Party Time with Mo Manning

Hey! Back with my first Copics card in ages. Like, seriously, ages... 16 months, maybe?

When one of my coworkers saw the Doctors Day cards and especially the PowerPoint I had projecting on the wall (see my last post), she asked if I could make her daughter a birthday card using the same colors. Her daughter's on the school band and plays the saxophone, so she wanted anything with music. I had the perfect image in mind...

The image is So Jazzed by Mo Manning. I still had bits of cardstock and the watercolored paper I'd made for the Doctors Day cards, so I pulled this together. She only gave me a night's notice, and I ran out of time, so I had to assemble everything quickly at home and finish coloring the image at work during my lunch. I have never glued together a card before finishing the image, and I think I held my breath the larger part of lunch. I still went a bit out of the lines, but I was rather pleased by the end. Especially since it's been so long since I colored. I did well capturing the red shade of her daughter's hair too!  The photo is, unfortunately, another on the fly by cellphone; the richness of the colors in the real-life card is really pretty. I added some Stardust Stickles to the heart on her coat and swirls on her skirt and a teeny dot on the heart attached to the dog's collar. Some Golden Rod Stickles made the sax super sparkly.

As the image is the focus and I didn't want to detract from the watercolored background, I stayed really CAS with this one. I didn't have a piece of the purple cardstock big enough to back my image, so I used two pieces that didn't quite come together so I hid the seams with the little gem up top and a purple heart coated in glossy accents on the bottom. The sentiment is a Paper Smooches sentiment from the Birthday Sampler embossed in white and I used a Happy Birthday from the same set inside along with a strip of the watercolor (no pic, sorry).

I'm entering this sweet girly in a couple of challenges:

Crafting When We Can - #66 for a Child
Charisma Cardz Challenge - #7 Clean & Simple
Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week #118
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So that's it for now... hope to see you all again soon! Until then, best wishes and happy crafting!
Christy

PCJ DT Card: Anything Goes - Shawna

[Edited to add:  Lesson for today: Make sure you use the right date when pre-scheduling a blog post!]

Greetings, my bloggy friends...

Sorry to have been quiet this week, but I've been a bit of a mess the past few days. I've had to put my cat Spencer to sleep. It was unexpected and a bit of a shock and, well, I don't apologize for being in love with that little bundle of fur. He was 9 and an indoor-outdoor cat, so I know he enjoyed his 9 lives to the fullest, but it doesn't make the selfish I-wanted-more-time feelings go away. Sigh.

I am glad the weekend is coming... I will probably spend lots of quality time with the puppies and lots of quality time with some Copics, papers, scissors and glue this weekend. Thank goodness for crafting!

So... on to my card today... Paper-Crafting Journey is running a SIX-week challenge this time 'round. I think it was supposed to be a bit of vacation for the DT, but we'll be running a special additional challenge in a couple weeks, so stay tuned. LOL  In the meantime, you have six lovely weeks to join us for an easy-peasy ANYTHING GOES! Paper crafts of all types, colors, and purposes... and we will have two winners! We are sponsored by the quirky and fun Mayzy Art Digital Stamp Designs who is generously offering three digis of the winner's choice to TWO of our participants for this challenge.

Mayzy also provided the DT with some images and I fell in love with Shawna with Latte... and before you say it, yes, I know... another Christmas/winter holiday card with snowflakes. What can I say - I love winter and Christmas cards! LOL

I love that blowing in the wind hair and scarf and I knew exactly what layout I wanted as soon as I saw her. These delicious papers are from a paper pad I won from Delphine last year and have been hoarding for just the right images and the colors in real life are a bit darker than this photo. I enlarged the digi (this card is 5x7) and cut the image just below that great belt before coloring her up with some newly acquired Copics colors that go so well with the muted blue-greens and warm grey-browns of this paper. I added a little gold metallic pen over the belt's hardware and the scarf tips and used liquid pearls on the flower adorning her beret. I had a few difficulties with her hair (still hair-challenged! LOL) and had to darken it up to fix a coloring boo-boo. I didn't bin her, but I came awfully close. I definitely will color her up again sometime, and she'll make a terrific practice image. (ooooh, the P word!)

