A Robot from Melonheadz Illustrating

There are so many of Nikki's illustrations that I've been wanting to use that it is always my "go to" blog for images for cards.  She offers such a variety of images and they are all free!  I must confess that I'm starting to get a bit lazy and am using the colored versions more and more.  Thanks, Nikki, for doing the coloring work for me!  What a great friend you are!  HA!

These two cards use Nikki's robot (I couldn't find the direct link to the robot.  Maybe Nikki will see this and find it for us!) and We R Memory Keepers paper.  The first one vaguely follows S&S Sketch #66 (the current week's sketch - check every Sunday for a new one) and the second uses S&S Sketch #41.

Dino Love

I left town yesterday for a 4-day scrapbook retreat in Perrin, TX with Cat's Creations Scrapbooks.  But, thanks to modern technology, you will still get to see new cards while I am off creating and re-charging!  Woohoo!

My daughter loves dinosaurs, so I happen to have lots of dinosaur-themed paper.  In fact, I buy any dinosaur paper I can get my hands on!  So, I decided to use some of it for OWH cards.  Share the love, cut up that paper you think is too cute to use.  That's why you bought it in the first place, right?!  The dinosaur is from my good friend Nikki at Melonheadz Illustrating.  All of her images are free and oh-so cute!  I did the sentiment on the computer in Word.  I also used S&S Sketch #59 (see below).

Party in Colors & Going to the Zoo

CHALLENGES:

Dustin Pike - Party in Colors (in honor of the blogiversary)

Stamping Vacation - Going to the Zoo

This card uses a free image from Dustin Pike (get it soon, no telling how long it will be free) and a free sentiment from Shannon's Sentiments.  With the bright colors and stripes, it would be perfect for a boy or a girl!

OWH Stars & Stamps MWT - Monochromatic

This week's OWH Stars & Stamps Midweek Throwdown Challenge was to make a monochromatic card.  Monochromatic always sounds easy to me, but when I'm putting my card together it always ends up to be quite the challenge!  This card uses a sentiment from TLC Creations - it comes from a set of sentiments called Cupcakes Equal Love.  The cupcake image is from my good friend Nikki at Melonheadz Illustrating.  All her images and "wordies" are free, so get on over there and check it out!

Designed 2 Delight - Bullfrog and Butterflies

Wow!  This week as part of the Designed 2 Delight weekly challenge we received a large image, a small image and three sentiments!  When I was laying out my card, I had a big white gap, so I used some flower stamps from Stampin' Up and added some bling and popped them to take care of the problem.  Here it is:

Hambo Hoedown - King's Announcement

This week at Hambo Hoedown in honor of the royal wedding on Friday, we were given an image of a king with a blank announcement.  I used a sentiment from TLC Creations for my announcement.  You should follow Paulette's blog because she gives away so many wonderful free sentiments and images. 

Here is my submission for the Hambo Hoedown weekly challenge.  We get a free image each week we participate - you should join in the fun!

Happy Easter!

Because it's Easter Sunday, I thought it would be very appropriate to post an Easter card even though the deadline for OWH Easter cards has come and gone.  When I saw this image from Dustin Pike, I nearly bust my gut laughing because I find black jelly beans about as disgusting as where this image hints that they come from!  I was also able to use the current sketch at the OWH Stars and Stamps blog to make it.

The paper is from We R Memory Keepers and is called Hippity Hoppity.  I think it was new about a year ago.  The green ribbon is from Stampin' Up.  ( I can't find the digi stamp anymore.  It was a freebie so perhaps it expired, but I couldn't find it in his store either.  The link above will take you to his store site if you want to inquire about it.)

EASTER CHALLENGES:

Paper Play Challenge 

Crafty Sentiments Designs 

4 Crafty Chicks 

The Sisterhood of Crafters 

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge 

For Fun Challenges 

My Time to Craft 

Lenten Card Challenge

This challenge comes from FibreJunky's blog.  She challenged herself and others to make a card for every day of Lent to donate to a charity.  Her cards are all going to Operation Write Home, so I thought I'd join in since ALL of my cards go to OWH as well!  Here's a photo of the first 49 I made and mailed.  Since then, I have mailed another 59 cards and 308 Any Hero letters (thanks to the K-4th graders at my daughter's school Fort Worth Country Day).  Not bad, huh?!

OWH Sticker Challenge

Last Saturday, 4/16 Operation Write Home sponsored a Sticker Skip to challenge people to make cards with just stickers.  I learned a lot of great tips from the cardmakers who participated and decided to put it into practice.  I have tons of stickers I never use anymore.  Now I'm inspired to turn them into cards for our troops!  Why not give it a try and post your creations at the OWH link above?  These stickers are the kind that the word changes depending on what angle you look at it (holographic?) so that was kind of different.  For that reason they are called Flip Flop Stickers and are made by My Little Shoebox.  All four of these stickers came in one package that I bought on sale at Cat's Creations Scrapbooks in Mineral Wells, TX.

