Take Time To Smell The Roses

If it's nearly June in Ohio, it's time for my climbing roses to bloom. They're called The Seven Sisters and I bought two little shrubs on sale at the end of the summer one year for just $5 each. This was when I was a mom to one (22or 23 years ago) and my mom and I would take my daughter and visit the area garden centers. We usually went at the beginning of the growing season to get flowers for each other for Mother's Day and then at the end of the season to get deals.

My husband and I must've chosen the perfect area because these little roses seem to love this spot and grow vigorously each year. Some years are better for blooms than others, but this year is a good one.

I based my coloring of the Beautiful Roses Slimline digi from Alex Syberia on the color of my roses. I picked pinks and added a little coral and a little red for them and chose grays for the leaves.

I like to color one rose at a time, so here's a little peek into how I layered the color on the last two roses.

At the end of the process, I add in black shadows and white highlights if needed.

For the final card, I fussy cut the flowers and leaves and added it to cream/black patterned paper on a slimline card (3.5"x8"). I think graphic shapes really set off florals, so I gave it a shot with this one. The sentiment strip is a stamp/die set from Taylored Expressions. 

So, go out there and smell those roses—or maybe just color some!

Happy Friday!

Chark

A Haunting We Will Go

Happy Halloween! Tomorrow's the big day and even though things are weird this year (thanks, Covid), it still needs to be celebrated with scary stuff. I'm actually a big baby and will do about anything to avoid scary movies—including seeing another movie by myself at a theater or making up chores at my sister's house. I avoided Pet Semetary and Silence of the Lambs in these ways, respectively. I prefer the cute Halloween stuff usually...like this free digi I drew a couple of years ago. You can right click and save and use or see her colored up on this post.

However, I do like being mildly scared. Like, I can actually watch the original Halloween because there's very little mayhem and blood. And I loved reading The Shining, though I literally took the book outside to sit in the sun to read when it got too scary. Oh, and I love a good vampire story/movie. But zombies freak me out and when my hubby and son watch The Walking Dead, I'm usually sitting at the computer, watching YouTube crafters. There are entirely too many squishing sounds on that show, btw.

Here's a mildly scary project I did for Halloween decor. I used two mdf gravestones from my stash, you can find similar ones here at Alpha Stamps to paint. I added creepy kid photos I found online.

And here's a cute little scene I colored with Prismacolors that I made with free digis from Useless Trinkets. You can head there to pick up some free digis, including coffee monster and chonky unicorns. Sooo cute! Thought about smoothing out the pencil marks but I actually like the look.

Lastly, I'm sharing my librarian daughter and the 5th grade teacher team as they dressed this year. What's better at Halloween than Scooby and the gang? My kid is the ghost...which we decided was a great Covid-year costume. Plenty of cover!

If you're in the mood for a YA graveyard audio book, I found Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book at my library and it's a great listen...it's also a great read. I did both! You can buy it here if you want.

A spookier YA novel is Frozen Charlotte, which I enjoyed, and even scarier, The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall. These books were fun and scary, which is my favorite kind of Halloween read. 

I'll leave you with this Halloween treat idea, because I love me some cake. Just make or buy a pound cake, add white frosting in criss-cross shape and add some M&M or candy eyes. Fast and fun! You can get the coffin template and a recipe here at Woman's Day.

Happy Halloween!

Chark

Strawberry Month is My Kind of Month

It's National Strawberry Month, y'all! My favorite berry gets a whole month of celebration, so I thought I'd better join in!

This cute Strawberries Time digi is from Sweet Escapes digi.

And this quirky one if from Julia Spiri.

The classic strawberry stamp I've colored up below is from Power Poppy Stamps. I love their nature stamps so much and this digital set is on sale right now for $1.99 instead of $6!

The chocolate covered strawberry I drew from an image I saw online. You can tell I'm an amateur because I didn't make the seeds right. In real berries, they are symmetrically placed, because nature has her methods. I just drew them randomly because I didn't do enough studying beforehand. Dipping berries in chocolate is my favorite way to eat them...but I'm pretty sure I'd eat them any old way.

Of course I had to throw in a tasty strawberry recipe today and I chose these Strawberry Muffins from Once Upon a Chef.

And if you're feeling my favorite chocolate and strawberry combination, here's a cute idea with instructions.

How do you feel about strawberries?

Happy Friday!

Chark

Circle Back to This

Sorry I'm so late posting my Friday post, but I was coloring...you know how it is.

The November Challenge at Stamplorations is Stamps & Circles...I picked just the circles and stamps but not the colors...because although these are lovely, I love me some bright colors. I used the Arteza brush pens and used water with parts of it, but not all of it because I printed this digi on regular (not watercolor) paper and I didn't want it to warp too much. 

