Bugaboo Bright Colors and Flowersoft Challenge Entry

Hi All,

Just a really quick note to show my entry for the Bugaboo Challenge. I am entering the Bright Colors and Flowersoft challenge. I have had my Flowersoft since it first came out and at that time they were pastel colors, so its not as bright as I would have hoped, but it was fun to work with Flowersoft again. I paper-pieced the polka-dotted part of her gown and using Copics I colored both images. I then used baby blue Flowersoft to accent the outer flower and a soft peachy/orange color for the flower in her hair. I fussy-cut the girl and used a Spellbinder Nestability for the flower image and edged it slightly with Tumbled Glass distress ink. The lace is from Hero Arts and is self adhesive! LOVE IT!! The DP is from my scrap pile and I dont remember exactly where it came from. Sorry!

I really enjoyed creating and entering this challenge. If you would like a chance to play along, please stop over to the Bugaboo Challenge Blog or click HERE.
























*Hugs*
~Andrea

Softpencil Studios Anniversary Challenge

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for being such a blog slacker lately, but my daughter is graduating from high school in a couple weeks and between her senior prom, school choral and band concerts for both kids, and other crazy things going on, I havent had the time or mojo to do much creating. I hope that after I get through the next couple weeks, I will be back to making cards on a regular basis.

For today's posting I wanted to help celebrate the Softpencil studios Anniversary! Elizabeth is a wonderful artist and the characters that she creates are adorable! I am proud to say that I won an Easter Challenge on Paper Craft Planet using her Happy Easter image! If you arent familiar with Soft Pencil Studios, here is the link: http://www.softpencilstudios.com/

To celebrate, Elizabeth is holding a challenge and it is Glitter and Rhinestones! Well, bling lovers, this is one for you!! I made 2 different entries, and am not sure if I can submit both, but one of the following will definitely be my entry for the challenge.

This first card is using a newer image called Starry Night. It features Michu (the cat) and Ratiny (the mouse) dangling on a crescent moon...How cute!! I embossed stars on a piece of glitter blue paper and matted the image on a piece of navy blue cardstock. For the image, I colored them with Copic markers and used chipped sapphire distress ink around the image. I cut it out using a spellbinder nestability and accented each star with stickles. For the bling part (rhinestones) I gave each of my kids and my box of bling and let them design the bling accents. My son did this card and my daughter did the tag below. I think they did a fantastic job! Plus their young hands work better than mine for placing all the tiny bling!!






















For my second creation I tried something totally different from my clean and simple style. I really had a blast making this tag. I stopped at our Joann Fabrics in between dropping kids off and picking them up (I had 1 hour to kill) and they are remodeling the store. There were things in clearance bins all over the store and I found a box of Faber-Castell 6 Metallic Gel Sticks which look like what they now sell as Gelatos. Each color looks like a chapstick and you turn the bottom to advance the gel up to the top. They are very creamy and blend beautifully. You can also add water and watercolor with them. What a true steal for $3. The six metallic colors are gold, red(more like a rose color), green (looks teal), blue, purple and silver. I started with a plain manilla tag and made stripes of each color across the tag. Then just using my finger, I blended each one across and then together where the stripes met. What a fantastic background it made. I then used some 50 cent clear stamps that were also in a clearance bin that had a doily-like image and stamped them in bright Vivid ink on top of the striped background. I used the softpencil studio image I will keep you safe bunny digi stamp that I had colored with Copic markers. I just love, love, love this image and had so much fun coloring it. I also used a die-cut sun to accent the tag which was made from a MFT(My Favorite Things) sun die. As I mentioned earier, my daughter did the bling accents for the tag and I think it looks great!

























So why not try your hand at making a fun and glitzy project for this challenge? Here is a link to the challenge http://digitalstamps.blogspot.com/2011/05/softpencil-anniversary-challenge.html go ahead and have some fun!

So lets all congratulate Elizabeth on her Anniversary and here is to many many more to come!

*Hugs*
~Andrea

Bugaboo Stamps has a new store !

New Store at Bugaboo Stamps plus 50% off in May!

Hi Everyone,

I am so pleased to announce the opening of the new store at Bugaboo Stamps! As many of you already know, I am a true fan of Bugaboo stamps and love watching as Jodie creates such fantastic images. The entire Bugaboo Design team are ultra talented and their creativity is amazing. Not only do they make cards, they come up with some of the most interesting and stunning projects. I will be listing all of the info below of how to get to the new store, plus some links to their blog and challenge blog too.

If you havent seen or tried a Bugaboo stamp, then you are truly missing something. Stop over to their store and download a freebie, then color it up to join in their weekly challenge to win more Bugaboo images.

Here are some details of the opening of their new store. Check out the fantastic discount and some chances to win prizes.

First off for the month of May everything is 50 % off! So now is a great time to stock up. With the grand re-opening of the store we are offering up some wonderful prize packages for our loyal followers! You could be the winner of a $10 Gift Certificate, a $20 Gift Certificate, or you could be the lucky winner who gets 7 free images every month for the rest of 2011! That means you could be one of the lucky 8 winners!

To add to the excitement Jodie had just told me that every order placed in May will have their name placed in the pot for a chance to win one of five $20 gift certificates that she will be giving away at the end of the month!

Before you run to check it out we have some important info to share with you!

The link to the new store link is http://bugaboostamps.3dcartstores.com/ !

Please note this will change back to the Bugaboo address in a few days we will alert you when this happens and remind you to change your links. We apologize for this minor inconvenience but trust me with the new store it is worth it!

Just to give you an idea of how much fun I have with the Bugaboo images, I am going to share a peek into my 'colored' Bugaboo images that I still need to make into cards. This is by no means the only Bugaboo images that I own (I have over well over 200 images) but just a few that I have colored when my legs hurt and I need a distraction from the pain. When I decided to write this post for my blog, I thought "How can I show people how much fun they are?", well this is my small attempt at showing how much fun I have coloring Bugaboo images.
































