A Joyous Occasion at Aurora Wings

It's time for a new challenge at Aurora Wings and this time we're celebrating

We're looking for Birthdays, Holidays, New Baby, Wedding, Mother's, Father's or Grandparent's Day.  WOW!  Loads of happy occasions to choose from, eh?  

Well, since it's the month of May, with Mother's Day just past, my thoughts did turn to my own mother who has been gone for 23 years now.  It's also her birthday month (and she'd be 106 if she were still alive) so I made a card that would honor her for either day using the sweet Lily of the Valley Sprite which is May's birth flower.

Here's a closeup of the adorable Lily of the Valley Sprite available HERE on Aurora Wings.com and HERE on Etsy.  I've used the png version so I could print her on digital paper and color her with my Copics.  Blue was my Mom's favorite color and the gingham seemed as fresh and sweet as the image.  We had a little patch of lilies of the valley hidden behind my playhouse in my backyard as a child and I loved to pick bouquets and bring them in to smell.  As a matter of fact, Muguet De Bois was the first perfume I ever gave her.

I really wanted to give this project some dimension, but when I considered the intricate fussy cutting I would have to do, I was content to use die cuts for that.  The Spellbinders Grand Oval was popped on the Grand Decorative Oval mat.  The Lily of the Valley Frame die is from Tutti Designs. I cut it in white and colored with my Copics, trimmed off the rest of the thin oval frame because it interfered with the image and popped it ever so carefully with foam as well.  The sentiment label is also Spellbinders and the sentiment is from the Words 2 set by Elizabeth Craft.  Finally I added a few flat back pearls and called it done.  Unfortunately I didn't begin to  make cards until after she was gone.  I think she would have liked it.

Now I invite you to visit the Aurora Wings Challenge Blog to see the fabulous inspiration from my Aurora Team sisters and come play along.  Hope to see you there.

Here's how to keep up with all that's happening at Aurora Wings.

Aurora Wings Challenge Blog (current challenge runs through June 16th)

Aurora Wings Showcase Blog

Aurora Wings Etsy Shop

Aurora Wings Digi Shop 

Aurora Wings FB Group 

Aurora Wings FB Fan Page

I'm entering this in the DL.Art May Thankful Thursday Challenge #228 Birthday, Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #82 AG, Creates and Makes #21 AG, Jo's Scrap Shack FFC #234 AG , the Colour Crazy Challenge Wk 20 AG w/hand colored image, 613 Avenue Create May AG/optional Mainly Blue, the World Wide Open DT Challenge #05 AG, Scrapy Land Challenge #90 AG w/die brands SL carries, Crafty Friends #84 "B" is for...(blue, birthday), Allsorts Week 468 Happy 9th Birthday Allsorts, the Outlawz Festive Fridays Birthday theme, the Classic DT Open #25 May AG, Simply Papercraft #57 AG, Crafting With Friends #67 AG, Kitty Bee Designs #118 For Mom/Feminine, QKR Stampede #296 AG, Do Al(l) Creative #17 Not Sguare/Rectangle (3/3), As You Like It Pink or Blue (blue, because it was my Mom's favorite color and works for both genders), Create and Inspire #74 Springtime, Get Creative #69 Lots of Flowers, A Perfect Time to Craft #5 AG.

  

For You

I played today with some of my new dies by Altenew.  I found these to be very intriguing as each flower has multiple layers that can be cut with different colors of card stock, or, as I did in this case, cut them in white and colored with the medium of your choice.  I've used Copics and tried to get additional dimensional shading  of the layers and more detail to the leaves.  This particular die is the Fantasy Floral, but I've gone a bit overboard and also purchased the Peony Dreams and Rose Flurries Sets so stay tuned. (Still buying b-day 'prises, what can I say?)

I followed the Outlawz Wednesday Sketch and added a Spellbinders doily behind the flower and swirls from Taylored Expressions.  The sentiment is from Elizabeth Craft Designs.  I might have been done a few hours earlier, but got caught up with YouTube videos of various ways to use the sets.  Seriously I could have spent all day.

I'm also entering this in the DL.Art May Linky Challenge, Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #81 AG, Jo's Scrap Shack FFC #232 AG, Papercraft Challenges #11 Flowers, the Unicorn Challenge #32 Monochrome, Create and Inspire AG/optional use dies or stencils, TTRCD AG Week starting May 8, Cupcake Inspirations Challenge#445 and Creative Craft Cottage May #107 Dies or Punches.