I distressed the edges of the dp with scissors and paired it with kraft cardstock that I inked with Walnut DI and spritzed with the tiniest bit of water mixed with Perfect Pearls for a hint of glimmer. The top kraft panel is distressed... I kept the edges of my card base sharp but inked both. I popped the panel up on foam dots over a ribbon colored with Copics to match her beret and then popped Shawna up as well to get lots of the dimension I am addicted to (perhaps I should buy stock in a foam dot company! haha). I added some kraft cardstock snowflakes using a couple of Martha Stewart punches and inked those as well. They were inspired recently by this card from Katarina, whose cardmaking style I adore, and so many of Pop's cards as she uses kraft often for her base and punched/die cut embellishments. The pearl centers were a little bright, so I sponged over them with the Walnut Ink and wiped it off so they have just a bit of an aged color that ties in better.

A few little pearls in a couple of corners and done! I debated adding more embellishments,  but although I love some of the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink, layer-upon-layer cards that are a smorgasbord for the eyes, I seem to stick more successfully to a relatively CAS style.

My teamies have done some crafty masterpieces of their own, so be sure to check them out over at Paper-Crafting Journey and join in the fun! This one is too easy NOT to join in!

So that's it from me until Saturday, when I will be back with two cards for Send A Smile 4 Kids! Til then...

Happy Crafting!
Christy

Oops, almost forgot.... just a few Challenges and Link-ups...

Bearly Mine - #46 Anything Goes
The Stamping Boutique - #44 Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamps - #35 Christmas in July
Lexi's Creations - #70 Christmas in July
Paper Playtime - #80 Anything Goes
Make It Monday - Week 100
Wishcraft's Waste Not Wednesdays - Week #28
4 Crafty Chicks - Distressing
Cute Card Thursday - #228 Clean and Simple

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

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

A Sunny Day For Squirrel

Isn't he the cutest widdle squirrel ever?!  Squee!

Hello, my crafty friends! Back with another card I had to wait a few days to post as it needed to make a short hop over the Pond before I could share it. =)  For this one I went for a sort of  uber cute with a nice pop of color but a grown-up touch. Sort of pleasing the inner child and the outer adult all at the same time. LOL Anyway, here's my clean and simple sunny day card that I made for my best bloggy buddy, Squirrel -

Sorry he pictures are a little wonky and a bit fuzzy... I didn't have much time and the batteries in my camera were going dead. But the postman doesn't wait around. LOL

The red swirl paper has been in my stash a very long time, maybe even as long as decade. Scary. I'm not even sure what I originally planned to do with it, but I thought it was pretty and I loved it. LOL Sad when you have a paper addiction before you ever become a card crafter. =)  The blue sky background paper is a new purchase from Nitwit Collections, part of the At the Park set. Love! It was perfect for my Pink Cat Studio digi squirrel and his heart-full branch. The sun is also from PCS... a freebie sentiment stamp, but I masked off the sentiment before I printed it.

I colored the three stamp images with Copics and then used the large-balled end of an embossing stylus to round out the images a bit. I focused on the squirrel's tail tip, his eyes, his cheeks, his little acorn, the branch, and the center of the sun are all popped out just a bit more.  I also cut a second layer of hearts for the branch which I embossed and then smothered in Glossy Accents. I attached everything with different heights of foam dots. Here are some angled pics that kind of show the dimension...

 

I also glittered up the center of the sun with some beautiful yellow Stickles and punched out my computer-generated sentiment on two cloud punches (Fiskars) which I touched up with a bit of Copics - a light grey on the top edges and a pale blue on the bottom. As a last touch I added a few small gems, one on the cloud and three teensy tiny ones in the bottom corner.  

I'm entering my Sunny Squirrel card in the following challenges:

Craft Your Days Away - All Creatures Great and Small

Moving Along With The Times - Keep It Real!

Cardmadfairy Digi Days - Clean and Simple

Crafty Sentiments - Bingo: Patterned Paper, Colored Image, Punches or Die Cuts

Top Tip Tuesday - Clean and Simple

Kaboodle Doodles - Clean and Simple

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes

That's all for now... back soon! 'Til then, happy crafting!

