LIL PATCH OF CRAFTY FRIENDS #178 SPONSORED BY ALL DRESSED UP -- MARCH 20, 2022

 Hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!  Today is that start of another new challenge at the Lil Patch of Crafty Friends blog, where it's always ANYTHING GOES!  This time our sponsor is:

***Exclusive Sponsor***

All Dressed Up

👉Prize:  2 Images👈

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I chose to work with this adorable Little Flower Fairy image for my card:

Isn't she sweet?  For my card, I decided to make another circular easel.  I used my Silhouette Designer Studio program to design all the pieces I would need.  For the patterned paper circle, I knew I wanted to use a paper from my newly acquired Flower Market 6x6 paper pad from Lawn Fawn, so I had to conduct a search through my craft room for a coordinating cardstock.  I found this pretty textured purple in a Craft Smith 12x12 pad from Michael's that matched PERFECTLY with the purple flowered paper.  YAY! 🙌 

Once all of that was figured out, I set out to color my image.  I grabbed Copic markers in the V family for my purple:  V01, V12, V15, AND a little bit of V17 for the darkest areas.  These are also a PERFECT match!  WOOT, WOOT!  Her skin was colored with my favorite skin tone combo, E50, E51, AND E53.  The greens I used to color the leaves were G82, YG61, and YG67.  Her wings were colored with B000 AND B00.  And now to my favorite part...her hair!  I did a search of Copic hair color combos, and came across one that called for YR23, YR24, AND E99. I had the first 2 colors listed, but not the third.  Thank goodness for Sandy Allnock's Copic Hex chart!  I saw that E37 is right next to E99, and I do have that marker, so I tested it out on a scrap piece.  It looked great to me, so I proceeded on a wing and a prayer.  Coloring hair is not one of my strong points, so I was worried that I would make a mess of it, especially after all the other coloring I had done!  I know I don't have some of the shading right, but I think it turned out great anyway!

To add some finishing touches to the image, I used a white gel pen, a clear sparkle gel pen, and a black glaze pen for her eyes. WHEW! Hey, does anyone else remember that purple dress that Marie Osmond wore one time on the Donny and Marie show?  When they made them into dolls back in the 70's, that was the outfit she had on.  The way I colored this little fairy's dress reminds me of that dress!  Before I completely forget, the sentiment was made using Oliver's Stitched ABC's from Lawn Fawn...I die cut each letter 4 times from scrap white cardstock, and once in the same purple textured cardstock.  Clear Wink of Stella was added to the letters and to the fairy wings, because all fairy wings should sparkle, right?

--CHALLENGES--

Crafting Happiness #121:  ATG

CHN Patterned Paper:  ATG using patterned paper

Love to Craft #67:  ATG (4/8)

Mix it Up #58:  ATG (4/8)

Besties International:  ATG (3/3)

613 Avenue Create:  ATG (3/8)

Crafty Gals Corner #229:  Add a Flower

Classic Design #3:  ATG

The Paper Funday #39:  ATG (4/4)

A Place to Start:  ATG (3/8)

The Creative Crafters #50:  ATG (1/3)

Let's Craft and Create #181:  ATG w/optional PURPLE and GREEN

SheepSki Designs #60:  Flowers (1/3)

The Corrosive Challenge #3:  ATG (3/4)

Crafty Friends #153:  Flowers (1/5)

Dragonfly Dreams:  Something to Make You Smile (1/3)

Pearly Sparkles #71:  One for the Girls

Stamping Sensations:  Something for Spring

LeAnn's World 101 #48:  ATG 

Mirtillamente #7:  ATG

We Love Stamping:  Spring

Morgan's Artworld #3:  ATG (1/3)

Fab 'n' Funky #547:  Hand colored image

Gem of a Challenge #6:  ATG (1/2)

Word Art Wednesday #535 - #536:  ATG (1/5)

Through the Craft Room Door:  ATG (1/2)

CD Sunday Plus #81:  ATG (digi from All Dressed Up)

C.R.A.F.T Challenge #630:  Female

Simon Says Monday:  Feminine

Simon Says Wednesday:  Use Your Favorite Things (my Silhouette Cameo to design and cut my card, cute images, and my alcohol markers!)

The Paper Shelter #503:  Let it Be Spring!

