A Stylist in the Making

Well it's been a very long time since I've been on the blog except to see my sister's beautiful creations.  I've been crazy busy with my daughter moving out and then moving away from me.  While I've missed her quite a bit, it is very evident that she is thriving right now.  She came to visit this weekend and she studied while I made her a card for one of her homework assignments.  She is studying at the Aveda Institute to be a stylist and her assignment is to put together a hair style "look book", so I made a card for her to put in the front of it.

I couldn't do embellishments since it's going into a page protector, but it sure is cute in the book.  The image is Hair Mess Brittany from Simply Betty.

Gotta tell you...I sure have missed coloring.  Unfortunately, my crafting time is going to be quite limited over the next six to seven months.  Our house has been up for sale and we just accepted an offer.  It's time to pack up and build.  All my stamps are getting packed.  Trying to convince my husband that I simply can't put my papers away and my copics ABSOLUTELY will not go into storage.  Hopefully I can keep a limited supply of items out.  But in the meantime, I know you all agree that my sister, Angie, is so very talented.  She will continue to post beautiful creations.

So long!
Jo

This cutie is going into 2 SB challenges:

simplychallengedchallenges.blogspot.com: back to school/fall challenge (ends 10-6)
simplychallengedchallenges.blogspot.com: anything goes challenge (ends 9-20)

A Fairytale Wedding

 My dear friend Rachel got married today in Italy!  How romantic is that!?  

Sounds like a girls fairytale wedding dream to marry in a castle in Italy, doesn't it?  

 That's how I finally came up with the idea for this card. The beautiful 

bride is a Saturated Canary digi called "Bride" and the carriage

is a digi from Crafts & Me.

  I originally made this card with the bride walking

through a rose covered archway and down a long stone path leading to a church on the

 hillside.  I ended up ditching that idea because I just wasn't happy with all the green 

that the pasture brought into the picture.  

I think birds also make it feel very fairytale like.  I love how these birds

 turned out to appear to be carrying the scroll.  The sentiment is a digi from Sassy Design Studios.  I printed it on cardstock, rolled both ends, with one end

wrapped around a decorative metal rod I purchased at Michaels.

I then distressed the paper and added some ink to

give it an aged look.

Of course this had to have flowers!!  The white one already had bling but

then I added glitter stickles to the rest of them.  It is difficult to see,

but there is also a diamond bauble at the bottom of the bouquet.

I love how the bride turned out.  I have a tough time coloring black hair so

anytime it turns out halfway decent, I'm happy.  I cut a "C" shape at the top of

her headpiece and inserted tulle to give her a veil.  I then added more bling to

give her a pearl headpiece.

Most of my cards are quite bulky because of all the embellies.  So I

have to make enveloboxes like I'm sure a lot of you do also.

This is the one I made for this card.

This card was made with so much love and I hope you find some inspiration!

I will be entering this into several fun challenges:

saturatedcanarychallenge.blogspot.com:  B's: Bride, birds, bouquet, bling, brads

7kidschallengeblog.blogspot.com:  1-2-3

whimsyinspires.blogspot.com:  Anything goes

thepoodlesparlour.blogspot.com:  Here come the girls
thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com: Wedding/Anniversaries
blog.oozak.com: Sparkle
comeandgetitchallenges.blogspot.com: tictactoe (pearls, free (diecuts), ribbon)
paperprettiesblog.blogspot.com: punches
thecraftypad.blogspot.com: scraptastic
scrap-creations1.blogspot.com: pick 3: ribbon, pearls, die-cuts/punches
gingerloftchallenge.blogspot.com: birds
kaboodledoodles.blogspot.com: flowers
tuesdaythrowdown.blogspot.com: gems

Blue Bike Inspiration

So it's been almost two weeks since my last post!  Where does the time go??

Actually, my crafts have been put on the back burner a bit because I've
 been so busy helping a friend of mine with her wedding decorations.

