Bugging Out With Sketches

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a good week so far and staying safe wherever you are in the world. Sending hugs to all experiencing a troubled time. I hope that my post can bring a smile to you today.

I needed to create some get well type of cards and so I thought I’d try to incorporate some challenges while working on them which helps me to concentrate more in what I’m doing and maybe think outside the box a bit.

My first card is made with the Beccy’s Place Challenge freebie this month and she also challenged us with a sketch which I’ve decided to use for my card. (see sketch below) I was really happy to use up some more pattern papers with it and I also decided to add a tiny dragonfly at the top to enter another challenge and to adhere to my “bug” theme today!

I printed the image in black and white and colored with Copics. The dragonfly and the center pink strip were stamps that I cut out and added to the design. The rest is pattern paper from my stash except the scalloped kraft border in the center that I cut out with a die. I stamped the sentiment and cut it out to go with my twine around it. *You will notice in ALL of these cards that I’ve used some sparkly gems. I wasn’t aware until posting them! I must be on a kick of wanting to use them!*

Challenges for 1st card:

Beccy’s Place – August challenge + sketch
Paper Dragonfly Creative – Anything Flies (Goes) or Party
Kreativ-Tanten – Anything Goes
The Crafty Addicts – Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Dragonfly Dreams – Dragonflies

And for this next card, I’ve played with a large bug:

Around my area this time of year, you can hear the sound of these cicada bugs with their distinct noise throughout the trees. My husband likes the sound when a bird catches one! EEW! This bug is a cute one from Inky Stamper called Cicada and I’ve colored it up with pencils this time. Hard to see, but I’ve also added some shimmer with a glitter pen on his wings.

I’ve used the Picket Fence Tree Bark stencil over kraft on the background and then splattered it with brown and white paint. The leaves under the bug and the accent came from the Lisa Horton Variegated Leaf EF+die that I cut over light green cardstock. I used some metallic green wax to go over the details in them. I also used some gel pens to make some doodles around the strip, the circle and under the sentiment along with following a sketch. (details below) You will also notice more sparkly gems! I’m also entering this in the Inky Stamper FB challenge this month which is using an IS bug image.

Challenges for card #2

Sketch Saturday – #732 sketch + twist: add a doodle
Creative Knockouts – #501 Anything Goes
We Love Stamping – Masculine
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
A Place to Start – Anything Goes optional: leaves/trees
The Corrosive – Anything Goes

For my last card I decided to keep this one simple’ish’:

So, I know these aren’t real bugs because I’m not squealing, but these guys are too cute! They’re popping up out of the dirt for a special greeting! I mixed in both a new and older stamp set from Lawn Fawn on this one. I’ve used another sketch for this one and decided to keep it very simple. The hardest part of this was the coloring which honestly wasn’t all that difficult either because they’re small images. I’ve also added some shimmer with a glitter pen on the wings and of course, there’s those sparkly gems again!

Challenges for card #3

Sunday Stamps – SSC316 in the corner sketch
The Paper Players – CAS using any Bug
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Clean and Simple
Krafty Chicks – CAS (Clean and Simple)

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I appreciate your time and thoughts! I’ll be seeing you again on Saturday with another AJ page!

Margarita and a Rainbow

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great week so far and that you’re able to keep cool as I know it seems to be pretty warm for many of us in the U.S. It’s a great time to do some crafting, so I thought I’d share a few cards that I made that I needed. (Scroll down in this post to see the ‘rainbow’ card.)

I think a margarita sounds pretty refreshing in this heat! Newton here seems to be enjoying it anyway! All of the stamps I’ve used are from Newton’s Nook and I’ve made this card for a special person’s birthday. This person I’m making this card for had gotten me hooked on mango margaritas and I wanted to represent that in the card. (Note the salt rim on the glass.) The color is more a strawberry color, but I wanted to go with the colors for the Inky Paws Challenge. (See below in the challenge list.)

I stamped the “happy birthday” sentiment (retired set from Newton’s Nook) repeatedly in the background on the pink panel and then I splattered it with white Copic and water with a brush. The panel was cut from the Newton’s Nook Framework die set and layered with colors that match with the challenge. The blue card base was repeated stamped with the taco and I stamped, colored and cut one out to place behind Newton with the margarita. I took a strip of Doodlebug green polka-dot paper and white heat embossed the sentiment. I cut a tiny strip off and turned it over to glue at the top of the strip. I used foam tape to add the margarita kitty, finished it off with white twine and sequins with a spot of Stickles in the centers.

