myasperations 12-21-24

    This digi named “Time to Celebrate” from All Dressed Up was a FB Freebie provided to all members when our numbers reached 3000 in July 2016!  I decided it was the perfect image for a New Year's card… especially when I cropped it to zero in on the “toast” and added lots of bling! (Note- some of the bling is compliments of Stickles,  and some happened by accident when I added a shadow to the image with dots of grey marker. It was darker than I’d planned, so I tried to tone the dots down with a layer of white gel pen dots. I was pleasantly surprised that this action looked pretty sparkly on its own. Vióla!)  

Supplies: 

·   Digi- All Dressed Up Digital Stamp (Time to Celebrate) Currently Not Available

·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers, Sakura Gelly Roll white & silver gel pens

·   Front Sentiment “Celebrate the Season” from a Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Christmas Cardinals)

·   Inside Sentiment- QKR Eureka Digital Stamp (Another Year…) Currently Not Available

·   Sookwang double-sided tape- Available from several sources on the web.

·   Stickles- Diamonds

·   All other misc. items and tools from my stash.

Entered into: 

Classic Design Challenge: Anything Goes (optional- Happy Holidays) 

      Since I’m a DT for Sheepski (one of the sponsors), please don’t include me in the draw for their prize!  

Penny’s Paper Crafty Challenge #586 Anything Goes

All Dressed Up- Anything Goes (Dec #158) 

All Dressed Up FB Challenge- December: Celebrations  

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- 5th Annual Blog Hop & Anything Goes-Weeks #679-680 

Park Hopping-My Happy Place (Dec)    Celebrate New Years in Orlando (theme parks+!)

       Earlier this month I'd created a paper-pieced Christmas card using one of Beccy Muir’s newest digi set releases. (You can see that card, and read about how it was created HERE.)  I used the same process for this card but replaced the sparkly stars with cute little gingerbread cookies fussy-cut from patterned paper. (I discovered that they were in a playful mood when I attempted to add them to the tree, as they wanted to climb the branches, cling to the star, and a few even somersaulted to the ground to start the game all over again. Silly little Gingers!!) The rustic woven background for the tree is from a wallpaper sample book I’ve had in my stash for a few decades!

 

Supplies: 

·   Digi and Sentiments- Beccy's Place Digi Set (Christmas Trees) 

·   Woven Background- scrap of vinyl wallpaper

·   Gingerbread Cookie Patterned Paper- From Hobby Lobby Christmas Basics 6x6 paper pack

·   Sentiments- Computer Generated

·   Sookwang double-sided tape- available from several sources on the web.

·   Papers (plaids, glittery red, metallic silver) and other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge- #244 AG 

Double D’s Challenge- Christmas Trees 

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Friday (Christmas) 

ABC Christmas Challenge- ‘ Y is for Your Favorite Colors’ (Classic Christmas Colors: Red and Green!)

Colorful Options Monthly Challenge: December-Red, Green and/or Gold  

Beccy’s Place Challenge- Dec

     Since I’m a Contributor for Beccy’s Place, I’m entering just for fun!  

Love Those Pretty Papers Challenge- Dec 2024: Optional Christmas  

       The third card is my first entry into the current at Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge. The December theme is Coffee + Snowman, so this coffee-drinking Snowman digi image is a perfect fit! It is also a freebie from Tiddly Inks. I used a wintery blue color scheme, digging into my scrapbook stash for the fun background paper. I had trimmed several of the coffee steam whisps when I fussy-cut the snowman, but I didn’t want to lose their whimsical addition, so I cut a circle of vellum and adhered it to the back of the snowman. Using a fine-line black marker I traced steam whisps that I’d trimmed from the image onto the vellum, adding highlights with my trusty white gel pen. A few snowflakes fussy-cut from the paper were adhered to the card with foam tape, adding embellishments while saving the little beauties from the trash bin.

   An added note-Although Christy Croll, the artist/owner of Tiddly Inks, closed her challenge blog a few years ago, she has maintained the blogsite to maintain access to coloring tutorials plus several freebies (including this image) HERE, and sells a nice assortment of digis in her Etsy shop HERE.     

                             

 

Supplies: 

·   Snowman Digi-Tiddly Inks Freebie (Something Warm- in the Freebies section of the blog HERE)

·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers, Black Fine-line Sharpie Marker, and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen

·   Front Sentiment “You Warm my Heart” from Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Christmas Cheers)

·   All other misc. items and tools from my stash.

