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!