Helpful Friends

I have discovered digital stamps. "Really?", you ask, "you JUST NOW discovered them?" Yes, I just now discovered them. Since I am new at blogging, and made my blog because I discovered card challenges that I wanted to enter, I have JUST NOW discovered digi stamps and lots of other blogging things! One of the most important things is the friendly community. I have quickly made some new blogging friends that have helped me by answering newbie questions and I have 2 followers! Woohoo! We all need friends, and I have found that this close community of cardmaking & papercrafting bloggers is going to be a great source of friendship! I believe this because another discovery is the Help For Katie Blog which I would like for you to visit if you have not. I purchased a digital package as part of the fundraiser and working on sizing the art for some upcoming cards.

Before I found Help for Katie, I found some other blogs with digital art. There is free art and art for purchase, and I now have both. I had never used digi-stamps so I had to learn how to use them. I printed out a few, practiced coloring them with different mediums and am ready to present 2 cards with this as the first. This digi came from Designed2Delight and is the subject of the challenge Ladybug Balancing Act". I was too late for the previous challenge and getting this stamp for free so I purchased it because it is adorable, and I purchased the previous challenge stamp "Garden Party".

This card was made based on the digi. The 3 backgrounds were made with Fiskars Texture Plates - yes, I do it old school, I don't have any of the machinery LOL. The leaves texture goes with the flowers, the spots go with the ladybugs, and the hearts are for the love of friends. The 3 paper flowers are pink, white and lavendar but I added color to the white to try making it match the yellow/orange and maybe I should have put the pink on pink and purple on purple because they do not look like the right colors where they are but Zots are holding them fast so they are stuck there ;) The 3 tiny gems in the flower centers are actually from a kit to add to fingernails which I don't use so why not use them on cards?? I used watercolor pencils for coloring the digi and blended everything but then I wanted some sparkle so I went over a lot of it with glitter crayons (yep, I really used crayons!) and tried to get it to show up but not sure it worked. The ribbon and brads just tied everything together along with the inked edge to make the background whole instead of 3 tiles of handmade textured cardstock.

I am keeping this blog entry because time has snuck up on me and I need to get the next one done to enter the challenges on time! I was browsing through digi stores for way too long!! haha, I just drool over all this stuff to make cards with!

Many blessings, Deborah

Challenges this card is being entered into are:

Designed2Delight Ladybug Balancing Act using this digital stamp

Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturdays 3 pattern papers, 3 flowers, 3 sparklys and 1 ribbon

Craft Your Passion Challenges #54 - You've been spotted!

Stamps R Us #19 Bugs & Embossing - Sponsored by Doodle Pantry Digital Doodles