A New Card for WOW Embossing Powders

Hi and Happy Wednesday, friends! What a week this has been so far! If you read my last post, you know that I was blessed by being selected to be a guest designer for the Saturated Canary for the summer!  A new release is scheduled for today too so if you're as big a fan as I am, you'll want to pop over there and check them out!

Today, I have a new card I made for WOW Embossing Powders using a digi from another of my favorite illustrators, Phee McFaddell.  I haven't posted anything using her images for a while now so I thought it might be a nice change of pace for you guys.  I also used LOTS of WOW Embossing Powder.

This card is a whopping 6" x 8", at least an inch bigger all the way around than the cards I usually make.  And believe it or not, I'm working on one even bigger than this using a Saturated Canary digi!! Well, I live in Texas... what can I say?! LOL!

I actually intentionally made the card large because I wanted plenty of the patterned paper (from DCWV's All Dressed Up stack), as well as the dry embossed oval to show behind my focal image.

I started by dry embossing a piece of white cardstock by inking my embossing folder with Quick Quotes Pink Cheeks Powderpuff Chalk ink. The ink transferred from the folder to the paper during the process. Next, I used dies to cut the oval from the embossed cardstock as well as a pink and a black mat.  Then I ran a Versamark Embossing stamp pad over the raised areas and applied WOW Bright White Embossing Powder over the entire area. After turning the oval over and tapping it to remove all the excess powder, I used my heat tool to melt the powder.  

I used Primary Ebony Powder to emboss the two flourishes which were made from chipboard with a Tim Holtz die.  I used the WOW! stamp set called "Gratitude" to create the greeting and the ticket and used a Shock Pink (RV04) Copic marker to color in the stamped and embossed images and fussy cut them to go on my card.

I added a mulberry paper rose, some velvet hydrangea blossoms from Petaloo, a glittery chipboard die cut from my stash and some pearls and Voila! A beautiful finished card fit for a queen (or princess, as the case may be).

  

Please visit the WOW blog to see some incredibly creative projects made by my talented teammates.  And if you're planning to attend CHA, don't forget to stop by the WOW booth and say hi to Suzy West and some members of the design team. That's it for today, peeps! Thanks for stopping by today.  I love reading your comments if you care to leave one.  Until next time...


Happy crafting!
Anniebee

More Exciting News!!!

Hello, friends!  I don't have a project ready to post today but I have some very exciting news to share with you.  I received an email from Krista Smith of Saturated Canary last evening telling me that I had been selected to be a guest designer on her design team over the summer months!!!  I was just floored at the news because there were 78 entries by some extremely talented colorist who applied and only 2 spots to fill!!  I feel extremely honored to have been selected and I look forward to working with Krista's wonderful designs as well as her team of fabulously talented designers.  You can read the announcement here and see the card I submitted here.

If you have visited here at all in the past couple of months, you know that I am a huge fan of Krista's art so if you, too, are enamored by her whimsical characters, you can look forward to lots more projects from me using her adorable digis.  And if this isn't enough good news, I have even more.  Krista has a new release of digital images that will be available to purchase from her shop on Wednesday!! She posted a couple of sneak peeks on her blog this past week and they are awesome!  I'm anxious to see the rest of them.

Okay, that's about it for now. I promise to have a new project in my next post, probably tomorrow or Wednesday.  Thank you all for your continued support and all of your lovely comments.  Without you, I wouldn't be here and I definitely wouldn't be designing for Saturated Canary, Kenny K (who has also released a new digi collection called "Myths and Maidens") and WOW Embossing Powders! Until next time...


Happy crafting!
Anniebee

A Boy's Birthday Card

TGIF, everybody!! If this year keeps cruising along at the speed it is now, it won't be long before we're thinking winter holidays again! Personally, I would rush it just a little more as I have a hard time tolerating the summer heat here in Texas, even though I have lived here my whole life.  I also hate shelling out $300-400 each month for electricity, trying to stay cool!  If I could afford to, I would retire to a little cabin in the mountains, I think.

Anyway, there's a brand new challenge at Saturated Canary and the theme this time is red, white and blue.  I have used Krista's cute Basketball Boy to create this birthday card.  It's always easier for me, as I think it is for many people, to make stuff for females so I like to challenge myself whenever I get a chance to make something for the guys in my life.  My grandson turned 11 in May which was before I made this card but I made him a cute one with a football player on it.  Since he plays football it was really more fitting for him anyway, though I just adore this cute little guy!

