Birthday Wishes

It is so nice to see the sun shining for once!  Woohoo.  It's a blazing 56 degrees out and we are grillin out today.  Can't wait.  So here's a quick post before I'm off to the grill.............

Today I'm sharing a Sparkle Creations stamp called "Cupcake Ruby" found here.  I only have two Sparkle stamps but I sure love the ones I do have.  This is my very first time playing over there so I'm kinda excited.  This stamp is perfect for all those birthday cards you need!  I've used Graphics 45 papers and followed the sketch at Sparkle Creations.  I'm working on my coloring following the weekly challenges over at Make It Crafty too.  This week we are focusing on shading.  There is an excellent video on it you can check out here.  This was my first attemp, not great, but I'm gonna try again on the next one.  Have a fabulous week and hopefully I'll see you again tomorrow!

Challenges entered:

Kaboodle Doodles - Ribbon

Sparkle Creations - Sketch

Sew Many Cards - Anything Goes

Make It Crafty - Shading

Warm Hugs - Jen

Woke up to snow! And a card

YAY, snow again, NOT!

I had to share a funny pic of my fur baby "Ruffis".  He's a chocolate lab with a bit of hound in him.  He's Buddies daddy. (The one that got hit by a truck and had his tail amputated, yep, that's the one!)  His momma was a beagle, yes folks it does happen.  Poor old girl had two litters of his pups before she went to puppy heaven. She was a strong little thing. We call them "Beagledores", half/lab - half/beagle

On to my card!  Of course, you now know why I was thinking about fur babies today.  I used this adorable image "Hershey Bath" from Sew Many Cards.  He's just too darn cute.  I paired him up with some of my papers from an old Swirlydoo's Kit and ribbon from RRR.  I made my bow and added a little blue stick pin with a heart on it.  I pushed it down under the layers so you won't get poked opening it.  I love the phrase "Oh no you didn't!", which is from Kraftin Kimmie's.  I'm NOT happy with the coloring on the barrel, but I am happy with the glazed water look.  I used my glossy accents for that and sprinkled just a touch of glitter on it.  I also distressed all the edges and inked it with Tim Holtz, Weathered Wood.  I'm really trying to use different products and colors that I'm not so comfortable with.  One day I will actually figure out shading, until then I'll keep on trying!

Challenges Entered:

Sew Many Cards - Monkey Business

My Sheri - Organic (Can't get more organic than water!)

StampIt Crazy - Loopy - Something to cheer you up

Simon Says - Animal Antics

Mojo Monday - Sketch

Critter Sketch - Distressing and Circles

 I'm trying to make a point to also decorate the insides of my card as well this year.  Nothing fancy just to finish it off.

I hope everyone stays warm!

Hugs

Jen

Desktop Calendar

Happy Saturday!  My hubby is off hunting so I thought I'd get a quick post in before he gets back and we take off.  My secret pal send me a desktop calendar for my birthday that I absolutely LOVE!  I thought I'd make a couple for some friends.  I have to pick up the mini calendars still, but you could also use it for post-its.  Very versatile and it folds flat for mailing too.

Recipe

Image - Just Inklined

Paper - Me and My Big Ideas

Challenges

Digital Tuesday - Anything Goes

Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Anything Goes

Stamp-N-Doodle - Anything New (My new paper pad)

Southern Girls - Anything Goes

Delicious Doodles - Use purple

Sew Many Cards - Anything Goes

Have a GREAT weekend!

Jen

Basket full of Blessings

This image reminds me of our family.  Thanksgiving has always been a time of year to spend with family.  My family is over 3,000 miles away and it's during the holidays I miss them most.  My mother-in-law was always busy in the kitchen whipping something up.  While us girls sat around the island and cut vegetables or mixed dips enjoying conversation.  We enjoyed her canning and were thankful for the harvest they raised that year.  She introduced me to all kinds of foods, rather than the typical meat and potatoes.  I even eat onions now.  Thanks to her love and support I now do my own canning, but it would be much for fun if we were in her kitchen instead of mine! That's the reason I chose "Baking Some Smiles" for my sentiment, which is from Bethany and Elegant Word Art2.  Bethany shares her life on her blog and at the end of every day she has a free sentiment that corresponds to something that happens in her day. 

The image is from Designed2Delight, called "Harvest Basket".  The first free digi in the progressive monthly challenge.  I followed the sketch at Friday Sketchers.  It really threw me for a loop cause there were so many layers to it.  The image is a bit busy already with all the veggies in the basket so I wasn't sure how I was gonna pull it all together.  But I choose my challenges first and make my card according to them.  It's a challenge in itself sometimes.  I went back to my scrap bin and started rifling through the papers to find something that would work.  Usually I choose them first then match the Prisma's.  Oh dear, I'm all backwards tonight!  I added some cuttlebugging too, as if it wasn't busy enough already - LOL.  This was a stretch for me because I like everything even and matching and in it's right place.  The purple was a stretch because I only used it on the eggplant but it seemed to work.  Hmmmmm, well let me know what you think.  Sorry I'm babbling on.......

Recipe:

Image - Designed2Delight

Paper - stash

Flower Embellies - from my bottle swap

Challenges Entered:

Double Delight - Use given image

Friday Sketchers - Sketch

Sew Many Cards - Fall

Digi Doodle Shop - Fall/Autumn

Delightful Inspiration - Use Image

I have some wonderful blog candy I won to share with you later this week too.  Have a wonderful evening or morning, depending on where you are!

Hugs - Jen

Squiggle Me Happy!!

I was SO excited when I logged on today.  I found out I was a grand prize winner over at the CDAC blog hop from last week!!  I won the ribbon organizer.  Considering all my ribbons are in a basket at the moment I can REALLY use it!  Woohoo, doin the happy dance!

Ok, so now for my post.  Squigglefly challenged us to do a clean and simple Christmas Card.  I find myself always trying to push the envelope on embellishments and bling.  But some cards are just great without it.  I chose "Cappuchino Snowman" because he reminded me of home.  The last two weeks especially I've REALLY been missin my family and friends.  So the coffee sentiment was at the top of my list.  Plus he's so darn cute.  I colored him with my Prisma's.  I embossed the background paper with snowflakes and mounted my cutie pie on that.  Then it was just too plain so I added the snowflakes which were cut from my cricut and the sentiment.  It still didn't look quite finished so I added some snowflake brads I found in my stash.  And then.......I know, clean and SIMPLE, BUT......I added just a little bit of stickles to the snowflakes and just the tiniest amount of flock to the cappucino, can't have it without the whip cream!

So there ya go.  Clean and simple, or as simple as I could muster today!

I'm entering it into the following challenge:
Squigglefly - clean and simple

Thanks for stoppin!
Jen

Mr. Straw

Today I have a cute image from Digital Delights by Louby Lou called "Mr. Straw". He's the September freebie and I decided to whip up a cute halloweenie card with him. He's colored with my prisma's. I used the sketch from Friday Sketchers. My papers are from DCWV Autumn pack. I added some great ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon and topped it off with some flowers and a button from my stash. I hope you like it.

Here's the challenges I entered it in:

Digital Delights by Louby Lou - Use September Image

Friday Sketchers - Sketch

Sew Many Challenges - Halloween themed project