Sweetly Shaking It Up on Your Birthday!

November is turning in to a challenging month to get back into the swing of crafting regularly... I've got six birthday cards to make for coworkers and friends this month!

So I'm back again (I know, twice on the same day! haha), this time with a birthday card that I had lots of fun creating! I love the recent wave of shaker cards so I decided to create one of my own for a coworker's birthday card this week featuring a Birdie Brown stamp from My Favorite Things:

Looking at it on this screen, the colors are kind of blah.  Here's another photo with more accurate color...

Aahhh, much better. Anyway, bad pics aside, This one is going to be one of my all-time favorites I think. I love the colors of this DCWV paper from their old Celebrations stack. And I really like my coloring on the image on this one. I have finally started to convince my inner cheapskate that the only way I am going to get good at coloring is to practice, even if it's "wasting" supplies. LOL  Another thing I will have to remember is that I have to recreate my light tent and take proper photos. =\

I used two sizes of a Spellbinders die to cut my window and a piece of acetate from some Spellbinders packaging. My image is part of this lovely Birdie Brown Sweet Birthday wishes stamp set. I absolutely loved coloring her - the hair turned out exactly as I wanted and that skirt... I actually managed to get a hint of the ruffles in her skirt. Yay!  I wanted to add white polkadots, but the white Signo pen I bought two years ago has thoroughly dried up, so I went for black, using a Glaze pen. I also used purple Wink of Stella on the bottom ruffle of her skirt and a mix of clear and purple on her dress and hair bows. I gave her patent leather shoes with the Glaze pen, too. I know, no self respecting girl wears a skirt and patent leather shoes together, but since she's a drawing, I figure no boys will be able to see any reflection up her skirt. LOL    Last, I glittered the top of her cupcake with my favorite Stardust Stickles. The color is off on these pictures as well, but they show you the shine and glitter. =)

For my shaker, I used the image of the cupcakes on a tiered stand that is included in the set. I colored up the top two tiers where the cupcakes didn't overlap each other with Copics to match the colors in the DCWV banners cardstock and cut them out before coating their icing in Stardust Stickles.  I used two layers of foam adhesive to make a pocket and threw in some purple and lime sequins and pink and blue glitter (all from Doodlebug Designs and with fun names like limeade, bubblegum and swimming pool) together with the cupcakes. Then I sat here at my crafting table and played with it for the next 15 minutes. =)

To finish off the front of the card, I used a Copic marker to get the right shade of purple on my little sentiment flag and heat embossed a sentiment from the stamp set in white.

For the inside of the card I used the leftover scalloped die cuts, a few more sequins and a larger cupcake and sentiment from the stamp set. Simple, but oh so cute!

This one was so fun, I may find myself making more shaker cards soon. I do know I had a hard time giving this particular card away. Do you ever have that problem?  Make a card you absolutely love and then have to send it on to another home? LOL  I suppose I'd be surrounded by cards eventually and have no room to make any more, so better to have crafted and given away then never to be able to craft at all. hee hee

For some more fun, I'll be shaking my way over to these challenge sites to enter this sweet birthday shaker card:
Artistic Inspirations - Challenge #116 Anything Goes/Happy Birthday
Craft Your Passions - Challenge #238 Bright and Sparkly
Crafty Sentiments Designs - Challenge #11 Make it Sparkle
Loves Rubberstamps Challenge - Challenge #125 Anything Goes
Creative Moments - Challenge #55 Anything Goes/Celebrations
Moving Along With the Times - Sparkle and/or Shine
Seize the Birthday - Birthday (Topping choice: Monochromatic Orange)
 Challenge Up Your Life - Challenge #1 Anything Goes
ShowCASe Your Style - Challenge #1 Tic-Tac-Toe  I used Emboss-Sequin-Sparkle, plus there's White, Diecut and Sentiment, too!
Addicted to Stamping - Challenge #91 Bling, Bling!
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes

Then one more finished birthday to post... and four more to craft this month, so I'll be back soon!  Til then, happy crafting!

Christy

Retiring to a Rose Garden

Hello, fellow crafty folks! =)

I have been a busy stamper the past two weeks and have officially made more cards in the last two weeks than in the 6 months before that. Which feels good, but whew!

Here's the first... which is also the one with the most time invested. Our department VP retired after 40 years and is an avid gardener. She's been talking about looking forward to building a rose garden now that she'll have the time, so a group of us gathered together and got a rather hefty gift card for a local garden shop. My task was to create a card with enough space for 30 or so people to write messages and to 'package' the gift card. As soon as they said "roses", I knew this one had to be a Magnolia stamp. This little Tilda is one of the first stamps I bought when I officially discovered cardmaking online two years ago, and my coloring has most definitely improved since the last time I used her...

