Dragonfly Mini Cards

Hello everyone!  Just a quick post to link up a set of mini cards I made.  I think they would make a nice gift for someone.  :-)

I used my ink splash stamp from Neat and Tangled and stamped on 4 white card bases.  I stamped different sentiments in black.  (Let's Celebrate by Neat and Tangled, Thank You by All Night Media and the other two by Fiskars).  I stamped my dragonfly (sorry, don't know who makes this) four times and coloured them in with my Spectrum Noir markers and added some dazzling diamonds (SU!)glitter to the wings.  I fussy cut them out and adhered them to my card.  Added some sequins (also from Neat and Tangled) and they were done!  :-)

I'm linking up to the following challenges:

Little Tangles - mini cards
Paper Crafting Challenges - no patterned paper
Keep it Simple! - Bright Sparks (bright colours and sparkly)
CAS on Sunday - Sparkle and Shimmer (use glitter)

Well, that's all for now.  Have a lovely day and thanks for visiting!

I See a Sheep, or a Goat, or a Donkey.....

Well, I'm thinking I'm the only completely crazy person out there that saw an animal when I first took a look at this weeks CAS(E) This Sketch challenge.

I'm serious.  I didn't realize it was flowers until I started looking at the DT's projects.  LMAO!  All I could see was a sheep or goat type animal.  I thought to myself, oh how cute and different!  I think the hamster in my head is starved of oxygen or something.  :-). But rather than going along with the flowers I decided to just throw all caution to the wind and create a card based on what I first saw!  I decided to go with a sheep.     :-). Now, CAS(E) This Sketch has teamed up with the Runway Inspired Challenge where they look to fashion for inspiration.  I've followed the blog for some time but this is my first time playing.  Anyway, here's what I made.

You see it don't you?  Please tell me you do!  LOL.  Obviously, I took a few little liberties with the flower part and made it my sheep's head.  The bow is where the little flower would be.  :-). I liked the orange and black patterns and found some paper that reminded me of them.  It's hard to see but the black flourish is flocked.  I hand cut the half circle part.  I tried to emphasize the orange with the bow.  I didn't have any orange ribbon so I coloured some white with an alcohol marker.  Then stamped and embossed in white my sentiment (Fiskars).  I just hand drew the sheep's face.  This is being sent to my Mom to give to her friend who loves sheep.  :-).  I think it turned out rather cute.

I have some new followers to welcome today!  First up is, Shirley, from  Card Art, Etc.  She's been blogging for quite some time and a wonderful card artist.  Next is, Nonni, from Korttikarkuri-Runaway Cards, who has been blogging for a long while too and is well worth checking out!  I'm pretty sure she's my first follower from Finland too!  How cool is that?!  I'm constantly amazed by how this crafty community can bring together so many people all over the world.  It's fantastic!  Anyway, welcome to my blog, Shirley and Nonni.  I hope you enjoy your visits.

Well, that's all for now.  Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Thanks Teacher

It's a bit early yet for end of the year teacher cards but STAMPlorations had a great sketch challenge and this idea popped into my head sooooo....  Here's the sketch.

Great one, isn't it?  Anyway here's my card now.

I am very pleased with how this turned out.  I started with my black card base and took some actual ruled paper out of a book keeping the torn edges and cut it according to the sketch.  I added my A+ using some glitter letter stickers (Recollections).  I hand wrote the sentiment using a white charcoal pencil. It's looks like chalk!  :-). Then I added the apple which came from a 3D sticker set by Sandylion, I think.  I think my sons teacher will like this.  :-)

I'm also going to link up to the Moxie Fab World's new challenge, Hip on Handwriting Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

Thanks for visiting today and hope you all have a marvelous day!

A Trio of Christmas Challenges

So, I have a card today that was made with three Christmas challenges in mind.  Jingle Belles has an Earth Day theme where you are asked to reuse something.  Here's Festive Friday's inspiration picture.