I {heart} all of the Saturated Canary images but I think this is my favorite boy.  I'm not sure I succeeded but I tried to saturate the color on his uniform to make it resemble the shiny satin-like material often used in making such garments.  I love the expression of concentration on his face as he shoots the hoop. I just KNOW he makes that basket! LOL

I used white paper and red ribbon to make the stripes on the card. I believe the paper is from DCWV's Summer Dreams stack. All of the lettering was done with stickers, except for the #1 on the inside, which was done with stamps.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Saturated Canary #20 - Red, White & Blue
Card Makin Mamas #48 - Color (Red, White & Blue)
Delicious Doodles #22 - 1,2,3 Recipe - 1 image, 2 kinds of bling (stars & circles), 3 ribbons (the red and white stripes) or 3 colors (red, white & blue)
Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge #65 - Boy Attitude
The Poodles Parlor 6/15/12 - Red. White & Blue
Delightful Challenges 6/20/12 - Anything Goes
DYSU #77 - Inspired by a Movie (Like Mike- 2002)

Well, that's all I have for now. I hope you all enjoy your weekend and that you manage to sneak in some time to be creative. Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

More Saturated Canary Bookmarks/ Tags

Hello, all! I think we all have friends who are avid readers and there are times when a small, inexpensive gift is called for.  In such cases, I like to give handmade book marks sometimes accompanied by a reading light.  You know, the kind that clips on to the book itself?

Here are some cute bookmarks I made for a recent challenge at the Saturated Canary.  I made several and chose the one I liked best to enter into the challenge.  These were the rejects, though I really like them all.  I just liked these a teensy bit less than the one I entered. These would make cute gift tags too with different sentiments, of course. All of the images are by Krista Smith. It's probably pretty evident that I have an unabashed adoration of her adorable characters and for that, I make no apologies! LOL! She has a new release coming out next Wednesday and I can't wait to see the new digis!

This is the front and back of the first one.  

I didn't photograph the back of this one because it is unadorned. 

And here's the third one. I entered this in the Copics/Promarkers challenge at The Outlawz where the theme is favorite color combinations.

Today's post is short and sweet.  I have some errands to run and phone calls to make today before I go to a flute concert at the local library this evening.  My brother-in-law's fiance is playing with her flute group.  I love flute music... well, to be more accurate, with only a very few exceptions, I love music... period!

I'm going to have a rather busy weekend so I don't know yet if I'll have time to post a new project but I'll try.  So, until next time....

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

A Saturated Canary Birthday Card for a Special Little Girl

Happy Hump Day, lovely people!

I'm back today as promised with a sweet card for the special little girl in your lives. This design can be adapted to any age just by changing the number and image. Saturated Canary has wonderful images that are perfect for this purpose. I have thought about doing an entire series of these cards starting with the first birthday and going through the teen years and maybe even beyond strictly using Krista's adorable illustrations.

As you can see, this one is designed for a 4 year old girl and uses the image called "Ava" which was a freebie (can you believe it?) on Krista's site a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if she is still available but even if she isn't, there are many others characters in her shop that would work as well.

Ava only has one balloon but I added a second one which I drew on vellum paper and colored with Copics and cut out to layer onto the card.  If you decide to do this yourselves, you'll need to use double-sided vellum tape to attach the balloon so the adhesive doesn't show through the nearly transparent paper.  You could also use colored vellum if you have it because coloring on vellum is a bit tricky to keep the markers from streaking.

I made another card similar to this one for a friend to give to her granddaughter for her 2nd birthday that I will post at some point.  I didn't want to publish it until after she had given it to her granddaughter which won't be for another couple of weeks. On that card, I used a different image and I made an entire bouquet of balloons of regular cardstock and vellum.  I just like the transparent quality of the vellum.  It's perfect for balloon making! Haha!

I used a template to lightly draw an oval shape around the image leaving part of the original balloon outside the oval.  I did this to give it the appearance of being a separate piece. Then, using scissors, I cut the shape out, carefully fussy cutting around the balloon.

I hope you like it my little birthday card.  I truly enjoy giving my handmade cards to friends and family.  They mean so much more, in my opinion, than store bought cards.  It also makes me feel really good when I receive special orders for my cards and other types of projects.  Last year, I made a custom mini album for the child for whom I made the 2nd birthday card mentioned above and I was ecstatic when her grandmother asked me if I would be open to making her birthday card every year!  Of course I said YES!

Well, I think that's it for today.  If I get it finished in time, I'll have another new project to show you tomorrow.  I have about run out of all the stuff I had made during my recent card-making frenzy so now I need to make some more!  I also have a couple of off the page projects that I'll be working on in the next week or two so they'll be coming soon!

