BBTB2 Baseball Challenge

Another Monday, another BBTB2 challenge, chosen this time by our fab sister, Karen. The baseball cut she suggested is on the Life's a Party cartridge, but I didn't have that one so I used Sports Mania, an oldie I may have used, maybe...once? Remember, you can always substitute a similar cut because we want everyone to have a chance to play along. I made a shaped card using the mitt, also on SM and the "have a Ball" sentiment from Birthday Bash. I chose the colors of the SF Giants, they DID win the World Series last year, after all. I wasn't thrilled with it at first because it looked unbalanced. Thought about putting the SF logo at the top left but it wasn't working. I asked DH and he suggested a pennant. WooHoo! That did the trick. The pennant is also from SM and I welded "Yea" using Plantin Schoolbook RolyPoly font. Thought this could be used for a number of occasions.

The mitt looked best all glued together to show the stitching detail, so I really hadn't planned on this many layers, but as usual, it just grew. Conveniently, I was able to stick the pennant under the baseball and shadow because of the way I'd placed the foam underneath. Then I just added a few adhesive beads from M's. My DT sisters have come up with super creative takes on this challenge, so be sure to stop by BBTB2 and have a look. We'd love to have you play along with a "new" project, and remember, you have 2 weeks to complete it. I'm also entering this in the Cards for Men, Anything Goes Challenge, the 365 Cards Sports Team Color Challenge and Sentimental Sundays Shaped Card Challenge. For some reason, blogger has decided to screw up my Blog so at the moment, all my sidebar stuff is at the bottom of the posts. I'm quite frustrated with it all but afraid to mess with it further, hoping it will come to it's senses and go back the way it was on it's own. When I go into "DESIGN", it still shows my original configuration so I'm hoping it's them, not me. Oh, and if you'd like a chance at some "Card Candi" and would like to see what Jacob has been up to, click HERE.

Cards for Men "Someone Special" Challenge

Neither my man, nor I, are feeling particularly fit at the moment. Overindulgence and crafting (for me at least) has pretty much taken it's toll. We each complain about various body parts, yet to each other, we still look pretty darn hot. (Keepin' those love goggles on, right Baby?) The nice weather is at least getting us moving again. He's working hard outside and I'm back to my walks and workouts. So here's a card for my big strong man. The image is from the Smitten digi set from Smeared Ink. The DP is from the La Crema 8x8 stack by DVWV. The image is enhanced by Copics in the W range and inked with Frayed Burlap Distress. It's cut with Nesties Labels Eleven. The sentiment is computer generated , inked and cut with Nesties Labels Ten. The gorgeous tassel trim was a gift from Kellie Winnell, of Tickled Pink Stamps, when I was a Guest Designer. (Thanks so much, Kellie!) I've been hoarding it because Kellie only ships stamps outside of Australia so I can't order more. I'm entering it in the Cards for Men Someone Special Challenge, because no one is more special than my man. LOVE YOU, Sweetheart! xxxxxxxxx

Two with Tiddly!

Father's Day is really a tough time for me. I will always be a Daddy's Girl but I lost him 5 years ago to Alzheimer's. When I saw this adorable image at Tiddly Inks (called apppropriately "Daddy's Girl") I HAD to have her. I think I cried the whole time I was making this card but I really love how it turned out. (I'm not doing that good a job holding back the tears while typing either so if I'm messing up, sorry.)

After cutting her out with my Nesties I finally decided on an easel card so the sentiment will always be visible. The papers are from Miss Elizabeth's and unfortunately I don't know who did the plaid, which I picked out first, as it inspired the entire color scheme.

The letters for Daddy are stamped with an old set from Stamp Craft and cut out. She's done with a combo of paper piecing and coloring with my Copics, with the hat, tie and shoes colored again and popped.

The sentiment is computer generated and is how I will always feel. I love you Daddy and miss you very much! This is my second entry in the Cards for Men Father's Day Challenge, my first for the One for the Boys Cupcake Crafts Challenge, and it's been way too long since I've entered a challenge at A Crafty Little Place, #34 also One for the Boys.

On a lighter note, on the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog this week the challenge is Bleep, Bleep Boys and Their Robots. I got both the adorable images FREE from the Tiddly Inks PCP Group. WooHoo! Roboto came already colored in the freebie but he is available for purchase uncolored along with tons more adorable robots and other cute boy stuff Here. The free pressie was not colored so I printed it a couple of times and used my Papertrey Ink Distressed Stripes Clear Stamps I got from my dear friend Leah for my birthday to do the wrapping and then colored and cut and popped the bow. I love the fact that you can resize digis so I made the present large enough to turn into a shaped card and then just folded some cardstock, traced around the image with a bit of a shadow, and hand cut it with scissors. The little paper clip letters came from JoAnn's. The letters seemed to easily be popped off the clips (I found this out quite by accident, LOL) so I glued the o and r under the f on the first clip with glossy accents. I thought the square letters tied in perfectly.