Here are the links that I promised. Just click on any of them and head on over!!

Bugaboo Stamps New Store: http://bugaboostamps.3dcartstores.com/

Bugaboo Blog: http://bugaboostamps.blogspot.com/

Bugaboo Weekly Challenge: http://catchthebugblog.blogspot.com/

If you already love Bugaboo Stamps, join in to help their new store opening! Details can be found on their blog.

One last thing...Jodie, Congrats on your new store !

*Hugs*
~Andrea

Patches of Pink

Patches of Pink Design Team Day and the
Thursday Link-Up Party!

Hi Everyone,

I am happy to announce that I am on the Design team for Patches of Pink ! Patches of Pink is owned by Jalisa who is a very sweet and wonderful crafter. She has something for everyone to enjoy on her blog! From weekly challenges to generous giveaways and some wonderful free digital stamps drawn by Jalisa's hubby, there is always something creative going on !

Every Thursday there is a Link Up Party where you can submit something that you made that week. You have from Thursday to Sunday to link up your card, project, etc. then come back to Patches of Pink on Monday until Tuesday at noon (EST) and you can vote for your favorite. Then Jalisa picks her favorite and the readers favorite choice is also announced. For full details stop over to Patches of Pink .

This Thursday (Today) is Design Team Day also and our theme is to make something using SPRING colors. We have had some nice days this past week weather-wise, and it was so much fun to make my card while knowing that warm weather will be here in no time at all! I really loved coloring this image and since I was thinking spring colors, I decided to make the ladybugs PINK!!

Here is my submission for the Design Team Day:




















Here is the recipe for my card. I am trying to organize my crafting area and I dug into some of my older stash to find some of the items on this card. Try your hand at making a spring card using scraps, embellishments and older papers, it is a blast to see that things that you purchased or received as a gift go so well together! That is what happened when I made this card.

Card: Bazzill Chiffon Yellow Cardstock
Design Paper: DCWV The Pocket Full of Posies Stack
Image: Bugaboo Stamps (Scene It - Ladybugs)
Mat for Image: Bazzill Petunia Pink Cardstock
Ribbon: Self Adhesive Pink Ribbon from JoAnn's Clearance Aisle
Flower: This was attached with a different ribbon to a bottle of Distress Ink Stain that I bought online from the Crop Stop. I thought it was so pretty that I wanted to use it on my card.
Ink: Image was printed from my HP inkjet printer and colored with Copic Markers. I added Tumbled Glass Distress ink to create the sky. The grass is Copic Marker.
Sentiment: Dab a Little clear acrylic stamp. These clear acrylic stamps are made by my friend, Maria who also works at the local rubber stamp store where I help out.
Sentiment Punch: Stampin' UP! Designer Tag punch in Petunia Pink Bazzill Cardstock
Sentiment Mat Punch: EK Success Large Photo Labels Punch in Chiffon Yellow Bazzill Cardstock
Jeweled Butterfly Embellishment: Purchased at Joann Fabrics so long ago that I have no idea what company made it.

So try your hand at making a card from items you already own, or show off some of your work that you did this week at the Thursday Link Up Party at Patches of Pink! Or Both!! You can share up to 2 projects/cards each week. It is really fun to see all of the different items that others make and they always give me some great inspiration.

Jalisa also has a Mother's Day giveaway going on this week. The prize is "Even More Punny-licious" Stamp set sentiments from My Pink Stamper. They work perfectly with the Cricut 'Create a Critter' cartridge too! I have the link to the giveaway on my right sidebar -->
Just click and enter for your chance to win!!

Have a wonderful Spring Thursday and hope to see you at Patches of Pink. Share some love with Jalisa by leaving a comment and/or voting for her blog for the Top Mommy Blogs. The button to vote is on the home page.

*Hugs*
~Andrea

Thank You! and The BFB Award!

Hi Everyone,

Today I have some Thank You's to pass out to some really wonderful people. Sometimes its the little things that count and thoughtfulness of good people that really make life enjoyable. I had a little bit of both this past week and want to Thank everyone!

Pati's Kisses

First I want to Thank Lynda Nielsen from Lynda's Scrappy Place and who is also Co-Team Leader for The Digi Bells Design Team. I had stopped at the Digi Bells DT blog and Lynda had made a gorgeous card using a new Elizabeth Bell Digital stamp called Pati's Kisses (This link is the card that Lynda made). Along with her card, Lynda had a little Guessing game which was to be for fun. She asked three questions about her favorites that she included in her card. Well to my surprise...and everyone else...the next day I found out that I had answered the favorites correctly and another surprise, I had also won the Pati's kisses digital stamp! What a wonderful and thoughtful surprise!! Im still smiling here, it really made my week!

Below is the card that I made from this adorable Elizabeth Bell digital image. You can purchase this digital stamp HERE. I am also going to show a closeup of the image, which is so adorable!




















The BFB Award

You know how sometimes something really nice happens when you least expect it and it just touches your heart? I had one of those moments on Sunday when I received an email from Patricia St. Martin who owns the Rubber Stamping is My Game blog. I visit Patricia's blog often and she makes some amazing cards! She had asked me to stop over to her blog because she had a surprise for me! Another surprise??? Wooohooo! Im starting to love surprises...LOL

Well to make a long story a bit longer, Patricia gave out some BFB Awards for visiting her blog and I was named one of the recipients. (Insert Huge Smile here). What a sweet thing to do when all I was really doing was visiting and enjoying myself admiring her work.










Here is what I found out about the BFB Award:
There are no requirements attached to this award. It is just an opportunity to recognize and say thank you to the wonderful cyber friends that frequent your blog. Without them..... our blogs would not be the same!!!

In the same spirit, I would like to pass it along to some of my regular blog visitors (listed in NO particular order). Thank you ALL for visiting my blog and putting up with some really rambling posts..LOL You all deserve a reward just for reading my blog some days! I truly appreciate each and every one of you and the support that you have shown to me in my short time (3 months) at blogging.

