PCJ DT Card: Feelin' Krafty - Fairy Daisy

Hello, my bloggy friends and followers! Happy blankity-blank FRIDAY! 

I am soooooooooooooooooooo glad and maybe surprised that I finally made it to the weekend. I'm already a day late and a dollar short for the current Paper-Crafting Journey Challenge, but I'm feeling krafty now, so we're all good. LOL

PCJ is looking for new Design Team members! Having lost some of our crafty ladies (sigh), we're looking for some new happy crafters to join our team. Wendy is holding a DT call for the month of July and you can read all about it and link up if you're interested here. PLUS we've moved back to our original site here! What? It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind. Often. And for no reason. =P As the new blog owner Wendy has given the site a fresh coat of paint and a new look, so check it out!

On to this fortnightly challenge...  FEELIN' KRAFTY! We want to see you use kraft cardstock somewhere on your paper craft! Don't forget that PCJ is not just a card challenge - it's open to all sorts of crafting---as long as it's made with paper! Up for grabs this challenge is a $10 gift certificate from our digi-delightful sponsor DIGI DOODLE SHOP. Although they were kind enough to provide some images for the DT, I had fallen in love with this fairy while shopping around for (ahem) my other DT and I had to buy her! She's just been sitting in my harddrive, waiting for me to print her out. =)

My new camera and I have not yet come to an understanding. What is supposed to be automatic and easy is persistently frustrating right now. The camera is so automatic that some of the settings I used on my old camera are missing. Or hiding. Or something. So adjusting my lighting after the fact is not quite working. I will persevere! I would have read the manual, but apparently paper is just so un-2012. They aren't cool enough that they sent it on a memory stick, but they did send it on a CD... so I guess I will have to load up and do some reading this weekend.

Sorry... back to business...  here is my krafty little creation for this challenge:

This image made me wonder... she's smiling, not pouting, so she's not in a fairy time out. Maybe she's just sitting, eyes closed, breathing in the morning air and enjoying the moment. Sounds so refreshing and relaxing. Hmmmm, wonder if I can find a daisy big enough for me? LOL Anyway, I colored her up with Copics.  I glittered her wings with Stardust Stickles and a bit of lavender Liquid Pearls. I also added a touch of yellow Stickles on the daisy center.

I embossed a piece of white cardstock and layered that over a lovely lemony yellow. I cut the yellow cardstock a little longer so that I could use this oh-so-cute daisy ribbon trim that I've had for a few years. The centers were already yellow, but I used a bit more of the yellow Stickles on them to tie in to the daisy image. Then I added my image, popping my little fairy up on foam dots because, well, as you know, I am obsessed with popping things up with foam dots. I am sure I have mentioned this at least once. Per post.  LOL

So... there's my fairy. It's simple, but a pretty little card IRL... not very photogenic, but she's sparkly and sweet and I think I know just the person who needs a little lift. I think her butterfly wings will be just the trick.

Though the ranks are a bit empty at the moment, my remaining teamies have krafted up (har har) some great cards for you that you can find over at Paper-Crafting Journey! Hope you are inspired to get a little krafty with us! 

Have a fantastic weekend wherever you are and happy crafting!
Christy

(Psssst... Before I go... just a quick tease that July will be an exciting month around I Never Went to Kindergarten-land...  be sure to stop by in a few weeks when Santa's Elves stop by with some yummy Christmas-in-July candy! See you soon!)

SAS4K DT Card: Birthday Fun - A Groovy Flower Power Birthday!

Good morning, my crafty friends (and Mom & Ken! LOL)...

First, a whine about Blogger. Apparently Blogger can't decide how many blogs I'm actually following. Over the past week the number has grown to the accurate 200+ and shrunk by 30. I'm missing fun crafty posts and it's making me a bit cranky! So if I haven't been to visit lately, it's because Blogger and Google Reader have been hiding you from me! Either that or they are developing software alzheimers. =[ Sigh. Anyway, hope to catch up with all my MIA bloggy friends soon!

Now.... on to the FUN!  Time again for a fantastic challenge to Send A Smile 4 Kids...  Birthday Fun! As usual we have some terrific sponsors who are offering up prizes for some randomly chosen winners:

 Stamp Shoppe Creations ~ a $15 gift certificate

Tickled Pink ~ 2 digis of the winner's choice

and Shelley's Images ~ a $9 gift certificate

Tickled Pink also generously provided my teamies and I images to play with! There were lots of birthday images with presents and balloons and such, but 60s Willow caught my eye as I was browsing through the website and I inspired to create something with some girly Flower Power:

Although I kept the embellies a bit simpler as I do on my kids cards, I love how this one turned out. My pictures are a bit better but yes, Ken, I do need to figure out my lighting and build a little box out of white poster board. Plus I haven't had time to figure out how to knock the camera off the autoISO setting so I can play with it a bit. (Having a photographer in the family can make photo-taking quite intimidating hahaha)

