Showing the "Cool" in your die cuts!

Greetings, Sweet Blogging Friends!

So excited to say: this is my first post as a DT member for Cardz 4 Galz!

Such a great group of card enthusiasts who want to see artwork based on a special theme using "stuff in your stash!".

I am especially excited because this challenge blog is all about sharing!

Badges are awarded for the Spotlight Winner and Top Picks

Playing couldn't be easier or more fun! Just check out the theme for this fortnight, and do your magic!

This challenge's theme is courtesy of DT member ALY:

USE AT LEAST ONE DIE CUT

I'm bringing out "winter's cool" in my regular (NON-CHRISTMAS) dies.

These fun layers bring out a snow flake theme to keep the darling Snowman and his friends comfortable.

A variety of shaped layers brings visual interest:

A few interior uses dies were used as well, with plenty of room for a message:

Fun textures help keep the card flat for mailing.

Beautiful Pamellia at "My Little Craft Things"

  coerced me (we all know how forceful she is - LOL - NOT!)  

into trying the Snow Writer!

Oh! It's a must have!

How easy it is to apply, 

even for those who have fumble fingers or difficulty keeping their hands from shaking!
Are you surprised that there is glitter on the snow sections?

Here... let me enable you.

snow writer here

so cute!

This darling little Two-Turtle Doves Snowman image is from The Stamp Boutique.

Hoping you will join us at Cardz 4 Galz!

Products Used:

• Image: The Stamping Boutique - Two Turtle Doves Snowman
• Copic Markers
• Spellbinders Shapeabilities Pendants "Fair Isle" S4-270
• Spellbinders Scallop Squares
• Spellbinders Labels 27, and Decorative Labels 27
• Die Versions Snow Flurries
• Martha Stewart holly punch
• Embossing Folders: Craftwell Delicate Dots, Cuttlebug Swiss Dot
• snow writer (from Michaels)
• Sparkle N Sprinkle Starfire glitter G1017

Challenges I'd like to support with this card:

1. October Anything Goes Link-up at "Just Keep on Creating" (11-1 tab)
2. Addicted to Stamps #133 Embossing (dry embossed 2 blue panels and the white die cut panel) 10/23
3. Classic Design Team Open Challenge Anything Goes 11-1
4. Craft Your Passion Challenges - #333 Anything Goes 10/17 (sep post)
5. Crafting from the Heart #131 Anything Goes 10/17
6. Crafting with an Attitude #20 "Anything Goes" 11/3
7. Crafting with Friends #29 anything goes 10/21
8. Crafty Girls Creations Challenges #27 "Anything Goes" 10/19
9. Crafty Hazel Nuts Christmas Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes 11/1
10. Inspiration Destination #107 Anything Goes 10/19
11. One Stitch at a Time Challenge - #272 Anything Goes Monochromatic 10/16 (sep post 10/23)
12. Simply Papercraft #38 anything Goes 10/21
13. Sparkles Christmas Challenge - #69 Show me a Snowman 11/1
14. Sunny Days #18 Anything Goes 10/18
15. The Twelve Months of Christmas Linkup #22 "Anything Goes" 11/1
16. ABC Christmas Challenge (Oct 12) U is for Under the Pile! (use an item in my stash for more than a year - it is the blue ribbon! Gosh, years and years! I was so glad to find a way of using it). 10/25
17. Vilda Stamps Challenge Blog #1 Anything Goes 11/1

Snowman hugs,

It's a Snowman's Life {Our Crafty Corner #10}

Hello, Lovely Crafty Friends!

Today begins challenge #10 for Our Crafty Corner!

It  continues until the end of the month.

OCC is a month-long challenge, beginning the first Monday of each month.

Every month's theme: ANYTHING GOES

My card features Two Turtle Doves Snowman

offered by this month's sponsor The Stamping Boutique

Such a darling image! I'll be using it again in the future!

The metallic snowflakes are from the sealed lid of my Whey Protein container LOL

Challenge Up Your Life #42 Repurpose Household Item:

The Snow Writer was used across the card top, and on the snowman's furry cap and coat, then sprinkled with Sparkle N Sprinkle's glitter. (Quite surprising how quickly this product dries even in humid Florida!)