They get better every time!  :-). And Merry Monday wants you to use Slate, Kraft, a White or Cream.  I'm sneaking in under the wire with this one!  I've got a little bit of red and green in my card and I hope that's okay.

I cut out part of a old Christmas card for my main image.  I took a piece of slate card stock embossed it with a damask embossing folder (Sissix).  Then I took some white paint and a sponge and wiped over the raised image.  It reminds me of the mirror in the FF picture.  I attached my image to this panel and layered it on white and then a kraft card base.  I added the white bow and underneath what looks to be slate and white twiggy greenery but it's actually snowflakes.  Made by my new Martha Stewart punch.  :-).

As for my decision to switch to Wordpress, I think I'm going to stay where I am until they truly start to force the switch to google plus.  Then I'll make my decision.  I'm just to lazy to move right now!  LOL!

Hope you are all having a lovely Easter weekend.  Thanks for stopping by!

Blue Butterfly

Hello!  Today I have a card to share using a stencil and colouring with my alcohol markers.  I also, have a decision to make and hopefully, I can get some of your input.  I'll talk more about that later.  Today's card was brought to you by the letter S and the number 3.  LOL.  It really came about from the sketch challenge over at Inkspirational.

Fun sketch, right?  So I'm linking up again there as well as at Spectrum Noir's monthly challenge which is "anything goes" and at Addicted to Stamps and More who also have and "anything goes" challenge right now.  I'm going to link up to Virginia's View as well.  She's got a stencil challenge going on right now.  Anyway, here's my card...

First I took my white panel and using some washi tape I masked off my diagonal section.  I took my mini echoes stencil (The Crafters Workshop) and sponged gold ink (Color Box) making it lighter as I got further out.  I removed the washi tape and adhered this to my dark blue card base.  Then I printed off the butterfly (digi stamp from) and coloured it with my Spectrum Noir markers (TB1, TB3, TB6, BGR1, BGR3, True Black.  I fussy cut it out and then attached it to the card with a little bit off glossy accents just on the body part of the butterfly so I could bend the wings up a bit.  Then I drew in the antennae and added the iridescent bling.  When I first saw the sketch I immediately thought it reminded me of a butterfly.  :-).   I'm quite pleased with the results.  I love my Spectrum Noir markers.  So fun to colour with.  Need to get more of the ink refills as some of my markers are running dry!  Gasp!!  :-)

So, the decision I mentioned earlier.  I'm thinking of switching my blog from blogger to Wordpress.  I'm not liking the changes I've been hearing about recently.  Forcing everyone to switch to a google + which as I understand puts more of your info out there which I'm uncomfortable with.  People have been having issues with the google friend connect which apparently, has been happening with my blog too.  I don't really want to switch over but I'm thinking it may be best but I just don't know.  Maybe some of you more experienced bloggers may have some suggestions or advice?  I don't want make things difficult for my existing followers either.  Le sigh.  Anyway, it'll take me some time I think to make a decision.  :-)

Thanks for coming by and visiting.  Have a wonderful day!

Hoppy Easter

Hello again!  It's my second post for today and this time I've got an Easter card to share.

I was inspired by the weekly a sketch challenge going on right now at STAMPlorations.  I followed the sketch pretty closely this time.

I decided I wanted to make and Easter card using this sketch and what I wanted to do came to me suddenly one night when I was watching a show.  The show had nothing to do with Easter but as it often happens, when my brain relaxes (in other words, the hamsters having a snooze) ideas just pop into my head.  :-).   Anyway, I cut four squares and stated stamping.  I stamped my bunny in grey masking off the bottom part and stamped my grass.  The grass is a small section of a SU! stamp.  I sponged some more green overtop to fill it in.  I coloured my bunny with Spectrum Noir markers.  I then stamped my eggs on two of the squares masking off the bottoms as well.  I used some old Le Plume markers to colour my egg stamp in the two colours then stamped them.  I did the same grass technique and colored with my SN markers as well.  The last square has the same grass and then the sentiment (by Verve) stamped in black.  I adhered my polka dot strip (Dear Lizzy Neapolitan collection by American Crafts) and then attached my squares with some foam tape.

I'm also going to link this up to CAS-ual Fridays challenge which is "good egg", using ovals.  And linking to Addicted to Stamps and More where they have an inspiration picture.

Well, that's all for now.  Not sure when my next post will be as there's another call for submissions over at PaperCrafts mag and I'll be working on that for a bit.  I've got something picked up for publication the last three calls.  Going to see if I can make it four!  :-). Hope you all have a wonderful day and thanks for visiting!

Birthday Peony

Good morning!  Well, it's morning where I am.  :-).  I can't believe the lovely temperatures we've been having lately.  Lovely sunny days too.  Well, except for one day last week when we had about 30mm of rain.  However the rain and warmth has melted an incredible amount of snow!  Yay!  It doesn't look good for the river flooding though this year.  I'm not sure how it's not going to flood.  So much snow and river levels were high before the winter too.  Luckily, our house is not in the flood zone.  :-).

Anyway, I've got a card to share today that features a lovely large peony stamp.  It's a jumbo stamp by Stampendous.  I don't think it's still available though.  I looked on their site and couldn't find it.  It's too bad cause it's lovely.

So, I stamped and embossed the peony in black then used my Spectrum Noir markers (DR3 & GB5) to colour it in.  You might wonder why the colours seem a bit muted.  Well, it started out as a different idea that didn't pan out so I fussy cut the peony out to salvage it.  The paper the peony is on is a medium blue colour which muted the colours.  I like the effect though.  Anyway, once that was done I stamped my flourishes (Inkadinkado) in dove grey StazOn.  I added a butterfly in the same grey.  The butterfly stamp is a very old one.  It one of the first stamps I bought all those many years ago when this illness....*cough*, I mean, obsession....I mean, hobby, started.  ;-).  I still love that butterfly.  I stamped the sentiment (Fiskars) in black. The next and last step was to adhere the peony to the card.  I love the way the bold peony looks on the white with the soft grey.

I'm linking up to the following challenges:

STAMPlorations - the monthly challenge is stamping and your favourite technique.  Well, colouring is one of my top favs to do.  :-)
The Card Concept - they want you to add a butterfly.  My card could be considered Clean & Simple or Clean & Graphic I suppose, though I think the latter applies more.

Spectrum Noir Challenge - it's an "anything goes" challenge this month
Time Out Challenge - the theme is birthday with an optional twist of masculine.  I decided to opt out of the twist.  :-)

On a little bit different note, I'd like to welcome a new follower!  Her name is Patti and her blog is stationary Styles.  She's been blogging since 2008!!  She's a wonderful card artist and I recommend checking out her blog.  :-). Welcome Patti!

Well, I do have another card to share but that will another post a little later on today.  Until then have a lovely day!

True Friend

Hello!  It seems as if Spring has finally come to Jemseg, NB as there is more rain and sunshine.  Plus warmer temperatures!  Yay!  Unfortunately, with the amount of snow we still have and what has already melted it's making quite the mess in our yard.  We have a small lake.  A slushy, muddy lake.  We usually park in the back but we can't as we'll get stuck.  We've already gotten stuck twice in the past week.  So, it means walking down a little more than half the driveway to the car.  It's a long driveway.  I'm going to need to buy some rubber boots!  Oh well.  Better than snow and cold.  :-)

Anyway, the card I have to share today is one that came about due to the current Inkspirational challenge going on.  They are CASEing one of their DT members.  Her name is Sandie of London Days and she's quite the talented card artist.  She makes mostly CAS cards which appeal to me, of course.  :-). They are also having a Design Team call if you're interested.  So, here's the card that I chose to CASE of Sandie's.

And here's my card.

I used mostly Neat and Tangled stamps (ink splatter, circles, dots, banner).  The small tiny grouping of dots is from a snowflake set by a company called La Banquise.  As far as I can determine they are out of business.  Which is unfortunate.  I received two winter stamps sets as a prize and they are good quality and really very nice.  Oh well.  The sentiment is by Studio G.  First I stamped my banner on my white panel. Then I stamped and cut out the banner and used it as a mask.  Once I stamped all my elements, I splattered some black acrylic paint lightly then I removed my mask.  I stamped my sentiment and adhered my panel to my card base with foam dots.

I'm going to link up to Little Tangles challenge which is all about masking.  Also, linking up to CAS(E) This Sketch - just so happens that the sketch was ideal for my card.

I hope that this post finds you all busily crafting away!  Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day!

Road Trip - card #2

Well, I made another card with my own cobbled together subway art stamp.  This time I stamped in black and coloured in some of the images with my Spectrum Noir markers.  (BGR1, BGR3, DG2, DG3, DG4, TB1, TB3, DR3, CT2, CT4, EB1, blender.)

What do you think?  Do you like this card or card #1 better.  I like both myself but I am leaning towards card #2 more.  :-).  I'm not going to ramble on any more cause I've posted lots already today.  :-).

Linking up to the same challenges:

One Layer Simplicity Challenge - the theme is "road trip".
Addicted to CAS - code word is "wheels".  See those little campers?  They've got wheels!  Plus, who heard of a road trip without some sort of wheels?  :-)
Addicted to Stamps and More - it's their CAS card challenge this week.
Spectrum Noir challenge - it's anything goes this month.

Later gaters!  Have a great day!

Road Trip!

Who doesn't love a good road trip?!  My husband, son and I love taking road trips in the summer months even if it's just for the day.  It's so much fun!  That's why I just had to play along with this months challenge at One Layer Simplicity Challenge.  The theme is Road Trip!  And I have the PERFECT stamp set for it!

The subway art type image was made by combining a bunch of the small images and the sentiments  (yes, they are all individual stamps arranged on my acrylic block) from the set (by Inkadinkado).  I had to perform some surgery again on some of the stamps so it would work.  But like I mentioned before it really helps to make your clear stamps more versatile and it does get easier over time.  ;-).  I stamped in Versamark and embossed in clear.  Then I watercoloured overtop.

Also linking up to two other challenges:

Addicted to CAS - code word is "wheels".  See those little campers?  They've got wheels!  Plus, who heard of a road trip without some sort of wheels?  :-)
Addicted to Stamps and More - it's their CAS card challenge this week.  Right up my alley!
Less is More - it's their "lucky dip challenge" and the theme is "round and round".  Well, wheels go round when you're on the road, right?  Perhaps, I'm reaching but I like it!  ;-)

I have more cards to share but in another post.  Thanks for visiting and hope you have an awesome day!

Fun With Stencils

So, I'm joining in on the fun I've been seeing everywhere and going to try using stencils.  I remember stenciling years ago when it was popular for home decor.  In fact, my parents house has some of my stenciling work still.  I did a small stenciled scene that I'm still rather proud of.  :-). Anyway, I won some stencils recently and finally decided to play with them.

I took my stencil (The Crafter's Workshop/Balzer Designs) and sponged some aqua, canary, and midnight inks (Color Box) overtop.  Then I die cut my " happy" with my Slice and adhered it onto my panel.  Then I stamped my "birthday" (part of a sentiment by Scappy Cat) underneath.  I added some sequins (Neat and Tangled) and then adhered my panel with foam dots to my card base.  Love the stenciled look of those diamonds.  I will definitely be trying some more stenciling soon!

Going to link up to the following challenges:

Virginia's View - it's her second challenge going on right now and stenciling is what she wants you to try!  Come join the fun!  (Virginia is awesome by the way). :-)
Moxie Fab World - Teri has challenged us to try stenciling too!
Keep it Simple! - it's a stencil theme for them too!

