Final CIJ for Bugaboo

Phew! I finished the Catch the Bug Christmas in July challenge. I always find it a challenge to complete a card a day for a week. My time doesn't seem to allow me to do that. I usually have to double up on certain days and this week was no exception. But I made it through (pat on the back) and I love the cards I did. And I have 6 more cards and an ornament for a package completed. Yeah me! Day 7 was a color challenge and the movie was Rudolph the Red Nodes Reindeer. You can use the Friday Freebie for this challenge; I did.

Here's my card:

The Bugaboo image is Reindeer Trio. I colored it using Spectrum Noir markers and the color requirements. Since the image had a frame around it I just fussy cut the frame. The designer paper is from American Craft Christmas Collection. I backed each piece with red card stock. I used Doodle Twine near the bottom and added some glitter paper layered snowflakes using MFT Layered Snowflakes. I wish the glitter showed up a bit better on the photo. It is rather sparkly. 

Entering these challenges:

• Catch the Bug CIJ Day 7: color challenge; movie: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
• Tuesday Morning Sketches: sketch 
  
• Crafting by Designs: get ready for Christmas
• QKR Stampede: anything goes
• A Bit More Time to Craft: anything goes

Now I have two more cards to complete this weekend. Hopefully I'll get those squeezed in between watching the twins and other things we have planned. Have a super wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Donna

White Christmas Day 6 CIJ

Slowly I am catching up with my week's tasks. We have the twins tomorrow so I really need to kick it into high gear for the rest of the day. Day 6 of the Bugaboo CIJ is a photo challenge and the movie associated with this day is White Christmas (one of my favorites!).

I didn't make my tree white but I tried to keep many of the other elements white with a pop of color.

The background is white glitter paper which looks like snow falling. I used Sunbonnet Tree image from Bugaboo colored with Spectrum Noir markers, fussy cut, and then popped up with foam tape. The sentiment is from Altenew Halftone Holidays and I used the coordinating die for the word "season". The "celebrate the" sentiment is heat embossed with white embossing powder on black card stock. The tree is coated with Wink of Stella. This one really sparkles in real life.
Entering these challenges:

• Bugaboo CIJ Day 6: White Christmas
• Crafting by Designs:get ready for Christmas
• Addicted to Stamps and More: anything goes 
  
• Through the Craft Room Door: anything goes
• Modsquad challenge: all the sparkles

Time to get dinner together. I hope to get my last card finished after dinner as I have 2 more cards for other things to make. Yikes! 

Donna

CIJ Day 5 Make it Funny

Day 5 of the week long Christmas in July challenge at Bugaboo is make us laugh!

And here's my card.

The image is Bugaboo JJ Christmas Cheer - Me Naughty? I changed up the sentiment which is from The Crafty Nomad. This is still a freebie on the web site. I die cut the swirl at the bottom with MFT Stitched Basic Edges 2. I used glitter paper in the swirl area and fussy cut JJ's feet to make it look like she's standing in the swirl. The sentiment is inked with a mixture of Cracked Pistachio and Lemonade distress ink to match the glitter paper. I colored the image with Spectrum Noir markers and finished it off with some Lime Green Stickles on the image.

Entering these challenges:

• Bugaboo CIL Day 5: make us laugh
• My Favorite Things sketch challenge: sketch 
  
• QKR Stampede: anything goes
• The Outlawz Festive Friday challenge: Christmas
• Crafty Hazelnut Christmas: anything goes

Two more to go! I have them both in the works but they aren't finished yet. Our morning got taken up by a call from the car dealership. We are in the process of buying a truck to haul our camper. The truck had been shipped from Arkansas and arrived last night so we test drove it this morning. It's amazing how that will eat up your day. Delivery will be next Tuesday. So I'm off for a little crafty time. Will be back later! Have a great day!

