Sunshine = Love!!!

...and today is another summery day here in Massachusetts with lots of sun, but also lots of humidity.   We are expecting some nasty storms rolling in later, but I hope the die out before they make it to the coast.   I also hope this front cools us done a bit and gives us some more much needed rain.

    I'm having another really good day, which is heavenly and it was another day with plenty of quality crafting time.   I knew I wanted to catch up on some challenges and also get back to what I missed in class.  I started by heading back to my "Stretch Your Stamps" class to start where I had left off.   I knew that I wanted to be sure to try and try every idea and I usually try to make at least one card from each of the classes.  My first card today was inspired by a gorgeous card that Shari Carroll had created using a wonderful variety of border stamps.    The class was all about using border dies in a variety of fun new ways and Shari, used them to make her own colorful paper/backgrounds that she later cut into heart shape.   I greatly admire Shari's wonderful cards and style and also follow her blog and videos.  She is another of my favorite Hero Arts designers and I would LOVE to some day take a class with her!    I loved her idea, but with our temps being so hot, I decided I would skip using my heat gun, and came up with the idea of using patterned papers instead for my hearts.    If you are a member of the class you can see Shari's Card on Day 10, it's fabulous.    This is my CASed version of her card.

    My next card is another card I created using a fun "inky/misted" tag as part of my background, along with one of my newest dies, which is this fabulous Meadow Rue Die from Simon Says Stamp.  They, (SSS), are now starting to carry their very own die sets (which you can find HERE),  and they are all wonderful.  I one this one, as well as two of the word dies that were created by Kristina Werner!

    As I mentioned above the center of this card is actually a manila tag, that had been colored with Distress Inks and Perfect pearls Mist.  I had made several tags a while back and kept them to use as backgrounds and elements for future cards.   I then simply cut off the top section and cut it down to the size of an A2 Card.  I then die cue my flowers in a deep navy cardstock (from PTI) and added it on top and added two matching strips of navy cardstock, down the sides and mounted them along with some scrap green paper onto a card base I created from some Desert Storm Kraft Cardstock.   I then simply added the scraps of lime paper along with some cream time and blue gems and had this fun and easy card, that will be submitted to the current "Anything Goes" challenge being hosted over at the Simon Says Stamp - Challenge blog!!

  My next card was also created for another of my favorite challenges, which is over at The Pink Elephant.  This week the theme is Summer and I chose to color up this sweet little "Beach Girl Hannah" which is actually one of Lori Boyd's adorable digi images.   To me, nothing says Summer more than the beach and this cuties is all set to hit the beach in her cute little pink polka dot bikini!!  :)

     And my final card today is another super fun and happy kind of card that was created for the new Twisted Thursday Challenge at The Outlawz, as well as the "Bright Colors" challenge being hosted over on the Oozak Challenge Blog.

   The Twisted Thursday theme is - A Day at the Beach and I started by coloring up a cute little Beach Bucket digi, from my Bugaboo collection  I used a variety of mediums including Copics, Distress Stickles and 3D crystal accents to color this cute image.  I then cut a circle shaped card with my Cameo along with a yellow scalloped circle that I wanted to use as my Sun.  I ran that through my Cuttlebug in an embossed folder and then added Highlights with Wild Honey Distress Ink.  I put it all together, stamped this cute sentiment, by Ali Edwards and had this fun little card!!    I hope I have inpsired you to play along at both of these challenges too!

   I'm off now to clean up my very messy desk and see what new challenges I can find.   I really enjoy challenges and consider them as my way to practice making cards and trying new things!   I thought there would be a new one today at A Blog Named Hero, but I didn't' see one?  Hope you have a great night!!

Apple of my eye....

    When I first saw the new challenge this week over at CASology, I admit I was a bit stumped and was not sure what I could come up with for a card, with "Fruit" theme?   I started browsing through my stamps and my digi images and really could not find anything I wanted to use.  That's when I decided I would use my Cameo and quickly turned it on and headed to the Silhouette store, where I found lots of wonderful fruit images.

      After finding so many, the next decision was what I wanted to use and I knew I wanted to keep my card as Clean and Simple, as possible.  I ended up cutting and printing out a variety of fruit designs.  Some were simple die cuts and some were what Silhouette calls "Print and Cuts" which are pre-colored shapes, that you'll first print out on your own printer and then follow-up and run them through the Cameo, which will then cut out the images for you!   Awesome!!!  In the end I had two favorites, so I actually ended up making two different cards, both of which I plan to submit to the challenge.

