April Showers Bring May Flowers @ Little Red Wagon

This week at

it's Jodi's turn with the challenge and she's picked "April Showers Bring May Flowers" but, wait! Before you grab some flowered dp or dive into your stash of paper flowers, she wants you to have to work a little bit at least and she wants to see diy flowers. Fun, eh?

This is what I did.....

I cut some flower shapes on my Silhouette and then shaped those into petals for these flower.  Used my Silhouette Sketch pens for the sentiment - love 'em, I really should use them more often.

So why not head on over to Little Red Wagon and enter the challenge? And be sure to check out the wonderful projects the other Girlfriends have done.

Quick Crafting

That's generally a huge oxymoron for me. Me making something usually takes hours. And if it's something that I'm actually pleased with it usually takes hours and hours and hours.

Add to that the fact that I generally don't make something that's been specifically and completely inspired by a certain challenge. Sure, I have my dt duties that require me to make something governed by specific guidelines, but I approach those as a two-fer at least. (Meaning: "Hmmmmmm......I need to make a birthday card, what's coming up that I need to make a card for......'use numbers', perfect.") I often check out the challenge world for sketches but I generally don't try to fit in too many challenges before I make my project, rather I see what challenges my card will fit after it's made. (Don't gasp. You know you all do it too. :-))

But today was different. Today I popped over to Dilly Beans challenges to see what their current challenge was because I was colouring a Dilly Beans image. As soon as I saw that it was make an ATC, (and I only had about seven hours left to enter) I immediately dropped what I was doing (which is another rarity for me as I really don't like to stop in the middle of something) printed off another Dilly Beans stamp and set to work making an ATC.  Just 'cause I was that inspired.

And, just a short time ago I finished it. Here it is......

Not thrilled with the photo but whatcha gonna do sometimes, eh?  The wings were coloured with a Wink of Stella pen, which went over much better this time than the first time I used it and squeezed a huge blob out and completely ruined what I was working on.

Hey!  Why do the two purple flower blings look orange?  They're yellow!  And the ones that look clear are actually turquoise!  The purple ones are right at least.  *grumble*

For:

Dilly Beans:  ATC
Simon Says Stamp:  keep it clean and simple
The Sisterhood of Crafters:  things with wings
Digi Galore:  flowers
Creative Card Crew:  girly
Tuesday Throwdown:  lots of sparkle
{PIN}spirational:  inspiration photo
Digi Sketch:  floral
Sentimental Sundays:  colour inspiration photo
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge:  not a card

Count Me In @ Little Red Wagon

This week at

it's Tracy's turn to set the challenge she's picked "Count Me In" (which makes me think of "Bubbly" by Colbie Caillat every time). Anyhoo, she wants to see numbers on your creation.

This is what I did.....

Digi is from By Lori Designs (Lori Boyd).

See, easy!  So why not head on over to Little Red Wagon and enter the challenge? And be sure to check out the wonderful projects the other Girlfriends have done.

Celebrate!

'Cause that's what the penguin is telling you to do.

And really, if you had a penguin dancing towards you wearing a birthday hat and carrying a banner what else could you do?

Digi is a freebie from 2 Cute Ink.

2 Cute Ink: celebration
Sketchy Colours:  sketch.....(well, mostly :-) )
Simon Says Stamp:  animal antics
Top Tip Tuesday:  paper piecing
Addicted To Stamps:  anything goes
Crafty Ribbons:  anything goes with ribbon
Through the Purple Haze:  anything goes
Crafty Catz:  animals
Feeling Crafty:  anything for a child
Polkadoodles:  animal magic

Easter Parade @ Little Red Wagon

This week at

Jayne wants to see an Easter Parade.....a parade of Easter projects that is!

This is what I did......

I used a vintage digital stamp I got from.....I think...TLC Creations.

Yes, and if you do a card like this one, make sure you do the same as me by managing to get a speck of brown ink on the most conspicuous place on the stamp as you can so every time you look at it it irks you so much you can't really see anything of the card except for that freckle.

Stupid splotch.

You know you're gonna make something for Easter so why not head on over to Little Red Wagon and enter the challenge? And be sure to check out the wonderful projects the other Girlfriends have done.

Features a Wood Veneer @ Little Red Wagon

This week at

Rosanne wants us to "Feature a Wood Veneer" which...well, pretty much says it all right there.

This is what I did.....

I'm not sure if "feature" is the right description of what I did with my wood here.  Especially since I thought my wood looked a bit too woody and I went and coloured it with a red pencil.

Digi is from Lori Boyd Designs.

I'm betting you have a least some wood in your wagon you would like to use so why not give it a go and head on over to Little Red Wagon and enter the challenge? And be sure to check out the wonderful projects the other Girlfriends have done.   

Easter Minus Easter Colours

'Cause as I said before, I'm (purposely) lacking in the pastel colours paper department.

So, I went all monochrome up in here and made this......

....with a freebie from A Day For Daisies. And I put brown flowers on it. 'Cause nothing says spring like brown flowers. (Omg, would someone please invent a sarcasm font or just a font additive thing like bold or italic....c'mon it could be right up there beside the strikethrough. Possibly a capital "S" with frowny eyebrows and a half smirk. Yeah, that would be perfect. Thanks.)

For:

A Day for Daisies: all about Easter
2 Cute Ink:  anything goes
Artistic Inspirations:  Easter animal
Shopping Our Stash:  faux techique - wood/bark
4 Crafty Chicks:  colour a stamped image
Simply Create Too:  bunnies
Natalie & Amy:  embossing
Digi Haven:  Easter + brown
My Time to Craft:  wildlife
Open-Minded Crafting:  animal antics
The Squirrel & The Fox:  all creatures great and small
613 Avenue Create:  anything goes/spring
Cupcake Inspirations:  photo inspiration/monochromatic

Include a Bird or Animal @ UnstampaBelles

Well, we're into April now so that means a new challenge at UnstampaBelles. It's "Include a Bird Or Animal" which is pretty self-explanatory and there's also a twist - to use at pastel colours. Just remember - no stamps!

This is what I did....

And, he's on an Action Wobble too.

'Cause they're so much fun. Plus it's even more amusing with the googly eyes.

It was a little less pastel than I intended. Bad DT member!

You know you've got some patterned paper that have birds or animals on them or embellis that are birds or animals so why not head over to UnstampaBelles and enter the challenge? You have until the end of April to do so and you'll be entered into the drawing for a great prize and you might get picked as the DT favourite. So, go enter!

Make It Masculine @ Little Red Wagon

This week at

it was my turn to choose the challenge and I picked "Make It Masculine" which simply means that I want to see your manly or boyly projects.

Fairly easy for me seeing as I often make stuff for my two boys. And this was one of those things I made....

Not totally happy with that break in the dirt there but sometimes that the way it goes.

I know some of you find masculine projects challenging but why not give it a go and head on over to Little Red Wagon and enter the challenge? And be sure to check out the wonderful projects the other Girlfriends have done.

Colouring Paper: Goldilocks Had It Right

At least, imho she had it right.

Yes, yes, I'm sure you are all thinking, "What in the name of fairy tales is she talking about now?" Well, let me explain....

As my regular readers know (all two or three of you), I've always kinda struggled with colouring. I know I'm not grand at it, but it's something I enjoy so I've (kinda) come to terms with that. That's not to say I don't try to improve, sure I would like to become good at colouring, but seeing as, at this point anyways, I'm not really willing to work all that hard at it, not willing to take classes or watch tutorials (not that there's much out there for Prismacolor Pencils unless it's to do with colouring on kraft cardstock anyways) etc. chances are getting better is something that's unlikely to happen.

But, I am willing to cheat in order to have my colouring look nicer. And the way I found to do that is to colour on textured cardstock. I find that textured cardstock, and its tooth, helps with contrast on my images, making them look, as far as I'm concerned, better. Also, with the textured cardstock, I don't use anything to blend the colours like I do if I colour on regular old smooth cardstock, well nothing except the pencils themselves, that is, and therefore I enjoy the process much more. Also, I find not using oms or the like makes the colour stay truer and it's easier for me to work in the smaller spots on a stamp.  And faces!  I don't think I have yet to colour a face on smooth cardstock that I was actually pleased with, where on the textured, I have liked my efforts a time or two.

But, having said that, I also find that textured cardstock can be too rough.  Like this card I did for example.  The textured cardstock is almost too distracting, kwim?  And that's not what I'm going for either.

Luckily, the other day I had a *light bulb going off over my head* moment and I decided to print my digi (from Tiddly Inks) on the B side of the textured cardstock.  You know, the other side, the side that's textured a bit, but not as much as the side you're supposed to use.

And, this was my result.

So, still textured enough to satisfy my need to use it to help with highlights and shadows and not have to use oms, but smooth enough to so it doesn't look like my card is trying to attack you visually.

Or, to put it in Goldilock's terms:  That cardstock is tooooo smooth.  That cardstock is toooooo rough.  But this cardstock is just right.

And she coloured it all up.

THE END

For:

Tiddly Inks:  celebrate spring
Moving Along With the Times: sketch
Papertake Weekly:  anything goes
Scrap-Creations:  spring
Top Tip Tuesday:  cute
Oldie But a Goodie:  April showers bring May flowers - paper, trim, bling and flowers are all over 6 months old.....actually, most are over a year old
City Crafter:  Easter/spring
Creative Card Crew:  animals
Artistic Inspirations:  anything goes/Easter colours
Crafty Boots:  Easter
Cutie Pie:  cute with dies & punches
Kaboodle Doodles:  spring is coming
Ooh La La:  for a child
The Crazy Challenge:  bling it up
Incy Wincy:  tic tac toe - gems, free, pink
4 Crafty Chicks:  spring
Aud Sentiments:  Easter sentiments
Paper Crafting Journey:  anything goes
Crafty Catz:  anything goes
Simply Create Too:  Easter/use bunnies
Card Makin' Mamas:  inspiration photo - I got my inspiration from the white bunny, flowers and brown accents.
Challenges 4 Everybody:  anything goes
Pile It On:  floral fantasy
Quirky Crafts:  spice girls - I used (mostly) brown & pink as my colours....pink for femininity, and brown to represent strength.

Candy Winner!

First to those of you who entered - thank you! I really appreciate any and all comments you've left for me.

I did an old fashioned draw out of the hat for the winner. Well, it wasn't really a hat. A hat would have meant I had to get up and go get one. This bowl from my daughter's play kitchen was well within reach so I just used that.

And the winner is..........

Yay!! (That's me congratulating Tracy, not being happy about you guys seeing my messy desk or my ancient-looking hands.)

Tracy, email me with your address and I'll get your package of goodies out to you.

Have a great day, all!