Donna

A Little Gray Hare (Hair)

One last quick post today. This is a birthday card that needed to go out this week. I made a card similar to this earlier this year and when my FIL saw it he suggested that I could send it to someone else that he knew. So I used the same image and the same inside sentiment but changed the design.

The hare image is from Jane's Doodles. It was a freebie from ages ago. The sentiment is computer generated. I colored the image with Spectrum Noir markers and inked the clouds with Salty Ocean distress ink. The image and the sentiment are die cut with MFT Inside and Out Stitched Rounded Squares. I added some ric rac under the sentiment and three pink sequins that are filled with glossy accents.The balloon is coated with Wink of Stella. And I added the cute ruffly bow.
Entering these challenges:

1. The Outlawz sketch challenge; sketch 
   
2. 2 Crafty Critter Crazies: use a critter
3. Createful Hearts: anything goes
4. Digi Choosday: anything goes
5. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends: anything goes

That's it for me tonight. I'll be back tomorrow with the rest of my Christmas in July cards for the Bugaboo challenge. Thanks for stopping by!

Donna

Bugaboo CIJ Fun

I've had a chance to play a bit this week but I am behind in posting my cards. So I'm going for two in this post and hoping to get caught up. Both of these cards are for the Christmas in July challenge at Catch the Bug. Day 3 is an ABC challenge: anything but a card.

I made an ornament using a used ribbon spool. The image is Stocking Santa Ornament.

The image is colored with Spectrum Noir markers. Designer paper is American Craft Christmas Collection. I used a snowflake punch and several layers of snowflakes glued together to decorate the ornament. The ribbon is from my stash. Add some Crystal Stickles on the Santa image. 

Entering these challenges:

• Bugaboo Christmas in July Day 3: Anything but a card (Santa Claus is Coming to Town)
• Crafting By Designs: get ready for Christmas
• Penny's Paper-Crafty challenge: anything goes
• Through the Craft Room Door: anything goes
• Monday Simon Says: not a card

So for the Day 4 CIJ challenge there is a bingo board and the movie is Elf.

My card uses the middle row: sparkle, Bugaboo image, sentiment

The elf image is Elf 003. I colored him with American Craft and Spectrum Noir markers and added lots of Stickles to the image. I also used Stickles on the edges of the scalloped papers. The patterned paper is American Craft Christmas collection. The sentiment is from AlteNew.

Entering these challenges:

• Bugaboo CIJ Day 4: Bingo; Movie is Elf
• Atlantic Hearts Sketch challenge: sketch 
  
• Rudolph Days challenge: anything goes Christmas 
• Modsquad challenge: all the sparkles
• Crafty Hazelnut Christmas: for a child
• The Outlawz Festive Friday: Christmas

We spent most of the day today at our Baby Creek house. Had a friend out for lunch that we haven't seen for quite some time. It was nice to sit on the front porch and watch the birds while we ate and chatted. It's amazing how fast the time flies. Hope your week is on the down swing and you are looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

Donna

So Worth Celebrating

Happy Monday! Our temperature is about 30 degrees cooler today than yesterday. Still very humid but so much more comfortable. I made this card for a birthday.

The flowers and leaves were stamped on water color paper and then water colored with distress inks. The background was inked using MFT Chunky Herringbone Stencil with distress inks: candy apple, spiced marmalade, fossilized amber, lucky clover, broken china, and seedless [reserves, to give it a rainbow look. The images are from MFT Wildflowers and Coordinating dies. The sentiment is from MFT Anything-but-Basic Birthday Wishes and die cut with MFT Essential Fishtail Sentiment Strips. Love how this turned out.
Entering these challenges:

1. MFT Sketch challenge: sketch 
   
2. MFT Camp Create Day 1: wonderful water color 
   
3. Seize the Birthday: rainbow
4. Simon Says Wednesday challenge: make your own background
5. Incy Wincy Designs: flowers and colors

It's been a busy day today. Need to get back to my desk for a little craft time. Hope that materializes this evening. Hope your week has started off perfectly. Thanks for stopping by.

