Hey Darlin! Southern Girl Birthday

 Happy New Year! Here's hoping that 2021 holds better luck for us all, and I hope you are warm and well and not too hungover! :-) Honey and I had a quiet evening at home and tried out a fresh-squeezed fruit juice cocktail with Malibu Rum. Not much resolution-making anymore, but I may surprise myself with a few generalized motivational platitudes. Later today we will eat our traditional Southern dishes to bring us health, wealth and luck: Ham, black-eyed peas, green cabbage and cornbread (this year we are trying a Mexican Ranch-style recipe). Do you celebrate or get down to business with your resolutions?

 Today's the day to share my design team make for Love to Craft Challenge Blog's Challenge #54, a monthly Anything Goes challenge that you can enter 5 different projects to. I am completing my first year on the design team and have enjoyed it very much and will continue. Since they accept anything handmade and family-friendly, I've gotten to see an extraordinary variety of art! It never ceases to amaze me how crafty people are. What a wonderful hobby we all share!

PAPERS: Springhill Digital card stock, Basic Grey Gypsy/Romani designer paper collection

STAMPS/IMAGES: Digi Doodle Studios Dahlia's Blooms: Stamps: SU, Gina Marie, MFT, CAS-ual Friday, Jenni Bowlin, Lawn Fawn

INKS: Promarkers, Verafine Clair, Sakura gel pens

DIES: Spellbinders, Avery Elle

OTHER/STASH: embossing powder, enamel dot, deco scissors

  

I used Split Coast Stampers sketch SC787 as my layout design, resizing it to 5x7" and turning it 90 degrees to the right in PSE, and then I layered on the gorgeous Digi Doodle Studios digi image called Dahlia's Blooms that I colored with Promarkers, adding touches of Sakura red gel pen on her lips and on the butterfly.

I wanted to show the card front before adding the digital image because of all the paper pattern details. This is the beauty of using coordinated designer papers. This would have made a perfectly good card all on its own, right? You can also see how I followed the sketch as to layering and elements. I fussy cut the blue vertical strip - it's all one piece.

The Digi Doodle image was fussy cut with deco scissors and colored with Promarkers. I used various Spellbinder dies shaped like flowers/buttons to add to the left side, adding an enamel dot to the middle  one.The SU sentiment was stamped and heat-embossed, then cut out with an Avery Elle die. 

On the inside of my card I used an assortment of stamps from Gina Marie, CAS-ual Fridays and Papertrey Ink. The fishtail banner die cuts are Avery Elle. I stamped a Jenni Bowlin frame around the bottom sentiment on top of more designer collection paper.

The back of my card: I used a sheet in the collection that incorporated all the collection's patterns. I fished around in my die cut orphans box and found the heart and the fat fishtail banner. I stamped the Lawn Fawn siggie with Versafine Clair and heat-embossed.

And a final view. I made this for my cousin who is a Southern Girl, like me. And she's still beautiful at almost 70, so I wanted to emphasize that somehow. It seems like when I want to really make a connection with someone through my cards, I have often used a Digi Doodle image. My cousin has been going through some tough stuff lately, so I wanted this to be special for her and she loved it! She has it displayed in her den and says it lifts her spirits every time she walks by it. DDS owner Dina Gerber draws such sweet images. Even my Honey loves them and I will be using one to make his Valentine card. :-)

Thanks for visiting and stay healthy! XXO

MY CHALLENGE PLAYLIST:

1.   Split Coast Stampers sketch SC787

2.   Outlawz Festive Fridays 12/25-1/7: Anything Goes theme

3.   Crafty Creations #416: AAG  #2/3

4.   Passion 4 Promarkers #572 Mega Challenge 2020: Add a Sentiment -- my focal image is colored with Promarkers #2/3

5.   Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge January: AAG+Patterned Paper

6.   Creatalicious Challenge #202: AAG -- Option not played this time.  #1/3

7.   Inkspirational Challenge #229: Inspired By Something in My Home -- I was inspired by a framed photo of my cousin, for whom I made this card, that hangs on the wall in our hallway.  

8.   Classic Design Challenge January 2021 #1: AAG  

9.   Colour Crazy Craft Challenge Week 50: AG with Colouring -- focal image is colored with Promarkers  #1/2

10.  Digi Doodle Studios Facebook Forever Challenge January: AAG with a DDS digi  

11. Digi Doodle Studios Blog Challenge #34: AG