Spring Insects

With spring comes all these lovely little flying critters. And while I love these adorable little bug images, I am not as crazy about the real thing! I will stick to the ones I can print or stamp and then color, thank you very much. This little trio of insects are from Shirley's 2 Girls. Right now, they are a freebie that is available to members of their group on Paper Craft Planet. You can click here to go straight there. I really do love ladybug images. I have left the sentiment off of this card, but since it is Spring, I though it would make a great card that just wishes someone a happy day. Papers are DCWV and the corner accents were punched out with a Sizzix die. Everything was colored with Copics and a Sakura glitter pen.  That's all I have for tonight, I am going to straighten the house a little, my parents are coming to visit us for the weekend.

Twisted Thursday--MOM or MOTHER

Welcome to another TWISTED THURSDAY!! The twist this week is to use MOM or MOTHER on your project. And it is the perfect time of year for this challenge. My mom happens to be visiting me this weekend, so the timing couldn't be better. I used the S2G image Break Time for my Mom's card. She is on the computer quite often and she never relaxes and just takes it easy, she is always running in three or four directions. I knew that any card I made for my Mom had to use the color pink since that is her favorite color. She also likes this combo a lot, and like her daughter, she likes polka dots! My image was colored with Copics (chair E71, E74,  E77, E79, clothing RV02, RV04, RV06). The sentiment is computer generated, papers are DCWV, the swirls were punched out with a Sizzix die, and the ribbon is American Crafts (and it was a gift from my Mom). 

So don't forget to go to the S2G challenge site and link your project so we can see what you created. The rest of the DT has some cool things for you to look at too!

Angie (Guest DT)

Ann

Anne

Carlie

Cat

Deanne

Debbie

Georgia

Jane

Lisa

Jeannie

Sassy Little Girl

Hello! I love the look on this little girl's face, she is so sassy and spunky looking. Plus she was a lot of fun to color.  One thing I have been trying to work on when I color is using different shades of the same color in the image and to not have those shades clash with each other and to not have them blend together either. So on the particular card, I used E000, E00 and E21 on the skin, E50, E51 and E53 on the hat and then I think E34, E37 and E39 on the hair (forgot to write down the hair color!). I like the way that I was able to get the hat and the skin to not look like they were blending together. The rest of the colors are RV00, RV02 and RV06 on her shirt, YG03, YG 06 and G07 on the grass and leaves, and B32, B34 and B39 on her jeans. The papers on this project are Making Memories, the flowers are Prima, ribbon and brad are from my stash.

I ran into Hobby Lobby when I got off work to grab some card stock and somehow ended up in the Art supply section, you know where the Copics are. I was actually looking for a carrying case, but there was this lady there looking at the Copic markers. She was standing there with her list looking for colors that she didn't have. I recognized myself in her, except my list is on my phone! We struck up a conversation but I didn't tell her how addicting they are, I will let her discover that for herself. I am off to watch the Biggest Loser, looks like they are wrangling cattle, after that, it's Lost!

Thank You card set

A friend asked me to make her a set of Thank You cards. She wanted them fairly plain, no embellishments, with the Asian symbols for thank you and in black and white.  This is what I came up with. I added the third color, because it was just a little too plain! Although my friend said that I could just stamp it onto white paper and then glue that to a black piece of paper. The writing was embossed with black embossing powder and then I just layered black, red and white papers that I got from Hobby Lobby. All in all, a very simple set of cards to make, especially since I was doing a set of ten of them. My friend liked them very much! Thanks for visiting tonight!

Sassy Cheryl Challenge

Good evening! I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was full of house cleaning and laundry but of course I managed to find some time with my Copics! No weekend is complete without some creative time. I have several images from Sassy Cheryl and decided to play along in their weekly challenge this week. This image was actually a free one that we were given for being part of the Sassy Cheryl group on PCP. She has so many cute images, it really is hard to pick a favorite one, but this one definitely tops my list. I decided to color all the parts of her glamorous ensemble different colors, and nothing quite matches, just like a real little girl might do when she is playing dress up. I followed the sketch provided by the challenge. The papers are Making Memories and DCWV, the earrings are some little rhinestones from Hobby Lobby as is the large rhinestone in the corner of the image and the white ribbon. The image and large rhinestone were colored with Copics and glitter pens (dress & bow RV13, RV 14, RV17, scarf B12, B16, V12, V15, V17, socks Y00, Y0000, shoes C3, C5, C7, C9, skin E000, E00).