Challenges for margarita card:

Inky Paws – #203 color challenge
Country View – 4 legged friend
The Diva’s That Cut Paper – Birthday theme
NBUS – #52 July (Never Before Used Schtuff!) New Newton’s Nook products!
Crazy for Cats – Anything ‘CAT’ goes optional: festive
Daring Cardmakers – summer drinks
Simon Says Stamp – Anything Goes

Here’s another card I wanted to make for Beccy’s Place challenge using the free image that was provided this month and I thought it would make a great card for encouragement to send for a special cause I’m donating for:

I’ve used the non-colored version of this image and before printing it out, I’ve added a sentiment at the bottom from the Seasonal Window digital set from Beccy’s Place. (There are quite a few uplifting quotes in that one.) I colored the image with Copics and added a bit of shimmer on the sun with a glitter pen.

I think I’ve made this popped up frame around the image more complicated than what it needed to be, but I cut out the scallop frame twice for thickness, and also printed out a piece of the rainbow looking papers that was also a part of this month’s Beccy’s Place Challenge free image. I cut it out with the scalloped frame and attached it to my double thick frame layers. The image was placed over a black cardstock and the popped-out rainbow frame was placed over the image keeping a portion of the black frame showing. These layers were mounted over a 4 1/2″ square white card base.

Hope that you’ve enjoyed my cards today! Thank you for stopping in and I’ll be seeing you Saturday for another Art Journal Page!

Challenges for ‘rainbow’ card:

Beccy’s Place Challenge – July Anything Goes using Beccy’s Place image optional: animal(s)
Crafts Galore Encore – Anything Goes
The Corrosive – Anything Goes
The Crafty Addicts – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
Love to Craft – Anything Goes

Rainbow Chicken

Hello friends! Hope you’re enjoying your week so far. We’ve been having some really hot and dry days lately, so I’m trying to get some motivation going and have some play time for crafting!

I have not played along before, but I decided to grab this fun digital freebie from the Beccy’s Place Challenge and have a go at it because it really made me laugh when I saw it!

Isn’t this such a fun image?! There was an option of different pre-colored images, but I decided to print out the lined image to color in. I colored the chicken in rainbow and then added a pair of die cut glasses in silver mirror cardstock that I had on hand. (I already had the glasses cut out from another card I made that was laying out on my desk, so when coloring this image, I thought it would be fun to add!)

The layout came from a sketch challenge that she’s also sponsoring. (see challenge list below) I thought that I was going to leave it as just black and white to make the rainbow chicken stand out, but I found some fun rainbow papers and decided to add one panel to go with the chicken. I came up with and typed out the sentiment underneath the image and printed them both together.

For another part of Beccy’s challenge, there is an optional theme she included which was “doodling”. So I took a white gel pen and added some lines for highlights on the chicken. I’ve also taken a black marker pen to make some squiggle lines around the image panel too. I blended some grey ink around the edges and then used a distress tool for the distressed edges.

After adding the glasses, I covered the eyeballs with some crystal effects for shine.

And this one has been sent off to hopefully make someone smile! I hope you like it too!

Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll see you again on Saturday for another AJ page!

Challenges:

Beccy’s Place Challenges – June Challenge using Beccy’s Place image with optional doodling
Cheerful Sketches – June sketch
The Diva’s That Cut..Paper! – Use a Critter
The Corrosive – Anything Goes
Crafter’s Cafe – Humorous
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes optional: FUN
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

August AJ Page-Childhood Imagination

Happy Saturday friends! I hope you’re enjoying your weekend and maybe doing something crafty too! I actually can’t believe that next weekend we’ll be into September already! Fall is coming which means hubby and I can enjoy some football game time!

Hard to believe that it’s time for a monthly Art Journal page and collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), so please check out her blog for more inspiration too! 🥰 We’re trying to get creative by using up our never-ending stash piles! So, here’s my Art Journal inspiration with the “SMASH OUR STASH” August prompt of “liquid drops/enamel dots/brads/eyelets”:

Yes, it’s the never-ending supply of those enamel things, brads and eyelets! I didn’t even use any eyelets on my page today, but at least I pulled out a few brads, enamel dots and even some liquid enamel drops too!

