2012 CD Calendar

I am sorry that I have been neglecting my awesome friends here! Besides getting busy with the holidays like most people, I have been trying to play catch up after internet problems - I just got my second round of credits, this time a  month's worth of credit from Suddenlink for service outtages covering most of September and almost to the end of October. I have to say that I appreciated the bill credits, and the super customer service they had. The first tech could have found the problem if he had really put the effort in, but it was a dreary rainy day and he had been working outside in it for hours and I don't think it would have been safe for him to even try to get to the connector on the main line up the power pole with the bank being muddy and slippery, so I understand his unwillingness. Now I am doing my best to get back into mode with challenges, digital and paper, or even hybrid. I'm going to try making a Christmas card a day (wish me luck) and a couple digital challenges a week.

What better way to get in mode than a CD size calendar? Compact enough for any room of the house, and easy to modify with color and photos once I get the layout set up. And, I'm not the kind of person easily satisfied with simplicity, so while I used a template for a challenge, I modified it and also learned how to use masks WOOHOO! I finally got brave enough to step out of the box LOL.  Here is the calendar cover and credits for digital art follows it.

I thought about adding text but if I consider using this cover for multiple calendars to give to family and friends then I need to think of what would be multi-purpose and still personal. The awesome mask is by HollyAnn which you can find at GoDigitalScrapbooking as a set of two masks and currently is half price, but even full price is only $1.50 and they are worth it. I also stumbled upon some great tutorials for GIMP users. I needed to know how to use the mask, and voila! http://pascalea.com/blog/alphas-and-clipping-masks-gimp-tutorial-freebie/ She is also a fabulous designer and there is a free mask and word for beach photos with the tutorial.

For the year I used Autumn Blush Alpha by Marcie at Digital Design Den where I am a member and also got the Think Fall Kit as a daily download, both were free, and the alpha still currently is. DDD is a fantastic digital community to be a member of. 

The challenge was on Scrapping with Liz blog for the November blog template challenge. The template for the calendar covers were provided, but it was a new visit for me so I missed the page templates. I will be making my own pages for the months and a challenge of its own.


The photo of us is actually a still (screenshot) of a video we took on a vacation to Pipestem Resort here in WV. We were a little late for colors there as a very windy couple of rainy days took most of the leaves off the trees on the mountains but there were still plenty of colors to be seen in the lower valleys. I love living in the mountains and being north enough to have beautiful seasons!

Well, that about sums it up. I hope some of this was useful to you and you enjoyed visiting. I'd love to know if you followed any links and made use of the freebies I shared.

Many Blessings, Deborah/JoyfullyOrange

My Pet Firefly by Gemmy Industries Giveaway at PDC

I love fireflies. In fact, they are really the only thing I enjoy in the summer. The last 3 summers I lived in Tennessee my daughters and I caught fireflies for a research foundation and made money doing it. Yes, you read that right! Here are some (bad resolution from a really old cell phone) photos of the second summer

Some large fireflies

Checking our collection

Weighing our collection

Writing our check

Dwight posing with our check

Woohoo! Big check!

We had to catch the redheaded fireflies - not the brown headed ones. By the second summer I caught on to that and learned how to tell the difference before we even caught them.  We experimented with catching methods. At first we were just catching them with our hand and putting them in cleaned out plastic jars - we would have to shake the jar or tap the lid a few times to get them down in the bottom before putting a new one in. That was very slow going! Then I found nets at the Dollar Tree and wow, that made a difference! The nets were bug catching nets, sold in the summer for just such a thing. We could catch a lot in a net and hold the net closed while we added them to our jars. Still not effective, so I pondered it and we switched to plastic bags - newspaper bags worked great!  We could hold the bag closed with our left hand, catch with the net in our right hand then transfer them to the bags. We were catching thousands a night sometimes, combined. After we caught our fill for the night we would put our bags in the freezer and the next day we would count  them (very fast so they didn't thaw) and add our total to the "Bug Catching Sheet" I had on the freezer door. That was how we kept track of who caught what and how much money we potentially made. They were worth a certain amount of  money per ounce and it took quite a few to make an ounce! We were the top catchers by the second summer and got our names in the newspaper :o)

When we moved to Louisiana there weren't any fireflies to enjoy and I really missed that. Here in West Virginia we have them and it is just so nice to sit outside at night and watch all the blinking around us, but Dwight of Project Firefly, who collected them for the foundation, doesn't come here so I can't collect them anymore. Not only do I miss running around collecting fireflies, I miss the exercise too LOL! Supposedly the fireflies in TN had bugs with some of the highest concentration of the chemicals that make them light up, which is why he traveled across the state of TN collecting them, and he lived in California! The research foundation used the bugs' chemicals in cancer research, among other things. The chemicals could literally burn up cancer cells from the inside out without burning up the patient. Pretty cooool, huh?  I thought about trying to find out if I could still catch them and send them frozen but haven't found that out yet. I'll post again if I do.

