... My Favorite Things Challenge 261

Hello everyone,

I have a card today which I made for the My Favorite Things Weekly Sketch Challenge #261. Here is the sketch.

I started with a white card base over which I added a panel of pattern paper from my stash. I added a white panel which I ran through an embossing folder from Darice. I am sorry it does not have a name on it but I think it is pretty obvious that it is lots of little paws! :)

 The focal image at the top is just too cute, don't you think? It is from the My Favorite Things stamp set I Knead You and cut with the coordinating die set.

I used the little thought bubble as my corner accent, again using a part of the sentiment used on the banner.  

I stamped the images in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured up this little cutie with Copics as shown here. 

Over that a strip of ribbon and the banner with the sentiment on it which is from the My Favorite Things stamp set Purrfect. 

The bottom corner seemed a little bare so I added some balls of yarn from the I Knead You stamp set.

The sentiment used inside the card are from My Favorite Things stamp set Happy Banner  and I added a ball of yarn as well.

Well there you have it my friends. This card will be destined for a good pal of mine who will be celebrating her birthday soon. She has a kitty so it is very appropriate.

Please do leave me your comments as it would mean so much. Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful day. Cheers.

... Power Poppy Rewind Challenge

Hello everyone,

Here in eastern Ontario we are finally getting winter weather. It started to snow last night and we have quite an accumulation out there now. And it is still snowing. My DH who adores to ski is simply in heaven.

I would normally be the one out there manning the snow blower to deal with all this but, alas, I am recovering from surgery I had just before Christmas. So instead, I get to be snug and cozy in my studio and get my fingers inky!  :)

I have a card today which I did for the Power Poppy Rewind challenge. I have chosen the Shabby Chic category. This will also be a birthday card for a dear friend's mother who just happens to have the same birthday as my own mother.

Here is my card.

I have used a white card base over which I added a panel cut out using Fiskars Deckle scissors. I distressed the edges using Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen. I added a strip of wide gros grain ribbon with a piece of lace on top along the bottom and then added my focal image over that.

I chose to use the Power Poppy Simply Camellias stamp set. I just adore these images. They are just so elegant and feminine. I stamped the largest image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then barely added colour with Tim Holtz Distess Markers in Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy. I wanted the colouring to be very subtle. I cut out the image using Spellbinders Elegant Ovals die and added some colour before I removed the die, again using the Antique Linen Distress Ink.

I have used the sentiment from the Power Poppy stamp set Go Wild and this was also cut out with the same Spellbinders die set and also distressed. I added pearls to the four points of the focal image and then felt it just needed a little something so cut butterflies from creamy vellum using the PapertreyInk Heart-2-Heart #10 die. I layered two of them to give some depth and adhered them with Tombow Vellum adhesive.

 Another smaller butterfly adorns the bottom of the image near the ribbon and I added three graduated sized pearls along the bottom for balance.

Thank you so very much for visiting with me today. I do hope you will leave your comments as it would mean so much. Have a wonderful day. Cheers.

...PapertreyInk Make It Monday 235

Hello everybody,

I had been hoping to be back in my craft room full force but, alas, I have just returned from surgery in the hospital. So now I am at home recovering for a few weeks. I am slow moving but I can putter around my studio and take as long as I want to make a card. :)

A very dear friend of mine had asked me to make a card for her mother's birthday. It is a special one as she is turning 75. Well, surgery or not, I was up for the challenge. And speaking of challenges.... I decided to use the technique from the PapertreyInk Make it Monday #235 challenge for my card. 

So here it is. 

I started with a base of buttery cream card stock over which I layered white card stock which I had randomly stamped with PapertreyInk stamp sets Beautiful Butterflies and Ruby Reprise using Memento inks in Angel Pink, Cantaloupe and Desert Sand. I cut the bottom edge with Spellbinders Curved Borders One die.

I used the PapertreyInk die Tag Sale #4 and cut a layer from pattern paper and also vellum. On top of this I used PapertreyInk stamp set and matching dies Mum's The Word for the focal images. They are stamped in Memento Cantaloupe and  New Sprout ink. Now the part of the challenge which was to add additional colour to an inked image. I chose to use Tim Holtz Distress Marker in Dried Marigold on the flower petals and Tombow #133 on the leaves. I have just barely flicked in a hint of colour to the flower petals to give it some depth and created some veins in the leaves.

I used PapertreyInk stamp set and dies Tiny Tags to add a tiny heart with hugs and kisses at the bottom and another with the word Mom at the top. These are stamped with Memento Angel Pink and Tuxedo Black ink. A very simple bow in a pretty pink ribbon is at the top of the tag.

As I wanted to repeat the butterfly theme that I had used in my random stamping I cut out butterflies using PapertreyInk Beautiful Butterflies die, in a pink check paper then an over layer of vellum. I added a pretty pink pearl to the center of each butterfly. 

