The Less-Loved ... (Scheduled Post)

Helloooo again ... :0)

Here is a card that was not loved, overlooked, unwanted, under appreciated, um. *sigh*.  That would really be *rejected*, by Paper Crafts in the last submission call :0)

The challenge was to get creative with Canvas - something I'd never tried before. I was quite astonished to find that it held a stamped image really well. I had expected far more bleeding. So this was a bit of fun - starting with the stamped gingham (which looks like fabric) and then overlaying the actual canvas fabric over that image, and stitching it through ...

I used a Rustic White card base as the starting point. I really love the old country look that resulted.

Paper Crafts very kindly honoured me with an acceptance for the publication ... but it obviously wasn't for this poor creation :0) LOL!

Oh well!!

See you soon!

xxx

N

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Stamps: Love Lives Here, Bitty Background Blocks (Papertrey Ink)

Delightful Doilies (Scheduled Post)

Hellooooo Peeps!! I thought I'd schedule a post in for while we're away ... and I had something new to play with - so it wasn't too difficult to find something to pop in here :0)

My Mind's Eye brought out some really delightful Doily stamps in their "Stella and Rose - Gertie" line - and although they aren't photopolymer, at $6 the temptation to try them out was quite overwhelming. They're cute. Very cute ...

They're stamped over a Waltzingmouse Text-it background in white ink on Kraft. A touch of crocheted lace..

... and a rosebud that really reminds me of my Grandmother - who had an old fashioned rose garden when I was a tot, and I still remember rows and rows of incredibly beautiful roses!

So there it is! Thanks for popping in!

xxx

N

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Stamps: Text-It, Vintage Labels 4, Holiday Labels 14 (Waltzingmouse)

Doilies (My Mind's Eye, Stella and Rose - Gertie Collection)

Little Bitty Bird (Papertrey Ink)

Little Boats for Boys.

Hi everyone! :0) Another week - and this one is an exciting one for us! My Hunkadorus (who has been working sooooooo hard) is snatching us off for a week away - starting Wednesday! This isn't just any week away, but a week that includes hotels and restaurant food. (We really don't often do this). And a week is just about the right amount of time to start missing your own bed - and understanding all of those Christmas carols that sing sentimentally about home cooking ... heee!

I don't know if there will be internet access for us or not ... so I apologise in advance if I turn out to be a really bad blogging buddy this week.

So in amongst all of the clothing, ironing, packing, list making ... I have a card!

The Embellish Challenges are up and going again and I have really been wanting to play. So when this challenge was posted I fell in love with the colours ... and jumped in:

The idea is that the card should be masculine ... but I found these colours *so inspiring* for a non-traditional baby/very young boy, card! (But baby boys are still boys after all :0)

I'm still needing baby boy cards - so this worked well for me there too :0) Don't you love the red and baby blue together, with  the hint of green, rather than the traditional yellow!? (Um - in case my camera is telling tall stories again ... that's Spring Moss cardstock in there :0)

I think the idea was to leave all the bling off. Oh well ;0)!

Thank you to the ladies at Embellish for the beautiful colours to work with!

Paper Crafts Connection is running a baby challenge this month too - so I've also popped this card into their Flickr group to play along there too!

Thank you for stopping in today!

Hugs!!

xx

N

Stamps: Precious Baby Boy (Hero Arts)

Bitty Baby Blessing (Papertrey Ink)

Bitty Buttons.

Happy Thursday everyone!! (Actually, happy *St. Patrick's Day*, everyone!! :0) 

Peeking around blogland yesterday evening, it looks like this weeks Trigger at the Moxie Fab World has inspired people to create in all sorts of different ways! So much fun!

For those peeps who haven't met this weeks inspiration pic:

Linen, creamware, kraft and buttons. (With the concept of food hovering in the atmosphere of this picture too :0)

For some reason this triggered the idea of rustic French Country dining for me - maybe the creamware plate? And linen has such a timeless quality about it - something that has been used, worn and appreciated for millennia.

So I decided to go a little aged and rustic - and keep to the table theme (I LOVE table decor), to make some slightly different place cards ...

The textile element is present in the gingham, some stitching - as a nod to the beautiful hemming on the napkins, and some distressing because of the rustic country dining that somehow was evoked for me. The base cardstock is rustic white.

Actually, I found this concept a lot of fun and wondered how gingham napkin holders with button closures would look with these ... hmmmmm!!

I think those may be coming soon to a table near me :0)!!

So there it is for now ...

I hope you have an Irish Blessing kind of day!

xxx

N

Something Springy.

Hi everyone! The poor hunkadorus is having a tough week - he just came in for dinner, and had to head out again.

He brought the mail - and there was a package for me (a skinny little one) and inside was something that was pretty exciting to see!

I have been trying to hunt down a punch that would give me a lovely lawn for ages. Every time we headed out of town I'd try at a few different places - but never came up with anything. So I was pretty excited to discover that My Favorite Things carries a grass die!

So spring is in the air ... and I'm rolling out a lawn here :0)!

So it was a quick and simple card this evening, but oh-so much fun to get the stamps and ink out!

Have a totally WONDERFUL day! (A really, *really* good one!)

xxx

N

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Stamps: Flower Fusion #1, Signature Greetings (Papertrey Ink)

A Little Shimmer ...

Hi Peeps!! I'm 4 1/2 dresses down since the last post (for me that's really MOVING :0)! and I'm missing getting inky!

