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

Dragonflies for Dad

I've got three challenges happening with this card today. I finally got one created after being in my backyard for 4 hours cleaning out my flower beds. I'm going to have to rethink my whole gardening life because I can't do it on my knees anymore - I think I'm going to have to do more containers and put less into the ground.

Didn't see any dragonflies today - a bit too early still I think (here anyway). I did come across a couple of earthworms though and an interesting looking ladybug. She had more spots than I'm used to seeing. ANYWAY - when I saw the wall decorations in the thumbnail below, I knew what I wanted to do for a card today. The wall art is from Dali Decals which is the source for the Inspiration Challenge over at Splitcoast. The sketch is this past week's Splitcoast Sketch challenge, and the masculine theme (or Father's Day) is the challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments.

So, it was a productive day today, and I'm hoping to get to a greenhouse tomorrow to add some extra colour to the yard. Thanks for stopping by!
Joan

Stainglass Tortoise

Okay - it's not really a stainglass tortoise - just two different challenges.

I had a lot of fun making this first card based on the stained glass window shown below from Daniel Maher Stained Glass - which was the site for the Inspiration Challenge over at Splitcoast Saturday. I love stained glass and am in awe of the people who can create such intricate works of art with such a difficult medium. I had fun with my punches creating all the little bits for my creation - the tiniest circles were made using the eye parts of the Two-Step Owl punch. Once I had all the pieces down and the lines drawn, I added Crystal Effects to make them glassier. It really perks up the colours a bit too.


Our dear little tortoise is sending Thanks for the challenge over at The Paper Players this week - remembering how important it is to send messages of Thanks, especially in an age of electronics. It's much more fun to receive Thanks in the mailbox! The sketch for this card is from Stamping 411 this week.

I guess the weekend is coming to a close and I will be happy once Wednesday is over this week. Hope it has been a wonderful one for you. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.
Joan

Dragonflies and Songbirds

I think I may have used a few too many notes for this one! Our Creative Corner's Challenge this week was to create a monochromatic card - but they put a twist on the challenge requiring projects to be created with the pale neutrals and accented with the dark neutrals. The sketch is from Just Add Ink.


When I looked through the stones on the Doodletart Glass website, for this week's SCS Inspiration Challenge, I knew right away I wanted to use the dragonfly bead as my inspiration. I just love dragonflies - and fondly remember the Monday morning I came into my classroom to find one flying around the room after breaking out of it's nymph casing. I was teaching wetlands at the time, and had a fish tank full of pondwater with all sorts of waterlife. I was able to show the kids the casing still holding onto the stalk of grass it had climbed up. Too cool!!!

Any way - the bead, shown below, struck my fancy! I used the swirly Baroque Motif embossed with gold on regular cardstock and Wild Wasabi, Marina Mist and Not Quite Navy to sponge on colour. I'm not sure why I decided to "paper tole" the dragonfly - but I did. You can't really tell in the photo, but there are two layers. I also put a bit of Smooch on his wings to make them sparkle a little. The Coluzzle was used to make the different ovals and space them out. I still like using it because I can see the image within the ovals - unlike using the dies for the Big Shot.

Stamping Royalty was looking for cards celebrating Mom's this week - so I found an appropriate sentiment that wasn't for "Mother's Day". It's from an older set of rub-ons.

It's a short short week of school - only three days - then a 5 day weekend....WooooHoooo! I hope you have something to look forward to this week - thanks for taking time to stop by for a visit.
Joan

Paris Amour

Good Sunday, Bloggers.... We are having a beautiful sunny day in Northern Alberta today - it may be cold outside, but I don't mind at all as long as the sky is blue and the sun is shining!

Today I'm sharing a card that covers three challenges....
The Sweet Stop - Sketch
Our Creative Corner - Get Wordy - Using a sentiment stamp to create a background
Splitcoast Inspiration Challenge - The website this week was WallTAT and I've included the wall tattoo that caught my eye for inspiration....of course I'm still remembering my summer holiday
in Paris - hard to forget!!!!

