Crazy 4 Challenges C4C48 - Sketch Challenge

Hello Friends!!! It's challenge time again and this time around it's Crazy 4 Challenges! Yay! Jessie came up with a great challenge this week. . .:) It's a sketch challenge and a fun one at that. Do you like sketch challenges? I love working with sketches! Come play along with us. . .we'd love to see your pretty card!!

Be sure to stop by C4C and check out all the fabulous cards created by the design team.

* Barbara Anders

* Cindy Haffner
* Frances Byrne
* Jessie Rone
* Joanne Grzelak
* Joycelyn Pelkey
Lynda Benden
* Angela Wood
* Vicki Garrett
* Silke Kittmann

If you stopped by my blog yesterday. . .I talked about using pigment ink with rubbing alcohol and how it colors similar to watercoloring. I'm having a lot of fun playing around with my pigment inks! For Stampin Up fans. . .the craft ink pads are "pigment" based inks so if you have the stamp pads, you can use them to color similar to when you use dye inks and water. The beauty of using pigment ink and alcohol is that you can color on regular card stock. Because the alcohol dries fairly quickly, the card stock don't warp like it would if you used water.

Well I colored my image using pigment ink and rubbing alcohol. Doesn't it look a bit like watercoloring? I used my MFT stamp set "Are We There Yet?". The border going across my card is by myscrapchick.com "Border Strips". I cut it on my Cricut and weaved the ribbon through the holes to create the X design.

Just a short update on my craft room. . .I finished up unspooling and re-rolling my ribbons on to ribbon cards! Oh gawwwwd! That was painful so I'm so glad I'm done with that. I also organized all of my embellishments and scrapbooking materials by categories. Do you see the flip-flops on my card? If it weren't for the fact that I organized my embellishments. . .I wouldn't have known that I had them! It worked out perfectly with the image.

I still have a long way to go in putting my craft room back together but the really tough job of organizing the ribbons and embellishments is done. The goal this weekend is to rearrange the furniture in my room and start putting some of my stuff back in to my room.

I also crochet a few beanies . . .my first crochet beanies! Yay. My goal with my crochet stuff is to sell them at the craft fair during the winter and for every item I sell, I'm going to donate a scarf or beanie to the homeless shelter or my church's rescue mission. I need to sell a few so I can buy enough yarn to create for donation. Sounds like a good plan, huh?

Anyway. . .enough of my blabbering. . .hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Christmas Stampin All Year Long Challenge #59 - Sketch Challenge

Hello Friends!! Hey it's Christmas Stampin All Year Long time again! The challenge this week is a sketch challenge so stop by CSAYL and check out the sketch and the pretty cards the design team created!! The winner this week will win a spot as our guest designer on one of the challenges! Be sure to play along!


I need to make this quick so I'll get down to business! As you know by now, I've been reorganizing my craft room. I came across all of my "pigment" ink pads and Stampin Up craft pads. There was a time when I heat embossed my images so the pigment ink pads were very handy. I love pigment inks because they are very versatile. . .they can be used to stamp images on anything as long as you heat set or emboss it.

Anyway. . .to make a long story short. .. .nowadays, I tend to color outline images usually with my Copics or some sort of coloring medium so when I came across my pigment inks, I thought of selling them because I haven't used them for a while now. Luckily, pigment inks rarely dry up. .. they can remain juicy for years! As a last ditch effort . . .I thought of a bright idea (yeah, I thought so. . LOL) I decided to try to use the pigment inks as a coloring medium similar to watercoloring.

I know water and pigment inks don't work together like it does with dye inks so I thought maybe alcohol would work. ..and you know what! It DID work.

I didn't use Copics or dye inks to color my image...I used pigment inks! OMG!! It colors nicely on regular card stock. Because alcohol dries quickly, the card stock don't warp and it also dries the pigment ink very quickly!!

The awesome part of it all is if you have the shimmery pigment inks like the Encore brand. . .you can add a shimmery effect on your image. The concept is similar to using dye inks like Stampin Up ink pads and water but instead, you use pigment ink pads and rubbing alcohol.

Just rub a bit of pigment ink on a plastic palette and dip a paint brush in alcohol and "water down" the pigment ink with the alcohol. You then color the image but you have to work fast because alcohol dries really quickly. You may need to dip it in alcohol more often than you would if you were using water in watercoloring. I'll see if I can post a tutorial some time soon but don't count on it. . .LOL! I still have to finish my craft room reorganization.

