Are those the chubbiest cheeks or what? These were the only photos I got of her before she showed us she had some serious lungs! LOL!
And this is my mom, the proud great-grandma! It almost looks like Ava is smiling here in Grandma's arms! So cute!
Well, in all the hustle and bustle, I forgot to post this card for the Artful INKables Think Ink Tuesday challenge! So sorry! I was supposed to have it post on Christmas Eve, but forgot to do the post! I worked so hard to get the card done by then too! Oh well!
Cute, huh? This image is just so sweet! I can imagine it on kids' Valentine's greetings. And I love red and brown together, so I used two pieces of the Cerise with the chocolate chip which was run through the hearts embossing folder. I put star dust stickles all over the images as well as the web. Love that stuff!
The Just Us Girls team has a great template challenge for you today. DT member Dana Gustafson has secured templates from Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs from The Digichick Shop for us to use today, as well as great blog candy from them for you! Check out the details on the JUGS blog.
Happy Saturday everyone! The Just Us Girls team has a wonderful color challenge for you today conjured up by the lovely and talented Tracey. Raspberry, green, red, and kraft are they colors she chose.
I received this beautiful image from Silke Ledlow. We swapped some stamped images recently, and I was so thrilled to receive this beautiful wreath from the Flourishes set called Christmas Wreath. I immediately sat down one afternoon to color it, not with this challenge in mind, but rather with this dp in mind. Then it was so close to Tracey's colors, I decided to use it for this challenge. You can't see the red, but there are red stickles on the very tiny berries in the wreath. It took me an hour to color this, and then I colored another! I used 23 copic markers in all that I did not write down! The sentiment is also one from Flourishes that Silke sent to me.
I used SU's retired Ski Slope dp and the Mojo Monday sketch from this week. I'm busily finishing my Christmas cards (I know...last minute) and other handmade gifts. I also have to finish my shopping this weekend! So much to do, so little time! At least I'll have some time off over the holidays to recover! I hope you have a great weekend an finish all your holiday projects, too!
Thanks for stopping in today!
This was one of the first sets Kristin sent me as a DT member. It's called South of the Border. It has some really cute images in it. You can read more about this in my original post here.
Very interesting sketch, don't you think? And now here's my interpretation of it.
I made this for my aide at school who got a promotion to Teacher Assistant in our reading department. She is a great girl and deserves to be a teacher, but I guess even in the teaching profession jobs are scarce. You have to work your way up the ladder. The inspiration for this card was actually the ribbon. I picked it up at AC Moore with the intention of using it for this card. So I went with the red, vanilla, and brown. I don't know if you can tell, but the vanilla piece was run through a Quick Kutz folder that the owner of my LSS, Sharon, gave me. She's so sweet! The pattern is circles and diamond shapes. I've used it many times and really like this pattern.
But today, the Just Us Girls team has a fabulous challenge that I had never tried before. Kristin chose the chalkboard technique. You can find it here on the SCS Resources section. It's sooo easy to do (once you decide on a stamp to use, which is always my dilemma!). Here's my first try at it.
The set I used is called Flourish Snowman from Darcie's. I picked it up at a stamp show over the summer. I inked this tree in a pigment white ink on black cardstock and then used SU chalks in Green Galore and Garden Green for the evergreens and Close to Cocoa for the trunk of the tree. The two greens gave it more dimension. I used SU's retired Holiday Treasures dp (love that dp!) and some sheer swiss dot black ribbon. There are two metal dots in the bottom corner. NO SPARKLE on this card! I tried, believe me! LOL! (I'm looking at this card as I type, and see that the green dp is much richer in color than in the picture. It looks very washed out here, but it's more olive in color. Hmmm....)
This week's challenge at the Artful INKables blog was issued by the fabulous Emily and she has asked us to do a CAS card - Clean and Simple. Well, I have a real hard time with this type of card because all I want to keep doing is to ADD ONE MORE THING!!! LOL!! This is a CAS for me, so I hope it counts!
I started with this newer set from Artful INKables called Creature Comforts. These are two otters that are entwined to form the shape of a heart, so I cut and embossed them with one, colored them with copic markers, and sponged the edges with red ink. I just picked up this Martha Stewart heart border punch from Michael's last week and was so happy to have finally found it without having to pay an arm and a leg for it on Ebay! So I had to use it! I also embossed the white piece with the Swiss Dots folder. (Too much for a CAS? I told you I couldn't help myself!) There is a cute stamp that comes with this set that says "I love you like no otter", but it didn't fit on my card, so I'll stamp that on the inside. This "Happy Valentine's Day' stamp is part of the set, and it worked with my layout. I, of course, had to add the bling hearts and star dust stickles because sparkle is my addiction on cards! I think I need to join a help group. 