Zig Zag stitching, ribbon, lace, glitter, and
snowy happiness (Snow Writer) surround the snowman and his friends. 
He is colored with Copic Markers:

Now it's your turn to link up to the 

Our Crafty Corner Challenge!

A few weeks ago, my craft room saw daylight! I cleaned up!
I've been trying to clean it up every week-end for the next week's mess.
LOL - after watching this, you will know - I am a slow talker and forget words easily.

Challenges I'm Submitted to:

1. A Beautiful Mess Challenges #3 Anything Goes (last Friday of Month) 6/24
2. A Gem of a Challenge (May 28) "The Weather" (choose any season) I chose WINTER 6/10
3. Catch The Bug (June 4) June Anything Goes 6/11
4. Challenge Up Your Life #42 Repurpose Household Item (can lid shown above in photo) 6/8 (sep post)
5. Crafty Cardmakers #165 - Monochrome (C15) 6/13
6. Crafty Friends Challenge #33 Based On A Book (FROSTY THE SNOWMAN) 6/17
7. Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #284 Vintage or Anything Goes Christmas 6/11
8. Christmas Card Challenge #27 #27 6/12 (Tues 14th)
9. Ellibelle's Let's Color Linky Party #10 Anything Goes with a Colored Image 6/30
10. Jingle Belles (June 3) Frosty The Snowman 6/19
11. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #35 Anything Goes 6/19 (posted one week later)
12. One Stitch At A Time #263 Anything Goes with STITCHING-faux or real. (I used my sewing machine's zigzag stitch all the way around the designer paper panel). 6/12 (posted one week later)
13. PDE Linky Party #126 Anything Goes 6/10
14. Scrappers Delights Challenge Blog #56 Anything Goes 6/30
15. Winter Wonderland (June 3) Snowflakes 6/10

crafty hugs,

Possibilities {Path of Positivity Challenge #17}

Note: for Edith updates, please click here.

Greetings to my SWEET followers, and to Sue (Graceful Greyhounds) and Lynn (my newest google followers!) Thank you for dropping by. 

This month I am "guest designing" for the Path of Positivity Challenge which lasts from August 4 until August 31, when voting will take place. 

The POSSIBILITIES theme is Perfect Timing for me! These past 2 months I have made several lifestyle changes and some difficult decisions to allow new possibilities into my life.

The sponsors and prizes for this challenge are:

• Two images (or three if you use a TSB image on your creation) from The Stamping Boutique, our guest sponsors this month, for the post or project that the DT deems most inspiring of the bunch.
• Three digital images from Ike's Art for a person chosen in a random draw based on all entrants.
• One digital image from Creative Bug Digital Stamps for each person chosen as a DT Delight.

There will also  be:

• One digital designer paper (made to order in a few different ways) from Décosse's Dynamite Doodles for one lucky voter who leaves a comment.
• One digital sentiment for every single person who enters the challenge.

Today I have two card shares using the same image:

This month's PoP sponsor is The Stamping Boutique. They designed this wonderful "Escape the Tower" image (from their Enchantment Line) to remind us that --

we all need to escape the towers of our existence from time to time, 

* and *

to renew our appreciation of what is right in our own backyards. 

The past two months I've been doing just that, 

and falling in love all over again with the beauty of my "little existence".

Possibilities

What are they? They all mean something different to each of us, and depending on our outlook, we might view them as cumbersome. I try to view Possibilities (and/or challenges) as something which might make me a better individual.

Sometimes it can be overwhelming - so many opportunities and possibilities - which one is the right one?

At the end of a recent Twilight Zone program a man responded to his accusing and angry son, "I don't have the words, but it doesn't mean I don't have the feelings".

Possibilities - when it comes to relationships, we sometimes take things too personally and become defensive or harbor unhealthy feelings. But the truth is - the Real Possibility is - that the person we are most concerned about is dealing with some harsh issues in their own way. Of course, the same is true for ourselves. We can only do our best, and not allow old and negative feelings, or reinforced past behavior patterns, to dictate what we should or should not do.