So, what brought this up is that I found a giveaway on Pink Dandy Chatter for a My Pet Firefly by Gemmy Industries.  It looks ADORABLE! I could have a firefly to look at all year long LOL! And it has a smile on its face :o)  It comes in a jar with batteries under the lid (included) and you tap the lid to activate the firefly.

Janae Chang of Pink Dandy says this and has these photos posted:

I was so excited when the My Pet Firefly arrived in the mail. There are actually three different colors to choose from: green, pink and blue. The girls got the green firefly in a jar. It's amazing to watch the little firefly light up in green and fly around the jar. So, how does it work? The underside lid of the jar holds batteries (that are included) and you tap on the lid to activate the firefly.
Inside the jar is a very small firefly that holds a little smile...I think he is happy to have his home in the jar for all the kids to enjoy him. The firefly has a thin, clear string attached to him, which allows him to flutter all around the jar. He flies around and sits down and flies some more...just like a real bug would do. And, of course, the really awesome thing he does is light up. He is fun to watch in the light and in the dark. All he wants is to be watched and no food is required. This is the kind of pets that all parents want their children to have. 

ABOUT GEMMY (from their website):

Gemmy Industries was founded in 1984 in Dallas, Texas. Since then, Gemmy has been a groundbreaker in the fields of novelties and animation. Gemmy’s animation expertise has created such names as Pete the Repeat Parrot, Douglas Fir and, of course, the Big Mouth Billy Bass sensation.
Over the years, Gemmy has been equally successful in the seasonal decorations market, creating new categories and performing brilliantly in others. We were the originators of Airblown® Inflatables, which have since become a staple of holiday decor. Gemmy has also pioneered the way in life-sized figures for Christmas and Halloween, and blazed new trails in lighting solutions and technology – most notably with our LightShow™ brand. Our products have enjoyed time in the limelight, and lodged in pop culture. We’ve appeared in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the Washington Post and have been featured prominently on The Tonight Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and the Colbert Report.

Gemmy Industries is the premier trendsetter in the areas of entertainment technology, decorating solutions, and animatronics, continuing on in our role as an industry leader and innovator.

Needless to say, Gemmy has some pretty great products, but this one is the one I really want. Really.  My second choice would be the peacock light decoration. I can't say that is a Christmas decoration, it's just a pretty decoration, hehe. So, I'm going back to Pink Dandy and put in my entries for My Pet Firefly. I hope to get it too!  Thanks for stopping by and reading my history. I would have had more pictures but you kinda can't take photos in the pitch dark with flashing fireflies all around while you have a net in one hand and a bag in the other, still I wish I did have some even though I have great memories :o)

Hugs and blessings to you!!   Deborah

Thinking About My Memories Suite SB Software and PDC Giveaway

  I'm still looking for an affordable, user friendly digital software. I'd love to have PhotoShop but not only is it pricey, I don't want to spend that kind of money when I don't know enough digitally to support the purchase. Eventually I want to design, but right now I just need to learn and make digital layouts quickly and easily. I have been using GIMP which can do almost all that PS does, with some language and sometimes a different process, but it is taking me time to learn it and I want to make pages for challenges faster than I currently am.


 I have seen so many people comment on My Memories so I am going to give it a try. It is affordable at $39.97 and I can use a coupon for $10 off the purchase price and the program comes with a $10 coupon for the store. The coupon code for $10 off  My Memories Suite v2.0 is STMMMS75259 for you to use and share with anyone who wants to try it and purchase it .  The program comes pre-loaded with oodles of pages and digital files but you are not limited to what is there, they have lots of free kits you can download and they have weekly deals, album templates *for the SB newbies like myself* and a Dollar Store that you can use the included coupon for. Basically, you can consider that in the end you are getting the program and extras for only $19.97!! Plus, any digital kits or files you already have or find on the web can be used in the program. I have been building a digi stash for the last month and between free and what I've bought, I am starting to have quite a bit to choose from to work with so I am happy to be able to use them int he program! I have a couple other programs that I purchased in the past that just don't cut it making pages look flat with no shadows or digi files are not interchangeable so they are not a viable option and were a waste of money. Oh! My Memories also  allows you to share an interactive album on a disc (DVD or CD) that will automatically play on a computer (PC or Mac) with options to  turn your scrapbook into a movie to watch on a DVD-or view on an iPod. You can even create and share professionally printed and bound calendars, make posters or trading cards for a sport team or event, and post a movie of your scrapbook on your Facebook page-all with the click of a button.  You can read more about it here in the MM store. I also joined the My Memories Blog/Forum to delve a little deeper into what owners of the program say and do. 


