Elizabeth Dulemba's Halloween Images

I've been a big fan of Elizabeth Dulemba's at Coloring Page Tuesdays (and her awesome children's book illustrations) for well over a year now, but I forget to take pictures of the cards before they get sent out.  I made sure that I didn't let this happen again with these Halloween cards I made for my grandkids.  I love Halloween almost as much as Christmas, so it's not surprising that I make so many Halloween cards.

The first card uses the image called Witchy Potion.  She was printed out on Georgia Pacific cardstock and colored with Prisma colored pencils blended with Gamsol (odorless mineral spirits). 

I have a ball playing with all the fun embellishments that you can find now for Halloween, so I'm not sure who enjoyed these cards more, me or the grandkids!  I'm not a big fan of Walmart, but I'll stop in some of the smaller stores when they're not very busy.  Luckily, I was able to pick up lots of these goodies that they don't carry in my area.  The first of these goodies was the large epoxy brad with the words, Hocus Pocus, on it.  The colored rhinestones were in a set of clear stamps by Studio g.  I found the spider brad last year at the Target $1 Shop, and the Hocus Pocus rub-on this year.

 
The second card uses the image called, Ghost With Pumpkins.  This one was also colored with Prismas and blended with Gamsol. 

I love coloring Elizabeth's images.  They all have such wonderful facial expressions, and many of them focus on reading.  I was lucky enough to have won some of her autographed books last year, and my grandkids still ask me to read them again and again.  They also can't wait to see what Elizabeth will offer as a free image every week on her blog, Coloring Page Tuesdays.  What are you waiting for?  Hop on over to her blog to see all of the wonderful digi images she has to offer.  Don't forget to check out her books, too.  I know that my grandkids will be getting more of her books for Christmas.

Since I've been MIA again, I thought I should share some of the pictures of my youngest grandson, Caleb, that has been taking up so much of my time lately.  I've also been  helping out one of my daughter's friends by watching her baby, Marion.  It's hard to believe there is only 6 months difference between the two of them!



Check out Caleb's rolls on his rolls, and how he loves to laugh!

 


Don't you just love Caleb's baby blues?



Marion loves to lick her toys before she'll play with them.



Marion can't believe I caught her catching flies!

  ~~~Lee~~~

CHALLENGES:

Crafts 4 Eternity - Magical 3

Crafty Catz - Halloween 3

Divas by Design - Something Spooky 2

Forever Friends - Anything Goes with an animal 4

I Brake for Challenges - Halloween 2

My Mum's Craft Shop -  Spooktacular - 2

Stampin' for the Weekend - Spooky 4

There She Goes Clear Stamps - Seasonal (Halloween or Fall)  1

Paper Play - Halloween/Witches! 3

Pixie Dust Studio - Spooky 2

Crafting for All Seasons - Halloween or Color Challenge 2

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Halloween - 6

Stamp-N-Doodle - Halloween 1

Stempelsonnen - Halloween 3

Top Tip Tuesday - Trick or Treat 31

First Card:
Card Base: Rubber Stampede
Card Stock:  Best Occasions Textured (flat black), Glossy Black - stash
Design Paper:  Target $1 Shop (purple),  Hobby Lobby (spiderwebs)   
Hocus Pocus Brad:  Studio G
Spider Brad:  Target $1 Shop
Rhinestones:  Studio g
Rub-Ons:  Target $1 Shop (Hocus Pocus) Basic Grey
Fibers:  My stash
Adhesive:  Scotch Glue Stick
Ink:  Vivid! purple and Memento Tuxedo Black

Second Card:
Card Base:  Stampin Up!
Design Paper:  Cloud 9 Design - Chitchat
Cardstock:  Best Occasions Textured
Boo Brad:  Studio g 
Ribbon:  Target $1 Shop
Stickers:  Stickopotamus (bats), stickeroni (trick or treat), Current (spiderweb & candy corn)
Adhesive:  Scotch Glue Stick & Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive

Ink:  Vivid! purple

Digi Stealing 101

I've been MIA again, but I saw that Mo Manning  of Digital Pencil Too has been having problems again with people offering her digis to others for free on their sites.  Mo has been very vigilant about this problem, and started a group called "Stamp Out" that's linked on my sidebar.  I wanted everyone to have a chance to read the letter which I included in its entirety below.  Although it's long, please take the time to read it, so you'll understand the significance of sharing digis with others.

"Dear Crafter,

First of all, I do not think you're a horrible person, and I really do appreciate you writing to me.  I wanted to give you a chance to respond -- which is why I didn't simply put up your name and let people "at you."  So I have shown I CARE about you -- even after people cried to know  your name -- but do you care about me?

NONE of us can sit here drawing for hours and hours every day to put new stamp images up if we are not being paid a livable wage.  If you can't buy a stamp -- why in heaven's name would you think that gives you the moral right to steal it from me?

I am a single mum.  I adopted two special needs (from abused homes) children as a single mother, and have raised them all by myself without asking anyone for anything.  I couldn't work in a regular job because my kids had difficulty in regular school for many years . . . so besides trying to heal them emotionally, I had to home-school them AND try to earn enough money to keep a roof over our heads.  For YEARS I slept on a couch in the living room because I couldn't afford a place with real beds for all three of us and I wanted my kids to be the ones to have the beds. Six years ago I almost died because I waited too long to go to the hospital because I couldn't afford health insurance.  I am still under thousands and thousands of dollars hospital bills because of that.  My youngest is 19 now -- and both kids are just out on their own . . . but my own mum is blind, has lung disease and severe arthritis so now I need to take care of her.

The only reason I'm telling you this is because I want you to understand that EVERYONE has their sad stories.  In all these years I have never taken anything that wasn't mine.  I would never say, hey, I can't afford to buy this music CD, so I'll go ask my friends if they can burn a copy for me.  If I can't afford something I want -- I save up for it or I go without.  I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to do something simple like take my kids to see a movie but simply couldn't.  Stamps are a luxury -- not a need.  If you (or someone else) can't afford them -- you can't simply steal them. (And my images are NOT expensive.  They are $3 US no matter where you live in the world because all of them are available through my digital shop.)

And here's the BIGGEST thing.  Every moment that my images are up on a site like yours, people are downloading them freely.  And those people who download them freely think, "Hey, it was just FREE" so they pass them along to OTHER people freely and pretty soon NO ONE needs to buy them anymore because they're available for FREE!  Magnolia now has people like you taking their images and scanning them in.  Here is the history of Magnolia:

1: Magnolia does popular stamps everyone loves.
2: For years people buy them and Magnolia thrives as a business
3: The Internet happens.
4: Crafters enjoy the Internet and become skilled at using computers.
5: Craft forums and Blogs become popular and crafters from all over the world meet and interact.
6: Large swap groups are formed in forums everywhere, sometimes with hundreds of participants each.  People mail each other stacks of stamped images.
7. People start using printed images they have found on the internet -- mostly clip art.
8. Digital stamp companies run by solo artists start springing up.
9. Someone gets the idea to scan in their Magnolia images to make THOSE into digis they can share easily.
10. Others see the scanned in Magnolia images and scan theirs in too.
11.People start emailing each other  "OOOh -- I don't have those ones!!" and scanned images exchange hands.  10s of images multiply into 100s and then 1000s.
12. SOME people decide to compile these thousands of Magnolia images on CDs and sell the collections on Ebay.  Other people decide to BUY these Magnolia CDs.
13. Magnolia's profits DIP because a growing number of people are getting hold of the pirated "digi" Magnolias and don't need to buy the rubber.
14. Magnolia decides it's not worth it to put out new stamps, and there is one more company who needs to find a different product.

We're at about number 13 right now -- Magnolia is a member of my group "Stamp Out" and I happen to know they are confused, worried and not sure what to do about the theft besides GIVE UP.  If this can happen to a long established company like Magnolia -- how quickly do you think it can happen to a small company like mine, or Lily of the Valley, or the Greeting Farm or Stamping Bella, Stampavie or any other.  I don't think people realize most of us are small businesses barely skating by.  This GROWING theft by crafters who care more that they have "this cute stamp too" than that the artist can feed their child -- is KILLING stamp companies.

I am one who will fight to the end to protect my art -- and the art of all my friends.  I will be retaining a lawyer soon, because this is just going too far and in the future someone is going to need to be made an example of.

So to wrap this up, Crafter.  I do believe a person can be redeemed.  I'm hoping you're a person like that.  I will believe your apology is sincere if you not only stop giving (AND RECEIVING) stolen images yourself -- but if you take my letter to heart and help spread the word this is wrong, wrong, wrong.  It worries me that you say you have gotten my images from Photobucket but didn't give me the information to have them taken down.

Please let me know that you have understood my huge frustration is not just with you - but with all who are being "nice" by sharing when in fact you are making artists struggle (even more) to put food on their tables.

xoMo "

The original post of the letter is on Mo's blog here.


Thanks, Mo, for sharing this issue with us!

