Its beginning to look a lot like...

Hello crafty pals, did you miss me? ^.^ I sure hope so, but not too much! I hope you guys had a great labor day weekend and maybe caught some good labor day sales, I know I sure did! This week has been super busy, as my little rugrat started school today. This week was spent mainly in preparation for her first day, making sure she had everything she needed. Today I put my little munchkin on the bus for the first time ever and I almost teared up, however, she didn't even look back! They really do grow up so fast. The only good that came out of her being away at school was that I got a little crafting done. Everyone keeps saying that it's supposed to start snowing earlier than last year, by the end of this month unfortunately, so like it or not I'm starting to get into the Christmas spirit. My first order of business, a card featuring an altered stamp from The Greeting Farm

Hat: Cheeky Xmas

Head: WS Nala (Roll Call Kit)

Body: Skyward Anya

Christmas cards are so fun to make, especially with stamps that aren't traditionally for Christmas! This week's FFF Challenge is to use your Favorite Embellishment. My favorite embellishment is bling, in just about any form! I rose to the challenge and this little girlie is decked out in wink of stella, stickles, liquid pearls, and pearl flourishes. The image I used is actually a few different TGF images put together colored with my copics. For the hat I used Cheeky X-mas, the head belongs to the adorable Wild Sprout Nala from the Roll Call Kit (retired, sorry!) and the body is the exclusive Skyward Anya. I love playing around with TGF stamps, seeing who's head looks good on who's body to create a whole new stamp is just so much fun. The DP I used was something from my LCS' open stock. Both the sentiment and the cork tree embellishment was created by me using the accent stamp from the Cheeky X-mas set stamped in SU! Real Red. The tree was stamped on DCWV adhesive cork paper and punched out with circle punch. Can't wait to join in the challenge over at The Farm

Winter Wishes

Hi guys! I've been a bit under the weather, along with having to get my oldest daughter ready for school, so I haven't been blogging like I should. I'm still not feeling 100% but I just couldn't stay away so today I have a quick tag that I created using Some Odd Girl's Dressy Mae digi

Dressy Mae

I noticed that I've gotten a bit repetitive on my skin and hair combo coloring with my copics (mostly sticking to the ash blonde hair color and semi tanned skin) and I wanted to break out of my comfort zone. I love the fall of Dressy Mae's hair and it seemed the perfect image to practice my coloring, so this time around I gave the reddish brown hair color a shot. I love how it turned out but now I wish I had written the colors down! Good job me lol, well maybe next time I'll remember to take note cause I can't wait to use it again! I created the background with a stamp from the dollar bin at Michael's stamped in versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I added a few pearls from my stash, trying to keep it simple because this didn't seem to need much embellishment to me. I inked the edges with a powder blue ink pad and added a sheer ribbon to the top to finish this cute wintery tag. Only thing left to do is add her to the Some Odd Girl August Linky Party and find a gift to put her on! If you haven't linked up be sure to stop by, there's still a little time left, you have until Saturday, so get craftin'!

-Krys

Teacher's Pet

Happy Friday everybody! Wow this week really blazed by, I can hardly believe that it's already gone. Well I won't hold you up from your weekend festivities for long, just wanted to share a quick card set with you guys featuring another adorable SOG digi, Teacher's pet Tia

Teacher's Pet Tia

I actually won little Tia during the surprise party Some Odd Girl threw to welcome their newest addition to the SOG family, Piper! Seriously we had a blast, if you missed out this time be sure you join in on the next party, besides the tons of fun we have, you could be the surprise winner. For these cards, I colored Tia twice, both times with my copic markers. Both were so darn cute I couldn't decide which one to use for the card, so I made two identical cards, assembly line fashion ^.^ The fall papers I used are from the DCWV Fall/Halloween mat stack. The golden and kraft papers got a quick run through my Darice swirls and wood grain embossing folders, and then inked with tim holtz distress ink. I cut the embellishments out of adhesive cork paper (also DCWV, LOVE this stuff!) using my Spellbinders In'spire dies from the set called 'Shoot'. The leaves were punched out of white cardstock and hand colored by me with copics in fall colors. Finally, the ribbon and sentiment were both from walmart (both less than a dollar each!). These two cuties will be given to my Kindergartner's teachers next week at the open house where she gets to meet her teacher and new classmates. My punkin' is super excited to be starting school in a few weeks and every single time we leave the house she asks if she can 'go to class now' lol! I remember when I used to get excited about school...I also remember when I stopped getting excited about school and started faking illnesses too! Ah the good ol days, when the worst thing you had to deal with was being grounded for hiding your report card ^.^ well you guys, time for me to go, its nacho night at mi casa (did I spell that right???) and I gotta get cooking, and I still need to link these lovelies up at the SOG August Linky Party so see ya laters, have a great weekend!

