Fresh Brewed Designs --- FIREWORKS!

The 4th of July is nearly here and what better time to show our colors and celebrate with all things sparkly!!  Over at Fresh Brewed Designs Heather and team are celebrating with festive patriotic images and, of course FIREWORKS!

I have two cards for this challenge.  The first one shows Hannah watching fireworks.  You can never have enough fireworks, so I added scrapbook paper with a sky full of sparkles!  Then I used three of the Nestibilities heart dies and cut out hearts from hologram metallic paper for even more zing.  Hanna is colored with Copics and the fireworks with Stickles.

My second card features Daniel, FBD's little soldier, celebrating the country's birthday.  In honor of, and with gratitude, I salute our men and women in the military.  Thank you for serving our country to preserve our freedom.  Your bravery amazes me!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday! 

God Bless America!

Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge --- Anything Goes!

Mo's challenge this week is "anything goes", no specific sketch, colors, materials.  Just our own creativity, with the exception of the illustration, of course, which is Mo Manning's extraordinary talent!  It is certainly my privilege to color these awesome drawings.

My husband's birthday is this Saturday and he is actually home for a few days to celebrate it and Independence Day.  It's not likely that he will look at this blog so I'm using the cards I made for him for this challenge.  Hopefully he will get some time on the golf course, which he rarely gets to do.  Here's some inspiration for him:

The golfer is colored with Copics and mounted on coordinated paper from Basic Grey's Origins collection.  The brads are also from the Origins accessories collection.  I added one flower (I think one flower is ok on a man's card especially with a plaid brad in the center), some fringe trim and a couple of rhinestones.  The sentiment is TPC Studio clear stamp.

I think he will like this card, especially since he rarely gets a card from me.  Something like the cobbler's children who never had new shoes!  Along with the card I think he will get a steak dinner --- at Texas Land and Cattle .. this cobbler doesn't cook, either!

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to go check out Mo's DT projects.  Oh my goodness, such creativity!

Bah! Humbug! and Sketch and Stash Challenges

It's not often that I get two challenges with one card.  Usually it's all I can do to keep track of one challenge at a time!  But I've decided to add a couple of new challenges to my schedule to keep things fresh and, well, challenging!  In my first post today (yep, this is my second one!) I entered a couple of cards in the StampARTic challenge.  With this card my original target was the Bah! Humbug! challenge which is "A Child's Christmas" and in looking for sketch ideas I found this one at Sketch and Stash challenge.

Along with the sketch I met the challenge by using new corduroy brads, old stash of argyle paper, and a neglected Whiff of Joy image which was colored for last Christmas.

In keeping with the Bah! Humbug! challenge this card is for a son and the image appears to me to be a youth.  The argyle paper, matched with the diagonal scoring of the tan paper, lend to the masculine aspect of the card.  The corduroy brads are something new I found at Michaels and I love them for this card.  My stash of ribbon includes the blue argyle ribbon as well as brown, but I chose to stay with the blue on this to match the paper.  The image is colored with Copics.  I used peel-offs that I won from the lovely ladies at Bah! Humbug! in a loyalty drawing.  These are fantastic but we can't get them here in the U.S.  :(  At least I haven't been able to find them anywhere!  So I have become very greedy with my stash of peel-offs!

It's been a busy day here in the Made For Keeps Studio!  One of the best I've had for awhile and your visit today puts the cherry on top of the hot fudge!  Hmmm..... I just might take a drive into town now for a Dairy Queen hot fudge sundae! 

StampARTic Challenge --- Flowers

This is the first time I've entered the StampARTic challenge.  I've often browsed this wonderful online magazine for cardmakers, which features tutorials, challenges, helpful articles and an amazing design team.  This challenge featuring flowers fell right in line with some photos I recently took.

This time of year is so beautiful with all the flowers in bloom.  Some of my favorite flowers are those that grow wild along our country road.  Early Sunday morning I grabbed my camera and went for a nice walk, coming home with dozens of photos of several varieties of wildflowers.  My favorite method for photographing flowers is with a macro lens to get a look at the marvelous world on the surface of a single bloom. 

I actually did two cards last night using photographs rather than inked images. The first one is an easel card using two photos of Queen Anne's Lace. This amazing flower is actually made up of hundreds of nearly microscopic flowers, with just one deep purple bloom in the center of the whole cluster.  Such an exquisite creation.

This photo captures the "mountains" of tiny flowers and the single purple flower in the center.

The border on the front of the card is actually three Martha Stewart border punches:  Picket fence, tulips, and pansies.  I also pierced the paper below the pansies.

A swirl of pearls and embellishment of small white flowers from the Michael's bridal department added a nice touch.  The textures of Cuttlebug folders helped me to keep with the white and one color theme. The sentiment on the inside was also from a Cuttlebug die.

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For the second card I used a photo of a blue daisy-like flower.  I don't know what it is, but I love the simple details.  The stamens are so interesting; they look like they are made of beads.  To complement the colors of the flower I added clusters of paper flowers from Oriental Trading with center brads from the Basic Grey Wisteria collection and Spare Parts from the Paper Studio.  The background dp is also from the Basic Grey Wisteria collection.  A swirl of rhinestones and a copper dragonfly top it all off.

These cards a a bit of a diversion from the Copic-colored images I so often use.  I think I like these!  Well, I have plenty more photos to use up, to you might see more cards like this!

Thanks for stopping by!  I would love to read your comments about these new cards.

Mo Manning Digital Pencil Challenge -- Dry Embossing

Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge this week is "dry embossing".   Not only did this challenge give me a chance to use my favorite embossing folders, but also an image I've had colored for awhile.

This delightful image called "the engineer" is a challenge to color, but so much fun!  I remember taking my son on these small guage trains with engineers much like this character.  Those were some great times when he was a little tyke!

With embossing being the challenge I used the Diamond Plate, Swirls, and Dotted Swiss embossing folders by Cuttlebug.  The Diamond Plate is pretty easy to find on the card face.  The Swirls are easily seen in the hearts above the smoke stack, as well as the white on the flowers.  The Dotted Swiss embossing is in the blue of the flowers.

Other materials in this card are:  DP from Daisy D's, "hello" sentiment from Cuttlebug die, and flower jewels.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Be sure to hop over to Digital Pencil Challenge to see their fantastic projects using dry embossing!

Bah! Humbug! "Anything Goes" Challenge

Last week's "acetate" challenge over at Bah! Humbug! was a tough one!  So this week we get a break with "anything goes".  That works well for me!  For another challenge last week I had printed a few digital collages, one of them for winter since I knew at some point I would be able to use it.  Well, that point has arrived!  All of the images are from Mo Manning's Digital Pencil Shop and are colored with Copics.  I created the "wintertime" sentiment with Print Shop.  I tried using Fun Flock to add snowy texture, but failed miserably, so I added silver and confetti glitter.  Still not great.  Some white opaque paint helped to thicken the snow illusion with the Fun Flock.  Not a favorite card.  My mojo seems to be on hiatus lately.

I do like the oblong cards and will soon try the vertically tall cards.  In the meantime, here are some closeups of the images:

As our temperatures top off in the mid-nineties during the coming week I will look more and more forward to working with some wintry themes.  Be sure to take a look at the Bah! Humbug! DT's cooool creations!

Thanks for stopping by! Your time to take a look here is much appreciated.

Fresh Brewed Designs Challenge Sketch

Fresh Brewed Designs has a new challenge up today and more new images to come!  Today is this fun sketch that can be used as is or rotated.  I made two note cards with the sketch rotated 90 degrees to the left. 

The book and mug images on both cards are colored with Copics. I used dp from the K&Co "Life's Journey" and other scraps of paper, including a piece of faux leather.  The butterfly and dragonfly are 3d stickers also from K&Co. I left the insides blank to use for any occasion.  One of them is going to be a birthday card for a man, but not telling which or who in case he sees this post. 

I hope you hop over to the Fresh Brewed Designs Challenge blog and play along with us.  The DT always has some terrific creations, as do the participants!

Father's Day Card

I made this very special Father's Day card for my step-son who is a great dad, especially in light of the challenges in his life right now.   The truck, clock, sentiment, and fare schedule are all from the Tim Holtz "The Journey" clear stamp collection.  I love the variety of vintage images in this set, even another old truck.  All the images I used here are heat embossed with Stampendous Hematite powder.  The background paper is from a Hot Off the Press book of Ephemera Backgrounds that I've had for ages.  Along with the dp I used black and gold metallic papers for the accent layers.  A few brads for embellies finish it off. 

Inside the card is more of the background paper and a sentiment that is one of my favorites for fathers of all ages.  I just mailed it off to him and I hope it will brighten his day.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Your visits always brighten my day!

Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge --- Easel Card

Mo's challenge this week is one I had no problem with --- easel card.  I love this card format and had just posted one the day before the challenge was announced.  But, I made a new one anyway because I had this little cutie, "Cody's Balloon", already colored and needing a home.

Little Cody is colored with Copics and the card is made from the Paper Studio "So-so Sweet" collection.  I used a MS border punch, edged the pieces with amethyst ink, added a flower and some buttons.  That's it.  My inspiration for the sketch came from I heart 2 stamp. 

