Doilies and Lace

This week at the Shabby Tea Room, our theme is doilies and lace.  Here is the inspiration photo:

And here is my entry:

And a closer view to see the flowers better; I popped up the 4 largest ones.

The bouquet is a stamp from a Penny Black set, stamped on white cardstock, watercolored and then stamped again on pink and gold cardstocks and shaded with Marvy markers before cutting out to pop above the main image.  I thought a doily would be the perfect thing to wrap them in, like the old-fashioned tussy-mussies.  The background panels are various printed dotted papers chosen to pull out the colors of the flowers further.  I faux-stitched around the edges of them with a white gel pen and then finished with a hand-dyed seam binding bow and a tag.

supplies: white cardstock, scraps of dotted dps, paper doily, scraps of pink and gold cardstocks, Penny Black 30 067 To You, versafine onyx black ink, Hero Arts CL498 Celebrate Everyday, versafine Deep Lagoon  ink, watercolor pencils, gold and pink gems, seam binding

Light Pink, Black and Cream

Gorgeous inspiration and colors from CR84FN this week"

I decided to use a sketch from Andrea that I had seen on the Verve blog, and I followed it to the "t":

I chose these 2 printed papers because they were not bright white and black, more in keeping with the cream of the challenge, and I've always liked toiles and stripes together.  The only stamping I did was on each of the 3 PTI diecut flowers.

supplies: cream, pink and black cardstocks, The Paper Studio black and cream printed papers, cuttlebug Textile embossing folder, PTI flower diecuts, Hero Arts S5264 Antique Flower Background, versafine onyx black ink, Nesties oval diecut, corner rounder, adhesive paper lace from K&Company, black button, cream twine, pearls

Etsy Inspired Challenge

The shop featured this week at the Etsy Inspired Challenge is called Think Fast Designs, featuring lots of lovely quilts!  After seeing Virginia's and Savannah's blog posts, I was inspired to play, and chose this Coin Quilt as my inspiration:

As you might know, I used to be a quilter, but once I discovered card-making I've neglected my quilting badly.  So doing a little quilt card like this makes me happy! 

Using a 1 1/4 inch square punch, I punched out lots of these patterns from October Afternoon and a few Cosmo Cricket papers, then cut each square in half and pieced them as you see on a piece of white cardstock.  To simulate quilting, I then ran the panel through a Sizzix embossing folder, see detail below.  To finish, I bordered it in a little green print and added some twine, a heart button and the sentiment.  Thanks, EIC, I had a blast making this!

supplies: white cardstock, October Afternoon The Thrift Shop and Fly a Kite paper pads, Cosmo Cricket Togetherness Mini Deck,My Mind's Eye  "Little Blossom" dp (border), Sizzix tiny flowers embossing folder, Hero Arts CL188 SparkleClear Tea (sentiment), white twine, heart button

Emboss Resist

At Mark's Finest Papers Blog, we've been challenged to use the emboss resist technique, one of my favorite techniques!  Here is my entry:

Starting with a page of text from an old Reader's Digest book, I white embossed the hollyhock stamp (a negative image: the background embosses, leaving the main image free) and then colored in the flowers and leaves using markers.  I also used the remainder of the page for the scalloped borders and the punched butterflies.  Since this uses 2 blues and a green, I'm also entering this into the Play Date Cafe challenge.

supplies:  old book page, cream, and 2 blue cardstocks, Hero Arts K5370 Garden Silhouette, hand-dyed seam binding, EK Success diamond scallop border punch, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Marvy and Tombow markers

Play Date Cafe

Look at these colors that Sarah Anderson chose for us this week at the Play Date Cafe!

I used Silke Ledlow's sketch from Case Study again, and incorporated the PDCC colors:

supplies: white cardstock Core'dinations Azure, Jet Stream and Guava, Hero Arts CL338 Be Yourself, Grass chalk ink, D2129 Vanessa Butterfly, versafine onyx black ink, EKSuccess Sticko brand clear sticker (sentiment), EL Success scallop diamond border punch, Sizzix swiss dots embossing folder, dotted blue grosgrain ribbon, blue button, 2 sizes of white pearls

Spring Has Sprung

A few weeks ago, I was so lucky to be the random winner of all of Flourishes March release stamps!  I was so happy to receive them and now I can enter more of their challenges! Here is the gorgeous photo inspiration for their Spring Has Sprung challenge:

Using 2 of my new sets, Spring Has Sprung and Lenten Rose, here is my submission, using the required colors of grass green, robin's egg blue, and daffodil yellow:

To me, a big part of spring here in NE Ohio is the reappearance of our birds, and a bird's nest is a wonderful symbol of rebirth and spring for me.  Here are some detail pictures showing these images:

I'd also like to enter this into Verve's March Diva Challenge: Color Me Spring.

supplies: white cardstock, scraps of BoBunny (green dot) and October Afternoon The Thrift Shop dps, Flourishes Spring Has Sprung and Lenten Rose (sentiment) clear stamps, versafine onyx black ink,paper doily, colored pencils, aqua satin ribbon

Color Me Spring!