Christy

SAS4K DT Card: Anything Goes for Kids - Sweet Spring Birthday Girl

Happy Saturday to you, my crafty friends!

I cannot tell you how glad I am to have survived to the weekend. Too bad it's only two days before it's back to the trenches. There has been so much going on at work lately that my boss is getting stressed out not having enough time to feel like he is on top of everything. Late yesterday I managed to capture him for enough time to plot out the next two weeks' schedule so I can cancel meetings and reschedule service so he has some time to work on the projects. Hopefully next week we'll be surfing the wave instead of being tumbled under it as it crashes into shore. LOL

Earlier this week I finished a card that I thought would be for today's post... and realized I'd used the wrong images! Apparently my boss's mental disorganization this week was catching. LOL So I got my hands on the really sweet images from Sylvia Zet's Wee Stamps, one of our two generous sponsors for our Send A Smile 4 Kids challenge... (it's an easy one!)... ANYTHING GOES! Yep, whip up any kind of card for a kid and you can enter it as the SAS4K challenge from now until June 1st! Randomly picked winners will get 3 digital stamps of their choice from Wee Stamps or Karen's Doodles, our fantastic sponsors for this challenge!

Even better... this challenge we will be linking up with Paper-Crafting Journey (my other DT!) so you'll be able to enter your creation in both challenges and have twice the fun! The PCJ challenge goes live Thursday, May 24... but you'll be able to backlink as long as you've also entered it in SAS4K, so you don't have to wait to post your cards at SAS4K! =)

On to my card for SAS4K... this is Suzi with Bunny...

Isn't she totally sweet? I love Sylvia Zet's images, but the hair has always put me off. LOL There are stamp images like Wee Stamps, Mo Manning and Make It Crafty that I love, but that I just haven't felt ready to tackle yet. My coloring is getting better and I'm hoping to have some time to practice lots and lots this summer when I can be outside while the pups play, the kitty lounges in the sun and I can color while ignoring the growing grass and the weedy edge of the backyard. LOL Since I was a bit hurried this time, I'm not altogether happy with her hair, but she'll do. And that face is so sweet, it distracts you from her hair. LOL

I colored her with a combination of Copics and ProMarkers. I tried my hand at one of my favorite Coops Tricks... shading darker on one side of the image and barely or not at all on the other side to get some depth. It lightened up a bit on my photo, so she doesn't quite pop off the page, but I like the effect and it does look better on the actual card, so I'll be practicing and borrowing that technique again. (thanks, Coops!)

I used Liquid Pearls to color the flowers in her basket. I got a little carried away and the white center dots spread a bit more than I would have liked, but I love the colors and the bit of shine.

I even did a BOW on this card, can you believe it? I used a pale greenish-yellow ribbon on my card and paired it with a Martha Stewart border punch... I can't remember its name right now, but I love the art deco shell design. A little elegance.

The papers are from the Spring Fling DCWV line... I picked up the 180-page pack of combined Spring Fling and Summer Days for less than 10 bucks. Not that I needed more papers. (Has anyone created a Paper-Addicts Anonymous group yet? I seriously need an intervention. LOL)  Paper hoarding aside, I love the rose design and found the perfect little WOC rose to match in my stash. The sentiment was done on the computer and I used one end of a Nestie Labels Eighteen to create a tag. The image panel was popped up on foam dots. (can't do a card without those!) Some Kaiser pearls, a little Distress Inking in Spun Sugar, Scattered Straw and Shabby Shutters on my edges and done!

My teamies over at SAS4K have created some really wonderful cards using not only Wee Stamp images but a few great Karen's Doodles, too, so get on over to the Send A Smile 4 Kids challenge post today! Can't wait to see what fantastic kids cards you create... and even better, you can choose to donate them to kids in hospital by following the guidelines here.

Zoe just ran away with the cat's jingle ball, so I'm off to get it back before the silly creature swallows it... in the meantime, happy crafting and I'll see you all soon!

Christy