Star Light Star Bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

Oh yes, I must have muttered that little rhyme under my breath a thousand times growing up. I can't remember what my little girl wishes were, but I do know the stars aligned for me – all my dreams did come true!

This is my second card as a guest designer of Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge blog. Being Mo's guest designer has been such a blast. Thank you all for the kind comments and sweet congratulations!
 

This week we get to make a card that's anything but your regular A2 shape (4-1/4" by 5-1/2" card). I call it the "get in shape" challenge. My biggest obstacle with this challenge was that the biggest circle scallop die cut I had was only 4-1/4" by 4-1/4". I had to shrink Mo's image down to 2-1/4" by 2-1/4" – practically an "inchie." That really put my coloring and paper cutting skills to the test.

I bought the Bazzill In Stitch'z piercing template ages ago and have been wanting to add some hand-stitching to my cards. Grandma Black would be proud of me for remembering the satin stitch she taught me ages ago. I love the effect. 
 

Tip #1 – Cross stitchers know you never knot the thread under your projects. The same is very true with stitching on cards. Just tape the tails of your thread to the paper on the back to keep your project from unraveling.

Tip #2 – Want to add some shading to paper-pieced pattern paper? Just pull out your grays. I used C1, a cool gray, to add shading to the sleeping bag.

Tip #3 – I used a template from a Mojo Monday challenge that expired a few weeks ago, the MoJo127. If you're thinking about participating in this week's challenge over at Mo's place, it's a great sketch for both round and square cards.

Here are the Copic Markers I used and the rest of the recipe:

• Embellishments – Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety Buttons, Karen Foster Mini Charms (camping)
• Fibers – DMC embroidery floss (#725), Stampin' Up! Dotted Grosgrain ribbon in Crushed Curry. I found the twill ribbon in a garage sale – Score!
• Ink – Copic Markers (see above), Spica Buttermilk Pen
• Paper – Neenah. Stampin' up! Stampin' Up! Crushed Curry and Dusty Durango card stock, Bo Bunny Kitchen Spice Nutmeg, Reminisce Star Swirls
• Stamps – Mo's Digital Pencil Camping
• Tools – Bazzill In Stitch'z piercing template, Stampin' Up! Circle Scallop die cut

Be sure to stop a Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge blog to see some of the other beautiful samples for this week's challenge. If you play with us, leave me a comment so I can see come visit you and see your "get in shape" card.

     Have a Nice Day.
                         Forest Gump

Can you tell I'm ready for Spring?!  That backdrop is an old metal picnic basket my folks kept. We mostly used it for church pitch-ins, but it still makes me think of a fun spring picnic.

This adorable stamp is from Penny Black's Micey Day collection. The sentiment from the collection (and that I put inside my card) is "Have a Micey Day." Every time I hear "Have a nice day," I think of Forest Gump – running across American and wiping his muddy face on a yellow tee-shirt. You know the scene . . .

I loved this weeks inspiration for the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #48. Yummers! The Pink Elephant Color Challenge this week (TPE56) asked us to add Green to our layouts – oooo, St. Patty's Day is around the corner, we gotta celebrate that!

I cut out the little sunflowers and popped them up with Stampin' Dimensions, added flocking to the center, and colored them with the Spica pen to give them sparkle.

Tip - In case you haven't already noticed, I love, love adding fabric to my projects. The "ribbon" on the card is just a torn piece of gingham fabric. You can get tons of "ribbon" out of just a 1/4 yard of gingham – for about $1.00. What a deal. I keep the basic colors on hand, red, yellow and black.

Here are the Copic Markers I used and the rest of the recipe:

• Embellishments – Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety Buttons, charm from watchus.com
• Fibers – Gingham fabric scraps, DMC embroidery floss
• Ink – Copic Markers (see above), Memento Tuxedo Black, Spica Buttermilk Pen
• Paper – Neenah. Stampin' up! Kraft, Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety Mini Deck
• Stamps – Penny Black Micey Day
• Tools – Nestabilities Long Rectangle Large, Long Scallop Rectangle Large
• Miscellaneous – Doodlebug Velvet Flock

If you'd like to see another adorable card with this stamp set, hop over to Crafty Little Pigtails, here. Krista's coloring is Gor-Jus! And, while you're there, you can check out Krista's blog candy. You have until March 30, but I'm warning you, it's got my name all over it!

