Classic Design Challenge : Santa

 Welcome back again to this month's Classic Design Team Challenge! It's that time of year again where we start thinking about Christmas and making or sending out our Christmas cards. 

I have a great image from Dr. Digi featuring Santa himself, checking the naughty and nice list. Have you checked to see if your name is on his "nice" list? I'm sure it is! Here is a link to his digi store Dr. Digi and here is a link to my Santa image : Naughty or Nice. Dr. Digi has some great quality digi stamps in his store, and I hope you go check them out!

I colored my image in with Copic markers, then used MFT's Double Stitched Rectangles to cut it out with a decorative border around it. I then sponged some Distress Inks around the image to "age" it and tone down the white cardstock, as my design papers and lace panel is off white/cream. After sponging, I matted my image with a red cardstock from Bazzil. I layered a cream lace panel cut from a die by Stampin Up, then matted that under my image, over some design papers from The Paper Studio's "Old World Winter" collection. I completed the matting by adding one more cardstock layer of a reflective gold from Tim Holtz's Metallic Cardstock collection, then I added a few holly diecuts from Tim Holtz's Ideology "Christmas Botanicals" collection. My sentiment is from Fresh Pink's "Foiled Holiday Sentiments".

And there you have it. My take on Dr. Digi's Santa inspired digi stamp. I really love how it turned out. I'm not the greatest at coloring in people, but how can you mess up Santa?! LOL!

Thank you for joining us this month in our Classic Design Challenge! I'll see you here for next month's inspiration! And don't forget! Santa Claus is coming to town .... !

November Beautiful Blossoms Challenge : Fuchsia Postcard

Happy November, Challenge Friends!! Can you believe the year is almost over! We've had so many challenges and inspirations together. I love it!

This month's November inspiration photo is my absolute favorite of the year!! Look at those deep blues, magentas, golds, and purples! So beautiful and what I'd consider quintessentially traditional fall colors. I love, love them!

As you can tell, I was completely inspired by the colors in the photo. But this time, I wanted to try to capture the color intensity in watercolors. So, I found an old postcard with watercolor paper, and decided I was going to go as intense with my shading as I possibly could.

To start my watercoloring, I taped off the edges of the postcard to create a "frame" for interest. I used Distress Inks and Aqua Markers to color my image in. My image is from Heartfelt Creations, called "Fuchsias". After coloring in my image, I sponged in some Antique Linen and Old Paper Distress Inks along the bottom half and around the image, I painted a blue 'haze' with the Distress Ink, then sponged just a little of the Old Paper Distress Ink around the top half of the card.

I love how it turned out! I just have to seal it so that when I want to send it out to someone, if it rains or gets wet, it won't smear. 

I can't wait to see all the creations submitted this month and see how you all used the colors! Until then, happy Crafting!

Classic Design Challenge : Fall Dance

 Good day everyone! Welcome back to another Classic Design Challenge! I'm looking forward to this challenge because it features my favorite season : Fall!! I love the colors, smell, feel, the weather and the need to bake!

This month, we're featuring RAM Stamps, by Rachelle Ann Miller, the owner. I have always loved her images for years and years. I have a few of her clear stamps, but didn't know she had a digi shop, too. I'm drooling over all the other images I had no idea she offered.

I chose to feature her "Fall Dance" image, because I absolutely Love, Love, Fall!!

I printed my image off on Gina K's copic paper, and cut out the image with one of AALL & Create's "Quirky Post" dies, then colored everything in with copics. After coloring the image, I sponged on Shabby Shutters Oxide & Rustic Wilderness inks on the bottom of the image, then sponged the sky area with Tumbled Glass Oxide ink. Then I cut out 49 & Market's "Botanical Buzz" matting with another AALL & Create's "Quirky Post" dies.

I kept it all clean and simple so the fun fall colors and whimsy would shine through. I believe that sometimes the simpler the card is, the better you can focus on the image and the handiwork in it.

Thank you for joining us today and enjoying our Design Team samples using the challenge images! We look forward to seeing all of your creations this month! 

October Beautiful Blossoms Challenge : Celebrate You!

 Happy October everyone! This is my favorite month of the year!! Not because it's almost Halloween, But because Autumn is really in full swing by now, everywhere! Growing up in Northern Minnesota, October was very nippy out and either crisp and sunny, or damp & rainy. I loved them both!

This  months Beautiful Blossoms Challenge photo features orange predominantly, and looks very ethereal.

I really looked at this photo and wanted to make an orange card in the worst way possible, because orange is one of my favorite colors. But, I like what looks like a "blue" secondary color in the photo, and I decided to make a card based off of that.

Now, I know you say that this card looks nothing even close to the photo, but I want to remind you that these example photos are purely inspiration to help you. It's how YOU interoperate the design image :) 

I chose to stamp out Honey Bee Stamps On The Line : Succulents onto watercolor paper and lightly watercolor them in then diecut them out. Then I found a white paper doily and a blue doily from Doodlebug Designs and put them under my sentiment from Pretty Pink Posh. I matted some blue paper from Simple Stories "Vintage Berry Fields" over Simple Stories "Warm White" Textured cardstock, using dies from Pink Fresh and My Favorite Things. Then I diecut a Gold Metallic paper from Tim Holtz with their Stitched Eyelet Lace Rectangle and placed all my previous cardstock on top of that to frame it, then the paper doilys, the sentiment and watercolored succulents, and lastly, the blue pearls scattered around the card.

I love how it turned out, though I really fought hard not to make it an orange colored card or overly complicated.

I can't wait to see all of your unique creations and how you were inspired! And until next time, Keep Creating!

Classic Design Challenge : Scottish Lass

 Hello and welcome back to another Classic Design Team Challenge. I missed last month's challenge after an unfortunate two week internet outage, but I'm back with this month's inspiration.

This month we are featuring Moondrea Designs and we had plenty to choose from!! I chose the design I did because I immediately pictured a Scottish princess in contemplation.

I printed off the image, then colored it in with Copics. After coloring it in, I cut the image out with a die I bought from Amazon, which I matted with 49 & Market paper that I die cut with a MFT Scalloped Rectangle. I found some old DP that I used as my background paper, then matted with a co-ordinating cardstock. I layered a leftover piece of lace, swirly pearls, and pieced together flower and leaves. 

I love how it all turned out!! I'm glad I chose the deep green to really contrast with her red hair, it all looks so pretty.

I'm so glad you joined me for another Classic Design Team Challenge. Join us next month for another Classic Challenge! Have a great day!

September Beautiful Blossoms Challenge : Birthday Greetings

 Good morning fellow crafters, I've missed you! 

Another month, another design challenge! How are you enjoying them so far? Have you been feeling the challenge? Have you enjoyed the beautiful inspiration photos? I know I have.

I definitely love the rusty red and the soft oranges, so perfect for my favorite time of the year. Such beautiful fall colors!

I chose to use Honey Bee Stamps Love is a Rose stamp set and the dies to cut it out. I colored it in with my Copic markers. Then I chose a Doodlebug Design blue doily to place under the image. I found some blue-green coordinating paper that I cut out with Pink Fresh's Slim Ornate Banner die, then rounded the corners with a corner punch. Then I placed Popdots under that, and placed it over some design paper with Pink Fresh's Fancy Rectangle Frame over Bazzil's Cornmeal cardstock, then added some yellow enamel dots.

As busy as this looks, it was pretty simple to make and layer. I just love it when a card comes together so quick, don't you?!

Thank you for your follows and kind comments, it means the world to me! Until next month, thank you for joining us at Beautiful Blossoms Challenge!

August Beautiful Blossoms Challenge: Be Joyful

 Welcome back to another Beautiful Blossoms monthly challenge!! Are you having fun and getting inspired? I know I am!

This month's photo inspiration is so cheery! I love sunflowers! I also love the color of blue this vase has. So pretty!

I chose to use the sunflower colors as my inspiration and play off those cheery yellows they have.

I chose to use a stamp from Flourishes, a company that went out of business years ago, and colored it in with Copics. I matted that over some Kraft Cardstock and rounded the Kraft paper's corners. I paired my image with some yellow design paper (I cannot seem to find it anywhere or I'd name it), and used a corner punch to clip the corners into a decorative design. I added some peachy orange grosgrain ribbon and bow, and then added a sentiment from Simple Stories.

I rather like how it turned out. Clean, simple, and cute. Just the way I like them. I like my cards with minimal fuss so the images can take center stage. But every now and then, I'll fancy it up for fun.

Thank you for stopping by and I'll see you here for next month's Beautiful Blossoms Challenge photo!

Classic Design Team Challenge: Surfing Santa

 Welcome back to another fun Classic Design Challenge, I'm glad you're here!

This month, we're featuring digi's from Dr. Digi, himself! Dr. Digi has many fun and quirky designs that appeal to everyone. I chose to keep it simple and use his Surfin' Santa digi. Again, like always, I chose to make it a clean and simple card,  using Christmas reds and keeping the focus on the Santa image.

I don't color Santa's in very often, or that much skin for that matter, but I thought I'd have a little fun with it. Because he's Santa, 

I kept to the Christmas theme as best as I could without being too overt, but also elegant.

I printed off the image onto Gina K paper (it's thicker) and colored it in with Copics. After coloring in the image, I sponged some sand on using Distress Inks Antique Linen and a blue sky with Tumbled Glass. Then I cut out the main image with MFT Stitched Rectangle, then cut out the bottom with another MFT that's been long since retired but I can't remember the name. Then I cut out an A2 rectangle from Spellbinders from Bazzil Ruby Slipper red cardstock, and embossed an edge around it. I finished the card with some black pearls.

I really enjoyed coloring this image in, and if you can tell, I added some subtle pink highlights in some areas to give Santa a "sunburn". I hope Santa enjoyed his vacation. He works so hard all year, so deserved it! :)

Have a great day and I'll see you next month on the next Classic Design Team Challenge!