Designed to Color Birthday Bash Day 1

Hey y'all!  Have you ever heard of the magazine Designed to Color? It is a fabulous magazine, focused on...you guessed it, coloring!  Isn't that lovely? Whether it's Copics, ProMarkers, colored pencils, watercolors....this magazine covers it all.  Let me tell you, I just love it, and I've found some amazing inspiration within its pages. My favorite thing?  Not only can you buy a paper subscription, but you can buy an online subscription and have it emailed right to you!  I have enough mail, so being able to get it online is just wonderful.

Anyway, DTC is having their one year birthday this weekend. To celebrate, they are having (4) days of events (might be a challenge, might be a comment on a post, who knows!).  See all of the details here at their blog. 

The first day of the celebration, they challenged their followers to create a project using the tic tac toe board below.

Well, I just couldn't resist playing along.  Plus, you know you ALWAYS need birthday cards, so I decided to stick with the birthday theme.

I used this fabulous cake image from The Paper Shelter.  I just love the way it tilts...reminds me of Alice in Wonderland!  I colored it with my Copics (I know...shocker!) and Spica markers for the candles and flames.  If you can't tell, I used the first row.  Purple, cake and balloons. =D

So, seriously...head over to the DTC blog and find out how to play along.  There are a TON of fun prizes being given away.  Come celebrate!

Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges:

Designed to Color: Birthday Tic Tac Toe

Totally Gorjuss: Anything Goes with Pink

Dilly Beans: Stripes

A Very Tiddly Christmas

Hey y'all!  I've got a few new cards to share with you.  =D

This I created using the adorable BahHuggaBuggs from the Tiddly Inks basement. Image colored with Copics, papers from Stampin' Up, snowflake punch from Stampin' Up.

Challenges:

Tiddly Inks: Anything Goes

Sweet Stamps: Non-Traditional Christmas Colors

Fab 'n' Funky: Baby it's Cold Outside

Paper Shelter: Snowflakes

Crafty Catz: Snowflakes

Sweet Sketch Wednesday: #128

This next card is with a brand new stamp (to me anyway)....Irish Christmas Fae by Crafts and Me.  Oooh, I just love this image!

Isn't she just gorgeous?!?  You know how I love everything Irish.  =D Image colored with Copics, and a Spica marker for the wings.  The papers are from DCWV.  The snowflake border is a border punch by Martha Stewart.

Challenges:

Crafts and Me: Simples

Mami Doodles: Fairy Tales are Real

Priscilla Styles:  Midnight Madness Sketch 130

One last card for this post...not Christmas, though.  As some of you know, the newest installment of the Twilight Saga movies was released in the US a couple of days ago.  I do love the books and movies...but I always seem to be a fan of the bad guys.  What can I say?  Gotta love James and Victoria.  =D  Therefore, I chose to use Pixie Dust Studio's Victoria for their newest challenge: Twilight Inspired Red, Black and White/Silver....add Sparkle!

Victoria was colored with Copics and a silver marker.  Skin was covered with Stickles.  (Vampires glitter, you know.  LOL) The papers are from DCWV's Immortal Love paper collection.  Love Bites sticker is from Marah Johnson's Breathless collection, which was inspired by the Twilight movies.  Bats, ribbon and gems are from my stash.

Whew!  Hope you enjoyed my cards today!  I should have a couple more coming up shortly.  =D

Steampunk ATC

As some of you know, I belong to a group at my LSS that meets monthly to swap ATCs.  This month the challenge was Steampunk, and let me tell you...I was pumped!!  I am just loving this style, and I've been having such a great time finding steampunk everywhere I turn around. =D  The cards made by the other members of the group were just amazing (stop by Songbird's Nest in the next few days...gorgeous!!), and I wish I could show you how awesome they are.  However, you will just have to be happy seeing mine!

The stamp is a new one I got from Michael's.  I just love how the gears and springs are designed to look like flowers and stems...or at least that's what I see when I look at it.  =D  I embossed the stamp onto my cards using copper embossing powder.  (Keep in mind...we have to make 20 identical cards for our swap.)  I edged the cards using Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.I then used my BRAND NEW Cropodile (LOVE IT!) to punch eyelets around the edges.  I realized that the back of the eyelets were pretty sharp, and I didn't want anyone to hurt themselves (or other projects) so I decided to attach a second layer of cardstock to the back. Because the eyelets were so close to the edge, glue just wasn't going to be a viable option to attach the cards...the edges would still be separate.  So I decided to hand stitch the edges.  For a finishing touch, I added a jump ring with some old copper chain to the upper corner.

I started these cards at the beginning of a 13 hour crop yesterday.  The cards were due today, but I thought there was no way I wouldn't finish.  How silly of me.  By the time it was all designed, embossed, punched and stitched...it had been at least 15 hours.  Crazy!  I was really happy with how they turned out, so they were definitely worth all of the work.  =D

Thanks so much for taking a look!  We'll see you soon!

Challenges:

The Paper Shelter - Real or Faux Stitching

Charisma Cardz Challenges #32 - Distressing

Do You Stack Up #32 - Emboss It!

Incy Wincy Designs # 106 - Something Old/Something New

(The old was the jewelry chain, the new was the stamp and the Cropodile)