SLOW BUT SURELY

I have to admit that this card was as slow making as a turtle is crossing a road. I decided to design a cutting file turtle for a birthday card for my daughter to give a friend. I ended up with two turtles and she liked the other one better. You can find that turtle card here. Ying Yang Turtle I like the turtle I'm showing off today better but he was a trial and error turtle.

I started off by bringing up pictures of turtles and there are land and sea turtles. I decided a land turtle and began my process. When I got done with the first turtle. his head was rounder and big, his legs looked like stumps with booties on and his shell was very tall. I think he was living in a bi-level shell. My daughter thought he looked ridiculous so I want back to the drawing board. I started by reshaping the feet and making them more square and then making the head smaller and more square too. I was almost a happy camper. I really didn't like the tall shell now. I had made the tall shell on purpose in the beginning in hopes he would look unique and cute but he only looked weird. I started reshaping the shell and that took awhile in itself but in the end I got it all done and this is my final product turned into a card.

Now it's time to do some coloring with chalk and get ready for the newest April Challenge at Chalk N Stock which begins tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by today and see you tomorrow.

ying yang turtle

Hi all...

The back story behind my paper pieced birthday card is simple. My daughter has a friend that LOVES turtles and so my daughter asked me to make her a turtle birthday card.  I ended up designing two and my daughter picked the ying yang turtle so here is the end product.

 I used Inkscape to design the turtle and the waves. My daughter is bless as an artist and I tell people I am blessed as a crafter. I work better creating things with computer programs and she works better with pencil and paper.

Anyway, I went looking for turtles on line and after looking at many pictures, I came up with two ideas. The cute kind and this ying yang one. My daughter picked the ying yang one of course. She's 12. Need I say more. :)

Once I finished the turtle to her liking. I was playing with different paper patterns for the body. She told me I need to add some water. Really! I went looking through my files and couldn't find any waves so I went to Cricut and Silhoutte (I owe both die cutting machines.) and realized I didn't have any waves and I was too cheap to go pay for a file.

I went back to Inkscape and did a Google search of waves. Again I found a few different pictures and drawings of ones so I let them inspire me and these are what I came up with.

When I put them on the card, I decided to move raise some to give the waves more depth.

So there you have it, a card and how my brain works when I decide to use die cutting over stamping for my card front.

I hope you enjoyed it and I look forward to chatting with you in the near future about whatever takes over my crafty life for a few days.

I have entered this card in these challenges:

Crafty Creations Challenges #337 - Anything Goes and DT Call

Crafting from the Heart Challenge #151 - Anything Goes

Inspiration Destination Challenge Blog #124 - Anything Goes

The Crafty Addicts Challenge Blog Challenge #34 - Anything Goes/Clean and Simple (CAS)

Crafty Girls Creations Challenge #34 - Anything Goes

Simon Says: Use More Than One Die Or Punch

Sending some green your way

I decided to make and send some St. Patrick's Day cards to friends and family. I have a wee little bit of Irish in my but enough to make me want to celebrate each year. Tomorrow we'll be doing the traditional corned beef brisket with cabbage and potatoes dinner but today I'll share my cards with you.

First off, I used colored pencils to color all my images on these these four cards.

These first two cards use digital stamps from Dear Dolls Digi Stamps. The owner and artist is a lady with a big heart who draws these digital stamps and even digitally colors them and then posts them for free on her site. I love her work and she is probably my favorite digital stamp maker.

Here is where you can download the digital stamp of Four Leaf Clover Found.

I used one of my metal dies to get the stamp frame which I then green inked. The background if some St. Patrick's day printed paper from a company that is no longer in business. I added some of my Wink of Stella glitter pen to the clovers but you can't really see them in the picture.

I stamped some little clovers under the picture and here is a close up.

Here is where you can download the Lucky Boy digital stamp.

The background is an oversize three leaf clover that I cut out using my Cricut cutter. I then embossed the clover and cut it to fit on the card. The frame for the digital stamp is made using one of my metal dies in my embossing machine. Wink of Stella glitter pen has been added to gold in the pot and the clovers but I couldn't get a good picture of it so you'll have to take my word for it.

This next image is just a digital coloring page I found that I liked. Sometimes I find the cutest and FREE digital pictures when I search for coloring pages.

I used a metal plate to emboss the design on the dark green background and then I used gold Angel Mist to give the background a gold shimmer. The frame again is one of my metal dies.

The edges were inked in green and Wink of Stella was added to the clovers to give them some glitter appeal.

Finally, I saw a card a friend made and fell in live with the stamp she used on it. It had a mouse and cat. I don't have the stamp so I thought I would try to make a digital St. Patrick's Day mouse for a card. I free handed the mouse and he looked pretty good to me but when I redid it in Inkscape, I made the face too long and he turned into a St. Patrick's day RAT! I kept him the way he is because I like rats and feel it's very original.

* My daughter thinks he's creepy looking but she's not a rat person like I am.

Here is the drawing.

Here is my card.

This card is done the same as the above card except I used a different metal die for the dark green background.

 I have entered these cards in these current challenges:

Unicorn Challenge Blog #19 Go Green

Simon Says: Bit O' Green Challenge

Die Cut Diva's monthly challenge: For the Love of Animals/Pets (I added my rat card.)

Crafty Freinds Challenge 53 For a Child (All cards could be used for a child.)

Cards und More Challenge Blog: kids/children  (All cards could be used for a child.)

Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes Challenge Blog

Shopping Our Stash #294 - Luck O' the Irish

Digi Chooseday Carft Challenge - Anything Goes

Inspiration Destination Challenge Blog #124 - Anything Goes

Crafting from the Heart Challenge #150 - Anything Goes

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #79 - g is for green with envy

Here Fishy, Fishy

I love the look of Bugaboo stamps and enjoy coloring them with anything from alcohol markers to colored pencils to chalk. 

This month's card used a digital stamp and saying from Bugaboo Stamps. I used alcohol markers to color my fish and then used pastel chalks to color the water blue and finally, I used dark blue chalk ink on the edge of the digital stamp. This card is featured as part of my monthly challenge for Chalk N Stock. If you get crafty this month and use chalk of any type and anywhere on your project, come on over and join the Chalk N Stock challenge for March!

Thanks for stopping by today and see ya real soon!