Polkadoodles #12:  ATG (1/2)

Digi Choosday #11:  ATG (1/2)

Penny's Paper Crafty #517:  ATG (1/3)

Colour Crazy #11:  ATG w/coloring (1/2)

Crafty Catz #587:  ATG w/optional Add some Sparkle or Glitter (it's subtle, but it's there, I swear!)

The Outlawz Twisted Thursday:  ATG (1/3)

The Outlawz Festive Fridays:  Flowers

The Outlawz Saturday Paper Al A Mode:  3rd Dimension (3D element)

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today!  Don't forget to head on over to the Lil Patch of Crafty Friends blog to see what the rest of DT B has created and to join in!  Until next time,

💗 Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 💗

~ Marie

SQUIRRELZ STASH BASH -- MARCH 15, 2022

 Welcome back to the Squirrelz Stash Bash!  

It's that time of the month again where my Squirrel Friends and I dig into our stashes of crafty stuff and USE IT!  This month's theme is SPRING, and the technique we are suing is STAMPING/DIE CUTTING OFF THE EGDE.  It took me a LONG TIME to find something in my stash that would work for this idea, but I finally found something at the last minute.  Here's my card:

After coming up with several ideas that fell short of my expectations, I finally came across this Spellbinders Small Die of the Month for Feb22.  Granted it isn't all that old, but this did give me the impetus to actually use it instead of languishing in my stash as it might have without our awesome hop!  The actual construction of the card didn't take that long once I decided to use this die set.  First, I used one of the coordinating edge dies to cut the edge of my card front.  Then, I ink blended the die cut oval using Cracked Pistachio oxide ink, and then stitched the flowers using 3 strands of variegated purple DMC floss.  Then I thought that this purple foil cardstock from Michael's would look great behind the stitched panel, so I cut the edge of that as well and glued it to the card front.  I adhered the oval directly on top of the foil, slightly offsetting it from the bottom edge.  I really like the way the foil peeks through the other holes in the stitched design!  Then I spent more time agonizing over not having any spring themed sentiment dies before finally coming up with this sentiment, using Oliver's Stitched ABC's and the Winter Scripty Sentiments stamp set, both from Lawn Fawn.  I die cut each letter twice from a scrap of white cardstock, and once from the purple foil and layered them together for some dimension.  The "warm" and "wishes" were stamped in white pigment ink and white heat embossed with Recollections Snow embossing powder.

Well, that's it!  If you are hopping along (and why wouldn't you?), you came here from the lovely Bory's blog.  I'm at the end this month, but if you just happened to stop by my blog today, I invite you to hop on over to the fabulous Lounon's blog to keep on hopping with us!  Please leave us some comment love, and be sure to subscribe if you haven't already!  Until next time,

Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless!

~ Marie

DIGI DOODLE STUDIOS CARD SHARE --MARCH 11, 2022

Hello friends!  I'm back again today to share another card for the current challenge over at Digi Doodle Studios, which is PERFECT PETS & ANIMALS.  My card uses Tabitha's Puppy Hugs from the new release:

For the base of my card, I used a sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2, 

Sketch #224

I thought this sketch was perfect to showcase this adorable girl hugging her sweet puppy!  I colored the image with alcohol markers to match the patterned papers, which come from the Trinity Stamps Summer Blooms kit from last year.  The green mat layers were created by ink blending the edges of white cardstock with Evergreen Bough oxide ink.  It was the closest ink I had that matched the leaf images in the flowered paper.  I used the long die from the Spellbinders Large Die of the Month for June 2021 (Colorblock Circles & Stripes) to create the paper strips behind the image circle.  The sentiment was created by combining the "love" from Lawn Fawn's Baked with Love stamp set, and the ampersand and "hugs" from the Long Distance Hugs stamp set.  I used my MISTI to ensure a good stamping, and stamped in VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink.  I covered the ink with clear embossing powder and heat set.

