AiFactory Challenge #30 & Smeared & Smudged Blog Hop!

This is a long post because it's a challenge and a blog hop all in one.
It's that time of the week when we have a new challenge at AiFactory!  Our challenge this week was using AiFactory clipart and also being able to do anything we wanted with it.  Boy was I challenged!  It's all about stepping out of our comfort zone sometimes and this sure did.  

 But, it also goes along with the blog hop over at Smeared And Smudged because over there you always get to step out of the box.  So visit the AiFactory challenge and enter your card or creation and this week you can win the clip art we used in the AiFactory store!
If you need more inspiration visit our other team members too.

Angie

Carlie

Carole

Cheri

Erin

Fink

Fliss

Kerry

Laurie

Lola

Penny

Here's my card for the challenge and for the blog hop.  Come and visit both!

So here's the Smeared And Smudged blog hop!
Make sure to visit everyone on the list so you can see their great creations too.
Smeared & Smudged is all about not being too frilly!
That's why I love it so much.

Alison- http://alisonsrandomthoughts.blogspot.com
Kelli- http://cajunstampingqueen.blogspot.com
Meredith- http://www.papercanteen.com
Michelle- http://mylifemydreamsmyscrapping.blogspot.com/
Kathi- http://kathstales.blogspot.com
Kim- http://offthewallcraftiness.blogspot.com
Lisa- http://www.ldfdesign.blogspot.com
Danielle- http://www.scrappy-arts-n-thoughts.blogspot.com
Alex- http://www.paperandstring.blogspot.com
Jean- http://iboard.jeansartdolls.com/index.php?showtopic=11977
Monica- http://giddygreetings.com
Sarah- http://sarahscrazycreations.blogspot.com
Erica- http://www.inkedupandreadytoplay.com/
Black Dragon- http://lynsblogger.blogspot.com/
Kymberly- http://dulcamarasdarkart.blogspot.com
Steph- http://stephscreativechaos.blogspot.com
Lady Brayton- http://ladybrayton71.blogspot.com/
Barb- http://haunteddesignhouse.blogspot.com/
Terra- http://www.moresmearedink.blogspot.com

April 2010 Artist Of The Month

I wanted to introduce Shelly as my artist of the month.  

She does wonderful quilling work as well as making other crafts too. 

I visited her Etsy shop and she tells us about her and her work.  Here's what she says:

"I've been crafting since I was a young girl, starting with crochet and basic embroidery and moving into sewing, cross-stitch and eventually scrapbooking. The projects became more complicated as I aged of course, but crafting has always been a personal creative outlet for me. Recently I have been afforded the chance to share my passion for creating and hope to be able to have others benefit from my personal outlook on life."

 Visit Shelly at her store or follow her on Twitter.  

Thanks Shelly for all your hard work and inspiration!

Scrappy Sunday Challenge

This week I got to be the hostess for the Scrappy Sunday challenge over on Paper Craft Planet.  I had such a great time coming up with a sketch and then the scrap book page.  There's a new sketch challenge every Sunday so come visit the group and join in.  Your pages don't have to be digital, they can be traditional if you'd like.  My Nephew is always such a great inspiration.  I made this page for my Sister.  

Here's my layout and the sketch that I made.

AiFactory Challenge 29 Lacey Easel Card

For this weeks challenge over at AiFactory, our instructions were to use lace and make an easel card.  Well, can you believe in this big room of crafty stuff I have no lace!  So I opted for a lace punch instead.  I know, I cheated.  I hadn't made an easel card either so it was a new venture.  

We got to use ballerina Ella, I love the Ella digi line.  For her tutu I printed out two digi's and colored them both.  I cut out one of the tutu's and placed some tule underneath so that it makes it look more like a tutu, at least I tried for that effect.  Here's my card for the challenge:

Stop by AiFactory and submit your easel card and you will be entered to win your own Ella ballerina too!  If you need inspiration then visit the other design team members blogs.  They would be happy to see you.

Carole
Cheri
Angie
Penny
Fliss
Fink
Carlie
Michelle

• AiFactory Challenge Blog. New Every Thursday! Join The Fun!
• AiFactory Community. The Creative Place To Learn, Share And Have Fun!
• AiFactory Store For All Things Digital

Scrappy Sunday Challenge On PCP Digi Quilling!

I do mostly quilling as my paper craft and I found a company that had a few digi quilled items! I bought them and had to use them and try them out. The egg is a quilled egg that I made but the rest is digital!

Here's my scrap page I did. 

