Happy Birthday AWCB

If you follow the Aurora Wings Challenge Blog you may already have read the Farewell Post.  We've had a hard time with Facebook not allowing links to the blog in our Stamps by AuroraWings FB Group but you know you can always come here to find out what's up.  Yes, we're celebrating 5 incredible years of challenges and I'm so honored and proud to say that I've been a part of it since Day 1.  I've made many friends through my association with the Aurora Wings family of designers both past and present and I can't even begin to tell you how Mitzi's talent, support and special friendship has inspired me throughout the years. Oh oh!  Here's where I'm getting a little teary eyed so I may have to cut this post short.  Anyway, after careful consideration, we are closing the AW Challenge Blog, but it will be business as usual in the FB Group, AuoraWings.com, AuroraWings Etsy, etc.

Last Monday, the 3rd Monday in March was our 5th Anniversary of the AWCB and had we continued the challenges, it would have been the ever popular Sprite Delight.  In celebration of those 5 fabulous years, Mitzi is offering this special Birthday Cake Sprite as a freebie in both jpg and png form through the end of the month HERE.  I've colored this cutie in png format with Copics in order to combine her with lovely Birthday Bouquet digital papers from WeAre3.

We also have a coupon goin' on through March 24th (plus the opportunity to guess the SECRET COUPON CODE) so be sure to visit the Aurora Wings Challenge Blog to collect your freebies and maybe get an even bigger discount if you shop.

Aurora Wings Etsy Shop

Aurora Wings Digi Shop 

Aurora Wings FB Group 

I'm entering this in the Outlawz Special 8th Birthday Challenge (using sponsor papers from We Are 3), the DL.Art March Linky Challenge, Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #102 AG,  ...

WINNER!

Bugaboo Awkward Holiday Chaos Day 6

I'm more than a bit behind for the fun Bugaboo 6 Day Holiday Challenge and am no longer trying to go in order.  Today is day 6, What the Fruitcake?, a color challenge.

I've used the pre colored version of Cat Topper Christmas and changed the color of the blue birds by pasting a white circle over them digitally and coloring them yellow manually with Copics after printing.  The snowflake digi paper behind is from We Are 3.  I didn't manage to eliminate the blue snowflakes, but there's not that much blue so I think I did okay with the colors.

I hope to do the rest of the days tomorrow.  Too many hops going and I was gone both yesterday and today.  Eiyiyi!

I'm also entering this in the Outlawz Twisted Thursday AG Challenge, the SUYP Meowy Christams Challenge, and 2 Crafty Critter Crazies AG w/critter.

Elzabet was going stir crazy at home so she went with me today.  This is for Day 5 of the Elf Antics at DL.Art.

"W" is for Winter at SOSS

I've retained my crown for another week at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers,  WooHoo! and the challenge this time is "W" is for Winter.  Gotta say, I could have done 10 cards for this theme (yeah, I live in CA now but I'm a still a Midwest girl at heart.  Besides, having your nostrils freeze is something you never forget).

The cool digital paper is from the Winter Serenity pack from We Are 3 and the image is from Bugaboo Stamps.  I printed Stella right on the digital papers and colored with Copics and used a fair amount of Stickles for sparkle.  The sentiment (are you singin' yet?) was also computer generated.  I resisted the urge to add dimensional snowflakes, just in case I may want to actually MAIL it to someone who is suffering.  And inside...

You betcha!  Now run right over to the SOSS Challenge Blog and prepare to be amazed by the SISTAHS!  And I'm sure you all have some choice words to say about the white stuff, so come play along.  Thanks again for letting me retain my crown for another challenge, ladies.  It's good to be QUEEN!

I'm also entering this in the DL.Art December Linky Challenge, Bugaboo Holy Flurry of Chaos, Simon Says Wednesday AG,  Jo's Scrap Shack FFC #262 AG, and the Outlawz Tuesday Color Challenge using the middle row down (blue-ish trees, neutral sentiment, and snowflakes). also the Outlawz Paper ala Mode Snowflakes Challenge.

The Outlawz Progressive Challenge from We Are 3

I didn't mean to let this go until nearly the end, but I do find that seeing others color an image for a Progressive Challenge I go from wanting to copy everyone's gorgeous takes, to wanting to make sure I don't, so I tend to have a hard time deciding.  The adorable image for the Outlawz June Progressive Challenge is from WeAre3 and is the Color Me Garden-Flower Delight.  Since I've been sort of consumed with party plans for the 4th, I finally decided on red, white and blue.  I've colored with Copics and did add a second bow to her head so I could fussy cut and prop up the edges and found the perfect scrap of a bandana print DP before matting in blue.  Too cute, eh?

I'm also adding this to the DL.Art Thankful Thursday #231 Red, White and Blue Challenge, Simon Says Wednesday AG, Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #84 AG, Shopping Our Stash #369 Red, White & Blue, ...

Paper Piecing at the Outlawz

The Outlawz Twisted Thursday calls for paper piecing with Sandra Caldwell as the sponsor this month so of course I used one of Sandra's new stamps called #2309 Cat on the Moon.  I really love to paper piece and chose a digi paper from the Outlawz sitewide sponsor We Are 3 from the Warm Sand Collection to give visual texture for the moon.  I shrunk the size and printed the digi paper on regular copy paper and then positioned the stamp on top and printed it again to fussy cut.  

