More Love

This week at Simon Says Stamp and Show, we want you to Show Some Love.  So are you tired of my vintage Valentine's Day makes yet?  I hope not, because I am loving making them.  I was going to say three and out, but I think you just might see a few more vintage Valentines from me before the big day. 

So how about showing us some LOVE this week over at Simon Says Stamp and Show?  That shouldn't be too hard, right?   Everybody is doing Valentines this week so get with the program and get your LOVE project entered.  Our fabulous sponsor, Simon Says Stamp, is giving away a $50 gift certificate to some lucky random winner, and I do mean lucky!  I wish I could throw my name into the drawing because I would LOVE to have a $50 shopping spree at Simon Says Stamp.  Have you seen all the amazing new Tim Holtz products that are being introduced at CHA?  Simon Says will have them real soon.  

Okay, enough already and on to the dets.  My images are from a Luna Girl CD that I have had forever.  I fiddled around with PhotoShop Elements and managed to erase their backgrounds and then layered them over a vintage post card.  After liberally smearing them with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, I also stamped a few image stamps around the edges for good measure, most of which were from the Tim Holtz Urban Grunge and Odds and Ends sets.   I dyed some white lace with Broken China Distress Ink, which I also used to make the handmade flower, to sponge over the grunge heart and to stamp the LOVE stamp.  The heart and wings are cut from Grungeboard and I added a little element made from a felt flower, a silk, flower, a ribbon flower and some cheese cloth.

I also had to add a multi-layered paper flower cut with the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die (gee, I hope that die never wears out.  Maybe I should purchase a back up - LOL!).  I really liked the fact that this vintage Valentine wasn't in the traditional red or pink colors. 

Now go get busy and show us some LOVE over at Simon Says Stamp and Show.  You just might win a $50 shopping spree at Simon Says Stamp!

I want to give a warm welcome to all my new followers and a heartfelt thanks to those who come here day after day.  I can't tell you how much your support means to me and how encouraging all your lovely comments are.  I LOVE you all!

A Blessing for Annika

I had the pleasure of working with Annika Ryan when we were team mates with Isabelle's Sketchbook.  Annika's mother recently passed away unexpectedly and Annika is struggling with her grief.  Her wonderful team mates at Whimsey Stamps have put together a blog hop to surround her with love.  

Annika is one of the most wonderful people I have met through my blogging experiences.  She is an amazing artist/colorist and is sweet, funny, self-depricating and incredibly supportive of other artists.  I am so sorry for her loss.  She and her family have been in my thoughts and prayers since I heard about her mother.  I was wondering what sort of card to make and it all came together at Mass this morning.  The gospel reading was from the Sermon on the Mount - the Beatitudes.  And when I heard "blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted", it struck me how perfect it was.  I hope that Annika will be blessed and comforted with all the outpouring of love and support of her cyber friends.  

If you would like to join the Circle of Friends blog hop, you can start on Crystal's blog.  If you would like to make a card for Annika, you can link it on Denise's blog.  

And sweet Annika, this one's for you.  I wish many blessings of love and peace for you and your family!

The Details:
Stamps:  Sentiment/Scripture was computer generated, Elements of Style by Stampin' Up! and Very Vintage Labels No. 5 by Waltzing Mouse Stamps
Accessories:  SU Tab Punch, Spellbinders Label Die, Martha Stewart Border Punch, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder

Challenges:
Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge
Pals Paper Arts - CAS with a Bow (this is as close to CAS as I can get - LOL!)

A 3-D Valentine Project

Hello!  Today is a very special day at Our Creative Corner.  We are excited to welcome five talented new designers to our team and today is their very first challenge.  Our wonderful host, Wendy Jensen, has challenged us to make a 3-D Valentine project.  Oh my, what to make?  I'm really fresh out of project ideas.  And for Valentine's Day, I wanted to do something vintage.  Finally I decided on a very Victorian style Valentine's greeting with this cone shaped "envelope" and a tag type greeting tucked inside.  I have to say that this design is not my original idea.  I saw these at Christmas on Anne's Paper Fun and thought the cone-shaped "envelope" would work great for a Valentine.  

