Bah! Humbug! Challenge #34---Christmas Carol

Ah, Bah! Humbug! girls! Now we're gettin' down to some serious Christmas business --- the CAROLS!!  I love the Christmas music sooooo much!!  Let's see, today is September 8.  Is it too soon to start playing carols?  I don't think so!  One of the largest playlists on my iPod is holiday tunes!

Anywho.... this Mo Manning image of the children's choir is just so cute for this challenge.  They are all so adorable with their little mouths in perfect Os.  My guess is that they are singing "O Christmas Tree".  Since that is the sheet music I placed behind them, that would be a pretty good guess! ;-)

These little cherubs are colored with Copics and I sparkled it up with gold Spica on the star and silver Spica on the music books.  The gold ribbon is from my stash and the music embossing on the red card stock base is Cuttlebug.

The Season of Peace will soon be here, though I know we all pray for peace each and every day. 

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to hop over to Bah! Humbug!  Anne, Ann, Irene, and Max will have you jingling bells and roasting chestnuts!

Fresh Brewed Designs September Blog Hop --- Shades of Brown and New Releases

Good Morning! **YAWN STRETCH** Can you believe our month off has gone by already and we are well into September? School is already started for most of the little ones. Moms are all busy and getting up early, always on the go. We know how you are feeling. TRUST US! We know! This blog hop / image release was created with you in mind.

Ready for a hint? Here is a little poem for you:

Coffee and spice, Lattes are nice

That's what this girl's made of!

HEHEHE!!!

You guessed it, we have some fun coffee images to share with you. LOTS of caffeinated fun... just the boost you need for the mid-week slump. You will find some relaxing images, some sassy "woohoo the kids are gone" (lol) images... but most of all you will find these images are perfect images for someone you love. They are centered around love and romance with a dash of sass. Intrigued?

Wait no longer, here is the card I created using two of the new images:

I used some paper piecing and Copics coloring for each image.  Coloring the coffee and chocolate candies late at night had me craving both!  I settled for Yoplait Chocolate Whip yogurt...... yum! 

I love this image and both "cups" have coffee in them.  But when I use this image for a lovey-dovey card for my honey I will have to put hot chocolate in his cup.  Can you believe he doesn't like coffee??!!!  Well, I love him anyway and he does grant my every coffee-whim, including driving into town to get me a Starbuck's -- extra hot so I don't have to microwave it when he gets home.

These chocolate bon-bons are the best accompianment for coffee, don't you think?  Hmm, caramel filled, nougat, chocolate creme... or my favorite chocolate covered cherries!  What a time to have only M&M Pretzels in the house!

Now, on to the hop!  Be sure to complete the hop in full! The DT has created some lovely cards you will not want to miss! AND one lucky winner will receive two free images of choice just for hopping!

Start with our fearless leader and creator of these high octane caffeinated images.........

Heather
Jeanette
Jenn
Kelly
Barb (me!)
Scrappy (Guest)
Rhonda
After you hop, be sure to stop by the Freshly Brewed Challenges blog to check out the newest challenge!
 

Digital Pencil Challenge and Copic Certified!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend with some fun end-of-summer activities!  Now, bring on the cool days and fall colors!

First, I am so excited to say that I am finally Copic Certified!! Woo! Hoo!  After missing two other classes in Kansas City and Des Moines, I was thrilled when I saw the Branson class scheduled.  It was a small class of 17 fun and talented ladies.  Lori Craig was our facilitator and showed us some terrific techniques.  She did a great job and I have never had a 9:00-4:00 class go by so fast!

Now, on to my card for this week's Digital Pencil Challenge, which is shades of brown and aged/antiqued.  I chose the adorable Punkin and put him in 3D with 4 layers.  Of course, he is colored with Copics.  I pulled out my box of Autumn papers and embellies, which I'm sure I'll be using quite a bit during the next few weeks.  The leaves are from silk stems I recently purchased at Michaels. 

Here's a close-up of Punkin............. 

This close-up side view shows the layers........

I did color all the layers for depth from all angles.  It takes some time but I love the effect.

Thank you for stopping by today!  Be sure to hop over to Digital Pencil Challenge for inspiration from the uber-talented design team.

Cards for 4-year old and New Baby Girl; I {Heart} to Stamp Sketch

My stepson has an adorable little boy who just turned four years old ...... AND he became the proud father of a baby girl on 8-9-10!  He is one happy man!  I am running late with cards for them (they live in Pennsylvania) but they are sweet enough to understand.

This is the birthday card for the four-year old.  He loves cars and trucks so this image from Mo Manning was perfect.  Leland isn't a red head, but I had already colored this, and the dp looks great with it.  The image is colored with Copics and the gold racing stripe is covered with Spica gold gel pen.  The rest of the car is covered with Spica clear.  Gotta jazz up the little hot rods!  I am also entering this in the "I Heart 2 Stamp" sketch challenge this week. 

I found these cute little smilie faces in my sticker drawer (yet to be organized) and love the way they look on the circles.  Along with the card Leland will be getting some books (he loves to "read" and just started pre-school.)  One of the books is all about BIG trucks like his "Pop pop" drives.

I don't have many chances to make cards for new arrivals so I couldn't wait to use this Mo Manning digital image to welcome Sydney.  I especially love that I get to make a PINK card.  The baby is colored with Copics and mounted on Nesties labels cut from Bazzill cs.  The card base is Bazzill cs with the Martha Stewart butterfly border embossing punch.  The punch is repeated on the inside with the darker pink as a border on the right side.  These gorgeous butterfly stickers are from Michael's Recollections collections.  It is so hard for me to keep a card simple, but this one comes close.

 Along with this card Sydney is getting a package full of pink one-sies, pants, little bitty socks and a bright pink jumper outfit.  Once I ger out of the "joy of pink" mood, she'll get more of a variety, like denim with little pink hearts on the pockets.  :-)

To my friends on the east coast, especially North Carolina, please keep safe as the hurricane roars by.  One of my favorite places is the Outer Banks, expecially the Hatteras Light House.  My prayers are for the safety of everyone out there.  My husband is headed to New Jersey and Virginia, so I keep praying they can clear the area before the weather gets bad.  Interestingly, this hurricane bears the same name as my dear Uncle Earl, who is the kindest hearted person you would ever meet.  In 1999 hurricane Floyd was notorious for damage along the southeastern Atlantic coast.  My dad's name was Floyd and, like his brother Earl, dad was kind and gentle, though a bit mischievous at times, I hear.  Let's hope this hurricane Earl has a quick change of heart and runs out to sea without doing damage. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Bah! Humbug! Challenge --- Charms

Can you believe Christmas is less than 4 months away?  More to the point, Thanksgiving is less than 3 months away --- that's about the time that many folks start sending out Christmas cards and decorating for the festivities of the season.  Soooo, time to get really serious about reaching my goal of 100 Christmas cards.

Bah! Humbug! Challenge has been stoking those holiday fires all year long and this week the theme is charms.  I love using charms on cards, but when I started this card my drawer of charms has everything BUT holiday bling.  I did find these pretty little silver snowflake charms, though, and found just the spot on the card.  As luck would have it, the snowflake on the dp just happened to be directly over the Eskimo-kissing cuties, so I hung the charm there, sort of like mistletoe. 

The Eskimo couple are from Mo Manning Digital Pencil and colored with Copics. Aren't they just adorable? They are sitting on a background of shimmery cardstock embossed with swirls in the Cuttlebug.  The white beaded flowers are from the Michaels bridal department, and the rhinestone swirls and ribbon are from my stash.  I haven't decided on a sentiment yet.... depends on who I send this too.

They look so snuggly in their furry parkas!

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to visit Bah! Humbug! if you haven't already.  The DT's projects are gorgeous!  Very inspiring!