Guess who's Back?

Hello Everyone,

So it has been a while since my last post and so much has changed...

Well for one, I have officially gone pro as a figure skater. I loved every minute of competition and am so grateful for all the opportunities I received as a double gold medalist. However, I recently got married in 2015 and the distance from my hubby was grueling and I gave my Olympic one last shot but unfortunately due to financial collapse lost my sponsorship and was not able to compete as needed. Anyway .... If I can be completely honest I moved back to Florida with my husband and fell into a dark depression =( I couldn't wrap my head around everything that had happened and the feeling of deep loss I had realizing my intense 6 years of training away from family didn't have a happy ending in fact it had a tragic ending. I was angry at everything and everyone and I didn't want to be creative or share my talents any longer. Fortunately, I did find comfort in drawing a skill I never really explored but always had a love for as my grandpa was a local artist and brilliant. He passed away a few years ago but I discovered in my time of mourning that his gift lived in me as well. So for the past year I have been drawing a lot and it has really helped heal my soul and refresh my creative mojo... Here are some of my latest drawings and an updated selfie, If you like my art you can follow me at https://www.instagram.com/happylittleartspace/ 

Okay so yea this is my art ... now on to even bigger news! This November my husband and I learned that we are expecting our first little bundle of joy!!!!!! A little boy this July 2018!!!!! This news gave my life renewed purpose and and ever since then I have felt overwhelming joy. I have always wanted to be a mom and have my own little family and it is safe to say I am beyond ecstatic ! With that little bit of news I have found myself truly happy again and card making has been calling my name again! I am so excited to share my passion with you all once again and my journey into motherhood! Happy Crafting Everyone and so good to be back!

Hey Blog friends ,
Ashley here with another post! I have really been missing my posts these days. Skating has been going great and it seems the better it goes the less free time I have. Also, I got a new job this week so that keeps me busy too. Anyway I found a few extra hours for crafting because unfortunately I got a high ankle sprain while training off ice last week... at first I was devastated, but honestly I just had to give it all to God and have faith that it would all be okay and sure enough less than a week and a half later I am almost 70% healed and looking forward to jumping around on the ice next week. Okay well less about me more about crafting, after all thats what this blog is all about! But hey I figured I love reading about my fellow bloggers and whats new maybe some of you would all be curious as to why I disappeared yet again *eek* Okay well without further ado... This card was made for the Polka Doodles Ribbon and lace challenge! I don't know about you all but ribbon and lace are two of my favorite things ! Im pretty sure I use ribbons in 80% of my cards... I just love bows ! "I love big Bows and I can not lie" haha  Anyway Polka Doodles has some new fabulous Work and Play digi collections, and I am obsessed with the WP9. I am such a girly girl that looking at the adorable princess and carriage in the collection made me squeal with delight. So when making this card I just knew I would be making an extremely girly card, and let me say my mind went into hyperdrive! I have never felt so happy nor creative when making a card as I was making this little beauty. When I finished I was like WOW did I just make this? I think it may just be my absolute favorite card of all time that I have made. I wish I had a little girl in my family or someone as girly as I to give it to... Who am I kidding I'm keeping this for myself *hehe. Okay well I hope you all love it as much as I do. Hus*Ashley

Fun Challenges

Hi guys ! Okay so I am really excited for this card because its so bright and I truly love how it came out ! For starters I made it for 2 challenges the Runway Inspired Challenge(Colors and stripes)  and the Fusion Card Challenge (layout and stars)

 

At first when I saw the primary colors of the runway design I shrieked and not from happiness hahaha but lets be serious how many gorgeous cards have you seen using primary colors? But then I thought of how I have been wanting to try the water color technique and create my own paper and then my idea took flight! I must say when I added the sparkly black tape I was so surprised it really just made the colors POP even more than they did on their own! Okay well then I was looking for a good design and found the Fusion Card Challenges current challenge and those stars just spoke to me and I tried to stay true to the primary colors... I must say its my favorite card that I have made in a while ! I hope you guys like it too, and your not reading this thinking I am bonkers lol Well, I hope everyone is having a great Winter and finding lots of bargains for this Christmas Season! I actually just recently decorated the bedroom area of my Bedroom/Craftroom lol I'll share that below =)

~* Hugs Ashley *~

Its a Secret Santa Blog Hop !

It is official today the DT on Polka Doodles Challenges have all become a "Secret Santa" and we each received a secret message from Santa . Guess who Santa wanted me to make a project for .... whoops, can't tell you but see if you can guess from the clues ...