To make this, I started with an 8" heart shaped doily, traced it on to a sheet of K&Co. designer paper and cut it out, giving me two hearts of the same size.  I made a tri-fold out of them and then took a 6" heart shaped doily and stamped the Classified Ads background stamp from Whimsey Stamps on it.  Then it was misted with my homemade Vintage Photo glimmer mist and when dry, it was wrapped around the two larger folded hearts.  I threaded a piece of shabby seam binding through the holes around the top of the smaller heart and added a toile piece stamped from Gentler Times (SU retired) colored with Copics.  A sweet vintage cupid was added to the front as well as a handmade flower made with the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and a vintage style SU brad.  

A little pull-out tag type greeting was made for the inside featuring another vintage Valentine image, cut with a Spellbinders heart and adorned with several pieces of ribbon and lace.  The sentiment is from SU's Holiday Best set.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today.  I hope you will stop by the blogs of all our new designers and wish them well.  We have a lot of cute Valentine's projects to share with you so be sure to stop by the OCC blog too.  

Challenges Entered:
Sugar Creek Hollow - Sweet Vintage Valentine
Tag Tuesday Challenge - Valentines
Creative Cottage Challenge - Shaped Cards
Charisma Cardz - Valentines/Love
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Trifold Card with a Tag Insert
Meljen's - Put Your Heart on It
If the Shoe Fits - Anything Goes - Except a Card
Crazy4Challenges - Vintage or Shabby
J.U.G.S. - Handmade Flowers
Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge - A Valentine Card
Soartful Challenges - Victorian Romance

Fairy Love

Hello everyone,

I'm so happy you stopped by today to see what I have to show you for our Fairy Fun Fridays challenge.  This week our challenge to you is to make something For a Sweetheart.  I was so lucky to receive this awesome fairy image to use for my card, along with the vintage heart lock, key and sentiment.  I believe they will be on sale at The Prairie Fairy later today.  

Here are some basic details on my card:

Images:  Key to My Heart and Vintage Lock and Key -  Prairie Fairy
Paper:  SU Always Avacado and Very Vanilla, Flourishes CS for the images

Ink:  Printer ink, Copics, Vintage Photo Distress Ink

Stamps:  Digital images from The Prairie Fairy, plus a text stamp that has a lot of love quotes that I won in a give-away and it has no name on it

Accessories:  Doily, Vintage Photo glimmer spray, Prima flowers and crystal flourish, lace from Jo-Ann's, crocheted lace from SU, bead caps ordered from eBay, Crystal Effects on the lock and key, Star Dust Stickles on fairies' wings

I absolutely LOVE this fairy image.  When you look at it uncolored, it looks kind of busy and hard to color, but it colored up beautifully and really didn't take long at all.  I want to use it again this Valentine's season so you haven't seen the last of this one!

Now hop on over to Fairy Fun Fridays to see what the rest of the team has to offer.  We have some new team members and I hope you will give them a warm welcome.  

Challenges Entered:

Order of the Opus Gluei - Key to My Heart

Paper Sundaes - De-stress with Distressing

City Crafter Challenge - Sew Fun!!

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Add Some Hardware

Tuesday Throwdown - Distressing

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges - Delight i n Your Digi

Little Red Wagon - Lace

Pixie Cottage - Sketch and/or Flowers

Charisma Cardz - Valentines/Love

Country Roads

It's time for another Simon Says challenge - this week Simon Says Stamp and Show Us a Childhood Memory.  I absolutely LOVED this challenge.  It was so much fun for me to think back and reminisce about my childhood.  I had a couple of ideas for projects but in the end I decided to go with a country theme.

I grew up on a farm in a small country town and wanted to recapture that childhood feeling.  I needed a fairy large "canvas" to fit in all the wonderful images I selected.  I scouted around the antique/junk shops in my area and came up with a 11.5 x 15 inch frame that I thought would be the perfect size.  Stamps from Artistic Outpost's Home and Keeper stamp sets plus some vintage images were used. You can't see it too well because I covered up so much of it, but the designer paper background was cut with Spellbinders square dies and then patchworked together and sewn to resemble a quilt.  The denim look of the chipboard letter backing was created with the Cuttlebug Paisley embossing folder with white pigment ink sponged on the high parts. And, of course, the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die was used to create the handmade paper/fabric flowers.  A Jenni Bowlin chipboard vintage milk cap was also added.

