Bugaboo Christmas in July

This week Bugaboo ran a Christmas in July celebration, with challenges every day. I wasn't able to participate in all of the daily challenges, but I did get two cards finished so I'm going to post them quick before bed.

I had so much fun coloring these up... I love Christmas cards and I love these simple graphic images that are cheerful and easy to color. My inner child was having a blast. LOL

The first card is for the Sparkle and Shine challenge from Thursday. I used that adorable penguin Poppi.

I colored Poppi and shadowed the ornament with Copics and glittered the heck out of that ornament. A nice coat of Stardust Stickles. I used Stardust's larger cousin, Crystal Ice, to coat the Martha Stewart snowflakes. The dark red paper is pearlized and there's a thin line of metallic blue gel pen around the background paper. Lots of glitz! =) I popped up Poppi and all the snowflakes on foam dots. Simple but colorful, sparkly and fun!

My second card is for the Monday challenge... create a Christmas card using a non-Christmas image. I chose this Brat image, World Boy...

Again, I used Copics to color. A Star Circle Nestabilities die was used to cut out my computer-generated sentiment. I popped the die cut up on thin foam and the image on thicker foam for dimension and layered both over the same dark red pearlized paper that I used on the first card. I wanted to keep it simple and use earth tones (har har) so that that colorful globe stood out so I inked the edges and adhered everything to a kraft cardstock card base and added some star buttons with a little foam to the corners. 

Easy peasy! There are a few other challenges I'm entering, but it's late and only the Bugaboo has a deadline tonight, so I'll be back with my edit. In the meantime, check out Bugaboo Stamps for yourself - great digis and you can find Jodie's images in rubber too over at Totally Stampalicious!

Happy Crafting!
Christy

SAS4K DT Cards: Christmas in July!

**For my Paper-Crafting Journey Challenge Design Team Post, click here.**

Ho Ho Ho!  While in reality my outer adult has been sweating and melting my way through this past week in the sweltering heat, my inner child has been playing in the snow, singing Christmas carols and glittering everything in sight. Time for the men in white coats? Nope... it's Christmas in July here at I Never Went to Kindergarten-land, the Send A Smile 4 Kids Challenge blog and at Bugaboo Stamps!  (Although I confess the men in white coats have been after me for years LOL)

Our current challenge at SAS4K is Christmas in July and we hope it will help you get a head start on your Christmas holiday card crafting! Donations of your cards isn't required for the challenge, but it's always welcome... just follow the guidelines here. 

We have two fabulous sponsors for this challenge: Bugaboo Stamps, donating 7 digis for a random winner, and Crafty Sentiment Designs, donating 3 digis for a second random winner. Plus you may be chosen as a Top Three!  Both sponsors also generously provided the DT with some really great images to play with and I had a ball doing my favorite kind of cards - Christmas Holiday! Bring on the snow and glitter! LOL 

I couldn't decide which image to use for my first card so I chose to use all THREE images we were given from Crafty Sentiment Designs (you can find them in their Christmas Digi shop):

 

Here is an image of it somewhat flat and folded up. It doesn't stay completely flat, but I'm sure some time in an envelope will change that. =)

I spent a lot of time coloring and glittering on this one, but I love it! I did some 1" folds at the bottom to be able to get the depth and dimension between the images that I wanted. Then a print of a digital Snowflakes paper from Summertime Designs' Winter Gifts kit by Summer Driggs (cool free kits!) gave me my color cues for the snowmen's outfits and accessories. I colored all the images with Copics and ProMarkers and added a well-restrained dose of Stardust and Waterfall Stickles on my snowmen and the little star swag on the tree and a bit of Christmas Red and Lime Green Stickles here and here. I used a metallic silver gel pen on the silver bell.

I fussy cut my images and adhered them to the various folds and then added a couple layers of cardstock on each fold to cover the bottom of my images. Here's a side view:

On the front I added a little red and white bakers twine and layered a computer-generated sentiment and a snowflake made from two Martha Stewart punches. The snowflake was colored with Copics to match the colors on my snowmen and glittered up. I even added Stardust Stickles to the clear gem in the center... it doesn't photograph well, but IRL it gives it a frosted look with lots of sparkle.

