Introducing "Max, the Boy Raindrop"

    Max is ready to meet the world! I'm so excited to let you know that my new book is available for purchase. Max lives in e-book and softcover printed-book formats so you may have whichever is your preference.
     Max, the Boy Raindrop is an adventurous, fast-paced story about a scared raindrop who must overcome his fear of raining. He learns that oftentimes just grabbing hold of a friend's hand can be the beginning of courage.
      For those friends of mine in the card-making and scrapbooking world, you will be pleased to know that I created all the illustrations myself using only cardstock and paper-crafting tools. A big thanks goes to Core'dinations ColorCore Cardstock, Darice, and Fiskars who so generously supplied cardstock and paper-crafting tools to help me tell Max's story. They will all have copies to give away on their blogs.
     As time goes by, I will be sharing some specific techniques I used for Max's story like punching, dry-embossing, tearing, design, color choice and cutting the tiniest pieces of paper. Every eyebrow, every eyelash even, I created from cardstock.
     Thanks so much for sharing in my excitement today! I will be looking forward to Max living in your home. Here is the info to order if you are interested. You may order an autographed copy directly from me. Email me at phaskin@hotmail.com for info.
     You may also order it through your local bookseller or preferred online retailer like www.amazon.com or www.bn.com. You may also order directly from my publisher (A division of Thomas Nelson) at:
softcover - http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000700312/Max-the-Boy-Raindrop.aspx 
e-book http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000700313/Max-the-Boy-Raindrop.aspx .
          softcover ISBN:  978-1-4908-2866-4
          e-book ISBN:  978-1-4908-2867-1          
A really big thanks goes to the bravest man I know, my husband Jeff. And, a big thanks to Belan, Jan, Sherri, and Glenda, my writer's group who believed in my talent and prodded me along all the way.

White on White Challenge ODBDSLC205

     I love working with tone-on-tone and monochromatic colors like this white-on-white card for the weekly challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs.
     I used Our Daily Bread Designs Friendship stamp collection to heat-emboss my sentiment. I also used Our Daily Bread Designs Fancy Foliage die. The other die cuts are Spellbinders Persian Motifs, Card Creator and EK Success Lattice Chain. There is still time if you want to join in the fun. Check out all the details here:  http://ourdailybreaddesignsblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/odbdslc205-white-on-white.html
     Thanks so much for stopping by today. Hope you have a wonderful day!

Inspiration Challenge - ODBDSLC204

     Hope you are having a great day! Wish I could share the wonderful sunshine we have today with all of you.
     This morning, I have a card for the Inspiration Challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs.

     This time ODBD gave us two photos to use as inspiration in creating a card. I chose the one below because I was so drawn to the gold-taupe-tan color scheme. This is not my usual color preferences, but this room was so beautiful.

     I used ODBD's Fancy Foliage die cut and also their Earth Verses stamp collection.

     There is still plenty of time to join in the fun. You can get the details and the other inspiration photo here: http://ourdailybreaddesignsblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/odbdslc204-inspiration-challenge.html

   

DCWV May Stack-a-holic Card Challenge

     Thanks so much for stopping by. Makes my heart happy to know you are popping in from time to time. Today, I have a card for the Stack-a-holic challenge at DCWV.

     I created this card using The Home Spun Stack - one of my favorite stacks! I'm going to have to get another one soon as this one is getting all used up. That calls for a shopping trip, don't you think? I can't run out of cardstock!

     I love this stack because it already has score lines. I really like how it looks when I emboss over the top of it. Makes me look so talented, no!?! I used two different embossing folders. The smallest dark pink panel has smaller details that fit it better than the larger one. I used foam tape to adhere the larger panel to the card.

     The sketch (below) had buttons on it. Most of my buttons are darker colors and I wanted something light and summery, so I made my own buttons using this same stack. When I got the circles made, I put them upside down on a mouse pad and used the back end of a paint brush to lightly emboss (?) them to give them the look of real buttons. Then, I punched two holes in each and threaded them with ribbon. I adhered them to my small panel with foam tape.

     There is still plenty of time if you want to join in all the fun. Here's a copy of the sketch to work with and the address to get all the details: http://dcwvinc.blogspot.com/2014/05/may-stackaholic-challenge.html



F-L-O-W-E-R Word Challenge ODBDSLC202

     UPDATE: Excited to learn my card won the challenge. Thanks so much to ODBD for such fun challenges.
     Hope you are having a wonderful day! Thanks so much for taking a minute to visit my blog. Today I have a card for Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge.

 

     The goal of this week's challenge is to use at least four of the letters of the word 'flower' as a recipe for our cards. Here is what I came up with.

     F - Fancy Foliage and leaves die cuts from ODBD

     L - layers

     O - oval

     W - words from Earth Verses stamps collection from ODBD

     E - easel card

     R - rhinestones

     This easel-card was a fun card to make. I really enjoy making my own embellishments like I did here with the flower. And, I made color-matching 'diamonds' by coloring clear gemstones with one of my Copic markers.

     I created the other die cuts using Spellbinders dies that I recently won in a blog hop. Beautiful dies and they make me look so talented. 

     There is still time to join in on the fun. Check out all the details here: http://www.ourdailybreaddesignsblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/odbdslc202-f-l-o-w-e-r-word-challenge.html

Our Daily Bread Sketch Challenge ODBDSLC199

  

     I created this card for the weekly challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs. This week we had to use a sketch to make our cards. I began by making the stamped background on white cardstock using Paper Inspirations Floral Flourish stamp and seafoam pigment from ColorBox. I matted each layer with seafoam cardstock from DCWV's Home Spun Stack, then stamped the sentiment using Our Daily Bread's Friendship stamp collection.
     Thanks so much for taking time to visit my blog. It means so much to me. If you want to play with us, there is still a little time left. The deadline is Sunday the 27th at 8pm EST. Here's a copy of the sketch and the address where you can get all the details about playing.
http://www.ourdailybreaddesignsblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/odbdslc199-sketch.html

DCWV April Stack-a-holic Card Challenge

UPDATE: Just found out my card made the TOP-10! This really is my favorite challenge each month. I highly recommend joining in on all the fun. You can see the other TOP-10 here: http://dcwvinc.blogspot.com/2014/04/aprils-stackaholic-challenge-top-10s.html
 Thanks so much for stopping in. Hope you are having a fun day.

     Today, I have a card for the April Stack-a-holic challenge over at DCWV. I used The Coral Couture Stack to make my card. I just love the colors in it. It is one of my favorite stacks from them. I save every little scrap of it. And, a good thing too -- look at these tiny little flags. Scraps worked perfectly for this card.

     I created the flower-embellishment by fussy-cutting three of them from one of the pages in the stack. I layered them using foam tape to give the flower dimension and colored the center with a yellow marker.

     I love the sentiment too! I recently won a stamp collection (I Blank You A1S208) from Paper Smooches, and it has quickly become one of my favs.

     There is still plenty of time to get your own card in if you want to join in the fun. Here is the sketch and address where you can get all the rules and other details: http://dcwvinc.blogspot.com/2014/04/aprils-stackaholic-challenge.html