Holiday Projects

Hello again my dear friends,

As I believe I have mentioned before, I love to do needlework. And, I am a very avid gardener. I can only stand by the windows gazing out at what will be the garden next Spring since we are under a foot or so of snow here in Ontario. However, I can have some blossom indoors, namely Amaryllis. I just love these flowers. I only wish they would last longer. Here is a lovely example which I have had for several years now, named Maria Goretti. Just beautiful.

Also I have a couple of photos of some of my needlework. I did stockings for DH and myself a few years ago.

And finally finished an angel pillow that had been on the go for a while. To me, Christmas must have lots of Angels.

Thanks so very much for visiting. Do come back soon. Cheers.


 

Papertrey Make it Monday #193

Greetings my dear blog friends,

Gosh, I have been absent for a long while and I am sorry about that. Like a lot of people we are getting ready for Christmas which of course means getting out all the decorations and thinking about menus, all the stuff that I just love. This is absolutely my favourite time of the year.

I have a card for you today which is for the  PapertreyInk Make it Monday Challenge #193 which is Camouflaged Diecuts.

My card is made using a rustic creamy cardstock with a dark red matt layer. I used the Papertrey stamp sets Wonderful Words: Holiday and Love Lives Here: Holiday and the die that coordinates with Wonderful words.

I stamped the everygreen boughs along the bottom of the card and a wee bit at the top, dangled the hearts and stamped on the sentiment, then cut out the word "holiday" and layered it to create the raised image.

Thanks so much for visiting today. I will be back a bit later with a different sort of holiday inspiration. Cheers.

For a Friend

A wonderful good evening to you all.

I was asked by a friend of mine to make a card for a friend of hers who is turning 80. The only thing she asked was that there be flowers and the colour blue.

Well, never being one to turn away from a challenge, I immediately decided upon using my brand spanking new JustRite stamp set called Sweet Posies. I had blue flowers in mind, you see. :)

I stamped the focal image with Versamark ink on vellum and embossed with Bright White detail powder. I then coloured the image with Tombow markers and sponged a very little bit of Memento  blue ink around the image.

I cut out the image and the dies behind it with Spellbinders. I also used Spellbinders to cut out the sentiment.

The card is a soft blue with a piece of  PP added, then a BLUE ribbon and a pretty bow. I added the vellum butterfly as it seemed to need just a little something and a single pearl rounds things out nicely.

Thanks so very much for visiting. Please do leave me your comments as I so enjoy reading them. Have a wonderful evening. Cheers.

Happy Thanksgiving

Although I am still unable to get into my studio to work because of the drum kit sitting in there, I wanted to post today anyway to wish all my American friends a very Happy Thanksgiving. Although there are horrible things happening in this world of ours I think that we can all find something that we can be truly thankful for.

I wish you all a wonderful holiday. Eats lots of turkey. :)

Hopefully I will be back by the end of the weekend with something to show you. Cheers.

NOT a good thing

A very good evening to all of you.

My goodness but we are having a blustery night tonight. The wind is howling and all the trees are bending and flapping around out there. And it is raining, coming down in sheets.

I wanted to let you all know that I will not be posting any new work for a few days. We are in the process or selling a set of drums and, alas, they are set up in my studio. Yes sir, right smack dab in the middle of the room. I can barely walk around them, much less work in there.

They will only be there for a few days, I sincerely hope, and then life will be back to normal again. I really really hope.

Stay with me, I will be back soon. Fingers crossed. Here is a shot of my room. Ugh!!!

 

Power Poppy Peep of the Week

Hello again by dear blog friends.

My second card tonight is using Power Poppy peonies. Beautiful image and such fun to use. I coloured it very subtly with Copics to suggest white peonies with a tiny bit of pink at the heart. I have ones just like this growing in my garden. I fussy cut out the image and then added it to some Spellbinders layers on a pale pink card base. A perfect card for a friend of mine who will be having a birthday quite soon. A nice pink bow to finish off.