I printed Cat on the Moon twice on Copic paper so I could fussy cut the moon's eye to glue on top. I colored with Copics using the resist technique for the background.  This just involves coloring the background with a number of shades and using a Q-tip dipped in Blending solution (or 91% Alcohol which is way cheaper) and dotting the paper.  The only trick is to let the alcohol dry before adding another dot of alcohol or it all blends in to make a big mess.  The image was cut with a Spellbinders large oval and popped with foam.  Just added some sticker stars and corners and a mat of glitter paper.

I'm adding this to the SUYP (cats only) #31 June challenge, Lil Patch of Crafty Friends#84 AG, Jo's Scrap Shack FFC #239 AG (3/3), Simply Papercraft #58 AG, Simon Says Wednesday AG ... 

A Quickie for a Couple of Challenges

I have been crafting but they're for later in the week.  Here's a quickie I did just now for the Tuesday Color challenge and the Festive Friday theme of A Card with String on the Outlawz Forum.  Digital Papers are from the Burlap Beach collection from We Are 3.  the Crab pic is from Gecko Galz and I've used some of my new nautical/beach/sea dies from Spellbinders and Kat Scrappiness that I've inked with Distress.  (And of course there's the string from my stash.  Here's the inspiration pic from the Color challenge with the Twist At the Seaside.

I'm also adding this to the DL.Art June AG Linky challenge, the DL.Art Thankful Thursday Boys/and or Men Challenge, Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #59 AG, Simon Says Wednesday AG  and Dies R Us #74 Masculine.

Cute Sock Monkey Baby Card

Made this cute baby card thinking I still had time for the Miss Daisy Stamps part of the Spring Fling Challenges at Markers! Papers! Digis! FB Group but NOPE. That ended May 27th but I still had time to enter the May AG Challenge in the Miss Daisy Stamps FB Group.  WooHoo!  The cute little monkey is from the Bloomin' Monkey set and comes with a brother too.  I decided to try to make her a sock monkey by paper piecing digi paper from the We Are 3 Toasty Warm Collection and the rest of her was colored with Copics.  The patchwork  DP is from an old Designer Mat Pad from K&Co.  Added a button to the center of the flower and called it done.  Kind of a rush job, but I still think it's cute.

I'm also adding this to the DL.Art May Linky Challenge, the Outlawz Paper Ala Mode Paper Piecing Challenge, the Outlawz Twisted Thursday AG challenge, Lil Patch of Crafty Friends AG and Simon Says Wednesday Furry Friends.

Happy Spring Training!

Okay, so I'm a little late.  Baseball season is in full swing, LOL, but I chose the sentiment for a reason.  The Outlawz Festive Fridays has 4 fun themes a week and this week one of them is Let's Play Ball.  I recently won a prize on the Miss Daisy Stamps FB page and chose this adorable Owl-Ways Baseball as one of my selections, specifically to join in (and because I LOVE the adorable owls you can see HERE).  She's colored with Copics with a little feather pencil detail.  The large baseball behind her is part of the free sentiment page included with the stamp and I also purchased the We R 3 Digital Baseball papers (also from Miss Daisy Stamps) that come in both pink and blue.  I decided to use the bonus sentiment that comes with the Happy Spring stamp, instead of the cute baseball ones, because of the flower.  I also printed the sentiment a little larger and fussy cut the flower to add her baseball cap so I could enter the current Miss Daisy April "Add a Flower" FB contest.  WooHoo!  I added the "training" part of the sentiment because it sounded cute to me.

I'm also entering this in the DL.Art April Linky Challenge, 2 Crafty Critter Crazies April AG (with critter), and Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #55 AG. 

Spring has Sprung!

Wow, has it ever, at least here in California, so I decided to play with some of the new Watercolor Collection digi papers I got from We Are 3, available at Miss Daisy Stamps to make a Spring card.  The sentiment is also available at Miss Daisy Stamps HERE, but comes as a bonus with this sweet little bunny. So why didn't I use him?  Well, the March challenge in the Miss Daisy Stamps FB Group is asking for a sentiment only, so a sentiment it is.  I changed the color of the Spring sentiment in my Printmaster Platinum program and cropped out the digital butterfly so I could add a punched one.  All three butterflies are from Martha Stewart punches.  I used a Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two and Petite Ovals to cut the sentiment and strung a piece of DL.Art Pink Champagne crinkle ribbon from the Vintage Vineyard Bundle. 

BTW, Miss Daisy is also offering a gorgeous FREE sentiment, for a limited time, to use if you'd like to join in the challenge.  You can find the link by joining the Miss Daisy Stamps FB Group.  I didn't use it here because I didn't want to cover up too much of the beautiful paper but I hope to do another soon.

The flowers are hand made using a tutorial from Lisa, at A Mermaid's Crafts, with the same Watercolor digital paper. Although I couldn't even begin to do such lovely work, I did have fun with the flowers and used Spellbinders Blossoms Three instead of the dies Lisa used.  I snipped the petals towards the center before proceeding as she does and added centers from my stash and crinkle ribbon leaves from the DL.Art Spring Bundle #2. 

I'm also entering this in the Outlawz Festive Fridays Spring is Coming challenge (sorry, I finished this late and was too tired to blog yesterday so they have new themes today), the DL.Art March Linky Challenge, the DL.Art 200th (WooHoo!) Thankful Thursday Flowers Challenge , Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #53 AG, (and more after breakfast).