   This is my first card and also the title of today's post - Apple of my Eye, and this wonderful apple image is one I bought yesterday.  I printed it first, than ran it through the Cameo to cut it.  Next, I added a separate little heart on top and then picked out a funky green card base.  After that all I need to do was find a sentiment and add a little embellishment which I did with a two pieces of Washi Tape.  I could not find a sentiment that I really liked, so I created this one on my computer and simply printed it out on cardstock, added it to my card and it was done!   I really think it's such a cute design and make a sweet little card.

    I also created a second card, which I call -  "The Perfect Pair".   And the pear die cuts I used on this card were also shapes I brought from the Silhouette Store.   These  were not "Print and Cut" images, but I have now learned how to use this amazing program and color in my own images to create my own "Print and Cuts".  It's such a fabulous machine and program and I absolutely have been thrilled with it.  If you are looking for the perfect electronic die Cutting machine, I HIGHLY recommend you look into purchasing a Silhouette Cameo.   As a former Cricut/Expression user, this has been a much better machine for me in every way.   And once you do make this purchase, I also highly recommend you take a class and the one I LOVED best is the one taught over at the Online Card Classroom by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner.  It's called A Cut Above and is fabulous, full of fabulous tips, hints and details on how to use the the machine and so much more.

  Once I had my pears colored and cut, I simply picked out a matching card base, (Hero Hues),  and then added my pears also with a little bit of Washi Tape and a very simple computer generated Sentiment.   This was another very easy, but fun card to create -- thanks to my Cameo!!

  My next two cards were both inspired to the new Color Combo Challenge hosted this week over at The Outlawz.  As soon as I saw the color inspiration image, I knew I wanted to play, I loved the gorgeous blue and orange combination.  

   I started by printing out two different 'floral' digi images and then colored them both with my Copics.   My first card, which turned out to be my favorite is the card that I am submitting to the challenge and this card was created with a fun little flower image from Bugaboo Stamps.

   This card is also being submitted to these two "Copic Coloring" challenges!  Both are OPEN to all and I hope you'll come and play along.

• Color Me Creative Classroom - Copic/Alcohol Inks - Anything Goes/Girly Twist
• Crafting by Designs - July Copic Coloring Challenge

   My second card, also features one of my favorite flower images and one that I LOVE and have created with many times.   It's called "Flower Line" and is from "A Day for Daisies", who happen to be one of the sponsors of this challenge.  I also had once been a DT member at ADFD, and will always love Tammy's fabulous art.

   I  have one more card to share today, which has turned out to be a very creative day for me.  I LOVE these kind of days and it makes me feels SO WONDERFUL to have days when I feel well and when making cards is truly a joy.   Yippee!!    Today, is a perfect day....lots of blue skies and sunshine, I feel good, my pain is under control and I have my MOJO back!!    WOOHOO!!

   This card will be one that will be included in my next shipment to Operation Write Home and was actually inspired by today's Midweek Throwdown over at the Stars and Stamps Blog.   They theme this week is cards that are encouraging and to me any card that sends LOVE or a HUG is truly one that I think everyone will LOVE.   This card was created with another adorable digi from Bugaboo Stamps and was also colored with my Copics.  I love the whimsy in this digi and have also used it to make Anniversary cards too! It makes me smile and I hope that whoever receives it, will also smile and feel LOVED!  

  I'm off now and heading back to my desk, to clean up a bit!  My next plan is to head back to my Stretch Your Stamps class and work on cards for all the days I had missed, while I was feeling so lousy.   Even though the "interactive" class is now over, I can go back at anytime and review the videos or PDF files!   One of things I really love about ALL of Jennifer and Kristina's Classes, having the lifetime access to each and every class and the opportunity to come and go as often as I like.   They really are fantastic classes and I can't wait to find out what will be next -- you can be sure that I'll be there!!   

My "Mojo" Comeback....

   In case you have not heard, two of the Design Team gals from "A Blog Named Hero" created a fun five-week challenge that was developed as a way to help crafters find missing Mojo.   It has worked out to be a really fun challenge and perfect timing for me, as I have been struggling a lot lately and just was not coming up fun new cards.

 This challenge called "The Great Mojo Comeback" has been hosted every Monday over at the A Blog Named Hero's - Flickr Group and this is the fifth and final week.   I have had a lot of fun with this challenge and can hardly believe it's almost over.  Our challenge this week was a choice of a Sketch or a Color Challenge and because I loved both ideas, I created a card for each.   First, let's start with the Sketch, which I have copied over to share with you here.

