Spring has Sprung?

I only have to step outside my door in the chilly, misty, blustery day and I don't believe that Spring is anywhere close to Oklahoma. To be honest, I don't mind at all. I'm a bit of a polar bear. Give me a couple more weeks of snow and I'd be one happy camper. Sadly, the gusty winds that signal Spring in this neck of the plains will be blowing in any day now. They were here last week and are only taking a brief break to remind us that Spring is not yet here.

For those of you starting to feel the first itches of Spring Fever, be sure to check out the February Doodle Dragon Studios Membership. Not only is it a great deal, it's loaded with delightful bunnies and chicks to bring out the Spring in even the grumpiest of Polar Bears. One of my favorites is this fat little fellow. I went very non-traditional bunny with him, decking him out in cheerful pastel colors. Inside this bright card is a cheeky “Dye your Hare? I never would have guessed!” Needless to say, the charm is all on the outside.

Speaking of charm, what do you think of this fellow? As soon as I saw him, I knew it was time to do a reprise of my favorite bunny card. Inside, the card says “Don't worry. It's only a grey hare!” Two of my favorite people will be getting these cards. We've been trading such sentiments for years and they know they're sent with just as much love as laughter.

Feeling the need for a bit of Spring in your step? Why not jump over to Dustin's blog and check out the newly revamped challenges. Spring is in the air over there and I look forward to seeing what you produce. I might even catch a bit of Spring Fever browsing everyone's creations.


Supplies this time around came straight from my stash. In this case, from the scrap bin. The patterned papers are a spring line of Imaginisce from three years ago! I still love them and regret I didn't buy extra. If anyone has these papers languishing in their stash, send them on over! I can't get enough of that sweet daisy paper! The cardstock this time around is Prism and my much loved Gina K. Pure Lux base weight for the images. Nestabilities, of course in deckle, scallop and label shapes. The ribbons and rickrack are all from my stash. I lost my LSS a couple years ago, so I've been shopping my office lately for supplies.

Tune in later this week and I'll be sharing my version of Dudley Grows Up! I ran a bit late due to a dead camera battery, but they're definitely worth the share.

Once upon a time...

I made a card!

Yes, you should be impressed. This is the first crafty thing I've made in nearly a year that didn't require a sewing machine. I've made aprons, started placemats (no, I don't want to talk about it), a collection of burp rags and swaddling blankets along with one totally rockin' Christmas dress for my daughter. That's not saying my pencils have gone neglected. Not by a long shot! I have a fine collection of colored images, including some totally cute monsters and bugs. I have not, however, managed to put them onto a card. I have even managed to add to my collection of pencils, after a couple of trips through the pencil isle at Blick Art store in Chicago. That's a story for another day.

Today's story is all about Princesses. At the heart of the best fairy tales are princesses. Tall princesses, short princesses, and even princesses stuck in towers. Such stories should always end "and they lived happily ever after". I honor of princesses everywhere, along with a few princes and even a gnome or two, Dustin has offered up a fine collection of princesses, even a self-rescuing princess who slays her own dragon. It's the Ever After collection being released on Thursday. You'll want to check it out and take a look at the new, improved Doodle Dragon store!

This card is my favorite of the images being released. Growing up, I had two very favorite princess stories. One was a tale called "The Practical Princess", the other was Rapunzel. My take on the long haired girl is considerably less pink than my own princess wanted, but since I was doing the coloring, I got to pick the colors! Given a choice, my princess would be pink, pink and, oh yes, pink.

I leave you today with my other princess crafting endeavor in her pretty pink princess costume I made for Halloween. I will say that she's the coolest craft project that I will probably never finish.


Card supplies are shockingly enough, a DCWV stack and a Creative Cafe button. The image was cut with long rectangle Spellbinders nesties dies and backed with scallop rectangle nesties. The lace edge is courtesy of my one and only Martha Stewart edge punch. Coloring was done with Prismacolor and Derwent colored pencils on Gina k's Pure Lux Base-weight cardstock.

Miss Me?

I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been gone. In the last few months, I've discovered that my children can easily consume my day. During a quiet moment yesterday, I took a bit of time for me. I printed off some of the new Doodledragon images being released today. I have a special fondness for bunnies.

I surprised myself by not only getting the images colored, but managing to make them up into cards. I love the new bunniez images Dustin put together for this release. I know quite a few people would just use them for the upcoming Easter holiday, but these two in particular are so multi-functional.

The first is a great "big things" card. I love the giant sized carrot. You can wish someone congratulations on a big announcement or tell them you hope big things are in their future. Since we're gearing up for round 2 of fire babies, this card is going to find it's way to one of the wives to congratulate them on their "big" news.

The second card is actually my favorite. I loved the image the first time I saw it. It is so evocative of how I feel some days. Between job hunting and being a mom, there are days when I feel like the bottom of a dog...er....chick pile. All this image needs is a lot of little "cheep" words written in around the chicks. I would have added them in myself if I'd thought about it before I printed. It was one of those things that leaped out at me only after I'd gotten it colored.

Check out these images and others in today's release. There are more bunniez, some cool lucky leprachauns and some sweet love images. Don't forget the new challenge blog either! Some of the new releases are going to be perfect for the next challenge! There are more great samples available from the Design Team. Their blogs are linked on the right.