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Sentiments Designs - Bright Colors

Have a beautiful remainder of your day and thank you so very much for visiting my blog today.  Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!!! Some Terrifically Exciting News!!

Hello again!! I posted a lovely card earlier today but now I have some news for you that I have been dying to tell you but I had been sworn to secrecy until today! I got the approval from the DT Coordinator for Kenny K to let all my followers know that out of over 70 applicants, I was one of the lucky 13 to be selected for Kenny K's Krafty Krew!!! The team has been known as Kenny K's Krafty Girlz up to now. The reason for the change is that the new team will have 2 male members! How cool is THAT? I am over the moon with excitement as I have admired Kenny's talent for illustration for ages but only recently started coloring his images and boy, am I hooked now!

His stuff is way different from the images I usually use in my crafting but they are so much fun to color and they are absolutely loaded with personality and attitude! In case you missed it, you can see the cards I created for my application to the team here. I'll be on Team A. Team B will start things off with the new team's first challenge on July 1st and Team A will host the challenge the following week, July 8th. There is some unbelievable talent on this team and I can't wait to get started! Oh! I'll also have a second blog address in the UK! The addy for that one will be as follows:  

                            

                         http://anniebeescraftroom.blogspot.co.uk

Soooo... for all my followers who are also fans of Kenny's work, you can look forward to seeing lots more of his images in my own work. There is an official announcement on the Kenny K Challenge blog that also includes the names of the other new team members as well as the new URL for the challenge blog effective July 1st.  If you get a chance, check out the blogs of my new teammates (they are linked in the announcement). I'll have links here by 7/1 but in the meantime, you can find them there.  You won't believe the incredible coloring these people do! I hope to see some of you participating in the KK Krafty Krew Challenges.

Okay, that's all I have for now. Thanks so much for visiting my blog not once but twice today! I don't know what I would do without you! You really keep me going and I value each and every one of you more than you can know. Have a wonderful evening and until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble....

Good day, everybody! Well, I took a day longer than I had anticipated but I'm back with something that I think you'll enjoy and that will likely be totally unexpected. This card is just a tad out of season but at the rate this year is flying by, it won't be long until we're all thinking along these lines.

I got this image from Saturated Canary a while back and have been dying to color it but just didn't seem to be able to get around to doing it. Well, I finally did and I even went ahead and made a card out of it right away rather than adding it to my stash of colored images. Yay for me! LOL!

As you can tell, it's an easel card. I combined Krista's precious little witches with a crescent man in the moon stamp from Stampin' Up that I've had for years and never inked it up. I stamped it on some shimmer cardstock and colored it with Copics, then added some tiny rhinestones for the stars. I think it goes perfectly with this eerie trio and it gave me an opportunity to do some shadowplay with my coloring.  The lighting is a little bit wonky on the second pic for some reason. If I get a chance, I'll get a better photo and replace this one.

I love drama in art and one of the best ways to accomplish that is with shadow and light. They create a mood that is difficult to achieve any other way. If you look at some of my Halloween cards from last year, you'll see even more dramatic shadowplay than what I used here. I don't know how well you can see them in the pics but there are a couple of silver skeleton leaves behind the playing card, which I used to allude to fortune telling and other mystical, magical things. I also added a metal skeleton key to the greeting that I mounted on top of an accordion-folded rosette.

I even decorated the back side of the card. I started doing this with easel cards not long ago, when I noticed that when you place them on a desk, many times the back side of the card is what's showing to visitors.  

When you open the card, the inside is also covered in paper and provides a nice big space for writing a personal message if desired. I'll probably add a Happy Halloween stamp to the inside at some point. 

So, what do you think?  Did I catch you off guard with this one?  If you have been visiting my blog lately, you know that I've been on a Saturated Canary kick for a while.  I just adore all of Krista's images and with this card, I am applying for a guest designer spot on her challenge blog during the summer months.  That sounds like so much fun to me and it's not as long a commitment as most regular DT terms! Whether or not I'm selected for one of the 2 openings, I had a ball with this little project and I already have a head start on my Halloween cards for the coming season!  

Thanks for visiting me today.  As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.  I'll have some more Saturated Canary for you tomorrow and then I'll try to give you another break for a day or two.  So until next time, have a lovely week and...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Fat Pages and Cards With Attitude #16 - Anything Goes

ATCs and Cards With Attitude #16 - Anything Goes

Clear It Out Challenge 6/19/12 - Anything Goes (with 2 or more ribbons) I used Trick or Treat ribbon on top of 2 strips of orange ribbon. It looks like 1 piece but it's really 3.

