A Valentine

A little Valentine I made for my daughter, who's away at college in Boston.  Photo taken with my phone, because I was switched from a PC to a Mac when my computer died, and I still have no photo editing software. Hoping to get back to posting after more than a year away!

Beach Vacation Bookmarks at Rogue

Hello - long, long, looooong time not blogging for me!  Life has been extremely busy - ALL GOOD - and blogging has taken a back seat to lots of other activities.  A wonderful beach vacation at the North Carolina shore, lots of sporting activities with the kids, and the design of our new house!  We had been in contract negotiations for several weeks, then in the design phase for a few months, and now things are finally starting to happen, so it's very exciting.  The only downside was that I poured all of my design mojo into the house plans, and not much at all into crafting!  But now hopefully.... it won't be soooo long before my next post, LOL!

I've got a little set of bookmarks featuring Rogue Redhead Designs' Beach Babes set and some of my vacation photos (from this year and last).  A little combo of my fave hobbies, you might say.  You can check out the Rogue Redhead Design blog HERE.

And, I'm thrilled to say, that the recent issue of Stampington's Catch-Up Issue featured a little piece I did with another Rogue Redhead set, Relish Reading....  that's my balloon piece on the right:

I hope you're all having a wonderful summer!  My kids are back in school - both in middle school now - so we are back to our regular routine.  Vacation is so sweet, and always so short.  But perhaps now more time for getting inky. ;)

Bookmark Swap

My second set of bookmarks for the Gingersnap Creations Art swap.  Paris and Pisa. :)  The one on the right has a Stampington image of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, heat embossed and colored with Distress Inks.  An Italian postmark and script Italian poem round out the collage.  On the bottom is a tiny map of Italy from a vintage German atlas I picked up at the flea market, bordered with some copper stickers.

The bookmark on the left is predominantly an image transfer onto canvas, with lace trim and a little French stamp tucked in.  It has very little stamping on the front (just some French script at the top), so I figured I'd better put some heftier stamping on the back (since that is one of the criteria for the swap!).  Here is my stamping (on the reverse side)....

Couldn't resist a little vintage French text, too.  Can't wait to see the treasures I get in return. ;)

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #PDCC81

So, do you ever start playing with colors and find you just can't stop?  That's what happened to me with this week's The Play Date Cafe Challenge #81.  Look at this gorgeous inspiration wallpaper in hues of deep purple, chartreuse, and silvery gray.  I started out wanting to play with glimmer mists and masks on canvas.  Then I had this wet mask on my hands, so had to stamp with it.... and on it went.  I'll start with the card first (you can click on the pictures to enlarge them if you'd like).

The card started with some hand stamped and misted patterned papers.  Behind the fairy is a paper that was made by stamping the wet, purple glimmer-misted Prima mask onto ivory cardstock.  I added some Stampington swirls in green, and some green distress ink.  I wanted the fairy to seemingly float over the patterned paper, so I stamped her in black on vellum, then turned it around and colored with Copics on the side opposite the stamping.  I cut her out and adhered her to the background paper (Copic side up), along with a fun little sentiment that was stamped on scraps that had various mists on them already.

Now for the background paper that is the main panel of the card.  Had fun with another item that's been sitting in my closet for a while: metallic silver tissue paper. 

First, I took a panel of very old Basic Grey paper that was, um, light grey, and stamped the script randomly in purple. I ran several layers of tissue paper through Tim Holtz's flourish alterations die, and adhered them to the panel using Golden soft gel medium.  After that was dry, I spritzed it with olive green glimmer mist.  I love how it turned out!  There's texture, shimmer, pattern.... my faves.  Here's a really bad photo that at least shows the shimmer:

Next up, that pennant (or bunting, if you prefer).  This was actually what I started with, stamping the violets in the center and coloring them with Copics.  I went over just the image with gel medium to protect it from the mists. 

 

After it was dry, I placed the mask over the bunting and sprayed it with purple glimmer mist, then dabbed the mist off of the image (the gel medium acted as a resist).  When that was dry, I stamped a green swirl randomly, added some chartreuse trims, the silvery word "Fleur" (stamped and silver embossed), some shimmery gray seam binding, and a few pewter brads at the top with a design that reminded me of the violet motif.  

