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