Embrace Your Inner Goddess

 

 

Seeing as though my New Year's resolution was to try to take some time out for me and get more involved in weekly challenges, I headed over to Sweet Sketch Wednesday, and found that Challenge #34 was sponsored by Mo's Digital Pencil. I knew I had to at least attempt it seeing as though Mo's stamps are my absolute favorite.

I kind of struggled with the sketch a little bit just because I couldn't quite get it to look right with all the colors being so close together. In hindsight, I probably wouldn't have chosen the background I had because that was probably the reason for the dilemna, but I'm okay with the end result now.

I used Mo's "Chubby Fairy 2" for this challenge, and colored and outlined the image with my Prismas before chalking the edges and mounting it to a mullberry scalloped Nestabilities circle.  I used my Pocket Full of Posies DP for all the background matting and smaller circles, and computer-generated the sentiments. The fairy is mounted with foam tape to give it some dimension against the other 4 circles.

Thanks for visiting!

Sweet Friends Award

I recieved this Sweet Friends award yesterday from the fantastical Karen. Please check out her blog when you get a chance. She is an extremely talented paper crafter who stamps for a wonderful cause. To learn more about Operation Write Home, click here. 

Thanks for the award, Karen. You're the best.

If I've followed the rules correctly, I'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy, and then send this award to 5 other bloggers I visit regularly.

My 5 fellow bloggers are:

1.) Diana
2.) Ashley
3.) Tilly
4.) Carrie
5.) Lynn

10 Things That Make Me Happy:

1.) My family & friends

(By the way, in this photo, they were at the casino on their Bermuda Cruise, not a strip joint) lol

2.) Brian

3.) Oliver, my little cherub

4.) Spike, my little devil

5.) My craft studio

6.) My Prismas

7.) Shopping

8.) Staying in my pajamas all day

9.) The Mystical Mermaid machine at Mohegan Sun

10.) My brain-sucking, mind-numbing reality shows (I miss you Jersey Shore!)

Don't forget to stop by Karen and my fellow bloggers' blogs. They're all super talented, and I appreciate them all.

Thanks for visiting!

Thanks a Bunch!

Whew! This has been very brutal and unproductive week. Did what I had to do but it didn't give me much time after work to create any new inventory, which I'm in desperate need of.  Luckily I was able to finally finish my "Thanks a Bunch" card I've been working on all week. And by working on, I mean picking up and playing with for awhile and then setting it down with a groan.

Final product ended up looking like this.

I literally went from hating to loving this card overnight mostly due to the DP I was able to find in my scrap bin. Until that point, I could just not get this image to look right with anything.  As an OCD, matchy matchy girl, it taught me a very important lesson to never color an image without DP to match it with... way too stressful.

Anyways, I think I got this digi stamp from DigiStamp Boutique, and I colored it with Prismas. I'm convinced that everyone has their own favorite coloring style, techique and medium, and I'm ready to admit that mine is the Prismas (for the time being at least). I think it's the control freak in me. :)

Sentiment is computer-generated and nestabilitized.

Thanks for visiting!

Lilly with Flowers

The long weekend flew by... again, but at least I was able to get a few non-order cards for myself.  I just love this "Lilly with Flowers" stamp from DigiStamp Boutique.  

I went with a completely (and probably slightly overboard) floral theme, starting with the daisy DP, and finishing with the floral punches for the border. It was one of those cards that started simple and just kept going and going. I believe I actually channeled Lynn in the middle of it. :)

Still not sure if it's missing something, or if it's too much but I think she's staying this way for a little while. Sometimes you just have to put the card down!

Thanks for visiting!

Sisters

I finally finished my 3 customs and was able to play with my new "Stepsisters" stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil. I absolutely love this image so I've been dying to play with it all week!

Very simple design although I did kind of struggle with placement for quite a while. I knew I wanted to add all the parts I did, but wasn't sure where to position them all.  I think this might have been the longest I've gone back and forth on a layout actually, but ultimately it all worked out. 

With all of the die cutting machines now, I never really bring out the hand punches anymore, so I whipped them out this time, and then popped them up with some foam squares. I loved the flower so much, I made another smaller version for the bottom. The sentiments were computer-generated and semi-based on a custom order I made last month.

My goal this weekend is to re-stock my website which is in desperate need for some new inventory.  Seems like a good excuse to go shopping, right? If you get a chance, check out Mo's site. Her work is incredible!

Thanks for visiting!

Bee My Valentine Card

Hey everyone! Just quickly posting a new card for Valentine's Day before I run off to get some more work done. Not really that thrilled with the way it came out, but it will just have to do for the time being... or beeing, I should say.

I really love my Bee Trio stamp from Stampendous and haven't used it in awhile so I went ahead and used it for this card, which turned out to be a little bit of an unconventional Valentine. Instead of the traditional red, white and pink, I threw in some more of the tropical blue and sunny yellow, and found some scrap My Mind's Eye paper that picked up all four of the prominent colors. I used Copics for the little guys, outlined them in Prismas for depth and then filled their wings with Stickles for a little glimmer. The sentiment was computer generated, and flowers hand-punched with a brad in the center. 

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Birthday From the Gang Greeting Card

First day back to work... UGH!  I was really getting used to working on my customs and projects at my leisure and not being tired by 8:30 PM.  Oh well - at least I got to see Doreen and Lisa. (But for the record, I am still secretly praying that the little storm that's supposedly developing completely pounds us for Friday so my Governor lets us all stay home.) 

In the meantime, I did push myself to finish the birthday card I had been working on, which at least gives me SOME feeling of accomplishment as I'm falling asleep typing this post. I got a custom order request last week for a birthday card from colleagues to a boss and thought it was a great time to finally use my Penny Black stamp. After the custom request was finished, I decided to make another one as a sample because I love the colors... and the stamp.

The stamp is called Party Animals! and it's from Penny Black. I used my trusty Prismas to color the image, and outlined everything in steel grey for that little burst of depth I love. The image was matted on yellow cardstock, and adhered with foam squares. The sentiments are computer-generated in "Girls are Weird" font and matted several times before adhered with foam squares, too.

That's it for now.  Pretty simple, fun card to end my week.

Thanks for visiting!

Valentine Kisses

Well, the beginning of the week was completely unproductive on account of the strep throat, but I started picking up speed right at the end.  I was able to get five new cards done, and then had the little HubNugget surprise (thanks to those of you who voted). I decided to post my Valentine Kisses card to start just because I love the little girl in the stamp. 

The stamp is from Creative Beginnings and it's called "Kat (blowing a kiss)". I Prisma-ed her and then chalked the edges.

The sentiment was computer-generated using the "Jayne's Print" font. Anyone looking for some great fonts, check out dafont.com.  They have a ton of really good ones.

Thanks for visiting!

I was nominated for a HubNugget!

Okay, so I admit it.  Up until 5 minutes ago, I had no idea what the heck a HubNugget even was, but apparently, Hubpages gives out these little awards for the best hubs of the week. I wrote an article on Craft Storage Ideas on a Budget, and apparently it was nominated. I'm pretty excited about it.  If you get a chance, please vote for me??

Here is the link to my article.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Crafty-Storage-Ideas-on-a-Budget

If you'd like to vote, click the following link, and then scroll down to where it shows this week's nominees.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Lets-Make-a-HubNugget

Thank you everyone!