I stamped the sentiment using a combination of stamps from  PapertreyInk stamp sets Think Big Favorites #12 in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

The numbers were cut out using Cricut cartridge Songbird.

So there is my birthday card for a real sweetie of a person. Thanks so much for stopping by to visit. Do leave me your comments as I really love to read them. Have a wonderful day. Cheers.

... mojo monday 427 challenge

Good morning my friends,

I am back with a card for the Mojo Monday #427 challenge. You can see the card layout here in this photo.

I decided to use the squares as cut out windows to see into a snowy winter landscape outside.

My card is basic white cardstock. I sponged on some pale blue ink to create the sky and then stamped the deer and rabbit images with PapertreyInk stamp set "In the Meadow" using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

The round focal image is from PapertreyInk stamp set "2011 Holiday Tags" and it is stamped in Memento Danube Blue ink. I popped it up on a piece of silver card stock on top of a blue and silver ribbon.

I stamped a few small snowflakes around the cut out squares using the same In the Meadow set in ColorBox Silver ink and then added some Stickles in Crystal to add some sparkle and shimmer.

Thank you so much for visiting. Do please leave me your comments as I love to read them. Have a wonderful day. Cheers.

...PapertreyInk Make It Monday 234

Hello everybody,

It has been a while since I have participated in any sort of challenge but this was a great one to get back at it and get my fingers inky!

The challenge was to use felt on a project. I like felt. I knew I would enjoy making this card.

I began with white card stock, rounded the right hand corners and then stamped all down the left hand edge with PapertreyInk Beautiful Butterflies stamp set using Memento ink in Angel Pink and Desert Sand.

I added a soft pink gingham pattern paper from Making Memories. On this I stamped the cross stitch pattern from the PapertreyInk Sew Simple Borders stamp set, this time in Memento Lulu Lavender. I stamped at the top and the bottom and also rounded the right hand corners.

I die cut out the hearts using Spellbinders and then cut out the word Baby using PapertreyInk Wonderful Words Baby die and then stamped it in Angel Pink using the coordinating stamp set. Above the die cut of baby I stamped Welcome using Lulu Lavender.

At the top is a bow made with seam binding and a button and hanging from it is a Tiny Tags die stamped It's a Girl.

Now we come to the felt part which is the whole point of this exercise, yes?

I used the Beautiful Butterflies die and also the Doodlie Do die to cut out the butterflies and the flower and leaves in cream, white and pink felt. I added buttons to the butterflies which I sewed in place and then I added beads to the center of the flower. All the felt pieces were stuck in place using Glue Dots.

And there you have it. Nice to be back in the saddle again. I really enjoyed making this project.

Do leave me your comments as I love to read them. Thanks so much for stopping by to visit. Cheers.

... purging some craft supplies

Hello everybody,

Although it is still a while before the New Year and all the resolutions kick in I decided to make one anyway. I want to clean out and streamline my craft room and purge things that I really am not using.

So, with that goal in mind, I am offering some craft materials for sale. The first items today are ink pads.

1) Paintbox Pigment Ink pad by ColorBox. Rarely used. I have checked and it is still nice and juicy as you can see from these photos.  $5.00

2) 6 Tsukineko Opalite Reflective interference Ink Pads. 
The colours are Arctic Emerald, Golden Mist, Cypress Frost, Crystal Blush, Glacier Blue and Orchid Ice. Only one of them has even been opened. I checked and it is still quite moist. Due to the nature of the ink it is very hard to get a good photo of the stamped image. I am assuming that the unopened 5 pads are in similar condition. 6 pads for $20.00. I have checked the website and it would appear that these are no longer made.

3) 25 ColorBox Cats Eyes Pigment Ink pads. The colours are:
Marigold, Cranberry, Peony, Ochre, Amber, Magenta, Violet, Moss Green, Robin's Egg, Lavender, Coral, Parchment x 2, Cocoa, Orange, Turquoise, Scarlet, Roussillon, Green, Smoke Blue, Midnight, Sunflower, Chestnut, Black and Apricot. 
I have checked each of them by giving them a swipe on a piece of cardstock as you can see here. They are all moist.
25 ink pads for $20

Please leave a comment here if you are interested in any of these and I will get back to you right away. All amounts are in Canadian funds.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day. Cheers.

... happy birthday Todd

Hello everybody,

My husband and I have a friend who will be celebrating his birthday quite soon. He is a outdoorsy kind of fella, a real man's man if you know what I mean.

Accordingly, it is very difficult to make a card for him. I spent about two hours today sorting through die cuts, stamps and Cricut cartridges trying to think of something to use.

Then I happened upon a stamp set from JustRite stamps. It is called "The Scoop Vintage Labels Four". 

Perfect.

The one thing that Todd loves more than most is ice cream.

I stamped the cone image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured with Copics and then cut out the image which I popped up on a piece of cardstock which I had run through an embossing folder. I cut out the letters for his name with my Cricut. 

The card is really VERY simple but I think he would prefer it that way. I really hope he likes it as I plan to bring him a gallon of ice cream to go along with it.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend. Cheers.

... back in the craft room :)

Hello everybody,

I know that it has been a long time since I posted anything but I have finally returned from spending the entire summer in the garden and I am back in the craft room and ready to get creative.

New projects will be coming soon but in the meantime I do have a couple little somethings to share with you.

A dear friend of mine, Anita, came to visit in the summer this year. It was her first time coming out to our new home and I took her shopping and showed her around the area. We went into a lovely shop in a town near us and we saw this fantastic little poster which she promptly purchased for me as a gift. I absolutely love it and now it hangs on a wall in my craft room.

My birthday happens to fall in this month and friends from our old home town made a trip out for a visit. Cathy and Tom are so much fun to be with and Cathy brought a lovely gift and card. The card is just the best! Now Cathy does not make cards but she sure knows how to pick out good ones. I loved it so much, it too is now hanging in my craft room where I can see it every day.

That is it for me for today. The season is drawing in and winter is coming and that means toasty fire in the wood stove, the garden put to bed for the season and me with more time in my craft room. 

Thanks for visiting. Cheers.

... cards for a friend

Hello there everyone,

Well it certainly has been a long time since I posted anything but then, you see, I have an excuse. I am a gardener. As soon as summer arrives I practically live in the garden.

However, a friend asked if I could make a couple of cards for her for her friends. A masculine 75th birthday card and a 50th wedding anniversary card.

Here is what I came up with. 

Here is the birthday card. The gentleman lives on a farm in the country so she wanted something to reflect that.

The set I used is an old one from Close To My Heart. It seemed appropriate. I cut out the letters using my Cricut. All ink is from Memento and the pattern paper is from my stash.

This second card for their anniversary could not have been easier. The stamped image is a VERY old one from PSX. I barely coloured the swan's bills with watercolour pencil.

All the layers are cut from Spellbinders. Layered up on pop dots on a piece of gold cardstock and a few pearls added.

Thanks for visiting. Hope you are having a fantastic summer. Cheers.

...Happy Birthday Mary

Hello again everyone,

My dear sweet sister-in-law will be celebrating a birthday soon as I have made a card for her but could not post it until she received it in the mail as she follows this blog.  :)

Mary absolutely loves to read in bed. This stamp from My Favorite Things was truly perfect for her card. I added the "A Good Book" as it seemed appropriate.

I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black, coloured with Copics and mattered on paper from my stash. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I used Spellbinders to cut out the focal image.

Happy Birthday Mare!!!

... Museum quilt

Hello everyone,

I am so sorry that I have been absent for so long.

I have been helping out our local museum who raffle off a quilt every year as a fund raiser. The quilt is always a log cabin pattern of some sort and I have been making blocks for them. We always make them as scrap quilts with only the red center of each block being the same as that is customary with the log cabin pattern.

I have attached a photo of two of the blocks here. I will be right back with another post with another card.

Thanks for stopping by. Cheers.

... clearing out the stash, woo hoo!

Hello everybody...

I have been a productive little bee and have a whole bunch of cards to show you that I made yesterday. I have been seriously trying to reduce the stash of overflowing stuff that I have accumulated over the years. I know that we all do it, we keep on buying supplies 'cause they are so beautiful but then we do not always use them. :(

So, I have been tackling one little pile at a time and am determined to use it up. I had some card bases from Crafters Companion and from K & Company and that is what I have used for all these cards. Some have stickers on them that I am using up and some have stamps and also some dimensional resin items. I added some die cuts and some ribbon and pearls. 

I love this last tri-fold card. I have kept it very simple and basic but I may yet go back and add a bit more. I do like the clean and simple lines though.

Well, that is all from me for today. My DH has just come home from the ski hill and it is time to make dinner and get the fire lit. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend planned. See you again soon. Cheers.

MFT Sketch Challenge #217

Good afternoon everyone ....

Back again for a card to share for My Favorite Things sketch challenge #217, which you can see here.

I stared with an ivory card base, rounded the corners to soften the look, added a piece of pattern paper (you know, from the stash) and then cut 5 double pointed banners from scrap paper. I stamped this little cutie patootie from the Cute is what I do set, coloured her with Copics and fussy cut her out.

I cut double layers of a creamy vellum with Spellbinders blossom 5 die and inked up the edges with Memento Tangerine for more dimension. The sentiment is not MFT but rather from Papertrey Ink as I do not have a MFT birthday sentiment and that is what I wanted to use. Lastly I dotted the little flowers I had stamped on her dress all over the place. The wee flower is also from Papertrey Ink.

Here is a close up of her cuteness and the vellum flower. I tried to just lift up the edges of the flower but vellum can be stubborn at times. :)

Thanks once again for visiting with me. Hope you have a wonderful afternoon. Cheers.

... Hoppy Easter is coming

Hello again....

I am back with a couple of cards from a stamp company that is fairly new to me. It is called Pink & Main. Michelle draws just the sweetest little faces on her creations and I just love them.

I have two cards for you today, both made using the Hoppy Easter set.

For this first card I stamped the focal image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured it up with Copics, cut the little munchkin out with Spellbinders dies and then finished up the card with a tiny die cut with Papertrey Ink Tiny Tags dies and the felt flower uses Spellbinders dies.

This second card also starts with the image stamped the same and coloured with Copics also. I used Spellbinders dies to cut out the image and the orange gingham mat (so cute to match the carrot, no?). I stamped the two corners of the card with Papertrey Ink set Ruby Reprise and cut out the green tag shape with an old Sizzix die. Added some orangey like ribbon at the top and all done.

Thanks ever so much for stopping by today. Do leave me your comments as I love to know what you think. I hope to be back once more with another post before the end of the day. Enjoy this glorious sunshine today. This has been such a bitterly cold and gray winter so far here in Ontario that I cannot help but go outside and turn my face to the beautiful sunshine and take my dogs for a romp. See you soon. Cheers.

.. a card from the past

Good morning everyone!

I have a card to share with you today that I made several years ago for a friend of mine that I lost touch with, but I stashed away the card and kept it.

I could not be happier to say that we have reconnected with each other, although it is long distance friendship as we live quite a ways apart. She has always loved sunflowers and it is her birthday soon so I felt that she should have this card after all. It is like it was meant to be. :)

The focal image is from Crafty Secrets and I coloured it up with Copics. A punch along the edge of the card and Spellbinders dies used also as well as some rich looking ribbon and a few brads. I hope she likes it.

Thanks so much for visiting with me. I will be back very shortly with another post. Cheers.

PTI Make it Monday #202

Hello everyone.

I am back with a card for the Papertrey Ink Make it Monday #202 challenge which is using border dies to anchor your card.

Well, I do not own any of Papertrey Ink's border dies but I thought I could get around that.

So, my card starts with a kraft base on which I stamped some everygreen boughs and wee hearts from the Love Lives Here Holiday set.

Yes, as you can see, this is a Christmas card. Oh, I can hear the groans already. I know we just had Christmas but it will be coming around again and you can never be far enough ahead with your Christmas cards. But I digress...

I used a My Favorite Things tag die which I cut some dark red paper from my stash and over that I layered the angel from Love Lives Here Holiday and I stamped her in Memento Peanut Brittle ink. Over that I layered the Rustic Wreath die cut from paler kraft card and stamped with Versamark and embossed in white. Over that I layered a harlequin border die and the word "holiday" from Wonderful words cut from some gold paper. Attached a piece of gold ribbon on top and two layers of button stacks dies cut from felt with a tiny tag cut from vellum with the sentiment. 

There is a whole lot of stuff going on here. Lots of layers but I do believe that was the whole point.  :) 

I chose to glue my borders down due to the nature of the word holiday. I could not have it hanging loose and flapping around. Otherwise, I think I would have done as Melissa die and leave them loose.

Thanks a lot for stopping by. Hope you have a wonderful day. Cheers.

Adding to my Stash

Hello everyone,

I have a couple of cards to share with you, super fast, super simple and easy. Just adding a few to my stash for just in case. I used square blue card bases 
( I have almost used them all up! ) and added one single layer of pattern paper on top of each. On the first one I stamped a Papertrey Ink Boutique Borders sentiment on the matching die and the second one uses another sentiment and some butterflies I cut out and stamped from the Beautiful Butterflies stamp set. Love that set, use it over and over again.

That is it for the moment. I will be back shortly with a post for Make it Monday. Thanks so much for stopping by. Cheers.

MFT Challenge #216

Greetings to you all. We are having a very snowy day here in Ontario but it does make everything look so pretty and magical. Until you need to go out and shovel it, that is. Oh there, see, I had to go and ruin the moment!  :)

Sorry to have been absent for a while but we had company come and stay so I had other things to occupy me. However, I am back.

I have a card for you today that I made for the My Favorite Things sketch challenge #216 which you will see here.

Blue card base, two different papers from the stash and such a cute image from My Favorite Things. I know just who I will be giving this card to!

Thanks so much for visiting with me. Have a wonderful winter weekend! Cheers.