* OWH Memorial Day Weekend Blog Hop *

Happy hoppin' cardmaking friends! I wanted something very special for the Memorial Weekend OWH bloghop so I decided to draw my own image. The cute little bear was a breeze to sketch but a "bear" to color with Copics. Can you believe it took about an hour and half to color this simple looking bear? The bear measures approx. 3" x 3" and is double matted & pop-dotted on an A2 size card. The paw with real tissue was also pop-dotted to give some fun dimension. The nose, eyes, & tear were coated with Glossy Affects for a wet look. Please leave me a comment or email me at rba0422@gmail.com if I can provide coloring info. on the copics used.

I hope you enjoyed my little original creation destined to travel to some far off sandy place to help some young hero stay in touch with home. Please follow my blog and come back soon, oh and do leave comments...I love hearing from fellow cardmakers.

Please be sure to visit COURTNEY who has another great card for your enjoyment. AND...most importantly...get crafting cards for the troops!

Now...hop on and have a great time!!!

((Grrrr on Blogger my little bear says! If comments aren't working try this on your rounds...jot comment in the box, then click pull down menu next to "comment as:" , and select name & URL...it really allows you to comment and links back to your blog!))

Update - Glory beeeee....the FOLLOWERS list has reappeared! I hope you'll "follow" my blog so you can stop back for a visit soon. Thanks for stopping!

ABC & Hero Arts Fabulous Flowers Challenge

I've finally taken the time to use the wonderful Blossom Art Flowers CL495 set of Hero Arts stamps I got from ABC Crafts a long while ago. The combo of the daisy flower and my leftover parts of a digital image of Emerald Faerie Boo from my tutorial seen below. Sentiment is PTI.
(See Copic colors on the faery in tutorial below.) I haven't had much experience coloring flowers with Copics yet!

The daisies & leaves were colored with RV00, RV21, RV23, RV25, RV29, G20, G83, YG00, YR21, & YR23.


I used several fun techniques on the card, first being masking of the trio of HA flowers. To do this stamp a flower on paper, cut it out, lay/secure it over a stamped image, & stamp another. I then fussy cut the lower border of the flowers, sewed around the sides without flowers, matted it in pink and pop-dotted it over a trio of pink, green, & gingham layers. The faerie was fussy cut with an extra head and wings which were pop-dotted to the faerie, wings were coated with Stickles and Glossy Affects. I also covered the flower centers with Glossy Affects and sprinkled them with gold seed & bugle beads for some fun texture. The paper is all from my stash, with DP by Basic Grey & pastel pink embossed floral by Bazzill. This layer was sanded to make the embossing pop with a little white chalk around the edges. I added a little distressing here & there for interest and topped it all with a pink bow and vintage white organza ribbon.

I often admire the wonderful cards made by the Hero Arts designers but don't often join their challenges. It will be fun to enter this easel card.




Other challenges I'm honored to enter:
ABC DT Challenge - May Flowers(ends 5/21)
Word Play Weekend #3 - "Wing" challenge
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes(ends 5/26)
Crafty Creations #119 May Flowers(ends 5/25)

OWH Father's Day Shirt Card

It is amazing the wonderful things one finds on Facebook and throughout the internet, specifically I mean Operation Write Home OWH. It is one of my favorite charities! A few days back up popped a cool card for Father's Day that I just had to try. The tutorial offered here is on the OWH website. The challenge was to make 5 and send them in to fill a shortage of Father's Day cards destined for our troops in the Middle East. I was surprised when I ended up with 18! They were so much fun and afterall each 12x12 sheet of old "ugly tie" scrapbook paper yeilds 9 ties. And after you get the hang of the origami tie they move quickly. That means 19 cards made in 2 days...woohoo...it had been a dry spell so its fun to do something worthwhile again and before I knew it I had a nice size stack of them...

If you're looking for a way to use up old paper, this is a most worthy use. I love the blue pinstripe shirt and can see someone's dad wearing that crazy tie!

My new Whimsy Mini Everyday Postage stamp makes a perfect sentiment for a dad card for anytime during the year.

Making an Embossed Picture Frame

This was a fun project that was born years ago when I saw someone run a bottlecap through a Wizard...I thought ah-ha! I can run other things through there with paper and make interesting things myself, right? This was my first try after so many years...shame on me. It was so fun and easy and looks great on my card. The little Making Memories brass frame will last forever so I'll use it again and again.

To get started I used the following sandwich with my Cuttlebug: A plate, B plate, metal frame, cardstock, Spellbinders rubber embossing mat (or 2), B plate. I cranked it through and reversed it back again.

After cutting out the frame and window, I antiqued the frame lightly with a mini catseye purple chalk stamp pad and backed with a contrasted green cardstock. I made the backing by tracing the wrong side of the frame and cutting out about a 1/16" greater along the perimeter than my tracing line. For my faery project, I attached the base image to the green cardstock backing after tracing and cutting inside my tracing line so none of the image showed around the frame. The frame was then pop-dotted into place over my green cardstock backing and faery image to give a 3D appearance. To finished things I added & pop-dotted another head & wings to my faery which I allowed to overlap the frame for a little whimsy. To finish things I added lots of diamond Stickled to the raised areas of embossing and a few purple self-adhesive pearls...I think tiny AB crystals would have looked better but these worked in a pinch! I hope you give it a try!

DT Card Classes at Emerald Faery Garden & Challenges Galore!

This was a fun project! Check out my card class for this card at the Emerald Faery Garden website. I used a digital image of Boo & Snookie which I altered for this card.
Digital images make altering so easy! I flopped & cropped mine and printed 2 so I could layer them for some fun dimension. I used Neenah Solar white cardstock and colored with Copic markers. Here's my recipe: Flesh - E0000, E00, E50, E21; R000, R20, R11. Hair - YR21, YR24. Hat - G20, G83, YG00. Pants - BG0000, B000, B01, B02, RV000, V000, V06. Wings - E0000, BG0000, RV000, G20, G83. The wings were highlighted with diamond Stickles & coated with Glossy Affects. I cut only wings and head on image 2 which were pop-dotted over the finished frame to give the illusion of the faery peeking out of the frame.

I loved working with the current Mojo Monday sketch and am entering my card in this week's challenge. Check out this wonderful sketch: I chose not to use a sentiment (substituted 3 purple pearls) because I'm just horrible with them!

Lots of Prima hydrangeas with Robin's Nest centers were arrange around the frame & May Arts green silk ribbon/bow. My ribbon was less than perfect after removing a row of gathering stitches from a prior craft project but I loved the look...it's accidentally distressed!! A pearl pick finished things nicely.
However, the finished card look a little plain to me so I jazzed up the frame with lots of diamond Stickles and a few purple pearls. I was satisfied in the end!


Check back tomorrow to learn how to make the fun embossed framed I used on this card!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges too:
ABC May Flowers Challenge(5/21)
Flutter By Wednesday Challenge #153(5/10)
Creative Inspiration Embossing(5/10)
PaperTake Weekly