I know. . .long story but well, I'm happy to say that I'm keeping all of my pigment ink pads. . .I was actually ready to sell them all on Ebay. . .LOL! Well, they've been saved and they're all happy in my drawer! Yay!

That's it. . .hope y'all have a wonderful Friday!!

Aloha to Little C's Challenge - Last Challenge

Hello Friends!! I have a bit of a sad news. . .this is the last challenge at Little C's Challenge site and my last challenge card as a designer at Little C's. Little C's stopped selling rubber stamps about a month ago and continued on with the Little C's challenge in spite of it but Jen decided to close down the challenge site. With that being said, I had a wonderful time as a designer off and on for Little C's in the last year or so.

Well the last challenge is a dark pink photo inspiration challenge. Stop by and play along in the last challenge. If the challenge is not yet posted on Little C's, be sure to stop by later and see if it's up....:) Also check out Jen's and Mackenzie's cards. . .


I used an already colored image for my card. I have a stock pile of colored images. .. thank God. If it wasn't for the already colored images, I don't think this card would have been possible. My Copic Markers are somewhere in the hallway covered with other crafty stuff. I am not in the mood to dig through all my stuff.

The progress of my craft room re-organization is well. . .not progressing much. I think my problem right now is that I'm "mirco-organizing". So far, I've unrolled all my ribbons off their spools and rolled them on to ribbon cards so they would take up less space. Can you imagine unrolling and re-rolling hundreds of ribbons? It's been taking me FOREVER!!!!! I can't even begin to tell you how time consuming it has been. I'm just about 98% done. I am getting a bit sloppy towards the end. . rather than re-rolling the ribbons on to ribbon cards, I've been tying rubber bands around the unrolled ribbons to hold them together. Uggggh! But. .. there is good news. . .by unspooling all my ribbons, the amount of space to store them has been reduced by almost half. Yay!

Because I can't quite paper craft right now. . .I've been crocheting. I've been practicing using different stitches and yarn. I think I'm ready to move on to a different type of project other than scarves. Creating these scarves have been really helpful in learning the different stitches.

The two scarves I made were created using 2 rows of double stitch borders and 3 rows shell pattern.


With this scarf, I used Bernat Silk acrylic yarn. It's thin and pretty soft. It's a light enough scarf to use as casual wear.



This scarf is the same design as the scarf above but using a heavier yarn so it's a little thicker.


This scarf can be used during the Fall or Winter seasons. I bought a few Mohair and Wool yarn. I can't wait to create something with them. I'm a super newbie with crocheting . . .just a month but I've learned a lot in a short period of time. I'm having so much fun crocheting!! I can't wait to get good at it.

Hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!

Crazy 4 Challenges #C4C47

Hello Friends!! It's time for Crazy 4 Challenges again and this week, Jessie came up with an awesome challenge this week! It's an inspiration challenge. . .stop by the Crazy 4 Challenges blog and check out the inspiration photo and the lovely cards the design team created.

* Angela Wood

* Barbara Anders

* Cindy Haffner
* Frances Byrne
* Jessie Rone
* Joanne Grzelak
* Joycelyn Pelkey
Lynda Benden

* Silke Kittmann
* Vicki Garrett

I love inspiration challenges because it's fun to see different ways that others interpret the photo. I focused on the circle and stripe patterns of the photo. . .I didn't stick to the colors.


Do you see the beads? Well, believe it or not but I've had the trimming for at least 4 years now. I discovered it looking through my craft stuff. Yeah, I'm still organizing my room. I think it'll be a while before I can get my room back together.


I wanted to share a 2 of the scarves I recently made. One of the new hobbies I'm growing to love is crocheting. I started learning to crochet about a month ago and I've progressed somewhat. I've learned to crochet several types of stitches and patterns. I have a lot to learn. . .especially on the best types of yarn for different projects. Right now I'm focusing only on scarves and beanies mainly because I want to learn the various stitches and patterns. Crocheting scarves I think is the best way to practice.

I created this scarf using the "Solomon's Knot". The yarn is the Vanna White Yarn. I don't have the details of the yarn with me at this time so I can't give you the info.

Here is a close up of the scarf. The scarf has a loose weave and is very stretchy.

With this scarf, I used Bernat Silk Yarn. The stitch is a shell pattern. The weave is very tight so the scarf is rather stiff and a bit heavy but for winter, it'll definitely keep you warm.