Hope you have a very micey nice day.

Life is like riding a bicycle – in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving. 
                ~Albert Einstein

I'm very sentimental about my bike. When I met my Tom almost 30 years ago, he was managing a bicycle shop and I was secretary of the town bicycle club. Some friends introduced us at a club-sponsored ride. Somewhere along the ride I got a flat tire, and Tom stopped to help me – ah, my hero! He was (and still is) a much faster rider than me, so he eventually left me in his dust to finish the ride. He was so shy, it took another six weeks of flirting with him before he finally asked me out. In those days, just about everything we did evolved around the next bike ride.

Three years and many wonderful bike rides later, we married and then honeymooned in Vermont, riding our bikes along the crests and valleys of the Green Mountains. And when I was delivering my first child, I got through labor pains by picturing myself bicycling up a big hill – knowing I'd get to the top and be able to coast down.

My bike gave me some of the most fun adventures around the beautiful rolling hills of southern Indiana and eventually Texas with our two children strapped behind. Of course, now they leave me in their dust, too! Although technology has improved dramatically for road bikes, I still hold onto the same Trek bicycle that introduced me to my Tom.

So, it's a huge honor to get to highlight Mo's Digital Image illustration of her Mummu on a Bike. As I colored it I imagined myself as this Mummu some day – the wind in my hair, the sun on my face and a spray of beautiful windflower flowers to take to a dear friend. Now, that's heaven!

First and foremost – I made this as my first guest assignment on Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge Design Team. I am so freakin' excited to have been chosen among such unbelievable talent. I am incredibly humbled and also a little nervous. I hope I meet everyone's expectations. The challenge this week was to make a card using blue, brown and a neutral color.

 In support of Joann B's blogaversity challenge, I used Kraft as my neutral color and incorporated some sewing elements. I love sketches to jump start my design mojo, and this week I used the sketch from The Pink Elephant's challenge #55.

Here are the Copic Markers I used and the rest of the recipe:

• Embellishments – Blue Moon Charms, Stampin' Up! Corduroy Baha Breeze button, white flower from Stampin' Up!'s Pretties kit.
• Fibers – Stampin' Up! Kraft Taffata ribbon, miscellaeous string.
• Ink – Copic Markers (see above).
• Paper – Neenah Solar White Ultrasmooth Classic Crest 80 pound cardstock. Stampin' up! Kraft, Close to Cocoa Cardstock and Parisian Breeze designer paper (retired)
• Stamps – Mo's Digital Image Mummu's Bike
• Tools – Nestabilities Classic Rectangle Large.

You can check out Mo's Digital Challenge blog for the current challenge and beautiful samples by clicking on the icon below.

I always run my cards by my family – I have them well trained to oh and ah appropriately. When my daughter looked at it she said: "Wow, there's a lot going on – this isn't a card, it's a whole outfit!" Yeah, I might have gotten a little carried away.

When I saw Dawn's fun sketch for Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge this week, I immediately thought of a pieced quilt block. It's been so long since I've put together a quilt top, well, it took me an hour or more just to do the math and remind myself how to put it all together. (I even elicited the help of my math-genius husband and pulled out some sewing books.) Where are my quilting friends when I need them?! Any of you quilters out there – please don't look too closely because there are a lot of misplaced stitches. Here's Dawn's fun sketch that I kind of twisted and turned.

I used these Copic Markers and a white and black Prismacolor pencil.

