has been my friend for 33 years and what 34 year old can say they have had a friend that long. We both moved away from home almost right out of high school and went our separate ways but as luck should have it, we ended up living in the same city out of pure coincidence. The second reason I made this card was to apply for the Design Team Call over at Southern Girls Challenge Blog. Wish me luck.

When I started coloring this image I wanted BG72 to be my darkest tone. I couldn't find any other color that would blend the way I wanted with this color so I decided to break out the old Colorless Blender. I used BG72 and the colorless blender, tip to tip, for all the blue you see in the image. This is the first time I've only used 1 color to color everything. I'm usually the one using 4 or 5 different markers to color a single flower petal. LOL

PWCO - for the sketch
Just Magnolia - Let's Get Sentimental
ABC Challenge - B is for Blue
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - use the color Kraft
Kaboodle Doodles - Lovely Flowers & Lace
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Vintage
Stamp With Fun - card for a girl

Is it too early for Halloween?

I was trying to organize my paper, which I still don't have a clue as to the best way to do it, and had an undying urge to use some Halloween paper. Do many of you out there give out Halloween cards? I haven't in the past but my collection of cards is getting out of control so I think this year I may start doing it. LOL

This image from Mo's Digital Pencil is just too cute. I love how the dog is dressed up as a cat. I'm one of those foolish people who dresses up the dog for Halloween. I have a little Boston Terrier named Daisy and I dress her up in a pretty pink Princess costume with pink toenails to boot. We used to have a male Boston and he would be dressed as a King. The kids just love seeing puppies dressed up even if the puppies are not amused by it. :)

After coloring this image I'm in the mood to go shopping for decorations and a costume for my little boy.


Here are the challenges I'm putting this card in:

Creative Inspirations - for the sketch
Lollipop Crafts - Pets
Mo's Digital Challenge - Thank Heaven for Little Girls
Stamp Something - Digi Day
Stampin' for the Weekend - Anything Goes

Sewing gives me a headache

Me and my sewing machine have a hate - hate relationship. Actually, I think what the problem is, is that I'm determined to prove I'm smarter than the machine and it is determined to prove I'm not. LOL But that's a whole other rant that I may need to reserve for another day.

I'm a little disappointed with how this card photographed. It is loaded with sparkle. The white paper is cryogen white which has a shimmer, the insects and the water have stickles on them and I sprayed the whole card with Shimmerz. I think it is time to invest in a photo tent.

This card is loaded up with challenges. I was challenge hopping before I made this card so it gave me lots of great ideas. Here they are in no particular order:

Stamp with Fun - for the sketch
Totally Gorjuss - the theme is Aqua
A Pocket Full of Posies - All That Glitters
Scrappy Frog - A Stitch in Time
Fun 'n' Funky - Flower Power
Stamp and Create - is also flowers
City Crafter - Isn't she lovely?
Everybody Art - In The Garden
Color Me Creative - Create some green Grass

Masculine cards are not easy

This is a card I made for my brother-in-law's birthday. I found this card so hard to make. All of my masculine type stamps are for fishing, hunting or are for little boys' and none were appropriate. I finally decided on this image which is a digi that I found on my laptop. I'm not sure where it is from but it kinda looks like a Dustin Pike image to me.

Here are the challenges that I'm entering my card in:

Sketch Saturday - for the sketch
Lollipop Crafts - Anything Goes
The ABC Challenge - A is for August
Dutch Dare Card - another Anything Goes
The Secret Crafter Sunday - It's a man's world