SAS4K DT Card: Animal Cards for Kids - What's Up Giraffe

Happy Saturday, my crafty friends!

Time for another challenge at Send A Smile 4 Kids and this one's another fun one for creating a kid's card: Animals!  Our sponsors for this challenge are Delicious Doodles and Stamping Dragon Designs who are offering 4 digi images so we'll have TWO random winners! Twice the fun! LOL

Our sponsors once again generously offered up some images to our DT members, and as I was surfing through Stamping Dragon Designs, this slightly rude giraffe caught my eye and this is what I chose to do with him:

Hee hee Love that tongue! LOL It reminds me of a favorite moment in the movie My Friend Totoro when the little girl and boy stick their tongues out at each other. =)   I colored him with Copics... actually I colored one image but didn't like the final blend from the E40s so I went with more red browns and I was much happier with this second image. Also, the practice for getting that blend on his forehead was very useful. I'm not sure I'm going to be coloring up too many realistically-drawn images, but it was a fun challenge from what has -so far- been my usual style.

I colored the sky the same way I did this Emerald Fairies image, laying in a relatively smooth base of blue, then using the colorless blender to pick up and push the ink into cloud shapes, then highlighting a bit with C00, C0 and C1. It takes several passes, but I don't have an airbrush, which is probably my favorite look I see on other cards. And as my image was printed on an inkjet this time, I didn't want to risk a Distress Ink sky bleeding my image lines even though I'd heat set them with a Ranger heat tool. I layered my image and inked all the cardstock edges with a combination of Scattered Straw and a touch of Walnut Stain here and there, which nicely mimics the giraffe skin pattern.

I randomly cut out a tree branch from brown cardstock and used a CC Cutter, Leafy Branches, for the leaves, dabbing them with Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint DI. There are some very tiny foam pieces in there to help keep the dimension. I like the effect and hope to use that again. =)

I layered a tan grosgrain ribbon over a sheer brown that tied into the background paper and added pearls, chocolate on the ribbons and champagne in the corners. Last I added my sentiment which I created in Word.

Hope you are feeling inspired to pull out an animal image of your own and get creating... there are lots of fantastic creations by my Teamies over on SAS4K so be sure to stop by!

I'm linking my card up to
Inspire Me Fridays - #68 Anything Goes
Ruby's Rainbow Challenges - #33 Cute Animals (he's not soft and cuddly, but that tongue makes him cute to me!)
Make It Monday

ATCs and Cards with Attitude - #18 Anything Goes

Have a great weekend and happy crafting!
Christy

PCJ DT Card: Colour It Up - Mermaid Magic!

Hello, everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bunny Zoe Crafts - Anything Goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Sparkles Galore

Tammy's Scrapin' Corner - For the Girls

Stampavie and More - For A Girl

Crafting for All Seasons - Many Layers

Hooked on Craft Challenges - All That Glitters

Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Bling Bling

Cutie Pie Challenge - Die Cuts & Punches

Cute Card Thursdays - Water

Crafter's Companion - Time to Embellish

Shelly's Images - Blingage

Sassy Studio Designs - Add a Splash (used Stickles)

Allsorts Challenge - Beside the Seaside

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

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

Happy Crafting!
Christy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christy

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