--CHALLENGES--

Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2:  Sketch #224

Crafting Happiness #121:  ATG 

Crafty Calendar:  Spots/Stripes or Easter

Papercraft Challenge #79:  ATG 

CHN Patterned Paper:  ATG using patterned paper

Love to Craft #67:  ATG (3/8)

Mix it Up #58:  ATG (3/8)

Besties International:  ATG (2/3)

Color It, Create It, Show it Off:  ATG with coloring (3/3)

613 Avenue Create:  ATG (2/8)

Classic Design #3:  ATG 

The Paper Funday #39:  ATG (3/4)

Unicorn Challenge #71:  Dots and/or Stripes

A Place to Start:  ATG (2/8)

Let's Craft and Create #181:  ATG (2/3)

The Corrosive Challenge #3:  ATG 

Pearly Sparkles #71:  One for the Girls

LeAnn's World 101 #48:  ATG 

Mirtillamente #7:  ATG 

Cute As A Button #78:  ATG (3/3)

Word Art Wednesday #533 - #534:  ATG (2/5)

Addicted to Stamps and More #424:  Any Occasion

CD Sunday Plus #80: ATG (2/3) 

Simon Says Monday:  Add some Green

Simon Says Wednesday:  Bit O' Green

Digi Choosday #10:  ATG (2/2)

Colour Crazy #10:  ATG with coloring (1/2)

Crafty Catz #586:  ATG (1/3)

Ok folks, that's all for today!  Don't forget to join us at Digi Doodles to share those PERFECT PETS & ANIMALS!  Until next time,

💗 Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 💗

~ Marie

ABC CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE -- E, F, G -- MARCH 9, 2022

Hello friends!  It's time for another ABC Christmas challenge!  This month's letters are:

E for Embossing

F for Fussy & Fancy

G for Glitter

Here are the cards I created using both E and G:

To create these cards, I grabbed two digis from my image basket that were already colored.  The penguin is from the now sadly closed Whimsie Doodles shop, and the snowman is from Little Scraps of Heaven, which is also sadly closed. These images are too cute not to use though! for the penguin card, I die cut a piece of green glitter cardstock from Recollections using the largest die from Spellbinders A2 Card Creator set A.  The snowy-looking patterned paper, also from Recollections, was die cut with the next size down in the same set.  I did have to finish the penguin by coloring his scarf to match the other greens.  I also gave him green eyes, but I think he kind of looks possessed now! 😆 I added foam tape to the back of the penguin and placed him on a slight angle for a bit of playfulness. The sentiment comes from Lawn Fawn's Winter Scripty Sentiments set, and was heat embossed with Recollections Snow embossing powder.

The snowman card is 5.5" sqaure.  I dry embossed the Big Snowflake stencil from A Colorful Life Designs onto a scrap of 65 lb. white cardstock.  I cut the panel down to 5.25" sqaure, and then replaced the stencil (which I had sprayed with Pixie Spray) and inked up the snowflake using white pigment ink.  I had watched a Gina K video where she used white pigment ink instead of Versamark or another sticky embossing ink, so the ink wouldn't stick to the stencil and pull it up.  It worked really well, although it was pretty difficult to see the white ink on the white paper.  I lifted the stencil and poured Ranger's holographic embossing powder all over the snowflake.  Unfortunately, thanks to the Pixie Spray, the glitter also stuck to a lot of the area around the snowflake.  I tried to brush it off, which didn't really work, so I embossed it anyway.  After the embossing, I tried various methods to remove the extra glitter...my fingers, a pink eraser, my tweezers, and a Swiffer cloth.  All of these worked to some degree, but none were fully successful.  Nonetheless, I continued with my plan to ink blend over the panel with Salty Ocean oxide ink and a blender brush.  I concentrated the darker color in the center of the snowflake, getting lighter towards the edges.  The scratches on the paper that my tweezers left behind actually gave it a nice texture, I think.  The snowflake panel is adhered to the card base with Bearly Art glue, then I added foam tape to the back of the snowman and placed him on top to cover a couple of spots that didn't get any ink. 😉

--CHALLENGES--

Christmas With The Cuties:  Anything Cute and Christmas

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #86:  ATG Christmas (1/10)

Merry Little Christmas #43:  ATG Christmas (1/8)

Crafting Happiness #121:  ATG

Papercraft Challenge #79:  ATG 

CHN Patterned Paper:  ATG with patterned paper

Love to Craft #67:  ATG (2/8)

Mix it Up #58:  ATG (2/8)

Besties International:  ATG (1/3)

Craft Rocket #90:  Use an Animal

Color It, Create It, Show it Off:  ATG (2/3)

613 Avenue Create:  ATG (1/8)

Crafts Galore Encore #97:  ATG (2/3)