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday - thanks for stopping by for a visit. Joan






Stamp Set - Artistic Etchings
Paper - Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Love Letter DSP
Ink - Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler
Other - Vintage Brads, Sponge Daubers, Dimensionals

Busy Sunday

I was able to get quite a bit of stamping done yesterday so I was able to knock off a number of challenges.

This Faith card is for last weeks' Sketch Challenge on Splitcoast as well as the Colour Throw Down. The Colours were pale green, rust and burgundy. I realize now that I should have added some ink around the edges of the flower and the smaller letters. I can add it to the flower - but the letters will have to stay.

The teapot flowerpot is a free image this last week from Delightful Inspiration. I wanted to try
different colours for the flowers so ended up putting all three on the card - creating little doilies for them to sit on with my scallop oval punch. I've pierced the paper around the edges but it's hard to see.

The third is created for the Inspiration Challenge on Splitcoast Saturday from Lark. I have the thumbnail shown - they were cute little felt sparrows. I brightened them up a bit and was able to use some flower shaped brads that I've had for YEARS and forgotten about. The background for each bird is spritzed with the colours I used. The sketch for this card is from Sweet Stop. Over at Stamp Something they wanted you to make something with a "Touch of Spring", and the Corrosive Challenge this week is to use "Things with Wings".

Thank you for stopping by - I don't usually do two posts in one day - but I wanted to get these ones on. Hope your Monday is marvelous...

A Day of Triples

I think Saturday has got to be my favorite challenge day on Splitcoast. I love the sketch and colour challeges because the stretch me sometimes. But on Saturday, I anticipate which website is going to be the headliner for the challenge of inspiration - and whether it will be art, clothing, or food.
This week I visited Etsy's Geninne's Art Store. There were so many wonderful bird pieces to choose from but these three caught my eye right away. If I was more of an artist I'd have worked with these two-step punch birds a bit more so they did their "cousins" proud. I am happy with the way the card turned out though - except for the glistening glue spots. I've also used the sketch for this past week from Splitcoast on this card and the Ways to Use It Challenge which was to use an odd number
of things on your card; whether it was images or embellishments.

For my second card I used this week's Colour Throw Down
which was Blush Blossom, Sage Shadow, and Riding Hood Red. I've used the SCS sketch again but flipped it on it's side.

I should really try to get some school work done tomorrow - report cards are going to be coming out again soon. I can always reward myself with more stamping if I work hard.
Blessed Sunday to you all - thanks for stopping by -

Catching up on Challenges...

Well, I spent the afternoon catching up on challenges that I missed last week because of being at teacher's convention. I haven't even looked at my Monday challenges for this week. I was lucky because, although I wasn't able to stamp in the hotel room, I was able to check challenges and blog hop. So I had an idea of what I was wanting to do when I got home.

Saturday's Inspiration challenge came from Erté. The art was so fabulous and as I was looking at the dresses that were featured - I immediately thought of Haute Couture. I love this dress!!!!! My inspiration is in the little thumbnail - I coloured the dress with Bashful Blue, covered it with Crystal Effects and then doused it with microbeads. The flash on the camera added the bit of pizzazz.

Tuesday's Colour Challenge on SCS was Burgundy, Basic Grey and Crushed Curry. I'm not altogether happy with the way that I coloured these flowers...the shading isn't the best. I used a white gel pen to accent the centres before adding the rhinestones.

The next three cards are done with images from Sugar Creek Hollow. The images are available at the website under "New Releases". We're also having a Preliminary Preview this week and each day a couple of the Design Team are being introduced. Hop on over there to meet them, they're a fantastic group of women.

My first card uses this beautiful cross. It makes me think of a wrought iron fence and yet it's so soft and gentle also. I sponged gold ink around the outside of the white block and used gold cardstock to print the scripture verse. I broke down and purchased a set of Nestibilities on the weekend and tried it out for this piece. The pearls come for Stampin'Up!'s pretties kit.














Over at Our Creative Corner, they are challenging people to create a masculine Valentines card this week. When I created this card I had my husband in mind - I know the image is a bit "soft" and the sentiment is mushy - but it's heartfelt and I hope he likes it.

