Peace

Good afternoon and thanks for all the comments on my poor little cat Hobbes. He is finally coming around me again. I thought about getting the crown out and wearing it myself, just to see what he would do, but I thought that might be a little mean. I may keep it handy just in case.

A friend asked me if I could make her an Asian inspired sympathy card. This is what I ended up making. She provided the characters and I made the card around that. I believe she said that it reads "peace" but I wasn't sure. I will write it in when I find out for sure. The papers are from DCWV and the pearls are from Hobby Lobby. They were white, but I colored them with a Copic marker. 

Come back tomorrow, I have a cool sneak peek to share.

Twisted Thursday--Birthday Crown/Add Hot Pink

Welcome to another Twisted Thursday!! First I need to apologize to my poor cat Hobbes for making him wear this crown. Even though it is a lovely crown that any birthday princess would be proud to wear, Hobbes was not a happy cat. As a matter of fact, as I was taking this picture, he was already jumping out of my arms. My second apology goes to the other DT members of Shirley's 2 Girls because this is the best picture I have of my birthday crown. 

Since it is the end of our birthday month celebration, all the DT members have made crowns to show you. My lovely crown is being modeled by the oh so happy Hobbes and was made using a crown template that I printed directly onto my lime green paper. I used one of my Party Favor images for the top. I have had so much fun making things with those favors and I know they will continue to be a staple of my "go-to" birthday images. A crown isn't complete without jewels, is it? So I added some small rhinestones on my image panel and then some larger jewels with some diamond shaped brads between them. To finish my crown, I added some hot pink silk ribbon.

A smart person probably would have taken a picture of the crown before trying it on her cat. Today was not one of my smart days. The second I snapped the picture above, the cat took off and hid. And yes he was still wearing the crown which by then was a necklace. I spent a couple of hours trying to find him and every time I did, he took of running in the opposite direction.  I tried everything to get him to come out so I could get my crown back. Not even a can of wet food could get him out of hiding. He did race by me every once in a while and his looks left no doubt about how he felt about me. I was able to get my crown back after he fell asleep. It's a little worse for the wear, but here it is:

We would love for you to play along with us for Twisted Thursday. The twist is to add hot pink to your project and you can make a card or a crown. If you want to make a crown, the template is on the challenge site too! Please drop by and visit the rest of the DT for some examples of non-mangled cards. 

Ann      Anne       Carlie     Cat      Deanne      Debbie      Georgia      Jana      Jane      Jeannie      

Jennifer      Judy     Lisa   

Blowing Bubbles

Hello! For this card, I used another Sassy Cheryl image. She has a ton of images that are not only cute, but they are so much fun to color and you know me, I love to color! I think she is just too sweet blowing a big bubble with her bubblegum. I think she looks a little surprised too, like maybe its the first time she has blown one so big. I colored everything with Copic markers. All PP is Making Memories and the card stock is the Paper Studio. The ribbon is once again from the bag I had left over when I was doing my wedding programs. The jeweled brad was one I just found in a drawer. The colors match a little bit better IRL, I have a new camera and it has tons of features and things my other camera didn't have and I am still learning how to use it. That was what my Valentine gave me this year. A total shock too, since we don't normally spend that kind of money on each other. But I am so glad he did, I love it!

I want to say a big THANK YOU to Jennifer. She sent me a package that arrived today and it had a crafting tool which was very sweet, but she included a thing of coffee. We both have a serious love of coffee! Gotta run, time for Lost!!

