Tiddly Inks Challenge: Take It Easel-y

 I am entering this card in this week's challenge at Tiddly Inks. I got this stamp, Avenger - Super Stamper as a freebie, but right now she is $1.00 at Tiddly Inks. The challenge is to create an easel card.

I created this card as a thank you for National Scrapbook Day. I used my Minc to make the thank you and colored my image with copics. All the papers are from my stash.

.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen 

30 Day Coloring Challenge Day 1 and 2

My friend, Sara posted the other day about this super challenge for the month of June. It is from The 

Daily Marker and can be found here. So the idea is to spend a couple minutes a day coloring something. I haven't been coloring much, but recently I colored a few cards and remembered how much I loved it. I decided to participate. Here is yesterday's coloring. It's a card for a friend that I needed to mail out. I used a Tiddly Inks Wryn and my copics. 

Today's image was a challenge for me. I used a Manga Fairy from Funky Kits. I have had her for a couple of years and this was the first time I ever colored her. I decided to step out of my copic comfort zone and use tombows, distress markers and watercolor pencils.

I have no idea how to color skin with any of these mediums, lol, so it was a figure it out as I go adventure. I ended up mixing a pink tombow pen with a distress ink that I ran across a clear block to get the skin tone. I used a watercolor brush to blend them. The skin color was looks ok. It was the same process with her hair. I was just mixing and blending brown pencils, tombows and distress markers. LOL.

I used my Atyou Spica pens to add some glitter to the fairy and the mushroom. All in all, I like  the way it turned out. It was fun trying something a little different for me.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Why I Love National Scrapbooking Day

I saw on a couple of my friend's blogs that they did a short post about NSD. I really liked this idea so this is my post to gather my thoughts on NSD.

When my sweetie husband signed me up for the Cricut Circle back when it was first introduced, I was thinking it was waste of money for us. I really liked the first "exclusive" cartridge, but I thought it wouldn't be anything different from the public message board. I was wrong.

My crafting has blossomed with my time at the Circle. I entered contests and won, I learned techniques that I may have never thought of trying, I was enabled beyond belief, and I made some wonderful crafting friends. Don't get me wrong, I still have a couple of great crafty friends that I met on the public boards, but the intimacy at the Circle was easier for me to handle. I tend to get lost in larger crowds. LOL! Over the past couple of years, we have become even smaller as Cricut barely supports the Circle anymore. There are no more special cartridges, no magazine, no contests, but there is always National Scrapbooking Day. Those challenges breathe life back into our small group. Thank you Sara for putting together the weekend for us. This year, I did something special, I entered all the challenges. I almost blogged them all too. LOL! So here is my wrap up from National Scrapbooking Day.

I made 6 layouts, 1 luminary, 1 bookmark, and a banner. These are just one's I blogged about.

 
 


  






Here are my projects that didn't make it to their own posts for one reason or another. 1 box card, an easel card, a shirt, a frame and a few tags.

I am pretty sure this was the most productive I have been all year. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

WWW Snackdown 2015 NSD Challenge

I am finally finished with all the challenges for National Scrapbooking Day over at the Cricut Circle Message Board. This challenge was so much fun. Leave it to my crafty friend Jenny, to come up with this cool challenge. We needed to create something with a food theme.

I used a couple of pictures my niece sent me from last year when Kaylee had her first ice cream cone. I had wanted to scrap these for the longest time. I used my Explore, some fun cuts and a font from Design Space, some embellies from Jillibean and my stash. The ice cream paper is from a Recollections stack I picked up last summer. The mat paper is from October Afternoon, and the rest of the papers are from my stash.

I was planning on also entering this into another challenge where we are supposed to add some sewing to a project, but my attempts at sewing was a total disaster. I went with some faux stitching on tags for that challenge. There are some sewing machine dots on the layout on the scalloped border. I went through 3 machines to get those. LOL! I wanted to use my Janome machine that my Mom got me for paper, but the foot pedal was awol. I dragged out the big Singer, proceeded to have trouble with the bobbin and then broke the needle. Finally I dragged a little battery operated machine that is so old it was made by Provo Craft. Anyone remember those?

Here is my layout:

I adore my great niece, so I have been loving creating layouts for and about her.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Illuminate Your Creativity: National Scrapbook Day 2015 Challenge

I managed to complete another challenge! There are still a few left, but I really want to finish them all to show support to my crafty friends. This was from Joyce, and she was wonderful enough to even supply us with the base of the luminary. All we needed to do was either make a face for it ourselves, or  Joyce also supplied one for us that we could use. I used a fun paper that has been in my stash for years. The colorful umbrellas added some whimsy to the luminary.