~~~Lee~~~

Since too many people don't understand the significance of sharing digi stamps, I believe that Mo has done a great job of explaining the problem so eloquently. The people that steal digis remind me of  people that don't spay or neuter their pets. They say that a cat producing 2.8 kittens a liter just two times a year will be responsible for the births of 11,606,077 cats within nine years. So if one person takes just 6 digis a year and reposts them for others to take for free, they could very well be responsible for well over this number thanks to the Internet.  I realize this number seems extraordinary, but I hope that it helps to explain how sharing just a few digis with others can go totally out of control in such a short time period.

Mother's Day Cards

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!  I spent time with both of my daughters and the grand kids, so mine was fabulous!  I made over 30 cards for my daughter for a Mary Kay promotion that she was running, so needless to say I was a bit swamped with Mother's Day cards.  I thought I'd share a few that I made with you.

The first card is made with a free digi I found at by Nina B Designs.  I colored the hydrangeas with colored pencils and blended them with blending stumps and Goo Gone.  The sentiment is by PSX and the paper by DCWV Once Upon a Time set.

The next card is another freebie digi; this time a DZ Doodles image.  I also used the colored pencil and Goo Gone technique with this one along with a white gel pen for highlights.  Behind the bears is some brown Magic Mesh & this yummy, shiny paper is made by Bo Bunny.  The ribbon is by Heidi Swapp and the corners are finished off with a Fiskars corner punch.

The next card uses the Marcella by Kay paper.  The lace is some of my stash trims that I have from my mom.  The butterfly from Victorine Originals is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on paper that I used the spray starch technique on.  I followed the tutorial on the gg designs Gazette by Deb Lovett, and I really love the results.  I haven't used much of my Pearl Ex, so I was happy to see something I could actually do without having to buy a bunch of other products.  The rhinestones were from packages of bling I bought from Tuesday Morning, but I'm sorry I can't remember who makes them.

Another card I made using the spray starch technique uses a gg designs Floral Mini.  I won this set through the gg designs Gazette, so it pays to check to see if the manufacturer of stamps you love offer any type of incentives.  The sentiment from PSX is stamped on some yummy Paper Temptress paper that I also won!  Guess I've been luckier than I thought lately!  All of the images were stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  The designs on the card stock is made on a Martha Stewart scoring board that I bought at Michael's.  I originally was going to do the embossing the other way too, but I thought it would distract too much from the images.  The bling is some more of my stash rhinestones.

 Hero Arts made this gorgeous Paris Rose image that was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I very lightly colored the image and old writing paper with colored pencils and blended with baby oil.  The design paper was from The Paper Studio and I think the ribbon is May Arts.  I love these easy peasy cards that have such a sophisticated look!

Here's another card using the Swirl Flower made by Hero Arts.  This image was also stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto white card stock.  This paper is an oldie from The Paper Studio that I've been hoarding.  The ribbon is some more from my stash that I bought from my favorite seller on eBay.  I did add some doodles to this after I took the picture (like it wasn't busy enough!).

The last card for now is another Victorine Originals butterfly that is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I used some more of my gorgeous paper using the Spray Starch Technique.  The grey mulberry butterfly was in my stash, but it looked so nice as a shadow with this image.  The lace stamp is an oldie that doesn't have a name on it.  After cutting off the bottom edge of the card, I added rhinestones in the flower centers and on the butterfly's head.  The swirls were a 99 cent package of stickers from Target.