I'm thinking it might be fun to do a whole series of these canvas buntings, each with a different flower. Then tie them all together - probably with that same gray seam binding.  Thanks for sticking with me for this very long post!!! Oh, almost forgot... the majority of the stamps used were from Oxford Impressions' Fairy Sweets plate. The swirl is Stampington, the script is Hero Arts, and the "fleur" is Rogue Redhead Designs.

Tag Tuesday Surprise Me

Louise has another captivating challenge for us over at Kard Krazy - this week's Tag Tuesday Challenge is "Surprise Me."  So what's the surprise in my unassuming little butterfly tag? .....

A Blooming Contessa hiding amongst the blossoms!  The butterfly is attached only by a brad at the tip of her wing.  Ms Contessa is from Stampington, colored with Copics and Distress Inks.  The flower trim at the bottom is very vintage, and started out creamy vintage white.  I dabbled some coordinating Copics over the lace, and voila - custom vintage trim.

There are some amazing and beautiful tags over at Kard Krazy already (Louise's just keeps getting more surprising with every view!), so lots of inspiration to be had.  Come play?   

Play Date Cafe - Postcards from Italy

The Play Date Cafe Challenge has another destination theme this week, and this time it's Italy.  Here is the gorgeous inspiration photo, with the challenge colors of rust, ochre, and white.  At first I thought I only had one stamp with Italian imagery, but as I looked through my stash, I actually came up with a bunch of stamps, along with some vintage Italian text!  Does that happen to anyone else...... you buy things, you store things, you forget about things... LOL!?!?  Shameful, really.  But hey, I got them out, dusted them off, and used them for this card.  The main images are from Stampingon, and I also added an Italian poem script stamp in the background and a tiny Italian postmark.  I adhered it all to a cardbase of white watercolor paper - just loved the texture it lent to the whole thing, plus I was particularly inspired by DT member Sarah's card HERE, where she left a lot of white space surrounding her images. 

This was a fun, quick little card to make - I'm thinking I'll be using the watercolor paper more often.  The student-grade paper pad is relatively inexpensive, and I can get two large cards per sheet.  Maybe for those snowy Christmas cards......  But for now, it's in the high 90s and humid here.... ugh.  Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Tag Tuesday Glitter Challenge

Finally got a teeny amount of time to play.... these past, oh what is it now.... 3 weeks?... have been crazy with kid activities.  Overlapping sporting events, middle school open houses, concerts, recitals, and now two Saturdays of snow make-up classes.  Sheesh.  Okay, I'm done... on to the tag.  :)

Louise's challenge over at Kard Krazy this week is to use GLITTER on our tags for Tag Tuesday #49.  Hooooo what fun!  Of course, I can never really get glitter photographed properly, so you'll have to take my word for it when I say it's on the ruffles of her dress, her bracelet, her earring, and her hair comb.  The background is shimmery glitter mists... it sorta looks like twilight IRL.  The lovely lady is from the Queen of Tarts No. 7 set by Character Constructions, which is available at Stampington.  The background gate is also from Stampington (unmounted).  The teensy bluebird is from the Fairy Sweets set at Oxford Impressions.

Okay, I'm off to grocery shop and get ready for our dueling intensive volleyball clinic (5:30 to 8:45) and baseball game (8:10 to 9:30).  I'm not seein' any crafting time in my evening... hope you all have a good one!

Gingersnap Postcard Art Swap

I recently participated in Gingersnap Creations' first art swap - a 4 for 4 postcard swap. Our theme was "Party" in honor of the Gingersnap Creations blog's 1-year birthday.  My little card featured the "Party Hat" stamp from Stampington.  I colored her with Copics, cut her out, and adhered her to my background.  For the background I layered several other festive stamps (Stampington, Inkadinkado), along with a strip of vintage sheet music and some vintage pleated pink trim. The sentiment is computer-generated.

