Anything but a card: inspired by

Anything But a Card: Inspired by.......

When I first read this new challenge I had lots and of things go through my head
I thought of my mom, and how she really first got me started in crafting

when as a little girl she showed me how to do cross stitch.

Then I thought of how inspired I always am by some of the industry greats like Tim Holtz,

and I have lots of his proucts.

As I wandered around my craft room (ok, so I really just stood and looked around!)

I saw a sheet of paper I made last week using Dylusions inks,

and I remembered a great video I watched from Andy Skinner called Urban Grunge Background.

So I pulled out the piece of paper and die cut the dress from it.

That is my nod to the great Dyan Reaveley's dylusions inks (oh oh oh how I love them!)

For the background of the tag I followed along with Andy Skinners video on youtube

find it here

It's really a fun technique, and I hope to used it again with some brighter or darker colors.

This is a close up of the dress form, and see the pretty lace and the X is a plastic piece

that I distincly remember getting from a local fabric shop about 4 or 5 years ago!

I hope I've inspired you to play along with this weeks challenge!

P.S. I hope you all are having a fabulous Easter!

Air mail

Good morning bloggy friends!

This last week I had the fun opportunity to do a crop with some of my crafty friends.

I had my list of things to check off the list, and this card was one of them!

I share with you earlier this week that I had recieved an amazing package of

crafty goodies, and I made this cute little card as a thank you!

I know you are all probably jealous of that air mail envelope (I know I would be!)

I found a whole big stack of them at an estate sale a month or two ago!

I usually would hoard a cool thing like this, but I got so many of them that I think I can spare a few :)

Here's a close up of the card,

all the stamps are all from Unity Stamps

And this is the very first time I've had the chance to use any of them!

I'm also going to be linking this up with their Friends with Flair.

and also with the mail challenge at Anything goes challenge.

Girlie girl?

Those of you that know me know that I am not at all a girlie girl!

Very rarely will you see me in a dress, and it's generally impossible to 

Find me with my hair done! 

I can feel that you all want to be my friends? He he he

I can however sometimes create girlie girl things!

After all, it's a real challenge for me!

I made this fun VERY pink card last night.

See the pink paper, and the pink flowers, and the ultra pink ribbon? 

I even stamped in pink! 

I hope it's a pink hit!

Entering this into:

Nearly mine: girly pink

Flying bunny

Sooo... This is the last week for the green challenge over at The Crafters Cafe
And this month we're being sponsored by Rick st James.
I love this bunny image...
Ok, he's not just a bunny but is the March hare!

I colored him up wit my prismacolor and copic markers

Here's his close up!

See behind him how I wove the twine through the doily?

I love it! 

Then when I was digging through some embellies I found this ticket.

It reads summer fun fare flying rabbits!

I got the sketch from Retro sketches

And really I just had a lot of fun with him!

Happy mail

I was amazingly blessed this week to receive this awesome package in the mail!

The package was stocked full of amazing product from Pretty little studio

The package came from one of my blogging friends, 

And amazing designer Holly humbert

You will be seeing some of these fun goodies very soon!

Plus I'm also going to get to share lots of fab stuff with my mom!

Who is wanting to start her own little card making adventure!

So thank you Holly! And oh I can't wait to make lots of fun stuff!

Angie Delarie: Easter

I have a fabulous new digi to share with you today!

Yep, it's the brand spankin new Priya

She's so stinkin cute!

So I colored her up with my copics,

And made a springy background for her!

If you need a fabulous Easter digi, hop on over and pick her up!

Oh yeah, and I did some fun doodling around the sentiment, and on the rays of sunshine!

Entering this card into:

Love to create: pastel colors

Oozak: spring

Card makin mamas: spring colors

Fussy and fancy Friday: spring day

Docerela: Pastel colors

For me?

Perhaps like many of you out there,

you make many craft projects, for your friends, for your family, often

even for complete strangers.

I know for me I very rarely make something for myself!

Today however I have a project that I made completely for ME!

See the problem is that I always needs a plethera of pens for my job.

I have a little locker at work, and the pens seem to just get thrown on the edge of the locker, and then of course they get lost!

So I decided to make the fun tin for all my little work items!

Here's the before picture

Yep, it's a large size Planters Roasted Almonds tin.

