Baby and Butterflies

We have a friend who is going to have a baby girl around Halloween. I have this darling image from Sherry West Art that is a crawling baby with a couple of butterflies. I digitally layered the image behind a frame and a clothesline of baby girl clothing and colored it with Copic markers. Then, I decided to paper-piece the baby's jammies, except for the feet, which I colored. Paper-piecing can be a really fun way to fill in different parts of an image and color the rest. I used the same paper for the jammies that I used for the background matting panel. I made my sentiment on the computer and added a ribbon, bow, tiny pink flowers and a little bit of glitter gel pen and Stickles. I used a Copic marker to give a little shading to the jammies, too. Now, I will put together a scrapbook for our friend to use, too. The scrapbook will be filled with pages I put together of cardstock and embellishments, some for the sonogram, pre-delivery, and then delivery and monthly post-delivery pages. I provide some double stick tape and all our friend has to do is add a picture from each month and her scrapbook will be complete! Here's the card that will accompany her gift.

Skin E000, E00, E21, E11, E04

Hair #21, E23, E25, E27

Feet RV02, RV04, RV09

Butterflies V06, V01

Grass YG03, YG99, YG67, YG63, YG25

Shadows C1, C0, RV02

White gel pen, pink glitter gel pen, Cotton Candy Stickles

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Sunshine

Our neighbor gifted us with a bag of delicious mangoes! I thought I could make her a little Thank You card for such a wonderful surprise. Our neighbors are in their 80's (she's 85 and her husband is 88) and the sweetest people you could ever meet. I usually make her a birthday card every year and we go to the same church (although our church has been closed these last few months). So when we went to pick up the mangoes, we used our masks, kept our "social distance" and chatted for a little bit. I used a Sherry West Art image called Sunshine. Now, unfortunately, I don't remember where I picked up this image, I think it might have been her Facebook group. I digitally added a Thank You sentiment at the bottom of the image and colored it with Copic markers. I used a white gel pen on some of the teardrop shapes and a gold gel pen on the Sunshine lettering. I added a few sequins using yellow Stickles to bling it up a little bit and some yellow twine and bow. Believe it or not, I actually wrote down the Copic markers I used this time, so I'll list them below the picture.

Stems/Leaves YG11, YG25, G07

Flowers Y21, Y15, Y38, E13

Flower Centers Y15, Y38, E71, E74, E77, E49, E08

Bees C3, C1, C0; Y11, Y15, Y38

I think this is a great way to say Thank You! I hope you have a Sunshiny Day!

Sew Much

My mom is an awesome seamstress and can make just about anything. So I used a Tiddly Inks image for her birthday card, and it fits my mom perfectly! The image is called Sew Much and I was inspired by the card made by one of her DTs for the coloring of the image. There were some extra images included with the main image that I recolored digitally to make everything in lavender/purple, my mom's favorite color. I did some paper-piecing on the image for the bow and a couple of the purple pieces of the skirt and colored the rest with copic markers. I embellished the card with buttons and a little bit of twine. My mom really liked her card! Let me know what you think!

I hope your life is like a quilt, too - I know mine is, because I am so blessed to have such a wonderful mom and family! Have a blessed day!

Fans

I follow several artists for digital stamps and a fairly new one (for me!) is Sherry West Art on Etsy. She has the cutest stamps and I love her little stories of daily life at her home in Indiana with her kids and animals. She posts these stories on FB. She also has a blog, which you might be interested in reading. I also found out that she has a cute children's book titled It's Raining Cats! It's Raining Dogs! It's Raining Bats! And Polywogs! I ordered two of these books for my great nephews who are turning 4 and 5 and Sherry even autographed them for me! They are really cute books for the small ones! Anyway, I have purchased several of her images from her Etsy shop (they are all only $0.99!!!) and haven't had a chance to color any yet; however, she offered a freebie on her FB page of this beautiful image called Fans. I wasn't sure I could do it justice, but I gave it a try! I colored the image with Copic markers, using a stencil for the lines on the back "spotlight." I used Crystal Stickles to glue on some crystals for the jewels. The crystals are part of a mix of different sizes and shapes from Honey Bee Stamps. Then, I tried to used Wink of Stella on the ruffles of the dress, but it just bled out the color and I thought I had ruined the picture! So, I tried the Crystal Stickles - lots and lots of it - and it brought the color back!!!! I was SO relieved! I stopped while I was ahead, and made a background for the card using cardstock and washi tape, and mounted the image. I am not sure what occasion I will use this for, but I really like all the glitter! Take a look and let me know what you think.

I hope you have a colorful day!

Cupcake Hamster

One of my nephews just turned 19, and I was having a hard time coming up with what kind of image to use for him. He played basketball all through high school, and I've used all of Mo's Digital Pencil images having to do with basketball on his previous birthday cards. Now that he's in college, what do I use? Well, I showed several choices to my husband and asked for his opinion and we decided on the Cupcake Hamster. It is actually perfect because this 19 year old is an eating machine - lol! I placed it on some digital paper I had from The Paper Shelter. They include digital backgrounds with their images, so it's very easy to use for all sorts of cards. I colored the image with Copic markers, trying very hard to keep the fur fluffy. I'm still working on that! I glued all sorts of beads, confetti and bits to the cupcake icing for the "sprinkles." I used the image's included sentiment, which just cracks me up! Take a look and let me know if it makes you laugh, too!

I am entering this in Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge Blog #293 - Happy Birthday.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Celebrate!

When I was a kid, July 4th was always so much fun! During the day we would put on our roller skates and skate up and down our driveway and play outside. Then, before dusk we would pile blankets into the car and drive to the reservoir and watch the fireworks. After the fireworks we would go home and light our own fireworks, mostly sparklers. Our dad would do the bottle rockets and other stuff while we watched. I was lucky enough to be gifted this image, Celebrate!, by the artist, Sherry West! I thought it would be great for birthday cards - for the recipient to celebrate! BUT, seeing as how we were a couple of days from July 4th, I thought I would color her up for the holiday - Red White and Blue! I used Copic markers to color the image and sparkler, then metallic gel pens of different colors on the little sparkles around the center. I used a ton of Stickles on the sparkler - more than I wanted, but they just came pouring out of the bottle because I had stored it upside down! After putting the card together I added three glittery star buttons to the top that I had cut off the shanks from the back. Take a look and let me know what you think - Long May She Wave!

I hope you had a memorable July 4th holiday and Celebrate!