I can never seem to make a bunch of the same cards when I'm making so many.  I get side-tracked by all the paper or images I want to use.  I guess that's why we hoard stuff, so we have things to use for big projects like this.  Maybe this is why I teamed up with Operation Write Home, but instead of using up my stash it gave me an excuse to buy more! lol 

~~  Lee  ~~

Challenges:

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp - Anything Goes

Pile It On - Challenge #18 Cute and Cuddly

Simple Doodles - #17 You're on My Mind

Hand Full of Stamps - #27 Just a Little Dottie!

Paper Play Challenges - Week 18 Stamp/Digi and Bling

Fab 'N' Funky Challenges - Challenge #22 Show Us Your Funky Edge

Flutter By Wednesdays - #108 Anything Goes

Inky Impressions Challenges -  #34 Summer Creation

For Fun Challenges - A Card for Mom

Raise the Bar - Challenge #17 For Mom

If the Shoe Fits - #33 For Mom

CCEE Stampers - Mother's Day

No Time To Stamp? - #138 Mother's Day

Whoopsi Daisy Challenge - As You Like It

Lexi's Creations - #13 Animals

Gingersnap Creations - GC52 Kraft (or Light Tan)

Creative Craft Challenges - Bloomin Marvellous

Wednesday Stamper - Flowers

Guess I should post more of the cards I make all of the time so I can enter more challenges! lol

Birthday Goodies With Michelle Perkett's Butterfly Fairy

If you're here for the Michelle Perkett Studio's Love Letter Blog Hop, please scroll down. This is my second posting today.

This awesome Butterfly Fairy is a digital image from Michelle Perkett. I've been playing with some ideas for birthday parties, so I thought I'd show you what I've made so far.  This card is pretty much self explanatory, so I'll just list the deets below.  The Stairstep card uses the same products as the card with the addition of a few items.  This will be used on the present table to help tie everything together.  I wouldn't advise you to make the stairstep card the way I did through trial & error.  I know there are instructions out there, but I figured that I could do it easy enough since I finally have a scoring board.  NOT!  Try Splitcoast Stampers or Paper Craft Planet to see if they have any tutorials on their sites.  I also forgot to take a picture of the back of the pencil topper.  I'll try to remember to add it later.  Maybe I'll have my new camera by then, so you don't have to look at these horrid pictures anymore!   ~  Lee  ~

Images:  Michelle Perkett Studio - Butterfly Fairy, Dream Dragonfly, Happy Birthday With Small Cake, Valentine or Birthday Presents

Card Stock:  Stampin' Up!, Georgia Pacific & The Paper Store

Design Paper:  DCWV  Once Upon A Time Mat Stack

Stash Items:  Butterfly & Dragonfly Charms, Rhinestones, Fibers

Glitter:  Magic Scraps

Colored Pencils:  Prismacolor & Prang

Colored Pencil Blender:  Goo Gone

Challenges:  Flutter By Wednesday's Challenge

My Time to Craft Challenge:  Fairy Folk

Don't forget to scroll down for the Michelle Perkett Studio Love Letter Blog Hop and details about my blog candy!

Michelle Perkett Challenge #14 card

This card was made using the Michelle Perkett Studio Meadow Fairy digital stamp.  The digi was printed onto Georgia Pacific card stock using my HP printer.  Next, I colored her with colored pencils without a blender except for the background.  A fairy must have some bling, so I added a couple rhinestones from my stash to the centers of some of the flowers. 

Since she is a meadow fairy, what else could I use but A Pocket Full of Posies DP from DCWV?  The ribbon is also the coordinating adhesive ribbon from DCWV.  The textured matting is from the Brights DCWV matstack and all of it was put on a card from my stash.  The paper ribbon is from my stash & the bling on the left corner is from a Martha Stewart glitter card kit.  I cut some pieces from one of the branches and added some Magic Scraps glitter to it.  I added some yarn from my stash to make the image stand out better and then used a white gel pen to make some dots around the borders.  Last, but not least, are a couple jewels from Prima.