For Mom

May is here and the flowers are blooming.  Hopefully the majority of you are finally experiencing some Springlike weather.  I've been having fun with some new dies again and made a "pretty in pink" Mother's Day or birthday card using the Outlawz Wednesday Sketch as inspiration.

It's a bit of a more loose interpretation this time but I think it's still recognizable.  Obviously I turned it on it's side and moved the sentiment but I was determined to use my Romantic Bouquet from Elizabeth Crafts.  I actually ran it the pink layer through first, using only the embossing plate and rubber mat and 110# Recollections card stock so it wouldn't cut through and then carefully cut around the edge to give more dimension to the flowers when layered with the cut topper.  The large letters are from the Altenew Bold Alphabet.  The patterned DP is from Authentique and the gorgeous crinkle ribbon is from DL.Art.

I'm entering this in the DL.Art May Linky Challenge, the DL.Art Thankful Thursday #227 Mother's Day challenge,  Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #80 AG, the Double "D" May Flowers,  Craft-Dee Bowz May AG w/handmade bow, the Feminine/Mother's Day theme Challenge at Rubber Buggy, and the Papercraft Business Challenge #6 using optional theme Mother's Day.

New East Wind FB Group Contest

The East Wind FB Group has a new contest starting today.  The theme is Mother's Day and you can join in HERE.  I've made a DT inspiration piece using Baby Girl.  It's a tent topper card cut with Spellbinder's Labels dies.  The flowers are done with Heartfelt Creations stamps and dies. 

Baby Girl is especially dear to me because Kyra drew it from this picture of me at age 3.   My Mom has been gone nearly 20 years but this is a fave picture of hers and I know she would have loved a card like this.

I've used Strawberry DP because the dress has little strawberries on it. I still have it (only child syndrome, my parent's saved EVERYTHING of mine.  LOL) I drew those in with Prisma pencils and added little charm.  The sentiment was computer generated.  Hope you find some inspiration for this challenge and can play along with The East Wind.  The contest runs through May 17th.

Jezebel's Mother's Day Card

So Jezebel asked me earlier in the week what I wanted for Mother's Day.  I told her that what Mommy really wants is to pick up her baby girl and give her huge hugs without her flailing about and screaming like she's being murdered.  "You sure you just don't want some more chocolate and pretty flowers I can arrange?" she asked, "Or how about a card?"  "Yes, that would be nice, Jezzie, but you asked what Mommy really wants, didn't you?"  "HHmm... yeah, I guess I did," she said.  "Well, then Mommy, will you make me a card?  Of course you'll have to keep your eyes closed when you make it so it can be a surprise."  "Oh, okay, Jezzie.  I'll do that" (Cats can be so gullible, LOL)  So this is it. 

She picked out this very apropo stamp from Just Some Lines called Jessie Hugs  a Cat, suggested the sentiment and told me "I love you Mommy, but this is as close as you're gonna get."  Sighh...  At least I can enter it in the Just Some Lines For Mom Challenge, the Outlawz CAS Challenge which this week is Hug a Pet, Totally Papercrafts CAS Challenge and the DL Art May Linky Party.  Perhaps I'll try some tuna fish.

Tiddly Inks Mother's Day with a Vintage Vibe

Less than one week 'til Mother's Day and the Tiddly Inkers challenge is to create a Mother's Day card with a vintage vibe. I decided to make a Mother's Day card for a brand new mom using Lullaby. (Of course it could also work as a Baby card) It's cut with a Nesties Circle and fit into my Spellbinders Decorative Oval Window from Heartfelt Creations. The pretty vintage paper is from the 8x8 Once Upon a Springtime pad from Grahic 45 and the gorgeous vintage shabby crinkle ribbon is from the Alice Bundle from Prairie Bird Boutique sent to me by my dear friend Stephanie (perfect timing there girlie, thanks so much!) I'm pretty sure the sweet charm came from J's.