So I could take you down that “rabbit hole”😁 of how this page came about from seeing a couple of mushrooms out in our backyard that just weirdly keeps popping out randomly the last few months, but needless to say, I ended up with this page. As a child I have always loved Alice in Wonderland and imagined myself secretly finding these amazing new worlds and having conversations with odd characters. I do enjoy getting lost in a good book!

The background page was printed out with adding the Cheshire Cat image over top. (The wording was also printed out with the cat.) I stamped some other wording over the printed background, splattered some paint and took an empty plastic roll dipped in gold paint and randomly stamped that all over it too. I used my finger to also add some gold paint along the edges. The mushroom image is from Power Poppy which I’ve printed, colored with Copics and fussy cut them out with the one in the front popped up with foam tape. I die cut a grass border at the bottom and tucked one of the cut-out mushrooms behind the grass blades and then cut off all the excess. I’ve attached this entire page to a heavy weight 140# cardstock that was ink blended with chocolate ink around the edges. I took a strip of Graphics 45 Alice in Wonderland decorative paper and attached it to the right side of the page. I was then able to punch out the holes at the top for my AJ book.

So, when you look at the bottom of the page, you can see the mushrooms and how I’ve added some white Nuvo Liquid Drops to the red tops. I think this really makes them pop and give dimension! With the same Graphic 45 decorative papers, I’ve cut out the “tea set playing card” image, blended around the edges and added a blue brad in each corner of it. I also added a bit of sparkle to the flying horse. This cut out playing card was attached below sentiment over the background mushroom and grassy border.

You will also notice the “Eat Me bottle” at the top of the mushroom, which was printed out separately from the background page, Copic colored and fussy cut out. I attached it over top of the large mushroom and added a ribbon enamel at the top of it. I also took my glitter brush pen and added something rising from the bottle…mysterious?!

Here’s a closer view of the enamel bow at the top of the bottle along with the mysterious glitter coming from it. I’ve also added some of the glitter brush pen to the Cheshire Cat’s eyes too. I thought I had room to add another three sparkly gold enamel dots to the top right and call this one done.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my AJ page today or have been inspired in some way! Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – When we were Young
Creative Artiste – Anything Mixed Media
Mixed Media Lovers – Anything Mixed Media
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring (mushrooms)
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Mondays – Mixed Media

Your Own Sparkle AJ Page

*This is a scheduled post as I’m away for my son’s wedding and don’t have access to Internet at this time*

Hello friends! Here we are towards the end of June already and in full Summer mode now! Time has went by so fast! I do hope you’re all doing well, staying safe and enjoying your time however you’re spending it.

The end of the month also brings the monthly AJ page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), so please check out her blog for more inspiration too! We’re trying to get creative by using up our never-ending stash piles! So here’s my Art Journal inspiration with the “SMASH OUR STASH” June prompt of: “buttons/sequins/gems.“

So who doesn’t have oodles of sequins in their stash? (I probably had enough to cover the entire page, but left it strictly for the fish scales and “bubbles”.😄) I was inspired by the Art Journal Journey challenge prompt this month of “FISH” and with the stash prompt in mind, it had me thinking of a book I had gotten for the kids years ago, perhaps you’re familiar with “The Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister?

In the book, the fish’s scales were very shimmery, and it made me think to add the sequins to a fish, so I actually found a fun and free “coloring page” fish image to print out and color for my page! I used Copic markers to color that fish and the sequins are a glittery silver sequin that were topped with some silver Stickles as well as the “lines” on his fins. I also added some clear iridescent sequins for the “bubbles” above him.

For my background – Since the goal is to use my stash, I pulled out my set of gelatos that I’ve had for a few years to create my background. I found it fun to blend them and smudge them with my finger. I also used a piece of punchella trim for stenciling with them too. Of course, since they’re water soluble, I needed to cover it with some matte medium using a spatula rather than a brush. Once the matte medium dried, I added some printed vellum pieces ripped up over it and then used some white and silver paint for splatters and stamping an empty roll circle. I also went around the edges a bit with the silver paint for shimmer. For a little bit more texture, I took some Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) and heated up a few “piles” of the crystals and melted them…I haven’t used that in a long time either! I needed to be VERY careful with my heat gun because of the matte medium…it started to smoke a bit! 😮

For the background fish – I had a few extra cut out fish pieces from a previous project I made using the Taylored Expressions Hook, Line & Sinker Stamp & Stencil Combo with dies and adding them to the scene. I also added some sparkly fish that was die cut from the TE Little Bits-Fish dies. (I haven’t posted this project yet, but I will later on!) I took a micron pen to add a fishing line coming down from the top with a hook.

