BUGABOO NEW RELEASE DAY -- MARCH 31, 2020

Hello all, and welcome back to my blog!  Today is Tuesday, and at Bugaboo's Catch the Bug blog, that means it's New Release day!  WOOHOO!  This week's image is a cute one...but aren't just about ALL Bugaboo images cute??  LOL  Anyway, here's my card:

Alrighty, this one is called Spring Bird - Summer Dress, and isn't she a purty thing?  She's spending some time outside with her little bug friends (ew!), and a pretty daisy in her hand.  She looks like she just had a nice shower and got all dolled up for a special outing.  Bless her little heart!  Like the Lawn Fawn sentiment says, she is enjoying the little things like a nice day, and a pretty flower.

I colored everything with my alcohol markers, and used a piece of Lawn Fawn's Perfectly Plaid Rainbow 6x6 paper to dress up the right side of the card.  Oh, and the sentiment comes from the Village Shops stamp set.

**CHALLENGES**

Creative Moments #187:  ATG (1/3)
613 Avenue Create #231:  ATG or optional to use colored pencils
Crafty Gals Corner #205:  Use Flowers
Gem of a Challenge #7:  ATG (1/2)
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #128:  ATG (2/3)
Word Art Wednesday #432 - #433:  ATG (1/5)
The Sisterhood of Crafters:  Spring (1/3)
Cardz 4 Gals #118:  Cute Animals (1/3)
Crafty Friends #132:  Spring (1/3)
Crafting Happiness #42:  ATG or optional "weather" theme
Double Trouble #53:  SomeThing, AnyThing EveryThing (1/4)
Lemon Shortbread #116:  ATG (1/3) 
Polkadoodles Week #13:  ATG (1/2)
Digi Choosday Week #13:  ATG (1/2)
Simon Says Monday:  Spring Mood Board
The Outlawz Festive Friday's:  Spring/Easter
Colour Crazy #12:  ATG with coloring (1/2)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I know things are a really big mess these days, but I have to believe better times are ahead of us.  Take care of yourselves and each other, and until next time...

God Bless!

~Marie~

CHRISTMAS WITH THE CUTIES -- WHITE CHRISTMAS 3/23/2020

Hey all, welcome back to my blog!  I hope you are all doing well in these uncertain times we are going through ATM.  As for our household, my hubby and daughter both have off for 2 weeks, but I still have to go to work.  BOO!  Where I work, the business is considered to be essential, so we are still plugging away!  

Anyway, I am posting today to share my card for the Christmas With The Cuties challenge, whose theme this month is White Christmas.

This month's sponsor is Polkadoodles.

Store:  http://www.polkadoodles.co.uk/

Blog:  http://polkadoodle.blogspot.co.uk/

I am using one of the adorable penguins from the Cute Christmas Penguins set.  I interpreted this challenge to mean an all white card, so that's what I did!  I asked my uber talented friend Renee at Delaney Jane Cards for some advice on how to color this fella because I had NO CLUE how to color a BLACK penguin for an all white card!  She suggested adding some shading to the darkest places and using the lightest color in the set to blend it out.  I was doubtful at first, but he turned out looking great!  To finish off the image, I added some Star Dust Stickles to the brim and pompom of the hat, and to the snowy ground.

I embossed some strips of white card stock with a snowflake embossing folder by The Paper Studio and adhered them to the 5.5" square card base.  Also, I have been working on making some simple Christmas cards with the fairly new Marie Snowflake die by Simon Says Stamp...you know I just HAD to have that one, right?  ;)  LOL  Anyway, I had these white ones laying on my desk with no particular purpose in mind for them, so I thought it would be neat to cut them in half and glue them around the circular image panel.  An all white card is all about adding lots of texture so it doesn't look flat and boring.  The sentiment comes from the Hello Bluebird set Joyful Mouse, and is stamped in VersaClair Nocturne ink.

--CHALLENGES--

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #63:  ATG
Merry Little Christmas #20:  ATG Christmas
Love to Craft #44:  ATG (3/5)
Mix It Up #34:  ATG (3/5)
Creative Moments #187:  ATG (1/3)
Crafty Animals #36:  ATG with animals
Daisy Chain #39:  Use Dies
Classic Design #3:  ATG
Paper Funday #15:  ATG (1/4)
The Die Cut Divas:  ATG using die cuts/embossing folders (3/4)
Gem of a Challenge #6:  ATG (1/2)
ABC Christmas E, F, & G:  "E" for embossing
Crafty Creations #407:  ATG (2/3)
Crimbo Crackers #206:  Penguins
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #128:  ATG (1/3)
Word Art Wednesday #430 - #431:  ATG (2/5)

Colour Crazy Week #11:  ATG with coloring
Fab 'n' Funky #473:  Christmas
Simon Says Wednesday:  Whatever the Weather
Polkadoodles Week #12:  ATG (1/2)
Digi Choosday Week #11:  ATG (1/2)
Penny's Paper Crafty #467:  ATG (1/3)
Crafting Happiness #41:  ATG 
CHNC #482:  ATG Christmas
Jingle Belles: FA-LA-LA-LA-LA (Christmas Music, Lyrics, etc.)
C.R.A.F.T #549:  ATG or Christmas Animals (I used a Christmas animal)
The Outlawz Festive Friday:  Christmas

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you all are well, and continue to stay that way, for however long this goes on!  Until next time,

Take care of yourselves, and each other, and God Bless!

~Marie~

BUGABOO HUMOR ME WEDNESDAY --WORLD SLEEP DAY!