• Embellishments – Generic corsage pin, Stampin' Up! Button Bouquet
• Fibers – Generic string and fabric strips
• Ink – Copic Markers (see above).
• Paper – Neenah, Stampin' Up! Soft Suede and Robin Hood Red (retired) Cardstock.
• Stamps – Mo's Digital Pencil You're Kinda Cute
• Tools – Nestabilities Classic Scallop Rectangle Large and Class Rectangle Large, Stampin' Up! Word Window Punch
• Miscellaneous – Fabric scraps

Hugs to all my sew wonderful blog readers.  Thanks for sticking with me and being my cushion!

Meanwhile, someone asked me how I did the cutout on this card, extending the image past the Nestabilities oval die.

I love, love the look of this technique, and it's really pretty easy. Here's a video from Paperthreads that shows how to do it. If you can't see the video, here's the link. This video made me a new fan of the Paperthreads Blog for all it's great tutorials for die cuts and stamping.

Leave me a comment with a link to your projects if you try this technique – I'd love to see what you create!

"Hey, Chickie Lady!" That's one of my pet greetings for some of my sweet girl-peeps. One of those weird McClain-isms I guess. (We may have to come up with a whole McClain/English dictionary. ) Check out the inside – Yes! I decorated the inside for once.

Even as I was making this very Spring-like card, it was snowing outside. In Austin/Round Rock, that's a big freakin' deal.

We got 2 to 3 inches, enough to actually stick on the ground. It was gorgeous and crazy fun. Check out this photostream from our local News station, KXAN - it's hilarious how nuts we Texans get about a little white stuff. One of my co-workers broke out a Christmas carol! There are a lot of sorry looking snowman out there today, though. Temperatures were back up to the 60s and snowmen were wilting faster than the Wicked Witch of the West. 

I had lots of fun making this card, so, get comfy – lots to tell you about it.

Isn't that crocheted flower luscious? I wish I could say I made it (and even more, I wish Grandma Black were around to show me how). The flower is from the Melody Ross artsy urban collection -

This weeks Card Positioning System sketch, #155, gave me a good starting point.

This darling image is a digital stamp from Heather Ellis's Pure Innocence Digi Stamp Characters.

I used the Copic air system to add the Baby Blue sky with the Nestabilities rectangle die still on to create a white frame. I used the glorious Buttermilk and Baby Blue Spica pens to color in the flowers in her hair. These pens are amazing. The glitter in the Spica pen is actual micro bits of glass – the effect is subtle but stunning. (Sharon Harnist has a great review of them, here.)

Alas, I didn't have a red Spica pen. So, necessity being the mother of all inventions . . . I colored two of the flowers with the red Copic Marker (R27), used my two-way glue pen to add Stampin' Up! Dazzling Diamonds glitter, and then recolored the flower again in red, effectively coloring the glitter, too. It's not quite as pretty as the Spica pen, but a darn close match.

For giggles and grins, I used the two-way glue pen to add some Doodlebug Design crushed velvet flock. And, of course, I paper pieced the dress from the Melody Ross Artsty Urban Collection paper (Petit Floral).

Here are the rest of the Copic markers.

And, here's the rest of the recipe:

• Embellishments – Melody Ross Crochet Flowers, Stampin Up buttons
• Fibers – Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue Striped Grosgrain. Stampin Up Jersey Ribbon Originals. Hemp Thread.
• Ink – Copic Markers (see above).
• Paper – Neenah Solar White Ultrasmooth Classic Crest 80 pound cardstock. Melody Ross Petit Floral from the Artsy Urban Collection, Bo Bunny's Sunflower Double Dot. Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue cardstock.
• Stamps – Heather Ellis Pure Innocence Digital Stamp 025
• Tools – Nestabilities Classic Scallop Rectangle Large and Class Rectangle Large.
• Miscellaneous: Stampin' Up! Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Doodlebug Deesign Crushed Velvet Flock.

Hugs to all of you Chickie Ladies out there!

Grandmas don't just say "that's nice" —
They reel back and roll their eyes and throw up their hands and smile.
You get your money's worth out of grandmas.           