I used Holly fairy from Paper Makeup Stamps to keep the feel of her holiday fairy, and I tried to keep to the layout as much as I could. I used a Martha Stewart snowflake punch on the edge of the card. The white dots are glitter dots.
I used Basic Grey's Boxer dp for this and SU's night of navy. This ribbon is one I've had forever and it's the first time using it! I finally found the perfect project for it!
I remember when I was about 10, my parents got me a globe for Christmas, and my dad and I sat on the couch and he showed me where he traveled in the Navy. Right before the US dropped the bomb on Japan, his ship was given orders to travel from India to south of Australia (closer to Antarctica). They were heading for Japan and took this route to dodge the Japanese submarines. Thankfully, he never had to go there and went home shortly thereafter. I'll never forget that night on the couch, and I'm so thankful for that evening because I have a piece of information that I wouldn't have known otherwise. So I made this in honor of him and because I've always loved this picture of him. He was about 20 or 21 years of age here.
I wanted a weathered look to the card, so I used this dp from SU called Autumn Meadows, and colored the image accordingly. I swirled some Soft Suede ink around the image and sentiment to give it some dimension. The twine was a last minute addition. After I took the picture and edited it, I just noticed a bare spot there, so I added the twine. The sentiment is from the set we sneaked yesterday called Sailing By.
Isn't it great? All day, I was trying to figure out what to do with those circles, but it all came together. I decided to make another Christmas card to add to my stash of cards I need to send out (soon!).
I'm really very happy with this card. This stamp is from an Inkadinkadoo clear stamp set called Ornate Christmas. I used this last year in black and thought it would look just as good in red. Pam's sketch was perfect for it. I ran the Riding Hood Red pieces through the textile folder. It sort of mimics the design in the stamp. The ribbon is also Riding Hood Red, and I finished it off with some prima poinsettia flowers, gold glitter dots, and the MS ferns. I just purchased a bunch of dies not to long ago, and this one was just the right one.
Included in this set are two sailboats (this is the larger of the two), two anchors in differents sizes, a light house, and five sentiments. I just think this one is so clever...friend-ship! Cute, huh? I chose to paper piece this because it is a line image, which is perfect for paper piecing. I found a woodgrain dp in SU's Autumn Meadows pack for the boat. I liked the dotted paper for the sails. I used a Fiskars wave punch for the bottom. I had purchased this before I saw this set, and was thrilled to be able to actually use it! This sort of reminds me of a plaque with the woodgrain circle and the brass embellishments (these are from the jewelry department). I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch as my starting point, but added the square inside the circle. 
So to see the entire set, stop by the PMS blog. The girls have some fabulous creations to share with you. We'll be having peeks through Sunday, and then Monday is our Blog Hop and Release Party in the evening. Hope to see you here again tomorrow...we'll be sneaking the new fairies and you won't want to miss them! Thanks for stopping in today!
Recipe
Stamps: Sailing By (PMS)
Paper: Neenah white, chocolate chip, Autumn Meadows dp
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, baja breeze, creamy caramel
Copic Markers: E99; BG01, 05
Accessories: Nesties, Fiskars wave punch, tag die, ribbon, jewelry accents, star dust stickles, dimensionals
I used SU watercolor crayons in Regal Rose and Real Red for the flower part and Green Galore and Handsome Hunter for the leaves and stem. This stamp is perfect for this technique because you need a stamp with a solid image for the crayon to stick to. You need good watercolor paper for this to work, as well. You don't get the same effect if you use regular cardstock.
The snowman (or snowgirl) looks to me like she's carved from a piece of wood, so I used brown colors to shade the image. I went over it with my blender marker to soften the colors.
I like both versions so much! I'm so happy for these challenges, because I'm getting my Christmas cards done one by one!
This image is called Golf Ball Snowman from DRS designs. I didn't do a lot of copic coloring on this one, but I did use a few. You can't really tell, but I shaded the golf balls with a YG0000 marker. I shaded around him with a soft brush first in Wild Wasabi, but it looked too washed out, so I took a chance and went over it with Real Red. It looks a little reddish-brown, but I think it's ok. I also colored his hat and scarf with green and red markers, again difficult to see in the picture. I colored his club with a silver Spica glitter pen, and added star dust stickles to him as well.
