Easter Support

Hi everyone! I hope your week is going great so far! We had a good day Sunday. I got a lot of little things accomplished around the house, got all of my Easter cards ready to be mailed off, and gave Riley a good bath! Then we took her out to the park where she splashed in water trying to catch minnows and frogs and un-did all of the grooming I had done earlier! It was fun to watch her play and have a good time though. I really savored the slight coolness in the air because I know that warmer weather is coming soon and being outdoors won't be as pleasant!

I have a fun Easter card today that is one of the new Inside Outs from Squigglefly. This one is called What I Like About Easter.


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I colored this cute bunny with Copic markers and sponged some pink and yellow inks around the edges. I used a Nestabilies die to create the ornate frame around him. The sentiment has also got some of the pink and yellow inks sponged all over. I think the sponging of two inks like that looks like the color on dyed Easter eggs.
so, do you want to know what the Easter Bunny likes about Easter? Well, here's the inside



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LOL! Isn't that cute? The inside picture is also colored with Copic markers. the sky is chalked and I added some grass sprigs to the ground with my grass stamp from Art Impressions. Cute card, don't ya think?

Since I've gone to posting every other day instead of every day, I've been showing you two cards. Tomorrow would normally be my card give away day, so this next card will be the card that is being given away. If you'd like to have a chance to win it and a matching envelope, just leave a comment on this post and I'll have random.org pick a winner on Thursday.

This card also uses one of the new Inside Outs. This one is called Thanks For All The Support.


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I paper pieced the bra and colored the straps with Copic markers. The sentiment was punched with an oval punch and then sponged. I then punched a border for the side of the card and sponged it too. Here's the inside



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I didn't really do anything to the inside other than print the sentiment, but the font is so pretty it can stand on it's own! Anyway, I'll make an envelope to go with this card and just leave a comment if you'd like a chance to have it.

The new Squigglefly challenge went up yesterday, and Maria has challenged everyone to use flower embellishments on their cards. That is one I am sure I can do! I hope that you will join in the fun too. If you play along and use a Squigglefly image, you can win a prize!

Have a wonderful day, and thanks for looking!

A Rainbow of Bunnies

Good morning and Happy Sunday to you all! I hope that you enjoyed the new release at Squigglefly yesterday. The artists seem to get better and better with each release don't they? And did you see the beautiful calligraphy greetings and words by Roann Mathias? I can see many of those being printed for scrapbooks. The Inside Outs are just fabulous, and such fun to use! If you haven't yet checked them out, then be sure to do so today! Also, it's a great time to shop because they are offering a huge 25% discount! Read about how to get the discount HERE, but hurry because time's running out!

Today I have a couple of Easter cards to show you. I used one of my all time favorite images Spring Tree by Angie Davis and the cute Happy Easter Bunny by Robin Willis to make the bulk of the Easter cards I am sending out this year.

Here's a group shot of my Spring Tree cards


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and here's a close up of a couple so you can see more detail


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I colored the image with Copic markers and chalked the sky. I added some stickles to the tree for some sparkle. I used a Martha Stewart border punch along the bottom of the back edge and embossed the side of the front with one of the border embossing folders from Provo Craft. After I embossed it, I sanded it to bring out the detail more. Then I stamped "Happy Easter" at the top. The "Happy Easter" is from Clearly Stampendous.


Here are all my little Happy Easter Bunny cards



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And here are a couple close up


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I colored all of the bunnies different colors, and on some of them I added whiskers or dotted their eyes with a white gel pen; just different touches so each one is different. They are colored with Copic markers and the little eggs in the round circle greeting are colored with Spicas for sparkle. These bunnies are fun to practice shading on!

I used circle and scalloped circle nestabilites for cutting them, and the cards with. I used a swiss dots embossing folder to emboss some of the cards, and again I sanded to bring out the dots more. A ribbon at the top finishes them off.

These were all really quick cards to make, which is good when you have a lot to send! I am entering these into the Dare You To Digi Stamp challenge, The Corrosive Challenge, and the No Time To Stamp challenge since all of them are wanting to see Easter cards. It's hard to believe that Easter is only a week away!

I hope you all enjoy your day, and thanks for looking!

