Friday the 13th!!

    I don't know about you, but I kind of like Friday that are on the 13th and there have been some years and that those days have been lucky days for me.  I never think of them as anything but good and since Friday has always been one of my favorite days, in general, today is not different.  

   Today, let's hope it's a FUN and LUCKY day for all.  It sure is a lovely day here and it was nice to be out running errands this morning in the warm sun.   It's also so nice to see the trees budding up and some of the flowers starting to bloom.  The grass is also starting to turn green again and it won't be long before everything comes back to life!  I just LOVE Spring and look forward to warmer weather every day!!  I'm also super excited about my Getaway Weekend which is now coming up fast.  In only five more weeks I'll be down in Baltimore meeting spending a weekend with many of my crafty online friends.  It's going to be so fun to finally meet these girls who I have spent so much time with (online) these past few years.  We are all going to have such a fun weekend and I'm thrilled to be going to the first of what we hope will an annual event!   The Outlawz Rodeo!

 
 I never found time yesterday to post, so I'm a bit behind and may even come back later with more updates for this post.  It's been a lot of fun to be making a ton of new cards after spending so much time in classes, which I also love.   Oh and before I forget, my next class starts Monday and I can't wait.  It's the new Die-Cut Class (A Cut Above), being taught by Jennifer and Kristina over in their classroom and it's OPEN to all.  You can come and join me by heading to the classroom HERE!!   I know it's going to be a fun one and it was a class I had hoped they would offer.  I am especially excited about the learning more and more about using my Cameo, as well as more tips and hints for cutting with my Cuttlebug and Big Shot too!   As you can guess....I have them ALL and love die cuts and all the amazing new ones out there in the craft world.    I do hope with this class, I can continue to play along in my favorite challenges too!  

   My first card was another take at this week's Color Combo Challenge over at The Outlawz and on top of using some gorgeous colors, our Twist was to 'Case' one of the cards that the DT has provided as Inspiration.  That was actually the hardest part of the challenge to me, as I did not really have ANY of the same images or papers that the gals used on their cards.  I also found out later, that I may have been interpreting the idea of "Casing" or "Scrap-Lifting", much different than others.  To me, I always thought it was "copying" the project/card - using the same colors, papers, cards and even sentiment, but in this challenge, I was told that it was okay to simply 'case' a part of idea from the cards, which did make it easier.

   I am sharing a copy of the color combination along with the card that I "cased" which was created by Lori, one of the DT Members, of the Color Combo Group!!

Our Colors

 

Lori's Card

My Card

    As you can see, my card is NOT exactly the same, but thanks to my wonderful Cameo, I was able to make one pretty close and I had a lot of FUN trying to make it as much of a "Case" as I could.  I did change a the sentiment, and my ribbon and flourishes are different, but I had fun trying!!

   My next card was inspired by a fun challenge that is hosted every month over at Crafting by Designs.  It's called "Getting Ready for Christmas" and the idea is to work on some Christmas/Holiday cards throughout the year, which will be a great help once November and December are here.   This week Cindy had shared a wonderful sketch (by Tami Mayberry), which I have copied it over her to share!

Tami's Sketch

 My Card

   And since that kind of put me in the Christmas mode, I decided to make a second Christmas Card with some brand new adorable Die Cut I had just bought from Lily of the Valley, during their big Free Shipping Sale.

   I also created a fun new paper-pieced card with a brand new digi image that I bought while browsing over at Whimsy Stamps.  I found some super cute new digis (by Moon Cookie), and this one (Heart Vase) I thought was not only fun for spring, but fun for Paper-Piecing, which is one of my favorite techniques.

    This card was submitted to this week's Twisted Thursday Challenge at The Outlawz.  Our challenge this week was "Anything Goes", with a twist of adding something that was recycled.  In my card the black frame was actually from my scrap bin and is the negative of a die cut I had cut earlier for a different card.  I simply trimmed the sides to fit on my card base and then added my flower image.  My digi papers are from Shery K Designs adn I also colored part of the image with my Copics.  The card base was also created with some more card stock in my scrap bin and had been used for some die cuts I make with my Cameo.  I also submitted this card to the Paper-Piecing challenge at Crafting By Designs.

    And now I am off to check out what new challenges there are to join today!  Friday is always a fun challenge day at Crafting by Designs and Friday is also Copic Challenge day at The Outlawz.  I heading to both next and may be back to share some new cards later!  In the meantime, I'm wishing you are all super Friday and hope it's a great day!!

     Update: -- Back to share two new cards that I finished up this afternoon.  Both were created for new challenge over at Crafting by Designs and the first is for a brand new "Baby" themed Challenge.  I had a lot of fun making this cute card and started with a cute little Onesie Die Cut that I cut on my Cameo.  The actual file was intended to make a card, but I changed it a bit and instead used it as a layer on my card.  I also added three little buttons and then created a sentiment on my Computer, that I later punched out with a circle punch.  Once I put everything together I had this sweet little "Baby Girl" card!!

  And last by not lease is my little "Chickie" card, also inspired and created for another new challenge at Crafting By Design.  Our them for this one was simply named "Chickie" and it was up to each of us to use that in any way we like.   I found this cute digi image in my stash, and then printed it out, along with a second copy and some cute yellow digi papers, which I used to Paper-Piece onto my little Chickie.  I then colored the rest of the image with my Copics and cut it out with a Labels Seventeen Die.  I used the same set of die to create the black background and my yellow card based.   Once it was all put together, I added a little black bow and had this fun Spring Card!

   I am also submitting this card to the Customer Challenge this month of over DigiStamp Boutique.  This cute little Chickie is also known as "Chirpy" and I bought her form DSB, last Spring!!

  Oh......and one more tidbit to share!!   I've been trying out some new photo editing software that I found out about from the girls over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group.  Many of them had been using Picnik, which recently shut down.  In the meantime they've been trying a variety of programs and posted about how easy this one was to use.   I tried it out today and it's really easy and fun and best of all - FREE!  It's called PicMonkey and you can find the site HERE!  One of the best features for me is that you can add custom watermarks and also change the color of them.  As an example the watermark on my Chickie card is really white, but in this program, not only can I add it to my card, I can also change the color.  You can also created frames and all kinds of fun backgrounds for your cards and add a variety of elements.  It will be especially fun to use for Digital and Hybrid Cardmaking.  As you can see I found the edges of my background and then added an extra layer of black behind it.    I think it may become my new editor, and since I current have to use two editors, one for updates and edits and then a separate one to add my watermark -- this is a bonus for me.   Oh and did it mention, it's FREE!!!!