  Then I found an amazing giveaway of My Memories program at Pink Dandy Chatter blog! How sweet is that? There are many ways to enter and the giveaway ends September 25th at noon MST. I would really love to win a copy of the MMSuite! If you would like to enter just follow the link. Pink Dandy Chatter has lots of other giveaways also so you might want to look around.

  Well, that is my blog for now, I guess I will let you go so you can review My Memories too. Please be kind and leave me a comment if you have used the software, I'd really like to know more about it. Some of my favorite designers use My Memories so that has already helped me out. Thanks for reading, I hope you have a very blessed day!!


Love and blessings, Deborah



22Sept - post edit: For anyone who saw this post when half of the text had a white background, I have no idea how it got that way but thank God I know how to read and edit HTML!! It didn't show up that way on the preview or the compose window so I had to go into the Edit HTML mode and read through all the coding to delete all the background coloring codes. Sheesh! I never had that happen on the old Blogger interface. I switched back to it for the new post tonight so I am going to check and make sure it didn't get posted goofy. Not sure I like all the new interface changes Blogger made, I can't find everything. That might be a separate blog post LOL. More hugs and blessings!! Deborah

What I've been up to

My poor neglected blog!

I was so excited to start a blog and post my cards! I was thrilled to find digital images to color for my cards! THEN I found digital scrap papers and elements! I was clueless about how to use them. The first element I found was a cluster from DigiDesignResort. I asked how to use it and didn't understand well enough so I couldn't enter that challenge. NOW I understand LOL! I am completely AMAZED at the creations I have found in forums, blogs, stores, etc. and have been gathering free clusters, Quick Pages, and more, and even bought some kits. I joined a few forums and read tutorials and downloaded a program to practice digiscrap, but I couldn't get past making the first layer *yes you can laugh with me*. I didn't want to buy a program, not knowing what to buy that would be the best investment for the long run since I want to eventually learn to design. Then I found out that I had Gimp from years ago that I only used to transform image types, but updating it and reading into it I learned that it can be used for making digiscrap pages - yay! Of course, I had to learn how first.  I have been using Microsoft Office Publisher for almost 20 years now so I started practicing in it. I can make all page aspects easily in it but I can't put drop shadows on my elements and found out that it is really important to have them, hehe, or the page looks, well, flat. Still, I entered a forum challenge with a mini kit provided and I created my very first page ever, and I did it digitally in Publisher, and even converted it into my desktop wallpaper!

Be nice, it is "flat" since I have not re-created it in Gimp to have shadows yet, but I wanted to share it with you. What better to scrap my very first page with than a family photo? I hope you like it enough to come back and see what else I learn to do! If you have any help to offer or good Gimp tutorial links, it will be greatly appreciated :o)

My desktop wallpaper

These were done in the Gotta Pixel fourm and are stored in my gallery.  There are many challenges there with great freebie rewards and the ladies are awesome! Come join if you want to learn and be part of a fantastic community of support!

 I will be learning to design and posting freebies as I go along. I pray all of you are kept in God's loving hands. If you have had damage to your homes from flooding or fires, I pray that God is making a way for your shelter, food, clothing and future needs as you give Him praise for every little thing you have left in your life, and even that you have your life, because He loves you so very much!! Been there, done that...

Many Blessings to all of you!  JoyfullyOrange/Deborah

1000 sheets for A thousand sheets... again!

Amy at A Thousand Sheets Of Paper is giving away another 1000 sheets of paper plus more - She is even including some stamps!  Here is what she says:


That's a lot of paper, huh? Perhaps just a bit much to send all to one person, so I'm breaking it apart into five candies of 200 sheets each. And the fun doesn't stop there! I couldn't celebrate another wonderful, exciting,fantabulous and simply amazing year of stamping and blogging without throwing some stamps into the mix as well! So I have collected stamps from some of my most favorite companies into one MEGA CANDY!
Wanna know what all is included? There is: 

• Tickled Pink Lil Steampunk Lilith and others
• Kraftin Kimmie Clarabelle, sentiments and others
• The Emerald Fairies Larakins
• Some Odd Girl Balloon Kaylee and Mooey
• My Favorite Things Pure Innocence Book in Hand
• The Craft's Meow Frieda stamps
• Stamping Bella Arthur and Annie
• Unity/Bella Blvd house
• The Greeting Farm Wild Sprouts that I designed (Stella, Ruby, Chelsea and Gigi)
• CC Designs Birthday Gretel
• and a Sweet November stamp from each release of this past year (Raspberry Flitter Friend, Briar and Sonata, Princess Isadora, Splash and Wave, Penelope and Juniper, Gemini, Darby and Dazzle, Milk and Cookies Christmas boy, Neva snowflake fairy, Fairwee Josie, jar and sentiments)

Wondering what you need to do for a chance to win all of these plus some yummy paper? Well, because this is pretty big and I'm pretty excited about it, I really want to spread the word sooooo... in order to be eligible to win the grand prize you have to post about the 1000 sheets blog candy on your own blog (feel free to right click and use the paper photo above), linking directly back to this post. Once you've done that, just leave a comment here and you will be entered... easy peasy! Like always, I will ship anywhere so all are welcome to play! :)

I will leave this candy open through Friday, September 23rd then random generator will pick a winner and I will announce on Saturday, September 24th.

Here are the photos:

I will keep the candy in my sidebar in case this post rolls off, because you have until the 23rd of September to enter the giveaway, and you don't have to have a blog to enter. More details are on her blog. So what are you waiting for??

Many blessings to you!  Deborah 

DMW weekly blog candy

Digi My World is having a weekly blog candy winner! Easy peasy to enter, just follow the link, be a follower, post about the candy and put it in your side bar. Then enter to win! How easy is that?

http://digimyworld.blogspot.com/2011/08/blog-candy-lets-do-it-again.html

Good luck! Deborah

Graduation

School is officially out and while the kids are happy, the parents are wondering what to do to keep them busy for the summer. I remember those days all too well! One of our grandchildren had a ceremony for his graduation in Elementary School so I thought I would send him a card to keep with his certificate. I was glad when our daughter told us that the school had a ceremony, it really means a lot to kids to have that sense of accomplishment. I still have folders full of certificates our kids collected every year in all of their subjects. They brought them home beaming from ear to ear excited for any acknowledgement of their work or even attendance. I hope this card adds to his sense of significance, he is a good boy and works hard to learn and achieve.

I kinda did the same thing with this card as I did with the last one - I cut up a sheet of graduation scrapbook paper for the piece of DP and then cut out extra images to get the elements popped. Anybody remember when you could get the big slabs of paper at Hobby Lobby? Yep, I have a stash of those too! Save money om some things so it can be spent on others! I am really good at justifying how I save to spend ROFL! I added Stickles glitter glue to the grad hat tassel and the stars and I think it is noticeable in this image. I should go back and add some to the pennant since it also has a gold bar in it. The little things count ;o)  The stamps are CTMH, a set I got when my oldest was graduating homeschool and one of the moms was a consultant. I double stamped them with black and purple to give them a little pop. I didn't want to use all purple so I used a light blue patterned paper to matt congrats and a light blue satin ribbon (Hobby Lobby also) but went back to a light purple to matt the grad hat. I am getting better at tying those bows finally!

For the inside I cut out some more of the grad paper sheet and then cut the scroll by itself (well, it wasn't really in a good place on the paper to keep it whole anyway) and yes, I am thinking about adding some Stickles to the tassel on the scroll now! I guess it won't get mailed today unless the glitter glue dries good enough that I feel safe to close the card and send it out.  I can't put the Stickles on the inside until the front is dry and won't stick to my craft mat when I open it to put it on the inside tassel. I hate that my lettering went crooked, I normally do better than that! Hopefully the 10 yr old won't say anything about it LOL!  All in all, this was one of the easier cards to make once I saw my idea working out, not a lot of thinking to do about the embellishments (which usually takes me forever to settle on hehehe).

This card fits into these challenges:

I Did it Creations Challenge Blog (Robyns Fetish you may know it by) - Challenge #58 Hats