The entire present was popped on the card base as was the ribbon on top of the colored pressie. Roboto was popped a bit higher and his shoes and one of the balloons were cut out and popped as well. LOVE that dimension! I love these challenges so much! If you've never worked with digis before and are unfamiliar with Tiddly Inks, this is a perfect challenge to get your feet wet since the images are available FREE for this one just by joining the Tiddly Inks PCP group. In fact every Tues there's something FREE being offered there so what are you waiting for?

BBTB2 Reader's Choice - Camp Out Curved Fish

Happy Monday (are people really happy about Monday?) I actually am because that means I've completed my DT projects for the week and can RELAX (or just play with whatever I want to). I must say the projects for this week were a bit of a challenge. On BBTB2 we have a Reader's Choice from Camp Out using the big cruved fish. Guy cards, EEEK! and no fishermen in this house. Actually, I shouldn't be complaining about this one because I've wanted to do this cut ever since I saw it because of the movie "Big Fish" with Albert Finney. I cried like a baby (in the theater, no less) watching it because parts really reminded me of my Daddy who used to tell stories. Anyway, enough of that.

I made a shaped front card using Design Studio with the fish (obviously) and Mickey font welded to a rounded rectangle from George. The hook is from SpongeBob. (yeah, I know, I can't believe I have that cart either, let's just say it was a deal I couldn't refuse and it certainly came in handy here. LOL)

I used matte mettalic paper for the fish and tried to make him look (semi) real by coloring him with Distress Inks and embossing the scales with the Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles folder and scoring the fins and tail with my MS scoring board (I LOVE this board because it has score lines every 8th inch, WOOHOO!) The words were cut with the greenish woodgrained paper from the DCWV Green Stack and embossed with the new Tim Holtz Woodgrain folder (definitely a new FAVE you'll see more of that tomorrow.)

Okay, so I had the design, but I was STUCK as far as background paper went. Fortunately I was on the phone with my good friend Lillie complaining I didn't have any paper that looked like water. Not only did she suggest the light blue foil that she knew I had, but also the Cuttlebug border folder to emboss it like waves. THANK YOU LILLIE!!!! Without you this card probably never would have been finished and the colors so totally worked I was THRILLED! Lots of popping here. The fish was actually 4 layers (if your count the shadow base. At first I was going to leave the letters flush with their shadow but popping every other one made it SOOOO much more interesting. I didn't finish the inside because I really don't have anyone to send this to at the moment, but if I ever do I will cut a blackout version of the fish for the inside and print my sentiment on that. It won't show from the front then when the card is closed. Now if you haven't already, go check out the fabulous creations by my BBTB2 DT sisters and remember you can play along with ANY fish cut from ANY cartridge if you don't happen to have Camp Out. We love to see your stuff!

I'm also participating a few other challenges with this card. Cards for Men has a Father's Day theme, and also in a new (to me) challenge blog called Rosie-D's that I found through Lyn's blog. The challenges start every other Sunday and the current theme is something blue with the option of fish or fishing. THAT WORKS! The cool thing about this blog is you can create ANYTHING you want that fits the theme so there are lots of fun things other than just cards or layouts to see. Thanks Lyn for turning me on to another fab challenge blog.

I'm Kind of a Big Deal

Honestly, I have no idea why I bought the Superman cart except for the fact it was on a SUPER sale from Custom Crops at the time and the Clark Kent head (with the horn rimmed glasses sort of reminded me of pictures of DH when he was in high school. LOL) Then I saw what I thought was a hilarious downloadable printable sentiment from the Cutting Cafe called "Kind of a BIG DEAL". The look on this guy's face here really made me think he thought he really was a BIG deal (we all know the type, don't we?) so I couldn't resist making this card. Besides, the current challenge at Cards for Men was HUMOR so I thought this filled the bill. The sentiment is colored with my Copics and I used the Stars folder from last summer's Cuttlebug release, the sort of Bricks folder from an exclusive Oh My Craft's release, and the Stripes from a QuicKutz folder.

Inside I cut the Superman logo shape and made a computer generated sentiment. Be sure to stop by The Cutting Cafe so see the LOADS of new designs from Regina! Now I'm off to get some housework done before MY TEAM (MICHIGAN STATE) plays Butler in the Final Four. I can hardly contain myself!

GO STATE!