Simple Joys

Good Morning Darlings!  It is the first day of a new challenge at Sassy Cheryl's.  Dawn is the hostess for this challenge and she is challenging us to use a shade of purple and at least 2 dies used in our creations.  I selected Cheryl's newest digi called Reckless Waves because it reminds me of a dear friend who loves to kayak.  Well I wasn't the only Sassy Girl to select this one.  It appears that my dear friend is also a dear friend to some other Sassy Gals and they chose her too.

What is amazing is how we all selected the same digi, used the purple and dies and each one turned out so different.  I envisioned a quiet peaceful scene and  used cotton balls to apply chalk to the sky and the water creating a feeling of the early morning  fog that comes off the marsh.  I colored the image with Copic markers getting a bit bolder with my colors to add a layer of dimension.  I chose the dark green marsh grass and black birds for a third layer of dimension.

The wet sparkle on the water is a bit of Glossy Accents.  The sentiment is from PTI and the grass and birds are made with a die from Impression Obsession.  The butterfly is a SU sizzlit that I have used a gazillion times.

Please, please check out what my Sassy Design Teammies have come up for you this week.  You will be amazed at what you find.  Be sure to visit their individual blogs and leave them a bit of love too.  Hope to see you enter this new challenge.  You have two weeks to get your entry, so get those creative juices flowing and pop over to the store to see what Cheryl has come up with now.

Challenges I plan to enter this in:

Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes with punches or dies. 
Crafting From The Heart Anything Goes
Make My Monday - Nature

Twinkling H20's

I needed a birthday card for my wonderful son in law.  He is an outdoorsman and doesn't like a lot of frills.  I wanted to play with a watercolor background and thought I would try using my Twinkling H20's.  Oh my gosh, this was so much fun.  I used watercolor paper by Strathmore and two shades of  blue, purple and green.  I then painted a light coat of black across the green..  I love the little flecks of mica in these paints  The sparkle is beautiful IRL.

The marsh grass is a stamp from Stampin Up as is the sentiment stamp.  The flock of birds si a stamp from Stamp Scapes.  The moon was a mask made with a circle punch.  The border stickers are from Elizabeth Crafts and are black glitter.  I used a glitter pen and traced over the sentiment.

Challenges I plan to enter:
Crafting At The Weekend - Anything Goes
The Krafty Hands Challenge - Anything Goes

Beach Time at Turtle's Cove

Beach Shadow Box

This little Turtle has been busy taking some alteration classes.  The top shadow box was made at my LSS, Scrapbooks By The Sea.  The owner Rayann learned how to make this at the Collins Rep show recently.  I fell in love with it and when she scheduled a class I signed right up.  Believe it or not, it came together in about an hour.  We added paper cut to size in the compartments and then added 3 dimensional stickers to decorate the rest.  The sand and shells are "Mudd Puddles"   Mudd Puddles are real sand and little tiny seasshells in epoxy.  We sell bunches of it in the store and it is so fun to use.  The center two blocks are going to hold pictures that I plan on taking at the beach this weekend.

By The Sea Calendar

My next project is a perpetual calendar I made at a class at the Paper Cave.  My friend Denise Bennedetto, owner of "Messn' With Paper" held a class and made these calendars in traditional papers.  The projects were so popular she held a second class and used the Graphic 45  "By The Sea" collection. The calendar is a kit and we put the project together and used E600 glue to adhere it.  Then we painted the entire box months date cubes.  While that dried we glued the drawer together and started covering it with paper. 

I used "YES" Paste to apply my papers to the project.  "Yes" Paste is my favorite adhesive for paper projects.  It is thick, strong, fast drying and does not cause ripples in the paper.  

After the paint dried we covered all the pieces with paper, sanded the edges to distress and inked the edges with distress ink.  Each month is printed on the DP via the computer.  Each "month block" has 2 months on each side for a total of 6 month blocks.  The extra ones store in the bottom drawer.  

The day cubes have numbers on each side of the block.  You just rotate the blocks daily to change the date.  these numbers were cut out on the Cricket. 

I hot glued some navy braid on the calendar for a pop of color.  I also hot glued some sea shells to finish off the calendar.

By the Sea Calendar Back

When I was sanding the edges I tore the checked paper.  I started to fix it, but I liked the look.  I felt it gave the calendar character and look more distressed so I left it.

By The Sea Calendar Side View

By The Sea Calendar Top View Without Month

By The Sea Calendar Front Without Month Block

Fun projects for the home.   I really enjoyed putting these two together.  I am going to enter these in the Show Me Thursday Sassy Cheryl Challenge.  I also would like to enter this in the Simply Create Too - Anything But A Card Challenge.

