August Classic Design Challenge : Fred She Said Designs & Sheepski Designs

 Good morning and welcome back to another fun monthly Classic Challenge! This month we have a fun surprise, because we're featuring TWO digital artists, and as always, our theme is : Anything Goes.

This month, we're featuring samples from both Fred She Said Digital Designs and Sheepski Digital Designs.

I chose to feature Emma in the Strawberry Patch from Fred She Said Designs, and Beach Hut Holiday from Sheepski Designs. Both are equally well drawn, and so fun and easy to color in. Sometimes you just want an image that's easy to color in that makes a big impact, and these two do it for me.

First one up is Emma in the Strawberry Patch, from Fred She Said.

I decidedly chose to keep her simple and followed the same coloring format too, by coloring her with less drama, trying to keep it soft and fresh. The first attempt I made at coloring it in resulted in too much color and drama, and felt it detracted from the cute and over all innocence the image is portraying. So everything was kept light after that.

Next is Beach Hut Holiday by Sheepski.

Isn't this a great image of a beach and boat houses all in a row? I grew up in Northern Minnesota, so I've always loved a lake front beach, and this scene is the best! I can just see myself enjoying a good book, with a tall iced tea, and a popsicle, after I wade in the water looking for neat rocks.

I kept this card clean and simple just to keep the focus on the image. The sentiment is from an old MFT travel stamp set, and the stitched diecut rectangle cutting out the main scene is the only adornment I gave it. 

I hope you head on over to Fred She Said Designs and Sheepski Designs to check out their images for sale and see what else you may like. And thank you for joining us again this month in our Classic Challenge, as we feature different digital image creators each month to help inspire you in our Anything Goes, monthly challenge. We love and appreciate all your submissions and look forward to seeing the gallery, showing us how you were inspired each month! See you next month!

August Beautiful Blossoms Challenge : Get Well Soon

 Welcome back, Beautiful Blossom Challenge Friends! This month we have a beautiful challenge photo! I absolutely love this image! It's so pretty and inspiring!

I literally made three cards, just trying to match the beauty and those gorgeous colors. Nothing I made was good enough, I felt. They weren't as pretty as the image was inspiring me. Or so I thought. Sometimes you just get a great inspiration piece that pushes you to try harder and do better!

I stamped out my image from Flourishes "Tulips" stamp set. I cut the main image into a rectangle shape, then used an old Spellbinder border die on the bottom edge, and placed some I placed some thick foam tape under the image to lift it off the background design paper. I used an old piece of scrap design paper for my green background under the tulip image, then cut out a scalloped background edging using Spellbinders "Heartfelt Thanks and Scallops" die set. I chose a sentiment from Say it with Stamps "Get Well" set, then added some dark forest green pearls from Honey Bee Stamps "Pacific Northwest" pearl collection, for beauty and interest.

I love the colors on the flowers. I really tried to keep it light colored because the challenge photo shows light colored flowers. I also decided to feature the image vertically and cut in half using a border die for more visual interest just to see how it looked. I'm glad I tried it!

Thank you for joining me for this month's Beautiful Blossom Challenge, I really enjoy your comments and views! Have a great month and I can't wait to see your submissions for this month's challenge!!

July Classic Design Challenge : Rachelle Anne Miller

 Hello July Crafty Friends!

This month, the Classic Design Team Challenge is featuring challenge designs from none other than the amazingly talented : Rachelle Anne Miller. Her images is absolutely cuter than a button and just as fabulous to color in! I chose to feature her Unicorn digital stamp, because why not?

I printed off the image and colored it in with a mixture of Copics and Altenew alcohol markers. I used a  diecut to cut out the main image, then, while the image was still in the die, I sponged on Tattered Rose, Shabby Shutters, Salt Water Taffy, and Carved Pumpkin Distress Dioxide inks to give it a light pinky-orange sky and green grass. The sentiment is from Pink Fresh's Hibiscus stamp set, stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink. After stamping the sentiment, I matted the main image with Simple Stories Textured Cardstock in Mint, and layered Bazzil's Aqua cardstock cut out with MFT's Stitched Rectangles under it. Then, placed my layered stack over my Brutus Munroe Thick Cardstock in White, just for a tiny white border around the card.

