To everything there is a season........

Still enthralled........while I had all my materials out from yesterday's blog post, I made another card to enter the beautiful Tuesday Trigger for this week.

This uses another stamp from the Our Daily Bread Randi's Song stamps, an excerpt from Ecclesiastes 3.  I am growing fonder of this paint splattering thing, so after stamping the sentiment I watered down some picked raspberry and spiced marmalade inks, dipped a paint brush in, and splattered across the panel.  The leaves are leftovers from yesterday's post, using a Lawn Fawn's Stitched Leaves die on a panel that I sponged with Picked Raspberry and Mustard Seed, then splattered with water.  My sentiment panel was then framed with brown, affixed to a card base, then added my leaves and some Doodlebug Designs mini pearls.  Here's a detail picture:

Thanks, Cath, for a wonderful inspiration this week!

Enthralled with Fall

That is an absolutely true statement when it comes to me and my favorite season!   Cath has given us a beautiful Tuesday Trigger inspiration, and I just had to play, as the colors of fall are my favorite thing about it.

We have 2 maple trees out front of our house that produces leaves like this!  So I started by trying to recreate the color I saw in the inspiration photo.  I sponged Picked Raspberry and Mustard Seed onto a creamy cardstock, spritzed it with water and some extra droplets of those inks, dried it well, and then used one of my brand new Lawn Fawn Stitched Leaves dies to cut out some maple leaves.

I love how the die also embosses the veins of the leaves!  I added my leaves to a panel of embossed woodgrain (Tim Holtz) on grey cardstock, popping the 3rd one above the others, and then added that panel to my card base which was first splattered with the distress inks I used to make my leaves.  The beautiful sentiment is from Our Daily Bread's Randi's Song, an excerpt from a lovely old hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness".  And I added a few enamel dots to the mix.  

Honoring Ombre

Isn't this a beautiful photo inspiration that Cath gave us for the Tuesday Trigger this time?  I wish I had anything in those colors, but purples/lavenders are very sparse in my collection.  I knew I wanted to stamp something, so in looking through my inks, my best option for ombre was in these aqua/pool colors.  Hero Arts keeps bringing out inks in these tones, and I'm fortunate to have a few of them.

I stamped this Ikat design from Wplus9's Backgrounds & Borders 1 set, using Soft Pool, Tide Pool, and Splash inks, then trimmed it into a panel, framed it in white and added it to my pool layering paper card base.  I thought that this Ali Edwards sentiment from This is the Day worked nicely, and I added a die-cut Leanna butterfly and some enamel dots.

Wishing you a blessed day!  

My Cup of Tea

Here's the inspiration for our current Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World.  Since I love flowers so much and have so many flower stamps, I just had to make the time to play along.

I let the picture dictate my color choices and used lots of Hero Arts flower stamps and a Simon exclusive sentiment from Flower Friend.

And another, using a Purple Onion Designs Cup of Joy stamp and sentiment from HA's Tea , given to me by Virginia:

Go and have a look at the Trigger gallery - I really love seeing how everyone interprets Cath's Triggers!

A Painterly Palette

That's what Cath has named her current Tuesday Trigger:

Just love seeing all that color, so I followed suit.  After trying various ideas, I settled on this Wplus9 stamp set called Quilt Prints and spent a happy afternoon finding ink colors to approximate those above.  Most of them are Hero Arts, but there are a couple distress inks represented too.  Here's my card:

After finishing the inking, I trimmed my panel, ran it through a houndstooth embossing folder, and then framed it in grey before adding it to my card.  I thought this sweet sentiment from Ali Edwards was a perfect match.

A Little Romance

I should have been born in the late 1800's, when ladies' clothes were long, lacy and romantic!  When I saw this week's Tuesday Trigger, I dropped everything to play with it.  I ended up making 2 cards; please keep on scrolling for the 2nd one, as it was added after this first one:

Starting with the lightest shade of Hero Arts pool layering papers (shallows), I white embossed this old Hero Arts Lace Background stamp .  Then I die-cut a Die-Namics Oval Decorative Doily from an ivory cardstock, stamped my sentiment from Flourishes Picking Wildflowers in soft pool ink, and added the smallest ivory/cream buttons I could find in my stash.  The lovely ceramic flower is the perfect color - it was given to me almost a year ago by my friend Marcy, and I've been hoarding it ever since.  Thank you, my friend!  Back when I was a teen, a beautiful pin would have been worn right at the top of this blouse, between the collars.

The rest of my week right up to the due date for entries to this Trigger, is booked, so I had to post this NOW!  Thank you, Cath, for a beautiful inspiration!

ETA: like I said, my week is packed, so here's another try:

Being my literal self again, this one uses white cardstock and a Core'dinations one, along with some vellum, which I embossed in the Victoria folder.  The sentiment half-circle is made with an old Fiskars Circle Border punch called Heart of Hearts.  My sentiment is from Hero Arts Beautiful Peacocks.  And this time I could use tiny pearl "buttons" on my organza ribbon placket.