I made this card for the Michelle Perkett Studio Challenge #14.  This challenge was to follow the sketch pictured here.  Why not join us for the next challenge over at Michelle Perkett's Challenge Blog?  ~  Lee  ~

Puppy Love D2D Card Tutorial

I've been making so many Valentine's Cards for the veterans in the nursing home, that I almost forgot to make some for my kids...again!  Since my youngest & her hubby train, board & groom dogs, I thought a dog card would be in order.  I was real pleased when I saw that the progressive challenge image over at Designed 2 Delight was no other than 2 dogs called Puppy Love.  I had my image, now I needed to do something different.  I decided to make a shaped card, but I didn't really think this one totally out before I started it.

Since I have tons of stencils, I chose a size that I liked and made a pattern on scrap paper.  I wanted it to open in the center to show the image, so I made another heart and cut it down the center.  Now, how was I going to put it together without piecing it?  I laid the cut pieces to each side, but it didn't fit exactly when I folded it together.  I tried again, but this time I did it all in one piece, laying the cut pieces on each side of the main image.   I folded the pieces up and it worked, even though some of the bottom sides were cut down some in size.

Next, I picked my design paper for the front.  Place the card, open side down on the backside of the design paper so it will fit properly.  After cutting the heart out of the design paper, make a cut down the center of the design paper with a straight edge and Exacto, or you could even line it up and cut it in your paper cutter.

I decided to go a bit more complicated on this card, so everything had to line up at a diagonal.  After deciding what direction I wanted the paper to go, I pushed a pin at the top and bottom center to mark my starting spots.  The first side was then cut out.  Line the right sides of the paper up so that the patterns will match.  Mark the paper again with a pin at the top and bottom.  Turn the paper with the wrong side down and then draw the other side of the heart.  Cut this side out and then you can cut out the sides with deckle edge scissors like I did.  I also inked all the edges with Memories brown ink.

For the inside center of the card, you can draw the pattern on the right side of the paper if you want design paper on the inside.  I wanted two different papers, so the sides of the card had to be drawn on the back side of the paper again.  You want to outline the card with the cut side facing down.  After this heart is cut out, line it up to one of the sides before you cut out the center just in case the cut isn't perfectly down the center.

Now all that is left to do is decorate the card!  I've had these 2 dog ribbons from Hobby Lobby for awhile, so I used this instead of some newer ribbon (I'm still working on downsizing my stash!).  I also haven't used many rubons, so I used 2 different sets of American Crafts rubons on the front of the card.  The inside of the card has a sticker from EK Success on the left and a stamped and embossed the PSX sentiment on the right with Memento Tuxedo black ink & Mark Ent. EP.  The paw prints and dog bones came from Hobby Lobby and the rhinestones were from my stash.  The image from Designed 2 Delight was colored with colored pencils and attached with a tape runner.  I thought I was done until I tried to set the card up. 

Ooops!  That was a little technical item I forgot about!  It doesn't stand up on it's own! :o(  Oh well, I just stuck it on a 6" card base and glued a 2" strip of matching paper in the center of the card base so it wouldn't fall flat.  I added some more American Craft rubons to the sides of the card and now it was done.  Phew!  That was a long post!  As you can see, not all of my experiments work, but I was lucky this time that it could be fixed without any major problems.  If anyone out there has a better idea on how to make this card so it will stand on its' own, email me at:  grandma_lee_t@yahoo.com   ~  Lee  ~

Challenges:

Puppy Love digi image at Designed 2 Delight

Use Pink! at Crazy 4 Challenges

Paper Folding at Crafty Angels

Pearl's Got the Blues

It looks like I'm stuck on the color blue here, but that's because you don't see the tons of other cards I did between these postings!

This card features a new release from Michelle Perkett Studio called Pearl.  This one doesn't have a lot of supplies for once.  I printed her on cardstock from my HP printer & embossed her with Ultra fine clear embossing powder.  Next I colored her with colored pencils & blended with a blending stump and Goo Gone.  Then I highlighted her with several different colors of Magic Scraps with a Zig glue pen.  I wanted dimension on the pearls, so I put Blue Pearl 3-D Crystal Laquer on top of the colored pearls.  After she dried, I cut her out, added the eyelash yarn from my stash and then glued the image on to the card with a glue runner.