 

That is all from me for tonight. I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend and hope to see you here again very soon. Cheers. :)

Autumn card with Justrite stamps

Good evening to you all. I hope that the "autumn" weather is starting to improve wherever you live. It was warmer here today and maybe rain tomorrow to wash away all this snow. Autumn is not over yet and it is my favourite season so I would like to have a bit more of it for a while.

And speaking of autumn. I have an autumnal card for you tonight. The focal image is from JustRite stamps, the new Oak leaves. I stamped it on ecru vellum with Versamark ink and embossed with Black detail powder. I used Copics to colour the image on the reverse side with a tiny bit of touch up on the front side. Embossing can damage your Copic marker tips so you must be quite careful with this.

The paper is from Bo Bunny "Apple Cider Dot" and Authentique "Glowing". I used Spellbinders "On the Edge", "Petite Ovals and Scalloped" and the "Fancy Framed Tags Two" dies for this project. A bit of twine and a button to finish off.

Thanks for visiting with me. I will have another post shortly so stay tuned.... :)

A little bit of Needlework

Good evening my dear blog friends.

We are getting some real winter weather here in eastern Ontario with snow and lots of wicked winds but nothing like all those poor people in Buffalo. Oh my goodness but my heart goes out to all of them with the amount of snow that they are having to deal with. We can only pray that this all ends quickly for them.

I do not have a card, or in fact any kind of a paper project for you tonight. I have another love besides paper crafting and it is embroidery. I first learned how to do embroidery when I was only 5 years old. I was taught by my grandfather, yes, grandfather. He was amazing and he taught all of the girls in the family, at least any of us who wanted to learn. It is something that I have loved all of my life.

I have a couple of pictures for you of my most recent projects. I particularly like the art work of Marjolein Bastin and a lot of her work has been worked up for cross stitch. Both of these projects are her patterns. I have had them framed and plan to hang them in my studio.

 

Thanks so much for visiting. I will be back at the card making very shortly. Have a great evening. Cheers. :)

 
 

Let it Snow ...

A very fine good Monday morning to you all. We awoke this morning to a magical winter wonderland here in eastern Ontario. I just love the fairytale quality that a fluffy dusting of snow on everything can make. Here are a few pictures I took through the windows looking out towards our kitchen garden and around the house. I just love it.

Thanks so much for visiting today. I will be back a bit later with another post. Cheers. :)
 

Happy Birthday Dad

A very fine good Sunday morning to you all. Where I live in eastern Ontario, it is snowing . The landscape is slowly taking on a white blanket of the fluffy white stuff and it looks so calm and peaceful. My husband, who is an avid skier, is delighted. :)

I have a very simple card for you today that I made for my dear Father-In-Law who will be having a birthday quite soon. He is going to be 84. He is a no nonsense sort of fella so I knew that his card would need to be CAS, no muss, no fuss.

I have used an image from the JustRite stamp set called Going Places Vintage Labels. I coloured it up quite simply with copics (sorry, I forgot to note which ones I used) and cut out the image with the coordinating die from JustRite. 

The card is a white cardstock base, I added two pieces of pattern paper from my scrap file ( you must know by now how much I love to use up those scraps) and I added a wide gros grain ribbon, cut simply on a diagonal. One little red button to pick up for red in the image which I added on pop dots. I added a sentiment  at the bottom which is from PapertreyInk Boutique Borders Father which I stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

Thank you for sharing a few minutes of your Sunday with me. I hope you have a grand day. Cheers. :)

Waltzing Mouse PJ Party #4

A fine good evening to you all who have stuck with me for all these challenges. This is the last one, #4 and the card is based on a sketch that Claire had on her blog. Very simple in design and I felt that it needed to be a Christmas Card based on the way she had drawn it.

Alas, I do not own any Waltzing Mouse Christmas stamps yet so I had to use one from another company, namely PapertreyInk. The stamp set for the sentiment is Think Big Favorites #20.

