Crafty Individuals Cat!

I had such fun creating this card! This week's Arty Girlz challenge is to use butterflies; Crazy Amigo wants to see faces (hope my kitty qualifies...she has a face!); the Timeless Tuesday ladies over at Flourishes want us to use vellum, and over at Cute Card Thursday, the theme is animals. I've used two newly released Crafty Individuals stamps for this card, along with a Penny Black sentiment stamp. You just HAVE to toddle over to Crafty Individuals to see their new stamps! I used this precious kitten, stamped her on vellum, and coloured the reverse with Prismacolour Premier Art Markers. I adhered the image onto an Arches watercolour paper background altered with three colours of Ecoline Watercolour Inks (available in North America at Quietfire Design) , then mounted that on a piece of green Bazzill cardstock. I also used a new HUGE butterflies plate that I absolutely ADORE! This plate would be a wonderful background, but it's great to stamp and emboss these beauties, just to have to cut apart for crafty elements on your cards. I love all the beautiful designs the CI artists managed to incorporate into these butterflies. YUM! This card is destined for today's mail, on its way to a precious grandson.

Challenges

This card is based on the current CPS challenge sketch. The papers are K & Co, the sentiment stamp is from Quietfire Design. I stamped and embossed the sentiment twice, then glittered and pop-dotted the heart for a little extra dimension.

This card uses the current Ismaki challenge sketch, which included the requirement to use sewing on our cards, and the current Created by Hand challenge, which was to use stripes. The image stamp is from Crafty Individuals. I added some glitter to her wings and and the obligatory girlie bling to her dress and hair. The sentiment stamp is from Quietfire Design.

Friendship across the miles

The current challenge over at Our Creative Corner is to use tags, and the TGIF challenge is "hands." I used a diecut oval stamped tag on this card (Impression Obsession stamp), with Melissa Frances papers. I cut the little girls from another sheet of paper and pop-dotted them for added dimension. Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Birthday Cards

So the Impression Obsession designers are creating with pink and orange today...who KNEW these colours went together!? Not me! (lol) I used one of the brand new stamps (coffee perk) in my first card, along with one of my very favourite Impression Obsession background stamps (Leigh Hannan's Swirl Background L2025) The coffee perk is so new, it's not even on the website yet, but the stock number is 2287 if you find it really *needs* you! I added lots of glitter to the coffee pot, and yes, that's a real coffee bean on the cup, so the card even SMELLS good! (lol) I saw this particular gatefold design just yesterday on Suzanne's blog, and knew I had to try it, so thanks for the inspiration Suzanne! I added a Cuttlebug embossed acetate butterfly, outlined with gold leafing ink, to fit with this week's Cuttlebug challenge. The glitter and gold fit well with this week's Wednesday Stamper challenge, which is "shiny!" The Cute Card Thursday challenge is "signs of spring," and although coffee itself doesn't qualify (lol), I thought these vivid colours would fit well for that challenge.

I made this next card to go with the first one. Although this isn't one of the new releases, it IS one of my tried and true stamps, the Latte coffee cup. I LOVE using this one! It takes colour and glitz beautifully. After I stamped the Happy Birthday, I mounted it on a gold mirrored piece cut with my trusty scalloped Nesties.

The other Impression Obsession artistes will be posting fun new creations today too, so I hope you can take a few minutes to blog hop. You can link to their blogs are from the designers' list on the right sidebar of my blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Valentine...late, but with a good reason!

Please click on the card to see it better, it's really nicer than it looks on my monitor! ;)

So, my husband's been feeling miserable with a flu bug for a week or so. Today he's feeling better, so he went back to work this morning, and we're finally going out for a Valentine dinner tonight. This is my card for him.
The quote is by Robert Sexton. The front of the card reads "Hand in hand I'll walk with you...." and the inside reads "...in deep green forests, on shores of sand, and when our time on earth is through, in heaven too, you'll have my hand."

I collaged a wedding photo of us with a Crafty Individual's pic of the Eiffel Tower (our first major trip together was to Paris in the spring, which just happens to be the theme for this week's "Daily Art Stop" challenge), a picture of "our lake" in the fall (top right), and although you really can't see it well, I also used a Crafty Individuals image of timepieces in the top left corner. This flourish stamp (also from CI!) has quickly become one of my very favourites! I prepared the background paper by spraying Ecoline Watercolour Ink mixed with Winsor and Newton Iridiscent Medium in a Ranger Mini Mister over Arches 140 pound cold pressed watercolour paper.