Entered into: 

Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge- Dec #37 Coffee + Snowman    

Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge- Anything Goes

Allsorts Challenge- Week 812/13 AG

The Four Seasons Challenge- Anything Goes Winter Dec 2024   

We Love Stamping- December-Winter (optional AG)  

myasperations 12-20-24

    My DT card for the December Sheepski Designs Challenge features Andrea Norris’s artwork named “Birthday Cocktail.” In honor of the holiday season, I turned it into a festive New Year’s cocktail with the help of a sheet music background (Auld Lang Syne) and sparkling stars.

    I’m entering this card into several challenges including Park Hopping-My Happy Place (This is one of my favorite challenges… and host Makira provides a listing that assist in researching theme parks that offer specific themes, items and types of entertainment. This time I searched for “drinks” and learned that Disney’s Epcot offers visitors the opportunity to enjoy “Drinking around the World”… and they don’t even need to leave the Park!)

Supplies: 

·  Auld Lang Syne sheet music (no longer available. But here is a freebie I like even better!)

·   Digi- Sheepski Designs (Birthday Cocktail)

·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen

·   Front Sentiment-“It’s a Day to Celebrate” from a Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Keeping it Simple)

·   Digi- QKR Eureka Digital Stamp (Another Year Begins) Currently Not Available

·   Glossy Accents added to glass to provide sheen and texture

·   All other misc. items and tools from my stash.

Entered into:  

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Friday (New Years) 

Outlawz Challenge-Dec 2024 Linky  

Park Hopping-My Happy Place (December)   

Classic Design Challenge: Anything Goes (Happy Holidays)   Since I’m a DT for Sheepski (one of the sponsors), please don’t include me in the draw for their prize!  

   I provided a few more DT cards for the December Sheepski Designs Challenge because I used a few of Andrea’s sweet digis on Valentine's Cards (I’m getting a leap on making cards for that holiday!)

   I used a bear digi named “Panda” for this card but colored him a soft brown with decorative chalks. To add highlights and a bit of fluffiness to his fur, I bounced the tip of a Blender marker atop the chalked image.  Googly eyes, a scrap of twine, and a few sentiments finish the card.

Supplies: 

·   Digi- Sheepski Designs (Panda)

·   Valentine’s Subway Art from balancinghome.com (site appears to be closed)

·   Colored with Decorative Chalks, Copic Blender marker, Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen

·   Front Sentiment “Happy Valentine’s Day”- Hero Arts (retired)

·   Inside Sentiment “Sending You Hugs and Kisses” -Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Keeping it Simple)

·   Sookwang double-sided tape- Available from several sources on the web.

·   R&W twine, googly eyes, cardstock and other misc. items and tools from my stash.

Entered into: 

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge- #244 AG 

The Paper Shelter- #622 Anything Goes  

Word Art Wednesday Challenge-5th Annual Blog Hop & Anything Goes-Weeks #679-680 

      For this card I used a digi named “Bear Love” and printed a few extra copies of the hearts from the digi to use as embellishments. An oval template from my scrapbook stash helped me highlight the sweet digi and silver photo corners helped frame the subway art.  The final touch was adding a small red satin bow below the little cutie's head!

Supplies: 

·   Digi- Sheepski Designs (Bear Love)

·   TlcCreations-Valentines Subway Art Freebie available HERE

·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers, Sakura Gelly Roll white & silver gel pens

·   Inside Sentiment “Sending You Hugs and Kisses” -Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Keeping it Simple)

·   Silver photo corners available from several web sources (WXJ13 Photo Mounting Corners)

·   Sookwang double-sided tape- Available from several sources on the web.

·   All other misc. items and tools from my stash.

Entered into: 

Cupcake Inspirations- #608 Color Challenge- Add and Bow/Ribbon     

Penny’s Paper Crafty Challenge #586 Anything Goes

myasperations 12-8-24

     I am honored to have served as a Guest Designer for Beccy Muir at Beccy’s Place and am now one of her “Contributors” (which means that she provides me with digis, or clear stamp sets several times a year and I get to create cards/other items with them!) Beccy is a kind and generous person, and it’s always fun to see the images she invites me to use.   This time, the digi sets are both Christmas-themed.

