April at Creative Inspiration Challenges 🐣

 Happy Easter and I hope spring is treating everyone nicely like it is in my area of the world!  

A big thank you to Pattie’s Creations for sponsoring us this month!   It was so fun coloring up Butterfly on Daisy and Mouse with Umbrella and Raincoat and making a card and a cute Easter shaker box to hold candy for a basket!

I used Ohuhu Honolulu alcohol markers with brush tips to color the images.  I used digital paper from Creative Fabrica for both pieces.  I made my sentiments in Procreate and printed out.   Excuse the photos I had to just shoot and go and they are  rough!

Instead of tossing a little candy box I covered it, added the foam tape to the inside and added a cardboard insert with the super cute mouse and added some crystal raindrops with green sprinkles for the shake.  Just enough room left to add some candy for my daughter’s Easter basket!  Yup, they still get one every year 😁

Our theme this month is Anything Goes so get inky and a little gluey and show us what you’re up to this month!   We love seeing your creations at Creative Inspiration Challenges!

Creative Inspiration Challenges March

 I’m out due to cataract surgery but have three projects previously blogged but worth another peep at 👀. Oops!  I made an eye pun here accidentally but I’m leaving it in!   Our spring-tasting sponsor this month is LeighSBDesigns 💕.   A thousand thanks to her for all of her awesome designs and support for the challenge!

                                                                  A stylish notebook

                                                                      Hanging art

LeighSBDesigns products used are Daisy Dragonfly Digi Stamp

Spring Meadow Wreath Digi Stamp

Spring Wildflower Digi Paper Pack

Spring Wildflowers Dragonfly Digi Stamp

Spring Wildflowers Wreaths Digi Stamp

The notebook cover was made using a stencil for an acrylic paint background and I colored the image and fussy cut then glued.   The wall hangings were colored and layered all in Procreate then cut and attached to some cereal box cardboard and ribbon added.  Now we want to see your fabulous makes at Creative Inspiration Challenges for March!

Challenge #49 at LeighSBDesigns ❤️

 Last day to play at LeighSBDesigns in February!

Thanks to Art with Flo on YouTube for the tutorial on creating this adorable little bird in Procreate!   I was thrilled when he came out so cute!   I decided to add to my calendar stack so I added the bird onto a digital paper from by Qiubare Studio at Creative Fabrica and adding the sweet sentie and calendar portion. 

Don’t forget to drop by LeighSBDesigns Inspiration Blog in March for the next challenge!   Shop at LeighSBDesigns for all the latest releases!

February Creative Inspiration Challenges

 Time for our February challenge and our them as always is Anything Goes!   A huge thank you to All Dressed Up Stamps, Etsy for sponsoring us this month!   I had some inside crafty time with the adorable image “Hugs”.

I colored her up with Ohuhu alcohol markers and made a floating type from card that was impossible to take a pic of with it standing open tent style   The papers are from Valentine’s Day Seamless Digital Papers by Craftfiles - SVG, at Creative Fabrica.

 I made my side panel with the sentiment also from Creative Fabrica named “Love Alice” which made me think of Alice in Wonderland, of course!  Really awesome heart font!

I made the top panel with the sweet image a booklet and added my watermark in it while editing the photo!  I’m in a rather silly mood today 😋   Now time to see what you’re getting up to and creating to show us at Creative Inspiration Challenges!

Poe Appreciation Mini Blog Hop

 This is our last day of the 11th Annual Edgar Allan Poe Mini Blog Hop for 2026 presented by LeighSBDesigns!  I am playing catch up from yesterday with my Poe heart tag display thingy!  Today all the tags wet glue and all!

All stuffed in heart!

                                                       LeighSBDesigns products used:

https://leighsbdesigns.com/b/classic-poe-vintage-grunge-decorative-digi-art-paper-pack

Classic Poe Vintage Grunge Papers

https://leighsbdesigns.com/b/vintage-grunge-decorative-digi-paper-pack

Vintage Grunge Paper Pack

Also papers from Creative Fabrica and images from Poe Collage Set 1 and 2 from Gecko Galz.

Linky party at LeighSBDesigns Inspiration Blog!

Poe Appreciation Mini Blog Hop

This is our last day of the 11th Annual Edgar Allan Poe Mini Blog Hop for 2026 presented by LeighSBDesigns!  I am playing catch up from yesterday with my Poe heart tag display thingy!

Papers from Creative Fabrica and images from Poe Collage Set 1 and 2 from Gecko Galz.

Linky party at LeighSBDesigns Inspiration Blog!

Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Mini Blog Hop LeighSBDesigns

 We are preparing for a solid week of freezing temperatures with possible icy roads which here in the South an icy patch makes us all demolition derby drivers!   So preparations must be made today!  Lots of hot cocoa and sweets maybe a King Cake or two to see us through!   Believe it or not I’m posting at 7:30 am today! 😱.  I’m a huge fan of the movie “The Raven” with John Cusack portraying Edgar Allan Poe.  Today’s project is an homage to that film and all Poe films that have come before!   Also more importantly LeighSBDesigns is hosting the 11th Annual Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Mini Blog Hop for 2026 right now through the 23rd!  Thanks, Leigh and Val ❤️❤️❣️

I made my movie poster with some grabs of some old films and “The Raven” with ultra cutie John Cusack.  I made a digital stamp from a scene in the movie and using Procreate I colored it up with watercolors and some acrylic brush strokes.  I added that as a top layer and it all rests on a beautiful she of digital paper by LeighSBDesigns Classic Poe Grunge Digi Paper Pack that has 6 papers!   I wanted the Raven on the paper to have a prominent place but I under estimated the other pieces but there is a wonderful Raven hiding back there!

Come join in the fun at LeighSBDesigns Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Mini Blog Hop and check out the gorgeous Gilded Raven two new designs released just for the hop and on sale till the 23rd, the last day of the hop!

Here’s the Digi stamp for you to play with if you wanna grab it!

Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Mini Blog Hop

 Yesterday we celebrated Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday and Appreciation Day!   Of course we are still celebrating both events and our POEtastic LeighSBDesigns is hosting the 11th annual Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation 2026 Mini Blog Hop today through the 23rd!  

Not only hosting a fabulous party but with two new Poe releases out today!  The Gilded Raven and The Gilded Raven Ornate Bird Stamp Digi Sets have two senties (each set has a different font) are totally gorgeous!

 

My project is made digitally using The Gilded Raven  , coloring with colored pencils a festive multicolor raven and a digital paper from Creative Fabrica.   Wet glue and no cutting apparatus but my scissors on hand give this an “authentic “ old timey appearance!

 Come join the mini blog hop at LeighSBDesigns!  

           

Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation mini Blog Hop 2026

It’s Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday and Appreciation Day!   Of course LeighSBDesigns is hosting the 11th annual Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation 2026 Mini Blog Hop today through the 23rd!  

Not only hosting a fabulous party but with two new Poe releases out today!  The Gilded Raven and The Gilded Raven Ornate Bird Stamp Digi Sets have two senties (each set has a different font) are totally gorgeous!

 

My project is made digitally using The Gilded Raven (black silhouette version) and a digital paper from Creative Fabrica. 

 Come join the mini blog hop at LeighSBDesigns!  

           

Winter at LeighSBDesigns! ❄️☃️

 LeighSBDesigns has another fab-brrrr-lous new collection to cozy up to this winter!   

I must say it again; this is another all time favorite of mine!  These designs are majestic and perfect with some gnome fun, too!   My first playtime with this collection was with Winter Cardinal!  I have so many cardinals prancing and zooming around my place to my extreme delight!   I’m constantly trying to get clear photos of them so I can paint them in acrylics.   They, however, have a different plan going on!  Staying still until I fumble to get my phone out then flying majestically away!  Leigh’s gorgeous Winter Cardinal is very agreeably and lovely to work with!

Noel gave me a start up set of Ohuhu alcohol markers and I am smitten with them!  The Honolulu B series  have a lovely brush tip along with a fine tip.  They are really juicy (it will take me a bit to get used to that) and blend without much effort at all!  Long way around to say I colored up the image with markers and the colored pencils to lighten some areas and gel pen for some winter frostiness!   I used papers from Creative Fabrica and the sentie is from Leigh’s A Charming Christmas Compendium of Festive Sayings!

So slip and slide on over to LeighSBDesigns Inspiration Blog and enter in the January Winter or Anything Goes Challenge!

There’s always something going on over there and January 19th will kick off the 11th annual Edgar Allan Poe Mini Hop!   Keep an eye out for all the POE-tastic details!

Creative Inspirations Challenge 🎉

 It’s a brand new year for us to play at Creative Inspiration Challenges and we are just absolutely delighted to have you with us!  As always the theme is Anything Goes!  I had the pleasure of slowing down a bit and coloring up a beautiful image by SheepSki Designs.  I used my colored pencils and a couple of photos from Pixabay by vwonko, tonrico and Teamwork (sentiment) for inspiration.