A Bushel Of Thanks

Happy Friday everyone! You may have noticed that I didn't post a new post yesterday. I've decided that it would be better for me to post every other day instead of every day. There are so many blogs out there that I want to visit and comment on, and posting my own blog on top of making cards, working, and playing with Riley (yes, she has to have her time!) doesn't allow me much time to visit and comment like I'd like to. I'm also hoping that this helps a lot of you out as well because I know you've got as many blogs to visit as I do! This doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be seeing fewer cards from me, because some days I'll post more than one!

Today I have a couple of the new Inside Outs to show you! I am loving these Inside Outs and can't wait for them to be released tomorrow! Remember, there's still time to win your free Inside Out - just run to the Squigglefly blog and read how!

The first one is called Bushel Of Thanks



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I colored it with these Copic markers



It was fun coloring and shading the apples! Here's the inside


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and again, I went ahead and decorated the envelope too! That's always fun to do to kick things up a notch.



Now my second card is one you might only send to someone who can take a little bit of ribbing about getting older. Here's the front


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and here's the inside


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Don't you love it? I mean, how can you not laugh at that? I colored it with Copic markers and all it took was a little bit of designer paper and a ribbon to finish it off!

Stef has issued her new color challenge on the card universe and she's picked some pretty colors; orange, pink, and turquoise! It would be great if you'd give it a whirl!

Well, I hope you enjoy your Friday and that you love tomorrow's release at Squigglefly as much as I think you will! Thanks for looking!

Spring Is Nothing To Sneeze At

Good morning and happy Wednesday to you all! Yesterday was Mothermark's Tea Party, but I thought I should bow out of this one because the spring weather has me constantly sneezing and blowing my nose and no one wants to see that a tea party!

Since I didn't go to the party, I decided to make myself feel a little better by making a card and taking a dig at Spring - plus there are a lot of challenge blogs out there right now with Spring as the theme!



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and the inside



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Isn't this a fabulously fun image? It's a new one that Lynne Stansbery drew for Squigglefly, and I think it's being released this Saturday. They are calling it Allergies. I colored it with copic markers and then die cut the image with a nestabilities die. The dandelions are flocked, but it's kind of hard to tell in the photo. I printed the words out on my computer, and the ones on the front were die cut with one of the smaller nestaibilties and then sponged with some ink while it was still in the die.

I had some fun Spring ribbon in my stash and cut part of a piece with the "spring is in the air" words and stuck it in the corner. I love making silly cards, and this one was fun. I'm entering it in the Digital Tuesday challenge, The Charisma Card Challenge, and the ABC Toys and Crafts challenge.


I hope Spring is treating you a little more kindly. Have a wonderful day, and thanks for looking!

Wish Shoe Well At the Tea party

Good morning everyone! Last Tuesday was Mothermark's tea party and we all went to the Galapagos Islands to bring poor flat footed Ruby some shoes to help her fit in with her friends. Ruby loves polka dots, and while I tried to find the perfect polka dotted pair of shoes for her I could, the best pair didn't have dots! I opted instead to stamp some Hero Arts dots on the back ground. I think Ruby will forgive me when she see's this pretty pair of purple pumps I brought!



I printed out the High Heel image and colored it with these Copic markers.



Simple images like this shoe are fun to practice with your Copics because you are only using one color. The sentiment is one that Nina Brackett drew for Squigglefly. It will be in a set of ten sentiments called Fashion Sentiments. I think it is being released this Saturday too. I also happened to have the perfect white with purple polka dots ribbon to go with this!

Well here it is Tuesday again, so I'd better head over to the tea party and see where we're going this week! I hope you have a wonderful day, and thanks for looking!

Busy Monday

Hi everyone! What a lot of things are going on right now! First off, I have the winner of the "Name The Bunny Contest". So many cute names were sent in, and I'm sure Crissy had the hardest time choosing - but the new name for the bunny is
RUPERT!
and was suggested by

Catherine Breakwell! Congratulations Catherine! I'll get your prize package mailed to you soon!

We also had a challenge going on at Digi Day and there are three winners there! The challenge was to complete a card on the inside as well as the outside, and there were some wonderful cards submitted! I will be announcing the winners of the digi day challenge on the card universe group a little later today.