Here's my take using a free gorgeous digi from Stamplorations. I added white Uniball gel pen and sentiment stickers from Pretty Little Studio in Rose Gold. Then I mounted it on yellow cardstock and called it good.

This image is so fun to color and it covers a card front nicely. Here's a link to how I've colored it before. Definitely two different looks with just different colors.

Hope you'll join in the challenge, I have a feeling I'll do more than one, as I love my Stamplorations products and it's literally just the first of the month...29 more days to stamp it up in November!

Happy Friday!

Chark

If You Like Cats

If you like cats, you'll like this Cat Lovers Blog Hop over at Her Peaceful Garden. I've played along last year and this year and it's a fun hop where you can see tons of cat projects, play in the games and enter to win prizes.

I'm no longer a kitty owner but I had the best cat buddy when I was a teen. He was named for Mikhail Barishnkov...I called him Mickey. He looked a lot like this cat I've colored up today for my project. The cat is a digi stamp from Isabel Cristina and I used Prismacolor pencils and a white uniball pen for him. He looks a little shaggy, but whatcha gonna do? 

The background is Distress Oxides used as paint and the sentiment is from Neat & Tangled Typed Sentiments stamps . The card warped a bit from the water, but I'm going to put it under some heavy books to see if that helps.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Saturday!

Chark

Halloween Is Looming

We're less than two weeks from Halloween and so I thought I'd share some cute Halloween images today. I love the spooky crafty stuff too and I'll share some of that next Friday. I found Useless Trinkets awhile ago (online) and love her free digi stamps, I've used lots of them. They're adorable and she gives matching sentiments too. These pumpkins are just so cute!

This monster is adorable and I added the Monster Hugs sentiment inside...he could be a birthday card on this paper that I stamped and watercolored, but I haven't decided yet.

This card uses no stamps, digi or otherwise. Just leaf outline stickers, glitter paper and paper scraps. I watched Jennifer McGuire use her scraps and got inspired. I added some metal red dots and called it a day!

Hope you have a great weekend, it's feeling like fall today here in Ohio and we're heading to Fear Fest at Kings Island this week...might be too scary for me, but we'll see!

Happy Friday!

Chark

With Cherries on Top

When I was a kid about a hundred years ago...okay, 40 years, we used to say "Pretty please with cherries on top?" It meant we reeeally needed a favor, like super needed it, and if you were me, your sister was balking at helping you out....so you needed to make it a really important please. And of course, the ultimate request was, "Pretty please with cherries and whipped cream on top?" And sometimes, it worked and my sister would actually turn the tv (no remotes at my house) or bring me a glass of kool-aid. Maybe.

Today I'm sharing a cherry card with a digi stamp from Power Poppy, the ultimate place for nature stamps imo. You can get the acrylic stamps too (and I have some) but the digitals are super nice when you need something to color right now. I colored this cherry stamp with Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut it and put it on a matching red background.

The checkerboard paper is Graphic 45 and I inked the edges with Candied Apple Distress Ink. I added teal and red sequins and a sentiment from My Favorite Things. I'm entering this in the Think Spring Challenge at Power Poppy and you can enter here too! The blossoms are coming on the flowering trees and it's a pretty sight. No cherries for awhile, but they are budding! I looovve seeing the plants green up and the buds on the trees. Winter can be long but the Spring is definitely all the more welcome because of it.

Happy Easter Weekend!

Chark

This Is Halloween and a Winner

I love The Nightmare Before Christmas with Jack and Sandy Claws, so this song is stuck in my head, even though we have a few days before it is Halloween.

But I do have two freebie Halloween images that I doodled for you today. A witch and jack-o-lantern. All you have to do is right click the images below and save to your computer. If you end up making something with them, let me know!

And I wanted to pop in to say we have a winner in the Pooh Bear giveaway and that is @nancyscraftshack from Instagram...congrats, Nancy! Contact me with your info so I can mail your goodies out.

And lastly, if you didn't win this giveaway, I hope you'll follow me on IG (top right button) so you can try to win my November Thanks and Giving Prizes. There will be one each week in November!

Happy Friday,

Chark

Freebie Friday, Friends

Today I have a unicorn digi stamp to share with you. I saw a mug that had a picture of a unicorn and this saying on it and since my daughter will often say, "she is beauty, she is grace" when she drops something or trips, I had to make a card for her with this saying.

I actually had to ask her to send me a phone pic of the card since I forgot to take my own. I wanted a unicorn dancing but couldn't find one, so I drew one. I think it turned out pretty well, so I have one here for you to download if you wanna use it for cards. Just right click on the image and download to your computer. 

And here's a Halloween image from a real digi artist for free...it's from Useless Trinkets, I love her stuff. So cute! She has a unicorn too, along with monsters with coffee cups. Check it out!

