Lacy Sunshine Anything Goes

 

This is my second post of the day, so please scroll down for my Dilly Beans DT card for the new Challenge.

Here's a little tag I did for the current challenge at the Lacy Sunshine Challenge Blog.  Although I started it using the freebie I got from the Loyalty Plan (use any LS image for one challenge, get the next Challenge image as a freebie)  from the last challenge but didn't quite get it done, it totally works for Anything Goes this time.  I've made a Spring tag using my Cricut for the garden gate.  It was designed in DS using the Picturesque cartridge with the "Spring" header from Stretch Your Imagination.  The pieces were then embossed with the Cuttlebug Distressed Stripes folder.

The adorable image is Gemma's Spring Gumdrops.  Could she possibly be any cuter?  I've printed her several times in several sizes so I could fussy cut her flower, colored her with Copics and fussy cut and popped her in front of the fence.  The flower on her head is popped as well and there are two more growing beside her on the other side of the gate.

As you can see, the tag is quite dimensional.  The DP behind is from an old DCWV sack and I've added a little punched butterfly and Prima flowers to the top of the gate.

I'm also adding this to the 4 Crafty Chicks Spring Challenge, C.R.A.F.T Challenge What Season Where You Are, Art Impressions "Getting Girly", Outlawz Twisted Thursday Add a Butterfly, Creative Knockouts Texturize it, Cute Card Thursday Floral Delights, Southern Girls Floral Frenzy, Stampavie and More Girly, TTRCD ATG Mar 25th -31, Tuesday Throwdown Digi Dimension, All-Crafts Challenge Anything but a Card, Artistic Inspirations ATG, Created with Love Girly Challenge, 613 Ave Create ATG, Whoopsie Daisy Welcome Spring, Catered Crop Spring Fever, Craft a Scene Let it be Spring, Eclectic Ellapu Flowers and Butterfies, and Robin's Fetish Anything but a Card.

Dilly Beans Glitter and Jewels

Our challenge this week at Dilly Beans is Glitter and Jewels.  I used one of Megan's fab whimsical flowers, #549 Hello Framed, to make a fairly CAS all occasion card.  Not a whole lot of coloring to be done, but I used Copics in Autumn colors and applied adhesive gems.  The frame is cut with a Nesties square and both the image and mat are popped for dimension.  I made the glitter strips by applying 1/4" Terrifically Tacky Tape to the mat (one at a time)and sprinkling with glitter.  Use a brush to clean off the excess and you have fabulously straight lines.  The black beaded lines are peel offs.  Kinda different for me, but it was fun.  Please visit the Challenge Blog for more fabulous inspiration from my DT sisters and be sure to come play along.

I'm also enering this in the Sarah Hurley Autumn Glow Challenge, the House of Gilli ATG/Fall, 4 Crafty Chicks Bingo (using Flowers, Sentiment, Bling), Simon Says Wednesday Anything Goes, and the Addicted to Stamps and More CAS Challenge.

Dilly Beans Autumn Colors

Oh how I love the Fall!  the nip in the air, the leaves turning colors, it's my favorite season.  This week our Dilly Beans challenge is to use Fall colors.  The inspiration for my project came from a tag included in my Anthropologie catalog (yea! recycling!)  and the sentiment got me thinking.  I cut a slot in the tag, mounted it on corrugated card stock, popped it so there would be room for the dime (a penny was too big, this is an EXPENSIVE tag, LOL) and foam sandwich to fit and added the sweet little Dilly Beans Heart Owl.  I know I just used him, but he's a FAVE!

So it's a spinner tag!  (Directions are on SplitcoastStampers.)  WooHoo!  (That's what HE said)  there he goes.  He's colored with  Copics and has lidded google eyes (Darice in the child's crafts section of J's).  I've tied it up with a little twine.

Wish I could have done a video so you could see how he spins.  The pretty leafy corners were a freebie from Dilly Beans but are unfortunately no longer available.