Crafty Animals #59: ATG using animals

Classic Design #3:  ATG 

Critter Crazy #60:  ATG featuring animals (1/5)

The Paper Funday #39:  ATG (2/4)

Unicorn Challenge #74:  Dots and/or Stripes 

A Place to Start:  ATG (1/8)

Let's Craft and Create #181:  ATG (1/3)

The Corrosive Challenge #3:  ATG 

Happy Little Stampers Christmas:  ATG Christmas

LeAnn's World 101 #48:  ATG

Mirtillamente #7:  ATG 

Cute as a Button #78:  ATG

Gem of a Challenge #5:  ATG (1/2)

Word Art Wednesday #533 - #534:  ATG (1/5)

Holly and Ivy #111:  ATG Christmas (1/3)

Double Trouble #105:  Bring on the Green

Heart 2 Heart:  Going Green

Peace on Earth #11:  ATG Christmas (1/3)

CD Sunday Plus:  ATG (1/3)

C.R.A.F.T Challenge #629:  Christmas (1/2)

Simon Says Monday:  Add Some Green (1/5)

Polkadoodles #10:  ATG (1/2)

Digi Choosday #10:  ATG (1/2)

Colour Crazy #9:  ATG w/ coloring (1/2)

CHNC #584:  ATG Christmas

The Outlawz Festive Friday:  Christmas

Well, that's all for today!  I appreciate you stopping by, and don't forget to join us at the ABC Christmas challenge to get those Christmas cards crossed off your to-do list!  Until next time,

💗 Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 💗

~ Marie

DIGI DOODLE STUDIOS DT POST -- PERFECT PETS & ANIMALS -- MARCH 1, 2022

Hello and welcome back!  Here it is, March 1st ALREADY!!!  I can hardly believe how fast the time is going, and yet the days seem to drag on and on sometimes!  That's probably just because I am at work for 9 hours a day, and that makes the time go by so slowly.  I know my workdays could be so much worse than what they generally are, so I really should be grateful for that!  Anyway, since today IS March 1st, that means that Team B at Digi Doodle Studios is sharing their makes for the new challenge theme:

PERFECT PETS & ANIMALS

The image I have chosen for this theme is the lovely Leilani, and here is my card:

Isn't she just adorable with her little birdie friend?  I started out by choosing a sketch from the old Papertake Weekly sketch blog, sketch #85.  I know there are a few current sketch blogs out there, but I always keep going back to this one... 😜 My next step was to choose some pretty papers, so of course I reached for the Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Rainbow 6x6 paper pad.  The orange woodgrain piece is also from Lawn Fawn; it was one of the freebies they sent along with an order.  From the plaid paper, I chose the bright green color to pick a card stock for the large matting piece. I colored Leilani with alcohol markers that I thought matched the plaid pretty well, and to ensure that the flowers matched, I used the same alcohol markers to color the paper before die cutting the Stitched Blooms flowers and leaves from MFT.  White gel pen was used to accent various parts of the image (and to cover up some booboos!), and also in the flower centers.  I used the Sakura clear sparkle pen to outline the heart on her dress.

--CHALLENGES--

Crafting Happiness:  ATG 

Love to Craft #67:  ATG (1/8)

Mix it Up #58:  ATG (1/8)

Color It, Create It, Show it Off:  ATG with coloring (1/3)

Crafts Galore Encore #97:  ATG (1/3)

Crafty Animals #59:  ATG using animals (her little birdie friend!)

Classic Design #3:  ATG 

The Paper Funday #39:  ATG (1/4)

SheepSki Designs #60:  Flowers (1/3)

Crafty Friends #153:  Flowers (1/3)

Pearly Sparkles #71:  One for The Girls

Mirtillamente #7:  ATG

Cute as a Button #78:  ATG (1/3)

CD Sunday Plus #79:  ATG using CD, USB, or digi (2/3)

Digi Choosday #9:  ATG (1/2)

Polkadoodles #9:  ATG (1/2)

Colour Crazy #8:  ATG w/coloring (1/2)

Crafty Catz #584:  ATG w/option to add flowers

Passion for Markers #630:  Feminine

The Outlawz Festive Fridays:  Spring

That's all from me today, my friends!  Make sure you head on over to the Digi Doodle Studios blog to join in on the challenge, as we love to see your creations!  Until next time...

💗 Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 💗

~ Marie