Stamping Vacation - Magic Mesh

Wow!  I have tons of magic mesh and never think to use it.  Thanks to the Stamping Vacation Embellish It Challenge to use Magic Mesh, I dragged mine out.  I think it looks pretty cute and adds nice texture to the card.  Do you have magic mesh you haven't used in eons?  Give it a try!  The camouflage bear and sentiment are from Hambo Stamps - my free image for being Queen of the Hoedown.

Pinwheel Cards - OWH Tutorial

OWH Featured Cardmaker Denise I. from NY featured a pinwheel card which everyone just went crazy for.  Then, OWH did a Tutorial on how to make one.  Everyone started making them, but I was so busy with work and my daughter's activities that it took me about two weeks to get around to trying it out, but I DID!  Here are my pinwheel cards using We R Memory Keepers Old Glory paper and coordinating brads, SU Three Little Words stamp, SU Window Word punch and SU Scalloped Edge punch.  Better late than never.  And, yes, they were easy and fun to make!!  The biggest piece of advice I could give is to plan out your papers before you start so that you are sure to get enough contrast on your card.  Have fun with it!

Designed 2 Delight - Ladybug Balancing Act

Each week that you participate in the progressive challenge Designed 2 Delight will send you a new free image.  This week's image is Ladybug Balancing Act.  I paired it with some DP from Glitz Design and a sentiment stamp from Stampin' Up's Holiday Blitz set.  I also used S&S Sketch #51 to pull it all together.  I am also entering this card in the Incy Wincy Designs Challenge - Bright & Bold.

Dude Time Doodles - Jethro Jug

The second Wednesday of each month Dude Time Doodles provides a free digi image and challenge - always a masculine card, of course.  They have some really funny images that are fun to come up with sentiments for.  This week was Jethro Jug doing a jig, so I thought he looked ready to join the Riverdance dance troupe!  LOL

Hambo Hoedown - Distressed Ogre

This week's Hambo Hoedown Challenge asked us to create a card with the Ogre image, one of the sentiments and to distress our card somehow.  I used Ranger Distress Inks - walnut stain on all of my paper edges.  I also wet the edges of my mat for the Ogre image and curled them so that would appear even more distressed.  I used Stampin' Up watercolor pencils and blending pen to color the Ogre.

It's A Beautiful Thing!

308 Any Hero Letters from the boys and girls in grades K-4 at Fort Worth Country Day School - it IS a beautiful thing!  These will be on their way to Operation Write Home this week and ultimately to Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas of the world where our military is deployed.  I'm sure they will bring smiles to the faces of many of our service men and women.  Go FWCD Falcons!  Soar High!

A Little "Moo-La"

I got this free sentiment from TLC Creations (They have great digi sentiments, digi images and digi papers) that I thought was so cute for my nieces' and nephews' birthday cards because I always send them money.  Then I went on the hunt through my digi images for a cow to go with it - this one is from Limited Runs and she's so round and adorable!  My niece's birthday is April 29, so I hope she gets a kick out of it!

Designed 2 Delight and Stars & Stamps Challenges

This card was made with a free Designed 2 Delight image that is part of a progressive challenge.  Get in on the action and receive a new free image each week!

I used S&S Sketch #37 for my inspiration.  It also works great for the OWH Stars & Stamps Challenge to use layers on a card.  Very springy indeed!

OWH Midweek Throwdown - Father's Day

As most of you know, I make almost all of my cards for Operation Write Home who provides handmade cards to our military to use to keep in touch with family and friends while deployed.  That being said, this week's Midweek Throwdown is a Father's Day card.  Father's Day in April, you say?!  Yes!!!  Operation Write Home has to collect and re-distribute thousands of cards and get them overseas to be chosen,  written and mailed back home to the US in time for the holiday.  Soooo....our deadline to send Father's Day cards to our wonderfully hardworking OWH shippers is MAY 21, but the sooner the better so the shippers aren't scrambling at the last minute for enough cards to send in each box!

My latest Father's Day card uses the Stampin' Up set Loads of Love as well as the set Holiday Blitz for the sentiment.  I also used Bic marker and Stampin' Up watercolor pencils and blender pen to color the truck.  The paper came from my scrap stash!

