Thinking of You ... More ADFD

Okay, still trying to play catch up and turn some of those sweet little digis I colored over Labor Day weekend into cards, so this is one I finished last night. I started out making something entirely different with an entirely different digi, and somehow ended up with this. It was sort of like surfing the net - I started out in one spot and ended up somewhere entirely different and can't explain how I got there. But I think the card is sweet and pretty. I love all the soft colors together. The stamped image, which is doubled up and raised with foam squares is from Ippity by Unity. I get all my Ippity from the dear Rona. The pretty paper is from Pink Paislee. That lovely lace is from one of my favorite Etsy shops - CreatingisFun - Martha always has such beautiful laces and trims, and she is almost always having a sale, so check her out if you are a lace lover like me.

Okay, back to my craft room to work on more designs. It's Thursday evening, I just got back from a trip to DC today, and I need to get busy with my creation for Saturday's Paper a la Mode challenge over at The Outlawz. Thanks for stopping by, and big hugs to you!

The Fruits of My Labor ... How I Spent My Labor Day!

If you are not already familiar with Tammy Thompson and her digis at A Day for Daisies, I highly recommend you check it out! She sells her designs on her site, and she also has an Etsy shop. I fell in love with her designs from the first time I saw one, and I especially love and adore her nature and animal digis. This past week her new releases (she has a new release every Friday) just knocked my socks off! It's been a long time (probably almost a year) since I touched my colored pencils, but I got so inspired this weekend I printed out a bunch of the digis and started coloring. I had forgotten how much I love to color! I have both pencils and Copics, but I have to say that most of the time I prefer the pencils. For me, with my lack of Copic skills, the pencils give me a lot more control over my shading and blending (and of course they are much less expensive too). So I got a bunch of the digis colored up, and I decided to make a card from this little cutie - oh my goodness, isn't she just adorable. I thought a Thanksgiving card would be appropriate, since it looks like she's busy with her harvest of goodies from the farmer's patch! And wait until you see the other sweet digis - I am just in love with all of them! And of course I had to add some lace and pearls and ribbons and buttons and my favorite Ippity stamp (you can get all your Ippity stuff from my dear friend Rona) with some Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type letters (my favorites). The papers I used are from Jillibean Soup and Sassafras. I'm still undecided on whether or not I like all the papers and things I used, but I definitely love that little bunny! And I am going to enter this one for fun in The Outlawz Monday Greeting Cards Challenge this week, because the challenge is to use pearls and lace on a card (and what fun is a card without pearls and lace).

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Labor Day! My not-so-little one (he's 17) started his senior year of high school tomorrow, so a big day! I'm excited - life holds so many wonderful surprises around each corner. I hope you are all blessed! Big hugs!

Banners, banners everywhere!

Another week and another banner! I know, I know, but I just can't seem to stop making banners. This week's challenge over at The Outlawz for our Saturday Paper a la Mode Challenge is to use canvas or fabric in your project.

I decided to make my banner panels from canvas, but I wanted to make sure the beautiful papers I used from Pink Paislee also got to shine, so I alternated the banner panels for my AUTUMN banner between the canvas pieces and the paper pieces. So for each panel I cut a larger piece and a smaller piece and layered them together.

I used some rubons to decorate the canvas pieces, and who knew rubons would work so well on a rough surface, but they did. I wanted to keep this banner relatively simple, so I used a Papertrey Ink stamp and die set to make the little center medallions, then used some more Pink Paislee alphabets in the centers to spell out AUTUMN. I wanted an odd number of panels, so I added one extra on the end and put a Basic Grey flower in the center.

I used beads to connect the panels, and the larger oblong center "beads" are actually roll up strips of paper that I taper down a bit with my paper cutter. I got the idea from my daughter's jewelry collection, because she has all sorts of jewelry from Light Gives Heat, an organization that sells gorgeous products produced by ladies in Africa. They are so pretty and colorful, and they are made from paper beads. Mine aren't nearly as gorgeous as theirs, but they serve the purpose, and I think they turned out pretty well - they add some nice coordinating color, some space between the panels, and a nice new dimensional element.

Thanks to everyone for stopping by this week! I appreciate all the love and support! Big hugs to all!

Irene is gone!!! And I'm late with my post!!!

Today I am so thankful that Hurricane Irene turned out to be much less intense than forecast. My home and family came through with flying colors - just some debris cleanup outside. But my heart and prayers go out to everyone who have had their property damaged, or worse yet are injured or killed. Having been through this before, I know the recovery is going to be long and tough, so please remember those affected.