Here’s a closer view of the fish as well as some of the details in the background.

For the sentiment – it was printed out along with the fish and then I just ripped around it and then using the same ink colors as the background fish, I blended over this piece. I also used the same UTEE on it as the background. I took a white Big Brush marker to highlight the letters and underline. I also used it for highlights on the fish. I used different colors of the Big Brush markers to add some shading details around the fish.

All of the sequins and silver Stickles were added very last to the page.

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Fish (will have to link later when I get back!)

Challenge Up Your Life-Fun in the Sun

Happy June 1st friends! This month will bring us into the Summer months which means it’s time for all of those fun outdoor activities! I’m also getting ready for lots of things going on this month including my son’s wedding! So I know I’ll be busy! How about you?

This is my last time to be joining the “Challenge Up Your Life” challenge blog as a guest designer. I’ve had a great time with them as a guest for the past three challenges and appreciate being asked! Today their new monthly challenge for June is “Fun in the Sun“. Hope you can share your lovely creations with us this month! (Check out the challenge blog for details and inspiration!) And here’s my take on this theme:

What could be more fun than a cute little fairy sipping a drink floating on a lily pad?! Love those shades too!

There happened to be a good sale on a few digital stamps from LOTV recently and so I snatched a few and this was one of them that I fell in love with. This one is called Water Lily, of course. (The sentiment also came from the same company.) She looked like she was having some “fun in the sun” for sure, so I colored her up with my Copic markers and die cut the panel out with a stitched rectangle die. I’ve also used a scalloped stitched die to cut out a piece of pink cardstock to go with some of the colors in the image.

For the background papers, I’ve found some great *yellow rainbow paper from Lawn Fawn and then I used a *sun die from My Favorite Things and cut out with some yellow glitter cardstock. (*These items have retired) I took a wave die from Lawn Fawn and cut out a strip from vellum and used my blue marker to add some color towards the top of the waves. To attach the strip, I wrapped it around the layers and glued it from behind. I then added the ribbon with the bow and attached these layers to an A2 top folding white card base.

Here’s a closer look at the image with the coloring I’ve done. I’ve used a gold gel pen to color in her head band and then a silver one to color in the little “dots” on the ends of her glasses. I used a glitter brush pen over her sunglass lenses as well as her wings.

I finished the card off with a few colorful sequins.

So does that look like something you’d be having some “Fun in the Sun” with?! I know I sure would!😎

I sure hope to see you playing along with us this month with your creations! I also hope that you’ve enjoyed my inspiration as guest designer for these challenges the last few months. Thanks for your support friends!

Challenges:

Creative Knockouts – For the Kids
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes optional “All About the Girls”
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
Allsorts – Anything BUT birthdays
Everybody Art – Glitter and/or Pearls
Creatalicious – Anything Goes optional: lots of bling/glitter
Creative Moments – Summer is Here

Cheerful Sketches Guest Designer “Gnomie”

Hello friends! I think we’re getting closer and closer to Spring! I sure am ready for it, how about you? Let’s welcome the warmer weather and pretty flowers to come!

Herschaalde kopie van RON ILONKA

I had previously made a winner/top 3 for a challenge I had entered which was exciting to have also won a place to be a future guest designer for one of the challenges too.

So this month, I’m very excited to be joining my friends over at the Cheerful Sketches challenge blog as a guest and they always have a beautiful sketch along with lots of inspiration for it each month! So please be sure to check them out and play along if you can! Here’s the lovely sketch they’ve provided for me to work with this month:

This is a very nice sketch and open to lots of different interpretations as well, so I had fun playing with it along with an image that was provided to me from a current sponsor for the challenge and here’s what I came up with:

Everyone loves the gnomes and this one is too cute riding his snail friend! I’m using the “Grumblebonce Rides Again” from Dr. Digi’s House of Stamps for my card today. I’ve colored him up with Copic markers, added details with gel pens, glitter under the snail and glossy accents on the snail’s eyeballs. I die cut the image with a stitched circle die and ink blended around the edges before attached to another loopy circle die cut from brown cardstock.

I found some fun papers fitting for the image with red plaids and a strip of mushrooms that I’ve attached over another loopy die cut strip I’ve had in my stash forever. I wrapped some gold ribbon around it and attached to the red plaid papers that are attached to a 5″ square top folding brown card base. Before attaching the red plaid papers, I used a distress tool to rough up the edges. I’ve popped up the image with foam tape and added 3 gold enamel dots in the upper right corner.