So cute and Christmas-y! =)

I'm entering this card in several challenges and link-ups...
2 Sisters Challenge Blog - #99 Christmas in July
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - #80 Snowmen
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - #16 Anything Goes
Fussy and Fancy - #66 Fancy Folds (hoping my folds are fancy enough LOL
Whimsy Stamps - #46 Anything Goes
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - CHRISTMAS Acrostics:  I used Coal buttons/nose, Carrot nose, winter Hat, Happy Snowmen, Red Ribbon, Red Twine, Red Christmas balls, winter Scarves, Sparkling Snow and Snowflakes, Twinkling Stars, Christmas Trees, Sparkling ear Muffs and Silver bell.  Whew!
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes 
Hooked on Crafts - #22 Christmas in July
Lollipop Crafts - #84 Christmas in July

I made a second card for our challenge post using this sweet gingerbread girl from Bugaboo Stamps:

I really focused on coloring on this one (using Copics) and am quite pleased with most of my blending, especially on my candy cane. The photo loses some of the detail, but there is a real 'roundness' to the cane in person. I used red liquid pearls to fill in the heart on her sweet ginger butt.

 Then I carefully applied white enamel in the icing sections and held my breath as I dumped Glamour Dust over it while it was wet. I waited until it had dried to dust it off and see what stuck. Turns out, quite a bit! Lovely sparkle.

(Oh, how I LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE Christmas holiday cards! hee hee ho ho hee!) 

I kept the layout very simple and made a smaller card than usual (4.5x5.5") so that the image was large and in charge. The papers are from a DCWV Christmas and Winter 180-page pack and I used some kraft cardstock. All my edges are well inked with either Burlap or Walnut Distress Inks (or both!). Very country, I think. I know my followers will be oh-so-shocked to hear I popped my image up on foam dots. Ha! I tied on a bit of Christmas red and white twine and a button and added three itsy bitsy pearls to finish it off. Yummy!

I'm entering this card in the Just Some Lines challenge - Clean and Simple.

Now... this month is going to be full of fun...

SAS4K is joining Bugaboo for their Christmas in July celebration over at Catch the Bug from July 14-21. Plenty of fun and prizes to be had and lots and lots of SPARKLE! =) LOL And they will be doing a card drive for SAS4K as part of their celebration. Click on the image below to get all the details!

And if you've hung in all the way to the end of this monster post... here's a bit of a reward:
On Monday I'll be having my first ever BLOG CANDY here at I Never Went to Kindergarten, with a special bonus for my current followers. It will be a super sweet Christmas in July!

So see you Monday and until then...

Happy Crafting!
Christy
Christmas Elf

SAS4K DT Card: For the Boys - Super Kid & Summer Monkey

Hey, everyone! This is going to be a shorter post than my usual... wait, who just yelled "woohoo!"???  Shush!  As I was saying... short post. I'll fill you in later on my buzy week, but I have about 30 minutes to get this done, so to the point I go...

It's time for a new challenge at Send A Smile 4 Kids! This challenge is all about cards FOR THE BOYS. Snips, snails, puppy dog tails...  or in my case a cape and the ol' undies-over-tights outfit and a monkey splish-splashing his way into summer. LOL Our sponsors this week are Karen's Doodles - offering 3 digis, Bugaboo Stamps - 7 digis, and the Stamp Shoppe - a $15 gift certificate.

My first card is a Karen's Doodle image.

I colored first and then fussed forever to find patterned papers. I finally came up with creating the black and white rays in Word. This is third attempt at coloring black and I really like how his outfit came out, at least the real life version (the pic is a little lighter than it looks IRL). Not perfect, but better than I expected, which is always a nice surprise. LOL Elements on this one are Star Nestabilities, EK Success Sticko glitter star and dot stickers, Christmas Red Stickles and a sentiment done on the computer. And my ever-present foam dots.

My second card was not what I started with for this challenge. A last-minute disaster as I was taking photographs on Wednesday involving a cup of tea and a rather large furry doofus I might have mentioned recently who has taken to popping her head out from under the craft table at random moments during my crafting. So... I had to color up a new Bugaboo image and create a whole new card at the last minute! Here's my second card...