Please take the blinkie for your blog and pass along a smile to someone who may not expect it. I know it made my day!! Thank you Patricia!!

Patricia http://rubberstampingismygame.blogspot.com/ - Just incase you want another!! *Hug*

Lynda http://www.lyndasscrappyplace.blogspot.com/

Jalisa http://www.patchesofpink.com/

Vera http://lingshappyplace.blogspot.com/

Dana http://danasinspirations.blogspot.com/

Jane http://sneezy1956.blogspot.com/

Danni http://dannisdreamscrafts.blogspot.com/

Di http://disdigidownloads.blogspot.com/

Jodie http://www.bugaboostamps.com/home.html

Elizabeth http://www.softpencilstudios.com/

If I forgot anyone, please excuse my bad memory here. Please take the blinkie for your blog and pass it along too!

Have a fantastic week everyone!

*Hugs*
~Andrea

Patches of Pink - Win a chance to become a member of the PoP Design Team

Hi Everyone,

Today's cards are to remind everyone that Jalisa at Patches of Pink is holding a special link-up party and challenge in which the entrant with the most votes by their peers will be invited to become a PoP Designer. Jalisa will also hand-pick 2 entrants to become part of the Patches of Pink Design Team. The Challenge is anything Easter Themed.

Entries must be posted and linked-up by Sunday April 17th. Voting will run from Monday April 18th until Noon (EST) on Tuesday April 19th.

Here are a couple of cards that I made for inspiration. So stop over to Patches of Pink, link-up your Easter creation and leave Jalisa a comment to say Hello or let her know that Andrea sent ya!

Good Luck to All !!

*Hugs*
~Andrea

Penny Black and Bugaboo Stamps *Updated*

Penny Black and Bugaboo Stamps Colored Cards using Copics or Prismacolor Colored Pencils with Gamsol

EDIT: I have updated to add in a couple more Bugaboo cards (one for a challenge) and another great Penny Black Image **

Hi Everyone,

As promised I want to share more of the cards that I made. These cards were colored with Copic markers and I also have one colored with Prismacolor Colored Pencils. You probably know by now that I cant resist cute images and these cards have some really great cute images. Thank You Penny Black and Bugaboo Stamps for making such cuties!!

ADDITIONAL CARDS ADDED:

Bugaboo Layer Challenge

I have made this card for the Bugaboo stamp layer challenge and have also entered it into the Papertake Weekly Challenge (See info below pic). The challenge is to use 4 or more layers and I think I achieved that with my 7 layers..LOL The outside stamp is FT Flower Tag 1 from the Flower Tags series. I also put another Bugaboo image inside for fun and it is the Violet from the Flower Watercan series. I colored it with Copic Markers.

I have also entered this card into the Papertake Weekly Challenge. The theme is Truly Dimensional and I think that this entry fits. Here is a link to their challenge, it looks like this is a fun weekly challenge to enter. Good Luck to everyone who enters!

Bugaboo Nurse Gatefold

This is a gatefold card and decorated with the Bugaboo digi stamp BAngel Get Well Soon which can be found under Angels in the Bugaboo Brat section.


Another Penny Black

This is one of the images from the Penny Black clear acrylic set Micey Day (30-028). These two little mice and the teacup are adorable and fun to color. I colored them with Copic Markers. The paper is Hero Arts Designer Paper.


I hope you enjoy these few additions to my blog and have a great day!

*Hugs*
~Andrea

Eat Cake

This first image is from the Penny Black Eat Cake clear acrylic set (30-066). As soon as I saw this image, I knew I had to have this set. I still smile when I see it. How adorable can it be??? LOL I colored this image using Prismacolor Colored Pencils and Gamsol. I love the soft effect that this technique gives to the images. I created the sky part of the image using Ranger Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. The background paper is one of the new Hero Arts Designer Papers. The Happy Birthday sentiment is a wood mounted rubber stamp from Anita's stamps. I cut the image out using Spellbinder Nestabilities.

Mouse Bouquet

This image is also from the Eat Cake (30-066) and is colored with Copic Markers. The mats for this card are made with Spellbinder Nestabilities and the card stock used is by Bazzill.

Bun Bun

When my daughter was about 3 months old (she is now 18), my Dad bought her a stuffed Bunny made out of silky material (like parachute material) and she fell in love with it! Being so creative (LOL), I named it Mr. Bun Bun and he became and still is my daughters favorite toy. Eventually the Mr. was dropped and he became Bun Bun. You know that one stuffed animal that gets dragged through everything, goes everywhere and is sewn more than it has original material. The poor bunny has been there when she was sick, sat in sweltering cars in the summertime while we went shopping or on vacation. And I was even told that Bun Bun used to drive my car and go to Arby's when we left him in the car! LOL Not that he ever brought us any roast beef sandwiches...LOL He became an important part of our family.

Well when I saw this Penny Black bunny and then saw the name, I knew I had to make my daughter an Easter card using it. The stamp is wood mounted red rubber and the name is Bun Bun (3620H). I colored him with Copic Markers and mounted him on Bazzill card stock using Spellbinder Nestabilities. The lace strip is from Hero Arts and is self adhesive. Love it! Bun Bun is lightly highlighted around the edges using Ranger Spun Sugar distress ink. Its such a pretty light pink color.















Bee Happy and Bee Mine from Bugaboo Stamps

This image is a digital stamp from Bugaboo stamps. I was trying my hand at monochromatic coloring and both are colored using Copic Markers. The Bee Happy mini stamp was a gift from a friend and the Bee Mine is from a clear acrylic set by Heidi Grace designs from Fiskars called Cheerful Bee that I got on clearance at Joann Fabrics.

On the Bee Happy card, the plain card stock is Bazzill. The polka dot DP is from Bo Bunny and the swirls paper is from the new Hero Arts Designer Papers. Simple rectangular layers gives real depth to this card.