On Wednesday Stamper, the challenge is to use something shiny (if you click on the card to enlarge it, you'll see the lovely sheen that the Iridiscent Medium gives); on Arty Girlz, it's wire, and this is my first try for the colour inspiration challenge over at Kristina Werner's blog. Thanks for visiting today!

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge

I've discovered another challenge blog! Flourishes hosts "Timeless Tuesday Challenges" every week, and here's my first post for it, a stitched and beaded card. I don't have any Flourishes stamps yet, more's the pity, but I think I'll need to remedy that real soon! Thanks for visiting today.

"Q..." a family trivia project!

The current Created by Hand challenge is to play with one letter. The current Crazy Amigo challenge is to use colour. I stamped this huge chipboard letter with Quietfire Design flourish stamps, clear embossed it, then oversprayed it with three different colours of Ecoline Watercolour Ink, one which I mixed with a little Winsor & Newton Iridescent Medium. Then I ironed off the clear embossing powder, and used the letter as a frame. The first image shows a friends' parents, the Quins, in their wedding photo on February 11th., 1950, and the second image shows a photo of their daughter Lesley's sailboat, named the "SeaQuin," which docks in and sails out of Victoria British Columbia. The photo I used was originally in colour, but I changed it to sepia in Photoshop, to pick up the colours of the chipboard frame. Lesley has been a friend of mine for thirty-five years, since we suffered (marginally successfully) through basic military training together in 1973. She's also godmother to my son Michael. This was such a FUN project to do, and it's nice to be able to figure out other uses for all those chipboard letters in my stash!

Matched Set

The current Papertake Weekly challenge is to create a matched set. Here's mine, with that luscious new Basic Grey paper line. The box is a cylindrical shape. I painted it first, then Mod-Podged the paper and lace onto the outside. The ends of the box have the striped paper that's on the card. This will go in my husband's lunch box for work tomorrow, he'll never live it down! (snort) Thanks for visiting!

A note

If you've come here from a challenge blog to see the card I created for the challenge, I have to apologize. After a night of sober second thought, I decided the card was just so ugly it had to GO! Sorry you took the time to visit, and hope you'll come back again sometime.

Revelation

It's official. I've become a certifiable challenge junkie. There is nothing quite as satisfying as looking through several challenge blogs, and figuring out how to combine some of them into a "passable card." I used the Friday Sketchers challenge sketch for this one, and the stunning background created by Wil over at Art Creations. I printed out Wil's background, and stamped this tree from Crafty Individuals over that. I white embossed some flowers (also from Crafty Individuas), and watercoloured them with Ecoline Watercolour Inks on the reverse. Since the Daring Cardmakers challenge is to use green, I Cuttlebug embossed the trees on some green Bazzill cardstock, and used that as a base for my card. Over at the Dutch Dare challenge site, they wanted us to use buttons and bows...so I did, and at "Our Creative Corner," we were told to use our favourite embellishment. Lately, I've been enjoying using mirrored cardstock with my dies, so I used a Sizzix die to cut this corner, which I thought gave a mild Asian feel to the card. The text is computer generated, and mounted on another piece of Wil's wonderful background. So, I managed to combine five challenges for this card, and I'd love to hear what you think. Thanks so much for taking the time to visit today; hope everyone enjoys an artsy, creative weekend!

Art Pieces, Caardvarks and ATC Wednesday Challenges

I created this to fit three challenges. Over at "Art Pieces," the challenge is "Love-Love-Love-Valentine!" At ATC Wednesday challenge the theme this week is "Loved." Over at Caardvarks, their theme is "We *heart* you," and the challenge is to include hearts on your card. The background image is my own photo of a beach here in Nova Scotia (White Point Beach) over which I superimposed this image of little girls kissing (the image is from Nancy Dooren, THANKS Nancy!). The flourish stamp is from Crafty Individuals. I stamped it in black first, then used my Stamp-a-Ma-Jig and overstamped just random areas with Versamark and gold embossed. The little vellum gold-embossed flowers are stamps from Rachel Greig's Darkroom Door set called "Full Bloom." Thanks so much for visiting today!

Hearts

I was so excited to receive a lovely shipment from Crafty Individuals today...just HAD to use some of my new collection! I've been playing in my Happy Room, just stamping up a storm...no cooking, no eating, no cleaning (snort), just stamping! I know UK stampers are familiar with this company, but I only recently discovered them, and am just thrilled to have some of their fabulous product to work with! If you enjoy collage imagery, you'll LOVE them! They use their own photography and painted artwork for all their collage images and papers, and they're simply wonderful...SO unique...remind me of Monet's Impressionist art.