I love the way the circle image fit into the frame and I popped the whole thing up for dimension. Details on the frame were inked with Spun Sugar Distress Inks and the sentiment was computer generated. As usual, my teamies have done a fabulous job with the challenge so be sure to visit the Challenge Blog, take a look, be inspired and hopefully play along. Also, the 25% off sale is still going on through TODAY at the SHOP so now's a great time to check out all the gorgeous new images and snag a few of your old faves too. and there's also still time to complete the Treasure Hunt Blog Hop so if you haven't checked it out yest click HERE. And we're still celebrating Tiddly Inks birthday so stay tuned for details of our next party, coming May 10th.

The image is colored with Copics on some of the most fabulous card stock I've ever used. Have to detour a bit to give it a plug. I normally just use crap paper (or I guess I should say inexpensive 110 lb. white card stock by Georgia Pacific from WalMart) because I mess it up frequently so it's way more cost effective for me. I know people swear by all sorts of fancy brands but I'm too lazy to sort them out so I don't bother. However, when I bought cheap cream colored card stock it was WAY to porous for my Copics. Sometimes you just need to stamp or print on cream so when I was over at MFT I saw these Cream Perfect Paper Panels. Worth a try. I printed an image out first on regular copy paper and then taped a panel to the paper and ran it through my printer again. Then I colored and messed up. Mom looked like she'd been baking under a sun lamp and the baby had jaundice. Oh dear! I tried to fix it by coloring more. Hmmm... Then tried using my using my colorless blender. Hmmmm... Anyway, I used alot of ink and eventually gave up. Gonna have to print again and start over. CRAP! And on my fab new card stock too BUT, when I turned the panel over there was NO bleedthrough. None, Zero, ZIP! I actually turned my piece over and reprinted it on the other side. I chose my colors more carefully this time and did an acceptable job. I kept thinking when I colored on this side the color would come creeping up from behind, but it didn't. ARE you KIDDING me? I LOVE this stuff! (This was totally unsolicited. I was just blown away and had to share. xx)

BBTB2 Mother's Day Challenge

Now don't get all worried. This Mother's Day card is at least in the realm of tastelful...if you dig tattoos, that is. Our dear DT sis Lori, chose the challenge for BBTB2 this week, which is any of the words or sentiments from the Mother's Day 2010 cart. For some reason, the "Mother" cut just made me think of a tattoo so I went with it. What, you don't know Mom's with tats? LOL I made a shaped card in DS using the heart from Indy Art and then used the cool cut out layer. I welded the shadows of the roses (also from Indy) to the shadow of "Mother" and chose traditional bold tat colors.

I was thinkin' about leaving the whole thing flat since if your tat had dimension you'd be in for a whole lot of trouble, but in the end, I just couldn't help myself. Just a little, just 2 off the base, and some gems, 'cause it all looked a bit too plain without. I kind of love it. Won't be sending it to the MIL, though. Back to the drawing board for that. My DT sisters have done beautiful traditional layouts and cards for this challenge so if you're looking for inspiration please head over to BBTB2. And remember, if you don't have the Mother's Day 2010 cart, you may use any of the carts with Mother, Mom, Grandma, Happy Mother's Day, you get the drift, to play along.

Macabre Monday Hacked to Bits Challenge (and Various Mother's Day Challenges...YIKES!) WARNING! Possibly Offensive!

Okay, before we even go there. I need to do a bit of a disclaimer. I was having a bit of a challenge with my Macabre Monday Hacked to Bits Challenge when I remembered this adorable image from Limited Runs Stamps. Little Madison with Hatchet, one of the Grimms, reminded me a bit of Lizzie Borden so...well, there ya go. What followed was a bit of my twisted humor which in no way reflects my opinion of my own Mom, or any Mom I know or have ever known so I really don't hope to offend here. Please blame the humor on WAY too much wine at Sunday Brunch and please forgive. The image included a collection of 6 of the images which I resized, then copied an pasted, until I got 54 of the little dears and then trimmed it down to 40. Then I made the computer generated sentiment and overstamped the whole shebang using the by Smeared Ink Inky Dreams Set in Aged Mahogany Distress ink. The sentiment was cut and matted using Nesties Labels Seventeen. I actually tried to hack my original attempt with an axe but it sort of made a mess, so instead I blew up the single Madison with Hatchet image and cut out just the hatchet to add to the front. The lovely roses are by Recollections from M's. Mom's Love roses!

Just in case you can't see some of the 40 little Madisons, here's a close up. Love doing my own DP! HeeHee!

And the beginning of the little Lizzie poem...