Creative Card Crew #13 - Easy as 1, 2, 3 (I used one image, 2 chipboard flourishes and 3 flowers)

Shopping Our Stash #56 - Stuck On Stickers (the playing card behind my image is actually a large sticker)

A & T Digital Designs #7 - Bingo (I used ribbons, die cut and glitter)

Little Miss Muffet Challenge #37 - Loads of Layers 

Oozak Challenge #3 - 2 Patterned papers and embellies 

Saturated Canary Bathing Beauty

Good morning, all! As promised, I'm here today with a brand new image from Krista Smith of Saturated Canary called "To the Lake".  I chose this digi as my prize for placing in the Top 3 in the SC challenge a couple of weeks ago.  I love Krista's adorable children but I'm also glad that she is branching out a little and giving us some more mature images to work with.

I used this sparkling blue water paper for my background with the patterned paper, which is intended to resemble ceramic tiles like those that were popular for use in swimming pools before the invention of more modern materials.

I'd love to have a tan like this beauty's but as a fair-skinned redhead, I have never been able to attain that lovely shade of bronze.  In fact, when I am going out in the sun for any length of time, I have to use a sunblock with an SPF of about 50!
I burn easily and try to protect my skin from any further damage that what was done during my youth, before I knew how costly being an "outdoorsy girl" could be.  My mom had a melanoma lesion removed from her arm so I take very few chances these days.

So there you have it.  I, personally, dislike summer.  I don't function well in the heat and the high cost of air conditioning makes me like it even less.  I hope to be back tomorrow with another new project but I have a couple of things I have to get done which require my immediate attention so I may be MIA for a couple of days. Have a wonderful day, a better Friday and a fun and crafty weekend!  Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

From My Heart to Yours

Happy Hump Day, crafty friends! I have for you today a little card I made for the Color Challenge at The Outlawz. This image is by Sugar Nellie. I used this same image a few months ago to create a case card in honor of my friend's,
Colleen Holmes, birthday. If you're not familiar with her by name, Colleen is the spearhead of the NING group, The Outlawz, where I served on the design team for the Paper a la Mode group for a while. She is also the new owner and publisher of the awesome e-zine called "Through the Craftroom Door".

I digress. Anyway, this image is more like a sketch than the line drawing that most digis are and therefore it presents a different challenge in coloring it.  It already has some degree of shading, which I normally accomplish with my markers so adjustments had to be made in the colors I used. I was pleased with the results.

I entered this card in the following challenges:

The Outlawz Color Challenge (June 5) - Slate blue, maroon and crisp white

I'll be back tomorrow with another Saturated Canary card featuring one of Krista's newest images. Thanks for stopping by.  I value each and every one of you and appreciate your lovely comments.  Until next time...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

For the Birthday Boy

Hello and happy Monday! I'm a little late ... okay, very late... posting this today.  I started coloring some new images from Saturated Canary last night and forgot to go to bed! LOL  That happens fairly often when I'm not working and don't have to get up early the next morning.  When I get on a roll, I have to run with it because I never know when it might end and my muse take a little leave of absence for a while! I think it was 5AM when I finally laid my head down but as a result, I have 6 finished images and 2 nearly finished ones to add to my stash.

This little guy is also from SC. His name is "Smitty" and he looks very much like my grandson when his hair is cut short (he wears it a little longer sometimes). My grandson gets this same shy look on his face when you say something real sweet to him.  It's the cutest look in the world!

He celebrated his birthday at toward the end of last month and I made this card for him.  School is out now but the year hadn't ended yet when I made the card.

I hope your week is off to a great start and I hope you enjoyed seeing this little guy.  I don't have a chance to make that many boy cards so I always enjoy it when I do.  I need to get busy making some new cards as I am about to run out of things to post here on my blog!  Soooo... until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Alisa with Roses - a Mo Manning Beauty

Hello, everybody!  Happy Sunday to each and every one of you.  I'm going to try to keep this short and sweet as I know you all have better things to do that sit here on the Internet all day, as do I.

I haven't done a Mo Manning digi in quite a while so I thought I should spread the love around a little bit.  I saw Alisa with Roses on Mo's blog a while back and I just couldn't help myself.  I had to have her.  She has everything I love... long, flowing hair, a full dress blowing in the breeze, lots of flowers and an adorable Mo Manning face. There is something wonderful about lightly starched white cotton on a summer afternoon, isn't there?

When I get a new digi, I usually color it a few times and select the one I like best to put on a card for my blog.  That's not to say that I throw the others away.  Oh, no!  I keep them in case I need a quick project for some reason or another.  I have had to pull from my stash of colored images on more than one occasion; usually a last minute birthday card.  Just a little insight into the methods of my madness.