One Image, Three Cards

Hello! Yesterday was Shirley's 2 Girls Digi Day on SNR Card Universe. We were all given this free digi to work with and then met on the forum to chat and show everyone what we had created. If you haven't every participated in these Digi Days, you should check them out sometime, they are tons of fun. The next scheduled S2G one is on March 14th, I'll post a  reminder a little closer to the date. As soon as I saw this, I thought of first birthdays, but the more I thought about it, I thought that if you changed the colors, it could commemorate the first of anything: first date, first anniversary, first place. If you wanted to recognize a first place sports win, you could make the card with sports team colors. It could also be a general card to anyone that is #1 in your life. Since my first thought was birthdays and I have friends with little boys nearing their first birthdays I made cards for them. I made both cards with the same color combo, but each was colored different and uses a different layout. 
I love seeing people make cards with the same image and getting different looks. It helps me be able to look at my own stamps in different ways so that I get the most use out of them. After quitting my other job a few months ago, my stamp budget took a hit so I have been enjoying this exercise in creativity! I decided to make another one using my favorite colors this time. I love this summer mat stack that I got from DCWV, it was full of yellows, oranges and reds. 

Top 2 cards: Image from Shirley's 2 girls, paper is Making Memories, card stock is DCWV, punch from EK Success, and orange stickles.

Card 3- Image from Shirley's 2 Girls, paper and card stock from DCWV, colored with Copics and flower and brad from my stash.

Monochromatic Riley

Over the past few weeks I have been trying to play with some new color combinations and using colors that I don't use a lot. I saw the Design Team Challenge on the new Riley and Company Blog and since it was a monochromatic challenge, I thought this would be perfect for me to play along with. If you've read my blog at all you know how much I love this little moose and this is one of my newest ones. I also like the color purple, but I have a hard time matching shades of it for a project. I normally like it if the purple is an accent color but I decided to give a purple monochromatic card a whirl. I was happy with the way it turned out and hope you like it too. After stamping Riley, I colored him with with Copic markers. I found the paper I wanted to use in a stack from DCWV and then matched some purple card stock from my stash. I punched out three small circles in the light purple and then three more with the darker shade and then arranged them in the corner. The panel with Riley is attached with foam dots. To finish the cards, I added some purple brads.

We've had a nice relaxing weekend so far, hope you have too! My friend's daughter came over and spent the day with us and we took her out for sushi for lunch and then to Hobby Lobby. We spent most of the rest of the day coloring and sculpting things with clay. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Twisted Thursday--Add Confetti

Welcome to another Shirley's 2 Girls Twisted Thursday challenge! I know I am having so much fun celebrating S2G's first birthday. Are you ready for the challenge this week? We all have made shaker cards and the the twist is to add CONFETTI! Don't forget to join us in this week's challenge. After you have created your project, go to the challenge site and link your project to Mr. Linky so we can see your creation. (The directions for making a shaker card are on the challenge site).
This the first shaker card I have made. I started this this cute digi, It's a Party and sized it to fit inside my largest scalloped circle Nestability, then colored it with Copic markers. I filled the shaker with little bead confetti that matched the colors of my card. I added some pink eyelets and ran my orange ribbon through the eyelets and then tied little bows. Paper is from the Paper Studio, brads are from my stash and the beads and ribbons came from Jo-Ann's.

Don't for get to check out the other DT blogs and then link your own project to Mr. Linky.

Ann

Anne

Carlie

Cat

Deanne

Debbie

Georgia

Jana

Jane

Jeannie

Jennifer

Judy

Lisa

Love is Gone

Good evening! This will be a quick post, it is already past my bedtime! I am a grumpy girl if I don't get enough sleep too. I used another stamp from the Ching Chou Kuik's Fantasy Art Collection from Sweet Pea Stamps (try saying that three times!). My friend Angela has gotten me hooked on these stamps, the same way she has introduced me to so many new stamp companies. The name of this image is Love is Gone and I colored it with Copics. I used a sketch for the challenge in the I Heart Copics page on Paper Craft Planet. These images are so much fun to color with my Copics and I see my collection of these growing and growing in the near future. I am pretty sure that the paper I used is from DCWV, but I am not certain. It is from a large stack of paper that I have been sorting through trying to use. I have had it a while, but I know it was some of the open stock paper at Jo-Ann's. The pearls are some adhesive pearls that I had on hand, they used to be white, but I colored them black with a black Copic.