This was one of the easiest challenges ever! I found a card in design space on Artfully Sent that was originally a get well card. I used the slice feature to cut half the card out so that I only had the girl and some rain drops left.

When I was assembling it, I put the image on upside down, (naturally, LOL) so when I tried to peel it off, it had a small tear in the luminary. I used some ribbon to cover up the tear.

Here is how it turned out. I love these and will be creating more.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

National Scrapbooking Day Challenge: Ready, Set, Emboss!

Perhaps a better title for this post would be "adventures in embossing" because that was what this challenge turned out to be for me. It was quite an adventure. LOL!

This challenge was to use an embossing technique on a project. My crafty friend, Erika, over at the Cricut Circle Message board gave us plenty of great ideas to use. Her blog is linked to her name, it is well worth the visit. I really loved her technique of using an embossing folder and adding some paints to it, then not running it through a machine, but just pressing down to emboss the design on a piece of paper. So I had to try this out.

For my 1st attempt, I used my Explore to cut a tag with Water Color Paper. I used an Anna Griffin Border Embossing folder, Red Color Shine Spritz by Heidi Swapp, Sunshine Yellow Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber, and Gold Metallic Pain Dabber. It looked really nice, until I dropped Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink on to the center of the tag. I had the Copic Blender ready to blend, except, it was totally dry. :-(
So, I tossed that one.

 I cut another tag, and tried to get the same effect but it didn't emboss quite as clear. That was ok, it still looked fine. I stamped a pair of glasses from American Crafts #Good Times Stamp set using embossing ink. Then things got really hairy. I was originally going to use glitter red embossing powder, but after holding the heat gun there for an eternity, the red sparkle rubbed right off. I re-stamped the glasses and tried black, but that also didn't take. I re-stamped it again and tried fine detail black embossing powder from Recollections, but it wasn't taking after heating it for what seemed like 10 minutes. I switched from the Ranger Heat gun and tried the Martha Stewart heat gun, and it finally melted the powder. The only problem? This is what it looked like. YUCK!!!

I stamped the glasses again, embossed it using the MS heat gun and the fine detail black powder and it looked great! I didn't realize how awful the first pair looked until the second pair was stamped. I cut the bottom of the tag off. Problem solved. Ha-ha!

 I added a border from Pink Paisleee that I painted orange and added orange stickles. I embellished it with the word read that I altered from an October Afternoon journaling card using spritz paints, stickles and paint dabbers. I had the red Hash tag in my stash, and added some enamel dots and triangles. I like it!

This was fun and messy! Thank you Erika for a great challenge, now I have a cool bookmark for my summer reading!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

National Scrapbook Day 2015 Challenge: Let's Get Sketchy

Hi Everyone.
Today I am sharing a layout for another NSD challenge. I loved this challenge because it is a sketch challenge. My crafty friend Jenny K. has challenged us to use this sketch for inspiration. It is from Pagemaps.

Here is my layout:

A close up:

And here is Jenny K's Sketch:

After several attempts to slant my picture and main area of the page, I gave up. LOL! I used some embellishments from my stash and the rest is paper from a Martha Stewart Birthday Stack. I used gold thickers for my title.

I am really enjoying all the challenges from the Circle this year.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

National Scrapbooking Day 2015 Challenge: Crafting With Negative Nelly

I am working on some of the fantastic challenges from National Scrapbooking Day over at the Cricut Circle. The challenge I finished today was issued by my crafty friend, Sara. Sara has challenged us to use the negative of a cut on a project. Stop over at her blog to see an adorable layout featuring her little girl.  I have to catch up on so many pictures of Kaylee's 1st birthday party, so this is the perfect opportunity to get those pictures out and put them to good use!

I used my Explore to cut some mustaches from Design Space to make the background for this layout. I "Mustache" you, how sweet is this little guy? This cutie pie is Matthew, Kaylee's cousin. He was a good sport and posed for pictures with some of the photo props I had for the party.

The craft paper is from Craft Smith, I used the plain back side of the cardstock to cut my mustache mat.

Instead of placing the cut mustaches behind the negative, I used pop dots and popped some up for dimension. I used DCWV Cork Paper on the background and layered everything on brown cardstock. The embellishments are from my stash. The cork stickers are from We R Memory Keepers.