Sketch Inspiration

My Card

Color Inspiration

Bahama Blue, Lime Green and Bright Purple

My Card

   Since I am such a HUGE fan of the color purple, and also loved the color combo, I created both of my cards using the colors from the inspiration photo.  The first card was also based on the sketch and was really a fun and easy card to create.   I started by cutting out a butterfly with my Cameo, which I colored with my Purple (Crushed Grape) Dylusions Spray.  I quickly dried it with my heat gun and then randomly picked an embossing folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug to add some texture.   Next, I cut a circle and a scalloped circle frame form lime green polka-dotted cardstock by Memory Box.   I used the same papers/scraps to create the borders and the blue background, which I also embossed.  I finished up my card with a sentiment, stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in white.

   The second card is all about fun and all of colors on this card were created with my Dylusion Inks.  After the fantastic workshops I took with Dyan Reaveley over the weekend (see yesterday's post), I knew I wanted to create my background with her wonderful sprays and since I own every color, it was super easy to spray on this happy vibrant background.  My little 'monster' is die cut that I bought at the Silhouette Store and cut in white.  I used a combination of the same sprays and Distress Inks to color him up and then added some of my brand new "Stickles Dry Glitter", to his sparkling white teeth.  (PS:  This Glitter is fantastic...super easy to use and in every color of Stickers"...!!  Love IT!!  I added him to my card and inked on a cute "Happy Birthday" from a Paper Smooches sentiment set.  To finish off this card I added a variety of gem stones in the same fun colors.

    My next card today is one that I created for the current challenge over at "A Blog Named Hero".  The challenge was to pick any card/project from one of your favorite Hero Arts Designers and use it as the inspiration for your card.  The hardest part for me was trying to decide which card I wanted to use and which designer, as I truly admire and love them all.   I actually have a few samples I printed out that have been sitting on my desk, waiting for me to get moving.  After realizing that today is now the last day for the challenge, I knew I had to pick something fairly easy, so I chose this wonderful CAS Card by Jennifer McGuire, who I adore.   This is a copy of the card that I knew I wanted to try, ever since I first saw it on her blog, back in April.

Hello Card by Jennifer McGuire

My Card

  As can see, I did not use the same colors, nor did I have the same sentiment or die that Jennifer used, but I still came up with such a pretty card and I really owe it all to her inspiration.   

    I am such a huge fan and really enjoy her wonderful style.   She's also such a sweetie and a joy to have met, when I took a workshop with her last Spring, at my LSS (Absolutely Everything).  If you happen to be a big fan of Jennifer and Hero Arts, than I highly suggest you check out her wonderful online card classroom.  I've been fortunate and have had the opportunity to take each and every class, and could not be more pleased.  If you are a regular follower of my blog, I'm sure you already know of my love for Hero and Jennifer and how much I have learned form her and Kristina Werner, in the past year!   They both ROCK!!

   I have one more card to share and this one was super easy and created with a fun little pre-colored images  that I bought at an adorable online store called "Juicy Lucy Designs".   A few weeks back, I fell in love with this adorable image, after I saw it on a card that one of the Operation Write Home cardmakers had created.  I thought the sentiment and the simple stick figure style drawing, was absolutely adorable.  That had me on a venture to find out where I could buy the stamp or image?  At the time, I was not sure what exactly it was, but luckily with the help of Google, I was quickly found them at this fun little online store in Wales.  After a bit more research, I was thrilled to find that they ship to the US and accept PayPal payments.  That very day I placed my order and it's now here!   Yippee!!  This is the very first card I created with one of my new "Juicy Lucy Designs" and no doubt, there will be more to come, so please stay tuned!  A very sweet and super easy card!

   Isn't that so darn cute?   I sure think so and that's why I had to buy ten of the exact same design.  Stay turned for me "Hugs and Squish" cards and I fondly named this one!   The adorable little drawing reminds me of cards that my boys made for me, when they were little and I think that's why I love them so much!

Inky Fingers = Creativity and FUN!!!

....I've always have a love for color and I've never been one who is ever very neat when it comes to art, but to me that shows a sign of loving color and the more vibrant the color, the more I seem to like it.   It was that exact thought that had me sign up to take two awesome workshops with Dyan Reaveley at my LSS this weekend.   Dyan is absolutely amazing and it was so much FUN being in her classes at Absolutely Everything, (my LSS), yesterday!   Not only did we learn a lot form her, but we also had a lot of laughs and totally enjoyed her wonderful sense of humor.  She's really a hoot and made this one of the most enjoyable classes, I've ever taken.  IF you ever have the chance to take a class with her....do NOT pass it up.  I guarantee you'll love it and you'll come home with inky fingers and a big happy smile!!