Challenge:
Inspiration Challenge for the NEW Michelle Perkett Challenge Blog
This was inspired by Michelle's Forest Fairy, Emerald Enchantment and Winter cards that were all done in monochromatic colors.  I originally was going to make Pearl's skin flesh toned, but I decided to experiment and I'm glad I did.  ~  Lee  ~

Michelle Perkett Mermaid Card Winner at PCP

Well, I finally won my first challenge!  Yippee!  I'm so honored especially since the other cards were so unbelievably gorgeous!  The challenge I won was the last one held on Michelle Perkett Studio's Paper Craft Planet page.  From now on, the challenges will be held on Michelle Perkett's Studio Design Challenge Blog.  The challenge for this week will be to go to Michelle's Etsy Store and pick one of the works of art in her Etsy store and use this as an inspiration piece.  The weekly challenges will be posted on Tuesdays.

My winning card is a digital image called Tutti Fruiti Mermaid from Michelle Perkett Studio.  The image was printed on The Paper Company shimmer paper from my HP printer and embossed it with Kaleidoscope Embossing Powder by Stampendous.  The trick is to get the embossing powder on the image as soon as you take it from the printer when it's still wet.  I choose heidi grace designs shimmer foiled paper called Beyond the Sea/Tinsel for the main panels of my card.  The cardstock and matting are from Hobby Lobby.

The image was colored with colored pencils that were blended with Goo Gone.  I then cut the image out with a craft knife.  This image really screamed for lots of bling, so I gave it to her.  Her hair was highlighter with Orange Stickles and Red Amos Glitter Glue Sparkle.  The pearls were accented with the irridescent glitter glue from Amos and her tail's scales were highlighted with the green.  The ends of the curliques were hard to cut out, so I added some Magic Scraps glitter to the ends to hide some of my cutting mistakes. 

Tutti-Frutti's gorgeous ring and the corners of the card were highlighted with rhinestones I found in a package of a kid's manicure set.  To make her stand out better, she was matted on this beautiful orange mulberry paper I won on eBay.  I've had this sparkly yarn for a while in my stash, so I used it around the DCWV Pocket Full of Posies Adhesive Ribbon.  Originally, I had tried to gold leaf the edges, but it didn't show up, so I used these Strasbourg rub-ons with some rhinestone bling.

Hurry on over to Michelle's blog or her etsy shop to see all of her gorgeous digi stamps that she has to offer.  As for me, I'm going shopping with the gift certificate I won!    ~  Lee  ~ 

Remember When... Jump Rope Card

We had a "Healthy Digi Day" over at SNR Card Universe yesterday with Louby Loo Digital Delights stamps.  Wendy Hall, the owner & designer, was gracious enough to give us this digi image called Hannah Healthy to play with for this special occasion.  I knew almost immediately the saying I wanted to put on the card; "Remember when we used to think jumping rope was fun?"  It's hard for me to imagine myself jumping rope these days, but my doctors would probably have a cow if I did!  lol

The image was printed on white cardstock from my  HP printer.  No special inks are used, but I do set the print at best quality.  Since Hannah had a star on her dress, I knew that I was going to use Scenic Route DP from a kit (Halloween) that I got for a song at Tuesday Morning.  She was a breeze to color with colored pencils & blended with Goo Gone (better smelling than Gamsol & I hear they also have pens!).  As usual, I highlighted with a white gel pen & then cut her out.

The sentiment was computer generated onto the DP & matted on more DP that I cut out by hand with the help of a stencil.  I added the dots & stitch details with a black Zig Millenium pen.  The jump letters were from a Colorbok Punch Out Pack.  The little dragonflies in Hannah's hair were from a punch & then I added the details with the Zig pen.  She did have a black line for the jump rope, but I added sticky stitches from Colorbok to look like the ropes I used to use. 

Challenge:  You're A Star Baby, Now Get in Shape at the Order of the Opus Gluei

~  Lee

Michelle Perkett Digi Cards

If you haven't been to the Michelle Perkett Studio, then you need to go!  I found her on Paper Craft Planet, & I couldn't wait to get some of her images colored!  That's one thing I love about digi images....instant gratification!  I'm sharing two of her images with you today.