I covered it with some pretty papers from Heidi Grace.

And then I made the banners, I also used the Heidi Grace papers,

and I printed out the letters on my printer, and punched them out with a circle punch

then added them to the banners, punched holes for the twine, and voila, a banner.

Really that part was super easy!

Next I colored up this "color me wonderful" image from Saturated Canary

Here's her close up!  I am in love with her yellow dress

after all, yellow is my favorite color!

And it's a perfect springy color!

Finally at the bottom of the can I added a few stripes of twine from the twinery

Linking up to the challenges at:

The Twinery: Banners

Creative Inspirations: Spring Colors

Shopping our Stash: Spring or Easter

Simon Says Stamp: Easter or Spring

Bearly Mine: Anything Goes

Hoppy Easter

Who here loves Easter?

Me me me, pick me!

I love the whole reason for the season..

I know it's not Christmas, but Easter is even better than Christmas!

Know why??  Cause this is the celebration of how Jesus died for us and rose again!

I mean what is better than that?

Oh yeah, and the jelly beans and candy too *smile*

There is a brand new 10 minute Craft Dash over at pretty pink posh.

I did my very best to keep with the color scheme, but my green is maybe a little off??

I was able to pull this card off in 9:29

at about 8:00 I decided that I was going to add the "hoppy easter" and the twine...

Yep, that took me another 1:29 to finish

(Luckily I had a scrap piece of paper handy!)

The background paper is a couple of squirts of dylusional inks in bubble gum and cut grass.

I added the banners, and the stamp on the middle of the card!

I got the sketch from the new challenge over at Tuesday Morning Sketch

Funny story about that stamp..

Last week me and hubby ran into Joann's for a couple of things,

and hubby says to me "lets make Easter cards."

Obviously I was floored, and we got a couple of things to make cards.

I saw this little stamp, but though "well, I'll only use that for easter!"

So I didn't get it... Today when I went to make this card I thought about that stamp,

and I got in my car and ran back to the store.

I figure I can cover up the bunny, and the "hop" and just write in whatever word fits, and this stamp can see a lot of action!

Also linking up with: 

Spring ATC

There's a new challenge over at wicked Wednesday ATC

The challenge is spring, and nothing says spring to me like a couple of butterflies and a flower!

I haven't made an ATC in a few weeks, and this one was a challenge for me.

Linking up with: 

Our creative corner: Analogous colours

Wicked Wednesday: spring fever

Singin in the rain

I love making tags!

I love them! 

And since I've gone a little crazy with the dylusions inks tags are even funner

(Yes that's a word!)

Ok, so the image is from Saturated Canary

The sentiment was found online,

I couldn't find an author.

I love the glitter, and the fun water splatters!

Plus this is my first try at ombré hair.

I kinda like it!

Linking up with:

Saturated canary: All about words

Simon says stamp and show: Water

Crafty creations: Singing in the rain

Follow me on bloglovin

Bloglovin

Hey everyone!

I know there's lots of buzz going on about google reader..ect ect!

 I'm not going to pretend that I understand much of it! 

I do know that I love following all of your blogs,

And hope you like mine too!

 I've added a new button on the side where you can just click on the bloglovin

Tab and it will add it to your account.

 Seems pretty easy to me.

I'll be moving all the blogs that I follow over to bloglovin too.

Cause I don't want to loose track of anyone! 

Anything but a card: Alice in wonderland

Happy St Patricks day!!!

Here in America we celebrate by eating corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes

(which I'm doing NOW!!!)

And by wearing Green...

But none of that is the challenge at Anything But a Card this two weeks!

the challenge is Easter, Spring, OR Alice in Wonderland!

Obviously I went with the Alice theme!

The Alice is from Alicia's little Shop I am new to her digi's, but Just sorta fell in love with this Alice

Alicia also has a challenge running on her blog to use Ribbon or Washi.

Alicia's digi's are super cute!

Here's  close up of Alice, you can see that I added a ribbon bow to her hair, and

that cool graphic washi tape behind her!

Here's her close up!

I'm also linking up with the new challenge at Ocotopode Factory

I used the March Hare Image from her shop here 

here's a close up of that guy!

He was colored up with my copics and prismacolor markers.

