'Dude' Birthday and a FREEBIE!!!!

I needed a quick birthday card for a boy at church, so I grabbed a digi I already had printed out that fit this week's Paper Craft Planet Sketch perfectly! The digital image is 'Skater Brady' from The Character Cafe. I colored him with Copic Markers and mounted the main image panel on dimensionals. The sentiment is computer generated. Designer paper is DCWV 'All About Boys'. I just love that stack for boy cards!

Have you all seen Melanie's new Free Digital Image yet? If not, be sure to check it out HERE! Its absolutely adorable, and the perfect image for spring cards. Here's a little snippet of the image for you: On a personal note, I wanted to tell you all about my Quilting Class that I recently attended. As most of you already know, I work at a Fabrics and Crafts store. And although I have sewn apparel and home dec my entire life, I have never made a quilt. Well, quilting seems to have really made a big comeback in popularity recently. We seem to have more quilting customers than anyone else. And, the customers always expect us employees to be expert quilters ourselves and to be able to solve all their math problems and answer all their questions. When I tell them, 'I don't quilt', they look at me all aghast and say 'WELL, how can you work here if you don't QUILT?'. So after a year of this verbal abuse, our fabric manager decided to have quilting classes for any employee who was interested....which was just about everyone because no one other than the fabric manager knows how to quilt. LOL! Anyhow, we all gathered together Tuesday Night to learn how to quilt and I have to tell you, I can't remember the last time I had so much fun! All of us co-workers just get along so well and we truly, and genuinely care for each other. We always have so much fun at work, so to have a big get together outside of work was a blast! We spent hours just talking, laughing, etc. And, yes, we also quilted. And I discovered, I LOVE TO QUILT!!!! Its not as hard as it looks once you learn the basics and how all those rulers and gadgets worked. I think my favorite part is just the process of combining fabrics, colors, and patterns. I have a real artistic eye for it, and my teacher even told me that 'She loved the fabrics I chose'. I think its actually a lot like combining different designer papers in paper crafting, I have years of experience with that! Plus, just working at the fabric store for a year, and constantly seeing and touching fabrics all day, gave me an eye for it. I also developed an eye for fabric combinations by seeing the different fabric combinations customers come to the cutting counter with; some of which are not too great, but others which are very inspiring. I guess the reason I'm telling you all of this is because this blog is about 'anything of artistic interest to me', so be expecting some quilting posts now! LOL! And I'll be sure to post my very first quilting project that were making in class when its done...even if its really bad! LOL!

Have a great day! Amy

Tea Cup Chihuahua Gift Set

Good Morning! I am so excited to present to you my very first project as a Wink Wink Ink Design Team Member. I fell in love with the 'Tea Cup Chihuahua' image. I thought the little puppy with the big ears sitting in a tea cup was just the cutest thing! I am also an avid tea lover! In fact, I used up all the tea bags in my house making this project, that this morning I had to drink coffee instead. I like coffee too, but I've kicked the habit a couple of years ago and usually only drink it on occasion now. Anyhow, onto my project. The entire project uses the image 'Tea Cup Chihuahua' and the retired Stampin Up! Simply Scrappin Set "Petal Party". I made a card, a Tea Bag Holder, and a Tea Bag Container. Here is a group photo of the three items: First I'll talk about the Tea Bag Container. I started with a purchased tea bag box. I simply undid the box, unfolded it, put in on designer paper, traced it, and cut it out. I then glued the paper back on to the box and put it back together. Very easy.

Here is a full view of the completed box and its contents.

I added ribbon and a large prima flower for embellishment.

And I finished the box with a gift tag. All the sentiments in my Gift Set come from Papertrey Ink. I also used the same adhesive gems on every item, and I put a little dot of Stickles in the flower center.

One of the main reasons I love to work with digitals so much is because I can size the image to an size I need. to make this tiny tag, I shrunk the image way down. All three items in my project use a different size image. That is something you just cannot do with stamps. You are stuck with whatever size the stamp is. I just love digis!

Here is a full view of the Tea Bag Holder. This was so easy to make. I just followed the instructions on Splitcoaststampers; they have an excellent tutorial on this card. This is the cover. I used a SU! marker to make the tiny dots on the white card stock. The inside contains two tea bags and is tied shut with ribbon.

Here is a partial view of the inside of the holder.

And here is an inside view of the holder.

The tea bags fit so nicely inside the holder. What a nice gift to give to a friend who might be sick with a cold

And finally, here is a full view of my card. I used a sketch I found on Mo Manning's Blog to make this card. I printed the Chihuahua image twice so I could pop him up on dimensionals.

Here is a close up so you can see the coloring and the dimension. And, if you don't like to color, this image is also available 'pre-colored'!

I hope you've enjoyed looking at my gift set today. If you'd like to purchase this image, just click on the 'I design for Wink Wink Ink' blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you directly to the store.

Have a great day! Amy

Digital Tuesday Challenge 'Scallops'

Hello and welcome to another Digital Tuesday Challenge. This week's challenge is to use scallops on your card or project along with at least one digital image. Our sponsor this week is the wonderful 'My Grafico' and they are giving away 1 digi set and 30% a purchase at their store to one lucky randomly chosen winner!

I made two projects today; both projects use the same set by My Grafico called 'Zoom Vroom'. Its a fabulous set loaded with images that are perfect for babies or little boys. All the images have little characters traveling in some mode of transportation via boat, train, car, truck, etc. Its really one of the cutest digital sets I've ever seen.

My first project is a card. I used the boat image image from the set. I popped the teddy bear up on dimensionals so he really looks like he is hanging outside the boat! The paper is DCWV 'Nana's Nursery Baby Boy'. The sketch is from Mojo Monday. I used an embossed white paper for the side. The sentiment is computer generated. Here is a close up so you can see the coloring and the dimension.

My second project is a scrap book page for a baby book that I have been working on for probably over a year now. It doesn't normally take me a year to finish a book, but this is one I will just sell when its completed, so I'm just taking my time making it. I usually just make a page whenever an idea comes to mind. I thought the images in the 'Zoom Vroom' set were perfect for a baby scrap book page, so I put them to use. The blank frame in the middle is where the buyer of the book will put a baby picture.

Here is a close up of the train image from the set.

The title and flowers were made using my new Cricuit Machine.

I hope you've enjoyed my projects today! If you'd like to play along with us this week, simply click on the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you directly to the challenge site with further instructions.

Have a great day! Amy