Finally, CCEE Stampers is having a heart challenge in preparation for Valentine's Day. The heart filligree and the "Forever" are separate images available at Sugar Creek Hollow. Somehow I also think this was a sketch challenge from a while ago - but I can't remember.

My husband is making supper right now - gotta love him!!!! - so once this is posted and supper is done I will be going around visiting my blog list.

I hope your Monday was wonderful and thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Bold and an old Revision

Saturday's Inspiration Challenge was from a website that had purses - Espe - and Oh my word I love purses. I believe it has become my "midlife" obsession. The one I chose for my card is at the left - My card turned out NOTHING like I would have
wanted, but close. I've included a couple of other challenges with this card too....

Thursday's Ways to Use It Challenge was to add some textile to the card and over at Saturday Spotlight the challenge was to add something bigger than you usually use. I have a very hard time with these big Pretties flowers so thought it would become my challenge. I used a dauber with Gable Green so it
matched the one on the purse. I then layered some felt flowers which I keep forgetting to use.
To Centre it all off I added a rhinestone brad in the middle - can you tell??? :) WOW!

Next, I've started to think about cards for March's Technique Tuesday Workshop. I came across a card which I did at an Extravaganza a couple of years ago and I liked the layout. I don't have either of the stamp sets, and the colours were old "In Colours".....so I revised it into the card you see at the left - I used "Special Blessings" and "Three Little Words" I had to play around with the colours a bit because I knew I HAD to use
Cameo Coral.....I ended up with a whole bunch of packages and can't remember why.

The technique I used was Rock and Roll which you can find here through a tutorial by Beate Johns.

The body of the card is 4.25 X 11". It's scored at 5.5 and 2.75''. Only half of the bird layer is attached to the body of the card. The Scallop section is put on with a dimensional and then the frame is tucked underneath at the corner to keep the card closed.

Well, I'd better get to bed - gotta teach tomorrow. It's also my birthday and we just never know what the staff may have in store - so I'd better be rested and prepared. It's a short week too because Teacher's Convention is Thursday and Friday - Woo Hoo!!!

Thanks for Dropping by -

Hearts & Snow

Well, I'm a little surprised that my heat gun hasn't fried because I sure did use it a lot this morning.

My first card is for today's inspiration challenge from the Accents section of Nell Hill's. I picked the little "love" piece, which is in the thumbnail, because it reminded me of the faux metal technique which I really do enjoy. I incorporated Our Creative Corner's Colour Combo Challenge which was to use blue's and greens of any hue.....I used Night of Navy and Taken with Teal.
To create the reverse embossed hearts I smeared versa mark onto a small section of paper, applied embossing powder and melted it. I repeated this process two more
times so that I had a section of embossed gold that was 3 "layers" thick. The last time I heated the piece I made sure that the heart was ready with Versa Mark on it and I quickly pressed it into the melted embossed section. I then decided to add a contrasting heart in the middle. Here is a link to the fantastic step by step instructions for this technique by Beate Johns.

The adorable little snowman was drawn by Tracy Vinson's 8 year old neice. Tracy is the Owner and Designer of Sugar Creek Hollow Digital Images and Primitive Paper and asked the design team to use this image today. I knew right away that I wanted to cut up his sections and make him stick out from the paper. I guess I didn't really have to cut them all up - but it was more realistic in my mind. The middle section has actually been raised twice. I covered him with Dazzling Diamonds and added seed beads for his eyes and mouth. The colours are in answer to "Stamp Something's" colour combo of blue and white.

It's now time I got down to some other sort of work. I should clean the house a bit, and I need to start cutting paper for an upcoming Birthday Card Camp. My husband and I have a Christmas Dinner tonight for the Josephburg Choral Society......then the season will be over.

