If It's Free, I'll Take It

So, I don't know why we humans are wired to take advantage of freebies, but I know I'm not the only one. Food samples, digi stamps, a free trial of Prime, free entree with entree purchase, $10 free for signing up...I've taken advantage of all these. While I can't exactly share my Kroger food samples with you, I can share where I've found some free digi stamps.

If you feel like they're too complicated, I'll be the first to disagree. I don't do anything fancy...I just download the image and pick a size...then I print it and color it up. Every once in a while I combine digi sentiments with a digi image like in this card, but not always. 

You can see what I used here on IG...I can't figure out how to share just the image since I already deleted the photo from my phone, so you get the whole screen shot :)

On this card, the Power Poppy images (not freebies, but you can find them sometimes on the Kit and Clowder facebook page) came with the sentiments and I just put them together in Corel Draw and printed on kraft paper. I used white Prismacolor pencil first and then colored on top of the white. I added in some gel pen white highlights at the end too.

PaperCrafter magazine has a ton of free images and sentiments on their site, as does Simply Cards & Papercraft, which I just discovered. They have All Dressed Up and 2 Cute Ink stamps, Uniko and others. I have some already printed out to color up tonight.

You can also find some freebies here from Whimsy Stamps and a cute bear from Heffy Doodle.

Okay, hope you can find something free you like on one of these sites! Oh, and I signed up with Rakuten (aka ebates) to get the free $10 check. I use it with my Kohl's and Amazon purchases and earn money back...if you're interested in just the free $10 or want to continue to use it, check it out here and we'll both earn some cash...Free!

And my Kroger is doing free grocery pick up til the end of the year. It's usually $5, but I still like using it. I'm definitely using it for the next few weeks!


Happy Friday!
Chark

Pizzas for Months

Happy Pizza Month! I love me some pizza. I once had a character (in a story I wrote) love pizza so much it was literally what he was living for. So, yeah, I love pizza. It's also International Artist Day, so to make the most of your day, you should probably eat some kind of artistic-looking pizza. Perhaps like these from Giovanni Landi.

The only problem is that eating these would be a shame...so I'll just take one from Papa John's, with their soft crust and garlic dipping butter...yum! Or you could make these cute cat pizzas. I wouldn't feel as bad, since these probably don't take as long to make.

And if you're looking for a Halloween pizza idea, maybe you should make these mummy pizzas before trick-or-treating.

And yep, like my previous pizza posts (I have quite a few for some reason), I have a crafty idea for you too. This paper garland comes in a kit from Paper Source, but I'm betting you have enough paper scraps at home to make it without the kit, if you're like me. 

If you want an artistic banner instead, I love this idea from life is a party's blog. Paint chips are free, just add letters! 

And if you want to theme it up for the whole month, try reading these books. Here's a picture book about pizza in Italy for kids.

And here's an adult novel that features pizza apparently. Haven't read it, but here you go!

And lastly, here's some free digi art to celebrate Artist Day! Head to thoughtgo.com for this download and more masterpiece art.

There you have it...pizza and art celebrated together. Now I need some pizza and my crafty tools...time to create!

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

It's a Friendly Friday

Hi, just thought I'd share some giveaways/videos/freebies so you can jump in on the fun...these are just things I've come across and thought you might be interested in.

• Head over to Altenew to try to win one of 3 $50 gift certificates to the store...just leave a comment here on their blog.

•Stampington and Faber-Castell are doing a huge giveaway here...you gotta try to get in before the comments close tonight!

•All month long, Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine is giving away each day with their partners. Goodies galore on their blog here.

•Scrapbook.com is having a giveaway worth $1800 for their 18th anniversary. You can enter through September 15th on their blog here.

Here are some videos/people I've been watching for inspiration.

• For art journaling, I enjoy Vicky's videos...and her accent!

• For art tips for cardmaking, I like Sandy Allnock's videos...this one is about creating a distance scene.

• If you like to see how someone uses a card kit, I love Mary's videos. She doesn't meander, but gets right to it and shares great ideas for the Hero Arts and Simon Says Card Kits...among other things.

And lastly, here are some freebie sites you might like.

• Ginger's House has cute and some snarky sayings that she puts up on her blog that are free...use them in cards, scrap pages or whatever you like. 

• I've just found Pixabay and they have some really gorgeous free photos to use and illustrations too.

• The Spruce has great free printable sentiments if you don't have the perfect stamp for an occasion.

•Ephemera's Vintage has some new-to-me Alice in Wonderland digis and a whole lot more on their site here.

And that wraps up my Friendly Friday...hope you found something interesting and useful, my friends!

Happy Friday!
Chark

Graduations Galore

I've never had a graduation glut like this year...it's so funny, if I had thought about it, I might have been prepared, but graduation season snuck up on me anyway. 

So today, I have lots of grad cards to share...settle in, you're going to be here awhile. The glitter cap is a decoration from my daughter's graduation last year. I used it to trace and cut out a couple more.

Congrats to my niece, Danielle, graduate of Xavier University in Cincinnati, Congrats to my niece, Allison, graduating from high school, Congrats to my nephew, Sam, high school grad, Congrats to my daughter's boyfriend, Jason, Ohio State grad, Congrats to our family friend, Ryan, high school grad and son of our best man, Rodney. Whew! Enjoy the new adventure and congratulations on your accomplishments.

If you have a "surprise" graduation, here's a couple of free clip art pieces to help you out.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Chark

Freebies for Friends

I wanted to share some freebies I've come across lately, in case you're looking for some cool images. This site, Old Book Illustrations, has a lot of art for free. I was thinking Valentine's Day, so this illustration from a Robert Burns work caught my eye.

