New Blog Blings from Nan!

Lookie what I have!! New blog-blings from Nan!

She sent me this one that she got from Jaye over at Just a Mom - how sweet it is! Pop over to both of these gals and tell them how cool they are, and how much you love them too! Oh! And you definitely need to go over to Nan's because she's having some AWESOME contests going on! This weeks is kinda'f a early Easter egg hunt - except with characters. You'll just have to go over and see what I'm talking about :o) And possibly win one of her awesome purses!





Nan also sent me another bloggy-bling... One that I'd sent over to her! I was quite tickled. Even though I technically already "have" it, it's nice to know that someone wants me to have it as well!


So, is anyone curious like Nan how this little cutie-thing was made? Well, I'll be more than glad to spill the beans on this little secret!

I'd seen so many cute little bitty things like this on others' blogs, and though I don't have many myself (hey what can I expect - only been blogging a few months!) I wanted to make one to pass along. Sure, I could have 'stolen' one from someone else's blog. But what fun would that have been?

So here's the scoop!

<-- Here's the original pic, taken just outside my front door after one of the winter storms we had. I loved it because of all the icicles and the ice on the tree. Didn't really care too much for the other distractions in the picture though... So, a cropping I did go!
<-- I knew this was the part of the picture I wanted to focus on making something fun out of. Then it was the 'fine tuning' on the cropping.
<-- Most 'awards' I have seen are square-ish, so that's what I went for here.

After that, I really noticed the sun's rays all streaming and colorful, and I had my inspiration!

If you notice in earlier pics, the sky has a lot of gray in it. I get the winter-blues sometimes, and gray skies never help... Just earlier this particular day, I was thinking about my blogger-friends - seriously! You all are from ALL around the country. Just because the weather is yuck & muck here, doesn't mean that it is everywhere! Seeing the sun a-shining, and thinking about the beautiful weather I hope others are having, I went to work on making this look how I feel inside when I read all your blogs.

I added the text first, then actually duplicated the image in Photoshop. That way I could make the butterflies only where I wanted them... Over the sky & overhang, under the sun, text, and much of the tree branches. Oh it was so much fun!

I'm already looking for inspiration to make another. So if you all have ideas or even pics of your own that you'd like me to turn into an award, let me know and I'll make one just for you! Love to you all and God Bless!