I started with a simple white card base and added a blue layer of cardstock which I cut with Spellbinders Petite Ovals die to make the opening for the sentiment which I stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black. After that, I simply added many snowflakes cut with Spellbinders Create-A-Flake Three and Five. After glueing them on, I added more glue to them and then went mad with the glitter so it was nice and sparkly like good snowflakes should be. I added a single blue crystal under the word Christmas but I am sorry it does not show all that well in the photo. There I go taking pictures at night again. Bad girl.

Well, that is it for me for tonight. Thanks so much for stopping by to visit. Hope you have a great evening. Cheers. :)

Waltzing Mouse PJ Party #2

And I am back with challenge #2. This was to make either gift wrap or a bag or similar and make it look "cozy". So, I decided on gingham as I think that can look cozy. I used that to cover the lid of a small box and then added some great vanilla coloured heavy ribbon in a nice bow. I added a couple of candy canes and a gingerbread man die cuts from K & Company to add an extra bit of suitable coziness. I think it reminds me of a cup of hot chocolate and a plate of Christmas cookies. Challenge #3 coming right up. Cheers. :)
 

Waltzing Mouse PJ Party - #1

 Greetings my dear blog friends. I am participating for the first time in the Waltzing Mouse PJ party. This involves 4 separate challenges, and this is the first one which was to make a tag in the Scandi style. I chose to use Sizzix dies for the shape of the tag and cut out one in white and a larger one in red.

I used the Waltzing Mouse stamp sets Folk Art Medallion and Fork Art Labels #25 and kept it pretty clean and simple as you can see. I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink for the "To and From" and Vivid Dye ink by Clearsnap in Hot Red for the rest as it most closely matched my red cardstock. A bit of red ribbon tied on and it was done. Stay tuned for challenge #2. Cheers.
 

Mojo Monday 371/Power Poppy

Greetings to all my blog friends. I have a card for you today which is for the Mojo Monday sketch challenge #371. Here is the sketch. I will also be sending it to the Power Poppy Peep of the week challenge.

 

I have used the Power Poppy stamp set called Poinsettia. I chose to use the stocking image which is so cute.

 

I started with a white card base and all the pattern papers that I layered on are from Graphic 45 Twas the Night Before Christmas paper collection.

 

 

I coloured the stocking image with Copics, colours are shown below and popped up the image on a white oval over a red oval cut with Spellbinders Classic Ovals dies. I added a piece of green ribbon with a narrow border of lace for an accent.

As always, thank you so much for visiting and many thanks for all your encouragement. Cheers :)

PTI Make it Monday Challenge

A very good evening to you all. Tonight I have a tag, or even possibly an ornament for you for the PapertreyInk Make it Monday challenge ... which was to make a project with an Ombre background effect on it.

Now, I do not have any of the wonderful PTI background stamps that would work well with that technique but I thought, what the heck, I can achieve the same result with words.

I have used the word Christmas from the Big & Bold Holiday Wishes stamp set for the background and used Memento inks, all shades of green, namely New Sprout, Pear Tart, Pistachio and Bamboo Leaves.

The focal image of the little bird is from PTI Tremendous Treats Christmas set. I stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured with Copics, which are shown below, and then I fussy cut out the image and added with pop dots.

I added a piece of stitched ribbon and a button tied with twine at the top and then cut out a Spellbinders Poinsettia die from red felt. I sewed on 5 little yellow beads for the centre and mounted it on the tag in front of a small candy cane from a die cut set from K & Company. And that my friends, is that.

Thank you so much for stopping by to visit. I hope you will leave your comment for me as I appreciate your support very much. Cheers. :)
 

My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge 201

Hello to you all today. I hope you are having a wonderful Saturday and I want to thank you for stopping by today.

I have a card for you today which I made for the My Favorite Things sketch challenge. Here is the sketch.

 

I chose to use the stamp set called Snow Day. I think this will make a great winter birthday card. I started with a white card base, added a layer of red, then another layer of white which I ran through a Cuttlebug embossing folder. On that are two papers from my scrap basket, a length of holiday type ribbon from Michaels and of course the focal image which I stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured with Copics. See the photo below for the ones I used. I fussy cut out the image and popped her up on some pop dots. Just for fun I added a couple of pom-poms to her hat. :)

 

I made a snowball from a circle die from Spellbinders, cutting out 6 circles, folding each in half and attaching them to each other and then dusting the outer edge with glitter. The beauty is that the snowball will lie flat for mailing and then pop right back up again when the envelope is opened.

 

 

 

Thanks so very much for visiting. This card is very appropriate for today because as I look out my window, it has just started to snow!

Cheers  :)



Mojo Monday challenge #370/Power Poppy Peep of the Week

 

A fine good morning to all of you today. I have a card for you which I did for the Mojo Monday sketch challenge. The sketch is pictured here.

I am also using this wonderful sketch for the Power Poppy Peep of the Week challenge.
 

I chose to use a Power Poppy stamp set called Sunny Harvest and I used the beautiful bundle of sunflowers. I love this image.

 

My card starts with white cardstock for the base and then a layer of rust cardstock. Over that I layered the two strips of pattern paper and then the rectangle of paper. Both are from a paper pack from K & Company called The Best of Brenda Walton.

 

I stamped the sentiment which is also from a Power Poppy set called Geraniums Take Two in Brilliance Copper ink on vellum. I used a Sharpie marker in copper to go around the edge so it would stand out a bit better. Along the bottom of the rectangle I cut a piece of the same rust cardstock with Spellbinders A2 Bracket Borders One. I tucked my vellum under a piece of brown gingham ribbon and added a paper rose from Michaels.

 

Here is a closer shot of the vellum and sentiment, and the focal image of course. :)

 

The focal image of the sunflowers were coloured with Distress Markers by Tim Holtz. I just LOVE these markers. I have a photo of the markers that I used below. I then fussy cut out the image and popped it up for some dimension.

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today. I appreciate all your comments and your support. Have a terrific day. Cheers. :)

PapertreyInk Make it Monday Challenge

Hello once again my blog friends. I cannot believe that I have managed to do three posts in one day but once in a while, I get really productive. :)

I have a Christmas gift tag for you for the PapertreyInk Make it Monday challenge which is "Partial Die cuts for the Holidays". The sample that Melissa Phillips did was simply wonderful. My problem is that I do not have all that many of their dies, as yet.

However, not to be defeated by that, I chose to use the Spellbinders 2011 Holiday Ornament as the base of my tag. I cut that out twice with paper from S.E.I. holiday paper pack called Winter Song. I simply love the colours in that collection and wish I had bought more of it. Anyway, I sandwiched a piece of ribbon between and taped them together. You can see both back and front in the photos below. I distressed the edges with a bit of Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Evergreen Bough.

I used the stamp set and coordinating dies from  PapertreyInk "In the Meadow". I die cut the tree and the sleigh in a soft bluey/green cardstock and then went mad with the Stickles bottle (in Crystal) and decorated the tree with swags of glitter. I stamped a couple of snowflakes which I embossed in Detail Bright White and then stamped the sentiment on a scrap of vellum and also embossed in the same white.

I assembled the tag, trimmed the bottom off the tree (hence the title of the challenge) and tucked in the sentiment under the tree, added a button tied with embroidery floss and then popped up the sleigh.
 

I hope you can see all the glitter on the tree. Not only is it on the tree, it is on me and now, the keyboard of my computer. :)

Here is the back of the tag. Also a great pattern so the back looks as pretty as the front.

Thank you so much for visiting with me today and once again, I certainly do appreciate all your wonderful comments and your support. Have a terrific evening. Cheers. :)

Power Poppy Peep of the Week Challenge

Hello again. I am back with another card for you for the Power Poppy Peep of the Week challenge.

My card uses the wonderful stamp set Farmers Market. Since I actually do live on a farm, this is right up my alley. I used the basket full of apples image. Love it!