                                         Author Unknown

Grandma's are so special aren't they. I have such sweet, sweet memories of my Grandma Ethel Heaton (Mom's Mom) and Grandma Flora Black (Dad's Mom). Grandma Black made dresses for my doll babies and taught me how to darn socks on her sleepy porch. I can still see her strong fingers crafting a beautiful edge on her pie crusts. Grandma Heaton would navigate us around the country roads to her homestead in search of mushrooms and pussy willows talking the whole way about the days when she called the square dances. I can still see the homemade egg noodles drying on her kitchen table. My Grandmas always made me feel like they'd been waiting to see just me all day and I made their days complete.

I love how this image by Mo's Digital Pencil captures the pure bliss in the Grandmother's face – she's just lost in the joy of a dance with her grandchild. Ah . . . Grandma's are so special!

I used the Sketch for Mo's Dream Team February Guest Spot and, for inspiration, the soft colors and buttons from the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #47. You KNoW I love Cupcakes! I don't know how Rachel Hope finds all these incredible cupcakes – check out the ones that inspired this challenge:

In honor of her sewing-themed cupcakes, I sewed the edges of my background paper and plaid strip. And, lastly, I followed Lauren Meader's tutorial over at Copic Creations Challenge #22 to color my lavender and gold ribbon to match my paper.

Here are the Copic markers I used.

The sheet music is from an old Baptist Hymnal I found at the Goodwill for 25 cents (what a find!). I sponged it with Stampin' Up!'s So Saffron Ink, and Stamped it with Stampin' Up! background stamp, Sanded, again using So Saffron Classic ink.

Most of this image is paper pieced – yes I did a Lot of cutting! If you've never tried the paper piecing technique, here's tutorial I wrote a while back.

• Embellishments – EK Success Jolee's Jewels Crystallized Swarovski Elements Heart Lock and Key charm (what a mouthful). Chatterbox* Junkitz buttons.
• Fibers – Stampin' Up! 5/8" Satin Ribbon in Whisper White. Chatterbox satin ribbon colored with Copic Markers Y21 and BV02. Wrights Classics Lace (from JoAnn Fabrics).
• Ink – Copic Markers (see above). Stampin' Up! So Saffron Classic Ink.
• Paper – Neenah Solar White Ultrasmooth Classic Crest 80 pound cardstock. Chatterbox Parlor Scrapbook Walls*
• Stamps – Mo's Digital Image Mummu and Me. Stampin Up! Sanded
• Tools – Martha Stewart border punch, Creative Memories corner rounder punch, Nestabilities Classic Ovals Large.

*I bought these Chatterbox papers and embellishments years ago. I love them – the papers have this lovely linen look. Unfortunately, I honestly don't know if they're still available anywhere.

Hugs . . .

Grandparents are there to help the child get into mischief they haven't thought of yet.  ~Gene Perret

[Edited to add, February 23, 2010: I feel like Sally Field at the Oscars - "You Like Me, You Really Like Me!"   Scapbook & Cards Today magazine picked this up from my blog post and gave me a shout-out on their Facebook page yesterday - what a great surprise. Then, today, Scrapbook News and Review asked permission to feature it in their blog and include it in a Special Features Article of their March 2010 magazine. Well, Snap, Yeah! With Mo Manning's permission, her beautiful illustration and my little card will hit the e-magazine stands soon. Meanwhile, I have to remove the pictures until after the magazine publishes. No worries, it will return again sometime in April or May and you can still view it here.]

A dear friend of mine is expecting her second grandchild any day now. She's raised girl babies and has one granddaughter. This will be her first little boy baby and she's just a little nervous about that. Do you think this will ease her mind? Hmmm, maybe not so much, but it sure is cute.

I had two deadlines to meet – the birth of the little baby and also Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge #19, "Clean 'n Simple." We could use white or cream cardstock, an image from Mo's Digital Pencil, and one ribbon – no additional layers. Well, I kind of cheated. I didn't use any additional layers, but I gave my card cover a scalloped edge that offered a peak to the pattern paper below. This "clean 'n simple" style was so easy – I think I may have to make more like this.