Make sure and visit the PCP Scrappy Sunday group for a new layout sketch every Sunday. 

Here's the sketch we used:

Scrappy Sunday At Paper Craft Planet

Every Sunday there is a new sketch for a scrapbook page.  Since I am trying to go digital on my scrapbook pages this is a great place to practice.  Give the group a visit, your creations don't have to be digital.

The anniversary of my Dad's passing was a few weeks ago so I thought I would do something in memory of him. 

Here's the sketch we used:

Making A Scene With AiFactory Challenge #28 & A Freebie!

In this weeks challenge at AiFactory we used a cute little pirate and we had to make a "scene" with him.  Our challenge also included using no bows and making it a sort of masculine card.  I had a hard time with this one as I think it's harder to make masculine cards then "frilly" cards.  I did a stair step card with fabric for the sand and added some "jewels" to his treasure chest.  The shells I had sitting there forever so I'm glad I got to use them.  I put glossy accents on his sword to make it shiny but you can't see that in the photo.
When you enter you get a free Ivan the pirate stamp too!

  Don't forget to visit the AiFactory challenge blog and cause a scene over there too!  If you need some inspiration visit the other design team members blogs too.  

 

Carlie

Carole

Cheri

Erin

Fink

Fliss

Kerry

Laurie

Lola

Penny

AiFactory Challenge Blog. New Every Thursday! Join The Fun! 

AiFactory Community. The Creative Place To Learn, Share And Have Fun! 

AiFactory Store For All Things Digital

Joan's recycled quilling project

I wanted to just give a quick post about Joan who does amazing quilling work.  She quilled a boquet of flowers using recycled paper and a rescued frame.  Here's what she says:

"Yes, This picture is totally done with recycled paper and a rescued frame.

The flowers have the look of straw flowers. They are made from recycled magazine pages and scraps of paper from previous projects. The colors are shades of yellows, browns and purple. I love the look and color of the magazine flowers. The background is handmade paper with flecks of flowers and such mixed in. There is a cute purple butterfly made with a paper magazine bead body.

As for the frame, my neighbor was cleaning out her basement and was throwing out some frames, so I rescued them, cleaned them up and as for this one, I stained it. (It comes with a glass front)

The frame is 7 13/16" x 5 13/16.

Cute little picture for the kitchen or bath or any little corner you want to add some color to."

Thanks Joan for some great recycled quilled art.  Since my real craft passion is quilling I wanted to pass this along.  Make sure to visit her store and her website too!

Stop by my other site and see more recycled projects!

Quilling Dies

I've wanted to tell all of you this for sometime now...........So can you believe a company is coming out with quilling dies you can use with your Big Shot or Cuttlebug?  It's about time someone made something to get crafters in the mood to quill!  Watch the video and see:

The dies are supposed to be out in May.  I'll keep you posted as I am going to get them as soon as they come out.  I'm so excited!  When they come out you can order them through Denise's store at:

I'm The Guest Designer At Sew Many Challenges

I'm the guest designer for March at Sew Many Challenges!  I am honored to be a part of the challenges for this month.  Here's the layout I did and the sketch is on it's way so make sure to take a peek at all the challenges and their great digi images too.

AiFactory Challenge # 27..........I can see clearly now......

 

Our challenge this week included images from AiFactory with Laurie Being the artist.  She does wonderful artwork!  We had to use something clear on our card.  I chose clear skittles as my clear thing.  Don't forget to visit the AiFactory challenge blog and enter yours.  Join our community too as it has a lot of great tutorials and fun too!  Thanks for playing along with us!

Visit the other design team members for inspiration too!

• Angie
• Carlie
• Carole
• Cheri
• Erin
• Fink
• Fliss
• Kerry
• Laurie
• Lola
• Penny
• AiFactory Challenge Blog. New Every Thursday! Join The Fun!
• AiFactory Community. The Creative Place To Learn, Share And Have Fun!
• AiFactory Store For All Things Digital

St. Patrick's Day Mania At PCP

Are you ready to party? I hope you are because Softpencil's group on PCP is having a very GREEN party in celebration of the St Patrick's Day!  Here's what it's all about:

To start the party, we would like you to create a card or project with something totally GREEN!
Your project MUST include Michu and Ratiny, and it must be GREEN! And please link your post here by Monday 15th March, 2010 at 11:59pm EST.
Then you will vote for the winner, and the poll will be open until St Patrick's Day (Wednesday) 17th March, 2010 11:59pm EST.
The winner will become our guest designer for the first 2 weeks of April!!!