I ran a strip of denim across the top and the bottom and the chipboard squares/letters were mounted on a piece of gathered gingham ribbon that was frayed.  The largest flower is made up of layers of denim, a country calico fabric, crinoline and a couple of paper layers stamped with a text stamp.  

You can probably tell how much fun I had putting this together.  It is now hanging in my studio, right across from where my laptop sits so I can see it any time I look up from my computer.  Now it's time to head on over to Simon Says Stamp and Show to see the childhood memories of the rest of the design team.  Can't wait to see yours entered into our challenge this week.  Our super sponsor, Simon Says Stamp, is offering a $50 shopping spree to the lucky random winner this week so why wait?  Get going IMMEDIATELY on your project and get it entered!

Something New

Good morning and happy weekend!  This scheduled post is coming to you while I am enjoying a long weekend with my husband in our favorite get-away spot - Key West, Florida.  We're fortunate to be able to get out and enjoy the glorious winter Florida weather!

This week at Our Creative Corner we have a color challenge for you - use a Analogous color scheme.  "Analogous color schemes use any 3 colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. They usually match well and create serene and comfortable designs. When using an Analogous Color Scheme choose one color to dominate, a second to support. The third color is used (along with black, white or gray) as an accent."

I admit, I had to do some research on this one and I found that you can also use lighter shades of these colors.  I found another color wheel that gave other shades.  So I picked lime green, moss green and then Baja Breeze which is a soft blue/green color.  I'm not sure I really hit the analogous color target though, but it did make for a soft and pretty card.  I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch as a starting point and pulled out a very old SU! fav of mine - Botanicals.

Hope you will be able to join us this week for our Analogous color challenge at Our Creative Corner.








Challenges Entered:
Mojo Monday - Sketch Challenge

Show Us Your Polka Dots!!!

Can it be Monday again?  Where does the time go?  Another week has flashed by and it's time for another marvelous Monday post for Simon Says Stamp and Show...Us Your Polka Dots.  Yes, that's right!  This challenge is dotty - polka dotty I mean.  It should have been a fun little easy peasy challenge for me, but nooooo.  I always have to over think and overdo my art work.  So after fretting all week about what to do, on Saturday I got down to business...but wasn't happy with the way things were going.  I started about 3 different ways to do the challenge, but ended up jettisoning all of them!  I finally settled on this black and white polka dots DP and went from there.  In the end, I really like what came of all the struggle, but it is different and I am interested in what you think.  So please be candid - if I just need to stick to my girly shabby style, it's okay to tell me so!

On the polka dotted front panel, I used stamps from the Tim Holtz Mini Classics set and for the sentiment inside, stamps from the Urban Grunge collection were used. Silver metal pieces accent the front panel, cut from Ten Seconds Studio Metal using the Spellbinders Fleur de Lis die.

♥Linda Elbourne, DT Coordinator - A Crafting Journey

♥ Dan - My Crafty Life

♥ Lynne Forsythe - The Next Best Thing

♥ Lori Hassler - I Been Thinkin'...'Bout Inkin'

♥ Nancy Crissinger - What's Next???

♥ Nancy Wethington - Art From the Heart

♥ Terry Weitsma-Girbes - Terry's Cards & Creativity

♥ Kim Costello - Paperbabe

Thanks again for stopping by!  Hope to see you over at Simon Says Stamp and Show with your dotty creation!  Our awesome sponsor, Simon Says Stamp, is offering a $25 gift certificate to the lucky random winner of this challenge - go for it!!

Dreams and Dressing Up

Good Saturday morning to you all!  Thanks so much for starting your weekend off by dropping by to see my most recent Our Creative Corner card.  Our host, Wendy Jensen, has thought up such a cool challenge for us this week.  It's called Let's Play Dress Up.  She's given us a very basic sketch and is challenging us to dress it up.  Well, you don't have to ask me twice!  I was off and running with this one and here is my dressed up card.  I started with some K&Co. DP and added Always Artichoke which had been embossed with the Cuttlebug Textile folder.  I did a little punching along the border of the green and added some hand dyed lace.  Then came a panel stamped with the lovely filagree note stamp from the SU! Notably Ornate set that was stamped in Frayed Burlap DI and spritzed with my Vintage Photo glimmer mist.