The Bee Mine card is matted using plain Bazzill card stock. The DP is from DCWV (Die Cuts With a View). I cant remember the name of the paper pack since it has been used so much that I took off the top cover...LOL Its a 4 x 6 paper stack and is a couple years old, but has some great glittery paper. I just looked it up at the DCWV and am laughing since the name of the mat stack is: The Glitter Mat Stack...LOL Who would have guessed?? LOL


That is all I have pictures taken of right now. I am currently working on putting together more cards and hope to have more up soon.

Have a fantastic weekend and hopefully everyone will have great weather! Until next time...

*Hugs*
~Andrea

Stamp Store Cards and a Sympathy Card

These are cards that I made for display at a local rubber stamp store

Hi Everyone ! Hope that everyone is doing well this week. My week has been busy and once again the weather has changed on me and thankfully it is finally warming up. But we had to go through snow, sleet, hail and rain to get here, but today was absolutely gorgeous!! Wooohooo! Not that my legs could quite tell yet as the pressure changes seem to cause me troubles but it was worth it just seeing and feeling the sunshine again!

I first want to share some cards that I made for the local stamp store for display which were quick and simple to make. Hopefully one might give you some inspiration to try them.

After the stamp store display cards is a sympathy card that my daughter had asked me to make. Since it turned out so nicely, I wanted to share it if anyone would need an idea for a quick and simple sympathy card.

Party Hat Card

This first card has no coloring on it, but I enjoyed making it so much that I wanted to share it with you. It is a card that I made for display down at the local stamp store. It is using Hero Arts Stamps and papers and a plain A2 sized card and some color graduated ribbon which was a gift from a friend. The ribbon is so soft and pretty and it really makes this card.

To make this card its super simple...I took a plain white A2 (4 1/4" X 5 1/2" ) card and cut it on my paper trimmer starting from the bottom corners and using an angle to leave enough room to make a hole for the ribbons to come out of and for the card to open and close. I left about 1 1/2" at the top of the hat. To place the ribbons, I wrapped the ribbon around my first three fingers several times (about 8-10) then used a small piece of ribbon to tie it together making a circle of ribbon (like an O ). I then held the knotted place and cut the ribbons opposite the tie. This made them into streamers. I cut a small oval into the crease of the top of the party hat and inserted the knot of the streamers inside the card. I then taped the ribbons on the inside of the card with scotch tape. If you leave your knot ends outside of the card, the inside looks very neat and tidy with just a small slit of ribbon at the crease.

Using Hero Arts new Life of the Party Birthday (CL514) and Cutouts (CL515) Clear Acrylic stamps, I stamped the images and added paper as shown on the card. Super Simple and it was done in less than 10 minutes and that Included clean up! LOL Try it with some of your favorite birthday paper or stamps and see what you can come up with!























Poppy Card

This next card was my weak attempt at trying to make a card that I saw online which used a stamped image and matting and used the right side outline of the stamp to create the edge of the front of the card. The card that I saw had a sentiment showing from inside the card, but unfortunately I do not have any sentiments that read vertically so I left it blank. You should get the idea of what I was trying to achieve, and it wasn't too bad for my first attempt at freehand cutting. LOL

The image is one of the Poppy images from the Hero Arts clear set Delicate Blossoms (CL449). I love this set and the poppies are so much fun to color. I colored them with Copic Markers. Please excuse the white card on white background. I should have used a colored background to give more contrast. Sorry!!























Rose Thank You!

This card was made using Hero Arts Luscious Patterned Flowers (CL508) and Luscious Frames (CL509) and is another display card for the Stamp store.

There is no coloring involved on this card, but I really enjoyed making this card because I actually got the sentiment to fit perfectly inside the frame on the very first try! ...LOL I also love the look of the card. The roses were stamped in a darker ink and using Ranger Distress Ink, I sponged on the color to the flowers. I then cut out the roses and leaves and attached them with glue dots.

A slit on each side of the frame was used to pass the ribbon behind the sentiment and around to tie the bow. I love how it turned out!

Even though it is a Thank You card, it could easily be used as a Mother's Day card. I always used to put a little Thank You inside of the Mother's Day cards that I gave to my Mom. So if you still have your Mom around, don't forget to say Thanks for all of the great things she does. Without her, you wouldn't be here ...that's worth a Thank you !!
















Button Flower

Yes, Its another display card for the stamp store. I had fun making them and always enjoy it when a customer makes a copy on our color copier and buys the stamps to make the cards at home. Its such an ego boost! LOL

Again, no coloring involved, but instead I used distress ink for the flower and my Lipstick Red Copic to color a white button a really gorgeous RED! I love using my Copics to make ribbon or buttons that match my image. This red button just seemed to add the right spark to the card.

The stamps used in this card are all from the Hero Arts clear acrylic Luscious Patterned Flowers (CL508) set. I 'colored' the flower using Ranger Wild Honey Distress Ink. Since this is a reverse stamp, just ink it up and stamp the image! I then cut it out to create more depth to the card. The leaves and Thinking of You sentiment were stamped using Ranger Peeled Paint Distress Ink. They are stamped directly onto the card mat. A small scrap of Hero Arts Sunshine Designer Paper (PS630) was added below the white mat. I used a small piece of twine and tied to the front. I added the red button with a small piece of twine to the center of the flower with a glue dot. This is another quick and simple card to make and takes very little supplies. The card itself is a deep red card stock which I lined with white.























That are all of the store display cards and I Thank you for sticking with me while I went into my rambling detail. Please let me know if I go into too much detail, I just never know how much info to add.

This one final card was made for my daughter and her friends.

Sympathy Card

My daughter asked if I could make a sympathy card for a classmate who's father passed away unexpectedly I made the following card so that Shannon and her friends could sign it and give to their friend. I embossed the image and sentiment using Ranger Silver Pearl embossing powder. The picture was taken with the card in its protective plastic bag, so please excuse the glare.























