New Marker Challenge at CBD

Happy Wednesday everyone! We have a brand new challenge for you over at Crafting by Designs. This challenge is for all you alcohol marker artists. You must use those markers somewhere on your project. I have also decided to give this one a theme of “Hearts.” It’s real close to Valentine’s Day, so why not.

Our sponsor for CBD’s alcohol marker challenge is none other than Rick St. Dennis MFA. I know that most of you have seen his images, and boy let me tell you, his illustrations run the gambit of eclectic, right up my alley. His prize for this challenge is two images, of the winner’s choice, from his Etsy Shop.

 I decided to use one of his very “cute” images, “ValentineTurtle.” Isn’t he the cutest? He is on his way to see his little turtle girlfriend, and he is bringing his present with him. He’s also a lot of fun to color. My alcohol markers of choice are Copics, what else! All of my supplies are from my stash. The sentiment was designed by my very good friend, Cindy Echtinaw. The set is called Fancy Hearts.

 

 

Please come play with us at Crafting by Designs. I want to see something, from you, with hearts, but you must use alcohol markers. After you link up to our challenge, please hop on over to our Facebook group, Crafting by Designs. If you haven’t already, join and show us you little piece of art with hearts.

Thanks for stopping by. If you have any questions, please contact me.  Have a great and creative week.

Aletha Jane

AJ’s Design Artz

October Joy with CBD

Good Friday afternoon! I have been churning out the art cards these past two weeks, and having the time of my life. I am getting ready for my very first arts and crafts show in three years. As most of you know in 2009 I was diagnosed with COPD with emphysema and am now on oxygen 24/7. I am still on O2, but I am so much stronger. I finally decided that this year is the year and I getting back in the swing of getting ready for art festivals and becoming more involved with design teams online. This one is just for one day, but baby steps are a must. Still, I am rather excited.

On to why I am here today...we have a new challenge for you over at Crafting by Designs. I am the hostess for one of our challenges during our second week in October and the theme is “Falling Leaves.” You can create any thing your mojo tells you too, but we want to see lots of leaves, be they in a pile, falling from a tree, laying on the ground just looking pretty, added to a wreath, you get the meaning. We want to see leaves.

As I said in the beginning of my post, I have been churning out cards, so this little piece of art is just that, an art card. And I have leaves galore! My image is from a wonderful artist that I discovered a couple of months ago, (and I am now on his Elite Design Team), Rick St. Dennis MFA (you should read his credentials!). I feel in love with this little elf, October Joy! (At the moment, it is not listed in his Etsy shop, but I am sure you could send him a message and he would get it right over to you.)

Do you know when you have all the leaves raked in a pile, go inside to get a drink, come back out to bag, and you have to rake them again? The “rake them again” part was accomplished by this little Autumn elf. He looks like he thoroughly enjoyed jumping in your pile of leaves, and making them magically fly around. He did have fun.

Supplies used for October Joy are:
Dies: Spellbinders Foliage, Bitty Blossoms, and Standard Circles. Marianne Creatables LR0156 Flower & Leaves.
Designer Paper: SCACD
Cardstock: SU in Bravo Burgundy, More Mustard, and Really Rust. Cryogen for Copic Coloring.
Distress Inks: Vintage Photo, Rusty Hinge, and Forest Moss
Paint: Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam in Chandelier
Copics: Ys in 11, 15, 17, 21, 23, 26; YRs in 00, 12, 15; YGS in 91, 93, 95, 97; RVs in 91, 93, 99’ Rs in 20, 27; Es in 000, 09, 11, 35; Cs in 5.
Skeleton leaves: my stash.

This little elf would like to go play with:

Craft Us Crazy – Children and/or Fall

DL.ART – Linky Party, Anything Goes

Pixie Dust Studio – Full of Fantasy

For Fun Challenges – Fall

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you can join us at CBD for our Falling Leaves challenge, or any of our weekly challenges. Contact me if you have any questions.
Aletha Jane

Anything Goes at CBD

Happy Friday and welcome to the weekend! I hope you all have had a great week!

I want to take this time to introduce you to our monthly "Anything Goes" challenge over at Crafting by Design’s (CBD). This is the fourth and last week of June, so why not start you weekend by joining in.