Donna

Bugaboo Christmas in July

This is my second post today. I have a cute birthday card posted earlier that you can scroll down to see. It's time to help out my Christmas stash of cards as this week is the Catch the Bug Christmas in July challenge. Today I am already playing catch up as I did two days of cards. I hope to keep up this week but we'll see how the week goes. It's definitely a busy one.

So the theme this year is all about movies. Here's the Day 1 challenge. And I of course used Santa as he seems to be a common theme in all three of these movies.

This is Santa Clause Peeker by Bugaboo stamps. I colored him with Spectrum Noir markers and die cut him with Gina Marie Designs Cross Stitch Rectangles (retired). The sentiment is from Bird's Cards, a long time ago freebie. I die cut the banner's with MFT Pierced Fishtail Flags (retired). The designer paper is from American Craft Christmas Collection. The little snowflake sequins are from Crafts Etc.
Entering these challenges:

1. Catch the Bug Christmas in July Day 1: Movie: The Santa Clause
2. Sketch Saturday: sketch 
   
3. Through the Craft Room Door: anything goes
4. Outlawz Monday Greetings challenge: Christmas in July
5. Crafty Hazelnut Christmas: anything goes for a child

Day 2 for the Bugaboo challenge was a sketch challenge.

And as you can see the movie theme was Jingle All the Way. Here's my card.

The image is Circle Sentiment - Jingle Bells from Bugaboo stamps. I colored it with Spectrum Noir markers and die cut it from MFT Stitched Circles. The patterned paper is again from American Craft Christmas. I backed everything with red card stock to make it pop from the green base card stock. To finish off I added some self-adhesive gems from Michael's. The tag shape plaid paper is from My Favorite Things Blueprints 13 (retired). 

Entering these challengesL

1. Catch the Bug Christmas in July Day 2: sketch
2. Scrapping4Fun: Tic Tac Toe (diagonal) stripes, patterned paper, gems
   
   
   
3. Creative Knockouts challenge: tag time
4. Modsquad challenge: Christmas in July
5. The Male Room: Christmas in July

Going to call this post quits as storms are coming in. Had one just a bit ago that dropped our temps 15 degrees. We could really use some rain right now. Thanks for stopping by. I hope to get more craft time this week. Stay cool and have a wonderful week!

Donna

29th Birthday Greetings

Happy Sunday! I hope it is cooler in your area than it has been around here. Today our heat index is 105. Too hot for me. It's been that way for several days. They are saying it will cool down into the 80s this coming week. I am so looking forward to that. It's been a while since I sat down to intentionally make cards. My heart hasn't been in it. But nothing spurs me on like a challenge so this week is Bugaboo's Christmas in July challenge. I am working on that, waiting for some Stickles to dry before I put the card together. In the mean time I thought I'd share a quick card I made for my SIL this week for her birthday.

A definite CAS card. But she is always saying she's only 29 so I couldn't resist sending this one. The stamp set is Sweet & Sassy's Sassy Cindy (my SIL's name so it seemed like fate). I colored the image with Prismacolor Colored Pencils and outlined the Say What bubble (retired) from C.C. Designs. 
I am entering these challenges:

1. AAA Card challenge: one image 
   
2. The Outlawz Festive Friday challenge: birthday
3. QKR challenge: anything goes
4. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends: anything goes
5. Through the Craft Room Door: anything goes

I will likely be back later with another post. Too hot to be outside although my garden needs water so we may have to brave it later this evening (an get eaten by the mosquitoes). Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Donna

It's a Dueling Christmas

The 15th of the month has rolled around again and it's time for the Divas and the Dazzlers to duel. Our hostesses are Suzy (Divas) and Deb (Dazzlers). Thanks to Deb for sending my fun kit. Here's what she wrote:
It's warming up in Texas (and Indiana too), no surprise, it's almost July. The perfect time to start thinking of cooler temps! Our theme is Christmas in July. Suzy and I came up with this idea way back in December when we spent Christmas together. Being still in the "festive" mood... we thought this would be a fun theme to do. Plus, it was the perfect time to go shopping for paper, ribbon, embellishments and more! And by the way.... all on sale!Are we the perfect consumers or what? Here is the recipe:
Image: SU! "I'll be Home"
Gemstones and recipe card: Paper Studio
Ribbon: Offray
Papers: all from Hobby Lobby
The challenge: make a card or two for the holiday season!