Isn't she the cutest image? Who wouldn't love to color in that image or receive such a whimsical card? It definitely brings a smile to my face when I see it.

Thank you for stopping by and please join the Classic Design team in this month's Anything Goes challenge! We love to see what inspires you and what you upload to submit to the challenge! I know I do! Have a great July and I'll see you in August!

July Beautiful Blossoms Challenge : Just A Note

 Hi again, Friends! It's time for another monthly Blossoms Challenge. I just love them, don't you? I love how inspiring the challenge photos and examples are! I just keep getting inspired every month!

Speaking of challenge photos and getting inspired, let's take a look at July's inspiration photo.

This was a tough one. I love bold and sassy flowers! But how do you go so color bold without looking garish? That's the hard part.

I chose to use Flourishes "Orchids" set, using the Iris flower. I stamped it out on Gina K paper and colored it in with Copics. I chose to frame the image to centralize your eye on the bold flowers and coloring. I used Spellbinders A2 Rectangles and a Spellbinders Oval shape to frame the image. I chpse to use Simple Stories "Front Porch" design papers, and matted under that with a Bazzil cardstock in "Aqua", then added one more cardstock layer in white under that to highlight the clean white background behind the image. To finish my card, I added a sentiment banner from Anna Griffin's "Garden Fountain Embellishments" collection, and enamel dots from My Minds Eye, in their "Sweet" collection.

I genuinely enjoy the clean and simple look on cards and this card is no different. The only difficulty I had was deciding what papers I wanted to use to showcase the image and the sapphire blues in the flower! LOL!

I hope you enjoyed seeing our Blossom team's inspiration examples as much as we enjoyed making them! We always look forward to inspiring you each month! And, speaking of, until next month, I'll see you all back here for another monthly inspiration photo. Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing all your creations this month!

Classic Design Team Challenge : LeAnn's World 101

 Hello crafty Friends! Welcome back to June's Classic Design Team Challenge, and I'm so excited to share with you a new-to-me digital creator. This month we're featuring LeAnn's World 101. I haven't ever used her images, but I am certainly looking forward to using more of her cute images!

I chose to feature Azalea's New Dress as my first image from LeAnn's World.

I printed the image off and colored her in with a combination of Copics, Ohuhu, and Altenew alcohol markers. Then I cut out it out using Pink Main's Stitched Rectangles, then added a neon green cardstock from Bazzil under that, then cut out a pink gingham patterned paper from 49 & Market, using a scalloped rectangle die. I stamped my sentiment in Momento "Bamboo Green" from a sentiment stamp set that I found at a second hand store, long ago, then I added some pearls from Honey Bee Stamps, and left it as clean and simple as I could.

I wanted a vibrant party goer that just popped off the card. Her hair is inspired by my oldest daughter's "Unicorn Hair" that I love. She dyed her hair various muted shades of pinks, mauves, blues, violets, with silvery lavender grays. It truly gets all kinds of second glances, it's so pretty and unique. So I thought this little party goer might have the same kind of vibe and look, too.

I truly enjoyed coloring this image in and as you can see, I used, and was inspired by one of the Color Cube's color cards. Handy for those times when you can't decide what colors work best, or just want some ideas.

Thank you for joining us in this month's challenge. We look forward to seeing what inspired you and to see what you created! 

June Beautiful Blossoms Challenge : You Are My Shield

 Welcome back, stamping Friends! We're already into our June challenge! WOW!  This challenge I am really excited about, because the inspiration image is just So Beautiful!! I mean, how could you not just fall in love with a bouquet like that?!

Look at those beautiful colors and textures! Whew! What a bouquet!

I stamped out Colorado Craft's "Thinking of You Magnolias" and cut it out with the coordinating die, then colored it in with Copics. I cut out a "base" for my image and sentiment, using Papertrey Ink's "Scalloped Ovals" in Ivory cardstock, then stamped out my sentiment, also from Papertrey Ink called "Psalm 3:3". I cut out some design paper from Simple Stories "Front Porch", using Pink Fresh's "Stitched Rectangles", then more Ivory cardstock under the Stitched Rectangle diecut. I placed some foam popdots under the double matted Stitched Rectangles diecut to give it some lift off of the Bazzil "Aqua" cardstock base, and foam popdots under my Magnolia branch to lift it off the paper for dimension. I added some light green Pearls from Honey Bee Stamps "Pastel" collection to finish the look.

Thank you for joining us this month at Beautiful Blossoms Challenge. I hope you are as inspired as I am by this month's inspiration photo! We can't wait to see your inspired creations!

May Classic Design Challenge : Moondrea Designs

 Hello and welcome back to another Classic Design Challenge! I love this time of the month, when we get to unveil our creations from some really amazing artists! This month the design team gets to feature images from Moondrea Designs. Moondrea has such lovely and unique images to choose from, that I can't ever seem to decide which one I want!

But this month, when I saw the Aquarius Maiden from Moondrea Designs, I just knew I HAD to try to color it in! I couldn't wait to start pulling blue Copics and shading it all in!

After printing off the image, I used many different Copics and colored pencils to shade the maiden in. I wanted her blue color to stand out and not blend into the blue water. I cut out the image with a stitched rectangle and matted it with some blue bamboo paper from American Crafts, then matted that design paper with a lighter blue shade of cardstock from from Recollections. I added some Stickles on the "white caps" and the foam on the waves for some "wet sparkle" and shine.

I really enjoyed creating this card and coloring in this image. Moondrea creates such beautiful images that even if you don't color them in, they're absolutely beautiful and full of so many details!

Thank you for stopping by and joining us for another Classic Challenge. I can't wait to see your submissions this month!

May Beautiful Blossoms Challenge : Birthday Wishes

 Welcome back again to another fun Beautiful Blossoms Challenge! I really do look forward to these every month, and this month is another good one!

Our challenge photo is :

Look at those beautiful flowers and lovely blue color of fine china! So inspiring! I was inspired by the blue and the details on this photo. I love the clean white flowers and on the china, so I left a lot of white space on my card, and added a few hints of blue here and there. I was also inspired by the details of the vessel, so I added a few details to inspire the eye.

I stamped out tulips in a bucket from Flourishes (gone out of business) "Tulips for Friends" stamp set, cut it out, and colored it in with Copics. I cut the main "base" under the tulips in white cardstock that I stamped some decorative edges around (I decided to leave them unconnected because it was more interesting that way, and I wanted the main focus on the tulip bucket) the outer edges. I used Echo Parks "Stitched Squares" die set for my main "base" on top. I stamped a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp from their "Tiny Words" set, on the base after I'd stamped the corner decorative images. Then I cut out a blue cardstock using MFT "Scalloped Squares" die set, after that, I cut out another white square from Echo Parks "Stitched Squares" die set, as my "bottom base". As I added each "layer", I placed 1/8" foam tape under them, to give "lift" and spacing so the card wouldn't seem "flat" and uninteresting. Then I put my main image on last, with more popdots under it to pop it off the card even more.

As you may have noticed the challenge photo is both small and detailed, so I kept the idea of that scale and detail in mind when I created my card. It is both small (3 1/2 x 3 1/2) and detailed. I know there isn't any yellow in the photo, but remember, it's for inspiration only. You can be inspired by the colors, subject, details, size, theme, or anything else you find inspiration in!

I hope this month's photo, and our design team's examples have given you plenty of ideas to create something. We're looking forward to seeing your submissions and lovely inspirations, and I'll see you next month, Crafty Friends!