Here's Mine:

What are you waiting for? go to make your card!
And if you need digi-stamps of Michu and Ratiny celebrating St. Patrick´s Day get them here and here or use the images of Michu and Ratiny that you already have ;)
Happy digi-stamping and St. Patrick´s Day!!!

Scrappy Sunday Challenge

It's time again for the scrappy Sunday (shhh it's Tuesday) challenge over on Paper Craft Planet.  We had a great sketch from Jen this week.  Here's my page:

 And here's the sketch for this week:

Smeared & Smudged First Ever Blog Hop

To celebrate the wonderful growth of the community, Smeared and Smudged is hosting it's first ever member blog hop! All of the members create such wonderful art, we'd like to share it with everyone we know (and even those we don't know!) by featuring us in a blog hop on Thursday, March 4!  That's today!

Smeared Ink is a bit different than your "regular" stamp companies. 
The image up there ^^ will get you to their store. 
There are no flowers or cute little bows. 
It's a great new twist and is making me think outside of my flower box! 
Here's my card for the hop!  I used an image from The Vintage Moth, a stamp from Stampin' Up!, and DP from Creative Imaginations Creative Warehouse.  I wrapped the card front in black tule and a black ribbon, stamped the sentiment on a piece of card stock that I sprayed with black glimmer mist and tada!  My card!

Stop by the other blog hop members and see their great creations too!

Meredith http://www.papercanteen.com

Kathi http://kathstales.blogspot.com

Kim http://www.offthewallcraftiness.blogspot.com

Alex http://paperandstring.blogspot.com/

Kelli http://www.cajunstampingqueen.blogspot.com

Monica http://www.giddygreetings.com  (oh that's me!)

Alison http://www.alisonsrandomthoughts.blogspot.com

Amberlee http://supermomscrappin.blogspot.com/

Black Dragon http://lynsblogger.blogspot.com/

Steph http://stephscreativechaos.blogspot.com/

Michelle http://mylifemydreamsmyscrapping.blogspot.com/

Kas http://www.artloveschaos.blogspot.com/

Kymberly http://missannesvintageart.blogspot.com

Kymberly http://dulcamarasdarkart.blogspot.com

Kymberly http://vaerieenchantedfaeries.blogspot.com

Keely http://www.keelyy.blogspot.com

Lisa http://ldfdesign.blogspot.com/

Lynda http://cre8tiveme.blogspot.com/

Sarah http://www.sarahscrazycreations.blogspot.com

Jean http://daretobedifferentchallenges.blogspot.com/

Terra http://www.moresmearedink.blogspot.com

 

Thanks Terra for your great work.  Visit the Smeared & Smudged community for more fun too!

AiFactory Challenge # 26! Blue, Bows and Bling!

Wow!  We are already in March, where does the time go?  This weeks challenge over at AiFactory we got to use the wonderful digi stamp "Trinity".  She's beautiful!  Our challenge was to use the color blue, have a bow on it and add some bling.  

This week I decided to try to color my digi stamp digitally.  I think I did a so so job considering it was my first time.  I added some highlights to her hair, at least that's what they look like to me, it could just be a bad dye job!  I cut her out and found a cute little blue corset over on The Vintage Moth.  I cut a slit in the top of the corset and slipped her in, I know, her head is big, maybe she is a side show digi :)  Ok, I'll be quiet and just show you my card......

Here's what the images look like and you can purchase them for practically nothing at the AiFactory store!

 

  

Don't forget to visit the other design team members and see what they did with her.  We have a great community and an awesome challenge blog too.  Go on over and sneak a peek!

• Angie
• Carlie
• Carole
• Cheri
• Erin
• Fink
• Fliss
• Kerry
• Laurie
• Lola
• Michelle
• Penny
• AiFactory Challenge Blog. New Every Thursday! Join The Fun!
• AiFactory Community. The Creative Place To Learn, Share And Have Fun!
• AiFactory Store For All Things Digital

Sew Many Challenges Sneak Peek!

I'm hosting the challenge for Sew Many Cards in on March 13th.
Here's a sneak peek of things to come!
Make sure to check out their challenges, stamps and fun!  

 

  

 

March 2010 Artist Of The Month

Oh my, how time flies, it's already March!  I wanted to feature Karla.  She is a wonderful artist and photographer.  Her work just amazes me!  Here are some of her works.

 

  

 

You can visit her Zazzle store and her Etsy store to see all of her great art for sale, oh and give her blog a visit too.

Thanks Karla for being such an amazing artist!