Betwixed Brew

Now I must confess I am a BIG fan of Roberta Laliberte's art/Prairie Fairy Designs, and Gilly is one of my faves - this one being "Brewin' Spells"! It just wouldn't be Halloween if my kids and gkiddos didn't receive a card and a little somethin'-somethin' from me :) So... I made five of these. I'll show you the two different styles I did with the same image. The first one is a regular flat fold 6x6 card to go along with a bag of twix candy.

The second is a "Book" fold, to hold two twix bars to be mailed to my loved ones who do not have kiddos. The inside sentiment from me says "Betwixed Witches for a Happy Halloween". They will all get a kick out of this card and the accompanying treats :)

I used BasicGrey and Echo Park designer papers. Of course, colored with copics, adding Glossy Accents to glasses, frog eyes, and bubbles. Used my sissix dies for the matting, and sentiment/apothocary jars from a Free Digital Stamps link. I did change the wording on one of the bottles to read "love potion #9" in photoshop to make it more "family" friendly :) Again, a lot of layering and popping/3d on these cards

 

Betwixed Witches for a Happy Halloween to All!

Love, Wendy

Tutu Birthday Wishes!

Another Mo Manning image that I just couldn't resist "Prima". I did make two of this one, also, cuz the image is soooooo much fun to color with my copics and a dabble with the Spica glitter pen.

The papers are BoBunny "Smooch", and used my sweet-n-sassy hearts, run through the cuttlebug and embossed with the heart folder. Also used my spellbinders Heart circles, and a Memory Box flourish.

Alot of the elements are popped up, and then added a matted strip of the DP paper to the inside.

Wishing you a "Prima" Day!

Love, Wendy

Challenges: DP2 Challenge-B

 



Kickin' it up a year, Sis!

My sweet sister's birthday is this week, and she loves horses and has become quite the accomplished amateur competitor in the cutting horse arena. She also rides with the "painted ladies" in drill and parades. I love this Crissy Armstrong image "Gifted Horse" available at Whimsy Stamps.

Used BasicGrey Indian Summer paper that I've had stashed for a few years - love this paper. Magnolia fence, sizzix circles and flourishes, along with Spellbinders scalloped hearts, all cut and embossed with the cuttlebug. I colored with Copics and had a photo of her paint horse "Gunner", so was able to make the image a look-a-like of him = this will really put a smile on her face.

Dolled up the inside, and centered the large heart scallop for my handwritten message to her. The photos don't do all the layers and pop-up dimension justice - it is very much 3d.

Hope you're getting a kick outta your day!

Love, Wendy



Happy Twenty Fore!

This one is for my sweet son, Devan, for his 24th birthday. He is quite the golfer nowadays, and found this fun Three Stooges image that worked perfectly for his sentiment. The gift with the card is a boxed set of the Three Stooges series - he will get a big laugh out of this one :)

Wishing you an on par day!

Love, Wendy

Happy Birthday TuTu You

While relaxing with friends at our fave B&B, I made cards - traveling light nowadays :) I decided to make duplicates of all the cards, as suggested on the Basic Grey site :)

This sweet Mo Manning image "Odette" was irresistible to me. The papers are DoveCraft, heart string is from Memory Box, and used my sizzix circles and scallops all through the cuttlebug. Of course, colored up with my beloved Copics, along with a little touch of Spica.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a Tutu Beautiful Day!

Love, Wendy

Prima Ballarina, Brooklyn!

It's time for my DT project for Seems A Little Sketchy, Sketch 17! This time we are sponsored by AiFactory and I have chosen Ella the Ballerina. Sketch 17 is just perfect for my project!

This sweet little image just grabbed me and pulled me in so much, that I chose to use her six times!

My precious 4 year-old granddaughter, Brooklyn, has her first ballet recital this weekend and this card is perfect for the occasion. I wanted to simulate Brooklyn as the Prima Ballerina with her ballet troupe, all colored up with Copic markers.

I was chatting with my dear friend KathyCan and discussed the project with her, adding that I wanted to make it appear as a stage when you open the card. Well... Kathy had done a stage pop-up card back in November for her daughter, Allison's, birthday. Allison is a big Alice in Wonderland fan, so Kathy ran with that theme for her card - you must check out Kathy's wonderful project here. She turned me onto a fabulous tutorial by Kim (Paper Punch Addiction). Kim's tutorial worked perfectly for this project to put Brooklyn on stage in the spotlight!

Kathy sent me a birthday box full of My Mind's Eye 6x6 pads, and "indie chic" is perfect for Brooky's card. Used my new Memory Box "Elegant Scrollwork" to simulate "motion", which I found at Oozak. Wanted to give a feel for stage lighting, so used buttons, pearls and black tulle for the job on the card front. Inside wanted to use the star jewels/rhinestones, and the DP worked great to simulate the stage curtain valance and stage lighting along the bottom of the stage. I did add more black tulle for the stage curtains. Just added the black tulle tie a belly band to keep the card closed for presentation to Brooklyn. She is going to get the biggest kick out of this one!