A Little Birdie Told Me

Hello! It is a snowy day here so I didn't go to work. We didn't actually get that much snow, but it rained first and that froze before we started getting snow. I was checking out the news before leaving the house and they were saying there more than 14 cars and trucks wrecked between the five mile stretch interstate where I get on and where I exit. At one point they were saying that they would close that portion since it was a sheet of ice but all the patrol cars were working accidents! I decided it would be best to stay inside to minimize my chance of injury today.

I decided to work with an image today that reminded me of warmer weather. This is a digi stamp from Sassy Cheryl's. She has some very cute images available, lots of cute and sassy kids, and some darling snowmen. After printing my image I colored with Copics. I inked around the image with a pink ink pad before mounting it onto a piece of blue card stock because I wanted that extra color there without the added thickness that another piece of paper would have added.  My fence is a border punch from Martha Stewart and the flowers on the fence are from Joilees. The papers and card stock are from DCWV and the ribbon is from my never-ending stash!

S2G Birthday Bash Blog Hop

WANT TO PARTY? 

Guess who's turning '1' this month? 

You got it S2G is turning "1"...and all they want to do is get Silly, Blow horns, Eat cake,

Throw some confetti, Give away stuff, and sing!  Wanna come along?   It starts Feb.11th! 

(Pssst!   You know what else...they’ve updated their website just in time for the BIRTHDAY 

BASH so once you’re done hopping,  head on over to the site and check it out!)   Shirley's 2 Girls 

LET'S CELEBRATE!   Join the S2G Design Team for a 'SCRUMPTIOUS' Birthday Bash Blog Hop. 

We'll show you lots of “SWEET” new digital stamps...all with a birthday theme.  

LET'S TALK PRESENTS!    The 'GIRLS" are gonna be giving away a BUNCH of GOODIES...(stamps, some of the Birthday DIGIS,  ribbbons, embellishments, & birthday stuff)!

WHY?  Because it's their BIRTHDAY!   

We thought we'd STIR things up a bit!  ALL of the DT members have "a word hiding in their Blog Hop POSTS...the words will describe 'things' or 'ingredients' that you need to make a  SUPER DELICIOUS Birthday Cake!    

Be the first to COLLECT ALL "14" words & YOU will be showered by S2G...with GOBS of GOODIES!  

This is your first stop on the hop. We don’t want you to miss anything so below is the list of blogs in case you get lost and need to come back here to start again. 

**Don’t forget to play along with us this week for our Twisted Thursday Challenge. There is not a sketch but the TWIST is to Tell us your favorite thing about birthdays and post your card to Mr Linky! 

We’ll select 2 winners via random.org and you will get your choice of a digital stamp from our website.

For my projects today, I decided to make things using the Birthday Party Favor Digis. I think this is one of the best examples of why digis are so great; they can be sized to whatever your project is and you can create an entire matching party set from invitations to treats to decorations all using the same images and coordinate all your party goods. One of my favorite things about a birthday party are the treats and activities. I remember going to parties as a child and getting that little goodie bag of treasures to take home with me. Now as an adult, I have a non-crafting friend that lets me make all the treats and treasures for her daughters' treat bags. I started with these fun mazes.

Remember these? I simply took small plastic mazes from the kid's party section, popped off the back and inserted the digi image of my choice that was sized and decorated and then reassembled them. You just have to be careful taking the back off or you will lose the little ball. These are a lot of fun and can be made with any image and make great little items to keep in your purse to keep little ones entertained when you are waiting somewhere. Here are mazes made with each of the images:

Still sticking with the Party Favor digis that I chose, I decided to make little treat holders too. I made the digis a little smaller this time. I wanted them a little smaller than the opening in my treat holder so that you can see the Sour Gummi Bears that are in each one. The bears also match my color theme I have going on here. I just attached my digi, filled the container, added a bow and there were my treats!