This was my very first art swap by mail... the only other thing I've ever swapped is ATCs with my local club, so this was a new experience for me.  Let me tell you... I am so thrilled with the fabulous art I've received in this swap!  I will definitely do it again.  Many thanks to Shar, Ali, Debby, and Gerrie, whose postcards I received.  These women are fabulously talented, and I will always treasure their beautiful art.  Thanks so much ladies!  

Tag Tuesday - Brown + Color

Finally getting my Tag Tuesday Challenge #42 posted.... Louise challenged us to use brown plus another color.   The hardest part was picking the other color, since I LOVE to pair brown with just about anything, LOL!  I finally settled on blue, after getting in the mood for the sea with my Graphic 45 papers.  The "tag-on-the-tag" image is from their "On the Boardwalk" collection.  I colored the fab retro lady blue, and gave her a starfish.  The base tag is spritzed with Glimmer Mists, stamped with images from Stampington, Inkadinkado, and Stampabilities, and distressed with Distress Inks.  I added another little accent from the Graphic 45 paper, along with a few more seashells and some Distress Embossing Powder in antique linen to give the effect of sand. 

You'll want to head on over to Kard Krazy..... Louise's artwork is looking fabulous in the new Take Ten!  I am playing catch-up..... we've still got visitors, lots of activities, and I soooo want to visit everyone's wonderful blogs!  Tonight after everyone's in bed, I'm planning on playing with a few Gingersnap Creations challenges, some Playdate Cafe fun, and of course, I've got some new Cornish Heritage Farms to ink up.  So much crafty goodness to be had, so little time!! :)

Play Date Cafe Challenge 18 - A Splash of Color

 

I was so excited to open my email this morning and see that I'd won a spot on Play Date Cafe's Fab 4 for last week's challenge! Thanks so much to Julie Ranae, Julie, Sarah, and Mona for the honor and especially for the inspiration!  This week's 'Color Splash' challenge is to use black and white with a splash of teal - isn't this inspiration photo gorgeous?  For my card, I went with this vintage bluebird image from Artistic Outpost's Blue Bird plate for the focal image.  All of the background stamps are from Cornish Heritage Farms (Beautiful and Vintage Chintz), and the little "Fragile" label is from Stampington.  This color combo is so fun to play with for spring.  You can check out the designers' wonderful creations HERE, and play along, too.  Thanks for stopping by!

Gingersnap Creations Three Colors You Love Challenge

 

Well, I fiddled with this one for waaaaay longer than I expected, LOL!!  The latest color challenge from Gingersnap Creations is to use Three Colors You Love.  Aaaah, I love all of them!  In fact, I think I can become easily overloaded by color - perhaps my brain becomes overstimulated - which  probably explains why most of my decor is creams and linens, with dark brown woods.  But I am decidedly partial to robin's egg blue, dusty purple, and blush pink.  I knew I wanted to make a collage-style card, using scraps of paper and some stamped images that I already had floating around in my "too-pretty-to-throw-away-but-not-gonna-use-it-right-now" box.  Perhaps that's what got me into trouble.  Anyway, here's my card for this challenge, using stamps from Cornish Heritage Farms, Martha Stewart, Inkadinkado, Stampin' Up!, Stampington.... pretty much anyone who sells stamps, LOL!  

This ultimately was quite fun... if you'd like to play with color today, you can head on over to Gingersnap Creations for some inspiration and a peek at the blog candy from The Artistic Stamper.  It could be yours, just for playing with colors you love :).

Romance - Tag Tuesday and Lilybean Style

 

Yesterday I had the luxury of surfing around some of my very favorite blogs and soaking up tons of inspiration.  I also sneaked away to my craft room for a while in the wee hours and had some fun.  My inspiration came from many sources: the Chestnut Challenge at Gingersnap Creations is "Romance" - some fabulous artwork is posted over there, featuring some wonderful stamps from The Artistic Stamper (blog candy, anyone?).  I'll have some creations using their luscious new sets in the coming days.
  

At Kard Krazy this week, the Tag Tuesday challenge is "A Touch of Red."  I am just loving the color combo of cream, brown, and red, so I had a go at that one.
 

And finally, Melissa at Lilybean Paperie posted this fabulous photo as an inspiration challenge. I was off and running!

For the Lilybean inspir- ation challenge, I made a postcard using my favorite Cornish Heritage Farms single, Tree Swallows.  I added some Making Memories vintage findings, some old K and Co. rub-ons, a vintage button, a Stampin' Up! stamp.  I sanded the red heart in the background to make it more shabby.

For the Tag Tuesday Touch of Red Challenge, I used the same Tree Swallows stamp, this time on a tag that had been stamped first with Vintage Chintz in Tattered Rose Distress Ink, then with the French Script backgrounder in red. For the script, I lightly tapped a Memento Rhubarb Stalk dew drop ink pad over the backgrounder, making sure I did NOT have full coverage of the stamp. I then placed the tag face down onto the stamp, and pressed it with my fingers in random spots (again, not all over). This gave the script a very faded and shabby appearance. I added some vintage buttons, a LOVE stamp from Stampington, a label from Making Memories, and a tiny chipboard heart.

The kids are home from school again tomorrow.... it's going to be 51 degrees outside, but the district is afraid there might be some ice.  I tell ya, things are just so different here in the south!  It wouldn't be so bad, but my kids go to a year-round calendar school, which means we are now looking at 3 Saturdays of make-up days.  That is NOT fun.... we miss so many activities.  Ah well.  They're happy, for now. :)

Tag Tuesday Tag Doll Challenge

Here's my entry for Kard Krazy's Tag Tuesday challenge, which for this week was to make a Tag Doll.  I don't have a lot of stamps that have large enough faces for a tag, so I decided to make a Botanical Contessa fantasy lady.  The base tag is a 7 Gypsies tag that I distressed with Ranger's Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint inks, and the head and arms are from Stampington's Blooming Contessa and Botanical Countess, respectively.  I added some flower die cuts from Anna Griffin that I have been hoarding since my daughter was born (she's 10!), some Prima flowers, some Webster's pages ribbon.  The leaf stamps are from Close to My Heart.  The whole thing is colored with Copics. This was so fun, I just couldn't stop.... laundry is piling up.  Gotta go!  Have fun looking at all of the inspiring tags linked up in THIS post.

Happy Birthday, Louise! Tag Tuesday Challenge

Happy Birthday, Louise!  This week's challenge at Tag Tuesday is to make a celebratory tag for the Kard Krazy lady herself!  It's Louise's birthday (yesterday, actually), and she has challenged us to make a birthday tag.... what FUN!  I went all girly for this one, using Stampington's Party Hat stamp from the Fanciful Whimseys Portrait Gallerie collection, a little Martha Stewart white gold glitter, some golden scrap from Paper Artsy, and some ruffled crepe paper.  Be sure to visit Kard Krazy for lots of inspiration, and maybe play along .... it's a party!

Vintage Heart for Tag Tuesday

Good gracious, it's been a long time since I've posted!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and that you are enjoying some rest and relaxation between Christmas and New Year's.  We spent 7 days in Disney (plus two days travel), so I've been completely torn away from crafting.  I'm jumping back in with a little tag for Tag Tuesday.  I originally thought I would be doing a Christmas tag for this challenge, which was to do a shaped tag.  Oh well, let a few days slip by, and it's on to the next holiday, LOL!  This tag uses ruched paper from Paper Temptress (I am soooo addicted to this stuff!), stamps from Stampington, and some tags from Making Memories Vintage Findings.  The music and button are vintage, and the rest is from my considerable stash of "stuff."  Thanks again to Louise at Kard Krazy for always inspiring me (even if I don't always get to play along, :). )

Here are a couple of pics from our Disney trip.  I am totally OBSESSED with the castle, and probably take as many pictures of IT as I do of anything else, including the family, LOL!  But I'll leave you with one pic of each.  Have a happy rest-of-the-weekend!