1]  She has the cutest Grandchildren

2] She has an adorable Pooch

3] She is on Team B

Please put your idea of whom you think my "secret Santa" is for in the comments section at the bottom of my post. One lucky winner will receive a digi image over and above the normal challenge prize. A random DT blog will be chosen and then a commentator from that blog will then be picked as the winner of a fab Polka Doodles digi image. So don't forget to visit all the DT and see if you can guess who has made for whom to be in with a chance to win. All the details you need are on the main Polka Doodles challenge blog. You have up to Thursday 18th December (midnight GMT) to enter and the winners will be announced on Friday 19th December (GMT).

Hello and Goodmorning Blogland !
Today I have a CAS (clean and simple) card for the Polka Doodles Challenge Using the CAS(E) challenge layout!
 As you can see from previous posts I just absolutely adore the festive HollyBob collection! If you are looking for a great Christmas lot this is the one for you! I think what I love most is the versatility. The lot is not only traditional but also has very modern elements as well. For this card I took the make it yourself bow template and opened it up in Paint. By opening it up in paint I was able to modify the size of the bow and so I copied and paste it each time resizing it to 80% of the original size! By doing this I was able to create a tree =) But no tree is complete without a stem and start which I printed from the Christmas tree in the collection and VUALA just like that a new Christmas tree appeared ! I hope you all enjoy it if you have any questions feel free to ask and I will get back to you =)
Much hugs! Oh and on a side note .... Thanksgiving is officially less than a week away! Yayyyy my folks are coming to visit me on Tuesday so I am definitely giddy and excited to spend quality time with them and stuff my face with amazing food. . . Oh wait I'm cooking .... lets cross our fingers on that last statement hahaha! So what are your Thanksgiving plans ?

Okay so Thanksgiving is around the corner and that means one thing: Family FUn.... but it also means that CHRISTMAS is just around the corner! Now for those of you who know me it comes as no surprise that this excites me! I am telling you I am part ELF! I love candy, candycanes, candycorn, syrup and sugar (hahaha) but seriously I love Christmas music, the gorgeous Christmas decorations and I do not discriminate. I love all themes of Christmas decor inlcluding but not limited to: traditional red green gold and white, blue and silver, white and pink etc... Ever since I was a child I have just loved loved loved Christmas and not for the gifts I always have enjoyed buying others and giving out gifts over receiving them but don't get me wrong I like that too haha but Christmas always meant church caroling , time with family and just an overall Cheerful time of year. Anyway I say these things because I have a feeling that most of my cards through Christmas will be of a Christmas theme! So bare with me friends =)

Okay so I made this card for the Polka Doodles CAS challenge ! Now I must warn you CAS scares me ! I do love the simplicity of it all, but opposed to what you might think just because something is simple doesnt mean it easy to make..well make yes, but not to create... I have a very hard time with open white space I feel like its so limiting but it is also amazing! Okay well let me stop rambling, look at this beauty, I am so proud that I was able to do CAS. I used all Polka Doodle products from the  Work & Play 5 Festive Hollybobs collection 
I can not stress this enough, if you do not have this CD you NEED it! IT has the absolute best digi  images of the season!

             

Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat =)

Hey there everyone! So I realize that it has been several months since I last posted. I have been training really hard and competing ! Woohoo....Anyway I have a few months free of competition, and so I will be posting regularly through Mid January. Well as most of you know I am on the DT of Polka Doodles! They are an amazing card making & Scrapbooking stamps, digital image downloads and CD-ROM based company. If you haven't played with their products your are truly missing out, so definitely head on over to the store. For this challenge the theme is RECYCLE  it... I decided to make use of an extra wedding invitation print out and not waste paper. I was rather  simple bc I wanted to recycle all my old scraps and papers so for my card I only used scraps and printed on old wedding invites =) I used the amazing Work & Play 5 Festive Hollybobs collection for the main image as well as the background paper and North Pole embellie. What's so great about the collection is all the amazing images work well with one another or as a stand alone image! So head on over to the store you don't want to miss out on these adorable images for this Christmas and Holiday season! For my card, I wanted to really make it POP! so I added lots and lots of layers, glitter, snow, and made my own icy rink using glue and copics! I hope you enjoy it .