Join us at Seems A Little Sketchy for sketch #17, enter the challenge and show us what you created!!!!

Love,

Wendy



Happy Birthday, Peggy!

I'm having such a great time being on the Seems A Little Sketchy Design Team. This project showcases Sketch #16, sponsored by Whoopsi Daisy.

The digi image is one of the fairies from Sheet 243 at Whoopsi Daisy - she is soooo cute! Decided to try my hand at "no black lines" with a digi. I plodded through on my own in PhotoShop (guess it would have been easier had i searched for a tutorial ;) With a wee bit of struggling, finally figured it out - and very much enjoyed the outcome; colored up with Copics.

The DP are from Prima's "songbird collection" 6x6 paper stack, which I found at Oozak (love Oozak - the most awesome customer service!). Used Sizzix oval dies, Martha Stewart butterfly trio punch and her butterfly cut/emboss punch, along with a new butterfly punch by Tonic, found on Blitsy. The fairy pewter charm I've had for eons, found on e-bay. Also used Fiskars flower punch, adding Glossy Accents to some of the butterflies and flowers, along with the little envies. The pearls are Kaiser "bliss".

Chalked the edges of the DP and large butterflies, added the lace trim and even braided three colors of floss for added dimension to the trim. Added a lot of Scotch 3m foam tape for lots of dimension of the layers. The sentiment actually has 3 layers of foam tape (I wish I could give credit to the sentiment artist-but no label on the file except for "fairy kisses star").

And... yuppers... it's an easel!

Thanks for popping by today.

Be sure to head on over to Seems A Little Sketchy to check out my teamies projects and join in the fun with Sketch #16!

Love,

Wendy

Challenges: Craft Your Passion-things with wings; Always Crafting-fairies; Paper Makeup Stamps-AG; Fashionista challenge #4-things with wings; Incy Wincy Designs Challenge-AG; Love to Create Challenge-AG; OLLCB-mystical magic; Paper Playtime-sentiment; Tammy's Scrapin Corner-AG/AA; Whoopsi Daisy-wings; Dream Valley Challenges-wings; Sentimental Sundays-cute and girly; Sketchy colors-green/orange/white; The Crafty Pad-more than 1 fold; 2 sisters challenge blog-AG; Allsorts-dies; Challenge up you life-no lines

Just For You!

Here is my second project for Sketch #16 as a design team member at Seems A Little Sketchy. I love how Jenn sketches - each one is unique and very fun to interpret.

This card showcases our sponsor Whoopsi Daisy. The image I chose is on Sheet 333. She was very fun to color up with Copics - still need more practice with fabric folds - this image is a great one for that technique. This card goes out to a special friend for her birthday.

The DP is Bo Bunny Alora Collection and an old stash B/W check from Making Memories. I love butterflies and flowers! The butterflies are Marianne Designs and the flowers are from Sweet n Sassy, and the Fancy Label from Sizzix, all cut with my favorite tool - my cuttlebug. The black rhinestones are from Queen & Co. All three ribbons are from my LSS, and the bow made with the mini Bowdabra.

My dear friend, KathyCan, cut/embossed the mat used on the front of the card and the sentiment mat on the inside, and sent me a stack of them - thank you so much, My Friend!

Come on over to Seems A Little Sketchy and get in on the fun, fun, fun with Sketch #16!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Love,

Wendy

Challenges: whoopsi daisy-wings; ATC & cards with attitude-AG; Card Mad Fairy's-girly

Seems A Little Sketchy #15 - Congratulations

YAY! This is my first DT project for the awesome challenge blog "Seems A Little Sketchy". You know how I'm all into sketches, so to be chosen for the Seems A Little Sketchy design team is a great honor!

This is sketch #15 and was way fun for my project showcasing our wonderful sponsor Digi Doodle Shop image "Jr. Bride & Groom".

 As some of you know who follow my blog, my husband is a certified minister and I am a photographer. Together we make the perfect pair, especially for weddings! We were honored to attend to the Azam's in May, so this card will go to them, along with their flash drive with their wedding portraits.

I am embarrassed to say I cannot remember who did the wonderful technique that I CASE'D with the tulle in the Spellbinder's lacey oval and large oval cutout, placing the image on the inside of the card, but I sure do love the look - especially for a wedding card.

 The papers are from my hoarded stash of foof-a-la, along with Bazzil and Neenah CS. The pearls are double strung and perfect for a border, and twice useful when cut apart as singles. Also used my Memory Box "meadow leaf" die. The paper roses are from Paper Mart. 