With the card now laying flat, you can better see some of the shine from the sentiment at the bottom. I found these fun gnome style sentiments that can be foiled. So I used some gold foil and ran the strip through my Minc Machine. I sponged some blue and brown inks over it and then added some die cut mushrooms behind it and layered a piece of brown cardstock to layer behind it.

I placed the mushroom sentiment at the bottom with a portion of it with foam tape and the other parts just glued to the circle sentiment panel. I think it turned out pretty cute and I had fun coloring it up!

So please be sure to check out the challenge and come play along!

Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll see you soon!

Hello! Welcome to 2022!

Hello friends! I hope you are all doing well and looking forward to a promising year this go around! I sure am! I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I was having a bit of a hard time with having lost my “MOJO” for a period, feeling really down and not myself at all. Christmas came and then on top of it, I’ve gotten sick. I am starting to feel a bit better now, so I decided that the only way to get through all of this is by doing what I’ve always felt to be therapeutic, which is to keep on creating! I just need to get back into the mindset of it again is all, but I do enjoy it when I’m creating as I’m sure my fellow crafty friends can relate to!😉 Appreciate your kindness to me always.

Since I really haven’t created much lately other than Christmas cards (as you can see from my previous post below), I’m going to share some projects that I had done at the end of last year including some commissioned cards I was asked to do:

Last month was a birthday card for my dad, so I’ve pulled out a special birthday kit that came out sometime last year from Simon Says Stamp. Everything I’ve used on the card including the embossing folder, stamps, sentiment strips and paper all came from the kit. It may be hard to see in the photo, but I’ve foiled over the “super happy” sentiment strip that was included with the kit and glued it over top of the cake slice.

I’ve added some glitter over the candle flame, the yellow stars and the inside of the white embossed “birthday” strip under the cake slice. I pulled out the blue colors from the striped paper to color the image with using Copic markers and die cut it out to glue over top of the sentiment strip and embossed oval layer.

And speaking of birthdays, I was commissioned to do a 50th birthday card for a guy that is a professional painter and enjoys grilling outdoors. The first image that came to my mind was this really cute LOTV image. I printed him out and thought it would be fun to incorporate the birthday number above “the painter” to make it look like he’s in the process of doing it while the paint is dripping everywhere. So while the boy painter was printed out, I stamped and embossed the numbers above him.

My husband had the idea of the little grill along the edge going “up in smoke”. So I created a “ground” area for the ladder and the grill to be on. I stamped the grill image, colored it in and then a liner pen to draw the line to establish the separation. I then ripped the corner above the grill and sponged some Black Soot distress ink around the grill and corner edging. I didn’t want the background to be white or black, so I dug out some brick style pattern paper to place behind that corner area before attaching it to the card base. Hopefully there were some chuckles from it!

So for the inside of the card, I thought it would be fun to take this corner border die that I received from a Halloween class and make it look like the red paint drip continued on the inside. Then I found this really funny sentiment to go along with the grilling bit too! I also sponged some more of that Black Soot distress ink around the edges.

These were really fun cards to do and I enjoyed the coloring process so much! I find that coloring images really helps me get through some creative blocks…even if it’s a simple image or something that I don’t use, so I’m thankful to at least to be able to do that. Hopefully I can get back into what I enjoy doing here.

I know people sometimes struggle with masculine style cards, so here are a few examples of cards that I came up with for men. Hope it helped with some ideas for you too! Thanks for stopping by today and I’m glad you did!

Challenges:

613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations – Anything Goes with stamping + use a die (top card only)
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #173 Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

Delightfully Frightful Guest Designer for Digi Doodle Studios👻

Happy Friday friends! Another weekend in October is upon us and so is Halloween! Yay! Well, I’m excited about it anyway! LOL If not for being a kid to trick or treat…for treats and spooky fun anyway!

Today I’m so thrilled to be guest designing for Digi Doodle Studios! If you’ve been around my blog, then you’ve probably seen some of my past creations with the company as a design team member.

Isn’t this such a cute and fun scene?! I’ve used this adorable Kikimora Halloween Witch digital stamp from Digi Doodle Studios and created this fun scene with her using a past digital set called Ghostly Haunts Pairables which was discontinued. I’ve sized and placed the images on my computer before printing them out. I also printed out an additional one as well as another on some masking paper.