Isn't she sweet?

The rose paper from which I took my color inspiration is from a rather inexpensive Colorbok packet I was given as a gift last Christmas. I loved the deep burgundy and dusty pink together with the slightly shabby distressed look.  I cut them with stitched panel dies from My Favorite Things. Love the effect of that little bit of stitch detail! I used a bit of Walnut Distress Ink to age the edges of all my papers and the Spellbinders diecut I used for my image.   I colored Tilda, the Magnolia leaves die cuts, the largest rose, and the four little rosebuds with Copics so that they all matched.  On the image I used a bit of Liquid Pearl around her and some Lemon Ice Stickles on the rose centers.
 On the Wild Orchid Crafts flowers, just  a touch of Wink of Stella on the large rose and Stardust Stickles on some of the smaller pink roses gave them a bit of sparkle. A bit of creamy lace, a few pearls, and a little Magnolia dragonfly die finished off the front panel.



Now, for the really fun part...  again, there were about 30 people to sign the card, so I had to find a way to make the card a lot bigger... so I went for an accordion fold that goes on and on for about 7 more panels!

I had to glue together a number of burgundy card bases. I colored six sets of these Magnolia rose stamps, then fussy cut them before shimmering them up with some clear Wink of Stella.

Each panel is a triple layer of the Colorbok rose paper, a piece of white cardstock colored with the same YG95 that I used on the rose stamps, and another piece from the same Colorbok paper pad. All the edges are inked with either Walnut or Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

(The pages look slightly different colors here because there was daylight on the right panel but not the left when I photographed the panels. Oops!)

For the final page, I searched the internet for quotes about gardens. I loved this one:

"I sit in my garden, gazing upon a beauty that cannot gaze upon itself. 

And I find sufficient purpose for my day. - Robert Brault"

...so I typed it up on the computer, added my own note below it and printed directly onto the Colorbok paper. This panel was also going to hold the gift card, so I cut a notch out of it using the bottom bit of a Magnolia tag. I used the same tag to cut a tag from white cardstock, colored it with YG95 and coated it with clear Wink of Stella.
When everyone had signed, the tag was attached to a little envelope that held the gift card. Another little dragon fly perches on the the bottom of this panel as well.

To finish off the project, I created a 1" thick box out of gold metallic paper and created a little label for the front.  The box was done envelope style, with a little velcro closure on the back.

Everyone loved it... it even made her cry - in a good way, of course! =)  I won't be doing something so elaborate again for a while... it took at least 2 hours just to color and cut out all those roses for the panels. But it was well worth it in the end. A special card for a special event!

I'll be popping over to a few challenges to link my little Tilda creation...
Tilda's Town Challenges - Challenge #129 Anything Goes
Lovely hAnglar or Sweet Magnolia Challenge - Challenge #106 Sparkle
Midweek Magnolias Challenge - Challenge #101 Glitter, Lace and Pearls
Crafting When We Can Challenge - Challenge #82 Use Your Markers

My next two posts will be all about birthdays! Woohoo! Til then, happy crafting!
Christy

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
.
So that's it for now... hope to see you all again soon! Until then, best wishes and happy crafting!
Christy

Anything Goes for Kids @ SAS4K: Saturated Canary Violet

Happy Saturday! We made it to the weekend - woot! woot! 

It's Send A Smile 4 Kids challenge day and another end-of-summer easy-peasy challenge for you... Anything Goes!  This challenge is also a bit special as we say goodbye and best wishes to teamie Shelby who is moving on to other adventures. Her fun style and super coloring will be missed... but we do have a new teamie waiting in the wings for her debut coming up soon! =) Our sponsors for this challenge are Robyns Fetish (5 digis to the winner) and Saturated Canary (2 digis for our second winner) and the DT had the difficult decision of picking which image to color up for today's DT post. That was a challenge in itself! LOL

I finally landed on Violet... and to be honest, I had intended to go with some lovely violet Copic colors, but when I was riffling through my papers, this pink and blue-green combination from the Glam Gal DCWV stack caught my eye. So violet is now dressed  pink and blue-green! =)

Oops, bit wonky, that photo.... LOL

I colored Violet with my Copics.. the BG70 series was a little too dark and cold than I needed so I ended up using a technique of scribbling BG11 and BG13 onto an acrylic block and then picking up those colors with my BG70 and BG72 markers to get a brighter blue-green that matched my background papers. Her hair's a bit of a mess... got a little carried away trying to get the streaky look I wanted. Too much fun flicking and feathering! LOL If you squint your eyes while looking at the card though, it looks pretty good. LOL I added Viva Decor pen pearly dots in silver (on the skirt) and opal everywhere else.