The "Possibility" exists that other people are having a bad day, or perhaps they don't know how to properly communicate, or maybe they only know how to lash out, rather than think before they speak. Perhaps my "hurt feelings" are nothing more than the result of another person's not being able to interact and behave in a healthy manner. THESE POSSIBILITIES open new doors, and allow us to make choices on how to go forward.

Like the man from the Twilight Zone quote above... the son felt that his father did not love him, did not approve of him, did not care about him, because the father never spoke his feelings aloud. However, the father was always there for his son, helping to pick up pieces, helping his son make good choices... but the son took the lack of verbally-skilled communications to mean that his father did not care, and did not love him. Hence the father's response:  "I don't have the words, but it doesn't mean I don't have the feelings".

So my wish for all of us is:

• to embrace the Possibilities in our lives, 
• try always to do our best in Recognizing the Possibilities, 
• to realize that others may or may not encourage us in our adventure. 
• to journey in Life, seeing all the Possibilities we can, 
• to recognize that we are not "locked in a tower" (as my cards show). Those Towers are largely of our own making.

Do you have any Towers you can Escape in order to better see The Wondrous Possibilities in your Life?

Here my easel card is closed (The fairy loves the light coming from the window of the tower as well as the moon!)

Now the card is open, to view just the sentiment. 

To see my tutorial for how to use parts of an artist's image (digital masking) to create a cohesively themed card, please click here.

The dolphins are a retired Spellbinders die, (popped up) and covered with SNS embossing powder.
The clouds and moon were printed a second time, cut out, and popped up to create the "stop" for the easel. The frolicking dolphins are "flipped" in the bottom panel to create visual interest (notice the moon also faces a different direction). To see how to use the artist's images to create a theme, please visit my tutorial here.

(see? possibilities even reveal themselves in our card art) (giggle) 

A Close Up:

 Fully Opened:

Same image, but colored with more green tones in the ocean and layered on an apricot colored background:

The sand-textured tower is created with Mudd Puddles (it's the first time I used this product and it really is VERY user friendly). The "netting ribbon" was applied by hand stitching through the yellow layer. Shells are adhered with 3D Crystal Lacquer. (I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly this dried in our oh-so-humid environment!)

Size A8 card with identical sentiment:

Products:

• The Stamping Boutique "Escape the Tower" image (from their Enchantment Line)
• Computer-generated sentiment
• Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug 5x7)
• Spellbinders: Grand Decorative Labels One LF-018, Scalloped Labels One S4-375, Grand Labels One LF-161, Labels One S4-161, Labels Twenty-Five S5-077, Dolphin (retired)
• Copic Markers
• Brilliance Inks
• Adirondack Inks
• SNS Silver Lighting EP, SNS Mediterranean Star EP
• Ribbon(fiber?), Shells,
• Adhesives: Mudd Puddles, 3D Crystal Lacquer, Aileen's Quick Dry, Dimensionals, Stitching

Delightful Challenges I am playing in:

1. Scribbles Designs Challenges - #19  Sea-Sand-Surf (both cards are sea related) 8/20
2. Sister Act Card Challenges - #68 Anything Goes 8/6
3. Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - #119   Words (use words as part of your card front) 8/7+
4. Fairy Tale Challenges - #97 Summer-Beach-Sea 8/7? 14?
5. Creative Corner - #Aug 1 - Something Summer (Beachy theme) 8/7
6. Craft for the Craic - #7 A Craft Item I Have Never Used Before (Mudd Puddles, the fibrous ribbon which is stitched in place, and 3D Crystal Lacquer) 9/1
7. A Gem Of A Challenge - #125 Embossing (Yellow card has Mediterranean Star EP, and has yellow dry embossing with two different folders - one on the large panel, and another on the smaller layer behind the image)(Easel card has wet embossed dolphins with Silver Lightning EP). 8/14
8. Crafting at the Weekend - #4 Anything Goes 8/30
9. Inkspirational Challenges - #62 Use Markers or Pencils (Copic Markers used in all images on  both cards, and around both sentiments) 8/14
10. Artistic Inspirations Challenges - #103 Anything Goes 8/10

Thanks for stopping by today!
hugs,