                                  HUGS 

                                             

Two for One =)

Hi friends,
Well today I want to share with you a card I made for two challenge...but before I do so I want to just chat a little. I am literally freezing right about now I live in New York (long island) and we have had such brutal waves of winter vortex weather....today it was 4 degrees.... I hope you all faring well! For me its not just the weather but since I figure skate the rink is SUb-Arctic, which makes it difficult to warm up properly ... Oh and get this the house heater in my room DIED! so my room is literally showing on the thermostat to be 57 degrees!!!!!!!! Oh and as the snow melted we discovered a leak... I was devastated, right before christmas I had purchased some new papers etc from two peas in a bucket... and just the other night took them out to finally play... I made tons of cards and tags and then yesterday morning I sat on my desk and had a mini heart attack.. ALLLL of my papers were destroyed my entire DESK was flooded ! Everything was ruined... I was so sad (still am) I hardly ever get to buy new goodies and then just like that they were destroyed ! Blahh... well I am not the negative kind I like to see the glass as half full and so I figured it was the only way I would ever clean my desk up Hahaha...so I cleaned the mess and then decided to get crafting again... Sooooo I hopped on over to some of my favorite challenges scoped them out and decided to partake in the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge
 and the Runway Inspired Challenge 
I loved the colors in the Runway challenge and was having a hard time coming up with a theme... So thats when I had my aha moment to combine it with the Curtain Calls love letter theme... I do love valentines day but I am not a fan of pink and red together and the typical "valentines day colors" so I was smitten and on a mission... You know sometimes I have a vision in my head but it just doesnt come out the way I planned it but this card actually fulfilled my little vision =) ... Im trying really hard to edit my photos a little more bc I am sick of looking at terrible pictures... this is okay =) I hope you like it... Send me a comment I love connecting with you guys and making new friends. I took a break from blogging for a little while and I feel like I lost my connection with lots of you and so many more are new to me so drop me a little hello and I will definitely respond =) Hugs have a wonderful day ITS ALMOST FRIDAY!

A few more challenges...why am I awake? haha

Hi friends... Okay so it is 11 pm over her in New York... I guess its not that late but when your a training athlete sleep seems to be a priceless commodity. However, this fine night I find myself WIDE EYED ... so I decided to blog some cards I made for a few challenges.... Lately I have been down about the way I capture my cards...they never come out good =( But I discovered a go to spot (my bathroom) hahaha...Now I know know I get it your probably thinking "ewe artificial lighting" but somehow it works ! I have no clue how or why but I am finally getting semi decent lighting for my pics... Oh and I am sure they would be a lot better if they weren't snapped using my phone but it is what it is.. I am broke and cant afford a camera so the phone it is =) .

So today is 1/21 and Im sneaking this card in to my original post... its for 2 CHallenges the CAS*Ology (Contrast) and the Case Study   Hope you like it ... I love the vibrant colors its tons of fun... I think I'M keeping it to give to me cousin on her 15th birthday, its right up her ally of fun and crazy!

Okay so the first card that I made was for the Case Study 174 challenge...lately I find that my card style has changed and I really enjoy creating smaller more contemporary cards I guess you could say this Hello card would fit into that category, its kind of edgy and girly I really am pleased with how it came out especially since I was able to use my pretty new stamps which was part of the fun over at a blog named hero... they are doing a random raffle to Simon says stamp just for playing with new Christmas goodies... as sad as this is ... my new item was the black paper hahaha I was low.. and funds are tight so I had to use my Newest stamp set (2 months old) and my new black paper =) =) =)

My second card was creating using the Unico studio card challengeI used their lovely template to create a cool Ombre butterfly card... I had added glitter to the butterflies but it didn't stick =( ... but its still pretty.

Okay well I hope you have enjoyed my little "almost midnight" blog post and I would love to hear from you guys...

Card Concept Challenge#1

Hey there friends,
Well this past Winter Break was amazing and long... but I am finally back in my craft room! So since I have been back I have been doing a lot of Blog surfing, I guess you could say I felt out of the loop since it has been a few months since I have browsed the blog world, well as I was surfing I came across a new challenge site! Its called The Card Concept. I really love the idea, basically you are given a color scheme and then you have free range to create a card in one of  6 style themes. They have an awesome design team whose inspiration cards are so JUICY! I love them !!!! Well... after seeing all the cards I decided to go for a Shabby Chic style ... I think it has literally been years since I have made a shabby chic card... well that is: it feels like years. I just felt like that colors were very romantic and screamed flowers and Butterflies. So I gave it a whirl and this is what I came up with: Anyway you should check out their challenge it seems like its going to be an epic challenge blog! 

I used : Stamps- Paper trey ink (Love Birds)  Paper-ColorBok (vintage rose punch out pack) Flowers-Dollar store large flower (I inked and glittered it) smaller flower(recollections-I added ink) 

Craft Dashing

Wow,
I said I wouldn't let this happen again... and it happened *hangs head low* I am so sorry I have once again gone missing in action. I have been really busy training... and recovering....and there always seems to be something going on... Not to mention the holidays have snuck up on me! Is it me or did Thanksgiving seem just like yesterday and does Christmas feel like its tomorrow !? I am excited because in just 9 days I get to go back home and spend time with my family, the only down side is that I will be off my training routine and I finally feel like I have come to a good place... Optimism that is going to be my new favorite word... Speaking of... that reminded me of New Year resolutions.... DO you guys have any yet?