Color Challenge at Gingersnap Creations

Gingersnap Creations has posted the new color challenge today, and it is..... Monochromatic!  Make a creation in any color at all, but just that one color family. (I'm assuming a little added neutral is okay here, or else I've, *gulp* got it all wrong, LOL!!  Seriously, though, the Gingersnappers are a NO STRESS group.... be creative, do whatever you'd like, just keep it basically monochromatic.)  For my card, I wanted texture to be the star, since I was only using one color family.  So for the base layer, I've used a Paper Temptress ruched paper called Sky Blue Crepe.  It looks like crepe paper, but has the weight of cardstock - very cool.  I stamped the Stampington & Co. image onto blue mulberry paper, and layered it over a strip of vintage text.  Then I just added some hydrangea petals from a big box floral, and found a sentiment that I liked from my vintage text page and called it done.

Gingersnap Creations is being sponsored this month by the Paper Temptress, so you know what that means.... blog candy!!  Enter any of the GC challenges this month (you can see them all in the left sidebar at Gingersnap Creations) and you'll have a chance at your pick of four gorgeous paper selections from the Paper Temptress.  So why not make one of those holiday cards you need in a monochromatic scheme, and suddenly you're multitasking, LOL! :)  Have fun! 

Tag Tuesday and a Gingersnap Creations Challenge

We've had a very busy weekend that has carried on into the week!  I've finally managed to get crafting a little bit, and made this goofy little tag for the Tag Tuesday #25 challenge, which is to use a photo on your tag.  I just LOVED this photo when I found it, and thought it would be perfect for a birthday tag, coupled with a paper pieced portion of a Stampington & Co. stamp called Party Hat.  To add a little interest, I used buttons to echo the dots and blots in the paper, AND to play along with another challenge over at Gingersnap Creations today, which is to use buttons on a project.  There's some blog candy up for grabs over at Gingersnap Creations, too.... you get to chose from a fabulous assortment of paper from Paper Temptress.  Buttons and paper, ahh, bliss!

Thanks for looking!  For folks in the USA, hope you have a peaceful and thoughtful Veteran's Day.

TMTA Architecture

It's been a while since I've participated in an ATC challenge, so since this is a lazy holiday Monday, I thought it was time. I made this ATC for the Think Monday, Think ATC challenge, which is architecture. The Venezia and Di Vinci stamps are from Stampington, the Corinthian column from Inkadinkado, and the Timeless from JustRite. I used a bunch of Distress Inks and StazOn on glossy, matte, and metallic papers for the backgrounds. The writing is on a blank page from a vintage textbook. Thanks for looking!

TMTA Green Woman ATC

Perhaps you've heard of the Green Man, a mythical leafy creature born of the foliage? Or perhaps not! It was the theme for our local ATC swap, and it was one of those that was "love it" or "hate it" amongst our members (tee hee). I was on the "love it" side, mainly because I tweaked it to be able to use one of my favorite portrait stamps.... Stampington's Botanical Countess by Sandra Evertson. This also fits in with Think Monday, Think ATC's challenge, which is 'look into a face'. To me, this delightful lady looks perplexed by the fact that foliage has sprung up out of her! LOL! What a face! I used a mix of alcohol inks on glossy cardstock, blotted and stamped with leaf stamps, then stamped the countess with StazOn. I added a tiny copper dragonfly, and, in order to tweak it to fit the club's theme, I added the words "Behind every green man is a green woman." Hope that counts :) TFL!

A Few Quick Cards

Well, today is hectic, but in a good way - swimming lessons and tests, my daughter getting braces, and my son's last baseball game of the regular season. So, I'm just posting a couple of cards - pretty simple, pretty straightforward.

This first card uses images from Oxford Impressions and Stampington, stamped on cardstock from Stampin' Up (Blue Bayou and Soft Sky). The next card (below) relies mainly on some pretty patterned paper, some glitter (I ran a punched flower through the Xyron sticker maker, then added SU's Dazzling Diamonds), a Prima blossom, buttons, twine, ribbon, and a rub-on..... just threw a bunch of embellies at it :).

That's all for now, hope you have a great day!