I added a nice coating of Crystal Stickles with its green and yellowy-pink glitter for her underskirt and the rosette in her hair and bit of Stardust Stickles on the second rosette that I printed and cut out for the top corner of the card. The heart border is an older Martha Stewart punch. I used a bit of pink grosgrain ribbon to cover the seam and added three of the punched out hearts with a dot of the pearl pen to the bottom corner.

So now it's your turn... read up on all the challenge details and see the super cards for kids my teamies have created over on the Send A Smile 4 Kids challenge blog, then go get creative! Can't wait to see what you come up with! =)

Til my next post, happy crafting!
Christy

Card Mania Challenges: Anything Goes - A Sassy Graduation

Sometimes it amazes me how crafting can bring together people from all over the whole wide world. I was a college student in the 1990s when chatrooms first became popular. Back then they were so much more friendly and spambots hadn't really been invented yet. You had the occasional jerk (we didn't yet call them trolls) or a 12-year-old pretending to be an adult and insulting people just because he could... but mostly they were a lot of fun. I particularly loved and spent most of my chat time in a chatroom ruled by the Kiwis and Ozzies (New Zealanders and Australians). I loved being able to talk to people on the other side of the Earth and as there were a good number of regulars, it was like hanging out at your favorite pub, except without beer, drunken crowds or smokers. LOL Finding the online crafting community has been much like falling back into those years... a warm and friendly sort of family and spread across the globe! So imagine my glee when, a few weeks ago, a delightful crafty blogger named Ani from Bulgaria sent me an email and asked me to be part of a new biweekly challenge blog! My first reaction? Someone in BULGARIA is looking at MY cards?! Who would have thought it possible 20 years ago? I was very honored and couldn't pass up the opportunity to get to play with my new group of talented teamies who are also mostly from Bulgaria. I'm not sure I'll learn any Bulgarian, but it looks to be a fun new adventure! My first step was learning the quickest way to turn on my Google Bar Translate function! LOL

So, today is our very first challenge, and we open with an easy one... Anything Goes! You can read up on all the challenge details on the Card Mania Challenges Blog.  Our challenges will be sponsored by the Bulgarian online craft shop, Naborsata, who are also opening their first showroom today in Sofia. You can check them out here! We'll also have a prize each challenge offered by a second sponsor... and for this challenge we have Sassy Studio Designs who generously provided the DT with lots of very sassy images to work with.

I had a difficult time choosing which image and what kind of card to create... I finally decided to go simple and let the image do all the work. I chose this lovely graduate...

One sassy graduate! That hair, those lips, that pose, those BOOTS! LOL

I colored her with my Copics and added a little metallic gold using a gel pen to the medallion on the diploma, her tassel and the buttons on her boots. Although I kept the layout so simple, I went with pearlized papers so the gold oval and the pearly white have a gorgeous sheen to them in person. I tried to capture some of that sheen in these photos, which also show that I've fussy cut my image and popped her up on foam dots. A few black and red flat-backed pearls and the red ribbon are my only embellishments. Even my sentiment is hidden inside!

My teamies have come up with some really gorgeous work so I hope you can stop by to see them all at the Card Mania Challenges Blog. Get crafty and come join in the fun with

Ani

Addii

Delyana

Dilyana

Goldie

Iva

Louise

Mila

Miss Emerald

Paulina

Sue

Tracy

Vili

and me!

Until next time... happy crafting! =)

Christy

PCJ-Papelitos Stamp Collab Challenge: Birthdays... and Purple Hair

Greetings, my bloggy and so-super-crafty friends!