Come on over to Seems A Little Sketchy and join us in our Sketch #15 Challenge, sponsored by Digi Doodle Shop!

Love,

Wendy

Challenges: The Ribbon Girl Blog-lace/ribbon; Just Some Lines-black/white; Speedy and Friends-B/W w/splash of color; Just Add Ink-pearls; 4 Crafty Chicks-monochromatic; CropStop-monochromatic; Paper Crafting journey-color it up; Oozak-two papers/embellies; Really Reasonable Ribbon-flowers/ribbon; Cooking it up with Katie-celebrate with ribbon and a die cut; Crafting for all Seasons-many layers; Crafty Creations Challenge-wedding/anniversary; Crafty Sentiments-white on white; Digital Tuesday Challenge-AG; Flourishes/Timeless Tuesday-wedding; Papertake Weekly-AG

No black lines digi tutorial

So I've been seeing all of these lovely projects with no black lines stamping, using a very light-colored stamp ink. Since I mainly use digital stamps, I needed to figure out how to do this in my trusty Adobe PhotoShop. Oh, I muddled through (prob could have found something on the web ;), but determined to figure it out for myself. Since I use CS5, these are the steps I took to achieve the "look" of no black lines when using a digi stamp. Of course, you'll need to be able to print in color, so that's the first tip ;)

Here's what I did:

•  Opened image in CS5 (sample shown is one of my fave Mo Manning images, Baby Fairy Flora, and can be found here)
•  Top bar menu: image>mode> check RGB color, check 8 bits
•  Top bar menu: window>check actions, layers, options, tools
•  Under layers tab: right click "background layer", duplicate layer
•  Under layers tab: you'll now see background layer and background copy
•  Under layers tab: click on first background (the one with the lock) and delete
•  Top bar menu: image>adjustments>hue/saturation, move lightness bar until you fade the image  nearly entirely, click okay
•  Top bar menu: image>adjustments>photo filter (make sure preserve luminosity box is checked), click color, click on color box, click on color picker, click on color libraries, choose your color (I use Panatone solid coated) ex. 475c, click okay, move density bar to 100%
• Top bar menu: image>adjustments>hue/saturation, move saturation bar to 50% and lightness to whatever saturation you would like to print.

Here are my results. Hope these steps work for you!

If you'd like to view the completed project with Baby Fairy Flora, you can find it here.

 Love,

Wendy

Thank You, Peggy!

Peggy and my birthdays are only two days apart and over the past 21 years, we have usually celebrated our "birthtweenday"; however, this year she was working and so we celebrated on my birthday. We hadn't gotten together in a couple of years (ya, know, that life thing...), but this year we spent 5 hours at one of our fave sushi places - sooooo much fun!!! She broke the rules and slipped a fun "inspiration" bracelet in my card, so this is my thank you to her.

Followed the sketch over at the Sweet Stop, which was perfect for my project.

Chose one of my fave Mo images, Baby Fairy Flora. Wanted to try my hand at "no black lines" and waded my way through the muck and mud in photoshop, but finally figured it all out. Love the outcome. You can find my "no black lines digi" mini-tutorial here

Used some fun DP by Prima with a blue and yellow theme. Also brought out two of my fave Memory Box dies - crisp bows and madera corner, but then really who am I kidding - all of my MBs are faves! LOL. Also added some crystal acrylic flowers, a little personalized tag/ticket, a bit of embossing and spellbinder cuts with the cuttlebug, organza ribbon and floss, and a little bit of stickles painted on her wings and edge of dress. Thank goodness I don't have to mail this one-with nearly 10 layers, it is quite heavy :)

Did up the inside a bit, too :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Love,

Wendy

Challenges: The Sweet Stop-sketch; Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Challenge-thank you; Simon Says Stamp Challenge-AG; Crafting for all Seasons Challenge-layers; Crafts and Me Challenges-ribbon; Divas by Design-AG; Scrapbook Sisters-AG; Crafty Sentiments-AG; Die Cuttin Divas-AG; Scrap-Creations-fairies; Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT challenge-something with wings; Party Time Tuesdays-AG; Top Tip Tuesday-stash/tip (ribbon, floss, image, stickles); 

Mrs. B's "Just Because" Candy!

 

Why you may ask? "Just Because" May 25th is my birthday! Oh, yes, 1961 was a great year :)

The Candy consists of :

~ 4 Magnolia Mini World unmounted stamps

Winter Forest

Unwrapped Tilda

Wrapped Tilda

Winter Fence

~ 1 yard of 3/8" grosgrain "Merry Christmas" ribbon

**********************************************************************

*****Candy Wrapper Instructions*****

*Be or become a follower of my blog

*Place the candy photo on your sidebar with a link back to my blog

*Add your name to Mr. Linky below

On or about 12:01 a.m. on May 25th, Ms. RG (random generator) will do her thing, and the recipient of my "Just Because" candy will be announced. Check back on my birthday to see if you're the candy "getter" :)

Love,

Wendy

Here are your random numbers:

33

Timestamp: 2012-05-25 14:35:40 UTC

That's you, Heaney!