I am hoping to do another post before this weekend is over and to share with you cards that I have actually made using colored images that I completed. Stay tuned for them!! LOL

I hope that everyone is having warmer weather now and that the sun shines brightly until I ramble on at you next time.

*Hugs*
~Andrea

Mimi the Easter Bunny and another Di's Digi !

Sorry for being such a blog slacker lately, but not only have we had cold and snow, we have also had a couple really nice days then a huge hail storm, falling temps and a tornado that touched down east of Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago. Its been absolutely CRAZY weather here lately!! We are currently having another cold spell and had some snow which many of you know is my arch-enemy. So when my legs hurt, I dont like to blog, chat or even email. Im hoping this weather will soon warm up for that early spring we were supposed to have....yeah right! I have to have another talk with that groundhog it seems!!

While I havent been around I have made some cards that I want to share with you. I still have to take pictures of about 6 or 7 of them, but will share the ones that I have pictures to share.

Mimi the Easter Bunny

The following Penny Black Mimi Bunny image was perfect to make Easter cards for the lss store owner's (Margie) granddaughters. Since I wanted them all to be the same , I decided on Mimi in the bunny outfit from the Mimi and Miles clear acrylic set. The lamb and the inside chick are from the Penny Black Fresh New Day set. Please excuse the color of the cards, they are brighter in real life, but with the cold weather we have also had overcast skies.

Here is a little tip from making this card:
I paper pieced the lambs head and body, but had stamped the image directly to the background DP. I love how it turned out and no need to cut out those teeny tiny legs, ears and flowers!! I colored the cards with Copic Markers and used Spellbinder nestabilities for the ovals.

On the inside of the card I made a little surprise. From the Fresh New Day set there was a very very tiny chick which I thought was adorable. I used my 7/8 inch oval punch and using the DP, I punched out little 'Easter Eggs'. I then slipped them into the corner of my Stampin' UP! designer label punch and created a type of cracked egg look. I then took the chick and glued them to the inside of the egg and added them to the inside of the same colored card. Just a little something for the inside of the card which sometimes is forgotten.

Another tip from this card:
The Happy Easter sentiment on the front of the card is from a $1 clear acrylic stamp that I actually cut apart to just get the sentiment. I normally would not cut apart my acrylic stamps, but since it was $1, I figured the worst I could do is destroy it, and honestly I may be cutting more as I need them. It really worked well and you can actually reassemble the clear acrylic stamps back together for the entire image on your acrylic block. I used a Stampin' UP! word window punch for the sentiment.

I do not own many Stampin' UP! items, but the ones that I do own I find I use quite often as when I bought them I did for a certain purpose that I would use often. So for those of us who are very budget conscience, make your craft purchases count. Buy things that will last and maybe pay a bit more but in the long run, you can use them for many different purposes. Dual purpose items and quality items make a huge difference when making cards.

Speaking of quality items.....As many of you may have on your wish list is an ATG gun, here is a tip that I used to get mine. I first tried every type of adhesive I think there is known to man. Glue, double sided tape, runner after runner filled and refilled with adhesive that ran out on every other card it seemed. I finally found an ATG gun that fit my budget and my pocketbook for refills. I purchased the newest Scotch Pink ATG (Advanced Tape Glider) gun which holds 1/4 inch adhesive rolls. The rolls of adhesive are 36 yards in length and refills are sold in a box of 2 for 72 yards of sticking any and everything you can think of. The gun (using a coupon) was under $30 and the refills were less than $5 and they last what seems like forever. The adhesive is also acid free for those scrapbook memories. At first it took a bit getting used to since it is larger than I realized, but within a day, I was taping like a pro. I also like the 1/4 inch size of adhesive since you can use it on small areas, and I feel it is a good investment to save on adhesive purchases.

I still use my Xyron machines...yes, machines...I have the X, the 2 1/2 inch and the 5 inch when I either have very tiny items or want to glue a full sheet on the front of a card. I find that it saves time and they are also good for making sure that your items stay on your card. Nothing worse than having something falling off of the front of your card!

And where would I be without my pop dots? Foam dots and Stampin' UP! dimensionals are also staples in my craft stash. Glue dots are another good purchase since they are clear and you can add some minis to hold down a bow, or tuck a pieced image to your card. They come in a variety of sizes and they even have one for Vellum.

Ok...Sorry for rambling about adhesives..LOL

I have one final card to share with you today only because it was also for Margie for her Granddaughter's birthday. When I made this following card, you will see that it was a Miss You card. When Margie saw it, she said it looked just like her granddaughter Taylor who is turning 6, so I revamped the card and changed the sentiment from Miss You to 'Taylor is 6 ! ' . Nothing else was changed, I just took the card and replaced the sentiment and reattached the front. It makes a much better Birthday card than a Miss You card anyway! The image is from Di's Digi Downloads and there is a link to her adorable digital images on my right sidebar. Please stop over to see Di, her images are so cute and you will find something for every occasion! I also colored the image with my Copic markers. The little dog did not have patches of white, but as I colored him, I thought he would look cute if I gave him a few. I think he is so cute!!



Thanks once again for enduring my ramblings, and hope that everyone has a wonderful April Fool's Day without any trickery!!

*Hugs*
~Andrea

Challenge entry for By Lori Designs - BLDC9

Today I am just going to post a card for a challenge that ends this evening...Leave it to me to forget and post it at the last minute..LOL Since my son and I worked on this card earlier this week, I have to make sure I get it in on time.

















This is my entry for the By Lori Design Challenge #9

















I purchased these digi images a while ago, but hadnt used them yet, so I thought I would enter the challenge this week using them. Each one was carefully cut out by my wonderful son for me (Thanks Sweetie!) and I enjoyed using the different shades of green. Arent they adorable!?! I colored them with my trusty Copics and their shoes and the dog are even colored Green Gray (BG93) which I think looks great! Who wouldnt want a green/gray dog?? LOL

Hope you enjoy this quick post and challenge entry.