Hello everyone!  Welcome back to my blog!  It's Wednesday, which means it's Humor Me Wednesday over at the Catch the Bug blog.  There are quite a few things to be celebrated this week; from International Women's Day on the 8th (very important!!), PI day on 3/14 ( I prefer eating pie to doing math!), and even Save a Spider Day, also on 3/14.  I will NOT be celebrating that one, on any day!  LOL!  For myself though, I just need a nap...so I'm celebrating World Sleep Day on 3/13 with my card:

This adorable Bugaboo image is Pup Sleep.  He sure looks like he is napping quite peacefully...I hope his little kitty friend doesn't wake him!  I colored the image with my alcohol markers, and I was going for a monochromatic look with my card, so I used very light browns for the majority of the pup.  The polka dotted patterned paper was some I had sitting on my desk at the time, so I'm not sure which paper pad it's from.  I didn't have a peachy colored card stock to match, so I colored the edges of my Spellbinders scalloped oval with the same light peach marker used to color the "hello" die cut stacked sentiment.  I was going for a gradient look on the sentiment also, so I made the bottom half of the letters darker.  It was then coated with Wink of Stella, and Glossy Accents.  I think it turned out cute!  

**CHALLENGES**

CHN Patterned Paper:  ATG using patterned paper

Love to Craft #44:  ATG (2/5)

Mix it Up #34:  ATG (2/5)

2 Sisters on the Blog:  Dots or Stripes

Crafty Animals #36:  ATG using animals

Daisy Chain Challenges #39:  Use Dies 

The Die Cut Divas:  ATG using dies or embossing folders

Crafty Creations #407:  ATG  

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #127:  ATG (2/3)

Word Art Wednesday #430- #431:  ATG (1/5)

Crafty Friends #130:  Animals/Birds

Colour Crazy Week #9:  ATG with coloring

Lemon Shortbread #115:  ATG 

Polkadoodles Week #10:  ATG (1/2)

Digi Choosday Week #10:  ATG (1/2)

Crafting Happiness #39:  ATG

Thanks so much for spending some time here today; I'm so glad you could come by!  Please stop over to the Catch the Bug blog to see what other quirky holidays are being celebrated today, and leave my Bugaboo teamies some love!

Until next time, 

Take Care, and God Bless!

~Marie~

CCAYR, MARCH 2020 -- GINGERBREAD, AND BUGABOO STELLA SAYS SKETCH CHALLENGE

Hello, and welcome back to my blog!  It's the 1st of March, which means it's time for another challenge at Christmas Crafts All Year Round.  This time, we are hungry for some gingerbread, so show us those cute little houses, and those adorable little ginger people!  Here is my card:

This post also doubles as my Bugaboo DT card for the Stella Says Sketch challenge at Catch the Bug this week.  It doesn't often happen that I get to kill 2 birds with one stone, but when it does happen, I try to take advantage of it!  So, here is the sketch we are following:

I flipped the sketch and adjusted the positioning of the 3 circle elements slightly, but other than that, I followed the sketch pretty closely.   I can't find this image in the store as of yet, but there is a similar one in this set here, if you wanted to get it.  I colored up the adorable ginger girl image using alcohol markers.  I used what Courtney Kreeber calls a "scary dark" brown shade in the darkest areas, which at first I thought made her look like she was a burnt cookie!  After some time though, it did fade back, so now I'm OK with it. 

 The patterned papers all come from the 6x6 Sugar Plums paper pad by Recollections, which I seem to have used quite a bit of!  I wish I had gotten more than one!  :(  The open scalloped border below the gingerbread houses was made with a die from the Bevels, Brackets, and Lace set from Sizzix.  I used a dark red Recollections card stock mat cut with a Spellbinders scalloped rectangle behind the patterned paper image panel.  Ginger girl was popped up on dollar store foam tape, and so was the partial Lawn Fawn sentiment from the Deck The Halls set.  100 lb. Recollections Kraft card stock was used to make the card base, as I thought it would better match the cookie "feeling" of the card.  I added some of Christy Gets Crafty's favorite Star Dust Stickles to the white areas of Ginger girl, added the 3 glittery enamel dots, and this card is done.

**CHALLENGES*

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #63:  ATG 
Merry Little Christmas #20:  ATG (1/5)
CHN Patterned Paper:  ATG using patterned paper
Love to Craft #44:  ATG (1/5)
Mix it Up #35:  ATG (1/5)
Classic Design #3:  ATG 
Die Cut Divas:  ATG using die cuts and/or embossing folders
Gem of a Challenge #5:  ATG (1/2)
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #127:  ATG (1/3)
Word Art Wednesday #428 - #429:  ATG (1/5)
The Sisterhood of Crafters:  Patterned Paper (1/3)
Double Trouble:  Go Green (I have a fair bit of green on my card!)
Heart 2 Heart Challenges:  Put Your Green On (partnership with Double Trouble)
The Paper Girls #195:  Glitter
Lemon Shortbread #114:  ATG
Simon Says Wednesday:  ATG
The Paper Shelter #416:  Color it!
Polkadoodles Week #9:  ATG (1/2)
Digi Choosday Week #8:  ATG (1/2)
Crafting Happiness #38:  ATG 
CHNC #479:  ATG Christmas
The Outlawz Festive Fridays:  Christmas

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I appreciate the time you have taken to spend here, and I hope you will also stop by the CCAYR blog, and the Catch the Bug blog to see what all of the other respective DT members have made to inspire you!  Until next time,

Take Care, and God Bless!

~Marie~