 I think this year my resolution is to be more self loving. I know that might sound strange but I struggle with confidence (just admitting this is hard) I feel like I want to believe in myself more... believe that I can accomplish what I set my mind to ... that I am capable... and that I can make a change. I also want to be more pro-active... I always want to volunteer and step out in to the community but am too afraid to do things alone... In Florida I always had my friends and family and while I have family here too it is is hard... very hard to find the courage to do things alone.. I have started volunteering at an animal shelter I loved it ... I just had to take a break because I got a knee injury and cant stand and walk for too long.. Anyway I need to stop ranting I just thought I would share with you all a little part of me ! What are your resolutions for this wonderful new year?

 Oh and here of course is my card for the Craft dash.. I was so saddened to read that they are taking a little break through February before they return ... or not... I just hope its a temporary one because I truly love these quick little challenges, and there are some amazing women on the team that inspire me soo much! I will admit this was the hardest challenge for me EVER! I think I am allergic to red and yellow being together it reminds me of ketchup and mustard on a hot dog... Although all the designers made it look so beautiful and it just WORKED , well I doubted my ability but I did surprise myself a little bit... I actually like how it came out and I hope you do too... the best part was it only took me 9:48 seconds to make... Just in the Nick of time !

Thanks for stopping by =) 

Moxie fab tuesday trigger

Hello Friends,

Well Im up and at it again *late .... I guess I just feel the most creative late at night.... well tonight I found an awesome or should I say scrumptious Tuesday trigger over at 

MOXIE FAb WORLD! Anyway I truly do love Ombre styled ANYTHING from hair to cakes... ombre is Awesome and so I just couldn't pass up on the chance to create a super cute card. I really like how subtle the ombre is on the card... I think this might be a favorite of mine... 1) because it has ombre and 2) because I used my absolute favorite color combo of "pink, teal, and green"  Okay well here it is , I hope you like it =)

 Hugs

 ~Ashley~

Craft dash 24

Hello friends,
Ashley here again with another craft dash challenge. I just love these challenges don't you ? Paulina and the whole design team are so sweet and have such gr8 taste. This challenge was unique for me as I don't think I have made a card using the given color pallet of light orange, rose pink and a cornflower blue.

 At first I almost didn't want to join bc those colors intimidated me, but then again since when do I back down from a challenge? Well I decided to go with some flowers and had to use my new mama elephant stamp set .... I must say its amazing how creativity is sparked when you have a time constraint.... well I also decided to document it ....   lately I love video taping my projects but I realized that the quality is terrible. So I called in some back up and the lovely Laura Sterckx helped me out.  I am such a newbie and didn't realize that I had to make adjustments with a video editor. Well the good news is I found an editor that was easy to use ....the bad news is it made vep files which can't be shown on YouTube or Blogger. ... so I had to look for another. ...which didn't allow me to mute some of the video....the search lasted 3 days partially because I came down with a major case of get this bronchitis AND sinusitis. .. so I have been in bed most of the day...and for those that follow my skating that means no skating either :( 

Anywhoooo finally yesterday I found an editing program that I really do love**** and was able to fix up my little video...now the quality is terrible but I'm hopefully getting a new camera soon , and some much needed natural light lamps.  But hey its a start and I'm sure it will only get better , so check it out on youtube :)

Hugsss Ashley

   

     

   

   

Quick dash for boys

Hello Blog friends, it's Ashley and I cant wait to share this post with you... I am so happy today, I was able to resume my ballet classes after my one month hiatus, this means that since my back tolerated it this coming monday I will be back on the ice! Well not jumping but at least stroking around and building up my endurance *** Wahoo*** ... Okay but enough about that let's get to what you all want lol the CARDS okay well today it's all about Quick Boy cards. Lately I have heard alot of friends tell me they lack Creative MOJO when it comes to designing masculine cards especially for boys. I think I initially felt the same way but recently I have absolutely loved making youthful boy cards. in fact just the other day I purchased a stamp set just for one stamp it contained ( a sneaker ) haha ... anyway I made a video for you guys ... me  making the card shown here for the 10 minute craft dash.. it took me around 9 minutes and change ...  I really love these challenges especially right now because I am not supposed to be sitting for long periods of time... okay well take a look at my video if you have the time and want to lol It has another card in there that I have not posted on my blog yet =) =)
Watch my Youtube Video here