-Krys

FALLing for You

Hi guys! More beautiful mild weather up this way and although I'm enjoying it, the lows in the high 40's at night make me cringe when I think of how much worse it's going to get. They're even threatening snow in the forecast for mid September this year! Rude right? While hubby is determined to enjoy every last degree of warm temperatures here before the snow and cold sets in, it's putting me in a crafty mood. Since I just got a few new digis and papers, why not share with you guys!

I Heart You Gwen

OMG I love these warm fall earth tones and doesn't Gwen look amazing? These colors remind me of the best moments of fall, when the leaves have all changed into beautiful shades of amber, red, and orange. I still sometimes collect those leaves ^.^  I colored Gwen, as well as the tiny leaves adorning the card, with my copic markers. The frame was cut from chocolate chip SU cardstock and embossed with a wood grain embossing folder. The DP is from the DCWV Fall/ Halloween stack, which is AWESOME, I never realized until this year that the reason I rarely made fall colored cards is because I didn't have any fall themed DP lol. This stack is seriously a must have, I don't think there's a single print I don't like, so I'm excited to use these papers a again soon. The sentiment was printed from my computer, something I thought would be cute for the color scheme and digi I chose. I heart U Gwen May be my newest favorite digi so far and I can't wait to use her or this DP again! But first, I'm gonna hop over to the SOG blog and add this to the August Linky Party! Pop on over and join the festivities!

-Krys

Under The Sea

TGIF! Wow this week flew by but goodness I'm glad it's over, Hubby had field training so he's been gone all week and I can't wait to have him home again! I will admit its much easier to keep the house clean but it's just not the same without him, much too much time on my hands. Ladies, have you ever had a crafty idea that you just knew would look amazing but once you got started, it seemed easier said than done? Got one of those ideas around 3 a.m. Tuesday morning And I absolutely couldn't resist getting out of bed and starting on the project that ended up taking all week long. It finally came together beautifully and I can't wait to share:

Bubbles Mermaid

This mixed media collage was a headache and a lesson learned all in one! It started as a blank ceramic sign that I ruined while working on it, but did not want to throw away. I made the decision to cover it somehow and try again but had no idea how to go about doing it so I put it away for a later date. Fast forward 2 months later 3 a.m. Tuesday morning and I'm sitting in my craft room ripping up book pages and glueing them down like a mad woman. I left it overnight to dry...and neglected it the res of the week, glaring at it from across the room. Ok I'm exaggerating , I finally started on it again Thursday night, using gelatos, alcohol ink mists, acrylic pain, and homemade texture paste  to create this underwater scene. I knew exactly which Odd Girl digi I wanted as the center of attention, Bubbles Mermaid! I wanted her to look as if she's a part of the underwater scene, not just added on top, so coloring her on xpress it blending card, cutting her out and adhering her on top. I got the brilliant idea to print Bubbles Mermaid on a piece of white tissue paper so that only her outline would be visible, kind of like a water slide decal. Several paper jams later I got it printed out and it was perfect! A great idea...until I tried to trim the extra paper around the image. Ugh! Cutting an image out of tissue paper, NIGHTMARE!!! I highly do NOT recommend it for the faint of heart lol! I kid, but it was a real pain in the rear, and certainly not something I'll be trying again soon. I did however achieve the desired effect, and once she was colored up with my copics, she blended in positively gorgeous with her background. Also, as you can see, I just couldn't help myself coloring her in the likeness of a certain very famous mermaid! I haven't decided what to do with this particular project. Since so much hard work went into it, I can't yet part with it, so its home is on my craft room wall for now, oh darn ^.^ happy Friday ladies! Hope you enjoy your weekend, I'm off to link up to the SOG August Linky Party, hope you guys join the fun!

-Krys