I know, I just did a Christmas/winter card with a snowflake, crying over missing the best bits of winter. Ah, well, blame that on my Gemini horoscope as well. haha  If I had to do it over again, I might make the image bigger, but it still is cute! Elements for this one are a Bugaboo image (love this monkey!), an EK Success beachy border punch, I think the wave border punch is also EK Success, more of those EK Success Sticko dots, a blue foot paperclip from the Walmart office supply aisle, papers from DCWV, foam dots (for the image and under the sentiment (which was done in Word) and the painted wooden umbrella from my stash.

I will say I've been experimenting with my coloring a bit more and had a lot of fun with both these images this week. If your mojo isn't chomping at the bit to get started yet, click on over to the SAS4K blog and see what my teamies were up to and get your creative juices flowin'!

Th-Th-Th-Th-That's all, folks!  See you soon and 'til then...

Happy crafting!

Christy

Udderly Amazing Valentine Cows

Hello!

Got so distracted I almost forgot the deadline to finish this card was tonight... the Bugaboo Stamps challenge blog Catch the Bug has started a new biweekly challenge: Stella's Sunday Sketch Challenge. I used the sketch, a Bugaboo digi and a computer-created sentiment to create another kid's Valentine's Day card!

Here is the original sketch:

This was fun as I am starting to get the hang of modifying sketches with size and shape to personalize them. When I first started entering challenges, I didn't realize that I didn't have to stick to the exact measurements and shapes of the sketches. Now, as you see, I am starting to explore changes in shapes, subtle shifts and size changes to suit my supplies and my creative muse of the moment. =)

My image was colored with Copics. The papers are an old Provocraft slab, Celebrations and there's a bit of red vellum I got from the Paper Temptress. The ribbon is a WalMart purchase from last February's clearance rack. I used my new Heart Squares Nesties again - this time using the smaller size as well and my Martha Stewart heart border punch that I haven't used in ages got dusted off. I buffed over the Nesties with Spun Sugar and Barn Door Distress Inks and added a bit of bling here and there with some G Studio crystals. I used foam dots to layer up the image, hearts and the sentiment for some dimension.

Just a few challenges for this one:

Stella's Sunday Sketch Challenge - Sketch 101

Send a Smile 4 Kids - Valentines for Kids

Digital Tuesday Challenge - #142 Punch It Out

So I'm off to post this to a few challenges, and then to wash my inky fingers and put on my PJs. Back soon with more fun!

Happy Crafting!

Christy

Bugaboo Valentine Puppy

Good morning! Up early, so I’m posting my card from last night. I intended to do some crafting the night before, but my body’s desire for sleep and my brain’s desire to craft were not compatible and I ended up going to bed early. I’m a night owl, so anytime I voluntarily go to bed early is a clear sign that the world is off-kilter. LOL

So… inspired by the oh-so-cuteness of this Bugaboo digi which I recently won, the color combo challenge from Enfys at Going Buggy, the sketch at CPS, and the Valentines for Kids at Send a Smile 4  Kids challenge, I came up with this:

I was practicing coloring “black” on Sunday… this was my 3rd try. I now understand why you have to use dark grays and not actual black. It’s still a bit dark on the paws, but you can still see the digi stamp lines, so I’m calling it a win. =)

The two heart papers and the plaid are digi papers from Stamp Fairy and the image can be found here at Bugaboo Stamps. There’s a little series of him and totally cute! After I colored with Copics, I used Glossy Accents to fill in his nose and his heart balloon. I sprinkled some Glamour Dust on the heart for just a hint of sparkle. My die cuts are the Nestabilities Square Hearts and a heart Sizzlit. I added some grosgrain ribbon layered up, inked the edges with Soot and Barn Door DIs and scattered about a little bling here and there for the finishing touches.

Challenges I’m entering:

Catch the Bug – January Anything Goes

Send A Smile 4 Kids - Valentines for Kids

Going Buggy – Grey or Black, White and Red

CPS – Sketch #250

Digital Tuesday – #142 Punch It Out

Papertake Weekly – Die Cute Special

7 Kids College Fund – #38 Try Something New (coloring black with alcohol markers)

Cupcake Crafts - #174 New (new Digi, new Copics coloring choice)

Lollipop Crafts – #62 Anything New Goes

Crafty Cardmakers – #59 No floral embellishments

That’s it for now. I’ll be back soon… and maaaaaybe with some exciting news! Stay tuned! ;)

Happy Crafting!

Christy

Happy Bir'day, Brother!

Happy Saturday!

Been crafting up a storm today and have several cards done. This one is a birthday card for one of my brothers whose birthday is coming up. He often ends up getting combination 'birthday-Christmas' gifts from family members, poor guy.

It's another Bugaboo image, this time one of her great Winter Birds set, Friend:

The papers are a mix of an inexpensive pack I picked up two or three years ago at Walmart and unearthed in the Christmas decorations box, and a new DCWV pack. I colored my image with Copics, added glitter to the snow, Liquid Pearl dots to the bird's scarf, and a little white paint pen to the bird's yellow crest feather and belly, then cut it out with a scalloped Nestie. I used the end of one of the Label Nesties for my computer-generated sentiment, which is a play on the bird theme! =) I used thinner foam dots this time, so my card is still layered, but much more subtle.  A few gems here and there, grosgrain ribbon, more Martha Stewart punched snowflakes, et voila! A wintery birthday card in some great guy colors.

 

And a closeup of my image. His wing's a little streaky (too impatient to let some of the ink dry before tweaking, I guess!) but I think my coloring is improving. =) It's easier to see in real life, but if you look closely you can see the tiny white dots from the paint pen on his belly and on his crest feather. I'll have to play with that more in the future, I think. =)

Challenges for my birdbrain brother's card, I mean, for my brother's bird birthday card (heh heh)...

Bugaboo - Twelve Days of Christmas Day 4: Birds
Crafty Calendar - Cold and Frosty
Craft Your Passion - #87, Anything Goes with Glitter
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday - #194 Anything Goes
Totally Papercrafts - #96 Anything But Christmas
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - Celebrate
Sweet Stampin - Things with Wings

I'll be back shortly with another of my creations! Happy Crafting!
Christy

Deacon Elf Shows Up for Christmas

Greetings!

First, for a note for those worried about the possible adverse health effects of my poor Winter Fairy from yesterday's post... let me reassure you. She's a winter fairy, and thus magically impervious to cold, despite the ethereal, glittery, featherlight dress she's wearing. She thanks you for your concern but assures you she is comfortably zipping about, spreading sparkling snowflakey goodness across the northern hemisphere even as we speak. =)

Now, on to the second of my niece's Christmas cards I finished last night...

This one is a merge of two Bugaboo images featuring Deacon Elf. 

I used two sizes of the wonky rectangle Nestabilities, colored up my image with Copics, and then added three or four colors of Stickles, a bit of glitz with a Berwick gold ribbon, some green sparkly epoxy sticker dots from EK Success and a Studio G brad on my computer-created sentiment. I popped up the flag to give it some more dimension as well as foam dots here and there (will I ever run out of foam dots?), seen in these lovely angle shots (You will have to imagine the game-show hostess presentation hand wave haha):

 

Just a few challenges for this one...

Catch the Bug Challenge: December Anything Goes

PaperCrafting Journey: Christmas Challenge

Stamp, Scrap and Doodle: Holiday Card

Moving Along with the Times: Last Minute Christmas

So, off to the craft room for a few more hours before bed. Back soon with more! =)

Happy Crafting,

Christy

Bugaboo Monkey & His Birthday Cake

Hello!  Whew - what a month October was... fast, furious and kinda freaky.

Snow before Halloween = CRAZY!