Yep, that's it...no rambling today. But I am sure I will catch up the next time I post..lol

Hope all is well and thanks for stopping to visit. Stop over to my right sidebar and check out the blog candies and sign up to become a follower for my friends who are trying to build their blog traffic. Not only do they have fantastic blogs, but the prizes are super generous. So go take a chance, someone has to win!! Good Luck and Take Care!

*Hugs*
~Andrea

Happy Day! Happy Easter! Happy Birthday! And a Prayer/Card Request!

I hope this post finds everyone Happy today! I worked on some Happy cards this past week and wanted to share them with you. This is a mixture of fun cards to help celebrate Easter and Birthdays.

We had some wonderful weather this weekend (temps in the 50s and 60s -- Woohooo!!) and even if the weatherman says there is one more bout of snow to deal with, Im going to pretend he is mistaken..LOL So lets all celebrate spring and be happy!!

HAPPY EASTER

For those of you who are not aware of the new SoftPencil Studios that made its debut on March 8th, please stop over HERE to check out the new and fantastic images by my dear friend Elizabeth Pujalka. Elizabeth is an incredible artist and designs some adorable images and just released a whole new line of characters called the "Tinytwinies".

As part of Elizabeth releasing her Easter images she asked her guests to pick their favorite Easter image in the collection. Then she randomly selected one person to receive the entire Easter collection, and also generously sent the Easter item everyone else selected that image to keep and create items from! What a fabulous surprise!! As you will see I selected the following image called 'Happy Easter'. I love the sweet little animals that Elizabeth draws, and couldnt resist picking the image with them all surr0unding a cute Easter Egg.

I only had one Happy Easter greeting stamp, which is a small clear acrylic stamp made by a local artist here in Pittsburgh, and it seemed to fit with the whimsical style of Elizabeth's image. I had so much fun coloring up this digital stamp and hope that you all stop over to Elizabeth's site and pick up some of the sweet images she carries. I have many other images that I have purchased in the past and will dig them up and color them up for a future post.

Here is a copy of the full card:


I colored the image using Copic markers and then added some Tumbled Glass distress ink to create a sky-like appearance. The paper behind the image is the new Hero Arts pattern paper and the silver dotted strip across the middle of the card is from my scrap box. The butterflies are from a Martha Stewart punch that I dressed up with some bling that I had in my accessories box. As I mentioned earlier, the happy Easter sentiment was made by a local artist and is a clear acrylic stamp.

Here is a closeup of the image:

Arent the animals just adorable!?! I love them!
Each animal has a name you will get to know Michu (the cat), Ratiny (the mouse), Sunny (the bunny) and Perry (the dog) as well as many other of Elizabeth's creations.


Happy Birthday!!

The next group of Birthday cards came about for a number of different reasons. This first card is a sketch challenge for the Color Me Creative Birthday Celebration! I have had a lot of fun playing along with the challenges, games and puzzles for the celebration. Stop over at the link above and wish Suzanne the very best for her celebration.

This is my sketch challenge entry:

I used some of the Critter Balloon animals from Bugaboo stamps and following the sketch, I added some soft pinks and gold to finish up the sketch. To the vertical strips, I used an EK success border punch with open scallops. The center circle is from Nestabilities and the stamp is from Anita's stamps. The individual balloons are punched from a Martha Stewart balloon punch and I added a piece of bakery string to each.


For another challenge in the CMC Birthday celebration was to make a birthday card. This is my entry for the Birthday card challenge:

For this birthday card, I used this weeks freebie from Bugaboo Stamps. Here ia a quick link to this weeks Freebie, called Scene it Bear Birthday. Bugaboo stamps has a Friday freebie each week and Jodie (the artist) is incredibly talented and makes some adorable images. This week's freebie is no exception. I love how sweet the little bears are having a blast at the birthday party! I knew the minute that I saw it that I wanted to make it in bright happy colors! Just perfect for helping celebrate at Suzanne's celebration!


I have three more birthday cards to show, which were made for displays at the local stamping store. These are all Hero arts images and papers, with a little creative license thrown in to make them a bit more me! LOL

This first card is a cute ice cream cone stamp that I stamped out of pink and yellow Hero arts layering papers (carnation and daffodil) then cut out and put together again. I added googly eyes and a piece o striped string around the middle with the Happy Birthday sentiment. I made the background on the card using the same Happy Birthday sentiment.








Another birthday card with ice cream cones came to mind when I decided to make a group of neopolitan cones with sprinkles. I added the sprinkles with tiny colored pearls of pink, white and brown. I am still on the fence on the sprinkles, but I hope the idea gets across and that they dont look like they have chicken pox..LOL




Here is my last Hero Arts Birthday card that I made this past week and I think it is great for young and old, men and women. Just a generic card that you could tuck in a movie theater pass or a gift card. I really enjoyed making this card and rarely do any faux stitching (or real for that matter) and love how the faux stitching really adds to this card. So simple, but looks like you really added something special to the card.



Prayer/Card Request

I hope that you enjoyed my cards and will have more to show you again soon. I am already working on some more and want to share my next incentive with you. If you have an extra minute or two, want to make a card and not sure what kind, then how about using this as some incentive. I received my email blog update from Kathy at The Daily Marker this morning and after reading, I knew immediately what my next cards would be for. Here is the blurb from "Kathy's blog" and I hope that everyone who reads my blog can take a moment to say a prayer or make and send a card for this little boy and his family.

A friend of mine is asking if you will say a prayer for her 3 year old son who was just diagnosed with leukemia. I am sure you can imagine how tragic this news is to hear from your pediatrician. Latrice is collecting cards to try and bring a little comfort to the family. You can read more about it & get the details here. I am always amazing at the card making community and what big hearts you all have.