    I first found out about Dyan, after seeing some of her videos on You Tube, right about the time, that I had also learned that she would be coming to teach a weekend of classes her at AE.    It was also at that time, that I was trying to learn more about mixed media art and also wanted to start creating some art journals.  From the first day I say the colors in her line, I knew that it was perfect for me and exactly the colors I wanted to add to my stash.   The very first day they hit my store, I was on the phone to place for my order for the full-set and have been awaiting for the day for the class, to learn all kinds of fun new ways to use them, after my first trials "Creative Chemistry Class" a few months ago.

   Over the past few months, I have become more and more aware of all the amazing things you can do in journaling and with the wonderful variety of mixed media products now readily available to stampers and cardmakers.  I started buying some products, watched more videos and trying my hand at a bit off doodling, something I really would LOVE to continue to pursue.  

   Yesterday, I was thrilled to wake up feeling pretty well and be off on a gorgeous Summer morning to head to class.  Our morning class was a tag class and a great intro into the products.   Dyan, if you did not know, is the Senior International Educator for Ranger and has developed her own line of products.  On top of the gorgeous Dylusion Sprays, there are fabulous stencils, matching and coordinated stamps sets.  Her newest products are some really cool and super large tags, that come in Manila Kraft and Black, a brand new instructional book and a brand new journal coming out in August.  All of which we saw yesterday and worked with yesterday!   

    I was lucky in that my friend, Kerry was also taking two of the same workshops, so we ended up sitting together, which always makes it even more fun for me.  Kerry is as FUN and inspiring, as is Dyan, and between the two, it was a fun-filled day!    Here is a picture one of Kerry's "Minions", who attended class with us.    Kerry is a huge fun of the adorable characters and at least one of them is almost always with her.  I'm starting to think they are adorable and may even had to buy one for me and my craft room.  

  Our morning was a tag class, where we learned some really cool techniques using the fabulous Dylusion Sprays and also the stencil and stamp sets.  We also learned that you can take the sprays and add the ink to your Water Brushes and paint (color), with them!  I LOVED that and the colors being so bright are so fun to use.  You can bet that I'll soon have a pen filled with each color and will be using them more and more with stamps and digi images!   YIPPEE!!   By the end of the class were have created quite a few small tags and one SUPER Duper size tag, we created from manila cardstock.  (Yup, I missed up on cutting my edges, so mine looks like a funky shaped tag), but you get the idea !!   We decorated the front and back and then glued them together.  I finished mine at home today and then added a big grommet and some fibers, so that I can hang it up!!

   Note:  All of the images, stamps, colors and stencils you see on both the front and back are all Dylusion?Ranger Products.  These tags were made up by doing a wonderful variety of techniques and each step, was something new and fun.  I've quickly learned that this amazing Glue Stick - is by far the best you can use and the strength is amazing!  It holds wonderful and is super for journals too!  (Note to self -- stock up)!!

   Personally, I don't mind getting inky, but I did wear an apron and I know that having one of these awesome Scrubbies, makes it super easy to removed all the ink/paint form my hands.  But, we did notice a few gals who must not own these, as they were wearing gloves...not us -- we LOVE inky fingers !  But, if you are working at home, be sure to use your kraft mat and protect any furniture clothing that you don't want coated in this fabulous colors.

   

  After a break for lunch and some shopping...our afternoon class introduced us to creating art journals from old books and we were all given a book to start on.    Dyan also had several of hers to share with us in class and they are ALL amazing.  I wish I had remembered my camera, because you would be blown away and just how creative she is.   We also learned several new techniques for fun ways to colors pages, created hidden pockets, add tags, and so much more.   In the end we have have quite a nice start done to our books.   I worked on mine a bit more today and have a few pictures to share.   

I used the Aqua Brushes filled with Dylusions Inks to color these leaves!!

The pages were painted with Dabber Inks and Baby Wipes....yup!  Baby Wipes!!

 

My Book with Dyan signed!   She's a Gem!!

(I love the technique we used on these pages)...

  

Black Sprayed Book Pages

Stenciled with Perfect Pearls....so pretty!!

Fun and colorful tags!!  

Created with the Dylusions Sprays (Pink, Blue and Black)

Stamped with two different Leaf Stamps 

Colored in with the Ink in Water Pens.......!!