If you're more vintage-y than cute, here's a great site where you can get these printable images and the instructions on how to make the garland. Free!

Happy Friday!

Chark

Watch It Wednesday

Thought I'd share a card I made with the technique shown in this Jennifer McGuire video. I'm late to the party, as I have never done a word die cut like this with a floral image. The Fall Rose is a digi stamp from LeighSBDesigns here. She has some fun Poe and goth images in her store too.

I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils, then used a Papertrey word die and an Elizabeth Craft Dotted Scallop frame cut. I colored the leaves in browns and golds to help the roses stand out and added clear adhesive drops.

Okay, I actually posted the wrong video below, so here's the correct video showing the eclipse letter card/popped dies technique. I left the other video too, because it's a good one.

Here's a video from Jennifer that uses three different ways to do inlaid die cutting. Honestly, this woman has a million ideas and videos and tips and she totally rocks!

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

Daisies Galore

I love Power Poppy's beautiful stamps...they have both clear and digital stamps. I use the digis because I usually want them now and can't wait for the mail. Plus I can make them any size, which is super great.

When the FB group I'm in, Kit and Clowder, had a free digi from Power Poppy, I had to join in. Kit and Clowder offered a free coloring class for this image too. They make for a great duo! My first try was with a single bloom included in the free digi set. I used my trusty Prismacolor pencils.

Then I tackled multiple blooms while watching Say Yes to the Dress...I am somewhat fascinated by this show. 

I love weddings and I loved planning and crafting for my own, 28 years ago! But I'm still fascinated. I love a good long look at the bridal mags. So this show is right up my alley, especially when you add all the human drama. I've told my adult daughter we must go to a bridal salon, have her try on dresses and come out and show me. Whereupon I will say things I've heard on that show like, "It looks like a tablecloth," and "No, just no." 

My all-time favorite line was from a mother to her daughter who was getting married in a church. The mother was ultra-conservative and the daughter less so. The dress wasn't even terribly revealing, but the mom said, "You're going to make Jesus cry if you wear that." I about fell out of my chair laughing. I totally want to say this in a salon! Luckily, my daughter is a fun-loving gal too and she's on board with this idea! lolol

I added some light blue to this background of warm colors. Don't you love this stamp? Gerbera daisies are gorgeous irl too! Alyce over at Kit and Clowder is a great coloring teacher if you're tempted to try one. She also offers a couple of free classes here and there, like this one with the daisies.

Happy Monday!

Chark

Digi Duel with Hero Arts Silly Scapes

I'm up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog dueling with Arlene using the Silly Scapes digi from Hero Arts. Here's my card, head over here to see Arlene's.

If you love this illustration, head to a2z Scrapbooking, the exclusive seller of the Hero Arts digi stamps to pick yours up.

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

Hero Arts Notes and Dates Digi Duel

I'm up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog today dueling it out with team member, Arlene. Each month on the 11th, two team members use the same digi set to make cards. You can head here to see the full post, but here's how I made my card.

I layered a bunch of the digi stamps in CorelDraw to start but I ended up with just two layered here and then I added a sentiment from the digi set Chalkboard Frames and Messages and ran the arrow through the letters. I added a ton (maybe too many?!) Nuvo Drops for accents. And I added glitter stars from my stash because, yes, I like my glitter AND because I smeared one of the drops :) I tried to use the Mono Sandpaper Eraser, but it didn't get rid of all of it. So, I covered it up! 

Then I liked how the edge looked white-ish from the eraser, so I ran it along the edges to get that look around the card. You could use white ink to do this too. Think I'll send this to my adult nephew.

That's it! Hope you'll check out the May challenge over at a2z and join in for a chance to win!

Happy Friday!
Chark

Cupcake Girl

This could actually be my nickname...I'm a huge fan of cupcakes and yes, the local bakery knows my name and my favorite cupcake flavor. And they sent me a cake when I had eye surgery because they totally rock! If you're ever near Wright State University, Wright Patt Air Force Base or anywhere near Dayton airport, I highly recommend Cake, Hope and Love for deliciousness :) 

But instead of my nickname, it's what I call this digi stamp from Vera Lane Stamps. It's actually called Caroline's Cupcakes if you want one for yourself. I used Prismacolor pencils first and then added some Tombow markers to brighten things up a bit.

I gave her eyelids just to see what she'd look like. I put her on a card for my sister, whose birthday is in a couple of weeks. April is such a huge birthday month for us. On my side of the family, there are 6 of us having birthdays and on my husband's side there are 3 more and then we have two friends with April birthdays. So...there you go! Big ol' birthday month.

And guess what? I've got a graduation party for my son coming up in May and I'll be making some cupcakes for that party...maybe some like these! Just call me the Cupcake Girl!

Happy Wednesday!

Chark