S0 friends, lets take a moment to share our crafting skills and pass along a bit of cheer to a family who needs some help right now. Thank you Dear Friends!

*Hugs*
~Andrea

Cards with Kites and Other Things

As promised, I finally was able to finish putting together some cards to share. The kite cards were made for the local stamp store for display purposes. All of the kite cards were made using the Die-namics dies from My Favorite Things ( www.mftstamps.com). I will give details for each card under the image. I had a lot of fun making the kite cards and if you want to try something different, I recommend getting some of the dies and 'playing' while creating!

The other cards below are just some images that I colored up when I was a captive to my leg pain. I find that coloring really helps when the pain gets unbearable and I literally have a box filled with colored images just from this winter. This is how most of my cards start...just with an image that I color and I build the card from them.

I hope you enjoy the cards as much as I did making them.

Kite Cards

Kite 1

These kite cards are not added in any certain order, nor are they shown in the order that I made them.

To give you a bit more information on the MFT Die-namic dies, the dies that were used on the kite cards were, of course, the kite, the sun, the clouds and the butterfly. All, some or a combination of the dies were used depending on the card.

This card used the kite, sun and only one of the clouds from a set of 3 clouds. The rainbow is handmade using a circle nestability and staggering the layers then cutting out the centers and cutting it in half. My daughter Shannon suggested the design for the rainbow and I think it turned it really great.

The Card itself is made from one of the new Hero Arts patterned papers. If you haven't seen them, or tried them, they are fantastic!! Each package comes with 3 different designs with 4 sheets each of the designs in the same color family. This card is using one of the blue pattern papers that has the filled and open flower design randomly scattered on the paper along with a grid pattern. The grass is a piece of green Hero Art layering paper. The pattern paper on the kite is from Basic Grey's Kioshi 6x6 paper pad. I used these patterned papers since the patterns were small enough to fit the kite design. The sun is made from Bo Bunny dotted 12x12 paper. I love their paper also. Im so partial to dots and I have them in all different colors...LOL


Kite 2

I actually made this kite card last and was tired of making standard A2 sized cards (5 1/2 x 4 1/4), so I thought I would just make a taller portrait card. This card measures 4 x 8 inches.

The paper for the card is the Hero Arts Kraft cardstock. This is probably the best kraft paper I have ever used. It is so nice and firm and crisp that it makes gorgeous cards! If you like using kraft paper, then run out and get some today! You will not be disappointed, its that great. The DP is the same style of Hero Arts patterned paper as the blue card above, only in their Earth color group. These are all brown/tan and I love them.

I made the sun by positioning the die-namic die in the center of the filled flower in the yellow group paper and the open flower of the same paper. I really like how they added a nice look of texture to the sun. I lightly colored the edges of the of the clouds with Ranger tumbled glass distress ink. The kite tail strings are assorted strings and ribbons. This one is a waxed hemp type which went really well with the paper.


Kite 3

This card is probably my favorite and it all came together quicker than any of the other cards. While building the cards, I thought that the kite needed a hill in the background. So I made one. I literally free-hand cut the slope and adhered it to the card then trimmed around the card. Easy Peasy!!

On this card instead of cutting out more kite tails from extra card stock, I just tied thin ribbon on the string. I also added a sentiment that is sold at the stamp store. In making these cards, I have to use paper and stamps that are sold there in order for them to be displayed. You will notice that only 2 cards have sentiments since I wanted to let the owner select the stamps or the sentiments. This stamp was new to the store and I had to buy it the minute it came in so I used it on this card. I think it is such a great sentiment that I can use on a lot of cards that I send to friends and for swap cards. I also trimmed the sun in the same way that I did the hillside.


Kite 4

This is my version of a quick and simple card using the dies and very basic materials. The paper for the kite came from the Basic Grey's Kioshi 6x6 paper pad and the sun is from the Hero Arts Patterned papers. The string on this card is actually a piece of bakery string that I had in my kitchen junk drawer. I dont know about you, but my Mother always saved the string from cakes and donut boxes and rolled them up and kept them in the kitchen drawer. So whenever anyone needed some string, you knew exactly where to find it. I do the very same thing. The bakery where I get the kids birthday cakes seems to think string grows on trees and I have a huge batch of string just from the birthday cakes..LOL


Kite 5

This is the final kite card to show you and its my 'Girlie kite card'..LOL I couldnt possibly make all of these kite cards and not have a pink kite! I embossed a piece of Basic Grey paper using a cuttlebug folder that I think looks like wind! I distressed it a bit with some tumbled glass distress ink. For the kite tail string, I used a small piece of satin ribbon which I think added such a nice touch. I used some distress ink on the sun and added the Hello! sentiment. The butterfly is also a MFT Die-namic die, it is the smallest of a set of 3 butterflys. I thought it would add a nice girlie touch to the card.

The lace at the bottom of the card is from Hero Arts (Did you notice I like Hero Arts a bit?? LOL) and is self adhesive. It comes in a package of 4 or 5 different strips of lace to add to cards. So simple, but so pretty!
Thanks for checking out my kite cards!!


Now for 3 random cards that I also finished up this weekend. I didnt make them for any particular reason other than just to use up some of the colored images I have sitting in the colored box.


Sprout Card

This image came as part of a set of digital images that were put together to help raise money for Katie Renz, who was recently diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer. I purchased the set and am now just finally getting around to printing out and coloring some of them. This one stood out to me because it made me think of spring. It is by Mo Manning and is called Sprout. I think the name is perfect and that adorable face really drew me in to color her up.

If you havent heard of the fundraiser for Katie, or would like to purchase some really great digital stamps, please stop over to the Help for Katie blog. You can click HERE to take you to the site. Jak Heath started this drive to help Katie and her family and they have now put out another set of images to purchase also. Stop over and check them out. I stop over to Katie's blog and keep up with her treatments (she really is a sweet person and is sharing her experiences on her blog) and drop a quick line of encouragement to her, Im sure she would love to hear from fellow crafters! So instead of spending that $15 on buying a rubber stamp this time, get some great digital images and help a fellow crafter with her expenses of chemotherapy.