One of the reasons I love this stamp is that it reminds me of the way I liked to dress when I was younger. I also begged for pink glasses every time I went to the eye doctor. After I was old enough to dress myself and pick out my own clothes, I rarely made it out of the house wearing my outfit of choice. My Mother was quick to veto many combos. Creative would be a good word to describe them. One Sunday morning when I was ten, we were running late and I didn't have time to change clothes so Mom said "whatever, we are late and not many people are to see you since we will sit in the back". My outfit consisted of a maroon floral print skirt, cowboy boots, green and yellow tube socks (and yes you could see them above the boots) and a plaid shirt. The one thing pulling this together was the color green that appeared in everything except the boots. The reason I remember this so well is that we had a wreck on the way to church so I got to meet lots of new people at the hospital dressed in all my glory!

Twisted Thursday--Add Flowers

Welcome to another week of Shirley's 2 Girls' Twisted Tuesday! What is the twist this week? ADD FLOWERS! I started with this adorable Spring Fever digi and I printed it twice. After coloring everything with Copic Markers, I cut out the grass and the red, yellow and orange flowers from one image and then added them to the second one with foam tape. Here you can see the side view:

I used DCWV's Citrus paper pack, this is one of my favorite lines of papers ever! Lots of yellows, oranges and reds. I also added some flower brads that I have had for a while. to color the grass, I used YG03, YG06 and G7, the flowers are R22, R24, Y00, Y06, YR04, YR07, Boo and B02. the bumble bee is colored with Y06 and a Sakura Stardust pen on the wings. 

We would love for you to join us on the challenge blog this week. All you have to so is create your project--remember the twist of adding flowers-- and then go to the challenge blog and link your project. Using a S2G image is not absolutely necessary, but if you have them please let us see what you do with them! The rest of the design team has some great things ready for you to see too and you can find the links to their blogs on my side bar.

((((PSSST......if you join our groups on PCP and SNR, there are some free digis available right now and one of them is a flower....perfect for this week's challenge!!!))))

Sweet Pea Anniversary

Sweet Pea Stamps is celebrating their first anniversary today. And as part of that celebration, they have having a customer blog hop and the challenge is to make either an anniversary card or a birthday card. I have lots of friends with birthdays coming up in April and May, so this birthday card will be my entry for the blog hop. This is another image from the Ching Chou Kuik's Fantasy Art collection. I colored the image with Copic markers and then asses some glitter with a Spica pen. I went over the background with Buttercup Twinkling H20 paints. I added some acrylic drops and then a button that had some gold ribbon laced through it. Papers are DCWV, button is Bo Bunny and the ribbon is from HL. Thanks for dropping by tonight!

Dragon Card

Hello! I hope you have had a great day, mine has been pretty good, especially considering it is a Monday! The weather here has been so nice, it's been hard to go to work. This afternoon when I got off work, I was able to transfer some of my herb plants into pots outside. Hopefully they will all survive and can be used soon in some recipes. I thought this card would make a great birthday card for a little boy. Or possibly a get well card if needed. I usually wait until I am ready to send a card before adding the sentiment. I colored the dragon with Copics (G20, G21, G24 and G28, the belly and spots YG00) and the bird (Boo. B02 and B05). The papers are all from The Paper Studio. I have had a couple of emails asking about the colors of Copics I use and then when I listed them yesterday, I had some good feedback on that. I will try and keep track of the colors I use and will list them when I can.

I am not sure who made this stamp. I have a box full of stamped and printed images waiting to be colored. Most I have stamped or printed from my collection, but there are several that I have either won as a part of blog candy, swapped or borrowed. Since I am not much of a scrapper, when I go to a crop, I will stamp a bunch of stuff or print several sheets of digis to take with me so I don't have to pack everything. Since I am using more digis now, I will print at least two of each image and then several sheets to take me. You know how crops are, I end up doing a lot of talking and visiting so I come home with a few colored images ready to make into cards and then a bigger stack of images to be colored! Right now, I am working on getting these images colored and card ready. Most of them I know the company they came from but there are a few that I am not sure of and this is one of them!

Here's a Hug

Ever have one of those days when you felt like this? I know I have! She is just so pitiful standing there holding her little rabbit and crying her eyes out. This is an image from Sassy Cheryl's and is called Missing You. All of her images are just so much fun to color, which lately has been my number one criteria for picking stamps or images to play with. I have bought several of them so far and every time I go and look she has added even more to the store, each one cuter than the last. I can't visit too often! Anyway, after sizing my image, I printed it out and then colored it with Copic markers. On Paper Craft Planet, there is a thread asking about our favorite color combos. This happens to be several of my favorite combos. Her shirt is R22, R24, R29 and R39, her jeans are B32, B34 and B39, my favorite yellow blonde hair is Y21, Y23 and a little E31 and my go to colors for brown shoes are E71, E74 and E79. I have had that paper forever and have been hoarding it because I just love it. Since this card was about my favorite Copic colors, I decided to cut into it. I just used some random buttons to make the border on the side. The sentiment is from a set of stamps that  got at Jo-Ann's and I can't remember if they are some old Hero Arts or another brand. I've had them a while and the original packaging is long gone. Thanks for visiting with me a little while today!

