A Little Bit Formal for Embellish .... and some fun :0)

Embellish Magazine's last challenge was a little bit different - and the colours made me think of formal cards ...

There was also the added twist - to include background stamping...

Used two shades of gray on this one ... Smokey Shadow and Soft Stone ...

... and silk ribbon for the bow - out of my little coveted hoard :0)!

Thank you so much to the ladies at embellish - it's always a stretch - and always fun to play along!

Now for the other part of the post :0)

Keva - sweetly gave my blogaroo a Cherry On Top award yesterday - what a surprise! Wooohoooo! Thank you Keva!!!

Now apparently, I have to share something about myself, show a photo and pass the award along to 5 wonderful bloggers ....

Here goes!

I'm a non-fiction lover, am 5'1" tall and have a horrible time finding clothing for the 'vertically challenged', absolutely ADORE cheesecake (it should be one of the 5 basic foodgroups) and find vermicomposting fascinating ... and yes, really do call my hubby "The Hunkadorus" .... :0)

Which brings me to the picture...

That is the *REAL THING* caught in his natural environment!!

Heee!

Now to pass this along ... to:

Aimes - Uber-Talented, Queen of CAS, TOTALLY sweet and encouraging into the bargain!!

Dana - It was no surprise to see Dana's name coming up again and again during the last Blog Hop - she has inspired people all over Blogland with her artistic creations and willingness to share know-how!

Rhonda - who has a great eye for using things in wonderful ways ....

Christina - Who has an amazing eye for design - and the polish she finishes her cards with is second to none!

Sue Ann - Who is super creative and talented - and just makes the whole world a happier place!!

Big smiles everyone! Have a super-wonderful day!

:0)

Betsy Veldman's Paper Crafts CASE!

Hi everyone! How is the week going for you so far? Staying up into the wee hours to find some crafty time?! LOL - insane how we keep our sanity isn't it! :0)

Betsy Veldman is presently hosting a challenge to take any non-holiday card from Paper Crafts, "Card Creations 8" and turn it into a holiday ('ish') card ... (Betsy provides a link to some cards if you don't have an issue!)

That is actually a Paper Crafts special pub that I HAVE (wooohooooo!) and I chose to use a card which has inspired me once already.

It's on page 34 ... and was created by Jessica Witty :0)

Some Prisma Glitter and bling for shimmer ... some turquoise for punch ..

Don't you love those colours together?

Thank you so much for the challenge Betsy! I really enjoyed it!

Thanks for popping in Peeps ...

Happy wishes and smiles to you all!

:0)

**000**

Materials: All materials Papertrey Ink - Except: Circle Punches - McGill; Sentiment Stamp and Glitter - Hero Arts; Rhinestone Flowers - Kaiser

ETA - the cardstock is PTI Soft Stone ... :0)

Moxie Scallops :0)

Well things are just a bit Moxie on the 'ole blog at the moment aren't they? Too many good things happening over on that site all at once!

The Moxie Fab World Challenge at the moment is "The Offset Scallop Gallop" - there is oodles of eye candy for inspiration (including a cutie dress from Anthropologie) and scallops galore ...

I have really wanted to play in this one - and had a few ideas for fun shaped cards and other more wacky inventions ... but none of those ideas felt like 'me'. So I ended up coming back to a stamp in "First Fruits" that knocked my socks off from the moment I first saw it stamped, and went for a slightly more elegant take on the scallop idea ...

This stamp always feels a little exotic to me. Like a romance story out of something in the Arabian Nights genre ... or maybe just peacock feathers?

Until this challenge I had never thought about using it on a feminine, girly kind of card - that has CHANGED! I really love what it adds to the overall effect!

The flower is made from Harvest Gold felt. The scallops are stamped in Hawaiian Shores ink on Aqua Mist paper and the leaves are Simply Chartreuse.

Thanks *so* much for visiting with me!

Take care of yourselves this week - and have a GREAT one!

:0) Smiles!

**000**

Materials: All Papertrey Ink, Except: Embossing Folder - Provo Craft; Tag Die - Spellbinders; Rhinestones - Kaiser; Thread and Printed Vintage Paper

Moxie Fab Granny Squares :0)

The title of the challenge this time is "Not Your Square Granny Squares" .... and it's a beautiful homey, deliciously fall-ish kind of inspiration ....

