Cupcake Craft Challenge #30 & DT Call

Isn't this a lovely image? For this week's challenge at Cupcake Crafts, Springtime is our inspiration. It is such a peaceful image, I immediately thought of this beautiful swan .jpg that I downloaded from a gallery of free images on the web. Thanks to Enfys at Going Buggy for the link! Here is what I came up with...

I printed out the image on Strathmore Bristol Smooth (300 series). It is really heavy weight and the Copics love it! I did not even heat set the ink and there was no smudging when I colored. When I showed it to my DH, he remarked that it looks kind of like stained glass.

I layered on CS and DP that I border punched and used a vellum sentiment that seemed to go with the image. The pretty little Celtic cross has the same feel as the border on the image so it was perfect to complete my card.

Here are the Copic colors that I used...I am up to 39 pens now! I see these really becoming an addiction!

CS: soft grey, yellow and white from a multipack I got at Joann, DP: a green flourish that came from a HL Greetings of the Seasons pack, RIBBON: yellow floral ribbon from Joann and white from Walmart, BORDER PUNCH: Lattice from the Paper Studio, EMBELLIES: Spare Parts flowers and brads, Blue Moon Celtic cross.

Blessings!

Love is in the Air...la-la-la-la-la!

That is the Sketch Challenge theme over at "A Spoon Full of Sugar." And, it just so happened that I was in a "Romantical" (is that even a word? hehe) mood today and knocked out...not one...but 4! Count 'em, 1, 2, 3, 4 St. Vali's Day cards! What was my inspiration? Hmm...maybe just the fact that I feel human again, or maybe just that it was a good excuse to make some cards! LOL The first one is the card I made for the sketch, followed in rapid succession by #' 2, 3 and 4. The base is a white, textured cardstock pre-made card blank. I added some pretty, swirly DP and just about every embellishment known to man

(or woman, in this case!) I also punched the corners with my Fiskars "Heritage" Three-Corner Punch. The sentiment is from a pack of romantical (there I go again!) vellum sweet-nothings...why do you suppose they call them that? Nothings...usually when my Honey whispers these, they mean A LOT! At least to me they do...(Love you Honey!) Have you noticed that I have been on a real vellum kick lately? I really like how it looks... Anywhoooo... so I also finished the inside of this card and I was really pleased with how it turned out!

base: DCWV White, textured, premade card blank
cs: light pink from Joann multipack
dp: unsure, no name...pink and red toile I got in a DCWV Stack ON SALE!!!
embellies: red & white heart-shaped paper doilies, MS Valentine ribbon, red foil heart-shaped confetti that I punched and attached with round, silver brad, pink & red felt flowers attached with silver brads from Target, and silver double-heart favor charm from the wedding section at Wallyworld.

I won't bore you with all the deet's for the others, I will just post them as "Eye Candy..." Enjoy!

Oh When The Saints....(everybody sing!)

I was on the phone the other night with my sis and she asked me if I could make some kind of wall hanging for her with a Fleur de Lis. (She is from Nawlins', dawlin!)
Well, here is what I came up with. I had to find a FDL .bmp image, copy the bitmap to .jpg in Inkscape and then size it and cut it out BY HAND!!!!***RAMBLE ALERT***I REALLY need to get the Sure Cuts A Lot software, which is similar to way better than Cricut Design Studio, but you don't need a bunch of cartridges to use it. You can use any .svg image, (which is what you use Inkscape for) and do whatever you want with it. There is a guy, Dan, whose blog
My Crafty Life has all kinds of tutorials and freebie .svg files. Also, Inkscape is a FREE (you heard me, I said FREE!) download from http://www.sourceforge.net Now you all know me, and I LUURRVVEE free stuff! It is an AWESOME image editing software that lets you do practically anything! There is a bit of a learning curve, but Dan-the-Man can help you out. Ok, now...***END OF RAMBLE*** I printed out 2 copies of the FDL in consecutive sizes on 110lb white CS, one I traced onto some silver, textured DCWV cardstock, cut out, colored the edges in black Sharpie and then wiped off the excess Sharpie. On the second I colored in the white cardstock with black Sharpie and colored the edges with a silver paint marker. (To tell the truth, I initially did it because I was too lazy too tired to trace and cut another out of black cardstock, but I quite like the way it looks! hehehe) I chose 3 DP's from a DCWV stack that I got on...can you guess?... CLEARANCE! I added a brown paper that I embossed with the Vines plate from Fiskars and swiped with silver ink. I swiped all the edges with black ink and layered black CS, silver CS, the DP's, then attached the two FDL's with pop-up foam. The sentiment is from the "Everyday Blessings" Vellum pack by Colorbok, which I layered with black CS and added round, silver brads to coordinate with the silver diamond brads I used on the corners. I popped that up with foam too. I put it in a black frame I picked up at Wallyworld.