Sweet Pea ATC Challenge

Good Evening, I am so happy it is Friday and the weekend is finally here! The Sweet Pea Stamps blog has a monthly customer challenge. This month the challenge is to 1) use Sweet Pea stamps, 2) make an ATC, 3) Use pink and purple 4) Include an "ODD" embellishment. 

I used the Haiti Relief stamp (50% of stamp sales were donated to Doctors Without Borders) and colored it with Copic markers and added some sparkle with some Atyou Spica pens. It took me a while to think of what to use for an odd embellishment. My first idea didn't work at all! I have ben gathering some supplies to make a trivet and had these mosaic tiles left over from a stepping stone project that I did with the girls. It's a little hard to see in the photo, but they are clear glass with a silvery, antiquey looking backing. They are very pretty and I thought they would look nice here. Since I have never used mosaic tiles on a paper crafting project before, I decided they met the criteria for an odd embellishment.

Here is the card that I made with my ATC card, I am not completely sure I like it, I think it is missing something. I used DP from the Basic Gray Kioshi line, card stock from DCWV, a border punch from Martha Stewart and ribbon from Hobby Lobby.

Thanks for stopping by! I am off to watch Jamie Oliver on Food Revolution. Is anyone else watching this? I have found it to be very interesting.

French Inspiration

Chanel is ready to strut her stuff!

This week we're giving you a snapshot of a scene 

that takes us back to one of our favorite little villages in France.  

Don't you love the sweet yellow bicycle with the Menu board on it? 

We'd love you to take a look at our  'oh so french' 

picture and let it guide you for this weeks... 

Shirleys2Girls Twisted Thursday !

Whether it is the color palette, the sunflowers,

or anything else in the photo...

JUST GO FOR IT!

So the TWIST for this week is to use the photo below...

All we're giving you is some inspiration! 

I decided to used those gorgeous sunflowers as my inspiration. I used the closest thing I had to sunflowers as a backdrop for my own menu board that I colored gray with Copic markers. I then added the handwritten "You're Invited" with a white gel pen. My French Chef was also colored with Copics and then cut out and I added it to the scalloped rectangles with some foam dots. I thought that these would make cute dinner party invitations. 
Papers are DCWV, flowers are K & Co. and the ribbon is from Michael's. Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you enjoy the French Inspiration! Don't forget to go the the Challenge Blog and Link your own French inspired creation. Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT's projects.

Angie (guest DT)

Ann

Anne

Carlie

Cat

Deanne

Georgia

Jana

Jane

Jeannie

Judy

Lisa

Color Challenge

Hello! There was a color challenge this week in the i {heart} copics group on Paper Craft Planet. The challenge was to use the colors Y21, BG15 and B91 (or something very close). I don't have B91 so I used B95. Of course I think that is a perfect reason to place another Copic order! I started with Prisma markers and had a ton of blues and greens so those have been the last color families I started working on when I started collecting Copics. I colored this Magnolia image with Copics and then cut out the image. I found this paper in my stash that had the same colors in it. I know the paper came from Michael's but I am not sure what company it is from. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned to my friend Angela that I did not have any yellow flowers and she brought me a little bag of them at our last craft night. I added some brads to center of the flowers and some ribbon from my stash. Thanks for visiting me today!

If you are looking for the Shirley's 2 Girls Blog Hop scroll down or click HERE. 

Sweet Pea "It's My Birthday"

Good evening! I hope everyone has had a great Saturday afternoon. I have spent lots of time with my Copics and in my craft room today and minimal time doing laundry, so it has been a good day!! I colored several images last night and this morning and then this afternoon challenged myself to make cards using my stack of colored images. I am loving these Sweet Pea images more and more every time I color them. I decided to go with a pink and purple color combo here on the image. Then as I was going through my three trillion pieces of paper, I realized that I have no DP with deep purple in it! My image was colored with Copics, Atyou Spicas and a Stardust pen. The purple panel was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and the flowers and brads came from Jo-Ann's.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, my hubby is taking me out for sushi tonight!

April in Paris Blog Hop

Join me here on Rue de Champs E'lsees for my part of this fabulous little Paris tour. If you came here from Rue de St-Louis-en-I'lle (Georgia's blog) then you are in the right place.

Isn't this a great image? Actually they all are, but I really like this one, especially the sentiments that come with it. My image was colored with Copic markers, cut out and then backed with a piece of black card stock. I used a Fiskars border punch along the side piece and then added some small rhinestones in the openings. To finish my card, I added some hot pink brads. I picked this sentiment because I love that song. I had it played at our wedding as we walked out of the church after the ceremony.

