Come ON Spring!

Anybody who stops by here regularly will know I love combining different challenges... a challenge in itself. So this week, the Created by Hand challenge is to use pink and red. This valentine card uses an Impression Obsession Leigh Hannan heart stamp, called "My Funky Valentine," paired with one of Suzanne Canon's Quietfire Design sentiment stamps made from her exquisite hand calligraphy. My friend Catherine was kind enough to lend me this set when I saw this lovely card on her blog. I don't have this stamp set, although it's an older IO set, but having had so much fun with it, it's definitely on my wish list! I coloured this with a combination of Prismacolour Premier Art Markers and Touch markers, with a smattering of glitter on some of the hearts. I used my new Martha Stewart heart border punch on a piece of the red velvet paper.

Now, you KNOW that I just love love LOVE living in Nova Scotia! I even love winters and snow and ice and nesting in my cosy home. But sometimes...just sometimes...I need a little hint of things to come in spring.

So this week, the Immpression Obsession designers were challenged to create something related to spring. This is one of the just released Leigh Hannan stamps from Impression Obsession, and it reminds me of all my beautiful flowers just waiting to grow, in just a couple of months. I used Prismacolour Premier markers and Tulip Fashion Glitter inside a Nestabilties cut and embossed frame with Bazzill core colour cardstock, with a little light sanding.

This is another new Leigh Hannan design...with some tiny punched flowers and Swarovski crystals for the "mandatory" bling factor. (lol)


I hope you'll have the time to stop by the other IO designers' blogs to see their spring-y creations:

Daniela, Dina, Kelli, Laura , and Michelle (our new guest designer!).

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today!

A house

So I'm having some fun combining challenges again. The Impression Obsession designers are revealing some new release stamps. This little flower pot on my house is one of them. The current Dans ma maison challenge is to use gold on our house. I used gold Krylon ink on the edges, some gold German scrap, and some gold stickles. The Art Creations challenge is to use this little girl in the window at the top of the house. The TGIF challenge is, serendipitously, to use houses. So this is what I created! I coloured the flower pot with Prismacolour Premier Art Markers.

Today, and this coming Sunday, and during the next three weeks, Impression Obsession designers will be featuring new release stamps on their blogs. I hope you'll take a little time to blog-hop to visit them here: Daniela, Dina, Kelli, Julie, Laura , Michelle (our new guest designer!), and Tina!

I'm including more new release Impression Obsession cards in this post too. ;) These are done with new Leigh Hannan stamps, a designer whose work I absolutely LOVE!

This card uses one of the new Sarah Phelps sentiment stamps.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today!

New Impression Obsession stamps!

At this year's CHA show in Anaheim, California, Mitra will be revealing lots-and-lots-and-lots of new IO stamps! Some are from an artist new to Impression Obsession - Sarah Phelps - cute, contemporary, simple, and fun to work with. The first two cards here were done with Sarah's stamps.

This card was done with Sarah's hearts in the corners, and one of IO's new sentiment stamps.

The next two are done with new stamps designed by Leigh Hannan - one of my very favourite designers, whose stamps work so beautifully for pure elegance. I'll be posting more of hers soon, so stay tuned!

I loved this cute flamingo! I stamped and embossed her heart feathers twice, and pop-dotted them for a little extra dimension, and I used a LOT of glitter, although I'm not sure you can see that here.

Today, and this coming Sunday, and during the next three weeks, Impression Obsession designers will be featuring new release stamps on their blogs. I hope you'll take a little time to blog-hop to visit them here: Daniela, Dina, Kelli, Laura , and Michelle (our new guest designer!). Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today!

Happy Birthday

This card was created for a friend's birthday, and I managed to participate in three challenges while doing it. Over at Wednesday Stamper, the challenge is to use an "opening." So I created a tiny card on top of the main card, with an Architexture embellishment and ribbon for the opening. Inside is an Inkadinkado stamped and silver embossed frame with a computer-generated sentiment. The challenge at Arty Girlz is to use buttons. I sewed tiny buttons onto each of the three Cuttlebug-embossed hearts. The Cuttlebug challenge this week is to use your favourite embossing folder. I have two, both of which I used today: Swiss Dots, and one of the folders from my Cuttlebug butterfly die and folder set, which I used to emboss the three punched hearts. Then I inked the raised areas with white acrylic paint sponged over the raised embossed areas. I'm posting three views, closed, then the top card partly open, and then fully open. THANK YOU for taking the time to visit today.

Card of support

Using the current CPS 99 sketch challenge, I made this for the Mum of an online friend who's experiencing some medical concerns, I really like this
K & Co glittered paper. I found it on sale at Michael's earlier this week for twenty cents a sheet! I bought all they had (lol). I used the Cuttlebug butterfly die and embossing folder, which I inked with SU white craft ink before embossing the cardstock, and my favourite Martha Stewart border punch. Thanks so much for dropping by to visit. I LOVE it when you do!

