Hambo Puppy Bailey & the newest SAS4K DT member!

Happy Saturday, my bloggy friends!  Considering patience is not a virtue high on my list of personal attributes--maybe it's something to do with my inner 4-year-old--I've done a good job of keeping some surprise news to myself. Karen Hasheck and the DT at Send a Smile 4 Kids have asked me to become their newest Design Team member! The focus at SAS4K is not just making cards for kids, but also collecting handmade cards for children in hospital, either for them to receive or to be able to give to their families and friends.  You can read more about it here.
I was excited and honored to be picked for the Paper Crafting Journey DT, but I never expected to be asked to be on one! Over Christmas I fell in love with making cards for kids - colorful, bright and FUN (and less challenging than vintage hahahaha), so I'm eager to get started!

This week's sponsor for the Anything Goes challenge over at SAS4K is Hambo Stamps. Their latest digital stamp is an adorable puppy based on their new furbaby, Bailey. My own Zoe is also a yellow Lab, so I couldn't resist.

Isn't their Bailey stamp sweet? I was rather pleased with my coloring and I love these papers from DCWV (The Pet Stack). The glittery hearts are cut out from one of the papers and I popped the little yellow heart and the image up with foam dots. I added just a few gems and these cute bones and puppy paw from the Jesse James line Dress It Up! line. The Puppy Love stamp is from a clear set, Simple Thoughts-Dog from Cloud 9 Design.

So, look forward to lots more kids cards from me for the bimonthly SAS4K challenges along with my DT cards for the great challenges coming up this year for Paper Crafting Journey! Can't wait to get started playing with my new DT crafting buddies! =)

Happy Crafting!
Christy

Happy Newt Year!

Hello, hello! =) Every January my work gives us the chance to sell off some of our vacation time. I usually cash in so I can pay off Christmas bills and the like. This year I decided to invest in some anti-stress medication:

Prettiest meds I've ever seen  =)

I had a chance in July and then in September due to an out-of-stock raincheck to pick up some Copics at low prices (well, as low as Copic could get). I like ProMarkers, but I'm finding it easier to learn to color with the Copics, especially when it comes to choosing good colors to blend. Once I get more experienced, I know I'll be able to pick ProMarker colors better, too. And pencil colors, for that matter. But for now... I'll practice with Copics. The company ran another sale in December and now these beauties join my collection and are all organized and tucked away in a nice little rainbow on my desk. =) Don't hate. LOL  I spent the weekend coloring, blending, recoloring... and binning. LOL Most of my work ended in the bin, but that was ok. Mistakes = learning, right?

So... I saw this terrific New Year Newt over at Hambo stamps. I got done too late last night to enter the challenge with him, but I had fun anyway in this colorful, kind of masculine Newt Year card:

He's a digi, so I printed him and colored eveerything but his shirt in Copics. I really like how his head came out.with the dots. Kind of froggy-like. =) I planned to paper piece his shirt, but the tie-dye glitter cardstock was too thick, so I ended up doing something I don't want to do again for a very long time... I cut out the white space inside the lines to glue it over the cardstock. I had to use my black Copics to darken up all the lines on his shirt and I put buttons back on with some black enamel.

I have a stash from many years ago of holographic film samples. My inner crafty child's shiny quotient needed addressing. ;) I love how holographic materials give off that rainbow as they flash in the light. Hopefully I captured some of that for you in my pics. Turn it one way and get blues and pinks, turn it another and get greens and reds... It keeps me occupied for hours. hahahahaha 

I also couldn't wait to use another playtoy... the Star Circle Nestabilities!

I used a precious metals Recollections cardstock I picked up at Michaels, but it was too much white over the dark blue textured Wausau paper, so I used a circle Nestie to made it a ring of stars. I used the little star punchouts with some gems and a bit of silver metallic pen, a star Nestie cut out of some of the tie-dye paper and a sentiment done in Word in a matching orange-yellow hue. Ta-da! Very suitaable for a boy, I think.

Since I missed the Hambo challenge this week, I'm entering him in these...

Dutch Dare Challenge - New Beginnings (New Year!)

Inky Impressions - Anything Goes

Paper Play - Week 1 Happy New Year (New Year, new stash!)

Crafty Catz - #114  A New Beginning (New Year)

Fairy Tales - #32 Something New  (New digi, new Nestie, new Copics, New Year!)

Paper Cutz - #120 Brand New Year

Crazy4Challenges - C4C118 Do Something New (New digi, new dotty skin coloring, new Nesties!)

7 Kids College Fund - #38 Try Something New (New papers, new digi, new technique (dotty green skin), new Nesties)

That's it for now... I might be back tonight with a Bugaboo creation if I can get it done before bedtime, otherwise, I will see you tomorrow! Til then, happy crafting!
Christy

Father's Day 2011

My dad is not a tie-wearing kind of guy, but I wanted to join in the fun at Hambo Stamps with their Hambo Hoedown. This week's image is one of three ties, combined for this challenge with a sketch:

Since my dad is also not big into cards and definitely not into a bunch of frills and doodads (much like my mom, see the relative 'plainness' of my Mother's Day card that she absolutely loved here), I feel a little less guilty about focusing on challenge requirements than my dad's tastes. Just a little. Hmmmm. A big bag of coffee nips or peanut butter blossoms to go with it, and I doubt he'll even remember I gave him a card. LOL

(Ok, Blogger, I give up. I've tried a half dozen times and it keeps rotating my card image from vertical to horizontal and I can't find any instructions on how to make it flip back, so... please don't get a crick in your neck turning your head to see my card! LOL)

Anyway, so I played with the color scheme from this week's Color Throwdown challenge... the colors match the Baja Breeze-So Saffron-Pear Pizzazz color combination better IRL than in my photos. The bit of argyle pattern, the green dots paper pieced into the tie and the green background dp are all from Summer Driggs' at Summertime Designs, color-altered in Word. I really love her stuff, and it color-alters so beautifully in Word. The "Dad" is a Word Art. A little textured cardstock, some oval Spellbinder Nesties and a few runs through the Big Kick and voila!  Simple, but bright and cheery.

So I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Hambo Hoedown - Let's Tie One On!

Color Throwdown - #145: Baja Breeze, So Saffron & Pear Pizzazz

Creative Inspirations - #115 Card for Dad

Crafting For All Seasons - #2 Father's Day

Stamp, Scrap and Doodle - Father's Day

My last couple of cards have used a lot of (or mostly!) solid-color cardstock, but I have lots of dps and digital papers to work with in my stash, so now that Father's Day is over and challenges start focusing on more girly or kid themes again, I'm hoping to get into more interesting backgrounds and combining patterns. I'm amazed sometimes what combinations some of these crafty queens - and kings! - come up with... papers I never would have thought to put together, but their final cards are stunning. And flowers - ooooh, the things I see on Wild Orchid Crafts challenges...  ok, deep breath. Beginners have to start somewhere... LOL

So, I have a couple of birthday cards to work on this week... will be back with those... wish me luck! And Happy Crafting, everyone! =)