I just browsed back through some of my postings and I'm not sure if I've been spending too much time talking about how I created my cards... what started out as a way to talk to my mom about my new hobby is now actually getting viewed by other crafters who already know the techniques and the lingo, so with 9 months of blogging (albeit sparingly) and checking out other blogs (Lord, there's always a new one to see!), it seems like it's time to give birth to something new and hopefully improved in the next couple of weeks. =)

Today I'm just popping in for a quick post of a birthday card I did for a coworker's birthday. Her bday was yesterday, but an unforeseen furbaby escape from the backyard delayed production until last night. haha

She loves monkeys, so this Bugaboo digi was perfect. I used a combination of Copics and ProMarkers to color it up - I'm getting better and more comfortable with them, but I was using plain basic cheap-o cardstock. I ordered some of the Heavenly White I liked from The Paper Temptress for next week's adventure (more details to come on that) so I'll be able to get in lots of practice. =) The purples of the cake and the papers are a better match IRL.

I used Deco Arts Snow Writer for the icing and then while it was wet, coated it in Bumblebee glitter from Doodlebug. (Looks so much better IRL than these quickie photos!) Some pearls on the cake and in the corners... and I replaced the little hat strings with a little white pom-pom that I coated in Grape Ice Stickles. My love of popping up my elements on foam dots makes its usual appearance, and inking all the paper edges with Distress Inks.  I had made some banana paper with a stamp, Mustard Seed DI and Copics to color, but I ended up only using a little piece for the sentiment and a greeting space on the inside.

Inside is one of the Valentine Monkeys from Bugaboo, except he lost his little heart accent. I love his bowtie, even if you only see a bit of it. =)  I colored him first as practice for the cake monkey. Figured it was better to have the learning curve on the INSIDE of the card. LOL

Poor monkey... his brother has all the cake on the front and he's separated from its deliciousness by all that cardstock. LOL

Anyway, sorry the pics are a rush job from this morning before work. So dark outside that early and the battery in my camera was on its last little spark. =( Sigh.

Happy Crafting, everyone and I will e you all soon!

Christy Beans

Summer Beach Monkey =)

Hi! Well, on to my 3rd project/card for an online challenge...  the pictures still suck. I know, I know.. it's nighttime and not the best for picture-taking, but I think my camera's got some scratches on the lens. I think it's 7 years old, and for a digital camera, just like a PC, that's ancient. LOL So the colors aren't the greatest in my photos, but they're as close as I'm going to get tonight.

I based this on Card Patterns sketch #118, but missed the deadline to get it finished for that challenge (it's been a loooooong week with few moments in the crafty space). The final size was larger than my (lately) normal 6"x6" card as I intend to use it as a decoration instead of a card.

I used one of my Bugaboo beach monkey digital stamps.  I used a die-cut scallop and tumbled glass distress ink to make the sky trying out a technique Bev Rochester posted on her site All the things I love. I really like the effect even on my first try, so with practice and a better cloud template, I think I'm going to be quite pleased with this technique in my arsenal. I used some faded jeans and broken china distress ink to paint in an ocean.



Colored my little monkey with Promarkers and added a touch of sand to his castle as well as to the curved beach. I used gold shimmer Mod Podge so there's a hint of golden shimmer between sand grains. Doesn't show on the photos, but IRL it's a nice effect. The sun was made in Word using a circle and a 12-point star shape both formatted in gradient shades of yellow and orange. A bit of twine to hide the bottom edge over a Martha Stewart punch and voila - summertime!  I used a striped sheet from a Provocraft Seasons & Celebrations paper pack I've had for a while (bought when I thought I might get papercrafty a few years ago and didn't). And the cardstock is cheapy Walmart stuff from about that same time period.  

Since I missed the Card Patterns entry deadline, this little guy is getting linked up to

Catch the Bug Challenge "June Anything Goes" and

Craft Your Passion challenge #61: "Anything Goes"

I must say, although it took me a while and things are still a little tight on time, I'm enjoying getting into the crafty spirit of cardmaking and papercrafting. It's nice to be able to work at something creative and have a finished product. So much of my "creativity" at work (if you want to call it that) is just problem-solving... which is nice, but there's not really a final product, a finished thing to look at or point to and say, "I did that."  Just new problems and more stuff to do in a never-ending to-do-list parade.  Sigh.

Well, thank goodness for crafting!  And blogs! =)  Happy crafting everyone!  'Til next time...