Bring on the Bling!!!

Wow - it is already Wednesday again which means it is time for another Paper Pretties challenge. They have challenged us this time to BRING ON THE BLING! WOO to the HOO! You all know how I LOVE me some blingy bling. :-)

I have been wanting to color up this oh too cute image (Love Birds) for a while. Once I had it colored my 11 year old daughter wanted it. She said she wanted it in a bookmark. Well, ok, ANYthing to encourage reading. So I made it up as a lovely little bookmark.

The bling around the edge of the beaded Nestie are clear hotfix jewels. I also had some teeny tiny bling that I used in their eyes, and some light green that I used on the flowers.

The colors I used on the birds are YG11, 13, 17 and BV11, 13, 17 and Y11, 13, 15.

The tree / flowers are E11, 13, 15 and G12, 14, 16, RV10, 13, 14.

Once I was done, I outlined with B000 and B00 to give it a little shading and interest.

The ribbon already had the bling on it, so that was easy. I just cut two of the nesties out and stuck the ribbon between the two and glued them together. Then blinged out the front.

Please check out the other items that the DT have prepared for you blingy inspiration over at the Paper Pretties Blog!!!

And this weekend is the start of the Paper Pretties April release Previews. I have been having a blast with the sets I get the privelage of previewing so I hope you all come back this weekend to take a gander!!!

Have a great week!

Recyled Gift Box

While I was cruising around looking for something to challenge me, I came across the Basic Grey Challenge for Soemthing Recycled. Well I have been storing up these little boxes that you get jewelry in for gifts, wanting to do something with them, and I thought this was the perfect chance. I love me some Basic Grey paper, and you all KNOW how I feel about my Sugar Skulls from Bombshell stamps, so I had no choice but to combine them!!!

I covered the Jewelry box with some of the Halloween paper from the 6 x 6 paper pad. I used two different ones, one for the base and one for the lid to give it a bit more of a funky look.

I stamped the Sugar Skull on Neenah with Memento, and used the E81, 87 to shade it. I also used V91, 93, 95 for the purpley, YG91, 93, 95, 97 and YR61 and 65 to decorate. When I was done I cut it out and then covered it with Crystal Effects to give it a nice shiny glaze. I colored the flower using my airbrush with the YG91, 93 and 95 and then highlighted or actually lowlighted with the V95.

I stuck the flower on with the one of the huge 3D glue dot, and then used foam tape to tape on the Skull. I love how it turned out, and I think it will be great for my older daughter, or one of her friends.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Geek Out

Hey there... This quick post today is for the Kenny K Krafty Girlz challenge this week. They challenged  us to use 3 Designer Papers, 2 Ribbons and 1 Image. WHEW... I am great with the ribbons and Image, the 3 DPs... well let me just say THANK GOODNESS for DCWV stacks, because, if I didn't have those, I would not be able to mix and match so well.

I used this nerdy man image from Kenny K. Usually I go for the scantily clad ladies to color cuz they are so much fun to color with all their curves, but I ADORED this image. He just makes me smile.

I colored him up with Copics. The primary colors I used other than the skin tones were reds and blues (hee hee the primary colors I used are primary colors HAHAHAHAHA). The blues on the shoes and bow tie and pants are B21, 23, 24, 26. The Reds are R22, 24, 27 and a bit of 29.

For the jacket I used the tip to tip method, but I used it with the Colorless Blender. I grabbed the colorless blender and picked up blue from the B21, and added it to the shadows and edges of his jacket.  In the shaded areas I would add more of the blue using this method until it got to the color I liked. I love how this gave the jacket shading but still left it looking bright white!

I finished the card up using a sketch from SCS from their weekly sketch challenge. And then I added the two black ribbons to finish off the Kenny K Challenge (the inch wide one with the little looks, and then the black and silver ribbon on top of that.

The finishing touches are the protractor and compass. To quote my husband "You seriously had a protactor and compass as thingies, whatever you call them, to go on your card?" LOL... Yes and I have a pencil, hole punch, stapler and locker lock too.   HEE HEE. There are embellishments for pretty much anything!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you again soon and hope everyone has a great weekend.