Stamping Vacation & Melonheadz Illustrating

I used one of Nikki's free images at Melonheadz Illustrating to enter the Stamping Vacation Challenge - When I Grow Up: Clown.  Well, when I grow up I certainly don't want to be a clown, but someone might!  LOL

Now, here's the card I thought was a real hoot!  I have all this dinosaur paper because my daughter is a dinosaur expert/fanatic.  So, I paired Nikki's free caveman image (She has dinosaurs too!) with my dinosaur paper (Sorry, Kaylie.  I know there weren't cavemen around when the dinosaurs walked the earth, but it looks cute!) and Wendy's Happy Birthday circle sentiment.  The caption says, "So what was it like back then?" which is meant to imply the recipient of this birthday card is very, very, VERY old.  LOL!  Good thing I'm sending it to OWH - I'll let one of our heroes decide who to send this cute card to!

Easter Challenges & Dude Time Doodles Sketch Challenge

This is an easel card for Easter using a Hambo Hoedown image that is part of their weekly progressive challenge.  It is being entered in the following challenges:

Hambo Hoedown Challenge - Easel Card using weekly image

Pattie's Creations Challenge - Easter or Spring

Aly's Sunday Challenge - Hippity Hoppity Bunnies

If the Shoe Fits Scrap It - Spring is in the Air

Ooh-La-La Creations Challenge - Happy Easter

The Pink Elephant Challenge - Easter

Stampin' for the Weekend - Easter

Meljen's Designs - Easter Inspired

Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog - Raise A Smile

The next card uses an image from Sew Many Cards and is perfect for cards for OWH!  This is being submitted to the Dude Time Doodles April Sketch Challenge which must also be a masculine card.  The sketch is shown below the card.

Stars and Stamps Sketch #63

Here's my rendition of the S&S Sketch #63 this week.  The sentiment is lovely and says "Just when the caterpillar thought that the world was over, it became a butterfly."  I found it through Free Digital Stamps.  It's by Vibgyor Krafts.

The paper is from Little Yellow Bicycle and is called Elizabeth Park.  It is outrageously beautiful paper with images of butterflies and birds and other images that invoke the feelings of springtime.  I bought it at the the BEST local scrapbook store in Texas - Cat's Creations Scrapbooks in Mineral Wells, Texas.  Cat always has the latest and greatest products!  We have so much fun there at crops and 4-day retreats that we joke that we have to wear our Depends to keep from wetting our pants because we laugh so much - it's true too!

Incy Wincy Designs Challenge and a Thank You

This week at Incy Wincy Designs the challenge was to make a card with a pocket.  I made this birthday invitation as a pocket card with all the details on the part that slides out of the pocket.  The dinosaur themed stamps are from Stampin' Up as well as the paper.

Here's a thank you card that I also made using another Stampin' Up set.

Cupcake Craft Challenge - Comedy Rocks

I agree, comedy DOES rock!  I've always loved a funny, or even punny, card.  Some of the best funny images I've seen can be found at Hambo Stamps.  That's where I found this digital image!  Hope you like it.  It could be used for any occasion at all, couldn't it?!  Thanks, Cupcake Craft Challenge, for a challenge that should get us all laughing, or maybe groaning.  LOL

More Michelle Perkett Images

Last week I entered the Michelle Perkett Challenge to use flowers.  While visiting her site, I found some other images that I really liked, too.  I must be in a birthday mood because I've been making LOTS of birthday cards lately which is good for OWH - they can always use birthday cards!

 Thank you card made with Bo Bunny paper!

 More of the same Bo Bunny paper

 Patterned paper is from my stash from loooong ago!

 Also long ago paper from the stash

This is Basic Grey paper from the Sultry collection

Designed 2 Delight Challenge

Designed 2 Delight provided this beautiful (and free!) spring image as part of this week's challenge.  This is a progressive challenge which means if you participate, you will receive the following week's image for free as well.  So, join in!

More Tiddly Inks Cakes

The challenge last week was to use red, white and black, but I wanted to do the same image with other colors as well because the cake just looks so yummy!  Here's what I did with the same Tiddly Inks image.

Odds n' Ends

I had one more caterpillar image left from the Hambo Hoedown challenge, so I made another card.  I had wanted to use googly eyes on one of them, so here they are (the eyes, that is)!

I also had a MelonHeadz Illustrating elephant lying around that I colored.  I love how this turned out on my Bo Bunny paper!  I'm a Bo Bunny paper hoarder - you know, "it's just too pretty to use" syndrome.  So, I'm proud of myself for using it!  I have several other cards that will be posted later in the week that use the same paper.

Finally, I've had this card ready to post for quite some time now, but it kept getting "bumped" by challenge submissions with deadlines.  The image is from Limited Runs and the colors are inspired by art that hangs in my home that has a similar type of flower on it (see photo below).  I used papers from Basic Grey (another line that I hoard!).