The challenge that's going on at the Squigglefly Blog today is to use buttons as an embellishment on your card, and the card I have today does just that! It's also a sneak peek at the one of the new Inside Outs being released on March 27th!



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Both the sentiment and the image come in this Inside Out package as well as another sentiment and image for completing the inside of your card. I'll show you the inside in a second, first let me tell you about the front.

I colored it with these Copic Markers



The sky was chalked. I used a little yellow ribbon to wrap around the card and then threaded the ends through a white button and a little yellow duck button. Here's the inside


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Isn't the little poem sweet? The blocks were colored with these markers




I even went a little further and used the baby blocks element in the set to print on the envelope so the whole thing matches! I sponged around the edges of the envelope with some pale yellow ink.


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I really love the whole card being complete with the inside outs. No having to scramble through stamps to find the right sentiment, and no trying to come up with a good font if you're printing your own out! It's all just there for you easy peasy! Be sure to look for other samples from the design team using the new Inside Outs!

You can win a free Inside Outs package just by posting something made with a Squigglefly image on your blog! Go check out the details on how to win HERE!

I hope you all enjoy your Monday, and thanks for stopping by!

Slick and Shiny Rain!

Good morning everyone! Happy first day of Spring! I know a lot of you aren't exactly experiencing a beautiful first day of Spring, and they are calling for rain and colder temperatures here today too, but it hasn't arrived yet!

Yesterday afternoon when I arrived home from work I had a surprise waiting for me! It was an issue of Just Cards magazine that was sent to me because I had a card that was published in it! It was so cool to see Squigglefly.com's name in a magazine! If you happen to get the magazine, my card is on page 83. It is one I did at Thanksgiving using Crissy's Thy Cart Overfloweth image.

Today is a new release at Squigglefly. They are introducing a new artist - Diane Carubia! If you haven't yet checked out Diane's darling images, I urge you to run over there now and take a look! Also, I want to remind you all that tonight at 7 pm central time we will be having another Digi Day at Squigglefly's group on the card universe. I hope you will find a little bit of time to drop by and see what's going on. There will be a challenge or two and some prizes to be had! Maybe even a freebie!

One more reminder before I get to today's card. Yesterday I posted a card using Crissy Armstorng's cute little bunny with tulip image and mentioned how Crissy didn't give this cute little fellow a name. I decided to have a contest to name him and Crissy herself has agreed to pick the winner! You have until tomorrow night to enter a suggestion for a name, and I will announce the winner on Monday. I haven't yet picked out a prize for the winner, but I am going shopping today and will pick something fun! Just leave a comment on my post HERE and tell me the name you suggest.

UPDATE - I have now purchased the prize for this contest and as an added bonus Crissy Armstrong has agreed to pick the winning name AND give the winner the Bunny With Tulip image free. If you already have that image, you can pick another of Crissy's wonderful images. Here's a picture of the goodies I picked up for the winner




Okay, today's card was for three different challenges but I was too late for one of them. Squigglefly's challenge was to use something shiny, Stef's color challenge on card universe are yellow, green, and black, and Vicki's Saturday Spotlight challenge was to use something slick. I was too late for the Saturday Spotlight. Anyway, here's my card


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I used the April Showers image and colored it with Copic markers. I colored this at work so I wasn't able to keep track of the colors I used. I chalked the ground and sky and then I added crystal effects to the rain puddle, umbrella, and rain drops. After it dried, I added a little bit of stickles. Here's a close up of the image so you can see the crystal effects better



I printed the sentiment out on my computer and punched it out with an oval punch. Then I punched a border with a Martha Stewart punch and ran it through a corrogater to make it a little more pliable. This allowed me to bend it around the oval shape and create a fun little frame.

For the inside, I complete the "April Showers" saying and printed out Nina Brackett's Floral Frenzy image. It was colored with Copic markers as well and a few Spica markers were used for the flower centers and the butterfly trails.