At the Verve blog, the March Diva Dare challenge is to make something showing the colors of spring.  I would LOVE to have some Verve stamps, so here is my entry.  My card also qualifies for the Hero Arts April challenge, stamp layering.

supplies: white, BoBunny passion fruit, Lasting Impressions limeade checks, K&Company Spring Blossom dp, scraps of aqua and green dps, Hero Arts K5056 Garden Roses, versafine onyx black ink, Donna's hand-dyed seam binding, Carole's lace, large pink pearl

I decided to incorporate the lovely rose paper below from a K&Company mat pad by Susan Winget called Spring Blossom; these are exactly the colors of roses that I have in my garden.    The Garden Roses stamp was stamped on white cardstock, and then onto the rose pattern paper, some green, and a dotted aqua for the vase, cut apart and  pieced back over the white image, popping the roses above the rest of the design. 

Isn't this paper lovely?  I've almost used it up already - have to find another pad of it!!  Happy Spring!

Lily Pad Cards Very First Challenge: a Color Throw Down

Here are the scrumptious colors that Kathy has chosen for her very first Color Throw Down at Lily Pad Cards!  They make me think of the Florida Gulf Coast, with lemon, lime, and orange trees and the turquoise and blue waters there......

I made 2 cards with these colors:

supplies: Hero Arts PS605 Cerulean Layering Paper as cardbase, Sizzix embossing folder, (small flowers), scraps of lime, royal blue, orange and lemon papers, Hero Arts CL495 Blossom Art, CL374 Big and Small Flowers (stems and leaves), CL434 Just Find Me

supplies: Hero Arts PS605 Cerulean Layering Paper (card base), white, dark blue, lemon, lime and orange scraps of papers, Hero Arts CG176 Butterfly Field, broken china distress ink, E5386 Traditional Butterfly, versafine onyx black ink, CL267 Card Messages, versmark ink and white embossing powder

I hope these give you some inspiration for the challenge this week!  You can win a gorgeous set of Letraset Pro Markers!  For more ideas, please visit my Lily Pad Cards teamies:

               Alice Wertz

                     Deborah Nolan

                           Kathy Racoosin

                                 Nancy Krueger

                                        Sherri Thompson

                                              Suzanne Czosek

                                                    Vicky Papaioannou

CASE Study #34

This month at CASE Study, our muse is Silke Ledlow and look at this gorgeous creation:

I don't see any reason to mess with perfection, so this is a true CASE in every sense of the word; I just changed up the colors and used my own stamps, but used Silke's exact layout and design.

I haven't used this leafy branch for a long time; I stamped it in this pretty Grass chalk ink, and my colors  flowed from it.  I wanted to use true spring colors, and went as I often do to my stash of BoBunny dots papers for the panels and butterflies.  I love how this turned out!  Thank you Silke!

supplies: white cardstock, BoBunny Passion Fruit Dot and Buttercup Dot, versafine onyx black ink, Hero Arts CL333 Be Yourself, Hero Hues Grass chalk ink, E5388 Traditional Butterfly, CL434 Just Find Me, versafine onyx black ink, Martha Stewart doily edge punch, green gingham ribbon, pink button, twine, pale pink and gold gems, pop-dots to raise main panel

Also entering this into the Color Me Spring challenge at Verve Stamps.

Another sketch

Here's another sketch from this month's Hero Arts challenge, one of several options:

And here is my take on it, pretty much exactly as drawn:

And a detail, to show off the glittered-edge flower and the lovely heart center:

I just won the vertical strip from Flourishes and wanted to try it out......I have no idea how this card evolved into a black and white one.  You all know how much I like color, but I'm very pleased with the way this turned out.

supplies: black and white cardtock, Flourishes Strips and Stripes, Hero Arts S5264 Antique Flower Background, versafine onyx black ink, CL476 With Sympathy, versamark ink and white embossing powder, glittered flowers a gift from Sue and pink gem heart a gift from Cathy A, I think

Hero Arts April challenge

                         

supplies: Hero Arts stamps S5485 Many Petals, CL266 Mix & Match, assorted papers from October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket, PTI flower diecuts, aqua ribbon, tiny yellow button, twine

Made for this month's challenge, following 1 of 4 sketches:

Honey, I'm home!