I colored Willow with  combination of Copics and ProMarkers (for the pink top). I had a problem with a bit of bleeding this time because of my depth perception issues and that the details and lines of this image are so tiny. It felt like I was trying to park a jumbo jet in a mini Cooper-sized parking space. LOL From a normal distance it looks good, so imagine my embarrassment when my closeups revealed all my flaws! LOL But it's ok... I wasn't planning on going pro anytime soon. ;)

My floral paper is from a Provocraft Spring stack, with dark purple and green cardstock to set it off from my card base, which was a super light purple that I have inked to death with Dusty Concord Distress Ink. I can't remember which number it is, but I used a Nestabilities die in two sizes for the center panels, then cut dark purple squares to layer them. I ended up rounding off the corners of the purple cardstock as the pointy corners seemed, well... too pointy. LOL

I used a scrap of tie-dye glitter cardstock to create a couple of flowers with my C.C. Designs Five Point Flowers die. Unfortunately the bigger flower fell on the floor and was taste-tested by my lab, Zoe, but it recovered nicely. LOL I added pearls to the centers and popped them up on foam dots.

My sentiment was made on the computer with a font called Bell Bottoms and I used a thinner foam to give that some dimension, too. (I will leave it to my *ahem* older brother to let me if "groovy" was actually in use in the late 60s. hee hee)  My ribbons are Berwick-Offray... a white sheer and a light lavendar rickrack.

I used Distress Stickles in Spun Sugar and Milled Lavender on the flowers on the jeans. The look I wanted is the color of painted jeans and the Distress Stickles worked perfectly for what I wanted. I used a little bit of Yellow regular Stickles and used Stardust Stickles on the little flowers on the jeans and a few of the flowers in her hair. A few little Liquid Pearl dots were added to the jeans, too.

My final touches were these silvery Robin's Nest tear drops that remind me of the little silver studs on jean designs and a few pearls scattered about around the sentiment. Voila! =)

So that's my take on Birthday Fun - hope you like it!  Don't forget to head on over to Send A Smile 4 Kids to see the rest of the fun Birthday bonanza my teamies and our guest designer have created for you!

In the meantime, I will be adding my card to the following challenges and link-ups...

Crafty Ann's Challenge - #67 It's  Girl Thing!
Inspire Me Fridays - #63 Anything Goes
Stampin with the Dragon - Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments Challenge - #56 Any sentiment suitable for a child's birthday
Cute Card Thursday - #221 Punch Drunk
The Lollipop Ladies - #47 Jelly Babies
The Paper Shelter - #68 Anything Goes
Sassy Cheryl - #119 Birthday Celebration
Bunny Zoe Crafts - #25 Girls, Girls, Girls
Craft Your Passion - #114 Anything Goes
Creative Stamp Friends - #53 Birthday
Lexi's Creations - #67 Happy Birthday

Til my next card... happy crafting!
Christy

PCJ DT Card: Colour It Up - Mermaid Magic!

Hello, everyone!

So glad the week is winding to a halt and the weekend is just about here! I had the most marvelous time with Mom on Monday celebrating my birthday. I came to the conclusion that we should run away from home more often. hee hee! I was even a good girl - I didn't even think about looking at my work email, not even once! Which, many people will tell you, is a miracle in itself. It's not that I think I'm indispensable; I just don't like the idea of someone being stressed out because they needed information. Plus, I came back to more than 60 emails. For a single day off. Crazytown, right? And having to cram five days' worth of work into four is always... interesting. LOL

Annnnyway, I had a great time coloring up my image for the newest Paper-Crafting Journey Challenge: Colour It Up! Show us your hand-colored images. Pens, markers, pencils, chalk, distress ink, watercolor... just color it up! =)

Our prize sponsor this week is Inked Treasures who will offer the winner 4 digistamps of their choice! 

For my card this week, I used this sweet Mermaid from Pink Cat Studio:

I got a new camera but haven't had time to work it all out yet, so my pics are mostly from my old camera and not very good. I had a hard time getting the shots and I don't have much in the way of software to make a silk purse out of these particular sow's ears. LOL The colors are not nearly as rich as on the original card which makes me sad as I really love how the jeweltone purples and blues and greens came out on this card.  (And I'm sure my brother Ken will be cringing as he is a professional photographer. Sigh. Just look away, Ken... look away!)

My color inspiration came from the gorgeous poly ribbon which has a beautiful blue-green-purple swirl and is metallic and shiny and has a gorgeous textured impression. I love it! I hated covering up as much of it as I did in the end... will have to find another CAS project to showcase it! LOL The colors are beautiful and remind me of a peacock's feathers.

I used Copics and ProMarkers to color my image and added Stickles to her scales and bikini top and headband. A rich purple satin ribbon and a strip of lilac pearlized paper cut with a Martha Stewart art deco shell design border punch and dotted with teeny tiny pearls was added along with two rows of pale blue pearl paper cut into waves using an EK Success punch.