Still going...   "woohoo" was cut on my Cuttlebug using the discontinued Typewriter Alphabet dies.
My DT sisters have outdone themselves this week with fabulously beautiful creations so be sure and stop the by Challenge Blog to ooooh and ahhhhh.  We're excited to see your projects as well.  Just be sure to include a stamp, be it rubber, clear, or digi.

I'm also entering this in the 4 Crafty Chicks Beauty of Leaves Challenge, Kraft Outlet Lavish Layers, Charisma Cardz Things with Wings, DLArt Thankful Thursday, Halloween, Fall Colors,and/or Owls, Digi Stamps 4 Joy Leaves, the Recycle, Re-purpose and Reinvent Sept Challenge, the Smudger Reduce, Re-Use RecycleChallenge, and the Anything But a Card Texture Challenge.

Dilly Beans PURPLE!

TGIF!!!  Yea, for sure.  It's another fun challenge at Dilly Beans Challenge Blog and this week it's the color purple.  I've become quite fond of that color and started singing about the flying purple people eater in my head so I added Nestie wings to Megan's cute #390 Dilly Monster and off she flew over #391 Heart Flowers.

The sentiment and heart flowers were printed right on the mat which was distresed with Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord, then I printed the flowers again to pop.  I wish I cold have done a video for this, because the little monster truly is a flutter on an action wobble and she looks so cute flitting about that she makes me giggle.  There are stunning purple creations from the DT so be cute to check them out, and don't forget today is the LAST DAY for the buy 10 get 10 free sale at the Dilly Beans Store.

I'm also entering this in the 4 Crafty Chicks Monochromatic Challenge, the Crop Stop Monochromatic Challenge, DRS Designs Flying Friends,  Lia's Stamps Things with Wings, Whimsy Stamps things with Wings, and the Southern Girls Things with Wings as well.   Finally, I'm adding to Simon Says Stamp Diamond Jubilee, Crown and/or Gems challenge.  Her crown certainly looks like a gem to me and of course it's all royal purple,  Finally, do pearls qualify?  I say yes!

And Another!

Just couldn't couldn't contain myself and made another ATC for Wicked Wednesday Easter or Bunnies/Chicks Challenge using a fab FREEBIE form DT member Mary Kwok's new blog Cakewalk by KWOK. Isn't this sweet little Bunny Family the cutest? They're colored wth Copics and not much more was needed. The Easter eggs are Queen and Co brads, a tiny ribbon and Voila! If you haven't already seen my chicks ATC, please scroll down. Too bad I can only enter Wicked Wednesday twice because there's more unbelievable cute images available HERE. If you're like me and been sort of hard pressed to enter additional challenges lately, why not try Wicked Wednesday? Working on a canvas that's only 2 1/2 x 3 1/2" goes pretty darn fast and is so much FUN!

I'm also entering this in the following challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks Easter and Crazy Egg
Moving along with the Times Cute and Cuddly
Paper Play Challenges Easter
Ruby's Rainbow Easter

Wicked Wednesday ATC #1

I sure do love making ATC's and this one is especially special because it not only is for the Wicked Wednesday Easter or Bunnies/Chicks Challenge, but I've also used one of the FREE DIGI's from DT member Mary Kwok's new freebie digi blog Cakewalk by Kwok. Mary is a frequent participant in many of the challenge blogs, often with her own fabulous artwork as see on her blogs Happy Bunny and Le Beau Reve. Here's my first ATC done with her free image Chicka Dee which I've cropped, merged and flipped several times. I've tried to approximate feathers using Copics and added a cute dragonfly brad and ribbon bow. the sentiment is commputer generated. ATC's are so much fun and faster to make than other projects so I encourage you to visit Wicked Wednesday for great inspiration and the chance to win a prize each week. Try it, you'll like it, I PROMISE! I'm also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge and 4 Crafty Chicks and Easter Crazy Egg Challenge.

A Freebie for Snowman Lovers!