The reason for printing over masking paper was so that I could fussy cut out the image…yes even the tree, to ink blend the background. (Any “imperfections” can be covered up with the coloring, so I ink blended FIRST.) You could always ink blend a background and then cut out your image(s) to place over top, but I wanted this to be a one layer with the blended background to be incorporated with it for the glowing moon and night sky with a ground area. The only thing about the image that is NOT flat are the two ghosts that I fussy cut out from an additional printing of it along with the cloud over the moon. The ghosts were partially popped up with a foam square and I glued flat the cloud. This helped with the scene to give that dimensional look. The scene was cut with a MFT rectangle die and was finished with ink blending around the edges ending with Black Soot at the very edges.

So, BEFORE I removed the masks from the images to color, I also decided to take some silver paint to create some splatters in the night sky. I then took some shimmer spray to go over top of it for some sparkle. I then die cut a banner for the sentiment and ink blended some Carved Pumpkin over it to glue at the top and cut off the edge from the panel. I then layered this scene over an orange scallop edge rectangle die cut piece that was layered over an A2 top folding black card base.

I’ve also die cut a bat from my stash in black cardstock and glued it around the sentiment banner. I’ve covered the bat with a glitter brush pen for a bit of sparkle as well.

For the grounding of the images and some shadow effects from the moon, I took a Copic marker to color in some shadow under the witch, tombstone and tree. You can also see on the witch that I’ve added some highlights with a white gel pen as well as silver and gold gel pens for her outfit. I also covered the little diamond on her necklace with some Stickles Star Dust glitter. It looks awesome in person and matches her dress.

I tried, but it’s so hard to capture all of the sparkly glitter goodness over this card. The entire sky is covered with sparkle. I do hope you’ve enjoyed my card.

Thanks for dropping in and have an awesome weekend!

CHALLENGES:

Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween
Creative Friday – Pick 3 – I picked: Moon, Bat, Black
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
My Time to Craft – Halloween or Fall Colors
{Cupcake Inspirations} – Halloween Fun
Double Trouble – Halloween Cuteness
Try it On Tuesday – Halloween
Fab ‘n’ Funky – Halloween

Adelina Fairy from Digi Doodle Studios Celebrating Peace & Happiness for 2021🎉

Hello friends! It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m so excited to kick this year to the curb…how about you?! Whatever your plans are to ring in the New Year, please stay safe and enjoy sharing with those you love for hope of peace and happiness in the New Year for 2021!❤🎉

Today, I have a card that I’ve made for a challenge deadline and needed to have it in by today, so I wanted to be sure to share it with you all:

This was actually a “Digital freebie” from the Kit and Clowder Group Advent Calendar of Events they do every year. Digi Doodle Studios gave away this darling image called Adelina-Fairy.

I made this card and colored up this sweet image as the Digi Doodle Studios Facebook Group was holding a special “coloring challenge” using this specific image and I wanted to make sure that it met the deadline for getting it in and so I actually posted it in there yesterday, but I’m posting on my blog today along with more photos and details.

The image is beautiful with her poinsettia flowers and so I wanted to be sure to color it up with red and green colors in mind…although I think she would be great for ANY occasion as well as coloring the flowers differently. I used some die cut circles for cutting her out with and then layering her over a die cut piece of gold mirror cardstock.

I’ve used some poinsettia decorative papers from my stash for the background and layered some red poinsettia embossed strips layered with gold mirror cardstock over the background before adding the layered circle image on top. The embossed strips also had white ink rubbed over top lightly to emphasize the textures. I white heat embossed a sentiment and cut it out with a banner die to place on the bottom corner with craft foam which is what I also added behind the image circle panel too.

Before attaching the bottom strip to the card, I also added some gold cord and a bow. I finished off the card with three poinsettia flowers from my stash. The entire card measures 5″ square.

Here’s a closer view of the image and how I’ve got her colored up. I added some really subtle shading with my Copics underneath her legs for shadows. I did my usual white gel pen for checks and hightlights and then I used a gold gel pen for coloring in the dots on her wings and in her hair.

Really enjoyed coloring this gorgeous image and it’s awesome that I now have another Christmas card ready for next year as well! Thanks so much for stopping in today! Hope that you’ve enjoyed my final card and post for the year.

I want to thank each and every one of you for the wonderful support, kindness and friendship you have given to me this past year. It really means so much to me and it’s been quite a year of creativity too! I see that so many of my favorite companies are represented as my top photos which tickles me so much!