I added lots of texture using a Bubbles Cuttlebug embossing folder on a light blue sheet of glitter paper and a ribbon that reminds me of fishnet and seasponges, which I cut unevenly along its length to give it some interest. I had far too much fun adding little gems of various colors and sizes... stopping was very difficult! LOL I also added something that still makes me smile with a glee that only a fellow papercrafter could understand - my newest purchase, a Magnolia Doohickey swirl die. Although the poly ribbon was a little difficult to work with, I managed a beautiful swirl. (Yes, I am in love with this ribbon. LOL)

Last I added a sentiment stamp from Lili of the Valley and dotted with teeny tiny gems. a couple more pearls in the corners and voila! One shimmery glittered magic Mermaid! 

The colors are off - poor dead camera, sigh - but you can see the shimmer and glitter and dimension better tin these shots...

Ok... challenges for this cutie from the sea:

Bunny Zoe Crafts - Anything Goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Sparkles Galore

Tammy's Scrapin' Corner - For the Girls

Stampavie and More - For A Girl

Crafting for All Seasons - Many Layers

Hooked on Craft Challenges - All That Glitters

Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Bling Bling

Cutie Pie Challenge - Die Cuts & Punches

Cute Card Thursdays - Water

Crafter's Companion - Time to Embellish

Shelly's Images - Blingage

Sassy Studio Designs - Add a Splash (used Stickles)

Allsorts Challenge - Beside the Seaside

Crafty Boots Challenge - Anything Goes with bonus for bows (no bows for me however)

I'm off to ooh and aah over my new camera and figure out how to use it. =) Don't forget to head on over to Paper-Crafting Journey and check out the DT cards... and read the sad news that we are waving farewell to our girlies Suzie, Jessie, Hilde, and Laura. Sniff. Some other changes are also coming as Wendy takes over the blog from our founder Lisa... you can read all about it here. Hope you are inspired to Colour Something Up today!

Happy Crafting!
Christy

SAS4K DT Card: Bright Colors - Gerry Giraffe has a birthday!

Good morning! It's time again for another challenge at Send A Smile 4 Kids and this challenge is another fun one.... BRIGHT COLORS FOR KIDS!

We are sponsored by Prairie Fairy, offering a $15 gift certificate for one randomly chosen winner, and Little Miss Muffet, offering 3 digis of the winner's choice to another randomly chosen winner! Our sponsors were also generous enough to provide some digis for the DT to play with... and I chose a Prairie Fairy image set... Gerry's Birthday! 

Isn't he the sweetest giraffe? I also picked a pack of presents from this Birthday Party set that includes a cake image that I didn't use on my card.

My photos today are a bit of a problem, at least for me. The colors on my card are actually much deeper and richer on the original. More of a purple and burgundy than the blue and pink that they are in the photos. Unfortunately a combination of a new lamps and - the horror - a failing camera. The LED screen has died completely and my poor, overworked 9-year-old camera is dying. Sob.

But Monday is my birthday and my Mom and I are going on a day-long adventure so I will be camera shopping for sure! With the joint issues followed by hip surgery then one knee and finally the other knee, it's been a long, long time since Mom and I ran away together, so I took the day off from work, had the pager access turned off yesterday before I left and solemnly vow not to look at my work email until Tuesday morning when I get back to work. LOL

Anyway... back to my party boy Gerry. I colored him up with Copics and knew I wanted to use this old ProvoCraft balloon paper I used for my Dragon birthday card for an earlier SAS4K challenge this year. I fussed about forEVER trying to work in a shape or some kind of solid background so Gerry would be sure to stand out, but nothing seemed to work. I finally decided that if I placed the right colors behind him, a ribbon and some foam dots might do the trick just as well and I'm glad I didn't try to force in anything else.

I colored my images with a combination of Copics and ProMarkers. Instead of trimming all the way 'round Gerry I gave him a little bit of ground to sit on at the bottom and I like how it turned out. =) I glittered up different elements of the presents and Gerry's bowtie and the little poof at the top of his party hat. What's a birthday card without some glitter? LOL

I layered a sheer white ribbon that glistens and two thin grosgrain ribbons and popped up both Gerry and his presents over that. I added a bow made of the same sheer white and glued on a royal blue confetti Happy Birthday over the knot.  I added a purple cardstock behind my balloon paper (yes, I know it looks blue. Poor dying camera.) and then liberally sprinkled the edges with these cool glittered epoxy stickers from EK Success. The whole kit and kaboodle was then glued on to a textured white cardstock base.

My teamies have once again crafted up a cornucopia of brightly colored cards for kids... head on over to the SAS4K Challenge Blog and have a look! Hopefully we inspire you to have a bit of brightly colored fun of your own!

Happy weekend and 'til I see you again, happy crafting!

Christy