We're all so excited about the new Dilly Beans Challenge Blog that we just couldn't wait until Friday so Megan has provided you with this adorable Snow Family Freebie with which to create a project and a chance to win some fabulous prizes. WooHoo! I had so much fun coloring and glittering them up and even used some puff paint for their hats. (Note to self, do NOT lay your heat gun on the carpet until it's cooled off or you'll melt it, OOPS!) The group is cut with Nesties Labels 10 and mounted on glittered snowflake borders from the Tim Holtz Snow Flurries On The Edge Die. The cute snowman DP is from (well gosh, I've got so much crap laying on my floor, I don't know who it's by, sorry).

I printed my image 3 times so I could get the dimension I crave and it came together in no time since it was so easy to color with my Copics. For a little extra pizazz I threw in some epoxy stickers from Recollections and some cool tinselly stuff from my LSS. Hurry over to grab your Freebie HERE and while you're there, take a gander at the inspiration by the DT to get your mojo flowing. You have 3 weeks to complete the challenge ('til Dec 19th) and there will be 4 (yes, COUNT 'EM 4!!!!) winners. What are you waiting for????? I'm also entering this in the Paper Sundaes Winter Wonderland Challenge, the Cardmadfairies (also Winter Wonderland) Challenge , the 4 Crafty Chicks Snowflake Challenge and the Crafty Catz Snowman Challenge.

CDAC Progressive Challenge

Clearly, I'm having a problem crafting. Seems like I can only concentrate fully on one thing at a time, and lately it's been eating healthy and exercising my butt off (I wish!) which takes a major chunk out of my day and my mojo has suffered (BIG TIME!) When I finally actually have time to craft, I'm scurrying from blog to blog and challenge to challenge and although there are a million I WANT to participate in, it seems I can't make up my mind WHICH to do first (so I end up doing nothing). I've been talking about balance in my life, but I certainly haven't found it yet and I'm feeling terribly guilty now about my lack of posting.

So anyway, I got an email from CDAC talking about their Progressive Freebie Challenge Series 2, which is just starting now and decided to give it a try. Not a member of CDAC? No problem, just ASK to join. Then join the Progressive challenge Group and WooHoo! You're provided with a bunch of free images from a number of fab digi artists and all you have to do is use one to make a project and you have 2 weeks to do it. As long as you participate during each round, you continue to get the images for free (and if for some reason you just don't make it one round, you can buy in the round you missed for just $1.00). The payoff? Complete all 6 rounds and you will be entered in the fabulous grand prize drawing. Fun, huh? Since crab season started yesterday in CA, I just HAD to use the cute crab from Tiffany Doodles along with the birthday sentiment from Sending Treasures (that I modified a bit to go with the crab theme). HeeHee! These qualify me to enter the My Partner in Crafting Crime Freebie Challenge.

That crab just begged to be paper pieced so I'm entering it in the 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge this week and I added some lidded google eyes as well. The sentiment was cut with my Nesties labels One and the DP's are from an ancient DCWV stack. The shell border is a Martha Stewart punch.

I've popped parts of the crab as well as the mats and done a number on some of them with my Distrezz-it-All to make it more masculine. The twine holding the shell charms are looped through eyelets done with my Cropadile. These 3 different embellishments, along with the 2 patterned papers ( the large nauticul mat and the barely visible diagonal striped mat behind the small blue one) and one image qualifies for the Crazy Challenge Recipe this week. So yea! I'm set for round one, (although I just might make some more cards using the other adorable stamps I received in this round) and although this took me far longer than I ever anticipated, at least I finished something. If you've never played at CDAC, you must check it out. Lots of good stuff going on there all the time and it's a very supportive community.

ADFD for Bah!Humbug! and a Few More Challenges

Okay, don't faint ladies! Yes, it's Saturday and I've done my Bah!Humbug! challenge ALREADY this week. YEEHAW! I knew immediately what image (or at least which group of images) I was gonna use for the Baby's First Christmas challenge. 4 Crafty Chicks is also asking for a baby theme, as is Designed to Delight, WooHoo! I have the whole Santa's Nice List set from ADFD and chose this cutie in the stocking cap. The current ADFD challenge is "Flock Together" so I printed the image (flipped) 3 times so I could cut it apart and flock the pieces individually by running them face down through my Xyron and then reassembling them on the base image. (Does that make sense?)