I colored the image with American Craft markers. This one was a challenge since there is so much detail. I used two of the designer papers, several embellishments and one of the ribbons. Here's the inside of the card:

I used paper and embellishments to mimic the front of the card. There was a second part to the challenge: share a favorite holiday recipe. I have never had Christmas dinner at my house. I usually get corn or rolls to bring to dinner and don't usually make anything special. I used to bake lots of cookies but now we don;t eat much processed sugar. But there is one recipe that my kids always expect. When they were in school I was asked to come make this with classes of kids and we always sent these for birthday snacks. These days I only make these at Christmas.

Buckeyes

2 cups creamy peanut butter

2 sticks butter, softened

3 1/4 cups (16 oz) powdered sugar

2 cups (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate morsels

2 Ts vegetable shortening

Line baking sheet with wax paper. Mix peanut butter and butter in large bowl until creamy. Mix in the powdered sugar until mixture holds together. I refrigerate this until there is some firmness to it. Shape the mixture into one inch balls. Place on prepared sheet pan. Refrigerate or freeze for about an hour. 

Melt the chocolate and shortening in microwave-safe bowl on HIGH for 1 minute; stir. If necessary, microwave at additional 10-15 second intervals, stirring just until melted.

Dip peanut butter balls into melted chocolate using a toothpick, leaving a portion of the ball uncovered. Shake off excess chocolate and return to baking sheet.Refrigerate until chocolate is set. Store in covered container in refrigerator.

The buckeye is the state tree of Ohio, which is where I was born and raised. These look like the nut of the buckeye tree.My kids love them! To finish this off I thought I'd share a picture of the kids that would love to have these now.

Arthur                        Valerie

I hope you'll check out what the other Dazzlers and Divas have done. Links are in the right side column. Thanks again to Deb! I used the sketch from The Outlawz Wednesday Sketch challenge.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a great week!

Donna

A Plaid Christmas

Happy July 1st! Another month down and a new one just begun. It's time for a new challenge at 12 Months of Christmas Link Up. The challenge is always anything goes but we add a little twist if you want an extra challenge. This month the twist is plaid. One of my all time favorites.

I made a shaker card this month. Lisa has made some gorgeous plaid papers for this month and out sponsor this month is Ike's Art. I used Poinsettia Cluster. I colored it with Spectrum Noir markers. For the shaker cut out I used the MFT Blueprints 32 die. The sequins stars and confetti I used for the shaker was from my stash. The plaid paper is part of the new paper pack for this month by Decosse's Dynamite Doodles. The sentiment is from Holiday Sentiments from Creative Vision. The sentiment is die cut with MFT Pierced Fishtail Flags. The card base is red card stock. If you've been here before you might know I LOVE plaid paper so this challenge was easy for me. I hope you'll play along with us this month at 12 Months of Christmas Link Up.
I am entering these challenges:

• My Favorite Things Sketch challenge: sketch 
  
• Crafty Hazelnut Christmas Challenge: anything goes
• Through the Craft Room Door: anything goes
• ModSquad challenge: use a flower
• Simon Says Wednesday challenge: anything goes

Thanks for stopping by today. Last Friday was my DH's last day of work so he's now home 24/7. We are adjusting to the new schedule. Next Saturday is his big retirement party so this week will be a busy one. We'll see if I can get any crafting time. Hope you have a wonderful week. Make it an amazing one!

Donna