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!