  

    As you can tell, I used a lot of my favorite colors, lots of purples, pinks, blues and aqua.  I just LOVE how vibrant each of Dyan's colors are and how fun they are to work with.  I still have some pink and blue on one foot today and a little ink under my nails...but it's kind of pretty and not bothering me, at all!   I love "Inky Fingers" and like Dyan said -- it's shows that you've been creative and had fun and that's exactly what we did in both her classes yesterday!!   I hope she comes back to AE again, and if she does, I'll be there to take another class and enjoy her wonderful sense of style and creativity.   I had a fabulous day!!

Thanks to Kerry for sharing her pictures too! 

 It was great to see you, you are a JOY to be with!!

Happy Heart....

.....My heart is happy today because I'm back in my craft room and enjoying some creative time.  The past few days have flown by and I hoping today is the beginning of many GOOD days instead of sick days, which really can drag you down.   There is nothing worse than not feeling well and missing out of fun things you really want to do, so I really hope this flare is hopefully over!!

     The worst part about feeling so crappy this past week, is that it took away a lot of the fun I typically have in my online classes.  I look forward to them so much, so it was a real bummer that I ended up missing the past few days of my Stretch Your Stamps class.  Not that I still can not access the videos or files, that I can do forever, which is awesome.  But, I try to challenge myself to make at least one card each day in class, to help me learn the technique or a new idea.   And that did not happen this week for me.  At this point, I'm not even sure where I left off!!   On the upside, having lifetime access to the files, makes it well worth it and I hope to look forward to see what the next class will be.   Our last day will be on Monday, so it's not very likely I'll have time to add any new cards to the Gallery.  I'm still lacking some mojo and energy, but you can be sure that when I do create the cards, I'll be happy to share them here on my blog.

    I do have one card to share today and this is one that has been sitting on my desk all week.  It's for the brand new CAS challenge over at CASology, a brand new challenge blog that started last week.  This is Challenge # 2 and this is a copy fo the CAS for this week.

      

My Card

   I had all kinds of ideas when this challenge first posted and actually tried a few of them, but just could not come up with the look I really wanted.   This is the main reason, why I really want to push myself to take part in this challenge, so I can learn how to create Clean and Simple cards and know when to STOP!   It truly is a challenge, but boy do I LOVE the wonderful look of CAS!   It's always been my favorite challenge at "The Outlawz" and I know there are lots of other CAS challenges for me to try.   I hope in time, it will be a lot easier for me and I can quickly put together really nice CAS Cards.    Practice and patience are key!!

   This card started with the concept of using the word Happy on top of a heart.   I wasn't sure if I was going to use a stamp or a die cut, so I started by using my Cameo to cut several styles all on white cardstock.  I then colored some, inked some and finally decided I would go with white.   I ended up picking this Happy, which was actually part of a larger sentiment, because I liked the font and the brackets on each side.  This was actually part of a larger sentiment, but I broke apart the design and deleted the parts I didn't want.   Once that was done, I had to pick my heart size and cut those using my all time favorite Heart Die, which is THIS one, from My Favorite Things.    Once I had the Happy and the Heart completed, I had to decide on colors, and of course, my favorite it purple and since that makes me happy that is the color I chose for my card base.   I had just bought some new Bazzill Cardstock at my LSS and this stuff is amazing, very heavy and a wonderful quality for cards.   I also used a brand new Chevron Embossing folder to add texture to my card base and then used a contrasting folder to emboss a little texture into my heart, which I popped up a bit off the card.  In the end, I did not put the happy on top of the original heart and went with a smaller one.  I hope you like it and I'm glad I finally pushed myself to get this done!!

  Tomorrow, I'm off to my LSS again and it will be an all day event (praying I feel good), throughout the day. I'm taking two workshops with Dyan Reaveley and have been looking forward to this for months.  In hindsight, I probably should have only taken the one afternoon class, but it's too late now.  Usually, once I am busy, even if I don't' feel great, I can make it through a class, because they are so fun.  Kerry, my former DT Sister at Baby Bud Designs, is coming down to take the PM workshop too, so that'll be fun and nice to see her.  If you know of Dyan, you'll know that she is all about vibrant colors and I'm sure I'll be very inky!   You can see some of her work on her blog HERE!!   The morning class focuses on creating tags and is called "Down and Dirty Tags" - this is a picture that I shared from AE's Newsletter.  I saw this tag when I was at the store earlier this week, and they are super duper large tags....!

 Then we have a nice break before the afternoon workshop where we'll be working on an art  journal, similar to what she did in this video and as shown in the photo below, (also from the same AE Newsletter).   I think these look really fun and seeing her videos from the winter CHA is what inspired me to  sign up.

    I'm sure it's going to be a ton of fun and I'm glad I'm going!   I'll plan on sharing some class projects on Monday and hope you all have a fabulous weekend!!