The DT at Paper-Crafting Journey was worried that the uber-prolific crafters among you might get a little bored waiting around for our current Anything Goes challenge (running until September 12) to end, so our fearless leader Wendy arranged for a special two-week collaboration challenge with Papelitos Stamps' Challenge blog to keep you busy! OK, just kidding... well, about the DT being worried. The rest? Too true! Our theme for the special challenge is Birthday/Celebrations and you can read up on all the details here at Paper-Crafting Journey. As a twist due to the collaboration, you have to enter your card at both the PCJ and Papelitos Stamps Challenge blogs, but a double chance to win some great Papelitos images is worth a few extra moments to link up to both blogs, dontcha think? =)

For my card, I chose the image Lilian because as soon as I saw her, I saw her hair in all sorts of colors. I have been itching to try out funky hair colors and I actually think I did a better job with these purple Copics colors than I have with the more traditional blondes, brunettes and blacks. Here... judge for yourself:

I had a problem getting a good photo (migraine on Sunday left my vision a bit wacky) but I love the in-real-life colors... these BV and B Copics are some of the new Copics I picked up several weeks ago during a big sale ($4.49 and free shipping is definitely my kind of sale) and I am enjoying experimenting with new colors! =) I also added something else new... Viva Decor pen pearl dots around my image. I think I went a little overboard, but will be experimenting with those again, too! =)

I didn't quite get the effect I was going for on her face --- I should have studied Lisa's cards for nose shadows LOL --- but I think I got the feminine (if not traditional) look I wanted. I love these K&Co papers too. But why do they always make such great papers double-sided?! So hard to cut into them and "waste" one paper to use the other! LOL I added some Wild Orchid Crafts flowers in various colors I pulled from the K&Co papers. I accidentally glued down one of the smaller roses in the wrong place and couldn't get it off without ripping the papers, so I don't have the straighter vertical line I had in mind, but I love how the flowers pull all the colors together. I have been a little anti-sentiment lately, so I saved the "Happy Birthday" for the inside of my card. Which, now that I realize, I never photographed... so you'll have to imagine it. LOL

Some of my other teamies also joined in this special challenge with some fabulous birthday cards... be sure to check them out here!  Hope you can join us and Papelitos Stamps!

And.... don't forget our Anything Goes challenge is open until September 12th! Wendy upped the limit to 6 entries (from our usual 3) so there's plenty of time and plenty of opportunity to link up!

Happy crafting!
Christy

For the Girls @ SAS4K: A Sassy Cheryl Sweet Birthday

Happy Saturday, my bloggy friends!

Thank you for the sweet words about Spencer. I'm getting adjusted to him being gone, although every so often I think I hear him meowing to come in before I realize it can't possibly be. My older dog 'Liss has taken Spencer's old space in the craft room... lying over one of my feet. A 12-pound cat was one thing; the 70-pound dog is another. LOL For the most part, I'm just imagining that if there's a kitty afterlife, he is busy enjoying stalking through the grass after the most delicious bunnies ever in between afternoon snoozes spent curled up in a warm patch of sunshine, and there is probably a loving caretaker there somewhere to give him a good cuddle, a belly rub and scratch around the ears when he wants it. 

So it's time again for another challenge at Send A Smile 4 Kids... this time it's FOR THE GIRLS! and sponsored by  Mayzy Art (8 digis of the winner's choice... wow, 8!), Sassy Cheryl ($5 gift certificate) and SCACD (gift certificate).  Time to get all girly... whether that means pink and frilly or princess goth or sporty tomboy to you... any child- or teen-friendly card for a girl!

One of the delightful images the DT received to play with was this cutie from Sassy Cheryl, Sassy Sally's Big Cupcake and I took the most obvious route of a Sweet Birthday card  =)

I wanted to go colorful, and I knew exactly what set of papers I wanted to use - Summertime Designs Sweet Cakes kit by Summer Driggs.

Sooooooo yummy! I've used this set to make a number of birthday and party banners as it's so colorful and fun - it looks like a sweet celebration!

I colored my image with Copics, giving her an extra rosy cheek. I mean, hey, a cupcake that size? She's obviously flushed with utter excitement... or the anticipation of the biggest sugar rush EVER! LOL I added a nice coating of Frosted Lace Stickles with a touch of Distress Stickles in Tumbled Glass over the blue shadows in the cupcake icing and topped it with a frosted cherry red gem. I used Copics to make the perfect shades of cardstock layers and ran a pink Copic along the edge of my sentiment, which was printed up from Word. With so much color and pattern, I just added a few red holographic glitter dots to the corners for a little extra sparkle.