He looks about how I feel on a Saturday night after working 4 12 hour shifts!

But I would have some coffee in that cup, not just tea!

I hope I've inspired you to play along with the challenge over at Anything But a Card!

Or at the very least to try out some new techniques!

Oh oh oh, that reminds me... on that cute little Alice up there, I tried doing the outside the die

thing... see where the cat and the white rabbit are not part of the die cut???

Yep, I'd never done that before.. I'll be trying it again for sure! 



Also linking up to

Robyns Fetish Challenge: Must Use Green

Oh the places you'll go!

I've been doing a little bit of playing in my art journal lately..

It's a great place to try out some new things.

So a few days ago I got those new (to me) Dylusions Inks,

and this was my first try!

I just had the green and yellow

and I wanted to play long with the Dr Seuss inspired challenge over at Cute it Up.

All the circles were die cut from a circles die I have, and then I cut them up into the

spiral pinwheel things.

I added some red brick distress ink using those poppy packing material things!

I think all the fun colors are just what the Dr ordered (if you know what I mean!)

Super fun! 

If you've got access to the ink sprays, use them! 

Wow are they messy, but wow are they pretty and bright too!

Also entering this into:

Left of center: Anything goes

For a friend

I have a confession...

My fingers are covered.... COVERED!!!!

in INK!!  ok, so I've discovered Dylusions Ink Sprays...

I'm completely addicted!  I want to spray everything!

In fact, I have sprayed a lot of things that may or may not ever make it onto this blog.

Soooo for my offering today I made this fun card

the background is all dylusions ink sprays, I then did the "ghosting" technique using

my chicken coop stamp from Unity Stamps Co.

It's super easy you just spray water on the stamp and stamp over the ink!

Cool right??

Ok, so then I stamped over the handmade background paper with another Unity stamp

the row of butterflies...

I also playing along with the sketch challenge at Simon Says Stamp Challenge

where I had a choice of two sketches to play along with.

I sorta flipped it a little, and I'm so proud of my background paper that

I didnt' want to cover it up too much.

I'm also gonna link up with the new challenge at Dilly Beans for a friend

I just love this mermaid!  And I love the contrast of the butterflies with her being under the sea!

Finally, the little sentiment.... I have a confession.

I have been hoarding this whole pack of little metal plaques since I got them last year. 

I've pulled a few out a couple of times, but never have the heart to attach them.

Today... it's attached!

Also linking up with:

Flutterby Wednesdays: Any winged Creature (I've got the butterflies)

Cute Card Thursday: Anything Goes

Spark your Creativity: Anything Goes for Challenge #7

Also Linking up with the Friday Friends with Flair at Unity Stamps

A Blog Named Hero: free stylin

Crafters cafe: green challenge

Good morning!

Today is my posting day for the new monthly challenge at The Crafters Cafe

This months challenge is... 

Yep, GREEN!

We got the immense pleasure of working with Rick St Dennis digi's!

Oh, and by the way that's the prize over there too!

Wow right?

I thought this mad hatter image sorta looked like a deranged leprechaun!

So I colored him up green

But I added a little touch of red on his hat...

Cause well my mom always made us wear red somewhere on st party's day.

I guess I was supposed to get a kiss instead of a pinch??

Here's his close up!

I'm also playing along with the sketch challenge at Sketchy friday

And the All stitched up challenge at crafty catz

P.S. that washi came on a package from crafty gal Lizzie Sanchez! 

I was able to recycle it on this card!! Yeah!

Flowery card

I have multiple posts today!

This first one is a super fun daisy card!

A while back I got this amazing daisy stamp from Stampendous!

The best part? It comes with a mask included! 

Then LO and behold Stampendous has a challenge using this amazing stamp!

So I set to work.

First I stamped the image in staz on..

Then bam I hit it up with the mask! 

Then I distressed around it! 

Then added some color on the inside of the flower.

Finally I stamped another flower on the bottom of the card.

Bam I added the mask, and stamped again!

If you're looking for a fun challenge with a new product this one is open until the end of March!

Check it out Here

Also linking up with fussy and fancy Friday challenge: Flowers

Denami birthday bash blog hop

Happy Sunday everyone!

Do you know what today is???  