I layered up my finished colored image on Kraft paper with a gorgeous digital paper by MH Creation House at Creative Fabrica.  I hope everyone had wonderful holiday celebrations!  Take a breather now and get some crafty goodness going and enter Creative Inspiration Challenges in January!   Belated Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year!

15th Annual 31 DOH Blog Hop Presented by LeighSBDesigns!

 It time!  Happy 31 Days of Halloween!   This is the 15th 31 DOH blog hop hosted by our FaBOOlous LeighSBDesigns!   Look HERE for the main post for all the details and Linky party 🎉🎃

My day one project is a BOOtiful love story featuring two little ghosts I whipped up!  If you want to grab them I am adding them below.   I did everything in Procreate and layered on some digital paper that I will link up later.

Enjoy!

October Creative Inspiration Challenges with LeighSBDesigns!

Here we go into Halloween 2025, all you ghouls!   Our sponsor this month is our darling girl, LeighSBDesigns!  What a SPOOKtacular new collection she has created for this Halloween!  

Check it out HERE 🎃 

I had a play with the Wicked Tea Time Tea Cup Stack and Tag!

I used markers to color these hauntingly FaBOOlous teacups and fussy cut before adding to the papers I created in Procreate.  The stamped sentiment was from a dollar bin from long ago! 👻.  Now come on and scare up some projects for us to take a gander at and remember Creative Inspiration Challenges is always Anything Goes!

I’m linking this to LeighSBDesigns 15th Annual 31 Days of Halloween Blog Hop 👽

July Creative Inspiration Challenges!

Happy Birthday, America!🇺🇸 

Our sponsor this month is All Dressed Up Stamps at Etsy!   A big thanks to this awesome shop!  I love her designs and here are two that I had a chance to play with:  Bunny Love and Two Little Mice ❤️

I colored the cuties up with colored pencils and then my plans for them took a nose dive!   A couple of doctor visits for me and my precious little Yoshi pup had a vet visit because he got sick and some kind of stomach/flu bug that I caught while at the doctor and 😳 there went my crafting time!   Thankfully I was able to go digital and get these completed.  I just used some digital papers I had created in Procreate and some sentiments I had in Procreate.  But digitally or on cardstock, these perfect little creatures will make anything you make shine!

Of course we want to see what you make for our Creative Inspiration Challenges this month where our theme is always Anything Goes!

Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone for June

I rediscovered a charming shop at Etsy last week!  Vectoria Designs has a YouTube channel, too, that offers free printables with full tutorials that are great!  Also available in their shop are templates for lots of cool projects if you want to use your own patterned paper and stamps or images!

This is a totally sweet collapsible envelope that opens into a box compartment that your recipient can put ATC’s, a necklace, gift card, whatever the imagination comes up with!

These paper kits come with background papers to print the designs on but you know me 😔 I rushed in without listening carefully to the tutorial and did not do that!  Still came out beautifully but with more work and measuring and some added bulk as I layered the inside!   Tinne at Vectoria Designs explains how to do it correctly and the kit provides all the papers needed for you to print out.  I am working on another totally free kit now and no special secret knowledge is needed to print these if you follow the directions.  I inked everything with walnut stain Distress Ink and made a simple flower closure and failing to find my circle punch I used a flower punch.  Tinne shows how to make the closures in her tutorials with some added bits of info I hadn’t thought about!  

Now come on and show us your Anything Goes themed for this month and Anything Goes project and remember no cards!  See ya at the Outlawz Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone!

  

Creative Inspiration Challenges with Sheepski Designs!

Hi, all you crafty people!  June is popping off and as always our theme at Creative Inspiration Challenges is Anything Goes!  Our wonderful sponsor is Sheepski Designs and a big thank you to them!  I have a calendar using this gorgeous fuchsia image that I colored with alcohol markers and fussy cut before gluing to a calendar (made in Procreate using some freebie brush stamps then printed).  All my patterned papers were created in Procreate.

Next is my little album with some goodies using this beautiful strawberry plant!

Some happy little note papers with the strawberry image are tucked into the right side in front of a tag.

The left hand tag has a secret flip out booklet hidden behind it!  These adorable stickers were a thank you gift for supporting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.  The artwork is by St. Jude patients Ty and Madison.  My parents always supported St. Jude and it has a special place in my heart, too.  No family ever receives a bill for any of the stay or travel expenses from St. Jude.  

So lots of room for goodies and such in a smallish package!  Perfect for summertime weekends and Memorial Day picnics!  Come on over to Creative Inspiration Challenges and show us what you’re working on this month!  We can’t wait to see them!