And if you're looking for cuter illustrations, this panda from Useless Trinkets is adorable and comes with sentiments...and you can find free monsters and unicorns and more here.

These baby animals are free from Buddly Crafts and come already colored, so you just print and use.

And if you like doodled images, but not drawing them, you can color these heart tiles from about.com

Before I end, my original Coffee Lovers bloghop winner for the Lawn Fawn fairy stamps and dies didn't contact me before the end of the year and left no contact info...so I did a redraw and the winner is Bunny!I'll contact you by email and once I have your address, I'll send out your prize!

Happy Friday!
Chark

p.s. If you like crafty goodies, you can hop over to DLArt where Diana is doing a generous giveaway on her blog!

Sharing With Friends

Today is a sharing day here on the blog. I'm sharing some freebies and some sites I enjoy and some blogs that I visit. Maybe you'll find something fun you want to share in.

I love the delicate images at A Day for Daisies and there is usually a free digi stamp that comes with each month's challenge so you can use it to create a project for the challenge. How cool is that? This is a project from Daria, a DT member that makes me want this stamp! This one isn't free, but it is just $4. Hop over, get your free angel digi and enter the Sparkle challenge with me. You know I can't resist a challenge called Sparkle!

A past a2z Design Teammate, Kelly Latevola, has a way with coloring that will knock your socks off.

Check this card out, gorgeous coloring, am I right?!

One crafty and talented woman who has the best soothing voice in videos, no lie, I love listening to her while I learn...it's Emily Leiphart. If you haven't watched her create, you should! Here's the latest.

If you vintage images, there's a free vintage women sheet over at Katinshrine's blog.

And if you like vintage Santa, here you go! From Graphics Fairy...they have a ton of vintage images that are free.

If you like giveaways, Taheerah Atchia is doing a fun Advent Calendar giveaway. Stop by each day and comment and blog hop for prizes...I can't imagine how much work this is, but it's fun on this end!

Happy Wednesday...see you Friday for the Coffee Hop and a prize here on my blog!

Chark

Freebie Fun for Monday

Hi, friends, saw this cool tea coloring page for free on Dawn Nicole's FB page and asked if it was okay to share...she said yes, so here it is! If you're planning to join the December Coffee Lovers Blog Hop, you might want to go with this as your focal point on your card. Cute, huh?

And here are a couple more free digi art pieces for your coloring pleasure. The first is another Dawn Nicole Design. She's so talented!

This has both free and inexpensive coloring pages click here to see the Adult Coloring Pages blog.

If you like florals, you need to check out this free floral images page from Buzzle...not supposed to share the image, but I'll share the link so you can find them. I'm going to download the rose heart. Gorgeous! And lots of butterflies and fairy pages are available at Coloring Pages for Adults here. Thank you, internet for freebies!

Happy Monday!

Chark

Love Your Next Stamp

I won some goodies from Your Next Stamp and am so happy to share what I picked out. If you love these stamps, stop by and comment on the blog when they're doing a giveaway, maybe you'll be the next winner! They have a sketch and color challenge up right now, here, and I'm thinking I need to enter it, love the colors!

I picked out this cool stamp set, and you'll know why if you're my family...I am constantly late with birthday cards! I like to think I'm extending the birthday celebration by being late :)

I also got these cute items, that I can't wait to use! The notebook die and Tea-rific stamp set.

Thanks so much, YNS! And if you wanna see the incomparable Jennifer McGuire use their stamps, check out this post!

Happy Weekend!
Chark

Freebies for Friends

Hiya, crafty buds, I thought it was time to get some free digi art up just in case you're looking for some fun art to dress up a card or page.

This image is of a 1940s woman driving a Dodge from their catalog. She's very chic, don't you agree?

And speaking of chic, how about a lounging woman on vacation?

Or another 1940s woman who just looks fabulous in her hat?

I can see using these images on cards like this one by Ann Taintor. You can also buy her images on mugs, magnets and more on this site.

These images are all free from Antique Images. You can also download some flower images from them that would make fabulous Easter cards or tags!

And here are two perfect for Spring that you can color yourself if you're feeling extra crafty!

Happy Monday!
Chark

Two More Sleeps Til Christmas

It's December 23rd, so that means just two more nights until Santa comes. In our house, we exchange presents from each other on Dec. 24th, so technically there's just one more sleep til Christmas here! Santa does his thing on the 25th, so we'll get up for stockings and Santa presents. And we usually do Christmas cookies or gingerbread houses on the 24th. At any rate, it's an exciting time!

I thought I'd give you some presents too and link some freebie digis for you to print out and use.

One of my favorite blogs is We Love To Illustrate, with a collection of illustrators of books and stamps and other items. All adorable, of course. They also have freebies each month from these talented illustrators. Here's the December link. Free owl tags from Julissa Mora!

And it looks like Inky Antics has some of Shirley Ng-Benitez's work on their stamps...love! The one in the lower right corner is my favorite. You can go to Inky Antics to purchase.

Here are some free Project Life cards for those of you (like me) who love these cards. You can get the download here.

And this site, Coloring Pages for Adults, has (if you can believe it) a lot of free coloring pages for adults, like this angel stained glass window. Cool! 

And if the kids are driving you crazy, go here to Itsy Bitsy Fun for some free coloring pages for them.

There are a ton more links to coloring pages here at Amazing Mess for kids and adults. I plan to visit it when I have some coloring time soon!

Happy Almost-Christmas!

Chark