But I had to make a birthday card using the photo inspiration from Krista's

Saturated Canary Challenge this week.  My interpretation is a little more literal with

the blue bike and the big tree but I love making scenes with my stamps!

Inspiration photo for challenge:

My interpretation:

The sweet little girl is a digi from the Saturated Canary and her

name is "Windy Day".  She actually is flying a kite but I removed the

kite for this scene.The bike is a digi from Milk N Coffee called "Antique bicycle 

with flower basket".   And finally, the beautiful heart tree in the background 

is a rubber stamp from Magnolia and I think is called "Oak Tree".

 

Just to Say "happy BIRTHDAY beautiful!" This is for Suzy, an old college

friend of mine.  We don't get to see each other often at all, but I
love her so much!  She helped me through some very difficult
times in my life and I feel I owe her a lot!!

I colored my scene with copics and here are the colors I used.

I used a lot with this one I know!!

I will be entering this card in the following challenges:

http://saturatedcanarychallenge.blogspot.com (photo inspiration)
7kidschallengeblog.blogspot.com (flower power)
stamptacularsundaychallenge.blogspot.com (let's hear it for the girls)
thepoodlesparlour.blogspot.com (die cuts)
delightfulsketches.blogspot.co.uk   (punches & dies)
cutedaisymay.blogspot.com  (anything goes)
whimsyinspires.blogspot.com  (lots of layers)
wagsnwhiskersrubberstamps.blogspot.com  (favorite color combo)
pixieduststudiopixiechallenge.blogspot.com
inthepinkchallenge.blogspot.com
bunnyzoescrafts.blogspot.com
ladybugscraftsinkchallengeblog.blogspot.com

Bella Baby

Hello again!  How is everyone today?  I've been busy, busy, busy trying

to get all of these cards done that are on my list!  Too many babies

and weddings!  Arrrgh!  It's okay though.  I'm pushing through it!

And oh what fun it is!!  Today's quick and easy card is from Stamping Bella and her

name is Baby Carriage Bella. 

Of course she is colored with copics and embellished with

lots of dies and edge punches, flowers and rhinestones!  The plaque

is Making Memories and the ribbon is from my stash!  Hope you

enjoy!

She will be entered into these challenges:

stampinsistersinchrist.blogspot.com 
craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.com 

Springtime and the Good Old Outdoors

Today I just have a quick little post to showcase a sweet little Saturated Canary image

called "Springtime".   I've been wanting to color her for sometime now

and I finally have my chance.  She is for my gorgeous friend Amy and
 I will be entering her into a couple of 

challenges which I will list below.  Thanks for stopping by!

Lots of dies used for this one!  The sentiment is a stamp from LOTV

and the tulips are WOC.

Challenges she will be entered into:

http://saturatedcanarychallenge.blogspot.com

http://paper-craftingjourney.blogspot.co.uk

http://partytimetuesdays.blogspot.co.uk

http://doitwithdigischallenge.blogspot.co.uk

http://movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.co.uk

craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.com

thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com

crafts4eternity.blogspot.com

stampinsistersinchrist.blogspot.com

Sending BIG Bear Hugz!

Okay, so this is not the funnest subject but one I've been forced to think about recently.  Again.  I've had a few close personal friends who have succumbed to breast cancer and they were in this very position so I ask the question, What would you do if you were told you only  had 3 months to live?   Have you done everything you wanted to do in life?  Have you given enough?  Given the best of yourself every day?   How do you close shop on your life when you've been given such a sentence?  I can't even imagine.  

 Mary, a co-worker of mine, is taking a family leave because her husband was given his 3 months.  Brings a lot of painful memories of some of the feelings I had when my friends were going through this and it always makes me think of how precious life really is.  You have to make everything count.  Love hard.  Play hard.  Give your very best!  I made this card for Mary and had everyone at work sign it so we could let her know we are thinking of her during this difficult time.  :)

I just love this sweet little image and it is from Sassy Cheryl's Digital Stamps and it is called "Big Bear Hug".

I hope Mary finds a little bit of comfort when she receives this card.

Grey Tie Bachelorette

So remember I said I have 3 friends getting married within a month of each other?  Well one of the bachelorette parties is going to be in Vegas with a "50 Shades of Grey" theme.  So of course 'Grey Tie' from the Saturated Canary was perfect.  I have to make 21 of these tags which will be attached to the swag bags.  You say eeeeeeek, right?  I sure did because I'm spread a little thin with a lot of projects right now so I had to cheat a little.  Oh ok.... maybe a lot.  I colored only one of these cute little images and then I took her to my local copy shop.  They scanned it and made it into a bunch of smaller ones!  Whew!!  That saved me a lot of work considering the tag itself is taking quite a bit of work!  They even made me a huge 11X17in one that will be used on a sign that will be in the foyer of their suite!  How awesome is that?

The one you are looking at was actually a scanned image, not the original I colored.  Not too bad right?  I think they did a great job.  I hope the girls really like her!!

DONE!!

Black & White +Teal

My sister has posted her B/W +1 for the SC Challenge and now it's my turn!  DT members please note that my sister and I share this blog.  We realize there is only to be one entry and we are only entering ONE card each.  Please do not delete our entries!  Thank you! :)

This is the lovely "Fancy" and she was a freebie from the oh so generous Krista at the Saturated Canary!  I made her into a wedding card for a coworker.  I have 3 friends at work who are getting married within 1 month of each other!!  EEEEEK!  I hafta's get busy!!  Anyway, all 3 of these lovely ladies are always decked out to the nines so I'm going to try and make their cards to match that!  I will be posting my other cards as I complete them.

papers: Bazzill, GCD, Fancy Pants

flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts

punches: Martha Stewart

dies: Cheery Lynn, Spellbinders

metal initials: Making Memories

feathers: michaels (colored w/copics)

ribbons,pearls,stick pin beads: Michaels

Sorry about the poor quality pics.  It's really late and I couldn't wait till daylight because I wanted to get her posted!  Off to make more wedding cards!

I am entering Fancy into these challenges:

saturatedcanarychallenge.blogspot.com
craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.com
4craftychicks.blogspot.com
pennyschallenges.blogspot.com

Black White Plus One

WOW...It's been a week since I've been able to color and I think I've had some withdrawals.  Too many things going on in our lives and it never seems to stop.  But tonight I was finally able to play a little bit.  There have been visions in my head of a vintage look for a while but every time I try to color, the images just turn out dark.  I'm not sure why I can't do pastels or vintage light coloring.  I'm going to need to start searching the internet for tutorials.

Anyway, I like this girl.  I have two dogs and love to hold and cuddle with them, so this was a must have digi from Krista's Saturated Canary website.  Obviously my plus one color is green.  Black hair is not my favorite thing to color but I found a two color combination that I actually like (100 and C3) and it seems really easy to me.  The other difficulty for me is trying to leave white highlight.  I think I did a good job in her dress but completely missed the boat on her bow.  Oh well...practice, practice, practice.  I'll keep trying but in the meantime, I hope you like her!

Here she is close up!

xoxo,

Jo

It's All About the Shoes

I've finally finished my card of Dorothy.  I loved the Wizard of Oz, not just for the story it told, but because of those sparkly red shoes.  Yummy.  So when Krista put up the bling challenge, I had to use Dorothy and glitter up those shoes.  I remember my daughter being smaller and they had those Mary Jane shoes in red glitter.  I secretly wished I could get them in my size so we could play dress up together.  Ohhhh...do I love those things.  I hope you can see the glitter in the shoes but I don't think the camera does it justice.  I purposely left the bows uncolored so the eyes aren't distracted from the red.

I tried to keep to my KISS promise tonight.  Maybe it's because I'm tired and lazy.  But it still feels good that I did.

I am entering her in the following challenges:

Saturated Canary Challenge #21 Bling It Out
Stamptacular Sketch Challenge #171
Stamp N Plus July Anything Goes Challenge

xx,
Jo