The first thing I noticed about this pic was the way your eye dances around the quilt. With occasional 'rest stops' on the lighter areas ... so that is where I went too ...

Lots of dotty spotty goodness with a white spot for your eye to alight on! (No I wasn't brave enough to try a hexagonal focal point :0)! heeee!

This quilt says "Fall" all over. It's warm, rich and full of the promise of homey memories and good times! Fall to me is about luxurious, outrageous, extravagant colours .... (spring comes in with a whisper, where sweet little things bravely poke their heads out of the ground and beckon shyly in pastel colours). Fall comes in screaming "I'M BEAUTIFUL ... JUST LOOK AT ME!!" Don't you think?

I tried to give a nod to this idea of fall - by the colours used (obviously) but also by using elegant flourishes and a big "you can't miss it" kind of bow.

This card is also for our Papertrey Peeps Challenge number 15 "Fall Into Fall".

Thanks for popping in!

Best wishes for a *totally* wonderful and happy day :0)

**000**

Materials - All Papertrey Ink; Except: Stickles - Ranger

Papertrey Blog Hop September Challenge ...

Hi everyone!! (Big wave! :0) A slightly different format for the hop this time around - I hope that the international peeps have been able to come out and play too!

The challenge this time was a REAL challenge for me! To share a skill learned .... Hmmmmm.

You didn't come here to learn how to tie a bow - did you (especially after Dawn gave us her amazing tutorials ...!) Maybe emboss resist? (But Nichole does such an amazing job of that ....) A copic tutorial (LOL - I don't have any) but we have Debbie who rocks the copic world ... Oh I could go on .... but we're pretty well covered aren't we?!

So I turned my attention to something completely different. Lately (like other people on the forum), I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed - school is back in, life is busy, busy, busy .... and my lovely stamp collection calls to me. But when I try and create it seems like everything calls to me at once. Now we have dies, felt, tags, mats ... and I just want to love it all!! My card creating time is becoming more and more confusing and challenging.

Then I remembered why I fell in love with PTI in the first place. I loved the stamps. I loved the designs. I loved the colours. I loved how a beautifully finished project looked manageable and doable. I loved Nichole's blog and her clean, powerful card design.

Where did I go wrong??

So the "skill" I'm sharing today is one that I'm just setting about learning. Summarised as "Leave it OFF!!" I'm starting to haunt sites like Clean and Simple Sketches. Solid card foundations .... and a return to the delight and wonder that made me a PTI lover in the first place - beautiful colours, beautiful quality products and gorgeous stamp design. Here goes....

Simple design doesn't have to be meek and boring (LOL!)

Although there is lots of colour, there isn't a lot of clutter ...

So for another card, where I wanted to work it a bit more ... I left off most of the colour :0)

A bit of embroidery and some punched shapes ... simple stamping ...

....and not much to detract from it all!

So there it is.

Time to go and haunt Maile Belles blog I think - what a great place to learn how to simplify!!  :0)!!

Have a wonderful hop! Time for us to go and collect wood (I'll be grateful sometime around Christmas!) and I'll catch up with you wonderful bloggers later!

:0)!

Saturated!

Hi Peeps - Happy Friday :0)! I popped into The Play Date Cafe yesterday to see what new challenge they had - and this beauty was up!

I LOVE the saturated colour scheme of this - and the graphic clean feel ... so that is where the inspiration took me :

I stamped the leaves onto Enchanted Evening cardstock and then cut them out - layering the blue onto some Simply Chartreuse ...

The base cardstock is Soft Stone and the sentiment is heat embossed with silver!

I really enjoyed making this one and will be popping it in at Caardvarks also - they really *do* have me thinking about simple card design at the moment!

Thanks for stopping in - best wishes for a totally awesome weekend!

:0)!

**000**

Materials - All Papertrey Ink except; Sentiment - Hero Arts; Border Punch - Fiskars; Rhinestones - Kaiser

Embellish - Paper Piecing and Pretty!

