Merry and Bright!

Hi All! Thanks for stopping by today and checking out my creations! Today I used a stamp from Wild Rose. Isn't she a cute little fairy. Her name is Ella and she was so fun to make sparkle. I'm entering her into a few challenges. Over at Scraptastic Designs the challenge is to make a Christmas card without red, green or gold, Paper Playtime challenge #61 is to use a stamped image with a sentiment and Robin's Creative Cottage Challenge #1 is "let it sparkle".

I chose blue, pink and brown for this card. I used watercolor pencils to color the stamp. I added bling on her headband, wand, bow and wings. I used stickles and regular glitter. I also used Perfect Pearls Pewter for her wand handle.

Even though I have had my markers and pencils for years I really don't use them that much anymore and it has been nice to pull them out again. I am hoping that my coloring will continue to improve. I really don't do well with shading and I think I just don't have the patience.  There is definitely a lot of beautiful work out there in bloggy land that is great inspiration.

I appreciate you coming by and hope that I have inspired you to pull something out that you may not have used lately too:)

Recipe:

A2 card base Stampin' Up

Pattern Paper - Jillebean Soup

Star - A Child's Year

Stamp - Wild Rose Ella

Sentiment - Unity Stamps

Snow Marker for dress

Watercolor pencils Stampin' Up

Stickles in yellow and pink, fine glitter for wings, A Muse Studio Twine, Stampin' Up chalk for cheeks, brown ink, white signo pen for eyes, Perfect Pearls Pewter

Entering:

Scraptastic Designs

Paper Playtime

Robin's Creative Cottage

Thanks for stopping by!

Annette

A Gift For You Card

Good Morning! I hope you are off to a wonderful day. I still have birthday cards to make and am entering this one over at More than Favors and Birthday Sundaes. There is still time to enter and play along too:)

Recipe:

A2 base Stampin' Up
Papers - DCWV, American Crafts, Bazzill
Children - A Child's Year 3.07"
Hat - A Child's Year 1.30"
Present - A Child's Year .65"
Border - Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art .65"
Sentiment- My Creative Time
Ribbon, Stickles, black ink

Thanks for stopping by!

Annette

Peachy Keen Challenge #65

Hi All! I'm entering a challenge for Peachy Keen Stamp Challenge #65. Honestly I love the sketch, but I haven't really done paper piercing.  Most of my stamps are sentiments and this has definitely given me the inspiration to get more to cut up and play with. I decided to do a get well card as that is one that I never have when I need. My card is a 5 x 7 and the stamps are Stampin' Up and My Creative Time for the sentiment. I pieced the beak and the feet for the penguin with the yellow paper. I used pencils to color in the stamp and glossy accents for water. The papers are scraps. The white scallop is a Martha Stewart and the button is from my stash.

I'm glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and will have to try this again soon:)

Thanks for stopping by!

Annette

Hello Earthling!

Good Morning! Did you all have a nice Thanksgiving? It always goes by so fast. Today, I'm still working on some birthday cards and this time I chose Everyday Pop Up Cartridge as my base card. I just got this over the weekend and haven't had to much time to check it out. Yes, I'm sure you are looking at this thinking how could this be for a birthday:) Well, my older brother likes space stuff and I thought this was just silly. The inside sentiment says happy birthday. I also used Paper Dolls for Everyday and PK Stamps for the face. I used the hide feature on my gypsy and eliminated the cuts on the face so that I could stamp myself. Have any of you stamped on glitter paper before? Well, I hadn't and wanted to give it a try. This glitter paper is from DCWV and the black ink is Staz On. It worked beautifully:)

Recipe:

A2 base Everyday Pop-Up Cards 5.38" height

Papers - Bazzill, DCWV, Deja View

Alien - Paper Dolls for Everyday 3.82" height

Sentiment - All Mixed Up .99" welded together

Silver Star - Paper Dolls for Everyday 2.32"

Face - PK Monster Stamps

Thanks for stopping by!

Annette

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a wonderful blessed day sharing with family and friends. I appreciate each and every one of you who stop by and visit. 

Recipe:

Card and envelope Cricut Wild Card cut at 5 3/4" with gypsy

Papers Card - DCWV and Stampin' Up (I can't remember the pattern paper for the middle card as it was a scrap)

Papers Envelope - Georgia Pacific and DCWV

Ribbon - Stash

Thanks for stopping by!

Annette

Birthday Sundaes Challenge #36

Good Morning! One more day to yummy food and a day of thanksgiving. I'm so excited and no school today for my kids, which of course means sleeping in for them. Luckily, they really like school but it is so nice to take a break from time to time.