Love...

This week's Ismaki sketch , (designed by our living-in-Canada Isabelle!) is just below. Nice sketch Isa, thanks! I rotated my interpretation 90 degrees. I combined it with this week's Created by Hand challenge, which is is to use the word LOVE anywhere on whatever you create. I used this sentiment from Quietfire Design. Thanks so much for visiting me again today.
I LOVE it when you do!

My girl...

So this is a picture of my dog, Li-Na when she was a puppy. She's a Chinese mini Shar-Pei, and has commanded our house with a regal presence since she consented to come live with us three years ago. Her name, which is Chinese, translates to "Beautiful and Graceful," both of which knows she is.

I had FUN combining some challenges for this one. The theme over at TGIF is dogs! The theme at Dans la maison is birds in winter (see the "Odd Bird Planet" stamped and embossed birds?) , and the theme over at
Art Creations is to use the beautiful background they provided (I used it to create a dog house for my girl Li-Na, adding gold peel-offs and a piece of red metallic ric-rac, just to make it a little more girly for her. lol)

The wintery background photo was taken a couple of weeks ago. It's a lake just down the street from where I live in Nova Scotia, where I take Li-Na to walk and play in the snow, which she loves to do.

Hope you enjoy my quirky concoction.
I sure enjoyed putting it together!
Thanks so much for visiting today.

Just playing...Valentine Birthday...

This one's for a couple of challenges: One Powerful Hour, where the challenge is to create a birthday piece, and for Theme Thursday, where the theme is vintage Valentine It's a digital piece, using a Lazar Studie Werx digital paper as a base. I printed it and mounted it, and it's going to a friend whose birthday IS on Valentine's Day, so it was a timely challenge for me. Thank you for visiting today!

Challenges

Over at Wednesday Stamper, the current challenge is to use gesso, while the current Cuttlebug challenge is to create a "simple white card." For this card, I cut a butterfly with a Cuttlebug die, painted it with Plaid acrylic metallic paint (periwinkle blue), then stamped over that with an All Night Media background stamp that I'd painted with Crea Gesso. Then I glued on three Kaisercraft pearl embellishments. I stamped the "Thanks" (from Quietfire Design) with the same acrylic paint I used on the butterfly.

I cuttlebug-embossed the white background with the Swiss Dots

embossing folder, then punched the right edge with the

Martha Stewart lace doily border punch.

THANK YOU so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!

Challenges

Well, I was delighted to find a "new-to-me" challenge blog this past weekend. It's called "Dans ma maison il y a," and it's about creating little houses. So this is my first entry for the current challenge theme, which is, simply "white." I think I'll participate in this challenge often. I LOVED creating this little piece!

Over at Created by Hand, the current challenge is "flourishes." I used a beautiful flourished calligraphy sentiment stamp done by Suzanne Cannon at Quietfire Design, as well as a white-on-white embossed flourish design background stamp by Impression Obsession, one of my favourite, often used backgrounders (although I don't think you can see it very well here, sorry). If you click on the image to make it larger, the embossing shows up well.

Crissi and Julie instructed us to make anything BUT a card for the current Arty Girlz challenge, so here's my "anything but." I really enjoy participating in challenges, but there are so MANY I want to do that I like to increase the challenge to myself by combining several with one piece. It often encourages me to think harder about what I want to do. I hope that challenge hosts don't mind me doing this.

The inspiration for this little piece is this photo of my mother, taken in 1924. I am so lucky to have this picture. Our family home burned down in 1975, and all family photos and memorabilia were lost. This photo was sent to us by an aunt in Australia, where my Mum was born and grew up. It's one of two we have of her as a child, and it's so very precious to me.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today. I appreciate that!

2009!

This is a card for a dear, quirky, artsy friend of mine. I've decided to use more HUMOUR in my life this year, and this is the beginning. I just LOVE the look on this gal's face! I created the card to fit several challenges in blogland. Over at Crazy Amigo, last week's challenge was to leave the year with a splash (her splash is in her hand, lol) and this week's they're celebrating the New Year...and new things. This week's Gothic Arch challenge hosted by Mary-Beth is also the New Year. Over at TGIF, the theme is winter, and since our New Year in eastern Canada happens in the winter, I hope my New Year's theme fits for that one too. Over at Theme Thursday, we're to use "something new" in our work. Mine is the fireworks stamp I bought when I'd seen it used by my friend Daria in a tag swap last summer. Over at Art Creations, the ladies gave us a lovely background to work with. I used the background at the bottom of the arch, and for the punched flowers on my gal's hat. I really had FUN creating this, and can hardly wait till my friend receives it!

I wish everyone the BEST in health and prosperity in 2009!