What a beautiful helping of luverly inspiration Embellish served up for us this time! Look at this eye candy and these gorgeous colours!!

Lots of inspiration available here! (And the DT samples were loaded with gorgeous stuff!)

I decided to go floral ... and somehow in these colours the dahlia just looked a bit sunflower-ish to me! Maybe I just have fall-mania or something?! :0) We have so many beautiful colours emerging on the trees and bushes outside! Gracious, I just love this time of year!!!

I used some micro beads for the flower centre and covered them with a dollop of glossy accents when they were all done - (extra shine never did anything any harm - don't you think!?)

The 'doily' is Spellbinders new "Eyelet Circles" - I cut the centre out so you could see the lovely kraft peeking through it.

Thanks for popping in!

Thanks to Embellish for another round of fantastic fun - it's always a pleasure to play along!

Have a great evening Peeps!!

:0)

**000**

Materials - Papertrey Ink, except - Writing Stamp and Sentiment - Hero Arts; Circle Dies - Spellbinders; Pearls - Kaiser

Caardvarks Does CAS

Well Caardvarks is issuing a CAS Challenge this time around with a great sponsor to boot! I missed their last challenge with a gorgeous sketch by the one and only Heidi Van Laar :0( so this one is in early this time!

The rules didn't specifically say that we had to make a Christmas card - but all the luscious DT samples were Christmassy - and we've had snow on the mountains around us ... it just seemed like the right way to go!

I used Heather Nichol's Holiday Tree for this one and some dotty paper for the little hills...

With the minimal decorating, I thought Dawn McVey's Signature Christmas had a great soft edge in contrast ... and the white space is framed with gold leafing pen.

I am also entering this card at 2S4Y - they have a great sketch this week - with a little criss crossed embellishment down the side!

So there it is! Happy Tuesday everyone!

Thanks for visiting me :0)

ETA: I just want to say a HYOOOOOOGE *THANK YOU* to the ladies at 2S4Y for highlighting this card in their Fab 5 this week! Wow! I'm thrilled and honoured! Thank you again!

Retro Peach and a Scary and a Happy Moment!

Hi Peeps! Home again and we are all safe and sound! My dear hunkadorus did some amazing, unintentional "flying trapeeze work" off the cabin roof and is pretty bruised up - so we don't take that for granted!!! Sooooooo scary! :0(

Time for a card .... I really love the Flourishes fruit series. Not being a Copic owner - they're great for paper piecing! The little stippled dots really add a lot to the appearance of volume and to the shadowing.

For the background strips, I used a combination of "Thrift Store" papers from October Afternoon and "Dotty Biscotti" from PTI.

The peach is pieced with "In Bloom" paper and the leaves are from the "Pretty Pastels" line. I pierced and hand stitched the circle border ...

And the little sentiment is where it all started! :0)

Now for some HYOOGE news for me :0) Just a few minutes before we left to go away I discovered that I'd won Caardvarks' August Christmas Tags and Minis Challenge - sponsored by JustRite Stampers!!!!!

Eeeeeeeeeeep! I squealed so loudly every single member of the family came running to see if all was O.K. :0)!!!

The prize was FIVE (really and truly!) Christmas stamp sets and stampers from JustRite .... I have been walking on air for a week!

Thanks for visiting me and for letting me gush ....

Wooohoooooo! I'm soooooo excited!

HUGS!

The Power of Suggestion ...(Scheduled Post)

O.K. so this one is a bit random and the laugh is on me .... I'm reading this book right now ...

It's really thick and really 'chewy' and I've been enjoying it a great deal.

However, one of my daughters was horrified to see the little piece of scrap paper I had in it keeping my place. (Especially as I bought the PTI "Booked Up" stamp set a while ago.) I was told that she was a bit disappointed :0(

So I ran to my craft room and produced a three minute bookmark ..(which included getting everything out, cleaning the stamps and putting them away).

I chose this little sentiment because it made me giggle on release night - and because I love the little scroll underneath it - and it looks so cute with the Embellishments stamp ...

I went back to reading my book - and within 10 minutes had passed out completely. Go figure. I don't usually do that!!!!

The power of suggestion, I suppose?

LOL!

Have a good one peeps!!