Today I have another birthday card to share. Over at Birthday Sundaes the challenge was to use our neglected stash. I chose glitter. I love glitter but not the mess. Try as I might to keep it neat and tidy those little sparkles just land everywhere. Stickles, in my opinion, was a blessing. However, sometimes you can't beat the old fashioned way. It definitely gives your project a different look. Thank goodness there are so many different choices so we have plenty to play with:)

Recipe:
A2 base
DCWV and My Mind's Eye Papers
Cupcake Gypsy Wandering 2.29"
Sentiment Gypsy Wandering 1.82"
Topnote Gypsy Wandering 2.88"
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder Seeing Spots

Thanks for stopping by!

Annette

Sweet Thanks

Good Morning! Hope everyone is getting ready for turkey day. It is fast approaching. I have a quick thank you card that I made using gel pens with my cricut. I really need to use them more often. They are so pretty. These were from Cri-Kits and they are the glittery ones. It is hard to tell in the pic, but this is the black glitter pen. I also used Basic Grey and Bazzill for my papers. A little bit of blue stickles for the bird and a fiskars punch finished it.

Entering:

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #87

Getty Cricky Give Thanks

Thanks for stopping by!

Annette

Another Year Older

Hello! I don't know about you but there is just not enough time in the day to get everything done. Thanksgiving is fast approaching and we have a lot of birthdays over the next 2 months. I haven't had as much time to sit and craft, which is a bummer. I am working on some cards for the upcoming birthdays and wanted to share.  For this one I chose more manly colors, but just had to add some bling with stickles:) It needed an oomph.

Cake cut at 2.97"

Sentiment cut at 2.61"

Recipe:

A2 size Kraft stock
Papers: DCWV, Stampin' Up and scraps
Cake: Lyrical Letters
Outside Sentiment: My Creative Time
Inside Sentiment: Lyrical Letters
Pop dots, Stickles, black and brown inks

Entering:

Anything Goes Challenge - Food
Stamps R Us Bling it On

Thanks for stopping by!

Annette

Guest Designer for Exploring Cricut

Hi Everyone! I am so excited to be a guest designer at Exploring Cricut today. Thank you so much Diane for inviting me! I am busy working on Thanksgiving items and have been wanting to try a banner for sometime. I needed to dress my mantle for Thanksgiving and thought this would be perfect.  I used quite a few carts to get this one done.

I used papers from 2 DCWV stacks; Autumn Splendor and Harvest Gathering.  The papers have glitter, foil and a nice shene to them. I started with laying the design out on my Gypsy. I cut the base from Twinkle Toes at a height of 7.39". The letters were from the cartridge Gypsy Font cut at 4.08".  I used the layer feature as well so that the letters would have the nice flourish behind them. The rosettes were made with the Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art cut at 1.5" with a width of 12". I used 2 of these together to make sure that the diameter would be big enough behind the letter. I also cut a circle at 2.23" in height for the rosette.

The acorns were cut using Create A Critter at 7.15". The leaves were cut at 3" using Doodlecharms. I used Argyle and Paisley embossing folders from Cuttlebug.

The tulle was a great buy at Joann Fabrics; 25 yards for about $2.99 even less expensive with a 40% coupon. It is a rich chocolate brown.

To make the rosettes I used my Martha Stewart scoreboard. I scored them at 1/4" all the way down. I did use two 1.5" x 12" borders together to get the dimension I wanted. I used 3M glue them to put the 2 pieces together, but hot glue was used to attach the circle to them. The tricky part of rosettes is scrunching and holding to get the hot glue and circle secure. There are quite a few videos out on youtube that show great tutorials on exactly how to make them. The nice thing when making your own is being able to customize what you want the strip to look like. I wanted to have a decorative edge so I chose one with a scallop and hole punch. I think they are all so pretty; even the plain edge.

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope that I have inspired you to make a banner for your home:)

Annette

Simpy Charmed Challenge

Good morning! Today I have a card that I am entering into M.A.G. Challenge #52. You are to use page 75  from the Simply Charmed cartridge. This one was a good challenge because you really had to think about how to use the pieces on that page. I decided to use the balloons cut at 2.88" with my gypsy and "button bear" from Stampin' Up that I have had for ages. I am also entering into Crafty Sprouts Challenge Anything Goes.

I added PK Stamps to the balloon faces. "Celebrate You" is from My Creative Time and the small tag is from Michaels. The twine is from A Muse Studio. Papers are from DCWV Sweet Stack and Stampin' Up.

I popped a couple of the balloons up to give some more dimension.

The inside sentiment is from Emma at My Creative Time.

Thanks for stopping by:)

Annette

Leaves

Hi! Today I am working on a Thanksgiving card. I kept it really simple and am also entering in a few challenges. The white, in person, really makes it very crisp. I wonder if anyone has taken the real leaves and put Diamond Glaze over them for a project to preserve them. I might have to try that too. If anyone has I would  love to know if it worked or not:) That would be really pretty for a card.