This little guy is so cute! 

For some really gorgeous cards and inspiration hop on over to Mo's DP2 Challenge! I hope your week is off to a great start and that everyday is full of creativity! Thanks for stopping by!

No Sketch, No Challenge --- Just My Own Design

June is a very popular month for birthdays in our family.  Yesterday was my step-dad's birthday and this is the card I made for him.  I love the colors and dp in the K&Co "Life's Journey" collection.  It includes lots of old postcards, newspaper pages and postage stamps, too. Because the paper is all double-sided the inside of the card has images of old literature. The stamped image is from Inkadinkadoo. There's just something magical about the script-butterflies-time pieces collage of this stamp that makes it so versatile.  I embossed it with Ranger's Seafoam White powder; the same for the birthday greeting.  The 3d dragonfly stick-on is from K&Co, too.  A few little square rhinestones  finish it off.

This was really so quick and easy!  Just tear a piece here and there, run them through the Xyron for easy attaching, and add some embellies.

I hope your week has been grand and that the weekend brings fun and relaxation.

Bah! Humbug! Challenge --- Acetate

Well, it looks like I missed the deadline for Bah! Humbug! this week, but I'm posting this, um, "project" anyway.  Surely someone out there could use a good laugh! 

Last night, or should I say the wee hours of this morning, I was literally trying to do three things at once.  One of those three things was to get a card using acetate for the BH challenge.  Well, the creative side of my brain had already gone to bed so the child in me took over.  Now, this might not technically be acetate, but I found the clear boxes for stationery to be a good substitute.  I had some wintery cutouts from the dollar store and a boatload of snowy Martha Stewart glitter.  So, here it is......... go ahead and laugh --- or groan.  I have!

The background is just a piece of dark blue dp.  The cutouts are mounted with different levels of 3D foam tape.  I added the jewels to the tree for some holiday bling.  With one end of the box securely sealed I poured in the snowy glitter then secured the other end -- quickly!  That's it!  Sort of a snow, um, cube. :) lol

This just might be a good project for kids to do. 

Well, I'm very glad you stopped by today.  If you get this far, thanks for not running away screaming; I mean, that really is one scary snowman!

Second Post Today! A Special Father's Day Card

Always Daddy's Little Girl

A sweet friend of mine, Leslie, asked me to make a very special Father's Day card for her to give to her dad.  I asked if she wanted something really dad-like, such as fishing, golfing, grilling, etc.  Nope.  She wanted something really sentimental, something that could bring tears to his eyes.  Well, even though my Leslie is grown with kids of her own, she will always be her daddy's little girl, so Mo Manning's illustration of grandpa dancing with granddaughter came to mind.  I figured it would pass as a dad, dancing with his daughter at any age but still seeing her as his little girl. 

Easel cards are the perfect presentation for a card that is expected to sit out on display, like we think this one will be.  The dp is from the DCWV  "At Home" collection. I love the wallpaper looks and these awesome glittery clocks.  The flowers are Prima with rose centers.  I used a brad from Spare Parts for one of the flowers.

Inside is an envelope with a blank card for Leslie to write a personal note to her date.  Something for his eyes only, then he can tuck it away.

The illustration is colored with Copics and the dress and vest are coated with clear Spica gel.  I wish it showed better in the photo, because the subtle shimmer is perfect!

Leslie hasn't seen this yet and I sure hope she likes it!  I hope her dad likes it, too. 

Thanks for stopping by again today.  Scroll on down to see my card for Mo's challenge this week, and a little further to see an awesome display of God's creation.

Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge --- Merge It!

Mo's challenge this week is to merge two (or more) images and the DT has adorable and amazing examples over at the challenge blog.  Now, I use Photoshop for my photography processing and have done some amazing things with the tools it offers.  But, for the life of me, I freeze up when it comes to layers, which is what I needed to use to merge digital images.  After much crying and gnashing of teeth (well, let's just say it wasn't fun anymore) I placed the images of those fabulous teenage girls on a 9"x4" panel and made more of a collage than a merge. 

Help:  Anyone with a tutorial out there??

Anyway, I inserted a vertical banner "Girl Talk" when I created the collage then colored these beauties with my Copics.  That was the fun part!  The card is very simple in embellishments with just three flowers from Prima.  The border punch is MS pansies which I also used on a scrap of  Making Memories Flower Patch.  The dp was my inspiration for the colors on the girls' outfits. 

It might not be a merge, but I do like the look so I printed out a few more panels of other images to use later.  No matter what the challenge, I do so love to color Mo's images! In fact, today I will have a second post, a special father's day card. 

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope your week is going great.