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Speaking of the inside of cards, Squigglefly has just come up with a fantastic idea! They are gong to start releasing the first of a new line next weekend. The new line is called Inside Outs and you can read all about them and how you can win a set of your own inside outs on their blog. They are fantastic though! They take all guess work out of completing a card - they have an image and sentiment for the front and an image and a sentiment to complete your card inside! I know you will love them! Look for the first Inside Outs next weekend!
Whew! what a long post! I really hope to see you tonight at the digi day, and thanks for looking!

From My Two Lips

Well good morning and happy Friday! I have a cute little Easter card to show you today. It uses one of the images that Crissy Armstrong has drawn for Squigglefly called Bunny With Tulip. Usually Crissy gives her little characters names, and I think this little guy is too adorable not to be named, so I thought it would be fun to have a little "Name The Bunny" contest. Just leave me your suggestion for a name, and I'll have a couple of my non-stamping, non-blogging, and totally un-biased friends choose the name they like best. Now a contest isn't any fun without a prize, so the winner will win something fun from me - I just haven't bought it yet so I can't tell you what it is! I'll announce the winner on Monday.


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Isn't he cute? I think this image could be used for Mother's Day or a birthday too - not just Easter. I colored him with these Copic markers



and I used a yellow Spica marker to add more twinkle to the tulip. After I colored the bunny I used some blender fluid on a paper towel and dabbed it over the fur so make it look a little more fur like.

The sky and grass were chalked and then I stamped some grass sprigs over the ground. The scalloped edge on the side of the image panel is from a border punch by EK Success and I put a little dot of yellow stickles in the center of each scallop.

The border punch at the bottom is from Martha Stewart and the designer paper is from Stampin Up. I added a little punched flower with a dot of stickles in the center and the "Happy Easter" sentiment is from a clearly Stampendous set.

Tomorrow is another special "mini" release from Squigglefly! They have a new artist joining them; Diane Carubia and tomorrow's release will feature her images. You may have already seen a few sneak peeks from the Design Team! Tomorrow is also Digi Day at the Squigglefly group on Card Universe at 7 pm central. I'm not sure what we'll have going on, but I do know that there will be laughter and a prize or two, so I hope you will join me there!


UPDATE - I have now purchased the prize for this contest and as an added bonus Crissy Armstrong has agreed to pick the winning name AND give the winner the Bunny With Tulip image free. If you already have that image, you can pick another of Crissy's wonderful images. Here's a picture of the goodies I picked up for the winner





Enjoy your Friday, and thanks for looking!

Card Winner

Hi everyone! Just popping in to announce the winner of yesterday's card. Random.org picked #6 which makes KellyRae in AZ the winner. Kelly, if you will e mail me at usyungs@gmail.com and tell me your address as well as which card you want and if you would like a sentiment added to it. Thanks for all the comments!
I hope you're all having a great day, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Card Give Away Day - Your Choice!

Happy St. Paddy's day to you all! Unfortunately I never got around to making even one St. Patrick's Day card. How sad! As a kid I used to love wearing as little bit of green as I could so it would almost be un-noticeable, and then if someone pinched me I could show them my green and pinch them back twice as hard! LOL!

Today is card give away day, and I have two cards for the winner to choose from. Just leave a comment and tomorrow around noon I'll have random.org pick a winner. I did not put any greetings on the cards, so if you are the winner you can let me know if you'd like a sentiment and I can add one. I also send a matching envelope for you in case you want to mail it to someone. Here is the first card


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This one uses one of the pretty flowers from Lynne Stansbery's Flower set available at Squigglefly. I printed it on vellum and embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then I colored it from the back side with these colors.



I think it's pretty self explanatory on how I used them. I rounded the corners of the vellum and mounted it on some designer paper. I wanted a little bit of pattern in the paper to help hid the double stick tape that is on the vellum. The corners of the designer paper are notched with a corner punch and then I used some purple metallic filament to go around it. I'm personally not too crazy about this card.


The next card uses the same image and the same colors, only it was printed on white card stock instead of vellum. I chalked a bit around the image with some blue chalk.


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The floral background is from Sonlight Stamps. The ribbon is fun - isn't it?
The border is created with a border punch from Martha Stewart. If I add a greeting to this card, it will be on the border piece.

remember to leave a comment and then you'll have your choice of cards! I hope you have a wonderful day, and thanks for looking!

Things To Avoid As We Age

Hi everyone! At the risk of boring you to tears with updates on my sinuses I will tell you that they are doing a little better with the use of antihistamine/decongestants, but boy do those things make me sleepy!

I've got a fun card for you today. It was so much fun to make. Here's the front


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and here's the inside




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The image I used is called Up A Few Pounds, and it's available at Squigglelfy.

Here are the colors I used to color the skin and the cheek color




Here are the colors I used for the shirt and shoes. I used the Y15 to pick up some of the YG17 to make an "in between" color between my lightest and darkest. Oh, if I only had all of the colors!



Here are the colors for the blue jeans



On the blue jeans, after I colored like I usually do, I grabbed a pair of my blue jeans and wet a little colorless blender on a piece. Then I pressed the wet jean material to the blue jeans to create a little texture to her pants. Here's a close up so you can see it better (click on it to really see the detail)


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and finally here are the colors for her hair



I used a circle nestabilites to cut the little hole out of the front and the sentiment was generated on my computer. The font I used is called Minya Nouvelle and if you like it you can get it free HERE. If you are new to my blog you may find a video I made on placing text on your cards helpful - you can see it HERE.

I hope you have a fantastic day, and thanks so much for looking!

Owl In A Tree

Hey everyone! Squigglefly is posting a special discount code for 25% off everything you buy until April 1st. They are doing this to celebrate reaching 225 followers on their blog! Go to the blog now and read the details and get your code!

The Splitcoast Stampers Featured Stamper challenge was yesterday, and despite my constantly running nose I played along! The card I chose to CASE from the gallery can be seen HERE. This card also qualifies for the challenge going on at One Stop Craft Challenge because of the dotted designer paper I used in the background.

And here is my card



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I used the darling little Wise Owl image that Angie Davis drew for Squigglefly. The designer papers were given to me and I have no idea what company they are from.

I printed the owl out, and then cut it out with a square Nestabilities die. I turned it over and embossed it while it was still in the die. Then I sponged some Creamy Caramel ink around the edges which really gave it a distressed look.

I used my Stampin' Up slit punch to clip the corners and attached brads in the corners of the scalloped square. Here are the colors I used when coloring the owl.




Again, I don't have enough colors of brown to be choosing the correct blending groups, but I just worked with what I have. The little spiral clipie was silver and I colored with with a brown Copic as well as the twill ribbon which was a pale peach color. The card base was spattered with some brown ink with a brown Blo Pen. I love using those things to get a splattered paint effect!

Well, I hope you have a wonderful start to your work week and that the Spring pollen isn't affecting you like it is me! Thanks for looking!

Did You Ever Ask Yourself...

Hi everyone. I hope you are enjoying your weekend. My sinuses started giving me fits yesterday; I think it's because of all the spring trees and flowers blooming right now. It's got my nose tickling constantly which makes me sneeze, and then my nose drains so I'm blowing it all the time which has caused it turn a pretty shade of red and it's sore. Sounds attractive, doesn't it?

A lot of you have asked about my husband and how he's doing. Thanks so much for your concern. He is better, but he's not completely well. He finished his round of antibiotics, and still had stomach pain so the doctor has prescribed another round. Hopefully this round will do it in!

I have a card today that was a lot of fun to do, and I colored it with Copic markers using my new knowledge. I'm going to try to explain my color choices as I show you what I used to color with. First, here's the card



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I used the Squigglefly image The Wheels Are Turning drawn by Chesney Young, and I paired it with the sentiment Why Is Lingerie So Popular. The flourishes in the back ground are some clear Autumn Leaves stamps and they are stamped with black Memento ink.

I sponged around the edge of the oval with red ink, and I sponged the egdes of the flower petals with black ink. The leaves are punched with an EK success punch and the butterfly is from Martha Stewart. It's punched out twice and the top wings and folded up a bit. I didn't use any patterned paper on this card, so it qualifies for the Dare You 2 Digi Stamp challenge.

Okay, now about my coloring. Does it look different from before I took the certification class? First let me tell you that my sister Lynne Stansbery is a professional artist and she has told me several times that I don't do enough contrast in my coloring. When I was in Memphis for the Copic class, Sally Lynn (the instructor) told me I was too timid in my coloring - which I think is the same thing. So, with that being said I tried to apply a little more contrast. I think some of it just personal taste though too.
First of all, the colors I used for the face are these



I started off with the skin and used the E00 and used the YR00 for my next darkest color and the E11 for my very darkest. In most of the skin color blends Marianne Walker recommends on her I Like Markers Blog, the E11 is the second lightest. I just can't go as dark as she does and like the results. I used the R20 for the cheeks and the E04 for her lips. The B24 is her eye color.

For her shirt, I picked these colors




If you look at the copic color wheel you will see that in the reds that have the first number value as 2, there are R20, R21, R22, R24, R27,and R 29. The 20, 21, and 22 were all too pink for my red and black combo, so I went with the next three in line. I started off coloring the entire shirt with R24, then I used a little of the R27 in the places that had shadow and applied a little of the R29 in the places that have the darkest shadow. All of the colors were then blended with the R24.

Her hair was harder because I don't have all of the colors and of the browns I wanted to use I only had these two. E 27 would have been my preferred middle color.



To work around this I colored all of her hair with my lightest color E25, and then to add a little darker in the shadowed areas I picked up some ofthe E29 ink with my E25 pen and used that. The E29 was then used alone on the very darkest parts. You can make a color a shade or two lighter by doing that, or by added a grey - but again I didn't have a dark enough grey for this purpose. You can pick up a darker color with a lighter colored marker by touching the side of it directly to the marker tip, or you can rub your lighter marker tip against the inside of your darker marker cap (which is what I usually do), or you can even scribble some of your markers onto some plastic and use it like a paint palette and pick up color off of that.


Well, I hope that it's helpful to you to see how I'm choosing colors that blend together. Enjoy your Sunday, and do something extra fun to make up for losing that hour! Thanks for looking!

Eggstra Fun!

Hi everyone! Happy Saturday! Don't forget to set your clocks an hour ahead tonight.

I don't have any plans this weekend other than cleaning up around the house some, and grocery shopping for the week - so I should be able to spend a little time in my stamp room making some cards. I have a card for you today that uses an image that Robin Willis drew called Eggstra Tweet. I colored this before I left for Memphis last week and just got around to making it into a card last night, so even though it's colored with copics, I didn't use some of the things I learned in my choosing colors and I didn't write down the colors.



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It was sure a fun image to color though! Like decorating Easter eggs only less messy! The sentiment is printed out on my computer in the CK Becky font. The border is punched with the Scallop border from EK Success.

Today is a whole new release at Squigglefly, so if you haven't already been there to see what's new go take a look now! There are some awesome ones this week! Enjoy your Saturday, and thanks for looking!

Little Nibbles - BIG Carrot!

Good morning and TGIF! I have an Easter card to share with you today. I used one of the images that Squigglefly will be releasing tomorrow. This one is drawn by Chesney Young and is called Nibbles With Carrot - and it's a pretty big carrot that little Nibbles has found!









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I used colored pencils to color this little guy. I know, you'd think after just taking the Copic class I'd at least have a card using Copics to show you, but I'm taking a little time to let the lessons I learned soak in. I'll have a Copic colored card for you soon. Anyway, I blended the colored pencils with odorless mineral spirits and then I chalked a little blue in the sky behind him. I added some crystal effects to his eyes. The sentiment is from a Clearly Stampendous set.

I used a blossoms Nestablities die to cut the image and the layer behind it out. I wanted to add some ribbon but couldn't find a place to do it that looked right, so I ended up just leaving it alone. Sometimes simple is best, but doesn't it need something else; a flower maybe?

There are some more wonderful images being released along with Nibbles at Squigglefly tomorrow. You may have seen some of them through sneak peeks from the design team. There are a lot of wonderful ones for Easter and spring in general.

I can't believe that it's already time to change our clocks back! I hate changing the clocks in the spring - it takes me forever to adjust and as you already know getting extra hours of sunshine isn't my cup of tea! I know most of you are ready for it though, so I guess I can be happy for you - LOL!

Wishing you a wonderful day, and thanks for looking!