Want some FREE Digis?

Of course you do! Rick St. Dennis is offering two FREE digis for you on our new Sparkle and Glitter Challenge Blog. But there is a catch, these digis are offered for two days only, Saturday and Sunday, 9/29-30, and we would love for you to make a comment and follow our new blog.

There’s more…take a visit to Rick St. Dennis MFA blog. Rick has a discount code for you to use in Rick's Etsy shop. These codes are for Saturday and Sunday only, also. Wait until you see all the images that he has created! An image for any taste, be it cute, pretty, eclectic, or macabre, is available. There is something there for everyone.

You had better hurry! These FREE digis and the coupon code are good for two days only.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great and creative weekend.
Aletha

Autumn with Delicious Doodles

I think that fall has finally arrived in Oklahoma. And perfect timing for Delicious Doodles’ next challenge. We have ready for you this beautiful Friday, Challenge No. 4, and the theme is “Autumn Scene” or “Autumn Colors.”

For my little piece of art, and with the Monarch butterflies migrating through Oklahoma this September, I decided to choose Butterfly Bliss, designed by Teri of Delicious Doodles. This was the perfect image for an Autumn scene with Autumn colors. Seeing the beautiful Monarchs flying and floating around was all the inspiration I needed.

I colored Butterfly Bliss with Copics and did a little tweaking with colored pencils and Spica pens. I was also happy that I got to use some of my brand new dies from Spellbinders, Les Papillions and Decorative Labels Eight. They are beautiful dies and very easy to work with. The trick is to place wax paper between the cardstock and the die. Don’t throw away the die cut wax paper. You can use it as a stencil, or maybe in a mixed-media project.

The supplies used for my Butterfly Bliss are:

• Copics: Flower and earrings – yr21, yr24, yr276; Boa, eyes, and flower middle – yg91, yg93, yg97; Skin – e000, e11, and r20; Hair – e15, e18, e21; Butterflies and dress – yr0, yr02, yr18; Background – w0, w3, w6.
• Dies: Leaves – Marianne Creatables and Memory Box; Butterfly – Spellbinders Les Papillions and Decorative Labels Eight.
• Flowers: My stash
• Designer paper: Memory Box, Blackbird collection
• Cardstock: Stampin’ Up! in Mellow Moss, Cajun Craze, and Early Espresso.

Challenges that I am entering are:

Color Me Creative - Autumn colors

Color Throw Down - Fall colors

Crafting for all Seasons - Things with Wings

Digistamps 4 Joy - Leaves

I hope you join us at Delicious Doodles this week for our Autumn challenge. You have until October 4 to enter. After you have entered Challenge #4, come join us at Facebook, Delicious Doodles, and show us your project.

That’s it for today. I hope you have a great and creative weekend. If you have any questions, please contact me.
Aletha

Harvest Moon at Delicious Doodles



Happy Friday! This is my first official post as part of the Delicious Doodles Design Team. I am so thrilled and very honored to be a part of this talented team. I have admired Teri's imagination for a while now. I think that I have just about everyone of her digital images, too.

We are starting Delicious Doodles Challenge #2 today. Our theme is Harvest Moon. You don't have to use Delicious Doodles images for your creations, but if you do, you can enter yourself twice in the Blue Froggy!! For your first entry put your post link, 2nd entry use your blog link and pop ‘2nd entry’ after your name. And if you do use a Delicious Doodles image - you will get your chance to be ‘Spotlighted’ on our Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog.

For my project I decided to color “Thorne” with Copic markers, my favorite medium, which most of you already know. Isn’t Thorne a beautiful image? Believe me, her hair was so much fun to color! I fussy cut Thorn and popped her up on a white deckled edged panel. Then layered that on a black deckled edged panel.

Now, what to do about a Harvest Moon? Watercolor paper was my choice of stock for the moon. I cut out the circle and added Distress Stains for my “harvest” colors. I also sprayed a little water before those stains dried. I wanted to try and get that watercolor feel to the moon. I love that feathered look that I ended up with.

Supplies used for Harvest Moon are:

• Copic colors: skin-E000, E11, R20; flowers-YR12, YR14, E09; hair-E31, E34, E35, E39; dress and eyes-YG91, YG93, YG97; background W1, W3, W5, YR12, YG93.
• Cardstock: Stampin’ Up! in Basic Black, Cajun Craze, Sahara Sand.
• Designer paper: Glowing collection from Authentique.
• Distress Stains: Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw.
• Dies: Spellbinder’s Dies in Classic Circles, Deckled Rectangles, Floral Doily Accent.

Challenges that I would like to enter Harvest Moon are:
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Color Throw Down - Fall colors

Scrapalicious - Fall

Try it on Tuesdays - Anything Goes

I hope you join us this week for Delicious Doodles second challenge. We would love to see your interpretation of Harvest Moon, be it the season, the colors, or an actual moon. After you have entered in our challenge, come join us on Facebook at Delicious Doodles. We would love to see you little piece of art there too.

Before I close I wanted to let you know that Teri, owner/artist of Delicious Doodles, is running a special on her NEW Halloweenies. Head over to her shop and check them out.

Thanks so much for stopping by. You all have a great and creative weekend! Contact me if you have any questions.
Aletha

Butterfly Bliss with StampingScrapping

Good afternoon everyone! This will be my first post as a new Design Team Member over at StampingScrapping Techniques & Tutorials, a paid-access site. Each designer has the responsibility to post one tutorial per month. For my first tutorial, that you can see ONLY on StampingScrapping Techniques & Tutorials, is one of my favorite techniques, Paper Batiking. If you like to make your own background papers, this is the one for you. It’s very simple and easy!

Visit StampingScrapping® Techniques and Tutorials

My sample below shows the paper batiking technique in the background.

Let’s talk about my central image. My central image is rubber stamping and die cutting. First I used some 90# watercolor paper and spread Distress Stain in Spiced Marmalade all over my paper, and then dried the stain with my heat gun. If you want a lighter color of stain, sprits some water over the stain. If you like a more pronounced color, use the stain as is. I decided that I wanted mine as is. The color reminded me of Monarch butterflies. They have just started migrating South and I am seeing more of them each day.

After the paper was dry, I stamped Cindy Echtinaw’s circle border from her stamp set Fancy Numbers with a waterproof dye ink. I then proceeded with all my die cuts. The circle border was cut with Spellbinder’s Standard Circles. Now I am ready for the butterfly die cut. The butterfly die cut are two dies from Spellbinder’s Grand Wonderful Wings collection. The bottom one is solid and was cut on black cardstock. The die cut with all the holes was cut on more watercolor paper stained with the Spiced Marmalade Distress Stain.

That’s it for today. I hope that you join our paid-access site, StampingScrapping Techniques & Tutorials. You will not be sorry. With your membership, you get special discounts to StampingScrapping, tutorials and videos, a live tutorial every Sunday, and so much more. Membership is well worth your investment in time and money!

Visit StampingScrapping® Techniques and Tutorials

Thanks for stopping by! Contact me if you have any questions.
Aletha