Another Di Carubia Image - Adorable flower carrying teddy bear

What can I say??? Di draws images that are so adorable that I cant seem to resist!! LOL I love her style and the adorable images in her artwork. This image is no exception. How cute is that adorable face with those big eyes? I colored him up with copics and used Ranger distress ink around the image. It is cut out using Spellbinder Nestibilities label one die. I added the flower and a little bling in the middle to give it a special touch.



Frog Card

Ok..here is the last card for today. First I have to apologize to the artist since I can not seem to find who made this in my digital stamp folder. I keep each image in its own folder by artist and can not even find where I would have printed it out from. So if anyone knows the artist, can you please let me know so that I can give out the recognition? Thanks.

I loved this little frog though and colored it with Copics. I made it into a birthday card and added a little pearl in the center of the sentiment.

Well thats it for today. I hope you had fun viewing my creations and I appreciate you taking the time to spend it here on my blog.

*Hugs*
~Andrea

A very brief update, Plus a great blog to visit

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for being out of touch, but right now I am still playing catch-up with my cards and leg issues have kept me down again. It seems they have a mind of their own at times and do not pay any attention to me or what I may want. Stubborn things!!

I do want you all to know that I am working on some cards to share and hope to have them up by this weekend. I had hoped for today, but still have some card building to do. I hope that you will stop back when I put up my next post and check out some new cards that I have made. Thank you all for your patience with me.

Meanwhile, why not stop over to Dana's blog (click on the Copic box on the right sidebar) and check out some of her absolutely fabulous cards?? Dana's coloring will knock your socks off!! The images that she colors look so real it is amazing!!

Dana also has some fantastic tutorials on her blog. From coloring instructions to making gorgeous handmade flowers. You will find plenty of things to read, watch and look at, so dont forget to bookmark or become a follower to keep in touch. She is always adding some great stuff to her blog.

Dont forget to leave her some love while there and let her know what you like best about her blog. Or just say hello and tell her Andrea sent ya! LOL

Oh...and I almost forgot...Dana is also giving away the newest Copic markers to celebrate her 6th month blogaversary. You will have to sign up quickly as it ends on March 12th, but even if you dont get there in time, it is well worth the visit. There is something there for everyone, or as I think, there is everything there for me to enjoy!~

Thanks for stopping by my blog and I hope to update this blog again soon with new cards. We are expecting 3 to 6 inches of snow between tonight and tomorrow night, so if you can spare a 'leg prayer' for me to get through it, I would greatly appreciate it. Lets all Think Spring and hope that it finds it way here very soon.


*Hugs*
~Andrea

MIA, A Very Proud Card Moment Courtesy of Patches of Pink, another Thank you to Di and Birthday Turtles

MIA Apology

Sorry that I haven't blogged in what seems like ages, but the weather here in Pittsburgh has been insane lately and the changes in temperatures wreaks havoc on my legs and overall health. We had some temps into the 50s and a day of hitting 60 then rain, snow and ice. Only to be followed with more cold, cold, cold temps and this past Tuesday we got 8 inches of snow! Needless to say...I was out of commission and am finally getting back into the swing a little bit at a time. As I am typing here, it is thundering like crazy! It woke Jake up and he ran to the door barking thinking someone was at the door! LOL I can tell the weather by my legs better than the local weatherman on TV.

Thank You Patches of Pink!

I want to put up a Huge Thank You to Jalisa from Patches of Pink who featured one of my cards on her blog. I was thrilled to be selected for one of my Penny Black Valentine cards which is Mimi dressed in a bunny suit. It was my daughters favorite too! I entered one of my cute cards into her Valentine's Day link up which was combined with her weekly Thursday Party link-up and my card was selected as one to be featured.

I came across Patches of Pink one day and fell in love with Jalisa's blog. Not only did she have tons of pink things (my favorite color), but she also shared the same type of cute, adorable cards that I love! I really enjoyed learning more about her and her family, learning some tips and reading about some really cute cards that she made. That was when I decided to enter one of my cute cards into her Valentine's Day link up which was combined with her weekly Thursday Party link-up.

Also at Patches of Pink, there is sometimes a treat from Jalisa's husband Brandon who drew a couple free digital stamps. I used one of them on this card below and loved how cute the little girl card turned out. Stop over and pick them up, they are really cute!





Not only does the site have cute cards, but also has some great links and tips for everything from cards to treats for the holidays. I think that Jalisa's blog is a true gem and encourage everyone to stop in and take a look around. I have proudly placed the badge that I was featured on her blog with a direct link to the site. If you want to go right now... click here.

Thank You Di Carubia

On my last posting, I sent out a Thank you to Di Carubia from Di's Digi Downloads for the Blog Candy that I won and had received. Well, I would like to send out another Thank you to Di because I used some of the blog candy and made the card below. I had so much fun coloring and putting it together. The papers and brads and bling all matched and the only pieces I added were the little strip of ribbon and the flower in the lower corner. The center brad came from the candy as did the stamp, papers and the coordinating brad at the top of the ribbon strip. I received so many compliments on this card and had to send another Thank you to Di for generously selecting such nice items to work with.



Birthday Turtles

Finally I wanted to share with you some turtle birthday cards that I colored and made while I was MIA. I found this adorable freebie turtle digital stamp from Whimsy and Stars and made it into some birthday cards. I think this digi is so cute and made it into different colors. I used my Cuddlebug Happy Birthday embossing folder to add some depth to the cards and on the blue card, I used a piece of blue acetate that I bought on a clearance sale for 15 cents. I colored them with Copic markers and used Distress ink to soften the edges of the images.


I hope that everyone has a great week and since Im in Pennsylvania, I am going to have to have a talk with that groundhog that told us we were going to have an early spring!!

*Hugs*
~Andrea