St. Patrick's Day Card

I knew I wanted to take part in the Catch the Bug Challenge and the Cuttlebug Spot Challenge.  Normally, that would mean two cards for me but I did something unusual for me, I combined the challenges.  I know lots of folks combine challenges all the time but I normally like to focus on one challenge at a time.  For me, the point is to be inspired.

After being frustrated by Paul Ford's choice of ATC's as a challenge on Catch the Bug, I found an ATC would have been just about perfect for this card.  In the end, my image was a little smaller than an ATC (only 2 inches by 3 inches).

Here is the card open.

I love gate fold cards.  I've never made one this way, but I really thought this was fun.  It is fairly plain (the image seemed to argue for less as opposed to more) but you should see some of the incredible cards at the Cuttlebug spot.  I'm always in awe of Donna Mundinger's cards (Popsicle Toes) but check out her incredible card which is all the more amazing because I don't normally think of this as her "style".

Now that I sent you to a ton of other blogs, lets talk about my sweet little card.  I used my cuttlebug to emboss the green panels on the front.  I choose the Spots and Dots folder.  The image and sentiment were cut out using the Deckled Nestabilities in my Cuttlebug.

This is one of the many turtles I colored.  I think he will find his way onto a similar card.  I find that the best way for me to end up with an image I'm happy with is to color a few and see what works.  On this image I used a lighter green and almost no shading.  If you look at the image I used in the final card, the turtle is a brighter green.

Don't you love this turtle?  If you are interested in buying him for St. Pat's or many other holidays, you can purchase him here.  Jodie has everything from Halloween to Canada Day with this turtle.  She also has a sweet little dragon as a freebie this week.  I'm still thinking about what I want to do with him.  You should check him out.  I'm really loving digis.

Thank you for checking out my cards.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend.  I'm hoping I'll be back with a few more cards this weekend (although the weather here argues for being outside -- it was 70 degrees yesterday).

Bugaboo Digi ATC

Have I mentioned how much I hate the color pink?  Well, these are pink, that is for certain.

I'm not certain I'm made for ATC's.  For one thing they really are very small.  It took everything I had to be able to stay inside the lines on my coloring.  I also hated cutting off this little Skelekinz' boots but I think it looks better on the ATC that way than this...

The one in the middle has all of the boots where as the ones on either side have the boots cut off.  If you want to purchase this little cutie, you can find her here.  I used some BRIGHT pink paper from my stash for the base of the ATC.  I cut the stamp out using a Large Deckled Rectangles from Spellbinders.  I thought it had the right feel for the Skelekinz.  I used gradient pink gems from Creative Charms on the bottom of each ATC.  They range from clear to three shades of pink. 

Here is a close-up of the ATC.  In this picture you can see the embossing I did with my new cuttlebug folder, Love is In The Air.  I bought it at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon.  I love the fact it has 3 embossing folders 5 x 7. 

Here are two of them a little closer.  The one on the right has no embossing.  The one on the left is embossed but the boots are cut off.