Saturday's Paper a la Mode Challenge over at The Outlawz started yesterday, but I was so focused on the storm that I completely forgot to post my creation - my quick creation. This entire week was full of work and home storm preparations, but I found a little time on Friday to try to put my thoughts about the inspiration photo that is the focus of the challenge onto paper. The colors and lines are just so bold and beautiful, and I had to make a couple of tries to get something pulled together that I was happy with, but this is my "inspired creation":

I used some Pink Paislee papers that I had in my stash, along with a little chipboard tree and a variety of little gems and pearls that are supposed to look like leaves in the fall, although I'm not sure how successful that turned out.

But thanks for stopping by, and thanks to everyone for all the prayers and positive thoughts as Hurricane Irene approached and passed us by. Hugs to all!

Banners - Saturday Paper a la Mode Challenge

Okay, it's time to talk about one of my favorite things in paper crafting - BANNERS! I love making banners, and I have made quite a few over the last couple of years to celebrate different seasons, holidays, as gifts, and now have made a tiny one to put on an Artist Trading Card (ATC) for this week's Paper a la Mode Challenge over at The Outlawz.

I made the banner pieces, which are quite small - maybe 1/2 inch for each piece - using Power Point. PP has a lot of different shapes built into it, so I used a triangle and sized it to what I wanted. Then I typed a letter into each piece - in this case I was spelling out "joy" because my ATC is for the Christmas season. I made the border of each triangle red, and the letters black. Then I printed it out on plain white cardstock and cut out the pieces - easy peezy! (If you would like to use the same idea, let me know and I will send you the file to use) I love the little digi bunny - I colored that with Copics and added a little Stickles to the fur on the hat for some bling.

My last post had the ATCs for the other 3 seasons, and this is the final one. These are for a swap over at CDAC where we had to use digi images to make ATCs, and we could pick one or more seasons - I am doing all 6. I've got to get these in the mail to the swap organizer this week, and I am so looking forward to getting back the ATCs that everyone else in the swap has created. This will be my 3rd swap with CDAC - if you haven't tried it, it's a lot of fun. They do different ones for stickpins, cards, ATCs, mini albums - just about anything.

Thanks to everyone for stopping by! Big hugs to all!

Paper a la Mode Challenge at The Outlawz

Ooh, I have been soooo remiss with my blog lately!!! And with my paper crafting too for that matter!

So now for this week's challenge, and hopefully a little inspiration for you! Over at The Outlawz, we do a weekly challenge called Paper a la Mode. There is usually a twist, and you can use the twist to make pretty much anything involving that twist. This week's challenge is to make anything but a card (so a layout, banner, mini-album, wall decoration, etc.).

So I decided to try my hand at some ATCs (or artist trading cards), which are tiny in size ( 3 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches ).
I am making these for a swap, in addition to this challenge, and they are seasonal. The swap requirement is that they each have to have a digital image of some sort on them. I struggled and struggled with this, because I am just not accustomed to trying to work with something so small - my typical card size is 6 inches by 6 inches!!!

So this first one is for Summer - it's the first one I did. I thought the canning jar with the flowers was just so "summery", and I tried to put it with some colors and patterns that reminded me of summer - I guess mostly because they reminded me of summers at my grandmothers house a million years ago, but my best memories ever!

This second one is for Spring, and might just be my favorite. I used an adorable image from Arielle at the Wax Fruit Company - I actually won this in a sneak peek contest, but just had not taken the time to use it yet. I think it's just too cute!

And then the third one is for autumn, and in this case I made it Halloween-y with one of my all-time favorite digis from A Day for Daisies! I love cats!

There is a fourth one that I am doing for winter, or in my case Christmas, but I am saving it for later. So stay tuned for that one coming along in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for stopping by my blog, and I hope you join us over at The Outlawz for some fun! Big hugs!

Blog Candy on Gabrielle Polacco's blog (Such a Pretty Mess)

Just wanted to let anyone know who is interested that you should head over to Gabrielle Polacco's blog, Such a Pretty Mess, and leave a comment to be entered in her blog giveaway. This lady is so incredibly talented - I have been following her for a few years, and her eye for detail and beautiful things is amazing. She is on several design teams, so she has lots of extra goodies that she wants to pay forward to someone.