Now here's where I might be skating on thin ice. To whom would you send such a card? Well, all I could think about was Mother's Day, so here's the inside sentiment. Hoping I'm not going to lose followers over this! Check out s0me more Hacked to Bits Inspiration HERE AND because there are quite a few Mother's Day challenges out there I thought I'd stir up the pot a bit. (Besides, I've been dared by another of the Minions so ...) I'm also entering this in the following Mother's Day challenges (I'm not ALWAYS like this ladies, really, I'm not!): Simon Says Stamp, Mother's Day or Girly 2nd entry, Stampin'for the Weekend, One Stitch at a Time, Craft your Days Away, and I'm thinking I better quit while I'm ahead. Most are UK blogs and I'd hate to have my passport revoked.

Not Just for Mother's Day Doily Card and Free .Cut File

I really love the feminine lacy feel of doilies and when I spotted one on the Mother's Day 2010 Seasonal Cartridge I knew I wanted to make a shaped card, however there was no shadow...GRRR. Fortunately the pattern was even enough to enlarge it slightly and by hiding the selected contours of ALL of the detail I was able to make this card. Once the work was done, the card goes together in a snap and I think the base would be great for a number of different things. I put the Happy Mother's Day sentiment on the front so it could be sent to anyone you'd like to send those wishes to. I kept the embellies simple, but you could really go to town if you wish. If you like, the FREE .cut file and instructions can be found HERE on the Custom Crops site. Just a quickie post, because I'm celebrating my birthday with my neighbor today (I'm all for prolonging the birthday experience as long as I can. LOL) and we're out to lunch and shopping. Woohoo!

A Contest and Some Exciting News!

I hope you all have heard that there's a CONTEST going on at Peggy Loves Vintage Blog and a FREE image to use for your entry. Just look at this beautiful heart and imagine the possiblitlies. The winner will receive 2 of the Cut Out sheets of their choice so what are you waiting for? Find the details HERE. The EXCITING news for me is that I've been asked to join Peggy's Design Team which is a dream come true since I'm SUCH a fan of Peggy's gorgeous vintage images. WooHoo! I had already started my contest card before I got the news but the gloriously talented DT has been offering up examples for the contest to get your mojo working so here's mine. I decided to cut out my image (including the center) and then pop it atop a second image. I went over the sort of gold border of the heart with my gold leafing pen in order to match my vintage embossed foil frame I had recently found when going through some things from my Grandma. What a FIND! I had specific paper in mind but do you THINK I could FIND it? NOOOOO!!!! It's gotta be around here somewhere, but I looked through bins and bins of paper that I thought was sorted by theme or color (guess not) and it was nowhere to be found. I settled on dots which coordinated well with the beautiful satin stripe ribbon from May Arts. All of my charms were silver so I pulled out my gold leafing pen again and Voila! I left off a sentiment thinking that it could be used for other occasions as well.

Of course I had to include a dimensional shot. And I forgot to mention the I embossed the bottom heart image with my Cuttlebug Textile textures folder (backwards because I was in such a hurry so it's actually debossed but still turned out okay.) This was an afterthought and I had carefully unpeeled the bottom heart from the dimensionals and removed the charm to do it. Risky, I know, but it just wasn't right without it in my eyes. The beauty here is that with printable images if you REALLY mess up, you can ALWAYS reprint them. YEA!!!!! So what are you waiting for? Go grab that IMAGE and let's see what you've got! You might consider following the Peggy Loves Vintage Blog because you never know what Peggy has up her sleeve and there are easy direct links to all of her glorious vintage images.

Love Struck Butterfly Heart

I love the intricate images on the new Love Struck cart and decided to play a bit. It is fairly frustrating that there not really shadows though, just sort of a blackout for the cuts, but I was not to be deterred. I cut the butterfly heart and instead of the blackout, I used one of the other hearts to make a shaped card and tweaked it again to make a shadow. Then, to add dimension, I punched butterflies using 3 of my MS punches. Although they aren't an exact fit, I still think it looks pretty. I traced around as much of the small bottom heart that I could and cut it out and embossed it with a tiny rose limited edition Cuttlebug folder that I got at Custom Crops.

Here's the dimension shot. The light blue dotted paper is BoBunny. I added adhesive pearls to the butterfly bodies and tied 3 sheer ribbons around the blue heart and tied a bow. I think with the colors it could be perhaps be used for an occasion other than Valentine's Day. Maybe Mother's day? We'll see.