I enjoyed this challenge, it really got the creative juices flowing.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

National Scrapbooking Day 2015: Timed Challenge, Spring Into Action

On Friday night we had a timed challenge presented to us by my crafty friend, Jenny. Her challenge was for us to create something with a Spring theme within and hour and a half. It was a lot of fun, but I have discovered that I am not a timed creative type of person. LOL! I was lucky enough that the drawing for a gift card from my other crafty friend, Rhondah, was random, and my name was picked!
So here is what I can produce in an hour.

Yikes! That needed some love! So yesterday when I woke up, I spent about another hour working on it. Here is the final layout.

I used a Doodlebug Springtime Kit and Doodlebug bunny and friends diecuts on the layout. I changed out the Thickers letters and replaced them with letters by Jillibean. I used some ribbon from my stash for a border and I added some stickles to a pin wheel from my stash, All in all, I am pleased with the new version.

It was fun trying to beat the clock Friday night. I enjoyed Jenny's challenge very much.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting

Colleen

National Scrapbooking Day Challenge: Pin It!

Hi everyone! Welcome to my second National Scrapbooking Day Challenge.

Pin It!

We all love Pinterest, don't we? I pin pretty much everything I come across these days. It is so easy to do now with Pin It buttons everywhere. Soooo, after you Pin something, how often do you go back and use it for inspiration or even recreate it? I don't know about you, but me, not so much. 

It's time to change that! My challenge is for you to break out those pins and recreate something for me. Show us your original Pin along with your version of it. I need to Pin more stuff! 

So here is my layout. I love these pictures of my sweet Kaylee. It was last June, she was crawling and starting to take some steps with assistance, I had picked up the cute Yankees bow for her, so that was a good enough reason for me to take lots of pictures. I used my Explore and an XOXO cut that I found in Design Space. I think it's from Valentine's Day. I cut the frames, tabs, and an arrow from Small Talk Frames and Tags. I cut a camera from Bits and Pieces, and used this sweet stamp from a mini stamp set I had.  Most of the embellies are from my Noel Mignon Kits and my stash.

Now where did I get this idea for such a fabulous layout? I pinned it from a Bing search. Here is the original layout by Maggie Holmes. She even has a Silhouette File link on her blog for the base if you like to use a Silhouette Cameo. If you would like the Design Space link to my version, go here. 

I love everything about her layout. 

What is National Scrapbooking Day without prize? I am giving away a $15.00 Michael's Gift Card. Leave me a link to your project or if you are a member of the Cricut Circle, share your project over there, you can even post a picture on my Facebook page to be entered into the drawing. You have until May 19th to enter. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

And be sure to check out these blogs over the weekend for more wonderful challenges, tutorials and prizes for National Scrapbooking Day!

Sara- www.sarawandrews.com

Francine: http://alilbitocreativity.blogspot.com/
Jenny- http://kozfam5.blogspot.com/

Maria-  http://stampcutcreate.blogspot.com/
Heidi – http://cowgirl1hh.wordpress.com/
Erika - http://EKittyscraps.blogspot.com
Sherry - http://littlescrapofheaven.blogspot.com

 Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Colleen

National Scrapbooking Day Kickoff: Tag! You're It!

I hoard my tags, admit it, you do too! My challenge is to use a tag or tags on a project. Let's break our tags and have some fun!

I have created a scrapbook page using tags as the focal point. Naturally it's about my favorite subject, Kaylee. My future niece, Jeni is always posting the cutest selfies of her with Kaylee, so I scooped them up off Jeni's Facebook page and created a selfie layout for Kaylee. 

I had some messy fun with my Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Markers when I was making the tags.

On the 1st tag, I used some rub-ons that I've had forever. They are from Pink Paislee, Luxe Collection. I added some distress ink to the edges. I stamped 100% Sweet using distress ink and a mini stamp from Elle's Studio that came with a Noel Mignon Kit. A few embellies from my stash finished it.

The second tag was super fun to create. I rubbed distress ink on an Anna Griffin Embossing tag and ran it through the CuttleBug. Then I spritz it with water and heat dried it. Once that was done, I rubbed some Ice Stickles across areas on the tag. I wanted it to be very sparkly to match the bottle cap that says "Be Sparkly", so I used Glossy Accents on some of the hearts and sprinkled them with Doodle Bug Glitter. Some Doodle Bug Sequins, a wood butterfly and the bottle cap from Recollections, along with some tulle finished this tag.