It's blog hop day at Denami Design 

(if you get lost or are just starting from here, you can jump in at the beginning there!)

AND..... it's a Birthday Bash Blog hop!!!  

I know!! It's like destiny.... It's my birthday, it's their birthday!!!

Ok, ok, so you should have come here from Ruza's blog

I'm sure you all are overloaded on fabulous creations and lovely designs!

Today I have a tag to share for my part of the hop.

It's a standard tag from Ranger, I have the super cute Fancy Flutter set of butterfly stamps

so I used some peeled paint and victorian velvet distress inks that I then sprayed with 

a little bit of water and let them run.  

Next I stamped the Large Butterfly on the green chevron paper

I added the fabulous twine from the Twinery along the outline of the butterfly

then I added the button with a little bit of twine inside for the head.

I'm playing along with the Chevron and green challenge over on their blog!

All I'm sayin is if you love twine, you have to check out all their fabulous product!! 

Finally, your next stop on the hop is going to be Lynn

I can only imagine she has some very fabulous stuff going on over there!!!  

If you don't already know, here are the deets on the Blog Hop!

When: The blog hop starts on March 10th at 6 AM, PST. However, you have until March 11, 2013, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs (to be eligible for a prize).Why: To be inspired by fun DeNami Design creations and also the chance to win mini shopping sprees on the DeNami Design website!

Prizes: We are giving away THREE gift certificates to our website...however, you won't know the winning amount until we announce the winners on Tuesday, March 12th! We'll be giving away one gift certificate to a random participant (DT members not eligible) and then we'll also be giving away TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop! Since it's our birthday month, we'll be giving BIGGER gift certificate amounts, so you'll want to be sure to comment on each stop. 

Also, a quick reminder (if you've made it to the bottom of this post bravo!!) 

Today is the start of week two over at Anything but a Card Challenge 

Our challenge is "lucky" or "green" so if you have something like what I've presented today,

you would be perfect for this challenge!!!  

Hope you're having a crafty weekend!!!  

Love coupons

Happy Friday y'all!!

I know, I know for most of you the day is almost over...

And for most of you, this weekend will be an hour shorter than other weekend....

WHAT you say??  Ok, well here in the US twice a year most states change the clocks..

either (as my mom taught me) Spring Forward orrrrr Fall Back

Well there will be none of that for this girl...

Nope, here in the (usually) sunny state of Arizona we don't change the clocks...

The occurrence does however make it that much more difficult for me 

to get a hold of my family on the East Coast... (insert Sad Face here!)

Ok, so I'm apparently in a rambling sort of mood... 

Today I have a cute little project to share with you all...

Do you want the back story?? 

here's the quick version... When mom was here in Feb, she sent me a "Romancing your Husband" challenge

and one of the suggestions was a coupon booklet.

Honestly, I never really know how hubby is going to respond to these things.  

So, I made this booklet...

Here's one of the coupons

Can I just tell you all... 

I was overwhelmed with his response...

So see how I did the holes on the side??  well you can't see in the pics, but I then cut a little slit

so that hubby could easily slide them out...

apparently they started to fall out...

So hubby got this board,

 and now has them at the entrance to the bedroom.

yep, he walks past them 10 - 20 times a day..

Today he was back in the bedroom, and got real quiet...

so I wandered back there, and he's just standing there staring at the coupons.

"What're you doing" I ask.... 

"Planning our next day off together" he says...

Ha ha ha I just love it...

Even better... he has decided that he is going to add his own coupon to the back of these, 

and give them back to me.

Today he came in the craft room and started poking around and asking me how to use 

some of the things in there... then he disappeared again... I will share his return coupons when I have one!!! 

I hope you all are having a very crafty and fun weekend!! 

Altered cigar box present

Ok, so I sorta promised I'd share this beauty...
My very good friend Sasha has a birthday tomorrow!

I had been collecting cigar boxes this fall when I was able to go to a bunch of estate sales...

It seems that there were always cigar boxes in use in the garage for tools and whatnot

(he he I used the word whatnot!!)

Ok, so I digress!

I recovered this rather plain looking box into a fun little piece of work!

See my friend Sasha and I work together... yep, we're both 911 operators,

and one of our essentials to doing our job is a headset.

Well, last week I noticed that Sasha keeps hers in the box that it came in...

Ummm for 5 years... so you can imagine that the box is pretty beat up!

I figured this would be a good present for her!

I covered it in paper, and then cut out some tattered florals in aluminum tape

then ran those through an embossing folder, and  added the black using my staz on pad.

Wow... then, since it's just tape, I peeled off the back and stuck it down

(well except for the big one, see my tape isn't that large, so I had to make a bigger piece.)

Oh yeah, and prior to all that I did some alcohol inks on the tape! Blues and Greens

Sorry the Green didn't turn out in the picture.

Here's the inside of the box as well!

I hope you've enjoyed my creation,
I'm linking it up to Tim Holtz' Tattered Florals Challenge

I know there are lots and lots of fabulous entries, so if you have this die, go play along!!!

Thanks for stopping by tonight, I love that you've taken a few minutes out of your busy day to check out what I've been up to! 

A Hollywood birthday

I just love the new challenge at The Octopode factory which is Hurray for Hollywood.

One of my work friends has a birthday. 

Ok there are two that have birthdays! I already shared one of the cards, 

Here is the other one.

This work friend is a movie buff... No seriously, 

If jeopardy had a movies only show she would win hands down!

So when I saw this challenge I knew it was perfect timing for her birthday card! 

I added the glitter (I woulda anyways) for the Sparkle challenge at up cake crafts,

And the All That Glitters challenge at the corrosive challenges.

Here's a close up of my coloring!

Finally, I'm linking up to the Black Cardstock challenge at there she goes stamps.

And also the Little bit o green challenge at Simon Says Stamp challenge.

I may be back later with an awesome altered cigar box that I did for my friend Sasha.

Have a crafty Wednesday! 

Anything but a card - challenge 14 - lucky

Happy Sunday!

You know what Sunday means right?

Yep, it means a new challenge over at Anything but a card

This two weeks the challenge is something lucky, or green, ect

Last week hubby was cleaning out the office 

(he's on a cleaning roll, I'm definitely not going to stop him!)

And when he was done he said. "There's a bunch of picture frames in there"

So what's quicker or easier than making a little proverb to go in a frame?

I'm going to hang this in our guest bedroom now.

I hope you'll come play along with us this challenge!

Stripey birthday

It's a birthday kind of time around my house!!

It seems that there are a lot of birthdays in March for my family and friends..

Which is fine with me of course!! 

I made this cutie for my dear friend Sasha.

We started working at the same place just a few weeks apart,

and through the last 5 years have grown close!

I'm linking this card up with the Stripes challenge over at Dilly Beans.

I've been a bad participant over there for the last month or two, 

but I just adore Megan's digi's, and I'm so glad I could play along this challenge.

For the stripey background I used my Perfect Medium Pen from Ranger,

and some clear embossing powder.  

I then inked over the lines with distress inks. 

Here's a close up of the image. 

It's hard to see in this pick, but I added some rock candy distress stickles to her wings.

It gives it a glimmery sort of distressed look.

I'm also excited to link this pretty card up with the Birthday Bash Tic Tac Toe challenge going on 

over at Designed to color. (I did the line that included Purple, Banner, and presents)

There is still a little time to join in... it's their 1 year anniversary (on the same day as my birthday!)

and they are having 4 days of giveaways and fun!!! 

Also linking up with:

Chocolate, coffee, and cards:  Buttons and Bows

and the sketch challenge at: Sketchy Friday
Flutter by Wednesday: 3 or more layers

You are my sunshine

Good morning!

Happy weekend to you all! 

It's been a glorious sunny week here in Arizona

Ahh who am I kiddin, it's almost always sunny here...

after all, it only rains about 10 days a year!

I made this quick card as a go to card a few weeks ago when mom was here.

I thought I had blogged about it, just to find that alas, I had not...

so here is a bright and sunny ray of sunshine to fill your otherwise dull Saturday

This my friends is a fabulous stamp that I won from Stampendous!

The best part??  oh the best part is that it comes with a mask...

no, not like batman and robin mask.... well, I guess sort of like that...

it has a fabulous little plastic cutout to mask off the image

I'm super excited to use it on a large scale project!

Because let me tell you, this is one BIG stamp!

Have a crafty weekend!