Mother's Day Door Hanger

Okay, here's the last of my designs that are available on Custom Crops site (for now). I thought my door hanger idea would be nice for Mother's Day because it could be left out as a decoration long after the holiday is gone. I know Mother's Day is tomorrow, but I really think this would be appropriate for lots of occasions with a different sentiment on the back. The cut file is available with a direct link HERE. As always, comments are greatly appreciated and if yo hve any specific requests for something I'm all ears. I think eventually there will be individual emails for Design Team members on the Custom Crops site if you have any questions about the articles and designs but this is all so new that they haven't gotten there yet. We're all just learning. Hope you like!

Note cards, a Total Scraplift

I needed something pretty but not too time consuming for a Mother's Day gift for my MIL. I saw this design on the Cricut mb from a post from SusieB but she said she scraplifted it from my Cuttlebug Spot DT leader Nilda so there you go. It is a combination of the leafy branches Cuttlebug folder and a Stampin'Up Sissix folder. I used colored parchment paper from WalMart. I really love how it turned out and plan to make some for me as well.

Because I'm so late I used an acetate box and quickly embossed a top strip of paper using a Cuttlebug border embossing folder for the top, added an organdy bow and a ring with pastel Alpha Beads spelling out "Mother". Hope she likes.

BBTB Mom and Flower Vase challenge

This week at Bitten by the Bug Regina asked us to use the flower vase cut and Mom (or Mum )from the Beyond Birthday's cartridge. I welded "Mom", the flower vase, and 2 hearts from George to a rounded rectangle. The "Mom" was stretched and skewed until it worked with the design.

All of these cuts were welded in shadow so I could pop the additional layers and still have an outline. The fresh pretty background paper (DCWV Spring glitter stack) dictated the color scheme and the fairly simple clean lines kept me from embellishing too much. (Tough for me. LOL) I did use primas for the flowers and some pearls and ribbon but that was it.

Please stop by Bitten by the Bug to see the fabulous creations by my Design Team sisters and we'd love you to play along. Hugs!

The Cuttlebug Spot Mom's Day challenge

This week on The Cuttlebug Spot we were asked to do a card for Mom or Grandma. Let me be the first to say that I LOVED doing this card and was pretty pleased with the results. I finally got a MS Lattice punch that I used along the side of a premade card from M's. I was dying to use the hummingbird and flower Cottage Cutz dies available exclusively for The Scrapping Cottage. (Okay, I confess, I bought the entire Feb. release and now I'm saving up for the April one. Don't tell DH. LOL)

I cut them in white cardstock so I could color them with my new Copics (one of my fab B-day 'prises from DH) This was my first attempt at Copics but I my dear sweet friend Sandi had sent me some brushes, card and GORGEOUS tag with a hummingbird she had colored using alcohol inks so I used it as a guide when coloring my own. Click HERE to see her beautiful creation. Thank you sooo much Sandi! xx The flowers looked like morning glories to me so I colored them appropriately then went in search of a coordinating paper.

I used some from Basic Grey's Two Scoops (the 6x6 size and cuttled it with the Textile Texture folder. The frame was cut with my Nesties and I used Swiss Dots in the opening. I popped the frame, birds, and flowers for dimension and cut "Mom" twice with my Cricut using the Beyond Birthday's cartridge out of shimmery cardstock from Wal-Mart. I also used it for matting, along the edges to enhance the lattice and inside. (Again cuttled with Swiss Dots! Honestly, what would we do without that folder?) The pretty corners are a Sizzix die set. I left the sentiment oval blank for now because I've already made my Mother's Day card for my MIL and this may turn into a birthday or Thinking of you card. A few pearls and ribbon and there you go. Doing all of these Mom cards has been kinda tough because my Mom's been gone almost 15 years. My dear MIL is set for life though. LOL

Please go visit The Cuttlebug Spot to see the amazing contributions from my talented Design Team sisters and we'd love if you played along. There's a fabulous prize this week!

Mother's Day

Here's my next card done for my MIL for Mother's day. I used Teardrop and found that it's pretty hard to use unless you use the shadow feature. I'm obviously still lovin' that Walk in my Garden. Got a new toy for this one too, a Cuttlebug. Love the texture it adds and the Swiss dots folder is still my fave.