Sunflower Smile

Today's card is for the The Paper Players sketch this week which is designed by Nance.

I really really love this new sunflower stamp - I just think that I really really need to figure out how to use it.  I'll be scoping out some galleries for this!!!  I tried stamping the image on watercolour paper but the detailed lines didn't show up.  I tried quite a variety of different things before deciding to use one colour and not colour anything in.  However, I liked how the petals turned out when I did added ink with the aqua-painter (I just totally botched the inside of the flower) - so I cut out the petals to raise up above the stamped image.

Hope there are loads of things for you to smile about in your life today!  Thanks for taking the time to stop by for a visit.
Joan

Presto Chango

I am desperately trying to get ready for a SU garage sale - I keep getting a bit sidetracked....Anyway, I always do a make-and-take at my open houses, but this year I decided to give a choice (while quantities last) using already prepared pieces from previous card camps.

The first card in each of the above sets was the original,  done at previous classes or camps.  The second card is a remake, using new stamp sets or colours.  And voila - no extra cutting to do.  Yipeee!

Hope you find some shortcuts in your life today,
Thanks for stopping by
Joan

Amazing Mashup

Today was sort of a special day over at Friday Mashup because it's the first Fan Favorite Challenge - meaning a fan of the blog rather than a Design Team member of the blog set the challenge for today - too cool.  So - the challenge is:

• Create a handmade flower  OR
• Use Black, Red and Turquoise  OR
• Create a project with a handmade flower and the three colours

I've also used an old sketch from Stamping 411 which I never got around to using (Sketch #212).


I love this Floral Fillers set - I can't wait to emboss it in gold or silver!!!!!

Hope you are having an amazing day! Thanks for stopping by for  visit.
Joan

Sweet Life

One of the great things about summer in our little city is the annual opening of the outdoor ice cream stand.  They have wonderful ice cream and places to sit under umbrellas.  So, for the Stampin' Royalty challenge of a Summer Card this week, I chose to create an ice cream cone, because it's the only time we get to go to Millers.

The sketch is from Splitcoast's Sketch challenge.

I'm loving the new white Baker's Twine - I prefer to sew my buttons on - being an old seamstress.

I hope your summer is full of treats - Thanks for stopping by!
Joan

Hello My Friend

 Today's colours are:

Baja Breeze

Crumb Cake

Calypso Coral

I've used the new "My Friend" set and punched out that "dandelion fluff" with two different circle punches and raised them on dimensionals.

That particular sentiment is a bit too long for the normal word window, so I just elongated it a bit so that it fit, and then stamped the sentiment onto the Crumb Cake matt.  Thank goodness for the Stamp-a-ma-jig.  I remember when I bought it I didn't think I would use it all that much - boy was I wrong!

Hope you day is fantastic, thanks for dropping by,
Joan

Get Well Flourishes

Thought I'd try clean and simple today.  This week's challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments is to use flourishes.  I've been wanting to use this stamp set for a while now - and when I looked at it I saw more than florishes - I saw flowers...sort of.  The get well wishes come from the SUO Challenges this week and the colours are today's Color Challenge over at SCS - Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight and a neutral.

I could give this to my daughter today - she's suffering from a summer cold - she's a bit annoyed because she wasn't sick all winter.  Oh well - it's a drizzly day today, so perfect for hunkering down in the covers.

Thanks for stopping by - I hope you have a wonderful day!
Joan

Full of Mojo B's

Today's Mojo Monday Sketch works perfectly with this week's Our Creative Corner challenge of "All the B's".....use Black, Bling, Buttons and Bow - I guess I've also included Brads (even though it includes the bling) and blossoms.

WICKED was FANTASTIC last night.  I woke up with some of the songs still swimming around in my head - that's not unusual though.  Today - I've already crossed two things off my To-Do list and will work on a few more as I continue to work on crafting stuff.  I'm trying to get ready for a SU garage sale and keep getting side tracked. (That's not unusual either!)

I hope you have a day full of achievements and not too many detours!
Thanks for stopping by for a visit!
Joan

Summer Camping

Wow - I'm not sure about all the redness in this card - but it'll have to do.  There are three different challenges incorporated in today's card:

Color Throwdown - Using the rainbow palette....so we have very colourful sleeping bags today.  I used Elegant Eggplant, Marina Mist, Lucky Limeade, Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango and Poppy Parade.  I had started out with Bear being Tangerine and Daffodil (thank goodness for watercolour paper!!!!!)  Once he was on the card though, there was just too much red going on - so I dirtied him up with some crumb cake.

I had to give Bear a pair of Sock Monkey's glasses so that he didn't look so angry about camping. His teeth have been whitened with gel pen.

The sketch comes from The Paper Players this week.  I told Nance that I was going to try and think outside the box for the two circle areas (where the sleeping bags are)....but I still ended up using paper. :(       Ooops!!!  I just noticed on the Paper Players blog that this is suppose to be a Clean and Simple Sketch - Sorry - this may be a little overdone for that.

Finally, the summer theme of the card comes from Hand Stamped Sentiments.