My handmade flower is from several dies including Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die and was made with paper and crinoline, sponged with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo distress inks and the dabbed with some of the gold alcohol ink mixative.  The Tim Holtz clip was also painted with the mixative and I  also applied the mixative to the bead caps which started out life silver toned.  The flourish is from Boss Kut.  The sentiment is from one of my all-time favorite SU! stamp sets - Happy Harmony.  A scrap of crinkled seam binding and natural hemp finished the card off.


Thanks again for visiting this morning.  Hope to see you back again soon.  And thanks, as always, for the lovely comments you leave.  I am trying to visit everyone's blogs once a week or so to repay the favor.  Have a great weekend.

Challenges Entered:

My Partner in Crafting Crime - Something New (first time I've used this SU!  stamp)

Polycraft Monday Challenge - New

4 Crafty Chicks - Show Us Some Metal

Stampin' B's - Use a Die Cut

Sugar Creek Hallow - Fab Fabric (used crinoline in the flower)

Flourishes Bring Back Beauty - The Beauty of Vintage

A Cherry Blossom Birthday

Good morning!  I hope you are all well and surviving any recent snowstorms.  We're looking forward to a sunny weekend here in south Florida with temps in the mid 70's F and nights in the mid-50's - perfect winter weather!

This fortnight at Fairy Fun Friday, our challenge to you is to make a birthday card.  I used the Cherry Blossoms digital image from the Prairie Fairy to enhance my vintage card. It was colored with Copics.   I used the current sketch from the Shabby Tea Room to determine my layout.  The image, I believe, is from the Graphics Fairy.  The Happy Birthday label and the sentiment banner were both printed on my home printer.  They were sponged with Stormy Sky distress ink and dabbed with alcohol ink gold mixative (which I seem to be finding a lot of uses for lately).  The DP is digital and is from Raspberry Road.  The ribbon is (retired) from SU!, trim from Jo-Ann, used the Cuttlebug Script embossing folder and sponged almost everything with Antique Linen distress ink.

I think that's all the details, but feel free to leave me a question if you need further information or clarification.  As always, I appreciate your comments from the bottom of my heart.

Challenges Entered:

Flourishes - The Beauty of Vintage

The Shabby Tea Room - Sketch

The Stamp Man Challenge - Distressing

A Shabby Refrigerator Magnet

Greetings friends!  The weekend is over, again, and it's time for my weekly post for Simon Says Stamp and Show.  This week we want you to show us Your Masking.  What a fun and interesting challenge it was for me this week.  I decided to make a large refrigerator magnet calendar. (The concept is not original; I found it when browsing the blog of Karen Valentine)

I have a couple of Tim Holtz masks (yes, barely even used) but they didn't seem quite right for the look I was going for.  So I decided to play around with making my own mask.  Below you can see a quick shot I took when I was applying the paint dabber.  For my first mask, which I used around the circumference of the circle, using the Spellbinders Fleur de Lis die and low tack painter's tape I cut my own masks.  I first applied the painter's tape to a piece of card stock and then ran it through my Cuttlebug to cut it with the die.  I carefully peeled off the card stock backing and affixed the tape to the DP which had been glued to the circle of chipboard.  I had to cut 4 or 5 of these to go all the way around.  Then I applied Snow Cap Adirondack Paint Dabber. When the paint was dry, I carefully peeled off the masking.

I used a vintage calendar image from Green Paper, but because the dates didn't line up with our 2011 calendar, I created a January 2011 calendar on Excel and glued it to the tag.  So when I want to see what day of the week a date falls on, I can just slide out the tag and look.  It's hidden and I don't think it takes away from the beauty of the piece.  I actually meant to make the vintage calendar interchangeable like the one I did last week because I have all 12 of the vintage calendar images and they are lovely.  But I was so involved with other details that I had glued the image down before I remembered I wanted to make some sort of a slide out holder to allow me to insert each new month's vintage image.  Oh well, I guess a bit of re-engineering is in order.

The other masking was done on the tag with a Tim Holtz Floret Mini Mask and sprayed with a mixture of Vintage Photo Distress Ink, Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls and water with a Mini Mister.   The flowers were handmade using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die.

So that's it for this week.  Another fun project all wrapped up and on my refrigerator!  Let me know if you have any questions.  Hope to see you playing along with us this week at Simon Says Stamp and Show Us Your Mask.  Who knows, maybe you will be the lucky winner of a $25 gift certificate from our generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp.

Be sure to stop by the blogs of the other designers too.  They are a spectacularly talented crew and you won't be disappointed.

♥Linda Elbourne, DT Coordinator - A Crafting Journey

♥ Dan - My Crafty Life

♥ Lynne Forsythe - The Next Best Thing

♥ Lori Hassler - I Been Thinkin'...'Bout Inkin'

♥ Nancy Crissinger - What's Next???

♥ Nancy Wethington - Art From the Heart

♥ Terry Weitsma-Girbes - Terry's Cards & Creativity

♥ Kim Costello - Paperbabe

Hey Chickadee! Inspiration Challenge and a DT Call at Our Creative Corner

This week at Our Creative Corner, our lovely host Wendy Jensen has an inspiration challenge for us.  She has given us this sweet image of a winter chickadee to set our creativity loose. 

I tried to go with more grays and blacks, but when I was looking for DP with some red it in and came across the beautiful digital DP from Raspberry Road, I headed off in a red direction (my favorite color - I couldn't hold back!).  I love it matched up with the red polka dots, plus it gave me a chance to crack open this yummy roll of SU ribbon.  I decided that the colors and the DP would make a nice winter/Christmas thank you card.  

The stamp set for the bird and heart is a never-used SU set I've had for a couple of months called Punch Potpourri.  I don't have the matching punches so I just hand cut both images.  The birdie was trimmed out and then mounted on black CS and trimmed out again (I wanted him to have some black).  I mounted the heart on chipboard and hand cut around it again.  Then I painted it with a bit of white acrylic paint and sponged Vintage Photo DI around the edges.  The flower was cut with the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and spritzed with my homemade Vintage Photo glimmer mist.  And I remembered to use my baker's twine which I have but never think to use.  The sentiment is from Verve Thankful Accents and the panel was stamped with the pine branch from Tim Holtz Mini Holidays set.  The red CS is SU's Cherry Cobbler.  The main black panel was cut with a Spellbinders die and embossed with the SU Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder.  

So that wraps up another Our Creative Corner sample.  Be sure to visit us over there.  The designers have outdone themselves and made some awesome samples.  And don't forget about our design team call.  There is still one more week to get your application in.  

Thanks for stopping by.  If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section.  And thanks so much for your lovely comments.  They fill my heart with gratitude.  

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:
The Shabby Tea Room - Use 11 Elements on Your Card (dry embossing, heat embossing, die cuts, chipboard, acrylic paint, baker's twine, handmade flower, hemp twine, ribbon, clip, sewing)
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Flowers
The Pink Elephant - Winter Wonderland
Tuesday Throwdown - Embossing
Creative Cottage - Something New (new stamp set)
Pixie Dust Studio - Tie it Up With Ribbon
Stampin' B's - Old and New
Winter Wonderland - Let's Go Dotty

A New Beginning with Do it With Digi's

Today  is the kickoff of the new challenge blog Do it With Digi's and I have been invited to be a guest contributor, a Digi Diva.  So periodically I will be sharing something I have made for that team.  The blog owner, Lynne Salmon, owns a digital sentiment company Sentiments 4 You and we will be promoting her digis.  The theme for our first challenge is New Beginnings, a perfect theme for a new challenge and a new year.  And there are prizes!  Yes, this week two $10 gift certificates are being given away - one is for Bunny Zoe's and the other for Sentiments 4 You.