Well, I'm off to do some more crafty fun!  Thanks for visiting and hope you have a fantastic day!

Festive Friday #28

So, despite my complete loathing of winter and snow at this point, I'm still enjoying making Christmas cards.  Thanks largely to my favourite Christmas card challenge blog, Festive Friday.  This year I tasked myself with participating in every single one of their challenges.  Last year I missed out on three, I believe.  This year I'm doing well so far.  :-).  I'd totally recommend doing at least one of the many Christmas card challenges out there as by the end of the year you've got all your Christmas cards made and there's no rush or stress to get them done.  :-)

Anyway, onto the card!  FF had a lovely inspiration photo this week (when haven't they though, really?).

I love this jar with the lace and twine, pine boughs and pinecones.  Unfortunately, I don't have a pinecone stamp.  Well, I have a couple that have a few pinecones in it but not just a pinecone.  Really need to get one I think.  :-).  Here's what I came up with.

I ran with the lace and the pine boughs mostly.  I used my big medallion stamp from SU!  And stamped with my StazOn white ink on some kraft paper.  I added some pine boughs (Inkadinkado) in forest green StazOn then put a strip of white with a lacy cut edge overtop.  I stamped my sentiment (Hero Arts) in jet black StazOn then added my red snowflake ribbon bow.  I adhered this on a white card base with foam dots.  I really like how this turned out but I think I need to invest in some better white ink.  The StazOn is really better for those slicker, non porous surfaces, like glass and metal.  Anyone have any recommendations?

I'm going to link this up to Christmas Stampin' All Year Long's challenge too.  They want die cuts and ribbon this time round.

Well, I hope I've inspired you to join in and make some Christmas cards ahead of time.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Sweet Baby

Well, today I have a card to share that is a good example of complicated paper piecing.  Normally, when I paper piece, I keep it pretty simple but this one was ambitious for me.  I love the image and thought it would look cute paper pieced.  Anyway, here's the card...

So, the animal image is a digital one by Eureka Stamps.  All the patterned papers are by American Crafts from Dear Lizzy's Neapolitan collection.  The jute twine is by Darice.  I used my Slice to cut the words out.   I think it turned out pretty cute.  Not sure who I will end up giving it to as most of my friends are done with babies but you never know.  :-).

I'm linking up to the following challenges:

Curtain Call - obviously I was inspired to make a baby card.  ;-)

The Paper Players - it's a tic tac toe this week.  It's been far to long since I've played along.  I chose paper piecing, patterned paper and twine/ribbon.

In other news, we are starting to do some demolition on our house this month.  We live in a very old farmhouse (over 100 years old) and it has no insulation.  As a result, winters are COLD!  The living room is particularity bad as it's kind of cut off a bit from the heat of the wood stove in the kitchen area.  There's also a little room off the living room that is our son's playroom.  No sure what it was originally intended for as it's pretty small but perhaps it was added on later as another bedroom.  So, we started in this small room by tearing the ceiling and walls down.  We weren't going to start until it warmed up a bit but we weren't given a choice as a few days ago part of the plaster ceiling collapsed.  Thank goodness no one was in there at the time.  Needless to say it made a royal mess!  I spent days cleaning it up.  I still have a bin of my son's toys to clean off.  Anyway, we cleared out the room and sealed it off.  My husband started to tear it down but didn't get too far.  All plaster and lathe and he needs some of his tools charged up.  He'll continue this weekend.  Eventually, we will insulate and drywall and move onto the living room.  It'll be nice to have a warmer room.  : -).

On a different note, I decided to check out my feed burner info and see if I had any more email followers.  And to my surprise and pleasure, I do!  Unfortunately, I can't welcome you all by name but I'm sure you know who you are.  ;-).  So, for the five people who recently signed up, WELCOME!  I'm honored and happy you decided to follow along.  :-)

Well, that is all for now.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!