We have a beautiful day outside so I think I'm going to go for a walk - I walked SOOOOOO much when I was in Ottawa - I need to make it a better routine.  We're also excited in our house tonight because we're going to see WICKED!  WoooooHoooooo!!!!!!

Hope your day is full of sunshine and excitement!  Thanks for visiting - Joan

Monochromatic Little Things

A dragonfly accompanied me on the deck this morning while I was drinking my coffee....so I decided that I would use one on whatever I made today.  He's a bit out of place with all the geometric things - but that's okay! 

I used the sketch from Stamping 411 for this - however the top section is a whole lot busier than one piece of DSP - that's where I've incorporated the Inspiration Challege from SCS.  The website is Linda Billet Gallery - I've included the thumbnail, below,  of the piece I chose for inspiration.

For the lower section I used the circle stamp from "Circle Circus" and then just added some extra colour to them.  (A bit of a shakey hand today!!!) For the top left piece I brayered ink onto the new Houndstooth embossing folder before putting it through the Big Shot.  The top right section is just a piece of black paper with the Frost White Shimmer Paint scrunched onto it.

Off to do a bit of organizing - hope you're having a great day and thank you for stopping by - Joan

Royal Birthday Mash Up

I got to use my new "Creative Elements" set today for two Challenges.  I used the sketch from Stampin' Royalty and the colours and theme from The Friday Mashup!

• use the colours Not Quite Navy, Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, and Sahara Sand
• create a Birthday Card

I created the background piece first stamping the initial image with the Not Quite Navy and then colouring sections in.  I used ink with an aqua painter on regular paper, so some of the outside edges bled a bit, but that just added some age to the piece.

For the flower I stamped the image on watercolour paper three times using the Cherry Cobbler and then used a blender pen to pull colour into the open sections.  I cut all the flowers out getting progressively smaller and layered them with dimensionals (you can't really see the dimension in this photo).  I'm not altogether happy with the way the flower turned out.  There's almost too much colour - I'll have to play with it a bit.

The centre strip of Sahara Sand was put through the Big Shot with the new Stripes embossing folder - but it's hard to see the embossing in the picture.

It was a good day for stamping because it's been moving between misting and pouring all day.  Hope your day has been productive too.

Thanks for stopping by!
Joan

Stamping Withdrawl Finally Overcome

Well, I finally got into my stamping room today.  We arrived home from a holiday on Tuesday night and I spent a couple hours catching up with my daughter.  Yesterday I slept, deadheaded flowers, tidied a bit and opened my SU boxes.  Yipee - Christmas in July!  Oh, and went to see the last Harry Potter movie with Allison last night.

Today I cleaned up in my stamping room and picked one set to put together and use for today's post.  I chose the sketch from Just Add Ink and the colours are from a blog I've been following for a little while, but hadn't done any challenges yet - My Create, Ink.  The colours for this week are - Perfect Plum, Riding Hood Red, and Lucky Limeade.  When I saw to floral colours and a leaf colour I just had to pick this new Hostess Set - Faith in Nature.  I can't wait to use the pear that is part of the set too.

I also got to use some of the new Lucky Limeade Ruffled Ribbon - Love it!!!!

Hope your summer is going well - it was a bit hard to take off directly after school was over - left a lot of things undone at home which have to be done now - but it's all good.  Puttering with the jobs and eating meals on the deck in the sunshine.  Can't ask for more!!!

Thanks for stopping by!  Joan

Daring Chocolate Hearts

I don't think I ever thought to put brown and pink together before I started stamping; but I just love this combination:

Crumb Cake

Chocolate Chip

Pink Pirouette

I'm loving the new Scallop Dots Ribbon...when I get home from my holiday I'll have some new colours to use.  Can't wait!!!!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit - Happy Stamping!!!

Joan

Don't ya just love how cats will sleep anywhere. 

Nothing too special about this page.  I used a dotted piece of paper and then added the overlay.

That's the last page of my cat book......so far.  They're in no particular order and I'm looking forward to working on more.


I'll be home soon and I'll be delving into my stamping room - I was smart enough to put in an order from the NEW CATALOGUE before I left home.  It's going to be like Christmas when I get back!  I can hardly wait!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you haven't been too bored with cat pictures over the last number of days.

Happy Stamping,
Joan

This is Button.  She is one whacked out cat.  She looks like a kitten, but is full grown.  She is our son's cat, and we were looking after her while he was between houses.  She can be very entertaining.

This is another sketch that was featured on MDS website waaaaayyyy back when it first began.  It took me a while to figure out what I wanted in the circles.  I tried a variety of different papers and colours, but I  am happy with the final result.  I like being able to drag my paper into the shape that I create - catching whatever images from the paper that I want.

Stay safe out there!  No hanging through the railings!

Happy Stamping,
Joan

Seriously???

Okay - I LOVE this page.
I used a sketch from Splitcoast from a couple of weeks ago and it worked perfectly for "dissecting" pictures and bringing certain features into focus.