Recipe:

A2 base

Papers - Stash

Leaves - Gypsy Wandering 2.76", Stretch Your Imagination 1.47", Lyrical Letters 3"

Topnote - Storybook 3.28"

Sentiment - My Pink Stamper

Gems - Basic Grey

Black, Walnut Stain and Champagne Inks, Zig Brown Pen

Ribbon - Stash

Entering:
You Had Me At Craft - Anything Goes



Pile It On -Thanksgiving or Give Thanks
Stuck On U Sketches -Leaf Die Cut
A Muse Studio - Thanks

Thanks for stopping by:)

Annette

Cup of Cheer!

Good Morning! Today I have a quick thank you card to share. I am really liking the paper stack from My Mind's Eye "Lemon Twist." It is doublesided which always helps coordinating for me. I think that is the hardest part at times to get just the right papers. I used Winter Frolic for the cup. When I layed the design out on my gypsy I didn't like the steam straight up (it kind of looks like a question mark) so I angled it and inked the edges with black. The sentiment was one of Emma's from My Creative Time. I used the heart on the inside of the card to give it a little something too:)

I hid the snowflake on the cup and welded the heart from Doodlecharms.

Recipe:

A2 size card Stampin' Up base

Solid Papers - American Craft and DCWV (glitter)

Pattern Papers - My Mind's Eye

Cup - Winter Frolic 3.94"

Heart - Doodlecharms .88"

Circle - George 3.71"

Sentiment - My Creative Time

Black Ink

Entering:

Fussy and Fancy Thankful with sentiment

Getting Cricky Tea Time

Paper Playtime Thank you

Thanks for stopping by:)

Annette

Spring Dance Performance

Hi All! Well the weather here has finally turned chilly and I hear that we might get 2" of rain over the next two days. Love Kansas weather:) I'm excited that I have finally gotten some pages done for my daughter's book. She has been dancing since she was 3 and sometimes it is hard to keep up; but I am happy to say that these are from her performance in May of 2011. I had a hard time getting pics for these as it is a cloudy day. I think some of them look better in person. The other bummer is that the lighting when I took the dance pics is difficult so they aren't the best quality. These were all taken during rehearsal as there is no photography during show. I'm happy I got what I got:) All the titles on the pages are the name of the dance on the playbill.

This dance is inspired by Monet's Waterlilies. The lighting behind the girls was to reflect the actual painting. It's too bad that I couldn't capture that. This is the best pic out of the bunch; believe it or not.

I used brown, gold, green, purple inks on the titles.

The page on the left is scallop is the negative for the page on the right.

I think the little bling for the "i" is a subtle touch.

This is the 2nd page to a layout that I had posted last week.

Entering:
My Sheri Crafts - Sports
Lia Stampz - 3 Rs

Thanks for stopping by:)

Annette

Card Sketch Challenge

Hi All! I am glad to have been able to sit down this evening to work with a sketch from CPS. This one was a little tricky for me to do. I have been so busy that I haven't had time to play with paper. I really like the simplicity of this sketch. I have a craft block right now so, I'm hoping to get back on track:) This card is for my nephew as a thank you. It is difficult to do male cards so this was a challenge for me!

The brown is a suede paper. All the papers are inked in brown.

Recipe:
A2 size card
Paper scraps
Stamp - Peachy Keen

Entering:
CPS - Sketch #243
4 Crafty Chicks - Die Cuts
Scrapbook Sisters - Anything Goes
Tuesday Throwdown - Thanks

Thanks for stopping by:)

Annette

Birdies Keeping Warm

Hi All! I always think when Halloween starts it is the beginning of the busy season. There are so many fun activities ahead of us before 2011 is over. I decided today to create a card with cooler weather in mind. I know I shouldn't be complaining that it will be in the 70s today, but really. It's Kansas and this is kind of unusual for us. I'm sure I'll be thinking of this day when I am freezing my behind off.

Anyway, on to the card. Aren't these birds so cute! I really like the Winter Frolic cartridge. There are darling images and just right for the season upon us. The snow texture was made with the Snow Marker by heating to make it puffy. I have used the Marvy brand as well and think they both work about the same. One difference is that the Marvy will keep a nice clean dot where the marker really does look like misshapen snow.

I wanted to use more of the Authentique 6 x 6 paper pad, but the design didn't work out that way. I can't wait to use some more of it. The papers are really pretty. The birds' tummies are a specialty paper and I like how they have a little more texture to them.

Recipe:

A2 size card

Papers - Authentique, K&Company

Embossed Snowflakes - Cuttlebug Snowflakes

Birds - Winter Frolic2.95", 2.18"

Sentiment - Winter Frolic 1"

Stickles - Black Diamond, Diamond

Versamark White Pigment Ink, Snow Maker

Entering:

Pile It On - Challenge #44 Keep It Warm

Fantabulous Cricut - Challenge #84 Birds

A Muse Studio Dry Embossing

Thanks for stopping by:)

Annette