Another Thursday is upon us – so that means another fun creation using Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff digital stamps.  For my card today, I chose to digitally “paper-piece” a flower from the Doodle Flowers set.Along with the swirl frame from SVGCuts.com – A2 All Occasion card set: Textures from Kristine’s (Designs by Kristine) Texture Plated 2: And one of my favorite and most versatile style sets – Jodiann’s Mini-Stripe Lites: Now that you know what I used, let’s see what I did!  Following my “norm”, I opened the flower in Photoshop, separated layers, and applied styles and textures until I was happy with the look – here’s what my flower looked like in Photoshop:

Then I duplicated the flower 9 times so I could layer the petals for dimension and printed them out on Georgia Pacific cardstock.  I cut the swirl frame using SCAL and my mom’s baby bug from one of my DCWV glitter mat stacks. Then I trimmed all of the flower layers, and similar to Lindsay’s post on Monday, I used the end of a rounder paintbrush to burnish the backside of the leaves to give them some dimension as I wasn’t going to piece them separately from the base layer.

The card base is from my stash – I ran it through my Big Shot with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and then used my Pebbles Pearlescent chalks to add shimmer to the embossed area. I added the frame and then began layering and adhering the flowers.  I used buttons from my stash (Wal-Mart) as the flower centers and added a glitter butterfly (Wal-Mart) for fun and sparkle.  I drew the butterfly trail with one of my Zig Micron pens. Here’s a close-up of my sparkly butterfly:And my layered flowers – I just love the dimension here: Such a versatile a fun set to create with.  I purposely didn’t add a sentiment as I am thinking of gifting this card and I want the recipient to be able to use it however they’d like.

If you didn’t arrive here from Lindsay’s blog, be sure to stop there.  She’s known to have freebies, as well as fabulous eye-candy and the links to the rest of the DT blogs/projects.  She’s also having a sale in celebration of St. Patty’s day – helping you save a bit of green!

Have a great day – we’re off to gymnastics, and then to shop for a new toaster oven – ours smells like it’s about to combust – you know the not so pleasant burning electronics scent that everyone wants in their kitchen?!?!?!

Wow – I go MIA for about a month, and now I have to play catch-up! So, let’s just dive right in shall we?

First up, my good friend and fab-designer, Jodiann Cates is having a TCT (Test/Creative Team) call on her blog – she’s looking for a few talented people to work with her Photoshop styles.  I love them and have had the pleasure of working with several of them.  In fact, I used her Mini Stripe Lite style to create one of my freebies – you can find it here. Check her blog for all of the details and then apply!

Let’s see, what’s next – oh I know, another friend and uber-talented designer, Kristine of Designs by Kristine has just launched her own Newsletter – complete with sales info, coupons, and even exclusive freebies.  You definitely DON’T want to miss out.  You can find all of the deets here or sign up here.

For my crafting friends, as most of you know, I blog-stalk Suzanne Dean – her coloring skills are nothing short of amazing!  When I first heard about Copic markers, I headed to her blog for tutorials and color suggestions since buying all 300+ colors at once just wasn’t and still isn’t going to happen!  Well, now she’s launching Color Me Creative, an online classroom where she’ll teach all things Copic – everything from the basic to advanced mixed-media techniques.  Classes start March 15, but since they are all self-paced, you’ll have an entire year to complete them, plus have PDF and video files that can be downloaded and saved for future reference.  There’s an early-bird discount before March 14 – so be sure to check it out if you’re like me – new to Copics (plus I won’t be attending any of the Copic Certification classes as they are never near here nor are they in my price range) and in love the with the potential these (and all alcohol markers) have!  I can’t wait to get started.  Suzanne is also offering a refer-a-friend discount aka Copic Bucks, so you can earn a little something for spreading the word.

Looking for a challenge to get your creativity off the ground?  Since March as arrived, that means there are new challenges up at the DSO challenge blog – stop by and play awhile!

I guess that’s all from me – oh wait – you wanted a peak at our activities from last month?  Alright – just a peak:

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Nadya enjoying a visit to the park while while in Oklahoma.

Have a great Tuesday!

Hooray! I’m back!  For those that don’t know, my FIL lost his footing on an ice patch and fractured his hip at the end of January.  Nadya and I spent 3 weeks in Oklahoma cheering him up and helping to get him settled in rehab.  He’s doing well, and should be coming home soon!  We actually arrived home ourselves late Wednesday – but have had a full schedule between dental visits, gymnastics, and laundry/unpacking.  I managed to squeeze in a little creative time while visiting my Nana (we stopped to visit her for a couple of days on the way home) and again this morning.

I used all sorts of fabulous products to create this fun and easy project!  

     Whew – I told you I used lots of products! Now, let’s get to the goodies! For this basket, I used the basket base SVG file from SVG Cuts Easter Egg Treat Bags kit, sized to 10.5 and cut on my Nana’s Cricut Expression with SCAL. These bags are SUPER easy to put together!  The designer eggs are digital stamps from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff – Cute Easter set.  I opened them in Photoshop and “colored” them using styles from Bannerwoman  (Easter Egg – retired).  The detail work I also did in Photoshop using Jodiann’s Robot Gold styles – I adjusted the pattern size and bevels a bit since I was working with fine detail lines and fills.  Then I printed them out on SU Whisper White CS as I really wanted a smooth and bright finish, trimmed, and adhered them to my bag.The coordinating card was also super-easy to make!   As before, the designer eggs are digital stamps from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff – Cute Easter set.  I opened them in Photoshop and “colored” them using styles from Bannerwoman  (Easter Egg – retired).  The detail work and sentiment  were done in Photoshop, this time using Jodiann’s Robot Princess styles – I love the versatility of her styles!  For the sentiment I added a color overlay to one of the Robot Princess styles – I am quite please with the end result.  The sentiment layer is edged with an EK Success punch and matted with a bit of bluish glitter CS from DCWV – one of my many mat stacks.  I used the same punch to edge it as well. The card base is from my stash and happened to coordinate perfectly with the yellow CS Nana and I used to cut the treat bag.

That’s all from me – at least for today.  We’re having a guy come out to give us an estimate on pruning our Mulberry trees – they’re getting a bit out of hand! Then Nadya and I are off to do our grocery shopping, and have a picnic at the park with one of the local Meet-Up groups – that is if the weather cooperates!  Have a great Monday and following week!  Be sure to stop by Lindsay’s blog – she usually has fabulous eye candy and treats on Mondays, plus links to one of her DT groups creations.