Little Darlings

Congratulations to Scrapgirl who started her own business - Little Darlings Stamps - and is featured in the Love to Stamp store! Angie was already very accomplished so it is not surprising that her rubber stamps are awesome! The only reason I didn't have a hard time choosing which stamp to purchase is that I love cats. This stamp is definitely a "Little Darling" LOL! The other reason I chose this stamp is that it reminds me of Florida summers spent at my Grandparents' house. I always helped my Grandpa, whether it be working outside at his house or working with him somewhere else. They had a big white 2 story house with a big pool and big extra lot that was bordered on the far side by a creek that he had a pump connected to for watering. Watering what? Anything and everything! Once I even accidentally watered my Grandma ROFL though she didn't laugh at first after being hosed down with smelly creek water. Grandpa had orange, lemon, grapefruit, tangerine, banana, loquat, avacado, papaya, fig and mango trees, plus grew tomatoes, cucumbers and many other veggies. I watered Grandma when she was trying to show me how to water the tomato plants properly. Grandpa got a kick out of it but he knew better than to bust out laughing too hard until Grandma had time to chill out. Everything he did always included a wheelbarrow or two depending on how much stuff he had to lug around or transport from one place to another. My Grandparents were 100% Polish, and my Grandpa had a strong accent up until the day he passed away in the summer of 1994. Grandma just passed at the end of this January. I miss them both terribly, but the good memories this stamp brought back made me both smile, laugh and also get teary-eyed.

I stamped and colored it 3 different times. This last coloring was with my newly won Letraset Promarkers. I this background was perfect for it, but no matter what, I could NOT figure out any embellishments to add to it! I looked through my ribbons, buttons, flowers and everything else and nothing seemed right to add. All I could do was mat the image and background onto nice pink paper to match the flowers and call it a card. It is going to be an encouragement card for a wonderful lady in our crafting family who is fighting cancer. I hope it cheers her up and helps her endure another round of chemo by thinking of the beautiful summer days ahead with blue skies and grass ready for her toes to run through.

Just in case you are wondering about the background used, it is a piece cut from a 12x12 scrap paper out of the "Teddy In The Garden" set of Miss Elizabeth's. Yes, from the Dollar Store. Miss Elizabeth is one of my best friends! When I first got interested in scrapbooking and cardmaking, I found these sets when I was shopping and I kept collecting as many as I could. So many of them are awesome and I was terribly sad that they quit making and selling them!! Even today if I ran across them I would buy them again. I purchased multiples of most that I did buy, but some have become my favorites and I have had to be careful not to use up every last bit for making cards so I would have some full sheets for my scrap albums that I have not started yet! I bought some just for the patterned papers and not the backgrounds like this. The rest of this is the three bears on lounge chairs and is adorable, but not suited for cardmaking using an image stamp like this, but I will definitely use it with a sentiment! I wish I could turn back the clock and knowing that these paper packs were not going to last long, I would buy even more of them! Between these, the stickers that matched, the wooden stamps, glue sticks, and everything else I spent $1 on, I saved a lot of money that I promptly spent at the local scrapbook store or Hobby Lobby on the good stuff. Of course, my husband does not by any means think that I SAVED any money at all! I always had a knack for saving money and STUFF. So I always had some stashed cash to spend on more STUFF! Yes, I am smiling too :o) The majority of us are crafty ladies in more than one way, and again the majority are married and know EXACTLY what I am talking about and can probably hear their own husband's saying something like that to them at some point (or over and over LOL).

So, I hope you enjoyed my reminiscing a little, as I enjoyed it a lot. I am grateful that I am getting any blog traffic since I am so new plus have not been as consistent as I would like. I am also grateful as well as amazed to have followers! I REALLY APPRECIATE ALL OF YOU!!! I don't have much to offer so it is thrilling to have followers and my hubby gets tickled when I shout out that I have a new comment or follower hehehe. I did just get through another phase of "Spring Cleaning" so I have bought myself a little extra crafting time for now, but still have so much to do in the basement that hubby has made me again promise to spend time on daily sorting through the boxes. I am a procrastinator of sorts, but most of that is due to the poor condition of my spine and the rest is that I can always find something else to do ;o) Plus, I am the bookkeeper for his business and my office is at home and I really should be spending more time on that so I have less time to craft than I like to have. When I do look through blogs for challenges I get so caught up in reading, browsing, following DT or submissions to their blogs, etc. If I didn't have to sleep, eat, and leave the couch I would be on here 24/7 and enjoy every minute! Of course, if I don't do some more unpacking and sorting in the basement, my craft area will not get worked on and it needs so much more organization! *Sigh* Guess I had better be saying goodbye now so I can get some sleep and get something done tomorrow.

Many, Many Blessings to you all!! Deborah

P.S. I am excited that I am going to have my watermark soon! Laurie from Doodle Pantry has been awesome in designing and working with me to get one done, and I love her work! Of course I will need to learn how to apply it, but I am excited just to picture it on my work in my head! If you are in need of a watermark or even blog design (yes, I need that too!), Laurie is great and I highly recommend her. Visit the Doodle Pantry Store (click this link then click Browse Store) to find awesome digital work, some free, and the blog design and watermarks to purchase. Have a great day or night depending on where in the world you are!

Challenges I am entering this card in:

Little Darlings - Contest using LD stamp
Crafty Emmas CES Challenges - #39 Clean and Simple
Prairie Fairy Fridays - #54 Summerfun

I won Letraset Markers and SK8 boy Happy Birthday Card

So it's Saturday on Memorial Day weekend almost noon and I am not in the best of shape with my back, as usual, but have a lot to do that I don't feel like doing LOL! I really just want to make cards and post them to my blog which has been very neglected. I had been working on a card for my daughter's boyfriend's birthday (which happened to be on Memorial Day) and wasn't real happy with it because it needed something more and I just didn't know what to do with it. I had gone in to change clothes to put something cooler on since it was getting way too warm outside and came back into the living room where my husband was looking at the mail he just brought in. I walked over to see what arrived and saw a box on the back of the loveseat and he asks, "What did you order now?" I looked and saw that it was from Letraset and knew I didn't order anything and I voiced my only thought exclaiming "Did I win something??!!!" I grab the box, run to get something to cut the tape, open it and find these letters on top:

I stared at them quite dumbfounded, then had to read them out loud - half to myself to make myself believe it was real and half to my husband to prove I did not spend a bunch of money ordering anything. We both pulled the marker sets out of the box - 2 sets of Pro markers and 2 sets of Aqua markers!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!! I was more than ecstatic!! All I could say was "WOW!" and "Holy cow!" and "Praise God!" and other things while trying to keep my jaw off the floor hehehe. My husband asked, "Are they expensive?" "They aren't cheap", I answered, "but I was contemplating buying these or Copics that everyone is using to color their stamped images with, and now I don't have to!" I grabbed the markers and sat down on the couch to open them up.

Up until now I had been using watercolor pencils and a waterbrush to color all my card images, envying other people who colored with Letraset or Copic markers and now I had my very own. I wanted to test all 48 markers right away but restrained myself to read the inserts first. The two different sets both needed paper other than regular copier paper or even the color copy paper I was using for the images I had been coloring with the watercolor pencils so I went looking and brought back 3 different kinds of paper hoping I didn't have to go out and buy some because I wanted to use the markers right away. I tested all of the papers and found that one of them was a color copy paper but it was coated as suggested in the marker literature and so the markers didn't bleed through. I was in business! I colored 48 swatches all the way across a sheet of paper to see if the literature color samples were accurate. Almost all of them were, and if not, then the color on the marker label was close enough. I looked through my printed out digis to see what I wanted to color for testing. I chose a D2D bloom image that was simple and open because I didn't really have time to color anything complicated. The markers are awesome! I found that I can still use my waterbrush with the Aqua markers after coloring to blend the colors to control how much water I want to use for blending. The Pro markers do not work with the waterbrush, and they are somewhat translucent that get darker as you layer the ink. The blending pen can be used for blending the inks or for when I want to draw ink out of a marker to get a gradient result. I just kept thinking, "This is so cool!" The bloom images came out pretty good so I will be using them on the next cards I make, but I needed to do something with the SK8 card and wanted to use the markers.

I decided to draw some extra skateboards a little bigger than the one on the digi and then drew outline text of HAPPY on one and BIRTHDAY on the other. Then I colored them in with the Aqua markers and blended the ink with the waterbrush. The result was fair and since I didn't have time to keep experimenting, I decided to go ahead and use them.

A few years back I signed up to be a Leaving Prints rep. I only did it for a couple months because I wasn't really ready to do that, and also had to start packing the house up to move from Tennessee to Louisiana where my husband had gone down to help rebuild after Katrina. After I had colored the SK8 digi I had a sort of revelation of what to do with it for a card. I had this "ribbon" (ripped fabric strips really) from Leaving prints that I never knew what to do with and it matched the digi colors perfectly. Since it has a textured look I decided to use it as a background instead of patterned paper so I cut strips and glued them onto the card front. I matted the digi onto red, yellow and blue paper to match the digi and ribbon, then I cut pieces of foam tape to make it pop. I cut out the skateboards, matted them on yellow cardstock and cut them out again and used zots to attach them to the ribbon strips. I like the CAS style so I quit there.

The inside and back are even more simple. On the coated white paper I stamped a cupcake with a candle using the bold point of the Aqua markers on the rubber stamp. It took 2 tries to get a good result and then I still had to go back over the lines a little with the fine point of the markers. That will need more practice. I matted the cupcake image on a larger piece of the yellow cardstock and cut another piece of white paper to glue onto the yellow and wrote a sentiment with the bold point of a red Aqua marker. I stamped "Love is homemade" onto white and matted it onto yellow cardstock and glued it onto the back of the card. That is one of my favorite stamps, so it will show up on one of these card posts soon. I think he liked the card. It was a little juvenile for a 32 year old, but men are just boys inside a big guy body ;o)

Well, that is all for now. I have a lot of cardmaking to do to make up for such a big gap of time on the blog. I promise I will multi-post some cards right away. This card was actually supposed to be for the D2D challenge, but since I had a creative block of what to do to it after the digi was matted, I didn't get it posted in time. Cute cards deserve to be posted whether they are for challenges or not and I have more waiting to go digital.

Be very blessed! Deborah


Challenges I would like to enter this card in:
Creative Stamp Friends - #27 Birthday

Coffee Fix

It seems like Blogger still acting up?! I added a lot of text to this and the last post today and it is gone!! Grrr... guess I start over? I will never get caught up if this keeps happening! I also had to go check where I entered my cards because I noticed that my entry had disappeared. That would have been ok if the collections had not been closed!

Coffee - one of my necessities. I love to get my fresh hot cup of coffee with flavored cream and sit quietly thinking of what to write on a blog or what next to create. Half the time I browse through other blogs and follow links to their DT or links to even more blogs - it is very inspiring! Even though I don't have all the new gadgets or as many stamps or embellies, I think I can still make a decent card ;o) I truly like the CAS though there are some absolutely stunning card photos out there with tons of stuff on them that still don't look too busy but you can't stop looking at them! LOL This card is a little more than CAS, but I feel it is still clean and simple to an extent. I got really lucky for this card inspiration - the colors (which are not showing up just right on these pictures so I might have to retake them in natural light) were in my favorite category from PPC, and PIO had the "funny bone" that fit this Fairy Knoll digi perfectly. There were a few sketches to choose from but I kept going back to The Secret Crafter sketch even though other sketch challenges were closing sooner. Sometimes things just all fall into place and it sure is nice!

So, on with the card details... The one sided heavy paper really goes with another paper that you will see properly combined later, but it went well . I actually have a coffee bacgkgound paper somewhere but could not find it and my printer is acting up so I could not print one

Challenges this card qualifies for:

The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - #134 Sketch

Prairie Fairy Fridays - #52 Here Come the Girls

PIO - #19 Funny Bone

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge CFC2

Going Grey with Scrap Creations Challenge: Circles

Picture Perfect Creations - CC#58

Crafty Sentiments - Buttons Challenge

Stamping Vacation - NO NO embossing!

Stamping Vacation - Embellish It - Beads

Stamping Vacation - You name the challenge

Delicious Doodles - #25 What inspires you to create?

Pail of Flowers for Mom

I am going to try to add the links for the challenges of this card before Blogger goes back down. Forgive me for not writing much, I haven't been able to post much for days! I hope they got the problem fixed, but I am not taking chances.

Challenges this card qualifies for:

Designed2Delight - Pail Of Flowers

CPS - sketch #217

CR84FN - color challenge27

Paper Playtime - #45 Tall Card

Creative Stamp Friends - #24 Motherday

Tall Friends

I barely got this posted last night in time to be entered for a couple challenges because Blogger went down, so I could not even finish working on this, and I missed being able to post another. I also found out last night that I won a challenge at Paper Playtime for challenge#44! I have won 5 digis from Di's Digi Downloads and discovered I will be having a hard time selecting only 5! I think I am going to find all blogs she sponsors and try to enter them to win more. If you have not seen her work I suggest you go look, I made the link for you to follow.

Challenges this card qualifies for:

MelJens challenge #57 - Make a tall card

Paper Playtime challenge #45 - Make a tall card

Prairie Fairy Fridays - #52 For the girls

Let It Snow - Sledding

Growing up and living in Florida for 25 years I only saw snow twice. Once was in elementary school while we were walking to the bus stop, and I think it was about 38* but it was coming down, sticking on the roads and piling up on the cars. It was actually feeling warmer as we walked and the snow was falling and I remember taking my coat off. The second snow was Christmas eve 1989 and it was SNOWING lol. The ducks were all swimming in the jacuzzi of the apartments I lived in and the steam was rising out of it like crazy but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. We had rolling blackouts because of the power load of people cooking for Christmas, using more heat, and maybe even that darn jacuzzi! Holly was 2 and Christy had just been born Oct 24th so I had to bundle them up real good and preheat the car to go to my Grandparents house for Christmas Eve dinner, celebration and Santa coming to give out gifts for the kids (young AND old kids hehe).

Blessed Day

Every day is a blessed day - whether it feels like it or not, lol. We are blessed to be alive, blessed to have: shelter, food, loved ones, pets, vehicles, clean running water, commodes that flush (I thank God for that on a regular basis!), an income of any kind, etc... After all the recent tragedies or natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, floods and tornadoes, we should be even more thankful if we were not affected by any of them!!

Challenges I would like to enter this card in are:

Designed2Delight - Flutterby Fairy Digi stamp

Card Positioning Systems - CPS sketch #216 ----->>>

The Play Date Cafe - TPDCC #80

Simon Says Stamp - Paper Piecing or Piercing

Mom by Christy

My daughter, Christy, really wowed me when she made this card for me. It was a few years ago and I didn't even know she was making it! How could any mom not be proud to receive a card like this for Mother's Day??? She is extremely artistic, as you can see, and was in band and dance at the time. When I started papercrafting she really picked up on it and loved playing with me and we made some bang up cards. The craft area was in the basement and she must have been working on this somehow when I wasn't down there with her, or she was hiding it REAL WELL!

Bloom

Bloom. Something we all should do daily! Bloom in life, attitude, with family... No matter what, we can always choose to bloom - love, joy, peace - spread it around!

I made this card for a friend, but it can be used for just about anything since you can add any wording inside for it to fit the occasion you need. Mine just says, "I love the way our friendship has blossomed." I like simple, lol.

What I used for this card:

3 patterned papers (one made by stamping a background design on plain paper.

Designed2Delight bloom digi stamp colored with watercolor pencils and blended with a water blending pen.

A glitter envelope sealer sticker cut into 4 for the corners.

4 colored metallic beads in green, blue, pink and purple.

3 flowers punched out of glitter paper.

2 ribbons of blended purple to blue color.

I chose the colors based on a challenge but since we lost power for a day I didn't get it posted in time but like the card enough to blog it. My daughter who loves purple approved of it highly so that was enough reason to add it to my collection! I hope you like it also :) Thanks for viewing it and giving me any feedback. I am so happy to have a 4th follower now, so maybe you can be #5 and make my week!

Many Blessings to you! Deborah

Challenges this card is entered into are:

CPS #215

Paper Playtime #44 - Friends

Stamp Fairy #20 - A bit of sparkle, 3 DP, 2 dies or punches

MAWTT #96 Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

PIO #17 - 2 or more ribbons

Oh Hoppy Day - Bullfrogs & Butterflies by D2D

Not only is this an adorable Digital Doodle set by Designed2Delight that can be used on a card for almost anything or anyone, it also makes me sing! "Oh Happy Day... when Jesus washed my sins away..." Having just celebrated Easter - Resurrection Sunday - I am again humbled at the sacrifice Jesus made by dying on the cross to take our sins and sickness away. Now relate that to Spring - new birth, new growth, sunshine (Son-shine), flowers and cute critters coming back out of hibernation for an overall feeling of JOY.

I wanted this card to depict the vibrancy of Spring. Though I was tempted to use my favorite color orange, I refrained this time and came up with another purple theme that my daughter Christy would love. The butterflies were the driving force since I do not have any frogs digital or on paper (hint hint to the digital designers!). I colored the butterflies pink and purple since I had the digital paper that I printed out. The secondary paper had purple and blue and the sky in the image is blue, so I added the dual color ribbon to tie in the blue and purple (glittery butterfly) buttons and added a purple ribbon bow. I wanted to add another paper so the card would fit into another challenge but I just could not figure anything into the card layout that would work without making the card way to busy to enjoy. Overall, I'm happy with the card and I printed quite a few of this digi to use on more cards which I will add to this blog post when done.

I want everyone to be able to go get this digi, so I have a few links to the blog. What I love Love LOVE is that you can buy this and use it for the next challenge and get the next weeks digi free just for participation in the challenge! Free digi stamp every week, how could you pass that up? I also just found another blog that gives digis away just for following, commenting on their blog and yours - Digi Stamp Boutique - and there is one day left for the April give away so don't waste any time!

This card would have been entered in a few challenges, but due to the nasty storms and power outtage, I could not post it until now which is too late to enter in D2D and some others. I still hope it can be enjoyed for viewing and that I might find somewhere to enter it.

Many Blessings today!! Deborah

Card Challenges:

Designed2Delight Bullfrogs & Butterflies - too late to enter bc of storms & power outtage :(

Paper Playtime - Challenge #44 - April's Digi Monday - Friends

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes (2nd Anniversary)

Stamp Something - Things With Wings

The Stamping Boutique - Challenge #5 Winged Things

Pile It On challenge#17 - 2 or more ribbons