So here is beautiful little Alisa with her basket of flowers and more in her pretty hair.

Is she not just the most delightful creature you have seen in a while?  I started decorating the inside of the card, as I normally do, and for some reason, I got a little carried away! LOL  I could almost cut this card at the crease and make 2 cards from it!  One of them wouldn't have the lovely Alisa on it though so I decided to leave it alone.  I may put some kind of verse or something on the left side or I may just reserve it for a handwritten personal message from giver to recipient.

That's it for now.  I'll be entering this card in the following challenges:

Mo's DP2 Challenge #138 -  Anything Goes (with a Mo image)

So until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Steampunk Debutante Book Card for Wow Embossing Powders

Hello again, everybody!

This is my second post for today.  I totally forgot that my team's projects for WOW Embossing Powders would be published on the WOW blog today and didn't schedule my post to coincide with that one.  Sorry, WOW fans!

This month, I created a book card that was inspired by a tutorial I found on You Tube by someone on Split Coast Stampers, I think.  I modified it a little with my own touches because I wanted to create a piece that could withstand years of being on display.  This is not your ordinary card.  It's a 3-dimensional piece of paper art!

I used Graphic 45's Steampunk Debutante collection for this one.  I truly adore their papers and coordinating embellishments and this is one of my very favorites.  I also love everything Steampunk so this was a natural selection for me.  There was no way to improve on the title so I used it for the title of my "book".

Lots of pics in this post so get comfy!

I just love the colors in this collection and the graphic designs are outstanding.

 You may be able to tell in the above photo that I constructed the cover for my book with chipboard and covered it with the papers, very similarly to the way a bookbinder does it.

A sneak peak of the inside.

When you open the book, the inside is a shadowbox display containing gears, flowers, butterflies and metal embellishments. The "pages" of the book are an illusion created by fan-folding four pages of beige cardstock and attaching them to one another to make the shadowbox.  I ink the edges of the pages with brown distress ink to make them look like aged paper.

The large clock face on the inside cover was made with a Tim Holtz Alterations Bigz die by Sizzix. 

I coated it very liberally with Versamark embossing ink and then covered it with WOW Primary Ebony embossing powder.  After I heat set that, I used an embossing pen and inked the edges of the clock and sprinkled it with the Regular Gold embossing powder and heat set it again.  I also used the Gold on the hands of the clock.

The flowers were arranged and glued in place one by one using Beacon's 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue. The edges of the white rose in the bottom right corner are embossed with the Regular Gold WOW powder as well.

This is the back cover of my book.  The label at the bottom is intended to write a little note to the recipient and is, therefore, left blank. 

After the above photos were taken, I changed the inside cover just a little.  I found some cute metal gears by Tim Holtz that I had bought ages ago and that worked perfectly with this project so I added them to the bottom of the clock.  I moved the little chipboard domino to the shadowbox side.  Here's how it looks now.

Here's a detail shot of the little gears.

So there you have it.  These book cards take a little time and patience to make but they are so worth the effort.  I'll post a tutorial later for making it so you can try it for yourself if you want to.  Ha! I can't believe that I just noticed that I forgot to put the "E" on the end of "Debutante" on the spine of the book!!  That MUST be corrected right away!  I just don't want my readers to think I don't know how to spell. LOL!

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you enjoyed this project and that you'll visit me again soon.  I'll have a card using a Mo Manning digi tomorrow that I really like.  Until then...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

A new Saturated Canary Challenge

I was super excited to find out that I was in the Top 3 last week in the Saturated Canary Challenge!  I have loved Krista's designs since the first time I laid eyes on one of her digis but had never entered her challenge before.  What a thrill to make Top 3 with my first entry!  And the best part.... I get a free digi from the shop!  It may take me days to figure out which one to choose because I want them all! She has some adorable new ones that I would love to have but there are also some of the older ones that have been on my wish list for quite some time.  I'll probably choose one that I think will be the most versatile with regards to my paper crafting.

At any rate, I have made a card for the new challenge, #19, for which the theme is "Anything Goes".  I just love that kind of freedom when it comes to making cards, don't you?  So here is my entry for the newest challenge.  This is the adorable "Hipster"!

I don't think I have to tell anyone that I adore Saturated Canary digi stamps! I have a few more that I haven't colored yet so for those of you who share my affection for Krista's adorable Ragamuffins as she calls them, there will be more to come.
AIf you haven't seen her newest designs, go check them out in her new digi shop.

Alrighty then... that's all I have for now.  I hope you all have a lovely, fun weekend! Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee