Four challenges

I liked this week's Ismaki sketch so much that I did a second card. Thanks again Manue! I created this card also to fit with the Created by Hand challenge (which is to use Christmas and music), the Crazy Amigo challenge (to use "hands"), and Arty Girlz (to use favourite colours; I always love black and gold together).

The image is from a 1921 Good Housekeeping magazine. The music stamp is Inkadinkado, the sentiment stamp is Hero Arts and the Christmas tree stamp is from Susanne Canon's beautiful hand calligraphy over at Quietfire Design. I used the Martha Stewart Lace Doliy border punch over Swiss Dots cuttlebugged gold cardstock, and embellished the Nestabilities scalloped circle with Kaiser pearl beads.

Thanks for visiting me today. I wish you a creative week!

Ismaki Challenge # 41

I always look forward to Monday mornings now, partly because I'm retired and no longer have to fight through rush hour traffic (lol), and partly because I look forward to starting a week of card creating challenges with Ismaki as the first! Manue has created this week's Ismaki challenge sketch.

It was delightful to work with, THANK YOU Manue!

The design team's cards are really wonderful; hope you'll stop by over there to see them. "Our Isa" didn't do a card for this week's challenge, and although I'm missing her lovely creations, I imagine she's just a little busy getting ready to move from the UK to Canada next month! I look forward to catching up with her when her move is complete, and she's settled in to her new Canadian home in Toronto wih her husband and their children. It will certainly be an adventurous Christmas for them all!

The sketch is here too, just below my card. I used a limited edition Santa produced by Sherry Graves of the Stamp Shack, and given to me as a very treasured gift by my friend Kim. I LOVE this stamp,and will use it often for my Christmas cards. Thank you again Kim!

Thanks again for taking the time to visit my blog.
I wish you a happy, creative day!

Saturday's Workout Challenge

This week's challenge for Saturday's Workout is to use a split negative technique. Here's my offering, using stamps from Impression Obsession and Quietfire Design. Thanks for visiting!

Art Creations, Crazy Amigo and TGIF Challenges

So there's a new challenge in blogland! Over at Art Creations, there'll be an image posted every week by Wil, Hermine, Femmy and Pepeetje, and we're to use the image in our creations. This is the current image; there's a much larger version over at Art Creations for you to download and use.

As soon as I saw this beautiful, pensive woman, I knew I wanted to create a card for a friend who's struggling with some of life's unexpected circumstances. I've submitted this piece for the TGIF challenge this week too, where the theme is "Vintage," and for Crazy Amigo, where the theme is the moon! I decreased the woman image, made her a little more subdued, positioned her inside the window, then positioned a moon image as a reflection in the window. After printing, I distress inked the whole piece, wanting a subdued, vintage look, used the sentiment from Quietfire Design, and added platinum UTEE in the top right area of the window frame.

This one really had me working outside my comfort zone...always good. Thank you so much for visiting; have a happy, creative weekend.

Challenges

My daughter and her husband have blessed our lives with four happy, healthy, and very busy little grandsons, and when I saw this new Quietfire Design stamp, I just had to do a card to send along. I know this will give their parents a chuckle.

It was designed to fit several challenges too: Arty Girlz (where the challenge this week is to use quotes), Wednesday Stamper (where the challenge is snowflakes), Created by Hand (where the challenge is Christmas tags...I incorporated mine into a card again), and the weekly Cuttlebug challenge, where we're to use crayon resist. I'm not sure whether you can even see my resist, but it's on the snowflake Cuttlebug embossed layer, with light blue crayon, then oversprayed with very light blue Ecoline ink mixed with Winsor and Newton Iridescent Medium. I punched the snowflakes from blue velvet paper, then applied double sided tape to the reverse of the punched areas, and sprinkled Martha Stewart blue glitter over the tape. I used the Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Two dies to cut and emboss each layer, and the Stampin' Up scallop punch for the border.

Thank you so much for visiting today!

Wednesday Stamper Challenge

This week's Wednesday Stamper challenge is snowflakes. I used this new snowflake-shaped Christmas stamp from Quietfire Design, created with Suzanne Canon's beautiful hand calligraphy, and used a flocked flourish paper as one of the circular layers, to pick up the flourishes in the stamped image. I used Krylon gold metallic ink to paint the silver snowflake, and used the same ink to edge some of the layers.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today.

Created by Hand Challenge

This week's challenge over at Created by Hand is to create a Christmas tag. I did the tag, then decided to mount it on a card. :) This one uses one of the new Christmas stamps from Quietfire Design with a simple Versamark-and-clear-embossing-powder-resist technique and blue chalk ink. The circle and scallop are cut and embossed with Spellbinders Nestabilities. I rubbed a little Encore Silver ink around the edges of the foiled paper. The dark blue paper is velvet flocked. All the new Christmas stamps at Quietfire Design are 20% off till Sunday...go see them, they're GORGEOUS! Thanks for visiting today!

Daring Cardmakers, Gothic Arch, & Technique Saturday Challenges

The Gothic Arch challenge this week is to use silhouettes, and the Saturday's workout challenge is to use the thread technique, and the Daring Cardmakers are using birds as their theme. The crow stamp is from Quietfire Design, the sentiment stamp is Hero Arts. I've never done the thread technique before. It was so simple! I cut the arch, stamped the image and the sentiment, then just wrapped the thread around a part of the arch, then brayered over the whole card with "Old Paper" distress ink. Then I sponged some "Vintage Photo" ink around the edges. Have a look at all the entries on these fun challenge blogs...some great inspiration there!

Thank you for stopping by today. :)

Challenges

This week's CBH challenge is to use alcohol inks. This week's Cuttlebug challenge is to emboss on a die cut. I inked up some gold matte paper with Lettuce and Stream alcohol inks, cut the ornament shape with a Cuttlebug Die, then embossed it using two Cuttlebug folders, and added some Stickles on the roofs of the houses.I cut an ornament shape from chipboard as well and glued the paper to the chipboard, for a little more stability. Then I outlined the ornament with gold krylon ink, and stamped the sentiment (from Quietfire Design). The little pearls are from "Kaiser Scrapbooking." Thanks for taking the time to visit today!

Challenges...

Well, Kianel at Ismaki REALLY challenged us this week!

I needed a wedding card, and decided yesterday that, no matter what the Ismaki Sketch would be, I'd do the wedding card with the sketch. This card has taken me the whole day to design and create, but I think I'm happy with the results. Kianel's sketch was to use for the inside of our card. My first photo is the outside of the card, the second photo is the inside, and the third image is Kianel's sketch. Thanks for another great challenge!

This week at Arty Girlz, the challenge is to take inspiration from a blog. So I decided to use the colour scheme from my own blog to do these challenges. Thanks Crissi and Julie!

Thanks so much for taking the time to visit today.

My heart is full...

Well, after staying up till the wee hours, glued to the American election coverage, I have to say MY HEART IS FULL!

So, that's the genesis for this card, where I've
combined three challenges.

Over at Arty Girlz, the challenge is to use some freehand work. Oh my. I use stamps because I can't even draw stick people! So the best I could do was to dot black ink around the border of my oval, and you wouldn't believe how long it took me to do THAT! The oval on my card is the third dotted attempt. Sigh. So, Crissi and Julie, I really did try! ;)

Over at Crazy Amigo, the theme is hearts.
I stamped the SU heart with Vintage Paper Distress Ink, then overstamped the Quietfire Design sentiment in India Black Ink. This picks up the theme over at Created By Hand,
which is to use black and brown tones.

Thanks for stopping by today. Now, in my lingering celebratory mood, I'm off to see everyone else's wonderful things!

Gothic Arch

Kelly (over at Artsy Visions) set the current Gothic Arch challenge, which is to incorporate vintage children into our piece. I started this with an Ecoline Inks background (from Quietfire Design, done with the shaving cream technique), then stamped the Lazar Studio Werx gate with India Black Ink. This gorgeous little charmer is from the Vintage Children 1 sheet from Quietfire Design, which is where the crown stamp comes from as well. I stamped the crown in several layers of gold UTEE, cut it out, and added some stickles for crown bling.

Thanks for visitig my blog today.

Ismaki Challenge # 38

This card uses Beatrix’s wonderful Ismaki challenge sketch for this week, which is posted just below my card. The angel and music stamps are Inkadinkado. The sentiment is computer generated.

Thank you so much for stopping by.