I used Mo's Digital Pencil image, Sumpin's Wrong, resized it and printed it directly onto the white cardstock. I printed it two more times onto patterned paper, using the paper piecing technique to compile the overall image.

Here are the Copic markers I used.

• Embellishments – Stampin' Up! Button Bouquet
• Fibers – Stampin' Up! Striped Grosgrain in Robinhood Red and Hemp thread
• Ink – Copic Markers (see above). Baby skin: E0000, E00, E02, and R81. Diaper: C1 and C3. Shading on britches; R29.
• Paper – Neenah Solar White Ultrasmooth Classic Crest 80 pound cardstock. Stampin' Up! Sweet Slumber Designer Paper (retired).
• Stamps – Mo's Digital Image Sumpin's Wrong
  
• Tools – Stampin' Up! Scallop Edge Punch

Welcome sweet baby boy.

Even Sock Stealers deserve a Valentine's Day card. So, I made the Sock Stealer this card for Valentine's Day.

And, here's the inside:

Isn't that just freakin' adorable? It's even makes up for all the missing socks.

I used the Mojo Monday sketch by Maria Gurnsey, MOJO125.

I won the last challenge for Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge Blog (#17), and got to choose any of Mo's Digital Pencil images as my prize. Oh, my, there are so many great ones to choose from. I picked Hope's Socks to use to enter, yes, the next challenge. Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge #18 asked us to use pink, white and red and to include a heart.

Here are the Copic Markers I used for the outside of the card.

Aren't those little sock charms adorable? I've never done this before, but I ran my Shrinky Dinks sheet through the printer to get Mo's sock image on the Shrinky Dinks. I let it set overnight to dry and then colored it with pencils. (I tried coloring with the Copics, but pencils actually worked better.)

And, finally, I used the Copic Creations Challenge #21, Feather Blending, to blend my baby girl's hair (using E37 and E97).

• Embellishments – Rose Art Shrinky Dinks (and my own, handmade jump rings), Stampendous Red Ultra Fine Jewel Glitter (applied with Crystal Effects)
• Fibers – Stampin' Up! Satin Ribbon Pretty in Pink
• Ink – Copic Markers (see above)
• Paper – Stampin' Up! cardstock: Real Red, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White. Neenah Classic Crest Solar White. ki memories Heartbeat Loving
• Stamps – Mo's Digital Image Hope's Socks
  
• Tools – Stampin' Up! Label Punch, computer font, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Circles Large and Standard Circles Large.

Happy Valentines Sock Stealer! 

God grant that I should live to fish
     until my dying day.
And when it comes to my last cast
     I then most humbly pray,
When in the Lord's safe landing net
     I'm peacefully asleep,
That in his mercy I be judged
     As big enough to keep.

                  A Fisherman's Prayer

Anyone who knew my Dad knew he loved to fish. Even more, he loved teaching children how to fish. When I saw Mo's Digital Pencil Too image, Fishing, I knew I would have to play with it. Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge #17 (about wood or would) spurred me on and gave me a deadline.

Mo's image captured my Dad so well. He fished with live bait, often in a small boat just like this in the lakes and ponds around Owen County, Indiana. So, you'll have to indulge me a bit because I can't possibly share this card with you without sharing a few precious pictures of Dad.

In the background, helping my kids wet a hook in his backyard pond.

Captain of our boat . . .

Here are the Copic markers I used for the water and sky with the Copic air system:

And here are the markers I used for the rest of the image:

• Embellishments – Tim Holz Ideology Foliage
• Ink – Copic Markers (see above)
• Paper – Stampin' Up! cardstock: Summer Sun, Not Quite Navy, Basic Black. Neenah Classic Crest Solar White. Karen Foster Fishing Lures.
• Stamps – Mo's Digital Image Fishing
  
• Tools – EK Success border punch

Love you always, Dad.