Please contact me, so i can get your package in the mail!

Thank you to all who played. Come back often, as there will be more candy very soon!

Sweet Shavana

Only one week left to enter my "maggie" candy here!

For my project today, I followed the sketch over at Mojo Monday

Last weekend was a get together weekend for us girls at our favorite bed & breakfast in Folsom, California - The Bradley House. I've had a reservation for nine years now and get to choose weekend getaways for scrappin' buddies and myself - we always have the best time. This past weekend, Shavana's father had lost his battle with cancer, so she was working on the memorial boards and memories for the service. I knew I wanted to create a card for Shavana, and wanted to make it special for the loss of a father. I used my MS butterfly punch, Spellbinders ovals and lacey ovals, along with butterfly impressabilities. Added some roses, heart stickpins, a clear acrylic flower, Sizzix sizlette swirl flourish, ribbons/lace and a heart key charm from my LSS. I love the sentiment, and know Shavana will also.

Her parents divorced when she was very young and she was raised by her mother. Her father and her found each other when she was 18, and made up for all the time they had lost. They became best friends. Michael was a tall strapping man, and loved his daughter to no end.

Shavana was blessed to get to know her father and have him as an integral part of her life for the last 20 years, making him not only a father, but a father-in-law and grandfather!

Today is Michael's day to be placed to rest. Blessings and my deepest heartfelt condolences to my sweet friend Shavana and her wonderful family. Rest in peace, Michael.

Love,

Wendy

Challenges I'd like to enter: Mojo Monday-sketch; Inky Impressions-lace/trim; Simon Says Stamp-CAS;  365 cards-wordy; Truly Scrumptious-AG; Whimsy Stamps Challenge-AG; A and T digital designs-embossing;

Have a Yummy Birthday!

Don't forget to enter my Maggie "just because" Candy HERE!

So I've had six personal best days of my life so far! The day Isaac was born was one of them. Isaac and his wife (Kath) live in Nashville and are both history professors (Isaac-British Studies; Kath-American History) - their birthdays are one week apart and since Isaac is off to England on the 15th for six weeks where he will have an on-campus interview for a tenured position at Warwick University (wooooohooooie) while there, I'm sending off both cards today so they can have them before he goes "across the pond".

I chose this sweet image from Sassy Cheryl's Digis "Sneaky Bear Birthday Cupcake" which you can now find in her $2 bin (hurry, these will retire this month!). I don't do very many "masculine" cards, so this was a bit out of my box.

Followed the PTI anniversary sketch #3 and thought the "bunting" was perfect for this card. Used the cuttlebug to emboss the dots, my star punch to make the "chips" distress on the bunting, sewed the floss through, chalked the edges and used my trusty fine point sharpie to faux sew.

The DPs are BasicGrey and MME, which I thought really complimented each other. The front calendar is from Cindy Close and just put the number 18 for the date, as that is the special day!

The inside of the card on the left has a diagonal pocket for the gift card, and the inside sentiment on the right is from Tracey Brossart - I love this sentiment and Tracey is so clever and amazingly creative!

Bazzil buttons and DMC floss are my main embellies for this card - sometimes i forget about my hoarded buttons, but had fun adding them to this creation. Used my Spellbinders to cut and emboss my image, and colored it all up with my copics.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Love,

Wendy

Challenges: Simon Says Stamp Challenge-birthday; Sassy Chery's Challenge Blog-stitching; Cards and More Challenge-party; Craft-room Challenge-emboss; Creative Craft Challenge-AG; Papertake Weekly Challenge-cute; Always Crafting Creative Monday-AG; Incy Wincy Designs-spots/dots; Ooh La La Creations-manly; Tammy's Scrapin Corner-dies/punches; Catered Crop-"B"=birthday, bear, buttons, bunting; Come and get it challenge-let's hear it for the boys; Great Impressions Challenge-AG; That Craft Place Challenge-one for the boys; {Cupcake Insiprations}-#159; A and T Challenge Blog-AG; Mad for Markers monthly challenge-masculine colors; Sparkles Monthly Challenge- *Men*; 2 Sisters Challenge Blog-#90 AG; BasicGrey Challenge-1,2,3 recipe; Catch the Bug Challenge-AG; One Stop Craft Challenge-celebrations; Sweet Stampin' Challenge-four legged friends; Cardmadfairy's Digi Challenge-add a number; Crafty Ann's Challenge-stitching; Inspire me Fridays-AG; Stampin' for the weekend-4+layers/blog hop;