As you can see, the pattern has a shell pattern. I like the pattern. I have to remember to keep the label so I can provide the info of the yarn. I made a few more scarves using different stitch and patterns. I'll share them next time.

Don't forget to stop by Crazy 4 Challenges and play along with us!!

Hope you all have a beautiful Saturday.

Christmas Stampin All Year Long Challenge #58 - Buttons and Bows

Hi Friends!! Hey it's Christmas Stampin All Year Long Challenge time again and this week our sponsor is Sassy Cheryl's! Yay! Come play along in our challenge and you'll have a chance to win a $5 Sassy Cheryl's gift certificate. The challenge this week is "Buttons and Bows". Create a card using ribbons and buttons as your embellishment. The challenge will end on Thursday, July 29th and the winner will be announced on July 30th. Good Luck!




The image is by Sassy Cheryl's.. ..if you stop by their store, you'll find a crazy amount of snowman and Christmas images. . .you can go to town looking through all the images available! Crazy amount!!!

Just a little bit about my card. . .do you see the snowman coat? Well, I added micro beads to the coat. . .it kinda look like a knit coat, huh? I colored the image with my Copic Markers. The designer papers are by Stampin Up . .. in the case you're wondering!

To create the snow, I used Tulip puffy paint and heat it up until it puffed up. The Tulip puffy paint is similar to Liquid Applique.

I'm still in the middle of organizing my craft room. . .it's been a stinkin' slow process. Paper crafting is very difficult because everything is all over the place so on my down times, rather than paper crafting or making cards, I've been crocheting. I've made several scarves. . .I'll post them on another day. I'm rather proud of them . . LOL! Mainly because I'm a beginner. .. I started learning about a month ago. I would never imagine I could ever crochet. . .it just looks so . . .complicated. For this reason, I'm just so happy whenever I finish a crochet project.

Anyway. . .enough yapping. . .stop by Christmas Stampin All Year Long and play along with us this week. Hope y'all have a wonderful Friday!!

Little C's Challenge - Summer Fun

Hello Friends!! Hey, today is Tuesday and it's Little C's challenge time again! Yipee!! It's all about summer with this week's challenge. .. summer colors, summer theme. . .summer fun! Stop by the Little C's challenge blog and check out the inspirational photo to follow. It's a fun one. Also stop by Jen's and Mackenzie's blog and check out their cute, cute cards!

If you don't know by now . .. I'm in the middle of a major craft room reorganization . It's been really difficult to craft because I can't find anything. I hauled everything out of my craft room and threw everything in the guest bedroom, the hallway, and anywhere else I could fit my stuff.

Last night I could not find my scissors, my tapes, glue and I thought I was going to SNAP!! I had to create my card for the Little C's challenge and I could not find anything. Everything was piled up on top of one another and I sort of just threw things in a very unorganized fashion. Ugggh!


Anyway. . .I managed to create my card. . .using easily accessible materials. The flowers were lying on the floor so I picked them up, I found the heart shape designer paper in a container, the card stocks from my scrap bin and the image in a container where I sorted my already "colored" images. Thankfully it all worked out in the end. . .I just love that!

Well. . .I'm sorry I haven't been posting daily like I normally do. .. I just can't. Whenever I create something, it just creates additional mess that I need to clean up. It'll take that much longer to put my room back together so I'm avoiding any crafting right now unless I'm required to.

Well. . .back to cleaning up and organizing. . .I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!

Crazy 4 Challenges - CSC46 Buttons Challenge

Hi Friends!! It's Saturday! Hallelujah! There's so many reasons to be celebrating that it's the weekend. . .one of which is that it's Crazy 4 Challenges time again! Together now. . .YIPEE! LOL!

This week Jessie came up with a fun, fun challenge!! It's all about buttons this week . . .and that's not all!! Some Odd Girls digi stamps is sponsoring C4C and the winner of this week's challenge will win a prize! Yay! Come join us and play along! We'd love to see your beautiful card!!


Look at this cute "Some Odd Girl" image. . .OMG! So cute! Do you like cute images? I like them because they're fun to color! I colored the image using my Copic Markers and I didn't mess with this challenge! I think I used all of my peach colored buttons. . .I really love these buttons. . .I think I may need to get more of them. The buttons are by Foofala buttons. I love their buttons.

Do you see the crochet border? I crochet it myself using embroidery floss! I love creating these crocheting scallop borders. . .the stitch I used is the shell stitch pattern.


Anyway. . .be sure to stop by C4C and check out the beautiful cards the design team created or stop by their individual blogs!

* Barbara Anders

* Cindy Haffner
* Frances Byrne
* Jessie Rone
* Joanne Grzelak
* Joycelyn Pelkey
Lynda Benden
* Angela Wood
* Vicki Garrett
* Silke Kittmann

Before I go. . .I'm sorry I haven't been creating any new SVG files and templates or been creating any projects using my Cricut! I have been so busy that I can only manage to create cards and projects for design teams I am on. My craft room re-organization has been a very slow process. I just want to do it right this time around. You know . . . put things away in an organized fashion and putting like items together and such. It would be much easier to just throw things back together but what's the point of doing a reorganization if I do that. . .again!

Well, I hope you all have a beautiful Saturday!

Christmas Stampin All Year Long Challenge #57 - In Style Stamps

This week at Christmas Stampin All Year Long our wonderful sponsor is In Style Stamps. Stop by CSAYL and check out the beautiful cards created by the design team.

In Style Stamps are releasing their new Christmas digital images today and we're showing a few samples of the wonderful Christmas images. Be sure to stop by In Style Stamps and check them out! They are offering various styles of Christmas images from simple to scenic but all of them are beautiful and fun to color.

This week's challenge at Christmas Stampin All Year Long is "Bling It Up". . .add glitter or something sparkly to your card.

Come play along in our challenge and you will have a chance to win 4 digital images from In Style Stamps. The challenge ends on July 22nd and the winner will be announced on Friday, July 23. Hope to see you playing along!

I colored my image with copic markers and to add a little sparkle, I added Tulips glitter paint and for the bling I added the rhinestones

This image is from the "Day In the Life" digital images
Isn't it pretty?
I colored the image with my Copic Markers
The sentiment tag is by K&Co
The designer and card stock by Stampin Up

I'm so glad it's Friday. . .I have so many things to do and I am so behind on everything. I'm so not good at multi-tasking. . .I'm actually a single focused person who is forced to multi-task and well, it's turning me into a basket case. LOL! I'd like to just take a day off doing nothing but read a book or finish up crocheting a scarf that I just started working on. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen. . .not in the near future that is. Oh well. . .life is still good.

Anyway. . .be sure to stop by Christmas Stampin All Year Long and play along in the challenge and also check out the cute digital images released at In Style Stamps.

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday!!

Pink Cat Studio Rubber Stamp Release

Hello Friends!!

Hey, I've got good news!
Pink Cat Studio is releasing 5 new rubber stamp sets today
You can purchase each rubber stamp set separately
or
All 5 sets for the price of 4
Whoohoo!

Stop by the Pink Cat Studio blog site
And check out all the AWESOME cards created by the design team

I colored the image with my Copic Markers
Added clear glitter to part of the snowman
The border design is by Spellbinders Borderbilities
Card Stock in SU Real Red and Cool Caribbean
Other Shapes by Nestabilities
Designer Paper by Basic Grey

With this gift set, I used my Cricut Wildcard cart for the Christmas Tree
The designer paper by DCWV
Ribbon by SU
Added dew drops and lace trimming
That's basically it!

Be sure to stop by Pink Cat Studio and check out the new rubber stamp sets

Hope you all have a wonderful day!!

Old Stuff and Space Filler

Hey Friends! I was looking through a few cards I made about two years ago on another blog that I once had and no longer maintain. It's funny because for some crazy reason, it appears I had so much more time to craft two years ago. So much time that I was able to maintain 3 blogs on a daily basis. Today . . . I'm lucky if I can make one card a day. I really don't know what changed. Other than adding a few more hobbies, life isn't that much different.

Anyway. .. I have guest over visiting and also I've demolished my craft room and it's a crazy, crazy mess right now. Honestly, I must have been out of my mind when I decided to haul everything out of my craft room thinking I could put it back together again quickly. How wrong I was to think of such an insane thing.



Just letting you know. . .all of the images and materials on my cards other than the embellishments were created using Stampin Up products. I created these cards when I was still a Stampin Up demonstrator.



Why am I posting old cards? Well, honestly. . .I haven't created anything for the past few days mainly because I can't find anything. LOL!!!!! It's exhausting looking for things right now so I'm posting these two cards just for the hell of it!


I am hoping that I'll be done with my craft room by the end of the summer! Ha! Betcha thought I was going to say by "next week"! That would be a miracle actually.

Anyway. . .I hope y'all have a wonderful Thursday. . .I need to get back to the business of putting my craft room back together.