Now for your next stop on your tour, head over to Rue Dauphine (Jana's blog) for another fabulous project. If you get lost along the way, head back over the the S2G Challenge Blog for your road map. Don’t forget to play along with us for our Twisted Thursday Challenge. The TWIST is to use the word MERCI on your card/project.

Winners – We’ll pick 3 winners from the challenge blog comments so make sure to leave a comment there. Here is the grand prize:

Paris Street Names and Blog Hop order

1. Angie - Rue St. Honore

2. Ann – rue de auteuil

3. Anne – rue du Chateau

4. Cat – Rue de Maitre Albert

5. Deanne – Rue de St. Julien-le-Pauvre

6. Georgia – Rue de St-Louis-en-I’lle

7. Gina – Rue de Champs E’lsees

8. Jana – Rue Dauphine

9. Jane – Rue Bonaparte

10. Jeannie – Rue Du Louvre

11. Judy – Rue du pont neuf

12. Lisa – Rue De Rivoli

House Mouse Coffee

Good evening! I just love these House Mouse images and I have always preferred coloring them with Prismacolor pencils more than with Copics. I know, big shock, right? Someone (sorry, don't remember who) suggested going a little bit lighter with the marker colors than I would normally have picked. I tried that and I was very happy with the results. I still like coloring these with my pencils, but now I like the look with the Copics too. I got this image from Scrapbook Store at Your Door. Julie has a wonderful selection of HM images and she ships quick, and has great service. The only place I can get these locally is Hobby Lobby and they just don't get new ones very often. All the supplies on this card came from my stash. I think the papers are DCWV, but the ribbon is American Crafts and the brads are Making Memories. 

I hope everyone had a great Easter. I had a migraine that wouldn't quite go away so I slept most of the morning and into the early afternoon. We were on our own this year, but I still wanted a dinner so my husband offered to cook lunch on his own. I was pretty proud of him, and other than a little help with the deviled eggs, he did it all. Before my Grandmother passed away we always had a big family dinner for Easer. It makes me feel connected to her by continuing that tradition--even if it is just the two of us. Kip knows that so he made sure I had my dinner. He's pretty cool, I am going to keep him!

The Battle Continues...

We made it into the second round of the Greeting Farm's Royal Battle! The challenge this week was to make an easel card and it was my week to make the project. I started out by picking my image, and I couldn't decide which one to use, so I used the head of Pirate Anya and the body of Skater Ian! Then I decided she needed a little friend so I added another Skater Ian. Everything was colored with Copic markers. I added some Glossy Accents the skateboards and some silver bead accents on the wheels and in the corner pieces. I pulled out my favorite paper pack right now, Origins from Basic Gray. The center decoration behind the skaters is from Spellbinders and the conner accents are from Sizzix. On the bottom panel, I used a sentiment die cut from MME and a border punch. 

Here is the side view:

And a close up! We would love it if you would go here and vote for our card, our group name is The Embosslits.

I want to thank my friend and team mate Angela, after I was done, I  emailed her the pictures and she added the watermark for me. 

Easter Riley

Happy Saturday! Yesterday was great, I was off of work for Good Friday so I spent the day flipping between crafting and cleaning house. The crafting part of the day was fun--not so much the cleaning! Then last night was our monthly craft night at church and I had a great time crafting with my friends. It is definitely feeling like spring here in Tennessee and I am loving it. My card today uses this little Easter Riley. The challenge on the Riley blog is to make a card using pastels, so this card fits the bill! Riley was colored with Copics, I used DCWV papers and added some ribbon and brads from my stash.

Funny thing about this Riley. This was one of the first Riley's I ever colored. I fell in love with both him and Copic markers at the same time! It was all Angela's fault! She brought them both to craft night one night and that was all it took. Have a great afternoon, I think I am going to go outside and play with my flowers some.

Twisted Thursday--April Fool's Day!

It's another Twisted Thursday brought to you by Shirley's 2 Girls! It's April Fool's Day so we are using some FUN images today. The challenge is April Fool's, play a joke, anything goes! Don't forget to create your own project and then go to the challenge site and link it up to Mr. Linky so we can come and see what you made.

For my card tonight I used the digital image Foolin' Around which features Domino. I love that little dog and S2G has several mages featuring this cute little pooch. In this set, he comes with several different hats. Since I was going with the April Fool's theme, I decided to use the jester hat. I also used two of the sentiments on my card. I started with an easel card and decorated it with some paper from my stash. I love that paper and this was the last of it. Domino and his hat were colored with Copic markers and the scalloped oval was punched out with a Marvy punch.

I love that sentiment on the bottom "Do foolish things, but do them with great abandon". How fun is that??

Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT samples, including Angie, she is our Guest DT member.  Ann, Anne, Cat, Deanne, Debbie, Georgia, Jana, Jane, Jeannie,  Judy and Lisa.  Thanks for stopping by!