I made this card to enter the Moxie Fabulous "Stamping with Shimmer Sprays" Challenge a few days ago and suddenly realised that my time to enter the challenge is almost over!

I started off by stamping some inkadinkadoo snowflakes onto white cardstock, with Versamark ink and heat embossing them with Kaleidoscope embossing powder. It shimmers when it catches the light - but otherwise just looks white.

I then applied a liberal spritz of Tattered Angels "Frost" glimmer mist ... to end up here:

When the mist was completely dry, I used a slightly moist baby wipe to remove any excess mist from the embossed sections - which kept them nice and white.

The end result is subtle, clean, serene and pretty ... not too glittery. It's quite a quiet card - despite all that spray!

Thanks for popping in and visiting with me for a while! I hope you're having a *totally* wonderful weekend.

Take care!

Hugs!

xxx

N

Hospitality.

Happy Thursday everyone! (Thursday - can you believe it??!)

Life is going through one of those super-hectic times here. Funny how things can just muddle around for a while and then someone pushes the fast forward button, isn't it?!

I thought I'd share a simple little card, made for the folks who blessed us last weekend ...

I started with some Bitty Background Blocks and used them as little mats for the other images ...

I think our mail system will ignore that one little button and let this go through under the normal postage rate - so I'm hoping it will mail well!

I'm busy trying to do some more sewing here - my favourite pattern for girl's dresses at the mo:

No zippers!!! But I do find that sewing really squishes my card making mojo - so weird!

Anyhoo. Best get back at it!

Thanks for popping in :0)!

xx

N

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Stamps: Bitty Background Blocks, Love Lives Here, Home Made - Papertrey Ink

Muddled Mondays :0)

Hi everyone!! I'm so far behind in blogland at the moment - and feeling so sorry not to be in touch!

We've had a whirlwind weekend. Out of town on Friday for our 6 weekly "big shop" and to pick up our dear dog's ashes - so we've been feeling a bit quiet and contemplative again. And then Friday was a rainbow kind of day - because I came home to two Project Acceptances from PaperCrafts ... which was a big happy right in the middle of the sad!

Yesterday we spent with some new friends ... and I lost my heart completely to their 3 year old little boy! What a happy, chatty, smiling, busy, friendly, sharing, **SWEETIE**!! I told the Hunkadorus that it isn't the big guys who provide competition for a lady's affections - it's the little fellows who are the *real* heart slayers! :0) LOL!

Here is a card which I'm popping in to play at our Papertrey Peeps Challenge #2 for this year - to use red on a Valentine card. Now this doesn't have a lot of red ... but it *is* there ...

And it *is* a Valentine card! The musical score is by Waltzingmouse - and I twisted it on the block to create a bit of a curve ...

So there is my blogging for Monday - and I really hope that today ends up in some time to come out into blogland and visit YOU too!!

The sun is shining here - on all that snow we had recently. The world is very, VERY light and bright - I hope your day is bright today too - inside or out! :0)

Blessings!

xxx

N

And just in case you're wondering ... this poor little card *is indeed* a Paper Crafts reject (sketch #16)!! I'm really looking forward to the new Go-To Sketches issue ... it sounds like their submission response was huge and I SO enjoyed the last sketches issue - the new one just has to be good! :0) If you want to see more of the less loved cards out there (and I'm soooo glad I wasn't the one choosing) ... head over to Amber's blog - she's giving them their very own hop!

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Stamps: Love Birds (Papertrey Ink)

Musical Backgrounds (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

And a HUGE BIG **THANK YOU** to everyone who left me feedback on my last card and their screen colours. It looks like I need to make friends with RAW photography ... (insert high pitched terrified squeak!) I have been shooting in JPEG and my camera obviously has a problem with yellows in the greens. And then not all monitors are created equal or true to colour either - so that requires some investigation ... so please don't hold your breath! Some learning needs to occur on this end - but I have a direction thanks to all of your WONDERFUL help - and am so grateful! Thank you all so much again!

Pink and Green ...

Hi Peeps! Happy Thursday :0)!

Did you see the beautiful colours over at the CR84FN Challenge site? They're celebrating their 17th challenge this week - with this beautiful palette ...

Looks like spring all over - doesn't it?

Well, I was looking at a pad of Prima's Annalee paper ... and these colours are so beautifully incorporated in it - so they formed the basis of my card ...

I've never really considered Shabby Chic as being a strong point ... when do you stop? :0) But stretching of all kinds is meant to be good for you ...

The spiral roses were created by cutting out a Spellbinders blossom shape and trimming the spiral with an old pair of seagull decorative scissors. They were finished off with a spritz of Frosted Pearl Glimmer Mist. The label is embossed on vellum and overlaid on a smaller chartreuse paper label, so that most of it is still translucent. I think I'll be trying that again!

So there it is. I think I'd probably omit the glitter if this was made again - but it's applied with Heat and Stick powder. No going back when you've committed yourself there!!

Have an awesome day everyone! We've had a slightly unexpected and heavy snowfall here this morning ... it was sooooo beautiful!

xxx

N

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Stamps: Vintage Labels 5 - Waltzingmouse Stamps

Signature Greetings - Papertrey Ink

ETA - I just saw this card on another computer and was shocked to see that the green (leaves and DP) looks NEON YELLOW - Urk! (Really, really bright!)

It's looking fine on my screen - but I thought I should ask (if you have a mo) how does it look on yours? ? If it looks bright yellow, I have a problem and need to start some sleuthing here!! Thanks!