Tigger was so tolerant!!!  Wonderful rotund member of the family - I mean seriously (pardon the pun) look at that body in the centre of the page!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by,
Joan

Not a Care in the World

I ended up getting some help with this page through the My Digital Studio website.  I couldn't figure out how to change the side that the drop shadow appeared on.  These "pillows" are actually hearts turned on their sides.  On the original sketch from the MDS website HERE,  Alesha used the Blossoms punch.  I didn't have that on my program (yet), so I tried using the hearts.  They worked out okay, and Alesha was able to explain to me how to get my shadow on the "top" side of the pillows.

Ta Ta for now,
Joan

Sleeping Among the Stars

I'm sorry that the large picture is so dark here - the joys of children photographing their pets with less than great cameras.  Oh well, I'm thankful for the photos regardless of what they look like.

I'm getting used to using images more than one time on a page.  I sort of made the stars "glow" a bit by making their dropped shadow in  a yellow.  I placed a bunch, grouped them, and then copied them around the page rotating them a bit so they didn't always look the same.

Anyone camping under the stars during the holidays?

Thanks for dropping in.
Joan

I know You're There....

Tigger did seem to get photographed more often than Belle - I think because he was so big!  And I don't seriously know why I took so many pictures of him in this pose; maybe I was waiting for him to look up or something - who knows.  Anyways - the Soft Suede paper matches him pretty well.

No special effects today - a pretty simple page.

Hope you are either enjoying your deck or the flowers!

Thanks for stopping by,
Joan

Basking in the Sun

This page took a bit of work and thinking....

I have three different colours of the tree and have set them just off each other to give the impression of more leaves.

It also took a bit to get the butterflies the way I wanted them.  However - once I got my first one created, I went off onto a "new" sheet of paper as a working space - recoloured the butterfly and then copied and pasted it onto this page.  That way the alignment didn't change .

We'll still be beetling around the Eastern Coast of Canada at this time.  I look forward to basking on my deck when I get home!

Thanks for stopping by,
Joan

Color Dare 107 Revisited...

 
Due to the busyness of life, we have reposted Color Dare 107.  I'm not home to create a new card for this dare - but here is a review of last week's post.  And seriously, you can never get enough of a good DARE!!!
Today's Color Dare is:

Marina Mist

So Saffron

Certainly Celery

When I pulled the colours together I immediately thought of a baby card.  I haven't used this roller much, so thought it would be the ticket!  That tiny tag punch is perfect for a couple of the extras from the Baby Bundle Set.

If you take up this Dare please link your creation to the Color Dare Challenge Blog and if you post to a public gallery use CD107 for this week.

For some further inspiration you can visit the other members of the Design Team at the following links...

Adriana
Joan - Me
Kathryn
Kim P
Kim R
Laurie
Lesley
Lori
Riley

Have a fantastic crafting day - Thanks for stopping by!

Joan

I Love Sleeping in Shoes

 

This is one of my favorite pages so far.  I zoomed out of the photo from the top to the bottom so you can see that Tigger is surrounded by my daughter's shoes.

I think one of the things I like most about digital stamping is being able to adjust the size of the stamped image to whatever you need - like I've done with the different sizes of stamped cats lying on Tigger's picture.

Hope you're finding a sunny place to hang out this July day!
Thanks for stopping by.
Joan

Belle's Gone Fishing

It was fun using the "flower punch" for this page.

I was trying to make a 'torn' paper effet along the vertical strip - it wold work better if the "ripped" part was yellow - I'll have to explore that a bit more.

Happy stamping - digitally or otherwise.
Joan

Tigger in the Bag

For all the dog lovers out there - I apologize that the next number of posts (give or take a few) will be focusing on a project that I've started using My Digital Studio......a book of the two cats we had in our house for over 13 years.  We have been without them for a couple of years now and I think I have finally rounded up all the photos the myself or my children have taken.  So, I decided to make them a little book which I'll publish through Stampin'Up! in time for Christmas.

I have been thoroughly enjoying exploring this program - and not with just the cats.  I hope you don't get bored, but that in some way maybe you'll be inspired by what I've done....JUST like I've been inspired by so many MDS experts (of which I am NOT!!!!) who came before me.

Thanks for visiting,
Joan

Happy Canada Day!

Our household is now officially on holidays.  School is finished and July 1st launches us into celebrations, traditions, and the beginning of days filled with relaxing - sort of.

I hope all my Canadian friends have a fun, safe day with friends and family.

I will not be having regular card postings for the next little while as I'll be away from my computer most of the time.  (I won't be able to do any challenges - but I'm sure I'll make up for it later.) I thought I'd still post some things I've created with My Digital Studio and you will still find the Color Dares on Wednesdays.  I'll also try and get around and visit some of your blogs - I don't want to miss out on what you're creating!

We are off to Ottawa and then touring around the Maritime provinces.  I'm looking forward to it - seeing some of the country I haven't seen before and also getting to visit with my Mom.

Again - HAPPY CANADA DAY!

AND

We have a new catalogue starting today!  WoooooHooooo!!!!!  I'm so excited about the stamp sets and new DSP.  I can't wait to share projects with you, and to stamp with you!!!!!  Stay posted. 
JOAN