Springtime at DTC

Hello again all, well March 20th signalled the official first day of Spring here. I think we have had 2 (or maybe 3, I am starting to lose track) blizzards since then. We have a lot of snow and it is still cold. This is not normal for us (I know some people think we Canadians only have one season, hockey season) but we actually usually have 4. While I am anxious for Winter to be over, I am not anxious to trade our snow for mud. There is going to be a lot of flooding once all this snow melts. I'll trade in my Winter boots for rubber boots I guess.
The weekly challenge at the Digital Tuesday Challenge this week is Spring. Link up your Spring creations and don't forget to use something digital. The sponsor this week is QKR Stampede.
For my card I used Bugaboo Stamp's Scarlette Bubble Bath. I colored her using my Prismacolor pencils. I added Diamond Sparkles to her bubbles and Glossy Accents to her martini glass. A few half pearls make up the extra 'bubbles'. The purple cardstock lattice background, dp frame and sentiment are Silhouette files. I used some Tim Holtz distress ink in Spun Sugar on the sentiment. But I'm most proud of my flowers. I got the genius/crazy idea to make them out of old towels and washcloths. I really wanted to stick with my cleaning theme. And while they are not easy to cut, they really do add dimension and texture! Bo Bunny brads are the flower centers. And really, all Spring cleaning should be done with a martini, or other beverage of your choice, spoonful of sugar and all that ;o)

And some shots of Springtime here:

 

 Our snow mountains, all the snow my dad has moved out of our yard with the tractor.

One of the streets on our way to town.

I'd like to share my card at:

Sarah Hurley Challenge recycle, closes Mar. 30,

Eclectic Ellapu funny and/or whimsy, closes Mar. 31,  ***Top 5!!!***

Top Tip Tuesday rofl, closes Apr. 2,

Try it on Tuesday recycle it, closes Apr. 9





An Annual Tradition?!?

Hello all, my good bloggy friend Lora has kindly asked me to join the Digital Tuesday Challenge as a Guest Designer for March! You may remember I was a Guest Designer for them in March of 2012. I guess you could say we are just making it an annual tradition ;o)
The theme this fortnight is Easter. And the sponsor is Yours Or Mine Papercrafts. It would be wonderful if you could join us!
I chose an Easter project for the girls Sunday School Teachers. I used the 3D Shaker Window Box file from the Silhouette store to make these 2 cutie little round boxes. I didn't make the window/shaker part, I just made a solid top. I cut a scalloped frames just large enough to overhang the edges of the tops of my boxes. I used the digi stamp Little Lamb by Elisabeth Bell as my image for both boxes. I colored them up using my Prismacolor pencils and made them to look like my little girls. I used Copics to make the little polka dots around the images. I added 3mm Hotfix Jolee's Jewels Swarovski Crystals to the centers of some tiny Prima flowers. The first lamb got some DecoArt Snow Writer to create the dimensional wool effect. But I was worried that it lost a few details and that you couldn't really tell that it was a lamb anymore, so the second one was just colored as usual. Which do you like better? I still have to make a few more so I'm open to comments. I put in some Easter grass and some jellybeans and my little projects were complete!



 

I'd like to share my projects at:

Celebrate The Occasion Easter, closes Mar. 24,

Papertake Weekly Easter treats, closes Mar. 26,

Shopping Our Stash Easter/Spring, closes Mar. 26,

Hobby Cutz Easter, ends Mar. 31,

Clear It Out Easter, ABC, stash (crystals), closes Apr. 1,

Creative Creations things with the letter b (bling, blooms, bows), closes Apr. 1

Some Exciting News

The lovely Hilde, we met on the Poodles Parlour Challenge Blog, is starting a fortnightly Challenge Blog of her own. It is called Crafting With Dragonflies and goes live on May 1st. It will include all kinds of paper crafts, cardmaking, scrapbooking, altered objects, great sponsors and lots and lots of fun! And I will be on the Design Team!!!
I haven't been on one since the Poodle Parlour closed because of Jacqui's ill health. She was the creator and designer. She has since passed away. I hadn't mentioned anything about it before because it was so surreal to me. So joining Hilde in this adventure of hers really felt like a touch of homecoming. And oh how I've missed visiting entries and commenting (my favorite part). There is so much inspiration out there!
Crafting With Dragonflies is based out of Australia and challenges will start every second Wednesday at 10 a.m. There is a clock on the Challenge Blog with the local Sydney time so you can work out when that is for you in your area. It is 17 HOURS AHEAD for me. Crazy hey?!? Love it! And she is still looking for a couple of talented crafters to join us on the DT. Just e-mail Hilde at thegrasslady at gmail dot com if you are interested.
Be sure to follow the Challenge Blog so you'll be up to date on all the details. I happen to know there will be some tempting Blog Candy coming in April to kick things off with some fun! So great if you can join us!