I thought I would show you one more project with my Party Favor digi. This time I blew up the circle a little larger and picked one to color and made a card with it.  I think these would make great invitations or thank you cards after the party.

Hopefully you came here from Jane's blog, if not you might want to start at the beginning. You don't want to miss a stop so you can collect all the words for your chance to win! So grab yourself a BOWL of Sour Gummi Bears to decorate your cake with and head on over to Ann's blog to see her fabulous project.

New Stamps in the house!

Hello! Isn't this one of the most gorgeous stamps you have seen? I just love it and all the other by this artist. I have to blame my friend Angela for finding these, I tease her all the time about being a bad influence on me!  Anyway, Angela found these stamps and has purchased all of them now I think. She was kind enough to share one with me until my order of stamps arrived, since I had to order some too! This stamp is called Faraway Moon and is part of the Ching-Chou Kuik's Fantasy Art Collection by Sweet Pea Stamps. I am happy to report that my stamps have arrived and you will be seeing more of these images. Talk about fun images to color! I colored this with Copic markers and added a few details with a white gel pen. The DP is from Making Memories, the flowers are Prima, brads are from JoAnn's, and the ribbon is from my stash. Have a great night, I have a few things to get done before Lost comes on, and I can't miss a minute of that show!

Oh yeah, I wanted to mention about the skin color on this image. I saw a post from Tammy and she mentioned using E33 with her skin color. I have never used that with lighter skin colors before and thought I would give it a try. I did use it on this image and am very happy with the results. 

Love Letter blog Hop

Anyone reading my blog on a regular basis, knows that I have discovered the world of digis recently and I have really using them and discovering new companies. One of them that I really like is Michelle Perkett Studio. I love images that are fun to color and hers are! So when I had the chance to participate in a Blog Hop using this fun image, I signed up. Hopefully you arrived here from Sammi's blog. If you want to check out the rest of the blogs you can find the complete list of participants here. 

Here is my card. I used the digi image Love Letter Fairy and after printing her, colored her with Copic markers and then I used a a Sakura glitter pen on her wings. I made a larger card than I normally do, it measures 5 x 7. Since I do not have paper this size to make into a card, I used a store bought card from my pre-card making days and I added my card front to that card as my card base. It had a blank inside so I was able to add my own "love letter" for my hubby's Valentine card. I used paper from Basic Grey and ribbon and heart shaped rhinestones from Hobby Lobby. 
I even decorated the inside of the card, using the same patterns that are on the front of the card. My love letter was written with a gold metallic pen.

Thanks for stopping by today. Your next stop on the hop is Alison. The entire Blog Hop list can be found here.

Sunny Tea Set

Good morning! I know lots of people are being slammed with tons of snow. We have no snow here, it is just cold and rainy. I thought this bright and cheerful tea set would be the perfect card to show you today. We were in Target the other day and they have a really cool new line of kitchen ware that I would love to have. It is a little retro looking but comes in the colors I used above. I really. really want to do my kitchen in red and yellow with a retro feel. Kip isn't totally on board with it yet. I think he is picturing the inside of a fast food restaurant. My love of color scares him just a little bit. I went shopping with his sister a while back and we were looking at paint and I was looking for reds and yellows for my accents and she kept bring me samples of golden paints and wine colors. I kept telling her RED AND YELLOW and she kept bringing lighter shades of the same colors. Finally I told her red and yellow like the crayons in the primary box. Scared her a little too!

Anyway onto the deets of this card! It is a digital image from Shirley's 2 Girls that I printed and colored with Copic markers.  The ribbon was left over from another project and was the very last of my red gingham ribbon. I think the buttons are from Making Memories. After I got everything colored, I cut the image and used foam dots to adhere it to the card. Would you like a copy of this image? It is free on the S2G page on Paper Craft Planet. Thanks for visiting with me, stay warm and dry!

Twisted Thursday Birthday Celebration

Celebrate, celebrate...dance to the music!!

Oh my goodness, S2G has a LOT to PARTY about....

We are 1 year old!!!!!!

What a year it has been too...

We got our 1st DT, 

started Twisted Thursday Challenges,

showed our products at CHA,

got interviewed on Craft Diva radio as an up and coming stamp company 

and so much more.

YOU are officially invited to S2G's MONTH LONG BIRTHDAY BASH!!!

There's going to be LOTS of BLOG CANDY, 

stamps, ribbons, buttons, DP, embellishments, inks, glitter, chocolates,

and so much more!

We are going to start off with this first TT inviting you to 

"Come PARTY with S2G"

then thru-out the coming weeks we'll ask you to join in for some PARTY GAMES... and CHALLENGES....ALL having to do with a PARTY theme!

So get your PARTY HATS on and get ready for a silly, wacky and wild BIRTHDAY MONTH 

with the GIRLS at SHIRLEYS2GIRLS! 

Ready to see my invitation?? Here it is. I used the digital image Party Guests and after sizing it and printing it I colored it with Copics. I love all these images with cats and dogs. We are cat people here in my house and I always color them to look like one of our three cats. This little cat looks like our Calvin. The DP I used is a digital paper from the S2G birthday party line. I used the flower buttons that I got from Hobby Lobby. The ribbon is from American Crafts. If you look closely you can see that the fourth one is a little longer, it's that way for a reason, not because I can't measure!

If you pull that fourth ribbon tag, the invitation part pulls out from behind the image. It pulls all the way out so that you can add all the party details on the reverse side.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting me! Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT blogs and see the cool invitation that they have created.

Ann

Anne

Carlie

Cat

Deanne

Debbie

Georgia

Jana

Jane

Jeannie

Jennifer

Judy

Lisa

We want to see what you create too, so go to the Twisted Thursday Challenge site and link your projects to Mr. Linky so we can come and check them out.

Mardi Gras Projects

First of all, thanks for all the get well wishes. I did go to the doctor today and nothing is broken, I am just sore and need to take it easy for the next few days. I can't go back to work until Friday so I should have lots of time to color. I don't have any Mardi Gras images and when Shirley's 2 Girls released these, I knew I wanted them! There are three images in all and I will be using them all over the next week or so. I think Kip and I are going to have a few friends over for dinner and everything you will be seeing will be what I will use for that dinner. My first project used the image Bourbon Street. I wanted to make a menu board. I started with a plain clip board and painted it with black chalk board paint. I sized my image to the size I thought would be good for the size of the board, printed it out and colored it with Copics and a metallic gold pen. I also used some green and purple glitter glues. The image is mounted onto purple and green card stocks before I added it to my board. I added green, purple and gold ribbons from Hobby Lobby on the clip to cover it up. Not sure this is the final menu, but these are things I know how to make. I haven't ever made a King Cake all by myself though. I have assisted and made them with a friend before though.

My second project is a card that I will used for an invitation to the dinner. I used the Mask image on this one. It was also colored with Copics and the metallic gold pen. I added some gold rhinestones and some feathers in the traditional Mardi Gras colors. 

Camping Riley

Quick post tonight. I for happy mail today! I won a couple of new Riley images from the Riley and Company new release blog hop last week and they arrived today. I haven't had a chance to get them inky yet but I made this card over the weekend and thought it would be a good day to post it. Riley was colored with Copics and I used some colorless blending solution to add some texture on the tent. 

The winners of the Shirley's 2 Girls Indulgence Blog Hop are posted on the winners page and you can find that here. Don't forget to play along with Twisted Thursday this week for your chance to win your choice of S2G digi images. 

I took a rather nasty fall this afternoon, slipping on some ice and snow. I may or may not be around much for the next couple of days. My feet slipped out from under me and I fell hit my head and landed flat on my back. I'm very sore already. Thanks for stopping by.