Supplies this time were pretty basic. I used my favorite Gina K Pure Luxury baseweight for the colored image. I used rectangle and scallop rectangle nestabilities for the images. The patterned paper is from Die Cuts with a View. It's an older stack called Pocket Full of Posies. I've seen it in stores though, so I know it's still available here and there. This stack has lots of glitter, but the papers I chose are some of the few that have no glitter at all. The flowers are hand crocheted by me from variegated pearl cotton, size 5. It's a simple five petal flower that hooks up in a flash. The ribbon is a bit of hem tape I found when I was doing some cleaning. Finally, the buttons are Creative Cafe.

No stamping required!

Sometimes, it is nice to do a card that doesn't require any stamping. Particularly when you're doing 32 of said card. I'm going to a fire wife baby shower this weekend. Yes, another one! If you're trying to figure out the count, we're at 11 in 20 months. Yep, 11 babies and toddlers running loose at this year's Christmas party. Should be a blast.

What started off as a cry for help, to add a little pizazz to the invitation that had already been started, quickly became a complete redo. I wish I had taken a picture of the original. It had potential, but it did need something. After some discussion about ways that we could pump up the design, Kara asked if it would just be easier to start from scratch. Since I had a package of pink baby paper I'd bought to make thank you cards for The Girl, I assured her that not only could we easily do up a new design, we could do it without buying anything.



Let me take a moment to talk about the Cricut Design Studio software. I know people rave about Sure Cuts A Lot, but I've been extremely happy with the rather basic package Provo Craft put together. That's not saying it couldn't use a dramatic upgrade in the features department! That being said, I really like the flexibility it gives me with the standard cartridges. I literally do not make a cut with my machine without it. The paper savings alone makes it worth while! I love being able to weld my shadows and maximize my cuts. This job was no exception. I broke out the Cricut Expression machine I got for Christmas (h'ray for Black Friday sales!), and a 12x24" mat. With one mat and two sheets of cardstock, I was able to cut 90% of the darling little dresses. Another run through got the white shadows. Once more through with got the rest. So three times through the Cricut with a 12x24 mat and I had the makings of 32 baby shower invites.

When doing that many cards, mass production is the best way. I printed the details on white cardstock we used as the card base. That is layered with a pink paper, followed by the baby dresses. To give the cards a little bling, I ran the flowers through my Xyron 150 (the little X one) and added glitter. Another thing you need to be aware of when doing invites or cards that need to go through the mail is to keep your bulky embellishments to a minimum. Simple can have lots of great impact.




This was a super simple set of cards. Just cardstock, glitter and six sheets of patterned paper. The cardstock is American Crafts, Georgia Pacific and Prism. The glitter is from Art Institue and I haven't a clue who makes the patterned paper. I bought a bulk pack of it at Dollar General when I was making thank you cards for Linsey's baby shower. I used the New Arrival Cricut Cartridge for the cute little baby dress.

Back from Blogcation!

I know, I know, it's been forever since I blogged. I took a much needed blogcation. (laughing) Between stress of hunting up a new job (no luck there yet) and learning to cope with suddenly becoming a stay at home mom for a while, I decided the blog would get the short end of my attention span.

While I haven't blogged, it doesn't mean I haven't done other things. In fact, I've done lots. I find coloring and cardmaking to be quite relaxing. Let's start with a card I did up for Becky over at Page Maps. She buzzed me back in July asking if I'd do up a sketch for her September card maps. Of course I said "absolutely!"

It was a fun sketch, but a bit challenging for me. I took several stabs at it, trying to stay true to what Becky had drawn. It just wasn't working for me. First off, I just don't put sentiments on the front of my cards. It's not laziness, I simply don't like confining my cards to a simple statement. That way I end up with a fine stash of blank note cards ready for whatever I need at any given moment. I can always add one to the front later if I choose, although to be honest, they nearly always go on the inside. Once I let go of the sentiment, the card just fell together!

Even though I'm a huge tool junkie, I've just never been a big fan of punches. This includes border punches. It means I have to be doubly creative when I want things like a cute mini scallop border on one side of some patterned paper. Nestabilities to the rescue! I cut my patterned paper and black mat to size, then lined up the patterned paper, centered on top of the mat while keeping it lined up on the edge I was going to cut. Then I ran them both through with one of my long rectangle scallop dies. when I separate the two layers, I have perfectly lined up scallops on the paper and the mat.

The image is called Peek A Bunny. It's an Elisabeth Bell image from Sugar Nellie, courtesy of Funky Kits. It will make for a cute "Hi" or "Thinking of you" card. I always have a need for those. You'll notice that I filled the orientation of the sketch and made the scallops for the sentiment go all the way across. The card felt more balanced to me this way. A few dew drops and some ribbon finished it off.

The paper is BasicGrey from the Urban Prairie mini stack. I love those little 6x6 paper stacks. They're perfect for cardmaking, leaving me little to no scraps left over to feel guilty about dumping in the recycle bin. I use rectangle nestabilities here, all in rectangles. The image and mat are done with the regular sized rectangles and matching scallops while the outer piece was done with the long rectangle scallops. The cardstock is American Crafts, ribbon is Ribbon FX from Hobby Lobby and the dots are Dew Drops. The image was colored on PaperTrey Ink's Rustic White with Prismacolors and blended out with Zest It. Becky has some great card maps available this month. Be sure to stop and check them out!