Peek a Boo

Hey there folks. I am here with a quick post today to show off my latest lovely lady. I had such fun coloring her up. I wanted to go with all shades of brown, and I succeeded pretty well. The only non brown color was a TOUCH of R20 for her cheeks. Other than that, it is all brown.

The paper is an actual wood paper that I cut out using just a paper cutter and a large oval nestie. I cut out the inside of the oval with a slightly smaller Nestie. Once I had the cowgirl pasted on the inside I positioned the cuts. I then added the bar of white and the wood paper to the bar as well. The flowers on the outside are white flowers that are sptritzed with suede Glimmer Mist.

When you open up the card you discover that it was a little bit of a tease from the front... I know that is pretty dorky, but Hey... I admit I am a dork, and if I forget, my daughters remind me that I am.

Colors:
skin E000,00,01 and R20.
hat, boots, outfit E21, 23, 25, 27, 29
Hair E11, 13, 15, 17, 08

Please keep the people in Greenback, TN in your thoughts. There were several homes damaged / destroyed last night when an F3 tornado touched down over there. We have some friends who were hit hard, and I am sure they would appreciate any thoughts and prayers you can send their way!

Thanks for stopping by, and hope to see you again soon!

PWC146 - Inspired by Spring

YAY!!! It is spring... and even better IT FEELS like spring! This weeks Paper Pretties Challenge was to use spring as our inspiration. WOO HOO. When I think spring, I think bright colors and little cute animals... and Easter Eggs! Now I know Easter is really late this year, but Seriously... Spring means Easter. Just like Fall means Halloween and Winter is Christmas!

I stamped with Memento and colored up this OH SO CUTE What the Cluck Image. And The chicken looks so shocked, I thought what would shock me if I were a chicken?? I think if I laid Easter Eggs I would be a little shocked. I think even if I looked at eggs I didn't lay I would be all What the heck are those things?

So I colored this outraged mother up with my Copic markers. I used the 0X series of the colors (Y0000, Y000, G02, G05, etc...)

The eggs and eyes I went over with clear Spica when I was done, and then I cut it out with a Nestie and while still in the Nestie, used the B00 and G02 to airbrush around the edge. The sentiment was stamped with versafine, and then clear embossed.

The bow is cute and I thought it went really well with the scalloped look of the beaded oval. The beaded oval I blinged up with some colored pearls.

I really hope you join in the fun over at Paper Pretties this week. They have some really cute stamps, and all you have to be is inspired by spring and you have a chance to win one of them. And this is available to any stamper - you don't have to use Paper Pretties stamps!

See you soon. I hope to have another Bombshell Card posted soon... I have been working on it. Plus I am getting some new stamps in soon (Bombshell and a couple of Mo Manning stamps from Stampavie, and Flourishes new release), so I should have a lot of fun stuff coming up. EEEEk (Stalking the mailbox).

Thanks for coming by and I hope you have a great rest of the week!

Think Pink!

Hey all!!! I am so happy to be typing this on my new computer! YAY. My old one got to the point that I could not be on the internet AND be on my e-mail at the same time. YIKES. This one is super fast on the uploading of pictures and that is so exciting to me. Plus my ultimate favoritist thing ever is that it has a fingerprint reader for logging into websites, etc... I love to log out just to log back in with it. My husband says it will get old soon... but it hasn't yet.

So my first card to post is for the In a Sweet Pea Dream "Pink Challenge". I used a stamp called "Radiant Butterfly".

The background paper is the Old World Stack from DCWV, and the bow was made from a BowEasy. The sentiment is from Inkadinkado.  I colored her up with my Copics.

For colors I used BG70, 72, 75 and 78 for her hair. I am really really happy with the way her hair turned out. I layered all the colors before I began to blend. When it came time to blend... I used the BG72 primarily for the blender, except in the lightest areas where I went back to the 70.  I also used a bit of these on the butterflies.

For the PINK part which for this IS the most important in this challenge - I used the R81, 83, 85, 89. These are some of my favorite colors for pink. These blend so very well!!!

The gold is Gold Spica, and the blacks are all cool greys. So on a side note... how do you spell grey? Is it grey or gray? I was told both were correct from a technical standpoint... but that gray is the American way of spelling it, and grey is the English way. Ok... I am born and bred in the US and I find myself spelling it grey. All I can figure was it was from reading my Mimi's Barbara Cartland novels when I was in Jr. High!

Thanks for stopping by. I am so looking forward to the next week. I hope you stop back by again soon!!

PAINT IT

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE PAPER PRETTIES CHALLENGE DAY POST - - scroll down to the next post.


This months Bombshell Monthly Challenge was a stretch for me. I mean I had to THINK about it. The challenge this month was from the Lovely Anita Marie, and she challenged all of us to use Paint! 

Wow, and WOW! So I thought and I thought and I thought a little more. And then I pondered. Hmmmmm... So what I ended up with was trying to paint a Bombshell. Yeah - -trust me - - I need to stick with my trusty Copics on the ladies. She ended up a little bit, well, uh... sickly looking... like she had some weird skin disease.

What I CAN paint is backgrounds.... well... at least so they don't look too bad.  Here is my Painted Card!

I painted the water, sand and background on the main image first. I have no clue which paints were watercolors and which were acrylics...  My daughter has them combined on a palette.  I then punched out the oval, and then I used Memento ink and stamped on the island image from the Hula Girl set. I painted the island and the trees. I then used some white ink paint and painted the clouds.  Once I was done I stamped some palm trees from the same set on the bottom of a tan piece of cardstock. Then I did the skyline the same way I did on the main image. The blue "water" on the main image is painted on, but on the bottom layer, it is a transparent turquoise ribbon that just happened to match. How FREAKING lucky was that. WOW! I added some bling bling and a couple of more layers and flowers, and Voila! I figure this is a good "wish you were here" card or "have a great summer" card or something along those lines.

Hope you all enter the challenge this month. Go check out what all the Bombshells have done, and hop  around the forum a bit!!! THANKS ANITA MARIE for the wonderful challenge!

Howdy Y'all! It is time for the Paper Pretties Weekly challenge. This weeks challenge is to make a MASCULINE card. Now, I have two daughters. Even my dog is female. Believe me when I say my husband is outnumbered. So I was really happy to be making a masculine card because I don't make a lot of them.

I decided to make a bookmark card for a little boy. I used the Imagine set and stamped the image with Memento. I colored him up using R22, 24, 27, 29 and W1, 3, 4, 6, 7.  The Yellow is Y21, 23 and YR21.

Once I was done, I cut out the image with a Deckled Rectangular Nestie, and then airbrushed the edges with W1. I went up one size and cut out two of the red leaf background paper.. I placed these back to back before I cut them so they would match up, and then I ran a ribbon through it.   The bookmark sits inside the triangular wooden corner, and the red leaf strip.

Thanks Everyone for stopping by, and if you havem't been there already you should check out all the handsome cards over on the Paper Pretties Blog!

I'm LATE - BOO HOO

I love this card I did for the Kenny K challenge this week. Sadly I am too late to enter. Not my fault!!! Ok... so maybe my fault. I didn't photograph it this morning, and by the time I did, the challenge was closed. But I couldn't let it go without posting it, because I think it turned out really pretty.

I colored her up with the Copics. I wanted her to be wearing denim, and I think I came close.The boots, gloves, and glasses are all covered with Crystal Effects after I colored her up.

Colors:

B91, 93, 95, 97, 99 - Jacket and Shorts
E000, 00, 01, R20 - Skin
E11,13,15,17,18 - Hair
C1, 3, 5, 7 - Boots gloves
E00,01, C1, 3 - Net Hose


The challenge this week was a sketch. The DP's are always a problem for me, so I stuck with one of the DCWV stacks... those are supposed to coordinate.  The brads are doodlebug and the flowers behind them are from Recollections. The trim around the main image is a felt ribbon. (Going to go in the SCS Ways to Use It challenge this week as well).

I love coloring up these images. They are so much fun, and the flowing hair is a lot of times the best part. I like to make them look like they have all sorts of colors in their hair, so I use the entire range of one family typically.

OK... that is it for this post. Thank you for Stopping By. Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Keep Japan in your thoughts and prayers!

Quick Post of Neutral Beauty

This is my entry into the Flourishes Bringing Back Beautiful Challenge 08 which is to construct a card with Neutral Colors.

I stamped this on Black linen cardstock with white ink. I then used a white prismacolor pencil to color in the roses. The black dots are perfect pearl paint.

For the inside I used part of the extra stamps, and then cut out the roses and layered them on white. The sentiment is also from Flourishes.

Thank You for stopping by! Can't wait to post some more this weekend!

The Pretty Girls are HOPPING

Hey there and WELCOME to my home on the web. I am thrilled to be one of the Guest Designers for Paper Pretties for the months of March and April. For the last four days we have been showing off sneak peeks for today's release!  To celebrate today's release, the girls are HOPPING! If you arrived from the Paper Pretties Blog - you are on the right track (how was I so lucky as to be the first to be hopped on?!!!).  Since it is Wednesday - - it is also Challenge day. The challenge for today was to use Ribbon on our project.

I chose to use the Sympathy set that is being released today, and to do a White on White card. I tried to be really simple on this, and used a couple of Nesties. The first was an oval, and on this one I stamped the sentiment. I can't tell you how much I love the fonts on this set. I then cut out a Fancy Label Nestie and mounted the white oval on top of that. This I popped up on the main layer of white cardstock that I had embossed with the Cuttlebug. I wrapped a satin ribbon around this layer, and using redline tape stuck it down. The embossing underneath leant itself to giving some dimension to the ribbon.

I found this little floral sprig in the wedding section of Hobby Lobby. I used a Bow Easy and made a triple bow for it out of a thinner satin ribbon.

Your next stop on the hop is Amber Hillman's blog.
I am sure you will LOVE what she has done.

Hope to see you again soon. Thank you for visiting!

Paper Pretties - Sympathy Sneak Peek

This is my second card to show all of you from the Paper Pretties new March Release. The set being previewed today is Sympathy. This set has some wonderful sentiments with absolutely beautiful fonts.

My card today used the simple "With Deepest Sympathy" sentiment and butterflies in the set. I stamped the sentiment and the butterflies on a white shimmery cardstock with Paris Dusk Memento, and then quickly clear embossed them.  The with deepest sympathy I cut out square and then mounted it onto a Navy Shimmery paper that I had cut out with a Lacey Squares. This was mounted again on the white shimmery cardstock, and then again on the navy shimmery being used as a card base.

Once I was done with the main mountings I cut out the butterflies, and then slightly bent them at the center and mounted onto the corners of the center square. I then added the pearl bling around the lacey edges.

There are a BUNCH of pretty cards out there from the sneak peeks this week and you can get to them all on the Paper Pretties Blog.... and be sure to join us tomorrow as we have the March Release Blog Hop and Wednesday Challenge!!!  It is going to be great!

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon.

Good Luck Wreath

So, things here have been INSANE this past few weeks. After one daughter got an awful cold, and proceeded to give it to the rest of the family, it turned into Viral Meningitis with my husband. He was in the hospital three days last week... PHEW. That was just exhausting. Now, I THINK we are all healthy. He is recovered (says him) / recovering (says me). In addition, his job situation is weird, and he has an interview that was scheduled while he was in the hospital, for Tuesday about 3 hours away for a job that is 15 minutes from our house here in town. Hmmmmm.

Anyway, between his hospital visit, my daughter, and work, I wasn't able to make him a get well card. I felt so bad, cuz... really what good is making cards if you can't make one for occasions like that.  So I thought I would make him a Good Luck card for his interview this week.

The front of the card is made with a Flourishes wreath. I colored with Copics. RV91, 93, 95, 99, 69. YG91, 93, 95, 97, 99, G94 and 99. I then outlined slightly with B91 and then airbrushed when it is in the Nestie with the B91. 

 

For the inside of the card, I used a Lockhart stamp that I got at a recent colored pencil class I took from Karen Lockhart. It was an amazing class (well two classes actually). This technique used here was my favorite technique from the two classes. The heart was stamped in white on black linen cardstock. You then take a white colored pencil and shade in the different areas of the heart. I finished it up with Perfect Pearls white.

Hopefully my husband will have a great trip, and not suffer from headaches while he is going. I think he will like the card, despite the fact that there aren't any buxom half dressed chicks on it. LOL.


I hope you all come back tomorrow, and check out the next Paper Pretties sneak Peek that I get to show you. Also, Wednesday will be a great blog hop to showcase all the new releases for the month of March.

Thanks for stopping by, and Talk to you soon.

Paper Pretties - New Release

Hey everyone! Today I get to show off one of the new Paper Pretties March stamps that will be released on March 9th! WOO HOO. The lucky set I am showing off today is Birthday Boy. It is so perfect for the boy getting his drivers license... or even for one who was in an accident. LOL.

I stamped the images with Memento on Hammermill Color Copy Cover, and colored them up with my Copics.

Cones: YR16, WR09
Hair: E13, 15, 17, 18
Pants and shoes :C3, 5, 7, 9
Jacket and shoes: R22, 24, 27, 29

The paper is Kaisercraft, and perfect for those Boy cards.

There are a lot of other beautiful cards from yesterdays sneak peek, and some from today. The fun continues all week, so stop by the Paper Pretties Blog for the Blog Hop and Weekly challenge on Wednesday March 9th.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope to post a bunch more in the next few days.

Rocking the Bombshell March Sketch

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this sketch. I will definitely use it again!

So, I got A Pirate's Life several weeks ago. She is so wonderful... and so fun to color. I have colored her up a couple of times, but haven't  put her on a card yet. Once I colored her up in these colors I KNEW what I was going to be doing for this sketch. 

I used DCWV Black Currant Paper for all the DP and CoreDinations paper for the purple. The black is AC.  For the lovely Piratess I used an Out of the Box technique where I cut out her legs and then used an Oval Nestie to cut out the rest. Then I used C0 and C1 with the airbrush and added some grey smoke to the background.

For the main ladies I used the following colors:

RV91,93, 95, 99
C3, 5, 9, 5, 7
E11, 13, 15 for skin
E17, 18 for hair

The gold is gold spica.

I am not sure why, but I ADORE how the RV colors turned out in this outfit. I haven't used these colors a lot, and I have no idea why... cuz they are so pretty.

I hope that you take a hop over to the Bombshell Stamps Forum and check out the Sketch Challenge. I promise this sketch was SO VERY FUN to use!

Will see you all here later this weekend. Hope you come back by!

~~ Alaine

Paper Pretties - Weekly Challenge

Hey there everyone. I have been blessed to be asked to be a Guest Designer for Paper Pretties Stamps for the months of March and April. I am so excited!!!! Their stamps are so sweet and whimsical and I think they are just adorable.

It is time for the Wednesday Challenge over at Paper Pretties. Since it is the beginning of the month, the challenge is a Sketch challenge.
This lovely sketch has been provided for inspiration:

For my take on the sketch I used the Giving Thanks Sophia stamp:

I stamped the lovely Sophia on Hammermill with Memento ink. I colored her with Copic Markers:

RV000,RV00, RV02, RV04 for the dress, bow and flower (G00, 02 for the leaf)
E0000, E000, E00 RV00 for the skin
Y000, Y00, Y04 for her hair

Once she was completely colored, I added little dots of Copic Opaque White to her dress ruffles and neckline and to her bow. I then went around these with black multiliner. The sky was airbrushed with B00.

The doilie is airbrushed with the RV02. I mounted all of this on Pink Cardstock Paper. Usually I do White or Black cardbase, but I thought that the preponderance of pink would set off the image really well. and focus your eyes on the center. I Blinged it up with the roses and the welll... the bling. LOL. The Thank You is stamped on the same pink cardstock with versafine and then embossed. I arched this so that the center is popped up and the edges are flat on the white embossed cardstock. On the inside I added a layer of the same DP used on the outside and then a white center cardstock.

I hope you have a great day and join us in the challenge. For those of you stumbling on this post that did not show up here from the Paper Pretties Blog - you should race on over there and see all the lovely inspiration using this sketch... and then enter the challenge to win some beeea-uuuuuu-tiful stamps!

Can't wait to share more of the stamps with you all over the next couple of months. See you again soon!