Craft Your Passion Challenge-Anything Goes-Sponsored by Rick St. Dennis

Who doesn't always need a Birthday Card, Right?  This was the perfect time at Craft Your Passion to use this great image from Rick St. Dennis called Clown with Balloon!  As with all of his images, I'm just loving all the detail in this image.
I colored him up with copics, found the perfect chevron paper, used a sentiment from my stash, and used some terrific thick Bakers Twine in red, white and blue for the Balloons string.  Inside, another birthday design paper with a birthday sentiment.
So join us in our challenge and have a chance to win 2 individual images from Rick St. Dennis-He's got tons for you to choose from!

Christmas in July over at Lacy Sunshine! Get your cards done early and Think Cool!

 This week, Team A of the Lacy Sunshine Group, is continuing the monthly Theme of "Christmas in July" and I'm loving it!!!  I'm so getting a jump on my Christmas cards this year~

One of the Images you can now find in the Lacy Sunshine Shop is Hollyanna- perfect for me as Holly is one of my all time favorite decorations during the Holidays!  I pictured her in her black velvet fancy pants with a red velvet dress over top.  Her "Wings" are the holly leaves!  This die that I have has gorgeous loops around the square making it perfect for weaving in and out some ribbon.  It looks so pretty with a bow tied at the corner.  I cut her feet at the edges so that they would not get caught in the die cut.  Used a super Holly paper I had in my stash and added a chipboard verse that I accented with resin holly sprigs.  The inside has a stamped Christmas sentiment with Seasonal paper in the background.
So come and join us in our Challenge and feel the rush of the cold breezes in your face-just like Christmas!  That's what I'm telling myself in this terrible Illinois humid heat!

It's still Christmas in July at Sweet Pea Stamps and the One Sweet Challenge!

Continuing on with the Monthly Theme at One Sweet Challenge, It's Christmas in July!  AND that makes it a great time to get started on all your Christmas cards by using one of the many in the Sweet Pea Shop.  The one that I've used is called Merry by Regan Kubecek, a very talented artist among many at SPS!
There's lots of details in the image itself, what with braids, fairy wings, presents, piles of snow all around her, decorated Christmas Trees!  I used a very appropriate design paper in Christmas stripes, a red velvet insert to highlight the silver glitter domes, snow tex on the front hill and Frantage multi-crystal glitter mix/flower soft on the back hill, with silver filigree corner hinges.  I tilted the image a little to get a closer view of the sparkles.  Inside, I used the reverse paper from the stripe, stamped a super verse for Christmas and accented it with a poinsettia flower.
 I also want to remind you that our prizes are three digital images if the winner uses an SPS image, or one digital image if the winner does not use an SPS image. Can you give me one good reason why you would not want to use an SPS image? This challenge will end on August 1.

Always Anything Goes at Craft Your Passion-sponsored by Lacy Sunshine!

 This week at Craft Your Passion, we are being sponsored by Lacy Sunshine Stamps.  If you've never used her wide eyed images you are in for a treat when you visit her store!  Craft Your Passion has Challenges that are Always Anything Goes-how fun is that?!  The winner of the Challenge at CYP will get 3 digital images of their choice from Lacy Sunshine!  And Heather just opened up her Christmas Shop!!
The image that I'm using is called Tabbi Boo-Ski Bunny and I had a blast coloring her up!  I'm trying to expand my coloring with hair-I usually go to a red-brown or blonde but tried kind of a taupe brown this time.  I also used my Cretacolor Pastel pencils on the background with a mixture of blues and purples and then used a stump to smudge up the colors.  Also used a toothbrush to "splatter" some snow-tex over the image to create snowflakes.  May use just some acrylic paint next time.  I used this Shimmery cardstock in Amethyst from The Paper Cut for the back mat and then a gorgeous shiny silver metallic mat under the image- lovin' all the layers!!  Their cardstock has such a wonderful weight to it-I love to use it!  I found the perfect satin purple snowflake ribbon to use on the side! Great design word paper for the inside, along with an evergreen mat and a cute Stampendous Christmas stamp I just got at HL.  I love getting ahead on my Christmas cards for sure.  Well I hope you check out both the Challenge at Craft Your Passion and the images at Lacy Sunshine.  Thanks CYP for having such great Sponsors!

Entering this in Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps ATG Challenge

Pin Wheel Monster is the star of the Show at 2 CuteInk !

 There is a great feature that's unique to 2 CuteInk and it's that Heidi puts out a newsletter the first  2 weeks of every month.  In that, she gives you a free digital image to use on your creations!  The only way to get these digis is to sign up for the newsletter-easy right?  And of course, she gets so excited to see what you have made with her images.  It's a Win-Win for both of you!

This month, the image is called Pin-Wheel Monster and I'm putting him on a unique card blank from The Paper Cut called the Scalloped swinging Z-fold blank in Lemon Drop.  I cut Pin Wheel monster out with a circle die and set the pinwheel outside of the die-love that effect.  Doesn't that daisy paper look so Springtimey?  It's perfect for a fun Birthday for some lucky person--hope to see you on the website with your creation!

Christmas in July at Lacy Sunshine-Come Beat the Heat!

I just couldn't resist posting another Lacy Sunshine image  for our monthly "Theme" Christmas in July".  We started off the month with Team A challenge using the digital images from Lacy Sunshine called the "Whimsie's" with a Christmas theme.  Well, there are SO many Wintery/Christmas images that Heather has created in the Lacy Sunshine Store that we were encouraged to use a variety!
This image called Coco's Santas' Hot Chocolate and it's just what I would recommend on a Cold Winter's day!  Love it and Love this image.  I made it a 6x6 card with a pink mat under a Chocolate swirled design paper.  I added a chocolate sheer ribbon, a foil sentiment sticker and a love of mine, raspberry baby buttons.
Come join us for all the fun-Beat the Heat and Humidity and get some Christmas cards done while you're at it!  See you there!

I'd like to enter this in the following Challenge:

Crafty Sentiments Designs Challenge Blog
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge-Winter Wonderland 
Digi Choosday-Christmas in July 
Kitty Bee Designs-Aloha Friday Challenge #51 Christmas 

One Sweet Challenge/Sweet Pea Stamps is having Christmas in July!

Sweet Pea Stamps is starting the first 2 week challenge at One Sweet Challenge for this month!  The Theme is Christmas in July--Yeah, a GREAT way to beat this heat and humidity!   Remember the third Monday of July you will see more art work for the July challenge. I also want to remind you that our prizes are three digital images if the winner uses an SPS image, or one digital image if the winner does not use an SPS image. Can you give me one good reason why you would not want to use an SPS image?
There are so many images to use in the Vast gallery of Artists at Sweet Pea Stamps!  The one I was particularly drawn to is called  Christmas bird by Elaine Cox.  This was just one of her digital images that was available.  I LOVE getting some of my Christmas cards done early don't you?  The image is already in a circular pattern and even comes with some shading in the background.  I used Copics on her but then accented the snow on the tree branches with Glitter Liner (in the Liquid Pearl section) and it is iridescent and flows pretty well.  Then I used a glaze pen which is so awesome-you could leave it to dry and it makes a slick look to your image OR use like I did and while wet, applied some glitter for the snowflakes.  I added some glitter ribbon and a clear type sticker and there you have it.
Hope you like and hope you will come and place an entry in our Challenge!  Can't wait to see you there!

I'd like to enter this in the following Challenge:

Crafty Calendar Challenge 
Crafty Hazelnut Christmas Challenge 
Quirky Crafts Challenge Blog