Here's my take on the challenge.  I used an awesome sketch from I Love to Stamp.  The New Baby sentiment can be found in the Sentiments 4 You store.  To celebrate the challenge blog launch, it is on sale this week for 50% off.  Be sure to check it out and see what other cool sentiments Lynne has in her store.

The card is built on a shell of Barely Banana and uses the Lullaby digital paper pack from Raspberry Road.  The paper has been distressed and sponged with Antique Linen distress ink.  The main image, a free digital download from Create With TLC,  was printed on vellum and layered over a piece of CS that had been run through the Swiss Dots embossing folder.  Spellbinders dies were used for the sentiment element.  Lots of stitching and a scrap of lace later and this one was ready to be blogged.

Hope you will check out this new challenge blog and share your New Beginnings make with us!  And stop by the other designers' blogs too.  Lots of great talent waiting to be seen!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs and blessings,

Challenges, Etc.
Create With TLC - has a get to know us blog hop going - enter using of of their creations
Order of the Opus Gluei - a new beginnings blog hop
Quirky Crafts - New Beginnings
Creative Card Crew - New Beginnings
Try it Out Tuesday - New Beginnings
Simon Says Stamp - New Beginnings
Drunken Stampers - New
I Love to Stamp - Sketch for You to Try
Crafts and Me - Paper Tearing
Flourishes Bring Back Beautiful - The Beauty of Vintage

Kicking Off the Year With My Newest Stamps

Welcome back to another marvelous Monday post for Simon Says Stamp and Show.  Our last challenge was a two week one to take us through the holidays and it seems like forever since I've made a project for this team.  I really missed the weekly challenge and am so happy to be getting back into the groove again.  This week we want you to show us what you have stamped with your newest stamp.  A perfect challenge for this week 'cause I know lots of you got stamps for holiday gifts - even if you had to gift them to yourself - LOL!!  I have wanted Tim Holtz's Fabulous Flourishes forever and I am so thrilled to finally own it.  But who knew how huge it would be - wooeee, you can really cover some paper with this flourish.  Of course, you don't have to use the entire flourish, but it's nice to have when working on a larger scale project.  

So here's my take on this week's challenge.  I decided to make myself a little vintage calendar and had a blast playing around with all the elements included here.  First I found this charming vintage image on line at French Kissed, next I created the January calendar on Excel and added a Tim Holtz stamp to give it a vintage appearance (stamp is from the Mini Holidays set and was masked and stamped in sections which changed its basic shape).  The background panel that they are mounted on is a piece of white CS with the flourish stamped in Vintage Photo and stamps from the Tim Holtz Mini Classics set (another brand new set) stamped in Stormy Sky.  Antique Linen and Stormy Sky DIs were sponged over the entire panel,  

The frame for the calendar is made from heavy chipboard.  All four sides (inside and out) were covered with designer paper and ink distressed along the edges with VP DI.    Two strips of 10 Seconds Studio metal were cut and embossed with my Cuttlebug and an embossing folder.  The raised portions were sanded to reveal the metal core.  The metal strips were attached with glue but only at the very outer edges.  The January calendar sheet was just slid in from the side.  It can be replaced month-to-month with the current calendar sheet, which I plan to make as we go through the year.  

I put an encouraging quote under the front panel so each month when I change the monthly calendar, I am encouraged to look forward not behind.  

A brace was created with heavy chipboard and treated with the Rusted Enamel technique.  It was glued to the inside of the front and back panels to keep it standing upright.  That made it very strong and sturdy.  On the back is a full year 2011 calendar, again created in Excel.  It was printed on vellum and cut out with fancy edge scissors.  It's held on by four metal corners (10 Seconds Studio Metal cut with a Spellbinders die), again only glued on the outer edges. That makes the calendar panel easy to pop in and out, allowing me to use it again for a 2012 calendar. 

That's it for my fun little project for this week.  Be sure to stop by the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge blog and see what the rest of the designers have made with their newest stamps!  And I hope you will play along with us this week.  Our generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is awarding a $25 random drawing prize.  Wouldn't that be a great way to start out the new year?  

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  If you have any questions, just leave them in the comments and stop back by to check out my post updates with your information.  Have a great week.

Blessings & hugs,