It's All About The Journey

Please note this VIP turtle. 

Hello people.  I am back today with a Mid-Challenge Reminder Card for Sassy Cheryl's CAS Challenge.   We are beginning our second week so you have one more week to get you entry done.  There is no excuse for not playing this week.  You could do something as easy as buying a precolored image from the Sassy Cheryl Store,  and make it into a card.  This my darlings, could earn you a win.  Our winners are chosen randomly and so beginners to pros all have the same chance to win.

This week I have colored up my darling Sally with her dog and a oh, so precious little turtle.  The image is called  Travel At Your Own Speed and you can get her here.   I do love turtles because they are so much like me.  I travel at my own speed, but oh what a ride it has been so far, especially my creative journey!  I love taking life at a slower pace and savoring each minute of it.

My CAS card has a bit more "fluff" to it this week, but it is still clean and simple.  I colored the image with Copic markers and  paper pieced her clothes and shoes.  A bit of Shamrock Green Flowersoft  provides a nice soft bed of grass for them all to sit on.

Thank you so much for taking the time to pop in for a visit.  I have been trying to find a bit mokre time for blogging, so I'll be around to visit your blog this week too.  Happy Crafting and remember to enjoy the journey.  TTFN.

Rapunzel Let Your Hair Down Girl

Hello dahlings!  I am back with my second card this week.  It is my very first "Some Odd Girl" stamp.  My LSS got a shipment in a short while ago and I finally found time to color one up.  It was fun to color because the spaces are nice and large for coloring.  I played with Rapunzel's long wavy beautiful hair trying to put all my practice from Alyce's (Kit and Clowder) coloring classes to good use.

I colored her with my favorite Copic Hair Combination.  E50; E51; E53; Y21; and YR31.  The papers are from Graphic 45 Secret Garden pad.  All my flowers are from my stash and it is getting pretty low.  I had to order some more flowers today.  The ribbon and lace are also from my stash.  The dies are Spellbinders and I distressed my edges with TH distressing tool.  I debated whether to put distress ink on the edges, but decided to keep it clean looking.  I finished off with some pink Frantage.  I have to say the assembly and design of the card went really fast.  That is one advantage of using lots of pre-made flowers.  I just grabbed my hot glue gun and applied the lace and the flowers and wallah.  All Done!

I plan to enter this in the following challenges:

 Kit and Clowders monthly challenge - Flowers
Some Odd Girl Facebook Challenge - Favorite Color Combination.  My fave hair color Combination and I                                                              also love peach and aqua together.
Some Odd Girl May Linky Party - Use a Some Odd Girl image.

Hello Ladybug!

Wow has this ever been the longest 3 weeks.  Sassy Cheryl challenges are now the 1st and 3rd week of every month, but when a 3rd week pops in, it confuses me.  LOL.  I had my challenge card already to go last wee and more than one of my Sassy Sistahs were also ready.  But we are here today ready to go with a brand new challenge.  The theme for this one is Clean and Simple (CAS).

Clean and Simple cards are always a challenge for me.  My designs typically have clean lines.  I don't typically use a lot of flowers and lace and embellishments.  But a true CAS card has a design that is minimal and has typically has a lot of white space.  This is about as CAS as I could come up with.  I used one of Cheryl Grants newer images called Ladybug Tales.  The ladybug border is made with one of her rubber stamps from a set called Patients Secret.  I colored her up with my Copic markers.

Now if you really want a treat, check out all the cards my Design Sistahs came up with.  Who knew there were so many different ways to keep a card clean and simple.  They are so beautiful.  When I saw all of their creations, it made me ALMOST want to sit down and start over.  But I didn't because this card was made with my precious Granddaughter #2 in mind.  Her  name is Kaylee and I call her "my bug".  This card just looks like something she would love.  In fact I am sending it to her with a little note tucked inside.

Click right here and you will be taken to Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog.  Do click on each of the other designers and check out their creations.  While you are there, leave them a little love too.  Everyone likes to hear what you think of their creations.

Be sure and enter this new challenge.  If I can do CAS, you can too.  So grab a Sassy Cheryl image and there are some cute new ones in the store too.  Color it and fold it into a card size.  See how easy it will be.  Enter the challenge within the next two weeks for a chance to win a little shopping trip to Sassy Cheryl's store.  Go on now.  I will stop by your blog and leave you a bit of love too!  See you in a bit!

Linda

Would also like to enter this in the following challenges.

Squigglefly - Run For The Border
Crafty Sentiments Designs - Anything Goes