Hello everyone - hope your weekend was a good one!  Just thought I'd check in since I haven't posted in awhile to let you know that I'm still here.  We packed up in Florida last week and left last Friday, arriving here in Ohio Saturday.  It will take me a few more days, but I'll be back to normal soon. 

Before I go, just wanted to point you over to Lily Pads Cards today, where they are introducing the Design Team, showing our baby pictures!  What a fun idea!  You can win 2 Stampendous clear stamp sets if you can figure out who all those little cuties are! 

I'll be back soon!

Welcome to the Lily Pad Cards Blog Hop!

                                                      

Welcome to stop #28, the final stop on day 4 of the Lily Pad Cards Blog Hop!  Lily Pad Cards is a new challenge blog that will feature interviews, articles, videos, challenges, great prizes, and more!

You should have arrived here from sweet Ashley's blog.  The Hop features 7 blogs each day.  It started Monday, March 27 and will finish tomorrow, Friday, April 1, with the grand opening of Lily Pad Cards!  Although Lily Pad doesn’t officially open until tomorrow, you’ll be able to see a new sneak peek every day until then. And there are three prize packages with a total retail value of over $800 - including a $100 gift certificate to a very popular online store! Go here for specific prize details and contest rules.

Our Hop’s theme is "Welcome" because we are welcoming Lily Pad Cards to the neighborhood, and we’re also welcoming all of you to come and join in all the fun!  I am so honored to be a member of the Design Team of Lily Pad Cards, and to get to work with the other amazingly talented design team members!

Here is my first Welcome card for you all:

supplies: white cardstock, Hero Arts CG215 Wreath of Leaves, peeled paint and shabby shutters distress inks, 3 different shades of pink BoBunny dotted papers (Tutu, Passion Fruit and Blush), and reverse of Avocado Dot, Die-namics die-cut rolled roses, Really Reasonable Ribbon dotted grosgrain ribbon, Hero Arts CH173 Hearts Accent Pearls, computer generated sentiment using "Old Script" font

While I was at it, I made you another version, just changing up a few elements:

supplies: white. aqua and green cardstock, Hero Arts CG215 Wreath of Leaves, peeled paint and shabby shutters distress inks, digital bird from Grapics Fairy, Inkadinkado #97194 Nest, watercolor pencils, computer-generated sentiment (Old Script font), hand-dyed seam binding, faded jeans distress ink, Hero Arts CH165, white Art Flower, the Paper Studio flower brad

In thinking about the theme, my mind went to the wreaths that I hang on our front door and change with the seasons - it is my way of saying welcome to my friends when they come to visit.  Thank you so much for visiting me today! 

Tomorrow at 9:00 am EST, you can start the Hop again at the Penny Black Blog, and if you follow along you'll end up at the brand new Lily Pad Cards Blog as it officially opens!  If you hit a bad link, you can always go to Lily Pad Cards  and click on the next link in the hop. Please report any bad links to webmaster@inlinkz.com.  Happy Hopping!

90 Minute Scramble, Monday, March 28

About every 2 weeks or so, over at the Hero Arts flickr group, we have a competition.  The hostess gives us a challenge, in this case, to make a window card, and then we have 90 minutes to make something using that criterion and using at least 1 Hero Arts stamp, take a photo of it, and get it posted to the gallery.  This time I got in just under the wire!  Here is my submission:

For my window I used a Dienamics rolled rose die.  And the cutout that resulted was made into the rose centering the stamped flower.  I placed the window to take out most of the bird on the big background Musical Collage stamp and used my leaves to cover up what was remaining of the bird's tail and the branch. The leaves also hold up the stamped flower from the inside of the card. I placed a white square inside the card to contrast against the front of the card and the flower.


supplies: aqua, green and white cardstock, S5501 Musical Collage, stamped in Versamark and white embossed, CG119 Flourish Background, stamped in Hero Hues Cerulean ink, CL322 Artistic Borders (flower), CG291 Three Dotted Flowers (leaves), CL497 Find Joy, Dienamics large rolled rose die

I encourage you to look at the link above to see lots more examples of window cards.  And here is the schedule for upcoming scrambles - the next one will be April 16, hosted by Sally.