The last tag on the top of the page and the title tag were done by wiping the distress inks on my craft mat and spritzing with water. Then I dragged the tag through the colors and heat dried them. I also used the Tim Holtz Marker Spritzer to add some extra color to the tags. I added a wood arrow, some cute ribbon and a fun paper clip from Maya Road, along with more embellies from my underused Noel Mignon kits.

I finished the layout using Thickers for the title along with some smaller letters from Elle's Studio. I cut a cell phone using my Explore and found a journaling card that says Girls Just Wanna Have Fun which I though worked nicely with my layout. h and if anyone from PC is looking at this, can we have an updated cell phone cut please? LOL!

The papers are from my stash. I am pretty sure most of them came with my Noel Mignon kits. 

Your challenge is make use of some of your tags or even cut a few from your Cricut. Use the tags on any type of project that you choose. You can post a link here in the comments area, post a picture on the Circle MB thread for the challenge, or even post a response on my Facebook Page. I will have a drawing for a $15.00 Michael's Gift Card on May 19th. I am also having a drawing for anyone who that leaves a comment here. It's a small grab bag filled with some goodies.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today! Don't forget to check these other wonderful blogs for more tutorials, challenges and prizes for National Scrapbooking Day!

Sara- www.sarawandrews.com

Francine: http://alilbitocreativity.blogspot.com/
Jenny- http://kozfam5.blogspot.com/

Maria-  http://stampcutcreate.blogspot.com/
Heidi – http://cowgirl1hh.wordpress.com/
Erika - http://EKittyscraps.blogspot.com
Sherry - http://littlescrapofheaven.blogspot.com

Happy National Scrapbook Day!

Colleen

I'm A Copy Cat!

Over at the Circle, we are scrapping through our stash, spring style! This week's challenge is a copy cat challenge.  I say, "challenge accepted!" and here is my layout.

I really love how this turned out. I got to use a bunch of my October Afternoon Brads, Flairs, and assorted Die Cuts, Flowers, Etc. that have been sitting there unused for ages. It was just plain fun to create this layout. 

Here is the inspiration for the challenge from the October Afternoon Blog.

If you want to see the version done by our challenge hostess, stop off here at Sara's Blog. It is oh so cute!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Showers Of Happiness

Hi Everyone!

I was so fortunate to spend the day on Sunday with the beautiful young women of our family. I was at the bridal shower for my nephew's future wife, Jeni. It was a lovely event and I truly enjoyed getting to sit with my niece Holly, and maybe even another future niece, my nephew Joe's girlfriend, Emma. I kept thinking how much my Mom would have loved this. Jeni's bridal party did a wonderful job with the event. They had some fun games to play, and the decorations were beautiful.

 While I wasn't on the decorating committee, lol, I was so honored to see a banner I created for Jeni last year hung on a table with a special cake for her. I used the Dreams Come True cartridge for the banner, my Anna Griffin embossing folders, and Story Book font to create this.

I created her card using Happily Ever After. I took Cinderella's Carriage and welded two of them together to make the card. Then I took the horse from the cartridge and welded a horse rein and blanket that I found on Formal Occasion to that.  I had some trouble getting it to stand, so I cut a slot into each horse on the inside of the card, and used that as a brace. I made sure to leave one side unattached so my future niece could fully open the card. I used my Explore to write a sentiment on the inside for her. I also made a little banner for the front of the card that says "showers of happiness" and attached that to the horse.

My niece, Holly, finds the most thoughtful ideas for presents and she found a really wonderful idea for Rob and Jeni. They played a lot of Scrabble when they were first dating. We made a frame for them using the definition of Marriage and a sweet quote about marriage. I used the Explore to write the quote, then we took Thickers Scrabble Pieces and added their names. It turned out very pretty.

I also used my Explore to cut some vinyl and created a frame with one of their engagement photos.

We made 2 tees for them to wear the next time they go to Disney. I used Inkscape to create silhouettes of Belle and prince Adam, then cut them with Heat Transfer vinyl. I really love them!

Finally, we created a set of wine glasses for them. We used Dreams Come True and some vinyl to etch a silhouette of Beauty and the Beast on them along with their wedding date. It;s hard to see, but these are the only 2 pictures I have of the glasses. 

Here are my beautiful future niece and my nephew. 

My niece Holly and Emma.

Everyone enjoyed themselves, and the best part for me was being able to spend some time with my favorite Great niece, Kaylee after the party was over!

Thanks for stopping by the blog today! 

Happy Crafting!

Colleen