The challenge for Wednesday Stamper is to use hearts in a different way, and the Cuttlebug challenge is to create a card of a different shape. I used a wooden heart as a template, cut the shape out of folded cardstock, then covered it with this fabulous collage paper from Crafty Individuals. Then I created a heart shaped mask, and used it to stamp this Crafty Individuals image on the bottom with Versafine black ink. I used a Cuttlebug border embossing folder to emboss little stem and flower shapes on each side, and dotted some copper coloured Stickles on the flower parts. I also stamped and white-embossed the butterfly from that image on vellum, cut it out, and glued it to the top left. Finally, I used the Stickles to further define the masked heart shape, and edged the card with Krylon 18Kt gold leafing ink.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Flowers

The current Arty Girlz challenge is flowers. For this card, I used one of the beautiful new Impression Obsession stamps and some old-but-favourite foil embossed paper from my stash. Thanks for stopping by today!

Crazy Amigo Challenge

This week's Crazy Amigo challenge is postage stamps. I created these with a postage stamp frame (All Night Media), which I stamped and masked, then used these gorgeous butterfly stamps from Crafty Individuals in the UK. Have you seen their stamps? They're fabulous! You'll be seeing a lot of them on my blog in times to come. :) I chalked parts of the butterflies, then outlined the edges with gold metallic ink. I mounted the panel on gold mirror cardstock, then again on the green I used for the stamped panel.

THANK YOU for taking the time to stop by today!

Aaaaahhh Monday!

The current Ismaki challenge sketch was a joy to work with, thanks Kiki! Here's my interpretation, using these wonderful stamps from Rachel Greig's Darkroom Door set called "Essentials"...now available in North America ...YAAAYYY (wholesale only though, so ask your stamping shop to check this resource). They're here, along with Stamp It Australia stamps, at Colleen's Arty Tart. The wee vellum embossed flowerrs in the top right corner are from another set of Rachel's stamps, called "Full Bloom."

I used copper UTEE on the corners of the script paper for the current Saturday's Workout challenge, and regular Top Boss Copper Embossing Powder on the edges of all three smaller pieces. The circles were made by stamping the lid of my huge UTEE jar with Versamark, then embossing with Top Boss Gold Embossing Powder. I added a little copper glitter to her wings, to match all the copper embossing powder. I used a piece of this old and precious 7 gypsies script paper...I hoard it (lol), but it seemed so perfect for this card.

Thanks for stopping by today, you just KNOW how much I love it when you do! :) Hope you all enjoy a creative and playful week.

PS Okay, I made a GREAT BIG mistake. ACK!! I used the wrong sketch! How STUNNED am I!? I opened the wrong file on my computer, and did this card with the Jan 19th Ismaki sketch. Oh well, I hope you liked this one anyway, and I'll be posting another with the RIGHT sketch in a few minutes. Is my face RED!!

Okay, I'm back! so HERE'S the correct sketch for this week:

...and here's my interpretation of the RIGHT sketch! What a FUN day this has been (lol). It worked out well though, because it gave me the opportunity to create a card with more of these wonderful stamps from Australia! This is Stamp It Set 010, and it's the set I positively drooled over whe I saw it...HAD to have it! Butterflies and flourishes galore! (My stamping friend Julie (a butterfly aficionado for sure!) would love this one) I used watercolour crayons for the image, and gold embossed the sentiment. Those pretty little vellum flowers are from Rachel Greig's Darkroom Door Set "Full Bloom." PHEW!! Thanks for visiting!

Having fun!

This is my card for the current Created by Hand challenge, which is to use gold. For the background, I sprayed 140 pound Arches Cold Press Watercolour Paper with Ecoline Watercolour Inks (Yellow Ochre # 227, Vermillion # 311, and just a touch of Carmine, # 318) mixed with Winsor & Newton Iridescent Medium, with a Ranger Mini Mister (LOVE those little spray bottles!). I stamped the prepared background with a butterfly and a sentiment stamp from Quietfire design, using Spiced Marmalade and Worn Lipstick distress inks, and Versafine Vintage Sepia for the sentiment. I mounted a gold butterfly peel-off sticker to a transparency, cut it out, and glued it to the card, lifting the wings for more dimension.The border is punched with Ms Martha's Lace Doily punch, the ribbon is May Arts, and the Dew Drops are made by Robin's Nest. The card is outlined with Krylon 18Kt Gold Leafing Ink. By the way, just a little note here, if you like these pens (and I definitely DO!) Quietfire Design's price for this wonderful pen is $8.07 Cdn; at Michael's Arts and Crafts, they're a whopping $13.99! Suzanne carries these pens in gold, copper, and silver.