Have a great Saturday and thanks for dropping by,

Duel Inspiration

I really enjoyed the work from Saturday's Inspiration Challenge website - Groovy Inclination. This tree caught my eye and I thought I could do something similar with the "Thoughts and Prayers" tree. I stamped the tree in Certainly Celery and then went through and re-coloured all of the leaves black. I then spritzed the background with black, added some gray chalk and drew on some lines. I didn't like how dull it ended up looking, so I took the chalk eraser and took the chalk off of the tree itself and away from the edges. I was inspired by Tamara Bertram, Saturday at the Extravaganza I was at, by how she added ribbon to some of her cards. She uses the Double Rectangle punch and then feeds the ribbon through. I decided to add a button to the centre. Quick and Neat!!!















The second piece of art at Groovy Inclination that caught my eye was a number of cool looking birds...like this little dude. I like all the circles on his body. So.....I decided to try making my giraffe look like an actual giraffe this time (see previous posts about the Ogopogo) and looked for DSP with circles on it too. I created the Dustry Durango piece by using the Circle Circus set. This sketch is from Prairie Fairy Fridays Challenge blog. I like all the circles on the sketch and it fit right in with the inspiration.
It's the beginning of a new week - the Olympic Torch comes through the Fort this week and we're taking the entire school to the route. I hope that something exciting happens in your world this week too.
Thanks for stopping by -

Music by Design

I can hardly believe I'm awake - I was putzing around on the computer .....this morning.... and thought I check to see if, by chance, the Inspiration Challenge had been posted yet (it was 3:00am). Low and behold - it was and what a fun website - Design Spirit Studio. When I spotted the music clock I knew it was the one I'd use for the challenge and decided that I had to start right away. I created the card and then went to bed while the glitter dried. I decided to try the Van Gogh technique from last weeks Technique challenge - I think I need a bit more practice on that one. The colours are a lot more vibrant in person - but I had fun making it. Now I think I'll get a cup of coffee and do some of my puzzle before taking down the Christmas decorations.

Hope you are having a wonderful day - thanks for stopping by -

Inspired Rose

This past Saturday's inspiration challenge on Splitcoast was from LAMA (Latin America in the Modern Age) I went into the kitchen section and selected the glass that is shown because it made me think of the medallion stamp that we have. I used Rose Red cardstock and embossed the medallion in white.

It is incredibly warm here today - it was suppose to get up to 33*C and I'm sure we're pretty close. Fantastic "fall" day!

Hope things are warm, sunny and happy in your neck of the woods. Thanks for dropping by. JOAN

Early Halloween...

This is from Saturday's Inspiration Challenge - the Halloween clothing for kids on the CWD website are too cute. I picked this pair of pants just because they have all the cool Halloween Colours. The designer paper didn't turn out too well in the photo - but the colours are vibrant. I embossed the tree and the greeting with black embossing powder. The green and orange pumpkins that are on the second layer of paper are "popped" out using Crystal Effects. I haven't used that in quite a while.

I have a second Halloween card to share....but I have to let the Crystal Effects dry.
Have a wonderful day - JOAN

Caterpillars and Music

Yesterday's Inspiration Challenge came from Fitz & Floyd. I looked around and the plate that is shown caught my eye because of the colours.....

so I used Baha Breeze, Not Quite Navy and Mellow Moss. The Baha does not work well in this photo, but it does match the plate in person. Last week's Stamp Something challenge was to create a card around something you enjoy - and for me that would be music - listening, dancing to, sharing with kids - it's all good.






The Limited Supply Challenge on Friday was to create a card with bugs on it. I also incorporated the colour challenge from the Colour Throw Down - which was Tempting Turquoise, Elegant Eggplant and a green of your choice - I used Kiwi Kiss. I finally got my texturz plates to work properly in my Big Shot so used the swirly background on the small turquoise and eggplant pieces. The Big Shot was used to cut out the leaves; which were from the Birds and Bloom die set - I folded them in half and put them through the crimper for more texture. The branch is the Swirly Strip Die. I guess I actually used a lot of supplies for the limited supply challenge....oooops.

We're off to see "Annie" tonight in Edmonton. I'm not sure what my feelings are....I know I'll like the music, I know I'll like the staging. I just hardly ever like the little girl.....there's just something about Annie that I just can't...... I don't know what it is.....maybe the wig!!!

Anyway - thanks for stopping by. Hope your weekend was great - on to another week. JOAN