Hello, blogger friends! I'm back from semi-retirement to post this adorable piggy Faith Skrdla gave away for this month's SOTM progressive challenge over on the From the Heart Stamps blog. Faith has been battling brain cancer, and I am absolutely THRILLED that she is feeling well enough to be creating some new digis and sketches for the weekly sketch challenges over on the FTHS blog. Although my job has picked up quite a bit (cutting into my craft time, unfortunately, and necessitating a hiatus from my DT position on the Outlawz and from blogging in general!), I didn't want to miss out on celebrating Faith's return.

For this card, I used the Hershey's kisses Faith included in the SOTM as a background for the banners and colored them with my silver leafing marker. To follow the sketch, I added a bow, printed the sentiment (also included in the SOTM) on vellum, digitally colored the cute piggy and did a print and cut of him using my Silhouette machine.

For the inside of the card, I used a Gina Marie Designs die to die cut the frame and sentiment (sentiment is from a CTMH clear stamp set) and added another Hershey's kiss I printed and cut with my Silhouette before coloring with my silver leafing marker.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful 2017 so far. May the Lord bless and keep each of you! I've missed you all!

Challenges I'm entering:

FTHS Sketch #163

http://fromtheheartstamps.com/community/2017/02/20/i-heart-sketches-with-a-twist-163/

From the Heart Stamps Monthly Challenge

This week at The Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge, our twist is "Anything Goes"! 

Our wonderful sponsor this month is Bugaboo Stamps, and I've used "Kawaii Kitty Ice Cream." You can find it (along with hundreds of other great digi stamps and papers) here: http://www.bugaboostamps.com

For my card, I used a 6X6 inch square card from my stash. I've been waiting to use this cute kitten card for awhile now! Pairing it up with this digi by Bugaboo seemed like a good idea. I added a stamp by CTMH underneath the digi and used a flair from my stash for the "thanks" sentiment. I added 3 black candy dots to the left side and used some pink twine to pull in the idea of kittens playing with yarn from the cardstock pattern. 

Hope you can join us over at the Outlawz this week!

Merry Christ-Moose for the Outlawz

This week over at The Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge, our "twist" is "Christmas Magic." 

Our wonderful sponsor this month is Bugaboo, and you can find their huge collection of digital stamps and papers here: http://www.bugaboostamps.com/

I used Gina Marie Desgns "Falling Snow Background" die, a die from Gina Marie Designs "Little Bird Dies" set, and Gina Marie Designs "Birch Tree" die. I made the sentiment using my Silhouette Design Studio program and did a print and cut of the Bugaboo digis "Moose" and "Porcupine." I colored them with Copic markers and adhered them with foam squares. 

Get Well Card for The Outlawz

This week over at The Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge, our "twist" is to make a Get Well card or project. 

Our wonderful sponsor this month is Bugaboo, and I used "Nurse Margaret--Hurt a Little" for my card. You can find Nurse Margaret and lots of other great digi stamps and papers at: http://www.bugaboostamps.com/

To make my shadow box card, I used a cut file from the Silhouette Online Design Store and cut it out in pink. Then I sized up my digi and the sentiment (it came with the digi in a separate file so you can use it or not) and added the cut file from the card around it so it would fit perfectly inside the opening. I colored it with Copic and MEXPY markers and adhered it to the inside before gluing the top and bottom parts of the card together. I added a "Get Well" flair and then some white paper flowers by The Paper Studio. 

I already have a recipient in mind for this card. My cousin is having a nerve block done tomorrow, and I'm going to send this out to her. I'm praying she will have some relief from the pain she's been struggling with for some time now. Hopefully this funny card will give her a much-needed chuckle. 

Here's a view from the side to give you an idea of the dimension.

Meowy Christmas for The Outlawz

This week at The Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge, our twist is to make a tag! With Christmas around the corner, I thought I would make a Christmas tag for my cousin who loves cats. 

Our wonderful sponsor this month is Bugaboo! Both the adorable cats ("Meowy Christmas Cats") and the digi paper  ("Frosty") were Bugaboo designs. You can find a wide variety of digital stamps and papers for all occasions here: http://www.bugaboostamps.com/

I used a cut file purchased from the Silhouette Online Design Store for the base of my tag and then added the digital paper on top of it to cover it. Then I sized up the trio of Christmas cats and placed them on top of the paper and tag file. I added the sentiment using the font ElliotsIX. I did a print and cut of the tag and then colored the kitties using Copic and MEXPY markers. I added some liquid appliqué to the hat and tied a jingle bell to the side using green twine. 

Eat More Pie Card and a Freebie

It's November already! Time to think about one of my favorite holidays: Thanksgiving! My mom commissions me to make all her holiday cards, and she sends out 100 of them for most holidays and 200 at Christmas. For her Thanksgiving cards this year, I found this lovely leaf and acorn frame as a freebie on Quilling Patch blog at http://www.quillingpatch.com. There are lots of great freebies there.

I had some pretty fall paper by Carta Bella called "Falling Leaves" that I thought would work well for a Thanksgiving card. I cut it into 3X3 inch squares. Then I did some word art of a poem I found online (it was listed as having an unknown author) that I thought was funny. I played around with some different fonts for some of the words and used different colors. It turned out kind of like the writing in Geronimo Stilton books, if you're familiar with that children's series. Then I used a label cut file from the Silhouette online store to cut out the poem. I added a print and cut of the pumpkin pie from a FTHS set called "Eat More Pie." I colored it digitally and then used a trace file to cut around the outside edge.

I had some fall embellishments by The Paper Studio and also made a clay leaf of my own to add (the tan-colored leaf toward the middle of the leaf panel). The acorns on the bottom are a little hard to see, but the leaves show up pretty well.

For the inside, I digitally colored the turkey from the same FTHS set "Eat More Pie." I did a print and cut of him and cut out another pumpkin pie to adhere with a foam square to add a little dimension. I printed the sentiment onto the Kraft cardstock using my Silhouette Design Studio software. I'm not sure where I got the sentiment originally. If you recognize it, please leave me a comment so I can credit the artist.

Here's my Thanksgiving gift to all of you! Right click on the word art to save it. Please don't share this with others. Instead, direct them back to my blog if they'd like a copy of it. Thanks! Have a very blessed Thanksgiving!

Spooky Halloween for The Outlawz

This week over at The Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge, our twist is ANYHING GOES! It's everybody's favorite theme! Hope you can join us this week! Remember, you can submit up to 2 projects each week!

MHK Designs, our wonderful sponsor this month, has some great digis to play with. I chose to use a few digis and a sentiment from the "Spooky" digi set for my step card. You can find this set and lots of other great digis at https://www.etsy.com/shop/MHKDesigns?ref=hdr_shop_menu

I added some fun Halloween paper to my white step card base and then did a print and cut of several digis from the "Spooky" set. I placed the raven from the set in the tree and sized the tree to be a bit taller and narrower than the original digi to fit my card better. Isn't it great how easy it is to play around with digi stamps? They are so versatile! Then I did a print and cut of the skeleton key and an offset file for the bat to print and cut him out, also. I made a rectangle cut file around the sentiment to cut it out and then adhered it to the bottom "step" of the card.

I added a few spider web die cuts to embellish the card and colored the leaves and branch on the bat digi. I also added a few googly eyes for fun!

Side view: