Dance in the Rain

Dustin Pike's challenge this week is to use his digis with a "Spring Showers" theme.  I wanted to do something different than a card and decided to make my daughter a small wall hanging for her room.  I used the same quote that I put in her high school yearbook when she graduated.  I love this quote.  Words to live by indeed.

It was fun doing a non-card project again, I miss that.  I was going to hang this in her room at home but she is stealing it for her dorm room instead and that is ok with me because that means she really likes it, yay!


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Out of This World

I told you I'd be playing with stair step cards again, LOL!!  This time it's a birthday card for my niece and I used TWELVE Dustin Pike images.  Oh this is addicting and was even more fun than the last one! 

I did the combo trick and used both my BICs and my Copics to color.  I spent lots of time fussy cutting and pop dotting everything for dimension including the eyes of the monsters which I also coated with Liquid Glass.  The space ship is my favorite part I think - his expression is just too stinkin funny!  I used Liquid Glass on the top of his ship and when I added the banner I curled the paper a bit to make it wavy.  The balloons were cut from patterned mirror paper with a Cuttlebug die and then I attached wire to them for the strings.  The "inside" of the card is again on the back so I made sure to pretty it up since it would be on display too.

When I went to assemble each step layer I thought I'd add a matted frame to each section which caused my card to be wider than the standard 6" and no longer square (need to plan better the next time!).  This made the envelope size tricky and I actually had to make a dimensional one too because this thing was way to thick to slip into a flat envelope.  Also, the whole thing ended up so heavy with all the layers that I had to add a tab underneath to connect the front and back to stabilize it and keep it upright.

Such a fun project, and the best part is that my niece really loved it when I gave it to her!  (ok, I'm secretly mumbling "rats!" because I was hoping I could steal it back, LOL!!)

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Sympathy Card

Sympathy cards are never easy for me to make but I wanted to make a really nice one for a long time friend who just lost his brother and his dad.  I found inspiration from a beautiful friendship card by Linda's Works Of Heart and some really nice sentiments at Imag-e-nation.com.  I used Creative Memories papers from their Nancy O'Dell Hummingbird line - oooooohboy! you have to try these because they are just GORGEOUS!!  The frame design around the front sentiment was a freebie from  The Graphics Fairy.

Special friends deserve special cards and this one is filled with lots of love.

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What is better than a Dustin Pike digi?

SEVEN OF THEM! 

I've been wanting to make a stair step card for a while and decided to finally try one for my mom's birthday card.  I knew I wanted to use one of Dustin Pike's new spring digi's so I could enter his challenge HERE, and then I decided to challenge myself  further and combine a bunch of them into a scene.  I ended up with ... count them: SEVEN! 

Dudley: FebDay24B
Background: TreeB
Flowers: BottomB
Rainbow and Sun: JanDay6B
Butterflies: vbflysb
Dragonfly: Dragonflya
Flower circle border: RingB

This was fun.  I mean really FUN!!  It is one of those projects that you start tinkering with and keep adding to and then when it is done you don't want it to be because you had so much fun in the process. 

I used my BIC markers and Copics together, sitckles and glossy accents, and I used foam to pop up Dudley, the dragonfly and the front sentiment.  The butterflies were printed on the background and then also printed and cut out separately so I could overlay them and pop up their wings.  The back sentiment is edged using the Martha Stewart Deco Shell punch around the page set (absolute  fave!!).  I fussy cut everything I could and it took quite a while but I love to do it so I didn't mind.  I put what would normally be the inside of a greeting card on the very back of the card.  To be sure it would stand up and not droop, I cut a strip and, running it under the entire card, I glued one end behind the first layer of flowers and then tucked the other end in between layers glued on the very back accordion piece (when I glued the greeting part to the back of the card I left a small opening on the bottom for this tab to tuck into).

I have to make another of these for myself now because it is taking every ounce of energy to pull my grubby paws off it to give it away, lol!  It certainly won't be my last stair step card!

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Happy Valentine's Day!!

Two more last minute cards, both with more irresistible images from Dustin Pike.  I added the sentiment in the bear's heart with a font called A Red Bucket. 

I used a couple of my QuicKutz embossing folders for the backgrounds, Nesties for the inner mats and flower and also a QK nesting flower die for the large petal flower, colored the images with my BICs, added a touch of StarDust Stickles and then popped up both images with some foam tape for dimension (which seems to be my current addiction). 


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Sprinkling Love Valentine Card

On a roll!  2 cards done this week, woohoo!  And no shoveling in 4 days!!  Life is GOOD, LOL!!

I adore this little bear image by Dustin Pike and I knew right away how I was going to use it.  I colored him (her??) with my BICs and added Stickles for some sparkle and foam dots for some dimension.  Gosh that loose heart was tiny and tricky, lol!  I would have liked to also add some machine stitching around the edges but time was short and I wanted to be sure my daughter receives this by Valentine's Day so I skipped it and popped it in the mail as is.  Next time!

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Birthday cake bear card

I took a break from shoveling and chipping ice and was able to sneak in a birthday card for my hubby (and just in time!).  I have such a hard time making "masculine" cards - how do you make a card and NOT use pastels or butterflies or ribbons or lacy borders or bling or cutesy images??  I tried to at least stick with darker colors (which look much deeper and richer in person) but I could not resist this Dustin Pike image - too stinkin adorable!  He's colored in with my BIC markers.  I also finally used my fancy schmancy new Spellbinders Labels Eleven dies - woohoo!  LOVE these!  Both the bear and the mat are pop dotted for some dimension.

Oh, I also snuck in a touch of Stickles on the candle, but at least I resisted glitterfying the entire cake!  LOL!!



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Icy beauty

Temps dropped last night and everything in our yard is frozen solid now.  I can actually walk on top of some of the snow, woohoo!  I'm no longer trapped in my driveway!  The ice storm yesterday coated the trees and this morning the sun came up and it was absolutely beautiful.  The branches sparkle in the sunlight and you can hear little "tink" sounds when they move in the breeze. 

I ran around the house taking pics this morning as the sun came up and I'm sure my hubby thinks I'm nuts, but after all this shoveling this winter I need something to make all the bad weather worth it, right? 

Here's a peek at my yard with some of nature's "bling"....

 

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What an UNBELIEVABLE winter!

My poor blog has been neglected and my crafting has come to a screeching halt all because of mother nature.  January broke all sorts of records for snowfall here and it has come close to breaking my poor back too from shoveling, lol!  We are averaging a storm twice a week and our total for the month was over 5' - craaaazy!

To celebrate Groundhog Day today I've decided that my peeps and I are heading over to Punxsutawney Phil's hole to stand guard and if he dares to pop his head out we will bop him with our snow shovels like a Whack-A-Mole!  I can't take any more winter!!!!!!!!!

Since I have no crafty pics to share I thought I'd share some snowy ones...and just to clarify for my desert buddie Deb, YES I do shovel all walkways and steps and doorways every time, lol!  ;)

Garage door onto deck...wow!

My poor deck is under there somewhere!

The only way to plow out!

My steps were in there yesterday...

Where do ya sit to swing??

Our very own mountain...

Where do you build a snowman when you are 5 and the snow is too deep to walk through??  On top of the snowbank of course, lol!

Even the kitties could not believe it is snowing again...

Just for fun and to mix it up a bit we are in the middle of a big ice storm today.  OMG will it never end??  Hopefully I will be able to stop shoveling and start crafting and blogging again soon.

Keep warm my friends!

Happy New Year!!!

Wishing everyone a

happy, healthy and crafty

2011!

And thank you to everyone who joined in the calendar blog hop and for all of your kind comments.  It was a lot of fun and so much amazing talent.  Big congrats go out to Colleen!!  Woohoo girl you won the Designer's Calendar cart!!  Way to go!  Be sure to give Karel your contact info asap so you can get busy crafting and show us what fantabulous goodies you create!   ;)

{{hugs}} to you all!