Thinking Christmas (Scheduled Post)

With Papertrey's Christmas Countdown in full swing, I thought I'd share this card. Remember the 'spackle' stamp which my hunkadorus brought home for me a few months ago? It makes the most wonderful snow :0)!

Nichole shared this technique with us when she introduced "Through the Trees" - where you heat emboss the image with clear embossing powder and add some interest to the background. Wiping away any excess ink from the image again, when you're done.

I used some torn vellum for the 'snow line' at the bottom ;0)

So are you feeling Christmassy yet?? It sure is getting cool here already. The 'burning bushes' are changing colour ....

It's coming, ready or not!

Have a totally fabulous day peeps!

{Hugs}!

Damask Hugs

The inspiration for this card came from Jessica Witty. She has been heat embossing on Soft Stone cardstock for a while - and I think it looks absolutely gorgeous!

I decided to try and mix my elements up a bit - combining unusual things together - hopefully still with a tad of cohesion :0)!

The butterfly and heart are made with one of my personal favourite techniques - to stamp them, colour them in (if necessary) and then heat emboss over the image again with a kaleidoscope embossing powder ...

And there it is! A bit of twinkly fun!

The hunkadorus is telling me that he has an urge to hit the hills ... I'm going to miss the rest of the PTI countdown - can you believe it!??!!

(I'm going to pass this 'test' of affection and loyalty - but what a struggle, I can tell you! LOL!)

Have a *totally* wonderful day!

:0)

WINNERS! :0)

It has been so much fun having the giveaway - I have been unbelievably touched by your kind words - THANK YOU! The hard part has been finally choosing winners. I really would love to be sending something to everyone - {HUGS}!

After looking at random.org and trying to figure out a good way to count down the comments (some had been deleted too) I decided to put names into a hat - the old fashioned way!

So my dear hunkadorus pulled the name for the $25 gift certificate - and it was :

Lee who said...
I always love visiting your blog. Your cards and creations are simply stunning. Thanks for all the inspiration.

And my son pulled a name for the Round and Round set and it was:

Kara who said...
Congrats again!! I love this set and was not able to earn one myself!! Thanks for your generosity!!

Woohoooo! Congratulations!!!!! My email address is accessible on my profile page - I will try and contact you as well!

Thank you all so much for playing along with me. I recently reconfigured my blogpage and ended up losing my counter when it changed - HaHa!

So things have started again at 1.

Hmmmm. I hope to make it back to another giveaway for the next 10,000!

Blessings for a wonderful day!

Embellish Does Squares ..

Embellish Magazine has come up with a delicious colour combination - and the challenge to use squares. Yummy!

Well, I made a square card - and decorated it with squares. You never would have guessed right :0) (LOL! heee!)

I stitched between the squares with some gold filament thread and used a felt flower, some hand cut crushed leaves and two stick pins for some interest and dimension .... and added a little bling for good measure ...

Thanks for popping in and visiting with me!

I'll be back tomorrow with a giveaway winner - thanks to everyone who has played along with me!

:0)

Have a goodie peeps!

One For Me!

I thought I'd do a post that was 'just for me' :0) I didn't make this one for anyone specific - and the composition of this card isn't going to light a fire for anyone ... but I certainly enjoyed stamping it! My own sort of "expressionist" cardmaking ;0)

Thanksgiving here is the second Monday in October - so I have some time to choose a recipient!

I knew when these flourishes in the new Embellishments set came out that it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship for me! Wow - I really do love them!

And here is another set I got excited about ... these will be on our table this year! I haven't decided yet whether to handwrite the names or stamp them - with scripty letters?

I like having the place cards 'framed' and cut my tent frame 2.75" x 3", scoring along the 3" length at 1.5" (obviously :0) - this is a bit bigger than the card suggested on the tip sheet for this stamp set!

So there it is. First of September and I'm ready for fall!

In all of it's glorious colour!

Best wishes to you for a beautiful day!!

:0)

Materials: Papertrey Ink, Except - Large Sentiment - Hero Arts; Labels 4 Frame - Waltzingmouse (stamp), Spellbinders (Die)

ETA - The name cards were stamped with the wheat sheaf from First Fruits :0) !