For this “Anything Goes” challenge, I want you to create anything you want. That’s the “Anything Goes,” but there is a twist. That twist being is you will need to have a “bird” somewhere on your little piece of art. Easy peasy! And remember, this does not have to be a card, “anything” you want to create is what we want to see.

I have chosen to create a 4¾” square greeting card. My all occasion card is created with the {ippity} stamp set “Dream to BE.” I decided that I wanted everything sunny, but with layers and contrast. I do like my layers and I do like to have my colors pop.

The song bird was colored with Copics and distressed with Spiced Marmalade and Black Soot DI. I then used Spellbinder’s Classic Ovals and Scalloped Circles for the accents. My DP is My Mind’s Eye collection “Bloom & Grow.” CS is from Stampin’ Up! The flowers and bling are from my stash.

Here are some of the challenges that I am entering my card:

Charisma Cardz Challenge – Anything Goes

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge – Feathers/Birds

Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog – Dimension & Texture

I hope you join us at Crafting by Designs. There are plenty of challenges for you to join in, several new ones every week of the month.

Thanks for stopping by. If you need an {ippity} by Unity fix, head on over to my {ippity} Sales Blog!
Aletha

CBD A Year in Cards: June Edition

Happy June! Starting today is one of our monthly Crafting by Designs (CBD) challenges “A Year in Cards.” I am the hostess for this particular challenge, and I challenge you to make a card with words of encouragement. Any kind of card will do, but there needs to be words of some kind of “encouragement” on the front of the card.

For my little piece of art “Hang in there,” I chose to make a square card using the {ippity} stamp set “One of THOSE days.” Isn’t that little birdie the cutest? I have colored him with my Copics and did some distressing with Black Soot DI.

All of my cardstock is Stampin’ Up! The designer paper is from Memory Box Blackbird collection. The Spellbinder’s dies I cut are the Large Scalloped Ovals and the Large Classic Ovals.

If you are interested in the {ippity} stamp set, “One of THOSE days,” please click here. While you are visiting my {ippity} Sales Blog, please take a look at my other {ippity} by Unity stamps that I have available. The card is also available on my new IndieMade website.

I hope you join us this month at CBD. If this challenge does not appeal to you, check back frequently for a multitude of other challenges.

Thanks for stopping by! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate asking.
Aletha

Welcome to Crafting By Designs Blog Hop!

I hope you all are having fun hopping along and seeing all the wonderful little pieces of art created for Crafting by Designs (CBD) blog hop. If you have come from Rene’s blog, Life in the Craft Lane, you are in the right spot. Do you think you are lost? If you have the sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, then head over to Doris’s blog, Mom’s Been Scrappin’. That’s the very first blog in the hopping lane. You can also visit CBD’s site to see the line up.

We have a package of goodies that one blog hopper could win. What do you have to do? You need to leave a comment with an email address on each blog that you hop too. The winner will be announced on Tuesday after Random.org lets us know who won. Easy peasy. I know that the blog hop participants like followers too.

Along with this CBD Blog Hop, we have a fun challenge for you to enter. The challenge theme is “Wings and/or Blooms.” You are invited to join in with this challenge at the CBD's site. We want to see anything you want to create, but you must have wings or blooms, or both, on your project.

My project is a card using a new {ippity} stamp set “Be Brave, Branch Out.” This time around I colored with my Prismacolor pencils, and not my Copics. I really like the way everything melded together. I usually pick my DP first, and that would dictate my colors, but I colored first and then looked for paper. Turquoise and oranges/reds are becoming one of my favorite color combos.

Supplies used: Color: Prismacolor pencils, Spicas, opaque white pen. Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black; DI in Black Soot, Mustard Seed, Spice Marmalade. DP: Crate Paper Farmhouse Collection. CS: SU in Basic Black and Kraft. Dies: Exotic Butterflies Small from Cheery Lynn Designs; Madera Corner from Memory Box; Blossom Four from Spellbinders.

Challenges I am entering:

Crafty Sentiments – Things with Wings

Unity Opportunity Challenge Blog –

Winged things, Things that Fly, Things in the Air

Craft Room Challenge – Vintage Shabby

Lady Bugs Craft Ink Challenge – Anything Goes

Little Darlings Challenges – Colors of Spring

Your next stop on this “Wings and Blooms” blog hop is Tammy Martinez’s blog, Whimsically Me. Thanks so much for stopping by. I look forward to all your comments. Have fun!
Aletha