Tangerine

These citrus colors for the Tuesday Trigger are just perfect for summer, and I had to give them a go.  I honed in on the ric-rac trims and pulled out my chevrons, some Lawn Fawn Bright Side papers, and a Penny Black stamp set called Petal Party.  The brad in the flower center is from a MME set called The Sweetest Thing, Tangerine.

Thanks for visiting today!  I hope you'll come back again.

Skidding in by a hair!

I was thinking I had more time for Cath's Tuesday Trigger this week, but I don't, so here is my second entry for this beautiful Trigger.

supplies: yellow cardstock, dps from BoBunny's Soft Shades Double Dots pad, Wplus9 Blanket Stitched Blooms, PTI's Friendship Jar (sentiment), Darice Simple Interlock embossing folder, paper doily.

Just LOVE these pastels with the sunny yellow and that crisp white!  Thank you, Cath!

Sweetness

Cath's inspiration for us this week at the Tuesday Trigger is just what she named it: Sweetness and Light.

This reminds me of our stays in bed and breakfasts in Maine; I so prefer them to hotels.  My mind immediately went to this Penny Black paisley stamp and here is my entry.

supplies: Hero Arts Delicate Flowers and Untitled Word Shadow, stamped in Butter Bar ink and Penny Black Paisley Outline, stamped in Charcoal ink and colored with markers.

Thanks for visiting me today!  It's our 42nd anniversary (are we old or what?) - wish we were going to one of those B&B's!  

350 Cards & Gifts Week: the Card Set challenge

At Moxie Fab World, Cath has challenged us to create a coordinated card set and matching container, and she's kindly allowed us to re-enter anything we've done within the last 4 weeks.  So I'm using this card set that I posted on April 23, and decorated a little basket container to hold them.

If you'd like the supplies for the cards, please visit my blog post referenced above.
My friend Mary Anne gave me this cute basket awhile back, and I can just fit the cards inside (I think Ill put some Easter grass or colorful tissue paper in the very bottom where it's too narrow for the cards to fit).  To decorate it, I embossed the cuttlebug Poppy folder on white cardstock, then pounced my distress inks, spritzed with water, dried and then cut out the largest Nesties Labels 20, and attached it to the basket.  I made a little banner using a stamp from Simon's Flower Friend set.  I stamped, colored, and die-cut another butterfly, and used some silk ribbons and a colorful yarn to wrap around the handle.

  

I'll probably give this to my Mom or sister as a Mother's Day gift.  Thanks, Cath, for this great challenge!  I can't wait to see what's in the gallery for this challenge!

Pretty Little Petits Fours

Here's our inspiration for the Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger.  Just loved the little blossoms and the pinks, so I went digging in my older stamps for just the right flower - found it in this Stampendous Charity Blossom, from 2000.  It's actually 2 roses in a little group, but I separated out just 1 of them, and colored each one a tad different, using Memento markers.  And I also pulled out this shadow stamp from Whispers/Sugarloaf Products, and stamped it in Bubble Gum ink.   This sentiment seemed just right; it's from PTI's Garden Variety Set.  The sweet gingham pink is an Amuse gingham........using up the last of it, time to reorder!

And here's another one, using my current favorite embossing folder of the hour:

The folder is called Poppy, by Cuttlebug, the paper is Core-dinations Vintage collection, Pink Tutu, sanded, the sentiment is from Jane's Doodles Mom's Flowers, and the little paper rose is from Mike's Recollections line.

This is a 3-week Trigger, so there's lots of time to enter - I'm sure we'll be seeing some fun takes on the inspiration!

Magical Magnolias

This is our Tuesday Trigger this week at Moxie Fab World.  We have one of these trees just outside  a corner of our house, and it is just as lovely as this picture, a most wonderful shade of pale pink.  I knew immediately that I would use this Hero Arts stamp called Large Blossom for my card, and I'm sure lots of others entrants will too, because it is, to me, a magnolia also.  So I knew I'd have to do something a bit different to make my card stand out from the others.  So I looked through lots of papers and finally decided that the scale of this one from My Mind's Eye Quilting Bee was just what I wanted.  I clear stamped my image, then heat embossed it with white.  The Hero Arts white embossing powder covered the pattern in the paper perfectly.  Then I trimmed out the image, leaving a bit of the paper as a frame, and simply mounted in on a plain white card.  This May Arts silk ribbon is the perfect match to the paper, as is the VersaMagic Malted Mauve ink that I stamped the sentiment (from Hero Arts Luscious Frames) in.

I'd also like to enter this card into Flourishes Summer Lovin' challenge,

Hope Your Day is Fabulous

Here's my take on the Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World.  I just finally got some of the limited edition colors of distress inks from last year, and I decided to blend 3 of them (peacock feathers, evergreen bough, and mowed lawn) onto white cardstock to make this background.  Maybe because my foam pads were new also, they weren't blending as nicely as usual, so I spritzed the paper with some water, and then things got easier.  After that panel dried, I used a Hobby Lobby butterfly embossing folder to give it some more dimension.  then I stamped the butterfly and my sentiment on some scraps of the same and added them on top.

Here is the beautiful Trigger from Cath:

Cross My Heart

supplies: white cardstock,  pool layering paper, Nesties scalloped heart die, Hero Arts CL586 XO, bubblegum mid-tone ink, VersaFine onyx black ink, Recollections paper roses

Here's my entry for the current Tuesday Trigger - isn't it a great inspiration picture?

Pure Play

When I saw the adorable Tuesday Trigger that Cath posted for us this week:

my mind went instantly to making a card using ONLY die-cuts.  I don't have all my supplies here in Florida, but I do have most of my dies, so I pulled out a Doodlebug Design pad called Hello Spring, and started die-cutting these elements in the soft spring colors of the papers.  Here's my take on the Trigger:

I used the Oh Happy Day, an exclusive Simon Says Stamp die along with the Wplus9 dies called Folk Art Florals, adding some natural twine to hang the birdhouse, and some small buttons in spring colors.  

This was really fun, thanks, Cath, for the inspiration!  Happy Birthday to your Mom; I hope that her birthday was a happy day for her!

And since this incorporates letters, I'd also like to enter this into CAS-ual Friday's Love Letters challenge.

Fall Fantasy

Here's our Tuesday Trigger:

Love the colors!  Remember when we first started seeing these rolled flowers?  I still love them!

supplies: kraft and green cardstock, Hero Arts CG215 Wreath of Leaves, CL119 Happy Thanksgiving, Palette Burnt Umber ink, Die-namics large and medium rolled roses, gold and red felt, Sizzix Sizzlits Branch with Leaves die, Hero Arts gems and pearls

These flowers are so easy to make when using felt.....I need more colors!  Thanks for stopping by!

Ready for Red?

The Tuesday Trigger this time is ELEGANT!

I took some time to think about which of several background stamps that I own would be the perfect one and decided on this one from Hero Arts called Classic Fabric Background.  I stamped it on a dark charcoal paper and embossed it in white.  Then I took some more time to consider what my red element could be, and I kept coming back to a big red rose.  This is the first time I've used all the parts of my Spellbinder's Rose Creations dies - I used at least 2 of most of the sizes, to make this as full as I could.  The rose is centered with an antique pearl brad that sweet Sue sent me.  Then came the sentiment.....I didn't want to overpower the rest of the design, so I settled on this little banner, also from Hero Arts.

supplies: white, charcoal and red cardstock, Hero Arts CG245 Classic Fabric Design, VersaMark ink and Hero Arts white embossing powder, 330053 Heydey Sentiments, VersaFine onyx black ink, Spellbinder's Rose Creations dies, Creative Charms Vintage pearl brad

Now if I only had an elegant occasion to use this for!

Val de Victorian

It seems ages since I've been able to enter a challenge.  So yesterday I just played with the Tuesday Trigger  - who knew that these colors would be so fun together?  Here's the Trigger:

And here's what I came up with:

supplies: white cardstock, BoBunny double dots (flamingo, violet, orange citrus, and burnt orange), Hero Arts CL380 Truly Appreciated, Memories Art Print Brown ink, Die-Namics Chevron Stripes, square buttons

Hop on over to Moxie Fab World and see all the takes from everyone else - this one really has  brought our our creativity!

Tuesday Trigger, Take Two

As I said yesterday, the Tuesday Trigger this time has my creativity simmering!

This time my eyes focused on the little flowery prints in the hexagons, and I went looking for a little flower stamp.  Once that was colored and trimmed out into a circle and framed with a brown scallop, my "plan" took on a life of its own.  I had originally thought I'd use some gingham and ditzy prints and make different sizes of circles to sprinkle down the card - that just didn't pan out, and instead I cut those same papers into strips and made a little strip-pieced panel, which I then embossed to look like it's been quilted.  I added some lace down the right side, found a sentiment that would fit into what was left of my card base, and here is the result:

supplies; white and brown cardstock, Amuse and various scraps of old dps, Hero Arts CL500 Love Every Day (the flowers from a little vase), CL417 Huge Hugs, Palette Burnt Umber ink, Memento markers, Hobby Lobby lace, Cuttlebug Wicker Weave embossing folder, Ranger Glossy Accents for centers of flowers

Tuesday Trigger - SEW cute!

When Cath put this Tuesday Trigger up, I practically fell over myself gathering some papers to play along.  This one hits all my buttons, and then some!

supplies: white cardstock, dps from Simple Stories Baby Steps and assorted bits and pieces from The Girls' Paperie, Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe, and doodlebug designs sugar & spice, Die-Namics hexagon die, paper doily, Signo white pen, natural twine, Hero Arts CL397 Sew Original, Artprint Brown ink, pins from Heidi Grace

I went literal again, couldn't help it, I just loved all the patterns on the photo inspiration.  I already have another idea, so I'll be back......