I worked with a Mayzy image too, but my camera and I are having a serious disagreement over what my card should look like in a photo, so I'll be posting that later once I convince my camera that if it wants to stay in one piece, it will see things my way. >=[

My teamies have crafted some of the sweetest girly cards and you can see them on today's challenge post at Send A Smile 4 Kids. Hope you can join us with some creations of your own! =)

I'm off to have one more good romp outside with the dogs before the light goes. Will be back soon with some more crafty creations and a bit of crafty news! Enjoy the rest of your weekend 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

PCJ DT: Pearls & Swirls - Saturated Canary

Greetings, my bloggy friends and an extra-special big hello to my new Followers! Thanks for joining me on my crafty travels and for spreading the news of my Christmas in July Cash Candy! =)   I will be 'round to visit you soon! I meant to do it this week, but the days have zoomed by much faster than expected... I started attending an aquarobics class last week and the trip every night is now eating up 2 or 2.5 hours of my evenings. I'm starting to fall into a routine, but it was a big adjustment at first.

I have been trying to get just a little bit of crafty time in each night and did a lot of coloring over the last week... Nothing more relaxing than getting into a coloring groove. =)  One of the images I really enjoyed coloring up was for this fortnight's challenge at Paper-Crafting Journey of Pearls and Swirls, sponsored by Saturated Canary! One randomly chosen winner will receive two Saturated Canary digital images! Krista generously offered an image to each of the DT members and I was drawn to Honey, who reminds me of my friend Nancy's granddaughter. There's just something about that girly tutu and heart t-shirt with those big boots together. And that bunny! Love! It was just the perfect image for a card for Nancy.

And a side view...

I'm very happy with how this one turned out... My coloring came out nearly exactly as I pictured it (especially considering I pictured it based on my own skills, not the fantastic examples that populate my Google Reader every day! LOL)... not perfect, but my coloring is getting better! I had problems with the dark grays/black bleeding around the boot and it took ages to keep adding blender to push the ink back where it belonged.  But imperfections aside, I had such a good time coloring her up! =) I wanted to add a bit of shadowing around her, but I was afraid of ruining my image after all that work, so I left it plain and colored in just a bit of ground beneath her. I definitely need to do some practice images to see what shadow colors look good with which image colors. Sigh. More practice. Always the answer. LOL 

I did add a bit of girly glitter with a little Stardust Stickles on the underlayers of the tutu and a metallic silver pen for her shoelaces and the pull at the back of her left boot.

For my card I started with an 8.5x11 pearlized black cardstock with the matte side folded in. I took a blank embossed and pearlized wedding invitation card - I've had a box of these for 8 or 9 years - which was a little too big. I cut a strip out of the middle and ended up cutting too much! I 'fixed' that by adding some light gray satin ribbon and creating an accent strip across the middle. I added a gray swirl digi paper from Pink Petticoat, trimmed to fit inside the invitation's inside border and a pink paper cut with the largest Romantic Rectangle die from Spellbinders was layered under my image with a bit of corner rounding and a lot of pink and white pearls to accent. I added a few more teeny tiny pearls on the bare strip of pearlized black cardstock... love those itsy bitsy pearls! No sentiment, as tends to happen with my 'just because' cards. I didn't photograph the inside, but I used the matching RSVP card on the inside with a few more teeny pearls. Kind of elegant. =) 

Here's a closeup of the top corner. I took it at the last minute, so the lighting isn't as white as on the other photos, sorry!

I thought about adding a bow or a swirl die cut, but in person the pearlized and embossed swirl pattern on the wedding card really stands out and my coworker is not really into bows and flowers and froufrou, so I kept it simple. It gives it a sort of white-on-white effect with the pop of pink of that girly tutu and pink lacey edge from the die! =)

 So if this doesn't get you in the mood for pearls and swirls, check out my teamies' creations over at Paper-Crafting Journey and catch all the details for the challenge!  And if you haven't entered my Christmas in July Cash candy going on HERE, make sure you come back and check it out -- $40 gift certificate for my existing Followers, $25 for new or existing Followers, and $15 for anyone, regardless of whether they Follow or not! =)

In the meantime, I'm entering my card in the following challenges and link-ups:

ATCs and Cards with Attitude - #18 Anything Goes

Dream Valley - #36 Anything but Square

Whoopsie Daisy - Use Up Your Stash  (used my 8-year-old invitation paper!)

Simon Says Stamp & Show - No Rules!

Make It Monday - Link Up

Lexi's Creations - #69 For a Friend

Papertake Weekly  - All Things Girlie

Creative Craft Challenges 2 - Pink and Black

Wishcraft Waste Not Wednesdays - Wk 27 Neglected Stash (I think 8 years qualifies as neglected! LOL)

The Paper Shelter - #73 Anything Goes

Divas By Design - #44 Anything Goes
Moving Along with the Times - Pink, Pearly & Pretty

I will be back tomorrow with some CHRISTMAS CARDS! Woohoo! =)  Til then, happy crafting!

Christy

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!)