I started with an avocado green card base and added some pattern paper I got at Michaels. It is chicken wire. What could be more perfect! I added a square of paper from my scrap basket which is from Provo Craft but I am sorry I do not know the name. The image I stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured with Tim Holtz Distress markers. I just love them. I cut out the image with Spellbinders Petite Ovals and shaded the image just a bit with Memento Desert Sand and Peanut Brittle. This I matted on a dark red card stock. I found some red gingham ribbon (so country, don't you think?), tied a simple bow and added a button with twine. The sentiment is from Power Poppy Peonie Duo stamp set and I cut it out with a Justrite die and used the same inks on it to shade it a bit.

I am so glad that you had the time to stop by to visit. I love to hear from you. Cheers. :)

Happy Birthday Wendy

A very fine good morning to you all today. We are having a glorious day here in eastern Ontario. The sun is blazing away and there is a chill nip in the air. My favourite time of the year. Well, next to Christmas that is. Which has absolutely nothing to do with this card. :)

My neighbour on the next farm over from mine will be having a birthday on the 9th. I have made her a card that reflects her personality. She is an avid needlewoman and a very talented one at that.

My card starts with white cardstock. I have matted pattern paper from an old pack I still have from S.E.I. called Madeline. The images are from a Papertrey Ink stamp set called Stitched Sentiments. Perfect, no? I used a whole range of Memento inks and I have a photo of all of them below. I cut out the main image by hand rather than using the die and then added some very narrow lace to the back to continue the needlework illusion and I popped it up for dimension. Tied on a ribbon and bow and added a button with twine for good measure. Very needleworky!

Thanks so very much for stopping by. I love hearing from you all and cannot tell you how much I appreciate your comments and encouragement. Cheers.  :)
 

Here are the inks I used. I am so sorry that the picture is on it's side. I have no idea why and have been unable to correct it. :(

MFT Sketch Challenge

Hello my dear blog friends,

A short while ago I purchased my first stamp set from My Favorite Things. I am now following their blog and they have a sketch challenge every week and I decided that I would participate this week.

I have for you a card tonight which uses the the Better Get Better stamp set. She is just so cute and I love the little teddy bear. I used up all sorts of paper from my scrap basket and followed the sketch pretty much exactly. I coloured the image with Copics and the colours are shown below. I fussy cut out the image as I do not own any of their dies yet. I used some seam binding as ribbon and made a bow from it also to which I added a simple button.

Thanks so very much for stopping by. Love to hear from you all. Have a great day. Cheers.
 

PapertreyInk Make it Monday Challenge

Greetings to you my dear blog friends,

I have a card for you today which is for the PapertreyInk Make it Monday challenge, which was to stamp onto die cuts.

As soon as I saw the video of the challenge I knew exactly what I was going to do.

I used the PapertreyInk Wonderful Words die "Snow".

Using a basic white card base, I added some soft blue cardstock which I stamped using the PapertreyInk stamp set "Snowflake Serenade" using Versamark ink and embossed with white detail powder. I used their dies on the bottom of the card to create snow drifts and I sponged a very light blue ink from Memento called Summer Sky to create some shadows. I die cut the words SNOW from navy cardstock and also stamped the snowflakes and embossed them in the same manner. I mounted the words up on pop dots for a bit of dimension. And there you have it.

Thanks so very much for stopping by today. Please do leave me your comments as I love to read them. Have a terrific day. Cheers.
 

Power Poppy Peep of the Week Challenge

Good Monday morning to all of you. Thanks so much for stopping by.

I have a card for you today which uses the wonderful Power Poppy stamp set "Countryside Bouquet Deluxe". There have been so many truly wonderful cards made with this set so I took a long time to decide how I wanted to tackle it. In the end, I decided on my recent favourite colour scheme of oranges and reds. I even planted out a ton of orange tone tulips in my garden this year. It has never been a favourite colour but for some reason I am just loving it now.

So, I used the main focal image and stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured it with lots of Copics. The numbers are shown below. I wanted to give it "A Glow".  I cut out the image with Spellbinders Lacey Circles die and then sponged in some Memento Dandelion ink to further the glowy look. :)

All the paper is from the Graphic 45 collections Raining Cats and Dogs and Twas the Night Before Christmas. The ribbon, the flower embellishment and the bling I grabbed one day at Michaels. The sentiment is from the Power Poppy set Peonie/Tulip Duo. It was also stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black, cut out with a Justrite die and a little more of the Memento Dandelion sponged on to continue the theme. Here are the Copics that I used.
 

This has absoluted nothing at all to do with my card but this is a nightly ritual at our house. Both our fur babies love their nightly belly rub from DH. Sometimes they each wait patiently and sometime they don't. This is an examble of both trying to get all the attention at the same time. There is a lot of mumbling and mock growls and then ......

                   .... it is all over and they are completely relaxed. It really is a dogs life !

 

Thanks ever so much for stopping by. Please leave a comment if you like as I love to read them and thank you for your support. Cheers.

PapertreyInk Make it Monday Challenge

Good Day to you my blog friends,

This card is for the PapertreyInk Make it Monday challenge which was to do Faux stained glass. I really love the look. I did not have any "clear cardstock" on hand so I had to improvise and I used vellum instead. I also chose to stamp the image with Versamark ink and emboss with Black detail powder.

The image is from PapertreyInk Year of Flowers: Mums set and I stamped in on the coordinating die cut. I coloured on the reverse side with an assorment of yellow and orange Copics as noted in the picture below.

The card base is from an old package from DCWV Multi Pack in Yellows. I really love that mustard shade. I have layered on two of the pattern papers from the PapertreyInk paper pack "First Fruits". I tied on some brown gingham ribbon with a very simple knot and added an orange button tied up with some brown butcher twine. The image is on a pop dot on a piece of scrap paper from my stash on top of another stash find which I cut with Spellbinders Picot Circles die. That is also popped up to give a bit if dimension. Lastly, the sentiment is from PapertreyInk stamps set Think Big Favorites #19, stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

Well that is it for me for the moment. It is a miserable rainy day here today so I think a nice hot cup of tea is called for.

Thanks very much for stopping by. Have a great day. Cheers.
 

Justrite Friday Challenge

Greetings my blog friends,

I decided to try again and make a more restrained card for the Justrite Friday challenge. This one could not be more different than the first one. I have a definite preference right now for white cards.

This one starts with a card base of dark red cardstock, then a piece of white which I have run through an embossing folder by Cuttlebug. So sorry but it does not have a name on it. I wrapped some white ribbon around a few times and made a messy bow. The image is from Justrite Charming Christmas stamp set. I just love that little charm image with the holly berries. I coloured it with Copics keeping it fairly subtle, not to bright and cut it out with the co-ordinating Spellbinders die. Mounted the image with a pop dot and added the bow just above it. Subtle and restained. More my style.

Thanks so much for visiting. Please leave a comment if you wish as I love to read them.
Cheers.
 

PowerPoppy Peep of the Week Challenge

Good Morning to you all,

As I sit here at my computer writing this to you all, I can look out the window of my studio and what do I see?  SNOW FLAKES !!  There are not many of them but there diffinitely was snow falling. The temperature dipped to the freezing point here last evening and DH, who is a VERY avid skier, had a huge grin on his face when he saw the fluffy white stuff.

Enough about that. Thankfully it has stopped and is all gone and the sun is trying to peek out.

I have a card for you today which features one of the newest stamp sets from PowerPoppy named "Poinsettia". I have been waiting to use this new set and wanted to do it justice as I think it is one of the most beautiful that Marcy has drawn.

I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on white cardstock and coloured very subtly with Copics. The colours are shown below. I really wanted this to look like a winter wonderland card.

The base of the card is white cardstock cut using the Spellbinders Timeless Rectangle die. I then added, with pop dots, another white layer cut with Spellbinders Elegant Ovals die. Popped up on this is the Poinsettia image. I added the sentiment which is from the same stamp set, added a single pearl and a white silk ribbon bow at the top.

Thank you for joining me today. Have a wonderful Sunday. Hope to see you soon. Cheers.