My first card features the Queen of Hearts Birthday Girl.  She was printed on white cardstock & cut out in an oval shape.  I colored her with colored pencils & blended them with Goo Gone & a blending stump.  Next, I inked the edges with Memories pink & red inks.  Queens need lots of bling, so I added lots of Magic Scraps glitter on the hearts, hair, shoes, lace & highlights, but it doesn't show up in the picture.

Since I bought a ton of papers from the Target $1 Shop last week, I just couldn't resist using 2 of them in the background of this card.  Target also carries these totally yummy glitter paper by Colorbok for only $1 for TWO sheets!  I bought some in pink, blue & white.  The Heidi Grace flowers were another bargain, only this time it was from Big Lots.  The rest of the ribbons, rhinestones & brads were from my stash.  If I keep using stuff from my stash, I should probably deplete it in about 10 years!!!  lol

The next card uses another Michelle Perkett image called Buddy.  He had a snowflake sweater when I bought him, but I wanted to dress him for Valentines Day with lots of bling from the K & Co. Adhesive Gems pack!  I have a rottweiler as a service dog, so I couldn't resist coloring him like a rottie.  He was colored with colored pencils & blended with Goo Gone & the highlights were added with a white gel pen.

Another set of the Target $1 Shop papers got recruited for this card too.  I cut the bone out by hand from an adhesive mat stack from DCWV (another Big Lots bargain!).  The Love sentiment is a sticker from my stash.  Buddy had to have some more bones on this card, so I added some from a pack of The Paper Studio embellishments.  I put my trusty Fiskars edge punch to work on the plaid paper.  I didn't want to fence Buddy in, so I added some Magic Mesh BEHIND him!  The edges were inked with Adirondack inks (hit another $1.99 bargain at Tuesday Morning!) & then I added some XXOO around the border of the bone with an Zig marker that doesn't show up in the picture very well.  

I bought a couple more images from Michelle, so I'm off to play with them too.  Hop on over to Michelle Perkett's etsy shop or her group on Paper Craft Planet if you love these images as much as I do! 

Challenge:  Anything New at Charisma Cards Challenges  ~  Lee  ~

Whooooo Loves You?

It's about time I posted a card here! The holidays are over, so I don't have anymore excuses! Today's card is a digi from Sweet 'n' Sassy Stamps that was actually a freebie. I'm not normally an owl person, but since I make so many cards for the vets overseas & in the nursing home I thought I should broaden my horizons a bit. I went a "bit" outside of the box with her, but I wanted to make it fit another challenge.

I must admit...this was a very cheap card to make. The digi was a freebie, the DP are by the Target $ Shop, the flowers were from some branches I was going to toss, the ribbon was 25 cents & the Zingz from Fiskars were only $1.00 at Big Lots & the brad was given to me in a challenge I won. The sentiment was made on my computer & I even got the package of 25 cards & envelopes at a garage sale for 50 cents! Talk about being frugal! - Lee

This card is being entered in the following challenges:
SNS Sketch Challenge Blog - http://sweetstopsketches.blogspot.com/
Pile It On Challenge Blog #29 & #30 - CLEAR - http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.com/
Bee-Crafty Blog - DIGI - http://bee-crafty.blogspot.com/
Papertake Weekly - NEW BEGINNINGS - http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/
(I took this very literal; it's a new digi! How about a new love? New color for the owl???)
Our Creative Corner - Clean & Simple (late) - http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.com/

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to take a moment & wish everyone a Happy New Year! I only did a few New Years cards, but the pics didn't come out that good (did I already say I really need a new camera?).

This card is made from a digital image by Mo Manning. I had another image of hers that I also love with the New Year's baby, but this one also works great for this purpose. I showed the cards with & without the extra confetti. It's hard to cut out all of those tiny pieces, so I used some of my punches. Notice that Bronte the dog even has some bones in his confetti! ~ Lee

Digital stamp image by Mo Manning (Digital Pencil Too)
Markers: Zig & white gel pen for highlights
Letter Stickers: Miss Elizabeths
DP & textured mulberry paper: unknown
Border & Ovals: Fiskars scissors & Oval Maker
Ribbon: unknown
Punches: various - McGill, Fiskars, The Paper Studio
Adhesive: Tape Runner & Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive