Double D Challenge: Birds

 

Hello my crafting friends!  It's time for another Double D Challenge and this time Darlene is asking for birds.  Have a look at the beautiful inspiration board she put together for us:

Those parrots pulled me straight to my digi box where I had an image from All Dressed Up printed and ready to color.  It sat there for a long time because I was confused as to where the wings are exactly.  I could make myself crazy... so I decided to just color whether accurate or not.  Seems like I've been hyper-critical of myself lately, sigh...  Nevertheless, I like the overall look of the finished card.

Colored with Copics on Neenah white.  The frame is the negative left from cutting mats for Christmas cards last year.  I glued two together and brushed with inks -- light green and blue.  You barely notice the green in this photo, but it's there.  Added some funky flower die cuts to go with the stylized image.  I did have fun with it!

There's a pretty prize up for a random winner.  Creative winners are chosen with great difficulty by the team.  I love birds so I know I'm going to enjoy the gallery for this challenge.

Check out the Double D blog for more info and to see the team's fun and fabulous samples.  I hope you'll have time to play!

Stamps:  All Dressed Up 'Summer Bird' digi, SU 'It's Your Birthday' sentiment  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White 80 lb  Ink:  SU Gable Green and Taken With Teal (frame), Glorious Green (leaves), Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Green Galore (flowers), Memento Tuxedo Black (sentiment)  Coloring:  Copics  Dies:  Spellbinders Labels 28, Heartfelt Creations Delicate Asters, Dee's Distinctively Sm. Pair of Leaves  Other:  1/4" circle punch, Stickles Stardust glitter

Bird on a Mushroom

Hello again!  It's an unusual situation that I'll have a post every day this week, but there are certain challenges that caught my eye and I'd like to join in before the week is over.  At the same time I've got my self-challenge to use all the summer-themed NBUS I set aside, and fall is closing in fast, so the race is on.  Pretty sure I'm going to lose that race, but I'm still having fun.

Today I have an All Dressed Up digital stamp called Woodland Bird.  Maybe it doesn't look like a birthday card, but it is.  I made it for our 9 yr old neighbor.  The bird with mushrooms is the digital stamp.  I added the sentiment and music notes from my stash.

For extra color and festivity I added die cut fun flowers and plenty of sparkle.  The heart which hangs from the mushroom has "tweet dreams" written on it, but I covered that with a punched heart, considering this is a birthday card.  Sorry, no balloons or cake or candles.  Coloring was done with Copics.

Sharing the inside which uses an oldie bird stamp from my stash, plus the music notes (from a Power Poppy Christmas stamp set), and a brand new-to-me Rubbernecker sentiment.  A lot of different things from my stamp room came together for this card!

 

I'll list supplies below my signature, but first -- today's challenges:

Double D Challenge -- Colorful.  I had this challenge in mind from the beginning and I'm hoping this is colorful enough.

All Dressed Up Challenge #108.  Anything goes with an All Dressed Up image.

NBUS Challenge #18.  The All Dressed Up digi stamp and the inside Rubbernecker sentiment are NBUS.

Thank you so much for your time today.  Wishing you all things wonderful!

Stamps:  All Dressed Up Woodland Bird digi, Power Poppy Tweet Tidings (music notes), Power Poppy Best Day Ever, inside -- Great Impressions bird, Rubbernecker Tweet Birthday  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White, retired SU designer paper  Ink:  Printer, Memento Tuxedo Black  Coloring:  Copics  Dies:  MFT Die-namics Stitched Rectangle Frames, Memory Box Flower Stack  Other:  Stickles Cinnamon and Stardust glitter, Wink of Stella, SU 3 in 1 heart punch, Scotch brand foam mounting tape (one flower)

Hanging Basket

Hello there!  More coloring today and I thought perhaps it might be nice to take a break from Christmas and fall cards.  Therefore, I've got a pretty basket of flowers which I recently found at All Dressed Up.  It's a digi stamp called Hanging Basket.  They have some very cute stuff over there!  I still have a few from All Dressed up that I haven't colored yet and, again, I'm hoping the 30 Day Coloring Challenge will encourage me to get more of them done.

This card represents the coloring I did on Days 2 and 3.

I colored this one with Prismacolor pencils on X-Press It Blending Card.  It's not the best for pencils, but the original plan was to do a Copic and pencil combo.  However, some of the detail in the image was so fine it was ultimately best to stick with the pencils.  I did not use Gamsol for blending.  It's just pencils.

A retired sentiment from my stash, retired splatter stamp, a Doodlebug Matte Sprinkle to hold up the basket...  A simple design and colorful.  I like this one!

By the way, I'm not going to complain about the discomfort of my "golfer's elbow", but it's interesting that my hand started going numb while I was coloring this.  I always seem to tense up and grip too hard when I use pencils.  Still trying to manage and not overdo it.

Thanks for coming to see me today!

Stamps:  All Dressed Up 'Hanging Basket' digi, retired JustRite 'A Warm Hello set', retired SU Itty Bitty Backgrounds (splatters)  Paper:  X-Press It Blending Card, green, blue  Ink:  Printer, Memento Tuxedo Black, Creamy Caramel for splatters  Coloring:  Prismacolor pencils  Dies:  Taylored Expressions Stitched Rectangle Stacklets, Memory Box Stitched Circle Layers, Spellbinders Standard Circles Large

Christmas in January 2019

Hello, friends!  I know you're all busily working on your Christmas cards.  Wait... what?  Well, neither am I, but I do plan to be further ahead this year come December.  There was simply too much last minute in 2018.  I may not do a Christmas post every month, but I hope to do batches of the same stamp set or vendor.  I'll start with the two Christmas digis I picked up last year at All Dressed Up.

The first is Christmas Deer.  She's such a pretty thing, I couldn't resist.  Colored with Copics, framed with dreamy paper and elliptical circles.  Vellum poinsettias and Nuvo drops for trim.

(Our Daily Bread Designs Beautiful Blooms paper, Memory Box Seraphine Laurel and Peace Cheshire Script)

The second card is Christmas Robins, also colored with Copics.  This one has some Wink of Stella and Stickles sparkle, plus glitter paper under the border.  I made two cards with this image, but only photographed one.

(Spellbinders A2 Bracket Borders One, Sizzix Primitive Stars)

Keeping it quick today, just sticking to my commitment.  It's hard to start a Christmas card this time of year, but once you're over that hurdle it's all about the fun.  Now... back to anything but Christmas.  Have a happy day!

Birds and Balloons

Surprise, I do not have a Christmas card today.  I gathered up my recently purchased and printed All Dressed Up digis, intending to color the two Christmas images, and then did this one instead.  It's called Follow Your Dream and is about as far from Christmas as you can get.

I do have a reason for it.  Every year I make anniversary cards for my friend's four sons and daughters-in-law.  Now I've learned she also sends them to nieces, nephews, grandkids, and just about everyone else and she'd love to have a lot more than four.  Considering the variety of personalities and ages she sends them to, and the fact that I do this year after year, I need to think outside the box if I'm to come up with anything new.

So... I bought this digi for me just because I think it's cute, but I suddenly saw its possibilities as an anniversary card for the young at heart and wanted to make it up before I changed my mind.

It's colored with Copics and "happiness" from an old SU set was added.  Also, feeling lazy, perhaps, I opted not to shade the background, but stamped a super ancient sun from my large collection of southwest stamps that I haven't used in ages.

The stitched and scalloped mats are a combination of two unrelated die sets that work perfectly together and enable dozens of combinations:  Lawn Fawn Outside In Stitched Scalloped Rectangle Stackables and Taylored Expressions Stitched Rectangle Stacklets.  These two sets fit so perfectly together that they can even be nested at the time of cutting.  For this combo I did a variety of cutting, fitting, and layering -- all easy stuff.

The finished card is 5 3/4" x 4 1/2", essentially A6.  By making it just 1/4" shorter it allows centering of the A2 dies without the leftover space in the length.

Inside is a Power Poppy sentiment from the Sweet Simple Things digital stamp set.  My friend can write her own "happy anniversary".  I know she can make it work.  As I mentioned, thinking outside the box.

There is a full list of supplies below my signature.  Back to the Christmas cards now, but I will say this was fun for a change.  Speaking of Christmas cards, I received my first of the season earlier this week.  Happy holidays!

Stamps:  All Dressed UP digi "Follow Your Dream", SU Warm Words "happiness", Power Poppy digital Sweet Simple Things quote for inside, old wood block sun motif  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, SU Pool Party, Taken with Teal, and Marigold Morning  Ink:  Printer, Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Pool Party stamped off once for lighter color  Accessories:  Doodlebug Sprinkles glitter enamel dot  Dies:  Lawn Fawn Outside In Stitched Scalloped Rectangle Stackables, Taylored Expressions Stitched Rectangle Stacklets, Poppystamps Stitched Bloom Trio