Happy Birthday!!

It's official - my "babies" aren't babies anymore!!  My twins turned 5 today!!  Holy moly - where did the time go??  Seems just like yesterday I delivered them both and brought them home, and today, they were registered for kindergarten....its amazing how fast time flies when you're not paying attention!   

Story is when we were scheduling my c-section for the girls, my father wanted us to schedule it on his birthday (which is tomorrow) but my OB only did C's on Thursdays - and so, my daughters were born the day before my father's birthday - which we all secretly love to say.

My card, today, is for my father.  I usually give him some sentimental card - you're the best
Dad....where would I be without you Dad card...so I wanted to change it up a bit and give him something funny, hilarious even.  I think Gus from Bugaboo Stamps works, don't you?  I based the card on The Sweet Stop's 100th Sketch, however, I had to slightly alter it to fit the card:

Recipe:

Image:  Gus BDay golden years by Bugaboo Stamps

Digi Papers:  Promise Collection by Shabby Princess

Sentiment:  Bugaboo Stamps

Medium:  Watercolor Pencils

Yellow Stickles for candle flames

Glossy Accents for frosting on both cakes

Souffle pen for polka dots on frosting

Darico self-adhesive gems

Challenge:

The Outlawz - Greeting Challenge 3/21 Lets Hear it for the Boys GC032111

The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge Blog - 100th Sketch with a Sweet Spin

Guylou's Inimitability - I See Dots Challenge

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Lets Hear it for the Boys

With Sympathy

Our friend John lost his father this weekend.  His father was working OT, finished his job, and then on his way to his car to go home, he was struck by a van with three girls in it - one of them, I am told, only had her driving permit.  His father had suffered severe brain damage and slipped into a coma.  My husband came home and told me that I had to make John and his family a "thinking of you" or "praying for you" card, and I started to make it when I got the news that his father had actually slipped away and was gone.  I am so sad for John - he is young and so was his father -but most importantly, John was very close to his father.  My heart and prayers go to John and his family....and it really reminds us all that in a single moment the ones we love can instantly disappear..so its important to hug them a bit longer, and say I love you to them as much as possible.

I scoured the net for something appropriate - and nothing seemed right until I found this gorgeous flower at DZ Doodles.  They had this picture to use as inspiration for the challenge, so I went with it and I love the outcome.  

And here is my card based on this picture:

Recipe:
Image:  Freebie on DZ Doodles Challenge Blog
Sentiment:  Free Sympathy Set from Raindrop Echo Designs
Bazzill Brights Cardstock in Plum
Digi Papers:  Birds Gingham Brights
Medium:  Artist Loft Watercolor pencils
Cuttlebug Dots and Spots Embossing Folder
Martha Stewart 1/2 in. Craft Seam Binding Ribbon
Yellow Stickles for flower centers
Border punch and flower frame created with SVG files on SCAL and cut with Cricut Expression
EK Success 3D Dots (for the sentiment and framed image)

Challenges:
DZ Doodles - Challenge #6
Charisma Cardz Challenges - Challenge #11 To Die For
MyGrafico - Anything Goes
Crafty Purple Frog Challenge - Going Green
CR84FN Color Challenge - CR84FN20 - Plum, Lavender and Green
Delightful Challenges - Show Us Some Green
DYSU Challenge Blog - Challenge #11 Add a Bow
The Outlawz - POM Challenge 3/17  PM0317 Green
The Crafty Pad Stamp Designs - Challenge 113 Use a Digi
Paper Sundaes - Embossing

Guylou's I See Dots Challenge

Back when I first started using digi stamps, my friend Tracy introduced me to Guylou's Inimitability.  G, as we like to Guylou, is amazingly talented (super sweet, too, might I add) and has awesome images!!  I really am a huge fan and supporter of her work.  So when G asked me to guest design for the upcoming challenge, I jumped out of my chair squealing with delight since her stamps and her group at the CDAC are so dear to my heart.  This really was an honor and I had so much fun playing with her Cat and Fish image, which you can purchase in her store here.

Ok, so lets get to the challenge at hand:  I See Dots Challenge!  This challenge is all about polka dots (love them, love them, love them!) - and you must use them on your project!!!  You really want to play along with this challenge because the winner will be awarded a digistamp of her choice from Guylou's Inimitability and will also be invited to be a Guest Designer on an upcoming challenge and will get another GI digistamp to make a card or project along with the DT.  The challenge runs until March 31st, 10 p.m., so there is plenty of time to play along!!!  Hope you join us and most importantly, have fun with polka dots (I know I did, lol) !!

Recipe: 

Image:  Cat and Fish by Guylou's Inimitability

Medium:  Artist Loft Watercolor Pencils

Digi Papers:  Moody Blues by Shabby Princess

Sentiment:  TLC
Bo Bunny Candy Jewels in Black

Ribbon:  Sweet Petites in Grosgrain Swiss Dot

Glossy Accents on pebbles
Distressed image with Inkadinkado Pigment Ink in Black

Challenges:
The Outlawz - Greeting Card Challenge March 14 GC031411

Signs of Spring!!

We had the most dreary day here yesterday in Jersey and have had rain on and off for days- but today, its a new day!!  It's actually warm out, the sun is shining and the birds are singing!!  No signs of rain - you would never know how miserable it was!  I wanted to create something spring-y and thought this trio freebie from Piscilla Styles was perfect!!  Today is also a new sketch challenge over at The Outlawz, and thought the sketch worked perfectly for this lovely image!  Hooray - Spring is on its way!!!!