Tell me this isn't the sweetest baby EVER! Well actually there are 3 other singles, a set of triplets, and a stocking just filled with a teddy and sweets in this set, but the stocking cap really did it for me because I could add a mini pompom. What little coloring there is is done with my Copics. The red part of the stocking is colored as well, before running through the Xyron and flocking, so the coverage is deep and even. The little dots on the toe and heel are mini adhesive beads I applied AFTER running through the Xyron but before adding the flock. The flock would have obscured the dots had I just colored them, and I was afraid of bleeding if I tried to touch them up after. The adhesive on the beads doesn't stick well to the flock, either, but applying glue after the fact is pretty messy so this solution worked well for me.

Besides the flocking, I wanted to add some additional texture for the Cardmadfairy's Texture Challenge and the Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday Challenge which is Embossing. I chose a Sizzix folder because the scallops echoed the Nestie scalloped mat but look what happened when I ran it through my Cuttlebug. I've had this happen with quite a few of the Sizzix folders, including those by Tim Holtz, and I was really bummed at how it actually cracked and ripped my cardstock because of the deep embossing.

Lucy McGoo's Wonder Goo to the rescue! Honestly, this stuff has been on my crafting table for MONTHS! I bought it at a Scrap Expo (I think) because it's supposed to help get a better impression when using those old embossing plates (rather than the folders) so I thought I'd give it a go and WOOHOO! A little spritz on the card stock, in the folder, and through the Cuttlebug and VOILA! No more cracking! I do, however suggest you leave it in the folder until the thing dries because it does have a tendency to curl more, but hey, small price to pay. I'd been getting kind of discouraged with these folders lately so I'm happy as a clam to find a solution. That link is the only place I found this stuff online, but I hate to mention a product with no link to where you can get it sooo... I also apologize for such a long post for such a simple card, but I finally seem to be coming out of my funk so I'm back to my old wordy self. LOL Anyway, I'm off to get boofy for the first holiday party of the season at my BFF's. Have a great rest of the weekend and go check out all of these fab challenges, if for no other reason than to oooohh and aaaahh at the DT inspiration.

Someone to Watch Over me

This week our Macabre Monday challenge at Haunted Design House is Gods and Monsters. You can choose from those of Greek Mythology, a classic movie, or some bizarre divination from a tale from long ago. I'm not sure I'd call this lovely gargoyle a monster, but it's gonna have to work for this challenge. The fab image is the very first I fell in love with from our dear Teri at Delicious Doodles HERE. (P.S. if you're not into creepy, there are tons of just plain beautiful digis at Delicious Doodles as well.) I just love gargoyles.

Besides the architectural purpose of diverting rain from the roof away from the side of a building to keep the water from eroding the mortar, non water spitting grotesques, also known as gargoyles, are said to scare off and protect from any evil or harmful spirits. My little guy is gonna sit on my desk and keep me nice and safe. I'm sort of bummed you can't see the embossing here under the sentiment. I used the Tim Holtz Bricked folder from Sizzix because I thought that was fitting.

This was my first attempt at a twisted easel and I used my Nesties Large Octogons to construct the base. The roses are from Recollections. Everything I've used for this card I've had for WELL over 6 months so I'm entering it in the Simply Create challenge and the monochromatic color scheme qualifies it for the 4 Crafty Chicks challenge as well. I'm also entering it in the Sentimental Sundays Anything Goes challenge, and Simon Says Stamp and Show Things with Wings.

This great image requires no coloring and just begs to be decoupaged. He was printed 6 times and I fussy cut up a storm. Just LOVE the way he pops off the page. The Minions truly enjoyed this one so pop by HDH for some inspiration and be sure to visit often this month. Besides Creepy Glowbugg's post on Wednesday with the Gruesome Twosome announcement and such, we're also bringing you all around cool and spooky stuff to make your October the best month EVER!