I So Love This One

I have some catching up to do with you. First of all, my Winter Craft was chosen as the Friday Feature on the Silhouette Blog. It was chosen from the Silhouette Flickr group which has 2,900 members and 8,100 items/photos. You really could have knocked me over with a feather, really, I was that shocked...and proud. Wow!
Another thing you should know about me is that St. Patrick's Day is my favorite holiday. Maybe because it requires absolutely no planning/work on my part with the exception of do I have enough green to wear? We are Irish on my Dad's side so I feel completely comfortable "wearin' the green" as they say. Although everyone is a little Irish on St. Patrick's Day ;o) We are going on Saturday night to see Great Big Sea (a Celtic band from the East Coast) in Regina and I couldn't be more excited!
This turned out so very, very well. I know I am my own worst critic (aren't we all) but even I am in love with this one. I case'd this card which I saw on Facebook. All of the pieces are Silhouette cut files. I asked for a kids sewing machine for my birthday (last August) but my husband couldn't find any in town. So I have been watching auction/classified sites for one when my mom said I could have her old one. I didn't want to pay a lot for one because I knew I would only be using it to sew paper. But free, well that's perfect! I used a cardstock base and patterned paper, placed the hat band in place and then stitched around with gold thread. I was ok with how it went for my first try at it. I inked the edges of my buckle, flower petals, shamrock and clover, and sentiment. Then I started layering. I made the shamrock and clover centers from the same patterned paper as my background and glued that onto cardstock for support. Then added Glossy Accents on top to add dimension. The flower center is a brad. I used a glue gun on the twine. I used a pop dot to lift the shamrock off the page.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I would like to share my card at:

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge stitching, closes March 12,

Creative Corner Challenges go green, closes March 14,

Simply Create Too challenge #32 St. Patrick's Day, closes March 14, ***Top 3!!!***

Card Makin' Mamas green, closes March 15,

QKR Stampede show us the green/St. Patty's Day, closes March 15,

Catch the Bug green thumb, closes March 16,

Sentimental Sundays 3 embellies that start with b (brad, butterflies, buckle), closes March 17,

Clear It Out St. Patrick's Day stash items (my patterned paper), closes March 18, ***Top 3!!!***

{PIN}spirational Challenge St. Patrick's Day, closes March 18 ***Top 3!!!***

 



My Mind's Eye

This did not turn out how I envisioned it in my mind's eye. In fact I'm only sharing it because I like the idea of it but am not very fond of the finished product. I have a friend that uses the phrase 'put on my big girl panties' a lot, so I knew the image Big Girl Pants from Mo's Digital Pencil would be perfect for her birthday card. I decided to use a whole bunch of elements you would find on panties for the front of the card. I used a real elastic cut off of an old pair of panties and I sewed it onto the front of the card. I added some lace, a small fork bow, and a safety pin. Oh come on, you know you've got a pair of those too, lol. Colored her with Prismacolor pencils and paper pieced her panties. Sharon's hair really is pretty close to that color. Inside I included the verse which I'm sure I found on Pinterest:

Friends are like

UNDERPANTS...

Some crawl up your butt

Some snap under pressure

Some don't have the

strength to hold you up

Some get a little twisted

Some support you

Some are your favorite

Some are cheap and

just get bent out of shape

And some actually DO

cover your butt

when you need them to!!!

I would like to share my card at:

Digital Tuesday Challenge birthdays, closes March 5,

Catch The Bug Challenge anything goes, closes March 9,

Crafty Ribbons anything goes with ribbon, closes March 13,

Craft Us Crazy #38, anything goes, closes March 13,

The Sisterhood of Crafters birthdays, closes March 13,

Stampin' for the Weekend lace, closes March 14,

Sparkles lace it up, closes March 14