Here's another card for the Created by Hand challenge, and it's also my first try with a Card Positioning Systems sketch, and coordinated with the TGIF challenge, which is "masked ball." I created this card for a dear friend who's retiring TODAY from a job that's given her much heartache in recent times. We're going for lunch together, and we'll celebrate! I thought the mask was such a fitting theme for this occasion, because now she can take it OFF and live the rest of her life much more authentically. I used a Judikins stamp for the mask, added some glitter and glaze, a sentiment stamp from Stamp It (Australia), and the lace stamp from Darkroom Door's Essential Collection set.

Thanks for stopping to visit today, you KNOW I love it when you do!

For a dear friend...

My friend has just received devastating news about a family illness. This card is for her. It incorporates several challenges: Theme Thursday is "borders;" One Powerful Hour is "ocean;" Wednesday Stamper is "kiss;" Crafty Creations is "hearts galore;" Papertake Weekly is "hearts and flowers." My border is the Inkadinkado shells stamp, lightly coloured with Copic markers, and Ms. Martha's punched hearts; the image of the little girlfriends kissing is from Nancy Dooren (THANK YOU for this Nancy!), which I superimposed over one of my own photos of White Point Beach in Nova Scotia, where my friend and I spent time together.

Thank you for these challenges. They helped me create a card for my friend during such a difficult time for her.

Valentine countdown!

Here's a little FUN for you over at Lisa Volrath's blog.

More challenges...four challenges!

So, you know how much I enjoy combining challenges to see what the end result will be. This time, I combined four of them: the current Cuttlebug challenge is “Love;” the current TGIF challenge is “green;” the current Crazy Amigo challenge is “shoes;” the current Created by Hand challenge is “Love Quotes.” So I saw all these, and thought “Hmmm, how can I match SHOES to LOVE?” Then I went through my ever-increasing stash of Quietfire Design sentiment stamps, and this idea was born. It was such FUN! The shoe is a paper pieced pattern and both shoe stamps are from Impression Obsession. The pattern on the shoe is the swirl background stamp from Impression Obsession, and the shoe decoration is a paisley stamp (also from IO). I glittered a bit…a girl has to have bling(lol). I really like how the Cuttlebug embossing folder picks up the pattern on the shoe...a happy coincidence. Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Challenges

Over at Arty Girlz, the challenge this week is to use red and white...I used blue too, for this American patriotic card which is going in tomorrow's mail to a southern neighbour. This card has a lot of glitter and glitz, but they don't show up so well in the photograph. I used a Cuttlebug star frame cut-and-emboss set with Craf-T metallic rub-on cream. Take a few minutes to stop by Arty Girlz...some GORGEOUS cards in the challenge this week!

This card uses Impression Obsession stamps...some of the hundreds of CHA new releases this year. Although they're not yet up on the Impression website, they ARE available, so I'll post the information for each stamp, in case any of them "need" you. The patriotic champagne glass is # 2300, and the sentiment is called "No place like home."

The Impression Obsession designers are showcasing some spring flowers this week too. Here are a couple of mine:

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The card above uses one of the new Leigh Hannan stamps, called "Valentine Rose Garden" (# G2310). The sentiment is "Don't know what I'd do."


This uses another new Leigh Hannan stamp called "Heart Nest..." (# 2294) SO many possibilities!

I hope you can take a little time to blog-hop to see the beautiful creations by the other Impression Obsession designers: Daniela, Dina, Julie, Kelli, Laura , and Michelle (our new guest designer!).

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, I love it when you do!

Created by Hand Challenge

This week's Created by Hand challenge is to use quotes about love. So this is mine, done with a sentiment stamp from Quietfire Design stamped on a transparency, then cut and mounted on a Nesties scalloped circle. I cut the corners from mirror cardstock with a Sizzix die. The little puffy gold heart is from Quietfire as well. Thanks so much for visiting today!

Ismaki Challenge

This week's Ismaki challenge, by Isa, was such FUN to play with! I used an old Stampendous stamp I haven't used for years, but as soon as I saw the sketch, it seemed just perfect.


Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today. I wish you a wonderful, creative week!