     This first one, named “Christmas Trees” provided me with a perfect image for paper-piecing. Since I like fussy-cutting, and have lots of Christmas paper scraps, this technique is a favorite of mine! I printed two copies of the tree, sized to fit onto an A2 sized card front.  I fussy-cut the first and set it aside. The second was my paper-piecing template. Before cutting the pieces apart, I numbered each of them to help put the “tree puzzle” back together correctly! I used just two plaid papers to create my tree, but you can use as many patterns/colors as desired. Putting them together was a bit tedious, but I like the look of the finished tree! The rest of the card went together quickly with sentiments, a flurry of little star sticker “Ornaments” and no coloring at all (which is so very difficult for me!)

    

Supplies: 

·   Digi and Sentiments- Beccy's Place Digi Set (Christmas Trees) 

·   Woodgrain Paper and Sparkly Holographic Star Stickers- Hobby Lobby

·   Sookwang double-sided tape- available from several sources on the web.

·   Papers (plaids, glittery red, metallic silver) and other items from my stash.

Entered into: 

Double D’s Challenge- Christmas Ornaments  

Outlawz Challenges- Monday Greeting Challenge- Anything Christmas/Holiday Greeting (twist- add a hint of red)   

Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge- Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #677-678 

Colorful Options Monthly Challenge: December-Red, Green and/or Gold  

    Beccy's second Christmas-themed digi set, “Christmas Puddings”, gave me a perfect image for paper-piecing. I colored the digi with markers and a white gel pen and used a template to trim it into an oval shape. A few remaining scraps of the plaid papers helped frame this card's front digi and inside sentiment. I have never tasted, or even seen, Christmas Pudding, so I used photos on the web to assist in my coloring. That said, I wish I had instead used Beccy’s pre-colored puddings on her WM digi set image for that task. They look so yummy!! (Beccy’s coloring is always stellar, and I hadn’t even thought of checking her puddings for inspiration. Duh!!!)

                                                                   

Supplies: 

·   Digi and Sentiments- Beccy's Place Digi Set (Christmas Puddings) 

·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen

·   Woodgrain Paper-Hobby Lobby

·   Sookwang double-sided tape- available from several sources on the web.

·   Oval template from my scrapbook stash, plaid papers, and other items from my stash.

Entered into: 

Penny’s Paper Crafty Challenge #586 Anything Goes

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Friday (Christmas) 

Outlawz Challenge-Dec 2024 Linky  

Di’s Digi Stamps-Winter Holidays 

Allsorts Challenge- Week 810-AG (It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas)

     I’ve also loved being a DT for Sheepski Designs, as owner/artist Andrea Norris is also a kind and generous artist/owner. This digi is one that I just requested, mainly because I love teddy bears, and “Augie” is the cutest teddy EVAH especially when awaiting the arrival of “the Big Guy!” I wanted Augie’s fur to look well-loved so colored him with a pale tan marker, then bounced the blender pen along the top of Augie’s head and down his left side, adding both highlights and a thread-worn look. Paired with a cozy background scene and sentiments from two Beccy’s Place digi sets, the finished card is all I’d hoped it would be!

    An added note- I received the fireside scene on the front of the card after I signed up several months ago to receive free downloads of original patterned papers (including scenes like this one), sentiments and ephemera from artist Sande Woodson. You can sign up to receive her weekly freebies (HERE) and find some of Sande’s freebies on her FB page (Sande's Poema Card Making Community)

Supplies: 

·   Digi- Sheepski Designs (Augie)

·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers, blender, Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen

·   Woodgrain Paper-Hobby Lobby

·   Christmas scene on the front of the card is from Sande's Poema Freebies (November 2024-Week 3 Cozy Winter)

·   Front Sentiment-“Here Comes Santa Claus” from Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Simply Santa) Retired

·   Inside Sentiment- “Wishing You a Bright and Happy Christmas” from a Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Jingle Bells)

·   Sookwang double sided tape- available from several sources on the web.

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into: 

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #243 AG 

Crafty Catz Challenge- #684 AG 

Park Hopping-My Happy Place (Dec)    Santa’s Village 

ABC Christmas Challenge- “'X is for Xylophone' (Bear shaped)

BLOG Sheepski Designs- Dec 2024 (Anything Goes) 

          Since I’m a DT for Sheepski Designs, I’m entering just for fun!