Recipe:

Image:  Floral Trio by Priscilla Styles

Sentiment:  Made myself on Print Artist

Medium:  Artist Loft Watercolor Pencils

Papers:  Martha Stewart

Yellow Stickles for flower centers

Cuttlebug embossing folder

Challenges:

CDAC - Free Digi Challenge CDACFDC19

The Outlawz - Wednesday Sketch Challenge 3/16 SC0316

Creative Cottage Challenge - Spring Has Sprung

Stampavie and More - Spring or Easter
Squigglefly - SFC #89 Spring Theme
ABC Challenge - Q is for Quote

Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And the rains fall soft upon your fields.
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
 ~Irish Blessing

Thursday we're having a huge dinner - the usual:  corned beef, potatoes and garbage (thats what my grandfather penned cabbage, lol, and its stuck in our house ever since), Irish glazed pound cake, Irish Soda Bread, Rye Bread, and Irish Cream cheesecake --its a huge deal for us every year and I really look forward to this dinner and gathering of my family almost as much as I do Christmas.  Unfortunately, my grandmother won't be able to come this year so I thought I would make this for her to cheer her up.  I used the image from Designed 2 Delight's progressive challenge (since I had entered the last one, she emailed this one to me for free!!!) and used the sketch at Friday's Sketchers for inspiration.  If you didn't play along in last week's challenge over at D2D, no worries - you can buy Angel Caroline in Faith's store (I provided the link below).

The original Angel Caroline image holds a little daisy flower, but I found these shamrock confetti that I had from last year that I stuck on top of the flower with a glue dot and the flower is a digi embellie that I punched a hole in and used a light green brad that I had in my stash forever!  I printed out the Irish Blessing and stuck that inside as its one of my favorites! 

Recipe:

Image:  Angel Caroline - Designed 2 Delight

Medium:  Artist Loft Watercolor Pencils

Digi Papers and Flower Embellie - Glen O'the Green Digi Kit by Sharia Braxton

Cuttlebug Spots and Dots Embossing Folder

Stardust Stickles

Brad and shamrock from stash

Challenges:

The Outlawz - Tuesday Color Challenge 3/15 CC0315

Friday Sketchers - #145 Sketch

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Trio Tastic

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Week 94 Luck of the Irish

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Week 142 Green

Meljen's Designs - Green

D2D Delightful Inspirations Progressive Challenge - Angel Caroline image

Cupcake Craft Challenges - Up in the Air with optional Green

Hope

When I heard that Wax Fruit Company was one of the artists offering a freebie for the Freebie Digi Challenge at the CDAC this week, I made a beeline for my laptop and printed this sucker up!  As soon as I colored it, faster than you can say Copic, my 11 year old daughter comes over to me and says..."hey Mom, that would be pretty cool with a "seed" sentiment of some kind".  Sparks flew and the lights came on -I knew I had an awesome sentiment from TLC like she was talking about, that was featured on TLC's blog for free that would work perfectly.   And so, the Mojo returned and stayed for awhile.

After making the card, I realized that it really can work to send to someone "just because".  I know so many online and "real" friends that are bearing and enduring some kind of cross at the moment.  I think its a sooped up "Thinking of You" card and offers some words of encouragement that things will, and almost always, do get better.

So there is the front of the card with the image and word art.  I wasn't sure if you were able to see the embossed strip I matted in the center of the card, so I figured I would take a close up pic for you as well as a pic of how the sunflower pops out from behind the sentiment - something I think is lost no matter how many pictures I take.  I drew inspiration from Friday Sketcher's Sketch #144.  Even though I missed the deadline for the challenge, I thought that the sketch worked well with the image since the original image is only half the flower. 

Thanks for stopping by today and looking :)

Recipe:

Image:  Wax Fruit Company

Sentiment:  TLC

Medium:  Watercolor Pencils

Papers:  Making Memories Fresh Anthology Collection - Eliza

Cuttlebug Border Embossing Folder

Self-adhesive pearls

Challenges:

CDAC - Freebie Digi Challenge cdacfdc19

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Lemon Zingy

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - #125 Flowers For Mum

ABC Challenge - P is for Pearls

Bugaboo Stamps - Scallops

Guylou's Sketch Challenge

I think if I had to pick a type of challenge I favor most, hands down - it has to be sketch challenges.  I color, pick out papers, embellies (the easy parts, lol)  and then I get to have someone put all the puzzle pieces together :) 

Guylou's Inimitability is hosting a sketch challenge (yay!!) and one of her DT's, Carmen, has provided an awesome sketch with lots of layers - which I love!  Here is the sketch :
 

And here is my take on the sketch using Guylous' image, Jessica:

Recipe:

Medium:  Artist Loft Watercolor Pencils
Image:  Jessica by Guylou's Inimitability
Sentiment:  TLC
Digi Papers:  Happy Go Lucky by Shabby Princess
Bo Bunny Candy Jewels in Chocolate
Distress ink by Tim Holtz in Vintage Photo

Challenges:
Guylou's Inimitability - Sketch Challenge
Fresh Brewed Blog - Challenge #38 - 3 or More Patterned Papers
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes